by sublimity-001-main | Apr 2, 2013 | 2013, Emergence, Post, Spiritual Growth
And, with it there is a growing impulse to emerge. Those places within us that have been fallow begin to feel the stirrings of new life, those parts of us that seem deadened have the chance to be resurrected again.This is the Great Hope and The Good News. This is the deeper esoteric message of Easter. As it says in Joel 2:25, ”I will restore to you the years the locust have eaten“. And in Revelations 21:5, “Behold, I make all things new“. ”These aren’t religious statements, they’re spiritual principle“. No matter how far you’ve fallen, how much you’ve lost, or what seems to block your way, in a holy instant, the stone can be rolled away and you can be free to rise again. This month, we have been stirring that divinity into ever-greater activity, striking that mystic chord of memory – awakening more fully to who we are and why we’re alive!
I invite you to ride this emerging energy and cultivate the seed of greatness in the soil of your soul, by taking one area that you deeply desire growth in – one area that might seem stuck, lost, or dead – and asking the following questions:
- What is the larger life or quality trying to emerge in this area?
- What do I need to release or embrace to allow it to fully emerge?
- What quality would I need to express more to be at peace in this area?
- If I expressed this quality in my life now, what would that look like?
- If I believed I was supported, what action would I take?
As you receive your answers, keep asking until you have something concrete, something you can act on. Then take that action this week!
New Life is trying to emerge in you – a life beyond your wildest dreams – but it needs your cooperation, your agreement, your ‘yes.’ Say yes to your yes, step into the Spring of Your Soul – and watch as your life blossoms.
I’ll be waiting for you in that field…
To Your Emergence!
by sublimity-001-main | Jan 19, 2013 | 2013, Emergence, Healing, Post, Spiritual Growth
Our attempts to pray, affirm, or visualize away all the bad, ugly, filthy parts of ourselves and our life are like a seed trying to pray away all the dirt – which is made of everything that has died and decayed before.
If it could, and it succeeded, it would find itself sitting atop a rock, no dirt in sight. And when that sun came out – the very thing that is meant to activate the life within that seed – it would burn it to a crisp!
Instead, that seed naturally plants itself in the dirt. Buries itself in it. It doesn’t reject it, it embraces it. It doesn’t see it as a grave, but a womb – from which it draws rich nourishment and begins to “grow down,” not just up.
As the roots dig deeper, the shoots reach higher. As it descends into the darkness, it ascends toward the light. If you look at an X-ray of an oak tree, the root system is like a mirror of the branches, showing that what’s below is not only as important as what’s above – it’s all one.
Our culture has taught us — and unfortunately, the self-improvement movement has only exacerbated the idea — that the dark, dank, decaying parts are to be fixed, hidden, manifested over, or eliminated altogether.
And all our efforts to change, cover up, or ignore these parts have only served to make them stronger. What you resist, persists. What you fight, you fuel. What you can’t be with, won’t let you be. And like a monster locked in the dungeon, it eventually breaks out and wreaks havoc.
But when we embrace these alienated, judged, rejected aspects of ourselves, we discover they’re not our enemies, but our allies. We realize that they hold new gifts, talents, strengths, and abilities heretofore unimagined.
That angry part of us, denied out of fear and ignorance, becomes our greatest source of power and protection, helping us transform from victims to victors. That selfish child within, covered in shame and guilt, when honored and set free, shows us how to finally take good care of ourselves.
All the dark, dirty places become the rich fertilizer in the soil of our soul that allows the seed of our potential to grow. When we finally relax into the ground of our being, all the energy we had used to stay on the surface becomes like the sunlight that finally activates our evolution.
There is nothing wrong with you. You are not broken or lacking. You were not born in sin, under a bad sign, or with bad genes. Everything you’ve been through and everything you’re experiencing is divinely designed to awaken you to your true identity and fulfill your destiny.
Embrace those aspects you’ve been trying to deny or destroy. They are wounded children acting out, only needing your love to heal. Ask them what their lesson and blessing for you is. Ask them what they need in order to take a constructive place in your life.
Then honor their guidance – and watch as everything you’ve been fighting for begins to emerge in ways that are beyond your imagination, without the stress and struggle of self-improvement.
If you do this, you’ll discover a great truth: The self you’ve been trying to improve never existed. It was a fiction, born in the mind of a child – while your real Self, whole and complete, watched the drama unfold, awaiting the day when you could recognize it.
Just as Michelangelo believed God had already done all the work, and his job was simply to see the completed masterpiece imprisoned in that block of stone and release it – take time today to behold that masterpiece hidden in this block of mortal stone… and set it free.
Until next time, live authentically, love unconditionally, and follow your destiny!
Derek
by sublimity-001-main | Jan 14, 2013 | 2013, Emergence, Post
“To he who is right in mind, he can do all the wrong things and it will still turn out right. To she who is wrong in mind, she can do all the right things and it will still turn out wrong.”
As we watch the Wall Street rich get richer (many of whom created our economic crisis) while honest, hard-working people get poorer, a question naturally arises:
“Why do good things happen to bad people — and so many bad things happen to good people?”
It sometimes feels like we’re living in a perpetual opposite day, where “Love yourself not your neighbor” seems to be the golden rule and “Take and you shall receive” appears to be the principle of abundance. In the self-help/spiritual arena, the pain is felt even more acutely; where’s karma, the law of cause and effect, the law of attraction? if you’re a good human being, good stuff is supposed to happen to you, right?
Wrong.
It’s a common misunderstanding to believe that “human goodness” leads to the experience of human good. In fact, that’s not always — or even often — the case.
Here is the real principle of life: Consciousness is cause.
It’s not so much the actions we take, but the consciousness behind them, that determines our experience. If a greedy person believes they’re worthy or capable of creating wealth, they’ll create it. If a generous and kind person doesn’t feel worthy or abundant, they’ll end up a broke do-gooder.
It’s not personal, it’s principle.
For every area of our life, we have certain set-points. For example, we might feel capable and confident with our work — and hold a strong self-image about it — but simultaneously harbor a limited identity and belief system around wealth. This can create an experience where we do great work, receive abundant kudos and are still underpaid. Or if we manage to increase our paycheck, our expenses increase with it — making us broke at a higher income bracket!
This can also show up in the area of health. A person can do all the right things, eat all the right foods and still end up getting sick — while another person eats whatever they want and hardly has a down day in their life. Don’t you just hate those people?!
Some would argue that this is about genetics. But the latest discoveries in epigenetics reveal that genes don’t control our body, the environment of the cell does. And what controls the environment of our cells?
Our consciousness.
This has been further shown in the science of psychoneuroimmunology, which explains how our thoughts become chemical and electrical impulses in our body, forming a biological alphabet that sends commands to our cells. Thoughts become things. Our biography becomes our biology.
Our consciousness is the cause of our reality.
If we take a deeper look at the do-gooder, striving to change the world for the better — but getting short-changed themselves — we’ll find a belief system of limitation and fear. The inner talk might sound something like “life is hard, people are unfairly treated, things are unjust… ” And that is the kind of life they experience, regardless of how much they “fight the good fight.”
We don’t get what we want — or even what we pray for — we get what we are in consciousness. Life is not fair, it’s lawful. When a person eats a healthy meal, but underneath it is motivated by fear or self-loathing, the law of consciousness sees a fearful, self-loathing person and magnifies that, drawing more of that to them.
The universe is blind to your actions but acutely aware of the thoughts behind them.
This isn’t to say that actions aren’t important. Action is crucial to creation. As the saying goes, “Faith without works is dead.” But the reverse is also true: “Works without faith are dead.” By all means, act from your highest standard of good. But be sure to align yourself with an equally high state of consciousness.
If you find yourself saving money out of fear of loss, shift that perspective so you’re saving from a state of inspiration and abundance — you’re saving “for” something, like financial freedom or a new house, rather than saving “from” something, like the fear of financial ruin or losing your house.
This week, pay closer attention to the consciousness behind your actions. Notice when what you say matches what you’re thinking and feeling and when it doesn’t. Become aware of when your actions are in alignment with your deeper beliefs and when they contradict them.
Take some time to journal about the beliefs, self-talk and emotions behind the key areas of your life — particularly the ones where you’re experiencing challenges. At the end of the week, review this. You’ll discover that the picture you’re seeing outside is a reflection — if only faintly — of the mental/emotional picture you’re living inside. You’ll also start to see the gap between what you’re trying to create — the actions you’re taking — and what you’re really creating with your thoughts, feelings and mental images.
The awareness of this gap is the beginning of real change. Set the intention to close that gap. Work with this material daily. And as your thoughts, feelings, words and actions become in integrity with your highest vision, you’ll become one of the “good people” who has good things happening… and you’ll be unstoppable.
Until next time, Stay Inspired!
Derek Rydall
by sublimity-001-main | Jan 14, 2013 | 2013, Emergence, Post
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
— Proverbs 29:18
Within you, there is a destiny waiting to be born — a life of such purpose, creativity and contribution that its light would blind you if apprehended it in its fullness. But to actualize it, you must dive beneath the surface tension of the mind’s need to control the present. You must project into the future, tap into a vision for your life bigger than your TV screen (or at least your computer screen) and bring your thoughts, feelings, words, and actions into integrity with it.
It sounds difficult to do. But we’re all doing it on some level — although often with less-than-inspired visions. For example, people who walk around fearing economic collapse, nuclear fallout, or any number of impending disasters, are regularly running worst-case scenarios in their mind and commiserating with others about how bad things are. In other words, they’re in integrity with a vision of lack and limitation.
And what we’re in integrity with becomes our experience.
If this describes you, the good news is it’s not even your vision, it’s the collective consciousness — or collective nightmare. It’s a thought virus you caught. And there’s a vaccination against it, or antidote to it: cultivating a vision rooted in your core values that makes you come alive — then committing to it as if your life depends on it.
It’s not for the faint of heart. As Emerson said, “God will not have His work made manifest by cowards.” But the alternative is a life of quiet desperation. Your destiny won’t let you rest until you let it express. The pain pushes until the vision pulls. Until you answer the calling of your soul with a resounding “Yes,” you’ll feel like a puppet in this divine production.
But what does it mean to have a vision? We often think of a vision as something that foretells the future. But that’s prediction, based on the cause-and-effect of your dominant thought trend, and can always be changed. In some self-help teachings, a vision is something we create based on what we believe will fulfill us. But that’s imagination and is limited, since imagination, at best, is just a rearrangement of what’s already known — or worse, a reaction to a limited self-image.
True vision can’t be created or changed; it’s part of the changeless fabric of “Ultimate Reality,” the realm of perfect prototypes or “ideal forms” as Plato put it. True vision can never be imagined; it comes from a place beyond the mind, revealing something unprecedented. And true vision is never in the future; it’s a realization of what is in the timeless dimension of our being.
It may be temporarily obscured like the sun on a cloudy day. But like the sun, our vision is always shining, waiting for us to pierce the weather of our mind and let its warmth and vitalizing power into our life.
Finally, a life of true vision isn’t about adding anything to us, but about seeing our “Real Self,” releasing everything it isn’t, and allowing our life to unfold according to Its perfect pattern. Michelangelo knew this when he created the David. He saw the completed masterpiece in the block of marble then chipped away everything that wasn’t it.
That is what we are called to do as artists of our life — discover the masterpiece hiding in this block of mortal stone and set it free.
Tapping Into Your Vision
- Take a moment to become still and watch your breath. Don’t control it, just let it breathe itself. With each exhalation, release everything that has come before and all concern for the future.
- Bring to your mind and heart a relationship where you’ve felt unconditional love — whether it’s for you or by you, whether human or animal. Feel into that love. Let it expand.
- From this place ask: “What is God’s idea of Itself as me? What did God create when God created me, and for what purpose?” (If the word God is a problem, use what works for you).
- Next ask “What must I release or embrace — how must I change — to allow my highest vision to emerge?”
- Then ask “What action can I take today to live more fully from the vision?”
- Finally, affirm out loud or to yourself: “I know who I really am and why I am alive; I easily release everything that isn’t true about me and joyfully live my destiny now!”
Give thanks for this moment of receptivity, regardless of what answers you received. The intention of awakening is enough to start the emergence process.
To Your Emergence!
by sublimity-001-main | Jan 14, 2013 | 2013, Post, Tools
One of the biggest stumbling blocks for the spiritual seeker is meditation. For the new initiate, it can be a frustrating, even painful, experience. And for many already on the path, there’s often still resistance to meditating consistently.
But meditation isn’t a chore; it’s a state of being that sets you free. It’s not about the technique — the technique is not meditation. The state of relaxed, undistractable attention — that moment you “shoot the gap” between thoughts and touch the timeless dimension of being — that is meditation.
And there are as many paths to this connection as people.
In that light, I want to offer a practice that doesn’t require you to join a monastery or sit in lotus for hours. Using simple, one-minute sessions during the day, you can strengthen focus, lengthen attention, dissolve blocks, and increase connection — and still have time to live life fully.
In this way you become what I call the “One-Minute Mystic.”
These practices are deceptively simple; most authentic spiritual practices are, because they’re not about ego, which tends to need complex processes to make it feel important. So don’t brush them off or take their power for granted.
When you use them consistently — the key to their effectiveness — they will result in a transformational shift in consciousness.
Practices of the One-Minute Mystic:
- Before you get out of bed, take a minute to connect with your breath. Watch it breathing itself. If your mind kicks in, assure it you’ll be with it shortly, then bring attention back to the breath. Instead of “Good God, it’s morning!” try, “Good morning, God” Give thanks for everything in your life — including life itself — then put your feet on the floor.
- As you take your bath or shower, take a minute to become conscious of the water against your skin, the sensations, the sounds. Stay in your body, instead of drifting into the future, planning your day or fantasizing that you won that argument! As your body is cleansed, affirm that mental and emotional debris is being washed away as well.
- At breakfast, take a minute to smell the aromas, taste the food, and give thanks that it’s fueling your body. For a longer contemplation, trace back the origins of your meal. Those eggs were delivered by a truck driver, stocked by a grocer, gathered on a farm. Someone fed the chicken, delivered the feed, harvested the grain, and planted the seed. Millions of people went in to making that breakfast possible — not to mention the animals, sun, rain, and the whole cosmic dance of the universe.
- In your car (or on mass transit), when you reach a stop, take a minute to watch your breath, give thanks for the perfect harmony in the universe, and how it’s reflected in the way the traffic lights and streets organize and order the chaos.
- At work, before beginning, take one minute to give thanks for your job, bless everyone there, everyone it touches on the planet, and intend this to be the most inspired day of your life. If you’re ‘unemployed,’ give thanks for all the abilities you have, and the extra time for contemplation and connection with loved ones. If negativity arises, breathe, watch it, then focus on what you’re grateful for. This cultivates a mindset of abundance.
- When you use the restroom, take a minute to give thanks for how your body eliminates what no longer serves — and affirm that your heart and mind are doing the same. If you’re having physical problems, focus on a healthy area. Feel the well-being there, give thanks for it. This cultivates the inner conditions for greater health to emerge.
- Every hour or so, stop for one minute to check in, breathe, re-connect, give thanks for your life, and go back to work. This is the foundational practice of the One-Minute Mystic. If you do nothing else, this practice alone will have a significant impact.
- At night, if you watch TV, pause during commercials and re-connect. Market your own life-enhancing images to your mind, rather than letting someone else do it.
- As you fall asleep, affirm that your mind and body are renewed while you rest, and that you will awaken more inspired than ever before.
As you practice being a One-Minute Mystic, it might feel mechanical and require discipline. But after a while you’ll notice yourself turning within to re-connect automatically — even with your eyes open, in the midst of conversation or activity.
The key is consistency. As you stop, for just a minute, several times throughout your busy schedule, you’ll not only have more energy and creativity — you’ll literally create new neuropathways that eventually allow you to feel centered, tapped in, and turned on all day long!
Stay Inspired,
Derek
by sublimity-001-main | Jan 14, 2013 | 2013, Emergence, Post, Spiritual Growth
There is a disease in the Western World, and it’s called “self-improvement.”
The fundamental sense of inadequacy so many people feel is not linked to any actual deficiency or inability to achieve; it arises from a universal belief that we’re not already whole and complete.
A baby doesn’t suffer self-worth issues. It can’t walk, it can’t talk, it can’t eat on its own — it even needs someone else to wipe its butt! And yet it’s perfect and knows it.
Then “The Fall” begins.
It reaches for something and the parent says, “No,” “You can’t do that,” “Bad baby.” And it starts to sense that it’s less than perfect. Little by little, it adjusts its behavior to accommodate the Big People, to get fed, clothed, housed, loved — creating this false identity that believes there’s something wrong with it.
As it grows up, it’s bombarded by media and messages from every direction, saying it needs to improve itself by trying a new diet, buying a new car, getting the right clothes, going to the right school, joining the right group — with the promise that if it follows these rules, it will be happy, whole, loved by all. And the first time it obliges and receives the reward, the die is cast.
Along the way, however, some of us realize that this is insane and look for a cure to reverse this brainwashing.
Enter self-improvement.
It seems innocent enough. If we’re unhappy, worn-out, dragged down by the demands of the world, what we need is something to pick us up, patch us up, and buff and polish us until we shine. Right? But the underlying premise of self-improvement is that we’re wounded, broken and need to fix ourselves in order to be happy — the same belief-system that drives the media madness and its insane messages.
So just when we think we’ve finally gotten out, it pulls us back in again!
Using self-improvement to become free is like trying to dig yourself out of a hole; the more you try, the deeper you get into the dirt.
The problem is that this “self” we’re trying to improve doesn’t exist.
It’s a false persona, a fictional character. God (or whatever term you prefer) didn’t create it. And God doesn’t know anything about it. God, being God and all, can’t create anything but that which It is — Perfection.
Self-improvement is a fallacy, a defense mechanism — and it can never bring about lasting change. Even when we manage to improve this pseudo-self, we often feel more anxious and stressed, under increased pressure to keep propping up this self-image that, deep down, we know is false.
We get a bigger house but feel even less at home. We get a bigger paycheck but just feel broke at a higher income bracket. We get a slimmer body, but when we look in the mirror, we still see a fat person or live in fear that the “fat person” will take over again.
Enough with self-improvement! It’s time to join the Self-Acceptance Movement.
Right here and now, accept that you’re enough — more than enough — that you’re already whole, complete and perfect. I don’t mean that spiritually you’re whole even if humanly you’re a mess; I mean that whatever your lot is, you’re good enough.
If your body is larger than you want, love that part of yourself. Seek to understand it. Discover its gifts. Stop seeing it as a problem. Stop making yourself wrong. As you develop this radical self-acceptance, your body will naturally start craving foods and activities that reflect this consciousness of caring.
If you’re a selfish jerk, love the jerk in you. Seek to understand him, not change him. It never works on anyone else, so why would it work on you?! Soon, you’ll discover that he was just wearing a mask to hide a sacred gift that wasn’t safe to open when you were younger. Listen to him and he’ll become your ally, a source of strength. Then, ironically, he’ll no longer need to be a jerk to get your attention.
In other words, it’s all just been a big misunderstanding.
In Genesis, it says that a great sleep fell upon Adam. But nowhere does it say that he woke up. What if we never fell from the Garden, we’ve just been dreaming we did. What if we are Kings and Queens dreaming we are beggars and thieves?
Is it just me, or do you hear the alarm clock going off?
What do you say we stop hitting the snooze button and wake up.
Take some time today to do the following:
- Look at an area you think is bad or broken and ask, “What is my true nature? What is this trying to teach me about my higher potential, my real self? What gift is it trying to offer me?”
- Become quiet and ask, “What is the divine vision for my life? What’s trying to emerge now?”
- Imagine your ideal life, feel what it feels like, then let go of the picture. Allow the feeling to expand, filling your body, then your home. Then take that energy and bless everything in your life, everything about yourself, and the whole planet. This is your Visionary Vibration. Practice this daily, in the morning and before you go to sleep.
You are beautiful and powerful beyond your wildest dreams — literally standing in paradise right now. If you’re not seeing it, then your work isn’t to improve yourself, but to discover the magnificence that is already here, that you already are — then to act from that vision.
As you do, that new state of consciousness becomes clothed in new forms. True wisdom unfolds. Right action becomes inevitable. And a new world cannot help but emerge — a world that works for the highest good of all.
To your emergence!
Derek
