An Intensive Course for Graduating from the Childhood of the Soul (3)

(Continued from last time)

★To Graduate from the Childhood of the Soul

And now here’s the main point. The proper starting point, the desirable source, of the thought “I want to be acknowledged” is the standpoint of divine recognition that what you’re trying to do is already done, already complete, or already accomplished.

Before being acknowledged by others, it’s good to stand there and at the same time send out a consciousness in which you yourself have fully acknowledged yourself from the beginning.

That acknowledging consciousness is not a shallow recognition that tries to force itself to believe. It’s acknowledging with the same feeling with which you know as a matter of course, without looking in a mirror, that your face comes standard with eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

And the angle and direction that thought should head in is not from incomplete to complete, from unfinished to finished, nor aiming from unaccomplished to accomplished. On the contrary, it’s good to first picture vividly in your heart the fully accomplished form or the desired completed shape, work backward from that goal to where you are now, and from there, heading toward completeness, completion, and accomplishment, pile up the causes that lead there.

Small children are one thing, but once you’re an adult, before wishing to be acknowledged by others, what’s important is first to acknowledge yourself.

Even if you think your present self falls short of divinity, even if you think your thoughts, words, and deeds aren’t admirable, those are only the tip of the iceberg carried along by habit, only a tiny part of your whole life appearing. So it’s good to embrace yourself however you are, just as you are, and turn it over into the divinity you are.

What becomes important for that is the search for truth: what is a human being in the first place?

So now let’s confirm from the standpoint of truth. Do you understand that a human being is a created creature, and at the same time the Creator who creates, the holder of divine consciousness?

And as I said a moment ago, do you understand that within one person’s heart there is the thought of wanting to be acknowledged, and at the same time the consciousness that acknowledges?

Having built up this recognition of the present situation from the true viewpoint, the important recognition to plant in your heart is that, once grown up, everyone must acknowledge themselves.

That’s not something to demand of others.

People who can’t acknowledge themselves, however much others acknowledge them, overturn it and crawl into a cave of self-denial.

We don’t need to tell you this; if you look back on how you and others have lived until now, it’s one of those all-too-human things, right?

This recognition is something important, the backbone of your thoughts, so to speak. It gives you the important realization that you yourself can straighten and stretch your own spine, and it nurtures an independent consciousness of the soul that doesn’t seek love outside. (Continued next time)