To pontificate is all well and good, but far better to activate, to actually take action that is positive, progressive, practical, doable, and right for all. First do for the self what you wish for others. If you begin with you there is a far better chance that the change you so wish to see outside of you, in the world, will actually happen. Don’t be part of the problem any longer. Be part of the solution. Change the self and, yes, you CAN change the world. There is no better moment than now.
Send love to those who test you, to those who challenge you, and to those who stir you to action. In a world of great change and upheaval, let it be love that binds all beings, that fuels all actions, that attends all interactions. Make love be the energy that guides and all will be well.
A warrior guards against impulse. Nothing is undertaken without first consulting spirit and waiting patiently for signs pointing to the direction in which a warrior moves next. Action is critical to a warrior, but only right action, and right action comes from spirit. A warrior tames impulses while simultaneously looking, looking, vigorously, all attention focused on discovering the next step. A warrior is attuned, within and without, to spirit’s guidance so that every step is a step upon a path with heart. If there is a failure, a warrior does not blame, bemoan, or regret but immediately and with renewed vigor returns to the path of heart, the only journey worth taking.
“Pay attention” is a frequently delivered command. Indeed, when we pay with our attention we deliver our energy to the object of our focus. Attention is a powerful energetic currency.
Notice, for instance, the impact on your personal energy when you tune into the news, or some form of social media. The impact can be either depleting or empowering. Either way, we spend our energy in our emotional reaction to the news. That expended energy is delivered, on a subtle level, to the person we are reacting to in the news.
Children, most dramatically, seek our attention. Child educators know that getting attention is the child’s goal, good or bad. Once the child has our attention, they thrive on the energy of our focus, as well as on our emotional reactions. Tantrums are energetic goldmines for the tantruming child.
Even inanimate objects can absorb our energy. A trip to a museum is a case in point. Though fascinating and educational, objects of art demand our attention and can deeply drain our energy. We could say that a sculpture at a museum is imbued with self-importance. Were it not so, it wouldn’t be on display. Be careful how much attention you give it!
Self-importance measures the quantity and quality of attention we are paid for being alive. The ego, as the orphaned ruler of the personality, seeks the attention of others to validate its worthiness. This extrinsic dependency is the consequence of the ego’s separation from its wholeness, at the time of birth into this world. A blank slate seeks the approval of others to find its worth.
Shamans have astutely addressed this energetic stalemate. The fragmentation from Spirit-self, that accompanies finite life in a physical world, has led to obsessive dependence upon the attention of others to replace one’s lost Spirit. This attention-seeking behavior is considered by shamans to be humankind’s greatest energy drain.
Shamans discovered that a shift in focus, like the social isolation the world is currently experiencing, can result in the accrual of vast sums of energy within the self. That energy, combined with the intent to reconnect to one’s Spirit, can result in a deeply healing, inner soul retrieval.
To be connected to the life of one’s Spirit is to become guided by omens, the synchronicities from infinity that guide and inform life; to be in the world but not of the world, at an attention-seeking level. Attention-seeking is then completely replaced by the pursuit of right action, the best decision to be made under the presenting circumstances.
To dance with omens is to feel constantly renewed by participation in a fuller life, one that includes one’s essence, at a cosmic level. Attention received is not attention sought, but it is attention provided to guide the way to right action.
Save the currency of your attention for that which truly guides you to your wholeness. This is the world we are morphing into, a world of interconnected oneness. Let’s attend to that!
In changing times let not the self get lost in its vicissitudes, its patterns of behavior, or its old ideas but keep it primed and ready. Train it to trust in the changing times as the new path, as the gateway to change that is necessary, bringing down that which is no longer viable and replacing it with that which is sustainable for a new age. In such times a warrior knows how to act, with loving kindness for self and other, the old and the new alike, for a warrior knows that everything matters, but a warrior also know that only that which is most necessary and important moves forward into new life. Stay strong, and in the warrior’s way, stay loving and kind too.
