Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:33 pm by globalturbo
Steve Beckow: The Divine Steps In
May 3
Posted by Wes Annac
Written by Steve Beckow
Werner
Erhard called the state outside the chatter of the mind “conscious
awareness.” He also called it natural knowing and the transformed state.
(1)
Having a transformational experience was what the est Training offered. It was not enlightenment per se but it could precondition a person and lead to that … maybe.
It’s my own personal view that going above the line between
unconscious and conscious awareness into that state of natural knowing
is as much as we can do by our own efforts. Enlightenment is not within
our power to “achieve.” For me, it’s a gift of God or more particularly a
gift of the angels from God. It’s the angels that enlighten humanity.
Here are examples of that:
Moses: And the angel of the
Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush:
and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was
not consumed. (2)
Isaiah: In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also
the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train
filled the temple … and one [seraphim] cried unto another, and said,
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his
glory.
… Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for
mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy
lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” (3)
Caedmon: Caedmon was an
illiterate herdsman, who did not even know the alphabet. One night he
had a vision of an angel, and by that angel’s grace his poetic faculty
came to life. Caedmon composed extemporaneously and even recited his
hymns and poems in public. (4)
Mohammed: I swear by all that you can see, and all
that is hidden from your view, that this is the utterance of a noble
messenger [Gabriel]. It is no poet’s speech: scant is your faith! It is
no soothsayer’s divination: how little you reflect! It is a revelation
from the Lord of all creatures. (5)
He does not speak out of his own fancy. This is an inspired revelation. He is taught by one who is powerful and mighty. (6)
We go above the line between unconscious and conscious awareness by
truth-telling, by an act of will (standing forth as the Self), by
sourcing our vasanas and getting the insight that lies at the heart of
them, etc.
I personally don’t consider beings strong enough to somehow “win”
enlightenment for themselves. I suspect that hearing that may rankle
some people. But I think we can at best only ever cover a fraction of
the distance that we’d need to to enlighten ourselves and then God
reaches out to us and pulls us in.
I think this is precisely what Bernadette Roberts was pointing to when she said: “At
a certain point, when we have done all we can [to bring about an
abiding union with the divine], the divine steps in and takes over.” (7)
Moreover, I don’t think we need to bother ourselves as to when we
should be exerting effort and when not. I agree with Sri Nisargadatta:
“When effort is needed, effort will appear.
When effortlessness becomes essential, it will assert itself. You need
not push life about. Just flow with it and give yourself completely to
the task of this present moment, which is to die now to the Now. For
living is dying. Without death, life cannot be.” (8)
In a sense all we can do, as far as I can see, is love, tell the
truth, stand forth against injustice, and be like the offering that
Gibran spoke of, the sacred bread being baked for God’s sacred feast.
But at the point when one leaves the chatter of the mind, life offers
more that makes the journey bearable. Anxiety and worry are dropped and
in their place is a feeling of deep satisfaction that makes the journey
pleasant.
Footnotes
(1) See est Dictionary at http://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/the-path-of-awareness/est-dictionary/
(2) Exodus 3:2.
(3) Isaiah 6:1 + 5-7.
(4) Swami Chetanananda, They Lived with God. Life Stories of Some Devotees of Sri Ramakrishna. St. Louis: Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1989, 373.
(5) Koran, 61.
(6) Koran, 112.
(7) Bernadette Roberts, “The Path to No-Self” in Stephan Bodian, ed. Timeless Visions, Healing Voices. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1991, 131.
(8) Nisargadatta Maharaj in video Awaken to the Eternal.
Source: http://goldenageofgaia.com/2013/05/the-divine-steps-in/
Thanks to: http://aquariusparadigm.com
May 3
Posted by Wes Annac
Written by Steve Beckow
WernerErhard called the state outside the chatter of the mind “conscious
awareness.” He also called it natural knowing and the transformed state.
(1)
Having a transformational experience was what the est Training offered. It was not enlightenment per se but it could precondition a person and lead to that … maybe.
It’s my own personal view that going above the line between
unconscious and conscious awareness into that state of natural knowing
is as much as we can do by our own efforts. Enlightenment is not within
our power to “achieve.” For me, it’s a gift of God or more particularly a
gift of the angels from God. It’s the angels that enlighten humanity.
Here are examples of that:
Moses: And the angel of the
Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush:
and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was
not consumed. (2)
Isaiah: In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also
the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train
filled the temple … and one [seraphim] cried unto another, and said,
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his
glory.
… Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for
mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy
lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” (3)
Caedmon: Caedmon was an
illiterate herdsman, who did not even know the alphabet. One night he
had a vision of an angel, and by that angel’s grace his poetic faculty
came to life. Caedmon composed extemporaneously and even recited his
hymns and poems in public. (4)
Mohammed: I swear by all that you can see, and all
that is hidden from your view, that this is the utterance of a noble
messenger [Gabriel]. It is no poet’s speech: scant is your faith! It is
no soothsayer’s divination: how little you reflect! It is a revelation
from the Lord of all creatures. (5)
He does not speak out of his own fancy. This is an inspired revelation. He is taught by one who is powerful and mighty. (6)
We go above the line between unconscious and conscious awareness by
truth-telling, by an act of will (standing forth as the Self), by
sourcing our vasanas and getting the insight that lies at the heart of
them, etc.
I personally don’t consider beings strong enough to somehow “win”
enlightenment for themselves. I suspect that hearing that may rankle
some people. But I think we can at best only ever cover a fraction of
the distance that we’d need to to enlighten ourselves and then God
reaches out to us and pulls us in.
I think this is precisely what Bernadette Roberts was pointing to when she said: “At
a certain point, when we have done all we can [to bring about an
abiding union with the divine], the divine steps in and takes over.” (7)
Moreover, I don’t think we need to bother ourselves as to when we
should be exerting effort and when not. I agree with Sri Nisargadatta:
“When effort is needed, effort will appear.
When effortlessness becomes essential, it will assert itself. You need
not push life about. Just flow with it and give yourself completely to
the task of this present moment, which is to die now to the Now. For
living is dying. Without death, life cannot be.” (8)
In a sense all we can do, as far as I can see, is love, tell the
truth, stand forth against injustice, and be like the offering that
Gibran spoke of, the sacred bread being baked for God’s sacred feast.
But at the point when one leaves the chatter of the mind, life offers
more that makes the journey bearable. Anxiety and worry are dropped and
in their place is a feeling of deep satisfaction that makes the journey
pleasant.
Footnotes
(1) See est Dictionary at http://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/the-path-of-awareness/est-dictionary/
(2) Exodus 3:2.
(3) Isaiah 6:1 + 5-7.
(4) Swami Chetanananda, They Lived with God. Life Stories of Some Devotees of Sri Ramakrishna. St. Louis: Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1989, 373.
(5) Koran, 61.
(6) Koran, 112.
(7) Bernadette Roberts, “The Path to No-Self” in Stephan Bodian, ed. Timeless Visions, Healing Voices. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1991, 131.
(8) Nisargadatta Maharaj in video Awaken to the Eternal.
Source: http://goldenageofgaia.com/2013/05/the-divine-steps-in/
Thanks to: http://aquariusparadigm.com
