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August 14 - August 26, 2023
it is my preference to be in this relationship at this moment and to love everyone, as well as myself, unconditionally.
I identify myself with my knowledge, although
Knowledge allows us to understand the world and the universe, but when it comes to understanding ourselves, our identity is a symbol that can be wrapped up in an expression of our knowledge.
Just as language can change over time, so, too, can our identity mask.
no one wins all the time. That is why suffering inevitably occurs when you are attached at this level: we won't always be able to get what we want; but instead of having a preference and moving on if things don't go our way, at this level we have become attached.
These are the hallmarks of Level Three: we have donned the mask of identity and forgotten it is a mask. This forgetting of who we really are, the Authentic Self, leads to some suffering, but generally not an inordinate amount.
Our knowledge is corrupted; it is no longer a clean reflection, but a Smokey Mirror.
Our sense of self is the personification of our beliefs, and our will is subjugated by the need to fit in with the Dream. Thus, our mask may not necessarily be in the form of our passion, but we will wear whatever mask we think we need to be accepted.
Acceptance is the reward of domestication, while rejection is the punishment.
The attachment is to the mechanism of acceptance and rejection itself, which corrupts knowledge to fit our sense of self and influences how we relate with life. At this point, we've lost our respect for self and others, and conditional love is all we know.
The mechanism of our conditional love—the judge and the victim—has been mastered by many individuals.
Regardless of how it can appear, the driving force behind fanaticism is not hate or anger, but rather an extreme form of conditional love for self and others.
This is the real consequence of fanaticism—a wedge between people who would really love one another if it weren't for this argument.
if someone is fanatical, they have let their happiness and acceptance of others be dependent on adherence to that belief system.
You can choose to let your self-acceptance be subjugated by another person's taste or opinion, or you can choose to accept that they have simply stated what is true for them and that does not change who you are.
In my experience, the only motivator that brings lasting change is self-love. When I love and accept myself, I want to treat myself well and be as healthy as I can be, only then do I have the freedom to detoxify from whatever has been subjugating my will.
Passion is the expression of love, our Authentic Self, in the form of our intention.
We must first become aware of where our attention is in the moment. Becoming aware of our attachments is the start of any process; recognizing which beliefs we have either become identified with, internalized, or fanaticized is the first step in moving towards our Authentic Self in any situation. Accepting the truth at that moment is accepting ourselves for who we are, attachments and all. From this point of acceptance, the question will be: “Do I want to keep the attachment?”
If we choose to keep it, and sometimes we will, that is fine, because we are doing so while being aware of the attachment and choosing to live life in that way. If we don't want to keep it, then we can make a choice to begin to let go. The freedom to choose between these two options is the manifestation of our intent, the power of choice.
Moving from the extreme point of Fanaticism (the loss of humanity) to Internalization requires the ability to see that our life and all life is more valuable than any idea or belief.
Love and respect for self and others is the beginning to letting go of fanaticism. We cannot give what we do not have; respect for life starts with our own, and love is the grounding source for this respect. Seeing that our life is worth something allows us to see that the life of another individual is just as special. But to let go of the most extreme form of conditional love requires an ability to question the agreements that are tied to it. The act of questioning produces a moment of clarity that allows us to see our truth.
Doubt in the form of skepticism with the willingness to learn allows us to withhold our agreement until we have clearly heard and considered everything that pertains to our belief.
there is a yes at the root of every belief we have, but a no can be enough to change our beliefs.
Our no is just as powerful as our yes. This is the assertion of our will, and our becoming aware of it allows us the opportunity to no longer be subjugated by our knowledge.
Do I really believe this? Why do I believe this? Does this belief serve me? Reevaluating our beliefs introduces the option to continue to believe or to change.
The best way to let go of illusion is to say yes to the truth when it is presented to us.
Becoming aware of our actions, taking responsibility for our own will, and repenting, if need be, allow us to forgive ourselves and others for our actions and theirs, which helps us to let go of domestication.
You are worthy of your own forgiveness, as much as you are worthy of your own love.
you are worthy of your own love because you are alive in this very moment.
Each person's identity has a meaning because they give it a meaning by agreeing with it. Letting go of the attachment to an identity is recognizing that there is a clear separation between you (the Authentic Self ) and knowledge. That line is your yes and your no; it is your intention.
When you recognize your truth, that you are a living being regardless of what you know, you are free to let go of the attachment of needing to know who you are, because you have the awareness that you are. When you authentically choose how you want to engage in your own life, as well as in the Dream of the Planet, the mask of your identity no longer has to shield your Authentic Self in order to have a voice. You are in control of your intention, your personal dream.
“What is ‘me,’ if it's not my identity or my Authentic Self?” is the question my knowledge asks of me. Even the label we are using—“the Authentic Self”—is a symbol to express something we want to understand. Who am I? This is one of the most important questions on the spiritual path. The answer cannot be put into words, yet I know that I exist. Just as I can say, “I am not this body,” I can also say, “I am not this mind.” I am just this living being giving both my body and my mind life—an empty definition whose meaning can only be determined by my yes or no.
With awareness of how attached we are to a particular belief or idea, we regain something very important: our ability to make a choice, to say yes or no all over again. The true freedom we have as individuals is to be able to choose with full awareness of what we want and don't want, instead of allowing our knowledge to dictate what we are supposed to be or choose. Our freedom to choose is true freedom; it is free will.
When you are ready to let go of an attachment, all that is required to begin is a willingness to say, “Yes, I want to let go.” And that is the simple beauty of it. From a place of awareness, we no longer require the mechanism of the judge and victim to motivate ourselves. Our new motivator is passion, stoked only by unconditional love and recognition of our limitless potential to move forward in the trajectory of our choosing.
The more we are attached to a belief that offers us that sense of security, the more attached we are to the “correctness” of that assumption.
We are only one point of perception and cannot possibly be aware of everything. Therefore, one action experienced by many will have many stories to explain and justify it. Each person fills in their version of the story with the familiar lines of what they assume to be true based on their attachments. We are attached to creating a story about every action from our own point of view, describing, explaining, and fitting it into our own belief system. This is what we have been taught to do.
Believing an assumption is a choice, though if I am unaware that my mind is filling in gaps, then this is not really a choice at all. I am at the mercy of my assumptions. But when I have that awareness, an assumption allows me to consider a possibility that will only become true the moment, and only at that moment, when it comes to fruition. If the assumption is incorrect, with awareness I am able to simply release it, and new possibilities abound. Seeing our attachments for what they are allows us to see that an assumption is merely one possibility.
When we are aware that our assumptions are not necessarily truth but simply possibilities, little discipline is required to not act on them. We already know that an assumption is a story we have created that shows a possibility, and if life presents a different truth, then we detach from that possibility because it no longer serves us.
a wound that was created by an assumption will have a lasting impact as an attachment until the moment I see the fallacy of my assumption.
When you become aware of how attachment distorts and corrupts knowledge, you can begin to see how some people easily confuse the quest for truth with the quest for being right. These are not the same thing. The quest to be right is about self-importance: we need to be right in order to accept ourselves; this is a condition we place on our self-acceptance and our acceptance of others. The quest for truth, on the other hand, is the desire to discover—regardless of whether our beliefs are supported in the process.
I also have to be honest in understanding that the stories we tell now contain generations of distortions and adaptations. Still, the lessons remain the same, and so I choose to believe in the lesson. That is my preference.
The stories that we tell about ourselves to make us feel comfortable and safe are simply history. We can choose to believe because we want to, keeping in mind that the stories do not describe the truth of who we really are. And we must be careful, as the very act of wanting to believe in these stories blinds us to the truth. Believing the stories without question or scrutiny ultimately leads to disillusionment, as we become attached to the identity we have created for ourselves through the telling of the story. Remember, a story can describe a moment, an experience, a lesson in life; but
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Things in our world go beyond reason and logic. But to believe—in the mystical, or in the scientific—without being skeptical is letting knowledge take control. The fantasy then becomes more real than life itself, to the point where we spend so much time looking for the spectacular that we don't...
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When we base our identity and self-importance on what we believe, regardless of whether it is in the earthly or the supernatural realm, we will find it difficult to be skeptical. And when we question everything we believe in, the foundation on which we have built our identity will prove to be shaky. But ...
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Many people believe that self-confidence means standing behind your beliefs one hundred percent. If you fail to listen to what else is going on in the world and only rely on what you think you know and believe, you've attached yourself to an idea that blinds. This is not confidence; it is stubbornness. We are conditioned to behave in such a way that whenever we encounter a truth that contradicts something we believe, we are quick to either reject it or create a story that protects our belief and further...
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The lesson here is to shift our confidence away from our beliefs and back to ourselves, since we are the living beings who give life to the beliefs in the first place. In other words, rather than having confi...
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Questioning ourselves and being open to changing our minds about something does not mean that we must question our core being. With self-confidence, we can simply question our beliefs and the stories we've created to describe our being.
Ask yourself, Where did I learn that belief? How is that belief affecting me? Am I using that belief well? Do I still need that belief?
