Cockiness

NOV. 1, 1980, 5:52 AM
W. WILLOW, STUDY

Hear, o son, some words, gentle and sharp, about this relationship of Ours. You finally began the “mining” of these teachings for the Study, and the result was a bit too much self-satisfaction. You can be proud of the progress you have made, but your attitude, as I felt it, was one with too much cockiness and not enough humility.

As I have told you repeatedly there is no simple, direct answer to this. You cannot try harder to be less cocky and more humble. You can strive to be more aware of how you are reacting, and then gently make changes. You must remain yourself, however. Spiritual development is much “trickier” than other dimensions of development, because so much of it is indirect. It comes when you are expending yourself beyond yourself… are aware of this… but not motivated by the awareness.

The main focus of your cockiness, however, was your perception that in the first months you had difficulty in hearing Me directly, and you rambled on about esoteric spiritual matters… as contrasted with more recent teachings which are three full pages and quite direct and clear in style, wording, and content. The observation is an accurate one, and you have a right to feel some pride in this, but know, then, that it also is time for an experience like this one now, when you are having difficulty, and you feel almost as frustrated as you did in those “early days” out in the barn. When you feel too proud of how easy it is to fill three pages with clear, helpful writing you must then have an experience like this one, and feel the difficulty of communication.

It is not, of course, that I don’t want you to learn. It is a matter of spiritual discipline… a cure for cockiness. I think it would be well if you came and wrote each day this week, as an exercise in discipline. It also seems time for Me to give you some more direct help with this Study, both in the summary of its content and in the story-form presentation. Come each day and learn from Me.

Continue your return journey through these teachings, rediscovering truths and noting particular phrases and exact statements of certain truths. These can be a value later on.