WHAT’S GOING ON?

#144 JULY 2006

ALONG THE WAY

The Awareness owns nothing.  It is an observer and reporter ONLY.

THIS MONTH’S THOUGHT

Our circumstances are in balance to our inner state because Spirit acts on our inner state.

SCIENCE OF MAN

(excerpts from Lesson 18)

The fact that we’re students of a great Teaching that come from some Higher Mind that we can experiment with and to discover every aspect doesn’t mean that we can go to sleep someday 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 value 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 Truth.  And that is reporting to X.  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.

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.  It is not something that I can do but something that X does because it has been reported accurately.

One has developed one’s 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 we have never seen ‘what is’ very well.  We didn’t see what it was related to and we certainly didn’t see the value of it.  We saw value only in the ‘what ought to be and the ideal’ and we compared ‘what is’ to the ideal.  ‘What is’ was seen as no value.  Only what ought to be was of value.

Now we’re seeing that what ought to be is valueless and is an illusion.  And we’re no longer struggling toward it.  So we can see more clearly ‘what is’ and the value of it.

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 (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.

FIRST VALUE   by Dr. Bob Gibson

You are not going to experiment or practice anything until you see it as being of first value to you.  One sees as a first value to be aware that one is conditioned; that one is aware that one is not going to let it run the show anymore; and one is watching as to how it pulls its many tricks and how one goes to sleep.  When one does this, one will find in short order, one is doing this by second nature.

Having worked at making something of first value a few times in my life, I know that it is not an easy thing to do.  That there are all kinds of torment for you not to do it.  All A’s and B’s get up and tell you what you’re going to lose and what you’re not going to have.  They make a lot of noise trying to convince you to never truly commit yourself.  Because they lose control of you then.

And these little bits of conditioning that have been operating so long are like little entities.  In the language of Parables, they are called demons.  And they attack people and they take possession.  And they are smart enough not to want to lose their happy home.  They have been running that house for a long time and they don’t want to give it up.  But if you ever truly make a solid down to earth commitment that this is going to be number ONE from now to any foreseeable future to you, they don’t have control over you anymore.  They’re going to do everything to keep you from doing that.  Before you can come to a solid commitment, I guarantee you will have a hassle inside.  Very few people have ever come to that.  For that reason we dabble year in and year out.  We listen to this, we read this over here, we try some little formula for a day or two, and we wander on our way because we want to avoid that hassle that goes on inside to come to any firm commitment to making anything truly of first value.

You don’t come to a first value just by sitting here and saying, “Well, I think I’ll make that a first value today.”  It doesn’t happen that way.  You’ll hassle inside and you’ll hassle quite a bit.  To make a real commitment and make something of first value requires that you go through a little bit of turmoil.  In some literature I’ve read it called the ‘dark night of the soul’.  It might take you several days to make anything of first value.  It might take you several weeks and it might take you several months.  But you’re not going to do it by just saying that “it’s nice, I’m doing to do that” because you’re not prepared to give up anything.  You’re not prepared to be bounced around.  This why most people in the world dribble along, float through, and go on.

The question has come as to “why can’t I do this?”  They want to do something talked about in the tapes.  They want to put them of first value.  They want to be conscious.  But this is just a want to want to.  It is not that they have sat down and gone through what one has to go through before one will make anything of first value.

First value is a state of being.  Being conscious.  The one we’re talking about is putting the first value on the state of being we want.  Do I want to go on in turmoil the rest of my life, full of conditioning, bounced here, bounced there?  Or do I want to have a state of being that is stable?  Serene?  Fully conscious of what is going on each moment?

Somewheres it has been called other words.  “Seek you first a place, a state of being and all this other junk will be added unto you.”  Find your state of being first.  That’s the first value—is our state of being.  We have to determine what kind of state of being we’re going to exist in.  Or we just going to be floating around, as we have been, tossed to and fro by every wind that comes by?

The first value is determined with a state of being.  As long as we don’t see that, we are only fiddling with things.  And this is why we seldom really ever made a firm commitment for a certain type of state of being.  We have made something material into a first value, circumstance, job, education; not our inner state of being.  If you have that one, you won’t find yourself in a state of conflict.  You can freely choose your response.  That’s utter freedom.  There’s no conflict there.

 A STORY

Each spring I hang a hummingbird feeder on the deck where I can watch their aerobatic activities.  Several days I would see a hummer hover near the feeder, sample the food,  and quickly fly away.  I looked at the syrup and it looked a bit cloudy.  So that’s it!  It was not to their advantage to drink that contaminated nectar.

I have observed this ability to discriminate in most animals.  They know what to eat and stop eating when they are full. My poodle, Molly, received NO human food.  She had access to a bowl of dry dog food 24/7.  She never overate and remained slim, trim; and didn’t have halitosis.

So, what can I learn from this?  Animals are in constant communion with their Source.  Their unconditioned brain doesn’t second guess their instincts.  They don’t have to deal with impulse control or instant gratification.

Is it possible that I could live in this constant state of “oneness” with Life?  Could my every decision be based on what is intuitively to my advantage rather than the four dual basic urges?

The Teachings say, “Yes.”  If I am willing to do the Work….and it is work!

QUESTIONS ASKED BY DR. GIBSON

1. Do we wish to grow and be strong?  Or do we wish for pleasure and ease, falsely believing this to be happiness?
2. Does all growth and strengthening depend on adaptation to painful or strenuous situations?  After adaptation or strengthening, the situation that was formerly painful or strenuous ceases to be painful, does it not?
3. Is life to be lived as an opportunity to grow or it is to be escaped?
4. Is the idea that happiness depends on having pleasure and escaping pain on all levels an illusion or fantasy?
5. Is the struggle toward an illusion the disintegrative factor?
6. Is struggle the conflict between WHAT IS and the projection of the mind to WHAT OUGHT TO BE?
7. ASKING QUESTIONS:  Once a question is put to the mind, the mind works with the question until it discovers the answer.  Any question that starts with a “why” when dealing with human beings is basically improperly put.  One reason is that it is basically a blaming question.

Instead of searching for answers, let us search for a proper way to put the question.  When we say “What”, such as “What is going on? Or What am I doing?” the what asks for information, clarification, or understanding.  “Why” asks for blame.

*****

Year 1981:

1. Prince Charles got married.
2. Liverpool crowned soccer Champions of Europe
3. Australia lost the Ashes tournament
4. Pope died.

Year 2005:

1. Prince Charles got married.
2. Liverpool crowned soccer Champions of Europe.
3. Australia lost the Ashes tournament.
4. Pope died.

In the future, if Prince Charles decides to remarry, please warn the Pope.

*****

I slept and dreamt that life was joy.

I awoke and saw that life was service.

I acted and, behold, service was joy.