2001-11-04-Discipline of Joy

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Topic: Discipline of Joy

Group: Costa Rica TeaM

Facilitators

Teacher: Alana, Legion

TR: S. Butterfield

Session

Opening

Conversation between group members after reading David’s first two lessons on The Discipline of Joy, the subject was listening.

David : Regarding this whole business of the telepathic circuits that are being opened in us, those of us who are trying to learn from this experience together, I experience what I call nudges, or urges: go see somebody, write this letter, call so and so, invite someone here or there. It is a giving experience. That is part of what I am talking about here, too, this ability to share when our souls want to do something good. Sometimes we bottle that up and say, oh that won’t be received or we don’t want to be vulnerable, or whatever. I found that following these inclinations is very important.

Sandy : I call them my “generous impulses.” Which in my fearful state, I very rarely followed. When you are afraid, you are afraid of giving something nice away. When you aren’t feeling loved, or loveable, yourself, you bottle up these impulses. “It wouldn’t really make any difference.” “They wouldn’t really want it.” “Nobody will know if I don’t do this.”

Nena : I love to listen. I learn. I want to learn more. (Her words are unclear.) And now I have learned that I can also say, “I don’t want to listen.” When my relationship with the other person is not flowing, is destructive, I say “No.”

Sandy : Yes, if someone is trying to hurt you.

Nena : Well, when the energy is not fluid, not flowing. (Can’t hear rest.)

David : The other thing is, Nena, if you are listening to someone…let us say I am in a disputation with Suzi…I find that sometimes she has overloaded me, she is giving me too much information, some of which I may think is false, or not a true perception. What I have found is that I need to say “Time out. I’ve reached the limits of my listening and I need to take some space for awhile.” If you are not listening, and you pretend you are listening, there is a falseness going on, and I don’t want to have that in any way with her, or others. It is OK to listen after taking a little breather, or reinstating some balance. It is important to let the other person know what is going on in you, because they are trying to communicate information to you, and if you are not listening, it is just a wasted experience. So I let her know. I take responsibility for that.

Nena : I start to listen when I manage my emotions.

David : It was so interesting that day when the teachers said, “We don’t speak for your emotions.” They don’t take our emotional point of view and speak for us. We have to do that for ourselves.

Oliver : Legion also told us that they have reached a stage without fear, doubt, or emotions. So of course they don’t want to support our emotional state.

Sandy : Well then how could they feel joy?

Nena : It doesn’t mean not to feel anything.

John : Well, they understand our emotional state as human beings.

David : They don’t let emotions overpower them in any way.

Sandy : Well, maybe as Nena said, maybe joy is beyond what we usually mean by our emotions, the emotions that are generated by fear.

John : Well, maybe the reason they don’t consult with us on our emotional level is because they aren’t neurotic, they aren’t fearful. They wouldn’t have the same reactions as we do.

Suzi : Every time we put something in the heart room, and they blow love upon it, or we present a problem to them and they come back to speak about it, their answer is always so very different. They come from a love perspective that completely transcends the problematic idea I had, from the emotional way my mind was tracking along. Their approach is from a perspective that takes the neurotic stuff out. Sometimes it seems like magic, but I’ve learned it is love. They “blow love upon it,” and everything changes.

Sandy : Yes, and they always refer to our problems as “so called problems.”

Oliver : (Reading from a transcript.) Legion said, “We are on watch all the time. We have the continual, glorious, unbounded light and love of God showering down upon us all the time, in such a way that we do not need to wrestle with fear, doubt, and emotions.…We endeavor to contribute to your life so that you truly may experience the purity and confidence of God’s love and guidance, at least in some measure in kind as we.”

Sandy : Well found, Oliver!

T/R : I surrender my thoughts and my emotions so that this time may be used for the good and the well being of all of us. I open my heart and my mind that God’s love may fill me and transmit the guidance of love. Thank you.

Alana : Yes, this is Alana.

David : Welcome, Alana, to your favorite kindergarten class.

Alana : Thank you. I would say, you have achieved a wonderful playground. Perhaps you may move on to the first grade? (laughter)

Sandy : Only when we are ready, Alana.

Lesson

Alana : You prefer the gentle footsteps of one learning. Yes? To the task of one who claims to have learned. Yes? Do you understand?

Learning, like love, is an ongoing adventure, an ongoing experience. If you imagine you have learned, imagine that there is nothing more to learn from that particular experience, or from that particular area of knowledge, or from that particular arena of the emotional life, then, my friends, you cage yourself in. You rope the learning to the post. You become static, which is a form of not-living. You prevent realizing another perspective, a new point of view. A missing piece can not show up. You become resistant to that which previously brought you to the post. You become blind to what brought you to the high level that you have congratulated yourself with, “I have learned so much!” Unleash yourselves from the post, from the static position, the holding to one place, one idea, one way, and allow, allow learning again, allow new truth, that is truth in a new form, to shake up your prideful learned position.

Of course, my friends, I recognize this shaking up is not always welcome. You have just happily leaned back upon your recliner, patting your full bellies. Satisfied. Content. But always, the learning, like love, enters, rests within, and moves on, you give it away. You share what you know, and in the sharing you let go, and in the letting go comes in new learning. For always, in sharing you touch others, and others touch you. You discover, in the creative movement is joy.

So, we are, everyone, pleased. Yes?

Dialogue

David : Yes, I think there is a wonderful spirit of joy in your little kindergarten class today.

Alana : And you, my friend, have contributed. Yes?

David : You think so? I’m not sure. The class seemed to be quite receptive to my little two lessons shared today, humbly shared, I might say.

Alana : Then, I humbly ask you, you are not sure? This is true? Let us look at this not sureness. As you share your first results, you are not sure that what you have so joyfully encountered in having surrendered to the task given has the capacity to transmit joy to your friends. You doubt this?

David : I must confess, perhaps I was involved in a little dissimulation in my response, Alana. This group was quite delighted. And I was delighted in their response as well. My feeling is that I’m more keen, I guess, my concentration is more keen on the fact that it was fun to do, it was joyful for me to write this stuff. That is what is what is prominent on my mind, basically. I am thankful for the lessons that I’ve learned. I was afraid to sit down and write them. I finally forced myself to do it, and in the process learned to be joyful in the experience. Thank you for pushing me.

Alana : Yes, but I am not so easily led astray. (laughter)

David : Oh-oh.

Alana : We will pull on the leash of listening. So, “I am not sure,” he said. Now we know that he experienced joy in the execution of his task, but, he says, “I am not sure” that my beloved group, his beloved partners in this journey, also experienced joy in the execution of their task, which was to listen to his lessons. Where is the lack of sureness? The lack of confidence? It is in the sharing experience.

We would erase the fear, the doubt, the confusion of pride; by “confusion of pride,” I am saying the many little prides you accumulate as human beings that are connected with fear and doubt and thus interfere with the joy of sharing what you have worked and struggled to learn and to know.

So! Legion gave you a task, and Legion has been filled with gratitude to witness and observe and participate with you in the joy of the execution of your assignment. Now, I wish to point out to you the additional assignment, the second assignment is to share the product of your creative endeavor, the product of your creative surrender to Legion and Legion’s assignment. Part two, if you will, is to share and in the sharing, also to experience joy.

The discipline of joy is an individual path, As well, the discipline of joy is a collaborative, co-operative, communal (that is, communion in community) task or pathway. And so, my beloved, I return to that original doubt, “I am not sure.” Dissimulation, a thought of the mind to hide.

I would have you enjoy the task as you have enjoyed it, alone. I would also have you enjoy the task of sharing, no fear, no doubt, no fear and doubt engendered by fearful, doubtful pride.

So, do you think your friends enjoyed your first two lessons, my friend?

David : I think so.

Alana : And, if there is a doubt, how might you know that they enjoyed themselves.

David : Yes, I think I would know.

Alana : How. How do you know?

David : Well, there was laughter, that is always a sign that people are enjoying themselves. And people said, from time to time, that things were expressed well.

Alana : Yes.

David : I guess…you know, sometimes when I am writing something I get going on it and I follow these little rabbit holes myself in my mind and go down them, and everything when I am writing seems perfectly reasonable. But when I read it to a group of reasonable people, it doesn’t always seem so rational to me. I guess that is where my doubt is.

Sandy : May I say something Alana? (Yes.) I think David suffers from the fear that others will judge what he has written and said. There is no judgement here, we are just sharing lessons together. We tried to convey that to him, after he read his lessons, but maybe we didn’t do a very good job.

Alana : Yes, do not criticize yourselves. I have of course picked on our beloved pupil to raise this issue of sharing. The task of the human is twofold: to know himself, or herself, to know he is loved, to know he is a vehicle of love, a transmitter of love; secondly, to know the other, to know the other is loved, to know the other is a transmitter of love. There is the receiving, and there is the sharing, the giving away.

Imagine, let us say, a Christmas tree with many lights. You plug the wire in, the energy, the electricity of light flows through. All light up at once. It is similar, the best at the moment we can do for an image: God’s love, the power of love, the abundant source and energy of love, pours into each of you. As you open to this, as you open to God’s love, as you open to an understanding of this great source of love, you light up. You lighten up your individual life.

Now, if there was only one bulb alight, what about the others? This, I say, to speak of you as an individual, a single bulb, if you will; happy, joyful in your singular light. If you are willing, take one more step. Having opened so completely to love and to light, then open to the sharing in which you see light over there, light over here, this light is wavering, and say, “I will share my light.”,” I will allow my circuit to be open to your circuit and your wavering will steady.” You will, in the sharing, know love is for all, for every one, for you, and you, and you.

My friends, you have the understanding that the circuits have been opened to the fullest communication between celestial artisans, if you will, and your world. Similarly, I say to you, open your circuits to one another, without fear, without doubt. It is communion with God that we encourage by the practice of the stillness. It is communion with one another that is encouraged by such tasks as were assigned to your brother, Sir David. Share.

Sandy : Alana, may I say, on behalf of the group, thank you David for your lessons to us.

Alana : Yes. Giving and receiving. Giving and receiving. He has given. You have received. You give to him. He receives. All in the humility of respect for love. If there is a correction needed, if there is what you call criticism needed, if there is an additional point of view to be offered, do this in love, do this with the discipline of joy, which is the discipline of love. Thank you.

Legion : This is Legion.

David : Welcome, Legion. Could we take a break in order to take care of our puppy, who is howling?

Legion : Certainly.

  • BREAK

Legion : And so, my friends, it is the sharing of the light that is equal in importance for you as is opening to the light, individually. It is one of the greater joys in human experience to see the light radiating from another pair of eyes. You share light between you. One who does not know the light within, will not see light without, unless it is shared; one who does not share that light within, will dim the light within and without. This, my friends, is the value in sharing, for human beings learn by example. Let your light shine so that others may see, and you may see with them. Share your love and your understanding of love so that others may know love, may come to understand love.

My friend, Sir David, is one who shares magnificently, one who would give, one who would share his experience of the heart room with many. He receives, and he gives away. His experiences in life have taught him, as many of you, to hide his light; you give, but you keep protectively in your own little box of treasures the full tender, vulnerable, open stream of love and light, a little is held back. I gave him a long rope; time to fully engage himself in my assignment, time to totally enjoy himself, privately, as he transmitted into words his understanding of the discipline of joy. This will continue in the privacy of his little box of treasures, in the privacy of his communion with me, in the privacy of his communion with Alana, in the privacy of his relationship with his beloved partner. But also, he will continue to share these lessons with you, his beloved group, so that the lessons of sharing may become known to him, as well as you.

The joy of sharing, not just because someone likes what you have to say, not just because you have managed to say it, but the Joy of Sharing is, like the Joy of Pride, integral to your relationship with God, integral to the discipline of love, which is the discipline of joy. It is in sharing that you give and receive information that allows the light and the love to expand, allows imperfection to be brought into the discipline of love. As we teach, so you learn, and so give away what you have learned to others.

We will speak of this further, but for now, we would open the discussion, allow any one of you to speak your mind and your heart, to ask your questions.

John : Why do I fear so much? Why am I in such fear?

Alana : This, beloved, is the heritage of your mind. It is characteristic of the human mind to imagine your fear is unique to you, the individual. Fear has been part of the human response always, and begins at the first dawning of consciousness that separates the individual from all else. Some have greater fear. Some have lesser fear. But all have fear.

You learn to assuage this fear with comforting objects, comforting relationships, the comforts of pride and personal power, and willful separation. Everyone of you has experienced cause for fear; fear of loss of individuality, fear of loss of relationship, fear of loss of the body (as in death), or parts of the body (as in amputations), fear of loss of the mind, fear of loss of the comforts against fear. Your comforts become familiar. Some keep this fear to themselves in what Legion has called a treasure box. Some people join with others, nodding their heads, our fear is real, and they create a group fear, a social fear, the fear between nations.

If there has been a lack of love, or insufficient love, or love inadequately demonstrated or communicated with confusion, love becomes confused with not-love. The individual is then more susceptible to the limiting aspects of fear; life and love and joy are commensurately limited. But love can be learned, how to love. Love can be discovered; someone loves you, and you, perhaps with fear, perhaps with doubt, perhaps with surprise, allow the love to teach you (about love, how to love, love is real). You may learn love by the power of the imagination; to follow the poetry, the beauty, the harmony, and the truth of love.

It is not so important, Why? We recognize the power of human insight, and we recognize the explosion of insight that may occur when a memory, or an explanation is given to satisfy the question, Why am I so afraid? Why do I have fear? Why do I respond so quickly, so suddenly without thought, with fear? More important, still, than why, is how to embrace fear with love. For love is greater than fear. Fear cannot embrace love, but love can, indeed, embrace fear, your fear.

So, this, my friend, is the discipline of which Legion speaks. The discipline in which you learn, step by step, or I should say, choice by choice. You learn to choose love first, and allow love to embrace your fear, to show you, guide you, tell you, if you will listen, saying, “this not that,” “stay still, not reactive,” “turn this way, not that way.”

First love, as it embraces fear, will always guide you into the stillness wherein the still point of God’s love and joy in you can be known. I spoke to you of the imagination. Naturally, as your movie men have made clear, you can leap from your basic fear and imagine many more. So it is with love. It is a question of the discipline of the imagination to choose the discipline of love, not fear. Imagine love, even a little teeny, tiny bit of love. Allow that love to grow within your imagination. Imagine love embracing fear. Take your Star Wars, take your Terminator One, Terminator Two, take your Friday the 13th, and allow love to embrace the fearful imagination, allow love to erase the fearful experience, the fearful ideas, the fearful punishments. This is a practice, the practice being more important than the understanding of why.

In the practice of the discipline of love, which is the discipline of joy, you co-ordinate the mind and the heart, and you align with God’s love which is so abundant, so true, so powerful that your fear becomes something of which you are not afraid. Your fear no longer informs your mind to shut the door, or to create a wall, or to shoot-off the most clever invention of words or weapons, or words as weapons. But I would step aside to allow Legion to bring you his comfort. For it is comfort that you need, comfort from one who, like you, lived with fear and overcame that fear with love. Comfort from one who lived as a male.

Closing

Legion : Yes. Now I may speak to my beloved Sir David, as well as you, Sir John. And we would not exclude Mr. Practice. The male human being experiences a twofold fear, has a double difficulty with fear, he feels ashamed of fear. I bring you comfort my friends. I, too, lived with fear. As well, I loved a woman, strong in her ability to express her will. I loved her dearly, yet I, in my shame, hid my fear from her and most desperately wished to hide my fear of her. It is in relationship, in the sharing required by relationship, whether we speak of a couple, a group, a society, a nation, it is in the sharing that fear is overcome by love, that fear is taken away. Learn the discipline of love. Learn to share the love. Learn to share the fear and allow the love to embrace you without shame.

It is, she says, time to go. Has this been useful?

John : Yes, it has been for me.

Legion : If you find more troubling your mind about fear, come again to me, as I will again come to you. Thank you.