2001-09-01-You Must Stand Tall

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Topic: You Must Stand Tall

Group: Costa Rica TeaM

Facilitators

Teacher: Alana, Devina

TR: S. Butterfield

Session

Lesson

Devina: You must stand tall, not to overwhelm, not to create a wall, but simply allow yourself to be reminded by your posture, the carrying of your body, of who you truly are. Yes, you give. Also, you receive. When you are able to lift yourself up from “I am such a giving soul.” When you stand tall, you give and receive. You can not receive God’s love is it is going to pour out. You receive God’s love into your heart, and then you give it away. Not letting it spill like so much extra milk.

When you stand tall you see clearly. You have no quarrel with this person. You have no need to quarrel with this person. You do need to speak clearly. No shilly shallying, as you say. No evasive….she sees what the artist does with pastels, using colors to make suggestions without clarity of line, of rubbing of colors to make shadows, not a staight line. Your friend may, possibly, look a bit like a minnow on the line, dancing, fluttering, flopping, flipping, this you need not try to alieviate. Your friend may try to give any number of explanations in response to your clarity of discussion. This of course is more difficult, for you are one who will listen. What you want to communicate is this: respect. The lesson and learning of respect.

This is one who would believe that he has mastered the art of quietude, stillness, and repose. But his need to inject himself into another’s privacy, or community, a result of his inner fears and doubts about himself, have not been mastered. I repeat, I will be with you. Has this been helpful? (David: It has.) Is there anything else you would have me say? (David: I feel very satisfied with what we have received this afternoon. The fact that you have promised to be with me is a source of strength. And of course I know Alana, Legion, Song, support me.

Dialogue

Devina; A host of helpers, yes?

David: A whole conspiracy!

Devina: A conspiracy of love.

David: I love what Alana said originally, everyone will receive this message. The master said that the kingdom of God will triumph on this planet.

Devina: Yes

T/R: She’s trying to say something about compassion….

Alana: Compassion does not require that you suffer. Suffering is a human desire. There is an attachment to suffering. The human mind, seeing the many possibilities, believes one should be his/hers, and not another. And then, the refusal to surrender becomes filled with anger, envy,….and suffering. A picture has been painted. Compassion welcomes all. But do not be too cavalier. You do not sacrifice yourself to compassion. You do not sacrifice another to compassion. Compassion, like the discipline of love, is a compassion of joy. Joy resides in the very center of true compassion. When you suffer, it is better to examine the method by which you arrived at your suffering. Not to complain. Not to demand for information, for answers, for missing pieces to a puzzle you already have in your hand. When you suffer, examine the method by which you released your joy in the name of compassion. You can not ignore your own needs, any more than you can ignore the needs of your fellow companions. This one would have you ignore your needs. This one would have you ignore the needs of your fellow companions. For his need is so very strong. You say you have no need to dis-invite him. You would place the burden of this need upon the others. And so, willingly carry the message to him from them. No, my friend, if the need is theirs, then they must express the dis-invitation. But if the need is theirs, is there no need in you?

Let us examine: What is your need? What truth must you express to your fellow human being, a truth not to change him, but a truth that expresses what is true about him now, and true about you now, and true about the situation? My friend, I do not want to take you by the hand and fill in all the details, but it is a great enough task for you to acknowledge the very teeny lack of respect you secreted away in the glow of your compassion with him. When you draw this little teeny lack of respect out in front between you, you will have an opportunity to allow him, perhaps, to reveal that little teeny lack of respect in him. Which lack of respect has created the discussion of dis-invitation to one who was welcomed. You see, the dis-invitation is not an edict coming down from Rome! This group would welcome. Dis-invitation, just as the invitation, was created by the two of you from the very beginning. Do you see? The discipline of love is a very strong task master with a scrutiny that misses not the little tiny dis respect here, the little tiny dis respect there. The discipline of love sees all. And speaks to it, the truth that it sees, and when the truth is genuinely clear, like the fine point of the razor, all suffering goes away and joy returns.

No I can not advise you to carry the edict from Rome, I can only remind you that the discipline of love demands clarity of thought, clarity of communication. It is out of discipline that spontaneous joy is real and can be trusted. Many spontaneous moments of what has been called pure love, “I feel your pain,” graciousness and welcome, comes up against the rocky shores simply because somewhere one and the other secreted away a tiny moment of disrespect, a little bit of disrespect here, a little bit of disrespect there. God’s love is pure. Man arrives and becomes God’s love through discipline. God’s love is a gift, freely given, to be given away, but each of you must discipline the body, the mind, the tongue, that you may manifest this love truly

Do you understand the invitation and disinvitation are one and the same and reside in the very moment of invitation? Already within that open hearted compassionate response to desire. Already the seeds of the disinvitation resided within the invitation.

Oliver: Are you saying in the moment of birth, death is filled in? Or are you saying that in this particular case, because I invited out of my open heart not considering others in the group, which I should have, therefore caused a lot of upheaval, and that because of this, in this one instance, the disinvitation was already included in my invitation?

Legion: Yes, the potential for suffering was there. My friend, I have heard your call. You do not understand why is this happening to you. Take this little bit and try to understand. To ignore the other is no different than to ignore the self. You are challenged either way. To rein in your desire, and to pay attention to the discipline, always respect, respect others, respect yourself. And when you see truth, speak it clearly. When you see one has spoken rudely, do not try to explain it away; say quite clearly, this is rude speaking. Does it matter who your mother was? Does it matter who your father was? Yes, all of these things matter in the development of the human being, but in the moment, my friend, is this rude speaking? Another example: if I have given you an instruction to strengthen your body….the tr is allowed to squirm now…if I give you the instruction, “strengthen your body,” and to day you slack off, do I come to you and say, “Hello my fellow brother, sister, beloved one! I have no quarrel with you. I have nothing but joy to share. I love you.” or do I say, “You did not follow my instruction, beloved.” And do I say this to be cruel? Let us say, that is the opposite of “Hello, I love you.” Do I say this to create shame? Let us say that is the opposite of “Hello, I love you, I share my joy.” Or do I say this simply because it is the truth. You did not follow my instruction. Then, without excuse, she has the option to examine the truth, and speak the truth as well.

“That is true, Legion, I did not follow your instruction. Oh it’s so hard! (Yes.) Oh I got distracted! (Yes. So, my beloved transmitter, you did not follow my instruction. Do you wish another?) Oh yes, Legion, help me! Guide me! Tell me what to do! (Good, my beloved. So, every morning I want you to practice your stillness, to take care of your body, to strengthen your body at least ten minutes a day.) Yes, Legion, I will.”

This, of course, my friend is an exercise in patience with our beloved. She has many reasons to avoid, to explain her lack of commitment to her body. I listen. And even from time to time in our discussions I point it out to her…see, you were walking that way, and suddenly you went this way…hmmm, is that familiar to you? a familiar pattern you say? She knows her patterns as well as I. She observes herself following those old and useless patterns. Useless, I say, in terms of accomplishing her goal, which is the discipline of love, which is the discipline of joy. I have said to her, and will say again, strengthen your body. You must strengthen your body to carry this great power of love. And so, she is loving here, she is loving there, but ever and always when Legion arrives he says, so my friend, did you follow my instruction. “Ah well, I was busy loving here, and I did so much love there, but no, I did not follow your instruction.” “Good, my friend. Do you want more?” Yes. “Good. Strengthen your body, at least ten minutes a day. Practice the stillness at least ten minutes a day.” “It looks rather simple minded,” she sometimes says. And life is so complicated. My friend, attend to your instruction. Strengthen your body. Practice the stillness. Respect your worthiness. Respect your intelligence, your powers of observation, and speak the truth. There can not be an invitation that hides away those little facets of disrespect and have that invitation remain whole, sustained lovingly with welcome. For that little bit of disrespect will return to bite you on the ass, as you say. There can not be trust where trust has been broken. You can not stand tall until the truth is spoken. I wish to acknowledge that the three of you survived your discomfort and spoke the truth and restored the trust between you. Do not become lackadaisical in these matters.

  • The transmitter is suffering some fatigue.

It is not always noticeable that to genuinely solve a little problem by the nature of learning required allows one to solve the greater problem. Arrogance, your beloved Devina suggested her wings needed to brush the dust off arrogance so that it could be seen. There is an arrogance so visible you have no difficulty recognizing it, but with me, my friends, as your beloved Sir David may be willing to testify, even the smallest arrogance, the slightest pride, will suffer the scrutiny of my discipline of love, for there is no room for the self-deception of arrogant pride in the discipline of love, which is the discipline of joy, which allows the pride of joy to stand tall. Thank you.

Oliver: Thank you, Legion. I have no more to ask. What I have heard and been taught has given me a lot to consider. Thank you for being with us. Thank you very much.

David: Yes, thank you.

Legion: And have you followed my instruction? (David: Which one, you have given me many.) Yes, the discipline of writing my discipline of love, which is the discipline of joy.

David: I take that to be rhetorical, because you know I have started and I have felt you help me. Yes?

Legion: Indeed.

David: Thank you for the help, by the way. There was a wonderful peace and ease that came over me with the last lesson. I felt I wrote it from the point of stillness, and I was conscious of you. As you know, I have been following your strengthening advice. I’d like to go to the beach, right now, if I had my druthers.

Legion: Yes, thank you. It gives me great pleasure to work with you. I will ask more.

Closing

David: Thank you. I’m feeling a little…I’m fatigued now…the work we’ve been doing this afternoon has been very intense. I’m feeling a little bad about that incident with P when I went with Devina and fell flat on my face. I feel a kind of naked shame for having failed so badly. This whole business that we’ve set ourselves on is difficult work, not tweedle dee and tweedle dum.

Legion: Yes, and perhaps you and this brother, Oliver, can support each other in cutting through the bull shit and speaking what is on your mind without hesitation or the need to allow bull shit to replace the discipline of love. Thank you.