S: Whatever has to happen, it's up to the silence. You don't have to do a thing. Imagine that. If we sit here tonight and not say another word, it'll be the most eloquent evening ever. But I don't want to discourage anyone from speaking anything that needs to be spoken either.

Is anybody here experiencing anything that's stopping them from resting fully in the presence?

Q1: I had a really good experience last night with working on this left-side tightness. What I saw was that I'm attracted to things and therefore I want to retain them but, for other reasons, I cannot accept them. So I'm continually wanting to save something, and continually wanting to reject it. And that preserves that tightness in my body. I think there was a lot of grace in recognizing this, but there are also a lot of things that would seem on the other end of the spectrum from grace. So it was the lesson unacceptable and yet I retained some very good points. It has been many years of retaining wisdom and then rejecting it.

S: Quite a struggle.

Q1: It interferes with the presence. It interferes with the joy of the now. It gives me bodily pain and as it loosens up it gives emotional pain, so it interferes. I feel I would like to be in the fullness.

S: This fullness is who you are. That's why I asked the group to put their attention on that which is present before you know yourself as this person. If everyone woke up in the morning and asked themselves the question, "Could I put my attention on what is present before I know myself as this person?" there would be no pain because there would be no one to hold it. No one to hold onto anything: You would know yourself as Self. You would live the truth no different than any sage or saint, right in the moment. As soon as you identify yourself as "I am this person" then your thoughts become real and the suffering becomes real.

It's like one grain of sand in your shoe; it keeps pulling you, it keeps reminding you that this has not been removed or in our understanding allowed to meet the Presence. Sometimes it feels like a scream out loud and sometimes it's silent. It is all part of the person's belief system of how this reality is, and how it should be. It is confusing because you are going to the silence for relief and at the same time wanting what is present to be different. This conflict is our emotional suffering and this concentration of energy, which is resistance, can solidify into chronic pain.

Q1: It's almost like at the front: the front troops are there and eighteen miles back are the rear troops. The rear troops and the front troops are so far apart.

S: That's right.

Q1: The rear troops are playing poker and everything else.

S: Yes, a part of the war-game life.

Q1: Quite a difference between the front troops and the back troops. [laughter]

S: Yes, so can you allow the troops to be just as they are?

Q1: I'm not in charge of the back troops. It's almost like they have a life in themselves -- the renegade part I'm not really in charge of. I would like to be; I try to work with it.

S: What do the back troops say?

Q1: "I don't like you," and things like that. "This isn't going to work," or whatever.

S: You know what? It's already working. Are you resting in presence right now?

Q1: Yes.

S: So they are lying to you. How do you treat people who lie to you? Do you invite them to dinner?

Q1: No.

S: Do you socialize with them?

Q1: Not much. No.

S: Do you ask them for suggestions?

Q1: Sometimes you have to put up with them in a work situation or some other group situation.

S: But we're here now. I'm asking you to graciously decline their invitation.

Q1: Graciously . . . ?

S: Decline their invitation inviting you to think badly about who you are. There may have been a time in your life when you believed them. They are hoping that you are still attached to believing yourself that way.

Q1: I can feel that, just as you said it. I can feel it in my body.

S: Yes. There was a time when you did believe it and they are hoping to pull you back into that image of your self.

Q1: "You're bad."

S: Exactly. But you Are, period. You are all. You are the "I Am." There is no bad in that; it doesn't exist. Here's an invitation to allow the back troops to fade away by not reacting.

Q1: When I'm at certain levels, I'm able to do that.

S: What level must be achieved for you to do that?

Q1: A very deep knowledge of love's full power. Anything that comes against love will eventually merge into it. Everything will be merged into love.

S: This is the time.

Q1: The faith of that, and the knowledge of that.

S: This is the time.

Q1: Okay.

S: Let's just be present in this power of love. Let the doer rest. Whoever walked in, let her sit in the chair, and you rest totally in this power of love. Let it support you totally. [extended silence]

Q1: I've been depending on that. Sometimes I feel like it's a really little ship's wheel and I've got a really big ship, a huge ship; the ratio is too great. I do believe in what you say; I know that's the way. I've been trying to go that way all my life.

S: Yes. [extended silence]

Q2: I really love what you said about the person coming and sitting in the chair and meanwhile being supported by the love. I got a taste of how that love is always here, and I could feel the 'I don't want to lose this... I don't want it to go away... maybe it'll stay ... what if it doesn't ... ... ... ' Putting that aside, it was just a wonderful portrayal of being supported by the love which is always here. Not much else to say.

S: Yes.

Q2: As long as I remember that it's there.

S: Yes.

Q2: I'll put up little reminders.

S: So what would your reminder be? Would this go on your refrigerator?

Q2: I'm not sure; it could.

S: Or in your journal. What is it that you would say?

Q2: That the love is always here.

S: Yes.

Q2: Also, that I don't have to do anything about it to have it be here.

S: Yes. Your natural state is the state we're sitting in right now: pure peace.

This is what takes the rough edges off the life: this state, this surrender into beingness, the power of love is what softens the life. This is what gives you the power to tolerate that which is intolerable. From here, you can see your positions and not inhabit them. You can have a conversation with somebody, you can share a point of view, or listen to somebody else's point of view -- it's all just a point of view.

Q2: I don't need to support myself with anything because I'm already being supported by That.

S: That's right. When you surrender to it, it is so happy to give you what it is that you want, the way you like it, in ways that perhaps you never could have thought of.

Q2: Sounds good to me.