All quiet on the Western Front

[Michael Larkin]

Hello everyone,

It has been very quiet around here for a few months!

For my part, I have been engaging actively in discussions at the Eternal Awareness site (http://www.eternalawareness.com/?s=ert+of+giving&x=19&y=17) and a few significant things have happened.

For instance, I have left my school. I won't go into the reasons for that, but it became, in practical terms, impossible for me to continue in it.

Through discussions at EA I've been discovering a lot about, and trying to practise, the "Art of Giving", which I've found hard to come to grips with, but has been gradually sinking in. I think it's a very good way of exploring spiritual issues, and it's changed a lot of my thinking, which is one reason I haven't been posting here.

It's difficult to do that - to put things across would require an understanding of the Art of Giving, really, and EA is where one can get to learn about that - there are a number of introductory documents, etc. in the "Sensei" section under the "Teachings" heading to the right of the main screen if anyone is interested (I'm not recruiting here, by the way - just providing info!)

As I said when I resurrected HR, I didn't have the intention of becoming the head honcho. I just had the feeling back then that there might still be a demand for it. I'm not sure about that now - maybe people are looking for a head honcho and feel reluctant to post without one?

Maybe I should wind it up? I wouldn't do that without consultation, though. If you have any ideas where HR should be going, if anywhere, feel free to comment.

[Michael Larkin]

Just a test message

[Rajan Arulganesan]

Michael,
It's good to hear from you, the only reason I haven't posted anything recently is because although I feel selfish in asking questions alone, I don't feel I have enough 'good' or first hand information to share with everyone. My questions had dried up as well, I didn't want to simply fill web pages to keep the site going. When yourself, James, mike and kareanna and the others regularly posted, there used to be a lot of depth in the discussions and also the more mature experiences of people in the way were being chronicled and this need to carry on for there to be fresh discussions. What I'm saying is that, yes, I feel that there needs to be some sort of leadership or guidance or someone who has something more than just confusions and questions, but, positive stuff to contribute to ignite discussions and open new frontiers. So, who is that going to be?
If this is of any relevance, I still look at the old discussions and there's always something new about them that strike me anew. Hope all is well with everyone and their caravans are progressing. I had just recently discovered eternal awareness and will be checking it out regularly.

[Kareana Kee]

Hi, wonderful to see some posting. This week was the first time in ages I have looked at this site and walla, there was activity. This past few months I have been engaged fulltime in my postgrad studies and not much time for anything else. This is my last week of the semester! I must say it was nice having someone like James who was able to produce such eloquent and multiple blogs and discussions and seemingly so effortlessly. For myself, writing well does not come effortlessly and my few attempts at writing something here were very time consuming and really just me exploring and giving it a go; and infact feeling a little out of my depth :) I could be interested to try some more after this week, but can not promise anything spectacular. It would be interesting to know if others are willing to give it a go also? Maybe someone takes a turn each week? Anyway just brain storming. I will check out the site you mentioned Michael.

Hello and best wishes to everyone

[Mike MacLeod]

It's perfect as it is, I daresay. As is EA, though it is not for me.

What is for me? Not much, possibly, but I can recommend Mr. Gobley on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MrGobley.

[Michael Larkin]

Okay – I’m no expert, but I’m going to say something introductory about the Art Of Giving (AOG) - with the following health warning: you can get the most reliable story over at EA!

I used to post at HR as a method of exploration and discovery, but I didn’t really know how to do that. The AOG provides such a method. One idea implicit in it is that, using it, you can actually find Truth for yourself. At some level, you can recognise Truth.

We live in moments. In this particular moment, something may be concerning, interesting, or intriguing us, and may we feel an urge to try to understand it so that we can then actually come to live it. The idea is that in this moment, we can choose to move outwards (into selfishness or ego), or inwards (into selflessness or essence). This isn’t to say that our actions won’t inevitably have an inwards and an outwards component. They will, because we aren’t disembodied souls, but are currently incarnated in material form. But the main driver for our actions should be inwards movement.

Let’s take a hypothetical example. Suppose I’m an artisan; maybe I make fine jewellery. One day, I come across some exquisite jewellery made by another artisan. It’s better than anything I can make, and I want to be as good a jeweller as him. Okay: this is the start of the process: I have chosen a Value to focus on, to [pay] Respect [to]: viz. the quality of the craftsmanship and how to emulate it. This is my Reason for being in the moment (or “Reason” in abbreviated form).

Now: I must keep that Reason in awareness as I take the next step. If I begin by moving outwards, (by the Value), if I’m not very careful, I can end up turning away from my Reason; but even so, most people begin a practice session of AOG by moving first into Appreciation. “Just think: if I make better jewellery, I will attract more and wealthier customers, will be able to make more money to support my family”. But I could take that more outwards by saying that: “Maybe I will become world-renowned; maybe people will admire me, giving me a big ego boost”. As I said, if I’m not very careful, the driver for my action will veer away from my stated Reason.

However, if I move inwards (by developing the Value in Gratitude, keeping firmly in mind my Reason, I’m focussing on gaining new skills for their own sake. This should be the main driver, the new Value that pops out of my practice of the AOG. What is it I am grateful for? Ultimately, it’s to God for the talents and skills He has given me, whom I’m honouring by developing them. By focussing on developing those skills further for their own sake, I’m making an offering that shows Respect to God, which will earn his Grace, because it’s something of real worth.

There will still be an appreciative component; but as it’s in balance with the grateful component and driven by the latter, it’s going to be something that is compatible with it. For example, producing finer craftsmanship may bring something to others. Maybe, seeing it, they will themselves Respect and Appreciate it, and maybe that will help them turn inwards in Gratitude. Maybe they will say to themselves: “Look at the craftsmanship! Do I pay such Respect to my own work? Maybe I should start making that my own Reason for being in my moments of work”. And so, the grace of God can be passed along to the other, without in any way being diminished in me.

We’ve been through one loop of practice of the AOG, starting with a particular Value and ending with another, but we can then take this New Value as the starting point for a new loop: new Value – Respect – Appreciation – Gratitude – next new Value. With each loop, we may approach nearer and nearer our True Reason for being, which goes well beyond the start reason. The nearer we get, the more grateful becomes our offering to God, and the more our giving to others helps them, through the grace we pass on from Him.

The “balance point” I spoke of earlier is often referred to in the AOG terminology as “The Christ point”. In any moment, we should be aiming to be at the Christ point, where inner and outer are balanced, and being driven by the inner. It’s called the Christ point because it’s an ideal way of being as an incarnated individual, and Jesus the Christ exemplified it the most perfectly. His life is the exemplar for us all to follow, regardless of whether we call ourselves Christians, or indeed members of any (or no) creed. The Christ is a sort of cosmic model or template that we can all have access to in our moments, if we pay due respect to our Reasons.

The teacher over at EA (we call him sensei), has shown how the AOG reflects the biblical Genesis story. Adam and Eve ate of the tree of Knowledge, and that led to the Fall. Adam represents that part of us that shows gratitude, and Eve, that which shows Appreciation. The Christ Model was created as a way of enabling us to find our way back to God in our incarnations. But Adam and Eve have to be balanced at the Christ point in our moments for this to succeed. According to sensei, Jesus was a reincarnation of Adam, and was born of Mary, a reincarnation of Eve. Adam and Eve actually existed, but in a realm that was on the boundary between the spiritual and the phenomenological.

Adam and Eve gave birth to Cain and Abel. Cain made his offering to the Lord, but as it did not show Respect, it was not accepted. The offering of Abel, on the other hand, because he Respected the lord, and wanted genuinely to show his Gratitude to Him, was accepted. The Lord told Cain he shouldn’t be upset, that his offerings would be acceptable if he showed Respect, but his feelings were hurt and so he took Abel out(wards) into the field and killed him, and was exiled to the land of Nod (think of “sleep” here).

This is more than a pretty little biblical story; the psycho-spiritual drama it represents plays out in our lives every single day. Time and again in our present moments, we make offerings that don’t show due Respect to God, that aren’t consonant with our Reason for being, and get peeved when they don’t get accepted. So we turn away and kill our Abel, and that takes us even further out into the “land of Nod”. Most of the time, we are slumbering along with all the others in Nod.

What we should be doing in the moment is being Abel, focusing on Respect and Gratitude. We shouldn’t be allowing our inner Cain to take our Abel out into the field, kill him, and then get exiled to Nod. Cain kills moment-to-moment opportunities to move inwards in Gratitude, keeps us slumbering.

Sensei claims that the AOG functions in everything, and so at one class that I attended (via telephone link), I asked him to illustrate how it might work in the realm of something biological.

He gave the example of a tree. It starts life as a seed, and to grow and develop, it must start by Respecting the things it needs to do that – nutrients in the soil, oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air, water, and so on. It must appreciate these things so as to produce roots and a trunk, branches and leaves. It shows its gratitude by giving something back, by passing on the Grace of the Lord if you like, in the form of excess oxygen so that other organisms can breath, environments for animals to live in, flowers for the bees, leaves that fall and fertilize the land, roots that bind the soil and prevent erosion, fruits as food, and so on. It goes through continuous loops of Respect-Appreciation-Gratitude- new Value, eventually becoming a mighty being that gives more and more back. Even when it dies, it still has lots to give.

A tree that didn’t give anything would be spelling the extinction of its own species; because what it gives comes back to it and helps sustain it, as well as others of its own, not to mention other, species. By giving its fruit to be eaten, it gets its seeds dispersed. By giving the bees its nectar, it gets its flowers pollinated. By stabilising the soil of the forest, more trees can grow there. This is how the universe is meant to work: by everything giving to everything else. Organisms generally do this, but human beings can consciously elect not to do it.

Why is that so? I think the reason is that God wants to be respected, loved, and come to be known, but he wants this to be genuine, and freely given. The love that is not freely given isn’t worth much. So He has to allow us to choose to resist loving Him. And since Free Will is a gift of his, he can hardly punish us if we screw up. The “punishment” consists in the separation that results when we allow Cain to kill Abel. The “reward” is the Grace that flows freely from Him when Abel chooses to respect and love Him. “Hell” is separation; “Heaven” is nearness, and, eventually, union. There is no punishment, and no reward, but rather just a cosmic mechanism, and our Adventure is all about discovering and utilising this to find our way Home.

Nothing can really harm us; the only thing that dies is the material component of our nature. But essence or soul is eternal, and, I believe, we reincarnate to keep on trying to find our way Home. Resisting the choice for Abel from life to life just delays the Homecoming. Around and around we go on the wheel of reincarnation until at last we overcome all resistance and reach Nirvana, achieve Redemption, Rise from the Fall, however one likes to put it.

The things that trouble us in everyday life and seem so important can be seen from a new perspective. There is cosmic justice, after all. We govern what happens to us by the free choices we make. However badly we screw up, the opportunity for us to get back on track is never taken away from us. God has infinite love and compassion for us.

[Rajan Arulganesan]

Great interpretation of the genesis story, Michael and a such a simple way to look at life and to live it. Sometimes, for me, the easiest things seem the hardest to follow, this is probably because I am still in a sort of childish way, seeking excitement from everything that I do which stops me from paying full attention to whatever is at hand. Hopefully gradually I will become correctly attuned to life and lose the defeatism.
Michael Larkin said:

Okay – I’m no expert, but I’m going to say something introductory about the Art Of Giving (AOG) - with the following health warning: you can get the most reliable story over at EA!

I used to post at HR as a method of exploration and discovery, but I didn’t really know how to do that. The AOG provides such a method. One idea implicit in it is that, using it, you can actually find Truth for yourself. At some level, you can recognise Truth.

We live in moments. In this particular moment, something may be concerning, interesting, or intriguing us, and may we feel an urge to try to understand it so that we can then actually come to live it. The idea is that in this moment, we can choose to move outwards (into selfishness or ego), or inwards (into selflessness or essence). This isn’t to say that our actions won’t inevitably have an inwards and an outwards component. They will, because we aren’t disembodied souls, but are currently incarnated in material form. But the main driver for our actions should be inwards movement.

Let’s take a hypothetical example. Suppose I’m an artisan; maybe I make fine jewellery. One day, I come across some exquisite jewellery made by another artisan. It’s better than anything I can make, and I want to be as good a jeweller as him. Okay: this is the start of the process: I have chosen a Value to focus on, to [pay] Respect [to]: viz. the quality of the craftsmanship and how to emulate it. This is my Reason for being in the moment (or “Reason” in abbreviated form).

Now: I must keep that Reason in awareness as I take the next step. If I begin by moving outwards, (by the Value), if I’m not very careful, I can end up turning away from my Reason; but even so, most people begin a practice session of AOG by moving first into Appreciation. “Just think: if I make better jewellery, I will attract more and wealthier customers, will be able to make more money to support my family”. But I could take that more outwards by saying that: “Maybe I will become world-renowned; maybe people will admire me, giving me a big ego boost”. As I said, if I’m not very careful, the driver for my action will veer away from my stated Reason.

However, if I move inwards (by developing the Value in Gratitude, keeping firmly in mind my Reason, I’m focussing on gaining new skills for their own sake. This should be the main driver, the new Value that pops out of my practice of the AOG. What is it I am grateful for? Ultimately, it’s to God for the talents and skills He has given me, whom I’m honouring by developing them. By focussing on developing those skills further for their own sake, I’m making an offering that shows Respect to God, which will earn his Grace, because it’s something of real worth.

There will still be an appreciative component; but as it’s in balance with the grateful component and driven by the latter, it’s going to be something that is compatible with it. For example, producing finer craftsmanship may bring something to others. Maybe, seeing it, they will themselves Respect and Appreciate it, and maybe that will help them turn inwards in Gratitude. Maybe they will say to themselves: “Look at the craftsmanship! Do I pay such Respect to my own work? Maybe I should start making that my own Reason for being in my moments of work”. And so, the grace of God can be passed along to the other, without in any way being diminished in me.

We’ve been through one loop of practice of the AOG, starting with a particular Value and ending with another, but we can then take this New Value as the starting point for a new loop: new Value – Respect – Appreciation – Gratitude – next new Value. With each loop, we may approach nearer and nearer our True Reason for being, which goes well beyond the start reason. The nearer we get, the more grateful becomes our offering to God, and the more our giving to others helps them, through the grace we pass on from Him.

The “balance point” I spoke of earlier is often referred to in the AOG terminology as “The Christ point”. In any moment, we should be aiming to be at the Christ point, where inner and outer are balanced, and being driven by the inner. It’s called the Christ point because it’s an ideal way of being as an incarnated individual, and Jesus the Christ exemplified it the most perfectly. His life is the exemplar for us all to follow, regardless of whether we call ourselves Christians, or indeed members of any (or no) creed. The Christ is a sort of cosmic model or template that we can all have access to in our moments, if we pay due respect to our Reasons.

The teacher over at EA (we call him sensei), has shown how the AOG reflects the biblical Genesis story. Adam and Eve ate of the tree of Knowledge, and that led to the Fall. Adam represents that part of us that shows gratitude, and Eve, that which shows Appreciation. The Christ Model was created as a way of enabling us to find our way back to God in our incarnations. But Adam and Eve have to be balanced at the Christ point in our moments for this to succeed. According to sensei, Jesus was a reincarnation of Adam, and was born of Mary, a reincarnation of Eve. Adam and Eve actually existed, but in a realm that was on the boundary between the spiritual and the phenomenological.

Adam and Eve gave birth to Cain and Abel. Cain made his offering to the Lord, but as it did not show Respect, it was not accepted. The offering of Abel, on the other hand, because he Respected the lord, and wanted genuinely to show his Gratitude to Him, was accepted. The Lord told Cain he shouldn’t be upset, that his offerings would be acceptable if he showed Respect, but his feelings were hurt and so he took Abel out(wards) into the field and killed him, and was exiled to the land of Nod (think of “sleep” here).

This is more than a pretty little biblical story; the psycho-spiritual drama it represents plays out in our lives every single day. Time and again in our present moments, we make offerings that don’t show due Respect to God, that aren’t consonant with our Reason for being, and get peeved when they don’t get accepted. So we turn away and kill our Abel, and that takes us even further out into the “land of Nod”. Most of the time, we are slumbering along with all the others in Nod.

What we should be doing in the moment is being Abel, focusing on Respect and Gratitude. We shouldn’t be allowing our inner Cain to take our Abel out into the field, kill him, and then get exiled to Nod. Cain kills moment-to-moment opportunities to move inwards in Gratitude, keeps us slumbering.

Sensei claims that the AOG functions in everything, and so at one class that I attended (via telephone link), I asked him to illustrate how it might work in the realm of something biological.

He gave the example of a tree. It starts life as a seed, and to grow and develop, it must start by Respecting the things it needs to do that – nutrients in the soil, oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air, water, and so on. It must appreciate these things so as to produce roots and a trunk, branches and leaves. It shows its gratitude by giving something back, by passing on the Grace of the Lord if you like, in the form of excess oxygen so that other organisms can breath, environments for animals to live in, flowers for the bees, leaves that fall and fertilize the land, roots that bind the soil and prevent erosion, fruits as food, and so on. It goes through continuous loops of Respect-Appreciation-Gratitude- new Value, eventually becoming a mighty being that gives more and more back. Even when it dies, it still has lots to give.

A tree that didn’t give anything would be spelling the extinction of its own species; because what it gives comes back to it and helps sustain it, as well as others of its own, not to mention other, species. By giving its fruit to be eaten, it gets its seeds dispersed. By giving the bees its nectar, it gets its flowers pollinated. By stabilising the soil of the forest, more trees can grow there. This is how the universe is meant to work: by everything giving to everything else. Organisms generally do this, but human beings can consciously elect not to do it.

Why is that so? I think the reason is that God wants to be respected, loved, and come to be known, but he wants this to be genuine, and freely given. The love that is not freely given isn’t worth much. So He has to allow us to choose to resist loving Him. And since Free Will is a gift of his, he can hardly punish us if we screw up. The “punishment” consists in the separation that results when we allow Cain to kill Abel. The “reward” is the Grace that flows freely from Him when Abel chooses to respect and love Him. “Hell” is separation; “Heaven” is nearness, and, eventually, union. There is no punishment, and no reward, but rather just a cosmic mechanism, and our Adventure is all about discovering and utilising this to find our way Home.

Nothing can really harm us; the only thing that dies is the material component of our nature. But essence or soul is eternal, and, I believe, we reincarnate to keep on trying to find our way Home. Resisting the choice for Abel from life to life just delays the Homecoming. Around and around we go on the wheel of reincarnation until at last we overcome all resistance and reach Nirvana, achieve Redemption, Rise from the Fall, however one likes to put it.

The things that trouble us in everyday life and seem so important can be seen from a new perspective. There is cosmic justice, after all. We govern what happens to us by the free choices we make. However badly we screw up, the opportunity for us to get back on track is never taken away from us. God has infinite love and compassion for us.

[Michael Larkin]

Sometimes, for me, the easiest things seem the hardest to follow, this is probably because I am still in a sort of childish way, seeking excitement from everything that I do which stops me from paying full attention to whatever is at hand. Hopefully gradually I will become correctly attuned to life and lose the defeatism.

Do you see the value you have chosen to respect here, Rajan? It seems almost as if you have given up before you have started. Cain has already killed Abel and you are off to the land of Nod, stopping your own progress by turning away from Gratitude. Why say “hopefully” when you can say, well, let's apply the Art of Giving and see if I can’t move inwards a little here and now, in this moment, and for once let my Abel make his offering?

Please don’t think I’m getting at you specifically, because we all do this kind of thing constantly. The Value you could start with is something like: I find even easy things hard to follow, so I need to start following them.

Your Cain seems to have turned outwards, off into the land of Nod, stopping things going further by thinking it’s only a fond dream, and one day you might do it, hopefully, but not today. No: that’s too much to ask. So let’s just kill Abel instead.

As soon as you challenge that, and take seriously your own reason for being in the moment, which is to follow things better, then you’re beginning to Respect the Lord. So how to Appreciate this, which is the next step in the AOG? Well, what will happen if you learn to follow things better? You will begin to grow and develop. You will have the capacity to learn and understand more.

And where is the Gratitude? As you learn more, you will open yourself up to the Grace of the Lord, and will be able in your turn to pass that Grace on in your givings to others. Your givings could include such things as how you regard and treat them, and how you regard and treat yourself. At some new point of value, you will have moved inwards, will have learnt and internalised something in your being, and will be able to build on that and go yet further inwards in Gratitude.

But the thing is, it isn’t just words; you have to actually DO it. Just sitting back and being happy with the words, with the understanding of them, means diddly-squat if you don’t act on them. So you have to say to yourself that here, from now on, I will make efforts to follow things better, first by identifying what it is that I want to follow better. That Respectful offering to the Lord in your actions in your every moment will earn the Grace to take you further.

If you don’t do that, if you turn outwards and lose Respect for the Lord by closing the door, your offering will be rejected, and you will kill your Abel and exile yourself to the land of Nod.

This is real stuff, Rajan. It isn’t just reading and to some extent appreciating. It’s actually LIVING AND GIVING according to our stated reason for being in the moment. Once the penny drops about that, we begin to see that the power to change that we seek resides within ourselves. Only we are stopping ourselves, because what we respect most is the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness that we desperately want to hang on to, because actually, we like to snooze. We don’t realise how big and powerful we actually are.

The AOG is like an exercise machine, say, a treadmill. We buy it, we read the manual, we know how it works, and we love owning it. Day after day we lie on the sofa dreaming about using it, then wonder why we are still unfit. However, once we start using it, probably on the easy setting at first, we begin to drop the pounds.

I’m not sensei. He could probably have said something much better to you. But he doesn’t always sugar-coat it either!

[Mike MacLeod]

Thanks for the report.

Can you tell us something about how it has affected you personally, a case study, if you will?

Is this something that can become "habit", in the sense of prompted subconsiously to be performed consciously, if you take my meaning?

Can you see how it has worked, or does work, in the life and presentation of Sensei?

Thanks again,

Mike

[Michael Larkin]

Hi Mike,

Can you tell us something about how it has affected you personally, a case study, if you will?

When I started over at EA, I was rather sceptical. For quite a few weeks, I was struggling to understand what the AOG was all about. The terminology takes time to get to grips with, and the underlying concepts also take time to bed in. Also, Sensei has a writing style which I sometimes find difficult.

You see, I arrived there with all sorts of ideas of my own, and through my writings at HR and elsewhere, I had been conscious that I was using that writing in order to discover Truth. Each piece I would write was an exercise in doing that. So I wouldn’t start writing knowing exactly what I wanted to say, and I’m not doing that right now, either; there’s an internal dialogue going on, and whatever will emerge at the end will be the product of that.

The very process of writing is, for me, a means of winking out the Truth, and I’ve always tried to be ruthlessly honest. I didn’t realise it before the AOG, but I was trying to use writing as one significant means of “practice” as sensei calls it. However, as I didn’t understand the AOG, a lot of things were getting mixed up, and it wasn’t completely successful.

Once I began to “get” the AOG, I was able to use it very quickly to see that many of the ways I had of looking at things weren’t that useful. In short order, I was able to throw out much that I thought I knew and understood, and sharpen up things that may have been more useful. Honestly, in a few weeks, it completely changed me. It’s hard to give actual case studies without repeating postings I have already made at EA. I suppose you’d need to follow them chronologically to get some insight into the detail.

The underlying revelation is that each of us is our own Guru, and the AOG gives us a way to explore and to come to know. There are levels of knowledge, and so I’m not talking about absolute Knowledge, but gradually refining knowledge and understanding. It’s astounding to find that, by practising the AOG, you can come to know things from within your self. You don’t have to have an external teacher to tell you things. You are capable of coming to know them yourself.

Sensei used the word “invent” with me, a word I didn’t much like the sound of. I didn’t like to think I was inventing things. But actually, as he pointed out, we invent everything we know, and we can’t actually invent anything that doesn’t have some basis in Truth. So you may call it discovery of what is there, or invention. It doesn’t really matter, but “invention” of the truth is an idea I rather like now.

Sensei isn’t so much a teacher or Guru, as someone who can teach you how to teach yourself, and come to rely on yourself as that teacher. He avoids wherever possible giving you pat answers. He might nudge you here and there, but he wants you to make the discoveries or inventions for yourself. That can seem a bit irritating and frustrating at times, but it works; however, you do have to put in some effort. As I said to Rajan, you have to DO, because it’s much more than having the satisfaction of understanding intellectually.

So when I say to you that the four main principles of the AOG are: Respect – Appreciation – Gratitude – Value, sure, it’s a mnemonic, but the underlying meanings have to be understood and practised in the moment. At first, this seems a bit forced and artificial. Just like driving a car, initially it’s a conscious process, but in time, the operations needed to drive become embedded and part of your being.

If you don’t truly respect that, if you think you can just read a book about driving and not bother to get in the car and go through the initial, very hesitant applications of the skills needed, then you can’t even get to first base with the four principles. You can drive all the cars you want in your imagination, but you aren’t actually going anywhere. In fact, you are making sure you aren’t going anywhere, but remaining asleep.

Is this something that can become "habit", in the sense of prompted subconsiously to be performed consciously, if you take my meaning?

I’ve hinted above that it can become embedded in your being, provided you actually do the practice rather than just understanding it intellectually. It can become a way of looking at anything you want, however mundane or spiritual. Once you’ve got that idea of Gratitude, of making sure that that is the main driver, then the AOG can take your values inwards towards your reasons for being in any moment, no matter what it is that you are currently choosing to respect.

At this current moment, for example, I am respecting the questions that you have asked me. I’ve tried to provide some Appreciation of those in terms of providing explanation, but also, I’ve been trying to focus on the Gratitude angle, to remember my reason for being right now; this is to give you some insight into or feeling for the inner dimension if the AOG. This is my offering to the Lord.

If you in your turn choose to pay respect to what I say, then that can be the start of your own AOG loop. It can take you somewhere towards your reason for being in the moment. I don’t know, but maybe your reason is to try to understand the AOG and determine whether or not it is worth pursuing over at EA. I know you’ve said it doesn’t appeal, but at one time, for months in fact before I decided to give it a whirl, it didn’t appeal to me either.

As I’ve indicated, I’m not here to recruit, so I’m not trying to encourage you to go to EA and check it out in more detail. That’s for you to decide, and I don’t mind what you choose to do. You’re at the beginning of your own loop, and I don’t know where that will take you. All I can say is that wherever it takes you, I hope it’s closer to your reason for being in the moment.

If it is, you will experience that as a fresh and stimulating invention or discovery. That might be small or big, but whichever, it’s an expression of the movement inwards nearer to your self or essence. It will be a platform from which to move further inwards, and that’s its own reward, really.

Whether we know it or not, what we do and where we go follows the four principles. We all choose to respect certain things, and we all, at some level, want to make our offerings acceptable to the Lord, i.e. to be Abel-type offerings, which means offerings made in gratitude. Sometimes, we may manage to do that even if we have never heard of the AOG or consciously practised it. Sensei seems to agree that some people, without knowing it, are attuned to the principles and able to move inwards intuitively. Maybe some significant life event wakes us up and prompts us to change, become more selfless, more giving in line with our real reasons for existing on this planet.

But for most of us, and again without realising it, we very often block or turn away from inwards movement, taking the line of least resistance that ensures we can remain comfortably dreaming in bed rather than living and giving in the real world. We need to be like the tree I described, which comes quite naturally to follow the principles. The main difference is that we have been granted the ability to consciously choose whether or not to follow them. We are free to be Cain or Abel in all our moments.

Can you see how it has worked, or does work, in the life and presentation of Sensei?

I think it’s a part of his being, that he lives whereof he speaks. He’s enormously generous with his time, and very patient with people, which is not to say that he shies away from telling it like it is when he has to. He’s not the “Guru” type, isn’t after adulation; he’s a normal person who seems to have unusual spiritual insight. He’s definitely the best teacher I’ve had to date; I have learnt so much in such a short time, I can hardly believe it. He will say that actually, I’ve been teaching myself using the principles of the AOG.

He doesn’t mind if people call him by his given name, Scott Walter, but I prefer to call him sensei as a mark of respect. This is something I need, but he doesn’t.

[Mike MacLeod]

Thanks for the personal experience. I'll go over your postings on EA and get a feel for your journey, I hope.

I was put off somewhat by the altitude there, but as you point out, as often as not the students offer it up to the teacher without prompting. And as you also point out, the truth is within us, we just need to remove the veils - through work, technique, or grace, among other things.

Mike

[Rajan Arulganesan]

I agree with all the sentiments you have expressed here Michael. When I was replying to your post, I was in a negative frame of mind, just in relation to my job, so this had largely coloured my reply. In the work environment, sometimes my thought processes are so over active and I find it difficult to plan, concentrate and carry out complex tasks. But, in every other respect, say, in my interaction with others at work or in general, cooking or other chores and everyday existence, I do give a 100% and am grateful for my life and everything that's bestowed on me. I am absolutely going to try and be in the moment more and exert more control over my unruly mind - nurture Abel more.

Michael Larkin said:

Sometimes, for me, the easiest things seem the hardest to follow, this is probably because I am still in a sort of childish way, seeking excitement from everything that I do which stops me from paying full attention to whatever is at hand. Hopefully gradually I will become correctly attuned to life and lose the defeatism.

Do you see the value you have chosen to respect here, Rajan? It seems almost as if you have given up before you have started. Cain has already killed Abel and you are off to the land of Nod, stopping your own progress by turning away from Gratitude. Why say “hopefully” when you can say, well, let's apply the Art of Giving and see if I can’t move inwards a little here and now, in this moment, and for once let my Abel make his offering?

Please don’t think I’m getting at you specifically, because we all do this kind of thing constantly. The Value you could start with is something like: I find even easy things hard to follow, so I need to start following them.

Your Cain seems to have turned outwards, off into the land of Nod, stopping things going further by thinking it’s only a fond dream, and one day you might do it, hopefully, but not today. No: that’s too much to ask. So let’s just kill Abel instead.

As soon as you challenge that, and take seriously your own reason for being in the moment, which is to follow things better, then you’re beginning to Respect the Lord. So how to Appreciate this, which is the next step in the AOG? Well, what will happen if you learn to follow things better? You will begin to grow and develop. You will have the capacity to learn and understand more.

And where is the Gratitude? As you learn more, you will open yourself up to the Grace of the Lord, and will be able in your turn to pass that Grace on in your givings to others. Your givings could include such things as how you regard and treat them, and how you regard and treat yourself. At some new point of value, you will have moved inwards, will have learnt and internalised something in your being, and will be able to build on that and go yet further inwards in Gratitude.

But the thing is, it isn’t just words; you have to actually DO it. Just sitting back and being happy with the words, with the understanding of them, means diddly-squat if you don’t act on them. So you have to say to yourself that here, from now on, I will make efforts to follow things better, first by identifying what it is that I want to follow better. That Respectful offering to the Lord in your actions in your every moment will earn the Grace to take you further.

If you don’t do that, if you turn outwards and lose Respect for the Lord by closing the door, your offering will be rejected, and you will kill your Abel and exile yourself to the land of Nod.

This is real stuff, Rajan. It isn’t just reading and to some extent appreciating. It’s actually LIVING AND GIVING according to our stated reason for being in the moment. Once the penny drops about that, we begin to see that the power to change that we seek resides within ourselves. Only we are stopping ourselves, because what we respect most is the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness that we desperately want to hang on to, because actually, we like to snooze. We don’t realise how big and powerful we actually are.

The AOG is like an exercise machine, say, a treadmill. We buy it, we read the manual, we know how it works, and we love owning it. Day after day we lie on the sofa dreaming about using it, then wonder why we are still unfit. However, once we start using it, probably on the easy setting at first, we begin to drop the pounds.

I’m not sensei. He could probably have said something much better to you. But he doesn’t always sugar-coat it either!

[Rajan Arulganesan]

This is perfect Michael, I can see how you 'being in the moment' has enabled you to write something complex and sublime in such clear, simple language.
'I’ve hinted above that it can become embedded in your being, provided you actually do the practice rather than just understanding it intellectually.'
Spot on! This is what I do often. An idea appeals to me, I agree with the sentiments intellectually, but, then forget them when I have to put them in practice! I am certainly going to be more awake about this.