The Unimaginable Source Of Divine Strength GF Live 9-2-23

The smallest effort to remember your relationship with the Divine connects you to a calmness whose power is the strength found in all things deep. The smallest effort to remember your relationship with the Divine connects you to a calmness whose power is the strength found in all things deep.

Transcript

So, I'm going to ask Kate to post the key lesson and then we're going to get started. I'd ask that you just pause your posting for a moment so we can get this up in one piece that everybody can share in it. Nice deep breath. Here we go. The smallest effort to remember your relationship with the divine connects you to a calmness whose power is the strength found in all things deep. The smallest effort to remember your relationship with the divine connects you to a calmness whose power, Whose strength is found in all things deep. I want to add here before I launch. I don't want or expect you to believe anything that I say. I often repeat this idea. You must for yourself look at what is being said, What is being taught, And see whether or not it in fact meets up with or marries your experience to date. We're not interested in a new set of beliefs. What we're interested in, God willing, Is a new understanding born of a new relationship with what is deep and profound, With what is innately powerful, With what is always beautiful. That is, By any other words, What we would call the divine. Like all creatures, Only in a different way. For instance, Most of you know I'm a bit of a naturalist. I love nature. I love the creatures that I have cultivated the relationship with all of these years. We all come into this world with an innate need in one way or another that is a kind of a longing to belong. It's built in. You can watch it amongst the higher vertebrates. The idea of a family, A herd, A group. In essence, A longing that is put in them, In their creation, To belong to a larger body. Because in the larger body that the creature belongs to, There are all of these intricate relationships and the intricacy of these relationships has a natural kind of stimulation to bring forth out of the creatures involved in that larger body, The impressions, The experiences that strengthen their character and give their life a purpose, Not just as an individual creature but as something that belongs to a broader life. The same thing holds true for we as human beings and not just in this physical animal form where we have an innate longing to belong to a family, A larger group for the same purposes that all creatures, But above and beyond that, A longing for these impressions and these revelations that come with them. No animal understands a revelation. It is the experience of what will moves through it to do what that will would have the creature do to serve the greater body. When we have impressions and we are aware of these impressions as being reflections in our own consciousness, I'm suddenly aware of something in myself as a result of a relationship I have that I wouldn't have were it were not for that relationship. And in these revelations that are reflected in our consciousness, We come to realize the truth of ourselves, Some truth of ourselves. That's what the grand discovery of this life is for human beings, Is that we are forever being brought into a world where, Not just physically but spiritually, A world where we discover there is an unseen, Undiscovered yet realized unity that we have with everything that we observe because we don't observe everything that isn't reflected in our consciousness And it is in our consciousness that these creatures live. It is in our consciousness that we understand our relationship to creation. And no other creature has and knows, Through direct awareness, A relationship with creation. But here's the point. Something steals this from us. Or more accurately, And to no fault of our own, We are complicit in giving away this possibility that we have of realizing the innate spiritual gifts, The powers, The strength, The beauty, The love. We are deceived into giving this away. And that's what we're going to look at so that we can come full circle. And in coming full circle, Begin to understand what our responsibility is. What is our relationship to the moment? And how are we to interact with it so that we can, In fact, Find an unimaginable source of a divine strength? A divine strength that is innate, But that we have lost relationship with. So let's get started. I've spoken of this before, But I'm going to do it in broad strokes. Do you remember the first time you were ever really hurt by somebody? I mean, I can think of times when my best friend didn't pick me first on his football team or whatever it was, And so you had a kind of hurt. But I meant the kind of hurt like when you really fell in love for the first time. And one way or another, At some point in our life, Every last one of us goes through a kind of loss, A hurt, A pain, That when we go through it, I remember for me, I think I was 16 or 17 years old, I remember I sit there, I said, I swear to God, I will never ever have this kind of pain again. It would be helpful if you can remember these moments. Maybe they've been blocked out, But sort of the development of a human being is to be taken through this process by which, Without knowing it, In a certain kind of innocence, We give ourselves completely to what we love. This person you love, There's no thought of deception. There is just an ongoing, Dedicated wish to have a life with whoever that may be or whatever it may be that has attracted you, Drawn you. And then something happens, They lie, They steal, They cheat, It's destroyed. Like I said, In those moments, We are filled with this feeling of absolute denial, Whatever it takes, That's not going to happen to me again. And because of that, There's no moment in any possible new relationship that we enter into that isn't colored by the content of that particular energetic creature that was formed in us when this resistance met its match. That's it. I'm never going to go through that again. And then out of that, We fall into this place where cynicism begins to formulate itself, Where fear goes before us to protect us from something that isn't even a real possibility in that moment, Save for what our mind is doing to us. And so we become, Without knowing it, Identified with the content of a memory, Of a pain. And at that point, We literally become afraid of needing. All of this first 10 minutes, Just to get to that point, I become afraid of needing. I don't want to be rejected again. I don't want to go through that again. And that goes with us. I see it all the time with students. A man or a woman comes because they find some water, Some truth, And they want to drink from it, But they'll only drink to a certain extent. Because they fear, And please listen to me, Rightly so, Most of these so-called teachers and gurus and self-help people in this world, They're nothing but thieves and liars, Padding their pockets with whatever the profit is that they can get from someone to believe in what they tell them. That's why I tell you, Never believe what I say. Find out whether or not it's true. Is it true or is it not that you'll only go so far? Because at a certain point, One stands at this abyss, And one looks over, And all they have to look at is the memory of places and times when they got hurt. And I would argue strenuously, And you must find out for yourself, A man or a woman, When it comes to having this longing for a relationship with the divine, They're going to have to get to the point where they actually understand. If I'm going to be a fool for the sake of the love I have for God, Then let me be a fool, And then please God, Show me where I was fooled so I can start again. And not deny this need that I have. This need to belong to something greater than myself. This need to know a security that can't be shaken because somebody looks at me in a strange way or because I run into a contradiction in life, And I can't resolve it. Pride comes in. Can you imagine a man or a woman finds a sense of pride in being a rugged individual who will never this or never that, Because why? Because it happened to me before, And I'm not going to go through that again. How many times in relationships with others, Because of the fear of being hurt, Which is inseparable from an unconscious pride, Have we turned away or spurned someone or something that could have brought something into our life of meaning, A new relationship filled with new revelations? It happens every day to all of us. And so without understanding it, We're kind of in a rock, What's that saying, Between a rock and a hard place, Because I'm afraid to need. I'm afraid to need when what I need is to be in relationship with a life where this need brings me to what is needed, And what is needed is drawn to the need that I have in this beautiful, Perfect kind of reciprocity that the divine life, The relationship with it is constituted on. Because I'm afraid. I don't want to be deceived again. And it's another topic, But just to touch on it deeply, I'm afraid to be deceived because I look out at others and I know the quality and character of the kind of human being I am when push comes to shove. And by and large, Most of us, When push comes to shove, We will push or shove anybody in our way or take from them whatever is needed to get us through that desperate moment where what we've become dependent on suddenly is rattled and we find ourselves feeling like, Oh my God, What's going on? It's a bit of understanding to the point of this talk that when we have a true need can never bring to a human being what deceives that human being. It is our misunderstanding of that need. It is the corruption of that need, Which this world has become masterful at ensuring that we begin to believe that our desires are the same as needs. And that's one of the great sortings of the weed in the chaff is the beginning of recognizing that all the time I'm in some kind of crisis where I realize that what I thought was true, What I believed was necessary for me as a human being to not just have a life that was good and happy, But to have a relationship with God. All of these things I imagined and over and over and over again, Life brings this beautiful lesson that we summarily reject because it flies in the face of everything that we're identified with. And so this contradiction is sublime because what I was so sure I wanted that I had to have or to become, What I was sure I wanted proves to be the last thing I needed. How many times have we gone through that? I was sure I had to have that house. I was sure I had to have that money. I was sure I had to have your respect. And the depth of that desire produces the depth of resistance to the moment when it's denied and then I find myself caught up again trying to go through the same loop. I was so sure I wanted this and it was the last thing I needed. On the other hand, What I really need is the last thing I want. What I was so sure I wanted, I had to have, Turned out to be the last thing I needed because it didn't complete me. It made me the slave of an identity, An attachment that kept me trying to keep in place something that was ultimately a punishment that I thought would liberate me. What I really need is the last thing I want. And what do I really need? I need the lessons. I need the revelations. I need the awakening to prove to me, To show me through direct experience that I have misunderstood what it is that I'm in this life for and where it is in this life that I'm going to find if I do at all this perfect strength, This love, This understanding. So let's look at this together a little bit. I'll simplify it as best I'm able. I've put it into four stages. Stage one, We can't escape it. We're born into a world, We watch our mother, Our father, Their mother, Their father, All of throughout time, This gradual corruption, And it has been a corruption, Where I am sure that I need, And then you fill in the blank, I need possessions. And I need possessions because they grant power. And I need that power because I want the approval so that in being approved, I can not only belong to a group or to someone or something, But they will want me in their life because of what I represent through the things I've acquired. And all the time we go through these iterations, We see it, We run the race, We think we win, The starting gun goes, We got to go again. So what it turns out is that I've been betrayed. I remember the first time, It was so clear, This betrayal. I had all my life wanted to be a successful songwriter, Composer, And then one day at last, By the grace of God, I get signed, Believe it or not, To Motown Records, To Jobette Publishing, My partner and I, The first white soft rock artists to sign with them. And I've got a contract, And every week I get some money, And I'm in heaven because I love music, And now I'm doing what I love. And fast forward, Four years later, I'm sitting in a home in Malibu with a tennis court, Sitting at my piano, And I'm banging my head on it because now I have to complete a musical score in order to score the approval and the continual adoration of the people around me and keep the money coming, And I become a slave of the very thing I think would free me. Now it wasn't that music made me a captive, But I became a captive of a consciousness that believed that what I was sure I needed was going to make me a successful person. It didn't make me a successful person. In the eyes of the world, Maybe, But in my own eyes, I knew that I had become a slave to a desire, To a longing, To a wanting to belong, To be seen as special. And at that point, Of course it was a little sooner than that, But then a person goes, You know what? Well, Now what? This is a false need. What's going on? Next stage, I need to know. I need to know what in the heck is going on because my former knowledge brought me to this place. So obviously what I think I know doesn't work, And yet that's all I have to rely on is what I think I know. What I thought I knew that mom and dad and the world conditioned us into isn't sufficient under the day. And I now know that that's true, So I now begin go looking for new knowledge. I want new understanding, And maybe for some of us, This is where the spiritual path begins. I don't know. But at a certain point, I acquire this knowledge. I read the scripture. I attend these talks. I'm immersed, And maybe God willing, Because I have a love for it, I'm brought into all this, But then I start to recognize, You know, I pretty much can repeat every passage in the Bible. I know the Bhagavad Gita. I know the principles inside of the Dhammapada, The Vedic scripture. I mean, I've meditated. I've medicated. I've done it all, And no matter how much I know, Still there's moments come, And I'm just knocked flat on my back because in the moment where the immediate resistance comes, The reaction appears, I'm carried off, And my knowledge is like a life raft with a hole in it, And I go down. And then at that stage, I realize I need to transcend this knowledge, And I don't even know what that means. I recognize that thought isn't going to save me. I realize that being able to parrot scripture or teachers, I realize that imagining myself to be like someone isn't going to bring me strength. In fact, I'm beginning to recognize at that point that all of the strength that I was looking to from something outside of myself was the actual weakness that I didn't know is true, And so I need to transcend this consciousness. I didn't bring myself to this need. I came to this need through a process of negation, But it was a definitive path, And the outcome was inescapable if I was honest to the need that I had at each of these stages. So at that point, I realize how inconsistent it is to be knowledgeable, How inconsistent it is to meditate and be calm for two hours and then go to the office or get into traffic and turn into a tyrant, And at that point, A person recognizes what I need, I can't give myself. God help me. And that's maybe the first time that that idea ever appears in genuine form. I need grace, And I don't even know what it is other than looking at my life, I can see that it was by grace that I ran into these periods where everything I thought I knew and desired that would free me was negated. So that by a form of teaching that I couldn't see because I was going through it as part of the thrashing, I arrive at a discovery that what I need most of all in my life, I'm powerless to give myself. Because at the root of it, What I need most of all is this relationship with something that as I am a part of it, It is a part of me, And there's no separation, So I don't have to go looking for something to console me. I don't have to start drawing on thought to try to rid me of the torment of what thought brought to me because I believed in it and followed its path. And it's this point that a person begins because their mind is growing quiet. That's how the mind grows quiet, Not by negation, Not by affirmation, By a process of realizing bit by bit by bit that everything that you heard was true, But that was only in the form of intellectual knowledge as a fact, As above, So below, As within, So without. Look at it with me. The grass, The flowers, The trees, If you ever watch, Everything grows in the direction, The main direction of the sunlight. Why does everything lean towards the light? And it does, Because it's drawn to it. The blades of grass, The trees, The leaves, The, What do they call it, Phototronic, Celiotronic, The flowers that open and turn, Why? Because you can say, And it's accurate, You don't need to be Einstein, All of these creatures need that energy. And because they need it, They're drawn to it, And as difficult as it may be to understand in the miracle of what is divine, The sun needs the flowers that it has helped create. They are in a relationship. And the further that a person falls away from this relationship, From this need that exists inseparable from the creature and the creature that fulfills it, The point being that even at the level of earth, There is a natural desire in every creation, And that natural desire is its need, And its need is to have a union with what it needs to be completed through its need by the only thing created to complete that need. And in that need, There is a ceaseless reconciliation and a completion of all of these creatures without them doing anything other than just living the need that they have. They have no choice. The need is innate in their nature. Their nature is to need. Nature answers the need she puts in the creature. Yes, It is a form of love, But it is not a sentimental, It is not an emotional, It is what Christ called agape. It is a living reciprocity. The word reciprocal, Stay with me, Means that, Like, I was hoping, I said something nice to somebody, I was hoping for a reciprocal comment. I did something good for someone, I was hoping that they would reciprocate. So it is a corresponding return. That is what reciprocal is. But reciprocity is an agreement. It is a kind of an obligation bearing on each of two parties equally. The definition is a bilateral commitment to have a complementary exchange, A mutual correspondence, A binding of two parties, Reciprocity, A binding of two parties. There is a reciprocity between the Son and all of her creatures. It is a binding agreement. The creature didn't create it, Even the Son, In one respect, Didn't create it, Because the Son and the creatures are a vine to the greater vine, A branch to the greater vine. You can see this. I don't have time to go into it. So there is this need, And we can see it in nature, I like to say, In the common is hidden the celestial. Well, What is the celestial hidden in the common? That I am brought into this world, My soul, This other aspect that isn't just animal, The Ruach Adonai, The living breath, It has a need. And because of its need, It doesn't have the need without that which feeds the need and completes it. That's the living relationship with the divine that requires nothing on our part other than to recognize where it is that we're interfering with that. Because whenever you and I have, In quotes, What we call a need, The first thing that we call on is thoughts, Feelings, And imagination to get us to the point where we can complete that need. And it never dawns on us that that need that we have may have something original and innate in it that's true and good, Because if that need were left alone, It would deliver us into a moment where the teacher appears. And in that need, It would be completed by the only thing that can complete it. And when the need is completed by what has been created to complete it, Then you have unity, You have a union, You have a marriage. You have the birth of something new, This reciprocity. Years ago, As is true with so many of these things, Reading through these things, Certain things strike you. One of them that struck me was something that in Corinthians, St. Paul, This is quoting him, And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for thee, For my strength is made perfect in weakness. My grace is sufficient for thee, For my strength is made perfect in weakness. And then St. Paul went on to say, So therefore, Gladly do I revel in my infirmities and my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me. That sounds like it's religion. It's not religion. It's not religion. It's not religion. At least not in the way that we look at this idea now, Where we have this idea, This iconic image of something divine, And we're going to call on it, And it's going to save us from our problems. What is truly divine doesn't save you from your problems. What is divine reveals that the problem is an illusion, Because what is divine when it is reciprocated, Meaning when you give yourself to it, It proves to you that you're not apart from that love, That life, That constant rebirth. And in that constant rebirth, In that constant regeneration that the need is calling for, What is the need that any human being has other than to be brought into a relationship with that which completes the human being? And either that completion is in the moment, Or it's not the real deal. How many times have I, Have you thought to yourself, I'm so anxious, What do I do? I need strength. Oh, I know. I'll get some more of this. I'll complete myself in a time to come when the time to come I've imagined finally brings me that peace. And part of the great lesson in this life and the negation of this misunderstanding is the eventual, God willing, Recognition that whatever it is that I'm imagining I'm going to become in order to answer this need I have is the interference, Is the destruction, The delay of the very thing that's taking place moment to moment if I'm actually present to the need I have and the act of being part of this creation in which that need is never not answered any more than the sun never fails to answer the blade of grass or the flower that turns to it for its warming light and life. So let me bring in a special key lesson, Which is the exercise as well, And then I'm going to open it up to you. Please just don't post for a moment or two. Let Katie put this up so that we can have it on the board. Here is the special key lesson and the exercise that explains everything I've said and intimates the action if you're willing to follow it. Here we go. If you want to be free, Leave your need be just as it is. And it will lead you from the darkness of any empty moment into the fullness of a living light in which no fear can dwell. If you want to be free, Leave your need be just as it is. Do this and it will lead you from the darkness of any empty moment into the fullness of a living light in which no fear can dwell. That's what real strength is. Unimaginable. Imperfect love casts out fear because imperfect love is the unity of a reciprocity that cannot be denied eternally. Leave the need be. You find yourself in that sudden anxiety. Leave the need be. God knows, The divine knows what you and I need before we ask for it. So the answer to the need is inherent in its appearance. They seem like they're different. They seem like they're in different worlds, But they're not. It's just our perception blinds us to the fact that no real need appears in any given moment where it isn't being answered by the moment in which it appears. This is the gift of having an awakened life. This is what you will and are created to discover if you're willing to. If you're willing to leave the need be just as it is. So, I've got eight or ten minutes. The board is open. You're welcome to write anything, Ask anything, Make a comment, And we can have a little time together that way. Hi, Claudia. The truth has been a lifetime. Yes. Kate, Do this. Okay. I'm waiting for somebody, And if not, Then I'm content. Reminds me of the Marcus Aurelius quote, Say nothing more to yourself than what first appearances report. Yes, That's exactly right. Say nothing more to yourself than what first appearances report. Mary, Stop, See what happens, Start again. Love that exercise. Yes. Of course. It's good. Isabella, I found this teaching to be true. It is true. And if you, Through your willingness to experience, To experiment, I've always said this. You find anything that I say isn't true, You come back and tell me, And I'll quit. You must prove what I'm saying is true. It's not true because I say it. It's true because it's observable. It's experiential. Thoughts get out of the way. Yeah, You could say thoughts get out of the way, But it's more like let me get out of this place where my first action is to look to thought as the thing I need to answer the problem that thought produced. By divine inspiration. Oh, Good. I'm glad, Scott. Please provide an example of the key lesson. Let the need be. All right. I'm talking to my brother on the phone, And he drops a bombshell, Or I'm waiting for my brother to call, Which is more accurate, And he never calls. So here I am, And suddenly I'm upset. I'm feeling some kind of pain. I'm suffering in some way. Every day you and I suffer in an almost infinite amount of ways, And the reason we continue to suffer is because this appearance comes up, A disparity. Here's what I want. Here's what I didn't get. Here's what I hoped. Here's what happened, And there's a disparity. But the disparity isn't between the moment and me. It's in a consciousness that went into the moment with a demand. So when the demand isn't met, Suddenly I feel there's something missing, And this need appears. When the need appears, As it always does, Appears with it is something that justifies it and says, Here's what you need to do. Write this email. Send this scolding note. Let this person know how unhappy you are with them. That's how we answer this, What we call, Need. But the real need isn't asking for us to straighten someone out. The real need is for us to enter into a straight relationship with what is divine to show us where it is that we've mistaken this powerful resistance, This anger. We've mistaken it as being the strength that we need. So how's that? Next time you find yourself caught up in that anger and you feel that strength, Be willing to recognize there is no strength in anger. Anger is weakness itself because it only exists out of pride thwarted. Then if you see that, Let the need be just as it is. I'm on fire. I need water. I'm not going to imagine water. I'm going to allow this natural need to attract to it what already belongs to it, Which is that which quenches the soul by releasing it from the illusion that it needs these people and places and powers to be successful and whole. Leave the need be. Experiment. Experiment. Please, For the sake of God, Experiment. Recognizing the grief for others who have passed needs a new definition in my mind's dictionary. Yes, Of course, When someone passes, We feel this need. But then we get caught up in answering the need by believing ourselves to be someone like this or who can't do that, All of these things. Tracy, How do we forgive ourselves for unforgivable acts of the past? If you've understood what I've said, Tracy, You can begin to see that whatever it is that did what was unforgivable was unconscionable to begin with, And it wasn't you. Fear gives rise to desperation. Desperation gives rise to unconscionable acts. So if I have acted in an unconscionable way, And every human being does and has and continues to do so, Though we don't see it, It's because I'm in the hands of something that told me, I have to have this. You have to be like that. This has to go like that. And out of that attachment and dependency on that desire, Because I'm fully identified with it and I'm at risk if it doesn't come to pass, That consciousness, It acts. It does the things that it does trying to save itself and continues to sabotage itself, And then we wind up paying the bill for it. See what I'm saying is true, Tracy, And you will discover a new kind of forgiveness where you are no longer trying to forgive yourself. You're no longer looking for something to forgive you. You discover that the need to be forgiven has already brought you the understanding that releases you from the misunderstanding self that acted without you knowing it. To the board, Yes, The weight is torturous. That's true. Is need a demand? Need is not a demand, John. Desire is the demand of an unconscious nature trying to complete itself through what it's imagined. A need is innate. A need is innate. And yes, There is a line, And one can only discover this for themselves. Where is the difference between a desire and a need? In real need, There is no, How shall I say, There is no judgment. In real need, There is no anticipation of what's going to answer it. Because look, When I have a need and I start anticipating what's going to fulfill it, I'm in the hands of a desire, And that desire is what already knows what it requires. So that desire is already separated from its opposite. You can't serve two masters, You'll love one and despise the other. Need is essentially a quiet thing, And we have to learn to sit with it quietly and not let that need be stolen, Not be deceived into letting that need being twisted into a desire. A desire always has an object in mind, And the object in mind of any desire is imagined. Need has no need for imagining. Need is the request to be fulfilled through what was created to fulfill it at the moment the need appeared. That's the best I can explain that. Need is very humble. Yeah, I like that. That's very good. In need, There is surrender. In need, There is acceptance. In need, There is quietness. Why? Because my needs are being answered. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. All of these things are intimations of the possibility of a relationship, An intimate relationship with a certain level of consciousness, A divinity that is the very source of the strength we need if we would allow that need to be there without the fear of being seen as someone like this or that. I mean, When people act it out, What do you think all this, The world is so occupied with this love of appearance? What do you think the love of appearance is? It is the desire to be seen in the eyes of others in some way that confirms the image that we have of ourselves. That's called hell and it is purgatory and it is unending because that desire can never be answered because one person can look at you and everything you've acquired for a thousand years goes to dust. Forty-three minutes, Okay, That's it, Gotta go. Remember the exercise. If you want to be free, Leave your need be just as it is. Wait in it. Let your patience deliver you into a strength that was waiting there as part of the need. That's what Paul was talking about, That the strength required is inseparable from what requires it. The strength required is inseparable from what requires it. That realization is your relationship with the divine in and as you come to it, As you're willing to come to it. Bye-bye.

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