WHAT’S GOING ON?  —  #135 November 2005

THIS MONTH’S THOUGHT:

I am responsible for my inner state of being.

WHERE TO FIND THE TRUTH?

SCHOOL TALK #55:  (Continued from last month)

Here is another one here that gets us off of a lot of hooks, that keeps in a lot of turmoil and anxiety and frustration with all the people we know and are around.  People know what is right, proper and/or justifiable and they go on and do wrong anyway. Now, this is a solid misconception. Much of our society’s structure is built on this misconception.  That’s why we have penal codes and punishments because these people knew what was right and went and did wrong anyway. That gives me perfect justification to be angry, to be upset with people, to tell them off, and to feel very sorry for myself.  So that keeps everybody feeling miserable.  

Now here’s something that you can check out very quickly.  Try to do something that you feel very definitely in yourself is wrong, improper and totally unjustifiable and see if you can do it.  You cannot do it. We have been hypnotized into believing that we knew better and did it anyway. Check it out. You cannot know better and go on and do it anyway.  You simply can’t. This misconception has been handed down so long it’s nearly in our genes: That people know what’s right, but they go on and do wrong anyway. So let’s get that misconception straightened around so we are aware it is a misconception.  See that misconception for what it is and you have seen a pretty good-sized piece of Truth. 

So let’s be honest to say that I’m loaded down with a certain number of misconceptions or I would be a living example, a living expression of Truth on earth, which I think would probably be a worthwhile activity to be involved in.  It might even be an excellent purpose. But we can’t do it as long as we have misconceptions unrecognized and unevaluated. We simply can’t do it no matter how great our intention is. We simply can’t do it, because when something comes booming in here, these things (not-I’s) jump up. 

Now another good one that we devised out of the many ways of seeing misconceptions is:  I have rights and by golly I’m going to stick up for them. So when we have rights we are busy defending those rights, stick up for them.  And we really have none. We do have a considerable number of privileges, basically which we have all mistaken for rights and stuck up for.  Now the best way to lose a privilege is to mistake it for a right and start sticking up for it. Now if I know that all I have is privileges, I take good care of them.  A privilege is a gift. I’m going to take care of my privileges. Sticking up for so-called rights looks pretty gruesome. If you have the idea that you have rights, you’re going to be in fights.  Now they may not be fistfights or gun battles. Now all it takes to have privileges is simple good manners. 

Now where do we have any idea we’re a victim?  It was handed down to us and we never checked it out.  How do we have the idea that people know what is right and go on and do wrong anyway? 

Now just take these three.  We’ve only put three misconceptions up here.  I could state these three probably in three hundred ways fairly easy.  But if you took these three out you could drift thought this world pretty nicely without having any bumps.  I think they cover about three hundred ways of saying misconceptions. I like the good simple way. We only have three to look at.  Now you can handle three, can’t you?  

If you got these misconceptions out, this whole Picture of Man begins to look different.  The basic decision that the whole purpose of living is to be non-disturbed. We consider that a right.  And if we don’t have it we consider we’re victims. It’s important to have my way right now and if I don’t get it I’m going to complain.  You kept me from it. They kept me from it. So I have somebody to blame for it. They knew what was right and went ahead and did wrong, anyway.  And if I’m a victim, I have to go around being a pleaser. Now I please people because I’ll feel guilty if I don’t, or I have to, or somebody will lay it on me.  And maybe if I improve myself they wouldn’t pick on me so much.  

So I think here is three ways of saying it that covers practically every misconception that has been talked or written about.  Don’t look for truth, look for misconceptions and when you see a misconception for what it is, you have then seen the Truth. So you find it by kicking the misconception off.  You have true perception and true feelings. Then you have true feelings about the situation. You would have chemical balance, neuromuscular tone, and then there would be creative action instead of adaptation.  Now that is called the living cycle. If you lived on it you ‘d find that you change your entire outlook and you might change about 40 more years on your life expectancy, if not a lot more. If you could really see these three for what they are.  You would be a liberated individual. Now would that be worth doing or is that too hard? Is that so difficult to see that you’re not a victim? It’s easy to say it but the next time somebody pokes you, you’re liable to act like you are one. Now you had better do some looking because you don’t get this done when you’re under attack.  You get it done when you have some peace and quiet. I used to get most of these things done while driving an automobile down the road. You can do a lot of worthwhile work while driving a car. So I can think about this. I can really look at it. I can really view it. And it’s easy to see I AM NOT A VICTIM. I’m in charge of what I do or don’t do. Now if it don’t work out just like I want it, I’m not going to blame it on somebody, not even myself.  I’ll say, “Well, it looked like the thing to do at that moment. “ So what.

It’s pretty easy to discover that people are all doing what they feel is right, proper or justifiable.  I’ve got it pretty well figured that I can’t find any fault with anybody for what they do because they’re doing what they feel is right, proper and justifiable with what Light they have. And that’s what I’m doing. 

It’s possible that misinformation has been handed down for ages. I think the  misconception is not anybody’s fault. Nobody or nothing is to blame for them.  They’re just due to lack of information and misinformation for generations untold and it’s never been challenged, except by a very few people in the teaching material.  They are the only ones that have challenged it. So nobody ever thinks to check up to see where they’re locked up.  

And that’s what the old gent told me. “Don’t go out looking for truth, Robert you’ll never find it.  You go looking for misconceptions. When you see a misconception for what it is, you then see the truth.  And I can verify that he was correct.

Here is a very simple way to find Truth.  Can you recognize each of these as a solid misconception?  1. That I am a victim; 2. That people know what is right and go on and do wrong, anyway; 3)  That I have rights that I must stick up for. When you’ve got them up and really looked at them, then you don’t have them any more.  Then there is nothing between your experiencing and sensing coming in from the outside and that Essence within. It can be called Spirit.  It can be called Life. It can be called anything you want to. It begins to express because you have dug the dirt off the top of it so there isn’t anything else responding and coloring everything that comes in.  When these misconceptions are out of the way you will find there is straight reporting to X, Life, Spirit.   

Now it requires some consideration that you truly first see that you have the misconceptions.  Every one of us has these things, unless we have worked diligently to get them out, we have them.    No disgrace. You were born with them. They come in with the first nutrition you got and they were reinforced every day of you life.  Everyday you’ve acted them out. Everyday you’ve acted a victim. Everyday you’re acted that people knew what was right and did wrong anyway.  Everyday you’ve acted out that you had rights. Now let’s see if we can see them plain enough that we find it impossible to act them out. And then you will find there has been one fundamental transformation in yourself and that you’re now a living being.  Awareness and X are in union. And I don’t know of any better purpose of living than that. 

A STORY:

Several years ago Harrison (my Finch) had a roommate named Harriett.  With a bit of encouragement, such as putting nestling material and a bamboo nest in their cage, Harrison and Harriett proceeded to start a family.  They padded the entire inside of the bamboo nest with cotton. Harriett laid 3 eggs (which were the size of M and M’s) and they took turns sitting on them.  Each day they turned the eggs over to keep the delicate membrane on the inside of the shell from sticking to it. In twelve days the eggs hatched. For the next 12 days, the tiny birds were fed and watered by their attentive parents, patiently filling each tiny beak with nestling food and water.  When the 3 birds (2 boys and one girl) emerged from the next, they were nearly the size of the their parents.

Harriett and Harrison had never taken a parenting course or read a book on “How to Raise Baby Finch.”  The Creative Intelligence innate within them provided all the information they needed. The Finch had no developed awareness, yet the techniques for survival operated effortlessly.  I didn’t year them complaining or sticking up for their rights about who was going to feed the kids in the middle of the night. Nor did they blame each other because we have all these mouths to feed.  They did not worry about whether they were doing it “right”. They just did it. They were not in conflict because they had no ideals to live up to. They had no concept of right or wrong, good or bad. They lived in the moment—fearlessly.  Creative Intelligence knew how to do it all.

I have heard that I am an expression of this Intelligence. I have the potential to live fearlessly, harmoniously and in tune with ‘all that is.’ Eureka!  

I will continue to do the Work.

************

During a visit to a mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director what the criterion was which defined whether or not a patent should be institutionalized.

“Well,” said the Director, “we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub.”

“Oh, I understand,” said the visitor.  “A normal person would use the bucket because it’s bigger than the spoon or the teacup.”

“No.” said the Director, “A normal person would pull the plug. 

 Do you want a room with or without a view?

Donna’s parents chose to raise her as if she were free of any birth defects, and in doing so, gave Donna the courage to act as if she were any other child her age. When all her friends started riding bikes, she begged her parents for one until they finally caved in. After several scrapes and tumbles, Donna learned to ride the bike even though her feet couldn’t reach both pedals at once.

During her junior year at the University of Kansas at Lawrence, Kansas, Donna wrote to the Mayo clinic inquiring about the possibility of wearing artificial legs. She was then referred to Erick Hanicke at the P.W. Hanicke Company in Kansas City, Kansas. Erick learned the craft of limb making from his uncle, P.W., and would later create the prosthetic legs Donna wore for the next three decades.

Hesitant to wear the artificial limbs at first, Donna found it was just easier to look like everyone else around her, and being 20 inches taller made that possible. For the first time in her life, she could greet people at eye level.

Soon after, while working as a medical technician, Donna bought her first car. The vehicle was equipped with special hand controls so she could drive without the use of her legs. Later on, she would fly a plane in the same manner, with hand controlled brakes and rudders. In addition to being a pilot and medical technician, Donna has also worked as a real estate broker, aircraft dispatcher and ground school instructor.

Today Donna Lancaster lives near Lake Whitney, Texas and is thoroughly enjoying retired life. In addition to her hobbies, which include playing bridge and flying, Donna shares her story at 12-Step meetings and conventions across the United States and Canada. She was introduced to the program through Neal, Donna’s ex-husband and a recovering alcoholic. Standing Tall is her first book