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Concentrati

on:ALesso

nInLife

When I was a kid, one of the more popular gameshows on TV was Concentration. Basically it is

was a take-off of the kids games often calledPairs. Contestants called out a number between 1

and 30 and under the number was a prize. Theythen called out another number hoping that under

that number would be the same prize. If they

found a match, that prize would go on their sideand if they won the game they would get all theprizes they had accumulated. When a match oc-

curred, the two matching squares would be re-

moved revealing part of a rebus puzzle. If the

contestant was able to accurately guess the re-bus, they won the game. Obviously, the morematches that occurred, the more of the rebus was

revealed making it easier to solve the puzzle.

I was sharing some things the other day with our group when an analogy using the Con-

centration game came to mind.

In the Concentration game we had a hidden rebus puzzle that needed to be revealed. Itwas hidden beneath the surface which was made up of numbers and prizes.

I am going to suggest that within every human being lies something that needs to be dis-

covered and revealed. To make my point I am going to turn to the words of Jesus and the

apostle Paul.

In Luke 17:20-21 we read the following:

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God shouldcome, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observa-

tion: Neither shall they say, Lo here, or lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of Godis within you.

First, I think it is important to note that Jesus doesnt put any conditions upon the hearers

of his words regarding the kingdom being within them. He doesnt suggest that they needto believe A or B for this to be a reality. This may even be more noteworthy in that he

was speaking to the Pharisees, who often opposed him. Apparently people dont need to besaved as defined by fundamental Christianity to have the kingdom of God within them.

I would also like to point out that despite many, many Christians looking for a visible com-ing of Jesus to establish his kingdom, Jesus says the coming or appearing or manifesta-tion of the kingdom is NOT something that is observable with our physical eyes! Doesnt

that just throw the proverbial monkey wrench into a lot of end time prophecy and theol-

ogy?

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Clearly this kingdom of God is hidden within mankind much as the rebus puzzle is hidden

in the game of Concentration. But what is this kingdom of God hidden within each human

being? Lets turn to the apostle Paul and see if he can shed some light upon this.

In Romans chapter 7, the apostle Paul makes a very strange statement. Paul acknowl-

edges that he often does things that he really doesnt want to do and often doesnt do

what he really wants to do. I think most of us often feel the same way. However, Paul thengoes on to say the following in Romans 7:1723. (I have used the Weymouth Translation

simply to avoid the old King James English)

now it is no longer I that do these things, but the sin which has its homewithin me does them. For I know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing

good has its home; for while the will to do right is present with me, the power tocarry it out is not. For what I do is not the good thing that I desire to do; but the

evil thing that I desire not to do , is what I constantly do. But if I do that which I

desire not to do, it can no longer be said that it is I who do it, but the sin whichhas its home within me does it. I find therefore the law of my nature to be that

when I desire to do what is right, evil is lying in ambush for me. For in my inmostself all my sympathy is with the Law of God; but I discover within me a different

Law at war with the Law of my understanding, and leading me captive to the Lawwhich is everywhere at work in my body the Law of sin.

Paul sees a lower self within him in which sin exists and it is this sin that constantly is

at war with the inmost self who wants to do what God wants all the time. Paul in fact,goes so far as to say that it really isnt him that does the things he doesnt want to do but

it is this entity called sin. Perhaps we could replace the word sin with carnal mind or theego.

When I first read Eckhart Tolles book, A NewEarth - Awakening To Your Lifes Purposes, one

of my first comments was that this book was per-

haps the best commentary I have ever read onRomans chapter 7. Paul talks about the lower selfand sin and in other places speaks about the car-

nal mind and the lusts of the flesh. Tolle uses

terms such as the ego and pain bodies but in somany ways it seems to me that they are speakingvery much about the same thing.

At one point in his life, Eckhart Tolle was severelydepressed and had contemplated suicide. Awaken-

ing in the middle of the night, the thought I cannot live with myself emerged in his mindonly to be replaced by a rather amazing thought if that statement was true then there

appeared to be two Eckhart Tolles but which one was the real Tolle? There was the I and

then there was the self that the I couldn't live with. To quote a line from another gameshow - Will the real Eckhart Tolle please stand up?

The apostle Paul is saying very much

the same thing. There is a Paul thatdwells deep within and that Paul is

having a lot of trouble living with the lower self that appears to be Paul

ANEWEARTH

AWAKENING

TOYOURLIFESPURPOSES

EckhartTolle

Perhapsthebest

commentary

onRomans7that

Ihaveread

I cannot live with myself!

Icannot live with my self!

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but really isnt, and is covering up the true Paul.

The ego that dwelt within the body of Eckhart Tolle was full of massive pain bodies. It hadEckhart Tolle convinced that this was who he was. The I that was the real Eckhart Tollewas suppressed and oppressed by the ego that continually pretended to be Eckhart. It

may be bold to suggest this but I believe Eckhart Tolle experienced the salvation that Je-

sus spoke of that night or at least the process of salvation began because the salvationthat Jesus came to bring is a process. It is a journey from being divided and fractionalized

to a state of wholeness and completeness.

This is what I believe Jesus means when he speaks of the kingdom of God within. It is astate of being. It is state of love, joy, peace and oneness. It is the absence of division,

strife, worry, anger and all the other negative, dysfunctional characteristics and attributes

we all suffer from when our ego and pain bodies are at work.

To quote a rather famous song, my past religious experience reinforced the view that I wasa wretch destined for hell and there was nothing good about me. Today, I believe that

every human being is at the deepest spiritual level, an expression of God and is thereforeperfect. That is the rebus hidden within us. However, that I is so covered up as to be vir-

tually unrecognizable in most of us.

Now back to my analogy. In the Concentration game we had numbers and prizes coveringup the hidden puzzle. Instead of those things, I am going to suggest to you that we have

an ego and pain bodies covering up the perfection to use Eckhart Tolles words. Paul would

state it a little differently. He might suggest that hatred, wrath, strife, envying, etc. are thethings covering up the true self that he mentions in Romans 7.

In Concentration we tried to match prizes so the puzzle could be revealed. In life I am go-

ing to suggest to you that we need to match the situations, events and circumstances in

our lives to those things that are covering up our perfection. For example, lets say that wehave an anger issue that is covering up our perfection. Underneath one number we have

anger but in Concentration game being played out in life, the match will be an event orsituation which causes that anger to manifest. Perhaps it is the driver on the highway who

cuts you off or insists on driving so close to your rear bumper that he could get somethingout of your trunk if you asked him. Perhaps under one number is low self-esteem. The

match will be some situation in which your low opinion flares up. Perhaps we may find im-patience under one number. If so you may find yourself standing in line at a checkout

while the person ahead of you counts out one by one a couple of dollars in pennies or you

have to wait for a price check or the cash register tape runs out. Some of us may have aproblem with attachment to material things. Some circumstance in which we lose the thing

or even better, a situation may arise in which we have the opportunity to give away that towhich we are so attached.

The driver who cuts you off is a blessing. The

person in the check out line counting out penniesone by one is a blessing.

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When a situation arises, we need to be able to see the connection between the situation

and the attribute or characteristic that is hiding who we truly are. In Concentration, if I

called out two numbers and the prizes underneath them didnt match, the numbers reap-peared covering up the prizes and waited to be called out again as the contestants tried tolocate the respective matches.

In life when we miss the lesson of a particular situation, God simply creates anothersituation in which the same problem is revealed. As long as we dont understand that

these circumstances are coming our way to enable us to overcome and remove all that ishiding our true selves, then the same situations keep occurring. You could say that we

make a trip around the same mountain until we do get it. This is the reason many peo-ples lives seem to be filled with repeating patterns of behaviour. Of course, it is easy for

us to see those destructive patterns in others and be totally blind to the patterns in our

own lives. Israel is said to have wandered in the wilderness 40 years when it could havebeen about a 10 to 15 day trip. How many of us have suffered and struggled for years with

issues when it could have ended in a moment if we became aware of who we are and whatwas truly happening?

When we understand this universal law, we will see that the so-called negative situations

in our life are truly blessings. They are the vehicle through which God points out to us ar-

eas of our lives that keep us from experiencing the kingdom of God. Imagine how our liveswill change when we learn to appreciate and express our gratitude for all the so-called

negative moments that we now know are a blessing. So if you are in line in front of me,

counting out $2 in pennies one by one, THANK YOU!