love peace n blessings..

Thank you so much for your great insights and response to my posting. I hear what you are saying about the unshakeability, and yes, until recently I did experience it as unshakeable. Having said that, if it were not possible to have doubt or allow it to creep in, etc., then I have to wonder why Andrew would even mention it: He says, and I quote: And those who care more than anything else about the perennial quest to transform the world into a powerful reflection of that which is sacred cannot afford to allow even a moment of doubt or fear to overshadow their soul. Why? Because that may be the one moment that counted the most! In other words, we cant afford not to have spiritual self-confidence if we want to change the world. End quote.

The only reason I contacted Andrew Cohen, whom I had not met before and this was the first time I read anything of his, was simply because of this sentence. The allowing of doubt and fear is real in my expderience. My question to him therefore, is how does one find one’s way back if/when what he warns against, has indeed happened?

Namaste
-Charmaine

Sounds like you were UNCONSCIOUSLY attached to an outcome, even though you proclaim conscious agreement with what actually took place.

I would then say that your “spiritual self-confidence” is not as “unshakable” as you hold it to be. The spiritual self-confidence that Andrew is discussing here can’t be contrived by the ego-rational mind, but if this is indeed the case, then “fear and doubt” will overshadow.

Spiritual self-confidence is evidence of a “stage” of development, one in which we are stably identifying with that which is PRIOR to gross experience, namely, the deeper subtle and deepest causal arising of self. To be identified with this “prior-ness” is to be surrendered to That Which IS, not that which we consciously or unconsciously desire. “Unshakeable-ness” is the “sign”, so to speak, that spiritual self-confidence has become a stable, ongoing, “no matter what happens,” condition of the overall self.

Does any of this ring true with you?

Thanks,
L. Nada

Recently I had a strong sense of a YES to something which turned out to be a NO. Whilst I understand the why of the ‘No’ (and agree with it), what has me concerned is that the strength of the rudder (spiritual confdience) as impetus for action I took, turned out to be wrong. This has shaken my spiritual confidence. Any ideas what might be happening here?

But, we can avoid Becoming, because we are self-aware, sophisticated and complex beings – sentient – so we can repress, reject, contract, take on beliefs and ideas about ourselves and the world, feel that we have infallible powers of insight, be dishonest and immoral, manipulate others to our advantage, etc.

All in all pointing to one habitual choice; we AVOID ourselves and what we really are in the ever-evolving totality of our potentials. We refuse to BECOME.

Oh sure…we have sophisticated translations “about” reality and what life is, all the while unaware that our translations are the very things that keep us from our deeper and higher Becoming; we think our translations are the same as Becoming, but is is our translations that help us avoid That Which we are. We think, “If I just have a clear map of the world, then all will be right for me, I’ll be doing my part.” Many erroneously take this to be “spiritual self-confidence.”

AVOIDANCE is what we do when fear arises because we are sensing those deeper, higher potentials calling us to give up our separation, and so we contrive our reality, we make deals with the Unknown, we avoid, hoping to stave off and appease That Which is knocking on the self-imposed closed door of our beings.

The answer to this avoidance? Turn your attention onto it; notice that it is an habitual pattern that YOU CHOOSE because you are afraid of a deeper engagement with the life-process, and…

When you finally see through all the ways you avoid and contrive, when you sacrifice your need to avoid, that is when “spiritual self-confidence” is the gift that naturally arises; it is the “heavy anchor” that will ground all your choices in non-avoidance no matter what happens. It won’t always be easy, but if you can make the choice for non-avoidance and make it your inner posture, there will be such profound and serendipitous moments that arise that you will be humbled to your core, revealing that spiritual self-confidence for what it truly is; Spirit’s energetic evolutionary impulse in you, asking you to awaken to Truth, asking you to Become, not for yourself, but for the All!

And you will think, “Oh my God! What a fool I’ve been! It was there all along, within me, and I was the selfish idiot AVOIDING this Goodness!”

Absolute positivity and goodness will flood your being and you will never look back again…then you will be ready to change the world.

Light and Love to All, and; Thank You Andrew

My confidence in this inner knowingness (that I developed some 30 years ago when I was a ‘born-again Christian) – I am no longer that in the traditional church sense of it anyway] – ] has been the one thing I have always counted on. Yet, recently as I say above, it seemed to be inaccurate.

I hope you know what I am talking about, it feels as though you do, so I’m asking for a lifeline here.

Love, only love
-Charmaine