Reader's Q&A: On Learning Lessons
Do’Hai™ mastery development teaches that transformation is a matter of acknowledging the Essence of the desire/intention and then allowing it to manifest. But if we can do this, are we avoiding important lessons in the process? Or are we learning the lesson of supreme importance?

May 10th 2006 - Reader: In your articles -- you emphasized “being the new state” in order to reach it. But what if there is a strong blockage related to a certain chakra or area of the body? Wouldn’t the individual first have to learn the lesson of the blockage, overcome it, then gradually change their perspective in order to reach that “new state” that they wanted, or “wholeness?”

Or as stated in your articles, just *Visualize* and *BE* and *Want* what it is that you want and you will become it -- overriding the blockages in the process. If that is so, no lesson is really learned though. Wouldn’t the blockages return? (web display visitor)

Jaraan: Thanks for asking! This is a great question on an important topic. It appears to refer primarily to comments I made in “What is Recovery?” and other articles posted on soulgate.byregion.net. Do’Hai encourages us to exercise the Principle of Proactivity: “Focus on what we want rather than what we don’t want.” Whether there is a lesson learned depends upon what one needs or wants to learn. Though we’re certainly not the first to state this radical idea, it is important to emphasize that rather than liberate, the emphasis on “learning lessons” as typically understood actually keeps one stuck in 3D polarity consciousness. It is one of the subtle, often unconscious fear-based, ego dynamics that makes many diligent, well-intended, and highly motivated people run around in circles without making any real progress. Here’s why.

When people usually think of learning lessons to grow spiritually, as you mentioned in your question, it’s a matter of encountering a difficulty, determining the cause of that difficulty, and then taking steps to resolve it. In this way, one learns and grows to understand through the process of karma or cause and effect. It’s sometimes referred to as “processing stuff.”

However, the problem is that this method only works in polarity. Now, you may be thinking, “So what! I’m in polarity. I need something that works in polarity.” True enough; but if it only works in polarity, the results or learning will lead you to somewhere else in polarity and only apply to polarity. Thus, the diligent student may learn all sorts of things about the how and why of conditions. Knowing how and why tells you how and why you are where you are. It doesn’t necessarily tell you how to get where you want to be -- unless where you want to be is somewhere else within the domain of polarity. This has its place. But if you aspire to Oneness, why invest all that blood, sweat, and tears to learn lessons that won’t take you beyond the conflict of polarity into the Peace of Oneness? If the goal of your life is to understand the intricacies of ego dynamics and navigate polarity, then overcoming obstacles is pretty much the only method of learning lessons you need. However, if your goal is to experience Wholeness, Mastery, or Ascension (Conscious Oneness with Source), then a very different approach is needed.

Another problem with “learning lessons” as we generally think of it is not so much in the practice, but the attitudes, beliefs, and assumptions that motivate and direct such endeavors. Learning, in this context means “acquiring information or understanding I don’t already have or know.” This is often done to “become something I’m not (healthy, prosperous, joyful).” This aspiration can only exist within the ego (polarity) since all exists within and is known to the totality of Soul/Source. And that All-Knowing Presence is within you. It IS you. Thus, even the attempt to “learn” in this context denies the very Wholeness one seeks to experience.

Seeking in this way also dramatically limits the knowledge one can access. Such knowledge must already be manifest in polarity or ego consciousness. Admittedly, there’s a lot that can be learned in polarity. But only a tiny amount of that knowledge is applicable to any one person in any given situation. How much research and study must one undertake to glean enough relevant knowledge to facilitate real spiritual progress? The time commitment would be enormous --
hence numerous incarnations. If one is satisfied to learn more about wholeness through intellectual pursuits, then this is sufficient. However, if your goal is to actually experience Wholeness, Mastery, or Ascension, then an approach more directly aligned with this purpose is needed.

To be fair, typical learning methods get you started, and the knowledge gained through them can provide a basic foundation for greater development. But all the knowledge in all the books in all the libraries in the world are but a grain of sand on the beach compared to the True Knowledge (Wisdom) already within you. If you believe you must “learn lessons,” why not learn the first and most important lesson: You (Soul/Source) are All That Is already. You are that which you seek. While your experiences correspond in some way to who you are (or who you think you are), there is much more to who you are than is currently apparent to you. Your Wholeness is
obvious to your Soul because it is your Soul. Accepting this spiritual fact of your Being, it is then a matter of remembering what you (Soul/Source) already know as it is needed to respond to any situation that you (ego-personality) encounter. If there is a lesson, it’s learning how to allow Soul/Source to express Its Perfection and Mastery in and through you. All else then naturally manifests according to your “Divine Blueprint.”

So what about lessons learned? Will you miss important lessons by going straight to the Source and allowing Its Presence to manifest in your life? Well, that depends upon your purpose, priorities, and intentions. Is your priority to learn lessons? Or is it to experience the result you anticipate as a result of having learned them? If you believe that learning lessons only happens from overcoming obstacles, you then must act on numerous assumptions that deny your True Nature and are, therefore, essentially false. Such assumptions include: that you are separate from Source, that obstacles exist to perpetuate that separation, that you must work hard to qualify for what you want, that you lack what you need, and that you must overcome obstacles to be happy. This is a long, hard, and not particularly fulfilling road. Why? You’re too busy fixing what’s “wrong” to notice, accept, or experience what’s already “right” and Real and therefore, genuinely fulfilling.

We navigate the planes of consciousness (inner and outer) by means of attention directed by intention. “Energy flows where attention goes.” Said another way, we find what we are looking for. Thus, if we focus our attention on overcoming obstacles, we naturally look for and find obstacles to overcome. We may process through (learn lessons from) obstacle after obstacle without relief. Can you relate? Many are under the mistaken assumption that change always
means progress. However, since your intention and attention is on learning lessons through overcoming obstacles, processing through one obstacle just leads to another obstacle. This practice may provide a level of change within the same realm (polarity), but by its very nature, it cannot progress one beyond polarity into Oneness.

What we want to experience in material form and circumstance is motivated by and birthed from who we really are -- our Soul Reality or Essence (Love) that transcends form and polarity. For instance, we may say we want money -- a physical form. But money is not truly the objective. It’s what we can do with that money, and more specifically, how we expect to feel as a result. It’s not the money we want to experience, but the aspect of our Divine Nature that money
represents. For example, what we may really want in Essence is to experience Abundance, Peace, Security, Empowerment, etc. If our attention is on the Essence (what we really want to experience), and we intend to experience this Essence most fully, we naturally manifest the forms (money and other material supply and conditions) associated with it.

We may encounter apparent obstacles to the manifestation, but if we feel (Know) the presence of Abundance, as one example of what money represents, then we begin to recognize that perceived obstacles are merely illusions of ego conditioning. Recognizing we are already the Essence, the forms must inevitably follow. (As within, so without.) Thus, the tendency is to progress through apparant obstacles, allowing the Reality of Abundance to materialize as money and other material forms. Not only that, but the “obstacles” we may encounter are those that specifically relate to our objective. Therefore, the process of growth is effectively focused and genuinely productive -- that is, the obstacles transformed (lessons learned) contribute directly to the intended objective. Not only that, but the enthusiasm accessed by identifying with and focusing on the Ideal is more than adequate to motivate you to stay on track.

If your purpose is achieve Wholeness, Mastery, and Ascension, then “learning lessons” takes on an entirely new meaning. This path of learning requires a different set of assumptions which acknowledge and affirm your True Nature and are true, though not always apparent from the ego’s perspective. These assumptions include: You are Whole and Complete -- one with All That Is, you are a master becoming masterful, you are Infinite Potential and thus, you already are what you need and want. You then turn your attention to and begin to learn through the manifestation and expression of Source (Reality-based progress) rather than by overcoming perceived obstacles (illusion-based “learning”). The lesson then becomes not how to “get what you want” but how to allow your Inner Potential (who you are) to manifest in your life in the meaningful and fulfilling forms appropriate to your path.

It’s like this. Does art training make a person creative? Not at all. The person already is Creative Essence. The training simply teaches one how to express Creative Potential. Do all people learn how to express their Creative Potential in ways appropriate to their path? Hardly. There are exceptionally creative people who flatly state that they aren’t creative at all. It’s not that they aren’t creative. They just don’t recognize it. If you deny your creativity, it doesn’t matter how many art degrees you have, you’ll never express it to any meaningful degree. Once you see and accept that you are creative, you can then learn how to express it -- with or without formal training. Until then, you may spend a lot of time and energy trying to overcome difficulties caused by not being true to who you are -- that is, not recognizing and expressing your Creative Potential appropriate to your path. Once you recognize and begin to express who you are, it’s amazing how difficulties diminish without further effort to address them. Energy once allocated to overcoming obstacles then gets redirected into manifesting Reality -- a realm in which obstacles simply don’t exist. Once you realize an obstacle doesn’t exist, there’s no chance of it “returning.”

Do’Hai emphasizes that what we experience in polarity is only a perspective, a possible interpretation of Reality. Your perspective determines your experience. Reality is unchanging. Interpretations change as your perspective changes. If you believe a particular condition is an obstacle to you, then you must treat that condition as if it actually is an obstacle. If you believe obstacles have the power to keep you from manifesting your intentions and fulfilling your purpose, then you must either forego a purposeful, fulfilling life or overcome the obstacles. But what if you interpret that same condition as a guide or as scenery along the path? You can acknowledge that a particular condition exists without having to interpret it as an impediment or detriment to you.

For instance, some might say that lack of a college education is an obstacle to success. If lack of a college education was truly an obstacle to success, no one without a college education could possibly become successful. I’d be willing to bet you’ve heard of people with limited education who are wildly successful. If they can be, so can anyone else. Some might say a physical disability is an obstacle to success. Thomas Edison did pretty well for being deaf. He actually used this so-called disability to his advantage. Stephen Hawking, suffering from an incurable neuromuscular disease (ALS) and unable to walk or talk, has made extraordinary contributions to our understanding of the cosmos. Clearly these “handicaps” are not true obstacles to achievement. If they were, no one experiencing such conditions would be able to achieve.

It’s all in the interpretation. Thus, spiritually speaking, learning lessons can be interpreted to mean: “acquire what I (as ego) don’t know so I can have what I want” or “remind me (ego) of what I (Soul/Source) already Know and need to remember.”

To “acquire what I don’t know so I can have what I want” requires you to define yourself first as one who doesn’t have, doesn’t know, isn’t enough, etc. Trying to get what you don’t have or know assumes a condition of separation from Source, and promotes dependency on something outer to provide what is needed, thus perpetuating conditions of fear and frustration. It is this interpretation of yourself as lacking that determines how you experience your life. It becomes the version of Reality in which you operate -- always seeking, rarely finding, or if finding, it is inappropriate or insufficient. Ever gotten exactly what you asked for and discovered that it wasn’t what you wanted after all?

To “remind me (ego) of what I (Soul) already Know and need to remember” automatically puts you in a state of knowing, of having, of being that which you aspire to experience, while also acknowledging that you may not yet recognize it. It’s being accurately honest. Remembering what we do have or know acknowledges our Wholeness and promotes reliance on our Abundant Inner Source, thus establishing oneness and perpetuating love and understanding. Thus, you align with the All-Encompassing Presence of your Soul and manifest Its Wholeness as needed in your body and life experience. Is this not the true intent behind what we typically think of as learning lessons?

Here’s one final idea I’d like you to consider. Did your acknowledged authority figures (parents, teacher, minister, etc.) say things like, “I hope you’ve learned your lesson!” or “I’m going to have to teach you a lesson!!!”? Were they really saying, “I hope you see what you did wrong and correct it!” or “I’m going to have to punish you for your mistake!!!”? If so, your motivation/intention/priority for “learning lessons” may be to determine what you did wrong and correct it in order to avoid punishment. Avoiding punishment is not even remotely the same as achieving Wholeness. Achieving Wholeness is not about seeing what you did “wrong” -- whatever that means. It’s about recognizing what doesn’t work (never mind how or why) and discovering what does. From a more Wholeness-oriented perspective, it’s about realizing what is Real within you and allow that Reality to manifest/express Itself in your life as you.

If you are honest with yourself about what you truly want, you’ll find that learning lessons is not the point or purpose of your life, but a means to an end. If you are open to other options, you’ll discover that learning through overcoming obstacles is not the only means to that end, if it ever was. Are you here to learn how to overcome obstacles? Perhaps. Or are you here to learn how to fully and freely experience your Wholeness? Most definitely! If your objective is to express your Wholeness, you will naturally and more effortlessly overcome many supposed obstacles without even trying. If your objective is to overcome obstacles . . . well, at least you’ll have something to keep you busy. The choice is yours. Only you can decide. Your conclusion will determine the course of your life -- whether it is a journey of constant struggle or one of growing fulfillment.

Jaraan Onai
Copyright 2005, All Rights Reserved

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