2000-10-08-Acceptance

Session

Opening

I focus my mind on hearing, receiving from the teachers. I welcome the teachers. I dedicate this time to the greater good will of God. I am open. I am listening. I wish to learn.

Lesson

Legion : I welcome you. Each one of you I welcome to step into Alana’s heart room. I am Legion. (Welcome, Legion.) Thank you. I have been asked to speak to you today about acceptance. It is basic to the well-lived life that you accept that the life you are living is the life you are intended to live. You are not intended to be someone else. You are not intended to be the person others would have you be. Acceptance involves a rigorous truth-telling to yourself, and a vigorous loving of yourself. You will never, except by extraordinary means, you will never look other than how you look. If you are short, you will remain short. If you are large, you will always be large. The difficulty follows when you start to imagine that you can have feelings different from the ones you are feeling, or you start to imagine that you can achieve, or accumulate, or garner that which you have not practiced, or worked for. Acceptance includes accepting the feelings that go along with your situation, whatever that may be. Acceptance does not always mean tranquility, peace. Acceptance simply means, as I have already indicated, that you are willing to look at your reality without the balloon-wishes of a childhood party. Without acceptance your minds are much more willing to accept, or create, or take within, illusions. Without acceptance your mind will accept from others their story for you. Acceptance includes your recognition that the consequences of your choices are yours to be lived, even, I might add, those consequences which you did not forsee, nor did not even intend. Acceptance is a useful tool in attempting to unravel or clarify difficulties and confusion because acceptance does not require anythng to be any different than the way it is. Acceptance does not throw in for good measure, judgements, criticisms, protests, or marshmallow fantasies.

Alana : Now it is Alana speaking to you as I gently, tenderly touch the point between your shoulder blades. Now I kiss that spot and blow my love through. With you. (She moves through the group, this is felt by group members.) And you. And you now. And you. And you. Now I will take a moment to reassure your transmitter. As I do, please, while you are in the heart room with me, I ask you to consider if there is a burning question you wish to raise. Thank you. I will take a moment now with your transmitter.

(Silence. TR : Alana gave me energy, light, and reassurance of love.)

Yes, that is good. She is ready now, as am I, to carry on a discussion with each of you who wishes to do so. I am pleased that you come. I am pleased that you accept each other. I am pleased to accept you. Is there a burning question among us.

Dialogue

D : Does it have to be burning? I have a question, Alana. I don’t feel it is burning, however, is that all right? (Laughter.) (Alana : I think it is appropriate.) We had some people here thinking to rent our house. It hasn’t come to pass, but it may come to pass, and I am concerned about this group. I am interested to know if you have some plans for this group in the event that Suzi and I go to the States. I am wondering if there is someone about to become a transmitter? These questions are just background to my concern about the on-goingness of the group.

Alana : My friend, we will take your vivid concern and place it in the center of the heart room. Has everyone agreed to this? (A series of Yes’s.) Good. Now we will ook at this. We all blow love upon “the problem,” may I call it “a problem” without undue difficulty? As you blow love into the center of our heart room, wherein lie D’s concerns, I wish you to notice what love can do.

S : I feel great anxiety about the discontinuation of this group.

Alana : Yes. Let’s take S’s anxiety and place it in the center of the heart room with D’s vivid concern, and blow love upon it.

Now, I will ask you please, each of you, to say one word, one word that for you expresses what love can do. We will begin with Mr. Practice.

O : Faith. (Not clear, sounds like peace)

D : Peace.

E : Move mountains.

N : Surrender.

S : Chase fear.

Alana : Chase fear. Would you tell me what you mean by that, beloved?

S : That love chases fear from the heart.

Alana : And D? (D says that he had already said, “peace.”) Forgive me, then I misunderstood, along with the transmitter. It sounded like you repeated “peace” for Mr. Practice. Mr. Practice, what was your word? (My word was faith.) (Other group members also had not understood, or heard his word, “faith.”)

Faith. Peace. Surrender. Move mountains. Erase fear from the heart. Now my friend, Legion, is asking, having you forgotten so quickly, “acceptance?” It is in the heart room where acceptance will always be first. I can not at this time tell you precisely how your difficulties of enduring communication will be handled should your beloved transmitter and her “boisterous manager ” depart for other adventures. I can tell you that we will not leave this heart room unattended. There is now a connection between you that can not be broken by time or space. You will of course from time to time experience the emotions that one feels when the familiar is disrupted. But we do not intend to loose, shall we say, or throw into the waste bin, the remarkable work that you have begun.

The Butterfields wish to expand their understanding. There may be some hope on their part that this will improve their function, their service to us and to the rest of you. We wish to reassure them, as well as yourselves, that your service is most wonderful. Improvement comes as the result of practice and discipline, and reveals itself as simply who you are. Sometimes you let go of that which is not really you, and so you say with great delight, “I have improved! I have changed!” Or you do that to others: “You have improved! You have changed! How remarkable!” The notion of “self-improvement” is most frequently applied when you have dropped some facet of yourself that is not truly who you are.

I will repeat what Legion began: Acceptance, acceptance, acceptance. All is as it is, and will be. Your task is to be who you are, here and now. Your vivid concern, my friend, which I have been so tempted to call burning, your vivid concern is perhaps something that could be expressed like this: you imagine the future, you don’t know what will happen in the future, so you express vivid concern for the future. But here and now “your problem,” as we called it, which we put in the center of the heart room in order to blow love upon it, “your problem” might be better expressed if you said, I love you. I love you, Mr. Practice. I love you, my friend, Little One. I love you, my friend, Mr. E. I love you, my beloved S. I love you, my dear transmitter. I love you, my group. I love you. But then, if that were all he said, what are we to do with S’s anxiety. Ah, anxiety.

S : It’s the fear of loss, Alana.

Alana : Yes, fear. Fear of loss. And what is that? Fear of the future. You might say the same: I love you, my transmitter. I love you, D. I love you, O. I love you, E. I love you, my friend, Little One.

S : I love you, Alana.

Alana : Thank you. I don’t know if I have done this quite well enough to have you understand my meaning. I tried, perhaps a little too cleverly, to take your concerns and give them the touch of Legion’s lesson. Acceptance. Acceptance. Acceptance.

S : I don’t think I fear that we will be unable to continue to meet, but I’ve always had a problem with loss. That is my own personal place that I have to accept, a fear I’ve carried inside me for a long time. I’ve become very dependent on these wonderful conversations that we have.

Alana : Yes.

S : Sundays are so special to me. It is the one day that I really dedicate to this. I suppose I’m going to have to learn to dedicate other time. But I don’t want to lose your voice, or Legion’s voice, or Michael’s voice. So I feel a trembling in my heart, that no one of the rest of us, I shouldn’t speak for the rest, but I speak for myself, is worthy enough, or ready enough, or prepared enough to invite you to speak through us the way you do through S. So that’s my anxiety.

Alana : So for a moment, with heart felt dedication, let us put fear, loss, dependency, let’s put them into that little pile that we have in the middle of the heart room. You will notice, I am sure, loss is familiar, dependency is familiar, fear is familiar. Blow love upon it now, with me, and with Legion. We have not agreed that any of this is “burning,” but I do hope that as you sit here with me, and Legion, and Devina fluttering above, I hope you will see that in the moment in the heart room these problems disappear as if they had been burned. Then of course you rush right back to your mental gymnastics and recreate (laughter) all that is so familiar as to be carried upon your backs like the hump of the camel. Yes? (Yes.) So now I get my opportunity to say, practice constructing the heart room, now, and now, and now. You can not know how very important this is for your “fearful future.” You can not know how important this is in order to move mountains. You can, however, practice constructing the heart room for me, for I am there. And it is always, and always will be, that it is within the heart room that your group communication will continue by one means or another.

S : Forgive me for not having sufficient faith in that fact, Alana.

Alana : My beloved, you are always forgiven, always, by me. It is not that you should hang your head in sorrow for your fear, or, as you put it, lack of faith. Do not diminish yourself. When you have fear, I say to you again, bring it to me. When you have a “vivid concern,” bring it to me. When you need to “move mountains,” place your desire in the heart room for me to blow my love upon your desire. All change, inevitable change, is embraced by God’s loving concern. Any changes that you will make, or choose to make, or resist making, must be embraced with love. You can, of course, predict change, even if you do not know what exactly that change will be. So in your predictions, use those thoughts and ideas that are stimulated, in order to create easy movement from one change to the next. As you contemplate change, remember, you are not alone, you are loved, I am with you, Legion is with you, Devina flutters with you, Michael looks upon you. We penetrate every moment of change. Thank you.

S : Thank you for your reassurance.

• (Break)

Alana : And so, I hope you will understand that change is not loss, although you feel loss, or fear loss. You grow through such emotional experiences because you are emotional beings. But with change, when you go through change, still in the ever-present moment there is no loss. There is no fear. Change is embraced by our love. You are intended to change. It is, in fact, a far more serious “problem,” using your terminology, when you do not change. On the physical level this looks like death. Although, of course, your bodies change with death, deteriorating, decaying, eventually disappearing. If we could convince you that you are designed for the change of love, you would begin to experience life with considerably more delight, considerably more joy. The change of love, I said. You are born in God’s love. You grow in God’s love. You live in the embrace of God’s love. You die into God’s love. The changes of love. Even when you imagine the change is most terrible and you refuse, you do not want to accept that change, well, I can tell you, that with the acceptance of God’s love, you will see through God’s love and eventually understand that change came from love, even when you could not understand it so.

I remind you, each one of you, see the heart room now, see the lines of light reaching out from either side, open up your bodies, your minds, your hearts. Allow us to breathe, breathe through every nook and cranny of your being. Open. Open again. And open again. Become the heart room. Be still in the heart room.

Thank you.

If you wish, you may draw into the heart room all of those you wish to receive our love.

Thank you.

And you may draw into our heart room those you wish to receive the energy of loving healing.

Thank you.

And for those who have difficulty accepting the change that their lives face at this time, please, draw them into your heart room and we shall blow love upon their difficulties.

Thank you.

You are free to speak now, if you wish.

E : If we live in our heart room, in our hearts, in love, every day, every minute, all day, in this world, that does not preclude my personal confusion, or jumbles. Is that true?

Alana : You ask the question because it is a common mistake to imagine that an enlightened one, if you will, or a saint, if you prefer, or a Pollyanna, would go through life without ever once questioning. I ask you to practice the embrace of questions, the loving of confusion, the companionship with change. You can not live life without learning, growing, figuring it out. So it is quite natural to, at times, be confused, or as you say, jumbled. You are taught by others that this is somehow negative, or that you are somehow in deep do-do. (laughter) I tell you, your troubles, your confusion, do I not say this to you? bring your troubles and confusion to the heart room. If you had no confusion, nothing to understand, then we might be sitting here twiddling our fingers, yes? It is difficult to explain it to you because you are who you are, human beings in bodies on a planet of great confusion. How could you not, sometimes, struggle to understand, or be plagued by mental disruption? We say every time, your task is to love. Love encompasses all. Love has the power to clear up confusion. Love has the power to manifest change in such a way that you welcome it. But love does not erase your reality. It embraces your reality. Do you understand this? (Yes.) And does it answer your question. (Yes.) Thank you.

E : I hear you say that the embracing with love…that whatever comes is an opportunity to embrace love around us. Is this what you are saying?

Alana : Yes. And I embrace you right now. And I ask everyone in this heart room to embrace you right now. Your troubles are real, they are part of your world, and you are loved.

S : I have noticed, since these extraordinary conversations began, that I feel spiritually stronger to deal with any difficulty. Difficulties now seem much more simple, and much more flimsy. I just keep remembering that “the outcome is assured.” Even tho I still have doubts, I have greater strength. I feel great joy and thankfulness. I hope that feeling can be shared by every one here in the heart room.

Alana : Yes. Devina says thank you for your expression of true change. Our strength is your strength. Whenever you are fainthearted, or fear that you will fail, we are there. It is true, and it has been said, “this too shall pass.” It is another way of understanding that you were born to change. It is our joy that you are learning to change with love and joy ever ready in your hearts to be expressed, and ever ready to ease the discomfort that change brings to the physical body, and the emotional body, and the mental body, that is your temporary residence.

Legion : I am Legion. I wish to remind you, our strength is yours to draw upon, equally so we draw upon your strength to carry forth the message of love. It is not to be forgotten that I ask you to discipline your bodies, discipline your minds, and discipline the management and the expression of your emotions. I am not unaware that discipline is not in great favor among many of you, therefore I gladly sound like a broken record.

You are to understand that the discipline I speak of will bring more love and joy. It is not punishment. It is not restriction. It is not constraint. Discipline is an act of love that allows you to repeat things until they are so much a part of who you are that you do not need to think about it any more. When I ask you to practice the stillness, and practice it again, and practice it even now, I am simply encouraging you to discover that most precious gift of all, which is, the knowledge of God’s love and the awareness that God’s love is ever and always with you, ready to touch and to embrace what ever comes to pass. Thank you.

O : I wish to ask another question.

Legion : Yes, I am glad you wish.

O : About a month ago we had a visit by one teacher called, Tarkim. He said among other things that there is no god-given reason why I can not hear my teacher. In terms of discipline, can you help me with some words about my own discipline, about how I could improve. My second question is, will Tarkeem speak to us again. Is he the same Tarkeem who has been to other groups?

Legion : Your friend, Tarkeem, has been with us today. He does not flutter like Devina, but he watches over you, as does she. Your question grows from the petri dish of impatience. Tarkeem will speak again, and you, my great mountain of wanting to move, you grow. You see more clearly. You are learning to master your tongue. And yet, still you say this is not enough?

So, we will speak to that soft, painful spot in your life that continues to say you are not worthy. Please take that little spot, carve it out of your life, and place it now in the center of our heart room. Have you done this? (Yes.) Good.

Does everyone recognize this little spot called unworthy? This one belongs to O. None of you must touch it, because it is his! He has only loaned it to us for a brief moment to sit in the middle of the heart room. He is not even sure he wants us to change it, or make it disappear. So we accept this. In our acceptance now, I ask each one of you to join with me and blow love upon it. Now.

Thank you. My dear O, if you would now take this spot back, hold it in your embrace, look upon it, blow your love upon it.

O : I want to blow my love upon it, but I don’t want it back.

Legion : Then, we shall leave it in the center of the heart room, yes? And once again, blow love upon it.

And now, O, will you tell me, do you have anything to say to the emptiness that now exists where that unworthy spot used to be?

O : It is very light and warm, that spot.

Legion : Good. Now, can you tell me, would any teacher be able to say that any better? Feels “light and warm, that spot.”

Closing

Please, carry this in your mind for a week. Feels “light and warm, that spot.” (Thank you.) Thank you.

S : I have always kind of questioned how to surrender those things that we have difficulty with to the teachers. We have been instructed to turn our troubles over to you, Legion, Alana, Devina. But now we have this wonderful visual method for depositing them with you, and with all of us. This is a good lesson.

Legion : And I am pleased that you accept how very simple it is to surrender. As your favorite broken record, I will repeat, acceptance, acceptance, acceptance. Faith is based upon acceptance. We are here. We are here. We do speak to you. You can hear. God’s love be with you. Thank you.

I would have you close your meeting with us with a prayer. Take each other’s hands: Allow love. Accept love. Be love. Have faith in God’s pure joy.