THE SEARCH FOR THE SELF 

 NAVIGATING THE APOCALYPSE #6

Spiritual laws are operative whether or not we understand them or can explain them or whether or not we even know about them or believe in them. 

The Contents of these several Blogs are below. These are to delineate the crucial factors in the Search for the Self. The Brown color delineates what has been done so far.

ABSOLUTE  SPIRITUAL TRUTHS

THE SEARCH FOR THE SELF

SELF-REALIZATION  (“BECOMING”)

FREE WILL

IMPERMANENCE AND NON-ATTACHMENT

KARMA’S FIVE PRECEPTS 

SOUL ARCHITECTURE

THE THREE DEADLY SINS OF KARMA 

 THE THREE DEADLIEST SINS OF KARMA

THE HERO/INE vs. THE WARRIOR ARCHETYPE
THE HEALING OF MEANING

DEATH - THE FINAL JOURNEY

"FIELD," THE CREATOR, GUIDES, ANCESTORS AND

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

GRATITUDE
LOVE - FORGIVENESS 

ENERGY SYSTEMS

 "FIELD," THE CREATOR, GUIDES, ANCESTORS AND

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

"Out there beyond ideas of right doing and wrong doing there is a Field, I will meet you there." Rumi

Accessing the "Field" can allow us - not to the same extent as our guides - to sample being non-local in space and time. This can have tremendous advantages. 

Even if we cannot access the Field ourselves we can still have a relationship with our guides/ancestors who can assist us with their wisdoms. Our guides are dwelling in a non-local, space-time reality. They can script our dreams and tell us things we cannot know. They can also "copy and paste" information into our psyches during awake time. 

The Field can respond to our intentions and will reward us for having a strong will, motivation, commitment and passion. However, we have to ask to receive because of the cosmic law of free will. 

Spiritual practice can enable us to shift our vibration so that we can open our "Third" intuitive eye. If we do so ... we may be able to see what seeing eyes cannot and hear what hearing ears cannot. In other word we have the potential to access information not bound to our five senses which can help us on our Search for the Self.

Gratitude and respect facilitate this access

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

Balance is achieved by harmonizing polarities. 

Dualities come into harmony by negotiating a third or middle path, a path not of assimilation but a path of coexistence.

Anything that gives us serenity, equanimity, inner peace, balance, harmony, happiness and that generates an in the moment experience can be considered spiritual practice. 

Changing our vibration and opening up our energy centers requires an ongoing spiritual practice or any method of going inward. Anything done for its own sake, not to perform or look good or with an agenda can qualify. It should be regular, sustainable and enjoyable and done for at least 20 minutes. These can be the standard more Eastern meditations which are so popular or anything else. Since the Western mind is so active it helps to have more than one way of going inward. 

You are to find the one meant especially for you.

The route to God is through the senses. From my flesh will I behold the Creator.

The soul's conversation is not of the mind but of the senses.

When it comes to more esoteric practices the Ancestors endorse one that is sensory and bodily oriented; singing, dancing, drumming, chanting, playing an instrument, journaling, painting, yoga asanas or pranayama, Tai Chi, Chi Gong  etc. - always done for its own sake alone. 

"Whatever being comes to be, be it motionless or moving, derives its being from Field and Knower of the Field."

Bhagavad Gita

The Creator would like a personal connection with each one of us - if possible along with our unique God give destiny. It has been said that the Infinite One is playing hide and seek but no one wants to play.

“Search for me and you will find me. Seek me with all your heart and I will let you find me.” Jeremiah

 

God’s breath is heard in quietness and felt in stillness.

Beware the noises and clamor of ego which drown out the Divine whisper. 

In stillness we can feel ourselves being filled with God’s breath. The rules are simple but difficult.

It will be given to you according to the measure of your humility, the measure of your love and the measure of your faith.

CONCORDANT MUSIC CAN ALSO TURN US INWARD

Music can be a passive, receptive, sensory form of inner practice. According to the ancient Greeks: 

Music could induce spiritual harmony in the soul. 

Be a form of communion with Divine truth. 

Enables us to return to the Divine region - a place once lost to humans. 

When we sin, we are without music without harmony.
Rather control the modes of music in a city than its laws. 

Musical discord could distort the spirit, concord enable it.  

Ever since the Greeks until fairly recently music has been considered sacred and an attempt to mimic the voice of the Divine. 

The Greeks, the church and others felt that sound should follow a certain "objective moral order." 

This is the reason classical music had and has such appeal. The great classical composers followed this idea. Pre-modernistic music kept these principles up until the last century when discordance, non-resonance, lack of harmony and even musical chaos became more popular.  These vibrations do not create coherence or a peaceful inner state.

GRATITUDE

Be grateful and you will be happy. Happiness leads to great empowerment. Attend to your well-being, especially to happiness, the cause of which is sometimes found in hidden recesses, always in gratitude.

Gratitude can be a form of spiritual practice. Research has shown that gratitude induces a positive feedback loop. Gratitude leads to having more gratitude. Gratitude creates well being and equanimity. Gratitude makes us happy and when we are happy we have more gratitude. Gratitude can help us perform random acts of kindness and pay our gratitude forward.

F.M.R.I. studies have shown that a gratitude practice creates more neuronal activity in the prefrontal lobe of the brain somewhat similar to that seen in advanced practitioners of meditation.

Give without remembering. Take without forgetting. Give freely. Receive openly. Do all with gratitude. It is the way of love. It is the way of joy.

Giving opens, withholding closes. 

In giving is to receive and to welcome the other.

We think that in the natural way of things, what we give lessens our supply. The soul does not work this way - with the soul, giving increases.

There is no joy as transforming as the joy of gratitude. Learn gratitude!

Where there is gratitude there is light.

CONNECTING WITH YOUR GUIDES OR ANCESTORS AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

Those that are dead are never gone

They are there in the thickening shadow

The dead are not under the earth

They are there in the tree that rustles

They are in the wood that groans

They are in the water that sleeps

They are in the hut

They are in the crowd

The dead are not dead

Bizago Diap (Mali poet)

Our guides are there to assist us too. Love and gratitude with honest requests will engage them. Some unknown to us (so-called foreign ancestors in sangoma tradition) have been assigned specially to help us. Others come and go for maybe just one particular message or purpose. Still others may have been loved ones or ancestors in past lives. Love is the catalyst that helps them to cross the veil and connect in dreams or awake time.

Just as conscious journaling can enable going inwards so too can connecting with our guides be considered spiritual practice. 

The law of free demands that we are very specific with exactly what we want. We may not think we are being heard or being helped but there is no time on the other side of the veil and things may evolve slowly. Because the delay we may fail to recognize that what we asked for we did receive. Since our guides are not time bound there may be a time lapse.

Spirit guides are not subject to time or space as are we. They are always around but not always to be known, always within call but not always to be heard, always present but not always to be sensed, always holding us but not always to be felt.

It is worthwhile setting up an altar to your guides. Put their photos or names of your ancestors on it if you do not have a photo or a crystal to recognize a "foreign" ancestors whose name and sex you may not know. Any little article that reminds you of them such as a watch, a ring, a cup they used or a walking stick can embellish the altar. You can use or wear them to connect more strongly when the need arises. 

If there are skeletons in the closet those spirits are best not recognized on your altar. You did not want them around when alive and may not either when they are dead. One, however, should forgive them, preferably using a meaningful ritual which has more traction in the spirit world.

Give them permission to send you messages or script your dreams. Commit a journal, recording device or smart phone to record the events. Light a candle or incense or bring a small gifts of gratitude. Always keep them in mind.

Have a party for them and invite them into your life when you initiate the relationship. Celebrate their birthdays as well as their death days in some way.