I am Therefore I am: May 2011

Describing the path of our Love with God, a path of remembering our Oneness with Him.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Judging Yourself

This post continues on the theme from the last post where I talked about change and not being good enough. Judgment of ourselves is the single biggest thing that cuts us off from feeling God's Presence in and through us. When we judge ourselves, we are saying that we are not good enough as is. But God is One, He is All, and we are part of that Oneness. When we judge ourselves, we are not acknowledging that Oneness. We are in fact affirming a false belief that we are separate from Him. To know Oneness within yourself, you can't say that there are some parts of you that need to change. Wholeness and unity are found in everything, because nothing is separate from Him. You are whole and complete, a microcosm of the larger whole which is the body of Christ. A wave appears as separate but is part of the whole ocean A ray of light is not separate from the sun. This is similar for you. You "appear" as an individual body and personality, but this is not who you really are. We are not separate. We are One and a reflection of God, who created us out of Love so that He could know Himself as Love.

The interesting thing about judgment is that it is completely individualized. Look at all the judgments that run through your thoughts (there are also those which run like a computer virus underneath your normal thought pattern but are very destructive). Do you really think that others hold these judgments about you? The ego personality/mind is a very unique creature. It can take you in many false and destructive directions away from God and knowing who you truly are. Our beliefs, and thus our thoughts, are created by our own past experiences and our own future expectations, and these are completely different for each person. As crazy and destructive as your thoughts can run sometimes, this is multiplied in 7 billion different ways with everyone on this Earth. So when you think that someone judges you for something that you judge yourself for, think again. The craziness that runs through your head is a different craziness than runs through that person who you think is judging you.

All of your thoughts are fleeting. They come and they go. They change every instant. Nothing that is fleeting, nothing that changes, is of God. God is All, is eternal, and is changeless. And since you are One with Him, you are the same. So what does that make these judgment thoughts that run through your head --- NOT REAL. When you finally realize this, that ego personality voice which throws judgment at you becomes less loud. You have turned your attention to Him and the thoughts you share with Him --- your real thoughts, those of love, compassion, kindness, generosity, etc. And when you stay in this place of your real thoughts --- joy, peace, and Love result. For you are now a vessel through which can God can bless the world. As you increasingly listen less to those ego judgment thoughts, you can feel His Presence to a greater extent, and He works through you to a greater extent. Your false beliefs/judgments about yourself are what clogs your divine vessel and prevents you from knowing Him fully.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Change

Why do we want to change things about ourselves --- the way we look, how much money we have, how smart we are, how well we speak, how spiritual we are? Because we are not happy with who we are. We are not accepting of ourselves. We do not think we are "good enough". Are we doing this to be good enough for our significant other, our friends, or strangers, or all of the above? Are we doing this to be good enough for God?

All of Western society is designed to "improve" who you are. There are all types of things you can do to maintain/improve your body and appearance. There are all kinds of ways we can get "smarter" or well informed through advanced degrees, books, seminars, etc. We take lessons to be better at sports or musical instruments. We are always looking for job advancement or for a bigger house. This society and its media is constantly giving us the message that we are not good enough, that we need to change. How in the world can you ever feel at peace about who you are?

You cannot love yourself if you don't even know who you are. What are you trying to change to? What is enough that would make you satisfied? Can you even describe the changes that need to occur in you so that you can love yourself? What is the level that constitutes perfection? When you put your faith in transitory things, like a body that ages, or a standard of living that may go away tomorrow, you are putting your faith in a false god. The ego needs reinforcement. Your spirit, that essence you share with God, needs none. It knows that it is perfect as it is. The outer circumstances and appearances in your life are under constant change every moment. That which is changeless is who you really are. Think of your self as a deep lake, deeper than you can imagine. There is a storm that whips the waves on the surface into a frenzy --- these are sometimes the outer circumstances in your life. At the bottom of this deep lake, all is perfectly still, unchanged and unaffected by anything going on at the surface. This stillness is a part of you.

Friday, May 06, 2011

The Feminine, Joy, and Power

You can only experience joy to the extent you are in touch with your feminine side. What do I mean by that? If you are not in touch with your feelings and you live in your head, then you cannot feel the joy that comes from being grounded in your body. The body is the holy temple of God, and if we are not present in our body, we cannot experience those attributes that are our inheritance from God --- joy, peace, and Love. Western society has valued a smart and logical mind over feelings, thus this is a male centered society. The man is the provider, the strong one, etc. A crying man, one who shows his feelings, is considered weak. This is drilled into kids from an early age, and it creates a belief system, a herd mentality, that is hard to break out of.

Showing your feelings does not make you weak --- it makes you strong. An authentic, complete, and whole person, male or female, has a balance between the masculine and the feminine. True power does not mean having more material goods, more intelligence, more guns, more ability to kill. True power comes from knowing your Oneness with God and knowing that this protects you completely. It is the difference between powerfulness and powerlessness. When we attack someone physically, mentally, or verbally, we are being weak. This is an ego strategy --- attack and conquer before the other one does the same to you. When we do not attack because we know that we are all One, then we are truly being powerful. What is best for one person is what is best for the whole. We do not see separation and do not see bodies that can "attack" us.

Unfortunately, the ego belief that everyone is separate and that you must kill or be killed has permeated our view of God for 2000 years. We see Him --- just the masculine pronoun --- as a vengeful and punishing God. Oh we are told He is Love, but few question this discrepancy. Or rather, few understand what unconditional Love means. It is not compatible with vengeance and punishment. It is compatible with softness, compassion, generosity, kindness. These are all feminine qualities which require you to be present in your body, not your head, and have feelings.

If you do not like what I am saying and you want to continue to see God in the old way, it is because you see yourself as needing to be judged. These beliefs may be very deep in your psyche and not conscious to you. God does not see you as needing judgment. He sees you as Love. When you drop these old and outdated beliefs that you should be punished, you feel God's Presence within you and you commune with Him in a much more intimate way. He moves in and through you, and you experience, through your body/feelings, His peace and joy.

 

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