New Year, New thoughts

We face another new year. Ripe with possibilities.. or possibly too, patterned after old ways, even if we begin it with resolutions we have chanted repeatedly during new years past. Lose weight, smell the roses, live holistically – only to find that such resolutions never did hold sway long enough for us to change our lives. We need to change our lives because there is a world that needs to be changed. This involves in us a new responsibility. I believe we cannot continue to be guided by the oft-taught phrase that we are nothing in this world, that we are so small and insignificant in God’s masterplan. I personally believe we have this fantastic power, each of us personally, given to us by God upon our birth. This personal power, born out of free will, is to consciously choose to co-create the kind of world we live in.

What I have been observing for a number of years is an unrecognized longing for spiritual awakening. Would we not want to choose this as a direction for this new year? To be conscious that it is there and take steps to develop this awareness. To take the path of awakening is to experience the flowering of our own Soul. To take this path is to begin to discipline one’s self in all levels. We may want to shift our perspective – where one’s life cannot be measured linearly (by time) anymore, but rather, through growth and transformations we undergo, by the learning we take in not only on a mental level, but on the emotional and spiritual levels as well.

Many are now beginning to awaken because spiritual awakening is NOT an option anymore, but a necessity if humanity and the planet are to survive. Awakening means you become part of the rising of a new consciousness. It is to choose to take responsibility for one’s thoughts and emotions. It is to choose to be part of collective or group efforts that actively work for change.

Actually, whether we are aware of it or not, an old world is dying, and a new one is being born. The new year gives us another opportunity to re-format our minds, our consciousness and move towards the energies of positive changes. I mean really change and transform our lives. If you are still part of an old world, defined where the ego and personality hold control of everything in your life, where duality exists in a me-you, us-they, black against white, extreme left, extreme right, of being attached to your own views and opinions as the only views... then you’re really old hat. The new world rising is a world where Spirit flows free and unhampered defining creative living, connecting us deeper to the greater whole. It is a world that moves towards integration and not separation, into allowing the variety and differences to be accepted as part and parcel of the whole. Where individuality is celebrated and not judged. Where, despite the differences, we are all One in the essence of being human sharing this one planet.

We must try to go beyond our minds, beyond the concepts of peace, gentleness, abundance, seeking good governments, progressive lifestyles. Let us live them, become them. We dream our world. What is crucial is whether or not we recognize what is being revealed to us as an act of our unconscious. Through the agency of our consciousness, we can literally transform the world.

How do we begin? Jung said, "If there ever was a time when self-reflection was the absolute necessary and only right thing, it is now, in our present catastrophic epoch." To self-reflect is a genuine spiritual act, a privilege of human freedom – a choice. It is the act of becoming conscious. To discipline one’s self towards self-reflection is a spiritual process of purging and bringing forth to one’s attention, the shadows of the unconscious so it can be healed. When many of us do this, a collective process begins to happen and all these thought energies will reformat the unseen energies that create our world state. The change hoped for is not just a change in a given situation, but an "up-leveling" to a new level, which is what transformation is about. 

The Wisdom Saying of the Buddha state: all that we are is the result of what we have thought. The world we see around and experience, the universe that is present, our life that we live – all these is our consciousness. When we collectively entertain a thought form as having a certain reality, or continually feed energy into patterned thought forms like fear, anger, divisiveness, judgments – we literally materialize that very thought form into reality. We dream it up. So just check the world state we are in and you can imagine the kind of dreaming we have collectively been doing. Unconsciously, we have been choosing wars, catastrophes, calamities, greed, exploitation, environmental ruin – the list goes on. I have never believed all these came from God. It is Man who has been creating all these based on the unconscious dreaming he is doing. Such an old wasted world! Yet, one can also see, countering these unconscious dreaming, are energies of people who have awakened and are acting to change things in a variety of ways: positive thoughts and prayers, balance and holistic corporate structures, healing acts for the exploited and for the environment. This is the Spirit of God manifesting in love, healing and oneness. Yes, a new world is being born, midwifed by people who are awake and conscious. These are people who have freely chosen not to live life in mediocrity, under the tenets of the world. Instead, they have allowed their Souls to rise and are moved by the Spirit, The Force, that intrinsic energy of transformative change in the Universe.

So let’s get down to earth, down to our own individual lives. Here are some tips to begin that process of spiritual awakening.

• Don’t be afraid to break your comfort zones. When shadows rise up, face them bravely.

• Alter the pathways of the brain. When we become used to habit patterns, even our brains and impulses begin to fall asleep. So try changing the scenery of your room, or practice writing with your non-dominant hand. This latter practice may slow you down, but will allow a more conscious effort of staying in the process, as opposed to going straight for the objective.

• Develop your gift of intentionality to be creators. Infiltrate your space with ideas, concepts, creatively thinking and imagining. Try not to get stuck in accepting the way things are just because you think it is someone else’s responsibility to change things.

• Live with the concept of probabilities. Watch for signs around, clues on the next step or a reflection of something inside that points you to your life path.

• Let the past go – this clouds vision. The past is not real anymore. Work with everything you have NOW.

• When you begin to feel anything negative – a thought or an emotion – stop and breathe deep breaths repeatedly, concentrating only on your breathing.

• Self-reflect at moments during the day for small seeming insignificant things happening to you. Self-reflection at the end of the day is a major must.

• Perhaps try to see another side of your concept of God – that God is the experience of Love – and feel the heart’s expressions, letting the mind go on sabbatical.

• Live your life as a total prayer.

Look around and see many people and groups trying to co-create a more beautiful positive life-enhancing world. We should try not to feel alone as we strive to awaken. We must believe that each of our thoughts contributes to the collective – and that maybe our thoughts may be the one that tips the scale towards better changes to manifest in our world. Are you ready now to jump into the new world rising?