Get grounded as you start your day, in whatever practice works for you. It might be as simple as starting the day with a cup of your favorite coffee or tea and taking a moment to be grateful for the day ahead. It might be a practice of tai chi or yoga, or a walk or run in the park. It might be simply sitting in the morning quiet, taking in the first light of the sun and letting its healing calmness seep into you. However you choose to start your day, do take a moment or two to get grounded in physical body, in calm mind, and in heart-centered spirit. It will certainly help you as you go into your day and face the challenges of being in human form. Keep that human form in tiptop shape, within and without, and keep each day sacred in some special way.
Another go round? Or emergence? – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Why am I here?
What is the purpose of life?
“Just to love” was songwriter eden ahbez’s answer. For Bob Monroe it was all about reaching Super Love. This was the answer he was given when he posed the same question to his non-human guides, what he termed INSPECS, his acronym for intelligent species, astute observers of human life that he encountered in his faraway journeys in infinity.
The INSPECS gave Bob Monroe the metaphor of human life on Earth as an energetic factory that transforms the raw material of emotion into the purest grade of love, or Super Love. Carlos Castaneda used the metaphor of humans as chickens in a chicken coop, unaware that the energy spikes of their emotional trials on Earth symbiotically served the energetic needs of another inorganic species.
The exchange offered by such a parasitically binding relationship is the opportunity for humans to develop their consciousness and refine their emotions, to eventually free themselves from such servitude. The process for such evolutionary advancement has been dominantly that of Groundhog Day, celebrated today, February 2nd, where the necessity for continued repetitive behavior is assessed: more of the same repetitive darkness, or return of the sun?
The question for humans is the same as the groundhog’s: Have I accrued enough consciousness—that is, the bright sun—to see my shadow, and with that awareness be ready to change? Or do I go back to sleep, in the repetitiveness of habitual behavior? The ability to see one’s shadow and own it, is the willingness to retire one’s addiction to a central illusion that one has been living.
The illusions we live are intricately woven into our emotional attachments. At root is the attachment to human physical life itself. Humans are beings who are going to physically die, hence, powerful emotions are engaged in the counter-effort to continue to survive.
Attachment to caretakers, food, shelter and power are prime emotional movers of most daily activities to ensure survival. Sexual activity, as well, has at its core the survival drive, as sexual intercourse ensures replication and continuation of the human species.
Much of human life energy is spent in the passionate activity of ensuring survival. The emotions of fear, anger, sadness and joy punctuate the daily round of repetitive survival activity. Jealousy, possessiveness, worry, doubt, and hope further augment the emotional volatility of daily encounters.
Most individuals are driven by a captivating primary story, their personal karmic groundhog day, the main obsession of their lives. The repetitive behaviors of their lives generally entail a need to fully explore a passionate fixation until they solve it. Solution requires a genuine release from obsession with the desired or feared object.
For example, many people who were obsessed with a fear of death obtain release from this fear through an experience of life beyond the body, for instance, in a Near Death Experience (NDE). This experience of knowing that life continues after physical death can genuinely transform a fearful being into a being of magnanimous love.
The refinement of all emotion to the delicacy of pure love turns out to be the key to all spiritual advancement. True love is the acceptance of everyone and everything. This does not imply not protecting oneself from an aggressor. It does though require that one have compassion for the other, regardless of circumstance.
True love requires nothing from another that is not freely given. True love is guided by right action; action completely filtered from illusion. True love evidences no possessiveness. True love lives fully but is ready to leave in a heartbeat, when it is time to go, with no regretful turning back.
True love is letting the other go when it’s time for them to leave, with no requirements. True love is loving the body and the experiences of the senses, but releasing them all with good wishes when it’s time to change form. True love is remembering all, with equanimity.
If this groundhog day evidences no shadow, may your dreams in hibernation accrue to future sunlight. If the sun reveals the shadow of your illusion today, grab your opportunity to know and own it. Perhaps this might be the time the obsession lifts and you may move forward into the adventure of new life.
Whether you be a repeater or are ready to be launched, know that ultimately, all roads lead to advancement. With compassion for all, step forward.
Hone your energy. No matter your age or your condition, it is the most important aspect of life in human form. Your energy is your life force, your spirit’s vehicle within you, your guiding force through life. It is your most valuable asset, your greatest friend and traveling companion. Without it you would not exist as you know yourself. Keep it in tiptop form. Hone it by your intent but also by how you take care of yourself so that it does not get damaged. By your intent keep your energy in good shape, keep it interested, engaged, and always eager for a new day. It’s so easy to get lost in the mundane, to forget about it. When that happens, bring your attention back to your energy and with your intent, with your breath, and with your lust for life give it a boost. It’s up to you to do all you can to keep your energy alive and well!
Find resolution in knowing that your life’s journey is one of transformation and that change is natural, that aging, loss, and eventual death of the human form are the normal road to transcendence. And yet also remember that the spirit is eternal, always young, always alive, and so keep in mind that to lose the human form again and again in nightly dreaming is practice for how to use the eternal spirit effectively; it is preparation for using it in life as well as preparation for the definitive journey all must eventually take. Prepare the human self for a sturdy life, accepting the minor changes that present each day in physical life, but prepare the spirit for the great change at the end of life by learning what it is fully capable of now. Ask it to show you its secrets, to guide you to full awareness of its capabilities, to show you all that you are. With loving kindness and compassion, ask it to guide you, day and night, so that you may experience its fullness and its eternal beauty all the time.
Spirit comes down to earth… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
In addition to the petty tyrants that all people are impacted by—in their outer lives in the everyday world—is the tyrant within, the one that has us do what our more enlightened self would have us not do. Who is that mysterious other that upends our clearest, most grounded rational intentions, in a heartbeat?
That mysterious other is indeed a spirit, recognizable by its insatiable appetite for more. Rightly situated, that hunger for freedom is what propels the energy body to explore the universe, also in a heartbeat. Command of that spirit in dreaming is the goal of all spiritual seekers, as they prove for themselves the fuller capabilities of all that we are.
However, when that same spirit more projects itself upon the object world of everyday life it fixates on substances, objects, behaviors and people to quench its insatiable appetite for more. This is the obvious basis of all addictions: Our insatiable spiritual appetite entwined with the concrete objects of this world.
Being an insatiable spirit, it stands to reason that enough will never be enough. When spirit more attaches, obsession without end—its version of infinity—is its marching orders. Once spirit more takes up residence in ego spirit’s domain (the world of everyday life), ego is easily mesmerized by the promise of ecstatic fulfillment.
The problem with spirit more’s perspective of everyday life is that it acts there the way it acts in its pure energy body state. In that spiritual state anything is possible and time is largely nonexistent. Spirit more does not have to face the aging and dying of the human body, it lives in infinity.
The human body, in contrast, has its definite limits and fixed duration of life. When driven and controlled by spirit more, it is subject to illness and injury, as well as the distorted idea that it will live forever. It can cause many to delay their growth because they believe they have forever.
Of course, a touch of spirit more sprinkled lightly upon the affairs of everyday life is extremely helpful and energizing. Spirit more is a source of magic in everyday life. However, its proper domain is the energetic world of dreaming, where its true ambitions can be realized. When left to roam freely in the playing field of everyday life it wreaks havoc.
This is the heart of the opioid crisis. This is at the heart of the greed currently controlling the world. Spirit more can act as a tyrant when it infiltrates the psyche of a leader. We do well to view it as a misplaced spiritual drive, rather than our manifest destiny to entitlement.
In the world of everyday life, we are spirit beings in finite bodies. In the world of spirit, we are infinite beings, currently engaged in an enriching time-limited human form adventure. To integrate our spirit longings with our physical limitations is our deepest challenge in this life.
Honor spirit more by allowing its touch in everyday life, but be sure that ego spirit remains effectively in control at the heart center. In return, intend to journey with spirit more in its infinite playing field through the gateway of the dream.
Find fulfillment in both realms, but never confuse who should be in charge in their respective domains.
