(Here's the rest of the lessons for VANQUISH EGO!, take your time and enjoy the last 4 lessons. Eye surgery will take me out of action for a short time so let's not have you miss any of your lessons. You can always get the book VANQUISH EGO! on my blogspot, also, great for taking your time, sharing with friends or giving to someone who may need and want it.)
Lesson 7
Lesson 7
To win, Sun Tzu says:
Be vigilant and undeterred by old ways
To paraphrase a quote from the movie
‘The Godfather’ and then immortalized in the T.V. show the ‘Sopranos’ – “Just
when I think I’m out, they suck me back in!”
And so, it goes with ego.
Here’s a great quote from ‘A Course in Miracles’ (Text, Chapter 9, subheading ‘The Two
Evaluations’) that speaks directly to this stealthy strategy of ego:
“The ego is deceived by everything you
do, especially when you respond to the Holy Spirit, because at such time its
confusion increases. The ego is, therefore, particularly likely to attack you when
you react lovingly, because it has evaluated you as unloving and you are going
against its judgment. The ego will attack your motives as soon as they become
clearly out of accord with its perceptions of you. This is when it will shift
abruptly from suspicion to viciousness. . .”
Ever notice that exactly when you are
at your highest, happiest, most content “Murphy’s Law” falls like a cleaver
slicing up your peace of mind? Paranoia, annoyance and outright fury rushes in
to fill the vacuum now created in your mind. Ego has struck!
After all, we have spent a lifetime
depending on ego’s myopic perceptions of us and the world to ‘keep us safe’.
Wariness, unworthiness, anger and faultfinding, martyrdom and revenge have been
our go-to strategies. But now, we are climbing way out on the new branch of
trusting in the Holy Spirit, and away from all things ‘ego’. Ego is not going to take this lying
down.
Ego first makes us suspicious and
questioning – we look back and notice how far away from the safety of ego’s
tree trunk we have climbed. Trust wavers, we feel the slippery fingers of ego’s
Ninja Warriors infiltrating our thinking and Bam! We scurry back to the
familiar old ways of dealing with life. We worry, we attack, and we embrace
being miserable once more.
Not to worry. We have come too far. We
quickly notice how unpleasant the negative world of ego is. We once more choose
peace, and as we look up, the hand of forgiveness is right in front of us,
ready to lift us back into the bright new world of peace.
And you know what?
We grab it!
1.
Remember the last time you felt
particularly peaceful and then remember how quickly it took misery to suck away
the pleasure.
2. Remind
yourself throughout the day that you are practicing something that you don’t
fully trust yet and that you will usually slip back and forth between ego and
the Holy Spirit fairly often. Just notice this, don’t feel guilty. Just keep
practicing.
3.
Take time to meditate quietly each day
visualizing the hand of peace reaching down for you, and you reaching and
gasping it. Then rest in the comfort that brings
Lesson 8
To win, Sun Tzu says:
The supreme art of war is to subdue the
enemy without fighting
We must become the
Peaceful Samurai. Our way will be different. Our way will lift us above the
battleground with the wings of love and forgiveness. Our way will embrace not
the ego’s art of war, but instead the Holy Spirit’s Art of Peace.
We begin with a
quote from ‘A Course in Miracles”, the
Workbook, Lesson 153, “In my defenselessness my safety lies”. Sounds counter- productive doesn’t it? Maybe
even paradoxical. So, let’s walk through an everyday opportunity I just
witnessed at the hair designer.
As my hair tech,
the manager of the shop, was just finishing up with me she was asked to come to
the front counter. There, I observed a gentleman clearly annoyed and loudly
making his point. He had made an appointment for that specific time, and
another lady was going to be worked on before him. The counter person as well
as the manager assured him, he would be next in line and this would take only a
few minutes. But, oh no, he repeatedly made his point that this was his
allotted appointment time and it was wrong to wait. (Ego imperative: Always be
in the right and anger is a great weapon!)
The manager kept
insisting that it wouldn’t be but a few minutes and after all (here comes ego’s
defenses - a nicely expressed dollop of guilt) when he goes to a doctor or
dental office he rarely gets in at his appointed time.
The gentleman stood
taller, pushed out his chest. (After all, accepting her logic would make him
wrong and her right and humiliation just wasn’t in his game plan.) He repeated
his point, again and again, jabbing his finger on the counter, defending his
position. The manager, feet spread leaning toward the man responded through
gritted teeth her position. The battle lines were drawn. (Ego’s Ninja Warriors
were head to head, each battling to be more ‘right’ than the other.)
Thankfully a hair
tech appeared and brought him back to her chair. I could hear his voice above
the hum of hairdryers continuing to defend his position. The manager, finishing
my hair, kept mumbling and defending her position. I was glad there was a hair
dryer and no scissors in her hand.
Ego normalcy
reigned. The ongoing everyday wars raged on. But, how can we be defenseless
when someone is clearly making us wrong when we know we are right? Let’s
review.
·
First stop as soon as the conflict starts.
·
Now want something other than emotional
tussles running your day.
·
Then, here’s a tricky one - Be willing to
be wrong of your assessment of yourself and your opponent. This is hard because
ego will want you to keep fighting to be ‘right’. The fear of humiliation will
be strong and your desire for peace will need to be stronger.
·
Last, take a deep breath and risk asking
humbly for help. Then wait for a miraculous and releasing new perspective of
your encounter, trusting that this will release your guilt, your fears and your
need to remain angry and combative.
Words and actions
will naturally and gently fill your mind with a new forgiving view of your
world. And as you share them not only you will be released, but your enemy will
be released with you.
Peace can now be
allowed to reign.
Some
thoughts to contemplate. . .
1. Observe
your day and notice each time you feel the need to defend your position.
2. As
often as necessary practice the four steps listed above in this lesson.
3. Review
the full Lesson 153 from the Workbook, ‘A
Course in Miracles.’
Lesson 9:
To win, Sun Tzu says:
He will win who takes the time to prepare
So, you want
to be a Peaceful Samurai. Cool. Go Peace! Go Samurais! Go. . .uh oh. . . “you
mean I can’t just put on my ‘peace’ cape and strut around being peaceful right
off the bat? I actually have to train for a really long time to be one?” you
ask. Yup.
Superheroes
for peace take years, decades, even several lifetimes to create. And a good
sense of what basic training is like is covered under the section “What are the characteristics of a teacher
of God,” and Trust is listed as the first characteristic. (‘A Course in Miracles’ Manual for Teachers).
The main point is that your training program will be the most challenging and
rewarding rollercoaster ride you have ever taken. You will be placed into
constant ego induced battles with ego’s Ninja Warriors within your mind. Some
you will overcome and many more you will flounder through and lose.
Again,
and again you will feel the exultation and release of accepting peace. And
again, and again you will be tested and what you desire most will seemingly be
taken from you. Becoming disappointed, depressed, disenchanted and down right
bedeveiled will occur more often than not. But, take heart. Standing with you
every step of the way are Mighty Companions, the Peaceful Samurais that have
gone before.
Trust
is explained as the first and perhaps most pivotal characteristic of the
advanced teacher of God, or what we are calling the Peaceful Samurai. You will
find a very special and important word in that sentence – advanced – the
officers. You become a teacher of God or a bottom of the heap private in the
army of Peaceful Samurais as soon as you choose to set aside ego, if only for a
moment, and choose the forgiving answer instead. But, to become an advanced
teacher of God, an officer, a true super hero Peaceful Samurai you will need to
choose forgiveness again, and again, and again and . . . (you get the idea).
This
is why you are here, and this is your calling. The world is in need of healing
and you have been chosen to enlist. You are reading this mini course, so you
already have your helmet and shield and willingness.
Now,
get on with your training. Ego’s Ninja Warriors are gathering and preparing for
battle.
Some
thoughts to contemplate. . .
1. How
many years does it take to become a doctor? To become a specialist in a field?
To become world renowned as the best? Now, compare that to your spiritual
studies and the time you have given them.
2. Over
your lifetime thus far, as well as the time you may have been studying
spirituality, how often have you already had to face disaster and loss? How
well did you handle it?
3. Take
time each day to quietly sit with the Mighty Companions that surround you and
rest in their strength.
Lesson
10
To win, Sun Tzu says:
Build your opponent a golden bridge
to retreat across
What
a lovely vision. As flutes and harps play a radiant bridge leads our enemies
over and away to safety. . . WAIT! Stop the music! Hold the horses! You mean we
are supposed to let these nasty Ninja Warriors get away? Aren’t we supposed to
smash them to dust? Smite them with righteousness? Give these suckers a good thrashing,
and then some?!
That does sound a little satisfying,
but look again, this is ego’s tactic – crush the enemy, the more pain the
better. However, there IS a better way.
Up to now most of our lessons have
covered some (certainly not all) of the important issues covered in ‘A Course in Miracles’ Textbook. The Text
helps us learn to recognize the ego in all its sneaky ‘glory’ and understand
its strategies with their painful and unhappy effects on us. All thirty-one
chapters take us on a spiraling and deepening journey into the discovery of
ego, as well as the Holy Spirit and the peaceful Answer offered. We learn why
choosing peace is a really, really good idea.
How to choose peace is then the task
of the Workbook, your basic training as a Peaceful Samurai. When completed
after 365 lessons, and at least a full year, we will have created the habits
that, when practiced consistently, last a lifetime. We learn to build a golden
bridge. Let’s see what that means.
Ego battles, the Holy Spirit suggests
we fly above the battle ground, observe our thoughts that give rise to ego and
pain and just Let Them Go.
Like clouds drifting across our minds,
we can watch them and release them. Here they cross the golden bridge of forgiveness
transformed into simple mist that simply floats away.
Each time we allow the Holy Spirit to
change our view of the guilts, the fears, the angers that fill our minds, to
opportunities of renewal and love, we add another gold bar to the bridge that ego
and its Ninja Warriors can gently disappear across.
We do need to be
willing to allow this to happen.
We do need to be
willing to see our highly cherished judgments differently.
We do need to want
contentment rather than the addictive emotions of unworthiness, worry and
aggression.
This mini-course
can only introduce you to these concepts or give your on-going studies and
practices an extra turbo-charge. For real change I recommend doing and then
consistently practicing the lessons from the Workbook.
Some
thoughts to contemplate. . .
1. An important review of the characteristics of
the Peaceful Samurai will be a last contemplation for this mini course:
‘A Course in Miracles’
Manual for Teachers states, “. . .in time it can be said that
the advanced teachers of God have
the following characteristics: ..”
Study all of
these characteristics and practice them every day. Use them as your helmet,
your shield, your strategies for victory.
Then be assured - you will rise above ego’s battleground
triumphant as the Peaceful Samurai.
Trust
1.
Contemplate why all the following
characteristics of the Peaceful Samurai will rest on Trust.
Honesty
2. Honesty
rests on consistency and therefore removes deceit. Observe how consistent you
are in all that you do and say.
Tolerance
3. Tolerance
occurs when there is no judgment. Test yourself and see how you judge in the
smallest ways and vow to do better.
Gentleness
4.
Do no harm. These leads directly to
gentleness. And emotional harm occurs when we make anyone, ourselves included,
feel guilty. Make great effort in extending a sense of innocence and
forgiveness to all.
Joy
5. The
opposite of suffering is joyfulness. ‘A Course in Miracles’ states ‘to heal is
to make joyful.’ Make lightheartedness your goal.
Defenselessness
6.
When you realize ego’s limited view of the
world leads directly to feeling alone and unworthy, then you can choose to
focus on the reality of oneness and peace. Notice how this removes fear and the
need to set up defenses.
Generosity
7. To
give away love and joy cannot result in loss. You can’t give love unless you
are feeling loving. You can’t give joy unless you are laughing also. These are
the only important treasures and they can never be lost. Enjoy giving these
gifts as much as possible!
Patience
8. Each
day can now be released into holy instants where time becomes less and less
important. Meditate and find this timeless space and take it into your days.
Faithfulness
9. Accept
that Something within you, and within everyone else, is in charge in ALL
MATTERS. Not in only some problems, not some challenges, not some worries, but
the Answer is there for every big and every itty bitty issue. This will take
great discipline, as will all the other characteristics that come before. It’s
time to just ‘do it!’
Open-mindedness
10.
Acceptance means lack of judgement. The
natural expression is forgiveness. You recognize that what has been done is a
mistake and seeing innocence in others, as well as yourself brings total
release. Become the Peaceful Samurai by turning all thoughts, all judgments,
and unhappy feelings over to the Inner Voice for correction.
Walk through this world with only the weapon of Loving
Forgiveness and become a hero to the world.
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