Arrange your thoughts today as if you were making a shopping list. Keep the most important ones at the top of your list and the less important ones at the bottom of your list. Attend to the important ones, one by one. Ask for help as you tackle what is most troubling to you, as you work through your list and give your attention to what is bothering you or to what needs attention. Then forget about your list and just be present with the day as it unfolds. You might even notice that what you were so concerned about is no longer of much concern at all. Perhaps everything on your list is of no real importance. Use this experience to free your mind of what it thinks it has to do. Let each day show you what is most important rather than relying on your mind and your intentions, your firm knowing of what you think must happen and must be done. Spend more time paying attention to what you are being shown and you will soon see the needlessness of too many thoughts and too many lists. Just be.
After going through a period of change, whether rough or mild, the result is the same. Sit and take a breath. Sit and settle into restful calmness. Think upon what has been accomplished and with gratitude give thanks for safe passage through the period of change that was so necessary. All change is necessary but it may not be clear that this is so until much later. Sit awhile and give thanks for what you have gone through and how it has changed you. No, you are not the person you were before, and that is good!
Under the best of circumstances life would unfold without worry, you might say, but that is not the best of circumstances at all. That would be a life of no consequence, no challenge and thus no growth. Challenges offer growth spurts. When difficulties arise, it is far better to face them than to avoid them, for they are like doors opening to something new, stairways to something better, pathways to new life. Challenges and difficulties in life are the opportunities to grow, to change, and to embrace something new and exciting. All change comes out of such opportunities, at first seen as annoying interruptions but soon seen as just the right thing at the right time.
Do not argue with the gifts you receive but accept them graciously. If you can’t figure out what they mean or why you personally have received them give them time to show you what they are for. Sometimes it can take a whole lifetime before truth is realized. Sometimes the answers you seek are right in front of you but you don’t see them, just as sometimes the one thing you are so attached to is actually trying to tell you to let it go. Ask for clarity, but also be ready for it once it comes, even though it may not be to your liking.
Please indulge me in the sharing of this succinct AI summary of Kali Yuga, the Hindu cosmological season that we are now pervasively living through:
“In Hindu cosmology, Kali Yuga is the final age in the Yuga cycle, representing a period of decline in morality, righteousness, and spiritual awareness. It is characterized by increased materialism, greed, and a weakening of traditional values. While often seen as a “dark age,” Kali Yuga is also believed to be a time of opportunity for spiritual growth…”
If we can suspend judgment, and grasp that we are living through a season that cannot be stopped, any more than we can decide not to have winter, spring, summer or fall, we are freed to detach from negativity, helplessness and blame, and awaken to the stupendous spiritual opportunity of now.
At its essence, profound change is the birth of whole new life. Spiritual birth is the discovery and gaining of access to the knowledge and capabilities of our greater Self, or Spirit, that is connected to us in this life, yet resides at subtler levels of our being, beyond the coarser daily drama we are so deeply attached to.
Our current sojourn, on this planet earth, is deeply immersed in a physical life monopolized by material concerns. This daily focus on physical survival and fulfillment consumes nearly all of our mental and emotional energy. Our Spirits are so dominated by material concerns that Spirit is often only experienced through its projections of itself upon those we admire and desire, or objects of beauty, taste and comfort.
To advance to Spirit connection, beyond mere attachment to its material reflections, we must bring home the essence of these outer projections of Self. The hardest part of this process is acquiescing to the inevitability of detachment. We recognize a simple detachment in the letting go to trash or thrift store of an article that once shined with promise and lit up our lives.
For the child it is the stuffed animal or material article that was once imbued with mother’s magic, now tossed aside, as its basic spirit of security has taken up residence within the growing personality. This internalization of the magic does not require loss of love for the outer object, but it does grant it its own existence, beyond the burden and illusion of carrying our Spirit for us.
Kali Yuga is the time of grand detachment. The climate of the planet is extraordinarily volatile, unpredictable and ruthless. Basic rights to land, property and life itself are not guaranteed. Beliefs that have ruled civilization are being torn down, seriously doubted, and flippantly revised. Morality is now governed by self-interest alone.
I stress here the need to suspend judgment. There is plenty to judge, but the greater reality is the all-pervasive breakdown of the ability to rely on anything we have previously held sacred and secure, things we could definitely count on. All the magic once projected onto the outer world, to keep us secure, is gone. The world we knew and trusted in is rapidly unraveling. In this time of utter uncertainty of attachment, room is made for new possibility.
It’s time to awaken to the stupendous spiritual opportunity of now. Many who are severely traumatized now are discovering their Spirit life beyond the physical body, as they are thrown out-of-body by impact of traumatic agent. This is a rude and unexpected awakening, hard to wake up to, but it opens the door to greater Spirit discovery and experience.
Scientifically validated approaches to health and healing are all being challenged and made scarcely accessible. This forced detachment has opened for many the spiritual discovery of the power of the relationship between the conscious and subconscious minds.
The subconscious mind has access to all knowledge and powers of manifestation. Under the influence of proper suggestion from the conscious mind the subconscious can miraculously heal the body, what was once brandished as mere placebo. These powers do not invalidate the truths and practices of medical science, but they do empower access to the healing power of Spirit within.
Kali Yuga is a passing season that will morph into new life with new understanding and power. But we have no choice but to bear the brunt of its fierce storms, as it tears down all the prior givens of civilization. Let mourning be brief, as the flood of change is exponential and has yet to reach its climax. We cannot stop it; no one is to blame, it’s just the spiritual weather of this cosmic season.
Buddha experienced a brief deep sorrow as he opened the door to his enlightenment. This was the accompanying sorrow of loss of a narrow view, the personal dramas we are so deeply attached to, to the greater view of the relativity of all views, as well as the seeds of all possibilities in the cosmic oneness of enlightenment. This is the bittersweet moment of pause we experience as we cross from adolescence to adulthood of Spirit.
Use the impact of this time to shake free of all old attachments, no matter how worthy they are, and awaken to the stupendous spiritual opportunity of now. This expansion will usher in a world of unfolding spiritual potential, from telepathy as our native language to effortless travel and material manifestation via confident intent alone.
Turn attention inward, away from the outer suggestions to give over your spiritual independence. Ask from the subconscious for all that furthers your individual good and the greater good of all. Claim and manifest the best from your own divinity. Become the next chapter of who you really are.
