Is Power Constructive Within Spirituality?

Written by Mathew Naismith

This is an interesting conversation that has gone off on a slightly different tangent, it started off with the question, “Are You Standing In Your Authentic Power and Grace?’, and is at present on the topic of power.  My stand is that power is about control when in spirituality we should be releasing control not gaining thus lessening the effects of chaos upon us which is brought about through a continues action reaction process.  The opposite stand is that feeling and being powerful in oneself is good and positive.  

Sunil’s Reply

I believe 'power' is all about soul-strength-its a vitality of the soul -our inner strength.

G'day sunil

Feeling powerful is in reaction to when we are not feeling powerful, it's an action reaction, cause and effect, push and pull effect, if we were always powerful, we wouldn't know if we were powerful or not without a difference telling us that we are powerful.  This means we always need something less powerful to make us feel powerful which brings in judgment to what is or isn't less or more powerful.

This is actually saying, when we are feeling power and control over what we are interacting with, we are not truly powerful at this point, it's only because of our continuous reactions to other things around us that make us feel powerful when actually were obviously not. If one needs to react to actions to actually be powerful, it's obviously were not powerful at all, yes it feels that way only because of the influences of the ego.

A continuous action reaction only causes chaos and gives a feeling of being powerful because we feel we have more control. Power is all about control, to me a true spiritualist would not be controlling in any sense. You could say when a spiritualist focuses, that is them trying to take control when in fact they are trying to release control not become more controlling or even powerful. 

A lot of people in my mind make this mistake when they are trying to focus while meditating, praying, chanting or whatever, they think they are trying to become more controlling not less. When we focus in any spiritual practice, it should always be about releasing control not gaining it. Gaining control and power is all about the ego, we don’t want power and control over the ego, we want to release the ego of it’s controlling effects, that is all. In other words stop or ease the action reaction within our lives and in turn releasing the effects of chaos upon us individually and collectively.

GramaKeshava Reply

Thank you very much Mr Mathew Naismith !

I agree War Lords use " Power " to acquire ,require , usurp , devoid of any concerns of their action ! Their intention is not sober, but gobbler ! In spiriritual philosophy , POWER is considered , as endowed by God, just to help all needy ! Here this Power works as a postman to deliver the money orders, parcels etc intended to the addresee , The Power , though has the desire to to misappropriate , dares not do it for fear, whereas War Lords do not have any such qualms, like wild hungry beasts let loose in the crowded market ! Can we condone it as it is the power; just we cannot help !

Thank you for raising new arena for discussion !

G'day GramaKeshava

An interesting way in putting it, I love your collation here.

Do we condone all sense of power because power in certain circumstances can produce a destructive mentality thus creating even more chaos?  We certainly can’t just say power is just negative or positive, this is why I try to avoid such words however at times that can’t be avoided when appropriate to the meaning of a discussion like this one. 

Is feeling powerful authentic to actually being powerful within oneself?   I don’t think so, if I was truly powerful I wouldn’t need anything less powerful to compare myself with to feel powerful, I would just be powerful within myself however, I wouldn’t know of myself being this powerful because I am no longer needing to compare and judged what is or isn’t more or less powerful to feel powerful in the first place. 

I don’t look at anything being any less important or worthy than anything else therefore how would I feel powerful in the first place. To me when the ego is controlling, this has no less value or importance than if I was totally and wholly spiritual within my whole being, to do this I would have to be in judgment thus of the controlling ego . 

Are humans more powerful than an ant? It is obvious we are within our physical stature alone so we have judged we have more value, this in my mind gives us a false impression we are more powerful than an ant, this is all about human mentality not spiritual mentality. Spiritual mentality to me is about one having no less value than another no matter what it is. Yes it’s very hard to think this way because we are conditioned to only perceive through human mentalities not spiritual mentalities.   We are obviously more powerful than an ant because we have humanly judged so, now use a spiritual mentality, we will find this isn’t the case at all, we truly have no more value than an ant. 

The word power to me just doesn’t belong in spirituality but that’s just my opinion.       

http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=1523037&type=member&item=5937613371653255170&commentID=5943126879522271232&report%2Esuccess=8ULbKyXO6NDvmoK7o030UNOYGZKrvdhBhypZ_w8EpQrrQI-BBjkmxwkEOwBjLE28YyDIxcyEO7_TA_giuRN#commentID_5943126879522271232

Power Doesn’t Really Exist

Written by Mathew Naismith

This might seem strange, power doesn’t exist but it’s obvious to us it does so does power really exist?  Let’s ask another question to help us answer this question, what gives something or someone power? Control, anything we rely on or want is catered for by something or someone who can supply us with our wants and needs, once this is supplied we are controlled, once we are controlled, we ourselves through our wants and needs have created such power but this doesn’t truly answer if power actually exists. 

I asked a question of my inner self as I often do, does the divine have power?  I was promptly answered back no, I wasn’t sure I understood so I asked this question a few more times and the answer was the same, no. This would also mean God’s consciousness or the sources conscious wasn’t of power as well even though to us it would seem that way.  It didn’t make sense until I realised, to have or to be powerful one would have to supply a need or a desire to others to seem powerful, in actual fact it was the needy and the desiring who would give such power, for without the needy or desiring, there is no such power.  Anything or anyone presuming to be powerful needs to supply a want or a need, they are not powerful unless they have control over a need or a want of other things.  It’s actually the act of a need or desire that gives anything or anyone control and power however God’s consciousness isn’t of power, nothing of the divine is of power but it’s supplying a need is it not so it has to be of power? I’m still getting a no…..

The divine isn’t about control, the divine doesn’t control anything unless it comes into the presence of ignorance but even then it’s not the divine taking control, any kind of consciousness in ignorance will deem the divine as being controlling and powerful, this is due to the essence of the divine, it’s of awareness. Anything that is more aware is going to seem powerful and even controlling however that is far from the truth.

A consciousness existing in ignorance will seek out this power to take control; it needs this because it lacks awareness so it makes up this lack of awareness through power and control.  Anyone who believes they are all powerful is living in ignorance so they make up this lack of awareness through this power and control; it’s an ephemeral flame instead of an eternal flame as explained in recent posts.  Are we not taught so often to take control of our lives, to be empowered? We of course only do this when we lack awareness.  Isn’t living in awareness and wisdom about taking control?  No, actually it’s about releasing power and control not gaining it. Think about this for a moment, we are releasing control and this inner power, we are no longer inhibiting this power and control within us through our ignorance, we are setting it free.  In a sense this is more powerful than anything we can do in ignorance however we are not gaining power and control within this but releasing it.  

So if the divine in all of us isn’t controlling and powerful, what is it? Pure natural energy, it’s pure because it’s not living in ignorance, it’s not tainted by ignorance, it’s pure awareness. What would this pure natural awareness want to control and have power over? In a sense it has all the power it wants, it has no need to be all powerful and controlling over anything living in ignorance but on the other hand anything living in ignorance would if it feels inadequate!!

Power and control are non-existing because they are of the ephemeral flame not of the eternal flame, so does this mean everything of this ephemeral flame is also non-existing and that everything in this reality is an illusion? No not exactly, power and control don’t exist because they are only perceptions however is walking a dog an illusion brought about by our perception of a dog and us walking? Consciousness creates dogs and us walking on something solid, they are a perception but not only a perception because they were created by consciousness, this same consciousness didn’t create power and control, it’s wholly a perception that we manifested into a reality.  

When we are looking at a dog we see a dog? Yes but when we look at power and control do we see power and control? We see it all around us but only metaphorically speaking, it’s wholly created through our perceptions. This is saying that a dog isn’t a metaphoric perception but power and control are!!  Because the dog was created directly from consciousness, it’s wholly of pure consciousness but can we say the same for power and control?  It’s representational of our own ignorance not representational of our awareness. The dog was created from awareness however at the human level we are unaware of this, we can’t say the same for power and control for they are wholly created by our ignorance.  The dog is of the eternal flame, even though it’s only consciousness and not an actual dog, but power and control are entirely of the ephemeral flame.  The dog, as we all are, is of the ephemeral flame created by the eternal flame, the eternal flame didn’t create power and control, our own ignorance did.

Why doesn’t this all powerful pure consciousness, Gods’ consciousness, take control of us at this crucial time? It doesn’t because it’s not about taking control, just because we are controlling we presume anything more aware and powerful in our own perception is also controlling. So what’s the good of this pure consciousness to us if it doesn’t take control to help us? As it always has, it gives us guidance which is quite noticeable right throughout human history without this consciousness taking control, it just can’t take control because it doesn’t exist when we are aware, only in ignorance does power and control exist.  This pure consciousness certainly isn’t ignorant.  

This post is going to go against a lot of taught practices of taking control and empowering ourselves, it’s actually about un-empowering  ourselves to release what we deem as power and control from within us.  You might think by meditating, for example, is about taking control but it’s not, it’s about releasing ourselves of our thoughts, our controlling ways.  It seems we are controlling our thoughts by meditating when all we are doing is changing the way we think, changing our mentality to something more constructive.  Spirituality to me should never be about power and control but a guide to a more constructive way to exist and just be.  

Learning to Live With Plenty

Written by Mathew Naismith

A fundamental question I think spiritually aware people who desire possessions or betterment in anyway should ask themselves , “can I have possessions and better myself and  have a non-controlling ego at the same time? “ This seems like a dilemma but it’s not.

Like the American Indians and other ancient people, knowing you don’t personally own anything especially the ground we walk on is the key.  Most of us work hard for what we get and the harder we work the more we take ownership of what we worked hard for.  This is a good indication that the ego is in control I feel however to rid ourselves or soften the controlling factors of the ego try thinking like the following; you never personally own anything no matter how hard we worked for it.

This is so easily said but not so easy to exercise mainly because the harder we are forced to work for what we obtain the more possessive we become, it’s a snow balling effect of the controlling ego.  Compared to even fifty years ago, we have become a lot more egotistical collectively, the ego just keeps on accumulating as it goes on just like a snow ball running loose down a hill!!

It’s obvious the ego is out of control to the detriment to the very thing we rely on for our very existence, Earth itself. What kind of being would do this, an aware being or an unaware being and what seems to be causing this unawareness in such beings?

A being with an out of control controlling ego would destroy anything not serving the ego immediately; this is accomplished through an out of control ego making us very unaware of anything outside of what feeds our immediate desires. It’s absolutely incredible how powerful and destructive an out of control ego can be.  When you become the observer you can see so many simular traits of an out of control ego to what we deem as the devil/demon.  The big difference is we are controlled by yet bigger egos so there is little chance of most of us becoming more devilish like, which of course is a blessing.  

The controlling factors of the ego are all about possessions, possessions of material & mental gain. Power over others mentally is just as much about possessions than material possessions because once you are in this power playing position you do feel you own these people under you, if not the people themselves at least their minds.  

So in all it’s noticeably not easy to just say I don’t own anything no matter how hard I worked for it mainly because of the snow balling effect of the ego.  Once you get caught up in the snow balls path it’s very hard to dislodge from however it of course isn’t impossible and actually it’s easier than what it seems.  It of course all comes down to how aware you want to be which is like how much do you want to be free of this snow balling effect!!  We can have our possessions and a non-controlling ego however we must always realise we truly never really own anything personally, it’s all on loan to us including what we think!!

The ego self is a must within realities like this one however life turns chaotic when we think we possess what we dominate or acquire the use of, to release ourselves of this chaos all we need to do is stop being so possessive of  mind body and yes even soul.  After this, everything you accumulate you realise you never really own, now that’s freedom!!

Learning from the Past

Written by Mathew Naismith

While in discussion with another person about my last post mythology, biblical prophecies & the antediluvian period came into the discussion mainly because it relates to the way a lot of spiritually aware people are feeling today.  How would past human history reflect on the way we feel? In timelessness there is no past or future obviously so everything that seemed to be in the past is still very much of the now, also the past in time didn’t occur by accident I believe, it was for us to learn from.  Let me put it this way, do most of us learn from our mistakes in our lives? Human history is no different from living a normal human life accept in time it’s much longer however if we think beyond time we see the whole of human history likened to one human life lived, now look at human history again.

Yes of course if we look at human history as a lesson to be learnt, just like we do in everyday life, we can see it occurred to give us guidance in time however what has happened is our egos have taken the past as just being of the past & is seen to be antiquated even though a lot of the technology in the past has been shown to be quite advanced. The ego doesn’t want to know that in certain points in the Earth’s history we were more advanced than we are now in a lot of ways especially in awareness, this brings us to the antediluvian period of time in Earth’s history.

The following link has a problem with the home page but in my mind is still worth a read.

http://s8int.com/page5.html

Most people don’t know or don’t want to know about the antediluvian period of time in Earth’s history mainly because of the ego is telling us how could there be anything else than what our belief system is telling us, there can’t be anything more grandeur than what my belief system is all about surly.  This brings us back to the antediluvian period of time before the great flood, did there ego cause their demise? I’m going to theorise it did mainly because we are doing the same thing today.

I believe in the antediluvian period of time they acquired knowing we are still on the brink of knowing & most importantly understanding so how did they cause their own demise? To answer this we should ask another question, if we look at our own period of time what is going to cause our demise bar a natural disaster?  It all comes down to the controlling factors of the ego & always has right throughout human history. How many different cultured people have been wiped off the face of the Earth in human history because of ego? We couldn’t have wars if we didn’t allow the ego to take control of us, that would be an impossibility.

In the antediluvian period they were quite advanced mainly because of their awareness beyond knowledge, knowledge didn’t hinder their advancements because of their awareness beyond their current knowledge at any given time. And no I don’t believe knowledge & awareness are the exact same thing as knowledge is more controlling than awareness as explained in past posts of mine, knowledge denotes control & control of any kind can hinder one’s awareness beyond our knowing. However this didn’t seem to occur in the antediluvian period mainly because of influences from other sources to begin with.  What I think happened is they were so aware of advanced technology they became unaware of the self especially of the ego self & how it can be quite controlling & noticeably destructive. The ego self is quite constructive until it becomes controlling. I believe the ego self, through it’s constructiveness, was why the people of the antediluvian period became so aware & knowledgeable however the knowing of so much high tech knowledge overwhelmed their egos turning their ego self’s into controlling egos. If you look through the known & accepted part of human history this kind of occurrence is quite prevalent, the Roman Empire is a good example.  

I think this is why we are so aware of the controlling factors of the ego today especially in relation to spiritual awareness so we don’t make the same mistakes of the past however just because the controlling ego is noticeably destructive doesn’t men the ego self is. Demonising the ego all together isn’t the way to go I believe, understand the controlling factor of the ego is. Any extreme action is only going to bring more extreme living conditions like the controlling ego has done however complete awareness can only bring us balance. Will we learn from our past? That is a question yet to be answered in time but is already known out of time!!  

Control v Releasing Control

Written by Mathew Naismith

I’ve personally written this post for my avid readers of my blog hoping you might understand better than most what I’m about here; the totality of acceptance is accepting non-acceptance in oneself so one can accept this in others as well & releasing control as opposed to taking or keeping control which this particular post is more about. Non-acceptance you could say denotes control & acceptance of all denotes releasing control but like I have written up in previous posts it’s really all to do with desires as opposed to needs if non-acceptance is of control or not.

Let’s look at the human traits we don’t like about ourselves, do we just keep acting out traits we don’t like because they are unbecoming to us & others or do we just accept them & continue them even if these traits hurt others in some way? We discontinue them which seem to denote control would it not? Actually not necessarily because it all depends on if we are doing it for a desire or a need keeping in mind the controlling ego will nearly always try to tell us it’s for a need when it’s of desire. Desire is more of control & a need is more of survival. Releasing control however is not being even concerned if we survive or not, this is not easy for a human to do mainly because of he’s ego. The ego is telling him he must survive no matter what & that is exactly what we are doing today. This is where my recent posts about thinking immoral instead of thinking mortal could help with releasing control. Yes this all sounds daunting so that is why I’ve added a few links that might hopefully explain how simple it really is to let go of being controlling or of being controlled.     

http://imperfectspirituality.com/2012/10/10/four-ways-to-give-up-control-and-find-greater-peace/

Extract: I’m bossy. Have been since I was a kid. I like to direct things. I keep a clean house, tight schedule, and clear objectives. But, this isn’t necessarily something to brag about. Too often, when we are moving with a mission in mind, we move out of the moment and begin to micro-manage people and things tweaking the details to control outcomes. Not smart. In fact, it’s not even possible. To think that we can control things, means we are rooted in an illusion. Instead of seeing life as it actually is, we get caught up in how it ought to be.

http://thecommitmenttohappiness.com/tag/releasing-control/

Extract: By allowing everyone and everything in your life to be exactly the way they are, you allow yourself freedom from the chaos inside you. You don’t have to be super spiritual to make this change in your life.

Is this saying we should accept everything the way it is & not be non-accepting of anything? Being non-accepting doesn’t mean you’re going to change anything it just means one has a need to be non-accepting of circumstances that are unbecoming to ourselves & others around us however when change is needed, as opposed to desire, need represents survival in some way either mentally or physically. Living for a need instead of a desire is sort of between control & releasing control all together, you could say this represents a balance between the two. Living for a need is releasing control of the controlling factors of the ego which is what this post is about; all we are living for then is survival which implies that the ego is no longer in control. Some probably have a need or desire of going further to release control altogether, this can’t be done in time because to release control altogether we first need to stop desiring or needing to release control altogether, it’s a paradox because of time.  

This is where being accepting within its totality comes into it which also includes being accepting of our non-acceptance at times as well. I am accepting of my controlling ego, at times, of living for a desire instead of a need, this isn’t about releasing control so I’m contradicting myself here? No not exactly for the main reason I am aware of the controlling factors of the ego & I don’t see a wrong or right because in timelessness there is no right or wrong. In actual fact I’m not contradicting myself at all because there is no right or wrong however in time there is. Is it wrong to be expressive of the controlling factors of the ego? In time it doesn’t seem so for many & it can’t be wrong in timelessness either because timelessness has no wrong or rights so why not just be egotistically controlled altogether if there is no wrong in this?

Some of us in time have a will not to be so expressive of these ego traits & to do this we should become aware of the controlling factors of the ego to release this control within us. So what about everybody else who wishes to express such egoist controlling traits? In time they seem wrong to us who wish not to be so expressive of these traits but there is no right or wrong, only in time is there a right & wrong which again is ego controlled. It’s a paradox because of time once again.

If we thought immortally would we have these paradoxes? The answer of course is no because we wouldn’t think in time which gives us judgement therefore there would be no right or wrong & no paradoxes. To be in timeless thought would also mean far less control quite automatically, if there is no right or wrong what is there to control?  You become totally accepting within its totality only because you have become non-accepting of thinking in time remembering being non-accepting is also accepted. You can’t be totally accepting if you don’t accept being non-accepting as well.

The following link is quite interesting as well only because I relate to it so much like, “The ego in you will almost always deceives you by creating the feeling within that, if you let go, life will unravel...you'll lose control...even great and terrible things could occur”. Fear unravels us & to take some sort of control of fear we rely on knowledge for an example which seemingly gives us control over fear, the fear of knowing less than others or not knowing enough to support ourselves financially. Is this saying anyone gaining knowledge is fearful & controlling? To an extent yes however this is where a need comes into compared to a desire, if we are gaining knowledge for a need that far less denotes control & fear than if we gain knowledge for desire I believe because fear is controlling, a need isn’t .       

http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/The-Pathway-to-Spiritual-Growth.aspx

This post also explains about faith, “What it does do is reveal a lot about the lack of faith...what really is the driven-ness of fear within that person who mistakenly thinks they are being faithful when all they're really doing is disguising their fear with platitudes that sound faithful”.

Attaining faith can also be of a controlling thing or not again depending on what’s the driving force behind us attaining faith either it be of desire or of an actual need remembering if we are in a place we don’t want to be in & we see faith as an escape from this that is more to do with desire than a need.

Recently I came across yet another new age spiritual concept mixed with old religious concepts & beliefs that is more about control than releasing control because it was all about escaping from a prison. I would like to inform my readers here today that any concept or belief that entails fear in anyway is of control in my mind as fear denotes a lack of control so all we are trying to do with this kind of faith is take back this control.

This post also tells the story of monkeys caught in traps that wouldn’t let go of bowls full of rice, if they did they would no longer be entrapped. It describes how we are the same & all we have to do is let go of the goodies to become no longer entrapped. I think if we, while meditating, spraying, chanting or whatever, think about releasing control before & during these spiritual practices releasing from being controlling will become a lot easier.  

Is this post urging us to become detached from our attachments? No & yes because again we should ask ourselves honestly is our attachments of desire or need? This doesn’t mean a desire or need for ourselves either but of others & everything around our whole environment, for example we are destroying the environment at an alarming rate because of desire, it’s not an actual need but we lie to ourselves & say it’s for a need. Lying is but one of many attributes control has given us, all we need to do to correct this, if we want too, is just release the controlling factors of the ego & this is why I have added three links to other posts/sites that will hopefully allow you to do this. Happy releasing.   

Being More Positively Expressive on the Net

Written by Mathew Naismith

Note: I was asked a couple of questions in relation to the quote, I will insert this at the end of the post in bold.  

Hopefully the following might help a few people deal with others that are more about control when trying to converse with others on the net.  It’s fine avoiding these people but spiritual awareness isn’t just about our own awareness but the awareness of all collectively I believe which means at times we may have to deal with controllers when conversing with others.  Spirituality to me isn’t about taking control but releasing it. Recently I became involved with a spiritual site that was all about knowledge & knowledge on it’s own is all about control because anything I put on this site about wisdom was quite destructively ridiculed.  Is this sites concepts wrong in some way? No because it’s like any belief or view others abide by, it’s each to their own, this site just wasn’t for me so I found out.

On this site I experienced quite a lot of high cap replies which denotes yelling & aggression which would explain the destructive criticism I was receiving from these people. High caps are fine if we are trying to point out a particular point however we should beware that we could be displaying an aggressive stance & even if we weren’t others might take it this way.  This is a good thing to remember when conversing with anyone on the net.  There is also a big difference between constructive & destructive criticism, the links below give a good outline of the difference of constructive & destructive criticism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varieties_of_criticism

Extract:  Destructive criticism aims to destroy the target of criticism, by making the destructive criticism (e.g. "you should shut up and follow the program"). The aim is to show that the point of view of someone else has no validity at all, or lacks any merit.

Constructive criticism aims to show that the intent or purpose of something is better served by an alternative approach. In this case, making the criticism is not necessarily deemed wrong, and its purpose is respected; rather, it is claimed that the same goal could be better achieved via a different route. Constructive criticisms are often suggestions for improvement – how things could be done better or more acceptably. They draw attention to how an identified problem could be solved, or how it could be solved better.

We can deduct here that constructive criticism is more of awareness but destructive criticism is of control.

The link below gives some very helpful hints in being more constructive in our replies. We can also see from this when others are being destructive within their criticism which at times is hard to detect. The following info will also help with this by allowing us to detect sooner if a person is being constructive or destructive within their criticism. This will help us determine if the discussion is worth going on with before it gets totally out of hand.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/think-well/201110/the-art-constructive-criticism

Extract: Most people are very thin-skinned and easily upset when it comes to receiving criticism.

Even when criticism is constructively intended, the receiver may be sensitive and respond with feelings of anger, sadness, or guilt, especially when the criticism is delivered in a way that tends to arouse defensiveness such as sending it in the form of a "You-message." (See "I-Statements" below.)

This is because when people receive messages that start with "You," such as "You didn't do this," "You never do that," "You always do the following," it is natural for them to feel attacked and take a defensive or even a retaliative position.

Fortunately, there are several excellent methods for giving constructive criticism that are unlikely to trigger bad feelings.

If we incorporate the word you with high cap letters this will enhance the effectiveness of destructive criticism used. We should also remember here some people converse in this way deliberately, spammers are a good example of this.  

I hope this will assist anyone wanting to express their own free thinking & awareness to others on the net, hoping they just might help others become more aware. Spiritual awareness is about the awareness of the collective not just of the individual so feel free to express yourself more confidently.  Now get out there & express yourself away.

+Deb Putman I wasn't always positive either Deb.

Is there a reason why we attract negative people & responses? A very good question & should we feel obligated to help? Just by being positive is helping even though they feel threatened by this positivity.

A positive person attracting a negative person is a positive sign from the negative person because they feel threatened for some reason so a question mark goes up. Once they feel threatened something is telling them there is something wrong here but of course it's usually the positive person who is in the wrong according to them & they will pull out all stops to prove so.

The conscious self is telling them someone else is at fault but the subconscious self is telling them wait a minute I'm at fault. When I get a seemingly negative response from a negative person it's really a positive response because they have just become aware of a difference. It's a start & that is all we need to do because the subconscious usually does the rest but of course that isn’t always the case.

There is an old saying that goes like this,"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink"..   

The Kingdom of God? –Awareness

Written by Mathew Naismith

I was asked recently about my idea about the Kingdom of God? The following was my reply.  

http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=1523037&item=5823658184102924288&type=member&commentID=5829920289751842816&trk=hb_ntf_COMMENTED_ON_GROUP_DISCUSSION_YOU_COMMENTED_ON#commentID_5829920289751842816

G'day Ali

The kingdom of God, in a religious sense I have no idea, what the kingdom of God means for one religion isn't accepted by another religion.

 What does it mean to me? I believe we are in the kingdom of God, where not aware of this & some of us don't want to be aware of this. As soon as we become spiritually aware enough to know we have always been in the kingdom of God we realise all it took to know this was awareness. Religion has tried to make us aware but at times people within a certain religious order have gone astray, we are but human after all. Some people say religion is dying a slow death mainly because of people with flaws within these religious orders but I don't think so, religious people like anything else will evolve & become aware of their errors within these religious orders in time. We must be aware of the past & learn from it.

 I had an experience a few months ago with the souls of entities who were set on evil intent, they utterly fear awareness beyond what they know, they just don't want to know. I felt a real kindred to them because I could see within their souls they too were of the light, they just didn't want to know this.

How & why become set on evil intent? The controlling factors of the ego I believe has a lot to do with it, once one becomes totally fixated to these controlling factors, especially at the soul level, the soul no longer wants anything that will take this control away. Imagine fearing to your utter depth of your soul in losing control!!

 Spirituality is about awareness & releasing control not gaining it & this is where people within these religious orders have gone off mark. The kingdom of God to me represents awareness to the max.

Sorry if the above has offended anyone as that was not my intention, my intention is to be honest & straight forward within my views & beliefs to anyone who reads my posts. I am not what you would call a religious person however I do realise the importance of religion within human society remembering the word religion actually refers to a belief, creed or a conviction of any kind however religious more or less refers to actual religious (spiritual) practices.  In saying this I do however practice in sitting within my own quietness which of course you could call a religious practice.  

In all I call all of what is the kingdom of God or the source or consciousness itself & I believe the more aware you are, differentiated from knowledge,   the closer you are to the kingdom of God or the more connected you are to the source itself. All this I believe comes from being aware & to do this we need to beware of the controlling factors of the ego remembering this is where people in certain religious orders have gone astray. Spirituality isn’t about control but releasing control, we must be aware of this if we want things to change for the better.   

One more thing, the reason I mentioned awareness being differentiated from knowledge is knowledge can be controlling as opposed to spiritual awareness releasing control!!

Releasing Control to Liberate Oneself

Written by Mathew Naismith

This is another little discussion I thought I would share with you on SB; it’s about a person who keeps dreaming of lifting up but feels quite uncomfortable in doing so. It would seem that we need to take more control so we don’t feel this way but actually I feel we need to release any control we have to soar up freely without feeling uncomfortable about it.

http://www.spiritboard.net/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=dreams&Number=119991&part=1#Post120201

Amy1022

I had another one of these "dreams" the other night. This time I just went up and tolerated the "lifting up" feeling although, again, I didn't like the feeling. Does anyone know whatr it means when you have these frequently? It seems I didn't have them for a while and am having them again. Someone mentioned something in my life that I may not be content about---and right now there is something going on that is kind of beyond my control and I am praying for the best of outcomes. There are some things that are topsy turvy and have been for several months. I guess this might have something to do with the dreams, but not OBE's?

G'day Amy1022

Controls a nasty little critter, recently I wrote up about the controlling ego, any control relates to the ego trying to take or keep control. The ego makes us feel inadequate if we don't have control, the little blighter.

Try telling yourself numerous times at any time that you don't have to take or be in control, see your arms spread a part from each other in front of you while you are saying I'm letting go of control because I don't need to control.

Spirituality isn't about control even at the human level it might seem that way, it's about awareness & the more aware we become the more control we seem to have; it's just becoming aware & has nothing to do with control I believe.

If you are able, while having this dream, think about releasing any control, it's extremely liberating however if you are unable to do this in your dream just do like I said before, tell yourself that you don't have to be in control. The nasty little critter of our controlling ego is trying to tell us to keep &/or take more control, just let it go.  Actually just saying I’m letting go a number of times while visualizing your arm letting go of nothing in particular should do the trick for you, your dreams should change after a while hopefully.

Note: It is important when visualising your arms letting go of control not to visualise anything in particular because this will detract from the effects of such visualisation. Our emotions & ego can make us focus on the things that are not necessarily what is causing us grief at the time.

Love

Mathew  

Quietness- A Supposition of Uncontrollability

Written by Mathew Naismith

Believe it or not spirituality isn’t about more control but less mainly because control denotes a controlling ego which sort of makes no sense especially when we need control to just meditate.  At the human level we are controlling & seems like the only way we can obtain anything which is going to be beneficial to us & at the human level of understanding that is true however spirituality isn’t just about what is at the human level.  Once we fall within our own quietness we are no longer just at the human level of understanding so in this state of consciousness is everything uncontrollable because we are not controlling ourselves?     

This is an interesting question because I can neither say no or yes to this question for the main reason once you obtain true inner quietness within oneself control isn’t needed which also signifies that the ego is no longer needed or even exists or shouldn’t especially if we are within a true state of inner quietness.

Again this is funny, because at the human level of understanding we think if one isn’t in control they have to be not in control, out of control, but that is what our human conscious understanding is telling us, in other words the controlling ego wants us to think there has to be a yin to the yang.  Once we start to experience true inner quietness there is no yin & yang’s believe it or not & this is why so many people have trouble understanding most concepts of spirituality & inner sacred quietness.  For these people to understand these concepts they need to beware of the controlling factors of the ego that the ego is telling us there has to be a yin & yang because we need control like to succeed in our endeavours with meditating for example.  Having knowledge of meditating isn’t what it’s all cracked up to be!!  

Knowledge is a controlling factor of the ego as well, the more we know the more in control we feel & at the human level of understanding the more we are able to do however because it’s still all about control we are not within our own quietness & it’s within this quietness we will obtain true control even when it’s not controlling in nature.  Most of the times while in this quietness we are quite more accepting than in our human state of understanding  & the more accepting we become the more quietness will befall upon us & of course the less we will use human conscious understanding on its own.  How do we obtain quietness without some form of meditative state?  You don’t but the less controlling we are about mediating the more successful we will be mainly because we will have no expectations driven by a controlling ego, just let yourself drift without any thought of control even of your own breathe.  It is also important to realise meditation isn’t about control just like spirituality isn’t supposed to be about control, we don’t meditate to take control but to release it.

The reason I said we will obtain true control  is that is what it feels like in this quietness state but not exactly alike mainly because there’s no big deal, the only reason we feel we have more control is we are more accepting mainly because there being no yin & yang therefore no controlling ego. There is an ego present however because one can’t be aware of oneself being aware without an ego telling us so however it’s not a controlling ego.    

Inner Peace

Written by Mathew Naismith

Inner peace is of the hearts core of our inner being for which we strive to remember in our daily lives, at times it seems so far away but in fact it never truly left us we left it in a sense.  Good examples of this inner peace are people who portrayed this inner peace without recourse because these people where sent here to redeem us from our own folly. These people with whom I am talking about are people like Buddha & Jesus for instance that had no desire to express such folly. This folly of course is referring to the way we allow the ego to control us without being aware of such control. These people were aware of the controlling factors of the ego therefore had no tendencies to express such traits. If you take away the controlling tendencies of the ego you automatically bring forth inner peace & yes it is that simple. What some of us are trying to do however is rid ourselves of the ego but all we really need to do is become aware of the controlling factors of the ego, that’s all.

So how do we know if the ego is in control?  Desire is a good one, if we desire, as opposed to need, this is usually a good indication of the ego being in control no matter what you desire however as I have explained in recent posts need indicates more often than not that the ego is no longer in control.  This is saying if we worked more on our needs instead of desires the less controlling the ego will be & the more inner peace you will experience & feel & the more aware you will become.

There is another problem some of us have that indicates the ego being in control, looking upon people who seem to you to be more aware or holly than you. The funny thing is when we consider the entirety of all of what consciousness is people like Buddha & Jesus are the norm, they are not looked upon in grace but just as another energy form who is expressing inner peace however in realities controlled by the ego we see them as being above ourselves.   Just because we are expressive of the controlling ego doesn’t make us any a lesser person just ignorant of who we really are. People like Jesus & Buddha weren’t just sent here to show the way away from the controlling ego but show us who we truly are in the flesh so really all we need to do is know we are just like these people in whom we egotistically revere. 

Spirituality-Inquiry v Silence

Written by Mathew Naismith

Amended: I have inserted additional supplements to this post in bold letters to better describe the difference between inquiries for our desires & inquiring for our needs, I will also give a real life example of inquiring for our needs. Also at the end of the post I will add another additional supplement pertaining to our hidden ego tendances.  This is the problem of trying to keep the posts short which I won’t try to do in the future; I will just let it flow.

It’s funny how one kind of topic keeps coming up around the same time, it must have something to do with that synchronicity thing again!! The topic in question is inquiry, is or should spirituality be based on inquiry? Well I don’t think it should be but many spiritually aware people think otherwise including a science minded bloke on a Noetic site I’ve recently been conversing with  so are people like myself wrong especially if you think, if we are not inquiring we must be of blind faith & is it blind faith not to inquire? We must also think here there is no right or wrong in spirituality because spirituality isn’t about judgment so any form of life/ideology one chooses to live by is just another form of existence.

I had a bloke say to me about this subject that Jesus made inquiries, how else is one to know about oneself? Inquiries are by far not the only way to gain awareness & wisdom, sitting within one’s silence is another way.  It’s all to do with sitting within your own quietness, Jesus didn’t need to inquire about anything once he started sitting within his own quietness, everything he needed to know just came to him. Ask yourself, how often does this happen in our lives? It’s happened to me a number of times, I would have spiritual experiences out of the blue without inquiry but once I started asking question the experience desisted.  Once you fall within your own quietness there is no need to make any further inquiry, what is needed just comes to one within this quietness/silence however if we desire to know more we cease within our quietness. A need denotes silence but a desire denotes noise, spirituality in my mind isn’t about noise but silence.  Needs also usually denote control of the ego because we are only spiritually feeding our needs however desires are a different kettle of fish. To desire is to inquire to feed our controlling ego. Don’t get me wrong here, there is nothing wrong with feeding the ego through our desires it’s just another way to exist that’s all however it’s not really what I would call spiritually minded.  Yes we can become spiritually aware through this process but it’s the long road around in my mind because you’re not always expressing yourself spiritually, spirituality shouldn’t be about any sort of desires I believe.

Let’s look at this another way, what do spiritualist in India do to become enlightened? They sit within their own silence for hours, days & even years on end to attain this enlightenment/awareness, this sounds like they are inquiring but there not. At first they inquire but it’s only for a very short moment in their lives, once they have fallen within their own quietness only then are they able to know & understand to help them reach enlightenment. This also has a lot to do with suffering as well because within this suffering one will accept all that will come before thee for ever after.  Spirituality isn’t or shouldn’t be about desire but about the acceptance of all & only through the acceptance of all is one able to find true enlightenment; we are in fact talking about a need here not a desire.  “The need to suffer in silence to attain true enlightenment”. 

I would also like to enumerate here that one can also inquire for a need as opposed to inquiring for a desire however there is a fine line here. One must beware of the difference between a desire that is controlled by the controlling ego or a need which isn’t controlled by the ego. To give a better understanding of this I will use a real life example.

I was helping out a lass from Cambodia in various ways, I should mention here it was all above board, anyway she wanted to fit in over here in Australia so she tried to become a Christian. After a few months she came up to me baffled about the ideological concepts of Christianity, she wasn’t happy with it at all so I suggested she stick with what she was comfortable with which was Buddhism. I gave her a book about Buddhism so she could make further inquiries to what she wanted.

In this case it wasn’t an inquiry of desire but a need which wasn’t controlled by the controlling ego. Let’s look at the same scenario but in reverse which is driven by desire not a need. Having a desire to fit in, this lass would have kept making inquiries into Christianity until she herself psychologically accepted these ideological concepts that she was obviously not comfortable with in the first place. This is a desire to fit in which is controlled by the controlling ego. She is to this day quite happy with her choice in not egotistically fitting in.        

However all we are doing is talking about the individual self, what about the collective self, does it too have to suffer, not only suffer in silence but suffer the consequences of the controlling, very noisy, ego to attain enlightenment collectively?  What is above is also below; yes of course the collective has to suffer as the individual self does.  There is also another matter to consider here, why would a soul keep choosing to live within a harsh environment for no reason? We must remember here it’s never about the human vessel but the soul; we are living for the soul soles purpose in reality not our own individual selves. 

This brings us back to blind faith, if were not inquiring all of what we know through silence, our own quietness, is built up on blind faith obviously?  Anyone who has experienced what silence can bring knows it’s not of blind faith however it is understandable anyone who is not of their own silence would look at any awareness/knowing gained from silence being of blind faith.  Anything not detectable by any of the five senses is usually deemed as being of faith only but what are the five senses controlled by?  The controlling ego of course however one can control theses ego tendencies brought to us by the five senses by just taking control of the ego instead of the ego taking control of us. All we need to do is be aware of the controlling factors of the ego & yes it is that simple because all it takes is awareness & the ego will become dysfunctional in its controlling factors quite automatically.

If this or any one of my posts or in fact anyone’s post has upset you in some way you must look within you to why you are feeling this way not look at other people’s perceptions as being wrong in some way. In my case, concerning this post, some people might be offended by me relating the ego to desires, why are you offended by this? It wouldn’t be you don’t want to be seen expressing a lowly human trait like the ego in anyway is it or is it just by expressing anything deemed lowly or unacceptable makes one less spiritual.  If you think on this, what is controlling these thoughts of being a lesser person if we express a lesser valued human trait even when they do help us on our spiritual path?  Interesting isn’t it but don’t worry about not seeing how the hidden ego fools us because it took me years to realise this!!

      

Within Thy Silence of One’s Presence

Written by Mathew Naismith

Sitting within one’s own silence doesn’t just silence the mind but all of oneself in its entirety unless of course you can’t sit within one’s own silence silently enough because of traumas or worries of some kind. Once we start controlling our emotions instead of them controlling us we will begin to notice the silence even when in a busy place because it’s theses emotions from traumas & worries that stop us completely falling in total silence. After taking control of our emotions we can then go within our own silence without even worrying about thinking because we know once we take control of our emotions not thinking comes easy & in actual fact after a while one will automatically slow down the thinking process because most of what we think is emotionally based.

Just think for a moment, what isn’t emotionally based? We know hate & love are emotions & grief & joy are emotions but what about when we think about what we are going to do the next day in our jobs for instance or figuring out how  & when are we going to to pay for the painting of the house, these thoughts also stir up emotions of one kind or another. We allow these sorts of emotions to run our whole life & at times stressfully so which of course isn’t very productive in allowing ourselves to fall into our own silence, what if we took control of our emotions which will allow us to fall within our own silence ? We would then allow silence within ourselves to control our lives instead of our emotions controlling our lives; I wonder which one is more beneficial in the long run for us & everybody else around us?  It’s an amazing feeling once one starts taking control of one’s emotions, it’s pure utter freedom.   

With our busy hectic life styles these days we find it hard to stop our emotions running our lives but all one needs to do is take control of our emotions for a few minutes of the day to start the process of sitting within our own silence. Don’t try to stop thinking if we are still allowing our emotions to run our lives as this will only work to the extent our emotions allow it too, not what we want it too.

To be in the presence of someone in total silence is knowing without a word spoken, I will explain.  Someone of this calibre won’t have to utter a word in your presence of what you came to them for, its works like telepathy & in fact that is exactly what it is. The whole atmosphere is alive around these people, one only has to think of something or a question without murmuring anything & an answer will come into be known to you without them murmuring a word as well.  Are these people of divine nature? No but they feel like it. They are people who have learnt to control their own emotions, that’s all.  

These people are very conductive to meditating as well, if you have trouble meditating just being within the presence of one of these people allows one to mediate a lot easier because like I said the atmosphere around these people is quite electric, as if it’s alive & I mean really alive. Spiritual healers have the same thing happen to them, the more detached they are from their own & everybody else’s emotions the more the atmosphere around them seems to come alive. However there is a difference between a spiritual healer & someone in total silence within oneself depending on the type of healing being used, the more hands on the healer is the less silent they are.  Yes even waving one’s hands over the body isn’t being in total silence, we might be not literally talking through our mouths but we are still talking through the use of our hands, this of course doesn’t take away from the healing process just that it’s not total silence.  It’s not easy to heal in total silence.

Can these people who are in total silence also heal? Silence gives them control without having a need to take control, the silence takes control of the atmosphere all around them & if you are within that atmosphere for sure they can heal but in total absolute silence. It’s as if an angel has touched you & this is why we make the mistake in putting these people up on pedestals when they don’t want or can’t see it’s warranted for them to be put up so high above all others.  This sort of action to them is usually unwarranted to them so they keep quiet within themselves & to themselves usually. They can see they are only in silence & that is the only difference between them & everybody else who usually has a need to put them upon a pedestal when all they want is to live within their own silence.