Category Archives: developing awareness

Ego and Self Serve Each Other

Posted on by under A spirit guide shares a precious gift, developing awareness, Finding our unique way, higher education

Each day I randomly draw two Tarot cards to prepare myself for what to expect re my relationship with Spirit. Today’s first card was The Nine of Cups, expressed by a very self-satisfied person firmly guarding his treasures. The second card was The Nine of Swords, depicting a tragic figure tormented by regret.

Spirit tells me that contentment is the Middle Way, in which Ego and Self flow into and sustain each other, as do Yin and Yang, or Force and Form, the outer Pillars of The Tree of Life. Consciousness, the central Pillar serves to harmonize them without denying their uniqueness.

Stay Between Doubt and Belief

Posted on by under A spirit guide shares a precious gift, developing awareness, higher education, intelligent spirituality

My Spirit Teacher shares gems of wisdom with me, but

It isn’t always easy for me to tell a gem from a rock.

I’m almost persuaded, a thousand times or more, that

He’s leading me on; setting me up to believe something

Is so because it seems to be so.

And then, as a master trickster might, almost without my

Noticing how, He reveals a fatal flaw in my thinking.

My mind’s comfort zone of smug awareness is suddenly

Shattered; my physical, intellectual, emotional, and even

My  spiritual worlds collapse together into a state that,

As some might say, you could peel me off the floor.

How does He do it? I don’t know, but He does, and yet,

Somehow I always seem to recover, after limping  as

From a field of battle, licking my wounds as an injured

Dog might, into solitude.

And, then, when I almost don’t care to ever believe in

Anything again, I seem to slip back into thinking certain

About something.

And then, once again; surely I would have learned by now,

That Spirit is watching and waiting, and almost luring me

On, fully prepared to set into motion; to launch yet

Another attack on my vulnerability to believe in  absolutes.

Challenges Raise the Bar

Posted on by under A spirit guide shares a precious gift, developing awareness, higher education, intelligent spirituality, Life-long learning continues

A spirit teacher shares timeless wisdom with me,                   but it seems to require never-ending intellectual,       emotional, and spiritual development. I obviously              don’t have what it takes to absorb what He seems                     to think I can. I struggle, as many others surely do,                  to live within constraints not entirely of my own        choosing.

Spirit claims that I do choose and am trying to avoid
accepting responsibility for choices I freely make.

But, how free are we to make choices when often
the choice I seem to need to make is the lesser of                   two or more unacceptable options?

Spirit is unimpressed with my whimpering. It                  doesn’t move Him. Constraints, He tells me, are          necessary to future progress in any discipline or                 area of human development, including spiritual,     intellectual, or physical, in that they provide                challenges to our present level of skill, as well as            serving to soften our ego’s otherwise smug sense                     of satisfaction in the moment of victory.

Challenges that we have struggled to face and            overcome, He claims, seem to whisper in our inner              ear, “Perhaps we should raise the bar”.

To Tolerate Ignorance is Disrespectful

Posted on by under A spirit guide shares a precious gift, Attitudes can be seen, developing awareness, intelligent spirituality

A spirit teacher shares gems of wisdom with me, and I share
some of what He shares with me, with you. No charge.

He tells me that to tolerate ignorance, and other base
qualities in oneself or in others is disrespectful of those
others and oneself.

It is counter-productive as it slows spiritual development,
and so is also disrespectful of our future.

Then, how to respond?

Compassion is the answer and is the only way to achieve
peace of mind. Pity is arrogance pretending to be
justifiably superior.

If I pity the wretched conditions of others, then I am
not one of them, and, Spirit claims, to be with them and
not of them is impossible, as there are no faults of others
that we, ourselves, do not, at least potentially possess,
if only hidden at some level of our soul or psyche. How else
could we recognize the qualities of others without awareness
of them?

I know you, He tells me, because I know myself.

Unlimited Degrees of Love

Posted on by under A spirit guide shares a precious gift, A spirit teacher tells me that, developing awareness, higher education, spiritual intelligence

A Spirit Teacher shares His understanding of timeless wisdom.

He tells me that we each express love by caring for and respecting
those whom, or that which, we claim to love.

But, there may be unlimited degrees of quantity and quality of care
and respect.

Yes, and there are unlimited degrees of love.

And quality?

Our capacity to love expresses the quality of our soul’s development.

Can we control love?

No. What we don’t express, we don’t have to express. Love is limited
only by the personal restrictions we put on ourselves. We each possess
the potential to love unconditionally.

Then, why don’t we?

We fear losing control.

Where Does Chaos Rule?

Posted on by under a sense of community, A spirit guide shares a precious gift, Attitudes can be seen, developing awareness, higher education, simple spiritual insights

A spirit teacher shares His understanding of timeless wisdom.

He tells me that there was a time, not very distant into
the past, when children everywhere learned, at a very young
age, to understand and to speak a particular language, and
the language they learned to understand and to speak became
their language, and more; much more.

From a child’s perspective, language is a means for sharing
his or her world with other people, their people.

Also, many of us learned to believe in a particular religion
at a very young age. Whether we were aware of it or not, we
also learned social rules specific to that particular religion.
as separate from legal or traffic rules. The religious rules
we learned served as a social code, to guide the way we would
learn to live our life.

Many of us no longer live in a community where we all understand
and speak the same language, or accept the same religion, and
the same specific social rules that specific religions teach.

Perhaps even the same traffic rules may not apply to all
communities?

Yes.

Where does Chaos rule?

Chaos never rules except as a transitional force between
one set of rules and another, or between individuals or
groups of individuals adjusting to the larger realities of
Life, and learning to understand that no rules are necessarily
acceptable to all people in all places, or for all time,
unless they serve and make sense to all people.

All languages and all religious social customs or rules serve
or did serve a purpose, when societies lived separate from
each other. They provide or did provide a sense of community.

Today, for many of us, it is the language, religion, or social
customs of others, not our own, that contribute to disharmony
and conflict in our relationships within a world community.

Our attitudes may invite Chaos to rule, when simple respect
would serve to unite us.

Where

Dreams Serve us Well

Posted on by under A spirit guide shares a precious gift, Attitudes can be seen, developing awareness, intelligent spirituality

A spirit teacher shares His understanding of timeless wisdom.

He tells me that dreams serve us well, even if we can’t remember
them, upon awakening.

They’re designed to help us see symbolic meaning between
situations and personalities, whether human, animal, or
imaginary creatures, within the dream and similar situations,
events, and characters within our everyday non-sleeping world
of illusion.

Situations and stories play out in dreams, He tells me, and
then, usually, end suddenly. We wake up to a different world;
one of more easily understood situations and characters.

Perhaps we have just become accustomed to the events, and
actors in our waking world?

Yes, and familiarity can easily breed deceit.

In what way?

There have always been some unethical advertisers, politicians, false prophets, etc. who use a pretense of authority and truth
to persuade or pressure trusting minds.

But, in a dream I witnessed a crow doing what crows couldn’t
likely do.

Were you aware of this during the dream?

I seem to remember being confused and in awe.

But, you accepted the situation as being valid?

Yes.

Why didn’t you question something that didn’t seem to make
sense?

Because I was witnessing the event. It was only in my mind
that it didn’t make sense.

You read fictitious stories without expecting them to be real.

Yes, of course but, surely, real life is not a fictitious story.

Then, why don’t you question events and situations in your
so-called waking life that don’t seem to make sense, and
people who claim to be be what you suspect the’re not.

Perhaps they have a hidden agenda?

Yes.

But, I’m only one person. What possible useful purpose
would it serve for me to …

So, you adopt a more socially acceptable position of
pretending not to know?

I guess. But, if whatever untruth is generally accepted
then surely some others must also know the truth and, like me,
pretend not to.

Why?

It’s easier, and possibly safer.

Yes.

To Know Requires Faith

Posted on by under A spirit guide shares a precious gift, developing awareness, Life-long learning continues, simple spiritual insights

A spirit teacher shares His understanding of timeless wisdom.
He tells me that knowing is not a matter of faith, and yet
there can be no knowing without faith.

What has faith to do with knowing?

How do we learn?

Through experience.

Yes, but not through experience alone.

We reflect on past experiences and use what we
have learned from them as foundations for future …

Future what?

To guide us in our responses to future challenges.

And if what experience has taught you differs from
what others would claim to be the way to live?

This is developing beyond intellectual concepts.

Yes.

Then please explain.

Knowing is awareness.

Awareness of what?

Awareness of what seems to be true, for us, if for
no other.

Where does faith come in?

We each, in time, develop faith in our own knowing,
or awareness; of our own truth.

Serving Life is Not an Option

Posted on by under A spirit guide shares a precious gift, developing awareness, intelligent spirituality, self-transcendence

A spirit teacher shares His understanding of timeless wisdom.
He tells me that serving life is not an option and that
we each serve; some more and some less.

At some level of awareness, we know it. But, we may be
too grounded in physical and material illusions
to consciously consider, or very much care about,
our degree of impact on those with whom we share
our environment, or possibly the environment itself.

Many of us fail to see that we may be part of
the environment, from the perspective of some others,
if they are even aware enough to notice us at all.

What about personal relationships?

What about them?

Are they no more or less than a part of our awareness?

Outside of oneself?

Yes.

No.

I hesitate to ask about what seems to be suggested.

The non-dual nature of reality?

Yes.

Why hesitate?

I’m not ready to deal with it.

Yes.

Abusive Habits Become Addictions

Posted on by under A spirit guide shares a precious gift, Attitudes can be seen, developing awareness, higher education, Life-long learning continues

A Spirit Teacher shares His understanding of timeless wisdom
as it applies to human nature in every situation and in every
culture; past, present, and future.

How can wisdom be timeless?

Because human nature is also timeless, in that it is grounded
in emotion.

That may be true, but …

It is true.

How does timeless wisdom apply to abusive behaviour?

Timeless wisdom inspires healthy emotions, thoughts,
and actions. Abuse of others or of self is neither
healthy nor life-sustaining.

Should we forgive those who abuse us?

How dan abuse be forgiven? That would be an unhealthy
response. What good purpose would it serve? None at all.
In fact, it might even encourage more abuse.

Abuse, He tells me, is unhealthy behaviour regardless of
who is abusing whom, or even whether the one being abused
accepts ill treatment. That would express self-abuse.

How then can we respond in a healthy way to abuse when we
can’t protect ourselves from it?

We make choices, and perhaps past choices helped to create
the abusive situation.

Why do you speak of an abusive situation and not of an
abusive person.

There are none.

Please explain.

WE develop abusive habits or we don’t.

As an addiction?

Yes.