As we experience our individual yet profoundly interconnected journeys of transformation, we inevitably encounter obstacles, challenges, or, otherwise known as growth opportunities. Thoughts and emotions become valuable tools that can help us become clearer and more attuned to our Higher Selves. Thoughts and emotions also have the potential to assist us in destroying all that we have persevered to attain. Thought alone, when it is no longer connected with the much vaster realm of consciousness, can quickly become destructive. Through an understanding of how our minds operate, we gain the ability to see why it is so important to be aware of the chatter within. Being aware of this chatter consequently enables us to be conscious of the present moment.

Thoughts and Emotions

For many years, seekers of divine wisdom have studied the importance of protecting our personal energy – the energy that we hold with ourselves in this moment, the energy that has been allocated to us for the purpose of benefiting our Highest Good, the energy that can enable us to serve others if we so choose. One of the ways that we, as humans, expel the greatest quantities of energy is through feeding our constant streams of thought. In this way, most people sleepily go through their lives allowing their minds to control their experiences and influence their choices. In this unconscious state, our thoughts continually control who we are and keep us living in the past or somewhere out in the future. Our thoughts either keep bringing us back to memories that provoke states of anger, resentment and regret, or they coax us into a state of worry, in which we are afraid of something ‘bad’ happening in the future. Choosing to live in either of these mental states means that we are escaping this precious NOW and preventing ourselves from experiencing the joys of the moment.

Our emotions can be another incredible drain on our energy. Some people may feel that they lose more energy through their emotions than through their out-of-control thoughts. Emotion arises at the place where our thoughts and our bodies meet. Emotion is our body’s reaction to thought. We might say, emotions are a reflection of our thoughts in the body.

The moment the body reacts to a thought, an emotion is created. The image above can be interpreted as an energetic depiction of this process.

Let’s look at an example to better understand this concept. A hostile thought will create a build-up of energy in the body that we call anger – the body is getting ready to fight. The thought that we are being threatened causes the body to contract. This is the physical side of what we call the emotion of fear. Research has shown that strong emotions even cause changes in the biochemistry of the body, which represents the actual physical aspect of the emotion. Of course, we are not usually consious of all of our thought patterns. It is often through watching our emotions that we can bring them into awareness.

 

Hostile Thought manifesting into Emotional Response

Sometimes, a conflict exists in which we find ourselves thinking ‘no’ while our emotions say ‘yes’. Just by observing our bodies, we can tune into our higher senses of awareness. The body will always present a truthful reflection of what is happening on the level of our thoughts and emotions. Look at the emotions, or rather, ‘feel’ them in the body. If there is an apparent conflict between your emotions and your thoughts, the thoughts will generally be the lies while the emotions will be the truth…not the ultimate truth of who you are, but the relative truth of your state of mind at the time.

For example, imagine that you are trying to decide between two job offers. You have logically analyzed both opportunities and understand the pros and cons of each option. Yet still, you don’t know which door to walk through next. What do you do? Well, you could try observing your body as you think of one job, and then do the same as you consider the other option. Is your body giving you subtle hints about which offer you would feel better taking? Do your muscles feel tight and your limbs tense when you imagine one job, while with the other you feel yourself relaxing into your chair and taking a breath? Sometimes, the clues are obvious, while at other times you might be so stressed that the Universe’s hints are difficult to sense at first. This is when relaxing into your body as much as you can will help tremendously. No one knows the answers to your questions but you. The key is to pause and listen to yourself instead of looking externally for the answer. You will find your way. There is no need to waste energy worrying about what might happen if you make the wrong decision. Focusing all your awareness on connecting with your Higher Self will bring you to where you want to be. It is that simple.

The ‘knowner’ behind the ‘thinker’

So, when we talk about the ‘mind’, we refer to both thoughts and emotions. It is very important to be aware of both the thoughts and the feelings that we experience and strive to be the ‘observer’ as much as possible. When we are able to step out of the experience of the thought or of the emotion and really SEE it is for what it is, we are taking steps towards expanding our consicousness. We begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, and that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. We also realize that all the things that truly matter – beauty, love, creativity, joy, and inner peace – arise from beyond the mind.

The mind is a superb instrument if used correctly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. It is not so much that we use the mind incorrectly, for most often, we really don’t use it at all – IT USES US! We believe that we are our mind and this is the delusion – the point at which the mind has taken over us! It is almost as if we are possessed without knowing it, and so we take the possessing entity (our minds) to be who we are. In order to free ourselves from our minds, it is necessary to realize that we are not the ‘thinker’.  We are much more than that! We are the ‘knower’ behind the ‘thinker’.

Within each one of us is that deeper self that immediately recognizes spiritual truth, resonates with it, and gains strength from it. This is why it is so important to ‘watch the thinker’, which will then allow us to ‘feel the knower’ (or inner voice) on a regular basis. We must begin to distinguish these two components of the inner dialogue – the false self that performs a continuous monologue babbling on about involuntary thoughts that he is unable to stop feeding, and the real self, the knower of spiritual truth, that resides within each of us and is trying to re-gain power over the ego (false self). The Higher Self wants to make us whole and complete and bring us into the present moment, into the blissful state of love, peace and joy.

Love, peace and joy are not truly ‘emotions’. They lie beyond emotions on a much deeper level and cannot flourish until we have freed ourselves from mind-dominance.  Love, peace and joy are deep aspects of our inner connectedness with Being. Thus, they have no opposites because they arise from beyond the mind – from beyond duality. Emotions, on the other hand, being part of the dualistic mind, are subject to the Law of Opposites. This simply means that we cannot have good without bad. In the unenlightened, mind-identified condition, what is sometimes wrongly called joy is the usually short-lived pleasure side of the common pain/pleasure cycle that many of us find ourselves returning to regularly. Pleasure is always derived from something outside of us, whereas JOY arises from within. The very thing that gives us pleasure today, will give us pain tomorrow, or it will leave us, and then its absence will give us pain. When true joy is experienced, we settle into an authentic peaceful state that cannot be shaken by the external presence of duality.

So, how can we learn to control our thoughts and our emotions and thus free ourselves from this identification with our minds? How can we learn to separate ourselves from the ‘thinker’ and learn to be the ‘observer’? The good news is that we can free ourselves from our mind by learning to listen to the inner sense as much as possible. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns – those old audiotapes that have been playing in our heads for years. This is what is meant by ‘watching the thinker’, which is another way of saying: “Listen to the voice within and be there as a witnessing presence”.

Listen impartially, that is to say, do not judge nor condemn what you witness, for doing so would mean that the same voice has come in again through the back door! You will soon realize that “There is chatter, and here I am listening to it, watching it.” This I AM realization, this sense of our own presence, is not a thought – it arises from beyond the mind. Therefore, when we listen to a thought, we are aware not only of the thought, but also of our self as the witness. A new dimension of consciousness will have just come in! As we listen to the thought, we feel a conscious presence – a deeper self behind or underneath the thought. The thought then loses its power over us and quickly diminishes because we are no longer energizing it through our identification with it. This is the beginning of the end of involuntary compulsive thinking.

Disassociate from the mind

The single most important step on our journey toward enlightenment is this: Learn to disassociate from the mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of thought, the light of your consciousness grows stronger. Enlightenment means rising above thought. In the enlighened state, we still use our thinking mind when needed, but in a much more focused and effective way. We use it mostly for practical purposes, but we are free of the involuntary internal dialogue. We thus create inner stillness. When we use our mind when a creative solution is needed, we oscillate every few minutes between thought and stillness, between mind and no-mind. No-mind is consciousness without thought. Only in that way is it possible to think creatively, because only in that way does thought have any real power.

I myself looked for some larger branches and put them on top of the kindling. So it was in life. In order for the more substantial  pieces of wood to catch fire, the kindling must burn first. In order for us to liberate the energy of our strength, our weakness must first have a chance to reveal itself.

~The Witch of Portobello, Paulo Coelho

“I cannot live with myself any longer!”

Have you ever said this to yourself in the privacy of your own lunacy? If you have, perhaps you’ve made yourself miserable enough to want to wake up now and acknowledge that you’ve just made a fundamental discovery! You’ve identified two of you – there is the “I”, and then there is the self with which “I” cannot live. If you assume that this is true, then is it possible that only one of these “I’s” is real and the other is artificial? An interesting thought…

So, why bring this up? Well, what I’d like to do during this three part this ‘Living in the Now’ series is to discuss the difference between our ‘real self’ (you as a part of the Oneness) and our ‘false self’ (our physical body as identification with the ego).

How can we challenge ourselves to step beyond this limited view of ourselves and step into the greater expanse of who we really are? How can we free ourselves from the intense grip of our egos, which is currently controlling our thoughts, our emotions and our mental image of what we project into the world we perceive? How can we step out of our ‘minds’ – these minds to which we surrender so much control? How can we learn to live in the present moment and let go of past baggage and fears of the future?

These sound like impossible tasks to some, but hopefully with greater understanding of how to apply the principle of living in the Now to our lives, we can attain a deeper grasp of how we can transform ourselves into ‘Beings of Now’.

Enlightenment, transformation and living in the present moment can only truly begin when we honestly look at ourselves and ask questions like, “Who am I?”, “Am I listening to my soul?”, “Is there a ‘real’ self and a ‘false’ self? And if I believe that there is, can I make a distinction between the two and believe in myself enough to take the necessary steps for transformation?”

During this period of major realignment on our planet, there are many coined phrases and terms that are flowing as freely as our out-of-control minds. Words like evolution, vibrations, false self, ego, consciousness, superconsciousness, unconscious, inner body, unmanifested, authentic self, soul, spirit – the list goes on and on. It’s easy to get overwhelmed trying to determine the meaning of each word and how it fits into our own interpretation of how things work. But remember, these are just words – words that can both confuse and words that can excite, words that make us feel empowered and words that make us feel unworthy. But remember that the most basic job of words is to help us TRY to communicate.

As an example, there are words whose meaning we don’t question, such as the word ‘dog’. When we hear that word, we can assume that most people immediately envision a furry, friendly, cuddly pet who wants to lick us and be our friend forever. Pretty simple: mental image = definition of the word. But…what about other words a bit more tricky to envision? How about a word like ‘enlightenment’? What immediately comes to mind? Is this a harder picture to conjure up? I would guess if we asked each person reading this what he or she saw in the mind’s eye, each person would have a different mental picture and thus a different explanation of what ‘enlightenment’ means.

Our minds are very important to this process, but we must know how and when to use them and when to step out of our minds! Our intellect is also very important in our human expansion, yet our intellect can also get in the way of transformation. We have to learn how to understand the difference between our mind and our intellect in order to really make significant changes in our lives. The journey is challenging, yet it is tremendously important in our own personal path back to Source.

Can we release our falsely-created self, the ego, behind? Can we truly breathe the lighter air of the spiritual on a regular basis? Through the wisdom of various spiritual teachers, a variety of different lessons and also, with the study of the powerful book of Eckhart Tolle called ‘The Power of Now’, let us bring to light the importance of living in the present so that we can face this existence in a state of true inner peace. Eckhart Tolle shares so beautifully his deep understanding of the power of our own minds. In this book he speaks of ways in which to understand how the mind works, of obstacles that we are confronted with daily that have the power to challenge our ability to stay on the path, of the importance of undersatnding relationships that we share in our lives, and of how to discover, through communion within ourselves as well as with others, how to truly live in the present moment.

As we work through this process, it’s important to define a few terms that we will be discussing as they relate to the material given here. Each person, each religion, each teaching that we have all been exposed to over the years can have a different definition or understanding of a specific term – that is both the beauty and the confusion of trying to use words for spiritual understanding. I by no means am giving the ‘right’ definition of the following terms but I am attempting, within our limited vocabulary, to share one possibility, one variation of an xplanation of some of these important terms so that clarity may have a chance to assist us in the understanding of what it means to live in the Now.

The first word I would like to discuss is the word ‘being’. I am sure there are various definitions of this word but in this context here, the following definition is offered:

BEING: ‘Being’ is the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the many forms of life that are subject to birth and death. ‘Being’ is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence.

This means that it is accessible to us now as our own deepest self, our true nature. ‘Being’ is used by many people because it is an open concept – it does not reduce the infinitely invisible to a finite entity since it is difficult to form a mental image of ‘Being’.

Many people identify the word ‘being’ with a physical expression and label it ‘God’, where they can envision a very large man-like character who knows all things, sees all things and judges how we live our lives. Other people think of ‘Being’ as life-force energy or Sprit of pure love and light that vibrates at a very high rate of frequency. No interpretation of ‘Being’ is right or wrong. For every living creature, it is their very presence, and it is immediately accessible to us as the feeling of this presence. It is only a small step from the word ‘Being’ to the experience of Being! How incredible is that!?

Next, what is enlightenment? Simply:

ENLIGHTENMENT: means to regain our awareness of ‘Being’ and to abide by that state of ‘feeling-realization’. It is simply our natural state of ‘felt oneness with Being’ that keeps us in the state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible – something that IS essentially us and yet is much greater than us. It is the discovering of our true nature, beyond name and form and identification with our physical body. The word ‘enlightenment’ conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way!

The inability to feel this connectedness gives rise to the illusion of seperation, from ourself and from the world around us. We then can perceive ourselves, whether consciously or unconsciously, as an isolated fragment, separate from everything else. When this happens, fear arises and conflicts deep within ourselves can become fueled.

The greatest obstacle to experiencing the reality of our connectedness to All There IS is the identification with our mind, which then can cause thought to become compulsive. Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadul afflication, but we don’t realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it so it is considered normal. This incessant mental noise prevents us from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being. This can help to explain why so many people have difficulty meditating. Their inability to establish stillness within and of having a mind empty of thoughts seems an insurmountable task. After several failed attempts, our minds declare victory and meditation becomes an imposibility. However, if we can learn to understand the power of our minds and begin to have power over them, the results are peace, happiness and stillness within.

A magical thing happened to me this morning. It’s actually still happening to me now as I write this post. You see, I decided to dedicate some of my attention today to going through messages in my inbox; messages that have been waiting for me for some time now; messages that I wasn’t ready for or open to until now; messages that I am nevertheless extremely grateful to have received. Most of them are videos and links to resources sent to me from friends and family – information that they thought I might be interested in coming across. Most of the time, these messages sit in my inbox for quite some time before I feel comfortable enough to approach them. I think to me, that means that they have great power to affect me, and at some level, I know this, so I wait until the time is right so that I can truly give them the attention they, and I, deserve. Today, I happened to come across a sound that stimulated such a profound feeling of something opening within me that I felt moved to share it with you here.

Sounds are very powerful. We’ve talked about them here in the form of mantras and chants. There are certain frequencies that can be expressed in seemingly simple tones, but that when listened to, create an environment in which great awakening can take place. The ones that I would like to share with you today are frequencies that resonate at 741 HZ. The videos that I will include below include these types of sounds. When I listen to them in this moment, I feel something happening in my Third Eye area. The more I listen to them, the more this feeling expands to fill the top of my head, the back of my head and around my temples and ears. Even my neck feels the impact of the sound. It starts off as feeling of pressure between my brows, but not a physical pressure like when you press on your forehead with your hand. No, this is a more subtle pressure, one felt beneath the surface of the skin, that bores into the depths of my inner site. I know this sounds strange but it’s so powerful. My vision isn’t technically affected in the experience, but at the same time, I can feel that my eyes would prefer not to focus on this dimension. It’s as if they’re asking me to look beyond, to look past the physical, to allow them to rest for a moment in another space, a more peaceful, gentle space. This makes for quite an interesting experience while I’m typing! Good thing I remember the position of most of the keys!

I enjoy experiencing unfoldment in this way. It’s almost like an instantaneous repositioning of my awareness into a deeper place of much greater expanse then any place I’ve been on to this planet. Even the most gloriously wide, open space like a wheat field along a dusty highway or the view from atop an ancient volcano can’t compare to the expanse that exists within us. To awaken this sense is such a healing experience to communicate with our Higher essence with the utmost of grace and reverence. To mingle with your soul while still experiencing the physical dimension is a wonderful reminder that we are so much more than our bodies, our minds, our surroundings. We are one with all. There exists no delineation between this and that. There are no borders, do separation between this dimension and that dimension. It is all a fluid flow of tranquility. Enjoy and God Bless!

Today’s message is one that reflects some of the private conversations that so many of us have had with God. Whether we pray on our knees, talk to ourselves while driving, or cry quietly and simply ask ‘Why?’, today’s message touches on many of the questions that we so often don’t know how to answer, but that seem to come up again and again as we experience humanity.

Some people try to explain that evil does not exist, or that it is merely a psychological factor. But this is not so. The evidence of evil is here in this world. We cannot deny it. If there is no evil, why would Jesus pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”? He is praying plainly that evil does exist.

So the truth is, we do find evil in this world. And where did it come from? God. Evil provides the opportunity for us to recognize and experience goodness. Evil had to be, if there was to be any creation. If you wrote a message with white chalk on a white board, no one would see it. So without the blackboard, the good things in this world wouldn’t be visible. For instance, Judas was Jesus’ best publicity agent. By his evil act, Judas made Christ eternally famous. Jesus knew the role he had to play, and all that was going to happen to him in order that he might demonstrate the love and greatness of God. A villain was necessary to this enactment.

Perfection is not to be found in this world

It’s hard to know where the dividing line is between good and evil. Certainly it is terrible that bacteria kills billions people every hundred years, but think of the chaos of overpopulation. And if everything here were good and perfect, no one would leave this Earth of his or her own accord; no one would want to go back to God. So in a sense, misery is your best friend, because it starts you seeking God. When you begin to see clearly the imperfection of the world, you will begin to seek the perfection of God. The truth is that God is using evil, not to destroy us, but to make us disillusioned with His toys, with the playthings of this world, so that we might see Him.

This is why the Lord Himself permits injustices and evil. But I have said to Him, “Lord, You have always been perfect. How do you know what suffering is? Yet you have put us through these tests; and you had no business doing it. We didn’t ask to be born as mortals and to suffer.” (He doesn’t mind that I argue with him. He is very patient.) The Lord answered, “You don’t have to go on suffering; I have given everyone the free will to choose good instead of evil.”

So evil is the test of God, to see if we will choose Him or His gifts. He created us in His image and gave us the power to choose for ourselves. But we so often don’t use that power consciously. At night, when we leave our bodies during sleep, we all return to our Godlike states. But in the daytime, we become devils – not all of us, but most of us – the unconscious among us. Why not live in tune with God in the daytime, for then we shall know no fear, we shall know no evil. It is easy to say this, but how easy is it to put into practice?

While evil in itself is something we don’t want, yet it is like a poisoned honey, it is palpable, it is tasty. At the table, we are tempted to eat too much, and to eat the wrong things. Then we begin to get fat here and there, just where we don’t want it. In response to our wrong actions, Nature takes revenge and seems to be poking fun at us all the time. It is indeed a funny world! But the results of our wrong actions don’t seem very funny to us! Believe me, I know! This is why many of us quarrel with God and scold Him, “Why have you created all of these terrible temptations that your children succumb to? Why have you made them so pleasurable?” Well, the lesson is simple: the Law of Cause and Effect.

So, since there is no perfection in this world, why continue to seek it here? You may find a little short-lived pleasure, but mostly you will find suffering and injustice. Pain was given to make you know when something is wrong with the body. But when the pain of cancer comes, there is no reason in it. The sufferer has no relief from his pain, and he doesn’t know why he has to suffer. And there are those who need money and can’t get it, and those who don’t need it who easily acquire more. Those who have much want still more; and those who have nothing want just a little, but can’t get even that. Isn’t this true? Why these injustices? Some people are as healthy as can be, and some are always sick. But health or disease doesn’t necessarily determine whether or not you are happy. St. Francis suffered much of the time, yet he was healing the sick and was filled with the joy of God. Suffering has a different meaning for you when you have attained the freedom of God. But you have to attain that freedom first.

We must learn to work without desire, and to live in this world without attachment. As soon as you are caught up in desires and attachments, you will have all the evil that is coming to you. That is why the Gita says “O Arjuna! No (compelling) duty have I to perform! There is naught that I have not acquired! Nothing in the three worlds remains for me to gain! Yet I am consciously present in the performance of all actions.” Those who want to be liberated must do likewise, engaging in service-ful, joyful, and non-attached activity. Most people willingly work hard for money, but they won’t make even a little effort for their salvation. We must work for God. The way to do this is to stop cooperating with evil and to behave as God would have us behave.

We must love one another. Sometimes it is not easy, but to love your enemy means to choose not to become another person’s enemy. By a thought, any one of us could destroy another, but why would we want to? Jesus had that power. When his enemies taunted him to save himself from the cross, he said, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scripture be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” He conquered by love. If the ordinary man is slapped, the great desire is to slap back. Therefore, God does not give His divine power to those who are spiritually weak, because they would misuse it. The desire and the strength to forgive comes from attunement with God.

How few you find in this world who are sincere and who want to be your friend for your sake, and not for something they can take from you. Those sincere souls are most enjoyable. Greater than all riches is true friendship. If you can be a true friend to people, you will find God. If you sincerely love people, you can know them, just as when you look through a clear glass, you can see what is in the glass. But your perception of people is unclear unless you love God, and unless you love others with the love of God.

“I can give my life for a sincere soul”

In this world, we will all eventually learn that we must be fearless, sincere, and surround ourselves not only with those whom we can inspire, but with those who can inspire us as well. When we attain heightened levels of clarity, we can begin to help those who are ‘evil’, but trying to do this when we are not yet strong enough ourselves will weaken us. So many of those who try to reform others become infected with their evil.

If you have a mind that absorbs everything like blotting paper, you must keep that mind free from evil influences. Just as blotter paper that has become snaked with spilled oil will no longer absorb water, so must your mind first be saturated with good until it becomes impervious to evil.

Be strong in your own goodness, and try to be helpful to others. The man who only looks out for himself and his own family won’t find much happiness. If he doesn’t think of anyone else who might be suffering, he denies himself the joy of helping another, so his own cup of satisfaction will remain small.

The Cosmic Motion Picture

There is another angle to duality, or good and evil. If a movie producer made motion pictures only from select angles, and showed them in the film houses morning, noon and night every day, he would soon have to close-up business. He has to produce variety in order to attract people’s attention. The bad man makes the hero look so much better! And we like plots that are filled with action. We don’t mind looking at exciting movies about danger and disaster because we know that they are only movies. I remember one time when I was taken to see a movie in which the hero died; it was such a tragedy! So I stayed and watched the next showed until I saw the hero alive again, then I left the theater.

If you could see what is going on behind the screen of this life, you wouldn’t suffer at all. It is a cosmic motion picture show. This movie that God is projecting on the screen of this Earth has no value once you see what goes on behind the screens. Look at the beam of God’s light that is projecting these scenes onto the screen of life. See the pictures of the whole universe coming from this beam. See beyond the illusion.

Another time, I was sitting in a movie theater watching an exciting drama on the screen. At a certain point, I looked up into the projection booth and saw that the projectionist wasn’t interested in the picture, because he had seen it over and over again. Instead, he was reading a book. The projection machine was doing its job; there was the sound, and the beam of light was casting the realistic pictures onto the screen. And there was the audience, caught up in the drama. I thought, “Lord, You are like this man, sitting here in the booth, absorbed in your own nature of bliss and love and wisdom. Your machine of cosmic law is throwing on the screen of the universe scenes of jealousy, of love, of hatred, of wisdom, but you remain uninvolved in your plays.” From age to age, from civilization to civilization, the same old pictures are shown over and over again, only with different characters playing the parts.

When I took my gaze from the beam of light that was casting the scenes on the screen, I looked at the audience and I saw that they were going through all the emotions of the actors in the movie. They were suffering with the hero and reacting to the evil of the villain. To the audience, it was a tragic experience. To the operator in the projection booth, it was only a picture. And so it is with God. He has created pictures of light and shadows, the hero and the villain, good and evil, and we are the audience and the actors. It is only when we identify with the play that we get in trouble!

Without shadows existing alongside the light, there could be no picture. Evil is the shadow that converts the one beam of God’s light into pictures or forms. Therefore, evil is the shadow of God that makes this play possible. The dark shadows of evil are interspersed with the pure white beam of the virtues of God. He wants you not to take these pictures so seriously. The director of a movie sees the murders and the suffering and the comedy and the drama as a means to create interest for the audience. He stands apart from the play and directs and observes it. God wants us to behave with detachment, realizing we are only actors or observers in His cosmic show.

Though God has everything, it can still be said that he has some desire: He wants to see who will remain un-intimidated by this picture, and who will play his part well and come back to Him. You can’t run away from this universe, but if you act in this play with your thought fixed on God, you will be free.

If you feel like saying to God, “Lord, this is a motion picture to you, but it is terrible to us”, He may reply, “I make you realize it is a dream every night when you go to sleep. You simply forget this in the daytime.”

For him who realizes God, there is no evil

The way to supreme happiness will not be found by the scientists nor the material-minded people alone, but by those who follow the masters who say: “Go back to the booth of the Infinite from which you can see the projection of all these cosmic motion pictures. Then you won’t be troubled about God’s creation, God’s play…”

When you are part of the delusion, you suffer.
When you stand aside and watch it, you cannot suffer.
When you are an observer, you can enjoy this play.

And with that, a little story to end today’s message:

A king fell asleep and dreamed that he was poor. He was crying out in his sleep for just a penny for some food. Finally, the queen woke him and said, “What is the matter with you? Your treasury is full of gold, and yet you are crying for a penny.”

Then the king said, “Oh, how silly of me, I thought I was a beggar and was starving for lack of that penny.”

Such is the delusion of every soul that is dreaming it is a mortal, subject to the nightmarish evils of all kinds of disease, suffering, troubles, and heartbreaks. The only way to escape this nightmare is detaching from the dream images of this world. It is because you have your attention on the illusions that you suffer. If you give your heart to man, or to drink, or to greed, or to drugs, you will suffer. Your heart will be broken. The more you seek peace in God, the more peace will devour your worries and sufferings. Suffering comes when the evils of the world are let in. When we learn to be spiritually tough, we enable ourselves to be filled with joy, and thus, evil-free.

Some of you may know that many of the teachings that I offer you through this site come from a soul very dear to me. He was a man of great spiritual proportions (and as I write this, I hear him laughing that he was grand on the physical scale too!). He offered classes to those who were willing to make the effort to work on themselves. I attended one of these classes, and spent some time with him outside of the church meeting room, but mostly, my communion with him has been on an intuitive level. In any case, I have an email here, printed out in front of me, written by him to his students on what I can imagine was a beautiful evening on the 22nd of July 2002. One of his students had asked him to explain good and evil – why it exists and what the concepts are meant to teach us. I will copy below what he wrote, but before I do, I remind you to…

Treat these words as various dishes laid out on a buffet table. Pick and choose what looks and tastes good to you. It is for you to decide what food agrees with your digestive system. None of this is for your acceptance or rejection. None of us get brownie points for what we believe to be true; only for what we apply.

Dear family,

There is no good or evil except man’s mind makes it so. Meditation will help one overcome the dual expression of good, or evil. All is God!! If one believes this, then how can we believe in such a thing as evil? If we accept the concept of evil, then it must be of God also. My! What a paradox! For me, all there is, is God. The light that dwells in the center of every cell of our being is God. If one believes this to be true, then how can evil exist in anything? Light is all there is. Darkness can’t overcome Light. Light will always dispel darkness.

Why do we have such a need to live in the dual concept? Yes, we have many things that express in a dual nature, but they are an expression of God. Man is an expression of God walking on the face of the earth. Now, if one believes this to be true, then how can there be another expression of energy?

We must devotedly and passionately repeat this mantra to ourselves:

I am love and an expression of God walking on the face of the earth!
I am God, living with all that is my expression for the purpose of removing the need to express anything other than spirit in my life!

We should be repeating this several times a day, EVERY day. I know! Many of you are thinking, “How can I find time to memorize all that, and remember to say it every day?” Well, do it the same way you remember to take a breath. You plant the thought into your subconscious mind until it becomes another habit. Remember 21 days. We need to do what is necessary. You have been given all the tools needed, and you provide the God Power. Look for it, as it is burried deep within, and every day you put it off, it only goes deeper into your being. I know every one of you are capable of finding that power. You only need to want it bad enough. Do you?????

And so with that, let us meditate:

Understanding our minds is essential in order to be able to manifest in our lives. It is the key to becoming conscious co-creators with God. With the Law of Manifestation, we understand that everything is energy. If we understand this natural principle, then we get what we want in our lives by learning to use our precious energy to manifest what we desire by transferring this energy from one reality to another.

We do this with our minds. The mind is a process, not an organ in the body, whereas the brain is the sensitive instrument of the mind. Each of us possess only one mind, but it is important to recognize it as having three main levels, or aspects of itself: the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, and the superconscious mind.

A brief outline of what we have been discussing lately follows as a summary aid which you are welcome to refer back to as you progress in your work on the path:

The Conscious Mind

• Our “reasoning mind”
• Utilized through use of our personal power and will
• Used through physical action
• Programmer of our subconscious mind – we decide what we feed our subconscious by being aware of our thoughts 24 hours a day on a conscious level (by pushing out the negative and reaffirming the positive)
• Called the “captain of our ship”
• Referred to as the “President of our Personality”
• It’s task is to use its power of reasoning and discernment in all that we do
• Also referred to as the “gardener” who plants seeds into the subconscious and whatever is planted is what will grow!

The Subconscious Mind

• Our “non-reasoning mind”
• Operates on a more instinctive level
• Serves as a memory bank for every thought, feeling, habit and desire that we possess
• “As above, so below” – what we think and imagine in our subconscious mind is what we will draw to ourselves in our outer world
• Subconscious mind does whatever it is programmed to do
• Think of it as our “servant” – it will supply us with whatever we need as long as we program it correctly
• Most dreams are created through the subconscious mind
• Our physical body will reflect whatever we put into the subconscious. If we worry about getting an illness, chances are that we will create one through constant thought energy, manifesting in the physical.
• Stores our habits, both good and bad
• Stores our developed abilities (e.g.: how to ride a bike)
• Use of affirmations is critical in forming a positive and strong subconscious mind

The Superconscious Mind

• Our “Spiritual Mind” or “Higher Self”
• Our all-knowing mind
• Allows higher level thinking and knowing
• Is the origin of most creativity
• Attuned to Cosmic Will
• Contacted through meditation, some dreams and intuition
• Brings us inner peace and true joy
• When we focus our energies on loving, generous intentions, our superconscious mind will provide us with the continuous flow of ideas and creative energy to help move us closer to our goals

We must utilize our three mind aspects, working in harmony and in unity with one another if we are to become conscious co-creators with God!

Mastering the Law of Manifestation is one of the most essential spiritual practices for a student on the path. Following are many principles that serve as the foundation for mastery of this important law.

1. The first part of the Law of Manifestation is that we must learn to manifest with all three of our minds – the conscious, subconscious and superconscious minds – using them in perfect harmony, balance and integration.
2. Awareness that we ARE the soul and NOT the personality is essential. If we manifest from the consciousness of personality, we will see ourselves as separate from our brothers and sisters – indeed, from creation itself. That is an illusion.
3. Do no be attached to what you are praying for or are trying to manifest, or you will end up repelling it from yourself. Make your choice for manifesting a preference, not an attachment.
4. Surrender your prayer request to God and leave it in God’s hands, accepting whatever comes your way. A very useful mantra that I use to assist me in the process of manifestation is: “In the name of God, I place … on the Alter of the Divine, and ask the Masters of Love and Light to take care of the situation in a way that benefits the Highest Good of All.” With these words, you express your preference, and then surrender to the outcome that is for the greatest good.
5. All that exists is perfection. God created us and we are perfect.
6. The thoughts and images that we hold in our mind create our reality. God’s universe is abundant and limitless. We attract either poverty or abundance, depending on the attitude we hold.
7. Have faith. After we pray, know that our prayer has been heard and that God’s laws have been invoked.
8. Everything in God’s universe is energy, and all energy is God. All we are really doing in working the Laws of Manifestation is changing or transferring energy from one form to another.
9. The Laws of Manifestation operate whether we are consciously aware of them or not. Whatever we give the subconscious, it will use.
10. Every moment of our lives, we are working the laws of manifestation, even when we are not praying, willing, visualizing or affirming. Every thought that we have in our mind as we go through our daily life as well as when we are sleeping is part of this process.
11. It is important to receive as well as to give.
12. Gratitude is of utmost importance. Be humble and thankful for the abundance that God has bestowed upon us, no matter what it is.
13. Failure is not a possibility. How can we fail with God, the soul and our personal power?
14. To have all, give all to all. We must keep our abundance in circulation. When we become selfish and stop giving, then the Universe becomes selfish and stops giving to us.
15. Words have power. Every word we speak is a decree of manifestation.
16. Positive affirmations produce positive results.
17. Love yourself through the entire process.
18. Avoid talking about what you are trying to manifest in your life. This can dissipate the energy.
19. Know that you possess all. Always!
20. Ask only for what you need.
21. Tell your subconscious mind what to do.
22. Be of service and focus your love on humanity.
23. KNOW that miracles happen…trust!
24. Be specific in your visualizations and affirmations.
25. After prayer, comes acceptance. This is essential. After praying, accept your prayer as answered. Don’t just believe that it is answered; rather, KNOW with every cell of your being that it has been answered. SO IT IS!

WE ARE GOD, AND WE ARE ONE WITH GOD. HOW CAN OUR PRAYERS NOT BE MADE MANIFEST?

Everything is energy!

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed!

How many times have we all heard those statements throughout our spiritual journeys? We all manifest energy at the physical and spiritual level every single day. We expend our energy and we gain new energy. We hoard our energy and we give our energy away. When we work on a project we expend energy in useful ways. When we meditate, we also create positive energy in our lives. On the flip side, when we worry or stress over an experience, we let our precious energy drain out of our body, which can lead to negative thoughts, sickness and out-of-balance emotions. Life is a continuous ebb and flow of energy, and the more we learn and understand about the importance of using our energy in beneficial ways, the quicker we can evolve spiritually.

The Law of Cause and Effect states that nothing happens by chance or outside the Universal Laws. This tells us that all our behaviors, thoughts and actions produce either positive or negative results. Every cause creates an effect, and every effect has its origin in a cause. Let’s take this a step further now. When we understand how the Law of Cause and Effect works in our lives, we can begin to incorporate the Law of Manifestation into our lives. Just as we reap what we sow within the Law of Karma, through the Law of Manifestation we work with natural principles and laws in order to translate energy from one level of reality to another. Since all is energy, and energy seeks its own balance and vibration, so does what we send out around us come back into our lives magnified! For this reason, it is imperative that we truly grasp and understand the power that we posses. We have the power to create and manifest all that we desire and deserve. However, in order to truly be able to manifest for ourselves, we must understand the importance of our conscious mind, our subconscious mind and our superconscious mind in this process and how each works. So before we get deeper into the Law of Manifestation, read through the information here about the three levels of the mind so that you’re familiar with the mechanisms that allow them to work with one another, and with us as co-creators.

We ‘have’ and ‘are’ everything already

We have heard for years in our spiritual studies that we ‘are’ and ‘have’ everything already. However, sometimes when we are in the throes of a difficult situation, it can be challenging to believe that we already have all that we need. When we judge our lives strictly through the ‘little i’s’ (our personalities), we lose sight of who and what we are. On the other hand, when we view life through the eyes of the soul, we no longer live in the illusion of separation and negative ego. When we include the superconscious mind in the process of manifestation, what we want to manifest is a part of us already. Manifestation, then, is in a sense just undoing or stripping away that which is already ours but which has been hidden by the delusion of the personality. The soul is not separate from the object that it is trying to manifest, as the personality would have us believe. The object we are trying to manifest is a part of the soul, for soul pervades all things. This is why we ‘have’ and ‘are’ everything already.

A person such as Sai Baba can instantly manifest what he thinks and imagines. The same is true for us, except the process is slowed down a bit. When we create from a soul consciousness, we instantly manifest, except that we cannot see what we’ve create instantly with our physical eyes. Time and space do not really exist (another challenging theory), but know that once we claim our manifestation, it is already ours. We are just waiting for it to come into manifestation on the earthly plane. Again, this can be challenging to truly grasp but it’s imperative to gain an understanding of this process as we progress through the various levels of ascension.

Most people manifest the things in their lives on a conscious mind level through the use of will or personal power. This is creation through physical action. We lead busy lives, sometimes running 18 hours per day, doing the ’stuff’ that our conscious minds tell us we must do. What actually is our conscious mind? How does it play out in our lives compared to the workings of our subconscious mind? Where does our superconscious mind come into play? Do we make use of these three powerful minds that we each possess, or do we simply operate out of one of our minds and dismiss the power of the others?

Take a moment now to read through the posts on the conscious, subconscious and superconscious minds before you start taking a deeper look at the Law of Manifestation.

Recently we have been discussing the various aspects of the mind. First, we looked at the nature of the conscious mind, noting it’s function as the gatekeeper of all energy that can enter into deeper levels of our mind. The conscious mind is our rational reasoning agent and it uses logic to make sense of our experiences. The subconscious mind is another facet of our mind. It is the filing system that stores all the energetic matter that the conscious mind allows to path through its gate. All energies like thoughts, feelings, emotions, opinions, memories and beliefs are filed away in the subconscious mind and these bits of information are pulled out by the conscious mind whenever we need to access them.

Now we turn to the superconscious mind. The superconscious mind is the spiritual mind. It is also known as the Higher Self. This mind is the all-knowing mind that can be contacted through meditation, through some dreams, through journaling, and through intuition.

When we both talk to God and also listen to God, we begin the spiritual practice of asking God for what we both want and desire and then accepting that it has been done once we have made the request. The outcome is then accepted, whatever it may be. Using the superconscious mind requires a great deal of trust and faith. God, through our Higher Self, hears and answers all prayers. How, when and in what form He answers them depends on how we adhere to the Universal Laws of manifestation in our lives. Why do it alone when we can use our superconscious mind and work with God?

It is of vital importance for us to learn to use the powers contained within our three minds in unity with each other, for then we will begin to bring forth all that we truly wish to manifest in this life. Therefore, it is important for us not only to understand how our minds work, but also how to use them effectively. We are powerful beings in control of our manifestations. We must, however, work with all that we are given and all that is available to us.

The Filing System

The subconscious mind can be understood as the non-reasoning mind. Rather than using reasoning power as the conscious mind does, the subconscious mind operates at a more basic, instinctive level and also serves as the memory bank that files every thought, feeling, memory, habit pattern, desire and instinct that we posses. Since it works 24 hours a day, storing all that we think and feel, it is a very powerful source of either ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ usage, depending on what we have filed in it. Sometimes when we think we’re using our intuition, we’re actually accessing information already stored in our subconscious mind that we acquired in a previous experience, but intuition actually comes from other sources, one of which is the superconscious mind.

Beginning at our infancy, we have been programmed by our parents, grandparents, peers, teachers and the media. All of these exchanges of information have been stored in our subconscious minds. Little children are all in a sense victims…meaning that their reasoning minds have not developed enough to be able to discriminate and protect them from negative programming. As small children, we were totally open. As a result, our subconscious minds may be filled with mental poisons, faulty thinking and damaging beliefs. Just as the body can be filled with physical toxins from poor eating, the subconscious mind can be filled with mental toxins from both improper programming and education.

The subconscious mind functions according to the Law of Attraction in that it will draw toward it all that resonates at the same level of vibration. Unfortunately, most people are not aware of what their subconscious mind is actually doing. These people are asleep. Most people…are sleep. By using our subconscious mind as a tool of manifestation in our lives, we are in alignment with the saying “As within, so without” or “As above, so below”. That is, what we think and imagine in our subconscious mind will manifest its mirror likeness in our external circumstances and experiences. We must remember, our outer world is simply a reflection of our inner world, for better or worse, because the subconscious mind does whatever it is programmed to do.

The subconscious mind is an amazing paradox. It has no powers of reason on its own, yet it has an incredible number of abilities and intelligence factors. A great illustration for understanding this is the computer analogy. A computer is an astonishing piece of equipment, capable of performing millions of computations per second, yet it doesn’t care whether it is programmed to solve the problem of world hunger or to create a nuclear war. It has the capability to do either job efficiently, but it doesn’t have the reasoning power not to want to create nuclear war. It is this difference between intelligence and reason that we are primarily concerned with. The subconscious mind does whatever it is programmed to do, no matter what! Therefore, is it possible to SEE why our subconscious mind is SO important??!

To manifest effectively, we must learn to be in control of what is fed into our mind at all times. Many times, the subconscious mind runs us instead of the other way around. Ideally, the subconscious is our servant and will supply us with whatever we need as long as we program it correctly.

Mind and Body

The subconscious mind completely operates the physical body. Hypnosis offers some insight into how this works; for example, some post-hypnotic therapy suggestions are being used to control a person’s physiological craving for nicotine and to help change their internal programming for craving cigarettes. Unfortunately, our subconscious mind is as happy damaging the body with harmful toxins as it is creating good health with the proper foods and nutrients. The subconscious mind has the intelligence to create perfect health or create cancer, but it will create whatever it has been programmed to do, there again depending on what we feed it. Certainly no one consciously programs himself to develop cancer, but many people unconsciously program disease into their bodies through self-hatred, victim consciousness, revenge, giving up, or holding on to pain and feelings of unforgiveness. The key, then, is to constantly program the subconscious mind for perfect, radiant health through good thoughts and intentions.

Mindful Dreams

The subconscious mind also helps to create our dreams every night. There are occasions when the superconscious mind creates dreams; however, most dreams originate in the subconscious. A dream is basically a mirror of the way we think, feel and act during our consicous daily life. A dream is like a newspaper we receive every day, depicting the organization and dynamics of our internal energies. Dreams are in the unviersal language of symbols. To understand our dreams, we must first accept that every part of every dream is, in reality, a part of us. By examining the relationship among the symbols, we can gain insight into ourselves and understand how our thought patterns are manifesting themselves in our lives through our actions. It is very beneficial to have a dream journal to record the many messages and stories being told to us through our subconscious minds.

Mind Over Matter

The subconscious mind can also be termed as our ‘habit’ mind, for it stores all of our habits, both the ones we like as well as the ones were fighting to get rid of! A lot of people think habits are bad, but this is not necessarily true. Generally we want to get rid of our bad habits, however ideally we should be creating good habits insead! It is much more productive to work at creating new positive habits than it is to focus our energies on our negative ones. There again, via Spirituality Class 101, what we focus on, grows and persists! Therefore, let’s focus our light and love and energies on creating new, positive, loving statements of who we are!

Mind as Memory

If you and I did not have a subconscious mind to store our developed abilities, every activity that we chose to perform would always take great amounts of focus and concentration. The subconscious mind’s ability to store personal abilities allows us to grow continually and develop new abilities without worrying about managing old ones. For example, remember the time you learned how to drive a car? For many of us, it was in the high school parking lot with our friends, working SO hard at coordinating our senses. Our reputations were at stake as our friends were watching us with eagle eyes, hoping in a way that we could not do it. However, after many attempts, we became conformable drivers. This is an example of how we can learn a procedure and that knowledge is then stored in our subconscious mind.

When we first learn how to do something, it may take a lot of conscious effort and willpower to master. However, after we learn how to deal with the situation, little conscious thought or effort is required after that point. If we didn’t have a subconscious mind to store our developed abilities, every activity would always take great focus and concentration. The subconscious mind’s ability to store habits allows us to grow continually and develop new abilities without worrying about old ones. We can learn something in a day, but there is a basic psychological or metaphysical law that states that it takes 21 days to cement a new habit into the subconscious mind.

Laws and Abilities of the Mind

The subconscious mind is where the Law of Magnetism and the Law of Attraction operate as well. The subconscious mind continually attracts and repels things according to what has been programmed into it. A Master is someone who uses these laws to his own conscious benefit. Let’s take the example of money and prosperity. If we have the subconscious belief that we will never have money, we won’t!! If, on the other hand, we think that we will, the subconscious mind will attract those opportunities and possibilities to us. Whatever we want in life, we have to affirm or visualize this into the subconscious mind, and the subconscious mind will attract it to us!! It must be strssed here that the power of affirmations – when we focus our energies and thoughts and repeatedly declare what and who we are – we are making incredible advances in our evolutionary process.

The subconscious mind is also the seat of our psychic abilities. The subconscious has five inner senses that are the subtler counterparts of our five external senses: inner sight (clairvoyance), inner hearing (clairaudience), inner smell, inner taste and inner touch. Have you ever noticed what when you dream your senses are available to you? How can this be if you are sleeping? This is because you are utilizing your five inner senses of the subconscious mind. All people have psychic abilities and can develop them further. It is just a matter of practice and proper training, as with any external ability.

Remember…

The subconscious mind was never meant to direct our life. It will run us into oblivion if we let it, not because it is bad, but because it has no reasoning powers. For example, our car has a number of computer systems that help to run it more efficiently. However, just because these computer chips can perform these many functions, that doesn’t mean they are capable of diving our cars. In and of itself, the subconscious mind is divine; however why would anyone let a non-reasoing mind run his or her life? Strangely enough though, this is what most people do.