by Ross Bishop
Spiritual teachers have been urging people to, “Have faith! That is the way to salvation!” for years. And for years people have responded, “Thank you for the advice and encouragement, but I am not willing to take that risk and be that vulnerable. It’s just asking too much.”
Their experience underlies their reluctance. When they come up against a limitation, they want God to fix it. They either don’t feel capable of dealing with it or simply would rather not take it on.
God, however has other ideas. He wants them to face their “inadequacies,” see the falseness of their beliefs, grow through the experience of dealing with it and move to a higher state of consciousness. They, on the other hand, largely want out of the pain without having to face their false beliefs (which they believe to be true). And that difference has been the sum total of the human experience for the last several millennia.
When they do not feel “The Holy Presence” – in other words, when they are not “rescued,” they assume that they are unworthy of God’s love, and shrink back into shame. That is another way to avoid facing the issue they didn’t want to address in the first place.
A story: One day two men were fishing from a boat and noticed a man thrashing in the water, desperately struggling to stay afloat. They hurried over to help the poor fellow, and as they approached they saw him go under. They became very concerned for his well being. When they got next to him they saw that he was struggling to stay afloat while carrying a large rock. The rock, of course, was pulling the man under. In astonishment, they yelled to him,
“Let go of the rock!”
“I can’t,” he yelled back, coughing up water, “it’s the only rock I’ve got!”
Needless to say, this man’s attachment was causing him a great deal of difficulty. His attachment had cost him the ability to be flexible and respond to the situation. He was so attached to his rock that he had lost the larger perspective, and he was about to lose everything because of it.
The problem is our inadequacies, our rocks, aren’t real. Yes, there are places where you do not yet move in harmony, but these are learning places, not places of inadequacy. But because you see them as you do, you are reluctant to expose them. So, the spiritual teacher is correct, all you need to do is drop your rock, but unfortunately its just not that simple.
Anyway, that’s how it feels. We attach to worldly things to cover over our “inadequacies.” We cannot swim holding large rocks, yet that is exactly what we try to do. We go through life burdened by our baggage: by our wounds, by our feelings of vulnerability and inadequacy. All this “stuff” inhibits our ability to be free.
And when we devalue our inner worth, we become preoccupied with external matters that have no lasting significance. Life has little meaning unless we get approval and acceptance, or at least get noticed. Hard work can create wealth and notoriety, but these things do not enhance the soul. There is nothing wrong with hard work or making money, so long as they do not interfere with your spiritual development . . .
There is another story about a man who went into a bookstore to buy a book about truth. The clerk offered him my book, Truth, and the man said that he was familiar with my book, but he wanted The Book of Ultimate Truth. The clerk paused, looked at the man and, straightening up to his full height, told him that they did have such a book, but that it would be extremely expensive.
“How much could it cost?” said the man, “After all, it’s just a book.”
“Oh, no!” the clerk replied, “It is much more than that! The knowledge of Ultimate Truth will bring you to complete simplicity, costing you not less than everything!”
And that brings us to the core of the dilemma. You’ve built a facade around your “inadequacies,” to protect yourself, but in reality you don’t need it. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU! But, of course, you don’t believe that. You have been convinced that you are defective. And it is only when you finally stop trying to live through your defenses that you will stop beating your head against the wall, and say, “This isn’t working, there must be another way.” Until then life is, as Elbert Hubbard lamented, “Just one damned thing after another.”
But when we reach this place of surrender, it is the “time of magic” because then real learning can take place. You’ve got to remember, you have free will, and so you had to learn this on your own. God is doing the best thing He possibly can to help you. It’s what God has been doing for all of us all along anyway – by allowing us to feel the limitations of the beliefs we impose upon ourselves. If you only knew how safe it really was to make the “leap” and take flight!
We are approaching a very special time in human evolution. The collective mass ego is bringing us to the cliff of extinction. By trying to live without faith, humans have fallen into the trap of hubris. In an ironic twist, man’s unfettered ego has brought him to the point that he threatens to destroy the very planet that sustains him. Soon, it will no longer be about choice. It will be “Change or die.” This isn’t about “if.” You are going to surrender, it is about “when.” The only real issue is how hard your going to make it on yourself until you do.
copyright©Blue Lotus Press 2016
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