Acknowledgment: Recognition and Acceptance
Topics:
Acknowledgment: Recognition and Acceptance
Session 20150316
"Variations in Expressing Awareness: Same Destination, Different Routes"
"Acknowledgment: Recognition and Acceptance"
"The Importance of Acknowledging Feelings"
Monday, March 16, 2015 (Private/Phone)
Participants: Mary (Michael) and Jason (Spensar)
ELIAS: Good morning!
JASON: Hi, Elias.
ELIAS: (Laughs) And what shall we discuss?
JASON: Well, I do want to get into acknowledgment, as that's something I've been working with very recently.
But before that, I wanted to ask a few questions about a historical figure and the significance of him. His name was Longchen Rabjam. He lived about 650 years ago in Tibet. He was a prolific writer on many topics, most widely known for his Dzogchen. I think one of his most famous books is called "The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena." Within that book, he talks about awareness or awakened mind as a vast expanse of unchanging, utterly lucid space, and that phenomena are the spontaneously present adornment of that space. I can give you a quote, I think, which gives an example here: "Everything is the adornment of basic space and nothing else. Outwardly and inwardly, things proliferating and resolving are the dynamic energy of awakened mind," and "Within this single vast expanse, there is no duality of realization versus its lack or freedom versus its lack, but a supreme state of equalness."
So, I wanted to ask a few questions about him and his book, because his writing appears unusually clear in describing what I would take to be essence. I believe the book or the text is designed to alter the perception of the reader to actually experience that essence. Does that sound correct?
ELIAS: Yes. Continue.
JASON: One question about the person himself is what is the significance of his life, that he's able to write with a clarity that is remarkably unusual or rare?
ELIAS: Now, define that question in what your meaning is in relation to "the significance of his life."
JASON: In other words, did it represent anything for people in general? Was it just his own personal choices?
ELIAS: I would express it could be both, that it is his personal experiences and his personal journey and his individual expansion; but in relation to the significance of that, it is an illustration of all of you, and an illustration of how important all of you are and your capabilities. Not that his personal idea was necessarily to be a leader in that direction, but rather to be sharing the example of what you are all capable of and your individual importance and power and abilities.
Now, in that, what I would also express is that in relation to any individual, but especially an individual such as this that is sharing their personal experience with the world, so to speak, for this individual's writings are available, and in that it is important to very genuinely be incorporating that type of information from the position and the standpoint of self. What that means is every individual will use words and examples of their experience and their individual philosophy – and you all have an individual philosophy – in relation to their individual guidelines. Therefore, how they express their example and their experiences and their philosophy will be filtered through their individual core beliefs.
Now, understand that does not diminish the significance or the validity of anything that they are expressing. But the reason that I express this is that individuals incorporate a very strong tendency to listen to or to read philosophies and examples and to receive them in somewhat of absolute terms in relation to the words that are used. In this, individuals generate different associations with words or different ideas with words. Therefore, regardless of what their official definition is in relation to any one word, each individual attaches their own interpretation to those words.
Therefore, when one individual describes their experience and their journey in relation to expanding their awareness, becoming more aware, becoming aware of themselves as not a separate entity from essence and then beyond that as essence not being a separate entity from all of consciousness, the manner in which they express that will be unique to themself, their own interpretation and their association with the words that they choose, such as a word of "awakening" or "enlightenment."
These words can conjure certain ideas about what an individual's experience should be, for the individual that is expressing these words can describe, and perhaps even in detail, their own experience in relation to those words. Therefore, they set a type of paradigm in relation to the words that they are choosing and using. The reason that that is or becomes a significant point is that not every other individual will experience in the same manner. That is not to say that they will not accomplish the same action, but they may not experience it and likely won't experience it in the same manner.
That becomes a difficulty if the individual is reading a text and they are not necessarily genuinely paying attention to themselves and discerning what does that mean to you individually. How would you individually translate what this other individual is expressing and what they were experiencing? How would that be different or expressed differently for yourself, but mean the same thing?
JASON: That is very helpful. That gets into what I think is a challenge or a difficulty that I've had in connecting that view, which is a belief system that I've had or have, versus some of the language that you use or some of the language that even... Let me get the individual's name here. Ramana Maharshi, who was an Indian guru, his language was much more about focusing on self. From what I understand that you're saying is they could both be talking about the same thing…
ELIAS: Correct.
JASON: …but describing it differently.
ELIAS: Which is also a factor that has been presented many times in this forum, in which individuals will pose questions in relation to other essences, in relation to other channels, and they may be expressing in different words but the concepts that they are engaging may be the same. It is even in relation to some religious expressions. They may express them in very different words and different manners, but the concept may be the same.
In this, words can be very, very influencing, and in some capacities they can be very uplifting and empowering and encouraging, but in other capacities they can be discouraging or discounting if the individual is listening to certain words and certain experiences that are being attached to those words, and they do not have those experiences themselves. Therefore, they discount themselves of, "What am I doing wrong? Why am I not moving in that direction? I want to move in a direction of awakening, but I do not have those experiences. Therefore, I am not doing it," which may not necessarily be correct at all. It is merely that each individual will arrive at the same destination via different routes.
JASON: That brings me back to acknowledgment, and it's something that you have recommended since the beginning but I've avoided personally because it contrasted with my beliefs that I should be downplaying the subjective sense of self, if that makes sense.
ELIAS: Why?
JASON: From a belief that was, I think, related to some of the terminology in Dzogchen that I had attributed a lot of significance to, that the subject of self didn't really exist. It's just another thing arising in consciousness.
ELIAS: Now, in that, discounting or disavowing the subjective expression, or even if you are expressing that it does not exist, how does that generate a conflict for you?
JASON: Because with acknowledging, my understanding of it is I'm congratulating myself for what I'm doing or what I'm accomplishing or what is pleasing or going well.
ELIAS: This may be your difficulty in itself. Define "acknowledgment." What is your definition of acknowledgment?
JASON: Thinking... I say "thinking" just because I am unable to direct the attention without the thinking involved, but thinking of something that I did and accomplished as I had wanted.
ELIAS: Very well. Now, this is, yet again, another illustration of words and how they can be interpreted in very many different manners and what they mean to each individual.
Now, let me express to you what the action of acknowledgment actually is. Acknowledgment is not confined to success or accomplishment. In actuality, it is not attached to either. Acknowledgment is a simple action, not necessarily easy, but simple. The action of acknowledgment is first, recognition, and second, acceptance.
Now, what does that mean? The action of acknowledgment is simply to recognize an expression or manifestation or feeling or direction or any expression in your experience – anything – whether it be a physical manifestation, a direction or a feeling.
The first aspect of acknowledgment is to recognize it. It is a twofold action: recognition and acceptance. You accept it for what it is. There is no action other than that, that is associated with acknowledgment. It is not a matter of doing about or giving to or not doing about. It is merely a matter of recognizing, therefore defining and accepting, that expression for what it is – therefore not enhancing it, not changing it, not pushing it away, only accepting it for what it is. If it is an accomplishment, the acknowledgment of the accomplishment is not a congratulations, it is not a gift, it is not an encouragement; it is merely recognizing that the accomplishment was expressed and accepting it.
If it is a feeling of irritation or frustration, it is a matter of recognizing that feeling, defining it that it is irritation and accepting it for what it is, not changing it, not pushing it away, not doing with it, but accepting it for what it is. From that point, you have choices in relation to what you choose to do, but acknowledgment is only the action of recognizing and accepting.
JASON: Okay. That's simpler than I had been thinking about it.
ELIAS: Therefore, it includes any type of expression or experience, not only positive but negative also.
JASON: And so that would be acknowledging the perception of the experience, which would be the positive or negative aspect?
ELIAS: In a manner of speaking, yes, for that would include what your judgment is of it, which would be the expression of the positive or the negative. But regardless of the positive or the negative aspect, once again, that is associated with how you evaluate after the acknowledgment.
Acknowledgment is a very pivotal expression. It is extremely important, for that is your first step in any direction with any expression in your reality. When you skip that step, you create distortions, and you create ripples that are not necessarily accurate in relation to your desire or what you want. For when you skip that step, you are not entirely paying attention to you and your own communications, and therefore, you limit the information that you give to yourself or the information that is available to you to generate the most beneficial choices for yourself.
JASON: This acknowledgment, is this something that one could practice in a meditation, so to speak?
ELIAS: You can, but I would also express that you can practice this in every moment of every day in your life, in every situation, in every action. Every feeling that you generate, every idea that you have, every action that you engage, every behavior that you express, practice that acknowledgment in any or all of those expressions. Your opportunity to practice with acknowledgment is never ending and is available to you in almost every moment of your existence.
JASON: (Laughs) Sometimes when you offer information like that it can be a little overwhelming. So when I say "meditation," I understand that, but what I mean is taking a small bite at a time.
ELIAS: Yes, I would express that in a meditation if that is your theme, it can very much aid you in being more aware of that action of acknowledgment. I would express that you can objectively do it and in many situations throughout your day.
Feelings are an excellent practice in relation to acknowledgment, whenever you are feeling anything – when you are excited, when you are happy, when you are content, when you are angry, when you are irritated or frustrated, when you are fearful, when you are hesitating – any expression of feeling, when you notice that signal, the feeling, pausing momentarily and recognizing it or defining “what is this feeling?” and then accepting it for what it is, is an excellent practice. Let me express to you that even those feelings that you deem to be positive, let us say excitement, when you pause and define that feeling "I am feeling excited," and you acknowledge it, you accept it for what it is in the moment, and your choices become different.
For when you generate feelings – this is a very important point – whenever you generate feelings, they are designed to catch your attention. Therefore, in that, regardless of what the feeling is, your automatic reaction to feelings is to pay attention to them and hold them. You do this is in a myriad of manners. If you are happy and excited, you will automatically pay attention to that feeling and attempt to hold it. Therefore, you will attempt to continue that feeling of excitement.
If you generate an excited feeling in relation to an accomplishment, you complete a job or a task and you are proud of yourself and you are pleased with what you did and you are excited about your accomplishment, you will automatically attempt to hold that feeling and continue it. Therefore, you will automatically, without thinking, influence your choices about what you do in that attempt to hold that feeling, and what you do may not always be the most beneficial choice for you in that attempt to maintain that feeling of being excited in relation to your accomplishment.
If you are angry, if you incorporate a conflict with another individual and you are angry… Or, it does not have to involve another individual. You incorporate an experience with your vehicle, and it is not performing in the manner that you want it to, and you become angry at the situation. You will also automatically pay attention to the feeling and attempt to hold it. How you will do that is, the first individual that you present to yourself you will immediately be telling them how irritated you are.
JASON: (Laughs) And then you'll get upset when they don't really care.
ELIAS: Precisely, and you will be holding to that feeling. It is what individuals do when you skip that step of acknowledgment.
Your choices become very different when you do not skip that step of acknowledgment. When you incorporate an action of you, let us say hypothetically, paint a room for one of your children, and they are very appreciative when you complete the task, and they very much like the room that you have painted. You feel excited and happy that you accomplished that and it was acknowledged, and therefore, when you receive that response from your child, you automatically want to do another action for them to maintain that feeling of excitement in relation to your accomplishment. You want to do more; you always want to do more.
Now, in skipping that step, that is the automatic reaction that individuals generate. When you do not skip the step, when you recognize that feeling, what it means or what it is, and you acknowledge it for what it is, your choices become different. For now it is not necessarily a matter of continuing that, but perhaps motivating yourself to engage in a different direction or to move farther in that particular direction or to change an expression or to change an experience by moving in an entirely different direction or choice. You give yourself options and choices when you acknowledge what you are feeling. Whereas, when you skip that step, you do not give yourself choices. You move into automatic reaction direction.
JASON: As far as acknowledgment with training wheels, how do you think, either silently verbalizing or internally labeling what you're recognizing at the same time? Do you think that's helpful?
ELIAS: Very much so. Yes, very much so. It is not a matter that you must divulge this or discuss it with another individual. It is merely a matter of noticing in the moment what you are doing or what you are feeling, and practicing that action of acknowledgment: "I feel this. This is what it means, and I accept it for what it is. I am not automatically doing about it."
JASON: And just to sum up this section, the benefits of this acknowledging practice are that I'm more aware of the information and choices in each moment?
ELIAS: Precisely. You are more aware of you. You are more aware of what you are doing. You become more aware of why. You are more aware of your choices, and you become more aware of what is influencing you. It also definitely moves you more into being-present feelings and behaviors. For when you are aware of behaviors and feelings, not necessarily together, you can more clearly recognize what behaviors are automatic but not necessarily what you want to do or what you want to express or what is even valid.
It also allows you being more present to discern with feelings: which feelings are now and connected to what you are experiencing now in this present moment, and what feelings are then-feelings that are not connected to now and are merely being triggered by past associations, and therefore influencing your behavior without you actually choosing that objectively but rather expressing that as a reaction rather than a choice.
JASON: Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe you can use awareness of feelings as a way to tell whether you are creating or moving in the direction that you want to, like towards your intention versus not creating your intention?
ELIAS: Yes. Now, the one factor with feelings that I will reiterate and emphasize is that feelings are signals, and therefore they are not necessarily an indicator as to what type of energy you are projecting.
In that, feelings are not necessarily a gauge in relation to what you are doing and what energy you are projecting, meaning you could be moving in a direction that is to your benefit and is moving towards your intention and what you want, but you also may be feeling apprehensive or doubtful and even at times uncomfortable, and that may not necessarily mean that you are not continuing to move in the direction of what you want.
JASON: Then the fuller or more complete way in paying attention or being aware of feelings plus behaviors and actions, how would you utilize that information to know whether you are moving towards your intention?
ELIAS: By paying attention to what you are actually doing. Now, that includes what you are doing physically and what you are doing inwardly, meaning a very, very simple hypothetical example: You may be engaging conversation with myself now, and you are also simultaneously writing notes as to what we are discussing. In that, you are sitting in a chair, and you are supposedly, or you think you are, paying attention.
Now, in that, you may be generating the action of thinking that you are listening, but in actuality, your body may be holding tension, for prior to our conversation you may have engaged some other conversation or some other experience that you are continuing to hold slightly an anticipation of a meeting that you must engage later in your day and that is generating somewhat of an anxiousness in relation to time. Therefore, your body consciousness is generating some type of tension, and that may be affecting your ability to be genuinely paying attention and listening. Therefore, you use the action of taking notes to distract you. Now, your assessment may be that you are taking notes and that helps you to concentrate and that you are paying attention. Whereas, you may not be. The feeling may be neutral, and in that, you are not necessarily indicating to yourself that you are not doing what you want to be doing in relation to what you want to create; but what you are doing is the indicator.
Now, it could also be viewed in the other direction, that when you pay attention, when you notice what you are actually doing – you may notice you are sitting in your chair, you are listening, and you are relaxed, and you are paying attention – but you may incorporate some aspect of an anxious feeling. The anxious feeling is not necessarily being expressed because you are not doing what you want to be doing or that you are not moving in the direction of creating what you want; the anxious feeling may be associated with some other experience that is not now. It may be associated with an anticipation of a future experience. It may be associated with a past experience. You may be feeling it, but it is not necessarily an indicator of your energy in the moment, which is moving in the direction of gathering information in relation to what you want to do. Therefore, you are accomplishing regardless of that anxious feeling.
In this, it is important to pay attention to feelings and to acknowledge them, but this is the point once again in why that step of acknowledgment is so important, for that can allow you to discern whether that feeling is associated with now or not, and therefore whether it is valid or not.
In this, also how you gauge how well you are moving in the direction of what you want is by paying attention to what you are doing. If you are setting an intention that you want to create more abundance in your life in relation to money, in any moment within your day allow yourself to stop and merely check with yourself "What am I doing in this moment? Am I engaging an action that's simple as closing a door? And why am I doing that? Am I doing it to isolate myself, to express a division between myself and other individuals? And how does that move in conjunction with creating more?"
JASON: It probably doesn't.
ELIAS: Precisely, but it is a very simple action that you would likely not even pay attention to.
JASON: The other thing is, you reminded me of it, it would also be not moving in the direction of developing new relationships?
ELIAS: Correct. Therefore, you generate actions throughout your day that are indicators of what you are doing.
JASON: Hmm, it's almost overwhelming.
ELIAS: (Laughs) Actually what I would express to you, my friend, is allow yourself to engage it in your thoughts and in very simple manners, not in relation to necessarily the overall picture but merely in increments, in smaller expressions, if you will – "What am I doing in this moment?" – and not that you do that in every moment of every day, although the more you practice, the more aware you become. Eventually what occurs is, as automatic and as easy as it is for you to not be present and for you to be expressing automatic pilot, it becomes equally as automatic and easy to be aware of what you are doing in every moment. Therefore, you replace one habit of not being aware for a habit of being aware.
JASON: I can see that, being aware of what I'm doing and developing that awareness, but the harder part to me would be knowing what energy that action is associated with.
ELIAS: In actuality, the idea of what type of energy are you projecting is not as complicated as individuals think. For you think in subject matters; therefore, there are endless numbers of subject matters and possibilities. Energy is not that complicated. Energy is either moving in the direction of what you want, or it is moving in the direction of what you do not want. It is much more simple, for energy is not concerned; energy does not think. You think. Energy merely moves. It is an action, and therefore it does not discern or distinguish or evaluate or explain or identify in relation to different expressions or subjects. It merely moves in the manner in which you project it, which for the most part is two directions. It is either moving in the direction that you want, or it is moving in the direction that you do not want, and it is indicated by what you are paying attention to.
JASON: And if you're trying to run away from something, or whether you're moving towards something you want?
ELIAS: Precisely. If you are...
JASON: The motivating factor?
ELIAS: It is a matter of what you pay attention to and how you define that. Whatever it is that you are paying attention to, do you like it or do you not like it? What you are paying attention to in any moment, is it irritating you or does it satisfy you? Is it comfortable, or is it uncomfortable, or is it neutral? If it is neutral, it is moving in a direction in relation to what you want.
JASON: Say that again?
ELIAS: If it is neutral, it is moving in a direction of what you want. Therefore, if it is what you like, what you enjoy, what is comfortable, if that is what you are paying attention to, what is satisfying, it is all moving in the direction of what you want. That is, your energy expression is moving in the direction of what you want. If it is neutral, if it is content, it is also moving in the direction of what you want.
If you are paying attention to what you do not like, what you do not want, what is not comfortable for you, what you want to stop, what you do not want to happen, then you are projecting your energy in the direction of what you do not want.
Energy is very simple. It is not a matter of even what subject it is. That matters not. It is only a matter of it projects in the capacity of attracting what matches it. That is what energy does consistently. It is always an object of a magnet.
JASON: I think you've said that defining what you want is not necessarily a complicated or a big process, if I am correct, that your body consciousness is already aware of that?
ELIAS: Yes. And in that, you are correct, defining it entirely is not always even extremely important, either. You will define it as you move in the direction of what you want. Being aware of what you are already doing is a part of defining what you want.
JASON: Okay, thank you, Elias.
ELIAS: You are very welcome, my friend. I greatly shall be anticipating our next meeting, quite stimulating conversations!
JASON: This is very, very specific. I can see how a lot of my original questions from earlier sessions were coming from the position of supporting belief systems rather than... There's a difference now, where it seems to be more focused on very specific steps.
ELIAS: Yes, and expanding. And I would express congratulations to you. You are accomplishing quite well!
JASON: Thank you.
ELIAS: (Laughs) In wondrous lovingness to you, my dear friend, and in tremendous encouragement in your journey that you are expanding so very well. To you in dearness, my friend, au revoir.
JASON: Goodbye, Elias.
(Elias departs after 1 hour)
@2015 Mary Ennis. All Rights Reserved
Copyright 2015 Mary Ennis, All Rights Reserved.