REAL LIFE

 

Real Life

     Don’t be afraid to die to what you imagine you are. You don’t know that you imagine you know who you are. You would vow that your imagination is you. All you have ever known is your acquired nature.

     God says, and Christ taught, that if you will die to your illusory self, which is a time-nature, you will have a spiritual nature that is endless and can never die.

     Part of your false belief in yourself is that you are this very familiar physical body. Your hair is a certain color, you are 5’10” tall, you are 40 years of age, male or female physical structure. Calling yourself the body and your acquired thoughts, knowing they die, you fear death. Of course, you do this, as long as you take yourself as your time-nature.

     Your real nature does not go by the clock or calendar. It is not physical. It isn’t your fleeting thoughts and emotions. That’s your mistake. As long as you make this mistake, you will be afraid of all conditions. As long as you call yourself a marvelous person or a flop, as long as you call yourself anything in time, you will be scared and not have everlasting life. That is what Christ taught. What do you think all true teachings are about, except to understand that you are not your time-nature. Look and see what a mess you are, and that will prove you think you are your body and experiences.

     Simply let go and die to your false, artificial beliefs about yourself and there can be no fear of death because you have died to death. Die to the belief that you are your thoughts about yourself. Die to that and you will die to death. You are under death now. You have no life.

     Pray. Ask God to show you how to die. It doesn’t matter how awkward you are, or how little you know what you are talking about.

      When you die, you will know you have died. You will not think the way you now think. You won’t have the death you now have. You are living in death without knowing it.

     Christ came to teach people how to abolish death and they killed him.

     You have got to get rid of your own hypocrisies that are keeping you in a state of death.

     Obey the rules I have given you and you will have life...real life. 

  —Vernon Howard        

💙An Angel Box—free for you to give as a gift 💙

💘www.theclearandsimpleway.com

February 14, 2022

Valentine's Day

Dear Students💞

Those of you who have been around

for a while know that I post an updated version of this lesson

every Valentine's Day. Today is no exception. It was once

Lesson 13; now it just appears once a year.

🐠 You swim in peace, as peace swims in you.It is only that you are not awake, and so you do not experience this peace. Your school helps you awaken to the peace that is eternally Present.

AN ANGEL BOX 

Today you are invited to create An Angel Box.

Or you could call it a Letting Go Box.

Your box can help you fulfill the following prayer:

The Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the Serenity

To accept the things I cannot change;

The Courage to change the things I can;

And the Wisdom to know the difference.

What Is An Angel Box?
Even if you choose not to make an angel box, please consider reading this lesson. It contains angelic teachings for your life. 
  
👼An Angel Box👼 helps you align with your divine destiny and let go of what does not serve you. It's a place to give your problems, fears, worries, visions, and prayers into the care and keeping of the angels. If you are not interested in an angel box, just read the lesson in imagination. Some of you won't be interested —💙— but we have different students, with different interests, and some of you will be drawn to this.

First: 
Buy or make an angel box. Or use a folder, envelope, silk bag, or a medicine pouch. Your Angel Box can be elaborate or simple. It doesn’t have to be perfect, so long as it is perfect for you. Or use a box you already have and love.

Let go of your ideas of "perfect" and trust that perfection flows to you from a ↑Higher Source↑ 

If you'd like to create your own angel box, here are some ideas, if you decide to make one:

1. Use a cardboard box (angels love recycling). Shoe boxes and cigar boxes make nice angel boxes. Or use an empty tissue or cereal box. If you like round, try an oatmeal container. You can also buy a box, or build one from wood. Or use a big envelope.
 

2. Gather items to decorate your box: Photos, pictures from magazines or calendars. Pictures of saints, gods, goddesses, and angels. Wise sayings. Poems. Prayers. Inspirational words like truth, light, courage. Rhinestones, unless you have real diamonds and pearls you are not using (smile). Crystals, buttons, lace, ribbons, velvet, silk, satin, sequins, sparkles, tiny stars. Natural items like dried flowers, feathers, acorns, seeds, shells.

3. Set aside time for you and the angels. Brew a cup of tea or coffee. Maybe burn incense or candles, play music, or just sing songs to your angels. If you have children, you can invite them to make their own Angel Box right along with you. Angel Boxes are a great teaching tool for children of all ages.


4. Sit down with your items, including tape, glue, scissors, paints, crayons, (maybe gold or silver). If you want to varnish your box, have clear varnish on hand.


5. Give your box a lining: Maybe velvet, satin, silk, or pretty paper, carefully glued in. As you place this lining inside your box, contemplate your inner beauty. Inner beauty radiates ourwardly. Assure yourself that you are worthy of a beautiful box. Let the lining reflect the LIGHT within you.


6. Make an Opening, if it doesn't already have one. Think of the crown chakra, the Sahasara, at the top of your head. Be open and receptive to ↑The Light↑. As you create this opening, let it symbolize opening yourself to the messages of angels and higher inspiration. 

7. Decorate your box. Let intuition and creativity be your guides. Have fun. 

8. Admire your completed box. Smile your happy smile. Wriggle your body in delight like a child. Laugh right out loud. Dance a happy dance. Jump up and down. Let go of any concepts of what an "adult" should act like. Challenge your ideas of who you think you are.


9. Place your Angel Box in a special place, preferably where you will see it every day, maybe on top of a dresser, on your puja (altar), or in your meditation area. Keep a pen and some paper handy.



 WAYS TO USE YOUR ANGEL BOX



Use your box to symbolically let go of trying to control life and strong attachments you have to the way things 'should' be. Let go of problems and worries. When something troubles you, write your trouble on a piece of paper, date it, and give it to your angel box. Tell the angels that this problem is beyond your control and you are now turning it over to them.
 

Special note: If your worry returns to you during the day, ask, 'Is there anything I can do about this right now?' If your answer is NO, remind yourself that you have given it into the care and keeping of a higher power. If the answer has changed to YES, then take the action you need to take. 

Taking a small action is a way of controlling what you can and gaining confidence. If your worry returns, repeat the process. This helps discipline your mind so worries do not control and overwhelm you. It replaces unhealthy habits with  healthy habits. If you are going to have habits, they may as well be healthy ones that uplift and support your life.


When you have a question and cannot find an answer, write the question on a piece of paper, date it, and put it in your box. Now forget about it, trusting that the answer will come when it is needed, in God's time and design, not yours.


Special note: Date every piece of paper, so you will have a reference point for later.


When you want something (an object, a partner, anything at all) give it into the safe keeping of the angels with a prayer that God will manifest your desire only if it is in your best and highest interest.


Special note: This is surrendering your small will to a Higher Will.

I am sure you will agree that often what you wanted in the past turned out NOT to be the best for you. Giving your desire to the angels is a way of getting out of your own way and making room for the highest in your life.


When you feel afraid, angry, sad, hurt, or any other confusing or negative emotion, put it in your box.


When someone you care about, including yourself, is hurting or sick, write their name on the paper, perhaps with a prayer for God's perfect healing and give it to the angels.


Use it when you think you are in danger and need a Guide. Write your fear on paper with a request for Protection and Guidance.  

Use it to request courage, confidence, and clarity to complete necessary tasks.


Write messages of Gratitude. The attitude of gratitude is always healing.


Write down a Vision you long to achieve. Put it in your box and surrender the Outcome to the Wisdom of the angels, with the prayer that vision will manifest only if it serves your Higher Purpose.


Special note: Sometimes, we have the divine inspiration to do something — but negative beliefs and thoughts such as: I can’t do it. Why even try? It won’t work, block constructive action. Writing your vision down and giving it to the angels is a positive action. 


Take a positive action:
One way to get past limiting beliefs and negative thinking is to take a positive action. Even something as simple as writing is an action. Putting the message in your angel box is a second action, which includes the act of faith—faith in a power higher than yourself, which is an inner action.



Sometimes you really want something. You want a certain outcome. Your desire may block the outcome that God intends for you, which is always much greater than anything you can imagine. Write your desire on a piece of paper and put it in your box. Let yourself be open to possibilities beyond your own thinking.

Your job is not to make something happen. Life happens through us. The more you get out of your own way, the more creativity can flow through you. 


Show up! Play! Discover! Learn! Grow! Evolve!

When an idea, an inspiration, or a vision, comes to you, have fun with it. There is no need to get all heavy and serious. Find out where the vision is leading you. Your Angel Box can help you do this.


Be Open and Receptive

Once you have placed your dreams and wishes, questions and problems in your Angel Box, stay open and receptive. You will likely be receiving messages from the universe, the angels, intuition, maybe even dreams. These messages can come from anywhere, because the universe is a mystical, magical, spiritual place. Stay awake, open, and receptive so you won't miss those messages! 


Messages are always coming to you. Intuition is always speaking to you. We often don't receive intuition, inspiration, and words of wisdom because we have a preconceived idea of how things should turn out or how messages should come. 

When you are open and aware, even the words on a cereal box might contain a message for you. Do your best not to limit the universe by telling it what it should  do. This is like telling the stars how they should shine.


Later…


Once a month or when your Angel Box is full you — decide — take your papers out and read them. Which prayers, wishes, and dreams have been fulfilled? Which ones have you forgotten about? Which ones do you no longer care about? Which were only ego? What can you learn from what you have written and what has been happening in your life?



Give Angel Boxes & this lesson as gifts:


Make Angel Boxes as gifts and give them to people you love, along with "The Serenity Prayer." You are invited to give a copy of this particular lesson as a gift, if you like. Just be sure to include the complete lesson and copyright. This is my gift to you. Because I am thankful you are here as a student and appreciate that you show up here with devotion to your path.

Other ideas:

For wishes and visions which didn't happen, or you no longer wish for, you might: 1. Burn them in a small ritual. 2. Bury them in the earth. 3. Tear them to pieces and let them go. Breathe a letting go sigh of relief.

For problems solved, questions answered, and wishes fulfilled, you might: 1. Put a tiny jewel in your box as an offering of thanks to the angels, 2. String a  pearl or jewel for every wish granted, 3. Keep your pieces of paper somewhere, as a reminder of the good work the angels have helped you accomplish in your life. Or just burn these too.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this lesson. And perhaps you will enjoy making an angel box. You are welcome to put a picture of your angel box here in Your Open Classroom. Thank you for being here now in the present moment of Love. Here's an Angel Box that our classmate, Barbra, made. She sent me the picture, and I once saw it when I visited her lovely home.

 © Copyright 2009/2018/2022 Judith Ann Parsons, MSW aka Indira. All rights reserved, The Clear and Simple Way School of Higher Consciousness. www.theclearandsimpleway.com

Trust

 

When a cat falls out of a tree, it lets go of itself. The cat becomes completely relaxed, and lands lightly on the ground. But if a cat were about to fall out of a tree and suddenly make up its mind that it didn’t want to fall, it would become tense and rigid, and would be just a bag of broken bones upon landing.

In the same way, it is the philosophy of the Tao that we are all falling off a tree, at every moment of our lives. As a matter of fact, the moment we were born, we were kicked off a precipice, and we are falling, and there is nothing that can stop it.

So instead of living in a state of chronic tension, and clinging to all sorts of things that are actually falling with us because the whole world is impermanent, be like a cat. —Alan Watts

A Little Story

Here is a story just for you. It happens to be about a little girl. She could have been anyone’s child. She could have been you.

A BOUQUET OF LOVE

One bright sunny day, this little girl was picking wild flowers in a meadow. Feeling like she was the warmth of the sun, she gathered her bouquet of purple and gold brightness and ran to her father, offering him this bundle of spontaneous love. Her father saw only miserable weeds that set off his miserable hay fever. He shouted at her to get them out of the house, asking how could she be such a stupid little girl, and where was her consideration?

The little girl did not know what consideration was, so she had no idea where hers could be, and she was afraid to ask. She was sure that if she had any, she would not be stupid. She ran outside, no longer feeling like she was the warm yellow sun. Her brightness faded, she sat under a tree with her flowers, consoling them, assuring them they were in no way stupid, or else how could they be so beautiful? Then she planted each one in the earth again, telling them she was sorry she had taken them from their homes, and promised never to do so again. 

The little girl pondered this event as the years passed and somewhere in the angels’ singing, since angels are always singing to little girls and big girls and people of all ages, she heard a song of wisdom: You are not the doer. The fruits of your actions belong not to you, but to God. And the little girl, who by now lived in a bigger body, hugged that song to her, and it comforted her way back to the time when her father had shouted at her and into the future when her own and other people's songs would be shouts.

As the years passed, she learned from these shouts. Sometimes people shouted loudly, sometimes silently. Deep within the angels’ whispers, she discovered that all shouts come from fear and ignorance. People were afraid to feel, so they shouted. People were afraid to tell the truth, so they shouted. People were afraid to love and be loved, so they shouted. People were afraid, so they hid behind shouts that were loud and shouts that were silent, wearing the disguises that pass for love and intimacy. 

Time passed, as time has a way of doing, teaching what it teaches to those able to listen with their hearts. Time taught her to sing gentle songs, giving them away like candy. Once they were gone from her, she never looked back, knowing that gifts with strings attached were no gifts at all. 

One day, when the little girl lived in a body with skin that showed the passage of many lessons learned, she found she had become the bouquet of flowers. And people came from everywhere to catch the scent of her love. 

The angels will leave you to gather your own bouquet from this story, the way the little girl did. The joy of stories comes from listening with your heart. In this way, the story awakens the truth that lives inside you and that truth becomes your own. 

Be kind, gentle, and compassionate with yourself. Give to yourself that which you wish others would give to you. Remember that others are only mirrors, reflections of yourself. When you treat yourself with respect, you will see this reflected in beautiful shining mirrors all around you. 

Plans & Visions

  Dearest & Nearest,

Your plan for your life may have nothing to do with God’s plan. God’s plan is what happens. Your plan is what you think will happen. This does not mean that you should not make plans. Life must be lived; plans must be made.

You might plant an apple tree with a vision of mouth-watering red apples in your mind. Just when the apples are about ready to eat, you get a new job in a new country. You never eat those apples, but you eat new fruit in a new country and someone else enjoys the apples you left behind. Or maybe a storm destroys your tree and all of your apples. You cannot eat those apples, but you still benefit from having planted and loved a tree, and so does the earth! 

An old Chippewa Indian axiom advises, “If your eyes cry because of losing the sun, your tears will not allow you to see the stars.”

It can feel so sad to lose something or someone you cherish. No one can say that sadness is not real for you. Emotions are part of being human. To push away or deny feelings is to be less than alive. Feelings must be acknowledged if they are to be resolved and dissolved into love—not hidden away to become clouds that obscure the light from shining through. When we are free to experience a feeling completely, we are also free to move on from that experience. Emotions can be either a flowing river, cleansing and freeing, or a dam that stops the flow.

If you cannot linger to taste even one apple from the tree you have planted, feel your longing; cry your tears—but please do not take old tears with you to the new country to which you are traveling. Neither hold a grudge at the storm for destroying your tree. The angels might change that old Chippewa saying to, “If your eyes cry too long because of losing the sun, your tears will not allow you to see the stars,”—and add another, “If your eyes never cry, your unshed tears may become clouds that obscure the light of God from shining clearly through you.”

Maybe you thought you were planting the tree to eat apples. Maybe God put the vision in your mind, not to eat apples, but as part of a greater plan. Maybe it was as simple as planting and loving a tree for a while, reaping the benefits of sun and exercise, filling your mind with the beauty of nature, giving back to the earth, and leaving a lovely legacy.

I Release and Heal

I release my parents from the feeling that they have failed me and are responsible for all my problems today. I release myself to become a mature responsible adult, not a dependent petulant child.

I release my children from the need to bring pride to me, so they are free to follow their own path, according to the Divine Will within them.

I release my partner from the expectation that he or she must complete me so that I will feel whole. I take full responsibility for completing myself through my contact with my Higher Power.

I release my work, my job, from an obligation to do more than support my life so that I can take care of myself, my dependents, and complete my spiritual work on earth. I release my job from the idea that it is obligated to bring me great success, pride, or wealth.

I accept that my work, my job, has none of these obligations. Anything more than my daily bread is a gift—one I share freely when it is more than I need. I imbibe the true meaning of the prayer: Great Universal Energy: Give us this day our daily bread.

I release my past and the bars that bind me to memories. When I am not bound tight to the past, I have the energy to devote to this Present Moment, to be free, to know God. I use memory for rightness—for what is needed Now. I use memory to remember who I AM.

I release my clinging to objects, with faith that whatever I need will appear when it is needed, as it always has and always will. I release all objects from the responsibility to fulfill me, to make me more, to make me better than anyone else.

I release the future, knowing that when I let it go, it floats freely from me, into the great Sky of Being. I allow Creation to do what it does best—create the future for me now in this perfect Present Moment.

I release my mind from the pressure of believing it must create. It is free to be what it is meant to be: A tool for practical thinking, right use of memory, and practical actions.

I release my mind from the pressure of constantly thinking about what it has no power over, no power to do, so that it can a pure conduit through which Creativity can flow, unimpeded.

I thank and honor all those who came before me, all my ancestors and grandparents—all my relations. I understand that everyone on earth—everyone who was or will be—is my relation. We are all connected. We are all made from stardust. Everyone is my brother, my sister, my mother and father, my child, and we are One.

I release the false me, the ego—with gratitude—for what it has given me, for what it has taught me. I harbor no resentment towards it, no anger. I thank it for all it has shown me. I now let it go. I let it relax into pure being.

I release all those who have harmed me, if only in my beliefs. I thank you for what I have learned from you. I allow compassion to replace resentment and pain, for that is the pathway to healing.

I release myself from all those I have harmed, if only in my beliefs. I thank myself for letting go. I  allow compassion to grow within me, for that is the pathway to healing.

I allow myself to be transparent before God. I move and live and have my being within the Presence of the greatest Healing Force, and I am grateful. Thank you, God. Thank you Divine Mother. Thank you Father Sky. Thank you all my ancestors. Thank you world. I love you world, for you are a teacher, and I step away from you now—for I am in you, but not of you. I thank you Mother Earth—for my body comes from you, as you come from the stars, and my spirit returns to Consciousness, as masculine (Shiva) and feminine (Shakti) unite in ecstatic unity, and we are One.

It is from supreme gratitude that supreme awakening arises, moment after moment, as ocean waves arise, non-ending, from the great quiet that is the depth of the ocean, from the unity of ocean with moon which receives its light from sun; thus is formed a great circle from which all life flows over and over again. And I am grateful. Thank you.

A good reminder...

FEAR NOT THE FEAR!

The good news is you do not have to have courage. The false self has no courage. It has nothing of its own, not even itself. The false self is like a mirage on the desert. How can a mirage claim that it has anything? The mirage claims it is an oasis; but it is nothing.

We are all walking across the desert towards a mirage that doesn’t exist. Aren’t you tired of being alone on the desert?

The angels whisper to you, Give up. Surrender. Stop. Fall to your knees. Tell yourself the truth. See through the lies you tell yourself.

Stop pretending you have courage. Stop pretending you are not afraid. Be as afraid as you are. Fear not the fear! Fear has no power over you. Fear has no power! Be as afraid as you are. The false self is afraid that you will see it is not real. That you will see through it.

See through it! See through the mirage. The false self is not an oasis. It is a mere mirage. It doesn’t exist. The false self is trembling even now, even as you read these words. The false self does not want you to know the truth. It does not want you to know Truth!

Truth does not require that you have courage. Truth has all the courage you need. Truth is the Oasis you seek. 

PRAYER OF RELEASE

"I fully and freely release you. I completely love you and let you go. I do not wish to hurt you. I wish you no harm. So far as I am concerned this trouble between us is over forever. You are free and I am free and all is well between us."

Dear Students, this prayer is helpful in all situations, even when you do not feel forgiveness or like letting go, even when you do not mean the words. Only your mind does not mean the words. Your heart speaks these words in all situations of letting go. This is because your heart always knows the Truth.  Say the words and the feeling will eventually follow. More importantly, you will be creating softness and serenity within your mind, heart, and being.