DONT BE ONE WHO PRACTICES DOUBT... It is important for all of you to know that that which is Divine and that which is Real, is not somber and “R-e-l-i-g-i-o-u-s,” where you can only whisper discreetly. Life is full of joy. And when I have pointed out that when you go within, your first experience of connectedness with what you Divinely Are is peace. The fact is, that once you become familiar with that experience of peace, there begins to well up out of it joy, of such depth and such height that you will be amazed. And this will be also an experience of direct connection with your essential Being. And, therefore, with what God Is. So when you think you’re getting a little bit too happy with your spiritual growth, and your ego says, “cut it out, this is unspiritual,” tell it to go fly a kite, and laugh. Please continue... QUESTION: Well, that was my problem! (Laughter) I’ve been cruising along, having a great time, feeling so peaceful and happy. And then the last couple of days my ego has caused some very heavy-duty doubts. And I’ve been real unhappy, because of the doubts about everything. About you, about this Course, about everything. So I guess I just say, “I’m not going to listen to you--ego”? ANSWER: Yes. That is what you say. Sometimes you do have to tell the ego to shut up and then immediately give your attention to something else. QUESTION: Do you have to do that a lot? [Laughter] ANSWER: It all depends on how feisty your ego is. As you remember, there was a point where I had to say, “Get thee behind me, Satan!” That was the vernacular of the day for the ego--for the devil. Yes, you can learn to enjoy putting the ego in its place, which is always second place, out of sight, not in your range of vision, because you don’t care to give it your attention. Learn to enjoy saying “NO!” to the ego. And be alert; don’t be one who practices doubt. Doubt undermines your peace and does not contribute to your ability to be clear. Peace does contribute to your ability to be clear. So, do what is intelligent: don’t practice doubt. The ego suggests to you that doubt is justifiable and a worthy thing to invest energy in. But you don’t have to agree with that suggestion; you don’t have to invite it in and entertain it in your mind. You can make the conscious choice for your peace. And you know what? You can be so irreverent as to choose for your peace and then ask whether there is any value in the Course. You can choose for your peace where your clarity is available to you and ask whether you need to read the lesson today. You can choose for your peace where your clarity is available to you and ask if whether there is anything wrong, because you aren’t feeling inclined to pick up the Course. And if you get an answer that says there is nothing wrong with it at all, dare to trust it. There is something more dependable than the Course. There is something more dependable than anything outside of you. And that is, as I said yesterday, that included within you is an inherent capacity to recognize Truth. And if you lean on that and desire to know it, then you don’t have to “believe” in the Course, or “believe” in the Bible, or “believe” in any concept of God. Because you are leaning into that one dependable thing in you, which is your capacity to recognize Truth, is what will reveal God and your Divinity to you. It is already in you. All of these things are here to substantiate what you will find to be True, if you go within and pay attention. You are the focal point. Your conscious experience of being divine, your being awake, is the focal point. You’re not here to serve a Course or a minister. You’re not even here to serve the Christ--I mean by that the Christ that I am. You’re here to discover that you Are the Christ. You’re here to discover that you are the direct, unalterable, indivisible expression of God. You’re here to discover it as an experience, so that you can be the presence and expression of it, serving no one outside of you. The paradox of this is that as you are in the process of Awakening, you seem to have to reach to something outside of you, because you identify yourself so completely with your current concepts of being a body and a limited mind that is a result of “zinging electrons on neural pathways,” instead of conscious awareness or mind in which the experience of body is going on. Because of this, you have to reach outside of your present sense of things, so that you may join with one who is Awake and thus experience the support of the enlightened point of view that helps you take steps that would otherwise be scary, because you can’t see where that next step will take you because it goes beyond your limited frame of reference. When you go within and desire to know the Truth, you are automatically joining with that which is beyond your present sense of things. You are joining with the Holy Spirit, which I pointed out yesterday, was your Divine Being held in trust while you dally with the ego, or a limited frame of reference. And when you connect with the Holy Spirit--the divineness of you--you are connecting with the Divinity of everyone. You are connecting with the Father, you are connecting with your True Identity and you access the Father’s point of view, which causes you to remember that that is your point of view! And you Wake Up. I cannot stress strongly enough, the value of insecurity. Don’t protect yourselves so completely that you don’t let yourself into the insecurity of the “not-knowing” place. The place wherein you are willing to concede that maybe everything that you see doesn’t mean anything that you thought it meant. It is not a valuable place to be stuck in. It is a valuable place that serves as a threshold to discovery and enlightenment as to the True meaning of everything. And that threshold is within you. It’s called the centered place. To the ego, it is a place of great insecurity, but when you are experiencing it, it is a place of great stability, which initially is empty and that is why it seems so utterly peaceful. But that apparent emptiness is already filled with your Knowing. It is already filled with God’s point of view that is YOUR point of view, Truly. And it is full of discovery. It is full of revelation. All the practice of doubt does is keep you tied up in knots so that you don’t access the peace and, therefore, you don’t access the joy. And you don’t connect with your brothers and the Real meaning of All That Is--and I am meaning there, the world, the visibility and tangibility. It is time for all of you to begin to discover the joy of everything you have been experiencing. And remember, a spiritual quest is a process of emerging into that which is ever more and more natural to you. It is coming Home. It is coming into that Awareness of Yourself that you have been used to, forever. Like the Prodigal Son, his Home was his Birthright. And the abundance was natural, but he said, “I’d rather have some of my own experiences. I’d rather take a look at all of this from a little bit different viewpoint than my Father’s viewpoint.” And there were challenges to it that he had never encountered before, because his needs had been met. And it satisfied his ego, because it gave him something to work for. Isn’t that marvelous? And so he worked, he struggled and he managed to create within himself a whole ethic of thinking that said, “It’s worth it. I am finally having an experience that my Father didn’t provide me with. I am becoming someone.” And in all of this, he forgot his Birthright. And because the strenuousness of survival was so great, it was seldom that he had a moment to remember the ease and the ever-present evidence of love that had always been there. Until things got so difficult that he, as the saying now goes, got sick and tired of being sick and tired, and decided to head for home. Decided to stop practicing doubt. Doubt that maybe the Allness of his Home, of his Father’s gift, was not ALL there was, that there was something more. When you return Home, it seems like hard work because you are coming from a frame of reference in which doubt is a staple of your daily diet. I am going to continue, because although you know the story, it needs to be heard, it needs to sink in. When the son was yet a long way off, but was on his way Home, his Father came out to meet him. This is what the Course means when it says, “God takes the last step.” All you need is the little willingness to not be so sure that your definition of everything is the correct one. All there needs to be is a little bit of doubt in your expression of faithlessness. That is the only appropriate place for doubt to be practiced--relative to your own faithlessness. And when that little bit of doubt comes into play, you begin to remember. How? By virtue of the yearning I spoke of. A yearning, which, if you abide with it, will elicit clarification, because it makes you reach out beyond your present definitions, which constitute your current imprisonments. And the Father meets you. Why? Because the Father and All that the Father Is, meaning the Kingdom of Heaven, is what has been right in front of your face all along. And the moment you begin to get the tiniest crack in your eyelids, in comes the experience of what was there all along. So remember, there is in you an inviolable capacity to recognize Truth. Lean into it and rely upon it and let the Course substantiate what you find there in you. And let what I say, substantiate what is there in you. And if you hear anything from me, or if you read anything in the Course that does not substantiate what you find there in you, then disregard us. Therein lies your safety and your integrity and you will never give your power away. And you will Wake Up. ~excerpt from Gathering with Raj/Jesus, Charlotte, N.C. 1992 Conducted by the Northwest Foundation for ACIM nwffacim.wordpress FaceBook:https://facebook/groups/183859725130360/ All of the activities of the Northwest Foundation for A Course In Miracles are provided without charge or obligation. This is possible because of thoughtfulness, love extended without conditions. Such is the nature of Gift. As a result these materials are available to you, because someone like you has already gifted you with them. And, at Rajs instruction, these materials will never be sold. If you would like to add your thoughtfulness and love, to gift others with the availability of these materials, please contact nwffacim.org -----oOo-----
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 22:16:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015