Choosers or Beggars

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Here are some pearls of Rumi to not only ponder on but also make a decision by. “Do not turn to look at every beggar that beckons – you belong to me! Do not sell yourself short, for you are priceless.” (Rise Up, Rumi)

 

Man is either a beggar or a chooser, but he cannot be both. Beggars essentially wait upon the favours of those whom they think are higher than they are, even if the beggars are in truth more. They have no choice and must accept what they are given as their fate. If the one from whom they beg denies them, that seems to be the end of the road.

 

When Rumi said to not look at every beggar that beckons, he is not talking about beggars on the streets or the less privileged in some institutions. To understand who he is referring to, consider this other pearl from Neville.

 

Neville said, ‘I AM cannot be divided. I may conceive myself to be a rich man, a poor man, a beggar man or a thief, but the center of my being remains the same regardless of the concept I hold of myself.

At the center of manifestation there is only one I AM manifesting in legions of forms or concepts of itself and “I am that I am.”‘ (Neville, The Power of Awareness)

 

In the light of this, the beggar man is not to turn from his way to look at when such beckons his any nature of begging within himself. There are no beggars on the outside.

 

Man becomes a beggar essentially when he submits to the evidence of his senses and accepts circumstances as overpowering him. He has reduced himself to a subject under the tyranny of second causes. By supposing that circumstances, situations and even his own outer actions are determinants of his future and dictators over his life, he looks up to elements of creation that ought to look up to him.

 

Become Choosers

 

Choosers simply choose! The first choice to practice being a chooser is to make a decision, choose to be a chooser.

 

Choose to always choose what you want in life. Choosers feel that they have options. Not only that, choosers feel that circumstances only present them with choices. In other words, circumstances are the things that have no choice but to accept what choosers as masters of their fates have decided.

 

Life is an unfair relationship between the creator and the created, a relationship where the creator the has leverage of choices and the created simply reflect the choices.

 

In other words, ‘You are free to choose the concept you will accept of yourself.’ (Neville, The Power of Awareness)

 

Become a chooser by always looking at your circumstances as presenting you with choices, rather than you giving your options up for fate, life, circumstances or even some God to decide for you.

 

William Ernest Henley said it best, “Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.” (William, Invictus)

 

Our circumstances may vary like North to South. But our power to choose the concepts we accept of ourselves in the midst of these circumstances is ever-present with us, and we must choose.

 

Simply choose.

 

That’s what makes choosers.

 

Choose to be joyful. Choose to be rich. Choose to be happy. Choose to be loved and loving. Choose to be blessed. Choose to be bewildered beyond your wildest dreams.

 

You are not begging anyone for these. You are asking no favours of any man. Why? Because the chooser in you, the one conscious and capable of intelligent selection within you is God. He is the Source of all life. He is the Creator of all things. Within you, He chooses things that have not been as though they already were. And they become.

 

When Rumi said, ‘You belong to Me’ in his verse, who do you think Me refers to?

 

Yes, it refers to you and it refers to the only being who boldly can claim: I AM!

 

For both of you are not really both. In no sense are you two of you. You are One God.

 

‘IN ALL creation, in all eternity, in all the realms of your infinite being the most wonderful fact is that which is stressed in the first chapter of this book. You are God.

You are the “I am that I am.” You are consciousness. You are the creator. This is the mystery, this is the great secret known by the seers, prophets, and mystics throughout the ages. This is the truth that you can never know intellectually.’ (Neville, The Power of Awareness)

 

Rather than cower before life’s circumstances, remind yourself: God within me is the chooser.

 

Forget begging. The Great Spirit within you is no beggar. He is the Lord of hosts, and you are ‘son of the Most High’ (Psalm 82:6)

 

Adelere Adesina