Those who know me would likely say that, up until now anyway, I have been competitive. I grew up in a competitive family; I “thought” that “competitiveness” would get me the “results” I wanted, which was “to win” at whatever it was I was doing, be it at work or in a relationship.

Since I began studying with Dr. Lane, the Founder/Director of Cosmos Tree, I have Learned that there is another way and that this way is simple. It’s the Simple Solution to “competing.”

 

That Solution, in a nutshell, is to do your best; the Best, as Dr. Lane Teaches, is Being Present with the Spirit you are – and to Express from That Point.

 

Let me give you can example: I was in a meeting the other day and in that meeting I had lots of Opportunities to compete with others. For example, we were deciding what we were going to “volunteer” to do. I could have based my decisions on how much or how little someone else was doing. “Why should I do that when so and so is only doing this?” You know the drill. I chose instead to do whatever I wanted to do, to volunteer for whatever I wanted to do and to give that to mySelf – no matter what anyone else was doing or saying.

 

This situation reminded me of one years ago when I had first started studying with Dr. Lane. As I sat in the Cosmos Tree Home Center, the college-age daughter of another Student was leaving the Center and, as she walked out the door, Dr. Lane said to her: “Do whatever the (bleep) you want to do!”

 

Even though I didn’t know the context and still don’t, I never forgot it because I took it for mySelf to mean that I am Free to express mySelf – no matter what others may say or do. Spirit brings forward – if we practice the Focus constantly and Allow – the Gifts that God has given us. And those Gifts are our Gifts. Receiving Our Gifts and expressing Them has nothing to do with judging others; “ragging on” others; running up against others. The choice into negativity/karma is a choice to be stuck; to separate ourSelves from ourSelves, Which is Spirit; to be violent. And what we create reverberates through all of Creation, as Dr. Lane Teaches Students. The Best is in us, folks! No one is doing anything to us! That Best is God, which is What we are! From There all else flows and flows and flows.

 

Which leads me to another example: I went to the theater recently. I didn’t have a ticket but was told to come early and get on the waiting list. A group of us was scattered around an open garden waiting for the sign-up list to begin. And when the announcement came, I got a Learning about competition. I Learned that there was a part of me that wanted to “get the edge” on someone else or all the someone elses there by being the first to sign up even though I had arrived after other people did. I didn’t do that but I got to see the importance of Eternal Vigilance here; of Choice; of being conscious.

 

Then I received another important Learning: Once on the list, we waited inside the theater to see who would ultimately get in and I saw something crucial: we are not “individuals” separate from each other; rather we are One Spirit! We Live as One! This is a Core Teaching from Dr. Lane. From this place I moved into Empathy and I saw that there were people on this list who cared a lot more about seeing this show than I did. A lot more. I wondered why they don’t give out tickets in the order of people who really want to see the show. I even considered giving my ticket to a couple waiting near me who looked like they were literally “dying” to get in. While neither of us got tickets, I was coming from my Best, Which was Empathy.

 

A Wonder-ful way to conclude is with a story that Dr. Lane tells about a “swimming competition” where the winner was the person who chose not to compete but to simply stay Present inside himSelf and do his best, for himSelf.

 

As for “winning”, Dr. Lane Teaches in many Satsangs (Spiritual Instruction) that there is nothing to win because we’ve already Won as the Spirit we are!
So we’re Free to do our Best, Which is the Focus into Spirit. Do That and everything else follows, as Dr. Lane Teaches the world over.

 

To increase your Learning, visit cosmostree.org at Tools For Living Free at #87 “Being Present” and listen to the Satsang A78 “The Winner Is!”

 

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