Time to Choose
It is time to focus on what you are rather that what you are not
We all need to decide whether to “play it safe” in life and worry about the downside, or instead take a chance, by being who we really are and living the life our heart desires. Which choice are you making? Charlie Badenhop
Choice is a loaded word in that it is always operative. Regardless of our conscious or unconscious attention, we are making choices with each breath. There is an addiction that unwittingly occurs with many spiritual seekers, a title I only recently relinquished. In fact, I didn’t realize that I was still a seeker, when I thought I was not. The fact that I was playing it safe, choosing the downside over the reality, only became clear when at last I took what appeared to be a giant leap of faith, and landed right in the lap of God. With that step there was a new understanding of choice, of what it means to actually choose Love over all other possibilities.
For most searchers, and that includes most everyone of us even when we don’t see ourselves as one, life is lived at the effect of what we think we are not. We spend our lives consciously or unconsciously on the look-out for everything that is wrong with us—an uncaring thought, corroboration of our unworthiness, physical proof of the status quo—our evidence that aspiring to awaken into an enlightened state is out of reach and for what it’s worth, most likely always will be. The decision is clear. Don’t stop practicing. We skip right past proof to the contrary, the proof that who we are is Love incarnate, Christ Consciousness, the Buddha nature.
There is nothing to practice. To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true nature emerge. Don’t disturb your mind with seeking. - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Even when we look back across time and realize how much more fully we live in the present moment, we still judge ourselves as ‘getting there, but not there yet’. Despite evidence to the contrary, I withheld this same approval and thereby failed Love. “Patience”, I told myself. “Perhaps you will be love when all selfish thought dissolves.” I was not willing to assert that I had vanished into Love. With that refusal I unconsciously chose to deny the truth of who I am, and with that, the truth of each of us. I was in fact more willing to deny myself than I was to say, “Yes God. Of course I am and now I see what has always been”.
Seeking becomes a new identity. To give up the chase, even in the face of undeniable proof, feels like giving up the self-improvement project, something that has supplied great entertainment for quite some time. It feels that way because it is. Our focus for years, perhaps lifetimes, has been on getting somewhere good and if we were willing to vocalize it, on going Home to God!
In the process we have created pictures of what it would look and feel like when we arrived. These pictures were a necessary part of the seeker’s dance. They heartened us to let go of old beliefs and to face our fears. They primed us for Truth to sweep in and make us its own. There is nothing wrong with the pictures. They were perfect. They were essential. They helped us all to create an amazing shift in awareness. They have brought us to this moment together.
Now, standing here collectively, it is time to refocus. It is time to focus on what we are rather than what we are not and that takes a willingness to let go of the old, even though it has brought us far, and step into the unknown. Proof can only lay claim to the known. It can tell us what happened in the last moment. It cannot take us any further on our journey. It has brought us here, now and it is time to move forward into a grander version of ourselves than what we believed possible.
As long as we continue to see ourselves as seekers we will be obliged to continue the quest. The adventure is fun, sometimes joyful and at times painful. That cannot be argued. It also becomes a lifestyle. Being a seeker has lots of perks, not the least that it gives us access to a community and a place to belong. Hanging onto our title and our memberships though means we prolong the illusion and miss the truth standing right in front of us.
We each have an original blueprint and it IS divine. It is the truth that calls to our hearts. Love as our foundation is what allows us to feel the pang of separation. It is that part of us being led to stand and be counted for and with each other. Yes we can change our world and move from fear into love, and will as we stand together in support of the whole, in service to this greater good.
We are this love that we seek. As we all stand together and claim this truth, that we are this love and no longer need to seek this love, we make it a possibility for all those still struggling in our world. We are the standard bearers for a new reality. The time has passed for waiting. It is time to choose. It is now time to live as the love we have desired.
Realization is to get rid of the delusion that you have not realized. - Sri Ramana Maharshi
The Original Blueprint
Return at last
To what you have
Always been
Deny yourself
No more
Are you tired
Of this game
Small and unimportant
Are you ready
To come Home
Come Home Now
Acknowledge
The truth that
Is always here
With your choice
Simple choosing seems
To be an impossibility
You choose now,
Only now you
Choose your mind
Choose instead
With all the knowing
That lives within you
With your open heart
That cries out loud
Your heart already
Knows this as truth
Your heart is ready
To lead you
Into your birthright
You were born God
Have lived as God
Are living now
As God
Can you see this?
This is no game
No idle play
This is deadly serious
To your master
The selfish ego
Choose now
Deny yourself
No More
Allow yourself to be
Your original Divine blueprint!
You are love
You are God
You are YES
You are selfless
You are this Oneness
Your comments are welcomed!
With more than a little anxiety, Gayle Gregory dropped out of corporate America in 1997 to realize her dream of sailing to Mexico. After a year of dolphins, stingrays and blue oceans, she emerged, energized and permanently transformed, having glimpsed a Truth far beyond her wildest imaginings. Since returning, her sole purpose has been to see through her own fears to be a clean slate for others to realize the Truth of their own magnificence. Gayle is a devoted spiritual teacher and long-time student of the human condition and recently published, “The Grand Experiment, an Expedition of Self-Discovery.”