[Excerpts from conversations between Rita Warren and “the guys upstairs,” in the years 2001 and 2002, edited from The Sphere and the Hologram.]
Stagnation
R: Before we started this process, I felt nothing was happening. I assume on principle that what looked like a delay to me had some purpose. But, you know, it’s a big step for me not to feel like there is something we should do to push, rather than just to sit back and say “Well, things come about in their proper time,” you see.
TGU: When things appear to be not moving, sometimes it’s a process of settling in, sometimes it’s a process of preparation. Sometimes it’s a necessary rest, sometimes it’s stopped here because you’re working elsewhere. Sometimes it’s waiting for external circumstances to come around. And sometimes, of course, it is that you are refusing to do what you know you should be doing. But those are all very different circumstances, all of which may look the same.
When things seem like they’re dead still in the water, you can always find out whether things are stagnant or whether they’re fallow. Examine your feelings. Is there something that you know you should do that you don’t want to do and you’re not doing?
We don’t mean this in the sense of “I should be a better person, I should be more helpful”; those are just beating yourself up. But if you’re saying, “This job has to be done, I know I have to do it, but I don’t want to” – that’s not necessarily wrong either, but examine your feelings about that. If you’re shirking something that you legitimately should do, you’ll know it. And if at the same time things feel stagnant, there may be a connection!
Now, your comments brought up two things to talk about, and that was one. The second is, it’s a common mistake to confuse doing nothing externally with doing nothing. A monk in a monastery who is not even speaking to his fellows, who is sincerely and intelligently striving for whatever his own goals are – he would call it, probably, getting closer to God, but you might call it self-development – whatever the goal, someone who is sincerely striving, is not doing nothing.
It may look from the outside that they’re not doing anything productive, or that they’re even shirking their job. But we would say, if you’re shirking your job, you always know it. We would also say, there’s an awful lot of wasted energy going on because people think they must “do something.” But you never have to “do something.” If there’s something you really have to do, you know what it is, you don’t call it “something.” You see? [laughs] So beware of people who say that “We need to do something.”
R: Yes. Well there’s sometimes a sense also of feeling impatient that things aren’t happening, as you suggested, and not knowing what it is that one’s supposed to be doing.
TGU: You always have that knowledge available. Just sit quietly and meditate and ask sincerely. You may not get, “You should go do this,” but in the absence of “You should go do this” you’ll know “No, no, this is fine, what I’m doing.” You see? Waiting sometimes is what you need to do. And while you’re waiting on one level, you’re working on another. [pause] What would you like to do?
R: I would like to do what I’m doing now, but I felt there was a period of time when I was describing myself as spiritually stuck.
TGU: Ah! Well, then we suggest that for your own amusement, or for your own reassurance, go back and look and ask yourself, “What would be different had this happened before that period?” and that will, by reflection, tell you what you got out of that period. And the answer may be, “Well, I had to wait for the time to be right.” Or the answer may be, “I had my attention focused in the wrong place and that delayed it.” But the answer very well may be, “Because of this I’ve been changed to this,” you see. We’re not predicting what the answer will be, but we say it’s a good exercise.
R: Well there’s some sense where you feel that something came so close to not happening, and you feel so pleased that it happened, but it might not have happened!
TGU: There are innumerable realities in which it did not. But you chose the one in which it did. Your choice.
—
The Sphere and the Hologram, 15th anniversary edition, published by SNN / TGU Books, is available as print or eBook from Amazon and other booksellers.