THE SEARCH FOR THE SELF 

 NAVIGATING THE APOCALYPSE 

 FORGIVENESS #2

GRANTING OUR SELVES FORGIVENESS !

Forgiveness of Self and Atonement for what we have done to our Higher Selves. 

God is a persistent lover wooing us with many pleasures, lavishing endless grace, wanting our delight, hoping for our trust.

The Self is pure but often polluted by our primitive desires. We need to forgive ourselves to recover that purity. This is also the parable of the prodigal son or daughter returning to the Creator in wholeness.

God is not a test of love, God's love is not a test. 

(Karma is the test.)

Self-Forgiveness can often be the most difficult in cases where there has been shame or severe guilt from abusive actions one has experienced from others or another or those that one has done to one's-Self.

“…care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner…” Tao Te Ching

"…you are accepted by the sun, you are accepted by the moon, you are accepted by the trees, you are accepted by the ocean, you are accepted by the earth. What more do you want?
You are accepted by this whole universe. Rejoice in it!” Osho

“Everybody feels inferior in some way or other. And the reason is that we don’t accept that everybody is unique. There is no question of inferiority or superiority. Everybody is just one of his kind - comparison does not arise. 
The moment you accept yourself as you are, without any comparison, all inferiority, all superiority, disappears. In that total acceptance or yourself you will be free from these complexes - inferiority, superiority. Otherwise you will suffer your whole life....


Just be yourself, that is enough… Osho

However, we do need to scrutinize what have we done to our Selves but with Self-compassion which creates Self-worth - never with

Self Condemnation. 

Sometimes we have regrets about things that we have failed to do rather than negative acts that could incriminate us. These "pebbles of regret" can weigh us down and must also be released. They can also cause guilt and shame and depending on the circumstances, "survivor's guilt."

We need to understand that Self-worth, which has to do with soul work, is not the same as self-esteem which refers to the small self implying pride - a recipe for narcissism.

(California's self-esteem movement in the 60's had the opposite effect to what had been intended. Later in life those children performed less well, mostly because they had been misguided about their abilities by undeserved praise. They had a greater incidence of depression as well as suicidal tendencies.)

We are all worthy of respect and an unconditional positive regard for our Higher Selves. In other words U.S.A. Universal Self-acceptance not only for our own True Self but also that of others.

Self-condemnation strengthens shame and guilt which is a huge impediment on the path of Self-transformation. It puts the brain in lock down mode, cutting us off from our prefrontal lobe and higher consciousness. We then default to our primitive brain's survival mode which is linked to the sympathetic nervous system, flight or fight, and even freeze and 'feign' death (panic.)

Feeling bad about ourselves can lead to more "badness." We are responsible for but are not our actions.

As you think it so it can be. As you believe it so it will be.

“Self condemnation strengthens guilt which is one of the greatest obstacles on the path of realization.”

Sri Swami Rama

Be patient with yourself, kind to yourself and release yourself from what you are not accountable.

An unconditional regard for ourselves reduces anxiety, depression and increases happiness, optimism, positive emotions and Self worth. U.S.A. does not imply enabling or condoning unskillful behavior. We have to recognize when we have done wrong and make amends.

Asking for forgiveness must begin with genuine remorse and regret for what we have done. Remorse is when you feel bad about 

what you did

Unremitting guilt or worse shame is when you feel bad about 

who you are 

and has no place in Self-worth

We need to substitute regret or remorse for our guilt or shame.

"Shame is the swampland of the soul." C.G. Jung 

Shame is a crippling emotional force.

"Shame is more than a word or a noun. Shame is a voice ... If we are not careful we can allow shame to speak toxic words deep into our vulnerable souls ... Shame is a ruthless voice, an inner critic of all things detrimental and damaging ... C.G. Jung 

"The voice of shame is invisibility." Bren'e Brown

“Shame cannot survive being spoken.” Bren'e Brown

 The only way out of it is through it. One needs to come out of hiding and talk it out with someone trustworthy and compassionate. This may require some form of rehabilitation program. 

One can have shame without having done anything wrong. The wrong has been perpetrated by another. We need to shift the blame to where it belongs.

 

THE SEARCH FOR THE SELF #7

NAVIGATING THE APOCALYPSE

THE SEARCH FOR THE SELF 

 NAVIGATING THE APOCALYPSE 

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 or  (“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

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE – "FIELD" – SPIRIT GUIDES

GRATITUDE

LOVE - FORGIVENESS 

ENERGY SYSTEMS

LOVE AND FORGIVENESS #7

LOVE

… doing for love is not the same as doing with love.

 

What do you seek?
Being right or understanding?
Being heard or hearing?
Being loved or loving?
If you seek the one you will not find the other.
If you seek the other you will find both.

 

The more you do for love, the more love will do for you.

Love, laughter and song chase away the dark forces and all that is dreaded from your nights and days.

Love on the Tree of life forms a Triad that balances Judgment and Mercy. The Ancestors teach us to "sweeten" our judgments, to try and walk in the others' shoes and to judge the action not the person. It is said that when the student of Kabbalah has mastered this Triad s/he  can teach themselves. 

“To awaken the heart, is to awaken the dormant soul.” Gandhi

It is also the most difficult chakra to master in yoga.

…The early sages taught that
 the pursuit of wisdom ennobled the intellect with knowledge of God, while love brought one into His presence.

“A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.” Mahatma Gandhi

Loving and being loved is soul talk. To love is also to be vulnerable to love from others and to love one's-Self - that part of us made in the image of the Divine.

 

“Love is the most universal, formidable and mysterious of all the cosmic forces.” De Chardin

We are all one, though not the same.

 "You are me, and I am you. Isn't it obvious that we “inter-are”?  Thich Nhat Hahn

"The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose I am here and you are out there." Yasutani Roshi 

Love your neighbor as yourself obliges us to see the divine spark that is in all of us. It does not require we like, nor or have anything much to do with him or her, but respect the Self within them. This is not love as a sentiment or emotion but as a commitment. Its embraced by the yoga greeting Namaste - I recognize the divinity within you.

Ubuntu is a Bantu concept.

  

“Ubuntu speaks to the essence of being human. The solitary individual is in our understanding a contradiction in terms. You are a person through other persons. Ubuntu speaks about the importance of communal harmony; warmth, compassion, generosity, hospitality and seeks to embrace others.” 

Bishop Tutu

FORGIVENESS #1

(Mercy vs. Judgment)

“Despise no person and consider nothing impossible, for there is no one who does not have his/her hour and there is nothing that does not have its place.” Talmud 

"Patience in enduring evil

Mercy to the point of recalling only the good qualities of our tormentor.

Remembering them in the innocence of their infancy.

Mercy beyond the letter of the law ...” Cordovero

The second Triad of the Tree of Life concerns empathy and compassion which enables forgiveness. 

The goal is not to retreat from misunderstandings but is to avoid giving cause for them. The intention is not simply to do away with misunderstandings but to have either more or better understandings.

Mercy, compassion, empathy are key to Forgiveness.

“To err is human, to forgive Divine”

"Forgiveness is part of the treasure you need to craft your falcon wings and return to your true realm of Divine Freedom.” Hafitz

To forgive is to return to Self and to "... lay our burden down by the riverside and to study war (inside of us) no more."

Forgiveness relieves the one receiving it and the one giving it - of a burden that can be an albatross around one's neck

God save thee, ancient Mariner
From the fiends, that plague thee thus
Why look'st thou so ? - With my cross-bow
I shot the albatross.
...
Ah well a-day. what evil looks
Had I from old and young
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung... S. T. Coleridge

“Forgiveness is the most completing gift we can experience for we all have its sweet need.  

John O’donahue

“In forgiving and letting go we can then exalt in treasuring what we truly most treasure.” J. O’donahue

“Forgiveness is the most completing gift we can experience for we all have its sweet need.” J. O’donahue

Forgiveness is generated by empathy and compassion, not only for others but also for ourselves. Many of us are making new year resolutions at this time. Forgiveness should be considered as being one of them.

THERE ARE THREE COMPONENTS TO FORGIVENESS

GRANTING OURSELVES FORGIVENESS

This is often the most difficult.

"And if your friend does evil to you, say to him, “I forgive you for what you did to me, but how can I forgive you for what you did to yourself?”  Nietzsche

“What are the ways of the Holy One. A God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving, iniquity, transgression and sin.” Exodus 34:6

Before we can forgive others we first need to forgive ourselves or we may project that burden onto others.

“If we do not transform our pain,

we will most assuredly transmit it.” Richard Rohr

GRANTING OTHERS FORGIVENESS

To engage in the dance of movement with one’s opponent makes him/her a partner. 

“Actions arise from conditions. Do not judge then the former until the latter is well understood. If you have eaten what the judged one has eaten, and worn his clothes, and thought his thoughts, and felt both his joy and pain then you may say you have stood in his place but only briefly compared to the length of his stay. So still you may not know the past or present plights that plague him. 

Our judgments are frequently fraught with error and usually tainted with arrogance. Compassion and love are our salvation and joy.” Hillel

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” Goethe

ASKING OTHERS FOR FORGIVENESS

Forgiveness must begin with remorse, regret, acknowledgment and confession for what we have done.

“A person cannot find redemption until s/he sees the flaws in his soul and tries to efface them. Whoever shuts out the realization of his flaws is shutting out redemption. We can only be redeemed to the extent to which we see ourselves.” Talmud

“Iniquities are etched upon our bones such that traces remain even when God forgives. One must acknowledge and confess the wrongdoing to have the stain cleansed and the record removed.“ Ezekiel

 

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.