|
Awakened Doing
Lesson Based on Eckhart Tolle's book, A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
Namaste
Here’s why some pet owners think dogs, cats are better than kids:
1. They Eat less
2. They don't ask for money all the time
3. They are easier to train
4. They normally come when called; well some dogs do
5. They never ask to drive your car
6. They don't wear your clothes, although they may sleep or chew on them
7. And If you don't like them, you can sell their children
Have you ever wondered what God Feels Like, I don’t mean in a tangible way, like in squeezing a teddy bear, or a loaf of bread, or even squeezing somebody’s hand. Have you ever wondered what God Feels Like? No, I don’t mean like they talk about from time to time in the Old Testament, a God who is angry, or jealous or vengefulness any of those other negative human feelings, as if the Infinite One somehow had human emotions. God doesn’t have human emotions; does she; that’s a god created in our image and likeness.
“That’s an ugly backward Concept of God,” that’s what Ramtha said, in the movie What the Bleep Do We Know, she said, “God must be greater than the greatest of human weakness and indeed the greatest of human strengths, and must even transcend the most remarkable things of nature in all of their glory.
Have you ever wondered what God Feels Like? Like when Jesus was baptized by John along the River Jordan, scripture says, “…the heavens opened to him and the Spirit of the Lord descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.” “Then Jesus filled by the Holy Spirit …was led into the wilderness”(Luke 3:22 & 4.1 – Matthew 3:16 – 4.1). How do you think that felt - to be filled by God’s Spirit in such way?
But Jesus wasn’t the only one who had such an experience! The Bible records many such events. Like when the Disciples were huddled in the Upper Room on the morning of the Pentecost Festival, “They were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven, there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and the Holy Spirit filled the entire house. Tongues of fire appeared and rested upon each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in languages, as Spirit gave them the ability (Acts 2:1 – 4).”
That must of have been an incredible experience to be locked in a room in fear, praying and to feel a burst of wind – a flood of energy. It ignited flames on their heads and gave them the ability to speak in other languages. Whether the author was writing about the actual experience, or using metaphor, you would have to say that this had to be a very powerful experience. What did it feel like? Have you ever wondered what God Feels Like?
I think it’s interesting that this experience is what earned the disciples the title of “Apostle,” which according to my understanding means, “one who knows.” Previously they were known as Jesus’ disciples; students of the Master teaching. But after this experience they became known as “The Apostles;” the ones who know the ways of the Holy Spirit. Afterwards they would do all the things that Jesus had done, healing the sick, manifesting abundance, demonstrating their knowing of the ways of Spirit! Have you ever wondered what God Feels Like?
Were these isolated experiences reserved just for Jesus and his disciples? No! Not at all, when I did a word search of phrases like “the Spirit of the Lord,” or “filled by the Holy Spirit” and I came up more than 100 separate instances of the outpouring of God’s Spirit upon a “variety of individuals:” The Apostles, Paul, Moses, Elisa, Elijah, David, Joshua, Samson, and even Gideon. You know the name, it’s found in just about every hotel. Where? On the Bible that you will find on the night stand. When I read such stories I’ve wondered what it “felt like,” what does God feels like flowing through you, filling you with power, strength, love and wisdom. I bet it feels good, great, and awesome; what do you think?
Yes, indeed the Infinite One moves and stirs in mysterious ways. This is something we all need to become aware of, that we are the experiencer’s of life- God doesn’t experience as such. The only way God can experience emotions or any thing else is through us and with us. God is the energy of life and we are the experiencer’s of that life. God feels through us and moves through us, as the Life Force stirs and flows through us, filling us with the essence of life. We can be open to this Outpouring of Spiritualized Energy or not; but that’s more to the point of what I’m talking about. Have you ever wondered what God Feels Like? What would that feel like, to have the Spirit of the Lord pouring out upon you in any given moment? And we were meant for such experiences; to know what God feels life, to know the sacred energy of life pouring through every fiber of our being.
This also is more to point of what Eckhart Tolle has been talking about in his book, A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. Our life’s purpose is to awakening to the point that we can feel the Holy Spirit’s stirrings and movements in all we do. Eckhart Tolle calls it “Awakened Doing.” This also was the central theme of Jesus’ ministry, and for the matter it is the central theme that runs throughout the Bible. The Apostle Paul declared it as he wrote, " For in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive (1st Corinthians 15:22).” Meaning that we have all died, or should I say fallen asleep to our spiritual nature in this manifest formed, and yet as we find, Christ we awaken to Spiritual life. Indeed throughout the Bible the words sleep, die and dead are used metaphorical to imply living outside the awareness of God, that we are unconscious of the Divine in our life. While the words, awake, life and living all refer to being fully awake spiritually; that we are one with the Infinite; that we walk move and have our being immersed within a sea of the Holy Spirit’s everlasting life.
King David sensed this Truth when he sang, “I shall behold your face, Lord in harmony; when I awake I shall be satisfied. Awake my soul, awake.” Jesus recognize this metaphor when he said, “Let the Dead bury the dead, come follow me into true life. (Luke 9:60) or was he really trying to imply that the dead would climb up out of their graves to bury those who had just died. That’s a rather grim image isn’t it?
A person can be wide-awake physically, yet not be awake in a spiritual sense of the word. In fact people can go to church believing that they are doing all the right things and still not be awake in the spiritual sense of the word. Doing and Being are not always the same things. There are many people who sleep walk through life, unaware of their higher calling, unaware of the power, the vitality, the inspiration and the glory of the Divine Presence flowing, stirring and moving deep within them.
I don’t believe any of us would want to live our days in a routine, cut-and-dried manner, without feeling the wonder and intrigue of Spirit. At least I don’t. How about you? We are meant for more; we were created in the image and likeness of the Infinite; it’s time to awaken and step into that role and allow that potential to transform our being.
The Truth is that our world is in the midst of transformation, and that’s why you’re here. You have felt the urgings, and the promptings of Spirit to awakening and to make some changes at a soul level. You are among the vanguard of an awakening that is rippling through humanity, as we take the next step in the evolution of consciousness; although, you probably won’t hear anything about it on the news tonight. But as this new consciousness arises, the old ways of doing things will stiffen, to challenge the new ways of being and resist the processes of change. Much of what we see in the nightly news around the world is a result of the resistance to the underlying spiritual change that occurring. Spirit beckons us to awaken to its promptings and to take a step up to see from a higher perspective, but mankind doesn’t always respond so well to those types of nudges. But ultimately the old ways of doing will dissolve, just as a caterpillar must surrenders its old ways of crawling along, so it can transform into butterfly.
How do we go about preparing ourselves for the next step in our spiritual evolution, which Eckhart Tolle calls, “Awakened Doing.” Awakened doing is the alignment of our outer purpose with our inner being. By going about our daily experience in an “awakened state” we can learn to align our True Self with our outer activities and our stated purpose. When we awaken to our true nature and realize that our primary reason for being is to express the Sacred Energy of life that is God, and to know “what God feels like” as it does, it changes the way we go about life. Through awakened doing, we focus on this moment now and how the Sacred Energy of Being flows through us and out into the world. We focus more completely on what we doing, and how our consciousness, our being-ness flows into what we are doing.
For example in the wonderful Silk Painting Workshop that a few others participated in at Irma Hampton’s House over the past two Saturdays, it wasn’t so much about a right or wrong way of doing a particular exercise, but rather, how Spirit moved in you to design and create whatever you did. It was simply a matter of being open to the experience, to allow Irma’s instructions move through the artist within us and into what we were doing. You see the marvelous piece of work I did; and I don’t consider myself creative in any way.
Tolle says that they are three modalities of awakened doing. He says that a modality is “the underlying energy frequency that flows through us and into what we are doing to connect our actions with the flow the universe.” The modalities of awakened doing are acceptance, enjoyment, and enthusiasm. Each one represents a certain Vibrational frequency of consciousness. We must learn to be vigilant to make sure that one of them is operating whenever we are engaged in something.
Acceptance of any particular activity means that while performing it you are at peace with the activity. That peace of being creates a subtle energy vibration that flows into what you are doing. On the surface, acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality it is active and creative and triggers something entirely new in you. If there is particular task that you do not enjoy doing, like washing dishes or scrubbing floors or toilets, you can at least accept that it is necessary to do for the highest good of all. In this case it is necessary to keep your home sanitary, so in that moment the situation requires us do it, and to do it willing and to the best of our ability. If you cannot do with joy, or bring acceptance to it – don’t do it. Otherwise you are not taking responsibility for the only thing you truly can be responsible for doing – maintaining your own healthy, thriving, loving state consciousness.
“The Peace” that comes with surrendered action will turn to a sense of aliveness. As a result of this sense of aliveness that is stirred in us, enjoyment will eventually replace wanting, as the motivating factor behind our actions. Through the sense of enjoyment, we link our self to our true creative potential. When you make the present moment, not the past or the future, the focal point of your life, your ability to enjoy what you doing increases dramatically. It isn’t the action you perform that produces the joy, but the deep sense of aliveness that flows through you in the moment of being engaged. This is one reason people love such activities as sky diving, rock climbing and skiing, they require you to focus on the movement of life in the present moment.
When you add a goal to the enjoyment of what you do, the energy-field and the vibrational frequency of the activity accelerates. Tolle says that, “a certain degree of structural tension is added to the enjoyment, which turns into enthusiasm. At the height of creative activities fueled by enthusiasm, there will be enormous intensity and energy behind what you do. You will feel like an arrow that is moving toward a target.” You can feel the resonance of the creative forces of the universe flowing through you. Enthusiasm empowers those individuals who share it. Enthusiasm never opposes, and is non-confrontational. Its activity does not create winners and losers, but seeks the highest expression for all, and is inclusive. Enthusiasm is aligned with the present moment and flows from the source of all being.
The modalities of awakened doing are acceptance, enjoyment, and enthusiasm. As you seek their expression in each moment, you will what God Feels like, for the Sacred Energy of being will be flowing through your heart and soul. Allow it to pour through you in this moment now and you will know a whole new way of being and the God loves you!
Resources for this talk
- A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, by Eckhart Tolle, Namasate Press
- Talks on Truth, by Charles Fillmore, published by Unity Books, Unity Village Missouri
- The Twelve Powers of Man, by Charles Fillmore, published by Unity Books Unity Village Mo
- “Discover the Power Within You” by Eric Butterworth, published by Harper Collins
- What the Bleep Do We Know, the movie.
- www.positivechristianity, Christopher Chenowethe
- QuickVerse Bible Software, the NRSV Ve
|
