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LXVIII
Simplicity:
A Requirement for the Fifth Degree of Initiation
Lecture based Questions:
1. Draw or describe a reminder or symbol of one of your helpers.
You have hundreds of helpers. You know what to do.
2. Which Rays have temperaments more inclined to simplified lives?
Third Rays and Fifth Rays feel more in harmony with themselves when they have a small circle of good friends and a few useful belongings without clutter.
A Fifth Ray usually finishes one project at a time, and therefore does not have a house full of unfinished activities. Their sense of organization is different from than that of other people, however, because they might have books and paraphernalia spread over the house in a system that is clear to them alone. They know where each item is and can reach for it when needed. The uninitiated stranger would be lost and amazed in the house. They also live by the motto The Right Tool for the Right Job. So their work stations and tool kits are normally clean, well maintained, and complete.
Third Rays generally live within their means. They are unaffected by society’s pressure to own luxurious stuff, although they do love to play and have some toys. The appearance of things is less important to them than the meaning of things. You will observe the dwelling of a Third Ray to be clean and well-ordered. There can be a monk-like feeling about the person and their atmosphere of home.
Which are more inclined to disorder?
Fourth Rays usually top the list of crazy homes and gardens. Their lives can be crammed from corner to corner with unfinished projects. They can be as uniquely organized as Fifth Rays, with things in their functional place but not necessarily in an esthetically pleasing arrangement. Their personal sense of order might baffle the outside observer. Tools might appear to be left out in random order, but to the Fourth Ray, it is right where it can be used. The Fourth Ray temperament is not always conducive to scrubbing or dusting. They are energized by trying new things, so their lives can seem complex with diverse interests.
If a Sixth Ray is a co-dependent, the home will be neglected. Their lives might be a swamp of addictive friends and family sucking them for favors.
If a Seventh Ray is collecting things, the home will be too full of stuff to be harmonious. Although they love to organize things, they can become stuck in the details and lose sight of a relaxing schedule.
If a First Ray cannot find someone else to clean the house, it will be dirty. They love to acquire things, and can get carried away with getting but not circulating. This can lead to pattern of getting bigger and bigger houses to hold all their growing piles of stuff.
All the other Rays can also allow their lives to get into disarray if they have neuroses.
3. Why is a simple lifestyle valuable to success?
It is easier to succeed when focused on a single goal. It is easier to focus on a single goal when other activities and obligations are not demanding energy and time. This also makes room for adventures and spontaneous fun. Having a lifestyle with plenty of breathing room invites circulation of energy. The flow of energy in your life creates prosperity, health, and success. We normally call this a positive flow of energy.
The simple life only accepts obligations from members of your karmic circle. It only takes on one project at a time until its completion. It lives within its means. It doesn’t rush around. It keeps track of things. It doesn’t take on the whole world. It is unforced.
4. What problems can occur without the simplifying process?
Extraordinary events occur naturally in life. They happen when we need to shake out of our living slumber. Your Guardian Angel and Awakener Angel work together with your shadow to choreograph the emergency or event that cannot be ignored. You are forced to step out of the regular routine. It is much more difficult to take these times in stride when we are locked into rigid and demanding schedules. This is why we are encouraged to have lifestyles with flexibility in them.
Often, we prevent ourselves from attaining the goals that we would really like to achieve because we have canoodled ourselves into positions of obligation. This is considered to be a form of procrastination. When people outside of your karmic circle depend on you at work or for other services, many lives become tossed around when you have to do something else. This is considered to be a form of control-itis or co-dependency. The bottom line is that these types of behavior obstruct success, so focus on getting rid of them.
5. Why isn’t simplicity easy?
It can be easy with lots and lots of practice. Simplicity is a discipline. It requires daily practice. There is a constant movement of getting rid of what is not necessary. This creates a dynamic flow of blessing out and blessing in. As we make space, we remove congestion and stagnant energy. The available room that we have created invites success and blessing.
6. How is simplicity related to personal power?
Selective elegance is the keynote to a successfully simple life. Meaning, the fewer complications you have in your life, the more beauty you have. Like a prism, a simple approach takes in life and separates it into beautiful light.
Personal Power is accumulated further by having it but not using it. The I Ching calls this real power. This is a very potent form of simplicity—taking life with faith and leaving the details to Divine Mind. Work the Divine Plan as it comes to you and relax.
7. What is the greatest deterrent to simplicity?
Attitudes of attachment goop up the works. The identity is the big culprit here, defining the self-image through things that are not permanent—stuff, knowledge, activities, and relationships. Faith is the antidote to the attitude problem. Understanding what is real and permanent helps to keep things in their proper perspective.
8. What is the easiest way to cultivate simplicity?
Short meditation at the beginning of the day helps to keep the agenda well-organized. Persisting in the pursuit of a simple life eventually cuts loose all the crap and brings your world into a harmonious balance.
9. How does needing to be entertained gum-up this purpose?
Our society has made us into stimulation junkies. We often identify with the need to be entertained. It keeps us from getting to the real business of life, which is the deepening of character. Some of us are afraid of having nothing to do. We are used to feeling restless. The reality about clairvoyant ability is that we cannot perceive information while we are distracted by entertainment. Learning to be the observer and not the audience is part of the trick.
10. Meditation Exercise: A Quiet Mind
Although stillness is easier for some to achieve than others, we can all enjoy some level of success by employing visual aids and breathing techniques. Following is such an example.
• Focus your attention on the black circle. Maintain a relaxed attitude.
• Visualize the golden waterfall going into your crown chakra, and the golden flower at the crest of your forehead at the center ridge. It is important to maintain this waterfall image throughout the exercise.
• Breathe in slowly (sticking out your stomach) and out slowly (relaxing the diaphragm) for five repetitions.
• Breathe in slowly and then hum on your exhale for three repetitions. Let the air out gently so that the hum lasts a long time. Your heartbeat may cause the hum to have a bumpy quality, so just accept this as part of the exercise and allow it to happen.
• Place your hands in the above position, your thumbs on your eyebrows. Keep your attention on the circle and keep breathing slowly.
• Say, “I keep my mind on the stillness within the stillness. In the heart of All is the quiet of blissful silence.”
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Saying Yes to Less
Active Listening can only occur as we cut away the attention to self and place our focus onto the stream of present flowing time. Without this there is only the hubbub of mundane pressures, the constant chatter of the inner critic, and loud demands from environmental distractions. These only serve to create Astral noise within the seat of consciousness. Your quest for greater perception and keener understanding can become eclipsed by your belief in the brash illusion.
The basic method for stepping outside of the rat race is daily meditation. Not one that demands impossible chunks of time and ritual, but one that creates inner space and a foundation of peaceful strength. Merely a few minutes a day are all required to achieve this end. The accumulation of years of faithful practice will create a bond with higher frequencies that become unshakable as the decades pass. This makes all occasions easier to process. This makes all interactions clear and amusing.
Without the foundation of a simple and well-regulated life, chaos creeps in the windows and generates piles of urgency. We strive on a daily basis to maintain only that which is essential for well-being. The rest can be discarded or addressed in an unhurried manner by priority. When inevitable change enters our days, an unadorned lifestyle makes adjustment smoother. An empty table can take on new items more readily than a cluttered table.
This brings us to the topic of blessing. All around you are good things waiting to happen. Your belief system allows only a fraction of this bonanza to enter your reality. When your attention is jumbled with attachments and misdirections, it has very little capacity left to think about what should penetrate your world. In other words, when you are occupied with the fear of lack, illness, or change, the wrongdoing of others, and the pursuit of stimulation, then only fleeting bits of your consciousness are available to effect improvement in your life by means of clear thinking, affirming, and daily maintenance. Consistent and faithful effort are required to change the direction and vibration of your consciousness, yet this is the prime reason for our journey in this physical plane. Observe life’s bumps and pitfalls for the things that they really are—manifestations of your expectation and spoken command.
For this phase, try making a quick list each morning of the following—1) planned activities 2) your feelings about each 3) which are nurturing to yourself 4) which enhance the success of the day 5) what you would like today if it were possible. Include your eating, shopping, and personal activities. Much energy is wasted through rituals that affirm the identity and which crystallize behavior patterns or negative habits.
ACTIVITY TIME TAKEN FEELINGS NURTURING/NOT FANTASY
drive 3 hrs tired not knitting
teach 3.5 hrs like it not recording
grooming 45 min nuisance nurturing sleeping
dying fabric 30 min like it nurturing --
cook 30 min ok nurturing frozen
meditate 20 very good nurturing --
Each day, you may find your feelings changing about certain activities. This is not the venue to analyze emotional patterns, but do affirm for the removal of activities that have become too entangling, or disagreeable. Do not spend longer than five minutes or strive drearily for thoroughness on this exercise. Let the ideas spring lightly into your mind, write them down, and then move along with your day. It is the persistent daily faithfulness to this endeavor that will create the inner oasis of selective elegance.
Often in a relationship environment, a loved one will strive for simplicity while another loved one piles up clutter or brings clutter into the home (usually everyone doing this in their special areas). This situation is best remedied through visual meditation, as physical striving to achieve order can bring up bad chi and conflict. Sitting or standing in the room, imagine it in its cleanest and least clogged incarnation. Imagine spaces without furniture. Imagine fetishes and knickknacks placed in esthetically pleasing arrangements—all ouvredupois released from the emotional grip of the family and removed from the home. Repeat this exercise whenever the issue comes up in your thinking. The thought form of order will increase and gain strength from your repetitions. Eventually [sooner than you may anticipate] members of the family will acknowledge this impulse for simple decor, good flowing feng shui chi, and a well-functioning home.
Life changes often bring about disarray in thinking and in environment. This is brought about because we [by nature] resist change and sometimes have trouble releasing old reminders of former patterns. Cut the Astral chords, analyze which souvenirs are nurturing and where they should be in your life, prioritize your adjustment to changes in the front of your daily activities.
Be patient and relaxed with your progress.
Be smooth in your thoughts and feelings.
Be aware of your influence in the universe.
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The best hour of my day
Is when I see your smile.
The greatest moment of my life
Is when we connect.
I need no more than this—
To be in the world with you.
Apart or together,
There is no separateness between us.
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