Align and re-align constantly with your path of heart, putting one foot in front of the other, one day and one moment at a time. Constantly shift yourself back to your heart’s intent, especially when drawn away, when tempted or pulled by ideas conjured by the mind. Let go of unreasonable thoughts and stick with the path that makes you feel good, inside and out, the path of true inner spirit. Remain curious at all times to what the world offers, and with steadiness accept your place in it. With loving kindness and with the intent of a warrior, remain in alignment even when there is no end in sight. A warrior never gives up; there is too much at stake. That too is the warrior’s way.
A warrior knows that each day is as important as the next, that each moment has potential, and that a turn of events can happen in an instant. And so, a warrior is always prepared, ready for anything, that which is anticipated and that which is unknown. A warrior goes with the flow of life, knowing that all things have meaning, one thing no more important than another, the most mundane as well as the most shocking. And so, a warrior remains steady and alert, taking each step as it comes, with loving kindness in heart, mind, and action. That is the warrior’s way.
Repetition is a law of nature, but like the serpent we can shed our skin… and break away, renewed. – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Human beings are receptors. Human beings are natural hypnotic subjects. Suggestions rule our lives. Suggestions are intents that, if we attach to them, become our destiny.
The optimal relationship with intent is consciousness, to be in command of what one intends.
Many suggestions have become independent entities, programs that we inherit that determine our biology. The modern exploration of transgender beings speaks to the deepest reality that even these programs may indeed be altered.
Many programs have proven useful to human evolution. Our bodily systems operate efficiently due to their automatic execution. We breathe automatically. We can consciously influence our breathing, but we don’t need consciousness to breathe.
Beneath consciousness is the subconscious. The subconscious is the receptive center of all human beings. The subconscious does not think, it obeys commands. Like the Earth itself, the subconscious receives the seeds of suggestion and manifests them into life.
Our lives are truly lives of trance; determined by the automatic programs we have inherited as well as by the internalized programs we have been socialized by. Religious systems embrace practices to optimize suggestions to the subconscious to orient it to the intent of Spirit.
The Jew, at all comings and goings, touches the Mezuzah to orient to God’s will. The Catholic dips the fingers in the holy water and makes the sign of the cross to invoke purification of one’s link to God, as well as his protection. The Moslem call to prayer is the call to orient toward God’s salvation. The Buddhist turns the prayer wheel to stay on point to one’s spiritual advancement in the release of karma.
The key to all these practices is repetitive action, to reinforce commands and suggestions to the subconscious, to stay oriented to the ultimate Spirit, in whatever form it is dressed. Religious traditions provide a bulwark against the power of instinct, which manifests inherited programs, as well as toward the power of ego, with its tendency toward narcissistic commands.
The spirit currently dominating our time is one of dissolution. The complete interruption to modern humanity’s way of life is profound. Both the ancient Hindus and Toltecs point to now as the completion of a long cycle of time. Completion requires breakdown in preparation for new life.
The I Ching, perhaps the greatest embodiment of the cycle of time, states that the power of the cycle to play itself out is nearly incontrovertible, however, there exists the very real possibility that history needn’t repeat itself. However, for this to happen, consciousness must assume full responsibility for its link to intent.
How can this happen? Repetition. Consciously, perseveringly, without begging or marketplace motive, state your intent. Think to your heart’s delight, but don’t try to reason your way to intent. Intend by intending, over and over again. Finally, have no attachment to the outcome. Attachment makes it a business arrangement. Keep your link to intent pure.
Shamans, like many religious traditions, encourage that one keep one’s intent oriented to one’s Spirit. Ultimate Spirit is love, the glue that adheres everything together in its wholeness. To align with that Spirit might indeed create the possibility for overcoming the usual course of human history, in this most extraordinary time of dissolution.
Incessantly intend, with consciousness, and see what happens!
Without shame, face the truth of the self. Do so without blame as well, accepting that life has many paths to offer, how the pull to one path or another has challenged and shaped you, made you who you are today. Now pause. Consider all the possibilities still out there that you are free to choose. What’s stopping you, except your idea that you can’t? Look around at all the other paths and decide which is truly your path of heart. Which path offers me what I truly seek? It’s never too late to change, to take life in a new direction, to challenge and shape a new you, to follow the guidance of spirit. A path with heart is never a wrong path.
Make decisions based upon your heart’s intent, upon the desires of your spirit. Keep in mind that the heart knows what is right, that it remembers always its greater intent, even if you forget, even if you fail to uphold your end of the bargain you made with your spirit, even if you neglect it for some whim. Return always to your heart when it comes time to make a decision and simply ask it what to do. It will not fail you.
