Five Timeless Gems of Wisdom

The Brush and the Wind

In a remote mountain village, there lived an old Taoist sage named Wen, known for his calm spirit and peculiar practice: every morning, he would sit with ink and brush, writing on rice paper under a crooked pine tree. Villagers thought he was recording scriptures or transcribing ancient wisdom. But he always burned the papers after writing, letting the ashes drift into the wind.  One curious traveller asked him, “Master Wen, why do you write only to destroy what you create? Are your words not worth preserving?”

Wen smiled. “I do not write to preserve—I write to release.”

The traveller persisted. “But what is the purpose of writing if not to be read?”

Wen responded, “Each word I write is a seed of intention. A thought that was once entangled in my mind is now given form. When burned, it returns to the Tao. The wind carries it. The universe responds. This is how I shape my path—by aligning my inner world with the invisible currents of the Way.”  Years later, that traveller returned to the village after many hardships and wrote down his fears, regrets, and hopes as Wen had taught. He burned the paper under the same crooked pine, and for the first time in years, felt a great peace. His path cleared. He walked forward, not to escape the past, but to walk alongside a new beginning he had authored himself.

This story highlights that writing, when done with intention, is not about control. It is about co-creation with the Tao or energy of the universe. What we name, we acknowledge. What we release, we transform.  Here are 5 timeless wisdom takeaways from the parable:

1. Writing is an Energetic Act, Not Just a Mental One

Wisdom: “Each word I write is a seed of intention.”

Takeaway: Writing is not only a cognitive process—it’s a spiritual practice. Every word carries energetic weight. What we write can clarify, release, and even reprogram the unconscious mind, making space for alignment with the greater flow of life.

2. Letting Go Is an Essential Part of Creation

Wisdom: “I do not write to preserve—I write to release.”

Takeaway: True transformation requires surrender. Whether through journaling, ritual burning, or storytelling, releasing attachment to the outcome allows life to evolve.

3. The Universe Responds to Inner Alignment

Wisdom: “When burned, it returns to the Tao. The wind carries it. The universe responds.”

Takeaway: As I act from a place of inner truth, I participate in the dance of destiny. Writing is a way of communicating with me, and with the invisible forces that shape my path.

4. Naming and Witnessing Transmute Suffering

Wisdom: “A thought that was once entangled in my mind is now given form.”

Takeaway: To write a painful experience is to begin the process of transmutation. By naming what was hidden, the formless gains form, and the fragmented becomes whole.

5. Your Story Is Your Medicine

Wisdom: “He walked forward, not to escape past, but to walk alongside a new beginning.”

Takeaway: You are both the scribe and the seeker. Your pen is an instrument of healing. The story you tell yourself about your life determines how you live it. Choose it consciously.

5 Key Soul Messages

Many people are taught to evade discomfort, or that moving away from hardship is always the best course. Yet, is it? Consider this story:

Two men visit a Zen master. The first man says: “I’m thinking of moving to this town. What’s it like?” The Zen master asks: “What was your old town like?” The first man responds: “Dreadful. Everyone was hateful. I hated it.” The Zen master says: “This town is very much the same. I don’t think you should move here.”

The first man leaves and the second man arrives. The second man says: “I’m thinking of moving to this town. What’s it like?” The Zen master asks: “What was your old town like?” The second man responds: “It was wonderful. Everyone was friendly and I was happy. Just interested in a change now.”
The Zen master says: “This town is very much the same. I think you will like it here.”

One view of this story relates to karma (the Law of Cause and Effect). It echoes that whatever happens stems from our actions. We may travel far and wide in the hopes of escaping a life we disliked. Turns out that we are the common thread. That is, how we feel about ourselves is with us wherever we go.

Another view of this Zen story is that discomfort or moving away from difficult situations may offer short-term relief, but often prevents the deep growth and integration that such challenges are designed to catalyze. Consider 5 Key Soul Messages:

1. Discomfort is a Messenger
Difficult emotions — grief, rage, shame, fear — are not enemies. They are signals from the soul, pointing to unmet needs, unhealed wounds, or inner misalignments. When we avoid them, we silence our internal guidance system and miss the deeper message encoded in the pain or suffering.

2. What We Resist, Persists
Unresolved trauma or avoidance of conflict doesn't disappear—it gets stored in the body, nervous system, and energy field. It tends to resurface in different forms: new relationships, repeated patterns, or even physical illness. The soul repeats lessons until we consciously engage.

3. True Freedom Requires Integration
Freedom isn’t escape; it’s the capacity to remain present with discomfort. Facing the fire allows us to alchemize pain into wisdom, fear into clarity. Avoidance may feel like protection, but it often prolongs the suffering.

4. Initiation Requires Ordeal
Ancient sages echo that discomfort is the portal to transformation. The dark night, the betrayal, the collapse— brings greater consciousness. By staying present in the challenge, we gain resilience, awareness, and spiritual maturity.

5. Our Presence Is the Healing Agent
Sometimes we are placed in challenging situations not just for our healing, but to bring light to the collective field. By staying—consciously, not passively—we become a stabilizing force, a living transmission of courage and wholeness.

In short, while discernment is essential (not every situation must be endured), evading discomfort as a default strategy cuts us off from our soul evolution.

Top 50 Fears (based on our reader survey)

A recent reader survey revealed a list of the top 50 fears. Reflect on whether you relate to any here or add a comment about your own experience. Which fears do you overcome and which still linger?

1. Fear of death-or even discussing it (Thanatophobia)

2. Fear of Failure (Atychiphobia) & Fear of Success (Achievemephobia)

3. Fear of insects (Entomophobia) and spiders (Arachnophobia)  

4. Fear of snakes (Ophidiophobia)

5. Fear of enclosed spaces (Clausterphobia)

6. Fear of thunder and lightning (Astraphobia)

7. Fear of sex (Erotophobia) and intimacy (Aphenphosmphobia)

8. Fear of Flying (Aerophobia)

9. Fear of public speaking (Glassophibia)

10. Fear of solitude (Monophobia)

11. Fear of crowds (Enochlophobia)

12. Fear of needles (Trypanophobia)

13. Fear of people (Anthropophobia)

14. Fear of water or being near it (Aquaphobia) 

15. Fear of Abandonnment (Autophobia)

16. Fear of blood or sight of it (Hematophobia)

17. Fear of commitment or 'sticking it out' (Gamophobia)

18. Fear of the unknown (Xenophobia)

19. Fear of falling (Basiphobia)

20. Fear of God (Theophobia)

21. Fear of cats (Ailurophobia)

22. Fear of change or transformation (Metathesiophobia)

23. Fear of the dark (Nyctophobia)

24. Fear of men (Androphobia) or Fear of women (Gynophobia)-*often unresolved mother issues

25. Fear of  falling in Love or losing inhibitions (Philophoba)

26.  Fear of sharks, the ocean or pools (Galeophobia)

27. Fear of #13 or belief in bad luck to follow (Triskaldekaphobia)

28. Fear of vomiting and loss of self-control (Emetophobia)

29. Fear of Everything or that terrible things are coming (Panophobia)

30. Fear of Animals (Zoophobia)

31. Fear of Crime, Burglars or Attackers (Sclerophobia)

32. Fear of Pain (Agliophobia) and fear of suffering (Algophobia)

33. Fear of Mice (Musophobia)

34. Fear of Ghosts (Phamophobia)

35. Fear of Aging (Gerascophobia)

36. Fear of Sleep or what might happen as you sleep (Somniphobia)

37. Fear of Fire (Pyrophobia)

38. Fear of forgetting or not remembering (Athazagoraphobia)

39. Fear of Horses (Equinophobia)

40. Fear of Loud Noises (Ligyirophobia)

41. Fear of work (Ergophobia)

42. Fear of being buried alive (Taphophobia)

43. Fear of Cockroaches or filth (Katsaridophobia)

44. Fear of Food (Cibophobia)

45. Fear of bees (Apiphobia) and wasps (Spheksophobia)

46. Fear of Judgement (Social Phobia)

47. Fear of getting rid of stuff (Disposophobia)

48. Fear of hearing other's opinons of you (Allodoxaphobia)

49. Fear of Superstitions (Triskaidekaphobia)

50. Fear of Feet (Podophobia)

12 Stages of Awakening

Its common to reach a crossroads in life.  This is that point when you begin asking more questions without always getting quick answers.  Consider where in these twelve stages you may relate most:

Stage 1: Suffering Disconnection

We don’t feel our bodies unless they hurt. We do everything to disconnect. We may perpetuate addictions,  numb out. Suffering comes because we have lost the ability to listen to the subtle messages and rely on loud messages like physical pain or nightmares which echo our body would like our attention. 

Tips: engaging in Somatic movement exercises can help reconnect us to our body, to find comfort and resources we had forgotten we had. 

Stage 2: Identifying Polarity

Although we are healthier than in Stage 1, we are still not fully connecting to our body. We tend to look for external solutions. Things can be very black and white, good or bad. We are still blaming, not accepting responsibility for our body, but instead look for someone  to fix us, or blame for our issues.  The moment is ripe to start to recognise that we have different parts, needs and emotions. we start to connect to the parts of us we like and don’t.

Tips:  Reflect on what brings us more into our body and less affected by what people and media say. Be aware that parts of us that we reject often contain the seeds that will heal us, if only we can listen.

Stage 3: Feeling Stuck

Here we feel like we have done a lot: seen therapists, taken courses, tested out fad diets and exercises and, yet we are still not where we want to be. We are at a loss, feel stuck in repeating patterns and still resist change.  It helps to explore soma (body awareness) and observe how “we” hold ourselves in a pattern. The common factor in our situations is us. Maybe we have something to do with it?

Tips: Tune into your vibes. Sometimes a course, healing or program can help. Yet, at some point, we must  work though obstacles alone.

Stage 4: Reclaiming Power

This is a turning point. You decide to confidently reclaim power. You deserve a different attitude and existence. You are ready to accept responsibility for your thoughts, feelings and conditions. Personal power is about taking action, owning the consequences and integrating wisdom.

Tips: It’s about trusting yourself, discovering what this feels like. This is  where you reflect on life lessons, and begin to apply them.

Stage 5: Dismantling Illusions

As products of society, we adopt rules, create beliefs and ways of being from our carers and entourages. Some of the rules we outgrow. Many adopted beliefs limit our progress and keep us small and dismpowered. 

Tips: Keep a journal. This is the point we explore and integrate parts of us we have disowned, embrace the energy we exert to keep us separate and alone. It is a key step towards authenticity.

Stage 6: Willingness to change

The energy is building, we can see the finish line. We know that we have done the work. Now we must go deeper again and prepare to clear out the patterns and beliefs that no longer serve us.

Tips: Explore what authrnticity feels like and means inside.The better we know ourselves, the easier it is to fully step into true nature.

Stage 7: Releasing stage

We release our patterns. It could be through sound, emotions, some people even throw up. Whatever is necessary it feels healthy and our bodies clear out what no longer serves.

Tips: Keep an open mind. Explore ecstatic dance, belly dancing, or activities that guide stepping outside comfort zones, lose inhibitions.

Stage 8: Emptying chaos

Peaceful waiting.  There are no voices telling us what we must do, what we should do. We no longer feel obligated to meet everyone elses needs. We are peaceful. There is space, space to wait and observe and see what unfolds and fill when ready.

Tips: Be still, wait, allow the experience of peace. Emotions of this stage include grace, peace, expansion, love.

Stage 9: Seeing light beyond form

We become aware that we are more than our physical bodies and that there is an energy that surrounds and connects us all.

Tips: Keep an open heart. We feel so much more than taught.  Connect to what is beyond self. We can often read others' energy and in situations. We experience deep love, acceptance.

Stage 10: Being the Light 

Being open to receive and grow aware of your gifts allows them to blossom. We are not separate from them. We have unique gifts that enrich the collective.

Tips:  connect to our own uniqueness and potential whilst experiencing unity, part of something vast. We share the sun, water, air, earth and are the shared energy. 

Stage 11: Sharing your Gifts

Know you have innate gifts to share. We offer as we can, not because we are better or worse than anyone or, but because we do and because of who and what we are. We see from equality and equanimity.

Tips: Be aware serendipity is synchronicity. We experience joy and gratitude

Stage 12: Communing with Kindred Spirits

Our smallest community is the cells that make up our body. We then expand this to our family, friends, colleagues, then our village, our county, our country, the world, the universe?

Tips: the size and nature of our community depends on our aopproach to expanding our consciousness.

As we expand, we start to see where we sit in relation to humanity. We see into the origins of our actions, thoughts, emotions nd how they have a domino effect. As we grow to consciously connect with ourselves, our connection to the external shifts.  This raises and stabilizes our vibes, grounds our behaviour in radiant love.

12 Dimensions of Soul Expansion

Many people will ask what needs healing and how to go about it beyond the apparent physical symptoms. One view is true healing involves purifying all twelve layers of our energy systems.  Consider which level(s) you inhabit most and share comments:

1st Dimension -The Grounding Earth: The ancestors and your lineage arise from the soil.   The earth goes further to be the anchor of the whole chakra system, especially the seven main chakras.  

2nd Dimension – Our Ecosystem of life and subconscious part of our existence: survival mode.  This is where we function before learning 5 senses, only based our primal instincts (fight or flight).

3rd Dimension – Our Ego, We live to survive-We Die: At this point, we operate with five physical senses.(taste, hear, see, sensation, feel) and believe we are all separate beings. We collectively view our world from an egoic eye, seeing from our limited self view. Our subtle energy is always in dialogue with the universe. Any unhealed areas will project upheavals. 

4th Dimension – Magic and Energy: This is the point where awareness arises of energy that exists outside of us.   As we fully inhabit this space, our outer world morphs. Intuition and awakening abilities interface with other planes of existence. Energy healing, mind manifestation, magic, parallel dimensions, past life regression, dark vs light, law of attraction and 12 Universal laws grow relevant.
 
5th Dimension - Heaven exists:  The fifth level is heaven on earth. It is the place of light, the birthplace of heaven. In the 5th dimension, we are able to fully let go of any fears that we have been holding.
 
6th Dimension – Musical vibration within: You are vibration which is sound. The sixth level is purely mental in nature and based on ideas of information. Thoughts take form in this dimension before they manifest on the astral plane. Ideals take shape through sacred geometry. They are patterns of energy that hold our template, not only our bodies but also the collective data of our species. 
 
7th Dimension – Cosmic Sound: The first step is to take is to form the sacred geometry of the sixth and weave the notes and change our part in the creation process. The create life as we want. Some have proven this level with the sound of music playing and seeing how the shapes of sand or dust will create lovely patterns of such detail within seconds of playing the vibrating sounds and energies. 
 
8th Dimension- Divinity: The next level is eight the level of mastery. This is the realm of the divine mind that manifests our galaxy. This is not the realm of simply light, it is the consciousness of creation. We meet with divine beings, angels, spirits and see how energy transforms from here.
 
9th Dimension – The Christ Stargate: this is unconditionally loving consciousness. A portal of higher consciousness outside of earth. A new universe. This is where meditation forms vision. Aided by guardians, this is where time waves emerge. This is the level of Higher beings that enter our scope as vibration rises.

10th Dimension – The Spirit takes shape through one: This us level is the shaman, the tree of light. This is where we find the law of intention and the mixture of yin and yang. We can make something out of nothing. This is the force of evolution to propels the divine plan to completion. The living light that is within everything. Our now chakras activated are communication in this realm with our soul.  
 
11th Dimension – The Big Bang energy: The eleventh dimension is the first realm of universal consciousness. We are all exactly equal but individually different. This is the merging of female and masculine or yin and yang energies. This is where deeper insight into twin flames grows accessible. This is where activation happens for twins once the clearing of chakras for both parties to force more inner truth. The kundalini activates here.
 
12th Dimension – All that is: The twelfth dimension is the creative source. The merging of all existing realities. Nothing exists that is not part of the whole. This is where twin flames are merged with god as one. We are all connected. We are all purely a reflection of God to each other. The illusion of separation is nonexistent as every tree, animal, and living thing is part of a whole. This is where we are love as God and everyone is part of us. This is where union takes place as we are mirrors of ourselves fully united within.  As above as below. 
 
Beyond our 12 dimensional universe is the gateway to the universes beyond. This dimension allows travel to other universes. This is the portal of beyond existence as we know it.  The 13th to 22nd chakras activated and aligned. Creating in universes comes naturally.