When to move on from Step 3 to Step 4
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Essentially, Step 4 is not the deliberate act of a sovereign creature -- it is a Divine Grace. Therefore, you will not "move on" from Step 3 to Step 4 in the deliberate way that you moved into previous steps. Simply fulfill Step 3, and the rest is Given. The signs described below show that you are progressing toward the fulfillment of Step 3: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Sameness -- Universal love -- Divine Love transmission -- Bliss fullness -- Peace
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The feeling of similarity experienced in Step 2 deepens into a feeling of SAMENESS in Step 3. Sometimes people deeply in love, while sharing rapt attention, are heard to say, "I was looking at you and it seemed to me that we were the SAME," or, "I was looking at YOU and it felt to me like I was looking at MYSELF." In Step 3, you will find yourself feeling that way. A profound soul recognition dawns as you discover your Self in the "outer world" -- and "within" becomes the same as "without." | ||||||||||||||||||||
The result of the identity experience in Step 3 is a feeling of loving affinity with everyone and everything. This is UNIVERSAL LOVE, or agape. | ||||||||||||||||||||
A Divine wind. When the higher Self that you ARE feels a sense of identity with Itself in every form, love awakens the sleeping giant of the spirit, and stirs up a powerful wind of towardsness (outward-moving affinity). Affinity makes a quantum leap. Resonance rises to such a degree that energy itself becomes palpable, perhaps even visible as spiritual light. Process becomes Presence. | ||||||||||||||||||||
During Step 3, soul communion seems to take on a life of its own. The vibrancy of communion sustains itself and even intensifies with little or no effort on your part. It behaves something like a chain reaction, a spiral, a vortex. It is a cosmic attraction of God responding to God, that draws us into surrendering the "final other" (which is "ME," the I-thought of ego). | ||||||||||||||||||||
Also in Step 3, it becomes clear that the love you feel is not anything you've "sourced" or generated on your own -- it is really God's love, expressing itself through you. God IS love. And, God's Presence becomes God's Presents. The Divine Presence is, in itself, the ultimate healer, the ultimate solution, the ultimate gift. This love, although it is no longer directed to anyone or any place in particular, benefits all things, everywhere. What you are experiencing is DIVINE LOVE TRANSMISSION. | ||||||||||||||||||||
When you release objects, and surrender into the embrace of the Bubble, a sweet sense of fullness and joy arises. God's love filling you and passing through you creates a feeling of overwhelming BLISS FULLNESS. | ||||||||||||||||||||
"Be still and know that I am God." Paradoxically, the transcendent dimension of the Bubble is intensely energetic yet, at the same time, marvelously peaceful. In the full unfolding of love, as you love sincerely and feel into the Real, you will find your mind becoming empty and still. In this sense, the fulfillment of Step 3 is the fulfillment of the commandment, "Be still and know that I am God." Surely this sublime immersion must be "the PEACE that passeth understanding" described by the poet Wordsworth. Thoughts will fall away naturally, and soon you are BEING more than SEEING. Thus you become aware of Reality on the level of BEING. Being IS. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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