Jealousy

“Don’t waste your time on jealousy.  Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind, the race is long and in the end, it is only with yourself” – Mary Schmich

I love this quote.  Mary Schmich wrote it as part of some advice to a class of graduates in 1999.  It was popularised in a song called ‘Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen’.  If you haven’t come across it, I recommend a read – there is some wonderful advice in her words.

Jealousy is an interesting concept.  We live in a very material world where jealousy seems to be bred into us at a young age.  We even have the well-known couple – The Jones’ to keep up with!  But jealousy extends far beyond material possessions.  We can be jealous of others for non-physical reasons – even down to being jealous of someone in a spiritual sense – they seem more ‘enlightened’, they meditate more, they seem to have better intuition etc. etc. the list can be endless.

I feel Mary has it right though – the race is long and in the end it is only with yourself.  We need to learn not to compare ourselves to others and what they’re doing, what they have etc. etc.  We need to be centred in ourself and follow what is fulfilling and nurturing to us alone and not even entertain what others are doing , or how what we are doing may seem to them.  By standing in the self, it will remove you from the glamour and competitiveness in the world, and that in turn will allow others to free themselves of it too.

When we choose to live our life as soul, and to follow our soul guidance, everything will be in perfect balance and timing for us to master our lessons with grace and ease.  We will have exactly what we need in the moment we need it.  Therefore jealousy is taken out of the equation.  We are each on our own unique soul journey, so why should we worry about what anyone else is getting up to or what they have?  Our journey, our experience, is perfect for us, right here, right in this moment, in this time and space which we call now; and as every moment is ‘now’, everything is always perfect, isn’t it?!?

Please Put On Your Own Oxygen Mask Before Helping Others

OK, so we’re not on an airplane, but we are on a journey.  I’m using this analogy to demonstrate that we need to make sure we do our own work as well as helping others.  We need to be taking care of ourselves, our own needs and our own journey otherwise how are we going to have anything to give to another? 

Imagine the oxygen mask as being your connection to soul.  We need to make that connection within ourselves, and then move from that point outwards to meet others on a soul-to-soul equal level.  From this place we can act from a place of compassion and detachment rather than sympathy and attachment.  This helps lift another out of the space they are in, rather than meeting them down in the hole and helping to keep them there.

I love this quote by Alan Cohen:  “You can be helping many people, but if you are not helping yourself, you have missed the one person you were born to heal”.

It is more appealing to many people to be helping others.  Don’t get me wrong, helping others is a good thing, we are designed to be here in loving service to others.  However, helping others shouldn’t be a replacement or a distraction from doing our own work.  That is our main mission here.  We need to be focusing on our own issues and lessons and sorting them out and then move on to helping others with their problems.  This is what loving service is. 

Another well-used saying is “physician heal thyself”.  How can you help another if your battery is drained so flat that there is no charge to help jump-start another person?  If you keep neglecting yourself and helping person after person, soon you will have nothing left in you to be able to help yourself or them.  So, close your eyes, take a slow, deep, centring breath, and connect to your soul.  See the line of light coming down from the plane of the soul and entering through your crown and anchoring in your heart centre.  Feel that still, quiet space within.  Just look, see what it is that you need to be working on for you right now.  That is your oxygen mask.  Please put it on before helping others....

The soul and the monad

I’d like to talk a little about the soul and the monad.  This picture is called the ‘chart of the divine self’ and is sold by The Summit Lighthouse (www.tsl.org)  It can be useful to visualise this picture as we talk about the communication channel between the soul extension (personality), the soul and the monad.

 

God/source/creator (however you feel comfortable terming this) wanted to send its light out into the 3^rd dimensional world, the earth.  So it sent out sparks known as monads or spirits.  This is our I AM presence and is our god-self.  There are an infinite number of monads.  In the picture above you will see the monad at the top of the picture, surrounded by the causal rings.  These are the store house of everything we have ever experienced and mastered in all of our lifetimes. 

In order to be able to experience incarnation in a 3^rd dimensional, low vibratory world, the monadic energy had to be slowed down.  Otherwise it would be like trying to plug the light bulb in our house directly into the power station creating electricity.  It would explode.  Therefore the electricity needs to be stepped down and converted before it reaches our house and the fitting we can plug the bulb into.  Our soul (the white middle figure in the picture) was created as the individual aspect of us that is in permanent contact with the monad and creator.  It is the mediator between our personality self and our spiritual god-self.  Each monad has 12 souls attached to it, and each of those souls has 12 soul extensions attached. Our intuition is information from our soul dropping into our conscious mind.  Of course, we can choose to ignore our soul and live only from the personality and ego self. 

The energy should flow from god/source, through our monad, through our soul and then come into our energy field and into the heart centre.  When we have this clear communication channel, we experience flow in our life and are in tune with our soul’s purpose.

The information exchange is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle.  The monad has the full picture of where we have been and where we are going.  The soul has part of the picture, and attracts to us the people and situations we need for us to master our lessons and evolve spiritually on our path.  Our personality self, on its own is almost fumbling around in the dark, it cannot see the bigger picture as it is not illumined.  We need to connect in with our soul so that we can merge with it and start living from the place of the soul.  We need to master our lower bodies for the soul to fully be able to integrate with our physical body.

 

It is easy to picture the god/source - monad - soul - soul extension progression in this picture:

In this way you will clearly see that you, as an individual soul extension, in incarnation upon the earth, have 11 other members in your soul family, and 143 other members in your monadic family.  Every time you are working on mastering a spiritual lesson, you are not only affecting yourself, you are also affecting the other members of your soul family and monadic family.  You are never alone!

 

Seed Thoughts

A seed thought is just what it says, a seed or a kernel, which, under the right circumstances has the potential to unlock all the hidden treasures within and blossom forth into something greater than itself.  Within the smallest seed lies the potential for great things.

A seed thought is a few words or a sentence which is taken into meditation, reflected upon within the light of the soul, and then unlocked for our soul to pour forth the contained wisdom back into our lower mind.

The wisdom contained in a seed thought is not necessarily to be unlocked in one moment of blinding inspiration, a eureka! or a-ha! Moment (though this is not impossible) but rather one will find that with consistent effort in consecutive meditation sessions, another piece of the puzzle will unfold, another facet will be glimpsed and another layer of the wisdom discovered.  Much like peeling back the layers of an onion, each occasion of effort will reveal the next level of understanding and insight.

Much like "the will of the soul is my will" is a seed thought to ponder and reflect on, try this one: "I am the soul, the soul am I".  Take this thought into meditation every day and see the layers of wisdom unfold.  This one is quite a powerful seed thought and you might be surprised at what gets revealed.  I was!

Discipline – the personality struggle

In esoteric circles, the word ‘disciple’ is used for the aspirant on the spiritual path.  This is not used in the religious context, but rather in the ‘follower of a school of thought’ definition¹.  The word disciple conveys just what is needed – discipline.  In order to progress on our spiritual path and to master the three lower bodies (etheric, emotional and mental) we need a huge amount of discipline.  In order to follow the path of soul and progress with ascension and the mastery of our lessons, we need to be disciplined in thought and action.  This can prove to be one of our biggest struggles as the personality will rebel against it.  In order to ascend and achieve a soul-merge, the personality has to step aside and eventually be dissolved.  Why therefore, would it want to allow us to get rid of it?  So it puts up a fight, it allows us to be consumed by it, and to be distracted from our spiritual path.  Meditation is key to our spiritual advancement.  In this matter, Djwhal Khul through Alice Bailey is quoted as saying:  “may it not be truly said, if any one claims not to be able to find fifteen minutes out of the one thousand four hundred and forty minutes which constitute a day, that they are not interested? Fifteen minutes can always be found, if the will is on the side of the effort”.²

In what ways are you letting your personality –self distract you from your path?  Try to see if you can find 15 minutes to make some soul contact today.  This mantra may help: THE WILL OF THE SOUL IS MY WILL.

 

¹ Free dictionary by Farlex www.thefreedictionary.com

² From Intellect to Intuition – Alice A Bailey

To Inspire

On the way home I was thinking about inspiration.  What is it to inspire another?  The Oxford online dictionary defines it as thus:  “fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative: his philosophy inspired a later generation of environmentalists”

We all know what it is to be inspired by another.  We are caught by their enthusiasm, their passion for a subject and that is passed on to us.  We have that spark ignited within us which fires us up and makes us want to discover and experience it for ourselves.  Inspiration is a spark which is passed from one person to another.  We are each like a lit candle.  A candle doesn’t lose any light by lighting another candle.  Let your light shine forth – others will see it and be lit from within.

Marianne Williamson has said “your playing small does not serve the world.  There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.  We are all meant to shine as children do”.

So shine your light.  Inspire and be inspired and follow the path of your soul.  Others will see your light and remember the light within themselves.

Know Thyself

"Know thyself, for in thyself is to be found all that there is to be known" - old injunction quoted in Alice Bailey's 'The Consciousness of the Atom'

There is so much in this statement.  It really focuses the thought that we need to get out of the Piscean energy of looking outside of ourself for answers.  We need to make soul connection and go inwards for our answers.  This is the essence of esoteric work.  Within us we will find all the answers to everything.  Without knowing ourself, how can we extend ourself out in service to others?  Even reading books etc is just reawakening knowledge and information which is already stored within us.  How do we know something to be our truth?  Why do some things resonate with us and yet others don't?  This is because we already know the answers, and these encounters with information just re-alight what is already inside of us.

So endeavour to know thyself.  It is the most valuable investment you will ever make.