Inspirational Story for Parents – Meeting with a Giant Toddler
Mother and Child – Fredrick Lord Leighton
Let me share with you one of the inspirational stories that I have written for parents about a child I once met. This is a true inspirational story for parents about the meeting with a toddler, who will I hope, be blessed to retain the innocence that he so clearly lived and so evidently loved to share. I was graced to share his wisdom and strength if only of some very little time. I share this inspirational story for parents so that any parent reading this story will remember the time of innocence that is all too quickly forgotten. This is not simply an inspirational story for parents but will be of interest to anyone who wishes to remember what it is to live in the world with a sense of presence.
“A child’s hand in yours what
tenderness and power arouses.
You are instantly the very touchstone
of wisdom and strength.”
Marjorie Holmes
Inspirational Story for Parents
She said,
Children are for sharing. Not everyone can have one.
We never did. So it is a delight to share time with these creatures of being. They are still connected to their original face. They still play in the garden of eternity. His name sounds as Finn. He has beautiful blue eyes and the blondest of blond hair. He shares his name with Finn Mac Cumhail. This is frequently anglicised as Finn Mac Cool. Finn Mac Cool is one of the most celebrated heroes in Irish myth. Little Finn will be tall and beautiful. Now he is small and beautiful. He is learning to talk. He is learning to put distance between his immediacy. There will be a time when he thinks about his life rather than allow it to flow. He will learn to dance rather than be the dance.
Being around children reminds me that they feel their experience moment to moment. When they look they see what is before them. They do not judge their experience. They are their experience. This is why they are so delightful even if sometimes they behave as if this world belonged to them and them alone. They know this world belongs to them until they are told differently. This is their real understanding of this world. It is we who have forgotten. They are there to help us remember.
I am standing at the edge of Lough Allen in Co. Leitrim in Ireland close to where I live. I have come to visit the beach at Corry Strand. This is where I meet this giant among toddlers. My partner Barbara has met this child before. His Mum had come to hear a concert or play at the Glen Centre in Manorhamilton. While Mum watched the play Barbara minded child. When he became fractious and upset she walked him down the main street. She held him close in her arms and sang Gershwin. He settled at the sound of this melody sang softly into his shell like ear.
He quickly learned my name. He quickly gave me the gift of his trusting heart. It came as a delightful surprise to find him placing his little hand in mine. He had decided he and I would take a stroll along the sand. We walked and came to sit by the remains of a campfire. He told me stories. These were one-word stories.These were one word stories facilitated by finger pointing. He reminded me of the old Zen Master who tells his student “I am only the finger pointing at the moon.” Here is my little Zen master teaching me the simplicity of seeing.
One story is “stone.” The other story is “dog.” Each is direct and immediate. There is no sense of fear. There is only the continued pointing of the finger. He makes the stones come alive. He sees them before ever they have labels. Too soon there will come a time when he lives in labels. Too soon he will think he knows what a “stone” is. Soon he will forget how he once saw the wonder of that “stone” and that “dog.” He will swap wonder for knowledge. He will swap what is partial for what is holy. He will become a rational person rather than the mysterious little being he is.
Peep-A-Boo by Sophie Anderson
He reminds me of Yoda in Star Wars. The force is with him. He is a wise little being with a hand that shows art in every gesture. He shows me the gladness of the ever-present moment. He is selfish as all children are. This is their world. However, they love to share it with you. This world is their playground and they want you to play here too. On this shore of Lough Allen he reminds me of that other shore. This is the one we seekers long to sail for. It takes us to that timeless shore where we are forever young. My work is to do what Finn does best. I spend time patiently allowing myself to enter this mystery of life. He is still held within it. I am the amateur and he is the pro-fessional of presence.
He is a fount of wisdom. He does not have the words. He only has his finger. He uses this to conduct dialogues with this mystery of life. He allows the music of life to play through his little body. I am only a part of the orchestra and too often I feel apart from the music. He plays all parts expertly and is the music. Time will be when he will forget he is the play of God. Time will wrap around him and he will be taught to “do life.” He will be taught that life has to be earned. He will be advised that it is more important to earn a living rather than be alive to love. He will be taught his creativity does not fit with economics. He will become productive and competitive rather than celebratory and abundant. He will give up his wondrousness for acceptance.
He will forget that he is forever enough. If he is lucky he will meet with other wise men and women who will tell him to risk all for love. He will forget that love is all he needs. He will turn from love in action to love of activity. His is the fall from the grace of being to the non-grace of persona. We are all destined to fall from this grace. He will be loved but he will feel separate from all that is When he is older he will, I hope, take another hand. He will stand on another shore.
It is my hope that he will remember to look at the beauty of what is without labels. He will no longer see it the way that we lost in social consciousness see it. He will, I hope, one day see again via his heart. The way he sees now. When this happens he will be a giant among men. He will be Finn. He will be fair of face and fair of hair. Thank you Finn for your instruction. I am blessed to have shared your wisdom. You are already a giant among men. You are a child of the Universe. Never forget little one. May the force be forever with you and may you stay forever young in that little heart that you are so ready to share.
THE END
I hope that you enjoyed this inspirational story for parents that was gifted to me from a giant among toddlers.
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The Power of Storytelling and a Chinese Folktale – Losing Your Vision
In this series of blog posts we will unfold the Chinese folktale entitled We are All One. If you have not yet read this Chinese folktale then click on this link We are All One. Then when you read this inspirational story then you might come back to this blog post. This Chinese folktale is used to ground you in what is foundational to this Personal Development and Beyond blog (PDAB) which is the view, leading to the direct experience, that We are All One. This world view is not simply a philosophy but as a result of a direct revelation of the ground of existence. It is the knowing that really perfumes the writing of these blog posts. Folktales, fairy tales, parables and mythological stories are filled with wisdom. Wisdom is not simply more intellectual knowledge. wisdom is not what my teacher Osho referred to as Logic Chopping. Wisdom does not arise simply because you know the words that invite such wisdom. Wisdom is beyond the words. You can learn all you want about motherhood but never know what it is like to give birth and raise a child. Wisdom is a form of birthing experience.
In this Personal Development and Beyond blog post I invite you beyond mere logic into an awareness of the wisdom mind and the power that the wisdom mind has to heal the majesty within you that is sometimes deeply pained by the circumstances of your everyday living. This is the pain of losing your true vision allied with meaning and purpose, losing your ability to have insight, losing your ability to be a visionary and become one who is a true seer. A true seer is one who sees from inside out.
In the Chinese folktale We Are All One there is a rich man. This could just as well have been a rich woman. Each of the characters in this story, as in all folktales and fairy tales, can be taken to represent an aspect of your psyche. The rich man is experiencing more and more pain in his eyes. Metaphorically speaking this is the experience where you are becoming blind to the richness that is within you.
Losing our Vision
This is a process that we all go through. The poet William Wordsworth declared this beautifully in these lines from his poem Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting And cometh from afar; Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come
We come into his dimension of time and space and we are filled with the richness of our natural ability to flow as the movement of Love in form. We come trailing clouds of glory. We are in fact well informed, because we have not yet caught the disease of the eyes that will become more extreme over time. In the movie Avatar, the final frame of the movie has the hero open his eyes that allows him to see the world, not as a collection of separate things, but as a sacred unity. This experience of sacred unity is the invitation from this Chinese folktale called We are All One. This way of seeing the world is the way in which small children have their eyes open to wonder. It isn’t that their eyes change over time but the what changes is the way of seeing the world through the opposites of right and wrong. The view of the world changes as the sense of the separate self develops and the eyes begin to lose the vision of Oneness that allows us to say and live the true story that We Are All One.
The rich man in the Chinese folktale We are All One is still rich. However, over time he becomes blind to the richness that is available within his environment. The rich man has a disease of the eyes and the eyes are the mirror of the soul. He is thus not at ease with the way he sees the world and his ability to change his world view. All his advisors are unable to help him. All his advisors are representatives of what is already known but of no real help. This is like living in a dynamic where everything is known and everything is kept as it is so that we might feel safe but not necessarily envisioned. However, this experience of being human cannot leave out the vision of the soul. What cannot be left out is the vision that you, as a unique expression of Love in form, are here to radiate and embody in form. This is the true meaning of being well informed.
The rich man, who cannot see the richness of his life, suffers. We are told in this Chinese folk tale that his suffering deepens. There seems no way of alleviating this suffering. No none within the house of the rich man knows what to do. So there is only one thing left to do. This is to go out into the wider community and offer something in return for receiving the gift of healing. In this Personal Development and Beyond blog this invitation to seeing, to insight, is the invitation to find true meaning and purpose out of which arises a vision for the future. This is what this writer and storyteller calls soul vision. This is the ability to see the foundational dynamic beyond the idea of the sense of the separate self and to know and to live from the direct experience of We Are All One.
The pain involved with the disease of the eyes and the vision for the future intensifies for many people during midlife prior the life transition that is the 2nd half of life. When caught in the full blown life transition that is termed midlife crises the advisors to the richness that is within you seem incapable of helping you. You try all the solutions that have worked in the past but the sense of unease heightens and the pain and confusion deepens. You cannot see a way out. You begin to lose hope. You begin to long for what you once had. You act out. This is part of the experience of the life transition known as the midlife crises. It is what this writer and storyteller calls having your eyes opened. All your skills, all the advice you have accumulated to date, seems not to hold the answer. These are the advisors who my one time teacher Osho calls the logic choppers. These are the dynamics within you that are used to everything being solved by logic or more cerebral information. It takes the symbolic invitation from stories such as this Chinese folktale to invite you to open your eyes beyond the opposites of cerebral knowledge.
Healing the Disease of the Eyes
It helps to know that there is a dimension available that gives you true vision and is in alignment with the richness within you. This richness and vision is available when you connect to that aspect of yourself that is willing to remember the wisdom of old as represented in this Chinese folktale by the grandmother of the Candy Peddler. She is the one who knows the way of the healing herbs and is not simply someone who knows about what might heal. She is in connection with the Wild Old Woman within. She knows what the real disease of the eyes is about. It is about the loss of vision due to the absence of meaning and purpose.
The essential disease is the unease that is felt by the identity we call the ego. This is the separate sense of self that is a boundary that we tend to protect at all costs and which we maintain before all else. The more energy we put into the establishment of the ego as being who we are the more we lose our true vision and the more unease we feel because we are heading for a doorway that we tend for the most part to ignore. This is the threshold place called death. In this Chinese folktale the rich man is symbolic of the true Self. This true self is your essence. Without your ability to connect directly with this essence you are in fact seeing in the dark. In the words of the Bible
For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
This seeing through a glass darkly is the way of the world. It eventually becomes a way were all our advisors cannot help with the disease of the eyes because they have no direct experience or direct experience of the journey to what true vision reveals. This is the vision that heals the unease that we feel about our identity with the time limited form of the body within this dimension of time and space. The eyes need healing of this perception of separateness. It is at least useful for the rich man who is almost blinded by his attachment to his ego and its related desires to know that there is a different way of seeing. First we have to contact the one who knows about sweetness. This is the person in this Chinese folktale who is that aspect of yourself and who in this story is the one called The Candy Peddler.
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SPIRAL DYNAMICS – Another map of personal and spiritual development for your consideration
NEW DIMENSIONS – Over the years, a wealth of practical knowledge and perennial wisdom has accumulated in the audio archives of New Dimensions, a virtual treasure trove of timeless wisdom.
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!
The Power of Storytelling – A Chinese Fable – We are All One
Seeing the World as One
I have chosen to introduce readers of this Personal Development and Beyond blog to the power of storytelling. To illustrate this power of storytelling I have chosen some stories that inspire me and which I wish to unfold in deeper and more powerful ways. In this way I hope that reader might chose to use the power of storytelling to invite a sense of oneness within themselves and in that way live the story that only you can live. Below is one of my favourite folktales. It is a Chinese fable or folktale that invites you into experiencing the world in a way that is a form of sacred unity. Please enjoy this Chinese fable and then I will in a series of related blog posts take you into the power of this story to transform your life and your view of the world. This power of storytelling will become a series and will take you into other stories. This Chinese fable is a healing story and invites you into the wider dimension and the real power of storytelling.
The Chinese Fable – We Are All One
Many years ago there lived a rich man who could not see because he had a disease in his eyes. He was in constant pain and visited every doctor in the land. None could help him. The rich man became desperate and offered a huge reward to anyone who could help.
Also in this city lived an old man whose job it was to sell candy. This man was poor because he was so kind that he often gave away what little he made to those who needed the money more than he. One day the peddler heard about the reward and thought about a story he heard as a child. His mother had told him about a magical herb that could be found in the forest and was good for the eyes. With his mind made up, the candy peddler went to his wife to tell her of his plans. The man’s wife was angry and refused to let him leave the family to starve while he went on a wild goose chase to find the herb, but the peddler could not be persuaded. He left his family with a basket of candy and promised to return before the candy was gone.
The peddler left for the forest early the next morning and began his search. He walked and walked and quickly found himself deep inside the woods. As the man carefully searched the ground for the herbs he was seeking, he noticed ants scurrying around on the ground. On further notice, he saw that a rock had fallen into the stream, flooding the ant nest. The peddler carefully removed the rock, and the nest began to dry out. “We are all one,” the man said as he continued his search for the herb.
As the day came to an end, the man was disappointed but decided to find a place to sleep and begin his search again in the morning. When the peddler settled down next to an old tree, he immediately fell asleep and began to dream. In his dreams, he found himself in the middle of a huge city being escorted by soldiers dressed all in black to meet their queen. When he entered the shining palace, the peddler was afraid and fell to his knees before the queen. The queen said to him, “Stand up. We are all one now. You have helped my people and you have only to ask before we will help you.” The man asked the queen about the mysterious herb he was searching for, but the queen regretfully shook her head and said she did not know about any such herb. With that, the peddler awoke from his dream.
To his surprise, the man found himself once again at the ant nest. He shook his head in wonder, got up, and began his search again. All day long the search continued but without any luck. As night approached, the peddler realized he was lost, hungry, and sleepy. He suddenly came upon a temple where he decided to spend the night. As he approached the temple, he noticed a fuzzy green centipede also approaching the temple. Out of the sky, a bird dived to grab the small insect. Waving his arms, the man chased the bird away, picked up the centipede, and placed him on a bush with nice green leaves. He said, “I may be hungry, but you don’t have to be. We are all one.” Exhausted, the man laid down and quickly fell asleep.
Suddenly, the man was awakened by the sound of footsteps. He looked up but only saw the centipede and closed his eyes again. “We are all one, you and I,” a voice said faintly. Then the man heard a tiny voice telling him about a tree with two trunks deep in the forest. The man was frightened because he knew that the centipede was speaking to him, so he kept his eyes tightly closed. The centipede told the man that at the bottom of the tree was a tiny bead that, when mixed with wine, could cure the blind lord. When the first sunlight arrived, the man carefully opened his eyes, but there was no sign of the centipede.
The man got up and carefully followed the directions he had heard the night before. Soon he found himself at the tree with two trunks, but when he looked at the base of the tree he felt hopeless because the area was covered with pine needles. The peddler felt like weeping with frustration until he remembered the ants. He said aloud, “We are all one. Ants, ants, come and help me.” Soon the ants arrived and found the bead for the man. He took it carefully and returned to the city where he presented it to the rich lord. The lord mixed the bead with wine, drank it, and was instantly cured. He rewarded the peddler and his family who never had to worry about food or money again.
Reflections on the Chinese Fable – We Are All One
In a furhter series of related blog posts I will begin to take you into this wonderful Chinese fable and introduce you to the power of storytelling. We will begin to see how the characters in this Chinese fable can be seen to be aspects of ourselves and how we might in our own way find the magic healing herb that is available within each of us that heals the blindness of the inner rich man and woman who we lives within our lives unseen. With the power of storytelling we begin to heal those different aspects within ourselves and with compassion begin to heal others of the disease of the eyes that represents lack of vision.
To experience the power of storytelling that is invited from this Chinese fable go to the first in the series of reflections about this Chinese fable at the link below
The Power of Storytelling from a Chinese Fable – Losing your Vision
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THE HERO’S JOURNEY – Video that outlines the personal and spiritual development called the Hero’s Journey
CHAKRA HEALING – Articles on Chakra Healing by Energy Master Carol Tuttle
SUPER CONSCIOUSNESS MAGAZINE – SuperConsciousness is an inspiring, content-rich, evidence-based science and spirituality magazine focused on exploring innate human potential.
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
SUPER CONSCIOUSNESS MAGAZINE – SuperConsciousness is an inspiring, content-rich, evidence-based science and spirituality magazine focused on exploring innate human potential.
SPIRAL DYNAMICS – Another map of personal and spiritual development for your consideration
TIME OUT FOR TRUTH – This spiritual wisdom podcast and website explores the great truths of the ages, and authors like Vernon Howard, J. Krishnmamurti, Gurdjieff and Anthony de Mello.
The Orphan Archetype and the Magician – How to Become a Super Hero
Living inside me are the orphan archetype and the Magician archetype. The Orphan lives in the underworld and the Magician lives on Higher Ground. Each loves the other but so often they feel separate and their longing is to be together. I am not so different from others. Superman, Batman and Spiderman where all orphans who became Magicians. Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins and King Arthur where all Orphans who took the Hero’s Journey to become Magicians. The characters that people these stories are not just the stuff off Hollywood fantasy. These are stories that invite each one of us to make friends with that which is orphaned inside each one of us and to turn it into magic.
I. who long resisted the ophan archetype within me, have been graced to meet with some Magicians in my life. The man who influenced my life to the greatest degree was an archetypal Magician. His name was Jiddu Krishnamurti. Like many archetypal orphans he was treated badly. He was a sensitive and sickly child. He was considered vague and dreamy. He was often taken to be mentally retarded, and was beaten regularly at school by his teachers and at home by his father. It was through reading his writing on a railway train (real way train) that I had transmitted to me the grace that perfumes much of this writing. This magical man gave the following advice.
Awaken each day with a song in your heart.
I have in a very literal sense taken his advice to heart. It is what I call a true invitation to one’s heart song/s. The same invitation comes from the poet Jelaluddin Rumi who was a 13th century mystic poet. Rumi was truly one of the most passionate and profound poets in history. His poetry, for this writer and storyteller, is the true beauty of Islam. I love the fact that he is the top selling poet in the USA. Today his presence still remains strong. This is due, in part, because his words are the perfume of the divine and invite a profound remembrance of the essence of Soul. Rumi invites a kind of song in your heart experience when he says,
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.
From Essential Rumi by Coleman Barks
I listen to a lot of music. In Ireland, where I am graced to live, I have access to those place where people are able to go back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. I drive along Ancient Highways listening to heart songs that invite me to open my heart. Those who read this blog will recognise the way in which I allow lines from songs to be intimations from the still small voice within. Lines from these heart songs become guides and I practice what they invite. The song that is speaking to me at the moment is written by another Orphan archetype turned Magician. This is Van Morrison who has spent most of his time to long in exile from his homeland.
In the song Ancient Highway there are the following lines
I will be praying to my higher self
Don’t let me down
Keep my feet on the ground
This isn’t necessarily formal prayer. This is simply paying attention to how the still small voice speaks to me and how this inner voice can invite you to discover your Wild and Precious Life – or how it can show you how you might live the Unlived Life. I need to keep my feet on the ground at present. My life at present is a kind of emotional roller coaster. I am returning, not to my higher Self, but to the archetype of the Orphan within me. This return is prompted by becoming an older male subject to the movement of a life cycle that is called andropause or male menopause. The Orphan dynamic is that aspect of me that is a little crazy. At times I cycle back to the underworld that is his home. He is the one that would freeze everything to death because he himself knows how to live and survive in the cold.
I identify my Orphan archetype with the picture of Love Frozen by Alfons Siber. When praying to my higher Self it is the orphan in me who I pray for. He is the one who has journeyed with me for the longest of times. He has a twin called the Magician. One twin, the Orphan, lives in Hades the underworld and the other twin, the Magician, lives in Heaven. Each loves the other and they long to be united. The orphan archetype is a metaphor for our deepest, most fundamental reality.
He/She represents our experiences of attachment and abandonment. He/See represents our experience of expectation and deprivation and of loss and failure. The deepest aspect of the Orphan archetype is that of loneliness. He/She contains the losses and catastrophes of our life that we need to get in touch with. We need to mourn and befriend these dynamics so that we may heal them. It is only when we accept the reality of our orphan-self that we can begin to live. So I pray to my higher self to keep my feet on the ground because, although the Orphan in me survived the cold he sometimes cannot stand the experience of the loneliness.
There is a paradox in experiencing the Orphan within. The more deeply I morn the Ophan within me the more deeply I am drawn to be, in some little or large way yet unknown, instrumental in healing the suffering of the world. This is the call to the Magician within but whose power is activated by the experience of the Orphan. When I read in the newspapers (which I read discriminatingly) about the pain that many people are experiencing, particularily children, my heart breaks. It breaks open. The Orphan archetype longs to connect to the Magician. It is the Magician who knows how to pray to the Higher Self, knowing that the Higher Self does not let one down. The Magician is the one with the secret knowing. He/She has access to inner truths and who listens to the still voice within. The Magician chooses to live beyond the ordinary. He is the one who the poet Yeats called the Wild Old Wicked Man who takes the upper road.
“All men live in suffering,
I know as few can know,
Whether they take the upper road
Or stay content on the low,From The Wild Old Wicked Man by W. B Yeats
She, as the Magician, is the one the storyteller Clarrisa Pinkola Estes calls The Dangerous Old Woman. She is the one who invites.
soul-healing wisdom that will ignite your creativity and support your highest calling in life and to invite you to become a dangerous old woman of wisdom yourself.
Each, in their own unique way chooses to enter the realm of the miraculous. Each knows how to turn lead into gold.
In connecting to the Magician I pray to keep my feet on the ground. The Magician has a shadow side. He can become ego inflated. He thinks the magical powers have been made available for his own personal grandisement. He turns to the dark side. The shadow side of the Magician uses these powers for himself alone. I have lived the life of a shadow Magician. This was because the Orphan in me had not been acknowledged and thus not integrated within me. When the Magician arrived I used his powers, not for the purpose of Love, but for my own need for Love. I loved the power of the Magician but soon lost these powers. It was like losing the Universe.
Now, as I move into a period of elderhood, I would use this magic for elliviating the suffering of the world. I would use it for the warming all the little match children who are afraid to go home because their fathers beat them and thus die of the cold. I would use the power of the Magician to invite miracles and to teach others to invite the miraculous. I would use the power of the Magician to invite others to become Magicians. Except, that the one who teaches the Magician the true purpose of such magical power, is the Orphan. Each is needed. When the twins come together in Love then the magic can truly begin to happen. When you have your feet on the ground the prayer is answered and the Higher Self is known to be who you truly are.
The emotional experience of the Orphan archetype is not one that anyone of us truly welcomes but it is a pattern that so many of us are invited to live and make conscious. The Orphan who is acknowledged is the one who knows what it is to be compassionate and who, together with his twin, the Magician, turns the world into a place of magic and miracle. In alignment with the Higher power one is able to create a world where all the little children can come home. They come home to the warmth and magic of unconditional love available from the sacred unity of the orphan and the magician within.
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.
hero’s journey
KARMA TUBE is a collection of inspiring videos. This website brings inspirational stories to light, using the power of video and the internet to multiply acts of kindness, beauty and compassion
PHILOSOPHERS NOTES – The ultimate personal growth tool. Giving you more wisdom in less time. The essential teachings of 100 optimal living books condensed into convenient 6-page PDFs and 20-minute MP3s.
SOUL PROGRESS – Wonderful articles on spiritual life and spiritual living including the most sought after goals for individuals walking the spiritual path
Characteristics of Fairytales and the Voice in the Stone
In a previous blog I wrote about beauty and the small still voice within that is a characteristic of fairytales and myths. Let me share with you a an aspect of a folktale from Irish Mythology about beauty and the inner voice. This is part of a tale about the magical gifts of the beautiful people that is the invitation to the realisation of beauty within you. It is about the magic of Creation that is awaiting the arising within. This is part of a tale that I have adapted for modern audiences. The beautiful people are called the Tuatha de Danaan. The Tuatha de Danaan are the children of the Goddess Danu. She is the one who represents the Gift Giver. She gives gifts to her children unconditionally. She represents the archetype of the Good Mother. The Good Mother here is not to be confused with the good, as opposed to the bad mother, who births her children within this dimension of time and space. The Good mother represents an archetype that lives in the dimension beyond the opposites of good and bad and beyond the dimension of time and space.
She, like the Good Mother in the story of Vasilisa the Beautiful, gives guidance to her children who she so loves. In the dimension of healing it is the meeting with this archetype that heals deep seated wounding and takes those who have been deeply traumatised into a dimension beyond time and space. It takes them into their direct knowing of universal Love. In that knowing there is the experience of deep healing. In the story of Vasilisa the Beautiful the children of this universal Gift Giver are required to leave the islands they know. They move out of what the mystic poet Rumi refers to as the Circle of Love into the Circle of Time. This is what we all do when we are born into form and leave the ocean of Love that is symbolised by the archetype of the Good Mother. In Christian mythology this leaving is represented by the eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Thus we fall into the prison of duality and leave the direct awareness of Oneness symbolised by the Garden of Eden.
The Tuatha de Danaan leave their island paradise and venture into the unknown where they eventually come to an island that will be given a name by the mystical poet called Amergin – the first poet of Ireland. The island will be given the name of another Goddess called Eire. It will become the land known as Ireland. Notice here, the way in which there is the leaving of the known and the call to adventure into the unknown. This call to adventure is the first stage in what is called The Hero’s journey. This call to adventure happens in all our lives. It might mean leaving a secure job in order to become self employed. It might mean moving to a different country. It might mean taking a leap of faith and committing to a relationship. It doesn’t always mean that the call to adventure is one that comes from an experience of suffering such as divorce, illness or the death of a loved one.
In the tale of the Tuatha de Danaan one of their magical gifts is called The Stone of Destiny. Inside this stone there is a voice which proclaims only the rightful King or Queen of Ireland. The word Ireland here is not to be simply taken as meaning the place that lies between the USA and Britain. In this mythological tale Ireland means the Self and the fullness of the psyche. The inner voice proclaims that you are ready to become the King or Queen of your life’s meaning and purpose. This voice affirms you. This voice proclaims you. It is the voice, however, that is surrounded by stone. The stone represents all the ways in which we block the movement of our destiny and resist the way in which it is intended to be expressed in its beauty and fullness.
The voice in the stone is the inner knower. that can recognise the potential King or Queen within you. It is what is regal and powerful within you. This is not a power that you use to glorify your separate sense of self. You, as King or Queen, are gifted this power to serve the land represented by the land of Ireland. This is the dynamic of the Self and not the ego self. If you use this power to glorify your ego then life will not follow the destiny of the knower within you. Life will eventually become a wasteland. You will live a life without meaning or purpose.
We see this happening throughout the world. The natural world is being laid to waste by the Kings and Queens of industry that serve the corporate greed that proclaims the mantra “Never enough.” This wasteland is the collective vision of the Kings and Queens of industry who live in the world of power and are living as hungry ghosts rather than as true Kings and Queens aligned with the Source of all power. Whatever, is given to them is never enough because their psyche knows that nothing can compensate for the loss of the direct knowing of the Beloved.
The characteristic of the voice in the stone, and the doll in the pocket in the story of Vasilisa the Beautiful, is an imaginative reminder that we each have within us a guide to our true destiny. What is destiny? For this storyteller and writer your destiny is found in the alignment of your purpose with Love’s purpose. That alignment is then expressed in form through you. The quest for each of us is to answer that question in our unique way. This is not simply answered in some intellectual way but answered as a living dynamic that gives you a sense of meaning and a real sense of presence.
Presence then becomes the manifestation of the still small voice living through you. It makes you attractive in the real meaning of the Law of Attraction. You simply move through the world as beauty in form. You are not out to prove that you know something. People will be attracted to you. They will sense that you have something they want. What they are tuning into is the dynamic that is inviting them to claim their Kingship or to become Queen of their psyche. This is done through serving the inner knower that through their willingness directs their lives in service to Love’s purpose.
Presence arises from alignment with this inner knower. Presence has the quality of deep peace. It is the peace that arises from beyond polarity. This peace reigns from within but radiates without. It is the fullness of what is known as the Secret and is the true alignment with the Law of Attraction. This peace is the blessing available to those who would follow the voice in the stone that declares them King or Queen and who are ready to bless the world with the gift of their one wild and precious life.
I hope you beginning to see the way in which fairytales are simply more than just imaginative stories that are written for and told to children. Children love these stories because children are more aligned with the knower within until such times as they are educated to ignore its promptings. Some even go so far as to teach children and adults that this inner knowing is the work of the devil. They are taught to fear the promptings of their inner knowing because it is we are told simply a figment of ones imagination. After all, “Its only a fairy story.”
The stone of destiny is always there calling to you. You can sit awhile and you can listen. You sit awhile without trying to achieve your Kingship or dictating to your inner Queen. Each day you go to this sacred place within you where the stone of destiny is waiting to gift you the knowing of who you are and why you are. Each day you listen until one magical day you disappear. You do not disappear in any physical sense. The idea of who you are as a separate existence living in a time bound form disappears and you are revealed. Then the silence and you become One. You begin to trust the silence more than the constant chatter of your mind. You become like an empty cup simply waiting to be poured into by the Good Mother (or God or the Beloved). You return from the Circle of Time into the Circle of Love but you remain as your time and space entity called me, my and mine. In this way you live your destiny and become the magical gift of the beauty that you are here to give to the world. You become one of the beautiful people. You become aligned with the Gift Giver and live in true abundance.
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.
archetype
NIGHTINGALE CONANT – Dowload inspirational personal and spiritual development podcasts for FREE
SUPER CONSCIOUSNESS MAGAZINE – SuperConsciousness is an inspiring, content-rich, evidence-based science and spirituality magazine focused on exploring innate human potential.
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.