1992.09.13 Working within the Illusion

[Plenum]

from: http://www.llresearch.org/transcripts/is..._0913.aspx

September 13, 1992

Group question: The question today has to do with accepting the limitations that are put on us by our own point of view, by physical illness, and by physical limitations. And we’re wondering if there is a value to feeling the frustration of limitation, or if there is instead a need to separate oneself from the illusion, not be so affected by it—to be more, shall we say, at a distance? Or is it better for us to be immersed in the illusion, to be moved by it, to be emotionally swayed, and then to look at what results and do our balancing according to how the illusion has moved us?

(Carla channeling)

We are those of the principle known as Q’uo. Greetings in the love and in the light of the one infinite Creator. How blessed it is that we are invited to your circle this afternoon. Our enjoyment of your vibrations is surpassed only by our humble delight in accepting your invitation to share with you our opinions. Please remember to use your personal discrimination as you hear these fallible thoughts, and together we shall serve and we shall learn.

We would ask you to come with us in your imagination as we take a mental journey. Begin in the seated consciousness that sits in your circle. Absorb the experience of feeling the energy, moving around the group, the sounds spilling into the ear, the many details that would meet the eye, were it open. Now move with us in thought away from the seated physical vehicle. Remain in the dwelling, but gaze at the seated figures below. See the postures, the way the hands fall in unconscious emotion and desire. See the quiet, waiting figures that house your consciousness.

Move again now with us to an imaginary place somewhat above the dwelling in which you now are seated. Gaze down upon the abode in its nest of trees. Is the dwelling as large to the eye seen from this perspective, as large as it felt when your consciousness looked through your physical vehicle’s eyes? Move again, far enough into the ethers to observe the village as a whole. And again, move until the topography of the terrain becomes clearly visible. No longer can one find the small village, much less the abode, much less the physical vehicle’s awareness. And continue now, moving faster, until you can see the sphere upon which you dwell as it moves like a spinning ship through the ocean of what you call space.

Now move still farther away from this planet of your nativity until it disappears but the sun is still visible. Stop and reflect upon the particular essence of light and love that is the gift of your sun being. And now move, once again, away until the surrounding stars eclipse any one small star and the galaxy gradually becomes visibly conjoined; and further back, until you have no reference point. Stay there. You have no reference point. This your mind can give you, this degree of removal from detail. This process is helpful to remember to use when reference points seem to be confusing. For fast, fast relief from the agony of unacceptable confusion, we may suggest this alternative to counting to ten, for it not only allows time to elapse, but also space.

We would bring you now back into the manifested universe through myriads of stars, galaxy upon galaxy, until the sun system of your Earth is entered and the speed of travel is slowed to allow a gentle reentry into the planetary energies, those energies so colored by the unique beingness of your sun. Move into the atmosphere, and as the planet rotates upon its axis, gently enter into the arena of your particular life stream once again. There is your nation state, there your village. Slowly now into the energy vortices of home, friends and kindred. And, so gently, rolling, rolling softly, move into the physical vehicle and again take up the experience of sensation. You are now again aware, to a greater degree, of stimuli and of your individuality.

What have you learned? What has the distance taught you? Perhaps you may see that although distance is that which offers relief from confusion and frustration, it is not the teacher that speaks loudly. Indeed, that which teaches was simply quiescent during this expansion of the viewpoint—merely observing, merely recording, not coming to a cusp where a decision should be made. A great many things are to be honored about having a very wide point of view, but the clearing and crystallizing of desires and the schooling for choices perhaps may be seen not to reside in the distant, observing consciousness which gazes in safety at the tiny time-bound confusions of a living entity. However, there is likewise little of immediate value to confusion deep enough that it stops the mind and the heart from thinking and feeling in a coherent manner.

Now come again with us to the imaginary ability to stop the process of time. Imagine that this instant is captured in a photograph, or, shall we say, a frame of your film. The instant is, and is no more. Look at the picture. What is there in this picture to cause all this confusion? Let us again choose this instant, take a picture, look at this picture. What in this picture is causing the confusion?

You may profitably consider time and space to be illusions, for it is our opinion that confusion lies in the illusion of motion. In this motion, you learn and choose and learn again. But to value the process is one thing, to use it maximally as a resource is another.

When you allow the self to move on, choosing and feeling very intensely and continuing not to resist the seeming flow of catalyst, the spirit is often weary and battered. However, when the catalyst is resisted, the resulting confusion and pain is far worse and less helpful. So, we do not advise the moving back from the situation as a kind of “doppleganger” that is wiser than the actor in the midst of the catalyst simply because neither point of view is more revealing of deeper wisdom than the other.

In the close point of view, you often must act and make intuitive guesses far beyond any logical ability to reason correctly. Yet, the process of transformation occurs better and in a way more attuned to your heart’s desires. The pulling back from experience to control or affect the chosen actions taken, though sometimes necessary to solve ethical questions, removes from experience the richness of observed catalyst that can be retained in what you would call the matrix of your mind.

However, the deepest reality that we ourselves see is that there is no motion, but the present, rather, is. The still picture of each moment is as close to manifested reality as that moment can manifest. This means that if you perceive something happening, the truer statement is that this something is. And, rather than observing a process, you are, in the deeper sense, observing the essence. Nothing is occurring, nothing is happening. This is the standpoint from which you may most helpfully work with your own understanding of the self as it reacts to and creates more catalyst.

The truth is that all that is, is all that there is. Nothing comes into consciousness; nothing leaves consciousness; nothing is happening. You are experiencing an illusion. When you can see, in the moment, that a complex stack or series of levels of feelings and actions is at this moment adding up to a very rich tapestry which is being observed and recorded, and, at the same time, can sit and simply allow this tapestry to be as it is, you have within you what we would suggest to be a useful asset to use in moving, as one who is graceful, in the motion within the manifested illusion of time and space.

All the intensity of desire and emotion may be honored. You are here to honor as well as observe and experience the incarnation. That which occurs so often seems cantankerous, wrong-headed, deliberately cruel, or simply confusing beyond words. Can you allow this richness to abide? Can you allow the illusion and also allow that it is illusion? It is this dynamic that enables you to choose which of the avenues of action is appropriate to this particular moment. Perhaps this moment is one where distance is needed for relief from too high a level of stimulation. If you allow the fullness of this moment to enter deeply into you and engage you, you shall perhaps know when you need the protection of distance.

We suggest it is better to stay distant until you are not overcoming any resistance as you walk into close, intimate experience of catalyst. As long as there is fear, the fear that produces all of the confusion, you may do wisely to honor that feeling—to allow protection, the protection of mental distance. Perhaps at another moment, you find you can move closer in mind to the present moment, for you are no longer threatened and off of your center, your balance. Then move closer.

The closer, the richer the experience; but the need is there to be able to experience and not to close the mind and say, “No, no, it is too much.” Find your own balance, moment by moment—the balance between being too distant to feel the wealth and infinity of the moment, and being too close to experience this wealth as any quality but injury. You do not wish to be without experience, nor do you wish injury. You then use this technique of remembering to poise the self at the threshold between fear and its precincts, and chaos and its wilderness.

It has often been said that contemplation, meditation, the listening to the still, small voice within, is the greatest asset to one who wishes to accelerate the process of spiritual evolution. Why is this force within—which one finds access to in meditation or prayer—called “still,” but that it is a descriptive term which applies to the source of aid and comfort which you find in the love and light of the one infinite Creator to which you have access through this technique. It is from infinite intelligence that the still, small voice broadcasts its silent message of harmony and peace.

We encourage each to refrain from judging the self as it moves off balance into fear or into unwise haste. These are illusory movements within an illusion, dreams within a dream. Allow this dream to remain fluid. Allow as much motion as you find optimal for comfort and desire. See the ideal of the balance, always. And take comfort, not in your judgments of your own progress, but in your focus upon observing and paying the infinite gift of loving attention to that which seems to be occurring with you.

In reality, nothing is occurring, but this fact gives the Creator no information. The Creator infinitely loves you and feels enlarged in Its infinity by the burden of information that comes to It through the receptor of your unique consciousness. From the close point of view, lean into the wind of catalyst when you can freely and lovingly. When you cannot, remove yourself to the place where you can receive the most information, however distant that needs to be. But remember always that the gift you offer the infinite Creator is the still photograph of each moment.

How well do you observe? How deeply are you moved to praise, to thanksgiving, to new awarenesses? Or to pain, to horror? If the former, then we have no more advice on this topic. If negative emotions, so-called, continue to be part of the rich photograph that is this moment your complete sum of awareness, then perhaps you might wish to examine more closely each negative emotion to find the source of the discomfort. See that discomfort as an area which dependably exists because there is a fear …

(Side one of tape ends.)

(Carla channeling)

… only to observe it. Allow this observation to remain nonjudgmental. Allow yourself this fear that is. See it. Rest in it. Gather and collect your consciousness. And when you are moved by positive feelings to explore once again the unprotected consciousness beyond the cave of fear, allow that impact upon the senses to be felt. Is there fear now? If so, again honor it by paying attention to it, loving it in you. As you allow love to flow, you may find the need for fear to be less. Thus, you can observe and note more of your moment, and your tapestry of experience is thereby enriched. Little by little, you may lead yourself into the heart of right action, even as you become more and more aware that nothing is occurring, but all is.

You and we, my brothers, are alike: those who move and experience only by accepting illusion. This illusion is a brilliant and kindly way for that which is infinite to be reflected to Itself in some finite, dream-like form. Welcome to a dream so beautiful, so brilliant, and so crystalline that we could sing praises forever and never express our awareness of the wonder, the excellence, and the beauty of the illusion. But we share this joy with you insofar as we can and welcome you to the tenuous, lovely dream of becoming.