If you want to have a nice life, come from a nice place.
Michael A. Singer
I am negative?
Yesterday, as ego-embarrassing as it was to be that exposed, I shared how negative I was. (Well, I really wasn't negative, I was just staring at something that was negative...my perceiving and believing was negative...will get to that in a bit.) Up until that point I was so busy focusing on the negative things happening "out there" that I didn't focus enough on what is happening "in here." Until one is aware of what truly is going on inside, it would seem that we are experiencing the consequence of negative karma. One might even think that I was been punished for something "wrong" I did in this past life or another.
Karma: The Result of a Myopic View
This wasn't punishment! It was simply the consequence of a narrowed and myopic view. That is what Karma often is. I was staring, in a very unclear way, at what seemed to be happening negatively "to me," and then "in me". I was staring at this or that negative thing out there; I was then staring at this negative feeling and that negative thought stream in here as a result. All of this narrowly focused, but blurry view, was coming from a bunch of samskaras and deeply stuffed core beliefs that were rising to the surface. I was seeing through the lens of old stuffed impressions that blurred and distorted what I was looking at. I was then bumping into Life...because I was not seeing well...and then reacting with resistance to the stubbed toes. I went from blaming Life for being so darned difficult, to blaming myself for any bad things I must have done in this life or another to deserve such punishment. After gaining a bit more understanding about karma from the masters, and after a few too many swollen toes, I had to ask, "What is really happening here?"
Inner not Outer
I see now that it was truly all about what was happening in me...not what was going on out there. It surprised me, and even shamed me, to see how negative my inner experience actually was. More than that it floored me to be able to make the link between my inner experience and what I was receiving from Life on the outside. My inner experience which was an accumulation of all the things I stuffed over the years: my traumas, my pain, my dreams, my beliefs and feelings, my perceptions and ideas, led to some pretty intense inner reactions and that in turn led to some less than joyful outer reactions. The light I was shining out there was pretty dim when it could have been so bright. This then, in turn, led to life events that were lacking light. Karma.
I wasn't coming from a nice place, and my world did not seem so nice as a result.
The Observer, not the Observed
I was also getting all caught up in what I was focusing on. I thought it was me. I thought I was negative when I was merely staring at what was negative. Singer reminds us that we are not that which we are observing. We are that which is observing. We are an emanation of the One light of consciousness. We are brilliant, powerful and transcendent, unharmed and undisturbed by anything this light shines on. The problem is we take this amazing, expansive light, and using the power of will, focus it down on something that is not brilliant, not powerful and that is easily disturbed. We focus it down on the "me", the psyche...on this little tiny speck of dust, one speck of 8 billion on a little planet in a vast and spacious universe. Then, if you are like me, we narrow the focus even more, down onto the negative experiences this little me is having, on the problems and challenges. So narrow and obsessive is our focus, we fail to see anything else. We get lost in what we are seeing; we see it as our identity. We say things like "I am depressed," when really we, who we are...this lights of consciousness... can never be depressed or tainted by depression. We are just simply shining our light on depression. We could be shining this light on anything else, everything else but when we say "I am depressed"...we are narrowing that beam to the depression this one of 8 billion specks is experiencing.
I am not negative!
I am not negative. I am just narrowing this brilliant light of who I am down on these inner and outer experiences I judge as unpleasant and negative. Wow!
Singer also reminds us that we are not just human beings or victims to pleasant and unpleasant experiences, we are God focusing on human stuff. It is all just human stuff we are shining our awareness on. We are the awareness itself.
Compassion
Hmm! He also reminds us of how compassion is the highest emotional experience we can have. We need to look upon our negativity with compassion...understand where it comes from. Instead of trampling down self with self...we are better off being compassionate for our human tendencies. So many of us get sucked in by these narrow views and get lost in "me".
Understand why. Instead of denying negativity...accept it, embrace it, look at it deeply as a result of a pain that wasn't dealt with. Be compassionate with self as we transcend these tendencies. And from there we can be understanding and compassionate with others who are still reacting from their narrowed focuses.
All is well!
Michael A. Singer/Temple of the Universe (November 12, 2023) Understanding Focus, Distraction, and Universal Awareness https://tou.org/talks/
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