Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Your will works great when it is "your" will

The following is an excerpt from "Conversation with God, Book 1" ... and answers the question "What are we clutched to?" We start with a key question that most of us are asking ...

When will life take off for me?

What you choose you get ... this is the way things work
My promise is to always give you what you ask and you promise to ask (this is the holy covenant)
In assuming a new body and mind, you have forgotten who you are ... You are his equal ... [this forgetting is part of maya/Illusion] …
[You are CLUTCHED to a limited reality]
You have forgotten, so you can create anew in this life ... and this is how God also creates anew too .. through you! That way each time it is different, interesting
You will do your best work if you see yourself as an all-powerful creator
My promise is to always give you what you ask and you promise to ask (this is the holy covenant) … this is a holy collaboration/communion … the implications are enormous

Life will ‘take off’ when you choose for it to take off

You have not-chosen, denied, procrastinated, protested, prolonged, protracted
You must remember who you are, believe and live the promise of God
You are his equal
But, this is too much to accept, too much responsibility
This puts the responsibility back on you … if you are his equal, then nothing is done to you and all things are created by you … no victims, no villains
Who you are and what you have are outcomes of your thoughts/ideas about who you are

Do you want your life to truly take off?

Then, change the very idea of who you are
[UNCLUTCH from what your idea is currently]
Think, speak and act as the God you are
This will separate you from many … they will call you crazy
You may be dismissed, vilified and condemned
Because your pursuit of the realization of the Self and gets in their way, messes up their plans

Why then do it?

Because you are no longer happy/satisfied/pleased with what the acceptance and approval of the world has brought you … this conformance, this limiting of oneself … no longer concerned
You want the pain, suffering to stop and the Illusion to end
You have had enough of the world as it presently is … you seek a new world
Now, seek it no longer … call it forth … assume it is there and express gratitude
[This is like the karate practitioner who is trained to keep his attention below the bricks (the place where the hand is after going through the bricks) … he focuses on the reality of his hands that have passed through the bricks]

Can you help me better understand how to do this?

Go first to the highest thought about yourself
Imagine how life would be if you lived that thought every day
Imagine what you would think, do and say … and how you would respond to what others do and say
Do you see a big difference between this projection and what you think, do and say now?
You should … since we know that you are not right now living your highest vision of yourself
Look closely at the difference between where you are and where you want to be
Begin to change … you thoughts, words and actions … to match your vision
Massive move to consciousness … you have been unaware, unconscious of the effects of your thought, word and deed
Your soul has called you to this conscious living from the beginning of time. [To live in your own consciousness, your own rules is Dharma/duty. Right now, your concept of duty is socially imposed … a hodge-podge of everyone else’s concept of duty … everyone’s, except your own]

Isn’t this exhausting? Boring? Makes you dull?

Unconditional love, conscious living is never dull … people flocked to see the Buddha
Check all your thoughts, words and deeds … make sure they are in alignment with your highest vision of yourself
If you slip, make a sincere promise that this is the last time … and make it right with whoever you slipped with

Why is this not true for most of us? What about people who are in difficult situations, fail, suffer?

We are not talking about denying any situation, but changing how you think about them
Do you think about them as a victim and not able to change anything? E.g. “this is horrible, unfair, I am a bad person” etc.
Or do you think that they have changed already, now that you are on a different plan? (different though-word-deed pattern that will undoubtedly produce a different situation)
Stop wasting energy on value judgments of others or yourself
Which way things change is dependent on you … your thought-word-deed pattern in the Now
[Focus on this Now/present moment … where everything is born and every moment will become true creativity]
Development of body and mind is meaningless to the soul … don’t waste time/energy on these
There is nothing to develop … you are God’s equal … you just need to remember
There is only the aspect of aligning with your soul’s calling/it’s highest vision of how to behave and interact with the world
It is uniquely yours

Stop judging your own soul and accept its vision

You have been taught that to deny yourself, deny your soul in the name of ‘duty’ is goodness
[This is how your family, friends and society keep you in line, in check … to serve its limited purpose]
Learn what is the soul’s desire and go with it
The soul’s desire is some highest experience of love (different manifestations of it as there are souls)
This is the soul’s purpose
Not just the knowledge/concept of the love, but the feeling and experience of perfect love … which is the feeling of unity with all that is … with “God”
The purpose is to experience of all of it … so it can be all of it … with acceptance/love
How can it be “right” … if it has never been “wrong?” So, wrong is not bad, just repeating is! Fully experience it and don’t repeat what “you” feel is wrong. [Your feeling is important here … not others’. Because right/wrong depends on who you are, your circumstance, hence a very relative concept. Don’t cow down to others’ concept of what is right/wrong … only your soul knows/only you know]
Accept everything in yourself and others [as this necessary, colorful play of right/wrong, good/bad, high/low, etc.]… but seek to make changes within yourself in alignment with your soul
So stop judging others and yourself … just change your actions as you choose/no one is going to prevent you and no one should … this is your highest purpose
[But, watch carefully to make sure that you are indeed aligned with your soul at every moment … only you can decide]

This transcript is about 2/3 of an excerpt I made … is in .mp3 format so we can listen to it every day … E-mail me if you want me to send it to you ... and buy the book to express gratitude to the author.

Hear the whole book at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHsrhBQb36E

So what are we clutched to?
The short answer is that we are clutched to a limited notion of ourselves!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Free-will ... What to Do!

There are two assertions on free-will that come to mind.

1. One is that we are body-mind organisms that are programmed to respond in specific ways to specific situations. The situations are different enough that we think our responses are different each time/we are responding with some choice. But, they are also similar enough that we can see that our responses are the same. What does person X choose to do when he has an evening of free tme? How does a person X react when person Y says or does Z? Even when we recognize that we respond in predictable ways, we justify it saying "that is who I am." There is an attachment, a need to defend this person ... that everything else is built on. This person is the last to be challenged because we cannot afford to. Our state of mind is dependent on keeping this person secure. If we feel that this person is a programmed person, nothing special ... this shakes the very foundation of how we feel secure now. Accepting that we are programmed beings is one key step, which is in itself is dependent on our programming and its interaction with situations. Programming + situations = new situation.

Here, there is nothing to do because, by definition, you are dependent on your programming and the situations (both of which you can't control) to create your reality.

(Is there a meta-level from which you can change your programming; how does one get in to the meta-level? Isn't getting in to the meta-level itself dependent on your programming and situations. If you get in to the meta-level by accident, what replaces your programming in choice-making? Masters say this is the spirit which is 100% in tune with the environment ... still there is no choice from your personal perspective.)

2. Another assertion is that even if we are not programmed (and our actions are new and creative and full of choice), the results have never been under my control. Experienced business leaders say that they are right 60% of the time ... or what they choose to do is successful 60% of the time. Just slightly better that 50-50 ... and that too in the biased opinion of the choosers themselves. So, what is the use of choice and free will? Is it better to focus, not on choice and decisions but on getting on with the action as best as you can ... and enjoy it as you go along without the pressure of choosing and decision making. This is the assertion of Hinduism (Vedanta), Zen, Taoism, Sufism ... much of Easter thought ... they focus on action rather than choice. They have been interpreted as license for not acting ... it is actually a license for not being too worried about choosing. Any choice is OK ... acting well is far more important. Free will is not important if it is the free will to choose. If it is free will to act, it is supremely important.

Once again, nothing to do.

While we are not the doer, the language of doing is all we have. In this language: Act as if you have free will to choose, but let this be a thin thread ... be open to allow the choice to change (choicelessness). While you are in action, be totally in action (immersion). Spend more time in action than choosing. Nail down both choicelessness and immersion in action by accepting that results are way beyond your control. You are but one drop of water in the mighty ocean. Your path depends more on the ocean that any choice/action of yours. Relax ... and ... Unclutch.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Freeing yourself from the mind

Mind tries to make sense of the seeing/experiencing. That is the process of clutching.

'Trying to see something' comes from the mind. There is a seeing that comes from emptiness. With it, all the other objects are also empty. Intellectual faculties are still working. But they are included in a greater seeing that is empty as a source. The 'relative' is included in the 'absolute.'

When you start feeling the absolute in the subtlest way, with no processing ... the mind is going to say "let me tell you the answer to 'Who is seeing' ... it wants to put things in place, makes sense of it ... to use it ... and it has already started clutching. You have to reject this ... you have exist in the seeing.

Questions and answers will cease by themselves ... you are home ... and at home, there are no questions because you are not lost.