Steven Liebowitz's Blog, page 102
July 7, 2014
Alone
“More people, especially men, hate being alone with their thoughts,” a small article in the Herald said Friday. “So much, in fact, that they would rather be in pain. In a study published in Science on the ability of people to let their minds ‘wander’ – that is for them to sit and do nothing but think – researchers found that about a quarter of women and two-thirds of men chose electric shocks over their own company. When left alone for a 15-minute thinking session…” the study participants who chose pain, shocked themselves an average of 7 times.
What does this suggest about the possibilities for peace, calm and quiet? What chance to be a human being – compassionate, creative, joyous and grateful – if many of us must be human doings – always busy, never at rest, constantly buzzed and buzzing? If people can’t stand to be alone with themselves, what chance they will allow themselves to be alone with themSelves?
July 3, 2014
June 27, 2014
Idols
“Let not the myriad forms the ego takes deceive and distract you,” Devorah said. “For they are all idols, and idols are but shabby substitutes for your wondrous reality. You believe idols will somehow complete your self, protect you in a dangerous world; offer the power to supply your lacks, and add value that you do not have. Bull shit! No one believes in idols who has not enslaved himself to littleness and loss.
“What idols are you worshiping – romantic love, success, money, family, children and grand children, democracy, individual liberty and freedom from big government, a viable planet and environment? ‘What?’ you protest, ‘everyone wants some of those things, they’re not idols.’
“Yes, they are, if you must protect and defend them and value them so highly you sacrifice your health, wealth, wisdom, peace, compassion and joy to them. It’s fine to value these things, I value them. But I understand that only as I turn within, seek guidance and serve from there that they are not idols. Only by seeking at-one-ment with mySelf first, by honoring and valuing that greater reality in mySelf and yourSelf first, will I serve and honor the power we call God and not be an idol worshiper.”
June 26, 2014
June 25, 2014
Light Your Lights!
“The journey to awareness and acceptance of the power we call God is a journey without distance to a destination that is certain,” Devorah said. “The light of our oneness will surely replace the darkness of our separateness. You’ve experienced this already. It comes from living, blessing, caring and forgiving now, this minute, not when you’re dead. When you lay aside the small fearful world of yourself, the real world of yourSelf, of peace, joy, success, fulfillment and compassion will instantly appear. It’s like turning on the lights in a darkened room.
“Be awake and mindful, stop sleep walking thru your life! As your day unfolds try and see how you subtly set things up to choose the ego’s anger, fear and pain instead of God’s peace, joy, success, fulfillment and compassion. And when you catch yourself and others doing this, forgive. Don’t make a big thing of it, no blame or shame, simply forgive quietly in your heart and mind.”
June 23, 2014
Old Lady Slide
“The shift we’ve been talking about,” Devorah said, “from self to Self, from ego to the power we call God is like the figure/ground shift depicted in the picture below. There are two images there – an old woman and a young woman, but it’s only possible to see one at a time. Fixating on one, the dark for example, precludes seeing the one that’s light. You have to let go of the one you see first, the one you’re sure of and know is there in order to see the other one, the one you’re not so sure of.
“So it is with the invisible power we call God. You have to let go of the ego to see It. It’s there, but as long as we hold to the ego, you can’t see It, use It or allow It to use you. The ego speaks first and is always wrong. Know that; keep an open mind; be skeptical; challenge your certainties; know the other experience is there; let go, go thru the discomfort and the ego’s raucous shrieks and allow yourself to experience It.”
June 21, 2014
June 18, 2014
How Could the Body Be Nothing?
Devorah opened her arms to enfold the multitude and said reassuringly, “The power we call God can indeed be reached directly for there is no distance between It and us. It’s awareness is in everyone’s memory and It’s words written on every heart. Yet this awareness and this memory can enter consciousness only where all barriers to truth have been removed. Alas,” she said sadly, “this is not easy. It is a process, not a product. It’s a constant on-going series of moment-to-moment decisions which we, identified with the ego, have little patience for.
“We all have brief, ecstatic direct experiences of our oneness with the Power, but they’re not sustained. To have those experiences more often and sustained longer, shift – shift your identity and intentions from proving separation is real to nurturing your belief and experiences of at-one-ment, work at the invisible level of Source. The ego will yell and scream as you do this but, as the Swami says, ‘the sky is not falling — we are ascending.’”
June 16, 2014
How Could the Body Be Nothing?
“It is impossible to seek for pleasure through the body and not find pain also,” Devorah said. “This is the inevitable result of equating yourSelf with the body. What we want to do is be aware of the ego’s use of the body, not actively resist or struggle with it, but stay centered in ourSelves and see each event, thought and moment as opportunity to give the ego’s fear, loathing, blame and guilt over to the power we call God.
“Taking things too seriously and not turning them over, makes our experience of living and the ego’s use of the body real. Reasoning, struggling and debating the ego can never work. The ego will not and can not ever change. It’s like Obama trying to reach out to, and work with the Republicans. They will never agree with, nor support him, never. This either/or thinking, especially at the level of human affairs, seems harsh and unforgiving but it is the truth (with some people and groups). We must do what we can centered in ourSelves, without malice, anger and hate. The Swami got part of it right when he said, ‘Life is a sitcom — so sit calm and enjoy it.’”
June 14, 2014
How Could the Body Be Nothing?
“Of itself,” Devorah said, “the body is nothing, an entirely neutral thing in the service of either the ego – the thought that we are separate from the power we call God, or the still small voice – the thought that we are, always have been and always will be, at one with the Power, with each other and all of creation.” Devorah sighed and smiled. “Our purpose in life is for each of us, in our own ways and in our own situations, to demonstrate we are not egos – to have the courage to allow our reality as the Power’s peace, joy, love, compassion, and radiant good health, to shine the ego’s nightmare dream of the world.
“To shift our attitudes, to realize there will be fear, resistance and reluctance and shift anyways. As the Swami says: ‘I have expanded my mind so much I can no longer fit through my door … I had to go to a shrink.’ To accept at-one-ment with the Power for ourselves. For it is only when we have accepted It for ourselves, as the individuals we think we are, that we can share it with others, and it is only when we give It that we know we have received It.”
