♥ Characteristics:
What I experience as Characteristic in the 12 within the 12.

In exploring the Virtues I will take this list with me during the coming months ahead.
I assume it will grow and therefore I will post it on the forum every month.

• Characteristic to me is that every Virtue in itself has the potential to Embrace the total.
It can be used in a direct and practical way — but surely can be experienced as an all Embracing state of being as well.
Experiencing fullness all around is key here.
• The virtues are profoundly connected with what I call, soul expression.
Through soul expressivity and soulfullness (our authenticity) — and the Way and Ray we are — we become the radiant, emanating virtues ones.
• Virtues can be experienced when being in the Now, in contact with the I AM Consciousness — and one with the level in which you experience the Now, your own conscious awareness of heart, soul, mind and Spirit.
All of these levels have their own fullness, add their own color, dimension, nuance, perspective, variegation and emanation.

Februari 28, one month ago, I promised to write something about heartfullness, what I consider to be a virtue of God-Love also. Till now I have’nt done so. Therefore I will post it on this page, as well on the page of God-Love.

Again, pardon me for my English, it is not my native tonque.

♦ To me heartfullness is born when you center in the heart, in the sacred equilibrium of the heart, where you expand your presence all-around in a circumference of 360˚.This is the place where you find inner balance, where you embrace Life and where you embrace the allness of what you are and have to become. In one of my contributions on this forum I wrote that my quest for inner understanding or inner path, started at an early age. Soon I noticed that the heart is a doorway or passage to immeasurable spiritual realms. And that our thinking, the use of our mind is secondary, of minor importance in this. The use of the senses (by which we experience and explore our inner beingness as well the capacity of our heart) does’nt really differ from the way we use them in the physical world. It is different herein that our inner sensory perception or observation calls for a more subtle, precise and sophisticated attunement than we use in the world.

♦ The development of (what I call) meditative mindfullness, being consciously present in the Now, is perhaps one of the main virtues a human being has to develop to start his journey within. This search is often supplied by the outside world or developed by the ego (I am not sure how to translate this), while meditative mindfullness is a state of being from which our inner being or inner path will reveal itself naturally.

What I notice is that the meditative state of mindfullness enables your heart to improve and refine itself more and more in becoming an instrument in exploring the inner realms of being within.
So it can become
a feeling and sensing heart
an exploring and seeing heart
a hearing and listening heart
a speaking and interpreting heart
a tasting and discriminating heart
a scenting and attuning heart

In a personal and very cosmic way.

So to me there is a great interconnection between heartfullness and soulfullness and meditative mindfullness. When you live through the heart the soul will expand and when you live through the soul the heart will expand.
And it is through soulfullness and heartfullness that we have to search and taste and interpret the 12 virtues within the 12. It is not being done by making lists every month only. Everyone’s heart is a separate entrance to the inner world that is to be explored by each ones own heart. This is why there are no records of routes or maps from the inner worlds. But sharing our inner experience can help each one to discover more and therefore to interpret more than each can do on his own — alone.

In the beginning it may be necessary to witdhraw your attention from the world regularly to turn it more inwardly. But after a while it will become very natural (especially when doing simple tasks) to maintain this state of being while (for example) doing the dishes, ironing clothes, travel by train, work in the garden etc. After a while you will be able to stay attuned to your inner being and its conversation, while at the same time you are functioning in the outer world as well.



I personally experience fullness of heart in a variety of ways. An impression —
As an intimate residence
As a temple to celebrate
As a garden to walk in
As a room of silence and seclusion
As an inner space without any borders
As a retreat for reflection and contemplation
As a place to celebrate my Love for Life and the Joy of living
As a spiritual meetingplace with all who are One as well
As a fort or save place
As a startingpoint for cosmic traveling
As a place where time has no influence
As a timeless place where past, present and future converge
As a place that is all embracing

So recapitulating I see:
♦ Soulfullness as a virtue of God-Love
♦ Heartfullness as a virtue of God-Love
♦ Meditative mindfullness as a virtue of God-Mastery

God Mastery to me encompasses everything. I was born on the two o'clock line at the two o'clock hour. I believe the universe took a spiritual sledge hammer to inform me that in this life; Mastery was key. I never believed I would survive beyond 33 yrs old in this life. Once I passed that age, there was a wonderment as to why I was still here. I acknowledge that God gave me another chance to work on this most illustrious virtue; which my beloved Jesus so magnificently demonstrated. Unfortunately even to this hour I continue to prove beloved Paul's words, paraphrased.."That which I say I will not do, I do..and that which I say I will do, I don't"! So the quest for Mastery for me is ongoing. I see the virtues of Mastery as love, first and foremost. I believe that you must Love God enough, with all your heart, mind and soul to try and try again to master yourself. And also you must love your true self enough to sacrifice all for the Mastery over the lower self to the elevation of your Christic/Buddhic nature; with one goal in mind, to fulfill your mission. Loving and giving glory to God for His graciousness and His bounty of your life and to emanate and manifest love to all. Below are my thoughts on Mastery:

Love
Discipline
Determination
Commitment
Responsibility for Everything
Dedication
Perserverance
Dependability
Fearlessness
Forgiveness
Courageous
Humility (In addition to love is imperative)

To me Jesus demonstrated these qualities and much more as the archetype of a true Master..He left His footprints in the sands of time for all to follow! For many years, I would see Jesus in my mind's eye, walking before me. I would be trying to keep up and follow Him, however; I would constantly fall and trip. He would stop, He would not turn around, and He would wait until I got up and then He would continue to walk. That scene has changed somewhat over time; Jesus has been my closest and dearest friend, helping me to reach for Mastery in spite of my many foibles. Thank you Jesus for being my guide and never leaving me.

I have reviewed your third class this day and enjoyed it. Thank you all for your sharing. Claire, I really appreciate your slide show, it's beautifull and it really helps to deepen your understanding. I will review it again somewhere this week.

I have writen down the question that was given during the meeting. Was it Jezus who gave it?
It's for my own use, but feel free to also use it if you want to.

"How have you made the greatest progress in this life in mastering yourself.
What tools or what technics have you used to really master yourself.
What lessons have you learned, what have you done that has really allowed you to master yourself at a deeper level.

This is one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves as we work through God-Mastery."

What I see as virtues of God Mastery —

♦ Inner Certainty —
You may call it Faith. Although it is not gained by acceptance, but by the sure knowing within.

♦ Personal use of the Power of the Spoken Word —
I do'nt mean the use of the prayerbook and decrees here, but your own creative expression and personal styling of the Power of the Spoken Word, whenever you are inspired or empowered to do so. I belief it can be expressed by each one of us in a variety of personal but also intimate ways, in words, writings, affirmations, poems, songs, prayers, rituals etc.

♦ The practice of Oneness with the I AM principle —
Hard to translate this. To me it is the awareness of Oneness with my own God-Source and the conscious choice to return to this Oneness, over and over again, despite difficulties, problems, struggles etc. To rise above limitations.

♦ The Conscious Awareness of an ever expanding feeling of responsibility —

♦ The ability to feel and experience and express your inner wealth and resources —
Especially in all those moments when you Know yourself as God Knows you.

All are states of being to me in which I am growing towards God-Mastery, every day of my life.



Jolijt and Tune (husband of Jolijt)

Another virtue that leads towards God Mastery (I belief) is

♦ Inner drive —
It is the drive and strive to know yourself as God knows you.
And there is no ending in knowing yourself as God knows you.
It is the drive to know the inner depths and spiritual heights of your being and the totality of who you are in God.
And it is the drive to give voice to these depths and heights, to become more consciously aware of your Self and Selfhood in God.

Students’ offerings regarding the virtues flowing forth through God-mastery during the class on March 28th included: attunement, calm, commitment, constancy, detachment, detail-consciousness, discipline, focus, harmony, humility, insight, introspection, mindfulness, patience, peace, self-discipline, surrender, wakefulness.

A key concept that Beloved Jesus shared through David during the class was gaining mastery through understanding of self: “Man, woman, know thyself.” Jolijt posted above the questions that students reflected on during the class. Some responses were:
*Recognizing when I am reacting to a situation, then standing aside and evaluating an appropriate response.
*I look within to see if what I am doing is with positive intentionality.
*Being willing to step outside my comfort zone to allow new or different thoughts and feelings to enter my awareness for my consideration moving to higher spaces.
*Surrender, becoming a vessel through the discipline of the practice of music.
*I ask to be shown a higher way when I am feeling stuck and I then receive divine guidance.
*Knowing that God is the doer: letting go and letting God.
*Learn to walk on the "water."
*I have noticed the painful areas of my reacting with self-harshness/criticism and determining to discover how to have more self-love in order to grow in love for others.
*Living in countries, places where people live joyously without much by way of material goods, has taught me to seek the true values in life.
*Accepting constructive criticism from others.
Thanks, Dee and Jolijt, for your postings above about God-mastery. It is beautiful to see your spirits reflected through your words.

There is another spiritual virtue of God-Mastery I would like to mention:

♦ It is the state of Listening Receptivity —

I see it as an attitude of life that can begin to enfold itself in moments of recreation. When there is no time pressure, when you have a sense of well-being, of contentment, of openness and surrender to life. It can easily feel like a flower that opens itself. The practice and continuation of this state of being can lead towards listening receptivity.
This receptivity I belief is most important in growing towards God-Mastery. And I belief we all practice it in some way or the other. When you choose to do so it can become a buddhic state of being that will grow and encompass more and more while practicing it. It aligns and tunes in to the inner world as well to the outer world. Both will coincide as one within this receptive state and opposites and discrepancy dissolve.
What I feel is that during this inner receptivity your thinking and giving words to it will stop the process. You are simply receptive and receiving. Of course you need the thinkingprocess and the giving of words to increase your conscious awareness afterwards. But it is the awareness of listening receptivity as a natural state of being that is to be achieved, little by little, that will eventually lead towards God Mastery.

My impression: As a state of being it comes close to or is identical with what Mother Mary calls — Listening Grace.

This is the last virtue I would like to ad here:

♦ The virtue of Transformation —

(or Reversing, is this a better word?)

To me it is the ability to transform, to change, to remodel, to reverse — yourself and your perspectives. Especially during difficult moments, dire moments and circumstances where it’s not easy to keep on keeping on.
The word I like to use to transform and widen my perspective, to rise above it, is the word ‘despite’.
Despite of . . . certain situations, despite of . . . problems, despite the difficulties I face — there is always Life itself and all of its fullness that surrounds everything. And within it there is always a way and there are always everwidening perspectives. And often very soon, I start to feel the flow of Life and the Joy of living and the fullness of my own life again.

It’s a very simple way, but to me it is a way to re-create my Oneness and inner connection in moments when I feel separated, disconnected or alone. As soon as I turn to the Light, despite of . . . etc., I am filled again, my vision expands and darkness turns into Light.

I am not sure how to convey this in English. But I hope it will be good enough.