Message of hope

A friend emailed this to me, and it is just what I would like to have written

The New Religion of the 21st Century
(From a myspace.com bulletin)

On the surface of the world right now there is war and violence

and things seem dark
But calmly and quietly, at the same time,

something else is happening underground

An inner revolution is taking place and certain individuals are being called to a higher light
It is a silent revolution
From the inside out
From the ground up

It is time for me to reveal myself
I am an embedded agent of an secret, undercover
Clandestine Global operation
A spiritual conspiracy
We have sleeper cells in every nation on the planet

You won't see us on the T.V.
You won't read about us in the newspaper
You won't hear about us on the radio

We don't seek any glory
We don't wear any uniform
We come in all shapes and sizes
Colors and styles

Most of us work anonymously
We are quietly working behind the scenes in every country and culture of the world
Cities big and small, mountains and valleys, in farms and villages, tribes and remote islands

You could pass by one of us on the street and not even notice
We go undercover
We remain behind the scenes
It is of no concern to us who takes the final credit
But simply that the work gets done

Occasionally we spot each other in the street
We give a quiet nod and continue on our way so no one will notice

During the day many of us pretend we have normal jobs
But behind the false storefront at night is where the real work takes a place

Some call us the 'Conscious Army'
We are slowly creating a new world with the power of our minds and hearts
We follow, with passion and joy
Our orders from the Central Command
The Spiritual Intelligence Agency

We are dropping soft, secret love bombs when no one’s is looking
Poems
Hugs
Music
Photography
Movies
Kind words
Smiles
Meditation and prayer
Dance
Social activism
Websites
Blogs
Random acts of kindness

We each express ourselves in our own unique ways with our own unique gifts and talents

'Be the change you want to see in the world'
That is the motto that fills our hearts
We know it is the only way real transformation takes place
We know that quietly and humbly we have the power of all the oceans combined

Our work is slow and meticulous
Like the formation of mountains
It is not even visible at first glance
And yet with it entire tectonic plates shall be moved in the centuries to come

Love is the new religion of the 21st century

You don't have to be a highly educated person
Or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it

It comes from the intelligence of the heart
Embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse of all human beings

Be the change you want to see in the world
Nobody else can do it for you

We are now recruiting
Perhaps you will join us
Or already have....
All are welcome...
The door is open

-Brian Piergrossi
(From the book 'The Big Glow')

Symbolism of the Cross

I am not comfortable with the idea of an instrument of death as a symbol of Christianity, and I don't believe that is how the symbolism of the cross was intended. Based on my wide readings and my understanding of Christ's message, I think Jesus would have liked us to take the crucifixion in context, as a means of demonstrating the true message - the message of resurrection.

In fact, the focus of Easter in Eastern Orthodox Christianity is not the death of Jesus but His resurrection, with which He demonstrates that when we align ourselves with God, our souls live in His grace. This is symbolised in a lovely tradition where worshipers wait outside the church until midnight when the doors are thrown open, and the resurrection is celebrated with joy and kisses.

But there is more to the meaning of the cross than this, for it is a very rich symbol, and has a much longer history than Christianity.

First, the horizontal axis represents the separation of the spiritual and material realms which occurs in biblical terms in the fall from Eden.

The vertical axis represents the two realms, and the potential movement of the individual soul between them: downward into the material world and upward to spiritual being.

God desires that we seek to raise ourselves above the material, which is the means through which we can consciously experience our own spiritual evolution. Our spiritual task, therefore, is to come through materiality to an awareness of our spiritual selves as part of God. That can only be known in our hearts, represented by the heart of the cross.

The heart of the cross therefore represents the point at which the human being lives in the world as a spiritual being, aligned with and reaching upwards to God while still on earth. To reach this level of consciousness, the individual must sacrifice the the material self and commit to living as a spiritual being on earth.

It is important to understand that Jesus did not tell us to give ourselves to God after death ...He spoke of living waters and the God of the living. Rather, Jesus instructed us to die to our material selves while living, as He did, in order to be reborn as the spiritual self while living, as He was.

So death is not the door to a spiritual life, as some choose to believe: the spiritual life is the one we choose now, in life.

All of this and more is in the symbol of the cross.

World Happiness DAY - you don't need a reason to be happy, just the will.

I just want to notify my readers about an event that you might like to join:

The first ever International Happiness Day on July 10th!

You can participate wherever you are. And I think you'll find the suggested activities worthwhile anytime. I'd love to know what you decide to do, and how you feel about it.

The following is from Maggie Wilde, someone who emerged from deep pain and despair to discover a constant fountain of joy. Her website address is at the end of this email.
Namaste and blessings upon you,
Tosca

The goal: Get 1,000,000 people or more to choose to experience deep inner happiness starting on July 10th! More than 194 countries will be participating.

• How much happiness and joy are you willing to experience in your life?

• Why happiness? People who choose to experience happiness daily enjoy great health, fulfilling relationships and success.

• The International Happiness Day Panel have created tools, mp3 audios and live phone events to support people in choosing happiness for themselves...all FREE!

• Decide that this monumental day will be the first day of the rest of your happy life! Check out the events, tools and video and the Happiness Panel at http://www.InternationalHappinessDay.com

• Inform everyone you know and be a part of International Happiness Day on July 10th, 2008!

• If you just want to participate in a small way on your own…make a commitment to add to the worldwide energy of happiness on the 10^th by dedicating a half an hour on that day to writing down all the things you are grateful for in your life. I mean everything…from the fact that the sun rose and set…that you had plenty to eat…that you have friends, family and those that you love around you...be grateful for your car…your job…your talents and gifts…the flowers in your garden or your neighbors garden…the roads we get to drive on…the bridges that are there for us…the trees…the air we breath…your tea/coffee in the morning…the cup you drink from…the support you have around you…be grateful for your body…your legs and feet that carry you every day…your organs that keep you alive…in fact…be grateful for being alive…

• I do this on a daily basis to remind myself that my life is abundant in every way…
• A recent study revealed one of the easiest ways to create a happier life is to simply remember to be grateful.

Gratitude – brings contentment.

Contentment – brings happiness

And happiness is what we want for ourselves and those that we love... Be a little happier every day!

Be Wildly Happy®

Maggie Wilde

www.wildlyhappy.com

Phone: + 61 405 138 567

Who Am I?

Who Am I?

I am always after that sense of unity, of wholeness in life, and sometimes, a few moments are granted me…moments of pure grace.

Have you noticed how things seem to break apart on their own, so that life feels much more like a kaleidoscope than a One? Sometimes, I can maintain a sense of self in the middle of all these shifting parts, but at other times, I feel that my self is also made up of shifting parts, so that I an never sure what parts will come together to face the world at any moment, what self will emerge.

We think of self as an entity, as a single, unified and whole being. but often that self seems to crumble, sometimes drastically. “I feel like I’m falling apart,” we say, or, “Pull yourself together”.

I suppose that's why principles are so important, because as we choose ideals and try consciously to live by them, we create and structure a living whole from the many possible parts of self.

I wonder if that's what individuation really means - this discovering or revealing of the person that our choices and actions have created. I think I must also include 'taking responsibility for' the self or selves we create: I think we individuate by knowing and being who we have chosen to be.

So, is there a permanent, true self?

One of the most terrifying periods in my life was a year in which I felt myself unravelling…literally. It was as though everything I ever thought I knew, every part of the self I knew fell away, piece by piece. It was like standing on scaffolding that is slowly coming apart. I thought I was going mad. Truly. Now I now that I was experiencing my self as it really is…a construct of my mind.

Without that construct, I fell into a deep despair. Ironically, I fell so deep that eventually, I reached something even deeper within me. Because it was so unlike anything I had experienced before, this also frightened me. I thought perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to go mad…easier than trying to make sense of what I was experiencing.

But I had three young children. Insanity was not an option. Yet it took me painful months to realise that this indescribable, elusive experience of something was my true self. I had come face to face with my soul-self, and it felt like one great question for which I knew there was an answer, but it was always out of reach.

Is it surprising that this was how I learned to have faith? To trust in what I could not see, could not describe, could not name? From that faith came a knowing. I still cannot explain it. I just knew that I…the real I…is not breakable, not transient, but real, profoundly and blessedly real.

The real Self is what we call the Soul. It is steady, enduring, unaffected by time or space, greater than the small personality that is the ego-self. Soul inhabits and activates the body, and is also of spirit. It links us most firmly with the Divine. Soul is the intermediary between body and spirit, which makes it accessible to the pull of physicality, to the senses, and the ego mind. Our task is to become more conscious of our soul self, to strengthen it, and to follow it. Otherwise, we become too entangled in the body and the ego mind, and lose our Selves.

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What Easter taught me

I have always struggled with the concept of sacrifice as a key element of spiritual growth. It didn't make sense to me. Why on earth would God ...the Source of All, and All That Is ...care if I sacrificed something? Why would He-She want me to give up animal foods at Lent, or even more confusing, why all this business about blood sacrifices?

It's not just the whole Jesus on the cross thing. Bloody sacrifices of the most holy, of God's messengers, or of self (usually through the proxies of unwilling animals) were around thousands of years before Jesus the man arrived. Could so many seekers of god be so wrong?

After a period ...a few years of my early youth... of chewing over this profound mystery, and intently reading and re-reading stories from all cultures on blood sacrifice, bloody martyrs and really gross stories of deities cut into pieces and their parts sown together, and many terrifying nightmares, I finally decided that yes, they all had it wrong. With the wisdom of my 20 years, I sadly concluded that much of humanity was, and had been deluded by some inexplicable bloodlust into surrounding the Divine with death and blood. Given the state of the world, I resigned myself to the stupidity and callousness of most human beings ... or at least, of those in charge.

The Christian symbolism of the crucified Christ was particularly difficult to swallow. How could someone's death save my soul? What sort of God would conceive of such a thing, and what kind of person could find solace in the belief that someone had suffered so much for his or her sake? Christianity had it wrong, I decided. Jesus the man came as a messenger from God to remind us that we are souls inhabiting bodies, knowing full well that ungrateful humans would cause him to suffer. And his followers decided to make of that suffering something holy and meaningful.

Well, it wasn't meaningful to me, no matter how I looked at it..symbolically or literally. So I turned to Buddhism...it seemed much more reasonable and bloodless. But I could not let go of question...why blood? What is the mystery of blood sacrifice? and And why could I not let go of it?

Finally, I have an answer. Not the answer, because mysteries are always indefinable and somewhat chaotic, but after 50 years of searching, it's good enough for me. It allows me to make sense of this awful paradox: a compassionate God and a loving universe expressed through time and many cultures in the symbolism of blood sacrifice. It's an awkward resolution, because I crave clarity and certainty, and symbolism is neither clear nor stable. But it's uncertainty that I can live with.

My understanding is this, as far as I can put it into words. Like all mysteries, it is really beyond the grasp of language, so I can only tell you what I can.

Blood represents the material self.....the body. It is naturally and inherently sensual and self-absorbed, and therefore prone to seek its own gratification. Our minds, which are both in the body and also the soul, are always pulled two ways - towards the body and its gratifications, and towards the soul and spiritual development. Were it not so, were we instead 'built' to be either wholly physical or wholly spiritual, then we would not have free will. This two-way pull between the physical and the spiritual is good: it lets us experience being not-soul so that we can more fully experience being soul.

It's like light and dark. We could never experience light if we did not also experience dark. Just like in the photo I attached for you (Good skies in my neighbourhood!).

The soul enters the body in order to more fully experience itself, and to use the unique opportunities provide by the body to become more fully self-aware and to grow. In so doing, it 'forgets' itself as soul for a while, and either chooses to find the path back to god or not.

Again, it's a matter of free will. If one never chooses to evolve as soul, then one chooses to be only the physical, which dies. The way back to the godself (soul) and to God is the way to life (God is life...eternal life). But we are given more than one chance to make that choice and to take the necessary action. God doesn't force. God whispers and waits, with infinite patience. But we must always make a choice one way or another. The old 'good and evil' is really the choice between rejoining God, or not.

Now for the blood stuff.

If I choose the path of soul, I must overcome or put aside that which binds me firmly to the physical (body and physical mind). I must learn to put aside greed, pride, wanting to be superior to others, the desire for power over others, selfishness, dishonesty...all the things that serve only my physical existence. Instead, I must develop those qualities that will develop my soul: compassion, selflessness, love, patience, inner strength, wisdom, truth, courage etc.

In the early stages, it might be enough to just be a 'good' person. But if I wish to develop further, there comes a point at which I must make a commitment to become my soul self even as I inhabit my body. I must transcend the desires and cravings of the body, and give myself over to god as much as I can.

Jesus the man showed the way. He showed me that if I have the courage and willingness to sacrifice my material self (and all its selfish pleasures, cravings and fears) for the sake of my soul (God in me), I can be spiritually reborn as a soul in the world. I need no longer fear death, for I am already a living soul here on earth, knowing the god in me and the me in god.

It's not a matter of despising or rejecting the body. Rather, it is the decision to recognise that I am a part of god, one particular expression of god; that I have no real existence outside of god. With it comes the realisation that the body is made to serve the soul and god. My body is the temple in which this part of god (me) has come to know itself more fully, and through which god can express itself. To become a vehicle for god on earth, I must crucify those gratifications and desires of the body (materiality) that draw me away from the godself. I transcend the physical, even as I inhabit it. I do this not to reject the physical, but in order to realise and express through action my soul self which is part of god.

In my youth, I mistook the idea of transcendence for total disregard for the body. Now I understand that the body is the instrument, the path through which I can transcend the material. It serves me well, and I try to honour it as the temple of my soul - of God in me - and through it, I let God act in the earth, bringing love, compassion, joy, service to others, and hope.

It is not an easy path, and one that I find myself wandering from again and again, but it is a path that every soul must either choose to take or not, in whatever form. It requires that I sacrifice the material self in favour of the soul self. That which binds me to the body is crucified so that the soul can arise, unfettered, and live here on earth. When that has happened, death is nothing at all.

The simplest meditation

Take some quiet time each day to put aside the things of this world, and listen for the voice of God within. Put aside even 10 minutes to still your thoughts, put aside any thoughts or emotions - don't suppress them, just acknowledge them and tell them to move on - and listen

Try to find a still quiet place within and empty your mind so that the God-in-self can come through. Have faith that it will, though you might not feel you are making progress. The small voice within might come in the form of a strong feeling, but more often, it comes gently, not demanding, not shouting, just softly. If you will just listen, it will speak. Your oversoul or God will speak to you.

You may simply feel a presence beyond your own personality. You may feel a radiance. You may experience a moment of stillness. You may feel nothing at all. No matter. Just know that God is always reaching out to you, and only needs you to make room. Be patient. Do not push for a particular answer. No need to reason what's happening. Just open your heart and listen in the full expectation that God will make Itself known.

No need to direct God, or say, come this way or show me a sign. You are inviting in a much higher wisdom that will speak to you in its own way, it its own time. Do not interfere. Just be still and receptive.

And if you experience nothing, know that just the act of opening yourself and intending to receive God in you has set in motion forces that are beyond your understanding and experience. You are not doing wrong or right. God is invited in by your strong intention, not by any particular method. If your intention to feel God within is clear and strong, it will come about. ..if not then, then when the time is right.

Keep that desire clear in your mind, and be patient, as God has been patient, waiting for you to ask Him-Her in. Have no doubt; do not fear. Know that God is listening to YOU.

your living soul

OK. Here's something I have learned from many sources, chewed over for years with my sceptical mind, and finally know beyond a doubt to be true.

We are souls inhabiting bodies. Not bodies with souls, but souls who have taken on bodies to know and express ourselves.

Our True Self – Soul - is much greater than the personality we identify with. True Self is firmly grounded in the divine. It creates and nurtures the small personality self, yet it is not tainted by all the doubts, fears, negativity or other limitations that attach to the personality during its life. It is the wellspring of our being, and our personal link to divine love.

True Self seeks to express and know aspects of itself in the physical. Aside from supernatural manifestations, this can only be done through the personality. To allow the True Self to come through, the personality must make itself more spacious, less encumbered by the negative barnacles that have stuck to it over the years.

What does it take to manifest the Higher Self in our daily lives? There are many opinions about that, but most serious, credible approaches tell us we must become willing to:

- change our thinking, our feelings, our beliefs

- let go of certainty, and welcome doubt

- let go of the familiar and open up to entirely new experiences

- withhold judgement and be slower to form opinions

- develop courage and faith

- invite the higher self in, and get out of its way.

In other words, to consciously express your Higher Self,

you must be – in someway or another – transformed.

So how do you do that without becoming an ascetic or rejecting everyday reality? By living your higher self, bringing it into all your daily interactions with others. Let’s call it, transformation by engagement. It's that hard. It's that easy.