a message from Leonard Jacobson
Wednesday, 23 June, 2010 (posted 24 June, 2010)
Question: You speak of a hierarchy of repressed emotions as follows: anger, hurt, need, and fear. I gather from what ...
Tag: Leonard Jacobson
Question: I understand the need to be more
present in my life, but how do I deal with difficult emotions like
anger or sadness when they arise?
Leonard's answer:
If you are carrying repressed emotions from your past, particularly
from your childhood, you will need to allow these emotions right of
passage through you so that they can be released. Just feel the
emotions as they arise within you. Identify them, confess them and
express them in a responsible way, but do not become identified with
them.
Let the feelings up. Allow them conscious expression within you. One of the keys to awakening is to come into right relationship with your feelings. Everything that arises within you is seeking unconditional love and acceptance, even your feelings and emotions.
It is only when you repress your feelings that you create an inner disharmony which eventually leads to disease.
~Leonard Jacobson
Copyright Leonard Jacobson. For more info visit
http://www.leonardjacobson.com or email to:
info@leonardjacobson.com
Question: I am filled up with this
enlightenment, God-searching, question-asking,
never-ending-be-what-you-are business. Dead words of "holy" men are
flying like flies out of my ears. And here I am writing this question to
you. Is there any end to this bullshit?
Leonard's
answer: To be fully present in the moment puts an end to the
"bullshit", at least for the moment that you are present. When you are
fully present, you come out of the mind, and all questions and answers
disappear. All that is left is silence and the IS-NESS of NOW. It is
moment to moment.
If you find it difficult to remain present, or if you find it difficult to return to Presence, it means that you are caught in the world of the mind, and there are a number of possibilities you may have to attend to in order to free your self.
The first is that some healing of the past may be necessary, and this can include painful or traumatic experiences from childhood and some times even from past lives.
The second possibility may be that you will have to allow some very old repressed emotions to surface into conscious expression in a way that is unconditionally loving, allowing and accepting of those feelings.
The third possibility is that you will have to stop believing in your own memories, thoughts, concepts, opinions, imaginings and beliefs. They are not the truth. Only silence is the truth and only that which arises out of or exists within silence is the truth. That includes everything that is truly of this moment.
The fourth possibility is that you will have to bring consciousness to your fears, desires and attachments. Just bringing them to consciousness with the intention of not acting upon them or believing in them will release you more and more into the present moment. Even the desire for enlightenment will keep you out of the present moment.
The fifth possibility is that you may have to refine your relationship with your own ego. The ego is a powerful obstacle to being present and it will only relax and surrender and allow you to be more fully present when certain conditions are met. The ego feeds on judgment and rejection, so any judgment of it or attempt to get rid of it simply strengthens it. You will have to enter into a relationship of unconditional love and acceptance with the ego if you want to be liberated from it. This is paradoxical and a very subtle part of the awakening process.
I hope that my words do not become dead words flying out of your ears like flies. On the other hand, if enough words fly out of your ears, perhaps you will be left in Silence.
Copyright Leonard Jacobson. For more info visit
http://www.leonardjacobson.com or email to:
info@leonardjacobson.com
That which you seek, you already are. Just wake up and be that. Then you will be in the truth of life. You will be enlightened. You will be in Oneness and timelessness and so there is no soul, no journey, no separation, no seeking and no finding. Everything dissolves into the moment of NOW. Everything is revealed in Oneness.
The dimension of you that has been seeking enlightenment is the ego and the ego will never arrive at that which it is seeking. There needs to be a relaxation, a letting go. The seeking and striving and trying keeps you goal oriented and away from the doorway of the truth, which is the present moment.
When you are fully awake, there is nothing left of you from the past and nothing of you projecting into the future. Your are utterly here now.
This is the awakened state. It is an exalted state of consciousness.
At the deepest level of this state, separation dissolves and you enter into Oneness. Occasionally, through Grace, the sense of your self as an individual dissolves completely and all that exists is perfect Eternal Presence, Silence, Love and Oneness.
Occasionally, the nothingness at the heart of everything is revealed.
This awakened state of consciousness exists at a level that is transcendent of the mind and ego. When the ego is exposed to this information, it creates a desire in the ego for something that is impossible for the ego to achieve. But the ego will not give up its quest. This has the effect of strengthening the ego, which thrives in an environment of fear, rejection, and struggle. The ego can never awaken. The ego can never arrive at the goal. Awakening occurs when the ego is transcended.
So the question arises as to how to awaken into Oneness. If you cannot do it, then how is it accomplished? How can we still our thoughts and open into silence. A relaxation must occur. Simply bring yourself out of the world of the mind and the ego by becoming fully present. The key to being present is to bring yourself fully present with that which is already present. If you can see it, hear it, feel it, taste it, touch or smell it in this moment, then you can be present with it. The moment you are truly present with something that is here in the moment with you, thoughts will stop. Your mind will fall silent. You will know yourself as the one who exists in this moment and no other. Then you are awake in the truth of life.
But who is awake?
I AM.
No more words.
No more thoughts.
No more concepts.
No more understanding.
Just silence.
Just full, awakened, all embracing Eternal Presence. It is the Presence of pure consciousness. If you awaken into this level of fully awakened consciousness, you cannot function in the world. Quite literally, there is no time. And there is no YOU to function in the world. You would need a team of caretakers to take care of you. I am speaking from personal experience. I have been in this exalted state of consciousness for weeks at a time.
But sooner or later, a sense of individuality will be restored, so that you can function within the world of time. Restoring my sense of individuality took several months, and it was not easy. This does not mean that the ego was restored to dominance in my life. I still have an ego, but it is surrendered. There is nothing wrong with the ego. In fact, to deny the ego its place in your life is to invite it to function unconsciously.
This has happened to many who have had powerful experiences of awakening. They have identified with the enlightenment experience, which then catches them back into the mind.
Beyond all experience is the one experiencing.
To anyone who declares themselves enlightened, I would ask, “Who is enlightened?” The answer is “I AM.” And then only silence remains. Pure consciousness is your true nature. The I AM Presence is your true nature. It is silent. It is eternal. It is impersonal.
But that does not mean that you cannot also exist at the personal level. I do not mean to imply that life at the level of mind should cease. That is not possible, nor desirable. What is possible however is that you become so awake and deeply grounded in the present moment and the awakened state of Presence that you never lose your connection with the present moment, even when you do venture into the world of the mind. In other words, you no longer believe in your thoughts, memories, ideas, beliefs and opinions as the truth. You are no longer identified with any of it. You recognize that life at the level of mind is simply play. It is sometimes happy and sometimes sad, because it is a world of duality. You relax and accept the dual nature of the mind and the world of experience within time. You are no longer for or against anything. You have transcended judgment. Life is accepted fully and so too is death. Joy is accepted fully and so too is pain. But you are so deeply grounded in the moment of now, that you no longer get caught in the movements of the mind and its world of thought and emotion. You are deeply grounded in Oneness. You are able to return to silence and Presence at will. In fact, silence and Presence is always there as the foundation of your existence, and your sense of yourself.
It is time for humanity to awaken at a collective level. Enlightenment can no longer be for just a select few, who no longer participate in the world. If there is to be an awakening at a collective level, we will have to learn to function within the world. This means that we will have to find a balance between the timelessness of the fully awakened state and the world of time.
-Leonard Jacobson
Copyright Leonard Jacobson. For more info visit http://www.leonardjacobson.com or email to: info@leonardjacobson.com
Question: As an “unconscious” parent, how can I help my daughter stay in the world of the present moment?
Leonard’s Answer: The best way to help your daughter stay in the present moment is for you to be present with her. If you find that difficult, then you have some healing to do. Most of us abandoned the present moment in childhood, as a way of escaping the pain of living in a world where our parents were not truly present. It was too painful.
We repressed the pain, and then we ventured further and further into the mind as a strategy of avoidance. In other words, we followed in the footsteps of our parents, just as they did with their parents. The outcome is that we are no longer present, and when we have children of our own, we cannot be present with them. In fact, your daughter’s presence can unconsciously remind you of the pain from your own childhood, which makes it even more difficult to be present with her.
In order to be present with your daughter, you will have to go through a process of feeling all the difficult feelings repressed within you. In a sense, you have to reverse that process of repression. It does not have to be difficult, and it does not have to take long.
The first step is to remember the present moment, many times each day, so that gradually you become more and established in Presence. Your daughter can also be your teacher. Just tune into her, and she will show you how to be present.
Then you can begin the process of allowing all the painful memories and emotions from the past to surface into conscious and responsible expression. If you are present, it is not difficult, because you know that the feelings are from the past and have nothing to do with the present moment, and so there is no need to continue repressing them. You allow the feelings to surface into an inner environment that is loving, accepting, allowing and compassionate.
As the feelings arise and as you experience them consciously, they release from you. You are no longer avoiding things hidden with you, and so you can be more and more present with your daughter. It will be as much a blessing for you as for her.
Leonard Jacobson
Copyright Leonard Jacobson. For more info visit
http://www.leonardjacobson.com or email to:
info@leonardjacobson.com
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