“Everybody has some form of addiction. Even if it doesn’t ruin your life, there is some form of attachment. Who amongst us doesn’t have attachment? We all do. It goes with a body. Bodies have attachment.” – John Morton
This article comes from a sharing session John Morton had with the DSS class (Doctor of Spiritual Science) in January 2021. Following the article is a prayer by John from his book, “You Are the Blessings.”
Everybody has some form of addiction. Even if it doesn’t ruin your life, there is some form of attachment. Who amongst us doesn’t have attachment? We all do. It goes with a body. Bodies have attachment. They have magnetism and they get polarized. We’re just talking about degrees.
If you try directing yourself with an intention, maybe a New Year’s resolution, something like, “I’m going to clear myself of my attachments, addictions, obsessions and compulsions,” I’m already laughing. Why do you want to beat the hell out of yourself? You may say, “Well, I didn’t do what I said I was going to do. I lied to myself and that means I’m despicable and should be ashamed. God is just going to get rid of me because I’m a no-good failure and reject.”
This is what goes on in the reflective evaluation of things like addictions and attachments where we have an idea, desire or a want and then we don’t fulfill it. The negative power likes to play in that wedge between your true nature which is holy, good and divine. That true nature doesn’t have any frailties, transgressions, or sins. It is pure, whole and complete. The nature of what that is, is eternal. It doesn’t allow itself to be mucked up by an attachment or addiction.
Well then, what are we doing here? I’d say we’re setting ourselves up to allow the Christ to complete what we don’t know how to complete. Do you have that willingness? It’s also asking, “Can I get God as my partner? Can I go direct? I know the Christ is a nice being and all, but I’d rather just deal with the big fellow. The one that has all the powers, because God can do it. Okay?” So, God’s your partner. Like a “one and only”.
You can say, “I don’t need another partner. If I’ve got God as my partner, the position is filled. I thought I needed a set of partners and the attachment somehow messed it up. I just replaced them with another partner, and when that one messed it up, I replaced them with the next partner.” So now let’s get one that is going to do the job completely and it doesn’t get messed up.
It is a law of God that your Soul will not be lost or forsaken. It will not be forever in bondage or eternal damnation. I can go ahead and claim that, but your mind might not trust that. We’ll put your mind in there also. Go ahead and claim it. Make a decision. It is a decision, so do it in that way. You decide, “God is my partner and God is going to complete.”
Then God said, “I’m going to use my anointed one, so they come with you in a form like you. It will be like a partner that’s a friend or companion. What is done is inside of you, although we can show it to you outside.”
Greater is the one within you than the one in the world. Remember that. Don’t get caught in the one in the world because they are going to be doing what humans do. You’ve got to give them some slack. They are like you. If you think they don’t have human frailties and their own set of attachments or addictions, you might be surprised. They do. But they hold themselves up so they are in God’s promise and fulfillment. Because they are doing something like a demonstration, they can show you a demonstration of how this could work in a human condition that is overly involved with an addiction or attachment.
I’ll just make it really simple, so it’s almost like that’s not a problem. Do the best you can to clear yourself. You may say, “Look, my batting average ain’t so hot. I don’t know my grade, but it’s not high. I don’t look at it like I’ve done an excellent job of taking care of myself or I wouldn’t have this addiction. I don’t even qualify for excellence if I’m addicted to something.” That’s okay, because Christ is excellence. It is still something like you. We need some room here. You’ve got to give yourself some slack.
There is a place in John-Roger’s teachings where he talked about being in a room with people doing heroin, cocaine or this or that. There are other addictions that are not about substance abuse. There were people doing all kinds of addictions. Which one is hardest on the Soul? Some say it is something like violence. That’s where we say, “Don’t hurt yourself and don’t hurt someone else.” That just doesn’t fly well in this level. Don’t give up. Keep going. Have your faith. It’s not a matter of the god of opinion. Don’t worry about other people. It’s you and God. Conduct it that way. It’s like saying, “Okay God, I’m going to do the best I can.”
The things you do where you feel guilty or ashamed or whatever, that is not really helping. It’s not an issue with God. It doesn’t make you a reject or stop God’s love and adoration of you. God doesn’t view you as what you do in your body or that your body is some kind of form that makes mistakes. It is not a real issue to God. It can be an issue about, “Have you learned how to love yourself?” What is that answer?
I encourage you to claim, “Yes, I have learned how to love myself. I just don’t always do it. I’m a temporary lover of myself. Sometimes I don’t really measure up with my loving.” That’s okay because the Christ can love you anyway. Then you can have the experience that there is this amazing grace that loves you anyway.
Do you want to take hold of that truth? This, again, would be to be your own friend and forgive yourself. You would have compassion for yourself, not just with an addiction, but for anything and everything you’ve done that in some way is a transgression or not in your best interest. What does the Christ do with this? Does it beat the hell out of us as the best way to discipline us? No. I don’t think that’s the best way at all, to punish or try to hurt somebody.
Maybe you’ve had enough of that. You need to let go of the idea that there is something wrong with God when you do these things. God’s got a mercy, and that mercy we also call forgiveness. God forgives, but there is still an invitation to love yourself and care for yourself. God’s compassion is unending, so it doesn’t really count how many times you transgressed or did something stupid. It doesn’t matter. Get up one more time.
What if I fall again? Then you get up one more time. There’s a wonderful teaching from John-Roger that comes in here beautifully. “Minimize the downtime.” When you have a fall, a faltering, go down and then give yourself over, how do you get ahold of yourself? That’s a nice question. Get a hold of yourself.
“What if I don’t? I don’t like it when I say I’m going to stop and then I don’t stop.” Okay, that is the pattern and you are aware of it. By now you probably realize there are no surprises anymore. It’s like, “I’ve done it all repeatedly. I stopped it. I didn’t stop it. So, what’s the point?” The point is you could do better, but you need to do it in such a way that you don’t hurt yourself.
If you have a relapse or an indulgence, get to calling it something that is rather neutral. You are helping your mind to understand that you’re going to be something like a temporary quitter. It’s called, “I’m going on the wagon again.” That could be minutes. “I was on the wagon for two minutes. Is that really on the wagon?” I don’t care.
You have to keep talking to yourself in some way where you are smarter than your dumbness, more favorable towards your smart self who has some good ideas. The dumb part may set it up like a demand and then if you go off with an attitude of “or else”, you may then try to punish yourself. You’ve done that and it didn’t really work. That is my point. Just get up again and keep going towards what is smart. It’s smart to get up again. Keep being smart. Do something to satisfy the addiction but where you are doing less damage.
Have people in your life who hold up a mirror and reflect to you, but in a good and loving way. Maybe they even enable you with your addictions, but there is something in helping where you realize you’re enabling. You might as well say, “Yeah, I’m doing it. I’m indulging.” Do something that keeps taking down the irritation, disgust and sense of betrayal towards yourself. Take that stuff down.
I hope you have been hearing the part I’ve been sharing that has mercy and a Christ in it that knows who you are. What would take account of your life in such a way? You may fool a lot of people in this world, but you won’t fool Spirit. Forget about that. Spirit knows.
You are still here. Get that loud and clear. If you are still in MSIA, the Master’s or Doctorate class, and the Traveler is talking to you, taking time from other people who also want to share, there must be something there. You’re in the Movement, front and center. You are not on the edge hanging by your fingernails falling in the great fall. The loyal forces of the opposition aren’t cheering like, “We got another one.” No. If that were the truth you wouldn’t be here.
When people disconnect from the Movement, it’s like they go to sleep. They go away and stop being involved. They find all kinds of reasons not to be involved, but they basically go away. They don’t connect with the Traveler. They don’t talk or write to the Traveler. More importantly, they don’t call the Traveler forward inside of themselves. They stop. They put other things first. That’s not you. You call on the Traveler something like every day. Right? Well, it’s working.
The closeness to the Traveler within you is what really counts. You can’t fake that. It will be shown to you, and not necessarily in a way that people are very conscious of. They may think, “I’m doing other things in my life now. I’ve learned the teachings. They’re not really interesting to me anymore.” But are they living the teachings? There’s the rub.
If you are living the teachings, your ordinariness and humanity can still carry a dose of judgment. That’s not unusual. All of us could raise our hand on that one. But there’s a greater one in you as you come into that presence of the Lord that is holding the keys to the Traveler Consciousness. As you go up, when you meet up with that form of the Traveler, at every station and place along the way, it’s hard not to shake. It is hard to open your eyes in its presence. It’s hard to speak. It’s got an awesome, but not fearsome, quality. That power is mighty.
What you carry as a negative indulgence is nothing. It’s no-thing. Your real intention is to be with the Beloved, to come close. Some people don’t want to confess. They don’t want to say what their indulgences, addictions, sins or transgressions are. They don’t want to bring it up. They want to pretend it’s hidden and not known. Do you know by now that it’s foolish to think the Lord of Lords would not know everything? And it still takes us, even with our pretenses, if we will come to the place where the Lord is. That place is often where you have to “come as you are”. You can’t come hidden.
I often say the primary occupation in the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness in this world is clearing. Get the stink, the unclean and unclear off you. Let it go. It is primarily in your judgment. That’s where you hold an againstness towards yourself because of what you did or allowed. Not just in this lifetime, but in all your existence.
We have to hold it up so we forgive it all. We bless it all. We love it all. The Christ is already doing that. If you are with the Christ and invite that consciousness to be up close and personal with you, we take a baptism. It’s a royal cleansing. Then there is a baptism of fire, which is a purification. What gets burned up is not you, but if you’re attached to it, that’s too close. Just release it.
If you are going to get close to the Lord, you’re going to clean up. You are going to take a baptism and do the purification. Does it have to be in one day? If you can do that, do it. Go for it. But it often takes time. God is practical, taking something like six days to create the world. What took you so long, God? “I was enjoying myself creating more aspects and elements, because it would just be so much fun to be here. I’m going to make this place convergent. A unique place in all creation where it’s all here.”
What are you going to choose? What is your life going to be about? You can go in any direction. You can go dark and negative, or you can go to the brightest light in the same place! I go, wow, that’s a spectacular creation! It’s all convergent. Why not converge it so your life becomes the Holy Spirit?
The Christ walks with you as you. When you are onto what is really good and divine in your life, there is laughter and joy. There’s peace and harmony. Whatever you are doing in your life, be smart. Go ahead and claim that God’s got you.
Baruch Bashan
Prayer
Lord God, once again we give thanks for the opportunity to be with You. We ask that You bring us forward from whatever we have chosen that would keep us lagging or restricted from knowing You.
Lift us from our pretenses and falsehoods that we have placed before ourselves as judgments and false knowledge. We ask that You take away the illusion and that You may assist us, regardless of what we have done.
We come to You in grace, to the door of forgiveness. Restore our joy and courage, that we can go through each day and whatever meets us, knowing the blessings of each moment and being glad in what we behold as eternal truth.
We bring our enthusiasm to do the best we can. We trust that You are always with us and that You have prepared the way.
There is nothing against us that will ever last. Whatever negativity we find shall not prevail. We are resurrected in the Christ. The Holy Spirit is our companion.
You bring the Lord’s hand to touch us, strength to lift us, vision to look upon Your face, Light to let us see the truth, and wisdom to know that Your will is done. And we find everlasting peace in Your loving embrace.
Baruch Bashan.
