Book 2: Creative Intelligence (Part 3)
Here And Now Is What Is
Letting go is the key step. In this way we become a magnet for everyone and everything we need: intuition replaces thought, knowing replaces questioning, serendipity replaces effort and peace replaces stress. As Lao Tzu advises, “Tao abides in non-action. Yet nothing is left undone. If kings and lords observed this, the ten thousand things would develop naturally.”
However, letting go is perhaps the most difficult step. Not only have we programmed ourselves that if we work hard, study hard, strive continuously for what we want, we have a chance of attaining success, monetary reward and a comfortable retirement, but we have also consigned ourselves to face some painful truths. When we are stuck in the heat of an argument, or when we are feeling overwhelming emotion or stress, or when we have some physical impairment it is difficult to simply let go and experience it as it is.
“Whatever we resist persists.”
Carl Jung
Overcoming our innate resistence to letting go is a matter of coming to grips with both the intellectual and emotional aspects of this act. Intellectually, we need to understand that there is already within us the perfect ‘answer’ to every question, every situation, every need. It must be so, since the source is boundless. Emotionally, we need to understand the fear of facing life head on with surrender, or defencelessness. By learning from each negative feeling or event, by being in the now and accepting what is as what is, we receive the gift of understanding (true enlightenment) allowing us to move on wiser, richer and untroubled from that point onward.
“Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.”
Dennis Wholey
The doing itself, not the outcome, is the essence of life. The sorcerer plans ahead of where he is going. As outlined in Book 1, his intentions become orchestrated space time events of what he intended. He reverses the ego’s process (When I get this > I will do this > I will think this > I will be like this) to one of actualization (I will be this > I will spontaneously fulfill my desires > I will do the things that are necessary > I will receive everything I want).
Knowing that what he gives, he receives, the sorcerer’s Being is in harmony with this essence of life. The road to this state is in simply relaxing into Being: when we allow ourselves to taste this for the first time we discover the experience is far more tangible and satisfying than anything we previously experienced in the physical world. Repeating this often reinforces this benefit, and so begins to replace whatever illusory benefits we took as our lot in life before. Because our attention begins to focus on this, those moments of enjoying our true self come to the forefront.
Meditation Exercise: This time we are going to meditate on something. It could be a picture, an object, anything. Concentrate all of your attention on it for ten minutes. You’ll find your mind wandering, and you will have to bring your mind back again and again to the original purpose. However, it is critical to learn how to focus your attention to overcome any obstacles that appear in your path. Now, bring a picture with you and focus on it for ten minutes. Note every detail. Then, cover your eyes and try to picture every detail. When you are able to do so, you will be ready for the next meditation.