In the last post we briefly discussed the need for having faith in our lives. We read in the gospel that Jesus emphasized that unless we have faith in the Father (Self) we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
The father of a boy who was possessed by unclean spirits asked Jesus: ‘But if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us’.
Jesus replied: ‘IF I can? Everything is possible for one who has Faith!’
The father cried out at once: ‘I have faith. Help me when I falter.’
If we have faith, it never fails; however, gradually we begin to ‘develop faith’, but because sometimes we revert to the use of our memories and intellect, we always fail in our faith.
We need to understand what Jesus taught us about faith.
Faith is not something that we can read about, and use the intellect to decide what we should do to practice having faith. The mind does not know the meaning of faith, and in the mind there is no memory or experience of having faith.
Faith is not an objective experience, something we can relive through our memory. Faith does not belong to the world that bases all knowledge on the five senses.
Because faith has its seat in Self, it is impossible for you to objectivly have any understanding of faith. You can never know Self, but only be Self, so you can never know faith. You are already love, peace and bliss, and that includes faith, and you cannot know what you already are. Faith is the expression of the perfection of Self.
When you turn your consciousness inwardly you know that you are more than the mind and body. Here you enter a state that is often called ‘silence’. However, this word ‘silence’ is not a correct description of what is actualy being experienced.
Beyond the limitation of the mind, body and personality is limitless consciousness and pure awareness When you clear the mind of all thoughts and attitudes you realize that your body only exists as a temporary object in consciousness. Following the end of the body’s existence, all that remains is pure consciousness and awareness, which is the I AM that I A M – the Self.
In this state there is only the Light of the Absolute Self, which is experienced as Love, Peace and Joy, as well as the oneness of all consciousness. Faith is the knowledge that everything in Self is perfect, and when we trust and surrender to Faith, all things in heaven and earth are possible.
Silence is not a state of mind, but quite the opposite, because it is pure awareness, where we know that we are all consciousness.
How does awareness manifest in Consciousness? Without awareness there is no manifestation, externally or internally. All objects appear in consciousness due to the Light of Awareness being reflected on objects. When an object is reflected in consciousness the form reflects its nature, and the Absolute Self becomes aware of its own nature.
To understand this we have to know how objects enter the manifestation. For anything to exist or manifest it has to be. Within Being all objects that manifest are reflections out of the totality of the Eternal Absolute Self.
Without Being, the Eternal Absolute Self is pure consciousness unaware of its own nature, so Being is a mirror of Light where the Eternal Self perceives its own nature. It is only through Being outwardly manifesting the reflections of the Eternal nature of the Absolute, that the Absolute becomes aware of itself.
Objects, such as the human body, point the way to self awareness. Working through the understanding that we are not the body, we come to the awareness of what we already are, and that is the pure consciousness and awareness that I AM.
The body should show the way in consciousness of what we are. This does not occur because we have limited our consciousness by identification with the body where we become the object rather than the perception through the object.
The body may be strong or weak, healthy or ill at ease; however, while the body maintains the flow of the vital force it continues to reflect the potential for the awareness of what I AM.
The body has a limited manifestation in consciousness, and like all objects will eventually cease to exist. Unless we actually understand what is meant here through inner knowledge, and not intellectually in the mind, we will never become free to be the truth and realization of what we are and what we will always be.
The body has never been perfect because nothing in the outer manifestation can be perfect. All objects are only reflections in Being. The body was born and nurtured by the pure consciousness in the womb. At the time of birth, the body has no consciousness or awareness that it exists. Everything in the outer manifestation seeks to exist and be, and it is through this desire to be that the personal ‘I’ arises out of the light of pure awareness.
As we develop faith by trusting our inner urgings and surrender all to our inner Self, all our insecurities, fears and suffering vanish. Initially you suddenly realize that these old problems no longer appear in your mind. Actually they never existed but were only an illusion of the mind, an illusion we thought was a reality.
Once you begin to see that you do not have the power to change anything, that you are ignorant, insecure and live in fear of the future, you have to give all this suffering to the Self within; and when you have faith there is nothing outwardly left to impede your oneness in Light. Is not this what we read in the Gospel, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’?
The whole inner movement in Light is one of becoming open to awareness, the pure awareness of Self. You do not become aware, because it is the Self that is awareness, and the Self becomes aware of Itself through your consciousness.
We think that, through our desires and actions, we are moving forward in some direction towards Self. There is no movement because Self is drawing our consciousness toward Itself, and experiences Its own nature through the awareness that it is the I AM that I AM.
You cannot do anything, and whatever you do to seek union and oneness with Self only takes you further away from what you are seeking.
All you have to do is nothing, be nothing, and just be. Then you have true humility. Then the body mind becomes quiet and the personal ‘I’ is reabsorbed into the pure awareness of Self.
Stop desiring and doing; realize that you are nothing; then experience the sublime, and just Be – the pure awareness of Self.