ALONG THE WAY:

THIS MONTH’S THOUGHT: 

I will not let other people’s opinion of me become the opinion of myself.

Dr. Bob Gibson – Newport Beach  7/80 (Excerpts)

REPORTING:  In as much as somebody asks the question, we might as well take that subject as any other.

Frequently somebody says they want this, that or the other thing to happen.  When you want something to happen, write it down.  You simply state ‘what is’ when you are at total ease within yourself.  Now if you are all agitated about something, or urgent about it, it wouldn’t work, because you are in a conflict. — “I’m afraid it won’t work.”  I happen to know it will work.  I merely repeat what the person called and said they wanted.  I say it as unconcerned as I would say “Good morning.”  I know whatever I say will happen.  You make it important.  Then you are only reporting anxiety.  So, X does the appropriate thing for anxiety.  The feeling I have when I report is totally peace and joy.  If I had something else going on, I wouldn’t attempt to do it until I got in that state.  If I’m extremely busy and somebody calls on the phone and wants something, I say it’s taken care of.  Maybe I can’t work on it for 20 minutes.  But 20 minutes from now when there’s nothing else on my mind, I say it and that’s the way it is.  You’re reporting your inner feeling.  As long as you’re working for yourself, I’ll probably tell you it won’t work.  You’re making it important or you wouldn’t be concerned with it.  It seems to me this ability to make up your mind and have things happen or that they do happen is a gift to other people and a curse to the operator of it.  If you’re doing it for yourself it won’t happen because you’re anxious about it.  All you’re reporting is your urgency.  In order to be able to accurately report or making up your mind, you have to be in a serene state of being.  If you’re going to expect unusual things from make up your mind I would suggest you do not do it for yourself.  Evidently you’re making it kind of urgent or you wouldn’t be concerned with it.  Be in a peaceful state of being or you’re just rattling inside.  You’re in a conflict.  X can’t go two ways at one time.  So it has to be that you’re absolutely at ease or you’re trying to ask X to go two ways at one time.  I’m as certain when I say something is going to happen, I’m as certain of that as I am I’m sitting here.

DECISIONS:

Most of us get so we are concerned about making a decision.  The misconception is that if I were clear enough I’d know how to do it immediately. The usual way to make a decision is to gain as much data as possible.   Now if there isn’t any data, you don’t make a decision.  You run an experiment.  In an experiment, one has to be absolutely free to fizzle, to fail.  Now the first rule that comes along if you’re interested in being successful at anything, whether it is in being a healer, or being spiritually evolved, or making millions of dollars, is to be free to fail.  If you’re not free to fail, you can’t function.  You’re trying to find all the ways to be safe.  I can’t think of anything that there isn’t some risk involved.  If you’re not free to fail, there is no possibility of functioning.  We can all say  we want to succeed in whatever we’re doing, and it doesn’t matter whether it is painting a picture, or writing a story, or making a lot of money, or inventing something or running a business, the first necessity is that we are free to fail.  Then you’re free to go ahead and do it.  But if you’re not free to fail, you’ll have to take so many precautions you’ll never get it done.

FREE TO:

A man called me a little while ago and said that he was in a state of fear, so he was going to quit because he didn’t want to be fearful.  Did any of you just deliberately feel free to be fearful?  It isn’t any great horror if one feels a little fear.  But somewheres we became very fearful of feeling fearful.  Any we get very angry about feeling angry.  We get very  resentful about feeling a little resentment.  It’s all right to feel those.  It isn’t going to kill you or destroy you.  As soon as you are free to feel fearful, you are serene.  We fight fear.  Some of us eat.  Some of us drink.  Some of us smoke.  Some of us do other things to keep from feeling fearful.  Are you perfectly free to feel fearful?  You feel it, so you might as well do it gracefully.  We want to get rid of it, right now, like it was the plague or something.  It really won’t hurt you.  Have you ever been disappointed?  You’re still functioning.  If you’re free to feel disappointed, it’s all right.

If you haven’t done it before, there’s apt to be a feeling of fear.  If you’re perfectly free to fizzle, it’ll work all right.  But you don’t like to be embarrassed.  So then you wouldn’t do anything that might result in you being embarrassed.  That’s a big limitation.  If you’re free to be embarrassed, then you could do about anything.  You find that you have ten thousand times more ability than you did when you were trying to be free of it.

Fear is assuming you know the course of future events.

SUGGESTION:

The great game is that people are highly suggestible. I have been talking for many years that possibly our greatest accomplishment would be to lessen our degree of suggestibility and to be aware of when we are hearing a suggestion.  A suggestion is when somebody offers you something if you do certain things you will get a reward and if you don’t you will get a great punishment.

ROLE PLAYING:

Each of us can every day write the script, direct the part and play the role. We have the whole show.  We can do it all.  We can act anyway we want to.  We can write the script we want to act today.  We can direct the part.  If we don’t do that we leave it to the tender mercies of whom we meet to start directing us.  Who is going to write your script for today?  Who’s going to direct it?  Who’s going to act out the role?  Now, you’re always going to act out the role.  But are you going to let somebody else write the script and somebody else direct it?  I won’t  play that game.  So there’s a little second force.  Who pays any attention to that?  Second force just helps to get it done.  If you’re free to have a little second force it doesn’t bother you.  If you’re all upset by a little resistance, you can fall apart at the seams. But I fully expect it and don’t feel any qualms about it.  In fact, I usually find it is the most valuable thing that comes along.  It gets the direction going.

A STORY:

Now is not then.  What a novel idea.  An idea worth experimenting with.

I love potatoes—fried, boiled, mashed, baked, raw, etc.  I must have been hungry when I went to the store.  The picture of beautiful, fluffy mashed potatoes on the box looked inviting.  However, these were INSTANT mashed potatoes.  Ugh!  My recollection of instant mashed potatoes was not a happy one.  They were like the paste we used to make out of flour and water.  Oh, well, the senses overrode reason, and I was willing to give them a try.

The box rested in the cabinet for over a month.  Finally, I summoned the courage to try them.  Boiling water, packet of seasoning and a cup of potato flakes.  Voila!  Mashed potatoes.  I positioned a morsel no bigger than a pea on my fork and tasted it.  To my amazement it was delicious.  I even saved the portion left over for potato soup the next day.

How many times have I deprived myself of an experience based on a past conclusion?  If I feel an inner resistance to anything—people, places, things, food, fear of another failure—I look closely to see if this resistance is based on a previous experience.  I have a friend who will not use e-mail.  He is a businessman and would probably find it useful.  But due to a past frustrating experience with the internet, he refuses to work through the challenges of learning this new procedure.

The past is gone – dead.  Everything at this moment is fresh and new, even instant potatoes.  It takes some digging and discarding of past conclusions to accept this fully.

I want to experience all of life.

I will drop the bondage of all dead conclusions.

LETTER FROM RHONDELL:

From Newsletter What’s Going On Here? Vol. 2 no. 9

INFLUENCE:

Everyone influences those about self and thus one lives in that which one radiates.  No one has total control of their circumstances. However, anyone can and does have a decided influence over their circumstances.

For instance, have a serene, interested inner feeling and see that everyone you are in contact with is doing what that person perceives to be right, proper, or justifiable at that moment.  You will then be radiating peace and wisdom.  This influences the current circumstances toward peace and love.  It matters not whether you are alone, with children, with family, with business people or in traffic, you will see the results of your radiation, your influence.

Now experiment with radiating this influence:  Be very up-tight, because it is very important that you be non-disturbed.  See others as knowing how important you are but that they are inconsiderate of you.  See that they know what is right but that they are going on and doing wrong anyway.  Now stop and notice how what you are radiating influences your environment and circumstances.

If one cares to repeat these experiments a few times, one can be extremely aware that the Teaching statement, “You live in that which you radiate” is a very profound and useful statement of fact.

Remember each of us is radiating our inner feeling, our mood, and how we choose to see persons, things and happenings all the time.  What we radiate influences the environment, associates, strangers, even plants, in “my” sphere of existence.

The choice of what one radiates is a great Spiritual Gift that few realize they have.  Why neglect so great a gift?