Cindy Teevens Considering Eckhart Tolle, and Byron Katie, it may appear that one has to suffer to awaken. But there have been sages who have awakened through love and devotion. What matters is not the suffering or the love that came before, but the surrendering. Surrender your resistance, surrender your very self, surrender your very existence.
Commenter: I have a problem with “suffering ” and “surrendering”. I would rather “be”.
Cindy Teevens If there is a problem, there is not be-ing.
Commenter: Hahaha! Touche.
Commenter2: Yes Cindy I do believe that there has to be some type of decision in the mind asking for a better way
Commenter2:
That’s why most people on the path are a bit older bc they have realised that what they were doing didn’t work. But I really love it when I see young people asking this question as well. Xxx
Cindy Teevens Surrender is not a decision of the mind but a giving up of the mind. A giving up of yourself as mind.
Commenter3:
I found it hard to surrender as long as I felt that there was something that I NEED to do. It had to do with attachments. I felt that my entire self value rested on my ability to pay the rent and the bills. When I realized that even these basic things were really out of my control, I finally gave up all control.
I still enjoy being able to pay the bills and the rent and having a roof over my head but if I can’t, I am still ok. I am not a failure. I still have the same value no matter what happens. Because in the end the truth is that I really need do nothing.
Cindy Teevens In the moment of surrender, there is no “I” to find it hard or easy. If there is an “I NEED” there is no surrender. Surrender is not giving up things of the world, it is giving up your very self. When you surrender, you surrender all worries along with your sense of me and mine. Action happens whether or not you believe the idea that you are the doer-cause.
Commenter3 Sometimes during meditation, or even at times when I am thinking about it during the day. I try to imagine that I am a part of all that is. I recall an experience I had one night in bed when I truly did feel that way. I could feel my wife next to me breathing, but it wasn’t her breathing, she was part of me, it was just another part of me breathing in this perfectly synchronous being of myself. I was one with the fan next to me all as one being, all as one. In that moment it was so obvious that this moment of now is all there is and all there ever will be, that this separated feeling was nothing more than an illusion.
Dear self, is this the experience that I am looking for, is this what I want? A 24/7 experience of oneness with all that is? Is this the “awakening” that everyone is talking about?
Cindy Teevens Truth is not a “feeling of oneness.” Feelings come and go, and particularly near sleep the mind can play all manner of wonky tricks. In order for the truth of non-separation to reveal itself, the sense of “i” must fall away, it must be extinguished. When the “I” falls away, there is no “i” to feel one with everything else, there is no “i” to imagine itself one with everything else. When the “i” falls away, it is not via imagination of the mind–it is the end of the mind. However, before the “i” is extinguished, one can have momentary “glimpses” of direct Knowing. When the “i” remains to tell this story it will say “i” felt one with everything (but not any more), and separation remains. This “i” must be questioned. PS–when truth is revealed, there will be no “i” to question it; there will be no question.
Commenter3: How is your experience in nature with the trees and feeling at one with the trees more valid than my “wonky” experience while laying in bed Cindy?
Commenter3: I understand your use of the ‘i’ and what you mean by that, but it seems that to deny the ‘i’ while being is a body is a delusion in itself. For me it’s about balance and perspective. As long as I am in a physical body there will be an experience of the ‘i’, however the ‘i’ is no longer running the show. There is nothing in this world that I want so as long as I’m here I am letting Jesus and the Holy Spirit lead the way.
Cindy Teevens There was no “i” that felt one with anything. That would still be two. All there is is one. And that never changed back. Once you see truth, there is no going back. All questions and seeking dropped. Even seeking of God dropped. What is there to seek when there is nothing else? Your perception and idea of yourself is still as an “i” in a physical body. Give up even giving up control to God… can you see how that is still running the show?
Cindy Teevens “To those who do not know the Self and to those who do, the body is ‘I’. But to those who do not know the Self, the “i” is bounded by the body; while to those who within the body know the Self, the “I” shines boundless. Such is the difference between them.” ~ Ramana Maharshi
Commenter3: It seems that there is 2 sides of one coin of teachers and students. The students are looking to find something and get somewhere and the teachers are saying “follow me, I know the way!”. I think the question every student has to ask themselves at one point is who knows the way? How can I find the light and the truth and the peace of God that these teachers have seemed to find? It seems as though there is nothing to find. That what I am looking for has always been here. It seems that my process is to clear out my own illusions and misperceptions of who I am and what the world is. Is it possible that this is all a dream, an illusion that I will simply wake up from, and cast off like I do my dreams when I wake up in the morning?
Cindy Teevens “… what I am looking for has always been here” <– Yes! “…It seems as though there is nothing to find” <— Only because it is veiled by false knowledge. The “world” as separate from “you” is a dream. Upon seeing the Truth, the world does not disappear like upon waking up from a sleep dream. Just the mirage of separation does. You cannot follow, for there is no where to go. You must sincerely and earnestly question everything you think you know, because that is what veils. Yes, ultimately, you are on your own. Others can only point and question. You must look.
Commenter3: Lesson 132 in the ACIM workbook seems to state very clearly that this world is not real. I would like to know your thoughts on this lesson and what it says please. Thanks Cindy. http://www.acim.org/Lessons/lesson.html?lesson=132 Lesson A unique, universal, self-study spiritual thought system that teachesthat the way to Love and Inner Peace is…
Cindy Teevens There are billions of people on this one earth, each living in their own private world. This is the world that is not real. (The world, seen as the world, as separate from you, is unreal. The world seen as the Self is real – to paraphrase Ramana Maharshi). There is danger in how “the world is not real,” is communicated, because if it is not given context, then usual mind, which thinks of the world as real and separate, will think the earth, water, rocks and trees will disappear from you, like they never existed, similar to how the “environment” disappears when you wake up from a sleep dream, and you are in a new and different one. Thinking yourself to be a separate “I,” that tiny mad idea instantly divides Reality into you and the world. Neither exist as separate. This line expresses what I am saying… “There is no world because it is a thought apart from God”… The world (as separate) is thought. Once you imagine a separate “I,” you must imagine a separate world, and God as separate. The three don’t exist except as One. Only in thought, and therefore illusory appearance, are they separate. Re-read this lesson adding “the world …as separate” and you will hear and understand it differently.
Commenter3: Yes that is exactly where my mind goes, into thoughts that I will wake up from this world and that it will cease to exist like the dreams have had the night before waking in the morning. I wonder why Jesus would state that the world is not real instead of telling me that the world as I perceive it is not real?
Commenter4: One day we’ll come to realize that the entire physical universe was also a dream. Lesson 132 also states “Some see it suddenly on point of death, and rise to teach it.” That’s been my case
Cindy Teevens First you must remove the false “I” to know the true I that has no body, no world. Right now anyone can see that the world is not real in the sense that it is not permanent. The only purpose for that is to crave the Eternal. That which is Real is unchanging. And yet, it plays through and as phenomenal experiences. The risk in believing the world is unreal right now is that you will devalue what is your Self at play, and/or imagine things that don’t help, like the idea the world will disappear from you. The illusory world as separate is as unreal as the illusory “I” perceiving it, so the phenomenal world will not disappear from you, but with you–revealing the true Self.
Cindy Teevens That the world is real as the Self cannot be understood by mind/ego. It is seen/recognized, and cannot be spoken. However it is useful in giving context to the world is not real.
Cindy Teevens This lesson is pointing to the fact that the world you live in and think is real is thought, is imagination. “What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs?” “Here in the present is the world set free. For as you let the past be lifted and release the future from your ancient fears, you find escape and give it to the world.” …and.. “Release your mind, and you will look upon a world released.” It talks about releasing the world to be as it is, it does not say the world will disappear.
Commenter4: That’s found through a direct experience of Revelation…
Commenter5: Cindy I have a lot of inner resistance tonight. Working through some PTSD . That stuff sucks. Anybody work though that kind of work. Please be honest with me.
Cindy Teevens Commenter5 Anxiety attacks, and other stuff I never had a label for is some of what I went through, though the psych called it PTSD.
Cindy Teevens Commenter3 you are not who you think you are, so before you decide whether the world is real or not, is it best to start with you?
Commenter5 Ok Cindy. Just needed to connect with a human being right now. Thanks for hearing me. I am learning new coping strategies like emtional freedom techniques to defuse the emtional distress that generally throws me into the disease of addictions. I know your group is for more evolved humans. I got real issues to work through . I don’t want to go into that unconscious addiction to self sabotoge tonight. My adult daughter and I got into some conflict over family issues. That event with her just triggered me. My emtions feel like they are in my throat riggt now. Triying to breath..and become mindful..a lil difficult.
Cindy Teevens Yes, follow the breath at the belly…Breathe slow and deep into and from the belly, while feeling all of the senses at the same time. Keep eyes open. I can do some more with you after 8:30.
Cindy Teevens PS–I work with people with all sorts of challenges, anxiety, depression, up to suicidal. None are less than the other. I see all people equal, as equally the Self. No matter what they are feeling or experiencing.
Commenter5 I hear you. Thanks for listening and hearing me in my distress. I am feeling a bit more settled. thankfully
Cindy Teevens Hope you are feeling better today Rick Herranz
Commenter5 Hey Cindy. I am feeling better. The pre-occupations and obsessions of the mind are passing. As I keep surrendering them to G-d.
Cindy Teevens–The one that finds it hard to surrender is what must be surrendered.
Dear Self
Dear Self is the spiritual version of “Dear Abby.” Get access to broadcasts: https://gobeyond.leadpages.net/join-conversations-with-your-self/ Join live or watch privately.
You are seeking answers to why you feel, act, and react the way you do, or maybe you are even questioning who you are. When the student is ready, the teacher appears (to appear). No matter where answers appear to come from–your mentor, a book, your friend, enemy, dog, or a tree–ultimately, they come from within, from your Self. So ask away, because the Truth is available, here and now. Welcome to the catalystic conversation that can unveil it.
Work with Cindy one-on-one and expose the ego: https://alchemylovejoy.com/exposing-the-ego/