The Door

As I've delved into those inner recesses of my beingness and following on from my previous Blog regarding Boundaries, I've discovered something very interesting when it comes to who stands at the boundary between our Inner and Outer worlds.

Without self awareness, we are blissfully unaware whether a boundary between these two worlds even exists. It never enters our thoughts to even think about it. Ignorance is surely bliss, until something in Life comes along and turns our world (inner & outer) upside down!

In my unaware past, I had an inner world in turmoil, funnily enough reflected in my outer world of turmoil.  As I started to discover how to engage with my inner world, I likened it to a classroom full of un-cared-for children, whose 'voices' would be a constant chatter in my mind, all seeking attention.  It was akin to walking into a classroom that hadn't ever been visited by an adult (me), with the windows blacked out and no rules of engagement.  Chaos!

Raise a blind, shine some light into the darkness and you might be surprised what you find.  And if you don't like what you see, then you might choose to change it, but one thing is certain: not doing anything will ensure status quo.

I decided to open a blind or two and as I started to get my 'room' of inner (and often dysfunctional) children into some sense of calmness by simply paying these aspects of my psyche some attention by really listening, the volume turned down, and I learned to choose what I thought about.  As Eckhart Tolle discusses in his books, I became an observer to my own thinking! Freedom at last!

After years of patience, resolution, realisation and transformation, my outer world continued to mirror my inner world, and I realised how could it be otherwise, for if 'someone else' was controlling the unfolding of my outer world, then who?  Or is it true that our outer world is directly manifested from our state of inner being, and that what we believe/think/say, 'is'?

Many gurus have given us this clue in so many different ways.

So I started thinking about the 'opening' that I'd discovered to my inner classroom, and realised that in fact it hadn't had a door at all, for all of my life.  I unknowingly allowed my disruptive, boundaryless and dysfunctional children to play in my outer world, often creating havoc, and allowed other's dysfunctional children to invade my classroom and turn it upside down.  There was no door, there was no one AT the door, and life was an interplay of me invading and being invaded.

Just like a parent, once I'd learned how to put functional boundaries in place, I could say 'no' to my inner world and therefore 'no' to 'space invaders' in my outer world, without feeling 'bad'.  I had to let go of 'popularity' which I sought from a deep lack of self worth, but that's another Blog!

I had in effect put a door on the doorway and a Peaceful Warrior on duty.

The effect is that my inner world is no longer left to run rampant, disrupting my life, and I can now choose when to let my inner kids out and have fun with my own children, and prevent those who wish to control and invade me out of fear, from doing so, keeping me safe.. And I can mostly do this with gentleness and firmness. The doorman has developed an awareness, just like a parent, of when it is and isn't safe to go out, and who is and isn't ok to 'play' with.

I wish I could express what a safe place life then becomes, as the Peaceful Warrior settles into his/her role of simply ensuring that no one gets hurt - on either side of the door.  Plus we learn that we can actually close the door for a while and decide on which side we wish to rest our attention.

Do I get it 'right' all the time?  No way!  However as long as my intention is to live a life of Peace and non-violence, then I create an inner landscape conducive to creating this in the world, as this is my mirror.

As Mahatma Ghandi stated, "Be the change you wish to see in the world".  He certainly was and his peaceful legacy is one that wrested his country from colonialism.

Firstly, try to locate your own threshold, secondly does it have a door, and finally, ask, "Is anyone is on duty?"  If not you have Inner Work to do!

PERFECT REFLECTION

If you had a little cash in your wallet or purse, but wanted to offer me more than you had, it wouldn't be possible.


Nothing profound here, simply a 'law' that you can't give what you don't have.

If you don't Love yourself, how can you give Love?

If you don't Respect yourself, how can you give Respect?

If you don't Honour yourself, how can you Honour others?

If you don't Value yourself, how can you give Self Worth to another?

If you judge yourself and not in Acceptance of all that you are, how can you Accept others without judgement?

We can't give what we don't have.

In the case of parenthood I experience many parents who don't have functional boundaries in place in their own inner world. How can we therefore create loving, safe, consistent and functional boundaries for our children? And I see this reflected every day in children who are unable to navigate their world, simply because no one was able to set the necessary boundaries for them, with Love.

The only way to redress this is to 'do the work' and by that I mean get help to understand where we are lacking in functional boundaries, and use the various modalities that are available to us, to put them in place for ourselves!

If you want to see where any issues may be lurking in your own unconsciousness, where you may not be respecting, loving, honouring, valuing or accepting yourself, observe your children if you have them, for as unfettered souls incarnating into a boundaryless existence, they will reflect with immediate and untainted clarity, exactly what they are searching for!

Children are truly a perfect reflection of their immediate environment. How could it be otherwise?

Victimhood

"In truth there are no victims", my Teacher once stated.

"Hang on a minute", I protested.

"What if you cross the road and get hit by a bus?"

"Who decided to cross the road?", He asked.

Good point!

And so began a line of enquiry, a puzzling statement for me to ponder, and not an an easy one since the word 'victim' is in the vernacular of most of our news. Everywhere we look we hear about victims of this or that, especially around natural disasters.

If we can momentarily suspend our acculturated beliefs and take a step to a more conscious view, perhaps all is not as it seems.

After almost 20 years of self-enquiry I have come to the conclusion that I am firstly a Soul, and secondly a Soul having a human experience in this body of mine. This is not something I arrived at lightly or quickly, but more as a result of continued experiences beyond merely physical existence. So, on this premise I offer the following observation.

If we are indeed a Soul then at what level of responsibility do we defer to 'someone else'?

Did I choose, on some level of awareness, to incarnate?

Did I choose my parents, my birth, my location so that as choices were presented to me, I could choose to venture onto my life's path and purpose?

Am I in fact responsible for every thing that I think, say, do and if so, am I totally responsible for everything that happens to me?

I have come to the conclusion that all these questions are answered with an emphatic YES!

There is no supernatural 'someone else' who decides whether I'll get hit by a bus today. Only my Soul knows its journey and so if we wish to know and understand our Soul's purpose then we need to find ways to listen to it.

I've discovered that intuition is astounding. If we're in touch with our own deep intuition we only ever act from a profound sense of knowingness, and if this leads to us being in a disaster, then this is as it is meant to be.

It doesn't for one second mean that we should not therefore have empathy or compassion. On the contrary. But what this realisation does do is allow us to view all life's circumstances with a clarity that we are totally and absolutely responsible for everything that we think, say, do and experience. What we choose to think, say and do is our free will and choice, so we can choose to take responsibility for all our choices - past, present and future.

If we do this, we can never be a victim of anything.

The online etymological dictionary (http://www.etymonline.com/) explains the origin of the word 'victim' is from the Latin victima or "person or animal killed as a sacrifice."

Do we really believe that someone who experiences death in a natural disaster, car accident, or any other act is killed as a sacrifice? If so, to whom?

Maybe our Soul's journey is to be in that place at that time to experience this exact death.

Those that are left behind and do not die, offer the rest of us the opportunity to see them not as victims, but as Souls having a human experience (albeit traumatic), which allows us the opportunity to see past xenophobic conditioning and illusions of separateness, connect with the finer vibrations of compassion and love within, and connect with the oneness of us all.

Personally I see this as a far more respectful and graceful way of relating to people.

I now deeply realise that my Teacher's comment is a very enlightened understanding and a guidepost of how life is meant to be lived - with the freedom of not being a victim of anything.

Fish Out Of Water

In a recent guided meditation, I was given the symbol of a 'fish out of water'. At first, the typical associations were those of loneliness and isolation, but then another realisation emerged.

At some point in our evolutionary past, a single fish was the FIRST fish to try out its new lungs, out of the sea. This instinctual leap is only what has ever moved any species forward, otherwise we'd still be swimming in some primordial soup!

We're all in our own sea (unconscious self) getting on with our day-to-day existence, but occasionally, we're presented with a choice to become a 'fish out of water', and land ourselves on our psychological beach.

"To Be or Not To Be"? How can we not BE?

Unfamiliar ground, new horizons, strange awakenings, intrepidness, excitement, fear ... all abound within our Inner Self.

It is my experience that if take this leap of faith IN OURSELVES, we find an initial place of loneliness, but as we start to 'see' with expanded awareness, we find others on the beach who made similar choices. We're not alone and now in the elevated company of kindred souls.

We may choose to see this as a risk, but also as a liberation, and as we repeat this and 'confidence builds confidence', believing in ourselves becomes easier, fear subsides, life becomes exciting (not existence) and we experience an inner freedom never before dreamed of.

We gain deep empathy for those on similar journeys, have no need to compete nor compare, experience the wonderment of our own unfoldment, and understand the SERVICE we do in the true sense of the sevite (one who performs selfless service).

As Mahatma Ghandi stated "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

Become a fish out of water!

Rock & A Hard Place

When one feels 'stuck between a rock and a hard place', take some time, sit in Inner Silence and eventually one of the two will become the more obvious option!

As we begin ...

From what aspect of self can we be so convinced as to strap explosives to one's body, climb into an ambulance on its way to hospital filled with injured people as a result of a suicide bomb, then wait until the ambulance arrives and self-detonate to kill not only me, but also the doctors, nurses and already injured people?

When we understand the nature of the psyche that can be manipulated to act with such disconnection from one's inherent humanity; when we can realise that presented with the same birth, upbringing, acculturation and convincing arguments for martyrdom, we might have made similar choices.

Only then can we begin to ligate the dualistic disparity between what we label 'good' and 'evil'.

Evil is, after all, only 'live' spelled backwards ...

Surrender

Surrender is a not a state of 'losing'. Surrender is a state filled with Grace and so is one of connection with The Divine and therefore non-dualistic.

Losing is a state of disconnection as it is dependent on a comparative framework (win/lose), and is therefore dualistic and so cannot be in connection with The Divine.
 

Introduction

What does one do when an experience, truly understood as an Epiphany ("a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience" - www.dictionary.com) strikes at the very Heart of one's beliefs about Life?

Where did the beliefs come from in the first place?
Who's are/were they?
How did I imbibe them?
What was the process of 'absorption'?
Are they rational?
Was I conscious of their infiltration?
Did/do they serve me at this current time?
Why did/do I need them?
What happens if I question them and find they no longer serve my highest purpose?
What do I replace them with?
Does this realisation expand my consiousness since I now may understand their origin and purpose?

Interested?