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Let me rephrase that last question in my series of questions below. I wrote, “Any by exerting my effort to choose here, I am exercising my freedom of choice at the point of freedom?”
I meant to ask, this… by exerting my effort to choose here, am I exercising my freedom of choice at the point of freedom, or is this the Creator’s force at work, and my exercise of choice was when I created an environment in which I read the article?
Another question about understanding the lesson…
I am thinking about “There is None Else Besides Him.” I have experienced life with no need or awareness to consider the Creator, only myself, in fulfilling my desires. I have made choices to harm others in order to avoid pain or experience pleasure. I have experienced pain from being mistreated. I have experienced painful consequences of my selfish actions. I have sought to live a productive life. At times I have succeeded; at times I have failed. I have sought to walk with God. Sometimes if felt as if I had a genuine experience with God; other times I felt distant from Him. I could go on and on. But, the takeaway is that my choices along with successes and failures were the result of one force – the force of Nature/Creator. And that any perception otherwise is false. Correct?
Now, when I experience sorrow and anxiety from feeling separated from the Creator and the Shechina, it is because the force of the Creator has willed it so. When I experience it, receive that sorrow and anxiety if you will, may I choose an intention to feel sorrow for the Shechina, rather than for myself. For the Shechina feels it more completely and intensely than I. As I am learning, I am merely feeling the effect of that which is being experienced by the Shechina above.
So, whose force is behind my intention to feel concern for the Shechina rather than myself? Would that also be the force of the Creator and not my force?
Likewise, when I experience peace and joy for feeling connected to the Creator and the Shechina, may I make it my intention to I rejoice that the Shechina above is experiencing this, rather than receiving the peace and joy for myself? After all, my experience is a result of what is happening above in the causal plane, right?
So, my desire is to experience life through the Shechina, receiving the joy and the sorrow of what is happening above at any given moment, and correcting my intentions to bestow my joy upon Her because of her joyful state and sorrow for Her because of her sorrowful state in any given moment. Any by exerting my effort to choose here, I am exercising my freedom of choice at the point of freedom?
Please give me some guidance here. Thank you.
The lesson clarified freedom of choice for me. When we talk about freedom, we’re talking about freedom from our egoistic nature and freedom to live in a completely different nature – that of bestowal.
Hi. These beginner’s courses are perfect for me. Thank you for creating and offering them. Three questions…
1. If the Creator only wants to give to me, and as I receive, I will only want to be like the Creator and give back to Him, what is it that I can give to Him? After all, is He not the will to bestow? How can He receive anything from me if He is not a will to receive? Could it be that giving back to the Creator is to bestow upon the object of His bestowal – the Creature?
2. As we make corrections, i.e., the more we progress, am I to understand the more the ego grows? If so, this seems like a very painful process, because egoistic intentions have resulted in much pain in this corporeal world (as I have experienced it). Can you address the pain and suffering aspect of progressing in spiritual development?
3. Is this an infinite exercise or does attainment of a final degree become realized and our work of correction ends? I believe the answer is that we will come to an end of correction. However, I bet that is not the end of spiritual development. Or is it?
