A Morning Wakeup Call

by Gordon Rand

There is a word in spiritual literature that is used as a pointer to an inner conscious activity. The word “work” as in “inner work” is used as guidance in seeing the hidden movements of thoughts and emotions.

Vernon Howard spoke of this “work” as a “watchful state of moment-to-moment self-acquaintance;” to see the thought at the moment it appears.

The perfect time to put this into practice is in the morning, upon awakening from the night’s rest. With a little self-reflection and inner attention, we can observe the pull of self-thought and fleeting self-imagination.

This self story-making is so unconscious and automatic that the day begins without a glimpse into its psychological roots.

Like Cervantes’ Don Juan, we have mounted our stallion, ready to conquer an imaginary future before seeing it on the horizon.

How much better to pause at first light and turn attention inwardly? In doing so, we discover the birth of the ego’s thought-self as it turns what could be a fresh, new day into an old, fearful “mental movie.” The present has been replaced by an imaginary future drawn from unseen pictures of the past.

By quiet watchfulness, we catch sight of old self-pictures painted on the mind’s wall and joyfully see them fade away. In their absence, the universe whispers of a life more vast and immediate than thought forms can describe.

Self-Reliance Tips of the Month
from Mystical Poet Rumi

If you want to discover Eternal Life
And live in the radiant desert of Detachment
Advance bravely on the Path, fearing no pain or loss,
Take each step authentically, risking your whole being.

******************

Each humiliation I bless, each loss, each agony
Only death after death could have brought me
To this bare sun-dazzled desert where
You gush up in everything.

Featured Podcast of the Month

“Spiritual Springtime — Awakening Wise Seeds Within and a
Blunt Look at Anger”

You’ll receive many insights, including:

ONE: How proof of growth is the recognition of a new absence.

TWO: The “beehive mind” and how to replace it with real prayer. Click this link to listen now:

Special Vernon Howard Exercise

When you begin to see that you have created your world in your own image, it will shock you. Here is an exercise for you­­: When you are confused or in anguish, every time you feel hurt, instead of thinking about the pain, you will do something else.

When you think about it, your attention is directed toward the pain. From now on, each time you feel a pain, a disappointment, a hurt of any kind…instead of thinking about the pain, think about something else: Think: “I don’t understand this pain.”

I can’t begin to tell you what a marvelous change this will make in your life.

Just think, “There is a demon there, something that is lashing at me, and it hurts.” But you are not going to get a false pleasure from the pain. You are going to go to the right department and say, “I don’t understand this pain.” That’s it.

Then you never ever have to think another thought about the agony you are experiencing. You are through. You have done your part. I have given you the way out. This is what is authentically religious. God says, “Don’t think about and swim around in the pain. Simply sit back in your chair, relax and say, “I don’t understand this anguish that is terrorizing my system.” If you don’t understand it, there is nothing you can do, is there? Do nothing.

When you complain and cry and moan and groan and think, “How did I get into this mess,” etc, nothing will change. With this exercise, you are putting yourself in an entirely different department and you will get the products that department has for you.

Do you want the product of not having to make worried decisions all day long? Just say, “I don’t understand…..whatever crisis that comes up…Stop. Go through your whole day not understanding it.

It is your spurious understanding that got you into your inner mess. Don’t be afraid to have no intelligence of your own. God is willing to make the grand magnificent substitute for you. God gives you his life in exchange for your life. If you are willing to say, “I don’t understand anything at all about my life,” your false under-standing will fall away and in its place will be the insight from Heaven itself. That insight from a very high place is all you need for this world and the next world.

The Veteran Pilot’s Wise Advice
Tom Russell

True Story: A pilot back in 1928 was certified and ready to take his first flight as “pilot in command” — with passengers and a big bag of mail. His route took him over a dangerous mountain range in Spain. In those days flying was not as safe and predictable as it is today. A veteran pilot told him, “You’ll be bothered from time to time by storms, fog, snow. When you are, think of those who went through it before you, and say to yourself, ‘What they could do, I can do.’”

No matter how difficult the challenge, someone before you has faced the same and found their way through it, and so can you.

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