Step Out of the Story of Yourself and Be Free

There are valuable things we can learn from history that serve as examples of something greater for us. During the conflicts of World War I and II, lots of countries were involved, including all of Europe. An American spy was sent to Europe to help the underground there. He was told before he left: Know your enemies, and know your allies. Realize that your enemies and your allies will always be changing from one day to the next, so be sure to stay in contact with us by means of your radio set, so that you will not be betrayed by someone you believe to be your friend.

Do we realize that we are in a war every day of our lives, and that every day we are a casualty of that war? Why is this so? Because we don't know our enemies from our friends. Tonight's talk will study a particular enemy of our soul. That enemy is anxiety, and demonstrates itself in many forms, such as rushing, a busy mind, the inability to be alone and silent. Anxiety also has a hidden ally, and it is fear.

The problem is, whenever we feel anxious, we are sure that anxious feeling is necessary, and that we are serving our own best interests. We do not see what IS, because what we FEEL is doing the seeing for us. But since feelings don't actually see anything, we are blind to what is really happening. We are asleep in a special kind of "story" that the mind invents and tells us is real. But it is a total fabrication of our present nature, which will do anything to continue in its own story.

The root reason for anxiety is fear of loss, and so rushing, for instance, stems from a feeling of being incomplete, and the accompanying desire to do something to make ourselves complete so we will feel better. Nothing can be missing from our life in the moment! The only thing we can add to the perfect moment is pain, through pursuing what we believe we need to complete our story. It's hell to live in that story of our own making. What we need to understand is that it is the Story-Teller itself that is the cause of our nightmare.

But, there is a completely different story. Our little story takes place inside a far Greater Story. And that Story is about inheriting the Kingdom, not about any of the things the Kingdom contains. Our little story tells us we must protect what we have managed to gain in this world. We must see that involvement in our little story actually precluded us from seeing the Greater Story that is always running concurrently with our own. There is never just one story!

Story: A man, a nature lover, mountain climber, a man with a right heart, who has begun to love the presence of a story that is not his own. One day he is high on a mountain, and observes another man, in the valley below who is in a lot of trouble. On one side coming at him is a herd of stampeding buffalo. On another side is a cougar crouching and ready to attack. On a third side are two giant grizzly bears, and on the last side there is a rock slide ready to bury him. Our hero thinks the poor man is doomed, but as he watches the man whispers something into the ears of the cougar and the grizzly bears, and the stampeding buffalo and the rock slide parts for him as they pass him by, and he is unharmed by all those dangers. Our hero is amazed and he makes his way down the mountain to talk to the man. When he finds the man he asks him, "What did you say to them?" And the man says, "It was no magic. I just say, 'I'm taking myself out of this story.' Then I actually have to DO it."

Catch yourself, and take yourself out of your own small story, although nothing in you will want to do it. The Greater Story is the True Ground. It wants you to have it as your story. But your present nature prevents that from happening. Whenever you see something true, you are being touched by the Greater Story that is running alongside yours. Be grateful for those moments. Don't be satisfied living in the storybook world you were born into, where every solution unravels as the pages continue to flip.

The Field of Life is not the same as the objects in it. The Field is perfect peace. It is the Story that holds all things. If you are feeling bad, it is because you are in the story of yourself. But know that story is just a tiny part of the Whole Story. The Field is the whole of life. Awareness is a field of shared presence. There is an emptiness we feel when we enter that Field. But the emptiness is a lie. In reality, the Great Story has no beginning and no ending.