Discussion Board > Resist Not

Today, a forester visited us, walked the land that we tend and we shared stories about nature encounters for many hours. While sharing lunch, he told yet another story where he had learned a valuable lesson. He lives in a forested area, where many people come by in the middle of the night and throw their trash/furniture etc. over an embankment, onto his property. He has cleaned up this trash for years. Recently, a McDonald's bag was thrown down over the bank as he was yet again clearing the area. He began to curse and ran to catch the vehicle from which it had come. The young man was mentally challenged and did not realize what he had done. Our forester friend said that he was very ashamed and embarrassed and he learned such a valuable life lesson--"I now go willingly to pick up other people's trash, with a smile on my face, glad to get the exercise." A super example of what Coly teaches---to resist not. Our friend seemed to learn, in an instant, what has taken me months/years to assimilate. I felt like this forester friend came as a true guide/angel today.

September 14, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterAmy

What a wonderful story and one that I will want to read over and over. "Resist not "allows my whole body to just relax. Thank you so much for posting this. I'm learning that worry and anxiety are all a part of resistance and trying to be in control. My mind keeps thinking that I need to compartmentalize things that are to be resisted and things that are to be excepted, but through Coly's work, I'm learning that there is no place for resistance of anything. That all things need and want to be accepted. Teacher: Accept it.
Student: I can't.
Teacher: Accept that then.

September 17, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterMegan

“RESIST NOT EVIL”
Amy and Megan thank you for your comments.
To use a teaching from St Paul, depending on the translation, he said something like this: "I don't really understand myself, for I want to do
what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate." In the midst of
St. Paul being a saint he was hating what he was doing......and doing what he was hating. Are the things we are trying to get rid or resisit of in our lives actually gifts we are meant to keep, and take good care of ?

“Teach only Love to yourself by loving that which you have hated and judged, by allowing yourself to embrace it. See your ordinary humanness, not as an obstruction to peace, but that through which peace can be extended.”

“The Way of Mastery” Love What You Have Hated Pg. 270

We, like St. Paul, come to the realization that after years of dedicated practice we see ourselves doing what we hate, and hating what we do and we really don't understand why. St. Paul's considerable spiritual experience, depth, and understanding was powerless to stop him from doing what he hated. This is a perfect example that brings to our awareness the fact that spiritual experiences alone do not automatically dissolve unconscious conditioned beliefs and behaviors.

Lessons about humility are brought to us in very humbling ways. Perhaps for St. Paul this was a teaching about humility ? To help him see that even in the midst of his illumination and spiritual understanding there was a part / self / energy in him that was not yet healed and he was not at peace with. Doing what he hated may have caused him to question his faith or purity or spirituality? Maybe he wanted in some way to 'crucify' what he hated about himself and not allow it to live in his 'house'....refuse it entrance...resist it. Maybe Paul was given a 'wake up call' and hate was the perfect messenger to ring his bell ?

“Ding Dong !....Hi I'm Hate.... I have a message from your Father....He wanted you to show Him how a 'Saint' greets Hate when it shows up at his door”

Paul's spiritual practice had not yet embodied his Master's teachings to, “Resist not evil” and to ”Love your enemy.” The aspects of ourselves we resist become our 'inner enemies'. They become the evil we resist. Perhaps this was Paul's 'cross to bear?'

“Show me Paul, how do you put into practice 'resist not evil' in your own life?”

“Show me, how do you bring love to your enemy (hate)?”

“Show me, how do you help people heal themselves who come to you with their self-hatred? “

“Show me, how can you teach people the practice of true self-compassion if you don't have it for yourself?”

Just like us, St. Paul needed to learn how to embrace his 'evil.' He still wasn't clear that it was the enemy within him that he needed to love. He may have preached love thy neighbor but he wasn't practicing being very neighborly to himself. It is because the Father loves His Child (The Soul) and recognized Paul's deep longing, and his heart felt sincerity, He sent him yet again, The Messenger of Hate, an Angel dressed in wolf's clothing, masked as a blessed messenger Paul needed to 'resist not.'

The teaching his Master left boiled down to choosing to extend forgiveness to those ('selves') who crucified him. He did not leave the teaching of hating those who hate you or hating yourself when you do what you hate.

The perspective Parallel Realities Practice works from sees the 'evils' that are being resisted, or seen as 'inner enemies,' as the very selves that have not been healed. They keep coming to the surface of our lives until we get the 'wake up call.' What we judge as our 's...t' needs to be used as fertilizer for our blossoming , spiritual growth, and healing.

What I was sure were the blockages to my progress, when seen from a different perspective, were transformed into the stepping stones on the path to my home coming.

Like St. Paul we too, are our judge, jury, and executioner. How many of us in the midst of spiritual practice are resisting our 'inner evil?'

It is time for a shift in consciousness / perspective that will inform our spiritual practice and bring to light that which will allow our healing, is for us to 'love our (inner) enemies,' and the parts that are crucifying them.

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September 19, 2013 | Unregistered Commentercoly

I enjoy resonating with reading all of this. I am so glad this discussion board is up.
And returning to the first story of the forrester . . . I wonder about the desire to communicate with the one throwing the litter. I understand he ran to the other with hate and bumped into one who was 'unconscious' of what he was doing, and I have questions about the desire to communicate, to share, to meet someone who is littering and say something . . . not from hate but from love. Yes, clean my own garden, and is it possible to build together? I am entering this process and curious.
Eliza

September 22, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterEliza