God Is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zjz-GVbr6U&feature=PlayList&p=8E8174691D9DBB50&index=49&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL
This is the first of the Esoteric Teachings. I know this with my heart, not with my mind. I live my life in complete Trust and Faith that God exists. This was not always the case.
Once I accepted the existence of God, I was ready for the second Teaching, God Is Love. The question "What is God?" has been asked repeatedly over lifetimes. I believe that God is energy. Pure energy. The pure energy of God is Love. The following is how I came to this knowingness. As a young child I viewed God as the man with the white beard in the sky whom I had to try to please. The image was of a giant parent. The message was that one had to be good to be loved. To be good was about what you did, not about the inherent goodness that you are. The meaning of Love, real Love, had not yet come into my Consciousness. I only knew about the egoic perception of personal love, conditional love. God was separate from me and I from Him, Her, It.
Driven by longing to know my true mystical
nature, I came to know God as something much larger, more real,
more personal, nonjudgmental. I came to know God as the Divine
Spark of Creation, of Love and as Love, of "All That Is."
Mastering this teaching prepared the way for the third Teaching, I Am Love. I came to feel the Love of the Creator and Creation of which I am an integral part. The essence of Creation, of myself, is Love since the Creator poured itself, its own energy of pure Love, into the creation of me. I came to feel the Love of the Creator loving me. Filling me so fully, so unconditionally as the Beloved that I had to look at taking responsibility for loving myself as the Beloved. Why would I not be grateful to the Creator for creating me, for giving me the opportunity to experience love, joy, peace? Why would I not be grateful for all that I have created.
As I experience myself as Love, I have the
opportunity to go deeper, to experience Self-Love. I take responsibility for this as well. As I am in human form, ego is constantly vying
for my attention through self-doubt, judgment, criticism, control, manipulation, protection, and defense.
As a Divine Being in Human Form, I am being called upon to remember the truth of who I am as the pure energy of God. I am invited to nurture the Love within me, to let it grow. As it grows, I become the Creator. I can then give Love to others. As I nurture the Love that has created me, I create more Love in myself and for others.
As I come into full knowingness of myself
as Love, I move toward the understanding of the fourth Teaching:
I Am God. I surrender my ego- personality to the
energy of God/Love flowing through me.
I remember my essence
is God. "I" am God.
I take full responsibility for choosing whether this Soul energy expresses as love, hate, fear. With this awareness that I am responsible for how the pure energy of God flows through me, I am the Creator of my own reality. I accept the fourth God Thought: I Am God. Then I can see the whole picture. Everyone is God. Everything is God. As created by God, we are all created of the same stuff, Love. I know that Divine Oneness is Always in Place because Everything is God. Everything is Love. Thus, everything moves to the beat of Love, with the master plan of Love, or pure God energy. Everyone receives this pure God energy when they enter into embodiment. It is one's choice as how it will express, how it will create one's own reality. One can create from a place of Love or one can create from a place of fear. I know I create my own reality because when I create from Love, miracles happen. I am aligned with/tapped into the Energy which runs the universe. All is brought unto me. When I create from ego, my life does not work.
The Teaching: I Am God was the hardest for me to master. It offers the greatest freedom. For as I take full responsibility for that which I create, I can create whatever I choose. I can create a life stream of joy, Love and peace or one of rage, sadness, despair, and victim-hood. The choice is mine. It is a Conscious act that is part of my Awakening.
God Is The Answer
Never forget that God is the answer to all the questions life places before your soul. God is love, and love is the panacea for human suffering. There is nothing greater than love, and God's Quality of attraction and unity that is manifested in the soul of every being.
This love, when expressed under all circumstances - in family, social and national life - expands to embrace the whole world. Such universal love is the pure love of God. When you have achieved that Love, then alone, you are a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Always be proud that you are a child of God, for just a little while, you have been an alien in the Kingdom of matter.
Develop God's Divine Love inherent in you, and you will reclaim your citizenship in the Kingdom of Omnipresence.
When you learn to go in meditation, you will find His Kingdom. It is within you; God is within you. It is His Power that is behind your ability to talk, move, and feel. Without Him, you can do nothing. Though God is transcendent, beyond all things, He is also Immanent; you can commune with Him right within you.
If you remove the dust of restlessness from the mirror of inner silence, you will see Him reflected there. Never miss your daily engagement with God in meditation or just conversation; chit-chatting. Those who are wise make it their business to contact Him. If you are sincere, you shall know God in this life;
There is a very simple way to know what God's Will is for us as individuals. Every day when we start our day, we build our own world. We make decisions in this way. I have to say this; I have to do this; I have to give this. Everything is I, I, I. If, instead of all this planning, we can make our minds absolutely calm and silent, we can know God's Will. This silence is not the silence of a dead body; it is the dynamic, progressive silence of receptivity. Through total silence and the ever-increasing receptivity of the mind, God's Will can be known.
When the human mind works powerfully, the Divine Will cannot work. God's Will works only when the human mind does not work. When the mind becomes a pure vessel, the Supreme can pour into it, His infinite Peace, Light and Bliss.
Right now, we do not hear God's Voice. There may be something we hear from within that we feel is God's Voice, but it may be only a voice coming from our subtle physical or subtle vital or from somewhere else. But when we silence the mind, we can hear a silent voice inside the very depth of our heart or above our head, and that is the Voice of God. Once we hear the Voice of God, we cannot make any mistake in our life. If we listen to its dictates all the time, we will go forward, upward and inward constantly.
We are constantly building and breaking our mental house. But instead of making and breaking the house at our own sweet will, if we can empty our mind, make it calm and quiet, then God can build His Temple or his Palace in us, in His own way. And when He has built His Abode within us, He will say, "I have built this for you and Me to reside in together. I have built it, but it is not mine alone. It is also yours. Come in."
The easiest way for us to know God's Will is to become the instrument and not the doer. If we become only the instrument for carrying out God's Plans, God's Will will act in and through us. God does the acting and He is the action. He is Everything. We only observe.
To easily know what God's Will is,
We have to feed the Divine in us
and illumine the human in us.
Knowing God's Will... You can know God's Will in your daily life if early in the morning you offer your utmost gratitude to God for what He has already done for you. When you offer your gratitude-heart, then it expands; and when it expands, it becomes one with God's Universal Reality. A gratitude-heart blossoms like a flower. When the flower is fully blossomed, then you appreciate and admire it.
In your case also, when your heart of gratitude blossoms, immediately God is pleased. If you offer gratitude to God for what He has already done for you, then naturally, God's sweet Will will operate in and through you. Early in the morning, before you meditate or do anything else, offer as much gratitude as possible; offer your soulful tears just because you have become what you are now. If you do this, eventually you will become infinitely more than what you are now. Gratitude will be able to make you feel what God's Will is. God's Will will act in and through you and God's Will do everything in and through you, and for you, if you offer gratitude.
Knowing what God wants you to do... You will easily know if you are not attached to the result, or elevated by the result. Before you do something, pray to God: "God, if it is Your Will, then please inspire me to do it well." While working, tell God, "God, since I have accepted this work with the feeling that You wanted me to do it, please work in and through me so that I can do it well. From Your inspiration, I will be able to know that it is Your Will." At the end of the work, whether the result comes as success or failure, offer it at the Feet of God with the same joy.
Knowing if you are executing God's Will... When you fulfill the demands of the ego, immediately, you will feel that you are the lord of the world or that you are going to become the lord of the world. You are bloated with pride, and you feel that the rest of the world is at your feet. Once a desire of yours is fulfilled, immediately you feel, "Oh, my desire is fulfilled. I have become something, and the rest of the world will not achieve what I have." Always, there will be a feeling of superiority when the ego is fulfilled.
When you execute the Will of God, the question of superiority or inferiority does not arise. At that time, you feel only your oneness. You feel that God has appointed you or that God has accepted you as His Chosen instrument, and that He is acting in and through you. No matter what you achieve, even if it is something very grand, extraordinary, unusual, you will not have any sense of personal pride. One the contrary, you will feel extremely grateful to God that He has Chosen to fulfill Himself in and through you. There will be no pride, but only a feeling of expansion.
To execute God's Will means to achieve something. When you achieve something, you feel an expansion of your consciousness. But when you fulfill the demands of your ego, you feel totally separated from the rest of the world. You are the lord, and the rest of creation is at your feet. In this way, you can know the difference between the two.
Is without fail.
A slow-ripening
But most delicious fruit.
Should We Pray for Something We Want, or Should We Just Pray for God's Will To Be Done?
To pray for God's Will to be done is the highest form of prayer. But a beginner finds it almost impossible to pray to God sincerely, to fulfill him in God's own way. Early in the morning, a beginner will say to God, "God, I want to be Your unconditionally surrendered child." Then, the next moment, when jealousy, insecurity or pride enters into him, his self-offering becomes all conditional. At that time, the seeker says, "God, early in the morning, I prayed to You so sincerely, to fulfill Your Will in me, but You did not listen to my prayer. Otherwise, I would have been above jealousy, fear, doubt, anxiety and attachment."
If the seeker prays for something in the morning, and his prayer is not fulfilled in a few hours' time, immediately he becomes discouraged. Then he stops praying and meditating for about six months or so. For a day, he offers his sincere prayer, and then for six months he is ready to enjoy ignorance. So when a seeker is just starting out, it is always advisable for him to pray to God for whatever he feels he needs most, whether it is patience, purity, sincerity, humility, or peace. Then, God will give him peace, light and bliss, which are the precursors of something infinite that is going to come into his inner being.
Once he has received and achieved some peace, light and bliss and has become established to some extent in his inner being, he will have some confidence in God's operation and also in his own life of aspiration.
When one is making very fast progress or is a little advanced, he feels that there is a Reality within himself that is not going to disappoint or desert him. He feels that God is fully aware of what he needs and is eager to supply him with the things that he needs, because God wants to fulfill Himself in and thorough His Chosen instrument. At His choice Hour, God will fulfill Himself in and through that particular chosen instrument.
When a seeker feels this kind of confidence within himself, that is the time for the seeker to pray, "Let Thy Will Be Done." At that time, he can sincerely say, "God, now I want to please You only in Your own way." At that time, he will feel that God wants to manifest Himself in and through him. He will feel that the moment God makes him perfect, he will be able to serve the Divinity in humanity.
If A Member of One's Immediate Family is Sick, What Is Your Feeling About Praying To God for Healing Power?
Let's say that someone in your family is ill. Instead of saying, "Cure my brother, sister, mother, etc.," if you can say, "I place my brother, my sister, my mother at the Feet of God," you will be doing the best thing. Your best healing power will be to place your mother, brother, sister, etc., at the Feet of God, because He knows what is best.
When you offer your own will to the Will of God, you gain power and this power will be utilized for God. God Himself will tell you now to utilize it. But if you try to heal on your own, in spite of your best intentions, you may stand against the Will of God.
Suppose you pray and meditate to acquire divine power so that you can cure people and help the world. You say, "I want to be a camel and carry the whole burden of the world on my shoulders." But if the camel is not illumined, then how can you help others gain illumination? You are running toward your goal. If you ask God to give you something, then this is just an additional thing that you have to carry; and it may slow you down. If illumination is your goal, think only of your goal and nothing else.
Telling The Difference Between The Will of God and Wishful Thinking...
In order to know God's Will, one need not be a great spiritual Master or a highly advanced soul. There are very few of these on earth, very few. But one has to be at least a seeker in order to know God's Will. How can one be a real seeker? One can be a true seeker if he feels that he is not only helpless, but also hopeless, meaningless and useless in every way without God. Without God, he is nothing, but with God, he is everything. He is aspiration. He is realization. He is revelation. He is manifestation. If one has that kind of inner feeling about oneself, then one can be a true seeker overnight.
A sincere seeker tries to meditate devotedly each day. One who meditates devotedly each day will soon have free access to God's inner Realm and be able to hear the Message of God. Of course, it is easy to say that you have to meditate devotedly... but to actually meditate devotedly may seem as difficult as climbing up Mount Everest. When you start meditating, you have to feel that your very life, your very existence, your very breath, is an offering to the Inner Pilot within you. Only in this way, you can meditate devotedly and have a devoted feeling toward God.
During your meditation, there comes a time when your mind is absolutely calm and quiet. There is only purity, serenity and profundity in your mind. Purity, sincerity and profundity have one common face, which is called "Tranquility." When tranquility is with them, they are perfect.
When the mind has become quiet, tranquil and vacant, inside your heart, you will feel a twinge, or you will feel something very tiny.. like a soft bubble. It is a tiny thing, but there in golden letters, is written a message. Even if you keep your eyes closed, no harm. Sometimes, the message is transferred from the heart to the head, and with your mind, you can see that the message has come. But if you have the capacity to go deep within, you will see that the message has already been inscribed in the heart. Just because you cannot see the message there, it has to come to the physical mind to convince you.
Inside the inmost recesses of the heart, where everything is flooded with purity, a message cannot be written by anybody other than God. There is no undivine force can enter. This is not true about the mind. In the mind, there can always be a mental hallucination, a fabrication or some self-imposed truth that we have created.
But in the inmost recesses of our heart, no disturbing thought, no struggling thought, no strangling thought will ever dare to enter. The depths of our hart are well protected, well shielded by God Himself because God's own Wealth and Treasure is there. He, Himself is there as a gatekeeper, guarding His Treasure.
When you meditate, please try to feel the necessity of opening your heart fully and closing your physical mind fully. The physical mind is the mind which thinks of your near and dear ones, your friends and the rest of the world. When you bolt the door of your physical mind and open the door of your heart, the mind becomes calm and quiet and the heart becomes all receptivity. When your concentration and meditation are focused on the heart and the heart is receptive, then naturally what the heart treasures, the Message from God, will come to the fore, and you will be able to read it... and utilize it in your day-to-day life.
Now, it is one thing to hear the Message of God correctly, and another thing to listen to it and fulfill it. There are quite a few who can hear God's Message, but in their outer life, they cannot execute it. For that, you need faith in yourself, faith that you are not just a child of God, but a chosen child of God. Everybody is God's child... but everybody cannot be God's chosen child because everybody is not consciously aspiring.
The chosen are those who really want God here and now, those who feel that they do not exist, cannot exist... without God. Just because you aspire sincerely, you can claim yourself as a chosen child of God.
