Finding Me (Ch. 17 of 'The Impersonal Life')

Image credit: www.bbc.co.uk

After this and one more chapter, the Whole Human blog posts on 'The Impersonal Life' will be complete.

My focus will shift after the ending post on 'The Impersonal Life.'

What happens next is an unfolding mystery. A writer's/yoga retreat is my ideal.

Someone has an unused cabin or cottage or piece of land suitable for a meditative life, and sees the opportunity of making it available to a writer for a year. If that is you, please drop me a note over the contact page.

At the end of this post is the remarkable story of a reader's experience with extended spatial awareness, and a survey/call for your story.

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​The Impersonal Life, Chapter XVII
FINDING ME

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If you have learned to “Be Still,” if you have studied and meditated upon this “I” as God within you, if you are able to distinguish It from the personal I, and are conscious at times of being able to step outside, as it were, of your personality and view your human self as it is....

If you can do all this and have seen these things with clear vision, know that at those moments you have been One with Me in consciousness, that it was your Real Self, I within you, permitting you thus to see with My Eyes the Reality of things. 

At those moments you were freed from your personality and were dwelling in My Consciousness, call it Cosmic, Universal, Spiritual or Impersonal Consciousness, as you will; for you could not have seen these things in your self except through Impersonal eyes, My Eyes.

Again, if you will look back you will recall many times when you felt strongly impelled to do certain things, some of which you did, with perfect results...

This impelling consciousness was only your Real Self, I within you, at such moments guiding you, distinctly telling you what to do. At those moments you were hearing with your Spiritual ears, My Ears, and when you Impersonally obeyed, success and satisfaction followed, but when you personally thought you knew better, discomfiture, regret and unhappiness resulted. 

Again, there have been moments when you have felt approaching events, or the nearness of unseen persons, or inharmonious vibrations when contacting others.

This is only the real You feeling with your Spiritual or Impersonal Body, whose consciousness, did you but know it, is ever on the alert to protect and warn and advise you regarding all outer things, conditions and events. 

The best and surest way you may know Me is when Selfless Love fills your heart, and there is a strong, compelling urge to help some one, to heal their ills, to relieve their suffering, to bring them happiness, to point out the True Way,—that is the actual feel of Me within you, pushing the personality aside, using your mind and body for the purpose I created them, as avenues for the expression of My Real Nature, which is Perfect Love, the Christ of God, the one, vitalizing, quickening, life-giving, strengthening, healing, all-supplying, all-informing Power in the Universe. 

All this is pointed out to you in order to impress upon you that it is I, in your Spiritual body, the Perfect Body within, where I dwell, Who AM always thus talking to you, advising you, teaching you, warning and helping you, in all the affairs of life, yes, in every little detail.

Image credit: james-webb-space-telescope

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Image credit: riaus.org.au

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Ah, My child, if you will spend but one tenth of the time and energy you have wasted in seeking without among the husks of human knowledge and human teachings, in earnest, determined efforts directed within to find Me; 

If you will devote but one hour each day thus to Me alone, imagining and practicing the Presence of Me within you; 

I here promise you that you will not only soon, very soon find Me, but I will be to you an exhaustless fount of such Wisdom and Strength and Help, as your human mind now cannot possibly conceive.  
 
Yes, if you will but seek Me thus, making Me FIRST in your life, never resting until you do find Me, it will not be long before you will become conscious of My Presence, of My Loving Voice, speaking constantly from out of the depths of your heart.

You will learn to come to Me in Sweet Communion, and you will find yourself abiding in My consciousness, and that My Word is abiding in you, and that whatever you desire will in seemingly miraculous ways be done unto you. 

This abiding continually in Me may be difficult at first, for the World, the Flesh and the Devil are still presenting evidence to your consciousness. But you will become accustomed to the use of My Impersonal Eyes, and will soon be able to see into the Reality of things, even into the Reality of these seeming Lords of the Earth. Then  you will find you are dwelling in a wondrous new World, peopled with Angelic Beings, using the Flesh bodies of Their human personalities merely as vehicles, or instruments, or clothing, in which to contact the earthly conditions and experiences They have created, in order to develop the Soul qualities necessary for the perfect expression on earth of My Idea. 
 
To your eyes then there will be no shadows, no evil, and consequently no Devil; for all is Light and Love, Freedom, Happiness and Peace, and you will see Me in all, in each Being some attribute of Me, in  each animate thing some phase of Me; and you will need only to let My Love shine from out your heart and It will illumine for you the Real meaning of all that you see. 

Then the great Realization will come that you have found the Kingdom of God, that you are walking in It, that It is right here on this earth, that It is manifesting all around you, that you have been living in It all the time, but you did not know it;

That instead of being without in some far off place, It is within your own being, within every other being, the innermost inner of all manifested things. 

In other words, It will be found to be the REALITY of ALL things, and that all outward seeming is but the shadow of this Reality, created by man’s misconceptions and his belief in his separateness from Me. 

When you have found The Kingdom, you will likewise find your place in It, realizing now that you are in truth one of My Divine Attributes, that your work was all laid out for you from the beginning, and that all that has gone before has been but a preparation and a fitting of your human personality for that work. 

Your whole Soul will leap with joyful anticipation, that, after all these many years of wandering, you have at last returned to My Home, and can now enter into My Real Life, One in Consciousness with Me and with your other Selves, all working to bring about the final perfect expression on earth of My Divine Idea.

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Image credit: wiredcosmos.com

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You who have begun to realize I AM within, but have not yet learned to commune with Me, listen and learn now. 

You have learned to “Be Still,” and you have perhaps felt My Presence within. If so, realizing I AM there, ask Me a question. Then, with a silent, earnest prayer to Me for an answer, but without anxiety, care or personal interest, and with an open mind, wait confidently for the impressions that will come. 
 
Should a thought come in answer that you recognize as what you have heard or read somewhere, cast it out immediately, and say, “No. Father, what do you say?”

Other thoughts may come from other human sources, but if you are alert you will recognize them as such and refuse to accept them. Then if you persist in asking Me, you will finally get an answer that you will feel is really from Me. 

Thus it will be at first. When you have learned to distinguish My Voice from all other voices, and can keep your personal interest wholly suppressed, then will you be able to hold silent communion with Me at will, without interference from others’ ideas, beliefs, and opinions; and you can ask any question you wish, or another can ask you any question on any problem on which they need help, and I will that moment place in your mind the words to speak, either silently to yourself, or audibly through your tongue to the other. 

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Be still! And KNOW,—I AM,—GOD. 

KNOW I AM in you. KNOW I AM You. KNOW I AM your LIFE. KNOW All Wisdom, All Love, All Power abides in this Life, which is flowing freely through your entire being NOW. 

I AM the LIFE, I AM the INTELLIGENCE, I AM the POWER in all Substance,—in all the cells of your body; in the cells of all mineral, vegetable and animal matter; in fire, water and air; in Sun, Moon and Stars. I AM that in you and in them which IS. Their consciousness is One with your consciousness, and All is My Consciousness. Through My Consciousness in them All that they have or are is yours— for the asking. 

Speak to them then IN MY NAME. Speak in the Consciousness of your Oneness with Me. Speak in the Consciousness of My Power in you and of My Intelligence in them.  

Speak—COMMAND what You WILL in this Consciousness,—and the Universe will rush to obey. 

RISE UP! O aspirant for union with Me. Accept now your Divine Heritage! Open wide your Soul, your mind, your body, and breathe in My Breath of Life! 

KNOW that I AM filling you full to overflowing with My Divine POWER, that every fibre, every nerve, every cell, every atom of your being is now consciously ALIVE with Me, alive with My Health,  with My Strength, with My Intelligence with My BE-ING! 

For I AM within you. We are not separated. We could not possibly be separated. For I AM You. I AM your REAL Self, your REAL Life and I AM manifesting My  SELF and ALL MY POWERS in you   NOW. 

AWAKE! Rise up and assert your Sovereignty! KNOW your SELF and your POWERS! KNOW that all I have is yours, that My Omnipotent LIFE is flowing through you, that you can take of IT and build with IT what you WILL, and IT will manifest for you as Health, Power, Prosperity, Union, Happiness, Peace,—anything you WILL of ME.

Imagine this. THINK it. KNOW it! Then, with all the Positiveness of your nature, Speak the Creative WORD! It will not return to you void. 

But know, Beloved, that this cannot be until you have come to Me in complete and utter surrender, until you have given yourself, your substance, your affairs, your Life into My keeping, putting all care and responsibility upon Me, resting and trusting in Me absolutely. 

When you have done this, then will the above Words quicken into active life My Divine Powers latent in your Soul, and you will be conscious of a Mighty FORCE within you, which, just to the extent that you abide in Me, and let My Words abide in you, will free you entirely from your Dream World, will quicken you fully in Spirit, will make all the way clear for you, supply all things you desire, and lift trouble and suffering from you forevermore. Then will there be no more doubts and questionings, for you will KNOW that I, God your very Self, will always provide, will always point out the way; for You will have found that You and I are One.

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A Reader's Experience of Extended Spatial Awareness

Gary,

​Since a quite young age (15-16) I've been reading books about self-help, Buddhism and mindfulness but I never really understood what it was about. On an intellectual level I found that a lot of it, if not all, was very true and aligned with how I chose to think about life and the little experiences I'd had to that date. I guess that the need for this came out of a lot of self-reflection and self-awareness.

I stumbled upon a book with Eckhart Tolle in 2012, ”The Power of Now”, which for me, had a very clear message with the combination of eastern and western philosophies and also practical ways of using it.

In 2013 I went to a Vipassana retreat for 10 days and that gave me peace and balance for those days but when I came back to my normal life, nothing had really changed. I had brief experiences of ”higher” levels of awareness of my surroundings, a little bit like being on psychedelic mushrooms which I tried on occasions in my youth (I´m 29 now, still young I guess...)

What really changed it for me was during an evening in 2014. I was watching a dialogue with Eckhart Tolle and Bradley Holowitz from Google having a conversation about the information technology, mindfulness and how they could work together.

Eckhart has a very peaceful demeanor and the way he talks and brings his thoughts forward really resonates with me and I was really focused on what he was saying in the video. He mentioned something like ”the moment that is occurring right now is the only moment that ever existed and ever will exist.” There something happened for me, everything in my surroundings kind of came to life, paintings, guitars, the bed I was laying on, my clothes, breathing etc, and I felt an extended ”spacial awareness” of the things around me. I was no longer outside my body, trapped in thoughts, trapped in this movie that was/is my life that´s been going on repeat since as long as I could remember.

This moment lasted for maybe 2-3 seconds, but that was enough, the light was switched on and I could not turn it off again.

There is a word in Zen Buddhism that, to my knowledge, is called Satori or Kensho, which I think applies to that moment. It is an awakening, or an insight into one's true nature.

The day after I felt very peaceful and I had to tell everyone about it! But how could I ever describe this feeling? For me this was the essence of mindful(less)ness, this was the observer, completely detached from my own thoughts, just being in the moment and not putting labels on anything, no judging, no thoughts, just pure awareness.

No one understood what I was talking about obviously, since none of my friends or family is really into this sort of ”thing” which for me is the most interesting subject of them all since it is primordial to everything, ever.

I haven´t had that powerful feeling again, but for me that is ok, because if I start thinking about wanting it or needing it would be counter-productive, because in the now there is no wanting, there is no need, it just is. My intellectual ”self” obviously wants to be ”there” all the time ... knowing that I have thoughts and seeing them, observing them without judgement and just letting them pass like clouds on a blue sky, knowing that the awareness in itself is the observer and that is who I am....

Linus
(reprinted with permission)

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Linus,

Thank you for sharing your experience. Spreading the word of such experiences raises social consciousness and supports others to take steps towards living from the True Nature, which I call O.B., the One Being.

In response to your last paragraph, as a suggestion, imprint these words into your awareness: "We are One Being."

We - all that is
are - in the present moment
one - single, self-existing
being - of pure consciousness

When anything which hinders arises, such as jealousy, judgment, resistance, defense or control, over-ride or balance it with 'We are one being.'

​Let me know how it goes.

Gary

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This is a call for stories of expanded consciousness, satori, awakening, feeling of a 'higher' presence, communication with the inner voice or other such experiences. Please drop a note to me from the contact page. - Gary

CONTENTS - BLOG POSTS

THE IMPERSONAL LIFE, UNABRIDGED