“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Gospel according to Matthew 7:7
Ask and you will realize you already know; seek and you shall be found; knock and you will know the door has always been open. (the gospel according to Gerry)
In these texts by Paul and the guides, the prayers and affirmations that are usually indented in the books take on a different form than what we might be used to.
Our previous sense of affirmations where that we would say something over and over and over again; we would fiercely think about it with the hope that it would eventually be manifest in the material world. Now I do not deny at times that this kind of manifestation works. One of the difficulties, however, that was pointed out by a wise teacher was that by the time we have manifested something in the material world we no longer want it or it has lost its importance.
More powerfully stated in our books of study is what we are calling an affirmation is not manifesting anything in the material or in the spiritual realms but is claiming that it already exists. That is one side of the picture.
Our discussion this evening began with speaking of manifestations for ourselves and others that seem to be our desire for the best outcome. The difficulty arises that none of us know another Soul's purpose. In fact it is difficult enough for us to realize our own.
In my own life our granddaughter who has a genetic illness that deteriorates her nervous system. At this time she has never quite recovered from a bout with the flu last year which left her without speech and with very little or any muscular control.
As painful as it might be to see her in this condition, I do not know what her Soul's purpose is. So when I pray for her healing I often realize that some of my prayer is my desire to be released from some of the painfulness that I am experience. Perhaps her illness and her taking that on is part of my learning. Try that on for size. I do not know.
So my prayer for her is for her souls highest good even though I do not know what that is. And even in the midst of that kind of prayer I do not pretend my human feelings simply disappear. They are all still there, but how foolish of me to think I am in control of someone else's destiny. Sometimes do even think I know what is best for me. Unity teaches us that often are prayer can be a reflection of what we desire on a human level, but then we also add "May this manifestation be for my soul or your soul's highest good, and may I receive what it is I am asking for or something better.
You assuage yourself of the guilt you have of being personally accountable to historical choices by trying to be better people. We will tell you this. You don’t get to be better people. You get to be what you are. And what we mean by forgiveness is that you no longer need to decide that you were wrong, because if you decide you are wrong and claim that in identity, you misalign and you move beyond truth.
It’s like taking this little statue of your personality self taking it off the mantle and dusting it off and polishing it up a little bit. Whatever you are asking for by doing this does not change anything because the personality self is not who you are. Polishing up your image will simply do that it will polish up your image, but it will not touch the essence of Who You Are.
I found this next section to be rather difficult to understand but as I sat with it what became clear to me was that we are being asked to accept responsibility for our actions in the past even though they might have been performed from a very limited consciousness. It was still me that did it. Even what I did in limitation, I am still responsible for. Secondly, realizing that responsibility does not mean being guilty but realizing that when I embrace or take responsibility for an action to raise its vibration to a higher level. In fact, it is only then when I have accepted responsibility that I can move from a lower vibration to a Higher One.
Let us suppose that I said something mean to you and even as the words were being spoken I recognize that what I was saying was a reflection of my own fear and unlovableness. I apologize to you; I ask for your forgiveness and in the process begin to forgive myself, but there is something more for me to learn from this. When I am in a state of fearfulness and unlovableness, I have a tendency to project that out in words to essentially push people away. I can continually learn from that behavioral response that I have created for myself, but I can only learn if I am both willing to take responsibility for my actions and to let go of any guilt or shame I might have connected with them.
“On this day I claim that any remorse I may hold at contributing, for contributing, to structures in fear will be released in this claim. I am free of the choices I have made and the recrimination that I hold against the self or justifications for behavior or misidentification throughout time. In this claim, I align myself only to what is, to what is in truth, and as I make this claim, I respect the choices made at all times, honor the need I felt at the time they were made, and reclaim myself as worthy of the new choice to re-create and be in accord as the Divine Self in truth. I know who I am in truth. I know what I am in truth. I know how I serve in truth. I am here. I am here. I am here.”
We all begin to realize how painful and sometimes how difficult this transformation in thought can be. All of us would like to be able to do it once and be done with it, but the process we find ourselves in is releasing, surrendering, forgiving, opening ourselves to unconditional love again and again and again.
Hopefully we are not beating a dead (skin) horse here, but as we closed our discussion for the evening I could not help but think of that wonderful Passage from The Velveteen Rabbit:
"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.
The Skin Horse Tells His Story
"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."
The Rabbit sighed. He thought it would be a long time before this magic called Real happened to him. He longed to become Real, to know what it felt like; and yet the idea of growing shabby and losing his eyes and whiskers was rather sad. He wished that he could become it without these uncomfortable things happening to him.
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