Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Key Lesson: Actively at rest in the unseen space between "here" and "there"... between "now" and "then"... dwells a Timeless Realm that is "all" and "everywhere" at once; it cannot be seen with the eyes; it is beyond anything the mind can imagine; and yet... because this Kingdom resides in the heart, it can be realized in any moment when all three parts of oneself - body, mind, and heart - are gathered together in the silent light of higher self-awareness.
For Further Study
Our attention is precious. Our attention may be the most important thing that we own, and almost none of us own any of our own attention. Anybody can take it. A phone call can take it. The news can take it. Look in the mirror and it can be stolen. I'm looking in the mirror and I don't look anything like I'm supposed to look, and if I look in the mirror and I don't see what I like, where does my attention go? Does it go to, "Don't worry about this; you're 69 years old. You're not supposed to look that good," or does it go to, "Holy, mother of pearl, what happened to you, man? You better go buy something. You better go eat something. You better go take a drink. You better blame somebody… it's your parents that gave you bad genes!"? All of these things belong to our attention being where it's intended to be – which is present to the interruption produced by a mind reacting to life and resisting it – or a mind that is attentive to that nature that only knows itself through those reactions... and therein lies the great difference.
The reason that it's hard for us to have a quiet mind is because most of our parts – our mind, our heart, and our body – are in a war with each other. How many – in your mind – want to be a gentle, quiet person? "I'd like to be kind." My mind is thinking, "Be kind. Be kind. Be kind," and my emotions are reliving what somebody did to me this morning, and I'm still vibrating. So, my mind and my heart are in conflict. My body is retaining the tension from a meeting. I'm sitting here trying to be quiet and my mind is clinging fast to something that is producing an identity for me that I've carried everywhere I went today… because when I was tense and it gave me that strong identity and maybe a strong path to take, I knew who I was.
Something in us wants to be that kind of Moses, wants to be someone who leads ourselves out of the desert of a mind and a heart that don't know anything about what is true and good… so our parts fight with each other. Just the simplest example: how many of you decide that before you eat the three dozen cookies, you are going to have a carrot because that reconciles the issue? Yes or no? The body is going, "I want cookies. I want cookies. I want cookies." The mind goes, "Yeah but, don't do that." The mind goes, "Yeah, yeah, it's OK. Let's go eat carrots too." So, there is this struggle going on in our psychic system that we don't know about.
We are unconscious of the way in which these parts are not integrated, not working together for a single purpose. That single purpose is to be in relationship with the Divine so that we, as men and women, can be reflections of a kindness, a generosity, and a compassion that we share amongst each other instead of being in competition with each other because each of us wants to be Moses leading the tribe.
The task of these meditation exercises, as you'll see, is to slowly begin to help you first understand that you have your own attention. Now I know that some of you think, "Well, of course I do," but desire takes your attention and puts it on things. The way you know that your attention isn't yours when desire puts it on something is that you can't take it off what desire has put it on. You struggle then to try to reclaim yourself and don't understand that your attention has never belonged to you.
The beginning of this relationship where you discover a capacity to be the one who places your attention where you want it to creates a separation so that little by little, you start to understand, "I never knew that I had my own attention and that I don't have to think about what my mind is telling me I have to think about. I don't have to relive what happened yesterday just because the feeling in my body is still clinging to it, saying you need to pay attention to this."
I can gradually take my attention back because it is a gift of God. It is through our attention that we enter into relationship with what is holy, true, and good. Remember what I said? As goes my attention, so comes my experience. If I can keep my attention on this silence, on the movement, on any of these parts, I can begin to see how they're working, and slowly produce moments in my life where my mind, heart, and body are all doing the same thing – all wanting the same thing.
I cannot tell you any greater power there is in the Universe than when a man or a woman inwardly has brought their parts together so that then there is an alignment between the will that establishes that integration and the will of the Divine that needs that integration in us so that Its will can be enacted in Heaven as it is on Earth.
About Guy Finley: Guy is the author of 45 books and video/audio programs including his international bestseller “The Secret of Letting Go” which has been translated into 30 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide.
He is the founder and director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery located in Southern Oregon, with over 40,000 online newsletter subscribers. https://www.guyfinley.org
Through Life of Learning, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 30 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. Guy is a faculty member at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York and 1440 Multiversity in Scotts Valley, California. He is a regular expert contributor to Beliefnet, Insight Timer, Simple Habit, and many other popular spiritual sites.
Finley holds regular classes at Life of Learning including two free talks each week that are live-streamed https://www.guyfinley.org/lettinggo These classes are open to all. For more information about Guy Finley and Life of Learning Foundation visit www.guyfinley.org
