AUTHENTICITY FREEDOM 12

P, 102-108

Major theme here is the distinction between wisdom and information. It is such a powerful theme and one which we keep coming back to because the personality and the intellect keep falling back into the syndrome of “inquiring minds want to know,” that it might overshadow another teaching contained in our work today, and that is having a body, a physical manifestation, and all that entails.

So I’m going to explore that one first even though it is a little out of synch.

“Your authenticity also includes the true being you are that is expressed by you on this plane, your innate abilities, your true concerns. The ability to love and caress and to hold another in a body is a deep gift, and one you must be grateful for. To look upon the stars and to bathe in the sea, to feel the air upon you as the wind blows is a wonderful gift, and the sensual self, the skin and bone self, the one who feels and sees, can agree to the pleasures that may be claimed while in a body on this manifestation or plane of being.”

I find that passage absolutely beautiful. There have been so many forms of spiritual teaching that have either denied, ignored or even demonized the body and the physical world. Here what we are being asked to do is to realize the sanctity, the sacredness of all creation. I guess in some ways this directive leads us to revel in our sensuality, but not become lost in it. It is who you are but it is not all that you are.

I am reminded of a marvelous quote from the Jesuit Mystic Teihard de Chardin when he said “It is our right and our duty to throw ourselves into the things of the Earth.”

“The teaching you receive today is going to serve you in two ways, we suspect. It’s going to claim you as the one who may know the potential that may now be claimed, and in acceptance of the aspects of the self that have come in form and are often ignored by you. To be a priest does not mean to be celibate. To be a nun does not mean you marry the invisible only. The realization of the Divine in material form in fact renders the world as your lover in a higher way. But you may still know yourself in form, and express the form, and know it in its humanity, the Divine as you in form. The form itself is holy, and humanity, we would suggest, must then be holy as well.”

I could probably meditate on that last passage forever. 

And now onward and upward exploring information or intellectual knowledge and it's spiritual counterpart Inner Knowing and Wisdom.

“As we teach you today about authenticity, which is the title of this chapter, we teach you what authenticity truly means: To be as you are in truth, without the requirements that you have inherited for one purpose—to sing the song of truth, which claims you in freedom. If you understand this, the passage we have taken you on sequentially in our texts has been to liberation and embodiment because you cannot have one without the other.”

How fascinating that the guides would equate liberation with embodiment. Also going beyond the normally accepted norms of spirituality to suggest that the world and the lessons created by Spirit and manifested in the material world, including our own physical bodies, are all part of the journey.

I recall even Saint Francis referred to his body as “poor brother ass.”

It is important to note here as well that even though wisdom is being called a higher knowing, we are not denying the power of the intellect or even the necessity for information gathering or intellectual knowing.

It has been my personal experience as one who approached life quite often as a scientist, in very rational terms, that when I entered into the realm of the spiritual, the metaphysical, that it was very helpful for me to have some sort of intellectual framework to begin with. In recent years I have found myself becoming more and more comfortable with mystery; more and more comfortable with the stuff that the thinking mind cannot grasp and yet which somehow I still know.

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.” Einstein

So, for example, when an artist creates she/he might have an idea, a concept or a set of actions in mind as to where or how to begin and then in this Act of Creation, which is beyond thought, he or she Embraces that Realm of the energy of creation and allows it to flow to and through him or her. Depending upon the discipline that most involves their consciousness decides in a way what will be produced--  a poem, a song, a painting, sculpture, a concerto, a photograph or an action as simple as looking at a leaf, smelling a flower, holding a child. We all have to most gorgeous of images already in our minds. We all have symphonies playing which we hardly ever listen to. The openness, the spaciousness, the Wonder is beyond description although no less true then that which can be explained in words.

We had sort of a “mini movie night” reflecting on the movie Cocoon where these extraterrestrial beings recognize themselves as beings of light and that the bodies were simply sort of some external clothing that they could unzip and shine like they really are. I was also reminded of another science fiction oldie called Starman with Jeff Bridges who plays an alien who comes to Earth who is also a being of light but in order to be able to interact with Earthlings has to manifest a physical body and the awkwardness he has to go through in trying on these “new clothes.” There is one beautiful scene where he tastes ice cream and Dutch apple pie for the first time and the look of drooling ecstasy on his face is priceless.

A movie called the Age of Adeline was also mentioned about a woman who, through a freak accident, stops aging. So always feel free to dig through that old collection of DVD’s. Who knows what Spiritual Treasures you might find. 

“Each of you here, each of you encountering these words, is in some ways requesting access to information. You assume that information will be the key to wisdom. Information is not the key to wisdom. Knowing is.(not intellectual knowing or factual/provable information) And the claim we have offered you many times—“I am in my knowing”—will support you in this request being answered, but it rarely comes through information.”

Claiming “I know who I am etc.” is not a wish or desire to manifest the truth, it is claiming your alignment to the truth that already exists. We cannot emphasize this often enough. Within your ability to choose you are aligning yourself to the truth of Who You Are, no matter what you might be feeling, no matter what might be going on in the outside world, no matter what your history might be telling you. We do not deny the importance of any of those, and yet we remind you again that is not who you are.

“Anything can be experienced. If you want to go ride on the back of a whale, you may find a way to do so. Anything may be known. You may find a way to claim this knowing. But what is experienced and known, we would suggest, that is in requirement for growth, for your growth and for your availability to be expressed in a high way, are those things that will be met in agreement in your field, and then in manifestation.”

That sounded very cryptic to me at first, but what it seems to be saying to me is something we have heard many times in different ways: that the soul has created an agenda for you, a series of lessons that you have chosen to learn in your stay in Planet Earth. The more or the closely we are aligned to the truth of Who We Are, the easier it is for those lessons to manifest in the physical world and the easier it will be to recognize and work with them as they come along. The higher vibration that we embrace, the more smoothly it becomes to work with whatever shows up in life because none of that is by chance. It is all in what we call “Divine Order” because the soul has already chosen the lessons we need to learn.

“Please do not mistake wisdom for information. Wisdom comes through experience and alignment, and, really, in no other way. Now, you may meet a wise man who has never gone to school. You may meet a fool with many degrees upon her wall. It really matters not what level of education you have had. It matters greatly your availability to learn, and your availability to learn, we would suggest, will come from your willingness to not know, to be available to ignorance so that you may learn.”

I am reminded when I first got sober when my first sponsor in AA said to me, “Gerry, I want you to take all those degrees off your wall and put them in a closet somewhere. I will let you know when you can put them back up.”

I did not realize the depth of what he was saying but I did it anyway. The Wisdom he gave me reminds me that he could have written that last paragraph. He could have written it just for me.

Peace

FREDOM 11

AUTHENTICITY---FREEDOM 11 

p. 94-103

GREAT TO BE BACK

I found that there were a lot of words tonight and for me, at least in these days, sometimes words will get in the way of my understanding. My old method of understanding would be reflected in the attempt to understand exactly what each word meant and to have some sort of intellectual concept to grab ahold of that would say to me and the world, “I've got it!” I would then be satisfied and would move onto the next concept. (“Well, that’s done; what’s next?”)

What I am realizing more and more is that this teaching and really all spiritual teachings are not about “getting it” so much but are about experiencing it, and the experience sometimes still leaves us with a sense of Mystery or a sense that we are in an experience whose description or definition is beyond words.

So the questions come to my mind quite often, “How comfortable am I living in mystery? How willing am I to go beyond the confines of my intellect into a space of mystery and wonder that sometimes does not always feel safe.?

“Behold, I make all things new,” claims the Christ in the Book of Revelations. Openness to a shift in consciousness comes about when we very simply ask the question, “How can I hold this differently? How can I relate to the circumstances of this life experience in another way? How can I hold this person, this situation In a way that is healing, in a way that is graceful, in a way that does no harm ? 

“The True Self will render anything new. So you accept that it’s a television, but the True Self receives it in a new way, in a new agreement, to be in relationship to it. So much of what you see was claimed for you that you are in agreement to what you see without even understanding why it was made. There is nothing that was created in form that was not created without intention, and the intention that has made anything into form is present in it now. Every chair bears the memory of the first rock that was ever sat upon for comfort. Every tree bears the memory of the seed that grew it and planted the field of trees thousands of years ago. Every human being still holds the DNA or the memory and idealization of its first ancestor.”

In other words, we are all living with the meaning we have given certain forms or the material objects in our lives, and most of the time without thinking. We never question the meaning we have been given. Now we realize this is quite difficult to do which material objects--a tree certainly seems to be a tree what else could it be?

But instead of trying to make this whole thing more difficult or confusing it might be helpful to move into realms beyond the physical. For instance, each one of us has given a meaning to many objects in our lives and that meaning goes beyond their physical form. We might call some of these mementos or keepsakes. So the program I have a play that my daughter acted in 30 or 40 years ago has quite a different meaning for me than might have for someone else who simply comes across this as a scrap of paper. It is a scrap of paper but I have put my own meaning  upon it.

Now I know there have been times in my life when I have been cleaning out my stuff and I will probably continue to do this, and I come across a physical object, it could be a book that has been signed by somebody, or a prayer card from the funeral of a friend, or a ticket stub or yearbook, or something else of the same sort . I realize that in years past I would have had a difficult time letting go of this thing because of the meaning I gave it, but then I realized today that somehow or another I have absorbed or integrated the energy around this object. The memory of my daughter in the play is still there, the experience of love and a pride is still there, in fact, it always was. I realize I do not need a material object to remind me of that experience, the experience is alive within me, and so this old program, as we are using as an example, is no longer necessary for me to hold onto. I no longer need a material object to remind me of the experience. Please recognize this is a simple example but can be applied to many other circumstances.

Time and again we are encouraged to open ourselves to the possibility. We have spoken of this in other books similar to this one, but we will remind you again as you are working with these levels of consciousness what we sometimes referred to as your small self or enlightened self or Divine self that there is growth and balance occurring on all levels of your being.

Although the personality self cannot become the Divine self, it can open itself to be sanctified, to be made holy. It does that by opening itself up to the possibility of growth and evolution and transformation and by opening this door, the realization or the revelation of the Divine truth comes through. So we can push the personality self to this highest vibration of openness, to possibility, and then with little or no resistance the energy of the Divine self, the higher self, moves us to a deeper level of understanding 

“When you begin to bypass rules and claims made for you, you often encounter resistance. “Who are you to say such a thing? Such a thing cannot be so.” And it may not be so in this dimensional reality, but it is certainly true in potential. Underline this. In potential all things are possible. In potential all things may be claimed. But unless you attend to anything in its potential, it cannot be realized or known.

“Humanity cannot become the Christ” is a claim of the small self, perhaps the claim of a church, or a heretical claim made by some who would deny the authorities that came before them. The Divine as what you are is not in the least bit a heretical teaching. “All is holy” is the fundamental reasoning to support that claim. “All is holy,” including the bodies you’ve taken. But as the body begins to realign to a higher degree of manifestation, which means resonance in octave, it must announce the new at the cost of the old.”

>>>>“to realize itself as the who and the what that you have always been at this level of agreement. And its assumption of the soul as a being of light, or as an expression of God, is its action, lifetime after lifetime, and then beyond that as well.”

Love or God or whatever you want to call the continuing force of creation is never static. It is a continuing or evolving thing. The personality self yearns for this trip to be over. “When can I be done with this work so I can sit in a hammock and sip lemonade?”

The Divine self Revels in the growth and expansion of it all.

I could really identify with that sense of not wanting to be here, wanting to be finished, wanting it to be over. “Can I get done with this please.” It was interesting to become aware that this particular mindset of pushing to the finish line or wanting something to be over was not as loud or insistent as it used to be in my life. It's certainly still there sometimes but I have also begun to recognize that it is not my true voice speaking. It is the voice of fear or anger or not enough notice or limitation or separation and I know on the deepest level of my being that is not who I am.

The stuff of my life for the meaning I have given things does not necessarily disappear but it begins to become rather irrelevant 

(As I was reviewing this I also recalled that marvelous song from Jesus Cjrist Superstar--in which Mary Magdalene plaintively sings “Could we start again, Please. And I was reminded spiritually we can always start over).

“In the higher octave, as you align to it, you still have a body and a reality to attend to, and if you are given a nasty look, we promise you, you won’t care. You know better. You know who you are. Becoming the Divine Self does not mean everybody gets to behave as you want them to, nor does it mean that you will not be learning as you progress. We promise you, you will be.”

It is still quite easy even in the midst of my spiritual thinking to become somehow lost in my own sense of individuality. where is the journey entails me dealing with not only the lessons I have chosen to learn in my own unique way but also that I am a part of many many communities groups who are also learning collectively. I could look at that in terms of family my country my planet and even further than that. there is all of this going on on many many many levels .

Another concept that is flowing through all of these books which is similar to the sense of opening ourselves up to the possibility is becoming aware of our willingness and Our intention which I guess might be a way of describing our opening up she's a possibility. my willingness in my intention a kind of a bridge between my personality self and divine self everything about me can participate in my willingness in my intention and like all other aspects of creation it will continue to evolve 

“When you decide that being free means you can claim things that you were not allowed to claim in vibration, that you will not be claimed by that which is not in truth, you move to a new identification as the one who knows who he is. The idealization that we offer you here—“I know who I am in freedom”—is the potential that may be claimed by any and all of you, but in potential first. It’s not so in your experiential reality yet, but it is true in your experience as a True Self. We will explain this for you. Because at the true level of the Divine Self you are free, it is always true, and aligning to its announcement claims the being you are in its intention—to be free. And as it realigns you and informs your world, your world is transformed to reflect the truth that you have announced. Then there are no prisons except the ones you build for yourselves. The only dark rooms there are, are the ones you go to rest in. There is no fear, but there is wisdom in its place. It may not be a wise thing to go for a dip in the pool with the alligators rushing around. There is no fear of alligators. It is just not so wise to have a ”“swim with them. Do you understand the difference?”

Scott Peck in The Road Less Traveled suggested “Then once we accept pain is  pain it's no longer pain anymore; it's simply part of the process.” That is also true in our spiritual teaching. What the book is calling “heavy lifting” is a label that the personality self might use to describe the difficulty in moving to a higher vibration, whereas the truth is, you don't have to get to a higher vibration or create a higher vibration, you simply need to allow yourself to be embraced by it.

That is an image I keep coming back to me-- instead of embracing my Divine Self ,I allow myself to be embraced by my Divine self,  and sometimes all that takes is a breath of fresh air.

Peace