WHAT’S GOING ON?          #79 March 2001

ALONG THE WAY: We see that everything is in a process of change This is to awaken.

THIS MONTH’S THOUGHT. When one becomes free of all misconceptions without remainders, one is an individualized expression of universal Intelligence, an expression of Universal Law, something this world needs very much.

WHERE TO FIND TRUTH: (Excerpts from School Talk #55 by Dr. Bob Gibson, Continued from last month)

Here is another one here that gets us off of a lot of hooks, that keeps us in a lot of turmoil and anxiety and frustration with all the people we know and are around. People know what is right, proper and/or justifiable and they go on and do wrong anyway. Now this is a solid misconception. Much of our society’s structure is built on this misconception. That’s why we have penal codes and punishments because these people knew what was right and went and did wrong anyway. That gives me perfect justification to be angry, to be upset with people, to tell them off, and to feel very sorry for myself. So that keeps everybody feeling miserable.

Now here’s something that you can check out very quickly. Try to do something that you feel very definitely in yourself is wrong, improper and totally unjustifiable and see if you can do it. You cannot do it. We have been hypnotized into believing that we knew better and did it anyway. Check it out. You cannot know better and go on and do it anyway. You simply can’t. This misconception has been handed down so long it’s nearly in our genes: That people know what’s right, but they go on and do wrong anyway. So let’s get that misconception straightened around so we are aware it is a misconception. See that misconception for what it is and you have seen a pretty good-sized piece of Truth.

So let’s be honest to say that I’m loaded down with a certain number of misconceptions or I would be a living example, a living expression of Truth on earth, which I think would probably be a worthwhile activity to be involved in. It might even be an excellent purpose. But we can’t do it as long as we have misconceptions unrecognized and unevaluated. We simply can’t do it no matter how great our intention is. We simply can’t do it, because when something comes booming in here, these things (not-I’s, misconceptions) jump up.

Now another good one that we devised out of the many ways of seeing misconceptions is: I have rights and by golly I’m going to stick up for them. So when we have rights we are busy defending those rights and stick up for them. And we really have none. We do have a considerable number of privileges, basically which we have all mistaken for rights and stick up for. Now the best way to lose a privilege is to mistake it for a right and start sticking up for it. Now if I know that all I have are privileges, I take good care of them. A privilege is a gift. I’m going to take care of my privileges. Sticking up for so-called rights looks pretty gruesome. If you have the idea that you have rights, you’re going to be in fights. Now they may not be fist-fights or gun battles. Now all it takes to have privileges is simple good manners.

Now just take these three. We’ve only put three misconceptions up here. I could state these three probably in three hundred ways fairly easy. I think any of us could do that. We could state these three basic misconceptions in three hundred ways or more because we could express them in so many different ways. But if you took these three out you could drift though this world pretty nicely without having any bumps. I think they cover about three hundred ways of saying misconceptions.   I like the good, simple way. We only have three to look at. Now you can handle three, can’t you?

If you got these misconceptions out, this whole Picture of Man begins to look different, the basic decision that the whole purpose of living is to be non-disturbed. We consider that a right. And if we don’t have it we consider we’re victims. It’s important to have my way right now and if I don’t get it I’m going to complain. You kept me from it. They kept me from it. So I have somebody to blame for it. They knew what was right and went ahead and did wrong, anyway. And if I’m a victim, I have to go around being a pleaser. Now I please people because I’ll feel guilty if I don’t, or I have to, or somebody will lay it on me. And maybe if I improve myself they wouldn’t pick on me so much.

So I think here is three ways of saying it that covers practically every misconception that has been talked or written about. Don’t look for truth, look for misconceptions and when you see a misconception for what it is, you have then seen the Truth.   So you find it by kicking the misconception off. You have true perception and true feelings. Then you have true feelings about the situation. You would have chemical balance, neuromuscular tone, and then there would be creative action instead of adaptation. Now that is called the living cycle. If you lived on it you ‘d find that you change your entire outlook and you might change about 40 more years on your life expectancy, if not a lot more. If you could really see these three for what they are. You would be a liberated individual. Now would that be worth doing or is that too hard? Is that so difficult to see that you’re not a victim? It’s easy to say it but the next time somebody pokes you, you’re liable to act like you are one. Now you had better do some looking because you don’t get this done when you’re under attack. You get it done when you have some peace and quiet. I used to get most of these things done while driving an automobile down the road. You can do a lot of worthwhile work while driving a car. So I can think about this. I can really look at it. I can really view it. And it’s easy to see I AM NOT A VICTIM. I’m in charge of what I do or don’t do. Now if it don’t work out just like I want it, I’m not going to blame it on somebody, not even myself. I’ll say, “Well, it looked like the thing to do at that moment. “ So what.

It’s pretty easy to discover that people are all doing what they feel is right, proper or justifiable. I’ve got it pretty well figured that I can’t find any fault with anybody for what they do because they’re doing what they feel is right, proper and justifiable with what Light they have. And that’s what I’m doing.

Now where do we have any idea we’re a victim? It was handed down to us and we never checked it out. How do we have the idea that people know what is right and go on and do wrong anyway? It’s possible that misinformation has been handed down for ages. I think the misconceptions are not anybody’s fault. Nobody or nothing is to blame for them. They’re just due to lack of information and misinformation for generations untold and it’s never been challenged, except by a very few people in the teaching material. They are the only ones that have challenged it. So nobody ever thinks to check up to see where they are locked up.

And that’s what the old gent told me. “Don’t go out looking for truth, Robert you’ll never find it. You go looking for misconceptions. When you see a misconception for what it is, you then see the truth. And I can verify that he was correct.

Here is a very simple way to find Truth. Can you recognize each of these as a solid misconception? 1. That I am a victim, 2. That people know what is right and go on and do wrong, anyway, 3. That I have rights that I must stick up for. When you’ve got them up and really looked at them, then you don’t have them any more. Then there is nothing between your experiencing and sensing coming in from the outside and that Essence within. It can be called Spirit. It can be called Life. It can be called anything you want to. It begins to express because you have dug the dirt off the top of it so there isn’t anything else responding and coloring everything that comes in. When these misconceptions are out of the way you will find there is straight reporting to X, Life, Spirit.

Now it requires some consideration that you truly first see that you have the misconceptions. Every one of us has these things, unless we have worked diligently to get them out, we have them.   No disgrace. You were born with them. They come in with the first nutrition you got and they were reinforced every day of you life. Everyday you’ve acted them out. Everyday you’ve acted a victim. Everyday you’re acted that people knew what was right and did wrong anyway. Everyday you’ve acted out that you had rights.

Now let’s see is we can see them plain enough that we find it impossible to act them out. And then you will find there has been one fundamental transformation in yourself and that you’re now a living being. Awareness and X are in union. And I don’t know of any better purpose of living than that.

A STORY: Neal and I were married in 1958. I was 25 years old and had never smoked. However, Neal liked for me to smoke with him. It seemed rather romantic and cozy to have a cup of coffee and a cigarette. For the next 40 years I didn’t smoke much, although I enjoyed cigarettes while driving on a trip or while sitting on the deck watching the sunset or talking on the phone or when I was bored, etc.

I had several episodes of bronchitis, but I denied that smoking had anything to do with it. I usually blamed the coughing on food or something in the environment.

About a year ago I decided that it was time to quit smoking. I wrote long lists of why it would be to my advantage to quit. It’s smelly, expensive, offensive, dirty, the smoke is absorbed in the drapes and clothes, etc. I also saw that part of smoking was wrapped around rebellion against authority.   Who says that smoking is harmful to me!? I’ll smoke if I want to!!!! And the most subtle justification: Dr. Bob smoked, so why can’t I.   I studied these lists daily. As sincerely as I could I ask Spirit to relieve me of this bondage. The first thought in the morning was: Today I will not smoke. I would climb out of bed, make a cup of coffee, go outside for the paper, and light a cigarette. I finally realized the tremendous addiction that had taken over. Cigarettes were in charge, not I!

Since October 1, I have not had, nor have I wanted a cigarette. The obsession is gone. What happened? I don’t know. All I know is that the gratitude I feel is overwhelming.   I also know that I am a wimp because I would have reached for that cigarette if there had been any residual desire to smoke.

The Teaching says that I (awareness) decides the “what” and Spirit does the “how”. That is all there is to it!

There are no words to express my gratitude.

The following is taken from WHAT’S GOING ON HERE? A WORK BOOK, VOL. I by Robert R. Gibson.

Most calls for the past several days have been about “Not-I” talk, that internal talking that goes on all the time. We tell people who call that all Not-I’s are liars. However, most Not-I’s are very cunning and seem to manage to convince the subject that the subject is having intuitive knowledge.

Intuitive knowledge is about the nature of mankind, life, relationships of body, awareness and X.

Not-I’s tell the subject that so-and-so is going to happen in the future; that a certain person is planning to do something to the subject’s disliking or disadvantage. Not-I’s claim to be knowers of the future and the thoughts of other persons. In others words, they claim to be fortune-tellers. If one allows self to be influenced by Not-I’s, one’s inner feeling is in serious turmoil. However, it is also fairly SIMPLE, if not EASY, to send the Not-I’s packing.

One starts by seeing that Not-I’s are concerned with setting an ideal of being totally non-disturbed or non-challenged. They suggest the justification of complaining, sticking up for rights, feeling put upon by others, quoting authorities to prove self and/oar others wrong, demanding, self-improving, and blaming

To send all Not-I’s on their way from you, start by looking for challenges. Here are some examples:

I want the challenge of being the one to set a pleasant mood, wherever I am.

I want the challenge to make some contribution in every contact I have.

I want the challenge of experiencing some discomfort in order to build tolerance and endurance.

I am thankful I have the challenge of determining my own inner state.

The practice of looking for and welcoming challenge proves to be a situation that the Not-I’s do not have the capability to exploit. We said the method was simple, we did not say it was easy – but that is a challenge, also! So—-

Eve to Adam: “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”