Response to Gabi and Jen

Hello Dear Students, I decided to create a new post here, rather than adding to the comments in the recent questions and posts. 

Gabi, I very much like Elisabeth's response to you and to Jen. Elisabeth (Sanatha) has often made herself vulnerable here in the classroom, talking about her own battle with depression (an inherited predisposition)...and her last comments here show that she is imbibing the teachings. I so admire each of you for reaching out, for making the inner commitment to break free. I admire your courage. It is not easy to make one’s self vulnerable….even here in the Classroom. It may seem easier to hide in the shadows….not to make ourselves too vulnerable to ridicule or pain. It seems safer, sometimes, in the shadows.

The "world" - which is composed of people - is not all that safe, because people have egos and egos live in darkness. You have all experienced the inconsistency of the world. You have all experienced someone snapping at you in anger for no real reason. You, yourself, have also snapped at someone for no reason. You have been unjustly cruel or harsh to others, as they have been to you. 

The November 7th Message was not about being weak and letting other people walk all over you. Nor was it about becoming overbearing, demanding that someone else respect you. Both of those are ego choices and ego choices are never good choices. 

When we want someone to be nice or respectful to us...and we become reactive because they are not (even if that reaction takes place entirely within)...we have already lost control! -- breathing changes….thoughts change….emotions change….we lose ourselves in an unpleasant emotional reaction called….pain. We want that pain to go away and believe that “if only” that person or situation would change, we would no longer be in pain. This belief creates the lie that someone else holds the key to our freedom. We become a victim of that person or situation.

And so a simple request (please help me with the dishes) becomes….please help me get rid of my pain. Emotions become twisted, knotted, and tangled around a simple task that needs to be done by someone. The more emotional the situation becomes, the less easy it is for everyone to see clearly. In reality, there is nothing emotional about someone taking care of the simple facts of living and working.

Reality:
A job needs to be done.
Someone needs to do it or it won’t get done. 

 
It really is that simple. 

YOUR job as a spiritual student is to get your thinking as clear as possible. Remember: your pain is yours and yours alone to heal. Please be aware when your struggle with someone becomes about changing them so that your pain will go away. Stay with the task at hand. Stay with logic. Stay away from heated painful emotions. You probably won’t be able to do this very well at first, but practice.

This does not mean you will not express emotion. It means your emotional expression will become honest and real. It will be in the moment. It will support you and not deplete you. It will come from strength and not from weakness or victim consciousness. You will simply tell the truth. 

The more “true” that you become, the more powerful you become. The old “you”…the weak ego you…can only play into dramas. The ego is a drama. The ego seeks dramas. The ego loves drama and conflict because they keep the ego alive. The ego is synonymous with darkness. 

“Why do you suffer? Not because of what people do but because you have demands and expectations about what they should do. Let go of all demands; then people can do as they like, while you remain in peace.”

As you grow into the light, you develop more command over yourself. Positive self-regard and self-esteem change you and consequently your world. When you are centered in the light, nothing can touch you...the real you. 
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For Jen: BULLIES! (mean, intimidating people) draw energy from weakness. The weaker you feel, the more energy they draw. When you want nothing from those bullies....not for them to change or be different...they begin to lose their power.

If there is something you can do....some positive resourceful action, take it. If there is nothing you can do on the outside, then the work must take place completely on the inside. And even if things change on the outside, if nothing changes within you, you will remain the same. 

You want to grow large....as large as you really are....as large as the universe...as the light....as love....as peace. 

Look at those bullies as they really are. Stand tall in your own light and let it shine so bright that the darkness has nowhere to hide. Say to yourself, as you look at those mean bullies, “I see you as you really are. I see you hiding in the darkness. I see you trying to pull me in. You have no power here.” If you like, imagine a great angel of truth and power standing behind you. 

Trying to solve specific problems is not a lasting solution, even though it is necessary to find solutions. The only lasting solution is inner transformation. Please read these words and allow them to penetrate the darkness and transform you from the inside out. As your own light grows, you realize that the darkness has no real power over you. Fear cannot hurt you because fear is not real. Other people are not your higher power unless you make them so. What you are inside attracts to you the world you experience on the outside. The world is full of egos and all egos live in darkness all the time.

You are a pure and beautiful lotus growing up through the mud into the light. Wrap your fear in courage and continue to grow.  God is with you. The angels are with you. Your classmates are with you. You are not alone.