Dear Friends,
This week's quote is from spiritual awareness class A/V Seminar 30, which will be published in Volume 13 of The Living Light Dialogue. It is an extended conversation between the teacher and a student. The student's words are italicized.
“See, if you don’t care about the temple of God, if you don’t care about your body, then you can’t expect any joy to come out of it. If you don’t care about your thinking, if you don’t care about your attitude, then you can’t expect to get any joy out of it. Because you can only get out of anything what you put in. And if you’re not getting something out of anything that you think you’re putting something into, stop, pause, become alert, aware, and awake, because the truth is you’re not putting anything in because we get out what we put in. So if you’re not getting joy out, you’re not putting care in. You see. It’s like a person, you know, perhaps they have a pet. They have a dog, a cat, or something. They have a little pet, and they say, “Well, this pet has become a burden to me. It’s getting inconvenient. It’s a constant hassle. I got to take care of this. When I want to do something, I got to look after my pet.” All right?
Right.
You no longer experience any joy from your pet because you’re not putting any care into your pet.
Right.
You see, that’s the thing about life. We really do get out of life what we put in. As we put less in, we get less out. Do you understand?
Yes, I do.
You see, it’s like a marriage. If you really put something into a marriage, then you get something out of a marriage. But if you don’t put anything in and you wake up one day and say, “I’m not getting anything out of this contract, this institution I’ve created,” then you’ve got to get a different perspective because you really, you’re not putting anything in. Now you may have put in something during the honeymoon, you understand?
Sure.
But the mind is thinking about those two months, or three, or six or whatever it was.
Right.
It’s not thinking about the daily process of putting something in.
Right.
Do you understand?
Yes, I do.
So often the mind, we permit it to deceive us. We tell our self, “Oh, you know, when I first got married it was such a wonderful experience, etc.” And then years pass by and it’s miserable. There’s no joy in the marriage. There’s no joy in the relationship. There’s no joy of any kind. There’s only a drudgery and it’s a real effort to even go home. Right?
Right.
But the person thinking that way, with that type of an attitude, keeps reminding themselves of how much they’re putting in. But they are deceiving themselves because they are thinking about their effort during the early stages. They’re not thinking about the day-to-day effort that is required.
Right.
Do you understand?
Sure.
It takes day-to-day effort.
Right.
Because you are working not just with yourself, hopefully with yourself, you’re constantly being tempted, you see. Convenience is a trap that a wise man doesn’t tempt himself into. You see, without conscious awareness, you find yourself becoming more and more dependent. [You] don’t even think about the dependence. Well, the person [says], “Where are they? Five minutes past and they’re still not here!” And all of these various patterns of mind, you see, these habits, they start growing very strongly, and they reveal the dependence that is taking place. Yes.
Right.
And so a person becomes, in a situation like that, much more aware of what the other person is not doing than what they are really doing themselves. You see?
Yes.
So they stop and say, “Well, they’re not doing this anymore. They’re not doing that, that, that, that, that, that.” But you have to understand that during the early stages, you see, what is known as the romancing stages, all of the energies and efforts were going in to please the other person. And the other person was putting all their efforts in to please that person, because, you see, they want something out for they have denied what they have.
Right.
They’ve denied it all exists within their own consciousness. Do you understand that?
I do.
Does that help? Does that answer your question?
Yes, it does. Thank you.
Yes. You see, they lose their individuality. They lose their individual—remember, whatever you begin to depend upon, you do so at the sacrifice of your individual freedom.
Thank you.
I am pleased to announce that Volume 12 of The Living Light Dialogue has just been published. It contains 19 spiritual awareness classes, known as the A/V Seminars, that were given to a small group of students. Although the classes touch upon a wide variety of topics, many primarily focus on one topic. One class is dedicated to what we will experience when we pass on and leave our physical forms. As with the other volumes, Volume 12 is available on Amazon, Serenity's website, and may be ordered from your local bookstore. A PDF of the volume is also available on Serenity's website. Considering the costs of mailing and where you live, the total cost may be less expensive if you purchase your copy from Amazon or your local bookstore.
Those who are new to Serenity, you will find recent quotes on Serenity's Facebook Fanpage and that is also where you can join students of the Living Light from around the world to ask questions and share your understanding. I hope you will join the conversation.
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Sincerely yours,
Russell Fitzgerald
Vice President
Serenity Association
P.O. Box 4187
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