Changing Your Life

Many at this time are feeling uncomfortably restricted by old forms of consciousness, like a child who is wearing clothes that are a size too small. To make a different analogy, it is the stress of giving birth–the pressure building to a sometimes painful level–which is necessary in order to give birth to the new. You are betwixt and between: you are no longer in the old, but not yet in the new. Once a baby is moving through the birth canal, it cannot go backwards into the womb. Once you have moved towards a new consciousness, you cannot return to the old. In a real sense, it is not there anymore. There is not much one can do except keep moving ahead. Otherwise, you risk being stillborn. Your goal on a soul level is to move past this highly uncomfortable intermediary state and experience yourselves to be more solidly in the new.

There is a natural resistance to change, especially on the physical plane. Our experience of that resistance on the causal plane is more subtle. It is based on the fact that the thought forms that we “inhabit” are established. There is no resistance to these changes in an emotional sense; it’s just that new ones naturally build on what has been before, so it would not be useful if these were so fluid that they were suddenly obliterated and we were starting with something new. Eventually, they will be quite different, but what is established presents a natural resistance to there being a great deal of change at once. This is the nature of intellect. On the physical plane, if your intellect completely morphed from one thing to another, you would have no way of dealing with it, and you would go insane. So there is nothing wrong with this resistance; the universe is structured this way for a good reason.

The medium of the astral plane is emotion. Emotions are like water–they are fluid. They are designed to change more readily, yet the ocean, for example, while it is always changing, also has a precise ecosystem that needs to be maintained as there are changes. Shorelines may erode or expand, and the bottom of the ocean may shift under water–mountains may become smaller or larger, for example; the currents move things around. However, the basic equilibrium must also be maintained.

Oceans are now becoming quite polluted. If humans stop polluting immediately, it will not eliminate all the pollution that is already there, but gradually the oceans will heal themselves. So emotions, even though volatile, are not as truly changeable as they might appear. Your surface emotions may change on a dime like wave patterns, but they all spring from the overall “ocean ecology” that you live with emotionally day in and day out. So the overall body of emotions also organically resists too much change all at once. Occasionally, there are tidal waves, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Similarly, with the intellectual body, there may be earthquakes that break up some of the structures of consciousness, but they too, are exceptional.

The physical plane also has a built-in resistance to change, and because it is the densest plane of all, the resistance to change is greater. Although your fluid emotions and evolving intellect may be willing for there to be great changes, by necessity they cannot manifest in physical reality as quickly. The intellect is the container for experience. They say that you form your reality to some degree based on your beliefs. These are not just the beliefs that you know about, but all your beliefs, which are the containers, first, for your emotions, and then, for your physical reality. Someone whose beliefs are calcified, who refuses to change his or her intellectual framework, assumptions, and habits, will find it very hard to shift emotionally and then physically.

A person with a fluidly evolving intellect may then get stuck at the emotional level. If there are defenses against emotions changing (again, these are not always consciously recognized), that will prevent evolution on an emotional level, and therefore in physical experience. Let’s say a person is angry or resentful. If he is determined to hold on to that, even though the mind understands in a more exalted way, change is restricted. If, however, your thoughts are evolving and your emotions are fluid without defenses, then you can focus on what can bring change on a physical level. There is the saying about the spirit being willing but the flesh being weak. Perhaps we could think of that as your intellect being flexible and your emotions being fluid, but you still can’t seem to move things in your physical plane, day-to-day life experience. This is the level where many of you are working now: You want what is new, but you can’t get there yet. It is like being in a car that is stuck in in mud: you’re putting the gas on but the wheels are spinning; you can’t move forward.

If this is your challenge, the first place to look is in the various energy fields of your life. Your most personal energy field is your aura. Auras can expand and shrink in size, but for practical purposes, let’s think of it as being about a meter around your skin in all directions, and, of course, including your physical body as well. As a general rule, your aura reflects your thoughts and your feelings. However, it also is influenced by your environment. It’s like your home, which collects dust just from the air moving through it, as well as from the natural biological processes of your body, and those of others who inhabit the space. In addition, insects may come into your home even if you keep all the windows and doors closed, because your home is, after all, part of the larger ecology, no matter how well sealed it is.

So you clean your home from time to time. You remove excess dust and perhaps you eliminate insects. Many of them are harmless, but some of them can destroy your food supply. Termites can eat away at the very foundation of your home if you don’t do something about them. It is like that with your aura. It is the larger home of your body on the physical plane. Your aura is physical, like the body, but it is at faster vibration in the physical plane, which is why it is only physically seen in rare circumstances. Nonetheless, you feel its effect. If your aura is clean and full of light, it feels very different to be in than if it is dirty and crawling with metaphorical insects. Just the same as with your home. Even a confirmed slob feels better in a home once it is cleaned up, even if he or she does not have the wherewithal to personally make that happen. You may not know how to clean your aura, but you feel it if someone else does it for you, for example a healer, or during these channelings. We are working with each of you now to help you clean your aura if that is your wish, if you are willing to let go of what it contains that doesn’t really belong.

Sometimes people become attached to their clutter and debris, and even though part of them wants it cleaned up, if someone else tries to help, the person may object–there may be mixed feelings about letting go, not wanting something to be disturbed. This is extreme inertia, or resistance to change, when even the dust and garbage must not be touched.

The most direct way to clean your aura is to spend a few minutes and simply focus your consciousness on this happening. Why don’t you, if you wish, do that now. Some people are visual. If that is the case, you can visualize a space of about a meter all around you, and ask that it start to look clearer and lighter. Notice what it looks like now, and hold a vision of what you want it to look like. Or ask it, what it would ideally be, and hold the space for that to happen. If you are approaching this visually you may not know if it should look clear or be full of brilliant colors. The goal here is that it look and feel clean, and anything else is fine, except that it should reflect who you really are, just like you would like your home to reflect who you really are, with your tastes and colors you like. You want it to be homey and hospitable, first of all, to you. If you are not so visual, you can take feeling picture of what it would ideally feel like to be in your space and hold your focus on that for a few minutes. There are other ways to do this, but these are two that will work for most people.

Feel your aura becoming sparklingly clean. Feel it being a true, comfortable home for you. Ask now that any energies in your aura that are not a part of who you are in this moment be released. You may have picked up energies, negative or not, from all the people you have interacted with recently, and even in the distant past. You may have deliberately, albeit unconsciously, saved some energy fragments because you wanted to help the person that they belonged to or because there was something that interested you and you wanted to try to figure it out. It can get to be like the shut-ins who have stacks of hundreds of newspapers that they never get around to reading, and yet the stacks make it impossible to really live in the home. It blocks movement within in it. So if you are willing, let everything that is not you in this moment be cleared out. You will not lose anything that is valuable to you. If you need to still deal with something, it will come back to you. Of course, it is the negative or destructive energies, characterized by resentment, bitterness or sadness that causes the greatest problems. But even the more neutral or even positive bits of energy that are not yours get in the way of the changes that you hunger for. So it is good to clear your personal space of everything. It is not a bad idea to do it a couple times a day, say, in the morning and in the evening. This does not have to take a long time. It is more the fact that you are taking ownership of your personal space, and are issuing your own parameters. It is like taking charge of your home and saying, all right, in the past I have let things fall where they may, but now I am making a choice, and this is now how it is to be.

As with cleaning your physical home, if you keep up with aura cleansing, it doesn’t get too bad. However, if you are just now dealing with it after a long period, it will take some time to put it all in order. Still, if you hold the intention, it will be accomplished.

We made the analogy of insects infiltrating your physical home, in addition to dust and clutter. Let’s say that some food starts to spoil in your cupboard. After a while, it will attract insects that wish to feed on it. If you don’t tend to it quickly, it can turn into quite an ordeal. The vibrational equivalent of spoiling food in your cupboard is your harbored negative, destructive emotions as they begin to fester.

In the larger scheme of things, there is nothing wrong with the negative–it is a necessary part of the whole, just as there is nothing wrong with the fact that food spoils: when it is not used, the destructive force breaks it down so that it can go back to the earth. This is perfectly acceptable for the compost pile; it is less convenient in your kitchen cabinets.

There is a place for anger, for example. It is an energy designed to create a boundary, and push things away. However, when anger festers in you, it starts to get rotten and sends an odorous “dinner bell” out to the vibrational insects or “entities” that feed off anger.

Let’s say you left some spoiling food in a kitchen cabinet and went on vacation. You would likely come back to find much of your house full of insects. They would have become such a strong presence that they might have forced their way into other food stores. Similarly, if you let your anger, bitterness, judgments, or other destructive emotions fester for a long time, you will have a hard time cleaning out your aura to the point where it is sparkling. It can be done, but you will have your work cut out for you.

This comes back to the fluid ocean of the emotional body: are you willing to let go of these festering emotions that are attracting these insects? This is not say that you have resolved them all. The only question here is, Are you willing? If you are, you will find a way to heal them. Willingness is more intellectual; it is the thought form, the intent.

Let’s say that humanity makes a collective decision to clean up the oceans, that it will do what it can to stop polluting them. Eventually, the ocean would right itself, and you would stop having nasty debris washing up on the shore.

Some people want it both ways; they want to hang on to their bitterness, but they want to stop feeling the bad feelings that result from being bitter. You can’t have it both ways. Many people turn to substance abuse of various kinds because they are seeking to run away from feeling bad, but they aren’t willing yet to let go of what is making them feel bad.

We don’t mean to generalize too much, because everyone’s story is unique. Sometimes people wish to escape not their own negative emotions, but things they are picking up from their own environment. In any case, if there is a solid intent, the change will come.

If you discover a bad infestation of insects in your house, and you begin to clean it out, you may be battling this for some time, but if you keep it up, eventually you will gain the upper hand. You may discover other food sources that have gone rotten that you didn’t think to examine before. Similarly, with your evolution as a person, you may think you have thrown away all your rotting anger only to later unearth some more in a different cupboard, so you clean that out, disinfect it, and just keep working at it.

Eventually, you will have gotten things under control. You’ve done a thorough cleaning of your home; there are still a few stray insects, but you are staying on top of it. Now your effort is directed toward making it a more homey and pleasant environment. Maybe you add some houseplants, or you redecorate a little; perhaps, you paint.

The equivalent of this in your aura is working to radiate love in your day-to-day interactions, choosing to be a little more cheerful, for example. We’re not speaking of something artificial here, but you are always making choices, and you can deliberately find what is already within you that is more cheerful. Most people would like their homes to be cheerful. You would not take that to an extreme–you would not put pictures of clowns in orange and red on every wall. However, you would probably enjoy having some bright touches in your environment. If your house were all black and white, you might find that having some dashes of color here and there could be quite a relief. The same with your personality. People do vary in their natural capacity for cheer; some prefer it more than others. If you would prefer more than you have, then it is up to you to provide it. Maybe you can
influence others around to add to your efforts.

One of the great spiritual principles is cultivating gratitude. Like cheerfulness, this is a choice that is available for anyone to make. The reason gratitude is so useful is that it is the natural state of all things. If you, for example, commune with nature, standing alone in a dense, rich forest, the reason that feels so good is that each tree, plant, and animal naturally exists in a state of gratitude, “breathing” it in and out. Gratitude doesn’t always come so easily to human beings because the more advanced intellect, triggered by fear, comes up with a litany of reasons not to feel grateful. Probably the majority of human beings do not breathe in and out with freedom, whereas most plants and animals have no choice in the matter; they are constantly experiencing their oneness with all things. A plant cannot stop photosynthesis even if it somehow wanted to.

Some spiritual practices focus on the breath. When you liberate your breath, when your body is breathing as it naturally wants to, it experiences gratitude. It is fully receptive to the oxygen in the air that would feed it, and then contributes back into the air what the air needs from it.

Gratitude is not talking yourself into thinking you are happy with things that you are not happy about; it is viscerally feeling the goodness of life because you are connected with it. Notice your breathing now. If it is not as free as you would like it to be, ask your body to show you how it would like to breathe. When you are not breathing freely, some part of you is hanging on too hard. If you notice that you are not breathing easily, you might ask yourself, What am I holding on to? And then, Am I willing to let it go? It doesn’t mean that you will let it go immediately, but if you are willing, you will eventually.

Those of you who have animal companions have probably benefited from observing their relative lack of neurosis. They can pick up some from the humans around them, but they have less of an ability to get in their own way. However, being sentient does bring with it a higher consciousness, potentially, and a wider range of choices. If you choose to be in harmony with the universe in the way that particularly wild animals and everything else in nature are, while still developing your uniquely human intellect and emotions, you will demonstrate a magnificence greater than what is possible to those beings with a narrower range of choice. It is not easily accomplished, which is why you have so many lifetimes and such difficult challenges. However, that is the point of coming as you do to the physical plane, and as we once did: to learn how to be natural *and* more conscious. By confronting all of the things that hamper evolution while in the body, you are challenged to draw from your deepest resources.

The body itself is designed to resist too much physical change because its number one need is to feel safe. As a conscious soul incarnate in a human animal body, you can alleviate your own body’s resistance to change and move your life forward by providing for your body and reassuring its safety. The better you take care of your physical body, the more willing it will be to allow change in your life.

All of these steps come before you are able to do anything about the larger world. If you clean house for yourself, and start to practice cheerfulness and thankfulness, then you may be able to be a positive force for change with other people, and with society in general. When you get good at cleaning your own aura, you can start to clean the auras of those with whom you are connected: your family members, your friends, and your co-workers. If they don’t want it clean, your work will not stick, but you can at least do your part in your bond with them. It may give them options, too; they may move from stasis by your reminding them that they could feel better.

People have commented on the irony of people fighting for peace. Obviously, there is no peace when you are fighting. We don’t want to be nit-picky about semantics. Perhaps you could say that a lot of these people were “campaigning” for peace, but if a peace demonstration erupts in violence, you certainly do not have peace.

Like anger, there is a place for violence–violence breaks things down. Sometimes nature is violent; we mentioned tidal waves and earthquakes. However, violence in nature is relatively rare. If you want peace in the world, you have to be peaceful. If you are waiting for everyone else to become peaceful first, you will no doubt die before that happens. You cannot do a great deal about the rest of the world. However, you can be an example and inspiration.

No positive act is ever wasted. There are people in your life who may harvest the understanding and benefit from an act of generosity on your part lifetimes from now. Most of you are doing a lot more good in the world than you have any way of knowing. You will not often get a letter, say, from someone who was difficult in your life saying that she appreciates your example, and that it has helped her. Obviously, you will not get a letter from her to that effect if your good work was in another lifetime. However, you can rest assured that when you bring light, it has some positive effect somewhere, somehow. And even if it didn’t, it is of benefit to you, for your own growth, because that is precisely what you are practicing by being a physical human being. You don’t have anything better to do on the physical plane or anywhere else than to shine your light to the best of your ability. As you practice that, your ability grows.

The manifestations of the Infinite Soul through Lao Tzu, Jesus, Buddha, and Krishna are striking examples of how an impact of light continues to reverberate through time. This is true of negative acts also, but positive ones reverberate much more.

Q: How does one work with others who have messy auras without accepting the mess for oneself in the process of trying to work with them?

A. That is a great question, and there is no one simple answer. When other people join your aura, you can work with the combined aura much the same way that you work with your own personal aura, because now there is, you could say, an extension of yourself: you combined with that other person. So if you notice that your combined aura is not what you would like it to be, then you can do the same type of work starting with your intention to clean out the aura that you share with that other person.

As you raise your personal vibration, you will either attract people who want to be at that higher place, maybe with less anger, for example, or you will repel them because they don’t want to change. If the latter is the case, you are wise to let them go.

If it is someone you are required to interact with, a co-worker, perhaps, you can allow there to be more distance between you. Let’s say there is someone you used to bond with in mutual negativity (you both hated the same people, for example), and now you no longer wish to harbor those kinds of energies that weigh you down; the other person will either choose to change or not to change. If the other person chooses to stay in his heavier, stickier energies of hating this other person, you may need to let go of that relationship. So when you raise your vibration, it reconfigures everything in your life, and it will bring up issues for you that will, if you use them to your advantage, accelerate your own growth. It may not be easy, but it is infinitely worthwhile.

Perhaps all this sounds like a great deal of work. The physical plane itself is a lot of work, but the work of raising your vibration is rewarding, to say the least. It gives you immediate benefits and long term benefits. It is well worth the trouble.

Q: I live in a dense city. Would you address how to deal with that?

A. When you live in a big city, it is more challenging to maintain your personal clarity that you may have worked hard to attain within your own apartment once you go out in public. We recommend that you practice, before you go out the door, compacting your aura. Bring it in say within six inches of your skin rather than three feet. If you just visualize and feel that a few times you can quickly get a feel for how to do it with just the intention. For some people this is a little uncomfortable, but it is temporary until you reach a destination, where you can bring it out a little bit, and then we would suggest that you clear yourself of anything you have picked up along the way. After a while, this gets to be second nature. You will probably not completely eliminate the influence of the city; it is simply not as easy as living in the wide open spaces. However, you can at least manage it better with techniques like this. Also, as you go out and about, ask for your guides to offer some added protection to your energy. A golden color can be especially useful to visualize protection when you go out into a crowded place.

Q. I have a major project of cleaning, sorting and compacting belongings in my own apartment that cannot be done in a day or a week. I am trying to work with balancing my energy so to that I don’t get dragged down and stuck. How can I not be overwhelmed with the task at hand, especially when I wake up in the midst of it every day?

A. We would suggest you start with your own aura because if your own aura is not clear, you won’t be able to accomplish anything in your space, and that only needs to take a couple of minutes. A good discipline would be to limit yourself to one corner at a time; don’t try to do it all at once. If you can make a small area the way you want it to be, it will give you the confidence and the momentum to move on to the next. You might also see if you have a friend who can help you who has good skills with that.

Closing Meditation

Surround yourself with the most beautiful energy you can imagine, as if you were in bliss, full of gratitude and peace. If you can imagine this, you can start to create that in your life.

Love and blessings to each of you. We are available to help you on your path.

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Gossip

I was fascinated to read that it is now believed that gossip evolved to serve a once-useful survival purpose: to keep a society’s members in line. For example, if someone wasn’t pulling his weight (which could be detrimental to everyone’s survival during hard times), gossip would put pressure on him by threatening expulsion.

Part of soul evolution is to transcend, in the creature of reason we inhabit, hard-wiring that is no longer constructive; in doing so, we make *choices* rather than letting ourselves be controlled by “baser” impulses. This isn’t the same as repression–what is repressed inevitably comes back up later–it’s becoming more conscious. It’s recognizing that our bodies have many inbred tendencies in our instinctive center to ensure their survival on automatic pilot. They will throw up many impulses that may not be the best available choices if we wish to live in agape. One example is reacting in violence, when our sentience gives us a lot more options for diplomacy than are hardwired into us. When we as souls are pulled in a destructive direction but consciously choose another, we grow; we establish ourselves as being more than our bodies, with all their self-protective mechanisms. By consciously choosing, we exercise and grow our ability to be creators, not just reactors.

It’s like learning to ride a horse. Our body self is an untamed horse; our growth task is to learn to ride it smoothly in the service of love.

There are many other hard-wired traits that can trip us up. For example, people who wish to be monogamous fight the biological imperative to spread their seed as far and wide as possible (survival of the fittest). Aggression once helped males get mates because it demonstrated their ability to protect their family. Now, we more often recognize when it becomes abusive and see other options (although the caveman mentality is still evident throughout our society in various ways).

All manners of pettiness can also be traced to how our instincts react under fear: gossip’s cousins judgmentalness, exclusion, and even demonization can be used to make others conform in a primitive society. The fear of foreigners, of “not us,” is part of our hardwiring: it is natural that there would be a fear of what has not yet been proven safe in primitive cultures. It is showing up now in the hysteria about illegal immigration in the U.S., which, objectively speaking, is “much ado about nothing”: many studies have shown that the problems and benefits cancel each other out–it’s a wash. Emotions run hot because it triggers these ancient survival mechanisms (and politicians manipulate them). This “us vs. them” mentality may at one point have ensured our ancestors’ survival, but, ironically, it now threatens it. If we can’t transcend and transmute these base instincts, we *won’t* survive.

Many animals are territorial–they mark and enforce their boundaries, sometimes unto death. When we see this in humans, along with competition, backstabbing to get ahead, and doing anything else “necessary” to survive, we can see instincts at work. As we grow spiritually, we begin to measure what we think and feel vs. a yardstick of love. We sense what will pull down our vibration and what will raise it, and we resist what pulls us down. As the quote goes, we learn to not believe everything we think and feel. We ask ourselves if they’re in alignment with love, truth, and beauty.

In Michael’s terms, when destructive instincts arise, they enlist false personality to their cause. The particular way we rationalize being petty is our chief feature: we tell ourselves the lie that, in order to survive, we have to dig in our heels, hold onto control, or put others down, as the case may be. That, in turn, triggers the negative poles of the roles and overleaves in a domino effect.

Gossip, in particular, is a running judgmental commentary on other people’s actions. It used to be thought of being especially the domain of older women, perhaps who didn’t have anything better to do, but it’s been since shown that men do it about equally–just about everyone gossips. Some Michael students think that sages do it more than others, but I don’t observe that: sages are just more vocal about it.

It’s true that if we are steamed up about something, venting in a safe place can let off some of that steam and make us feel better. We all get steamed up sometimes. But this begs the question: why are we steamed? What needs growth and healing in us that causes us to be so reactive? Why do we care so much about other people’s choices? If we observe ourselves gossiping, it’s a clear sign that we need to get a life. If we need drama, that’s why God created television. And movies, and books. They’re usually a lot more interesting.

Michael had said that we’re responsible only for our own choices, and for dependents such as children and/or elderly parents we’ve volunteered to care for. Maybe “only” is not the best word here: being responsible for ourselves is a full-time job. If we’re paying full attention to our own choices, our words, attitudes, ways of being, etc., we do not have time to be evaluating what others should be doing. It’s none of our business.

Some feel that the world would be boring without gossip. If we weren’t talking negatively about others, what would we be doing? It can be addictive, like cigarettes or alcohol–it can seem to fill a void. However, when we let go of addictions, we can find many more-fulfilling pleasures to take their place.

One of the key lessons of life is knowing what is ours to choose, and what is others to choose. Certainly, the choices of others affect us to some degree–it’s not cut-and-dried. The way other people do their jobs, for example, may have some impact on me–someone dealing with my problem at a business or government agency, for instance. It is certainly my choice if I wish to plead my case, but if, in the end, it is not my decision, that’s the way it is. If there is a higher chain of command, I might then choose to go over the person’s head, but ultimately, someone who has the choice besides me will make the call, and I either abide by that or make myself miserable railing against it. I have countless choices to make every day, but I don’t get to choose for others. Accepting other people’s choices gracefully when we don’t agree with them is part of maturity. If we want others to accept our “no,” we have to also be able to take no for an answer.

In every group, there are conflicts either out front or behind the scenes. We’re all imperfect humans, and none of us are immune to such things. Still, I think that more humility on everyone’s part would go a long way towards resolving them. In such things, it’s predictable that most assume that the problems are other people’s fault. That, itself, is the real problem. If we would take responsibility, respect other people’s choices and right to choose, and focus on our own lives, most of the drama would cease. Instead, we harden into tribal polarization, demonizing certain people and taking sides: things are reduced to simplistic good guys vs. bad guys, and that’s rarely the way it really is. The lines are drawn according to these ancient survival instincts rather than good sense. It’s a huge energy drain for all concerned, and sad.

Inevitably, one is reminded of Rodney King’s question, “Can we all get along?” Whatever it is, let it go. Do we need to talk about others negatively so much? Do we need to be angry to feel alive and powerful? Does our sense of worth hinge on being better than some other people? How much of this is the same-old same-old tribalism, the instinctive center feeling threatened? Don’t we really know better than this? If we want to learn agape, we need to practice being kind, respectful, and compassionate when it’s not easy to do so. As Jesus said, anyone can do it when it’s easy.

If we have a grievance against someone, it’s best to take it directly to that person. Talking about it with others isn’t going to solve the problem. If we try and don’t get satisfaction, then it’s a growth opportunity to let it go and move on. Nursing grudges disempowers us. If we’re fixated on something and can’t let it go, that’s a big clue about what we need to heal in ourselves. There are things that have taken me years to let go of; it’s not easy sometimes. We don’t heal immediately because we have the right attitude, but taking responsibility for ourselves is where it starts.

Yes, some people have done some terrible things. They’ve also done some wonderful things. Yes, some are more dysfunctional and difficult and karmaholic than others, and some we may choose to avoid, but there aren’t too many Joseph Stalin types around. If you want to demonize him, I’d go along with that. Probably Dick Cheney, too, although he has a really nice wife who writes steamy lesbian fiction, so I’d probably just say that he’s a paranoid lying fearmonger with some good traits, too (he stood by his gay daughter; he doesn’t beat his dog). But I can’t get too enthusiastic about demonizing most people. I don’t like everyone, but I can usually see most people’s humanity.

Obviously, there are things worth fighting for and against. There are times when a boundary needs to be made, when a stand needs to be taken. But most of the time, we are better served by ignoring what we don’t wish to feed energy to. Just don’t react. Don’t defend. Stay open. Keep your sense of humor. If nothing else, stay silent. It takes two to tango (and in case you didn’t get enough cliches already, I might add: Make love, not war, and Don’t worry, be happy). False personality has to be right all the time; true personality can bend. If we want peace on earth, we have to start locally, where we are. Do we want peace, or do we want to be right? Not peace at any price, but peace is of great value, not worth throwing away because we’re triggered. Self-righteousness is the enemy of peace. Self-righteousness is directly proportional to maya (illusion). It’s simply not statistically possible that everyone who thinks he’s right actually is, but even when, objectively speaking, we are faultless, self-righteousness is not helpful. For one thing, it’s a killjoy. A good sense of humor, especially about ourselves, is a potent antidote to it. If we’re embroiled in drama, we really need to lighten up, in more ways than one.

We all have blind spots. If someone criticizes me, I start from the assumption that there might be something to it, and I look at it. However, it is my choice to do so, and it is my choice as to whether I finally agree with the criticism. If others do not choose to look at themselves, that is their right. Ultimately, I find that there are some people I don’t wish to have in my life because I can’t find the win-win–again, my choice. And if others don’t wish to have me in their life, that, too, is their choice. There are plenty of positive things to focus on; focusing on the negatives proliferates them. We need to deal with them pragmatically, but if that’s all that’s on our horizon, we’re not living. I speak as someone who has not found it easy to focus on the positives–I feel every pea under the mattress. But I’m working on it. As the saying goes, when life hands you peas, make pea soup. Then we can have whirled peas.

Someday, probably after we’re dead, we’re all going to have a good laugh with our friends about the dumb things we fought about. I’ll meet you at the Astral Bar and Grill. And then we can talk about the outrageous things those *other* people did on the physical plane. SO much worse than us. Won’t that be fun?

– Shepherd Hoodwin

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Quotes

Gandhi’s seven sins:

- Wealth without work
- Pleasure without conscience
- Knowledge without character
- Commerce without morality
- Science without humanity
- Worship without sacrifice
- Politics without principles.

To know when you have enough is to be rich beyond measure.
–Lao Tzu

68% of Republicans don’t believe in evolution. On the other hand, only 5% of monkeys believe in Republicans.
–Stephen Colbert

“Hate has a reason for everything. Love is unreasonable.”
- V. Raiuhes Ahaefvthe

Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.
–Goethe

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.
–Albert Einstein

Religious people love to argue about the validity of their religion, sect, teacher and teaching claiming that it is the best and only path to Pure Consciousness. The enlightened do not argue. This is because the enlightened have nothing to prove.
–Scott Shaw in “Nirvana in a Nutshell”

“The government is merely a servant–merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not
originate them.” ~ Mark Twain

Fear less, cherish more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, listen more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours.
–Swedish Proverb

Healing does not mean going back to the way things were before, but rather allowing what is now to move us closer to God.
–Ram Dass

The Universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
–Eden Phillpotts

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Truth or Consequences

Speaking the truth has consequences. However, not speaking or otherwise living your truth also has consequences, usually far more destructive. So, in a way, life is a game of “Truth or Consequences.”

Much drama, such as in movies and television, is about how people go to great lengths to avoid telling the truth, convoluting themselves and their lives. Usually, the truth comes out in the end, and things resolve. Had people been truthful in the beginning, it would have spared everyone a lot of fuss, but that would make for less dramatic viewing.

In real life, it is similar: people are often terrified of the consequences of telling the truth, first of all to themselves. Yet when they finally do, it is a great relief, and it usually turns out better than all their denials and avoidance did.

– Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin - 12/14/07

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Fluidity of Consciousness

Everything is consciousness. You are consciousness. We are consciousness. All forms are consciousness. All energy is consciousness. Consciousness is a point in the universe that is aware. It carries a particular imprint from the Tao. All consciousness is evolving. Why? It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the consciousness of a particular moment; on the contrary, each one is a perfect expression of the Tao. Evolution is simply change that builds on what went before, to keep things interesting for the Tao, you could say.

Sometimes human consciousness becomes calcified. There’s a saying that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. That’s not actually true, but it does become harder, because inertia can set in. This is the main reason for short human lifetimes: consciousness becomes calcified, and the soul (and, therefore, the Tao) gets bored, so it seems best to toss out the old form and start over. It is good work to examine where you have become calcified and challenge yourself to shake things up a bit.

The human animal isn’t fond of change; it likes to set up social structures and then doesn’t like to change them. This is an interesting self-karma for souls, since souls (consciousness) require change. The natural movement of the soul “butts heads” with the inertia of the human animal. If the personality is too resistant to change, the soul may have no choice but to disrupt the routine. When the personality learns to be fluid, change is generally gradual and pleasant.

The biggest “earthquakes” in one’s life tend to come after a long period of calcification. You might think that those with a chief feature (obstacle) of stubbornness have the biggest problem with this, but, in fact, it’s a universal problem/challenge among most, if not all, ensouled species. Some creatures of reason are designed with less structure, but most still resist what is truly new in consciousness. This resistance isn’t actually a “bad” thing–it’s a necessary part of growth, because if growth could happen with no resistance, it wouldn’t go very deep. It’s rather like a road that’s too smooth–cars would go skidding off it. Resistance in both the tires and the road allow there to be forward movement. However, too much resistance leads to calcification, which is unpleasant. So, as in all things, there needs to be a balance.

– Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin - 11/4/07

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Hope

There are two kinds of hope, one positive and one negative.

In the negative kind, you put off living now, in hope that the future will be different; it is a way of avoiding acceptance.

In the positive kind, you are at peace with what is, at the same time inviting and expecting love, truth, and beauty to work in your life and manifest its fruits.

If you are feeling hopeless, it may be that you can no longer sustain living only for the future. This may be a gateway into acceptance and the generation of true hope, positive hope, for only when you are at peace can you experience the knowledge that you are creating a more joyous future. True hope springs from the empowered heart, one that knows that you are part of the infinite and that as you are in alignment with Self, you are the source of hope for your life.

– Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin - 3/27/07

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Love at First Sight

People often dream of meeting someone “across a crowded room” who is destined to be their soul mate forever. This legend has seemed to have happened often enough to have gained some traction. Most often, it is what we would refer to as a soul recognition.

Most people have had a number of past lives on earth and have also played the planetary game on other planets as well. Over time, you have developed relationships with a large number of souls. The average person has a substantial connection of some kind with around 300-500 human souls, some of whom you are likely to meet in any given lifetime. Some of these have a romantic feeling because the shared past lives were of that nature. However, the majority have been familial (family) relationships or friendships.

Whenever you meet another person you already know on a soul level, there can be a recognition. Sometimes, there is a feeling of instant comfort and familiarity. Sometimes, unresolved issues come up–there can be an instant dislike. Sometimes, your essence (soul) preplanned these meetings; sometimes, you just happened to “run into” those people.

If you are in the market for a romantic relationship and meet another person in the right “package” with whom you have a soul bond, you might assume that this is the soul mate you’ve been waiting for. That is not always the case. You may or may not have a mate agreement with this person; his or her path may or may not be compatible with the one you’re on.

However, it’s always lovely to reconnect with an old friend on the physical plane. Sometimes, the nature of the connection is clear and obvious from the start, but sometimes it takes time to determine the form for which your relationship is most suitable. It is good just to enjoy what can be shared with a kindred soul, and see where it leads.

– Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin - 4/26/07

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Love and Truth

Sometimes, love and truth seem to be at odds. You want to speak your truth to someone, for example, but you love him and don’t want to hurt his feelings.

At their lower levels of manifestation, love and truth can, in fact, collide, but in their accurate renderings, they are in perfect harmony. In the example above, if there is a need to discuss an issue with someone, it can be done in a way that is truthful without being hurtful. The key is working through the various beliefs that might distort your truth and make it partial and unfair. When you arrive at a pure statement of your truth, it will not have an attacking or otherwise pain-inflicting energy.

At the same time, an expression of love truly rendered is not at the expense of your truth or well-being. Working through unresolved feelings that might distort love with guilt, misplaced obligation, and so forth, allows an experience of crystal-clear love that only exalts all concerned, including
yourself.

– Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin, March 27, 2007
http://summerjoy.com  

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Human Suffering and Universal Joy

Part of the awakening of humanity is becoming aware of all sorts of ugly facts that have heretofore been hidden from view. The average person is now more aware than in the past of the myriad injustices and abuses that have long been a part of the human landscape. These things need to be faced so that they can change.

However, another part of awakening is becoming aware of the universal joy that has always been part of the cosmic landscape. At first, it seems hard for the awakening person to reconcile these two extremes. One can become quite depressed by listening to the news, or simply from the news of one’s own life. It seems necessary to withdraw from the world to touch the joy.
Then, the joy tends to be lost when returning to the world.

In time, one learns to hold, simultaneously, an awareness of universal joy and the painful blindness that exists in humankind. The ability to do this brings both compassion for the human condition and the seeds of its change.

– Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin 4/10/2006
http://summerjoy.com

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Emptiness

Many at this time of year come face-to-face with a sense of emptiness. For those who are celebrating holidays, there may be a feeling that their experience doesn’t measure up to what it’s “supposed” to be. Perhaps they remember their childhood wonder and excitement, or are influenced by the songs played everywhere; they think they ought to be feeling “jolly,” but don’t. Perhaps they feel obligated to “put on a show” and are so busy that they don’t have time to enjoy it. Perhaps they are reminded that they don’t have the kind of support from family and friends that they would like.

Although this is normally attributed to the stress of the holidays, there is another factor: As those in the Northern Hemisphere move toward the shortest day and longest night of the year, the beginning of winter, there is rightly a growing sense of emptiness, not as in “my life has no meaning” but due to the inexorable movement of the seasons. The height of summer is a time of fullness when trees are rich with fruit and foliage, and the skies are at their lightest. It is natural that there should be a balance; thus, the height of winter is a time of emptiness when trees are generally without fruit and leaves, and the skies are at their darkest.

Vibrationally, the summer is the time of maximum outward focus, and the winter, inward focus. One needs maximum outer light to focus on the outer world, and maximum outer darkness to focus on the inner world.

Emptiness is not a bad thing; it is part of the natural ebb and flow of life. If you were always full, how would you receive something new? However, when one tries to ignore the emptiness or fill it with things that don’t fit in it, it doesn’t fill properly according to the seasons of life. When summer comes, the outer blossoming consumes one’s attention without it reflecting a commensurate inner blossoming. When winter returns and it is time to focus on divine emptiness, instead there is an unnatural emptiness that has become more barren and rough over the seasons.

Inner fullness can only come from within. There is a place for externals, of course–they can be enjoyed and offer many blessings–but inner space can only be filled by inner beingness. When outer needs are met without a commensurate rising up of selfhood, they do not fully satisfy.

Whatever the state of your inner emptiness, embracing it as it is is the beginning of filling it and, if necessary, healing it. Feel it, accept it, be at peace with it to the best of your ability. If it aches, comfort it. Allow the love of your essence to come forth and begin to fill the emptiness in whatever way is appropriate. As you release blocks to its right fulfillment, what you truly seek will emerge. ‘Tis the season.

– Michael Channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin 12/2/2005
http://summerjoy.com

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