Civilization's Cornerstone: Kindness

Civilization's Cornerstone: Kindness
by Alistair McAlpine, Kate Dixey

     Kindness is the fuel of civilization, politeness and courtesy its etiquette, its formalities, and dignity its aim. Civilization is about responsibility for your own actions, and it is about tolerating other people’s actions. One person trying to accept another’s habits is the essence of civilization. Kindness typically reserved for the home and loved ones can be an attitude encompassing your entire life.Kindness is a gentle, thoughtful, peaceful thing, most effective in its simplicity.

     Most humans have a tendency towards altruism -- it has been proven in all parts of the world that part of the recovery process of disaster victims is altruistic behavior. Lord Byron, the famous nineteenth-century English romantic poet, wrote beautifully of kindness, “The drying up a single tear has more of honest fame than shedding seas of gore.” There is a gentleness to kindness that is noble. Kindness gives you not only strength, but also an inner beauty. The American philosopher and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, wrote, “There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us.”Kindness, however, is not just the stuff of poetry and poets; it is also the stuff of sound business sense. You never know to whom you are being kind. Kindness to an unfortunate may result in, and indeed often has turned out, to be repaid 100 times.

     The twentieth-century French writer, André Gide, had a view of kindness, “True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as one’s own the suffering and joys of others.” What Gide refers to here is, in fact, sensitivity. If you are to succeed in business, you need sensitivity, and sensitivity can be developed. In fact, “Kindness can become its own motive.”It should be easy to express kindness at work as opportunity abounds with typically large groups of people around you. People who show kindness demonstrate strength of character; it is admired and it is contagious. Importantly, kindness to your colleagues shows that you have confidence in your own ability, and shows that you have strength of character.

     Those around you will notice both of these and admire them. Both of these characteristics, strength of character and confidence, are qualifications for promotion. Admiration is totally different from popularity in the workplace. Bosses prefer to promote those who people admire and are often suspicious of those who are merely popular. Often it is believed that there is an emotional expense in giving kindness. People often avoid giving kindness in the belief that it makes them feel emotionally drained. These people are mistaken.

     The truth is, as we have to learn everything else in life, we must learn about giving kindness. Giving in a truly profound way is wonderful. If you really give profoundly, you will feel it in your heart and you will see it reflected in the people around you.“We are made kind by being kind,” wrote Eric Hoffer, the American social philosopher in the 1950s. And in the first century A.D., Publius Syrus, a Roman slave and mime, knew what some biologists and social scientists claim now to have proven, “You can accomplish by kindness what you cannot do by force.” Kindness requires patience, an appreciation of the importance of others, a certain diplomacy.

     Compassion and kindness may sound sentimental but they actually lead to a deeper connection and rapport that create trust, a friendly atmosphere, compassion, and most importantly for business, an enjoyable synchronicity and harmony in the working environment. The people who are able to create such an environment and display these qualities are people who others trust to become a leader in the business world and the community.Leadership evolves out of expertise, ambition and luck, but true inspiration comes with a willingness to connect your own vulnerability with somebody else’s. So do not pass up the opportunity to remain silent and caring if the need arises. This so-called “soft” management approach is the ability to make yourself open and sensitive to others’ feelings. It takes courage to be quiet and listen to someone else’s discomfort. This can feel strange within a working framework, but actually it forms a greater professional respect.

     The art of kindness is not just approaching a market challenge, but meeting the needs of each individual to find a resolution.Kindness to those around you is important, but perhaps more important is kindness to yourself, the most difficult form of kindness to practice. Reward not only your success but also your effort. Kindness to yourself helps deal with rejection. You may get disheartened, and self-kindness alleviates frustration brought on by an initial lack of success. Often, other people do not want you to succeed, so self-kindness is not only important, it is necessary.

You cannot get it from others.

Kindness to those who fail wins appreciation.
Kindness to those who win when you fail brings respect.
Kindness is a building block of a happy life.
Kindness is born in consideration and love.

     Teach yourself to be considerate, mostly in small matters, and consideration for others in big matters will become second nature.In relationships of all natures, it is well worth remembering that your perspective of other people will change with the differing situations in which you find yourself. The memory of a life is made up of many small incidents. Even large incidents are made up of small incidents, some details well remembered, some half remembered; some, in the nature of folklore, are distorted fact and embellished fantasy -- details invented that for you have become facts. These incidents, as the dots that comprise a photograph, are the picture of your life and become a complete memory.

     When the circumstances of your life change, the pre-eminencies of these small dots rearrange themselves and the picture of your life alters. Your attitude and perception change to issues and people. In extreme cases, heroes become villains and vice versa. In truth, however, they have not changed; merely how you see them has changed.Kindness must always be meaningful. When you are pivoting in your life, it is easy to be confused about meaningful kindness. Just being lovely to everyone is no solution. Rather, as always, kindness must be carefully considered, directed with as full knowledge of the facts as possible. Haphazard kindness, as exemplified by the comedy routine of the boy scout who took an unwilling old lady far out of her way across a busy road to earn “a good deed for the day,” can only cause confusion and distress.

     As Thomas Fuller, an African slave and mathematician, wrote in 1732, “Unreasonable kindness gets no thanks.”Kindness has its own rewards, for those who have succeeded in developing their instincts and sensitivity can physically experience the sensation of their own kindness around the area of their heart. The sensation is so memorable that it is astonishing. Yet we fear and resist that sensation, perhaps because we simply think that it will feel so good and then disappear, leaving us sad and disappointed, unhappy that this memorable feeling could come and go so easily.

As a sensation, kindness may frighten people.
They are scared because they do not trust
kindness in themselves or others.

These people believe that there must be
"a catch" in being kind.

For them kindness is associated with weakness and brutal honesty,
which they regard as an admirable quality but is actually unkindness.

     Often these people see themselves as “saying what they think.” More often, they do not take the simple precaution of thinking before their victims hear what they have to say. These types of people believe that you are being kind to them only because you want something from them. They are sad people trapped in a sad suspicious world incapable of coming to terms with even the first building block in the construction of happiness.Conversely, kindness quite often comes from a totally unexpected source, a person who you do not know well, and certainly did not expect to be kind to you. Even a total stranger can make an act of kindness to you spontaneously, just because they felt like giving more than was required. How wonderful you feel when a total stranger is kind to you; conversely, how wonderful you feel when you are kind to a total stranger. It is an amazing moment, sparked perhaps by an action that can be so small as to pass for good manners. The scale of the kindness does not matter. Kindness has a disproportionate effect on the well being of both the giver and the recipient.

     Samuel Johnson, the eighteenth-century English writer and thinker, is quoted in Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson in 1781 as speaking well of spontaneous kindness. “Always set a high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.”Learn to enjoy receiving kindness, learn to enjoy being thanked. It will make the giver of the thanks glow and it may produce a second or two of shyness, so intimate that it will touch the other person deep down inside.

Enjoy the acts of giving and receiving,
for they are moments of true beauty.

The least expected these moments are,
the greater their beauty.

     How strange it is that we so often receive kindness from the most unexpected sources and unkindness from those who we would most expect to be kind. Kindness over time, however, accumulates into a pile in our psyche and helps us come to terms with times when people are rude or unkind.Kindness is fundamentally different from a desire to please, which is a deferential activity. Kindness is an instinct, mutual to two people. An instinct evolved in one returned by another in equal measure. Kindness is without doubt at least a layer of building blocks in the construction of happiness. Kindness and how you deal with others are closely intertwined.

Do not make that smart remark
that is devastating to the ego of others,
forget it, put it out of your mind.

      Even to think of hurtful remarks colors your attitude to others and leaves a stain on your own spirit. Put aside the jibe that leaves even the smallest scar on your relationship with others. Avoid that verbal passage of arms, as the argument that often leads to sensuality is not to be confused with the path to happiness.

     Needless to say, it is a lot easier to be kind to someone who is kind to you, than to a person who is unkind to you.

Kindness is not an abstract quality.

To promise kindness and not to fulfill that promise
is one of the surest ways to damage a relationship.

     Trust is suspended by such an action; you are left with a question mark over you in the mind of other people. Misused kindness, such as giving to take, is again an action that will break down trust, which is a basis for a satisfactory relationship. As Juvenal, a Roman satirist, wrote around the year 100, “Nature, in giving tears to man, confessed that he had a tender heart; this is our noblest quality.” There are no dangers in kindness. People say to each other that you can be too kind, but this is untrue.

     There is no downside to kindness; you cannot lose through practicing kindness. By being kind you show strength and attract people. People will want to work with you. They will think of you as being fair and confident. Other people will know that because you are kind you are not likely to make judgments based on petty biases and the prejudices of other people. Other people who you work with will know that you are your own person and in their confidence you will find encouragement and feel better about yourself. Even if your kindness is rebuffed and not reciprocated, however shabby the treatment you receive in return, your own kindness will fortify your spirit, enhance your life, and lead you towards happiness. You can never be too kind. Kindness is not a sign of weakness.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt said in a radio address on October 13, 1940,

“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina
or softened the fiber of a free people.

A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.”

Sweetening a Sour Apple

Sweetening a Sour Apple

 

When A Bad Apple Spoils the Bunch

      Because life requires that we interact with different personalities, it is not uncommon for us to encounter a situation where there is one person whose behavior may negatively impact the experiences of others. Someone who is loud and crass can interrupt the serenity of those who come together to practice peace. A disruptive worker can cause rules to be imposed that affect their colleagues’ professional lives. A team member who is pessimistic or highly critical may destroy the morale of their fellow members. And one “bad apple” in your personal life can be a potent distraction that makes it difficult to focus on the blessings you’ve been given and the people who love you.

      There may always be people in your life who take it upon themselves to create disruption, foster chaos, stamp out hope, and act as if they are above reproach “ even when, in doing so, they put a blight on their own experiences. But you don’t need to allow their negativity and callousness to sour your good mood. Often, our first impulse upon coming head-to-head with a bad apple is to express our anger and frustration in no uncertain terms. However, bad apples only have the power to turn our lives sour if we let them.

      If you can exercise patience and choose not to respond to their words or actions, you will significantly limit the effect they are able to have on you and your environment. You can also attempt to encourage a bad apple to change their behavior by letting your good behavior stand as an example. If your bad apple is simply hoping to attract notice, they may come to realize that receiving positive attention is much more satisfying than making a negative impression. While you may be tempted to simply disassociate yourself entirely from a bad apple, consider why they might be inclined to cause disturbances. Understanding their motivation can help you see that bad apples are not necessarily bad people.

      Though bad apples are a fact of life, minimizing the impact you allow them to have upon you is empowering because you are not letting anyone else affect the quality of your experiences. You may discover that buried at the very heart of a bad apple is a seed of goodness.

 

By:   K. Sarnac,

 

Coming Full Circle

Coming Full Circle
Lisa Renee

      Right now is a moment in time where our human evolution has reached unchartered territory. With the vibrational choices being made at this time, ( see last month’s article) razor thin discernment of personal resonance is more enhanced than ever before. The multidimensional timeline and future direction of our consciousness is standing at a critical mass and directly based upon the energetic signature and resonance being held. This is activating a level of completion in many ways that have previously influenced our experience of ourselves as a human consciousness.

      As a consciousness of a species called “human beings” we experience ourselves as an “idea” that we have had, a dream that we have had in order to experience what we believe it is to be a human being. This happens at every level of the hologram, at a personal and collective consciousness level. This is very much like understanding the nature of programming, it is a series of belief systems, values and archetypes that define an identity.


Questioning Group Identity

      Similarly that group holographic identity is what defines the nature of the group holographic reality experience. It is this personal and group identity that we have believed to be the experiential reality of a human being as a species. This entire Identity at every level, is being questioned, reassessed and revalued. We are undergoing a series of processes that is like going through every level of our lives with a fine toothed comb. We are checking for inconsistency and incongruency in every pattern of our lives, our ideas of identity and discarding and retooling much of it.

      Similarly it is like describing that we have had influences since our birth on this plane that were like being a train on a “track”. We were being propelled forward through time in a direction that kept us on the “track”. This track was influencing our future probable possibilities, to understand this track of moving forward through the timeline was what is described as an “event horizon”. As a group human consciousness, as we stay on the track together, we influence our future reality into a series of probabilities based upon the energetic resonance and vibrational choices that are being made.

      Now the tracks are being removed and nothing is there, nothing is being used to propel us in a forward momentum. Some may still use the tracks at this time, largely from habitual programming and resistance to change our beliefs. However, many of us are being freed from their connection that used to directly influence our direction. There are still energies/entities that are choosing to manipulate these old tracks in order to maintain the status quo of control by resisting the change of evolution. It does not matter as this is their choice, it does not have to be yours.


Testing Inner Integrity

      This is a necessary phase of our evolution and growth and may result in change or withdrawal from the group activity or a time of personal sequestering. Many of us are in the process of Questioning the Group Identity in every situation that appears in what we perceive as our external “personal” reality.

       As we Question the Group Identity we Test our Inner Integrity and we learn how to sustain our inner connection as the Truth Vibration and develop our personal relationship to the God Source. We test our inner integrity and inner connection against the external values of what is showing up. This is a process of learning how to self source your own inner connection by testing yourself against your external view and verifying it or not with what you feel is your personal resonance.

      Many of us are utilizing this technique at this time and what is important to remember is not to judge the external based on your personal resonance. No thing or no person is good or bad or ugly it just IS. This is a personal test of your inner congruency in self sourcing so that you are not unconsciously using the external to “feed” yourself. This is to understand all things feed on something, and you can choose your personal level of inner sustainability by commanding your inner integrity to the God Source as the Ultimate Authority. No matter what it looks like, or what shows up. As you connect inside yourself, YOU KNOW THE TRUTH no matter how chaotic it may get outside.

      If you are not inner sustained, or self sourced, you will be a vampire to something outside of yourself in order to feed the nature of your reality programming. Or to feed the emotion or identity that has been held rigidly in place as an illusion of security or safety in these uncertain times. (Most of the planet population is in this phase of feeling fear and thus using the personal ego will to control and manipulate their illusion to manifest some idea into a belief of their security)

      Popular manipulation techniques being used now are all polarity thinking: Us vs.Them, Enemy patterning ( there is a terrorist to get you), not that way - but my way is better, ( imposing your will on another) fear of the unknown, nowhere is safe, I know the truth, he/she doesn’t, that person is evil or that person is “good” or whatever else is fabricated from the holographic projection of the personal or group identity. This is all an ego trip of judgment, emotional vampirism and distraction that takes you outside of yourself, instead of being inside of yourself. Every opportunity to distract you from yourself is happening right now so take care to be with your inner sanctum. These activities and thought forms will drain you of your personal power.

      You will experience a myriad of emotion or feeling in these multitudes of resonances. The best use of this experience is as a tool to empower you, however remember nothing external is what it appears to be so do not judge it or create panic. There is no need to be anxious or urgent in order to have to explain yourself by creating any drama around this. Now, there is a plethora of intensified energies, entities and experiences and many of these will test your personal experience about what you know to be true and aligned in your heart. Do not succumb to lower nature by harming yourself with negative thoughts or emotions. Understand what this is and stand in your power by commanding your right to God sovereignty at ALL TIMES. It is the game that is being played out here in this realm, pure and simple.

      Choose your resonance knowing your personal vibration is your sovereign power and right to express your fully creative nature, free from manipulation or control. It is you alone that is responsible to self source your God Power, nothing outside of you can take this away, even though in many cases you are challenged to do so in order to retain your inner integrity.


Completion of Birth Agreement

      Consequently many of us have come to a Full Circle with our birth agreements (Blueprint of our incarnation or spiritual purpose) with this planet and hence this is a time of experiencing completion. Completion and endings of an Identity in the world, including the belief systems, values and images that others have held of who they think you are. Much of these agreements have stemmed from the genetic pattern we have received from the history of our ancestral past, and that which has been encoded in our cells since our birth.

      Our bodies are the sum total of all of our experiences at every level of the time space continuum. The time space continuum exists as a multidimensional platform and includes every potential experience that you can imagine or not. These collective images of “recorded” cellular experiences are coming to a surface review in our consciousness. Some of this is similar to a death review we have had experienced on the Astral plane many times before in between physical incarnation, and so a feeling of “phantom death” energy may be prevalent during this time. The vision of the archetype of the tarot card “Death” is useful to remember as it is being experienced at this time, and means not of a literal physical death in most cases, but a huge inner transformation is present that feels like a death to the old order. Some apathy, sluggishness and sadness can be present when we are dying to the “old order”, as a part of us is grieving the change as a loss. Know that we are being transformed as what follows the “death process” is a new beginning.

      Many of these memory records of the “old order” of the human experience have energized a platform of energetic architecture of false or enslaved human programming and are now being dissolved at radical speeds. We each experience this dissolution in a unique way to our vibrational level and our genetic configuration as this is our unique contribution to the overall pattern of evolution at this time.

      When we understand that every thought, emotion and experience of our ancestors is recorded in our cells (and at the next vibrational level of service to clear this planet), also includes that memory of the collective human soul, we then understand the interconnectedness of All things as One. There can be no separation in this experience as the energetic reality is of One. Our energetic responsibility as a human being is to remember our Unification principle, that we are here together as One. No darkness, shadow or entity is separate from ourselves and cannot be judged as good or bad. It just IS. And it is this understanding how these polarities exist in ourselves and our hologram that actually will free us from its bondage. We will have to face the synthesis of these polarities to reach our entire Unification. It starts with us and ends with us. We cannot point fingers at each other or blame anymore. We cannot rise one onto a pedestal of perfection only to knock them off when they displease you. It is a time of Ultimate Responsibility to Accept our connection unilaterally with All things, whatever has been once deemed, the good, the bad and the ugly.


Embarking a New Platform

      Having come through a full circle of our current birth agreements also means at this time we may experience many closures, endings and completions in all areas of our life to make room for the new. I have experienced seeing the layers of a new reality architecture in place that appears like a new scaffolding of pristine support that allows for the possibility of a new human emotional/heart experience.

      It is akin to seeing an improved foundation being built of which spiritual frequency can be raised in ever higher octaves. If one rung in the ladder is broken, it is very hard to reach the next step of the ladder. This broken ladder was keeping many levels of consciousness in the Astral layers without realizing that was where it was residing. The Astral Plane relates to the 4th Chakra, the heart complex in the human light body. The Astral Plane was compared to one “rung” in the ladder that was very damaged (equating to the relative emotional damage of most human beings) and therefore many beings were stuck in the rungs of the octaves within the Astral Layers. From my experience with the Guardians throughout 2008, I have experienced a huge change underway in the Astral Plane layers of our personal light body as well as that which has impacted the Astral Body of the Planet. This is like an upgrade to the way the human being can process and experience “emotional” intelligence.

      The Astral Plane damage had interfered with this level of the human heart and its emotional bodies ability to experience direct knowingness though the source connection. This astral body reconfiguration is an answer to that issue both at the planetary and personal experience level. It was expressed by the Guardians that it was projected that more beings would heart awaken through the Galactic frequency activations in 2008, and with this astral body upgrade it would support more awakening waves in 2009.

      The journey into Source is a feeling experience, and if we are cut off from the depths of our heart it interferes with our ability to perceive the intuitional feeling of our guidance and connection to our source. The deeper levels of our heart complex open into the gateways of Universal Intelligence and are that which give us the direct cognition of cellular knowingness as our experience of self. This is much different than a “thinking” process that impulses from the mind principle. The heart intelligence is the direct knowingness of the experience rather than a perception coming from an intellectual concept. This is a function of the energy receivers in our human lightbody when it is actually working properly.

      It does appear so close to us now, as if we are soon to phase transition to this level. For some of us this may be an interim phase of growth which will feel much easier. It has been explained from the Guardian perspective that the emotional bodies damage in the mass population of the human lightbody had such intense blockages that it was suppressing the ability of the consciousness to experience itself as a “soul” or connected to its “source”. This new platform is an Astral Body and Emotional Upgrade that will allow the Heart Chakra and its energetic intelligence to be experienced differently. Thus allowing a connection to the soul matrix that allows the first steps of awakening to activate the lightbody.

      Additionally this reconfiguration will not allow the same level of the human emotional body (the level of addiction, and pain body) to be manipulated by entities that have controlled humanity in the same way. This has created an aggression to reassert control mechanisms in the Astral plane recently. For those of us sensitive, such as the planet grid workers or Polarity Integrators, it may have been a tough time. Our group experiences more of this shift than most, and our lightbody becomes a source of attempts to drain or siphon our source.


Update for the Galactic Polarity Integrator

      Those of us working with the energetic architecture of dismantling the old and building the new energy reality systems have been mediating some incredibly intense polarities to synthesize. New galactic energies and the related memory of their timelines have been pouring through the 11th Stargate in the United Kingdom. I referred to this briefly last month and in the ES member community forums as the Nibiruian timeline of “wormwood”.

      As mentioned last month as these energetic memories are reintroduced to our surface grid they hold a theme of “pole shift” (catastrophe) and “invasion” (terrorism) and there is some of this playing out in the mass consciousness. The fear of catastrophe brings up anxiety amplified as we may experience anxiety for no apparent reason, except we have this feeling the other shoe is about to drop without knowing when. Also, the theme of invasion brings up fears that relate to the current terrorism rhetoric and to those unconscious of how this is manipulating their actions, some are the pawn to act out that play in the global theatre. Again this is mentioned to empower your understanding of seeing the macro and micro relationships to the movement of the global human agreement through the entire holographic reality we perceive. Nothing is separate and everything has architecture and pattern. There is no need to buy into these patterns as they will be amplified now by those wishing to sway mass consciousness by fear.

      The grid work has been intense and much soul retrieval and replacement has been necessary to relieve souls, fragments that have been bound to pieces of the planet’s grid and therefore the planet’s lightbody. This is mentioned in previous news about the clearing of sacrificial energy grids made to a perceived “God”, or the human historical holographic record of the wars created in the name of a “God”. One of the main grid projects is to clear the Christ Crucifixion Implant Memory out of the planetary field, by rehabilitating the consciousness that was traumatized from that memory in multiple time space continuums. This is a primary project underway to disentangle and transport these entities and energies to help return them to their source, or merge back into the Galactic Core, the Center Point of All Union.

      Heavy coordinate points that cross into and flood the energy tributaries into the Axiatonal Lines from the 4th and 7th Dimension are being repaired. Since the planetary 7th dimensional axiatonal line is the main disruption of the false christ crucifixion implants this has been a primary repair project. The 7th ray (Violet Flame) is transmitted through the planetary 7th Axiatonal lines and is being recoded. Previously this false crucifixion energy implanted in the 7th Axiatonal line was feeding another false program being used in the Astral plane which was like a mirage. This mirage I have referred to in previous articles is the “False Ascension Matrix” Program. This is why the 4th (astral plane) and the 7th dimensions (violet flame and planetary logos/group mind) are so important in how they intersect and feed the levels of false (enslavement) programming.

      I will add that this is such a major piece that determines the future of the planet’s territorial dispute over controlling human consciousness that aggression has been intensified. Incredible interference, direct psychic attack, holographic inserts and projections have been more aggressive than ever. Generally I see it more directed at this group of Polarity Integrators that interface with the Planet Lightbody Planes and its Grid. As anytime a piece of enslavement or control is being released from the collective consciousness there are groups resisting that are not happy with this change.

      The new technology being used is a type of holographic insert that projects an image to a remote viewer. Many channels and intuitives will scan another beings energy field, many times without permission from the being they are scanning. This is a type of “remote viewing”. Without invitation from the object being scanned, or that they have not addressed you personally for interaction, there is no agreement and this becomes a field intrusion. This breaks the higher sovereign agreement held between the two entities and allows the choice of exercising one’s personal will (superimposition) over the divine will ( pure beingness). It is an act that does not honor the beings freedom and sovereign right to creative expression. What this personal will choice does is allow for “intrusion” and manipulation and triggers a holographic insert that acts as a mirage. When the remote viewer sees the “mirage” it sees an illusion of a program placed there to create a negatively judged experience. Since personal will is about applying judgment, judgment becomes the playing field of manipulation.

       What I am noticing is many of these holographic field inserts happening are on spiritual leaders or group facilitators. As a group it may empower us to be aware of these potentials, ( holographic inserts) as this is an aggressive tactic to employ a last ditch effort to thwart us from our collaborative group impact. Conquer and Divide is the main agenda to keep separation consciousness alive. If spiritual leaders or facilitators become competitive, judgmental with each other or publically diss another spiritual leader, use this as a benchmark to put your own ego in check. Perceived power over others is an extremely slippery pitfall of the ego consciousness. There is never any excuse to put down any being ever, as each and every one of us is here to provide a specific niche and unique frequency to collaborate into the whole of creation. It is each and every beings responsibility to decide their own personal pathway of resonance and not rely or depend on any outside source through attachment. Discernment over judgment, preference over attachment and self sourcing your inner sustenance is a huge path of mastery at this time. Walk the tightrope carefully however be kind in every way you can. The current adversity can pound us out of our kindness towards our self and others, and it is a time where kindness and compassion are the most needed.

      At the time of our monthly Q & A Class (December 17th) I will answer any questions around this to bring more clarity if this is resonant as a part of your planetary service at this time. Naturally this is not everyone’s role here, however there is a group of us that work together to perform group planet grid repair projects.

Stay in the luminosity of your heart and soul path! We are here as One!

Love, Lisa

http://spiritlibrary.com/

EARTH LOG-JANUARY 2009

EARTH LOG - JANUARY 2009
by Celia Fenn

January ....
      Barack Obama "arrives" as President of the USA...a time of Deep and Profound Change for our Planet on many levels....the 20th of January, was a big day for the people of the United States. Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States ( and I will resist the temptation to wax lyrical about the numerology of that one), the first African American President.

      I think it was a celebration that belonged entirely to the people of the USA, giving them an opportunity to really welcome and experience the first real stirrings of the deep and profound change that is taking place on the planet right now.

Welcome to 2009...
      and yes....we are facing some Challenges as the Illusions begin to Crumble..... Welcome to the first Earth Log of 2009! It promises to be a very "light-filled" year, with many deep and fundamental changes in the way that we think. And that means all of us, not just the "unenlightened" ones out there, but us too. We are all being forced to examine how and what we think and feel, as many long cherished illusions begin to hit the wall....at speed! Melt Down!

      This is not a process to be feared, it is, as the Michael channel noted, the precursors to our Freedom and Liberty on Planet Earth. We are freeing ourselves to experience the Beauty and Joy of the "Hologram" as we choose, and not as someone else dictates to us for our "good".

      What makes my heart sing right now, is that people are truly waking up to how the holographic reality of the Higher Dimensions and the Law of One works. Cosmic Harmony and Beauty in a Field of Light. Choices. Responsible Choices. Love. Here is an extract from a letter that I received from Jennifer in the USA:

      "I thought about this Earth, which has been in existence long before we arrived and how we then decided to carve it up, place borders and boundaries here and there. Once again I wonder “why?” Why have we tried so hard to place fences between us and take this piece as “mine”. I wonder if one day we can look at this Earth, this Life, this Energy, this Source, this Light, this Love, this Power, this Divinity, this Existence, this Consciousness and see it all as One, as Us and celebrate in the shared evolution of consciousness, of which we have all been part, of which we are all aware at our core. Is this the next step for us? As we all start to become more aware of who we really are, as we sense more of our Divine Spirit and Light and Power, as we start to question some of our long held beliefs and relax, we will notice our fields of awareness expand and we will see a different reality, through our Spiritual eyes. It is happening now.

      Have you noticed flickering light out the corner of your eye? Have you seen shimmering light on the walls but thought you were imaging it? Do you sometimes see light around people, as if they are glowing, radiant? Do you look across the ocean and see light dancing across the water? Are you becoming more aware of your own Being, your own Truth, who you are and why you are here in the bigger scheme of things? These are indeed times of beautiful Golden Light and we are Beings of Light. As we notice messages coming to us through books and movies and conversations, our fields of awareness expand. I watched Kung-Fu Panda again a few days ago and smiled as the wise Turtle said to Shifu “Let go of the Illusion of Control”. My jaw dropped the first time I heard it as I had been pondering over this idea that our reality is an illusion, just a hologram, a projection of the mind. The movie also says there is no secret ingredient in life, something is special because we BELIEVE it is special. As we all start to Believe in Truth and our own Light and our Divine Essence and our Creativity and Love and our Power to manifest we will See the magic and miracles that abound in life, we will see a New Reality. We will Believe Existence is Special and See it is so. "

      Wow Jennifer....yes indeed.....life is magic and miraculous when we see how we spin out the "dream" from our consciousness, and how we can create the Joy and Love in that Consciousness when we understand the "shared evolution of consciouseness".

      I also think that what is significant is Jennifer's desire to "question some of our long held beliefs and relax".....and allow the process to unfold as it will.

      I have noticed among Lightworkers in the last year, and especially now, a kind of low level hysteria, where, desperate for external manifestations of Change, they latch onto events, dates and hopes for number popping miracles. When we reach this particular date there will be a "great" event and everyone will reach the promised land, or at least those who are specifically chosen. The Spaceships will land, money will be handed out, and everything will be wonderful. This builds up a tension of expectation that creates exhaustion, and yes, disillusionment.There is no doubt that there are important cycles and events, and there are moments of numerological significance and change, but they are now being abused and manufactured at alarming speed.

      There is also no doubt that we are being assisted and guided from the Higher Dimensions at all times, but in a way that empowers us to empower ourselves as the co-creators on earth. But, we are now creating a kind of Spiritual TV culture where the "sensation" of the day or month is the next moment that fits into someone's timeline for a world shattering event. And what results is that what should be a quiet and beautiful process of the unfolding of Higher Consciousness in our lives becomes a desperate gallop from one "event" to another. There is no doubt for me, that the Solstice of 21st December was significant, as Michael noted, for the introduction of a Higher Level of Light Consciousness. And Higher Consciousness is Peaceful, Gentle and Loving. It is Calm and Accepting and knows that All is in Divine Order at All Times!

So, I have also been getting letters like this one from a woman in the Netherlands"

      "I thought that change were coming to me to let go old patterns because on 21 ste of december the gate is openend ,but my body is so tired again , I feel like a old woman with not much energy to live, and in your channels I read whats happening in energy and all the emotional aspects of that I can feel for the whole collective.How must I deal with all of this feelings in me that not only are my emotions.It s so heavy for me that its difficult to feel the Light. My Heartdesire is to feel free from all of these feelings from others and to feel the real me to live in Love and peace and happines,and my heart will go on and on to make all One ".

      Yes indeed, many feel this way. My advice would be, rest, relax, see some good friends, have some fun, get some exercise, and start to see the miracles in your own every day life. Start to enjoy your own every day life...gently and in peace.

      The "real you" is a Collective Being, yes indeed, you will feel the energy of the Collective because we are One. But, as Lightworkers, we can contribute to that Collective Energy by remaining Calm and Peaceful and entering into that Light with Peace and Joy. Read Jennifer's paragraph above again!

      So, as the year begins, excuse me while I go and relax and enjoy these lazy days of summer as the New Year begins to unfold here in South Africa!

JANUARY 2009 - by: by Celia Fenn
Entire article at: http://www.starchildglobal.com

Who Is The Inner Critic?

Who Is This Inner Critic?

The Inner Critic, the Censor, the Committee, the Judge, Monkey Mind – these are just a few of the names for that voice in our heads that decides to speak up just when we are about to embark on a new challenge. It judges our work, our new projects and ideas, and provides a running commentary or critique on most every action we take.


You know this voice. When you sit down to write, it will tell you that you can’t even spell. When you start a new job it tells you that you made a mistake to take the job in the first place. It may tell you that you are way out of your league at this job. Or when you are giving a presentation, everyone in the room seems to be smarter, richer and better than you are. It suggests that you just don’t have the skills to take on that new project. It loves to remind you that true artists are born with a gift, and somehow you managed to be absent from the school of life the day they handed out these special gifts.


In Buddhist texts, Monkey Mind is described as a self-criticizing aspect of our mind that swings us from doubt, to worry, and back to doubt. This chatter gets loudest when we threaten to change the status quo – even if the status quo is something we long to leave behind. This voice is concerned with survival, logic, solving problems and being sensible.


There are ways to live in peace with this part of us:

- we can notice the inner chatter and do the task at hand anyway,
- we can step away from logic for a moment and try a different approach,
- we can free up the energy we use listening to this voice by choosing to focus on our dreams and goals,
- we can re-program the way we think about this part of our brain.


Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way has a variety of exercises that deal with the Censor. And Maria Nemeth in The Energy of Money has extensive information and exercises for the Monkey Mind. The most important action we can take in making peace with this side of ourselves is: recognize that this voice is not who you are. It doesn’t come from your inner core or true self.


A way to re-program our thinking about this part of our brain is to accept that it does serve a function. Survival and problem solving are part of its job.
In A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative, Roger Von Oech states that there are four roles to the creative process:

Your Explorer
is your role for searching for new
information and resources;
Your Artist
is your role for turning these
resources into new ideas;
Your Judge
is your role for evaluating the merits of an idea
and deciding what to do with it; and,
Your Warrior
is your role for carrying your idea into wing pains" is associated with growth? You can and will succeed if you recognize that fear is only a part of the growth process. It is not the end result of the process.

- Take a moment to remember specific times and areas in your life where you have succeeded. Make an accomplishment list. It is a great reminder that have you succeeded with challenges in the past and have the ability to succeed in this current situation as well.


- Challenge the negative self-talk. Ask yourself: Does this thought contribute to my stress? Where did I learn this thought? Is this a logical thought? Is this thought true? Once you become aware of a negative thought pattern, you can confront the thought, challenge the logic and replace the thoughts with a kinder and a more gentle way of thinking that will move you forward on your personal path.


- Write a worse case scenario. What is the worst thing that could possibly happen if you were to take on this new challenge? Give yourself 20 minutes or half an hour and play the negative tape all the way through. Have fun with the worry. Get it all out into the open. Once you reach the end of the time that you've allocated for yourself -- that's it, no more. What usually happens when we "play the tape through" is that we notice that things aren't as terrible as our minds have imagined them to be.


- People make mistakes they aren't mistakes. There is the possibility you might fail or make a mistake when you try something new. One way to guarantee that you won’t move forward in your life is by not be willing to let yourself make mistakes. When Thomas Edison was working on the light bulb he had one failure after another during the process. He said to critics who commented about all the times it appeared he had failed with his invention: "I've simply eliminated twenty-seven ways that don't work." Breakdowns can lead to breakthroughs.


- Thank the Inner Critic for sharing its opinion about the challenge or situation and take action anyway.

by: Lea Brandenburg
www. creatingstrategies. com

Paths To A Beautiful Life!

Christian D Larson
Influential early New Thought leader

Christian D. Larson was an outstanding and highly influential early New Thought leader and teacher as well as a prolific writer of New Thought books who believed that people have tremendous latent powers, which could be harnessed for success with the proper attitude...

PATHS TO A BEAUTIFUL LIFE

We have believed for a long time, and with good reason, that life could be everything that we have hoped for; even as fair and wonderful as what we have seen when thinking was deep and clear; and we now feel that such a life is a definite possibility

We are learning to expand our concepts of truth and of life as a whole; and so we are able to discern the way. Then, as we proceed, we discover, to our amazement, that life in the real is so large and so immensely rich that we will need eternity to live it all... This discovery is inspiring to a high degree-- But what are the methods and the principles that we should apply so that we may continue to go forward upon this remarkable road? That is what we all are eager to know

First, recognize the great truth that you have the ability to live your own life exactly as you may desire to live-- You are the real master of your own existence and you, yourself, may determine how beautiful that existence is to be

Your life is in your own hands. You may live as you wish... You may secure from life whatever you desire, because there is no limit to life, and no limit to your capacity to live-- The elements of life can be modified, changed, developed and perfected to comply with your own supreme demand; the increase of life can be realized in the exact measure of your largest need; you are in living touch with Infinite life, and there is neither limit nor end to the source of your supply

To live in the constant recognition of this great truth, is to rise continually into higher and higher degrees of that mastery of life that gives you the power to live your life according to your most perfect ideals... To reach the goal that every ascending mind has in view, this truth, therefore, must ever be recognized and applied-- It is one of those principles that you shall always require, no matter how high you may rise in the scale of divine being

You invariably receive what you desire, no more, no less-- You get what you wish for if the power within that wish is as strong as you can make it

The fact that you can have an ideal, proves that you have the power to secure it... The fact that you can formulate and appreciate a desire for something larger and better, proves that you can fulfill that desire-- The great essential is to desire with the whole heart; that is, to give your desires all the life and power that you can possibly arouse from the depths of invincible being

The true desire and the true prayer are synonymous-- The true prayer is invariably some immensely strong desire expressed when your human mind feels the sublime touch of the Infinite mind; and the true desire must be in perfect touch with Infinite life in order to be filled with the invincible power of that life

To cause every wish to come true, you must express all the power of mind and soul through every wish; but you cannot give expression to all the power within you until you awaken your spiritual nature, and you cannot awaken your spiritual nature until you begin to live with the Infinite-- The largeness and immensity of the supreme spiritual life within you comes forth only as consciousness is spiritualized, and you gain spiritual consciousness by living and thinking constantly in the lofty state where you actually feel that God is closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet

We cannot desire too much, and when we desire with all the life and power that is within us, our desires shall positively be fulfilled-- The wish must be whole-hearted, not half-hearted; it must contain all the power we have, not simply the limited actions - shallow thinking; and it must contain soul, not simply emotion, but that deep, spiritual feeling that touches the very spirit of limitless life and power

Have faith in God, have faith in humanity, have faith in yourself, have faith in everything; and have faith in faith. When you have confidence in yourself you arouse everything that is stronger, greater and superior in yourself... In consequence, the more confidence you have in yourself, the more you will attain and accomplish-- But the power of self-confidence is but an atom in comparison with the marvelous power of faith

Faith takes mind and soul into the greater realms of life... It goes out upon the boundless, and awakens those interior spiritual forces that have the power to do anything-- This is why all things become possible when you have faith

It is the nature of faith to break bounds; to transcend limitations, and take life, thought and action into the universal. It is the nature of faith to unite the lesser with the greater, to unite your individual mind with the mind of God... Therefore, you shall always require faith; however far you may go into the greater, the superior and the boundless today, faith will take you farther still to-morrow-- And that is your purpose; to realize your largest and dearest desires in the present, and then press on to the realization of other and far greater desires in the future

Depend upon the superior spiritual self within for results, and give this greater Essence the credit for everything you accomplish-- When you depend upon the personal self, you place yourself in touch only with the lesser forces on the surface; you therefore will accomplish but little; but when you depend upon the supreme spiritual self, you place yourself in touch with the greater powers within, and results will be greater in proportion

When you give credit to the personal self, you ignore the interior spiritual self; you thereby fail to secure that greater wisdom and power that the spiritual self alone can supply.... Instead of being led by that inner light that knows, you are led by the confusion of outer thought; you are turned away from the path that leads to truth, freedom and the perfect life, and your mistakes are many-- Instead of being taken into the current of that invincible life that can carry you through to your very highest goal, you remain in the hands of mere physical energy, that energy that can do nothing more than simply keep your body alive

Whenever you accomplish something worth while, and give the praise to your own outer personal self, you immediately lose your hold on those powers through which those results were gained; in consequence, failure will begin, and you will have to retrace all your former steps to again gain possession of that power that can do whatever you may wish to have done

To constantly depend upon the greater self, to constantly expect the desired results from the greater self, and to always give credit to the greater self, is to constantly draw upon the limitless wisdom and power of the greater self – the supreme spiritual self within you... You thereby become larger and stronger in all the elements of your being, rising ever in the scale, gaining ground perpetually, and passing from victory to victory-- What you desire you will receive because higher power is working through you, and as you ascend in the scale, there is nothing that you will not attain and accomplish

The principal cause of failure among those who are trying to live in harmony with real truth, may be found in the general tendency to think of the outer person as the power that does things on the visible plane... But it is the interior spiritual person that gives the power, though the outer person is required to apply it-- And the more thought we give to the interior person, the more life and power we bring forth from within

The interior person is the true self, created in the image and likeness of God; it is therefore evident that when you begin to live with the life and the power of the interior person, the expression of real greatness and real spirituality will begin-- And from that moment you will not be limited to the power of the personal self; instead you will fill the personal self with that divine power from on high that is limitless, inexhaustible and invincible

Live for a great purpose, and hold the central idea of that purpose constantly before mind. Do not live for the mere sake of prolonging existence; live for something that magnifies, on the largest possible scale, all the elements of existence. To live for a great purpose is to live a great life, and the greater your life, the greater the good that you will receive from life...
The ruling desire of every living soul is to have life, and have it more abundantly; therefore, to fulfill that desire we must continue perpetually to live for that which produces more life-- No matter how rich we may become in the real, spiritual life, here is a principle that we must ever remember and apply

Do not work for yourself; work for the great idea that stands at the apex of your greatest purpose... The greater the idea for which you work, the greater will be your work; and it is he who does the greatest work that does the most for everybody, himself included-- When your work is great you become a great power for good among thousands, and at the same time you do more for yourself than you could possibly do in any other manner

When you begin to live and work for a great purpose, you get into the current of great forces, great minds and great souls-- You gain from every source; -all the powerful lives in the world will work with you; you become a living part of that movement in the world that determines the greater destiny of humanity; you become one of the chief elements upon which will depend the future of countless generations yet to be; you become one of the chosen of the Most High

To live for a great purpose is to live in the world of great ideas, and great ideas awaken great thoughts
You are as you think-- Great thoughts produce great minds; from great minds proceed great works, and great works constitute the building material with which the kingdom upon earth is to be constructed

When you begin to live for a great and good purpose, you place in action that law that causes all things to work together for good- Henceforth, nothing is in vain; every person, thing or event that comes into your world will add to the welfare, the richness and the beauty of that world-- All things become ministers of the life that is real life, you have been giving your best everywhere, and you are receiving the best from every source in return

To live for that which is high, lofty and sublime, is to walk with God; the love, the life, the power and the wisdom of the Infinite will ever be with you, and to have such companions is to be blessed indeed-- Every moment will give you the peace that passes understanding, every hour will be filled with the joy everlasting, and every day will be as a thousand years in celestial kingdoms on high

Managing Emotional Responses with NLP

Managing Emotional Responses with NLP

bJules Collingwood NLP Trainer

Contrary to popular belief, NLP is not a therapy, although therapy practitioners who use it get spectacular results. It is not a sales training programme, yet sales people who use it also get spectacular results. It is not a personal development medium, yet personal developers who use it get spectacular results too. And it is not a suitable subject for home study. It works too well to be safe in the hands of the untrained, and is best learned with experienced and qualified NLP trainers. Would you attempt to learn scuba diving from a book, or from your neighbour who did a week end course in the local swimming pool? This article offers insight into one of our cultural assumptions and ways, using NLP information, to learn to manage it ourselves.

NLP studies how we put our thoughts together, how we know what we know and how we construct our own experiences. And yes, our own subjective experiences are different from everyone else's. And everyone else's experiences are different from each others'. All of our thoughts, emotions, memories and imaginings are made from pictures, sounds and sensations. The differences between our common experiences come from the myriad sequences and placings we can make with sounds and pictures and sensations and in the choice of subject matter that attracts our attention.

Many people in the west find it easy to see their mental pictures and the rest can be taught quite easily. Everyone makes mental pictures; it is just that some people have not yet learned to notice them. Think about your own mental pictures of something you enjoy, for a moment. Are they coloured or black and white, still or moving, are they close to you or far away, large or small, portrait, landscape or wraparound? Which parts are in focus? Are you watching the scene as if it were live, or are you watching yourself in it, as if on video?

These are examples of how we can do the same thing differently from each other. You can change the meaning of an experience by changing one of these options. If you have chosen something you enjoy, find out what happens if you bring the picture closer to you, or make it bigger. You can move mental pictures simply by intending to do so. If you like the result, keep it. Otherwise put it back as it was and find out what happens if you intensify the colour. Make one change at a time. And remember to put it back the way it was between each change. If you find one or more changes that you like better than the original, keep them. Be careful to keep track of the changes you make to your pictures. If you do anything that you do not like, reverse it immediately. Ensure you finish with an experience at least as pleasant as when you began.

For most westerners, pictures are the easiest sensory representation to notice and alter deliberately. You can learn to make similar alterations to the sounds you hear and the sensations you feel just as easily. Move sounds from where they are to another location; changing the speed, the tones, the volume, as if you had a sophisticated mixing desk. You can increase or decrease the intensity of sensations, change the texture, heat them up or cool them down, slow the rhythm or speed it up, move them around, make them bigger or smaller or disappear completely.

You may have noticed that if you change a picture in one specific way, the sound and feeling change too, or if you change a particular aspect of the sound, the picture and feeling shift simultaneously. These are known as 'drivers'. You will also have found that other elements change alone. Finding your particular driver differences is a quick way into your least easily accessed system (sight, hearing or feeling). For example, if your picture is moderately exciting, and it felt more exciting when you made it bigger, you changed the sensations by changing the picture. If your picture were fuzzy and it had distorted sound and scratchy sensations, would the picture come into focus if you clarified the sound and could the sensations become smooth through changing the sound?

There is a commonly held belief in western society that sensation cannot be changed at will and neither can emotion. There is a related myth that anyone who can change their emotions is faking, shallow, uncaring, or untrustworthy, unenlightened, repressed or 'not ready' to be 'authentic'. Most cultures believe that one system (sight, hearing and feeling) is outside their control, but not all find feeling the most difficult. For example, Native American culture has a reputation for changing feelings and sensations with facility.

For Native Americans, visible mental pictures are equated with visions from their gods, and therefore given religious significance. The Sun Dance and Vision Quest rituals are specifically designed to heighten the chance of mental pictures becoming visible. Both rituals involve the initiate in extreme discomfort to a level that most westerners would find unacceptable. For Native Americans the pain control they practice during these rituals shifts their attention and alters their mental state sufficiently for them to see pictures. It works by overloading their preferred system (feeling) for normal purposes so that they have to do something else; in this case, see. As the ritual is framed as religious or spiritual, it is culturally encouraged for them to see mental pictures in that context.

The western equivalent is the personal development market, bungy jumping, adventure training, drug use and religious ritual. Westerners rate peak experiences by the intensity of sensation they experience at the time whether the vehicle is secular or religious. Some call it emotion, but the structure of emotion is ... pictures, sounds and sensations, and the most convincing of these in the west is sensation.

The ability to feel what we want to, when we want to is a very useful skill. It frees us from the expense of seeking repeated peak experiences. One exposure is sufficient to use as the beginning of a personal library. After that you can alter it, intensify it, customise it in any number of ways by playing with the pictures, sounds and feelings that first went with it. Or you can build your library from scratch, using attractive bits of ordinary pleasure and enhancing and mixing them to your liking. The way in, as described above, is through pictures and sounds. Simply remember a pleasing occasion and make it big, bright, life-like, and maybe slightly slower. Step into it and turn up the sensations. Through practice you can increase your facility with sensation and learn to turn it up and down directly.

The next stage is literally managing emotion. There are two immediate ways of doing this. The first is good for neutralising unwanted emotional responses. If you are laughing at a funeral, crying at work or angry with an innocent person, to neutralise any of them, move the picture a long way from you, or shrink it down to the size of a postage stamp. You can always come back to it later if you want to regardless of what is in it. Make it small enough, or distant enough and for most people it will become less intense.

To invoke a particular emotion you want to display, remember or imagine a time when you would do that, and make a big, bright, close picture. Then step into it. This is great for thanking a special person for an awful present, or for producing remorse when you break someone's favourite ornament that you have hated for years. Have you ever wished you could be more patient when training a child or an animal? Do you want to say 'No' to someone and mean it? Find a picture in your memory that has the quality of emotion you want. Make it big, close, bright and life-like, and a suitable state will follow.

The second way to manage emotion involves the feeling more directly. Leslie Cameron Bandler lists seven changeable parts to any emotion in her book 'The Emotional Hostage'. These include rhythm, tempo, intensity, time frame, and personal involvement. Like the changes we made to pictures at the beginning of this article, Cameron-Bandler suggests making similar changes to the feeling of emotions to change them directly. For example, anxiety commonly has a fast, uneven rhythm, and is always concerned with the future. If you slow down the rhythm to an even 120 beats per minute, the feeling changes to something more comfortable. If you imagine being in a time after the event, anxiety vanishes. Remember a previous occasion when you were anxious about something and how much less alarming the event was in retrospect.

Guilt and shame require personal involvement. Guilt happens if you offend someone else's values and it matters to you. Shame happens if you offend your own values, without recognising the more important value that you kept. If you imagine you are back before the event, there is no guilt or shame, because you have not done the deed yet. Alternatively you can reduce the intensity and change the rhythm. You may discover that you acted on another value of your own, or that you made a mistake. Mistakes are feedback to learn from. The consequences may be sad or irreversible, but they can become acceptable if you can consider them. For any emotion that you want to change, take the most obvious feature and alter it. Find out what happens. To enhance an emotion, take a feature and increase it. You may build a peak experience all by yourself. Wouldn't that be something?

nlp.com.au

EGO--The False Self

________________________________

Ego - The False Self
________________________________

What is ego? I'm not going to define it or debate it, I am going to tell you outright what ego is: ego is the false self we build up from the day we are born. It is a character, or a persona if you will. It is not "real" or "legit" or "authentic"....

Let me explain...

When you are born, you are innocent, trusting, requiring nothing more than love, nurturing, and care. As you grow up, your family, eventually your school and friends and society around you, help you to shape your personality...

Imagine for a moment, that you grew up completely differently than you did. Imagine you were rich, if you grew up poor, or that you were black if you are white or Asian or Latino. Imagine that your childhood was completely different than it was in your memory, and then ask yourself "Would my personality be the same?"...

Of course not. There would be different factors, status-wise, heritage and culturally, societal. You would be a completely different person on the "inside" if your outside circumstances were different than they had been for you...

So now come back to you - who you believe yourself to be. You can probably define yourself in a few words or statements, such as "I am strong" or "I am compassionate" or "I am depressed", right? You can sum up your personality, your persona and character. This is because you have finely tuned, honed and perfected your persona as the years have gone by. You have been told by family and friends "you are so funny!" and so you continue to be funny. Or you were told in school "you have a learning disability" so you continue to perpetuate that disability upon yourself. You may have been told "you are ugly" by someone in the past, and that has sat eating at your confidence for years later...

All of these things, these definitions and labels, are nothing more than collected information of a "past you" which is not real. The past is gone. So should be the "you" who you identified yourself being in that past. Hold on to the memories, for they are part of your whole heritage in this lifetime, however, let yourself be liberated of the stereotypes, labels, and stigmas...

The Spirit - the truth of who you Are, is God. The Universe. Oneness. Essence. Light. Call "it" what you will, but in the grandest scheme of all things - you are the only One of you there is. Beyond your mind. Beyond your identity...

When you realize that the ego is nothing more than a collection of responses, insecurities, fears, and doubts, you can then easily shed it, watch it fall away and reveal the true Self. The ego is a character in a play - the true self is the Author...

It is natural to identify with your personality, in fact I was quite attached to mine for a very long time, having an internal struggle of faith based on my fear of letting my identity go. But I eventually realized, I am not letting go any of the beauty I love about "my Self"... rather I am stripping away the false layers of ego (pain) by revealing the truth of Self - One...

Ego will fight to remain as you...

Ego is nothing more than a tool - created at a very early age to help you relate and identify in your human body - conditioned by all around you to behave the way it now does. And when you really grasp within your heart that it is not "real", it will rebel. That is a wonderful thing to move through, because it gives you opportunity after opportunity to re-align your thoughts to those of your truth, and to put ego in it's place - which is nowhere...

Ego is not real. It is a character on stage. Nothing more. Scripted - and scripts can be re-written...

Let the Author be the star on the stage ..

As for the ego of other people - you can not change them. You can only accept that they are letting the character on stage call the shots, and you can love them for being lost in the illusion of the performance, and you can see within them a reflection of yourself...

Because we are all One outside of the ego game...

I hope this is helpful to anyone who is reading it...

With much Love,
Dee

....awakeningstarseeds. com

DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE!

DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE

____________________________________

DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE
____________________________________

Don't waste your life. Whether you're just starting out, or nearing the finish line, don't waste your life. It's a gift, a possibility, that deserves to be released into the world. It's a responsibility, an obligation, that demands to be met head on.

There's a thousand reasons not to live, to exist without being you:

The danger of trying to attain a dream and failing, of finding out you couldn't, rather than protecting your self-image with infinite postponement;

loyalty to those who are not in touch with your soul and its imperatives; the desire not to disappoint, offend, or let down the unenlightened;

ideals of self-sacrifice, nobility knocked off course; sometimes fear disguised as nobility, a palatable excuse for hiding from yourself;

fear of rejection, misunderstanding, opposition, hatred, jealousy, ostracism or harm; fear of being trampled underneath the social stampede, drowned in the sea of the beaten multitudes which have been conditioned to pour over any reminder of their own surrender, to wash anyone still left fighting; fear of doing something different, of catching the eye of the hunting lion and being singled out from the rest of the herd;

a dread of the stress of standing on the mountain top - what if you fall, what if someone wants to throw you off?; the ease of living "below yourself", of betraying the soul that no one else has peered into, by pretending its purpose is not there, that you, too, were meant for nothing, born to waste away in the arms of frivolous pursuits; the comfort of vanishing into utter passivity, of accepting someone else's existential priorities and justifications for living so that you will not encounter social resistance or be challenged to carve out your own place of meaning in the chaos; the exhalation of everything you are, in order to be less; "letting it go", sometimes disguised as wisdom.

Don't waste your life!

A thousand reasons not to be you cannot stand up to a single reason to be you.

Don't deny the fabric of reality the color that you can bring. Others need the beauty you can manifest; and sometimes, they need you to step on their toes. People rise to new heights when others don't bow down to them. Don't discount the little ways and perhaps the great ways you can make the world better; and don't undervalue the importance of your happiness: the kind of happiness that is not anxious with evasion and flight, as it tries to cover over abandoned parts of yourself, but the kind of happiness that is rich and fulfilling with the knowledge that it grows from who you are; the kind of happiness that resonates with your soul, that both motivates and rewards.

Don't crush the pieces of your ego that you need to do your soul's work, the little bits of self-indulgence that can give birth to a mountain range, or put a star to see by into the sightless wall of the night. Don't cut yourself off from the joy that feeds the greatest triumphs of human energy; don't freeze the vulnerability that drives you, the trace of self-absorption that builds the temple of concentration where creators of beauty and usefulness worship (even so, don't be afraid to be not useful); don't surrender ambition to enlightenment, unless you have truly become a Buddha. (There is nowhere more dangerous to be than the place that is one notch below enlightenment.)

Don't make excuses for surrendering to the power of the generic life. You are unique. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Don't throw away what you were meant to bring!

Don't waste your life!

In his 1996 bestseller, The Soul's Code, psychologist James Hillman seeks to legitimize the concept of a "soul purpose" or a "soul mission" within the context of modern-day psychology. He seeks to transplant the idea of "personal destiny" from spiritual and mystical realms into the realm of Western materialist thought, and to enrich the idea that who we are is but the product of nature (genetics) and nurture (our environment), with the idea that we come into the world with a sort of cosmic quality that both defines us and gives us a unique life purpose.

We are not mere offshoots of our parents' DNA and child-rearing techniques, but beings far more deeply connected to the Universe than that, who come through our parents and forbears, but whose ultimate reality is not determined by them. For Hillman, the mainstream psychological paradigm teaches us to fixate on our relation with our family, at times to turn ourselves into permanent victims of our upbringing; trapped in endless replays of our childhood dramas, and self-limited by them, we distract ourselves from greater callings, shut ourselves off from the potential of forces that are greater and beyond what was done to us. To heal, to be free, to spread our wings, we need to be conscious of those other powers that have shaped us, to find them and reenergize our lives with them.

To wield this concept, Hillman returns to the ancient Greek word "daimon", which refers to a kind of spiritual "soul-companion", or driving force that links the individual with his destiny, leading him towards the place where he fits into the cosmic order; you could consider the daimon to be a form of inner mystical knowledge of one's capabilities and the openings which exist for those capabilities in the world; an ability seeking a matching need that pushes the individual along through life towards where he is "meant to be", unless he, himself, silences that inner voice through inattentiveness, fear, or overreceptivity to the opposition or indifference of others. Not quite the same as "the soul", the daimon is that part of the soul which recognizes the individual's place in the "grand plan", and drives the individual towards full participation in that plan. The Soul's Code abounds with examples of well-known people who evidenced the presence of this daimon in childhood, including Judy Garland, RG Collingwood, Josephine Baker and Ingmar Bergman. In the same way that Dr. Ian Stevenson considers the strongest claims for reincarnation to come from the memories of children, who have had less time to be socialized and have the raw material of fantasies planted into their minds, so Hillman seeks childhood proofs of calling to support his theory of the daimon: incidents in which young, relatively unshaped minds display a surprisingly powerful vision of what they must do with their lives. It does not come from the parents, says Hillman, but from something else.

Although we are all endowed with, or accompanied by, a daimon of our own, Hillman writes: "A calling may be postponed, avoided, intermittently missed. It may also possess you completely. Whatever; eventually it will out. It makes its claim. The daimon does not go away." [1] Obviously, the world goes on whether we miss our calling or not; is the Universe's plan amended by our reticence to show up, or is that part of the plan? Are we needed, or only insurance against the failure of others? Arguments on this terrain could go around in endless circles, without ever reaching a conclusion. We simply don't know the answer. The mystery deflects us. Somehow, though, I believe we all lose something precious when a fellow human being chooses not to listen to his daimon. [2] The world loses a color; the weight of its potential drops ever so slightly, though sometimes greatly, in the scales that measure the meaning of our lives. What does seem clear beyond a doubt is that, for the individual in question, disconnection from his daimon and evasion of his purpose, are painful and debilitating experiences. Like many other sources of frustration and conflict which can potentially lead to depression, illness, or neurosis, the avoidance of one's life purpose may lurk below the surface of the conscious mind, never detected, never explored, yet powerfully hurtful from within its hiding place, strangling one's sense of worth in secret until one is broken, seemingly without cause; creating a sense of emptiness that no distraction or consolation goal can completely cover over. We come into the world for a reason; when we jettison that reason, we lose our right to be here, and we know it. We feel like parasites (no matter how hard we work for someone who is not God); like traitors, like cowards. This is the poison that seeps into the water of everything else we do and think.

For those who are young, the message is clear:

Don't waste your life!

It is fitting that you should seek, within yourself, the purpose of your existence, and seek to live in accordance with that purpose. This fervent exhortation, which I give to you from beside the crater of my own unlived life, is not meant to be a "pied piper's call" to self-destructive romanticism. Prudence and care are most often needed to prevent the unique personal impulse we all carry within us from floundering on the rocks of prematurely high expectations; as any strategist, study your environment; don't succumb to it, but don't discount it; sheathe your visions with an understanding of reality; run away with your inspirations, but don't burn the bridges behind you; audacity without stamina is nearly always fatal. I remember once, in a chess match, I had a wonderful attack set up and ready to unfold, I could not wait to make the board blossom with it; but just then my opponent got in the way, by launching an attack of his own! After briefly studying the situation, I realized that he had the advantage in tempo and that, much as it grated on my personality, I must temporarily put my offensive on hold, and carry out a series of defensive maneuvers in order to ward off his assault. I successfully did so, whereupon I was finally able to manifest the (somewhat altered) attack I had so carefully constructed before. In this case, I lived for my desire, but my desire did not cut the tethers that bound it to a working strategy. I give this example, not to glorify my mediocre chess-playing abilities, but to emphasize that meeting your daimon, and following his lead, is not the same as thoughtlessly jumping, lemming-like, into the sea. (Some souls die by running with the lemmings; some, by trying too hard not to be a lemming, perish in a sea of their own making.) Give your daimon armor, it's not an easy world for dreams!

For the young, I say, "know thyself." If you are not yet there, seek to get in touch with your heart, and your soul; knock on the door of the house where your daimon lives, and ask him to show you the journey that awaits you. Do not throw preparation to the winds, do not put the gun of all-or-nothing to your head; but neither lock yourself into the cage of a life that's not your own. Eighty years of living your life on the wrong road is the same as dying young, though you may not realize it until you're old.

And what about us, who've already stood our daimon up; who've limped through the long years alone, secretly knowing that we collapsed along the way, though no one else discerns the real core of our catastrophe? What about us who've survived the danger of our glory by being faithless, who've eaten the bread of not being ourselves and lived in the house of the Universe without paying the rent of being true to who we really are? Are we doomed, damned, forever lost? Fugitives from God? Ghosts?

In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare has Brutus say:

There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries. [3]

Are we truly defeated, without redemption, because we missed the moment that had our name written on it, gave up the years that were supposed to be ours? Are we out of sync with time, out of step with the rhythm of our dance with the Universe; forever cursed to dance alone with who we might have been and what we might have done; exiled from our destiny, shorn of hope, condemned to die in a foreign land? The whole world is a foreign land for one who has failed himself and God. Are heartbreak and nostalgia all that men such as us have to look forward to?

Make no mistake. It is better to begin young and to never lose your way. And yet, Fate rarely writes history or life without the input of the human Will. Sometimes the value of what has been thrown away is only appreciated once it's gone, and the longing which that rekindles creates another chance. There is rarely one turn of the wheel in a man's life, which means that there is often another opportunity to accept one's Destiny, after one has learned the bitterness of living without it. What one can accomplish this time around may be altered, it may be diminished, but within what is possible, enough of the original essence remains to excite the soul and give it one last chance to achieve meaning, and to perform its divine duty. It is crucial for those who have reached this point, not to let the wheel go by again without stepping aboard the life that is meant for them.

Sometimes, fixated on the past, frozen in mourning, the wounded fail to notice the offerings of the new day. Sometimes, demoralized by yesterday's passivity or by the "bad breaks" they could not overcome, they lie down to die, vanquished by themselves, unable to rise again. Sometimes, self-hatred engulfs them, they despise themselves so much for what they did or did not do one day, that every other day grows beyond their reach. The wheel comes back to their soul, but they have nothing left with which to answer the generosity of God. Again they let it go; because instead of recognizing their longing, and empowering it with lessons learned, they struggle helplessly on the flypaper of believing it's all over. The strong can be broken more than once; true lovers of beauty, let beauty give you strength! And what is more beautiful than a human being who is true to himself?

It is important to be kind to oneself when a thwarted life unfolds in one's mirror. Most often, we are not as worthless as we think. At times, our blunders and our evasions put us more in sync with our life's purpose than we believe. They build our frustration to the "breaking point", until the motivation we need to succeed finally pops out of apathy; until fatalism is felled by Will, and pretenses of wisdom are swept aside by the life force which knows better. They save us from premature deployment and hold us in reserve for the day that is really ours; they prevent us from being mauled by our immaturity, and season the dream with failures that turn it into iron. At times, they are not signs of our foolishness or cowardice, but of the genius of our intuition, which knows that our brilliance and our courage are uncommon, and that they need more time to reach the level we have chosen to live at. James Hillman characterizes Manolete, the famous Spanish bullfighter who stunned the world with his fearless style and apparent indifference to the threat of the gigantic bulls which hurtled past him, as a "timid and fearful child" who spent his time at home painting and reading, clinging to his mother, and avoiding the games of other boys, who played soccer and pretended to be famous bullfighters. Strange and melancholy, Manolete's withdrawal from the world of his peers seemed to be a way of hiding from his Fate, at the same time as he slowly conserved the energy and developed the focus and the gravity he would need to meet it. Although he sensed what was to come, Hillman writes, "How could this nine-year-old boy stand up to his destiny?" [4] He needed time. Sometimes, our apparent flight from our purpose is a way of preparing ourselves for it. Like little ants, some of us are born to carry great loads. No wonder so many of us flee from the weight, seek the refuge of lighter lives, try to "disappear into the crowd." Somehow the daimon always manages to track us down, either with remorse or with renewed commitment. He who would be born again must understand that the Universe is filled with wheels, that beginnings and ends are only moments, and that there are many places and many ways to get back on board, to reclaim what is precious.

No doubt, time changes the face of many dreams. Sometimes it is for the better; sometimes something irreplaceable is lost, but there is still gold in the debris. I remember once, when I was very ill, feeling myself sliding down the slippery slope of meaninglessness into complete blackness, towards extinction; my body, unenthused by any sense of worth, was compliant, and I could feel it beginning to come apart. That's when, suddenly, in the blackness before my closed eyes, appeared a golden light, and in that light the shining faces of some of the kids I had taught in the school, years before. At that moment I knew that, even though I was far off course in life, I had still made a difference even as I fell out of the sky of my most cherished dreams. Where I had crashed, I had loved, and I had beautified the place of my accident. Thanks to the gratitude that radiated from those shining faces which I had thought were not enough to justify my life, the sickness that preyed upon my sense of pointlessness receded.

A man who loves is never pointless.

A man who is fair, is never worthless; even if he was meant to save the world, that small part of himself he did not betray or fumble is still worth its weight in gold. Our life purpose is like that, a construct of many layers.

Even if we cannot revive the full glory of dreams not known, or not lived in their prime - even if Autumn can never carry the missed Spring on its shoulders - there is still redemption in salvaging that part of our purpose that we can.

Our foolishness, the opposition we meet, the gaps between our eyes and hands, the trembling legs which flee instead of stand, until tears give us courage, all of these obstacles and shortcomings peel the layers of our dream away, one by one; and yet, there is never a final layer to us, there is never an end to the pages in the book.

It is never too late to be a part of oneself, never too late to rescue the jewel of the soul's crown from one's mistakes. Whether it is connected to a world or to a single life, it still matters.

The old and the beaten have one more season, if they can learn to forgive themselves.

The daimon's youthful face, now so different from yours, may be streaked with tears, but it still knows the way; and you, and who you are meant to be to us, are still the reason it has not gone.

Young or old, new or aged, confident or wounded, do not waste your life!

May no false barrier, inner or outer, kill your joy and keep you from yourself. And never let our prejudices or our ignorance deter you!

Don't waste your life!

The spirit you thought had left you is still nearby. You are closer to being you than you imagine.

Don't waste your life!

We are on your side, even those of us who do not know it.

Don't waste your life!

*excerpts from:

http://rainsnow.org

 

NOTES:

[1] Hillman, James. The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling. New York: Warner Books, 1997. Page 8.

[2] "… we all lose something precious when a fellow human being chooses not to listen to his daimon", unless, of course, it is a case of what Hillman refers to as "the bad seed": a man who is driven towards the attainment of infamy, like Hitler, or Escobar. (Then, the question must be asked, can the daimon be diverted towards a positive alternative; can it be guided to choose another path than darkness to express its tremendous energy?) For a contrasting view of the "bad seed", see Alice Miller's For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-rearing and the Roots of Violence, which examines the life of Hitler with the perspective that behavior is far more malleable than the "he-was-born-evil" approach allows. While some find that approach too sympathetic to Hitler, Miller's exploration is actually an effort to help Humanity by preventing a recurrence of future Hitlers, by means of providing a paradigm for understanding his genesis through family dynamics.

[3] Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. Act IV, Scene III, Lines 246-249.

[4] Hillman, p. 15-16. I first saw parts of this material on Manolete quoted in "Free Will Astrology" by Rob Brezsny, in The Village Voice.