Profundities: Ending Aging!
How To Stop Aging: The first of these profundities is about stopping aging or Anti-Aging and how you and everyone else can stop this insane process by claiming your true birthright as a Eternal Child of God! While Raj Christ Jesus speaks to this topic many times throughout his years of teaching with us...through Paul Tuttle, He spoke at length about this at a Gathering, June 1. 1997.
To listen to the audio of Gathering, simply click the start button on the below audio... it's the first question asked, so he gets right into answering the question about aging. Also, as you will see below, we have posted the whole transcript. If you would like to download a pdf version of this, chick here.
How To Stop Aging: The first of these profundities is about stopping aging or Anti-Aging and how you and everyone else can stop this insane process by claiming your true birthright as a Eternal Child of God! While Raj Christ Jesus speaks to this topic many times throughout his years of teaching with us...through Paul Tuttle, He spoke at length about this at a Gathering, June 1. 1997.
To listen to the audio of Gathering, simply click the start button on the below audio... it's the first question asked, so he gets right into answering the question about aging. Also, as you will see below, we have posted the whole transcript. If you would like to download a pdf version of this, chick here.
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Christ Jesus Gathering, Kingston, WA, June 1st, 1997:
Christ Jesus Gathering, Kingston, WA, June 1st, 1997:
Raj Gathering In Kingston, WA, June 1, 1997
By: Christ Jesus (endearingly called Raj)
RAJ: Good afternoon.
QUESTION: (All) Good afternoon.
RAJ: Welcome. Who has a question or a comment?
QUESTION: I would like you to talk to me about aging. Because I have the fact that there are a lot of things about aging that are assumed as illnesses, and that possibly just really are illegitimate too. I don’t know if I’m making any sense. I just would like to know what to expect and what I should and how I should think about it.
RAJ ANSWER: Well, first of all it’s helpful to understand what the source of the concept of aging is. The source of the idea of aging is the idea that you were born, that you had a beginning a certain number of years ago in what you call this life experience. Growing, coming to full potential, reaching a peak and then beginning to age are all the result of the idea that you began at birth or at conception. That your existence is a manifestation of a physical event called birth and a physical body—that is, your identity, you see.
To overcome aging, or to become free of the so-called effects of aging—which ultimately means to become free of death—is to become free of the belief in birth, the belief that you had a beginning, and the belief that your body had a beginning apart from the reality of God’s Creation in this thing that is called a physical Universe, you see, as though your body is temporary for your enjoyment and suffering in this lifetime on this Earth.
Now I’ve talked at some length about all of these things before, but it’s absolutely essential for you to understand—all of you—that the idea of birth is a false interpretation of what I will call a point in your eternal existing. You were fully identified—meaning having that which identified you, a body—before you were born. From the moment God conceived of you, you have always had that which identifies you, which you call a body. Which means you have always been identified and you have always existed. And there is no alternative to that for you, for any of you.
You and that which identifies you are really one, they’re really inseparable. You and that which identifies you are therefore at this instant eternal, whether you see it—yourself and your body—as growing, aging, potentially dying.
Again, it must be very clear and you must dare to let it be very clear in your mind that the ultimate of the reality of you is going on at this moment relative to you as you currently perceive yourself. It is not something to be achieved in the future. It’s something to be allowed into your conscious awareness now, or at any moment that you decide to let it in. The ultimate of God is what is sitting right there.
Why do you see the effects of age? First of all because you think there was a beginning. And in the frame of reference you are in, which is a frame of reference of opposites, beginning means ending. They seem to be inseparable like heads and tails, top and bottom. It isn’t true. It isn’t what God is being right there, right now.
Now, you get a lot of feedback from your world—friends, parents—who seem to be inevitably going through an aging process, which really means a process of deterioration. You watch the commercials on the TV. And you watch the programs where your physicians are doing the best they can to explain this process of deterioration and try to ameliorate it through manipulation of one sort or another. And so you become further convinced that the most you can expect is to grow old gracefully—die gracefully. But die you must, because everyone has, except one or two or three or four. And of course, rather than that being the rule you think that’s the exception and it doesn’t apply to you.
Why do you think I share with you the things I share with you—all of you? So that you might be inspired out of these mindsets that you treat as though they are facts, as though they are absolutes. To inspire you to look in the mirror and not wonder “what can I expect as I age,” but rather, “what more of the presence of what God is being right now, right here is available to me to see? What more of the presence of God can I see in the reflection in the mirror? What more of the undeniable perfection of my being is available for me to experience?” You see?
Tell me, how many of you do look in the mirror to see if there’s a new gray hair, or a new fine line? And how many of you wish for a few fine lines or more so that you might get a little respect?
If I told you what to expect in terms of aging, then you would be wise to get up and leave and never come back to hear another word I would have to say.
When you look in the mirror, instead of being curious about how much older you’re getting, I encourage you to say: “I forgive myself for not seeing the ultimate of what God is being right here in what is reflected in the mirror. And because it is my Birthright to be experiencing it, I desire to experience it. And I ask for help in seeing what is really here.” And then just as when you are listening for guidance and you express a desire, then shut up and watch. Be attentive for the inspiration that will change your perception. When your perception changes because you’ve let yourself be infilled with the truer perception of what you are, everyone else will see your truer perception as well.
Is it reasonable to expect wrinkles to go away? Is it reasonable to expect sagging muscles to stop sagging? Is it reasonable to expect what you would call regeneration? ABSOLUTELY IT IS! And anything less means that you have simply succumbed to your beliefs about aging and the worlds beliefs about aging.
Slowly but surely everyone kills themselves. Everyone slowly commits suicide by withdrawing their interest in life, by squelching new ideas, by squelching—although I don’t like this word, we’re going to use it—by squelching new goals, because you say, “I don’t really have enough time to achieve those goals,” and so you begin backing out of being alive. That means you begin to go against the grain—the very essence of your being—because you are resisting being. And when you resist and create a block to the flow of the energy of life that is the substance of your being, you begin to see the effects of it.
When you attempt to squelch the power of the presence of God in you by saying, “I can’t do that, maybe if I were younger I would attempt it, but I’m not young and I can’t do it,” when you attempt to sit on the power of the presence of God you’re in a state of self-denial, you’re in a state of lack of self-appreciation. And you know what you do? You use your body to defend yourself against the power of the presence of God that is what you are the presence of—and you hurt, here or there, or here, or in your joints, or somewhere else because you resist with your body. You resist everything with your body. It’s the only thing you think you have that has enough presence to be a defense against whatever you feel a need to be defended against.
So you really need to become conscientious about this. You need to become conscientious about being open to the influx of the inspiration that regenerates, and let it in. You need to use the mute button on your TV. And you need to become devoted to the goal, the intent to see the presence of God in all of His/Her glory right there where you are more and more fully each day. And if you don’t see it more and more fully each day you persist so that you remain in alignment with God’s will. God did not set up Life as a process of life and death, life and death, life and death. But each one of you can squelch and commit suicide only to discover that you’re not dead, and then again, squelch and suicide only to find out that you’re not dead until it becomes really clear to you that doing anything other than making commitment to Life and not squelching at all is your function..
Now, when you finish your shower and you see the hair in the drain, don’t say, “Ohhhhh, another hair gone.” At least say, “Ah, room for another hair to grow,” or “here’s an opportunity I have to see the glory of God manifested right here where I am, and that would be such a wonderful thing. That would truly be such a wonderful thing, that I am going to unswervingly give my attention to that.” It’s got to become extremely clear to everyone that each one of you is aging yourself, each one of you is or will be incline to slowly put the breaks on. And it’s the breaks you are putting on that are causing what you call aging.
If you listen to Deepak Chopra and others who are experiencing more clarity you will hear that your body is quite capable of regenerating itself indefinitely. Of course, then you will occasionally say that there is a built in mechanism that causes it to begin to deteriorate. But you know what? Either God is All or God isn’t All. Either Life is the absolute, or it is not.
Now I have said that it is the intent of your body to identify the presence of your Individuality perfectly. That is its God given reason for existing. And your Individuality is the presence of God.
So your body’s intent to identify you perfectly is your body’s intent to identify the presence of God perfectly. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE GLORIFYING GOD, not just a temporary package that your Soul is inhabiting for a short time.
By my saying this, I’m trying to inspire all of you to be curious in a fearless way about experiencing the truth about your body and the truth about you. You’re worth the attention that it will take, the devotion that it will take. And you will have help from those of us who are Awake, who stand ready to support you in your greater embrace of the truth about you and the truth about that which identifies you.
And so when you let the inspiration in, because you’re not blocking it with saying “no” to Life, and you’re not blocking it because you’re curious to see how much more of death has entered your experience, you will find that inspiration being magnified by those who stand ready to support your clearer experience of your physical perfection, of the perfection of that which identifies you.
Now I haven’t spoken inspirationally just now. I’ve been speaking firmly so as to jolt you a little bit out of your fascination with the process of aging. As the saying goes, “what you appreciate, appreciates.” That means that what you value grows. And you can always find out what you value by paying attention to what you’re giving your attention to.
Do you have a “yes, but”?
QUESTION: No, I think this is wonderful. And it’s very exciting. Thank you so much.
RAJ: You are welcome. Take advantage of mirrors.
QUESTION: Okay.
RAJ: Every time you look in a mirror let it be a reminder that what you’re looking in the mirror to see is the glory of God. I really mean it! And then I invite all of you to do this for your brothers and sisters as well. When you look at them, don’t say, “Oh well, she really doesn’t look good today. She really ought to be home in bed. Oh boy, something must have happened at home last night, look at the way she’s acting today (or he’s acting).” You see? Care enough about those in your experience not to jump to limited conclusions about them, but rather to say, “wait a minute, what’s sitting right there, that one driving the car next to me on the Freeway, that body is the glory of God.” Let every encounter with your brother and sister be a reminder that it’s your function to be seeing the glory of God there. And if you’re not, it’s not because they’re not presenting it, but because you’re not choosing to see it. You would rather have your opinion and your definition. And you’re the one who suffers, because your definition keeps you from remembering to see God there.
Yes, it’s going to keep you busy.
QUESTION: Yes, I think so. Thank you.
RAJ: But you know what? You were already busy repeating and repeating and repeating other habits of attitude. What if… ah ha… what if you can’t experience love until you extend it to your brother? What if you can’t experience the divine reality of yourself until you’re willing to extend the acknowledgment of the divine reality of someone else? What if you can’t really feel the love of God until you are willing to love the old so-and-so who just cut you off, or love your fellow worker who claims to be ill, who sees herself or himself as ill and puts that in the air, who has forgotten to be curious about the glory of God right where they are that is beyond their current perception of what’s right there? What if your feeling well can’t be wholly available to you until you are willing to desire for your brother and sister that they feel wholly well because you know that is their Birthright?
There’s not really any “what if” about it. It’s why the Course refers to your brother as your savory. Your brother or sister is your savory, why? Because your brother and sister keep you from being able to believe that you can be successfully who and what you are by yourself.
All of the illusory sense of existence arises out of a fundamental premise that all of you have adopted, which is that you are separate from everything else, fundamentally separate from God, being a little god yourselves, being able to be authorities on your own. Well, the only way to get out of the mesmeric frame of mind that involves your seeing yourself as alone is to have a brother or a sister who gives you the opportunity to be love. I’ve said it before, you can’t love by yourself. You have to have an object of your affection. Without an object of your love there can’t be a thing called love.
And so your brother and your sister are your means of coming out from under the results of the mad idea that you exist independently from everything, including God. Your means of coming back into your Sanity is your brother or sister who provides you with the opportunity to be the presence of love. And by being the presence of love, fulfilling your purpose for being, because that’s what God established in you and as a result of fulfilling your purpose for being, something happens to you—you wake up. You are inspired with God’s love. Because in order to love someone else and extend it you have to stand in receipt of it. And the receipt of it is a receipt from the Father. Do you see what I’m saying?
Do you understand what the statement in the Course means that says, “to have give all to all”?
QUESTION: I think so.
RAJ: God is the Movement of Being, the conscious Movement of Being. And the Movement of Being is extension—a gift! Fulfillment therefore, the experience of fulfillment of Being for every single one of you involves making the gift of love. You cannot be the source of love. So how can you give the gift of love? Well, you might say it’s magic, because when you begin to care, when you really become less closed off—all of you—and you really begin to care for another, you make a gift. And when you make that gift you become infilled with the Love it takes to give.
I’ve used the illustration before of a garden hose with a sprayer nozzle on it. When you have an object of your affection it is like pulling the trigger on the nozzle. When you have an object of your affection there is some place for the stream of water to go. And you pull the trigger and what happens? The nozzle gets filled up with the water and the water gets extended. When you care about someone it’s like pulling the trigger and the Love that God is moves through you. What happens then? Well, your brother is blessed. But something else has happened. The thing that’s happened is that you have had the inspiring, uplifting transformational and regenerative experience of being the place where the presence of God is Moving into expression.
I will put it another way. When you dare to love your fellow man the only thing you can love your fellow man with is God’s Love. And in your caring you open the door for God’s Love and not only does your brother get loved, you do too. That’s why your brother is your salvation.
So that’s why I said, when you look at a co-worker or someone at the grocery store and you say, “god I haven’t seen them for awhile, they’re really beginning to look old.” Well, is that the gift you want to make? Is that what you want to extend? Where’d you get that hose from? “Gee, she should take better care of herself.” Judgment! You could say, “wow, that isn’t the truth about her. Wow, the truth about her is that she is the direct expression of God. The truth is that her body is the glory of God. And I’m going to let my responses, my reactions arise out of that awareness of what the truth of her is rather than how she looks at the moment.”
So what’s happened? Your apparently aging associate has given you the opportunity to choose for the truth in your awareness, and in choosing that you prime yourself, like pulling the trigger for the further influx of the Father’s point of view, which constitutes the love that heals not only your sister or your brother but you. You see.
Now I’ve gone on at some length. But I hope it’s becoming clear to you that the way to over come age, the way to deal with age is to take every opportunity you have to look in the mirror and do something different from what you have been doing by acknowledging the truth about yourself, being curious about the truth about yourself, being curious about God’s truth about you. As well as doing the same thing with your brothers and sisters—your fellow man. Because I’ll tell ya, you can’t just look in the mirror and become absolutely clear about yourself and still go around saying, “god, she looks awful doesn’t she? I’m so glad I don’t have to look that way anymore.” You’ve got to bring your brother and sister along with you. This is an important point.
And you have something to contemplate now.
QUESTION: I certainly do. Thank you so much.
RAJ: You are welcome. We will take a break.
RAJ: I understand you had some reservations about asking the question you asked.
QUESTION: I don’t know I just… I guess I always want to appear like I already know things and the truth is I don’t. And I need help understanding. And I knew you could help me have a better way of looking at it.
RAJ: So you had a need and you didn’t want to look needy?
QUESTION: Right!
RAJ: Yes. Oh self-sufficiency… And of course, that’s right at the top of the list of what you get when you start moving along your spiritual path, of course. And so if you have a need don’t let anyone know that you’re way back there on the path.
QUESTION: That’s right.
RAJ: But if you don’t express your need how can you give someone else the opportunity to love you? Now, I’m not talking about manufacturing needs to get attention, I’m talking about a real need, let’s say an absence of an answer you want. That’s a need. Of course, that means you’ve got to dare to be real and honest, honest in the sense of not expressing manufactured needs as a means of manipulating others. You understand?
QUESTION: Yes.
RAJ: And I’m not suggesting that you do manufacture needs.
QUESTION: Okay.
RAJ: What I do want to convey to everyone is that there is great value in genuinely expressing real needs that you have. You know what the first thing that happens is when you do that? It makes it easier for other people to be genuine and honest about their needs too. It allows other people to dare to be open because you’re not going to uncover how far back they are, you see.
There were times when Paul decided to only talk to me when he didn’t have problems, so as not to impose upon me. Not much growth or learning happened during those periods when he decided only to talk to me when he didn’t have a problem, because when he didn’t have a problem he didn’t talk to me.
Now there’s something else I want to share. When the fall or the separation from God occurred or seemed to occur and each one practiced a false sense of authority, of an ability to author things, it seemed as though each one who did it was able to see himself or herself as self-contained, self-complete, even though it was a miserable experience. And as each one became accustom to that experience he or she lost the experience of his or her universality and indeed a sense of self associated with the body and only with the body became that one’s identity. And that one could say, “I can think for myself. I can decide what this means. I am a decider. I am a giver of definitions. I am this, I am that, I am the other thing.” And the experience felt as though all of these conscious experiences were originating from the one identified now as this body and this mind that wasn’t universal.
But I pointed out to all of you—and most all of you over the last two years—that no one ever succeeded in becoming autonomous, independent. And that what has happened is that one is channeling you might say, one is giving voice to, giving expression to one of two voices. And that voice is never the identity that you see yourself as separate, or that Paul sees himself as a separated individuality, one never loses his divine presence. And so each one is the Christ, each one, in spite of how you see yourselves still is the Son or Daughter of God, still is the Christ. And this divine one that you are is either giving expression to the voice for Truth, which is the Father’s voice, or the voice for fear, which I have referred to as the ego, which is just a rehashing of all of the old tapes, all of the mindsets of this sense of identity that each one has created and acquired and built.
So no one has succeeded in standing in a place where he or she is only expressing himself of herself. You as a separated, aging lady do not have the capacity to originate anything, to be the source of a single thought, or a single act. You are either clearly giving expression to the Christ that you are or you are clearly giving expression to confused expressions. Do you see what I am saying?
Now, I said that the need was to love your fellow man because loving your fellow man is what will save you. And your fellow man being the object of your affection will be your savior. So who’s going to love this fellow man? The aging lady sitting there? There ain’t no such critter as an aging lady sitting there. There’s only the Christ being clear or being confused—let’s put it that way. So what’s happening when you dare to care about your fellow man?
Well, if you as a separated entity have no capacity to love because this separated entity doesn’t exist except in an imaginary way, then if love is going to occur how is it going to occur? Well, it’s simple. Because there’s only one thing sitting there—with a quizzical look on her face—and that is the presence of God, the Christ. In your sense of being a human who was born and who is a physical body that’s going through processes in spite of that… no when you as a human find yourself caring it’s not because you as a separated human entity have a capacity to care, but because the Christ that you are is emerging. Because the Christ that you are is the only thing that has the capacity to care.
But does the Christ that you are have a separate place from which to express love, or is the Christ that you are the unobstructed presence of God Himself/Herself? You see what I want to point out here is, which is the cap on this whole answer, is that when you in your sense of being a separated human physical organism that is born, grows, ages and dies experiences caring it’s really the Christ of you remembering her function to a limited degree.
Now because you as a separated entity have no capacity to love, if love occurs it occurs because caring has come into play, and the caring is a prayer. If you don’t have a personal capacity to love then if love is going to appear where you are it is because you have begun to care, which has been a prayer to God, which God answers. And it comes through you.
And you must have a brother, a sister, an object of your affection in order to call into play the Christ of you. And that’s why your brother and your sister is your savior. But remember that the capacity to love isn’t something that originates with the separated human entity that you think you are. And that’s why when caring finally becomes an active part of your experience of being, even in your separated sense of yourself, that is why it constitutes a prayer and not a personal gift of your own that allows God to answer and fills you up with the experience of the fulfillment of your purpose for being while blessing the one you dared to care about.
Can all of you see that the privacy you seek is the way you deny your brother of the blessing of your prayer? “Well, I can’t get involved with everyone!” Well, then keep on dying! Stay separate, you see, stay private, don’t care because that is involvement. Keep blocking your function and keep dying. You see what I am saying?
But that’s not my point. My point is for you to realize what’s happening when you care, what’s happening when you love is that prayer isn’t just a string of words that you say. Prayer is caring. Caring is prayer. It’s involving, it involves you in your heart you might say. You become involved. And when you become involved because you really care a blessing occurs—the prayer is answered and you are the answer. And when you’re the answer and you experience the involving aspect of that as well, you won’t ask “do I have to do this with everyone.” And you won’t think that it’s too much to do it with everyone, the joy of it will be so significant that you will wonder what you were thinking of when you had justification for withholding it.
“Gee, I thought Jesus was my savior! I thought the Christ was my savior, and the slob over there doesn’t look like the Christ to me, doesn’t act like the Christ.” And what does that mean? What that means is the Christ in you isn’t alive at the moment registering in your awareness because caring hasn’t occurred yet. That’s what it means! And yet that one is the Christ, suffering from his ignorance of his Christhood. And because the suffering is illegitimate for him he invites by his misery, by his unwithheld expression of his need, your compassion. You see, it invites the response of caring rather than judgment. And so this miserable one is your salvation because it’s an opportunity for you to care, to feel love, compassion, caring for him. And in your caring you come back into your function, your fulfillment of purpose for being. And that constitutes prayer, which God answers and you feel as it’s extended.
I’ve said before that all of the Awakened Brotherhood experience a lack, because while all of you are enjoying the game of independence, the fantasy of independence, you’re not available to us. And we’re not available to you. And so the Brotherhood doesn’t as a whole experience its wholeness consciously. Is the answer as far as we’re concerned to sit around and grouse about all of you, how inconsiderate you are? No, it’s opportunity for us to love, it’s an opportunity for us to care. And it feels good, because we’re on the beam. I don’t mean give us a gold star because we’re on the beam.
When you’re on the beam you feel good. When you’re on the beam you’re experiencing harmony. When you’re on the beam there’s never an interruption of the flow of the Father’s love, because you’re not taking your finger off the trigger on the nozzle on the hose. And so the flow is never intermittent, it’s never interrupted. But it’s sort of like domino’s. I love you. I love you all. I love everyone. But it’s not enough for me to love you, you’ve got to pass it on. Because until you are loving your brother you won’t wake up. You won’t come into the fullness of the experience of what you divinely are.
This all ties together, because if you want to see your body visibly identifying the glory of God rather than age, then love your brother. Because that constitutes a joining, a union which undoes the effects of being separate, independent, autonomous, which is what aging and death is the result of, as well as birth. The way you get out of that cycle is by fulfilling your function, which is to be the place where love flows into expression, because that’s what God is.
There’s a lot of… well, mirrors are used a lot in New Age thinking. And so you go to work and someone is grumpy and you say, “Oh, they must be mirroring back me, to me. I didn’t think I was grumpy, but I must be somewhere in me, I must be grumpy.” Well, you want to know what? The one who’s being grumpy and is not covering up his need is being the Christ to the best of his ability, which is giving you the opportunity to be the Christ to the best of your ability.
And so what is it that is being reflected back to you? The Christ. You see, if you’re going to be confused in your metaphysical or New Age thinking you will take yourself as the human entity that you think you are and you will take the human entity that you think everyone else is and this is what will be mirrored back and forth. And you start and end with the same ignorance you began with. But your brother there who’s suffering or your sister who’s suffering is the Christ reflecting back to you your Christhood. It’s a call for love. And the Love can only come from the Christ that you are. And so the Christ that you are has to be let out of the box—it’s time to come out of the closet—and let yourself feel the love, feel the caring, feel the compassion, not for the poor human entity but for the Christ who has the right to experience his divinity. And then without thinking that you’re being the source of the love recognize that the caring, the love that you’re feeling is a prayer. And let God answer it in an involving way in your heart. Let it flow. And then you will begin to undo birth, growth, aging and death. It’s high time to be through with it!
What if you can’t pray for yourself? You just thought you asked a simple question today. What if you cannot be the authorizer, the author of a prayer for yourself—for yourself? What if the only one who can “author” a prayer for you is your brother? You can’t be your own savior. You see?
Do you see how much you need each other? If you cannot succeed at being an independent entity then it means that your involvement with the whole Brotherhood, with every aspect of the infinite expression of God is the only choice for an experience of being that you have available to you. And that therefore privacy is nonsense. And that the answer to the problem of existence lies in the withdrawal of defenses and the employment of love so that the unity of the infinite expression of God can be experienced in its exquisite harmony. It’s called Heaven.
But as I’ve said before, it’s got to start here. It’s got to start with the apparently separated human entity that you think you are, actually being the place where the experience of caring is felt. And it’s got to be with each other. YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO A-L-L D-A-Y L-O-N-G!
Do you see that what I’m saying doesn’t mean that you personally have to have or come up with the answer for your brother’s need. What you have to do is care enough to let the love flow. The Father will answer the prayer.
Just watch the lines disappear.
Susan says that whenever there is a gathering and Paul is not claiming a separate mind of his own, that the lines leave his face. And then afterwards he turns back into a pumpkin. I will tell you the consistent experience of joy that comes from constant prayer, which is what Paul is engaged in this afternoon, the experience of it is peace and joy that is fulfillment itself. And the ongoing experience of this if Paul indeed would aqueous to my suggestion that he do this constantly would result in the lines disappearing and staying gone, and for color to come back to his hair, and hair to come back to his head and a flat stomach, which he would dearly love. But he still enjoys a little time to think for himself.
QUESTION: Me too.
RAJ: But now you and he are not confused about what the answer is. And all of you are a little younger than when you arrived this afternoon, because the truth of what I’ve said and the love with which I’ve said it has touched the Christ in you. And it’s a little more conscious. But tomorrow or on the way home in your car when you look in the rear-view mirror begin to use a little self-discipline. And when you see your fellow man remember that here is your opportunity to stop getting older as well as waking up.
QUESTION: Thank you.
RAJ: Thank you.
QUESTION: Thank you. Just in sitting here I’ve had many of my questions, that I walked in the door with, answered. And so it kind of evolves as the day goes on. But I’ll tell you what I was feeling. When I came here I was feeling very lost, very confused and I thought that I was at the lowest point in my life. And you mentioned that Paul was brought to his knees, I at least feel that I’m bent over and in a very extreme low back pain. And as a result of all this confusion I’ve lost all my confidence to move on. And I don’t know that my lack of success in my business venture…
RAJ: I’m just going to briefly say: Let us say, lack of confidence to go on by yourself.
QUESTION: Yes.
RAJ: Continue.
QUESTION: I didn’t know if this was all a result of my previous unwillingness to connect with God, or if I was really moving in the wrong direction. I’ve been meditating, hoping to get some guidance. And I just wasn’t. And I don’t know that it was that I just wasn’t hearing what I needed to hear, or what. And all of this lack of success in doing what I thought I was good at, what I know I’m good at, was lending toward a lot of troubles with Maran and I. But I guess what I just need to know is am I on the right track, doing what I was doing and is it appropriate for me to continue on the way I am with Maran or does that….
RAJ: Yes, yes, yes, yes!
QUESTION: I don’t know if I should share with you, just as we were sitting here I told Maran what I had created for myself in my yoga studio was an ability for me to pass out that love in that confined area.
RAJ: Just remember who it is that’s standing in front of you. It doesn’t have anything to do with being a yoga teacher, a successful one or an unsuccessful one. It doesn’t have anything to do with people, you know independent, separated entities who could benefit from yoga. You doing what you’re doing and them doing what they’re doing, all of you doing it together is simply the opportunity to glorify God, not glorify a teacher, and not help to glorify students. It’s all about caring. It’s not about becoming something. It really is about caring. It really is about making the gift. Paul makes the gift but his hands are empty. And he’s never going to become good at having something in his hands to give. Do you see what I mean? It’s never going to get to the point where he will have learned how to be the presence of God by himself so he can do it without me. He’ll never become self-sufficient. He, as a separated entity will never become successful. All he can gift anyone with is what he is gifted with. And the only way he can be the recipient of a gift that he can extend is if he dares to care.
Again, you’re always making a gift that never originates with you. And so it’s up to you to make a choice for which resource of gift you want to use, your ego or the Father, the Voice for Truth, the Voice for Love.
So remember who you’re sitting next to. Remember who it is you’re coming home to. Remember who it is that you think, or appear to be teaching. It’s always your opportunity. You are confronted with your opportunity to care and to make the gift, which is really a prayer that God will answer for both of you, for all of you. Forget about being successful. Forget about what success is supposed to look like. Because if that’s what you are preoccupied with you will manipulate forms to try to get the right look.
Paul could say with the “cash flow” at the moment that being the presence of love doesn’t work. But he’s not about to stop, regardless of how it looks. And the look will change.
You have implied that by the time you got the microphone you were less confused than when you entered. Would you like to comment on that?
QUESTION: No, just that I was sharing with Maron., what I thought that I had done is created an environment for myself in my yoga studio that I was able to get the love out. But outside of that and if anybody didn’t come to it then they didn’t get it, because it was outside of my comfort zone to give it outside of that room, because they weren’t coming to me. So that was…
RAJ: You could say, “I’ve come a long way to be with you.”
QUESTION: Right.
RAJ: And yet the fact is you are here with me and there is no distance. But what are the limits of caring? What are the structures of caring? What are the appropriatenesses of caring? They’re as infinite as God. Caring can’t be done on your terms. That’s not caring, is it?
The opportunity to love should be welcomed wherever it presents itself, and when you are not trying to keep a safe comfort zone. But caring endures. I guarantee you that where you’re able to feel comfortable will increase. And the experience will be a freedom that you’re not being able to experience when you set the structure or limits.
QUESTION: So I guess that just leaves me with one other question. I guess I have to… if it has to be an avocation rather than a vocation then I guess anything would suffice in the meantime so far as how to make ends meet, rather than trying to make my avocation a vocation.
RAJ: You can use this for a motto: Love is whatever works! So the answer to your question is, Yes! But which is your vocation and which is your avocation doesn’t have to be as well defined and specific as you’re wanting to conceive of them. In being open to what works, to what meets the need, the percentage that between the two can shift easily. If you say, “well, I’m going to make that my avocation,” well, you’ve got it pretty well pegged. And you’ll keep it in that definition. Will you just say, “Father, Thy will be done. Whatever works. And I will not try to guide my fulfillment into a pattern of my own creating.” That’s a means of joining and abandoning the position of author of things in your life. That is a means of breaking down this tiny separate sense of identity.
Without your definitions getting in the way, God has a free hand. Your good can approach you without having to cope with the definitions you’ve put in the way.
Heck if you’re already bent over, go ahead and fall to your knees.
QUESTION: Well, that’s my intention.
RAJ: Okay.
QUESTION: What’s getting in the way of my having a relationship?
RAJ: It is who is on first and what is getting in the way of your relationship! (laughter)
Well, I’m going to ask of everyone here who is willing to ask for Diane to have a meaningful relationship come to view in her life. Let us do what I was talking about earlier. Let us care enough to wish fulfillment for her. As I said, what if you can’t ask your own prayer? So we will ask it for you. And let us all do it right now, anyone who cares.
Okay.
So if it happened this way it really would be a miracle.
QUESTION: (A man from the audience) Here I am Diane. (much laughter)
RAJ: Maybe it just might be this simple. Thank you for expressing your need. And what I want everyone to be aware of, it’s important to be aware of, is that wanting a good man in your life, or wanting a good woman, wanting a meaningful relationship is not an intellectual need, it’s not an intellectual want. Like I said earlier, do you see how much you all need each other?
So, experience the fact that you need this and don’t apologize for it to yourself or anyone else.
Don’t feel guilty for feeling needy. Just abide with it.
Now everyone else has asked for you. I am going to ask you to ask something for someone else at least once a day. This is not a test. And it is not a matter of your doing well enough to deserve to get what everyone else has asked for you. It is a matter of extending the gift because that’s what undoes the isolation, whether it’s isolation from someone to be a partner with, or isolation from God, or isolation from friends and so on.
Thank you for your question. Thank you for expressing a need.
QUESTION: Is there a relationship in front of me that I should be looking at differently?
RAJ: Is there?
QUESTION: Well, I’m not sure.
RAJ: All I’m going to say is, be willing to look at it differently. As I’ve said before you can’t steer a car that’s parked at the curb. The willingness to look at it differently will allow it to become clear what it can become.
QUESTION: Thank you. And I’m willing for a miracle.
RAJ: Good.
QUESTION: Well, speaking of needs, I have one quick need and then I have a question. The quick need for my comfort is will my daughter pass her State Board Exams? That’s question one.
RAJ: Your relief will come in asking for her to pass it with ease. Your peace will come in extending to her your caring, not concern. It is concern that is distressing to you. But in caring enough to ask that nothing successfully distract her from accomplishing this task well. That will bring you your peace. I’m not going to answer the question more specifically than that.
QUESTION: I’m happy with that. I’m trying to identify my need here. Recently I’ve been going through this kind of nebulous state of being. I was out of sync but I couldn’t pin-point it. And now it seems as though it’s becoming clearer to me and easier to deal with because it’s being externalized rather than internalizied. And what I’m dealing with I believe has to do with my own self-reguard, my own dignity, my own comfort. And it’s not that perhaps I’m very graceful at this. I told my mother-in-law whom I’ve known since I’m 15 and I’m 55, how I felt about the way she was treating my family and me. And I told her how she appeared to me and what I would like to see.
Now this is all well and good and I’m okay with that. And I also did something that I’m not accustomed to doing which was to just completely share myself with some of my co-workers. And you know many years ago I considered myself to be one of the biggest secrets there was. And so it’s like I’ve got—I prefer to call it a jelly-jar because it’s smaller to me and the insides are sweet.
But I think my discomfort has been in holding the lid on the jelly-jar. And now the jam is boiling, steam is escaping and so it’s coming out. And I can see how this might… it’s rather exciting, because I can see how it can greatly help me, because I’ve been a cluster, migraine headache sufferer ever since I can remember.
And so now I’m getting kind of excited about this. Now the thing is these things are new for me and it’s kind of like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m doing this.” And I guess what I hope and try to have enough faith in is that where all this is going will be good for me, and that whatever I do
I’ll still respect myself in the morning.
So I guess I would like to hear something about it being okay to take care of your needs. And that where I’m going will of course be fruitful and wonderful and it’s okay not to do it perfectly. And maybe to… I don’t know, raise a few eyebrows and that sort of thing. I guess I’m afraid of what some people might think of me, not all, I don’t care my comforts to important to me now to waste too much time with that. But that comes up. You know, my ego starts just screaming at me. So sometimes that gets me a little nervous. But I’m kind of just tired of it. I just kind of “Oh, I don’t care what you think.” But I’d love to have your comments. Thank you, Raj.
RAJ: Well, first of all it’s important for you to understand that the sweetness of the jelly is not of your own creating. And indeed, it’s sharing is long overdue. Now some people have jars of shit, which it wouldn’t be wise for them to share. This sort of carefree abandon that you are allowing because the jelly is sweet is not a dangerous thing for you to be doing. Because you also need to express thoughtfulness and genuine kindness. And so your carefree abandon is being done in that kind of context, which makes it safe even if the unexpectedness of it causes other people some distress, or wears their muscles out from raising their eyebrows.
You’re not as confused as you think. But you’re going to need to persist so that you can find this genuineness of you and its expression to be more comfortable and more natural. You’re on the beam.
QUESTION: Thank you, Raj.
RAJ: You are welcome.
QUESTION: During those times when guidance seems specially hard to come by, is it appropriate to use some sort of dousing technique like pendulums or rods to approximate guidance in that instance?
RAJ: Oh, absolutely! I was wondering at your use of the word to “approximate” guidance. Pendulums and dowsing rods are excellent ways to access your Knowing, with a capital “K”, because there’s no way for the conscious mind to interfere. Yes, you can make the rods parallel and you can make that pendulum go in any direction you want. But, your intent is to get beyond your ego. Your intent is to know the truth. So by all means use whatever means you have available to you.
I would encourage you to dedicate the use of the pendulum to only that, which doesn’t reflect your ego. Not to protect yourself but so as to be clearly focused in what its use is for. You can as easily decide to tune into the radio to see if there’s a message in a song. Don’t worry the Holy Spirit has infinite means of connecting with you and it makes it much easier if you’re not saying, “I will only listen to guidance that comes to me exactly as it comes to Paul Tuttle, or only in this particular avenue.”
What’s getting in the way is too much structure in your mind. And so rather than tell you how to by-pass or deal with these structures I’m encouraging you to use other unstructured means, and to do it with some carefree abandon, with a little bit of trust that God knows how to reach you.
That’s the end of the answer.
QUESTION: Thank you.
RAJ: You are welcome.
QUESTION: Thank you, Raj.
RAJ: You are welcome.
QUESTION: I have been scattering my energies, so for quite a few number of years in terms of work…
RAJ: Who told you?
QUESTION: It’s my feeling that ever since I was a child people are saying, “what are you going to be when you grow up?” “I don’t know.” And I’ve been kind of living in a ………….(?) like Peter Pan or something…
RAJ: Well, tell me when you finally grow up.
QUESTION: Yeah, well that’s what I keep waiting for.
RAJ: No wondering you don’t know what you’re going to be then.
QUESTION: Right. So up until now I’ve been pretty content to just kind of go with the flow.
RAJ: Excuse me, Do you see that what I’m driving at is that what you’re going to be as well as the idea of finally growing up is all irrelevant crap that should not be concerning you. And as I said—I don’t really want you to answer this question—but who told you that you’ve been engaged in irrelevant activities? How do you know that each thing you’ve engaged in is not going to end up being specifically useful in some task that unfolds? Why are you evaluating your life? Why is there not an assumption that maybe everything has been perfect, it’s just that at the moment you don’t see how it all fits together? And then I’ll further ask you, can you see that if you had that attitude, that perspective, that you would be able to honor yourself more in the moment you’re in and be able to give yourself more easily to whatever is at hand to do?
QUESTION: Yes.
RAJ: That would be an experience of integrity, of more wholeness than your concept has been allowing you to experience.
QUESTION: That is what I’ve been… the path that I’ve been following is trying to be responsible, or responding to the needs of the moment throughout my life. And doing what needed to be done at a particular time given the circumstances that I was presented with. But lately I’ve got about four businesses going and more property than I know how to manage.
RAJ: Poor (?) ……..(?)
QUESTION: I know I’m complaining, but it’s gotten to be so complex to manage everything I wish I could just focus my attention on one really valuable endeavor for the good of myself and everyone else. And I don’t know if there’s one thing that I’m here to do or if I’m supposed to be one of these people who just goes from one thing to the next?
RAJ: It’s very simple. Take care of what you’ve been given to take care of well. Stop wanting what hasn’t been given to you. And if what has been given to you is going to stand in the way of what will be given to you it will in an orderly fashion be removed from your experience, because God’s in charge, not you. And what doesn’t fit in the identification of His fulfillment of purpose, which at the bottom line is yours, then it will intelligently and in an orderly manner move out of your experience to make way for what’s going to come in.
So again, take care of what you have been given to take care of well, without grumbling about it.
QUESTION: Thank you, I’ll try.
RAJ: There’s joy to be found in it. There’s joy to be found in it.
QUESTION: It’s a lot more fun to buy a piece of property than it is to take care of it well. You know, the joy is in the purchase not in maintaining it and taking care of responsibilities and being organized. And so I feel like that’s part of my life lesson to…
RAJ: One could say that about a spouse.
QUESTION: Hmmm, yeah, like falling in love is easy but staying in love takes some effort.
RAJ: Some commitment. Don’t be so eager to go out and find something else to love. Use the opportunities that are right in front of you. Bring that willingness to honor what’s there for you to bless with your caring. You see?
QUESTION: Yes.
RAJ: At least the property can’t argue with you.
QUESTION: No, I love the things that I have. It’s just that there’s only one of me to go around and my energies have become so scattered that I’m not maintaining anything really well.
RAJ: Let that become your purpose to take care of it well. If you will do that instead of trying to find something else to deal with, what doesn’t work about what you presently have will become obvious, you see.
Fulfillment isn’t somewhere else. The Kingdom of Heaven isn’t somewhere else. Start where you are. And start with the materials at hand. It’s just good common sense. But it happens that what is just good common sense has an utterly divine and profound significance. And if everyone would begin to value their simple common sense instead of getting up into highfalutin metaphysical principles and ideas and wild imaginings everyone would experience the benefit sooner and the whole world would wake up faster.
QUESTION: Can you share a little bit about the difference between following what you call common sense and following your heart or the impulse to…
RAJ: You will always find that real common sense is in utter harmony with your heart.
Now I’m not talking about folklore common sense—“a stitch in time saves nine, a penny saved is a penny earned”—I’m not talking about societal common sense. I’m talking about common sense which amounts to an honest, genuine, real assessment of what you can do and what you can’t do, of what really means something to you instead of what ought to mean something to you. Common sense is what’s left—already there in you—when you’ve given up all the oughts and all the shoulds and all the wants. In the absence of those you find yourself knowing what you feel. And what you feel is utterly intelligent when it’s not distorted with insanity, you see.
QUESTION: Yes, I understand—going back to your peace that you keep referring to. Is that what you mean by that?
RAJ: Indeed. Your peace and then what’s obvious to you from within your peace. Yes.
QUESTION: Thank you.
RAJ: You are welcome.
That is Paul shaking his head.
This morning it happens that Paul did ask—and he did not know what I was going to be talking about today—Paul did ask, he experienced a desire that something meaningful happen today, that he desired for everyone who came to have a maximal, beneficial experience, I’ll put it that way. How wonderful that he did, that is why he was shaking his head, because he got blessed by it too.
And he was shaking his head in amazement.
It is time to close for today. Being together always feels good to me. It doesn’t always feel as good to Paul as it has felt today, which gives him encouragement to dare to stay with me more consistently even though it’s not likely to be quite enough. And for that I am grateful.
I love you all.
By: Christ Jesus (endearingly called Raj)
RAJ: Good afternoon.
QUESTION: (All) Good afternoon.
RAJ: Welcome. Who has a question or a comment?
QUESTION: I would like you to talk to me about aging. Because I have the fact that there are a lot of things about aging that are assumed as illnesses, and that possibly just really are illegitimate too. I don’t know if I’m making any sense. I just would like to know what to expect and what I should and how I should think about it.
RAJ ANSWER: Well, first of all it’s helpful to understand what the source of the concept of aging is. The source of the idea of aging is the idea that you were born, that you had a beginning a certain number of years ago in what you call this life experience. Growing, coming to full potential, reaching a peak and then beginning to age are all the result of the idea that you began at birth or at conception. That your existence is a manifestation of a physical event called birth and a physical body—that is, your identity, you see.
To overcome aging, or to become free of the so-called effects of aging—which ultimately means to become free of death—is to become free of the belief in birth, the belief that you had a beginning, and the belief that your body had a beginning apart from the reality of God’s Creation in this thing that is called a physical Universe, you see, as though your body is temporary for your enjoyment and suffering in this lifetime on this Earth.
Now I’ve talked at some length about all of these things before, but it’s absolutely essential for you to understand—all of you—that the idea of birth is a false interpretation of what I will call a point in your eternal existing. You were fully identified—meaning having that which identified you, a body—before you were born. From the moment God conceived of you, you have always had that which identifies you, which you call a body. Which means you have always been identified and you have always existed. And there is no alternative to that for you, for any of you.
You and that which identifies you are really one, they’re really inseparable. You and that which identifies you are therefore at this instant eternal, whether you see it—yourself and your body—as growing, aging, potentially dying.
Again, it must be very clear and you must dare to let it be very clear in your mind that the ultimate of the reality of you is going on at this moment relative to you as you currently perceive yourself. It is not something to be achieved in the future. It’s something to be allowed into your conscious awareness now, or at any moment that you decide to let it in. The ultimate of God is what is sitting right there.
Why do you see the effects of age? First of all because you think there was a beginning. And in the frame of reference you are in, which is a frame of reference of opposites, beginning means ending. They seem to be inseparable like heads and tails, top and bottom. It isn’t true. It isn’t what God is being right there, right now.
Now, you get a lot of feedback from your world—friends, parents—who seem to be inevitably going through an aging process, which really means a process of deterioration. You watch the commercials on the TV. And you watch the programs where your physicians are doing the best they can to explain this process of deterioration and try to ameliorate it through manipulation of one sort or another. And so you become further convinced that the most you can expect is to grow old gracefully—die gracefully. But die you must, because everyone has, except one or two or three or four. And of course, rather than that being the rule you think that’s the exception and it doesn’t apply to you.
Why do you think I share with you the things I share with you—all of you? So that you might be inspired out of these mindsets that you treat as though they are facts, as though they are absolutes. To inspire you to look in the mirror and not wonder “what can I expect as I age,” but rather, “what more of the presence of what God is being right now, right here is available to me to see? What more of the presence of God can I see in the reflection in the mirror? What more of the undeniable perfection of my being is available for me to experience?” You see?
Tell me, how many of you do look in the mirror to see if there’s a new gray hair, or a new fine line? And how many of you wish for a few fine lines or more so that you might get a little respect?
If I told you what to expect in terms of aging, then you would be wise to get up and leave and never come back to hear another word I would have to say.
When you look in the mirror, instead of being curious about how much older you’re getting, I encourage you to say: “I forgive myself for not seeing the ultimate of what God is being right here in what is reflected in the mirror. And because it is my Birthright to be experiencing it, I desire to experience it. And I ask for help in seeing what is really here.” And then just as when you are listening for guidance and you express a desire, then shut up and watch. Be attentive for the inspiration that will change your perception. When your perception changes because you’ve let yourself be infilled with the truer perception of what you are, everyone else will see your truer perception as well.
Is it reasonable to expect wrinkles to go away? Is it reasonable to expect sagging muscles to stop sagging? Is it reasonable to expect what you would call regeneration? ABSOLUTELY IT IS! And anything less means that you have simply succumbed to your beliefs about aging and the worlds beliefs about aging.
Slowly but surely everyone kills themselves. Everyone slowly commits suicide by withdrawing their interest in life, by squelching new ideas, by squelching—although I don’t like this word, we’re going to use it—by squelching new goals, because you say, “I don’t really have enough time to achieve those goals,” and so you begin backing out of being alive. That means you begin to go against the grain—the very essence of your being—because you are resisting being. And when you resist and create a block to the flow of the energy of life that is the substance of your being, you begin to see the effects of it.
When you attempt to squelch the power of the presence of God in you by saying, “I can’t do that, maybe if I were younger I would attempt it, but I’m not young and I can’t do it,” when you attempt to sit on the power of the presence of God you’re in a state of self-denial, you’re in a state of lack of self-appreciation. And you know what you do? You use your body to defend yourself against the power of the presence of God that is what you are the presence of—and you hurt, here or there, or here, or in your joints, or somewhere else because you resist with your body. You resist everything with your body. It’s the only thing you think you have that has enough presence to be a defense against whatever you feel a need to be defended against.
So you really need to become conscientious about this. You need to become conscientious about being open to the influx of the inspiration that regenerates, and let it in. You need to use the mute button on your TV. And you need to become devoted to the goal, the intent to see the presence of God in all of His/Her glory right there where you are more and more fully each day. And if you don’t see it more and more fully each day you persist so that you remain in alignment with God’s will. God did not set up Life as a process of life and death, life and death, life and death. But each one of you can squelch and commit suicide only to discover that you’re not dead, and then again, squelch and suicide only to find out that you’re not dead until it becomes really clear to you that doing anything other than making commitment to Life and not squelching at all is your function..
Now, when you finish your shower and you see the hair in the drain, don’t say, “Ohhhhh, another hair gone.” At least say, “Ah, room for another hair to grow,” or “here’s an opportunity I have to see the glory of God manifested right here where I am, and that would be such a wonderful thing. That would truly be such a wonderful thing, that I am going to unswervingly give my attention to that.” It’s got to become extremely clear to everyone that each one of you is aging yourself, each one of you is or will be incline to slowly put the breaks on. And it’s the breaks you are putting on that are causing what you call aging.
If you listen to Deepak Chopra and others who are experiencing more clarity you will hear that your body is quite capable of regenerating itself indefinitely. Of course, then you will occasionally say that there is a built in mechanism that causes it to begin to deteriorate. But you know what? Either God is All or God isn’t All. Either Life is the absolute, or it is not.
Now I have said that it is the intent of your body to identify the presence of your Individuality perfectly. That is its God given reason for existing. And your Individuality is the presence of God.
So your body’s intent to identify you perfectly is your body’s intent to identify the presence of God perfectly. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE GLORIFYING GOD, not just a temporary package that your Soul is inhabiting for a short time.
By my saying this, I’m trying to inspire all of you to be curious in a fearless way about experiencing the truth about your body and the truth about you. You’re worth the attention that it will take, the devotion that it will take. And you will have help from those of us who are Awake, who stand ready to support you in your greater embrace of the truth about you and the truth about that which identifies you.
And so when you let the inspiration in, because you’re not blocking it with saying “no” to Life, and you’re not blocking it because you’re curious to see how much more of death has entered your experience, you will find that inspiration being magnified by those who stand ready to support your clearer experience of your physical perfection, of the perfection of that which identifies you.
Now I haven’t spoken inspirationally just now. I’ve been speaking firmly so as to jolt you a little bit out of your fascination with the process of aging. As the saying goes, “what you appreciate, appreciates.” That means that what you value grows. And you can always find out what you value by paying attention to what you’re giving your attention to.
Do you have a “yes, but”?
QUESTION: No, I think this is wonderful. And it’s very exciting. Thank you so much.
RAJ: You are welcome. Take advantage of mirrors.
QUESTION: Okay.
RAJ: Every time you look in a mirror let it be a reminder that what you’re looking in the mirror to see is the glory of God. I really mean it! And then I invite all of you to do this for your brothers and sisters as well. When you look at them, don’t say, “Oh well, she really doesn’t look good today. She really ought to be home in bed. Oh boy, something must have happened at home last night, look at the way she’s acting today (or he’s acting).” You see? Care enough about those in your experience not to jump to limited conclusions about them, but rather to say, “wait a minute, what’s sitting right there, that one driving the car next to me on the Freeway, that body is the glory of God.” Let every encounter with your brother and sister be a reminder that it’s your function to be seeing the glory of God there. And if you’re not, it’s not because they’re not presenting it, but because you’re not choosing to see it. You would rather have your opinion and your definition. And you’re the one who suffers, because your definition keeps you from remembering to see God there.
Yes, it’s going to keep you busy.
QUESTION: Yes, I think so. Thank you.
RAJ: But you know what? You were already busy repeating and repeating and repeating other habits of attitude. What if… ah ha… what if you can’t experience love until you extend it to your brother? What if you can’t experience the divine reality of yourself until you’re willing to extend the acknowledgment of the divine reality of someone else? What if you can’t really feel the love of God until you are willing to love the old so-and-so who just cut you off, or love your fellow worker who claims to be ill, who sees herself or himself as ill and puts that in the air, who has forgotten to be curious about the glory of God right where they are that is beyond their current perception of what’s right there? What if your feeling well can’t be wholly available to you until you are willing to desire for your brother and sister that they feel wholly well because you know that is their Birthright?
There’s not really any “what if” about it. It’s why the Course refers to your brother as your savory. Your brother or sister is your savory, why? Because your brother and sister keep you from being able to believe that you can be successfully who and what you are by yourself.
All of the illusory sense of existence arises out of a fundamental premise that all of you have adopted, which is that you are separate from everything else, fundamentally separate from God, being a little god yourselves, being able to be authorities on your own. Well, the only way to get out of the mesmeric frame of mind that involves your seeing yourself as alone is to have a brother or a sister who gives you the opportunity to be love. I’ve said it before, you can’t love by yourself. You have to have an object of your affection. Without an object of your love there can’t be a thing called love.
And so your brother and your sister are your means of coming out from under the results of the mad idea that you exist independently from everything, including God. Your means of coming back into your Sanity is your brother or sister who provides you with the opportunity to be the presence of love. And by being the presence of love, fulfilling your purpose for being, because that’s what God established in you and as a result of fulfilling your purpose for being, something happens to you—you wake up. You are inspired with God’s love. Because in order to love someone else and extend it you have to stand in receipt of it. And the receipt of it is a receipt from the Father. Do you see what I’m saying?
Do you understand what the statement in the Course means that says, “to have give all to all”?
QUESTION: I think so.
RAJ: God is the Movement of Being, the conscious Movement of Being. And the Movement of Being is extension—a gift! Fulfillment therefore, the experience of fulfillment of Being for every single one of you involves making the gift of love. You cannot be the source of love. So how can you give the gift of love? Well, you might say it’s magic, because when you begin to care, when you really become less closed off—all of you—and you really begin to care for another, you make a gift. And when you make that gift you become infilled with the Love it takes to give.
I’ve used the illustration before of a garden hose with a sprayer nozzle on it. When you have an object of your affection it is like pulling the trigger on the nozzle. When you have an object of your affection there is some place for the stream of water to go. And you pull the trigger and what happens? The nozzle gets filled up with the water and the water gets extended. When you care about someone it’s like pulling the trigger and the Love that God is moves through you. What happens then? Well, your brother is blessed. But something else has happened. The thing that’s happened is that you have had the inspiring, uplifting transformational and regenerative experience of being the place where the presence of God is Moving into expression.
I will put it another way. When you dare to love your fellow man the only thing you can love your fellow man with is God’s Love. And in your caring you open the door for God’s Love and not only does your brother get loved, you do too. That’s why your brother is your salvation.
So that’s why I said, when you look at a co-worker or someone at the grocery store and you say, “god I haven’t seen them for awhile, they’re really beginning to look old.” Well, is that the gift you want to make? Is that what you want to extend? Where’d you get that hose from? “Gee, she should take better care of herself.” Judgment! You could say, “wow, that isn’t the truth about her. Wow, the truth about her is that she is the direct expression of God. The truth is that her body is the glory of God. And I’m going to let my responses, my reactions arise out of that awareness of what the truth of her is rather than how she looks at the moment.”
So what’s happened? Your apparently aging associate has given you the opportunity to choose for the truth in your awareness, and in choosing that you prime yourself, like pulling the trigger for the further influx of the Father’s point of view, which constitutes the love that heals not only your sister or your brother but you. You see.
Now I’ve gone on at some length. But I hope it’s becoming clear to you that the way to over come age, the way to deal with age is to take every opportunity you have to look in the mirror and do something different from what you have been doing by acknowledging the truth about yourself, being curious about the truth about yourself, being curious about God’s truth about you. As well as doing the same thing with your brothers and sisters—your fellow man. Because I’ll tell ya, you can’t just look in the mirror and become absolutely clear about yourself and still go around saying, “god, she looks awful doesn’t she? I’m so glad I don’t have to look that way anymore.” You’ve got to bring your brother and sister along with you. This is an important point.
And you have something to contemplate now.
QUESTION: I certainly do. Thank you so much.
RAJ: You are welcome. We will take a break.
RAJ: I understand you had some reservations about asking the question you asked.
QUESTION: I don’t know I just… I guess I always want to appear like I already know things and the truth is I don’t. And I need help understanding. And I knew you could help me have a better way of looking at it.
RAJ: So you had a need and you didn’t want to look needy?
QUESTION: Right!
RAJ: Yes. Oh self-sufficiency… And of course, that’s right at the top of the list of what you get when you start moving along your spiritual path, of course. And so if you have a need don’t let anyone know that you’re way back there on the path.
QUESTION: That’s right.
RAJ: But if you don’t express your need how can you give someone else the opportunity to love you? Now, I’m not talking about manufacturing needs to get attention, I’m talking about a real need, let’s say an absence of an answer you want. That’s a need. Of course, that means you’ve got to dare to be real and honest, honest in the sense of not expressing manufactured needs as a means of manipulating others. You understand?
QUESTION: Yes.
RAJ: And I’m not suggesting that you do manufacture needs.
QUESTION: Okay.
RAJ: What I do want to convey to everyone is that there is great value in genuinely expressing real needs that you have. You know what the first thing that happens is when you do that? It makes it easier for other people to be genuine and honest about their needs too. It allows other people to dare to be open because you’re not going to uncover how far back they are, you see.
There were times when Paul decided to only talk to me when he didn’t have problems, so as not to impose upon me. Not much growth or learning happened during those periods when he decided only to talk to me when he didn’t have a problem, because when he didn’t have a problem he didn’t talk to me.
Now there’s something else I want to share. When the fall or the separation from God occurred or seemed to occur and each one practiced a false sense of authority, of an ability to author things, it seemed as though each one who did it was able to see himself or herself as self-contained, self-complete, even though it was a miserable experience. And as each one became accustom to that experience he or she lost the experience of his or her universality and indeed a sense of self associated with the body and only with the body became that one’s identity. And that one could say, “I can think for myself. I can decide what this means. I am a decider. I am a giver of definitions. I am this, I am that, I am the other thing.” And the experience felt as though all of these conscious experiences were originating from the one identified now as this body and this mind that wasn’t universal.
But I pointed out to all of you—and most all of you over the last two years—that no one ever succeeded in becoming autonomous, independent. And that what has happened is that one is channeling you might say, one is giving voice to, giving expression to one of two voices. And that voice is never the identity that you see yourself as separate, or that Paul sees himself as a separated individuality, one never loses his divine presence. And so each one is the Christ, each one, in spite of how you see yourselves still is the Son or Daughter of God, still is the Christ. And this divine one that you are is either giving expression to the voice for Truth, which is the Father’s voice, or the voice for fear, which I have referred to as the ego, which is just a rehashing of all of the old tapes, all of the mindsets of this sense of identity that each one has created and acquired and built.
So no one has succeeded in standing in a place where he or she is only expressing himself of herself. You as a separated, aging lady do not have the capacity to originate anything, to be the source of a single thought, or a single act. You are either clearly giving expression to the Christ that you are or you are clearly giving expression to confused expressions. Do you see what I am saying?
Now, I said that the need was to love your fellow man because loving your fellow man is what will save you. And your fellow man being the object of your affection will be your savior. So who’s going to love this fellow man? The aging lady sitting there? There ain’t no such critter as an aging lady sitting there. There’s only the Christ being clear or being confused—let’s put it that way. So what’s happening when you dare to care about your fellow man?
Well, if you as a separated entity have no capacity to love because this separated entity doesn’t exist except in an imaginary way, then if love is going to occur how is it going to occur? Well, it’s simple. Because there’s only one thing sitting there—with a quizzical look on her face—and that is the presence of God, the Christ. In your sense of being a human who was born and who is a physical body that’s going through processes in spite of that… no when you as a human find yourself caring it’s not because you as a separated human entity have a capacity to care, but because the Christ that you are is emerging. Because the Christ that you are is the only thing that has the capacity to care.
But does the Christ that you are have a separate place from which to express love, or is the Christ that you are the unobstructed presence of God Himself/Herself? You see what I want to point out here is, which is the cap on this whole answer, is that when you in your sense of being a separated human physical organism that is born, grows, ages and dies experiences caring it’s really the Christ of you remembering her function to a limited degree.
Now because you as a separated entity have no capacity to love, if love occurs it occurs because caring has come into play, and the caring is a prayer. If you don’t have a personal capacity to love then if love is going to appear where you are it is because you have begun to care, which has been a prayer to God, which God answers. And it comes through you.
And you must have a brother, a sister, an object of your affection in order to call into play the Christ of you. And that’s why your brother and your sister is your savior. But remember that the capacity to love isn’t something that originates with the separated human entity that you think you are. And that’s why when caring finally becomes an active part of your experience of being, even in your separated sense of yourself, that is why it constitutes a prayer and not a personal gift of your own that allows God to answer and fills you up with the experience of the fulfillment of your purpose for being while blessing the one you dared to care about.
Can all of you see that the privacy you seek is the way you deny your brother of the blessing of your prayer? “Well, I can’t get involved with everyone!” Well, then keep on dying! Stay separate, you see, stay private, don’t care because that is involvement. Keep blocking your function and keep dying. You see what I am saying?
But that’s not my point. My point is for you to realize what’s happening when you care, what’s happening when you love is that prayer isn’t just a string of words that you say. Prayer is caring. Caring is prayer. It’s involving, it involves you in your heart you might say. You become involved. And when you become involved because you really care a blessing occurs—the prayer is answered and you are the answer. And when you’re the answer and you experience the involving aspect of that as well, you won’t ask “do I have to do this with everyone.” And you won’t think that it’s too much to do it with everyone, the joy of it will be so significant that you will wonder what you were thinking of when you had justification for withholding it.
“Gee, I thought Jesus was my savior! I thought the Christ was my savior, and the slob over there doesn’t look like the Christ to me, doesn’t act like the Christ.” And what does that mean? What that means is the Christ in you isn’t alive at the moment registering in your awareness because caring hasn’t occurred yet. That’s what it means! And yet that one is the Christ, suffering from his ignorance of his Christhood. And because the suffering is illegitimate for him he invites by his misery, by his unwithheld expression of his need, your compassion. You see, it invites the response of caring rather than judgment. And so this miserable one is your salvation because it’s an opportunity for you to care, to feel love, compassion, caring for him. And in your caring you come back into your function, your fulfillment of purpose for being. And that constitutes prayer, which God answers and you feel as it’s extended.
I’ve said before that all of the Awakened Brotherhood experience a lack, because while all of you are enjoying the game of independence, the fantasy of independence, you’re not available to us. And we’re not available to you. And so the Brotherhood doesn’t as a whole experience its wholeness consciously. Is the answer as far as we’re concerned to sit around and grouse about all of you, how inconsiderate you are? No, it’s opportunity for us to love, it’s an opportunity for us to care. And it feels good, because we’re on the beam. I don’t mean give us a gold star because we’re on the beam.
When you’re on the beam you feel good. When you’re on the beam you’re experiencing harmony. When you’re on the beam there’s never an interruption of the flow of the Father’s love, because you’re not taking your finger off the trigger on the nozzle on the hose. And so the flow is never intermittent, it’s never interrupted. But it’s sort of like domino’s. I love you. I love you all. I love everyone. But it’s not enough for me to love you, you’ve got to pass it on. Because until you are loving your brother you won’t wake up. You won’t come into the fullness of the experience of what you divinely are.
This all ties together, because if you want to see your body visibly identifying the glory of God rather than age, then love your brother. Because that constitutes a joining, a union which undoes the effects of being separate, independent, autonomous, which is what aging and death is the result of, as well as birth. The way you get out of that cycle is by fulfilling your function, which is to be the place where love flows into expression, because that’s what God is.
There’s a lot of… well, mirrors are used a lot in New Age thinking. And so you go to work and someone is grumpy and you say, “Oh, they must be mirroring back me, to me. I didn’t think I was grumpy, but I must be somewhere in me, I must be grumpy.” Well, you want to know what? The one who’s being grumpy and is not covering up his need is being the Christ to the best of his ability, which is giving you the opportunity to be the Christ to the best of your ability.
And so what is it that is being reflected back to you? The Christ. You see, if you’re going to be confused in your metaphysical or New Age thinking you will take yourself as the human entity that you think you are and you will take the human entity that you think everyone else is and this is what will be mirrored back and forth. And you start and end with the same ignorance you began with. But your brother there who’s suffering or your sister who’s suffering is the Christ reflecting back to you your Christhood. It’s a call for love. And the Love can only come from the Christ that you are. And so the Christ that you are has to be let out of the box—it’s time to come out of the closet—and let yourself feel the love, feel the caring, feel the compassion, not for the poor human entity but for the Christ who has the right to experience his divinity. And then without thinking that you’re being the source of the love recognize that the caring, the love that you’re feeling is a prayer. And let God answer it in an involving way in your heart. Let it flow. And then you will begin to undo birth, growth, aging and death. It’s high time to be through with it!
What if you can’t pray for yourself? You just thought you asked a simple question today. What if you cannot be the authorizer, the author of a prayer for yourself—for yourself? What if the only one who can “author” a prayer for you is your brother? You can’t be your own savior. You see?
Do you see how much you need each other? If you cannot succeed at being an independent entity then it means that your involvement with the whole Brotherhood, with every aspect of the infinite expression of God is the only choice for an experience of being that you have available to you. And that therefore privacy is nonsense. And that the answer to the problem of existence lies in the withdrawal of defenses and the employment of love so that the unity of the infinite expression of God can be experienced in its exquisite harmony. It’s called Heaven.
But as I’ve said before, it’s got to start here. It’s got to start with the apparently separated human entity that you think you are, actually being the place where the experience of caring is felt. And it’s got to be with each other. YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO A-L-L D-A-Y L-O-N-G!
Do you see that what I’m saying doesn’t mean that you personally have to have or come up with the answer for your brother’s need. What you have to do is care enough to let the love flow. The Father will answer the prayer.
Just watch the lines disappear.
Susan says that whenever there is a gathering and Paul is not claiming a separate mind of his own, that the lines leave his face. And then afterwards he turns back into a pumpkin. I will tell you the consistent experience of joy that comes from constant prayer, which is what Paul is engaged in this afternoon, the experience of it is peace and joy that is fulfillment itself. And the ongoing experience of this if Paul indeed would aqueous to my suggestion that he do this constantly would result in the lines disappearing and staying gone, and for color to come back to his hair, and hair to come back to his head and a flat stomach, which he would dearly love. But he still enjoys a little time to think for himself.
QUESTION: Me too.
RAJ: But now you and he are not confused about what the answer is. And all of you are a little younger than when you arrived this afternoon, because the truth of what I’ve said and the love with which I’ve said it has touched the Christ in you. And it’s a little more conscious. But tomorrow or on the way home in your car when you look in the rear-view mirror begin to use a little self-discipline. And when you see your fellow man remember that here is your opportunity to stop getting older as well as waking up.
QUESTION: Thank you.
RAJ: Thank you.
QUESTION: Thank you. Just in sitting here I’ve had many of my questions, that I walked in the door with, answered. And so it kind of evolves as the day goes on. But I’ll tell you what I was feeling. When I came here I was feeling very lost, very confused and I thought that I was at the lowest point in my life. And you mentioned that Paul was brought to his knees, I at least feel that I’m bent over and in a very extreme low back pain. And as a result of all this confusion I’ve lost all my confidence to move on. And I don’t know that my lack of success in my business venture…
RAJ: I’m just going to briefly say: Let us say, lack of confidence to go on by yourself.
QUESTION: Yes.
RAJ: Continue.
QUESTION: I didn’t know if this was all a result of my previous unwillingness to connect with God, or if I was really moving in the wrong direction. I’ve been meditating, hoping to get some guidance. And I just wasn’t. And I don’t know that it was that I just wasn’t hearing what I needed to hear, or what. And all of this lack of success in doing what I thought I was good at, what I know I’m good at, was lending toward a lot of troubles with Maran and I. But I guess what I just need to know is am I on the right track, doing what I was doing and is it appropriate for me to continue on the way I am with Maran or does that….
RAJ: Yes, yes, yes, yes!
QUESTION: I don’t know if I should share with you, just as we were sitting here I told Maran what I had created for myself in my yoga studio was an ability for me to pass out that love in that confined area.
RAJ: Just remember who it is that’s standing in front of you. It doesn’t have anything to do with being a yoga teacher, a successful one or an unsuccessful one. It doesn’t have anything to do with people, you know independent, separated entities who could benefit from yoga. You doing what you’re doing and them doing what they’re doing, all of you doing it together is simply the opportunity to glorify God, not glorify a teacher, and not help to glorify students. It’s all about caring. It’s not about becoming something. It really is about caring. It really is about making the gift. Paul makes the gift but his hands are empty. And he’s never going to become good at having something in his hands to give. Do you see what I mean? It’s never going to get to the point where he will have learned how to be the presence of God by himself so he can do it without me. He’ll never become self-sufficient. He, as a separated entity will never become successful. All he can gift anyone with is what he is gifted with. And the only way he can be the recipient of a gift that he can extend is if he dares to care.
Again, you’re always making a gift that never originates with you. And so it’s up to you to make a choice for which resource of gift you want to use, your ego or the Father, the Voice for Truth, the Voice for Love.
So remember who you’re sitting next to. Remember who it is you’re coming home to. Remember who it is that you think, or appear to be teaching. It’s always your opportunity. You are confronted with your opportunity to care and to make the gift, which is really a prayer that God will answer for both of you, for all of you. Forget about being successful. Forget about what success is supposed to look like. Because if that’s what you are preoccupied with you will manipulate forms to try to get the right look.
Paul could say with the “cash flow” at the moment that being the presence of love doesn’t work. But he’s not about to stop, regardless of how it looks. And the look will change.
You have implied that by the time you got the microphone you were less confused than when you entered. Would you like to comment on that?
QUESTION: No, just that I was sharing with Maron., what I thought that I had done is created an environment for myself in my yoga studio that I was able to get the love out. But outside of that and if anybody didn’t come to it then they didn’t get it, because it was outside of my comfort zone to give it outside of that room, because they weren’t coming to me. So that was…
RAJ: You could say, “I’ve come a long way to be with you.”
QUESTION: Right.
RAJ: And yet the fact is you are here with me and there is no distance. But what are the limits of caring? What are the structures of caring? What are the appropriatenesses of caring? They’re as infinite as God. Caring can’t be done on your terms. That’s not caring, is it?
The opportunity to love should be welcomed wherever it presents itself, and when you are not trying to keep a safe comfort zone. But caring endures. I guarantee you that where you’re able to feel comfortable will increase. And the experience will be a freedom that you’re not being able to experience when you set the structure or limits.
QUESTION: So I guess that just leaves me with one other question. I guess I have to… if it has to be an avocation rather than a vocation then I guess anything would suffice in the meantime so far as how to make ends meet, rather than trying to make my avocation a vocation.
RAJ: You can use this for a motto: Love is whatever works! So the answer to your question is, Yes! But which is your vocation and which is your avocation doesn’t have to be as well defined and specific as you’re wanting to conceive of them. In being open to what works, to what meets the need, the percentage that between the two can shift easily. If you say, “well, I’m going to make that my avocation,” well, you’ve got it pretty well pegged. And you’ll keep it in that definition. Will you just say, “Father, Thy will be done. Whatever works. And I will not try to guide my fulfillment into a pattern of my own creating.” That’s a means of joining and abandoning the position of author of things in your life. That is a means of breaking down this tiny separate sense of identity.
Without your definitions getting in the way, God has a free hand. Your good can approach you without having to cope with the definitions you’ve put in the way.
Heck if you’re already bent over, go ahead and fall to your knees.
QUESTION: Well, that’s my intention.
RAJ: Okay.
QUESTION: What’s getting in the way of my having a relationship?
RAJ: It is who is on first and what is getting in the way of your relationship! (laughter)
Well, I’m going to ask of everyone here who is willing to ask for Diane to have a meaningful relationship come to view in her life. Let us do what I was talking about earlier. Let us care enough to wish fulfillment for her. As I said, what if you can’t ask your own prayer? So we will ask it for you. And let us all do it right now, anyone who cares.
Okay.
So if it happened this way it really would be a miracle.
QUESTION: (A man from the audience) Here I am Diane. (much laughter)
RAJ: Maybe it just might be this simple. Thank you for expressing your need. And what I want everyone to be aware of, it’s important to be aware of, is that wanting a good man in your life, or wanting a good woman, wanting a meaningful relationship is not an intellectual need, it’s not an intellectual want. Like I said earlier, do you see how much you all need each other?
So, experience the fact that you need this and don’t apologize for it to yourself or anyone else.
Don’t feel guilty for feeling needy. Just abide with it.
Now everyone else has asked for you. I am going to ask you to ask something for someone else at least once a day. This is not a test. And it is not a matter of your doing well enough to deserve to get what everyone else has asked for you. It is a matter of extending the gift because that’s what undoes the isolation, whether it’s isolation from someone to be a partner with, or isolation from God, or isolation from friends and so on.
Thank you for your question. Thank you for expressing a need.
QUESTION: Is there a relationship in front of me that I should be looking at differently?
RAJ: Is there?
QUESTION: Well, I’m not sure.
RAJ: All I’m going to say is, be willing to look at it differently. As I’ve said before you can’t steer a car that’s parked at the curb. The willingness to look at it differently will allow it to become clear what it can become.
QUESTION: Thank you. And I’m willing for a miracle.
RAJ: Good.
QUESTION: Well, speaking of needs, I have one quick need and then I have a question. The quick need for my comfort is will my daughter pass her State Board Exams? That’s question one.
RAJ: Your relief will come in asking for her to pass it with ease. Your peace will come in extending to her your caring, not concern. It is concern that is distressing to you. But in caring enough to ask that nothing successfully distract her from accomplishing this task well. That will bring you your peace. I’m not going to answer the question more specifically than that.
QUESTION: I’m happy with that. I’m trying to identify my need here. Recently I’ve been going through this kind of nebulous state of being. I was out of sync but I couldn’t pin-point it. And now it seems as though it’s becoming clearer to me and easier to deal with because it’s being externalized rather than internalizied. And what I’m dealing with I believe has to do with my own self-reguard, my own dignity, my own comfort. And it’s not that perhaps I’m very graceful at this. I told my mother-in-law whom I’ve known since I’m 15 and I’m 55, how I felt about the way she was treating my family and me. And I told her how she appeared to me and what I would like to see.
Now this is all well and good and I’m okay with that. And I also did something that I’m not accustomed to doing which was to just completely share myself with some of my co-workers. And you know many years ago I considered myself to be one of the biggest secrets there was. And so it’s like I’ve got—I prefer to call it a jelly-jar because it’s smaller to me and the insides are sweet.
But I think my discomfort has been in holding the lid on the jelly-jar. And now the jam is boiling, steam is escaping and so it’s coming out. And I can see how this might… it’s rather exciting, because I can see how it can greatly help me, because I’ve been a cluster, migraine headache sufferer ever since I can remember.
And so now I’m getting kind of excited about this. Now the thing is these things are new for me and it’s kind of like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m doing this.” And I guess what I hope and try to have enough faith in is that where all this is going will be good for me, and that whatever I do
I’ll still respect myself in the morning.
So I guess I would like to hear something about it being okay to take care of your needs. And that where I’m going will of course be fruitful and wonderful and it’s okay not to do it perfectly. And maybe to… I don’t know, raise a few eyebrows and that sort of thing. I guess I’m afraid of what some people might think of me, not all, I don’t care my comforts to important to me now to waste too much time with that. But that comes up. You know, my ego starts just screaming at me. So sometimes that gets me a little nervous. But I’m kind of just tired of it. I just kind of “Oh, I don’t care what you think.” But I’d love to have your comments. Thank you, Raj.
RAJ: Well, first of all it’s important for you to understand that the sweetness of the jelly is not of your own creating. And indeed, it’s sharing is long overdue. Now some people have jars of shit, which it wouldn’t be wise for them to share. This sort of carefree abandon that you are allowing because the jelly is sweet is not a dangerous thing for you to be doing. Because you also need to express thoughtfulness and genuine kindness. And so your carefree abandon is being done in that kind of context, which makes it safe even if the unexpectedness of it causes other people some distress, or wears their muscles out from raising their eyebrows.
You’re not as confused as you think. But you’re going to need to persist so that you can find this genuineness of you and its expression to be more comfortable and more natural. You’re on the beam.
QUESTION: Thank you, Raj.
RAJ: You are welcome.
QUESTION: During those times when guidance seems specially hard to come by, is it appropriate to use some sort of dousing technique like pendulums or rods to approximate guidance in that instance?
RAJ: Oh, absolutely! I was wondering at your use of the word to “approximate” guidance. Pendulums and dowsing rods are excellent ways to access your Knowing, with a capital “K”, because there’s no way for the conscious mind to interfere. Yes, you can make the rods parallel and you can make that pendulum go in any direction you want. But, your intent is to get beyond your ego. Your intent is to know the truth. So by all means use whatever means you have available to you.
I would encourage you to dedicate the use of the pendulum to only that, which doesn’t reflect your ego. Not to protect yourself but so as to be clearly focused in what its use is for. You can as easily decide to tune into the radio to see if there’s a message in a song. Don’t worry the Holy Spirit has infinite means of connecting with you and it makes it much easier if you’re not saying, “I will only listen to guidance that comes to me exactly as it comes to Paul Tuttle, or only in this particular avenue.”
What’s getting in the way is too much structure in your mind. And so rather than tell you how to by-pass or deal with these structures I’m encouraging you to use other unstructured means, and to do it with some carefree abandon, with a little bit of trust that God knows how to reach you.
That’s the end of the answer.
QUESTION: Thank you.
RAJ: You are welcome.
QUESTION: Thank you, Raj.
RAJ: You are welcome.
QUESTION: I have been scattering my energies, so for quite a few number of years in terms of work…
RAJ: Who told you?
QUESTION: It’s my feeling that ever since I was a child people are saying, “what are you going to be when you grow up?” “I don’t know.” And I’ve been kind of living in a ………….(?) like Peter Pan or something…
RAJ: Well, tell me when you finally grow up.
QUESTION: Yeah, well that’s what I keep waiting for.
RAJ: No wondering you don’t know what you’re going to be then.
QUESTION: Right. So up until now I’ve been pretty content to just kind of go with the flow.
RAJ: Excuse me, Do you see that what I’m driving at is that what you’re going to be as well as the idea of finally growing up is all irrelevant crap that should not be concerning you. And as I said—I don’t really want you to answer this question—but who told you that you’ve been engaged in irrelevant activities? How do you know that each thing you’ve engaged in is not going to end up being specifically useful in some task that unfolds? Why are you evaluating your life? Why is there not an assumption that maybe everything has been perfect, it’s just that at the moment you don’t see how it all fits together? And then I’ll further ask you, can you see that if you had that attitude, that perspective, that you would be able to honor yourself more in the moment you’re in and be able to give yourself more easily to whatever is at hand to do?
QUESTION: Yes.
RAJ: That would be an experience of integrity, of more wholeness than your concept has been allowing you to experience.
QUESTION: That is what I’ve been… the path that I’ve been following is trying to be responsible, or responding to the needs of the moment throughout my life. And doing what needed to be done at a particular time given the circumstances that I was presented with. But lately I’ve got about four businesses going and more property than I know how to manage.
RAJ: Poor (?) ……..(?)
QUESTION: I know I’m complaining, but it’s gotten to be so complex to manage everything I wish I could just focus my attention on one really valuable endeavor for the good of myself and everyone else. And I don’t know if there’s one thing that I’m here to do or if I’m supposed to be one of these people who just goes from one thing to the next?
RAJ: It’s very simple. Take care of what you’ve been given to take care of well. Stop wanting what hasn’t been given to you. And if what has been given to you is going to stand in the way of what will be given to you it will in an orderly fashion be removed from your experience, because God’s in charge, not you. And what doesn’t fit in the identification of His fulfillment of purpose, which at the bottom line is yours, then it will intelligently and in an orderly manner move out of your experience to make way for what’s going to come in.
So again, take care of what you have been given to take care of well, without grumbling about it.
QUESTION: Thank you, I’ll try.
RAJ: There’s joy to be found in it. There’s joy to be found in it.
QUESTION: It’s a lot more fun to buy a piece of property than it is to take care of it well. You know, the joy is in the purchase not in maintaining it and taking care of responsibilities and being organized. And so I feel like that’s part of my life lesson to…
RAJ: One could say that about a spouse.
QUESTION: Hmmm, yeah, like falling in love is easy but staying in love takes some effort.
RAJ: Some commitment. Don’t be so eager to go out and find something else to love. Use the opportunities that are right in front of you. Bring that willingness to honor what’s there for you to bless with your caring. You see?
QUESTION: Yes.
RAJ: At least the property can’t argue with you.
QUESTION: No, I love the things that I have. It’s just that there’s only one of me to go around and my energies have become so scattered that I’m not maintaining anything really well.
RAJ: Let that become your purpose to take care of it well. If you will do that instead of trying to find something else to deal with, what doesn’t work about what you presently have will become obvious, you see.
Fulfillment isn’t somewhere else. The Kingdom of Heaven isn’t somewhere else. Start where you are. And start with the materials at hand. It’s just good common sense. But it happens that what is just good common sense has an utterly divine and profound significance. And if everyone would begin to value their simple common sense instead of getting up into highfalutin metaphysical principles and ideas and wild imaginings everyone would experience the benefit sooner and the whole world would wake up faster.
QUESTION: Can you share a little bit about the difference between following what you call common sense and following your heart or the impulse to…
RAJ: You will always find that real common sense is in utter harmony with your heart.
Now I’m not talking about folklore common sense—“a stitch in time saves nine, a penny saved is a penny earned”—I’m not talking about societal common sense. I’m talking about common sense which amounts to an honest, genuine, real assessment of what you can do and what you can’t do, of what really means something to you instead of what ought to mean something to you. Common sense is what’s left—already there in you—when you’ve given up all the oughts and all the shoulds and all the wants. In the absence of those you find yourself knowing what you feel. And what you feel is utterly intelligent when it’s not distorted with insanity, you see.
QUESTION: Yes, I understand—going back to your peace that you keep referring to. Is that what you mean by that?
RAJ: Indeed. Your peace and then what’s obvious to you from within your peace. Yes.
QUESTION: Thank you.
RAJ: You are welcome.
That is Paul shaking his head.
This morning it happens that Paul did ask—and he did not know what I was going to be talking about today—Paul did ask, he experienced a desire that something meaningful happen today, that he desired for everyone who came to have a maximal, beneficial experience, I’ll put it that way. How wonderful that he did, that is why he was shaking his head, because he got blessed by it too.
And he was shaking his head in amazement.
It is time to close for today. Being together always feels good to me. It doesn’t always feel as good to Paul as it has felt today, which gives him encouragement to dare to stay with me more consistently even though it’s not likely to be quite enough. And for that I am grateful.
I love you all.
We Are Already God's Fountain of Youth... and to disagree otherwise, is to judge what God made Perfect as something finite, something less than Perfect Love, something otherwise limited. Such position is mere arrogances, as it's defining God as limited in His Unlimited Creations of Love.