Stepping out of myself

Please join me in allowing these words of Truth to envelope your being on this day of Gratitude and Grace:

When we tell God what we want God to do, or we tell the universe what we want it to do, we're not really opening ourselves up yet - we're still speaking from an egoic place. But when we confess our deepest heart's yearning and tell the divine that we're inviting it to give us anything we need to awaken, we very well might get it. To open ourselves to this grace, to this flow of truth, means that we have to step out of ourselves. We have to let go of the illusion that we are in control of our life. When we hand it over, we'll find ourselves falling into grace, falling into this clarity and openness and love, falling right into the grace of awakening from separation, where we realize our true spiritual essence: this beautiful, unknown, unborn presence which manifests as everything we see.

Falling into Grace p. 226

Letting go of self

Who am I?  Who are you?  Both Michael and Adyashanti discuss letting go of any image of self, both the positive and negative self-images.  Michael uses the words Observer or Witness consciousness to discuss that neutral place where we let go of the lower self in order to allow a Higher sense of Self to emerge.  Adyashanti says it like this:

"If we're willing to look in a deep way underneath the appearances, what we expect to discover...is some great shining image...worthy of admiration and approval.  Yet when we start to peer underneath our image...what you find is no image, no idea of yourself.  Because this is so unexpected most people will begin to move away from it almost instinctively."  (Falling Into Grace, p. 22-23).

He says that if we really want to know who we are we will need to face the fear of not having an image to fall back on.  This reminds me of part IV of The Untethered Soul, going beyond the walls and the false sense of solidity. Moving out of that comfortable and safe house in the middle of the field of light in order to be free and to experience Truth. 

I have been dealing with issues of self-worth lately.  Old stuff that just hasn't gone away.  I have found  recognizing, accepting, and releasing feelings of not being enough to be a very healing process.  I am allowing what is lodged in my psyche to arise and pass through me.  Life shows me where I am blocked when I stay present and open to my authentic experience in each moment. 

What I am finding in this process of letting go is that the desire to do it right or make an impression is being replaced by a desire to be real in each moment.  Accepting what is happening, along with the feeelings about what is happening, somehow takes away the desire to change it.  My life is unfolding in perfect order and harmony and I do not need to control it.  All I really need to do is show up in the moment and open to what is happening.  God will do the rest.

Based on what Adyashanti said in the above quote, I suspect that what I am experiencing is just the tip of the iceberg.  Letting go of one painful feeling or one illusory thought at a time seems pretty do-able.  Letting go of my entire sense of self, to the point where I recognize that I am nothing and I am everything, is more frightening.

But since I do not want to live within the confines of the electric fence when there is a higher experience to be had, I choose to allow life to remove my blocks including the illusion that I am this self.  I will let go in each moment and let God show me who I really am. 

there is only this moment

Adyashanti knew a woman who was on her death bed.  She got up unexpectedly one morning and said that although she knew she was about to die, she wasn't ready yet because she didn't know "who she was."  He said to her

"Can you drop your entire past, all at once?  Can you let yourself see, all at once, that everything you ever imagined, is no longer present now?  Can you actually enter into this moment fully?"  (Falling into Grace, page. 172) 

They decided that since she was going to die she needed to do this in a hurry, there was no time for a process.   Adya says that "ultimately, waking up to reality and coming to the end of suffering isn't actually a process... It's about waking up...like from being asleep...then waking up in the morning...And so it is with spiritual awakening.  We're either asleep within the dream world of our minds, or we're awake within the true world of reality."  (Falling into Grace, p. 173)       

From what we have been studying from The Untethered Soul we have the skills or tools to let go, to leave the trap of the mind.  It is about being fully present and aware in the moment of what you are experiencing(thoughts, feelings, perceptions, bodily sensations) and moving your awareness to your neutral Self, the witness or observer, relaxing the body with a breath and choosing to let it go.  As we let go of the chatter of the psyche we will be more apt to hear the guidance of Spirit.

 So...can you let go of all of your past?   Can you let go of any sense of unworthiness (which is nothing but an illusion that has been programmed into your psyche based on past experiences)?  Can you let go of any concerns about the future?  The past and the future only take place in the imagination.  Only this moment is real.  Immerse yourself in this moment by letting the rest go and let Spirit fill you with peace, love, joy, creativity.  

waking up from the dream

We have been told by those who have reached profound states of spiritual awareness, that there is no (egoic) self, only the image that we have created in our mind.  "The older we get, the more dense the sense of a separate self gets...(It gets) more contracted...solidified...real.  The more real it feels, the more we feel that it needs to be protected, that it needs to get its way." (Falling into Grace, p. 30).  We think we need to control our environment and others to get our way.  Adya talks about how seeing ourselves this way creates a sense that life and others are threatening to us. 

He goes on to say that "To find liberation, we must wake up from this dream that our mind creates, that we're something separate than everything around us.  This is the only way we can begin to find a way out of suffering." (Falling into Grace, p. 33)

From what we have read in The Untethered Soul we know that we can let go of our attachment to this self through the path of unconditional happiness, the path of non-resistance, the middle way, contemplating death and the loving eyes of  God. 

"As you let go and willingly release the physical, emotional, and mental aspects of your being, Spirit becomes your state. (T.U.S., p. 175).  

In my church community this week there has been the tragic loss of a young man who was very much loved and appreciated.  It is heart-wrenching to see his family suffer, and, to grapple with the idea of how and why this could have happened.  I have been allowing the pain to surface and watching my thoughts about the situation.  I am choosing to accept my feelings and let them be, and to let go of any attachment to what this means or how it could have happened.  I believe that God turns every situation to good but that as I long as I remain attached to the self, I will block myself from the miracle.

In Reality we are all ONE, at one with each other and with life.  I believe that we are here to wake up.  Although we cannot control that process we can do our part by releasing the blocks and letting Spirit guide us.   Whether the issues that you are dealing with are big or small, know that God is in the picture...and that the absence of suffering is on the other side of the walls built by your psyche.