“IYLI” CHAPTER EIGHT: EXPERIENCING ACCEPTANCE

Feb 24

Written By mason wooldridge

AUDIO/VIDEO VERSIONs: SPOTIFY / APPLE PODCASTS / YouTube

CHAPTER EIGHT:

Experiencing Acceptance

I became willing…

The level of acceptance, as well as step eight, from a certain vantage point, both share equal properties. To be coming from a place of acceptance means to allow what is to remain what is, left unchanged and without effort on your part to create a different way. Meaning, life is actually seen as a gift that is continually unfolding, ever evolving, in constant creation, without end in sight for the soul. With acceptance for the person who inhabits this level of consciousness, life is no longer about wanting to change anything, but more about allowing for everything to be what it is without judgment. This is a high level of consciousness and one that brings about rapid change in one’s surroundings by merely looking at something with directed intent.

Intent is something we have not spoken on much throughout this book, but it’s worth focusing on here before moving on. There are any number of new-age, pseudo gurus and social media motivators who have bought the lie that the law of attraction is life changing or that the letter of that law is where some life-hack is found. In all reality, if one finds themselves at the level of acceptance, what they are is volumes more powerful than the little bit of truth that is found within the idea that all someone has to do to be rich is desire and visualize being rich. Acceptance is where the cancer patient reaches a point where getting better is fine with them or letting their body expire is fine as well, because either way their life is complete and not worth holding onto any longer out of fear for what comes next. Intent, especially at this level and within this step, is what drives change to move at a rate much faster than below this level. Through this step and this level of consciousness, one’s intent can dictate the way life moves around them and for them. The key to intent is choosing and defining it, and the key to this step is doing it even though you are afraid that by making an amends to someone you’ll somehow be hurting yourself in the process. Intent is part of how the spiritual aspirant moves from one level of consciousness to higher ones. Setting one’s intent on reaching God recontextualizes your entire life and all of the choices you’ll be presented with from here on out, unless you set your intent in another direction and have lesser choices pursued as realities. Intent is the way that choice is shuffled around to be presented with different options from another time in your life. If you find yourself at the level of acceptance, one’s intent determines how life will react to you moving forward, because at this level of conscious evolution, compared to past lower levels, one has more power and love present in their being than at any point while in physicality. There is a sufficient amount of power within inhabiting acceptance where what you are draws in rapidly what’s needed to continue defining to the world that in fact what you are is able to affect change through active inaction. At acceptance, active inaction is more powerful than simply action, and for the first time at this level one sees the truth in this statement. Through aiming one’s intent in a particular direction, it’s as if you’re saying to the universe, this is what life is now about, and then life moves around to make it what your life is all about.

At acceptance through intent, your business, your family, your friends, your community, and your entire life starts becoming full of blessings, not because you’re making blessings happen, but because what you are is now able to recognize that blessings take place all day without you having to do anything for them to be present. At this level everything feels easy, and whatever effort you put forth to achieve a goal is always the right amount of energy to achieve such goals. Likewise, with this step, just putting together the list of people, places, things and institutions where amends need to be made, brings about the choice to go and make the amends. This step is one of intent, and with that intent along with your list for the amends process, naturally what will arise are the opportunities needed to go make the amends process complete in the next step.

You’ll notice in the wording of the step when you get to that point, it says “willing to make an amends,” not will make an amends. The act of being willing is what sets up the level of acceptance as being present. Are you willing to make an amends to the people you harmed throughout your time on this earth, doing so only in the instances where you would not be harming yourself or another in the process? If the answer is yes, then you’re closer to a level of acceptance than you realize. In the next step we become accepting of the fact that making an amends is what propels us forward towards transcending the ego and fear in all of its forms. This step, however, brings a person face-to-face with the world of acceptance, and we have to be willing to do something that takes faith before we can do the thing that cements faith as an action step.

Based on what Dr. Hawkins says about acceptance, when one reaches this level, their view of God is naturally one of seeing the creator as merciful, and likewise, their view of life is harmonious, as if everything just has a way of working out for the best. The emotional set they inhabit at their core is forgiveness, and the process by which their life is guided is one of transcendence. The previous sentence accounts for where we are in this program, and where this program has delivered the participant.

Prior to this step, we asked God to forgive us for the choices we have made, and to remove the desire to continue making those choices again moving forward. This step is about accepting the forgiveness from God and being willing to have faith that through the amends process we’ll come into contact with the reality of acceptance. Even though this step is not characterized by any outward action the world could notice, it’s characterized by the inner action of acceptance, which is propelled through the intent of this program, which in turn is creating the habits needed to move forward in your life living in a truly spiritual manner. This step is acceptance, it is the action of inaction, and it is precisely what’s needed to continue walking through fear no matter what.

By this point in the program, you are becoming the change in the world you once wished to see in it. You are becoming the light of the world, the friend on the other end of the phone, the blessing in another’s life, and the presence of joy that will help another find their way out of the darkness. At this point in the program, you are putting into practice the love of God and simultaneously walking in the footsteps of Jesus, which maybe up until now you weren’t aware you were doing. The way you’re like Jesus is that you’re not putting anything in between you and God, not your ego, not fear, nor a desire to hide any longer. No, you’re willing to have faith in making things right with others because God has made things whole with you.

Acceptance is what will allow you to make an amends without desiring a particular outcome. Set your intent here and now by repeating these words out loud: my intent is to be full of love and to see God for myself, as well as walk through the fear of making an amends to another person who might judge me for it – I surrender over the fear of practicing forgiveness, and I choose to walk straight ahead through whatever bullets come my way while chasing after God.

Now that we have a basic idea about this step and the level of acceptance that corresponds with it, we can look a little deeper into what truth has to share with us from the great ones who walked before us.

TRUTHS

(The Dhammapada) As long as there is even the slightest desire on the part of a man for a woman, the mind is still imprisoned.

(The Santiparva Mahabharata) The wise man ceases seeking worldly pleasures. Thus, he reaches the highest goal.

(The Tao Te Ching) If our inner eye were to suddenly open, lust and greed would cease to exist.

(The Book of Thomas the Contender) Lust keeps humanity in bondage as long as people seek after those things that change and pass away.

CONTEMPLATING ON TRUTH

For many years, I pursued relationships out of a need to have completion in my life and validation in the mirror. I believed, by loving someone and having their love in return, I would finally become whole. I bought into the Hollywood storyline of finding love for myself through the direct love and romance found within the confines of a romantic relationship. I spent days, weeks, months, years, and every other measurement of time we have at our disposal, searching for Ms. Right, only to realize there’s no such thing. The concept of “Ms. Right” and “Mr. Right” is mostly a myth. Both stories are fun to tell ourselves, and the promise that romantic love presents our fullest narrative for living is anything but boring. However, the problem isn’t with engaging in the Hollywood promise of “foreverdom.” It’s in believing that someone else other than yourself is what will complete you. We’re all complete the way we are, but all too often I failed to realize this because I failed to investigate who I truly was. We’re not complete because we think we are, we’re complete once we know what we are.

When I finally understood what completeness meant, and the sponsor of completeness is also the sponsor of creation, I suddenly realized, what I had been searching after for so long in another was me. Today, unlike in days past, I don’t look to the world for happiness, satisfaction, completion, contentment, joy, prosperity, or whatever sounds fun in the moment. Now, I have the knowingness that without connecting with that which created me as my basis for completion, true love will only remain on the silver screen. My eyes no longer embrace desire as an option, nor do they see lust as a worthy choice. My mind no longer entertains thoughts of neediness, unyielding physical attraction, sexual demonstrations, or other animalistic displays of yearning. I embrace a connection when it’s present and feel grateful for having had the opportunity for physical intimacy. Nothing outside of a person spawns happiness, and certainly not through romance as the doorway. Today, I see desire as a choice and no longer a circumstance. Today, the world is not what beckons me home, because today I am in the world but not of it. If one chooses rapturous desire, they experience enslavement, but if they choose surrender, freedom follows in short order. To be enslaved or not to be enslaved, that is the question.

When the spiritual traveler reaches a level of knowingness where his cares and concerns no longer deal with the physical world of wantingness, but instead have shifted to the inner-non-linear world as the basis of finding success, he will have started inching closer to the highest goal – the end goal being the peace that passes all understanding. To move past wants, desires, hopes, ambitions, motivations, cravingness, expectations and attachments, the highest goal becomes visible in the distance – the end goal of being in a state not fully explainable through language. There was a time when all of the worldly attachments above fueled my intent for life, and it persisted into physicality eventually in the final forms of sickness, slavery, debauchery, wantingness and wanting for, all not-so-far-flung examples as the seeming opposites of the peace and prosperity I chased. However, something others would see as a weakness or as the basis for giving up on life, I found the way to God is not through seeking and eventually obtaining worldly pleasures, but in surrendering over the pursuit of worldly pleasures for the uncertain future of chasing after God. This and this alone is the only way to reach the highest goal – the end goal of realizing that God, the creator and sustainer of the universe upon universes, is not bought and paid for with accolades, but experienced subjectively and imminently through the gifts of recognized forgiveness, practiced humility, and solely within a surrendered life to a single master, and a master not characterized by anything the world has to offer.

If you seek to know the truth about God, the truth about why you’re here, the truth about why this whole thing called life is where you find yourself, you’ll never get there chasing after anything the world calls valuable. The funny thing is, after surrendering over everything that life calls important, after letting go of every want, desire, craving, hope and ambition, money, and all manner of worldly goods, not only did I come face to face with truth, but I’ve never been more prosperous in the way the world would see as valuable. As I write these words now, I have more financial blessings, more personal success, and more potential being realized than any other time in life.

The secret of happiness that almost no one else on the planet knows is this: if you desire a thing, your reward is the pursuit of a thing, not getting that thing, and the more you seek after worldly things, the less happiness you’ll experience subjectively.

Acceptance is a quintessential, spiritual building block perfectly needed for any personal foundation free from fear as a dominant, experiential subjective reality. Acceptance does not mean that one simply lays down their life for injustice or rolls over for hate. However, once one accepts that even injustice and hate hold no power over the slightest bit of love, acceptance is able to take on a holy and transcendental quality which no “march for peace” or “rally for human suffrage” could ever hope to accomplish for the individual’s growth and future knowingness.

At a certain level of consciousness, acceptance is second nature, and quite honestly is as common as breathing, because once one has transcended being a slave to the ego and reached the beginning stages of pre-enlightenment, acceptance is life constantly unfolding before the witness of the eternal experience of now, because one is aware that everything is happening without one’s personal input to start with, and everything is karmically perfect the way it is without needing to be changed for more perfection to be apparent. Whether you find yourself looking to shed some of the fear you’re carrying around or your intent is fixed on reaching enlightenment, acceptance is paramount for success, for without it, experiencing the reality of God as imminent remains impossible for the person.

Accept that you have no control over anything except your choice matrix in this current moment, accept that tomorrow is uncertain and yesterday is gone, accept that changing someone else is not your job and is not within your power, accept that you are an experiential, witnessable, and observable aspect of God while in human form, accept that life is a vastly different experience for every other person walking on this earth than it is for you, and lastly you’ll need to accept that your thoughts mean nothing, and you never were nor ever will be better than anyone else, but also not less than, with neither being equal in a worldly sense as an option. If you do this, you’re on your way to the inner eye suddenly opening wide. If you can start accepting these truths on a moment-to-moment basis, even as the ego works to persuade you otherwise, then and only then will fear start losing its power over you for good. And yes, at this point, once the inner eye opens fully, beyond the start of the opening of the third eye of the Atmic Body, lust and greed no longer exist as anything controllable in one’s experiential, subjective reality. To summarize: acceptance is key for spiritual growth.

Everything spoils and everything blooms, everything starts and ends, begins and finishes, inhales and exhales, but what most people never see is that this cycle happens simultaneously all the time, everywhere and nowhere all at once. All around us is Life, and all of Life is perfect in its expression. Everything that “we” are is made up of Life, as well as everything we think we’re not and everything we’re sure we’d never be. It’s all Life. Each and every decision a person makes expresses Life, and Life is even present in-between the decisions as well as before the decision ever came to be. Every connection made strengthens Life’s bonds between expressions of Life. Every kiss received sweetens Life’s experience. Every dollar made expresses the value of Life currently in the experienceable physical world. Every dollar spent demonstrates the context of Life’s many choices. At a certain point, examples are no longer necessary to recognize that Life, is spelled with a capital L, and not its lowercase version. Eventually, the spiritual seeker stumbles upon the understanding that everything is no(thing) in particular, but the entirety of everything simultaneously. As long as a person remains sure of the fact that something outside of himself is where happiness is found, the person will continue to miss the point of Life being all there is worth finding, and they will continue to lust after the next shiny object, only to miss out on truly experiencing the divine pleasure of Life found from looking within.

Life is always Life, it does not pass away, and only because of a person’s narrow view of what’s taking place around them, few ever see what’s as obvious as breath coming from breathing – Life only perceptually changes form. There is nothing outside of Life, for how can someone see that which isn’t possible for them to see? Take heed to these words to follow - nothing exists outside of Life, just as no(thing) exists worth more than Life. All of Life is on display at all times, and when the person keeps looking for happiness from a source other than that which gave life to them in the first place, they’ll continue walking along unaware that Life is with them every step of the way, both blooming and spoiling, starting and ending, beginning and finishing, all the while inhaling and exhaling patient persistence. Only Life brings forth more life, and without Life there would be no choice at all.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR STEP EIGHT

The vast majority of the work for this step was already done by completing the fourth and fifth steps. For this step, in relation to the fourth and fifth, we look back over the names of the people, places, things and institutions we have harmed or done damage to overtime by allowing the darkest aspects of our egos to take over our decision making. From the lists you already have, make a new list solely of the people who you feel you harmed during your life on this earth, then the places where you held resentments towards, the things you had anger towards, and the institutions you held grudges towards or wronged in any way. Once you have this list, do nothing for a few minutes but look over it. After taking a few minutes to look over it, write at the top of the page a new prayer similar to the fourth step one but with some additional wording: Lord, please help me see what needs to be seen so that what needs to be surrendered can be surrendered, and where I need to make things right you can make things right.

Now, look over the list again with this new context added to the mix. Then scan down the page of your list and make a check mark on the ones who you feel don’t need an apology of any sorts or need to be made whole in any way. The names that are left require another few minutes of observation, as well as an internal prayer applied to them: please allow me to be willing to make an amends to these people, places, things and institutions, even if I don’t feel like I’m able to now. The list you have left is what we’ll take into the next step.

STEP EIGHT

Made a list of all the people, places and things I harmed along the way and am willing to make an amends to them all.

STEP EIGHT PRAYER

Thank you for showing me what needs to be cleaned up from my past. Please help me have the courage to be willing to make right what needs to be made right. Thank you for the gift of honesty and for the gift of courage. I love you.

mason wooldridge

“IYLI” CHAPTER EIGHT: EXPERIENCING ACCEPTANCE

“DD” LOOKING WITHIN

“DD” THE JOURNEY