New Eyes

Heavenletter #916 Published on: April 24, 2003
God said:

You cannot take great strides and find fault at the same time. Which would you rather?

You may not feel that it is your choice to find fault or not to find it, but whose choice is it? Is it the choice of the environment? Is it the choice of the person you find fault with? He would rather that you found something else in him.

Is it the choice of your upbringing? Is your faultfinding something you just shrug your shoulders at? Is it inevitable that you will be displeased? Is that what you choose? Is that your stance?

I am not suggesting that you pretend. I am not suggesting that you push away or cover up what you find disagreeable. I am not suggesting that you close your eyes. I am trying to encourage you to see what else also is there which perhaps can take precedence.

When someone holds their hand up, you can see the fingers or you can see the space in between the fingers. You can be stopped short or look far. You can reverse the fine tuning of your sight and therefore your heart. Where has your emphasis of seeing been? Where do you choose to put it?

Have the intention to see what is worth seeing, and you will see more of it. It is like this: If you are looking for a certain street, you are more likely to find it than if you were not looking for it.

Unless you choose another street, it is likely that you will follow your same route. Obviously, unless you choose another street, it is unlikely that you will walk on it.

Choose your destination, and you will go there. You do not have to stay on the same street corner, waiting for others to give you a hand-out. You are not at the mercy of what comes by. Be not derelict in choosing what matters to you.

No one would prefer to be dismayed rather than overjoyed. Yet it may be that you prepare yourself for dismay more than joy.

Sometimes you believe it is smart to pick out the flaw, as if you are a stalker and you take delight in finding prey to pounce on.

Now stalk that which gives joy to your heart.

Predict your delight.

What would you like to find on your walk through today? Be on the outlook for it.

Instead of thinking what annoyance is going to come to you, or what a pain this or that is or will continue to be, set your sights differently. Look for what will add to your heart's wealth. You have had enough to detract from it.

Distract yourself. Set out on a different journey of discovery. Count and court the lovelinesses today.

When someone gives you a silver dollar that is tarnished, your heart can point out the silver just as well as the tarnish.

Put on different goggles.

Coins hold both heads and tails. All you have to do is turn a coin over to see the other side. When something unlovely seems to assault you, view it from another way.

What goodness and beauty have you been withholding from yourself? Must what has already been continue?

What you see is not up to anyone but you. The speck is in your own eye.

This is a wonderful thing to know, because now you can remove it.

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1 Heavenletter Haiku for

On November 21st, 2008 Alohalight... says:

1 Heavenletter Haiku for you

Hello Friends,

God said up to you
The speck is in your own eye
You can remove it

Love, Light and Aloha!

This is a great one you're

On November 22nd, 2008 Jochen (not verified) says:

This is a great one you're pointing out here, Karen. Thank you so much. What struck me most is the idea that in one and the same picture we can see very different things and ar free to see that which "is worth seeing".

When hands are held up to you,
don't just see fingers.
Today, see the spaces.

Wonderful insights

On March 10th, 2009 Chuck Gebh... says:

Jochen, I would add to your and Karen's lovely comments. It is a subtle thing. We hold intentions and these intentions change our vision. Our intentions are under our control, one of our points of individual power. As you point out, we see the same things differently when we come from different intentions. Greatly enjoying our dialogues.......Chuck

Chuck, let me use your

On March 10th, 2009 Jochen (not verified) says:

Chuck, let me use your comment to point out one of the things that make Heavenletters™ so special, in fact, incomparably precious for me.

For many years I have lived under the impression that my intentions don't count at all. When it dawned on me that this thought forms an intention in itself, I found myself in the odd situation of someone who feels absolutely unable to do something about his own intentions and who, if you look closely, doesn't realy know his intentions are his. From an intellectual point of view, they have to be his own, but they don't feel like that, they feel totally alien. It's a situation that makes you very unhappy (and some of us even psychotic). It's a situation you are definitely not going to change by some decision or act of will. But I don't want to go into this any further. Let's just say that conditioning can go very deep and can be cruelly self-protecting.

There are many teachings around today that tell you about this and usually go on suggesting you "simply" or "just" do this or that to overcome the problem of counterproductive intention. I have seen many of them, and they simply drove me crazy because, intelligent as they were sounding, I could not for the life of me do what they said. The hardened inner "NO" always won in the end.

At first I thought that Heavenletters too were teaching me to-dos. Until I found they didn't. All the suggestions are so soft, so open, so disarmingly gentle. I have never once heard an "or else!" It is always clear that if you have difficulties doing this or doing that, there will be something else you can try, always something else you can try, always something else you can at least look at and turn in your hands and heart, always a path, however stymied you may feel, always some crack you can seep through once you start agreeing and seeing that you are the water, the wind God says you are.

So, Chuck, hoping you can see that I'm not disagreeing with you, I want to point out that our lives have different aspects and are different in their main focus.Yes, we are powerful. But realizing that, really knowing it, can mean for some that they have to walk the path of (seeming) total powerlessness first.

Out of the ashes of powerlessness

On March 12th, 2009 Chuck Gebh... says:

I do not see anything in what you are saying, Jochen, as disagreeing with what I am saying. (If you did disagree, that is all good too, but here I think we totally agree.) We both struggle with the same or similar uncertainties and hold slightly different angles from which we approach them.

I am going to try to paraphrase what I take as the gist of what you are saying. I’m sure you will forgive any inaccuracy.

We come from similar backgrounds (or so I surmise). As you say it, we come from “a path of (seeming) total powerlessness.” This may be a bit of an overstatement, but at least a strong feeling of powerlessness. I think this is true, though, of most everyone. We were raised in what I would call a traditional worldview based on scientific materialism. The assumptions of this view are that the world can be analyzed and reduced down to the level of the most basic and fundamental particles and forces. It is assumed that everything can then be explained on the actions of these basic ingredients. Of course, even consciousness is seen in this view as an epiphenomenon of human neuronal function. We were taught to work hard in our studies and our physical labor. The promise was that through this effort we would be rewarded with material success and the accolades of society. One of the Heavenletters addresses this and characterized this worldview as providing very little true reward for an enormous amount of effort. Certainly in my experience I would agree with that assessment since true satisfaction and fulfillment does not arise from wealth nor honors, or at least the rewards are quite fleeting.

If I understand rightly what you are talking about when you describe the many modern teachings that tell us how to simply bypass counterproductive intentions, I have to agree that I struggle with these also. What I have in mind are teachings such as Napoleon Hill’s book and the popular movie “The Secret.” It is my observation that such approaches work for a few people but something in my mind, like yours, says “No!” to imagining and feeling a goal that we know doesn’t now exist.

I totally agree with you that the Heavenletters provide a worldview that is “special and incomparably precious.” This view of reality, and of our source of power, is much more sophisticated than anything I have read previously with the possible exception of certain passages in the New Testament of which the letters share much. This worldview, to me, turns our traditional assumptions on their head, describing the material world as illusion and a non-material realm (Heaven) as the true reality. By learning to apprehend this spiritual plane (listening to out heart), we learn the true meaning of what we experience on the physical plane.

As I’ve said in earlier comments, I also struggle with this viewpoint. I think the main reason I struggle is because it goes against much of what I have directly experienced as true in the past. It seems like we must be a little insane to give up as untrue what we have always known to be reliably accurate. Two things, though, encourage me to stay on this path and work toward this new awareness. One is the powerful, deep feeling of resonance I feel in my heart as I read the letters. The other is experiencing the results of applying what you have described as the “disarmingly gentle” suggestions the letters contain and feeling my confidence build as I feel my life changing for the better.

Discussions like this are yet another blessing…..Chuck

Great, Chuck!

On March 12th, 2009 Jochen (not verified) says:

I would like to add two things.

1) Disempowerment can go very far at the hands of people who are out to disempower, very far indeed. And medium-size powerlessness of the kind you are describing as part and parcel of the materialistic/scientific world view may be the hardest to deal with because it always stays somehow vague, always making you feel that perhaps the next and even much more sophisticated approach will finally yield the results you hoped for.

2) A little further down the road, I think, we will not even distinguish between "reality" and "illusion" any more. We will just see that matter is not at all what we have been thinking it was. We will know that matter is infinitely moldable. Discussions on "real" and "unreal" won't make much sense once we re-learn to fly.

Yes, discussions can be a blessing.
I bless you.

Jochen's provocative additions

On March 13th, 2009 Chuck Gebh... says:

Jochen, I find what you have to add is interesting and provocative to further explorations.

I agree that disempowerment can go very far in the hands of those who are out to disempower others. This is a good characterization of human history, the story of a few who disempower the many. We call it civilization. But, it seems to me, that once we are aware of the Truth about who we are, we realize that our empowerment or our disempowerment becomes a matter of our choice. Once we break free of the spell imposed by the story we have traditionally told about ourselves, we are free to choose. Our awareness empowers us and simultaneously prevents others from continuing to cut off our access to our natural abilities and spiritual heritage.

You also mention the powerlessness that is a natural result of the materialistic/scientific worldview. The logic can be quite seductive. Science and technology have been so marvelously successful in solving so many problems that it does seem that it is only a matter of time before any problem we can identify will be solved under this same paradigm. Through most of my life I have completely bought into this set of assumptions, especially the implicit, unstated belief that human intellect and reasoning can answer any question we choose to ask. The Heavenletters, though, propose what is for me a new and revolutionary concept that is potent in its implications. God speaks of certain observations that for human beings (at least at our stage of awareness) are “unfathomable” and are topics that we are totally incapable of understanding. I see this concept as powerfully freeing and emancipating. We are potentially freed from the compulsion to continually focus on and study the past, freeing us from looking for laws, rules and understandings that will allow us to accurately plan for and anticipate the future. If much of what is truly important about our experiences are unfathomable by our logic, we are free to react to experience in the present as it occurs, since we know that the past frameworks used for viewing what is occurring now are irrelevant to what is happening in the present. I can’t say that I am completely ready to accept these assertions at this point, but I will give them careful consideration.

The last point you raise seems to me to be the toughest (not that any of these are a breeze). You mention “reality” and “illusion” and I must confess to having used these terms without having a very solid idea of what they mean. The usual way we use these terms in our day to day lives seems pretty straight forward. We refer to an illusion as a mistaken impression that is not born out and supported by a careful examination of the event in question. This all pre-supposes, of course, that an independent external reality exists that anyone in the right location at the right time can verify (as we do when we repeat scientific experiments, for example). The Heavenletters, though, seem to use somewhat different meanings for these terms (reality and illusion) which I find unclear. There seems to be two different ways that you can view these two terms as you read the various letters. I will take my best shot at describing these two possibilities in what follows.

The first interpretation is that the word “real” describes eternal states of being that transcend the physical, whereas “illusion” is applied to those things of the world that are temporary and constantly changing. The illusory physical objects and events are composed of groupings of particles (such as our physical body) that are temporary and constantly evolving in time. Since all such physical groupings are temporary they are time dependent, and since time is not real (as pointed out numerous times in the letters), such temporary groupings are illusion. By this interpretation, only the spiritual, heavenly aspects of the universe are real.

An alternative way of viewing these terms as used in the letters, could be that what is called illusion does not refer to the material objects or events, but rather it refers to the meaning and significance we ascribe to what we perceive. For example, say we hear a report of an elderly woman being beaten and robbed by a thief who invaded her home. We react in anger and disgust -- wanting to see the thief caught and punished, wanting “justice” to be administered. If we accept the premise of the Heavenletters, that everything that happens in the world is purposeful and helps to further the Divine Plan, our perception that an “evil” occurrence has taken place is an illusion. It is our misunderstanding about what is true and important in life that produces our negative emotional reactions, and these are the illusion.

Both of these meanings seem to me to apply in various letters. I continue to watch out for these terms as I read new letters trying to find a clear (to me) statement of their meaning. I would be interested in any reflections you might offer about these ideas. Hopefully, I haven’t made you tired of my rambling on. With great appreciation for your insights and generosity……..Chuck

A disempowering civilization

On March 13th, 2009 theophil says:

Dear Chuck,

with due respect - even if we take several different explanations and declarations of civilization - "civilization is" not "the story of a few who disempower the many". Yes, there are eminent traits of this in the history of civilizations. Yet, as in every occurrences we are used to look at, there is much, much more love involved in any process or events or acts during the evolvement of so-called civilizations than blurs and lackings. When our perspective is to see imperfectness, we will see it. Perception begins with perspective.

And, by the way, what we or you are discussing here is perception, and - perception is not the whole thing.

We "cannot take great strides and find fault at the same time" - this is the first sentence of the Heavenletter from above.

Theophil

Dear Chuck,

On March 13th, 2009 Jochen (not verified) says:

I had the idea of using the "add new comment" function so no one can accuse us of writing comments that are long and thin. This way they'll be short and compact. Ingenious, huh.

I love everything you write. And I love to see how two people who are as different as you and I can still enjoy a conversation. Or perhaps I'm just older but the same otherwise. I noticed that, over the years, what I have to say tends to get more and more personal and direct. I know I can trust my intellect, and I find it gives me pleasure to venture beyond it, to say things simply because I feel them, not caring so much whether they are intellectually watertight or not. I'm finding more and more that there are things that are emotionally and spiritually watertight and can be stated in very simple terms and turn out to be intellectually satisfying as well for me.

What you said about "choice" is accurate, of course. And yet I almost hate the word. It's a trauma for me. What if you're not dumb or anything but still find yourself unable to choose more wisely? For me, there is a crucially important ingredient missing in the whole New-Age discourse on choosing and choice, and it is love and true understanding. I'm not accusing you of New-Age talk, but I will always question a sentence like this one: "... once we are aware of the Truth about who we are, we realize that our empowerment or our disempowerment becomes a matter of our choice." No doubt, this is so. But when are we aware of that Truth? When we've heard about it? When we've thought about it? When we've deeply meditated about it for a couple of decades? You know the answer, of course.

In short, to anything anyone says about "choice" (or whatever), even God in Heavenletters, if it's not my experience, I will always say, "No, that's not been my experience. Please note that I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm only trying to avoid talking myself into believing I'm believing things I'm not actually believing." I have done that and it hurts. I see others doing it, and it probably hurts them as well. So if I say, "Sorry, that's not been my experience", perhaps others who are in a similar situation get the idea of simply staying true to their heart.

And about paradigms. I'm not inclined to discuss them very much any more. Once you start feeling the wind blowing through you, once you start getting glimpses of how you and everything else isn't there the way you thought it was, then real and unreal start blending into each other as in a fairy tale. Reality is a hologram. Insubstantial but totally real. The man in your dream stubbing his toe on the leg of a table and going "Ouch!" is the same as your "really" hurting stubbed toe out here in so-called waking reality. And the past? There is no past. All your memories arise presently. There is no "real" past behind them. There is no "real" past behind your old photos. They arise presently. And so on.

Yes, I love everything you write, dear Chuck. There is something refreshing about it. The years are making me more and more nonchalant about many of these things, but you don't take my words as being arrogant, do you?

What to do with a trauma of choice?

On March 14th, 2009 theophil says:

Dear Jochen,

perhaps the following clarification by God is useful (HL #935).

"You have free choice. This does not mean you have everything the way you want when you want, but free will has greater meaning than you have given it. Your will is free. It costs nothing. You give up nothing to choose differently. What is your will? What are you choosing over something else?"

Theophil

Yes, very good, Theophil,

On March 14th, 2009 Jochen (not verified) says:

Yes, very good, Theophil, thank you so much. I recognize this quotation as something I have read before, and of course there are many similar ones. I say to God, "I don't find that freedom in myself and will not pretend I have it nor even that I believe I have it. But Your words are so very beautiful. Their beauty, not their content so much, is what I understand, I feel it with my whole being the way I feel music that is great and true. The beauty of Your words is what convinces me that they must be true even if I can't find that truth in myself yet. I believe You without believing You, I trust You without trusting You. If Your words reverberate within, it very likely means You are there, within. Just as the music is. If I find myself unable to exercise the freedom You are speaking of to make the choices You are speaking of, You will." Reading the tea leaves as sweet and precious George does, I might surmise that this is about letting go and letting God. Or perhaps I'm just lazy and irresponsible.

I wrote more about this a couple of days ago, just for myself. It feels a little strang to direct someone else there, but if you are interested it's here:

http://www.heavenletters.org/greater-than-the-greatest-thought.html#comm...

I love everything that is

On March 14th, 2009 Gloria Wen... says:

I love everything that is written here on this forum. I love what Chuck says. I love what you say. I love what Theophil says. All just wonderful, true -- perfect.

Jochen, I wonder if you are saying you want to be authentic.

I know I can be bothered when someone says the right words, perhaps quoting from a beautiful source. The words are perfect. They are the very right words to say. And yet, sometimes, I feel just that the person is quoting but not living the quote. Does this have anything to do with what you are saying?

Yes, Querida, I guess that

On March 14th, 2009 Jochen (not verified) says:

Yes, Querida, I guess that is what I'm saying in so many words. Or perhaps those many words only bear witness to the fact that being authentic is not and end in itself for me. All barriers falling when we look in each others' eyes and touch each others' hearts, that's the vision behind wanting to be authentic.

The assistance of good friends

On March 14th, 2009 Chuck Gebh... says:

Theophil and Jochen, thank you so much for responding to what I have written. You both have given me more than you know. Theophil, your words are respectful while loving and helpful. Jochen, of all that I have read that you have written, I have never known you to be arrogant.

When I wrote my comment about civilization, it was careless, a mistaken over-generalization and an example of an unattractive tendency of mine (that I am working on). Theophil, yesterday, I happened across Heavenletter # 940 and it is in total agreement with your comment: "All negativity is untrue. An element is missing in any denouncement of anyone or anything." My comment about civilization was clearly a denouncement.

Jochen, I, too, love everything that you write, you have such a penetrating vision that sees right to the heart of issues. You rightly ask me: "But when are we aware of the Truth?" This is an excellent question and points to the fallacy that lies within the statement I made about choices and being aware of Truth. A better way to frame it may be that becoming aware of Truth is the process we are engaged in (I see my error in implying that it is an all or none issue). But I still believe we always have choices and the process involves trying to be more conscious of our choices as we make them. Let's leave the discussion of what is real and unreal to another day. Maybe I will come to Germany some time and we can have a nice long discussion over a cold beer.

This is such a wonderful dialogue, like cool siops of water after being lost in a desert. I feel like I have stumbled a bit, and two friends helped me stand back up and dusted me off, to continue my journey with an even more confident stride............Chuck

civilization

On March 14th, 2009 Jochen (not verified) says:

Chuck, it's a wonderful thing to be able to acknowledge that someone else, in this case Theophil, is absolutely right. He is, but that doesn't automatically make your over-generalization "an example of an unattractive tendency". I bet that what you said about civilization comes from some experiential background and contains something important and valuable for you. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. It's one thing to know that I want to choose my words mindfully and that I long to leave judgment behind; it's another thing to be aware of the fact that a lot, a lot still remains to be accomplished for civilization to be truly civilized.

I happily and laughingly agree to "leave the discussion of what is real and unreal to another day." Whatever we need to talk about will come up again anyway. For now, let's read this Heavenletter again. It is marvelous.

What a most beautiful

On March 14th, 2009 Berit says:

What a most beautiful Heavenletter and what a most vital topic it treats !!!

What you see is not up to anyone but you. The speck is in your own eye.

This is a wonderful thing to know, because now you can remove it.

Indeed, what a wonderful thing to know !
Much much love to all wonderful Angels who have posted here !! ♥
Berit

 

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