* Amanson: The things you think you know, you don’t know. The way you think you know them, unlearn! The trouble and the time you take to catch up with and stay in tune with the endless pageant of glitter and paranoia is trouble needlessly dealt with and time which could have been spent in much less “trivial pursuits”.
Understanding as the world knows it is a kind of shell game – you are convinced you know which shell the pea is under but when you look the subject has been switched. What you thought you knew for a fact is hardly factual, and what you assumed it was incumbent on you to learn is a lesson in, first, frustration, and then futility. This tired intellectual approach to living is quietly leeching from the Truth of existence all the juice, all the stuffing that gives life not only its flavor but its substance. It is a very shallow pond, one that can sustain neither creatures nor swimming, when human ‘understanding’ seeks to be in charge, call the shots.
Where does [true] Understanding come from? From the Understander and that certainly isn’t you! You receive the benefits of its understanding when this, your, Understander brings forth its lessons [from within] and that is a brand of understanding that far surpasses the superficial product you’re attempting to work with and bring to bear in your cursory observations and equally cursory reasoning. The operatic playing out of the ego dramas on display in your daily press are hardly anything to spend time understanding. It is assumed they are, that it is, all-important because “This is what’s happening! It’s all here in living color starring personalities larger than life!” But the life they are larger than is not the medium you need to be watching. It’s hardly likely to pay dividends in the pursuits of Purpose, for it is all based on insubstantial values, erroneous thinking, thinking [seemingly] in pursuit of ‘understanding’ but understanding of what? They think it’s Light but it’s only a lampshade.
Understanding in your world, true understanding, is not what it is assumed to be. It has little to do with the mind and everything to do with Mind. Far below or, if you prefer, far above the brainwaves involved in your brainstorms waits (and works) the real life force, the very Beingness that is Understanding itself. Not a verb, not an activity, but a living Reality that sweeps one up when one has stopped fooling about with appearances and settles down into cold, hard facts: the fact of Oneness, the fact of Eternal Love, the fact of time itself being an illusion merely used by the Understander to position you on the scale of ‘what-can-I-learn-today?’ But the learning is in the quiet of one’s heart, the interior cathedral of Learning-To-Allow; allowing life to unfold from within, so its manifestations – that which we encounter in the world at large – are seen – understood – as the personal emanations they are. Thus the great pageant before you is not understood piecemeal – connecting this dot to that; following this trail down this rabbit hole – but as the Oneness your interior understanding (the Understander) in the end affirms.
May 31
Tonight we shall speak on Loyalty, the most perfect measurement of one’s progress along the path. Loyalty is the undercurrent girding a pursuer’s progress toward any worthwhile thing, for without it the path zig-zags in any wind tempting the traveler away from his or her chosen destination. Loyalty is synonymous with the destination itself, for who gets to where they’re going if they don’t stay the course?
But Loyalty is also a measure of character, a test of the love the individual bears for their stated purpose and the other individuals who provide needed accompaniment along the way. Distractions will come, they will manifest and test one’s loyalty at the seemingly most inopportune moments, but there are no accidents. Loyalty is challenged for a reason, a purpose: can you maintain loyalty in the face of other pleasures placed in your path? This is the test you have called forth. Loyalty is the one true quality of heart that needs contradiction to flourish. Loyalty cannot be proven without a challenge to it. It is required if it is to be a polished, finished commodity.
The truth about loyalty is it’s a hidden challenge, faced only by one’s self in the dark of one’s consciousness. When it flourishes, it burgeons. It lights up the sky for it encompasses two or more – the loyalist and the enloyaled. It’s a symbiotic relationship, one that brings out – ideally – the best in both parties. It bespeaks a higher frequency in its practice and it grows more secure the more it is exercised. Loyalty at its finest does not exclude others from being considered or from having their say, but the bond established between the loyalist and his or her object of Loyalty – be it human or divine – becomes inviolate with the passage of time and the outpouring of Love; the quiet practice of devotion and discernment (always being aware and considerate of the other’s feelings – again, human or divine); and a determined choice to grow through the holy adhesive, Loyalty.