Let's put up the title of our topic for today's meeting.
I know Kate's in Florida.
I'm hoping that there's not some problem.
Well,
Here's the title.
Keep Your Eyes Open Wide and Watch the Light Set You Free.
Keep Your Eyes Open Wide and Watch the Light Set You Free.
We hear so much about this idea of a relationship that we're meant to have with a living light,
This higher awareness with what in many traditions is called a divine intelligence,
The living Christ,
Call it what you will.
But I don't know if we really understand it outside of those feelings that we get when we think of something like that.
But as we should all know,
Thinking of this living light,
Of our relationship to it and how it is intended to help liberate us is not the same as being liberated.
So I want to start by reminding you,
And I don't think I need to too much,
That we all have these virtually countless unwanted moments in our life where at the sudden shock of whatever it may be,
He said this,
They didn't do that.
I got some news.
There's this sudden kyao feeling inside of us,
This summary reaction.
Do you know that?
Kyao,
Wow,
That whole business when something doesn't line up with what we expect.
And in that moment,
When we are suddenly pushing back against life,
Essentially resisting or rejecting what we see as the source of our pain,
At the same time,
All that's going on,
And this is important to see,
That as what has happened that I don't desire unfolds,
Unfolds within that same moment,
Another desire that we,
As we identify with it,
Hold that this plan,
This way I'll escape,
This consolation,
This justification is going to make this kyao moment go away.
I don't want this moment.
And so because of this instant rejection,
And now I'm going to go slow so you can follow me,
It's imperative that you do,
Because of this summary instant rejection we have to whatever we see as challenging our image of reality in that moment,
And let me pause here for a second,
Whatever we see as rejecting our image of reality in that moment,
We don't know that we walk around with a virtual picture book that is the source of our pain,
Where when a certain moment comes,
That book is thrown open,
And either the event looks like the picture that we have of it confirms that picture we have of ourself,
Or it doesn't.
And when these two pictures don't match,
The one picture being carried over from the past,
These images of how things are supposed to be so that we feel confident in ourselves,
When suddenly there's this conflict between what we see and what we don't want to see,
Then without knowing it we are caught up in the experience of a raging unseen conflict within us.
It is virtually always there,
But we have no awareness of it by and large.
Our sudden manifestation of this unseen conflict is that frustration,
That impatience,
That demand that we place on a person or a predicament,
And that all comes out of the stress,
The tension that's inherent in this conflict that exists between what we are being given to see is true about our present level of being,
And a lower nature,
An unconscious nature within us,
That does not want to see,
Let alone realize as being true,
Anything that challenges that particular image of itself.
Once again,
An image that we don't know we carry,
That I shouldn't be treated like this,
That they should never act that way.
These images have characters.
These characters are suddenly brought to the foreplay,
To the front of our consciousness,
And they are what meets these moments with this misery that we experience born of this conflict.
Can you see this much with me as I've described it?
Please,
Can you see that even though we're not aware of it,
We carry with us this picture book that is the source of pain,
Because the pictures we carry,
If they don't match what is unfolding in real life,
In real time,
Then we're in conflict with what we see as being the source of our suffering,
Where the point of this talk is to help us see a little more deeply into the real source of this suffering,
And what can be done not to mitigate it,
Like we always do with our new plans,
But to extricate ourselves entirely from that unconscious nature that meets life for us,
And when life doesn't line up with what it expects,
We are suddenly filled with this resistance,
These negative thoughts and feelings that should be so familiar to us,
That explain,
Literally vacillate,
Why we feel the way we do with what we must do,
Why we feel as we do with what must be done to change it.
So it's sort of a kind of a crazy ride where suddenly something happens,
It's not how it's supposed to be,
Resistance,
And then,
Oh yeah,
Well here's what to do,
And we,
In those moments,
Lose sight altogether of the event,
Of the conditions that have triggered this unconscious nature,
Because this unconscious nature is suddenly showing us on the screen of our consciousness everything that we have to do to restore what we have known as the order of life,
But clearly was out of order with real life when real life challenged it.
So as,
And one day you'll see it this way,
We have something within us,
When it goes,
Yeah,
That is saying life is out of order.
Please,
If you,
If nothing else,
Understand this,
Life is never out of order.
Is any part of the river out of order with the entirety of the flow of itself and all of the conditions that create that,
That,
That body of water?
Life can't be out of order,
But we see it being such,
And when we see it as being out of order,
That's when this conflict makes itself so apparent to us that we believe our responsibility,
If we're going to be free of the pain,
Is to restore order to life,
And the way we restore order to life is by turning to the nature that is out of order itself,
Meaning it is not a part of God's life.
It is not a part of the will of the divine.
It is separate from this living light,
This Christ that is intended,
As he himself said,
To reveal the hidden content of human consciousness to that consciousness itself,
And if we don't see this,
What's the best that can happen?
Well,
The best that could happen is what's been happening to us for millennia.
We are bound,
Quite literally,
To live out the futility,
I hope you can see it,
The futility of this unconscious response,
And the unconscious response is always essentially to close our eyes and at the same time start imagining,
Envisioning what we have to do to get rid of what we don't want to see,
So until we learn to open our eyes to start looking at what we don't want to see,
We will continue to see the things we don't want.
Until we learn to open our eyes to see the things we don't want,
We will continue to see the things we don't want.
Person goes,
What?
Look at what I don't want to see?
Have you lost your mind,
Man?
No,
I found my mind.
I'm hoping that you can find your mind through these lessons and the work that they imply.
Look at what I don't want to see.
Why?
So I've written a key lesson to help explain this.
It's the first of our key lessons.
I will ask Kate to post it and we will look at this through the understanding that it is helping explain why it is that we need to start looking at what we don't want to see.
Read along with me.
We can either spend our lives shaking in fear each time an unwanted moment arrives,
Trying to protect ourselves from it,
Or we can use that same situation to see through the false self that believes being fearful can ever lead to the end of being afraid.
Another order of our own understanding that can start seeing that's nuts.
Why would I turn to something that not only doesn't want to see,
But that only has eyes for what it believes is true about itself,
To help me get past the conflict of being identified with that nature?
The blind shall lead the blind and both shall fall in a pit.
Certainly you've heard that expression.
I'm describing it to you.
When we have this negative reaction,
In that moment,
We are made blind.
Our eyes are summarily shut because they are instantly identified with not just the resistance to the revelation of that moment,
But to everything that comes along and follows that reaction that starts telling us what we have to do if we ever want to be free.
Everybody still on the same page with me,
I trust?
Not too difficult?
Please?
So I'm going to tell you a story to set the stage for the main lesson here.
And I think some version of this story I know exists in my past,
Meaning that I used the idea of it,
But not the actual context.
So bear with me if it sounds familiar,
But do not think to yourself,
By the way,
As so many of you do,
That what you are hearing is in any way whatsoever redundant.
There's nothing that's old that God makes.
There's nothing old that's revealed.
What is old and redundant is your mind that immediately looks at something it recognizes as being familiar,
Categorizes it as such,
And then shoves it back into some file where it says,
I know that.
And you go on in your blindness and your unknowingness,
Believing somehow or other that somehow because of the way you feel like,
I know that,
That you do.
When you think to yourself,
I know that,
I already know that,
You know nothing because you are locked into the past and the pattern of a mind that produces that familiarity so that it can actually resist the very thing it says it's familiar with.
Here's the story.
Somewhere deep down in the depth of hell,
The big head devil calls together all of the imps for a very important conference.
And when they're all there gathered amongst the steam and the flames and the bubbling mud,
He says to them,
Look,
We've got a problem.
We've almost turned the tide up there on that earth where most of the human beings are not only no longer aware of what's being done to them,
How handily we've got them in our grip,
But they don't even question anymore their fears.
And if the question comes up,
They answer their fears for themselves.
When they're angry,
They just decide who's responsible.
And that's all part of our great work we've been doing down here.
And we're to be congratulated if we must say so ourselves.
But however virtually isolated they are from you know who,
It's not enough.
Because some of them up there,
And this is why we've got to get to work.
We don't want this to spread.
Some of there are starting to understand that there's a reason why moments come along that they don't want.
So we have to seal off the earth from heaven.
Because if we don't seal it off completely,
That light,
Some of it's going to get through.
And if it gets through,
It means we're through and we can't afford that.
So we know this.
We know there's nothing that we can do to stop the higher forces of you know who from bringing about the conditions,
The unbelievable arrangements that somehow you know who is able to produce.
So that you know who can harmonize heaven and earth.
So that all of the creatures are in accord,
Including his so-called favorite creatures,
Those human beings.
Now we know we can't act directly on this light.
Because that light is provided to these humans to help guide them.
And in particular at a certain point to remind them that there's no fear in the spirit of you know who.
And once someone even begins to suspect that fear is a lie,
Then it's not long before they start tracking down the source of those lies.
The source of those reactions,
Those negative states.
And guess where they lead?
Right back to us.
And we can't have that.
We need to maintain a firm grip.
So I've called you here because we need a new weapon.
We need a way to interfere when these moments,
When this light comes to help human beings see what it is that actually has imprisoned them.
And if we don't work fast,
Then we're going to run into something that is indescribable.
We won't have anything to do.
So we have to devise a scheme.
And whoever devises this scheme,
This new weapon,
Will be treated to a treasure beyond their wildest dreams.
Weeks later,
How am I doing on time?
Weeks later,
Little devil starts running around.
I got it.
I got it.
I got it.
Little puffs of steam coming out of his ear,
Little flames out of his nose.
I have a way to interfere with these moments that it's perfect.
Head devil calls everybody,
Explain it.
He says,
You know,
Each of us already has our own human.
We stay right by their side as we've been assigned and we wait.
Now we know by and large that we wait in order to misdirect,
But I've got the perfect misdirection now.
This will seal the deal.
He said,
We wait for the moment when the heavens create the conditions as they're always trying to do to liberate that human being through whatever the lesson is in that moment.
We don't want them to have these lessons because the real lessons are inseparable from being liberated from what presently they are held captive by,
And they don't know what they're held captive by.
We have to keep it that way.
So what we're going to do is this.
When that light of that moment comes along,
In that moment,
We know it has come to illuminate the parts of that human otherwise kept in the dark by us.
And that's when in that moment,
When the light strikes and that human being has that first reaction,
We whisper in that human being's ear as loud and emphatically as we can.
No,
Do not look at that.
Turn away.
And they will,
And they'll turn away because in the same moment that we yell,
No,
Do not look at that.
We're going to jab them with the sharp end of our pitchfork right in the side,
And they'll get that pain.
And when they feel that pain and they hear the instruction,
Don't look at that,
They'll believe that whatever it is that they were about to see as true has to be the problem.
And they will look away.
It's infallible,
Coupled with our instruction to convince them it's best not to see what's right before their eyes.
In that moment,
They will look away,
They will close their eyes.
And that's how we're going to defeat the plan of you-know-who,
Who is trying to all the time save the most favored creation.
That's the story.
Now let's examine it.
Kate,
Let's bring up the second key lesson,
Please.
It's a bit of a summary.
Here we are.
In the pain of an unwanted moment,
Excuse me,
In the throes of any unwanted moment,
We are conditioned to look at anything other than ourselves.
In the throes of any unwanted moment,
We are conditioned to look at anything other than ourselves.
Please see it.
Unwanted moment,
What do I see?
I see what I'm given to see,
And what I'm given to see is that there's something wrong with you.
In the throes of some condition,
I see the source of conflict as someone or something or a world that didn't get the memo that said this isn't how things go.
So without knowing it,
All I see is what I am given to see by my negative reaction as the source of what has ruined my life in that moment.
It never occurs to us,
Unless we've been exposed to truth teachings,
That we have been conditioned to look at anything other than ourselves,
Because once we begin to catch,
Listen to me,
The compulsion to blame,
The compulsion to regret,
The compulsion to justify,
Once we even begin to catch a glimpse of this compulsion to deal with the conflict we feel by trying to redirect the condition we see as responsible for it,
Then we're going to start seeing,
Wait a minute,
You know,
Something's coming up inside of me.
I never actually think to myself that where my attention needs to go isn't on what I'm reacting to,
But to the nature in me that's always having the same reaction.
Because in that moment,
Which by the way brings us to the main insight of this talk,
To look at what we blame is the same as looking away from what that moment is revealing to us.
I'll say it again,
To look at what we blame is the same as looking away from what is being revealed within us in that moment.
We think that freedom follows resistance.
I see this,
I don't want it,
I reject it,
And when I reject it,
I realize what I have to do,
So that for us,
Resistance is the path to freedom,
Because out of resistance is produced a plan.
Resistance cannot lead to freedom.
It is resistance and the unconscious nature that creates it that is the prison we're in.
What's out of order isn't the world that reveals to us this resistance.
What's out of order is that we somehow or other have been conditioned to so identify with this resistance that we believe it actually understands what's wrong.
It doesn't understand anything other than it's in conflict with something that is revealing to itself,
To that nature,
The actual content of itself.
So resistance doesn't free us,
It solidifies us.
Resistance crystallizes us,
And as it does,
And this is a phenomenon you will one day,
God willing,
It will unfold and you'll see it.
As this resistance mounts,
Gathered into this psychic system is a certain kind of substance.
This energy coalesces,
It collapses into a kind of a dark form,
And the more coalesce that form,
The more substantive is the sense of self that knows what's wrong.
Whereas the real thing that's going on is the more substantive that sense of self is,
The more it believes in its own resistance,
And you can see what happens at that point.
You following me?
Let's strengthen this last idea with the third key lesson.
Let's strengthen this idea with the third key lesson,
Kate,
If you will.
Read along.
Follow this timeless principle all the way to the freedom hidden within it.
No effect can be separated from its cause,
So that whatever we resist always appears with its unseen cause in that same moment.
Rumi put this important insight into a well-known idea,
The antidote is in the venom.
Let's go through this.
No effect can be separated from its cause.
That should be obvious.
For every action equal opposite reaction,
No effect can be separated from its cause.
They appear together.
They're not separate.
They are an expression of another kind of life that is acting upon what it does,
And as it acts,
There is this effect.
But when we feel this effect,
We don't see its cause as being interior.
We see its cause as exterior,
So that in that separation that takes place in this unconscious mind,
We are,
For all intents and purposes,
Blinded to the fact that in the antidote,
That the antidote is in the venom.
The solution to this resistance isn't in finding what needs to be controlled to change it.
The antidote to the resistance and the conflict that rages within us is in the awareness of the nature creating it,
And we are created with the capacity for this kind of awareness.
Whatever we resist appears with its cause in the same moment,
Not separate.
Try to see this.
Thought is time.
I look out and hear you say something.
In that split second,
The effect,
My reaction is not separate from what is acting on it,
And what is acting on it isn't just what you have said.
What is acting on it is the way this nature responds to whatever the condition is that triggers the unseen content within it,
So that that's the moment of freedom.
The moment that we close our eyes,
We are closing our eyes to the God-given right to be enlightened into the actual source of that suffering,
Which is part of this unseen consciousness,
This nature that we know nothing about,
So that when we resist seeing things that disturb us,
We have closed our spiritual eyes,
Literally.
That's why Christ said,
With those of you who have eyes to see,
What do you think he was talking about?
Those of you who have eyes to see,
Eyes to see what?
What's right in front of you,
But you can't see what's right in front of you when you have been so thoroughly conditioned,
As all of us have been,
To summarily reject and resist the revelation of that moment in favor of finding a way to continue what we call our kingdom of heaven,
Our reality,
Our life.
So that moment when the light comes to reveal in us what can't be seen,
Realized in any other way,
This unconscious nature,
Rather than allowing that light to do what it's intended to do,
Chooses in favor of doing what it intends to do,
Which is to keep itself alive at the expense of our happiness,
Of our peace of mind.
I've said this before,
But it's not to be thought of in the same light.
Resistance is the experience of unfinished business between ourselves and the will of heaven.
Resistance is the sudden experience of a conflict that is generated by something in us that is unfinished and needs to be perfected,
And that which would act upon it to reveal it and complete it so that perfection could exist between the will of heaven and the will of earth,
That there might be this beautiful continuity,
This celestial circulation,
As is intended to take place.
Which brings us to this exercise.
And hold off for a second,
Kate.
I call it the kiao exercise.
Practice the kiao exercise and use painful reactions that used to imprison you to help set you free.
Here's how.
First,
If you followed me at all,
Every unwanted moment contains within it its own antidote.
Every unwanted moment contains right within it its own antidote.
To look anywhere else other than in the light of all that is revealed in that moment is to look away,
Is to close your eyes to the reconciliation,
Which is the antidote of whatever has been produced by that conflict.
Resistance whispers in our ear.
Sometimes it shouts,
Doesn't it?
No!
No!
Look away!
Don't!
Not that!
Anything but that!
But awareness,
On the other hand,
Says what?
And Kate,
We can bring it up now.
The word kiao means keep your eyes open wide.
You know that.
Oh!
I want you to,
When you feel that contraction,
When you feel that conflict with life,
Out of order.
No,
It's not out of order.
What's out of order is what we do with our attention in that moment,
Because as we are now,
Our attention is co-opted,
And it is placed on that which it blames,
That nature blames,
Instead of recognizing that this acronym,
Kiao,
Keep your eyes open wide,
Is an instruction.
There's this beautiful passage.
I've always loved it.
This material will help you understand it better from the New Testament.
The passage goes,
Be doers of the word and not hearers only.
Be doers of the word and not hearers only.
Now,
I know that we are all,
If we're especially in the Christian Judaic tradition,
Whether I know you don't like to hear this,
You know what that means.
You don't have a clue what that means.
It doesn't mean suddenly become subservient to this authority that you believe in,
That you say is the Christ.
If the Christ was really with you,
You wouldn't have to go looking for a way to deal with the moment.
The moment would be dealt with instantly because the moment delivers the solution to the suffering when you're in the light that reveals the source of it.
That's the task,
The real life.
To be a doer of the word and not hearer only.
First of all,
To be a doer of the word.
That word,
Word in quotes,
Is to be a doer of the logos,
Of the living creation.
That's what the word is.
In the beginning was the word and the word was where that created everything.
Literally,
Be doers of creation.
Be doers in the moment of creation,
Not hearers,
Not judges,
Not blamers,
But a participant in the moment of that word,
In that moment where the will of heaven comes into this earth.
To be a doer of that word means that I'm going to understand that to be a doer of the word is to participate in this beautiful continuation of the revelation of God's perfection.
How we got to the point where we look at life and it's not perfect because it doesn't match our picture is a story that begins long ago with this idea of the fall,
Another talk to come.
There's no moment that isn't perfect because in every moment,
The will of heaven is working on the will of the earth that now is set and caught up in this identification,
But that is meant to be undone,
Gently so I might add,
So that we start to understand to be a doer of the word isn't an outward deed,
But it means to keep our spiritual eyes wide open in the face of any resistance.
That's what a doer of the word is.
A doer of the word meaning of the moment in which he or she is being asked,
Would you let this be done?
Will you agree to see everything that's standing in your way of your relationship with me,
With love?
Because if you'll agree to do that,
It's right there.
The antidote is in the venom.
The freedom is in the moment where we feel captive because if we're free to see,
We'll realize we're only a captive of some nature that we don't understand and that keeps us in the dark,
But that once we bring it into the light of this understanding,
It doesn't have a chance.
To keep our eyes open in the face of resistance.
Oh mother of pearl,
To keep my heart open in the moment of resistance.
Boy that moment comes and everything just shuts down and we feel the pain of that separation because that's what the pain is and when we feel the pain of that separation,
The nature responsible for shutting us out of the light of heaven then creates a light of its own and that false light says,
Follow me and we do blindly so because we don't know that any other light exists other than that.
So in the full awareness of the moment that I'm describing,
We are shown the parts of ourselves that we have to part ways with in the fullness of the moment,
In the very moment I don't want I have to see what everything in me doesn't want to see.
The parts of myself that are interfering with my development.
The true gift of an unwanted moment is not,
The true gift of an unwanted moment is that in that moment itself is revealed the nature that doesn't want it.
The true gift of an unwanted moment is revealed had we eyes to see and a willingness to be doers of the word in that moment is revealed the limited nature is revealed that cemented heart,
That hardened mind,
That nature that clings to everything that it believes are going to somehow or other bring it the consolation it must have.
In that moment that nature is revealed and it is by that light that we are released from that nature because until we recognize that we are servants,
Literally slaves,
Bound to that unconscious nature we will never have the means to recognize the truth that sets us free which is what?
That is not I.
It has never been I.
But only the Christ in I,
Only this living light in I,
Only this truth that lives in every one of us endowed as we are as creations of heaven can begin to first of all start waking up,
Bringing an end to that nightmare that follows every moment we don't want and practice what I've described to you.
You feel that wow,
Did you really say that to me?
Now we may not hear or feel it that dramatically but if we're students at all and practicing being present to ourselves we can feel the moments the onset of these negative reactions when they start to roll up and roll us away with them.
It's there.
We just don't see it because our eyes are closed so we're going to use the moment we don't want to help us explore and understand and eventually dismiss from ourselves this unconscious relationship we have with this unconscious nature.
Then you'll understand what it means to keep your eyes open wide.
Keep them open,
Man.
Sitting here I'm angry,
I'm lonely,
I'm depressed,
I got bad news,
I got this,
I got that.
Everything shuts down.
That's how we're kept prisoners is that something comes along and wants to shut us out of life so that instead of having real life that is always open and free,
We're forever identified with the feeling of being made a victim of one thing or another when it's right in front of our eyes to see that we can't be made a victim of the light and that the light would fight for us if we would be willing to keep our eyes open wide.
Will you remember the exercise?
Keep your eyes open wide.
You try that,
You won't believe what you'll see and the last thing I'll tell you is that something wants to jump in and then judge what you see when you keep your eyes open wide and judgment is the same as shutting your eyes because it belongs to a nature that doesn't want to know anything at all about itself but it is powerless in the face of your wish to know that peace that passes understanding.
