Sunday, November 6, 2011
-Silent Knowledge
~ Rev. William M. Heller
Whatever teaching we follow, our journey of awakening calls for the change in our perspective of our life. The Toltec Wisdom, as presented by Don Miguel Ruiz is no exception. He’s teaching us to revisit the agreements we’ve made with ourselves, the stories we’ve used to paint our world. These stories cannot be trusted. They’ve been formulated through an ego-based thought system, and they’ve come up short. One result of these: our dissatisfaction has led us to our search- new directions; some will work, some will not.
The Toltec teaching speaks of our dream, our story we inherited and then we enhanced with our own twist. We’ve used that dream to shape our world, our relationships, and our judgment of ourselves. They are lies, waiting to be corrected. The five agreements are a tool enabling us to dismantle this dream, and the thought system we’ve used to maintain that dream. More dramatically, the tools open us to relying on the deepest truth- the eternal truth within you.
We’ve heard it in each of the 4 Agreements thus far—the need to care for ourselves:
- Be Impeccable with your word- to yourself and others.
- Don’t take anything personally- either what others tell you, or what you tell yourself
- Don’t make assumptions- check out what you hear from others, and more importantly, what you tell yourself. Chances are it is wrong, or incorrect
- Always do your best- To apply these agreements to your life
We now consider the Fifth Agreement: Be skeptical, but learn to listen. Being skeptical is a call for discipline; a means to consciously consider what we are told. As we’ve been learning, virtually everything you hear from another has its roots in their story. Their decision, about the world and the way to deal with you, or with any matter starts there. It is based on lies they have told themselves. How can you tell this? Simple: does what you hear increase your experience of love? Love of yourself, love of them, or love of the world? Otherwise, it is pointed away from your true reality.
Instead, recognize you are hearing a story from another Artist. Know it is only that. Don’t take it personally or make assumptions about it, for when you do, you are furthering that story; you are deepening your own personal story, taking you away from your truth, your inner strength within you.
“Being skeptical is masterful, because it uses the power of doubt to discern the truth. When you hear something from another, ask yourself, am I hearing the truth, or am I hearing a virtual truth—that is, a truth that corresponds to a personal story? The doubt takes you beyond the symbols, and makes you responsible for every message you receive or deliver.” Page 98
Lovingly, with compassion, being skeptical would mean, “all right I hear what you’re saying, and I need to look more deeply within and find the call for truth it represents.”
- Do I find myself agreeing, and merely adding to a shared story?
- Do I find myself saying, “You’re wrong,” further adding to my own personal story (or decision of you)?
- Or can I internally question what I’ve just heard?
Using the 3rd alternative is being skeptical. It provides the means to consider how what you’ve heard figures within your story; points to decisions you have made that stop you from fully experiencing love, always. Being skeptical starts from the position, “I have a story that has blocked me from experiencing love. Show me what that is, that I may break that agreement.”
As with each agreement it applies to what you hear from others, and even more important, what you tell yourself. Don Miguel states:
Can you see the consequences of believing yourself? Believing yourself is one of the worst things you can do because you’ve been telling yourself lies your whole life, and if you believe all those lies, that’s why your dream isn’t a pleasant dream. If you believe what you tell yourself, you may use all those symbols to hurt yourself. … Believing in lies is how you create your own Hell. P107
Don Miguel cautions us: be skeptical, and with compassion. Be disciplined, be strong, and be gentle. Attacking and judgment is not called for here; instead Truth is what we are looking for. Truth that can only be sourced in the Universality of Love.
Again, the Fifth Agreement is “Be Skeptical, but Learn to listen.” The listening Don Miguel is referring to is the learning to listen within. To learn to listen to the deeper voice within you, your deeper truth. As might be evident, our initial hearing takes this message into our story; the belief system that we are questioning throughout this study. Being skeptical will take us beyond that first impression.
When someone comes to you, and tells you their personal story, their virtual truth. You listen, but you do not judge; when your judgment kicks in, you have moved into your own story; you have brought the others story into your perception. Instead, you respect them after all they are the Divine Expression of God, another Artist speaking. You look for the truth. You are learning to trust your feeling, trust your insight with another
When you learn to listen, you know what other people want. You can also use this listening to find yourself, your truth, your peace, and ultimately deliver the truth to yourself and others.
Some of you might recall my recent drama/story around preparing the Newsletter. Briefly, I was wrapped up in failure around its completion, and decided a certain weeks would not be sent out. What came along with that decision was my judgment of myself, my technical competency, and my old story around failure. I then listened. My listening told me of the value of the Newsletter in communication. My listening told me to start from scratch, and with patience, I could learn what I needed to. The next day, with that awareness in mind, a wholly new Newsletter was created within a matter of hours. What a grounding and joyful experience that was!
What I’m speaking of here is not necessarily easy; at least the way we have molded our lives. We’ve trained ourselves to run with the story we’ve carried. That training, the breaking of our old agreements makes this change difficult. The inner truth, however, is we are pursuing our most natural state, our reality before this programming occurred.
When you have control over your own symbology, you are always centered; you are always calm, because the real you makes the choices in your life, not the symbols. P109
Don Miguel states the truth doesn’t come in words. The Truth is silent. It’s something that you know, something that you can feel without words, and it’s called silent knowledge. It is what you know before you invest your faith in symbols.
Further: when you go beyond symbols, what you find is a world of perfection where everyone and everything in creation is perfection. Now all aspects of your life, your beliefs, your belief in symbols, even your anger, your drama, your lies are perfect. Perfect, in that you recognize you have put together the story. You are free to change this, for you now catch a glimpse that you are different than what you had thought you are in Reality. He is now speaking to your waking up to yourself.
Listen!
Don Miguel finishes this chapter with a very interesting link. He reminds us of the statement from 2000 years ago, when Jesus stated: “There will be many false prophets who claim to be speaking the word of God. Don’t Believe!” The lesson, the teaching, is to look within.
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