Attaining clarity is a funny thing.  The purpose of attaining clarity is to reach a place of stillness, silence, eternal security, oneness and to essentially become the embodiment of unconditional love.  On the other hand, those are things that do not exist on the material plane and to experience them, one must go ‘in’ and eventually learn to radiate them out.

Is it possible to be in physical form and have multi-dimensional experiences? It is absolutely possible.  What is not possible is to expect to be able to attain such an ability of conscious transmutation while remaining in an environment of a lower vibration – a vibration over-populated by the herd.  If you want to change for the Light-er, you must first purge the metaphysical weight.

Purging the weight is a process of death and rebirth.  It is a process of first accepting and then letting go of perspectives that box you in. Only when you allow these things to die do you create space for rebirth. It’s just like learning how to walk again.

Through this process of acceptance and release, you receive new tools for new purposes.  You can still try to use the old tools to accomplish new tasks, but you’ll eventually find that they don’t work the same way they used to.  In fact, nothing will feel the same as it used to.  The things that once brought you so much joy lead to disappointment and disillusion now.  Once the mind is stretched, it cannot go back to its original form.  You are changed forever.  You may allow the memories of the past to haunt you.  You may choose to try recreating what was once joyful, but nothing tastes nor does it look or feel the same.  All the senses are put to new tests.  The mind is exercised in different ways and the process of change just seems to get faster and more unforgiving. Whoever said that ignorance is bliss had a point.  There’s a temporary bliss connected to ‘not knowing’.

The only time you experience pain from the transformation into Light-ness is when you’ve shifted into a relatively higher vibration while simultaneously continuing to live an existence in tune with a lower vibration.  At this point, it becomes more and more of an effort to ‘balance’ because you’re no longer balancing according to the universal equilibrium. Instead, you’re creating your own scales and conjuring up your own private units of measurement in order to satisfy your egoic desires.  You’re constantly faced with the process of renewal and if you don’t embrace a new perspective of the experiences that come your way, you’ll create pain for yourself. You’ll create a reality of suffering because you will try to exert effort where effort cannot exist.

‘Effort’ is an interesting concept. It’s a deceiving word.  People use the word ‘effort’ with pride.  They believe that it denotes dedication and commitment.  In actuality, effort indicates resistance – it takes place when you’re working against the flow.  If you are working against the flow, you are not working in accordance with the Universal Laws.  You are in opposition to nature.  What is nature’s way of telling us that we are not working in harmony with its laws?  It brings pain.  The source of pain is resistance.

The next time you find yourself exerting effort to accomplish something, observe your mental chatter, ask yourself what you are doing at that very moment, and decide. Do you choose opposition or harmony?

Some of you may know that many of the teachings that I offer you through this site come from a soul very dear to me. He was a man of great spiritual proportions (and as I write this, I hear him laughing that he was grand on the physical scale too!). He offered classes to those who were willing to make the effort to work on themselves. I attended one of these classes, and spent some time with him outside of the church meeting room, but mostly, my communion with him has been on an intuitive level. In any case, I have an email here, printed out in front of me, written by him to his students on what I can imagine was a beautiful evening on the 22nd of July 2002. One of his students had asked him to explain good and evil – why it exists and what the concepts are meant to teach us. I will copy below what he wrote, but before I do, I remind you to…

Treat these words as various dishes laid out on a buffet table. Pick and choose what looks and tastes good to you. It is for you to decide what food agrees with your digestive system. None of this is for your acceptance or rejection. None of us get brownie points for what we believe to be true; only for what we apply.

Dear family,

There is no good or evil except man’s mind makes it so. Meditation will help one overcome the dual expression of good, or evil. All is God!! If one believes this, then how can we believe in such a thing as evil? If we accept the concept of evil, then it must be of God also. My! What a paradox! For me, all there is, is God. The light that dwells in the center of every cell of our being is God. If one believes this to be true, then how can evil exist in anything? Light is all there is. Darkness can’t overcome Light. Light will always dispel darkness.

Why do we have such a need to live in the dual concept? Yes, we have many things that express in a dual nature, but they are an expression of God. Man is an expression of God walking on the face of the earth. Now, if one believes this to be true, then how can there be another expression of energy?

We must devotedly and passionately repeat this mantra to ourselves:

I am love and an expression of God walking on the face of the earth!
I am God, living with all that is my expression for the purpose of removing the need to express anything other than spirit in my life!

We should be repeating this several times a day, EVERY day. I know! Many of you are thinking, “How can I find time to memorize all that, and remember to say it every day?” Well, do it the same way you remember to take a breath. You plant the thought into your subconscious mind until it becomes another habit. Remember 21 days. We need to do what is necessary. You have been given all the tools needed, and you provide the God Power. Look for it, as it is burried deep within, and every day you put it off, it only goes deeper into your being. I know every one of you are capable of finding that power. You only need to want it bad enough. Do you?????

And so with that, let us meditate:

The Importance of Healthy Bodies

Each of us understands the importance of feeding our physical bodies with healthy food choices, vitamins and herbs, along with getting daily physical exercise of some type. We are constantly being bombarded with articles in our newspapers, advertisements on television and in magazines, advice from our doctors and our parents, etc. about what we need to do to keep our physical body strong and healthy. So much emphasis is put on needing to continually be aware of how we take care of our physical bodies. But, how often do we get reminded about the importance of taking time during our busy days to feed, nurture and expand our spiritual bodies?

Many of us have also been provided with numerous suggestions and ideas from various sources on ways to consciously grow into more loving, balanced, forgiving and accepting human beings through many different spiritual practices, the main one being through daily meditation – that time for conscious stillness when we open ourselves to higher energies. Yet how many of us listen to these repeated suggestions and truly attempt to implement the practices into our daily routines? This is not a judgment…simply a question to ask ourselves to determine if we are taking a consciously active part in our spiritual growth.

Mantras

Many of us know that meditation can be a powerful way to cleanse, clear and center, but how many of us have experienced the power of mantras and prayers? These are also tools that represent very powerful spiritual practices that can help us attune to our pure states of spiritual being. Even by simply repeating the names of God and other powerful words that resonate deeply with us, we can create transformational shifts in our realities that will very likely ripple into the realities of many around us as well.

There is not a single spiritual teacher or Master of any path or religion who has not recommended this practice in some form. The benefits of this practice are unbelievable. Gandhi chanted the name of God as Rama constantly throughout his life, and he said it was one of the absolute keys to his success. Sai Baba said repeating the name of God and visualizing His form is one of the main keys to spiritual success. The idea is to not just do it in meditation but to did it throughout your day, while doing laundry, showering, driving in the car or taking a walk. During the day, it is so simple and so beneficial to repeat the name of God or the word ‘love’ in any project that you are doing, dedicating it to the Highest Good. We can take any simple task and turn it into a dedication to that highest part of ourselves that is grateful for the gift of life.

Power of the Mind

The law of the mind is that thoughts create reality. Energy follows thought. When we chant the name of God, we eventually become that which we are chanting! If we repeat the name of God enough times, it has the effect of cleansing our physical, emotional, mental and etheric bodies to the point that they reflect only God. One of the greatest difficulties that people on the path experience is a wandering mind. I experience this myself, still more times then I notice. But when I do catch thoughts float by that are dark, or that represent a reality that I do not wish to experience, I immediately chant ‘DELETE, DELETE, DELETE’. Sometimes 3 times is enough to bring peace, and other times it takes more than 30 repetitions to erase the thought and its energetic imprint on me. But then it’s gone. This is an example of the power of self-observation, and a power it certainly is!

The chanting of the names of God can also keep our minds focused on higher vibrations. It is not that important whether you focus on visualizing God’s imagine in your mind’s eye, or on connecting to a feeling of peace or love that you create. This process of simply repeating words of such high frequency is enough. It is all that is needed to activate an automatic elevation in your vibration, and in turn, in the vibration of the world around you.

If our mind isn’t on God (whether consciously or unconsciously), then it is likely to float back to the lower self and the many needs of the personality of the little ‘i’. We must learn to focus our attention on the true part of the Self. The mind creates bondage, yet it also has the power to create liberation. This is equally true of the spoken word. Words can harm but words can also heal. Reflect on this…

Any time you feel negative emotions coming on or if you are feeling depressed or angry, try chanting the name of God. If you allow yourself, you will be lifted up faster than you can imagine into a place of greater peace and tranquility. You see, it is not that the process does not work for everyone. It is that we struggle so much, often viewing the world as a cold and difficult place full of obstacles and opposition, that we have come to believe that this is our natural state. So because this has become the color through which so many of us automatically perceive our experiences, it no longer feels natural to be in a state of peace and calm. Sometimes I rise into this wonderful state very quickly when chanting my personal mantras, and if I am far enough detached from the ‘little ‘i”s’, I notice that my first response is a very subtle sense of relief and relaxation, BUT this is very quickly followed by a fear that I have to be on guard and immediately my instinct is to get back into a protective stance. Or sometimes, I get the feeling that this peace is too good to be true and I should get back to a reality of pain. Watch yourself. If you catch yourself creating this same pattern, see it from a detached place of understanding and compassion, and then simply guide yourself back into that place of peace. When I have this interaction with my many facets, I sometimes feel like I’m trying to calm my inner child into coming back into the sun where the light is warm and nurturing. At first, I can understand that the light is overwhelming and if I’m not used to being in it, it can seem very bright. So why punish and judge our reactions? Instead, watch them as they happen from a place of higher knowing, and act accordingly from a place of greater understanding.

Names of God

A few suggestions of powerful words to chant are:

“I Am That I Am”

“I Am God”

“I Love”

“Be Still and Know I Am God”

“Elohim” (Meaning: ‘All That God Is’)

“Adonai” (Meaning: ‘Lord’ in the Kabbalah)

“El Shaddai” (Meaning: ‘God Almighty’)

“Jesus Christ”

“Krishna”

“Buddha”

“Holy Spirit”

The list can go on and on. The key is to use a powerful mantra or a name of God or of a Master that means something special to you; an entity to which you feel yourself drawn or a powerful expression which you find comforting.

As well as the names of God, there are also sacred sounds such as Aum and Om which are the mother of all mantras. These sounds can have a tremendously soothing effect if you are attuned to the range of their frequency. They can help guide your mind and your emotions to a place of quietude. I listen to my Om cd very often when I am facing an experience that frightens me or that makes me uneasy and what happens is that the sound organically brings me out of a place of fear and into a state of peaceful calm which in turn equips me with an improved mind-frame to be able to make clearer decisions. Much power is in this particular sound for it attunes the chanter or the listener to the sound of life intself, or in other words, to God. It brings both invigoration and calm. I believe that the invigoration comes from a state of greater awareness and this broadened consciousness is easily interpreted as a more ‘alert’ or ‘invigorated’ state. The amazing thing about mantras is that many of them exist in the highest dimensions and have been brought forth to humanity by the ancient Indian seers who hve actually heard these mantras clairaudiently.

Names of God can be chanted out loud, whispered, said silently in your mind or written down. Each has its own unique effect. The idea is to not become too mechanical in their recitation. Saying each word with worship and devotion to God empowers it to purify, cleanse and heal all of our bodies. When you chant the name of God, you are programming perfection into your subconscious mind, which then creates perfection in your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies.

It is extremely important to build a strong subconscious mind because what we feed it is what we will manifest in our lives! It takes 21 days to create a new habit, so once we begin using loving visualizations and words of power each day, they will become part of the normal, natural way that we live. Thus, whenever we find ourselves in a stressful situation, it will become much easier to act positively and calmly rather than ‘reacting’ with out-of-control emotions and fear.

An Extra Boost

However, saying all of this to you,  I can also very much appreciate that life can become extremely complicated and sometimes we may want an extra boost of support from the heavens in order to get through the experiences without too many cuts and bruises. Sometimes, when life has drained a significant amount of our force and we have not been actively replenishing to keep up,  we may even get to a point where we feel that we can make it through the experiences, but at a cost to our bodies. Although I know that we are given only that which we can handle and not a drop more, it can sometimes feel that one thing after another is coming at us with growing intensity with no breaks in between to even catch our breath. In these situations, the power of mantras is invaluable because it is a way for us to refuel before the next battle and manifest a state of centeredness that will carry us even in the most fluctuating of times. I have been through some of these challenging cycles, and in the process, I have learned to use another tool that I would like to share with you now. When you feel spiritually tired and perhaps not quite sure if you can handle any more of what this life has to offer, take a breath, and begin to repeat the following:

“God, please heal my soul.”

The power of this mantra can even put you to sleep as you become enveloped by a feeling of mercy. It is as though you are being carried up on wings of divinity more beautiful than the mind can imagine. When we ask for this holy healing, we are actually asking for a healing that each and every one of us receives as we reenter our spiritual home once we leave our physical bodies. There is a process that follows the physical death in which the soul is placed in something similar to what we would call an incubator, and here the soul is supported through a mending process that helps it regenerate back to its fully recharged state. By asking for this process to take place while still in the physical vehicle, you are asking for a healing that incorporates so many levels of your essence that, in turn, you may wish to leave the body through the sleeping state in order to support this process.

What happens…

Chanting mantras helps to build our Light Body which is the body we will use in our ascended state. The more we chant words and sounds of high frequency, the more the energies of the words become the center of our consciousness and protect us from lower vibrations. The mantra is like the seed that will eventually grow into a beautiful tree – the tree being symbolic of God-realization. The ultimate purpose of reciting the names of God is to blend our individual consciousness with God consciousness, thus becoming aware of our true nature as the eternal self. By praying or chanting, we are using ‘the word’ as a co-creator with God, thereby intoning the highest possible vibrational frequencies. Everything is energy, and these spiritual practices assist us in raising our frequencies to a higher state of Light and Love.

For example, if you chant the divine word of ‘Elohim’, which means ‘All That God Is’, then you are attracting to yourself all that which is God. Chant God’s name as you are falling asleep and you will float in your soul body to the dimension and consciousness of the name you are reciting, since where you go when you fall asleep depends on the last thought in your mind. The constant practice of this most holy spiritual discipline builds enormous spiritual force and power in your aura which can then be used as a blessing upon every person you meet…thus we can literally change the world around us!

Can you imagine how you would feel if you could harness the tremendous force of your mind and channel it into a spiritual focus only? Imagine if you used your mind constantly, 24 hours a day, to focus on loving thoughts, words of power and caring emotions…your every thought, word and deed would be of divine origin! This is the ideal – to let your entire life on Earth be an affirmation of God, which is who you really are!

There are so many spiritual disciplines available for each of us to become more balanced and loving and to help us ascend and evolve into higher beings of Light. We can use our meditations, our prayers, spiritual reading, daily positive affirmations, journal writing and physical fitness to help us achieve that inner knowingness and peace. It is also beneficial for us to enjoy spiritual music that soothes our soul and to sing to our heart’s content as this also creates a feeling of joy and bliss for our soul. It is important to create variety in our spiritual disciplines for we need to make the journey interesting and joyful. Just as we are good to our physical bodies, we need to feed good spiritual food to our minds and to our spirits.

A final note…

One of the keys to spiritual and wordly success is understanding the importance of where we put our attention. Where our attention lies is literally where we live…so why not keep our focus on training our minds and bodies to seek inner peace and joy through the various spiritual practices available to us that have been proven to change the world!? This is OUR journey and we have the responsibility to ourselves to be the best that we can be! These many ideas can help us have fun along the way. Let’s stop making excuses that we are too busy or do not have enough time for these practices. We can make these a priority and change our lives…NOW!

All of the above serve as healing balms, not only to us, but to the world itself, as these sounds, words, mantras and prayers move through us and out into the etheric, astral and mental atmospheres. The choice lies with us whether we are going to use words and thoughts to hurt or to heal. It is my fervent prayer that each of us chooses to use the power of thought, word and deed in order to cause as much healing as possible within ourselves and upon the planet. Because whether we recognize it or not, we all really need it!

CHAPTER 8: Realisation of The Infinite

Link to chapter: click here
Length of chapter reading: 32:02 minutes

We reach the final chapter of Sadhana this week. I hope the journey has been fulfilling and enriching for you. I thank you for being part of it, and for sharing, whether outwardly or silently, your thoughts throughout the experience. And so it is.

“When you know that whatever there is is filled by Him, and whatever you have is his gift, then you realise the infinite in the finite and the giver in the gifts. Then you know that all the facts of the reality have their only meaning in the manifestation of the one truth, and all your possessions have their only significance for you not in themselves, but in the relation they establish with the infinite.”

Can you bare to lose something precious to you? Does the car that you dreamed of owning for so many years and now finally drive enable you to pursue your soul’s desire or your ego’s demand for material wealth? Are you beautiful because of your clothes, or would you know how to radiate your brilliance in a torn piece of cloth? Do your relationships define you, or are they a way to share freely in the experience of life?

The gifts that we are afforded in this life are tools designed to aid us in the pursuit of the discovery of our Selves. To see them as more then that is to empower them and disempower ourselves. If All the World’s a Stage, do you see the props as being the story, or simply as temporary (finite) tools for the actors who happily surrender them when it is their turn to leave the stage?

“The tragedy of human life consists in our vain attempts to stretch the limits of things which can never become unlimited, to reach the infinite by absurdly adding to the rungs of the ladder of the finite. It is evident from this that the real desire of our soul is to get beyond all possessions. Surrounded by things that she can touch and feel, she cries, “I am weary of getting. Ah, where is he who is never to be got?

“We see everywhere in the history of man the spirit of renunciation is the deepest reality of the human soul. When the soul says of anything, ‘I do not want it for I am above it’, she gives utterance to the highest truth that is in her. When a girl’s life outgrows her dolls, she realises that in every respect, she is more than her doll is. Then she throws it away. By this very act of possession, we know that we are greater than the things we possess.”

Possession is a representation of what we have already attained. It symbolises that which we have already discovered within or about our Selves. That is not to say that the act of having is a result of higher understanding or greater awareness, but rather it can often be a consequence of the misunderstanding of what it means to achieve. In this wonderful world, which is represented on this physical plane, it is no wonder that possession is understood as a symbol of attainment, but it is to confuse attainment with obtaining that creates the mess of chronic consumption and ravenous consumerism. To fill the void within (the still undiscovered Self) with material things is like trying to fill the infinite with the finite.

“In the region of nature, which is the region of diversity, we grow by acquisition. In the spiritual world, which is the region of unity, we grow by losing ourselves by uniting. Gaining a thing, as we have said, is by its nature partial; it is limited only to a particular want. But being is complete. It belongs to our wholeness. It springs not from any necessity, but from our affinity with the infinite, which is the principle of perfection that we have in our soul.”

I have had earth shattering experiences in which the dawning of a greater awareness has felt like the destruction of the world as I know it. Things that I was sure were true and right no longer made sense. My firm beliefs in how I knew the universe to be no longer fit into my understanding.

Imagine for a moment that our spiritual journeys are akin to us building walls. Each brick we acquire along the path we place where we think it best fits as we build our wall higher and wider. Then one day, there is a tremor, or perhaps a full blown earth quake that shakes the foundation upon which we were building our wall. As a result, some bricks shift into different spots, others fall away from the wall and no longer have a place. As we stand back and inspect the state of our wall, we notice that where there were holes, some bricks may have shifted closer together making the wall stronger. In other places, the structure may have completely crumbled to the ground and is no longer necessary. It is the same with new awakenings.

When we reach a point where we see more of the Big Picture, we experience a process of losing a part of ourselves. It is as if we shed a layer of the illusion only to reveal a clearer view of that which is just on the other side of the veil. Through this loss, although it may not feel like it at first, we actually become more complete.

CHAPTER 6: Realisation In Action

Link to chapter: click here
Length of chapter reading: 30:37 minutes

This morning, I saw a man at work. This man was very special. I knew that he had agreed, a long time ago, to meet me in this exact place at this exact time to teach me what I was starting to forget. He sat at his desk, the same small space he fills each day, wearing the same uniform I imagined him preparing each evening for the following day. He worked very quickly, his hands very busy making notes and shuffling papers. Each time a patient approached him, he would look up and, from his serious demeanor, he would shed light on the face looking back at him with a warm and patient smile. He knew that he worked in a place where people were afraid to go. He also knew that he had the power to bring them peace, through his eyes, through his smile, and through the integrity with which he dedicated himself to his work. It is through him that I saw God this morning. It is through his nobility and his grace that I was able to remember myself. It is for this that I am grateful today.

“As some, under the idea that law is the opposite of joy, mistake intoxication for joy, so there are many in our country who imagine action to be the opposite of freedom. They think that activity, being in the material place, is restriction of the free spirit of the soul, but we must remember that as joy expresses itself in law, so the soul finds its freedom in action. It is because joy cannot find expression in itself alone that it desires the law which is outside. Likewise, it is because the soul cannot find freedom within itself that it wants external action. The soul of man is ever-freeing itself from its own folds by its activity. Had it be otherwise, it could not have done any voluntary work. The more man acts and makes actual what is latent in him, the nearer does he bring the event yet to be. In that actualization, man is ever-making himself more and yet more distinct and seeing himself clearly under newer and newer aspects in the midst of his varied activities, in the state, in society. This vision makes for freedom.”

I read something about myself recently that has had an impact upon the way that I identify my ‘character’ is the roles it plays. Because of a number of things, including tools provided to us through astrology (the date and time of my birth) and numerology (my name and the place of my birth), I read that I am destined to have many different jobs in this life. My first thought was one of isolation – with so many different roles, I’ll have to attempt to enter into many different tribes, some that will accept me, and some that won’t. The isolation comes from my perception of my fleetingness, the transitory nature of my journey, going from one place to another, fulfilling my role, and then moving on to where my purpose takes me next.

I have already started to realize this destiny. I have identified the distinct transitions from one role to another and I have begun to understand how to see the beauty and richness in what sometimes feels like quite lonely work. It is actually quite a magical dynamic because in one sense, it is isolating – you sense that the experience will be temporary, yet much important work needs to be done. But during that short period of intense service, intimate connections are made between souls, there is a recognition of the higher essence amongst the souls who are connected through these acts of service.

Why have I written about this self-realisation? Because it is through action within this physical world that I learn such great lessons and experience thoroughly hopeful moments of connection and divine recognition – through others of my Self.

Our journey is not one of systematic predictability. We are not meant to follow the path discovered by out neighbor because we know where it will lead. Our journeys are of a much greater purpose. By having the courage to follow a path that we create with each choice we make, we learn who we are. We get to know our Selves. We rediscover the consciousness that we were when we were planning this life; the consciousness that we are underneath the physical vehicle; the consciousness that is in each breath we take. Action is the process through which to rediscover our Selves. And when we rediscover the truth about our Selves, there is no more a need for fear. That is where freedom comes in.

“…the ideas in our minds are constantly seeking opportunities to take on outward form…”

Action is also the greatest desire of our thoughts, but not in the way that many people think. Thoughts are living beings. We can create thoughts. We feed them into life. When a thought ‘comes into’ your mind, it is literally a foreign entity seeking a source of life. If you choose to invest energy into contemplating the thought, repeatedly going back in your mind and thinking about the thought, expanding on it and playing with what it would look like, it beings to grow. The more you invest in feeding it with energy, the more it acquires a life of its own, until one day, it has the power to physically manifest. This is a very powerful area of esoterica. If you are interested in learning more about it, perhaps you would enjoy The Magus of Strovolos by Kyriacos C. Markides.

“The Upanishad says, ‘In the midst of activity alone wilt thou desire to live a hundred years‘. It is the saying of those who have amply tasted of the joy of the soul. Those who have fully realized the soul have never talked in mournful accents of the sorrowfulness of life, or of the bondage of action. They are not like weakling flowers who’s stem-hold is so light that it drops away before attaining fruition. They hold onto life with all their might, and say, ‘Never will we let go ’til the fruit is ripe!’ They desire in their joy to express themselves strenuously in their life and in their work. Pain and sorrow dismay them not. They are not bowed down to the dust by the weight of their own heart. With the erect head of the victorious hero, they march through life seeing themselves and showing themselves in increasing resplendence of soul through both joys and sorrows. The joy of their life keeps step with the joy of that energy which is playing at building and breaking throughout the universe.”

Some of us will receive the gift of coming face to face with one of these joyous souls that live each moment so nobly and to such a full extent that we forget maya’s hold on us and realise the true opportunity we have been given in this life. It is so easy, so very easy to dwell in the sorrow, and the pain, and the misfortune, and the unfairness of this world. These are tools that are meant to confuse us and to distract us from our true power and our true purpose.

I don’t have an inspirational story to share with this quote, but rather one of shame. For you see, I have been caught up in the throws of maya lately, forgetting all about the beauty and glory of this life, and dwelling instead on the suffering. I have forgotten, until now, as I listened to Tagore’s reminder, that there are SO MANY souls waiting in line just to be chosen to come into embodiment. “Why?” you may ask. Well, it simple. ‘Up there’, we prepare. We study, and reflect, and we get ready for the moment when we will be able to come back into this, or a similar world and apply our new knowledge so that we can discover a little bit more about your true Selves. It is through experiences that we create together here that we can get closer to our true Selves. Some of us have seemingly charmed lives, and others suffer the pain that only heroes could endure. It is not for us to judge why. It is not for us to even question whether we are worthy, for that has been decided long ago. All that is left for us to do is to make each moment count. There is joy in every moment. Find it and you will remember why you are here.

“He who thinks to reach God by running away from the world, when and where does he expect to meet Him? How far can he fly? Can he fly and fly and fly until he flies into nothingness itself? No, the coward who would fly can no where find Him. We must be brave enough to say, “We are reaching Him here, in this very spot, now, at this very moment. We must be able to assure ourselves that, as in our actions we are realizing our Selves, so in our Selves we are realizing him who is the SELF of Self. We must earn the right to say so unhesitatingly by clearing away, with our own effort, all obstruction, all disorder, all discords from our path of activity. We must be able to say, “In my work is my joy, and in that joy does the joy of my joy abide.”

Hahaha! This made me laugh. If I had a nickel for all the times I would have wanted to avoid the physical world and escape into the comforts of the metaphysical, I would certainly get a few free coffees by now! It is very tempting not to want to do ‘the work’ and to call our avoidance an act of purification or, alternatively, a quest for pleasure. I’ve heard both arguments, and they’re both equally colorful!

I don’t think ‘killing time’ is a sin if, by this, you mean spending time doing something that is fun, without stress and brimming with pleasurable. It is, however, a great loss if, by ‘killing time’, you are attempting to numb the pain of a life devoid of inspiration and passion. The work of Sir Ken Robinson is certainly a testament to the power of following your passion. His latest book entitled The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, will help many people awaken to this truth. Makes you wonder, once our work truly becomes a manifestation of our passions, what are we going to do with all our days off?! Haha!

CHAPTER 3: The Problem of Evil

Link to chapter: click here
Length of chapter reading: 33:11 minutes

Evil is a concept that epitomizes fear. Fear is a lack of wholeness. Wholeness comes from connection to our Selves. We are all One, affecting each other with every choice we make. When we see our Selves in others, and are able to honor each facet of our brilliance with unconditional love, evil becomes but a part of the Universal Whole.

“The river has its boundaries, its banks, but is a river all banks, or are the banks the final facts about the river? Do not these obstructions themselves give its water and onward motion? The towing rope binds a boat, but is the bondage its meaning? Does it not, at the same time, draw the boat forward? The current of the world has its boundaries, otherwise it could have no existence, but its purpose is not shown in the boundaries that restrain it, but in its movement, which is towards perfection.”

Evil is but the perception of the short-sighted. It is not empowered in the mind that sees beyond the current scene on the stage. How far beyond the scene we choose to see depends on one thing and on everything…

It depends on the seer – who has the choice, the free will to choose whether to see from a point of love, or of one of fear.

It depends on all of us – for we are all interconnected Oneness. All that he does impacts on all of us. The ripples of her actions reverberate upon the surface of the sea of Oneness which we all connect to form.

For now, in this form, the sea has a shore that defines it, that delineates it from what is beyond. This allows us to see in concepts and ideas. This is the imperfection of our perfection. Evil is a concept. It is a tool that is meant to help us move beyond the stage. It is but a theme, a plot twist, a part of the drama. Watch the show. Enjoy the drama. See it for what it is.

“Just as a man who has an ear for music realises the perfection of a song, while in fact he is only listening to a succession of notes, man has found out the great paradox that what is limited is not imprisoned within its limits. … infinity revealed within bounds.”

How is it that we can be so profoundly yet unconsciously connected to the wisdom of the All, yet get so caught up in the drama? Think of the magnificence of our inherent capabilities and then look at what so many of us choose to do with each life. I am not saying that we all don’t do our best and proceed upon our paths at our divine paces, but what if we chose to express more of our true Self to the world? What would the world look like then?

Yesterday I met someone new. At a certain point he was talking about his perception of his work-week and how, by the time 3pm on Friday comes along, the seconds seems to tick by excruciatingly slowly. I saw this divine being in front of me, with gifts and talents that only he can offer to the world, and wondered what the world would be like if he shared those gifts with us. What do you think the world would look like then?

“When we select for observation a limited area of our activities, our individual failures and mysteries loom large in our minds, but our life leads us instinctively to take a wider view.”

Perception.

“Pessimism is a form of mental dipsomania. It disdains healthy nourishment, indulges in the strong drink of denunciation and creates an artificial dejection which thirsts for a stronger draught.”

Do you see the optimist as trustworthy or delusional? Do you see the pessimist as realistic or hopeless? I don’t tend to distinguish between optimist and pessimism. I don’t think in those terms. When someone calls me an optimist, it is usually said in a wistful manner indicating to me that there is a part of him or her that would like to believe, but it’s too difficult to run the risk of being deluded…again. In place of optimism and pessimism, I see imagination and trepidation. To see life through child-like eyes does not mean to be ignorant and senseless. On the contrary, innocence brings with it wonder, delight and joy.

“…knowledge is nothing but the continually burning up of error to set free the light of truth.”

How would our children view school if this was the ideal of our teachers? Would the definition of education change?

“[Man] is more in truth then he is in fact. He truly belongs to individuals who are not included in his own individuality and whom he is never even likely to know.”

How many times have I wondered where the rest of the souls in my Monad are at any given time?! Have I met all of them in this life? Will I? Would I recognise them if I did meet them? Are they scattered all over the cosmos, or are we all sharing in life on this planet at this time of its evolution?
When I am out in the world – in a car at a red light, at the airport standing in line, walking down a cosmopolitan street – and I lock eyes with a stranger and feel, in that instant, that time stands still and a message is being exchanged, I wonder – do I know you?

A lot of people have heard about the theories of the end of the world that are predicted to take place in 2012. The fear effect is like a huge snowball, rolling down a mammoth mountain, collecting more and more fear based beliefs with each tumble. It is easy to get caught up in the fear in all the theories, in all the worries, in all the predictions. People talk, and talking manifests more fear and misunderstanding.

Yes, Earth is going through a fundamental period of transformation. Maybe it can be said that the world is ending – AS WE KNOW IT – but that doesn’t mean that it will explode or implode one day and we will all be gone, the end. It doesn’t mean that at all.

What transformation does imply is change. Change can be scary. Change is all about going into the unknown and not looking back. It is about having courage. The magical thing about change is that it comes through the process of evolution – of improvement – or growth and greater awareness. What served us back then no longer serves us now. We have grown out of our baby shoes and it is time to put on a new pair, with thicker soles and stronger laces that will support us as we take on new challenges that will allow us to contribute that much more.

This process of releasing what no longer serves us to make room for the new is what this planet is going through right now. We are going through a cleansing. A renewal. Many of the systems, the infrastructures, the organizations and the collectives that have been given the power to manage our world are no long relevant. They are no longer equipped with the right tools to take us to where we’re going next. That’s why we are witnessing the collapse of industries, economic and political powers.

With transformation comes the inherent shifting of energy. Unemployment is at record highs in certain fields for a reason. Our needs are shifting. New industries are sprouting. Those that were having a hard time finding a place in the old structure are now blossoming. Take this as an opportunity to reevaluate yourself, your dreams, your desires, your passions. What inspires you? What have you ALWAYS wanted to do but never let yourself explore? What guilt are you carrying around with you about not living out your dreams? This is the time to act on your Soul’s Desire. This is the time to take active part in the transformation.

Yes, the world is ending – the world as we know it. What is being born out of the rubble is a new vision of the home to which we’ve been praying to return. Heaven on Earth – that is what the transformation is all about. Dare to have the courage to create you Heaven right now.

This is the time for opportunity, not for fear.

Here’s more about this transformation from Lightworkers:

More about the “Afraid of the Dark” broadcast that they talk about in the video above can be found here.

What you will find below is a very powerful tool. You may choose to refer to it as a reminder, to use it as a daily exercise, or to consider it a methodology to which to aspire. Try reading across the rows as if you were reading a book. Do you notice a pattern? Can you see a relationship among the terms? Do some words trigger stronger reactions than others? Do your responses reveal clues about your current state of clarity? Are you able to identify opportunities for development?

Reading this list from time to time, or even on a daily basis, will create a conscious reminder of that which we often let simmer in the background. Controlling our thoughts and clarifying our intentions can be quite overwhelming. Rather than divert energy from conscious creation into random release, observe where your thoughts and intentions are coming from in order to EMPOWER yourself.

Here is a link to the printable (pdf) version of the table. There are actually two versions of the table in this printable copy – one includes all the words you see above, and the other is a workable blank copy of the table. As you read each word, take note of the first thought, image, or single word that pops up in your mind. Please do not judge your reaction. Then, write that respond down in the corresponding cell of your blank worksheet. Continue doing this untill all the cells are filled. You can do this by yourself, with a partner or even make it a group activity with your friends. Once everyone has finished, reveal your reactions to one another, but instead of comparing them, allow each person a moment of reflection. Share with one another. Learn from one another.