Loving Awareness

“negativity” – NOT!

Posted by matthew on May 28, 2007  |  312 Commentshttp://www.loving-awareness.org/2007/05/28/negativity-not/%22negativity%22+-+NOT%212007-05-28+19%3A12%3A00matthew

This time this writing got started in response to a post on a group on here, which was representative of many thoughts. Here’s the post :

Negative emotions like anger and fear are a very low vibration and if you are feeling those things, it lowers the vibration of your energy field and you have less Light from God.

Red is pretty, but it is a low vibration. The fact that it is pretty is beside the point. There are some very beautiful or maybe even tasty but poisonous flowers or plants, but it wouldn’t be a safe to have them around or eat them. It’s the same concept of just because it feels good doesn’t mean it’s good for you.

It actually makes me laugh when people talk about everyday experiences and things as “low” or “high” vibration and relating this to “goodness” and “bad. Not laugh in a derogatory way – simply laugh.

Perhaps the best metaphor is white light. Most spiritual people associate this with the “highest” vibration. However, if you look at what it is made of, white is all vibrations – all colors in one. If you remove the frequency of any color from it, it is no longer white. So saying any color is “bad” really is not seeing the totality of what we’re heading towards. We are moving towards true integration, where we use every single aspect of ourselves without conflict, in harmony with every other aspect. This is the equivalent of white light.

Likewise, to say any emotion is “bad” is really not seeing the spectrum. Anger and fear are here to help. Anger is essentially here to help set good, healthy boundaries, and fear is here to help us stay alive. The danger is that when these emotions come on strong, it can be easy to get lost in them and not get support from the entire spectrum of who we are. Also, if we dislike those emotions and wish to get rid of them, they’re usually still there, just operating in a very separated, unconscious matter. The truth is that who we are is very large – there is no way we can “get rid” of anything, nor should we want to. Bringing these emotions to a conscious level so there is a conscious choice on how we use and interact with them is all we need.

In one of the Krishmamurthi video nights I had a few months ago, one person made a comment that we need to “overcome aggression”, linking it with violence and wars. I simply responded that Krishnamurthi’s energy was also aggressive – it is the same basic energy. Krishamurthi speaks with incredibly dynamism, saying “See for yourself! Be present! Awaken!” with forcefulness. The only difference is that this energy – dynamic, aggressive , explosive and outward focused – is not in conflict with anything, either internally or externally. It is a prime example of an energy, often labeled “bad”, that has brought into operating in a fully conscious manner.

There are no bad emotions. Only energies not in harmony with surrounding ones.

I’m actually still working on a lot of this myself; I know there’s a good deal of repressed memories from childhood trauma in my body. However, I’m generally fine with them being there. I don’t need them to be changed. There are a lot of “negative” emotions there, and they will come out when they’re ready. I feel a hell of a lot more freedom inside myself after realizing that none of these trapped energies actually restrict who I am; they are simply there as fodder for learning.

Some people think they’d better wait until they’ve “perfected” themselves before they offer their own teaching and gifts to the world. But often the best teaching is showing the world your own ‘problems’, and how you’re transforming them in each moment. This is being a living teacher, instead of a signpost.

So when interacting with such emotions, instead of restricting and protecting, it’s good to include and harmonize. Adding compassion and conscious action does a lot more than fearfully avoiding anything (including areas of one’s self) because it’s of “low vibration”. There’s a lot of fear-based teachings out there which use a the word ‘love’ frequently. Love is about unconditional acceptance from a place of non-duality. So avoiding anything because it is “fundamentally bad” (ie, not accepting it) is not a loving action. This is very different from being truly accepting, but taking care of yourself and choosing not to invite something in. I can love a person who behaves violently – I completely accept the rage and pain there – but I do not want this person near me, nor in a place where he or she would inevitably hurt others. It’s a place of “loving the sinner but hating the sin”, and it applies internally as well.

Raising “vibration”, or consciousness, always starts from the present moment. Which means allowing anything truly going on inside yourself, Now, to come to the foreground – even if it is ‘dark’. To take a more extreme example, a lot of ’spiritual’ people thumb their noses at thrash metal – and yet, for many people into this sort of music, it is a perfect expression of the jarring inner conflict inside themselves in their present moment. The expression helps them look at it and transform it. So for them, it is a way to higher vibration. I don’t listen to it myself, but I am seeing how everything on this planet has value.

Here is a table of emotions, showing the “positive pole”, or a freeing, expansive expression, and the “negative pole”, a more restricted expression.

Looking at this table can help see what allowing emotions can do. There is always a transformation that occurs when a state is allowed, which will without exception move into the “positive pole” listed above.

The ugly and short prince (story)

Posted by matthew on May 6, 2007  |  32No Commentshttp://www.loving-awareness.org/2007/05/06/the-ugly-and-short-prince-story/The+ugly+and+short+prince+%28story%292007-05-06+18%3A17%3A00matthew

Hmm, I guess people have gotten enough on the environment already – the comments numbers are significantly lowered. Anyway, here’s a story from the channeling of Michael by Karen Murphy. I find it wonderful and heart touching!

One upon a time, in a land where there was no time, there lived a prince. This Prince was short and ugly and awkward, and people made light of him behind his back. He knew this instinctively, though the people were careful never to show him anything but the utmost respect directly, and because of it, he was quite unhappy. One day this Prince decided to drown himself in a nearby river. He made preparations that involved placing several large stones in his pockets, filling them with weight that would keep his body under the water while he ceased to breathe. The Prince was very sad as he made these preparations, and for every stone he placed in his pocket, he remembered one small slight against him. Soon his face was covered with tears and he could no longer see clearly from the force of his weeping over all the ills that had been done to him, both real and imagined.

After a time, the Prince’s face cleared and he ceased his weeping. His pockets no longer felt heavy with the weight of the ills he perceived that had been done to him. Confused but still determined t complete the job he set out to do, the Prince entered the water anyway, remembering as he did so that he had placed the stones in his pockets and therefore should sink to the bottom. Or should he? The Prince was no longer sure. The Prince slowly entered the cold rushing water, walking toward the place where it was deepest. He knew he should be submerged soon, and felt relieved. Still, he remained in a state of confusion, for he felt strangely buoyant at the same time. Hadn’t he filled his pockets with heavy stones? Shouldn’t he be weighted down with the ills and troubles of his lifetime? Oddly, the Prince began to feel elation, and….joy. The feeling was strange to him, but he knew it for what it was, instantly. No longer did he wish to remain at the bottom of the cold river until he ceased breathing, not if he could feel joy like this! But the Prince found that he could not walk further, could not return to the river’s banks. He felt rooted in place, made motionless by fear. Would his unhappiness return? Would he still be ugly and short and would people still make light of his appearance? He did not know the answers. He felt confused and strangely afloat with the motion of the water now flowing around him. He did not know what to do.

The Prince, now rendered motionless, felt his body relax. He felt the water flow around him, moving him slightly this way and that. He no longer, now, cared whether he sank to the bottom. He had surrendered himself completely to the motions of the water flowing around him, immersed as he was in the river. He decided to let go entirely, to allow his fate be determined by the river.

No sooner had he done this than he found himself standing on the bank, perfectly dry, pockets light as a feather. A group of his subjects approached, madly rushing to look for what they feared – that their prince was lying dead in the river. Joyfully they embraced him, knowing that he was safe.

The prince was, again, confused. Didn’t his people mock him behind his back? He did not understand.

“The Little Prince is safe!” the people cried. “Our beloved Prince is safe, bless, his little soul!”

As the people rejoiced, the Prince felt he began to understand. The words he felt behind his back about his appearance were words of affection, not of derision, and it was his own fears and insecurities that had led him to surmise otherwise. He had not followed his own heart in the matter.

So, too, must you learn to release yourself from expectations regarding those around you. Each of you is connected, yes, but while living life on the physical plane, so too must you keep your suppositions separate from those of others. In other words, if you take on the energy of others, it will define you. You must decide whether that is what you wish, or not. Do you wish to define yourself? Or to allow others to do so?

So, too, must you begin to remember what it is like to simply “allow”, to Be. You may find, then, that once you do so, what you most wish for will come to you without your having to try so hard to achieve it. You will find, as you do so, that worlds will open up to you that you never knew existed. Time will stretch and have new meaning. Colors may brighten, and the world may seem, in general, a more pleasant place in which to be, as your awareness of that innate connection among all things, and by this we mean ALL things, even, for instance, your computer keyboard or the window you gaze out of, as well as everything in the animal and plant kingdoms, is connected.

Stretch, then, your awareness to both the minute and the great. Realize that you are the heartbeat of the Universe, that you are the breath of Time. And, simply, Be. Allow your attachment to outcome evaporate, and allow the you-ness that is most deeply within you to rise to the surface and become the You that Is.

— Michael, May 6, 2007, channeled by Karen Murphy

Karen Murphy’s site is at http://light-spring.com/. She is a wonderful channel as well as a beautiful person – well worth her services when the perspective of channeling is useful. I met her a couple weeks ago and found such an amazing heartlink with her, *very* evident we had shared a large number of past lives. I paid for some channeling myself which I’ll get around to posting soon as well!

the environment on a train…

Posted by matthew on May 1, 2007  |  35No Commentshttp://www.loving-awareness.org/2007/05/01/the-environment-on-a-train-2/the+environment+on+a+train...2007-05-01+17%3A44%3A00matthew

As I’m writing this, I’m in a train from Quebec to Montreal in Canada, watching the first hint of new shoots appear through the melting snow. Rebirth from the death of winter is in the air, and even the plain brown silt seems alive in anticipation. The sunset echoes the sentiment of growth, even as the last hint of light fades from the sky. So I’ll be writing about environmental issues now!
Environmental issues have been at the forefront of many people’s awareness for the last few years. The Kyoto accord – although not signed by the United States – is in implementation, and efforts have been made to adhere to it. Whether this will have a significant effect is another story.

It is important to note that the Kyoto accord was only meant as a starting point. It refers only to gases contributing to global warming, which is a subset of the pollution mankind gives to the world. Not only that, but it refers to 1990 levels, which is still a level beyond that which is truly sustainable. Furthermore, it is limited in scope. For instance, transportation over international waters is not Kyoto. So if you get your kiwi from New Zealand and you live in Canada, that 10,000 km of transportation and associated pollution is not counted under Kyoto, even if it causes pollution. Neither does air travel between those destinations. (This has more info) So even if Kyoto is implemented by all nations, including the US, it will not necessarily have the effect required to avoid environmental changes. counted in

Furthermore, some of the fixes proposed actually do more harm than good. For instance, there have been large efforts to create an alternate fuel supply based on ethanol made from corn and other crops. While this would be extremely helpful if there was an unlimited supply of arable land, in reality we have reached the limit of arable land on this planet. We cannot grow more crops without sacrificing the production of food, more rainforests, or other species on this planet. Often it’s been the latter two. As George Monbiot (and even Fidel Castro recently!) have written (see http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/03/27/a-lethal-solution/) , while theoretically ethanol is a “net zero greenhouse gas fuel”, in reality it is worse than gasoline because under the current economic system, much more carbon-dioxide sinks such as rainforests will be cleared to harvest ethanol-producing crops. The farming practices for these crops tend to be short term (as they are cash crops) and can easily lead to that land not being able to grow crops or trees for thousands of years.

All of this is fairly inherent in the economic system we’ve created. Governments and corporations have no inherent motivation to act for the long term common good; they look out for short term benefits. Political parties only focus on succeeding in the next election, and corporations are legally obligated to maximize profits, irrespective of the harm they may cause in the process. There’s more impetus to provide news that appears like they’re doing something than to make sacrifices for the long term. There is no way around this without changing the framework, which does not look likely at this time.

This is not meant to depress you at all; it’s meant to describe the current state of the world and provide a context for where real change will come from. In reality – and this goes for psychological changes as well – all change in the world comes from groups of individuals making changes of their own. This is always how it works. So any time people sit back in resignation because governments do not make the changes necessary, but do not make changes in their own life, they are really saying “I give my tacit approval for the way things are.” This has its parallels in dysfunctional relationships that people stay in without working towards change; there’s an unstated approval, however horrific the life is. Unfortunately, in both cases, things can easily get worse until the point where changes HAVE to be made. The problem is simply that in the case of the earth’s environment, billions of people may start dying -and a sizable percentage of the earth’s species becoming extinct – before the point is recognized by the majority of people that can make effective change. Individual changes DO matter, and have a sizeable and growing effect.

As many people have noted, in my eyes the most effective motto for positive change is Gandhi’s “be the change you wish to see in the world.” If you wish to have less environmental footprint in the world, live that.

It behooves us all to be aware of all the ramifications for our actions. Though most people don’t admit it, every time we purchase something we are in effect supporting all the byproducts and methods used to produce that item. If we buy beef from factory farms we support the cruelty, pollution, and possible rainforest degradation from harvesting the grains used to feed the beef. If we replace the carpet in our home we support all the pollutants used to make it, as well as that of the transport and the eventual disposal of it. If we purchase organic food from across the world, we’re still supporting the greenhouse gases produced by the transport. A car isn’t only about greenhouse gases; there’s the waste from mining, from steel plants, from the waste, and any chemicals going into rivers and oceans. I’m not saying any of these are bad in the absolute sense – I’m only saying there are consequences for supporting them. This goes for everything, from something innocent like snowboarding to buying diamonds from war-ravaged Africa. Every action we have on this earth (internal and external) will always produce waste and consequence; pretending otherwise is not good work. The earth is built to re-process waste, but it has its limitations as well.

The path of awareness means being more and more aware of cause and effect, product and waste, both within and without – and making more conscious choices based on them, rather than behaving automatically. Thus a fairly aware person may choose to get drunk one night in order to facilitate an emotional release, because the hangover is worth it; it’s a conscious choice. It is VERY hard to live with little environmental impact in the society we’ve created, but being aware of the effects the choices we have is a very good start and may lead to different choices. Not to mention have a domino effect on others’ awareness and choices!

Ultimately, I see the only thing I see helping our planet is a focus away from consumerism. Consumerism is the focus on things, that having more things are better. So long as we have this attitude, we will always want to push aside awareness of consequences for short term benefit. Consumerism can be emotional as well; how many of us have thought “MmMm, yumm, I want some of that!” at the beginning of a relationship that went sour soon after? It is a belief in lack, which of course is fundamentally untrue. We already have all that we need, and if our actions come from that state, we actually experience more even if from consumerists’ eyes we don’t seem to have very much.

Being less work-focused can also be a part of this. If we’re doing jobs we don’t love that feel empty in order to get more things, the natural tendency is to fill that emptiness with more emptiness – like things. This too will take time to change in society as a whole, but awareness helps in this as well.

I invite everyone to comment on what they’ve discovered regarding better choices they’ve made, and informing of discoveries on actual wastes/consequences common products have!