The Teachings of Abraham and Authentic Spiritual Practice
The Teachings of Abraham and Authentic Spiritual Practice
The Teachings of Abraham represent a spiritual practice based on the presumption that I can be fulfilled by the manifestation of my desires. The focus of the teaching is on the ability of the individual to create desired outcomes, and to notice that outcomes are always being generated by how and what we think, either intentionally or by default. The instructions center around becoming competent at monitoring one’s thought process and becoming aware of how what goes around, comes around. This basic karmic law of the phenomenal universe is known as the Law of Attraction and, when studied and mastered, can be a valuable step in becoming a mature adult who is responsible for his or her thoughts, words, and actions. The Law of Attraction obviates the vibrational coherence between how we think with what shows up in our lives, and is an important observation that has been a part of the spiritual tradition of humanity for millenia.
The Teaching is focused on the apparent individual and his desire for fulfillment and satisfaction, the solution to which is the ability to manifest my desires and to survive death through endless incarnations. In this sense, the Teaching represents the possibility that I can be fulfilled if I see more clearly and master the discipline of monitoring my thoughts so that I can be effective at creating what I want.
The problem with this assumption is that it is not true. I can never become happy or fulfilled, I can only be happy as a deliberate choice no matter what the conditions are. Core happiness is not based on the fulfillment of desire or anything else, it is the nature of Reality already and can either be noticed or ignored, but never generated by my personal effort. I can add to the happiness and sanity of Life by being in alignment with the truth of it., but I can never find it because it is not lost. “I”, in my self bound concept, is the one who is lost and is constantly pushing happiness away by my belief that it can be found. This belief is a poor substitute for the responsibility for happiness that can and must be met. Once that responsibility is assumed, then circumstances and life conditions no longer have any power over me, whether my desires are fulfilled or not.
Therefore, the true basis for authentic spiritual practice is not manifestation at all, but response ability, the ability to respond to that which is Alive and is overwhelmingly Beautiful. That’s right. The true basis for authentic spiritual practice is Distraction by That which is Attractive, That which is so Compelling, I forget my so-called “self” and am drawn deeper and deeper into a profound Love Affair with Life that outshines me and what I think I want. This ability to Respond eventually becomes an obsessive and passionate devotion to What is True, Alive, and Radiantly Beautiful. I become content to simply be alive, my desire for this or that evaporates and I become capable of making real accomplishments because I am no longer obstructing the Life Current with my monotonous preoccupation with all things me.
In the popular children’s story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie inherits the Factory as a result of his love and devotion to Willie Wonka. Because of his lack of desire and purity of heart, Charlie is gifted the entire estate without even asking for it or wanting it. The other children who visited the Factory were vain and self obsessed and were not a vibrational match to inheriting it, like Charlie was. Charlie demonstrates that manifestation will happen naturally and as needed, without a single thought or desire. It is responsibility for and to Love that is the true basis for manifestation, not desire, not thought management. Right orientation produces right results.
Our spiritual obligation is response ability for Love, for Truth, and for my relationship to That which Lives Its’Life as all beings and worlds, not the manifestation of my desires, which have absolutely no chance of ever creating lasting, moment to moment happiness. Through Love and devotion to It, I can be happy even when I am miserable because I am capable of loving even my suffering and becoming responsible for it. By responding to it, I absorb it and transform it without effort or strategic manipulation.
With Love, pain turns to medicine. (Rumi)
Since I am always already coherent, always already psychodynamically integrated with the literal infinity of Existence, the true self of all, the most Beloved of every heart , I already embody the Essence of Life, Love and Truth, uncaused, unreasonable happiness and sanity.
I am always already one with the infinitely Mysterious Source of all Life and it is my most fortunate privilege to participate in the Feast of Life, fully, passionately, nothing held back, raw, vulnerable, no withdrawal, no self pity, no fuck you.
I see that what I call me is the intense intersection of the mortal with the eternal, colliding and entwining in a turbulent, neurotectonic cauldron of fire, providing heat and light and energy for the work that needs to be done. Enlightenment is Perfect Responsibility. Authentic spiritual practice is the willingness to sober up from our self possession and start paying attention to the Infinitely Precious Person of Life, the Only One Who Exists, Who appears and disappears every form in a Sea of Unbroken Light.
We serve that Love in every action, that is the basis of a truly human culture. Love is Truth, I Am That and So Are You. This is cause for great celebration now, not some time in the future when we are united with God and with each other, that is our Situation right now. It’s time we stopped ignoring it. Then, manifestation will happen naturally, as our love provokes a love response from Life.
The true principle of authentic spiritual Life is to allow oneself to be distracted by the infinitely compelling nature of Existence, distracted to the point of forgetting our apparent problem and becoming capable of making a heart response to the Truth and Beauty of Life and Love, forgetting to disassociate into imagined dichotomies like spirit vs. body, which is not a dichotomy at all, consciousness and matter are lovers, now. Recognizing That and building my life on That relieves me of the drama of victimhood and self pity and restores me to my rightful place as the heart, the true foundation of Real Life, not mind, not body, not desire, not will. These are only servants of the heart, not qualified to lead anyone anywhere. The heart longs for the Beloved and is content to suffer that agony because of the Beauty of the Radiant Core of Existence Itself. This is felt in the heart as an overwhelming gratitude for the Infinite Grace that pours out on everyone every second.
As long as I am focused on my apparent face, on the thoughts, desires, and dreams that make up what I call me, I fail to notice the larger Reality beyond my provincial space time focus of attention. That conglomeration of memories, thoughts, emotions, intentions, complexes, and ideas that you call you is a spontaneous Appearance of the Divine Being. That makes it about the Divine Being, not “you”. Your identity shifts from a local space time entity to the Heart of Existence, but “you” don’t survive the journey. There is still a mind and body appearing, but it no longer represents an obstruction or a problem, because the identity has shifted. Now that I am seated as the Heart of All, everything is clear. Only Life Exists. I am That, not just in my infinite aspect, but also in my grossly human one. Now there is coherence instead of fragmentation and strategy. Now I am free to do the work that need to be done.
Progressively, (and paradoxically, unexpectedly) I become more and more capable of manifesting outcomes because I am already in alignment with the Heart of Life and am Content in Love, wanting nothing for myself, only to Feel the Intense Current of Life and Love, that’s enough. All enlightenment is by Grace. No one can “do it”. Life does it.
The primal heart response to the Truth and Beauty of Life provides a continual opportunity to appreciate and serve. If I do not notice the Innocence and Purity and Exquisite Ferocity of Life and become Intimate with It, I become like the venal children in the Chocolate Factory who were not a vibrational match to inherit the Keys to the Kingdom like Charlie was. Willie Wonka is the Father, Charlie is Christ who inherits the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven because of his purity of heart. That’s how manifestation works. It’s a matter of Heart, not mind, not will, not desire, not me.
The Teachings actually prove my point, that manifestation is about heart and not strategy because:
Since love is the highest vibrational frequency and creates appropriate manifestations according to its purposes, as in the Charlie example, it is the true focus of any spiritual practice. The heart’s response to Life’s Love and the devotion that naturally develops into a deeper and ever deeper appreciation is the only true basis for spiritual practice and for manifesting what’s Important.
