Please read “Learning Responsibility” on Cosmos Tree site first by going to cosmostree.org and clicking on “blogs” on the navigation bar

I was recently given an Opportunity to Learn Responsibility, One of Many with Which I am continually Blessed! The situation that was brought forward for my Learning involved some new plants that I had purchased from a nearby flower shop.

As of this writing, eight weeks or so post-purchase, one is dead; a second is on its way to that state; a third has started to “struggle”.

Here’s what I Learned re: Responsibility:

--Do my due diligence! I once blogged about a vacuum cleaner I had purchased that ended up spewing dust, to which I am highly allergic. I hadn’t done the research I needed to do prior to the purchase; instead, I went with an enthusiastic recommendation from a friend that I had made the “expert” on all things vacuum-related. I Learned then - as now - that I need to do research and to ask questions in advance; for instance, using this plant example, what types of plants are these? What do they need in terms of light, space and care and can I meet those requirements and do I prefer to? From my newfound due diligence I learned that the second plant noted above is rarely if ever sold as a houseplant as the conditions it needs are very particular.

--I practice Blame-less Responsibility, as Dr. Lane, the Founder/Director of Cosmos Tree and Center For Religion And Advanced Spiritual Studies and My Spiritual Teacher Teaches. First, I’m Present (see below for more) and that’s It, folks! If I choose to persist in negativity – say judgements on the plant store owners for not giving me the information I believe was mine to have – I immediately drop it by doing the Two-Part Release Technique by Calling in the Light Of The Most High and asking the Lord, God for the Highest Good to take it and I tell mySelf it’s OK to let it go! Again, for Initiates, being Present is a Choice and a “clear shot”. Go There!

--I Go with my Knowing. Yes, I had asked “experts” for advice; in particular, when two of the plants in this example first started to look like they had gone into “shock”, something that can happen when they are exposed to a new environment or extreme cold, etc. The “experts” from the nearby plant shop gave me advice; I followed it; and plant #1 died pretty much right away. As an Initiate Of The Sound Current On The Path Of Soul Transcendence I Know that outer solutions – say, “advice” – are fine but that I always need to take it back to mySelf - go “inside” - and Go with my Knowing, Which was that what they told me was not so. I didn’t Listen and both I and the plant “paid the price”. The Learning: be Responsible by Going with My Knowing.

--Be Present and evaluate from There. My Teacher recently Reinforced for me something extremely important re: Responsibility. As an Initiate, I Know there is only One Focus – on the Spirit I am. I Focus by constantly Returning to the Upper Part Of The Third Eye. That’s how I am mySelf/live as the Spirit I am and the Only Way I help “others”. When something came up plant-wise – let’s say negativity about that advice that I had been given - I simply didn’t go with the negativity but did not focus into the Spirit I am. But as I Learned from My Teacher, just not going with negativity keeps the focus on the negativity. As My Teacher has Lovingly Taught me and many “others”, Responsibility, according to The Teachings that My Teacher Brings Forth, is Responding to the Spirit I am. So I am Present per the Sacred Technique described above – and I evaluate from That Spot. When I do that now, as I’m about to throw out the dead plant, there’s just quiet and calm and Peace. Nothing really to do. Just an Opportunity to Lift and Grow.

​--Be in Integrity. Integrity, according to the Teachings, is being Present. That’s It! That includes Honesty - Honesty in that I am Spirit so I live That Truth by being Present. It also means that I’m Honest with mySelf, really as a byproduct of Being Present. So my truth is that while the new plant experts are, indeed, advising me on steps to take, I have limits on what I’m willing to do energy- and time-wise. At this point I’d like to find a plant adoption service, at least for the third plant. I also realize now, as My Teacher Advised, that re: those “limits”, I could have “‘filtered’ it through My Knowing as I had done before”.    

There’s One Responsibility - Responding to the Spirit I am, as My Teacher Teaches. When I Choose to “go into the Soul Body and be with the Lord, God”, as My Teacher Instructed in the Dear Cosmos Tree column of Tools For Living Free #166, I get Solutions, Which, in this example, was close to doing nothing. There is One Focus. All that other stuff – thinking about the plants and/or the plant people, their donation or what was said or not said - is just blah, blah, blah that separates me from the Spirit I am.
It's also karma I create when I choose to persist in it.
I commit to being Responsible!

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Twelve days ago, I was being of Loving Service by cleaning the Cosmos Tree Home Center. And boy! would it have been easy to rush through it by running my own agenda: “let me get this over with so I can go on to the next thing! After all, who wants to clean?”

Certainly not a basic self - the part of me that brings forward my karmic patterns - unless I get their cooperation, which I did by Calling in the Light Of The Most High inside mySelf, “For the Highest Good, Lord, God, send me Your Light!” Then: “Basics, come present! I’m cleaning the Home Center now and I need your cooperation and energy to support me in this. Thank you and let’s keep up the good work with this.” 

And, instead of my own stuff – “I’ll do XYZ and this will happen” – I stayed in Integrity, Which is the Focus at God/Spirit. Not my stuff; God’s Agenda. 

In Tools For Living Free #2 Titled “The Power of Letting Go” Dr. Lane, the Founder/Director of Cosmos Tree and Center For Religion And Advanced Spiritual Studies, explains the “XYZ approach” using a business-based example but, as I’ve Learned from Dr. Lane, My Spiritual Teacher, any situation will do: “Let’s just say … you would like to accomplish the goal called X. … And in the back of your mind you go, ‘I’m going to do it by having contact with this person, which is going to cause X to happen, which, in turn, will cause Y to happen, which will turn into Z and we’ll have X, Y, Z and that’s how it will be done’. … But you can’t have it both ways. In other words, you can’t Allow God to work in your life and work your life – because what’ s inside of you other than God, – and … manipulate, control, cause things to happen.”

I stayed with the Project and its “goal” - for the Center to be clean and, in particular, dust-free.

I got my next steps inwardly – exciting “inner surprises” - in perfect timing. “OK! Doorknobs! Next step! Back of chair! Next step! Vacuum under the rug near the door! OK! Bottom of the lamp!”

I was led to dust I never knew existed. 

And, yes, when I heard those “inner voices”, there was a part of me that wanted to override them, as Dr. Lane explains in Tools For Living Free # 44, “Excuses, Excuses – Let’s Be Done With Them!”: “I’ve been working with people for a long time and the common denominator of all these people who come to me – and when they get in trouble it is for one reason and one reason only – they didn’t listen to themSelves. They didn’t listen to the Spirit inside of them. And they overran It with their ego. They overran It with their ego.”

There was definitely a part of me that wanted to run right past those “inner voices”; especially, as I had already put the vacuum cleaner away when I heard some of them. A part of me didn’t want to get it out again! And there’s The Protocol for cleaning the Center that requires that once I finish cleaning, I wait 20 minutes with the windows open to air things out. Who wants to start the clock all over again?

Me.

By simply Surrendering my agenda.

I thanked my basics a number of times throughout this adventure by saying, “For the Highest Good, Lord, God send me Your Light!” Then: “Basics, come present! Thank you so much for your cooperation and energy in supporting me in vacuuming under the rug now, etc. Let’s keep up the good work with this!” I could feel the “press” of them inside mySelf and I chose to handle it right away.  

The biggest part of this for me, though, was simply choosing to Listen to mySelf. Up until now, I’ve given my power away, often to people I’ve set up as experts or, at least, a lot better at things than I am; in this case, cleaning. As the inner story goes, “I’m OK with work stuff but domestic things? A bomb.”

Time to drop my story, which I clearly did.

As Spirit, I’m the Most Powerful Thing There is, as Dr. Lane Teaches. 

​I realized that this Approach is applicable to anything I do. I can make The Effort through Focus, Surrender and Self-Talk at whatever it is even if a part of me doesn’t feel like it and I can do an excellent job to boot even if I don’t know anything at all and I intend to do that.

Copyright 2022. Soundly Inc. All rights reserved.

My Teacher, Dr. Roger B. Lane, Who is the Founder/Director of Cosmos Tree and Center For Religion And Advanced Spiritual Studies (CRASS) and Dean of Its  Seminary, has often Taught many Students that when They say "my day" rather than the “day the Lord, God has Given me as a Blessing to Come to Know mySelf as Soul, as Spirit” – “that's when They ‘get into trouble.’”

For example, as an Initiate Of The Sound Current On The Path Of Soul
Transcendence, let's say I get up in the morning and I set about doing whatever it is I do on "my day", which is the work I do in the world. That's my focus with a small “f” instead of being fully Present with Spirit.   

To do the work I do in the world Spiritually, I need to stay Present moment-to-moment by Focusing into Spirit and I use everything to Lift and Grow, including to re-Focus as needed. Early in the day – usually when I first go outside to have a morning cup of tea - I Call in the Light Of the Most High like this: “For the Highest Good, Lord, God, send me Your Light!” and ask the Lord, God to “please place this day into Your Light for the Highest Good!” Then: “please Bless this and please send the Light ahead of me to transmute, Lift and clear any karma!” I create karma by choosing to focus away from Spirit/into negativity and persisting in that separation. Throughout the day as needed, I Call in the Light and Co-Create any preferences I have by asking the Lord, God for them; for example, that everything I do that day be easy and effortless; that a payment due to me comes in now; that a client of mine whose awards application I’m writing that day does win the top prize. I often ask for Clarity and Guidance as well. If I’ve chosen to hold onto negativity, I stop and use the Two-Part Release Technique to ask the Lord, God to take anything that separates me from the Spirit I am and I tell mySelf it’s OK to let it go. And I let it go. I use the many Tools that My Teacher has made available to re-Center as needed. These Tools include SpiritCentral; the Cosmos Tree/CRASS Newsletter; Tool For Living Free, a double-sided Educational Publication comprised of Excerpts from Our Teacher’s Talks as well as Exercises to do on a regular basis; A Baker’s Dozen: Tools For Daily Living and The Money Workbook, Enlightening Books by Our Teacher. All are available at cosmostree.org – in addition to many others. Please do familiarize yourSelf with the Tools by visiting the site often!

There is something else here, too re: God’s Day. For me, God’s Day is Supporting mySelf in being Present. It’s That and also asking the Lord, God first thing how I can be of Loving Service that day. And following through. Or, simply Choosing to be of Loving Service by making Service Opportunities already Given to me by My Teacher the Priority. Up until now, I have often gone against the Teachings by insisting on "my day” by immediately operating from that “karmic viewpoint” that “my work” is what I’m automatically doing, by “assuming” that without checking in with God, Which is Who and What I am.

So there I was at the Home Center one evening when My Teacher handed me a piece of equipment that wasn't working; in this case, an external drive that plugs into a laptop and reads CDs/DVDs. It wasn't ejecting the CDs/DVDs. I remember clearly that My Teacher just said a few words that I recall as "maybe you can fix it. "

Outwardly, I'm hardly a tech wiz; and there are other Initiates who are likely better at this sort of thing than I am. But that's just "outer stuff'

I Knew That Loving Service is One of the three Cornerstones of The Teachings as Brought Forth by My Teacher and that Service is anything that needs to be done with a Loving Heart. I Know It's a Magnificent Blessing and an Honor Given to me by My Teacher as an Opportunity to be with the Lord, God.

So I received the drive in that spirit.

I made This Service the Priority. I did This because I Know something else that My Teacher Teaches, Which is "Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and everything else will be added unto you." As My Teacher Instructed in the "Dear Cosmos Tree" column in Tools For Living Free #172, "the Kingdom of Heaven is within." As My Teacher wrote in this important Tool, "Both individually and collectively we need to go within as all solutions are there." Service is Being at God; It is God; when I am of Loving Service, my experience is that I am Moved There. That's the Precious Gift. And, as My Teacher Teaches, God is the Solution or the Solutio, the answer to every question. Through the Gift of Loving Service and the Choice to Receive the Gift/Make It the Priority, I am led by Spirit instead of allowing the false self to run the show.


I also know that whatever it is that I had "planned" for that day ("my day"), per the Reference Points I do have from having given mySelf God's Day at other times, that Spirit handles it through Grace.

I put the situation – the external drive needing to be fixed - into the Light of The Most High for Highest Good like this: "Lord, God, send me Your Light! For the Highest Good, Lord, God, please place the situation with the external CD/DVD drive that needs fixing into Your Light for the Highest Good and for the Highest Good please fix this now."

As I recall, I also asked for any Clarity and Guidance that may be needed by Calling in the Light as noted above; then "For the Highest Good, Lord, God, please send me any Clarity and Guidance I need re: fixing My Teacher's external CD/DVD drive."

I began the next day with breakfast at a nearby café when I saw it: the place across the street where I had taken my iPhone when it needed a new battery.

So I walked over to see if they fix external drives. "All the time," said the repair person behind the counter.

Once I had My Teacher's Permission to drop it off, I did just that.

And, in a nutshell, they fixed it.

Numerous things happened along the way — CDs weren't ejecting and they removed them (fix #1); they asked me to provide a CD to test the drive so I went back home to get one and returned; fix #2 turned out to be replacing the part of the drive that ejects the discs and by then, there was a pretty long wait. There were other "waits" that day.

I stayed with the Service. I was with God inside mySelf. And I was having a blast. A Real wow of a Day!

Doing whatever it is that needed to be done. Making Loving Service the Priority.

I didn't go outside mySelf and get "crazy" about all the deadlines I "had to meet" that day. The Focus was on Service/Spirit/God. Doing whatever needed to be done while I was Focusing There.

It was one of the best days I've ever had in the life the Lord, God has Given me.

I Know that My Teacher/the Lord, God does What My Teacher does for my Upliftment and Growth. I Learned to Live God's Day through the Precious Gift of Service from My Teacher and to have no "external drive" out into the world. Being Present with The Only Priority is the Fix.

Just the Inner Blast – That Inner Joy and Excitement - That is of God. That is Who I Really am.

​Copyright 2023. Soundly Inc. All rights reserved.

For years now, I have helped to organize one of the Events offered by Center For Religion And Advanced Spiritual Studies. Before I had been Blessed with This Sacred Service, I knew nothing about organizing events. I made the choice to be of Service, Which, as the years went by, I understood to be a Sacred Opportunity to Serve mySelf by being with the Lord, God.

I’m Present with God when I do Service exactly as Taught by My Teacher, Dr. Lane, Who is also Founder/Director of Center For Religion And Advanced Spiritual Studies and the Dean of Its Magnificent Seminary.

Then, this year, someone else stepped up to organize this Event and through this Process of observing this person who “took over” – also not a professional “event planner” - I gained much perspective and understanding. As I observed This Soul step up and do what I consider to be a great job: to take the “risk” of being “front and center” and to “take on” Responsibility for some of what happens; to introduce new ways of doing things without knowing the outcome until the Event is over – through this Opportunity to “watch” this “new person”, I better understood how Powerful I am and that it has nothing whatsoever to do with the skills I have or not or the so-called “outer situation”.

It has to do with my choice to be Open to Service, Whatever It is, and to stay Open and Allow the Process.

What that Soul did and What I’ve done as well is simple – I Opened mySelf up to It. To Being of Loving Service. To Serving mySelf and, as a byproduct, “others”. 

I realize now that once I open mySelf up to It, I am Supplied. I am given my next steps; for instance, while organizing another Sacred Event, in the instant when I was about to write an email to someone else working on the Event, I immediately “got” inwardly to make sure that my communication is clear re: writing exactly what this person needs to know now. And I did just that! Instead of my usual pattern of being all over the place by telling stories and/or adding extraneous information that has nothing to do with the subject at hand. I was Met! Met by God/The Teacher! And, yes, any “gaps or holes” for this Event, they were filled, too, through Grace, Which is What the Process is – as long as I’m Open to It and Allow It. 

Grace is of God and from God, as My Teacher Taught me.

Be Open and Allow and everything is Easy, as I’ve Learned.

Serving mySelf – and, as a byproduct, “others” - equals Power. Equals Learning. Equals Living as Who and What I am. Equals Giving mySelf God. Equals the Limitlessness That I am.

Equals Receiving the Vastness of God, Which is Who and What I am. I am Vast.

When I begin Service I Co-Create with Spirit by Calling in the Light Of The Most High like this: “Lord, God, send me Your Light! Lord, God for the Highest Good place [name of Event] into Your Light for the Highest Good. Please make everything easy and effortless and please fill any ‘gaps or holes’. Thank You, Lord, God.” I let go and I Trust.

With the original Event and others, whether the organizer or only handling a task or two, I sometimes feel “overwhelmed”; especially, while preparing. “So much to do!” The Remedy, as My Teacher has Taught me, is to immediately use the negativity to Lift by doing Self-Talk like this: “basics, come present! I need your cooperation and energy to [whatever the direction is at that moment, including being Present]. Thank you and let’s keep up the good work with this!”

And I Focus into Spirit.

As My Teacher has often said, “basics will be basics”. My understanding of this is that the basic selves – the part of me that brings forward my karmic patterns – use anything to keep me reincarnating/coming back in body after body.

“Busi-ness” is a sure sign I’m in “time and space”; as I’ve been Taught, there is no “time and space” in Spirit. Again, as needed, I Line up by Focusing into Spirit and doing Self-Talk. 

The negativity isn’t real, as I Know; and it’s a Magnificent Opportunity Brought Forth to Lift and to Grow.

While organizing a more recent Sacred Event, I was given an Event-related suggestion by someone else that I moved on right away until I realized that it was ineffective. I had “jumped on it” because it was “better” for me, the ego-me, which is a sign of coming from my basics/the false self. Yet, I went with it for a while before I did Self-talk again by updating them on what I’m doing now (choosing to handle this in a Loving, Caring way).

Service is whatever needs to be done; the form it takes doesn’t matter, as I’ve been Taught. From a Loving Place, Which is the Generous Place of Giving Fully to mySelf. And Receiving. 

I’m Open to the Adventure. 

It’s my – and “our” - Inner Attitude; my and “our” Openness to the Love, to Receiving It that is All. 

Service is a Cornerstone of The Teachings That My Teacher Brings Forth, as I have been Taught and Know well.
I Thank my Fellow Initiate for This Initiate’s Example that was also a Reminder to me of the Power of Service. And of being Open to It.

​I enCourage readers who are Initiates Of The Sound Current On The Path Of Soul Transcendence to give This Gift to Themselves by contacting Our Teacher. Simply inviting Souls to Meditation Of The Light Of the Most High is a Magnificent Service, for example.   

​Thank YOU, My Teacher, for These Blessings and for Constantly Teaching me the Inner Reality of Service; Its Sacred Importance and Supporting me in my Learning, Which is ongoing.
Copyright 2022, 2023. Soundly Inc. All rights reserved.

Many years ago, Dr. Lane, the Founder/Director of Cosmos Tree and Center For Religion And Advanced Spiritual Studies and the Dean of Its Seminary, Who is also My Spiritual Teacher, Suggested to me to “do artwork”.

And, boy! do I remember my response! I focused on how I was going to do it. Was I going to take art classes and, if so, where? And how am I going to fit them into my schedule? What kind of art do I do? Do I paint? Sculpt? When I was in college I did welded sculpture. OK, maybe that’s it. Do I want to sell this artwork? Do I want to be a “real artist”? What’s the goal here? 

As an Initiate Of The Sound Current On The Path Of Soul Transcendence, it’s easy enough now to see all the worry and doubt – “worry is the handmaiden of doubt”, as My Teacher Teaches.

What I remember most of all, though, was sharing my cogitations – the separation of mySelf from the Spirit I am - with My Teacher, fully “expecting” My Teacher to Advise me on every one of these attachments/the separation.

The Sacred Response I received: “just do it!”

Just do it! No plans. No goalsetting.  No numbers game. Everybody paints; OK, I’ll paint. Everybody sculpts. OK, I’ll do that. Everybody does collage. OK, that’s my thing now. No, talking to a friend who was an artist and blindly following this person’s advice: “you have to study first.” 

“No thing”! Simply be There for mySelf by Focusing into Spirit. Allow mySelf to be Moved by Spirit/God, Which is Who and What I am. I’m the Engine! I’m the Power! I’m the Source! 

I remember, too, asking My Teacher, when do I do artwork? After all, don’t I need a regular schedule to be a “real artist”? My Teacher Simply answered, “when you’re Moved.”

I’m here to share, dear reader, that The Instruction to “do artwork!” that My Teacher gave to me so many years ago is profound.

It’s profound in the Inner Experience that I’ve had recently, in the Application of Allowing “whatever comes, comes.” If I’m Moved by Spirit, by mySelf, really, to do artwork, I do it. 

It’s Flow. My Teacher Knew that I needed to have the Inner Experience of Flow and to Learn to live accordingly.

This Experience is new for me and I’m here to tell you all about it! The other day I picked up a couple of canvases at an office supply store. I was walking by the art supplies section and I was simply moved to do it. No plans or “thoughts” about “artwork”.  No schedule of creative work to come.

Next steps just came as they came: the canvases go on the wall, OK, so why not use “wall paint” so it’s all of a piece? I simply ordered interior paint that I knew to be 100% non-toxic. I’m doing “healthful artwork”. I Knew that. 

I was in Joy, Which, according to The Teachings That My Teacher Brings Forth, is the Nature of Spirit. Joy is Natural. 

Next step: paint with the colors from the wall paint company. But something felt “off” about painting, at least in that moment and I was immediately moved to print out some photos of white flowers that I had taken years ago for what would now be a collage instead. I was then moved to put the white flower photos on the wall as if it were the blank canvas I was working with and I Knew there was “something there.” Something I loved to look at.

The beauty of the white flowers, of the many shades of white.

Just white, white, white all around.

Many years ago, I had given My Teacher a gift: a tiny notebook that was maybe two inches around and I had covered it with a collage that consisted of cut-outs from the white-flower photos. 

I remember it well because My Teacher’s comment on receiving the gift was, “it’s gorgeous!”

Creativity I now see far more deeply – Experientially, really – comes from Allowing the Spiritual Flow, from letting go, letting God. It’s not about “ideas” or “insights” or “plans for the future”.

​And, yes, My Teacher Lovingly Advised me years ago How to “do artwork”. 

Just do it. Allow yourSelf to be Moved. Allow the Flow of Spirit. Receive. 

All those years ago, I also remember asking My Teacher when do I do artwork? How do I schedule it? After all, I was falsely identified with the things of the world – accomplishment, a “role” in the world, perhaps, as an “artist”, instead of Proper ID as the Spirit I am. “Do it when you’re Moved,” My Teacher told me.

“Do it when you’re Moved”.

That’s the Grace. That’s the Beauty.

As My Teacher has Instructed me many times and I Know to do as an Initiate, before I recently began to “do artwork” as Instructed, I put it into the Light Of The Most High for the Highest Good and Co-Created my preference with Spirit. I did It like this: “Lord, God, send me Your Light! Please place the situation with my ‘doing artwork’ starting now into Your Light for the Highest Good”. I also asked the Lord, God to lead me, to do this artwork for me.

It’s a fun, glorious process. It’s surprise after surprise after surprise. It comes when it comes. Surprise! I may be on the way back from the printer in my office and I’ll stop and “do artwork”.  

There’s no “time or space” in Spirit, as My Teacher Teaches. It’s God’s Timing and it’s perfect. I never know if it’s ten minutes or more or less. I just do it and it’s perfect. It’s Flow.

And it feels like play. Like the kind of play I used to do when I was a child. As if this is my sandbox and boy! am I having a blast with this castle. 

Thank YOU, Dear Teacher, for the Loving “push”.

I Appreciate it.

​A final note: As an Initiate, I have direct access to Spirit through the Sacred Process of Initiation Into The Sound Current. To request Initiation or to learn more, please email [email protected].

​Copyright 2023. Soundly Inc. All rights reserved.

In the November 2022 Satsang Given by My Teacher, Dr. Roger B. Lane, Who is also the Founder/Director of Cosmos Tree and Center For Religion And Advanced Spiritual Studies (CRASS) and the Dean of Its Magnificent Seminary, My Teacher shared the following, which is excerpted from the January/February/March 2023 Issue of SpiritCentral, the Cosmos Tree/CRASS Newsletter:

“Our Teacher then shared another example, that of ‘making a decision for someone else … this person wanted to do “x, y and z” but was afraid to bring it up to her  husband and so she didn’t do “x, y and z” … She had given over her power. She was disrespectful to herSelf. She was disrespectful to her husband and when she shared it with her husband … the response was ‘I don’t even know I would have said “no”. …’”

The other day, I was contacting some clients to share something business-wise:  my company enters companies and/or their executives for awards. I was suggesting to some clients who had signed up for a particular award that I now believe another award is more beneficial for a number of reasons, one of which is that I believe they have a better or slightly better chance of winning. This suggested “shift” sometimes happens after I’ve spent time researching a company and can then make a more “educated” decision re: the best awards “fit” for them. In this case, the shift also made things easier for me deadline-wise. It was, as they say, “a win-win”.

Yet, I was somehow choosing away from sharing this information with one particular client so he could decide: the old award or this newly suggested one?

Instead, I started to concoct a story inside mySelf re: what would happen if I did call; for instance, that making the shift would be a “real song and dance” in terms of getting final approval on it.

Then, I stopped and asked mySelf, “what do The Teachings say about this?” And I immediately “got” that “making a decision for someone else” goes against The Teachings. 

My job as an Initiate Of The Sound Current On The Path Of Soul Transcendence is to simply put it out. And to do so Neutrally. 

So I did. My contact at the company chose the shift for the reasons I offered; and, also, because it satisfied concerns of his about categories for the old award, which he now took the opportunity to share; as for that “approval”, nothing of the sort needed.   

As for that concocted story, underneath it was fear. Of the responses of others; of speaking up; of getting yelled at; of making a mistake (having to be perfect). A whole bunch of patterns from childhood and, as I’ve Learned from My Teacher, before that.

Moreover, as an Initiate, I Know that negativity that I persist in is karma for which I’m responsible.

And, choosing away from that sharing, as I Learned from the November Talk, would have been incredibly disrespectful to the executive and everyone else I’m working with at the company. And, to mySelf/the Spirit I am/The Teacher because I’m outside of Integrity/The Teachings. Because we’re all One Spirit, the karma/negativity I choose to create affects All Souls.

In the November Talk, My Teacher calls it a “Withhold”.

But so what of negativity? The Teachings Teach me to Focus into Spirit and to Live as That. That’s the Focus.

And, if I do end up with some negativity because I’ve persisted in it, I stop and use the Two-Part Release Technique like this, “Lord, God, send me Your Light! Lord, God, for the Highest Good please take [any fear of speaking up] from me now!” I tell mySelf, it’s OK to let it go! And I let it go.

And, if I have a preference regarding this sharing; for instance, that this particular person shift to the more beneficial award then I Co-Create that with the Lord, God by Calling in the Light Of The Most High, as explained above, and I ask for what I prefer; for instance, the switch, as noted. I let go and I Trust. That’s it!

And I’m Neutral so I’m fine if it happens and fine if it doesn’t.

My job is to Live The Teachings.

Since making the choice to share – instead of making a decision for someone else – I’ve noticed that I need to share in this way quite often. Just this afternoon, I was dropping some things off at a friend’s apartment house and, after that, I realized that I had some information regarding this “drop off” and I caught mySelf starting to keep it to mySelf, the good old pattern.

Instead, I texted the information. Otherwise, I would have made a decision for this friend that was hers to make based on this information.

All I can say is, what a difference sharing makes! I am free from the karma I would have created – and am Responsible for - by having made a decision for someone else. As I’ve Learned from My Teacher, what I do inside mySelf affects all of Creation because, in Reality, we’re all One. When I Live in Integrity It helps “others” to do so. Because I’m Lifting and because we’re all One, it makes it easier for “others” to Lift as well. Lifting is an attachment-free zone. It’s quite a Gift!

And per the Perfect Simplicity of The Teachings, all I do is put it out.
Neutrally. 

​That’s it. 


*For further Growth and Upliftment order the November 2022 Satsang by going to cosmostree.org, clicking on shop/download in the upper righthand corner and putting A303 in the search box when you arrive on the next page. The Talk’s Title is “Are You Paying A Withholding Tax?: A Participatory Satsang.” You can also go to cosmostree.org and click on Newsletter in the upper righthand corner for the current Issue and for past Ones as well.

Copyright 2023. Soundly Inc. All rights reserved.

Up until now, something that has “gotten my goat” - to quote a phrase My Teacher uses – is when people go on and on and on without answering a question directly. 

Then I attended Dr. Lane’s Magnificent June 2021 Satsang titled “Listening: The Opportunity Of The Ear – A Participatory Satsang.”

Following the Satsang, Dr. Lane, My Spiritual Teacher, Generously answered questions, one of which was life-changing for me.

A Participant asked the following question: “I’d like to describe a situation and perhaps you can give some advice in terms of listening. I feel like I’ll start by saying I’ve always considered mySelf a skilled listener and someone who is Present and open and empty, ready to receive. And I’ve been in situations where the person I’m with talks a lot and a lot and a lot and I start to feel really tired and even uncomfortable with all of this listening. 

So is there a way to listen with a big “L” and stay Present but also maybe not get in a situation where I’m just overwhelmed by what is being said to me?”

My Spiritual Teacher Instructed: “Yes, being a good Listener does not mean being a ‘good’ doormat. That’s the first thing. So you have an equation going that you need to change. Being a good Listener does not mean you have to sit there and the person goes on and on and on and on. It’s really a form of vampirism - people who talk a lot. And they really just strut their karma all over the place. It can be ‘wipeoutsville’ for you. You can really get depleted. It can be really kind of serious. It’s also very draining for that reason. … they bobble; they bobble; they bobble. What they say has almost nothing to do with what’s being said, what they’re being asked or anything else like that. But they just talk incessantly. …”

​“But you don’t have to take that.

“There are a couple things you can do. One is, obviously, Chant Your Tones [Dr. Lane is referring to the Meditation Technique Taught at the Time Of Initiation Into The Sound Current On The Path Of Soul Transcendence] when the person is speaking. Two is put the Christed Light between you and that person and a purple candle in your solar plexis and three is end it in as gracious and as expeditiously as you can. 

“It’s your time. OK. Being a good Listener doesn’t mean you have to be taken advantage of nor does it mean that you’re a target. You don’t have to worry about the other person. …”

“Why don’t you try those things and see what happens. You need to give yourSelf permission to do that and stop worrying about being a ‘good girl’. Worrying about hurting their feelings is karma. You can’t hurt someone’s feelings … You don’t have to play that role for people.”

When Dr. Lane referenced those who bobble, I knew I was one of the bobblers in question. I am – up until now - the talker who goes on and on. I know that.

​I am the one, too, who understood more deeply after this question-and-answer that what I do inwardly is what I manifest outwardly. So when I chatter inside mySelf - instead of being Present - that’s exactly what I do outwardly and it’s what I attract. Bobbler-to-bobbler.

The more I focus on communicating properly and clearly – the more I focus on whether I am putting out exactly what I prefer to put out. Am I answering the question being asked be it via email or phone or in-person? Or am I running a story that has nothing to do with anything? – the more that I notice that I attract Souls who are focused, too. Wow!

As My Teacher Teaches, I practiced being empty, which is being Present. This is part of Practicing Eternal Vigilance: also letting go of anything that separates me from the Spirit I am; and doing Self-Talk to allow the Spiritual Flow. The latter means educating my basic selves - the part of me that brings forward my karmic patterns - by keeping it positive; present; giving direction and encouragement. It’s crucial to direct my basics to be Present like this: “basics, come present! – I need your cooperation and energy to be Present so we’re in Peace and Joy always! Thank you and lets keep up the great work with this!”

Before asking the Lord, God to take the self-created separation (negativity) from you or doing Self-Talk be sure to call in the Light Of the Most High like this: “Lord, God, send me Your Light!” Please do the same before asking the Lord, God to please place a purple candle in your solar plexis and the Christed Light between you and everyone and everything around you. Asking the Lord, God to place a purple candle in your solar plexis helps transmute any negativity or karma you may have picked up. As Dr. Lane has Taught, purple is the color of transmutation. Use the Tool of the Christed Light so only the Highest Frequencies can come to you. I often do Both at the start of each day for that day and ask that It be done retroactively as well.

For the first time, as I write this, my Solution to a seeming “problem” is that there are no problems in Spirit, as Dr. Lane has Taught me. Instead of blaming clients for going on and on or running a drama about the “time” lost to the bobbling of “others”, I’ve taken the Power back to mySelf, where It really is and belongs. That’s the Power of Choice, as I’ve been Taught as well.
Listening, I now understand more deeply, is Listening to mySelf. I Know that I need to prepare for the consultations I have with clients in advance instead of rushing into them unprepared and setting mySelf up to not be Present and to bobble. Instead, I carefully write down precisely the questions I prefer to ask. Write them down properly and clearly and succinctly. 

And always call in the Light Of The Most High before doing anything.

And speak up. 

In speaking with clients and others, I now commit to clearly stating what I need, including for them to answer questions directly and to stay focused. If they start to go on, I graciously stop them by reminding them of the focus of the meeting or any other communication.

If they disregard my direction, which happens sometimes, instead of going with the fear of speaking up, I ask the Lord, God to take the fear and tell mySelf it’s OK to let it go; I stay empty – and ask them again to please stay focused.

I am a doormat-free zone.

This blog also reinforced for me that since we’re One Spirit in Reality – there, really, is no “other”, as I’ve been Taught by My Teacher – we affect each other profoundly.

By choosing to bobble I create the violence of separation; choosing to Allow Emptiness helps all of us Lift and Grow.

​Again, as I’ve been Taught by My Loving Teacher.

​Copyright 2023; 2021. Soundly Inc. All rights reserved.
​

As a consultant, I have a client who for many months had complained to me about someone with whom she works, explaining that he was getting credit for work that the client had done. And she railed against this person. 
Part of the upset that she had chosen to create was that this person had won an award! An award for work that she had done!

After hearing this story a few times, I said, “Stop competing! Just do your best.”

It was all quiet on the western front (she works in the western part of the U.S.) from that time on. I never heard another competitive complaint. It was done, gone from our work-related conversations, which we continued to have.

Then, one day not long ago, she happened to mention to me that she had won an award and how surprised she was. The company that she works for had selected her for one of their key honors; in this case, for innovations in software design.

In the conversation, she seemed to have forgotten entirely about “competing.” The focus seemed to be on the work she was doing.

I was reminded of this the other day when I shared with Dr. Lane, the Founder and Director of Cosmos Tree, Who is My Spiritual Teacher, that, up until now, I have been competing. I have been very competitive. Dr. Lane immediately asked me What The Teachings that My Teacher Brings Forth say about competing. My initial response was that it separates me out from Spirit; that it blocks the Flow. My Teacher reminded me that it separates me out from all Souls, from the Oneness of the Spirit that we are. That I automatically lose. 

As Dr. Lane explains in the Talk titled “Equality And Equity In The Sound Current” (#A290), “Equality is everyone is equal. Everyone is regarded equally, created equally, etc. … So somehow there’s this whole competitiveness: a beats b, b beats c, etc., etc. And it’s one against the other …What are we doing but practicing false identification? In the Sound Current there’s only our True Identification and That is as Spirit and as Spirit we’re all equal. …” 
Let me give you another example! The other day I went to Queens, one of the five boroughs of New York City. I live in another borough, Manhattan, and I went to Queens to visit an art studio where I had scheduled a ceramics lesson.

Almost immediately upon entering the studio I realized that a competitive pattern was coming up inside of me and I immediately let it go. I just let it go. I didn’t feed it. I stayed open and I made it the Priority to be “empty” inside, to be clear. 

Much of the time, I dropped the negativity the instant it came up; dropped it, dropped it, dropped it. While I don’t remember exactly as of this writing, I likely also used the Two-Part Release Technique by calling in the Light Of the Most High, “Lord, God send me Your Light!” Then: “Lord, God for the Highest Good please take this negativity/separation from Spirit/competitiveness from me!” And I told mySelf “it’s OK to let I go!” And I let it go. 

When it came up again, I let it go again.  

Then I noticed something. My instructor, with whom I had taken multiple lessons prior to this one, seemed unusually joyous; “what a wonderful day to be in the studio!” she said. Prior to this, she might have easily complained about something; the colder weather, for instance. Then, after the lesson, when I was about to pay, she kindly waived me away. “We can take care of that the next time!” Very unusual. 

I vaguely recalled as I left that she had apologized to me shortly after I had arrived for misunderstanding what we had agreed to work on that day. And that I had simply suggested that we do something else, which we did. I didn’t care at all.  

I also realized re: the competitiveness that I had dropped and dropped and dropped again – that in a studio visit prior to this one I had run a thought and that that thought was pure competitiveness; it was along the lines of  how much better “Manhattan” is than Queens, it was a “status” thing. In looking back on that visit, I realized, too, that everyone there had picked up on that. The openness and joyousness and helpfulness that was all around me this most recent time was absent. I had cut that off. I had created negativity inside mySelf, which is contagious. That negativity is also karma, for which I am responsible.

I offer here, too, that the other Important Help that I received from My Teacher was special Homework that I was doing during this visit. This Homework was to write down the moment I am competitive and then to list the alternative I chose.
That alternative – to do the Inner Work by Surrendering the separation between mySelf and the Spirit I am - and, as a result, to be open and “empty” inside mySelf – was the cure.

And, as I was further reminded by My Teacher during a recent The Teachings Study Group, negativity is to be used as a springboard to Focus into the Positive, into Spirit! To be Present. On that visit, I let go and let go and let go but I did not use the negativity to Be Present. I also needed to consistently reFocus into Spirit! Re-Focus into Spirit!
​
That’s the Key. 

There is a story that My Teacher. Dr. Lane, Who is also the Founding Director of Cosmos Tree and Center For Religion And Advanced Spiritual Studies, has told in Satsang, Which is an Open Talk. 


It's the "Lawnmower Story" and boy! is it relevant to the life the Lord, God has given me and, I believe, to all of our lives. 


Here It is in a nutshell: a guy needs a lawnmower because his is in repair so he asks his neighbor. As he's leaving his house he says, "that guy - he's not going to lend it to me!" He's halfway there and says, "he's not going to lend it; that son-of-a- bitch!" He gets to the front door and, when the neighbor opens the door, he socks him.


Sometimes I create stories inside mySelf - as so many of us do. As a result, most of us end up “raging” against something. The stories can seem so real, which they are not, that I go with them and feed them. 


Unless I choose otherwise. That means that I monitor my responses by going inside and the moment that anger - using this Story as an example - comes up I use the Two-Part Release Technique by Calling in the Light Of The Most High inside mySelf, "Lord, God, send me Your Light! Then: "For the Highest Good, Lord, God, please take this anger from me!" I tell mySelf, "(my name) it's OK to let it go!" 


I use the Two-Part Release daily - if not many times a day, every time negativity comes up.


My Teacher's Story is a brilliant example of what nearly all of us do, which is to identify with our thoughts and feelings and take them as real. As My Teacher has Taught me, once I have a thought there is a feeling associated with it and vice versa. 


I also know what it's like to build a case inside mySelf and, that as the Story very clearly demonstrates, has dangerous consequences. Any thought/feeling (including stories/cases) is karma, is negativity, is separation from the Spirit I am, from the Spirit we all are.


The second I find mySelf creating away from Spirit - or if negativity just comes up - I need to do the Two-Part Release again. 


Negativity is a signal to be Present, Which, as an Initiate Of The Sound Current On The Path of Soul Transcendence, I do by going into the Soul Body and being with God. This Ability to go into the Soul Body was Awakened by My Receiving Initiation Into The Sound Current On This Path and Following exactly, by Returning and Returning to the Upper Part Of The Third Eye, the Sacred Meditation Technique Taught at the Time Of Initiation


I use the negativity to Lift and Grow and be Present. Through the Precious Gift of Initiation, I have direct access to Spirit. By Being Present, I rise above the negativity. I identify Properly as Spirit.


As an Initiate Practicing Proper ID - I know my thoughts and feelings (including stories/cases) aren't real. The only Reality is Spirit. I know I'm responsible for my creations and for where I place my focus.  


If you are not an Initiate, you can take the learning from this blog that thoughts and feelings are not real; you can go inside; get quiet and do the Two-Part Release as often as need be. You can, thusly, use the negativity to Lift and to choose away from karma.  


I also talk to my basic selves - the part of me that brings forward my karmic pattern, which often means doubt, as you can see in the Lawnmower Story (in addition to fear, anger, worry). The best I can do is educate my basics by doing Self-Talk like this: "Basics, come present! I need your cooperation and energy to support me in being Present now so we're always in Peace and in Joy! Thank you and let's keep up the good work with this!"


As a non-Initiate, you can still go inside; get quiet and be with yourself - and use the Two-Part Release to ask the Lord, God for the Highest Good to take any doubt (separation) and tell yourSelf it's OK to let it go!


In a nutshell, the only way to live in Peace and Joy is to take Initiation and to do the Spiritual Practice exactly as Taught - which means using the negativity to Lift into Spirit; to keep Returning to the Godpoint within. Peace and Joy are the Nature of Spirit, Which is Who and What I am. By being Present/Practicing That, I Come to Know mySelf as That and to Live as That.
To use this life to Fulfill its Purpose, as My Teacher Teaches, Which is to come to Know you as Spirit, as Soul.
​

And That's It in a nutshell.

​Copyright 2023. Soundly Inc. All rights reserved.

​    On the second Sunday of each month Cosmos Tree offers a Program called The Teachings Study Group in which a Satsang Summary that is featured in the most recent issue of SpiritCentral, the Cosmos Tree Newsletter, is used as a vehicle to study The Teachings.

      Boy! What a life-changer this Program is!

    Take today’s Program, Which I left a little more than six hours ago! The article was titled, “Patience: Stand Pat? Get A Patent? Start A Pattern? – A Participatory Satsang”, a summary of the monthly Satsang Given by Dr. Lane, the Founder/Director of Cosmos Tree, on September 5, 2018. A key Learning for me was that where there is impatience there is a judgment.

     First of all, I never ever knew that! And, second, I certainly never knew it experientially, inwardly, in a way where I can consciously take the Learning and change! Right now, for instance, I received an email from someone with whom I am working on an event; this person had agreed to pick up some supplies for the event and had just emailed me emailed me to say that the number of paper dinner plates I had suggested this person purchase was “a lot.”

   I was about to dive into impatience, to feed it via some real case-building, when I immediately got the Learning from this Program only a few hours earlier! I immediately stopped because I knew that the potential “dive” was the judgement that comes from impatience. I knew that judging this person was also judging all Souls as we are all One. 

     I also Knew originally that simply being Present with Spirit, Which I am able to do as an Initiate Of The Light Of The Most High and staying “There”, means being clear. From This Place of Clarity, what also came was to see if this person had something else to offer, something that I may not have considered before; there was room for more than me in this “equation”.  

     I also realize now on reworking this article that perhaps this person has much to share but where I “got caught”, for a bit anyway, was more on this person’s “style” of sharing, which to me was more like a “blurt” than Sharing. And maybe this person needs to know that it is OK to Share to begin with and how to do that and that this person does have something to offer. 

     About 12 hours before this Program, I had been impatient with someone who for the same event had suggested to me that everyone attending be asked to stay afterwards to help clean up. I immediately jumped on this with how we don’t need that many people to clean up, etc. That was before The Teachings Study Group.

     After the Group, I called the person and just listened to what the person was saying and agreed to simply put it out to those with whom I was speaking regarding the event. Let them decide to help or not to help. I also got at the same time that, in addition, this person was going out of this person’s way to drop something off for this event and that I could easily handle this another way so that this person was freed up and could attend to some other things. That was the Kindness that came from Practicing Patience.  

      The initial impatience in this instance was going with the habitual, emotional response instead of being Present, instead of Being, as described in the Satsang and conveyed in the article, and Allowing whatever it is I need to Learn to come forward Naturally.

      The Kindness just came in the moment. I freed her up because I had chosen to free mySelf up by practicing Patience.

     The more I chose to be Patient and listen the more aware I became of how  often others become defensive, as I initially had; it doesn’t much matter what it is. It is amazing to me how often now I find mySelf on the other side of someone’s defensiveness and that, because I am Practicing Patience, I Know that all I need to do is “walk on eggshells”.  No need to “fight back” or do much of anything, really. The outer relationships are smooth because of it. 

      More often now, I am Consciously Choosing to Practice Patience thanks to a Program that didn’t even last an hour and that is free-of-charge with a Suggested Donation of five dollars; and Which Dr. Lane attended when this “Patience” article was the vehicle – Surprise! The Master Himself There in the physical! As I’ve been Taught and has been my experience as well, many Blessings are bestowed on those who choose to place themSelves in the Presence of the Master! All I did was show up, at a Sacred Program that is open to all!   

      Be there for yourSelf by being at this Program! The second Sunday of every month at 3 pm, call-in time five minutes before that if you live more than 50 miles from the Cosmos Tree Home Center or in-person at the Home Center if you live within a 50-mile radius. Call 212 828-0464 or email [email protected].

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