Dear Ken,

If I knew how to copy your posting and write inbetween lines as I can do in emails, I would have a lot to comment on in what you have written.

Everything you wrote rings the bell of Truth.

I will just pick out a few lines I especially like, this first line, for instance:

Fully living in this life stream is only dynamic, only fresh, when we allow the process of change to unfold without grasping for what is no longer present.

This is what God is saying all the time, and you express it in a way that an audience that may not be especially spiritually focussed can assimilate it.

The ego's fear of death often is the source of this resistance to moving on. It imagines that letting go of the past would mean death to it.

Oh, that ego! What a relationship we have with it!

This following paragraph is dynamite, Ken:

In truth the egoic mind can be shown the way to acceptance of this reality most simply. In a pragmatically hierarchical process we can ask ourselves how we know what we know. Using the body as an example, how do we know we have an arm? Because something beyond the arm recognizes that it is there. How do we know we have emotions? Because something beyond emotions recognizes that they exist within us. Then, how do we know that we have an egoic mind? Because there is something greater, something beyond the mind, that recognizes the minds existence. And, that ‘something greater’ is Consciousness itself.

And finally:

As the mind relaxes, new ways of perceiving life and living become apparent.

I can see As the Mind Relaxes being the name of a spiritual soap opera, Ken! That's a catchy phrase. I never thought before of the mind relaxing. I want to think about it more.

Thank you for posting this article. I look forward to reading more of what you write, and I would love to see how you respond to the other writings on this forum.

God bless you, Ken.

With love, Gloria

Hi.

I'm John.
Like Wow.
Ego.
Big subject, no?
How does personality relate to ego?
How does Soul fit in?

What's the relationship to self?
Is it different from Self?
I know I am me.

Atma Jiva Ahem.

Who's that guy you mentioned?
Your Guru?

Johnny

As Stefan asked for relationship with one self
this message fits in - in my opinion
love laugh to ((((all))))

Relationships - True Love and the Transcendence of Duality
by Kim Eng

source Eckhart Teachings

During my travels, one of the most frequently asked question is "What is it
like to be in relationship with an enlightened being?" Why this question?
Perhaps they have the idea or image of an ideal relationship, and want to
know more about it. Perhaps their mind wants to project itself to a future
time when they, too, will be in an ideal relationship and find themselves
through it.

What is it like to be in relationship with an enlightened being?

As long as I have the idea in my head "I have a relationship" or "I am in a
relationship," no matter with whom, I suffer. This I have learnt.

With the concept of "relationship" come expectations, memories of past
relationships, and further personally and culturally conditioned mental
concepts of what a "relationship" should be like. Then I would try to make
reality conform to these concepts. And it never does. And again I suffer.
The fact of the matter is: there are no relationships. There is only the
present moment, and in the moment there is only relating.

How we relate, or rather how well we love, depends on how empty we are of
ideas, concepts, expectations.

Recently, I asked Eckhart to say a few words on the ego's search for "love
relationships." Our conversation quickly went deeper to touch upon some of
the most profound aspects of human existence. Here's what he said:

ET: What is conventionally called "love" is an ego strategy to avoid
surrender. You are looking to someone to give you that which can only come
to you in the state of surrender. The ego uses that person as a substitute
to avoid having to surrender. The Spanish language is the most honest in
this respect. It uses the same verb, te quiero, for "I love you" and "I
want you." To the ego, loving and wanting are the same, whereas true love
has no wanting in it, no desire to possess or for your partner to change.
The ego singles someone out and makes them special. It uses that person to
cover up the constant underlying feeling of discontent, of "not enough," of
anger and hate, which are closely related. These are facets of an
underlying deep seated feeling in human beings that is inseparable from the
egoic state.

When the ego singles something out and says "I love" this or that, it's an
unconscious attempt to cover up or remove the deep-seated feelings that
always accompany the ego: the discontent, the unhappiness, the sense of
insufficiency that is so familiar. For a little while, the illusion
actually works. Then inevitably, at some point, the person you singled out,
or made special in your eyes, fails to function as a cover up for your
pain, hate, discontent or unhappiness which all have their origin in that
sense of insufficiency and incompleteness. Then, out comes the feeling that
was covered up, and it gets projected onto the person that had been singled
out and made special - who you thought would ultimately "save you."
Suddenly love turns to hate. The ego doesn't realize that the hatred is a
projection of the universal pain that you feel inside. The ego believes
that this person is causing the pain. It doesn't realize that the pain is
the universal feeling of not being connected with the deeper level of your
being - not being at one with yourself.

The object of love is interchangeable, as interchangeable as the object of
egoic wanting. Some people go through many relationships. They fall in love
and out of love many times. They love a person for a while until it doesn't
work anymore, because no person can permanently cover up that pain.

Only surrender can give you what you were looking for in the object of your
love. The ego says surrender is not necessary because I love this person.
It's an unconscious process of course. The moment you accept completely
what is, something inside you emerges that had been covered up by egoic
wanting. It is an innate, indwelling peace, stillness, aliveness. It is the
unconditioned, who you are in your essence. It is what you had been looking
for in the love object. It is yourself. When that happens, a completely
different kind of love is present which is not subject to love / hate. It
doesn't single out one thing or person as special. It's absurd to even use
the same word for it. Now it can happen that even in a normal love / hate
relationship, occasionally, you enter the state of surrender. Temporarily,
briefly, it happens: you experience a deeper universal love and a complete
acceptance that can sometimes shine through, even in an otherwise egoic
relationship. If surrender is not sustained, however, it gets covered up
again with the old egoic patterns. So, I'm not saying that the deeper, true
love cannot be present occasionally, even in a normal love / hate
relationship. But it is rare and usually short-lived.

Whenever you accept what is, something deeper emerges then what is. So, you
can be trapped in the most painful dilemma, external or internal, the most
painful feelings or situation, and the moment you accept what is, you go
beyond it, you transcend it. Even if you feel hatred, the moment you accept
that this is what you feel, you transcend it. It may still be there, but
suddenly you are at a deeper place where it doesn't matter that much
anymore.

The entire phenomenal universe exists because of the tension between the
opposites. Hot and cold, growth and decay, gain and loss, success and
failure, the polarities that are part of existence, and of course part of
every relationship.

KE: Then it's correct to say, we can never get rid of the polarities?

ET: We cannot get rid of polarities on the level of form. However, you can
transcend the polarities through surrender. You are then in touch with a
deeper place within yourself where, as it were, the polarities no longer
exist. They continue to exist on the outer level. However, even there,
something changes in the way in which the polarities manifest in your life
when you are in a state of acceptance or surrender. The polarities manifest
in a more benign and gentle way.

The more unconscious you are, the more you are identified with form. The
essence of unconsciousness is this: identification with form, whether it is
an external form (a situation, place, event or experience), a thought form
or an emotion. The more attached to form, the more unsurrendered you are,
and the more extreme, violent or harsh your experience of the polarities
becomes. There are people on this planet who live virtually in hell and on
the same planet there are others who live a relatively peaceful life. The
ones who are at peace inside will still experience the polarities, but in a
much more benign way, not the extreme way in which many humans still
experience them. So, the way in which the polarities are experienced does
change. The polarities themselves cannot be removed, but one could say, the
whole universe becomes somewhat more benevolent. It's no longer so
threatening. The world is no longer perceived as hostile, which is how the
ego perceives it.

KE: If awakening or living a life in an awakened state does not change the
natural order of things, duality, the tension between the opposites, what
does living a life in the awakened state do? Does it affect the world, or
only one's subjective experience of the world?

ET: When you live in surrender, something comes through you into the world
of duality that is not of this world.

KE: Does that actually change the outer world?

ET: Internal and external are ultimately one. When you no longer perceive
the world as hostile, there is no more fear, and when there is no more
fear, you think, speak and act differently. Love and compassion arise, and
they affect the world. Even if you find yourself in a conflict situation,
there is an outflow of peace into the polarities. So then, something does
change. There are some teachers or teachings that say, nothing changes.
That is not the case. Something very important does change. That which is
beyond form shines through the form, the eternal shines through the form
into this world of form.

KE: Is it right to say that it is your lack of "reaction against," your
acceptance of the opposites of this world, that brings about changes in the
way the opposites manifest?

ET: Yes. The opposites continue to happen, but they are not fueled by you
anymore. What you said is a very important point: the "lack of reaction"
means that the polarities are not fueled. This means, you often experience
a collapse of the polarities, such as in conflict situations. No person, no
situation is made into an "enemy."

KE: So, the opposites, instead of becoming strengthened, become weakened.
And perhaps this is how they begin to dissolve.

ET: That's right. Living in that way is the beginning of the end of the
world

Dear Gloria - and dear all

you asked: "If I knew how to copy your posting and write inbetween lines as I can do in emails, I would have a lot to comment on in what you have written."

may I answer:

if you copy the written text in the message

then paste it in the white box, where you always write your replies

and now you can write your text with a different colour in the between lines where ever you want to comment on.

blessings

Thank you, thank you, dear Veronika.

I see some people copy and it comes out in a box sort of. Do you know what I mean?

I see in a task bar above the word Quote. Quote:

Let me practice here and see what happens here.

It worked! You made me brave enough to try it! Thanks, kid!

With love and blessings,

Gloria

Hi.

How would you know if you were in a relationship with an enlightened person? Do you think you would know it? I think you might feel joy, but as your ability to surrender depends on you, not him; you might not have that feeling of total acceptance, because of your own projected negativities and the dualities you experience, anything but constant and total complete love all the time, the god knowingness part of you who you are would form a part of your unconscious fate, in my opinion. Get it?

Maybe one day, you'll see a stone on the ground while you are out taking a walk. You see it shining like in the sun and it attracts you. So, you pick it up. You look at it. You smile.

The thing is, because you missed it, you didn't know it was really God hiding himself as that stone, and you toss it away.

It's really not like you missed your chance though.
There are a lot of stones out there.
Even though there is only one God.

When the time comes to really meet God?
He won't be a rock, I bet.
You'll think He's You.

I guess.
For starters.

Green Eggs and Ham