by Ross Bishop
Although enlightenment is our goal, because we have free will, the way we get there is often confusing. Without our free will; The Creator could simply have made us enlightened long ago. But giving us enlightenment would have given the Creator a bunch of enlightened robots (which is a non sequitur).
But because of your free will, anything you achieve must be accomplished through conscious choice. Therefore you must choose to be happy, which in turn means that you will have to decide that you deserve it. You will have to leave your fear-based existence and accept who and what you truly are. And today you do not do that.
As you heal, you will learn to stand in the world and be connected to everything, without the fear of rejection. Once you come to realize that there is nothing wrong with you and that you cannot be harmed, you will begin to appreciate the magnificent being that you are. You will then be free to enter the realm of light, a most extraordinary domain.
The evolution of consciousness is quite different from the concepts of Natural Selection and Survival of The Fittest developed by Darwinians and taught in textbooks. Spiritual evolution is a carefully orchestrated process, lovingly created to bring your awareness to the places in you that do not move readily with life. But because you cling to beliefs like unworthiness and unlovability, you will experience pain and suffering.
You came to Earth to resolve your propensity to hold beliefs and the truth. Life has been created to highlight those conflicts so that you might resolve them. Every conflict you have ever had, either internally or externally, presented you with the opportunity to resolve your beliefs with the truth – especially the ones you hold about yourself.
How does it do that? It’s really rather simple. When you live in truth things are simple and harmonious. When you do not, there is stress and pain – not to punish, but to create awareness that some part of you is not in alignment. With pain, there is a chance that you might change. Without it, it is doubtful that you would.
Once you make the decision to step into the truth, you realize that you no longer have to make choices because to choose anything other than peace and harmony makes no sense! It would mean being in disharmony with the infinitely greater power of The Universe, and no one can do that for long.
We were not put here to be unhappy, but we can choose to be so if our beliefs and fears push us in that direction. As a child, I was taught that I was the captain of my fate. I could choose to do life well or not, and I would reap the consequences. Failure, a dismal quality, was to be avoided in favor of success. Success had a large string of particular accomplishments attached to it, most of which had to do with financial security, a career, possessions, a family and a home in the suburbs. What I had been taught about life was useful in that context. To step outside those confines was to face the grim specter of failure and social disapproval. That may not seem like such a big deal today, but when I was young, it was.
The problem was that the things I had been taught about life did not make me happy. In fact, trying to achieve them made me downright miserable! I was trying to reconcile my inner self with what I had been taught, and the two were like oil and water. They simply would not mix, no matter how hard I tried.
One weekend I was privileged to witness Native American ceremonies, and as I watched the traditional rituals, I was reminded of the fundamental need we all have for spiritual connection. I was struck with the thought that I, too, had tribal roots but that my connection to them had been torn away by a jealous church, sterile science and the greed of capitalism.
Our culture teaches us to be afraid. It does not honor the spirit. It sanctifies power and the manipulation of the powerless, creating significant disillusionment and pain. For all the glorious words that are spoken about freedom and democracy, people have little sense of their place in society and feel impotent to change it.
Spirituality cannot flourish in a society that makes money more important than people. Most people contribute to the betterment of society through their work, but work consumes an enormous portion of their limited and precious time here. Some years ago, Plenty Coups, the great Chief of the Crow Nation, observed about white people that, “They are smart, but not wise.”
We are coming to a nexus point where corporate greed, global warming, political disenfranchisement and corruption, emotionally troubled people, Godless science and the absence of real spirituality will likely tear the present society to pieces. It will probably be a difficult time, but what will emerge will be a far better world.
copyright 2024@Blue Lotus Press
