The Journey Within
This is such a timely, clear and simple message. Enjoy!
Posts tagged ‘Self Realization’
Finding Self in Another
“Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice.” –William Jennings Bryan
Have you ever experienced a moment, perhaps while meditating or reading a book, when the big picture flashed in front of your mind’s eye for just a split second and it was so big that you were at a loss to find words to even begin to describe what you are seeing? Well, I’m having such a moment now, and I will take up the challenge to find the words that adequately, if only partially, convey the vision that is currently out-picturing itself in my tiny little mind.
The kernel of truth in this vision of the big picture that jumps out at me is that we can find ourselves only in one another, because it’s in another human being that we have a window through which to peer into and connect with the Whole of which we are a part. And it’s how I treat the one right next to me that determines whether that window stays open or closes.
I have come to realize this truth right here in this little house on Bilbo Street, where, in my ageing years, I find myself, by choice and well as chance, living closely with another human being, a person whom I invited some sixteen years ago to be my wife and traveling companion for the rest of our shared journey here on Earth. It is here with her that I have come to know more fully and completely what it means to love another as my Self, and that love can only be unconditional – naturally so. I could not have any conditions placed upon how I love my Self. It’s impossible even from an egotistical standpoint and much more from an angelic standpoint of authenticity as a Self-realized human being. The essence of the truth of love is its unconditional nature, and the truth of love is oneness.
“DEEP TRUTH”
Yes, if you’ve been following my blogs, you can tell that I’m reading another book that is giving me yet another window through which to peer into the world through the eyes of another author, this time through the eyes of world-renown lecturer, scientist, and prolific author, Gregg Braden. His book of 2011 is DEEP TRUTH. And, of course, like most books I’ve read and written about lately, this one, in my humble opinion, is another “must read” for everyone on the planet.
As a side note – though not so incidental to this post – I picked up Braden’s book at a friend and colleague’s house up in Denver, Colorado while attending to him as he completed his earthly journey of service to his fellow wayfarers. I took the book home with me as a memento, along with a portrait of the developer of our chiropractic profession, Dr. B.J. Palmer (BJ), that was painted by a mutual friend, Frank Brown. At the bottom of this portrait, the artist inscribed a famous quote that has stayed with me since my college days:
We never know how far reaching something we may think, say or do today will affect the lives of millions tomorrow. It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Get the idea, all else will follow.
BJ called it “The Big Idea.” The big idea throughout Braden’s book is that we are One People who share one small, almost insignificant planet, in a vast cosmos along with billions of other incarnate beings – or is it rather One Being incarnate in billions of humans — and we’ve been doing this for a much larger period of time than we’ve been taught in high-school history class, the story line and poignant message of Gregg Braden’s book.
According to the author’s exhaustive research over his twenty-plus years as a scientist and discoverer of the “deep truth” weaving human civilizations together as one people, our history as a species dates back to pre-ice-age eras and encompasses the rise and fall of many civilizations far more advanced than our own. His moral message is that unless we remember our past mistakes that led to the collapse of our numerous attempts to create a truly civil way of living together, we are condemned to repeat them – an idea, first put forward by philosopher George Santayana (1863 – 1952), whose time has come to our generation for serious consideration, for our days are numbered.
Groundhog Day
The kernel of Gregg’s message is summarized in the following paragraph, a paragraph that gave rise to the vision of the Big Picture that flashed across the window of my mind:
Like a real-life Groundhog Day (the 1993 motion picture where Bill Murray plays a man caught in a single day of his life that repeats dozens of times until he recognizes the moment when his choice can break the cycle and change the outcome, our understanding of how our ancestors responded to cycles of crises in the past may offer us the opportunity to choose wisely before we make the same kinds of mistakes that led to the collapse of great early civilizations.
I had never seen this message in the movie itself, but it’s there to see, intentionally or not, when we back away from our immediate surroundings and our personal stories and take a glimpse at the larger picture – a long glimpse.
The choice Bill Murray’s character had to make was an internal one, which alone could break the spell of living the same day over and over. After doing everything imaginable in his outer lifestyle to break the spell, all to no avail, he one day woke up with the “big idea” that he could love the people in his life and his work, including the woman who was his partner in news-reporting, a woman whom he had womanized as a typical male seeking self-gratification. He finally broke through the veil of his own selfish, self-centered preoccupation and began seeing her for who she was, someone whom he could love and with whom he could find meaning and purpose for his life. When he finally broke through and made that internal choice – to love another human being as much as he loved himself and to treat others with respect and compassion, which he began doing – a new day dawned.
To relate this to the theme of the groundhog story, although in a converse way, when he saw his own shadow and made a choice to change the way he was looking at the world, his winter of endless repetitive days came to an end as he awakened to a New Day.
Gregg Braden’s book offers us a new and more comprehensive view of our world and of our past. It starts by unlearning our history so that we can see and learn what actually occurred in our past that brought us to naught so many times in our endeavors to create a lasting civilization. He ends this particular chapter by posing these questions:
To think this way leads to new questions that we owe it to ourselves to answer:
- What can we learn from the collapsed civilizations of the past that may help us avoid in our time the mistakes they made in theirs?
- Where are we in H. G. Wells’s “race” between learning about the past and catastrophe?
I will end on that note for us all to ponder. Until my next post,
Be love. Be loved.
Anthony
Visit my Health Light Newsletter online at LiftingTones.com. for informative articles on holistic healthcare and living.
Here’s a link to Gregg Braden’s latest film: https://www.gaia.com/lp/missing-links/
Hunger for Meaning
“…the greatest hunger of all, is the hunger for meaning.”
“The Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert talk about the two “hungers”. There is the Great Hunger and there is the Little Hunger. The Little Hunger wants food for the belly; but the Great Hunger, the greatest hunger of all, is the hunger for meaning…
There is ultimately only one thing that makes human beings deeply and profoundly bitter, and that is to have thrust upon them a life without meaning.There is nothing wrong in searching for happiness. But of far more comfort to the soul is something greater than happiness or unhappiness, and that is meaning. Because meaning transfigures all. Once what you are doing has for you meaning, it is irrelevant whether you’re happy or unhappy. You are content – you are not alone in your Spirit – you belong.” –Laurens van der Post (Photograph of Sir Laurens Van Der Post, with a Bushman in the Kalahari Desert.)
A friend posted this on Facebook this morning and it resonated with what I have been thinking deeply about this week in the wake of my grandson’s graduation from High School last month up in Ashland, Oregon. I sent him my blessing in a letter in which I offered a few morsels of wisdom and insight into life. I wrote
As your paternal grandfather, I bestow upon you the blessings of your forefathers and mine. With this blessing comes the responsibility to be fruitful in your life. Your life will bear fruit as you pursue what it is you love doing that also serves and benefits others, and you have plenty of examples and role models in your immediate family of fruitful living. You can look to them, to us, for guidance along the way at any time. I am available to you for as long as I am present in this world.
Throughout my life and professional career as a holistic practitioner, I have found much meaning in serving others. The meaning of my entire life has been in serving others. It has been for me as though there are no “others” but only One being with many diverse and colorful faces, of which I am but one such expression. As I gave to others I was giving to myself. For me, there is no greater meaning one can find in life than giving of oneself in service to others.
Lead forth with Spirit
Further on in my letter I offered this assurance and encouragement to my grandson:
You are 18 now, and that number resolves to a 9 in numerology. Nine is the symbol of a completed cycle bringing forth. The circle on top represents the cycle completed, and the line coming down from the circle represents the One you are coming forth into your world to begin a new cycle, a new day. What you will create in this next cycle is entirely up to you. You have all that you need in yourself to achieve your presence in this world and to bring forth your gift. Always remember that Life provides for your needs at all times. All you need do is ask and you will receive from within; seek and you will find what you are looking for; knock and the way will open up before you. Just keep moving and your life will take form as you go forward. Lead forth with your spirit. All else will follow. . . .
Spirit. How many youngsters graduating from our scholastic institutions come away with an awareness of the importance of their spirit? “Lead forth with my spirit? You’ve got to be kidding. It’s my education that will get me what I want and need out of life: success, money, identity and meaning.” That’s what we were taught, and look where it’s got us. Mark Twain had a way of saying things that made people think: “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” The school of life is the one that matters, and one lives with or without a higher education. Spiritual education matters most. As we lead forth with our spirit, with our hearts through which spirit works, our minds with their concepts and ideas will follow to help in providing form for our dreams and aspirations born of spirit. But it’s spirit, vibration, that shapes our worlds.
The word education has the Latin root Educare which means to draw forth. What is there to be drawn forth by our teachers? Obviously that which is already there within the student: genius, creativity, something that’s new and unique, that’s not yet been given or seen! Something the world is waiting for and for which the times are ripe! Something that will make a difference in the world.
When our older son was setting out to make his life, he told me he just wanted to make a difference in the world. And so he has indeed. He didn’t go to college either. For as long as I’ve known him, he has led forth with his beautiful and creative spirit and zest for life. He is truly, and in every practical way, the light of his world. And his world gathered around him in rich abundance, pressed down and running over. Our younger son is having the same experience in his life. “Stuff” has a way of coming to those who love what they are doing in life, and in good measure and balance.
You see, the world is nothing but coagulated energy, made of light and sound vibrating at a myriad of frequencies. Energy is vibration and vibration shapes our worlds. The vibration of the light of love originates in spirit and is an attractive energy that draws substance together in a cohesive whole. The vibrations of greed and competition, on the other hand, originate in ego and are dissipating energies that require great effort in order to hold onto the stuff one accumulates to fill one’s world and hopefully give one a sense of meaning and value. Only it doesn’t. Meaning and value are not to be derived from stuff. They are inherent within our very being. We are human beings not human doings. Our meaning and value is in who we are as creators and not in what we do and create in our lives — and the nature of our meaning and value has very much to do with the times and places in which we were each placed.
We were made for these times and this place!
I said this in my letter to my grandson that I hope will give set him in search for his meaning:
And remember to give thanks in all things, no matter how hectic and turbulent things may get – and they will. Just keep looking up and, like the proverbial bar of soap, you will go up when squeezed. You can handle whatever comes to you, for you were made precisely for these times.
I am proud of you for simply being who you are, for who and what you are is enough. Always remember that. You are enough. As you mature spiritually, you will come to discover and reveal your Higher Self, that which we all seek to know more fully: our Self. But for now, you are enough. Now, go forth and shine your sweet and beautiful light, your unique gift to us all and to the world. You are the light of your world. Shine brightly so that you can see the way before you.
A wise teacher once said “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” We live in dark times, but it doesn’t help any to complain about them. We were each and every one of us made precisely and purposefully for these times. It doesn’t take a college education or a degree to see what is needed in our times. Should we need a reminder, we have the Peace Prayer of St. Francis to revisit from time to time. I’ll leave you with it.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Just reading this prayer ignites and fans a flame in the heart. “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” Yes! There is genuine meaning and purpose in these words. May they be a light in the world unto our young boys and girls of this new generation who face greater challenges than I know I did when I graduated from high school and college a few decades ago. God bless them each one and keep them safe.
Until my next post,
Be love. Be loved
Anthony
Read my HealthLight Newsletter online for helpful guidance and information.
Healing Tones 