Do You Like Grapes?
Imagine a huge cluster of purple grapes. What could be more delicious. Have you ever been to a vineyard? Have you ever seen a wild grapevine? I have many wild grapevines on my ten acres, vines growing on fences and even up into the trees.
Why are there are virtually no grapes on these wild vines? How does the vinedresser produce these huge basketfuls of clusters of grapes from one small vine?
He prunes the vine. He trains the small pruned vine on a wire fence. The vine is tamed and trained. Only then will it produce the fruit you want.
You are a wild vine. You will let no one else prune and train you. You have to prune and train yourself if you want your imagination to bear fruit. Unless you focus and direct your infinite power of imagination, you will be scattered and unproductive. Unless you do it, it won’t be done. Love is a wild vine that has to be tamed to bear fruit. A wild vine is a wonder to behold. You have unlimited potential. But are you scattered? Are you focused? Are you taking responsibility for your self-pruning and self-direction?
You are untamed imagination. Your life is a story of untamed, mis-directed, unfocused, scattered, contradictory, impulsive, rebellious, wild growth. And all of that is basically good, but it will not get you what you really want unless you take charge.
You have to become your own vine-dresser. How will you use the vital energy of your imagination? Some have wasted or destroyed opportunities and even lifetimes without the disciplined use of imagination, while others have produced life-saving experiences for the world. Scattered imagination produces scattered results.
To change our metaphor, look at the laser.
How can a beam of light cut metal while scattered light does very little. Or look at the magnifying glass as it focuses sunlight and starts a fire.
How can a beam of light cut metal or start a fire? Many years ago I asked an engineer friend “What is a laser?” He laughed and said “A laser is a solution looking for a problem to solve” That is what imagination is, a solution looking for a problem to solve.
To change the metaphor again: what about Archimedes? He used a lever to move the world.
He discovered the fulcrum. What is a fulcrum? A fulcrum is a still point upon which you can move a pyramid or a car with a small amount of strength and pressure. Ten men could lift a car or just use a small jack (the level principle). Muscles without leverage don’t go very far. Can we work hard with muscles or smart with the leverage of the imagination. You can move the world with the mind. That is why it was said “The pen is mightier than the sword.”
So are we going to use pruning, are we going to use focus, are we going to give direction to the god-power of imagination within us or not.
The metaphors of the grapevine, the laser, the magnifying glass and the fulcrum are ideas about how we can succeed spiritually by the disciplined focused use of imagination.
How can a million pound jet get off the ground and fly? How can a million ton piece of steel that we call an aircraft carrier float in water? How can a huge planet soar through space precisely on time every second? How can a redwood tree get bigger and bigger every year for 5000 years? How can the life of your entire body cycle of 75 years unfold from a DNA molecule so small that it can barely be seen under a microscope? How can a pruned vine produce tons of grapes and a wild vine so little?
So what is the problem? Every child has a problem to solve in his or her lifetime. That problem is why his or her parents couldn’t do their dance in rhythm and beauty. That flaw in the dance became your problem to solve because you want to survive and you can’t trust their solution. There are no parents without pruning problems. The second life-disturbing question is how this problem could possibly be a gift.
When people greet each other in the east, they bow and say “Namaste” instead of shaking hands. Namaste means that the god in me bows to the god in you. We have lost perspective, we have lost respect, we have lost focus. We are wild grapevines, unfocused light beams, muscle-bound left-brained egoes without fulcrum knowledge. We try to use swords to deal with heart problems. We run from pillar to post looking for our lost love and power.
We do not see the perfection in those around us. We do not see the god in our associates. Infinite Beauty is asleep in them. Infinite Love is asleep in them. Infinite Wisdom is asleep in that partner of yours. God is asleep in that child. We do not see in others what we cannot see in ourselves. Unconditional Love is asleep in that other; Complete Health is asleep in that other. Unlimited Imagination is asleep in that dull one next to you. Only your scattered imagination blinds you. When you do not know that, disrespect will creep in. You will start looking elsewhere for the Life Force. Disrespect develops from inner ignorance and blindness. You no longer see God in that person. You just see your own dullness.
We are counseled to judge not. We have no idea how many dreary dreadful lifetimes of suffering this soul has been through; lifetimes in which he or she has been starved, raped, beaten, jailed, misunderstood, hanged, shot, rejected, witch-hunted, heresy-tried, or died alone on some battlefield.
You judge because you do not know his grief, his guilt, his victim experiences. God is in every starving, neglected child, suffering that child’s suffering. We have no idea which could possibly serve as a basis for judgment. How many times has this person been physically or sexually abused or emotionally deprived?
You have no idea how many lifetimes you have lived with this person already. You have no idea why you are with them now. There has been cheating, lying, betrayal, stealing and even suicide or murder.
You are here this time to straighten it out, to balance the books of karma, to break through the masks of deception and discover the God within, the truth beyond the dramas and judgments and misconceptions. We are here to discover the truth and be set free from our opinions and judgments. Only then will we see the thread of purpose behind our choices and mistakes, not to mention your abuse of others.
Whatever the purpose of this relationship is, it is hidden from your eyes until God awakens in you. You have mis-imagined who you are and who this other is. Will you go through sixteen more lifetimes of wild vine experience before you wake up and focus?
Judging another is a horrible mistake because all that we are doing is judging ourself. There is no other. It is all you, your story, your projection. You have been at this crisis point many times before, with this person or with another. The pattern is old and recurrent. There is nothing new under the sun except awakening. It’s time to break the old recurrent pattern.
You think your ego problem is unique and special. It isn’t. You think your problem is different. It isn’t. You think you are stuck. You aren’t. Every problem is an unopened gift. You think fighting or accepting this problem is enough. It isn’t. You thought she was your solution or that he was your problem. Look again.
We have no idea what the problem is. That’s why we haven’t been able to solve it. The problem is that God is asleep in you and in your partner. Waking up is what it is all about. Your dilemma is your wake-up call. That’s it. Will you miss again?
Do you realize that Infinite Health is asleep in you, that Infinite Wealth is asleep in you? Do you realize that Infinite Love and Wisdom is asleep in the two of you? Your job is to wake up. The truth alone will set you free from your judgments and opinions. You cannot solve a problem if you don’t know what it is. Judging occurs because of incomplete knowledge. If you knew the truth, you would never judge anyone about anything again.
Let’s say you are annoyed with your neighbor. You don’t know your neighbor. You have no idea who he or she is. You only have judgments and those judgments bind you to themselves. You are the prisoner of your judgments and incomplete knowledge.
How many times have you been wrong about people? Every time. You don’t see that this person is God in human form. They seem to be just normal, or dull, or boring, or annoying, or stupid, or self-righteous—like you. But they are not.
Anger is never justified because you don’t know who this person is. Every judgment is just a projection. Even if you lived with someone for 50 years, you still wouldn’t know them if you think they are less than perfect. If they have walls 10 feet thick, that is perfect, because that is how unsafe they feel. If you have judgments of anyone, you have work to do because you will attract that precise experience to yourself over and over until the judgment is gone. All judgments are self-judgments. The only person you could ever be stuck with or bored with is yourself.
The only thing you could ever be angry about is your own story. Our fulltime job is to take our story apart until we only see God anywhere and everywhere, because that is all that exists, other than our judgmental story.
Let us become totally non-judgmental just like God. We judge because we are ignorant. Truth sets us free from judging and ignorance. Have you looked for the sleeping god in this person before you? When you see that this person is a sleeping suffering giant, your judging days will be over. How can you judge the suffering god in that person? If god does not judge himself, how can I?
Anxiety arises from ignorant judgments, because all judgments are ignorant. Anxiety will not go away until we transcend judging. Your full time job in this lifetime is to transcend judging, just like mine is. Until we transcend judging, anxiety will not subside.
Do I judge you for judging? Absolutely not. You judge until you don’t. You suffer until you don’t . You anxiety until you don’t. We are here to give up the useless activity of judging because we do not know how to judge. Judging is a reflexive reactive self-defense activity based upon the presumption that I have been, am or could be a victim of someone or something, which is impossible and untrue.
Therefore judging is useless, fearful and wasteful activity of not seeing the person behind the mask he wears. Practice Namaste and judging will end. Namaste pierces the mask and God appears.
Once I went to a Who Are You workshop. Each participant was instructed to do two things. For hours we rotated partners and looked into the other’s eyes. We saw thousands of pictures of former lifetimes flash before our inner seeing. Then we took turns asking each other “Who are you?” No matter what the answer was, we were to say “Thank you very much” and ask again freshly “Who are you?” and then swap partners.
No matter what the “problem” of the client is, the proper question needs to be asked: To what problem is this solution an answer. If Joe stays with Joy, he is anxious; if he leaves he is anxious. Staying or leaving is a supposed solution to some undefined, unspoken, unaware problem. A problem becomes the answer to another problem. How rational is that? Anxiety remains until we uncover the real issue. The root cause of anxiety remains hidden while we chase after numerous solutions.
Faith is using your imagination to powerfully visualize a detailed scenario, while believing that what you see in your mind will come to pass.
Fear is using your imagination to powerfully visualize a detailed scenario, while believing that what you see in your mind will come to pass.
There's a name for the magic that transforms lives, connects dots, moves mountains, and orchestrates coincidences that shock and astound... Imagination.
And there's a name for all that stops you in your tracks, stirs fear, spins wheels, and leaves one wondering, "Hey, what's up with that?"... Imagination.
Careful where you point that thing,
We believe that thought, imagination and creative visualization are the most powerful tools at our disposal to manifest dreams, affect change and create new beginnings.
Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!
Mike Dooley
