Expectations
"Enlightenment
is progressive
Disillusionment" (The Buddha)
This healing work (just like life) will amaze and surprise you
lifetimes of
accumulated baggage will be shed
hard outer shells that cover
your soul will peel off
limitations fall away...illusions will melt
old
patterns you held will no longer support
and for a while you may feel lost, confused, disillusioned
but you will then feel new, fresh, free and light.
However, don't
expect any one session to alleviate
all problems
if you do, you will surely be disappointed.
A small amount of healing work
is better than none
If you find yourself in despair, do not be discouraged - taken one step at a time, even the
highest mountain can be climbed. No
matter what it may look or feel like in the moment (either
crunchy or creamy) doing even a few sessions of this healing work
will move you forward
on your life path (better than doing nothing and
stagnating).
Unrealistic Expectations of
Being Human
We build our role models up to be something
more than
human, for if they were just like us, we would have no excuse not to follow their
example. We project all our hopes and dreams onto these "Spiritual Super Stars", and as long as they fulfill
these roles, we love them (like we idolize actors instead
of embracing our own inner “Star”). And if our
heroes don’t perform to
our expectations, we throw
them away and find some other.
Jesus Today
The Israelis of
2
thousand years ago were
a conquered people who dream't of freedom from
Roman tyranny and the rebirth of a glorious nation. This is what people
expected Jesus to restore... yet he had a higher agenda - not to
set people free from an
external tyrant and restore a new monarchy, but rather, re-establish the Heavenly Kingdom.
It's easy to pay lip service to a
teacher
who has been dead for 2,000 years - he cannot personally correct us
if we misinterpret his message.
But what if
Jesus were alive today... would we be able to see through to the truth above and beyond our
expectations?
What if he didn't
agree with our beliefs
heal our bodies
make us rich
give us all the things we want
erase all our problems....
How would we feel about him then?
Would we persecute and cast him aside
call him a fraud or a deluded crazy man?
Many who dedicate their lives to an ideal greater than themselves
may fail to live up to worldly expectations
yet from Gods perspective, be the greatest successes.
Fan the Flames of your Dreams
Live your Truth
You are a “Star”
Change
= Life
Of all
things in life, constant
change is the only sure thing. Any sort of attachment to a particular
experience, event, person, place, thing, feeling or thought.. will
always bring suffering. With this in mind, do not expect (nor
judge) your healing sessions to look, feel or
be one way or another. With
this attitude, you will never be disappointed in regards to the
healing work or life in general.
When does it all Stop?
The ego-mind is constantly trying to solidify its hold on the universe
- to "figure it all out" - to have the definitive truth tucked away in
its pocket, never to be shaken or changed. The ego-mind wants to
get to that place where there is no more need for search, no more change, where it can finally say
"This is IT - I have Arrived".
But life does not end at any one point... rather, it is a series of moments occurring ever
in the Now, and the Now, and the Now. To be waiting
for any one definitive event or experience (that looks and feels just like
"so" and "so") is not living in your HEART
nor in the flow. Rather, it is keeping us in the
judge-mental attitude
that a certain experience is most desired, and another is not.
Yet, while we are waiting for
a particular experience to happen in some unknown future
time, we are
not being fully aware of the reality of "Now", and what
experiences we do have that do not fit our ideal, are
rejected, suppressed and
"stuffed" into our energy field and
subconscious, there to accumulate, stagnate, rot and die.
Managing our Expectations
Author Jim Collins once asked Admiral
James Stockdale, a former Prisoner of War (POW)
in Vietnam... "Who didn't survive the
camps?" Stockdale replied, "Oh that's easy. It was the POWs who thought
they'd be home by Christmas." Those who thought they'd be home by a
certain
date tended to despair and perish when they still found themselves in
captivity after their expected freedom-date came and went. By contrast, Admiral Stockdale survived caustic captivity for
7 years by accepting the brutal reality of his situation, and being
confident of eventual release. This belief kept him going. But he did
NOT believe freedom would come by any
specific date, or in any special way. This is what saved him from
despair and death. Collins, in his excellent book "Good to Great,"
labeled these seemingly opposed ways of thinking the "Stockdale
Paradox."
The Stockdale Paradox is...
"Recognizing and owning the brutal
facts, while holding the determination that you're going to win, no
matter how long it takes".
It's
not positive thinking. It's not fantasizing about how great things will
be when everything goes your way. Its all about being in the "Now".
The
Now
To fully
live, we need to be fully present to all our feelings and
experiences in the ever changing "Now"... no matter how
uncomfortable, without judgment expectation or attachment. We
must be able to flow in each moment (to "bend like the reed"),
no matter if all the rugs of our presumed reality are pulled from under us...
and all the rules and truths of
yesterday change in the blink of an eye...
and in the next moment we
have to start all
over again.
This is life “as it is” –
it’s
designed this way to keep us on our toes.
|
The past is
history. The present is a gift. The
future is a possibility.
Heal
the
past. Live in the present. Dream the future.
|
Most of us are
not
satisfied with
the
“Now” - it makes us feel uncomfortable and impatient. To
compensate for the disappointment with “what
is”, our ego-mind regresses us to some romantic past (the "good
old days"), or projects us into some idyllic future fantasy.
The ego-mind part of us is attached to the
“idea” of a destination or goal only in so far as
it
can distract us from taking the steps to get into our feelings and into
our hearts (and avoid being
in the Now). Most of us would not begin the journey if we knew
it would take so long to complete – but then we would miss
out on all this fun!
The Profundity of Emptiness
Much healing work is
not
about
the putting in... but the taking out of
that which is stuck in your personal space. Such a clearing may not be readily apparent to or felt by your outer human
consciousness, and understandably, this initial "lack of feeling"
may cause you to reconsider doing more of this work. However, it is important to understand that
“Meaning
in life is defined by the
emptiness that surrounds it”.
Creating
and appreciating “empty
space” (called “Shibui” by the Japanese)
is not
something we are accustomed to in this culture. The beauty of empty space
is that it makes what is truly meaningful come into view. For
example, the black typed words on a page are not visible without the
contrast of white empty space behind it. Within the
context of spirituality, our
awareness - when contrasted by a space free of mental and emotional
stuff, brings into focus that which remains - the Essence
of our Spirit.
Spirit is like empty space
its very nature is not more but
less |
Unfortunately,
the ego-mind does not see empty
space this way.
It interprets such loss of
“stuff” as a bad thing because the
ego-mind
WILL ALWAYS WANT MORE
more drama, more things, more thoughts, more distractions
So when the healing work is opening up a new space in our being
the ego-mind does all it can to resist, block or fill it.
And from all that we have already internalized into
our space:
the false identities, ego attachments, belief systems and negative energies...
we are
rarely able to see the bigger picture of our lives.
The Subtlety of Spirit
Spirit comes to
us as "a still small voice"
a voice that is not outward, flashy, brash, inflated or
proud
but a voice inward, soft, subtle, gentle, respectful, loving and kind.
Living in this overstimulating culture
our
senses are not used to listening to such silence
to recognize and distinguish the inner voice from the
outer.
The Jig Saw Puzzle that we are
On the human
level of awareness, we do
not have the overall perspective on our lives. Only Spirit knows the
ultimate goal - the whole story and where everything goes.
If
you look closely at the individual pieces that make up a jig saw
puzzle, each piece presents a mixture of solid or blurry colors,
some
shapes clearly definable and ordinary, others oddly and uniquely cut. Yet
to make up the whole
finished picture, we need all these small pieces placed in their correct positions. In some ways, our own
life is like a puzzle.
There are times when we know exactly what to do, where to go,
and why we are doing whatever we are doing. There are other
times when we
feel confused with life’s twists and turns...
and it
all seems nearly impossible to make out the details of our life or
figure out where all the separate individual pieces of it fit into the
whole.
When experiencing a healing, you might not have the
foggiest notion of what (if anything) is going on, and you may wonder if it
is (or isn't) of benefit to you. But without the overall perspective or "bigger picture", how would you really know - how
could you really tell ?
Most
of us
experience ourselves (and the outer world) from the
limited point of view of a consciousness so full of
"stuff" (that
actively or passively distort our perceptions) it's a wonder we
can maneuver in life at all.
While we perceive life from a variety of sense organs, the interpretation or "narration"
of that view occurs within our own mind as countless images and words... collectively making up the story of our lives. Though
we
are intimately “living” out this
story from moment to moment, Spirit (our Higher Self)
“knows” the plot line from beginning to end (Spirit
won’t tell
us all the details, otherwise that would spoil the mystery of our
tale).
As human beings, we
cannot see the "big
picture" or know the complete "story
line" of our life path...
but Spirit does. Fortunately (or unfortunately), none of us
are given that information down here (not fully). If Spirit did (besides taking the fun and
suspense out of living) we would not learn what it is to live in faith and
trust from moment to moment.
Yes, we could try to force the
pieces of our lives to fit into some shape, and we could try to force
our life story to
go a way we think it should, but there are more powerful forces
(that twist and turn the universe) overruling our small human plans...
making our lives never go exactly the way we desire.
Besides, if we try to force the pieces of a puzzle into
a shape of our own choosing, we end with loose pieces that
don’t fit anywhere, and an image that will not make sense, be cohesive or
harmonious. This is how our lives are when we run
it from the limited perspective of our ego-mind.
If we want our lives to be as great as they possibly be, we need
to let go of our
small ego-mind stories and let go of the
illusory images we
think we are. The Healer (working in conjunction with
your Higher Self) is here to assist in this "letting
go" process. With a sufficient amount of
work, enough "stuff" will be removed from your space... allowing the "Divine
Artist" (your own Higher Self) to easily (without impediment or distraction) direct the most Divine Story
and paint the most Divine Image
upon the canvas of your soul.
Spirit can look at where every minute aspect of your life
fits in with the
universal
"Divine Design" (so we all have a happy ending to all our stories,
which,
by the way, doesn’t end at the death of our bodies).
It is
from Divine Knowing that Spirit
approaches each healing session
and looks at your entire being...
as it was, is, and
shall
be...
from past, present to future...
as it exists in its highest
form...
to how it is manifesting here on earth...
and all dimensions
in
between.
- This Healing
work moves the individual puzzle “pieces” of your life around till they start to fit
neatly
into place and coalesce into the original picture that you were
meant to be.
- This Healing
work rearranges
the narration of your story so that it starts to make sense and
harmonize with all other beings within the
greater universe.
- This Healing
work takes
your attention off the outer world by creating empty space around
and within you so that your attention starts focusing on
what’s true and
meaningful in life.
But until you
do enough of this healing work, the immediate benefits may not
be readily apparent. If during the times of your session there is felt
even the subtlest shifts, let that be
sufficient, for each healing you receive builds upon the
previous, like the stones laid in the
foundation of
a massive structure - and the larger a structure, the more work before the finished
product is realized. Our soul is massive and very complex, much more
than any building on earth. So too, many sessions must
be completed before the
majority of benefits are seen (either in days, weeks, months,
or lifetimes
later).
Most certainly, if you do enough of this
healing work (at some point) you will
see your life's journey (the completed "structure" of your Soul) from a
clearer perspective (you might even catch glimpses of
the "Universal Picture"). Until then, ones perspective of the
healing process will be similar to the old adage of not being
able to see
"the forest from the trees". In the meantime, trust that Spirit sees
from a better perspective than we ever could, for Spirit knows
the terrain, the lay of the land, the blueprint of our soul.
Any great journeys
take time to unfold, involves hardship, demands patience, persistence, sacrifice.
There will be steep hills to climb, cold winds, lonely dark
nights, views that may be rather stark. Don’t expect to make sense of or "figure" anything out
(that's the ego-mind trying to take control). Trust that
as long
as you continue the healing process, Spirit will get you to a better place sooner and easier than if
done alone. Till
then, The best
thing you can do is enjoy (with full attention) the experiences along the
way (otherwise you will be waiting for some far off event..
without enjoying the "Now").
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1999 - 2009. David Isaacson. No portion of information in
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