Aaron071804The2ndMilersClub_HealingTheEgo

S.E. Idaho TeaM

July 18, 2004

Second Miler’s Club

Healing the Ego

Opening Prayer (Bob S):

This is Daniel. Friends, let us pray.

[Prayer]To those Whose children we are, to that great Trinity which we are seeking to understand more fully, we open our hearts to the truths that we have been given to teach these our younger brothers and sisters, and, in so doing, we seek to grow ourselves into those personages that You have asked us to become. May our words ring true; may they stimulate the beauty and show the goodness of our Parents on high. Amen.

AARON (Bob D.): Greetings to you my friends. I am Aaron. It is my pleasure to be here and addressing you, friends, old and new.

I would like to spend a few minutes this evening talking to you about joining a new club. I know some of you hesitate to join groups because of the requirements and stipulations involved, but this club consists of those who would move past the first step of spiritual discernment, who would stride past the finish line and run an extra mile. We will call this club the Second Milers club. This involves looking at your life, not simply as someone moving from dot to dot, from event to event. No, the second milers recognize that they are in control of their destiny, for they have come into an awareness of Who they really contain which is more than just themselves, the power combination of spirit and human that can propel them forward to actively engage their circumstances rather than being controlled by fate as it moves them from place to place.

It is true that salvation consists of the very simple reality that you desire to know God and become like Him. But as you look at the character of the divine personality in Jesus, you recognize His assurance and comfortability in spirit did not equate to being satisfied merely with the assurance of salvation. He actually desired to manifest the qualities which he recognized in the divine relationship.

So, I look to you my friends as having the keys. You have been offered many insights and come face-to-face with the recognition of the divine relationship within your being.

And I encourage you to engage this relationship in a creative and spontaneously original manner. For on your world at the present time there are deficits in the area of originality. There are trends toward standardization and mediocrity. But originality is far more thrilling and energizing and, if witnessed, will be more alluring than simply going-with-the-flow can accomplish. So, I encourage you to engage your creative and original thinking in relationship to the divine Source within you, to survey the situations in your life with this viewpoint and to apply this creative and original thought toward your circumstances such that you may risk more on occasion. But I am quite certain that you will find satisfaction in the engagement of your personality in such a manner. And the risks you might foresee are simply fleeting in the face of the manifestation of Divinity, sincere and original expressi! on in your daily circumstances.

At this time, I would be open for questions. There are others here as well who may engage with you.

Nancy: Aaron, if I understood you right—I think you said a whole lot more, and I was not here the last little while because of my cough—but are you suggesting that we be open to guidance that doesn’t come in standard packaging so that we…. I think you were saying that if we were willing to take a risk and respond in unusual ways to situations, we might better be open to our guidance or connect with Father’s will, or maybe I’ve inverted it from what you were saying. But I guess, as I was listening, what I understood was that standardization or mediocrity puts blinders on us so that we block out what our guidance might be in any particular situation. And, so, if we are open to originality and unusual solutions, we might better hear Father. Is that at all close to what you were suggesting?

AARON: The relationship element to the Divine is the springboard from which this can occur. And the recognition of what you have and what you have been given is the first mile. The second mile is to engage the relationship you know you have in the desire to express creativity and originality, which is the manifestation of the personality. And many, many people on this planet have recognition of the first level of God-relationship on a purely knowledge-oriented basis. Far fewer have engaged this relationship in a way that seeks to influence on all levels how they live and how they express without fear or how it might stand in contrast to standardization.

There are opportunities each moment to engage this. It is not necessarily that you must look for opportunities out there as much as it is the recognition of who you are and how you will be in general, and that is a dynamic combination of spirit and personality that seeks to manifest the emanations from that relationship in their environment consistently.

Is this answering your question, or have I merely explained further what I intended to convey?

Nancy: I guess both. I think I heard what you intended to convey this time, and I heard now what the second mile is, and because I don’t think I am a member in that club yet, or not a long-time participant, that part is still murky to me. But…

AARON: We are moving into the open enrollment phase.

Nancy: That is what I was starting to understand. The fact that it is murky is probably okay, being that it is a new growth horizon and all. So, I’ll read your words and think about that more. And I’m sure I will get better glimpses in the coming weeks regarding what that personality development is about. Am I right in hearing that maybe the second mile is …. Through our relationship with spirit, bringing our personality into a knowledge of that aspect of ourselves that God created that has been layered over by society and is probably distorted at this point in time.

AARON: Yes, you understand somewhat that the manifestation of your personality will obviously produce varying results that are influenced by several factors. The engagement is really recognizing that you have permission to explore and to really seek out what this relationship means for you. Because of the fact that you have a unique personality, it cannot be the same for you as it is for another. And, therefore, while there are obvious truths that one must observe to be in alignment with divinity, your real purpose and potential is to act and interact within the environment that these truths encompass, to explore the nature of your relationship and what you have to offer, not only to society, presently, and to your world, but to the universe and the evolving Supreme.

And, so, I merely am hoping to see the flower that is preparing to bloom begin as you open up and express more of the beauty that exists within. And, obviously, each of you have varying levels of expression in this way in your existence.

This is not an admonishing lesson, but rather a lesson to seek expansion in your viewpoint, to recognize, in some sense, that you have permission to explore and be who you are, who you are meant to be.

Nancy: Thank you, for that further answer. I began to feel the excitement and sense of adventure, and I haven’t felt excitement or a sense of adventure for a while.

AARON: Thank you for confirmation that this subject would find an audience this evening.

Nancy: Yes, it took me awhile, but I got there. You are patient. I kept having preconceived structures that I had to rip away to hear you. Thank you.

AARON: You are welcome.

Bob D: I have a question tonight. In this evolution that Aaron was speaking about it seems that one of the struggles in life is trying to tame the animal [word lost] ego inclinations. And, I don’t know if this is a common human trait of everyone, or just the result of my childhood that has made me who I am, but I tend to have an internal conflict with wanting to be of service, wanting to be a spiritual-minded person consistently, and the struggle to control ego desires.

It seems that sometimes you have a profound experience and then the ego comes in afterward and seems to make it a little smaller. What I strive for is the purity of the experience in the moment which somehow can get tainted by the ego once that moment is past. And, I don’t know if you know what I am saying, but you can have a spiritual experience, and that is when the battle with the ego comes up, because the ego wants to either take credit for or get attention or whatever. And the struggle I have is how to perceive that.

I have obviously heard that gaining acceptance for the ego is a good thing in the sense that it becomes more tame and can allow personality its full expression. And at the same time, I don’t want to get to the point where I am just accepting the negative characteristics of my ego.

And so I would love to hear comments on how to balance recognizing the ego with allowing …. Well anyway, I don’t know if you know what I am saying, but if there is a teacher who does…

MINEARSIA (Nancy): Greetings, Simeon. I am Minearisa. I believe I do understand what you are saying. One moment please….

I will use PamElla’s thoughts so that I do not have a struggle with her rejecting my thought because of the overlap. And, so I will pick up the thread and see where we get.

You are concerned that when your ego feels satisfaction and puffs up a bit after you have behaved in a way that was consistent with the Father’s will that you need to tame this aspect of yourself that it does not puff up still bigger and swallow up your purity. Is this correct?

Bob: Yeah, I think you pretty much have a handle on that.

MINEARSIA: Okay. What I perceive is that you still perceive this ego aspect [of your being] as wrong, as diminishing who you are. But you must realize that ego is part of who you are. It is simply the alignment that matters. And, you gave lip service to the method for aligning the ego, but it does not sound as if your heart is in it.

For you see, the answer comes from understanding that the distortions in the ego—that require that sense of being puffed up are also the parts that are so insecure and need the recognition and the limelight and the encouragement—originate from the past. The way to heal the ego is to see that ego as a tiny child and to love that tiny child, truly love it, truly nourish it—not from the sense that, yes its fine to be all puffed up, yes it is fine to be all insecure—but as you would your own child who is feeling happy that they have achieved something or frightened that they cannot.

And so understand and experience that ego as an aspect of yourself [and treat it] like you would your own child. As it is puffing up after a situation, if your centered self, your spiritual self can take over and say, "Yes, Bobby, well done! I am glad you were here to participate in that. We did well, didn’t we?," your ego will eventually become "tame" as you put it.

And when you are feeling insecure, do not berate that aspect of yourself and insist that you do better, insist that you face this, rather, be gentle, be tender, encourage. In this way, the ego comes into alignment with the personality who works to be in alignment with the Father.

Do not be afraid of having ego. Do not be frightened of being animal. This is who you are. This is where you are. As you can love the completeness of your being right here and now, then that becomes the platform for the next step. To try to reject, ignore, cut away, [the ego aspect of yourself] in order to be more pure is an error in thought. Purity is in the acceptance of the whole experience [of humanness]…acceptance of the Whole.

Do you have further avenues you wish to pursue?

Bob: I think I understand a lot of that intellectually, but I think there are some obvious insecure places inside of me…and I think in that space is where I kind of question and second guess what my intellectual understanding… not having incorporated what my intellectual maturity level.. Words lost.

MINEARSIA: May I offer some advice my friend?

Bob: Okay.

MINEARSIA: When you find yourself in this place of questioning, I would suggest an exercise that goes like this. Go into meditation. See this part of yourself that you are feeling conflict with as a child. Search for that child. Look for it until you can see it, can spot its age, and then see yourself offer solace, offer love, offer recognition, offer whatever it is that the child requires at whatever age you find it. If it is tiny, pick it up. If it is older, be its companion. It is my understanding that such an exercise may assist in taking the intellectual understanding that you have into experiential knowledge.

Bob: I’ll try that.

Virginia: Minearisa, I was anticipating a different end to one of your sentences. I would like to just throw it out and have you respond to it. I expected you to say that purity was found in the motivation. And I know that many times, I can believe that I might have a good motive for doing what I think is the loving thing to do, and then I get so much attention that…I don’t want that attention. That isn’t my purpose for doing it. That wasn’t my motivation, and I can identify with Bob that when too much attention is given, you want to say "hey stop it." You know, that isn’t my purpose.

Bob: What she said.

Virginia: I don’t like that attention.

LaReen: I don’t either.

Bob: It’s uncomfortable.

Virginia: Horribly.

Bob: Because you just wanted to go out there and try to do something and then…

Virginia: Don’t yell my name about anything. Don’t give me any plaques.

LaReen: I’ve always said that I would rather be behind the camera than in front of it.

Virginia: Yes. Definitely.

MINEARSIA What is it about attention that the three of you do not like?

LaReen: The attention.

Bob: Mine definitely stems from childhood, the fact that most of the attention I got wasn’t good.

Virginia: Absolutely.

Bob: The very issues that you were talking to me about, about seeing the child and recognizing where he is at is probably to recognize… by recognizing the source, you can then begin to provide some sort of a link to that… I imagine is what you were inferring with the exercise you were sharing.

MINEARSIA: Yes, Bob. And in answer to your question, Virginia, yes, purity also can be found in the motive. Certainly the Father understands our motives.

Virginia: Yeah!

Comments and laughter followed by Bob asking humorously, "Is that ego."

MINEARSIA: And even if it is the ego…that is just fine.

Bob: I just wanted to clarify. (More laughter)

Virginia: You know what it reminds me of—the attention—in the Bible it says not to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, and to me that is reasonable. Because you are not out there waving both hands to get attention. You know, just do your thing with the right hand or the left hand and go on your way.

MINEARSIA: Clearly those who act from impure motives do not produce pure results. And, so, as you know, one should not pray out loud to bring attention to oneself. But, to shy away from attention is the flip side of the same coin. For if attention is problematic, this can affect one’s willingness to serve freely. To be free of ego means to be neither swayed by attention or lack of it.

Virginia: You said that and immediately what came to my mind was Mother Theresa’s wonderful quote that I have not yet applied…"If we were humble enough, neither praise nor criticism would affect us." I think that is what you just said.

MINEARSIA: Yes, exactly. Thank you, Virginia. And, the way to get there is by loving, nurturing, and encouraging that fragile ego part of yourself.

Bob: So recognizing attention for what it is, rather than seeing it as either a positive or a negative is the healthy place. What calls to mind is one of my very first personal lessons in 1992: I asked the question at my typewriter, " how do I keep from being in the limelight" was I think my exact question. I know you used that word tonight and it struck a chord because that answer was "being in the limelight is a natural course of progression in life at times. The key is not to cherish it or disdain it." I guess that is what you are saying.

MINEARSIA: Yes.

Bob: I guess the struggle is to actually apply it.

MINEARSIA: It requires practical exercise.

Bob: Thank you for sharing your thoughts on that.

MINEARSIA: My pleasure, my friend. Thank you for the opportunity to delve into this most important topic. Are there other thoughts or concerns?

Bob: The thought that just struck me was that one of the chief barriers to going to the second mile is the worry of how you are going to be seen. It seems that our current discussion ties back to our discussion of the second mile. If you really want to go the second mile you’ve got to not worry about what anybody thinks one way or the other.

Virginia: I’m glad to do your will, but make sure it is behind the curtain.

Laughter and comments.

MINEARSIA: Welcome to the Second Miler’s Club, my friends.

DANIEL (Nancy): My friends, I am Daniel. Let us stand and pray.

Dear God, I, Daniel, am thrilled to be associated with these your children. Thank you for this grand opportunity to serve in such a meaningful and personally satisfying way. Be with these our charges this week and every day as they prepare to be second milers. Be with them as they put on their shoes, lace them, stretch, jog to loosen up, get set, and go! Thank you for the opportunity to be with them, encouraging, cheering, and assisting. For all your great gifts and great adventures we give glory to you. Amen.

END