WHAT’S GOING ON
WGO#160-November 2007
ALONG THE WAY
It is always NOW.
THIS MONTH’S THOUGHT
Resistance to ‘what is’ is our only problem.
FREEDOM by Dr. Bob Gibson
—Newport Beach June 1980.
Inasmuch as conflict is the human problem we will take it under three different names: Conflict; struggle; resistance. So we resist doing certain things. We resist things being like they are. We resist situations. Consequently we feel all torn up. I happen to be in the field of endeavor (whether I like it or not) of listening to people’s problems. Every problem people call about, and they call from all over the United States, it is they are struggling to get something they don’t have or they think they would want or to do or have, or a situation they want a certain way and it’s not that way and would I please make it that way for them. They want this but they don’t want this. Conflict is a very easy thing to have, apparently. You can call it conflict, struggle and resistance, which is the attempt to get from ‘what is’ to what I believe ought to be, should be, must be, has to be.
‘What is’ the reality and I find nothing wrong with it. What is wrong with ‘what is’? What’s wrong with things as they are? What you are is a living being and you experience your own inner state of being everyday. If your inner state is serene or peaceful or happy or joyful, you had a wonderful day. You have an ideal, which says what you have to have in order to be happy. Happiness is when you like ‘what is’. If you don’t like ‘what is’, you’re not happy. What is that has to be changed in order for a person to be severe and peaceful inside?
So if we look at what ought to be, what should be and what must be, you I will find that those are things that somebody told you or taught you along the way that things should be different. Things will never be different than what they are at the moment. It’s always now and it’s always ‘what is’. I don’t see anything that needs to be changed in it.
If you’re angry at the moment and you’re free to be angry, it’s gone in a split second. But if you get angry at yourself because you’re angry, the anger stays around. Now suppose you were depressed, which is a fancy word for self-pity. Depression is the technical term for self-pity, then we can take all sorts of nice pills to get out of it. If one were depressed and said, “Well, I feel depressed. I’m perfectly free to be depressed.” So what? Who are you that you shouldn’t feel sorry for yourself once in a while? Did you ever freely feel sorry for yourself? You start laughing so quick it’s unbelievable. It’s the biggest joke that anybody ever came up with. If you are free to feel sorry for yourself, it won’t last but a very few seconds because you see the joke and start laughing. Let’s say you are feeling very anxious about something. Did you ever freely be anxious? No. We’re always struggling to find the solution to change circumstances, then I wouldn’t be anxious anymore. Then you get anxious because you can’t find the way to make it quit. But if a person is free to be anxious, you start laughing about it in a very few minutes. Now, one of the things I hear is, “I’m full of fear.” Did you ever feel fearful? Did you ever freely feel fearful? No. You’re afraid to feel fearful because someone told you it was bad to feel afraid. Did you ever sit down and be free to be fearful? Then you have an adventure. So, you have what you call a problem, which is always because you have an inner feeling that you have been taught that was bad or not to have or should not have or ought not to have. But the more you fight all those things, the more you have them. If you are free to have them, you’ve joined the human race. We all have them once in awhile. But you thought you were the only one. You thought it was something abnormal. So, if you have fear, it just means you are a human being. We all do it. After you’re free to do it, it seldom comes around. If it does, it goes away real quick. They also told you you should never be angry. But I’m perfectly free to be angry. I can’t remember being angry in many, many, many long years. But I’m real free to be ticked off.
What you experience is not every little sensation you have. Those are only what you sense. What you really experience is your inner state of being. Now the only state of being that is worthwhile is when you are free. The most joyful inner feeling is the feeling of freedom. I’m free to experience whatever may arise today. Now that is truly freedom and that is the source of all serenity, peace, happiness, whatever word you want to have for your inner state. It is all based on freedom. Now, freedom doesn’t come from having something or from doing something. It comes from being aware, simply, that I am a human being, therefore free to experience anything that may arise today and the only thing that can arise is my inner state. Now, we’ve all sensed traffic today. We’re sensed the temperature. We’ve sensed each other. We’ve sensed food we might have eaten. We’ve sensed sleeping. We’ve sensed taking a shower sometime during the day. You may have sensed all those things. But the only thing you have experienced is your inner state. If your inner state was in the pit, that’s what you experience. But if you’re free to be in the pit, you get out. You’re going to have a feeling and you’re going to have it, it’s going to be around. As soon as you’re free to have it, you begin to sense freedom. Now, there is no technique except being simply aware that I’m a human being. Therefore I’m an experiencing being and I’m going to experience only one thing: my inner state of being. You are free to experience whatever inner state of being you have. Let’s call it frustration. You’re free to be frustrated for a few minutes. So what? Everyone here has been frustrated some time or another.
So, if one sees that all there is to experience is my inner state and if I practice struggle, conflict and resistance, the inner state will be most unpleasant. Most people experience a very unpleasant inner feeling most of the time. Not a one of them is free to have the state they have at the moment. They’re fighting it.
Now, you’re free to have any kind of an inner state that may arise. Now that takes no big effort. You will sense ten thousand things second by second. They are very, very temporary. You experience your inner state. Your inner state of being is highly contagious. So, if one would care to make some little contribution to yourself and to Life, and you are Life, the first thing is to be free to experience whatever inner state you have at the moment. If you’re free to experience you’ll see a transformation in it very quickly. When you’re free, you’re happy, you’re serene, you’re peaceful—they all start with freedom. If you’re free to sense a little rejection or disapproval, it may hurt a bit. But, if you’re free to be rejected, it’s funny how much it doesn’t hurt. You’re free to experience it.
So, you can feel any way you like if you start with freedom. Freedom is only a state of consciousness that you truly are already of free individual. You may not have discovered it yet, but you really are. You are free to sense anything that comes along without making a production over of it. And you’re free to experience any inner feeling you may have. If you will experience freely those that we call unpleasant, you will see them transformed in very quickly. .
Are you free to experience any inner feeling you have? Are you free to sense anything you may sense? If you do, you’re a free individual. If you’re free, there is no conflict, no struggle, no resistance. That is called being integrated. When disintegration goes, integration is what’s left. You don’t have to work to be ONE. You were born that way. We got it all screwed up and separated and now we have to stop the other stuff. Integration is what remains when all conflict, struggle and resistance ends. You might as well end it now as tomorrow.
Most people are not in charge of their own inner state so they are very susceptible to any mood. If you’re in charge you don’t catch all those unpleasant moods. Like you don’t catch the flu if you’re in charge of yourself. It’s nice to be in charge. If you have a good mood, everything works well.
When you feel sorry for yourself there is a hormone formed called DOCA and it is very addictive. That is why people hardly ever get over self-pity because they are addicted to the hormone. So when their hormone starts wearing off, they get their fix again.
Question: When you mind is thinking about tomorrow and yesterday, how do I stay in the now?
Answer: Well, try to eat breakfast tomorrow now. You see, when you think, if you are aware that you are thinking, then it is always in the present. If you remember and you are aware you are remembering, you’re in the present, remembering now. Remembering is something you can do. You can’t remember some other time. You can only remember now. There is nothing wrong with remembering, with making a plan, if you wanted to (it won’t work). You can call it a tentative arrangement. But be sure you know what you’re doing. So, I’m imagining something. So if I want to sit down and imagine something, I can paint me all kinds of pretty pictures. But I’m doing it when? Right now. Present time. So, I’ve found people who were afraid because they’d listened to these people talk about being in the present. They were afraid to remember something, even. I remember quite often. But I do it right now. I want to keep that memory bank going. I’ve got a lot of things in there I want to be able to fish out at any moment. The only time you can remember anything is now. The whole bit about being in the present is: I’m doing this. I am recalling. I am remembering. I am imagining. I am tentative arranging. I’m doing it now. The only time I can do anything is right now. So, if someone is telling you to be in the present, it doesn’t mean that you can only be aware of what is going on right here and you’re got watch real careful to not let something else come in. Because, if you do you sure get frustrated trying that little game. Something is always about to remind you of something that did happen. I want to be able to say: This reminds me of that right now. I don’t want to think I’m back there. I’m here. But I certainly have a memory back and I’m going to use it. I’m aware that I’m doing it now. I’m doing it intentionally is basically what is meant by being conscious. I’m doing it intentionally. I’m responsible for doing it, not somebody else.
A STORY:
It seems that resistance comes at me in cycles. I swing happily along and everything is going my way. The mood is up. I am at peace. Then, here it comes.
Life evidently saw me nodding off and, because It loves me so much, proceeded to WAKE ME UP – one more time.
The list of things that didn’t go my way is boring and tedious. I’ll tell you a few of them. I found bees swarming under the deck. The hot water tank upstairs rusted out, pouring rusty water down through the walls, soaking the downstairs carpet. A snake slithered aimlessly across the deck as if he owned the place. Two different cataract surgeries were far from ideal. The air-conditioner drain stopped up soaking the carpet again. The armadillos destroyed the yard. You get the idea.
I would like to report to you that I handled all of this with cheerful good humor. No, I became angry, cranky and depressed. The Not-I’s took complete charge, sending me on an emotional roller-coaster ride. They knew exactly which suggestions to throw at me, and I would accept, to destroy this living being.
I used all the Teaching tools that I knew of. Here are a few:
- I’m free to experience whatever arises in my day. That includes the anger and self-pity.
- I act myself into right feeling. (what is ‘right,’ by the way)
- Nothing happens by chance.
- I wrote long gratitude lists.
- I know that with all the s___ going on there had to be a pony somewhere in it.
- I practiced staying in the present moment in which everything is okay.
- I practiced letting go.
I had to be careful to avoid bashing myself. The Not-I’s tried to pull me into the endless loop of trying to figure out what in my consciousness had drawn all of this to me. Yet even that had some value. I had been standing on my pedestal of vanity and pride screaming that I would not allow circumstances to determine my inner state. Hmmm.
As the result of all this discomfort, I am more aware of the ’ideals’ (illusions) that I set up so I can be non-disturbed. I am more aware that I am 100% subject to suggestion 100% of the time. Back to square ONE—to re-evaluate the purpose for living.
Since today is calm and peaceful, I can look back at the past month more objectively. I am a spiritual being having a human experience. Life happens. Not all of it is pleasant. None of it is important. All of it is interesting.
And it comes to pass.
SPIRITUAL BEING: Dr. Bob Gibson
The whole thing is that we will choose to say from now on that I am spirit having a human experience and none of these human experiences are important. Can you remember that? Think you can do that? You can play that role from now on. Nobody can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are spirit having a human experience. But if we check it out we see that we are spirit, really, and humans are on this planet to gain experience, to understand humans. One of these days you will be something other than what you are today. And maybe your chore would be to work with people invisibly. And you would understand all human experience so you wouldn’t criticize the guy. You could understand him and work with him.
When you know you are spirit having a human experience I don’t see any reason to get upset. This prevents the upset, not what to do about it. So what. It is just an experience and it really doesn’t matter. It will pass real quickly. Everything comes and goes. We can experience it freely.
