Effortlessness

There are two phases in one’s life: inward and outward, subjective and objective, one’s direct relationship with God, and one’s relationship and service to all of God’s creatures. These two must be in balance. When there seems to be no obvious next step to take based on one’s inner prompting, then slow down, relax, and be in tune with God. If the occasion calls for outward service, then go forth freely without hesitation.

Do not dwell pointlessly upon the past and future. Remain constantly in tune with your indwelling spirit. Thinking about the “futility” of past effort and the long road ahead and dreading it is not a positive use of your energy. Thinking that you are not “special” to God is also futile because you and God are one. You are already in him.

In moments of mistaken perception, be still, and be with God. Regroup all your scattered energies back to the centre, and be in peace. Listen to and behold God, and lay aside this material world.

You were in pain because you yearned to know yourself deeper and to be the highest you can be. It was a time of growing and it was the right time for new experience, and that employment was no longer conducive to your spiritual unfoldment. Your staying there out of fear was conflicting with the Divine Will of spiritual evolution, and you suffered because of this. Your struggle and pain were not due to the perceived difficult task itself; it was never about the particular task itself.

Your lesson is not to be so attached to the form. Flow and trust and surrender to God’s Will, no matter where it leads you. The lesson to be learned is to trust in Divine Will, and flow where you are led. In a way, you did not have to suffer had you had sufficient trust in God and Divine Will. You suffered because of your lack of trust.

Have trust that when God’s Will led you away from your work despite of your fear and mistrust, it will unfailingly lead you to your next destined point again when the time is right, and hopefully, with your fuller cooperation and deeper trust. For in trust and conscious cooperation lies your peace of mind.

With a mind in peace, knowing no lack and with the deepest trust in God, all you do would be a praise and prayer to the Lord. In so doing, you will not find unrest. So fear not. Trust that you will be taken where the Plan meant to take you. Surrender and trust. We are all One, and God is you. You just have to become aware and be able to see with God’s vision, and then you will see that there is neither contradiction nor exaggeration.

As long as other’s freedom, rights, and life are not taken away by you, and as long as your mind and heart are on God and doing God’s Will, you need not worry about any ungodly opportunities. You will not experience them in your life because there are no ungodly will in your mind.

Your job there was neither to save nor to teach, but it was to make peace. Whom had you not forgiven there? Whom did you still hold a grudge? With whom did you not have free flowing feeling of love and brotherhood? You were there to make peace with each and everyone of them. While being there, your job was to realize the love again with all whom you had met, and to reestablish your own place in the Kingdom of God.

Until you have erased all attacks from within, you cannot see with the eye of God or know Oneness. You know whom you needed to forgive, and you know what you needed to forgive. You have to forgive the atmosphere, the organization, the structure, the building, and the world. You cannot blame the world for your feeling of entrapment. You have to forgive them all, and when you leave the place physically behind, you will leave them filled with love within your heart. That is your mission and task and lesson. Heed it well, and fulfill your part. All experiences are indeed appropriate for the current phase of learning.

It’s best if you focus first on the issue of love and trust. Once they are mastered, others will swiftly follow. As you have learned to go where you are invited, you should also learn to leave when you are released. These are two sides of the same expression of Divine Will in practical life. By doing so, you will always ride on the current of Divine Will, and will not be in struggle and pain.

There is no battle for you here. You need not fight or struggle to prove anything to anyone including yourself. Your place in God’s kingdom is secure, and your only duty and right is to maintain your own sense of peace and joy. When you are rejected by a situation, if you decide to stay, then you are choosing to learn the lesson of conflict and struggle, and eventually to see their futility. If you no longer desire conflict and struggle in life, then you only have to walk away in peace from the rejecting situation, and have trust that a new invitation will be forthcoming. It is as easy and simple as that. With these two processes in place, life could indeed be lived in trust and without effort.

Give All

Q: How can people be practical and realistic when you ask them to give all?

A: For people whose faith is not yet strong and stable, and whose bodies are not yet totally aligned, they must proceed with “practicality”, so that they would not overwhelm their personality, which will be in a state of shock and agitation. Such condition of non-equilibrium is to be avoided, since it will only further confuse the life of the disciple. For those who are ready and quite aligned, and are ready to take full advantage of the law of supply and demand, and who has their fear under control, it is quite safe for them to “give all”, since by doing so, they do not go into emotional turmoil, and will see the law of supply and demand work out beautifully.

The advice of being practical and realistic has also to do with the “skillful use” of resources. Even though it is quite safe for the aligned personality to “give all”, the personality should still do it with good common sense and practicality, which will result in the skillful use of the resources at hand. We are not encouraging the disciple to throw out all the resources at hand for the sake of unrealistic emotionalism or glamour or fanatic devotion. Again, the sense of proportion and timing must be there; hence the need to cultivate oneself diligently through meditation and such devices, so that right action may be undertaken at the right time and with right attitude.

When encountering the atmosphere of fear, do not attempt to fight it by brute force. Simply close your eyes and become totally aware of it. Be not afraid of it. Analyze it and be familiar with it. Soon it will change its shape and become something else. But you must have the courage and balanced attitude of an open-minded scientist to do such a research.

Pleasure and Pain

Q: What was that? I got such a dirty feeling in my gut; it’s a kind of dirty and disgusting feeling. I feel as if my astral sensory has been opened more, and I’m sensing more clearly about the emotions of others. What’s the point of such unpleasant energetic experience? I do not know her nor can I help her much. Also, she did not ask for help.

A: This is the way of the world. All people are at different stages of understanding and mastery. When people are not happy about their lives, and think they are the victims of circumstances, they could do nothing but react thusly. For one could not dispense happiness, when one feels victimized and trapped. To her, you are just one difficult customer, who is there to make her already boring and painful day more annoying. You mean nothing else to her. Under such circumstance, what can you expect from her?

Q: What does it mean to me then?

A: To make your life easier, you can consciously choose to only associate and work with people who are happy or who has already found their own bliss. Do this as much as you can, then you will have less to worry about in your life. Know that life is a big duality school. See it as such, know it as such, and do not swing your emotions strongly between the two poles. Learn to remain centered, and know that everyone has to go through her own process of growing. You must have the responsibility to make your own life work. So it is your responsibility to associate with people of like vibration. For the sake of specific aid to be rendered and sanctioned by your higher self, you then must carry on the work without regard to other people’s level of spiritual understanding. For then your feeling of pleasantness is not the point. Yet, when you are just doing your daily business, you do have the right to associate with blissful people. For in the encountering with no specific mission or task outlined, you serve nothing by spending energy counteracting negative people and energy. Your strength must be saved and carefully used on people to make an important shift in their consciousness. Also, the banding together of many positive people will give a more potent opportunity to change the world positively on a larger scale. So do so with these in mind.

Above all else, remain connected to your highest self at any moment to give yourself the benefit of clear vision and understanding.

Q: Thanks. Also, I am recalling the experience at the restaurant back in July. That also gave me a bad feeling in my whole being. Guidance please.

A: It is not important to know why others react in a certain way mentally, emotionally, or physically, when you are not directly involved in their spiritual guidance. So your responsibility is to work on your own astral field, and to remain in deep connection with your highest self, in order to carry out the Divine Will the best you can, and to grow the fastest you can. That’s all.

Take this as an opportunity to go beyond the swing between emotional pleasure and pain.

Blessing

Love is who you are
Love is who I am
In love we are one
Perfect, you are

Manifestation

Q: There is this question in my mind about manifestation. Some people say that the intensity of one’s emotion is helpful in bringing forth the manifestation, but then I read somewhere else, which says that during the process, one should remain impersonal. Which one is correct?

A: When you have a strong intention to have the object, you are in fact identified with the object, and therefore at the same level as the object. Since you are vibrating at the same rate, you would not be able to do anything to affect it, and hence, ineffective. To be a true creator, you must be at least somewhat higher than the object you are creating. That is why to be an impersonal witness will ensure that you are not entangled with the object of your potential creation.

Q: What about feeling oneness and know that I and the object of my desire are in fact one? Would this attitude not help in the manifestation process? If it does, then how can I remain impersonal, which indicate a sense of separateness?

A: In so far as making you understand that you have the creative potential within you to achieve such a choice in experience, the sense of oneness is helpful. Should you truly feel the oneness, there is then really no point for you to talk about bringing it into manifestation. Hence, since you are not truly feeling a state of oneness, you desire to experience something other than yourself in order to know yourself. Under such a paradigm, it would be helpful to think of yourself as an impersonal witness, whereby you can act effectively as a creator, and yet know that you possess the creative ability as endowed within all the One’s in the world.

Songs of Prayer

Dear Fr Barry,

Thank you so much for sharing the wonderful life of your mother with us. Her resourcefulness and faith are inspiring, and her simple yet extraordinary life would be a comfort to us all in our own hours of need.

Not everyone is ordained to a life of urgent heroism, but there are lives though by nature quiet and unassuming, which nonetheless exude spectacular impact and positive influence over time, just by being there, continuously and patiently taking care of whatever is at hand.

To such people who lead such a life, we praise God in sincere gratitude that they are made available to us and are amongst us. Their lives are the continuing songs of prayer that shines where needed unbeknownst to them. And we selfishly ask God to keep them with us for as long as possible, so that we will not feel alone, so that we may enjoy their innocence and radiance and derive the strength to continue.

You are and always will be in our hearts.

Sincerely yours,
Arthur

Last Choice

Our future is very much in our hands. Your every decision will change your future instantly, and that is the gift from God and the “sweet sorrow” we have. We must experience the result of our choosing in life. Until one day, we understand the Will of God, and then we will understand that there is really -- no choice at all.

Until the day when you finally choose God, you must make the best effort and learn to enjoy the process of choosing in your life. For a life shy of choosing would cause inertia and implosion. That is also why it is so important to know what is your priority in life. If you are to die tomorrow, what do you must do today? Do them now, and leave no regret when leaving this physical life.

As for the general direction of your life, you must learn to enjoy and exercise the process of designing one for yourself. So I’ll not intervene in your learning experience. You can only feel the empowerment afterward if you have done so yourself. However, should you have specific decisions that require insight, I’ll be able to help.