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The Groups
| Believe in yourself as a spiritual being of grandeur, and recognize your Divinity. Moreover, contemplate the Truth that you are here to release the imprisoned splendor that is within. - Joseph Murphy |
I have noticed through both personal experience and observing others that people respond for the most part in one of two ways to trials--with acute dejection and feelings of utter hopelessness, often combined with various forms of escape and self-destructive behavior (drugs, alcohol, violence, larceny and deception), OR, by "seeking" answers. We are all on a journey toward realization of our Divinity. Conscious seekers have come to the point where they have awakened and chosen the latter way. If you are reading this, you are likely one of those. Often we awaken through realization that our pain and suffering is only exacerbated by our refusal to heed the urgings of the Universe to make change in our lives. Those who are continuing to respond to trials in dysfunctional ways have not yet reached the point of choosing awareness. At some point, the pain and suffering that arises from their behavior may finally lead to their awakening in this lifetime. The universe is always trying to lead us toward wholeness and teach us to choose thoughts of love and turn from fear. And it teaches through a very efficient system of cause and effect - matching our inner convictions and focus with outer experience. Thus to assist us in preferring and choosing loving thoughts, focus upon fear brings uncomfortable and undesirable effects that don't feel good. When it finally gets so bad and we feel so miserable, many of us awaken to what the universe is teaching. We begin to consider change. Others will choose to continue the course of reaction, drama and fear to their demise; but still, their souls will continue upon an evolving path to awareness.
In a sense, it could be said that it takes courage to have chosen the seeking path as we have because there isn't all that much support out there for going within, the way of spiritual seeking - at least outside of a religious context. (I make this distinction because turning to traditional religion is widely accepted and in that sense does not take the sort of courage to which I refer.) But non-religious metaphysical seeking goes against conventional wisdom, against the ways of mass consciousness (and individually, ego consciousness), which tells us to "get out there" and "do, do, do, take action, action, action" to solve your problems. Still, most who have awakened don't necessarily view it as a courageous choice, for we have realized that when it comes right down to it, there really is no other choice but to take this new path. We had already concluded that exclusive commitment to the conventional wisdom of the world was just no longer an option; we had already realized that it did not, could not provide the answers we needed. We had arrived at 12th grade in earth school and there was no turning back. Succinctly, we had already been there and done that.
So now here we are awakened and ready to experience more wholeness in our lives. Alas, it is the case unfortunately, that so many "light seekers" feel alone; because, quite frankly, at this point in our evolution, most people are still unconsciously wading in mass conscious thoughts. I might interject here that the individual ego is the conglomeration of limited thoughts that one has absorbed from mass consciousness. It is a body of thought with which the individual identifies. The individual's fixation upon the limiting thoughts of the ego results in limited experience. So, many seekers, awakened and consciously trying to break with ego fixation and move away from that muck, often don't have a lot of people around them who are open to the new thought ideas of which the seeker is becoming aware. These awakened ones, open to a new broader perspective of the universe and of life -- eager and excited about this new way of seeing things and a new way of operating their lives -- often study and read voraciously.
The new way of operating involves a significant change of approach, best described by contrasting it with the conventional ("old") way. The conventional way of getting what we want in life involves action and doing; it's about manipulating physical material and people and events. It focuses upon competition and winning at all costs, even at the expense of harming others. The new way involves cooperation with the way the universe works in terms of energy and the principle of cause and effect. With this approach, rather than focusing on manipulating the outer, we focus upon establishing our own inner energy in such a way that it is a match to what we desire to create or bring into our lives. Then through the principles of cause and effect and the flow of energy toward what is of similar vibration, we rendezvous with our desires in such a way that is for the good of all involved.
Immersed in the world of limiting thoughts however, many trying to learn to operate in this new way, find themselves continually tempted by the distractions of mass thought -- and succumbing to them. The result is that even with their new awareness, they are experiencing difficulty in creating the new circumstances and conditions in their lives that they desire. One way of looking at why seekers don't create what they desire, with as much ease as possible, is that they are not vibrating at the energy level that is consistent with what they desire. So what we have is seekers absorbing all of this knowledge and intellectual understanding (which is good and I would never have them stop reading and studying) but they are not really changing their energy. What it amounts to is, knowledge doesn't create-- energy does. Or more specifically, we get what our energy is-not what our knowledge is.
So many people who are lacking in health, or abundance or love relationships, are sort of immersed in their low energy as regards those subjects; but that low energy also spills over into other facets of their life. They feel bummed and sort of hopeless that things will ever change. Despite their intellectual understanding and knowledge of Conscious Creation (CC) principles, they are still not making movement in their experiences because it's difficult to implement the knowledge in this state of low energy. Trapped in the muck of mass consciousness and frozen in fear, they are unable to get their mind off of what appears to be these unresolvable circumstances that exist on the outer physical plane. They're not able to see any possibility of relief. But whoa; let's hold up a moment! Before you think that this sounds like a depressing, hopeless situation, let me stop right here and stress a very important point. Since it's all about our energy, there is no permanency whatever to this situation. It is only an illusion. There is nothing like a fate cast in stone to any of this - absolutely not! When our energy changes, our experiences change accordingly. We'll be getting back to that, but now let's continue with our description of the dilemma many of us feel.
CC principles urge us to get into a state where we can feel as we would when we've already attained that which we desire. But it's difficult to conceive of a particular state when one has never known wholeness in that area. There's little or no prior experience of the feelings upon which to draw. This is a bind of course, because if an individual cannot break out of the focus of lack and limitation in that area, she will only continue in the same spiral of her focus. And, as circumstances worsen, the fear and hopelessness only increases. Having awakened however, it's most unlikely that any seeker would revert back to the reactionary mode of the unawakened state, or if they were to, they would not remain there long, for they would very soon realize the futility of that. But, as is often the case, they will continue plugging along, though in a state of erratic, low energy.
Albert Einstein said, "No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it". We know we are here to grow and transcend, and what we are to transcend is that consciousness that has created the problems. It is a given that we can overcome any problem - it is an absolute -- for that is part of the whole grand scheme of the Universe. It is through meeting challenges and difficulties and overcoming our problems that we undertake our primary purpose here, that of rediscovering our Divinity. So to overcome our problems we must transcend the consciousness of the ego which only sees problems and has brought us a persistence of our problems. We are to drop our identity with the ego and discover and re-identify with the Divine Presence and Power within us. We are to see anew.
Now even with our fixation upon our problem areas, most of us still have areas in our lives where we flow and manifest with more ease. We all come into this life with different self-assignments for growth that will lead us toward awareness. So it is that there are infinite variations of personal reality. As our souls all chose different life circumstances and challenges for this incarnation, we all become conditioned by different arrays of negative prompters. And at the same time, we also each have areas in which we feel masterful. The thing is that we just take for granted those areas where we are strong. It just seems to us that that's the way life is, just as we sort of see limitations and struggles as just part of the way life is as well. Of course that sense of "seeming the way life is" is not really the way life is, for the concept of "the way it is" implies fate - that fate is reality. But as awakened seekers we know that we aren't controlled by fate. We might wonder then what really is at work in this phenomenon of high energy and confidence in some areas of our lives but not in others.
Clearly, in our "problem" areas, we have blocks; the person in the grip of fear is blocked from seeing possibilities for resolution, blocks that those who have flow in that particular area don't have. This means that the answers are there but precisely because we are blocked in a particular area, we can't see them. For example, the person with money problems is unable to see the opportunities to express her talents and to be fairly compensated in return.
Learning how to clear our blocks that we may realize the Infinite Power within us is all just part of the grand scheme of the evolution of the soul and the expansion of consciousness. It is a natural part of the human experience with which we can all pretty much identify or at least understand. And therefore this dilemma is not to be scoffed at. Nor does it make any sense to complain, resist or agonize over it. Rather, as light seekers, we want to dissolve the blocks that stand in the way of our seeing the light. The light symbolizes the Truth. We are, after all, seekers of Truth. And the Truth is that we are Divine Infinite and Eternal Beings. We know there is only One Mind, which being Infinite pervades all, is all -- i.e., All That Is. That means that we are nothing other than God. But having become incarnate, we have lost contact with that Truth and have taken on the identity of false beliefs that is ego. So understanding all of this, it makes no sense to cast aspersions upon ourselves, or fellow seekers, for our blocks.
When it comes to the perennial subjects of who we are, what life is about and how to be happy and fulfilled, my inclination in trying to provide clarity, is always to hone it down to the essentials. Succinctly and simply, what it comes down to is self-identity. Are we going to identify with the conglomeration of the false beliefs that are the ego, OR, are we going to transform and finally begin to identify with our God-hood? Of course our purpose is to rediscover the Truth of our Divine nature. As seekers, we have begun the process of making the transition from our false self to operating from the truth that we are all that God is. Alas, mere knowledge of our Divinity is not the same as feeling it and "knowing" it from within. Transformation does not come from knowledge alone. Any fears and feelings of inadequacy we may be holding stand in the way of our transformation.
Seekers Helping Each Other
This brings me to the subject of helping fellow seekers get beyond their blocks to accepting the truth of their "God-hood". It is quite clear (and all of the sacred writings, as well as A Course In Miracles refer to it), that we are supposed to be helping each other to discover and accept each of our own Divine Magnificence. It's all about lifting each other up. We NEED each other's help to see that at our center, we are all that God is. We are all part of Universal Mind--all part of the same consciousness. We are to encourage each other to let go of fear, to stop resisting. We are here to help each other by sharing our piece of the "all is well" pie. That's what uplifting is about. Amongst other things, this life is definitely about giving and receiving. And this interchange of upliftment is the finest form of giving and receiving. We get so wrapped up in the frightening thoughts that our own injured little egos present to us that we forget to do that. But, it just so happens that helping each other is also the best way to heal and realize our own Divinity. Of course, it didn't really "just so happen" that way. We know there are no accidents and that the universe, indeed, the whole scheme is a beautifully integrated whole.
Meanwhile, there is so much of this attitude out there, even amongst "New-Agers" that is critical of those who are not achieving mastery. We might hear something like, "Tsk, tsk, so and so will never change. He/she continues talking and acting in ways that show she doesn't really want to change." It's a sort of criticism of a person for having their blocks. The idea that the seeker doesn't want to change is sheer nonsense. Of course they want to change. They have awakened because they want to change. Sure, they may still be holding onto negativity, afraid to let go of things they should; but that doesn't mean they don't want to change. The only thing that their being stuck reveals is the phenomenon of their blocks - not an unwillingness to change. And, by the way, the ones making the critical remarks are also demonstrating that they too are still stuck in ego identity, revealing their own blocks. In an attempt to help, the critics might say, almost in a scolding manner, "Stop talking like that or saying that; no wonder you're having these problems. Can't you see what you're doing? You'll never change because you really don't want to." This is not what uplifting is about. It's not helpful; it only upsets the person more. She is already gripped by fear and now she's being chastised on top of it and made to feel even more weak and inadequate in overcoming her fears. So I'm suggesting that if we are to help, we should have an understanding for each other's blocks and pain and suffering. This is not the same as commiseration however - more about that to come.
I should clarify something here. You may have noticed that I've been referring to "us" and "we", as seekers; and that we can and should help each other. We are all one and every being is an expression of the One Mind. And we are here to love and uplift all. But for what I am about to describe here, I am not referring to people who have not yet awakened and who are still preferring to remain in ego fixation, being deceptive, manipulative, violent, etc. I am referring only to those who have awakened and are on a journey to awareness and desire greater wholeness. Allow me to further explain. We can have compassion for the unawakened, and rightly should of course, for it's clear they too are suffering. In our oneness, they are what we are; so this is not about separation or bias or anything of the sort. I am simply saying that the unawakened, by definition, have not yet chosen to be open and receptive to the interchange of upliftment. Being that we believe that old maxim, "When the student is ready, the master will appear", we can't do much for the unawakened. That means that we don't proselytize or try to convince or change anyone. Each must come to it through the same sort of process of giving up the old ways just as we have. That act of giving up and finally asking the universe for answers then moves one's Inner Guidance to present the "teacher" (which can appear in a variety of forms). Relevant to this, Paxton Robbe has written the following in his e-book, No Time For Karma:
"Needing to fix people who are close to us is an ego trip of the most painful kind. Believing that we can fix anybody is an error in judgment. If it were possible for one entity to fix another entity then God, or one of God's representatives, would have surely fixed you and me by now. It can't happen in that way".
So everything that we discuss, and teach and learn from each other here is in the context of fellow seekers having the commonality of the awakened state, seeking the consciousness of oneness with Universal Subconscious Mind.
The idea within the sacred teachings that we are to help each other reveals to us the key to helping awakening people shift out of their undesired circumstances and experiences more easily. I refer to this as Consciousness Sharing (CS). It's a way to help people change their identity from that of the ego, where the fear is centered, to their True God-self. It presupposes that they are simply blocked and eager for help, cooperative in every way, truly wanting a shift (an energy upgrade). This transition can be facilitated rather quickly in an environment of the CS group where the whole focus and energy is uplifting Truth. CS groups are for people who are awake and aware of their responsibility for their experiences.
The key to CS is support from others who are also wanting to maintain a high vibration and focus upon what they desire to create. In the group, we are constantly reminded that our desire is God's desire and that we can have faith that the God Wisdom within us will reveal the perfect plan for its unfoldment. This supportive environment neutralizes the negativity and thoughts of limitation that exist within the world around them as they go about their day-to-day activities. The combined energy of love and focus upon Truth (that we are eternal spirit, or God) quickly moves people from their blocks and fears. An important element in all of this is that any one person with a block also discovers that he/she has areas of mastery (areas of little or no blockage) and thus is able to help others in that area. This exchange sets up a great synergy in which each participant benefits and "gets over" quickly - far more quickly than through the endless years of lonely study and practice that many of us engage in. Of course, we will continue to improve our mastery outside of the group but more effectively, with greater ease and flow, and while living more joyfully.
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©, 2004- 2006, William Gunderson,
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