“If my boat has holes, I cannot blame water for drowning me.” Bhupinder Singh
Common Ground Mini-Series: Dhyana Stanley – Part 4 of 4
THE FRAGRANCE OF PEACE CAN BE FULLY TRUSTED — AND THE INQUIRY THAT ARISES WHEN IT IS
Listen to the recording
Since our natural state has a very distinct and fully consistent sense to it, why not then trust the sense of it to ‘bring us’ to the stable recognition of who we are – regardless of what is sensed? (Please see article link below, if you are interested in a more thorough explanation of this description).
Dhyana shares insights including and expanding on the following:
- What is natural feels natural – it feels like Home.
- We are all seeking for Home – our natural state of peace, well-being.
- This sense of Home has a very distinct and consistent sense to it and everyone, without exception, has sensed it – but is it ever present or is it conditional?
- Whenever we feel that something is lacking and peace is gone we are free to inquire into Truth and discover if peace is now present and we are free not to inquire and continue to assume that peace is not now present.
- Mind is not a problem: taking another look at ‘Mind’.
- Thoughts and feelings are not a problem: taking another look at thoughts and feelings.
- Ego is not a problem: taking another look at ego.
- We are here not only to discover who we are but to be free enough to live that out.
- Freedom unfolds more and more when we trust the sense of peace and then we cooperate with it, so to speak.
- Cooperation is a conscious relaxing into the truth of what we already are.
- Love allows choice; it never forces Itself on Itself. Conscious, clear cooperation is key.
Dhyana’s Website: DhyanaStanley.com
Dhyana’s Book: The Human Experience
5/28/17 – Experience Your Perfect Soul ~ pages 22-30
Kathy Smith explores the quotes from Experience Your Perfect Soul and shares from her contemplation of them.
5-28-17 Weekly Gathering: “Exploring Self Inquiry”
Topic: “Exploring Self Inquiry”.
Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert examined the teaching of Ramana Maharshi describing how Self Inquiry leads to Self Realization.
Her reader was Regina Dawn Akers, who read an excerpt from The Human Gospel of Ramana Maharshi.
Tips from Regina ~ Lesson 133, I will not value what is valueless
Today’s lesson begins by telling us we will take a break from the theoretical and come back now to practical concerns. If we will see today’s lesson as practical and not theoretical, we will shed the ego thought system.
Let me start by saying that the ego is inherently selfish.The ego always thinks of ‘me’ and ‘mine.’ It has no other point of view. Spirit, on the other hand, thinks only of purpose and wholeness. It has a broad perspective, and ‘me’ is completely unimportant. That doesn’t mean that the individual is sacrificed. The individual is loved as part of the whole, which is completely different than the selfishness of the ego.
I will also say that one of the most challenging things to teach is dropping selfishness. The ego is extremely protective of it. Yet, if you are to know the heart of truth, selfishness must be let go.
Today’s workbook lesson is excellent in its practicality, if you will use it that way. I did. The effect for me was that I saw my own selfishness in a way I had not seen it before, and this generated a change in me from a selfish perspective to a perspective of service.
When I first used this was during that period of time when Ron and I had agreed to marry, and then I began to sense that he was going to back out. I told that story in last Sunday’s service. (I will provide the link to the audio in the comments section below.)
At first my response to realizing he would back out was a lot of ego chatter. That chatter was focused on ideas about how I could still get what I wanted. It looked at the situation from many different angles, like it was working on a puzzle, and it tried to figure out the exact strategy that would get what I wanted. And yet, somehow I was blind to the selfishness in that until I tested what I wanted against the criteria in today’s workbook lesson. The test looked something like this:
1. I want to convince Ron to marry me. I remember there are only two alternatives, and in every choice I make I choose either ego or heaven. I accept that as true. I also accept there is no compromise, no ‘in-between’ option. This wanting is either ego or heaven, and I am here to discover which it is. If I convince Ron to marry me, will that marriage last forever? No. At best, “death do us part.” It could end in divorce before that. If I convince Ron to marry me, am I taking something from someone else? Cleary the answer is ‘yes.’ If he does not want to marry me, and I somehow convince him to marry me, I am taking his freedom to follow his own will from him. Is it possible that if I convince Ron to marry me, I will later feel guilty? Yes, I can see how that might occur. Therefore, my desire to convince Ron to marry me is ego and must be let go.
2. What if I do nothing? What if I simply let this unfold without grievance and let everything be? Will that last forever? Yes! I see how simply letting everything unfold and be as it is, is a non-ending state of being. If I make this choice, am I taking something from someone else? No, not at all ever. Will I feel guilty for this choice? No, it seems that I would only feel curious. And if I am completely genuine in letting everything unfold without putting my desires upon it, I would be happy.
And so, I made the second choice. That is how this lesson works in a practical way. Also, from looking at this and other choices this clearly, I could instantly see what was selfish and what was not. I learned to drop the selfishness, and live in a state of service, which is ‘letting it all unfold and be as it is’ while intuiting my little part in it, but never seeking for what ‘I can get out of it.’ Except for awakening, of course.
May 28, 2017 Daily Quote
“To live without thought is a thought itself. How are you going to de-condition yourself. You are being conditioned every day.” Paul Muldoon
Tips from Regina ~ Lesson 132, I loose the world from all I thought it was
Today’s lesson is an interesting lesson. Is it implying that you should be able to heal the sick and raise the dead? Does it mean you can end wars by changing your mind? Or is the main point that there is no world at all?
I have seen many Course students give their point of view in answer to those questions over the years, but I don’t think we should get lost in those thoughts or those discussions. I feel this is the main point of the lesson and where we should focus our attention today:
“A madman thinks the world he sees is real, and does not doubt it. Nor can he be swayed by questioning his thought’s effects. It is but WHEN THEIR SOURCE IS RAISED TO QUESTION that the hope of freedom comes to him at last.”
In other words, we are not concerned with effects at all. We are not looking out to see if there is or is not sickness, war, death, etc. We are focused inward in this way:
What is the source of this thought I am thinking now? Is it ego or truth? If it is ego, I let it go because it is ego. If I can feel it is truth, I contemplate it and/or follow it, as appropriate.
If we take today’s lesson down to this basic practice, and practice it, we are doing what is intended.
It’s the ‘keep it simple’ spirit. KISS
May 27, 2017 Daily Quote
“When the force of the desire for Truth blossoms, selfish desires wither away, just like darkness vanishes before the radiance of the light of dawn.” Sri Sankara
Tips from Regina ~ Lesson 131, No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth
Today’s lesson is good news. It’s just as Jesus said, “Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)
It is popular today to say that seeking is the problem; one is already awake & needs only to let go of seeking. To me, that is kind of like saying, “You know the door opens, so why knock?”
Ramana Maharshi agreed that you are aware of the Self now, but notice what he says about it:
“Your Self is intimate to you. You are aware of the Self. Seek it and be it. That will expand as the Infinite.”
At Luke 15 in the Bible, Jesus gave this example: “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?”
Having 10 silver coins could represent having some awareness of the Self, but is it full awareness of the infinite?
Let’s look at some of Jesus’ other symbols:
Light a lamp = bringing awareness & purpose together
Sweep the house = inquiry & forgiveness
Search carefully = awareness watching awareness
It is very good news that “no one can fail who seeks to reach the truth,” but the key in that sentence is that it is the one who seeks that finds. When one is tempted to listen to recommendations to drop seeking, it might be helpful to ask, “How does not seeking serve the ego?”
Based on Jesus’ example of the woman with the lost coin, it seems that Jesus recommends determined seeking. That reminds me of a quote from Nisargadatta Maharaj:
“We discover it by being earnest, by searching, inquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one’s life to this discovery.”
May 26, 2017 Daily Quote
“There is no thing that can ever awaken you. If the thing awakens you, it would not be awakening. It’s when you empty yourself out totally and completely, when there is nobody left to learn anything, that’s when you simply see yourself as nobody. You look at yourself and you realize what you are.” Robert Adams.
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