Personal Development and the Way of Sacred Activism
Personal development happens in many ways. One way that I may well be drawn into is the Way of Sacred Activism. I attended a meeting yesterday close to where I live. It was held in my home country of Northern Ireland in the town of Enniskillen in County Fermanagh. This was a forum focused on community activism against the threat of Fracking in Ireland. This is a industry that is a threat to much that I hold dear in our locality and beyond. This threat to the environment may well call me into an area that I have never before been engaged with. This is political activism.
The great mythologist Joseph Campbell writing in his book entitled The Hero with a Thousand Faces recommends that each one of us follow our bliss. Joseph Campbell writes
If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you aught to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are – if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.
On the other hand the modern mystic Andrew Harvey writing in his book entitled The Hope – A Guide to Sacred Activism writes
I don’t say follow your
bliss; look where that
has gotten us. I say
follow your heartbreak.
Each of these wisdom teachings can, in a very real sense, become foundational to our living what the poet Mary Oliver refers to as, Your one wild and precious life. I will say at the outset that the advice from Joseph Campbell is the advice that I would prefer to follow. However, it is the advice of the mystic Andrew Harvey that is in many ways the more physical, the more emotional, mental and spiritually demanding path of sacred activism and community activism.
Having said that, however, we do live in a world of duality. We live in a world of opposites. We live in a world where one tribe thinks it is doing right and the other tribe, which is in opposition, is also sure that what they are doing is also right. This is the very nature of the polar energetics within this realm of time and space. This is the very nature of life on this planet. This tension, and this opposition, when resisted is called suffering. It has many forms. The Buddha, however, demonstrated the way out of suffering and the way out of opposition. This is what he called The Middle Way.
Let me suggest therefore that you embrace both of these invitations. This is both the invitation to follow your bliss and the invitation to follow your heartache. Many of us instinctively choose to follow our bliss. We pursue pleasure and avoid pain. However, pleasure is not the same psychological and spiritual state that is called bliss. Bliss is a high state of consciousness. We might at times glimpse this state but it takes one to travel the Hero’s Journey to be able to turn such a glimpse into what the Sufi’s refer to as a station. A station is where you have the ability to abide within a given level of consciousness should you choose to do so.
The paradox for those who follow the path of bliss is that they will come to the experience of heartbreak. In fact the way of bliss can only really be sustained once the true heart’s desire is known. Knowing the true heart’s desire takes you through hell, or what the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung referred to, as the City of Jewels (3rd chakra experience). To follow your bliss means that you are willing to follow the way that the life force within you designed you to express that life force through you. This means that you must learn to listen to the truth that your heart is able to speak through you. This requires a certain level of integrity. This integrity is the ability to rise above the opposition within yourself.
When you are able to reconcile that opposition within you through an act of conscious will then the power of the unconscious becomes aligned with the will of the personality. This is the beginning of real personal integrity but it is only the first step in the beginning of the journey into bliss via the heartache of opening the heart centre (4th chakra experience). Remember that this journey of personal development and beyond is not simply a linear logical journey. Although I might write about lower and higher states of consciousness this is still speaking in language of opposites. This is the very thing we are required to transcend. You may well get glimpses of bliss that arise from the opening the higher energy centres (chakra’s). You may well be blessed with a breakthrough experience that then becomes your North Star.
When the personality has been integrated to a fairly high degree then there is the call to the next stage of the journey. This call can, however, come at any moment. This is the call of the heart and it is in very many ways the experience of that has been called an existential crisis. It is a crises of meaning and purpose and this crisis leads to serious heartache and mental distress. This crisis of meaning and purpose then becomes a threshold place that begins the journey into beyond and the journey into bliss.
To follow your bliss and the journey through the heartbreak of a life lived without meaning and purpose is the journey that Joseph Campbell refers to as The Hero’s Journey. It is also of course the journey of the Heroine and in a very real way is more the Journey of the Heroine. Do not equate the words Hero and Heroine here with the words man and woman. The Journey of the Hero (or Heroine) is the journey of a sacred marriage within. This journey has been mapped in many ways. It is the journey from the narcissistic sense of self interest in all its myriad forms into the realisation of the One Self in service to all forms living on this dimension of space-time and form.
It helps to know that this is part and parcel of the personal development and beyond process. There are many, and in my opinion, too many spiritual seekers seeking bliss from a sense of self interest. I have been one of those seekers. The difference now is that I am much older. I have taken the journey the City of Jewels on various occasions. I have faced enough opposition within me to know that the seeking of bliss for oneself tends to heighten the sense of separateness that we are trying to transcend. Following one’s bliss is a process of alignment with the creative life force. This creative life force has many names but the name is never the thing. It isn’t the name God. It isn’t the name Tao. All those names point to an experience that is the Oneness of Life. This process of the realisation of oneness begins within this dimension of time and space within the body.
The physical body is the temple of the inner body. The state of bliss is known from within and expressed within the form of the body. You are, in a very real sense, the unique embodiment of God in form. Choose your own word for God. Choose a word that connects to your heart. Choose a word that works for you. If the word Oneness works for you choose Oneness. If happiness works for you choose happiness. However, happiness is most elusive when it is sought for the purpose of the individual self. It is found in service when that service is given from the heartbreak of separateness from Love. Bliss is not pleasure. Neither is bliss happiness. Bliss is a state of consciousness that one seeks to abide in. There is a paradox here. The more you are not, and the more that you are not seeking, the more available you are to this bliss experience. Bliss is simply the state of being that you are.
Let me invite you to take the Hero’s journey and the journey into bliss. It is a journey that has been mapped in many ways and distorted in as many ways by those who would have power other than Love. If you would like to know how to follow your bliss and follow your heartache into living a life of meaning and purpose then I invite you to sign up to receive my weekly newsletter entitled Personal Development and Beyond. This is a FREE newsletter which will take you week by week into the journey of a lifetime and beyond. It is the journey of expansion into the endless journey of Love within form and beyond this form of the body. It invites you into an understanding of health and well being in body, emotions, mind and spirit. This journey of personal development and beyond is a challenging road but it is a road that I believe we will all journey in our unique and wondrous way. My intention is to show you the pointers along the way and especially the pitfalls that you will encounter along the way.
The modern mystic Eckhart Tolle writing in his book The Power of Now starts this book as follows:
You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are!
That really is how important you are. Do not underestimate the power that you have seeded within you. You are a unique flowering. You will never happen again in this form, although paradoxically speaking, you never cease to be this flowering because the real you is the birth less deathless experience of Love beyond the limitation of time and space. My intention here is, metaphorically speaking, to give you some gardening advice that will flower this unique potential within you for the greatest good of all. This, I firmly believe, will take you into the knowing of your true heart’s desire and into the bliss of knowing who you truly are.
I invite you to subscribe now to this weekly newsletter Personal Development and Beyond and discover some real spiritual education. You are able to unsubscribe at anytime. Included in this newsletter will be access to all the resources that I have discovered on my personal Hero’s journey. Join me now and let us each follow our bliss through finding our true heart’s desire. Simply complete the boxes below with your name and email address to accept the invitation to living your one Wild and Precious Life.
Other Resources for Personal Development and Beyond
For more information on Sacred Activism and also The Hero’s Journey see the following links
Sacred Activism - Following your Heartbreak
http://www.andrewharvey.net/pdf/sacred_activism_article.pdf
The Hero’s Journey – Following your Bliss
http://lifecoachesblog.com/wp-content/files/theherosjourney.pdf
Fracking Free Ireland
http://www.frackingfreeireland.org
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The Way of the Chakras and Personal Development
Persona – The Mask
Personal Development – the development of the persona, the mask, the separate sense of self – involves the balancing of the first three chakras
- The Root Chakra
- The Sacral Chakra
- The Solar Plexis Chakra
This is the first triad of chakras that are concerned with personal development and the integrity of the individual. The second triad of chakras is concerned not so much with development but the allowing of revelation.
One allows the revelation of the impersonal or the universal.
- The Crown Chakra
- The Brow Chakra
- The Throat Chakra
These two triads one moving upward, which denotes the masculine and the other moving downwards denoting the movement of feminine energy are connected by the middle chakra -
When this process of personal development and beyond is complete then we have the integration of two triangles, which makes the sacred symbol of the star. This is a symbol of sacred unity – the unity of the personal with the universal within you. This is the Way of the Chakras. It is a complete physical, mental, emotional and spiritual integration. It leads to a sense of connection beyond the limitation of the separate sense of self, which is the cause of suffering in this time/space dimension.
It is the fullest expression of what is potential within you. It provides an outline that promotes a total sense of well being in all areas of your life and the life beyond the limitation of the person you think yourself to be. The Way of the Chakras develops the personality in the following way.
- Physical Well Being – I Am
- Emotional Well Being – I Feel
- Mental Well Being – I Think
This is a process of integrity. It begins in the body. This is not simply a linear process, meaning that you move 1, 2, 3 in a straight line. Well being in the body will lead to a greater emotional and mental well being. In this process you are using your will, the power of intention – to integrate your physical, emotion and mental energies. This is needed in order to be able to surrender the will you have developed to that which is universal.
It is only those who have strength of will that can allow themselves to allow the process to take them higher. This process moves through the heart. The individual will is developed to the point where they begin to feel the pull of the universal within them. Then the individual will is being invited to merge with the will of the Divine. This is the true desire of the heart and the purpose of life on this planet.
The Infant Samuel
This seven stage outline is the true spiritual education. It is the education that one should at least be made aware of even if you choose not to follow this particular way. It is a map that you can follow that leads to the revelation of why you are born. While this revelation needs to be direct it is more likely to be revealed to the individual whose mind is open to the invitation.
The experience of life lived from the opening of the heart chakra is in many ways the opening to the life of the miraculous. Most people on this planet are not living from this dynamic. By that I mean that they are not able to simply abide within the heart by an act of will. At best they are able to glimpse the state of heart consciousness but get pulled out of it by habitual attachment to lower levels of consciousness where they, for the most part, live.
Without at least a glimpse of this heart state, the desires of the heart will not be known as a direct experience and your life will be driven by ego desires, which are for the most part determined by the desires of the collective and, especially today, by media and commercial interests. This complete map of the human journey is really an experienced journey. It requires that you at the very least know the general direction and outline of the territory. This is a glorious journey because that in a very real sense is the dynamic you end up being the revelation.
My personal recommendation is that you at least learn the outline of the journey. I also add one proviso. Always remember that the journey begins in the body, the root chakra, and that you are to remember that to keep your feet always on the ground. Paradoxically speaking, this is the only way to fly. Whatever map you choose to follow in relation to what I call the Way of the Chakra’s, be it a book, a course, with a teacher, do not simple make this spiritual education process simple more information. This Way of the Chakra’s is 99% practice and 1% information. Don’t cling to the words but make yourself available to the knowing beyond words. This is the most practical of ways to live life for all your life.
Eternity Awaits You
There is a bonus in living this way. You expand in many ways. It is a journey into seeing beyond. You cannot yet know what that feels like. The breakthrough experience happens and you are revealed to be more than you ever thought you would imagine. The Way of the Chakras will, should you choose to venture on the Way reveal to you something beyond any worth. It is a paradox because it is not a thing that you get. It is the revelation of who you already are but not awake to. The poet R. S. Thomas says this wonderfully well in his poem The Bright Field.
The Bright Field
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.~ R. S. Thomas ~
(Another from the wonderful anthology,
Soul Food: Nourishing Poems for Starved Minds,
ed. by Neil Astley and Pamela Robertson-Pearce)
Don’t let your life simply be a hurry into a receding future without real purpose and meaning. This purpose and meaning is only recreated from the heart centre – the bright field. It is, as the modern mystic Guy Finley has so eloquently said
Your purpose is to allow Love to use you for its purpose
This can only happen if you are able to surrender your will to the Universal Will. This is, in essence, the one love choice. It is, in a very real sense, the choice between life and death. The Way of the Chakras ultimately leads you to the direct knowing, to the eternal birthless/deathless revelation that you are. My invitation through this blog is to say to you -
At least educate yourself to this glorious invitation.
You can take the first step. You can even, if you doubt the possibility, take the first step. This is a first step into the knowing of your full potential. As one proverb invites
The journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step.
Personal Development and Chakra Balancing Home Training Program
Until that point when I produce my own Way of the Chakra’s program (which I am presently developing) I invite you to take the first step into real personal and spiritual development that will, in a very real way, lead to stardom. This is the star that you are here to be and to lighten up and brighten up the world. Let me introduce you to an extensive map of chakra balancing and healing that includes . This is a program developed by Carol Tuttle Master Energy Therapist. This program includes the following training:-
- Thai Yoga Therapy.
- Meditation.
- Visualization.
- Rapid Eye Technology.
- Crystal Healing.
- Emotional Freedom Technique.
- Reframing.
- Breathing.
- Affirmations.
- Chanting.
Take the first step.
Click this link to access this program
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BLISSITATIONS – At this site they are committed to making it easier, more enjoyable and more effective with guided meditations, visualizations, affirmations and other goodness to help turn your meditation into Blissitation!
Reflections from a Drumming Circle – Finding a Home in Community
Pageant of Childhood – Thomas Gotch
A Drumming Circle and the Rhythm of Life
Visitors to this Personal Development and Beyond may not be aware that one of my joys in life is to belong to a Drumming Circle. Drumming has become a rhythm within my life. It happens within a circle within a circle within a circle. Having fallen out of what the mystic poet Jelalladin Rumi calls the Circle of Love deep into the Circle of Time, I have, ever since I was around the age of seventeen, had a longing to belong. Over many years I have journeyed within various kinds of groups looking for such a sense of belonging. Each of these groups and circles have held and supported me in their various ways. Each of these groups I have left. I have always left at a point when the group dynamic wanted to impose its group consciousness on the emerging individuality flowering within me. Now the group that holds that longing is a community drumming circle called Ruach Rhythms lead my master drummer Debbie Beirne.
Now at this point in my life I have come to a new community. It doesn’t ask me to believe in anything. It simply asks me to come along and learn what it is to play a drum. It is the most eclectic of groups. There are young and old, black and white, men and women, single people and married people and too many religious denominations to mention. All of these people gather around in a large or sometimes small circle. The circle is the most powerful of symbols. It has no beginning or end. In the middle there is an emptiness which is full. It is full of unlimited potential. We gather in a physical circle of time and space and form. In the centre of the circle there is space and there is timelessness. Inside that space is an invitation. It is the invitation from the eternal Circle of Love. It cannot be grasped by the intellect. You cannot own it. It cannot be bought. It can however be known and felt and shared. Such is the nature of a drum circle.
Community Drumming as a Circle
This circle is a communal drumming group. Its emphasis is on promoting a sense of community and it will, if you allow yourself, take you into a real sense of communion. You will learn to fall into your unique rhythm. This circle of community does not debate the rights or wrongs of the world. It simply plays rhythms that allow each individual to begin to sense a place of belonging and rightness within them. Out of this place they are then given the energy to become whatever creation intended for them. This place is a place beyond the judgmental mind. The rhythm of the drum takes you into an awareness of the body beyond simply thinking about. It takes you into the intelligence of the body that many people in our day to day Western society ignore. If they do not ignore it they are intent in pushing the body into some kind of conformity.
For many the body is in some way an instrument that they feel to be wrong in some kind of way. Mostly this comes from cultural and religious stereotyping. Many of us in our own way do not fit in. We are like the story of the dragon called Didnafitin who did not fit in. He was a square dragon in a world of round dragons. Except that most of the round dragons did not admit that inside each of them was a dragon who was, despite being round, all out of shape. Drumming does not ask the body to be a different shape. It helps you fit in. It awakens the body to its natural rhythm and balance. The first thing that is often noticed by a beginner is the fact that one hand is weaker than the other. In the beginning it needs practice to begin to awaken this non-prominent hand and bring both hands into balance. There is no judgment here. There is only the experience of the awareness that one hand is dominant.
This experience of dominance reflects our approach to life. Our dominant approach to life is one of doing. We do much of our lives until we are done in. We live in the rhythm of the do and do and do more which is pushing our species to the place of extinction much like the Dodo bird. The experience within a drumming circle invites a more natural rhythm. It invites the rhythm of do and be and do and be and do and be. This is the do-be-do-be-do rhythm of life. It is opposite to the rhythm of most people’s lives which is geared to doing rather than movement from being. The rhythm of the drumming circle builds to a crescendo. It falls deeply for a short time into silence. This is the rhythm of doing and being and the rhythm of harmony that brings together a sense of communality. There is a collective experience of joining in and creating together a communal dance of sound. Then following that there is the individual sense of returning to ones own centre.
In this experience there is no requirement for me to believe that I need follow some idea that does not speak to my heart. No one, I think, will throw me out of the circle simply because I no longer believe that a drumming circle should conform to some group ideal. If that should happen then it will be time for me to leave and move in a wider circle that my beloved Rumi invites when he says, “There is a field far beyond right doing and wrong doing. I will meet you there.” This is the field beyond the duality of ideas of right and wrong that allows you to experience the rightness of creation. In this experience there is no sense of you being someone who has ever been away from the circle of Love. You cannot leave this circle because it is who you are.
Out of this awareness of who you are as an embodiment of Love communion happens. It isn’t so much that you have to find some kind of rhythm that fits you. Out of this awareness you become what Creation has longed for you to be. It isn’t that you then do the dance of life but that you realize that life is the dance you are. The doing of your life becomes not the do do do rhythm of living your life back to front, but the movement of your life as Love in action. This awareness, if it is genuine, will wake you up to the injustice of a world based on the idea that we are all separate. When you find the real rhythm that you have come here to be then you will begin to serve. You will do this because there is so much you feel that you have to give that to do other than this means you stop enjoying and being in the joy of who you are.
Finding Communion and Finding a Centre
A drumming circle doesn’t ask you to become a master drummer although there is no reason why you shouldn’t if that is what you are drawn to express. A drumming circle uses rhythm to create the feeling of centeredness as a communal experience. The missing ingredient in our world of separateness is the direct experience of communion with that which is non-separate. It is that which is never born and never dies. It is that which we are and are here to be the knowing of. It is our true nature and our inheritance. I am writing this at a time when Ireland and much of the world is experiencing a time of financial crises. These crises, I think, mirror a more fundamental crisis. The system of regulation of financial institutions can be tightened but the regulation does not mean that the moral and spiritual bankruptcy at the heart of the crises will change.
Those who are in control of the major resources and who are living the so-called ‘good life’ are often divorced from the life of those who are working to make ends meet or on the margins of society. The real measure of a country is the level community and communion felt amongst its people and its relationship to the earth and all the creatures held within the circle of creation. One of those people who have inspired me is the English politician William Wilberforce. He had a circle of friends called the Clapton Saints. He, together with this circle of committed individuals over a period of forty years, brought an end to slavery in Britain. When he started out he was told by everyone that it could not be done.
He stayed true to the rhythm of a grace note given to him when he was twenty six years old. He never moved from that central awareness of sacred unity, the rhythm of sacred breath.. From that awareness he held his own centre. The person he came to when he was full of doubt was John Newton. We know John Newton as the man who composed the hymn Amazing Grace. A real sense of community is an amazing grace. It is what will and does make a difference. It begins with you and your intention. Often joining a drum circle happens because we want to find a group of people we can simply enjoy spending time with. We might join to learn how to drum. You might learn by going to a teacher but this will not be the experience of community that is available within a circle of people who start as separate individuals and within sixty minutes are playing as a community. They learn to do the rhythm and then come to be. They come to belong to a community.
In such a way time stops and one enters the empty space at the centre of the circle to find the amazing grace that it is always full and awaiting to give you true fulfilment. You become like the apprentice in the Disney movie called Fantasia, only you know how to pour away the beauty that you are and that is central to who you are and your ability to commune. Come into the circle of Love it is the only rhythm worth playing.
Come out of the Circle of Time
into the Circle of Love
Jelaluddin Rumi
Why not then join the Rúach Rhythms team for a New Years drumming circle which includes storytelling and acoustic guitar and singing around an open fire in comfortable chairs late into the night.
New Years Drumming Circle in Ireland
Time
Friday, December 30 at 7:00pm – Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 1:00pm
Location
Benwisken Eco Centre, Co Sligo.
Created By
More Info
New Years Eve Winter solstice celebration.
A time to gather together in community to celebrate the release of the old and welcoming in the new. Stepping into 2012 with community an unity.
Sharing our music our stories and our wisdom. Bring your voices, your drums, your stories, your instruments, your laughter, your recipies and your heart.
The venue is the Benwisken centre at the base of the beautiful Benwisken mountain outside Cliffony Co Sligo. The event is alcohol free, although we will be sharing a (mild) mulled wine over the weekend period.
This is a family event and children are welcome.
Cost of the weekend is €70 per adult and €20 per child. This includes excellent dormitory accommodation. A deposit of €20 is required to secure a place. If we get a full house then the cost will be reduced.
Concessions are available on prior request only.
To book contact:
Debbie (Rúach Rhythms) on 087 6326610 or email ruachrhythms@gmail.com
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Finding true Self Worth if you are Feeling not Good Enough
The Ugly Duckling by Frank Cadogan Cowper
There are various ways to determine what you are worth but we are speaking here especially about finding true self worth. Existentially speaking you are priceless. There is a paradox in finding true self worth. This is that the more you try to find it outside yourself the more it tends to retreat and the more dependant you become on that outer source. There is nothing especially wrong with being validated by outside sources but the experience of finding that wellspring of beauty and grace which nourishes you from within is hard to put a value on.
This is why in this personal development and beyond blog I invite you to take small (or even giant steps) to trusting what is within you that reveals the worth of who you truly are. If you knew directly who you are, beyond the limited idea of name and form, then the idea that you could ever somehow be not good enough is laughable. The sorrow, and it is a real sorrow, is that most people do not know directly and are not nourished from the source of their very being. In order to feel good enough they spend their time doing something that will give them acquired value. There is value in enhancing your skills in whatever way that gives you a sense of fulfilment but there is nothing you have to do, or really can do, to prove that you are worthy of being.
Self Worth and Self Esteem
Let me state unequivocally
Your being is good enough and your being is forever good enough.
There is even a paradox within making the above statement. This is that your being, and thus your true worth, is beyond the idea of good or bad. The kind of Goodness, that moves from being, is beyond the opposite of not so good. This beyond not so good is your inheritance. It is inherent within you. Your work is to reveal this Goodness within you. You cannot get this sense of self worth because you are already more than worthy. This not being good enough is an idea of the separate self and not the experience of the one who you truly are and are created to be and share. This is evidenced in the following poem by my teacher Jalal ad-Din Rumi,
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn’t make any sense.
There is a state of being within you that is beyond the idea of opposites of right doing and wrong doing. It is the essence of who you are. That very state of being is your true self worth Ideas and language cannot give you any real sense of what the power and beauty of this true inherence, that is who you are, feels like. It simply is. It is available to you as your true inheritance and it is your work to reveal it and gift this inheritance to the world. There is nothing that you can add to yourself. This worth that you are is beyond price.
Self esteem, however, is something that you can build. There are many ways in which self esteem can be built and this is largely attained through personal development practices of which there are many. Below is a list of some of these practices that you might engage with. If you are to enhance your self esteem it is really a practice of kindness, discipline and commitment. It is in essence a practice of self loving rather than a practice of self loathing. A commitment to a daily practice of personal development will help build a sense of self esteem. Here are a list of practices that I recommend at Personal Development and Beyond:-
- Practice radical self acceptance.
- Trust your inheritance as the original Blessing you are
- Learn to witness your inner negative dialogue.
- Start a gratitude journal.
- Stop judging yourself and others
- Turn within and discover your true worth.
- Practice kindness.
- Listen to affirming stories.
Not Being Good Enough
You have been taught that your being is not good enough. For hundreds of years, and especially from the time of St. Augustine, there has been taught the idea of original sin. This is the idea the you are inherently worthless and indirectly accountable for the murder of a man two thousand or more years ago. The central myth of this Western culture is the story of the Garden of Eden which tells you that God threw you out your ancestor because they were disobedient and that it took someone being murdered on a cross to make it OK with this God.
Even if you personally do not believe in this story and the associated myths connected with it you are a part of the collective that has taken these stories to heart for hundreds of years. If you think that you are not impacted by these stories then look at the way in which you work. The way work is set up in our culture is the drive to try and create meaning from what is the Protestant work ethic. This is the ethic that attempts to prove that one can earn their worth in this world because you are told you cannot earn it in the other world.
Eve by Anna Lea Merritt
The primary emotion that such stories invite is the emotion of guilt. This is a soul destroying emotion if it is used for purposes of control or education in any form. The feeling of guilt has its place but its place is certainly not to teach you an inherent sense of wrongness simply for being. That, psychologically speaking, is a form of masochism. Finding self worth is an inside job. If you look at small children who have been allowed to grow in their own unique way you will not find them questioning their sense of self worth. You will not find a small person who spends their time thinking about what they are worth and how to find what they feel they are missing.
My heart truly goes out to any of you who seek to find this worth that is intrinsic within you. Without it there is a constant sense of something being missing. There is nothing missing except the connection. As a child that connection was a natural part of who you were and are. It is still a natural part of who you are and it can be reconnected and in fact it is never truly disconnected. There are those who have spent a lifetime creating a sense of worth connected to things outside themselves and at the end of life have come to the realisation that they were looking in the wrong place.
The need to find a sense of self worth arises because you do not have the connection to the true sense of worth that animates you into the living form that you are. Children naturally have that sense. In all likelihood you are telling yourself a story, either consciously, or unconsciously, that you are in some way unworthy. This sense of unworthiness can become a habit and it is certainly a habit that is ingrained in our culture and is a major part of our economic focus. While self worth is inherent in your very being there are things that you can do that will allow you to connect to your inheritance.
What to Remember on Waking
Remember this as a kind of mantra.
Who you are is priceless and cannot be made more worthy.
If that is not how you feel then it is because you have been taught to feel differently and that teaching has disconnected you from the Original Blessing that you are. While you cannot make yourself more worthy you can take actions that invite your return to experiencing that sense of worth that is beyond price. The good news is that this sense of Goodness that is inherent in you never goes away because in truth it is who you are. You can build, and I recommend that you build, an increased sense of self esteem. This gives you confidence in the small self that you identify with. As this confidence builds then you can move more deeply within and confide in your true Self.
Let me finish with some quotes that invite you to take the courage to be good enough
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ~e.e. cummings, 1955
All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I am nobody but myself. ~Ralph Ellison, “Battle Royal”
Rabbi Zusya said that on the Day of Judgment, God would ask him, not why he had not been Moses, but why he had not been Zusya. ~Walter Kaufmann
If the quotations don’t do it then here is a poem that invites awareness of the need to follow your inner truth and have revealed to yourself the knowing that you are magnificent beyond words and have worth beyond price.
The Journey
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice –
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do –
determined to save
the only life you could save.”Mary Oliver
It is my sincere hope that it is today that you finally know what you have to do, and begin, to reveal the one wild and precious life you are here to live. It is my sincere hope that you leave the voices behind that suggest in anyway that you are not being good enough and that you have the courage to take the only journey that you alone are here to take. This is called the Hero’s Journey because to become all that you are here to be takes courage. This is the journey into the one life that only you can save and finding in that one life that there is no one to save. You come home to the place you never left and find that this place is beyond price.
OTHER GREAT CONTENT
Here is some other material that will further your personal and spiritual development and your understanding of the various stages of spiritual development.
self worth
EN*THEOS RADIO – en + theos. Two little Greek words. Put ‘em together and you’ve got enthusiasm—or “God within”—the secret sauce to authentic awesomeness. Helping you tap into Highest within is pretty much what our little business is all about.
SOUNDS TRUE – Tools and teachings to spark your inner evolution. Download FREE spiritual development podcasts from inspirational teachers
4 STAGES OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH – The stages of spiritual growth is sometimes not easily identified, and we’re all of us are undergoing a transformation down this path, even if some of us don’t know it.
The Power of Storytelling in Personal Development
In a series of blog posts I will write I intend to invite you into discovering the power of storytelling and how important it can be in learning to move through life’s transitions. In addition to being a writer on personal development and beyond I am a storyteller by profession. I am interested in how other people use the power of storytelling to invite change in their lives and other peoples lives. I have over a number of years listened to keynote speakers who have used stories to illustrate points in their talks. I have to say that most of the stories I have heard leave me unimpressed. In response to this experience I have decided that I will share with you a series of stories that both irritate and inspire me. This is so you might then be able to choose which story you invite into your psyche and heart and from which you can live a wild and precious life. In this way I hope to share with you the real power of storytelling to inspire you in living your one wild and precious life.
As a writer and storyteller I hope I understand the power of storytelling and the power of metaphor and symbol that is invited through language. As a writer on personal development and beyond I love language and the power that it has to change one’s world view. One writer who I love and whose writing inspires me is Ben Okri. Here is what he writes about the power of storytelling in his poetic and eloquent way from his book A Way of Being Free
The old storytellers were the first real explorers and frontiers people of the abyss. They brought the world within our souls. They made living within and living without as one.
Here is the true power of storytelling. It makes living within and living without as One. The power of storytelling creates within the teller and the listener a kind of sacred unity and an invitation to move beyond opposition into unity. There are motivational speakers telling stories that are, in the words of Ben Okri, poisonous stories. These are stories that invite, not so much unity, but deeper division. In this series of the Power of Storytelling blog posts it is my intention to share with you my take on how you might use the power of storytelling to invite the full potential of what it is to be human and to do this through personal empowerment and a sense of compassion.
I recently discovered a story on a website of a young woman who is an inspiration to me. This young woman writes a blog called The Personal Excellence blog and it is an excellent blog. Her take on the story called the Howling Dog is one that invites awareness of our resistance and the pain that such resistance causes in our lives. This story of the Howling dog is what would be called a teaching story. It is the kind of story that might be used by motivational speakers to emphasis a point in their motivational talk. Having said this I wondered why I felt so angry when I read this story. So I decided to find out why I felt that way by writing about it and sharing what came up for me in reflecting upon this story. I also wanted to use the true power of storytelling to add value to this story and to invite you the reader to reflect on the story and end it in a way that inspires you in higher ways.
Here is the story that was featured on the Personal Excellence blog. It is called The Howling Dog.
Tom just moved into a new neighbourhood recently. He liked his house and his environment, but there was one thing he didn’t get.
His neighbor, Mr Tan, had a dog that kept howling non-stop. Literally. Day in, day out.
“Auuuuuhhhh………. Aaaauhhhh……….”
Initially Tom thought the dog was just going through a phase, so he ignored the howls, thinking it would eventually stop.
But it didn’t. It continued howling.
“Auuuu…………auuuu………..Auuuhhhhh…….”
1 day passed. Nothing changed. 2 days passed. Still howling. 3 days. 5 days. 1 week. 2 weeks. 1 month. Still howling, with no signs of stopping.
“Auuuhhh………….Oouuuuuhhhhh…….Au au auuhhhhh..”
Finally, Tom couldn’t stand it anymore. One fine day, he walked over to Mr Tan’s house to see what was going on.
Sure enough, there was the dog, sitting at the front porch, howling pitifully to whoever was walking by.
“Auuuhhh…Ouuuhhh….Auuuuuuuuuuuuuu………Au au au auu au au auuuuhhhhh….”
On the other hand, Mr Tan was relaxing on his bench at the lawn, leisurely reading his newspapers and sipping a cup of coffee.
Wondering what was going on, Tom walked up to Mr Tan.
Tom: “Hi Mr Tan, is that your dog?”
Mr Tan: “Which dog?” He glanced around. “Oh that. Yep he’s mine.”
Tom: “Why does he keep howling?”
Mr Tan: “Oh, that’s cause he’s sitting on a nail.”
Tom: “Sitting on a nail?!?” Tom gave the dog a bewildered look.
“..Okay… so why doesn’t he just get away from the nail then??”
“Well, Tom………”, Mr Tan took a slow sip of his coffee before replying.
“…That’s because he doesn’t find it painful enough yet.”
The first question for me as a storyteller is this.
Does this story leave you feeling inspired.
The answer for me personally is, “No it does not.” The story is intended to invite you to consider your relationship to resistance in your life but it is only really half a story and does not invite the full power of storytelling. When you listen to a story, read a parable, read some wisdom teachings one thing to remember is that every character and every image in the story is intended to represent an aspect of yourself. In the story of Beauty and the Beast you are Beauty and you are the Beast. In the story of Beauty and the Beast there is opposition. There is beauty and there is what is considered to be non beautiful and even frightening. The story goes on to emphasise the power of Love to transform what is in opposition into what in storytelling is consider sacred unity. This sacred unity is represented in many fairytales as the marriage between the Prince and the Princess. This invitation to the marriage of opposites within you is the true power of storytelling and it is intended to be the primary invitation from storytelling.
The story of the Howling dog has four main characters
- Tom
- The Dog
- Mr Tan
- The Nail.
This is really a story about suffering but it is not a story about overcoming suffering. This story would be like the Buddha finding the first noble truth, being the fact that there is suffering, and leaving it there. There is also a very negative connotation about this story. It leaves out a lot of interconnectedness and it ignores the responsibility we each have toward one another to alleviate suffering in anyway that we are able. If we are unable to do this, or are so focused on ourselves that it is a non-issue, then we are like Mr Tan or Narcissus who falls in Love with his reflection and dies because he cannot relate to anyone other than himself. These people are no model for anyone interested in personal development and certainly no model for anyone interested in the beyond of personal development.
Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse
Let me confess something that is pertinent to my reaction to this story. I call it a reaction because this is what it was. I confess to be an animal lover. I confess to being a devoted dog lover. In this story, as in many other stories around the world, the dog as a symbol represents unconditional love. Anyone who has ever had the privilege of living and loving a dog will know this. Symbolically the dog represents the dynamic within you that loves unconditionally.
What about the owner Mr Tan. Would you in all seriousness want to be Mr. Tan. Has Mr Tan something to teach you that you value. Do you value the allowing of suffering for sufferings sake. If I where Tom I would has serious words with Mr. Tan. For one thing I would ask
Who left the nail around for the dog to sit on?
Dogs are creatures of habit. They have their routine and they have their places where they go to sit or lie down. Maybe the nail is bent. How does Mr. Tan know that the dog is sitting on a nail. Has he looked to see what the dog is sitting on and if so why has he left the dog to sit on the nail? The only logical answer is that the man has unresolved masochistic tendencies and loves to see and connect with suffering because he is too lazy to get off his Mr Tan ass and do the right thing. Mr. Tan doesn’t seem to consider the fact that one of the most problematic issues in communities is when one member of the community leaves their dog to bark or howl at anytime of the day. My take on this story is that Mr. Tan has nothing off value to teach you about suffering because he does not teach you how to alleviate it. In fact he seems to quite enjoy the suffering of sentient beings who are able demonstrate the love he so obviously seems to be devoid off.
In motivational kind of story that is used to illustrate the power of storytelling we are not told what Tom did. He seems only to care that the source of the irritation has been discovered. He does not act out of compassion. He seems quite indifferent to the suffering of the dog. In the story of the Howling Dog we are left with the knowledge that the dog is suffering and might indeed continue to suffer because the nail might be bent and cannot be removed without help. This is often what happens when we are deeply wounded and that wound remains unconscious. This story doesn’t offer any help at all. What would you feel like if you went to Mr Tan for help with your issue of suffering. My advice is to avoid the Mr. Tan’s of this world and there are many of them. They come in all guises and they will demonstrate what suffering is but they won’t get off their own nail.
If you are going to choose to use the power of storytelling for personal development and beyond choose a story that inspires you and invites you into your highest good. Such a story is Beauty and the Beast which is a story of the power of love to transform the opposition within our lives. Choose a story from mythology that has lasted a long time and has secrets to reveal to you. When using the power of storytelling choose a story that invites those uncaring parts of yourself to be alchemised into Love and into unconditional love. If you see a dog sitting howling then also be careful. A dog in pain is a dangerous dog and out of its suffering will not be the dog it normally wishes to be. Learn to approach this howling dog with sensitivity. Become a Mr. Tan with compassion.
What about Mr Tan? It is my considered opinion Mr Tan needs therapy. He needs help to recognise that he has a responsibility to care for himself and others and especially for those animals in his care. He could start by paying attention to where he leaves nails lying around in areas that are used by others. I wonder what his wife would have said if she had stood on the nail left lying around. I suspect that Mr. Tan might not have a wife, or have neighbours who care and appreciate him. He lives a life where he seems to teach others through pain and aggravation and leaves you at a point where unconditional love is howling to be taken of the nail of the very sense of separateness that is the major cause of suffering in the world.
Choose well the stories that you invite into your psyche. The power of storytelling is very real. This is the power of symbol and metaphor to take you into living the transformed life. Simply because you hear a story from someone who promotes themselves as a keynote speaker or personal development teacher does not mean that they have integrated their personality into the sacred unity of beyond. THis includes myself. In this story of the howling dog you are Mr Tan, you are the dog and you are Tom as the observer. Let your Mr Tan be one who accepts the responsibility of owing the dynamic of unconditional love and responding when appropriate. Let your Mr Tan become the direct experience of the wisdom mind within you. Pain teaches avoidance and not expansiveness.
If Mr. Tan was more responsible then the dog would not need to howl because of Mr Tan’s strange response to obvious suffering. How would you feel about this story if the story featured, not a dog howling, but a child crying? The metaphor is the same but somehow you might not be so ready to take on the teaching of Mr. Tan. Would you remain silent and say nothing about the suffering of the child?
Silence by Henry Fuseli
In this series of blog posts on the power of storytelling I will be sharing with you another story that I heard at a seminar called 20/20 vision. This was a story told by the keynote speaker who was there to invite a vision for our community for the year 2020 and beyond. I left feeling depressed at the invitation that was presentedbeing the way forward into a vision of the future. It seemed to be just more of an old paradigm that I try to discourage here in this personal development and beyond blog and for me personally dishonoured the true power of storytelling that invites unity and revelation rather than a onesided view of what it means to be successful.
You are a wonder tale. The power of storytelling is there to invite you into the realisation and revelation of the wonder you are. You are here, not only to tell the story about your personality, but to live, love and gift that story of who you are beyond the personality for the highest good of all. It is important, therefore, that you align your mind and heart with stories that are aligned with the universal drive to higher and higher love making. The story of the howling dog is intended to be a story about suffering but it is only half a story, and for this writer and storyteller, not one that I would use to inspire anyone to become the wonder tale they are here to be.
If you are interested in making the power of storytelling part of your personal development and beyond then I recommend the following storytellers who inspire me and who leave me feeling alive and filled with the boon of compassion so that should I see another sentient being howling in pain then I humbly take action in whatever way might alleviate such pain. This then completes the circle. It recognises that We Are All One which it the title of another story that I will introduce you to in its fullness and which really shows you the power of storytelling to connect to the very best that you are.
OTHER GREAT CONTENT
Here is some other material that will further your personal and spiritual development and your understanding of the various stages of spiritual development.
inspirational storytelling
SPIRAL DYNAMICS – Another map of personal and spiritual development for your consideration
MIND PERK – More personal and spiritual development articels from leaders in the field of spiritual development and spiritual growth
PRINCIPLES OF SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION – Spiritual evolution is about growth of being, an ever brightening of the godspark that is your consciousness. Knowledge is the crucial cornerstone of this process, but a cornerstone alone provides no shelter. Unaccompa
3 Key Questions for Personal Development and Beyond
Image via Wikipedia
Personal development and beyond is focused, not simply on finding answers, but on finding questions that invites a journey that raises consciousness. Many people in the arena of personal development and life transformation are seeking answers to various problems. In this blog post I list the 3 key questions that an individual committed to personal development and beyond needs to ask and be willing to commit to is they wish to invite vision into their life that serves their highest purpose and benefits their whole self and their community.
One of the greatest stories regarding asking the right question is the story of Percival and the Search for the Holy Grail. In this story Percival forgets to ask the right question and must continue his quest until a time returns once more when he finally remembers that he must ask the question
Whom does the grail serve?
The holy grail is not some religious artefact lost in the mists of time. The holy grail is the answer to the question that leads one out of the wasteland of a meaningless life. It is the dynamic that arises from the revelation of what is whole within you and what is fruitful within you and filled with blessings, gifts and boons that you are willing to gift the world. These are the gifts that you discover from being willing to journey into the real question that you are here to live.
In some indigenous cultures there is the idea, and the practice, of the vision quest. This is where the individual goes out into nature and lives in solitude, sometimes fasting, with the intention that they are given insight (vision) into the way in which the Source of Life has intended them to live their lives for the greater good of all. In our modern day quest for personal development the focus can very often be narcisstic. Like much in life there is the balance between what is healthy and unhealthy. Here is an extract from a Wikipedia article on narcissism.
Impact of healthy vs. destructive narcissism
| Characteristic | Healthy Narcissism | Destructive Narcissism |
|---|---|---|
| Self-confidence | High outward self confidence in line with reality | An unrealistic sense of superiority (“Grandiose”) |
| Desire for power, wealth and admiration | May enjoy power | Pursues power at all costs, lacks normal inhibitions in its pursuit |
| Relationships | Real concern for others and their ideas; does not exploit or devalue others | Concerns limited to expressing socially appropriate response when convenient; devalues and exploits others without remorse |
| Ability to follow a consistent path | Has values; follows through on plans | Lacks values; easily bored; often changes course |
| Foundation | Healthy childhood with support for self esteem and appropriate limits on behaviour towards others | Traumatic childhood undercutting true sense of self-esteem and/or learning that he/she doesn’t need to be considerate of others |
Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse
True narcissism is a healthy love of self. When personal development is focused primarily on the development of the persona to the exclusion of all else than we move, not into wholeness (meaning health), but deeper into the separate sense of self. This is the self that is identified with the time form called the body and the image that we call, “me, my and mine.” This developmental stage is not to be excluded but if it becomes self centred during the later stages of life then there is a kind of failure to develop beyond the limitation of little me. Stating that this is a failure is not meant to be judgemental but is more of pointer toward a higher development, and what the poet Goethe called, higher love making. This is the movement from the centre of the true Self.
Here are the 3 questions that this writer and storyteller considers the foundation for the quest to a life of meaning and purpose and that give you the greatest opportunity for happiness within this world.
- Who am I?
- What is my life purpose?
- Whom does the grail serve?
1. Who Am I?
There are, in various parts of the world, workshops that are called Enlightenment Intensives or enlightenment retreats. These are conducted over a period of two days or a much longer period. In these workshops and retreats there is only one question that you ask. This is the question, “Who am I?” The essential requirement in the pursuit of personal development and beyond is a sincere wish to find out the Truth for oneself. This is not a truth that you define in words but allow to be expressed as a life flow through you. The yearning of those who are seriously interested in personal development and beyond will only be satisfied through their own inner experience of Truth. It is from the direct knowing of this living truth that you find out how you are intended to live your life.
You may say that you know who you are and list all those aspects of yourself such as,
- name,
- occupation,
- relationships,
- nationality,
- etc.
All of those aspects of you are aspects of an identity that is called the persona (or mask). It allows people to identify you in very specific ways. Who you are beyond all those aspects about you is the quest to answer, “Who am I.” Why is it that I put this personal development and beyond question before any other? The reason why I suggest that this be the key question of your life is because all the above aspects of yourself that you identify with will end in this dimension of time. The question “Who Am I?” takes you from the knowledge about who you think you are into the living of the I AM beyond the birth and death of the form called the body. The quest to know who you are invites you into the experience of eternal life within everyday life experience.
2. What is my Life Purpose?
When you answer (or if you allow yourself to become the living answer) to the first question then the second question becomes much clearer. All these three questions are related to one another and flow out of each other. Guy Finley gave, what this writer and storyteller, thinks to be the best definition of life purpose that I have been graced to come across. This is what he said was the purpose of one’s life.
Your purpose is to serve Love’s purpose.
This does not define your life purpose, but I think, that if this is where you begin then you cannot truly go far wrong. The real personal development and beyond quest then becomes how to know Love’s purpose as it moves through you in your day to day life. If the question is addressed with sincere and committed intent, and if you are prepared to pay attention to the signs along the way, then the way in which Love’s purpose is intended to move through you will be revealed. This personal development and beyond question also invites you to trust the process of the inner as it manifests within the outer.
3. Whom does your Purpose Serve?
The central question in the search for the Holy Grail was
Whom does the Grail Serve?
The holy grail of your life is the meaning and purpose that you are here to give it and to share in community and communion with. When Percival, who is the hero of the story of the quest for the Holy Grail, asks this key question then the land which has become a wasteland begins to become a paradise. The metaphor for the wasteland in the story of the Holy Grail is a metaphor for a life lived without love and lived solely for the purpose of serving the ego and the persona. This is where the person has fallen in love with their own reflection and this lays waste to their true potential as intended to be lived in service to and for Love’s purpose through them.
Living in and from the Heart
It is more likely that in many peoples lives that the question “Who Am I?” will arise in midlife. This often gives rise to what is called the midlife crisis. It is a crisis of meaning and purpose. This call to meaning is that aspect of the who you are that calls you to become all that you are here to be and are intended to become. This is the call of the soul and is the first stage in the experience of soul friendship. It is the call of the heart chakra into living in and from the heart. The heart centre is the place from where the answer to the 1st Key question of personal development and beyond begins to be lived, not as an idea, but as direct experience.
The midlife crisis precedes the 2nd half of life. This is the opportunity to find meaning and true purpose and gifts you that opportunity of harvesting the richness of who you are and why you are. Otherwise the 2nd half of life can be experienced simply as a decline of faculties related to the mind (small m) and the body, rather than the experience of the full flowering of the spirit and that which is inspired within you.
In the first half of life the key personal development question might be less related to, Who am I? It is usually more related to the question “What is it I will do?” This tends to be the key focus of most people in the culture of the West during the first part of life. The focus is then on how to become a productive member of society with the emphasis on productivity. This emphasis on productivity drives the meaning of many peoples lives and during the 2nd half of life productivity begins to fall and the value of the person is seen to be less and less. We see this in the way that our culture devalues our old and promotes the culture of youth. This is a youth culture that often fails to mature and lives with its focus on finding meaning in consumption rather than in the consummation with the true Self. This emphasis on productivity is not the emphasis on creativity and the health of the individual and thus the health of the collective called humanity.
These three questions can arise at any stage of life. They are each related. The more you know the true Self the more connected you will be to your true life’s purpose and the more connected you will feel to the wish to be of service to the highest good. This is service in relation to life as Love’s purpose and living your life in service to Love’s purpose. This is Love’s forever becoming as it moves through that time, space and form limitation called You. This is the limited time and space form called the body and the primary identity that is who you call me, my and mine with its connection to the cycle of birth and death.
The Limitation of Personal Development
The knowing of who you are beyond this temporal identity of name and form gives you something that no amount of personal development work can give you. This opening to what is beyond personal development is a grace. This does not mean you give up personal development work but that you realise its limitation beyond the idea of the separate self, or the ego self. You might attain all that you set out to achieve in your life and come to a point where there arises a question within you,
Is this all there is?
Without living the quest to be, and become the knowing of who you are, from which arises the purpose of your life lived from love and service to others, then you are likely to find the accumulation of achievement is, in fact, all there is. However, even if you have not known who you are, the truth of who you are, never goes away because it is timeless. That is also to say that it is eternal. Thus the answers to life’s most important questions are found in the journey that leads, not to an answer, but to a revelation. Such revelation leads to deeper and higher revelation of Love’s purpose as it is intended to be lived through you moment to moment.
The journey of personal development is a paradoxical journey. It is the paradox of developing yourself to the point beyond where the self cannot go and to the point where the little self willingly dies into the true Self. This is where you become the knowing of who you truly are beyond the limitation of time and space and form and from which you grace this very existence with the perfume of the being you are and forever are. Let it be so.
OTHER GREAT CONTENT
Here is some other material that will further your personal and spiritual development and your understanding of the various stages of spiritual development.
life coaching questions
SEVEN STAGES OF SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION – n his spiritual evolution, man passes through different stages, each of them having some specific characteristics. Recognizing these characteristics can open the path toward superior levels which leads us to perfecti
THE HERO’S JOURNEY – Video that outlines the personal and spiritual development called the Hero’s Journey
STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS – Video about the various states of consiousness.