By Neale Donald Walsh, CwG, July 11, 2014 – https://cwg.org/index.php?b=601
My dear friends…
We have been talking on and off here about the Path to Self-Awareness, and most recently about the Second Step on that path: Enlargement. This week I would like to take a look at how we may go about achieving Enlargement. One way, at least.
I see a three-part approach here. First, cause another to have the experience. Second, step into the experience yourself fully, even if only for a moment. Third, savor the experience in memory, where all miracles reside.
May I explain?
1. Cause another to have this experience
Nothing is more powerful in the creation of our reality than the process of creating that reality for another. Conversations with God gave us this clue in the very first dialogue book. “That which you wish to experience for yourself,” the dialogue tells us, “cause another to experience.”
It is often challenging for us to create certain experiences of Ultimate Reality interiorly. The truths of Who We Are and How Life Works can be difficult to embrace or to implement on a personal level, owing to our own lack of self-worth . Somebody says “Thou art God” and we just can’t believe it. We can’t accept it. We can understand it, intellectually, but we can’t implement it, operationally. That is, we find it hard to operate that way.
This is true not only when we consider the Totality of Our Being, but even when we seek to embrace only one or two of its parts. For instance, a part of Divinity is Love. Another part is Wisdom. Yet another part is Goodness. Yet when we try to enlarge our “sense of self” to include descriptions of ourselves such as these, we find ourselves rejecting these labels. We can think of too many times when we have not been loving, when we have not been wise, when we have not been good. So, no, we are not that, we tell ourselves. We deny the Divinity within.
(“I tell you, you will deny me three times before the cock crows.”)
Yet what we cannot see in ourselves, we can easily see in another. That is because we are more generous with others than we are with ourselves. We are willing to overlook more in others. We are willing and able to see that temporary diversions do not a life path make. We are clear that the truth of another’s Being resides within, whether it is demonstrated or not. We can see that truth if we want to. We can see it instantly, without having to look very hard for it.
That is why I say that for many, the first part of experiencing Enlargement will be creating that experience in and for another. When another has the experience as a result of you, you have the experience as well–because what moves through you sticks to you!
Therefore, use the fact that you can see the beauty in others more easily than you can see your own. Cause others to see their own beauty. Produce in others an appreciation (that is, an enlargement) of the Self. Draw out from others an awareness of Who They Really Are. In so doing, you will cause, produce, and draw out the same experience within yourself.
You cannot give away what you do not have, yet giving it away causes you to have the experience that you have it!
This is one of the most important things I could ever say to you. This is one of the biggest secrets of life. You will remember that in the section of this writing devoted to Discernment it was said: All of this can be ours whenever we share it. It is the sharing of anything that gives us a true and full experience of it, and there is no other way.
We can have all the money in the world, but if we don’t spend it, we will never experience it fully. Holding it gets us nothing. We’ll be outside, in the cold, pressing our noses against the candy store window. We can’t enjoy the sweetness of life because we’re freezing our assets off.
We can conceive of ourselves as loving beings, but if we don’t show our love to another, we will never experience it fully. Holding onto it gets us nothing. We have to give it away to know what it is like to have it at all.
This is true of everything in life. Why do you suppose God gives everything to us?
So, if you seek the experience of Enlargement, cause another to experience one’s self as Enlarged. See the Biggest Part of others, and tell them that you see that. Be a mirror for their grandest selves, and reflect that back to them! Move through life giving people back to themselves. Most people have deserted themselves, abandoned themselves, stepped away from their highest thoughts about themselves. They have become small. They have allowed themselves to be little by having themselves belittled – by themselves as well as by others. They have listened to what others have told them and they have accepted it as truth. Go, then, and tell people a New Truth about themselves, the truth of Who They Are. Give them a rich experience of themselves and you will give yourself a rich experience of yourself. You will be enlarged by enlarging others. It can turn out no other way.
(Next time: Part 2 – Step into the experience yourself, fully.)
With Love,
Neale