What happens here

“Hold on!”: Journey of Abundance 2.0 – Day 27

susanwithpearls Being, Cause & Effect, Choices, Enlightenment, Everything changes, Heart, Inspiration, Love, What happens here , , , , ,
Copyright Tam Black 2016 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Copyright Tam Black 2016
Designed for susanwithpearls.com

Guiding Thought

Our consciousness is the gateway through which Divine Love flows, materializing our infinite Supply. We are now conscious of our own Inner Divine Presence—Infinite Love—expressing through us, providing us with the means to be aware, to understand, and to know It as our Self– more and more!

 

Sharing

When I go to bed at night, I make sure that I have a thought of Love, or Oneness, or of God in my head as I fall asleep. As I drift through sleep stages, I do my best to maintain that thought, so that even in my unconsciousness, I can be conscious.

Here are some of the thoughts I use regularly:
I love you, God.
Thank you, God.
Om Namah Shivaya.
All is Love is All is Love is… (I’ve been using this one a lot recently, after I wrote about it a few days ago)
God is with me wherever I am.
I am beloved of God.

This is one way of keeping the gateway open and receiving Divine Love. Most of the time, I wake up very refreshed, and am able to begin my day in peace and harmony. Many times throughout the night, I can feel myself feeling the thought; I pull it into my heart, into my body, feel it with as much of me as I can, feel how the energy of thoughts of God affect me. It’s pretty cool.

Sometimes, I get flashes of realization…but of course, I am also pretty much asleep, so it’s like I get it, a part of me has this flash of awakening, even while the rest of me sleeps, and I have to really work at holding on to it when the rest of me wakes up! Sometimes I can’t hold onto it, sometimes I get one small phrase or word that I can remember, and it’s very powerful.

Of course, I’ve been working from an angle of abundance these past 26 days, so while I am asleep, the thoughts speak to me through the lens of abundance. As you know, abundance is more than money, more than material goods. Money and material goods are simply side effects to knowing True Inner Wealth: Love and Divine Love.

If I experience lack, the only thing I lack is a consciousness of my unity with God.

I forget that…a lot. I forget that God is really and truly all I need or want. That God wants me to remember Him/Her as much as I want to. My longing for God is God’s longing for me.

As I’ve been falling asleep the past couple of nights I’ve been thinking, “God, how can I KNOW you? How can I KNOW your Love? How can I KNOW my Oneness with you?”

Just yesterday, I was reading a sample of the Tony Robbins book MONEY: Master the Game, when I came across this, “The quality of my life [is] the quality of my questions”.  And I thought, “I think I have pretty high-quality questions!”  (Of course, my questions are not quite in the same vein as Tony Robbins’… but we have very different approaches so that’s no surprise.)

Last night, after asking my questions and falling asleep, at some point in the night, I thought this: EVERY situation is an opportunity to KNOW God, to KNOW Love, to KNOW Oneness with God. Corresponding with this, I saw/felt how every situation is an opportunity to KNOW God, to KNOW Love, to KNOW Oneness with God. That’s when I really get it—when I have a feeling/experience of a phrase or a word.

All of a sudden everything became an expression of Divine Love. I saw that if I can only recognize Divine Love in and through everything, that IS Knowing God, Knowing Love, Knowing Oneness. God is always providing us with the means to be aware, to understand, and to know It as our Self. Every person, every situation, every interaction is Love reaching out to you to know It through and as that person, situation, or interaction.

Then I drifted back into deeper sleep and woke up hours later, with a memory of a realization. At least I remembered it.  Hold on!

“Playing Pool with Newton”: Journey of Abundance 2.0 – Day 26

susanwithpearls Being, Cause & Effect, Choices, Enlightenment, Everything changes, Inspiration, Love, What happens here , , , , ,
Copyright Tam Black 2016 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Copyright Tam Black 2016
Designed for susanwithpearls.com

Guiding Thought

Increasing our thoughts of Love and our attitude of service dispels all fear of lack and limitation. As we serve more people with Love, money and wealth flow abundantly to us. We use money and wealth with love and wisdom to create lives we love through our highest vision.

 

Sharing

Yes. Yes. Yes. Every fiber of my being says YES to this.

The reason that every fiber of my being says YES to this is because it’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been increasing my thoughts of Love and my attitude of service. I’ve been working on serving more people. I’ve been arranging my life according to my highest vision.

Have I been doing it because I’ve been thinking it, or have I been thinking it because I’ve been doing it? Have I been doing these things because this is now my third round and my subconscious has been influencing my actions? Or, have my actions influenced my thinking?

I tend to believe my thoughts have influenced my actions. It starts with the thought, and the actions follow. To me, that’s how these 40-day Consciousness Journeys work: Thought influences action, which then confirms the thought, which becomes strengthened by the confirmation, which then empowers more action…”As within, so without.”

That’s why I need to pay attention both to the within and the without. I can be aware of my thoughts all I want, but if I am not aware of the corresponding action without, I don’t ever see or experience the correlation. Similarly, if I am only aware of my actions, and am not aware of the thoughts that give rise to them, I only discern cause/effect on the material plane.

You see, that’s what this is: A new way of understanding cause/effect. At this point in our history and culture, humans are highly influenced by Newtonian physics (even though we, as a species, are beginning to consider the implications of relativity and quantum physics). Newtonian physics, as a whole, is all about physical laws, the “mechanics” of how the physical world works. If I strike a cue ball with a pool stick, the ball follows a certain trajectory, with a certain momentum. From this information, I can predict what will happen when the ball impacts another ball, or the side of the pool table. It’s predictable; it’s controllable. This, for many people, has become the model for approaching life: If I do such and such, this will be the outcome. People think life can be controlled and predicted like this! Silly people!

Please note, I am not saying that this is incorrect—Newtonian physics does tell us how the material world will behave. It’s just that with human behavior, there’s more to it, precisely because of human thought.

Motivation and intention (the thoughts behind the actions) influence the action. Am I eating a grilled cheese because I am hungry or because someone was just picking on me, and I felt put down, and I need to console myself? What would my behavior be, how would it be different if I didn’t feel the need to console myself, if I felt completely amused by someone trying to tell me something about myself that I knew was not true? How would I behave if I knew the truth about myself? How would I behave if all my thoughts were motivated by the assurance of being protected, safe, brave, daring, fulfilled, and unified?

Each day on the Journey, it’s like feeding your brain a bit of truth about yourself, about your connection with All, about your identity with Love, about our Oneness. It does add a variable to the equations about how the world works. We are used to looking at only the physical variables in the equation, not the abstract intangible ones like thoughts. But as you become accustomed to recognizing the outer effects of thought, and begin to see the correlation between your thoughts, motivations, or intentions, with your actions, then you begin to behave (live) more and more in the Truth of yourself.

“The Finest Treasure”: Journey of Abundance 2.0 – Day 24

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Copyright Tam Black 2016 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Copyright Tam Black 2016
Designed for susanwithpearls.com

Guiding Thought

Divine Love is infinite. Therefore, our Source and Supply are infinite. As we increase our consciousness of our Inner Divine-Love Presence as our Source and Supply, money, wealth, and prosperity increase in our life-experiences—and we use that money, wealth, and prosperity to fully express our Inner Divine-Love Presence.

 

Sharing

I read my horoscope every once in a while. Today was the first time in a few weeks. As usual, there was nothing earth-shattering or inspiringly illuminating (I already knew I was a humanitarian…); however, it did say this: “You’re here to make a difference, so go to it.” While I also already knew that, what I find interesting about it is that this is almost precisely what I said to you (those of you reading this) yesterday.  Did you know one of my qualities is also that I am ahead of my time!? Case in point!

Through this Journey, I’ve been becoming less and less focused on the “money, wealth, and prosperity” stuff. That sounds a bit counterintuitive—shouldn’t I be more focused on it? But, no…it feels like I am relaxing into it, that it’s here, it’s coming; there is no more I can do now, except let it happen. The ideas are still here, in my consciousness, I just don’t have to think about them as intensely.

And I’ve been more and more focused on the urgency of doing the work, of becoming aware, of being intentional about living this life with the most love, the most light, the most kindness and helpfulness possible. We have work to do, let’s get to it.

If you are reading this, you are getting to it. If you are reading this, you are doing the work—maybe not here, every day, but in your way, in your time, in your life. Little bits, or big leaps, you are opening to Love, allowing change, transforming negativity, looking within, thinking about how you can be different, be better, and help others do the same.

I have confidence in you. You are adding such benefit and strength to the momentum of Love and Good Will on the planet. I need you to know how important you are. I need you to KNOW how important you are. So you keep going, so you keep heart, so when you look out there and see the mess, you know that you are making a difference.

Yes, this is a Journey of Abundance and you are part of it, part of my Journey, as I am part of yours. We strengthen each other. If you are not seeing material wealth in your life, if your prosperity is not where you think it “should” be, keep going. Wealth is infinite and Love is what opens the door. Use our momentum: open to Love, open to the world of wealth, share Love through your wealth; be the Love you are—your own finest treasure.

“What Is When?”: Journey of Abundance 2.0 – Day 19

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Copyright Tam Black 2016 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Copyright Tam Black 2016
Designed for susanwithpearls.com

Guiding Thought

Divine Abundance expresses infinitely through your own Divine Presence. When you identify with your Divine Presence, you open the floodgates and Divine Abundance flows naturally, easily, and effortlessly through you, materializing all good in your life and affairs.

Sharing

Do I have any objections to today’s Guiding Thought? It’s one of those check-in days: do I believe this stuff today, or is the skeptic lurking?

It’s looking positive: YES, I can agree with the statement, Divine Abundance expresses infinitely through your own Divine Presence. And, YES, I can agree with the statement, when you identify with your Divine Presence, you open the floodgates and Divine Abundance flows naturally, easily, and effortlessly through you, materializing all good in your life and affairs.

No problem agreeing with them. The problem seems to be with that little word “when”…WHEN you identify with your Divine Presence… When is that? When do I identify with my Divine Presence? Am I doing that now? Am I supposed to do that now? Am I supposed to think about all the times when I have identified with my Divine Presence? Am I supposed to think about having the intention of identifying (at some future point) with Divine Presence?

You see how the mind can come in and jumble everything? There I was, happily agreeing with the Guiding Thought and then… questions! I love my mind, but dang, it can be exhausting sometimes.

When in this instance is not a point in time (so, mind, relax…you’re complicating this too much).

When, in this instance is a point of correspondence. When one thing happens, another thing also happens. When you identify with Divine Presence, you open the floodgates. The timing for it is anytime: Identify with your Divine Presence, viola, floodgates open!

My mind did, however, introduce a factor which matters for the physical experience of abundance, the factor of time. Because of time, there can be a lag between the identification with Divine Presence, the floodgates opening, and the experience of it.

And a lot can happen in that lag time (in my experience). One thing that can happen is doubt: “Nothing is happening, nothing has changed, nothing is going to change. My Divine Presence forgot about me”. And this, of course, takes that nice open channel and blocks it up again.

Another thing that can happen is, reverting to patterns or habits that discourage the flow: I start being in the flow, but then an unexpected bill comes in, which throws me into the anxiety of getting it paid, which… you guessed it…blocks the flow.

And yet another thing that can happen is…wondering whether or not I actually identified with my Divine Presence in the first place. How do I know when I do it, and do it right? This takes both faith and practice. With faith I have learned (and continue to learn), that my Divine Presence loves me and is with me always, no matter how I am; practice helps me to recognize that and trust it.

In Divine Mind, there is no time. There is no lag. You are your Divine Presence right now. Divine Abundance is flowing through you right now. The trick is to align your (worldly, time-ridden) consciousness with Divine Mind, where there is only infinite Love, abundance, peace, harmony. Then, the experience is immediate, as YOU correspond with the Divine Mind that expresses through you infinitely and eternally.

Without the mind’s interference, there is a direct experience of identifying with Divine Presence and the experience of it. Because, after all, Divine Abundance expresses infinitely through your own Divine Presence—it’s always there, no matter what. Right now, Divine Abundance is expressing through you. Right now, you are experiencing yourself as Divine Abundance. It is. You are. Right now.

“Making Love to Make Love”: Journey of Abundance 2.0 – Day 14

susanwithpearls Be who you are, Being, Cause & Effect, Choices, Enlightenment, Everything changes, Heart, Inspiration, Kindness Matters, Love, What happens here , , , ,
Copyright Tam Black 2016 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Copyright Tam Black 2016
Designed for susanwithpearls.com

Guiding Thought

Divine Love is infinite. Therefore, your Source and Supply are infinite. As you increase your consciousness of your Inner Divine-Love Presence as your Source and your Supply, money, wealth, and prosperity increase in your life experience.  Use that money, wealth, and prosperity to fully express your Inner Divine-Love Presence.

 

Sharing

“We don’t make movies to make money. We make movies to make more movies.” – Walt Disney

Similarly: I don’t seek Divine Love in order to gain money or wealth. I seek Divine Love, so that I can experience more Divine Love. Divine Love just happens to (also) be the Source and Supply of everything good in my life, including money and wealth.

Thus, money and wealth, in this scenario, are expressions of Divine Love.

When I use money and wealth to then express my Inner Divine-Love Presence, I am giving back to the Source which gave to me in the first place, which opens the channel even further for its return back to me.

How do I use money and wealth to express my Inner Divine-Love Presence?

I do things that are healthy and beneficial for me and my family. We nourish our bodies with good food, so that our bodies feel as good as they are able to, so we can approach the world as best we can.

I feed the birds (and subsequently the squirrels, chipmunks, groundhogs, and rabbits), because they are beautiful creatures and my heart is always happy to watch them.

I pay my bills on time, with love and gratitude, knowing that I am able to have a house, a car, a hot shower, a computer and internet, etc., because of the generosity of Divine Love.

I share the bounty from my garden.

I laugh. I listen. I love. I encourage…as best I can.

We all have something to give, at every moment. All anyone need do is give/share from a place of care, love, compassion, thoughtfulness, benefit! That’s it. That’s all there is to it. These are the gifts to give back to Divine Love. Care for each other. Patience. Empathy. Compassion.

I like this idea. I am going to begin to think more consciously about how I use money and wealth to express my Inner Divine-Love Presence. This will be a good exercise! Care to share your thoughts? I am interested! How do you use money and wealth to express your Inner Divine-Love Presence?

 

 

 

“The Divine >DOH!<”: Journey of Abundance 2.0 – Day 13

susanwithpearls Be who you are, Being, Cause & Effect, Choices, Enlightenment, Everything changes, Inspiration, Love, What happens here , , , ,
Copyright Tam Black 2016 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Copyright Tam Black 2016
Designed for susanwithpearls.com

Guiding Thought

Fill your mind and heart with Love, and align with the Light of Truth. Be Steadfast and focused on your own Loving Presence; live in the peace of fulfillment of your own Divine Identity.

 

Sharing

Hey, here’s an idea…just surrender. Stop trying. Stop thinking about how to surrender. Stop wondering what it feels like. Stop invoking the Love and Light that you already are—you don’t need to do that, you already are. Stop, stop, stop, just stop.

I did; I did it! I finally got it; I just stopped. We’ll see how sustainable it is (I am optimistic, because…I really got it).

Yesterday after I did the Journey, I had a real-eyes-ation. Here’s how it happened:

There was a period of time, about 20 years ago, when I studied and worked with Leonard Orr, and one of the many things that he taught was giving up struggle. Stop “efforting”. Stop struggling. Release the patterns in your life that make things difficult. Let life flow through you naturally, easily. Don’t fight it. Let it be. You get the idea. So I did—I let go of struggle. I am not even sure how I did it, I just seemed to look at things differently, and if something felt like a struggle, I either shifted my attitude about it, or let it be. This has been very valuable. It became natural and easy, an extension of who I am, and how I walk through life.

Yesterday after I did the Journey, I went out and hugged a tree for a nice 10 minutes. That’s not really relevant to the story, but I wanted to claim, publicly, my tree-hugging propensity.

After tree-hugging, as I continued my walk, for some reason unknown to me, I thought about Leonard and learning to give up struggle. The lightbulb turned on. I realized that surrendering to Divine Will, is just another dimension of releasing struggle. Since I have really (pretty much) mastered the release of struggle in my material life, I already know how it feels to let go of something. I know how to do this (as I mentioned in the last sentence of yesterday’s Journey). I just have to shift my focus, and instead of releasing material struggle, I need to release any resistance I have to surrendering to the Divine, the Flow, Life Itself, All that IS. I get it intuitively. In that instance, I suddenly understood, and it was as though I no longer had to think about it. Now, when I feel that questioning, that wondering about “what do I do, how do I do it?” I just stop…and release…naturally, intuitively. Just give it up.

Let me tell you, I felt it. I felt the release. I felt the shift. I felt something lift.

Although, I also had a moment of a forehead-slapping >DOH!< at the same time, which became a secondary realization: There are so many “lessons” that I have learned, and applied them to the material realm, as with the idea of letting go of struggle.  And all of a sudden, I realized >DOH!< I need to apply all of this to my spiritual learning. I mean, that’s obvious, right? But there are layers and levels here that become uncovered only when the layers or levels above it have been uncovered, and I uncovered a new layer.

For another example, when I read and contemplate the Guiding Thoughts, during rounds one or four, using “I”, which “I” does my mind think about? In other words, what is the self-concept that I am invoking in my mind and feeling-nature when I use the word “I”?  There is the “I” that identifies with the personality, the body, the memories, and life of this incarnation, and there is the “I” that is the Divine I. One is material, the other is spiritual—which one does my mind think about? I realized that (even at this point in my spiritual development, with all my awareness and understanding!) I still primarily think about “I” as this body, this personality, or this set of experiences of this lifetime.

But I also realized that with this new sight, I can shift this, too. Every time I think “I”, there will be a small awareness-mechanism, like a bell that goes off in my head, reminding me to have my self-concept (my “I” concept) focused on the Divine I, the higher-Self, Soul, the Holy Spirit, the I am that I AM (however it comes up at that moment). That is the real I. Remember.

There will come a point, when the Guiding Thoughts have served their purpose and are no longer necessary. Once I live fully as myself, in the Divine Self, learning how to do it is no longer necessary.

I wonder how many more layers there are…?

 

 

“The Big Bitter Dose”: Journey of Abundance 2.0 – Day 12

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Copyright Tam Black 2016 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Copyright Tam Black 2016
Designed for susanwithpearls.com

Guiding Thought

Choose now to expand your consciousness and open your heart to Divine Love’s flow within you. Realize your own Divine Presence. Know God as the Source and Fulfillment of all your good.

 

Sharing

I love, love, love Indian food — dal, curry, the chutneys, the spices—mmm, mmm, good! I tried for years and years to make Indian food at home, but it seemed so complicated, so many ingredients, so many steps. I had neither the cooking experience nor the patience to try to figure it out. So, I happily went to Indian restaurants.

Then I found the book The Indian Slow Cooker, by Anupy Singla (http://www.indianasapplepie.com/). Now I’m a pro at cooking Indian food.

Most of the time…

There are several recipes which I make regularly. They are standards in the household. I never screw them up.

…Almost never.

One dish I make is South Indian Lentil Soup. It has red lentils (masoor dal), coconut milk, and curry leaves. I have made this dish dozens of times perfectly.

…Until last week.

I put all the ingredients together, set the slow cooker on high, left for work to let the cooker perform its magic while I was away. When I came back from work, there was one final step: heat some onion, cumin seed, mustard seed, and curry leaves in a bit of oil to add them to the soup. Then, Viola! An amazing dinner was ready.

But that’s not what happened.

Sometimes, very rarely, I tweak these recipes. But I don’t know enough about the spices, proportions, etc., so generally speaking, I follow the recipe. With this particular recipe, though, since I had made it so many times, sometimes with no curry leaves, sometimes with curry leaf powder, sometimes with the fresh curry leaves, I was comfortable not having the fresh leaves (which is what the recipe actually calls for), and using the powder instead.

Boy was that a mistake!

I had no clue, really how much curry leaf powder to use, so I used about 1/8 of a teaspoon. That seems like a tiny amount, right?

Apparently it’s not.

I finished the onion and spices, put it in the soup, stirred it up and served it. When I took the first mouthful, I said, out loud to Tam, “OH, do not even try this. It sucks!”

It did too; it totally sucked. Apparently curry leaf powder is very potent, and 1/8 of a teaspoon turned the entire batch bitter as hell.

That’s no exaggeration. We were both totally disappointed because we’d been looking forward to this for a week. I haven’t yet brought myself to throwing it all away—it’s hard for me to throw food away. But tonight’s the night—2 quarts, in the garbage.

To redeem myself, the next night, I made chickpea curry, which was yummy.

Thank God!

Then, yesterday, I made the soup again. I even used the curry leaf powder again, but this time, just the tiniest pinch.

It was yummy!! Again, thank God!

When I tasted the soup, I could taste the curry leaves, really taste it, but in perfect balance with the other flavors. It was delightful and subtle, just the slightest hint of this bitter spice. It was like all the other times I had made this soup, I had never really tasted it (note what I said above, that sometimes I made the soup without the curry leaves, because… I couldn’t taste the difference).

Sometimes I need a big dose of something bitter in order to understand how it subtly blends with the other flavors. This is a metaphor for what is going on in my life right now. The big dose exposes me to just that ONE flavor, and then I am able to recognize it when it comes along more subtly.

Currently, the one big bitter flavor is what I mentioned on Day 09, “I’ve been at the point of giving up, totally. I am so tired. I’m tired of all this effort. I am tired of trying to figure it all out; tired of having to deal with wave after wave. Maybe the point of all this is to get to a point of total surrender.” I am experiencing things and situations that continue to challenge my surrender, continue to challenge my integrity, challenge me to remain True to my Self.

But I don’t feel like I am getting it.

And since I don’t feel like I am getting it, I am getting more of it– the big bitter dose.

The good news is I’ve made this soup before, perfectly. I can do it again. I have gotten this; I know this stuff; I know I can do it again, and I will.

“Booyah! In The Twinkling of an Eye!”: Journey of Abundance 2.0 – Day 11

susanwithpearls Being, Cause & Effect, Choices, Dignity, Enlightenment, Everything changes, Heart, Inspiration, Kindness Matters, Love, What happens here , , , , ,
Copyright Tam Black 2016 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Copyright Tam Black 2016
Designed for susanwithpearls.com

Welcome to Round 2!

Here we go! If you are new to the Journeys, please see this page, under the heading “Four Rounds”, for how things change slightly in this round.

 

Guiding Thought

Divine Love-Light is the Source of All. It is all good, all God. This Source is always seeking expression through you. Your awareness of your personal identity as this Source provides you with infinite fulfillment and prosperity.

 

Sharing

Sometimes it seems like I should be able to just change, like “in the twinkling of an eye”. Sometimes, I feel like I am so close! On the verge! A tiny miniscule step away from a complete turn-around into Divine Being-Doing-Having! I get it, I see it, I feel it…it’s right there… and then…it’s not quite there; I’m not quite there.

It’s true that I am changing, that I am changed, that I am more aware than I have been; I can see my life in new light, I can interact with patience and love and kindness more and more and more. I am constantly stepping into a “new” state of being, as I work with the contemplations.

As I step into each new state of being, it becomes natural: it’s just “who I am”. Each new level of awareness (for example of my personal identity as Source), becomes incorporated into my being. And, as you perhaps can understand…when you are “just being” or “just being yourself (or your Self)” you don’t really notice—it’s just who you are.

So what I end up noticing is what I am not yet. I could be the most kind, loving, Divinely present person around, but if I expect myself to be “more”, I am focused on the “more” not on the “where I’m at”.

Source is always seeking expression through you. When I stop thinking about what I am not-yet, and just be naturally, my awareness can shift from the future (from what I am not-yet), to the present (what I AM). When I am able to see myself now as I AM, in Truth, my personal identity as Source, then the Truth shines through; I AM my Self…in the twinkling of an eye.