It is not easy to do the inside work, the inner work of transformation, but it is more than worth it. To be drawn is only the beginning. Some people are drawn their entire lives, others by circumstance or desire for change, but all will benefit. To take the inside track is a journey of the soul, far more than the human journey, full of encounters magical and mysterious and yet full also of truth and wisdom.
The funny thing is, most people don’t realize they are already on the inside track, the one and only liberation from pain, isolation, and despair. For where else will you find all that you need? The inner journey, the journey of the soul is the answer. Is it time for you to take the inside track, the true trajectory of the heart and soul?
Life calls to you every day. Are you ready to meet it on its terms? Each day requires adjustment and today is no different, for the energy of this day asks for new balance. That may be a challenge, but you can do it.
The seasons change and so do all beings, living lives in constant transition. It is the prerogative of nature. To move forward with awareness of this natural intent keeps one in balance and prepares one for the season to come.
Come into harmony with the season. Remind yourself often that this is the season of change and that new balance is needed. Without blame or regret use this time of transition to your advantage and do something for yourself today in alignment with that intent. Yes, you can do it!
You can’t change anybody else. The only hope is to change yourself.
Stop procrastinating. If ever there was a time, the time is now. Set your intentions, but also follow through, not only in heart and mind, but in action. There is always something you can do to make your dream come true.
Dream big, but take big steps too. Be fearless. Your dream is waiting for you to catch up and take it on a new dream, into the dream of reality. If it’s all a dream then nothing is impossible.
You are the creator of your own dream. Whatever it is that’s holding you back work through it so it no longer inhibits your creativity. Get beyond your ideas that do not support your dream by dismantling them so that your dream can support you. You will succeed. You will succeed.
Bring nature within into harmony with nature without. The sun, the moon, and the stars show steadiness, consistency, and trustworthiness. The wind and water reflect fluidity, gentleness, surety, and strength. The earth is groundedness, balance, and nurturance. Fire is the energy that fuels the passions and desires. And yet any one of these things by itself is too one-sided. For life to exist all must be in harmony.
So is it with all of life, it must be in harmony with all else. And so must all human beings be in harmony with all else, but especially with each other. There is too much to lose in remaining isolated and distant from life.
All elements seek each other. Such is the law of gravity, but also the law of energy as it flows in the universe. It does not know it exists except that it finds another source of energy resonant with its own and then it comes to know itself.
Know your own energy self more fully by seeking resonant stations of engagement. There will you find your harmony, within and without.
Shootings galore. A hero stabbed. Arson in a spiritual mecca. Massacre at a peace rally. Suicide of an innocent youth.
Of light and dark are we all… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Someone asked me what I thought about bipolar disorder. I answered that we must first consider that bipolarity is the inherent condition of the human species: beings of consciousness, beings of animal instinct; beings of light, beings of shadow.
In the light, we are socialized beings who wear the uniform of morality. In the depths of our darkness we are hunted by the repressed animal within, whose instincts are now marshaled to terrorize, disrupt, and defeat the hegemony of our light spirit self who disowns its shadow.
“It is the law of heaven to make fulness empty and to make full what is modest,” states the I Ching in the hexagram of Modesty.*
When that which is light refuses to acknowledge and integrate its own darkness that darkness will break through in random acts of shadow to recalibrate the bipolar disorder of one-sidedness. That is, nature will correct itself.
The mistake so often made is to misinterpret the cause of violence. The natural tendency is to seek safety and security from the predator “out there.” Is it not becoming clear that the terrorist is coming closer and closer to home? The shadow is blatantly coaxing us to realize that the madness we see erupting all around us is actually the collective shadow we all own.
We can no longer contain and manage this primal force by projecting it onto the black man or the terrorist who we jail and kill. As the shadow encroaches closer and closer to home we must claim ownership and strike a new bipolar balance with our disowned other who paces restlessly in the labyrinth within, awaiting its opportunity to pounce.
But how to make peace with a shadow that threatens our very survival?
Light among the dark? Dark among the light? – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Once I sat with devout Saudi Muslims, the warmest of beings, who when speaking of Israel suddenly assumed the countenance of a sly fox. “You can never trust a Jew,” I was informed.
Once I sat with devout Jews, the warmest of beings, who when speaking of Arabs suddenly assumed the countenance of a sly fox. “You can never trust an Arab,” I was informed.
I felt such love in both meetings, but was struck by the identical perspective they shared, as they each so clearly saw mirrored their own shadow in the eyes of the other. Of course, the rule of the self-fulfilling prophecy plays out here: where there is no trust there is fear, defense, and offense. And so the endless cycle of war replays, each side desperately seeking survival, each side becoming the shadow they see in the other.
Chuck’s Rule Number One: No blame.
As they say in the 12-Step World: don’t take anyone else’s inventory; focus on deeply revealing the truth of the self to the self.
We must know, own, and reckon with the truth of our own shadow side with its deep attachments to its own instincts, hidden desires, greed, and power.
It is not possible to see clearly or speak honestly to another unless we have come to know and accept the truth of our own inner darkness. Short of that, our disowned darkness will be projected upon and reflected in the eyes of the other, be they our partner, family member, fellow citizen, or any other member of our shared species.
Chuck’s Rule Number Two: Value the darkness.
It is rejection of the darkness that has constellated the raging bull of a shadow that now tramples our lives near and far. We no longer have the option of holding back our instincts for the sake of civilization.
The only hope for civilization now is to embrace and reconcile with its full wholeness, light and dark. This is the only way to calm the storms of extreme bipolar disorder that now rock our earth. Our bipolar sides must become friends, valued for their differences, for the balance they bring.
We must abandon forever the one-sided—light—notion of perfection and embrace the dark. We are human animals after all, whose deepest instinctual needs must be addressed if we are to be redeemed from the perils we now face.
Chuck’s Rule Number Three: Compassion.
With deep self-knowledge and self-acceptance we are released to love, rather than confront, our “evil” neighbor. Acceptance of one’s own shadow leads to compassion for everyone, for all human beings are equally saddled with the identical challenge: to become whole through reconciliation with our bipolar light and dark natures.
This late bloomer shines, light and dark fully integrated… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Chuck’s Rule Number Four: There is nothing to fear.
In closing, this is my final rule, that truly there is nothing to fear. Once we face the truth of our own shadow selves, we have faced our deepest enemy: ignorance of who we really are.
Once we have faced the truth of ourselves, there is nothing to fear in the world, and random acts of shadow evolve into an individuated wholeness, ready to take us deeper into the next adventure, as fully integrated bipolar beings of light and dark.
From both sides,
Chuck
*Quote: from the I Ching, Richard Wilhelm translation, Hexagram 15 Modesty, page 63.
