Author Archives: Ancient Seeker

The Peace of the Infinite Self

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We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.  Kahlil Gibran

There is what is called the “cushion of the sea.” Down beneath the surface that is agitated by storms, and driven about with winds, there is a part of the sea that is never stirred.  Arthur T. Pierson

The peace of God is that eternal calm which, like the cushion of the sea, lies far too deep down to be reached by any external trouble and disturbance; and he who enters into the presence of God, becomes partaker of that undisturbed and undisturbable calm.  Dr. Arthur T. Pierson

Evil is an illusion.  There is only a judgment of “evil” in a person at any given time or moment.  This illusion expresses itself and, when neutralized, goes away.  A person manifests behavior, conditions, or appearances in some manner, which is considered evil by some and honorable by others.  There is no omnipotent evil force, only the perception of evil manifested.  This individualized evil can be neutralized by one centered in Reality.   Robin Hart

We have to heal our wounded world.  The chaos, despair, and senseless destruction we see today are a result of the alienation that people feel from each other and their environment.  Michael Jackson

Expanded Consciousness

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Keep Going freewallsource

I started reading Joel Goldsmith again and seem to be getting more from his teachings.  I am more clearly understanding that the external manifests to the degree that my consciousness expands.

“We will achieve [tangible expression of our inner consciousness] in proportion to our ability to relax mentally, to gain an inner calm and peace, and therein quietly contemplate the revelations which come to us from within.” The Infinite Way, Joel Goldsmith, p. 126

I have intellectually known this since I had a visualization of being counseled to stay inside my circle – counsel that I disregarded for many years, choosing instead to challenge, fight, and run away from adverse circumstances.  Now that I am more frequently living my life from within my circle, I practice calm, peace, trust, and even joy in the midst of turmoil. Because I am now aware that my “circle” is the part of me that is undisturbable, I am taking my growth to the next level.

This way of living is a discipline that requires practice.  It’s learning to live from a foundation of trust, not control.  When I roller skated, I was the tail, not the lead skater of a group linked together for better or worse.  The only control I had was to physically let go of the hand I held, which wasn’t always the safest option.  I realize now that, without effort or thought, my mind at that time was free.

In those days, I didn’t even think about getting hurt.  I thought about how uncool it was to wear knee and elbow pads.  I never did learn how to jump over people in case of a crash; but, that was my focus, not an injury.  I so admired the guys who had that degree of agility and skill.  The point is – I didn’t think about the bad things that could happen.  I only thought about fun and how to have more.

When the circumstances of my life changed and I had little time for fun, I became concerned about security.  Thoughts of lack and limitation followed.  I began to grasp onto what I thought I might lose and want more of what I had.  It took many years, but sooner or later, my life began to reflect my thoughts.  Not realizing my contribution in this regard, I blamed the external, which resulted in feelings of bitterness, resentment, and condemnation that, unfortunately, produced conditions that caused more of the same.

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Come Alive!

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Come Alive nadbiskupija

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.  Howard Thurman

The soul is the source of our joy, truth, beauty, and infinite potential. When we live from this level of life, we are immediately connected to and supported by other souls. We heal and are healed in return.  Oprah Winfrey / Deepak Chopra

The truth is, you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.  Life is a crazy ride and nothing is guaranteed.  Eminem

Don’t be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life.  You don’t have to live forever; you just have to live.  Natalie Babbitt

Slow down and everything that you are chasing will come around and catch you.  John de Paula

Life’s Passion

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dancing at the crossroads drawneartogod

As I was cooking, which is very enjoyable and relaxing to me, I remembered a story about a man who came out of a successful surgery, but didn’t want to take painkillers.  He said that he wanted to be able to feel.  Feeling the pain reminded him that he was alive.  This is what passion does.  It reminds us that we are alive.

So many adults don’t feel the passion of youth.  There have been too many hurts, too much loss, too many deaths.  Intense and repeated trauma can negatively affect daily life.  I chose to shut down that intense part of myself, believing that the pain matching the joy was just too much.  I would rather not have that much joy.

But I miss my passion and excitement.  I miss the feeling of totally letting myself go without fear, worry, or inhibition.  Not caring what people think.  I miss the joy of being free!  To me, that is the epitome of being alive.  Perhaps that’s why I became a human being – to feel.

When I was young, I became passionate about external things: jogging, skating, being in love, my job, civil and human rights, traveling.  Perhaps because of the drama and trauma that I have been through, I now want to be passionately in love with me, with the Magnificence that is me.  I want to be in love with Love itself, with being loving.

Looking back, I see how I have grown as a result of the pain in my life.  I now view my current situation as a mechanism for developing awareness.  While I most certainly desire more financial stability, I am so very blessed to have time to sit in silence and to engage in joyful activities that allow me to reflect, read, and write.  If my circumstances were different, I would not have time to be still, to seek knowledge, and to grow.  If I was working a traditional 9 to 6 with the additional commute, I would be running around on weekends doing what I couldn’t do during the week.  If I had roommates, I would be interacting with them and the consequences of their lives.

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Seeds of Life

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I think hell is something you carry around with you, not somewhere you go.  Neil Gaiman

Acceptance makes an incredible fertile soil for the seeds of change.  Steve Maraboli

An empowered life begins with serious personal questions about oneself. Those answers bare the seeds of success.  Steve Maraboli

Although the life of a person is in a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow.  You have to trust God.  Pope Francis

The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever being able to do it.  Peter Pan

Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love.  It will not lead you astray.  Rumi

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.   Socrates

Planting Seeds of Joy

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flowing2 drawneartogod

During my meditation, I realized that I had been creating from desperation.  Once I lost my job, I developed an intense focus on regaining and, then, maintaining employment.  There was no thought as to what I wanted to do or what would be compatible with my intentions or desires for my life.  I concentrated only on bringing in money by any means necessary.

The jobs that I created and kept out of desperation were never good for me.  I worked in stress-filled environments from which I created more stress.  I didn’t realize that I was creating the seeds of my future.  Sickness blooms from a deficient seed.  Trying to fix leaves and blossoms without addressing the roots of the tree is unproductive.

From what other negativity have I been creating?  Pessimism?  Lack of passion?  Belief in lack and limitation?  Hopelessness?  After meditation, I decided to tend to my core of joy and contentment that is eternally in the moment. Thinking about future negative possibilities causes me to live in fear and anxiety.  Thoughts held in mind produce in kind.

I look back on my life and all that I had and it was never enough.  When stressful situations occurred, I let my happy get away.  Today I acknowledge that others did not and do not take away my joy.  I have a choice.  I have the power.  I don’t know what is going to happen in the future.  I don’t know how I’m going to make it through my challenges.  But, if I can’t be joyful at all times, at least I can work on being appreciative, grateful, kind, and positive.

Knowing me is key.  When I know myself, I can better perceive the actions of others and respond instead of react.  I believe that people give, receive, and exchange energy, often in negative ways.  We may subconsciously draw anger upon ourselves to reflect feelings of inadequacy.  Our lives are mirrors.  We exchange energy based upon our levels of consciousness.   If I am aware of the love within me, I can interact with the love in another.  However, if my consciousness is at a level of pain, I will give and draw energy to me from this base.

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Creative Suffering

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flower after fire wikipedia

The wound is the place where the Light enters you.   Rumi

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.  Kahlil Gibran

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.   Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

There is an ancient tribal proverb I once heard in India. It says that before we can see properly we must first shed our tears to clear the way.  Libba Bray, The Sweet Far Thing

Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings.   Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.   Albert Einstein

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.    Albert Einstein

Any fool can know. The point is to understand.   Albert Einstein

The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.   Albert Einstein

Corrective Suffering

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beauty from ashes deviantart

Yesterday, I was thinking about Job, the Biblical character.  It is often stated that Job praised and thanked God throughout his afflictions; but, he didn’t.  He complained extensively.  He was angry.  He wanted God to appear before him and tell him face to face why he was made to suffer when he had been so faithful, good, and righteous.  One of Job’s friends said that his words showed that he had turned his spirit against God.

In the end, however, Job recognized that God’s ways are mysterious and that “when he hath tested me, I shall come forth as gold.”  One commentary to the Book of Job states: “Job’s experiences opened his eyes more fully to the ineffable holiness of God, leading him thereby to self-knowledge and self-judgment.  The sufferings of Job are shown to be corrective rather than penal, being used [by] God to test and refine his character.” Commentary in the New Scofield Reference Edition of the Holy Bible, pp. 587, 600.

Perhaps a lesson of Job is to learn to acknowledge God in all things and to grow in awareness that all is of God, regardless of our perceptions of good and bad.  The enduring nature of God creates and destroys beyond our understanding or control.  The best that we can do is to raise our awareness and consciousness and live the best that we can according to the virtues and principles that we know.  We can strive for correct understanding that leads to correct behavior.

As I walked through a very beautiful park surrounded by nature, I began to feel a oneness with Spirit as It Is, not as my usual desire to know God so that my life will improve.  For that period of time, I simply existed in my beingness with no strivings.  Briefly, I had no doubt or uncertainty.  I felt an inner contentment, fulfillment, and happiness.

However and whenever we are able to align ourselves with Infinite Source, our lives run more smoothly.  The Universe responds to the chaos or harmony of our thoughts and behavior.  We are playing its keys and creating our own music.  Perhaps Job’s prior sustained prosperity caused him to stop growing in consciousness.  Maybe he was merely going through rituals of praise and worship.  When we lose or disregard our awareness, our connection to the Source, we experience corrective adjustments pushing us back to Ourselves.

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Understand Life

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Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.  Pablo Picasso

Whoever must be a creator in good and evil, verily, he must first be an annihilator and break values. Thus the highest evil belongs to the highest goodness: but this is creative.  Nietzsche

We will likely be better able to integrate the destroyer aspect of our identity if we can see ourselves as “creative destroyers,” those who destroy in the service of creation, which in the end, may be the secret key to unlocking and releasing the floodgates of our creative potential for growth and constructive transformation.  Scott Kiser

Without an understanding of myth or religion, without an understanding of the relationship between destruction and creation, death and rebirth, the individual suffers the mysteries of life as meaningless mayhem alone.  Marion Woodman

Nothing in life is to be feared.  It is only to be understood.  Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.  Marie Curie

A fire-like event may be just what you need in your life to press the great reset-button and allow for a new start.  Regardless if the fire was set by external circumstances or of your own doing, it is important to see how that destruction may spawn a complete rebirth of life, opportunities, and possibilities that otherwise may have not existed before. In the wake of destruction, welcome the forthcoming creation to follow and rise above whatever happens.   Andy Wooten

Life – Infinitely Creating and Destroying

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I read excerpts from the 1492 journals of Christopher Columbus. It is amazing that the Spaniards could land on a clearly inhabited island, state a few declarations and, thereby, claim that place and its people as possessions of the King and Queen of Spain.  Columbus noted that the people were very friendly, were unfamiliar with weapons such as swords, and would make good servants.  There was never a thought that this was a sovereign land with people of equal worth, free will, and determination.

This is the way that the world was and is conquered.  The violent intruders succeed, prevail, and prosper.  The indigenous people are killed, enslaved, and assimilated by blood and culture.  Where is Spirit in all of this, I frequently ask?

During my meditation, an answer came that Spirit endures.  It continues as men and regimes come and go.  Destruction and creation occur, even without mortal intervention, in the forms of fires, earthquakes, floods, asteroids falling from space and other disasters.  Life ends, begins, and constantly regenerates itself after every trauma.

What then should our response be in the face of threat?  There is no one right or wrong because everyone believes in their right and the other’s wrong.  There is only action and the consequences of that action.  Because Spirit endures, there is no eternal loss or death.  Each generation, each re-emerged life, repeats the struggle of trying to birth what is deemed good and fair and productive and creative.  At some point and somewhere, an evolved species emerges, but the cycle repeats itself again and again – creation and destruction indefinitely.  Because that is Life.

So how should we behave? What is the point of trying to live with virtue and integrity?  I want to behave as I am able, with the knowledge that I have at the time, and not judge myself or others.  I want to always seek to evolve into more awareness and more enlightenment so that what I destroy is not more than I create.  I want what I create to not overwhelm what exists and cause the extinction of seeds that will ensure the survival of what will be.

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