The Manifestation of the Person

'Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?  If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.'

In this life, on this earth, this mortal dimension, we operate through the person, there's just no escaping this glorious, though often laborious fact! How we choose to operate IN the person, though, usually determines the outcome. I say 'usually', because, without fail, there ARE those who make the choice to operate totally in the person & thus make choices that might not be favorable in the outcome, at least not immediately. Here again, however, the ball returns to our court, almost without exception, for WE still have a choice as to how we face that difficulty. When we rule over our person though, it becomes no difficulty at all, but simply another chance to prove our mettle, to refine our silver & gold, if you will!

We are not the Source, but we are One with it; therefore we are pure Love, just as the Source is Pure Love! By 'Pure Love', biblically speaking, I mean simply that the Creator God, the Source of all that IS, as our Heavenly Father, like any good father, cares for His children, His Creation. He loves them to such an extent, that though He is not willing that any should perish, He is willing to let them touch the hot stove in order that they may learn for themselves that it hurts like hell! In other words, speaking personally, we have been given the free will to act according to the nature of our humanity, or according to our true nature, which is a Son of God, simply a necessary part of the Whole, or the One.

The choices we all face in this human existence often seem to force us to do things we would not normally do. Let's say that a tree falls on our house while we are away & a neighbor, one operating totally in the person, decides that since the door is ajar, he or she should accept the open & obvious invitation, pillaging whatever is being offered. We return sometime later to find that several of our possessions are missing & the door is wide open. What do we do? We have a good idea of the person or persons responsible. Do we immediately call the cops in, or even worse, take it upon ourselves to seek vengeance?

Operating totally in the person, we might be tempted to at least call the cops, letting them respond to this dastardly act, or we could immediately blow our top, run fumingly next door, or wherever we know the perpetrator lives & by force, if necessary, extract our goods, leaving a bloody pulp that will  wish they had never touched our precious possessions! Another scenario is that we would calmly & collectively seek out this individual, whoever he or she might be & calmly negotiate the safe return of said personal goods, if we even want them back. This scenario, however, is much less likely!

Understanding that we are Love personified makes all the difference in the world! 'When life hands you lemons', it is said, 'make lemonade'. In other words, as we can all attest to, in one way or another, our choices determine our existence. Whether it's a tree falling on our house, getting mugged one night outside the movie theater, or death in the family; how we react to any & I mean ANY given situation, proves to any outside observer our inner peace or turmoil ( re. 'confusion' ). We may choose to make lemonade, letting whatever might seeks to trouble us slide away like water off a duck's back, or we may choose to let it become a seed of dissension within us, allowing it to disrupt our relatively peaceful existence.

There can be no doubt that we are in this biology, for good or evil! However, as we have seen & bear witness to on a daily basis, when we dwell in the Source, as the Source dwells in our biological bodies, the choice, if indeed there is a choice, remains clear & constant. Love is ALL! Anything else is simply Illusion. O sure, it seems real enough & surely, in some sense it is, but when we are operating  from the True Self, or from the Source, everything seems fade into the foreground & we realize that the reality is not what happens to the person, the Reality is our Self, who we truly ARE!

The Love that remains, the Love that we ARE, is hard to explain; there truly ARE no words! In this biology, we may choose to exhibit ( manifest ) that Love or not, but the fact remains, in all its glory, that we ARE Love. The Creator God, the Source of all that IS, bore us in His/Her Image; we have no choice but to be who we ARE. However, as we've seen, we  can choose to remain ignorant of our Being, or stifle it through the exercise of our Person, to the extent that the Person, rather than the Self, or Being, seems to be the Reality. Returning to the Source clears the cobwebs of confusion, though & allows the Pure, Healing Light of Love to shine in & through us!

Operating THROUGH the Person is inescapable; in fact, it is an absolute necessity! In order to shine our Light in this world, we must take full advantage of this biology; we must prove, through our choices, that we ARE who we ARE. In Reality, you might say there's no choice about it, for if we simply allow ourselves to BE, we WILL BE! To simply BE, one must, as the Scriptures say, 'Be still'. This is harder than it sounds. To simply 'let it go', as seems a popular mantra today, is really not as easy as it sounds: on the other hand, though, it IS! To simply 'let it go', one must realize, first of all, WHO they really are & secondly, that it's ALL good; whatever happens in this life, in this existence, doesn't REALLY change ANYTHING: what matters is WHO we ARE; once we have that straight, the rest will fall into line!

But don't believe me, for God's sake; just DO it & see what dreams may come!

Charles Haddon Shank