Horizons Magazine
JANUARY 2003
New beginnings, making a difference, caring about the process,
a love affair with the Divine, we are not alone, celibacy, inner ecology.
Hello and welcome to the January 2003 issue of Horizons Magazine.
I always love the beginning of a new year because it offers infinite potential.
Ralph Marston says, 'the future is uncertain. That means there's no limit as
to how beautiful and joyful you can make it."
I love new beginnings in general. Just the idea of it sounds fresh and exciting: something new to be explored, surprises to be discovered. I'm feeling a fresh burst of energy lately, and renewed enthusiasm for what I do and who I am. And who I'm capable of becoming. And I don't mean that in a 'rich and famous" way. I mean it in a "doing what I came here to do" way. I mean it in a "finding my niche" way. An "ah, this is what it's all about" kind of way.
I'm feeling more confident that what I do makes a difference, and I'm not just talking about Horizons. I'm talking about me personally. I'm talking about when I do a kindness for someone, no matter how small, it helps them to be kinder to others. When I do a favor for someone, they are more likely to do a favor for someone else. When I genuinely show others I care about who they are and what they do, it encourages them to be more of who they came here to be.
I have a friend who's the author of several popular books and she's currently working on a new one. I know her to be very reclusive and very much a loner - more so than I. I always walk that balance between wanting to keep in touch with friends, yet not wanting to invade their privacy. I'd emailed her a short note, asking how the new book was coming along and she wrote back 'thank God, just what I need, someone caring about the progress (seriously!)" I had to laugh, because here I was thinking "Well, she has her hands full, she's busy with her own thoughts, she's this famous author, she probably has a thousand people pulling at her." Yet she was glad for someone to care about how her progress was going. Someone other than her publisher, who hopes to make money off her (and will.)
I know just how she feels. I do so much of my work alone. I have friends, but none that really cheerlead me along in my work. I get lots of feedback by mail and email about how readers love the magazine, and enjoy reading what I write. I have friends and clients that I mentor or counsel, and they let me know how much they appreciate that. But I don't have a best friend, or confidante that is involved in the work of what I do, and sometimes I think it"d be nice to have that. Most of the time I am so busy, I don't have time to miss it, and I very seldom feel that anything is missing in my life, ever.
A friend has been asked to speak on 'love as a Vital Part of Self Actualization - What would happen if we were truly "in love" with our selves and our higher power." I told him I've always loved the concept of "being in love" with the Divine. In some bhakti (devotional) yoga traditions, you meditate upon the idea of Krsna as the beloved. Some fundamentalist Christian groups counsel teenage girls to think of Jesus as their boyfriend, and it's the same idea.
It's true that when you have a partner and are in love, you see the world thru eyes of love and it colors all your perceptions. Think about the last time you were newly in love. You were happy and treated others well and were able to withstand loss and move through challenges easier. Feeling in love strengthens your immune system, due to the cascade of neurochemicals and the changes in the endocrine system.
When I teach meditation or contacting inner guidance, I use the analogy of falling in love to encourage students to 'vibrate there" so they can invoke or attract that feeling. I know that once they are able to call that feeling to themselves at will, they can recreate it during meditation. The more they invoke that feeling, the more they create it for themselves, and the less they look outside themselves to get that feeling.
I have lots of friends and clients, teachers and students who don't have a partner. I think part of my "mission in life" is to let everyone to know they don't need a physical partner in order to feel loved and appreciated, or to receive any of the benefits of "being in love."
As Roy Eugene Davis says, 'there is an enlivening Power nurturing the universe, with which we can have a responsive relationship." That means once we tap into that Power, it responds to us. Rather, It's always interacting with and responding to us and, once we consciously tap into it, we become aware of it responding to us. This is when prayer and meditation take on new meaning, because it becomes interactive.
You're no longer mouthing petitions in the dark to an empty wall, you are instead aware that your prayers are being sent 'somewhere" and being 'received" by 'someone." You can energetically feel it happening. You become expansively aware of the dance of give and take, action and reaction. It's as if you feel aware of, and a part of, every molecule and subatomic particle in that moment, and you all breathe in and all breathe out in unison. It's not just the expanded awareness, it's the absolute knowing that you are not alone. That there is a gracious, benevolent Presence that has always been with you, and remains always with you, whether you're aware of it or not. And it can be your choice to practice this Presence whenever you wish.
That's one reason why true monks and celibates aren't lonely and don't crave or miss human contact. They don't feel they're missing anything. Neither does anyone else who meditates effectively. To the extent you meditate effectively, to that extent is it evident to others in your character and personality. By their fruits shall we know them :)
What can your friends tell about you by your character and personality" What is the condition of your personal environment; the state of your personal ecology" David Spangler wrote: "We all grow up and live exposed to each other's psychic environments: the second-hand smoke of our inner thoughts and feelings. This 'smoke" is most recognized as a mood, but in the realm of consciousness, it is also a tangible psychic condition, very much like smoke. It can affect in various ways the psychic states of other people, who, incidentally, may also be putting out "mood-smoke."
'the actual thoughts and feelings that are creating my mood or the psychic field around me are probably private, but the energy from them goes out like smoke into my environment and is there for everyone to deal with. Of course, this can be either a positive or negative condition. I can put out empowering and inspiring "moods" as well as negative ones. The point is that if we become more aware of the levels of our interconnectedness, along with this comes a heightened awareness of the kind of subjective conditions that we are creating. It is a very ecological notion: how am I affecting my environment?
This awareness brings a new level of responsibility for the quality and direction of my thinking and feeling; not that I have to be positive all the time, but that I need to be aware of how I am interconnected with and affecting others. There are things I can do to minimize the effect of my moods, but in the long run we all take on a greater discipline for keeping our inner ecology clean."
That brings to mind a favorite quote: "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations if you live near him." J.R.R. Tolkien
Once we know something, it behooves us to act in accordance with that knowledge. I know that these are exciting times we're living in. I can feel the changes all around me and it makes me feel safe and secure. I don't know what form they'll take, but I know that in the moment I encounter them, I'll be guided to appropriate ideas and action.
We're all in this together. There's meaning in people interacting together in a way that creates a state of emergence.
How may we bring out the best in each other and in our world?
How can we use our individuality so that it becomes a gateway for new possibilities and, in its creativity and compassion, becomes a channel for the sacred?
What are you going to do in 2003 to keep the Light on?
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