This is very interesting. I woke up this morning thinking about “gratitude,” and how much we humans want to feel good. We want everything in life to obey what our minds say they should be. We are endlessly trying to line up all our ducks, for we feel this will bring about the feeling of good we want. So we have high hopes. Then something disturbing happens, we wake up ready for a day of gratitude and being close to the creator, and find a very negative self, which we try to hide from ourselves, pretending it’s not there. We do our best to put our best foot forward.
This is where we start to pretend we are full of gratitude when we are not, and we start to put on a show for others and even ourselves. We attempt to find others who will agree with us, and we do, for there are others doing the exact same thing; they are looking for someone to agree with them.
Vernon Howard’s teachings are all about self-honesty. What if we were ok with waking up with that negative self and decided, that is, took on a different attitude towards that self. What would happen if we simply became aware of it and did nothing more? We did not pretend it was not there, we did not try to get rid of it, we did nothing about it at all. What would happen? I invite everyone to try this experiment in self-discovery.
If you want to truly change your life for the better, then be grateful for whatever life delivers you. A right attitude is powerful. For you will understand something new and watch your life change for the better. There are so many happy surprises on the journey to self-knowledge.
Dictionary: gratitude | ˈɡradəˌto͞od |
noun
the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.H4/>
This reminds me of my favorite quote by Vernon, ” Resistance to the disturbance is the disturbance”. There is nothing to be afraid of when truly looking at ourselves, because when we truly see, we are aligning with the natural energy of the Creator. This reveals that pretence is a waste of energy and unnecessary. It is always good to see an attribute or behavior in ourselves that we may find ugly or embarrassing. Once we see it, it will never have the same hold that it had in the past. We will be freer.
Yes, and this process of seeing what is wrong over and over with a right, light spirit purifies the seer.
What is the ever-present, ever-silent, ever-motionless, ever-indescribable something that sees the negative self? It doesn’t even move to say, “I am that”.
Yes. “The natural state is indescribable.”