Healing and counseling sessions
The ultimate goal of life: Be the Christ
July 12, 2008
Painting: Thomas Cole, Voyage of Life - Childhood
"The Light of God is always victorious, and you are that Light."
~ Patti Cota-Robles, spiritual teacher
Contents:
- Accepting what is... and staying there forever
- The difference between you and Jesus
- God doesn't live here
- What does God want?
- With our without the little dark speck?
- Which mind do we want to silence?
- Being who we are is always More
1. Accepting what is... and staying there forever
If you are interested in personal growth and spirituality, you will know that one of main goals of personal development is to be who we really are. Which, as we are taught, means dropping the mask of our false identity and connecting with our emotions, our fears, our needs and our dreams. Making an inventory of our psyche, recognizing "what is", both positive and negative.
And that is a great approach. That's a precondition for accessing that place of deeper truth within, that place of eternity, which is our divine core. Before we accept who we are at the moment, we cannot proceed to become more. And there is more, because our divine core is infinite, and it contains only love and light - no shadows that we currently see in ourselves.
The problem is when we decide that we cannot possibly reach that elusive ideal of being only love and light – specially not while here on Earth. And so we have glimpses of what our divinity might mean, but we keep it at bay, allowing it to shine through only sporadically, in special moments or in the circle of friends we trust. Being love and light is not something that the world appreciates, so most of the times we hide it. Or we misinterpret it to mean soft, mushy, powerless love. And so we go around "loving" everybody with that naive, new-agey love, leaving the world around us unchanged.
Another problem is that many teachings tell us that our nature is dual – both human and divine, and that the human part involves also the lower, carnal, instincts, and selfish drives. We are taught that that's normal, because after all, we are evolved animals, aren't we? So once we accepted ourselves as we are, with all our light and darkness, and after we've let go of some of that darkness (i.e. some of our wrong beliefs, negative emotions and habits), we tend to stop developing. We have accepted ourselves, we know that we are worthy of love, we know that life is not as our parents and society have told us, and that basically, life is worth living.
So we relax in that knowing, in that dual nature of ours, in that paradigm, allowing only a very slow progress towards being more than we currenly are. But what is that paradigm telling us? It is telling us that we cannot reach that wholeness that we long for, that oneness with God which brings bliss and fulfillment – at least not as a permanent state, and certainly not here on Earth. That paradigm is teaching us separation from God.
2. The difference between you and Jesus
In theory we know that our nature is divine, but we believe that expressing it here, in the dense material plane, is not a real option. Come on, we can't be Jesus Christ! But why not? It's a pity because Jesus came exactly for that purpose – to show us by example that we too can be Christs in embodiment.
Jesus said:
"He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." (John 14:12)
And what does it mean to "go unto my Father"? It means to recognize that we are children of God and embrace our full divine potential. And live it, here on Earth. Like Jesus did. Jesus let the light of God flow through him, and so he was able to do the works of the Father – not because he was the only son of God, endowed with supernatural powers – but because he accepted his oneness with God and he surrendered everything that kept him from that oneness. He consciously accepted it and proclaimed "I and my Father are One". And all his power and miracles he performed, and charisma if you wish, stem from that – from his conscious recognition of his divine identity.
Jesus never claimed that he is the only son of God. On the contrary, he encouraged others to follow his example, so they can finally break free from the bondage of separateness. He came to bring the good news – that Kingdom of God is within, and that Kingdom of God is at hand – only if we are willing to reach for it. Ultimately, the only difference between Jesus and the rest of us is that Jesus said unconditional YES to God and to his own divinite identity, I AM. And it wasn't just a lip service but a way of life.
And this part is what most people don’t realize. Religion tells us that God is up there in the sky, and that heaven is up there too, and that we can never have it here on Earth. We have to suffer and obey some distant, and not very loving, authority in the sky, who implements his will through the institution of Church. The Church knows God's will, and if we but follow the rituals and doctrines they prescribe, we will be saved. Fundamentalists of all (monotheistic) religions claim that their view of God is the only true one, and that those who don't conform to their view are heretics and will burn in hell.
On the other hand, we have science, which claims that there is no God whatsoever, and everybody who thinks differently is at best a superstitious fool, or in a more severe case, a threat to human progress. Pretty similar to the stance of the orthodox religion, only we won’t burn in hell afterwards.
Spiritual people know that neither of those extremes is true. They know that God does exist, that something beyond this world does exist. But they also know that it is not an angry being in the sky, but something much broader, much more loving, something that cannot be fitted in religious or scientific doctrine, something magnificent and indescribable. The Allness. Or the Void, as Buddhists believe, which would be the unexpressed God.
But again, for many spiritual people it remains a vague concept. Because even if I know God exists, and it is the All, how does it relate to my life? Does God want anything from me? How do I express my divinity? What am I here for?
Many New-Age teachings will tell you – just be. Fine, but what does it mean? My "being" also includes the ego, the selfish traits that if I am honest with myself I acknowledged, but have problems letting go. Is that OK for God? What do I do with that? Some teachings will tell us that God doesn't want anything from us, so whatever we do, it's fine. There's no sin, just experience. Technically that's true. God doesn't want anything from us – because he is already All, he is full and complete in itself, so he doesn't need anything from anybody. And he certainly doesn't need worship and rituals, or sacrifice and martyrdom.1
But it's not true that God doesn’t care about us, that he doesn't care what we do, even if we are destroying our lives. God loves us because we are his children, we are a part of his own Being, and he wants to see us happy and fulfilled. He would like us to be all that we are in God. Because that's what we are created for. To become aware of our divine nature and then be all that we can be in God. And he would love to give us his Kingdom, meaning all the abundance and bliss that he has in store for us – but he cannot unless we choose to accept it. And we cannot accept it unless we feel one with God – and aligned with God's will – which is the same as the will of our Higher Self.
But the problem is that many people, even among spiritual seekers, believe that God's will is outside themselves and that following God's will means sacrifice and giving up things we think we cannot live without. And so we think that God wants to limit our pleasure, creativity and freedom in the material world. But that's just another wrong belief. Another box that we've put God in. And that we've put ourselves in.
Because God IS freedom – after all, he gave us free will. He didn't make robots of us, who blindly follow his commands. We are creative beings, co-creators with God. We are here to create the world according to our liking. Ideally, according to our highest (divine) potential, but in practice, according to what we want to see manifest.
5. With or without the little dark speck?
It is said that God's name is I AM THAT I AM. Well, it's not actually his name, it's just that God didn't want humankind to put him in a mental box, so he gave it in the form that cannot be misused. Imagine this dialogue: I AM, God says. And Moses asks, what are you? And God answers, I AM that I AM. He didn't tell him what he is. Because people couldn't have grasped it. And that's because we cannot explain God with a limited human mind. We cannot define God until we become one with him (/her/it), until we experience him ourselves.
But humanity managed to define God anyway, without really experiencing him. We managed to put him in a closed mental box. Each religion and each spiritual teaching - different box. But the most unhappy box, and the one most difficult to dismantle, is the one where we see ourselves separate from God. And where we see Earth as a place which is and should stay separated from God.
Who are you? I AM… now take a deep breath… and then answer – who are you? The breath comes from infinity and goes back to infinity. I AM… difficult to describe, right? No wonder God said I AM THAT I AM. It is beyond words. But do you think that in that indescribable Allness, in that eternal breath of God, there is also a part which thinks it is separate from God? Do you believe that in that living, breathing, loving flow of Light – there can be a place for darkness? For a little dark speck which says "I am separate from God, and I want to stay separate". Well, not really.
The little dark speck can believe it is separate from God, but then it isn’t in the flow any more, but is observing the flow from the outside. And suffering. Or pretending it is doing just fine. Creating ideas about God and seeking to justify why it has to stay outside the flow. Or convincing everybody that the flow doesn’t even exist.
God is a constant never-ending flow of light and love, the inbreath and outbreath, the idea that flows from the undescribable - the Void, to the manifest - the material reality. And back. God is love that flows from spirit to matter, and through us, if our hearts are open to it. And of course, God is much more. But what I want to say is that in God there is no ego, no separate self, no "evil".
If a part of life believes it is separate from God, then it is allowed to experience that state – according to the law of free will. But ultimately, such a state is an illusion created only in the mind of the individual, and has no permanent reality in God. But because God gave us free will, we have the right to believe whatever we want. And we have the right to create such a reality – a dualistic reality – where on one side there is us, and on the other side there is God. On one side there is me, and on the other side the rest of the world. And the ego in between.
But if we want to be who we really are - which means who we are in God - we need to let go of that feeling of separateness, and step into the flow of Oneness - the river of eternal life - which is God. We need to bridge the gap between Heaven and Earth – the gap that exists only in our minds.
6. Which mind do we want to silence?
Our minds. Another challenging topic for us, spiritual seekers. We are often told that we need to silence the mind so that we can hear the still small voice within. And that's true – up to a point. The mind that is referred to here is the ego – the mind that believes it is separate from God and then comes up with "fantastic" scenarios in our head, turning us into a dog running after its own tail. There is no peace in a mind like that – only constant anxiety and restlessness.
Of course, we don’t want that. So we try various ways to silence the mind, either through meditation and focusing on one particular thought - although if we have a lot of unsolved issues, it hardly ever works because we only suppress the swarming thoughts, creating even greater tension. An alternative approach is free movement and dance, which sometimes borders on exhaustion (an approach introduced by Osho), so that by the time we are finished we are too tired to think. So we create a moment – an interval in time - where our mind goes still, opening ourselves to the possibility to hear the inner voice. Also, some of our masks and our ego defences drop in the process, so in that moment we are more genuine, and closer to who we really are.
That's good. If we paralelly work on dismantling our wrong beliefs, such silent intervals can be a great start – because we give ourselves a chance to experience something different than what our ego has been telling us so far. A different experience, which might lead to a different conclusion about ourselves, other people, or life. We can have such a "revelation" during a movement meditation session, for example, if we are lucky enough to have a good mirror, i.e. to interact with someone who is loving and who won't push us in our wounds and trigger our habitual defence patterns.2 So we can experience something else.
But eventually, we need to internalize that experience into our everyday lives. We need to let go of the wrong belief, and start living according to the new, healthier sense of self. Which is either based on trust, i.e. inner knowing - in our heart - that there is more to life than we currently experience, or based on a direct experience of "something beyond".
But in any case, we need the mind. Because through the mind we create our reality. So it's not advisable to get rid of it. The only question is which mind we use – the ego, i.e. the mind of the separate self, or the higher mind - the mind our Higher Self? If we don't believe that our higher mind is in fact aligned with God's mind and God's will - because we believe God seeks to constrain us - then we won’t be able to hear the voice of our Higher Self.
What we might hear is some other voice, which will tell us what we want to hear. In other words, if we believe that God is a certain way, and in that interpretation there is a space for separateness, for that dark speck of the ego to squeeze in between us and God, then we won't receive accurate messages. We'll simply hear what our ego wants us to hear.
And that's the danger of getting rid of the "monkey mind", without replacing it with the higher mind. And that's where the followers of Osho and similar approaches can get confused. Higher mind is in perfect alignment with our divine plan and with the will of God. If a part of us believes that the will of God is not good for us – because we see God as an authority outside ourselves – we won't be able to connect to our Higher Self. And so we will live in a mental box, yet believing that we are very spiritual. But we won’t achieve our full potentials, and we won't be who we really are.
7. Being who we are is always More
Being who we really are is MORE than being who we are right now. Because we are more. Ever more. God is infinite, and so are we. God is always becoming More and transcending itself (just think of the evolutionary process embedded in all life). In God there is no darkness, and so in our True Self there is no darkness either. We can be all that we are in God - here on Earth. Thinking that it is not possible - or not necessary - is a fallacy. Earth is the only place that counts. And the only acceptable time is now. Therefore, we should Be here and now, as many spiritual teachings say, only being aware that it means more than we might think it means.
When we choose to embrace that More and live our divinity, it will most likely produce visible consequences in the world around us. World will change. Not just in consciousness but in the physical too. Because now there are many more people who are aware of their spiritual identity than in the time of Jesus. Collective consciousness has risen, and we are more free to express our truth and claim our God-given rights. Therefore, miracles are possible. We only need to make that last step which separates us from the Golden Age – a step into the River of Life, into the consciousness of oneness with God.
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1 The only thing we need to sacrifice is our ego - our separate self. But again, not as something that God requires from us, but because otherwise we cannot fully be who we really are.
As for rituals and ceremonies, they can be useful - if we perform them not to "please" God, or invoke spirits, or artificially induce altered states of consciousness - i.e. not for selfish, ego-driven reasons. Rather, we can use rituals and spiritual exercises to help us connect to the Spirit of Truth within and open up the channel towards our inner altar, where we can feel God's unconditional love.
2 Actually, it always depends on ourselves what we will experience in interaction with other people - it depends on our mindset and the beliefs we hold about ourselves and the world. So even if the other person is loving and supportive, we can still misinterpret it - and slip into our wound. And then we only reaffirm the problem. But that, then, is a way to bring the problem to the surface, for healing.
