ARE Vision/Ideal: "Global manifestation of Oneness and the Love of God and all people.
In loving oneness,
Leader: Greg
ARE Ideal/Goal: Global manifestation of Oneness and the love of God and all people.
ARE Mission Statement: To create opportunities for profound personal change in body, mind, and spirit through the wisdom found in the Edgar Cayce material.
ASFG Monday Night Study Group Ideal: Oneness
Action: Affirm daily our oneness with each other.
Lesson VII Patience, section-- "Means Through Which Patience Is Gained"
Experiment: pg. 79.
At the end
of the day, write down one experience from the day which, at the time it
happened, was CONFUSING, FRUSTRATING or DIFFICULT for you to deal with. Then have a moment of quiet to center yourself and get in touch with your REAL
SELF. Listen for an answer as to the purpose for your having that
particular situation arise. Write down your understanding of that
purpose.
Example:
situation: I
ran out of money at the store. I had to borrow money from a friend
and I was somewhat embarrassed.
purpose: I needed to remember that I needed the love and help of others and they need mine.
At midsummer, just slightly past Summer Solstice (the single day of the year holding an extra 5 hours, 38 minutes daylight in Colorado, as compared to sun lit hours of the December solstice) five serious seekers of knowledge on developing a personal relationship to the Divine Sweet Spirit, the all knowing, everywhere present, omnipotent Creative Forces, zoomed into a sacred space and read about, reported on, and discussed how one develops patience. A virtue also referenced as a fruit of the spirit, patience is so necessary for our spiritual growth.
A constant, prayerful attitude toward living purposefully leads to patience: in frequent, deep introspection, we may forget ourselves, awaken our inner selves to be in perfect attunement with our Ideal, so that our soul's expression is beauty--love expressed in our every word and act. Breath by breath, step by step, issue by issue, and in every test of patience that we ourselves created with our thoughts earlier, we must stay on guard, maintaining awareness of his promise--there is no need to fear, no risk of failure or an angry response because--God's strength adequately protects us from the slip-ups of "our selfish temptations to just let them have it."
Quite a lively discussion ensued when the groups ears heard the lesson being read aloud: Corruption must be burned up, it may not inherit eternal life; every one the Lord loves is purged and scolded, is tested and tried; trials overcome in patience with the strength provided while attuned to Ideals and Universal Forces increases expansively a soul's capacity to express even more patience in the next test.
Discussion was something like this: "God is not a punishing God." God does not express vengeance. God doesn't test us for patience, to develop patience in a soul.
"No, we do that
ourselves." (Whatever we cast upon the waters of Spirit returns to us, did
He say, tenfold?)
Understanding the purpose underlying events we meet in our material world is a 3rd aspect awakened by our active patience practiced in attunement with the I AM from Creative Forces. Cayce's reading 581- 2 reminded us we are actively patient in simpleness, gentleness, humbleness, faithfulness, and long-suffering.
Selfishness, grudges, anger, separate us from our Higher Self, the I AM, our Comforter, our source of strength to overcome each trial in active patience. So growing our patience in meeting self-created challenges while maintaining our connection to our Higher Self also reveals to us the reason we experience the events we do as well as Universal Laws.
We must continuously analyze self and know our motives and the purpose for which we incarnated in this life. From this position, Cayce told Ms. 1336-1, living in the fruits of the spirit, long-suffering, patience, mercy, brotherly love, kindness, gentleness in her daily experiences with others makes life worthwhile
Last Week's Experiment: No one
complained they lacked an opportunity to actively live the Fruits of the
Spirit, i.e., long suffering. Being awakened quite late at night and
kept awake for hours again this year by the loud muffler and revved-up motorcycle racing up and down the street was at the top of the most trying tests of
length. Hours of late night wide awake noise is a high leap to see as
"actually in the past."
Another member resolved her patience
trying situation spiritually by asking her guide for help. Three home
improvement projects for new air conditioning, upgraded lawn sprinklers,
and painting involving bids from contractors was a good test of another
person's patience. There was a happy outcome for one whose test of patience
involved different perspectives between two employees at work. And
lastly, another caught self overdoing and needing to recommit to preciseness
twice, and times of allowing thoughts of "limited time" to create
separation as well, and then later, re-centering self.
In Loving Oneness,
Sylvia Raye
Universal Truths were identified (in
Lesson VII, "Patience") for six Souls searching for
understanding. Our relationship between body, mind, soul, was defined
this way by Cayce: ...the spirit is the life, mind is the builder, and
the physical is the result; "my body-world."
If we haven't known before, our
minds are creating, where do we create? "Best definition ....of
fourth-dimension is an idea!" said Cayce.
Carl Jung wrote, "If we wish to
form a vivid picture of a non-spatial being of the fourth dimension, we should
do well to take thought as a being for our model. (Modern Man in
Search of a Soul, p. 184).
"....Before any condition
exists in the finite mind, it has become a past condition, relatively
spoken, from the finite mind. 900-24
Author on Tibetan mysticism, Govinda
also sees "our reality" is from an earlier time: "What
appears as form thus belongs essentially to the past,..." (Foundations of
Tibetan Mysticism, p.69).
The karmic situations, we built in
the past, can be healed now by responding according to our Ideal or love
through the dimension of patience.
If our life is to be eternal with Him, a soul, an entity"... must ever become --then--as His prayer was: Father, I pray that I may have the glory with Thee that I had before the world was. This is not just a saying but a reality. 3292-1
...Life itself is a consciousness, a gift of an infinite influence we may call God. 2399-1
Experiencing Patience awakens an awareness and understanding (1) events in the physical world were built in the past (2) life is continuous. Realizing the truth of Gods promise that as we work & sow, we also reap in material experience in the completeness of time.* Loss of patience creates regret and guilt; forgetting God's promises that people we have concern for will receive healing, peace or love in their relationships.
We block awareness that we are eternal spiritual Souls, that events in material earth were built in the past WHEN WE OVER IDENTIFY WITH OUR PHYSICAL BODIES in three situations-- (1) when we over do (as in eating) (2) feel rushed in limited time, forgetting the importance of the Spirit in which we act (3) We become anxious about others or personal relationship. Reminding ourselves the life of our spiritual essence is continuous may support our intent to be patient.
Laws of Universal Forces work
perfectly, we do receive our rewards whether its wealth or love or justice, if
not in this lifetime, then in another: *Do you recall the physical
reading Cayce did about 1925 for a truck driver injured in an
accident? For this paraplegic man, he gave a treatment plan
including instructions for surgically wiring his spine together. Finished with the physical reading, Cayce remarked that a Life Reading would
have been more interesting. "This was Nero, see?"
So what happened to the Roman Emperor now famous for letting Rome burn, and persecuting Christians? His reading was followed up: With no money, the surgery was never done. "He spent the rest of his life dependent upon Christians for his every need." He wasn't punished by ferocious lions, an erroneous concept of karma. The Love and Grace of God provided him with an opportunity to get a different perspective, to understand Christian people usually dedicated to ideals of service, healing the sick, feeding the poor.
Meditation, prayers for others, and sending healing energy to others, raised physical vibrations and consciousness, excellent preparation to discuss the dimension of patience, along with space and time. Eric Tolle, author of "The Power of Now," was quoted and aided our concept of time. Material conditions were built in the past. Now we choose how to react. Ideally to heal our karma, our response will be with patience and love. Actually, past, present, future occur all at once. Other good books relating to our study were mentioned as well during our discussions.
The member who attended the joint program given by Rocky Mountain Region and Canada's study groups region reported on it, Cayce and the Chakra: Where West Meets the East. The presenters explored connections between Cayce's chakra system and eastern chakra systems in ancient Yoga teachings. Cayce's accuracy on 5,000 years old Eastern texts is amazing.
This week as we experimented in observing ourselves as whether we responded in the dimension of patience according to our ideal, or not, netted interesting results. An anxious moment was resolved by prayers for opportunities for increased socialization among some strangers mingling with long term acquaintances. Another, suddenly out of work for an extended time, in patience was motivated to offer his job skills to others and was welcomed by several teams to help with their surplus of "to do" work. A behavioral/relationship challenge at work was met with patience by a third group member.
One had the expense of a broken side
mirror to deal with in patience. By staying in the realm of patience, one
member was well satisfied that he accomplished home maintenance upgrades
and brought new life to dead spots in the lawn. And finally, one member
felt only partial success at living in patience. While feelings weren't
specifically expressed in words, tone and demeanor of one experimenter betrayed
a forgetting that living a spiritual life is the spirit in which we speak or
act.
In Loving Oneness,
Sylvia Raye