Where is faith in all this?

Do we need faith? Why or why not?

Come with me on this walk and talk where I reveal…

• What you don’t even know you have faith in
• The pros and cons of faith
• A personal story about God
• How angry I was
• The relationship between religions and enlightenment

I also speak about the suffering of Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie, so it’s a rich Sunday Real…

Where is faith in all this, why do we feel we need faith? Because we don’t know. Right?

There’s things we don’t know. And so when you do know, faith is doesn’t even play a part anymore because, you know, right?

And this knowing is not just a good ahhh… a good thought that you might have that you might say.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. That’s true. I feel it’s true. I believe it’s true. That’s not knowing–actually knowing–it’s like, what’s the difference between believing your stove is hot, and knowing your stove is hot? Very different, right?

And very important. So faith, you know, it does have a role …until you have knowing,

So, you don’t know, so you believe, or you have faith, or you have hope. Hope and faith in what? In that there’s something else possible?

Yes!

That is a useful thing. There’s something else possible. There’s a different way to see this world. There’s a completely different consciousness available. Yeah.

You hear the teachers, the sages who we are going to be talking about, saying these things that you’re not who you think you are, that we are one, and that there’s really nothing to be afraid of.

And yet there’s fear. Because there’s fear. We need faith to keep us going, to give some kind of comfort.

But in… that only…you know, you only have to have that until you actually know. And this knowing …you have the power of …you have the capability to know, to actually know.

And so, you know, I don’t even need to have faith in you because I know you have this knowing because I know what you are. I know who you are. I know the truth of you.

And so I, I don’t have faith in you. I know you. I have faith that you can align with the truth because I know you, so it’s not even really faith.

You can do this. You have to have faith in something else other than what you’ve had faith in.

And pretty much everybody has had faith in the mind, in what the mind says about things, in what the mind says reality is.

In what the mind says you are, in what the mind says everybody else is.

And we have put all our faith in the mind–and that’s why we’re afraid, because fear lives in the mind.

And the false lives in the mind, the truth does not live in the mind.

And so when we live in the mind, we are afraid and we need faith… to help us through.

So it has a use, it has a place sometimes. And then if you want to get into faith in, you know, a higher power, God, or higher being, or your higher self–you’ve never seen these things.

You’ve heard about these things. And so you have a faith in something, it sounds better than, than yourself, which has been a suffering experience, right?

And so we cling on to, these things, and they can get us through really rough spots.

So faith does have a place, but here’s what I say about the idea of a higher self, the idea of a God.

And these are ideas. If we admit they’re ideas, and we want more than just faith, we want more than just a thought, because that’s what faith is.

It’s a hope, it’s, it’s mind-based–and I wanted more.

And there was a time when I was angry at God. I was, you know, not that I believed there was a God, but I knew there had to be something other than me or what I thought I was.

And I was so angry. I was like, “Well, if you’re real, show yourself!” Nobody appeared, nothing appeared. And I was very upset, very angry and very much suffering.

And so here’s what I…that’s what I felt then. You may be feeling something like that now.

What I found was that what you’re looking for is not in the mind. So trying to use the mind to find it, isn’t going to work.

Trying to use the mind to demand of it, isn’t going to work, and actually trying to use the mind to pray to it, isn’t going to work.

It might make you feel better. It might make you feel worse. It depends on your, what you’re praying about and for, and what you’re speaking.

Because when you speak and think things that feel bad, you feel bad. Have you noticed?

And when you speak and think things that feel good, you’ll feel good. So if you’re praying, which is really thinking mentally, and if it’s a good line of thinking, you’ll feel good.

If it’s a bad line of thinking, if it’s desperate, you’re going to feel bad–and that’s not God’s fault.

That’s…That’s just where your attention is. And as soon as you quit putting your attention on bad feeling thoughts, then you feel better.

So back to God here, there I was out, out in the woods, very angry yelling.

And you know, nobody appeared it didn’t, it didn’t help all yelling that I did, didn’t help. It didn’t matter, not one iota.

And that’s when some people could start to have thoughts, like, well, God doesn’t care… this kind of thing.

And when you start to have thoughts like that, you have to have a heck of a lot of faith, which means other thoughts to counteract it.

Well, the thoughts, you know, “God’s there. He was just invisible. He was carrying me”… and we have all these kinds of other thoughts to try and counteract the bad feeling ones.

So after what I call the direct seeing, which I’m going to talk about more in the webinar, of course, what I realized was God is a separation.

There is you and God, that’s a separation. And so what the sages is realized is there is no separation and this ended all the pain and the struggle and the suffering and the not knowing because …this separation that we create creates questions, causes questions, causes problems, causes pain and fear for which we need faith to get us through.

So what I say now is that believing in God may be necessary. Actually, it’s kind of automatic, as long as you believe in your separate self, and when that stops, then you disappear. And what remains, everything that remains is and has always been already, God,

God, being a word to point to the undivided separation, the Totality, the complete and Absolute ultimate Reality. And it is not a separate individual person, but every person is It.

We got to quit suffering. If we don’t quit suffering, we don’t wake up. That’s just a fact. That’s one thing I know.

You might look at some of the teachers out there, like Eckhart Tolle, who suffered and Byron, Katie who suffered and you prob… if you know anything about me, you know, I suffered, but the suffering did not cause the awakening, my father also suffered, but he died by suicide. Okay?

Far more people die by suicide when they’re suffering, then wake up to Reality, wake up to the Truth of yourself.

So it is not a suggested route to go. And it is not a necessary thing. What is necessary is that you become sincere, earnest, that this becomes important to you.

And right now, for most people, the reason that this is at all important to you is because you want happiness. I put that as a poll in the group, I asked everybody, what’s your number one concern right now. And I put about eight or nine things in there.

And the majority says happiness. They want to be happy. Why? Because they’re not happy.

And so, you know, Byron Katie, suffered and then something happened. If you want to learn what happened, come to the webinar. Okay? Eckhart Tolle suffered.

But then something happened. It… it wasn’t the suffering that gave him freedom and peace. Either of them, it was something else.

And you got to find out what. You must be happy. In fact, it’s one of the seven factors of awakening in the Buddhist realm, which awakening there means, really means enlightenment or Self-Realization.

And these factors must be present or it won’t happen. It won’t happen. What you’re looking for won’t happen.

Now, whether or not it happens, don’t get worried about that. Okay? Because most people actually don’t want Self-Realization or enlightenment. They want what they think it’ll give them: happiness!

And so… that’s what they really want. And if you come and do the work and apply yourself, you will get that. Whether or not you get enlightenment or Self-Realization, you will get that.

And it’s necessary for that to be there in order, it doesn’t go the other way around. You don’t get enlightened. And then you’re going to be happy. Sorry. If that’s bad news.

Well, the good news is, well, it’s very good news, actually, that you can actually be happy anyway. It’s easier.

Yeah, faith will take you so far and then you need something else and you do need faith until you have true knowledge.

And until you quit suffering and then it’s really not so important anymore. And in fact, in the end, you have to give it all up.

You have to give everything up. That’s another conversation. Another topic.

Yeah, blind faith is not something… no, no, no, no, no. If you’re radically religious, you don’t belong here. This is not the group for you.

You won’t probably like to hear things, maybe you don’t like what I just said about God a minute ago.

So this is for people who are spiritual, but not religious. You could have come from a religious background. It’s fine. It’s not a problem.

All of the original mystics, who, who were the reason that any religion was founded, they all realized the Truth.

And then people tried to capture that and bottle that, you know, write it down and, and pass it on. And this is something that can’t be passed on that way.

I mean, I am ever grateful for the messages of the sages. They have, especially the ones who could really nail it. I have benefited so much from them and I’m glad we have those.

And I am excited to share them with you! But it’s not enough.

You can’t just read something somewhere or, or hear something, usually for most people, or hear something and boom, you’ve got it. You’re awakened. You’re enlightened. You’ve got it in your bones, as everybody says, they want–you want to get it from your head to your heart.

How much have you read? How much have you listened to reading, listening, passively like a student, you know, sort of sitting in front of a teacher with your forehead, pried open and like dump it in. “Mind reading” will not do it for you.

Our…we’ve… That’s how we’ve learned everything practically. And so that’s what we’re used to, and that’s what we expect. And unfortunately you have to learn to learn differently.

Learn well, in the school of hard knocks. Well, hard knocks are just real knocks. First it’s hard knocks.

So we try everything and we get frustrated and fed up and nothing works . I know, I’ve been there.

And then we might be ready to give that up. And when we’re ready to give that up, then we get real. You get out of the mind… and you use everything else you have.

And you’ve got a lot that you don’t know about. That’s why I’m going to talk about the five powers.

And when you start to use the real, you’ll start to get real results.

Debra says, “I’m so grateful for you. Did I understand that me must be happy first to achieve Self-Realization, enlightenment?”

And yes, my friend, you surely did! This… I’ve let one of the secrets out of the bag already.

Ah yeah. That that’s, that’s one of them that I’m going to be talking about.

So yeah. You know what, a happy peaceful person does no harm to themselves or others or the world. And so it’s your duty to be happy.

I say that, but I also say aren’t we lucky? You know that the very thing we love the most is the thing we need the most is the thing that will awaken us. We are so lucky. I’m so grateful.

So yeah, you don’t need to go through the “dark night of the soul.” You don’t need to dig up your past. You don’t need to… There is no past hahah… we’re going to talk about all these things, okay.

You got to use the only thing that’s real. And the only thing that’s real is right here and now.

Right here and now. And, and we… we’ve had some people in the group say they want to stay present.

So I asked the question today, what does staying present mean to you? But I won’t talk about that today.

I’ll save that for another time. We got to try and keep this to one topic. Otherwise it gets lost.

Faith… have faith that there’s something more than, you know, have faith that you, that what you know is not the truth, have faith that you can do this because I know you can.

Yeah…you’re always letting the love flow, Bonnie. If you let it flow… that’s the thing about love. You can never run out. The more you flow, the more you have, it’s gotta… like this feedback loop and that’s, that’s how it is.

The more joy you have, the more joy you have. Does that make sense? Same thing with love.

So I urge everybody to fall in love with love. That is what happened to me. That’s the first thing that happened to me. I fell in love with love. So yeah, Debra, dive in, indulge.

Don’t put anything in your way, accept nothing that keeps you from loving love, falling in love with love, pursuing love, living love…

… and I’m home now. So thanks for being here guys, until we meet again, you know what to do…

Keep it real and enjoy yourself. Good night.

Cindy