On Having Faith In …

Faith has strange mystical qualities to it that aren’t readily noticeable at first.

 

Faith:

• cannot think for itself:
• does not have a consciousness.
• will do what it does and where it is directed to do it, by it’s beholder.
• will do whatever it is directed to do faithfully; after all, that is its job.
• is blind.

 

So this business of having faith is as much a matter of where you place it, as it is a matter of having some. If you have faith in something unreal or something unhealthy, then you will feed the unreality or the lack of health and your faith will actually turn into a vehicle that works against your process of awakening while you appear to be making every effort to awaken.

• Faith in something must be examined with great regularity. Just what the frequency of regularity is, will determine your future more so then having faith in the first place.
• Note: as you examine this newfound faith you may notice your own self-centered motives at play under the thinly veiled guise of faith and spirituality. Creative selfishness.
• The knack to the whole thing is to have some faith and then take direction from the experience of risking having that faith in the first place; then applying that wisdom and understanding gleaned from the risk taking and applying that into wisdom of your next moment.
• Then be prepared to either make change happen, or accept change as it happens to you.
• This is difficult, because the factors that the Ego used to make judgment calls about life and change are now absent.
• Faith doesn’t have fear, hate, distrust, like, or dislike. In fact those feelings hinder the process of faith.

 

EXPERIENCE has taught us that ... an experience with Spirit vs Ego

EXPERIENCE has taught us that it is both mindful and healing and for you to attempt this ongoing experiment. It clearly demonstrates a willingness on your behalf to want to experiment with, and to want to enter into an experience that might allow a fuller, more open relationship with a Higher Power. This next idea is an old concept.

The exercise is one example of ‘demonstrated willingness’.

It has many faces and has been presented many times in many forms. It is an understatement to say that this exercise tends to pit the ego against the Will of God, because that is exactly what it does and that is the idea of the exercise.

The exercise is simple enough, and in fact some may say too simple, but most find it to be work and most have difficulty completing the exercise.

So here are the rules:

1. You may elect not to actually try this experiment, but if you do decide to experiment, then all that is required is simply imagining what it would feel like for you to thoroughly believe five simple statements. This will achieve the purpose this exercise is designed to afford.

2. The exercise is this: simply affirm, a number of times a day, day after day, for six months, the following statements, imagining the full meaning of each statement to the fullest extent possible for you:

i. I am not separate. I am one with All that Is, All that Was and All that Ever Will Be.

ii. I can trust.

iii. I can know.

iv. I am responsible.

v. I am single-minded.

Taken from Experience Has Taught Us: 175 Missing Pieces,

Beyond The Door There is a View

A Great Obscenity of Life seems to be my insatiable desire to surrender and give over my soul and my sanity to those who would eviscerate me.

I mean why? But I just keep on doing it! Habits are hard to break.

In my journey of recovery thus far, I have come to learn that this need of mine to turn my Life and Will over to inappropriate souls is done with a purpose, the purpose is twisted and has its origins deep in my past but it is there and it is demanding and it drives me at times.

The purpose seems to be for me to attain a (false) sense of acceptance and security. Something that I seem to believe I need so desperately that I will sell my soul to the “company store”. I’ll attempt to get those needs met from those around me. The oddity is all those around me have connections to the deeper, darker shadows and ghosts of my past. None of this is done at the conscious level. It is all done under the surface of my conscious mind, but it is working all the time and never seems to take a holiday.

When I saw this in all its many forms recently, it was then I realized what I was seeing fully for the first time(saw and realized are two different places in my consciousness). It was as if I stood on the Grand Vista of reality and I was gazing out over eternity. For the first time I could see clearly through the Mysts of Time, and see the length and breadth of the spiritual journey that lay before me, only if I were willing to go through that Door that sits at the center of the Great Hall of My Awareness.

I am

That I am

THE CHILD OF THE CAVE ... MASKS

They called her the Feline Mystery. No one knew her exact age. She was found in a cave by Yves Tingaud, whose dog had strayed during a hunting trip in the South of France. She was all curled up in the corner wearing a cat mask. It took Yves about an hour to calm her down. It seemed she was threatened by humans, although she had no fear of the dog.

After month of national media notoriety no one came forth to claim her. Yves and his wife Muriel being of mid life were childless. They decided to adopt her against the advice of all the professionals. They had no choice it was if she was a gift from destiny. They were captivated by her dark eyes and the mystery that surrounded her, and besides they had always been cat lovers. The cat mask that appeared to be tattooed on her face fascinated them; it was as if it was a part of her being. She did not speak. However she did purr occasionally but only in the presence of Yves and Muriel.

Felicity as she became known was stabilized and after considerable weight gain from all the dairy products she was fed was released from the hospital in the care of the Tingaud’s. They treated her as one of their own and over the years won her trust although she still did not speak, and still hid behind the mask that was an essential part of her being.

Over the years the health authorities had required Felicity to partake in various therapies in an attempt to get back her voice. They wanted to uncover the mystery of who she was and what had happened to her. She was resistant to all the therapies. The Electro shock treatments made her twitchy. The Prozac seemed to make her itchy, tired and withdrawn. The hypnosis made her sleep for days. Eventually and to the relief of the Tingaud’s, the authorities gave up on her.

They returned to the small village where generations of Tingaud’s have lived, back to the relative calm of the small café they ran. Felicity helped out at the café and over the year’s rose through the ranks from dishwasher to cook. The Tingaud’s secretly hoped one day she would wait on tables. Felicity was accepted by the villagers who like her parents accepted her for who she was. Although she was free to come and go in the village she still created quite a stir when tourists came upon her wearing her mask.

The Tingaud’s took her mystery for granted. Some things could never be explained. Felicity, disappeared twice a week for exactly an hour and a half. Paper also seemed to vanish in her presence. This had been going on for about four years.

Suddenly one day, out of the blue, with out warning Felicity spoke. Her dulcet tone sang out from the heavens as if to say Hallaluya shocking her parents. She only spoke a few words “ we are out of milk” but as she grew more comfortable with language a strange thing happened. The mask she wore on her face began to fade. Day by day the more she spoke and the more she revealed of herself the more it faded until eventually it was gone.

In time all was revealed, her mysterious disappearances turned out to be visits to her therapist. The mystery of the disappearing paper was also solved Felicity was a closet journaler.

Eventually her Journals were published allowing everyone to understand what had happened to her as a child. Felicity ‘s life long desire to help people who hide behind masks turned into a career. Felicity is now a self-help author who appears on French chat shows. She is now healthy and living in the South of Franc with her husband, a veterinarian. Some of her titles include, EMBRACING YOUR MASK, I’M OK BUT YOU WONT BE IF YOU KEEP WEARING THAT MASK and THE DARK SIDE OF THE MASK WEARERS. She recently gave birth to triplets; she affectionately calls them her litter.

This Is Simple and Deep

This idea came to me from a friend who happens to know that I am going through a difficult time at the moment ... so in long hand in your journal answer the following 3 questions about whatever the problem is that you are suffering through or going through and simply don't seem to have an answer for ...  at this moment

1. What would your father do?


2. What would your first wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend do?


3. What would you do if you were Spirit?

See where it takes you ... and don't rush the answers ... if you try every other day to 2 weeks ... it may just get very interesting ... try writing in your off hand ... non dominate one ... see what comes out onto the page ... notice your feelings as you do ...

Thanks Leon ...

Absolutely Brilliant Email! ... sent to me this morning Just have to share

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked; 'How heavy is this glass of water?'

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 5

The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter.

It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.'

He continued, 'And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on.

'As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.

When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.

'So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work or whatever is bothering you down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow.

Whatever burdens you're carrying now, Let them down for a moment if you can. 'So, my friend, put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.'

Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

* Always wear stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it..

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be  "Recalled" by their maker.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again. It was probably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to be kind to others.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, Because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

* When everything's coming your way,. You're in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world. But you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

* We could learn a lot from crayons.. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today...

Barb M

I have no idea who Barb M is ... but thanks ...  especially after the weekend I had ... you are a life safer ... I need(ed) this
Neil

Five

No Longer At Odds With Everything

It is a truth that those who have little room for their own pain in their own life, who cannot accept pain as a normal and natural part of their life, seldom, if ever, encourage others to enter directly into an experience with their feelings that could or would promote a more intimate understanding of this feeling and thus soften the resist¬ance to the feeling that the feeling engendered in the first place.

It is a given in this business that the resistance to pain in the long run only serves to enhance the pain. Thus examining it in some depth can only serve to relieve the pain.

Simply Put, It Breaks The Cycle

Most people seem to refuse to want to see that holding on to or attempting to smother or tightening up around the feeling only intensifies the suffering. This grasping at and holding onto is a defense strategy that was learned early on in childhood. It never worked well then, but that strategy was all there was and it seated itself deep into the psyche and now in a moment of crisis, out trucks the old ways in a vain attempt to control what cannot be controlled.

Pain for most is treated like a tragedy, something that should be played out rather then something that should be passed through.

Possibly it should be something that could ride on your left shoulder and give good guidance, if it were trusted. If it were more a part of your next moment because you have a relationship with it that allowed you insight and understanding, few, very few, recognize that there is grace to be found in the deeper investi¬gation of things that we were always trained to fear and shun.

"It isn't just the pain in my body that really hurts, it's all the pains of my life that I have to pull away from; “that” which imprisons me in my impression of how I think life should be. Me beginning to see my feelings in me just as they are, brings me to a point of seeing just how little time have I ever given to me having real feelings in my life and those real feelings included initially my pain, both physical and psychological."

Of those who have worked on these ideas with me, it is nearly universal; it wasn't just the pain in their body that they hadn't understood, it was also a myriad number of sensations like fear, boredom, anger, restlessness, self-doubt, just to name a few, which they had always pulled away from, which they had never allowed themselves to enter into, which when explored they found libraries of experience that they could now draw on and apply forward into the next moment.

Spiritual Principles for Recovery

Initially, we have to focus on honesty, open-mindedness, willingness, humility, and acceptance.

The practice of the Principle Of Honesty starts with admitting the truth about our life and continues with the practice of honesty on a daily, moment to moment, basis.

 When we say, "I'm in recovery" it may be the first truly honest thing we've said in a long, long time.

 We begin to be able to be honest with ourselves and, consequently with other people eventually.

 Change and recovery doesn’t happen overnight.

 If I've been thinking about acting out on my stuff I need to ask myself; have I shared it with my sponsor, my therapist or my group; have I told anyone else or am I still keeping secrets?

To practice the Principle Of Acceptance we must do more than merely admit that we have problems.

 When we accept our problems for what they are, we accept that they are not the working definition of self.

 When we accept our problems for what they are, we feel a profound inner change that is underscored by a rising sense of hope.

 We also begin to feel a sense of peace.

 We come to terms with our obsessions, compulsions and addictions in our recovery processes, and with this we come to appreciate the meaning and comprehend the realities these eccentricities have in our lives.

 We don't dread a future of recovery practices, of attending meetings, of interpersonal contact, of doing step work; instead, we begin to see recovery as a precious gift, and the work connected with it as no more trouble than other routines of life.

Exercise

 

An Open Doorway

Imagine this: there is an open doorway and on the other side of the doorway you hear three people and they are talking about you.

Here are the circumstances:

You know them all very well, for you they could be family if you like.

Second, you can hear their conversation very clearly, everything that is being said about you, you can hear.

Stop and listen. You won’t be noticed.

1) Write out what you would most like to hear them say about you.

2) Write out what you would least like to hear them say about you.

Don’t turn the page until you have written this all out … Done? … Over

Next

Now comes the Work

Know this, that at least in part what was written on the previous page was a list of your true Hidden Hopes And Fears.

So what do these two statements of “your hopes and fears” say about how you think others see you?

What does this tell you about yourself?

Write out what these two statements seem to imply to you.

As you look back at what you have written in this exercise, are these hopes and fears really important to you now? Next, were they more or less important in your past?

To what degree are they alive and meaningful your today life? And to what degree are they ghosts from your past, which you have been reacting automat¬ically without much re-evaluation?

To what degree have these “hopes and fears” about the opinions of others shaped your life up to now?

How much do you think they will affect you in the future?

FOUR POWERFUL THOUGHTS

One
Surrendering begins by asking the Higher Power what we can do in our lives to help bring love, joining, harmony and joy back into our world.

Two
Each time that we accept the love God has for us; each time that we give our love to others and put a smile on another person's face, it is then that we have taken a giant step forward toward healing ourselves and healing a world suffering from lack of love.

Three
When we are surrendering, that is when we truly are listening. We may find answers on the lips of those who are closest to us at the moment. The answer doesn't always come from the fabled “inner voice”. Often it comes from those around us, a child, a friend, who is just gently speaking his or her mind, and out slips a simple truth.

Four
It happens to me over and over again ... not when “they” are focusing on the “answer” ... but just when they are busy not thinking about solutions. Just letting you know how they feel and see things. You see it all fits, if we give it a chance.