"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord 'My refuge and my fortress; my God, in Whom I trust”.
In the very hot countryside of the Bible a person might feel he would die if he did not find shade, say next to a rock or under a tree. Some of us have had the experience - dehydrated, head throbbing, we desperately need to escape from the unrelenting sun. Surcease from this, when we find a shadow cannot be described - it must be felt.
But what is the shadow of the Almighty? It is the state of consciousness we find as we meditate upon God. The great Greek thinker Plato says "the soul takes flight to the realm of the invisible, where it knows peace and bliss." Here too we find comfort and security, at first inwardly, and then outwardly in every aspect of our lives.
It has to be experienced firsthand, it cannot be transferred from one person to another. Only alone can we "be still and know that I am God." Seekers after Truth, having found this Place, return to It again and again. "Be still and know that I am God" means an end to worry, anxious concerns about everything, running around in circles, panic. God is All-in-all. He is All-power, All-presence, All-knowledge. It means "I am God, and I am with you, I am unlimited power, I am all wisdom, I am Love, and I will see you through.
When you are weak I am strong." Be still from anxious thoughts. Do not lie awake at night worrying about mistakes of yesterday and in the future. Do not raise a mountain of difficulty in your heart and mind. Do not feel that you have to carry this huge load alone. Do not feel that you are about to be swamped by circumstances that are beyond your control. Instead become still, and come to know deeply within that "I am God."
God must be real to us.
Repeating an affirmation that holds no deep meaning and feeling for us will not change our lives. The invitation is "Be still and know" and it is only in our hearts that we can truly know anything. Our creative thoughts must be energised by feelings.
The prophet Jeremiah confirms this when he reveals "You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart." The same injunction appears in the great Hindu writing Bhagavad-Gita: "Give me your whole heart. Love and adore Me, worship Me always and you will find Me. This is my promise - Who loves you dearly." This is the part that we must do for ourselves.
No-one else can seek on our behalf. We need consciously to find environments that help us - inspiring writings, uplifting friends, associates and organisations - and we need to practice seeking through positive affirmations, meditations, by guarding our thoughts, words and actions. Our words reflect our inner state. We have to make Truth our own by infusing It into our personality.
As we go on and on and on seeking, we find God appearing through us and our experience. We have entered God-consciousness. The purpose of The School of Truth is to help you realise the spirit of God which already resides in you. Pain and disharmony are the thorns that direct you back to the path of Divine law.
We come into this life to increase God's expression, which we experience as fulfillment, joy, health, harmony, success, peace. We come because God needs us here to do His work. We leave the world a little better for our having been in it, and our development as His children confirms it. Truth is self evident. God does not force Himself upon us. He gives us free will and intelligence that we may choose to apply His laws. We live within His laws every minute of the day, whether we are conscious of it or not.
We live in the Spirit of God which permeates all creation, seen and unseen. We live and move and have our being in that Spirit. Our thoughts create vibrations in the medium of Spirit which other people register and which ultimately return to us.
Also, as we impress our thought on the Spirit-medium around us it immediately begins to solidify as the object or condition of that thought. We sow and we reap. Law does not discriminate - it begins to produce according to thought, either positive or If we give thanks for what is good, if we give thanks for what it is natural for us to have, immediately the Spirit begins to form it.
But we must be constant, must not vacillate between positive and negative. We must follow up our morning meditation with positive thinking, feeling, speaking and acting right through our day. If we condemn, criticise, complain and resent we cannot attribute our failures to God: "Why has God done this to me? Why have our prayers not been answered?"
The School's handbook contains this self-teaching: "I try to live every moment of the day with an uplifted consciousness, realizing that my own positive prayers, my thoughts and feelings, have all power in my life. Further, my progress in Truth is reflected in my thoughts, feelings, words and actions."
How do we measure up?
Perhaps each evening we should examine ourselves in terms of the positives and negatives that we have expressed during our day. Were we able to help someone, perhaps to brighten their day? Were we agreeable or disagreeable? If we were tempted to criticise did we control our tongues knowing that criticism blocks the path to love? Do we feel that today we made some spiritual progress? Were we able to control the input to our minds, to detach from the clamour around us or did the day's circumstances batter us about like flotsam and jetsam? Did we humble the ego, accepting that there may be other ways of doing things which could be better than our own? Were we anchored in Truth, following the Master's injunction "What is that to thee, follow thou me."
These are the works that we must do while it is day, while we walk this plane of consciousness. And these are the treasures we take with us when we leave, treasures which neither moth nor rust corrupt. We find them in the protection and peace of the shadow of the Almighty.
© The School of Truth Lecture given in December 2003, Johannesburg, South Africa Source , The Path of Truth (EW)
Sunday, 23 March 2008
God Consciousness by Nicol Campbell, School of Truth
Thursday, 20 March 2008
Room for God
It seems that one of the greatest difficulties that we experience in life is to let go - to let go of preconceived ideas, opinions, thoughts and reactions to events in the mundane world. We cling to our feelings of personal responsibility, the idea that we must put everything right.
Thomas A. Kempis, the revered 15th century monk and religious writer, tells us "Fly the turmoil of the world as you can, for the treating of worldly affairs can be a great hindrance, although it is done with sincere intention." We need to let go, to detach ourselves from the circumstances about us, not to worry, fret, agonise and torment ourselves inevitably into a state of misery. We need to relinquish our concept of a shortage of time, of pressure, and the need for haste. There will be time for all things!
Do we hold on to disappointments, hardships, frustration, emotions, slights, grudges, harsh words - other people's failure to fulfill their obligations? Do we in fact fill our minds with these perceptions so that there is no room for the thoughts of God - the Good, the True and the Beautiful?
These negative mental habits enter our behaviour from a part of our mind below conscious thinking.
We might consider this sub-conscious mind like the memory of a computer where bits of information are stored in particular locations, like bits of information stored in pigeon holes, and when we want to solve a computer problem we call for the desired information from this store of memory. This whole process has limitations, because we can retrieve from the individual pigeon holes of memory only that which is stored there. Also, the computer memory may be full, so that it has no further capacity to store. Then we need to remove some information and rewrite new information into the memory.
Our minds are just like that - we store away bits of information and when problems arise we call them forth as required. But we must realise that we can call forth only that which is stored there. Therefore, it is essential that the information placed in our memory is of the right-positive-type.
Saint Paul tells us: "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report, think of these things." If our minds are cluttered with the wrong sort of thoughts, negative thoughts, we must make room for the True thoughts of God.
How can God operate in our lives if we have not made room for Him, if we are engrossed and plagued with that which is not good? Then even God cannot help us, for He has made us free agents and has give us choices. He says "Here is your mind, use it, fill it with what you will, but remember that the thoughts with which you fill your mind are creative and will shape and give form to the life that you are manifesting."
Fortunately for us, changes can be made if the life that we are expressing is not satisfactory. The Master revealed this possibility in the promise "I have come that ye may have life and have it more abundantly" and further "Abide in Me, and let My words abide in you" - words of love, sweetness, compassion, truth and beauty.
But, however we think and express life, even if it is an extremely negative form and in spite of all our omissions and commissions - things we have omitted to do and things that we should not have done - God's Love and power are always available to us, 24 hours a day. Nothing can separate us from the Love of God. We are never alone.
However, this omnipresent companionship of God does not relieve us of having to make positive changes in our lives,for a central aspect of God is Law - the Law of sowing and reaping. For example, perhaps we have to work with someone whose personality, behaviour, or point of view are very different from our own. Perhaps they make us feel insecure of unsure? We may find ourselves clinging to feelings of frustration. What is to be done? How can we handle it? Some people may seek to leave that environment and move to another. Yet, strangely, the situation often re-occurs and they are left with the vague feeling that they have taken the problem with them. So we came to the realization that we need to deal with the problem where it arises rather that trying to avoid it.
For a start we should become aware of the power we give to others over our emotions. It is as though they were in charge of them, not ourselves. Why do we care so much for other people's opinions, and become so easily aroused? Is it because we are not sufficiently attuned to the Infinite within us? Did not the Master teach us "What is that (worldly circumstances) to thee, follow thou Me."
Thomas A. Kempis puts it this way: "We might enjoy much peace if we would not busy ourselves with the words and deeds of others, and with things which appertain nothing to our charge."
In our consciousness we need to separate people from their actions and to detach ourselves from the latter, thinking of ourselves "This has nothing to do with me, they are just working out their destiny." We are told to love our enemies because resentment allows people to occupy our minds and gives them power over us,, while love sets us free. In Human relationships, the more good we see in other people, the better they and we become, while the more negation we see in others, the worse they and we become.
We need to see opportunity in adversity and, should adversity come, to think "This is a good time to make room for God" and then just to think of God and of all the attributes of God - the Good, the True and the Beautiful.
This is the way that our inner strength is developed, by not concerning ourselves with the why or the how, but just relaxing and inwardly remembering that we are "making room for God" - just letting go and letting God! Soon the Presence will be felt. although we will not have words to describe it.
When we are consciously aware that the Spirit of God is within us, we "see through" the personality that others are expressing, and the God in us meets the God in them. Then new thoughts will arise about the relationship. This is God giving us direction, enabling us to feel more peaceful, better able to cope with private feelings and reactions.
When we thus open ourselves to direction from God as what to say and what to do, we enter a Universal Consciousness that is entirely supportive of us, and we can affirm this new Consciousness, whenever we feel the need, thus - "This is a good time to make room for God"
Frank Whittney, the modern American poet, expresses these ideas with beautiful simplicity in his poem, "The Other Fellow"
Thomas A. Kempis, the revered 15th century monk and religious writer, tells us "Fly the turmoil of the world as you can, for the treating of worldly affairs can be a great hindrance, although it is done with sincere intention." We need to let go, to detach ourselves from the circumstances about us, not to worry, fret, agonise and torment ourselves inevitably into a state of misery. We need to relinquish our concept of a shortage of time, of pressure, and the need for haste. There will be time for all things!
Do we hold on to disappointments, hardships, frustration, emotions, slights, grudges, harsh words - other people's failure to fulfill their obligations? Do we in fact fill our minds with these perceptions so that there is no room for the thoughts of God - the Good, the True and the Beautiful?
These negative mental habits enter our behaviour from a part of our mind below conscious thinking.
We might consider this sub-conscious mind like the memory of a computer where bits of information are stored in particular locations, like bits of information stored in pigeon holes, and when we want to solve a computer problem we call for the desired information from this store of memory. This whole process has limitations, because we can retrieve from the individual pigeon holes of memory only that which is stored there. Also, the computer memory may be full, so that it has no further capacity to store. Then we need to remove some information and rewrite new information into the memory.
Our minds are just like that - we store away bits of information and when problems arise we call them forth as required. But we must realise that we can call forth only that which is stored there. Therefore, it is essential that the information placed in our memory is of the right-positive-type.
Saint Paul tells us: "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report, think of these things." If our minds are cluttered with the wrong sort of thoughts, negative thoughts, we must make room for the True thoughts of God.
How can God operate in our lives if we have not made room for Him, if we are engrossed and plagued with that which is not good? Then even God cannot help us, for He has made us free agents and has give us choices. He says "Here is your mind, use it, fill it with what you will, but remember that the thoughts with which you fill your mind are creative and will shape and give form to the life that you are manifesting."
Fortunately for us, changes can be made if the life that we are expressing is not satisfactory. The Master revealed this possibility in the promise "I have come that ye may have life and have it more abundantly" and further "Abide in Me, and let My words abide in you" - words of love, sweetness, compassion, truth and beauty.
But, however we think and express life, even if it is an extremely negative form and in spite of all our omissions and commissions - things we have omitted to do and things that we should not have done - God's Love and power are always available to us, 24 hours a day. Nothing can separate us from the Love of God. We are never alone.
However, this omnipresent companionship of God does not relieve us of having to make positive changes in our lives,for a central aspect of God is Law - the Law of sowing and reaping. For example, perhaps we have to work with someone whose personality, behaviour, or point of view are very different from our own. Perhaps they make us feel insecure of unsure? We may find ourselves clinging to feelings of frustration. What is to be done? How can we handle it? Some people may seek to leave that environment and move to another. Yet, strangely, the situation often re-occurs and they are left with the vague feeling that they have taken the problem with them. So we came to the realization that we need to deal with the problem where it arises rather that trying to avoid it.
For a start we should become aware of the power we give to others over our emotions. It is as though they were in charge of them, not ourselves. Why do we care so much for other people's opinions, and become so easily aroused? Is it because we are not sufficiently attuned to the Infinite within us? Did not the Master teach us "What is that (worldly circumstances) to thee, follow thou Me."
Thomas A. Kempis puts it this way: "We might enjoy much peace if we would not busy ourselves with the words and deeds of others, and with things which appertain nothing to our charge."
In our consciousness we need to separate people from their actions and to detach ourselves from the latter, thinking of ourselves "This has nothing to do with me, they are just working out their destiny." We are told to love our enemies because resentment allows people to occupy our minds and gives them power over us,, while love sets us free. In Human relationships, the more good we see in other people, the better they and we become, while the more negation we see in others, the worse they and we become.
We need to see opportunity in adversity and, should adversity come, to think "This is a good time to make room for God" and then just to think of God and of all the attributes of God - the Good, the True and the Beautiful.
This is the way that our inner strength is developed, by not concerning ourselves with the why or the how, but just relaxing and inwardly remembering that we are "making room for God" - just letting go and letting God! Soon the Presence will be felt. although we will not have words to describe it.
When we are consciously aware that the Spirit of God is within us, we "see through" the personality that others are expressing, and the God in us meets the God in them. Then new thoughts will arise about the relationship. This is God giving us direction, enabling us to feel more peaceful, better able to cope with private feelings and reactions.
When we thus open ourselves to direction from God as what to say and what to do, we enter a Universal Consciousness that is entirely supportive of us, and we can affirm this new Consciousness, whenever we feel the need, thus - "This is a good time to make room for God"
Frank Whittney, the modern American poet, expresses these ideas with beautiful simplicity in his poem, "The Other Fellow"
Through our eyes the other fellow
Oft appears as someone strange,
Someone that we cannot fathom,
Someone we should like to change.
Something of ourself we vision
When we look at other men:
Oft their faults are ours for mending
By our quite superior ken.
Know then when we judge adversely,
When our thoughts condemning road,
That reform had best be started
In ourself and right at home!
Oft appears as someone strange,
Someone that we cannot fathom,
Someone we should like to change.
Something of ourself we vision
When we look at other men:
Oft their faults are ours for mending
By our quite superior ken.
Know then when we judge adversely,
When our thoughts condemning road,
That reform had best be started
In ourself and right at home!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)