August 4, 2002
Samuel: Came back. Good. How are you.
Top of the world.
Fantastic.
S: That’s probably one of the better replies. Fantastic. Top of the world. What changed? Well, you know, think about it for a while.
[Looking into the lights above.] Let’s stop for just a moment here. I recognize, Stuart, that you’ve got to have your light. I know that. Are there any of them that you can turn down and still get what you want? [Stuart turns some lights out.] Even so, that looks better from this angle.
That probably has more to do with what’s going on in your energy than most things. That says a lot about how—well, how would I say this to a group like this?—how the colors you are clashes with the lights that are. For those of you who have taught yourself how to see energy, do you notice that when there’s a lot of extra light on, you have a bit of difficulty with what you’re seeing. Remind Stuart of that, all right.
All right, where I was going was, it’s not too very long ago that I spent months asking that question at workshops and at Sunday nights. I would say, “How are you are doing?” and after a very long pause, someone might bravely say, “Oh, okay. Lot of change,” [or] “Awful. Flattened out. Not doing so well.” So it’s delightful to hear you say, “Fantastic.” “Top of the world.”
What’s going on? [Pause.] That was a question. [Longer pause.] All right, I realize that what you’re actually doing here is allowing those who are going to be watching this by video the opportunity to make their answers. We’ll have a moment of silence so that they can say what’s good for them. All right. Good. That was enough. Your turn. Mary Claire.
I’ve noticed that, for me, even though there may be bumps in the road, there’s a part of me that has a stability in it, that’s just always there. It’s a security of knowing that no matter what happens, it might even be a little upsetting even for one part of me, but the other part of me is just fine, and is keeping me in a very . . . I would say, balanced; that’s what it kind of feels like—in a balanced way. And it’s very reassuring. And that part of me seems to be getting stronger and stronger, that part that I can always depend on that will keep that strength going for me. It’s really wonderful, and it allows for a bit of a detachment from other things—not in a bad way, but in a good way.
S: Mastery is not never being challenged. Mastery is not never having a difficulty. Mastery is having the challenges, having the difficulties, having the laughter, having the tears, having it all—not missing out on parts—having it all and yet knowing that you are connected into something that makes that stuff look small. You’re bigger than it is. Good work.
Gwendolyn.
Following along with that, there’s for me a kind of constant guidance system that comes up. I, a long time ago, realized that you don’t just drop off your habits that you’ve been trying to deal with all your life. They’re kind of there.
S: They don’t actually disappear.
No, no.
S: Darn.
You have these automatic things that kind of come up, but what’s happening is this wonderful, uplifting, reminding guidance system, comes into play it seems like all the time, just being able to drop it, recognizing that coming up, and you don’t feed it, it just kind of is gone. You have, maybe, these wonderful tools that are just there now.
S: You have said something extremely significant with, if you don’t feed it, it’s not going to stay, it’s not going to be there. And that’s absolutely right.
I’ve got a part of a picture, a thought here, a guidance system. You now have portable guidance systems you can play with, take you through the woods with. What is that called?
GPS.
S: GPS? Well, that was exactly what was in my head, but I could not come up with anything that might go with it. That could be like Global . . .
Positioning system.
S: Oh, well, now that makes good sense, doesn’t it? I knew that. I just had not brought it forth into the part of the brain that could translate it, that’s all.
Yes, so in a sense what you have is a Global Positioning Center. Perhaps, it’s more of a Personal Positioning Center.
And it’s something that I’m asking for. I want this.
S: And when you’re asking for that, who or what are you asking?
Me.
S: Good answer.
I know that that’s what I’m dealing with, that all that is part of me.
S: Another good answer.
Keeping me on course in the way that I want to go. It’s really wonderful.
S: And I will tell you as well, it’s heart-breaking. It’s absolutely wonderful when you realize that in your life you have within yourself the ultimate Global Positioning System or System for Global Centering, maybe. Something like that. And if you use it, you get to where you want to be. And if you don’t use it, you will have one thousand and one reasons, justifications, of why it is you did not have access to it, why it is, therefore, it does not exist, why it is no good, why it is flawed. And that does not mean for the slightest that it’s any less there, any less accessible. And that’s what makes it heart-breaking. It’s there. You get the benefit if you use it.
And Gwendolyn gave a very, very big key for opening that door and making use of that system. What did she say?
You have to ask for it.
S: She asked for it. Actually, she said something that might have slipped right by you, but I liked it. It was, “I just ask all that is me.” Now, I would say she was asking two things, wouldn’t you? All That Is and all that she is. There it is, that connection. The power for the system. That’s good. I like it. Thank you.
Mary.
To add to what these two have said: in general when I’m at work, I’m the one who is saying, “It’s going to be okay. We can put a better spin on it.” And now I have another person in the office that is also saying that, and it’s just so much easier. You know, it’s just I’m not the only one that’s saying, “It’s going to be fine. You know, whatever’s going on, we’re going to work through and it’s fine.”
S: What makes that easy? Why is it?
Because I’m not the only one that has to work, that is trying to put forth that energy that it’s okay, and I’ve got somebody else and so we can feed off each other, and then the other people who are around then go, “Oh, okay. It really is okay. It’s not just the boss who’s saying it’s going to be okay.” You know, there’s somebody else.
S: Power in numbers.
Exactly. You can outnumber them now. It’s nice, and I have other coworkers who are, you know, just doing their jobs, and that makes my life easier. And so it just makes my life easier.
S: And although one of the things I’m going to be talking about tonight is that the reason you’re seeing these positive changes, experiencing them in your lives, is because very positive things are happening in your world right now. Don’t read the news and you would believe it.
But what Mary is talking about here is a principle that is really good for your life in all areas. Not only where you work is it handy to have others who are working to put the most positive spin on things that are going on, but that’s also true in every area of your life. True, because of what all three of them have either said or alluded to: that there are parts of life that do not automatically bring out the best in you yet . . . bring out the best in you. There are some automatic reactions that fit more with the old system than any new one. What might I be talking about? Anybody got a for-instance?
Well I, just out of the blue, seem to have brought up an amazing pattern that had to do with . . . various people pointing me to a pattern of jealousy that I thought I had gotten rid of. But it brought up jealousy on multi-levels, and it came up, and it just took over my being for a while, and it’s . . .
S: So it was a behavior that you did not know . . .
I just wasn’t aware of.
S: . . . was still lurking about inside of you so that it would pop out. And jealousy is fear. And ultimately everything that you might come up with to say, “Well, you know, there’s certain things that push my buttons and make me angry, and I’m just real embarrassed about it. I don’t like it happening, but it’s going to make me angry if this happens.” Or there is a situation that’ll come up: the economy starts turning downward and there are layoffs at work, and it makes me fearful. And I know that everything’s going to be okay and work out for the best, but it’s just an automatic fear that happens in there. And there’s a list of them. They’re all fear. They’re all fear. Fear of something, ultimately.
The instinctual self, the one that keeps the body and brain alive so that you can do what it is you’re here to do, that instinctual self is charged with one thing. What is that?
Survival.
S: Survival. That’s right. Survival. And when in your life, ideally, when you move from, let’s say, childhood to adulthood—although, you know, there are some children who are more adult than some adults; there are some adults that are more childlike than some children—ideally when you move from that point when survival means keeping your physical self going, and moves to survival means bringing into your life certain emotional things that keep you going, these are the things that would differentiate childhood from adulthood.
Either way, though, survival is the key: survival of the physical, of the mental, of the emotional. And in your life you can fairly well generalize—broad bottom line there—your fears are working as a security mechanism for one of those arenas. It doesn’t change as you grow older and wiser and more spiritual. Isn’t that depressing? Isn’t that worth saying, “Well heck, what am I bothering for?” to find out that throughout your life there is likely to be your instinctual survival mechanisms, be it for your physical essence, be it for your mental essence, be it for your emotional essence, going to kick in and color your version of reality? Darn.
But you see, it’s not about having no fear. It’s about moving forward anyway. And if what you do is put your focus on getting rid of that fear, well, all you’re really going to do is amplify it, make it quite proud that it’s getting all of that attention. Instead, what might you do?
Keep on keeping on.
S: Well, keep on keeping on, yes. How about you amplify what works, what makes you happy? You amplify what it is in your life that keeps you getting up and moving forward through your day. If you spend all of your time resisting your fear, then all you’re going to do is make that fear very important. Instead, make important your strength, your courage. Make important what works, your successes. The technologies that you have used throughout your life to help you be bigger than your fear. So, yes, there are instinctual aspects of your life that have to do with reactions you wish were gone.
But now I want to shift this just a slight other direction. Using Cynthia’s example of thinking she was truly over with being jealous a long time ago. That’s such a silly thing to feel. And realizing that it’s not so, it’s not over, it’s still hiding in there somewhere; realizing that and knowing, of course, that perhaps it’s a lot better if she does not focus on the jealousy, but instead focuses on those things that make her feel safe, and those things which make her feel accepted and cherished, and on and on it would go, why is it that the jealousy is back?
Cynthia has been spending a lot of her life learning to strengthen her spiritual self, to become stronger and wiser and more powerful in many, many ways. She is a being of great light, great love. So what is this with something that was over with long ago popping its head back up. Especially now, when I ‘m telling you that things are so good. What’s that about?
It gives you an opportunity to deal with it when you ‘re a stronger person.
S: That’s a very lovely response. She’s getting an opportunity to deal with this when she’s a much stronger person, while she is consciously focusing on being and doing the best she possibly can be. Very good.
And as we spiral upwards in growth . . .
S: Absolutely.
. . . we’re going to get to that point at which that belief first reared its head, we get to again be challenged by that belief.
S: Yes. Much as: You have an onion, aye, and you’re happy with that onion, and you like it and it’s beautiful, and you take off that little skin around it, and then you start peeling that onion. All right, you take your knife, you give it a little cut, you peel off a layer, and what do you have?
Onion.
S: All right. So then you go ahead and peel off that layer. You go ahead, peel that one down and what do you have?
More onion.
S: Same onion. And it looks the same, and it still does as you peel and you peel and you peel. And in a whole lot of ways, you are like an onion or as a spiral, to use Steven’s example, in that a spiral has a beginning point and then it moves up and around, and you’re doing fine and you’re happy with having learned that originating principle—whatever it might be—and you’re working on it, you’re becoming better and stronger and, whoops, all of sudden there it is again.
“Wait a minute here, I’ve already worked through that one. What’s that about?” You work through it again. You realize, “Oh, well, there was a part of it I had not understood. Let’s keep going then.” And you’re proud that you’ve got that, and you keep going, and you’re stronger and you’re better. And pretty soon, whoops, there it is again.
And this time you realize, “Well, it’s because I’m stronger now. I can deal with it better than before.” And you’ve come to all sorts of first-Sunday meetings, and you’ve got all kinds of technology that, of course, you put into place, and you are very wisely and happily growing stronger and stronger, and better and better. And, whoops, there it is again. Not because you’re doing something wrong. Not because you weren’t clever enough to get it the first time, but because you are a multifaceted being., constantly growing and changing. And if you were not, you would be dysfunctional in this world. You would be dead. Walking, breathing, talking dead, because the constant growth and change that you experience in this world is what keeps you functioning and alive. So all of those facets of you are learning more than any one occurrence can give you. All of those facets of you are also experiencing all of the facets of that principle, that experience, that symptom.
Have you ever had a situation in your life in which something really unpleasant, maybe something you were quite afraid of, something—I’m going to say it—not good turned into something good, that something scary turned out to be not so scary at all? Maybe even to the point that you sort of look back on it with embarrassment. “I cannot believe I fussed so much about that.” Have you ever had that happen? Well, if you have, congratulations. Welcome to the world. That happens because you’re functioning in mastery to see that. You’re functioning in mastery because you’re not stuck at the same level, doing the same thing over and over and over. You are active in your life. And by being active in your life, choosing to step forward, even though it throws you off balance to do so—that’s what walking is about, you know—you choose to keep going, and as a result of that, you get to have many different versions of those things that are needed to shine the diamond. All of those facets are a part of it.
Your world right now is at a very creative place. The last couple of weeks, especially, the energy that’s been coming into your world is absolutely rich, full, life force. And those who are functioning at the higher frequencies are getting it. You’re being drenched with it. How you are responding to it has everything to do with how you’re feeling these days.
Now, would it be accurate to say that when the Universe is pouring out life force energy and creation energy so strongly that all of those who are working at their highest frequency are experiencing no difficulty? No, that’s not the point. It’s not the point. But does it mean that they’re not reacting on automatic any more, and no longer having the little green monster stick its head up? Does it mean that you might yet have automatic reactions? Sure. What do you do with them? Beat them back down!
Become aware of them.
S: One thing is you’re quite aware of them quite quickly, and you are drawn to do something about it. Suzanne and then Kathy.
Well, I say I’m sorry a lot.
S: Good for you.
And I say it a lot sooner than I used to say it. And also, the other change is that I know, even though I might have considered it normal in other times, I don’t consider it normal now. I mean, it may be even normal, but I don’t accept normal anymore.
S: Hold that, all right, both of them. I don’t accept normal anymore, and I say I’m sorry a lot. They’re both centered in a point I would like to make about ego. Nice.
I have been trying to forgive myself for having that reaction as opposed to holding myself to a very high standard and then, you know, turning it . . .
S: Is there something wrong with high standards?
No. Not at all. It’s only if you start beating yourself up because you’re not meeting those standards that it becomes a problem.
S: That’s right. You set an arbitrary line that says, “I must do this,” and then when you do not quite reach it, you beat yourself up for not being there. That’s a very—well, I’ve said this word so often tonight, that if this were a newsletter interview, David would be saying, “You need to put a different word in there for a while. All right?”—it’s a very powerful thing, love, truly.
Again, here I go: mastery is, you’re on to you. You’re on to you. And being on to you not only means you are aware when you do something you should not have done, made a choice that isn’t for the best and highest; it also means you’re on to you when you’ve done something good. Some of you forget that, you know. You’re on to you when your response is one of power and love instead of powerful fear. You’re on to you when you sabotage yourself by using the old system of “This used to work, and if it does not work now, it’s no good,” rather than, “I’m different now. Maybe something else will work.”
And what Kathy said about learning that there are things that she does, ultimately, to sabotage herself by setting an arbitrary goal that’s bigger than what she can—let me change that—than what she knows she can do.
You know, a whole lot of you do that one. It’s one thing to challenge yourself. Sports people need to do that, don’t they—challenge themselves. But if the best long jump you’ve ever done is what, twenty feet or so . . . ?
I wish.
S: Really. Well, you see you’re not pushing yourself hard enough, that’s why. All right. So what did you say that number could be? Thirteen, did you say?
A very good athlete, yes.
S: All right, so we’ll say thirteen feet, you can challenge yourself to say fourteen. Whereas if you say twenty, because Samuel said we should be able to do twenty, and you jump fourteen, you have only failed. You have only failed, and all you do is prove to yourself that you’re a failure.
You become impatient in this microwave society, you become impatient with small steps. And yet it is the small steps that give you the knowing. “I know I can do this. It’s just a little more than what I’ve already done. No problem, not worried at all.” Boom. And then successfully, you have hit twenty without killing yourself in the process, without making yourself, if not physically unavailable, certainly emotionally, mentally, unavailable.
Thirteen feet. Sort of sad.
Mary Claire.
To kind of extend that a little bit more, the whole process you’re talking about: I can get to the point—and this is when I feel very fortunate—when I catch it, the reaction of the old, in the thought process, before it becomes a reaction out in the world. And how it helps me is as soon as the thought comes, the reactive thought, I can stop myself at that point, not resist it, but just talk to myself about it. And the more kind of reassuring, kind of “You’re afraid, but really this really is okay, and you’re not going to be afraid very long. This is going to pass.” And I give myself a little time with it.
S: Talk yourself through it. Give yourself a pep talk. Remind yourself of successes in the past that are reasons why you can trust the step you’re taking in the future.
And reassure me and the fear that I’m in a safe place in this universe.
S: Yes.
And that really helps me, because I can talk myself even out of the emotional response that’s internal, that brought the thought in my head.
S: Good.
And that’s really wonderful, and it will dissipate. And that it solves itself a lot of times, because it was just a fear-based kind of thing.
S: It’s so embarrassing when that happens.
Yeah, and when it does happen to slip out into the world, I do what Suzanne started to say, and that’s say I’m sorry a lot.
S: Something that Mary Claire touched on is another piece in the mastery working. Energy shows itself through four functions. It begins with intent, it moves to thought, it then shows up in word, and then, finally, it becomes a deed.
In your awareness levels, it works backwards from there. Your deeds bring about your awareness of a thing. What you do or what someone else does is the signal to you for change. At the beginning of your spiritual journey, it is deed that brings about awareness, but the more that you are functioning in wisdom—the more you become used to that ongoing spiral of change, the more you use the technologies that we have just lightly discussed this evening—the more you will find a shift. As you look at your life—and to refer to what many have referred to here, but particularly Kathy and Mary Claire just now: that internal voice in regard to your own self when you do something that you know you shouldn’t have—it stops you.
When you are further along in the way of wisdom, it doesn’t have to go as far as a deed. It can be a word. Rather than acting it out, you can just hear about it and know, I don’t need to do that. That’s where your mother was right. If your friends jump off a cliff, would you? No. You would stop right when they said, “Let’s go jump off the cliff!” “I don’t need to do that.” That’s the next step, though.
As you continue on that journey, working with greater awareness, greater strength, the next step there is the thought stops you. It’s simply a thought in which you say, “I’m not going to go there. Forget it.” You change what you’re thinking and you keep going.
Now, before I move on to the next one, I want to toss out a little thing here. At the function of deed, you often change where you are to get things to be different. At the level of word, you often change who you’re with to move on to another level. At the arena of thought, that’s the first point where you look into yourself, and you’re willing to say, “This is about me.” And that begins you on a road for change.
Once you have caught yourself, then your next portion of the path of wisdom is that of the intent. Now, that might seem too nebulous, too thin and filmy and hard, but for those of you who are working at that point where you’re aware at the intent, before it’s a full thought, it happens, doesn’t it? You are on to your intent. You’re on.
Can anybody give me an example of that, of something for which you caught yourself at intent? Aye.
Kathleen was moving to California, and we’ve had a very good friendship, and I started getting sad and going into grief, and “Poor me,” and all that whole downer thing. And she had a delightful daughter with her, and suddenly we started packing, and I absolutely felt the shift, got interested in the packing, enjoyed the packing—literally enjoyed five days of saying good-bye and yet participating in it. And it totally changed a real major pattern for me of grief, of hell because “everybody’s leaving me, I mean you know, and one more.” And it was a joyous ending.
S: And where was intent a connection there?
Well, I thought, I could stay home, lay in bed, be depressed, cry, hold my pillow, and do what I normally do when I’m grieving, you know or depressed. And then I thought, No, I can go and change my behavior, do a yard sale, which is mammoth change for me, and participate in actually doing the physical thing. And I had a ball. I really had a wonderful time.
S: And that was because of your intent. You realized by feeling grief that you were going to—I’m going to exaggerate for the sake of everybody relating—realized that you were going to start spiraling into loss and abandonment and grief, and end up isolating yourself from everybody and just being really upset, and you did not want that.
All right, right there you’ve had deed and word and thought, and even intent, but what Cynthia ended up doing required changing intent to a positive focus. Not “I’m going to do all these things,” but “I’m going to do what I can to enjoy this and let it be a good process.” Everything that worked out from there became a positive flow into the experience, because she caught the intent and turned it around.
Suzanne, you had an attachment to that one.
Well, something happened just before I came here this evening.
S: Love it when that happens.
Right. And you just really showed me what happened, and I want to have more of those times. Benjamin’s my son. He’s fourteen, and he left, doing his church thing, and I realized he hadn’t put away his clothes, and he’s supposed to do that for laundry, et cetera, before he goes off and does this. And I thought, Okay, I need to leave him a note saying he can’t watch television until he gets this part of all those rules. And then I caught me. Here’s my intent. I thought,Why am I doing that?
S: Good.
And I thought, “I’m doing that because I wish . . .”
S: Hold just a moment. I’m sorry to be interrupting you. Hold just a moment. Rather than getting angry at him, rather than moving it into, all right, working out what he’s not going to do for the next week because of this, working out what—before it even got to thinking it through—she caught it. And where did it go there?
I realized that my intent was to control him and show him that I didn’t miss this fact that he missed this, and I realized, Wait a minute. What do I really want him to do?
S: Excellent.
What is my superior intent? My superior intent is for him to be responsible for himself, not for me to catch him all the time. It could be a mother liberation thing. What’s the worst thing if I don’t leave him the note, if he doesn’t put away his clothes. If he watches TV, you know, then that means when I get home and I ask him, you know, I see whether he’s put away his clothes, and he has to do it before he goes to bed. I mean, so there’s not anything going to be lost there, but there’s a potential for some gain, that he could possibly catch himself and be responsible for himself, which is really what I want.
S: That’s good. That’s good. Call before you leave for home. “I’m on my way home now.”
Is there anything you need to do?
S: That’s good. That’s good. So in this process of working through into the wisdom that you truly are—which really is what it’s about—you begin being more aware, and that awareness puts you at a higher level every time. It does not go all the way down to your acting it out and catching it. It also doesn’t mean that every area of your life at the same time, you’ve got them all on the same level working out. And that’s what brings you frustration, because you know that “In all of these areas of my life except the one that has to do with Benjamin . . .”
Thank God.
S: “. . . I’m able to catch myself way before anything happens.” One of the greatest motivators to learning and functioning on and continuing with the way of wisdom, one of the greatest motivators is pain. You don’t want to experience pain. You don’t want to be angry at him. You don’t want to be frustrated. You don’t want to have pain. And it is a great and very specific pain that must be moved through first before you can ever get anywhere beyond word and deed. Until you are able to get over the pain I’m going to mention in a moment, you will not be able to function in the pathway of wisdom, mastery, attainment, insofar as your thoughts, insofar as your intent.
Remember that I said, in all areas of your life you may not have it. You may not be working at intent all the time, in all aspects of your life. Ideally, what you want to be doing is working at it in most of them, and I will assure you—better still, I will promise you—that your awareness of “Let’s see, what level does this mean I’m working on right here?” your awareness of that intent to function at your best and highest is going to help you to even out all of those levels to intent.
But in order for that to come about, there is one extremely important thing, a great fear, that you must work through, and that fear has everything to do with a label called ego. There are signals, symptoms—if you will—of whether or not you have gotten through the ego stuff.
One of them is—Suzanne, I told you to remember two things. Pick one.
Saying I’m sorry.
S: Let’s start with that one. One of the things that lets you know that you have a difficulty in the arena of ego, and that when you keep coming around to this knot in the road, in the spiral of your existence, and you keep saying, “I’ve dealt with this before. What is it about?” and you begin to realize that it’s centered in a fear, as they all are, the fear will have to do with ego.
Now you know, as a whole—and there are enough very fancily degreed beings in here who do counseling and that sort of work—you know it’s not that ego is a bad thing, is it? You’ve got to have your ego. Your ego is the way your personality expresses itself in this world. Ego’s not bad. But when I refer to ego as being a problem, I’m referring to that aspect of ego that cares about that personality being put out front at whatever cost to anyone else. I’m talking about that aspect of ego that only has itself in the world. And one way you can know if your ego is out of hand is if you are unable to say you are sorry. That’s a big one.
“Samuel, just a moment, please. That really does not sound possible. Spiritual beings should never have anything they are sorry for. In fact, somebody said this to me not too long ago. They should never, ever have to see themselves as anything other than the perfected beings that they are.” Everyone who has had sessions looks at each other. Hmm.
What’s a session?
S: Right. Others are saying, “Session? What’s a session? I remember those. I cannot . . . what’s that word? What is that now?”
All right, where was I in that? The ego that is unable to recognize that maybe it doesn’t know it all, have it all, maybe it isn’t all, is not an ego that is neglecting to accept its connection with Source. “Samuel, wait! Are you saying then that I can recognize my connection with Source, that I am a magnificent being of light and love connected with the Source of all things itself, and still recognize that I can do things that aren’t right, according to the circumstances of the moment or any other?” You know, I try to weasel in every little part you’re going to turn up later and say, “It doesn’t refer to me, because he did not say these words.” Absolutely you can have an over-starched ego and be a being of complete Source power and love. How is it that is possible? How is it that a being of Source can indeed make a mistake and need to apologize.
It’s being blind.
S: Say it again.
It’s being blind to yourself.
S: Not seeing that is because you are blind. That’s true. That’s true. And in denial of self.
Let’s talk a moment about that self part of it. Let’s look across this room. How many of you are here without form tonight? A lot of hands are raised all around the ceiling, up through the curtains and on top of the trees—all of those hands—but down here in these chairs, not one hand is up, because you work through this stuff [pinching cheek]. It’s Play-Doh. Have you ever thought of that? Always ready to be molded into another shape, always ready to be mixed with most anything you’re ready to put it in with. Play-Doh. As you live, you change. The mold is always there, but how it fits in is a bit different all the time.
The form that you are, the vessel that that spirit self uses, that vessel is temporary—well, I almost said a temporary abomination. That’s not what I was after there, though, even though for some of you you may feel that particularly fits. That really wasn’t what I was after. It is a temporary holding point for the spirit you are, much like when you have a pot of boiling water. You’ve got a pot of boiling water and you are looking to pour it into a container to make tea. All right. And you look around the kitchen and the only thing you find is, maybe, a plastic storage container; maybe it is a flowerpot; maybe it is a glass pitcher. You look at those and you say, “Hmm, what would be the best use of this boiling water for the tea? Would it be the flowerpot? Well, if it’s one of those flowerpots with a hole at the bottom, it might not work long enough to create tea. It’s perfect for some functions, but not tea.
All right, what about the plastic storage container? You pour that boiling water into that, and, well, you might have dishwasher art. Yes. Again, good vessel, perfect for what it’s here for, but not workable for what you’re preparing to do with it.
Well, all right, there is the big glass pitcher. Well, that’s iffy isn’t it? The big glass pitcher is iffy because you might be able to pour that boiling water in and it will do just fine, but if it’s too hot, and say that pitcher might have been too cool, you’re going to have a problem, aren’t you? Your bodies are a lot like that. When the energy going into them is too much for that body to manage, there is a risk, a risk that that form might crack.
[Laughing] Some of you cracked a lot faster than others, that’s all. It is indeed what I love about you. You laugh. It’s such a thing of power, you know, you laugh.
You crack us up.
S: Well said, my friend, well said.
[…]
S: That too.
The vehicle that the energy you are needs to be here is that emotional, mental, physical thing that is your body. Your body’s job is to keep you here strong enough for your spirit to make tea. I like it. It was working. I liked it. That physical essence has its own personality, it’s own way of functioning in this world that is based on the final result of every experience you have had up until this moment, and of all of the other information that has come in on all levels that has brought you to this moment, whether you are fully aware of all of that information or not. You are so much more than you think. That’s another joke. Did you get it?
You are so much more, but sometimes in the desire for that physical essence to be able to keep that spirit alive so that it can do what it is that it’s here to do, it begins taking over. Always for the survival of the whole. Always for your best interests. And that’s where ego’s out of hand. One of the signs that ego is out of hand is that you don’t say you’re sorry.
If you were a part of the leadership at Phoenix, you would know that not only as a practice for the reminders that you’re here to serve, but also because of the attitude it creates, I have said repeatedly—by far more often than most of them would want to be reminded—that you are the one who puts out the hand of peace, who says “I am sorry,” first. That when push comes to shove, you are the one who says, “All right. I was wrong.” You are the one who will say, “What can I do to make this work?” Ego will not do that. Ego says, “I wasn’t wrong; they were.”
[…] to say I’m sorry. I get an opportunity a lot in my job to do that.
S: Only if you’re a leader.
And when I say that, it helps disarm the situation.
S: Great.
So that we can back down to what we really need to talk about, and it’s really hard when I think I’m right.
S: It moves it out of a defensive operation into a working negotiation. It gets rid of the ego issue that’s standing out front throwing things all over what really needs to be done in the situation. To say, “I am sorry, because . . .” and your because is not “you got mad. I’m sorry you got mad at me. I am sorry that you’re real upset.” No. You’ve got to come up with a reason why you are sorry about you. “I am sorry I am here on this planet.” “I am sorry that I said this. I have miscommunicated my intent. My desire was to try to make things better, and I made a little bit of a joke and it was wrong. I am sorry.” “I am sorry,” not “I apologize.” “I am sorry, because.” This is an ego lesson we are working at, not a lesson in grammar or syntax. If you want your ego to change, you will do it this way: “I am sorry, because . . .” and you express it. And here is the hard part: “And I will do my best never to do it again.”
And number four is, “Will you forgive me?” Now, maybe you don’t want to say forgive. Maybe for you instead of forgive the word is, “Will you accept that and can we keep going?” because it’s the same idea. Only a release consciously and purposefully of ego will allow you to do that when you do not believe you were wrong. That’s when it’s the hard one.
I will assure you, you never do things because you think you’re wrong. You always think you’re right. And sometimes you are. That’s not the point. When you are functioning at the levels of leadership that your world is asking for now, one of the greatest signs that you’re ready is that you’re not caught up in how much you shine, but more in how much they shine. Not in who was right and who was wrong, but is the vision being reached? If the only thing in the way of this vision being reached is you have to spend a little bit of time stroking someone else’s ego at the expense of your own, then I suppose it depends upon how much you want the vision, what your vision is.
I would tell you that, in this world, when you are choosing to function for the greater good of the planet itself and all life force upon it for the greater plan to reach conclusion, if you are here as a Guardian of this planet, here to live love and help bring others to an awareness of the love they are and have available to them, if what you are about is making a difference in your office, in your home, in your neighborhood, in your city, it’s not going to happen if you are getting in your way so much that showing how right you are matters more than moving into the power of “It’s all right. You’re right. Now, let’s keep going.”
Stuart has been warning me, your time is about up, but Suzanne, give me your second.
The decision not to accept the old definition of normal as normal for yourself.
S: I want to use that as an ending. To be unwilling to accept normal as enough. That also means getting rid of ego. Really.
Kathy mentioned earlier about not sabotaging herself, being good to herself. Most of you have spent most of your life knowing you weren’t normal. I mean that in the best kind of way. Not like so many around you. Of course, when you read the newspaper, you don’t want to think of that as normal. You’re real happy to say, “I’m not that normal. I’m different.”
One of the things that creates great change in this world—maybe I’ll change the way I say that, I’ll come about it from backward—one of the ways that you can bring great change in this world is to not use normal as an excuse for not functioning at your best and highest. Normal meaning willing to accept less than the best. Normal meaning to be accepted by the masses. Normal meaning anything other than seeking to live love.
When you catch yourself at deed or word or thought or intent, when you catch yourself setting up an excuse for not doing the best, right, most loving thing in that situation, when you catch yourself and that excuse you caught had to do with “it’s still better than what most people do,” or “nobody else follows this standard,” or “it’s all right, nobody in this culture thinks it’s a problem”—when you catch yourself stopping and hearing that in your head, you have just made a huge leap.
Normal is not enough. It’s not enough for you. I’m not saying average. I’m saying normal. It’s not enough for you. If you only loved as much as normal people do, if you only accepted what normal people do, I can assure you you would not be happy, because, baby, your water is boiling hard and normal vessels won’t hold it. Hold yourself to the highest possible standard. Do not give your ego excuses, justifications, for not being all you are.
You are in a time of choice, really. The kingdoms of this planet are talking to you. There is much change happening right now. The world is crying out in their sleep, whether their eyes are open or not, for those who are here to help, to be, to show, to wake up. It’s an open door that this planet has been waiting for. What are you doing with it? How are you living it right now? Choose to see the joy. Choose to be the love,
Glochanumora.