Awakening the Master Within

del.icio.us tags: god, mastery, change, healing, existence, good, love, duality

Like the act of breathing, where life rides upon the rhythmic indrawing and release of air and energy through the body, I experience the rhythms attendant to the growth in my own awareness, through significantly intent times of reading, and then releasing that which would be expressed through writing.

There is much to share, sometimes more than there appears to be time. However, that which is shared has a consistent and comforting “knack” of always being timely, which makes sense when you see them as timeless.

While reading a short booklet this morning, The Secret of Working Knowingly With God, by Walter Russell (1871-1963), the excerpt below struck a chord with me. In a talk, Mr. Russell quoted a passage he received that became part of his book, The Divine Iliad:

“Serve first thy brother. Hurt first thyself rather than thy neighbor. Gain naught from him unbalanced by thy giving. Protect thou the weak with thy strength, for if thou use thy strength against him his weakness will prevail against thee, and thy strength will avail thee naught.”

I have been reading a lot lately about self mastery, and when you get down to it, that really seems to be what life is really about. Yet, self mastery is hardly what our mass conditioning is about.

When we consider how much energy we spend — individually and collectively — trying to control others (in futility), it is possible that we question whether mastery of self is even possible.

The fact is that self mastery the only thing that is possible for an individual to attain. It’s the only endeavor that will yield tangible, meaningful rewards for the master. It is the only endeavor that will pay positive and meaningful dividends to the whole of humanity, and the one who embarks on the path to self mastery will realize benefits far in advance of actual mastery.

But who believes it? Is this some “New Age garbage” as one viewer responded to my video titled, “Truth”?

Who believes that through self mastery we can cure the pain that manifests our diseases? It’s being done every day. But only by those who first believed it was possible.

Some of us believe in the power of drugs more so than the power and divinity of self. And of course, our pharmaceutical industry wants us to continue thinking this way.

Some of us believe more in the power of the gun than the power of God or Love, which are one in the same thing. There are many who’d rather be armed with a Smith & Wesson, M-16, or Uzi, than with a positive thought, intent, or prayer. Of course there are many who hedge their bets… using all of the above weapons and more, then praying five or ten times a day that the senseless logic they’re abiding by is the right way.

The beauty of the idea that God is within all, is that God will respond to their prayers in the spirit of their intent with individuals who will willingly (albeit unconsciously) sacrifice their lives. However, while they are sacrificing their opportunity to expand their awareness, we who are left behind must reconcile our feelings about it all, and our beliefs in the true righteousness of their sacrifice or the conflict that precipitated it.

We believe in duality, which supports a perception of “right” and “wrong”, “good” and “evil”, “likeness” and “unlikeness.”

We believe we are separate and distinctly different from those “others”. In fact, we often believe that those “others” are somehow “less” than we are, or we think that they think they are “better” than us. Neither is true, but our believing it to be so brings drama to the canvas of life that we live when in fact, self mastery would nullify all of the many “threats” that we see ourselves being susceptible to.

Threat assessment and susceptibility.

That’s really what our issues are about. We think we’re susceptible to annihilation. We think we’re a body of flesh and blood that is weak and susceptible to disease. We watch beauty and vitality wane with age, think it’s inevitable, and we’re afraid. We think that evil forces exist for the simple purpose of being evil, and trying to “get” us. If we don’t question these threats. If we don’t challenge them, we won’t begin to know, embrace, or wear our own self mastery.

We see God as something “outside” of who and what we are, and will debate it to the hilt while asserting that “our” God is all powerful, all-knowing, and all-pervasive. In order for God to be what we’ve almost universally come to believe, we must also literally be “in” and “of” God. Yet, how could we reconcile our own prejudicial attitudes and behavior if we acknowledged our likeness to, and oneness with God? It must be because God has the power and we don’t, right? No. It’s because we are afraid to trust… God and ourselves. While we can do great lipservice, we can’t really do one — trusting God — without doing the other trusting self. Trust is one of the keys to self mastery.

In this day and age, it does not seem logical to believe that love alone can change an unhappy situation into a happy one. At the very least, we need money, right? How many of us will be happy when we have money, or when our ship comes in, when an injustice is avenged, or any other time that is NOT in the moment?

Happiness has one requirement; willingness. Happiness requires a willingness to be happy NOW; a willingness to be loving NOW; a willingness to be harmless NOW, and to set an example for others to consider in this moment, for the power of choice rests within each of us. Choices and change only take effect when applied in the moment. These are the seeds of self mastery. If all were nice and rosy, we’d really not know what is truly possible, and how wonderful we really are.

It would be masterful to disarm a tense situation without causing further harm to anyone.

It would be masterful to understand our innate ability to heal disease by exercising absolute and unconditional forgiveness for perceived “sins” against us, or that we have done toward others.

It would be masterful to be at peace with our self, our life, and our world, even with all its perceived imperfections and “problems.”

As each one of us finds that masterful place and gets comfortable there, our world will change.

When the world sees that we’re no longer trying to influence people to abide by our will by force, more people will become willing to try it too.

There is no reason to hurt others when we understand that each is an extension of “us”… even those who believe otherwise. The “best” and the “worst” of us are nonetheless an integral part of God, “you” and “me.” Each is worth sending love to, because love exists within each, even if it has been “encrusted” by unexamined and unchallenged layers of fear. It’s time to heal these psychic wounds, which cannot happen by force, or through the propogation or escalation of fear.

Let me end with another Walter Russell quote from the same book.

The knowledge of your oneness with God is not possible of instant acceptance by any human in its fullness, as you would instantly accept the knowledge that two and two are four.

Such Illumination is too wonderful for quick unfoldment in man, for every cell in man’s body cries out for selfhood of the body, and every sensation of man tells him of reality being in the senses.

It is not a quick process to forget body and separability of bodies just by being told about it, even though you believe it. Your body is the high hurdle which you must surmount in order to know your divinity.

Love seeks release from within every heart. And every heart seeks love’s expression. This we all know to be true. But the master puts this knowledge into action. Here’s to your (and my) awakening the Master within.

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