Practice The One Law That Perfects Faith GF Live 5-23-26

Key Lesson #1: The best things in life are not yet to come; they are inherent in the revelation of every moment in life.

The Three-in-One Law that Perfects Faith:
#1 Awakening to higher possibility
#2 Practice the realization of the revelation
#3 Persevere through the limitations revealed

Transcript

I wanna talk to you about something. Kind of special. Not that all of the material we. . . Take the time to study isn't but. There are some things that if we can see them. More clearly today than we saw them yesterday and for that effort, See them still more clearly in the moment to come, Then there is a benefit that actually can't be measured and that's what we're going to look at today. The talk is entitled. Practice the three-in-one law. That perfects. Faith. Practice the three-in-one law that perfects faith. I won't spend time to talk about the idea of faith here because it's been so destroyed by uh. . . A somewhat deliberate attempt on the part of mechanical religions to dummy it down But that word appears so often in Eastern and Western scripture that it's worth looking at what the real meaning of it is and how does one Come to it. Faith is different than belief. Let's see what happens. I ask you to follow me, Meaning. . . As I go through this, And I often do, I ask you to agree or say, No, I don't see it. So I can maybe take a moment to clarify it. But have not all of us, Or we wouldn't be here, Have a certain moment where it comes a kind of an unexpected impression. Fill in the blanks. You see something momentarily stuns you and it's beauty. You read a line in a book or you hear something in a talk. You meet as if you were fortunate enough, You meet a truly remarkable human being or you see a remarkable human being do something that is for all intents and purposes unreal. You meet a moment that can't be described in nature that is so silent. As to captivate you, Even a moment of a painful shock. All of these things can stir in us a certain sense. That within us there is something more that we are not only meant to be in this life, But that we can be in this life. I can think of several moments in my own, Some of them breathtaking in their scope. That literally changed the direction of my life. Can you think of a moment like that? It would help if you. . . Realized that came this impression. And it touched something in you that in turn created a kind of a domino effect. And the next thing you know, You are on the road to discovering whatever it was that was stirred in you in that moment. Can you see that? Because it's critical that if we see this together. Because now. Looking at that moment and part of the strangeness of it, If you will. Is that while this stirring This awakening promises us in undescribed terms the possibility of realizing a greater order of ourself, Another relationship with life in the same moment that that's revealed. Not explored is That revelation of a greater possibility brings about the realization that there are certain limitations in us. That stand in the way of realizing whatever it is that we just felt was important to us. So I see somebody do something remarkable, I hear something, I read something, And I'm so lit up. And yet in the very moment that I am lit up in that way, Although I'm not attending to it yet, The very fact that that light has come into my life is going to bring me into certain stages where I walk into, By necessity, A darkness. Something that seems to obscure or stand in the way of the very thing that I felt was ensured me if I was capable of realizing it. That's a good enough way of saying it. Can you see that with me? Because this is not a small observation. The truth is that hidden inside what I've just described to you is literally the entire story of human transformation and not just psychologically. Because we're talking about. Spiritually. Because and if you've read anything. Which isn't bad to do about. The life of a master in any world. You know that any one of them who has ever awakened to some higher possibility in art, Science. Music, Service, Healing, Spiritual discovery, Every single one of them went through the same paradox. And what is the same paradox that everyone went through on their way to perfecting what was suddenly awakened as a promise in their soul? It's this. That the promise of the rising promise of realizing a new level of ourself. Always awakens an opposing force. Stay with me. There is always the resistance of a lower nature in us that will only go so far to answer what we have been called to discover. This should be evident in everyone's life from the simplest thing, Wanting to learn how to roller skate. You take a few spills and suddenly you're thinking to yourself, Bowling. But we'll be better than her roller skating. Do you see it with me? That nature. That isn't apparent to us when we're suddenly filled with this longing That longing leads us to what stands in the way of its fulfillment that we don't know in that moment it appears. Because it's only going to go so far. And that's key here to understand. Because unless we understand this law, That for every action, There is an equal and opposite reaction. For every awakening, There is an equal and opposite resistance to what is required to go through that awakening. So until we understand this law and the necessary struggle that it entails, We misinterpret the whole journey. That takes place when that impression touches us. Because our present mindset. The way we. Encounter things that aren't easily overcome. That's a prelude to a limitation. A limitation we don't know is there within the invitation of what is limitless. Within every invitation to experience some limitless, Relatively new revelation of ourselves is the resistance to it, Mentally, Emotionally, Physically. And when we run into that mountain, We all know that the minute that it starts to get bigger than our ability that we believe we can climb it, The idea then becomes avoided at all costs or find a way around it. Are you able to see this with me? I don't know if I'm explaining it well enough to set the stage for our study. But it's so important to recognize. Because the opposite of what our mind tells us, The opposite of the experience we have. When faced with the prospect of realizing a new order of something in ourselves. But that new prospect delivers us into the pain of running into what seems to be in the way of that discovery. That needs to be understood, That the appearance of this resistance is not the proof that we can't realize what has been promised to us. But rather it is the evidence that something higher has already begun within us and that we are never invited to discover what is true and timeless. Without being given the means in the very moment of that invitation to arrive. At that understanding. Making the transition with me. Something touches us. Again, You think of, We don't know how. We don't know why. I've spoken of this a few times. We hear a strain of music. We see the reflection of a cloud in a body of still water. One of our own thoughts suddenly connects to something we had no idea connected to the whole of a moment. And there's an integration. And in that split second, There's a strange sense that we have that there's a lot more to life than we've known. Certainly more than what we've been And that sense of new possibility is inseparable from something that has touched us and awakened us to, If you want to use those words, The promise. Of at once transcending our limitation and at the same time realizing that within us there is something limitless that is calling us to realize it. But again, In those moments. And this is part of what becomes the obstacle. You have a. A revelation, A realization of the possibility of being. An actually kind human being, Not someone who puts it on. You see, It's possible to be a genuine human being. Because you have a glimpse of something. That at the same time holds the promise. It also reveals how terribly shallow we've been our whole life. So we don't ever see the depth of something without understanding through our experience how shallow we ourselves have been when entering into those situations. We read words. You hear in a talk something, You go, My God, I knew that, But I forgot it. I wonder what else I forgot. Because suddenly in the remembrance of something that was already within me. I realized that within me is something that is waiting to be realized, But that has been asleep. And so all of that. Proceeds in a way a kind of suffering. That as we agree to go through it, Tears open in a very true meaning of the word, It tears open, It pulls back the veils on our present understanding. Because we've seen past it by the grace of something that we can't understand but that we are drawn to because it has revealed where we have been a captive of something we didn't know we were a captive of. But by whatever form, One thing is certain. And I just touched on it, The possibility that now appears before us and within us was already there. It isn't something that was just added out of the blue. But rather seemingly out of the blue, Our entire skyscope, The whole realm of possibility is suddenly expanded because we have been awakened. Much like a seed touches a sunlight touches a seed. The seed isn't sitting there in the dark. Suddenly it stirs. And as it begins to awaken, That seed touched by something it can't understand is drawn toward what touched it. So something touches us and reveals higher possibilities, Creates a longing in us. Proves that what we have this new longing for was there in another shape within us and now suddenly is awakened and we are drawn to it by the grace of that light, By the grace of God. We can't define it. But by God, We are drawn to it and as rightfully. Moving as it is. The more clearly we begin to recognize, Yes, Yes. I would like to be someone who doesn't snap. I would like to be someone who is unafraid, Who will go into situations without concern for the outcome, But more concerned for what is coming in to that person. All of these things. We start to recognize that resistance that we feel to these moments is not because God has said, Life is saying, No, You're wrong. This is wrong, But rather because something real has begun within us. So where most of us feel at a certain point, Oh, That's the end. I'm saying to you that there is a law that we're going to look at with great clarity that proves it is not the end, But that in what we call the end is actually the beginning of something new. Of something true that we can't of ourselves. Create. So in essence, It brings us to. Something I've called a tale of two natures. Because inside of us, We know there is a lower nature that not only knows itself only through what it has been, Through all of its images, Attachments, And dependency accordingly, But that anything that threatens what it has been and what it counts on for its sense of security is a threat. And this nature, This lower nature defines our possibilities. According to its conditioned experience. So that we live as a captive of a constant state of comparison. With all of its ensuing conflict and live bound up by that forever struggling within that little prison. And that nature, For lack of a better words, Is the incarnation of mediocrity. It spins and toils but produces nothing real other than confirming itself as something or someone who's run into something it can't transcend. And there's no such thing as that. On the other hand, Within us is an entirely different nature. One that is not defined by the past, One that cannot be conditioned. It is a higher order of being whose nature is inseparable from exploring, Discovering, And realizing its own possibilities. Exploring, Discovering, And revealing its own highest possibilities. We would never think this way. We can't see it. Christ said to you, If you have the faith of a mustard seed. What is a mustard seed within it, Already built into it? Is all the inherent possibilities of becoming the largest tree on earth. Because. In one respect or another, If you'll see it, Something touches the seed, It begins to explore through its movement, Its confines, The resistance inherent in the confines causes it to discover how it's confined, But what it's confined by can't stop what it has been given to move through it. And so that little seed realizes the birth of itself in a series of different forms that are the perfection of its possibility. And that seed understands what the lower nature can't. Let's bring up the first key lesson, Kate, Please. It helps us summarize what we've looked at so far. Read along with me, Everybody. The best things in life are not yet to come. They are inherent in the revelation of every moment of life. Oh, How different this is than the way our present nature looks at her. For us, Everything is about becoming something better, Getting someplace other than we are doing something that will satisfy us when all of this didn't. So us, And that's, It's a statement in life. It isn't the best is yet to come. You know why people love that and embrace the mediocrity inherent in it. Because it means that I'm not tied down in this nature. Now listen, That I'm suffering because all I can do is think from it, See from it, And then act from it and just reincarnate it. So the best things in life are not yet to come. They're inherent in the revelation of that nature. That believes there's a time to come when it will escape and transcend itself. And our work, If it has shown us anything, Is that there's no such thing as that time to come. This is the time to come. Right now while I'm talking to you. And there is no other moment to come. The awareness of these seemingly opposing wills, That which wants nothing to change other than what it agrees is right to change, And that which is always going through changes because that's its righteousness, When these two things meet, What we look at is basically the drama of all human existence. Because there is that which is true and good. That which is innate as a result of spirit. And then there is that which has been sewn into this fallen consciousness that is telling us freedom is something on its way. If we can just acquire what we need. So here we have this drama, This struggle, Constant struggle of war and peace. The drama of human existence, But. . . It also meaning that drama if we're present to it. Yes, I want to. No, I can't. But I will. No, You won't. This is great, But it has a problem. The very constant re-juxtification, Re-juxtification, Whatever, The reshaping of our mind all the time through that struggle not only shows us this experience, This drama, But it informs us. If we can see it, Which is the purpose of truth, It informs us we don't have to be a conflict. We don't have to be a captive of it. Why don't we have to be a captive of that conflict, Or for that matter, The resistance to the world that it creates in our name? This is what we're looking at together. Let's make a transition. Take a nice deep breath. I'll bring it down, I suppose. Whether we have acknowledged it or not, We all know. That the truly transcendent moments in humanity. In our history comes when individuals, Not groups. When individuals. Find within themselves because they have been invited to discover it. Something that says we must go beyond the accepted norms. We must. Transcend these limitations of our culture, Of our tradition, Of our society. The old think out of the box. It's one thing to think out of the box. It's another to get a cardboard cutter and get out of that box and discover what called you out of it. So that all true teachers, Great artists, The true spiritual revolutionaries, Every last man and woman by their work expanded the boundary of human understanding and in expanding the boundary of human understanding made it possible for us to see it was possible to do that. And so not only is the collective possibility of humanity changed by the individual willing to move beyond that limitation, But you and I realize, Wow. I remember when it was strange, It comes to my mind, The first guy to run a four minute mile or a six minute mile, Somebody Ryan. So nobody can do that, They said, And now it's done all the time. Because we're no longer believers. To whatever extent we've been invited to receive a new understanding. That it is possible for us to go through these moments where fear would turn us or doubt would drop us into a hole? Because you can be, You know, Our mind says, Well, They're special. No, They're not special. No human being is good, Said Christ. What they are and what you and I are meant to be is someone who recognized that the resistance that they met. And not just outwardly, But inwardly. That the resistance they met along that journey to realize what had been revealed as a promise, That that resistance is not an enemy. We instantly assume the pain of resistance to be the proof. That there is something in our way. And then depending upon the strength of our desire, We'll either try to move through it or not. But at a certain point, You and I all know we're just turned, But not these people. Why? Because within them, The same nature, Lives within us. The most painful form. Of meeting any limitation. Marks the threshold. Of a revelation. When we meet a limitation, All we see is what we, What the mind points to as And you feel it, I'm tired, I can't, They won't, It won't happen. We see the limitation in the form. And fail to recognize that were it not for the revelation of that form and the threat of limitation, We would be locked forever into a cage, Into a box. And so these people, As are you and I intended to do. Understood that enough so they were able to walk past the places where most of us get stopped. I would like to go into a completely different tangent here, But I can't. What is true can't be stopped. What is false is always stopped the moment that the image derived from it seems to suddenly make a place of impasse. So it isn't that these people didn't feel fear, Pain and doubt. But they could see past it. They could see past resistance. Because they understood the next. Moment where that nature was resisting whatever the step was, The nature resisting the next step belonged to a different level of being that was indeed being called forth. Imagine if a seed felt the stirring of the light that moves it and then decided the husk was just too much for it to go through. That happens, The seed dies, It bears no fruit. When the human soul doesn't recognize that something has started to move past its present limitations, It dies in the husk of this unconscious humanity. Instead of realizing that the light that calls the seed to break the husk and emerge is at all times working in levels and scale as above so below, So that when we feel the longing to break out of some present limitation, We are guaranteed by what has stirred that longing in us that there is a way. Are you following me? Can you see it with me? I'm going to run out of time here. I can tell it. It, It, It brings us to one of the most important lessons. The nature incapable of going past itself. Asserts its will through resistance. So when you feel resistance, What you are experiencing is the presence of a nature that is incapable of transcending itself by itself. Think about it. How many different ways do we feel resistance? Discouragement. Self-doubt. Inertia. What we would call just pure laziness. A sudden sharp certainty that this is too difficult or something saying, You know, I would really like to, But this is too hard. It's not worth it. Because suddenly the desire runs into what stands in its way. And then the mind weighs it. Well, You know, Look, It would have been good, But I'll go on and I'll imagine something else. Bring up the second key lesson, Please, Kate. It'll summarize again where we are. Any moment that feels like the end of our journey toward actualizing what is best in us is secretly the next step along the way. Any moment that feels like the end of our journey toward actualizing what is best in us is secretly the next step along the way. This is that place where this nature says, I can't go further. When you feel that you need to understand that you are on the threshold of a new level of being, But one you will never realize if you don't go through the moment, Instead of accede to it. Because to know that this moment of, I can't go, I can't do that. I can't go pastor. This is too painful. That that very moment itself is revealing the consciousness responsible for that assertion, Changes everything. Because here's the key. The third key lesson, Please Kate. Resistance is the herald. Resistance is the divine herald. Of revelation. Resistance is the divine herald of revelation. When was the last time you ran a, You know, And I think it's in the Chinese Eastern tradition, The word crisis is the same as opportunity. I'm describing something of that nature to you. Last time you ran into resistance, When did you think to yourself, I'm standing here looking at the herald of the divine? That doesn't come to our mind because all we see in this mind that is formulating the reason for the resistance is what we have to do to escape it. But the key here is that resistance doesn't just reveal, Listen, The specific limitation that needs to be outgrown But at the same time, That resistance reveals what I would call the willful antics of an unconscious nature responsible for the appearance of that resistance, Because that resistance is how it feels like it really wants to go past that moment, But it just doesn't have what it takes. And then it gives itself the explanation why it needs to stop there instead of step through and into and through that resistance to discover what can only be discovered in the following way. And I better move along. I have some other notes. I was going to talk to you about how we know we get stronger, Muscles get stronger through resistance. I already described how a seed has to break apart in order to actualize its promise. And we've been looking how the soul has to go through this resistance to realize the possibility that it was promised when it was awakened. So the promise here, If you will, That this nature interprets the revelation of limitation as the evidence, This is time to go back to retreat, Not understanding the limitation is revealed so it can be transcended. The limitation is revealed so it can be transcended. Which brings me to the heart of this talk. Title of the talk is Practice the 3-in-1 Law that Perfects Faith. The three-in-one law that perfects faith. Oh, I don't have time to go into it. You don't know what has been done to our mind. But the great saints, The sages, East and West, St. Paul said, Hope, Our faith in things. Who has faith in things seen? Why did he say that? Because why would I have faith in something that I know or that I want or see? When if I actually could see it, I would already have it. And I, What I have to have faith is in something that's promising me. A way in which for me to transcend the fear that comes every time I run into a moment that says, No, There's no further to go. Here is the three-in-one law that perfects faith, And this is not a man-made system. Religion has become a man-made system. The real religion means to reconnect with the divine, Not connect yourselves to principles and images and icons through which you derive consolation. The real three-in-one law that perfects faith is not motivational in nature, Because we can't be motivated towards anything other than something we're already deriving a sense of power and pleasure through. The real three in one law that perfects faith is actually a pattern that's built into the divine life itself that we are made in the image of. Here it is. Number one, The first part of these three laws. Awakening to higher possibility. We talked about it. Suddenly, I don't know where it came from. I read that book about this experience. I saw this person. Something that was asleep in me, It was awakened. And there's a longing inside of me that I didn't create. In fact, It's a new longing and yet it's familiar because it seems when it comes up. That the longing to enter into a life that transcends my present limitations allows me to have a sense of that other life. So try to see it. I'm longing for a new life. That has been revealed as a possibility within the life that I have. Which means the new possibility is not outside in some profitable venture or something I'm going to gain or do. It's in discovering that within myself, All of these possibilities are latent. And so the latency is stirred and with it comes a glimpse of a greater life. And without this awakening, There's no journey. Men and women today, A lot of them, I trust not you, Their spiritual journey is because they heard somebody talk about something magnificent and how money would rain down on them and they would never die and all the rest of that crud. And so awaken in them as a desire to achieve what an image has said is their possibility. And when we try to achieve what an image promises, We belong to that image and the image maker, Mammon, The insatiable appetite. So the first thing is awakening to something that is stirred in us. That draws us, That calls us. That's the first. One of the three laws that perfect faith. We've known this. The second of the three laws that perfect faith. So I'm drawn. I feel it. I would love to sing like that. I would love to be able to swing a golf club like that. I would love to be his patient. And understanding as I just saw that person be and they weren't pretending. So now I've been drawn to this. Revelation, And now I must practice the realization of it. First, The higher possibility awakened. And then the work to practice what it is that I have seen as best I know to practice it. And practicing the revelation of what I've been drawn to. Means that I'm going to run headlong into everything that denies that possibility, Because I'm not going to achieve or enter into this sudden state of greatness as I've imagined. Because that's what happens when we have this longing, The mind takes it over and makes it into something concrete. And the next thing you know, We're a captive of identification with an image we didn't even know got formulated in us. No, I must, I must practice. And not practice what I preach. Practice what I have perceived as a possibility. Practice the patience I don't have by experiencing the impatience that takes me over so I know something of the impatient nature. Practice the being the generous human being. I want to be in my heart of hearts so I can see I'm stopped at every split second by something that always puts myself first, Or that at least measures how I'll come out if I do that generosity. So that instead of enabling everybody around me, I'm working to reveal this nature that lives to create dependency in others and within myself. Are you following me, Please? Because if I don't practice this. . . There's no way I'm ever going to understand. That in the practice of something, Now, Listen. Because this is what the mind says, One step forward, Two step back. And that's, Again, Humanity. Get out of humanity. Get out of it. Two, One step forward to it's no, It is one. It is not one step forward, Two steps back in truth. It is two steps forward and one step back. Two forward, One back. Why one back? Because it's required. Because I have to see where I've run into the end of what I am capable of being before I can realize that indeed by the recognition that I've run into this limitation, The recognition of the limitation is because of a revelation that something greater still awaits me. Two steps forward, One step back because I gained understanding. I know what not to do. I know where not to place my attention. I've seen and experienced firsthand what doesn't work. I thought I could be patient by outlining the conversation I would have before I went into it. And then the person threw a right hook. And the next thing I know, I was throwing backward grenades. I must practice. And the third of the three-in-one. Laws that perfect faith. And this is where the rubber meets the road. I must. Persevere through the limitations revealed. I must persevere through the limitations revealed, Not because I know I can get through them, But because I am more attentive to what is showing me them, Knowing that I wouldn't be shown the limitation if there weren't something already outside of it that has transcended that nature. Even though this limitation in it does. How few will pay this price. To run into over and over and over again. What the old nature can't wait to say, See? What's the point? And I'm saying to you, The point is to see. To maybe see that you keep trying to do the same thing in different ways, But won't just try something altogether different that the old nature can't even imagine, Because all it wants to do is find some variation on the theme of itself. So I must persevere through the revelation of these limitations and the pain of it. Because the path. Ends only when we agree to turn around. The path to whatever we have been invited to learn about and perfect within ourselves only ends when we are deceived into turning around. Now, Those are the three-in-one laws, And how are they, As the title says, How do they perfect faith? Because if you go through that, You realize a new order of faith. You understand you are the mustard seed. That's what the soul is in the scheme of things between heaven and earth. You are the mustard seed because within you not a belief borrowed from others. But for yourself having seen and daring, Which it requires to go through the pains to prove to yourself through your effort. That exists within you. Is a kind of an invisible spiritual foundry. We've all seen those films, If not walking through those steel factories and the sparks are flying out, The molten iron is being poured to take a shape. We're a facility of the divine. And if we understand that and go through that, We become the living proof that hidden within every unwanted moment is the higher being that has revealed the limitation to it, Right in the unwanted moment. And we see a lower nature whose only power is to resist what it can't transcend. And we see it because we stay there long enough to see that nature and begin to escape its willful antics of ensuring that we remain anxious, Angry, And afraid, Because that's what it wants. Let's bring up the fourth key lesson, Kate. As we stop struggling in vain. To prove that we can shape the world to fit our limited view of it. It is we who are converted. Whereby learning to actualize the great laws designed to reshape our soul. We are transformed into a vessel for the divine. And accordingly, We grow in faith that that is exactly what we are created to be. Because now we are participants. Willingly involved in this spiritual foundry. Where everything is being taken from one form and put into another. Whereby our willingness to undergo the heat, If you will. The light that reveals these limitations for what they are and stay in that light long enough, We begin to realize that which can be realized in no other way. So quickly to end our talk. Three in one law. Perfects faith. First intention. If our intentions are given to us by this world, We're dead in the water because the only thing this world intends is the continuation of itself at the cost of the soul imbued in it. The intention I had. I've always said I was gonna, And you fill in the blanks, It doesn't really matter. I've always intended, I want to be an artist. I've always intended to learn a new language. I've always intended to get out of my chair and go run or hike or exercise. I have a longing. I follow it and I practice. What that intention is. I keep my eye on the North Star, If you will. I stand in the light of the revelation of something that says, Hey guy, Whatever your name is. You can actualize this. You want to be a person who doesn't hurt other people? How? Actualize it. How? Not by trying to be a kind person. But by being present enough to see the nature that's always unkind when anything challenges the image it has of itself. And if I practice, Then I'm going to have to persevere. Because practice doesn't mean every other Thursday go out for 10 minutes and do something. Practice doesn't mean imagine that I'm going to do something and then feel really good because I feel like I accomplished something. No, Practice requires perseverance if we're going to understand the perfection inherent in these three in one laws that do what? That bring about the transformation of the whole of that nature so that it sees without taking thought. That it was brought to that moment. By a small act of faith that what was promised to it in that initial revelation it was drawn to? Existed the possibility of realizing the nature that was drawing it. The completion of itself. And then to go through that transformation. And then once through that, As that faith grows, You won't have to think to yourself, How do I strengthen this? How do I start over? You will want those moments that formerly you did everything you could to avoid where you saw yourself, This consciousness as it is, That doesn't want you to see it has become your life. We are created not only to perfect what has been given to us by nature, But to outgrow the limitations of that nature that wants to ensure we are never reborn into something that it can't follow us into. Every new realization costs us the surrender of who and what we have believed ourselves to be. To meet that nature. And see it for what it is. And then be taken through that by these laws that I just described, Brings you into a new kind of freedom that cannot be described by anyone, Only experienced directly as you practice these three laws that perfect faith.