Another Truth Ego vs Spirit and Miracles

The Ego clings to the past in the present and fears the future.

Where as:

A Miracle/Spirit releases the past in the present and gives us back our future.

A Dream Oct 24th 2011

It was a perfect room, straight lines, sparkling clean, with everything in its place.  Not a single plant, animal or human being were in the room except for John Lennon. He sat behind a large wooden desk and I stood in front ... facing him as he told me in an assertive yet nice way... he said, "I want nothing around me that knows me as nothing!"

The Focus of My Thoughts . . . for the next while will be

Once my perception is disengaged from the domination of the preconception and my personal interests, it is free to experience the world as it is and to behold its inherent magnificence...

Perception of the miraculous requires no faith or assumptions. It is simply a matter of paying full and close attention to the givens of life, i.e., to what is so ever-present that it is usually taken for granted. (Michael Stark and Michael Washburn. “Beyond the Norm: A Speculative Model Self Realization”  Journal of Religion and Health Vol 16 No.1 pp58-59)

The true wonder of the world is available everywhere, in the minutest parts of our bodies, in the vast expanses of the cosmos, and in the intimate interconnectedness of these and all things.

We are part of a finely balanced ecosystem in which interdependency goes hand-in-hand with individuation.

We are all individuals, but we are also parts of a greater whole, united in something vast and beautiful beyond description.

Perception of the miraculous is the subjective essence of self reali-zation, the root from which man's highest features and experiences grow.

Self realization is born and matures in a distinctive kind of awareness, an awareness that has been described in many different ways by many different people.

The mystics, for example, have spoken of it as the perception of the divinity and perfection of the world.

Dr Richard Bucke referred to it as Cosmic Consciousness; Buber described it in terms of the “I-Thou relationship”; and Maslow gave it the label “Being cognition.”

We shall use Ouspensky's term and call it the Perception Of The Miraculous. “Miraculous” here refers not only to extraordinary phenomena but also to the commonplace, for absolutely anything can evoke this special awareness provided that close enough attention is paid to it.

Once perception is disengaged from the domination of preconception and personal interest, it is free to experience the world as it is in itself and to behold its inherent magnificence ...

Here is a little homework of consideration and observation. Divide the month up into even days and odd days ...

 

On Even Days consider the following using the guidelines that are suggested.

 

So why is it I do what I do?

 

Now as I consider why it is that I do what I do ... know this!

• Every step toward understanding loosens the grip of conditioned experience and its resultant fear on my point of consciousness.

• With each new insight, I will gain a glimpse of what creation really is.

 

• Each glimpse increases my creative power until the balance between my mind and the ego is tipped in the mind's favor.

 

• When that happens, progress is rapid indeed.

The source of much of our unhappiness is the Failing or Failed relationships with those who are important to us: with our spouses, parents, children, friends and colleagues... their lack of conformity to how we imagine they should be.

Herein lay the problems most relationships will suffer during the course of their existence. It is not so much that the relationship is flawed; it is more that the individuals bring to the table a series of unmet needs and personality bruises that stand in the way. It’s not a couple’s problem. It is individual problems that were there long before the couple met that stands in the way... unfinished business from years ago.

The symptoms of unhappiness are widely variable and are often seen as mental illness. M Scott Peck makes the observation that most if not all human mental disorder is structured in an individual’s inability to face their legitimate suffering.

Most personality disorders are defence strategies gone sideways, but they become ways of dealing with life and they leave each of us wanting.

The Reader and The Door

Noticing, Simplicity and Truth

AVAILABLE AT http://www.amazon.com/

What you will see on the next four or five pages are observations made on the principles of Noticing, Simplicity and Truth.

I would like you in your groups to read it, first to yourself and then aloud within your groups.

Take your time.

Then before you discuss it amongst yourselves get your thoughts down on paper . . .

Write about it …

Then Discuss It Within The Confines Of Your Various Groups …

Then we will have all the groups discuss and share.

On Seeing Simple Truths

EXPERIENCE has taught us that this path of looking more closely at ourselves, although certainly not easy, is truly the only route by which we can at last leave behind the cruel invisible prison walls created in our childhood exploration of our humanity.

We become free by transforming ourselves from unaware victims of the past into responsible, responsive individuals in the present. People who are aware of their past have processed and accepted it for what it is, and are thus able to live with it.

The irony is that most people do exactly the opposite, even those who profess most loudly that they are on the path. Without realizing that the unprocessed past is constantly determining their present actions, most people avoid learning anything meaningful about their history. They continue to live their lives in the state of their repressed childhood roles, ignoring the fact that these situations no longer exist, except in the mind of the beholder. They continue to live with the old and repressed assumptions; they continue the posture of fearing fears and avoiding dangers that, once real, have not been real for a long, long time.

Psychic shadow boxing

Fighting a fight I can neither win nor protect myself from. Why? Because that was then and this is now and it is not here now.

We now know that people are driven by these unconscious memories, repressed feelings, and unfulfilled needs, and this state of affairs determines nearly everything they do or are willing to attempt to do or fail to do.

Life is something that happens while I’m busy doing something else.

Statement of Truth

A truth once gained is the loss of innocence.

The processes of self-inflicted denial and delusion are like old, warm, woolly sweaters that we wore to protect us from the cold, harsh, hostile world we live in. When the truth is revealed for what it really is, those old familiar sweaters can never go back on over our souls and fit properly as they once did.

The innocence of our childlike ignorance is lost the moment we come to understand that we do not rule the universe or any of its inhabitants, no matter how hard we might try.

Much of the human condition of suffering hangs on seeing or not seeing this simple truth; for suffering is a state of mind, not a condition of existence.

To begin a soul-searching journey is to begin to take our rightful place in this universe. There are requirements, one of which is that we must come to terms with this simple truth or forever be bonded to a hell of our own making.

Freedom from the bonds of our past is freedom from the bonds of our own way of thinking. Thus, freedom from the prison of our own minds is freedom from the process of resistance, from a demon called against.

The walls of the prison of our own minds and all the processes contained therein are always made up of us against something.

Our very survival seems to be at stake.

This process is always filled with resistance and deep-seated fear.

But

Experience Has Taught Me

That as I give over my need to be against, my need to hide, then I will naturally merge with all that is 

The Way of Things.

Observations about People with bumped and bruised Souls

1) We have to guess at what is normal.

2) We have difficulty following through with projects.

3) We lie when it would be just as easy to tell the truth.

4) We judge ourselves without mercy.

5) We have difficulty having fun.

6) We take ourselves very seriously.

7) We have difficulty with intimate relationships.

8) We over react to situations over which we have no control.

9) We constantly seek approval

10) We are either super responsible or super irresponsible and or swing back and forth between those polarities.

11) We feel that we are different from other people.

12) We are extremely loyal in the face of overwhelming evidence that we should not be.

13) We are impulsive and as such we tend to get ourselves locked into situations or circumstances or courses of action without giving due and proper consideration to the outcome or the possible consequences. This impulsivity leads to confusion, self-loathing and a loss of control over the environment. As a result Bumped and Bruised people often spend excessive amounts of time cleaning up messes they get themselves into.

 

From An Adult Point of View

available in PDF format at neiltubb@shaw.ca

The business of trying to achieve a sense of self/power in one's adult life can (but doesn't have to be) become an obsessive/compulsive expression of childhood neediness and unmet needs that stems from deep core belief structures. In the more extreme circumstances, this is expressed as personality disorders that can be coupled with addictions, obsessions and compulsions.

When one reaches out into life for adult relationships, the relationships so formed become a sounding board for buried pain and the repressed core issues. That is when all hell will break loose.

So it follows that if one only tries to resolve the relationship problem(s) in the present moment and the core belief issues are never dealt with ... that is, they remain quietly in the deeper and darker recesses of the mind, they will rise again at another inopportune time to keep the individual from having the very thing they want ... a loving relationship with another human being.

What one has to do is: take hold of what they are doing in the present ... have a real good look at it ... then come to understand that they are being driven by parts and places of their own past ... then come to terms with knowing they can act differently ... and finally, understanding there are deep forces at work here when our basic needs are not being met ... then begin the process of meeting those needs from the adult perspective and not the child's.

Know This

Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try

from Understanding Me While Being We (page 59-61)

There Is No One Need

That Is Greater Than Another Need

There are times when an individual may feel a greater need from one aspect or another ... just so they can recover a sense of balance in their personal world.

We are all driven to fill these needs one way or another. It is the undercurrent of all our behaviours. These needs will be met by either a positive approach or negative approach ... When I use a negative approach it will be to my detriment ... and often at someone else’s expense ... When I approach this from a positive place it causes me to invest in me and thus causing a growth. It then follows that I am invested in me ... and this investment in me creates growth from within ... socially, psychologically, spiritually, emotionally ...

• From the front door ... positive ... the only expense here is to me ... this is my investment into me.

• From the back door ... negative ... I do this at the expense of others ... I invest in me by a negative approach.

Research asserts that 95% of all relationship problems are the misguided efforts of people trying to achieve a sense of self/power. The business of not having a sense of power is a learned phenomena and usually experienced initially early on in life. Now the classic aspect is that once learned, this misguided effort transfers into our Deep Core Belief Structure. That behaviour claims its place in Our Way of Doing Things. It then quietly moves forward with the individual into their adult life and slowly and deliberately wreaks havoc in their life ... (called the Adult Children Syndrome) ...

The business of trying to achieve a sense of self/power in one's adult life can (but doesn't have to) become an obsessive/compulsive expression of childhood neediness and unmet needs that stems from deep core belief structures. In the more extreme circumstances, this is expressed as personality disorders that can be coupled with addictions, obsessions and compulsions.

When one reaches out into life for adult relationships, the relationships so formed become a sounding board for buried pain and the repressed core issues. That is when all hell will break loose. So it follows that if one only tries to resolve the relationship problem(s) and the core belief issues are never dealt with ...that is, they remain quietly in the deeper and darker recesses of the mind, they will rise again at another inopportune time to keep the individual from having the very thing they want ... a loving relationship with another human being.

What one has to do is: take hold of what they are doing in the present ... then come to understand that they are being driven by parts of their past ... then come to terms with knowing they can act differently ... and finally, understanding there are deep forces at work here when our basic needs are not being met ... then begin the process of meeting those needs from the adult perspective and not the child's.

Note: In negative approaches to finding needs satisfaction, one of the most common indicators is that it is being done at someone else's expense ... “if he would only” or “if she could just” ... someone else is the brunt of my pain ... the reason why I can’t ... the hurt and pain is about transfer and counter transfer. This one is very important to understand.

If a child can't find the sense of power to identify themselves as an individual, then they will be on a life long journey of attempting to establish that Sense of Self as an adult. One of the inherent problems in this is that it is the child's needs that are in question not the adult ... Hence the Adult Children Syndrome. It can and usually does become a very ugly tread mill to be on.

By understanding the drives for SURVIVAL, POWER, LOVE, BELONGING, FREEDOM and FUN in people, we become more conscious of the need for our world to be a Quality World of our choosing.