Monthly Archives: January 2017

LATERAL MOVES

lateral moves: a crab

 

All moves that your ego thinks of are lateral moves.  A lateral move is sideways when your goal is in front of you.  Traversing the mountain instead of climbing straight up it.  Lateral moves do nothing but waste time, or, which is the same thing, extend the need for time.

 

lateral moves: two mountain goats peering over a summit

Would you not rather attain the precipice?

 

The whole point of this tedious illusion you call time is that you use it to attain the precipice, to conquer, to be glorious and triumphant in every area of your attention, what you like to think of as your life.  To be glorious and triumphant in every area: this is your goal.  There can be no other goal than this.  Every other goal you have is a lateral move.

No matter how many lateral moves you make, you stay in place.

lateral 5

How can we avoid making lateral moves?

Let us seek to diminish activity in the physical realm.  There is really very little you must do there. Let it be taken care of for you, much more than you have been.  Do not spend too much time on details of home decoration, as this does not deserve your attention.  In fifty years everything you love today will be impossibly dated. Let it be as it will be. Allow your home to be done for you.  Gently pull your attention back.

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Consider the lilies

Everything that used to engage you, you will have your own list, all the worries, the triggers, the stressors, pull back your attention a little. Let it be done for you for the good of all.

It is for you to form preferences.  Instead of letting the busy world rush by, confusing you with its rapid-changing images, go within.  Close your eyes to all distractions, and identify your preferences.

I am the fulfilled activity and sustaining power of every positive thing I desire

The St Germain Discourses, Vol III

lateral 8

 

OBSERVATION AND POWER

Schooner anchored in Lautoka harbor

How do you short circuit anxiety?

 

There is no need to experience anxiety. How do you quickly and easily short circuit anxiety? Simply observe yourself experiencing anxiety. “Here I am, experiencing anxiety. My breathing is shallow, my mind races, crushing bands enfold me.”

 

From Belo Vula, to Lautoka

Simply observe

 

If you can observe this thing, anxiety, why would you not as easily observe any other thing you chose? If you can observe anxiety, this also means you are larger than it. It only exists to you, to the extent that you observe it.

Why pay attention to an unwanted, unlovely thing?

 

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The ground and being

 

The ground and being of your experiential world is your attention.

Be careful where you place it.

Remind yourself often of what you want to increase in your experience, whether unshakable calm, peace, or love.

 

 

Let me be the servant of that love. Let all be well here. My mind does not have to wander down the byways of misery.

 

Whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely,…think on those things

Philippians, 4:8

Observation is powerful.  As soon as I observe myself experiencing an emotion, as soon as I acknowledge to myself, “I am feeling sad”,  and then in the next moment observe myself feeling sad, sad goes from being a monster that has me by the scruff of the neck to being a yappy little dog I can easily frighten away.

May all be well here. Invoke light. May all be well here.  Withdraw attention. Your will be done.

Observation is a powerful technique for short-circuiting an ego rampage.

“I observe myself experiencing sadness” is empowering.

“I am sad” is only frightening.

Observe the emotions at work in you, trying to get the upper hand, to catch you off-guard. See yourself experiencing fear. See it, visualize it.  Then send it away. Let all be well here.

 

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We are inescapably involved in bringing about that which appears to be happening. We are not only observers. We are participators. In some strange sense, this is a participatory universe.

 

John Wheeler, American physicist