WHAT’S GOING ON                                 

#145 August 2006

ALONG THE WAY  

I will not give other people the power to hurt me.

THIS MONTHS THOUGHT

I wouldn’t be concerned with what people think of me if I realized how seldom they did.

SCIENCE OF MAN  Lesson 29

One of the many ways that temptation comes to a person who is on the way, who has realized certain things, has observed self, but that then is subject to more subtle means of being tempted by mammon, is that of idolatry.  Now ordinarily we think of idolatry as bowing down and worshiping to some man-made image, some great stone statue or some great wood statue or something of that nature.  We think of that as idolatry. However idolatry has been described as making anything important or as depending on anything.  Anything one depends on or anything that one makes important.

Now one of the things that has been described through the ages as an idol and things one has made important or that one depends on is the human physical body.  Now the physical body is an instrument of X for expression of the things that X knows to do for the information it received from awareness.  However, the physical body is the source to awareness.  It is the mediator through which vibrations of various kinds come from the environment, and therefore, has sensations. It is very easy to be identified with. Unless one is in a constant state of attention, of being heedful, of watching, it is very easy to begin to depend on the physical body.

Now other things that a person can slip up and be made important is conversation, is companionship and many other things of a like nature.  Now in order to describe some of these things in more detail, we will read from a book, which possibly many of you are not familiar with.  It is called the Book of Wisdom.  It is a book that, possibly, antedates the Christian era, the birth of Christ, by some 150 years.  The history of it is that it was written in Greek and that it was written for a School in Alexandria, Egypt, that was operated as a branch of the House of Israel.

Now there was still some vitality in the various schools. They had not degenerated to the point of the Scribes and Pharisees when this book was written.  So we will read from Chapter 13 in this book called the Book of Wisdom. And we will make comments as we go along and we would like for you to keep a record on one of your sheets of paper and, I’m sure, a fat notebook by now, that says IDOLS.

And we will begin to be aware of the idols that we might be tempted to worship or have been inadvertently tempted to worship or shall we say to make something important or to depend on?  And we will observe what all the people that we come in contact with are making idols of. Because this is the thing that leads man away from remembering that he is a servant of X and that X does all the work. That Spirit does everything.  Spirit does the walking. Spirit does the talking. The physical body cannot walk.  X walks it.  The physical body cannot see, only X can have it where it is functioning seeing and awareness can experience seeing.  But no one knows how to see. This is X working.  And it is very easy for us to forget X because we are somewhat creatures of sense. And we are aware of the sense factors and we do not pay attention to what makes the senses work. You only have to look at a dead body to see that the body doesn’t see. The body doesn’t sense.  That it is only an instrument.

So we will read from Chapter 13 of the Book of Wisdom:  “But all men are vain”.  In other words, all men have a false picture of themselves and a false picture of their capabilities. “All men are vain in whom there is not the knowledge of God.”  If one is aware that X, Spirit, God, is doing all the function, that it does all the work, then one has ceased to be vain.  But as long as one thinks, “I am doing this”, one is vain.  As the Christ said, “Of myself, I can do nothing.  The Father within doeth all the work.”

“All men are vain in whom there is not the knowledge of God.  And who by these things that are seen could not understand Him that is, neither by attending to the works, having acknowledged who was the Workman.”  In other words we see the works of walking and we do not think of “Who is the Walker?”  We experience seeing and do not think “Who is the See-er?” We hear and we do not think of “Who the Hearer is?”

And so we begin to depend on eyes. Or we begin to depend on ears and not on the Hearer or the Seer.  “But have imagined either the fire or the wind or the swift air or the circle of the stars or the great water or the sun and the moon to be the Gods that rule the world. If you doubt that you can stop in most any store and see the many, many books and objects on astrology. You can also find many people who feel that the stars rule their lives. Usually in most daily papers there is a horoscope, daily column, so that people can see what the stars are doing. And they begin to feel that the stars control their destiny.  Would you say this is a form of idolatry?  Would you observe that it is a very common form of idolatry in this very day?

“With whose beauty, if they be delighted, took them to be gods.  Let them know how much the Lord of them is more beautiful than they.  For the first Author of beauty made all those things.”  All the things that one sees, such as the stars, the moons have been made by Spirit.  And they are only instruments by which something is done and obviously have no power.  The instrument is never any power.  The greatest computer is a very fine instrument, but is has no power, except it is programmed and operated by intelligence.  And that Intelligence comes from where?  Is there Intelligence in the human brain?  Or when Intelligence departs, the human brain is merely a piece of flesh.

“Or if they admired their power and their effects.”  In other words people saw the wind blow or the storms come and so there was power. So they said there was a storm god and there was a wind god.  And they began to depend on them or to honor them or to fear them.  In other words they made them important in some way or other.

“Let them understand by them that He that made them is mightier than they (the wind and so forth). For by the greatness of the beauty of the creature, the Creator then may be seen so as to be known thereby.”  If one can see a beautiful human being, a human body, recognize the beauty of the Creator of that body.  If one sees graceful movements of a lovely dance or a performance or a great skill exercised by someone, who is doing the work? Do we honor the physical performer?  Or do we see that Spirit is behind the whole thing and does all the work?   Our whole effort is to be concerned with recognizing the Spirit within. As we see that, we cease to be idolaters.  As long as we’re fascinated by the sense objects, the objects of which we can sense; and do not see the motivating power within, we are then, to a degree, an idolater.  (To be continued next month)

A STORY

We’ve all heard the phrase, “I buy things I don’t need with money I don’t have to impress people I don’t like.  Hmmmm.

I’ve been watching how much of my behavior is controlled by “What will people think?” So I came up with a list of questions I ask myself:

1. Do I pretend to agree with someone, even though I don’t?
2. Do I worry about what I wear to avoid being disapproved of?
3. Do I say “yes” when I mean “no”?
4. Do I leave a bigger tip when some may be watching?
5. What am I doing?
6. Do I stretch the story to put myself in a good light?
7. Do I drop impressive names for effect?
8. Do I shift my position (may be ever so slightly) in a conversation to avoid disapproval?
9. Am I thoroughly honest or am I kidding myself and others?
10. Is my behavior based on what I should, ought, must or have to do?
11. Am I easily embarrassed?

All of my life I have dealt with this because of my unusual physical body.  In order to live freely and happily, I had to accept that fact that someone’s perception of me was based on their conditioning and had nothing to do with me.

I want to be free of the “Not-I” “What will people think?”  The reality is that other people are thinking about what I’m thinking about them!  What a joke?  It is all illusion. I will continue to add to the list as I walk through the days.

I want to be free.

HEADLINES  (p.11)

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 if one chose the role of being a conscious guest at the Big Party?

IDEAS TO WORK WITH

1. The Party was in full swing when we arrived here and will be in full swing when we leave.
2. The most harmful thing we can do is agree with someone they are a victim.  It reinforces their victim role… and that is fatal.  Telling tales or gossip is agreeing that someone is a victim.
3. How much does environment affect our mood?  As much as we allow.
4. Nothing is good or bad… Just degrees of desirability.
5. The natural attribute of a human being is that he immediately forgets that which is of great value to him.
6. Anger:  continual disapproval of most everything around.
7. Everything is okay just like it is.  Nothing needs to be changed.
8. Valid questions:  “What can I do?”  or “What can I leave undone?” or “Who is in charge of my inner state of being?”
9. Keep the mood up and don’t make anything important.

*****

Doesn’t “expecting the unexpected” make the unexpected expected?