VII. Enlightened Faith

The enlightened faith, what I was talking about with Sister Mary, I know of: For me it showed up with constantly alternating highs and lows, which grew to true crises.

 

One morning I got up and felt completely overwhelmed. Instead of seeing God's power and Love and the charismas of the Holy Spirit as a gift and something to rejoice about, I saw only my own responsibility, forgetting that I was still carried by God. I sometimes had the feeling of breaking under it. For within me I felt a deep sense of guilt for all the misery in the world. This was particularly so to me in the fate of people in my family and friends that I could not turn into a positive outcome through my prayers to God. He first of all had sent them through a deep valley of misery, so that they could eventually come to their path of life.

 

Thank God I was able to pour my heart out to my pastor who then was able to lead me towards understanding and compassion. This brought about a complete change in me. My basic confidence then returned, my trust in God, my deep Love for God, my humility and knowledge: Now everything is all right, everything is seen to be good!

 

Teresa of Àvila mentions the path of God seekers: The first has, as a key concept, Truth and Veracity, which goes hand in hand with Humility. When finding the Truth, one comes to perceive oneself as then being on a direct path to God and that one has a lot to do for that.

 

A most important part is the Purification process, the inner liberation that opens one up to the Love of God and frees all blockages. This liberation process takes place through inner prayer and includes confession, repentance and atonement, which, however, may now be in a more moderate form than in Teresa's lifetime. “The inner prayer is such an important point that you can say it was the only way to get into this life of perfection and a pure, selfless Love of the heart. All who want to be that true Christians are appointed to this level of pure Love and perfection”, Teresa of Àvila wrote in 'The Book of my Life'.

 

The advanced seeker of God passes over to the stage of enlightenment and the oneness with God, the “Unio Mystica” – the mysterious union of the Soul with God. As we know, this requires no special talent or training; no, it really only needs the willingness to get fully involved with Him. God gives Himself to us and admits us when we want to be open to Him. We bear our secrets and are with Him living members of his Own – “appointees” – people who are “called” and through whom God speaks and acts. We recognize more clearly the truth of our lives, and we recognize God in all clarity.

 

God had led me thus to my enlightenment! Hearing Him with great respect and sensing His reputation, I followed him. I know I must be careful, be alert, always able to follow my inner guidance. If God wants to lead me and I do not respond, I shall find I am getting nowhere. He leads us to truth and clarity, to a veracity, and we never doubt it, we just know it is so!

 

In contrast to the Love that God gives us, without demanding anything in return, He gives us the Light only if we help others through our love and compassion.

“Do not ask for enlightenment, but ask only to be serving others.” Who had said that I do not recall, but for sure it was a very enlightened person with deep humility before God and all His creatures. We do not need to engage in vigorous activism, we need only to be involved in serving others. His Light will be shining forth from our deepest interior.

 

Sometimes I can see His Light as being quite expansive and brilliant. Sometimes it only flashes as a small dot in front of me when I am relaxed. But then I always know: “Aha, He's there!”

 

*
“The soul should not reflect on the understanding
and free itself into the arms of Love.
Then His Holiness will teach
what is to be done next.”
(Teresa of Àvila)
*

 

The Light of God in Man

I have a favourite place during the Holy Mass when the Priest stands at the altar and is lifting during the Transubstantiation the Host and the Communion Cup in the form of the Body and Blood of Christ. Then I close my eyes and in my Mind's eye I see a shining Light from above over the crucified Jesus and which also shines over the Priest covering him completely. Then the Priest turns unto Jesus, and Jesus is transforming through His Body and His Blood our own body into a Light body. Furthermore, the Male and Female principle is joined in us through the Bread and the Cup.

 

During the Pontifical Mass with our Bishop of Limburg, this Light of God is even more impressive, because it then spreads down from the cross, from the Bishop in the middle, across to the left and right onto the officiating Priests and Deacons. The colours of Light dissolve from a milky white to a warm golden yellow. If only I could paint it! For I see not only the Human body, but the Light that illuminates them. This Light shines not only from the outside into the person – no, I'm sure it has its counterpart within the persons themselves.

 

I have experienced Priests with this Light coming out from them, with Light rays shining out during the sermon and with the background completely dissolving. These are our charismatic figures of Light, it only comes from the heart and an indwelling Love. I therefore hope that every priest should give as much time as possible to preparing himself for his Mass. This can within us create passionate believers, as many of us are able to see the Light! Even if it is not possible for all of us, but within our hearts we can feel it all!

 

In my treatment of a client, whether personal or by remote treatment makes no difference, they then become very relaxed, and often they are emotionally very touched, and the tears flow, and they often say: “I have seen the Light”.

 

This statement may sound surprising, particularly the first time it happens, but they are relieved when it happens a second time, although they are secretly hoping it will, and in each person I can feel the awe, because they all have gained an inner knowing: This Light comes from God, this Light is God. We do not ourselves set in motion the Light – it is lit for us.

 

And once again God says “thank you” that one of His sheep has returned to His flock.

 

*
“If Love is perfect,
it also has the power.”
(Teresa of Àvila)
*

 

Mindfulness / Awareness / Enlightenment

This is the way:

 

– Learn to pray
– Solve blockages through forgiveness and liberation
– Learn to love
– Put aside pride / learn humility
– Reduce the Ego
– Learn mindfulness

 

Please also read the separate instructions in each Chapter.

 

Learning how to pray is described by Teresa of Àvila very accurately, so I am following this closely in this book because she is the best teacher in this regard. In all respects it is a matter of opening our Soul and to align our consciousness to the essentials: to God or to His Son Jesus Christ who leads us to His Father.

 

So it's ultimately all about the dissolution of forms. We change our thought forms, our consciousness, our perception of who we are and how we should behave. We reach a higher consciousness in truth, clarity and veracity – and thereby our Soul is able to grow. It gets its breathing room. It may then be able to develop. It can shine forth – it is the Light of God, it is the Enlightened Faith.

 

For a better understanding, I will present to you once again how God created us as Human Beings:

 

God gave us His Light and Love

He is Love! So we are even in our deepest essence, Love. His Light shines through our Soul. This Light we radiate outwards and illuminate our surroundings, igniting the fire in the Souls of the seekers. A Light endowed and Loving person always becomes a magnet for other people. Such a person attracts them, literally like moths to a light. It is the Light of God.

 

A little exercise in three stages:

– Imagine a mirror as large as possible. Look at yourself from the viewpoint of an objective person and then describe that person in the mirror. How is he/she looking, what is he/she emanating?

 

– Imagine a second mirror, and imagine God in it as a large, bright light.

 

– Now you come again before your first mirror. You still have the idea of the large bright light of God before your eyes. And then look at the person that is reflected in this mirror. Now connect that person in the mirror to the shining Light of God.

 

Now you realize: This is you yourself, that's your own Soul, which presents itself, connected with the Divine Light shining in front of you! You now see God in yourself, you recognize yourself as a Divine Being, imbued with Divine Love and Divine Light. You recognize yourself through the Eyes of God, and you know God through your own eyes. The path to Enlightenment is not far off.

 

 

God gave us our Subconscious

Our subconscious mind with its emotions that we express in life as our active emotions. Through these emotions, we are connected to our body and our body with our subconscious. This expresses our feelings, which we divide into two categories:

 

– The Divine emotions we feel in our heart and we radiate from our heart: Love, joy, peace. These feelings are real, deep feelings and show our inner connection with our Divine Being. True joy never changes into pain and true Love never into hate. Our true inner soul creates silence and humility.

 

– The bodily sensations: pain, sorrow, gaiety, lust, wellbeing, anger, hatred, envy, etc. These feelings are short lived and within seconds can transform itself into the opposite feeling. They create disruption and confusion within us.

 

About the subconscious (and only about it!) we are connected with the Divine within us.

 

 

God gave us our Consciousness, our thinking Mind

Therein resides the greatest asset we have for life: our Free Will. It is untouchable. Just as God says: “Mine will be done”, He bequeathed us our Free Will. We can be like Him! But we usually express something quite different if we live according to only our own subjective will and then impose our will on others. If we are stubborn and become egocentric: “I want to do only my own will!”, then God's Will becomes far away from ours. Only with the words: “Thy Will be Done”, knowing God in us as part of our true nature, that we are agreeing with Him and only then we become a Divine Being and act in a Divine way.

 

Expressing our Free Will also means: we are always free to decide our own thoughts and feelings. However, we may reject and banish them: “No, these feelings / thoughts I do not want to express now! They will do me no good, so I push them away from me.” Our thoughts and feelings are energy forms that do not represent our true Self. We are free to change them at will and at any time can decide upon expressing thoughts and feelings of joy and Love. Or we make our hearts open wide and let God move into us.

 

 

God gave us our Body

While some primitive peoples still live naked in the bush, everything is changing with increasing physical evolution and spirituality. The body is seen for what it is: merely the covering of our sub-consciousness and consciousness with which we live on Earth in dense physical matter, and this shell is mortal. Our body is the only mortal part of us, but most of the Western people put most of their energy into its conservation. The immortal inner Being is neglected or completely forgotten about, and regarded by many as not even existing.

 

Since the body expresses our Divine Being to the outside world, it is important to treat it well, to maintain and respect it. We are committed to give our body its rest and everything it needs from food. With any physical abuse of it, we show that we do not respect the Divine within us.

 

The act of physical Love should present itself as a devotion of the lovers before God. Then all the assessments of whether it is a good or bad, whether it is to be allowed or not, will no longer apply. God alone should decide. He leads two people together through the joining together of their Souls, and in that way He says “Yes” to Love.

 

Who else has yet the right to say no?

 

*
“Reason is good,
but better even,
is the Love
snatching us out of reason”
(Teresa of Àvila)
*

 

Thoughts and Feelings: Where do they come?

 

Mind

Our thoughts come from the Thinking Mind, this is a part of our consciousness, located in the brain. Contrary to common belief, the brain is not the most important part of Man, it is merely an illustration of our consciousness and subconscious working in terms of our neuronal functioning. The most important thing is and remains the Divine Inner Self.

 

Fictions

Our thoughts are often nourished by fictions, so-called well-worn sayings. These are statements generally made and used by closely related persons. Above all, Mothers are the main suppliers of these fictions. With this I do not want to judge them. As a mother myself, I do know that they usually “mean well” when giving forth such sayings as:

 

– “Going outside onto the road in the dark is dangerous”
– “All men only want one thing”
– “You should not travel on your own as a woman”
– “A fever must always be fought”
– “Decent girls do not do that!”
and many more such familiar sayings.

 

These sorts of thoughts, being fictions as mentioned above, make you dependent, unfree, selfish, xenophobic – and sick. Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, Parkinson's Disease, these diseases are based on adopted mental “fictions”: the patient must emerge out of this negative cycle of thoughts, to become once again healthy.

 

In the contrary, the blockages and negative patterns, the cause of all other diseases whose core lies within our subconscious, must therefore be resolved there.

 

 

Feelings

Our feelings come from our subconscious, the seat of our 'Inner Child'. This Inner Child holds all the memories from ancient times, which are transmitted through the DNA of the parents to the children. Our Inner Child is happy when we recognize it as and treat it as such. As long as it lives still unrecognized by our consciousness within us, it's sad and expresses it by its emotions and occasional illnesses.

 

This does not mean that people who have realized their Inner Child, no longer get sick. With each disease, however, our Inner Child shows what it wants to be resolved.

 

Once we have found access to our Inner Child, it then can serve us. It becomes our leader when we are looking for something, it shows us the right direction if we are strangers somewhere. But only if we trust in it completely and rely on it. If we are suspicious of it – such as “it can not be” – then there is no way forward. Then it will retreat back inside. This guidance through our Inner Child we call “intuition”.

 

Our Inner Child does not think for itself. It takes without comment and objectively all the information, our own and from our environment. It is able to feel; it then presents all our feelings outwardly as emotions expressed. It lets the tears flow, and it can also make us laugh. It triggers our reflexes, including the reflexes towards perceived danger and also vague fears. Even the yawn is a such a reflex, because it is programmed to the cause of 'oxygen deprivation'. The Inner Child is the seat of the instincts and the drive of all bodily functions. These are all primal instincts, the survival instinct, the sexual and reproductive drive, hunger, thirst, fatigue, metabolism, etc. Our Inner Child is educable. We are educating it with our consciousness. This is the external characteristics of evolution.

 

The people of modern times have neglected the development of their subconscious mind and their soul completely, and sometimes their existence is even forgotten. The Human instincts are often used for personal satisfaction, perceived as a liberation, and when the fun ceases, it is sought elsewhere. They go to a public confession in a television reality show, so that every one may become aware of it, of course, this is primarily serving their own ego. They preferably gain their knowledge in the quiz shows, because the participants will win money with their “wisdom”. The insights and knowledge of others become their insights and knowledge. Most people live the lives of others from movies and television and are members of the “information society” with their virtual communication tools that ultimately involve the danger of an ego-centred self and of self isolation.

 

The scientific revolution has driven the people out of their old field of vision, as they just want to analyze, to know and understand. Their most simplest and most important aspect, their own development towards God, has been largely forgotten.

 

Teresa of Àvila, in her book “The Interior Castle”, 1st part: “For them it already had so become a habit, always treating with the creepier and brutish things around the castle that they have already become almost as bestial, although they are by nature so richly endowed and able to talk to none other than God Himself. If these souls do not endeavor to comprehend their misery and its remedy, they must solidify to a pillar of salt, because they do not look back on themselves (as it – in reverse – happened to the wife of Lot, because she looked back).”

 

I am very confident this Age of time will be over soon.

 

*
“Nothing should frighten you,
nothing scare you.
Everything passes.
God alone remains the same.”
(Teresa of Àvila)
*