Anyway, I am eager to put down on "paper" the lessons (some of them anyway) I take from this book - and tomorrow I will return the book to the city library for others to read. As I mentioned earlier, not exactly easy reading this book. At least not to me. Some parts seem particularly "deep" (whatever that means) - and others can seem coarse and even sarcastic. But I will not say that those may be my own perception - borne of a pattern I have come to be accustomed to. So perhaps, they aren't sarcastic at all - but simply the truth (as Don puts it) or a version of the Truth. Whatever it may be - I've also concluded before that we have the choice to take from any situation lessons we want .. things or ideas that resonate with us. So for me, below are two of the most pertinent points I would like to take with me. They aren't so much "new" ideas or lessons - but perhaps reinforcers of what is already known. After all, all of knowledge is already within us - if we all originate from the same Divine Source. So much of life's journey is about re-learning or more accurately remembering the Truth.
The first is the idea that we need to love ourselves. Truly deeply love ourselves. Over the years, I have given numerous talks on the need to love ourselves - and have been challenged by so many that this inevitably encourages egocentricity. Worse of all, it may even lead to chaos in a society if we all just did what we want to do without regard for others. But I think loving one self is not about disregarding others. It simply is learning to be full - to be complete - to be whole as opposed to be broken and incomplete needing to find peace and love and all that we seek in someone or something outside of ourselves. Like all these truth - there is an element of paradox in them.
I take from Don's work that, as I've heard many other masters say before as well, we truly need to understand what love is before we can even love another. We cannot give away what we do not have. If we do not have love within ourselves - then how are we to love (give love) to another? In fact, what seems to happen to many of us is the believe that we are incomplete and we need to fill ourselves - so we search our entire life for the person (or relationship) that will fulfill us - that will give us love. But in that search, because of our perceived need - we fear. We fear rejection, we fear when we do not meet up to the standard we think another has of us - and we unconsciously seek to protect ourselves. Our giving then becomes conditional. I will love you, IF you love me. I will love you, if you do this or do that or meet my expectations. And of course no one can ever meet all our expectations - and there lies our vicious cycle. When they "fail" us and we are hurt - we withdraw or we also exert behaviours that will hurt too.
When we are able to understand that love - unconditional love first begins within ourselves and we are able to come to recognition that we are from the Source created in the image of the Divine and as such are divine as well .. we will be able to love ourselves with honesty and completely. And when we are able to do that, we will be able to love others in the same manner - unconditionally. These two cannot be separated. They go hand-in-hand. To borrow the phrase used by Jesus when asked what is the greatest commandment, He said - "Love the Lord you God with all your heart, your mind and your soul." But not stopping there (although He was only asked about the greatest commandment), He added, "And love your neighbours as yourself." Not more than yourself - and not less than yourself. I guess, for me, that means when we truly find this Love of God - we will also automatically love ourselves. We cannot do otherwise because we are God's creation. If God is perfect, how could you be less since you are His creation. To despise any part of you, will be to despise the work of God. And so, loving the Lord your God will all you might will also mean you love yourself. And loving yourself will undoubtedly also lead you to loving others - without thought without condition for when you love yourself completely you will also see God in others for we are all from the One Source - all created alike.
Second lesson I take from this reading is the idea that we have a choice. How we interpret events, how we define things actions and choices by others - these determine our happiness and our sense of peace. Yesterday I wrote about the idea of "let's not be so quick to judge" - and let's learn to respect the differing views of others. We are all on the same journey back to where we have come from. Wayne says it as - We are for No Where and we are Now Here journeying back to No Where. We are all on our way Home. But there are many paths to the same destination - and we are all on different points on that journey. I don't know what another has been through - and what their individual lessons are up to this point when our lives cross. So, I should not be able to judge them nor should I attempt to decide for them. I only need to make choices that are "right" to me and trust that others will continue their journey guided by their idea of God or the Universe. It is not my place to move the rock, so to speak (in reference to an earlier posting) - but moving them and changing them if that is what needs to happen is for God to do.
So, I want to be able to make choices for myself - to choose happiness over pain. Instead of being a victim who is persecuted by others or by life, I know I have a choice to be in pain or to be in gratitude. I choose gratitude - as often as I can. I choose to be free and to be happy.
Many will not agree with me - but that's okay. Because this is my journey .. my travel in search of understanding myself .. my journey in search of understanding God (and thereby others as well). As with my previous writings, I am sure this will not gain favor from everyone who reads it. Perhaps, even in examining how I respond to Don's writing where I describe it as "sarcastic," some will deem my writing insane. And that's ok. It won't be the first time I've been called that. In fact, when I was about 18 - a priest even described me a heretic. That's perfectly fine. I will not take these personally.
Peace to us all,
I AM Syl
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