WHAT’S GOING ON?
#170 SEPTEMBER 2008
ALONG THE WAY:
Life tells me what to do moment by moment.
THIS MONTH’S THOUGHT:
We don’t own anything. It was all here when we got here.
LIVING WITH STRESS – SCHOOL TALK #53
– Dr. Bob Gibson
(continued from last month)
Now the other thing I see that comes along that people ask about is the term “I”. Everything is about me, me, my. Tell me how you’d feel after a while. Everything is involved in about me. Everything then becomes subjective. How does it affect me? Not what’s going on here? What’s being done to me? Now that’s the way most of the people I work around become involved with. What’s being done to me? Now the other question is: What’s going on here? This is purely objective. You just see what’s going on. If you’re seeing what’s being done to me—it’s purely subjective and everything looks like I’m being mistreated, I’m being mishandled. Everybody saying naughty things. They’re not doing what they should do. People are doing what they ought not to do. Total involvement with “I”. “ME” If we want to get along in the world reasonably well and eliminate about 90% of the stress, we would merely say, “What’s going on here?” So if somebody is griping over here, I’m seeing a person expressing their early conditioning of sticking up for their rights. Or it’s important to have their way right now and the way to get it is to complain.
If you could see, “What’s going on here?” Seeing grown bodies inhabited by infants sometimes is interesting. We used to put out that the world is populated by infants, many of which have grown bodies and technical educations. Every now and then you meet a person who is grown up and that’s a pleasant surprise. So the way to be never disappointed, is to assume the first: that the world is populated totally by infants many of which have grown bodies and technical educations. Then when you do meet a grown up one, you have a pleasant surprise.
So, when we have seen what is going here, we have put ourselves in a position to be at ease with all the things that are going on around us and there is nothing important. You see, whenever you make things important you are very anxious. As long as you’re not making it important, it doesn’t matter. If I made it important how you treat me, what kind of expression you have on your face when you look at me, I could be in a mess in a very few minutes. He looks like he might be looking down on me. He looks like he might be critical. So if we say, “So what? He looks like he’s looking. That’s all.” He’s probably totally unconscious of where his face is. You don’t pay any attention to all that. It’s not anything to take personal or be involved with in any way, shape, form or fashion.
If we look at all these little things and we could live with what’s been called ‘stressful’ situations all our life, we would find that we had precious few, except a few environmental stresses. You can’t do much about the weather. You can’t do much about the temperature. You can’t control it. But about 90% of all the stresses that tear people up can be avoided simply by seeing what we’ve talked about today. We’ve eliminated about 90% of it, if we use it. If we don’t use it, it doesn’t eliminate any. But if I see what’s going on here is not being done to me. There is absolutely nothing personal about it. Nobody’s out to pick on me. If you get your head twisted just a little bit it looks like the whole world is down on you. The question is: Why did this have to happen to me? And on and on it goes. We can sit and feel sorry for ourselves and feel that we’re total victims of everything under the sun and that everything that is going on is directed at me. Or I can see that it is just people acting out their unconscious conditioning that is going on and it really doesn’t matter.
So if we can put here: I’m going to keep the proper question up all the time: What is going on here? And I’m not going to use the improper one: What’s being done to me? We evolve into an objective being rather than a subjective creature.
So when we begin to see that we want to be a conscious creature, a conscious being, which is going toward being unlimited. Now the more that I’m a subjective creature, I’m in total limitation. Everything and everybody determines what I’m going to do. In other words, I’m totally other-determined if I’m subjective—what’s being done to me. We are living beings and can be totally self-determined. We can determine what I’m going to do. I can determine how I’m going to respond to all the stimuli around. But if you go on the defensive, which is purely a mechanical reaction, you’re going to be defensive every time someone says something that’s not complimentary. Some people you can’t even say a compliment to without them going on the defensive. When we begin to see this we see that that person is not in charge of what’s going on in their life at all. They’re not in charge of the way they’re going to feel. They’re not in charge of what their responses are. They’re purely mechanical.
Now if we would be an evolved human being, we would be responsible for our responses to stimuli. We would be responsible for choosing our own inner state of being. We could choose how we’re going to respond to challenges. Now if you can be in charge of how you’re going to respond and in charge of your own inner state, you’re pretty well evolved into a conscious being. Can somebody make you feel bad? Can somebody come along and produce a bad feeling in you? Not unless you give them the authority to and you don’t take charge of your own responsibilities.
So, being responsible and being free are the two sides of the same coin. If I am going to be living in a world of a lot of people and most of them highly conditioned, it would seem that it would be to our advantage to be in charge of our own inner state, in charge of your responses to people.
When you realize it is unnecessary to be on the defensive and challenge everybody’s statement about you or to you, you begin to be objective instead of subjective, the body starts repairing.
Question: Living in a state of grace is very different from living in a state of stress. Would you comment on this alternative to stress, that is, living in this state of grace?
Answer: I’m talking about making ourselves very available to grace—not making things important, that’s grace; of being in charge of our own inner state of being and being in charge of my responses to circumstance. Now, that is grace that we even heard of those ideas, because basically people have been living thousands of years and an extremely small number of people have ever been reminded or brought up to where they could see that. So that’s where the grace comes in. The grace is undeserved good. I did nothing that I can think of to earn having come across the material many years ago and then being able to use it. That was pure unadulterated grace to me. We would have never stumbled upon it by ourselves. So we live by grace when we take advantage of the grace that’s been extended us—that we come across the material that makes it possible for us to live without being torn up in the usual state of stress that everybody lives in. And I’m very thankful for that grace.
A STORY:
Most of the time I am so wrapped up in my own stuff that I forget to observe the pain, heartache and loneliness of those around me. There have been times when I deliberately create busy activities so that I don’t have time to touch the lives of others!
I had an experience a few days ago that I have continued to think about. As I was waiting in line at to check out at the grocery store I could see that the check out girl was emotionally upset and was struggling to not cry. She checked and sacked my groceries and offered to carry them to the car for me. When she put the bags in the car, I paused, looked her right in her eyes and told her that everything would work out for her. For just a split second there was a hint of a smile in her eyes. It was one of those holy moments when she knew that I cared.
My thoughts are energy that I send out to bless or to curse. When I follow this energy with the spoken word there is a powerful force that either heals or hurts. I’m certain that I would be overwhelmed if I knew how many prayers have been sent to me, not only by those I know and love, but from many who I shall never meet. As I drop my selfishness and self-centeredness, perhaps I can be an unknown force for good in the lives of others.
THE BASIC IDEAS OF THE TEACHING ARE:
(Dr. Bob Gibson)
- To be knowing the Not’I’s and their pet ideas.
- To be in the state of Self-remembering:
What am I?
Where am I?
What is going on here?
What can I do?
When one remembers that I am the awareness function of X, a privileged invited guest, I see clearly that there is nothing in me that knows what ought to be: that there is nothing in me capable of judging whether any situation or any person is either good or bad; that there is nothing in me that can know the future even one second ahead or even wants to. I see that I am free to respond to the moment and therefore have no need to be in charge because, more than likely, I already am by merely being able to respond rather that to be reacting
This is the end of the state of being call “having a problem.”
This is transformation
This is the ending of disintegration, therefore integration
This is being born anew.
AS I’VE MATURED:
I’ve learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them and hope they panic and give in.
I’ve learned that no matter how much I care, some people are just jackasses.
I’ve learned to not compare myself with others. They are more screwed up than I think.
I’ve learned that age is a very high price to pay for maturity.
