Remember To Remember
In order to test the traffic-helicopter hypothesis accurately and thereby gain an honest assessment about whether or not inner guidance actually works, you must give it a fair trial. You must deliberately use your mind to listen for the broadcast, intentionally directing your attention toward the Infinite in order to discover whether you actually do access a viewpoint larger than your own. You need to remember to ask for guidance, and to do it frequently.
Instead of driving through life with ground-level vision only - maybe you will hear a little voice telling you what to do and maybe you won't - the new "practice" is to start listening inwardly on a regular basis.
This is where remembering comes in. You must remember frequently during the day to suspend your normal impulses to action and instead ask inwardly for guidance about what to think, say, do, or be. You are conducting a test - an important test.
So decide to give it a try. Decide to check in and ask for guidance every half hour for the rest of the day. When the half hour arrives, ask for guidance about whatever is confronting you at that moment, even if it's something inconsequential like whether you should turn on the TV or not. What you're likely to find is how difficult this is to do at first. You remember to ask, and then, of course, the next thing you know it's been hours since you last asked. The first obstacle to listening is simply forgetting to ask. Therefore, remember to remember. Ask for guidance frequently throughout the day in order to see if the asking brings a response.
A beeper watch is especially useful at this stage as a reminder. You can set it to go off every hour, every half hour, every ten minutes - whatever you want. Each time it beeps, momentarily stop what you are doing, check in with the feeling-tone of your body, relax, and ask inwardly for guidance about whatever you are doing at that moment. There is always something you are making a decision about. The beeper may beep, and in that moment, for example, you may have been wondering whether you should call so-and-so. Instead of mulling it over and making up your mind, use the beeper watch as a reminder to pause inwardly and ask for guidance. Say, "I want to do what You would have me do. Should I make this phone call now or later?" And see what happens. You will have a subtle impulse about what to do. You will not have to figure it out. Then dare to do as you are prompted to do. Eventually the beeper watch will become unnecessary, but at first it can be of tremendous assistance.
One of the most interesting things about using the beeper watch is that it makes you very aware of how easy it is to forget to check in. It will catch you by surprise. Every half hour will seem to come around very quickly. By the end of the day, especially if you have set the watch to go off every ten, twelve, or fifteen minutes, your mind or brain will actually feel tired from having checked in so consistently. At first it will feel like doing mental push-ups, and by the end of the day you will have done quite a few. At first this is tiring. But each time you remember makes it easier to remember again, until eventually you are able to stay in touch all day long without forgetting and without getting tired. In fact, you will be invigorated from having been so consistently in the flow of Being.
Remembering to ask for guidance is an acquired skill. It is something you learn to do. It is also an especially wonderful way of using your memory faculty. Usually when you remember something you are recalling an event that occurred in the past, going back in time. Here, however, you are remembering to be present. You are not using your mind to reactivate a past event. You are enlivening your experience of the present by improving the quality of your "now" participation. You are not remembering an experience, you are remembering to experience. And what you are attempting to experience with as much clarity as possible are your deepest impulses to action.
The impulses you receive from Infinite Mind in response to your asking will bubble up from deep within you and be experienced by you as your deepest impulses and desires. The practice of inner listening, then, is actually relatively easy, and ultimately simple, because your deepest impulses to action are inside you. They are not somewhere else, in someone else, or at a great distance from you. They are in you to be felt by you. They are yours. You simply need to listen quietly for them by sensing deeply into yourself in a relaxed, attentive, and effortless fashion. Yet you need to remember to do it.
Establish the strong intention to remember frequently throughout the day. Be motivated. Be interested in discovering for yourself whether or not you can access guidance through inner listening. Doing this will feel increasingly sensible, more and more the most intelligent thing to do. It is a good thing to be clear about. And when you actually begin to sense the potential for being guided by a cosmic, universal intelligence you'll find yourself lured, drawn by the process. You will not want to forget. You will want to access it more often. You will want to remember. And as you check in for guidance more frequently, it will eventually become all the time - "all the time" meaning "now"- and now - and now.
Remember to ask for guidance every time you think of it and at the very moment you think of it. If when you remember to ask for guidance you think, "Yes, I want to ask for guidance. I'll do that in just a moment," then you are developing the habit of putting it off until later. Be attentive at this point. Do not put it off until later. It takes only an instant, less than a moment, long enough to pause mentally. Putting it off each time you think to ask will only strengthen that tendency within yourself; instead, strengthen your remembering. Ask for guidance immediately each time you think to do it.
Each time you remember to ask for guidance makes it easier the next time. Eventually it will become habitual. When this occurs, it means you have successfully shifted to a new level of awareness, a new way of being, and are now living your life from your conscious connection with the Infinite. Want this. Desire this deeply. Understand how advantageous it is to you and everyone else to function from this awareness of your inherent connection with the All. We are all part of an incredibly vast, majestic and interconnected energy complex. Understanding this - and appreciating this! - is the basis and foundation of yoga. It is the knowledge required for living the divine life.
The best way to improve your ability to remember is by wanting to remember - by seeing the logic, the reason, the sense it makes deliberately to shift from intellectual or conceptual knowing to intuitive knowing. The more you realize how wonderful this is, the more you will desire it - and the more you'll want to remember.
The first obstacle to the regular, habitual use of inner guidance is not remembering to ask. The second obstacle is hearing three or four voices in response to your asking. The problem then becomes which one is real, which one do you trust? This can be quite disconcerting at first because instead of gaining clarity about what to do, you may end up being more confused. Now you've got more choices than ever. But, as before, the best thing to do in this confused state when you are faced with a difficult decision is mentally to stop, become quiet, centered, and still, and then silently ask again.
Ask for clarification. And then be patient as you listen for an answer. Try not to be impatient. If you are splashing around mentally, being impatient and demanding, the waters of your mind will be agitated and muddled, there will be no clarity. But if you are calm and attentive and are truly desirous of an answer to your dilemma, and are therefore listening with open ears, the mental waters will become clear and calm and the most appropriate thing to do will be obvious. The more infinitely patient and open you are, and the less willful and demanding, the easier it will be to hear the answer. The impulse to action or inaction will be obvious and unmistakable. Although this takes practice, it is worth practicing. And you will know this is true in the very first moment when you actually begin to hear an answer.
If you are still confused about what to do, then do the only thing you can. Do the one you trust. You will be drawn to doing one thing more than the other. One of your options will seem the most credible. Do that one. Dare to do the one you trust most, the option that draws you most strongly. And practice on easy things, not on things that make a big difference to you. Practice on things like what to eat, or what to wear, or whether or not you should turn on the TV so that you build up a body of experience that will encourage your growing willingness to follow your inner feeling, as well as improve your ability to hear with clarity. Practice on easy things so that when you are faced with a decision about something that really does matter to you, you'll be in the habit of asking the Infinite for guidance and will have the learned confidence necessary to go with the flow by trusting your deepest impulses.
Now let's say you are driving in your car and you feel like listening to the radio. But just before you reach down to turn it on, you think, "The traffic helicopter! Let me use this moment as an opportunity to say mentally the sentences and practice accessing inner guidance." And so you temporarily suspend your impulse to turn the radio on and instead ask for guidance, saying "I want to do what You would have me do. What would You have me do? Should I turn the radio on or not?" And you listen inwardly. You relax your body and pay attention to what you feel like doing now.
As you pay attention to new subtle promptings from within, you'll notice yourself beginning to sense either a "yes" or "no" answer, and your arm will either feel energized to reach over and turn on the radio or it won't. You'll notice that as you gently pay attention and listen without bias, you'll find yourself quite able to clearly discern the meaning of the inner feeling. Which means asking does evoke a response. This is a new clarity. But it may be suggesting, for example, "No. For the next few minutes do not listen to the radio. Exist without the radio turned on." and you are hearing it clearly. And yet you may still want to listen to the radio. You may be unwilling to suspend your impulse to turn it on even though your inner guidance is clearly suggesting otherwise.
Remembering to ask for guidance and beginning to hear answers with clarity is no longer the problem. Now you find yourself unwilling to do as your guidance is suggesting. This is the third common obstacle.
At this point you will either ignore the guidance and do what you originally wanted to do anyway, or you will let go of what you thought you wanted to do - you'll suspend your desire to turn on the radio - and instead do as the inner feeling is suggesting. For the moment you'll refrain from turning on the radio and instead be open to experiencing whatever experience arises without the radio on.
Not a big deal. Not a big decision. Your life will not be drastically altered by turning or not turning on the radio. You will survive in either case. In all probability you can handle not turning the radio on if that is what the guidance is suggesting. Yet notice how attached we are to doing what we want to do! We squirm a little even on easy things like this. We want things our way, and this is understandable.
The important point to keep in mind is that whenever you ask for guidance, it is always because you have to make a decision. You are confronted with a choice, and having a choice always means that you are not clear. Now it is not "bad" to be unclear, but it is unintelligent to make decisions based on limited data when you have such easy access to more. It is no longer intelligent to make decisions by yourself without first consulting the Infinite within, especially now that you know about the traffic helicopter, the aerial perspective, and Infinite Mind. And it takes less than a moment to do this.
What's really important is the increasing willingness on your part to release your need to do what you want to do and gladly to do what the inner feeling suggests. Not heeding the guidance, especially once you start hearing it clearly, is like continuing to go straight because the road looks clear even though the traffic broadcast is blaring loudly and clearly about a traffic jam three miles ahead. So, observe yourself in easy situations such as wanting to listen to the radio. Notice when you are willing to do what the inner prompting suggests to you and notice when you aren't. Willingness has a different feeling-tone from resistance and unwillingness. Become familiar with both.
Notice when you are willing to follow the guidance, and notice when you ignore it to do what you want to do. And be aware of the different feeling-tone of each of these responses. Be aware of how you feel when you flow with guidance and of how you feel when you ignore it. How do you actually feel when you stay fluid compared to when you are willful and controlling? Don't think too much or argue about the differences in your mind. Simply feel the difference.
This simple awareness is guaranteed to make you more willing, fluid, and at ease, and more consistently desirous of wanting to do only what the inner feeling prompts you to do - whether "you" want this or not. This occurs because inner guidance is really the most intelligent way to go about navigating your life, and also because being fluid and "going with the flow" feels so much better than being stiff, contracted, controlling, and willful.
And what's both mysterious and wonderful about this is that you change and embrace the guidance because you want to! You're doing what "you" want to do still, but now you are wanting to do God's Will. In a sense, you have shifted allegiance from your will to God's Will, and yet, in another sense, your allegiance is still the same. You are still interested in your own well-being and preferences, as you should be, but you are now more intelligent about how to secure them. You have found a better way of making decisions and being happy in the deepest sense. You are less addicted to doing what you thought you wanted to do and are instead more interested in knowing what the aerial perspective suggests you do.
Your attitude now is, "Thy Will be done." You want to do what Infinite Mind, God, suggests you do. You've learned enough to know that God's Will is what you want for you and no longer to ignore the guidance. You therefore voluntarily release your own tiny, little will - the sense of you that you thought was you - and join your will with God's. This "joining" is the meaning of yoga. In one sense, however, no joining actually occurs - because the parts were never really separate.
At this point of "joining," miracles start to happen. Spontaneous evidences of an underlying harmony and order begin to manifest in your experience. Now that you are asking for guidance and are, in effect, allowing yourself to be filled with what God is, you will start experiencing more energy and more love. More love-energy will start flowing through you. This makes your relationships, your contacts with other people, the events of your day, and your thoughts more powerful, more potent, more transformational.
Yet we are strongly attached to doing what we habitually want to do. This is where detachment comes in. Detachment is the ability or willingness to suspend what you think you want and instead remain fluid enough to flow with inner guidance. This is truly the most intelligent way to act. You'll find yourself using guidance voluntarily with full conviction and enthusiasm once you understand that the helicopter does indeed have the superior perspective. Infinite Mind sees what's happening to you and your life better than you do. It is infinitely more intelligent. Therefore it is to your personal advantage to do only what it suggests. It is no longer intelligent or fulfilling to decide by yourself or to attempt to solve your problems and issues without consulting it.
When you pause and ask for guidance, stop moving physically. Relax your body, breathe gently, and be aware of the feeling-tone of your body. This will move your awareness to your actual now-experience. Then listen inwardly as though you were waiting to hear a message. The inner feeling will give you a subtle, internal prompting about what to do or not do. All you do is pay attention and listen.
If something is right for you, it will feel right; if something is not right for you, it will feel wrong. This is logical, sane, practical, reliable, and easy to detect. Simply go by that which feels right. Let go of everything you think you know and experience the inner directive with clarity.
It will quickly become apparent that your interests are best served by following your inner feeling. You will also learn that the universal guidance that you can access through inner listening implies an enlarged and expanded self-concept: You are bigger than you thought you were. You really are a part of the One, an individual expression of universal Consciousness. And by tuning in to your own unique feeling-tone, felt most distinctly in the area of your heart, you avail yourself of the wisdom and guidance of the whole. And you will feel the difference this self-image makes in your daily experience of life.
At first, however, the idea of being guided by a "cosmic, universal intelligence" may seem strange, unreliable, unrealistic - perhaps irresponsible. The thought of trusting what feels right may even be frightening because we do not know ourselves well and are generally accustomed to navigating our lives by intellectual bias. Transcending the intellect seems foolish. It is, however, extremely reasonable.
Remember that you don't have to follow the inner feeling, you can always do anything you please. But as you penetrate stillness and experience yourself with clarity, evaluating the guidance you receive, you will be amazed at the superiority of its intelligence and insight. And because you have been so pure in your approach, alert to the possibilities of self-deception and honest in your intent to know the truth, you will be more convinced than ever.
This approach passes all the tests. Accessing inner guidance truly is the superior approach. Your mind will understand this and will be answered, silenced. It will gradually cease to voice objections or persuade you to do things that do not feel right. Rather, it will assist and applaud your every willingness to hear and follow the inner directive. This is not the abandonment of reason or intellect, but the flowering of reason, the intellect at its best. It is, in fact, where reason will ultimately lead you. Your mind, after reviewing all the evidence, will gladly choose intuitive knowing.
Sense yourself deeply, pay attention to your own unique feeling-tone, and allow the inner feeling to guide, direct, and advise you about your actions, words, and thoughts. Pursue that which feels right, attracts you. Do the things you like to do. Honor your deepest feelings and live the life that fulfills you and makes you happy.
The more you do this, the more refined your attractions will become. They will self-correct and change, and what used to attract you may no longer do so. One thing is certain, however. Your individual attractions and desires will come into alignment with those of the whole. What is best for you is best for the universe, and vice versa - and what is best for you is what makes you happy.
Your happiness and the universe's happiness are one and the same. This is important. It's true because you and the universe are one. You are not a separate entity somehow disconnected from the All. Herein lies the key to the whole thing: The universe is already happy! God is already happy! Consciousness is Happiness!
If you are experiencing unhappiness, it is always because you are not in touch with your core or with what's really true. You are misunderstanding things. In those moments you have forgotten your unalterable connection with the whole. You have identified yourself with something else and are, therefore, defining yourself as a separate being. You can do this because you have free will, but the unhappiness you subsequently experience will be the painful and direct result of thinking and believing yourself to be separate and alone, which makes you afraid. But you are not separate, you can never be separate, and thinking you are does not make it true. It makes you fearful and unhappy. It cuts you off from your conscious connection with the oneness, your true identity, and deprives you of intuitive knowing. These are not the ingredients of happiness. Therefore, what to do? Realign yourself with the creative God Force. Rejoin. Remember .
This is so easy to do and so tremendously important. And as you remember to ask for guidance frequently throughout your day, and as you dare to do as you are prompted from within, you are literally living yoga - living your life from your new understanding of being yoked to the Infinite. You will become increasingly happy, increasingly in harmony with everything around you, and increasingly in receivership of a steady stream of guidance from a reservoir of wisdom infinitely larger than your limited personal data bank of knowledge. Living your life like this is what yoga is really all about. This is how the world will grow into a more obvious manifestation of goodness.
You learn to be guided by the inner feeling in the postures and meditations. As you learn it there, within the safe arena of your own home, you will naturally start doing it everywhere. What was a specific learning becomes a generalized knowing. Yoga is your constant way of life.
When you are in the supermarket buying apples, mentally ask, "Should I buy red, green, or yellow apples?" 'Then buy the ones you are prompted to buy. When you are getting dressed, mentally ask, "Should I wear the red shirt or the blue shirt today?" Wear the one you are prompted to wear. When you reach down to turn on the radio, mentally ask, "Should I listen to the radio right now or not?'' Do not just mechanically turn it on. When you are driving home and you have the choice of turning left or right at an intersection, mentally ask, "Should I turn left or right today?" Turn the direction you are prompted to turn. Who knows, there may be something down the alternate route that would be interesting or valuable for you to see. Do this all day long, as many moments of the day as possible. Ask for guidance on easy, inconsequential things such as these and practice doing what the inner feeling suggests. Remember to do this.
Lie on your back and be perfectly still. Thank Infinite Mind for Its guidance during the day and reaffirm your dedication to listening for and carrying out God's Will, your will - the Will of the All expressing Itself as you. If there is an issue in your life that needs resolution or clarification, ask for help while you sleep. Then breathe gently and feel the energy that you are, the Consciousness or Mind that you are, the Spirit that you are, the Love that you are. Relax inside and sleep.