Dr Sir John Whitman Ray Anniversary Message
2008
Hello everyone.
Dr Sir John Whitman Ray passed away on 21st April, 2001. Each year I commemorate this man, whose efforts to serve his fellow man have benefited and continue to benefit countless thousands of people all over the world. I would like to think that rather than enshrining the man, as he was loathe to have happen in his lifetime, I can take these opportunities to reflect on some of the teachings he has left us. For this reason alone you may wish to put John in the very position he would quickly remove himself from. Some may think of him as self-effacing, others perhaps quite the opposite, but in my time with him I came to learn that he seldom did anything without what some might call “mysterious motives.”
I recall him explaining to me at an Instructor’s Seminar I co-taught with him in New Zealand in 1999 that the desire people had to treat him as special was an indication of their desire to create separation rather than unity. While others might enjoy a little special treatment John was apt to throw it back in someone’s face, often when least expected. For example, if you would have liked to help John carry his bag across the car park, then you had better have been willing to carry anyone else’s bag too. If you would like to have procured John a little extra cheese for lunch you’d better have made this kind of effort for others too.
This does not make every act of kindness flawed, quite the contrary, for it is not the act but the attitude or motivation which is at fault. John was special, he had a unique gift to offer and exerted himself tirelessly at it, but he ever had a sledgehammer on hand to break down any pedestals created for him by making himself unacceptable in some way to that person. If they could confront their own attachment to John being of some particular imagined stature and participate effectively in the seminar then all was well, otherwise not so well. The shock was often a bit much for some and those who did not have the mettle to continue gracefully at that point generally were better off ruling themselves out early because the more effort they would make to restore John to a pedestal, making allowances for him “being so special”, just ended up with an extra dose of “still think I’m any different from anyone else” later on until they either got it or couldn’t endure the healing crisis any more. Please don’t try this at home. The problem lies not in the recognition of greatness where it exists, but in the denial of greatness in all other areas. There is no more nor less God in either you or I, regardless of any task or role any of us may happen to be engaged in at any time.
Healing crisis, ay? The pain, upset, discomfort, annoyance, indignation, hurt, frustration, etc any of us feel for things not going our way or conforming to our expectations is all from within. We don’t have to feel that way, but we choose to. We feel that way because we’ve resisted that experience in the past and are resisting it again right now. If we allow ourselves to experience it and be ok with our “unpleasant” circumstance well then we have the continual unfolding of that experience for us to confront all of the energies there, not just the initial unpleasantness, and thus the healing crisis. If we’re not ok with it, entirely our choice, well then we have the further suppression of it for now.
I rather suspect that what most of us want is not the truth, but rather proof that our deeply held beliefs are true. That is to say, we seek evidence to confirm that things are really as we perceive them to be. This appears to be the case even when we hold beliefs we say we’d rather not be true. We have denied the real truth and to such an extent that we are incapable of perceiving it even when confronted with it and are now only capable of accepting what we have progressively programmed ourselves to accept. This programming is the result of multiple and myriad avoidances or attempted “U-turns” to get away from our own responsibilities for what we have done to separate ourselves from this truth.
We have certain aversions – one of them is being wrong about our estimation of the universe and how its laws operate. Unfortunately most of us have violated every spiritual law in the book so many times that we really are not in a position to know the truth, even when it kicks us in the teeth during a healing crisis. We are the creator of our own mess and that mess is for our benefit because it serves as a reminder to clean our act up, accumulating and becoming more pressing until we do. We can sure run from our creations, but in no way can we hide. Behold our karma, the accumulation of every creative unfinished act, the stuff we made but resist and try to manipulate into something more acceptable rather than simply accept it as ours and undo it.
Ah yes, fundamentally we’re all into manipulation, particularly manipulation of the truth until it eventually resembles it not a jot. The truth is we make our reality second by second and may at times be on the receiving end of someone else’s creative efforts. There can’t be any real specialness because we all happen to be in this together – one time the creator, another time the receiver but at all times able to choose how we will conduct ourselves in either situation and capable of having no preference or partiality to particular outcomes or roles. The judgement or categorisation of things into desirable and undesirable, ok and not ok binds us to the perpetuation of undesirable circumstances, in our own estimation. The truth is we can love anything, although if we were smart we might start in those areas where we have faith in our capacity to do so and build from there.
This in part explains the miraculous nature of Body Electronics and the true potential for regeneration of body and mind – any reality can be altered in an instant but not before we cease trying to make this alteration a matter of manipulating a circumstance we’ve already adjudged as undesirable. There does not need to be a “mechanism” for regeneration. Sure there are plenty of mechanisms that can be conducive to regeneration, restoration of nerve supply and improvement of nutritional status to name a couple. But if our faith is in these mechanistic aspects ONLY, then the breakthrough we really require will continually elude us. We require a regenerate attitude, not the degenerate one we mostly work off. We require committed, demonstrated faith in our capacity to love unconditionally and let go of our judgements about what is true or not, desirable or not, lovable or not. We are in control of the brakes and accelerator (and the steering wheel) of our vehicle. Mechanisms are for manipulating things – we don’t need to manipulate stuff, no matter how much we’ve bought in to that concept. We need to uncreate stuff, which we’ll never be able to do while denying responsibility for it. May each of us gracefully accept our own junk rather than blame someone else for it. One thing about tidying up – you can’t do it without picking up all the rubbish and getting your hands dirty.
So thanks John for being willing to stand by us while we learned to pick up some of our rubbish and yes, at times, for rubbing our noses in it so we could fully appreciate our own junk. It wasn’t for his entertainment, but for our benefit. Let’s make the most of it.
By the way, if you haven’t been to my website lately, you can find out how to get a copy of my latest book, “The List – The Art of Constructive Manifestation.”
In Love, Light and Perfection,
"I AM"
Graham Bennett