592,760 Hours Ago
- Feb 4
- 3 min read
592,760 Hours Ago
As I awoke this morning, knowing that I would be writing this post for our Facebook Group, I was having trouble formulating my understanding of the Higher Self. In the Fourth Way, we refer to it as “Higher Centers,” of which there are two: 1) Higher Emotional Center or subjective consciousness, and 2) Higher Intellectual Center or objective consciousness.
As I lounged in bed gathering my thoughts, some words surfaced to describe Higher Centers, such as miraculous, joy, selflessness, clarity, grace, temperance, love, gratitude, mindfulness, etc. These words are inspiring to me and yet they can sound hollow, if I am struggling to fling off my warm blanket and begin another day with the accumulated weight of the past 24,699 days. The psychological weight of sleep and the many moments lost of being unaware of myself can feel discouraging. What have I truly accumulated and how to find the way to my Higher Self?
Let me play a little game with these numbers and align them into something I can more clearly relate to. If my days on earth were calculated another way – such as each day equaling one ounce – by this measurement, I would weigh 1,543 pounds. Of that amount, I cannot change the weight which accounts for a third of my life resting at night in first state. Nor would I wish to change the amount of weight attributed to the joys in my life. So, for the sake of my game, I will assume a third of my experiences have been joyful. What is left over represents a load of 514 pounds of psychological obstacles. Visualize the effects of walking around weighing 514 pounds! This psychological weight is made up of imagination (uncontrolled mind activity), identification, negative emotions, chief feature, unnecessary talk, self-doubt, opposite ‘I’s, inner considering, and walking around unconsciously in a state of waking sleep.
Luckily, each new day represents another opportunity to release the weight of the past and begin again. The best way I have found to experience Higher Centers is to position myself around influences that have evoked higher states for me. I try to physically be in the company of friends who are also trying to connect with higher consciousness and follow the Teacher’s recommendations to see which suggestions raise my state.
To reliably raise my state, I often go to a book, “Awakening” (Crosby, D., ed.), that has quotes from the Teacher in Part I titled, The Nature of Higher Centers—The Higher Self. From Chapter 2, I have selected quotes to share from the twelve attributes of Higher Centers:
Simplicity – The higher one’s state, the sweeter and simpler it is.
Presence – The Presence of Higher Centers is a reward unto itself, as they exist in what Buddha called “the eternal now.”
Modesty – The more conscious one becomes, the less one will occupy space.
Silence – The greatest secret is to be the words, not to talk about them.
Clarity – Only Higher Centers can bring us the clarity of consciousness.
Humility – One is nothing without Self-remembering; so one must learn to be present … Our Higher Centers are naturally quite simple and humble and present.
Unity – Higher Centers are unified, that is, they are the state of unity.
Love – Higher Centers are love, will, and consciousness.
Will – There can be no true will without Higher Centers being present.
Acceptance – One can remember one’s Self more if one does not wish the moment to be other than it is, and accepts it as it is.
Service – When Higher Centers first appear, they exist for themselves and later they exist to serve others.
Eternity – Every second you remember your Self you pierce eternity.
I frequently reflect on the journey of a sunflower, positioning itself to follow the light of the sun, which is its Celestial Influence. Throughout the evening it returns its head toward the East. It is miraculous to think of it working all night to prepare its position for the next day. The new day arrives and its journey begins again to follow what is brightest and highest. It is not concerned with how many days have passed and carries no burdens into the new day.
The Absolute manipulates invisible images like the sunflower tracking the sun and going back. He put those invisible characteristics into His sunflower. — The Teacher
This beginning again is one of the keys to continually returning, re-positioning, and realizing Higher Centers. Self-remembering is restorative and grants new possibilities in each moment regardless of our past baggage.
Awakening is available from Amazon at:
Portrait of a Man Holding a Watch, Peter Paul Rubens 1597
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