[Not yet titled]
Topics:
“The Blacker the Night, the Brighter the Stars”
“When You Are Connecting With Other Individuals, You Are Connecting With Yourself”
“Your Ship Will Never Only Dock Once”
Session #3077
“The Blacker the Night, the Brighter the Stars”
“When You Are Connecting With Other Individuals, You Are Connecting With Yourself”
“Your Ship Will Never Only Dock Once”
Sunday, October 23, 2011 (Private)
Participants: Mary (Michael) and Dan (Zynn), Natasha (Nicole)
ELIAS: Good day!
NATASHA: Hi, Elias.
DAN: Good day!
ELIAS: (Laughs) And how shall we begin?
NATASHA: He's always taking the lead.
DAN: Would you like to change that and take the lead?
NATASHA: No. No. You go ahead.
ELIAS: (Chuckles)
DAN: So something is happening with me that I suppose promises changes, like big changes. Astrology suggests I am forty-two, I have kind of (inaudible). Then we spoke to Sandra and she did some reading for us, and she said (inaudible).
ELIAS: (Chuckles)
NATASHA: Speak up (inaudible).
DAN: Okay, so what are (inaudible)? (Group chuckles)
ELIAS: What is YOUR interpretation?
DAN: Well, it's supposed to be freeing, right? So I guess there is the overall wave we are all going through, what you so eloquently explained yesterday, and there is my own attunement to that somehow. Finding myself, finding my passion and a liberation from habit, from automatic responses, from attachments. I guess I will find out what it is eventually. But I was curious if you have any comments on some of the directions that is taking.
ELIAS: I have two questions.
DAN: Yes.
ELIAS: What is your feeling, first?
DAN: My feeling is of becoming more self-assertive, maybe less fearful, more recognizing that I can choose what I want and stay with it as opposed to adjusting to circumstances. I guess it’s a combination of feelings of trust, and adventure, and there is something about the fear, I guess, that (inaudible).
ELIAS: The second question is, what are you identifying in relation to attachments? Which attachments are you identifying or recognizing that you are moving through or moving away from?
DAN: First I want to clarify my idea, my understanding of attachment. So attachment is what I think my identity is, my character. So I am a software developer; that would be an attachment, but I like to develop software that could be (inaudible), but I am a software developer. That's an attachment. Or I am smart, or I am this, I am that. That's an attachment, right? So I think some of the attachments that are being challenged are that I could, that my employment is stronger than me and I must adapt and adjust to that, that there is only one way to be useful and that is, in relation to my employment that is to be very professional, there is only one way to be professional, and that is to (inaudible) and polish my skills, which I don't do.
And the attachments, I guess, are that I am supposed to be a professional and I am supposed to be smart. I am supposed to be useful and be (inaudible), that there is only way to be useful and that is go forward, work, work, work, read, read, read, try, try, try, keep up, keep up (inaudible).
ELIAS: Very well. And your experience of the in-between now is what?
DAN: The in-between is I no longer take some of those things as absolutes, because I seem to trust a little more that I can assert myself and say this is the way I prefer to do things, this is what I like, this is how I think.
ELIAS: And how does that feel?
DAN: That feels good. Empowering, liberating. That brings back some of the trust that I may have had in my youth but (inaudible).
But since it’s in-between, there is still a fear to reach out to assert any kind of pathway, any outrageous passions that I am not sure about myself and just go after something that I’m not so sure I want, so it’s—
ELIAS: Which is the automatic part, to reach for some aspect, to engage, to try. That is the automatic action and the automatic prompting, for that is what you are accustomed to in relation to the attachment, that this is the established method to reach for, to engage. Not to be patient, not to allow that unfolding, not to allow the inspiration, but to force the inspiration or to grasp at some possible inspiration which is already known. And that inclination can be very strong, but as I expressed yesterday, in doing so what you are doing is actually hindering your movement.
For what you are doing is distracting yourself from the genuine movement, and therefore lengthening the time of the in-between, for you are interrupting that natural flow and that natural unfolding and rushing the inspiration, attempting to force yourself to invent one rather than allowing it to present itself: “I should KNOW what my passion is. I should KNOW what my interest or what my curiosity is. I should know what I want to do.” But you do not, necessarily.
You know partially, for you know some interests that remain even if they are diminished. For those that remain that may be diminished, that is an indicator that there is that spark of a genuine expression in that, such as you enjoy the action or the technicality of developing the software. You enjoy that action, that challenge to yourself, which would be translated in many directions; not merely that one, but that one is the familiar one. And in that, there is the core spark from your genuine self that you do enjoy the technicalities, you do enjoy piecing together and developing new. That is a genuine expression.
In this, as to your original question with the potatoes and the spilling out, that is a metaphor or a suggestion that there is a containment already. The containment already exists, and it is approaching an action of spilling out or expanding, which in a manner of speaking would be accurate. For as we discussed, you already possess all, but you are not aware of that yet; and in that, you may not be aware yet of the expansion of your passions, just as I expressed in relation to the software. It is not the software itself. That is one avenue. But that spark of the details of the piecing together, of the inventing, that spark can move in many different directions. That one spark, that one ember can create an entire forest fire. And in that, it may begin to develop in other directions as well. That is not say that you may lose interest in this one direction entirely. You may not. But you may also develop that in new directions that at this point presently you do not conceive of yet.
What is important in this time framework is to not become judgmental with yourself in relation to what you are not doing. What is important is to be allowing, and in that allowance there is a factor of waiting. Not waiting in an anticipation manner, but merely waiting for the presentment, which will come.
In that, it is also significantly important not to force by pushing yourself or grasping in this direction or that direction in an experiment, “Will this be it, will that be it?” That is groping in the dark. And generally speaking, when you are groping in the dark what you grasp is not always what you want to grasp (chuckles), and may not always be appealing to you.
In this, let me express in this manner: you could liken it to walking within a very, black, starless night. And while it is very black, it is difficult to see what direction you are engaging. But the stars eventually do appear, and the blacker the night, the brighter the stars. Therefore the more illumination there is with the blacker it is.
The more blank you are, the greater the possibility for the new, for there is no anticipation for obstruction.
Therefore, in like manner to the blacker the night the brighter the stars, which will illuminate your way to your direction, the less cluttered you are with attempting to force an inspiration or to grasp a new direction, the clearer you are to be open to the presentment of new inspirations and the more quickly they will appear. Just as with that illumination of the stars, the brighter they are, the more they light your way and the more you can see. The less cluttered you are, the more you can see within yourself.
This is a time to be centered, to be relaxed, to be allowing, and to be trusting yourself that this feeling of impending adventure is the precursor to the stars. This feeling that grows of a type of anticipation, you feel that knowing within yourself: “There is an opening beginning, but I do not precisely see it and I do not precisely know what it is yet, but I feel it.” Not “I feel it coming”—it is already occurring, or you would not feel it.
In that, you're already feeling the beginning of the opening of those stars and their presentment, and just as you cannot necessarily generate the stars to appear before they appear, they will appear in their time. In similar manner, this is a process of opening. If you open a door but it is open merely an inch, it will be exceedingly difficult for you to squeeze through. The door is opening, but until it opens to a certain capacity it would be difficult for you to squeeze through it, if not impossible.
In this, I am very encouraging of you to allow yourself to flow naturally. Be practicing being aware of whether you are flowing naturally in whatever you are engaging now, for the more you do that, the more you lend to that door opening more fully and more quickly.
It is not a matter of “grasping for,” but practicing with what you are doing now, what you have now in preparation for that unfolding, therefore you are more familiar with the action of flowing rather than resisting or grasping. And as the new unfolds, it can be exciting and daunting simultaneously. Therefore, although you are excited in the anticipation of the new, when it becomes presented and obvious, there could also be an automatic hesitation—not so if you are already practicing flowing. Once the presentments begin, you will already be accustomed to flowing and to trusting, and you will question much less.
DAN: So what identifies some of the things that I need flowing is that I am not thinking futurely, I am not setting goals. I am just enjoying the moment and allowing things to unfold.
ELIAS: Yes. Noticing your hesitations when they occur, and noting that, that that is not allowing a free flow. Noticing when you are ignoring—that is not a free flow. Noticing when you are not allowing yourself to engage, for you are distracting yourself, for that is more familiar and safer.
DAN: Okay. So sometimes if I am with a project that I spend considerable energy and time doubting my abilities, then I am actually preventing myself from accomplishing (inaudible).
ELIAS: Yes.
DAN: (Inaudible).
ELIAS: Yes. Conversely, at times you can be very concentrated and very involved in a particular project, and that might not necessarily be a matter of flow either, for it is dependent upon what you are also doing. If you are ignoring or if you are avoiding in some capacity, if you are avoiding connecting, if you are ignoring connecting, you are blocking a free flow. You may be very concentrated, you may be very involved in a project and you may be partially engaging yourself, but if you also generate a presentment for connecting and you ignore it and you continue to be concentrated in your project, the presentment is not necessarily an interruption. You presented it.
DAN: So connecting as in connecting to myself, or potentially with other people...
ELIAS: When you are connecting with other individuals you are connecting with yourself. Therefore, let us say that you are in your workplace, and you are very focused upon a project, and you are involved in this project, and another co-worker enters your area and begins speaking to you.
DAN: And I push her away.
ELIAS: And you are annoyed, for you are being interrupted, and you either ignore them or you dismiss them. It is not an accident that that individual appeared in that moment. You projected that. You drew that individual to be interrupting you in that moment, regardless of how concentrated you are. You created that. It is not an accident. It is an opportunity.
And remember the formula; therefore, in that formula what did you do?
DAN: Projected?
ELIAS: Yes.
DAN: Which (inaudible) reflected, which is I saw the individual (inaudible).
ELIAS: Yes.
DAN: And reacted.
ELIAS: Reacted, yes. You reacted to the reflection. You saw the reflection and you reacted to it, rather than acknowledging it and generating a choice. You merely reacted. This particular action is a protective action that you do, and you do it frequently.
NATASHA: Protection in terms of...
ELIAS: It is safe. You are isolated in your sphere, so to speak. You are concentrated, you are focused in what you are doing individually, and you have created your own small sphere. And that is familiar, and it is safe. Nothing intrudes into that sphere.
DAN: Right, but now in terms of what they call conventionally time management, or whatever. If I am trying to fix a problem that affects me or my co-workers and affects the business or production, and the lady that I like very much, she comes in but she probably wants to talk about (inaudible) or maybe about her children or whatever, which I really enjoy very much, but I seem to be obligated to fix that problem because... So I could acknowledge her but ask her to stop by later, or that I would stop by later, and continue, right? It doesn’t mean that I have to drop everything and talk for an hour.
ELIAS: No. It is not that black and white. And it is a puzzle. And in this, you have your puzzle that is the same most of the time; and in that, if another piece is presented to insert into that puzzle, you immediately reject it: “No, it will not fit in my puzzle now.”
But in your puzzle there are edges of your puzzle that are not filled in. There are pieces that are not in place yet, and they present themselves through the day. And in that, you continue to focus upon the center of the puzzle, which is filled in and pieced together, and you dismiss the edges, and it matters not whether the edges are completed or not. The edges are important also, for they create the entire picture, the entire puzzle.
And in that, I will express to you: in all of the conversations that you and I have engaged through all of the time that we have engaged, there has remained one consistent theme. That one consistent theme is your concern and your difficulty with connecting with other individuals, and the factor that it is so bothersome to you. What I am expressing to you is this is an identification of a significant piece of that bothersome action to you that you choose to dismiss within a daily basis in many different capacities, not only in your workplace.
Every time another individual is presented in your area, in your space arrangement, you have done that. It is not an accident, it is not random, and whether it is annoying or not, you have done that. You have drawn that specific individual in that specific time framework for a reason. At times the reason may be to interrupt your concentration even momentarily to allow you a slightly different perspective when you return to the project, whatever it may be. For it is very common with any individual when you are very concentrated in any project, your body consciousness is not design to be concentrated in one direction for any extended time framework.
Look at your senses. Your senses are engaged in every moment of your existence, and they are constantly inputting volumes of information. That is a part of the design of your body consciousness, which is the projection of you in this physical reality.
If there is so much motion and so much activity in every moment of your existence, how do you rectify that it is natural to maintain a singularity of concentration for extended time frameworks without interruption or distraction? That is not natural. It is not how you function. It is what you force yourself to do, and it is what you become very accustomed to, and therefore it becomes habit. That is not to say that it is natural.
In this, yes, it is not so very black and white. If you project an energy, even if you are not aware of it, and you draw an individual into your presence that is interrupting you, it is a matter that is important to pause momentarily and acknowledge—rather than reacting and expressing the annoyance and dismissing or ignoring—to acknowledge to yourself, "I generated this in this moment. I created this individual coming to me in this moment."
Therefore, even if you choose to continue or reengage whatever project you are involved with, stop, acknowledge yourself, acknowledge the other presence, acknowledge the opportunity for connecting. Even if it is momentary connecting. You are presenting yourself time and time and time again with opportunities for your desire, which is to be connecting, which you view and assess yourself as bothersome and as an issue that you do not connect enough or effective enough.
DAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. You have a good point (inaudible).
ELIAS: (Laughs)
NATASHA: Elías, thank you so much. Because I can see it clearly.
DAN: But see, I did not connect again two directions, right? One is a desire to connect with people, which I don't do (inaudible), and the other one is, I think I used to be better at concentrating. I used to be more of what you said, my energy (inaudible). Now I thought I have a big-time management issue where I am purposely distracting myself, and of course I am afraid to follow that flow, or whatever else (inaudible). I think, okay, let me postpone it, let me go on the internet, let me write an email, let me read email, let me write this, let me talk to this guy, let me talk to that guy. I am constantly inventing ways to prevent me from concentrating on what is potentially my main goal and my main task at work.
ELIAS: Which is not unusual and not bad. (Pause) A considerable time ago, when I was discussing the concept of the container and how you place energy in this figurative container and it builds and builds until eventually it overflows and explodes, and you create some significant event that you do not necessarily want and that is occurring from this build-up of energy.
In that time framework, I also explained that apart from the container, you generate in equal capacities, so to speak—which, in a manner of speaking, we did touch upon yesterday in a different capacity, but it is the same principle of what you project you reflect, and they are in equal capacity, and there is no separation between the two. In this, if you have generated a considerable time framework, many years of moving in a certain capacity and expressing in a certain manner, it may not require that same time framework to undo that or to change that, but the energy will be matched one for one. It will be matched in equal proportion. Therefore the time framework may be shorter to alter it, but the experience may be more intense, for the action of it may be more intense and more consistent.
Therefore, if you are generating a particular action, say of concentration and focus, for many of your years and you have developed habit with that, and you do that automatically, and it is not difficult. To break that habit, to interrupt that pattern rather than incorporating the same amount of years of time, you may match that energy in a more concentrated manner and discover that you are unable to concentrate at all and that you are constantly distracted.
Now; another factor in that which may be difficult to view and admit is that the distraction becomes attractive, that you are accustomed to moving in a disciplined, focused manner for a considerable time framework. You change that, you generate actions to interrupt that habit and that pattern, and you do it in somewhat of an extreme or an intense manner, and it is more concentrated, and it is very different. It is a very different action that allows you to interrupt that pattern. And the interruption—the distraction—is new. It is different. You are unaccustomed to this. The new and the different is intriguing, and it becomes attractive.
The trap in this is not that it's attractive. The trap is not wanting to admit to yourself that it IS attractive, and therefore fighting with yourself to stop it.
DAN: Right, because I looked at it as an avoidance of the main direction, (inaudible).
ELIAS: Yes. In not allowing yourself to acknowledge that “this is a new introduction of behavior and expression, I am unaccustomed to it, but it actually is somewhat attractive. I actually, in some manners, LIKE this. I am somewhat fascinated with it. It is curious to me.”
But rather than pausing and acknowledging and admitting THAT, you automatically are looking at the distraction, looking at the behavior and what you are engaging, and expressing, “This is wrong. This is bad. What is wrong with me? Why can I not concentrate? I should be concentrating. There is much I need to do. I am not expressing my responsibility. I am not living up to my expectations. This is all wrong. This is all bad.”
DAN: You’re right, but I sit there, okay, and I have this impulse to go on the internet and look up some metaphysical stuff, and then I start sending it around to Natasha (inaudible) start thinking about that, meditating and so on. And that potentially opens a whole new direction in my life, which I admit, it does open it. I admit it is attractive, and I admit I am afraid to even go there. That I agree with you one hundred percent. But doesn’t (inaudible) pretending to be a software developer if I am (inaudible) in that direction and doing something (inaudible) what they don’t pay me for (inaudible)?
ELIAS: You are not pretending to be a software individual. You are doing that. Or, that is what you have chosen to be engaging and what you have chosen to do. You are not pretending to do it. In that, even if you are distracted you still are not pretending to be doing that work or that task or that action. There is no pretense.
You may be engaging your computer, you may be engaging metaphysics, you may be engaging mere conversation, and you are not pretending in that either. And in this, what you are struggling with is reconciling the two: “I should be doing this but I am doing this, and I can't justify these actions and reconcile them together.”
But—all that you do is interconnected.
Therefore, even if you are not physically engaging the software or a particular task with the software, what you are engaging is connecting in energy. Therefore, one enhances the other regardless of which you are physically choosing to engage physically in the moment. And in that, that conversation or that input of information with your computer in metaphysics may in some other capacity that you are not even thinking contribute or enhance what you are doing when you do engage the software and those tasks. It is all interconnected.
The imagery is different, but the energy is not, and therefore it is a matter of reminding yourself. And in the distraction, if you are not fighting with it, if you are acknowledging, “All that I do is interconnected,” if you are allowing, as I expressed, those inspirations are presented faster and more. But the more you judge yourself, the more you fight with it. The more you fight with it, the more you dam the stream, and all that moves through is a trickle rather than the entire stream.
In this, any particular task in your job is not so crucial that your world will end if you are not engaging it in a particular moment, and even if you are not engaging it in a particular day. The question is if you do not engage this task, you must engage this task, or what? Or WHAT? What is the consequence that will occur?
Let me also offer you a reminder, for the “or what” is the motivation behind the judgement “I should not be doing this.” It is that “or what” that is driving that judgement.
Consequence is an invention within you. It is an invented idea that you generate. It is not real and it is not solid, and I will express to you, yes, many times in many situations individuals generate manifesting what they invent as a consequence, for they concentrate upon it. And this is what reinforces your idea that consequences are real. No, they are not. They are invented ideas that you create. They only become real if you continue to concentrate upon them, and therefore manifest them. And you can manifest the consequence to anything.
But definitely and realistically, in the stage of entertaining a consequence, it is not real. It is as elusive as smoke. And it is very difficult to catch smoke. And in this, it is merely an invented idea.
Therefore, do not concern yourself with the “or what,” but rather acknowledge yourself with “all that I do is interconnected,” and acknowledge yourself with each presentment is precisely that—it is a presentment and an opportunity. Even interruptions are a presentment and an opportunity. (Chuckles)
DAN [To Natasha]: So, you want to take over?
NATASHA: No. The next hour. Did you ask all the questions?
DAN: No. To continue this, when my friend and my boss asked me what do I want to do and he offered me two possible directions, management or (inaudible), or as a manager or (inaudible). Yesterday I asked a question, “How do I choose?” and you said choose what is comfortable. But this IS a presentment, right? Not as brief and momentary as someone stopping by my desk, but this is a presentment. This is line with what is occurring in that he is asking me what do I want to do. The interesting fact is, he wants an answer maybe tomorrow, as opposed to me just waiting it out, so I probably will come up with some kind of answer.
ELIAS: And what DO you want to do? What is more comfortable for you? What are you more interested in, and what are you more comfortable with? And what are you more curious about?
Now THAT is a significant aspect: the curiosity. For, in one capacity it seems that one choice is more interactive than the other. One choice allows you some time framework and capacity to be in your sphere and also interacting but maintaining your sphere. And the other appears to be more so interactive.
DAN: Yes.
ELIAS: This presents a question, for there is your desire to be more connecting, which is an ongoing desire, and it is bothersome to you that you are not. Therefore there is an opportunity for a direction and accomplishment, but it may not be as comfortable initially. Eventually it may be, but initially it may not be as comfortable, for it does not initially appear as safe.
But the point is, what direction does your interest and your curiosity lie in more than the other? Does your curiosity and your interest lie more in new and different, or in different and familiar? And I will express genuinely to you, it matters not. In either capacity it is merely a choice.
And I incorporate no sway in either direction. It genuinely is a matter of you evaluating what do you want? What is your curiosity and your interest weighing with you, and what is more important? I can say to you that ultimately the more interactive direction is overall more in keeping with your desire. But I can also express to you that your ship will never only dock once, and if you are not ready, that is acceptable also.
Therefore, it is a matter of evaluating and weighing within you, in this present now, what is important to you? What is more comfortable to you? Not necessarily in the absolute definition of comfort, for as we expressed yesterday, at times you may choose intentionally temporarily to BE uncomfortable to generate your greatest benefit. And ultimately that does create a TYPE of comfort, for you ARE accomplishing your benefit, even if some aspects of it are not entirely comfortable. But what I expressed to you yesterday was, in simplicity, the most accurate response: what is the most comfortable to you in the whole picture?
DAN: Yeah, this is interesting because this type of choice is uncomfortable, period, but to say that both directions lead me somewhere out of my comfort zone. One is solution architect, which is I have to accept the fact that I will never know everything in detail, but I will have to know anything about everything and it is much more responsibility—at least (inaudible) responsibility. I will have to offer my suggestions, and I will have to make my own decisions sometimes.
The other direction is completely unknown, in that my old-school attachments are about me as a builder and me as a technology person, to some extent, and all of a sudden manager—I dismissed management as an occupation. I don't know what the hell they do, and the part that I do know what they do scares me because you have to deal with people, paperwork, there is worry that we do (inaudible), so on and so forth.
What I hear you say is that dealing with people is ultimately where I seem to be desiring.
ELIAS: Yes, but I am not suggesting or attempting to influence in that direction, for as I expressed: definitely your ship never docks only once. Therefore, if now you perceive is not the timing to engage that, you will present that to yourself again.
NATASHA: If need be.
ELIAS: Yes, or you may present it to yourself in this situation in the other position in a lesser capacity, which may be a more comfortable transition for you.
DAN: Okay. So shall we break?
NATASHA: Yes, let's break.
ELIAS: Very well.
NATASHA: Thanks, Elias.
(Elias departs after one hour.)
Copyright 2011 Mary Ennis, All Rights Reserved.