Give To Take 

I recently had a couple of small aha’s that helped me to understand Sidi’s phrase “give to take” in a deeper way.  It will seem like I’m rambling a bit at first, but I promise I will get to the point eventually.

The first aha came after a conversation with another woman.  She was telling me that in a couple of weeks, there was going to be an opening for a promotion and she expected to get it.  As we were talking I was thinking that if I were in the same position I would be hoping that I would get it, but I wouldn’t expect it.  When this promotion opportunity came, not only did she get a promotion, but it was for a position that was 2 levels above her current one, and a position she didn’t even know was available.

As it happens, my husband calls me from work everyday and talks to me for about ½ hour.  We often talk about success and how to be successful, both personally and professionally.  I told him about this conversation and that I thought the key to why this woman always seemed to get what she wanted was because of certainty.  She went into the meeting with certainty that she would get a promotion and she got it.  He told me that this was the whole point in affirmations, goal setting, and even hypnosis.  That saying affirmations and writing goals are ways to create conviction, or the belief that you would get the thing you wanted, because you now believed that you had taken steps that were needed to allow you to get your goals.  By taking these steps, people begin to believe that they can have these things.

This reminded me of a teaching from Path To Allah which I will read .  This is from the chapter on “The Reproachful Nafs The Second Station” (page 135).

“Goodness is connected to the great essence, which is perceived only through the cleaning of the heart, which becomes a witnessing through tasting.  If you know this, then you know four things: there is nothing that can oppose the power of Allah; Allah has knowledge of everything; Allah is very tender and the Most Merciful; and all actions of Allah are good.  Whoever knows these matters is not afraid of the plottings of the envious and has no fear of people or of shaitan. So, O traveler, hold onto these four knowings, contemplate their meanings, be truthful in your turning to Allah, and do not turn to anything that does not concern you.  When you truly know that Allah has power over everything, this increases your himma in turning to Him, in your prayer to Him and in your CONFIDENCE in His answering you.  Any petition that is made in this state is never denied.  

MOS pg 207 “If you know He is the Truth and He is the Indicator in His capacity of God, then stick to Him and worship your Lord who develops your future and potentials until what He decrees comes to you from certainty.  Then you will realize everything He ordered you to do and the wisdom behind everything He prohibited you from doing.  And with every divine revelation to you, you will witness Him and find Him indeed and with certainty.  Amin”

I also want to make a distinction between how Sidi is using the word confidence, and how many self help books talk about confidence.  Confidence encouraged in these books often times come out of arrogance, thinking you deserve something and demanding that you get it.  Confidence in MOS (Music of the Soul) doesn’t have that push behind it. It is just being with or witnessing what is.

I also recall reading somewhere in Sidi’s books about when the prophets would ask that something would happen, they did it from a place of already knowing that it would happen.  Their prayers weren’t from a place of imploring, but from a place of knowing that whatever they asked for would definitely happen.  I couldn’t find this particular passage, but if any of you know it or run across it in the near future, I would appreciate it if you would email where you found it.

The second aha that helped to bring this together happened when I was listening to a tape set by Greg Braden. Initially it will seem unrelated to the first idea. He talks about the God code and the Lost Mode of Prayer.  In his tape set entitled, “The Isaiah Effect Decoding the Lost Science of Prayer and Prophecy”, he talked about a trip that he took to Tibet in the late 1990’s.  He was looking for the oldest, untampered scriptures and teachings.  He thought with Tibet being so remote and difficult to get to, that they probably had had the least amount of political influence trying to change any spiritual or religious message.  He tells a story about watching a Tibetan monk turn his prayer wheel and do his chanting while in prayer.  When the monk had finished praying, Braden said that he could observe the outside actions of prayer (chanting, prayer wheel, etc.) but he wanted to know what was happening on the inside while the monk was praying.  The monk said that we Westerns generally have the wrong idea about prayer.  Most of us think of prayer as petitions to God or imploring God to give us what we want. We think of prayer as something we do. Imploring to a God out there to give us something we want.

The way the monks were taught to pray was to go inside and become the state they wanted to manifest on the outside.  What I mean by that is, for example, if this monk wanted to help bring peace to the planet, rather than going to God and asking God for the peace, he would go inside and become peace.  He would find that place inside of him that carries the peace and just be, peace.  This monk was teaching that prayer is not about doing anything, it was about being.  The chanting and the prayer wheel are things to do that he used to get himself into the state that he wanted.

Again, this reminds me of teachings by Neale Donald Walsh, the author of Conversations with God.  He has a teaching about do, have, and be.  He said that most people think that in order to get what they want, the order of things was: do, have, be.  If I work hard, I’ll have lots of money and then I’ll be happy.  When in fact the only way this really works is: be, do, have.  When I am abundance, I’ll radiate and attract abundance and I’ll have the things in my life that I want.  If I want peace in my life, I will be the peace and do peaceful things and have the resulting benefits that peace brings.

James Keeley also teaches something similar.  He teaches, “The Do, Have, Be model requires that we first know why we are not getting what we think we should, because once we know why, we can determine what we need to Do to fix or change what is to blame so we can finally Have what we want, and only then will we Be at peace.   As long as we are in a state of pain, no action we take will result in true fulfillment. Resistance simply wants to get out of a painful situation into one that allows us to achieve goals.   This is unfortunately what many peoples’ prayers sound like: ‘I don’t like what I have; please change it or show me how to change it into what I want it to be instead.’  When the Divine does not come through for us, we decide prayer doesn’t not work, or the Divine does not exist or care.  Our prayers become a process of making requests to a short-order cook for desired circumstances.  Fulfillment follows the following steps: 1. Be in an excellent state. 2. Then Do and excellent action.  3. Finally have an excellent life.”  Be, Do, Have.

 

To tie this back to my first aha about certainty; goal setting, hypnosis, etc. are just means to change your expectations, change your beliefs about who you are.  Once you believe that you are a successful person, you will take actions that successful people do and get successful results.  Again, the key is to come from the certainty that you already have what you need to get what you want.  This is a very important component that I think has been lost by people who teach goal setting, affirmations, self- hypnosis, etc.  Generally the emphasis is on the doing of these actions and not on what the actions are meant to accomplish.  The goal of these things is to create a state of being, to live from the belief that you already have the capacity inside you for the thing you want. Whether that is success, to stop smoking, lose weight, learn a new skill, or the myriad of things people use these tools to accomplish.  Knowing that these tools are merely stepping stones to get you to a particular state of certainty and not “the” answer, doesn’t diminish their usefulness. It does change where your focus should be.  Just as the Tibetan monk used chanting and prayer wheels to get him into the desired state.  It’s not the chanting that is important, it is the state that process brings about.  Using goal setting, hypnosis, or meditation is just one way to get you into the state that you want that will manifest what it is you want.  Again, it is getting into the state of being that is what is important.  That is why using these tools to get what you want is successful part of the time and part of the time it isn’t.  Just using the tools for the tools sake doesn’t do it.  The tools need to be used so that they will put you in the right state.  You can say affirmations for years with no results if you never allow yourself to experience the state you are describing in the affirmation.  I’ve had hypnosis clients be very successful with weight loss (one woman lost 130 lbs. in one year) and many other who weren’t successful. I’m sure you’ve all had the same problem with goal setting, sometimes it is effective and sometimes nothing changes.  So what is the key that makes the difference between successful change and not? – certainty.  And certainty comes out of being.  Sometimes these tools don’t work because the pictures, the veils, are too strong to be overcome without knowing the overall reason for using the tools.  The pictures or veils won’t allow you to connect or be the quality that you need just from using these tools alone.  More help is needed by doing healing or other practices to clean these pictures or veils.

To apply this to our path, we would use the Qualities, sitting in remembrance until we could just be the Quality that is underlying this outside thing that you want.  If I needed more money in my life than I might use the Qualities of Razzaq the Provider, Mughni the Enricher, Wahhab the Bestower, or  Karim the Generous.  Just sitting in Remembrance using one of these Qualities until I would BE  that Quality. See it, hear it, feel it, know that I am that Quality with certainty.  When I BE the Provider, then I begin to vibrate, radiate and transmit providing.

Now here’s where I finally get to Sidi’s teaching on Give to Take.  When I become Salam the Source of Peace and Security, then I transmit the Peace to everyone around me.  Sidi says that our souls radiate 35 miles in each direction, so I would be giving the Peace to thousands of people around me because they are in my energy field.  I wouldn’t be able to stop it.  It would just happen naturally.  I would also be helping to transform mass consciousness or the collective unconscious through my transmission.  If enough people would be Salam at the same time, if enough people learn a new way of being, eventually everyone receives that knowing.

Again, it isn’t something that we would need to consciously try to do, it would just naturally happen.  Because this transmission is coming from my being it creates a circuit.  My transmitter would also become a receiver to receive the same vibration that I am giving out.  I would be giving to receive.   I would begin to receive the very thing that I had been praying for.

I would like to read a couple of passages from Music of the Soul where Sidi uses this phrase.  The first two are from his explanation of the Fatiha.  “If you want, you can have everything because it is all inside you.  There is no inside and no outside.  Know yourself well.  …. Ir-Rahman Ir-Rahim Most Merciful and Most Gracious are two qualities from the name Allah.  He has 99 qualities, but only one name – Allah.  When He say ar-rahman, ar-rahim, He means to give everyone mercy, to change everything to ar-rahman and to send mercy to anyone, beginning with yourself.  Give mercy to yourself and help yourself to change everything from outside to inside, to walk in the way.  Now give mercy from yourself to yourself.  He put mercy inside you, in all of you, outside and inside.  There is nothing but the mercy. It is inside everything, inside and outside of you.  Why don’t you help yourself first?  When your name is ar-rahman, when you carry the mercy to all things, then you send mercy to anyone who needs it.  He wants you to send mercy to anyone, but first begin with yourself.  Change everything from yourself with this mercy from Allah-ir-rahman.  Ar-rahman is a station.  The mercy has two stations.  When you carry the quality of ar-rahim, then you carry everything with the mercy, and you begin to send mercy to other people.  This is ar-rahim.  When you reach the second station of the mercy, the higher station you are the mercy.  An example is like a river full of water.  It overflows and gives water to smaller streams.  The river carries the qualities of God.  This is enough for anyone who knows the meaning of ar-rahman, ar-rahim.”

The second quote from the explanation of the Fatiha in MOS:

“When you give everything, this is the right path.  What you give, God gives. When a person knows the right religion, he lives in the garden.  He sits face to face with Him.  After that, he knows what he is and God gives him what he wants.  The way of those of the family of God is the way of the love.  They are with God in all things.  They need Him all the time.  This is the way of the lovers with the love.  The more you give yourself to the love, the more He loves.  The reward is far greater than the giving.  Give to take.  The answer is in the giving.

 This last quote I have from Music of the Soul is from the chapter called “The Quality of the Slave.” “He gives you everything, but give to yourself first.  If anyone does not give, how can he take?  Give to take!  And when you give, Who really gives?  Everything is from Him, so that when you give, you give to yourself because He does not want anything from you.  He is very rich.  Give from yourself to yourself.  He gives everything to you, and He says to you, Give to Me because He wants you.  This is your God.  Thank Him because He teaches you to know Him.

Take in the beginning when He says, Take.  But later, when all the qualities from your humanity go, what do you take?  All the qualities from your body go, but He does not want you to wait until the Last Day, so if you know everything now, He places you in the garden.  Thank Him.  This is the life.  … Thank Him and stay with Him.  Allah!  Open your heart. When you open your heart, you know.  You are the question and you are the answer!  Ask your heart.  It gives you the answer because your heart knows everything. Allah!”

I also want to address the idea briefly that several people have expressed to me.  Some think that Allah should just give them whatever they want.  They don’t need to do anything. Allah will just drop whatever they want in their laps with no effort on their part.  I remind them that even the birds have to go out looking for bugs and worms to feed themselves and their babies.  There is also the following quote from Rumi:

“God has said, “Spend;” so earn something, since there can be no expenditure without income. Although He used the word, Spend absolutely, read it, “Earn, then spend.” – Rumi, Mathnawi [V, 579-580]

Dr. David Hawkins has written about called Power Vs. Force.  In this book he gives a numerical rating to the power people carry depending upon their beliefs and spiritual station.  He also gives some statistical data on how many people can be contained or influenced by someone high on the power chart.

“One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of optimism and a willingness to be nonjudgmental of others will counterbalance the negativity of 90,000 individuals who calibrate at the lower weakening levels.

One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of pure love and reverence for all life will counterbalance the negativity of 750,000 individuals who calibrate at the lower weakening levels.

One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of illumination, bliss, and infinite peace will counterbalance the negativity of 10 million individuals who calibrate at the lower weakening levels.

One individual who lives and vibrates to the energy of grace, pure spirit beyond body, in a world of nonduality or complete oneness will counterbalance the negativity of 70 million who calibrate at the lower weakening levels.

One single avatar living at the highest level of consciousness will counterbalance the collective negativity of all of mankind.”

Here’s what Eckhart Tolle had to say in A New Earth Awakening to Your’s Life Purpose  under the heading Abundance.  “Who you think you are is also intimately connected with how you see yourself treated by others.  Many people complain that others do not treat them well enough.  ‘I don’t get any respect, attention, recognition, acknowledgement,’ they say,  ‘I’m being taken for granted.’  When people are kind, they suspect hidden motives, ‘Others want to manipulate me, take advantage of me.  Nobody loves me.’  Who they think are is this: ‘I am a needy “little me” whose needs are not being met.’  This basic misperception of who they are creates dysfunction in all their relationships.  They believe they have nothing to give and that the world or other people are withholding from them what they need.  Their entire reality is based on an illusory sense of who they are.  It sabotages situations, mars all relationships. If the thought of lack – whether it be money, recognition, or love – has become part of who you think you are, you will always experience lack.  Rather than acknowledge the good that is already in your life, all you see is lack.  Acknowledging the good that is already in your life is the foundation for all abundance.  The fact is: Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world.  You are withholding it because deep down you think you are small and that you have nothing to give.  Try this for a couple of weeks and see how it changes your reality:  Whatever you think people are withholding from you – praise, appreciation, loving care, and so on – give it to them.  You don’t have it? Just act as if you had it, and it will come.  Then, soon after you start giving, you will start receiving.  You cannot receive what you don’t give.  Outflow determines inflow.  Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you already have, but unless you allow it to flow out, you won’t even know that you have it.  This includes abundance.  The law that outflow determines inflow is expressed by Jesus in this powerful image: “Give and it will be given to you.  Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.”  The source of all abundance is not outside you.  It is part of who you are.  However, start by acknowledging and recognizing abundance without.  See the fullness of life all around you.  The warmth of the sun on your skin, the display of magnificent flowers outside a florist’s shop, biting into a succulent fruit, or getting soaked in an abundance of water falling from the sky.  The fullness of life is there at every step.  The acknowledgment of that abundance that is all around you awakens the dormant abundance within.  Then let it flow out.  When you smile at a stranger, there is already a minute outflow of energy.  You become a giver.  Ask yourself often: ‘What can I give here; how can I be of service to this person, this situation?’  You don’t need to own anything to feel abundant, although if you abundant consistently things will almost certainly come to you.  Abundance comes only to those who already have it.  It sounds almost unfair, but of course, it isn’t.  It is a universal law.  Both abundance and scarcity are inner states that manifest as your reality.  Jesus puts it like this: ‘For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.’ ”

I love this next quote.

“What if giving has nothing to do with fixing, changing, or helping another, but rather receiving the love of another that is hidden in their own heart?” – Shams Jodi Prinzivalli

Isn’t this how people change?  How someone helps to bring out the best in another?  To help them believe in who they truly are?

Sidi’s teachings have been very centered around peace.  We are being asked to help bring the peace.  How can we do that?  By being the peace.  The more we can sit and just be the peace the more we transmit the peace and the more the peace will come back to us.  Sidi is talking about thousands of new beloveds coming into this way in the next few years, if we are spread out all over this country our souls all radiating out that 35 miles, we can eventually join soul to soul across this entire country until every person in the Unites States is being held in the vibration of peace.  We can literally become the peace, and bring the peace to this country through our own hearts overflowing with the peace.  Be the peace, give the peace, and we will all receive the peace.

Read How to become the change you want to see in the world by Adbul Rahim Keeley next.

 

My husband has a unique ability to see colors around people.  He applies this gift to helping people use the Law of Attraction and to understanding their life purpose.  He can see the colored blocks in their “Give to Take” circuit and then use Qualities to clear those blocks.  To read his story, you can download his free ebook, “The Mysterious Truth of Limiting Beliefs”  by Bob Wakitsch.

Reading his book is optional as far as the Homework is concerned.