What is "Sharing" for me? | Steve Beckow

By Steve Beckow, April 14, 2020

I created a subgroup in the Forum on “Sharing.” (1) Why did I do that?

What is the draw in “sharing” for me? I’ll tell you but please keep in mind that I’m aware, as a Sociology grad student of small groups, that it doesn’t work to force a vision on a group.

I’m simply saying that this is what moved me to create the group. The group itself will have a life of its own, independent of its original vision. I won’t be imposing mine on it.

“Sharing” has many meanings. The one I’m drawing on is to communicate something of personal importance, such as sharing your feelings about something, sharing your history, or sharing your dreams.

Sharing is like peeling an onion. When we share one thing, its hold on us lifts and we release it. We then peel another layer of the onion by sharing again.

When we’ve shared everything of importance there is to share, we’re left with nothing. And in that nothing, that lack of anything material, is the spiritual, the Self to be found. (2) To peel the onion is why I love sharing.

There are two phases to sharing.

Clearing

The first phase or function of sharing is to release bothersome old baggage, which I, after the usage of Ramana Maharshi, call “vasanas.” Werner Erhard called them “records.”

People think of them as Morley’s chain, our gunnysack of resentments, etc. Every spiritual scholar or sage knows about them because they’re the primary obstacle to enlightenment.

In letting them go, we return to our original state, which I know from my experience at Xenia is innocent and pure. (2)

One effective way to get in touch with and clear our vasanas is to share about them with others. I don’t know why work done via sharing is more powerful than work done only with ourselves. Well, here I am sharing with you and doing so has been tremendously powerful for me. I guess I’m living proof of the value of sharing.

Clearing of any one vasana does not go on forever. We wake up one day and notice that, not only have we shared enough about a certain vasana, but we largely forgot what it was about. That’s one way we drop our old baggage.

To summarize then, one value of sharing is in the clearing that occurs. One phase of sharing then is the clearing phase.

Uplifting

A second phase of sharing is the uplifting phase. Once clear of one or more of our major vasanas, our sharing shifts as well. It becomes more about empowering, assisting, inspiring. Our natural state is pure and innocent, so, with old baggage dropped, our essential nature has more opportunity to shine through.

So we use our sharing to extricate ourselves from the echoes of our early childhood traumas and, after that, we use it to express our hope, trust, and enthusiasm.

It isn’t as if we see this shift happening. It isn’t that stark a transition. We suddenly become aware that the tone of our shares has become more upbeat. We feel more confident, more willingness to risk, more desire to share.

There are many paths to enlightenment. I’m under the impression that full self-expression is one of them.

My own path of self-awareness is incomplete without sharing and not as strong as it can be if sharing is added in.

Footnotes

(1) My workload has increased to such an extent that I’m going to have to limit my participation on the Forum to the one subgroup, “Sharing,” if at all possible.

(2) As I learned at Xenia Retreat Center on Sept. 18, 2018. On that day, I had an experience of the Self. It showed itself to me as not only a Light but also as an experience of the divine qualities of purity and innocence. Michael describes it here:

“What you have done, is you have journeyed to the depths of your soul, to the depths of your core. This is not about simple vasanas. This is what this channel literally terms, ‘core, core, core issues.’

“And you have discovered, not lack, not criticism, not error, but beauty. Underneath the dross is the full beauty, the power, the gentleness, the sweetness of who you are.
” (“Archangel Michael Explains What Happened at Xenia,” September 22, 2018, at http://goldenageofgaia.com/2018/09/22/archangel-michael-explains-what-happened-at-xenia/.)

Source: Golden Age of Gaia