Loving Awareness

Joy at all times

Posted by matthew on October 17, 2007  |  4717 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.loving-awareness.org%2F2007%2F10%2F17%2Fjoy-at-all-times%2FJoy+at+all+times2007-10-18+06%3A44%3A21matthewhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.loving-awareness.org%2F2007%2F10%2F17%2Fjoy-at-all-times%2F

Joy is a seemingly elusive and ephemeral quality in this day and age. So many daily actions are justified with a reasoning process involving a search for this distant state. Relationships, career seeking, and nights on the town often have this expectation, along with a corresponding anger and disappointment when joy is not found in them. Despair can appear when life’s circumstances appear to offer no possibility for joy. But what exactly is joy?

It is easy to label joy as a simple emotion, but it is far more encompassing than that. For instance, most people would not entertain the possibility of feeling joy and pain at the same time, and yet this occurs every moment of every day. It occurs sometimes for those suffering from a fatal disease, and it did occur in rare cases even amidst the horrors of concentration camps. So joy is not mutually exclusive from any experience.

In fact, there is a very common idea that one cannot feel joy and pain at the same time – or a combination of joy and other emotions such as grief, remorse, anger, terror, or rage. It is this preconception, seemingly paradoxically, that largely blocks people from joy. With this pre-decision already made, there are myriad circumstances justifying why joy is in the future, not now. Emotions exist that preclude joy, therefore work must be taken to resolve them. Financial stability must be attained to avoid fear, counselling must be sought to transform ‘negative emotions’, and a good stable relationship must exist for joy to be “won”. All of this, of course, is a never ending battle. Joy is not in the present moment, but always over that next hill, until the hills become mountains.

And yet, there is always the possibility for joy to intrude under any circumstance:

A common example would be someone caught in the elements. During a long walk home one day from a work event, a freak thunderstorm occurs. You are dressed formally and are first miserable because of your concern and disappointment of the effect the rain will have on your clothes. You rage at your helplessness in the face of the weather. You start to feel cold and are afraid you will get sick. You are filled with thoughts and emotions of what an awful experience this is.

And yet, in a blink of a moment it doesn’t matter any more. Like a child, you start giggling and dancing in the rain. A sudden feeling of exhilaration takes over you, and you skip and jump, splashing water left and right, and even jumping in the biggest puddle on the street to make a huge splash. The concern over clothes and the cold has not disappeared, but it has started to coexist with a quality of joy.

Did the rain cause this joy? Of course not. This joy was always there; it was simply that the rain gave you an opportunity to surrender completely to your experience. In this surrendering, you found a state of allowing of exactly what was going on in the present moment, and through this, innocence and joy.

Joy can indeed coexist with all experiences. There can be a joy in getting angry at someone who crosses healthy boundaries; it is not that you are enjoying punishing someone, but you are enjoying stating firmly what you want. The anger is part of your completeness. (See the post on The Innocence of Anger for further explanation). There can be joys in intimacies, or joys in surrendering to the experience of isolation and loneliness that comes from a relationship ending. Many great works of art have been created from this heightened state. Joy at its root is simply a state of surrender, of allowing. And because it is this, which is available at all times, there is no experience you can possibly imagine that has no room for joy in the midst of it. Some experiences take more surrender to reach that place, but this does not mean no joy is there. It simply means there is a lack of trust. Surrendering to the experience of a fatal disease requires tremendous trust, and this society is built on distrust. However, the potential is absolutely there even in such painful times.

There is, of course, a spectrum of joy, which relates to the experience of surrender and Love. The following spectrum shows a range of joys, from the most simple to the most all-encompassing.

Experience of Joy
Survival; a contentment at being able to feel and breathe
Connecting with others like you; a joy of basic community and being a part of something greater than you.
The joy of making an impact. Revelling in your desires without shame or control.
The joy of intimacy. Vulnerability and exchange, a truly opening experience.
The joy of childlike play. The world is full of innocence and wonder and there is freedom and communion with others in every moment.
The joy of awareness. The deep nature of interconnectedness with all beings is felt, and the joy shifts to simply being.
The joy of oneness. There is no longer any separation to experience, and thus all ‘problems’ are not seen as such, but simply as expressions of Love.

All of these states build on each other in greater allowing. Each level encompasses the previous one, without anything denied – so if you are not appreciating basic breathing and feeling alive, it will be impossible to appreciate community or intimacy. These states are available in every single moment in our lives, of course. From the most mundane office meeting to the most passionate lovemaking, and even to the most excruciating pain, there is a joy underlying the experience that simply is waiting to be surrendered to. This joy does not take away the experience, but provides support and awareness of it. Pain still exists in the midst of joy, but it becomes something to witness rather than be lost in.

It takes great courage to find this level of surrender even in the most trying circumstances. It requires diving off the cliff of being certain about the meaning attached to your experience, and into the unknown. Joy of course, is unknown, because it cannot be encapsulated by labels. It is beyond reason, beyond anything but the surrender of yourself to the state of not knowing – simply experiencing and allowing. And because this is all it is â???? the never ending flight that comes from taking that step off the cliff â???? it is available in every moment.

If you’ve enjoyed this, other posts you may also like include The Allowing of Pain (with a similar spectrum shown for it), and a previous post of a Table of Emotions – Allowing and Blocking states. And if you want to receive in your mailbox, please Subscribe to Loving Awareness by Email.

Consider this an invitation to joy. Breathe with us, Now, and enjoy it.

Reconnecting to Your Source

Posted by admin on October 11, 2007  |  452 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.loving-awareness.org%2F2007%2F10%2F11%2Freconnecting-to-your-source%2FReconnecting+to+Your+Source2007-10-11+16%3A12%3A41adminhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.loving-awareness.org%2F2007%2F10%2F11%2Freconnecting-to-your-source%2F

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.

The unity in Love

Posted by matthew on October 7, 2007  |  4417 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.loving-awareness.org%2F2007%2F10%2F07%2Fthe-unity-in-love%2FThe+unity+in+Love2007-10-08+01%3A02%3A30matthewhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.loving-awareness.org%2F2007%2F10%2F07%2Fthe-unity-in-love%2F

Love is always a journey towards oneness, toward unity. ? Because the use of the word Love is so pervasive in Hollywood, psychology and everyday use, it is used in many cases in contexts which does not imply this. 

? For instance, here is one phrase which has entered into the standard cultural catch phrases:

You cannot love another more than you love yourself.

While true, this implies of course there is a distinction between loving yourself and loving another. ? There is no difference. ? Loving yourself is loving another, and loving another is loving yourself. ? To perceive otherwise would be to enforce separation where there in actuality is none. ? There is a vast web of interconnection between everyone and everything on this planet, and what affects one spins out to affect us all. ? Every action you take, whether it is to yourself or others, creates ripples throughout yourself, your friends, your community, and the world. ? Looking deeply at the vast power and scope of this interconnectedness, the ultimate truth is simply that you are the world. ? Loving yourself is loving the world, and loving the world is loving yourself.

This may seem idealistic and ungrounded to some. ? To help the explanation so you understand this interconnection in a more practical way, let’s look at a relationship pattern that has been very common in this culture, with manifestations in both genders:

A man decides he is in love with a woman and wants to build a future together. ? Wanting to demonstrate this, he showers her with gifts and wants to spend every waking moment outside of work with her. ? He makes her wishes ultra-important and always makes sure to do whatever it is she wants, putting aside his own desires. ? He has decided love is to be expressed through sacrifice. ? To pay the extra bills, he keeps at a job he doesn’t like much, and gives up dreams he has of alternate careers. ? While this feels very flattering at first, after some time the woman feels this sacrifice like a weight on her shoulders. ? He has given up large aspects of himself, which cannot help but create both a void in him that he hopes to fill via the woman and unspoken expectations that influence all interactions in the relationship. ? After a time this accumulates into frustrations and arguments. ? He has disconnected aspects of himself and assumed this is an action based in love. ? In essence, he has tried to find Love through not loving himself, and then discovers the expression of this lack of unity from the voice of his partner.

Showing the other side of the spectrum, many “selfless” people initiate all of their actions from a very “selfish” perspective – albeit with a grander awareness that encompasses this interconnection. ? Gandhi once spoke that he was the most selfish being on the planet. ? He performed every single action solely for himself. ? He thus did not get tired of living his ‘selfless’ life, because it was a continual reinforcement based in love of Self.

If you recall moments of love between you and someone else, even experiences with a pet, these are moments where truly their needs and desires meld and coexist with your own as equal partners. ? The other’s desires becomes your own. ? There is oneness and unity. ? There is no sacrifice of your own desires in this state, for your desires are as important to the other as their own, and vice versa. ? Experiences in this state are often called “higher”, where time stands still, colors seem brighter and a grand feeling of aliveness pervades every moment. ? However it is not truly “higher”, but simply underlying every moment, waiting for you to knock.

To help with this experience, here is an exercise:

Sit across from a partner and breathe calmly and deeply together as you look into each other’s eyes. ? Imagine yourself in a vast plain of grass and forests drenched in comforting sunlight, with all the space around you that you can possibly imagine. ? Now bring every aspect of yourself to this place. ? This includes all of your desires, your dreams, your frustrations, and even your defenses. ? Let them take up all the room they could ever need without any expectation of change. ? Your partner can do the same in their own mind. ? Breathe deeply for a minute until this feels like a completely natural self-perpetuating state.

Now bring your partner into this place, which includes inviting all aspects of them into your space. ? Invite their desires, their dreams, their frustrations, and yes, even their defenses. ? Give them as much space as they could ever need. ? Now allow both of you to interact in this space without trying to do anything. ? Let your desires interact with theirs without conflict. ? Even your defenses can interact. ? Give it time and space.

With complete permission there is an encompassing transformation that occurs naturally, without effort. ? There is no sacrifice, only expansion that comes from allowing a greater world you’re your own. ? Because their desires are as important as your own, the interaction helps you understand your own desires more clearly, and even grow towards grander dreams. ? Oneness helps you move towards clarity with your own identity, rather than making you give it up.

Note that this exercise can be done alone with the Self, for we all have conflicting aspects of ourselves that desire different things. ? These have sometimes be called “subpersonalities”, or separated aspects of Self that have different identities, albeit in milder forms than what is seen with true multiple personalities. ? If you are alone, you can stare into a mirror and bring conflicting aspects of yourself together into this vast open field of sunlight in exactly the same way as described above. ? Allowing all aspects of yourself to operate from a space of unity will of course create ripples in all the relationships in your life, inviting others to do the same. ? Loving yourself is indeed loving the world.

Being present with emotions

Posted by matthew on September 30, 2007  |  423 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.loving-awareness.org%2F2007%2F09%2F30%2Fbeing-present-with-emotions%2FBeing+present+with+emotions2007-09-30+21%3A41%3A27matthewhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.loving-awareness.org%2F2007%2F09%2F30%2Fbeing-present-with-emotions%2F

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 â??˜problems’ with any emotions. The only problem is our own judgment, the perception of separation that divides parts of ourselves into â??˜good’ and â??˜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 â???? 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 â??˜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.

the prison of emotional denial

Posted by matthew on September 23, 2007  |  711 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.loving-awareness.org%2F2007%2F09%2F23%2Fthe-prison-of-emotional-denial%2Fthe+prison+of+emotional+denial+2007-09-24+06%3A00%3A45matthewhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.loving-awareness.org%2F2007%2F09%2F23%2Fthe-prison-of-emotional-denial%2F

These last two weeks I’ve been witness to a few rather emotional discussions. Which is not at all unusual for me. However, in these weeks I’ve also been seeing how much push there is to suppress emotion in them – even for discussions of an inherently emotional nature. This kind of reaction seems to be pervasive in our culture. As a society, we’re extremely uncomfortable with emotion, and this shows up in a lack of appreciation of simply allowing it. To take an example, say there’s a conflict between two people you know and like. There are no ‘easy’ solutions in such a situation. Both of them usually have valid perspectives, which are linked to their own emotions, who they are, and their own boundaries. It’s easy to get alienated from such situations because there’s no ‘right’ answer, no “good side”, and it’s easy to feel trapped between the opposing forces. Aligning yourself with one side usually generates more problems. Emotions, therefore, are something best to avoid. At least so many thoughts go.

If we look deeply at the mechanism of suppressing emotions, it’s easy to see why. Who we are, which includes emotions, is actually extremely flexible â???? we can do almost anything we want to ourselves. We can develop ourselves to be almost anything desired, but we can also push emotions, memories, and thoughts away from sight and try to squish them into nothingness. Our training in this culture involving doing such things almost from day one. However â???? and this is the root of almost all ‘problems’ â???? we cannot truly disconnect ourselves from ourselves. There is no way to cut off and discard any disliked portion of ourselves. There is truly no escape from who we are. We can try to surgically disconnect a painful emotion, and we get a reasonable facsimile of this disconnection. But it will not be a true disconnect. Any emotion we’ve tried to shove away is always there, waiting to come back, and in fact pulling on us in every moment.

For the visually minded, I liken this process to a great white elastic band. We can stuff part of ourselves in a box, bury it, and walk away, but we’ll have that ‘pull’ from it. It will exert pressure on us in every single moment, bringing attention to it. The farther we push it away, the more pull there will be. This is why the elastic band image helps. This pull isn’t a harsh ‘you must deal with it’ one, but rather a force of nature that simply wants us to be in wholeness, bringing us back to our greater Self. This elastic can be influenced by others, too â???? if someone else walks through the area of the denied connection, what occurs is the elastic force snapping back, similar to a real elastic band. This is another description of what ‘triggering’ is.

Now in almost everyone there is not just one such pocket of emotion buried and abandoned, but multitudes. Each one exerts this pull back. Try to imagine how that would feel with real elastic bands. Because of the constant pull in many conflicting directions, there’s very little freedom to move in any direction. A little movement can be made, but even small can movements pull against hidden emotion which will then pull back, producing an emotional reaction in response. This can generates fear of any emotional movement at all. Most people are quite literally trapped in a static place by buried emotions. In such a place, life is filled with emotional minefields and geysers waiting to erupt. Words must be watched and controlled in every moment. Walls and wired fences mark off areas where unwanted emotions lie fallow.

Now imagine on top of this picture that you are close with someone else, who also has a huge amount of buried emotions. It would be very easy to get a reaction in that person if you tried to move through any of their “elastic bands”. So in most relationships, there is a general, unspoken agreement for both parties to act in such a way that no one will be triggered. The initial rush of being ‘in love’ at the beginning is usually the time such agreements are formed. It’s quite natural, of course; being triggered is not enjoyable to anyone, and it is normal to demonstrate you’re not going to trigger pain to someone you love. However, this restricts motion even further. After some time, there’s often a realization of how emotionally static such a posture is. This is when relationship questioning happens. It can either lead to greater freedom if both sides are open to questioning or to the end of a relationship if one person blames the other for opening up emotional cans of worms. There was an unspoken agreement, after all!

These unspoken agreements are actually pervasive in all aspects of our society. Social groups often have a number of these. To see this, try to imagine you showing the raw spectrum of an intense emotion without filtering (and without blaming others) to a group you’re part of. If you feel that this would cause a lot of alienation, or you simply cannot even imagine it, that is a sign of unspoken agreements. In such cases, someone not acting in accord with these agreements are the vast majority of the time thought of as ‘the problem’. To someone in a prison, those outside of it can indeed be a problem! Unfortunately, the label of ‘the problem’ sticks far too often to anyone with even a little self-doubt, encouraging further denial of emotions. And thus the cycle continues

The road less travelled, of course, is simply to not push away any emotion that occurs. This applies to both emotions within and emotions in others. Without the network of opposing forces described above, an incredible amount of freedom begins to take root. There are no longer any self-created chains rooting you to a particular emotional landscape. At first this is terrifying, but as the infinite amount of choices now available are gotten used to, the dance of freedom truly begins.

Of course, it takes a good deal of time to reincorporate denied aspects of ourselves back into the fold. Try to imagine trying to rush this process and having many of these elastic forces snap back all at once! It takes gentleness and patience. Nevertheless, each part of Self allowed back into a space of wholeness always adds to your sense of freedom, and brings a greater strength for any further challenges. This is the path of wholeness. When the freedom and joy of this is seen, then there is no need to even try for disconnections from Self. For we are complete, just as we are.

The secret – my own thoughts

Posted by matthew on January 11, 2007  |  37No Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.loving-awareness.org%2F2007%2F01%2F11%2Fthe-secret-my-own-thoughts%2FThe+secret+-+my+own+thoughts2007-01-11+16%3A04%3A00matthewhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.loving-awareness.org%2F2007%2F01%2F11%2Fthe-secret-my-own-thoughts%2F

For the last few months, there’s been considerable amount of hype about the movie “The Secret”. I finally saw it not long ago. For those who haven’t seen the movie and don’t consciously know about “The Law of Attraction”, or “like attracts like”, I would generally recommend it, along with the comments below.. However, it brings to mind certain other patterns common to new age movements that I wanted to share my thoughts and insights on.

The first of them, obvious to anyone who’s seen the movie, is the subtle (and not-so subtle) assumption that being rich is better. As a lot of new age workshops evolved from marketing, this is fairly common. “If you truly get it you can be as rich as you want!” is voiced. It’s a subtle push of spiritual greed. At the core of things, there is no “better” â???? there is only “does it help for doing ____”. It’s certainly more comfortable not having to work overtime to survive or being able to buy organic foods, but 5 million dollar homes aren’t better than a comfortable 1 bedroom apartment. In fact, from the soul’s viewpoint, it’s all about the lessons; sometimes money issues distract from the true learning going on. (That’s why it’s good to be very in touch with one’s entire being before placing intentions; a mixed message from different parts of the psyche generally brings mixed results. )

Secondly this movie has a LOT of hype â???? even in the movie itself, the first 10 minutes is just that. Hype in itself is quite interesting. When there’s hype there’s always a message of lack. “You need to know this! Your life will be better off with this knowledge!” â???? a message spoken with passion and zeal. However, if you look deeply into this, there is always the flip side: “your life is not perfect just as it is.” All hype contains this â???? the perception of emptiness and lack that must be cultivated before a desire is born. Advertising knows this process intimately. So anytime you hear hype and sales, look inward and see what part of you buys into it; it’s the same part that doubts its own perfection.

The way things are spoken communicates far more than the words themselves, too. The maxim of “be the change you wish to see in the world” speaks to this â???? the embodiment of a message teaches more than words do. For those of you who have seen the movie (parts of it are available, as shown below), see if you can see the difference in the subtext between, say, Neale Donald Walsh or Esther Hicks and another subtext given by Rev Dr. Michael Beckwith, a fairly new age pastor. With Esther Hicks speaking, there’s no “push”, no need to convince anyone. Esther seems to breathe compassion, not because anything is wrong, but because it’s the unfolding of her natural being and who she is creating as “her”. As far as I can see, she’s speaking to give others more tools for joy, but totally seeing their perfection as they are. With Neale Donald Walsh, there seems to be a bit of humor thrown in. “This is all a game, and we create our experiences, collectively and individually, and everything is truly perfect â???? let’s play consciously!” is a message I got. There’s a great acceptance and presence.

With the Rev Dr. Michael Beckwith, I felt his positive intentions glowing â???? he was obviously in touch with his sense of higher good. At the same time, there was a “push” and hype involved, leading me to feel a “I absolutely know what’s best for you!” energy. It’s a desire to help without a positive humility and perspective.. While this may feel good to those who want another to take away difficult choices, to me it doesn’t truly help at all, because of the subtext involved.. “I know what’s best for you” in a passionate voice that hasn’t investigated each person individually is the same as “you don’t know what’s best for you.”

Back to myself, it’s been part of my lifelong learning to see that everything in life is just perfect as it is. This includes George Bush, poverty, inequitable distribution of wealth, and all the problems we perceive out there. It also includes, of course, the soul’s natural desire to help others out of love â???? it’s not meant as an excuse for complaisance. Lately I’ve actually been feeling intensely grateful for my problems and limitations. The tension in my body, coming out regularly, is a great sign of lack of trust in the universe â???? and having it made physical makes the learning of that concrete and deep. Perhaps it’ll only take a few more lifetimes to learn â???? who knows. And in effect, who cares? Simply knowing we’re on a continual expanding process of knowing and loving is enough, simply as it is. Patience is another thing we’re all learning.