3 Extraordinary Ideas to Help You
Realize Lasting Freedom
By Guy
Finley
In those quiet, but magnificent
moments of life — where we are given a sudden glimpse of something so beautiful that it quiets the mind — we know we stand in the presence of something that
represents a new and higher order of
ourselves. What we’ve yet to understand about these fleeting experiences is
that they are an invitation to become fully conscious of the timeless and vital
forces as a living part of who and what we are in reality. In such moments we
know, without having to think about it, that as beautiful as the world around
us may be, it pales in comparison to the world that awaits us within us. Let’s
illustrate this last idea.
If you’ve ever taken a walk through a deep wood on
the sunlit day and stood in the silent shafts of light streaming down and
through the trees, then you know, even though these bright beams seem to appear randomly and separately, each ray of light comes from a common
source: the sun. The same holds true with these beautiful timeless qualities
that sometimes streak into and through our hearts and minds. These celestial characteristics
are the too-fleeting expression of our own yet to
be realized True Self.
But if this is true, which it is, what keeps us from permanently entering into
this extraordinary life? As you will see, the answer is surprising!
We don’t really know where to look! Or perhaps,
more clearly stated, we tend to be looking in the wrong places because, at
present, we see our life through a part of us–our senses — that “tell” us we
live apart from all we see. The sorry result of this incomplete perception is
undeniable: instead of an undivided relationship with the extraordinary life within us, we are reduced to a frantic search outside ourselves, at
best finding only
temporary fragments of the freedom for which we so long.
How do we regain — realize — our relationship with
the innermost truth of ourselves? What must we do to enter into a conscious relationship with that
extraordinary life within us? Use the following three simple exercises to do two things at once: first, to reveal what
stands between you and the higher freedom you seek, and then to release you from the same. There’s an old saying that “rain follows the plow.” So is it true that realizing our true higher
possibilities follows the interior work necessary to realize them.
1. Open Up To Real Life: Dare to see and experience
yourself as you are without giving names to any of the myriad states of self that present themselves before your inner eyes. Resist any temptation to interrupt the
thoughts and feelings
rushing through you by trying to explain to yourself why you are having the experience that you are. Why open
yourself up to life in this way? Because it’s the only way to see that the true extraordinary you can no more be defined by a single
thought or feeling than can the sun be known through a solitary beam of light.
2. Do What You Fear Doing: every time you take the leap into what you are psychologically afraid of doing, the
extraordinary life within you will prove that its
unshakable ground is everywhere beneath you at all times. To know that you
can’t fail as long as you’re willing to learn what the moment reveals about
yourself is the same as understanding there’s nowhere for you to go but up!
3. Take Time Once A Day
For Your Self: What we must
remember is that an extraordinary life is timeless, and if we would share its
life, we must enter into its world. Here’s a good place to start: whenever you can remember to do so, choose to consciously
step out of that gilded, but self-confining, cage called “thinking about yourself.”
At least once a day sit quietly with the intention
of observing the movement of your own mind. Learning to watch your thoughts in
this impersonal way gradually teaches you what can be discovered in no other
way: just as the hands of a clock can only go around and around, so it holds
true for the level of mind always frantically searching for the highest
possibilities in passing time. Who you really are is timeless, and only this realization can grant you the
extraordinary peace of being who you really are.
On March 15 at 1 pm,
Guy will be speaking at the Newport Beach Civic Center, 100 Civic Center Drive,
92660. On March 16 at 1 pm, Guy will give a talk at the Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Encino, 4316 Lanai Road,
91436. Cost per talk is $10, but no one will be turned away. Please call (541)
476-1200 for more information.
Guy Finley is the best-selling author of more than
40 books and audio albums on self-realization. He is the founder and director
of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit center for self-study located in
southern Oregon where he gives talks four times each week. For more information, visit www.guyfinley.org
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