“Here we go again. I’m seeing stars! And I don’t mean like in the old cartoons. These are real! I’m getting images of quickly flowing lights, streaming gases, chaos. I feel like there is a bubble of light around me. It seems to be alive! Suddenly darkness. But this is not ordinary darkness. This is infinite blackness. No hope of light anywhere. I sense great fear, intense resistance. I can’t help but fight against it; it’s pushing on me so hard from all sides. It’s like this darkness is thick with its own presence, its own essence of fear. The sense of confinement is unbelievable. It is living death, totally alone. What on Earth is this?”

I feel that it is not on this Earth!

“Yes. It’s somewhere else. At last I feel a small degree of relief around me in the darkness. It’s hardly a glimmer, but something is there, a tiny glimmer of light; and now it’s gone. It’s all gone. O, I’m shaking all over from this. What was that? I don’t like it at all.”

It makes me think I must bring you more quickly into an open understanding of our project. I will initiate that upon completion of this next step. I want first, however, to give you a few, simple suggestions. Here they are:

Feeling resistance, either around you, or within you, is the clue to recognizing that ego is controlling your perception. Resistance may be thrust upon you in powerful and threatening ways, or it may be subtly disguised within your thoughts and emotions. The outer forms that come are more easily recognized. However, resistance may come in simple feelings, like a lack of inspiration; or you may look at another person judgmentally.

Notice that underneath this feeling is always a reference to yourself, as the standard for correctness. That reference is guided by a defensive posture. Notice, at these times, the feeling you have in-side. Great or small, this is resistance to what is. Always look at your own resistance, if you wish to awaken. It is your ego’s desire to exist; therefore, it will resist that awakening in every way it can.

Look at resistance as a fluid, that you can pour into any situa-tion. You have a choice to use this fluid or not. When you feel re-sistant in any way, you can simply decide not to pour it on. That fluid is your own emotional energy; that energy can be sent out into the situation or it can be recycled back into the system of your being. If you choose not to send it out, remarkably you will feel less burdened, and less resistant. It is easier to deal with resistance before you apply it than once it has gotten a foothold.

“What about the other side of ego, the pushy, over-confident type? Is this connected to resistance too?”

Yes, that’s intuitive of you. When an ego assumes arrogance, it is looking for strength it feels is missing. Ego always feels it is missing or losing its identity. It continually tries to re-create its own existence by identifying with things. It craves form and fears form-lessness. It wants to deny the formless reality. Denial is resistance. The arrogant ego wants to deny the soul itself.

“I feel resistance in myself sometimes from a basic lack of trust in this world. Sometimes I’m just plain lost, like there is something going on, but I haven’t the faintest idea what it really is! This is dif-ferent from my common worries. This feels like some kind of root, existential fear. Is this my ego wanting to cling to form and deny the formless?”

Yes. The ego is actually correct here. You are lost, my friend. Accept it. It is the state of being in a homo sapiens body-mind. I don’t mean this to sound glib or hopeless. Rather take heart from recognizing the reality of your species. This is ego feeling the truth about its lack of power. It cannot be avoided. Feel it directly and fully whenever you encounter this.

Take it as a high opportunity and a gift. Feel it all the way through. Do not let it dominate your awareness. As you notice fear, regard it as a doorway. Accept it as a portal into the Now. Then walk on through. This is your true salvation from fear. In this Now, all energies and powers arise.

You do not have to find your way out of being lost. Finding is a function of thinking; it cannot get you out. At best, thinking pro-vides only a distraction. It puts wallpaper on a crumbling wall. Let the walls all fall. Let the consciousness rise up. Rather than finding your way, allow your way to find you. Be ready and alert when it ar-rives in your presence. That means practice your presence. Fully acknowledging your feelings, opens the door to acceptance, and empowerment; this is destiny in action. When destiny comes clear to you, I guarantee, you will no longer feel the slightest bit lost.

“Can we use techniques like this to become more like you?”

You guessed it. These are steps into the transmutation of your genetic structure. While you cannot make it happen through mental or physical action, as I have said, you can get ready. For each and every one of you it surely will happen when your time comes.

“How can time come, if there is no time?”

Time is a form, part of the flowing stillness. It is a manifesta-tion of our lives in this world. As we create forms of any kind, time is generated. All forms change continuously, but the Now never changes. It is always the space where action happens, the space into which forms come and go. Time is a way of measuring the change of forms within this space. If you do not look through the forms, you will come to identify with them and make yourself like them—always changing, always restless. Awakening is all about dis-entangling from form, and finding peace.

Copyright _ 2009 by Robert Potter