A World of Meaning » God

A Surprise “Ending” to Agony – Part 2 of 3

Eric J Tischler — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:27:05 +0000

One all important experience occurred on a day off from work, when my pain was so severe all I could do was lay on my bedroom floor in agony. I think I was laying there for over an hour, trying to position myself in such a way that the pain would perhaps be less. It seemed nothing I could do was working. It tried all sorts of positions, both physical and mental, enduring, feeling forgiving, crying and even begging God. Maybe that helped.

After laying there for a while something occurred that illuminated my whole understanding of pain of all sorts, both physical and emotional. Suddenly, as I was lying there, the pain just stopped bothering me. Or rather, I stopped reacting emotionally to the pain. No, I didn’t go numb, nor was I even trying to ignore it, yet my mood became totally peaceful, unconcerned, and almost happy, as if there were nothing wrong. The physical pain itself had not changed at all, and was amazingly just as intense, yet I felt no distress or anguish. Perhaps I had somehow just stopped trying to do anything about it, having exhausted my efforts in all other directions, although it wasn’t apathy, surrender or passivity.

What happened? Looking back all I can say is that I had stopped complaining about it or interacting or fighting it. As I (will) write elsewhere, I have come to understand, from long observation, that all negative emotion, including agonizing over physical pain, is a deliberate action, not a “natural” reaction as some are fond of saying, which is hoped and believed to bring a remedy from someone else. It can be automatic, as many people live their lives as if unconsciously re-acting automatically to stimuli rather than consciously choosing to act.

Pain, anguish and other negative emotion is essentially a cry for help or mercy. Either you are asking for someone to help or defend you, or you are pleading for mercy from your attacker, or both. However, if one could operate on a purely logical, rational basis regarding pain, understanding this would make it possible to simply not react to it emotionally and to be able to function even cheerful while still feeling the physical pain, even without medication, including during surgery, which some are reportedly able to do. We have heard of yogis and other “dare devils” of physical stunts who undergo things like body piercing and such by mental discipline or force of will to not feel or react to any pain involved. They call it mind over matter, but really it’s logic over emotion.

What did this experience tell me? It proved to me what we have all heard at some point that all of the distress of physical pain as well as psychological stress is purely a personal reaction. Yes, this is NOT new to the field of psychology at all. I haven’t discovered fire here, but I have experienced the truth of this fact first hand, and it’s an important thing to understand.

I am grateful that in the course of my life I’ve never been in any sort of extreme physical pain other than this sciatica. I’ve been blessed with good health and physical integrity, but the sciatica came and stayed and didn’t leave until I had learned a few things. And I do truly believe that everything happens so we can learn and become healed inwardly and more whole spiritually, as follows.

One thing I learned was to have real compassion for people who are in severe pain. Due to the peer abuse I was subject to in my teen years my natural compassion for others got buried under a callus of unforgiveness for those abusers, a learned veneer of “toughness” a lot of men learn as teens to appear not soft. Yet compassion is one of the most important qualities and it ends judgment and opens the door of the heart.

Over the years I have managed to heal a great deal of my feelings from those events and have rediscovered my buried love and forgiveness, yet sometimes it takes a more solid experience to drive a lesson home. I believe being immersed in this pain was an unavoidable lesson brought to me by the Creator, a merciful challenge to reawaken my compassion. As there was nothing I could do for the pain I had to rely on this inner purpose. I knew I needed to truly wake up and open up my heart that much more.

Next post: Healing Inner and Outer Pain

Prosperity Awareness Month

Eric J Tischler — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:01:16 +0000

(Originally published in January of 2009)

I just got an email from a wonderful friend of mine reminding us this is Poverty in America Awareness Month. I applaud her for her continual efforts to act on her heartfelt vision for the betterment of the world. She is far above average even in the world of spirituality.

Her email urges the reader to donate to those in need of food and other things, and I am inspired to add to what she forwarded. The email reads:

January is Poverty Awareness Month.

May we all do what we can this month (and all year) to be more aware of poverty in America and the rest of the world, have compassion and assist in any way we can to help the poor and hungry. I will make myself available one day a week to go around collecting food to give to the homeless. If you would like to donate food, and aren’t able to deliver it, please let me know and I will do what I can to drop by and pick it up for you.

As you participate in any way you can this month, may I suggest that you also give thanks and gratitude for what you have. Although it may be tough for many of us right now, remember that there are others that are in a more difficult space now and when we help others, we help ourselves.

For more information on poverty in America, please click on:

http://www.educationforjustice.org/files/PovertyAwarenessMonth2007.pdf

As usual, I felt compelled and inspired to expand these ideas:

Every Month is Prosperity Awareness Month…
May we all do what we can this month and all year to be more aware of the limitless supply that the Creator offers us all for the asking, and to be grateful for that and for what little we have had the vision and courage to accept thus far in our lives.

My we all find ways to share our bread and clothing with our brothers and sisters, that they will know and experience the Creator’s generosity through our giving, and by witnessing our Faith in Limitlessness demonstrated in our consciousness, may learn to embody that themselves.

May we be mindful that our brothers and sisters, though outwardly they may seem to suffer and cry, that they have from on high chosen to witness from within what lack is like, perhaps to clear karma, perhaps to deepen their compassion, perhaps to be at the side of those who lack such vision or faith and give them strength through their abiding with them in these times.

May we accept our brothers and sisters as they are in their apparent lack without, knowing their limitlessness will bloom when they are ready, and having faith that their seeming variation on reality and practice in life are not lacks in who they are but experiments in Being that they will complete someday.

May we, in giving to them, not see them as lacking but as powerful in their choice to manifest what they need, and be grateful we can serve them in this way.

May we ourselves accept more and more of the limitless supply our Creator offers for the asking, that we may pass on both the supply and the consciousness of our abundance.

May we recognize that it is not what is supplied to us by the Creator but that the Creator provides that is the whole point of the exercise; that we are not finding our security in having things but in knowing the Source, and that in our acceptance of such providence the Source is glorified, not ourselves.

May we recognize that how much we have accumulated to ourselves in the material world is not the measure of who we are, but how much we give spiritually, and that even if it seems we are not affluent enough to give materially what we would like we can give limitlessly in love, in forgiving, in a positive view of all, including ourselves.

I believe this is what the Creator wants most: that we be at peace with ourselves, our lives and our fellows in this world. Ultimately I believe life is not just about ending material lack but about ending spiritual lack, as spirit is the foundation of all. We hear about efforts to end hunger in Africa and elsewhere, but I think the average person doesn’t see the cause of the hunger, and what the world really hungers for.

Is It Okay? Manifesting What You Want?

Eric J Tischler — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:52:21 +0000

Perhaps some of you have wondered if it’s right for a person to ask for specific things from the Creator (which, by the way, is you on the Divine, Universal level). I myself have had issues to resolve about the nature of materialism, what is selfishness, self-denial, and what’s okay to ask for in life.

There are those who believe it’s not appropriate to ask (manifest) for specific things, but this often just masks ego’s penchant for self denial, turning God into an ungenerous person. This is all just projection and denies the Unity of all that is. Yet the question remains as to what is right to manifest in life. Do we passively wait to see what the Creator brings us, or do we participate and explore? Should we ask for what we want?

The Bible tells us to ask and it will be given. That’s pretty clear. It doesn’t say ask but don’t ask. Other works say not to ask for your self but to give to others. There are countless saints and such who have “done without” and served others. Are they the example we should follow – completely? In this modern day? Is there a new way? I certainly think so, since there are resources we can avail ourselves of and things we can do that do greatly help others and which do require sufficient funds. And if the laws of manifesting are true – and they are – then there’s no reason for anyone to suffer lack.

Should we ask for what we want? What so you really want, in life, materially and experientially? And the rub is that we be aware of the line between unlimited supply the Creator offers and vain materialism. One of my early teachers of manifesting, a woman so able she had to be careful what she said because it would happen, said that if you are willing to manifest what you think you want you will eventually learn what you really want. When the meaning and power of manifesting is understood the delineation and solution becomes plain.

At the core, manifesting isn’t about getting and having things but about your consciousness as a person and about your self/world concept. What you attain in living by the laws of manifesting is an understanding that you and all are forgiven because the source of your experiences and fulfilled needs is within you, regardless of how those experiences and things were delivered to you externally. Thus you can end the tyranny of external sources, including your own petty tyranny over others that appears as grievances, expectations and desires, voiced or not. Guilt and blame vanish. Ending this struggle is really what you want. You want to be at peace with others and yourself. You want to love them and not make demands. This is the spiritual gift of manifesting. That is why it’s so important to understand and practice it.

It doesn’t matter so much what you manifest but that you understand what manifesting means about you and your world and everyone in it. As this understanding settles in and you see the source of all things in this world – consciousness – your true sentiment and perspective becomes clear. The din, chatter and struggles of the human marketplace become uninteresting, and you find that some of the external things and experiences you were attracted to no longer matter to you, and you have peace in the world. Fearless, your love for all comes forward, and you move with grace to create situations and draw on resources that support the expression of your own best interests for self and others. You become a builder of the world, not just a slave/slaver bargaining for his sustenance and security. You are free.

When you really get it, what you manifest will be secondary to the fact that you can, and what that means. This is the purpose of the practice of manifesting. It opens the door to brotherly love by removing the perceived cause for all conflict – obtainment through seemingly external means. You don’t have to convince anyone but yourself.

Note: “Selfishness” is a code word for separation and the struggle to get for self versus serving the well being of all without self-denial, relying on the Unity of all that is to provide through manifesting, either deliberately or vibrationally.

End Your Humble Refusal Of Good

Eric J Tischler — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:48:55 +0000

Sometimes people may be yearning so much for something they want, such as companions, opportunities, financial blessings or new abilities, but they are consciously or unconsciously saying no to these good things out of some sort of humbleness, making what amounts to statements that are aimed really to assure the giver that they are not being self-aggrandizing in asking for and accepting what they want. This is a psychological tradition of sorts that is very ill-conceived.

When you say no to good, even when you mean yes, the result is that of the no answer. Refusal is leads to not getting. Acceptance results in fulfillment. Denial of self is a plague in our world. We have to realize two things: one is that the Universe (manifestation through consciousness and vibration) will give us what we want when we accept it, and the second is that in our desiring something we do in fact believe we should have it. All the self-denial and so called humble refusal is nothing but social groveling based on thinking you have to beg others to gain your reward, even if that reward is your heavenly reward.

The concern of the “humble” person using self-denial is not to be egotistical, but really he is being egotistical in that he has misconceived virtue and spiritual attainment – or whatever you want to call it. Egotistical means separate and materialistic, meaning you define yourself by ideas of separation and your attainment or refusal of things, situations and relationships in the material world. But you don’t need to refuse good in your life to make the highest social, psychological or spiritual attainment. You need to refuse to define yourself by these things. In fact, how you define yourself in the larger sense will determine what you attain, which you can see is the reverse of the egos way. You will thus manifest according to your self-definition and “spiritual configuration” of vibration.

This is all the workings of the principle of “as within, so without.” Your life will unfold around you according to your maintained consciousness/vibration and need for growth. But be sure that you are maintaining and attaining inwardly primarily for the reason of the essential value of those attainments. If you are doing it merely to gain outwardly then you are being materialistic. There is nothing wrong with responding to material needs with inner work to resolve those issues and fill gaps in your material life. Not at all. That would be just more self-denial. Only see that what is central is the qualities you embody.

This is the parallel to the Bible verse that says, “He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for His name’s sake.” And I can testify that there is a very different vibe on doing it that way. It relieves you of the stress of material striving, which most are so useful they don’t realize it until they step out of it. It is a great strain on one to maintain that race against others, to fill the basket of life and perform materially, when all is solved in our inner attainment, both by relieving ourselves of ego’s desires in a competitive scenario, as well as answering our inner most virtue and true desire for peace and fulfillment.

The divine essence of the idea of humility is non-separation. It says, to put it in the Bible way, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” Not the illusory separate individual but the foundational Spirit that is our Oneness, which some call God. Humility means indeed not to aggrandize the separate self but it cannot mean to deny the embodiment its needs and well being. Saying no to good that can benefit all – including self – is not a virtue. Benefit must be shared by all or the Oneness is broken by separating self from that benefit, and the self remains in ego’s idea of separation. This is not your will. Your desire for good in the first place tells you that. And that will is “Thine” in Oneness.

So rather than unthinkingly responding, “No, I just couldn’t.” say “Oh yes! How wonderful and thanks! I humbly” (meaning not merely for myself) “accept and receive this goodness.” And in doing so you teach and spread that vibration to all the Oneness in embodiments, which is another wonderful benefit of accepting good.

Note: Remember always, when aiming to fulfill yourself, of the law that what goes around comes around. Wish all goodness and wisdom for others as well: “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven” (consciousness) “may forgive you your trespasses.” That’s from Mark 11:25. It means that you are shifting from separation – aught means moral obligation and seeing others in separation as your source – to the Oneness/Father/God as non-separate source: vibrational cause founded in your consciousness. You are the gate keeper of your goodness. The Oneness is the deliverer of your good. You will live by the laws you pass on others and receive what you give in consciousness.