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We Are All Change Agents, But What Are We Changing Towards?

March 20, 2010 //
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Each of us brings change...where are you going?

Today, I want you to consider 2 things—-one, that you are a change agent….and, two, that being a change agent, you need to have a vision as to the direction towards which you are changing.  To paraphrase Stephen Covey, you can climb a ladder but if you don’t think about where the ladder is going, you may find yourself at the top of the wrong building. We are all climbing ladders whether we know it or not.  How do you know if you are climbing in the right direction?

“Change Agent ” Defined

So what exactly is a change agent?  People throw the term around like we all know what it means, without ever stopping to think just exactly what one is.  I frequently call myself a change agent, I’m encouraging you to see yourself as one…in fact, I’m here to tell you that you are one whether you know it or not…so maybe we ought to define it. 

I googled “change agent”, and here’s what I found…”somebody or something that brings about, or helps to bring about, change.”  That sounds like all of us, right?  Some of us may be more “into change” than others, but we all bring about change.  You change your clothes (hopefully with some frequency), you change the channels on the TV, you change what you are eating from time to time, you change houses or jobs or friends or significant others, you change out the light bulb when it burns out.  We can’t help but having change in our lives.  Someone once said, “the only constant is change.”

OK, we all have change in our lives, but the term “change agent” seems to imply more.  I also found on the internet a number of key concepts identified with the change agent such as…someone who seeks to make people better….or someone who works to achieve a higher degree of output or self actualization….or someone who seeks to make changes that stick….or someone who lives in the future, not the present….or someone who is fueled by passion, and inspires passion in others.

So do you see any common denominators here?  For me, the underlying theme is that a change agent is someone who focuses their attention and intentions in a particular direction to bring about a positive future….they see a direction that will serve themselves and others…they set their motivations consciously in that direction and get moving!

Now, we all do this, too, in our individual lives….we look around and think that if we make certain changes (new house, new car, new job, new partner, new career, new education, etc.) then we will bring about a positive future for ourselves.  So we are all obviously “change agents” in this sense.

Yet, we also influence others whether consciously or not.  If we are parents, teachers, supervisors and the like, then we can see how we try to motivate and change others in a certain direction.  But even beyond that, we model behaviors that others see, and to the degree that we have some clout with them, they may try to do as we do.  Think of how you may change your diet, clothes, or entertainment choices based on the actions or recommendations of your friends.  You have the same power with others whether you realize it or not.

We all have a sphere of influence….those with whom we have some degree of power to change their thinking and actions.  How are we using that power?  Are we using it for good or for harm?  Answering that question is very important.  Bringing into your conscious choices that which is for your personal highest good and the highest good for others is one of the most important things you can do.  You are serving the positive evolution of your life and the planet by choosing wisely.

But what is the highest good….both for your life and the life of the planet within your sphere of influence? 

Without Vision, the People Perish

This brings us to having the vision to put our ladder against the right wall before we start climbing…to have the right vision for our life or the right vision in our influence of others.  How can we gain that  vision?

Generally, it appears that we get our visions from one of two ways–we either get a vision ourselves….something touches us so deeply that we know it is the direction we need to head…or, we buy into a vision that is presented to us by someone else.  One appears to come from within (our own vision), one appears to come from outside us (we accept another’s vision as our own).  However, in my opinion, if we truly buy into someone else’s vision with all our heart, then we have ignited the same “something” in us that we ignite when we catch our own vision.  If we don’t, then we are simply “going along with” the other person’s vision out of convenience or lack of something better.

If we are truly inspired by a vision (whether its source appears to come from within us or from another person), that inspiration comes from some greater source beyond us. I call it Spirit or God.  And, Spirit is something that we can tap into consciously by setting an intention to do so in order to gain insight and vision…to consciously seek that inspiration that ignites us.

How can we do that?  I know that the Centers for Spiritual Living and other metaphysical teachings offer a “visioning” process designed to tap “Spirit’s highest vision”.  You move your head out of the way, tap into your heart, and open yourself to listen to Spirit with a specific question in mind….then capture whatever comes up.  Yesterday, I offered up the Global Heart Vision statement as a picture of a positive future towards which to work towards the Global Heart Vision.  This statement was developed using this process….listening to Spirit repeatedly by many people and bringing the ideas that came forth together.

There are other techniques as well.  I like using a guided meditation that brings me to a mountain top where I meet an inner guide (someone who represents “wisdom” for me) in order to dialogue on whatever issue I am faced.  You can also try putting a question on the top of your journal page and then automatic writing on the question for a period of time. 

All of these techniques have one thing in common…they seek to get your head, your ego, your conditioning out of the way so that you can tap into something that is greater than your rational mind.  The rational mind serves us in climbing the ladder, but it may not always get us on the right ladder to begin with.

So how can we be sure that the vision we determine via listening to our inner wisdom is for our highest good and not our ego?  I like how Ernest Holmes tells us that something is good—it expresses more life and harms no one.  So ask yourself that when you are setting a vision or direction for yourself—does it express more life?  Does it harm no one?  If you can answer yes to both, then you are headed up the right ladder.

Summary

You are a change agent….you are making changes in your life all the time….and you are influencing others all the time.  You have great power and great responsibility.  Are you using it wisely?  Are you climbing up the right ladder for yourself and for the world?  Listen to your heart, your intuition, Spirit as you seek vision….seek to express more life and harm no one in your actions….and then move consciously in the direction of that future.

Mark

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Categories Change Agent, Consciousness, Spirituality

The Evolution of Consciousness, God, and Prayer

February 23, 2010 //
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Moving up the spiral of life....our view of God and prayer changes

The title sure sounds pretty heavy.  Don’t let it scare you away.  First, a brief reminder… the underlying theme of all the articles I write here is that there is a direction to life… that things are evolving and that evolution has a positive direction… that within evolution’s “arrow” there is free will choice which leads to an infinite variety of experiences…some of these experiences, we label positive, others negative, but the general direction of evolution is ever upward and higher… therefore, my continuous hope is that you take from these writings the reminder that you live in this upward evolutionary spiral of life, that you see the interconnectedness and value of all levels of this spiral, and you understand the role you play through your thoughts, words and deeds to move your self and the collective in a positive direction towards our return to our realization of oneness.  Whew!

So here’s the connection I want to make today… as humanity evolved in its consciousness, so did its picture of what God or Spirit is.  Then, as our concept of God or Spirit evolved, so did our form of prayer… prayer being our way of communicating and experiencing the divine.  This is not necessarily a new concept, of course, but an interesting connection for me is that if we step back and see the complete unfoldment, it shows us the direction we are heading as we continue to evolve.

Let’s quickly look at the evolutionary path of humanity using Spiral Dynamics memes as the underpinnings.  (As always, more detail about Spiral Dynamics is available in other articles or links on the website.)  When early humanity crossed the threshold in consciousness  to the level of becoming self-aware, our ancestors lived off the land and sought basic survival (beige meme).  In time they began to see the value in living together in clans (purple meme).  At this level of consciousness, our ancestors were in tune with the passing of seasons and their interconnectedness to nature.  Their view of God was one of magical powers rising out of a nature world.  Their prayers came in the form of seasonal rituals, full of music, rhythm and dance.

As humanity evolved, individuals developed strong personal egos and sought power.  This gave rise to the survival of the fittest, kings with their servants, tribal leaders with their followers, the haves and the have-nots (red meme).  At this level of consciousness, our understanding of God grew out of “gods in nature” to the gods that were behind nature to a pantheon of gods ruled by one God (such as Zeus).  Our new view of God brought a new way to honor him… temples and monuments, gifts and offerings, sacrifices.

The sense of inequity at the tribal level led to a new level of consciousness where humanity sought order and structure and rules.  Here we sought meaning and purpose in living and attributed a divine plan that was beyond our comprehension to explain life (blue meme).  Our new view of God shifted from one powerful God who ruled other gods to simply being one God.  This God communicated to us through tablets with rules, sacred texts with laws, through others who claimed to be our intermediary.  We prayed to this God through prayers of petition, asking for favors and intervention in our lives.

The Enlightenment brought the rise of science and rational thought.  Humanity shifted its view of the world to sensing it as a machine that we could learn to control for our own benefit.  Competition, technology and material abundance (orange meme) brought with it a sense that the old man God in the sky was a myth we needed to release.  God is dead.  Prayer is an outdated superstition.

Material wealth did not satisfy us and we sought meaning in community and relationships.  We began to explore consciousness itself, turning inward to find meaning.  We believed that everyone was equal, and the earth was here for all of us to share (green meme).  We released dogma and sought to become spiritual but not religious.  God was resurrected but not as an external being.  God became a “unity”, a unified field of energy, and underlying intelligent force that pervaded everything.  How do you communicate with an intelligent field of energy?  You direct its flow as it moves through you.  You see the power in your thoughts and consciousness and consciously work to direct that power.  As your development had just come through the level of science and reason, you attempt to apply logic to your prayers to convince yourself and shift your belief.  Prayer is now an affirmative statement of truth placed into the infinite field of possibilities, collapsing the quantum uncertainties in the desired direction.

People new to New Thought teachings such as the Science of Mind generally resonate with applying logic and reason through a predefined five-step prayer process.  Ernest Holmes called it “argumentative” prayer, as we argue with our own minds to convince it of the truth.  The five steps take us from identification with the external world of matter to an inward world where we sense the interconnectedness of everything, the power embedded in it, and our ability to direct that power.  Through connecting with Spirit, stating our truth, sensing gratitude and releasing our awareness “into the flow”, we convince our logical minds of the truth and power of our prayer.  Our emotional certainty is seen as a critical factor in directing this flow.

By now you’ve probably stopped and considered where you are in this evolutionary process.  In 21st-century America, most of us fall in one of three general categories, in our belief of God and prayer.  Either (1) God is an external being to whom we pray; (2) God is a myth and prayer is superstition; or (3) God is an intelligent power that we can tap via our consciousness.

Robert Wright outlined in great detail how our view of God has changed in his recent bestseller, “The Evolution of God.”  There were several key points that he made that are worth listing here…. God doesn’t evolve, we do; our perception of God changes as our cultural needs change; and there is a continuous direction towards positive change over time.

In fact, Wright sees this positive trend as potential evidence of a divine power when he says: “If history naturally pushes people toward moral improvement, toward moral truth, and their God, as they conceive their God, grows accordingly, becoming morally richer, then maybe this growth is evidence of some higher purpose, and maybe — conceivably — the source of that purpose is worthy of the name divinity.”

So where then is this evolution taking us?  How is our perception of God continuing to evolve?  How is our method of communication with the divine growing?  Both mystics and Spiral Dynamics point in the same direction.

Joel Goldsmith, founder of “The Infinite Way”, gave a lecture in 1959 where he outlined this evolution of prayer we have been discussing.  He said, “Most in orthodox religion still use pagan forms of prayer, which came to them when their churches were first founded, and their own forms of prayer had not developed: they used the prayer of petition… these ancient paganistic forms of prayer were the only forms of prayer the church had to work with… there is nothing wrong with these forms of prayer, anymore than there is anything wrong with our form of treatment… it isn’t a question of right or wrong, it is a question of the degree of consciousness.  Because we are in a human state of consciousness at the moment, it is necessary that we start our prayer work with words and thoughts.  In the metaphysical world these are called treatments; in the mystical world they’re called realizations.  The attainment of harmony is never accomplished by words or thoughts… they are but the introductions, the aids, given to bring us into an atmosphere where words and thoughts are no longer necessary to lift us to an inner communion through which God’s grace reaches us.”

Ernest Holmes also spoke of this evolutionary process.  He advised us that “God comes to us as we come to him” meaning that how we see God and communicate with God depends upon our consciousness. “God is not a becoming God.  God is not an evolving God.  God is that which was, is, and will remain perfect, complete, happy and harmonious.”  Again, God is not evolving — humanity and its perception of God is evolving.

As stated, Holmes taught an argumentative style of prayer designed to shift our consciousness.  In other words, he gave us a method to meet us where we were in our awareness (desiring logic and reason and applied science).  He also taught another method called “realization”.  In this method, you did not need convincing, you went straight to the truth.  He defined realization as turning “to that Living Presence within… recognize It as the  One and Only Power in the Universe, unify with it.”  He added, “there is a point in the supreme moment of realization, where the individual merges with the Universe, but not to the loss of his individuality; where a sense of the Oneness of all Life so enters their being that there is no sense of otherness.”

Spiral Dynamics tells us that humanity is making a great leap in consciousness.  As we step into the second tier of awareness, we are able to see the entire spiral below us and value each level and stage as being necessary for our perfect unfoldment.  We see the interconnectedness of all of nature, we understand its natural systems and flows (yellow and turquoise memes).  We begin to see our individual self is part of a greater Self… the conscious, spiritual whole… where everything is part of one great living system… where we value all religions and all spiritual paths, seeing their necessity to bringing us to this point on our journey… where we live and wonder, awe, unity, harmony and love.

My wish is that as you have read through this, you have stepped outside our evolutionary path for a moment in your awareness and witnessed it from a higher level where you can see its beauty and perfection and view where you are along the road.  Hopefully, you have glimpsed both the path you have walked spiritually and the road that lies ahead.  Evolution’s arrow is returning us all back home.  Our consciousness is evolving back to unity with the divine.  Your next step calls you.  Surrender to your evolution.

Mark

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Categories Consciousness, Science and Spirit, Spirituality

Are You Living on the Growing Edge?

February 9, 2010 //
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The Growing Edge of Life

What the heck does that mean?  Let’s stop and think about our life for just a moment… there are areas of all of our lives, I suspect, in which we could point at and say that it has remained pretty constant and hasn’t changed much over time.  The style of my wardrobe hasn’t shifted a whole lot over the years even though clothes come and go.  I can pretty much assure you that if Bob Dylan comes out with a new recording, I’m going to get it.  Most weeks I’m going to eat Mexican food at least once.  You get the idea… and you have your constants.

But then there are those areas of our lives where we are growing and evolving.  There are those areas where the events in our lives such as losses (jobs, loved ones, end of marriage and so on) have forced us to grow.  Then there are those areas where we have felt an internal motivation to move in new directions.  Be it new careers, new hobbies, new relationships, moving to a new city, new friends, exploring and learning about new areas, or any other area of your life where you are called to express something new… all of these areas in which we expressed newness are our growing edges. 

I came across this concept recently in a new book I was reading called “Social Change 2.0″ by David Gershon.  The author’ s objective was to outline a model of instituting positive social change on the planet.  He describes his efforts to motivate people so that the changes in their lives would “stick”.  Ultimately he decided to look at the evolution of a human being into new areas of change by exploring what the multibillion year evolutionary experience of our planet could tell us.  There he saw that the natural world offered us a model for looking at continuous growth, and that model was the “growing edge”.

Gershon writes: “If something is alive it is always growing.  There is always the next shoot, bud or growing edge.  A tree is a good example, if you look at the shoots on a branch that are just coming into existence.  This is where the tree is most vital.  It is where the trees life force is the strongest.  It is where there is the greatest degree of aliveness.  These growing edges have several distinct properties.  They are fragile and vulnerable, without any bark protecting them against the element’s.  They are soft and have the green color of new life.  They are unique to that branch of the tree.  While all trees share the same process of growth, each branch looks different depending on the unique circumstances and stage of its growth.  There is no right growing edge for a tree.  There certainly is no way to say, one growing edge is better than another or one branch should be like another branch.  The only meaningful criterion is the quality of the trees aliveness.  If a tree is fully alive it is always growing and has many growing edges.  If there are no new growing edges coming into existence than the tree is atrophying and moving toward death.”

I like this concept of a growing edge.  As I visualize my life as if it were a tree, I can now sense those areas that don’t change at all and give me strength and stability as my “roots”.  My moral standards and sense of responsibility, which were ingrained in me from an early age are examples of such roots.  They continue to anchor me, as the winds of change blow through my life.  Then there are those areas which continue to change and grow but at an extremely slow pace.  We might consider this as the bark on a tree.  My clothes, my musical taste, my desires for certain food and similar things have grown through the years, but overall, have remained fairly steady.  And then there are those vulnerable edges, where newness extends outward, the new branches and new leaves of our life.  New jobs, new relationships, new learning, new turns on the spiritual path — – areas of growth, areas of vitality, areas of uniqueness.

The mystic Ernest Holmes wrote  .  “Life is activity, and when we stop being active we turn away from the newness of life…today can be filled with wonder if we know that we stand on the threshold of that which is wonderful and new.”

So the question is… are you living on the growing edge or are you fearing change and newness?  I invite you today to contemplate your life using this model of the growing edge to help you gain a sense of where your roots are, where you’re branches are, and most importantly, where the newness of life is expressing in the experience of you as something wonderful….

Mark

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Categories Consciousness, Positive Evolution

Life’s Purpose–are You Living on Purpose?

February 6, 2010 //
2

What is it mean to be living on purpose? Is there really a purpose we’re supposed to be expressing during his lifetime? If so, how do we know that we are living that life? 

A few years ago my wife and I were at our organization’s annual spiritual conference at Asilomar. During one of the general sessions, they played a game, where they asked questions of people regarding how much they had spoiled their dog. My dog, Harmony, is truly spoiled, although she doesn’t act like it. At the end of the contest there were a group of us standing in front of the general assembly. Everyone agreed that we were the winners having most spoiled their pet. There were prizes they were giving out and I won a very nice piece of artwork that incorporated a meditation by Ernest Holmes called “Meditation for Opportunity”.

Since that time, this piece of art has sat on my desk. I used to read it frequently, but over time it has become simply part of the background. Recently however, something inside me called me to read it again and, boy I was surprised to read in part “there is a Divine Urge to express. It permeates me and fills all space and all people. All of my affairs are in its hands.”

Why was I surprised?….I realized that over the past year or so while this poster sat there consciously unread, subconciously it was seeping into me as I had really become enthralled with Holmes’ idea of the “Divine Urge”.  I had been reading about it, discussing it  in my classes, and used it as a key concept regarding the our purpose in life.  In essence, I had begun living the Divine Urge.  What is this “urge”?

From my understanding of Holmes, this urge, although a single force, shows up two ways. I sometimes liken them to a “push” and a “pull” , but both have the same ultimate purpose. The push is an internal sense that we all have that calls for us to express some unique creative ability during this lifetime.  As we express our unique creative abilities that want to come forth,we are living on purpose.  The pull, on the other hand, is a force that comes from Spirit calling us back to living in that sense of Oneness or Spirit.  This includes the power of love discussed yesterday.

One way of looking at this is to consider that we have been cast out from Oneness (living in a state of pure awareness and unity before birth) to live this third dimensional life with its sense that we are separate and apart.  Yet, all the while, there is a seed in us that knows that our ultimate purpose is to grow back to our Source. It’s kind of like a “tracking beam” in Star Trek.  But while we are here, having this sense of separation and uniqueness, Spirit is taking this opportunity to experience the vastness of life through us.  Spirit calls for us to express our unique gifts (that is, to live on purpose), in return Spirit gets the benefit of that unique experience through us. As Holmes puts it, we exist “for the delight of Spirit”.   The greater the variety in all of our individual human expressions, the greater the variety of experience of the fullness of Life by Spirit.

Each of us came to this planet to express something uniquely. There are no limits as to what this expression can be. It could be that we are here to write and teach, to walk in nature, serve in stores, to raise children, to discover new scientific truths, and so on. Holmes tells us that as long as it expresses more life and harms no one then it is good and of Spirit. It is only in our minds and conditioning that we sometimes look at certain things we humans do and judge them to be less than “on purpose”. Ultimately, it is not our call to say whether another person is living “on purpose”. Our only task is to determine if we are.

And, how do we know that for ourselves? That’s a whole other subject but for now, let’s simply say that there is an “knowingness” that you have is fed internally by intuition and externally by the patterns of life experiences.  Through the combination of these two patterns, you “know” what your life purpose is….although your rational mind may try to talk you out of it!

Finally, as we live on purpose….following the internal divine push to create….we find that in expressing our talents completely we are called home to a greater sense of Oneness and unity.  The expression of our talents ultimately serves to open us, just like the power of love, to the sense of something greater than our individual selves…..ultimately, we begin to realize that both the internal push to create and express and the external pull to return to Spirit have the same goal….to return us to unity…. French paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin described the same force with his concept of the “omega point”….the ultimate point to which we are going home.

So are you living on purpose?  Are you listening to that intuition and live experiences that are pointing you towards your unique expression in this life time?  If you are, hopefully this will open you to seeing how living on purpose is serving your evolution back to Spirit.  If you are not, then it’s time to “stop, look and listen”….and begin to live in alignment with why you are really here.  Now is the time.

Blessings. 

Mark

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Categories Consciousness, Positive Evolution

What is love? Why is love?

February 5, 2010 //
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Harmony

So much has been written about love, not to mention sung about it, we could launch into a book just trying to answer these questions. But no worries, no book here today, just a few brief paragraphs floating between the head and the heart to offer my thoughts on the topic.

So what is love? Love is one of those topics that you can point at with your words but your words are not “it”. You have to feel it. We’ve all felt it. There is this welling up inside you where you have an overwhelming sense of emotion that comes from some indescribable place (both from within you and outside of you) and fills your being with a sense of care, concern, compassion, and connectedness to something or someone beyond “you”. Just take a moment, and recall a situation in your life when you had an overwhelming sense of love. Step into that feeling for a moment…did my words come close “to pointing at” the feeling but not quite capture it?

I know for me there are those gentle, tender moments where my heart is open and there is this general sense of love for everything and everyone. And then I also have those moments where there is a specific external something that is the focus of an overwhelming outpouring of emotional love. I can still recall the overpowering sense of love that filled my very being when my children and grandchildren were born. I know that my beautiful chocolate lab, Harmony (pictured here), can invoke so easily this strong emotional response, just by her very being. This sense of love can come up at any time and any place. I know there are moments in nature where something such as a beautiful sunrise can touch me so deeply that it ignites a fire of generalized love of life in that moment. Even last night watching a television commercial for a jewelry store wherein a man was asking his girlfriend to marry him, this emotion of love was called forth at such a level within me that I had to go in the other room and hug my wife. Again, all I can do is describe the moments, I know that you truly have to feel it to know it. I know you do feel it.

So why is love? Evolutionary scientists tell us that love is an emergent property that came forth in the evolution of species, where their young were born not fully mature. The emergence of love was simply an adaptation that was favorable to such species that were growing larger and more complex. Those who developed a powerful emotional attachment to their young, took better care of them, thus allowing more of them to grow to maturity, reproduce, and pass on more of their genes. And, love served an evolutionary purpose in binding together a male and a female for long periods of time. Such love, kept them together to raise their vulnerable young, again increasing the odds of their babies reaching maturity to reproduce.

I believe that these scientists are correct in that love is an evolutionary force. However, I think they only have part of the story. Yes, the emergence of love, may have served to connect us to our young as well as our mates and served to further the propagation of the species. But then the question arises, how did this emotional feeling of love get so defused that our hearts are opened by so many people, so many things, so many moments? So much of my sense of love has no connection to my mate and babies. Materialistic scientist may explain this away as some type of emotional displacement, but I think they’re missing the mark.

The powerful feeling of love is continuing to serve the further evolution of humanity. Love is a powerful evolutionary force that calls us to feel a sense of connectedness to something beyond us. It may have started with our mates and children, but it continues to connect us to larger and larger circles outside us. Our minds and thoughts convince us that we are little pockets of consciousness walking around, independent of everyone and everything. The emotion of love calls us to remember the truth that we are connected to everyone and everything. Our heads may try to tell us we are separate, our hearts tell us we are one.

We are at a critical point in the evolution of humanity. We are shifting from seeing ourselves as separate from each other and moving into a new awareness that understands our uniqueness and how that uniqueness feeds and nourishes the whole. Much like how in our evolutionary past our cells differentiated themselves into performing unique functions while supporting in the growth and evolution of our whole body, we are shifting in our understanding of how our individual consciousness supports the growth and evolution of our collective consciousness of the one humanity.

As mystic Ernest Holmes put it, ” Evolution is the awakening of the soul to a recognition of its unity with the Whole” and frequently reminded us that “love points the way”. French philosopher, Jesuit priest and paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin put it this way, “Love is a sacred reserve of energy; it is like the blood of spiritual evolution.”

So today, let’s cultivate that sense of love within all aspects of our life….let us set an intention to call love forth in all we do…and when we feel the love coming forth through us, let us acknowledge it and revel in it and infuse it with all the energy of our being. Let us see it igniting within us a sense of care and concern for all. As de Chardin counseled us, “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”

Mark

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Categories Consciousness, Positive Evolution, Spirituality

Do you “circle the wagons” around your beliefs?

January 31, 2010 //
2

Do you “circle the wagons” around your beliefs? What do I mean by that? Do you have an opinion or belief that you insulate from the rest of the world by not allowing yourself to entertain any other belief? 

Lately, I have noticed that so many people seem to surround themselves with only those people who believe like they do. I especially see this in relation to our spiritual and political ideas. Many of us only read books or watch on TV programs or listen to radio shows that only serve to reinforce what we already believe. I even read recently about coffee shops that were havens for only people who held certain political beliefs. 

Ernest Holmes wrote, “Behind all is a unity, through all is a diversity; saturating all is a divinity. “ We are all Spiritual beings living our lives in the vast multiplicity of possibilities. We are all One.

So how can we move through life and honor the diversity of expression and beliefs? The first thing we can do is to allow ourselves to be exposed to alternate view points that differ from our cherished beliefs. The second thing we can do is to give the gift of truly listening to other people and understanding what they believe. Listen, don’t react. Choose to understand their viewpoint, not argue them out of it. 

Although we can choose whether to modify our beliefs or not after gaining this understanding, the real value is in our stepping back and seeing the beautiful diversity of life in all its expressions. And, as we honor others by understanding them, we are setting in motion a powerful law that will serve to make the world a place that works for all.

Mark 

NOTE: The above article appeared in the New Dawn Center for Spiritual Living “Messenger” newsletter for September/October 2009 issue.

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Categories Change Agent, Consciousness

Is God evolving?

January 24, 2010 //
3

I mean, it makes sense if you think about it… if evolution is real… and I believe that it is… then why wouldn’t God be evolving?

Now let’s stop and check in… did you have a reaction to that question?  Did something inside you say that can’t quite be right?  If you read yesterday’s article, you might be thinking right about now, well “maybe the answer to the question is God evolving is–it depends”.  Hmmm?  Depends on how you define God?  Let’s think about that….

First off, if your worldview is one that includes what I called the old myth of God (that is of the old man in the sky that is external to us), then you might be thinking: “how can this all-powerful Creator God be evolving?  Would not this God be outside the physical realm of man and not be subject to the evolutionary forces we see at play?”  That sounds logical to me.

Secondly, if your worldview is one that says there is no God and everything is simply part of the physical universe subject to physical laws, then you might be thinking: “the question is meaningless, as there is no God to evolve”.  That sounds logical to me.

Thirdly, if your worldview is one that says there is a God but God is an infinite intelligence and energy that permeates everything such that everything is in God but God is greater than everything, then you might be thinking: “God or Spirit has infused everything with its energy and intelligence as well as created such forces as evolution.  Hence, Spirit is not evolving, but is experiencing the process of evolution through us.”  That sounds logical to me.

So then, is God evolving?  The answer seems to be yes and no.  Within an individual worldview, the God or non-God of that worldview is not evolving.  But if we step back and look at the worldviews of humanity, then we can see that our concept of God is evolving in our consciousness.

The mystic Ernest Holmes wrote “We can know no God external to that power of perception by which alone we are conscious of anything.  God must be interpreted to humanity through humanity’s own nature” as well as “God comes to us as we come to him/her.”  What he seems to be saying to me is that who or what God is to us depends upon our level of consciousness.  God shows up to us in exactly the same way that our own awareness defines how God should show up.  Holmes is not alone in this viewpoint.

Robert Wright, in his recent bestseller “The Evolution of God” agrees as he makes the following points:  God doesn’t evolve, we do.  Our perception of God changes as our cultural needs change.  That we experience continuous positive change in the quality of our lives over time, therefore life has a “direction”.  That “salvation” works to arrange the world so that its people find themselves and think of themselves more and more as interconnected, which is part of evolution’s direction.

Wright concludes  that the fact that there are religions and this evolutionary direction affirms the possibility of an actual divinity:  “If history naturally pushes people toward moral improvement, toward moral truth, and their God, as they conceive their God, grows accordingly, becoming morally richer, then maybe this growth is evidence of some higher purpose, and maybe – conceivably – the source of that purpose is worthy of the name divinity.”

So if we have come to a conclusion that perhaps it’s not God evolving, but rather our perception of God that is evolving then how does that come about?  Do we really have a worldview that colors our perception?  If so, then how did it come about?  How does it evolve?  Tomorrow we go deeper with those questions.

Mark

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Categories Science and Spirit, Spirituality

To be for Something and against Nothing

January 21, 2010 //
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There’s great potential in focusing our energy in the direction we want to go rather than pushing against some condition we don’t like.  Whatever we spend our mental coin on is what we tend to produce.  The trick, of course, is in gaining the ability to turn our attention away from that we don’t want and then towards that which we do.

I thought about this the other night as I sat in the Denver City Council chambers for around six hours watching our civic processes in action.  I was there in support of my daughter, whose company was entering into a contract with the city which required the council’s approval.  They were holding public hearings on the contract which would bring a series of high-tech movie events to two of the city’s parks over the next three years.  This type of special outdoor cinema has never been used in the United States before yet has been quite successful in other countries for a number of years.  (For more information on the concept you can visit the company’s website at http://www.usopenair.com/ ).

Now admittedly, I might have a slight bias in favor of this idea based on this being my daughter’s company, yet I really do believe that these events can revitalize some of Denver’s underused parks and showcase their specialness.  I really thought this concept was a no-brainer.  Hence I was a little bit surprised when I showed up at the council’s hearings and discovered a large contingent of people who were wearing homemade stickers encouraging the council to vote “no”.  There were about 75 people who signed up to speak to the council.  Of that number, roughly half were in favor of the contract and half were not.  About half of each group got to speak before time ran out.  I was pleased to be able to address the council.

It’s not my purpose here to explain all of the points for and against bringing these film events to Denver’s parks.  As always, reasonable minds can disagree and there were good points made on both sides.  However, it was interesting to note a general theme that emerged from each side.  My comments, as well as many of the comments for those in favor of the proposal, focused upon a vision of a possible future.  They pointed to the potential for this film series to create a vital and vibrant focal point for activating the park’s potential to be a hub for the sharing of community.  On the other hand, many of the comments against the proposal were (in my opinion) rooted in fear…fear of change, fear of this being a setting of a precedent that might lead to the loss of parks, fear of the unknown, and more.  To be fair, there were some comments by some opponents, who took a non-fear-based approach and attempted to offer what they viewed as an alternative win-win possibility.  But in general, most of the opponents appeared to be stuck in the past and to be “pushing against” the idea.

Mystic Ernest Holmes wrote, “Find me one person who is for something and against nothing, who is redeemed enough not to condemn others out of the burden of his soul, and I will find another savior, another Jesus, and an exalted human being. “  Holmes really was speaking to the power of the Law of Attraction when used in the direction of good for all people.  When we can focus on what we are for, when we can eliminate the need to make others wrong in the process, we can truly perform miracles.

I was pleased at the end of the evening when the council voted in favor of the contract.  Overall this was a great example of our civic processes working out just like they’re designed.

However, there is an issue of concern here, which is indicative of a greater trend in American politics in recent years.  There appears to be a greater degree of being less “for” something and more “against” something which unfortunately often deteriorates into name calling, vindictiveness, and divisive behavior in the public forum.  We see this in lack of unbiased and measured discourse in many television programs, as well as the highly partisan way in which our political parties vote. 

Just in the past day, a lot has been made about the election in Massachusetts of a Republican senator to replace Teddy Kennedy simply because that one vote keeps the Democrats from total control of the Senate.  If there was more bipartisan behavior in our Congress, than this one vote would matter less.  There is an assumption by both our media and our politicians that our Congress is simply going to vote along party lines no matter what the issue.

A recent issue of the Christian Science Monitor had an article about the rising national debt and the issue of Congressional approval of the debt ceiling.  There was a telling quote in the piece from Stanley Collender, a longtime congressional budget analyst, who stated, “Debt ceilings have become political footballs and will continue to be in this highly politicized Congress where making the other side lose is more important than governing.”  Unfortunately, his observation frequently seems all too true.

So then the challenge before us is how do we turn from this condition, which is less than what we desire and focus our energy on what we do want?  In my opinion, we have to first acknowledge the condition…not to give energy, not to grow it, but rather just to be aware of it.  It’s from that awareness that we can now consciously choose a higher direction for our politics and for our country.

And what is that higher direction?  In my opinion it includes the following:

  • Visualizing and speaking out about a positive future… expressing our desire for what we do want.
  • Seeking opportunities to reinforce working together.
  • Honoring differences but focusing on commonalities.
  • Looking for ways to turn civil discourse away from negativity and towards respect, dignity and our common bonds.

You probably could add to this list.  I hope that you do.

Blessings,

Mark

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Categories Consciousness, Positive Evolution

What’s right or wrong?

January 19, 2010 //
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As I stated previously, the purpose of this website is to share information and foster dialogue on how we can use the power of our thoughts to create the highest possible future for humanity. That’s a lofty goal, I know. But like any large goal, it’s only attainable by breaking it down into smaller goals that are more manageable. So then that lofty goal, really can be attained by each of us making choices in our daily lives that are in the direction of the highest possible future.

But that raises the big question… given any situation in my life, how can I always know which choice is for my highest good and the highest good of the planet? In other words, given a situation large or small, how can I know which choice is “right”?

I’ve always found great wisdom in these words from the mystic Ernest Holmes, “The criterion for any man as to what is right or wrong for him is not to be found in some other man’s judgment. The criterion is: Does the thing I wish to do express more life, more happiness, more peace for myself, and at the same time harm no one? If it does, it is right. It is not selfish. But if it is done at the expense of anyone, then in such degree we are making a wrong use of the Law.”

I usually boil that down to asking myself if what I’m about to do ” expresses more life and harms no one?”

Of course the devil’s in the details, meaning reasonable people sometimes disagree on when something is expressing more life or when something might be harming someone. For example, a few days ago I stopped into a local Starbucks. Sitting at one of the tables was a scruffy gentleman nursing a cup of coffee and working to create small items of jewelry out of beads and strings he had laid out on the table. I immediately sensed some of the other patrons were bothered by the presence of this man. I stopped and asked him what he was making and he proudly presented me his artistic creations and insisted I take a gift of a key chain after complimenting his work.

So was this gentleman expressing more life and harming no one? In my opinion, he was certainly expressing life through his call to create his jewelry. And, I felt he was really harming no one by creating key chains at a table at Starbucks although some of the other patrons might have disagreed.

I’m sure you can think of plenty of situations in your life, where people disagree on whether something is right or wrong even if using the criteria I offer here. So how do we get to the truth in such situations? There’s two ways.

The first, which most of us use, is to go to our minds and try to logically argue which way is right or which way is wrong. We weigh pros and cons. We often take into account the opinions of experts or which answer the majority agrees with. There’s nothing wrong with using the mind in this approach.

However, there is a second way that we can get at truth when trying to determine if something is right or wrong–trying to decide if something expresses more life and harms no one. That way is to take it into the silence within us… to go within… to ask our higher selves… to listen to our intuition… to seek the wisdom of Spirit or Infinite Intelligence. There, in the silence, we will usually get an inner sense of what truly is best for ourselves and everyone.

Therefore, my suggestion for you today is when faced with a situation when you’re not sure which way to act, do this: ask yourself, which choice expresses more life and harms no one? If the answer is not immediately clear, then certainly use your mind to logically weigh the choices, but also take it in your heart and listen….and then trust your intuition.

Blessings and enjoy life.

Mark

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Categories Consciousness, Positive Evolution
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