The best way to hold onto something is with an open hand, and while you create new things in your dream, make your actions those of sublime grace and compassion not only towards others, but also towards yourself. Apply this to all that is of your earth, your experiences, your surroundings and your thoughts. It is these qualities which allow you to embrace a measure of Selflessness. It is in Selflessness that you will be centered in yourself.
Give of yourself and it is you who will receive. Give not, though, any thought to giving for the sake of receiving, for this is part and parcel of the paradigm of separation. The traits of elegance and kindness within you are those which are inherent to each of the 10,000 things. All things are endowed to you in not only physical ways, but energetically as well. Nurture your elusive qualities to maturity within yourself and new attitudes will be naturally expressed in your outer life.
Embrace the unknown and take nothing for granted. Your giving to others will reflect your devotion to your Self and it allows others to give to you. Your receptive qualities are equally important, for receiving from others allows them to receive. These two things are, after all, one and the same thing. You cannot receive and refuse to give, and you cannot give until you learn to give to yourself.
All situations you encounter, regardless of their appearances, are to be understood as an encounter with your Self. How you behave in these encounters is your choice, for you have freedom in all your experiences and expressions. How you respond to your world is only for you to judge, if judge it is what you choose to do.
Any qualities within you that you are able to recognise as part of who you are exist only for one reason – they have been placed within you, and while some have been encouraged effectively, some have not. All qualities are developed only through habitual practice. Their active expressions are, as mentioned above, only an externalised aspect of what is developed within you. Your own development can be observed in the changing ways you interact with the world and those around you. If you do not change your ways, you do not grow. However, all qualities exist within you, even if they be latent and sleeping. It is your choice which you apply yourself to.
Solutions offered to your world by your esteemed leaders are accepted as the lesser of two evils. They are a compromise where the best solution seems elusive, but they predictably result in that consensus of group thought that is again, based on fear and judgment. These solutions are not arrived at by true agreement, for they come from those who have all the answers, your experts and chosen officials, and they do not compromise. The compromise comes only on your end where you decide that someone else must know better. You decide not to rock the boat, and have imprisoned yourself in a place called belief that is only in your mind.
Outwardly it may appear that externalised events have reached a state of betterment, but by neglecting your inner world, you have a structure that will not stand the test of time. By giving your challenges over to another, you miss the chance to find your own solutions and make your own mistakes. Without this experience, you cannot develop the needed qualities of Understanding and Wisdom. Of course, this is encouraged of you in subtle ways by those who perpetuate inadequate solutions, for they need you to need them. They care not about learning from mistakes, understanding reality, or gaining wisdom. They simply want you to believe that they can change your world for you, and that what they do is done for your benefit. In truth, it is only themselves they serve, and they know they cannot do a thing to improve your lot – they know this is up to you.
It is through a loyalty to a higher cause that you truly grow; this is achieved through the dynamic that is catalysed by the surrender of self which results from this devotion to things that cannot be voted upon. When you realise that things originate within you, you become a vessel, or container – that which contains all these things. This awareness will help you to function as you are designed to function. Self-discipline and compassion in ceremony will encourage new momentum in your life, which will then have its effects upon your actions in the world at large. Others will perceive a change in you, but they won’t know what it is. You find dignity by the functions you perform within your own Holy Rite and no monger will compromise yourself. A small, but important release takes place within you, you will no longer be subject to the influence, criticism or shame from others. Your choices will begin to clear themselves.
Clear choice is impossible without clear thought, and clear thought cannot arise by external influence. Understanding your own truth allows Wisdom to fuel your love. It then will temper Knowledge into functional purpose in your life. Living life without this personal truth is painful and confusing, and it is now your choice to realise and express that you are capable of so much more than you have dared to dream.
Certain qualities must be founded in the Heart, and all things must be tempered by the Wisdom of cultivated feeling. These things can become evident in your dream, but will begin in subtle ways as they awaken within you that you will hardly recognise their presence. This is such as things are, for true and Rightful Action in interaction can only be expressed from within you, spontaneously and consciously.
Your actions, in their purest sense, must become those of Propriety and Outer Ceremony. This is ceremony in action not performed to the point of mindless activity, but mindful activity. You must be aware of what it is you do while you do it. Once again, by being fully present in all that you do, you stand within the clarity of Self. Your life in Ceremony enables you to shift your perceptions of the mundane and lift all that you experience to that of the alchemical Purified Experience. How your actions are performed are measured only by you and your observation of result. Your concern will not be with other’s opinions or judgments of your work because your performance is a gift that reflects what you have been given. This model of self-rectification replaces the existent one of judgment, pain, suffering, and victimisation. This new model of active good-will and kindness provides you the reward of peace within, and your life reflects that same peace without.
A variety of qualities are essential in your growth toward being Self-Realised, but we have discussed only the expression of yourself in relation to others. This is the way of all Outer Ceremony, where what you practice is externalised from within. This is why your Inner Ceremony must be considered.
A Unified Reality is at your core, and all around you – it is only partitioned by your insistence to categorise and define everything in your world. This creates separation through delusory differences, and this dogma of difference may be defended by citing drivel about anarchy and the loss of harmonisation of society without your neat and rational arrangements. By your ceaseless categorisation you believe you are easing the pressures of society by enforcing uniformity. However, it is what you might call anarchy that frees all things, and this could be said to create equality.
You cannot fight for peace, but your need to categorise is obvious and is based upon the following premise – a group stands around a table, and each define this table in different ways. They each proclaim its specific functions – what it should be used for. You know that a table can be used for many things, but if everyone is fixed on only one point of view, communication cannot take place. Hence, agreements must be made and conclusions must be determined. By consensus and compromise you manage to put all things in boxes.
The left brain and its logical democratic ways must step in to enforce order amidst perceived chaos. Meanwhile, it doesn’t really matter to Life itself what the table is used for, or if its purpose changes. Life has no boxes or definitions, but you, however, must have these boxes for all those tables in your life – so many, in fact, it is impossible to relax. Everything must be defined, and once done so, that which is defined must remain as it is defined. If it does not remain as such, chaos returns, and your table must be given a new name, and a new box. This adds further to your disturbance caused by incessant categorisation. All this for your inflexibility, your desire for comfort and avoidance of change. This is the source of all the battles within you, and all the wars without. This you create in devotion to the rational.
In society uniformity is stressed as the only way to understand things and to maintain order. In the attempt to remove threatening and chaotic elements from your life, external problems are matched to external solutions. These solutions become the new status-quo, the new agreement. Definitions become the norm simply by restriction, consensus, and your permission.
Chaos is evident where a world of many cultures is expressed for all define things differently. The attitudes encouraged by your society’s leaders to establish common behavior subconsciously limits your freedom of expression by excluding freedoms allowed to others. Their ways are not yours and that cannot be permitted. In accepting these weak restraints, you have explored nothing within yourself, but this drive to uniformity is such that you think you have real solutions for your real problems. However, everything is to the contrary in this imposed and artificial reality. In order to change your environment, look not outside yourself, for your environment is that reflection of what is within you. Go within, and change your perception. By your Self-awareness there is only one authority.
