Brave Enough To Be Bliss

Chapter 17 — Surrender & Control

“Spiritual awakening isn’t the end of uncertainty. It liberates us from the need for certainty.” Craig Hamilton

I received an email for a free webinar led by Craig Hamilton and it sounded interesting so I registered for Meditation 2.0 Workshop, The Miracle of Direct Awakening (link is available under this chapter’s Resources). I found it very enlightening as you would expect of something with that title. The more I have sought out diverse resources, the more I have appreciated various points of view and learned about things I wouldn’t have previously considered when I lived in fear. That’s what fear did, it gave me the illusion of control. That is why I would dismiss people and ideas: because I didn’t want to feel the discomfort of thinking that there was something I didn’t know or something that conflicted with a thought or long-held belief that made me feel secure…even when that discomfort could have led me to the greatest joys of my life.

One particular part of the workshop really caused me to stop and think, so I listened to it over and over again in order to transcribe it.

“What all the wisdom traditions also strongly and consistently point to is the truly profound nature of what happens to a person who awakens to and embraces their true nature. See when we discover this already divine essence of who we are, we’re unleashed from a prison, unlocked, let out. We discover this life of boundless inner freedom of unassailable joy. This overflowing fullness. Th is love that seems to have no end.” “We find we have this access to a wellspring of inner strength that gives us steadiness and confidence in the face of life’s challenges. It’s like no matter what life throws our way we’re not daunted. We have a fundamental trust that we’ll find our way.” “Wouldn’t that make sense out of this whole thing. If we really were God stuff. If we really were these extraordinary beings with all of these extraordinary capacities. Can you imagine the world we would live in if this was unlocked? If this was what people were? If this was how we were? It would all make sense. And it can make sense.” “And that’s really the most remarkable and breathtaking thing about this, that this enlightened consciousness is already our true nature. It’s already our true self. It’s not something we become. It’s not something we grow into. When we discover this, one of the first things out of our mouth is, I mean we say it in our own words, but it’s something like, ‘Oh my god, how did I not see this before? This has always been who I am. This is so obvious. Where was I looking all this time that I didn’t see this?’” It was very difficult to separate my self-image, my history, my experiences from my view of God. I had to heal myself before I could truly see the pure goodness of God as He is instead of how others have treated me and as I have treated myself. My former mother-in-law and I now know each other and trust each other enough that we can forward something without the need to explain it, just in case it ’ s something the other might want to read. And boy did I appreciate this one. It’s like I had been waiting for it my whole life.

From: Kathryn To: Ginger Bliss Wed, Feb 14, 2024 at 2:03 PM

Excerpt from Dardenne Presbyterian Church Lenten Devotional: “What is God really like? What does He think of me? Can He deal with my brokenness — all the things in me that make me want to hide from the light? Can I trust Him to take care of me — to love me, to protect me, and not to abuse me?

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