The Question:
Hi Octavia,
I am having an inner conflict with doing acupuncture for healing. I just listened to Lillian, Be Still and Know. It is an excellent 5 minute summary on what all the principles are that we are studying. It is futile to look for health with the mind or any treatment because the mind and body are illusions. Only by knowing that God and I are One can we realize we are already in perfect health.
I find myself looking forward to my acupuncture treatment next week to get some relief and healing. However, I feel that this hope is undermining my spiritual practice of I and God are One. I am in the trap that the body is real and a treatment using human laws will work. So I meditate thinking that meditation is not getting me anywhere but the acupuncture will. It is like seeking out a healer to help me so I depend on something outside myself for health.
I also find I get a little relief when I do qigong, a practice for healing. The main wisdom again is that when we know that I and God are One, we see we are in perfect health.
I am confused. I feel that I am going against what all these Mystics are teaching. I would be kicked out of the class!! Any thoughts on this?
Thanks, I
The Answer:
The short answer is that if we are having conflict, we are in the mind, identifying as a separate self. In the One Self there is no opposition because it is the All and Only One I Am. So the first step, is to get out of the mind and into the Silence of your True Being, that One Self that knows all and where there is never conflict. Remember, everything is within your consciousness - there is nothing outside of You.
There is a difference between looking for an answer, a solution "in the world" which we know is illusion, and dealing with an aspect of it that is already in full bloom, so to speak.
Yes, what Lillian speaks of is the Truth, but only to the degree of our inner conviction of it followed by a revelation of the truth about it, will it come into the fullness of its realization, and be demonstrated in our experience. Healing (revealing of the Truth) happens with Revelation. When we are still, perhaps asking for the Truth about this condition to be revealed, and then patiently waiting for the answer (in the form of Revelation) we will experience and witness the wholeness already present. But if we are so distracted by the appearance, that it is difficult to meditate, to get as still as we need to be, we must accept that and not feel guilt or any other human emotion about it - that is a waste of our time and energy.
This is a tricky one, and a challenge - what do we do? Do we continue knowing the Truth, practicing our dedication and unwavering determination to Be and live the Truth in every aspect of our lives, forsaking any human footsteps, or do we take human footsteps to deal with the "situation at hand" knowing that God is All, in All, and that there is no person place, situation or condition that is not really just a misperception of the substance of Wholeness?
What we do out in the "material world" is less important than what is in our Consciousness.
Where we are perceiving from and what we are perceiving as, is the key.
The material world is not really the material world, it is the Kingdom of God misperceived by our erroneous identification with the illusion, the separated sense of "me" and what its five "physical" senses show us. Shift your focus, and thereby your perception, and you see an entirely different world - one of Harmony and fulfillment.
Self-Realization happens by degrees, and if, while we are working towards it, something in the visible seems to need attention, should we ignore that? While we are still conscious of having a visible body, we need to be good stewards of it - take care of it, not neglect it. If it's hungry, don't we feed it? If it's tired don't we put it to bed? We do these things all the while knowing what it really is - just a mental image, with no power of its own.
To not pursue an avenue of healing (if we are unable to heal spiritually) just because it doesn't correspond with the Absolute, is actually to deny the Absolute. This is the hard lesson that some Christian Scientists have learned. Many have left this scene, missing their chance to die before they die, (die to their humanhood, so that they may live in their Christhood) because of strictly adhering to the letter of Truth, thereby taking themselves out of Grace. Grace is what is before us now, and we must flow with it if we want to be at Peace. Accepting this doesn't mean we are accepting that the illusion is real, but that we are acknowledging what the illusion really is.
Discord comes upon us because of our ignorance, or our unwillingness to abide in continuous God Consciousness - either way, it is a lesson, a blessing really - a gift that shows us where or how we need to be more diligent in living in Truth.
As we mature spiritually, as more and more, the lies that we have identified with are replaced by Truth in Consciousness, the body will need less and less attention, to the point where we will hardly even notice it - it's just there and it goes about doing this and that, but WE are not present in it thus very detached from it. It's just another image that we are aware of, like a tree or a car.
Also, what will happen, is that more and more of our divine, perfect Body will show forth, as the illusory mental image is replaced by God Substance.
Remember, your inner Master is the most reliable guide. Be obedient to what you feel in your Heart of Hearts to do, and the right decision will be made.
In Oneness,
Octavia