The Bean rests in a place of honor.
Almost no one ever asks.
One day on a road trip (I don’t remember, so don’t ask), Maya and I were listening to a recording of Ramtha speaking at the school’s annual Christmas gathering. He was talking about how ridiculous we are with our tight grip on material things. That our souls would fare far better if we didn’t worry so much about possessions. You’re being robbed? he asked. Help them carry your favorite arm chair out of your home! Let go of your attachment to the things that anchor you here. But no, we stand in the pantry and defend, with our lives, down to the last lonely dried bean! Maya and I laughed so hard, we must have broken the attachment to something that night. Later she took one small kidney bean to a frame shop (would love to have been a fly on that wall!) and had it framed for me: seven hand-cut, beveled mats and three different outside mitered moldings make a very regal setting for a joke. I’m sure Maya must have spent a month’s pay on this sweet reminder of one of the last lessons we learn: We’re not as detached as we think we are.
“But if I see no value in the world as I behold it,” says today’s lesson, “nothing that I want to keep as mine or search for as a goal, it will depart from me.” I thought I was doing so well with my husband’s new passionate determination to buy a house and stop renting. I’ll help him prepare, I said. But I’m not going to have an attachment to the outcome. This morning I realized that if people came into my house and started carrying things out, I’d be pretty darned attached. Right down to the last bean in the pantry–which happens to be beautifully framed. I really would rather NOT sleep on the floor or live on the street. We aren’t even talking ascension here; all we’re asked to do is let go long enough to spend some time with our own Holy Spirit. “Heaven can so easily be mine,“ we are told. But like everything else, it depends on our perspective.
“My home awaits me. I will hasten there.” Ramtha also says that some day we’re going to look back at all of the time we “wasted” when we could have been basking in the Light of our own holy, Holy Spirit. Paralyzed within an illusion by people, places, things, times and events, we hold on to these far more than we realize. And we let Heaven go on by without us, our real Home. I love Maya and The Bean “more than my luggage.” Yet Heaven requires that I let go of all the baggage, if even for a moment. ACIM T-19.IV(D).8, Lesson 226.
Love you! Another home run
Miss you! HUGS and Love
Well now. First time I have seen the bean since I befuddled the store workers where I designed it.
But, seriously, we do like our ‘things’ don’t we. I had thought I would not be so possessive of my stuff, since we have had great Master teachers, sure. When Ram taught about not having the attachments to the 5 things he taught about, I thought I was doing pretty well. When I read this, I was reminded of a lot of items I have that I do still possess like a watchdog! I have long since stopped ‘loaning’ books to others because I never get them back! So some of them I bought again. Some books I can’t remember the titles but I remember how valuable they were to me. Certain clothing will never see the light of day unless they are on my body. A few people are still in my back story, not leaving the necessary vacuum needed for another to become a possible runner for change. Events!! Don’t get me started!
How does one truly go Home (I know, I know, I’m just dreaming and I’m already there) if they have roadblocks of illusion in their way? It’s not like I can put it all down and take a peak behind the curtain to make sure the Haagen Daz is there! Shrodinger’s Cat: Is the cat dead or alive? Am I God or am I not? Does God live for PPTT&Es? Spirit can manifest with ‘thought’ whatever they desire, so no. No wonder someone invented circles!! We are constantly in one. This is when we should stop whatever we are doing and re-examine priorities, because I know if I look back and see the amount of wasted time on these things, I’m going to grind my teeth and go looking for names and badge numbers!
Luggage indeed. I feel the same way and I know as much as we both love it, us, I take no offense if we both let it go. Love is all there is.
Note: Sitcom in the late 80′s and 90′s. Enter: Steve Urkle, a very annoying clumsy young man with a history of mass destruction of anything or anybody in his path. Finally, the beloved neighbors, his loyal family in his mind, all that he has in life, say: “Steve, go home, go home, go HOME!” Instead of utter horror and dejection, he turns around and says “I don’t have to take this, I’m going home.”
Fade to black…….
Yes, Ram has done a good job of making clear our attachments, but there’s nothing wrong either with chasing your stuff as it leaves your house in somebody else’s hands! I just ask, would any of this distract me from The Work? Would I leave behind my husband, my stepson (who I personally think benefit greatly from having me in their lives) and even my dog? Of course I would. Nothing in this world really needs me; it’s my illusion and I’m the one who has to let go of it.
Remember the story Ram told of the initiate who spent long evenings staring into the fire, and came back in his next life with the ability to manifest ash in his hand? Lovely trick, but does it open the doors of Heaven? I understand Ramtha taught us to manifest so we can survive and not have to start life over again, forgetting, struggling to find him and the Self in yet another life. So how can it even be possible that we do it wrong? It takes as long as it takes–no time at all. HUGS and Love
I do remember Ram’s story, yes of the man starring in the fire…..
When I am able to keep little ego at bay, I know I’m already there and my grasp on all of this gets better. I just need to stay in those few seconds and stretch them out into longer periods. It’s become redundant for me to say I don’t ever want to come back here as it’s even offensive to myself. Hypothetical question: If he is right and we WILL come back and we have no actual lineage in this lifetime (picture Sir R and his daughter’s new baby), will “Bliss” handle the DNA details? I would hope never to come back less than what I know I am today. I have made known the unknown, just not on a consistent basis, so that must count! I’m sorry, I know I’ve left Course in the wind right now. (hm, no pun intended).
I know, I know, stupid question.
I understand where you are; we all have the same questions and the same aversion to having to come back and start again. We also have difficulty staying in the Now. But you have not had the opportunity to read as much as I have, and the perspectives of others really do help me. I would recommend Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle. And of course you know that talking out loud to yourself or to your God always helps. “I want to see this differently. Help me to let go.”
I do know that Ramtha said we never go backwards, always forward. I take it upon myself to assume that my next life will be an easier and much happier one because I have “battled,” for lack of a better word, so much in this life. But he does assure us that we will remember more each life, and will reap the benefits of the work done in the life before. And the Course says the same thing. You haven’t left it behind. Though it would do you a lot of good to READ IT. We could do like we did with DU and YIR: a chapter a day and discuss. That would only take us the entire rest of this lifetime! But it would be worth it. You can already go back to each day’s lesson and read my comments and yours about what we wrote on August 18th about the day’s lesson, right here on the blog! I say this because I love ya more than my luggage, but if you were really ready to move forward, I think you would read it. Ramtha is for addressing the ego nose-to-nose and telling it who’s boss. The Course is for out-thinking the ego and gliding right into bliss. Here I am; where are you? Either one, if you want it, you have to do the work. HUGS and Love
Might I just say, in the last 2 days, I finally conquered one messy necromancer and hopefully that vacuum will be filled with new business, so I will finally say ‘uncle’ to you and pick one of the suggested books and start over, pinkie promise. I will start from the beginning of Course and in the evenings add one of the other two books. You are right. I can’t have a baby if I’m unwilling to allow it’s birth! Chapter one of the Course coming up TODAY. I can’t post that here and NOT take on your suggestions. I’m not Peter crying Wolf!! (oh, I’m just too good)……
This shall be done.
Ah, that’s my Maya. By all means, let’s discuss. Read one section a day. Each chapter averages about 10 sections. If you have questions or comparisons to other teachings, tell me. I’m still learning here too. It helped me a lot to see “The Disappearance of the Universe” through your eyes. We might as well both get out of here for good! HUGS and Love