Beyond Money Concerns to Lasting Peace

Dylan: Whenever you seem to perceive an object of fear, you have to start to pull the projection of fear back to its false cause—false thoughts of fear and the false ego-belief in mind, along with one’s desire to misidentify with them.

The fear you seem to have with money is a wonderful opportunity for Peace right now, if seen correctly. Emotions are inroads into what is happening on the mental level—thoughts and beliefs—which lead to the core desire in mind of what you are desiring to experience in any moment of seeming upset.

Friend: So, emotions act as an indicator of what thoughts are happening?

Dylan: Yes, emotion is always an effect or result of what thoughts and beliefs are being misidentified with on a mental level. These thoughts and beliefs can then be worked back to, “What am I desiring to experience in this moment?” I will come back to this.

Friend: You said to start with perception and then trace the lack of peace inwards, since perception—the object of fear—is an inroad into emotion, which is an inroad into thought, then belief, and then the core desire on a mental level.

Dylan: Yes, so let us start with the perception. Walk me through it.

Friend: So the perception of my upset or lack of peace right now is money.

Dylan: Wonderful, this is great to observe this.

Friend: The emotions that are coming up are fear, anxiety, intensity, and I feel some kind of stuckness around what is happening. Yes, that is what is there.

Dylan: Wonderful, thank you. Since emotion is an inroad to thought and underlying beliefs, walk me through what is arising.

Friend: Okay. Some of the thoughts are, “You don’t have enough. You are worthless because you don’t have enough. Everyone else is successful and doing great, but I’m over here and am a pile of garbage because I don’t measure up.” Another thought is, “You need to hurry up and get more to be worthy of peace and love, to be worthy of approval.” Yeah.

Dylan: Great, thank you for sharing these thoughts! Seen correctly, being able to see them is a big step for you to return to peace.

Friend: Yeah, thank you. It feels like a total retreat or set back, but I do remember you saying that whenever anything comes up it is always a step forward. I find this helpful, as when I share the thoughts I know I am not being run by them anymore and can share them for a shift in perception.

Dylan: Yes, when you seem to go through this seeming shift, there comes a realisation that, “Ah, I have only been seemingly attached to and have been reacting to false ego thoughts all along.” As you begin to see that the seeming cause of lack of peace has always been on the level of mind, rather than the level of perception, you realise you are not an innocent victim and always have cause for peace and happiness right now.

When you are ready, take me through some of the underlying beliefs that you notice.

Friend: Well yeah, you just said one of them: that I believe I am an innocent victim. I believe my state of mind can be affected by something in the world. I believe I am lacking. I never really saw these during the upset, but now that we are here going through it I can see them.

Dylan: Yes, that is the sweetness of inquiry. We can put all of these onto paper or work it in mentally, and start to see how the mind is desiring to act out a belief of being a victim more than a single desire for present peace of mind.

Friend: Yes, desiring to attach onto, or misidentify with, as you say, these false beliefs and thoughts arising in the mind.

Dylan: Yes. There is a phrase in ACIM which says that the Holy Instant or present moment does not require that you have no thoughts, yet, what it does require is that you hold onto none of them. Just as if you were standing next to a highway and you are just letting the cars come and go, watching them all without clinging to any of them.

You also may use the analogy of being the sky, letting the temporal clouds arise and disappear. You just let them float on by, without a need to try and attach your vast identity of being the sky to a temporal cloud.

Friend: I suppose to add to the list, under beliefs, is that I believe something needs to be different for me to be happy.

Dylan: Yes, that is it, indeed. This is the trick of the false sense of self or ego. It seems to provide thoughts that suggest that if only something was different with that person, situation, place, climate, or even different with myself I would then be happy, peaceful, content, and joyful. “If only I had more money I would be happy and peaceful.”

It projects the Happiness and Peace of Being that You Already Are into a future goal, where it is never found. When money comes the mindset is still, “I want more to be happy and peaceful.” How much more is more enough? And then when there is money it shifts to, “How do I keep it, how do I invest it, and how do I protect it?”

Friend: If I am off chasing future happiness and peace I am distracted away from where the happiness and peace are, here in the present.

Dylan: Yes, the whole scheme is undone here. All it took was a little investigation or inquiry. And this is where desire comes in. It comes back to, “What is it that I am desiring to experience in this moment?” Am I desiring to misidentify with a false sense of self—the ego—and its unachievable goals of having a perfect situation or outcome to experience the Happiness and Peace You Already Are now, or am I desiring Peace singularly right now regardless of how the form looks?

If I desire Peace right now, that means that there is a desirelessness for a particular outcome, a particular situation to go a certain way, or for more of anything in this world.

As you see the falsity of the misidentification to ego and its unloving thoughts, a recognition happens that the Peace of Being—of Who You already Are now—is not circumstance dependent. If it is not circumstance dependent, then I’m not a victim of the world or a circumstance. Believing you need more money to be happy and peaceful is to claim that you are a victim of the world. Through inquiry, you can see that it is only you who is experiencing the effects of your desire to misidentify with a false sense of self or not.

Friend: I didn’t see it at first, but when you said, “For more of anything in the world,” this is what an idol is.

Dylan: Yes, certainly. In the Bible it states, “Hold no graven images before the Lord thy God.” These graven images are the split desires for more of anything in the world. Why is this? Because if you value the desire for more of something of the world, you will be left feeling a false sense of deprivation because you will experience the false effects of that desire: that you seem to not have what you do already have. That the Peace and Happiness You already Are will be experienced when a specific form outcome or situation happens in the future. From this misperception the way you go about trying to fill the deprivation will be through external means.

Yet, the sweetness behind, “Hold no graven images,” is because this is where the fulfilment of Being lies. Through the single desire of Self, or Peace, that is always available right now, you overlook the false ego-belief that you are lacking in some way. Here, the fruitless search of looking for peace, happiness and fulfilment in the intellect, emotion, or the world where it cannot be found, ends.

When Jesus said, “Let thine eye be single,” he meant it. Let your inner desire be solely for Present Peace, for Present unconditioned Love, for the Self, and you will experience only that.

Friend: This is very helpful, as the upset was not what I thought it was in the moment it arose.

Dylan: Yes. At first, the upset seemed to be because of the money in perception, but as we work the upset or lack of peace back to the level of mind it now becomes: “I seem to be experiencing upsetting emotions of fear and anxiety because I am misidentifying with fearful thoughts. These thoughts are suggesting that: something terrible is going to happen, and I am not worthy of peace because I don’t have a lot of money, so I’m a pile of garbage.

This is stemming from the misidentification with the false, fearful ego-belief that suggest, “I am an innocent victim that is lacking, and that something in perception has to be different to be happy and peaceful.”

This is stemming from the desire to misidentify with a false sense of self—that I have separated from God. The desire to misidentify with the false ego-belief and its unloving thoughts, emotions, and perceptions are the graven images that are valued more than remaining as the true Self or Present Peace.

Friend: Wow, this is so clear now. I have to see the unreality or falsity of this misidentification to experience a shift. I have to see the falsity of these limiting thoughts that arise and dictate things to me. When I don’t see the falsity, I believe them and act them out as if they are true.

Dylan: Yes, when the mind forgot to laugh at these arising thoughts one then seems to take them seriously, taking on false responsibility for them. I now become the judgemental one, and I now seem to become the fearful one. This is just a misperception of Who I Am.

Jesus’ statement that, “You but see through a glass, darkly” comes into play here. “Seeing through a glass, darkly,” refers to a misperception or an error in perceiving. I seem to forget about the true Self that I Am as the ever-present, unchanging sky, and now attach the vast identity I Am to temporal passing clouds that are floating through the sky.

Friend: All problems are then a perceptual problem.

Dylan: Indeed, every seeming experience of lack of peace or upset is just a misperception, a misidentification on the mental level extending out to emotion and then perception.

You can see that it is not really money that is the cause of upset, but what is being desired and then believed about the money. All of the made-up mental stories, conclusions and meanings that are being added on top of whatever seems to be presenting itself in the moment. Thoughts seem to arise and conclude, “Because of this, this must mean [fill in the blank].” For example, “Because of the amount of money, this means you are worthless, a piece of shit, less than others, and you will end up being a bum on the streets.”

Because these thoughts arise in mind, you assume they must be yours and the mind misidentifies with them. In doing so, you seem to experience the effects which seem to appear as fearful emotions and a fearful world. You then tend to have to find some external solution to a seeming problem that is really on the mental level.

Friend: We get jobs to fill the belief in lack.

Now, when we are watching a movie we tend to forget that the movie has already been acted out by actors in a controlled environment, it has already been shot, it has already been put onto film, and now it is just being projected out onto the white movie theatre screen.

Even though it has already been shot, you may still find yourself yelling at the actors, “Don’t go in that room! He’s right there! What are you doing, you fools?!” What would make you react that way unless you believed that what was already past, what was already shot, is still present and happening right now.

What would make you react in such a way unless you forgot it was just a movie. Remembering that it is just a movie allows you to remember that I’m not a character in that movie, and I don’t have to yell at the other characters to not go in the room, because I can’t change what is happening as the movie is over.

Using this analogy of watching a movie in a movie theatre, I can recognise I have no choice in what is playing out on the screen, but I can always choose how I am going to perceive the movie. Am I going to watch it unfold in peace, or am I going to get lost in the movie and experience the roller coaster of emotion that comes along with it?

This is a metaphor pointing to, “Are you going to seem to watch what unfolds with Spirit, as the true Self You Are, or are you going to watch what seems to unfold with the seeming ego, misidentifying with these false beliefs and thoughts and upsetting emotions?”

Friend: Yes, trying to fill or relieve the idea of lack by external means is like trying to change the movie. It is impossible and brings no real peace or lasting experience because how you are seeing the movie, through the filter of lack or a false sense of self, is still there on the mental level.

Dylan: Precisely, which is why there is no point of trying to change what is an effect of the mind. When I was working through the same experience as I began to question and inquire, I would open up to intuitive guidance. As I shifted from perceiving problems being solely perception-based to seeming problems being a misidentification on the level of mind.

This intuitive guidance initially looked like me asking, “How do I solve this in form, where am I to go, whom am I to meet, and what am I to say?” Then inspired ideas, inner nudges or feelings, inner images or thoughts were given, or at times even nothing was given as an answer.

Following these intuitive prompts and guidance were used to practically unwind from the misperception of being solely focused on perception to opening to the recognition of the level of mind, the level of misidentification with false beliefs and thoughts, and effectual emotions and perceptions.

As I began to follow intuitive guidance, my attention would be taken off of perception to watch or observe what was happening mentally. We can call this mind-watching. I would just observe the thoughts and beliefs that would arise during the day and see what was being misidentified with.

I realised the only purpose of perception was to use it to mind-watch and question all of the limiting beliefs and thoughts that were being misidentified with. As I focused on this, things in perception seemed to work out synchronistically by themselves.

Jesus says, “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all else will be added onto you.” If you are willing to question and inquire into the root of what is being experienced, for the experience of recognising the true Self or Peace, everything else will be added onto you to fulfill this, without exception.

What I did not realise at that moment was that this is the only thing that works, without fail. Everything in the world is iffy, may or may not work, but this works 100% without fail. Why? Because you ultimately already Are what You Are seeking for, therefore, it cannot fail and must work; not only work but is inevitable.

Friend: Yes, I feel what you are saying, as it was just recently that I felt to call someone and as soon as I picked up the mobile they called. It all becomes a synchronistic dance. I was actually clueless and just followed through on an inspired thought.

Ah yes! The daily ideas, “Let me recognise my problems so they can be solved,” and then, “Let me recognise the problem has been solved.” The seeming problem was a perceptual problem, a misidentification, and I can see the misidentification as false.

Dylan: Every moment is filled with glee, as you start to come to that central desire of what is it that I truly desire. It was only the misidentification with false, limiting beliefs and thoughts that spoke against the one, true, loving nature of Self that seemed to make everything dark, make it seem you were seeing through the glass, darkly.

Whenever you get caught up into perception, you have to come back to recognise that it is how you are seeing what seems to be playing out, is where the true level of choice lies. Am I going to perceive what seems to be playing out in Peace, knowing I am not a victim, and that the Peace of Being is available right now if desired solely? Or am I going to misperceive what seems to be playing out through a darkened glass, misidentified with false, limiting beliefs and thoughts of a false sense of self, and its seeming goals of future happiness and peace?

The only purpose of perception is to raise these false, limiting beliefs and thoughts, and the misidentification with them into conscious awareness. Here, the misidentification with them can be seen as false. The idea of an other, or a choice between peace and something else, falls away. There is no need to try and get rid of any thought, emotion or perception, no need to try and fix anything, stop them or control them. Just a gentle observation of everything with non-judgement, in which the ego is seen as false.

Friend: “Forgiveness merely waits, watches, and judges not.”

Dylan: Yes, this is the true meaning of forgiveness! Seeing the falsity of the misidentification with ego thoughts, emotions, and perceptions and overlooking them to extend the true qualities of Being. Non-judgement, unconditional Love, and lasting Peace and Joy are left shining As It Is. “The Peace that surpasseth human understanding,” as stated by Jesus.

When what is false is seen as false, what is true is left shining As It Is available this very moment. Enlightenment is but a recognition and not a change at all. Enlightenment is not a becoming, and it’s not circumstance dependent to be What You Already Are. “Nothing real can be threatened and nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the Peace of God.”

You are safe in this moment, as you always have what you need now, and all that you need You Already Are. Perfection comes with non-judgement. Love comes with non-judgement. With non-judgement you are always where you need to be, without exception!

Bask in the glee of non-judgement, knowing all things work together for good in the cluelessness of Being. You truly can’t mess anything up, as all lack of joy rested on the false idea that you could. When the mind stops misdefining the problem, space can open up for the miracle to drop in. Spirit takes care of all perceived needs as long as they are needed.

Rest in this moment, relax as Presence, for this moment is all there is. You are the Safety that was sought for in the world. You Are the Divine Providence.