This is an OLD writing of LightDancer/altarlight. But, here is what he wrote about meditation and forgiveness, as well as, faith, love, understanding, judgment, years ago - I don't know how long ago - it was on the link to LightDancer. I still don't know what he might say about atonement...
UNDERSTANDING SIMPLISTIC MEDITATION The main ingredient of Simplistic Meditation is utilizing one's intention or free will to proffer one's attention directly to source through the medium universally provided. Simplistic Meditation asks one to pay attention...nothing more. === PONDER THIS === Since anything one does not know (and yet senses they need to know) is, in fact, something that is not known, it emerges as clear that the person meditating not only does not know the answer sought, but in that understanding, it is also clear that they do not know what questions to ask, what to seek, nor even if there is anything to seek at all. =========*========= Because of that fact, although it is fine to ask questions of Spirit, be aware that always filling one's mind with arbitrary questions leaves less attention to see what Spirit is showing you. One need not ask for anything nor ask to see or know anything. Instead, in order to allow the fullest effect, one simply pays attention as wholly as possible. One may be tempted to ask, "What am I waiting to see, hear or experience?" Some may see visions; some may see what they later believe is evidence appearing in their lives; some may hear a voice; and many may see, hear or experience nothing at all. It is important to realize that what is happening to a person as a result of Simplistic Meditation is happening outside of time, and anything seen, heard or experienced is NOT the main thing, regardless of what may appear. The main thing is that they are paying attention to source and the focus of their attention is clearing away their blocks to understanding (which may or may not produce discernible sights, sounds or experiences for quite some time). It is better not to look "for" anything; but, instead, to simply pay attention. Of course, the question must arise wherein one wonders, "Just what is source?" That will become clear only through continuing the meditation regularly. We are accustomed to intellectual understanding and that is limited by our inner structure of thoughts, concepts and beliefs; all of which are founded upon faulty keywords or faulty underlying key foundational concepts. Paying attention to source begins to clear the understanding and to gradually eradicate the faulty underlying key foundational concepts and, with those concepts realigned more closely to what is so, the mind automatically functions to understand at a renewed level that reaches beyond the intellect and beyond the arbitrary process of structuring concepts and deciding upon beliefs, followed by our misdirecting of our lives. Metaphorically, there is a place within you at which you reside in each moment. Every moment of your life you have always been "here" and the moment has always been "now." Somehow, through a means you do not know, you are alive. Through no particular conscious effort on your part, life seems to flow to you and make you to live and to be aware. As a model to give this a frame of reference, envision this as a light that shines to you from all directions at the same time. Notice this omnipresent light shining to you and focus your attention upon it. No deep concentration of energy or trying to sense anything in particular is required. Then envision that the result of your paying attention is that life's light flows on through you and directly back to its source in a sort of continuous reciprocation. Remember that envisioning this two-way light is not necessary; it is simply a model to lend a frame of reference to what you are doing when in Simplistic Meditation. As you do this, your thoughts will flow in and talk in your head as they always have. It is not necessary to forcefully stop the mind chatter; however, you can simply tell your thoughts that you "prefer" to not entertain them right now and that your intention is to pay attention to source. Your mind, habitually a chatterer, will begin to form new habits and will learn to quiet itself. You will notice that, when thoughts do occur, the nature of the thoughts will gradually become clearer and more meaningful, perhaps even seem to be enlightening. Pay attention to the thoughts that arise for a moment and follow them through their sequential conceptualizations if they seem worthwhile. You might even want to write down some of the more interesting ones. Then just let them fade as you return your attention to source. You may wonder how long you are required to do this. There is no specific time period. However, I suggest that you keep it short at first, even just five minutes, once or twice a day. That way you won't burn out on it. After a while, you may notice your sessions automatically become longer because you find yourself experiencing thoughts and feelings that add "interest" to your attention and you want to stay to enjoy this part of your life. At any rate, don't worry about it. The main thing is to pay attention and to pay attention regularly. Understand that this attention is having its effect on you when you don't seem to notice anything different or unusual just as much as when you do notice something. One man, who thought this was totally worthless, because of his trust in the person telling him about it, tried it for about thirty minutes a day for two weeks. This man had been locked up for eleven to twelve years with a potential to be locked up for life. Prior to trying it, he was very angry and cynical, often starting fights, etc. After this short endeavor, he said he just felt too silly to continue. However, his attitude began to change and about three years later, he had changed significantly enough that he was released. Important to note that this worked to change both his inner and outer life and circumstance. Even more important to note that his "not believing in it" did not prevent it from doing what paying attention to source always does. Source (peace), which arises into this world as a medium (love) which I call Spirit, the light and other names, arrives at the door of our awareness as a gentle living presence that provides for us whether we see it clearly or not, whether we believe in it or not ...ALWAYS... and this is particularly noticeable when we are willing to pause and pay attention. Beyond that basic truth, Spirit can and will actually teach you what you need to know as you need it according to your willingness to listen and hear it. It is entirely up to you to decide what to do with the understanding you receive and there is neither reward nor reprisal beyond the natural results of your choice in this. However, the nature of true understanding is that one is gradually drawn toward following what is shown. This is because following what the light shows is exactly the same as embracing the only unconditional love to be found anywhere and learning to realize oneness with it. For me, the unconditional love of Spirit was that it was there to teach me whenever I was ready to pay attention, without any condemnation and without any pressure to do or not do anything. That created my first experience of awe (whole gratefulness or returning unconditional love by seeing Spirit as it actually is). == LINK TO TOP == LOVE Scratch all the conventional meanings given to the word, love. Love is seeing yourself, others and your world exactly the same way you see source. By not paying attention to source, people do not see source clearly and therefore, do not see themselves, others or their world clearly. If one pays attention to source to the extent that they see source clearly, then they will see everything clearly. By the time this transformation takes place, they will be paying attention to source continuously, and therefore, everything they see will be seen according to their thus-renewed vision. To love source (which some call God) is to pay attention to source wholly wherein you see source clearly for what it is and know as you are known. To love yourself is the same, for the only vision of source you will ever have is through the place within yourself where you are right now. In that sense, you are quite literally one with source. To see the unconditional love that source gives you as your life and as understanding and much more, and then to see that you are literally made of the substance that source is, you begin to see yourself as a light expression of unconditional love (even though appearances and your seeming condition may say something else is true...it is not). As you begin to love yourself, not in the sense of having wonderful feelings about yourself, but in the sense of seeing yourself as you are, literally part of this love-light, you find yourself with another option when looking at someone else. You can look at them as you always have, as a collection of historical events wherein they did this or that and failed to do this or that, as a person who made you feel good or bad...or...you can pay attention to source and see them also as part of that love-light. Similarly, you can look at the world around you that is seeming to decay and be filled with deteriorating environment, violence, sickness and death...your old view...or...you can pay attention to the light and see it also as part of that love-light. Of course, until your mind is completely renewed, there will always be the old view to tempt your belief into argument with the view the light proffers. The point is that now you begin to see there is another way of looking at all this. A confidence begins to build within you that, eventually, your newfound view will replace the old view altogether. Your hope in this is built upon something that didn't require believing someone else's words and upon something that is uniquely yours (while at the same time, universally everyone else's). Since we are all made out of this same love-light substance, we are, in a very literal sense, one being expressed as many individuations within itself and within each individual. In summary, in the most pure sense, love is seeing the unconditional love substance that shines to you as what you are, paying attention to it and re- radiating that life-giving substance. It is looking to the light for your view of everything and everyone instead of looking outward at the appearances and judging them to be something different than perfect. When you would love someone, you must first know them as they truly are in the light, and act toward them according to the report the light gives of them rather than according to the report that appearances would have you believe. Looking at someone through the light is knowing them as they are; whereas, looking at them primarily through the senses results in erroneously believing them to be otherwise. One way is knowing while the other way is believing (judging). In short, to love is to know. == LINK TO TOP == FAITH Most often, faith is seen as being very strong belief, so strong that it seems unshakable. Be clear that belief is belief, and it cannot replace knowing. Faith is not belief, however; rather it is reliance upon something other than belief...and that is the substance or reality revealed by love-light. Faith both is the substance of source and reliance upon source rather than belief. Mankind typically believes that their life depends upon air, food and water; which, in turn, are believed to nourish the blood. This, in turn, is believed to nourish the body. It is then believed that all this complexity is our life and that upon which our survival depends. This is very deeply ingrained into the psyche of each individual on earth. The end result of this belief is that, if the supply of air, food or water disappears or our blood or body are damaged or caused to deteriorate, we will wane and die. So, the "belief" of mankind is that the culmination of life is to die, and sometimes quite painfully. The true report, seen in the clear light of love, is that this flow of love-light through our attention center creates and causes our life to be and sustains it continually. To rely upon what is real instead of upon a concept of what is believed to be real, is faith...and that can only come about by paying attention to source and coming to understand what is real in the first place. In short, faith is the substance of source and the reliance upon that substance. To put it more simply, faith IS love. When one finds their own will/intention to be continually in perfect accord with the perfect will/intention of faith, this is wisdom, the point at which truth fades as the light of the knowledge of peace fills our yielded vision. The misuse of will/intention (i.e.-freedom of choice) to "decide" against or deny the reality of what is revealed as so, is pseudo-judgment. The multitude of logically deduced and decided complex thought structures becomes emotionally locked into place as beliefs; all of which are predicated upon the fear of not surviving. These are what actually blocks our otherwise clear vision of the reality of peace that love suggests. The belief that blood is the basis of our life is the opposite of having faith in the substance that faith is (love-light as life). The "shedding of blood" as our reliance and replacing that erroneous belief with faith in the Spirit of Love is the only means of salvation whereby one may be cleansed of the world where appearances tend to deny the truth of Peace expressed as Love. This may seem to be a sacrifice, but when understood as a work of Spirit rather than a reluctant work we must change and do in the flesh, it becomes clear that it is a joyful returning to our birthright (the reality of our natural created state of being). == LINK TO TOP == UNDERSTANDING We have become conditioned to believe that one may understand something by accumulating enough data about it, frequently very complex and intricately structured data. True understanding is not like that. In the world about us, the world we are used to seeing day in and day out, there are many appearances to our senses. Although we take these appearances to be real, they are more like projections of filtered abridgements of the light...or illusions. First we abridge the light by refusing to see some of it and then we take what is left and try to structure our own version of the whole. It seems obvious that seeing wholly what the light proffers cannot be accomplished in this fashion. The answer to this dilemma is that the only way to see the world wholly and correctly is to wholly pay attention to the light and stop abridging what it would show us. We need to stop resisting and struggling with the comprehension of the light. When seen wholly, the light and the world it creates is perfect and it is simple. So, behind the illusions we mistakenly believe is our world, the whole light is yet shining for all to see. In a manner of speaking, this whole light STANDS UNDER our feeble world as a loving call to see more clearly. The whole light shows us peace as the perfect foundation of a perfect world. To see this light wholly IS understanding. Along the way to this pure understanding (which is knowledge) is a lesser understanding wherein, although one may not see clearly and wholly, one pays attention to the light and thereby removes some of the blockage to seeing its presence. This partial understanding is truth and it begins as thoughts that are more aligned with reality. Beliefs begin to crumble peaceably to make way for knowledge. Truth is a concept about Spirit and what Spirit reveals within. Truth is tailored to the individual and, therefore, is variable in appearance as it draws the individual mind toward the light and toward seeing wholly. When seeing clearly and wholly is accomplished, truth is fully aligned such that any two people viewing it would be seeing and understanding the same thing. Still, this understanding is partial in that it is comprised of aligned thoughts and beliefs. Truth is partial and, through paying attention, it is eventually seen as fully aligned. Then, truth has served its purpose in this world: to lead us to the light of whole understanding. As we begin to pay attention to the light in a partial fashion, our mind and its habitual thought patterns along with our body and its habitual feeling and behavior patterns, begins to think, feel and do according to a partial, yet more aligned or more perfected vision. What we see during this period is truth. The nature of truth, when unresisted, is to increase until it is fully aligned, fulfilling its purpose of preparing the mind to see knowledge. It is when this alignment is so pure that there is no resistance to the light that truth is transformed to the clear vision of Knowledge. This reality is far beyond truth and is that toward which truth has always pointed...Love arising from Pure Peace. Whole Understanding IS love and is derived from paying attention to the light. == LINK TO TOP == FORGIVENESS Usually, forgiveness is seen as a process. This process is thought to start when someone offends another. Then the offended person chooses to ignore the offense and proffer (their understanding of) goodness toward the offender instead of anger, hatred or retaliation. Perhaps it would be good to give this process (so long called forgiveness) an appropriate name; let's call it "postgiveness". This postgiven version of forgiveness is a state of being, entered into by arbitrary decision as an oft-begrudged gift. It is given as the result of denial of emotion and a belief in the virtue of sacrifice. It is given after the incident to which it applies. Forgiveness, on the other hand, is something given or entered into "before" any incident occurs or any offender is identified... hence the word forgiven or "fore- given". Although the usually understood theme of postgiveness as forgiveness can have value in learning through withholding of angry responses, it needs to be clear that a person whose heart, mind and emotions are set to "offendable" and "victim" and "revenge" cannot truly even postgive someone, nevertheless forgive them. If a person becomes offended in some circumstance, they were not in possession of and able to give pure and unconditional love; for, if they were, they could not have been offended because love is wholly and unconditionally given. True forgiveness IS unconditional love. One cannot share love as forgiveness until they pay attention to the light long enough to embrace it for themselves. Only then can they share it with others, through the understanding found in the light. To love someone is to forgive them by ceasing to judge them by your old views. This ultimately requires paying attention, knowing them as they truly are and treating them accordingly. It is good to note that forgiving someone is not merely letting go of offenses in the sense of ill will. It is also letting go of their overtures of "caring acts" they have done, believing these were love (they were not). Following are two examples of these types of judging and failing to forgive: 1.a. You discover that someone you believed was your friend told your boss you were a real jerk and not all that honest. You are deeply offended, confront that person and cut off the friendship. 1.b. You discover that someone you believed was your friend told your boss you were a real jerk and not all that honest. Through love, you see your friend as a person literally made of love-light substance and, therefore, someone with whom you, being filled with the same substance, can share wholly. 2.a. You discover that someone you thought disliked you admitted freely to your boss that you really were a good supervisor that always watched out for fellow workers as well as the company's interests, and that this had played a role in you receiving your long-awaited promotion. You feel really good about that person and appreciate their honesty shown in spite of ill feelings, and you take a special moment to tell them how much you appreciate them, proferring friendship to them even though you had never really liked them. 2.b. You discover that someone you thought disliked you admitted freely to your boss that you really were a good supervisor that always watched out for fellow workers as well as the company's interests, and that this had played a role in you receiving your long-awaited promotion. Through love, you see your friend as a person literally made of love-light substance and, therefore, someone with whom you, being filled with the same substance, can share wholly. Through judging according to the old view, people are evaluated according to how their behavior or other features of "appearance" make you feel and according to rules of conduct in your belief system previously agreed upon for the same reasons. Through true judgment, or the understanding the light of love shows within, people are evaluated unconditionally because they are seen to be all of the same body (of love-light substance) as yourself. In the light, there is never cause to condemn another and, likewise, there is no cause to raise another above yourself or anyone else. Acting according to true judgment of understanding seen clearly in the light is forgiveness. Forgiveness IS unconditional love. == LINK TO TOP == JUDGMENT The common thing we all do is to decide what the value of something or someone is, or what is right or wrong, and then, according to the mentally structured rules we decide upon, we do what we think is best or what is desired. This is the process mankind utilizes, quite arbitrarily, to deduce what is so. Because we have deemed something to be so, we believe that it actually is as we have decided (it is not). We may or may not see what is so for what it is. Nevertheless it still is what it is. There is no arbitrariness and no decision-making involved in determining what is so; there is merely seeing it for what it is with clear vision. The very reason we can trust in that which is revealed as so is the fact that it is simple and does not change and, therefore, does not require a complex mental structure to account for such changes. This is why love, the revelation of the light, arising directly from Peace, gives the vision of that which is only Peace and wholly peaceful. True judgment is virtually the same as full understanding, the result of paying attention to love-light. It is good to note here that the notion of reward and punishment as judgment or as the result of judgment falls into the meaning that utilizes mankind's arbitrary decision-making. One may not know of any way to live and survive without making decisions. However, it is clear that one may pay attention to the light until its revelation is clear, full and complete within. When all is known as it truly is, wholly perfect and peaceful, there is no longer any need to decide anything. In fact, the very idea of need disappears in the constancy of Peace. All is judged already in the oneness of the law of love, shining within. This is actually quite vital. The biggest saboteur of peacefulness within is the fear involved in decision-making. This is because, deep inside, one instinctively knows that, at their present level of (lack of) understanding, they do not truly know what is so. True understanding reveals that there is no decision-making needed, nothing between which one might decide, nothing to fix and no need for worry. With deciding set aside altogether, peace is at the door. Thinking as we know it, is continually involved in deciding which thoughts to entertain and what things we can construct in our minds to put into the emotional mill that produces behavior and seemingly so much more. Thinking and deciding seem to be required in order to survive, and I do not suggest people try to stop these. Rather, it is enough to simply understand that they are ultimately unnecessary. Understanding in its fullness as knowledge makes thinking and decision-making unnecessary, they being superseded by the light of knowing that judges rightly what is so by the constancy that is its reality. It is not necessary to cease from our old ways as a matter of thinking it all out and deducing that we must decide to change things. Instead, what is truly beneficial is to simply pay attention to the light and let that have its effect. And what then, is the course of things without thinking and deciding? By focusing the attention upon the light, the inevitable course of things, without necessity of thought or decision, is love, illuminating itself in the minds of all as the Peace from which it arises. == LINK TO TOP == --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "joliharrington" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Dear altarslight, > > Thank you very much for your post "Vision-Perception and the Glory of > Pure Sight." > > Would you kindly write about the atonement and accepting the > atonement? > > You mention atonement simply in the above post: "You all are creating > right now...absolutely regardless of whether you accept the atonement > in time or not." > > I think I know what the atonement means and accepting it, but I > expect that, if you write about it, there would be more to it than I > presently understand. > > Also, I hope that you will write more about forgiveness. > > You mention in the above post: "Forgiving the dream is about > reversing this process." > > And, you say more about that in the sentences to follow. > > "Looking at reality is the complete reversal of thought(s) and undoes > their foundation. > > "Confessing the truth is a catalyst to forgiving the dream. > > "The only way to truly forgive your brothers and yourself and God, is > to look at these as one within until you see them as they are. And > that IS forgiveness, and as pertains to the older idea of forgivness, > reveals nothing in need of forgiving. > > I don't understand why the word forgiveness is used or quite what the > word forgiveness means. Why is looking within until I see my siblings > and myself and God as they are - one - forgiveness? > > Is "forgiveness" only operative until I look within and see the > oneness of all and then the need for "forgiveness" is gone? > > "Do all things in remembrance of me (christ spirit within), and know > that I within you am whole, and filled with knowledge, and am that > one you truly are." > Speaking of this, thinking of this, seeming to dream of this, going > to bed with it on my lips, waking up with it filling my mind, joli ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/wpWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> The inner light can answer any of this world's queries and resolve any of its problems. Beyond all of these concerns, the inner light will show you who you are and your relationship to all...and bring you an understanding of love and peace that transcends ordinary human thought processes. Discover what it truly means to "love one another" and to "see peace." Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/simplisticmeditation/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
