Let Go, Let God

329 days and counting till 2013 (and it seems like we just got here). Oh, how time flies! Everything is quick in today’s high-tech digital world—the internet, texting, communication, information, online shopping. Not resistant to the essence of time, my thoughts and various time-consuming activities have taken flight at the speed of light as well. However, to the contrary, I am late in posting this blog entry (self-imposed, bi-monthly) on SpirituallyConscious.com.

Unless we're talking about a handful of bugs or a fistful of burning thistle, letting go is very hard to do. Ask the shop owner whose front door bears the sign "Out of Business," or the Mom and Dad dropping their child off at school on the first day of Kindergarten, or a young lady whose sweetheart is no longer interested in her.

Eckhart Tolle asserts that we create and maintain problems or cling to issues because they give us a sense of identity. Perhaps this explains why we often hold onto our pain far beyond its ability to serve us.

Many of us replay the past over and over again in our head, hold on to frustration and try to control the future, as if the act of fixation somehow gives us power. We hold stress in our minds and bodies, potentially creating health issues, and accept that state of tension and distress as the norm.

Letting go involves releasing the past and starting fresh in the present moment. It means trusting that you are more than your roles, beliefs and stories. Many people are reluctant to let go because they fear they will have nothing left. They cling to problems, unhealthy situations, and outworn roles and relationships because it feels safe in its familiarity. We get trapped in a cycle of anger and hurt, and miss out on the beauty of life as it happens. We need to learn to let go. We need to be able to forgive, so we can move on and be happy. Following the murder of my brother many years ago I learned this lesson the hard way. Letting go (better known as forgiveness) can truly change your life.

Letting go does not mean you erase the past, or forget what has happened. It doesn’t even mean the other person will change his behavior — you cannot control that. All it means is that you are letting go of the anger and pain, and moving on to a better place. It’s not easy. But you can learn to do it.

More recently the opportunity for forgiveness, reconciliation and healing presented itself and has played out inside a circle of close friends over the course of the past year. Interestingly, even among a group of people that I have great respect for and consider to be “conscious,” most have a difficult time letting go of their roles, beliefs and stories, or even remembering accurately how the entire crazy episode got started.

There will probably never be a time in when life when everything is plain, simple and easy to understand (you’ve gotta love the contrast we create through law of attraction, huh?). However, if you are not living your life at light speed, every moment is a chance to let go and choose to feel peaceful.  As I write these words I am reminding myself first and foremost.

Here are some more quotes about letting go that have served me well through the years:

“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.”  - Paul Boese

“Letting go doesn’t mean giving up. It means moving on.”  - Anonymous

 “Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.”  - Herman Hesse

“One problem with gazing too frequently into the past is that we may turn around to find the future has run out on us.”  - Michael Cibenko.

“Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.”  - Oprah Winfrey

“Inner peace can be reached only when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past, and is therefore the means for correcting our misperceptions.”  - Gerald Jampolsky

“Let go. Why do you cling to pain? There is nothing you can do about the wrongs of yesterday. It is not yours to judge. Why hold on to the very thing which keeps you from hope and love?”  - Leo Buscaglia

“Suffering is not holding you. You are holding suffering. When you become good at the art of letting sufferings go, then you’ll come to realize how unnecessary it was for you to drag those burdens around with you. You’ll see that no one else other than you was responsible. The truth is that existence wants your life to become a festival.”  - Osho

Though it may sound simple, I think the ever-smiling venerable Buddhist monk, Ajahn Chah’s advice sums it up best: “If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace.”

The End of the World has been Postponed

“It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.” ― REM

January is a blank page, or, if words are written, nothing is said; it's a time between forgetting and nothing to remember, and a place with no cross-streets or sidewalks or inhabitants or thoughts; somewhere, sometime not yet on the map, not on the calendar. Everything's behind you and everything's ahead, but what’s in January? Breakable resolutions, winter cold, thick skin white beneath your sweatshirt (or is that light gray, like the sky). The chill will come, the chill will go, and the golden summer will follow. But who can be sure... it came last year, but that was last year. Here we are in 2012.

Speaking of 2012, the social media frenzy has turned into a forum for postulating end-of-the-world scenarios, rather than examining its potential as a catalyst for shifting the direction of human evolution and spiritual consciousness.

It’s difficult to ignore the impact of the internet, and all the various forms of social media, has had on the collective human consciousness. With the recent uprisings in the Middle East, as an example, it seems that people are awakening to the truth that every man and woman is a star―capable and deserving of choosing their own destinies rather than having their futures chosen for them by dictators.

So what about the world ending? As Abraham Hicks says, “Your world is barely beginning. All we have to do is listen for the call of Source and come toward it.  Don’t let others discourage you.  Their discouragement is about their relationship with their vibrational stream.  It’s about the gap between who they really are and who they’re letting themselves be. We promise you it has nothing to do with the longevity of this planet.”

I don't for a moment believe that somehow we'll magically wake up on December 21, 2012 and find the world has miraculous changed. Nor do I think it'll necessarily be the point of the singularity. Realistically, I think it will mark a turning point where we start seeing much more rapid, radical changes in the evolution of our species. It could be as simple as the individual and collective realization that one’s future reality is shaped by the thoughts we are thinking. That’s because we have the ability to change the way we think, and as such the future is constantly changing. And to me, knowing that, believing that and practicing that is a good thing.

Sowing the Seeds of New Hope

It is now the last week of December, in the last month of the year 2011. There are some people who live as though they have nothing to live for and there are also those who live every day as if it were their last.

Steve Jobs was one of the people in the second category. These are some of the words he gave at the 2005 Stanford University commencement address:

"I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life."

In a study done to figure out what kinds of people have the least regrets, the results were that it is the people who live every day as if it were their last.

I hope that this last week of the year is special time in which you plant the seeds of new hope for the coming new year.

Born Again, and Again and Again…

The legendary Christian Christmas story about the birth of Jesus in a manger—with Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, angels, Herod, the Star in the East, and the wise men and their three gifts—provides a spiritual dimension full of rich metaphysical insight.

This insight involves the birth in our awareness of our latent spiritual potential that occurs when we realize that Christmas is true story that applies to each and every one of us. It all happens in consciousness in which each component of the story has a role in the transformative experience of our inner Christmas.

The universal symbolism, the birth of a savior, can also be found in other cultures, religions, and metaphysical traditions throughout the world, and they all share some similarities with the Christian legend.

These similarities clearly indicate that sages from ancient cultures were aware of the fact that we, spiritual beings experiencing a human incarnation, are all walking along this same path of constant birth, death and re-birth on our own personal growth journey.

The story of the savior, the sons and daughters of God, applies to all of us, independently of race or creed, and was represented in different forms throughout history. Ancient Secret Societies also have initiation ceremonies which represent the death and the new birth of the neophyte.

When I mention death and rebirth, I am referring to the concept of “reincarnation”, in other words the “death” of an old state of being and the rebirth into a new one. This can happen on a moment to moment basis, and it must happen if we are moving towards evolution and personal transformation.

In the first movie of the Matrix series we see that legend being played out again. Neo, the fictitious representation of a futuristic savior, goes through a re-birth experience at the beginning of the movie, when his body is rescued from the cocoon (womb?) where he was being kept alive artificially, along with millions of other enslaved humans.

As Neo is released, all the feeding tubes connected to his body are detached (a metaphorical representation of breaking or cutting the umbilical cord), and he goes down through a tunnel that can remind us of a baby moving out of the mother’s womb, into the new life.

Following his liberation, or new birth, Neo’s adventure starts and he learns that there’s much more to this world than he was being led to believe. More than what his five-sense perceptions imposed on him when he was enslaved within the construct of the Matrix.

This beautiful metaphor applies to all of us, as we are our own saviors. But we can’t expect to experience a new state of being if we do not constantly die to an old one and are reborn with a clean slate. Unfortunately there are way too many grownups that have not cut their energetic umbilical cords yet. They live their lives firmly tied to concepts, ideas and beliefs that binds them to an illusion of enslavement.

The energy blockages, unprocessed emotions, and coping strategies that we are enslaved to must go before we can experience the so-called new birth and start living a totally different life. This process may not be easy, but it is necessary if we want to expedite our evolution process and live in the symbolic “Kingdom of God” mentioned by Jesus the Christ.

The blockages that hold our lives back are in reality being kept in place only by ourselves. There’s nobody forcing us to feel miserable or live in the past, right? And it is our task to liberate these blockages and, consequently, free our energy systems.

To initiate the re-birth process we must, first of all, stop the “blame-game” immediately. We must forgive all those who we now hold accountable for our troubles, and realize that the past has no power over us, no more than the power we give to it.

If you keep on blaming, you keep on giving your power away to those people and circumstances. Are they worth it? Are they worth a large amount of your energy? An energy that could be better used to create the things that you truly want in life?

Yes, that is how serious it is; you are constantly misdirecting your energy by holding on to past dramas. No wonder why sometimes you may feel drained, other times heavy and overwhelmed.

We can and must re-enact the birth of the savior within ourselves, constantly, and Christmas is an opportune time to remind ourselves of this important practice. Enjoy the Christmas time with your loved ones, share love and exchange gifts, and reflect on the concept of a new birth, even if you’re not a Metaphysician. This lesson is universal and applies to all of us.

As you liberate the things that hold your life back, you will eventually feel as a new being in a renewed world. So along with the more ways you celebrate Christmas this year, set aside some quality time of prayer and contemplation devoted to the inner metaphysical drama of the Christmas story and let it quicken within you the awareness of your True Nature waiting to be born. It will add a new and profound spiritual dimension to your Christmas experience.

My Christmas wish for myself in the days ahead: a deep and abiding awareness that God is all there is, a commitment to prayer and meditation, and a trusting surrender of the lesser in my life for the greater—a higher consciousness.

The Kitchen Window

Autumn has come and gone like a muzzled field mouse ― hardly a squeak. The days of my life, also sometimes bear a resemblance to the timid little creature, are often inconsistent and insufficient. Alas, I press on in the hope that one day I will realize the journey is the destination.

Due to time and space restrictions I will not discuss my miseries this week. I know this comes as a disappointment to most of you, as some of us do love to wallow in pain and suffering. But there are other things in life (the illusive phantoms of joy and happiness), which deserve a fair share of our attention.

Here's an observation I had the other day when I slowed down and perceived the moment to be mine and not the possession of the ogre of urgency, the tyrant of time or the demons of delays, deadlines and daily doubts.

Have you ever heard of a species of bird called the Titmouse?  It is a small bird about 4”- 5” inches in length. Outside our kitchen window we have a bird feeder where many local species of birds gather. As of late we have had a certain Titmouse knocking on our kitchen window all day long. The Titmouse is a bird that is territorial, and is very strong and aggressive for its size. I did a bit of research and discovered that they have a unique method of winter survival. Bears hibernate and migratory birds fly south for the winter. The Titmouse is not a migratory bird, but they do have their own special way of withstanding the chill of Northern California. First of all, they build their nests in a way that helps keep out cold air. At night, they huddle together to make collective body heat. During the day, they are always on the move searching for food, which also helps maintain body heat. The Titmouse is also are so active in the day, it seems that they also seem to have an unrelenting ability to go on because of a passion for life―even if that takes the form of unknowingly attacking its own reflection if the window.

This begs the question: what are you passionate about in your life? What makes you eat right, exercise and go to bed at a decent hour, remain balanced and disciplined in your life? What wakes you up in the morning before the alarm goes off? What keeps you grounded in your heart, yet beckons you to dream of more? What pushes you to overcome a perceived weakness or shortcoming and birth a greater yet to be? What causes you to want to lose weight or change an addictive behavior? A simple desire to feel better? The Titmouse clearly has that passion, desire and zest for life. Where do you find yours? Where does it come from? Where does it go when you don’t have it.

Do the field mouse and the Titmouse know something we don’t? I’ll bet you a dollar they do. Here’s to living a passionate life.