FREEDOM 21

P. 168-175

Let me emphasize a concept that I sometimes forget. The work that we are doing together, and one of the reasons why it is so important that we are doing this together, is that our learning, our knowing, comes from experience. Not simply a thought or an idea, not even a radically different idea that we might have been influenced by in the past, but an experience and inner knowing an inner awareness or what the book might call a resonance with the Truth. Specifically, the truth of Who You Are.

I realized that since we speak in the language of thoughts and ideas, and that information that primarily comes to us through our five senses, that we sometimes begin to think if this is where the truth lies, this is where the learning is. We do not deny the learning that takes place through the intellect and the five senses, but far beyond or deeper than that. This is where we might say the real learning takes place, beyond that which the intellect can grasp or explain. 

“How do you know what you know? How do you know that you know? At this moment, are you in your knowing?” Questions such as these sort of jar us into another reality or another dimension. Even though there might not be an answer in words, we do know the truth as we are experiencing it. There is no denying it even though it cannot be comprehended.

Many of us experience, at the end of our gathering, when we take a moment to quiet the mind, and open ourselves, we recognize we are experiencing what I tend to call a “spaciousness.” Interesting that vibration of spaciousness has always been there, but it seems as if the contribution of our willingness and intention together is somehow the key that unlocks our awareness into that deeper reality.

“As we teach you to triumph over fear, to lift beyond the agreements fear has made, we are also going to invite you to say yes to what can be without, and your agreement to be without will become the basis for the next chapter of your life. “If I am no longer frightened of this, what am I? If I was no longer frightened to be this, who will I be? If I can, will I? If this can be claimed, may I? May I know? May I be? May I be in this encounter with the Divine that I know in my heart is present in all manifestation?”

Many of our fears are remnants of past learning. One of the things we are being asked to do here, certainly outside of the realm of judgment, but certainly to become aware of those fears that we have outgrown or that might appear to be seemingly meaningless to our present selves.

Now it seems to me that the essence or at least an essential aspect of this work is not to get into a struggle with our old fears, our old ideas or our old beliefs, even though we might recognize they no longer serve us. We are not throwing them out like yesterday's garbage. First of all, for whatever the reason, these fears probably served us well for awhile in our lives, but now they have become like old clothes that we have grown out of. Notice what happens if you try on a coat or a jacket it no longer fits or, let us say, the color no longer suits us, or we have outgrown that particular style. We do not become angry at the piece of clothing, we recognize that it has been useful to us for some time and now, to play on words a little bit, it has “outgrown” its usefulness. This awareness opens us up to that essential piece of work I spoke of a moment ago, and that is the continual teaching here is to raise our vibration. Not simply to do something because we think we should do it, but that from a point or “purview” as the book says, of a higher vibration, we can look at our fears, old patterns of thought and behavior, in a way that might not have been available to us before.

A Course in Miracles expresses the same message, if we can call it that, by reminding us of such things as “I could see peace instead of this.” “How could I see this differently?” “I must be mistaken for I'm not at peace.”

One of the teachings that our books make quite clear is that the way we answer those questions is through our experience and our action by moving to a place or an aspect of higher vibration. When we are there, we can view all of what is going on in a very different way. It does not condemn the old ways, but once I become aware that there is a better or less painful way of dealing with particular aspects of life, then in my awareness, I will begin to choose those ways.

How do you raise your vibration you ask? Each one of us has developed ways of doing that--listening to a piece of music, recalling a piece of poetry, playing with a child, watching your favorite TV show or movie, snuggling in a warm blanket, being in nature, picking up a favorite book that has been like an old friend. These are not just memories we speak of, these are not just thoughts and ideas, these are experiences that already live inside you-- experiences of joy, of peacefulness, of unity, of harmony, of love, of gratitude, of graciousness. When we push the button or tap into these internal resources, we do not have to force anything to happen, but, almost like magic, we are propelled to a higher vibration or a higher level of awareness. From this higher state of mind, our perception of ourselves, our interaction with others and our ability to see old fears or patterns of behavior, we can be aware in ways that we could not previously.

We realize that there are times when you might find yourself in higher or lower vibration without even being consciously aware of how you got there. What I find fascinating, to myself, is that if I discover I am in a lower vibration of anger, fear, resentment, being right, getting even, that I can usually be aware of a pattern of thought and behavior that might have gotten me there and I have the opportunity to change that. However, when I am in a state of high vibration or higher vibration and have no reason or no conscious reason for being there. I might find myself questioning that state of mind. “What did I do to get here?” or in that weird mode of self-protection that weird destructive mode of self-protection, to wonder “when is the bottom going to fall out.” “When is this joy or this high vibration of life going to come crashing down around my ears?” I better be ready for that. I know that sounds like the height of ridiculousness and yet here I am.

To apply today's learning, I am being asked not to beat myself up, to be grateful for my awareness, and instead of trying to erase, change or run away from these lower vibration thoughts and feelings, to focus on raising my vibration so I can both receive and work with these things if necessary, in a way that I could not if I was still in the swamp. 

“Each of you comes with the ability to transform your world through your encounter with it. Understand these words. You have the ability to transform your world through your encounter with it. Everything you see and encounter is there to be seen, and perhaps re-seen in encounter is there to be seen, and perhaps re-seen in the higher octave that the True Self abides in.

What does it mean to re-see? To re-conceive or re-perceive what you thought was to what is and can only be in the higher octave that you have aligned to. When you see something and you bring your ideas to it, you make it good or evil. You decide its merit, or worth, or lack thereof. You decide what things mean through your prescriptions and identifications. When you see something anew, you are being invited to release the history that you have endowed the ideas with. “This is good or evil, right or wrong.” These are things that are known by you. Some may be true, perhaps, but many of them are prescribed for you.”

As a wise teacher of mine once reminded me, “You are the meaning maker of your life; you are the one who decides.” Or you can choose to let others decide for you. “Don't worry, your leader might say, “I will explain it all to you; I will tell you what it means.” Strangely enough, that is a consolation to the small self that is now relieved of the responsibility. 

Erich Fromm in his book Escape from Freedom  suggests such horrific things like the Holocaust can be allowed to happen because people are willing to give up their freedom so they will not be held responsible.

“When you look at an example of war or conflict, you are immediately siding with one group or the next, depending on where you stand. And who is good or evil or what the outcome should be is still being prescribed by you in relation to the ideas you hold. What if you could look at a war as an event in neutrality? What would become of the reason you see? How would you invest in the picture you see if the outcome wasn’t required to be any certain thing? Now we are not lauding war. We are neutralizing it only for the purpose of this exercise. To see something and release your investment in outcome or ideology to simply see it as it is gives you “the opportunity to re-perceive it. And by re-perception or re-seeing, we are actually telling you that you may reclaim it and your relationship to it in a way that will not only transform it, but its repercussions upon the world before you.”

The reference in the paragraph above concerns itself with war, but I am going to suggest that we use the same or a similar motive reflection on ourselves. “Who or what would I be like without this thought, without this presumption, without this loyalty to a particular political party?” Who would I be without this fear? Who would I be without this relationship? Who would I be if I perceived myself differently?”

 

Peace