Growth
These essays are written specifically to aid in growth both personally and spiritually. The essays look closely at such challenges as self examination, guilt and blame, developing our spiritual foundation and dealing with negative cycles.
Don't You Know Me?
Pretty much any topic one chooses to write on can be examined from many angles. Each way brings new insights into the same piece of the puzzle, our puzzle. This mirrors the nature of our experiences here, in particular the idea that we will explore the same challenge(s) from a variety of angles throughout our lives. This is because even a single atomic or a very simple thought (1), though it may seem almost trivial things to us, is an almost infinitely complex thing or “atom”. They have many facets and as a result can react in many different ways depending on a number of facts (which I will not cover in this piece). So, with each thought we have we manifest a thought, which is a force, and we will explore each of the thoughts we have created from many perspective. The more complex the thought, the more perspectives there are.
Changing Our Minds
One of the ways that we can continue to develop our awareness is by working to eliminate barriers that keep us tuned into the outside world as an observer rather than as a part of what we observe. We go about our day perceiving the physical world and thinking thoughts about it, but we do not feel connected to it save through our five senses. It is not easy to turn our awareness so that we gradually reduce that sense of separateness though we certainly can do so. Today I would like to continue to share thoughts about how we can do this if we so choose.
Every day we go to sleep to rest and recharge ourselves for the next day. When I awoke this morning, the first thing I notice was – I am ... but it is not instantaneous, even though the cobwebs of sleep that held us close are, as we come awake, thinner and easily snapped. I felt like I was pulling myself back into my body, a cloud of ether coalescing and merging with my physical self, though I do not remember making the decision to return.
As We Grow
There are many roads in life, each has their challenges and no one can say that one is inherently more difficult than another. This is true, outside of those who are struggling to live, dealing with serious illness or severe handicaps, whether your road is in the working world, family life, going to school, being a celebrity or you are on a quest of enlightenment. There is a reason for the phrase “do not criticize others until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes”.
We may see others struggle with things that we believe we would not struggle with, which can lead us to judge them as incapable or that they should know better. We then feel they are not doing enough to solve their problems. The problem with this view is that it assumes people are equal, and that what one is capable of so is another. This is not at all the case. We are not equal; we are equivalent.
One Thought
We are,
And with our first breath
Have plunged out of the pure white
Into a kaleidoscope of perceptions
We are,
And with our first sensations
Almost overwhelming us
Our moments the only experiences
Our Inner Light
The road to develop ourselves, the one that allows the inner light we all possess to shine through lies not through walking the path itself, nor through developing our objectivity and clarity of sight, accepting responsibility for our lives, focusing our attention, or seeking knowledge. These are all admirable qualities, they are all important and needed; however, their service is aid in allowing the light to shine. Our efforts in these areas refines a different aspect in us. They give us strength, wisdom, courage and develop our will and mental house. While these qualities are not the core ones we must possess to allow the inner light we all possess to shine forward I will examine them briefly so that we can come to the point where we can look at the qualities I am referring to.
One does not choose to grow; our lives guide us along that path. For some it may seem natural, an extension of who they are, for others it seem to be forced upon them in reaction to circumstances and yet for others still it may build slowly over the years until they simply find it has become second nature. Regardless of which way it comes to us, what is important is what one does with the choice.