A Boy and A Guitar
Imagine a boy who was give a guitar by his parents. For no reason. Just like that, out of the blue. It wasn’t his birthday, nor was it Christmas. This is an act of grace, The parents are “like God” in this analogy, the boy of course is you or us. You are undeserving, there is no occasion, you haven’t done any chores to earn it. Nothing. In fact you have skipped some of your chores. Nonetheless, they just decided to give you a guitar.
This happens to all people, no matter what life circumstances they are in. We receive undeserved gifts left and right, and usually we don’t notice it, because we are so used to it.
You might say that every morning starts out with a multitude of blessings ready to come to you, regardless of your situation. Ready to show up FOR NO REASON.
Living in a state of grace:
The boy receive much more than just a guitar. He also receives free lessons for life, and free tune ups and repairs for life. Again, he has done nothing to earn this, it isn’t a reward for having been good or gotten good grades. His parents love him and they want everything good for him.
We are always in a state of grace with our Creator too, and we always have been.
The story of the garden of Eden symbolizes a “fall” of mankind”, signifying a break in our consiousness where we loose sight of this constant bond. This Love bond. This love that we are bestowed becomes hidden by deception. You might call it ”The veil of illusion”. Because of this symbolic fall, we flip flop between seeking God’s mercy, and wanting to BE God ourselves. The Law Of Assumption community has taken an unfortunate turn, where coaches are now teaching fasle teachings, WE do NOT have to BE GOD. He already exists, and wants our best. It is US that have broken the connection in consiousness, nothing else. God never asked for your tit for tat relationship, and he never said that he will not give you perfect grace, YOU are the one who stepped away from the State Of Grace with your unbelief.
This constant pendulum swing between seeking for mercy, seeking for “getting things” and trying to be God on your own, is common, but unnecessary. A state of Grace is a place where you feel praise, devotional love, and gratitude regardless of your circumstances. You turn FROM the world, to WITHIN, to God. There is Grace. Have you mindlessly repeated the phrase “circumstances don’t matter” all the while still focusing on your what…your CIRCUMSTANCES. This is NOT a state of grace.
The Tale of the Tw Birds:
In the tale of the two birds from the Mundaka Upanishad, there are two birds perched in the same tree. One bird is situated on the lower branches of the tree, and is actively enjoying the sweet fruits of the tree, symbolizing the individual self (Jiva) immersed in the activities of life. There are many yummy fruits, but there are some sour and rotten ones too. The other bird simply observes, from the highest branches, this bird is representing the universal consciousness, the part of human consiousness that is intricately connected to God, this bird remains disinterested in eating the fruits. The bird on the higher branch, is in a state of serene observation. This bird represents Ishvara, or God, and is more peaceful due to its greater awareness and connection to the divine consciousness. The higher bird is in a State Of Grace. While the lower bird is engrossed in the ups and downs of life, the higher bird maintains a tranquil demeanor, untouched by the fluctuations of the fruits of lower branches.
The higher bird symbolizes God’s connection to us through consciousness. The peace and joy of the observing bird represent the divine perspective, which remains undisturbed by the fleeting experiences of the lower branches, good fruit or bad fruit. It suggests that God, as the higher bird, observes our journey with a serene loving awareness, offering a source of tranquility and guidance amidst the activities of life on the lower branch of the shared tree. The fruits are your circumstances. Once in a while the lower bird looks up at the higher bird, especially when he eats a sour fruit, and he thinks “I wish I was more like that”, and decides to hop up to the higher branches. But he quickly gets distracted by a good and tasty looking fruit, and begins to eat again. Good fruit and bad fruit. As long as the fruit is good he is absorbed in the world, only when the fruit tastes bad does he look uop again and spots the higher bird, and once again he thinks -“I wish I was more like that, serene, loving and peaceful”. He hops up yet one more branch to get closer to the higher bird. Once more he sees a tasty fruit and quickly forgets the higher bird….. and so it goes.
This metaphor illustrates the coexistence of the finite and infinite within each person. The joy of the observing bird, the higher bird, free from worldly engagements, is portrayed as more peaceful and even blissful, than the active bird. Notice that bird is NOT representing GOD (or Ishvara Himself) but rather OUR human consious AWARENESS of God. THIS is where La Of Assumption coaches make a mistake. You can relax my friend, YOU are not God, God is in fact God, and still is in charge, and He’s got this. YOU are free to simply receive goodness, as per your understanding and as per your focused awareness.
Two Natures
Within everyone, there exists both an involved self and a contemplative self. The story of the birds prompts reflection on the idea that the shift of focused awareness can bring ja joy that is more fulfilling than the objective involvement in life’s activities. It is the ultimate circumstances don’t matter parable. It underscores the role of emotional and imaginative aspects of the mind in perceiving the true essence of reality, and it tells us that we alone can make the decision to “look up” to see our divine consiousness, and to notice what abiding in a state of Grace will do for us. We alone can make the commitment to hop up to those higher branches. We can also deduce that getting distracted by the fruits of the world is normal, and something that everyone goes through. But we look up again, and we wish again, and we hop up a little higher….again. And so it goes. Regardless of what WE do, God is constant, He never moved, HE never stopped loving. We have to make the effort to move OUR awareness onto him. HE is always there. HIS peace is always there. An When we decide to shift our awareness, just like this higher bird, we CAN live in a State Of Grace.
The higher bird is living in a State of Grace.
Show up for your gift
The boy in our story, he doesn’t go to his lessons.
You see, the boy also gets free lessons for life, and free repairs and tune ups for life. It is freely given, out of the loving hearts of his parents.
Everything is there, freely given to us, because God has CREATED the world and US to be able to live in a constant state fo Grace, but WE have to show up for the connection that He established.
We STILL have to show up. Showing up for our state of Grace actually DOES have action steps on our part. We have to express the gratitude, and we have to show our love for God. NOT love for God because he is like an ATM, not because if we don’t show up we won’t get our “stuff”, but simply out of our constant love.
MULTIPLE LOA hacks hint to this but for SOME REASON the divinity behind the reason for this phenomenon is removed. Abraham Hicks NOTORIOUSLY talks about “source” and how much source loves us. Source is God our creator. This rebellion against God is what caused our fall from grace, in the Eden story. Imagine the boy WANTS his guitar and his free lessons, but he wants to get rid of his parents. This is how we are. He now also wants to just know how to play it without ever picking up the guitar. It just sits there. For years its collecting dust, and he doesn’t speak to his parents anymore, since he rebelled. He feels lonely and he feels like he isn’t the famous guiter player that he had dreamed fo being. Now he says “It wasn’t meant to be”.
This is how we are with our blessings. We won’t show up for the increased responsibility (the lessons) and we rebel against God because we “manifested it on our own so we don’t need him”.
Come Back To a State Of Grace
Noticing the state of Grace is only possible when we invite God in to ever area of our life.
If you only show up for begging and pleading prayer when something big and beyond your control is happening, or if you imagine that God is so distant that he doesn’t give a rats ass about your sad and pitiful little life, you will not experience it. Grace is still there, but you don’t see it, you are completely blind.
Many people think that God is too busy to listen to every little prayer, that if you are to pray it should only be for “world peace”, but not so fast! Didn’t we establish that He wants a CONSTANT LOVING CONNECTION? Just like your parents do?
This false beleif that God doesn’t listen to our mundane small prayers is silly, he wants nothing more for us that to always reach out to him first. Imagine if your spouse never wanted to bother you with his or her stuff, and they instead constantly went to someone else to confess their struggles. Don’t you seek for THEM first when something happens? isn’t your spouse the very first person you talk to when you are in need? God is our spouse, and he WANTS constant connection. Constant connection IS a state of grace. Pray for EVERYTHING.
God is all-encompassing, omnipresent, all loving. How can you say that he is all loving if he doesn’t show up? It is up to us to invite him in.
He is not loud like Tony Robbins, or a football coach. He is gentle and loving. Soft spoken. Whispering, just like when you have gone to bed at night, turned out the lights and you are laying face to face whispering to your spouse. He is nearer to you than your own heart. How will you hear someone so gentle and loving if you don’t try to silence yourself a little, if you don’t try to hear his voice more consistently? It is up to you to tone it down a notch and to start communicating more often. Turn to him in prayer much more often, for the littlest thing.
Doing it the wrong way
The boy learned the wrong way because he doesn’t go to his lessons, he practices daily but his hand position is off, his fingers hit the wrong places, and it doesn’t sound right…. now his muscle memory is well trained, but it is trained wrong. He can either keep powering through, even though it is difficult and the sound just doesn’ improve. OR he can FINALLY show up for his lessons. If he goes to his lessons he will discover that his muscle memory is already formed and that he not only has to learn but he has to UNLEARN as well.
For MANY of us us, in fact for MOST of us this is exactly what happens. We develop a host of false beliefs or limiting beliefs. We have NO IDEA that tjis has happened, we are so accustomed to our “muscle memory’ of our beliefs, that we keep powering though, by sheer force we keep on trying and trying. OR we give up. We should go to “our lessons” here….but by and large, we never attempt to challenge our beliefs. Letting go of a belief system is beyond challenging, for many, it is even painful. Imagine that you have been raised in a cult, and one day you find out that it was all a lie. The anger that comes up is real. This should happen for most of us, we SHOULD feel some anger that we have been spoon-fed a lie, and that we now have to take responsibility for the deprogramming that HAS to happen. what are YOUR false beliefs? Challenge yourself to undo all of this.
Just like the boy certainly can continue to play all worng, so can you continue to live your life with a false belief system, isn’t that how most of us get through life anyway? But you don’t have to, and now that you know that you can just start going to your lessons, you are well on your way to making life easier.
Showing up for your lessons of course is a metaphor for showing op to commune with God. Start talking to him everyday, seek for his love, and you will find it.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 11
Your Perception Of God:
Some parents are distant and uncaring, and give their children nothing, some parents are cruel and beat their children, some parents are abuse and harm their own children in hatred and rage, and others do even worse things than that. Some don’t feed their children. I know a man who’s mother is in prison because she locked him in a closet and didn’t feed him. He is very lucky to have survived. Here is the thing…. we form our concept of God based on our parents…. Who is YOUR God?
This boy grew up with a very different idea of God than I did.
The way we personalize God is unconscious. It is caused not ONLY by theological teachings, and maybe we didn’t have any, but it is also shaped by how our PARENTS are.
We unwittingly form an image of God based on our own parents. This is called “God of our own understanding”. This unconscious assignment of God’s attributes based on our parents causes us to have a faulty image of God. God is not the same as your good parent or your evil parent.
There are also people who say “there is no good or evil only thinking makes it so”. These people have never seen or experienced evil. Disregard all statements like that if you are struggling with this difficult concept of God.
If you have experience evil you know that it is real. It is another false catchphrase in LOA it is used to excuse and justify all of those manifestations that will harm others. For example, someone who is lusting for a married person will use this catchphrase to justify why they should break up a marriage and soon have their “sp” in their own bed, or all of those who has made GREED their IDOL, and so on. Use the Golden Rule, and harm no-one. Making excuses like this harms everyone, just do good, manifest good things, and don’t justify your lust, greed, clinging, or whatever it is that you try to elevate into: “No good or evil, only thinking makes it so”. We’re not buying what you are selling. If you want to manifest evil things, it’s on you, but I still call it evil.
God is not like your parent. Begin to seek for him in earnest, by spending time in prayer, asking him to show you who he truly is. He will. You should only be concerned bout YOUR relationship with god first and foremost. Do not worry about what endless misconceptions are out there, just continue to seek, and ask, and pray. How can you come to know him, if you have a cold relationship with him? If you don’t seek you will not find, if you don’t knock, the door will not open.
Don’t confuse God for a cult, church congregation, or ideology either, other people are not God either. Maybe the congregation are gossips, maybe they have political agenda’s, there are all sorts of religious cults out there, this is not what I am talking about. When I say seek God. I mean to sit down, and close your eyes and go within. Contemplation. Meditation. Prayer. Who cares what those other people are up to, this is time spent in intimacy, just you and God.
Who is God?
“I am” has been highjacked by LOA to mean that the little “I” is God” but this is wrong. It is a theological mistake, and if you want to understand more about how the Biblical “I am” should be interpreted, based on reading THE WOLE Bible, not just one or two sentences, read THIS blog post….I won’t go into it here.
This idea of “I AM” is an exploration of atheism, and a deification of our own intellect. (even those whose intellect is not particularly impressive has made a God out of their own mind)
The “I am” REALLY means something like this: We are the same as God and different from God at the same time. God is near and God is far at the same time. The way that sunlight is the same as and different from the sun at the same time.
It takes exploration to know God and to know this constant state of Grace that I have talked about. Making a deity of intellect will only take you farter from experiencing this. “I”theism has replaced atheism, and now we seem to think that we ARE God.
Whether you are reading the Veda’s or the Bible, the “I AM” is MUCH greater than something that you can intellectualize to dust, these are inspired spiritual texts.
The Boy and His Guitar
Your gifts are already given.
Just like the boy already got his guitar, his free lessons for life, and all the tune ups and repairs that he will ever need. But he still has to go to the lessons, and he has to sit down everyday to practice, even if just a little bit at first. Over time, he will come to look forward to his lessons, and more and more he wants and even craves these lessons, and this time spent with the guitar. it is no longer a chore. It becomes a source of joy.
Your gifts were given at the beginning of time, and they are there within reach, but you still have to come to your moments of contemplation, your intimacy with God. Just like a boy who comes to love his guitar, and the music that he can make with it, so you will you come to love your intimate connection with God and this State Of Grace. More and more, this time spent with God will become something you long for and cherish.
In this blog, I made several points:
- The Gift of Grace: I used the analogy of a boy receiving a guitar as a gift for no reason to illustrate the concept of grace. The idea is that we often receive undeserved gifts from life, and these gifts come from a source analogous to God.
- Constant State of Grace: I emphasize that we are always in a state of grace with our Creator, but our awareness of this connection may be clouded by illusions and false teachings. The fall of mankind, as symbolized by the story of the Garden of Eden, represents a break in consciousness where we lose sight of the constant bond of love.
- Tale of Two Birds: The metaphor of two birds in the Mundaka Upanishad illustrates the coexistence of the finite and infinite within each person. One bird represents the individual self immersed in life’s activities, while the other represents universal consciousness connected to God. The higher bird symbolizes living in a state of grace, untouched by the fluctuations of life.
- Showing Up for Grace: I stress the importance of actively showing up for the connection with God. Expressing gratitude, love, and constant communion with God are seen as essential actions to maintain a state of grace.
- Challenging Beliefs: I discuss the need to challenge and unlearn false beliefs that may hinder personal and spiritual growth. Just as the boy learning to play the guitar needs to correct his muscle memory, individuals should challenge and correct their false beliefs.
- Perception of God: I addresses how our perception of God is often shaped by our experiences and relationships, especially with our parents. I Encourage individuals to seek a personal and intimate connection with God, separate from societal and familial influences.
- Exploration and Knowing God: I touch upon the idea that knowing God and experiencing a constant state of grace requires exploration and intimate connection through contemplation, meditation, and prayer. The concept of “I am” is explored in the context of understanding our relationship with God.
- Gifts Already Given: The analogy of the boy and his guitar is used to convey the idea that our gifts are already given, but we need to actively engage in practices such as contemplation and intimacy with God to realize and make use of these gifts.
I have made these points to emphasize the importance of recognizing and actively participating in the connection with the divine to live in a constant state of grace. Yes, it is agift freely given, but we must engage with it to know its full beauty.
