CHOOSE TO REMEMBER THE LIGHT
willing of it; but, to paraphrase St. Augustine, “My remembrance of thee is truly an effect of thee remembering me.” Which means that everything about reality is already set up to help us succeed with our new aim.
So, in that same moment when you realize that something painful from your past has again pressed its way into you, holding you hostage to a hated image or painful regret, here is what to do: right there, right in that Now, instead of capitulating into that familiar state of feeling yourself to be a captive of what this pain tells you that you must remember (along with all of its suggested solutions for ending the suffering), you choose to remember the Light. Here is a quick look at what this new inner action entails.
Instead of being drawn into a struggle with that unwanted sense of conflict, complete with its cast of supporting characters drawn from your past, intentionally withdraw your attention from that stage show. And at the same time as you close the curtain on it, bring all of your reclaimed attention into the Now. Come awake to the sense of your own physical body. Observe what thoughts and feelings are pressing themselves into your awareness and, while working in
the Now, welcome into you a conscious remembrance of the Light, of the whole truth as best you understand it.
For instance you might work to remember the Living Light that has no burden, as opposed to identifying with an old bitterness that is itself the burden it always blames on others. The key, regardless of one’s individual approach, is to make interior effort based upon bringing your new self-knowledge into a willing watchfulness. To help get you started, here are a few other suggestions.
When an angry thought flashes in your mind, accompanied by the fiery sensations born of recalling some injustice done to you in the past, instead of remembering the resentments this little image stirs in you, turn the tables on it. Bring its little troubled life into your remembrance of that greater presence within you that dwells well beyond its punishing power. Work like this whenever you can and, like a pebble tossed into a deep pond, the ripple effects of that past pain will simply disappear into the healing nature of the Now. Instead of a life of endless resistance, you will learn the timeless secret of how to replace any form of darkness with the Light you have chosen over it.
Choose to remember the Light. Let it fight for you. Not only will this Living Intelligence lift you above the fray of all that should be forgotten, but it also will guide you back home to a timeless place in yourself where the past no longer dwells.
Excerpted from Let Go and Live in the Now, Red Wheel/Weiser, Boston.
AND THE PRACTICE OF PLACING OURSELVES IN ITS PRESENCE
“
...THE GREAT GIFT OF REMEMBERING THE LIVING LIGHT
BEFORE WE EMBRACE ANYTHING ELSE.”
Guy Finley is the best-selling author of more than 40 books and audio albums on self-realization. He is the founder and director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit center for self-study located in southern Oregon.
www.guyfinley.org.
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