ATTENTION TO THE OUTER


Horses running on a prairie

 

You are to stop paying attention to the outer, always waiting for something to happen, something that would make you able to relax if it happened. You are familiar with this. I will only be happy again when….fill in the blank. When I graduate. When I’m married. When I’m out of this house. When I don’t have to see her again. These conditions you make are endless.

 

 

Wise, rueful orangutan

 

Did any particular outcome in the outer world ever satisfy you lastingly?

Did any one thing ever end your craving?

What outcome are you craving now?

 

 

Desires, cravings, wishes, these are impermanent, prairie winds constantly rippling the grass. Decide right now to eschew cravings.

Think again about cause and effect. Humans believe in cause and effect because they cannot but experience time linearly. So you believe that as soon as something is established in the outer world, you will be happy.

 

 

This is a particular view, but there are many others. What if you inverted the cause and effect sequence? I am already happy, therefore a particular event must have already taken place.  The fact that I am thinking about it now proves it has existence.

 

 

What if you could collapse time and see the All-That-Is all at once?

You would see your happiness, and your unhappiness, and every other emotional state available, all existing at once, like trinkets laid out on a table.  You would be free to pick up whichever trinket you desired.  You would be free to take up any emotional state you desired.

 

Surrender to joy

CHOOSE PEACE NOW

Last night, as I wove in and out of sleep, this idea was revealed to me: it is desire that is the ground of all unhappiness. Obviously, I felt released from desire, for this to be clear to me. I felt very peaceful. In this state was perfect happiness; I never wanted to leave it. The answer to everything.

 

I also had a very peaceful night’s sleep. I would like to always sleep this way.

 

Very easy. Just ask.

 

Illusion

 

When I awoke, and it occurred to me to grieve, feel sad and indulge in negative feeling-states, I realized this is how humans act.  It gives them the feeling of going from one crisis to another, always reacting, always wanting, never comfortable.

 

Where there are no desires, there is peace

 

But what if, instead, you simply reminded yourself that where there are no desires, there is peace. And then you would start to see all your desires as being the opposite of peace. This would help you to make the conscious choice for peace.

 

I choose peace

 

Release the desire; choose peace instead. You will benefit yourself and all those around you in the most positive, powerful ways. If you truly want to help them, do this.  Affirm to yourself, eyes closed, “I choose peace.”

 

A young man deep in thought: choose peace now

How long can you concentrate?

How long can you concentrate?  The first time you tried this, your mind quickly wandered out onto a worrisome byway. You found something to worry about. It was of course something habitual, something your mind comes back and back to, because you train it to, by constantly exposing it to incidences of fear, worry, wanting.

Could you get out in front of that subconscious mind train, and give the choice to the conscious mind? In other words, let all be seen. Let there be light. Be aware of your decision as you are making it.

 

Let there be light

How long can you focus on anything? If you set your mind to it, you can increase it. Let us do that now. It takes only 68 seconds of focused thought to set manifestation in motion.

Take 68 seconds now.

I began by affirming I choose peace, but quite soon my mind had gone down a familiar rabbit hole of worry.  There my mind stayed, but I became conscious again before the end of the time, and affirmed again, “I choose peace.” I saw myself becoming open, with light streaming into me.

Practice these 68-second focused affirmations at least three more times today.

When I begin to obsess and worry, remember: this thought I am having is standing between me and peace. But I want peace. I will now choose peace by renouncing this desire forever.

If you truly want to help all those you are presently worrying about, this is the best thing you can do for them, and all those around you. Your worry about them is the dark glass through which nothing is seen clearly. By dropping anxiety about others, you free them to become perfect, shining versions of themselves.

The San Juan river by Mexican Hat, UT

Let us be still an instant

Let us be still an instant and forget all things we ever learned, all thoughts we had, and every preconception that we hold of what things mean and what their purpose is. Let us remember not our own ideas of what the world is for. We do not know. Let every image held of everyone be loosened from our minds and swept away. Be innocent of judgment, unaware of any thoughts of evil or of good that ever crossed your mind of anyone. Now do you know him not. But you are free to learn of him and learn of him anew. Now is he born again to you, and you are born again to him without the past which sentenced him to die, and you with him. Now is he free to live, as you are free, because an ancient learning passed away and left a place for truth to be reborn.

Chapter 31, Text, A Course in Miracles, “The Simplicity of Salvation”

 

choose peace now

And left a place for truth to be reborn

CONSTANT THOUGHT


 

It is your own world that you create with your constant thought.

 

What is your constant thought?  For sure there is one. What does your mind fly back to, again and again? What can’t you leave alone? What preoccupies you?

 

There, there is the origin of your world.

 

 

Your world manifests and molds itself around you, according to your constant thought, which calls it into being. You may think that you are simply reacting to what is, and that you have no control over what manifests.

 

 

Time is just your capacity to experience one thing after another. Your shifting attention gives the illusion of time passing. But why explicate a state which you intend to leave? Did you ask to be absolved of all things human?

Yes

Then here is a clear one to let go of. Collapse time. There is no time. Everything that ever existed, exists right now. Everything that ever will exist, exists right now. Every atom, every cell, every instant, is an infinitude.

 

To see a world in a grain of sand

And a Heaven in a wild flower

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour

William Blake

 

constant: a spray of wildflowers opening

To see a Heaven in a wild flower

 

An infinitude of states and possibilities exists, like a giant mirrored ball covered in prisms, slowly turning to reveal itself.

 

constant; a mirrored ball reflecting photons, particles of light

 

*** 

What you are experiencing, is what you chose out of the endlessly evolving array of universes.

What you are paying attention to, is what you chose out of infinitude. Because everything exists.

What you have right now is what you are choosing with your constant thought.

***

 

Take a moment now to think of your most constant thoughts.  As you unearth each one, say “Lift this burden from me,” as many times as you like, with any imagery that helps. You may picture laying down a heavy stone, opening your arms wide to release stuck energy which flies away like doves released.

 

constant; dove with outspread wings

 

You will feel immediate release

 

You will notice a marked decrease in your propensity to strategize future situations. Strategizing is a method of acting out fear that you will not be provided for.  When you release your burdens, strategizing falls away. You will find your constant thoughts coming into balance, a feeling akin to that of a ship being righted. A nice feeling.

You could always concentrate a while on this pleasant feeling of a ship being righted; it could be the ship of state, or the ship of your family, or any other group. Imagine that ship being righted. It would be like flying out of turbulence into perfectly smooth air.  Like sailing into a safe harbor.

Who would not want this?

 

Sailing into a safe harbor

 

DSCN0693

 

 

ILLUSION, SHREDDED

 

 These illusions you cling to, could they not be merely clouds that obscure the sun?

 

 

What do you cling to?  Is it that little bit of status you get from your job, or how you look, how big your house is, how much money you have, or anything you can do?  Go ahead and think of three you are still attached to, three areas that pique your ego’s interest, encouraging it to dwell in illusion.

  1.  The illusion that I am smarter than others. 

People have many ways to supposedly prove that they are smarter than others.  They tend to favor the ways in which they themselves excel, of course.  Some people think degrees prove smartness, the more the better.  Some people think which school you went to also proves you smarter than others.  Hence the intense competition to get into one above another.

Others maintain degrees prove nothing, because they know people who were successful without going to college, and still others who, though they did go to college, had no sense.  And so on.

All you need do is recognize that this valuing of smartness is no more than a seductive guise of division. Abandon it.  You can put your attention anywhere else.

What is another area in which you still harbor shreds of illusion?

 

Illusion

 

2.  Anything from the outward appearance of the body.  Any approbation I give myself to feel pride about it in any way.  What am I doing but creating opportunities to feel vainglory, using my body as its tool?  Is this what I want to be about?

 

How easily the lure of outward appearance is disarmed, simply by closing the eyes.  You give so much credence to the light show that the body’s eyes see, not realizing it is merely the projection of your own mind you look upon.

 

 

For in and out, above, about, below,

‘Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show,

Play’d in a Box whose Candle is the Sun,

Round which we Phantom Figures come and go

 

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

 

 

For the third ego attachment, find some aspect that reliably gets you into a negative feeling-state.  What do you think about obsessively?  What causes you to ruminate?  What situation is the current focus of your negativity?  Can you name it?

 

3.  It changes constantly with my focus, but the current focus of my negativity is my fear of pain and death.

 

Let’s get down to root causes, so that we can eliminate the need for time.  Instead of entertaining a focus for your negativity, wouldn’t it be easier to dismiss your need for negativity altogether?  Get rid of it; it has nothing good to bring you.  Instead of endlessly analyzing every species and varietal of negativity, do yourself a favor, pack the whole lot up, leave it out at the curb to be taken up or swept away.

 

No illusion withstands examination

 


Illusion

 

 

 

 

 

INNER SPACE: STOP SEARCHING IN THE OUTER

Everything that is outer is a reflection of what is inner

Everything that is outer is but a reflection of what is inner

 

I used to analyze myself endlessly.

 

The ego loves it when you do this. He offers you seductive encouragement at every turn: your feelings are all that matter, other people are stopping you from feeling good, and everything, all the guilt and anger you feel, is their fault.

 

We drift in and out of different roles, as it seems to me, without any sense of having made a choice in any of it. Things continue to happen, randomly, coming out of nowhere, things you never saw coming…..and on and on.

 

Recognize that this is all the ego’s ploy to keep you here, endlessly fussing and fretting, completely unconscious. As far as the ego is concerned, there will never be any solution to what you call your problems. Your utter absorption in them is the whole point to the ego, who is afraid you will wake up and send him and his futile misery packing.

 

Image by Motoki Tonn on Unsplash

 

 

Stop searching in the outer realm for what you want. Everything that is outer is only the mirror of what is inner. Turn now to what is inner. Make this a conscious choice.  I turn now to the inner. Makes this choice as frequently as you wish.

 

 

 

 

When your attention is tuned to the inner realm, you will see that all of your experience is chosen by you, and you will be able to make a conscious choice about what experience you want to have. This realization will be accompanied by a feeling of uncommon peace and calm. You will want to spend as much time as possible in this newfound state.

 

An eagle flying over mountains, outstretched wings

 

Life will change from a series of random, frightening events in which you felt you had no choice, to a rollout of perfection and manifestations which at one time you’d have deemed impossible, and which you now look upon with familiarity, hardly noticing, so focused are you on the perfection within.

 

 

You waste so much time reacting to the world you see with physical eyes. That is an endless task, as long as you let it.

Why would you let it?

The outer world is only a thrice-removed specter.  You are witnessing the reactions of wishes made long ago.  You are cavorting with dead forms.  Why?  Send away these pallid ghosts. Why warm yourself by the flame of a single match, when you could have a bonfire?  Go within, to your hearth’s charity’s hearth’s fire.

 

Inner space

 

LIGHT: THE ONLY PRAYER

Light: an early iris pushes up against snow

 

“When one consciously reaches within the Inner Electronic Circle of God, he makes his outer expression and activity a channel for the ceaseless outpouring of the Pure Essence from the Godhead.  This in itself, though he be entirely silent in the outer expression, is one of the greatest services to humanity.”

St Germain, The I AM Discourses, Vol. 3.

 

ligh: a lotus flower so filled with light as to see back lit

Consciously reach for the light

 

Though you be entirely silent in the outer expression, that is, if you do nothing outwardly, if you say nothing outwardly, all the same you can effect the greatest service to humanity, if you consciously reach for the light.

 

Who would not want this?

 

If you are filled with light overflowing

If you are filled with light overflowing

 

If you are filled with light overflowing, this will increase to the point that every situation you ever paid attention to, are paying attention to, or will futurely pay attention to,  will be so touched with the same light emanating from you, who are intimately involved in each one, that every single thing will be resolved, is resolved, was resolved a long time ago, to the satisfaction, the highest good, of all concerned.

 

 

Give peace your attention

Give peace your attention

 

 

If you would effect peace in your personal relationships, your work, your family , your country or your world, cosmically, the remedy is exactly the same: begin within. Spend some time welcoming peace, allowing light. Give thanks for the renewed peace within. Pay attention to peace. Thank it for being there. Give it your attention.

 

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows will fall behind you

Maori proverb

light 11