Everyman's Journal 2011

Everyman's Journal 2011, #56

May 14

In sharing with you the way the universe is maximizing the learning and growth available to me from my recent emotional adventures (described in EJ #55), what I am seeing right now is that the whole 'detour into the crash lane' began at a certain initiatory moment with a personal invitation to 'have something to eat together' after the event we had chance-met at was over, AND at that moment I did NOT REMEMBER TO ASK for guidance about that. Yet when I now examine that exact moment in my memories, I can clearly remember feeling a sense of 'being in the question'... i.e., I was aware of a sense of uncertainty about whether to invite or not going on inside me. What that means to me is that there was a signal light that was at least yellow (i.e., Caution) that I just sped through.

Why? Because of the clamoring within me of the many voices of personal desire. Essentially, I forgot who I AM, and collapsed back into my habitual personal identity with it's associated historical strings of dreamings, some of which have to do with fulfilling the vision of a picture perfect relationship.

There is something to learn from seeing this, right? Obviously, this is right at the core of the real purpose of sadhana: to strengthen our ability to walk freely through the illusions of the world without touching them or being seduced by them. It really is as simple as continually remembering what is true, and what is not true. This is about maintaining a clear discernment then, which I failed in doing, thus creating a misadventure.

Yet, as A Course in Miracles teaches, God will (and obviously does) use every circumstance in our lives as teaching opportunities, and can extract golden pearls of wisdom from our worst nightmares. That is just how grace works, which is all based upon the greatest grace of all.... that our Creator is NEVER confused about who we are.... similarly to how a mother never forgets who a child is that she has given birth to.

But, as an early teacher of mine has said: It doesn't NEED to be that way. In other words, we don't HAVE TO learn our life lessons in the crash lanes. We could simply choose to become willing to learn by the path of deep listening. Of course, that is an intentional choice, as distinct from the path of sleepwalking through life learning from whatever we happen to crash into. Somehow I sense that a lot of us think that the sleepwalking route is somehow 'more fun'. I think I am becoming willing to unlearn that.

I think a better path is available. If I had been authentically present back at that invitation moment, I would have heard my guidance's caution whisper, and I could have remembered to ask. I see what was true is that on a subtle level I did hear, but I pretended that I didn't... because I didn't want to hear. Sort of like a drunk who knows he's drunk, but wants 'just one more drink anyway'.

As Papaji often said: "If you touch it, it will bite you." Said another way: the easiest way to stay sober is by not drinking.

Namaste,

David

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My partnership request.... Please consider yourself an important gateway this message is passing through on its way to others. Please do 'send it on'. Thank you.

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Rev. David Seacord

Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag

david@davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord.com

(my fine art website)

www.davidseacord-everymansjournal.blogspot.com

(archived writings and poetry, circa 2002 to 2004)

www.davidseacord-acimcommentaries.blogspot.com

(archived 2010 writings on the lessons of A Course in Miracles)

www.everymansjournal2011.blogspot.com

(archived entries of this years Everyman's Journal)