Actualizing The Love That Lives Within You As You

We’ve each been endowed with one of the greatest gifts—thought—yet we completely take it for granted. We take it for granted that the thoughts we think are the only ones we could have. We take it for granted that they represent the truth of what we’re experiencing. We take it for granted that we couldn’t choose our thoughts to be any other way than they’ve been.

The biggest catch of all is that we take it for granted that our thoughts are stemming from the only source possible.

Much like last week’s discussion on perception, we experience the effect of our thoughts without consciously recognizing that we cause the effect through the thoughts we choose to extend. It’s a loop…

We hold a belief, attitude, past memory or stored knowledge about something and when a neutral event arises in our experience, we project these stored thoughts onto it, and then we experience the effect. Our daily experience then plays out according to this loop.

When we use thoughts in this way, we create a barrier between the true essence of what we’re seeing (i.e., the neutral event, object or person), which actually prevents us from perceiving anything directly. Instead, we perceive through the beliefs, attitudes, past memories and stored knowledge that we hold onto.

This barrier is what creates and upholds separation in our experience. We never actually know the truth of who we are, because we think we’re the beliefs, attitudes, past memories, and self-images that we hold onto. And we never actually see the truth of another person, because we relate to them through the beliefs, attitudes, past memories, and images that we hold onto. It’s a total distortion of truth!

Thought is a divine gift that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Unfortunately, we’ve allowed thought to run rampant through our unconscious use of it. We’ve allowed ego, or our separated self, to embed itself in it and create images through it, versus using it to communicate direct seeing, or true insight, from a dimension that exists beyond ego.

The goal is to slice through our storehouse of old thoughts, such that we enter a space that informs our thoughts through direct seeing. In this way, we begin to see, connect, and relate to the person, object and/or event from a place of truth and unity.

This is what A Course in Miracles refers to as connecting to the world through our eternal holiness instead of our ego, or conditioned self. I’ve also heard it referenced as relating to the world through our non-separated self instead of our separated self (ego).

But how the heck to do we do this???

The first step is simply to begin recognizing that we’re relating to ourselves and the world around us, in this way. This begins to short circuit the continuous loop of thoughts that we’ve been seeing through for who knows how long and creates a space to begin seeing in a new way…one that is informed by something besides our storehouse of past thoughts.

Another suggested step would be to fully hand over your perception to something greater than yourself (whoever that is in your spiritual relationship) and to ask for help in healing these errors in your perception. This helps to alleviate overwhelm and, according to The Course, is our primary role!

But, if you’re like me and you feel as if you’ve opened up a can of worms that warrants exploring, you could begin inquiring into the various beliefs, attitudes, and past memories that have been driving your thoughts and question their validity.

As you explore each thought, ask yourself if it’s contributing to seeing through a lens of separation or unity (e.g., your separated self or your non-separated self)? All the while bearing in mind that anything that contributes to separation only serves to uphold illusion in your experience, whereas removing those barriers places you more deeply into unity consciousness.

Can you imagine being anchored in this space, where every thought was based in truth and direct seeing? Where your relationship with yourself, everyone around you, and all events that occurred in your experience also stemmed from this space?

The good news is that this field of awareness is all around us, awaiting our conscious recognition of it! Are you up for the challenge of embracing this field of awareness? I sure hope so, because it’s the difference between staying bound to an illusion and actualizing a dimension of truth that lives within you as you!

Of course, it’s going to take some time to fully embrace this field of awareness, but it starts by being willing to enter that space. Once you’re in a state of willingness, you’ll be guided through a process of examining and removing all blocks to fully embracing it.

You’ll be liberated by every block that you remove, and through that liberation, you’ll gain the necessary courage to keep moving deeper into that field of awareness until it consumes and directs every thought, feeling, and action that you experience.

When you fully merge with this awareness, you’ll be utterly consumed by love, since it is the dimension of truth that lives within you as you…it’s simply waiting to be actualized. 

Deep and consistent self-inquiry will eventually lead you to your deepest truth. If you’d like to explore self-inquiry further, I’d suggest looking into the teachings of J. Krishnamurti, Bryon Katie, Eckhart Tolle, or Gangaji, to name a few.

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Each moment that we’re able to live from our soul, we leave a lasting impression of love in the wake of our presence. Together we can help heal the world by simply being loving.

Peace, Love, & Joy,

Shanna

P.S. I’ll be giving a talk at Whole Foods at The Quarry on Thursday, October 24^th, 2013 at 7:00pm. I’d love to have some hometown support…bring a friend or two, as well! =)