souljourney : Loss & disocovery of soul

In his book, Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore says that the greatest illness of modern times is ‘loss of soul.’ I do not think that we have lost soul, but simply have not yet discovered it, and therefore live in a soulless way.

The new consciousness on the planet today demands that we no longer neglect this vital aspect of who we are. Ignoring this reality has dire consequences, as Moore points out: “When soul is neglected, it doesn’t just go away; it appears symptomatically in obsessions, addictions, violence, and loss of meaning. Our temptation is to isolate these symptoms or to try to eradicate them one by one; but the root problem is that we have lost our wisdom about the soul, even our interest in it.”


Becoming soul-conscious or expanding consciousness is not a choice. It is a deep and natural urge within all of us that is being emphasized by the needs in the world today. The only choice is whether or not we will cooperate or resist the expansion of consciousness once it begins happening. And consciousness expands in all aspects of life where we have gained sufficient awareness and learning.

When we resist this movement of soul within we become ill, we have accidents, we are unhappy, we have money problems, emotional pain is experienced, relationships don’t work well. In general, our life sends us signals to which we must pay attention. Through developing soul consciousness, we learn what these signals are, how to interpret them, and then what to do about them. The Soul Journey will assist you with this.


The evidence of the drive for expanded consciousness, or soul, is found in everyone’s deep yearning to be free. The liberation we want is the release from duality – the very stuff that the challenges of life are made of. But we cannot find this freedom unless we deal effectively with the challenges.

All challenges that we experience are initiated by the soul, even though it can appear that the challenges come from other people, the world around us, society, circumstances and situations. What is the nature of these challenges? What is their purpose? How can we master them?
(Andrew’s e-book ‘Water into Wine’ identifies the basic 9 challenges of life, shows us their purpose, and gives us the understanding we need to master them.)

As we master our challenges, we gain in wisdom and develop the power, love and intelligence that is characteristic of soul consciousness. When we incorporate the mastery into our identity, we transform and experience greater liberation.

(the soul journey) Change from within ( part 4)

This is a personality-based question that really has no answer in terms of length of time. It takes as long as one lives. Change is a fundamental reality of life in time and space. Change is occurring constantly, but often we don't recognize it as it may be quite subtle. The personality is also always trying to keep things the same. Often changes are occurring but we are unconsciously living as if they were not.

When this happens, we tend to be out of step with what is happening in our life and in our psyche. As a result something does not work, things go awry and we are not content.


Sometimes the changes that are going on within us and around us are not the changes we want or like.
This is because we do not understand them. And this is why they exist. There are basically two causes for the changes we experience.

1. One cause is the necessity of subconscious, repressed content to surface into consciousness. These are frequently what we would consider to be negative things - something that exists within us that we are not aware of. It is something that we reject and do not own as ours, something for which we have not taken responsibility.
Because we are not aware of some aspect of ourselves and it wants to come into our consciousness, it is therefore causing many things to occur. We usually become aware of it by projecting it onto people or situations outside of ourselves so that we have the opportunity to see it.

It is a fact of psychological life that whatever is unconscious must in time become conscious. So there is always something from the psyche's shadows seeking the light of awareness. If we do not pay attention to it, it will then get our attention through negative expression of symptoms.

In the Soul Journey, we explore hidden content deliberately so that it no longer controls us, and so that new pathways for soul development and expression can be created.

2. The other cause of the changes we experience is the soul's activity within us. The soul is constantly emanating its presence in the endless forms of love, intelligence and power. It is the soul's power or pressure that triggers the subconscious content to surface, because if there is something blocking the soul's expression within the subconscious then a pathway for expression in conscious life must be cleared. The principle involved is that the soul can only express itself through the path of least resistance. Removing the subconscious blocks that are selfish, ignorant and fearful eliminates specific resistance to the soul's expression.

When there is no or little resistance within us, the soul will express itself based on our awareness of need within ourselves or around us. The changes we experience through soul expression at those times are greater integration between personality and soul. We inevitably then experience aspects of Beauty, Truth or Goodness. We become more the true Self that we are.

Let Andrew Schneider guide you on your journey to find your authentic self. Please visit

http://www.thesouljourney.com

In the world but not of it-6 [ Quarta Via ]

It is often difficult to know what can make our lives richer and clearer. But if your efforts lean towards this clarity, this transparency, this will help you in the process of moving towards your Essence, because only Essence can help you in this process.

If, however, you attribute your personal development to the things around you, you are judging reality on a mistaken principle and, what is worse, you are blocking any possibility of true development. This is actually an attack on your Essence. You are blocking your Essence with the actions of your personality.

I have observed that people often do not know what is really happening or what kind of force is at work inside them, because something in their psyche prevents them from seeing and experiencing the Essence. It is not simply an error of judgement, but also a mistaken motivation, distorted by the defensive functions of personality.

When people do not recognise the force within you that is helping to transform your life, it is because they are resisting the perception of that same force within themselves. They do not want to see the truth, so how could they recognise it in you? It is important, speaking from my experience of working on myself, that I know where the right nourishment for evolution comes from. “Being in the world, but not of it” means learning to recognise what motivation, what force, moves us in all that we do.

Any questions?

Question: Is it possible for someone to have a higher, more active level of Essence than others without being aware of it at all?
Answer: Certainly. It’s what Gurdjieff called “stupid saints”, those who have Being without knowledge.

Q.: What relationship is there between Essence and God?
A.: We don’t usually talk about God, to avoid anyone misunderstanding us. How can you talk about something that you have to have experience of? We prefer not to talk about God, at least until we find a common language, in order to understand each other. But I do want to make this concept clear.

God is the Essence of Essences. It is the fundamental core of Essence.

Imagine a peach. The skin is personality, the flesh is essence, the stone is God. Now think of beautiful, colourful, juicy peaches. You can see them hanging on a tree. You can’t resist them, you have to taste them, they look too good. You come closer, pick one, and take a bite. Your eye-teeth cut into the skin and, oh dear, it is thick and tasteless. So thick that you cannot get a drop of juice out. You take a knife and cut it, and you realise that the tree is sick, its fruit is made up of 90% tough skin, although it looks tasty on the outside. Just a thin layer of flesh covers the little stone which, lying at the heart of the fruit, is still in too undeveloped a state to be able to be reused in future. This is the condition of most men.

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(THE END)

In the world but not of it-5 ( Quarta Via)

Essence is in the world but not of it. It is not sensations, feelings or thoughts. Sure, it’s “in the world”. It’s like gold in a rock, it’s not the rock, but it is in the rock. Essence is in sensations, emotions and thoughts, but it is not any of them. This is how it is for the Essence in you: it is not your body, nor is it your thoughts and emotions, but it is embedded in them. It is like a precious stone hidden in the depths of the earth. That’s why you can dig within yourself, find your wonderful Essence and help it to mature, giving it the right amount of oxygen, which personality had deprived it of until now, growing out of all proportion, robbing it of the light and air that it needed to grow.

To begin this exploration, a good start is work on the body, work that will allow you to increase your perception of your body. This could show you that the Essence is there, it has always been inside your body, because the body is the prime tool for working on oneself. Many who approach the teachings of Gurdjieff seem not to realise that work on ourselves is above all work with the body. Where is the body of the thinking philosopher? How does it move through space? What kind of awareness does he have of himself? Awareness of the body is awareness of the self. Awareness of the self cannot exist without a deep awareness of the vessel in which we live. To be in the body without being of the body, without being completely identified, absent to the body; and the body absent for me. Your Essence is contained in your body, like a pearl in a shell. That is why we focus strongly on developing specific exercises for the body that can help to reawaken the essential energies.

But these exercises are not enough. This work must also be supported by the search for the essence in the emotions, through specific work which is different for everybody. A life’s work dedicated to this. You may have begun working on yourself a year or two back, joining a group or working with a master, and some changes may have taken place. Your heart may be more open, and you may be clearer. You may say, “Oh, my heart is open. I’ve met this wonderful person, she’s really fantastic. I feel open to her, like never before”. This is not the fruit of essential work. If you misunderstand, you are lost.

If you think you are open just because you have met a wonderful person, or if you say that your “kundalini” has ascended because someone massaged you in a particular way or with some strange cranio-sacral technique, you may only think that you have worked on yourself without actually having done so. “But I felt my heart grow warm in that moment!” Believing in physical sensations, in the “warmth” of certain perceptions as proof of years of work on yourself, is not only stupid, but dangerous too. I am saying this because I have often met people like that. They don’t realise that the warmth they feel may actually be the prelude to the heart closing, to new resistance. If you don’t begin to work on yourself in a real and Essential way, if you continue to lose yourself in this nonsense, you will deprive yourself of the chance to evolve. Until you realise that the only way you work on yourself is using the power of discrimination, starting to remove that which does not help you to remember yourself, you won’t make much progress.

If you believe that the master does the work and you can just sit back and enjoy, you can only experience growth in fits and starts, random, controlled by sensations. You have to respond to love, sooner or later. Even if that love doesn’t need our response in order to give, always freely and fully…

(CONTINUED) ( 15 March 2007)

In the world but not of it-4

Your Essence is very open and generous in expressing itself. And this Essence has the possibility to grow, to mature, to become stronger, gaining in courage, which, like a solvent, can dissolve the anaesthesia induced by personality. Essence frees itself from the bonds of external influence. When it is mature it can use its centring as a fundamental influence on its environment.

It rarely enters into conflict, is not afraid to cry, is not afraid to show its weakness. Indeed, it tries to find the strength within itself and tends to build its own life to this end. Personality comes in when Essence, unable to adapt to the surrounding environment, has need for a process of integration. This process is not always negative, but can become so if taken to extremes, if Essence’s motivations are forgotten, if we become the means instead of the end. When that happens life loses its meaning and we have to barricade ourselves behind our masks. In our work we seek to dismantle these barricades, we analyse them, we try to understand what their historical “roots” are. But before carrying out such an operation, we possess specific tools to strengthen the Essence, to encourage it, to start freeing ourselves from the dictatorship of its “stepsister”.

This process is not just a declaration of independence. Often you think that by working to gain such independence you will become capable of it, able to support yourself, earn lots of money, do what you like. But this is not independence, I am speaking of a different, inner, intimate independence. Independence from the world, so as not to be of it. We all live in the world, we dress, we eat, have a job and maybe a lover. And yet this is not the essential aspect of a man’s life. We learn to develop the ability to be aware of what is happening both inside and outside us, but at the same time not to identify with it. We develop what we call awareness and disidentification. These are the most important things needed for harmonious growth.

Until now, the world has been like a big classroom: life situations where you can develop certain aspects of yourself, certain aspects of your Essence. The world is like a big university offering different courses: classes on sex, classes on work, relationships, dependence and independence and so on. But to make your university course profitable you have to learn the basic lesson without which you will lose sight of the meaning of everything. And that lesson is learning disidentification, analysing the meaning of “being in the world, but not belonging to it”… ( 15 March 2007)

(CONTINUED)

Quara Via :In the world but not of it-3

The need to establish an intimate loving relationship has its roots in the relationship you had with your mum in your infancy. When you were a baby, four or five months old, you lived in a state of “symbiotic union”. At that time your essence merged and melted in with your mum’s, or carer’s.

AT that time, there was no difference between “me” and “you”, just total, undifferentiated oneness with the world around you. When you feel the need for a loving relationship you are looking for something that will allow you to “melt”, so that there are no longer two separate individuals, but one Essence. In this inner mixing, a blend of gold, you feel healthy, protected; your body is sensitive to pleasure, your mind fades to the background.

Due to our childhood experience, we want to relive the same sensations as adults, with someone who loves us. That is why we look for the right person: because we’re seeking that original melting, merging sensation. This is a particular psychological state whose roots touch the archaic emotions of our Essence. Now the question that arises is: do we always need someone to stimulate this state, or can it come about autonomously, spontaneously, even when we are alone? “Only if he/she holds me in his/her arms, only if he/she loves me, can everything become wonderful.” This is the answer of most people. When we are in love, and we feel loved, we are open, willing, deep. For this reason some see this state of being as the aim of working on oneself. Gurdjieff called it Conscious Love.

It is a love that has little to do with a sense of belonging, with doing or not doing. It arises from the ability to reawaken the essential state of fusion even when we are alone, even when it is not requited. Often this state of “fusion” can take place outside of the relationship of a couple in the generally understood sense.

For example, some achieve it in their relationship with their child, or they can feel it when they are in a certain place, close to nature or enjoying wonderful scenery. In order to achieve this state, however, certain external conditions are always necessary, it cannot be done without them. But is it really so? I would like to read with you a Zen story.

The story of Master Hakuin:

Master Hakuin lived a pure life. A wonderful girl and her family had a restaurant near his home. Suddenly, without warning, her family found out that she was pregnant, and they became furious. At first the girl refused to say who the father was, but after much harrying from her parents, she said that it was Hakuin. In an uncontrollable rage they went to the Master’s house, but his only reply was, “Is that so?”

After the baby boy was born, they took him to Hakuin, saying that it would be shameful to keep him in their house. Hukuin replied, “Is that so?” His excellent reputation was lost for good, but nonetheless, he helped the child to grow, and developed a wonderful relationship with him. His old friends didn’t go to see him any more, and to those who told him of the criticism of the people, he replied, “Is that so?”

After a year the girl could no longer keep the secret, and she admitted to her parents that the child’s real father was actually the boy at the fishmonger’s on the corner. Her parents were deeply perturbed by this revelation, and they went back to Master Hakuin to apologise and ask to have the boy back. He gave him to them, and as he placed him in his mother’s arms he asked, “Is that so?” Is it possible to remain constantly the same, even when there are good reasons to despair?

For Hakuin there was no difference between one event and another. He was always the same. He knew who he was, he was centred. Is it possible to live in such a condition? Or is it just a fantasy? Can there really be people like that? Is there really someone who can play out everyday life, having established his Being on a higher plane? …

(CONTINUED) <>

Quarta Via : In the world but not Of it -2

Usually when a person begins to work on himself/herself, he/she has no idea of the difference between choices motivated by Essence and choices motivated by personality, and nor does he realise what is useful to his growth and what is not. Not only does he need a guide, but because of his identification, he misunderstands the strength of personality, which is always on the defensive. “This is mine. This is what I am. This is the best I can do.” We often say that personality’s drive to acquire independence and identity is a distorted reflection of the lack of certain aspects of Essence.

After meeting a master, and the revolution that this will create in your life, you will learn to carry on pursuing your professional career, whatever it may be, but remembering all the while that what you do in the world is but a pale reflection of something else, that you are actually seeking deeper actualisation. When you reach this goal, when your treasure is your personal Essence and your heart is moving towards this goal, you will be in the world, but not of the world.

This does not mean that you will have to take refuge on a mountain top and meditate, but that your life can become an adventure; that whatever you undertake will not be an end in itself, but the crucible in which to transform the ore into gold. When you understand that you are your personal Essence, what you do will be of little importance, indeed, your “doing” will have awareness characteristics very different from now. There cannot be true and lasting fulfilment until you have broken the identification with personality, bringing out the essential nature.

Here’s another example: learn to be with someone whilst remaining independent. At times, in order to remain in a relationship, some people destroy their own lives, stop having their own lives, cancelling themselves out to gratify their partners. Love very often places choices before us, and often asks us to die to our dreams and aspirations. But can there be a love which, instead, allows us to be free? But shouldn’t love be freedom, and not slavery? Instead of being a bond that imprisons us, shouldn’t it be the key that frees us? In effect, this is love, but to experience such a thing, you first need to have developed certain aspects of your Essence, to have freed them from the game of personality. To give a clearer understanding, we need to clarify a few things regarding the nature of loving relationships… ( 23 Feb 07)
(CONTINUED)

(Quarta Via) In the World but not Of it -1

Extract:

In the gospels we read the words, “To be in the world but not of the world”. This phrase can have many meanings. It depends on the situation, and on your level of being and understanding. Today I would like to talk about the meaning of this very phrase, so that you can understand better the reason why we are here on this earth. When a child is born, it is made up of wonderful Essence, pure Being. Naturally, this Essence is not the same essence as that of an adult. It is a childlike, undifferentiated essence.

At the same time, the personality begins to develop through interaction with the surrounding environment and, as far as the early years are concerned, mainly with the child’s parents. Since the parents are identified with their own personality and Essence, they influence the child, and do not encourage the development of his/her Essence. After a few years, the Essence is forgotten and replaced by personality and by various identification mechanisms. The child now identifies with one or the other parent, with one experience or another, and with a whole range of information about himself, from which, as an adult, he will be unable to free himself.

At the beginning, the Essence just was, and it still exists, but unfortunately it is no longer seen, felt, experienced. However, although it may be rejected in all kinds of ways, it is still there. It is sheltering under a protective shield that hides it. That shield is personality. There’s nothing wrong with having a personality; you have one yourself, and it would be impossible to live without it.

But if you consider your personality to be the truest part of you, what you really are, you will end up distorting reality. Because you are not your personality. Personality consists of past experiences, ideas, notions, identifications. You have the potential to develop your own individuality, your Personal Essence, which is different from the personality covering it. Unfortunately this potential is taken over by what we call “ego”, our acquired sense of identity. If someone believes that he is his ego, which is the result of identification, ideas and past experience, he is said to be “…not in the world, but of it”. He is not yet aware of who he really is. The ego, or sense of identity, takes the place of what we call true identity, and personality takes the place of Essence. Personality is a substitute, an impostor.

The world is the same for both Essence and personality, but it is perceived differently. A person who is “… not in the world, but of it” is oriented towards the personality, to the detriment of the Essence.

Personality needs to prove its level of prestige in the world to itself continuously. It needs to create a place for itself in this society, to show at all times that it is strong, successful, independent, capable, whatever the cost. These are its major concerns. Personality cannot tolerate displays of human weakness.

Whereas Essence seeks a very different kind of independence, which springs from within, and bases its development mainly on elements of an inner nature. Independence from past identification, not independence based on the things you do in the world. What you do in the world can be an expression of what you are, but it doesn’t define you. We usually think that the job we do, whatever it is, shows us what we are; this means that we are identified, that we have become the exterior, we have introjected it. We have become the world. This is the worst distortion of reality. (CONTINUED…) <>

Can you help someone else change consciousness? ( soul journey)

changing consciousness is not a matter of a desire that can be fulfilled. Instead, it’s a growth process that occurs from within. You cannot make a flower bloom – it will bloom when it gets to that particular stage of unfoldment. But just as the flower needs nourishing and support to get to that stage, so too every person needs nurturing and support to move through the stages of unfoldment.


We can assist people to fulfill their needs. If a person is dependent, we can help them to become more independent by supporting them to recognize and meet their own needs. We cannot help people take responsibility for their choices, which is part of the process of becoming independent, but we can encourage them to take responsibility.

If a person is independent, and is ready to move on to soul growth, we can assist them to understand what those stages of growth involve. We can also invite them to participate in group activities that are soul-based. This might involve group meditation or service of some kind. We can also exemplify through our living the qualities of soul consciousness, which then creates a resonance within others.

Every step of the soul journey necessitates a free and conscious choice for GREATER INCLUSIVENESS. And therefore, there is a letting go or sacrificing of something personal that might inhibit one from being more inclusive. This would be some thoughts, ideas, attitudes, or behaviors that are exclusive, separative, self-centered or judgmental.


No one can help another to make such shifts of perspective. We cannot force such shifts in ourselves, either. One arrives at that stage when the choice is a natural step based on the loving, intelligent unfoldment of heart and mind.

The step toward inclusiveness is inspired and supported by the soul within rather than based solely on personality efforts. When the personality releases its blocks to soul expression, the choice is simply a consciousness assent to the life and impulse of the soul within.

To find out more about the Soul Journey and other consciousness-related materials of Andrew Schneider, please visit

http://www.thesouljourney.com

(soul perspectives) who am I ?

Who am I?

When the early Greeks went to the Oracle in Delphi to ask questions about life and the future, the Oracle often gave enigmatic answers. But behind all the answers was the ages old dictum, ‘Man, Know Thyself,’ for which the Oracle is remembered.

All questions that we may have about life arise from one fundamental question: Who Am I? All problems begin with not knowing this answer. The answer changes with time and with changes in consciousness. Our joy comes from an insight into this question.

All fulfillment and all healing must address explicitly or implicitly this question. The answer is not information, although information or concepts might be formulated. The answer is always a soul connection. It is an identification with the expression of Spirit within us, which is in part what soul is.

Throughout the ages, the issue of self knowledge has been the most basic teaching of every path of development or expansion of consciousness. It appears to be deceptively simple. Obviously there must be more to it than at first seems apparent, or we would not have to be constantly reminded of it.

When you buy a new car you get an owner’s manual to tell you all about it and how it functions. When we come into this life we do not get an owner’s manual and don’t know very much about it and how it, or we, function. We have to write our own manual - and it will be unique and different from that of everyone else. How are you doing so far with yours?

Does it not seem odd to you that our educational system teaches us about how the physical world is, but does not teach us how we are? This education is left up to each of us to pursue. We have to learn not only about our physical body, but also about our emotional life and our mental life. Without this knowledge we do not take responsibility for our physical well-being, and our thoughts and especially our emotions control us. Personal growth systems, self-help books and courses, and modern psychology to some extent deal with these dimensions of our personality.

But there is much more to self-knowledge. The ‘self’ is not the self-image we have, but our essence, the soul, of who we are. And without knowing who we are in our essence we cannot be ourselves. We then live superficially, with our ‘power’ but a temporary illusion and our love conditional. Without self-knowledge we become victims of circumstances.

Through the Soul Journey, we find our unique essence, and become adept at expressing ourselves from a very powerful, intelligent and loving center within us.

Exercises: 1. Describe your essence. What few spiritual qualities do you most stand for? 2. In the last week how have you responded to the need of others? 3. What are you victimized by? The system? Your parents or upbringing? Your job? The economy? ...

Go beyond just understanding

( the soul journey) what is consciousness

One of the most difficult issues of life to define and understand is consciousness. Yet it is a word that is used everyday and people don’t think much about it. Self-help books and personal growth courses often use the terminology of consciousness but frequently don’t really understand what it is all about. Most confuse consciousness with awareness. They are similar ideas but in some ways opposite each other.

Clarity about consciousness is all important. If we cannot properly name something we do not know it. And not knowing it, we have no influence over it. I wish to share with you a few basic insights about consciousness.

We are entering a period of human growth and development where consciousness needs to be a priority focus for each of us if we are to live a meaningful and purposeful life. Meaning and purpose are the primary fruits of consciousness development.

Consciousness is what makes something what it is. It is what defines a person as to who they are. It is the essence of a thing which reveals both its universal truth and its unique individual characteristics. Consciousness is the soul of any reality, it is its essence.

Everyone and everything has an essence or a soul and everyone and everything has consciousness. Each person or thing is unique as individuals. But we are all part of something greater as well. It is consciousness or soul which links us to our greater, universal nature, sometimes called the Divine.

When you have consciousness you are using your heart, your intuition, or your faculties of knowing that transcend the mind. Heart, intuition and these other faculties exist in the realm of soul. So when you know with consciousness you are not separate from what you know. You merge with it. You identify with it as you experience it. It moves you in a way that you experience it as a part of your greater self.

When you have awareness you are using your mind to know something in an objective way. You know something about something. You possess or have knowledge, but as the one who knows you are separate from the thing you know. Awareness happens as a mental reflex whenever the mind is exposed to something, The only choice involved is what we want to pay attention to, or the extent to which we want to learn more about something.

You could call consciousness ‘soul knowing’. The beauty of soul knowing is that soul is not separate from what it knows or contacts. It sees itself in the other. In knowing it fully we touch its essence, and in doing so we love what we know. As soul beings we are essentially love. And through this knowing with soul we grow and expand our sense of who we are as soul beings. We find peace and harmony in our relationships with those people and situations that we approach with this consciousness.

To find out more about the Soul Journey and other consciousness related materials of Andrew Schneider, please visit http://www.thesouljourney.com

(being there) chap 13 ; Dynamics

A Short Course in Enlightenment - Part 2

By Stephen BE

Chapter 13. Dynamics

When someone raises his or her voice to you, do you automatically raise your voice in return? Or do you get quiet, or sarcastic? Everyone has patterns of feeling certain emotions that are followed automatically by specific behaviors. The behaviors are called reactions. The patterns, of emotion and behavior together, are called dynamics. Since dynamics are the result of specific imprints in your unconscious, they indicate much about your issues. If you want to undertake the work of dealing effectively with your issues, then you must learn to see your dynamics. This is what begins the inward journey.

While you are able to see and identify some of your dynamics on your own, most of your dynamics are in your blind spot. Becoming aware of your dynamics, and being able to use them to deal with your issues, is easier with the help of a trained partner. This partner must repeatedly call your attention to dynamics as they occur. You begin to develop awareness of your dynamics through repetition of attention.

This is risky for the partner. You will need to make a sincere choice that you want this information, that you want your partner to point out your dynamics when they are apparent, and that you will be willing to deal with whatever emerges when this occurs. This is how you make it safe for your partner to help with your self-discovery.

This partner needs to be someone who has frequent interaction with you, and is trained to recognize dynamics as they occur and how to communicate this in a non-threatening manner. This partner can see the places you cannot see and can call your attention to the dynamics you might otherwise miss.

This can be a friend, a parent or a spouse. Very few people are trained in the emotional aspect, however, so it is rare that these nonprofessionals in your life can be helpful, until they are adequately trained. Usually a professional counselor is required to assist you in seeing your dynamics. Most well-trained counselors can easily see dynamics, and will focus on those that cause the greatest difficulty in your life. A good marriage counselor will also train spouses to help each other identify dynamics. This is an important step in being able to deal effectively with issues in a marriage.

Knowing and seeing your dynamics is the intermediary step between effectively dealing with your issues and having seemingly random experiences in life. When you begin to see the patterns, your eyes are opened to the potential of a divine design to your personal growth.

In Part 3 of A Short Course in Enlightenment, we will lay out the sequence of discovery you must undergo in order to grow. Be sure to sign-up for it when it is offered, in the Free Reading Lounge in the Lobby of BEingThere.net.

©2005, 2004 BEing There Enlightenment Systems, Inc.

being there ; chapter 12 ; issues

Chapter 12. Issues
-------------------------------------

All of your lessons in life, that eventually lead you to your Enlightenment, are presented to you in the context of individual issues. These are specific situations that need to be dealt with, if you are to learn the lesson imbedded within.

You know an issue is present when you feel a sense of disharmony. This disharmony may be identified as anxiety, anger, frustration, hopelessness, futility, loneliness, inadequacy or any number of emotions that are experienced as “negative” by you. You may feel a shortness of breath, tightness in your stomach, anus or feet, or tension in the muscles of your back, neck, jaw or hands. The physical expressions of this disharmony can be as numerous as the emotional expressions.

Learning to be aware of the disharmony you feel is the key to knowing when to change focus and get to work. If you miss the disharmony then you miss this opportunity to grow. But you are never excused from the work needed to learn your lessons. If you miss the disharmony, you merely create the need for the lesson to present itself in a more dramatic fashion, in order to get your attention. All lessons come to you in a succession of progressively dramatic situations: first, a whisper; then, a tap; followed by a knock, and a pounding. Until, eventually, you create a situation that hits you over the head with the proverbial large stick to get your attention.

Issues are merely the alarm system that signals your need for growth in the moment. The intensity of the alarm is determined by your awareness of disharmony and your willingness to deal with what you feel. There is nothing inherently wrong with you when you feel an issue coming up. Everyone has issues! Avoidance of your issues, when they present themselves, or denial that you have issues, will result in increasingly greater drama (i.e. emotional pain). Willingness to feel what you feel, and willingness to deal with what you feel, will allow you relatively painless growth opportunities.

The same set of issues in you will show up differently in the spectrum of situations in your life. Knowing what your issues are gives you the power to see them and deal with them the instant they arise, and even to anticipate them before they arise. By studying your dynamics, you will be able to know your issues. The next chapter will start you in the study of dynamics.

©2005, 2004 BEing There Enlightenment Systems, Inc.

course 2 / chap 11 < lessons>

A Short Course in Enlightenment - Part 2
By Stephen BE

Chapter 11. Lessons

While an issue is the disharmonious experience you have of a situation, and requires specific skills to discover, claim and enact your Personal Truth, a lesson is the broader application of what you learn from an issue. The issues are indicators of when a lesson is present. The lessons are the steps needed for your growth. When you deal with an issue, you have settled a situation to the point where you no longer feel disharmony. When you learn the lessons imbedded in an issue, you no longer need to re-experience that same issue. Knowing and continuously addressing current lessons in your life, can often preclude the need to create specific issues.

Learning to identify lessons is an advanced emotional skill. It can only occur through consistent use of the basic emotional skills. You learn to see lessons by recognizing the patterns in your issues. You must be able to deal with your issues effectively as they arise, before you can make sense of the patterns.

At every level of consciousness, there are many lessons to be learned. Someday we might be able to catalog these lessons. But even if there was a comprehensive list of the lessons everyone would eventually need to face at each level of consciousness, there would be no predicting which lesson you would need to face at any given stage in development. Personal growth is personal. You learn through your own inner experience, not by studying a cognitive report of inner experience. There is not now, nor could there ever be, a sequential curriculum that is the same for everyone.

To fully understand this concept of lessons, you must ponder your beliefs about the nature of life. Who says there are lessons? Who determined these lessons? How are learning situations set up? Who says you must learn them? What happens if you refuse to learn? How long do you have to complete the learning process? And so on… These are profound questions of faith.

To learn lessons, in the pursuit of Higher Consciousness and Enlightenment, you must also challenge your faith, simultaneously undertaking the lessons on another aspect of being. You do not need to practice advanced emotional skills until you have mastered the basic emotional skills. In fact, you will not be able to do so. But you can begin to see how, when you raise the skill level of your emotional aspect, your consciousness will rise to the next least developed aspect and demand that you learn additional skills there too. Next, the issue of “issues.”


©2005, 2004 BEing There Enlightenment Systems, Inc.

(lesson 10) Pursuit of higher consciousness

Chapter 10. The Pursuit of Higher Consciousness
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You cannot go from where you are now directly to Enlightenment. Each level of consciousness is predicated upon the preceding level. This would be akin to standing on top of the mountain without having to make the climb. This trek to the top is referred to as the pursuit of Higher Consciousness. There is no predicting how long this pursuit may take. All you can do is put in the effort, stay on the right path and remember to take satisfaction in the process.

Enlightenment then, is not about reaching the destination. It is about being in the process, always in the process. The pursuit of Higher Consciousness is a continuous process, one that requires constant learning and refinement. As you integrate the skills you learn on each aspect of being, you begin to sense that your world has changed. You are creating different experiences. You are realizing a higher level of consciousness.

However, in practical terms, the pursuit of Higher Consciousness is more about the pursuit, and less about the reward of Higher Consciousness, or even Enlightenment. The pursuit is the only part about which you have any immediate choice. Enlightenment determines your course. Higher levels of consciousness give you markers along the way. But the process you use in your pursuit is the vehicle in which you travel.

The pursuit of Higher Consciousness is the reason for life. It is in this pursuit that you undertake the work of dealing with all of your issues in their myriad manifestations, and thereby learn the lessons they represent. Life is about learning. It is not about arriving. It is not about success. It is not about accumulating. It is not about progeny. It is not about doing the “right” thing. It is not about obeying the rules. It is not about fulfilling any roles, whether set by you or someone else. It is not about pleasing your parents, your family, your church, your community or any other group in which you find yourself.

Life has the single purpose of learning the lessons you need to learn to realize your birthright, Enlightenment, which is a process of realizing ever-greater levels of consciousness.

The pursuit of Higher Consciousness, the process, involves specific skills. These skills enable you to learn the lessons you need to learn in order to grow. In the next chapter, we will talk about what these lessons are and how you go about learning them. We will continue then.

©2005, 2004 BEing There Enlightenment Systems, Inc.

Being There : The Search (2)

The Search
by
Stephen BE

The first step in the Path of Emotion* (a construct for creating life consciously) is willingness to feel what you feel and deal with what you feel.

Willingness is only a choice, but it is the choice that begins the sequence of change toward a truthful life. It is a choice to no longer exercise denial and avoidance of your experience. It is the first choice of consciousness. It often takes people years to fully learn to make this choice continuously, without prejudice to the type of emotion. And willingness often constitutes 75-80% of an individual’s work to fully implementing the Path of Emotion.

After you have gained faith in your ability to walk the Path of Emotion, and you have known the wisdom of making this first choice of consciousness, you realize that willingness is a passive form of embracing your experience. It is like letting someone walk up to you and give you a hug. You might not resist it. It might even feel pleasant. But you did not initiate the experience, and the frequency of receiving this experience would be limited to the number of people who initiate it with you.

The more active form of embracing your experience is called “seeking.” When you seek, you will greatly increase the opportunities for your growth. When you are seeking, you are looking for your experience, knowing that it will allow you to claim more of your treasure, your Personal Truth. When you seek, you are pursuing experiences. When you seek you are enthusiastic about potential new discoveries. You carry the attitude of an adventurer, one who seeks new environments to which you can journey.

Seeking is willingness in a later developmental stage. Your willingness to claim your treasure is absolute. You develop trust in your Personal Truth, enough to know that it is always truthful to seek further. Your pursuit is worth any additional risk. Your choice, to seek or not, is no longer contingent upon any possible risk. The only question of consequence is whether seeking further is truthful.

In Part 3 of "Seeking ..." you will learn how seeking is a fundamental part of developing your spiritual aspect, allowing you to work on multiple aspects simultaneously.

Being there : Seeking ( chap 9)

Chapter 9. Seeking

Enlightenment does not occur accidentally, serendipitously or spontaneously. To realize Higher Consciousness, an individual must learn the skills necessary, deal with the issues that arise and integrate the lessons of each level of consciousness. This requires a lifelong process of commitment and focus. Higher Consciousness is realized as you undergo your personal growth.

You can be fully committed to your growth, deal with every issue, and slowly experience the changes that occur. But there are skills that can be used to speed your rate of growth. One way is to continuously throw yourself into the most tumultuous situations you can imagine. If you remain committed to dealing with every issue as it arises, and if you have the skills to do so, then your growth can be increased by arranging to feel more issues, more disruptive issues and more frequent issues. We do not advocate this method. It leads to a life of high drama, frequent crisis and constant disharmony.

The more sophisticated and productive process of undertaking the pursuit of Higher Consciousness with deliberation is referred to as "seeking". When you seek, you will greatly increase the opportunities for your growth. When you seek, you look for your experience, knowing that it will allow you to claim more of your Personal Truth. When you seek, you are enthusiastic about potential new discoveries. You carry the attitude of an adventurer, one who seeks new environments to which you can journey.

Seeking is a skill. It is a skill that can be continuously improved. It is a proactive skill, rather than reactive. When you \nseek, you extract possible future lessons imbedded in current issues. As you become increasingly responsible for yourself, you learn to begin seeking your truth before it is required by the events around you.\n\nBeing a seeker means you are on a perpetual journey toward higher levels of consciousness. Others around you may or may not understand your pursuit, but you will know with certainty why you continue to seek.
Being a seeker has intrinsic value that you will conclude is invaluable, over and above anything else imaginable in life.\n\nSeeking is an advanced form of the pursuit of Higher Consciousness, but before you can run, you must first learn to walk. The pursuit of Higher Consciousness is profound work. We will introduce this next time.

\n\n \n©2005, 2004 BEing There Enlightenment Systems, Inc.\n \nOn BEingThere.net, we welcome everyone who wants to share and learn with other seekers. Even if you are just starting out on a path of self-development, you will have perceptions and questions that help everyone else to \ncheck-out the beliefs and values that, perhaps, have gone unchecked for awhile. Each person is exactly where he or she needs to be for their most relevant lessons of consciousness\n",1]
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Seeking is a skill. It is a skill that can be continuously improved. It is a proactive skill, rather than reactive. When you seek, you extract possible future lessons imbedded in current issues. As you become increasingly responsible for yourself, you learn to begin seeking your truth before it is required by the events around you.
Being a seeker means you are on a perpetual journey toward higher levels of consciousness. Others around you may or may not understand your pursuit, but you will know with certainty why you continue to seek. Being a seeker has intrinsic value that you will conclude is invaluable, over and above anything else imaginable in life.
Seeking is an advanced form of the pursuit of Higher Consciousness, but before you can run, you must first learn to walk. The pursuit of Higher Consciousness is profound work. We will introduce this next time.

©2005, 2004 BEing There Enlightenment Systems, Inc.

On BEingThere.net, we welcome everyone who wants to share and learn with other seekers. Even if you are just starting out on a path of self-development, you will have perceptions and questions that help everyone else to check-out the beliefs and values that, perhaps, have gone unchecked for awhile. Each person is exactly where he or she needs to be for their most relevant lessons of consciousness
. We'd love to have you on the forum, too! Please join us soon! \n -- C.V.Ramana. +91.98855.74112. ### 12-2-709/C/105,Padma Nabha Nagar, Near Mehdipatnam, Hyderabad - 500028. \n",0]
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. We'd love to have you on the forum, too! Please join us soon!