Live and Let Live

When people laugh, they can all laugh at the same thing. When you can sit down and laugh over an action, your spirits can lift rather rapidly. The joy and the good feeling that come forward can lift you. – John-Roger

This article was first published in the Movement Newspaper, October 1973.

There are truths that will work for you if you can recognize them. Some truths are so obvious that of course, you know them. For example, if you were to take an object and drop it, you know that it would fall. It’s called “gravity”. It’s a truth, a natural law. There is another truth that says, “As you set out an action, you will receive it”—or in Biblical terms, “As you sow, so you reap.” This is a truth.

But because there is often such a length of time between the action that goes out and the one you receive in return, you don’t see the connection; you don’t see the pattern of cause and effect. So you have to go through it again and again. Eventually, your memory may start picking up, and you’ll say. “This pattern is like the last one, and you say. “I have been going through this same pattern for three or four years. Why did I have to wait until now to see it?”

It’s the same reason that other things didn’t happen before: the timing wasn’t right: you weren’t consciously ready to see it that way. When you are ready in your consciousness, it opens and the information rolls in to you. For example, We’ll read a book and think that it was a very good book. Then somebody else will read it and get something entirely different. He’ll start talking about some part, and you’ll think, “I didn’t read that; I didn’t get that at all.” So you go back and read it again-and there it is. Yet you had missed that meaning the first time.

But an example that is even more obvious is when yon put your car keys down some place, and then hunt all over the house for them; you can’t find them. Later you come back to where you started, and there they are. And then you remember putting there. But you couldn’t see them before, even though you were looking right at them.

When you are ready to open and receive, the opportunities are there.

Most of the time, if you wouldn’t start looking for the car keys, you’d be able to walk right to where they are and pick them up, because the subconscious mind knows where the keys are: it knows where it put them. The conscious mind stands in the way and thinks it knows where they are. It starts setting up ideas like, “They must be here, or here, or here.” So if they’re not there, it can become a little frustrating: “Where are those keys? I know I didn’t put them over there.” And even after you find the keys there and put them in your pocket, you may still be upset because you know you didn’t put the keys down there; and yet, there they were.

You can call it a “psychokinetic phenomenon” and say “spirits” did it, if you have to blame it on something. Or, if you live with somebody else, he may get the blame because it will be very easy to place the blame “out there.” He did it. He can deny it, but it’s not going to change anything, because even if he says he didn’t, you know he did: and that’s that. Argument ensues; each one defends himself and his point of view, and things can get pretty uptight.

A long time ago I was talking with a friend of mine, and I brought up the point of view that I always called her before I went over to her home. She said, “Not always. Sometimes you haven’t called first.” And I said, “That’s not true. I always call first. When haven’t I?” And she looked at me, laughed, and said, “On December 28th, last year.” And that ended that. We both just laughed and laughed.

Two hours later it was still funny, because I had insisted on proving my point of view, and she had figured, “If you are going to insist, here you are.” If I’d have said, “No,” she would probably have said, “December 29th.” And if I’d said, “No,” she could have said, “The 26th.” She’d have kept it up until I said, “Yeah, okay,” But what was beautiful was that instead of getting uptight about it and defending herself, she didn’t resist; she just went right along with my defensive point of view and changed the whole situation into one of humor and laughter.

These situations can get a little tight if you aren’t careful about your attitude. So often, you have to be right. You can’t be wrong. But when you are wrong and it is pointed up to you very humorously, you can accept it. And then you can grow so much faster. When people laugh, they can all laugh at the same thing. When you can sit down and laugh over an action, your spirits can lift rather rapidly. The joy and the good feeling that come forward can lift you. When you start expressing your higher consciousness, it is so joyful. And when you can allow other people to express to you, their joy can become your joy. But you have to allow them to express the way they feel is right for them. You can really let people express themselves any way they want to, as long as they are not harming anyone else. You might see where they could say something differently, but you can get their message anyway. You can see what they are expressing; that is important. If they don’t want to express at all, they don’t have to. It doesn’t change anything.

People have a reason for what they say, and sometimes it is based on something that you or I might not know about. You can’t deny them their right to say whatever they want to, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone. You can accept what they say and go along with them, but that doesn’t mean you have to believe what they say. Whether or not you believe what they tell you, you can accept it and move yourself into a position of understanding.

There is a reason people say what they say, rather than saying something else. There is a reason people have an illusion in one way and not in another way. There is a reason you dream the dream you do, rather than dreaming something else. Even though the reasons may not be apparent, out of the infinite choices that exist in the world, there are reasons that people choose one particular expression over another. And all of these factors are very important, and you must begin to recognize this.

Many people will say, “That can’t be true.” There is a reason why they are saying that, rather than saying, “I believe it.” There is a reason behind it. Maybe they are insecure; maybe there is a split between their subconscious and conscious minds. Maybe the subconscious is not giving any support to the conscious mind, and they must support themselves consciously all the time. These factors will make a difference in a person’s expression. The person whose subconscious and conscious levels are connected together and are working together toward the same goals will not express so many insecurities or doubts or fears. He won’t have to pound down his neighbor or rip someone else apart, so he can look better in comparison.

Whenever someone throws a barb at somebody else, verbally, physically, or any other way, look carefully, because that barb is connected somehow to the one who throws it. All you have to do is take what was said and follow it back, and you can find the source that propelled it out. When you know the source, you can understand it much more readily. By understanding it, you won’t have to get involved emotionally with it. If you can keep your emotions back, you can work in greater balance and freedom.

“It was tremendous, wonderful, the greatest thing I’ve ever seen! I loved it!” expresses an extreme of emotion. “It’s no good. It’s evil. I hate it,” also expresses an extreme. If you can keep from either extreme and bring yourself into balance so that for every thought there is a feeling and for every feeling there is a thought, you can really have a beautifully balanced life.

And as you bring your life into balance on the physical level, and as you bring your emotions and your thoughts into balance, you will find other levels of expression and higher levels of awareness opening up to you. You will then begin to lift your consciousness from the considerations of the physical, material world into the greater realities of the spiritual worlds. The opportunities and the possibilities are infinite.

Baruch Bashan,

John-Roger