A Spiritual Supermarket
Weekly Message, July 29, 2006
A Spiritual Supermarket
Written and transcribed by Terry Grant
This is a message I have transcribed and edited from a talk Ishvara gave on June 25, 2006. - TG.
Ishvara:
The world can be likened to a carnival or circus with many roadside attractions, diversions, and distractions. It is within human nature to be distracted, often to lose focus, and to become misdirected. That is part of the experience of Life.
There is a way of being in the world that is creative. There are certain principles to creation. When your focus and intention are direct, centered in a vision and awareness of a possibility, a lot of energy goes into that. Since it is human nature to become distracted, often one's creative endeavor is diminished by distraction, even by questioning. In this process of Life, to be all that you can be is to keep the focus, to adhere to a direction, a direction that you resonate with, and avoid the distractions and roadside attractions.
It truly is a spiritual supermarket out there with many alternative ways of seeing things, many teachings, many teachers, many systems and structures. How is one to choose? Very often one doesn't choose, one just grasps at what is nearest, what is familiar. One often grasps at those things that seem to be popular, seem to collect a lot of people, a lot of interest. One observes that there is an interest, there is a following, there seems to be a direction, so the human mind says, "Well, that must be right." But then on the next block a similar event is taking place in a whole different context. On and on it goes.
How are you to choose? How are you to find that which most complements your life, that which is most inspiring and encouraging and directing, pointing out a way that is natural to your uniqueness, to the way you are, not to the conditional self, but to the real Self that is underneath all the conditioning, the beliefs and the concepts? How are you to find that?
It is natural for the human to look outside, to look in all directions, to explore many possibilities. Some can be helpful, many are misleading, delusion-inducing. It seems that people will cling to a discipline, system or structure that most suits their imagination, that most fits what they want to believe about themselves and about Life. But is that the way? Can you follow that kind of "hope", hoping to achieve something that is beyond the mind, something that isn't just a mental process, a belief? How are you to find the truth in the world, and how are you to know when you have found it? And furthermore, what are you to do with that truth once you find it?
Many run around saying, "I found it, it's there; it's here; it's tomorrow; it's last year; last century. I found it!" What have you found? Have you found the truth, or have you found a make-believe process, a system that supports your agenda, your beliefs, your concepts, your conditioning, your hypnosis? Most things in the world continue the hypnosis, the enslavement.
Within the human being is the desire to be liberated and to be free, but there is also resistance to paying the price for liberation and freedom. Liberation and freedom sound wonderful. As intellectual concepts, these things are wonderful. "Yes," the intellect says, "We need to be free. We need to be liberated. We need to do what we want to do when we want to do it." Yet humans are finding that all kinds of liberation and freedom come at a great cost. There is the dynamic I call "energy exchange." Energy exchange means that you not only receive something from the path you choose, but you must also expend energy.
You desire truth, but it may be a conditional desire: "I want the truth, as long as I don't have to change anything in my life. I want to be liberated and free, as long as it is not too much trouble, as long as I don't have to do something out of the ordinary, as long as I don't have to let go of some of my pet beliefs and concepts. I want to be liberated, I want to be free, as long as it suits me, as long as it fits my criteria."
If that is what you desire, you are not asking for freedom or liberation; you are asking for validation of conditions, beliefs and concepts, and there is an abundant supply of those in this world. There is a concept, condition, belief or hypnotic trance that will fit every need. Anyone can find something that will validate their desire, belief or condition. If you feel that you are a bad person, you will find all kinds of validation for your "badness" everywhere. Everywhere you look there will be validation for the thought, "Yes, you are a bad person."
I detect that very few individuals understand how this whole thing works. Most individuals believe in magic, wishful thinking, or hope. Most individuals accept that there is a creative power, but there is no assurance of how and when that power works. So you "hope" it works.
(To be continued next week).
Copyright © 2006 by Alaya®.
All rights reserved.
Alaya® is a registered trademark and service mark.
If you forward this message, please include the copyright notice.
This message comes to you from Alaya, a nonprofit organization. Alaya depends upon financial contributions for its continued existence. For information on how to make a tax-deductible contribution to Alaya, go to http://www.alaya.org/Pages/alayastore-donate.html .
Thank you for your support.
To learn more about Ishvara and the Alaya Community, visit our website at www.alaya.org
To subscribe to this message list, send an email to tgrant@alaya.org with the word "Subscribe" in the subject of your message.
A Spiritual Supermarket
Written and transcribed by Terry Grant
This is a message I have transcribed and edited from a talk Ishvara gave on June 25, 2006. - TG.
Ishvara:
The world can be likened to a carnival or circus with many roadside attractions, diversions, and distractions. It is within human nature to be distracted, often to lose focus, and to become misdirected. That is part of the experience of Life.
There is a way of being in the world that is creative. There are certain principles to creation. When your focus and intention are direct, centered in a vision and awareness of a possibility, a lot of energy goes into that. Since it is human nature to become distracted, often one's creative endeavor is diminished by distraction, even by questioning. In this process of Life, to be all that you can be is to keep the focus, to adhere to a direction, a direction that you resonate with, and avoid the distractions and roadside attractions.
It truly is a spiritual supermarket out there with many alternative ways of seeing things, many teachings, many teachers, many systems and structures. How is one to choose? Very often one doesn't choose, one just grasps at what is nearest, what is familiar. One often grasps at those things that seem to be popular, seem to collect a lot of people, a lot of interest. One observes that there is an interest, there is a following, there seems to be a direction, so the human mind says, "Well, that must be right." But then on the next block a similar event is taking place in a whole different context. On and on it goes.
How are you to choose? How are you to find that which most complements your life, that which is most inspiring and encouraging and directing, pointing out a way that is natural to your uniqueness, to the way you are, not to the conditional self, but to the real Self that is underneath all the conditioning, the beliefs and the concepts? How are you to find that?
It is natural for the human to look outside, to look in all directions, to explore many possibilities. Some can be helpful, many are misleading, delusion-inducing. It seems that people will cling to a discipline, system or structure that most suits their imagination, that most fits what they want to believe about themselves and about Life. But is that the way? Can you follow that kind of "hope", hoping to achieve something that is beyond the mind, something that isn't just a mental process, a belief? How are you to find the truth in the world, and how are you to know when you have found it? And furthermore, what are you to do with that truth once you find it?
Many run around saying, "I found it, it's there; it's here; it's tomorrow; it's last year; last century. I found it!" What have you found? Have you found the truth, or have you found a make-believe process, a system that supports your agenda, your beliefs, your concepts, your conditioning, your hypnosis? Most things in the world continue the hypnosis, the enslavement.
Within the human being is the desire to be liberated and to be free, but there is also resistance to paying the price for liberation and freedom. Liberation and freedom sound wonderful. As intellectual concepts, these things are wonderful. "Yes," the intellect says, "We need to be free. We need to be liberated. We need to do what we want to do when we want to do it." Yet humans are finding that all kinds of liberation and freedom come at a great cost. There is the dynamic I call "energy exchange." Energy exchange means that you not only receive something from the path you choose, but you must also expend energy.
You desire truth, but it may be a conditional desire: "I want the truth, as long as I don't have to change anything in my life. I want to be liberated and free, as long as it is not too much trouble, as long as I don't have to do something out of the ordinary, as long as I don't have to let go of some of my pet beliefs and concepts. I want to be liberated, I want to be free, as long as it suits me, as long as it fits my criteria."
If that is what you desire, you are not asking for freedom or liberation; you are asking for validation of conditions, beliefs and concepts, and there is an abundant supply of those in this world. There is a concept, condition, belief or hypnotic trance that will fit every need. Anyone can find something that will validate their desire, belief or condition. If you feel that you are a bad person, you will find all kinds of validation for your "badness" everywhere. Everywhere you look there will be validation for the thought, "Yes, you are a bad person."
I detect that very few individuals understand how this whole thing works. Most individuals believe in magic, wishful thinking, or hope. Most individuals accept that there is a creative power, but there is no assurance of how and when that power works. So you "hope" it works.
(To be continued next week).
Copyright © 2006 by Alaya®.
All rights reserved.
Alaya® is a registered trademark and service mark.
If you forward this message, please include the copyright notice.
This message comes to you from Alaya, a nonprofit organization. Alaya depends upon financial contributions for its continued existence. For information on how to make a tax-deductible contribution to Alaya, go to http://www.alaya.org/Pages/alayastore-donate.html .
Thank you for your support.
To learn more about Ishvara and the Alaya Community, visit our website at www.alaya.org
To subscribe to this message list, send an email to tgrant@alaya.org with the word "Subscribe" in the subject of your message.
posted by Alaya Relativity @ 1:31 PM
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