Great River Institute - Respecting the Point

Respecting the Point

Very good! Remember we are exercising in the space of understanding, moving inward on the line of reason, discovering points of value that lead to the Lord. We HAVE to learn to Respect certain points in the moment or we will tend to fall away into outward ways of being.

You have a well presented consideration in your post. Now listen carefully, because you want to do an even more inward example by finding the values that are most inward in your post (an act of gratitude) and then looking at your post for the point in the post when you were closest to that value and when you fell away due to the presence and lack of Respect.

This will be your study example of an in the moment living version of Abel and Cain's conflict. It has to be one that is actually occurring in your way of being in the moment. Be clear about what you are looking for. Doing this will require the Respect that Abel shows and that Cain is lacking.

October 28, 2009 at 8:24 | sensei

I've been trying to stay with this for the last day or so, and this is where I've got to with it.

Adam - or Adam/Eve - is the point that contains all of the possible expressions of what it means to be human. There is nothing human outside of Adam, so he stands - as Sensei has said elsewhere - at the very edge of what it means to be human. The Lord got Adam to 'name' everything: "And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." By this I understand that Adam encompasses all of the possible 'reasons for being' of humankind, and that thus every reason comes, from The Lord, through Adam.

So, first is respect - to realize that every reason that we have has come to us, through Adam, from The Lord. And that all reasons are united in Adam. Adam is for human beings what I had described as 'Plant' is for individual plants: the all-inclusive archetype, the definition of what it means to be human.

Cain and Abel, as ML has observed, "Abel and Cain and are continually being conceived in hope, being born, making offerings that do or don’t respect the Lord, getting killed and exiled." They would seem to represent the ways that we, as individual expressions ('sons of Adam') relate to source and matter. Abel respects that all of his reasons for being (or his fundamental reason for being) comes to him from The Lord through his father Adam. He appreciates it, returns a tithe of it in gratitude, and thus grows its value on both the 'matter' and 'source' sides. He represents each of us, as individual human beings, in a harmonious relationship 'between Heaven and Earth'.

Cain, on the other hand, believes that his reasons for being are his own - he doesn't recognize that they are given to him, but believes he has created them. He appreciates them, but only to offer them back to himself in the form of arrogance and self-importance. He grows their value only on the matter side. And we know the rest...

Adam - Adam and Eve - are thus in a continuous relationship with, on the one side, The Lord, and on the other, with their 'children'. They are the possibility of every form of expression, but as such they cannot express it - they need the individual expressions, Cain and Abel, to actualize these possibilities. When Abel is killed, and Cain is lost in the dark slumber of Nod, there is no possibility for expressing these reasons. There is no recipient for their giving. Their existence and purpose is thus compromised. Adam/Eve need us to realize the purpose of their existence - their 'reason for being', which is an all-inclusive reason for being - by receiving from them, in respect, our reasons for being, appreciating them, offering back our gratitude for them to the source, and thus growing their value .

This possibility is open to us with every thought, every breath, everything that comes to us in the form of experience. But, at the critical 'hinge point', where we could actualize its possibility, we allow ourselves to drift outwards and lose the point. My sense is that we're being pointed towards the fact that 'respect' is the crucial issue here: that as soon as we lose sight of 'where' our reasons for being in the moment have come from, what they really are, what real potential is, we're lost. When a thought occurs, do we allow ourselves to be carried along with it, or do we try to sense what its reason for being is, to see what is on the source side of it, to follow it back towards its unity 'in the breast of Adam'?

October 29, 2009 at 7:46 | JS

Sensei,

Remember we are exercising in the space of understanding, moving inward on the line of reason, discovering points of value that lead to the Lord. We HAVE to learn to Respect certain points in the moment or we will tend to fall away into outward ways of being.

I had to take a breather on this and come back a bit more fresh in mind.

Now listen carefully, because you want to do an even more inward example by finding the values that are most inward in your post (an act of gratitude) and then looking at your post for the point in the post when you were closest to that value and when you fell away due to the presence and lack of Respect.

Reviewing my post, I felt it might have begun to go fall away out around the paragraph that began “If so, then the first people [i.e. Adam and Eve] who need to wake up are them...” Up until then, I was, I feel, closer to Adam and Eve as real aspects of myself. I was seeing them, or trying to, as part of my own being. After that, I think I may have been distancing myself from them, seeing them more as entities separate from myself. And maybe that wasn’t treating them with respect.

If I’m right, then in that moment of turning away and losing respect, I was exemplifying Cain’s offering that lacked sufficient respect. And what I need to do now is allow Abel to show that respect rather than killing him and wandering off to Nod. This would be an in-the-moment living example of catching Cain about to kill Abel and stopping that.

Let’s ask the question: how do I experience Adam and Eve? This will hopefully be keeping me close to them in the space of understanding, moving inward on the line of reason, discovering points of value that lead to the Lord.

In every moment, I am aware of something that is a very real part of me that is watching and evaluating my thoughts and actions. It is setting the boundaries of what I am prepared to do or not do, because I get a sense of approval or disapproval, and naturally enough prefer the approval. Approval is a sign that my offering has been accepted, at least as far as this inner faculty is concerned, and that acts as surrogate for the Lord’s grace or blessing.

On what basis does the faculty operate? It is associated with a being, me, who necessarily lives in the world. Nothing I think or do can avoid having some material component. So we can’t dismiss matter as being irrelevant. If there are thoughts and actions that are nearest to the ones that deserve the Lord’s grace, then they will have both a material and spiritual component.

I know from personal experience that this faculty is plastic; its values change at different stages of life, and also within a given stage. Earlier in life, I was more focused on certain material things than I am now; there’s been a definite shift in bias in a more spiritual direction.

The hope is, that in shifting towards a new balance point, this faculty approaches nearer to the values the Lord intends us to live (our true reasons for being as incarnated individuals), so that the sense of approval we get comes closer to the actual grace of the Lord, not just the faculty that stands in for it.

The ultimate point of respect is the Lord, but we get to that via this faculty. It acts as intermediary between the Lord and our thoughts and actions. The nearer that it is “synchronized” with the Lord’s intentions for us, the more graceful we become. And conversely, the less synchronized, the less graceful we become, and we can detect that as a sense of disapproval.

We can react to this sense in one of two ways. First, we can accept it constructively, just as a good student accepts the constructive criticism of a teacher, and set about changing how we think and act. This is the way of Abel.

Second, we can become angry and resentful, taking the disapproval as a slight against us by the Lord. This is the way of Cain, who chooses to kill off the potential of Abel behavior, go off into the land of Nod, and sever his connections with Adam and Eve. There’s really very little difference between Cain’s hurt and the hurt of the child that goes off to its room to sulk, cutting itself off from its parents. They may not be perfect parents, but they are probably trying their best.

Adam and Eve were the parents of Cain and Abel; like our parents, they greatly influenced the values adopted in life by their children. So Adam and Eve may symbolize our conditioning, that which results from the influence of parent figures in our life – which can include ideology, religion, culture, and so on. This greatly influences the inner faculty that stands in for the evaluation of our offerings by the Lord.

Not all conditioning is worthless; if it can be appreciated in the right way, if we are selective about what we respect and how we understand it, then the proper way for us to be and make our offerings in life is very probably available to us from it.

Maybe it’s not so much that Adam and Eve need to wake up and change, but that we need to change the way we understand them. The approval we seek from them, as from our own parents, needs to be based on what they actually are, or have the potential to be. Because, when that potential is fulfilled, they accurately reflect the way that the Lord wants us to be. They and the Lord are in sync, and we are fulfilling our true reasons for being.

Cain and Abel potentials are always within us, like two sides of the same coin. If we are being Abel in this moment, we aren’t being Cain. And vice-versa. I’m trying to be Abel in this very moment of writing – so what are my Adam and Eve saying about that? Are they approving or disapproving?

I sense they’re applauding my intention, but is my offering acceptable to the Lord? If it is, then I am truly being Abel, and, moreover, that means that Adam and Eve are in sync. with the Lord (i.e. at the Christ point). If not, then somewhere along the line, I lost respect again. Put another way, whether or not I am able to show respect depends on where Adam and Eve are currently balanced, as I understand that.

I’m hoping that’s at the Christ point, but if not, Abel is dead and Cain snoozing. But here’s one ray of hope: if you tell me I lost respect again somewhere, Adam and Eve haven’t given up. Once again, they will spawn an Abel/Cain. Once again, there will be the chance to get it right. So maybe it’s not that they are stupid and forgetful, repeating the same mistake over and over, but that they are eternal optimists, and that could be a sign of the endless love, compassion and mercy of the Lord.

October 29, 2009 at 15:15 | ML

JS;

You are honing in on our point even better. You are dwelling closer now to our target. Here is the interesting thing: The issue on the table has to do with Able's Respect and Cain's lack of it. Your post takes Able through Gratitude and omits the Respect the Lord was wanting and takes Cain through Appreciation and omits Gratitude. So you can see you are one principle behind in each case.

You will not see the Lord unless you advance your use of the principles.

Focus tighter. It's all about the RESPECT right now. Find the point in there. Use the four principles to bring yourself inward to the space between their differing forms of Respect and what happens to Adam and Eve as a result.

You are certainly seeing more inward, but I want you to realize this particular place in their offerings of Respect and of your offering of Respect...or your lack of it. Although you are working your way in, you are still separating yourself from the reason. This is exactly what the Lord was showing Cain and Able. You want to be very interested in the truth of this. It will lead you to more Truth and understanding in the moments you are actuating. See it in your post. See it in the moment.

October 29, 2009 at 19:18 | sensei

ML;

Yes! Now you are tracking the point within.

Remember, we all have an agreed to reason for being here: to practice using the principles and to see how, with proper practice, they will lead to the Lord in Anything. So, our need for approval should be based on whether we are approving the truth of these teachings and of the success of our practice when we properly employ them and whether the disapproval comes when we neglect to apply them. There is no personal criticism intended, although we will feel joy or apprehension depending, on how true to the intended practice we are willing to be.

The faculty you mention is Appreciation and Gratitude. Why not call it by the principles that are giving the faculty? This, being our reason to understand, becomes another form of separation when we are clearly here to practice these principles and then ignore the truth of them. This causes some outward drift. When that happens, you lose the more inward position that you had established.

Your understanding of grace needs to be connected directly with Gratitude, otherwise you will be lacking respect for the truer understanding of how grace occurs. While, we do not need to name our study principles in everything we do, we are here to study them and see how they are present in the naming of KEY moments in time…and to see how they truly lead to the Lord.

Your writing is very close to point. You are doing really well. See the pathway into understanding! Remember why we are here…

October 29, 2009 at 19:38 | sensei

Feeling that I wasn't really grasping the nature of respect, I went fishing in the files list and saw MW had posted up something called "The Inclusive Nature of Respect". Opening it, I immediately realized it was Sensei's message of a few days ago, which I had read and re-read. But somehow I had missed that the whole issue of respect was spelled out there. And re-reading it again, after just this last exchange of messages, was like reading something completely new.

There is much there that resonated strongly with where we have got to in this exploration, but this perhaps resonated most:

If we are so caring of others, do we even take the time to care for the inward values others are reasoning for? Seriously…is your ear trained to hear the inward positives the other person is trying to express? Are you truly working to find a better way to say and live what you most inwardly value in life?

So... respect is perceiving the inward positives of our reasons, and 'hearing' those reasons in others' expressions. I think of ML's recent description of watching his mother eating, and this comes through very strongly - there is this perception of the 'inward positive' behind an otherwise normal act, that is so transfiguring and beautiful. What does it take to perceive this? 'Time to care' seems to be the operative phrase, with 'an ear trained to hear the inward positives' being the corollary to it.

Abel takes the time to care about what are the inward positives of his - and Cain's - reasons. He holds open a space of clarity, which he doesn't allow to fall into preoccupation with the material expressions of those values. He listens and looks for them, with greater and greater alacrity. And as his respect deepens, it brings him closer and closer to the all-inclusive reason of Adam. Cain's lack of respect - and focus on appreciation - takes him, on the other hand, to a more and more exclusive position, until ultimately this becomes the darkness of Nod, where everything becomes separate and different from him.

So, to look at the question of what happens to Adam/Eve after Abel's death and Cain's 'banishment', from this perspective, it is that the inclusivity of the reasons for being that constitute Adam/Eve - the oneness of those reasons - is fragmented and narrowed and channelled outward into reasons that now appear to have no connection with their source, because there is no respect for the more 'sourceful' values of those reasons that lie in their inward positives.

October 30, 2009 at 9:34 | JS