Tag Archives: love

A Day in a Life: Synchronicities Abound

We may be two at times in our lives, but the real truth is that we are all one... one great love... - Detail of an old lithograph
We may be two at times in our lives,
but the real truth is that we are all one…
one great love…
– Detail of an old lithograph

It was last Sunday. We were sitting on the couch in our living room. Chuck was reading to me from Elmer Green’s book, The Ozawkie Book of the Dead, the title a take-off on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Ozawkie being the name of the town where Dr. Green was living when he wrote the book.

Dr. Elmer Green, now in his late nineties, is a very advanced spiritual guy, a physicist and psychologist involved in early biofeedback experiments and always a seeker of meaning. The subject of the chapter we were reading was synchronicities, how they occur and what they mean.

It was actually a long string of synchronicities that had brought us to discover Dr. Green and the work he was involved in, along with his wife Alyce, both of whom had worked at the Menninger Research Institute in Topeka, Kansas. Back in the 1970s I had purchased and read a book by their son, Doug Boyd, called Rolling Thunder. The book was on our bookshelves when Chuck happened to pick it up one day and began reading. He couldn’t put it down. That was the beginning of a long string of synchronicities that led us to where we were last Sunday.

It was a snowy day. As with most Sundays, we were committed to spontaneity without commitment to anyone or anything, but also with rest and rejuvenation as our underlying intentions. Chuck had been reading for a while when his voice began to get raspy and hoarse. Soon he could no longer speak. He wanted to keep reading but was forced to stop.

Some time passed before Chuck decided to take up the book again and begin reading. This time we started on the next chapter, an autobiographical section about Alyce Green, taken from their previous book, Beyond Biofeedback, in which she tells the story of her upbringing and her early life before meeting Elmer. I had ordered a copy of that other book, which had yet to arrive. I was especially interested in hearing her story. With all that we knew of the Greens, she remained somewhat mysterious and I was really curious about who she was and how she had gotten together with him.

Once again, Chuck began to read. This time his voice only held out for a little while and soon he stopped. I was disappointed. I wanted to grab the book and keep reading, but we had decided that we would read this book together, as it was so deeply informative and rich in spiritual insights. I had to be patient.

Suddenly, I remembered that we hadn’t gotten the mail the day before. “There’s a book out there in the mailbox,” I said to Chuck. “It’s waiting for us. It’s getting cold.”

Chuck getting the mail on that snowy  Sunday afternoon... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Chuck getting the mail on that snowy Sunday afternoon…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Just as Chuck said, “I’ll go get it,” and got up from the couch, a hawk flew right past the window, low to the ground, its wings swooping the snow now piled high around the house. It startled me, but I wondered what it could mean. A synchronicity for sure!

Chuck donned hat and boots and when out into the snowstorm to get the mail. The only thing in the mailbox was a book. He brought it in. We wondered what it was. We opened it. It was the Green’s book, Beyond Biofeedback. Just what I had been waiting for. “Now you can read all about Alyce!” Chuck said.

The synchronicities abound in this experience. First we had been reading about synchronicities, then a series of unexplainable things occurred. Chuck’s voice gave out, for no apparent reason, just when I was finally getting to hear the story of Alyce, which I had so yearned to hear. I had even wanted us to jump ahead to that chapter earlier so I could hear about her, but then patiently held back. Then I remembered the mail. I envisioned a book in the mailbox, but not what book exactly, as I had recently ordered several. A hawk flew in front of the window, a messenger delivering a message. “Yes, there is a book in the mailbox!” the hawk was saying. And lo and behold, it was the one book I could have wished for, the one that would grant me the pleasure of reading about Alyce.

Now I come to last night and the subject of my dreams. In another synchronicity, another book I had recently ordered arrived yesterday. It was Robert Monroe’s first book—which neither of us has read—about his earliest experiences in out-of-body travel, called Journeys Out of the Body. Long familiar with Monroe, founder of the Monroe Institute, and his Hemi-Sync recordings, as well as his history as an out-of-body traveler, we were, synchronistically, reconnected with him through reading Elmer Green. Monroe had sought help with understanding his experiences and ended up at the Menninger Institute in the 1970s working with the Greens, just at the same time that I was reading their son’s book about Rolling Thunder, a Native American Medicine Man. As you might be able to tell, we find all these synchronicities very interesting and also “very entertaining,” a phrase often spoken by Elmer Green.

To return to last night’s dream. As we were preparing to sleep, I said to Chuck, “Even though we haven’t read Monroe’s book yet, just having it in the house is enough that we may have out-of-body experiences tonight, as it is imbued with that intent. Just touching it is enough for the power to rub off.” Chuck agreed. We’ve had the same experience with other such books, Castaneda’s books and William Buhlman’s Adventure’s Beyond the Body being but a few.

Suffice it to say, it happened. All night I was traveling out-of-body, in the cosmos. I became part of the greater universe, just a drop in the bucket of the larger whole of which we are all a part. It was thrilling, and yet I was calmly part of it all. None of it seemed strange or frightening; everything felt so right. In fact, I was lovingly accepted into all that is, far beyond any human expectation or belief. I tried to explain this to people I met in my dreaming state. “Don’t get attached to anything material or of substance,” I said, “it doesn’t matter. The only substance that matters is energy. Everything is energy. Love is energy.”

As I traveled deeper into the cosmos, I experienced what Chuck wrote about in his blog this week, Being in Love. Indeed, we are all beings in love, part of the greater love that is. I experienced just that, without attachment to anything other than those universal truths of loving kindness and compassion, for all and everything, that we are told to strive for as fulfillment in life on earth. In my dream, I was fully aware that we are all just that.

As I opened more and more into this awareness in my dream, without fear or attachment, and also into the cosmos, I experienced the synchronicities that had gotten me there, everything from Doug Boyd to the Greens to Robert Monroe, all beings who explored meaning beyond this world. And not least, I experienced myself, my own journey and all the people in my life as part of my own getting there, beyond this world in this loving way. I knew there was no need for fear or attachment to this world, that all that is really is love and loving. If we are ready for it, it receives us without bias, simply because it exists. Love is! And we are all part of it.

Synchronicities abound... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Synchronicities abound…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

My dream was just the next in the series of synchronicities that have abounded in our recent experiences. Life itself is, if we care to see it that way, a string of synchronicities. Yes, synchronicities do abound, not only in my life and in Chuck’s life, but in each of yours as well. You just have to see it that way. And I think you might just be able to do that if you pay a little attention to what is happening in your life on a moment to moment basis, how everything is connected, just as our Sunday experiences and my dream showed me.

Everything is connected by the energetic fact that we exist as part of the greater universal wholeness that is the cosmic world we live in, participate in, and experience every day in the synchronicities that abound, if we are aware of them or not. It’s actually a really fun project to decide to undertake, to remain aware of what is happening on a daily basis. See where you are led, what comes to show you your own part in all of this grand scheme of all that is.

No matter who you are or where you are in your own journey, you are part of this. If you exist in this world, you too are love. Set the intent to have an experience of that love that is, that you already are simply because you exist. It’s already in you. That is what my dream is telling me. There is no other work to be done but to open up to it. And then to become it, in all that you are and all that you do. Become the love you seek. It’s that simple. This is what Chuck wrote about, and this is what I dreamed about, all in synchronistic alignment with the truth of all that is: Love!

We are all energetic beings. We are all droplets in the greater ocean of awareness, synchronicity, and the love that is.

Just another drop in the bucket,
Jan

Another synchronicity! Here is a cool little video I came upon this morning, the theme is, you guessed it: LOVE! But more importantly, that we are all energy bodies having a human experience, and that all the many shapes and forms we come in don’t really matter.

Chuck’s Place: Being In Love

Love comes in many shapes and forms... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Love comes in many shapes and forms…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

To be a being in love is the ultimate journey. To embody love in all perceptions, in all judgments, in all reflections, and in all actions is the goal. Behind all fear love awaits. Love is full acceptance of all that was and all that is. Love rests upon the truth; it’s all that matters.

Love is not a merchant. It seeks nothing in return; it simply loves. Love is not a pushover. If the truth is that it must kill, it does so with love. This is the lesson of the Gita, a battle guided by Krishna.

Life is hardly the absence of struggle and battle. The challenge is to be a being who comes from the place of love in every role, good or bad. Love has no attachments; love simply is. Can you find it in everything and everyone?

Love seeks not, especially to change another. Love simply accepts the full truth of the other. In full acceptance may lie the truth that it’s not time to meet, that you both need other things. You are in love if you allow for the full acceptance of this truth, as you quietly grant each other the necessary journeys you each must take.

Love with another asks for nothing but the full truth of another, without expectation. This is the place of highest meeting. When two truths align there is meeting. One must give oneself fully to the truth and see what’s there. Meetings can be brief, extended, or not at all, not in this life. But a being in love is always in love. In the fullness of truth one is never alone.

Love is the deepest connection to all that is. One is never alone in love; love encompasses all. Nothing is rejected in love, especially the self, the greatest love of all. This is not narcissism, for a being in love knows the necessity of complete self acceptance, the greatest challenge of all.

Love lets the other go... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Love lets the other go…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Love smiles at the phrase, “getting my needs met.” Love admits there is much to be discovered and much to be experienced. But love also knows the folly of asking another to meet a need. True love may need to venture into the vulnerability of such a request, as the journey of love insists we drop all defenses. But love also knows that only true meetings are real. Role playing is play, but true meeting requires no rehearsal, it simply aligns. This is the substance of true meetings, and precious is that substance.

Yet all meetings are meetings of love. To always be in love and ask for nothing is the challenge. To radiate the fullness of love without expectation, in all situations, is the path of heart. Meetings and mergers in love create growing consciousness of the oneness of all “things.” In the patience and steadiness of this growing awareness we consolidate being in love, gently diving deeper into the unfolding adventures of oneness in love.

To be a being in love is to be a warrior of the highest rank!

Love,
Chuck

A Day in a Life: What The World Needs Now

For today’s blogpost I decided to channel a message. I’m always interested in gaining a new and different perspective and channeling never fails to produce just that. I hope you enjoy what follows and are not afraid to take it to heart, for at its heart is a message of love.

Love is... - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Love is…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

Here is the channeled message for all of us:

What the world needs now is love but, unfortunately, that is not enough. Even love is not enough to change the world. The world and the people in it have too many other problems, the greatest being ignorance. And so, the first issue at hand is to rid the world and the people of the world of ignorance.

Ignorance is responsible for all the ills of the world, for the sicknesses and the disputes, the wars and the battles that wage across the globe—between countries, between factions within countries, within families, as well as within individuals. Ignorance, topped with arrogance, makes things even worse.

To say one has the answer is arrogance. To say one has found the way is arrogance. To declare that one is the prophet of the world is arrogance and yet there are many who say such things and many who believe them. There are as many answers as there are people, and there are as many paths and as many prophets as there are people because all who exist upon that earth have the answers, the way, and the teachings within. But many do not know this, nor know how to find this “within” I speak of. However, that being said, there are many truly good people who are available to show the way.

There are advanced beings who walk among you, quietly going about their own work while offering what they know in a most humble and docile way. It is up to each one of you to determine who they are and, by your heartfelt knowing, allow yourself to be taught and guided by them. Their methods will be without personal gain and without needing anything in return, as they will live by the laws of nature and in alignment with the principles of loving kindness to all beings.

To understand and find the answers within, to take up the task of taking the journey into the self, gaining in knowledge and awareness, will reveal the truth of what I speak of. Such a journey will be the beginning of the end of ignorance and yet, even so, there will be many of arrogance who will say, “You are not capable; you are not doing it right,” and they will try to persuade you to do it in their way, for there will always be greed. And so, you must know that greed lies beneath arrogance and so arrogance will not abate until greed is no longer an issue.

And how will greed be eradicated? It will never completely disappear, but it can be put into perspective, into the human animal’s genome, as an inevitability of life in the human form. Everyone has to contend with greed and to accept it about the self. That you are a greedy human being cannot be denied. It is the first big lesson in losing your own arrogance and overcoming your own ignorance.

Nature's helping hand... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Nature’s helping hand…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

To accept that all of you are the same, with the same processes to undergo and the same issues to address will begin the slow trek to abolishing arrogance and ignorance. Once this process is begun then love, real universal love, will find its way into the world.

As the clearing away of all that holds the world now in its grip begins, love will find the channels it needs to seep into the hearts of all the peoples of the world. And then real changes may begin to take place.

On a practical level, on a personal level, it is really about time to learn how to love yourself. Is this not true? And to do this, you all must contend with the three main issues of all human beings: greed, arrogance, and ignorance.

You will not understand ignorance until you understand arrogance. And you will not understand arrogance until you understand greed. And you will not understand greed until you understand the self as a human animal, a being of greed.

First, you must understand that none of these issues are bad. They are the lessons that all living beings must contend with to evolve into loving beings. All of life must contend with such for balance to be gained and for all of life to flourish, on a human as well as a natural level. But the human being must take the biggest responsibility for the imbalance, for it is the ignorant, arrogant, greedy human being who has caused the issues that now confound the very soil, water, and air of the planet. It is the human greed machine—and you are all a part of it—that has created the situation that now plagues everyone; everything from sickness of people to sickness of Mother Earth, anger and hatred, war and destruction. All have been caused by the imbalances created by the human animal.

Remind the self often that the human animal is but one part of the picture of who you are, part of your wholeness. Each human animal is accompanied through life by an energy body self and a higher spiritual self, existing above it all, above life on earth.

The physical and the spiritual... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
The physical and the spiritual…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

These are the other aspects of self that many do not feel or even desire connection with, for encounters with these other aspects of self are often frightening. When the human self encounters these profoundly loving and knowledgeable higher spiritual selves they may be startled and fearful, as they discover that they are not what they have always thought themselves to be. To discover that you are something else does indeed strike fear in the hearts of many!

Accessing these other aspects of self begins the process of letting go of all that is human, and this is what is also frightening, to have to leave the known world and face the unknown! But this is exactly what everyone will be faced with sooner or later.

If you really want to help solve the worlds’ problems, the deterioration and death of the world as you know it, coming closer every day, why not turn and face your own death first, the death of your physical self that will happen anyway? In so doing, you will discover your life force, that which never dies. What is so frightening about that?

If all beings were to begin this process of facing death by reaching out to their spiritual higher selves, the world would have a chance of once again returning to balance and even possibly becoming an environment that is in the Tao, in alignment with nature, and thus without cause for any disputes. For in nature all is natural, all is accepted, all is appreciated, as every living organism is respected as part of the whole and this, My Dears, is what love is.

Do not only admit that you are a greedy human being, but fully explore it and own it by finding out what it means and only then put it to rest. If you can do this before death puts it to rest for you, you will have begun the greater journey that awaits outside the realm of the physical where you will learn your greatest experiences of love and life.

How can you truly love if you do not love all of who you are? How can you totally love another if you do not even like certain parts of yourself? How can you say you are in alignment with nature if you do not own nature in you? How can you say you know everything if you do not allow nature to be your guide and your teacher, including nature inside you? How can you keep saying you love everyone and everything, if this is not really true?

In the Tao... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
In the Tao…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The work of the world is in each one of you. If you are to act on behalf of the world, and all beings, in the context of the life you lead, then let every day be dedicated to learning more about the self on the deepest levels.

As you face all that you are, even your most greedy and entitled self, you will understand the world a little bit better too. And you will no longer be angry at it and at what is happening to it, but you will know that you are beginning to change it, one compassionate self-directed discovery at a time. Only then will your kindness really matter, your compassion be utilized, and your love be enveloping.

You are the work of the world and the work of the world is the work of you. Take up the challenges you face and you will aid all of humanity, even as you remain an active part of life and the world. For to do the work of the self is not to remove oneself from life but to fully embrace it and live it, consciously and with good intentions always in your heart.

If one human being’s energy changes it affects everything else. That is nature. That is love.

Thank you to Jeanne, channeled with love and gratitude for all of us,
Jan

Chuck’s Place: The Divine Power Of Sexuality

Accessing the divine cosmic... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Accessing the divine cosmic…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Human sexuality is the physical manifestation of a far subtler yet powerful cosmic energy whose guiding intent is union. At the highest level that union is oneness with God, or the cosmos. At the most basic level, in the human form, it is unconscious instinctive union that results in procreation. One of the greatest challenges for human beings is to reconcile this divine energy with its physical, emotional, and mental energies in the human body.

I opened the Huffington Post the other day to an article entitled: Saudi Historian: U.S. Women Drive Because They Don’t Care If They’re Raped. This somewhat bizarre argument, to justify the Saudi law that forbids Saudi women from driving, does shine a light, however, upon a worldview that acknowledges the power and dangers of sexual energy. The Saudi solution is to overly protect women from the dangers of male sexual energy that loses control in situations of rape. Their solution is an affront to modern sensibility and progress, yet it nonetheless openly confronts the power and potential dangers of sexual energy.

In the West, the assumption that rationality, maturity, love, and respect insure safety in sexuality is blatantly on trial in our age of internet revelation. Abuse of sexual power is evident in our most sacred religious institutions, our schools and universities, and in our homes. It is quite arguable that for all our technological advances we are extremely naive and underdeveloped in our handling of sex.

In old Tibet, children entered monastic life long before the adult manifestation of sexual energy. Celibacy and the refusal to engage in sexual pleasure, even in masturbation, are fundamental to nuns and monks seeking enlightenment. The Shamans of Ancient Mexico discouraged sexual activity, as the energy it exhausted is seen as critical to dream advancement. In these practices we see a respect for the power and vitality of sexual energy, and while it is sublimated it is still utilized, channeled into spiritual advancement. Freud went so far as to suggest that civilization itself was a by-product of sublimated sexual energy.

This scant survey of sexual management throughout the world highlights the power of and the challenge that the carnal and the spiritual dimensions of sexual energy pose. If we can allow the hypothesis that sexuality is of cosmic origin, a blind yet divine energy, sent from “God” to empower union in human form, then it is our greatest human challenge to reconcile this blind, divine energy with full human consciousness. Thus, we can ill afford to lock it away in protectionism, divert it for spiritual aims, or naively assume anything goes simply because we all have rational control.

Trashy Barbie... - Trash Art by Jan Ketchel
Trashy Barbie…
– Trash Art by Jan Ketchel

As humans, we are charged with discovering the full depth and power of our sexual instinct, this divine energy from God, in all its manifestations—physical, emotional, and mental. We are all charged with actively uniting this side of our nature with our consciousness, that which, in our human form, is our ephemeral spiritual center.

This weekend we celebrate Valentine’s Day, a day appropriated to pay homage to love in relationship. The intent of this celebration is to merge love—union based on consciousness, driven by what is right—with sexuality, in its most instinctive form, in a harmony that symbolizes wholeness and oneness, as cupid depicts, in divine rapture.

Valentine’s Day is, not coincidentally, the opening day for the movie Fifty Shades of Grey. This movie is based on a highly erotic novel that develops the theme of dominance/submission, sadism/masochism in sexual practices. The novel, with all of its steamy sex scenes, has had unprecedented worldwide success. I suggest this success is due to its liberating effects on the exploration of female desire and sexual fantasy, which have been largely undervalued or “protectively” ignored. However, I don’t feel that this fantasy of female sexuality is fully accurate or comprehensive. It may serve for the release and exploration of a largely hidden topic—woman’s sexuality—but I think it actually mirrors the collective frozen states of women’s sexual pleasures and the relationships that reinforce them.

The storyline of the novel allows women pleasure in bondage. Bondage may indeed be a pleasurable experience, but it hardly touches the depths of real pleasure that a woman is capable of experiencing in a truly conscious, loving relationship. The true union of the primal sexual power with consciousness requires the containment of a safe, loving relationship where these primal energies can play and merge in full consciousness.

Bondage, by design, is the antithesis of true freedom. Nonetheless, bondage might be viewed as a more primitive form of commitment. In true commitment, however, a couple freely bonds themselves to each other in a love that allows the full meeting of two beings on all levels. This deep and freeing union, I suggest, is one realization of the divine intent of sexuality. Issued from the highest spiritual plane, it culminates in full realization of the divine in sublime human form.

Rape, in all its manifestations, is the consequence of an aberrant decision to not take up the challenge of humanness and instead to surrender control to the proclivities of the dark side. It’s inhuman. Bondage, in all its manifestations, is a rudimentary experience of trapping and controlling the divine energy. Conscious relationship is the exact opposite, as it seeks to responsibly unite animal and divine.

Will we go through the bardos into the light this time? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Will we go through the bardos into the light this time?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The ultimate challenge awaits us in death itself, where we, as individuals, must completely merge our human energy with divine oneness. Notice, this is not union with another person. This is ourselves, as individuals, uniting with the divine.

Our ultimate, full realization of divine sexuality is in the inner union of self, in the wholeness of all energies merged, physical and divine, transfigured into the oneness of all. Will we resist releasing our body and land in the bardos to continue to work through our attachments to physicality? Or are we ready to fully join with the divine light?

Happy Valentine’s Day,
Chuck

Chuck’s Place: Love & Laughter—Tools Of Detachment

Incredible lightness of being... waiting to be freed... - Photo by Chuck Ketchel
Incredible lightness of being…
waiting to be freed…
– Photo by Chuck Ketchel

If we understand karma to be unfinished business, that which grounds our flight, then we can understand detachment as the necessary tool to free our incredible lightness of being to find fulfillment in this life and beyond. Detachment unhitches us from the energetic drains that keep us tied to people and situations that impede our freedom. Energetic drains take the form of intense emotional attachments, be they fear and hate or, quite the opposite, unrequited love. Either way, attachments keep us tethered, and, until released, we cannot journey deeper into life.

But what are the nuts and bolts of detachment? Often enough, Jan and I write about the formal process of recapitulation to free and reclaim all the entangled energy knotted in the lives we’ve lived. Love and laughter are tools at the heart of the recapitulation journey.

Prior to his assassination, Gandhi had expressed, “Even if I am killed, I will not give up repeating the names Ram and Rahim, which mean to me the same God. With these names on my lips, I will die cheerfully.” He also said, “If I am to die by the bullet of a madman, I must do so smiling. There must be no anger within me. God must be in my heart and on my lips.”

Rahim also means compassion. When Gandhi was actually assassinated, he raised his hands in front of him, in a common gesture of greeting to his assassin. And he did call out to God, according to some accounts, speaking the words “Ram, Ram.” In speaking these words, and with this final gesture, Gandhi forgave his assassin, leaving this world completely untethered to what his assassin had done to him, but also thanking the man for delivering him to the next stop on his journey.

Jesus similarly cried out to God while on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He also left this world completely untethered to his accusers, who delivered him to his future.

From wherever we come, we land; we move into life on this earth. It’s where we are now. If we turn around we turn to stone and can move no further, according to a common concept. Recapitulation, however, requires us to turn around, but with the intent of removing all the energetic strings that keep us bound in regret, anger, sadness, longing, and hate. In retrieving these energetic strings of self, we can turn to the unfolding awesomeness of continuing our journey untethered.

Buddhist wisdom guides all who leave this world to glance only briefly at the bardos of their discontent and stay focused on the light. To remain attached to the emotional ties of our life, loving or traumatic, forms the seeds of our karma and interrupts our journey to spiritual wholeness and enlightenment. Gandhi was well aware of this, as he faced his assassin in the common greeting of respect, namaste, meaning “I bow to you; I bow to the God within you.”

We all travel in and out of the light and the dark all the time... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
We all travel in and out of the light and the dark all the time…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

To release emotional attachment to those who harm us frees our karmic load. We are then freed to proceed into new life unburdened by emotional heaviness. Karmic attachment requires us to stay put, until we can free our spirits to move into new life.

The love or compassion that Gandhi and Jesus portrayed transcends the attachments we have to our lives, interrupted as they are by our assassins. Instead, it accepts the reality of our unexpected launching into a different journey. Those that launch us must then grapple with their own karma—for the choice made to act from the dark side. We can extend the love of compassion to them, as they continue their journeys into that karma, and appreciate our own opportunity to free ourselves, at their hand, from attachment to the dark side that would have us stew in powerful emotions. If we look instead to the dark side and send it love—the last thing it wants—it releases its talons from our light being.

Laughter, like love, is equally freeing of energetic bindings. The Shamans of Ancient Mexico discovered that the greatest hook to our energetic selves from the dark side is self-importance. When we are offended by another, or by life circumstances, we are drawn to the seriousness of anger, pain, and resentment. These emotions, though transiently valid and necessary to encounter during recapitulation, are equally capable of keeping us attached to the dark side, for the dark side looks for ways to hook us, to entrap us indefinitely by feeding on the energy of our fixated, negative emotions. We can completely break the chains of these offenses by learning to laugh at ourselves.

We can laugh at our attachment to seriousness. We can laugh at our own human frailty. We can laugh at our tendency to judge the self and other. And we can laugh at the frailty and foolishness of others. If we can find our way to the divine comedy of self and other, we are freed of all karma associated with the injustices we have engaged in and those that have been foist upon us—however serious!

Can we learn to laugh at our predicaments? - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Can we learn to laugh at our predicaments?
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Love and laugher are powerful tools that, when genuinely engaged in, free us from the binding attachments that tether our fulfillment to our karmic lives. As we exercise these powerful tools, we offer ourselves the opportunity for new and different outcomes. Love and laugh! Try it, and see what happens!

Loving and laughing,
Chuck