Don’t forget your intentions for change in this New Year. Whether fully prepared or ready, whether you have a clear goal in mind or not, keep moving forward in incremental steps. It’s the only way to find what you seek. With even the tiniest forward movement, as nature shows, new life eventually happens. Like the slow metamorphosis of a butterfly, intend your own transformation. You have more control than you think. Keep moving!
-From the Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne
Envision the Self as a multifaceted diamond, the jewel of all that you are. See one facet of the diamond—the sun beaming directly upon it—as the seat of consciousness, the ego, the child of the Self. In this respect, we are all, while in this life, a child of our Self.
It is the task of our ego in this life to ignite and bring life and light to as many facets of the diamond of our greater Self as possible; full realization of the diamond is true enlightenment.
The first challenge for the ego is to become a mature adult child. We are born in innocence, strangers to ourselves, strangers to the world. As mere fragments, facets of the Self, we are orphaned from our wholeness and seek solace in our early attachments. Though our greater Self never leaves us it can only support us in mystical ways, as the outside world truly becomes our adoptive home.
Our ego has an important mission in this life, that is, to bring to the material world the drama and challenge of each facet of our unrealized Self—to know it, live it, resolve it, and then release it as we move on to new life and the next facet of the Self.
The ego, in its orphaned state, constantly feels the pull to its lost wholeness. This lost Self does come to meet the ego, in numinous dreams, ecstatic experiences, visions, and in outer reflections in the material world, both in the people and the objects we are powerfully drawn to.
The greatest challenge for the ego is to partake in these renewing visitations but then walk away without regret or insistence that the meetings continue or repeat in the same way. To fixate on an experience of Self is like trying to force a romance to remain the same when it has obviously changed. Romance is one type of encounter with the coveted lost Self as reflected in the world. If we demand it to stay out there, in the same way, we remain the child who clings and refuses to grow.
The Self is pure life, and pure life—like a river—never repeats itself. It simply continues to flow in new and ever-changing constellations. It is alive, all-present, yet ever fresh and new. It never reveals itself twice in the same way.
As a mature child of the Self, we learn to meet the Self in innocence yet are also able to release it from its current manifestation and allow it to move on into new form without loss or regret. And if we can continue to flow with it we are led to realize increasing facets of our wholeness as we continue our journey of Self Realization.
This is the essence of the Buddha’s guidance on non-attachment. Indeed, attach fully to the facet of life you are now realizing, but know that it is not the whole of life, and know that there will come a time to let go and discover more of the wholeness that you truly are. That’s where the adventure lies, in the endless discovery of new and evolving life.
Happy for the gifts of this journey,
Chuck
NOTE: Thank you to Marie-Louise von Franz, my muse for this blog.
Slow down and be at one with nature. Notice that not every day is sunny. Not every day is windy. It does not rain every day of the year. Nature changes from day to day and yet it goes at its own pace, unfolding day and night, light and dark, revealing all that it is, neither holding back nor taking too much, always in keeping with what is right. This you will learn as you observe and stay in step with the ways of nature. Let your spirit guide you, for it is your own nature. Slow down and listen to what it tells you every day as it adjusts to what is right.
-From the Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne
Love is kind. Compassion is loving. Embody loving kindness and compassion every day and every night, dreaming awake and dreaming asleep of how better to be who you truly are, the embodiment of loving kindness and compassion. Dream your dreaming self into new dreams, day and night, of goodness, fairness, and acceptance of all beings, for all beings are but a dream, dreaming the same dream, dreamer and inventor of dreams, a most powerful position to occupy.
Every day the dream begins again. Start a new dream today with loving kindness and compassion for all beings as its energetic substance. You are in charge of your own dream. Remember that.
-From the Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne
Here is today’s audio channeling with a little New Year’s message from Jan.
Changes are taking place with all of us. How we decide to go about them is the key to change that endures. Jeanne suggests taking small steps.