Affirmation: I am empowered when I trust my heart and intuition to guide me to bring about transformation in my life as I manifest my highest good.
One often neglected aspect of prosperity is the process of manifestation. We usually need to use our manifestation skills in order to find our highest good. Some of these manifestation tools are consciousness, creativity, cooperation, talent, as well as other resources such as time and money. Even so, doesn't it often seems as if some people struggle and work hard to manifest subsistence living while others seem to be blessed with the Midas touch- their highest good seems to flow to them nearly effortlessly?
Here are some thoughts on ease and grace in manifestation. As explained in the Tao long ago, there is a masculine and feminine energy involved with any creative process. Each person, being an individualized spark of the Divine has both this masculine and feminine nature imbued within their soul in a unique and brilliant balance. There are an infinite number of balanced pairings and thus each of us radiates a unique vibration of masculine and feminine energy. In terms of the manifestation process, in short form, the feminine energy is receptive while the masculine tends toward the proactive.
The perfectly easy and graceful manifestation of our good comes from balancing our innate masculine and feminine energies with the vibration that is needed to manifest our highest good. This inevitably requires transformation. This is why there is no one path that always works for everyone in terms of manifestation. Some teachers can share what has worked for themselves, and it will work for others with a similar constellation of masculine and feminine energy but will backfire terribly for those with a different personal make up. If order to transform your consciousness, you need to be attuned to what your soul is seeking in this lifetime, and balance out that process with the specific and unique transformation that will lead to your spiritual maturity and success. Others can teach you and coach you, but they cannot do it for you.
For example, if we tend to be the more aggressive type, then we may need to learn humility or patience in order to manifest our good. Until then we will continue to try and force solutions. As a person with these traits I tend to naturally make a list of my goals, stay focused on what I want to achieve, take direct and oftentimes forceful action every waking moment to make things happen. I tend to pro actively look at the results and take corrective action when things have gone awry and so forth. For people like me, it is only when we surrender that aggressive set of traits and learn to live with the flow will that our highest good manifest with ease and grace.
Others may be too passive and find themselves yearning and yearning for their good with minimal results. Until they align themselves with their repressed masculine aspects, they will not energize the results they seek. These people need to make lists, focus on one key goal, take daily action, look objectively at their results and so forth. For them, wishing without action just leads to frustration, in the same but exact opposite way that excessive drive leads to frustration to those overly wedded to their masculine side.
I do not mean to suggest that masculine or feminine traits are inherently better than the other. This key is balance between them and how you consciously exercise loving awareness for your own integration and success. Aligning our heart and intuitive wisdom within Spirit's flow requires us to bring our unique masculine and feminine into the proper balance to achieve maximum manifestation in each circumstance. This requires a measure of compassion and intuition, of action and waiting for right timing, asking for help and doing it ourselves and so forth. Sometimes we will be required to step up other times we will need to step back. Now and then we will be required to speak up, other times we will be required to listen. There will be a place for us to lead and another place where we are called to empower others to lead.
Each aspect of manifestation rounds out our soul's experience and brings us towards greater and greater inner harmony and peace. Each step transforms us into a more fully functioning and conscious being. Once we understand this transformational aspect of manifestation, then our whole process of being one with our highest good becomes more enjoyable and easier.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
September Prosperity Thoughts Part III
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Sept 2008- Part II
Prosperity Thoughts September 2008- Part Two
Affirmation: I live with an Open Heart. I trust that Spirit alone knows what my ever shifting needs are in this moment. I recall that Spirit resides within me as I relax into the firm conviction that my deepest needs are being co-creatively manifested in Divine Order.
In Part One of our September prosperity thoughts, we drew our focus to the paradox of time as it relates to getting our needs met. We noted that we often tend to evaluate whether our needs are being met in the present moment, and react from that short term perspective. If our perception is that our current needs are met, then we are at peace. On the other hand, if our perception is that we lack something, then we tend to feel frustrated and impatient. The relevant spiritual practice calls us to remember that we are, after all, eternal souls. Hence, the time horizon of our higher order of needs getting met might extend through this moment into eternity. Thus we can relax and let go of our strident impatience and frustration with God for not being responsive to our needs according to how we define them.
The second paradox in teaching applied spirituality as it relates to prosperity is that our definition of abundance is always shifting. I recently got a call from someone who urgently needed counsel on a job situation that felt to them as if it was almost intolerable. Never mind that they were earning a six figure income in the field that they had chosen. Forget about the fact that their family life was blessed by a precious baby and a happy marriage. Ignore that they enjoyed great health, had recently lost excess weight and were clean and sober in all areas of their life. They called because they thought they needed relief now. They believed that Spirit was not attending to their needs carefully enough.
Why? Because they were living at a Chakra level that required them to lead, to express their power and to make a difference to people and they were feeling stuck. As it happened, they left a message while I was away for a few days, and by the time I called them back, the entire situation had changed. They had just been offered a great promotion which would more than meet all their needs for creative input and team leadership. I suspect it also met their needs for recognition and acknowledgment as well.
The point is, that nothing changed in terms of their abundance from last week to this week. The issue was that their consciousness asserted that they needed to make a difference now, and in the face of any time lag, they were frustrated, afraid, upset and so forth.
Even in the face of their frustration, The Universe was moving towards actualizing this set of needs in a perfect and healthy manner. Six months prior, this friend could not even have imagined the opening in their career that occurred within the past few days. Yet, this opening had already occurred in the Mind of God. Consequently, people, places and situations were already moving into alignment to meet the my friend's leadership needs even before my friend articulated the need aloud for the first time.The problem was not in God's lack of response, it is never about God's lack of response. The difficulty was in my friend's lack of spiritual perspective. (My friend-- being aware of this-- I would hope, is why I was called for counsel).
My friend thought that their needs had changed over the past few months, and of course, their needs had changed. Needs are always changing. As we discussed a few weeks ago, as situations alter, we move up and down the Chakras, our actual moment by moment needs change and our perception of our needs change as well. Their need for health, safety, relationship, security and so forth were all presently well met, and so their higher level needs were activated- they needed to make a difference through their leadership and creativity.
The Universe is always responding to our needs. But when we shift back and forth from living in the Truth That "God is Good and All the Time" and living in our ego that demands that our needs be met according to our will --we get pathetic results. My friend had temporarily lost sight of the "God is good" motif and had fallen into the mindset that he/she was in charge.
When we 1) surrender our understanding of what our needs are, and 2) when we let go of our expectations of when the needs ought to be met, and 3) when we release our attachment to the strategy that we think will get our needs met, then we are living with an Open Heart.
Open Hearted living is the optimum spiritual practice to feel the nurturing power of The Universe working in our lives.
Living with an Open Heart cuts through the pain from the paradox of manifesting our good. This paradox suggests that we can co create a life of abundance so long as we surrender all of our attachments to what abundance looks like.
Our Affirmation for this week: I live with an Open Heart. I trust that Spirit alone knows what my ever shifting needs are in this moment. I recall that Spirit resides within me as I relax into the firm conviction that my deepest needs are being co-creatively manifested in Divine Order.
Affirmation: I live with an Open Heart. I trust that Spirit alone knows what my ever shifting needs are in this moment. I recall that Spirit resides within me as I relax into the firm conviction that my deepest needs are being co-creatively manifested in Divine Order.
In Part One of our September prosperity thoughts, we drew our focus to the paradox of time as it relates to getting our needs met. We noted that we often tend to evaluate whether our needs are being met in the present moment, and react from that short term perspective. If our perception is that our current needs are met, then we are at peace. On the other hand, if our perception is that we lack something, then we tend to feel frustrated and impatient. The relevant spiritual practice calls us to remember that we are, after all, eternal souls. Hence, the time horizon of our higher order of needs getting met might extend through this moment into eternity. Thus we can relax and let go of our strident impatience and frustration with God for not being responsive to our needs according to how we define them.
The second paradox in teaching applied spirituality as it relates to prosperity is that our definition of abundance is always shifting. I recently got a call from someone who urgently needed counsel on a job situation that felt to them as if it was almost intolerable. Never mind that they were earning a six figure income in the field that they had chosen. Forget about the fact that their family life was blessed by a precious baby and a happy marriage. Ignore that they enjoyed great health, had recently lost excess weight and were clean and sober in all areas of their life. They called because they thought they needed relief now. They believed that Spirit was not attending to their needs carefully enough.
Why? Because they were living at a Chakra level that required them to lead, to express their power and to make a difference to people and they were feeling stuck. As it happened, they left a message while I was away for a few days, and by the time I called them back, the entire situation had changed. They had just been offered a great promotion which would more than meet all their needs for creative input and team leadership. I suspect it also met their needs for recognition and acknowledgment as well.
The point is, that nothing changed in terms of their abundance from last week to this week. The issue was that their consciousness asserted that they needed to make a difference now, and in the face of any time lag, they were frustrated, afraid, upset and so forth.
Even in the face of their frustration, The Universe was moving towards actualizing this set of needs in a perfect and healthy manner. Six months prior, this friend could not even have imagined the opening in their career that occurred within the past few days. Yet, this opening had already occurred in the Mind of God. Consequently, people, places and situations were already moving into alignment to meet the my friend's leadership needs even before my friend articulated the need aloud for the first time.The problem was not in God's lack of response, it is never about God's lack of response. The difficulty was in my friend's lack of spiritual perspective. (My friend-- being aware of this-- I would hope, is why I was called for counsel).
My friend thought that their needs had changed over the past few months, and of course, their needs had changed. Needs are always changing. As we discussed a few weeks ago, as situations alter, we move up and down the Chakras, our actual moment by moment needs change and our perception of our needs change as well. Their need for health, safety, relationship, security and so forth were all presently well met, and so their higher level needs were activated- they needed to make a difference through their leadership and creativity.
The Universe is always responding to our needs. But when we shift back and forth from living in the Truth That "God is Good and All the Time" and living in our ego that demands that our needs be met according to our will --we get pathetic results. My friend had temporarily lost sight of the "God is good" motif and had fallen into the mindset that he/she was in charge.
When we 1) surrender our understanding of what our needs are, and 2) when we let go of our expectations of when the needs ought to be met, and 3) when we release our attachment to the strategy that we think will get our needs met, then we are living with an Open Heart.
Open Hearted living is the optimum spiritual practice to feel the nurturing power of The Universe working in our lives.
Living with an Open Heart cuts through the pain from the paradox of manifesting our good. This paradox suggests that we can co create a life of abundance so long as we surrender all of our attachments to what abundance looks like.
Our Affirmation for this week: I live with an Open Heart. I trust that Spirit alone knows what my ever shifting needs are in this moment. I recall that Spirit resides within me as I relax into the firm conviction that my deepest needs are being co-creatively manifested in Divine Order.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
September 2008 Prosperity Thoughts.
Affirmation: I trust that my mere presence is enough. I am a blessing to all.
As proponents of "applied spirituality" we are teaching our students how to enrich their lives now. Some other denominations tend to focus on teaching people how to get into "heaven" after they die, whereas we understand the "Kingdom of Heaven" to be within you, right now, and for every moment of your life.
There is admittedly a hierarchy to our perceived human needs. First and Second Chakra needs such as food, water, shelter and are often considered paramount. Continuing with the Chakra motif, when the first two Chakras are manifested, we tend to expand towards our Third Chakra; related to our need for safety and procreation. The Fourth Chakra needs tend to become activated when the Third is satisfied, we yearn for relationship, connection and society. After actualizing our heart connections, we focus on the Fifth Chakra, the need to speak truth and integrate our power. Finally, living from the higher Chakras we seek to make a difference in the world and to live a life of meaning and purpose.
The key take away item here is that our needs are not constant, as soon as we perceive that one of our basic needs is met, we self actualize and begin to yearn for fulfillment of those needs higher up on the scale. If on the other hand, one of our perceived needs is no longer met, we tend to go into survival mode until that needs is satisfied. This creates an interesting ebb and flow in our human perspective and in our prayer life. There is a healthy yearning and desire to expand the center of our life in higher and higher vibrations. We do not stay at any one Chakra, but we can for the most part inhabit higher and higher Chakras more and more of the time.
In terms of prosperity, and abundantly getting our needs met, our teachings of applied spirituality are thus laced with paradox. I will write about several over the next few months, but first, we run into problems of time frame. We want our needs met right this instant and if the need is not met Right Now!!, then we often ache with an urgency that creates a tempest. Even many New Thought teachers argue that we can demand of God results within a specified time frame. To my way of thinking, this reeks of spiritual temper tantrums.
Spiritual Maturity suggests that, by way of example, one way to enrich your life now is to recall that you are an eternal soul. From this perspective, any short term flatness in your joy barometer is so brief in the bigger picture that it is hardly worth fretting about. It is our unhealed trait of self centerdness that pushes so hard to get our way immediately. Focusing our attention on the inward cause will heal the outward manifestation. (the kingdom of heaven is within).
Today, a friend on the spiritual path mentioned an interesting case in point: Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick. Melville got his book published in 1851 to mixed reviews and paltry sales. He died in 1891. At the time of his death Melville was nearly forgotten in publishing circles and was financially impoverished. He was considered an insignificant author and Moby Dick was considered a literary failure.
Some 30 years after Melville's death, (70 years after it was written) there was a small literary revival of interest in Mody Dick. The stature of the work has continued to grow. Its influence, now, over a 150 years after it was published is far greater than the author could have imagined at the time. Moby Dick is now considered by many as an American Masterpiece.
Well, what is up with this? In the time frame of an eternal soul, writing a book of the stature of Moby Dick seems like a success in actualizing the desire to make a difference. It alone would imply a mission accomplished in terms of fulfilment of one life purpose. But in the time frame of a single lifetime, Melville could not know of this success, he would see his authorship as a failure. As an author he would probably have been living from a First or Second Chakra perspective.
I think we need the humility to remember that all unfolds in Divine Order, which is within a time frame of such complexity and depth that it is infinite. We do not dictate to our Creator, we listen to our hearts yearnings and surrender our self will over to the care of a loving Presence.... a Presence that has intelligence to see the bigger picture.
If we are looking outside of our selves for immediate acknowledgment and recognition, then perhaps there is a part of us that needs healing in terms of looking at our life contribution from a spiritually mature perspective. How about the idea we are here for our soul's own joy and not to meet just our lower Chakra needs.
Lets affirm that we always know how the last chapter turns out because we are eternal souls. In knowing this, we may not be able to get our peers to see the gift we have given, may not get the recognition and accolades that we would like. The practice then; humility and patience.
Today, we affirm: I trust that my mere presence is enough. I am a blessing to all.
Affirmation: I trust that my mere presence is enough. I am a blessing to all.
As proponents of "applied spirituality" we are teaching our students how to enrich their lives now. Some other denominations tend to focus on teaching people how to get into "heaven" after they die, whereas we understand the "Kingdom of Heaven" to be within you, right now, and for every moment of your life.
There is admittedly a hierarchy to our perceived human needs. First and Second Chakra needs such as food, water, shelter and are often considered paramount. Continuing with the Chakra motif, when the first two Chakras are manifested, we tend to expand towards our Third Chakra; related to our need for safety and procreation. The Fourth Chakra needs tend to become activated when the Third is satisfied, we yearn for relationship, connection and society. After actualizing our heart connections, we focus on the Fifth Chakra, the need to speak truth and integrate our power. Finally, living from the higher Chakras we seek to make a difference in the world and to live a life of meaning and purpose.
The key take away item here is that our needs are not constant, as soon as we perceive that one of our basic needs is met, we self actualize and begin to yearn for fulfillment of those needs higher up on the scale. If on the other hand, one of our perceived needs is no longer met, we tend to go into survival mode until that needs is satisfied. This creates an interesting ebb and flow in our human perspective and in our prayer life. There is a healthy yearning and desire to expand the center of our life in higher and higher vibrations. We do not stay at any one Chakra, but we can for the most part inhabit higher and higher Chakras more and more of the time.
In terms of prosperity, and abundantly getting our needs met, our teachings of applied spirituality are thus laced with paradox. I will write about several over the next few months, but first, we run into problems of time frame. We want our needs met right this instant and if the need is not met Right Now!!, then we often ache with an urgency that creates a tempest. Even many New Thought teachers argue that we can demand of God results within a specified time frame. To my way of thinking, this reeks of spiritual temper tantrums.
Spiritual Maturity suggests that, by way of example, one way to enrich your life now is to recall that you are an eternal soul. From this perspective, any short term flatness in your joy barometer is so brief in the bigger picture that it is hardly worth fretting about. It is our unhealed trait of self centerdness that pushes so hard to get our way immediately. Focusing our attention on the inward cause will heal the outward manifestation. (the kingdom of heaven is within).
Today, a friend on the spiritual path mentioned an interesting case in point: Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick. Melville got his book published in 1851 to mixed reviews and paltry sales. He died in 1891. At the time of his death Melville was nearly forgotten in publishing circles and was financially impoverished. He was considered an insignificant author and Moby Dick was considered a literary failure.
Some 30 years after Melville's death, (70 years after it was written) there was a small literary revival of interest in Mody Dick. The stature of the work has continued to grow. Its influence, now, over a 150 years after it was published is far greater than the author could have imagined at the time. Moby Dick is now considered by many as an American Masterpiece.
Well, what is up with this? In the time frame of an eternal soul, writing a book of the stature of Moby Dick seems like a success in actualizing the desire to make a difference. It alone would imply a mission accomplished in terms of fulfilment of one life purpose. But in the time frame of a single lifetime, Melville could not know of this success, he would see his authorship as a failure. As an author he would probably have been living from a First or Second Chakra perspective.
I think we need the humility to remember that all unfolds in Divine Order, which is within a time frame of such complexity and depth that it is infinite. We do not dictate to our Creator, we listen to our hearts yearnings and surrender our self will over to the care of a loving Presence.... a Presence that has intelligence to see the bigger picture.
If we are looking outside of our selves for immediate acknowledgment and recognition, then perhaps there is a part of us that needs healing in terms of looking at our life contribution from a spiritually mature perspective. How about the idea we are here for our soul's own joy and not to meet just our lower Chakra needs.
Lets affirm that we always know how the last chapter turns out because we are eternal souls. In knowing this, we may not be able to get our peers to see the gift we have given, may not get the recognition and accolades that we would like. The practice then; humility and patience.
Today, we affirm: I trust that my mere presence is enough. I am a blessing to all.
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