UniVisions Spirit Connexions

by Shane Magee -

So, you think you’re enlightened? - One of the big downfalls that often happens on the path of self-improvement is a bloated sense of pride. Certainly, it helps to look back and gain confidence from what we have achieved so far. However sometimes, after a nice experience or a good spell in life, we can even feel that we have somehow figured everything out on life’s journey, and this kind of complacent feeling can easily lead to our downfall.

Where there’s an up, there’s a down - One of the reasons it is important not to be over elated about any progress you make, is that this idea can be very easily shattered by outer circumstances. One common thing that happens is when someone goes to visit some old friends or relatives, and finds themselves repeating the same negative cycles of behaviour that used to happen before they embarked on their self-improvement journey, despite all the progress they thought they made! A friend told me something humorous she read recently from one of Eckhart Tolle’s books: “If you think you’re enlightened, then go and live with your parents for a week. “

If you attach too much importance to the good times, you’ll attach too much importance to the bad times too, and believe that all your efforts so far were for nought. When it comes to evaluating inner progress, our human mind is a notoriously bad judge. The best thing is just to keep an even keel throughout both good and bad times.

Inner growth and humility go together - Something very interesting happens to people who progress along the road of self-discovery. They may start out by thinking they will obtain these things like ‘inner peace’ or ‘enlightenment’ - however, as they begin to escape from the confines of the limiting mind and live more in the heart, they feel a greater sense of kinship and connection with the world and with their fellow human beings. The focus of everything so slowly changes from a selfish one to one more geared towards making the world a better place - even their pursuit of enlightenment. Hence when the Buddha sat down at the bodhi tree he vowed to obtain enlightenment not for himself, but for all sentient beings. Real inner growth always goes hand in hand with an increased sense of humility and selflessness. Conversely, an exaggerated sense of pride about one’s achievements tells you quite a lot about the ‘quality’ of those achievements in the first place!

Always have the attitude of a beginner - No matter how far advanced you are along the road of self-discovery, it always pays to have the attitude of a beginner. Every day is a new day, every morning ripe with new possibilities for self-discovery and self-expansion. My own teacher, Sri Chinmoy, meditated for almost seventy years and reached very high levels of meditation, yet he always described himself as ‘the eternal beginner’. No matter what he achieved, every achievement was merely a launchpad for the next step.

“When we start our journey, the first step forward is our goal. As soon as we reach this goal, we achieve perfection. But today’s goal, today’s perfection, is tomorrow’s starting point; and tomorrow’s goal becomes the starting point for the day after tomorrow. Continuous progress is perfection. “ –Sri Chinmoy

Having the attitude of a beginner allows you to live in the moment, and get joy from the adventure of self-discovery, instead of anticipating an end result.

source - srichinmoybio.co.uk/blog

All journeys require effort and energy, commitment and dedication. Like all journeys however, if walked long enough, experienced long enough, and reflected on long enough certain wisdoms will be integrated. The ability to walk longer and with less energy expended. The ability to be in the moment, and also outside of the moment. The ability to see ahead, as well as behind. The ability to understand, appreciate and experience meaning in the journey.

A journey may at times make us weary, at other times it may inspire us to great levels of energy. There may be times that we stop and in despair exclaim that we can never continue, and then in what is seemingly a new moment pledge that we will never give up. At times it may seem as if all we have achieved amounts to nothing, at other times it seems as if with all we have achieved we should surely have reached the peak by now. Through it all we may at times remember to look back at the person who we are, the person that is walking, reflecting, in joy, pain, grief, anger and love. At times we may look back in gentle compassion, other times may bring regret or remorse, love and passion, wonder and confusion. At times we may be reluctant to look back at all for fear of what we may see. At other times it may seem as if all we see, the good and the bad, clear and confusing is in perfect harmony, rolling along seamlessly like clockwork.

The truth of all journeys is revealed when we begin to look back, it is an opportunity that only exists in reflection and the fact that we do carry a past - as this past is what defines the journey. That past, that journey is our present. Where we choose to direct it from here and now is made available by the extent, depth and focus of our awareness and ability to observe. The thing about observation as it pertains to the realm of mental and spiritual consciousness however is that there are more shapes, directions and forms than in the physical. While the physical is 3 dimensional, the mental exists in potentially many more dimensions. This reality can be experienced and witnessed simply by observing dualities and contradictions easily and cheerfully existing in our consciousness regardless of our beliefs and views on how reality should be.

Empowerment comes not from dictating how reality should be but by understanding why reality is how it is, then learning how to affect this reality. Gaining perspective comes from stepping back and seeing the big picture, going up and seeing from a higher vantage point, moving to the edge of the game and seeing everything that is going on. In the realm of the mental and spiritual this going to the edge, going up and seeing the big picture works in more ways that in the physical. Just like dual, opposing and contrary directions and feelings can exist within the consciousness, so too going to the edge can mean going in, moving out, looking sideways, feeling in shapes, hearing in color, seeing in sound, smelling knowledge, tasting direction and communicating all of this information with a direction of mind that is moving more and more towards clarity. Traced back all of these ways of expression, listening and communication are found from one faculty that all of us have - awareness.

source - thepathofpower.net

courtesy of SaturnsLady

by Carrie Hart -

Making Your Way Through the Forest - The more you look within, the more you will see clearly and truly. The more you invite the golden light of your soul self to flow down within you, clearing your inner eye, the more brightly will glow all that you can do and be. For it is all within you. You are, right now, everything that you need to be. You, just as you are, are exactly as you should be. There is nothing missing. There have been no mistakes.

By definition, you own the capabilities to be, express and show who you truly are. And this is what you are meant to do, to expand and glow, showing and sharing the truth that burns within you.

If you cannot see clearly where the path lies for you, do not be concerned. Sometimes it is revealed only step by step, moment by moment, like making your way through the forest in a fog. At other times, the sun shines brightly and a clearing opens for you to run across in clarity and joy.

It does not matter if you find yourself in a dense forest in the fog or in that open clearing. Either way, your shining inner self has a compass, a compass that lives in your center, deep in your heart of truth and peace. And as you feel your way along through the mossy trees, it will tell you if you are heading the right direction.

And this journey will continue until your days on the earth are over. There is no time that you will say, this is it, this is finally what I am meant to do or be. For you are already there. You are already who you are meant to be. It does not take any struggle to become yourself, for this is already achieved. And this is why your circumstances do not matter, because you have already arrived.

For in the forest of life, you only find yourself. In the depths and in the clearings, in the dappled sunshine and in the darkest undergrowth, all you find is yourself. And in truth, you are already what you seek.

Relax and be. Relax and be. Reach in and find yourself and then expand. Begin by expanding from your center, letting the golden light from your soul self fill you and set you aglow. Expand out and out. And eventually, what you do with your time here will be a reflection of this glow and you will be offered opportunities to use the glow that is you more and more. And a day will come when your truth will shine out so brightly that every word from your mouth and every movement you make will be a complete expression of your truth, pure and unsullied, and all confusion will go away. And you will shine out with a light so bright that the forest will be seen as what it is, a dream, a shadow, insubstantial, something you can see right through.

And this glow may last a moment only or it may last an hour, a day. But it will show you what is possible. And the more time you spend in that brightest glow, the more the forest will be there but not there, the more you will not even need a sun-filled clearing to run across, for the sunshine will be within you, generated by your own glow, and you will find that you can run through the trees just for the sheer joy of being.

And then, for that moment, that hour, that day, you can also lift yourself up and out of the forest altogether, to become one with the great glow that is the glow of all, of the highest and widest, of the very mind and heart of God, the glow of being and flowing and oneness, the ground state of being, the I Am presence, the heart and soul of all that is.

Touch this bright glow with your soul. Be one with it. Then carry it back down within you, to make your own truth brighter and clearer. For in the end, it is all one truth and that truth is love.

source - carriehart.com

courtesy of ♥Angel Love♥

by Jennifer Hoffman -

Your Spiritual Heart - As you ascend from the third dimension to higher dimensions of being, different aspects of your spiritual body are being activated. You become more aware of your spiritual nature and gain a new perspective of your journey. Your are more present in your Source connection and remove the veil between the spiritual and material worlds, with access to new possibilities for your reality.

The change in vibration allows you to step outside of karma and your emotional DNA and you can access a new heart energy, your spiritual heart. This heart energy is free of emotions, judgments, pain and all memory of lifetimes of suffering. It is your direct connection to Source and to unconditional love.

Your emotional heart is how you connect to others on the material plane. Your feelings of like and dislike, being in love or not, feeling fear or joy are all part of your emotional heart energy. This energy carries imprints of every past life, everything you have suffered and all of the fear that has been part of your lifetimes of experience. Many of your choices are made from your emotional heart energy for it carries the unresolved karma you have with everyone in your soul group. When you apply forgiveness to these relationships you close the connections to your emotional heart and open new connections in your spiritual heart.

Your spiritual heart carries the energy of unconditional love and has no karma for there is no karma in the higher dimensions. It connects to others through compassion and is able to recognize and connect to the divinity in everyone. There are no soul groups bound by soul wounds within this space, all who are at this vibration are part of every soul group for it is here that you understand the One-ness of All. It is in your spiritual heart that you can find peace, joy that surpasses happiness, true love and freedom from the restrictions and dense energies of the material plane.

This is a new vibration for humanity, one that is available to those who choose it from the space of willingness to blend the spiritual and material, to forego their need for emotional validation to creating their own reality according to the desires of their heart and soul. It is available to those who are willing to end karma and forgive unconditionally. You can still enjoy the same emotions that are part of your human experience, but on a different level, without the attachments to others that create the complications and lessons of your soul journey. And when you love from your spiritual heart you are joining your heart with that of the Creator, creating a vibration of unconditional love that can be experienced by all.

source - urielheals.com

by John Otis & Cheryl Hyland -

We come together once again before the exalted throne of the oneness of all creation knowing that all is connected and all is one. We come to share that which will be helpful, that which will be constructive, that which will be supportive of the unfolding of soul consciousness and the awakening to the truth of who you are as a radiant beam of love and light embodied for the moment, expressing and experiencing the patterns of life energy that are around you, that surround you and are within every aspect of your existence.

It is important to recognize that there is this infinite flow of life energy that is constantly percolating through your consciousness. There is never an end to it, even when you are resting and you have moved into the sleep state. There is still the flow of life energy that is sustaining the physical embodiment and is sustaining the flow of soul awareness as you move in your dream or sleep state into various aspects of instruction or understandings that then in a very subtle, but often pronounced way as well, become part of your life pattern for the following cycle.

Your Interactions with Others

So it is, as you move through your life pattern, you are in a constant state of evolutionary process awakening to the truth of who you are. Part of that experience is your interaction with other souls, with other embodied souls. It is part of your everyday experience within the family unit, within the social, the business, or the cultural world you live in.

There is much that can be gained and much that can be learned from each and every interaction with another embodied soul. There is an anticipation often of that which is going to occur when there is such an interaction and even more than anticipation, there are often expectations of what that relationship or what that interaction might be or should be. It is often a very subtle but important part of the interaction when something occurs which is because of the expectation. There is often a subtle or sometimes more pronounced reaction to that which is occurring within the other soul’s experience.

It is important to understand and to feel when these moments of reactionary aspects of your response come to the surface because of the expectation of the other embodied soul not doing or being that which you would anticipate and expect that soul to do or be. It is often again very subtle, but it is important to be aware of this response and to then understand why there has been this response rather than the pure joy of interacting and sharing and being the love and light you are and calling forth the same from the other embodied soul, recognizing the oneness and the unity of the creative experience.

Reality of Who You Are

You see, this is the pathway that you are yearning to walk 100% of your time. It is the pathway of awakening to being fully the living reality of who you are as the love and light of creation. When you veer from that singular truth, you become embroiled, if even for a moment, in the response and reaction to the physical, emotional and mental world that is so much a part of your experience.

The pathway you are following is one of bringing the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of your being into alignment with the emerging understanding of the truth of who you are as the pure love and light of creation, as the radiant beam of the Consciousness of Creation in motion.

Awareness

Be aware of your interactions. Be aware of your reactions or responses to that which is occurring around you, and be aware of your own inner projection of the understanding of who you are. Be aware of feeling love, of radiating light through a touch, through a smile, through a word, through an appropriate suggestion or an appropriate response that does not create a pattern of accelerating a reaction, but more brings forth the peace and harmony and the loving relationship that is foundational within the unity of soul relationship.

So there is always that potential to live and fully express and to fully be the embodiment of love and light in every interaction with other embodied souls. We leave you now with this understanding and share the reality of truth and share the wisdom of truth that comes forth to assist in the awakening process.

Know that you are indeed a soul embodied, that you are indeed a radiant beam of love and light, that you are indeed the immortal, eternal statement of creation in motion, and that you are indeed embodied in this lifetime cycle to realize these truths, the singular truth of who you are, and then to fully live it. Know that all is connected; all is one. You are I AM, the Love, Light, and Life of creation.

source - sacredwind.org

by Mike Quinsey -

For those who follow events on Earth and see them through the eyes of one who is spiritually aware, they can clearly see that the physical battle is not the key to your future. They will also understand that the ages long confrontation of dark and Light has almost reached its end, and is playing out the last acts in the drama of life. As the Light spreads across the Earth it gathers pace, as more people realize that the only way forward is to lift up into it. By these actions the dark are not only denied the negative energies that fuel their plans, but are confronted with the power of the Light that transmutes them.

As the Light grows at an exceedingly fast rate, it is drawn to each soul in a process that has the power to awaken them. They can ignore it, but it will still be enfolding them and tugs at their consciousness for recognition. It induces change by bringing the truth out, and these are challenges that go to the very heart of each individual. Even those who are deeply involved in the negativity that exists, are not beyond being awakened. However, in accordance with their life plan, they indulge in and play out their darkest dreams as part of the karmic interplay that is duality.

Freewill allows for a soul to be uplifted at any time, providing they have overcome the attraction of the lower vibrations. You can always change the direction of your path, but it takes a strong character and determination to do so. It is in the recognition of the Light that strength is found, and the realization that everything else is transient and short lived. By living in the Light the dark energies fall away, as they no longer serve any purpose that is necessary to your evolution. Life is about continually choosing your pathway, and many waver backwards and forwards until they commit themselves to the Light.

As the truth dawns on people, there is a time that arises when they review their beliefs and the purpose of life. Intuitively they will reach the conclusion that each is playing a part in bringing Light to the Earth, and that it is the highest energy within which all has its existence. You express this quite correctly as “the truth will set you free” and many understand that it is contained within. By all means follow the teachings of another if they reflect your understanding. However, always be ready for a greater truth that may come to you.

You are far from being alone on this journey through duality, and when you have reached its end as many have, it is the time for further enlightenment. Great Beings who serve others draw close and they will guide you to your goal. They respond to the decision of your inner self to live your life in Love and Light. From this one statement of your intentions, you are placing yourself on the path that leads to your Salvation and in this cycle that is Ascension.

Beyond Earth there is great activity, and mighty Beings of power that are beyond your imagination hold the Universe in their hands. Yet each and every soul plays a part that influences the outcome, albeit that it cannot change the Creator’s constantly unfolding plan. Your Solar System is changing and prepares for upliftment, and your Sun is the controlling energy that can now be seen to be having such a strong effect. All planets are rising up, and it is your choice as to whether you are prepared in readiness to go with them.

The great Law of Attraction determines your future by reflecting back to you energies that are vibrating to your level, and if you desire to be uplifted you will need to have the intent to change. Freewill is therefore a two edged sword, and the whole cycle of duality has allowed you to experience exactly as you desired. What you have learned is that freewill comes with responsibility, and if your actions harm others you will follow those experiences through until you fully understand them. Furthermore, you will make amends through karma and in so doing will redeem yourselves through that understanding.

Everything that you experience is repeatedly re-molding or confirming your beliefs. From life to life there is continual progress regardless of whether you drop down into the dark. In fact, such experiences are the springboard to a greater realization of how the dark and Light are essential to your understanding of evolution. Returning to the Light is the beginning of your exciting and wondrous journey through the higher dimensions. Evolution never stops until you once again reach the Source of All That Is, but that is still a long way off.

The low point you have experienced is but a passing phase, that will not have to be repeated once you have risen up. It is nevertheless a most important period in your evolution, and will equip you well for service to others who have yet to experience it themselves. There are times when you all envisage a Utopia in which all is in harmony, where love abounds and you experience the perfection of all creation. That vision is soon to be fulfilled and Ascension is the gateway to it, and every effort you put in to achieve it will have proved to be well worthwhile.

Live your truth in the Light of Love without any measure of it, and give gladly. This way you will be a shining light that will lift up others, and by your example you will be showing them the way to express their Higher Self. Be assured it will be noticed, and you will have planted a seed of truth that will yet come alive. There is no need or place for indoctrination or blind obedience to the beliefs of another. You are free souls that have the understanding of the truth within, and when you sit quietly in contemplation it will come to you.

source - treeofthegoldenlight.com

by Gillian MacBeth-Louthan -

You have each walked into a stairway of questing, of questioning, of asking what is the next step of my journey, of my heart, of my mission. You stand at the top of the stairway to heaven, but it does not connect to anything that you can feel or see. Your hearts’ desires live above the patterns of the mass consciousness and the mass manifestations. As you reach into your higher heart for higher truths, higher lights and higher loves; you also reach for higher creational abilities. These manifestations live in the invisible. They are visible only in your mind, in your heart and in your dreams. But they are invisible in your physical world.

You are asked to place all of your desires, your wants, and your needs –upon an invisible future. There are so few that truly know without a doubt that the invisible will manifest in accordance with how deeply, how strongly, how powerfully they believe. You cannot see your future because your future does not live here on earth. It has not come as of yet. It has not manifested, you are ahead of your creations. In this there is great frustration, as you feel all alone in your creations. It is like baking a cake from a cake mix box that has no directions on it, putting it into an oven that is invisible and turning on a timer that does not exist.

Each of you holds your personal ‘vision in invisibility.’ Every great person that has existed on this earth has held the vision in a place of invisibility. First they imagined it, then they embraced it, and then they loved it until the invisible became true. It did not come by some divine decree. It came into manifestation through the hearts, the yearnings and the desires of those that called it into existence.

You are responsible for creating the invisible dream that dwells in your heart. You hold it as one who holds a baby bird in their hands – comforting it, giving it warmth, nurturing it. You are continually birthing what you need, and what you desire.

Most people give up before it is manifested — the very day the birth is to be announced they quit, they stop, and they walk away. They think who will notice? Who will care? Everything of life notices and everything of life cares! All of Earth was ready to welcome in that manifestation that you so lovingly created, and germinated inside of your heart and that you so thoughtlessly aborted before it was birthed.

Trust the seeds that you have planted. You must trust that what your soul yearns for is true and will come forth and be birthed. The Creator does not ever and can not ever hold back from you or sequester something from you. You are given full reign on earth. You are the ones that will birth the future.

When you see a need, fill it. At that moment in time the universe is saying to you – “Help me to birth this. Help God to birth it by just holding the vision long enough for it to manifest”.

Each of you is asked continually to help birth a better future, a better Earth, just by you’re thinking. Hold the vision of goodness for your world – not just your own creations. Whenever you have an opportunity to seed another’s thought – give them the gift of what you know to be truth and hope. Hold that gift long enough until it is birthed. Do not ever give up on it. The Creator, the Source has never given up on you. Do not give up on others. Do not laugh at their dreams or toss their dreams to the wind because sometimes a person’s dreams is all that they have to live for. Help to birth the dreams, the desires, and the invisible into the visible.

source - thequantumawakening.com

by Guy Finley -

I can think of no greater encouragement than the self-evident Truth that there dwells in each of us the opportunity to explore and know the Extraordinary Life. The meaning of Extraordinary I wish to convey points to the immutable and inexhaustible source that is the secret center of each of us: a timeless resource open and available to anyone who would seek this Life that sits behind life as we know it. Will we spend our lives in mere dreams of winning a limitless life, or will we do the inner- work of awakening from this dream? Choosing the Extraordinary Life begins with our conscious work to realize it, which the following special practices help to ensure.

Seven Simple Exercises

1. Let Nagging Questions Go Unanswered: In stressful moments, listen to what life is trying to tell you about you instead of searching anxiously for familiar answers to make life feel “right” again. All fearful, doubt-filled moments are secret reflections of what we have yet to understand about life and ourselves, not life’s rejection of us or our wish for happiness. Choose to go consciously quiet whenever there is a riot in you. Refuse to take part in the search to repair what you fear may be coming undone. Let go and watch what happens when you consciously sacrifice the fear-filled self. This new action allows the Extraordinary Life to enter into you where its presence alone proves that all is well.

2. Don’t Make the Rescue Call: In times of anxiety and fear, we almost always call upon someone or something to help us get through our stress. This dependency on others for strength not only weakens our soul, but also steals from it the possibility of being educated by the Extraordinary Life, which means we miss two major lessons. First, the crucial lesson that all our fears are based upon false evidence that appears real. With this revelation comes our second realization that the same frightened self that seeks rescue secretly confirms its imagined condition as being real each time it cries out for help. Refusing to rescue ourselves from inner states that scare us invites the Extraordinary Life that shows us that no such scared self exists that needs saving.

3. Take the Hard Way: Rut and routine are two sides of the same sad street. Repetitive patterns are the well-worn pavement that our spiritually asleep self loves to tread while it talks us to death with its empty promises of extraordinary times “just ahead.” We can learn to do much better let ourselves be betrayed in this way, but it takes inner work! Instead of caving into the demands of those slipshod parts of ourselves always looking for the easy way out, we must choose in favor of what our false nature wants us to see as being the “hard” way. But it’s not. In fact, once we learn that the only real way out of what we would rather avoid is to go through it, we discover another self-liberating truth: the only thing that’s hard on us is when we allow our unenlightened nature to convince us that getting around something is the same as rising above it.

4. Do the Thing You Fear Doing: There is a correct time and place for thinking through practical plans in the ordinary scheme of life’s events. But nothing that is founded in thought can serve to reveal the unthinkable plans that the Extraordinary holds in store for anyone willing to leap into the moment without a parachute. Never mind those old fears of falling. Just jump! Being willing to risk failing is a prerequisite for fearless living. If you will take the leap into what you are afraid of doing, the Extraordinary Life will prove to you that Its unshakable ground is everywhere beneath you at all times. Nothing compares with this discovery because, once realized, there’s nowhere to go but up! A note of caution: taking a spiritual leap is far different from taking a reckless physical risk. Never risk the well being of your physical body for the sake of a passing thrill: for what is possible to attain with a body, cannot be without one. The temporary rush of adrenalin has nothing in common with one’s awakening to the reality of a timeless, fearless life.

5. Take Time Out from Yourself Every Day: Unseen by the self that walks upon it, thought is a treadmill powered by the movement of our yesterdays as they produce our tomorrows. This is the real meaning of “doing time.” The domain of the Extraordinary Life is Timeless. To share Its life, we must enter into Its world. Here is a good way to begin this Work: Every day, as often as can be remembered, chose to break out of that gilded, but self-confining cage called “thinking about yourself.” We live under the power of these unconscious ponderings, for when they turn dark and stormy, it is we who are left out in the cold. Even if we can only collect ourselves to meditate, pray or contemplate a Higher Idea for a few minutes at a time, we must do it anyway. These small windows — opened by our work to remember the Extraordinary Life — grant us passage into its timeless domain.

6. Open Yourself to Life: Dare to see and experience yourself as you are without giving names to all the varied emotional sensations that present themselves before your watchful inner eyes. Allow the meaning of whatever states you see coming up in you to reveal their actual nature to you. Resist the temptation to interrupt their upwelling by explaining to yourself what you are experiencing. Have no intention toward these thoughts and feelings other than to be open to them and, in doing so, to permit them their uninterrupted passage through you. Why open up to life in this way? For one thing, this gives negative states the back door they need to depart. For another, the Extraordinary Life is very possessive. It will not enter any zone marked “occupied. “

7. Make No Campsites: The Extraordinary Life visits individuals, not groups or organizations. It strengthens the soul willing to be alone for its sake. Keep your distance from people who insist that you believe as they do, who hope to convince you that the reality they have satisfied themselves with should satisfy you as well. These deceivers want only to keep you in their unreal camp. Never mind who is walking with you and who isn’t. Be wary of any campsite — inner or outer — with its bright “welcome weary traveler” sign. Most of these campers desire your company so that they can forget they are going nowhere. Walk on! Your persistence is an open invitation to the Extraordinary Life to show you the Way back home.

From “Let Go and Live in the Now”

source - guyfinley.com

by Guy Finley -

Choose to Remember - The Wise Ones have always taught the great gift of remembering the Living Light and the practice of placing ourselves in its presence before we embrace anything else. Of course the elevated nature of this kind of remembrance in the face of our trials requires our deliberate and conscious willing of it; but, to paraphrase St. Augustine, “My remembrance of thee is really an effect of thee remembering me.” Which means that everything about Reality is already set up to help us succeed with our new aim.

So, in that same moment when you realize that something painful from your past has again pressed its way into you, holding you hostage to a hated image or painful regret, here is what to do: right there, right in that Now, instead of capitulating into that familiar state of feeling yourself to be a captive of what this pain tells you that you must remember (along with all of its suggested solutions for ending the suffering), you choose to remember the Light. Here is a quick look at what this new inner action entails.

Instead of being drawn into a struggle with that unwanted sense of conflict, complete with its cast of supporting characters drawn from your past, intentionally withdraw your attention from that stage show. And at the same time as you close the curtain on it, bring all of your reclaimed attention into the Now. Come awake to the sense of your own physical body. Observe what thoughts and feelings are pressing themselves into your awareness and, while working in the Now like this, welcome into you a conscious remembrance of the Light, of God’s Life, of the whole truth as best you understand it.

To help get you started, here are a few other suggestions. When an angry thought flashes in your mind, accompanied by the fiery sensations born of recalling some injustice done to you in the past, instead of remembering the resentments this little image stirs in you, turn the tables on it. Bring its little troubled life into your remembrance of that greater presence within you that dwells well beyond its punishing power. Work like this whenever you can and, like a pebble tossed into a deep pond, the ripple effects of that past pain will simply disappear into the healing nature of the Now. Instead of a life of endless resistance, you will learn the timeless secret of how to replace any form of darkness with the Light you have chosen over it.

Choose to remember the Light. Let it fight for you. Not only will this Living Intelligence lift you above the fray of all that should be forgotten, but it also will guide you back home to a timeless place in yourself where the past no longer dwells.

excerpt from ‘Let Go and Live in the Now’

source - guyfinley.org

THE PATH OF SERVICE

by George Catlin -

We are all part of the great evolutionary process through which matter with its inherent quality of separation is gradually transformed into spirit with the inherent quality of union. We choose our own speed on the path – some going slowly and others more quickly. For those who want to advance most rapidly, service to others becomes central to their entire orientation to life.

Why do we serve? Because we are souls in incarnation who, at the deepest level, know only unity. We literally know that we are one with all life at the very core of our beings. We remember in a deep and profound way that separation is but an appearance sustained by the mind as a fact of life. In reality we know beyond all doubt that we are our brothers and sisters: one life expressing in many forms.

All these truths are seldom experienced in waking consciousness, yet they remain deeply embedded within our awareness. When we serve, we allow that deepest part of ourselves to express. The rest of our being – in particular those aspects of mind and emotion that are deeply associated with separation – can become unhappy, uncomfortable and anxious almost to the state of panic if we persist in helping others. This is the crux of this path: all that would resist our soul nature rages to the fore to be seen for what it is. And now we must be very skillful. Can we lovingly accept these voices, needs and thoughts without surrendering to them? Can we see them as children who it is our privilege to educate? Can we allow them to express their experience without fully identifying with it as our experience? Can we honor the voice of separation without becoming that voice?

All this is difficult. It requires considerable psychological awareness and a firm commitment to the soul, the path, the entire spiritual nature of that life within us. But for those who possess these qualities, service and the radical path of self-transformation it fosters become central to life. We endure the tension of transformation because it is our deepest calling.

Again, service is the nature of the soul. It knows only love. It incarnates time after time gradually bringing the personality to a point of development where it can begin to sense the soul. From there on it is only a matter of time before the union of soul and personality becomes complete and the world beholds a great server of all life such as Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Teresa. These know only love and find the ways to meaningfully express that love in the world.

All of us are ultimately called to our own smaller versions of their triumphs. We are here to bring love into the world in some way – perhaps only in our family relationships or perhaps through broader spheres of human interaction. We are embodiments of love who need to find the ways to express our essence and reduce the emphasis on our separate forms. Look for small steps every day. Eventually they add up to a great journey.

source - phenomenews.com