Successful Living Through Self-Awareness
By Frank and Martha Giudici
Lesson One
Introduction
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Lesson
01 Getting it together
The following is an introduction to a series of lessons entitled Successful Living Through Self-Awareness. These lessons were given by Frank and Martha Giudici and were recorded live.
This evening, what we are attempting to do, Martha and I, is sort of pave the way for tomorrow’s all-day workshop, successful living through self-awareness. As students of truth, we all know that this is the only way that we are going to achieve successful living, and that is through self-awareness. Why do we say this? Well, very simply, because as true students, we know that everything begins in consciousness. And if I want to live a successful, happy, and fulfilled life, then first of all, what I must do is attain the consciousness for that life that I want to live out there. And really folks, it’s just as simple as that. As within, so without. As in mind, so in manifestation. And the beautiful thing is that we know that we have the power to change our consciousness. We have the power to establish the thoughts, that we want to establish. And once they are established, then again, we live that happy, successful, and fulfilled life.
In this preliminary talk this evening, which I really like to entitle Getting It Together, what we’re going to do is touch on just briefly really, the areas, that we’re going to be discussing in tomorrow’s workshop.
And Martha and I together, as we have followed our own in-dwelling guidance, both individually and collectively together, have come up with an idea concerning what we have to do in getting our consciousness together. And this idea really has to do with four basic areas of consciousness. We believe, that if we can get “squared away,” if I can use that term, these four areas of consciousness, then what we will have done is really in effect put our consciousness together, and then it must, according to the law of mind action, manifest in the outer world as the happy, successful, and fulfilled life, that we want.
And what are these four areas? The four areas have to do with the idea of prosperity, health, human relationships, which carries with it the idea of love, and then also eternal life. In other words, what we’re saying is this, that in everything that we do in life, we are dealing with either one or a combination of these four basic areas. If I can get my consciousness of these four basic areas squared away, then I will have gotten it together in my life.
What is it that I had gotten together? My total consciousness. And again, it must express in my outer world according to the law of mind action.
02 Four areas of consciousness
Speaking along these lines of getting it together, I wonder how many times you have said to yourself, "If I could only get it together, everything would be all right." Or maybe you were speaking of someone else. If he or she could only get it together, then they would find the happiness in life that they seek. This is sort of an idiom in our language isn't it? The idea of getting it together. Well, what is it really that we're trying to get together? These four basic areas of consciousness. And again, they have to do with prosperity, health, human relationships, which carries with it the idea of love, and then eternal life. Another way of stating this is to say, that everything that we study in truth, everything that we deal with in truth you will find will probably fall into one or a combination of these four basic areas.
This is what we're trying to get together. These four basic areas of consciousness. Let me give you a couple of illustrations along this line. Haven't you ever heard it said of someone or maybe you said this of yourself, "You know, so-and-so really has no problem with money. He or she has all they need. But it seems like they're always having health challenges. They're always sick or in the hospital or maybe they don't have any friends. What can we say of that individual? I feel that what we can say is this, that he or she in one way or another has been able to achieve through work, in one way or another again, a good prosperity consciousness. They don't have any problem with prosperity. But it seems that that person has to work on the area in the first instance, health.
And maybe in the second instance if he is having difficulty in personal relationships, then he has to work on that area of consciousness, that has to do with human relationships or the love area of consciousness. Maybe you've also heard it said of another person, "He's the grandest person you'll ever meet", or "Isn't she tremendous? She has more friends than anybody I know". But she always seems to be broke. She's always having problems with money. Or once again, she's always in the hospital. Well, of that person we can say that he or she has developed a good consciousness of love. They've sort of gotten it together in that area of life. But once again, what has to be worked on is the area of prosperity or the area of health. And how does the area of eternal life work into this? Well, we might hear it said of a person, "They seem to have everything going for them in life, but somehow the person really appears to be afraid of dying. Somehow when I talk to that person this idea comes through or this feeling comes through, that he or she really hasn't come to terms with the whole idea of dying. Well I think what we have to deal with there is the idea of eternal life.
Not that the person has to do anything to gain eternal life, because as students of truth, we know that we have eternal life right here and now. What we have to do is gain a greater consciousness of that truth, that we live in eternity right now, that we are in eternal life right now. When you can believe, that you exist now, you've always existed and you shall always continue to exist, then this takes a lot of pressure off of living. It takes away the fear of meeting that experience that we call death. And so it might be that a person although they have everything else going for them in life in the way of good health, in the way of friends, in the way of prosperity, may need to do just a little more work in the area of eternal life.
What I would like to do now in continuing with this is very briefly to touch just a little more in depth on these four areas. And as I said earlier, this is what we're going to do tomorrow, in the workshop, go into greater depth in these four areas, and see what we can do in the way of adjusting our consciousness, so that after tomorrow's workshop, we will come out of it with a greater consciousness of these four basic areas of the life experience, prosperity, health, human relationships, and eternal life.
03 Prosperity
Let's take first of all the area of prosperity. And I guess as true students this is always one, that we like to deal with, because when you come into truth, one of the first things that you discover is that God wants you to be prosperous. And of course, here we mean prosperity in all areas of living. But generally, what we mean, when we discuss prosperity is material prosperity, money, finances, material goods. And there's certainly nothing wrong with that. It's always the use that we make of material things that counts. There's nothing wrong with having an abundance of material things, because this is what God wants for you and for me. And in so many different ways, Jesus spoke to this. In John 10th chapter, he says, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. And what is he implying here? Abundance in all areas of living. He doesn't earlier this does he? And this means material prosperity as well.
Now if we would really believe that, if we could allow that thought to be a deep, integral, basic part of our consciousness, then no one would have any problem with finances. But this doesn't seem to be the case. The case seems to be that from time to time, people do have difficulty with prosperity. And why is this? I think, we have to go back to the whole idea of conditioning that we have received in life. Through our life conditioning, you and I have picked up the idea in one way or another, that there is something wrong with being prosperous. It might have to do with the conditioning, that you've received from your parents as a youngster. Not that this type of conditioning was placed upon you or given to you consciously. The training that we receive from parents and authority figures was well intentioned. But sometimes certain ideas were gotten across, that were, really, contrary to truth as we understand it today.
Because of life's conditioning, we hold certain false thoughts, certain limited concepts about prosperity, then these thoughts are having their effect in our life today. And if we expect to get it together in the area of prosperity, then what we have to do is begin to deal with some of this false conditioning that we have received in regard to prosperity.
Along this line I think of my own personal example. When I came into truth some years ago, the area of prosperity was one that I really had to begin to work on. And I began to see how many limiting concepts I was holding about prosperity. And many of them were the results of the religious training that I had as a youngster. And these thoughts and these feelings were very deeply embedded within my consciousness. And only through the application of truth was I able to begin to work some of them out, so that I could do what? So that I could even begin to experience the fullness of life, the prosperity in life that God really wants me to have.
There are many ways in which we limit our prosperity. And of course, one of the classic ways has to do with the channels through which our prosperity comes to us. You know, we may not realize it, but by holding certain thoughts what we can really be doing is saying that my prosperity can only come through a certain channel. And this is really classic in the truth teaching, the idea of limiting channels of prosperity.
I think of my father, when I think about limiting channels. It's not that my father consciously taught me to limit channels of prosperity, but by his very actions, this is what I picked up, a limited concept concerning prosperity. And it had to do with working the classic eight hour day. My father all his life, now he's retired and living a good life and retirement, but all his life, he was a hard working man, and he believed that you had to work hard eight hour day in order to make money, to buy food, to pay the rent. Whatever was needed in the way of material sustenance, the only way that it really came was through working a hard eight hour day.
I don't ever recall my father saying that to me in so many words, but by his actions, that idea was gotten across. Because every day, I saw my dad get up and go to work bright and early in the morning. And he took his lunch bucket with him. And then when five o'clock rolled around or whatever the normal quitting time was, he came home. And the whole thing is, as I observed my father, I picked up the idea, that the only way that money can come to you is through working a hard eight hour day.
And of course there's nothing wrong with that. But that's only one channel through which God can work. And you know, it's pretty tough in life, if suddenly you find yourself in a position or an occupation where you don't have to go to work from 8 to 5, that calls for a different schedule during the day. Or maybe you find yourself in a position, where prosperity can come to you in other channels, through writing books or writing articles, or conducting seminars if you will, or whatever it might be. And when you've been conditioned by the idea that only through working the hard eight hour day can your money come to you, then you begin to have some apprehension, when you work with these other channels.
What I finally had to do was work within myself and say, look, it's all right, if God wants to work through some other channels. The working the eight-hour hour day is not the only way through which your prosperity can come. It's one channel through which God works, but there certainly are many more.
What I'm proposing, folks, is this that in one way or another, we are still holding similar limiting concepts about prosperity. And if we expect to live a prosperous life, then we have to go to work on those limiting concepts. And in their place put what? Put right concepts about prosperity. And this is what we're going to attempt to do tomorrow.
Let me mention just one, which I have really alluded to already this evening, and that is this. One principle to begin with when you're working with prosperity is very simply to know, that prosperity is a divine right, and that means, that God wants you to be prosperous as a child of God, as an individualized expression of God, and all that God is. You are also an heir to all that God has. And what does God have? God has any good that you could desire. God is that very good itself. We begin to work with that idea, first of all, that prosperity is a divine right.
04 Health
But that's only one area of consciousness, isn't it? We said, that there were four. And the second one that we might talk about has to do with health, health of body. So many of us still hold limiting concepts about health. We allow ourselves to be subject to much of the race thought that says, "Well, it's the season for this type of thing, and you might catch it if you don't take certain precautions". We allow ourselves to be bound by that type of thinking. And so what happens because we begin to dwell on that idea, because we begin to become over-cautious about what's in the air today, we might find ourselves ill.
And there's a certain limiting concept then that we're holding. And what is that limiting concept? We simply believe, that we are subject to many of these outer influences, that will affect our bodily health. Once again, what's the principle that you can turn to? It's the same principle that we found here, when we were talking about prosperity. And it's this, that health is a divine right.
At first, that may sound like somewhat as an emotional placebo if you will. Just a thought to make you feel good. But when you can really accept it as a living reality in your own life, and in order to do this, you have to understand your relationship to God. Once again, that of a child to a father, an individualized expression of God and all that God is. When you begin to understand that relationship in its fullness, then you know intuitively, that health is a divine right.
We have this type of a limiting concept, that I've just discussed concerning health and many others that we have to begin to deal with. And of course in Unity isn't this really the way the whole movement got started? Through a physical healing? We are a classic story, a time honored one now concerning Myrtle Fillmore. The Unity movement really got started with her healing. And how does this story go?
Around 1886, she and Charles, her husband went to hear a metaphysician speak in Kansas City. And she came away from that lecture with one idea burning in her consciousness. Usually the same thing that we all do when we listen to a speaker. We don't retain a lot of information that we've heard, but we generally come away with one, maybe two ideas, that seem to burn within our consciousness. And the idea that she came away with was what? "I am a child of God, and therefore I cannot inherit sickness." What she really did then was to accept at that moment health as her divine right. And that thought was the starting point to a great physical healing. What other limiting concepts are we holding about health, that is preventing perfect health from being expressed through us?
Once again, this is what we want to do tomorrow in the workshop. Take a look at some of these ideas that we are holding about health. Get our consciousness squared away. And once we have done that, then the law works and that perfect health will be expressed in our physical body and in all of our other affairs.
05 Relationships
Well the third area that we want to discuss, just really touch on, and maybe this is really the most important of all. And this is the area of human relationships. As I said earlier this evening, that carries with it the idea of love.
I personally feel, that if we can get this area of consciousness squared away, then we won't have any problems in the other areas. And I think, this is really very important to understand. In how many different ways has the idea been gotten across, that if we will only learn to love a little bit more, and then in turn allow ourselves to be loved, we will find that many of the seeming problems that we have in life, physical problems, financial problems, and all the rest will begin to disappear on their own.
I really believe, that this is the way it is. I go one step further. I like to say, that our basic problem in life, the only real problem that all of us have is our inability to love ourselves totally, and unconditionally. Now, this may sound like just a little bit too much to swallow when you first hear it, but when you work with the idea, I think you'll find, that it has application in every instance. In other words, no matter what the nature of the problem is, that we're experiencing, the physical illness be it one of prosperity, having to do with prosperity, working with other people, no matter what it is, if you were to trace that problem back to its root cause, I feel, that you would find, that in one way or another it has to do with our not being able to love ourselves totally and unconditionally.
Some of you may be familiar with a psychological process called reality therapy. Dr William Glasser is the father of reality therapy. And he has a book out, that's been out for some time now by that same name. And he says in his book, that the basic problem as he sees it, that all people have is the inability to fulfill certain needs. In other words, what he's saying is this, any time that we find ourselves having a problem or a challenge, it simply means, that we have some need in our life, that is not being fulfilled. And then he goes further. He says, that through these needs, we all have two basic needs. And that is the need to love and the need to be loved.
Folks, if we can really work with those two ideas, in a sense I think we would have it made. All of our problems would disappear. But in learning to love ourselves, what we have to do again, is work through some all-limiting concepts, that we have about ourselves. And how we pick things up? Not many of them if not all of them through the conditioning that we have received in life especially as youngsters. And then that conditioning was reinforced by experiences that we went through as adults. This whole area of human relationships, which has to do with this idea of love, is an area of consciousness, that, well, once we can get it squared away, as utopian as it may sound, I still believe it's the truth. You'll find that you won't have a problem in the world. A little bit of love can go a long way toward healing a good many ills.
But so often in life, what have we been trained to do? You know, to love other people, to love out there. And this is right and good. But how many of us can ever really remember being trained or taught to love ourselves? Can you really remember back, and how much training did you receive along that line? Some people may have been more fortunate than others. And maybe in early life, they were around authority figures, parents or others, who picked up on that idea, and knew the importance of loving oneself.
But I feel, that as far as most of society is concerned, and we're all a part of that society, the important thing was to love other people, but to me the truth is that you can only love other people to the degree that you love yourself. And that is not meant to sound selfish. That's meant to be said in the way of really appreciating who and what you are. The same statement, that I made earlier. A child of God, an individualized expression of God, and all that God is.
Again, tomorrow in our workshop what we want to do is work more in-depth with some of these ideas concerning human relationships, that we're still hanging on to, and that are limiting our expression of love, and are also limiting the fullness, that we can experience in life.
06 Eternal Life
Well, we leave more here, and this is really one for the last, and this is the whole idea of eternal life. And what about eternal life? As I said earlier, what we're trying not to do or not trying to do is work our way into eternal life. We have to realize, that today we have eternal life. You exist now. You have always existed, and you shall always continue to exist.
I really don't know, if anyone is ever going to be able to prove that in an outer way. However today, there are many steps being taken in that direction. And I'm sure that some of you, if not all of you, to some degree are familiar with the work, that is being done by a number of researchers. Names like Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross will come to mind, Dr. Raymond Moody, Dr. Russell Noyes from Iowa State University. And what these people have done, people from the scientific community, and the medical community if you will, what they have done is to research cases of clinical death. And what have they discovered? They have discovered a number of things. That when people return from this experience called clinical death, they have found that there are certain common denominators, that everyone seems to experience. And these are the common denominators, that I would like to discuss tomorrow.
For many people, when they experience what we call physical death, there is at that instant a sense of peace. Not always, but generally a sense of peace. People really die in peace for the most part. And it seems, that all of these researchers have found that in their discussions with people who have experienced clinical death. There is that sense of peace. And then of course, the point is, that while in this so-called death state, these people can remember exactly what has happened. They had an experience. They could see the doctors, and nurses working frantically on them, and trying to bring them back, all the resuscitation efforts, and so forth, that were being carried out. And people were able to come back and tell the doctors and tell the nurses, "well, I can tell you exactly what you said. I saw what you did." And of course the people were amazed to hear this. Well, what does this say to us?
I guess, it says in one sense, that there really is more, than just the physical body. As true students, we know this. But maybe these things that are going on today in the way of researching clinical death are proving at least to some degree, that there is life after death. As I said earlier, I'm not sure, that we will ever really come upon anything in an outer way, that's going to prove it tangibly. I think that what we really have to take as proof of eternal life, proof that you and I go on forever, is something that will come from deep within us. It's more than just an intuitive feeling. It's a knowing, that comes from deep within us.
And how does that knowing come to us? Well, I think it comes to us as we make daily demonstrations in truth, as we apply the principles of truth daily in our lives, and we find that they work. We find, that we can have a demonstrations, that these principles really we do work. Then what happens within us, is that a confidence begins to grow. Our real trust in God. And as sort of a byproduct comes the idea that, well, if I'm going to meet this experience called physical death, that's all right too, because something within me tells me, that that's not the end. I think that the final proof, that we probably all will come upon of eternal life is going to be something, that comes from within ourselves.
Well tomorrow in the workshop, we want to talk a little more about eternal life. And more specifically, we want to talk about some of those areas of consciousness, that are preventing us from believing fully, and completely in the truth of eternal life. And then, we're going to talk too, about some of the things that we can do to build within ourselves a greater consciousness of eternal life.
07 Summary of four areas
Well, these are the four areas of consciousness, that we want to deal with. As I said earlier, the four areas of consciousness, that Martha and I feel are the basic areas of the life experience. And as we know, as we move ahead in life, and try to work on these four areas, that everything that we do is to be gotten together if you will, under the direction of the Christ indwelling. When we let God within us have his perfect way, then we find, that we will be led to work on this area of consciousness, that's necessary at this time or that area or whatever it might be.
As we continue to follow our inner guidance, then we can always be assured, that whatever is necessary for our soul growth will be revealed to us clearly, and unmistakably. It might be, that at this moment, you don't have to work too much on the prosperity consciousness. You can sort of set that aside. But maybe we do have to work in improving our consciousness of health, or work on improving our consciousness of love, of human relationships, or maybe even that fourth one, eternal life.
As we take time in prayer and meditation, and consult our own inner guidance which every one of these areas has to be worked on and emphasized at any given moment will be revealed to us clearly and unmistakably. The whole point is, once again friends, that as we get these four areas of consciousness, we will find, that we have gotten together in life if you will. And through this getting together of our own consciousness, and allowing that to express in our outer world, we're going to find the success, and the happiness, and the fulfillment in life that we all seek.
