by sublimity-001-main | May 16, 2013 | 2013, Emergence, Post
Desire sometimes gets a bad rap in the spiritual world. Perhaps it started with Buddha who supposedly said desire causes suffering. And has led to many teachings that imply that desires aren’t spiritual and we should strive for a desire-less state.
But desires aren’t the problem, our misperception of them is. The word ‘Desire’ actually has a deeper meaning: ‘of the sire,’ as in father or Creative Principle. Your desires are not a sign of something outside of you that you must get – they’re a sign of something inside of you trying to get out.
That burning desire you have is something you’re pregnant with. When you understand this, you can celebrate your desires just as you would the news that you (or your significant other) are pregnant. You can nurture that idea growing within you, feeding it, strengthening it, preparing the outer space for its arrival.
Remember, The Law of Emergence isn’t some New Age gimmick, it’s the way life actually works – and when we become congruent with it, our life works a lot better. The secret is to reverse your relationship with desire.
The deep desire you feel is a clue to what’s already inside trying to emerge; it’s telling you what you need to nurture. Cease from striving. Feel that baby kicking, pat your belly with a sigh of gratitude, and settle in to the process of giving birth to the next stage of your destiny.
by sublimity-001-main | Apr 12, 2013 | 2013, Emergence, Post, Tools
Want to know what you really believe in? Don’t look at what you’re thinking, saying, affirming, or praying, look at what you’re doing – especially under pressure. If you profess to believe in something, but your actions are not in integrity with it, you’ll suffer and become stagnant. But if you align your actions with your highest vision, no matter what, you’ll rapidly shape the raw material of your life. As Thomas Jefferson said, “Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask, act! Action will delineate and define you.”
Years ago I wanted to make an investment in my business but, not believing I could afford it, I waited for circumstances to change. After much waiting and struggling, only to have things get worse, I visited my spiritual mentor, looking for reassurance and moral support. What I got instead was a challenge. He said if I believed all the spiritual truths I espoused — that life was abundant and God supported me — and didn’t act on them, I was out of integrity with myself and would continue to suffer.
I explained that I did believe I was supported, it was just, well, that I was afraid my rent wouldn’t get paid. Before I even completed my excuse, I knew he was right. I was praying out of both sides of my mouth – affirming that life was abundant on one side and making up reasons why I couldn’t move forward on the other. I was living a lie, at least a lie against my own values. As Ghandi said, “To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.” My lack of integrity was preventing me from holding the energy necessary to manifest my vision. Like a house that lacks structural integrity, and collapses under its own weight, my inner house was divided and could not stand.
One definition of integrity is to align your beliefs, words, and actions with each other – to be whole and undivided. But this is relative integrity because you could believe life is hard (even though in Reality it isn’t) then struggle in accordance with that belief, becoming exhausted, burnt out, and disillusioned. Another definition of integrity is to be moral, ethical, and honest. But you can be a moral, ethical, honest person who, according to your cultural beliefs, would never pursue your deepest desire. The truest integrity, however, is about being congruent with your Soul’s Purpose, your real nature – which may be in opposition to your cultural, parental, or societal beliefs and values. That’s why visionary leaders are often seen as heretics, lunatics, or worse.
Living at this level of integrity requires faith, which means living more by insight than eyesight, more from the invisible that the world of appearances. But like intention, faith is another dangerous practice when sequestered by the ego. We say we have faith that all our needs will be met, and that declaration of faith gives us a temporary sense of fulfillment or accomplishment. But too often these faith-filled pronouncements are followed by actions that contradict them – or no action at all.
As Mitch Albom says, “Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe.” Or as it says in James 2:17, “…faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” It’s good to affirm and feel the energy of faith. But it is action, in integrity with your highest vision, that makes that faith a living, breathing reality in your life.
EXERCISE
This week, look at one area you’re feeling stuck in or an area you are praying for or affirming something and ask: “What would I do in this area if I really believed I was supported (or whatever quality you feel is lacking, such as abundant, loved, respected, etc.).”
Then look at your Big Vision and ask: “If I really believed in this vision, what would I do, where would I go, who would I talk to, or how would I be in the world?”
Then create a plan to take consistent, congruent action on the answers you get – and share them on our Facebook pages, so we can all learn and be inspired!
To Your Emergence!
www.DerekRydall.com
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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!