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Align with your soul. Connect with your higher self. I often wonder what people are talking about when these words are said/written. After all, who is it that is doing this aligning and connecting? I would want to know all about that part of me! However, it seems that people identify as being a personality and see that personality as the central point when referring to themselves, not soul. In this case, I define personality as the way you present to others, including talents, shortcomings, personal tastes, and choices. I would like to suggest to you that personality is not the sum of who you are. Soul is the real you, infinite, eternal, and vast. According to the Cayce Readings we as soul were all created at the same time, along with all other energies. You can find a wonderful description of how we made it into bodies in the appendix of There is a River by Thomas Sugrue, if you are interested. We also hear people saying “you are a spiritual being having a physical experience,” but then go on to write as if the physical experience and personality are the primary perspective. I would like to say again, You are Soul, an energetic being. The body and brain have their own agendas and often do their best to shut out your guidance. Also, when we identify with personality, we see these ways to rebuff soul's guidance as our personal shortcomings, shadow self, etc. As you can see from the graphic below, there are many ways the body/brain use to rebuff the energy coming from you.  What we have to do is to bring the body and brain under our wing, so to speak, and express ourselves through them. The graphic below is a brief overview of what life is like depending on which is primarily in the driver’s seat during a given lifetime.  People learn to be soul at A Place of Light.
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Ownership is a western concept that, along with power, causes a great deal of anxiety and trouble. Ownership is, after all, tied up in power. “This is MINE, and you can’t have it,” is an often-heard opinion from many a two-year-old; and, unfortunately, those who are much older. Ownership and the desire for it are the cause of many a war. I-want-your-land/oil/riches-and-I -will-have-it-one-way-or-another. During the 1960’s Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter wrote a song about this level of ownership. Ownership creates attachments, what the Buddhists say is the source of all suffering. Some people actually define themselves by what they “own,” rather than their spiritual way of life: money, land, businesses, cars, etc. Yet when the floods, fires, and winds come, they discover how fragile their “ownership” is. The entire western economy is based on feeding the notion of ownership. Buy this; buy that. If you have this particular thing, you will be happy and fulfilled. Yet, in reality, people are feeding the hungry ghost within, a being representing a need that has a huge belly and a tiny mouth and neck. It can never be full. Even worse is when people think they own other people. Even parents, because they see their children as “theirs,” have been known to impose their dreams and desires on their children rather than allowing the children to be their own selves. If you are interested, Kahlil Gibran offers us wisdom on the alternative. On Children by Kahlil Gibran - Poems | Academy of American Poets
What if we could take a look at the indigenous way of practicing our relationship with other entities? In the indigenous way of life, we are only caretakers. We take care of what is in our lives until it is time to pass it on to someone else to take care of it. What if all of nature was something we needed to take care of? What if all the objects present in our lives were something we needed to take care of until it was time to pass it on to someone else? Minimalists say that we only need 100 things in our lives. If you're like me, you have that many things in one of many “junk” drawers! Take some time to consider ownership and how it plays out in your life. Far too many people are themselves “owned” by the hungry ghost of ownership. What about you? Are you free?  Power is a terrible concept when it comes to relationships between sentient beings. It is also a western world idea that has wreaked havoc on our environment and international relations.
The word itself dates back to around 1300, coming from the French word, pouer, meaning "ability, ability to act or do; strength, vigor, might" especially in battle. So, from the beginning it had to do with conquering. Conquering is not acting in harmony with the energy of the universe, which itself always seeks to balance. The energy of the universe is always shifting between forms (think of a sun and a supernova). Energy follows certain laws of physics that play out to create and shift between forms and formless. It is not about power; it is about laws that may result in powerful transformations. I always shudder when someone asks "well, what powers do you have?" My answer is always none which confuses people given what I teach. People have the ability to work WITH energy, but they, in and of themselves, have no powers. When we work with energy, we create a third thing, which may be knowledge/wisdom/insight, healing, movement, or some other change. While all of these can make you feel very powerful, it is not about us. It is about us working WITH energy. For example, anyone who can read a recipe with confidence can bake a cake. But it is not us baking the cake. Rather we combine certain ingredients and put them in certain conditions. The ingredients react according to the laws of physics to produce a cake. If we do not put these ingredients in the right conditions, we can end up with a sodden mass or a burnt ember. Sometimes when we work with energy and do not have the right knowledge (recipe), we can end up with a dangerous situation. Thinking we have or attempting to use power puts us out of alignment with the natural order of things; and thus, we are eventually doomed to fail. Power is a thing of the brain, and the brain is concerned with control. While the brain is wonderful at its job of controlling bodily functions, with everything else, we must have the brain working with whatever we have at hand. Practice removing the word power from your vocabulary. We do not have power over anything outside of ourselves and nothing has real power over us. Instead, think about how you can work with people and the environment so that everyone wins. Also, remember that you are never powerless; but that is a topic for another blog. |
AuthorThe words found here were written by the caretakers of APOL and students Archives
June 2023
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