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by Thaddeus Golas, 1972
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CHAPTER EIGHTGoing Through ChangesIf nothing is holding us down to the
physical plane, then what's holding us? Why are we attached to structures?
Why do we stick to our vibration level? Why do we fear change? To answer these questions, let's start at the top once again. There
are a lot of words for how it feels to be completely expanded: total
awareness, completeness, freedom, love, ecstasy, certainty, stability,
supreme intelligence, compassion. I think it will be least vague in this
instance to discuss our interactions in terms of stability. Absolute stability exists naturally at the space level, because all
relationships are persistent to the degree that the beings involved have the
same expansion. But on the more contracted levels, where there is by definition some
withdrawal of awareness, we accordingly have less control over how long the
stable condition lasts. And when we are relating to beings whose vibrations
are higher or lower than ours, we feel unstable and uncertain. In an unstable relationship, we have basically two ways to go,
regardless of the subtleties of the changes: one way is towards stability,
reaching a common level of vibration, the other way is towards
disintegration, getting so far apart in vibrations that we are no longer aware
of each other at all. Since we are uncomfortable in the presence of
vibrations higher or lower than our own, we tend to make certain
"natural" responses. If the other person is lower, we will
generally try to get him up to our level, to help him and cheer him up. But
if the other person is higher, we will often, at first, try to bring him down
and get him to lower his vibrations. Note that when you try to help someone
you are working against his natural, perhaps unconscious effort to bring you
down. The lower vibrating person (and this could be any of us depending on
the circumstance) will appear to be draining the energy of the higher person,
often with the best moral and social motives. This effort can take the form
of exaggerated praise, sly pokes disguised in polite words, pleading for help
with problems, showing fear and depression, freaking out, starting an
argument, quoting better authorities, and a thousand other forms, all the way
down to putting the higher person in prison or killing him. On the other end, if you are faced with such behavior, the remedy is
to keep on out-flowing love, to have no resistance in your mind. The lower
vibrating person may reach farther and farther to bring you down, but when he
finds you will not come down, when he senses that you have no internal
resistance to him, he will have to rise to your vibration level to feel
stable and comfortable, it is too painful to stay where he is. And he will
rise unless of course he goes the other way, and disintegrates from the relationship.
You are not, however, obliged to wait him out: if you sense that he is not
going to do anything but try to bring you down, you are free to effect the
disintegration when you choose. In current language, just split. Don't dwell
on it, and don't feel guilty about it. It's in the natural order of things. If you are going to take psychedelics or meditate and open yourself
to communication with beings on higher levels, you should be aware of the
implications of these automatic interactions between vibration levels. You
are likely to feel overwhelmed, driven, compelled, degraded, full of psychic
terror (the bummer) until you drop your resistance, expand in love, and move
up to the vibration of the higher beings. They have no intention to scare you
or test you, it's your own density that is making you have those feelings. Anything that really frightens you may contain a clue to
enlightenment. It may indicate to you how deeply you are attached to
structure, whether mental, physical, or social. Attachment and resistance are
appearances with the same root: when you resist by pulling away your
awareness, the emotion is one of fear, and the contraction is experienced as
a pull like magnetism or gravity; that is, attachment. That is why we often fear to open our minds to more exalted spiritual
beings. We think fear is a signal to withdraw, when in fact it is a sign we
are already withdrawing too much. Here are some lines that have made me feel good, both in times of
emotional turmoil and in meditation: I am nothing, I am empty, I am silent. I have no resistance to the vibrations of other
beings. I have no resistance to the expansions and
contractions of other beings. When we are afraid to see what is higher, we may then try to buy a
feeling of safety or power by keeping our attention on what is lower. This
process takes many forms in human life. Charity conceived as an impulse towards those lower than ourselves
often has unhappy results. Many of our impulsive feelings have their source
in erroneous assumptions about the status of other people. There is nothing
wrong with feelings—the feelings on the space level are incredibly rich. But
it is wise to pay attention to where our feelings are coming from, and where
they are leading us. We may be seduced by a feeling of freedom, power, or
amusement by relating to those we think are weaker; or we may recoil from the
fear and depression we feel in the presence of those we consider stronger. The principle of equality is a safe guide, both in saving us from
foolish condescension to disturbed people, and from self-limiting awe towards
superior people. The solution to all our push-pull tensions is to treat everyone,
every being you recognize to be alive, as equal to yourself. Always look
deeper than any evidence that you are unequal. If another person displays
great wisdom or genius, produces great paintings, or even inflates himself to
writing books of advice like this one, just DON'T BELIEVE it is any evidence
that his potential is higher than yours. Know that anything he has done, you
can do—not in the sense of debasing him but of elevating yourself. Don't
"admire" him excessively—that separates you. Let him be what he is,
love him as your brother, enjoy what he produces, treat him as an equal. And
whatever you see on a psychedelic trip, just say, "I'm equal to that;
we are all equal to that." On the other side, if a person displays sickness and insanity,
degradation and emotional distress, helplessness and despair, just don't
believe it is any evidence that his potential is lower than yours. Know that
anything you are doing, he can do. Don't blindly agree with his game; don't
react as though what he is doing is real. Let him be what he is, love him as
your brother, have compassion for him, treat him as your equal. Begin with
the knowledge that he can bring himself out of it. Don't ignore him
necessarily, unless you know that he has been running the same movie over and
over and are bored with it. Your attention is always life-giving; it will
make him feel stable and loved, and he can go up from there if he
wants to. You can even tell him in words that you don't believe his game: do
it while you are bandaging his wounds or feeding him or giving him money.
Don't act superior to him: you aren't, you're his equal. Ignore the sin and
love the sinner. It is not a personal affront to you when someone is being discordant,
it is a measure of his pain. He's showing you how much he hurts, and how much
compassion he needs. But keep in mind, too, that not all victims are
innocent. In a certain karmic sense, no victims are innocent, but that
doesn't mean we shouldn't help them, for it is our fate to exist in a
relation to them, and how we behave determines our own karma. But we should
give help in a way that does not extend our attachment to low vibrations.
That means we should give what we would expect to get, good or bad, in the
same circumstance, and begin with the knowledge that all beings are equals. While we still believe there are people greater or lesser than
ourselves, we will tend to hang on all the more tightly to our current
vibration level, we will be fastened to the people who make us feel at home.
We will be stuck with our ideas, our emotional habits, our jobs, our bodies.
We will be afraid to change because we will fear the unstable experiences we
have when we try to reach a "higher" level. We will be afraid of
falling to a "lower" level if we let go of our current stability. Once you begin to behave in the knowledge that no being is greater or
lesser than you, then you are free to change, because you will feel stable no
matter what level you are on. You will feel calm and sure of yourself with or
without a body, with or without a job, a brain, a book to read, or a book to
write. Withdrawing awareness from the expansions of others, and keeping
attention on the contractions of others, fastens us to the world of matter.
It is reassuring to know that this process, which got us incarnated in bodies
in the first place, is also happening in our daily lives, and can be reversed
very easily, starting now. It is a nice truth that
the way that will relieve your woes on the physical plane will also take you
to the highest spiritual realizations. And the way is simple: No
resistance. [ Contents | Next Chapter ] home | the leisure party | top of page Last updated: 16th Feb
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