WHAT’S GOING ON?  #94           

Written by Donna in May 2002

ALONG THE WAY:

We freely experience whatever Life brings us.

THIS MONTH’S THOUGHT:

The precious present is very rare.  We only get one shot at it.

EXPERIENCING FREELY – SCHOOL TALK #32:

(Excerpts from a talk by Dr. Bob Gibson)

Today we’ll talk about experiencing freely.  We are going to experience whatever is going on.  It is going to be happening around us, so we might as well do it freely.  To experience freely is without condemning it or justifying it, whether it be pain, discomfort, unpleasant people around us, or whatever the situation may be, we are experiencing whatever is happening at the moment.  We might as well do it freely.  If something isn’t going to suit you, experience it freely.  It won’t last long.  It’s going away, anyway.  Always does.  If you don’t experience it freely you are in a state of conflict, struggle and resistance, which is the only human problem.  So nothing is a problem unless we are in a conflict about it, or unless we’re struggling with it, or unless we’re resisting it happening.  So whatever is going on is happening, it’s what is.  If we experience it freely it is all together different than it is if we are resisting it.  It’s not only seems different, it really is different, because the situation is fed and influenced by our resistance of it.  It sets up conflict not only within, but without and it makes things go from bad to worse. Now everybody in the world is doing, at the moment, what they feel is right, or proper, or justifiable.  If they’re sound asleep, they’re merely reacting.  I don’t go along with the reacting.  I turn it around a little bit.  I have something to laugh about it or a joke to make on it. Most people when they’re blamed go into a state of resisting. Being blamed is possibly the greatest compliment you could get.  They’re saying you’re an extremely powerful person.  So if someone wants to blame you, jump to the acceptance of it.  As long as you try to defend it, everybody reacts.  The only way to get rid of it is to accept it.  So what. It’s all my fault.

So let’s take on a little effort that we’re going to experience freely whatever may arise in my way today.  You going to experience it anyway, so you might as well do it with good manners and grace. If we’re experiencing freely the other people begin to behave differently.  But as long as we’re resisting, sticking up for our rights, etc., things go from bad to worse and the whole situation gets out of hand.  But to straighten out any situation only requires that one person be there that is relatively conscious.  And when you accept everything going on freely and you’re experiencing it freely, you’re being conscious.  And at that moment that’s all it takes to straighten out the most difficult situation.  We talk about higher consciousness frequently, because any one person, in a higher state than those around them, totally changes the situation.  There is a conscious person in the midst, which can bring about a total transformation in everything.

So one of the approaches to higher consciousness is to be aware of what is going on and be free to experience it, as it is, without any conflict, without any struggle, without any resistance, without fighting it.  Now you are not to evaluate it as good or bad, right or wrong, should or should not.  Now the not-I’s that hang around all of us are quick to judge everything in sight.  They say all those people are crazy.  That one is terrible.  That one’s mean.  That one’s trying to do me in.  That one’s trying to get me fired.  That one’s trying to break up my relationships.  And it goes on and on and on because we are resisting experiencing something a not-I said was not so good.  We don’t know what’s good and what’s bad.  Once we can discern that we would be much closer to being able to experience freely whatever may arise in our way today.  As long as you don’t falsely believe that you know what ought to be, you will begin to see that things are happening and you are experiencing them freely, you’re in a decided higher state of consciousness.

So if you would be a person who removed all the difficulties around you, you would be a person who experienced freely whatever may arise today, whether it’s discomfort, whether it’s distortion, whether it’s rejection, or etc.  If you’re free to experience it, you have gone a very long way toward changing it.  Higher consciousness always changes it.  Only a person in a more desirable state of consciousness is free to experience whatever may arise today.

I highly recommend start saying to ourselves, then acting upon it, “I’m going to experience this freely.”  Do it with a little style and class.

The easiest approach to a higher state of consciousness is being free to experience this moment, fully and completely, without either condemning it or justifying it.  This is a moment and it is a unique moment.  It never happened before and it will never happen again and I don’t want to miss is it.

A STORY: 

Many years ago we had a white poodle named Molly.  She filled our home with joy, love and, especially, an education about living.

1. Molly taught us how to be peaceful. She had no fears or anxieties about her future well-being.  She didn’t even count on having a future.  She ate when she was hungry, slept when sleepy, drank when was thirsty.  More, better or different never occurred to her.
2. Her life was NOW. The past or future never cluttered her present moment.  She was delighted with every new blade of grass in the yard, every flower that bloomed, enchanted with the shadows as they moved across the yard, and enjoyed the warm sun soaking her white fur.
3. She taught us about love. Scolding never changed her love for us.  She didn’t go around feeling guilty because her behavior didn’t measure up to our ideal for her.  She had no ideals to live up to that would even give her a sense of failure.
4. She was sensitive to our needs without getting emotionally caught up in our trips. She would just sit a little closer to us.
5. Molly was always glad to see us when we came home. She didn’t pout or get her feelings hurt if we left her for a while.  If we accidentally stepped on her, she hardly noticed.
6. We had so much love for Molly and she never said a word and seldom barked. She did not need words to let us know how wonderful, important, smart, well-read, spiritual or loving she was.  She was a gracious gentle, loving guest in our household.
7. She taught us about the simplicity of just BEING.

She was all love, which is all we are when we can become puppy-like to see it.

FREEDOM: 

(Excerpts from a talk by Dr. Bob Gibson)

To experience freedom requires that one start with freedom rather than make freedom a goal to achieve.  Most students to Life and higher consciousness start by letting the Not-I known as the self-improver suggest that if one struggles hard enough and practices some techniques, or more than likely many techniques, that finally after many years one will gain freedom, that is, if one lives long enough.  This approach is based on the idea that one gains freedom by being free from all things we have been taught to believe are bad.  However, one never experiences freedom this way.

One does not BECOME free.  One starts by BEING FREE TO.  To start being free, one recognizes that one is conditioned and thus behaves as a conditioned person, which is to be in conflict.  Conflict is experienced as anxiety.  So – I am free to experience anxiety.  When one is free to experience anxiety, anxiety disappears in a very short time, less than half an hour.  The reason:  now that you are free to experience the emotion of anxiety, a Not-I can no longer bully you.  The same is true for all the emotions – anger, guilt, fear and insecurity.  We don’t like these emotional states, as well as, by now, knowing they are detrimental to our state of well being.

We struggle against these states, or we resist them or try to improve self not to have them.  All the Not-I’s then get in the act.  Some bully self to quit having them by improving self.  Some justify them by saying that under the circumstances they are justified.  Conflict is the state of being, year in and year out.

When one is free to experience these unpleasant states there is no condemnation or justification.  Condemnation and justification are the work of Not-I’s.  Then the Not-I’s are put out of business.  There is no longer anything for them to condemn or to justify.  Conflict, struggle and resistance come to an end naturally with the realization of freedom.  Trying to be FREE FROM is eternal bondage.  Being FREE TO is seeing the TRUTH, the truth that is truly freedom.

IDEAS TO WORK WITH:

1. All discomfort has value.
2. Spirit only operates in the present.
3. We are reporting constantly and Spirit acts on that information.
4. We report inaccurately when we ask X to work on symptoms. It is more accurate for X to work on the underlying conflict.
5. Everything is okay just like it is.