The Creative Impulses of the Soul

As light increases on the Earth, the creative impulses of the soul become stronger and the desire to express what is most true and most deeply held begins to feel more urgent. Being aware of these deepening motivations allows a choice to be made. One can stay with the more tightly bound habits of the past, or one can embrace the expansion and motivation to expand and be willing to risk moving into a new and unforeseen future.

No matter which choice is made, the pressure to integrate more fully with one's own soul identity is part of the time we are in. It is not an individual phenomenon but a planetary one. Despite the changes that this is bringing and will bring to relationships everywhere, it will also allow life individually and collectively to become more truthful, more caring, and more real.

Interacting With Others as Souls

The world is still greatly in need of healing, and one of the areas in which this is evident is the way in which work often dehumanizes people, casting them into narrow roles where they are compelled to separate themselves from their heart.

The next time you are involved in a difficult conversation with someone in a role - a salesperson, customer service representative, technical support person, consider this: each is a soul, and every person, if they really could choose, would choose to live with their hearts intact and not separate themselves from what is most important. Our current view of work and of relationships in general creates this separation. It is important to try, therefore, to get past this obstacle and to wish for others what they would wish for themselves - the possibility of living and working as a whole being with a whole heart.

In interacting with others, even when they are identified with their roles, see if you can still remain in your own heart. The practice of compassion will take you out of whatever role you are in and center you in a wider sphere of truth.

The Choice for Consciousness

The refinement and growth of conscious awareness is part of spiritual evolution. It is what enables greater freedom to take place within the individual and within one's life.

And yet many are reluctant to become more conscious, partly out of fear, and partly because it seems like work. The truth is that there is no other work that one takes embodiment for except to become more conscious. Despite the great variety of human experience and the variability of cultures, societies, and historical epochs, each human being, at whatever point they are at in their journey, is here to become more conscious.

If you are afraid, then, to learn more about yourself, or think there is nothing more to learn, perhaps it is time to look more deeply at your fear in that particular area, since all of light and love are here to support you. New doors are opening within you to think, feel, and love with greater freedom. It may be time to embrace these opportunities which will bring you to your own Divine self. Blessings.

The Practice of Respect

Respect, like many other spiritual practices, is something that can be experienced at deeper and deeper levels. Most people practice respect according to the norms of their culture and society, learning ways of speaking and acting toward elders, those in authority, friends, colleagues, etc. This is the simple encoding or conditioning of behavior through collective agreement and it is an important feature of what society teaches in order to maintain itself.

However, respect from a spiritual perspective is deeper than this. It has to do with viewing others outside of their roles as souls and children of God. This kind of respect grows in a natural way as the connection with one's own soul-essence deepens, but along the way there are things that can be done, and ways of perceiving that can be cultivated that foster the development of respect for the soul of others.

1. Allow your world to unify. Look at everyone you meet as a soul whether they are serving you lunch in a restaurant, driving a bus, or speaking rudely to you in passing. Their soul-nature is not dependent on their outer behavior.

2. Become aware of judgments you have concerning the behavior of another. Forgive yourself the judgment and ask for healing of all judgments. In the place of judgment, affirm the Divine soul-nature of the other silently to yourself.

3. Understand that you cannot take something from another that does not belong to you without it diminishing or hurting you at the same time. Many still live in fear about not having what they need, and so 'taking something' rather than asking for it or waiting for it to be given, whether physical or emotional, is a not uncommon practice. When fear diminishes through the incorporation of trust in the Divine, the desire to respect all of life - persons, animals, the Earth, one's own body - is a natural outgrowth. The capacity to wait for life to bring what is needed also follows.

Namaste.

Which Reality Do You Choose?

We make the choice to be more conscious or less conscious in each moment of every day. Which reality do you choose?

Often, the response to this question is determined by how much discomfort we are feeling and whether the need to 'get away from it' is more important than the need to become more aware of it, its quality, its source.

Consciousness is a great gift and a great responsibility. The feeling exists within the separated state that certain things cannot be looked at too closely or faced without great danger. Within the increasingly present state of at-one-ment, consciousness becomes more possible since the sense of integration with one's larger identity allows more internal space to see what is actually there.

May all beings be blessed with the space created by light to embrace the self on all levels. Amen.

Presentness and Emotions

How can you be present with all and wherever you are, when different reactions are evoked by different people and different circumstances?

To be present, one must be aware, not cloudy, within a clear space, not burdened by inner preoccupations. This, however, is not an either-or condition, but rather one that is achieved in degrees and increments. It can also take place in certain situations and not in others. What is important is to note how present you are and to be aware of what holds you back. It is also important to hold the intention to be present to life as a way of life. Without this, the personal and collective emotional field of energies can sweep you away into whatever is going on in the moment.

A question was asked concerning the stabilization of one's energy field that I spoke of in "New Ways of Relating - Part 2." Here is the response, which also relates to the issue of 'presentness'. To be unaffected by the streams of emotional energy that surround you while being able to respond to others with love is a measure of both presentness and inner stability.

Stabilizing One's Energy Field

New Ways of Relating

The emerging consciousness of one's own Divine nature and unity with all of life brings a new paradigm for relationships into being. It is based on the recognition of others as souls, and not merely as personalities.

This is important, for if you hold the consciousness of others as souls, then you are more capable of overlooking difficult behavior that might otherwise hurt or wound you, realizing that that other person is doing the best they can with their own learning and healing process. If you view them as a soul, and stop identifying them with their outer self, you will be silently but effectively offering them an invitation to become more of what you are perceiving and sensing beneath the outer layer.

This invitation to become the inner self is fostered by not reacting with rejection, anger, blame, or judgment to the outer self.

It takes only ONE person to do this - a person who is conscious and who wants to become more so. Blessings.


See New Ways of Relating - Part 2

Breathing

Paying attention to one's breath is an important way of coming more fully into the present moment. Many people know this, but do not take the time to do it, often because they are too busy with other things to remember to breathe with awareness.

Breath connects us to life-force and to our inner life. It creates a consciousness of what is going on in the body and hear, not just the mind. It opens us to inner guidance. The reasons for not paying attention to breathing at times throughout the day are simple - we are too involved with what is going on in our minds to do so.

Becoming more fully involved in the present moment is a doorway to new experience that cannot happen while one is fully engaged with the mind. What new experience? This depends upon the flow of awareness that is uniquely the inner journey of each soul.

The experience of the present creates a new view of life - one that does not rely on worrying, planning, and thinking, in order to feel safe. Instead, it relies on trusting, allowing, and participating in the flow of life in order to feel safe. This is an important part of the consciousness shift that is happening now and it can happen more fully for those willing to embrace the present moment with love and care, as if it mattered. Each moment matters. Each is sacred. But to perceive this one must be there with one's full self. This is God's invitation to each soul - to show up at the feast of life.

Relationships as Energy

The effect of increased spiritual light on people's bodies, whether they are conscious of it or not, is that the body becomes less solid and dense and more light-filled. As a consequence, human beings become more sensitive to the energies passing through them from their own unconscious mind, as well as energies passing through them from others.

This is a new phenomenon, one that has not been part of human experience before in a widespread way. And so most people do not know what to do with these energetic perceptions or even that they are having them. Since conscious awareness does not mediate responsiveness in many cases, it becomes more likely that individuals will react unconsciously to either the light in another or to the darkness in another, depending upon what they feel and resonate with at a given moment in time.

If you have been feeling certain people becoming more reactive to you in recent times, it may be because they are becoming more energetically sensitive (on the level of the body) without being more energetically aware. Light can join with light in another, but darkness can also react to light's presence with discomfort, projection, or rejection. Darkness can join with darkness in another even when that other is being amiable and not exhibiting it outwardly. This is because the ENERGY within, not the PERSON, is joining with what it perceives inside.

This is a time which calls for greater awareness, greater patience, and greater trust, that these energetic reactions are all part of the process of healing and that all is in motion toward that end. In relation to others who may be less conscious of being in or needing to be in a healing process, patience and forgiveness are needed since the process is happening whether one is aware of it or not.

Try, therefore, not to take things personally when others are reactive to you in ways that may be uncomfortable or different from how they have been in the past. Love is the best and primary healing force in all difficult situations, and it only takes one to love, not two. With this in mind, all relationships can be moved along further in the direction of wholeness and healing. May all be blessed in the light of a new day. JR

Intellect and Soul

Many people who have been closed are now opening to a deeper sense of life and of themselves. The rational left brain is pondering its own experience and the limitations of that experience and beginning to reach for something else.

Often, what slows down this process and makes it more laborious is the way in which the intellect has been used to protect the self from feeling or knowing certain deeper levels of awareness. This protection has worked well in many cases, since with a well-honed intellect one can operate very successfully in the world - at least outwardly.

And yet the intellect is not the soul. Beneath the rational mind and the outer success is the awareness that something else is missing. Eventually, over time, a reaching for that something else takes place.

Help toward making the shift toward greater feeling, intuition, inspiration, and softeness in general can be had by making efforts in the direction of acknowledging whatever fear may be present toward doing so.

Sometimes, the intellect has done such a good job disguising this fear that it is invisible to the conscious self. Nevertheless, the turning of the soul toward a deeper level of truth will produce the beginning changes that need to happen to open up a different level of awareness. The principle of "ask and it shall be given" is true here, for those who desire to know the truth of their deeper nature will find it.

How to Become More Present in the Present

1. Believe: The most important thing in your life is what is happening right now. 'Right now' includes what is inside you as well as what is outside.

2. Know: God manifests within human experience most readily when the undertow of past memories, thoughts, feelings, and worries are left behind and an empty space is created. The empty space welcomes the Divine.

3. Cultivate simplicity. Being proud to be busy or stressed as a sign of success does not allow for the development of an inner life that flourishes in quiet and in peace.

4. Let go of any belief you carry that you are not responsible if you give time to yourself, time to be alone, time to make contact with the Divine. Your responsibilities to Life include bringing your whole self to it. This is not possible without a deep connection with your own being.

5. Rest. Find a balance between activity and non-activity. Especially now that increased spiritual light is changing your body in ways that you may not be aware of,
rest is needed to reveal the new possiblities that are developing within you.

6. Allow love to be more important than it has been. The transformation of an entire planet is taking place around and because of the vibration of love. Let this be your primary focus.

7. Express gratitude on a daily basis. Gratitude allows you to interact more deeply with life. You can be grateful for each day, and especially for each interaction with others. Each time you show up, a flower opens in God's heart.

Spiritual Anchoring

  Mandala of the Inner Life

From: Beginning a Spiritual Practice,
www.lightomega.org
It is hard to be fully present with oneself or with others when one is, at the same time, avoiding feelings of pain. Often, the heart shuts down so as to not feel at all, when anticipated feeling threatens to create a tidal wave that one fears will innundate.

At a time of heightened intensity everywhere, one must anchor in heightened love that resides in the core of the self. No one is without this resource. There is only greater or lesser difficulty in experiencing it. The importance of spiritual anchoring at this time is that it teached that emotions are not the bottom line of one's identity. That emotions are real, but that there is something even more real that can be discovered. This enduring core of truth remains, no matter what the emotional self may be feeling.

This, beloveds, is the profound turning point in human consciousness that we are at today, namely, the awareness that emotions are not who we are but only a layer of who we are, and that there is something of God to be turned to within each one that can stabilize, uplift, inform, and create the means for dealing with whatever challenges life presents.

May it be so for all. Amen.

The Open Door Moment

The 'open door moment' is a moment of interactive possibility with another person or situation where an invitation is present to allow healing or love to go to a deeper level. The perception of possibility must be gained through intuition, since the outer self of another may not themselves recognize the new possibility emerging. Prayerfulness in general and in particular about allowing oneself to become an instrument of healing awakens intuition toward these moments. However, they also require the putting aside of personal needs and fears so that a true perception of what exists for the other can take place.

The world of possibility and of new life exists all around us in nature, within ourselves, and in relationship with others. To recognize new life emerging one must pay close attention. Then, the choice is present to align with that new life through some form of expression, or to close down around it due to fear or self-doubt. At times one's response can involve both opening and closing simultaneously. Then trust must be strengthened so that only the response of openness remains.

Trust yourself and your prayers. Trust God and the soul within all that is always seeking a way to come forward. Trust your inner wisdom to know if the moment is now.

Standing at the Threshold

    Standing at the Threshold

Understanding Others

Understanding others does not depend upon having had an identical experience to what another is feeling, nor does it depend upon a course of study that develops conceptual knowledge, though each of these can contribute to understanding.

More than anything else, understanding others comes from living in a clear space where one's own needs, fears, and concerns no longer obscure truth. For the reality of what is shines with a light of its own when it is not covered over by darkness. Then, the truth of another can emerge clearly, be seen, felt, and appreciated.

It is in this way that peace in the world can be born - not through each seeking their own advantage and finding a fragile compromise that may or may not work for a time, but by each developing the capacity to come together in a clear space, in trust, and in the willingness to pursue truth.

Voices of Hope

  VOICES OF HOPE

When peace flows like a river
then I will be at peace.
When love flows till forever,
My heart will find its ease.
When truth is everpresent,
and falsehood no longer preys,
My heart will know the Earth has found
its home in God's embrace.


Artwork: Peace Mandala by Corinna Zubin-Lyon

The Art of Life or Life as Art

When we speak of 'art' as a subject, we tend to solidify it so that we call to mind things that have been made like paintings, sculptures, pieces of music or other forms. This is a content or 'outcome' approach to art that does not address the deeper level of the creative process.

The creative process of art and the creative process of life are the same. They emerge from the same flow and originate at the same Source. They both have as their motive the need to express the essential self. Art-as-process in its most fundamental sense is a Divinely ordained process - the inner being or soul wanting to express on the physical plane. Here, the question is not whether one has talent or what the ultimate form will be that gives shape to that expression, but what the inner drive or longing is to communicate what needs to be said. This will-to-express can take any form or no form. It is the drive of the inner being that creates beauty, that creates relationships that are loving and that creates the shape of a life itself.

We need to find a new language in which to speak of this so that art and life no longer seem so separate. Thinking of both as emanating from the inner wellspring that wants to live fully helps our understanding. Both art and life are expressions of our will-to-live, and not only our will-to-live, but God's will to live and to express through us.

More about this subject can be discovered by ordering the CD called "Art, Spirituality, and the Choice to Live," a Dharma talk given by Julie Redstone recently. For inquiries contact information @lightomega.org.

Art, Spirituality, and Life

    Which one is this: art, spirit, or life?
- the Divine within the ordinary -    

   Or this?   
We tend to think of art, spirituality, and life as three separate domains, with rules and constructs that govern each. Yet, these three are only divided when we look at them from the outside in, in terms of the content they represent and the forms they display. When we look at the outer form of a work of art, the outer practice or name of a spiritual path, or the outer shape of a life, we imagine that we are having three different conversations about three different things.

This is only a matter of perspective, however. For when we look not at form but at the inner process by which each comes into being, we find that art, spirituality, and life all come from the same source. They are all avenues of exploration and expression that seek channels from the inner to the outer, from the invisible to the visible, and from the un-named to the named.

In the truest sense, we are all artists and we are all mystics. Our art emanates from the desire to express our deepest being as it arises into awareness in a steady flow of consciousness. Our life and our spirituality emanate as part of the same process.

Each person who discovers this source within themselves has something to say, something to create in the way of art, and something to share and live by as a spiritual principle. There is no one who is poor in this respect. All are complete at the level of inner being. Only the links to access this level need to be forged anew so that the well of life, spirit, and creativity can be born and find its home within time and space.

Those who feel that they are not 'artistic' are emphasizing the form aspect of creativity rather than the process aspect. Yet, the form aspect is the less important of the two, for it can be learned, unlearned, adapted, or let go of altogether in favor of the creation of a new form. The process, on the other hand, is given. It is a deep flow that comes from the inner being that pushes its way forward with the desire to express the beauty and truth that each self carries. Even when the outer self believes that only others carry this sense of beauty, this is never true. Each created being comes from the source of beauty, and therefore each has something uniquely beautiful to share.

Life, too, can become a work of art, and each gesture within life an expression of the impulse to create, a witness to the Divine. This is the highest form of art, not only to contain Creation within a vessel that has a name, and a place, and a time of construction or authorship. The highest form is to fully send the creative impulse from deep within the self into one's life, allowing it to shape, and create, and expand endlessly as the fulfillment of the prophecy of who one is.


Photos: Claude Renault - Women and Saris.

Spices - Kolkata - West Bengal

Choosing Life

This is the moment in time in which all can become new, not from the outside in but from the inside out.

Each moment is a choice made from the eye of the perceiver - how do you hold your life? How do you hold your relationship with God? How do you hold the others who pass by you throughout the day?

These are the choices to make daily, within each moment, within each breath, with the flow of each thought. Let the atoms of your being know that you choose life and love.

Inspiration

Inspiration opens the doors of perception so that truths that were not formerly accessible to the inner knowing suddenly become accessible. Inspiration is like a doorway in the mind that suddenly opens to reveal a room that one did not know was there. In this room are often the deeper truths remembered by the soul that are temporarily unavailable to the outer being. Also, within this room are the expansive connections with the world of Essences in which all things can be known. This is the world of Divine knowledge as compared to human, in which profound mysteries can be revealed.

It was in this way that I came to know more deeply than before, something that is profoundly true about the Earth.

In the midst of contemplating the miraculous healing capacity of the body when there is a skin abrasion due to a fall and the body creates a healing scab under which new skin grows, I realized that this miracle of regeneration applies to the Earth as well. Indeed, the Earth has this same healing capacity and can regenerate itself completely - its biosphere, its physical being, its metaphoric 'fingers' and 'toes' if mankind gives it the time, space, and additional light to do so. Then, like a skinned knee, the Earth will rebound and grow anew. It was not that this knowledge was lacking before, but as the light of God's mind took hold, it became a direct experience of analogy.

May God's wisdom in Creation be eternally blessed, for it has fashioned all things in harmony and balance within themselves. This is the untapped potential and wholeness of life, waiting to be revealed.