I have been reading (again) the book “The Children of the Law of One & The Lost Teachings of Atlantis” (www.atlantis.to) and just like when I had been reading it for the first time a few years ago I just could not stop. It all rang so true and I had forgotten much of it or it appeared in a new light now. One passage (p. 121) that grabbed my particular attention was this:
As we pointed out earlier, when you have a whole world full of people who selfishly care more about themselves than others, you have a world such as it is today. But on the bright side – can you imagine what it would be like if we ALL cared for EACH OTHER more than ourselves? Contemplate that for a while. That’s what the Children teach, and work for. The ancient Atlantean teachings also proclaim that those who want to help change the world for the better, must first change themselves, and transform into Unselfishly Loving beings. It takes a fire, of some kind at least, to light a fire.
The Children’s ancient Atlantean teachings say that if you want to live in a world of loving people, be a loving person. They also teach that one of the ways to achieve this, is to put others before yourself, to love others first, to consider others first, to give to others first.
There are some who are against the idea of caring for others first. They say you must love your self first, in order to love others. But, as Zain told me long ago, examine the results of the two philosophies with an open mind, and the answer will become clear. There are many who have succeeded in loving their own self first, but have never gone on to really care for anyone else – they just further their own selfishness. They continue to be selfish contributors to a negative world. On the other hand, all those who have embraced caring for others first, always loved their own self also. Think about it, if you love others first, and you become an Unselfishly Loving being, is it possible to then not feel good yourself – not love yourself? No. There is no way anyone could not love themselves then! You would love yourself automatically and feel great about yourself, because your Unselfish Love is of great help to all, including yourself. This is also the only way you can Unselfishly Love your self, and Unselfish Love is truly the only “real” love.
I was blown away. And it made me wonder: Am I really unselfish? I certainly thought so but when I actually looked at my life I had to admit I was not. I was not giving. I was not outgoing, sharing, helping anyone. I was rather closing off, going inwardly, hiding from the world, and thus giving more into separation. I was afraid to stand up for anything that I believed and was only interested in my own well-being, in not being disturbed by the worlds events, in not even being disturbed by my own thoughts. And this behavior had caused a lot of inner pain, because I denied my own nature in anticipation of some material benefits I hang on to.
But this is also what makes me sick. I feel uneasy about my life and what I am doing (or better: not doing), which is nothing that helps anyone except me. And in order to not realize my complete denial, which if I did would force me to chance, I am seeking for distractions, a partner, and what have you. And whenever I find others who actually point to a practical way out of this denial (like the DIP light or the 7-journey to life process) I am backing off and find myself looking for reasons that allow me to devalue such ideas. I label THEM selfish, only interested in furthering their own hidden agenda, without realizing that it is me, not them, who is selfish and who furthers his own hidden agenda.
There was this nice parable that perhaps makes this point more clear even. I cite again from the book (page 122):
The story uses a striking allegorical fantasy to clearly illustrate a fundamental difference between a world of people looking out for themselves first, and a world of people giving first:
There was a man who died and was being taken to heaven by angels. The angels said to him, “We are going to take you to heaven, but first we will show you hell.” The angels then took him to a place where there was a great bowl, so great that it was as big as a lake. The bowl was filled with a nutritious stew. All the way around the sides of this bowl were people. Emaciated, starving, miserable people. These people had spoons to eat the stew with, and the spoons were long enough to reach the stew (about 12 feet). The trouble was, while they could scoop up the stew into the spoon, they could not get it into their mouths because the spoons were too long. So here were all these pathetic people, suffering and moaning in agony, constantly trying to eat the food that was abundantly in front of them – all in vain. Next, the angels took the man to heaven. To his surprise, he saw the same scene! There it was, a giant lake-like bowl of the same stew, surrounded by people with 12 foot long spoons. Yet something was different here – all these people were smiling, happy, and healthy looking! “ Why? What is the difference here that these people are happy and well fed?”, the man said to the angels. They replied, “Have you not eyes to see?”. The man looked more carefully, and observed that one person would scoop up the stew, and bring it to the mouth of another. Then someone else would scoop up stew and feed it to the other. The angels smiled and said, “Here the people feed each other. Here are the people that learned the way of Love.”
I found this very revealing and I asked myself: “Who do I feed? Do I feed anyone in need?” The disappointing answer was: no I wasn’t. And in turn, no one fed me either.
- I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to deny me the happiness, joy and fulfillment that would come from stepping onto another path in my life that is more in line with my inner urge to make this world a better place for all.
- I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to come up with many reasons that justify why I have not taken the steps yet that I find necessary to help making this world a better place and instead keep my assets and not move an inch out of my comfort zone.
- I commit myself to examining my current life situation under sufficient scrutiny so that I can clearly identify the areas in my life where my so-called separate Self (my egotistical nature) is in charge instead of my inner being.
- I commit myself to identify and then release all doubts and fears of change that my separate Self keeps sending me in order to remain in control of my life.
- I commit myself to release all doubts and fears that keep me in chains and thus turn me even more into a lifeless robot than I already am, while preventing me from changing my life for the better.