Two men who have worked for the same company for years, and who share an office, are having a conversation over lunch. They are in the company cafeteria with other workers around them also eating their meals. Bob watches his friend Joe reach into his briefcase and pull out a small bright blue bottle that he has seen a number of times now over the last ten days or so.Joe seems content and is even humming to himself as he takes a fairly deep swig directly out of the bottle. Bob watches this and is moved to ask: “How is it going Joe, are you feeling any better these days? You didn’t say much last week after your doctor’s appointment.”
Joe finishes his swallow and smiles back at Bob: “Well, first I saw a few specialists who didn’t know their heads from their elbows, so I walked one block down the street and went through a few more visits with some others. Then I found the greatest doctor in the world. He knew right away what I needed, and the whole thing was virtually painless!”
“That’s good news,” says Bob taking a bite of his sandwich. “He must have been something pretty special, because I have never seen you be so religious about doing anything, let alone taking medicine.” Bob continues with a wry look coming over his face. He can’t help his next tongue-in-cheek comment. “So, I guess his prescription must have been just what the doctor ordered?”
“To tell the truth, Bob,” Joe lowers his voice and shakes his head, even as he looks around the room to ensure no one will hear his confession, “I haven’t seen much improvement, if any at all. I’m still in a lot of pain!”
Somewhat confused by this report Bob whispers back, “But I’ve been watching you for over a week now and you haven’t missed taking one dose of those drugs he prescribed. What are you doing with that stuff if it isn’t helping you to get any better?” What he hears next just about knocks him out of his chair.
Joe leans further forward onto his chair, looks down at the bottle still in his hand, and whispers through a strange smile, “Well, the truth is — even though this prescription isn’t helping to heal what hurts me, it does kind of mask the pain if I take enough of it. And,” he leans even further forward, “you would not believe how good this medicine tastes!”
As we will prove, human beings are a study in stupidity. Instead of being self- investigating (as we are created to be), we are self-deceiving. Instead of embracing the inner work of honest self-seeing, by whose Light alone we come upon the life- healing truths that heal us of self-ignorance, we will make a truce with the parts of ourselves that punish and pain us. Why?
The truth is simple: We have come to believe, through a host of social and cultural mandates, that whatever we suspect is wrong with us — whatever character faults we suspect may be lurking in heart and mind — must not only be hidden from the world around us, but kept from ourselves as well. Any such unconscious conclusion is a prescription for sickness by sickness.
Here is the real medicine: We are made to be self-correcting. Each real correction made in us is the same as elevating ourselves above the unknown nature whose dark influence we had lived under. Like moving from a hot desert climate to a cool mountain retreat, each discovery of what darkens our path through life is the same as walking in the Light towards a Higher, happier Ground.
There are many parts in all of us that do not want us to hear the following: The entire universe is working to help each of us become whole and “perfect in heaven.” The conditions that we run from, wherein we feel as though our own weaknesses will overcome us, are themselves unique creations of a Great Intelligence that wants us to learn of its Timeless Strength.
Yet, simply to state these truths, as bright and liberating as they are, is not enough. To be transformed by any Truth we must see the living truth of it. In this instance, as it concerns the recurring stress and sorrow that runs through our relationships like the veins of a leaf, we need some new ideas. Here is one such insight to help open our eyes to the healing that awaits us:
At present, what little awareness we have of what is wrong with us feels to us as though life is trying to punish us for what we are. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our awareness of those aspects of ourselves, where we know we miss the mark, is not life condemning us. We do this dark deed to ourselves. It is misunderstanding the Goodness of life that causes us to miss seeing it.
Each time we catch a glimpse of a character shortfall in us, we do so by the grace of a Living Light. And it invites us, asks us — in the only form of a “dialogue” that we can share for now with this force for our perfection — to see ourselves in its light. So it is not negative to see the negative since it is the Perfectly Positive that makes this kind of seeing into ourselves possible.
All this compassionate Intelligence asks is that we accept its corrective Presence in us, and then to stand there, as conscious as we can be, within Its Light within ourselves. If we will receive what it reveals we are released from that former darkness. The Light transforms it and we are equally changed in that moment.
Here are some special insights into what each of us can do to strengthen the potential in this process of allowing the Light to transform us. No one can be free who refuses to see what actually lives within him or her. And as we have just seen, authentic self-healing must begin with Truthful self-seeing. There is no other order, no other way. If we will only consider the following facts, the rest of our discoveries become as easy as they are delightful.
Consciousness of any unwanted condition in us must precede its correction, just as the rising sun dismisses any of our fears imagined hidden in the darkness of night. This is why we must learn that anything in us that does not want us to see the truth about our actual unenlightened condition is itself a part of what is punishing us. We can learn to do much better!
“The medicine is bitter, but it heals,” said the late, great author Vernon Howard when it comes to seeing the truth of our lives. If we would heal the hidden hurt in us then we must learn that the initial bitterness of discovering the truth about ourselves is actually the front-runner of our ultimate spiritual victory over what has been defeating us.
Our work is to concede to the bright prescription of Higher Self-Honesty regardless of how it “tastes” to us in those unwanted moments of seeing that we are nothing like the pleasing images we hold of ourselves. Here now are five eye-opening facts about areas in our lives where, if we would be free, we must choose to see what we have thus far refused to see!
1. We close our eyes to the fact that the imaginary value we have placed upon our life only holds up for as long as others don’t disturb our dreams. The conscious detection of the fear that follows us around wherever we go is the rejection of this imaginary life with all of its misery. Choose to see and be free.
2. We close our eyes to the fact that wherever we go, and regardless of whom we meet, we still seem to run into the same conflicts and experience the same negativities. Our awareness of this mad mess begins the end of that constant distress that seems to follow us everywhere we go.
3. We close our eyes to the fact that in spite of all of the pain it causes us, and others, we still believe that we know what it means to be a “winner” in life. Unconscious suffering is not just a “loser’s” reward; it is his or her just deserts. Learn to be self-correcting, not self-defeated. Self-Victory is assured!
4. We close our eyes to the fact that just because we have mastered hiding some character fault of ours doesn’t mean that it has stopped hurting those around us who cannot avoid being subjected to it. Our awareness of our inner aching is the front- runner to a new kind of freedom that comes with learning that we no longer have to pretend to be anything!
5. We close our eyes to the fact that crying for ourselves out of self-pity doesn’t change one thing about the nature of the self (in us) that is the secret source of all these tears. Only fools feel sorry for themselves, but not before they have been fooled into believing that an uncorrected sorrow has the power to help them escape their sadness! Be self-seeing, not so believing!
For extra swift healing, return often to study these friendly guides with the intention of welcoming their light. Remember that whenever we see something in us needful of correction, this sudden “vision” of some interior division in us is a secret invitation to be healed by Wholeness Itself. Our work in these moments is not to condemn ourselves, or otherwise fear or find fault with what we have been shown. Blaming others or ourselves for our suffering is always an act of self-deception that immediately negates the possibility of our freedom. Our sole task is to see ourselves through the eyes of Truth and then leave Truth to take care of the rest.
Any time you see something in yourself that seems dark, the answer you must give to it is not to fall into darkness over what you have seen. Choose the Higher Path. The Light never shows us anything in ourselves that it hasn’t already started to change for us –- if we will only let It!
© Guy Finley
Life Channels Contributing Author
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