Uafasach (Oo-phos-ock)

I have been playing around with the Gealic word "uafasach". It is usually translated as terrible, horrible or awful. On closer examination it is also translated as awesome or wonderful. Looking at awful and awesome, awful is full of awe and awesome is something which inspires awe.

I'm reliably informed that "awe" is something which should be reserved for the experience induced by God's revelation. That is revelation in the sense that we experience God directly. (A Course in Miracles, Text - Chapter 1, The Meaning of Miracles, Section II, Revelation, Time and Miracles. Paragraph 3).

Those that have been following this blog are right to assume that I have been walking the beaches in Kerry again (See post of 22 APRIL 2010, Ego, Mind, Memory, Emotion). In that post I said  "Sometime in the future on that beach in Kerry I may decide that there is yet another role for me."

It appears that fate and the universe have been conspiring to make that a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because, here we are now living in Glenbeigh, and really enjoying the role of grandparents.

Truly "uafasach"!

Twenty Years

1996 was a very pivotal year for me. I attended a week long video presentation of Drunvalo Melchizedek's Flower of Life workshop. This put together a lot of stuff I had come across previously and introduced me to quite a lot of new material.

He introduced a very different view of history based primarily on the writings of Zecharia Sitchin. He also talked about A.H. Almaas's explanation of how we get drafted into ego-land during our early childhood. I found Almaas's book "The Pearl Beyond Price" fascinating,

During that week there was some discussion about a work that was to become the major influence in my life: "A Course in Miracles".

Since then I have read the Textbook and Manual for Teachers numerous times and done the Workbook lessons twice. Yes, I am stubborn, and it takes a long time to undo my attachment to ego-land and all its illusions. Now I cycle through Lessons 221 to 365 on a continuous basis to keep me reminded of who and what I truly am and where and when I really live.

A Course in Miracles emphasises again and again that I am as God created me and as such I have no need to be concerned about this world, or the ego's interpretation of what it thinks is going on. Ego-land is hell. Based on fear, guilt and anger, we'll stay stuck in it until we change our thinking.

There is a 'world beyond' this world that we can enter. To do this, we start looking at this world through Love and Peace. Beyond ego's insistence that we are all guilty, we are all, in fact, perfectly innocent. As God's creation, how could we be otherwise?

Teacher Beware

In 1967 I studied the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharishi. His advice was to keep asking oneself the question "Who am I". This led me into a lot of soul searching. I persisted with this enquiry for thirty years, did a lot of research and discovered a lot about myself.

In 1997 I started studying A Course in Miracles. In the introduction to the Manual for Teachers book the question became "What am I". This question, and the teachings in A Course in Miracles, radically changed my perspective and made sense of what I had learned during my "Who am I" phase.

"To teach is to learn, so that the teacher and learner are the same. It (the course) also emphasizes that teaching is a constant process; it goes on every moment of the day, and continues into sleeping thoughts as well."

"To teach is to demonstrate. There are only two thought systems, and we demonstrate that we believe one or the other is true all the time. From our demonstration others learn, and so do we. The question is not whether we will teach, for in that there is no choice... we choose what we want to teach on the basis of what we want to learn...We cannot give to someone else, but only to ourself, and this we learn by teaching. Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what we believe. It is a method of conversion. This is not done by words alone. Any situation must be to us a chance to teach others what we are, and what they are to us."

"The curriculum we set up is therefore determined exclusively by what we think we are, and what we believe the relationship of others is to us."

"It is our mission to become perfect here, and so we teach perfection over and over, in many, many ways, until we have learned it."

See more here.

One of the expressions that I queried a lot was "We'll always be learning." This is true if we believe that we are here living a separate experience. An exercise I teach in Peace of Mind Healing is to get us to stay in peace from when we wake up in the morning for as long as we can. When we realise that we are not in peace anymore ask ourselves "Why did I decide to take myself out of peace?" The day that we spend the whole day in peace is the day that we have stopped learning and realise that we are perfect.

We are always teaching. Beware what we teach!

Food, Glorious Food

There is much written about food, of its effects on us both positive and negative. Over the years I have experimented with various diets and followed a lot of nutritional advice. Currently, I eat what I like and drink lots of water. What I have found is that sugar based foods and drinks seriously effect me. When teaching Peace of Mind Healing I do a short session on "Food, Glorious Food". We examine how food effects us by thinking about a food and then scanning the body to see what changes have occurred. My emphasis is always that it is not the food that is the problem but what we think about it.

New Testament, Matthew 15.11-12

It's not what goes into our mouths that does us harm, it's what comes out of them. For what goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and hence into the drain. But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and thus harms us.

In Chinese Philosophy the Heart houses the mind. This is reinforced by studies published by the Institute of Heart Math. See http://www.heartmath.org/templates/ihm/articles/infographic/2013/mysteries-of-the-heart/index.php

A Course in Miracles, Workbook, Lesson 136, Sickness is a defense against the truth

18. Perhaps you do not realize that this removes the limits you had placed upon the body by the purposes you gave to it. 2 As these are laid aside, the strength the body has will always be enough to serve all truly useful purposes. 3 The body's health is fully guaranteed, because it is not limited by time, by weather or fatigue, by food and drink, or any laws you made it serve before. 4 You need do nothing now to make it well, for sickness has become impossible.

A Course in Miracles, Workbook, Lesson 222, God is with me. I live and move in Him.

God is with me. 2 He is my Source of life, the life within, the air I breathe, the food by which I am sustained, the water which renews and cleanses me. 3 He is my home, wherein I live and move; the Spirit which directs my actions, offers me Its Thoughts, and guarantees my safety from all pain. 4 He covers me with kindness and with care, and holds in love the Son He shines upon, who also shines on Him. 5 How still is he who knows the truth of what He speaks today!

David Narby - Chapter 11: Warring Factions

"Let's get something straight." Said Amisa.

Clivid jumped up and going to the art supply cupboard rooted around for something.

"Ah!" he said as he walked over and presented a t-square to Amisa, "Is this straight enough for you?"

We all laughed and Will said, "What an excellent lesson in interpretation, Clivid."

"Seriously," Amisa said, "Let's get something straight, we are all wrong."

Clivid said, "I suppose you could lock us all up if we were not already incarcerated here."

Amisa continued, "I did not mean wrong in the sense that we need to be punished. I meant it in the sense that we need to correct our thinking, that we need to change our perspective. We are looking at everything from an 'ego' perspective."

Will smiled and said, "Since we are sitting here believing that we are all in different bodies what other perspective could we adopt?"

Amisa said, "The ego thrives on conflict. Warring factions attacking each other. Science versus religion. Within science, physicists versus psychologists. Within religion, Catholics versus Protestants. Within politics, right wing versus left wing, government versus opposition, east versus west. No matter what arena you enter it's all about conflict: family, society, sport, politics, media, business..."

Will interrupted, "And we could go on and on naming them."

Amisa said, "And all based on the simple idea that we are all separate. That we must strive for our autonomy and fight for our independence from each other."

Smigs said, "Looking back, the history of the world has always been about conflict, and looking at current policies and trends it's not going to change anytime soon.

Amisa said, "That's one of the ego's favourite ploys. It convinces us that the future will be identical to the past. simply because it looks at everything with a past perspective. It is never in the present and does not want us to become present."

I asked, "Why does it not want us in the present?"

Amisa replied, "Very simply, it does not and can not exist in the present. When we become truly present it disappears."

Darukin said, "Our fear is that if we let the ego go we will be out of our minds crazy, since for the most part the ego is what we have experienced."

Will said, "Yet, while David was describing his in-mind experiences we were all nodding knowingly, like we had experienced something similar."

Darukin said, "That's true, but we are not willing to discuss them with anyone, particularly, not in here."

Amisa said, "So, we all accept that we've had experiences that are beyond our ego and even beyond this world."

Everyone nodded agreement. I was wondering where do we go from here. We all sat in silence. I looked around and realised that I did not really know any of these people. I knew part of their stories, but what I thought I knew about them was based mainly on my own projections. I said,

"We're not really seeing each other. We're all crazy. We think the images we have of each other are real, when they are only ego projections. How do we end this insanity?"

Everyone clapped and congratulated me and said things like 'Well done!', 'Welcome Home!'. I was a bit embarrassed, unable to see what all the jubilation was about. Will said,

"See, David, you've accepted that we are all insane, not just those of us locked up in asylums."

Amisa said, "Within our minds there is a spark of radiant light, that is overshadowed by the ego. As far as the ego is concerned it cannot be. We, as egos, are convinced of this and so we never see the light. Yet, when we sit still, close our eyes and quieten our minds, we see it. It is always there, always was, and always will be, forever."

I asked, "What about the world we see with our eyes open, so convincing it is impossible to see it as an illusion?"

Amisa said, "Simple, David, just look for the light in everyone and everything."

Weeny wannabe themocrats

In his book, The Fire From Within, Carlos Castaneda talked about "small-fry petty tyrants". These are the people in your life who bully you or want to bully you. Their purpose is to keep you 'under their thumb'.

In my jargon these are referred to as weeny wannabe themocrats. I keep Themocrats for the Owners. Wannabe themocrats are all the politicians, religious leaders, presidents, etc who think they run the planet, but don't really. They all take their orders from the Owners.

So, weeny wannabe themocrats are the small-fry petty tyrants in our lives. These people want to control our lives, tell us what to do and what not to do. They want us to conform to their ideas rather than allowing us to develop and express our own. Unfortunately, these themocrats come in the form of our parents, our family and our friends.

Wilhelm Reich, in The Function of the Orgasm stated it as follows:

"The compulsive family and compulsive morality undermine family and morality. We are faced with the task of mastering the infirmities, in the form of psychic illnesses, caused by sexual and familial tyranny. To master the psychic plague, it is necessary to draw a clear-cut distinction between the natural love which exists between parents and children and every form of familial compulsion.

The endemic illness, familitis, destroys everything which honest humans are striving to achieve. We will never find lasting peace and we will seek in vain to fulfill the function of social organisation as long as untutored and naive politicians and tyrants of whatever persuasion continue to contaminate and to lead sexually sick masses of people.

The social organisation of man has the natural function of protecting work and the natural fulfillment of love. Knowledge, work and natural love are the sources of our life. They should also govern it, and the full responsibility should be borne by each of us individually.

Their natural expression blocked by forced asceticism and in part by the lack of fruitful activity, children develop a sticky attachment to the parents marked by helplessness and guilt feelings. This, in turn, thwarts their liberation from the childhood situation, with all its concomitant sexual anxieties and inhibitions. Children brought up in this way become character-neurotic adults who, in turn, pass on their neuroses to their own children. And so it goes from generation to generation."

A Course in Miracles, Chapter 5.VII has this to say about

"Guilt feelings are the preservers of time. They induce fears of retaliation or abandonment, and thus ensure that the future will be like the past. This is the ego's continuity. It gives the ego a false sense of security by believing that you cannot escape from it. But you can and must. God offers you the continuity of eternity in exchange. When you choose to make this exchange, you will simultaneously exchange guilt for joy, viciousness for love, and pain for peace. My role is only to unchain your will and set it free. Your ego cannot accept this freedom, and will oppose it at every possible moment and in every possible way. And as its maker, you recognize what it can do because you gave it the power to do it."

Themocracy or Eternal Oneness

I sometimes use the expressions "They" and "Them". I used to be asked who I meant when I referred to Them. Having thought about it over the years I concluded that I did not really know any of Them in particular but knew them as a 'class' of people.

"Them" are the Owners. I use a capital "O" to differentiate Them from the many of us that own many small things. Owners believe they Own the planet and everything and every one in it, on it and around it.

"Us" and "Them" has a long, a very long history. In his book "The Twelfth Planet" Zecharia Sitchin says that the Nefilim observed, what he refers to as, Homo Erectus. According to his calendar this was around 434,000 years ago. The following is his translation from the "Epic of Gilgamesh" which refers to an encounter between a Nefilim hunter and a Homo Erectus.

"the 'savage', this barbarous fellow from the depths of the steppe...

He filled the pit that I had dug,

he tore up my traps which I had set;

the beasts and creatures of the steppe

he has made slip through my hands."

When I first read this I thought that it inspired Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel Tarzan of the Apes (1912), except that he took the conflict into modern times. James Cameron's movie Avatar took the idea to a whole new level.

We like to think that democracy means that "we, the people" have some say in what's going on in our church, our society, our state, or, even our world; that if enough of us agree on some action then that action will be taken; and that our public opinion can make Them do what we want Them to do.

Sorry, this is a Themocracy, and we will do what we are told to do, and have been programmed via state and corporate propaganda to believe that we should do, even if it is reluctantly. And if at first They do not succeed they will reinvent it, re-wrap it, spin and re-spin it until They do get it right.

Reading, watching and listening to independent experts it seriously looks like the world is "going down the tube" and that we, our children and future generations are doomed to eternal slavery.

Looking at what's going on from the perspective of what we really are, we see the world as a wholly neutral thing, a place where we can learn our lessons and realise that we are all One. And that includes Them.

My body is a wholly neutral thing.

I am not a body, I am free.

For I am still as God created me.

I am the Holy Son of God Himself

God is my Father. And He loves His Son.

God is my Father. And His Son loves Him.

Your peace is with me, Father. I am safe.

And, so, ends Themocracy and Eternal Oneness begins.