Tag: change

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Diana's Spirit Care Blog Articles

The Change in The World We Seek, We Must Be

PART ONE: “Yes, Virginia, There is a Shadow.”

There is something widely overlooked and highly underrated among spiritual seekers in today’s world: the absolute necessity of  having humility if we are to deeply change ourselves and achieve enlightenment. As we take on the New Year of 2011 and the much-heralded 2012 ahead, it might be a good time to take a thoughtful look at where our beliefs and attitudes have mistakenly taken us…and how we may want to correct our course.

If we don’t do this, then the potential of human destiny will be nothing more than a repeat of human history, with our excited expectations unrealized just the same as the ages gone before us. As the saying goes, “The definition of insanity is to do the same thing expecting different results.” If we don’t change on the inside and thus, our actions on the outside, neither will the outcome of our future change. The precedent needed to establish change is an attitude of genuine humility: we have to admit to ourselves that we don’t know it all, because if we did we wouldn’t needlessly suffer.

We all need to be asking ourselves, “Why don’t things in this world ever substantially change for the better?” Despite the teachings of endless spiritual gurus and appointed mortals claiming to speak for an infinite God; despite the so-called evolution of consciousness; despite thousands of spiritual books, conventional religious texts and their assertive interpreters along with a heaping smorgasbord of spiritual modalities; despite more restrictive laws, political promises, and lofty proclamations; despite countless charitable organizations and movements for positive change…we still have a world overflowing with injustice, violence, hatred, ignorance, inequality, corruption, deceit, and so on.

What we believe we are doing to change the world isn’t working. We need to examine why.

This is a world on the edge of precipitous change, as our treasured sense of what is real and what is true is unraveling slowly and quite naturally…because all deception and extreme corruption is destined to disintegrate eventually. Often in our history it is people and their societies that self-destruct, but even so, the very state of Existence itself perpetually seeks a state of balance and so the pendulum that swings to extremes inside of vast cosmic cycles will eventually return to rest, momentarily, at the center. A place of peace and balance.

Just how far to an extreme we have to go with our human suffering, before regaining balance in the world, is up to us. This very day is the moment of decision that will determine the world of tomorrow. Why? Because as the social systems begin to fail, (and they are) chaos will replace faux stability. The structures upon which people have so heavily relied, and which have provided an artificial perception of life and reality, will not be in place to hold them up. Even religion, philosophy, and many a person’s spiritual certainties are destined to fail the test of time and truth. The only thing that will not fail us, is the deepest truth about who we really are and what we are really capable of. Before we can know that, we have to meet and know our inner shadow self, from which the darkest experiences of being human emerge. The disintegration on the outside is not the byproduct of external forces but the result of internal forces at war with themselves.

Next Post: Part Two


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Diana's Spirit Care Blog Articles

Part Two: The Change We Seek, We Are What We Wait For!

WE Are the Ones We Keep Waiting For!

Continued from Part One

The hard conditions in the world, set in motion by our deeply internal thrashing about, will force needed changes within some of us–but it is much better to change before we are compelled to do so. It will be very difficult for the majority of people to discover themselves in the chaos to come: many will not. What we need right now is a solid understanding of ourselves (both the  light of the soul and the shadow of the ego) and a strong connection to our inner Light so that when chaos comes we will know how to rebuild a New Earth. Only when we have already rebuilt ourselves, will we be ready and up to that glorious task.

While we can easily define countless things in the world that need changing, deep inner work is hard work and most of us prefer to look outside of ourselves for seemingly easier answers. That’s not hard to understand, because any call to examine the shadows inside ourselves feels too much like self-punishment. Few on a spiritual path are ready to do that, because the first step to attaining spiritual freedom is to climb over the decades of inculcated feelings of unworthiness heaped upon us by both a demanding artificial society and judgmental religious philosophies.  Because (superficially) the two objectives appear to be contradictory, we can easily ignore the deeper inner work of knowing our shadow, thinking we can preempt it all with positive affirmations and declarations of being Divine. Talk of painful things or negative aspects can  seem like old Heresy to a new spiritual paradigm, which by its very nature offers many teachings on the necessary rejection of “negativity.”

Hoping for a Spiritual Bailout from the Universe

Embracing the whole truth about ourselves is not heresy, though many react as if it were. Bare truth is the only gospel that counts. So while many people wait to be bailed out of misery by Rapture, a Millennial Christ, 2012, benevolent aliens, etc., those who are spiritual promise keepers with a soul path to change this planet will be doing the inner work to pave the way for positive change.

Yes, “We are the ones we”ve been waiting for.”

A glance over human history proves that we cannot just be passive and count on any exceptional cycle of time to force enlightenment upon the world. In all ages people have looked to the sky, to prophets and to social reversals to save them from their suffering.

Prophecies have come and gone in the history of the world, but the going of them…the failure to happen…escapes the fervent believers of today. We humans have not yet evolved enough to learn that we cannot depend on any so-called Age to save us from ourselves because it is our own beliefs and actions that determines the Age that is upon us.

Sacrifice Beliefs on the Altar of Truth

What we deeply believe directs our actions and paves the way for what comes next. And even a positive belief, if not grounded in understanding and truth, will not bring truly positive results. There is a lot of positive thinking going on within the new spiritual paradigm and while this is all very hopeful, it is coming up profoundly short when it comes to making the world a just and enlightened place to be.

To find out what’s gone wrong with our spiritual professions and why there is so much suffering in this world, there are missing pieces of truth we need to find– not out in the open, not understood or even talked about–but hidden from many. Spiritual truth is so simple, so basic, and yes, unglamorous…but not all that glitters is gold. There is a simple starting point we all must return to and once we understand how to do it and why we need to, we really can begin to change the world for the better!

Next Post: Part Three, the Conclusion

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Cycles of Change

Nature’s seasonal transitions are seamless. In our yard this year, the seasonal change began with a few leaves turning yellow at the inside core of the still-green tree, slowly expanding its color outward until its full blown brilliance signaled that Autumn is deepening into Winter’s arrival. While many of us don’t like to see Winter come, we are meant to gain much inner peace by observing the rhythm and flow of the natural environment.

Wild animals don’t dread winter: they naturally accept it and make preparations for the natural change of season. As humans, we are too “civilized” for our own good, always wanting perpetual summer and for the things in our lives to which we are so attached to never change. We frequently fear change and do everything in our power to resist it. Yet change is a law of life and all change has a higher natural purpose.

Consider for a brief moment how your own life has changed over the years. Are you the exact same person–in viewpoint, appearance, and interests–that you were two decades ago? Ten years ago? Five?

In spite of the dreams that have come and gone, the ideals that were necessarily forfeited or the goals that were not achieved, you are–on this day and in this season–a unique demonstration of life’s cycles of change. Creation has wrought you.

Natural change is a sculptor and creator of breath-taking wonder. The nearby mountain might have become a valley instead, had the forces that shaped it taken a different turn. The desert might be an ocean. But who is to say which would have been better? The unique value of what is, not what might have been, is the reality brought into being by change…the incredible beauty of life right here, and right now.

Many say “If only I had done this,” or “If only I were still young” or “If only this had happened” without knowing the futility and harsh detriment of such thoughts. Who is to say that each one of us is not who we need to be right now, where we need to be right now…considering the forces that have shaped our lives and brought us to this very point in time? The outside forces of our lives are, as with the natural world, in a constant state of change and just as we accept the seasons of nature, we need to adjust to the cycles of our own lives.

Much unhappiness comes from not accepting life’s cycles of change. There is indeed a time for every season under the sun: a time to act and a time to retreat; a time to work and a time to play; a time to grow and a time to rest; a time to laugh and a time to weep; a time to be young and a time to be merely young at heart.

Too many needlessly suffer because they do not understand or accept life’s cycles of change. We are so focused on our artificial living environments instead of the natural world of which we are an inseparable part. To attune to the changes in your personal life and come to peace (even rejoicing) with the new opportunities that change brings to you, spend more time in nature. Step off the consuming treadmill of materialistic existence and spend reflective time in the presence of what is real, not man-made.

There are immense changes coming in our global and social environment. Holding on to material things and manufactured beliefs will not stop the natural, necessary cycles of change. This is the season to prepare yourself by becoming aware of the greater cycles of life and of your own spiritual purpose in this world…a part of divine nature, not apart from it.

Even during the cold and barren seasons of our lives–as with nature’s Winter–we must remember there will be seasons ahead of warmth, light, hope, and love. Springtime of the endless Soul always comes again. Always.

Change, even when we don’t want it, is its own kind of spiritual gift. Learn to not fear change and make friends with the opportunities it will bring you. Such is life…and it is very, very good.