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The Value of Temptation

Posted By: Randy GageFebruary 28, 2011

Temptation is not a permanent condition.  And it actually can have great value if we chose to use it for good and development.

James Allen tells us that as we move toward perfection, we go through three stages.  The first is the animal stage, where you are simply content to live in the gratification of your senses.

Stage two is the duality one, where your mind oscillates between your animal and divine tendencies, having been awakened to the consciousness of both.    It is during this stage that temptation plays its part, allowing you to develop and grow.

It is a time of rising and falling.  You may be reluctant to leave the gratifications you have lived for, but yearn for the purity and harmony of a higher spiritual state.  That third stage is the stage of knowledge and enlightenment.  One that is possible for all, yet few achieve.

So what do you think allows you to reach that third stage?  Please share your thoughts, and I’ll pick up there on the next post.

-RG

35 comments on “The Value of Temptation”

  1. I think that we allow ourselves to reach the third stage when we can equally love our duality to the point the we can let our old selves go in peace.

  2. RG,

    I think the continuous development to getting closer to the GOD within allows us to move to the 3rd stage. It is developing faith that God is inside not outside that creates a constant conscious contact.
    Thanks,
    Jim

  3. Letting go of the old, the comfort zone. The pain of change, metamorphose. The caterpillar must let go of the old ways of crawling around on the ground and face the unknown before it can spread its wings. So even though it is our true nature to be in the third stage we must first let go of all the human junk before we can spread our divine wings.

  4. I believe it is suffering that gets us to the 3rd stage, because in all actuality, what is suffering?

    Suffering can only be what the mind believes it to be and once that is realized, how can we suffer?

    So I say suffer! Feel it, accept it and embrace it so you can process right on through it to realize suffering is only the mind giving definition to it.

    Denial, procrastination and lack of discipline are all tools to teach and remind us how far we have yet to grapple the power and capabilities of our ever powerful mind.

  5. I would say that it's practicing choosing the higher spiritual state on a more frequent and consistent basis. The results would provide a positive feedback loop encouraging more of the same behaviour until the animalistic tendencies become unappealing.

    1. I Agree, Choosing @ Higher and Deeper Response to the Issues we are presented with daily within us Instead of just choosing the fast food option lol.

  6. Hi Randy!
    I have a burning desire to reach that third stage, and have had that most of my life. Have been trying a lot of different ways to get there, and have succeeded in some areas. But it's never lead to a life of abundance. Now I follow a lot of your advices, and that works in the right direction. Visions and purpose have been a real turningpoint for me, and also discovering those limiting believes in my subconscious mind. And getting in contact with you have restored my childhood dream of how the world should look like, a world I lost belief in still existed. My trust have been restored, thank you! Somehow you always recognice the truth when you meet it :-). I know now that before I focused on solving circumstances in stead of the real problem, and what a difference to confront the unwanted conditions that way. It's quite a journey but I find it worth everything. You have my unconditioned trust because of your care and honesty. It is kind of a release to be able to trust someone, like when you were a child and trusted everyone and everything that way!
    Lene

  7. Every person, who strive to improve themselves to be a teacher. The image of God-man, the image of Christ is for the people to the ideals to which humanity should strive at any stage of its development. Get better, then freed from all sinful and vicious. People who have reached the third stage in its development differ

  8. RG,

    Like you wrote, temptation is good if we choose it for good and development. It seems.. without temptations our soul cannot become strong and continually grow, and then there might not be any wisdom, and what comes with it.. such as goodness, quality of life, morality, righteousness, peace, and thus there is no completeness of life. When our temptations are analyzed, understood and conquered, then our walk toward perfection can be getting closer to a higher degree of perfection.

    Of course, it's absolutely easier said than done coz as long as we are still in this human body, everyday is often a struggle and we are continually tempted to make wrong choices. There is no one who is an exception to being tempted. While reaching our perfection is not possible, as we begin to try to walk toward perfection, (as you once wrote in one of other blog posts) the positive thoughts (in this case, the strength/or power to overcome the temptation) reach the magical threshold of 51%, and then the positive strength/power build on the next degree of power to conquer temptation ... hopefully things really accelerate. Again, it is easier said than done, as long as we are still in this human body, representing our natural sinful nature within us, it's very easy to give in to our all kinds of temptations and to our natural temper which .. in my case I often find myself losing if I allow myself to feel or think ignorantly like an animal, even when I'm dealing with a person(s)/people whom I LOVE THE MOST.

    I have a confession to make before you, RG. Because you lead people and owns all the spiritual knowledge, I often find myself tempted to think, or I sometimes forget the fact that you're a human, too, just like all of us. Because I love you so much as my mentor and someone whom I respect so deeply, I realized that I was unrealistically expecting you to take a role of being a perfect god. You've worked so hard and made your way up to where you're today. That alone is absolutely awesome, besides the fact that you have a good heart and are a good person, as well as you being sooooo charming! Ooops! Sorry! Seriously, you're an absolutely great mentor to all of us. I love you so very much, RG. God convicted me of my one-track mind and thinking that was going on in my head/mind. I was all wrong. Please forgive me. I have a long way to go to reach my hoped higher place... getting closer toward perfection which is still far away. : ) PS I really like your down-to-earth personality, as well as you being a so spiritual and sensitive human being with emotions, like mine. LOL I really do. : )

    [RG asks:]
    "So what do you think allows you to reach that third stage?"

    I think ... when we become conscious of our God and his presence within us, while realizing that we're merely an imperfecty human being, but with God within us, He can make greatness and great possibilities within us through his dwelling presence in us. His divine nature which is characterized with no self-seeking, peace, and joy gradually begins to firmly take over us, as we learn to walk each day of our life to become as he is within us. Again, it's easier said than done.

    It was rather a short post today but made us think a lot on the value of temptations. Thanks for sharing this great post. You're so wonderful and a great mentor to many of us. I love love love you, RG, and God bless you! A big hug from me. And love to ya all in the Randyland community. -Saach  PS Sorry about my English (not from us or uk) このブログ感謝です。 🙂

  9. I like the way Carmen formulated it: practicing choosing ... on a more consistent basis. I was going to call it discipline. And indeed with more practice come the learnings and insights, the strengthening of a habit, the positive feedback loop, and finally integration.
    I would add that before practicing it is necessary to work out the philosophy and principles according to which I want to live at a given point in time, and then apply discipline in acting according to those choices.
    And honesty with yourself helps, too. As well as compassion and humor.

  10. Giving up smoking was one of the hardest things I had to do. The smoke was my friend and I loved the spirit of it, the way I could breath it inside of me and the way it spiraled around so beautifully. So I made friends with it. I said: "my love for you is in a form that is preventing me from experiencing other things in life I love. So I give up this lower form of our relationship in search of it's higher form.

    When I asked to see what the higher form was I was shown that it was the same spirit of communication, of speaking, sound vibration and creativity that the smoke represented for me. The adrenaline rush of speaking your truth. The adrenaline rush of dancing to music you love. The adrenaline rush of connecting with life beyond the surface.

    So when I said good bye to my smoke friend (lol, sounds like the tv show "Lost")it wasn't a forever goodbye, it was a knowing that we would meet again in different form.

    I think animal desires are higher desires expressed in lower forms. They exist in their higher forms too so we don't have to hate the things we give up or say good bye to, we can let them go with love knowing we will meet again in higher realms.

    I still can't believe I believe this and still eat meat!! That any of us eat meat!

    When you eat the fruit of a lower world you are stuck there till you burn it off because it is made of a heavy substance. (behaviors and thoughts as well as heavy foods) But if you hold off and wait, you will grow lighter and in your lighter form you will have access to fruits of a lighter nature that allow you the freedom to go where ever you wish, not stuck to one world. The higher worlds offer freedom. The lower worlds offer bondage.

  11. I agree with Carmen and Larissa. When I read your post, Randy, the answer that immediately popped into my head was, "Choice." The choice to shut off the crap that comes through media. The choice to read personal development stuff. The choice to eat well and exercise and meditate and spend time in nature. The choice to discover and pursue your purpose, passion and vision. The choice to ponder and think. The choice to surround yourself with what's uplifing. The choice to forgive. The choice to move out of negative self talk. The choice to view others in a different way. And so many more choices . . .

  12. I believe that to reach the third level, it is necessary to choose the things that help you reach the third level, every day of our lives. The choice of what level we want to make is ours. But to have wise choices, we need wise mentors who have done it. The mentor can show you the way but you must choose to want to walk it. I think the more we make wise choices and leave aside worldly choices, higher in the third level will be. It is a cosntant development. I think the third level has no limit, the previous two if you have it!

  13. Hi Randy,

    I see so many different responses above that it seems we are all individuals in the way we attain getting to that place.

    For me I believe it was my experience as a Hospice Volunteer when I started delving into the process of death and dying my heart chakra opened with such love and compassion that I don't know if I could have attained that through another experience but regardless, it was evidently something in my own life I needed to experience and in that delving into the two worlds I understood that I am in this world, but not of it.

    Perhaps that is why I now see the eyes as the window to the soul.

    Be Well

  14. when one is able to lose the identity of a I into mind and matter , one will be able to see things as they are and knowledge and enlightenment will arise.Through the practice of vipassana meditation one can achieve it either now or many more lives to live through pending on your karma.

  15. Pure Love. I feel that It Could be pure Love. Everyone has it but I feel like we could exercise this by going and searching INNER more often and repeatedly. ?

    1. Kevin,

      Do you think that humans are capable of pure love? How?

      I find that human love is based on certain values that we hold. Love for humans is conditional.
      Now, take love of a dog or a cat, and that's were unconditional love can be found.

      Victoria

  16. Purity and harmony of a higher spiritual state is a lifelong process.

    Being a student of life is a way to understanding and enlightenment.

    Being able to ask for guidance from God (or what ever you want to call that energy), opens certain channels in our mind through which knowledge constantly flows and gives us answers to endless questions that we ask.

    Understanding that all of us have good and bad traits, and having both does NOT make us imprefect, is perfection in itself. If we were not designed in such a way, then we would not be given power to choose, as well as will power. If we were created in any other way, then life would be monotonous.

    Choosing good over bad, makes us purer than we were before.
    Lessons from life's experiences encourage us to be better than we were before.

    Becoming a better person and reaching our highest potential is the achievement of higher spiritual state.

  17. Why do you have to say "One that is possible for all, yet only few achieve"? I feel sad when I read that. And I don't care who said it James Allen, or Patty Griffin in her song "Up to the Mountain", or even if Martin Luther King Jr. said it himself, it isn't true. And to answer your question it is truth, as always that sets us free. TRUTH, TRUTH, and more TRUTH. Our false self wants approval, and comfort and feels safe in the lies. Lies feel safe sometimes, and the truth seems scary. But really truth is safer for our souls, isn't it?

    So if we think only a few can achieve such grace, we will use it as an excuse to never get there. So stop saying it. Stop. Why even bother if only a few are going to achieve it?

    Can't we instead see there is so much love and truth all around us and it beckons us with scores of people just waiting for us to get there? Not just a few?

    1. Hi Annie,

      You are right, everyone is capable of reaching third stage. But there are people out there who may not know how. And perhaps one day or even now, you maybe able to reach them and share with them everything that you have learned and what you are learning now.

      "Happiness is both the joy of discovery and the joy of knowing. It's the joy that comes to those who painstakingly design their lives and then live them with artistry.

      Happiness is both giving and receiving, reaping and bestowing. It comes to those who deliberately expand their horizons and experiences. It rides in the houses of those who have the ability to handle disappoinment without losing their sense of well-being.

      It is activity with purpose. It's love in practice. It's both a grasp of the obvious and an awe of the mysterious."
      -My Mentor, Jim Rohn

      Purity and harmony of a higher spiritual state is in your hands 🙂

      Victoria

      1. Thank you for sharing that Victoria. Love those quotes. Words to live by for sure.

        I just like to believe that there are lots of people out there who already have achieved the third stage, and still many more that will. I would have liked it better if he would have left it at "One that is possible for all". Then it doesn't seem like there is a shortage of mature souls out there, and even more importantly it makes it seem easier to achieve, and doesn't leave reason to excuse ourselves from achieving it.

        It was James Allen that said only a few achieve it too, and I think he is wrong too. Who knows, if he sat around thinking and writing all the time, maybe he only knew a few people. 🙂

        I have to say I also keep thinking, what would James think about that book "The Last Temptation of Christ"?

        Anyway, Victoria Thank you so much for your reply! I really enjoyed reading it.

        Annie

  18. Being rich allows you to reach the 3rd stage because you have time for knowledge and enlightenment. You can be at great peace when there is no financial burden upon you. Until then we're all concerned with earning a living and saving for the day we won't have to work anymore.

    1. James Allen was not wealthy. He was prosperous and peaceful, but not materialistic. Those existential thinkers did not really concern themselves with making money. They sat around thinking and smoking their pipes I guess. 🙂

      Anyway even wealthy people have burdens. Nobody escapes burdens. There is potential also to have peace and burdens, don't you think? Not as easy perhaps, but possible.

      The peaceful person has an easier time attaining wealth and is prosperous already. Wealth is not what makes a person peaceful.

  19. -RG,

    I need to go Hollywood to explain this easily.

    From the movie “The Last Samurai” Katsumoto (a samurai) is constantly looking at cherry blossoms and states
    “The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.”

    After being mortally wounded in battle he sees cherry blossoms and states “Perfect. They... are all... perfect...”

    If we (I) can get to the state of seeing that it is all perfect then I will have reached the Third Stage.

    Mahalo

  20. Knowledge and enlightenment. I think it's more wisdom and spirituality for me. I translate knowledge more to power if acted upon. Wisdom comes from experience and character development. Enlightenment for me is more about awareness, where spirituality is not so much developed as it is given. The only way I can describe how my wisdom and spirituality grow are through meditating on the words in the bible. There is constant reference to meditating in the word. " In Psalms 123-vs8-9 it states "Peace be within you.". Peace comes from within and is given by our holy spirit. I have found that it is not enough just to pick up the bible and thumb through a few verses, or even read it cover to cover. Where the lasting changes occur is when you meditate on the word daily asking God to speak to you and guide you to the area's of your life that he wants us to focus on. Once something gets our attention, then we need to ask for understanding and meditate on it. I ask God to show me throughout my day, examples of what he is trying to help me to understand. After a while you crave the word and it gradually transforms your heart and soul. Not sure I can explain it better than that. It's an experience developed by action.

  21. The biggest thing preventing anyone from being at the 3rd stage is the belief that you're not there already. Strip that way and you are there. We are all unlimited divine expressions of God walking around pretending that we are not. Since we are pretending now, why don't we all just pretend differently and pretend we are Infinte Power? Think, feel and act from this belief and the whole illusion of life changes.

  22. Hi RG,

    Acceptance of what is marks the beginning of the third state. Non judgment is a cornerstone of this acceptance, and meditating helps you to merge into One-ness and release the need to label everything.

    We are quick to label, to opine and to become attached to our labels and opinions. Those who can release the need to label and simply accept things for what they are can reach enlightenment.

    As for the vehicle to reach this level: meditation, meditation, mantra, meditation, mantra. I've also read that people who experience severe trauma have their awareness expanded significantly, and living through some harrowing internal turmoil myself can say that I've noted that my awareness has expanded and attachments have lessened after these periods of emotional unrest.

    RB

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  • 35 comments on “The Value of Temptation”

    1. I think that we allow ourselves to reach the third stage when we can equally love our duality to the point the we can let our old selves go in peace.

    2. RG,

      I think the continuous development to getting closer to the GOD within allows us to move to the 3rd stage. It is developing faith that God is inside not outside that creates a constant conscious contact.
      Thanks,
      Jim

    3. Letting go of the old, the comfort zone. The pain of change, metamorphose. The caterpillar must let go of the old ways of crawling around on the ground and face the unknown before it can spread its wings. So even though it is our true nature to be in the third stage we must first let go of all the human junk before we can spread our divine wings.

    4. I believe it is suffering that gets us to the 3rd stage, because in all actuality, what is suffering?

      Suffering can only be what the mind believes it to be and once that is realized, how can we suffer?

      So I say suffer! Feel it, accept it and embrace it so you can process right on through it to realize suffering is only the mind giving definition to it.

      Denial, procrastination and lack of discipline are all tools to teach and remind us how far we have yet to grapple the power and capabilities of our ever powerful mind.

    5. I would say that it's practicing choosing the higher spiritual state on a more frequent and consistent basis. The results would provide a positive feedback loop encouraging more of the same behaviour until the animalistic tendencies become unappealing.

      1. I Agree, Choosing @ Higher and Deeper Response to the Issues we are presented with daily within us Instead of just choosing the fast food option lol.

    6. Hi Randy!
      I have a burning desire to reach that third stage, and have had that most of my life. Have been trying a lot of different ways to get there, and have succeeded in some areas. But it's never lead to a life of abundance. Now I follow a lot of your advices, and that works in the right direction. Visions and purpose have been a real turningpoint for me, and also discovering those limiting believes in my subconscious mind. And getting in contact with you have restored my childhood dream of how the world should look like, a world I lost belief in still existed. My trust have been restored, thank you! Somehow you always recognice the truth when you meet it :-). I know now that before I focused on solving circumstances in stead of the real problem, and what a difference to confront the unwanted conditions that way. It's quite a journey but I find it worth everything. You have my unconditioned trust because of your care and honesty. It is kind of a release to be able to trust someone, like when you were a child and trusted everyone and everything that way!
      Lene

    7. Every person, who strive to improve themselves to be a teacher. The image of God-man, the image of Christ is for the people to the ideals to which humanity should strive at any stage of its development. Get better, then freed from all sinful and vicious. People who have reached the third stage in its development differ

    8. RG,

      Like you wrote, temptation is good if we choose it for good and development. It seems.. without temptations our soul cannot become strong and continually grow, and then there might not be any wisdom, and what comes with it.. such as goodness, quality of life, morality, righteousness, peace, and thus there is no completeness of life. When our temptations are analyzed, understood and conquered, then our walk toward perfection can be getting closer to a higher degree of perfection.

      Of course, it's absolutely easier said than done coz as long as we are still in this human body, everyday is often a struggle and we are continually tempted to make wrong choices. There is no one who is an exception to being tempted. While reaching our perfection is not possible, as we begin to try to walk toward perfection, (as you once wrote in one of other blog posts) the positive thoughts (in this case, the strength/or power to overcome the temptation) reach the magical threshold of 51%, and then the positive strength/power build on the next degree of power to conquer temptation ... hopefully things really accelerate. Again, it is easier said than done, as long as we are still in this human body, representing our natural sinful nature within us, it's very easy to give in to our all kinds of temptations and to our natural temper which .. in my case I often find myself losing if I allow myself to feel or think ignorantly like an animal, even when I'm dealing with a person(s)/people whom I LOVE THE MOST.

      I have a confession to make before you, RG. Because you lead people and owns all the spiritual knowledge, I often find myself tempted to think, or I sometimes forget the fact that you're a human, too, just like all of us. Because I love you so much as my mentor and someone whom I respect so deeply, I realized that I was unrealistically expecting you to take a role of being a perfect god. You've worked so hard and made your way up to where you're today. That alone is absolutely awesome, besides the fact that you have a good heart and are a good person, as well as you being sooooo charming! Ooops! Sorry! Seriously, you're an absolutely great mentor to all of us. I love you so very much, RG. God convicted me of my one-track mind and thinking that was going on in my head/mind. I was all wrong. Please forgive me. I have a long way to go to reach my hoped higher place... getting closer toward perfection which is still far away. : ) PS I really like your down-to-earth personality, as well as you being a so spiritual and sensitive human being with emotions, like mine. LOL I really do. : )

      [RG asks:]
      "So what do you think allows you to reach that third stage?"

      I think ... when we become conscious of our God and his presence within us, while realizing that we're merely an imperfecty human being, but with God within us, He can make greatness and great possibilities within us through his dwelling presence in us. His divine nature which is characterized with no self-seeking, peace, and joy gradually begins to firmly take over us, as we learn to walk each day of our life to become as he is within us. Again, it's easier said than done.

      It was rather a short post today but made us think a lot on the value of temptations. Thanks for sharing this great post. You're so wonderful and a great mentor to many of us. I love love love you, RG, and God bless you! A big hug from me. And love to ya all in the Randyland community. -Saach  PS Sorry about my English (not from us or uk) このブログ感謝です。 🙂

    9. I like the way Carmen formulated it: practicing choosing ... on a more consistent basis. I was going to call it discipline. And indeed with more practice come the learnings and insights, the strengthening of a habit, the positive feedback loop, and finally integration.
      I would add that before practicing it is necessary to work out the philosophy and principles according to which I want to live at a given point in time, and then apply discipline in acting according to those choices.
      And honesty with yourself helps, too. As well as compassion and humor.

    10. Giving up smoking was one of the hardest things I had to do. The smoke was my friend and I loved the spirit of it, the way I could breath it inside of me and the way it spiraled around so beautifully. So I made friends with it. I said: "my love for you is in a form that is preventing me from experiencing other things in life I love. So I give up this lower form of our relationship in search of it's higher form.

      When I asked to see what the higher form was I was shown that it was the same spirit of communication, of speaking, sound vibration and creativity that the smoke represented for me. The adrenaline rush of speaking your truth. The adrenaline rush of dancing to music you love. The adrenaline rush of connecting with life beyond the surface.

      So when I said good bye to my smoke friend (lol, sounds like the tv show "Lost")it wasn't a forever goodbye, it was a knowing that we would meet again in different form.

      I think animal desires are higher desires expressed in lower forms. They exist in their higher forms too so we don't have to hate the things we give up or say good bye to, we can let them go with love knowing we will meet again in higher realms.

      I still can't believe I believe this and still eat meat!! That any of us eat meat!

      When you eat the fruit of a lower world you are stuck there till you burn it off because it is made of a heavy substance. (behaviors and thoughts as well as heavy foods) But if you hold off and wait, you will grow lighter and in your lighter form you will have access to fruits of a lighter nature that allow you the freedom to go where ever you wish, not stuck to one world. The higher worlds offer freedom. The lower worlds offer bondage.

    11. I agree with Carmen and Larissa. When I read your post, Randy, the answer that immediately popped into my head was, "Choice." The choice to shut off the crap that comes through media. The choice to read personal development stuff. The choice to eat well and exercise and meditate and spend time in nature. The choice to discover and pursue your purpose, passion and vision. The choice to ponder and think. The choice to surround yourself with what's uplifing. The choice to forgive. The choice to move out of negative self talk. The choice to view others in a different way. And so many more choices . . .

    12. I believe that to reach the third level, it is necessary to choose the things that help you reach the third level, every day of our lives. The choice of what level we want to make is ours. But to have wise choices, we need wise mentors who have done it. The mentor can show you the way but you must choose to want to walk it. I think the more we make wise choices and leave aside worldly choices, higher in the third level will be. It is a cosntant development. I think the third level has no limit, the previous two if you have it!

    13. Hi Randy,

      I see so many different responses above that it seems we are all individuals in the way we attain getting to that place.

      For me I believe it was my experience as a Hospice Volunteer when I started delving into the process of death and dying my heart chakra opened with such love and compassion that I don't know if I could have attained that through another experience but regardless, it was evidently something in my own life I needed to experience and in that delving into the two worlds I understood that I am in this world, but not of it.

      Perhaps that is why I now see the eyes as the window to the soul.

      Be Well

    14. when one is able to lose the identity of a I into mind and matter , one will be able to see things as they are and knowledge and enlightenment will arise.Through the practice of vipassana meditation one can achieve it either now or many more lives to live through pending on your karma.

    15. Pure Love. I feel that It Could be pure Love. Everyone has it but I feel like we could exercise this by going and searching INNER more often and repeatedly. ?

      1. Kevin,

        Do you think that humans are capable of pure love? How?

        I find that human love is based on certain values that we hold. Love for humans is conditional.
        Now, take love of a dog or a cat, and that's were unconditional love can be found.

        Victoria

    16. Purity and harmony of a higher spiritual state is a lifelong process.

      Being a student of life is a way to understanding and enlightenment.

      Being able to ask for guidance from God (or what ever you want to call that energy), opens certain channels in our mind through which knowledge constantly flows and gives us answers to endless questions that we ask.

      Understanding that all of us have good and bad traits, and having both does NOT make us imprefect, is perfection in itself. If we were not designed in such a way, then we would not be given power to choose, as well as will power. If we were created in any other way, then life would be monotonous.

      Choosing good over bad, makes us purer than we were before.
      Lessons from life's experiences encourage us to be better than we were before.

      Becoming a better person and reaching our highest potential is the achievement of higher spiritual state.

    17. Why do you have to say "One that is possible for all, yet only few achieve"? I feel sad when I read that. And I don't care who said it James Allen, or Patty Griffin in her song "Up to the Mountain", or even if Martin Luther King Jr. said it himself, it isn't true. And to answer your question it is truth, as always that sets us free. TRUTH, TRUTH, and more TRUTH. Our false self wants approval, and comfort and feels safe in the lies. Lies feel safe sometimes, and the truth seems scary. But really truth is safer for our souls, isn't it?

      So if we think only a few can achieve such grace, we will use it as an excuse to never get there. So stop saying it. Stop. Why even bother if only a few are going to achieve it?

      Can't we instead see there is so much love and truth all around us and it beckons us with scores of people just waiting for us to get there? Not just a few?

      1. Hi Annie,

        You are right, everyone is capable of reaching third stage. But there are people out there who may not know how. And perhaps one day or even now, you maybe able to reach them and share with them everything that you have learned and what you are learning now.

        "Happiness is both the joy of discovery and the joy of knowing. It's the joy that comes to those who painstakingly design their lives and then live them with artistry.

        Happiness is both giving and receiving, reaping and bestowing. It comes to those who deliberately expand their horizons and experiences. It rides in the houses of those who have the ability to handle disappoinment without losing their sense of well-being.

        It is activity with purpose. It's love in practice. It's both a grasp of the obvious and an awe of the mysterious."
        -My Mentor, Jim Rohn

        Purity and harmony of a higher spiritual state is in your hands 🙂

        Victoria

        1. Thank you for sharing that Victoria. Love those quotes. Words to live by for sure.

          I just like to believe that there are lots of people out there who already have achieved the third stage, and still many more that will. I would have liked it better if he would have left it at "One that is possible for all". Then it doesn't seem like there is a shortage of mature souls out there, and even more importantly it makes it seem easier to achieve, and doesn't leave reason to excuse ourselves from achieving it.

          It was James Allen that said only a few achieve it too, and I think he is wrong too. Who knows, if he sat around thinking and writing all the time, maybe he only knew a few people. 🙂

          I have to say I also keep thinking, what would James think about that book "The Last Temptation of Christ"?

          Anyway, Victoria Thank you so much for your reply! I really enjoyed reading it.

          Annie

    18. Being rich allows you to reach the 3rd stage because you have time for knowledge and enlightenment. You can be at great peace when there is no financial burden upon you. Until then we're all concerned with earning a living and saving for the day we won't have to work anymore.

      1. James Allen was not wealthy. He was prosperous and peaceful, but not materialistic. Those existential thinkers did not really concern themselves with making money. They sat around thinking and smoking their pipes I guess. 🙂

        Anyway even wealthy people have burdens. Nobody escapes burdens. There is potential also to have peace and burdens, don't you think? Not as easy perhaps, but possible.

        The peaceful person has an easier time attaining wealth and is prosperous already. Wealth is not what makes a person peaceful.

    19. -RG,

      I need to go Hollywood to explain this easily.

      From the movie “The Last Samurai” Katsumoto (a samurai) is constantly looking at cherry blossoms and states
      “The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.”

      After being mortally wounded in battle he sees cherry blossoms and states “Perfect. They... are all... perfect...”

      If we (I) can get to the state of seeing that it is all perfect then I will have reached the Third Stage.

      Mahalo

    20. Knowledge and enlightenment. I think it's more wisdom and spirituality for me. I translate knowledge more to power if acted upon. Wisdom comes from experience and character development. Enlightenment for me is more about awareness, where spirituality is not so much developed as it is given. The only way I can describe how my wisdom and spirituality grow are through meditating on the words in the bible. There is constant reference to meditating in the word. " In Psalms 123-vs8-9 it states "Peace be within you.". Peace comes from within and is given by our holy spirit. I have found that it is not enough just to pick up the bible and thumb through a few verses, or even read it cover to cover. Where the lasting changes occur is when you meditate on the word daily asking God to speak to you and guide you to the area's of your life that he wants us to focus on. Once something gets our attention, then we need to ask for understanding and meditate on it. I ask God to show me throughout my day, examples of what he is trying to help me to understand. After a while you crave the word and it gradually transforms your heart and soul. Not sure I can explain it better than that. It's an experience developed by action.

    21. The biggest thing preventing anyone from being at the 3rd stage is the belief that you're not there already. Strip that way and you are there. We are all unlimited divine expressions of God walking around pretending that we are not. Since we are pretending now, why don't we all just pretend differently and pretend we are Infinte Power? Think, feel and act from this belief and the whole illusion of life changes.

    22. Hi RG,

      Acceptance of what is marks the beginning of the third state. Non judgment is a cornerstone of this acceptance, and meditating helps you to merge into One-ness and release the need to label everything.

      We are quick to label, to opine and to become attached to our labels and opinions. Those who can release the need to label and simply accept things for what they are can reach enlightenment.

      As for the vehicle to reach this level: meditation, meditation, mantra, meditation, mantra. I've also read that people who experience severe trauma have their awareness expanded significantly, and living through some harrowing internal turmoil myself can say that I've noted that my awareness has expanded and attachments have lessened after these periods of emotional unrest.

      RB

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