“IYLI” CHAPTER ELEVEN: WITNESSING JOY
Witnessing Joy... the eleventh step is about already having your side of the street clean and swept up daily, having surrendered over your will for life to that of a higher will for your life, and for receiving forgiveness as well as giving forgiveness in all capacities requiring it. When we arrive at this step, after first completing the previous ten, what we have is the decree to maintain our daily contact with God as we understand God, or in another parlance, continually surrendering over the lesser to the greater.
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CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Witnessing Joy
Staying connected with truth…
Every morning upon waking, as awareness returns, I surrender the day over to God through inner words of prayer and supplication. Every night before the body falls asleep, on bended knees I pray and thank God for the day and once again surrender life over. Throughout the day, as anything from the collective which is ego-based arises into awareness it gets immediately processed as an “other,” and then promptly all attachment to what arose is surrendered over as well. Almost every moment of everyday life is spent in constant contact with God in one of three ways: surrender, forgiveness, or gratitude. This may sound like a lot of work to many of you reading this, but the reality is, once becoming internally aware of being something outside of the experiencer edge of the ego, once knowing you’re more akin to the witnesser and observer of life and less the thing that experiences the content of life, everything that arises throughout the day becomes more like watching it unfold on TV and having the awareness of the channel changing effortlessly without any control over it, except there’s always the same thing watching it, “I.” The fact of the matter is, no matter where you find yourself consciously and no matter one’s level of consciousness, what the world sees as the person, is not in control of anything happening around them. You’re simply watching life unfold with either a degree of attachment to it as “your” life, or actively surrendering over the attachment to it as Life, and then finding peace in this knowingness.
The eleventh step is about already having your side of the street clean and swept up daily, having surrendered over your will for life to that of a higher will for your life, and for receiving forgiveness as well as giving forgiveness in all capacities requiring it. When we arrive at this step, after first completing the previous ten, what we have is the decree to maintain our daily contact with God as we understand God, or in another parlance, continually surrendering over the lesser to the greater. Through prayer, meditation, contemplation, witnessing the awareness of life, sitting quietly and observing nature and/or the workings of life going on around you, or any other form of allowing oneself to acknowledge that there is indeed something greater in the world that you arose from and currently operate within. We strive daily to humble ourselves before the greater context of life, for the benefit of staying connected to love and its many blessings, as opposed to staying stuck to the belief we are a slave to fear and its propensity for destruction.
By this point in the steps, what you’ll notice taking shape in your life, is your outlook has shifted a little bit or a lotta bit for the better, and now the needs of others are intrinsically important to you, at least to the degree that you recognize them as valid emotional sets and important aspects of being human. If these steps and the surrender process in general have brought you into a world where the corresponding level of consciousness known as unconditional love is seen through your eyes as a current lens for witnessing life, you’ve already noticed your daily routine has become one that comprises more service naturally to others and the world around you than at any point you can remember. Unconditional love, as a calibrated level of consciousness, is one of the greatest levels a person can find themselves resonating with. It is during this level that the person has regular occurrences with the awareness that God not only exists, but can be seen almost everywhere you look. At this point, you still don’t know what God is, but there is no doubt left that God is real, because all around you is the innate recognition of some degree of beauty, harmony and perfection breaking through with every glance of the eyes.
At this level of consciousness, you start finding it harder to relate to the world around you as a definer of what you are, with the world projected in the media and in the twenty-four-hour news cycle unfolding more like a play you watch but aren’t a part of. You’ll find yourself, at this level, unsure why the rest of the world acts the way it does, or why people treat others without kindness and respect as the first option of business. With each new day that passes, you’ll fall further and further away from the trappings of the material world and all its content and become more and more filled with awe in relation to the presence of God becoming close and personal.
As one progresses through the elevated levels of unconditional love, sainthood arises as an aspect of reality, but not something you observe about yourself, but as a characteristic of what naturally has become your disposition and way of life which others see as just the way about you. At the higher levels of unconditional love, you have found heaven on earth noticeable as the inner subjective experience of life from time to time. At these higher levels, the experiencer aspect of perception starts blending naturally into the witnesser aspect more and more, and seamlessly you find that something within your being draws you to places where the love inside of you effortlessly pours out in order to provide witness to miracles arising from your presence.
At this level, you also realize it is not what the world sees as you which provides miracles, but the immense energy of love that comes through you which heals the sick and gives life to the needy. At this level of consciousness, sickness is healed for the person who prays for it and has the karma allowable when they’re in your presence. For yourself, at this level of consciousness, there is no longer an attachment to the sickness you may have carried with you into this dimension of life, and therefore your suffering from something has abated.
People don’t perform miracles, but what they are in reality allows for the Holy Spirit to use their body as a vessel of its will to deliver the energy needed to a particular person or location when required for a miracle to be performed. God uses people to help people, but the person at this stage of consciousness gets used time and time again to do the heavy lifting of unanswered prayers. Again, the person isn’t a miracle worker, what they are is the miracle that promotes further miracles. If you are more love than ego, you have the ability to be more for the world of what they need at the roughest of times as opposed to what they need to feel more like the world around them. At this level, you are less the world around you and more the higher will for your life playing out before your very eyes. Also, at this level, you’ll find the mind slowing down in its constant need for clamoring about incessantly, and what’s left is a quieted version of the ego only barely existing and not thriving.
Very few reach this level of consciousness, but that doesn’t mean it is unobtainable. What I have noticed since chasing after God full-time, is the person who chases after God while forgiving the world around them is the same person who arrives at unconditional love as their subjective reality and lens for witnessing the way the world works. Depending on one’s level of consciousness, what they are determines the lens for which they view life, so when someone reaches the level of unconditional love, how they see the world is not more right than another person, it’s just a way of seeing and interacting with the world where there are fewer clouds and less pain points than another. Set your sights on being unconditional love and you’ll reach it in this lifetime, however, as we have stated before, the spiritual life is not for the weak minded or the traveler who is afraid of walking many miles.
The closer one grows towards higher truths the more baggage must be left at the loading dock. As one sets their intent on reaching God through sainthood, they’ve made a decision to allow the ego to go into full scramble-for-survival mode. Meaning, one does not reach higher levels of unconditional love through half-measures and minimal surrender. In order to surrender over what needs to be surrendered over to reach unconditional love, all that needs to be surrendered over must have the opportunity to arise and subsequently be let go of. One way to look at this is through the image of a surfer getting ready to catch a wave: first, the board must be in good working condition and be properly ready for action; second, the person on the board has to know how to surf; third, to make it beyond the break point where catching a wave is possible, the surfer must traverse breaking waves in his path and maneuver around and through them in a variety of ways, while nevertheless continuing forward through all the obstacles; and lastly, the surfer must arrive at the point where the sets roll in, while waiting for the right set to make its appearance so that all of the work in getting out there pays off.
Just like the surfer reaching the point where catching the perfect wave is possible, the spiritual aspirant must have a compass that works, the intent to use the compass, the fortitude and spiritual will to traverse all the obstacles, and the ability to see that what arises on their path is not meant to stop them from reaching God, but is in fact what stands before them in order to reach God. There is no room for half-measures when choosing to witness the splendor of God, and if you’re not willing to let go of wrongs and spites or resentments over even the smallest thing, and surrender over every attachment and aversion to life in the process, you’ll never know God as a regularity, instead you’ll be the person on the beach watching the other person catch the wave always wondering what it feels like to surf.
From love to unconditional love the entire world changes for the subjective witnesser. It’s not as if anything physically changes out in the world around you. It’s that how you see the physical world takes on an entirely different dimension of awareness. For the moment at hand, we’ll take a look at how Dr. Hawkins describes the changes happening at this level of consciousness: at unconditional love, your view of God is no longer as separate and apart, but as one with you. At this level, the way you see life is as complete without any needs going unmet. The way you carry yourself in the world is as full of a serene energy capable of facing any challenge head-on without judgment or contempt. The process by which your life operates at this level is one of transfiguration, meaning, what you are innately is now something utterly greater than the vast majority of the world walking around you. What you are is not better than another, but what you are is so full of love for the world, God, and your fellow man, that how you walk around this earth has been transfigured from being Homo sapiens to being something slightly different, and as something much more capable of staying this way.
To be unconditional love walking around in the human form, you have now reached a place where your life is becoming fully realized that it’s not your own, but somehow a part of something grander, larger, and more meaningful than ages past.
TRUTHS
(The Bhagavad Gita) At the end of many births, the wise person takes refuge in Me - realizing that all things are the Self. Rare and wonderful is the soul that achieves this state of consciousness.
(The Tao Te Ching) Wise is the person who has no preferences for one thing over another. He allows his heart to become empty of desires.
(The Gospel of Matthew) Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant who remains faithful, for the master will set him over all his possessions.
(The Dhammapada) Those young in dharma may lose their vigilance, but those who are wise guard it carefully - for they treasure it above all things.
CONTEMPLATING ON TRUTH
A person will believe something to be valid only as long as their sight stays fixed on that thing as worthy of investment, or until a higher degree of truth is witnessed and imprinted which replaces the lower hanging fruits. Something magical happens to the witnesser once their eyes gaze off into the distance, past the confines of another’s teaching, and what stares back at them is the Self, quietly imploring the seeker to let go of what is now old understanding being replaced by current wisdom.
Something happens to the witnesser once their ego is properly seen for what it is and then efficiently disposed of with regards to any attachments to it as ultimate reality. Something happens to the witnesser once there is no experience of chosen attachment and/or expectations left, and all that sits in the ever-evolving moment of now is the reality that the Self is all there is, beyond understanding and approaching, with only realizations turning immediately into knowingness. Something happens to the witnesser once they realize they never were and somehow always are, and yet always will be, despite currently having what appears to be a body with limits of interacting with life. Something happens to the witnesser once formal religion no longer plays a role in their spiritual development, and what comes forth from their beingness is not a need to follow the teaching of a book or a pastor, and instead they become the truth found in a book and the words spoken by the pastor. Something happens to the witnesser once Life is seen as all there is and there is nothing but the Self in all beings and all things, all the time without end, forever and ever amen. Something happens to the witnesser once witnessing has lost its illusory form and now presents itself as the opening doorway to observing the reality of God unfolding without end, always moving and shaping into another creation and creative being. Something happens when the witnesser relates to what is being witnessed. They begin living for the first time from the opening viewpoint of the Self, and not from the confines of what they once believed their self to be.
I have come forth in many births and I will live on once this mortal flesh loses its grip on this plane. I have found refuge in God as the only reality there is, realizing all things are the Self, and how wonderful it is to witness life from a vantage point clear of debris.
When one’s attachment to wants and desires becomes part of the past, and when joy is naturally present in the moment-to-moment of the passing nowness of everything that is, one has become wise in their decisions. But only once all attachments to what was, are now replaced with the surrender of what is, can one witness the freedom that comes with having a heart empty of positionality. Wisdom is not found in worrying about when joy will present itself, for true wisdom is held vibrant in the time when attachments and aversions have left the moment of one’s current experience, with the byproduct of such being the awareness of not only joy present, but the willingness to turn over even joy to the creator through surrender.
Joy is not something chosen through the murkiness of everyday life by simply saying to oneself, “Now, I will choose joy over sadness.” Instead, joy is the byproduct of surrendering over the preferences of one’s animal nature for the hidden treasures of context becoming clear, and clear to the point of awareness allowing joy to be naturally present as that which is left once preferences no longer remain. As long as there are attachments to, and expectations of wants and desires, the state of not hoping for one thing over another without judgment will not be possible as one’s experiential reality, and because of such, the gift of subjectively realizing that joy is not just experienced periodically, but actually part of the ever-present nature of God that resides continually within and among all things, will not become known.
When joy is allowed to arise naturally, it can be witnessed as though it is a kind breeze flowing gently against one’s cheek, momentarily there and gone again only to return when conditions are propitious, however, not held onto for the sake of the moment, but appreciated for its eternal nature which extends beyond the here and now. Joy is an evolved aspect of love, and love is the precursor to joy, and without the springboard nature of love, joy would not be available as a reality. With the embodiment of unconditional love as one’s subjective reality, comes the inspiring awareness of joy as a more constant state, surpassed only when the witnesser of such chooses to surrender over even joy, for faith in the opportunity that allows for what’s next to take shape. Joy is not just something that a person gets to feel occasionally, but a subjective reality constantly for the person who has no preferences for one thing over another, and whose heart has become empty of desire.
There was once a time when I was master of nothing but sadness. There was once a time when I was master over only rage, envy, greed, lust, grief, anger, resentment, guilt, regret, shame, and all other forms of lesser-than factors which are byproducts of a life lived as a slave to the ego. I was master of not only the lesser aspects of the human experience, but I was master over their promulgation, along with their manifestation from moment to moment and the effects of such lower levels of human existence. I was neither faithful to God nor a cause, nor willing to be a servant of either, nor did I reside in a household providing food and nourishment other than the home I built out of the bricks and mortar that the world would have me believe was a worthy and justified foundation – a home built on the banks of a changing river. For any transcendence of the lesser aspects of humanness to take place, I had to first surrender over the lesser of life currently experienced for the prospect that faith in the unknown greater might indeed allow such un-pleasantries to exist in my knowingness no longer.
One cannot understand the opportunity for change without having the faith required to be willing to take the steps necessary for change to happen. Without the willingness to be a servant of God as opposed to the servant of baseless desires, one will never know what joy is, let alone peace, harmony, happiness, wonderment, miracles, honesty, freedom, and a constant connection with the source of all such things. When one humbles themselves to the reality that no servant is greater than their master, then at that point one will realize that it is more than enough to be like their master, and when one becomes like their master, all possessions will not only be given to him, but all possessions will freely flow from him to another walking in his shadow. The blessed servant is actually the master of much, but because serving is the mechanism to acquire riches in heaven and not gold on this earth to be hoarded, that which is possessed is not held tightly, but freely shared through the act of stewardship granted to him in the first place. The person for whom much is given, has the opportunity to be the source of the blessings where much is given away. God knows the heart of man, and those who think they can hide from God, the fact they look only to acquire as opposed to serve, little of value will flow into their life. I was once a master of little sustenance, until service dictated that much is now to be given away freely for others to find nourishment in.
Early on in the life of the sage, there is not always present the type of character which would be indicative of a holy person on the road to enlightenment. However, once the life has been lived and the person has arrived at holiness and has the realities that arrive out of such a worthwhile pursuit, what is changed in that person is now someone is present who regards righteousness as something worth guarding through continual surrender, as well as the innate knowledge that purity and the joy that comes from righteousness are the treasures worth storing in heaven.
In the case of the entity writing this passage, my youth was spent in varying degrees of frivolity, with little wisdom present in the way of guarding the treasure that is a union with dharma. As time progressed, and youth became early adulthood, the decisions of the child remained close to the surface, and yet again wisdom eluded the experiencer. From adulthood arose hell as a reality experientially, but from a certain point while in hell, a great change happened and heaven as a subjective reality became witnessed and observed. Once heaven became the experience in the ever-present moment of now, joy was no longer buried from the observer, but instead it was part of the reality that had become miraculous for each new breathtaking moment. Where there was understanding as a youth, knowingness as a surrendered adult replaced it. Where there was searching as a young adult, wisdom as a surrendered adult replaced it. Where there was a lack of vigilance as a wayward soul, a guard at the gate took its place through the gift of letting go of all attachments and aversions.
There is nothing left on this earth that could entice the observer from leaving the oneness with all there is - not the promise of gold or riches beyond imagining. The miracle that started it all was not a lack of vigilance stopping joy from becoming regular, but a lack of humility finally surrendered over which allowed the experiencer new realizations, that joy and peace are not byproducts of a person who believes their life is their own, but a person who surrenders over even their life to the creator and sustainer of all that is. We don’t own anything, and at best we’re quality stewards of things. If you don’t have the ability to recognize the fact that you are not God, you will never have the realization that you in fact are God, expressing Itself through your beingness and localized lens of consciousness. The kingdom of God is within, and that truth is worth being vigilant about while guarding carefully the inner peace that comes forth from proper stewardship of such a precious gift.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR STEP ELEVEN
This step is all about being in the world but not of it, and thusly, living your life like a prayer. This is a step to be completed every day for the rest of your life, because this step is about regularly choosing God and continually saying goodbye to your attachments of the world in the process.
Saying Goodbye to the world does not mean you leave it entirely. It means you’re always letting go of your attachments to what arises within it on a daily basis.
You can complete this step systematically through prayer, meditation, contemplation, surrender, forgiveness, gratitude, or all of the above. You can complete this step through service to the world around you as a display of your willingness to serve God by serving man, or you can stay connected to God through deliberate acts of devotion like completing these steps or sharing your experience of God with another person when asked to do so.
For the author, surrender in the morning, surrender throughout the day, and more surrender at night, sets the context for a conscious contact with the creator, while asking only for God’s will for this life to manifest as what’s chosen in every moment. For you the reader, it may not look like this, but have no fear about it one way or another, for this step is about choosing Love in any way you can throughout your waking hours. By choosing Love on a daily basis, you’re completing this step.
How do we choose Love as opposed to fear? We do so by letting go of all the attachments we have, the wants, desires, hopes, aspirations, cravings and demands for life, and instead help where help is needed, pray when prayer arises, serve when service is an option, forgive instead of holding a grudge, and actively being grateful by recognizing life as a gift and not a curse.
STEP ELEVEN
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Through surrender, forgiveness and gratitude, I continue to improve my conscious contact with Truth, Love, and all other characteristics of my Creator, praying only for God’s will to be what guides my life, and for the power to carry out that will once presented.
STEP ELEVEN PRAYER
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I surrender over my life to thee of Lord, the steps I take, the thoughts that arise, the beats of my heart, the manifestations of the ego and the workings of the mind.