Options in the Moment
ML:
You wrote, in your last paragraph, "So the value is: be aware in the moment both of what Abel and Cain want to do, and make the conscious choice for Abel. You need to be clear in the moment what the options are, and if you don’t feel you are clear, you need to stop and practice to gain more inwards insight so that your action is in line with your reasons for being in that moment."
In this example, as Cain I would respond by seeing some value present in this and then nodding off what it means to live it. As Abel, I see you are talking to me. You are saying that I need to be clearer with you by giving you more options about what I am asking for in this study. You want me to stop and practice to put my more inward insight into a form of action that shows my reason more clearly in the moment. So this is what I will do.
I will say that your request for options is a good one. This is my Respect. Your request is an indirect one, but with compassion, I can see the request and need for options showing through. This is because compassion allows space for the inner reason to be better understood.
Here are some options.
Option One: I will take a sentence to show Cain and Abel and the offering of Respect. Your words at the beginning of this post will be my study sentence. “So the value is: be aware in the moment both of what Abel and Cain want to do, and make the conscious choice for Abel.” So let’s say this is all I have to work with, or that this is where I want to apply the study. In this, Cain says that the Value is present in both offerings and should be recognized. The offerings should be of equal value because they are both offerings. But the Lord says Able’s has a Value that Cain is lacking: Respect. Cain dismisses the respect because he wants to stop giving at Gratitude. Abel says, I want to be more inwardly respectful with my offering. So where is the Respect? I can see it being implied in your comment about making “a conscious choice for Abel,” which is the potential Respect I am looking for in our study. So, as I respect this idea of making a conscious choice for Abel, I am concerned that it may not be one of respect. We could choose many choices for Abel, but the Lord said it was Respect that made the difference. Cain made a conscious choice for Abel and that was to kill him. It was another lack of respect, and the Lord tried to counsel Cain again. So any conscious choice other than respect at this particular point would be away from our study interest. I would call anything turning away from a respect for the study to be Cain. When turning away, we tend to drift away from the point and this leads to the land of Nod.
Let’s see what happens next by looking at the next sentence in our example from your post. “You need to be clear in the moment what the options are, and if you don’t feel you are clear, you need to stop and practice to gain more inwards insight so that your action is in line with your reasons for being in that moment." This seems like a call for Respect and I believe if Cain had done what this suggests, the Lord would have found more favor in his offerings. So in these examples, I am seeing Abel better and I feel that you are moving toward the Lord with your offerings. But, I am also seeing Cain better and this is happening because I am applying Respect to the offering and this opens the space for a more compassionate understanding. Since Cain lacked the more inward Respect, he was also lacking compassion, which led to his killing of Abel.
In this first Option, we are treating your post as an offering example showing Cain and Abel’s call to Respect and how their ways of respecting the offerings lead to different points in understanding. The option considers the post as a living example of our study interest. Each sentence, each phrase is an example of the study.
Option Two: You said you want options, because you want more clarity in the moment. I am Respecting what you are saying and I am considering your offering to be about the current moment I am in. If I respect it as Abel, I will apply it right now to see the truth of it. If I see it as Cain, I will drop it on the altar and leave it for someone else to make use of later. So, my Cain is not concerned about further use. As Cain, I see the offering and feel like we are finished. Thank you for your comments and great ideas, ML. The offering is made and that’s what counts. Taken further, Cain will kill anything that proves to be calling more inward. As Cain my offering should be enough. As Abel, I respect the offering as an opportunity to become closer to my reason for living. I am more interested in moving closer in. The offering is offering me that opportunity. So, as Abel, right now on this issue I say hmmm, I need to be clearer about my options in life. Okay, let me become clearer right now. I will respect that by bringing more clarity now. This post is a form of that. I am practicing to apply the idea now. And as Abel, I am willing to respect what is more inward. In this option, I practice my offering as I write or live, experiencing my application of the living form. I view my words and actions as my living demonstration. In other words, your post shows your compassion as you are discussing compassion, shows your respect as you discuss that and so on.
Here is Option Three: If Cain had asked for more clarity, I think the Lord would have given it. But that clarity has to come from within the more inwardly, or it will not be clearer. Because Cain was unwilling to recognize another step inward, he was unAble to work with the offering of options made by the Lord’s comments. We can see this truth when we look at how you asked for options. When I respect what you are saying more deeply, I can find ways to improve my offerings. If I do not respect what you are saying, I am unable to hear your more inward call.
The Art of Giving is a way of being in the moment. The Lord’s givings were of a different resolution and Cain was not Respecting that difference. Abel was respecting this to some more inward degree. So, in Option Three, we look at your paragraph as it relates to your reason. Are we seeing the Lord? Are you practicing to see the Lord through your living offerings? Do you Respect the pathway in, or do you turn outward with your offerings. You wrote, “So the value is: be aware in the moment both of what Abel and Cain want to do, and make the conscious choice for Abel. You need to be clear in the moment what the options are, and if you don’t feel you are clear, you need to stop and practise to gain more inwards insight so that your action is in line with your reasons for being in that moment." Are your practicing what you just wrote? Do you respect what you just said you need to do? Or do you think that saying it is enough? This is another example of Abel and Cain working in the moment. When I read your post, am I practicing the reasoning while I am reading, or am I just going through the motions with no intention of living the reasoning to understand better. The Abel position respects the offering in the moment and continues to practice even now. Cain is going through the motions and may have some wonderful offerings, but does not respect the moment to be what the offering is actually about. Option Three practices as it lives and gives.
November 4, 2009 at 11:47 | sensei
"If Cain had asked for more clarity, I think the Lord would have given it. But that clarity has to come from within the more inwardly, or it will not be clearer. Because Cain was unwilling to recognize another step inward, he was unAble to work with the offering of options made by the Lord’s comments."
from Genesis 4: 6-8... "Then the LORD said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.
Now Cain said to his brother Abel, 'Let's go out to the field.' And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. "
Cain doesn't respond by asking for clarity about what the Lord means when he says to "do what is right" ... instead, his response is to go to the field and kill his brother... why not stop and ask the Lord a question about what it would mean to "do what is right"? ... many of us can relate to situations where we didn't ask a question and know it would have been very helpful to have done so... sometimes we're just too fearful to ask a question... it makes us feel vulnerable and afraid of looking stupid... or maybe there is arrogance in thinking we already have the answer, or pride that if we don't already know we can figure it out on our own... or we get so distracted or tied up in making our own point we just pass over something completely unaware that we could have had an opportunity for better clarity... or maybe we take a side trip into confusion and we think we don't even know what question to ask, even though that could be a question in itself...
"But that clarity has to come from within the more inwardly, or it will not be clearer."
i'm still trying for better understanding on inwardly ( i feel like outward isn't nearly as difficult to understand, which must be teaching me about my own orientation)... would it be more inward for Cain to ask for clarity about what the Lord means when he says "do what is right"?
November 4, 2009 at 14:14 | JO
JO;
When Cain invites Abel “out” to the Field, where he attacks and kills his brother, he is inviting Abel outward to his (Cain’s) dwelling place. This kills Abel and Abel’s blood goes to ground. Cain grounds Abel out to kill Abel’s more inward dwell by centering on a more outward disposition. This is describing something that occurs in many moments and at the point in anything that humanity expresses these attributes. We must not let our more inward respect to get grounded out. We must continuously live to give more inwardly or we will die and become separated from the more inward way of being.
When we ask a question of the Lord which Cain chose not to do, we are asking for the more inward understanding to be revealed through our continued offerings in the Art of Giving. Our offering, when we practice the art of Giving as I have described so many times, is asking to see the more inwards value through our Respect, Appreciation and Gratitude. We are asking to see the next principle so the more inward value can show itself. We must be living to give, through our offerings a constant respect, appreciation and gratitude for the more inward values. The Lord reveals more understanding if we continue to respect that the more inward is always present. We access this more inward through our Giving and the Art of Giving describes the continuous form. Cain stopped at gratitude while Abel continued another step inward with Respect for the more continuous application of his in the moment offering. Abel went more inward and the Lord was pleased. Cain not only went outward…he took Abel with him and killed the more inward point that Abel had established. Abel followed and lost his more inward connection at that more outward point of matter in the field of Cain’s dwelling point. This is why the Lord went looking for him in the field. The field was more outward and was not where the Lord was meeting Abel and Cain before. And even when the Lord moved outward, Cain chose to go even further outward.
The Lord will meet us in our offerings. When we turn to meet the Lord, we turn to the more inward value. We can only sustain this relationship by giving the more inward values. The Lord dwells on the more inward side of any moment and chooses to be more inward even when going outward.
This is not an abstract myth. This is how it works. This is all happening in every moment with the many variations dependent upon our choices and givings. Will you continue to give more inwardly or turn away to ground out your inward progress? This question is a very important one to reconcile. Your inward offerings should be forever asking for another more inward value to respect. With enough Respect, you will reach the Lord and the value of your offerings and givings will be offering a present, a present moment, a oneness with the Givings of the Lord.
November 4, 2009 at 19:22 | sensei
ah yes... i do respect this is how it works... clearly any moment provides an opportunity to see our own turning... even the moments that happen here in this discussion... even in the hardest of moments there is opportunity... even in things we think are impossible there is possibility... i wonder if this is sometimes what is meant by a miracle... making that turn toward the Lord, respecting the more inward value, makes all things possible...
for months i was struggling with jealousy directed toward a woman i admire... jealousy for all her life was about, all she gives, all she expresses... i thought i couldn't help it... every time i looked at anything she did all i wanted to do was see all the ways i wasn't her and could never be like her... i convinced myself there wasn't anything i could do about it... every moment i was following jealousy, and murdering what was on the other side... i would make excuses and tell myself a person feels the way they feel, after all... you can't force yourself not to feeling something... etc... and then a bit like being hit over the head, finally a realization... what was deeper than the jealousy?... all it took was finally opening enough to ask a simple question, and sincerely want the answer to be a more inward value... literally in an instant i was "healed" of this jealousy... it was replaced by love... love for what flows so effortlessly through her, for her giving, for her reason for being... love inside myself for loving her reasons and knowing there are reasons we share with one another... i could easily use the word miraculous for it...
ML's lovely example some posts back reminds me of something very similar... even in what we might consider the most difficult of circumstances we have an opportunity to open up to more inward values than what we've been looking at, even when we've been facing that direction for years...
to have genuinely realized there is choice is something that has immense value to me... it's one thing to say you understand you have a choice, it's another to see how it can be applied in any moment through practice... and once the realization happens it has shifted everything... because if i had the realization of my choice once in one circumstance, i know i can always choose my turning no matter what a moment may present me with....
November 5, 2009 at 10:08 | JO
Sensei,
Many thanks for your last response to me. I have been deliberating about whether to reply, because I have drafted something and I don't think it's something I should be posting in a public forum. I'm even unsure whether I should send it to you by private email. Perhaps I shouldn't even mention it - the only point here is that you went to a lot of trouble responding to me, and I felt I had to at least thank you.
November 6, 2009 at 9:48 | ML
ML;
There is no need to compromise yourself on this forum. You are welcome to email me if you like. And you are welcome to not respond. The principles we are learning help us to improve our understandings and inner relationship including challenging areas of discovery. Sometimes these challenges are intriguing and sometimes they are pointing towards very significant life issues. We will be met with a more inward understanding if we are willing to practice Respect, giving Appreciation and Gratitude for the Values we want to be more about.
You are certainly welcome to keep the more inward discoveries private. What is important here is that our practice does lead us to more understanding and that we can continue to grow inwardly when we apply ourselves in that way.
November 6, 2009 at 11:30 | sensei
This is just to say that I haven't gone to sleep. I am still practicing. Call it a moment of consolidation of things learnt if you like. I will be back in the fray in due course, maybe when a new discussion thread is raised.
November 13, 2009 at 1:00 | ML