There are countless numbers of hypnotizing illusions and deceptions in this world. This means, in part, that there is an enormous amount of worldly static, influences from this world which are overwhelming. They capture us, hypnotize us, magnetize us, they lure us into various aspects of creation where we are enchanted, engrossed, and in a very real way, made sluggish, reduced to a state of torpor. We might come to a point at which we are so engulfed by these things they control our lives. We think we control them, but they actually are in control of our lives; we are so fascinated by these illusions we are committed to them instead of anything else.

What are these things? They are different for each of us because we are all caught in different ways. The forces of darkness and illusion attack us at the point of our weakness and drag us in their direction. Our differing weaknesses depend on the way we have been raised, where we have been raised, what our culture is like, the sort of religion we have been brought up in. Our differences mean we are caught in different ways, but the point is we are all caught, we have all been caught by the world.

We visit holy places to remind ourself that something else is going on although we are caught by the world; we visit such places to escape from things which have trapped us, hoping for moments of clarity or divine intervention. We go there hoping to have God interfere with our lives, we go to have God intervene in our lives, we ask Him to intervene in our lives. Now the interesting thing is that He is always involved in our lives, there is not a moment when He is not involved in our lives. We say prayers to invoke our God who is the creator, the sustainer and nourisher, the compassionate One whose mercy and compassion constantly sustain us. If He were to withhold sustenance for one second the world would no longer exist, but since we have lost touch with the reality of His existence, we ask for His intervention.

What are we actually asking for? We are asking that the hypnotism which has snared us in this world fall away, asking so that we can see reality, so that we can be in the moment which understands His grace, His glory and His involvement with us. We recognize the truth that this reality is always there, but we are not there, not there because we have chosen to be not there, or perhaps we have been so overwhelmed by the forces of the world we cannot involve ourself with Him. When we recognize this we go to a place like a shrine where we can remind ourself of our connection to God, our connection to the prophets and the great holy beings, our connection to the friends of God and all those who keep trying to intervene on our behalf.

We have to learn how to intervene on our own behalf, take control of this intervention so that we learn how to make the experience at the place of pilgrimage happen more often. This means realigning ourself, letting go of the things we consider important in our life, even if only for moments at a time.

We have been told that the best form of meditation is the constant repetition of the prayer that only God exists, we do not. If we can understand this prayer and practice it a little every day, changes occur, practicing this of course, in addition to all the other prayers and duties we have. The understanding that only God exists means all the other things we are concerned about do not exist—our ability to let go of these things is directly related to our ability to be in the moment, to exist now, not in the past or the future, to exist within the light of His grace at every moment instead of struggling to find it.

People trying hard to stay afloat in a difficult situation are helped significantly if they have something in the water to keep them afloat, like life buoys, a life jacket or something else to hold onto, almost anything to help them stay afloat. We have been given things to help us stay afloat, we have been given many things to help us reach the shore in this ocean which is illusion. We have been given all those divinely wise beings, we have been given a path which has a foundation, a form we can hold onto as we reach for the space with no form.

Because we ourself have form, it is difficult for us to relate to formlessness, we need help within this form, we need sanctuary within this form. The place of prayer is a sanctuary, a meeting place is a sanctuary for this form, friends are a sanctuary for this form. When we gather together with people who understand formlessness, who understand the need to escape to reality, they buttress us, they keep us from floundering. We come together to help each other recognize the truth, and when we love each other for the sake of God, this love carries a warmth, an invigorating fire which helps each of us turn more easily to Him.

In this way we become God’s assistants, helping in His work of returning us to Him. This is our work, to help each other with a smile, a hand, a good word. When we approach this work in an appropriate way it can have visible results, such a positive effect it overrides many of the fascinations of the world which capture us. Once we begin to understand, we are drawn to this kind of work, to this kind of situation.

What is this prayer called the remembrance of God? It is the prayer of remembering moments when we are free of the world, only in moments when we are free of the world do we remember Him. We need to remember Him and those moments when we are free of the world, the path to Him. The straight, true path lies through moments which are free of the world, moments when we are together with friends who are friends and companions in the name of His love. When love enters the equation, when we learn to love for the sake of love and not for the sake of other things, when we learn to love for the sake of the truth in each of us, for His sake, for the sake of the great holy beings and the prophets, everything inside us begins to change, we begin to melt. And what is it that melts? The lower self melts away, the thing that grasps the world and wants to hold onto it, savor it and collect it begins to melt. God’s hands replace the hands of desire.

We have to decide whose hands we use, do we use the hands of desire or the hands of our Lord? What does our Lord want, what do our base desires want? There is a difference. Once we recognize the difference we drop certain things we can no longer hold onto because of the stench within them, the seductive outer perfume no longer hides their inner stench. We need to see what really matters.

Our time in this world is allotted, we do not know how much there is, but we do know it has an end. Where are we at that end, who are we at that end, what have we collected by then? The love in our hearts stays with us, His grace stays with us, the truth of His existence stays with us. If we focus on that, if we focus on Him we change, our life changes, the life of the people around us changes. There is a transformation, a glory and light beyond our imagination, beyond our ability to think. We are limited by what we can see, hear and feel, but when He intervenes there are no limits. When He touches us there is no end, there is no beginning, there is endless glory which comes from Him alone, which is His, which He has given us, made our birthright.

This is available if we stop holding back, if we run towards it, excited because it is available and we have discovered its availability. Sorrow must disappear, we have to shout our joy that we recognize God, we recognize He is here, He created us, He nurtures and sustains us, we recognize that His secret is hidden within us, a secret which will unfold. When this secret unfolds our true glory is known, the glory of each of our companions is known and visible on all our faces.

We need to look, we need to look for that glory. As we walk down the street and pass by other people, understand that glory exists within each person; recognize it in ourself and in others. We have to keep resentment away, keep jealousy away because they separate us from God. We must not be separate from Him, we must come close to Him. By coming close to each other we come close to Him. May God help us come closer to our companions in love, may He help us form strong relationships in this world based on love, based on His rule. May He intervene in our lives to bring us closer to Him.

The post #47 Divine Intervention appeared first on The Witness Within.

Sleep does not come only when we lie down in bed, sleep comes whenever we are entranced, sleep is a trance. We are in the sleeping state whenever we are hypnotized, when we are so attracted by something it overwhelms our senses, sleep comes when we take certain drugs which overwhelm us. That dazed state of torpor is sleep, the loss of our perceiving faculties in their highest forms means we are asleep. Now this implies we spend most of our life asleep; those of us who have traveled this path for a long time are aware when these faculties are awake, and we are also aware how short that time is. We know also that we travel this path to develop the ability which makes those faculties grow, which makes them more available, so that we deal with reality, we learn how to be awake in reality, not the things that put us to sleep.

One reason we gather together in groups is to wake up that experience, that wakefulness which gives us a sense of being attuned to reality. When we sit together, focusing pointedly without concern for the past, without concern for the future, without concern for anything in creation, focusing on the Creator, being in tune with the Creator, something astonishing happens, what we can call the floating room syndrome. Suddenly the space we are in, the small rooms we gather in, are outside time and space, they take on a different dimension, they take on the dimension of the absolute now, a dimension most of us have difficulty encountering and living in.

When we enter that dimension of the absolute now we are transfixed in the moment, we are aligned with the moment, not in the past or the future, but now, in this moment. It is rather like being with an excellent chiropractor when everything falls into place, when everything is clicked out of us, it all falls away, all the worries, the troubles and burdens, the scheming and difficulties of the world fall away. For that moment they have no impact and we have no need to react, we do not react, we just exist. We are in a moment which is aligned with now.

It seems that the alignment with now is a portal to another world, the world inspiration comes from, where words come which have no base in our own understanding, where words come which create situations and feelings we are unaccustomed to, the world which offers recognition of the soul, presenting everything we are unaccustomed to, everything different from our usual habits, everything we have not learned to do. This is the place inspiration comes from, the place grace comes from, it comes from being aligned with the truth and creating a space for it to come through. This is the place where angels can touch us. This place, this astonishing moment can sometimes appear to last a long time, and within that moment all the tuning forks have to be aligned, every vibration has to be consistent, and that is one reason why groups tend to whittle down in size. If one person has a sound which does not resonate correctly it dissolves the moment, dissolves a very sensitive, profound situation.

Why do we talk about cleanliness, why do we talk about appropriate behavior? When we align ourself with reality we have to be capable of acting as reality expects us to act, we have to interact with the truth and be confident of that interaction or the truth will not linger. It is not enough to go into the moment, we also have to be acceptable to the moment. This is the work of our lives, becoming acceptable to that moment when we find the truth. That moment might last a long time or only an instant, but that is all we need, to find it for one instant and be acceptable.

This is what appropriate conduct is about, what purity is about, what wakefulness is about. Then when that moment opens for us we can see it, we can be it, feel it, recognize it and surrender, we can give up our self, we can let the drop return to the ocean where the great effulgence of His grace overwhelms us and we become one with it. It is all One. When that moment is correct we are one, there is no separation, there is only the divine understanding of what is going on. There is no difference between ‘I’ and ‘you,’ there is only ‘we,’ ourself in conjunction with God, a conjunction which disappears, no longer necessary, there is only God. At that point words are unnecessary. Understand what we are striving for, understand the greatness of His glory, the immensity of His glory, and understand that He has made this glory accessible to us. It beckons us to come to Him, and so we need to set our intention directly, with knowledge of that place.

Christ on the cross has many meanings. One of the meanings suggests we are nailed to one spot in a glorious way, not as a sacrificial lamb but in a glorious way. We are nailed to that one spot now aligned with all the universes, there is no need for movement. The body is a shell finally nailed down so that the inner resonance can be aligned, we have finally nailed the body down, made it sit still, made it stand still, it can no longer interfere. We need to align ourself, we need to be very still.

There are many methods for learning to be still, but we also need to be pure because paradise is purity—if we are not pure we do not belong there. Can you imagine not belonging there? This is frightening, and it should be what frightens us, that we are not pure enough, we are not clean enough, that we have not washed often enough, have not prayed and resonated enough. This purity should be what we strive for so that when we come to those moments we are acceptable to reality.

We have to accept reality, we also have to be acceptable to reality. Striving for reality makes us acceptable to reality. We need to surrender the will which resists movement towards reality, surrender it, surrender the will to exist in this world, surrender it, understand what it takes to give it up and give it up. We can only hint at what it takes, yet we each know when we are clean, we know when we have no motives of self, when we are not driven by the things we think we want or need, we know when there is purity in our intention.

When we sit together we are practicing for paradise; by being truly acceptable to each other we can become acceptable to reality. We are given to each other to practice becoming acceptable to reality. All these things are gifts given by our Creator to be more like Him, to be acceptable to Him.

Certain people want to be in the state of the melting heart, they want to be in that state yet they are fearful if they do not know how the heart can melt. It is up to us to create an atmosphere where this process is easy, up to us to create places where people are comfortable enough to move towards truth, where they no longer feel they have to hold back. We are all caught in the small jails of our own making which we do not identify as jails, which we see as walls protecting us from each other and from the world. We need to understand how to let go of these things, how to unlock the gates so that we can proceed into the open space of reality. To do this requires tremendous love, and those who have had little love in their lives, those who have not been melted by love sometimes have difficulty accepting it, they are afraid of what motivates an offer of love.

We need to be without motive. If we have motives, if we have needs, if we have desires or expectations when we offer love it is not being given the right way, it is more like a carrot on a string. We need to give love without carrots, without strings, people need to know when we offer something it is not going to be pulled back, it is given freely. We should learn how to give freely. Charity is giving freely, giving our time, our warmth, our smile, giving our heart, our look, our kindness, our forgiveness, our reconciliation, our melting. Never withhold any of these things we should give as charity to each other.

Most of these acts of love or charity begin with the family. We have to love our children in a way that makes them feel loved and comfortable, that makes us feel loved and comfortable. We need to spread love which has no expectations, which lets others grow. Some things need to be spread around—we cannot hoard love, it does no good if it is hoarded. If we think we can possess this love, it will burn a hole in us.

By learning how to give and making this a big part of our life, we also allow ourself to receive. As we give from one side we are being given from the other, and the source which supplies us is without end. Think of the cornucopia as a manifestation of God’s abundance, we cannot take too much from it because it keeps giving. We need to be cornucopias, unafraid of giving, the more we give the more is given to us, the source which supplies us is without end.

Sages and saints are examples of this, they never hold onto anything, they just keep giving like a river with an endless source. Fear makes us think the source will be depleted, we are always reminded of the limits of our own resources, reminded we should be careful. There are no limits for God’s love, no limits for God’s grace, no limits for His glory. We must become conduits of that love, that grace and glory, let them flow through us without limit. If God wills, we will understand and become part of this great wealth which has no end. We can dispense this wealth with no limit, we can have the eyes to see that true wealth and then open the eyes of others. May we travel this road, this path, may we increase in purity and lose the motivations of self which separate us from each other.

The post #46 Sleeping and Waking appeared first on The Witness Within.

There is competition and the permissible within competition; in other words, as long as we function with integrity, we are encouraged to play the game of the world. Certain things are forbidden, high interest for instance, high interest which can destroy someone is not permitted. In capitalist competition usury is forbidden, although both competition and gain are permissible.

There is the path of the world and the path to God, the path of real human beings, true human beings who are not in competition with each other. The rules of capitalism do not apply to our dealings with each other. When we are competitive with each other, when our mind and our attitude insist we must prevail, difficulties arise. Some people not only need to do what they do, but they also need others to accept what they do and think. If this is a driving force in their life they can go astray on this great path.

We are here to love each other, not to force each other. Tolerance is an astonishing quality which we find in all the great teachers. We need to understand this quality in our dealings with each other, we need to understand the rules of the straight, true path because the rules of this path are different from the rules of the world. Even if the rules of the world, for the world, are permissible, they are not permissible in our dealings with friends and companions. We cannot be demanding of them, we cannot have separations among us, we cannot have competition among us. We need to be joyous in the joy of our friends and sad in their sorrow, we need to be deeply sympathetic to the lives of others.

We should practice the act of having no act, and that means we come without motive, without agenda, we come to serve others because we are without needs. God has provided for us, we are fortunate, we have seen His grace and know that everything we need has already been given to us. We are without needs because God has given us all that we need. Shouldn’t we help those who still have needs, shouldn’t we set the table for those who have needs? They have not understood that their needs are only products of their imagination, an imagination which requires feeding until they recognize they can be self-sustaining.

Let us understand what self-sustaining means: to be self-sustaining in truth means we are sustained by our true self. What is our true self? Our true self is our connection to God which alone sustains us, we need nothing else to sustain us. We have problems when we compete with friends and associates. If they say something we think is not quite right, if we feel we deserve praise which they do not give, if they blame us when we think they have no right to do so, all this causes trouble. We need to be impervious to praise and impervious to blame.

We do not take sustenance from the world nor do we take sadness from the world, happiness and sadness are not what the world has for us. We have decided to leave the way of the world and go a different way, a way which means that our sustenance comes from God, not from the world. Those who look for sustenance from the world need manifest indications of success, they need signs to persuade themselves they are happy, they need proof that what they are doing is correct if their faith is weak, if their belief is weak, they need proof that the world supports them. Looking for this proof, looking to the world for sustenance and indications of worthiness means we need the qualities of the world. What are the qualities of the world? They start with a deep sense of differences, the root of the problems as we look for success in the world.

If we look for success in the world, if we see differences, we create our own image of the way things ought to be; as soon as we take that and our own image seriously, we are in a forbidden realm. Now we have jealousy and resentment. If things are not the way we think they ought to be, we resent the people who are not the way we want them to be, we become jealous of their success which should be ours. Now we have engaged the things of the world, the things which make competition what it is, we add winning and losing to the equation of brotherhood and friendship where they do not belong. We have to bring a different understanding to brotherhood, keep score in an entirely different way. We are not in the business of competition, we are in the business of surrender, the opposite of competition. Competition means we win by overcoming someone else, surrender means we win by overcoming ourself, the self disappears and God wins.

We need to understand this game of surrender, this act which must become the act of our lives. We are all actors and actresses, each of us has an act, and we do have to be careful about the one we choose. We are idol worshipers until we come to that point which is reality. We should be careful about what we worship, choose idols which come as close to reality as possible, and ask God to remove everything separating us from reality until we do, in fact, worship reality. Even though we might be aware of the separation between what we worship and reality, we have to pray for the separation to disappear.

We have been given examples of the truth, reality and the right way to live; we should model ourself on that reality. We have the example of the prophets, the example of enlightened teachers, of all the friends of God. We know what they went through, the suffering they endured on behalf of others. The profit motive must disappear in our interaction with each other, we do not acquire profit from each other. If God permits it we acquire God from each other, God is our profit, God is beyond profit, a treasure which cannot be described. This is available if we leave the world to its own rules and establish new rules for ourself. With God’s help we will be allowed this, in our struggle with ourself we will begin to understand the new way, the path of surrender which is the only way to approach Him, the only way to cleanse ourself, be worthy of approaching Him.

This path begins very simply, it starts in our home, it starts in our relationship with our husband or wife, it expands to the relationship with our children, then to the relationship with our companions in fellowship. That relationship of love, of kindness, that happiness in others, striving for the sake of others, doing things for others, this is the path we have chosen, the path our great teachers chose. Think about their profit motive, think how they kept score, what they intended and wanted.

They never took anything for themselves, their intention was always to give, to elevate others. We should help others, be the best parents to our children, help ourself and everyone we know, all our friends and companions. We have to be the best friend we can be, the best example of sharing, of giving. We do not rush to talk about ourself, we are happy to listen to someone else, we learn to have sympathy. We cannot help someone else unless we become who they are, we have to be there, share everything with them and let them in, then we can react on their behalf.

A sage dealt with a certain situation in an interesting way. It seems a mother came to him asking for help with her child—she wanted him to stop eating sugar. The wise man told the woman in question to come back in two or three weeks. When the woman returned with her child, he told the child to stop eating sugar. The mother asked, “Why did you make us wait until you said that?”

The answer was, “First, I had to stop eating sugar, I had to understand what the child would experience and know how it felt.” We need to understand what other people are experiencing, walk in their shoes, take ours off. We cannot be so attached to our own shoes we have no time to step into someone else’s.

If we believe everything needs to proceed as we think it should, we have taken a step which is impermissible, we are creating the world as we think it should be, and we do not have that right. We have the right to help, the right to assist, the right to use good qualities, we have the right to disappear, but we do not have the right to judge or insist. This path is difficult because it runs against the self-preservation everyone assures us is a driving force. What good does it do to preserve the body if we lose the soul? This is not new, we have heard this before, but now we need to understand the truth of it.

These old maxims embody the reality of our lives; we need to cling to the reality of our lives, tune into things which keep us right, make us clear, united with others. We should share ourself freely and easily, not only our goods but ourself as well. We have to make ourself available to all those who want something from us, and we should not see it as a burden, we should see it as an opportunity to do His will. Our purpose is to help, the hand which helps is the path we have been taught. It must be the path we choose.

Choosing this path means we have to understand its rules, its requirements, we have to understand the inner cleansing process of the path. Every motive except for His qualities must disappear. Any other motive means we need to keep washing ourself again and again, like Lady Macbeth who tried to remove the stain of her inhumanity by washing her hands obsessively. We need to remove the stain of the world, a stain which has a vile smell.

We do have to be careful on this path because there are people who cannot be helped, people we should not try to help. We must not impose ourself, imposing ourself on those who are obsessed with their own needs, their own way, will cause problems. If we throw a knife at stone it bounces off, there is no receptivity. We should keep to people who are receptive, who want to be receptive. Those who do not understand can be taught if they choose, although those who do not understand but do not want to learn present a different situation. We have to distinguish among them without being naïve. We need to be brave, we need to be warriors, we need to be clear and act with wisdom.

Wisdom differentiates what we can and cannot do, what is available and what is not. Wisdom opens the path showing us how to extend ourself, how to fulfill our responsibility to God. We still have this body, we still have old age, all the problems that come with being human, and we must be merciful, have the mercy which understands the limits of our own abilities while still doing all we can. We cannot accept the competitive path the world offers, we cannot have resentment, jealousy and anger, we cannot because that would be surrendering to the world.

Everybody serves someone. People who think they are in a competition have actually surrendered to darkness and evil. All the options have been laid out for people who have thought it through, they know where they are going; but so many have not thought it through, perhaps because they are frightened when they look at themselves too closely. We have to pass through this frightening stage when we see ourself and feel ashamed of what we have done, what we have experienced, ashamed of what we did and who we are. Yet we must also remember that God re-creates us with every breath, that the universe is not only created by God, it is also sustained by Him, sustained with every breath.

Opportunities come with every breath, opportunities continue as long as we breathe, each breath is a new opportunity to walk the path in the right way. We should feel it, know this as reality, pray for that understanding as we pray. If we do our prayers with this intention, each moment of intention takes us away from the self and closer to Him. God help us understand this path, this way, help us grow and be satisfied. May He grant our sustenance so that His love will fill us without needing anything from the world, may we not look for satisfaction from the world. We take our satisfaction from Him, we are sustained by Him alone.

The post #45 The Profit Motive appeared first on The Witness Within.

When the intellect pushes and pulls us through certain situations, certain difficulties, we can become arrogant, the arrogance of ability, the arrogance of knowledge, the arrogance which says I can do this. Only if we lose this arrogance can we begin to understand that someone else is the doer. If we see that we are not doing the pulling and pushing, that the truth, if we are in touch with it, did not come from the study of history or logic, it did not come from the books we have read, it came because something let us bypass that arrogance of the intellect, bypass that part of ourself which insists on being the doer.

An insistence on our own capacity creates veils for us, it subverts the belief that all responsibility for action belongs to God, creating a sense that I am the actor, I am the one doing things. To break with that way of seeing things, to break from the addiction of I can, I do, this is a lifetime of work, especially for those who have had success, much more difficult for them than for those who have not been successful. Worldly success strengthens arrogance, it creates thicker veils which stop us from seeing the reality of God, it makes us see ourself as the doers, the movers and shakers.

This is one reason why God said it is very difficult for a rich man to reach heaven, why Jesus said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven. Wealth creates the impression for people that they can accomplish things, they can do things. On a worldly level money means they point their finger and things happen, or at least they appear to happen. For the person pointing it creates the illusion of power, he believes he is doing the moving, the pushing and pulling.

A strong intellect can be a blessing because it gives us the ability to do certain things in the world, but we have to consider how we use that ability, consider the consequences for our state of being. That blessing can be a curse if this tool given to us by God creates a separation between ourself and our Lord, then it is no longer a tool, it is a veil. We should understand how this can happen, how our own ability can overwhelm us.

In moments when we are without the ability to do things, we draw on something we did not know we had, at such moments miracles occur, moments of reality occur, we are more capable of existing here and now. Suppose we have to provide a solution for a specific situation; if we are educated, studious, we go to our reserves of intellectual capacity, our computer banks, and pull out the appropriate response for that situation. We have used our mind to solve a problem, we have gone into the storage banks of what we know to deal with a difficulty, but when we deal with new situations which have no storage banks to refer to, we have to be in the moment, there is no past to turn to, we have no previous reference.

At that point of no reference, where there is no past to pull something from, we can pull from the source. This source can only be accessed from the place where we are, in that moment. The intellect does not live in the moment, it is an accumulation of things we have gathered, like a storehouse of food, a storehouse of gold. When we travel away from our storehouse we are in a different situation, we cannot use these things, we cannot use them because they are not available. When we are in a totally new situation we cannot use anything we have relied on because none of that is with us. It is not here because we are in a situation which is entirely new, something we have never experienced before, we have not made provision for, we have not made the necessary changes to deal with what lies before us.

This brings us to living in the moment. Curiously, here we might find a reason why travel is important. At home we have local arrangements, we have provided ourself with storehouses  in different areas which are never too far away. As we travel we keep finding ourself in unfamiliar situations. If we are close to home we are not lost, but if we are far away we might be lost. When we are lost we behave differently, aspects of our character are revealed. We can see ourself, see what we are like without the help of the world we are accustomed to, an entirely different situation.

When we are lost we call for help on something else, we have new experiences if we are no longer surrounded by the comfort of the familiar. To take ourself from the comfort of the familiar, of being in control, we need to be in situations beyond our control—not that we are in control in the familiar, but we believe strongly that we are. As long as we think we are in control we will never realize we are not. The fainthearted of this world will never know how lost they are because they stay close to home, close to what they know, they stay with what they think is safe.

We cannot stay forever with the things we consider safe, we have to travel to the edge of our understanding, to the edge of our existence, of our knowledge, to the edge of our intellect. We have to go to the edge, the precipice, we have to look at the precipice and jump. In that jump, that leap, we find out who we really are. If we do not do it we do not find out, we do not find out because we do not allow ourself to find out. By defining our life and living within that unqualified definition we cannot find the truth. Every definition we accept is a veil separating us from reality, everything we define in this world, everything we give definition to is a veil separating us from reality. We define things and build our world with these definitions. Universities define things, professors define things, legal systems define things, everyone defines things.

There are things which have no definition, things which cannot be defined. Do we have the courage to step into the undefinable, a place where we deal with things we do not understand and do not know? Can we face situations without knowing what will happen, are we willing to step into places we have never been before, enter a world where we have never been before? The usual reaction is to back out, go back to what we know. But it is only by shedding the familiar that we can go to other places, yet we not only fear leaving what we know, we also seem to be addicted to all that, addicted to the definitions we have made of our world.

Just as any addict must go through withdrawal, we must also go through a period of withdrawal, pulling away from what we are used to. It may be painful or difficult, when we are in an unfamiliar place it can be uncomfortable, however we have to learn to be comfortable with the unknown, on a new step or a new stage. Enlightened teachers lead us through new and uncomfortable situations, changing our way to approach things, introducing subtle layers of change. Our reaction to change is often no, why should I change, I like things the way they are now, I do not want to change. These are common responses, usual attitudes. If my mattress is comfortable why do I need a new one? Why should I sleep on the floor when a mattress is available, why should I sleep on a rock if there is a mattress? Why should I put myself in new situations so different from the patterns or routines I have established for myself?

The intellect deals with patterns, the stronger the intellect the sooner it sees the pattern and adjusts to it. Intellect does not like things without a pattern, it likes to say, a, b, c, d, it likes predictability. We need to walk into an unfamiliar place where there is no predictability, where we have no habits and cannot see, where we do not know how to function. Until we develop the courage to go there we have placed limits on how far we will take this path, until we are willing to take uncomfortable risks we have limited how far we will take the journey to reality.

There is a decision to make, an analysis of the self is required: what comfort level do we need, what comfort level are we willing to let go? What level of discomfort are we willing to endure to move forward on the path? Which is more important, our level of comfort or moving towards understanding? These are basic decisions, basic questions we have to put to ourself.

Once we start asking such questions we notice that the things the world considers uncomfortable, the things the world tries to push away are the very places where individual progress on the path can take place, a reason why some say that God gives those He loves difficulties. He is pulling us away from the known, pulling us into the unknown where we can rely only on Him. Only when we rely on Him alone can we be in touch with Him; as long as we rely on anything else we cannot, as long as we have an easy answer, an easy solution, one that we can pick from our intellect, that is as far as we will go.

When we do not have an easy answer, when there is no solution we are thrust into reliance on Him. Then we beg Him for help, we have lost the ability to help ourself, to find help in the known and familiar. In this place the veils are lifted, in this place we are changed, changed because we have no choice. When we think about it, about being pushed into a situation where our options are so limited we have to beg, we do not think this is what we want, but such moments exalt us. If we can live through such moments they change who we are, they make us new beings. These moments alter our essential Bible, how we see things, how we look at things, they can alter our world for the rest of our life. These moments can take us from the mundane to the holy. During these moments of not knowing we come in contact with the holy, we touch it because we have nothing else to touch.

We should think about this because it has a lot to do with the way we live our day to day life, going from one safe place to the next. Now long ago we had both agrarian and nomadic societies. Think about the difference between nomadic life and agrarian life. A nomad might not know where his next meal is coming from, he has to keep moving, driven by the need for food. He is driven in his search, there is no sitting still, a hard life. In an agrarian life we learn to depend on the sun, the rain and the temperature to make the crops grow, things we know are not in our hands.

We need to know what is not in our hands, respecting the One in whose hands things are. There is a difference, a reason why we need to pray and be obedient to our Lord. We need to know what He wants us to do and then do it, we need to stop thinking about ourself as we used to. We are all lost and the only one who can find us is our Lord.

Our Lord is looking for us. As long as we say here I am, here I am Lord, at your service, He will find us. We need to understand the state we are in to change ourself. May we be granted this understanding. May the veils be lifted so that we can know our Lord and know reality.

The post #44 The Limits of Intellect appeared first on The Witness Within.

Arrogance moved into our humanity where it sits as a separation between God and ourself. Arrogance, the first quality of separation, initiates a chain of reactions, acquiring other qualities to enforce itself. Arrogance insists on having its own way, believing in its own correctness and its right to control. When arrogance cannot control by merely issuing a command it becomes anger, then anger engages energy which can be applied in many different ways, on the individual level, on the national level, on the international level. What happens when arrogance and the army of its comrades rise up in people, what is the danger in this?

Arrogance begins with a need to establish a certain position, the refusal to step away from that position, to surrender it to someone else or to some other prevailing situation, the insistence on a specific situation. Arrogance in an individual is based on a self-righteous understanding that he or she is completely correct, and everyone else is wrong. People might even think, in their arrogance, that they are protecting the word of God, that they are the treasurer of truth, that their assumptions protect the truth. While the arrogance of this kind of thinking is evident to some, it is not apparent to those who believe their arrogance protects the truth.

In a small community when people have diverging views of the truth, when they have a need to force their view of the truth on the others, certain things happen. First there is gossip, and what is this kind of gossip? It is finding fault with those who do not agree with us, finding fault for some reason, judging and condemning a certain person’s actions, reporting on those actions in a judgmental frame of reference. Yet judgment belongs to God, and so when we step into the arena of this type of judgment, we are denying God’s role.

Gossip has arrogance at its root, gossip suggests that we know better, and not only do we know better, but we can also judge other people’s lives, we can instruct them by talking about them. There is not even a face-to-face confrontation, and this implies a certain cowardice, an inability to talk directly to the individual we are discussing. But we have been told if we have a problem with someone, we need to resolve it. Gossip is the refusal to resolve a problem, it makes the problem fester, like picking a sore. When we gossip it means no one wants the problem solved, we want the problem to continue because then we can rank each other, we can differentiate higher and lower. The people we gossip about are lower, we are higher, gratification for the arrogance which requires this.

Two people are involved in the gossiping process, the one who talks and the one who listens. Both are wrong, both are involved in a process which veils us from God. When we engage qualities which do not belong to God we separate ourself from Him. We have two obligations in this, first, not to talk about others, and second, not to listen to talk about others. We have to change the conversation or walk away.

Understanding what is forbidden, what is permitted, and binding ourself to the permitted, keeping away from what is not permitted, both are essential on this path. We cannot swim in filth without smelling like it. If we have that stench there is a good chance we are swimming in it, we need to extricate ourself, we need to wash. This means we need to examine our own state severely, we need to purify ourself. Ablution is something we are supposed to do before prayer, a ritual cleansing, yet we also need to cleanse ourself in ways we have not even thought about. We have to cleanse our words, cleanse our thinking, our actions, we have to make our actions pure, make them actions which are without malice, without improper motive. Unless we can bring ourself to that place which has no improper motive we are not clean.

We need to examine our motive in every situation, examine our cleanliness in every situation. Just as we look at our fingernails to see if they are clean, we have to examine our motives. If they are self-serving in any way we have to make a change, and we need to know how to do that. We have to examine ourself this way on a regular basis, especially when we consider the fascinations, the illusions and hypnotism of our society, all the lies society perpetuates by proclaiming what is good for us, what is bad for us. Look at the standards of right and wrong in the popular press: being famous is positive, being promiscuous is positive, exposing yourself is positive, total abandon is praised, flouting morality is praised, a contemptuous attitude for society is praiseworthy. These are the things popular culture recognizes and admires.

If we do not examine ourself with guidelines of a more enduring nature we are susceptible to everything around us. We have to learn how to avoid this susceptibility, learn how to walk away from it, and the only thing which will make us walk away is the understanding that there is something greater than the world, there is a reward, a treasure greater than anything the world has to offer, something of immense worth, well beyond what the world has to offer. We find this treasure by being immersed in God’s qualities instead of the world’s.

We need to search for examples of these qualities, we need to remember examples of these qualities and keep them at the front of our consciousness. They have to become our touchstones, our constant reminders of what is true and what is a lie. We need to see through things to their reality. As long as we listen to the world, let ourself be pushed by the world, let ourself react to it, there is little hope for our purity because we are too busy wrestling with the world, reaching for the world and swallowing it.

There is a story about two bullfrogs who were fighting. One of them was trying to swallow the other, it kept opening its mouth wider and wider while the other, to stop this, kept puffing itself up, expanding itself, becoming larger and larger. They kept doing this until they were stuck together in a way which meant death for them both. We are trying to swallow the world, but in the end we are going to die. Is our focus on the mortal or the immortal, is our focus on what is sustained forever or what is temporary? Why do we believe in the temporary, what is it that believes the temporary? It is the gratification arising from the small pleasures of worldly status, worldly understanding.

There are two kinds of pleasure, one entails desire and the other entails grace, two kinds of pleasure, the small and the large, the small defined as desire, the large as grace. We have a certain desire, a lust for the world, a sexual energy which can be focused on many different things. We lust for power, we lust for control, there are things we lust after. Have you ever seen an elephant in that critical sexual frenzy, have you ever seen a huge animal in heat? Nothing stops them, their arrogance and their will to satisfy that lust are so overpowering they trample everything in their way. Human beings can also be like that, and for what, for temporary satisfaction.

Most people who chase some worldly thing realize once they have it, they are still dissatisfied. This is something like a dog chasing a car, what is a dog going to do with the car when he catches it? We chase because this is what we do. We need to become something else, we have to stop chasing and find the stillness of existence, integrate ourself in the stillness of existence. We have to know that the value, the true worth of our lives is not found in what we see with our physical eyes, this worth is not found in what we touch with our hands, not in what we wear on our backs, not in what we display to the world, not in the titles after our names, not in the people we control or the things that move when we point to them. Real worth lies somewhere else, somewhere else which must become the focus of our intention, our will and our lives.

The post #43 The Arrogance of Gossip appeared first on The Witness Within.

Some who are sane, some apparently normal people have learned that certain thoughts and feelings have to be suppressed, they present what is socially or politically correct even if they disagree, then when they are alone or with a group of likeminded people, they say what they really think. This is hypocrisy which has been described as Satan’s sin, a great sin. Hypocrisy means thinking one thing and saying something else, making others think we believe something we do not in order to achieve our ends.

Those who think this kind of hypocrisy is legitimate, because it is useful for their own purposes, believe this is a way to acquire what they want, things of value. In fact, it is not true, hypocrisy prevents something, it stops the growth of the individual. Even when it is defined by a specific conflict, this hypocrisy supports duality, partnering the overriding sense of duality itself which needs to be eliminated. Most people fail to realize what hypocrisy does on this path of self-discovery, this path requiring a deep understanding of what goes on inside us. When we do what is right for appearance’s sake, without any attachment to what is right, we have no love for it, we love only our desires.

The first thing we have to recognize is the truth of right and wrong; if we do not love what is right we have to learn what it is and learn to love it. In other words, we have to change who we are, a problem; changing who we are is not easy, becoming something other than we are is not easy. To go on this path, to have what God has intended for us, to reach up to the truth, we have to overcome this hurdle—as long as there is no unity, no oneness within ourself, there cannot be unity among ourselves, among our fellow human beings and with God.

If we conceal aspects of ourself from everyone else, sometimes we might be concealing these things from ourself too. Why would we hide something from others that we expose to ourself, that we keep hidden to relish at certain times in dark, hidden places? What is it that lets this happen, what is actually going on inside us to create dark corners, to be different privately from the way we are openly, how do we change that? We have to recognize that we do this before we can correct it. Only when we are so open that we look each other in the eye with nothing to hide, only then can we truly see ourself.

As long as we have things to hide from other people they cannot see into us, and the same things which keep others from seeing into us blocks our ability to see, to see accurately. What we think we are hiding from others is what we are hiding from ourself; what we hide from ourself, what we keep from ourself is the ability to see reality. The duality of hypocrisy contributes to this inability. When we know we do not feel what we are supposed to feel, we know we must change.

This is the work of the path, getting rid of that part of us which is not the truth, getting rid of that part of us which is not right. We need to straighten up, walk the right path and walk it easily, honestly, with good will, with positive intentions. This little bit of work, this little bit of understanding can take us a long way. Understand we have to be at peace within ourself, and recognize that this peace allows us to expose who we really are to others, without fear, without shame, without agenda, then we turn to God without hyprocisy.

God is known in the Hebrew scriptures as ‘I am that I am.’ He is only One. To know this One we must be merged in One. Our hypocrisy must be eliminated, we cannot scheme or manipulate, we have to let go of thinking that way. There is a difference between being pure and being naïve; we have to understand the treachery of the world, see it and acknowledge it when we see it, but we cannot let it be part of us, we do not have to believe that for success in this world we must use such techniques. We need a group or community where people are not afraid, where they can be honest with each other, where they can let down their defenses and be open, show their true selves. Only when the true self is displayed can we begin to know it. As we begin to know the true self we begin to know the truth.

We have to be smaller individually, smaller as a community, so small we fit easily into each other. There is room for this if everything we have hidden inside filling our cup, leaving no room for anyone else, making us too big, if all that is emptied. When we are without motive, when we do not scheme we become small, we are empty, there is room for Him. This is a key unlocking the doors of reality, one of the keys making Him available. When He is available we will be entirely empty, allowing Him to fill that space, but if we hold onto hypocrisy we are holding the devil’s tail. As long as we hold onto evil, how can we possibly hold onto God? We have to make the choice, the choice is clear.

The great teachers and sages often talk about this. They tell us not to untie every little knot, but to pull the whole thing out by the roots and forget about it, pull each thing out by the roots. If our thought patterns are too complicated, give them up. We are not complicated beings, not meant to be complicated, we are meant to be pure, we are meant to be clean, to be straight. The more we complicate things, the more difficult it is for us to be pure and clean and straight. This is not a complicated path, it is a straight path. It is called the straight path because it does not zigzag, it is direct. We have to be direct, we have to be people of the straight path, of straight action, we have to be people of love.

We should set the right intention encompassed by love. When love fills a room there is no space for anything else. Love numbs the lower self, it tames it; love lights a fire which the lower self backs away from, allowing grace to shine. It is a light, a fire, a cleansing, the cleansing we look for, the cleansing love which does away with duality. We no longer have to be divided, we are consistent in our speech, in our manner, in our love. Others  can expect us to behave a certain way, to react a certain way, they do not have to fear how we will be today, how we will be this afternoon or the next time they see us.

We need to be comfortable enough with each other to know we are a comfort for each other. This starts in our home, we need to be a comfort for each other at home, we need to know when we turn to our spouse, that person is a rock for us, we need to be a rock for each other. The ability to comfort moves out from our family to our circle of friends. The circle of true friends is the circle of those who are a comfort for each other, sanctuary for each other. We become the place we can live within in safety, in love, in protection. Small, easy things change our life, change our attitudes, change who we are, our perspective, the way we act and feel in our daily life. If we can take ourself to that level of comfort our center is stronger.

We know what a locked box is, the sort of box we should put our hypocrisy in; however, with all the problems of the world we go searching for the key to open it up again because we think we need it. We should reach a point where we no longer need it, reach a point where we do not have to join all the barking dogs, we can walk away and let the dogs bark. Walking away from a group of barking dogs, stepping away from the fray is difficult, letting other people argue, letting them offer their opinions without being involved, without telling them how they are right and how they are wrong is difficult.

We have stories about wise people who do not talk, do not respond. There is a story about a group who had come to pray at a roadside mosque. While they were sitting after prayers another man came to pray who prayed facing the wrong direction, but no one said anything. When they stood to pray at the next time of prayer, facing the right direction, he understood his mistake and joined them. This was done without a word, without a reprimand, it was done through action, it was done by doing what is right. We must incorporate our intention in our action; actions are stronger than words. We must incorporate our intention in our resonance; our resonance is stronger than words. We can feel each other, know where we are, know where each of us is. We should know we are comfortable with each other, feel we are comfortable with each other, easy with each other. We should know that love exists, we should understand the sanctuary of our family and spread that understanding, that love, one person at a time. It does not have to be done with words at first, people recognize when something special is happening, they ask why, then we can talk about it because they have recognized there is something else.

Until people recognize something else exists and have a taste for it, it is difficult to bring them to this path, it could even be dangerous. Nevertheless we should know that bringing others along is part of what He has given us to do, and once we know it is our responsibility, it will happen. We can help just by being the way we are. It is a great blessing to have this in our life, it is a gift He has granted to give us access to Him. To understand this and create praise for Him is the reason the prophets were sent, the reason the wise, holy beings and His friends were sent. How do we become His friend? We become His friend by being a friend of His friend, by respecting His friends, listening to His friends, listening to those who have listened to Him.

May we begin to understand ourself, study ourself and be one within ourself. May the words which come from our mouth be straight, clean and pure, without motive, filled with love. May the blessings that come from this love bathe us in His love.

The post #42 Hypocrisy appeared first on The Witness Within.

In a sense we have to protect ourself from interacting with the physical world; if we are not prepared for what we encounter we are not ready to deal with it. When people grew their own food in earlier times they had to be ready for the physical reality of storms, heat, drought and rain, or they would not have had food to eat. This meant constant interaction with the world. How do we tell someone the grain they grow is illusion when they need this food to live, to survive?

The world gives us so many reasons to believe in its reality we are overcome just thinking about it, trapped and snared into thinking it is real. Also persuasive are the actions of other people we observe, they deal with the world as though it were real, their emotions are invested there. How do we deal with a world which is not real when people fight or struggle to get what they can from it, even though wise men insist it is not real? How do we develop the understanding that it is not real and yet we have to deal with it at the same time? This is the duality of existence, difficult to understand but a necessary understanding if we want to penetrate reality.

Most people cannot believe in what they do not see, cannot understand what they cannot grasp, and inevitably what they cannot understand does not exist for them. Some however, do have faith in things they do not understand, have faith in things they do not see because they realize their own limits. One problem which arises in the understanding of duality is recognizing our limits: only those who understand how much we do not know have some idea of all there is to know. For those who think they know, there is nothing left to learn, they are satisfied.

There is a small group who are not satisfied, who have an empty feeling after looking at all the things of the world. They still ask, “Who am I?” Now most people are more likely to ask, “Where am I going this evening?” “What am I having for dinner?” “What stock will make me money?” These are the questions in their consciousness they want answered, and they read The New York Times to find the plays, concerts and exhibits to see, the current events to talk about with people who have nothing else to talk about. Although yesterday’s newspaper is used to wrap the fish today, this is not part of most people’s consciousness. Just because no one reads yesterday’s newspaper does not stop us from reading today’s, it does not stop us from commenting and talking about it, treating it as though it had importance. Here we have all the dramas of the world, all the dramas of our life, culturally, nationally and internationally.

Different people need different levels of drama; those who are pulled and pushed by their minds or their emotions think they are dead without the drama. When things are quiet, if they have only an outer life and no inner life, if there is nothing external to do they have no life, they have to make it up. How do they do that? With dramas like a soap opera going on day after day. We watch a soap opera for the unfinished drama inviting us to look again for the next installment.

We do the same thing in our own life as we are enmeshed in the unfinished dramas we do not end, do not care to play out or we will have to make up another one to take its place. Many marriages are dramatic and volatile, something can erupt at any moment to bring the drama to life. In the marriage drama we have someone to be angry with, someone to reconcile with, someone to stimulate all the emotions which make us feel alive. Those who bring peace to situations are rare, those who can dispense with the drama are rare. Few individuals understand that when the drama goes away, when the emotions go away, when the need for sensory stimulus goes away there is grace and a glory beyond anything else.

Most of us are so layered in our dramas, drama in the sense of touch, in relationships, in emotions, there is no way we can penetrate all that, it is too dense, an avalanche we cannot dig out from, we need someone to bring in heavy machinery. Not many of us have the machinery for this avalanche, only a few. Most of us do not know we are buried in an avalanche because we are still breathing—we know we would have trouble breathing in an avalanche—only then do we know we are in trouble. As long as we are still breathing we do not recognize the trouble.

If we do not know we are in trouble, if we think there is a resolution to our drama, an end which will take us somewhere else, we are mistaken. Only with the experience of so many years looking at all the dramas will we realize there are no resolutions. The thrill is in the drama, the chase, the emotional roller coaster ends when we seemingly succeed. We get what we have strived for but do not know what to do with it, we have spent such a long time trying to get it, and now we do not know what to do with it. This kind of disappointment is sometimes called depression.

There is no cure for the drama or the obsessions of a world which offers no way out. It can only give us what it has, and all that it has is illusion. As long as we pay homage to the world and its illusions we are subject to it, ruled by it. The only way to escape is by giving homage to something else, making something else our priority, changing our focus, working on the inner transformation, finding contentment with something other than the world. We need to turn away from the world yet maintain our equilibrium there, turn away from the world yet work responsibly there.

We have to exist in two worlds simultaneously, only then is the paradox of our reality accounted for, only then is the truth available. The religions of the world are no different from any other illusion, they separate people, they say mine and yours, they say praise and blame, higher and lower. There is neither praise nor blame in reality, there is only truth, no mine and yours, there is only His in every circumstance. There are no differences between you and me in reality, no differences between my God and your God. God is One. When we create differences we are reacting as the world reacts, when we pull away from it we begin our repose in the truth.

There is a universal connection among us, we are made of the same things, we came from the same place, we return to the same place. We are only here for an interlude, a four bar break which has become our reality. We need to learn the difference between this interlude and eternity, then treat the interlude appropriately. The notes of the interlude still have to be played correctly, but they are not the song, not all of it, they are merely part of it. Understand the part which is the world and the part which has no praise or blame. God is a beggar to a beggar and a king to a king. Whether we are beggars or kings the world is still an illusion, God is the same to us no matter our position, rank or status, they hardly matter if we are at peace, the peace which takes us to truth.

We must learn to focus correctly and stay in that focus, not letting ourself be pushed and pulled, not letting the drama and mania of the world catch us. We have to be demagnetized, pass through a chamber altering our structure so that we are no longer magnetized, no longer hypnotized. This is the chamber of faith, certitude and determination, a chamber which knows that truth belongs to Him, obedience belongs to Him. To become who we truly are we surrender to that power controlling everything, a power both unseen and inexplicable. Believe we came from this power, we return to this power; everything exists in the right place, in the right way. May the peace of this understanding fill each heart, may our relationship with Him grow.

The post #41 The Drama of The World appeared first on The Witness Within.

If we look to the world for answers, for responses, if we look outside ourself for specific things, all we get is what these outer things have to offer, they can only give to the extent they have something to offer. A cobra can only offer poison, things can only give what they truly are, nothing more, this is what they can give. If we expect anything else we are disappointed, a dangerous disappointment in certain circumstances.

There is an old teaching story about a boat on a river, a large boat with animals in the hold. When a storm came up rocking the boat to pieces, the animals were all very frightened as the boat began to come apart. While the boat was breaking up a scorpion jumped on a camel’s back. “Get off me!”  said the camel.

The scorpion pleaded, “The boat is breaking up and I can’t swim. I beg you, please carry me to the shore.”

The camel answered, “You’re a scorpion, I can’t trust you.”

The scorpion replied cleverly, “Look at it this way, you can swim, I can’t. When this boat is destroyed I will be utterly dependent on your mercy for survival. Since I have to depend on that alone, I would be a fool to do anything to harm you. If I hurt you it will mean my own death.”

With this in mind the camel decided to accept the scorpion and began to swim ashore. About two-thirds of the way across the river the scorpion stung the camel. As the poison entered its bloodstream the camel asked, “After everything you said, everything we talked about, why did you do that?”

The scorpion replied, “It is my nature.”

This is the situation in the world. We should understand the nature of the things we deal with, we should understand specifically what we are looking for and know where to look. Here is another teaching story. Late one night, about two o’clock in the morning, an old man was crouched down in front of a building in a small town, the only building on the street with a light. He was crawling around on his hands and knees when another man who was going home passed by. He saw the old man on his hands and knees and asked, “What are you doing?”

“I am looking for my keys.” The second man got down on his hands and knees to help him look.

The old man said, “It won’t make any difference if you help me look.”

“Why won’t it help?” the second man asked.

“Because I didn’t lose my keys here.”

“Where did you lose those keys?”

“In the woods.”

“Then why are you looking for them here?”

“Because this is the only place with a light.”

We have to know where to look, we have to know what we are looking for, we have to know that what we are looking for is available in the place where we are looking. Most of the world, most of its people, spend a lifetime looking for things in places where they do not exist. The experience of so many people should have taught us where certain things are not to be found, but this is not the case, we have a common malady, a malady so common it might even be said that this sickness, this insanity is part of the collective karma of human consciousness. It is so pervasive that everyone shares it; we need to wake up to this aspect of our consciousness, we should fight to eliminate this insidious misunderstanding which is so deeply rooted that people are deluded, actually persuaded they have what they do not really have at all.

How does this happen? Some think they find peace with alcohol, others think they find peace with drugs. They have actually given up on the world because it has caused them nothing but pain, nothing but difficulty, concluding they can find the peace they are looking for with drugs or alcohol. In the 1960s a whole generation was caught up in that illusion, a pill to change our consciousness, to change our state of being. There was no need to work for change, all we had to do was take the right assortment of drugs. A Harvard professor preached that drugs were the answer; he was famous for what he advocated, his slogan was turn on, tune in and drop out, as if it could happen by magic. A lot of people were injured by drugs, people were deranged, crippled emotionally or physically, unable to function normally.

As we look at the false messiahs who have come and gone through history, as we look at the recurrence of messianic movements in different parts of the world, followed by the disappointment when that movement flounders, when the utopia is not established, we should understand there is another way, in spite of this mass hypnosis which convinces us something external can change us, take us, transform us.

A few years ago certain people were waiting for space ships to take them, committing mass suicide to allow themselves to be taken. There are witch doctors pretending to confer magic powers. Religions proclaim the coming of a messiah, yet there is already someone among us who will take us this very moment. He is that One, a messiah might come, but we do not know when that will be, nor do we know when Judgment Day will come, but until that day comes, until we are taken, there is another approach.

We need to become our own messiah, become that being who can open the path, transform our state so that we can reach the place we are looking for. We need to look to ourself to become, to be transformed, to become. Each of us individually needs to become, the work we need to do in our life is the work of becoming.

Now the question is, becoming what? How do we become? What is missing from our life? What leads to depression, what leads to anxiety, to unhappiness, giddiness or despair, to emotional states which are out of control? What is it? What is missing? That missing aspect of our existence is often described as inner peace, serenity, an existence without the need for something else, complete within itself.

This peace is available, its availability has been announced through the centuries, peace which comes with a specific kind of work. We are told that if we want to go to a certain place we must develop the state allowed in that place. To be a certain way we have to become what is allowed to be that way. To understand the nature of peace we have to be peaceful. We are what we become; there is a process of transformation, of becoming. To be successful we have to understand this process, understand where we are trying to go, where this transformation is possible.

It has been said that only God can pray to God, it has been said that only God can experience the qualities of God in their truest way. It has also been said that we are created in God’s image, that when we were created God blew the breath of His spirit into us. Then who are we? Where did we come from, where are we meant to be, what are we meant to be, what is the true nature of a human being, what is this nature we have adapted to?

Are we defined by the degrees we have from universities, are we defined by the clothing we wear, by the language we speak, by our cultural institutions? Are we defined by the prophet we follow, defined by the name of the religion we say we belong to or do not belong to? How are we to be defined? Does God have a form, a religion? Does God have children, a style of dress, does He have degrees? Is God definable? Are we definable? If God is without form, without definition, beyond the scope of our understanding, as long as we are definable and within the scope of what can be explained, we have not come to the place we are trying to reach.

We need to enter the realm of the inexplicable, a realm beyond words where there is only experience. We have to go to a vibrating realm where the qualities of the Being who created us exist. We should understand that what our eyes see has limits, everything we see will disappear, including this thing we call our body. We should believe it is possible to connect with a reality greater than this body, it is possible to change our beliefs, a change which will transform our relationship with the world and with truth.

As long as we do not change our beliefs, as long as we hold onto the illusion we call the world and treat it with reverence, as if our life depended on it, we are incapable of change. Our life, our eternal existence depends on something else. Until we give our reverence to that something else, until we give our respect to it, be obedient to that something else, until we make it our priority we are locked in wherever we are. What keeps us there is the inability to break through our system of belief, we are stuck in our beliefs which hold us in place, flypaper holding a fly. We shake our arms and legs but we are not moving, we take a plane from New York to Amsterdam but we are not moving.

All this movement is illusory because it is external. Slowly we learn that every external manifestation is unreal, illusion in a gold-plated frame, a lie. A title does not mean we have ability, doing something means we have ability.

Because we are confused we create a semblance of order by establishing grades of illusion, then we look for our place within the gradations, we aspire to reach certain plateaus of illusion as if that raises us higher. This is the same as moving from one place to another on sticky flypaper. We need to understand that real movement does not occur by taking one step and the next, real movement occurs by traveling through worlds while we are sitting still. We can go everywhere in the universe sitting in our chair.

There is a light within us, but our attention is focused on the world. Compared with this light, the world is an atom. When we cannot see the light we treat it as if it did not exist, and bow to the atom. We take what is less, much less, and treat it as if it were more, much more. We need to change our perception, understand how that change of perception can be reality. It begins with establishing a center which allows change to occur, with understanding the conditions relevant to that center. Where is it, what is it, what allows change to take place, where does that change take us, what must we do to go to that place?

They say it is more difficult for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Understand these metaphors and why they apply to us. What does a rich man mean? It is a man who has large quantities of the world, quantities of things, a man who takes these things with him as he tries to squeeze into a small place.

It is no more complicated than that, we cannot go to certain places if we are carrying certain things, we cannot swim carrying a house on our back. We are trying to swim, trying to swim from here to another world, to escape from a place where we are stranded, hoping to end up somewhere else. We need to learn how to do that, this body we carry has a limited duration, a limited time span and limits on what it can do. We should act with the understanding of these limits, something the world has forgotten. Once we do we can look for things which have no limit.

When we study the world we see that all creation has certain limits, but the divine qualities have no limit, they are the qualities which persist from generation to generation sustaining the existence of everything. We should study these qualities carefully, where do they come from, how do they take us from the pain of the world to peace? May we learn the reality of those qualities and be transformed.

The post #40 Knowing Where to Look appeared first on The Witness Within.

In the same way, in our lives we have to understand who and what we are, what is suitable for us. We have our specific nature, we have all been given certain gifts. We have to understand the gifts we have been given, and we have to know them. Imagine if an excellent carpenter wanted to be a physicist—it would be difficult and frustrating. If a painter wanted to be a singer, if a singer wanted to be a painter . . . . . we have to be sufficiently in touch with ourself to understand the natural flow of who we are, where that natural flow goes, what it has difficulty with.

The ability to stay within what God has given us is something we need to understand, staying with the gifts given to us by God is something we truly need to understand. When we cannot do that or when we will not do that, we find ourself in the endless frustration of trying to be something we are not. We need to learn how to know ourself. It is not imperative to learn the nature of others, especially before we know ourself, but it is imperative to be satisfied with ourself and what we are, instead of trying to change what we discover ourself to be.

This happens with children. Parents insist they develop one way when they are clearly developing another way. When children have a certain natural talent parents sometimes have other ideas for them, then the children are frustrated, sometimes growing up with difficulties because they are pushed where they cannot go, where they are unwilling to go or just do not easily go. Certain things are permissible and other things are not, there are things which are allowed to happen and things which are not. When things are permitted there is a natural, easy flow.

This does not mean effort is not involved, it means there is appropriate effort. Some effort is appropriate and some is inappropriate; when we are tangled in inappropriate effort we are fighting our natural self. Scheming is inappropriate effort; jealousy, going after things which are not ours is inappropriate effort; envy, looking at others, wanting what they have and putting effort into acquiring what they have is inappropriate effort. Appropriate effort is to make ourself better, being satisfied with what goes on, with what happens. Understanding this is important. If we try to develop ourself in inappropriate ways, as we put out effort in inappropriate ways, we end by creating blocks between ourself and reality. Reality opens for us in the way God intended, but if we continue to put incorrect patterns or limits on who we are, on what we are and what we want, if we proceed in ways which are not natural for us, we are moved farther and farther from reality, and this is not natural.

What is natural for us is the flow to reality. There is a flow in the universe, there is a way things go smoothly and a way they do not. For a salmon it is sometimes appropriate to swim upstream, for most people however, this is difficult. When we want to carve a route for ourself from place to place, we try to create ways which do not require swimming upstream. We need to know which way the current goes and move with it instead of against it.

When we move with the current and become part of it, things open up for us; when we oppose the current things close down for us. This does not necessarily have implications for the world; there are people who go against the grain, against themselves, who are treacherous and scheming with great effectiveness in the world. Nevertheless this is not what is important. They might have success in the world that way, but they have developed qualities which cut them off from reality. We need to become human beings who know ourself and our own nature.

The prophets, the holy books and the great holy beings have told us that to know ourself is to know our Creator. If we create a false self derived from worldly ideas we are never going to know ourself. By doing this we create a substitute reality which closes the door to our true self. And what is our true self? Our true self means to be the vice-regent of God. If we are so busy chasing worldly titles, worldly honors, worldly situations, we lose our rightful position as the vice-regent of God. This does not mean we should not make an effort in worldly situations, this does not mean we should withdraw from the world, it means we have to act within the range of the permissible for ourself.

The general rules of permissibility have been laid down, but each of us should understand what is individually permissible as well, what works for us, what does not work for us, and what can tell us better than the things our own inclinations tell us? We need to follow our inclinations, we need to be true to our inner core, we need to know that inner core. While we are learning how this inner core functions sometimes it is easier for us to recognize it in other people before we can examine our own. We need to understand, in this worldly way, that there are differences which do not matter. Some people are meant to do a, some people are meant to do b, some people are meant to be opera singers and some people are not. We need to differentiate between this worldly existence and our true self. If we do not accommodate our worldly existence in the right way, if we do not flow with our worldly existence in the right way, we can be kept from understanding the true nature of our existence.

At this stage of existence, this illusory passage we are traveling through, this stage from birth to death, we live in two worlds. We live in the world of flesh and sometimes in the world of spirit. Since we live in both worlds, and the world of the flesh has an enormous impact on the soul, we have to be careful about what we do to the soul for the sake of the flesh.

The worldly chase for gold, land, titles, power and honors runs contrary to our true self, this chase takes us farther and farther from our true self. We must understand the grace of our true self, it must be our priority. We must understand the nature of this existence and the different kinds of creation, we must understand that each of us is individual, each of us has certain facets which are different from someone else’s. This does not make us significantly different, it just means in the world of the flesh we have been faceted differently. Someone who is dexterous can do things which others cannot, this does not make them better or others worse, it is just the way things are.

We need to accept the way things are, we need to take advantage of what we have been given instead of fighting for something which is not ours. We need to know instinctively what we have been given, the gifts which are ours, which are much greater than we can imagine. But if we construct these gifts in our mind, if we imagine these gifts we limit ourself. If we develop concepts of who we are from our thoughts we limit ourself because we are beyond our imagination. The gifts available to us are beyond imagination, the grace He has placed in us is beyond imagination; we need to stop limiting our understanding. When we stop fighting the natural way of things, that grace opens up, that grace can be seen. When we learn to be closer to ourself by moving along with the things that are appropriate for us, we are closer to the truth of ourself. As we are closer to the truth of ourself we are closer to the truth of God.

This does not necessarily mean we do not have to work hard. There is a tradition which says trust in God but tie up your camel. We have to do our own duty in the world, not the duty prescribed for others; we need to learn the duty prescribed for ourself, recognizing that each of us is given a different prescription. Understanding our prescribed duty is important, trying to do the duty prescribed for someone else makes us ill. We need to be tuned to ourself, not fighting it but accepting it. Acceptance is one of our tests, the ability to accept who we are, who other people are, accepting them for who they are. This is a test which works two ways. If we cannot accept ourself we cannot accept anyone else, we are a roadblock for ourself and other people, a roadblock between ourself and God. It all begins with fighting against what is appropriate; we need to understand our true nature and rejoice in it.

Freeing ourself from the things the world expects of us, that our parents expect of us, freeing ourself from what we think we ought to be, guiding ourself to what we actually already are, all this is a major step on the spiritual path even though it occurs in the flesh. We have to understand that inner connection, and as we are closer to knowing ourself, God willing we are closer to knowing our Lord. This is the glory, the mission of our lives, the reason for our existence, the reason for creation. If we ignore this, if we do not look at it squarely, we have missed the purpose of our existence, we have missed the purpose of our life.

We need to look at ourself and be satisfied, satisfied with what we have been given, content with the self we discover. God lives in contentment, God lives in peace, He lives in mercy, He lives in compassion. When satisfaction with that self is available we are capable of entering His qualities, these are some of the gifts we are given. By accepting these gifts and living in these gifts we become an aid, not merely to ourself but to all humanity, we become a cupbearer for the qualities which accompany us. When we meet others we share that cup because our lives are shared, God is shared. We share God with our friends and companions. Is there a greater meaning in our life, is there a greater purpose for our life? This happens only if we know ourself, it happens only if we are true to ourself, only if we are content with who we are, with what we are and what has been given to us.

May God let each of us stand in that place of contentment, find that place of peace, understand the immaculate spot reserved for us where His grace exists, a specific place which exists everywhere if we understand ourself.

The post #39 Knowing Ourself appeared first on The Witness Within.

The experience of conversion, according to the wisdom of saintly beings, is something other than that. Conversion means coming to the point where we realize we need God in our life. No matter what religion we are born to, we now take the position that we choose God instead of the world, we take that step, a step which lies beyond what the world has given us, what the world has supplied us with, what the world says is correct. We step into a place where we say there is something else, I need to know what this something else is.

At this level of consciousness, a place where we no longer find answers with our intellect, where we know something else is going on in our heart which is not being responded to, which is not being answered, we know that we need answers, we need heart answers, not mind answers because all the answers or directions from the mind have not led to satisfaction, to peace in the heart. This is a conversion, an experience in which we leave the understanding we have been fed and strike out on our own.

There is a scriptural observation which tells us there can be no compulsion in religion. This means two things: first, we cannot force someone to be religious in the way we want them to be, and second, it is impossible. Not only should we not try to force people, it is impossible to force them. We might be able to force them outwardly, but they alone know what is going on inwardly, the only place where something actually happens. When we make this decision to step into the religion of the heart, the melting heart, the open heart, religion becomes valid.

No one can take anyone else to God. Others can assist us, they can point things out to us, explain things to us, nurture us, fertilize us, water us, but we have to do the work because we want to. If we resist it is not going to happen. We are involved in the process of growth, we have to be the same kind of active ingredient in this process as the genetic materials of a seed which make it develop as an oak, a sycamore or a pine. The seed is an active ingredient in its own growth, it is not only the fertilizer and water fed to it, it is not only the soil it is planted in. Well inside us, God has planted a piece of Himself which is waiting to grow.

Here is a little story with an interesting point. Certain fields of rice were owned by some poor people and by one rich man. The rich man bribed those who brought the water to put more on his field than on the others; he also bribed those who fertilized the fields to put more fertilizer on his fields. This meant his fields were much greener than all the others, but he forgot that the same water and fertilizer which nurture the rice nurture other seeds as well. His fields were greener because he had more weeds, the things which make the rice grow also make weeds grow. We have to be very careful to know what we are growing, we also have to be careful what we use to make it grow, understanding that merely because something looks green, it does not mean it is rice. We may look attractive to the world, but this does not mean the true seed inside us is germinating or maturing, providing the mechanism for growth, the movement for growth.

We have to determine what is truth and what is a lie, then take a stand on the side of truth. We must position ourself on the side of truth, we must align ourself with truth. This understanding is natural for us because when we come close to the truth it resonates. If we are free, if we are not bound by the passions of separation and hatred we can resonate with truth, but when we are caught up in passion, in the heat of hatred, the heat of this is mine not yours, or the heat of I have to have this, it means we cannot have truth, we are cut off from it, we have cut ourself off from the qualities which understand truth. These qualities of separation and a sense of differences cannot understand the truth because they do not belong to it. We have to change, we have to live in a place where truth can be understood. This involves the experience of conversion.

But one such experience is not enough, we need these experiences throughout the day, a reason why we pray at different times during each day. As we are affected by the world our intention wanes, our intention becomes weaker, we are beaten down by the hypnotic illusions, the magnetism of the world, the constant shout, I am real, I am real, accept me, accept me. We have to withdraw to understand what is real. Every time we set our intention to pray or meditate we go through that experience of conversion again.

What does it mean to set our intention, to make it firm? To set an intention to pray means dropping the world, entering God’s space, saying now I intend to believe less in the world, to believe more in God, my intention is to step closer to reality and leave illusion behind. I need to wash away all this illusion I bathe in continually. Not only do we need to wash in water, we also need to wash in an intention which cleanses us. Cleansing is a necessity in our lives, all the green on the fields of rice which is not rice, all those weeds have to be pulled out, this is the inner cleansing we have to do. We have to do this, we cannot have someone else pull out our weeds, we have to do this for ourself because no one else knows where to find them.

The only one who knows all our secrets, except God, is ourself, and we therefore have a choice. We can either keep our secrets, try to hide them and be hypocritical, or be honest and say I have two aspects to myself. I am one part weeds and another part which needs to be nurtured, which can grow if the weeds are removed. Then we have to begin the process of removing the weeds, we have to start this process of cleansing our being. When we do this we change, we step away from yours and mine, from separations and a sense of differences, we move into inclusivity, my heart melts and we are united that way. All the good things I see in myself I can see in you, I know they are shared, I know they are not different, I know there is no separation between us.

The happiness I feel for you is the happiness I feel for myself. If I cannot feel happiness for you I do not really know how to feel happiness myself, I do not understand what happiness is if my happiness and my understanding of happiness are limited to myself. The truth of joy is that it is not limited, if we try to limit joy and separate it into sections, this is not the realm of joy, it is the world of separations and differences, a world which does not belong to God, it belongs somewhere else; at that time we belong somewhere else. We have to decide which club we are going to join, remembering that God’s club includes everyone, no one is excluded, there are no entrance requirements and no entrance fees. He offers the same thing to everyone.

Consider the protection a woman’s body affords the embryo. We are in God’s body, we are provided for like an embryo. Can we offer everything to each other without discrimination, without expectation, can we become that kind of being? When we become that kind of being what happens to us, who do we become, how does it change the world? If there is to be peace in the world, if there is to be peace among humankind it will happen when individuals make this change, when it becomes evident as they walk down the street that there is something different about them, that when they walk past we feel soothed, we feel as if a burden has been taken from us in their presence.

And what has happened to them? They have entered a vibratory state aligned with God which brings God close to us. When we meet one of these people who bring God close to us, when we have the appropriate intention and behavior we align ourself with that vibration. This will not happen from the top down, with an order issued by some person insisting we align ourself with God. It will not happen that way, it will happen from the bottom up. As people begin to align with God that vibration, that peace, that clarity becomes more common within society, and as it becomes more available it spreads, it spreads one person at a time. The only one we are responsible for is ourself. God is responsible for everyone else, but we have to make that seed grow.

The post #38 Conversion appeared first on The Witness Within.