Vernon Howard's Monthly Lessons

[The Mystical Man]

I'll be sharing my favorite monthly lessons in this thread:

You’re not going to invite any feeling at all the next time you get knocked around by life. Don't care what happens to you. As long as you remain silent, only good things can happen. You have to take a million times more than you can now take. You have a delusion of yourself and it's killing you. You're to notice how egotistical you are when that feeling went through you. Every thought starts with 'I', 'me', or 'mine' — that's egotism. Awareness of that will preferably horrify you. All you can do is think about yourself. 'I must not be afraid of not having an answer when I choose not to react. I must not fear to not have any help. I will not try to help myself again.' You don't have to be you anymore.

Edited September 10, 2022 by The Mystical Man

[The Mystical Man]

BE MISUNDERSTOOD

Refuse to relieve the anxiety. Don't know how to handle it! It is my knowing how to handle it that fouls my life up, that keeps me in self-worship.

“I’ll defy all those dark ideas inside me that command me to make the phone call, write the letter, get the ambition that will make me feel better. I'll defy the dark ideas even if I have no strength at all. Who said I had to have strength? I just have to do it!”

“I’ll catch myself in very small ways. For example, I'm about to say something to someone and because I'm watchful — the SENTRY is alert — I understand my motive in saying that. It is because I want to relieve a little bit of anxiety lest that person misunderstand me. Let that person misunderstand me! Let the unsaid explanation of myself or my actions remain unsaid. Let it lie there! Don't pick it up! Go through it! Watch what happens to me!”  

This is a new experience. Well, isn't it? You relieved the anxiety before and had the old, repetitious experience. Just let it lie there and in a very fascinated frame of mind say, "You know, this is really interesting. This is really novel. This is really unique! Here I am in this uncomfortable situation and I have about a dozen different emotions going through me. There's a bit of guilt. I can see a little tension. I can see a little wondering what the other person thinks of me. I hid it from myself. Now do I understand what it means to open the window a little bit? I'll open the window in fear and trembling if necessary and begin to see where I am. I'll see what's happening to me.

“Take a look. This is what it is all about. And I can do this exercise any time I want — fifty times a day, one hundred times a day. There is no need for me to be in a dull daze anymore. I can follow these instructions, finding my own ways to refuse to relieve my tension.”

Don’t do it. Don’t say it. See what happens. Bear it. Feel it. Notice it. After awhile “I’ll begin to see that my very pain is a teacher. I wouldn't allow it to teach me before because I relieved it. I hid it. I got it out of sight. So, I’ll remember the phrase from now on: DON’T RELIEVE THE ANXIETY AND LET PAIN BE MY TEACHER.”

Oh, how fast and how marvelously the lessons will come! And with the coming of these lessons, in equal proportions, will be the disappearance of pain, of nervousness and of everything that is tormenting me.

Edited September 12, 2022 by The Mystical Man

[The Mystical Man]

PASSIVELY WATCH

Any effort to solve a problem keeps it going. The next time you have a crisis, here’s what to do. Find a nice quiet place all alone. Relax. Passively watch what’s going through your mind. When you are watching passively, seeing these thoughts, have no concern as to what they are. You need not be concerned. You are standing aside watching them. Now you know who the devil is, what temptation is.

The devil is running thoughts through your mind, telling you to get up, go somewhere, to another room, for example. If we do, he’s got us. The temptation is to slouch, get depressed, get agitated, and forget what you are supposed to do. What we’re supposed to do is to watch. The passive watcher has no problems at all, but we want to fight, dramatize everything.

Edited September 12, 2022 by The Mystical Man

[The Mystical Man]

THE ONLY REAL STATE

    

“I am here.” When you put yourself in the position of knowing you are here, then nothing has the smallest chance to enter into your right world and disturb it. When you spiritually know “I am here,” that’s the only world; there's no other world at all. God is exclusive. Truth is all. Reality is the only real state. You realize the Kingdom of Heaven is pure and also the uselessness of protecting the neurotic world.

It is essential for you to remind and practice the slowing down of your fiery assertions that you must do something about your problems — to defend or attack. Let your whole life go.

Your reaction to that was a blur, fear, and an unseen reaction of ‘no.’ The real enemy is always within and so maliciously sly that you haven’t been able to recognize it yet and the proof is that nothing changes in your nature. You believe in your present but false existence, in this neurotic inner counsel, that what you have is essential for you to protect it.

Edited September 12, 2022 by The Mystical Man

[The Mystical Man]

REAL REVELATION

 

A real revelation is something that comes from a higher source than the mind that receives it. All at once, you can shove aside 99.9% of so-called revelations as simply wishes of the mind to have an experience which it then calls a revelation. This means we're going to have to stop thinking we already know what the answers are. To do this requires a very special kind of ignorance that comes out of real humility. A special kind of ignorance that knows that it doesn’t have the facts about true life but wants to learn them. 

Now listen with extreme care to what I'm going to tell you next, because this point is of special importance. Here's where millions and millions of human beings go wrong. The first revelations that come to you with this humility are very dark, they're not bright at all; they're not cheerful at all. The correct order is to go through dark revelations, which will then lead to bright revelations.     

What we mean by the right order is dark revelations first. Do you have conceit in your life? Do you love to argue? Do you love to cause trouble? Do you love to fight? Are you a know-it-all -– you know what that is, the expression on your face is one of contempt when someone is trying to tell you something authentically valuable and you're hard; your spirit is hard and you don't even know it.     

If you want the real revelation that will change the kind of a human being you are, then you're going to have to see how hard, how arrogant, how foolish, how whatever the subject is, you know the answer. Right?     

That’s pretty shocking. That’s pretty hard on the vanity, but that must come first, absolutely, all the way, one hundred percent of great pain. Don't forget the right order or you’ll kid yourself and you'll never find the truth and you'll go around having to insist that you found the truth at last, you found God; and you don't even know how vicious you are. You don't even know how angrily you defend what you call your god, how violent you are toward anyone who disagrees with you.    

You had better start seeing yourself as others see you and as you don't want to see yourself. Upon that comes your salvation. Upon that depends your ultimately receiving these truths that can enter and chase out all the darkness of your self-lying, your hatred of everything that is good and true.     

There is no such thing as being too strong here; no such thing because we have so much work to do and we don't have time to fool around. Leave the fooling around to people who want to go out and drink and entertain and do all the foolish things they intend doing for the rest of their lives in an effort to block out the pain. Now I will tell you again, as long as you're lost, seeing the dark side of human nature is essential for you to see in yourself and see in other people.

Edited September 12, 2022 by The Mystical Man

[The Mystical Man]

Can you bear the pain of seeing what you're really like inside? It won't do any good at all to put a fancy label on all these dark things inside of you and sending them out into the ocean and saying that you're loving when you're not. All you're going to do is suffer from self-deception. Now look, what is simpler, what is plainer and what is more practical than for you to see that? What do you think these classes and lectures are all about? They are all about you knowing how you actually operate and where you make your mistakes. The understanding of what we talked about is the work. You don't have to strain at it. You have to stop calling your delusions reality. I recommend you write this down: "I always get myself back." You had better resolve now to begin to grow up and not be offended by what Truth is trying to tell you.

Edited September 12, 2022 by The Mystical Man

[The Mystical Man]

Now this invisible law that you do indeed get what you give is very offensive to millions of human beings around the world, because it means that they're going to have to see what their nature put out into the world and therefore, they asked exactly for what they got in return. You might as well get it thru your mind and your heart and your spirit right now, that because the waves never lie, you can't deceive them. Whatever your actual nature is, what you possess as a nature is what you are. And your imagination or your self-flattering images calling yourself something else doesn’t change a thing. You are under the invisible law absolutely, 100%! Whatever you throw out into the world, you're going to get that back! Now you see how there's no excuse for any human being complaining what the world does to him because the world never ever did a thing to him. He did it to himself by getting back what his actual nature was.
 

Edited September 10, 2022 by The Mystical Man

[The Mystical Man]

If you get your feelings hurt by other people, you have feelings that hurt other people. It's the same thing. If your very nature is something that throws out from itself offensiveness into the world, this is exactly what you're getting back because you're getting back the only thing you possibly can have, which is your own nature.

Edited September 10, 2022 by The Mystical Man

[The Mystical Man]

Now you tell me, what do you possess outside of your actual nature? Nothing! Here's the mistake. Here's where everyone goes wrong and if you don't correct it, you'll continue to go wrong.... All suffering consists of being what you presently are — your own nature. You can begin to see how you misuse your imagination in order to make yourself feel good by putting flattering labels on top of the negativity. Actually see yourself do it and you'll begin to break your division. But we don't do that because we're afraid that if we take the label away, we'll see ourselves as we actually are, which is unacceptable to our vanity.

Edited September 10, 2022 by The Mystical Man

[The Mystical Man]

In just the few minutes that we've talked tonight, you've heard one of the most powerful of all invisible laws. And if you will not shy away from it, if you will look at yourself during your daily contacts with yourself and other people, and if you see where you get hurt, you will know what you're giving out into the world. What's the motto of this class? “If you can take it you can make it.”

[The Mystical Man]

No reaction is the right reaction. No reference to self causes you to see you’re not the false self. The experience stops at the mind and doesn’t go into the emotions. Be so daring that you’re willing to let go of yourself, of your vanity, a little at a time, by simply relaxing from it. All news is good news because your spirit does not live on the level of this earth.

Now comes your work: See those hostile emotions. The awareness of this battle is progress itself. The mind operates in opposites. The mistake: When you get a pain, worry, grief, your mistake is to cover it up with pleasure. IMPORTANT: Don’t cover pain with pleasure. Don’t repress pain. You try to fight it. It’s all an unnecessary struggle and battle. Don’t cover that worry, for example, and don’t protect yourself from a comment.  

Not knowing what to say to yourself is good, not bad. Catch yourself at the moment of the crisis. You must be alert and not be gone — or you don’t purify the moment. Look in and see your reaction. Your mind can’t do it. You see it happening and the light that’s in you will come in and not permit darkness to take you over.

Edited September 12, 2022 by The Mystical Man

[The Mystical Man]

No matter what you are doing, whether you're sweeping the floor, or conducting business, or driving your car or whatever, you begin to get a sensing that there really is — really is — nothing but right now and that is because that is where your are.

[The Mystical Man]

This is a figure of speech but you’ll see it inwardly, you’ll see the steering wheel, helm of a boat — you’ll see it go back and forth of itself. And when you see it moving by itself — I’m talking about the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth guiding your life — it will occur to you, an intelligent thought will come to you that could never come to you before, which is: When you don’t do anything about guiding the boat, no rocks, no storms.   

And if you stay there and you stay away from the wheel, this is what is called a spiritual revelation of God. It will come to you. What will come to you is a heavenly spiritual enlightenment. And what that enlightenment will be is you’re seeing that you’re in the right place because the boat ceases to crack up.    

Ah, and I’ll tell you something else that happens as you’re sitting over there on the couch just watching your life flow by. You will see how foolishly, how ignorantly, how you looked forward to the next crash on the rocks. Because every time you crashed on the rocks you could sob, you could scream and you could get hateful and you could blame someone for it; you could blame yourself. Oh, what a revelation to see how in love you were with blasting hot fiery feelings!    

There’s the danger ahead, the threat, the worry, whatever. Instead of clutching the wheel and trying — look, just open your hands. Oh, what an experience! This is called full terror. It’s marvelous, and the beginning! Now with empty hands … you walk towards the resting place. And from there forever more, the voyage will be smooth.

Edited September 12, 2022 by The Mystical Man

[The Mystical Man]

Whatever your life now is, question it. Inquire into your life and don’t fight with anything you see there. Just ask what is going on inside me? Inquire. And when you see what is going on inside of you quite clearly, that is an invitation to God to come and turn on the light for you.

[The Mystical Man]

Your first duty in life is toward your inner development and nothing else, absolutely nothing else. Don’t be tricked into thinking there is anything else but the first rule is your self-transformation.

Edited September 10, 2022 by The Mystical Man

[The Mystical Man]

Now that’s marvelous for you to see ... trying to hold your life in place is folly. What does that mean? Very briefly, trying to hold your life in place means to rush through your mind as many thoughts and emotions as you can, to give yourself the surface appearance, the illusion of you being a self-creator. You don’t have charge of anything.... Be very, very suspicious of how hidden conceit has robbed you and does rob you every minute of your life of living very quietly, very calmly.

Edited September 10, 2022 by The Mystical Man

[The Mystical Man]

Now this is your exercise for the next two days. Catch yourself right in your behavior at home or out in the café if you live alone and ask yourself, “Why am I behaving the way I'm behaving right now; what secret motive is there behind it?”

The only answer to that is you begin to slow down your mind through the techniques that we've talked about here so that you, the illusion of you begins to slow down.

You finally got smart, it took you long enough, you finally got smart and you got up in the morning and you say, let's see now, what particular inner exercise shall I have today? Well, I'm going to remember when I walk out the door. Oh I forgot. Well you remembered that you forgot. That’s good.

[The Mystical Man]

You know finally, listen to this, you know that you are no longer talking to yourself. You have become silent in your mind and in your emotions. And in that silence God is able to speak to you and you will recognize it.     

This new hearing that you have is totally unlike anything else. It is immediately recognized when it really happens to you. And when it happens, that is the same thing as you changing from a mere human living from thoughts and ambitions and anxieties.     

Your nature starts to change so that while you still have a mind and still have emotions and still have a physical self, while you have those, you understand that something, this voice that you are hearing, is operating on and through your mind, your feelings, your body, your voice, your reactions. And that voice is giving you instructions on what to do and how to get out of the dark cave that is felt by you.     

Feeling is the same as hearing. And hearing changes what you do with your whole composite nature, self. You are following the orders of this spiritual voice, the voice of God, you are following those orders. And to your great interest and delight you find that you don’t want to go down to visit your friend's house anymore where you were going to have drinks and chatter about nonsensical things, trivial things.   

And you will get such a wish to be always listening. And if you catch yourself beginning to get a chattering mind, or you catch yourself being attracted for the moment to the noisy mob out there — the time will come when you’ll be able to catch yourself in time. You’ll want nothing more than to stay home all the time. Being at home means living with yourself, with this true nature, which is always receptive, always listening for the little insight, the little warning, the little advice so that you don’t have to think your life as you used to.     

Stay home and listen and you will hear.

Edited September 12, 2022 by The Mystical Man

[The Mystical Man]

I want you to know where you are in the dark desert and I want you to be absolutely horrified at what you have permitted to happen to you. That is the only experience that can produce something new in you. That’s the only thing that can break your mechanical talking, your mechanical thinking, and your mechanical emotionalizing, because the seeing of your state is the first stage of inviting consciousness that will dismiss it.

[The Mystical Man]

THY WILL BE DONE.

Oh, how tremendous! By saying that, you’re allowing God’s will to replace your will. And if you really do that, I tell you, and you’ll tell yourself when you see it happening, you’ll talk in an entirely different way than you talk. You talk in a certain way now, don’t you? This talking is just one phase of it. Feelings, actions, attitudes are all included, but just specify talking for now. You talk in a certain way to other people. They know more about it than you do because you can’t see yourself talk. You’re too wrapped up and hoping it’s going to give you a benefit if you go into that little speech or whatever. But as a first stage in allowing the Heavenly will to be done, you’re going to know how you talk with someone. Just notice how you converse and notice the emotion that goes with it. And oh, you’ll be able to see a lot of wasted feelings going on inside of you.

Now, having known by personal witnessing what it means to do your will: to speak, to chatter, to say your will — having known that you’re nothing but wrapped up in what you call your life, which is a memorized and boring life and a flop and a failure life; having noticed that, you can bring the healing statement in: Thy will be done.

Edited September 12, 2022 by The Mystical Man