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HOMEPAGE THE INTERNAL CHURCH - GOD ACTED. HOW WE LOSE OUR NATURAL SENSE OF SELF. WORDS AS CAGES, WORDS AS WINGS. |
SPIRITUAL TOOLS PART ONE: ‘Deogenics’ is an original Internal Church term that denotes practical techniques to expand our spiritual life of creativity and compassion. It also includes methods of meditation and prayer to increase our sense of God’s Presence (Deogenic Consciousness) and to enable us to draw upon the internal energy and power that comes from the same source (Deogenic Power). These terms help us differentiate ourselves from some religious teachings that tell us we are dependent upon God’s mercy and must beg for forgiveness for our sins. The original word for sin came from an old archery term that meant ‘to miss the mark”. That is all it is. It is behaviour that misses the moral standards of the culture and the time. The word ‘sin’ has no place in The Internal Church. But we accept that often our behaviour “misses the mark” by treating other people in ways we would not want to be treated ourselves. The remedy? Act differently in future. Treat others with more compassion and consideration for their well being as well as our own. Farewell sin, hello morality. God as Source already sustains us otherwise we would not be here. There is no need to be begging for forgiveness or mercy if you are doing the best you can. If you are not doing the best you can with what you are and what you have got now is a good time to start. God is not a loving tyrant. You have already been given the gifts of existence and life. Do the best you can with it, thank the Divine Source and get on with being compassionate and creative and find and release your own internal power. The following technique is a simple lesson that teaches us we are already OK, with OKness that is Deogenic, but many of us do not realize it. RELEASING OURSELVES FROM WORDS AS CAGES BY EASING INTERNAL CHATTER Most of us are constantly chattering away to ourselves inside our heads. Although we call it 'thinking' it is frequently more like words wandering here and there, while we dip into one memory file after another. One thought, or set of words, sets off another, without any clear destination in mind. If we are at all stressed, the flow of words usually reflects old, negative, memories. As that occurs, old emotions are aroused and without noticing it, we are, once again reinforcing our cage. How often do you find yourself dipping into your old catalogue of past 'failures', faults and disappointments? Or, how frequently are you recalling feelings that diminish you and drain away your sense of well-being and power? That sort of 'thinking' is like walking backwards into the future with your gaze fixed firmly on the waste products of the past. Let us have a brief rest from words that create cages. Something practical: Find a quiet place where you will not be interrupted for a few minutes. Stop thinking for a moment and experience your own sense of awareness. Notice your feeling of being right here and right now. Stay in that state of awareness-without-thought for a while. When you notice that thinking is starting up again, stop the experiment. Rest for a moment. Now, a question for you: did you notice that while you were carrying out that little experiment, there was absolutely nothing at all wrong with you? During that time you were naturally OK. Now, if you start allowing your thoughts to drift back into the influence of the past, you will probably find that you have immediately returned to being less than OK. Are some of your recurring thoughts asserting you are not OK? If they are, have you noticed that you have to work at feeling not OK? In other words, you have to select and replay memories and judgements that diminish you in order to feel that you are less than you really are. To test your true state, return to the inner silence you just experienced. Notice that you return to being OK again. To feel bad about yourself you must replay memory files and their accompanying negative emotions. You have to allow yourself to coexist with negative internal chatter and feelings. Peace of mind can be found by letting your awareness flow into the internal space that exists between two thoughts. Experience internal quiet on a regular basis. For thousands of years teachers of meditation have claimed that it is here, in your own internal silence, between two thoughts, that enlightenment is to be found. There are some wonderful words from a song. They are quoted here with an apology to the copyright owner because the writer does not recall the source. “Silence without, Silence within. Thy hush, Oh Lord Covers the din.” Our true, natural state is to feel good most of the time. It would be anti-survival to feel good all the time. A threat to our safety or well being is accompanied by unpleasant sensations because that is nature's way of alerting us to the need for action in order to survive. Under those circumstances it is healthy not to feel good until you have taken some action. It is also healthy to return to feeling good as soon as the threat has passed. As your natural state of being OK emerges more and more into consciousness, old memory files and their associated replay of emotions have less and less influence on your state of well being. More Deogenics will appear here shortly. |