Loving Awareness

The essence of compassion part 2

Posted by matthew on January 2, 2008  |  6621 Commentshttp://www.loving-awareness.org/2008/01/02/the-essence-of-compassion-part-2/The+essence+of+compassion+part+22008-01-03+02%3A13%3A40matthew

The topic of compassion is of course very close to the purpose of this site – it is an aspect of Love. However, this was instigated recently by the “Spread the Love Now!” project of Wade of The Middle Way, Kenton of Zen-Inspired Self Development, and Albert of Urban Monk.Net. This site, as the “About” page shows, has two writers, and we thought we’d each contribute something to this. So there are two articles about compassion, one for each of us. This topic is, after all, central to the purpose of this site – why else would we call it Loving Awareness?

If you haven’t read the previous entry on compassion by Karen, please do so. I’m (Matthew) going to add to it, starting with the first comment as a basis question – on the subject of child abuse. It’s a very good question, and representative on most people’s initial response to thinking of compassion in terms of awareness and acceptance, rather than having a duty to do something to solve a problem. I realize this is a touchy subject, and that what is written here may be controversial because of the massive cultural pain that exists. However, bringing compassion to such a painful area brings a huge amount of clarity to how it is applied in the world.

The essence of compassion (channeled)

Posted by matthew on December 29, 2007  |  6528 Commentshttp://www.loving-awareness.org/2007/12/29/the-essence-of-compassion-channeled/The+essence+of+compassion++%28channeled%292007-12-29+20%3A19%3A37matthew

The following is channeled material on compassion:

Let us speak to you today on the topic of compassion. Understand that when we use this term, we would like to refer to it as “an expression of Love”. Compassion is, in our perception, a melding of one’s energy with another’s. A combining to create something new that didn’t exist before. This new creation of energy as a combination of yours and another’s unites you, creates a bond between you. Over time, this act of creation between two people takes on a life of its own in some ways. But regardless of the length of time of the melding of energies, there does exist to varying degrees an understanding, awareness, acknowledgment, and acceptance of the state the other is in at that present moment. This acceptance for the state of another, whatever state that may be, is what we see as compassion.

Moving from control to freedom

Posted by matthew on November 3, 2007  |  50No Commentshttp://www.loving-awareness.org/2007/11/03/moving-from-control-to-freedom/Moving+from+control+to+freedom2007-11-04+04%3A21%3A00matthew

Here’s the next podcast from Karen Murphy. This is one that is actually a personal channeling, but illustrates universal principles in terms of what is required to make a substantial change in one’s life. In this case, it is from a constrained sense of having to manage everything (and control) to having a much greater sense of freedom via allowing. It implies more than is obvious.

Click play to start:

 

 Moving from control to freedom [21:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Karen is a professional channel. For information on services she offers, visit her web site at http://www.light-spring.com.

Here is the transcript of this:

Question: I recently described what I saw in _____ (female) as a very constrained system with only a few outlets, leading to output that looks like geysers. Could you both describe the state you see in her, as well as suggestions on potential actions to be taken to move to a more “free” state?

Response: 

We see that what we have here is a propensity to attempt to manage things. There has been such a feeling of lack of control in this lifetime that the fragment at hand feels it necessary to control many aspects of her life in order to not feel the terror that comes from being manipulated by others. We would say that this propensity has moved into a feeling of comfort that exists even though the need for such a method of interaction is no longer as necessary as it was once, when there were truly terrifying things occurring. Once it is seen and acknowledged that this state has existed and exists still then it is possible, with a certain about of recognition, to attempt to move from that instead into one that is more “free”, as you say.

However, we see some difficulties with this. In other words, for some patterns become so ingrained that it truly takes what we would say is a complete re-writing of the DNA structure in order to move into other patterns of thought, interaction and being. This DNA manipulation does not come, however, without a price, and we are not sure at this time that this fragment is willing to pay that price, as we see it. There are certain tradeoffs that would be made, and we do not see a willingness at this time to move into this more “free” state. However, that is not to say that it could not occur, and we would suggest then, if this fragment is truly interested in making these changes, a program that would probably take 2-3 years to accomplish. A program of nightly moving back into those places of terror and removing all elements of comfort that exist would likely remap the pathways within the both brain and physical self sufficiently in order to move into this more “free” state.

However, it takes a great deal of endurance, as we see it, and of course the willingness that we spoke of. Is this fragment ready to do this work? We are not certain. Will she ever be? We cannot say that either. However, if you were to think of life in purely linear terms, and of course being on the physical plane that is what you do, we would say that in order to move into that state which she knows is possible at this time, that this complete disintegration would be necessary to go through in order to reach that state.

We would say that if you are interested on behalf of this fragment (note: this means ‘person’)  in her attaining that state, then there are things you could do (and actually you have already been doing) in order to assist with this process. It would take some additional connection, especially during dream time, in order to help create the atmosphere necessary for her to more comfortably consider the absolute disintegration of self. Now, you might ask what specifically can you do, other than just think about it? You know yourself that ironically you are also moving through similar patterns in your own life. So the fact that there are parallels certainly should not escape you, and may assist you in making some choices of your own. However, we see you as much more comfortable with the thought of completely losing your “self”, as you know it, and being open to what comes from that process.. It is possible that moving into that more firmly that you can help provide a model, if you will, for her to move more firmly into that space herself.

It may be helpful to think about this process in terms of simply two fragments moving together in a lifetime and removing from it any aspects of “relationship”, as you see it. That would assist with removing from the equation some of the elements of arrogance that sometimes occur between you. Now in terms of what can later be gained from these processes for each of you, you probably sense on some levels what this would mean to your own personal development, and there are a couple of things we would like to point out.

1) It would certainly assist with your own abilities to have an effect on others, especially others on a wider scope. If this is something that you, in your head, wish to do, then his is a process that you wish to consider on a purely cerebral level. However, as you know, change does not take place simply on an intellectual basis, and must occur throughout all aspects of the Self, and that is why we spoke of the remapping of the DNA , as that would change every aspect of you, from your physical bodies, to your habits, to your emotions, to your interactions with others, to your interaction with self, to your perception of self, of others, and the universe.

2) This process we would like to remind you is not one to be taken lightly. It will change everything. You will not be in any way the same person that you were once. Now if that is something that appeals to you, again on a cerebral level it may be something that you wish to choose. However, know that choice occurs on many levels, and it is not just a simple matter of saying “that sounds like fun, I think I’ll do that”. It is a choice taken in conjunction with, for instance, everyone that you currently have interaction with. Consider that for a moment. If you make a choice that affects you on such a deep level, then you must also obtain the support of everyone else that you interact with. This is slightly larger than you think it is at this time. There are those with whom you have agreements, there are those with whom you have karma, there are those with whom you have past life association, there are those who not in bodies at this time whose agreements you must alter in order to make this kind of choice. So part of the process of completely allowing yourself to disintegrate – we would liken it to one of the 12 steps, where you must contact every one in your life that has been affected by who you are now, and not necessarily make amends, but at least identify this and connect with them again and receive their “permission”, if you will, to make this huge change, as that change will change them. It cannot help but do so.

In other words, you must receive almost permission on a global and universal level. That process itself requires abject and total humility. Now is it within you to possess such humility? We would not be bringing this up if we did not believe it was something you are capable of. But we would like to remind you that this process itself will bring with it pain and transformation. Just so you know what so expect.

Understand that if you choose on an essence level to undergo this, it will not necessarily be something that you’re all that conscious of when it’s happening. So to say that you wish a greater understand of it, yes, that makes sense again on a cerebral level. But because it’s a process and these parallels exist on much more than a cerebral level, it’s limiting to think of it in terms of something that you can understand. So we would suggest then, simply to expand your awareness into all the potentialities that ever have existed between you. In other words, expand your awareness to, for instance, all the past lives you have ever shared, and all the concurrences of those past lives, and all the reverberations that occurred as a result of the lives undertaken by those past lives that have occurred, and your collective concurrences. So you are starting to get the meaning of how huge this becomes. Expand your awareness into all of that, all of what happened, what might have happened, and what didn’t happen. And realize that’s only just a tiny, tiny piece of what exists between two fragments. So if you expand your awareness, again on a cerebral level, that’s extremely limiting. It must happen on a cellular level. And even that is limiting because your cells are not the whole of you. There is so much more to you than simply a body, and a mind and emotion.

So we would say to you then, that if you insist on attempting to have a greater understanding of this, because we see that you wish to do this from a place of wanting to help. The thing that would help (probably the most) would be holding a space of acceptance. That is not to say you are not already doing this. But to expand into that more. And include within that acceptance, acceptance for your Self as well. Acceptance for everything that has ever occurred between you, everything that ever will, and everything that never occurred between you. We have given you much to think about, and we would prefer it actually if you didn’t really think about it that much! Instead, just take the energy from what has come today and allow it to be there. That is all you have to do. Allow the energy to be a part of you. Because in essence, that is really all change is. There is nothing more ever necessary than that. And that is something we wish both of you to take with you this day.

Alright, we’ll tell you a story then, because again, it’s not what you know, it’s what you are. Remember that.

Once in time there were two farmers. Now, these farmers knew one another, but not all that well. They farmed in neighboring communities. They each built for themselves a business if you will, through their farming, and so became somewhat known by some of the additional neighboring communities. They were decent farmers and each of them employed some workers. Now one of the farmers had a worker who was quite disgruntled. Didn’t like the way he was treated; he thought he was better than being a worker. He really wanted his own farm, but didn’t have the wherewithal to establish that for himself. So he thought that what he would do is go to the other farmer to stir up a little bit of trouble, and see what happened. Because this disgruntled worker just liked to make things change more than anything else. He didn’t want to do the work, just see what would happen, because he was into observing experiences and interactions, and learning from that. So he went to the other farmer and started telling stories about the other, stories that frankly weren’t true. But the other farmer, being of a somewhat suspicious nature and wanting to hold on to what he saw was his own, started to believe these stories. Well, one thing led to another, and pretty soon the original farmer who was completely innocent ended up losing his farm, his family, his money, his good name, and was cast out of the community in which he lived. As you can imagine this was a bit hard on him. He spent a lifetime building his little “empire”, his little world, but he was big enough in it, and he was happy with that. Not being all that young anymore, he wasn’t in a position to start over. So since he thought that the start of it all was the other farmer, he decided to do what he could do to stir up trouble for that other farmer. But you know what? It all backfired on him. It did. Because he no longer had his good name.

Now, did he learn something from that? Not in that lifetime, no. But later on he was able to look back and laugh and see how funny it was. Because it really kind of was – the beauty of irony is really quite funny when you’re not trapped by a body. So what happened to the other farmer, you might ask? The other farmer managed to double his earnings. I’m sure you can imagine where the other half came from, and made the disgruntled worker his son in law. So everybody was quite happy with this, except the other farmer started having dreams at night, dreams which plagued him and was unable to sleep. He lost weight because he couldn’t sleep, he lost his hair, he wasn’t pretty. Every night he was plagued with the same thoughts that he had done something wrong. That made him very sad. Pretty soon he was a mere shadow of his former self. So he decided some change was in order. He sold off the majority of his new holdings. He kicked his son in law and his daughter out of his house. He thought that the change would make him happy, but it didn’t. He still had the same dreams, night after night. He grew thinner and thinner. Finally he died. And on the astral plane after this life he ran across the other farmer who of course had died too, because he had no where to go and died of starvation, and they had a talk about this life. And what they decided was that it had really been quite a successful one, because although they didn’t necessarily have a lot of face to face interaction, the very fact that each of them was living their lives affected the other one to such a degree that it created huge changes in each of them. And they both went away from each other with huge satisfaction knowing that – even knowing that much of the interaction never took place on a “cerebral” level between them. They were quite aware on this astral level how actions of each other did affect them. And they walked away the best of friends and decided to do it again in another life. The end.

So you can draw your own parallels and do with that information what you will. Again, simply allowing the energy to be there is all that’s needed for change. There is nothing needed for change. It’s very simple.

Reconnecting to Your Source

Posted by lightspring on October 11, 2007  |  452 Commentshttp://www.loving-awareness.org/2007/10/11/reconnecting-to-your-source/Reconnecting+to+Your+Source2007-10-11+16%3A12%3A41lightspring

All of us, each one of us, is connected to one another. We each are created from, formed of, and connected to the same genetic source material. This is such a universal truth that it appears in both religious literature and myth alike. The story of Genesis and the formation of us as humans is part of us, part of our heritage as a people, and the truth remains: we are connected, we are One.

Then why the pervasive feeling of separateness, of disconnection from where and how we began? Why can’t we feel connected to our source, connected to others and to the Universe, at all times?

The answer is both simple and complex: we chose the separation, each one of us, yet we can have that reconnection if we so desire.

Separation is a way of allowing us to become caught up in the illusions of the life experience so as to present ourselves and one another with growth opportunities. Simply put, we learn from interaction from one another, and if there was no interaction, we would not evolve. It is impossible to learn all there is about being human simply from interacting with the self.

We learn a great deal through conflict. Conflict arises from a feeling of disconnectedness, and without conflict there is often little impetus to interact and grow from that interaction. While it is certainly possible and often preferable to learn from places of joy, it is difficult for us to remain in that state long enough to allow the growth to permeate us; when in Joy we often are simply caught up in the wonder and beauty of it and neglect to utilize that time as well to grow and learn. It is a very human trait, then, to require conflict in order to grow.

That is not to say that conflict is desirable, simply that from it springs much to build a lifetime of evolution and growth.

While separation is part of the design of human evolution and growth, it certainly is not the natural state from whence we came, and often we feel a longing to return to that state of utter connectedness yet fee we have lost the way to get there.

It is one thing to say and acknowledge, “I am One with you, we are all One,” and it is quite another thing to hold that belief inside us, in our hearts and even down to a cellular level. How, then, to get there? How can we hold that knowingness inside us, so that it may be present to comfort us, to guide us, to allow us to remain connected with all that we are?

It is really quite simple.

All you need to do is to allow the connection.

“Allow the connection”? What does that mean, in real terms?

It means stepping into that place rather than forcing your way in. It means holding the idea of being connected to source at all times, holding it within you as a real possibility. It means, also, letting yourself deserve that reconnection.

Let’s talk for a moment about what we deserve. We all are here on this planet on a level playing field, meaning that we all, since we are of course connected and part of the One, deserving of the same experiences, the same opportunities. You likely believe this on various levels pertaining to human rights, civil rights, and the like. We are One. But going to you, yourself, thinking about only yourself, do you give yourself the same opportunities for joy and happiness that you allow for others? Or do you see yourself as perhaps having to work a little harder, a little longer, for the same growth that you fully believe others are deserving of?

Do you really believe that you deserve to be connected to your inner source?

If you are human, then you are deserving of the human experience. Period. And allowing a reconnection to our source is certainly and most positively part of the human experience.

Again, then, allowing the connection to Source means letting go of who you think you are and letting in all the myriad magical possibilities of who you could be. For all those possibilities are also You. You are far larger than you perceive. In fact, you are not only who you think you are and the millions of imagined possibilities of who you are, but you are also all the yous that ever have been, all the yous who ever existed in your imagination or otherwise, throughout your entire life. All those possibilities, whether real or imagined, are all a part of the larger You that is. And when you acknowledge all those possibilities, acknowledge your Self in all its grand bigness and perfection, you allow connection to Source, for it is through the You that is that your connection exists.

It is through the You That Is that your connection to your Source exists.

And it is by allowing and acknowledging all your myriad possibilities, tens of thousands upon millions of them, that you regain your connection to the One that is you.

Being present with emotions

Posted by matthew on September 30, 2007  |  423 Commentshttp://www.loving-awareness.org/2007/09/30/being-present-with-emotions/Being+present+with+emotions2007-09-30+21%3A41%3A27matthew

Emotions are somewhat of a problem for the vast majority of people in this culture. They can be very pleasurable in the initial rush of love in relationships or in successes in sports and the workplace, but for the most part “painful” or “messy” emotions are thought of as something to avoid or fix. Many, many people have gone to counseling because at the root they see their emotions as a problem and thus think they have issues to resolve.

I personally love emotions. I love them for the huge gift of perceptions they bring, being a measure of dynamics happening externally. I love them for the self-knowledge they bring. But most of all I love them because inviting them in, fully, in their totality, brings such a vivid sense of aliveness that is not possible without them.

Simply put, there are no ‘problems’ with any emotions. The only problem is our own judgment, the perception of separation that divides parts of ourselves into ‘good’ and ‘bad’. This categorization has a strong influence in every experience of emotion.

I’ve written before about related topics, so for further reference you can look at The Allowing of Pain and Negativity and a table of emotions.

To look in detail at something, let’s look on a basic personal characteristic that is treated with suspicion and often repressed: the quality of aggression. It is recognized, truthfully so, that aggression can cause conflicts, crossing of boundaries, and a fundamental lack of listening. And yet this is only one aspect of aggression, an aspect fundamentally based in the perception of differences and separation. Someone mired in this state views others as unconnected to themselves, and therefore an enemy. This is always accompanied by a deep division in the self, where there is some denial of huge swaths of one’s being. Although this is all too common, it is actually not a natural state. Looking into nature and its purity, it is easy to find examples which are not based at all in separateness, but rather of following the natural way each creature is meant to be. Spending time watching tigers or black panthers in the wild gives a wonderful example of this. Their aggression is a thing of beauty, and harmonious.

Within people, when aggression is allowed to its full fruition – without any perception of separateness – there is never any possibility for war because there is no one “out there” to make war with. Perhaps a better word for the state is dynamism. Dynamism is itself part of the spectrum of aggression, a great expansion of energy which includes and brings others together for a purpose. It inspires and provides a basis for positive change in the world.  Dynamism includes all the aspects of aggression mentioned above, but is not at all based in conflict, so the same energy that is used for conflict in one case is used for creation and beauty.  A wonderful example of this state is the spiritual teacher Krishnamurthi. There was a strong outward force around him which was joyful to be around, much like watching a panther in the wild.

All emotions – and personal characteristics – have this dichotomy. When blocked and based in the division of right and wrong, “me” and “not me”, any emotion can create conflict. When fully allowed to the degree where there is no control and no judgment, there is a transforming that occurs to move us into the potential of the experience of that emotion. This will always be a movement towards love of self and others. Allowing always creates a space for this transformation and movement. All too often, there is a desire to take action to transform emotions into something ‘better’. At its roots this is a non-acceptance of emotions as they are occurring in the present moment. Any action based on non-acceptance is likely to perpetuate that state.

Saying “we are complete and perfect just as we are” is not an empty statement, nor is it based in a positivity that is about avoiding focusing on “negative things” – though it has often been used for this purpose. It is a statement of fact. As we learn greater experience of allowing, we also gain more direct experience of this completeness. And thus, joy begins to be a regular occurrence.