A Discerning Spirit

[Hal Manogue]

This is my Reply to Kim's Essay on the Way Women Dress:

We are all discerners of spirits. That diagnosis lies aloft in our life or unconscious power, The intercourse of society, its trade, its religion, its friendships, its quarrels, is one wide, judicial investigation of character. In full court, or in small committee, or confronting face to face, accuser and accused, men offer themselves to be judged. Against their will they exhibit those decisive trifles by which character is read. But who judges? And what? Not our understanding. We do not read them by learning a craft. No; the wisdom of the wise man consists herein, that he does not judge them; he lets them judge themselves and merely reads and records their own verdict.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that in his essay The Over-soul. He included that essay in his 1838 address to the senior class of Divinity College in Cambridge Massachusetts. Emerson’s thoughts about judgment and the investigation of character are deeply rooted in the human belief structure. A belief creates an association and in that act there is always a judgment. Good or bad, right or wrong rise to the surface and a choice is made and then probabilities develop from those choices. My physical life is based on the judgments I make and I create a reality around them.

In the physical world of beliefs there will always a judgment, but it can become discernment instead of a judgment, as Emerson points out. I can allow others to look into their own self nature and not resist or discount the choices made from that action. After all, my character and Self-Nature are the genesis for what I believe. My work in physical life is to look into my own Self-Nature and discover the unity and oneness that exists within me. That is the place where my beliefs about character begin and then continue by the choices made in each moment.

Hui-neng the Sixth Patriarch of China explains Self-Nature this way:

Morality, Meditation and Wisdom, all these are forms of Self-Nature, When there is nothing wrong in it, we have morality; when it is free from ignorance, it is wisdom; and when it is not disturbed, it is meditation. Have a thorough understanding once and for all as to the being of Self-Nature, and you will know that nothing dualistic obtains in it; for here you have nothing to be particularly distinguished as enlightenment, or ignorance, or deliverance, or knowledge, and yet from this nothingness there exists a world of particulars as objects of thoughts.

Innately I am connected to my Self-Nature, but I allow my beliefs to make associations and create dualistic judgments. In order to be discerning I must get my belief system in proper order beginning with how I create them. My character is based on my perceptions of my own Self-Nature and my expressions of that connection physically manifest what I experience.

Hui-neng goes on to explain that in remembering my own Self-Nature, the nature of my association with life is completely changed:

For him who has once had an insight into his own nature, no special posture as a form of meditation is to be recommended; everything and anything is good to him, sitting, or lying, or standing. He enjoys perfect freedom of spirit, he moves along as he feels, and yet he does nothing wrong, he is always acting in accord with his Self-Nature, his work is play. This is what I call “the seeing into one’s own nature”; and this seeing is instantaneous as much as the working is, for there is no graduating process from one stage to another.

Emerson and Hui-neng expressed the same message 1100 years apart and did it in different languages and in completely separated parts of the world, which explains the nature of Self-Nature. It’s not limited by time or space, its one consciousness eternally connected. When I make that association in physical life, I begin to discern instead of judge. I realize that I am only judging that which I am and the lesson becomes very clear. Looking into my own Self-Nature expresses my beliefs and my true character makes associations that are discerning. This awareness allows me the freedom to come to a verdict that accepts and releases energy, which I would unconsciously suppress in the act of judging.

By seeing into my own Self-Nature I am a discerning spirit that is guided in character to do what is instantaneously available by believing in my multidimensionality and the freedom to choose how I discern in my reality.

www.shortsleeves.net
http://halmanogue.blogspot.com/

[SistahKenya]

AWESOME! I am so glad to have your take on this Hal, for truly you always give us insight in dimension. I totally can feel this....By seeing into my own Self-Nature I am a discerning spirit that is guided in character to do what is instantaneously available by believing in my multidimensionality and the freedom to choose how I discern in my reality.(so true for me)

Yes this is great and truly I realize that I have been blessed with the spirit of discernment to change in a physical aspect and reflect on the choices of others while learning not to judge but to release my energy that I have obtained in this realm of life. Thanks Hal...You've done it again!

Words of a wise man! Peace and Blessings

[Kim]

You definitely took the thought behind the way we dress to a whole new level. Thank you for your response. I think I discern a teaching spirit. ;)
Now once our Self-Nature discerns our true intent and determines our character how do we line this up with the only Holy Spirit so that we stand correct?

[Hal Manogue]

Thanks Kim. I appreciate your thoughts.
We are always connected to the Holy Spirit, we just have been conditioned to believe we are separated from that consciousness. Our spirit or as I call it, inner consciousness, does not discern, for it is one in consciousness with all qualities of consciousness. The belief of separation creates the judgments, as well as the contrast through our ego consciousness. That is our method of remembering our connection.

We constantly expand from the contrast we experience in every moment. By understanding that our spirit constantly sends us messages about our essence, we listen, but we all listen in different ways. The diversity and the contrast in our belief structure creates fragments of awareness depending on what we believe about ourselves. At some point in linear time, we begin to believe that our self-nature is a whole within the whole of consciousness. You may describe that as being whole within the whole of the Christ consciousness. When we accept that belief, our character is automatically blended with our ego and we express our spirit or inner consciousness through it; spirit or inner consciousness only expresses our essence, which is rooted in love. That expression is about connection not separation.

When we accept the truth that we are always connected in spirit, we begin to look at all life with the perspective of our spirit or self-nature. So by believing in acceptance, awareness and connection, we express our self-nature through our ego using discernment.
Love,
Hal
PS. I'm also a November baby.