Don't shaft yourself

I was asked to reflect on a dream experienced by the colleague of a friend. This individual dreamed he realized that he had an illness and so he anxiously consulted a physician.  The patient felt he was very sick and pleaded with the physician for advice.  The health professional replied, "I'm sorry to say this, but it's apathy."

In reality, people have been known to claim illness as an effort to distract themselves from or escape an uncomfortable situation.  The physician may represent the dreamer's unconscious who recognizes the patient is lying to himself about being sick. He really yearns for some kind of healing, such as a change of heart or a change in the way the dreamer treats other people and himself.  Since apathy is often the suppression of passion, emotion and excitement, the dreamer may be holding himself back from things he truly wishes to do, and may fear taking the risk to do it.  Apathy may also reflect indifference or a lack of concern. The dreamer may subconsciously feel guilty about something he has done or hasn't done.  Acknowledging a perceived problem is the first step to determining how you plan to solve it. 

Reflect on what real-life events might trigger similar feelings. What might you be trying to run away from? Remind yourself that you carry your issues with you wherever you go. Don't shaft yourself.  It makes sense to work through the feelings and siutations that bother you. Take the risk.

Phantom angels

Your mind may tell you things which you're unsure about.  Sometimes you feel as though events unfold to bring you closer to what you want.  Then, sometimes events unfold to prevent you from obtaining what you think you want.  Only with the passage of time and evolving maturity will you realize what you used to think you wanted wasn't really the best thing for you. 

Consider that right now, you may have a vision for the next chapter of your life.  This may include a certain kind of partner, a certain kind of home, a certain kind of job, a certain kind of entourage, a certain kind of religious or spiritual life (or lack of this), and you may be convinced that you know exactly what is best for you.  Yet, how do you really know? Who convinced you that these ideas in your mind are the most beneficial ones for your life? What or whom could cause you to change your views?

What if you met a stranger on public transit and struck up a conversation about your life? What if this individual drew your attention to options you hadn't thought of? Could a chat with a stranger be enough to cause you make life changes?

What if you suddenly discovered a flat tire which prevented you from attending what you thought would be a very important meeting? What if by taking a detour to a garage to change that tire, you discover that the dealership that recently sold you your car had swindled you by giving you faulty tires? Would you consider the mechanic be a guardian angel? A friend of mine thought so.  The mechanic advised the man to request completely new tires from the dealership. If that doesn't get the desired results, the mechanic offered to do it.   

Would a person who drew your attention to details you'd missed change your attitude enough to rethink your auto dealer? Rethink your future choice of car? Rethink your attitude about a particular lifestyle? Rethink the purpose of attending the meeting that Forces beyond you might have hinted you don't really wish to attend? Imagine the domino effect. Remind yourself that each person you meet has the potential to enable you to change your life for the better.

Consider to whom you spoke recently and whether they could be angels in disguise. 

The Big Truth

Whether or not your realize it, the truth follows you around wherever you go.  The big picture is revealing itself.  Clues are always smack dab, right in front of you.  Clues to what you do not need in your life are also right in front of you.  So, what do you choose to notice and how do you act? Notice how your own selective awareness is serving you. 

Ask yourself if you serve other people before yourself.  If your focus is your own personal agenda, if you only help people when you see how this can contribute to your own bigger plans, then you are sacrificing the potential of more meaningful relationships.

If you desire to perceive yourself in a new way, this doesn't require you to be completely selfless. When you think of yourself, you would benefit from thinking of yourself in the context of a bigger picture.  Evolve to see what is best for others is also what is best for you.  As you grow to feel more connected to other people, distinctions fall away.

The soul is like an open sense.  It intuits all choices without judgment.  The mind judges what is best for whom and why. Aligning the mind with soul allows you to feel your way into states that expand beyond self.  The big truth is beyond ego and self-interest.

Rather than see yourself as different, better, more competitive, more strategic or superior, you shift to see what you have in common with others until the sense of other fades. You feel more inter-connected. As you assist and are kind to others, you have no ulterior motive. You act for action's sake. The big truth emerging is oneness.

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth." - Buddha

Revise certain thoughts

Neale Donald Walsch suggests that destructive thinking may overwhelm you.  He believes part of our greatest spiritual challenge is to decondition certain ingrained thoughts.  Consider your point of view on each of the following five points and what you might do to revise your mindset:

1) Human beings are separate from each other.

2) There isn't enough of hat human beings need to be happy

3)To get the stuff of which there isn't enough, human beings must compete with each other.

4) Some human beings are better than other human beings

5) It is in appropriate for human beings to  resolve severe differences created by all other fallacies by killing each other.

Invisible wings that enable you to fly

If you travel, or know anyone who does, you hear about the fiascos that go on in airports. Security has been heightened all over the world. This means identification is now manditory when crossing borders. Many people are familiar with paper tickets and electronic tickets and how you're required to have the paper ones in hand before you can get a boarding pass and board a plane.

One businessman friend of mine arrived at the airport only to discover he had forgotten his passport. Imagine his dismay. He had a crucial meeting scheduled in New Zealand that couldn't be postponed. There was no way he could get back through Melbourne city to his home to get the document and return to the airport without missing his plane. With many odds against him, he discovered he had unexpected powers of persuasion. He managed to board that plane and do what he had planned to do in NZ on the condition that someone would have his passport at the airport upon his return. In times of high security, this occurred without a hitch.  He questioned whether his guardian angel had entered the minds of the airline officials who let him board his planes, and whether the angel took human form to bring him his passport and allow him to pass back through security.  He couldn't help but laugh when he found himself driving behind a convoy of Hell's Angels on familiar motorcycles all the way back to his home.

I had a heavenly experience where I arrived at an airport after a plane had already headed down the runway.  Something possessed the minds of those pilots and they came back and pick me up! As I boarded that particular aircraft, I admit I wasn't sure if the glares of fellow passengers revealed they knew a guardian angel had intervened on my behalf? I smiled at them and saw a girl wearing a t-shirt with an angel behind my seat. Funny, her mommy wasn't smiling like her.

Another experience I had was to discover I had forgotten a paper ticket when I had arrived in a busy international airport. This was a multiple destination ticket which required boarding passes and authorisations to land in multiple countries. Part of me thought the itinerary changes had been made electronically, but I had made a mistake and admitted it. At the same time, because of tight connections and events in different places, I prayed that Higher Forces would forgive my short-sightenedness and somehow intervene. It didn't take long to convince me that multiple members of that air carrier were collaborting with my guardian angels.  Not only did the ticket sales manager rebook my itinerary through 8 countries, but he gave me a voucher for a free drink to reduce my stress and didn't charge me for the booking changes. I received an escort through security and my bags were personally delivered to the baggage handlers. My own experience is that positive thinking and inviting desirable outcomes can indeed be very effective, and I'm unconvinced I do these things on my own. 

When I think to airport experiences, the place itself represents a desire for freedom.  We're ready to take off for some destination, and yet, part of us has already done so even before we board a plane.  We may like to visualize angels when situations work out and make us feel good.  At the same time, Forces beyond us may offer us signs to remind us events can unfold in our favor.  Invisible wings may in fact enable you to fly more often than you think.