(Reprinted from WHAT’S GOING ON? #115 April 2004)

ALONG THE WAY:  

Spirit does all the work.

THIS MONTH’S THOUGHT:

One is awake only when one is experiencing this moment fully.

SCIENCE OF MAN: 

(Excerpts from Lesson 18)

….the fact that we’re students of a great Teaching that comes from some higher Mind, that we can experiment with and to discover every aspect, doesn’t mean that we can go to sleep some day and sit on a nice soft pillow and that everything will be fine.  To serve a great Being, X, requires that we stay on the job.  What is the only thing that awareness can do?  Is be aware.  It is aware of what is and aware of the relative values of it.  The more it fills the spiritual body, the more there is the awareness of the value of each what is.  This is what the growth of the spiritual body is about.  It is called wisdom—seeing the value of.  Truth is seeing the fact plus the value.  And that is seeing the Truth.  And that is reporting to X.  And that is one’s job.  But one doesn’t come to the point where one no longer needs to report to X, because that is the nature of one.  One IS the awareness function of X.  One IS the son of a King.  But one doing that doesn’t give one the privilege of ease and comfort, but gives one the responsibility.  And when one accepts that responsibility, one is free.  Free to experience whatever may arise, freely.  And report it to X and report its value.   This is being a conscious man.  This is arising to a state of being known as objective consciousness.  And objective consciousness has states of being where one has unusual abilities.  But one never allows anyone else to see them if at all possible.  These abilities occur when they are needed and are not something to be shown off.  They’re not something one can command.  They’re something that’s there at the proper time, place and circumstance where they would be.  It is not something that I can do, but something that X does because it has been reported to accurately.  Whenever it could have happened at anytime during one’s existence.  No new power has been unchained.  Only one has developed ones spiritual body to see what is and to see the value of what is.  Had one seen this when one was four years old, X would have done the same thing.  But, you see, we have never seen what is very well.  We didn’t see what it was related to, what its meaning was and we certainly didn’t see the value of it, because we saw value only in the what ought to be and the ideal and we compared what is to the ideal.  And what is was seen as of no value.  Only what ought to be was of value.  Now we’re seeing that what ought to be is valueless.  That it is an illusion.  And we’re no longer struggling toward it.  So, we can see more clearly what is and what its related to and what all things is involved in what is and we can see the value of it.  And this is having knowledge and wisdom.  Knowledge is seeing what is, knowing it from moment to moment.  Wisdom is seeing the value of it.  In certain Teachings wisdom is called wine and knowledge is called, or Truth of seeing it, what is True, is called bread.  And when we combine bread and wine we have a fit offering to X.  It is the only acceptable offering.  And one must observe what is true and what is valuable.  And we’re constantly being subjected to the temptation that ideals are valuable.  They come under different names now.  They’re not called gaining pleasure, comfort, attention and approval.  They’re put under other names.  They’re helping people, which is really a means of feeling in control of them.  It is a means of harming a person because we’re trying to say they’re not responsible beings.  It comes in ideas like being considerate, only instead of considering, it is condescending.  But, you see, they can be twisted so very easily.  And so, we want to look down on someone.  It is to make a contribution, but not a contribution, but to do something worthwhile for them so that they will be in a less disturbed state.  We cannot see that disturbance is that which continually occurs that increases mans necessity to check and to question mammon, the four dual basic urges.  When these are checked and one only checks them when one is not comfortable because as long as everythings comfortable it seems that it’s very desirable, why should we check it. . It’s only when Life increases ones necessity because of the disturbance that is going on that one begins to question.  So, if we’re trying to prevent everyone from having any disturbance one might say that one was being very harmful and was being very condescending.  And it all sounds very good, very wonderful, unless one is aware and alert and then one sees mammon in his tempting business of trying to identify with I, the observing function of X.

HEADLINES:

(p. 15)

When one is awake to second force, ones expectations are based on fact.  The fact:  that one or more things will be in the way or interfere with the aims or purposes or plans that one initiates.

            Some physical forms of second force:  Breakdown of machinery—people—bacteria—clock time—Nature (rivers, mountains, etc). Inertia—Thoughts by association—Conditioning from environment—Gravity—Weather—Insects—Money—Suggestion–Animals, etc—Desires

.

NOTES ON PERSONAL INTERGRATION AND HEALTH:

(P.66)

            Will.  Does a person feel different about the effort expended when he says, “I have to do this” or when he says, “I am getting to do this?”  What is forcing him to do whatever it is that he has to do?  What is letting him do whatever it is that he is getting to do?

THE PLACE OF LANGUAGE IN THE TEACHINGS:  (P.8)

            Disintegration:  Conflict, struggle and resistance to what is.

            Integration:  That state which exists when disintegration ends.

LIFE’S WORD:

            On thy heart I write these words, “ALL IS GOOD’ and this is the Second Mystery. (p.6)

            I require no man to give.  If thou givest because thou thinkest it will please Me, know that I am already pleased with thee, and nothing which thou canst do can alter My pleasure, nor can cause My displeasure.  Thou hast all favor in My sight now and I would not have thee do anything with the object or purpose of gaining My favor.

Many pray, “Lord, make us humble.”  Yet when I visit them with humiliation, they recognize not My hand!  (P.33)

HEADLINES:

(p. 11)

Does freedom consist of being free from  pain, from being ignored, from being rejected, from being disapproved of, from feeling inferior, from the possibility of danger?…Or does freedom consist of being free to experience whatever may arise in one’s way today and freely choose the response?

It seems that many put the question, “Where did I come from?” or “Where am I going?”  Few ask the vital question, “Where am I?”

If one asks the question, “Where am I?” one may see that one is a privileged invited guest at a beautiful estate called the earth and that life is the host.  If one were to see this, one would also see that everything that one does is for the host.  One might also see that the host has always provided food, clothing and shelter through one channel or another ever since one has been at the party.  A few other things one may see is that the host must find all his guests interesting, as he didn’t ask me to approve of the guest list.  Further, one may notice that nothing was brought to the party and that those who leave do not take anything with them.  And last, one may discover that a lot of games are being played and begin to play the games consciously.

Would it be interesting to find out what would be the case of one chose the role of being a conscious guest at the big party?                     

 Man is the only unspecialized being on earth.  So he must choose a role or roles consciously and play it or them, or he will be cast into a specialized role by another and be exploited.

A wonderful thing about choosing a role is that one can write the script, play the role and direct the performance.  Few are those who accept this great gift, so there are few people who are described as great

.

A STORY:

My living room faces Lake Whitney and most of the wall is glass, or shall I say, windows with glass. And believe it or not, I like to do windows.  I want to be able to see clearly the sky, the water, the clouds, the sunsets and the moonlight as if there were no separation or distortion that is the result of dust and grime on the panes.  I have the squeegee, the cleaner, the soft towels, the kitchen stool, the energy and the motivation to do the windows as needed.  It takes only 20 happy minutes to have them sparkling clean and I feel connected, once again, to the world around me.

            Maybe this is how it is with awareness.  Perhaps it yearns to ‘see clearly.”  When it is distorted with conditioning, mis-information or lack of information, it feels separated and confused.

            The awareness has but one function – to see what is clearly and report the value of what is.  In order to do this, the awareness has to be clear, accurate and well-informed.  The Teachings provide the tools to clean the awareness—to remove the debris from its vision so it can report accurately what is and see ‘all that is’ is okay.  When awareness is clear, the living being can function harmoniously with all Life.  If it is clouded with dust and grime, the joy and gratitude are blocked.

            What is my assignment?  To keep the awareness clean.   I can do this by constant self-observation, keeping the mood up and not making anything important.

            I will keep my windows clean so I can experience joy and oneness with all Life.[