Living the Life Divine

“Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.” That beautiful prayer perfectly expresses the most heartfelt desire of every child of God. Doing God’s work is our highest purpose, our true spiritual mission. But how can we FULFILL that mission? By learning to live a life in which God DIRECTS, and we DO. In that Life Divine, guided by the unseen hand of heaven, we follow Divine impulse; we deliver “God’s mail” to people; we transmit Divine blessings. That graceful cooperation between Creator and creature IS our ultimate spiritual destiny.

In this article, we will consider how to actually LIVE that Life Divine. First, let’s deeply consider the basics.

Without a doubt, the real Life Divine, the truly inspired spiritual life, is GOD’S life — lived THROUGH human agents on earth. God literally depends on human beings — people like us — to deliver His mail and distribute His gifts of love, comfort, reassurance, healing. Our part is to act not JUST in accord with His will in a general sense, but ALSO under His present and specific guidance. Specifically, our part may be described as follows:

• Convey God’s Love TO those God picks out for us.

• Move immediately with the spirit wind. And,

• Deliver God’s mail INTACT (that is, in the spirit in which it was given — WITHOUT personal concern, impurity, or modification).

Such is the life of cooperation between man and God. In that life, we TRULY “let go and let God.” To live His Way, we must get our ego stuff — hyper-control, pride, selfishness, attachment, etc. — out of the way. Then we must follow the Divine impulse FAITHFULLY — in every sense of that word.

Faithfully:

• With confidence (confidence in the unerring quality of God’s direction, and confidence in our ability to do what He tells us).

• Consistently, reliably (without refusal or delay).

• True to the original (without modification or distortion; without deviating from God’s inspiration in any way).

All three meanings are essential, but the last one deserves special attention.

The responsibility for high-fidelity transmission

You know the saying, “It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it.” How we should do God’s work is God’s business, not ours. To live the Life Divine, we must do it GOD’S way, not OUR way. No one can cooperate effectively with God otherwise.

With every Divine prompting, God provides not only the WHAT, but also the HOW. In each instance, God knows exactly what to do, and exactly how best to do it. And God’s HOW is subtle. Sublime details — subtle nuances of tone, perfect timing, Godly intentions — these factors make God’s suggestions work marvelously. His guidance, if FAITHFULLY followed, is perfect — unerring.

Consequently, when it comes to Divine guidance, God is perfectly clear and strong on the HOW factor. Yes, indeed! He doesn’t just give the impulse to pat someone on the back for Him — He also provides the tenderness, and the healing energy to give that little pat WITH. And isn’t it OBVIOUS that a pat delivered God’s Way is a particularly healing pat? That Divine HOW is PRECISELY what gives His pat on the back such marvelous healing power. Of course!

Now you know why, when it comes to following Divine inspiration — or delivering God’s mail — we must do it God’s Way, EXACTLY. Only if God’s promptings are followed AS IS — without modification — can they be expected to work as God intends. Therefore, though this admonition seems daunting at first, we can’t overemphasize this fact:

When it comes to doing God’s bidding, changing the nature
or tone of the proposed action — in any way — is an error.

The mailman has no right to re-write the letter he conveys. The delivery person has no business modifying the gift. So let it be with God’s “mail.” Even withholding part of the ENERGY of God’s action is an error. After all, God knows that both love and energy are required for healing. Therefore, once again:

To do it God’s way — exactly — is the ONLY way
to deliver God’s mail properly.    

Who died and left you — or me, or ancient scriptures — boss?

Now you know exactly why the Life Divine can never be lived effectively as a matter of rote formula or mere behavioral patterns. Humans can write down and commit to memory ANY idea or theory of right living, but God — the living God — has the last Word. The last Word of God can’t be found in an ancient scripture, because God is still alive and kicking, and He has not finished speaking. Moreover, He is not merely elsewhere; He is right here, right now. So, He can easily address the situations at hand — and He DOES. In His infinite and exquisitely context-sensitive wisdom, He addresses the immediate conditions and meets the personal needs of His audience, individually, in real time. That’s why Divine Rightness is not just right on the surface: it’s deeply right, through and through.

So, again: God’s last Word is His PRESENT Word, His present guidance — whispered in your ear, right now. It’s the word of the still small voice. THAT Word is the ultimate in rightness, in appropriate action, in healing power. Receive God’s counsel fresh, and serve it while it’s hot.

Relevance is time-specific, case specific:

If the question is how to live a Godly Life, the answer is as follows:

1. Listen for God’s PRESENT instructions.
2. Do what God tells you to do — AND
3. Do it exactly the WAY He tells you to do it — insofar as humanly possible, of course. (We know this third point sounds like it’s not a separate point from the second one, but when you see how important it is, and how much there is to say about it, this distinction will make sense to you.)
 

This is an excerpt from the article “The Way of Undoing” published on: www.soulprogress.com

To read about the author click here.

Love, by God (excerpt)

1. If God Is Love, Something’s Wrong

2. Righting Some Wrong Ideas About God and You

3. What the God Who Is Love Really Wants

4. Wrinkle: Who We Are is Out of Fashion

5. Love-Ability, and How to Have It

6. Love Intention and Counter-Intention

7. You Decide Who Gets to Call the Shots

8. How to Get Ego Out of the Way, and Love

1. If God Is Love, Something’s Wrong

When mankind’s spiritual explorers share what they’ve found in the deepest depths of Self and the highest realms of consciousness, they agree on this: God is love. That rings so true. We know, too, that the heart of every creature longs for love, seeks love everywhere, and feels at home only where love is found.

But if God is love, why do we still look for God in one place, and love in another? And why don’t we understand that we, God’s children, must also be love? And finally, when love is all around us, inside and out, why do we live as if we are without love — ignoring the love that is, and the love we are? Clearly, our understanding has failed us.

God knows better, and would bring us home to Love as a mother turns her baby’s mouth toward her breast. But in our confusion, we may not turn, and we may not drink.

Friends, you need not accept that God is love on faith, while failing to see it and feel it all around. You can truly know it. This article was written to help undo the confusions that cloud our perceptions, so that God’s children can be reunited with their Divine Parent, and their reality of Love.

2. Righting Some Wrong Ideas About God and You

• God as law giver and enforcer

• Our wrongful accusations

• Back to reality

To be close to God; to understand ourselves and others; to walk the love walk, and not just talk the love talk, we have some adjustments to make in how we think, and how we live. Let’s start with the most common misperceptions that keep us from truly appreciating that God is love.

God as law giver and enforcer

It is true that God is love, but in many ways, we’re taught to believe God is judgment. All religions speak about how, on Judgment Day, God will judge us and seal our fate. This idea is hard to reconcile with a God who is love.

A bit more favorably, we think of God as a Father who is interested in our betterment, our refinement, and our rectification. So, in addition to praying to God for forgiveness, we ask God what we should do, and how to do it; and God gives all kinds of advice about that. God gives scriptures: the Bible, the Koran, the Vedas, etc. God even gives orders, it would seem. Commandments. Laws. In many ways, God teaches us how to be right and righteous.

Indeed, God seems to be in the righteousness business — according to human beings, anyway. At least God’s reputation here on Earth has been built upon that notion of God’s function and God’s concerns.

But now let’s be honest about the problem with all of that: No God who is a law giver, enforcer, and judge is one you can love. When you think that God’s primary concern is rightness, growth, and spiritual progress, and that God’s primary function is judge and jury; and you don’t think you’re correct, or you suspect you might not be; then you fear rejection by God, and even condemnation. Oh yes — condemnation. This results not in love for God, but fear of God. It leads to hiding from God, instead of happy, close intimacy with God.

Our wrongful accusations

What a shame those ideas are, painting such a dark, fearsome picture of God. Consider this: we may not be perfect, but even we know better than to be judgmental — let alone condemnatory. We avoid those things because we know they are bad. Do we really think God is less good than we are? That’s what we’re saying when we consider God to be that kind of Father!

Granted, all fathers want their children to turn out well, to learn right from wrong, etc. But no right-thinking human father has such warped values as to place righteousness above his love for his child. And no respectable human father would withhold his love and make his child earn it. But we’re saying God is like that. Why hold the Lord of the universe to be lower than us — less reasonable, more foolish? Why even worship such a heartless God?

Back to reality

Friends, we each create our own subjective reality by what we think. With our wrong beliefs, people create and believe a “reality” in which God is cold and distant — the opposite of love, and the opposite of the truth! These views are so widely accepted that we rarely question them. But to get back to the reality God created, we must question them — and correct them.

 

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Face the Ocean

To read about the author click here.

Love – the Only Solution

The following article is a lightly edited talk given by David Truman to the resident members of the Living Love Fellowship on January 25, 2003.

The other day, I was writing a paper about the psychology of dominance and submission in man-woman relations. I was looking at all the ins and outs, all the problems that were associated with it, in every different way you could imagine, plus some. The subject loomed so large, it began to look like Mount Rushmore. And all over it, the ego’s footprints.

Then I saw it totally: This huge Mount Rushmore is dust. It is nothing — just another in-depth consideration about human psychology. The bottom line is, the ego is always a problem. And I realized, until and unless there is true love, there is no solution for the human condition. Love is the final answer. Love is the only solution. With that, I really released the entire investigation of human psychology that has engaged me for the past thirty years. All this dharma. All this living. I saw it.

I think I can say I understand the human condition and its problems pretty well, probably as well as anybody. And now I can say conclusively that these problems are not in fact solvable on their own level. If there is a problem, dwelling on it doesn’t help particularly. What you really need, if you have a problem, is a solution. No matter what the problem is, the solution is one — love. You can talk and talk until you’re blue about the ins and outs of the ego’s garbage. But no matter what you come up with or think about, there is no actual solution other than love. There are a million questions, but there is only one answer. And once you have the answer, then you have no more questions. There’s really nothing to talk about, except to mention the solution.

But what about all the varieties of human experience and human problems? This vast complexity of spiritual teaching that we’ve been involved in developing for the last twenty or thirty years reflects nothing but the simple fact that people were not willing to love. And that unwillingness generated an infinitude of complexes and problems of many shapes and sizes. Those problems were all the result of people buying time to continue hanging on to their old egoic dreams, their old ways of acting, thinking, and being. And creating and having all manner of difficulties and problems as a result of living as egos. And then waiting for someone or something to come along that could save them from this mess — some kind of answer, some kind of savior.

The savior is love, and it will save any person from any trouble. The saving grace of love is HAVING love, BEING love. Tag, you’re it! It is definitely not good enough simply to be loved, although that is encouraging, and certainly uplifting. But it is not a solution. You have to BE love.

If you are willing to throw yourself in and to be love altogether with your heart and soul, then indeed you have nothing to worry about, because you really are saved for all practical purposes. The rest is only the outworking of your salvation. And at that moment, you really have nothing to look forward to but love, which is what you are, having made a decision to be love — love in a billion different iterations.

That is easy to say. And it is really not all that hard to do, when compared to any of the alternatives. At the core of it, love is empty. It is unselfed. It is carefree. It is not complicated. It has no hidden agenda. It is not in any kind of conflict. It is not dividing itself, separating itself and creating all kinds of trouble on that account. It is in fact THE solution, and therefore, happy. This is simple stuff for simple people.

Of course, people don’t necessarily want to love. And even when people want to love, they aren’t necessarily ready or willing to love. But that’s their business. To the extent that a person is unready or unwilling to love, it is simply a tragedy — actually, more tragedies than you can shake a stick at. But I don’t want to talk about that infinitude of tragedies by which we imprison ourselves. There is no way out of that whole mess except to love truly, sincerely, unstintingly, courageously, and with profound commitment. Apart from love, there are only pain relievers, consolations, symptomatic remedies of all kinds, but no solution whatsoever.

Until you make that firm decision be love wholeheartedly, you can focus on anything you want, and every topic that you could focus on represents, in itself, a dead end detour. You will go down that road, no doubt, and you will end up having to turn around and retrace your steps. Eventually, no matter how many detours you decide upon, in time you will come back to love’s embrace. Ultimately all you can learn from every experience is that there is only one solution, and the solution is love. You will come to that, because it has always been so, and will always be so. There is only that one answer to come to in the end.

Now, you can apply that one answer to everything there is. And it can be very meaningful, very productive, to do exactly that. “What’s love got to do with what I’m doing right now?” you can ask. You can very productively keep asking that question right now and right now and right now, and it will reveal many things. But within all of that, you find that love is a very simple thing.

It’s like I always said it was. I live unselfishly, I live for the beloved. My thoughts are focused. I consider the benefit of the beloved in all things, all the time. I consider: “What are the implications to the beloved of what I’m doing now and now and now?” Will this help the beloved? Will this be of benefit? I look in great detail at exactly what and how the thing I am doing now and now and now will help the beloved. Or heaven forbid, in what way will what I’m doing now and now injure or otherwise harm the beloved? These are the things that one should look at — the only things.

You really want to know what exactly would make the beloved happy. And not just WHAT — you are much more astute than that if you think with your Buddha mind — but HOW should you do it? You want to know, “How, in what tone, should I present this flower? With what spirit should I present it?” With your Buddha mind you certainly know this is going to make a difference to the beloved. You want to know what, you want to know why, you want to know HOW to do the presentation of this gift to make the beloved most happy. This is all you care about.

You put your Buddha mind on this. You think deeply about what are the things that would be helpful to the beloved, why those things work, and how they work best. And you come to the conclusion, in your own heart and in your own sincere inquiry, that they work best when they are done wholeheartedly and with all the corners back on. You begin to understand what it means to be wholehearted in your loving. It means to be complete. It means to cut no corner. Then you are given in your entirety, and therefore you are loving. This is what love is: that you give yourself entirely.

Regarding acts of service, acts of self-sacrifice, ask yourself, “Is what I’m doing a valid service?” If it is for the beloved, it certainly is. If not, then it certainly is not. And furthermore, if you look at your track record of service, you may see there are many corners that could be cut in service. Up to this point, you have cut many of those corners. And however many corners one can manage to cut, you see that the gift is proportionally degraded. Therefore there are many, many corners to put back on to make what you’re doing whole, complete. However many corners can be put back, on the more the gift takes shape as a true love expression in its wholeness, in its completeness, in its sincerity.

So, when you look at your acts of service, contemplate, “Have I cut any corners? If so, what corners have I got to put back, to make my service whole and complete?” Consider all the factors in great detail, and perfect them. Ask, “What would make this gift perfect?,” which is precisely the opposite question from asking, “How can I do this minimally? How can I get by?”

This is what it means to be a loving person: to entertain these thoughts with all due care and consideration, with heartfelt simplicity and sincerity. This is love. This is the activity of love, and it has no other activity. It has no other goal, purpose, enterprise, activity, method.

People who have a very strong motivation toward excellence end up considering many, many factors that one might not otherwise think of. You see a reasonable model or facsimile of this idea in an Olympic hopeful. They find themselves involved in sports psychology, deep studies of kinetics, considerations of nutrition. No stone is left unturned by a person who strives for absolute excellence. In that same spirit, how much more would a person who strives to be a true lover consider all the factors that go into love, which could make love the perfection that it wants to be? Certainly if an Olympic candidate would do such a thing, why would we not?

Sincerity is all that is really at issue here, because sincerity is that one factor that would cause a person to be whole. When we say sincere, we mean entire, uncontradicted and unconflicted, whole. And it could only be insincerity — some form of withholding, some form of doubt, some form of reservation — that could cause anything less than that to happen.

In this you find your creativity. When the whole of what you are is consecrated to love, then you are always casting about for love’s solutions creatively. You are not just trying to be safe by repeating the same old shoulder rub, or whatever else is safe. You are always contemplating the needs of the beloved, and this causes you to be infinitely creative in your responses. “What’s going to work NOW for the beloved?” This is what you would be wondering, now and now and now. The more you wonder it, the more things you would think of, and the more things that you would think of, the more things that you would do. And you would find your wholeness and all of your total creative possibilities in the process of answering that one question in each moment.

There are very few things within the entirety of your potentiality that would not be embraced and implicated in the consideration of HOW. Maybe there’s a million or a billion possibilities for ways to present this flower with love. But you can find the one in a billion, you can find the nuances that apply to the moment very subtly, with your Buddha mind and your Quan Yin heart.

In this one thing you can follow my example with great confidence. I have certainly left very few stones unturned in my efforts to help you. It is you for whom I write, sing. It is because of your requirements, what you need, that I dig into every possible resource that I personally can think of and express through these various means, depending on what I feel would be most beneficial for you at that moment, and on what I am capable of doing.

This is because I stand for you. I do not stand for myself. I stand for you. You too must have something to stand for in your time. And when you in fact stand for the beloved, when that is your answer, then you will be standing for something worthwhile. The beloved is worth everything that you can be or give.

Love is the highest priority for a lover. That’s all this means. It’s all loving truly means. There is nothing complicated about that. When love is in the first place, love wins. When it is in any other place, it cannot win; whatever is in the first place, will topple it. Therefore love, to be true, must in fact be in the first place, and everything else must be subordinated to love. If that is so, then everything other than love is all disposable. You stand for love. And love itself stands for you.

Nothing can stand in the way of a person who loves. Everything that you hold has to be flexible. A lover would not cling onto some pattern or behavior that appreciably damages love’s interests or the interests of the beloved. If your long hair became a problem, it would be cut. And so would your wrong thinking. And so would your problematic attitudes, and so would your toxic beliefs. There is nothing in you that love itself cannot and will not perfect.

So I say, “Take it all off for love’s sake, and then give it all.” Take off whatever is an impediment, and then give yourself freely without it. Love would have you do that exactly. And love would certainly recognize an impediment for what it is.

Ask yourself, “Do I have an issue, concern, or attachment that is superior to love in its value to me? If so, what is it? Or what are those things?” If love is not on top, I do not have a problem. I have an infinitude of problems. If love is on top, I have nothing to worry about. I have a solution. I have a solution to an infinitude of problems. I have a scissors capable of cutting every hair that gets in the way. And I have a star that certainly outshines everything that can happen either within me or without me in the entire world, or any world. Having a solution, I have nothing to worry about.

There is nothing like love. No facsimile of love is like love. No gesture, no sacrifice, no experience, nothing is like love. Popularity, manipulation, getting are nothing like love. Things, processes, energies, even those are nothing like love. Love stands beyond all of that. It stands on its own right. Love does not stand for itself. It stands for you.

Love rules. Let it rule.

                                             Questions for Lovers

• “What’s love got to do with what I’m doing right now?”
• “What are the implications to the beloved of what I’m doing now and now and now?”
• “How, with what spirit, should I present this gift to the beloved?”
• “Is what I am doing FOR the beloved?”
• “Have I cut any corners? If so, what corners can I put back, to make my service whole and complete?”
• “Do I have an issue, concern, or attachment that is superior to love in its value to me? If so, what is it? Or what are those things?”

This article comes from: www.soulprogress.com

To read about the author click here.

Integrity: The Key to Happiness

Fulfillment comes not from what we THINK would make us happy, or from what we WISH would make us happy. It comes from what actually brings us up.

Day by day, minute by minute, we live with the fruits of our thoughts and deeds. And we live without the benefits we would accrue from things we could have done, but didn’t. (Example: If we don’t exercise, we lack the fitness we could have created, but didn’t.) Thus, we make our bed, and we lay in it.

Happiness demystified

If you’re serious about your smile, all you have to do is consider what actually works and what actually does not work — for YOU. And that’s no big mystery. In fact, you’re the world’s expert on the subject! No one knows what works for YOU better than you do!

Isn’t it strange, though, how we sometimes act as if we are clueless about what works — and what doesn’t work — for our well-being? For example, many people spend far too much time thinking in negative ways. They have many years of experience that proves their bad habit only depresses them — but they still do it. Why? Denial.

Yes, often we DENY what we know. Maybe we’re attached to doing something we know brings us down. Maybe, for some reason, we’re reluctant to do what we know brings us up. That’s where our integrity falls short.

To deny what brings us up and what brings us down is to live in unnecessary pain. No wonder happiness eludes us when, year in and year out, we invest in thoughts and deeds that hurt us. And no wonder happiness eludes us when we neglect to do what would make us truly happy. Without denial, happiness would be easily won. But denial miscalibrates our inner compass, so we steer wrong. We make decisions — about how we use our mind, our body, our time, our relationships — that are bound to disappoint us.

It takes integrity to know what we know. It takes integrity to admit we’ve ignored that, and to stop ignoring that. If we’re honest, it’s obvious that integrity is the cure for the unhappiness of our lives.
So, LISTEN:
Compromised integrity creates unsatisfactory lives, and sorrowful minds. True integrity chooses better — because you know best. Don’t you?

Timing your turnaround

Our days on earth are limited. True integrity allows us to boldly and intelligently create our own happiness. The more we invest in what we KNOW, the more days we’ll walk in beauty — and the less days we’ll walk in pain.

But as you know, human tolerance for unnecessary pain can be insanely high! Haven’t you had friends who were extremely unhappy with their lives for years, who complained bitterly about their personal patterns — and yet did very little to change them?

A person can always turn around. So what are we waiting for? Many people count on hitting bottom before they turn around. In theory, at least, everyone has a low point, or a level of frustration, that may ultimately force a turnaround. How convenient! But there’s a problem with waiting for that life-saving low: the longer one waits to make a turnaround, the harder it seems.

Example: A woman who is several hundred pounds overweight can regain her slender shape, but it’s much harder now. It will take years of dieting just to be able to start seriously exercising. Again: it’s not that we can’t improve from any point — it’s just that we create huge obstacles by procrastinating.

Why wait to create happiness? It will never be easier to create happiness than it is right NOW. So do it now, while you still have energy and boldness in your body and spirit. Do it now, BEFORE resistance and doubt wrap you in a self-made straight jacket!

Right now is none too soon for those who feel that pain is a problem, and that happiness is important. Right now is none too soon for those who have the integrity to ADMIT those things with firm conviction.

Those who can call a spade a spade — and live accordingly — earn entrance into the kingdom of heaven. That’s the criterion for admission.

Your fulfillment potential

Spiritual fulfillment IS possible — for every one of us. We all have moments in which we can clearly see the bright truth of our own real potential. If we seize those opportunities, we WILL be free. If we stall, we’re waving away a taxi God just sent to pick us up.

The good news is, fresh chances keep coming; everyone has many glimpses of great possibility. The bad news is, we hurt our self-esteem each time we refuse a golden opportunity we could — and should — happily accept.

You know why time is hard on folks: because refusing goodness is hard on folks. Conversely, accepting goodness is uplifting. Living with integrity is easier than it sounds, because saying YES to any opportunity for beauty buoys up the spirit with all the energy necessary for the accomplishment.

Divine invitations are never given in vain. “The will of God won’t put you where the grace of God can’t keep you.” A few days spent on enlightenment would lift you permanently out of the dilemmas in which you presently exist — even those that have prevailed for decades! You must only try sincerely to achieve freedom, and God WILL meet you 9/10ths of the way.

When will you listen to the voice of truth and accept it in full faith? When you STOP listening to the voice of limitation! To be free, you MUST ignore that voice completely. Remember, the ego is LYING when it says, “Your fulfillment is not possible.” Look: when your spirit hears the call to liberation, and knows that it is possible, it IS!

The integrity choice of evolution:

YOUR SPIRIT’S VIEW

“Your life holds great and immediate potential for beauty.” (This fact is supported by your own intuition and knowingness about your own actual power to find that fulfillment — and by the miraculous results of acting accordingly!)

YOUR EGO’S VIEW

“You have no chance at fulfillment. You’ll never be truly happy; you were born to lose.” (Listening to this logic, we may give up — or at least try so half-heartedly NOW that we give up LATER.)

Which view are you voting for?

That’s the question for your integrity to answer. And, IF you happen to vote AGAINST positive possibility, ask your integrity if you really feel you made the right choice — or are you, in your heart of hearts, depressed by your vote, and even ashamed of it?

Remember: Even if your ego WISHES that you can’t be free, that doesn’t mean that you CAN’T. Even if you THINK you’re a spiritual cripple, that doesn’t mean you ARE. But let’s face it:

People invest little or no effort in things they have written off for any reason — however bogus.

Consequently, if you SUBSCRIBE to negative views regarding liberation or fulfillment, you WON’T work for your freedom — and therefore won’t achieve it.

Don’t throw out your enlightenment

If you were completely convinced that something life-threatening was wrong with your foot, you’d have it cut off — whether there was really anything wrong with your foot, or not! Similarly: If you let your ego convince you that it’s DANGEROUS to try for freedom, or that you CAN’T be happy, it will trick you into cutting off something even more precious than a hand or a foot: your own happiness! And yes — spiritual enlightenment!

So, watch what you believe. To believe the ego’s lies is to imprison oneself. Never say to yourself, “I’m so depressed because I ‘found out’ that I can’t do it. I had to face the ‘fact’ that I always ruin things. So I should scale back my expectations, I guess.” LIES! Those notions are only ego-created illusions designed to trap you in misery.

The TRUTH is, you CAN be fulfilled, spiritually and emotionally — and you know it! The happiness of enlightenment is forever available. It is not at all beyond our capacity in the least. It is our birthright, as children of God.

Negative imagination is our only foe. If it were not for the refusal of our birthright — due to mistaken, negative beliefs about what is impossible for us — our freedom would be ASSURED. It’s TRUE!

Our freedom can be assured — by us — because we know what we need to know to be happy. We also know that our ego’s bullshit is just that: bullshit. That means, it’s totally POSSIBLE to invest in what we know is UP; and it’s totally UNNECESSARY to invest in what we know is bogus and destructive.

You know all this, don’t you? So, at the bottom line, happiness is not a knowledge test — it’s an integrity test. And this, exactly, is integrity:

BELIEVE what you already KNOW is true — and live accordingly.

This article comes from: www.soulprogress.com

To read more about author click here.

Claim Your Freedom

by David Truman

Every man and every woman wants to be free. Every man and every woman knows that they are infinite. We each have a soul full of passion and love and truth, which is usually unexpressed. What we are is infinite! But we have imprisoned ourselves with egoic patterns and false ideas. Ideas of who we are. Ideas of what life can be. Most people go from day to day unsatisfied with the life they are living, the person they are being.

People, if you are willing, you CAN break free of that! Recognize yourself as a child of God, and discard the limitations that you have accepted for yourself. Break free! And do not allow the chains of false ideas about who you are to hold you down anymore. Do not accept the misery of being limited, of being small, of being unexpressed, of being stuck in negative and disappointing patterns. You are a child of God. And that means you do not have to accept that. CLAIM that freedom, as a child of God, and LIVE!

Listen to this recording of David Truman — a teacher of the Living Love Fellowship — speaking about the freedom of the children of God, of EVERY human being, and know that this applies to YOU.

Transcript:

David: I’m just trying to work through the human condition, and show the way out of the maze. You know, people go around and around. We need help finding the exit.

You step towards the front: one, two. And again back: one, two. And again forward: one, two, step, step. But what you need to understand about this dance is you are like a rat in a maze, and there is a fire in the building. It is not just step, step, step forward, step back. You need to make progress toward the exit, to live! Step, step, step, step. Step left, step, step. Step right, step, step, exit out of the burning building, into the sky. Freedom!

We think, “Oh, these patterns are wonderful; patterns make human life what it is.” True enough, but human life is miserable.

And so, step, step, step, step, forward and back. It’s different to be involved in the cha-cha-cha than it is to be involved in running for your life. You see? Step forward, step back. You need to BREAK that pattern, and GO down further into the maze. Take a DIFFERENT route one time.

Everything is habit: “Oh yes, this and this and this, and then I go back to here. Oh yeah, that feels good, very kinesthetic. Back and forth, back and forth.” This is all very self-stimulating. This is all very head bashing. All fine, all good. But the thing is, they’re in an iron lung; and dying by inches, because they don’t have any true exercise. True exercise is when you stride OUT, okay?

So, it’s all very wonderful. “I’ve done what I’ve always done. I’ve done it the way I’ve done it.” We’re all very comfortable, very felicitous, very joyous, very celebratory. The fact that I am a complete idiot who goes through life: “I always catch the 9:03 train, and on the way back I take the 5:03.” You see: all very wonderful, very secure, very safe, very DEAD.

But death is not actually the salvation of man. Life is. Life is to be ever new. Life is to actually escape the patterns. Life is not to repeat them.

So therefore: Step, step, step, step. Ah! That’s the same! Okay, step, step, step, step, turn right. Step, step, step, step, run like mighty. And run forever, and run like there’s no tomorrow. And run to freedom, run to God, run to the truth.

Run as if your life depended on it. Because it does. See? So do it AS IF what is true was true. It is. So therefore do it, every time you see that pattern, every time you recognize yourself to be in chains.

I saw this myself, in the institutions of the mental hospital. When the men would come with a straightjacket, to tie them down, why, they would object, and they would fight like hell. Why is it? The human being, apparently even the human being that is most deranged, resists imprisonment. Resists mightily. And they would struggle fantastically, and it would take four men to contain them, to put on the chains. This was how strong: one man had the power of four when it came time to resist imprisonment.

Now, WHY would one not see that, every time you have a pattern of behavior, YOU are being approached by the men with the white coat; YOU are being approached by the imprisoning force; YOU are being approached to be confined. This is the same thing, you see? You should recognize it as the same.

There is no satisfaction in bondage, for a human being. But there is satisfaction in freedom. There’s satisfaction in liberation. And you know that to be true, because every time you ever decided and you ever made up your mind to do different, well then, in that case, you were happy.

And I’ll tell you why. It’s simple and you know it to be true. It’s because freedom is you, “Freedom R Us.” And there’s Toys R Us, and there’s Freedom R Us. Freedom R the nature of God. Freedom R the nature of you, as God’s child. Freedom!

(singing) “Oh freedom… Ohh freedom. There’s no kneeling in that land. There’s no kneeling in that land. There’s no kneeling in that land, where I’m bound. There’s no kneeling in that land. There’s no kneeling in that land. Go home to my Lord, and be free.”

That is the anthem of your heart and soul.

Acquire freedom by resisting patterns. Acquire freedom by resisting confinement. Acquire freedom by resisting the tendency to say, “I can’t do this, and I can only do that.” Acquire freedom by rebelling against such a statement. Acquire freedom by not having any of it. It’s not of your kind. That is what grates against you. Think about it, Grasshoppers. It’s not of your kind. You are of God, you see? God is free.

You have to understand yourself by looking at your responses. I went to Mexico and I would say to people there randomly in these little villages that I went to, “Do you speak English?” Now, depending on how they respond, I could draw certain conclusions. When they would answer entirely in Spanish, then I would think, “Probably not. This must be a true-blooded Mexican, untainted.”

All right. Now in this same way, when bondage grates against you, then you know by that, you are of God. When it does not sit well with you, you know by that, you are a child of God.

You can tell who anyone is by the way they respond to things. This is the way you tell. See? Know thyself. If you like all this confinement, if you like all this self-limitation, wonderful. Then indeed, you can know by that, you are a child of Satan. Satan is for limitation. Satan is for confinement. Satan is for restriction. But then again, on the other side, if you DON’T like those things, if you DON’T like the restriction, if you DON’T like the limitation, this tells volumes about who you are. This is revelatory. This is definitive. YOU are a child of God, if you don’t like THESE things. You see?

That’s how you identify children of God, how you separate them from the stones. All the stones are indifferent to the fact of their confinement, their immobility. You do not share this attitude, though. YOU, yourself, not only beg to differ from the stones. In fact, you DO. You differ. You differ in fact; you differ in reality. You inevitably differ; you inexorably differ; you cannot NOT differ. You are, in fact, different than a stone, in that immobility, confinement, restriction — these things bother you. See?

So you go into a room of mixed entities — thirteen thousand four hundred thirty-six humans, fifteen thousand seventy-six stones — and your job is to sort these into the categories properly. So you say, “How many of you would be happy with confinement, stuckness? Everyone who would be happy with it, say nothing.” And all the humans scream, “NO!” By this, then, we have separated the stones from the people.

Very important. You MUST, as a child of God, understand the fact that you are not actually a stone; that you do not accept the destiny of a stone. Which is to be stuck. To be moveless, immobile. To have no legs. To be unable to walk, to run, to fly.

Think! You see, if you can think, then again you are not a stone. Think: “I would be free. I deplore my own confinement. I would go home to my Lord. I would be free.”

So say, have you heard?

All: Yes, we have heard.

David: Very well, then.

Oh! May all be free!

I love you all. Thank you very much. Unbelievable beauty, that you can hear. Unbelievable. I love you ALL. Great, tremendous, that you can hear. You must be children of God. You have ears. You can hear.

Good job! Now go tell your friends. Go on. Right now. Go tell your friends. Tell them the truth. Do that for me, okay? Tell them the truth.

We love you.

This article comes from: www.soulprogress.com

To read about the author click here.

 

Accept God, Accept Yourself

True, or false? . . .

God is omnipresent.

Humanity is One.

God dwells within us.

Most of us would answer without hesitation, “True!” But though we believe these things, we rarely FEEL them. Instead, we persist in seeing ourselves as separate from all: separate from God, from others, and from the beauty of Divinity.

It’s common to believe in Unity intellectually and philosophically, but our belief may be superficial. What if we don’t ACCEPT Unity as the reality of our lives? What if we believe that individuality MEANS separateness, uniqueness MEANS separateness? Then we miss out on the comfort and illumination that Unity-awareness brings to every part of our lives.

Dear friends, belief in separateness is a terribly costly misunderstanding. Indeed, happiness, love, and spirituality depend on correcting it. For that, we need a deeper, more heartfelt acceptance of Unity. The purpose of this article is to facilitate that acceptance.

The costly problem of (presumed) separation

Believing we’re separate from God is terribly painful, whether we’re used to it or not. We need God here — now and now and now. We need a solid connection to inner guidance. We need a present and ongoing sense of affinity and kinship with our fellow man. Nothing short of steady Unity awareness — and constant God-consciousness — can satisfy those needs.

Meanwhile, the pain of disconnection compels us to SEEK. Consciously or unconsciously, we seek to fill the emptiness created by feeling separate. All forms of seeking, spiritual AND worldly, attempt to satisfy our deep soul hunger for God, for Unity. And when nothing we crave seems to fill that hollow leg, we seek consolation and distraction from the pain.

But let’s consider this search for God more deeply: Could anyone LITERALLY not have God? Could anyone POSSIBLY be in a place where God, the Omnipresent Supreme Being, is not? That couldn’t possibly be, or else God is not God. So, in reality, we’re not suffering the “fact” that God isn’t here with us; what we’re REALLY suffering is our CONVICTION that God is not here with us. Although our conviction is an illusion, our suffering is very real, because we can’t subjectively have/enjoy anything we don’t accept.

The conviction of being separate from God amounts to IGNORING or DENYING the fact that God is here with us. So our seeking God is the RESULT and EVIDENCE of unconsciously REFUSING God. And if we give up seeking in despair of ever finding God, that too results from not accepting God. So here, in a nutshell, is the trouble with seeking: Because seeking arises from the conviction of NOT HAVING, it denies the very thing it is after. In so doing, seeking pushes its own goal away. Therefore, even as we seek God, we are unconsciously pushing God away. That’s a hard fact to face, but we need to face it.

How does God feel about that? Just as you would feel in God’s position — sad. Surely you’ve had a similar experience yourself: Tearfully, a friend tells you, “No one loves me. No one listens to me. I need a friend.” — A sad tale indeed! But what’s the cause of that sorrow? It’s not that they ARE alone, not really. And it’s not that they ARE uncared for. You’re sitting right in front of them, caring for them, listening to them. As you sit there, the real tragedy of their situation becomes evident to you: Your friend, BELIEVING that they are alone, will not ACCEPT the fact that you are right there with them, even now, in their grief. Consequently, they can take no comfort from you. And they surely will go on desperately seeking love even after that meeting with you.

How can your assurances of love help your friend if they won’t accept that you love them? And similarly, how can God’s constant communications of love and support help us if we are certain God is not here? The evidence of God’s presence in and around us is almost entirely lost upon us if we don’t ACCEPT it. What we believe to be the case is, to us, reality. And most likely, if we’re stuck on our conviction, no amount of evidence to the contrary gets through.

Let’s take another illustration of the need for acceptance: A woman could be attractive, and all her friends may recognize her as such. But if she considers herself ugly — that is, if she does not accept the fact that she’s attractive — she can’t have the joy and self-assurance of knowing she’s beautiful. Sadly, her subjective EXPERIENCE — the “reality” in which she lives, and which she suffers — will be the experience of being ugly. That experience results entirely from non-acceptance.

As long as she assumes she is ugly, that woman will do one of two things:

1. She will work hard to “become attractive” (perhaps by endless exercise, or by extreme concern about other aspects of appearance, like dress, hairstyle, etc.).

Or,

2. Considering the situation hopeless, she may give up on the effort to “become attractive” altogether.

Whether she tries hard to compensate or gives up, this fact remains: until and unless she ACCEPTS her attractiveness, she will continue to experience her life as an ugly duckling. So the solution to her problem is not seeking: it is ACCEPTANCE. Subjectively, we only have what we accept.

Therefore, if we want to be spiritually and humanly fulfilled, we can’t achieve fulfillment as a result of any search, high or low. Our fulfillment can only come from our simple ACCEPTANCE of our oneness with God.

Many beings, one I (the I of All)

Why DON’T we already accept our oneness with God? Because, as noted before, we believe that our individuality PROVES that we are separate. We don’t know what else to conclude from the “evidence” of having been born in separate bodies. We look around at our fellow human beings and observe that we each have different attributes, different feelings, different thoughts. When each of us says “I” or “you,” we indicate one specific person, no one else. The conclusion we reach — that we’re separate and alone — is natural enough, but not deep enough. If you’re willing to reconsider the matter, listen to God’s view of who we are:

GOD: In all of creation, there are many creatures, but only One I. Take, for example, this girl. She is I, tangibly. She is an iteration, an expression, a form of I. But though she is a unique form of I, she is not, because of her uniqueness, as different as she tends to think. Although she is one expression of uniqueness, she is not, as an entity, independent of I.

God is saying, ALTHOUGH there are many beings — of endless varieties, of many shapes and sizes — there is only one I: the I of All. There IS no separate I. EVEN THOUGH we, as individual beings, ARE NOT the same in our unique qualities, we still have the same I. So, our uniqueness DOESN’T prove that we’re separate after all. Wow! And, hallelujah!

What about our uniqueness?

Moreover, God is saying something else here, to help our mortal minds understand the mystery of individuality: “She is I, tangibly. She is an iteration, an expression, a form of I.” That means our UNIQUENESS does not express our SEPARATENESS. On the contrary, our uniqueness is a direct and present EXPRESSION of the one God!

Imagine two electric appliances, a toaster and a radio. The unique individual expression of a toaster is that it toasts bread. The unique expression of a radio is that it receives signals from radio stations and plays them. Different functions, aren’t they? Sure, but look at this . . .

If we unplug an individual toaster from the current that powers it, how can it function as the toaster that it is? And likewise, if we unplug an individual radio from the current that powers it, how can it function as the radio that it is? The unique expression/individuality of each appliance manifests ONLY when it is plugged into the electric current. What we’re seeing is the same electricity manifesting in uniquely different expressions! The Higher Power that animates both appliances — indeed ALL appliances — is one and the same Power. And this One Divine I — expressing in all these various forms — IS the sameness, the Unity, of All. This, then, helps us understand the secret of Unity in diversity:

What is different is, at the same time, one and the same.

Rebellion for the sake of individuality

Granted, the concept of different electric appliances animated by the same power may seem easier to understand than the concept of one I in all beings. Under the influence of ego, we choke on the concept of Unity, because, we think our individuality DEPENDS ON separateness and difference, and is MAINTAINED by separation and difference. And believing that, we feel threatened by anything that seems to diminish or contradict our separateness and difference. That’s why, developing as individuals, we feel duty-bound to rebel against “conforming” or “surrendering” — to our parents’ will and expectations, for example. Or to conventional standards. Or to our friends’ manner of acting and appearance. And even, perhaps, to our beloveds’ needs and desires. In our rebellion, we are just trying to survive as we believe ourselves to be — separate and distinct.

Furthermore, to the extent that we equate separate selfhood with personal existence and validity, we tend to disown all that is universal in ourselves. We fear that any implication or evidence of Oneness will cause us to lose our identity. Consequently, we tend to overvalue what seems to show our distinctiveness, and undervalue what shows our kinship with all other human beings. Fearing that sameness threatens our separate existence, we tend to reject or downplay all that is bridging and unifying.

Example: Many of us feel that caring about others makes us feel too vulnerable, too dependent, too much “at the effect” of another person. So we try to figure out relatively superficial ways to love. For example, we may avoid admitting the true depth of our emotions. Or, sadly, we resist treating our loved ones with the reverence and devotion we actually feel. We maintain space — physically, or at least psychically — from others.

Tragically, through all those efforts, we create relationships in which we — our true Selves — are ABSENT. We withhold the fullness of our passion, our emotion, our heart-involvement, etc. Once again, our non-acceptance prevents having/sharing the beauty could otherwise be.

What is universally human is part of our own Divine nature. And such beauty it IS! But, believing that Unity means personal extinction, ego fearfully rebels against the beauty of the true I, the One I. Ego consistently suppresses not just vulnerability, but Divine Self-expressions of all kinds. Indeed, it rejects all that is most BEAUTIFULLY UNIQUE, as well as all that is most UNIVERSALLY HUMAN, about us. But as God explains, when we rebel against God, we rebel against ourselves:

GOD: The Truth of the soul, the Passion of the soul, the Love of the soul — I am the source of these things. The Beauty of the soul, the Knowing of the soul, the Delight of the soul, the Desire of the soul — this is I. If one tries to be without Me, to live and love as a separated individual, one rebels against all these things, and one misses oneself.

If human life is lived as a belief of separation from I, as a belief of difference from I, the human entity is not capable of enjoying its full humanity. Unless one realizes oneself as an expression of I, the way of living as an individual is, in reality, a rebellion against oneself.

Ego’s rebellion IS our suffering. Specifically, we suffer the pain of not living freely, happily, as the loving One we ARE. And that loss is God’s suffering, too. It deprives everyone of who we are.

The fantasy and the Reality

To the extent that we are ego-identified, we tend to think, “I get to be an individual BECAUSE I am separate.” But friends, if you have followed this consideration, then you know that the Truth is exactly opposite. The Truth is, “I can’t possibly be who I am until and unless I realize that I am NOT separate in my individuality.” Remember:

If we unplug the toaster, it won’t function as such. It CAN’T.

In fact, the manifestation of our uniqueness DEPENDS on the fact that we are NOT separate. Here God explains exactly why that is so:

GOD: The reality of the uniqueness of expression of I through one unique individual being does not depend on the individual’s idea of uniqueness and separation. It exists freely without that idea. A SENSE of individuality, a SENSE of separation, a SENSE of identity as an individual — none of that is needed for individuality to exist. On the contrary: Individuality depends on the rooting in Me. Just as the flower’s blooming depends on being rooted in the Earth, your identity must be rooted in I for your uniqueness to bloom, for your full humanity to manifest.

As I, one can love through the beauty of the flower. As I, one can be passionate through the passion of the flower. As I, one can give through the uniqueness of the flower. But as the flower, separated from I, one wilts.

In our delusion of separation, the FANTASY is this: You unplug the toaster, and then the toaster starts dancing. It’s like a Disney movie in which the housewife goes to bed, and all of a sudden the vacuum, the iron, the toaster, and all her other appliances start partying like mad. They tango up and down the staircase, across the carpet, and along the window sill, in ecstasy! Just like the animated appliances, the isolated individual BELIEVES he will carry on wonderfully, having been unplugged from God.

The reality is absolutely the opposite from that fantasy. For anything to be what it is and do what it does, it MUST be connected to its power source. An unplugged radio sits silent. An unplugged vacuum sleeps in the closet. An uprooted pansy wilts.

Likewise, a human being who is unplugged from God is powerless. An individual who conceives of his individuality as something that functions at odds with, separate from, and independent of the Great I AM is DYSFUNCTIONAL — not only as a vehicle of Divine expression, but as a human individual.

High way robbery

Holding the idea “individuality means separateness” is highway robbery. It robs us of the High Way, the True Way of living. To the extent we think we’re separate and alone, we cut ourselves off from the Higher Power of Divine Being, Divine Transmission. The True Way of living is to live NOT in the illusion of being alone, NOT in the conviction of separateness, NOT in the conviction of conflict and otherness, but as One.

GOD: It is important that we understand the value of individuality as it truly IS, not in any other way. Individuality as NOT SEPARATE FROM I, as NOT OTHER THAN I, but as EXISTING IN I. When individuality is wrongly held, it is because of this belief that separation is associated with uniqueness, individuality. Any sense of identity that is not rooted in I, from the beginning, leads to mistaken ideas, mistaken living. The joy of True Being is replaced with doubt, freedom with restrictions and fears — and the Life, the expression, fades. But when individuality stays firmly rooted in I, the flower blooms.

Here’s a clear and familiar illustration of God’s point: A woman who believes she is separate may feel very self-conscious in her sense of difference. She feels anxious; she fears conflict. Naturally, in her anxiety, she tends to clam up. Even if she opens her mouth, what comes out is certainly not the true expression of her authentic Selfhood. Instead, her words simply express ego-generated thoughts, like these: “I feel uncomfortable. I am not sure that you will like me, accept me, or agree with me.” Surely, those thoughts do not express the actuality of her unique being. All they really express is her lower mind, fearful attitudes, problematical beliefs, and troublesome suppositions. None of that reflects who she IS. Indeed, she is carefully, deliberately NOT expressing who she really IS.

Dear friends, the moral of that story is obvious: ONLY in joyful Self-confidence will the unique being manifest as it is — as God made it to be! We feel safe ONLY in Unity; we always feel threatened in separateness. Consequently, the fruit of full Self-expression can mature ONLY to the extent that our notion of separation is released, and is replaced by the acceptance of God within us and all around us.

God is the One I, AND all of its unique expressions

God is the life that POWERS the flower, lives IN the flower, and expresses THROUGH the flower. But also, at the same time, God expresses AS the flower. Truly! The pansy plant ITSELF — the unique form and substance of it — is an expression of God. Thus, even that which is ordinarily considered to be merely a VEHICLE of God, and not OF God, actually IS of God.

With this in mind, you DON’T have to merely say, “I am me, and God is expressing THROUGH me.” You can also stand up on the stage of life and say, “I myself, as a unique individual entity, am a Divine expression, like a sunset, a bird, a tiger, a mountain — and MORE.”

Here’s THE most important fact of your life: Divinity is your nature and your ENTIRE reality — and not JUST your motive force. The indwelling I, the unique house in which it dwells, and the outflowing Divinity — ALL of this is Divinity. Thus, we are NOT separate from God in any respect. To accept this Reality is to replace seeking with finding, having, and being. Wonderful!

How can we fully grasp this radical Truth?

How DO we grasp this? It’s not enough merely to grasp it with our minds, as mere intellectual knowing, or as a matter of faith belief. That won’t make enough difference. We must somehow ACCEPT the reality that we’ve missed, ignored, or denied. Remember, God can’t add to us something we already have, and that we willfully refuse. So the burden is on us: we need to accept what IS.

We can accept the essential Truth of God and ourselves by means of sincerity and integrity. Start by humbly acknowledging this obvious fact:

We’ll seek God forever, unsuccessfully, if we assume that God is not here. There is no way we can find God, until and unless we stop asserting that God is not here.

True integrity begins when a person stops believing illusions and lies. Ego is a liar, and a stubborn liar at that. Ego-styled beliefs prevent us from changing our minds despite the evidence of both experience and intuition. Therefore, to progress in accepting the Truth about God and self, we must release the egoic beliefs we’re attached to. Then, what is true will become much more obvious.

The truth is, you and God are inseparable — always have been; always will be. You don’t need to become different, or achieve anything more, for that to be the case. That’s not to say there aren’t greater refinements of consciousness ahead on the path of evolution. The only question is this: ON the path, do we get to enjoy the journey that lies ahead, in God and with God — or must we suffer the painful illusion that we’re going it alone? Which would you rather be: a rich man investing his money to increase his wealth, or a pauper hoping to become rich? Both look forward to riches, but there’s a WORLD of difference in how they FEEL.

That said, don’t worry. No need to weigh down this moment with the total responsibility for complete, instantaneous comprehension/acceptance of this idea. The acceptance of Truth GROWS within oneself. It is a progressive realization. One warms up to It.

Today, you’ll understand these things to some degree. Be glad. Tomorrow, you’ll understand a bit more, and better. Even if it takes a while, you will reach the point of full acceptance of Reality. When your understanding reaches full bloom, you’ll see that this ever-present Reality — the One that always was, is, and will be — is the exact thing you’ve always sought. You’ll never feel yourself to be without It again.

So be it.

This article comes from: www.soulprogress.com

To read more about the author click here.