Thanks to my friend Scott Hotalen, who invites me to mention him.
Let’s look at personal interaction. Personal interaction seems to be from one to another, across the space between them. You perceive a gap between what you call you and what you call the other. This perceived space, this sense of otherness, is the ground from which judgment seems sane and necessary.
So when I look at my friend Scott Hotalen, how do I look upon him with sanity?
Remember from the beginning that to see anything particularly good or bad about him is to lose the chance to witness what is actually here always for all. If you see something particularly good about Scott, then you’re going to see yourself as particular and separate, too. Separate ones feed and reject. The perceived good–you will attempt to feed off that. The perceived bad–you will attempt to reject.
You get to decide how you’re going to see Scott. You can see him through the eyes of positive and negative judgment, and this will affect your behavior and experience with him. If you judge him positively or negatively, you’re going to experience thoughts of gaining or losing by his presence. Ego is always about feeding and rejecting.
If you’re accepting egoic thoughts about Scott or anyone, you’re going to put pressure on the separate self to appear a certain way for you. If he defies your expectations, you’re going to lose your peace because your peace was based upon the unreal. Putting pressure on any separate self is putting pressure on your separate self, and you will feel the need to show up for those you call other in particular ways.
You’re also going to experience successive periods of wanting those you see as other to feed upon you (extroversion) or to reject you (introversion). In either case, your peace seems to depend upon feeding or rejection. There is a way out of this grim cycle, and that is by asking to see and hear Scott as he truly Is. It’s asking to be guided fully in your interactions with him by what he actually Is and always has been.
You don’t ask Scott to be one thing or the other in any way. He gets to show up as he truly Is. If you allow him to show up in this way, you allow all to show up in this way. All have this power, to ask to see others as they truly Are, but it involves a giving that you associate with loss unless you remember that giving and receiving are the same.
Give Scott and all those you call other the power of the goodness without opposite that they always have been, and this goodness that never stands in contrast to any perception of badness streams through you, too. It happens simultaneously. You give all to all.
Give all to Scott because that is seeing him as he truly Is–as goodness without opposite. In giving all to Scott, you give all to all you call other, and to yourself. There is no perception of past, no analysis, and no judgment–just awareness. This is not a competition. It’s just a remembrance, and a very happy one.
Okay, so I tend to associate Scott with happiness. There is one I see as other, and I associate her consistently with deep irritation. She came to me recently, and the first thought I heard was this: “Why is she bothering me?” I really did have this sense that she wanted to feed upon me, and I didn’t like it.
When you want people to like you, you want them to feed upon you. Then in the same breath you think you need defenses to protect yourself. It’s a very confusing state of mind.
Oh geez. I really do have to get off this feed and reject merry-go-round.
Yes. All of your perceived-as-personal needs and wants are based on this feeding and rejecting. It’s all perception. By your request, you can be taken out of this perception. You do stand to lose your current perception of all of the things you think you like and all of the comforts that you use to distract yourself from the suffering that comes from this feed and reject merry-go-round, but that’s okay. You’ll just be happy, so you won’t need all of the distractions.
This is why beings disguised as people push happiness away. They know it signals the end of the current perception of comforts and distractions, and they have come to rely upon this perception. They find life unbearable without their perception of comforts and distractions. What if the perceived need for comforts and distractions disappears completely? Ask to have your perception changed, and see what happens.
Usually, when you ask for happiness. you are asking to have all of your personal needs and wants met. What if happiness is seeing all others as they truly Are, entirely free of this cycle of feeding and rejection? Would you allow your perception to change to show you this?
This is how you yourself are freed–by asking consistently to see others as they truly Are. If you free them, you free yourself. If an other can disturb you in any way, it’s because you see them as part of this feeding and rejecting cycle in some way, and you are highlighting the particular way in which you see them.
Remember that they can only be your mirror. They can only show you how you are caught up in the cycle of feeding and rejecting. Ask consistently to see them as they truly Are, and you will see the reflection showing you that you have been freed.
The one who seemed to irritate me, I thought that she had come to me in turmoil, and I thought I wanted none of it. I can see that she is highlighting the turmoil I hold in the gap I perceive between us. This is a gap I hold, with all of its seeming contents, because I still believe I want it.
You still believe there is some threat in the gap between persons that you need to defend against. You still believe there is some reward in the gap between persons that can make you happy. And all you have to do is to ask to see it differently.
Everyone is Spirit, and everyone is omnipresent everywhere. Everyone is goodness without opposite. Do you want to see this? Ask.
When you hold everyone to their separate containers, you will feel them holding you to your perceived separate container. It doesn’t feel good, and it will never feel good. When they seem to think you’re great and wonderful, you get held to your separate container in order to show up as relatively great and wonderful. It’s misery. This is the entire problem of fame right here.
Don’t ask to be thought of as great and wonderful. It’s not soothing. It’s only a temporary trick of seeming soothing. Magic. Illusion.
Ask to see the goodness without opposite that is everywhere, in everyone and everything, and you will feel safe. Give all to all, right now. This is what every moment is for. It’s for the happiness of giving all to all, therefore having all yourself.
Give all goodness without opposite to Scott Hotalen, and see it streaming forth from the one who seemed to come to you in turmoil. Give all goodness without opposite to the one who seemed to want to feed upon you, and be freed from the cycle of feeding and rejecting yourself.
We give thanks for Scott Hotalen because we give thanks for you and all, and we delight in lighting up the path to giving thanks for all.
Love's Beginning 