I am going to assume you've heard these cliché’s before. Before I get to an announcement I'd like to make, I wanted to share a story I heard on Sunday while at a party. A friend of mine was on a cruise with her husband and two daughters. During the trip she had the opportunity to hear Dr. Michael Beckwith speak. Apparently, during this talk Dr. Beckwith suddenly went on a tangent of topic and started talking about what drinking soda does to your body. My friend's perception was that it was clear that Dr. Beckwith was obviously channeling truth, and even though the tangent lasted some 10 minutes or so it had a profound impact. So much so that her daughters got out the 'soda tokens' they had purchased and gave them to their mother, indicating that they had no use for them. Their mother's smile shifted when a woman behind her, obviously present to the very same message, asked if she could have those soda tokens since her children could use them.
Obviously, there were different levels of awareness unfolding in that exchange. Her daughters were ready to hear Dr. Beckwith's message and make a choice accordingly. The mother sat behind them was not. This is not to pass judgment, rather to provide a concrete example that relates how our present level of awareness has a great influence on our choices. And when I consider my own personal experience I am often struck by how much my awareness, and consequently the theme of my choices, has changed over the years.
As a part of being a Teaching Assistant for the Centre's current Spiritual Practices class for these past 10 weeks I've been re-reading, 'Can we Talk to God?' by Dr. Ernest Holmes. I've read this book before (or at least, thought I had read it before). However, this time around the experience has been substantially different. Apparently, I am now ready to appreciate messages that passed me by before. How do I know? Well, not only am I highlighting new sections but there are some instances where it takes me several days to get through a page or two. It's taken me about a week to get from page 85 to 91!
I wanted to highlight a few passages that have really resonated with my current focus, and with Revealing Eternal Presence Meditation in particular. On page 87 of the 1992 edition, Holmes writes:
"It is not our spirit that needs to be made whole; it is our mental reactions to life that need healing. These mental reactions are both conscious and subjective. Successful mental treatment must neutralize negative reactions on both the conscious and subjective planes. Proper teaching does this for the conscious mind, and proper mental treatment will do it on the subjective side of thought.This passage jumped out me because I have decided at some point to grow at that inner level of Intelligence. I wasn't ready for that passage a couple of years ago. But as I read it now it jumps off the page. How we react to life, to the sensations that surface from beneath the surface of our consciousness, is central to our experience. Every reaction is a thought. Every thought is a prayer. The Buddha taught that the blind reaction to a sensation is how we condition the unconscious (or what I call subjective) mind. In my experience meditation is the ideal vehicle to practice being aware of sensations and practicing not reacting blindly to them. During meditation if I have an itch, I do not scratch it. If I have a pleasant memory, I do not crave it residing. If I have a pain I objectively observe it, not wishing it would go away. And so on, until I have practiced such a balanced reaction to the point that equanimity (or balance of the mind) becomes a habit.
Mental healing is not accomplished through a coercion of the consciousness, but through it's illumination."
And at this time, and during the re-reading, a beautiful yet subtle wisdom is becoming apparent for me. If one looks at mental treatment as being meditation (and not just prayer, of Scientific Mind Treatment) then suddenly what was a mystery to me is decrypted within the passage. What I read in this passage is that Dr. Holmes is telling me to use meditation as a vehicle to neutralize negative reactions to what I experience, both consciously and subconsciously. And he's also advising us that proper teaching will be very important to master this consciously.
It seems like common sense, and yet it took me over two years from reading this passage for the first time to begin to delve into the deeper mysteries of this particular snippet of wisdom. This approach has yielded great illumination for me and requires no coercion. It is no coincidence that after having stepped up to claim a new idea for myself recently that this passage should take on such significance.
A little later he writes:
"There is a subtle element here - that of knowing the truth and then letting go so that the truth may demonstrate itself. Perhaps this is one of the most difficult things to understand in spiritual work. Our thought is creative, but we do not make it so; it was so before we realized it - not will but willingness; not coercion but conclusion."The theme for meditation continues. We must let go of any knowing we think we have of the truth and allow the truth to demonstrate itself. Certainly, we must aspire and be ready to hear the message, but we must not crave hearing a message either. And this is indeed one of the most difficult things to understand in our spiritual work. Truly letting go, neither craving nor averting, is to surrender. Yet, how hard is it to fully surrender? Think of something you care deeply for. Now consider that if the object of your caring is a thing or relationship that exists in this apparent reality then how ready are you to surrender should it pass away? And as you contemplate this consider that the Buddha taught that, suffering results when we wish things to remain unchanging in the constantly changing apparent reality.
Dr. Holmes continues:
"Conviction compels the attention of the intellect; it is Reality which floods it...The Originating Power descends into the consciousness that meditates upon It and receives It."And with those two sentences I knew I had to blog about this. One of the central purposes of Meditation for me is to practice being aware of Eternal Presence, or 'Reality'. It is inspiring to hear Dr. Holmes confirm in his experience that, if I meditate upon the Eternal Presence, then I will reveal Eternal Presence.
I want to acknowledge that one of the challenges with communicating such ideas in this blog is that unless you directly experience this for yourself then these are just words. Until you make something your own it cannot become your wisdom.
To that end I am delighted to make a few announcements. I am currently having a new site for http://www.knowtheflow.ca/ built. This will be a new incarnation of this blog, with a much greater degree of organization as well as the ability to subscribe to the content that most appeals. And, perhaps most significantly, I will be incorporating podcasts as a part of this site. What does this mean? Well, I plan on recording some of the Revealing Eternal Presence meditations I lead. If you are unable to meditate with me, either in real or second life, then you will be able to download some of these meditations to play on your iPhone, computer or any other suitable audio device. It is my vision that by recording these meditations that I will be able to support you in discovering one potential of meditation for yourself.
In the meantime, here's the new logo for the site. Know the Flow and be happy, dear friends.
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