Love brings clarity

Notice love invites us to remove the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we can no longer accept or live within. The path of removing our masks, requires dismantling the life we have come to think is real, tolerating pain, and seeing through our suffering. What makes the journey worth it is we long for reality more than we want to hide inside illusions of those masks. Recall the story of the Golden Buddha. The gold of this buddha was hidden for centuries under simple plaster and clay. It went unnoticed, a reminder it seems natural we develop layers of ego coverings, that we learn ways of hiding, enhancing and ignoring our True Self. When we feel really fearful, the covering gets thicker, more solid. We add layers to what is always here and do not recall the gold. We are identified with the coverings and forget the Truth of Being, our genuineness. Turns out, "real" is not how we are made. Its not our outer coverings symbolized by plaster and clay. Something more formless, intrinsic and pure is awake. As we shine the light of awareness on the plaster coverings, we bring the warmth of love, humor, acceptance to those coverings. This is what melts them so golden authenticity shines through. As we grow more mindful of our patterning (represented by the coverings), we realize the illusion of the anxious, needy, lonely self. It dawns the underlying radiance is more true to who we are than the clay coverings. Wakefulness, openness, creativity, aliveness only shine through as we allow maturity, inner wisdom to reign. The poet Rumi reminds us that is is through love that pain transforms into medicine. We are our own healers that transform into beauty and goodness with perfect timing. We know we are supposed to love ourselves into healing, to face the ego states and love ourselves through it. The most fundamental layer of conditioning is the one that does not recognize the painful coverings are illusions. We hate ourselves for the coverings. We are supposed to love the coverings, the parts of the ego that make it hard to open tour heart to ourselves. When negative emotions arise, we are taught to dislike or hate ourselves, and the master emotion, shame shows its head as if "something is wrong with me/us". Every emotion has its place and can get amplified. We are culturally- rigged with a deep fear of judgement and rejection. Whatever comes up, we come to believe we shouldn't be feeling this way. The core feeling of badness imprisons us in the mind until we are ready to let go of the covering that glues itself to all other coverings. In the stress of life, we forget the subjectivity and realness of each other. The key to being real is to remove layers of conditioning, to listen more attentively to each other. The messages of bad "other" repeat. Shame is exacerbated by cultural caste systems. We are wired to not like our own conditioning and think that is who we are. The healing comes from seeing and loving the conditioning so it can become more transparent though we have an aversion to it. The gold of loving awareness is always available, much like the sun is always here regardless of how many clouds exist in the sky. Through love, all pain and suffering dissolve. Clarity remains.

Honour Yourself

Notice what it is to honour yourself. To honour oneself means that we care and show ourselves as much love and kindness as we might show others, even treat ourselves better than we imagine others would like to be treated. Does it ever feel like you are more present for others, that you are more connected and in tune with the needs of those around you or that you want to please everyone? We are all helping each other along a winding road. We are crossing the abyss that separates us from our true selves. Journeying to and through the heart space is perhaps the most transformative of all journeys. This is about growing aware of and letting go of all we are not. There is so much conditioinng that exists to separate us from ourselves and each other. When the challenging situations arise, our first response may be to ignore this, attempt to get rid of discomfort, judge ourselves for it, view ourselves as a failure. Recall the story of Buddha shooting 2 arrows. The first arrow represents the painful emotions we want to escape or send away. We shoot the second arrow because we dislike our insecure, anxious, failing self. In essence, the tendency is to blame ourselvs for the experience. When its a habit to shoot those second arrows, or in other words, revert to a habit of judging ourselves, we are creating an abyss that is locking us in our self-created suffering. It solidifies our identity as a bad self, creates that undercurrent that "there is something wrong with me." The reality is that any self-aversion creates an abyss that separates us from others, and obscures reality. The answer is always to love ourselves, to love and accept ourselves into the freedom we tell ourselves we long for. Depending on our outlook, the outcome changes. Everything comes back to love. Its who we are and everything guides us back to the truth we know and feel in the heart.

Heal illusory divisions within

Notice energy's eternal force is the Truth of Life. Only energy exists. Yet, using words to describe "Truth" inevitably distorts it. We come to know the Truth by discovering what its not. Awareness allows us to transcend all we adopt and think defines us. Rules and conditions often come to define who, what and how we Love. Awakening is about seeing nothing is ever solved by self-reprimand or blaming others. The conversations we have with ourselves are not real, yet self-talk evokes real emotions in us and what seems real turmoil in our lives. Still, emotions are not the biggest issue. Our thoughts are. Emotions echo what is going on inside us. Emotions remind us that we are not loving ourselves fully, and they let us know when we've travelled too far from the energetic Truth. This Truth may not be something you can easily put into words, but if you pay close enough attention, you can feel its resonance. Its never too late to rediscover the power of Love within us. It has nothing to do with vanity or self-importance. Love is the energy that flows within and all around us. To see everything as a message about Love or a call for Love is to validate who we are. As we recognize we are each the love of our own lives, it dawns the relationship we have with our body and self affects all relationships. Loving ourselves without conditions, heals illusory divisions within ourselves. Self love and acceptance connect us with the infinite power of source energy and allow us to consciously create new realities.

Sharpen Soulful Observation

Notice one is never alone. Instances may arise where it feels like your Soul is slowly suffocating, where part of you is holding back from truly living. You may fear failure, judgment or rejection. If, like me, you’ve felt the pulling in your heart and the weight on your shoulders in different directions, it helps to remember discomfort is part of you. Whatever you think or feel at this moment, relates to memories or visions, energies flowing through your etheric and filtering into your mind and emotions. They are valid parts of your life and ways your Soul may be communicating, asking for attention, healing, or change. Life reveals we cannot move forward or listen to Soul if we always pretend to be happy or avoid pain. It surfaces to be loved and accepted. Wisdom is about embracing every struggle and being fully who you are. Soul often speaks to us through life events. The key here is to be observant, see beyond ego. Rather than ask what you want from life, love, or your calling, ask what is best for everyone. Soul may echo very clearly a new path beckons, you've outgrown a career or relationship, are ready study a new subject, move to a new place or create a completely different life. Or, your Soul may echo to practice patience and stick with your current focal point even though it’s hard. Only you know when a lesson is fully learned or whether you still have room left to grow where you are. Trust yourself. Know also that whatever we experience in our physical, emotional and other bodies reflects how we experience Earth's energy, magnetic fields and ongoing shifts in consciousness.

Consciousness is the secret

Notice the nature of the individual spiritual journey is determined by our level of consciousness, not by anything external. Guides may arise at different stages, but they are simply different versions of you. The mental or intellectual part of us is taught to seek a path that is as easy, as quick and as simple as possible. Deeper Being recognizes love and devotion are dimensions of intelligence. Being devoid of or forgetting self, this is devotion. Impatience or sense of time do not come into it. You lose yourself in the flow of what which nourishes joy, aliveness. Focusing in this field shifts vibrations and draws attention to cosmic doorways. Allowing trust and surrender to take the helm lights for all Paths and directions.