Dealing With Weariness

Weariness, unlike physical fatigue, is of the heart and soul. It is based on the need for prolonged endurance in the face of limitation, obstacles, and difficulties beyond one's control. It is the struggle to maintain a posititve outlook, forward motion, or even the ability to just get through a day that creates weariness.

Those who are weary have been involved in a profound struggle to maintain their heads above water, to do what they feel to be right, to uphold the things that they believe in. It is this struggle to uphold values, principles, and the life of the embodied self that creates weariness.

In the face of this kind of spiritual fatigue, it is important to know that the self that feels weary, the self that feels downtrodden, is only one aspect of the self. There is, for each person, a larger self that is capable of maintaining a completely different set of perceptions, even in the presence of hardship. In fact, the larger self or soul-self is able to feel peace and joy, even while the human embodied self is feeling sorrow. The larger self is able to feel confidence and hope, even while the human self may be feeling hopeless.

In the presence of weariness, it is important to make contact with this larger self - to know that many different perceptions can be held at the same time, and that while the body or emotions may experience pain, the soul may experience peace.

Touching the larger self is a way of stabilizing oneself in the presence of weariness.

Touching God's love is the other path for stabilizing the self in the presence of weariness. For even while the human embodied self may be crying out with pain and distress, the larger self may feel trust and a sense that even though one does not know how, things are or will be alright. Though pain has the capacity, at times, to cover over the direct experience of God's love for the conscious waking self, even while this may be true, the deeper layers of the heart may still feel God's blessings and love. This is because those deeper layers remain in continual communion with that love, even in the presence of pain. It is also because God's love is everpresent as a living reality, whether one feels it or not.

Touching God's love when one is weary is best done through a regular spiritual practice that feeds the heart. Prayer, meditation, an immersion in nature, sacred breathing, are all ways to experience the deeper layers of the heart that are in communion with love.

The third way of maintaining the self in the presence of weariness involves touching the heart of compassion for oneself and treating oneself lovingly.

This is greatly aided if one can share the journey and its challenges with others. Compassion allows the human self to not engage in self-blame for not doing better. It replaces harshness with understanding and allows one to find, wherever possible, those forms of nourishment that create support and a sense of comfort. Every embodied being has their own perception of what nourishes their spirit. It is a matter of allowing these gifts of love to enter one's life more fully. Compassion is a reflection of God's love which is forgiving, gentle, and understanding. During a time of prolonged weariness, it is essential to maintain oneself in a state of compassion.

To anchor in one's larger self, to anchor in God's love, and to anchor in a heart of compassion - these are ways through which one can find inner support and sustenance during prolonged periods of weariness. One is never without these possibilities even though one may feel so, for the self-in-pain, the self-that-is-tired, is being held at all times within the larger multidimensional self that is part of the Oneness and part of God.

Michael Jackson - A Time of Rejoicing

Dear Ones,
This is by way of a letter, since it is more appropriate as a vehicle for paying tribute to the passing of a soul whose life was marred in many ways by healing issues that gained prominence in the eyes of the world, but whose spirit remained pure, loving, and joyful, despite the difficulties of the outer self.

Most embodied souls live with that complexity of manifestation - a part that remains pure and bright, and other parts that are colored by incomplete development, limitation, or distortion of their true essence.

And so because of his influence on global consciousness through songs of love and peace such as "Heal the World" and "We are the World" which affected an entire generation, we can acknowledge the difficulties that he himself brought into being through his own words and actions, while at the same time expressing gratitude for one who came into incarnation in order, among other things, to help heal the world.

While many are looking back at the life of this pop icon, focus of admiration and contempt, and musical genius, we who loved his spirit can look forward to what and where he is now and where he is going. Having remained inwardly connected to the other dimensions of life and spirit, Michael Jackson's transition is likely to be easier than most. Perceiving himself inwardly to be Spirit, he can let go of the embodied state more quickly and rejoice in his greater freedom, released from the burdens of self and the questions of identity that were so much a part of his life.

We, who appreciate his beautiful and pure being, can rejoice in his new freedom with him, for once out of the body he can become the largeness of who he is and was, and move, all the while dancing, into greater freedom and joy. Blessings and Amen.

Many Flames, One Fire

Beyond 'Like' and 'Dislike'

The history of the ego is the history of self-protection based on a sense of identity uprooted from its Divine context. We are afraid because we feel alone and unprotected.

This is also true in the world of relationships, where the history of judging and feeling judged, rejecting and being rejected, liking some and not liking others creates a familiar world in which we feel relatively secure, while barring from our circle of intimacy those we feel do not belong in it either because they judge us or we judge them.

Such a history has been with most human beings for a very long time. As a result, although one's conscious self may intend to let go of the concepts of 'like' and 'dislike,' it is often very difficult to do. If we hold these concepts to be valid, then we have a reason for avoiding or remaining apart from others - a reason that we believe is valid. As a result, we restrict our world to only those relationships in which we feel comfortable or in which we feel a sufficient common ground.

However, the life of the sacred is calling to us. It is asking us to redefine what 'common ground' is. It is asking us to no longer believe the reasons we tell ourselves for excluding anyone from our hearts.

This universal love to which we are being called cannot separate itself from anyone because there is no one to whom we are not connected. There is no one whom we are not part of. And yet the ego knows nothing of these things. It still thinks that there are reasons to reject some and to accept others. It maintains its own way of doing things - a way that is based on the history of duality and of separation from the unity of life.

Often, souls come to a place in their spiritual journey where the desire to live as a soul comes into conflict with the residual desire to live as an ego. Then, there are justifications, rationalizations, reasons, and so forth that we use to tell ourselves why we still believe in separation from others. Often, we are content to cling to the old premises, for example, "It is not I that cannot accept them. It is they who cannot accept me." This, of course, is a false premise for closing one's heart, since love does not depend upon two; it only depends upon one. One can still love in the presence of not-love in another. Whether our love can be expressed in a manifested joining, however - that depends upon two. But love itself depends only upon one.

When the decision to love without exception becomes an inner necessity, the ego begins to lose its grip upon the daily consciousness. Sometimes there is a vascillation back and forth between the old ways of fear and judgment and the new ways of the soul, but progress is made according to the degree to which one no longer believes one's former rationales.

Taking responsibility for one's own consciousness is an important part of forward movement in the healing of relationships. Finally, one must move away from believing that anyone else can 'make us' feel a certain way. When that premise can be let go of, the heart can breathe a sigh of relief. Then, everything can be seen and felt as a choice, and each soul who makes progress along a spiritual path can learn to choose with greater wisdom, greater love, and greater self-awareness.

Holding Suffering in the Heart of Compassion

See: Network of Light - Holding Suffering in the Heart of Compassion

The Fifth Dimension

     See: Network of Light "The Fifth Dimension."

Iran - Global Purification and the Desire for Freedom

Many have been moved by the recent protests in Tehran following last week's re-election of President Ahmadinejad. These protests which have grown larger in recent days, speak to us of the growing desire for freedom and governmental accountability among Iranians who feel, in great measure, that the election was stolen from them.

We have seen these movements elsewhere in the world, fueled by the growing force of spiritual light on the Earth which causes the heart to come forth more strongly in its desire for personal liberty, an end to discrimination, a turning away from falsehood and concealment, and a greater desire for governments to follow the will of the people. In a word, light is bringing forth the emotional and spiritual impulses that are the underpinnings for an overturning of the old ways of doing things. These movements have taken place in the Republic of Georgia, Ukraine, Tibet, and elsewhere in recent years, and can vary in degree along a continuum of peaceful to violent.

Here, a BBC account of what recently took place on the streets of Tehran:

"We Want Freedom..."
(First few seconds are blank)

Indigenous Peoples Worldwide - Movement Toward the Future - April, 2009

We do not yet know the outcome of the Conference on Indigenous Peoples held recently at the United Nations with a primary focus on climate change. But we do know that within Hopi prophecies (and those of other indigenous groups) it has been said that the white brother would have to come back to the ways of the land and learn to live in harmony with the Earth again in order to survive. The pressure of a global climate crisis is the outer event causing a rethinking of values and practices in relation to the Earth and her resources. Let us have hope that this conference and what emerges from it will create new priorities in our ways of relating to the Earth that member nations can transmit to their own governments and people.

Financial Hardship and the Soul

 

Many people have been taught to believe that if they are suffering from prolonged financial hardship, it is because they have not cleared from their karmic and historical reservoir, beliefs about scarcity. Such beliefs can include several fundamental ideas: 1) that the Universe will not provide for them because it does not care, 2) that the present collective external reality of financial downturn means there is not enough of jobs, money, resources to go around, 3) that one does not deserve success or wealth. There are other ideas connected with beliefs about 'scarcity', but these three are held by a great many people.

For those awake spiritually, thought and intention are often invoked so that positive beliefs replace negative ones, and so that one strives through the expression of positive energy to attract to oneself the financial wealth and resources that are needed. Often, this shift makes a significant difference. But sometimes it does not, and it is easy to think one is doing something wrong when financial hardship persists.

The perspective of personal error can be painful and enduring when no explanation can be found of why hardship persists despite one's best efforts, intentions, and positive beliefs. Especially in such a situation is it important to know that many souls have determined, prior to incarnating, to come to the Earth during a time of darkness and contraction when inner light does not meet outer light but rather meets only obstacles. Such souls have often agreed to be a point of light in the darkness, and a point of faith and trust during a time of severe challenge. They do this in part for their own personal learning, but also and more importantly in order to uphold an energy of love, trust, and truth for the benefit of the Earth.

Souls who have chosen to serve in this way may not know it consciously. They may only feel the pain of limitation. Nevertheless, their service lies in their being, itself, in the light and hope that they carry despite very difficult outer challenges.

For those experiencing limitation in this way, it is centrally important to feel connected to spiritual purpose - the purpose that lies behind one's having accepted difficult circumstances in life - and to release ideas of 'having done something wrong'. This may not immediately change the financial picture, though embracing trust and purpose are powerful forces for change. However, even if the situation were to continue for a while, it would no longer seem like the obstacles were of one's own making, but rather that a place within the self that was strong and pure had chosen to engage with these obstacles by coming to the Earth during a time of contraction in order to be a point of light in the darkness. This perception, and the understanding that the force of expanding light is having a progressive effect on the Earth in lifting the contraction, can lead to a deeper sense of courage and connection. Such courage and connection, no matter what the external situation, is a direct manifestation of the presence of the soul.

The Spiritual and the Physical

All that manifests physically has its roots in consciousness.

There is no disease, disorder, structural problem, or anomaly that is not created first on the level of consciousness, not necessarily within this present lifetime, but within the frame of the soul's hisstory over time

It is difficult for the human self to consider the purposes of painful experience within the body, since it is essentially human to want to be free of pain altogether. Nevertheless, the roots of consciousness must always be considered as one seeks to heal from difficulties that present themselves on a physical level.
We have known this about the world of the mental and emotional. Now we must learn it about the world of the physical. All is energy - thoughts, emotions, physical structure. Some energies appear to be more crystallized, some more fluid. Yet, on the deeper subatomic levels of our physical being, all is movement and life.

Holding this perspective, one may address healing issues from the inside out and from the outside in. While not rejecting symptomatic approaches to the healing of pain or discomfort, one may also delve deeply within the self to touch the place of truth that created the physical body in a particular way in order to serve the needs of the self.

May this process of self-discovery be blessed.

Healing Immune Deficiencies and the Boundary of Self

Many physical difficulties that people face as diseases take place at the boundary between the self and the world, between the self and life.

At this boundary exist attitudes that relate to trust of others, of life, of God, and the capacity to surrender the ego-self to something greater.

At this boundary also exist fears of harm coming to oneself, memories of past dangers - perceived or real, and all that creates a sense of un-safety in the world.

All immune disorders, deficiencies, and diseases, before they became physical problems, were aspects of consciousness, often related to the boundary between the self and world. On the physical level, such a consciousness can create a vulnerability to the transmission of harmful substances, energies, or microbial organisms from the environment into one's body, and the inability of the physical boundary known as the immune system to prevent that. Sometimes this boundary is too thick. Sometimes it is too thin. Normal immune functioning that acts as a filter and that is part of the body's natural state require a proper balance of energies between what is inside and what is outside. Only then can what is good be let in and what is harmful kept out.

This is true on both the physical level and on the psychological level as well. Indeed, there is a parallel between what exists at the physical level and what exists within consciousness, not necessarily detail for detail, but in an overall sense of good health being dependent upon the proper flow of energies between the self and the world.

Often, such health is realized through the healing of issues between self and others and between self and not-self. This takes place as one learns to say "yes" and "no" - "yes" to that which is light-filled and harmonious with one's higher truth and nature, and "no" to that which creates negativity, fear, and limitation.

Boundaries between self and not-self can be too thick or too thin, in either case creating problems with the flow of energy back and forth. An increased ability to create a boundary where little or none existed before, for some people has a direct bearing on the healing of immune difficulties. On the other hand, an increased ability to let go of separation, distancing, and projection and to reduce the boundary between self and others, can, for other people, also create a healing of boundary issues.

No matter what the physical problem, in addition to addressing the symptom picture as commmon sense would require on the physical level, one must also and more deeply seek the source of this problem in consciousness, for when deeper attitudes, motivations, beliefs, and fears are altered, so, too, will the physical condition alter.

The Healing of Anger

Many people would like to get rid of anger but do not know how. This is often because despite its inner and outer consequences, anger is frequently chosen over its possible alternatives which are deemed to be more painful. What are these alternatives, and why would one choose anger above them?

In a general sense, at the root of all anger is helplessness. One might say that at least some of the time the sense of helplessness is a perceived sense rather than a reality. Or, one might say that if one were in right relationship to life and God there would be a way through the helplessness which is a legacy of the sense of separation from the Divine. Indeed, both of these statements would be true. Neverthless, on the level of human experience, to undo anger and to approach a deeper level of truth, one must be willing to experience the underlying issues of helplessness and fear that one is warding off. This does not mean giving these feelings full power over the self. Nor does it mean that one must stop acting in self-caring ways and instead become passive. Rather, helplessness must be uncovered as an inner perception of how things are or were.

People choose anger because anger feels like it empowers the self. It reduces the feeling of helplessness and conveys both the desire and often the capacity to 'do something' about whatever is troubling. Often, however, the success of such a strategy is an illusion, since anger generally begets negative consequences either from the environment or from within oneself.

In the context of a spiritual framework, the uncovering of the feeling of helplessness needs to be accompanied by a willingness to give the helplessness to God, and trust that no matter what the circumstance, peace, hope, and healing can take place. This is possible because healing does not depend on things changing on the outside but on the inside.

These things are simple to say but often difficult to put into practice for those who have chosen anger as the safer way to live. Trust that letting go of anger will leave things alright is sometimes a difficult belief to acquire. Often, profound helplessness has been experienced in relation to dealing with circumstances that could not be changed, people who could not be changed, or the limitations of life as a whole over which one has had little or no control. Each of these things, when faced directly, can evoke a great deal of pain. For this reason, it is easy to see why one would want to choose anger and to protect against its alternatives.

Nevertheless, and despite these reasons, helplessness does not require defenses. In the presence of the feeling of vulnerability, it requires a relationship with God and a relationship with pain which allows it to be held with compassion and trust. Such compassion and trust allows the self to know that even in the presence of pain, one is alright and upheld from within.

Helplessness is not weak, nor is it bad, nor is it passive. It is part of the human experience in a state of perceived separation from God. Its strength lies in its honesty and in the relationship it creates with the Divine. Out of this relationship comes an understanding of the highest possible response to life in the way of action or non-action. This understanding applies to those situations which would formerly have been met with anger. Out of this relationship with the Divine also comes compassion for all that exists in limitation.

To undo anger, one must replace it with trust and with the desire to learn a new relationship with life. Having seen its purposefulness as a defence and also the negative consequences for oneself and others, one can choose to face the feeling of helplessness more openly. One can choose to live from a deeper truth.

Out of this choice may come the decision to lay down ones arms and armaments and to become like a little child again. Most children feel and are small and helpless without a sense of endangerment. They feel trustful and they feel protected. In a similar light, with the innocence of a child, one can learn once again to find a substitute for anger, and a new way of living that is more open and free.

The Heart of Purification

What is the heart of purification?

It is the gift of light that makes all things new,
moving everything that is into greater wholeness.

Rocks evolve into greater light,
Plants become more conscious and radiant,
Animals who have always been aware, gradually
approach the human level of consciousness.

This gift of becoming is everywhere.
It is part of the Heart of God that seeks to bring
all that lives into expanding Glory.

Inner Guidance

God's voice whispers to the inner self in ways that are both subtle and profound, sometimes in words that carry a deeper truth, sometimes in impressions of light that create a choice to go in one direction and not in another.

When we are open to such guidance and do not turn away from it out of self-doubt or the fear of being foolish, we are brought forward along the path of our own deepest awakening as Divine beings in God. By listening and responding, we move forward along the lines of our highest purpose and allow life to become one sacred whole.

Inner Landscape

   What does your inner landscape look like?

Emotional Purification

Life-changing thoughts, when applied to emotions, can free the self to experience something totally new - the inner being that is free and not limited by difficult or problematic emotional states. Thoughts such as:

I am not my emotions. Emotions are something I carry. They are not who I am.

can create a space between one's awareness and anything that is passing through it.

I am a pure and blameless child of God.

This establishes identity in a new context. Anchoring in this new context is the path of healing and purification as one seeks to transform the inner life.

I forgive myself my limitations and I ask for healing.

This is important in surrendering self-judgment and giving all to God.

Life-changing thoughts applied to emotional states allow new, light-filled energy to expand and deepen the work of inner healing.