Channel: Michael Hersey | Source
Participant: You say that we have no power to create. Why should we even make an effort to try to get enlightened?
Yes. Good question. This is a continuation on the theme from the last message which brings us back to the reality of not being able to serve two masters at the same time and to looking to see which master you are serving. Every question comes from ego mind. If you feel that you have found an answer to your question, you will quickly become aware of another question – and then another and another. This continues on and on forever.
Participant: Why? Why? Why?
Because this question from the ego mind is looking outside for an answer, rather than inwardly.
Participant: So, the awareness of who I am is inside of me?
You won’t find that answer from the mass consciousness. There is nothing outside of you that can tell you who you are or what to do. To the ego mind this looks contradictory and impossible to solve, but that is how ego mind perceives everything. We sometimes say jokingly that the motto of the ego mind is, “Damned if you do and damned if you don’t”.
Participant: I’ve been there.
We can also say that if you have had the realization of enlightenment, of awakening, of ascension, of knowing the truth of who you are (or perhaps, more clearly, of who you aren’t), that you don’t exist as a separate being, that you are just aware, noticing, conscious of everything, always – there is awareness of the actor, but you are not the actor.
Participant: That’s a great step to have that awareness.
The awakened “non-I” has that awareness. Ego mind is always trying to get somewhere from here. But, as the old farmer in the Arkansas Traveler jokes liked to say to the lost city slicker asking for directions, “Son, you can’t get there from here”. You can’t get to awakeness from here. Ego mind can’t relate to that because it believes that you are not where you belong and can only get there by setting a goal and achieving it. It holds on to this belief even though the most significant things you have experienced in your life have been unplanned. Ego mind says, “Don’t confuse me with the facts.” Ego mind is always running for re-election. However, you do not have the power, the ability, the authorship to create and reach goals. If you think that you can, I will wait here patiently while you go and create a goal, fully realize it, and feel eternally at peace. Actually, I shouldn’t have to be that patient, because if you have that power, then time should be no obstacle. A quick realization can just be a part of your goal. So, come right back and tell me how it has worked for you. Obviously, if you have always had great success with manifestation, you are probably not motivated to be here talking with me. I only ask you to be fully honest with yourself and look to see if the reaching of the goal leaves you fully satisfied, or if it is simply replaced by a new goal? Is there any end to the search for completion? Is there ever enough of what you seek? For most of you, there has been a lot of pain and suffering because things have not worked out as you have wished them to. Some of you are in hopelessness that they ever will. That’s a nice place to be. The hopelessness may give you permission to stop trying, to look for another way of understanding why things happen as they do. Perhaps you go beyond understanding to a place of simply accepting that things happen – not because of your thoughts or actions – they simply happen.
Most of you are reading or listening to this message because you have an interest in waking up or in whatever other term you might use, a place where the ego mind is left behind as well as the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that you have been in for a seeming eternity. You have a desire to get off that wheel, to exist in a place with no suffering. You think that is where you wish to be, not in this world of frustrations, failure, fear, and loss. But now you think you hear me saying that you have no power to create what you want. Do you just not try? Do you throw up your hands and say that if the universe wants you to wake up, it will happen – otherwise you will just trudge ahead in your misery? I’m not actually saying to make no effort. I am saying that you cannot will your enlightenment into being. It will not be achieved by setting a goal. But I return to the question, “Which master are you serving, ego mind or the Divinity within you?” Ego mind has a thousand questions and a thousand goals. It sets the goal of awakening, wonders how to do that, and learns of a myriad of practices perhaps including meditation, diets, yoga or other body disciplines, ways of using the mind, religious instruction, and /or spiritual teachers or gurus to follow to reach that enlightened place. You work hard at these techniques, trying to figure out just what needs to be done. You are not likely to realize success because the ego mind does not have that kind of power. You are trying to get somewhere that doesn’t exist. You already are where you want to be, but can’t see the forest for the trees. Ego mind can never take you there; that’s why you follow the master within. You ask, “Who am I?” If you keep looking and asking you may find there is no I. There is just awareness. You are more likely to have that realization if there is intention, but if you look for it out in the world, you will not find it. If you expect it in the future, tomorrow never comes. If you allow yourself only one question – “Who am I?” – and you look only inside for the answer, the probability of experiencing awakening can only increase. If you have other outer desires – if you say that you want to wake up but you also want a relationship, money in the bank, or success in your business – you will be trying to serve two masters and probably will fail on all accounts. If you have other desires, then go for them but let go of thoughts of awakening now. Wait until that is all that is on your plate. Wait until the answer to the question, “Who am I?” is the only desire that burns in you. This does not ensure your awakening, but, again, it can’t hurt. Ultimately there needs to be nothing you want more, and ultimately the you that has that desire needs to disappear. Looking has to come to a halt, because there is no place to look. It is and always has been right here, right now.
I sometimes like to say that enlightenment happens through the grace of God. When something happens that has been deeply desired a humble response is that it was through the grace of God. When something happens that is not at all desired, a humble response is to say it is God’s Will. (laughter) There is an expression that states that God helps those who help themselves. Focusing your attention within, asking who you are, always digging for the deepest truth – is helping yourself. If you tell yourself that you wish to wake up but have no power to create what is – so why bother trying, you are doing nothing to help yourself. Whether or not you focus your energy in such a way, the desire to awaken will still be present. Either way there is an ego mind that seeks a goal. When you do nothing, nothing changes. When you put your focus into finding the Divinity within, you may come face to face with the insanity of there being no “you” to want what you think you want. The ego mind eventually needs to self destruct. Doing nothing leaves it on auto-pilot. Dare to go crazy, to go out of your mind. Always come back to noticing who is aware, who is having thoughts and feelings, to noticing who wants to wake up. If you wish to experience the grace of God, stop bowing to the ego mind of hopes and desires. Doing this for five minutes a day is a start, but why not more? What else is more important? An intense passion for awakening can only help. Is not trying just an excuse? Is that just a giving up, a taking the position of saying that if it can’t be as you want it to be, you are just going to take your ball and go home? Nobody can tell you how to do this, but nobody can tell you that it can’t be done. You don’t have the power to control what happens, but you do have the ability to focus your energy in a direction. You can hold the intention to focus only on the inner master. You can resist ego mind’s propensity to divide and conquer by focusing on the one question. Ego mind wants to solve problems and it has no end of them to fix. There are a myriad of relationship, financial, career, health, aging, and self-esteem concerns that you want God to solve. If you want enlightenment, there is just one request, “God help me to wake up”. There is just one issue, “Who am I? If I am not my ego mind, if there is no me, then who is here?”
Participant: To summarize, it is just to experience the divinity, to surrender to the divine presence. Then to have the trust that that will happen and to surrender to the will of God and let the divine guide me.
What we would add to that is singleness of purpose.
Participant: Hmmm. Say more about this.
If you have desires in addition to this awakening, what directions are you giving to the universe? “There is nothing I want more than to be awake God, but please help me pass this test today.”
Participant: Instead of accepting that if I don’t pass the test then that is the will of God?
Yes, the test can be taken with no attachment to the result. When you notice that you have desire for something in addition to being aware of your Divine Truth, you are trying to serve two masters at the same time. Notice that and stop it. Let go of all other desires when you are aware of their presence. Come back to the One inner master. Simplify. One master. One direction. Holding any other desires leaves you serving the ego mind. This is not wrong, but it will never lead you home. You only need to ask for enlightenment one time. Everything that comes to you from that point on is there to show the way. This is why you accept it and pay attention to it, rather than thinking it should be different, resisting, or choosing another way.
Participant: So, if I think something is not as it should be, that it is a problem to be solved, then I am not open to following the divine inner master?
You are then thinking what people have basically been saying for millennia, “God, you’ve fucked up again. When are you going to get it right?” That is what the ego mind is telling you, but like everything else this is a case of projection – not willing to look inside and take responsibility, to ask the hard questions, but instead projecting it all on God and playing the role of the helpless, but pissed victim. None of this is possible. You simply did what you did. There is no right or wrong. So, keep coming back to asking who is looking at this. Who’s having this thought? Is this thought really true? All the time you spend investigating the question inside is time you are not following ego mind.
Participant: How could I know the difference? Is there a sign that I can be aware of?
You are following ego mind if you care about the outcome…if you think there is something that needs to be fixed…if you think that something is wrong. It is very simple. Singleness. Following but one master, the divine inner voice, one question, “Who am I?”
Participant: But the trust is so important – how to have it and to hold on to it.
As we said in the last message, it may not come down so much to a question of trust, but to one of weariness. One becomes tired of the fight, so exhausted and disheartened from being on the losing end. The thought arises that there must be another way. There is a dejected realization that ego mind is never going to take you where you wish to be. Who is left to be listened to? What most people do is to not accept that all of this is coming from the ego mind, instead externalizing it to the mass consciousness. The power is given away. You have no choice. The world has made you what you are. If the source of your experience is within, is your own ego mind, then why are you doing it? Why not choose another way? There is no world out there. It is all projection. That is you. The realization of this is everything. If it is all you, why the self-flagellation? Your parents didn’t do this to you, nor did your schools, your churches, or your culture. It’s all you. Ask yourself why you have given your power away. You have denied your Divinity. You have given away the keys to the kingdom. Enough is enough, so you stop and bring it all back inside.
Participant: But there is some hope, maybe, that if I try harder, I may realize my dream. It seems like it takes a while to let go of that.
If you are not ready to let go of trying to serve the ego, you are not going to stop, so you will keep on making those efforts until that level of weariness arises and you just don’t have the energy to try again. This doesn’t often occur. As I have said before, they are not pounding down the doors trying to get in to talk with Sanhia. If the time should come, then you will know. Meanwhile life goes on and nothing matters. You can stay lost in the illusion of the world indefinitely and it doesn’t matter. It is not real. You are. Eventually in one vehicle or another you will realize this. No rush. Time is not real either. But once you venture down the rabbit hole things will never likely be the same again. The inner path is not easy. That’s why it is rarely chosen unless it appears to be the only remaining option.
Participant: Does it have to be hard?
It is hard because it is not fully wanted. The path of creating heaven on earth seems easier and more honored by the world. Even failure and victimhood are the comfortable old clothes that can be worn until the body gives up. Giving up the ego feels like a death. Because death is terrifying, the ego is clung to even though the death of the ego brings the awareness of eternal life. Fear of death rules every day until the inner master is honored. So, it is not following the inner voice that is hard; what is difficult is coming to the point of fully wanting to do that.
Participant: It does seem that we choose the divine only when everything else is failing. It can feel like giving up.
It seems like there is no other choice, so it might be time to make the choiceless choice.
Good Now
Sanhia/Spirit