These deeper foundations are about character, spirit, reality and truth. But in the absence of these, it is about lies and their mesmerizing effect.
I once saw a show that featured a hypnotist who walked around and hypnotized people who were then filmed in hypnosis to produce a fascinating TV show. In one episode, he hypnotized a lady in a public park. She was then told that under the concrete walkways in the park there lived a people who were being hurt by the passers by above who walked over them. Then she went into action. As each person or couple came down the walkway, she accosted them trying to get them not to hurt the people who lived below the path. To the walkers on the path, she looked totally loony.
A most important part of my foundational beliefs is that people act in a completely understandable manner if you know what beliefs they have. For the TV viewers watching the hypnotized woman in the park, her actions were completely understandable. We had the advantage of knowing what weird belief had been slipped into her inner being.
Most of the time, we don't have any such advantage. Nonetheless, it is important to FIRMLY KNOW that if we only knew what beliefs lurked there, then everything a person does makes sense. This knowledge changes our perception. Now we can look at the actions of people as a kind of window into their belief system, their souls. It may also give us some patience with otherwise scary behavior.
Another (important) side of this example is how sacred we should hold beliefs. Look at how a fairly simple lie, when slipped past the usual guard of common sense (that defends us against false beliefs entering into us,) can cause us to enter into a kind of dream world where what seem sensible actions to us are viewed by those around us as truly insane. Indeed, when we believe lies, our acts are out of harmony with the universe (reality.)
Yet another (important) side of this example is how the awakening from this "dream state" is to be effected: simple truth suffices. That is, at some point the hypnotist may say, "it isn't true what I said about the people beneath the concrete." (or the woman may simply awaken from the hypnosis in a day or so - hypnosis doesn't last unless reinforced.) So this is a sense in which one knows truth and truth sets one free (old biblical saying.)
Lastly, there it the issue of how one acquires lies to believe in. Hypnosis can do it. But there are many things that have the same effect as hypnosis. Principle among these is hatred. When a person hates, it is like being hypnotized but without a hypnotist. Instead, everything in and around the person has the power of the hypnotist to implant suggestion (lies) deeply into our being - right past common sense which sleeps instantly upon hatred arising. Children are particularly vulnerable; adults can acquire a very small measure of resistance to the process. Love, of course, is the absence of hate (and little more) and we need to seek this state of existence by looking inward. Then we are in a position to assist others.
Somewhere along the way, as children we fall into resentment/hate. This moment of failure (everyone has it because as children we are too vulnerable to resist) programs us with lies from everything around us (we love the color of the room, we find the room comforting, if someone yelled at us, whatever he believes about us we will come to believe, we will believe in yelling, etc.) Then all of these lies that have buried themselves deeply within us start to shape our actions. So long as we hold onto the hatred, the lies will remain firmly entrenched.
Indeed, our life lived from these lies is the reinforcing factor needed to keep the "hypnosis" alive in us. That is, the room, the color, or whatever was in that original scene exerts an influence over us that subtly reminds of that event. This gives the opportunity in the present to reexperience a part of it. Hatred/resentment will flash within us, perhaps a bit below a conscious level, but if it is there, it does it's work to reinforce these lies. The result is that we don't awaken.
But one day, perhaps we will. Every bit as much as these programmed lies has the power to reinforce the lie, they also have the power to release us. Each time we reexperience a part of the scene, we may also hold ourselves back from resentment/hate. If we can succeed in doing this, then the lie simply evaporates within us and has no more power over us - and in this way, we CAN and do change deeply, raising our consciousness.
So those are the secrets of how people can be glazed over and not aware of the reality they live within - how they come to be that way, and how they can return from that existence.
Reality, then, when one comes back to it, is mostly about the Presence of God that exists in the present. God, really, IS Reality and without Him, nothing is. When you rise up from the mesmerized state of existence that most think of as reality, you will feel His presence. Indeed, you will understand that you found Reality only because He called you to it (and this may be a relief since you will understand that it isn't up to you to call others. Still, many search and your casual words may be His instrument - often in ways you don't foresee - to call other seekers.)
Awareness is the natural state of all and all drift toward it. Only a cycle of fear and hatred that one will not let go of will block its manifestation within us. Awareness is as easy as having hands. We didn't have to think about how to grow them - they are just there. But many are not aware. For them, there is some block. If we know the roots of such problems generally, and if we are patiently humble and have taken the splinter from our own eyes, then we will know what to do to help. It will come to us because of our own awareness and common sense.
But there are no guarantees, understand. Every living being has a choice and may choose not to relinquish hatred in preference for love. These you can't force. To force is to abandon love yourself.
It is not about DOING, but is about BEING.
BE, and in the stillness of being, you will understand.
There may be little to do, very little.
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C.N. November, 3, 2003
C.N. November, 3, 2003
March 21, 2008
