“IYLI” CHAPTER SEVEN: EXPERIENCING WILLINGNESS
Experiencing Willingness… is a super power, it’s a gift from God, a level of consciousness, and a way to find more joy and happiness in your life. When you come from a place of willingness you come from a place of motivation, a place where miracles start arising around you, and a place where you are pulled into opportunities which only serve your life’s purposes and goals. In this chapter of If You Live It, the reader dives into the world of finding the strength needed to start seeing through the illusion of fear, the limiting power of belief systems, and comes face to face with actualizing potential. This is a powerful level to arrive at and a life-changing step to have completed to this point.
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CHAPTER SEVEN:
Experiencing Willingness
Humility was the key…
Step seven is a bigtime step in this program, not saying the rest of the steps aren’t important or immensely valuable to work through, but if you’ve reached this phase of the program it means you’ve worked through the steps it takes to get here. You have arrived at a point where you can look back at your time of surrendering and moving into forgiveness, where seeing your life for what it once was and for what it is now, has moved you one step closer to the opportunity for moving into what it can be.
In step seven, we ask God to remove from our life the burdens of past mistakes, past judgments, character defects, pains, resentments, angers, frustrations, and all other aspects of the ego that we once believed to be what we are. We’re not just asking God to do something with these things from our psyche, we’re asking God to remove the residue of them from ever being in attendance as a belief system about how we would have described to the world and to ourselves the exact nature of our life.
In steps one through three, we worked a three-fold angle of surrender into the mix where we realized we needed help, came to believe that we couldn’t do it on our own, and then finally asked God for help with something that left to our own devices would have only persisted ad infinitum. In steps four and five, we looked back over our life and put down on paper what we found. We then took what we found and cycled it all through a different lens of examining the past. Once we took a full inventory of past moments in time worth surrendering over, we shared what we found with our self, God, and another human, so as to speak out loud what we once kept internally so tight as who we believed ourselves to be. Moreover, once taking these steps and arriving at this chapter and inevitably step seven, what proceeded immediately this step was once again becoming ready and priming our mind for the next big leap of faith, which we will be presented here at the end of all our dialogue.
For close to a decade, from the age of about twenty or so to about thirty-two, what characterizes willingness as a level of consciousness is what I pretended be for the world to see. I pretended to be motivational, aspirational, thankful, and humble. I was doing my best to fake the magic that comes from a life of helping others, while doing my best internally to find my own prosperity out of it. I held onto judgments about life, anger over not being where I thought I deserved to be in life, resentments of others for getting what I wanted before me, and always close by was the hope that someone else would come into my life and make it all better.
Willingness as a level of consciousness means a whole lot more than the basic definition of this word as defined by dictionary.com as “consent or readiness to do something.” When we look at willingness as a level of consciousness, what we find is that willingness means to have the ability to help someone move on to greater and better things by just the presence of your intent for them, because that’s what works for you. You’re just sharing what you are because it works for you innately. When you don’t need anything, it is easier to help someone else find what they are looking for. Think Tony Robbins in his prime, or place any other public speaker or motivator in his place, and you’ll know what willingness represents in a lifeform. Beyond the ability to be all motivation at this phase of one’s evolution towards God, willingness also means the person occupying this level has the innate ability to strive towards greater things for not only themselves but for larger groups of people as well. Some of the greatest CEOs and public servants we have calibrate in or around willingness. This level of life is also the first time that by just being you, the ability to bring together what’s needed to create change on a larger scale is present and accounted for. The energy of this level moves out before your every step and has a way of seamlessly delivering whatever’s needed in front of you as it’s needed for whatever comes next. This stage of evolving towards Love is accomplishable for anyone working these steps and is not at all an impossible place to get to. If you have followed the steps up until now, continue to work the steps from this point forward, forgive yourself and everyone else in the world for everything that comes your way, and fully embrace gratitude as a way of life, and you will at the very least end up as someone who embodies willingness as your level of moving throughout life.
At this level, we also see the altruistic side of life become self-evident where someone feels called to be a police officer, fire fighter, EMT, teacher or excellent life-coach. Willingness is characterized by having the ability to put the needs of others above your own, in both scope and magnitude, and done so in large part because for the first time in life, you realize that there is no such thing as scarcity, and that by giving another what they need, you’re actually helping yourself be more successful. At this level, there is almost nothing you can’t accomplish by focusing your intent on something to get it accomplished.
All that I just described was what I pretended to be and what I wanted the world to think I was. For fits and starts, I was aspects of this level of consciousness even when I found myself in hell, but I wasn’t this level of consciousness in reality which is very far from any aspects of hell. Like what was stated in the previous chapter, if something calibrates at this frequency or above it, the energy coming forth has the ability to lift someone out of despair, feelings of anguish, and from overall states of depression if they find themselves within its presence. Like a church’s praise and worship time, the energy of this atmosphere is what lifts someone up, not the words within the songs or even the notes within the music, it’s the entirety of the moment and the intent of the moment that creates a healing and uplifting atmosphere. More people attend non-denominational churches in the U.S. because of their praise and worship time and how it makes them feel, not because of the person doing the preaching.
Not all motivators or company leaders lead from a place of such magnitude, but the ones who truly calibrate at these levels are no doubt the same people others choose to emulate through weekend retreats designed to teach leadership, and leadership books written about important motivators throughout time. A coach who comes from this place of love is able to transform a team who lost more than they won last year into winners this year, but not through strategy and the x’s and o’s, but through being the change the team needed to stop playing for themselves and start playing for the sake of the team’s success. If you find a life-coach who resonates at this level, not only are they problem-solvers at heart, but they truly believe in your potential based on what they know their own potential to be.
Another beautiful thing about calibrating at this level is for the first time it truly feels like something is guiding you. At this level, any accomplishment is possible, including either using your power to accumulate wealth or using your power to bring wealth to an entire nation. The best leaders from around the world have a shared level of consciousness in and around willingness.
TRUTHS
(The Chandogya Upanishad) Things of the world are transitory. If one dies without first having realized the Self, there is no happiness here, or hereafter.
(The Tao Te Ching) As fresh as morning breeze, feeling reborn, I wander here and there without a care in the world. Let others chase after wealth. I am content with the gifts provided by Mother Tao.
(The Gospel of Mark) Go and sell what you have, and give the money to the poor. Then you will have riches in heaven.
(The Dhammapada) If you wish to be free from old age and rebirth, become an island unto yourself, and eliminate all your imperfections.
CONTEMPLATING ON TRUTH
Realizing the Self looks different in different religions. Realizing the Self is experienced by many as hearing about God, or Jesus, or Krishna, or the Buddha, or Allah, or whatever name one holds onto in their part of the world. However, the subjective realization of the Self has nothing to do with religion or names, titles, or any other definable separator contained within a religious text. If one continually searches for the Self within, they will find it, but if one searches for the Self outside of their inner being, they’ll have to settle for only shared definitions within religious pursuits, mostly defined by others’ experiences of God, and maybe, just maybe, have a moment or two in their life when reality defies rational explanation.
I spent the majority of my life looking for happiness from the world around me, or from the love of a person who happened to be in my life romantically, only to continue that search for completion long after the final farewell cannon was fired on my relationship, or when the new car smell wore off the upholstery. The illusory moment of realization hit me when I found the happiest I had been in many years was not when I had the most amount of money, a girlfriend to call my love, new and fashionable clothes, or the latest designer sunglasses. No, happiness filled my being because my attachment to those things was leaving me, and what was replacing these transitory artifices of the world was a willingness to trust in that which created me, and more precisely, to trust that whatever created me would also provide all I need, all the time, which includes happiness. Once this truth was stumbled upon and the clouds parted from my previous view of what happiness meant to me, I began to realize that the Self, had always been there and will never leave, because we are one, forever and ever amen.
The good news is, God, the Self, the Holy Spirit, it’s all the same thing in different aspects, and because the awareness of this fact is apparent within this current reality of life, it’s present in your life even if you have never looked for it. God is always present and always everything at once. Until you see that, or choose to not judge that, you’re only playing with your religion’s understanding of God, which is very different from actually experiencing God. Understanding trumps ignorance, but experience trumps understanding every time.
Growing older, when compared to youth, has its advantages and disadvantages. With age comes wisdom but with youth comes energy. With age comes experience but with youth comes first-times. The list for both ends of the age spectrum can go on and on, however, both being older and younger carry along with them something in common worth noting: differing context. As a young man, I chased wealth because the world said I should. I chased financial prosperity because my ego said I should. I was reckless with love, ignorant of faith, repugnant towards advice, and downright hostile towards the gifts of Mother Tao. As a youth, I knew what the world was and I knew what I wanted from it, even though looking back I can see how clueless I was for many years.
Today, I have a different context of understanding with regards to life than even a decade ago; one built on the same foundation of chasing after something. However, today, what the world and the ego says is valuable, holds no sway over me, and without chasing after the world as a prime directive these days, I am left with the experiences of contentment and prosperity as primary operating mechanisms. The context of existence today has changed from yesteryear, despite the sins of my past once being so prominent. Today, through a contemplative lifestyle and dedication to truth, what has become clear to me is that chasing after wealth creates circles, while being content with what one is has a magical way of drawing straight lines from one perfect moment to the next perfect moment. As the morning breeze of fresh perspective runs across my face today, I am now continually reborn with the promise of what every new day could have in store, and I wander from room to room without a care in the world, and all because I let others chase after acquisition while I chase after God instead. In the context of life today, I see lasting happiness is an option for anyone and at the same time cannot be paid for, but minor moments of excited surprise can, and conversely, the pursuit of pleasure for pleasure's sake never leads a man directly to Mother Tao, but towards something far less enjoyable in the long run. It’s simple, you cannot serve two masters with equal vigor, so either the world is your king, or pursuing truth is what rules the roost.
For years, I gathered bits and pieces of clothing from all over the world. If someone was to ask me what my personal style was, I’m not sure I could have answered the question and it would have taken some consideration. I had everything from tailored suits and wingtips, vans and cutoff jean shorts to khakis and polos. I had athletic shoes that totaled over 15 in count, and I had hats far too many to ever wear, most of which weren’t worn more than once. I collected fragments of styles along my life and created a hodgepodge of fashion, but most days I could be found in a white, V-neck t-shirt, Levi’s jeans and an old pair of Chuck’s. Then, out of nowhere, I was called to a life of service and tight space, and I had to get rid of everything I spent years collecting, including clothes, but also everything else a person collects to live in this world. At first, I was planning to sell it all and put the money towards a chosen endeavor, but then, the Holy Spirit instructed me to give everything away free of payment. As it all unfolded in the beginning, I wasn’t sure why I was supposed to give it all away, but I eventually listened to the inner knowingness and dispersed what I owned far and wide; the result of which has been life-transforming. From listening to the message that filled my heart and then living out that message with action, heaven suddenly was made clear to me in an experienceable way, and the rest as they say is history.
The beautiful thing about life is, God never forces anyone to do anything, but when you listen to the sometimes off-beat requests made by the Creator, heaven becomes an everyday experience. Unbeknownst to me at the time of freely parting with a life’s worth of stuff, I was being groomed to see how far I was willing to listen to the spirit of God speaking internally within my being. As time crept along over the next several years, it wasn’t just clothing I was asked to give away, but every dollar in my possession, and every dollar more than once, more than twice, more than three times, and at the point of writing this here, I have been beyond broke more than four times since listening to God about being of service through giving away earthy possessions. The truth is, one needs not things to be happy, nor obvious choices for dinner to be fed. From firsthand experience I can relate, when you give away what you think makes you you, one finds out you’re anything but you.
A man can spend his entire life working to rid himself of his imperfections only to realize just after physical death, there were no imperfections to let go of, only choices worth surrendering over and not worth repeating another time. The root of imperfection is not imperfection, but infinite love. All content is based upon, and arises out of, an ultimate and absolute context, which is why imperfection is not based on its opposite or its likeness, but on that which created “choice” to begin with, because without choice one could never choose differently next time. Seeing imperfection is entirely based upon ones’ own perspective at the time of the choice, and ones’ perspective is entirely based upon ones’ consciousness level, and ones’ consciousness level is based upon a myriad of factors, none of which being imperfect, but more precisely, misguided and naïve at the time.
If you desire to reach enlightenment as a goal for this life or the next and/or move towards the light more than towards the dark, or to see the world as Christ did, or just make it through a day without cursing your brother, becoming an island unto yourself is a way to accomplish these goals. So, what does it mean to become an island unto yourself? Quite simply, it means to live your life like a prayer, while simultaneously surrendering over any fear to God that arises in the ever-persistent moment of now. This may sound like a lot of work or even total nonsense, but in truth, it’s not work or nonsense at all, only conscious decision making fueled by loving intent. One can be an island unto themselves and thereby free of old age and rebirth, when daily surrender leads the island builder into a consciousness level of transcendence over the direction and pull of the ego. We don’t rid ourselves of imperfections by neglecting or walking past them, but by seeing them for what they are, waves against the shore and nothing more. The island is the context, but until one learns how to move throughout the day in a surrendered fashion, the content of daily choices one may have while on an island, like chopping down coconuts, taking walks on a beach, watching sunsets and sunrises, these will be seen only as aspects of life repeating itself while leading towards old age and death, and not as aspects of life that help one transcend having to choose old age and death again next time.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR STEP SEVEN
As the next step that follows six, we take the same approach with this one. We find a quiet place secluded from the noise of the outside world, and we read the step and the prayer that goes along with it internally first. Once we are ready to take the step to completion, we say the step out loud and repeat the prayer as well, both in earnest and with faith applied. Once you have taken this step you are now ready to move into the last two aspects of this program which fall under the banners of forgiveness and gratitude. In this step, the person taking it is all that’s needed to make it happen. Once completing this step by saying out loud what you have already said internally, put fifteen minutes on a timer and think about all that has taken place during your time with these steps so far.
STEP SEVEN
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Lord, please remove from my life the scars of the past, all of my attachments to what I once believed myself to be, allow me to see you more clearly moving forward, and provide me the grace to forgive myself, you, and the world for where I once felt I was wronged.
STEP SEVEN PRAYER
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Thank you for the gift of surrender, the blessing of forgiveness, and for the promise of gratitude to come as a way of life. I love you - thank you for loving me more than I love myself.