Lesson 128. The world I see has nothing I want.

The ego, in its desire to keep you trapped within the world of illusion and within its spell, must give you some of what you seem to desire otherwise you would give up these false desires and come to know the true desire and the glory of your being.

While the ego or the thinking mind sees the necessity of allowing some enjoyment in the world, the seeking for it will ultimately end in suffering and death.  NTI 2 Corinthians 5 v 11-15 says, “When your thoughts are with the world, you request an experience other than God.  This, then, is the experience you are given.  When you let go of the world, you experience truth.”

We want the truly valuable.  We want the truth and we want to awaken.  NTI Matthew 22 v 22-33 tells us, “realize that the world and all you thought there, was never true and so it mattered not.  I tell you, the truth is always true, and there is no truth in the world.  Do not let your worldly concerns distract you long.  Lay them aside that you may continue your journey and awaken to that which calls you.”

But haven’t we been receiving guidance about how to accept happiness?  NTI Revelation 1 v 9-11 says, “Guidance comes to you for one purpose and that is to lead you from the world.  There may also seem to be another purpose, which is happiness within the world.  The two purposes are not the same.  One purpose leads to death, while the other, must surely, lead to Life and knowledge of Life.”

Okay, so our happiness comes with our awakening.  How might I practice releasing the false desire and come to know my True desire?  NTI Hebrews 7 v 11-17 paints that picture for us, “Can you imagine letting go completely that which you seem to value?  Can you imagine closing your eyes and letting it fade completely away?  If you can imagine letting it go, feeling peace and no loss in the imagining, you are preparing to wake up from dreams.  Can you let go of this person, this experience, or this way of being?  Can you let go, that you may be only that which is truth?  When you say ‘yes’ you shall be ready to awaken.  Until then, practice awakening when you can.”

Today’s lesson guides us to another practice that should prove valuable when it instructs us to “Give it ten minutes rest three times today.  And when your eyes are open afterwards, you will not value anything you see as much as when you looked before.  Your whole perspective on the world will shift by just a little every time you let your mind escape its chains.”

NTI Hebrews 1 v 13, 14, also encourages us: “Every step has been a stepping stone within awareness only.  There is no change.  You are eternally, lovingly and perfectly whole as you are now.”

LESSON 127. There is no love but God’s.

“Love is one. It has no separate parts and no degrees; no kinds nor levels, no divergencies and no distinctions. It is like itself, unchanged throughout. It never alters with a person or a circumstance.”

As the words of today’s lesson make clear, love is not an emotion. Love is rather the equivalent of the truth—the spaciousness that allows all that is. “Love is a law without an opposite. Its wholeness is the power holding everything as one …” Love is that which we all are – “there can never be a difference in what you really are and what love is.” It feels to me that, that which I am is absolute potentiality—the absolute freedom of unlimitedness. When you give love—when you genuinely give love—aren’t you giving unlimited freedom?

This law of unlimited freedom is that within which we live. As NTI Luke 11 says:

“Your Father is the extension of Love. And His Love has been poured out upon you. It is His only gift. Anything that is not of the gift of our Father is of nothing, and so it is meaningless and it has no value. Lay that aside, and accept the gift given to you by our Father.”

Love does not seek for recompense. Love gives and gives only. Love never takes. Does awareness take? Does spaciousness take? Does truth hold back, reserve for later? Love is giving, is extending, is all embracing. It has been said that there is no boundary in consciousness. This is true of love. There is no point to which love will not extend.

All well and good you might say, but how is this helpful? Where is the practice pointer? It is actually in the lesson itself. The lesson tells us: “Love’s meaning is obscure to anyone who thinks that love can change. He does not see that changing love must be impossible. And thus he thinks that he can love at times, and hate at other times. He also thinks that love can be bestowed on one, and yet remain itself although it is withheld from others.”

So, the challenge is to let go our notion of love as an emotion–which is often co-dependance, nervous preoccupation, or even fear–and seek to be the expansiveness of absolute allowance. This is the practice that we are learning with the Loving All Method. This perfect allowance is our practice. This perfect allowance is the extension of our being. My recommendation is that we practice this perfect allowance with those for whom we feel a deep emotional bond. It will be here that it will be easiest to see the difference between the extension of actual love and the other needs and desires that have masqueraded as love.

Recently, Regina interviewed Dr. Jeffrey Martin for our Guest Satsang series. Dr. Martin spoke of those who went beyond the unitive state of awakening to another state in which they did not seem to feel the emotion of love. This concerned some members of Awakening Together. Some members said all they want is love and they aren’t interested in enlightenment if love is absent from enlightenment.

As Regina has noted, this begs the question, “What is love?” and “Do the enlightened know love or leave it behind?” Regina and I both recently looked at the question, “What is Love?” If you’re interested, the link below will take you to the audios of our contemplation of the question:

https://awakening-together.org/dev2/what-is-love-do-the-enlightened-know-love-or-leave-it-behind/

Lesson 126. All that I give is given to myself.

I called Jacquelyn, I guess it has been at least a year a ago.  I was upset about an incident that had occurred.  I told the story to Jacquelyn and asked her, “What do you think this means?”  Jacquelyn said it meant nothing.  Wait a minute.  I had already decided it meant a great deal!  Jacquelyn explained that it wasn’t meaningful and that only the meaning I was giving it made it seem important. The meaning I was deriving was based on my past–the judgments I had made, made it seem meaningful. I had made a decision that there was value in the experience I had.  I have since come to understand you always experience your own decisions.

Regina calls this the perceptual loop.  “What I think, I see (perceive).  What I see, I experience.  What I experience I think.”  This might also be called “Mind made illusions.”  This occurs when an idea is seen as valuable or important.  Once meaning is given the idea becomes manifest.  That whole experience is perceived as real and we believe it.

Understanding the concept of ‘giving and receiving as one’ is key to understanding forgiveness. You always experience your own decisions.  NTI Luke 17 says, “[Offense] has not come from your brother.  It has come from the meaning you have applied to thoughts in your mind.” Thus, “Forgiveness is simply an acknowledgement of the truth of how the offense or hurt has come about.”  It came about through a collection of thoughts I had. I thought I knew something so I made judgments about the meaning of the experience.

Once I settled down and could see there was no meaning or that the meaning I was giving the experience was of my own making,  immediately, I was able to let it go.  In Brent Haskell’s “Journey Beyond Words” it says, “Nothing can be done to you, by anyone, ever.  You will come to know that everything you experience is, indeed, your own choice.”

In her original Gentle Healing Year 1 tip for this lesson, Regina asked the question, “Can you come to see that you directly experience your own decision to judge, reject, accept or love?”  I would ask, can I acknowledge that I am responsible when I assign meaning to the meaningless?