A point on which students of mental science often fail to lay
sufficient stress is the completeness of man—not a completeness to be attained
hereafter, but here and now. We have been so accustomed to have the imperfection
of man drummed into us in books, sermons, and hymns, and above all in a
mistaken interpretation of the Bible, that at first the idea of his
completeness altogether staggers us. Yet until we see this we must remain shut
out from the highest and best that mental science has to offer, from a thorough
understanding of its philosophy, and from its greatest practical achievements.
.
To do any work successfully you must believe yourself to be a whole man in respect of it. The
completed work is the outward image of a corresponding completeness in
yourself. And if this is true in respect of one work it is true of all; the
difference in the importance of the work does not matter; we cannot
successfully attempt any work until, for some reason or other, we believe ourselves able
to accomplish it; in other words, until we believe that none of the conditions
for its completion is wanting in us, and that we are therefore complete in
respect of it. Our recognition of our completeness is thus the measure of what
we are able to do, and hence the great importance of knowing the fact of our
own completeness. …
We are complete in ourselves; and the reason why we fail to
realize this is that we do not understand how far the "self" of
ourselves extends. We know that the whole of anything consists of all its parts and not only of some
of them; yet this is just what we do not seem to know about ourselves. …
As we grow to accept
the teaching/learning purpose of our lives, we develop the conscious capacity
to become aware of how the ego tempts us to embrace magic as the answer to our problems,
making inevitable our happy decision to choose against these temptations:
When all magic is
recognized as merely nothing, the teacher of God has reached the most advanced
state. All intermediate lessons will but lead to this, and bring this
goal nearer to recognition
(M-16.9:5-6).
As we approach this conception, our completeness becomes a
reality to us, and we find that we need not go outside ourselves for anything.
We have only to draw on that part of ourselves which is infinite to carry out
any intention we may form in our individual consciousness; for there is no
barrier between the two parts, otherwise they would not be a whole. Each
belongs perfectly to the other, and the two are one. There is no antagonism
between them, for the Infinite Life can have no interest against its
individualization of itself. If there is any feeling of tension it proceeds from our not
fully realizing this conception of our own wholeness; we are placing a barrier
somewhere, when in truth there is none; and the tension will continue until we
find out where and how we are setting up this barrier and remove it.
That’s why “The Work”, Morty Lefkoe’s stuff, Core Transformations , PartsTherapy and other modalities exist.
To integrate all our parts into WHOLENESS or COMPLETNESS.
This feeling of tension is the feeling that we are not using our Whole Being. We are trying to make half do
the work of the whole; but we cannot rid ourselves of our wholeness, and
therefore the whole protests against our attempts to set one half against the
other. But when we realize that our concentration out of the Infinite also implies our
expansion into it, we shall see that our whole "self" includes both the concentration and
the expansion; and seeing this first intellectually we shall gradually learn to
use our knowledge practically and bring our whole man to bear upon whatever we
take in hand. We shall find that there is in us a constant action and reaction
between the infinite and the individual, like the circulation of the blood from
the heart to the extremities and back again, a constant pulsation of vital
energy quite natural and free from all strain and exertion.
Perhaps the simplest
way to characterize advanced teachers is that they have no needs that demand
satisfaction, no hidden spots of darkness to mar the innocent perception of the
world, nothing in their minds to interfere with the free and natural flow of
love from their minds to others. Freed of guilt and fear, they are able to
remain true to the Holy Spirit's content of Love, all the while their bodies
appear to be active in the daily business of life. Gone are the
"shoulds" that control daily living, or special rituals that are
needed to ground their thinking or center it on the divine. The love within
allows their Teacher's Love to be the daily program they follow. As Jesus
explains, employing the Course's symbol of a separated Teacher to guide us
through the various roles of our everyday lives:
There is no program.…
He will be told all that his role should be, this day and every day.… For the
advanced teacher of God, then, this question [of how one is to spend one's day]
is superfluous. It has been asked and answered, and he keeps in constant
contact with the Answer. He is set, and sees the road on which he walks stretch
surely and smoothly before him (M-16.1:2,5,8-10).
… It is that "Thinker" which is behind the conscious mentality, and which, if we will accept it as our centre, and realize that it is not a separate entity but ourself, will be found equal to every occasion, and will lead us out of a condition of servitude into "the glorious liberty of the sons of God." THE HIDDEN POWER And Other Papers upon Mental Science [1921] by Thomas Troward
There is a way of living in the
world that is not here, although it seems to be. You do not change appearance,
though you smile more frequently. Your forehead is serene; your eyes are quiet.
And the ones who walk the world as you do recognize their own. Yet those who
have not yet perceived the way will recognize you also, and believe that you
are like them, as you were before. Lesson 155 I will step back
and let Him lead the way.
"A couple attended a
truth-talk. On the way home the woman complained, 'He was not too original. I can't
remember it but he repeated one sentence several times.' The man agreed, 'I
don't recall it either but I know it prevented him from giving a sparkling
talk.' The sentence neither
could remember was, 'You
shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.'" VH
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