Reprinted from WHAT’S GOING ON? July 2003

ALONG THE WAY:

We can all handle ‘what is’.

THIS MONTH’S THOUGHT:  

Complaining is non-acceptance of ‘what is’.

LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS:

(Excepts from a talk by Dr. Bob Gibson 1980 continued from last month)

So, we’re trying to point out that another lever of consciousness, a higher state of consciousness is available. It is highly useful.  It can be used at any time you really decide you’re going to do it.  There are a few requirements.  One is to understand the picture of man and all the conditioning factors that go to make up these states of being.   Here is a purpose that the person has that started in infancy that the whole purpose of living is to regain the non-disturbed state, like it was before you were born.  What you want to gain in the non-disturbed state is to gain pleasure and comfort 100% at all times with no effort.  Now, you can have a lot of pleasure and comfort as a by-product.  But you do have to put out a little bit effort for it it seems like.  The lower consciousness  person, unknowingly, feels entitled to be in a total non-disturbed state, have lots of pleasure and comfort, no pain at all times, with no effort, simply because I’m entitled to it.  I’m also entitled to have attention and approval and never be ignored or rejected, no matter what I do. I’m entitled to it.  I should feel very important and never have any sense of inferiority.  All of this because one is entitled to it.  That’s a basic purpose there.  Of course, there is complaining when you don’t get it.  How many of you have complained some time today?  The next one is you stick up for your rights.  Now when you stick up for your rights is when you get up into this area of feeling angry or resentful.  Then blaming goes on.  When anything goes wrong, somebody has to be to blame for it.  Then we have to be pleasing people.  We don’t want to, but it is necessary to keep peace. And I’m obligated to do so or mama will get upset with me, or the kids will get upset with me or my mate will get upset with me. So I have to please them.  But I really don’t want to.  Then we have to believe and do as told by our authorities.  Then we ought to improve ourselves.

When one is aware of this and that these are simply bits of conditioning, one doesn’t put any value on the rattling that runs through the head.  When you see that and you know them for what they are—that they are simply old childhood bits of conditioning—and they are not worthy of paying attention to, one has gained something we refer to as SELF-KNOWING.   We know that self and that self is one of low consciousness and is the one that functions about 99% of the time in 99% of the people.  It’s pretty consistent and makes up what we know as ‘the world’ .It is society.  It is the people we run into.

We become acquainted with all this and, to me, that is a limited time of study.  Probably six months is an adequate course in self-knowing.  In about six months you can catch on to all their tricks because they are very boring.  They do the same things.  They say the same things, year in and year out.  Surely we could catch on to them. Now, they do have a subtle way of saying it sometimes.  Now, everything they say is derogatory about you or another or circumstances and it’s always a lie.  They’re always derogatory, that’s easy enough to keep up with, either about me or another or circumstances. Now the way they sometimes get a little subtle, they’ll say, “You’d better not tell _____or she won’t understand and get mad at you.  Which says there is something derogatory about ______ doesn’t it?  Which says she has shallow understanding and she’s very intolerant.  So I’ll have to tell her a fib so she won’t be upset.  Now, that’s a Not-I. That’s the way these little cats work.  They want to lay this out so they’re saying something derogatory.  Now that may not sound horribly derogatory the way it comes out.  But it is.  That’s when they get a little subtle.  They take night classes every night of the week and they learn to be derogatory in a nice way.  Self-knowing is to know the whole content of this level of consciousness.  Now when one would do that one could begin to ignore these and you could take up one more subject—self-remembering.  That’s the only two subjects required in this type of study:  SELF-KNOWING AND SELF-REMEMBERING.  In self-remembering there are four questions.  What am I?  I am very interested in what I am.  I am also interested in where I am.  Third, I’m very interested in what’s going on here.  Fourth, I want to know what I can do.  I can see, without any stretch, that what I am is a privileged invited guest. Where?  This beautiful estate called earth.  What’s going on here?  Obviously one big party.  And obviously the only thing I can do is do what to me  is a good guest.  When one gets to that state one recognizes one has everything, one can do anything and one is then, at least, in vital interest.  One has moved into a total new level of consciousness.  The more you play around with that, all these other levels begin to manifest themselves and makes things very delightful.  A person is this level of consciousness is healthy because you’re not tearing yourself up all the time.  Obviously you know how to make a living up here because you’re vitally interested, you’re exhilarated, and people just love to be around you.  Obviously you can have love and romance, because who could put up with you when you’re in the lower states of consciousness?

Now, it is not difficult.  It has two simple subjects:  Self-knowing, which we can give you a road map for; and self-remembering, which we can furnish a road map, but I can’t take the trip for you.  If you have a map you can get there.  Unless a person does self-knowing and does self-remembering, they will never get anywhere.  We have to work a having proficiency in any endeavor.  There is a little effort and work.  But both of them are very short and simple if one applies oneself.  We didn’t say they were very easy to practice.  Here is where I can lay it out and say, “Here is the possibility of you and an absolute certainty, if you work at it, living in an entirely different state of consciousness. We all have the talent for it.”

A STORY: 

A friend of mine made a daily list of things she made important.  She found the most obvious Not-I was:  What will people think?  We all know she is not the only one in bondage to this illusion, including this one.

I spent many years dragging heavy artificial legs around so I could fit the ideal that I thought others had of me.  I was so set in this position that any suggestion that I didn’t have to wear these legs was met with tremendous resistance.  It wasn’t until I moved into the Teaching material that I discovered that no one cared whether I was short or tall.  If they did think about it, this thought came only from their conditioning  (I didn’t fit their ideal) and had nothing to do with me. So I had to look for another justification to be 5’8” that carried a heavy price of physical energy.  With very little observation I realized I was uncomfortable being short.  By this time I had learned that any disturbance signals that I’m operating from an illusion.  There it was!  I was ignoring ‘what is’ and tried to change ‘what is’ into what I thought ‘ought to be’.

Lesson 10 of THE SCIENCE OF MAN states clearly: That only as I, the observer, sees some idea of the self, of John or Mary, as an illusion, is it free of the tendency to identify with that idea. 

This works with all illusions.  Is it an illusion to be controlled by what I think other people think?  Of course it is.  The Not-I’s are well trained in creating scripts in my head.  Since I am 100% subject to suggestion 100% of the time, I have to pay close attention or I will be sucked into their lethal tricks.

Freedom from illusion.  Is there any greater freedom?

INITIATION

(Science of Man Teachers Course #1 Page 51)

(What in the World is the World All About)

1. What am I? I am a privileged invited guest.
2. What has happened to me? I have totally forgotten what I am. I am totally conditioned to feel and act more like a prisoner than a guest.
3. Where am I and what’s the purpose of being here? I am at a lovely estate called Earth and the purpose of being here is to be experiencing freely and finding joy in it.
4. How have I been seeing it? As a literal place of torment and have felt that I was being attacked from all sides.
5. Whose estate is this? It is the estate of the Host, who is God, Spirit or the Father.  The one who invited me here.
6. Who owns everything here? The Host owns everything.  The Host invites me to use some of the things He owns, such as a house, car, clothing, a body.  We had nothing when we arrived and were given the privilege of using what is here.  We can take nothing with us when we leave.
7. What’s going on here? A lot of interesting games are going on here.  They are designed to enlighten the players:  Business, marriage, traffic, self-improvement, education, trying to get rich, etc.  The games all have rules and are very necessary.  However, the players do not know that they are playing games, taking everything very seriously.  It is a though they were all playing the game of “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”, all being blindfolded.  Each is afraid that someone will get the prize before they do.
8. What have I believed is going on here? I have believed there is a great struggle to compete with another, to survive and drive off all the enemies.
9. What have I been doing” I have been behaving as though I had to straighten the whole thing out and have not accepted the reality of the Host. So I have been trying to rebuild the whole party and am even trying to become the host, since I did not recognize or suspect there was a Host.  I have been seeing it as a chaotic royal mess and have been wondering what I was going to do to clean it up.
10. What can I do now? I can understand myself and the estate or world in which I live and see the beauty, balance and purpose to everything and thereby begin to really appreciate and then love, the Host.
11. Who can I do anything for? The only one I can do anything for is the Host  Never again need I go out to do things for the other guests, or even myself.  Fatigue is the price we pay for doing things for the wrong reason.
12. Do I feel required to do for the Host or do I have the privilege? The Host says, “Would you Mind…?”  He does not say, “You have to” or “You ought to.”  It is then that He will accept us as a companion and may visit us from time to time, which is very worthwhile.  Doing things for the Host is such a privilege because we do it freely.