"Spiritual bypassing" - spirituality as way of avoiding our shadows. Time to step toward our pain.

When I read this, I saw myself clear as ever. Wow.

"Have you ever:

• • Used spirituality as a sort of escape from reality, or as a way to avoid some painful aspect of your life?
  • Let yourself get taken advantage of or walked all over in the name of blind compassion?
  • Allowed your understanding of ultimate reality to help you avoid or push away your anger, believing such negative emotions to be "lower" or "less spiritual" than your enlightened ideals?
  • Used spiritual (or integral) terminology to relabel your own shadows, paving over the potholes in your own personality?"
  • 
    
  "If you are being completely honest with yourself, odds are you would answer "yes" to one or more of these questions. It might be difficult to admit--in fact it might be so subtle and so insidious it's difficult to evensee. But don't worry: you are not alone. In fact, we would be hard pressed to name a single teacher or practitioner who hasn't fallen into similar traps at one time or another. Fortunately, we have people likeRobert Augustus Masters and Ken Wilber to help us recognize, confront, and embrace these flickering shadows of spiritual bypassing--offering us a path from from self-deception to self-liberation, from idiot compassion to enlightened action, from effete escapism to the moment-to-moment enactment of infinite and boundless love."
  
  
  Excellent work. Here is a wonderful discussion worthy of 20 minutes of time to listen.
  And the book "Spiritual Bypassing: When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters"
  
  
  
  

Taking responsibility for how we're creating Reality. Now.

"We must very deliberately examamine our fundamental beliefs. Are they passive, simply explaining reality? Or are they active, giving structure to the Akashic Field, the quantum vacuum, to create experiences that reflect them? We will explore the possibility that the Akashic Field is essentially neutral, and will reflect in experience whatever strong convictionsand images we impose upon it. If we really know this, then we cannot interpret our experiences as verification of the truth of our convictions. As radical and preposterous as it may sound, maybe we make it all up as we go along, both on the individual and collective levels. Failure to even weigh such a possibility is the inherent danger of religious dogma. It constitutes a self-fulfilling prophecy-the belief in evil creates evil, and prophesies of doom engender apocalyptic scenarios.  This is most germane in surveying the religious insanity of the Middle East: Each side cleaves to its dogma and devotion, certain that the other is wrong and evil, while blithely unaware that both are reacting to manifestations of the underlying Akashic Field that they, themselves, have created.

We have reached a point in our development where we can function as conscious co-creators with the Divine.... We have the power to structure the Akashic Field with our thoughts, imaginings, and feelings, whether we are conscious of this aptitude or not. We must now take responsibility for doing so." 

"We must proceed with great caution. The ability to create is not tantamount to the ability to create wisely.  Once we become aware of how we manifest the content of our existence from the Akashic Field, we must also become aware of, and rigorously question, with what our manifestations  align themselves. Until fairly recently, the greater part of humanity has been thoroughly entrenched in egoic and pre-egoic mental structures, and has been unconsciously and rampantly cultivating from them.  Even most of those who live at the ego level, but who have a conscious awareness of the psychological techniques of manifestation, practice them from the intentionality of the ego, frequently believing that they are coming from a higher place."

"In recent years there has been an increasing presence of books, audio material, and workshops on the subject of manifestation. In and of itself, this is an encouraging sign, in that it indicates a fostering of inquiry and stronger sense of autonomy. The problem, however, is that nearly all of this material is being used for purposes antithetical to their aim - they are facilitating the augmentation of the ego. The ability to manifest is not a sign of spiritual evolvement or enlightenment. It is simply a skill - a use of available technology. What calibrates spiritual development is the tenor of our use of this technology-whether we employ it in the service of the ego or  of the Divine Plan."

From pg. 124-125 of The Collapsing Tower - Birth Pangs of Post Ego Civilization by Robert Lorenz Phd - a free book that can be downloaded by clicking here.

Reflections on Oneness...

There are lies in everyone's world view - truth is relative - in every context one can be a force of good and light or fear and separation. There are many paradoxical parallel world views - core is to be true to oneself, connect to beauty and love inside oneself, integrate all aspects shadow and light into coherence and act accordingly. Trust the inner guidance toward awakening to full integration of self - recognizing that the entire cosmos is an expression of one's consciousness. From that view - "all 'others' are 'me' in a 'them' costume to teach me, and provide gifts for the evolution of my consciousness."

Invoking the Consciousness of Allowance of the Manifestation of the Highest Good

"In order to know, experientially, the state of fearlessness that comes of aligning with one's Godself, it is necessary to undergo what might be considered to be a series of initiations. These manifestations, as experiences, of one's fear of disconnection, are in fact illusory devices that you have created for yourself so that you might have the means of proving otherwise.  By consciously choosing, in one's darkest hour, to reject the vision of hopelessness that appears inevitable, and to choose instead the knowingness that the outcome will reflect your highest possible good, you open the doorway within to the place of loving trust that will lead you home."

"This blind leap in faith has been spoken of throughout time immemorial, and is known by every culture throughout your planetary history. Yet most address this reference with an air of mockery in light of the very real-seeming circumstances at hand. What is called for is not bravery and heroism in that "moment of truth," but total detachment. A level of surrender is called for that has released all attachment to outcome.  This level of surrender is achieved when one stands on the very edge of one's gravest fear and knows, in that moment, that there is nothing to fear."

"Embrace yourself, in these times, and acknowledge yourself for the extraordinary progress you are making, as a soul, in every waking moment. The very fact that you are drawn to reading these words attests to an opennes on yourpart to aligning with the momentum of this multidimensional journey. Know that do have done so reflects great courage on your part. And that to continue to do so, despite the resistance of consensus thinking, puts you in the forefront of those destined to emerge in the new world relatively unscathed."

"The opportunity to circumvent some of the mountains that most will manifest and choose to scale lies in the ability, in the moment at hand, to release the need to control the result of the dynamics of any circumstance in which one finds oneself. By consciously shifting one's intent to one of conscious allowance of the manifestation of the highest good of the collective, one enhances the opportunity to manifest the brightest possible outcome for oneself.  In so doing, one is able to secure a state of beingness that is unencumbered by eons of trial ad error and is free to explore the joys of manifestaion of the Divine Will in alignment with one' own."

Page 77, 78

[italics in original]

Consciousness is the basis of all reality.

The question then is, what is consciousness?
Am I consciousness?
Who am I?
questions worthy of consideration...

Change in the world? Starts with me!

http://www.stateyourchange.org/ On election night, Causecast asked people at the Cause on the Rocks event at The Edison in downtown Los Angeles for the changes they would like to see in the world. I participated.

Evolutionary Leaders gather at UCLA

I went to "Evolutionary Leaders" event - with all the "Who's Who" in the "conscious movement"

Saw many friends - and encountered some lovely "leaders" who I have met in the past - Lynne Twist, Arielle Ford, Debbie Ford, Michael Beckwith, Steve McIntosh, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Gregg Braden, etc. and some who I had not Bruce Lipton, Duane Elgin, Don Beck and others. A very broad spectrum of some of the luminaries of the movement, all at once in one event.

I met Barbara Marx Hubbard 20 Years ago - when we worked together on a project for a week. It was during the period that much of this work for me became very clear in my life...

That said, here we are 20 years later - all the "leaders" coming together to inspire "evolutionary leaders."

It was amazing to have all those people together on the stage at the same time - and in the seats in the hall.
Something about it though still rang of an "old paradigm" energy - leaders inspiring leaders - and people on the stage "delivering a message of urgency" to the people in the audience. I would have liked it for all of us to be in a massive circle together...

That said - it felt like an important step for all these leaders on the stage - for them to come together in solidarity and connect and work together and appear on stage together as a unified field. They demonstrated the unity of connectedness that needs to be embodied now. Even so, there was something about the way it is was done -the format, the assumption that a "message needs to be given" etc. which I feel is something from another timeline of activation, which we just stepped out of last night - and into a new timeline of collective embodiment of the evolutionary impulse.

Yet what last night represented to me was a culmination, a graduation of sorts, for all the people on the stage to be celebrated, acknowledged, connected, etc. so that the baton can be handed off. This was not unlike a ritual which marked the end of an era, a dynamic so that it could gracefully put to rest with sacred intention and honor. Once done we could move on. But this effort is the latest and best from this extraordinary group of people...who are some of the most important thought leaders of our time.

Meanwhile - check out the website - it actually has some very cool stuff on it - especially the "Evolutionary Leaders Toolkit" which appears to be a very succinct, and valuable document for all of us working together - in whatever area of life we live.

I also had a nice chat with Andrew Cohen - what a sweetheart - he's a little intense, yet very sweet energy... when I made a comment something to the effect "see you in the dream" he nudged me and said "it's all real!" - yes, another adjustment - I guess he's on the same team as all of my other spiritual guides - and filling in where you they left off... worry not - Greg nudges toward full awakening continue from all fronts from the cosmos!