WHAT’S GOING ON?
#155 JUNE 2007
ALONG THE WAY
Life has only one purpose for me and that purpose is to evolve into an integrated, conscious being.
THIS MONTHS THOUGHT
Will power is a fancy name for conflict.
SCIENCE OF MAN (Lesson Ten)
(Continued from last month)
When we begin to see that the whole idea of accounts receivable due the self are illusions, that nothing is due, then one is further freed from the ideas of having something due one. One no longer identifies with these ideas that they owe me that they have done terrible things to me and they should do something about it.
Each “I” has a very high opinion of it’s worth. The one that complains will brag about how it got something done by complaining. “I” cried and he went out and bought me flowers. “I” cried and he went and bought me a new car. “I” cried and he got me some jewelry or he quit going out at nights. Or the man says he sat and pouted all evening and mama began to really notice that he wasn’t just putting up with everything and she began to be awful sweet to me. “I” just walked out of the house and slammed the door and when I came back in she was kind of inline a little bit.
So, each “I” has a very high opinion of itself. It will tell how it pleased people and did very good. One will tell how loyal it’s been to the institution that it accepts as an authority. How it’s always believed and done everything that the institution asked for. But it’s feeling a little sorry for itself because the institution hasn’t really taken the proper notice. In fact the self has not yet been made the head of the whole institution. It’s still an underling. But it is very well has a very high opinion of itself.
And the one that is always putting on a front and behaving differently will tell you how wonderfully they behaved under such adverse circumstances. You will hear the “I’s within and the “I’s without in the environment all telling how wonderful they performed. But they always imply that they were’t given quite enough for it.
And the blamer will be busy telling how he determined the cause of a situation and how it could be corrected if everybody could just see what he sees as cause. If so-and-so could just be eliminated or locked up or in some way disposed of. If they’d just go away everything would be all right, but still it feels it’s been cheated because everybody wasn’t converted by his discovery of what was to blame. Everybody hasn’t changed their ways. So it was mistreatment that people didn’t get with it and do what they ought to have done.
Now we will observe how each of these supplies greed by what it reports and that each of the “Not-I’s” is greedy for more attention, more approval, more sense of power, more appreciation. It has a false picture that it is a very wonderful, unusual, well-developed, highly conscious, and unusually pious state of affairs, a composite picture of self. But it also, along with how pious and wonderful it is, is also very aware that others do not appreciate this great and wonderful thing. So, it wants more appreciation.
So, this is what we will write after our three headings of: How I see greed working in the self, in John or in Mary. How I see vanity. And we might write out that picture. And you won’t be able to do it all at one time. You will write a few lines of description and then a little later you will add some more to it until you get the picture pretty well completed. And you might see the whole idea is an illusion. And then we will see the feeling of the necessity to defend this picture, this false picture, this illusion of John or Mary, of self.
After all, they’re ever changeable , ever flitting, first one runs, then another. So no description could be accurate. But as we put the means of defense, all the time the self is on the defensive, all the time John is on the defense, all the time Mary is on the defense. And putting up the defense to prove that the false picture is correct and that the accusation is all wrong. Anything that anyone said about the self is in error. We might begin to see quite an illusion.
Now, there is more than one reason for asking the person, each of us, to write down what we observe. What I, the observer, observes. Write it down and keep a record of it. Every time that we do anything you have more than one entry for it to be in to the inner man. If I hear something or see something, that is one entrance in. One is through hearing, the other is through seeing. If I don’t act upon it, nothing happens. It is just a bit of trivia in the trivia box. But if I write it down, now it is put in the action center of the person as well. And if I’ve really looked it over after I’ve written it down, have seen it and heard it, I will value what I’ve discovered. Now we have another center involved.
And when two or more centers are involved in any given bit of observation, anything that one is aware of, and acted upon, and valued, and seen or heard, that is really seeing, that is being conscious of it. One is only taking notice of it if one only seen it or heard it. One is only taking notice. One has not understood it. One has not brought it truly within the being. It is only in the trivia box.
But when it is seen or heard, written and valued, then it is truly one, and it cannot be taken away. So there is a very definite reason for writing it down, keeping a record of it. As one keeps this record, one sees the value of it. So, two or more are gathered together, two or more of man’s inner centers of activity are gathered together in one activity, then something really happens. X operates upon it.
Now, as we keep our records we will observe that the self is an illusion, that its whole ideas are all based upon suggestion. It’s based on the ideal that the whole purpose of living is to be non-disturbed which is an illusion. Now, you cannot force seeing something as an illusion. You can see that it is not valid and as you observe it in action, you can begin to observe that it is an illusion. In other words, really seeing something in a new way is something one experiences again. Report, observe, write, and review, which is to value it. And see the value in what one has done.
Now about this time it might be well to remind us that we’re working on the tenth week. And if we’re somewheres out beyond that and we’re working with discussions numbers thirty-two or twenty-seven or some other number, vanity has said, “You don’t need to bother with this”. Greed as said, “Let’s go on and get it over with”. And pride will now defend your position. But if we may suggest that if these aspects of mammon, greed, vanity, and pride, has one beyond the tenth discussion on the tenth week that we go back and start over again. Because otherwise these three aspects of the four dual basic urges of mammon will make your entire efforts useless.
A STORY
The Teaching Material has much to say about building a spiritual body. This spiritual body is the frame of reference through which we see. This frame of reference is made up of the Teaching ideas. One of the basic ideas that can be incorporated into this spiritual body is: The living being cannot afford emotions… fear, guilt anger, insecurity, and all their synonyms.
Sometime ago I was leaving around 10:00 PM from Brownwood to drive the 130 miles home. I told my friends my plans to leave and started toward the car. Immediately they offered all kinds of suggestions “There are always drunks on the highways on Saturday night. What if you have car trouble late at night? Etc. etc.” As I opened the car door one friend said to me, “You’re not afraid, are you?” Without thinking I said, “No, I can’t afford it.”
I refuse to be in bondage to fear. If the decisions I make are based on fear I am robbing myself of many joys life has for me. If I am resisting any “what is”, I must look carefully to see if fear is the basis of the resistance. Of course, the fear comes from the basic decision we made that the purpose of living is to regain the non-disturbed state. The self wants to know how things are going to work out before taking a risk. To not know is dangerous and threatening to the little self. It wants to be safe and comfortable. It wants all the lights to be green before driving to California.
Sounds boring, doesn’t it?
To build a spiritual body has infinite value. I will do the Work.
DECISIONS by Dr. Bob Gibson (TNT Reporting)
Most of us get so we are concerned about making a decision. The misconception is that if I were clear enough I’d know how to do it immediately. The usual way to make a decision is to gain as much data as possible. Now if there isn’t any data, you don’t make a decision. You run an experiment. In an experiment, one has to be absolutely free to fizzle, to fail.
Now the first rule that comes along if you’re interested in being successful at anything, whether it is in being a healer, or being spiritually evolved, or making millions of dollars, is to be free to fail. If you’re not free to fail, you can’t function. You’re trying to find all the ways to be safe. I can’t think of anything that there isn’t some risk involved. If you’re not free to fail, there is no possibility of functioning.
We can all say we want to succeed in whatever we’re doing, and it doesn’t matter whether it is painting a picture, or writing a story, or making a lot of money, or inventing something or running a business, the first necessity is that we are free to fail. Then you’re free to go ahead and do it. But if you’re not free to fail, you’ll have to take so many precautions you’ll never get it done.
WHERE TO FIND TRUTH (from School Talk # 55)
- When you see a misconception (mis-information or lack of information) for what it is, you have seen TRUTH.
- The most firmly planted misconception we have lived by is: “I’m a victim of how you treat me, circumstance, the economy, the system, the weather, etc. Circumstances undergo transformation when this misconception is recognized. We can then become self-determining.
- Another misconception we have is that people know what is right, proper, and justifiable but go on and do wrong anyway. This justifies anger, resentment, turmoil, self-pity and misery. Try to do something that is wrong, improper, and unjustifiable. We simply cannot do it. When we understand this and apply it to others, we can find no fault with anyone.
- When we see that we don’t have any rights (something that cannot be taken away) we have many privileges, which we retain my simple good manners.
- When we recognize these three misconceptions, which can be stated in about 300 different ways, we are liberated and experience the living cycle rather than the vicious cycle. We are in charge of what we do. We report straight to Spirit and are a living expression of Truth. There is union of Spirit and awareness.
