Looking at Yourself

The only obstacle there is to being free is truly looking at yourself and until you do look at you, true freedom is something that will always be out there in the next thing reached for.

Consider life as water and emotions as a flood, if you’re on low ground you will be overcome by the flood waters (emotions), but if you’re on high ground the same flood water will come, but the way it affects you will have a much different outcome. This is what happens when a person looks at themselves, you’re naturally on higher ground which builds up a defense against your emotional flood water. Without looking at yourself there will be no defense against the flood water because you will be stuck on low ground and on low ground when the flood water arises, some form of destruction will be the result and the severity of the flood (emotional attachment) determines the destruction.

The flood water only affects what’s on low ground, and our lower nature manifest as emotional attachments. The destructiveness of this attachment is determined by what is reached for, drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, food, and so on. Although not everything reached for is destructive, some just have much more destructive potential than others. If you don’t look at yourself there won’t be awareness of the nature of what’s reached for. To me, the key is looking at yourself because it puts you on higher ground so when the flood waters come it has less affect on you. This is the value of looking at and understanding yourself, it allows you to not be flooded emotionally by circumstances that occur. Although the flood waters will arise, because you are on higher ground you aren’t affected like the person who’s stuck on lower ground and is reaching for a life preserver, in whatever form that may be.

Turmoil in Place

Although it seems what occurs in life is the cause of one’s arising turmoil, but this is not the case. The turmoil that arises is already in place, if it wasn’t there’s no way it would arise.

You can only react to life with what you have in place. Something like anger arises because it has been learned, this also goes for fear, greed, hate, and so on. I constantly reacted unconsciously for many years without any understanding whatsoever and it kept me locked into my inner turmoil, clueless that the only reason it was occurring was because it was in place. Simply put, when something occurred that I didn’t like, my inner turmoil arose without my permission or knowledge and I reacted in the way that I did. What arose was whatever my conditioning deemed appropriate. The only reason this happened is because it was already there laying in wait: like a lion waiting to pounce on its unsuspecting prey.

Understanding this is where there is power in knowledge. If why one’s inner turmoil arises isn’t understood, there will be very little true periods where this turmoil reactions are not in control. Through awareness of what’s arising, one has something tangible to use to get beyond it. Why most people remain as they are and repeat the same reactions over and over is because of the total unawareness of why it happens. To me this knowledge has immense value because when it’s seen one can truly decipher whether what’s in place is beneficial or not. It’s then that a course of action can be developed to change whatever’s in place that’s causing the non beneficial turmoil to arise.

Beyond Duality

Duality causes inner and Universal division as it creates a you, a me, and them. Whenever this is the way life is viewed there will be separation regardless if there’s a higher or lower self.

An awakening to me is a shift from being caught up in an I Self world, to seeing what’s really going on beyond all the distractions of duality. The phrase higher self is often used to explain what being awake is, but attachment to self causes duality anyway its looked at. One must go beyond any thought of self to truly awaken because any thought of self whether higher or lower is a distraction that keeps one locked into the I Self distractions. These two selfs create duality; oneness (no thought of a self) is the only true state of being. I’m old enough to have seen the old cartoons where an angel and devil would pop up on someone’s shoulders when they were about to make a decision, to me regardless of which self won out it was still a decision made by self. A belief of a higher self as opposed to a lower one makes for a nice story, but it just creates more inner division within.

This form that has manifested for humans to experience life only does what it does because of the conditioning in place. If there is less of this conditioning to be fortunate enough to not be controlled by the I Self count your blessings, because most people (form) will die consumed by an I Self. It makes no difference whether it’s labeled higher or lower as self is self and until self is truly let go of, duality and not oneness will be the controlling energy of life. This duality causes inner and Universal division as it creates a you, a me, and them. Whenever this is the way life is viewed there will be separation regardless if there’s a higher or lower self.

Does God Speak to Us?

The Holy Spirit dwells inside of us. God lives within us. The Holy Spirit facilitates our relationship with God and our ability to communicate with Him. Generally, Christians understand this to refer to prayer. We spend time with God praying to Him. We thank Him, we ask for forgiveness, and then we ask for what we want or what believe we need. This can include blessings or healings for our loved ones and for ourselves. We may request a promotion or a raise. We may also ask for things, like a home or a car. Often, our prayers become a laundry list of things we would like God to do. Keep in mind, God knows what we truly need more than we do. If that is the case, then what can we talk about with God. How do we pray?

First, we come to God in humility, understanding that He is the all-powerful holy one who created us, and He knows what is best for us. We can contemplate Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for us. We can be in awe of the Holy Spirit who facilitates our communication with God and who lives within us. We can talk to God about our sins and think about how He has blessed us recently. However, all this talk and prayer is simply a one-way communication. Our relationship with God can most benefit us, if we can engage in a two-way communication, and if we can hear from God. Is that possible? Of course, it is! All things are possible with God, so how do we listen?

When we think about God speaking to us or listening to God, most of us understand the concept of listening to our conscience. Messages from our conscience are never good news. Those guilty feelings in our conscience remind us that we have sinned or are about to sin. However, there are other ways in which God speaks to us. We just need to learn how to listen. There are actually five other ways the Holy Spirit communicates with us; through our intuition, our hearts, our minds, through the Bible, and through the events which occur in our lives.

Excerpts from A Journey Toward Perfection:

           “Our intuition is a gut feeling, and we do not know from where that feeling originated. We cannot explain why we have that gut feeling, but we do. Our intuition operates mystically. The Holy Spirit speaks to us in a whisper, but we recognize it as truth. If we were pressed to explain our gut feeling, we may be able to stumble through an explanation as to why we feel the way we do, but we could not explain how that feeling got there.  It appeared in lightning speed without the awareness of our conscious mind. We did not go through the normal logical steps of reasoning in our mind. Our hearts arrived at a conclusion without the reassuring processes of our mind…

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). The Holy Spirit speaks to us through our hearts, where love is the language spoken. If we are His sheep, we recognize His voice. Hearing God’s voice through our hearts is the most joyous experience. When we act in kindness and compassion, when we forgive those who are difficult to forgive, when we give of ourselves, He pours His perfect love into our hearts. This is where His love becomes so real to us, particularly when we contemplate Christ’s love for us and His sacrifice for us. He touches the emotional center of our beings. Our spirit can overflow with God’s love, manifesting through tears of joy and compassion. Listening to the Holy Spirit with our hearts is a very powerful form of communication with God…

God can also speak to us through our minds, where language is stored, where we make connections and understand symbolism, where revelation occurs. If we seek knowledge or wisdom or answers to our questions, God may reply to us through our minds. For example, an experience in our lives can bring to mind specific words from scripture to reveal a deeper understanding of God’s truth. This is why it is so important to immerse ourselves in the Bible. God does answer us in words, but this communication may occur in our minds. We know it is God’s voice because the words are filled with His truth. God’s words connect with our hearts, our conscience, and our intuition to declare His truth to us. It is an experience, which involves our total being. We recognize God’s truth through the Holy Spirit. The light bulb turns on…

The Bible, God’s word, is His most powerful means of communicating to us. No matter how many times we may read a particular passage, we can learn something new each time. God can reveal new truths to us for specific situations in our lives through His own words. This is especially true as we go through various phases in our lives or are in various stages of our journey toward Him. His words speak to our conscience, intuition, our hearts and our minds. His words connect to our spirit through the Holy Spirit who reveals all truth to us. It is the Holy Spirit who helps our hearts or minds discern the truth.”

God also communicates to us through coincidental events which may occur. God may place people in our lives to guide us and to lead us to wisdom. It may be a transitory encounter with someone who blesses us in some way. He may arrange circumstances in such a way that they may appear to be a coincidence, so pay attention. With God, there are no coincidences. For example, Sunday morning I found myself getting ready for church, realizing that I had forgotten my contacts at my mom’s house. I am very self-conscious about going out wearing my glasses. I have always hated wearing glasses. It is my vanity, one of my weaknesses! For a moment, I thought to myself that I can’t go to church without my contacts! Then I realized that it was my vanity speaking and I laughed to myself. God arranged it so that I would have to overcome my self-consciousness and go to church in my glasses. Was this a coincidence? Such a seemingly little insignificant thing, yet I knew what God was saying to me.

A two-way dialogue with God must be cultivated. It does not just happen. We must be alert, expecting a response from Him. We must look for reasons why coincidences occur. We must be attentive to our intuition and our hearts. We know when God is communicating with us because it is personal. It is filled with truth and love. We just know that we know. Perhaps, a Bible verse comes to mind or we realize that there is an answer to a question we asked. This is where faith becomes activated. We trust God, and we know that He loves us and wants the best for us. We have faith that His will is to transform us into the people we were created to be. His will is to teach us how to love. We know love when we encounter the genuine article. This is how we know God when we encounter Him. He lovingly guides us through the Holy Spirit. All we must do is be alert and listen! 

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