But how could there possibly be an error of creation when this is an intelligent system? How could a divine, all-knowing God make an error?
As your thinking becomes more pure, you begin seeing the connections that link all of us together in something far more significant than surface appearances. To think of yourself as superior to another, or more talented, or more beautiful means that ego is getting you to deny your inner spirit, which is connected to those whom you are judging.
There is no room for feeling superior or comparing yourself with others when you are operating from your sacred self. Every being, including yourself, is an individualized expression of God.
Comparison thinking is popular in our culture. Beauty contests, athletic contests, advertising skits, bodybuilding competitions and academic competitions are just some of the many ways of comparison thinking that you are exposed to constantly. Clearly, the message is that some are more beautiful or more gifted than others, and they are judged to be superior.
I am not suggesting that these external factors are nonexistent. Indeed, some people run faster, compute quicker and have more body mass than others. But to use these distribution factors, which are passed out genetically, as indicators of how we must think is to give in to the ego, which puts all of its emphasis on appearance.
Notice the differences and enjoy the competitions, but know in your heart that you needn’t judge others based on physical differences.
When you have purified your thinking, you will look past those obvious differences that are measurable on the physical plane. You will note them, enjoy them, compete against them if you choose. But you will never use your thinking to judge anyone as superior to anyone else based on physical characteristics and performances. Your thoughts will always stay with the higher self, which tells you that we are all of the same essence.
The following words are attributed to Buddha: “Be a lamp unto yourself. Hold to the truth within yourself.” Remind yourself of this truth and your thinking will stay pure. When you listen to this advice, comparison thinking no longer toxifies your life. A Course in Miracles offers another way of remembering this: “See no one as a body. Greet him as the Son of God he is, acknowledging that he is one with you in holiness.”
PURIFYING YOUR EMOTIONS
Your emotions are physiological reactions to your thoughts. These feelings show up in your body and they flow directly from the ways that you choose to use your mind. Your emotions do not just happen to you, they are choices that you make.
If your body is racked with toxic emotional responses such as guilt, anger, worry, fear, shyness or anxiety, you must examine the thinking process that supports those feelings. The physiological reactions to these emotions include higher blood pressure, flushed skin, deepened respiration, increased heart rate, knotted feelings in the stomach, ulcers, rashes and nail biting, among others.
Your emotions can be identified in the physical body that you are learning to observe. But you must also know that the support system for these emotional reactions is your choice of thoughts. If you are engaging in the toxic thought process mentioned above, you will be producing toxic emotional responses that put your body in a state of anxiousness and imbalance.
The truth is that you are totally responsible for what you think. By putting into practice the four keys to higher awareness presented in Part II of this book, you will start seeing your thoughts as choices. The world does not rule your mind, nor does your body rule your thoughts. It is the reverse. The invisible commander in the command center, called your brain, is pure and peaceful.
Thoughts that are toxic—such as prejudicial, libidinous, contrary, addictive and comparative thoughts—can be observed and allowed to leave. Simply watch them come and then choose to no longer place your invisible commander’s scope on them.
This simple formula is the secret to creating the emotional reactions in your body that flow from love, acceptance, peace, tolerance, compassion, kindness and forgiveness. These thoughts of purity, directed by your higher self, will bring about the emotional reactions of bliss, homeostasis, balance, contentment, joy and calmness. Therefore, to purify your emotions, you must purify your thoughts and then observe as you shift around those ancient toxic emotional reactions that you have become accustomed to calling your heritage, or your genetic destiny.
There was a time when I expected to receive an acknowledgment when I gave a gift. If I did not receive the thanks that I expected, I would be upset and inwardly accuse the recipient of ingratitude. I could notice the physical changes in my body brought on by my thoughts.
Today, I listen to my higher self rather than my ego, and I am able to give anonymously. My higher self guides me to give for no other reason than the wish to help. I no longer give to get. My thoughts in this one area are purified, and therefore all of the angry, frustrating emotional responses are replaced by a feeling of balance and well-being.
Similarly, I have removed the painful emotional response of jealousy from my body, by changing the way that I process the world. Rather than allowing my ego to be in charge, I turn to my higher self for guidance. I let go of telling myself that I should feel slighted when someone achieves more than I have. I consult my higher self and silently witness my thoughts. From this vantage, I see that love is what I can send to all those who are on this planet with me, regardless of external appearances or differences.
Keep in mind that your ego is that very small part of your mind which has adopted the role of boss in its attempts to protect you with its false idea that your physical being is all that you are. From this incomplete picture of your totality, ego breeds toxic emotional reactions as well as toxic behavior.
As you proceed on the path to your sacred self, keep in mind the words of my teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj:
When you know beyond all doubting that the same life flows through all that is and you are that life, you will love all naturally and spontaneously. When you realize the depth and fullness of your love of yourself, you know that every living being and the entire universe are included in your affection. But when you look at anything as separate from you, you cannot love it for you are afraid of it. Alienation causes fear and fear deepens alienation.
This alienation that Maharaj refers to shows up as the stress and physical reactions that we call toxic emotions. Memorizing this passage from I Am That will help you shift to emotional purity. New and undiluted behaviors will result.
PURIFYING YOUR BEHAVIOR
Your behavior on the physical plane flows directly from your thoughts and emotions. As Emerson reminded us, “The ancestor to every action is a thought.” Poisonous thinking obviously leads to toxic behavior. To purify your behavior, you must tackle toxic thinking.
Long-term toxicity assists the development of addictive behaviors. Regardless of how many treatment programs you enter or cure-alls that you attempt, if you are going to rid yourself of addictive behavior, you will have to do it on your own. No one else can do it for you. No program can do it for you. No magic elixir will do it. Only you, with your personal thought process, can change addictive behaviors that you have chosen at the urging of your counterfeit pleasure-seeking ego.
The most effective way to rid yourself of toxic addictive behavior is to go directly to your higher self and turn the problem over to God. That’s right. Just turn it over. Surrender, knowing that the highest force in the universe is within you.
I absolutely love this passage from A Course in Miracles: “I am content to be wherever He wishes, knowing He goes there with me. I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal.” When you surrender to that higher force and enter the silence of your self, you will experience all that I have written about in this book. You will sense that you no longer have to rely on your false self for any temporary high. You will feel the presence of your higher self with you at all times. Temptations to return to addictive habits will be dissipated with your new ability to surrender and your willingness to help heal others.
; Even a relapse will be part of the divine order because you know that the moment will arrive when you are totally free of the addiction, as long as you stay focused on purified thinking. Your thoughts are the most important thing you have in the battle to discontinue addictive behavior. Your thoughts are in the invisible realm where your higher self is found.
Your false self will continue to urge you to take the fleeting pleasure. But as you use your thoughts to trust in the spirit within you, your ego’s impact will diminish.
You will be guided by your higher self to purify your addictive behavior, and you will be given direct help as you continue to remain committed to this process. The people who supply you with your poisons will be unable to get through to you. Your telephone call to a supplier will be unanswered. Your supplier will be unavailable. You will be called out of town, or you’ll get sidetracked, or other activities will suddenly crop up just as you were about to weaken. The universe will conspire to help you with your commitment to purity when you willingly and authentically turn this problem over to your higher self to resolve.
Ultimately, you will look back at your addictive behaviors with incredulity, wondering how you could have been so stupid. However, your higher self will remind you that it was all part of the divine design. You had to go through those experiences in order to know how to transcend them. You will eventually be grateful for your toxic past, giving thanks daily for the emergence of your higher self. You will have tamed your ego through a program of purifying thoughts, emotions and behaviors.
As you begin noticing how everything is working together helping you purify your life, you will see every area of your life improving. Automatically you will begin engaging in a healthier way of being with exercise and food choices. When your thoughts have shifted to the spiritual realm, the physical realm spontaneously responds to a higher call.
This shift to new and purer behaviors is not a difficult transition. An audience participant recently explained to me that he longed to become a more spiritual person with a pure heart but that it was very difficult for him. I told him that he needed to recognize that this was his false self at work, attempting to convince him that it was difficult so that he would not make the necessary effort.
When you listen to ego and become convinced that it is too difficult to let go of your toxic habits, you are under the control of that false self. The fact is that when you turn those habits over to God and surrender and listen, and then shift to the four keys to higher awareness, everything begins to synchronize to purify your life. If you are convinced that it is difficult, you are listening to your ego. If you know that you are not alone and that you are infinitely capable of anything you can conceive of, then you are listening to your higher self.
The habit of pursuing destructive behavior goes well beyond consuming substances. Toxic behavior that interferes with creating a spiritual partnership can also be purified by turning this habit over to your higher self.
Your higher self wants you to have peace and love in your life, not the turmoil of chase and conquest. Your higher self knows that you crave a spiritual partnership, a place where you feel serenity rather than tumult.
Any behavior that is toxic to your life will be purified through the reliance on the holy spirit within you. As you shift your thoughts away from ego’s influence, your emotional responses and your conduct will shift as well.
You have seen what toxic thoughts, feelings and behaviors are like and how they show up in your life. As you remove these obstacles to your heightened awareness, you will want to be mindful of the reasons why you’ve permitted your ego to poison your life with its demands.
As you examine the payoffs in the following section, keep in mind that you have the choice to remove these obstacles at will by consulting your higher self. As you realize now, when your ego is forced to face the bright light of your celestial higher self, it fades from its role of dominance.
YOUR EGO’S COMPENSATION FOR PROMOTING TOXICITY RATHER THAN PURITY
Your ego always wants to promote the false idea that you are separate from everyone, including God. If you are perpetually in a state of seeking your pleasures from external sources, you are convinced that your happiness comes from those external sources. As you pursue this external-oriented pleasure, you are kept from the experience of quieting and knowing the bliss of a pure heart. Consequently, the ego guarantees its survival by getting you to destroy yourself little by little.
When you engage in prejudicial thinking, you are literally making a judgment about yourself as a being who is superior to those being judged. The goal of your ego is to convince you that those others are inferior to you. This kind of thinking allows the ego to maintain its role of controller.
The ego benefits enormously when you view others as sexual objects. It convinces you that your own worth is found in your conquests. It allows you to boast of your sex appeal and see yourself as stronger than your conquest. As long as you listen to ego, you will have to prove yourself on this physical plane. For ego there is no better way to prove your superiority as a physical being than to conquer another’s physical body.
Ego is frightened of the idea that you are a soul with a body. If you begin seeing others as spiritual beings having a human experience, ego fears it will not be able to convince you to continue to prove yourself through your libido. Thus, your ego encourages you to listen to your biological urges and to act on them.
Your addictions are the supreme joy of your ego. The more you rely on the need for external approval or substances of any kind, the less likely you are to turn within and receive your bliss from your spiritual self. As long as you can be persuaded that you are primarily a physical being whose sexual satisfaction has top priority, your ego is assured of its position of prominence. If you abandon your need for these external fixes, it is like telling your ego to take a hike. Thus, your false self will promote the idea of gaining your pleasures from anything but the celestial light of your spirit within.
The idea of you being in a state of inner turmoil and disruption is fine with the ego. Your ego maintains just enough discontent to keep you in turmoil and not enough to send you looking for the peace that is within you. Having this constant background discontent makes you believe that you cannot escape it. Your ego pushes you into a steady river of discontent, not dumping you completely on the rocks.
You are encouraged by your ego to find fault, be pessimistic and generally see the negative side of life. The more you do this, the more your false self maintains its power over you. It is trying to keep you from feeling so desperate that you are driven to seek your spiritual nature. If you begin seeking purity and peace through your higher self, ego knows that you will begin experiencing more optimism and contentment. Ego is doing what it needs to do to prevent that.
As long as you feel the need to compare yourself with others, you are doing the handiwork of the ego. Once you see that others are on their sacred quest, you cannot help but send love rather than judgment, and ego is too insecure to allow that. Consequently, your false self encourages you to compare yourself with others and to be upset when others defeat you or have more things and appear to find happiness.
When you discard this false idea that comparing is something that is appropriate for human beings to do, you will no longer have to consult your ego.
These are some of the major payoffs for the ego in promoting toxic thinking, feeling and behavior. Now it is time to shift your attention to some ways of being that will attract purity into your life.
NEW WAYS OF BEING PURE IN BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT
When you feel yourself being persuaded by the demands of your body, take a few moments to become silent and listen for direction from your higher self. Just listen and make an effort to postpone the immediate fleeting pleasure of the senses for a few moments.
It is in these precious few moments that you will find the strength to forsake the demands of the ego. Even if you postpone your reliance on the body pressure for a moment
or two, you will have made progress. What you think about will eventually come to be your habit. Giving yourself permission to think about shifting to a higher spiritual base will get the wheels in gear to override the ego.
Begin keeping track of the judgmental thoughts that you allow yourself to have each day. Increasing your awareness of this judging habit will help you to consult your loving presence as these judgmental attitudes surface.
If your first inclination is to have a judgment thought about the physical appearance of someone, notice that you are doing that and redirect your thought to consider the fullness of God within that person. This perspective will awaken in you an awareness of how you habitually think in terms of judging others. It will also provide you with a more peaceful countenance, since judgment leads to more hostile internal and external reactions.
As you catch yourself in judgmental attitudes, you will begin to break the habit. You will eventually replace that habit with pure thoughts of connectedness toward everyone that you meet.
When you find yourself relapsing and indulging in toxic thinking or behavior, ask your sacred self to intervene. Turn the thought or behavior over with an affirmation of surrender and trust that you will be guided. This kind of affirmation puts you in touch with energy far removed from the debilitating demands of your ego.
While it is true that you may take some time to purify yourself entirely, it is also true that relapses will gradually occur less frequently. Each time that you do slip, you will be aware of the influence of your ego. The awareness will heighten your determination until eventually you will listen only to your higher self.
Forgive yourself for any and all toxic behavior that you have practiced up until now. All of your poisonous thinking, feeling and behavior was also a way of teaching you to transcend ego identity. You apparently needed those excursions into toxic hell in order to know what you no longer want for your life.
Your Sacred Self Page 28
