Tiskit-A-Taskit

It would seemingly be impossible for self-will and surrender to occupy the same space. Logically speaking, self will has many useful benefits in everyday day life, but is of no use to the laws of one's spirit. An individual over-run with the will of self must, eventually, give way to the law of the spirit if he truly wants real change. This is an opportunistic event, but most people never truly see it, understand it or accept it's loving freedom from their present imprisonment. It is within this remarkable, unaided courtship that a person can truly see that what he thinks about himself, what he thinks he should do for himself or what he thinks is best for himself can do nothing to fill his inward emptiness. Bottom line: He cannot make himself happy. He is not happy because he is not aware of his human condition. He thinks he is this condition, but he is not. He is something else, but doesn't know it. He does not want the truth because he thinks he must give up himself, yet these thoughts he has about himself are the underlying cause of his misery. How absurd man is! A man cannot think his way out of this unconscious state. It is only when a man sees this phenomena, when he exhausts all of his limited means, schemes, dreams and purposes, will he ever arrive at the door of child-like learning. To surrender himself he must: stand naked before God, not allow himself to fall back on past mental escape attempts, not know anything about where he must go or what he must do. Once he is completely exhausted from all of his futile attempts, will he then find himself at the door of a new, not just different, world. It is in this path oriented epoch that he will truly see the peace and strength of surrender, the beginning of true knowledge. Though he blunders 10,000 times, this unconditional love is always within his reach. It was made for him, before him and not created by him, (forgiveness is the true awareness of this fact and without his self-judgement or self-condemnation, brought about by his lower-leveled will, forgiveness itself would not need to exist). How absurd man is! He can be at peace and go wherever life leads him. He can now enter into a new world of not only not knowing, but not caring to know since he knows he knows nothing and that not knowing is the greatest knowledge of all. Blessings, r

Put It In Neutral

"THE RIGHT START"

'We wish a right start in these classes,' said Lee, a member
of a new study group. 'May we have some direction?'

'Start as if you know nothing at all about the way out. Now of
course this is insulting to vanity and frightening to hardened
thought. Do it anyway. Vanity and hardened thought can only keep
you in dismal prison. Dare to not know the answers, dare to dis-
card silly superstition which masquerades as respectable tradition.
Do this ten times a day, every time you feel tempted to pretend you
know what you are talking about. Pretense is the very prison itself.
Begin every day with the wonderment of not knowing what life is all
about. This is true power, refreshment and relief. Eventually, a new
feeling of rightness will arise within.'

You can make a new right start every single second, for your real
nature is not chained by five minutes or fifty years ago."

Inspire Yourself, p. 34 - VH

If you stop and take the time to watch children. This is what they do. They are not concerned with knowing anything. They know they don't know and have no pretense as to what is right or what is wrong. They are in neutral and moving forwards or backwards is of no concern to them. But, watch what happens when adults begin to say, "Don't do that" or "You are so good." Now a reinforcement interrupts a natural flow. I am not saying let little children play in the street with fast, moving cars or with bottles of poison. I am speaking of the adult mind. Thinking that it knows what is best for children and themselves. They have forgotten what a free mind is like, because they too, have become hardened with wrongful ideas surrounded by a false need of a purposeful engaging. Watch what happens when adults must declare a winner and a loser as children play. So, it should come as no surprise, that you have become a victim of winning, losing and results in your life. Many just accept that this is the way it is because they have forgotten what freedom is like, and besides, everyone else is doing it. Your television enhances and promotes winning, losing and results. They promote these ideas of "you need to know" and they do everything in their power to warehouse the masses. There are thousands of examples of these adult games and they are all fast sinking ships. It is up to you to observe it and choose the only way to win at the merry-go-round, "Don't Play!" Allow yourself to disengage several times a day. Observe what you are doing by watching and sensing your breathing, muscle tension, movements of your extremities and fingers. Become away of the room you are in and that you are in it. Notice the room's sound and color. Start by sitting for a bit, then as you get up and move, carry it with you. This is the only way you can begin to exist to yourself and not the masquerades of others. blessings, r

Trance

A man walking around thinking about himself is no different than his dreams while sleeping. As long as he does not exist to himself, he is asleep to life. In essence, there is no difference. You can introduce the beginning of a wonderful liberation if you would only slightly grasp this. No, we mustn't be like this. Take for instance a bad dream. While in the dream you have no ability to change the dream. You are at the mercy of it's direction and impulses. Your ego is on hold, it is powerless and you are trapped in it's story. Dreaming is an indication of deep sleep (REM). You are unconscious to yourself. A good dream will leave you sleeping, but a bad one (what we call a nightmare) may wake you up. Upon awakening, you may find your breathing rapid, you may be sweating profusely and your heart rate may be rapid, but as you gather yourself, you reach over and touch the loved one your dream was about and everything is okay. It was just a dream, a bad one, but just a dream. It may have temporarily had control of what you thought you were, but now that you are awake you see that it was just an illusion in slumber. Waking states are no different. A man walks around asleep if he is not conscious (aware) of what his body and movements are doing though his thought processes may be whirling a thousand miles a minute. The only way to snap the spell is through impartial, detached, self-observation. The difference between a man thinking about himself and impartial observation is nothing more than personalization. A thinking man believes he is his thoughts while a man in observation sees thoughts from afar and merely watches them pass by. He recognizes them and then drops them. A thinking man grabs hold as if he is mandated to do something about it. He does not realize that he doesn't have to do anything. He is unaware that he is free to drop any thought whatsoever. Incidentally, as a man grows more conscious of himself in his inward and outward environment (within the present moment), the speed of his thought processes are non-factors. Stick with these concepts for a few days. When they pop up, you will know it and you will know what to do. r

"Not too serious and not too lightly, rather seriously-lightly" Vernon Howard

Pogo Stick

I would not consider myself a religious man. My realizations have come to a wonderful conclusion that I, by nature, am one who doesn't easily conform to the orders of a maddened society. It is not cynical to see through the masks of men. I learned a very valuable asset for a true seeker and that is one of attraction rather than promotion. I am at best itinerant, a wanderer who listens to the beat of a distant drummer. I had at one time thought myself to be one who was becoming bitter, then realized my bitterness wasn't true independence but rather dependent fighting disguised as independence. I did this with my father for many years, but was to afraid to stand up for myself(and was never encouraged to do so). This followed me for many years and on into addiction. Fear the cause, addiction the symptom. I was reading the red print one day, after my release from treatment, and happened across these word's:

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."

The 2 important phrases here, for me, are "deny himself daily" and "loses his life for me."

There is NO once saved always saved for me. That is only a fictitious idea and has no practical value in my life. My life is daily. What worked for me yesterday will probably not work today. Denying my excitements, my dreaming and my scheming. This is only half of daily denial. The other half is denying my FEAR, my doubts and any confusion that may be in the way. "Losing his life (which could just have easily said "lie") for me", not in spite or because it is, superficially, something to do. In order for me to begin to follow this great teaching, I must first, be aware of what I am to be denying. Watch yourself in the morning. See how "apparent" good fortune becomes parts of the pogo stick. Excitement then depression, plus then minus, dreaming and failure, ecstatic and exhaustion. Do you now see the purpose and application of denial? Do you now see what you should deny? It is the illusions your mind creates for you. Don't buy into it. Denial favors you, but only if you see it, first. Think about this for the next couple of days.

"The man who has nothing, has everything" Vernon Howard

Blessings, r

Trick or Treat

I can never remind myself enough to stay wake to myself. There are no paid vacations for no work, there are no vacations awarded to an unattended mind. When I write, I am writing to myself and for myself. I am learning that the only way I can truly help another human being is to share, and share only, what I have experienced, for and by, myself. I do not benefit if you are helped, not really, although the ego wants me to think so. I am not the source of any power, strength or wisdom. It is free, ample, ever flowing, borrowed and never bought. There is a constant re-generation happening moment by life succeeding moment. My only aim is to be aware of this state in my own consciousness and to catch myself when unawakedly blinded. I am one who must constantly be reminded that darkness will always be sneaking around a corner, disguising itself as my thoughts and is constantly working to keep me from the light of awareness, self-observation and examination. Most of what unfolds to an unawakened mind is untrue and I limit myself to the omniscient light that I so often, and mistakenly, take for granted. I am never justified by complacency, that is for the dubious man. I strive to get out of myself, never doing battle, never fighting, never running and learning to walk slowly away. I am reminded by the way, the truth and the life by my own shocks and personal blunders. I have never truly benefited from the mistake of someone else. I will not condemn for long nor move too deep into judgement, I have spent too many years doing that and it doesn't work. I have been forgiven before the act and it is the awareness of forgiveness that is forgiveness. It is my responsibility to see that being unconscious to the truth is not a fault only a misunderstanding. It is these misunderstandings that pave the way for life learning and there will always be something new to learn. It is within my power to stop the train, turn it around, go in a new direction and start right now. Here is something that a friend of mine wrote to remind me of painful encounters. I would like to share it with you, so that you too can work at your own freedom:

"Try to watch your thinking. If pain accompanies your thoughts, see it, and work to drop the thoughts responsible for the pain. They will tell you that they are there to free you from the disturbance, but right thinking toward the states reveals that the pain is there because these same disturbing thoughts have managed to drag you into their disturbed world. The more you see the truth of your inner state, the easier it becomes to drop both the troubling state and the wrong thinking responsible for it."
---Guy Finley, Seeker's Guide to Self-Freedom---

Writing, reading and the contemplation thereof, have great medicinal value. I would encourage you to work with these timeless components. I receive much peace and contentment from the efforts. Keep your body healthy this winter. The flu season is already upon us. A healthy mind and a healthy body enhance our awareness of the spirit. There is so much to learn my friends, there is so much to learn. Stay well... blessings, r

remedies

Looking for remedies to your worries and complaints? Stay away from opposites. They just further your worries and complaints. How can the same mind, that asks the question, also provide an answer? Stay with the worry and complaint. They are just hanging around, loitering. They have no real power unless you give it to them, which is what thinking opposites will do. Just let them hang around. Soon, they will give up,leave and go loiter somewhere else. blessings, r

What is Hip?

I was tossing and turning last night in bed. There was a thought in my mind that I just couldn't seem to shake. Actually, it was a guitar riff in my head that had been with me all day (I am not a guitar player, nor do I profess to be one). This guitar riff was actually the symptom of an escape mechanism for a day in which my thought base had been utter chaos. This is an indication that I was not conscious to myself nor my present environment. Just because it was time to go to sleep doesn't mean the magical sleep chime is going to go off. My sleep is indicative of how the past day was spent. It all adds up. What I get from a day is what my thought considered valuable in those successive moments. It can't be different. If I have a thought in my head that is terrorizing me, what do I do? I could, like I have done many times, replace it with another, more pleasant thought. This may or may not work. Since I have already identified with this tyrannical thought the latter will probably hold true. When in these times it is beneficial to not try and replace a thought with another. Why? All thought is based on something that is drawn from a previous experience, in other words, it has already taken place. Therefore, it is not new, just different. Since a different thought is not new, I am still imprisoned by myself playing both prisoner and jailer. It is in these times that I must practice the art of letting my thought or thoughts die. To not replace one with another. To just leave the space blank for a moment and let something else, not created with MY mind, take over. To allow something of a higher plane carry me to wherever it pleases, so long as I am not the inventor or creator. It works and over time, with practice, instills a new sense of an easier self. Blessings, r

House of Pain

I don't believe I have suffered any more than anyone else, but what I am experiancing is only happening to me. I stumble into truth to the exact accordance of what is ailing me. Just hang in there, God is on your side. If you were not conscious of an inward conflict, why do you condemn yourself for having it? blessings, r

A Farewell To Arms

"The more we awaken to how we actually are-and start to feel all the forces randomly operating within us, with no guidance apart from the "good" each separate self desires at the moment-the more we realize the need for a new kind of unity, a wholeness we are unable to create by ourselves, within ourselves.
With this new understanding comes the dawning that the only way to accomplish our higher intuitions in life is to start embracing God's intention for us to be whole and conscious creatures. Our will must be redirected, married to a Greater One."

'Seekers Guide to Self-Freedom' - Guy Finley

Slowly and carefully, I have begin to notice this quiet phenomena in my own life. In fact, the birth of this kind of wisdom begin many years ago. Only recently have I been able to conduct and notice, through experiment, a certain truth that appears to be trying to shine through. If I am protecting, defending or at arms with this wonderful insight, then I am unconscious to myself and incapable of receiving its liberating power. Forget how the outside is, this is your quest for truth. If I can pause, in this moment, to see what is really going on inside of me, then I am ultimately at the precipice of a new kind of understanding. Only by seeing these random forces operate as the assumed "I" or "myself", will I be able to detect their attempts to describe and assume to know goodness. As previously stated, this is not possible. That this real goodness cannot be created by me (it matters not the amount of prayer, meditation, intention or reading I do). This new kind of unity is beyond the "goodness" of my created I's. It is not out of reach, however, and is as close as this very moment. Spend some quiet time with this. Understanding is a dawning that only comes within ourselves, by ourselves. It is a conscious letting go of preconceived premonitions and attitudes we have about ourselves and what we really are. To see, but not side with what we think is us mechanically, is the seed to a new and contented unification with God. It brings us to a consciousness that is not from our mind, but rises quietly and surely from our true heart. blessings, r

Stand Up

It is hard enough to find yourself, alone, then to have to explain yourself along the way. It is a trap not worth falling into. It is true that belonging to can yield, but it doesn't have near the potential as not belonging to. This path of not belonging to is difficult. There will be no one that you will be able to (really) lean on. There will be wonderful rest stops along the way. If you dare more, you will get more. Reality/God/Truth is on your side. There is only one requirement. That you be willing to look at everything that may appear to be harmful and know that it's existence will pass, is temporary and is unreal. Remember that you, and you alone, put it there. Understanding this machine we have created is very difficult. Look how quickly we run from what we don't and won't understand. blessings,r

Dreamer and Schemer

"Every once in awhile I'll bring up the following word to you - the
word _daring_. Now without daring in life, spiritual daring, nothing
is going to happen to you except what already has happened to you.
And one of the worst things that's going to continue to happen to
you is called scheming. You're a schemer aren't you? A dreamer and
a schemer. The schemes lead to dreams. And you think if you can get
enough schemes going in the right direction, the dreams will come
true. Daring means for you to have the courage to know that you are
a lost human being - and you are." VH