When you live as an ego, you give up your birthright freedom to exist simply as “I am.” This is not hard to understand as you begin to study your own pain. It always involves so-called “others.” And never forget that you are an “other” to them as well. You are being primed for pain. There is no way out, yet there is a way in.

What is this secret door we can open to bypass pain? It is so well-concealed that we live our lives in its presence never using it correctly. There is no shame or blame to this; there is just the call to come home to our true nature.

Jesus said four words that open it. “I am the door.” We all have an “I am” that can shelter us from any and all ego attacks. The door of enlightenment is to simply be as you are, pain included. You must make no effort to avoid pain. The reign of pain can end.

Oh, we will slip and fall constantly; that is the nature of life on this planet. What I do is to silently say, “I am” whenever I can remember to so so and the peace cuts through all of the s—-t that you have been eating, mistaking it for manna!

As an exile from the kingdom, your freedom does not exist. Only as a child of God can you begin to sense the freedom that you are.

Today you will have pain and tomorrow it will continue unless you study the pain of your ego’s efforts to clean up its act. I have dreams of trying helplessly to clean up vast floors of lumber and never finishing the job. This is slavery that happens on the subconscious level.

I invite you to experiment with those two little words, “I am.” Jesus didn’t say, “I am ‘da bomb’ but he could have!

Vicki Woodyard