ALONG THE WAY:

Our attention is on this precious moment only.

THIS MONTH’S THOUGHT:

Playing the victim role draws to us situations that re-enforce our feelings of being a victim.

MAKING UP THE MIND:

(Excerpts from School talk #25 by Dr. Bob Gibson)
We’re going to talk today about making up the mind. Considering that the ability to make up the mind singly is probably the most valuable asset that any of us could have. Most of the time we are in a state of conflict—I want to, I don’t want to, I want to, but, –so we don’t usually make up our mind, except about the simplest things. Now we all make up our mind many times a day, so its nothing esoteric or complicated. You made up your mind to be here this morning. You make up your mind to stand up. And you stand up. And you make up your mind to get a drink of water and you get a drink of water. Now, we don’t know how to do anything. I’ve made up my mind to be saying certain words, but I don’t know how to move all these little vocal cords, and the lips and the tongue. If I had to figure that out I’d be a mute, because I couldn’t figure out how to do it. So, I’m aware of what I want to say and it happens. So when you’re sure of what you want to do singly, you have made up the mind, period. Now as long as we go in many different directions of “I want to do this, but,” we haven’t made up our mind. If you said I want to stand up but I want to continue to remain seated, you’re not going to do much of anything. I talked with a man on the weekend who said he just had to have an appointment with me. He told me he wanted to go in business for himself and quit his job which pays him very well. But he didn’t want to get tied down. I’ve found out that anytime you have a business, you’re pretty well tied to it unless you want it to go broke right quick. But, he prefers to have unemployment and a good business at the same time. He probably won’t get very far with it. That’s conflict. The “but” is a canceller. Now, we’re all acquainted with the picture of man which shows that we want to be non-disturbed, and the way to get it is to complain, stick up for our right, blame, etc. When you’re doing those, those are obviously disturbances. They are not making up the mind very quietly or singly in any direction. So, we’re going to talk about making up the mind about the things we don’t do every day. It has been said when two or more people agree about anything, in other words, two of us make up our mind at the same time about some thing, that it always happens. Having had a number of years of experience of working with that, it is factual, to the best of everything I have seen. One of the ways I’ve seen it work the best is that you sit down and write out a piece of paper, like you were writing a contract, very specific, very precise, this is what we’re going to do or this is what I’m having to happen. Two or more people sign that piece of paper after carefully reading it, in as much as you would sign a contract. Then put the piece of paper away and you’ll find that it does happen. Now when you make up your mind you don’t have to go over and over and over. You don’t have to keep it in mind. You just make up your mind once and that’s it. Now all healing and all unusual events that people attribute to having happened around the world is because somebody makes up their mind. Now I’m called on to do that very frequently and I do it and try to do it when I’m all alone and very quiet. Not when I’m busy and being distracted.
Now seemingly we all know about the Picture of Man. X, awareness, physical body and function. So the awareness decides “what.” X takes care of the “how.” Now a lot of times we think we are going to make up our mind, but we say, “I don’t see how that could ever happen,” implying that I, awareness, with it’s little education can’t see how something’s going to happen, obviously Life, Spirit, whatever word we want to use, couldn’t do it. Frequently we want to know the “how.” We say, “I don’t know how, but if I could learn how, then I could do it.” More than likely you’re never learn how.
So how it works is there’s “what” and “how” involved in about everything. If you could have a partner that you went out and got an order and you had a partner who would always fill it without any effort on your part, you’d have a pretty good working arrangement, would you not? There is only one X, or one Life, and it has thousands and millions and billions of forms that awareness comes in. Life knows exactly how to run everything. But we have decided we know how or that we can’t know how. So if you would like a little experiment in knowing how, why not start in to see what’s the first muscle, second muscle, third muscle, fourth muscle, fifth muscle you use to stand up with. You’d be surprised. You’ll never figure it out. You don’t have to go through all that. All you got to do is make up your mind you’re going to stand up. And that’s it.
Now all the events in the world, one is no more complicated than the other one.
Now most of the things you would want in this world that you would say ‘what’ about is far less complicated than standing up. If you ever looked at a human body’s anatomy, it’s got all kinds of little bending places all the way up through it, hundreds of them. And there is no way you could prop it up to stand up. Surprisingly, it is suspended from the head down, just far enough to reach the ground, is the way X does it. But we never did notice that. The head goes up first. The first muscle you tighten up if you’re going to stand up is in the back of your neck. See if you can stand up with your neck relaxed. Try it.
Now whenever we’re going to figure what we want, it has to be singly, it can’t be a whole bunch of things. Write this down and see that it is concise like an attorney would write a piece of paper. It is a statement that this is what I’m going to do. Just one. It has to be single. It can’t be multiple. You could make up many in a day if you wanted to. You can make up your mind about many things. In as much as most of us have a set of Not-I’s around with us, we generally complicate everything by making it almost mutually exclusive, like the man who wants to have a good business and a fine income but don’t bother me with working. This is where very few people truly can make a single statement, especially without writing it down. And it is why we do recommend that you write anything that is the least unusual to you. You might be surprised how easy it would be if you wrote several of these down, even about the simpler things you do every day, like having the oil changed in the car, like go to the laundry today, or go to the dry cleaners. You see, most of the time we qualify these. I’m going to the dry cleaners, if I have time today. I’m going to have the oil changed if I can get there today. I’ll get my tired changed if I can get off work, etc. The Not-I’s are so busy telling us we can’t do anything except that which we have been doing since infancy, that we have now taken these for granted. If somebody came up to you and said cousin Joe is very ill and asks you do to what you could for him. What would you say? The first Not-I jumps up and says, “You don’t know how to do anything for cousin Joe. If you could make up your mind that cousin Joe would be feeling fine by tomorrow morning, and you didn’t have any doubts, that you’re very confident that whatever you made up your mind to would happen, cousin Joe will get up feeling fine tomorrow morning. That is unless cousin Joe is intent on not, but he ask for you to do it. If you made up your mind, he’ll get well. So, are you a healer? No. But Life is. I’m not. Life is. I can talk to Life and Life so loves each of us, each of these little awareness functions, It so loves us It will do whatever we say singly. It is not going to figure out some complicated stuff. It is very powerful, but very simple. It has to be a single asking, not a whole bunch of complicated rattling around over things. So each of us can do anything we want to. (To be continued next month)

IDEAS TO WORK WITH:

(Excerpts from a talk by Dr. Bob Gibson)
1. I complain because things are not like they ought to be.
2. Being sick and miserable gets a lot of attention
3. Ego frame of reference: I know what ought to be; I know the future; I know what I need or you need; I know the cause of everything. These are problem makers. If you’re not doing what I think you ought to and I’m trying to straighten you out and force you into a mold, you’re going to fight back
4. Mature frame of reference: What am I? Where am I? What is going on? What can I do? We don’t change self, we change our frame of reference. It is useless to try to chance anybody’s frame of reference. We can point out what the frame of reference is and let him look at it clearly and point out some possible alternates and let him look at those, but only he can do the work. You cannot frighten somebody into being good. The only change that can be made is in the frame of reference. The man with a new frame of reference is a new man. It has to be a conscious act, a repeated act. The living frame of reference is possibly the least examined aspect of man. The only possibility of a person undergoing a transformation is by transformation in the frame of reference, which is done by conscious repeated effort. It is not done by an act of will. There is a lot of resistance to doing this.
5. We do have an awareness that is not conditioned. It has been asleep all these years. The awareness is not the frame of reference. It is not you. You observe how it works.
6. Everything is done for the Host. This is my way of saying ‘thank you’ for inviting me to the Party.
7. I’m considerate when I don’t try to straighten you out.
8. To be harmless is to not be a threat to anyone.
9. Your frame of reference is what you do spontaneously.
10. You can live life without problems.
11. When you feel uneasy within yourself, you are a threat to many things, including horses, dogs, people.
12. When you are a good guest at the Party, you are no threat to anyone.

A STORY:

“Be still and know I am God.” Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

Years ago Dr. Bob suggested we be still and listen. Listen to the environment with its multitude of sounds. This practice shuts down the intellect and it’s continual yakking.
I have been practicing this now for over 10 years. The mind will be still an amazing 3 or 4 seconds before it begins it’s constant talking. It makes grocery lists, plans for the next trip somewhere, and occasional dips into the past. It thinks it has the solution to every situation, mine or theirs. The suggestions it spews out are endless. It also spends hours trying to figure everything out–him out, me out, you out, them out, it out. All of which are illusions. The present moment is totally lost in this dream world or sometimes nightmare world.

Somewhere along the line is seems that the awareness, I, is to be in charge of the mind, not the mind in charge. The mind is NOT the awareness, it is only a small part of consciousness. It is only the organ or organization. Until now the mind has been in control, keeping me from experiencing fully this present moment.

I want to live fully in the present moment. That is all there is. That is the only place that is real and alive and vibrant and peaceful. That is the only place where X can do Its maALONG THE WAY: Our attention is on this precious moment only.