WHAT’S GOING ON?       

#140 MARCH 2006

ALONG THE WAY

Enjoy living with uncertainty.

THIS MONTH’S THOUGHT:

All stress comes from ego.  Self-importance has us hypnotized.

SCIENCE OF MAN  Lesson 9

We have all heard the expression the pure in heart and the clean in heart. And, of course, generally have been taught to regard that as we meaning that we didn’t think about sex very often.  However, the Teaching says that it’s due to accounts receivable, that we have made accounts against people and that they owe us and that this makes the heart impure or unclean.  It’s the accounts receivable. So it would be interesting if we obtained a small ledger book.  Sometimes it might be possible not to get it too small.  In the ledger we put down the person’s name at the top of the page that we have an account against.  And then we put all the different things that they owe us. In many people this can start with parents.  Or it can start with people who looked after one when the self was small. It can include schoolteachers.  It can include other kids that were peers of the child when growing up. In can include various brushes with people in authority.  Whatever the case, we will make a ledger.  And we will put the person’s name at the top.  And then we will put the incident in which they owe us.  In other words, they mistreated us in one form or another. And then we’ll put, over on the other side, what they owe us.  And we will discover what they owe us is impossible for them to ever pay.  If we say they owe an apology, they owe an apology. So, they apologize and what do we put down then?  Are we fully forgiven the whole thing, forgotten about it?  Or did we say they didn’t really didn’t mean it?  They were just saying that so I would feel better.  And we still have the account marked unpaid. This is called a burden and most people are weighed down with great burdens because they observe everything that everyone- they are in relationship with- is doing as being somewhat of a slur, somewhat of a damage, somewhat of a mistreatment of the self.  There is an old song that the speaker heard in the hills of Kentucky in little wooden churches that said, “Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.”

So, I is going to observe each of these things that the self has an accounts receivable against someone.  Everyone that seems to owe the self.  Everyone that owes John.  Or everyone that owes Mary. And we are going to record these.  They are reported to X and then we will leave them there. It is very interesting to observe a person that has done this.  They begin to stand up straighter.  They begin to be less nervous.  They are less agitated, less aggravated.  They have removed a tremendous burden.  A great limitation has been removed. A great load has been taken off of the back and the chest. Because all of these are things that are accounts receivable and they are forms of self-pity.  They are forms of justifying anger.  They are forms of justifying held resentment.  And they can even be the form of justifying apathy.  And, of course, one is forever fearful lest they make other things that we will have to add accounts receivable against them. So, we will have our ledger.

Now, to start with, let’s take some things that we put in the accounts receivable so we will have some rough, sketchy road map to observe.  They have been there so long, have been so taken for granted that one sometimes has to be slightly reminded as to what is really meant by an accounts receivable and what happens.

“I” believe that all those in close relationship with me mistreat me from time to time. Now the self is talking. I is observing the self and the accounts receivable and what they would have to do in order to have that account cancelled.

“I” believe that “I” merit more appreciation than “I” get. How many accounts receivable do we have against people that didn’t appreciate what “I” did for them. You know that little not-I and his family that says, “It’s important to please them.” And “I” did so much to please them. But they didn’t appreciate it.  After all, one didn’t please them because one was inclined to, but because one expected to receive something from them.  And if one doesn’t receive it, they owe me. Now how will they ever pay it? How much appreciation would “I” have to get before “I” would cancel.  That person “I” did so much for and they didn’t appreciate it. That could be a son, a daughter, a parent, an associate, a stranger, or what have you.

“I” believe that due to circumstances “I’ve” never had a chance to demonstrate my real greatness.  Now, people make up circumstances. So, there might be several under this.  Or, we might just plain put “circumstances” at the top of the page.  And circumstances owe me a great deal because they have denied me so much happiness, and so much pleasure and so much attention and approval and so much sense of importance. But, due to circumstances, which is made up of people, “I’ve” never had a chance to demonstrate my real greatness of inner being.

“I” believe that “I’m” entitled to have my way now. If “I” didn’t get my way now, somebody owes me. Because it was always due to somebody being at fault, to blame, the cause of my not getting my way and they owe me now.  And how much do they owe?  What do they owe?  Could it ever really be paid and marked cancelled?

“I” believe that if you were decent and good that you would help me have my way right now.  “I” have an account because you didn’t even help me.  You may not have been the one that stood in the way, but you didn’t go knock those people in the way out., so “I” could have my way.  So, you have something you owe me, also.  Because you didn’t do what you should have done so “I” would have my way now. And, obviously, let’s see how you could pay it.  (To be continued next month)

ASSIGNMENTS

(Teachers Manual)

1. Watch without judging your acting out of a decision______. Then act it out consciously, at least once.
2. Watch your body movements while about various actions of every day living. Be aware that you determine the “what” and “X” determines the “how”.
3. Watch others, without judging, act out the basic decisions.
4. Read the daily paper and apply agape to each story that you feel a reaction about.
5. Observe today the situations you react to. Do it freely today.  Next day, just observe these situations and don’t react.  See what happens.
6. Drop the image of husband or wife in the trashcan and replace by seeing the person without the image, as man or woman. Do the same for children.
7. Observe the conditioned responses and conditioned wants without identifying them with self.
8. Observe as much as possible through the next 24 hours, “What does this remind me of?” Talk or thinking by association and living by decisions.  See the danger of deciding not to think about something.
9. Watch how much we identify with others, images we make of self and others.
10. See how many things or people you have two or more feelings about.
11. When you find yourself reacting to a situation, emotionally resisting what is going on, take the following three steps and be sure to take the first one:
    1. “I am free to experience what is happening. Since I am going to experience it anyway, I will choose to experience it freely.
    2. “I am also free to feel the way I am feeling about it. To be sure that I am free to feel this, I will double the feeling consciously, on purpose, just because I want to.”
    3. “I am now free to choose (change) my response to anyone that I desire, so I will choose a response which is truly to my advantage.”
12. What you find yourself disturbed about what has happened, is happening, or is going to happen, recognize that you are listening to the suggester who gets his nourishment from human misery and his excitement out of being a sneak and controlling people without getting caught. Be very polite and firm, without arguing or resisting him by saying:  “Good evening, Mr. Lucifer, now you go back to hell where you belong.  Go on, NOW!”  Lucifer or the demons are elements of our conditioning, self-created, not a devil.

A STORY  

A friend told me that whenever he had a decision to make he would flip a coin.  It could be a “big” decision, such as getting a divorce, changing jobs or buying a house.  Or it might be a “little decision, such as which movie to see or whether to eat out or cook at home. He knew that whichever way the coin landed, he could live serenely and happily with the toss.  I realized he didn’t make ANY decision important.  He didn’t “A” and “B” it into the ground, struggling to make the “right” decision.    What a great idea!

There are no WRONG decisions.  What a hoot!  Wrong decisions are of the world of ideals and exist only when I set up an expectation of how I think things ought to be.  I have conflict only when I have an ideal.  Eliminate the ideal and I am free to experience whatever happens.  Sometimes I’m so sleepy that I A and B simple things.  Shall I go to the Post Office this morning or this afternoon?  What a bunch of nonsense!

In the Science of Man Lesson 21 it says that if I have trouble making decisions, there are still bits of conditioning lurking in dark corners.  I am still hooked into the illusion that the purpose of living is to regain the non-disturbed state. So I wallow in the conflict of choosing which way would be less disturbing.  How tedious!

What would Dr. Bob say?

“KEEP THE MOOD UP AND

DON’T MAKE ANYTHING IMPORTANT!”