Health: “External forces do not exist”

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

8 AM. The thought comes to me, and my breathing clears (however permanently or temporarily we shall see). The problem is that after all these years many parts of my person-group identify with me as a person with asthma. But why should that have to continue? I asked, those who are afraid if I change, come forward and let’s discuss.

Is it a fear that I would turn my back on the knowledge that life is spiritual as much as physical? Hardly would I do that. That definition is me, by this time.

So what would fear my change from a sickly person – a potentially sickly person, say – to a healthy and vibrant one?

There was not fear, but unconsciousness. It was a matter of bringing into the common mental space of the present the elements of your life that had been maintaining what they knew.

I hear, between the lines, that it is not always necessary to know the causes of an ailment to move from it?

More or less. If the change is made, it is made.

Proceed to sketch it out for me, then, that I may tell others.

The situation you begin from is as it is because it proceeds from your past. Even if it is a condition at birth, it may be considered to proceed from the past in that it is the result of what was chosen for the body in the shaping of the ring. That is, the combination of elements, and the mating of the elements to a specific genetic heritage, set the boundaries, and within them were certain conditions established.

Always – wherever and whenever you are, it is here and now. Always your free will exerts itself on the results of past decisions. Where else could you begin but from where you find yourself?

Your various constituent parts have made their peace with that past, or perhaps we should say, they have each fitted into the pattern, even when their manner of fitting in has been to fit in at odds with the rest of it, or a large part of it. It is no surprise, is it, that a pattern should contain contradictory parts?

In short, any starting-place is the result of past maneuverings and accommodations and warfare – and every conceivable nuance of relationship. What you are is what you have decided to be, one way or another. You may have decided to settle for something, out of weariness or lack of vision or lack of knowledge or lack of consciousness, but for whatever reason, any given moment may be considered to be a moment of rest. It is your previous landing-pad, and your present launching-pad. Always.

So perhaps in that context it is clearer that you decide to change before you change; you do not change as a result of external forces.

You do not, because external forces do not and can not exist.

Think about that.

In all aspects of your life, not just health, external forces do not exist. There is no external, for the inner and outer are one.

This is not empty rhetoric. This is a plain statement of truth. You cannot be the victim of forces that do not exist.

But then – you will be tempted to ask – how is it that our everyday experience convinces us that external forces not only do exist but exist in an overpowering strength?

You, Frank, know the answer, and the odd thing about the human situation is that all of you know the answer even when you repeat loudly that you don’t know it.

It’s the same old question of definition. Who is “you,” who is “I”?

That’s right. The ringmaster may or may not know. It is the ringmaster’s task in life, perhaps, to bring his constituent elements into a harmonious knowledge of the fact that there is no external. But regardless of the extent of the ringmaster’s knowledge, or of the internal diversity the ringmaster contends with (and draws strength from), the self knows, and will pass that knowing along whenever the ringmaster does not block it.

Our intuition can tell us, when we once reach a certain state of coherence.

That is, your intuition can tell you in such a way as to be heard, once you cease to block the message for one reason or another.

Well, it is remarkable. My lungs are absolutely clear and at rest. And I do so I feel like a new man. A superstitious part of myself hesitates to believe in the permanence of the change, but I’m certainly willing to accept it provisionally.

This, for whomever it may encourage!

9:30 AM. External forces do not exist. Pretty important statement.

Is this really gone, or does it lurk, or is it unchanged and waiting for the right conditions (same as lurking, I guess) or what?

It’s gone if you wanted to be. Or let’s say it is as gone as you want it to be, and for as long as you want it to be. But you could always regress.

No. I am telling my troops, if you have an issue, talk to me! Rather than kicking in an asthmatic spasm, your new reaction is to contact me and I will respond to your concern. For instance, is there fear on anyone’s part of a life without asthma? All I feel is joy and anticipation, and a determination that now we can get some work done. Has asthma been my excuse not to work? Not consciously. How about it? Unconsciously?

Let’s say it served as excuse for shoddy work.

Did it?

By definition you would not have noticed.

True. Very well, my present resolve is to do very good work. Note it in the log, please.

But first you want to finish [reading] your book.

But things are moving.