Allowing Growth and Change

"For my ally is The Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life it creates, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel The Force around you: here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere..." -- Master Yoda in Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

"Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage. Every day begin the task anew." -- St. Francis de Sales

As you know, a couple of weeks ago I heard the Voice direct me to rest for a bit from this blog. Yesterday, I heard to begin again. I love the above quote from St. Francis de Sales, since it reminds me of a quote from A Course in Miracles: "Only absolute patience brings immediate results." Resting requires patience. But so does busyness. I find that when there is a lot going on and a lot to do, patience is the quiet resting in the midst of it all. Patience is how we rediscover the Peace and Joy of our True Being.

I've noticed, both in myself and in the people I speak with every day, that we think it's up to us to decide when to do something or when not to. It's so easy to rationalize our own resistance as guidance. "It shouldn't be this hard," we say. Or, "I can't do that, I'm not able to do that, that's just not me, it's just not the right time, it's not meant to be..." etc., etc., etc. Who is judging that? The Holy Spirit, our True Self, never sees through such limiting eyes. To the Holy Spirit, we are limitless Beings, luminous Beings (as Master Yoda said), not this crude matter that needs to protect and defend its turf and its way of life and its body and its (fill in the blank). God is everywhere, including in the people and things we are resisting and defending against. What could there be to fear, or to resist? Only if we are cherishing our limitations can such scenarios appear fearful in our own projections.

Jeshua ben Joseph said that when someone asks us to walk a mile with them, we should walk two miles. Why would he say such a thing? It seems to our ego selves that this is co-dependent, doormat behavior. But you see, when our perceptions are steeped in the belief in sacrifice, we can't see or hear. Which Jesus knew very well. He told us that unless we lose our life, we will never find it. We have to lose our most cherished perceptions and materially valued constructs before we can hear the inner meaning of Christ's words. To the ego, there is always a yes or a no, a right or a wrong, a this or a that. It sees only in binary terms, blinking on and off, on and off. Here today, gone tomorrow.

The Truth is never this or that, never yes or no, never right or wrong. It includes it ALL, as it really is... a Unified Whole, forever One. As long as we continue to see what happens to us, or the people that pull at us, or the tasks that present themselves to us, as 'other,' we are still caught in the dream, in the ego's binary system, still believing in a split existence, separate from God, separate from our True Self. Jesus was giving us the easiest, quickest route to healing that imagined split... by seeing that when we sacrifice our body or our time or our own notion of how things should be, WE ARE NOT GIVING UP ANYTHING AT ALL. How else will we finally accept that none of it is real? We are never having patience with anyone or anything at all... we are always and only dealing with our own projections. Patience is the willingness to allow it all, and thus to allow the growth and change within the dream that expands into Awakening to the One Self that is the Truth of Being.

As long as we argue for our limitations and defend our self-limiting choices, little real growth is possible. This is the inner meaning of Jesus' statement, and the reason he said that narrow is The Path to Awakening, and few choose to walk it. We are limitless, luminous Beings, reflections of the Allness of God. When we say no to any aspect of life, we are saying no to Self.

"But there are times when it's not healthy to do whatever someone asks," we argue. Who is deciding that? Who is judging that? The point here is not whether or not we think we should do something, or even if we do it. The point is to listen to the Voice for God, the Voice of the Holy Spirit... and to know that when are told to say no, it is not because of any judgement or limitation. There are no judgements or limitations that have any meaning or effect at all. It will always be because the Holy Spirit sees the Truth about the person or situation, and knows them as limitless and luminous too. There are no real needs, and yet when we listen to the Voice, all perceived needs and limitations dissolve and resolve as effortlessly as a breathing, for everyone.

Are you arguing for your limitations? Are you looking out at the world from an imagined separate identity, trying to preserve a way of life or justify your defendedness? This is the condition of the imagined separated self. Patience means seeing this clearly, without judgement, and knowing it has no reality, no real effect on anything at all. You aren't really doing anything. Patience means being willing to drop every thought of how it should be, every thought of who did what to who, every thought of good or bad or right or wrong... every defense, every justification, every need to look good or right, every fear of exposure... and allow God, the only real Force for growth and change within the dream, to have His way with you.

"Nothing can hurt you unless you give it the power to do so. Yet you give power as the laws of this world interpret giving; as you give, you lose. It is not up to you to give power at all. Power is of God, given by Him and reawakened by the Holy Spirit, Who knows that as you give, you gain." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 20, Section IV, 1:1-4