Thanksgiving

What keeps one on the teeter-totter; part of the time aspiring to the highest in himself, and the other part of the time down under...?

That which keeps one on the teeter-totter is identification with his personality. As a person, as a little self, you are aspiring. Let me sum up "as a person," "personality," and "little self" in one word -- egotism. It is identification with the ego -- egotism -- that keeps one on the teeter-totter.

Now, how to get off the teeter-totter is to begin to think, to meditate, to contemplate, to give a suggestion to your psyche to operate on: “Naught of myself I do; the Power-to-be-conscious that is becoming more and more conscious, the I Am which is my True Self is the Power.”

It would be idiocy to sing our little mantra three times each time we meet if it were not for the Power, the Power which is my True Self of which I Am conscious—no matter what you are conscious of; it is the Power with which you are conscious!

"I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me." ~ John 5:30 (KJV)

Now if you don’t like those words, let me give you other words; another precise way of saying it: God is all in all.

If Saguna Brahma, the Word made flesh, Logos, and His Power, His rays, if It is all in all, why are you getting in the way? Trying to be it—before you realize your identity with It? Move over, God, you have done pretty good so far, now I’ll take over!

I read about the Cosmic process last night—what I have heard and read many times before: 2,000 million years, and think of the struggle to develop the ‘objective’ self-conscious state!

What did that? What motivated all of that development? It does us good to think of that, when we get this objective state and identification and egotism. Think that we can do anything, ANYTHING, without that Power, or outside of that Power. This is what I had in mind when I said, “alright God, move over, I’ll take over.” If you try it, where do you wind up? Face down in the mud.

Did I make my point?

How do we get off the teeter-totter? We get off by learning that it is the motivating Power, the rays from the light that doeth the work. Naught of myself I do, the Power doeth the work; until “we” the egotistical idea lays down and dies.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." ~ John 12:24 (KJV)

We have to surrender, we have to give up the egotism, the little self, the personality-self. Surrender it. Let the Power motivate you. The moment that you become conscious of that Power taking over, no longer head strong and egotistical, you are off the teeter-totter.

What is the attitude of one who gets off the teeter-totter? It is this: If I need to learn a severe lesson, the Power will put me in it until I learn it.

You see, I am out of the way all the time.

If there is a period of adversity, what is the attitude? One turns to the Power, his True Higher Self, the I am which is my True Self. Ask: what is it that I am to learn? Show me what I must know. Show me the meaning in this adversity. It will not leave you without an answer.

We have a favorite indoor sport in our family. When it begins to seem that things are going at sixes and sevens, or going wrong, we say, “Let us count our blessings one by one.” And we begin to count our blessings. We begin to see that we have so many blessings, nothing is going wrong.

There are various ways to help the personal self surrender; and we will tread the ray that we are on in joy and in happiness; not thanksgiving one day out of the year.

Every day is Thanksgiving.

This is a little background of holding the image of what you should be, of what the Power has in store for you to be...

~ Vitvan, "Discipline in the Natural Order"

Image: Postcard of Ally Kolberg, German Silent Movie Actress, circa 1910