#26 (17:54 – 18:40)

“Practice releasing the emotions of fear and guilt; replace them with love, forgiveness and kindness. If you are feeling guilty about your past conduct, remind yourself that you are inviting turmoil into your life. Release the guilt by forgiving yourself and vowing to avoid this sort of conduct in the future. Guilt is a waste of your mental energy. Everything that you have done is over, it all had a lesson for you. Using up your present moments feeling bad about it is only one more way of keeping yourself from being fully and spiritually alive in the present. Send guilt out of your life beginning now; it is just a thought away.”

Guilt is a very low energy to express. Dr. David Hawkins said this in Power versus Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior, “Guilt-domination results in a preoccupation with ‘sin,’ an unforgiving emotional attitude frequently exploited by religious demagogues, who use it for coercion and control. Such ‘sin-and-salvation’ merchants, obsessed with punishment, are likely either acting out their own guilt, or projecting it unto others.” I see why guilt is one of the emotions that is most difficult to let go of. Not only is it used by many for coercion and manipulation, but the ego also feeds off of it to maintain its domination over our conscious evolution. Dr. Wayne Dyer says to release guilt by replacing them with love, forgiveness and kindness. Forgiveness is one of the most powerful tools; both forgiveness of oneself and others can have a profound effect on one’s spiritual evolution. It allows us to see that we are all humans and are prone to mistakes. Once you truly understand that human consciousness is innately innocent and that it cannot tell the difference between what is truth from what is not, then it cannot help but make mistakes. So you are instantly able to forgive. Your perception and experience of the world then changes. Consequently, there is no need to dwell on any given occurrence of the past because of this. Forgive yourself and move on. Learn from it and work on becoming a better person if you feel that how you reacted or what you did was not aligned with your true nature.

The experiences of life are all lessons for us, so we must release all guilt that resides in us because of mistakes of the past. These had to happen otherwise they wouldn’t have. So learn from them and vow not to make the same mistakes again. Great things will then happen in our lives. We all have to power within us to remove this guilt. We have the choice to do so; it is just a thought away.

Be kind and loving to all of life, in all of its expressions.

#25 (17:12 – 17:53)

“If you are engaging in addictive behavior of any kind, the most effective way to rid yourself of the addiction is to go directly to your higher Self and turn this problem over to God. That’s right, just turn it over, surrender knowing that the highest force in the Universe is within you. Simply say, ‘God, I am turning this addiction over to you. I have tried everything else, now I am trying you’. And allow the higher part of yourself and allow God in to help remove those temptations of the senses that you think you can’t live without.”

In listening to this lesson this morning, the twelve step program game to mind and I understand why the 12 step program has been so successful. It allows us to understand a fundamental principle, that there is a higher power greater than ourselves, that could restore us to sanity [STEP 2]. It is no coincidence that this step comes after admitting that one was powerless over one’s addiction [STEP 1], and before making a decision to turn our will and lives over to the care of God as we understand God [STEP 3]. Isn’t this great? There is so much power in the 12 step program, power I am yet to fully comprehend, but it was designed in such a way that it brings forth a healing power that is at a very high level. I believe the key to it is the belief in a power higher than one’s own will, and when one admits that, through humility, then the blockages of the ego are removed somewhat, allowing the healing or recovery process to occur spontaneously.

We do not have the power within ourselves to bring forth this sort of energy, but once we surrender to the Source of All, we access the unlimited potentiality of the Universe. Therefore, if there is any addiction that you are suffering from, surrender to God as you understand God and repeat the mantra “God, I am turning this addiction over to you. I have tried everything else, now I am trying you” and watch the healing process occur. Amazing isn’t it?

#24 (16:45 – 17:11)

“Remember that you are not your country, you are not your race, you are not your religion. You are an eternal spirit.  Seeing yourself as a spiritual being without labels is a way to transform the world and reach a sacred place for all of humanity. Another way of saying that is that you are not what you notice; you are the noticer of what you notice.”

From the time we are born onto this planet, various belief systems are taught to us. We then attach ourselves to these belief systems, without fully understanding them or knowing what they mean. With this attachment, then comes identification. We identify ourselves with our country, race, religion, possessions, wealth, accomplishments, success and all these other labels, which ultimately take us further and further away from our Creator or the Source. This identification makes us focus more on the material world and our material possessions and not our true nature, the Self.

However, once we make that shift; the shift that brings forth the realization that we are spirit, our entire being transforms. As our perspective changes, so does the world we experience. You then take a step back and realize that you are not any of these things that you identify yourself with, you are merely the witness. Think about this, practice non-attachment from your belief systems and watch your world transform before your very eyes.

#23 (16:16 – 16:44)

“Make an attempt to tame your ego by catching yourself when you persistently use the pronoun I. You can make the decision to take the focus off of yourself. The more you cutback on I, the more personal freedom you will experience. See how many times today you can start your sentences with you, rather than I. Instead of making self references, just inquire about the other person.”

I just wrote another blog posting where I mentioned that in order to get something you really want, you have to learn to first give it away to others. This brings forth the realization that you never lacked it in the first place; you had what you wanted all along and this draws more of it to you. This could be love, wealth, abundance, divine relationship… anything really. It is really amazing how this Universe works. See article here.

This lesson is meant to bring our attention to the ego; the ego which is always focused on its own survival. What I have come to understand is that we should not attack the ego, because it is the ego that allowed us to survive for this long. As Dr. Dyer said carefully, we should make an attempt to tame the ego. Essentially, we need to understand it; understand that the way it behaves is its very nature and once we know that, we can gain control of it. The natural consequence of this is less focus on the I, and more focus on others because there would be the realization that we do not need to fight for our survival. There is no need to prove that you are right, or win, or get. It is usually best to be kind rather than to be right all the time. The ego believes that it will die if it does not have control, but that is false. It actually leads to freedom and the only way to find out is to practice. Practice this lesson today and this will be very clear.