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LESSON NINE
MASTERING YOURSELF |
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"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life." Before you can hope to attain cosmic consciousness, you must first learn self-control. This does not mean repress all natural instincts. It is just learning to avert destructive thought, speech and action...self-government. We should strive for development on three levels, physical, spiritual and mental, ultimately achieving harmony between them. This is balance and when this occurs you experience peace, serenity and joy. We have been taught that man has power and dominion over all things, including himself. When you take the physical out of proportion, you are all brawn, not too much brain. This is all right if you plan to pose for a magazine cover or overpower the 97 lb. weakling at the beach, but it does not accomplish much else. If you are concentrating that hard on the physical, the chances are you living in fear, the lowest vibration there is. Taking the mental or intellectual out of proportion will only produce an egotistical, intellectual fool. Those who do this usually have a great deal of difficulty in daily living and do not harmonize well with their brothers. Knowledge for the sole purpose of impressing others is a waste. Trying to live solely on a spiritual level does not prepare you for living in a world of reality. The people around you will repel you, your fantasies will overpower you, you may have difficulty in meeting your financial needs and your mind and body will be out of harmony leading to sickness or disease. We have seen many who do this who have ended up in mental hospitals. Worse yet, there are those who refuse to see their physicians when there bodies are experiencing terrible inharmonies. Faith is very beautiful and along with doing what we need to on the earthly level, it moves mountains. However, relying on healing from God without doing your share, puts you at risk and you may cause yourself to leave the earth plane with this thinking. We must help ourselves! God works through doctors and nurses. Intuition is a higher vibration than reason. It comes from your Godself where reason stems from the conscious mind only. Claim your first thought as truth and you will not go wrong. The most difficult part of us to control seems to be the tongue. This is the Judas (betrayer) in us. To remain silent when someone is verbally attacking you is not an easy task. "Blessed are the peacemakers." Do not waste your time and energy on foolish arguments. It is always better to "go with the flow." Do not become discouraged by the size of the task of self-mastery. Take one step at a time, one day at a time and you will accomplish your goal. You need not be hard on yourself. If you forget and make a mistake, forgive yourself and then correct your behavior. Use your unified mind for self-control and no one will control you. Clean house. Get rid of the negative thoughts. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Do not "cop out" on yourself by thinking that you inherited any inharmony from anyone. You did not inherit your stubbornness from your grandfather, your temper from your father, your depression from your mother or your physical illnesses from your grandmother. Much of what we act out is learned behavior and we can unlearn this and make changes in our lives. Through self-mastery, all things can be overcome. If truth is unknown to those around you, forgive them and then go on to live your life in truth. Everyone learns in his own time. It takes firm faith and high vision to perceive the truth which is from God and to see beyond the veil of matter. Set this as your goal and turn on the light within you. Judge no man by the outward appearances. Learn to recognize truth from within. Do not acknowledge disease, nor label it, therefore giving it power. With God there are no limitations or inharmonies. This is the true basis for healing. Jesus said to his disciples, "In my Father's house there are many mansions." There are many realms in God's world. It is vast. Take the love and understanding you have learned in this lifetime as a part of your immortal soul. The many mansions referred to are the many levels of consciousness available to you when living in the Father's house. It is the overall consciousness within that will make you aware of the many levels. There are many planes of consciousness above us that you can visit through a procedure written by an author named William Swygard in his books called AWARENESS TECHNIQUES. He teaches how to merge with the levels and learn the purpose of each plane in our development. This brings into our awareness a new insight and spirituality. We realize just how much help is available to us and it enables us to grow with the All-Pervading Spirit as our guide. Working with the procedure we develop new dimensions within our own minds and learn to express on new levels. Most of us are only aware of life on the third plane, the physical plane. The process described can also be great fun. For example, you bring the planes of consciousness down to the earth plane as well as visit their planes. Can you imagine a consciousness who is devoted to inventions of mechanical things visiting your kitchen and wanting to try out all your appliances or riding in the car with you and envisioning for the first time the end result of what mankind has done with their inventions? It can be a hilarious experience. When you are in meditation, the truth and awareness you receive is for you alone. It is your truth. This is why we use the expression, "Becoming one in the inner room," as a guide to the secret place within you where you can become One with God. Through this Oneness, all knowledge of the Universe can be imparted to you. You can now understand why we stress meditation as the key to your personal awareness. We can only teach you the method in finding this Holy and Secret place. It is then up to you to take the knowledge gained and LIVE IT. No one can do this for you. Hopefully some of you in addition to living it, will go on to teach others. Keep in mind, however, that you are not ready to do so until you are living it. This does not mean perfection however. If you were perfect, you probably would not desire to remain in a physical body. We all have feet of clay to some degree. There is no need which cannot be fulfilled in the inner room. There are no unfulfilled desires. There are no aims or ambitions which cannot be realized. What we thought was impossible, becomes possible. Doubt is changed to certainty, fear to faith and love is awakened with joy and inspiration. We have been told, "Be still and know that I AM God in the midst of thee." Pray to God by shutting the door to your earthly mind. Go into the inner room with God and pray to the Father in secret. When you give a problem to Him, don't take it back from Him. Have faith to know He will take care of it. We do not, however, recommend that you dump all of your problems on Him. He helps those who help themselves. All of this is walking in the "light." "I AM the way and the light and the truth!" |
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