Copyright Tam Black 2014 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Guiding Thought
I am light. My body is light. I am free. I know my fulfillment: I feel it rise within me, expand out from me.
Sharing
Moksha is the Eastern concept of Freedom. This is a spiritual freedom, not a civil/political freedom. For many people who practice Eastern religions or follow Eastern philosophies, Moksha is the goal, the highest attainment. This is a State of Being that we can attain here, now, as human beings.
Human beings were born able to attain this State. We all have the ability. (I am reminded of the idea from A Course in Miracles that says, “Miracles are everyone’s right, but purification must happen first” Principle #7; we are so much more than what we allow ourselves to believe).
In my (humble) opinion, the Christ’s Ascension was the achieving of the state of Moksha.
The body, here-now, this human body, is able to attain Moksha, ascension. Human beings are able to so fully align with highest Divine Love and Light that all of their bodies–mental, emotional, physical, and etheric–take on a Divine State. All of their bodies become Divine Love, Divine Light.
I am light. My body is light. I am free. I know my fulfillment: I feel it rise within me, expand out from me.
Welcome to round 2! Thank you for being here. I wish for you waterfalls of Divine Flow, beautiful insights, and Joy on the Journey! With this round, the pronouns change from “I” to “you” (see this page for detailed explanation).
Guiding Thought
Everywhere fulfillment is, you are. Fulfillment is everywhere. Fulfillment is. You are.
Sharing
“Journey” in the context of these Journeys means the Journey of ascension. Did you know that already? Had you figured it out? I seem to have stopped reminding people of that; when I started these Journeys, I used to talk about it a lot. I mean, I say it sort of offhandedly sometimes now, and I did say it pretty outright during the Why of this Journey…but it’s not like I write about it regularly.
So, yeah. I am on the path to ascension. These Journeys guide me daily. I don’t know how long it’s going to take for me to ascend, but I’ve mapped out a 50-year plan with these Journeys.
It is my personal belief that we are all ascending…whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not. What this means to me is that there is a way to grow/evolve our spiritual self, so that we become In-Light-ened, where we transcend the materiality of the world, and literally become light. Jesus did it. The Theotokos did it (according to the Eastern Orthodox tradition). Elijah did it. Enoch did it. Elisha did it. And that’s just from the Hebrew and Christian faith. There are also lots of examples from Buddhism (specifically Dzogchen), Taoism, and Hinduism.
If they can do it, I can do it. So can you.
You know all those motivational phrases you see that people most generally apply to making their lives better or growing their business?
Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success.
Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence. Colin Powell
Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do. Pele
Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen. Wayne Huizenga
Success comes from what you do consistently, not from what you do occasionally.
You’ve heard these before, right? And many, many, many more.
Every time I see one of these, I apply it to my spiritual success. Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and all that. I put my energy, time, and effort into my spiritual evolution.
I may not make it. I get that. But I also believe that no effort is wasted, and that seeking is rewarded.
But more than that, this is how I want to live my life. I want to be the kind of person who strives to live a higher life, and in so doing to bring higher ideals into the world.
How do you feel about your spiritual evolution? Do you feel fulfilled? Do you know yourself as fulfilled? Do you want to?
Let your ideals lead you. Let your highest values guide your life. Always strive higher and higher. Become better. You are amazing just as you are right now, but don’t settle, don’t get complacent, don’t ever think you’re done. We have a long way to go, together…but more than that…we have a lot of people who are just beginning to think about this stuff, and they need us solidly on the path, clearing the way.
Copyright Tam Black 2018 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Welcome to Round 3!
We’re halfway done! How are you doing? How is your life going? How’s your Journey going?
If you’re new to this process, this is where “I” and “you” become “WE”! (See this page, under the heading “Four Rounds” for more information about how the Guiding Thoughts change this round). If you’ve been here for a while, you know how this part of the Journey works 🙂
In the journey of Life, I anchor myself in the Journey, and the Journey anchors me.
Guiding Thought
We have forgotten our Self. We have forgotten who we are. We have forgotten that we are established in Love and by Love, which is infinite and eternal; therefore, our worth is infinite and eternal.
We seek to remember our Self. We choose to remember our Self.
We choose to remember who we are and our infinite worth in Love.
We choose to be aware, to understand, and to Know Our Self as the Love we are.
We choose to share who we are with the world, giving our infinite worth, measured in infinite Love.
Reflection
I feel conflicted about this Guiding Thought a lot. It’s like part of me simply does not want to say or admit in any way to forgetting myself. It feels like it contradicts the bigger picture of what I’m doing here, which is (simply put) affirming Oneness, and Union with my Divine Self. If I admit to forgetting my Self, is that not affirming exactly the opposite of what I want?
There are two things that I tell myself to work through this dilemma I seem to find myself in.
I have to acknowledge the forgetting, in order to remember (see day one of this Journey!)
If I am in a physical body…then I have forgotten. Being in this particular dimension/reality/state of consciousness (whatever you want to call it), means inherently that I (you-we) have forgotten. It comes with the territory, like heat with flame. The physical body/reality is set up as dualistic, divisive, separating and that’s just the way it is.
I was going to say, “and there’s nothing we can do about it”.
But I didn’t because there is something we can do about it. And we are doing it right now. We are remembering Oneness. We are bridging the divide. That’s what the Journeys are all about! (in case you hadn’t noticed) 😉
Two points about my above two points:
I’ve been saying the Bhavanyashtakam several times a week. This is one verse: O Mother, I feel like an orphan on this Earth, powerless and without inner wealth, deluded by ignorance and unable to see the light of truth. It has started to feel so true. It’s like a part of me really understands the difference between what I am experiencing here on earth, and what is possible. Because this verse is saying between the lines that I Know what real inner wealth is, that I Know myself as familiar with the light of truth. If I didn’t know myself as “home”, with power and inner wealth, with wisdom, and able to see the light of truth… how would I know to feel anything different? It’s like acknowledging what I don’t experience tells me that there’s a part of me that Knows that experience. You see?
The whole thing about being in a physical body does not apply to those who have ascended, avatars, or anyone who can change their body into light, leave the planet, then return whenever they want to. This is what I am aspiring to. If you can already do this, I’d like to meet you, or at least be aware of you “out there”. If you are so inclined, drop me a line. If you are further inclined, I accept any help and guidance you would like to give. Thank you in advance.
I just felt like Lestat leaving “Marius” carved into buildings all over the planet. (For those who have read Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles).
These are exciting times! Let’s get to remembering folks 🙂
Copyright Tam Black 2016 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Guiding Thought
Today we erase all we think we know of the Inner Divine Mind. We are changing. We are changed. All is new. With a blank slate of pure luminescence, we wait, simply feeling the inner glow.
Transformation!
We want this! We invite this! We welcome this!
We allow ourselves to change, to become more attuned to our Self, more aligned with our Self, and more congruent with our Highest Purpose. As we wait and watch, our Highest Purpose appears as activity, as people, and circumstances. We breathe, we smile, and we live.
Sharing
Whenever I have done this Guiding Thought before, I have thought of it in the context of emotional change and transformation, like sorting through lower emotions, and transmuting them into higher emotions with love or forgiveness.
Today, I feel like the change and transformation is physical.
Since day 17, concepts like healing, resurrection, transfiguration, miracles have been seeping their flavor into my mental stew.
I choose to believe that Jesus resurrected. The hypothesis that I think is most correct is that he was able to bring so much Divine Light and Love into and through his body that he could heal, walk on water, command elements, raise the dead, and raise himself from the dead (aka resurrect or ascend).
Jesus was not, however, the first person in the bible to ascend. Elijah also ascended. We have more than one model for “ways to do it”.
I also choose to believe Jesus’ words, “all of this, and more than this, shall you also do”. I’ve believed this since I was a kid, and I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to achieve it. After all, I don’t want to be the one to make Jesus into a liar, ya know?
I’m not there yet. but–and now we come back to the relevance of this in relation to the Guiding Thought–today I physically felt the pure luminescence and the inner glow. I felt it. I felt the light anchoring itself in my physical body.
I also felt attuned to and aligned with my Self.
There are some days when, in meditation, I get into that zone where what I am meditating on/with becomes the Reality of me. It’s like I become my Self, while I am also myself…but myself can now see how much it is really more my Self, and myself has an identity shift that endures past the meditation.
Also, I feel the light, the energy, as my body. I could see/feel the energy shifting/changing my cells, my muscles, even my DNA.
I do want this! invite this! welcome this! It’s so much more fun than emotional change.
Copyright Tam Black 2016 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Guiding Thought
Our Purpose is to awaken to the Truth within and share it. The Truth within – our Inner Divine Mind – flows constantly and purely. As we go deeper in our awareness, the current of this broadens, strengthens, and brightens. It fills us and pours forth. This is our Source; the Source of all good, all happiness, and all abundance. We awaken to our Inner Divine Mind and invite It to express Itself as every person and event that will increase our awareness of It.
Sharing
Inner Divine Mind wants to experience Itself.
It can only do that through us.
It can only do that through us to the extent that we align our consciousness with It, thus becoming aware of It as us.
This sentence really simplified things for me: Our Purpose is to awaken to the Truth within and share it.
Lately, as I have been thinking about purpose, I have recognized a thought/feeling that my purpose is somewhere else. In other words, it’s anywhere but here. Somehow, in this thought/feeling, my purpose is never what I am doing right now.
And now I am thinking about how relevant yesterday’s post was to this. It’s only now that I can experience the Holy Instant, and if I am never thinking about now as a Holy Instant, I never experience it. Awakening is only now. My purpose now is to awaken.
I believe that what the Guiding Thought is telling us, is that once we give one instant to our purpose, awakening to the Truth within (or as A Course in Miracles would say, to the Holy Instant), then we actually, fully experience our alignment with Divine Mind.
In that instant, since we are fully experiencing Divine Mind, and we are experiencing ourselves, then whatever this self, this body is perceiving/experiencing in the world is being perceived/experienced through the Divine Mind, which is beyond senses and perception. This is how perception is transcended. This is how Oneness is known, beyond perception. This is how separation and difference is eliminated.
But, also, as I noted yesterday, the reason all this is a journey: it takes far longer for us to decide to give a mere instant to the Peace of Heaven than for the Peace of Heaven to enter our consciousness.
It’s every now that we must give to awakening, give to our Purpose, give to Divine Mind and the Peace of Heaven.
Copyright Tam Black 2018 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Welcome to Round 02!
How has it been going for you, so far? For me…this Journey has been going pretty well, I think. I haven’t had any major “ah-ha” moments, but I’ve just felt like pieces are coming together and fitting, even though I don’t always know what they are fitting into.
The Guiding Thoughts now use “You” as the subject, instead of “I”. If you are new here, check out this page for an introduction to how/why the rounds change (under the header “Four Rounds”).
Guiding Thought
There is a Perfect Spiritual Idea of Perfect Fulfillment. Your Inner Divine Mind Knows every form, experience, situation, event, circumstance, condition, relationship, and sequence that fulfills your desires. When you are diligent about maintaining your focus of desire on the loving benefit and fulfillment of all sentient beings, Divine Substance–which is the source of Spiritual Idea’s manifestation–flows through you and externalizes in your experience. Divine Presence appears as the perfect fulfillment of every single form, experience, situation, event, circumstance, condition, relationship, and sequence that you could possibly desire.
Sharing
A key component to today’s Thought is service. Yes, you’re right–there is nothing there that says “service” directly. But it’s implied.
In fact it’s almost implied as a quid pro quo. Let’s think about all this.
This is the sentence I am talking about: When you are diligent about maintaining your focus of desire on the loving benefit and fulfillment of all sentient beings, Divine Substance–which is the source of Spiritual Idea’s manifestation–flows through you and externalizes in your experience.
This sentence bridges the beginning of the Guiding Thought and the end of it.
Both the beginning and the end say basically the same thing: that there is a perfect idea for your life, and Divine Mind knows it, and it (as Divine Presence) appears in your life. It’s all there. Perfect Idea exists. You know it, and know what it is (through your Divine Mind), and you manifest it, through your Divine Presence.
So why is there a bridge, what purpose does that serve?
I’d like to say it’s as simple as keeping your ego in check by maintaining your focus of desire on the loving benefit and fulfillment of all sentient beings. That is certainly part of it–if your focus is on others, your ego is in check.
But it’s also more than that.
What the Guiding Thought describes is the circulation of Divine Energy. We are the receivers, the transformers, and the conduits. Everyone is. In order for Divine Energy to flow, we must embody all three stages: we must receive Divine Energy, we must transform it (bring it into our unique personality, or energy pattern), and then be the conduit for it to go out again. If we block it at any of these stages, we are shutting down the flow, and hindering the circulation of Divine Energy.
This is why we must maintain our focus of desire on the loving benefit and fulfillment of all sentient beings. That opens the conduit channel; we send the energy back out to others. In order for Divine Energy to manifest to us, it must be able to go through us.
And then we must receive it in return, from everyone. As we give to others, they give to us. You are always giving and receiving Divine Energy. Being aware of the flow increases your consciousness of everything as Divine Energy, and allows you to opento everything as Divine Energy. That’s when it starts appearing as every single form, experience, situation, event, circumstance, condition, relationship, and sequence that you could possibly desire,
Copyright Tam Black 2015 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Guiding Thought
Through our physical body, we bring Divine Light and Love to the physical universe. We heal unresolved issues through loving thoughts, words, and emotions, and become lighter and brighter. We bring light to all we have denied and we heal our past-present-future NOW. Every day we are lighter and lighter!
Reflection
A couple days ago, I mentioned what I saw as a connection between neurons (electrical energy) and the idea of “everything is energy”.
Of course, if you know anything about Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, this idea is not new. But what is interesting to me, is that the neurons confirm the idea that we are energy.
Here’s the thing: if I already consist of submicroscopic particles/waves which are already pure energy, then how do I realize this and embody it physically as a being of Light?
I just remembered today that I have been working with this idea since I was 14. I used to visualize myself as pure light, pure energy. I used to picture so much light shining within me that it came out of my eyes and hands, and “enlightened” my head–like you see in pictures of holy people (I wanted to be a disciple of Jesus…)
I am still working with this idea. I admit: I believe that we are light, and “all” we have to do is realize ourselves as “enlightened” beings, Know ourselves as the Divine Light and Love we are.
I believe that we bring Divine Light and Love to the physical universe because we are that Love and Light.
But…unresolved issues bog us down. Not only do those issues contribute to our believing we are something we are not (material beings), but they literally keep us weighed down through being such a low frequency/vibration that the Light can’t get through. We are doors instead of windows between Light and the world.
Through loving thoughts, words, and emotions, we become lighter and brighter. Literally. As we lift our frequency, Light resonates with us–or I should say, we resonate with Light, and we then shine with the Light we are, because there is nothing in the way.
I feel a great sense of duty and responsibility about this. We need to bring this Love and Light to the world. If we need to do it, then I need to do it. I have a responsibility to myself, but more than that, I have a responsibility to you. You can do this, too. You can be the Light you are. If you don’t believe me… well… that’s why I need to be it, so you can see your own Truth.
How much more free can anyone be, as Love and Light?
As a side note, I mention sometimes how the Journeys are all interconnected, leading us to enlightenment from one angle, then from another angle. Here is one of the Guiding Thoughts from Journey of Fulfillment:
We are light. Our Bodies are light. We are free. We know fulfillment and can feel it rise within and expand out.
During that Journey, we look at freedom and Light through the lens of Fulfillment. It gives a bit of a different feel, but much depth, to all of the concepts (Light, Freedom, Fulfillment). Every angle offers a new understanding.
Copyright Tam Black 2016 Designed for susanwithpearls.com
Cracking The Oyster
Happy Tuesday! It’s Day 18…welcome to it!
As I was editing today’s article (I do that here, too), I was almost chuckling. I swear I just mentioned here, quite possibly yesterday, Sus’ many previous lives lived in religious devotion…and here she is today talking about…religious devotion and reincarnation, oh…and the fact people have to re-learn things from one life to the next. Timing. Is. Everything! We really are a well-tuned machine; it’s the reason we do this together.
I can’t say I’ve never met anyone more devoted to doing spiritual practices, that would be a fib, however, Sus is right up there in the top, oh…let’s say five! What with the earth, air, water, fire, and I forget what. She hasn’t had much time to sit out with the fire (which I like), the daily bathing for hours (which she hasn’t been doing b/c she took up exercising instead), and the…okay, maybe I need to rethink this spiritual devotion thing. BUT she absolutely HAS been blessing water to drink by the gallon…and eating healthily! And she does her meditation…while she’s driving…she does her mantras.
So, yeah, not so much lately, still Sus is a good egg and she is devoted to her practices; I’m just making it sound really bad b/c I like to give her a hard time. I’m sure I’ve been doing that very thing for millennia…lol! 😀
Now, grab yourself a temperature appropriate beverage, get to your favorite cushy reading spot, and as always…
You are worth the effort it requires to move your mind to Love. You are worth the time of waiting, in patience, for Knowing to arrive. Every moment, every second that you open to simply being willing to allow Love to enter is a moment offered to Eternity; a moment offered to healing, a moment offered to Unity.
Love simply settles slowly, quietly, gently, beyond sense-perception. So, wait in patience and take the effort to move your mind to join the quiet stillness of Love. Rest. Be at Peace. Here is all you want and need.
Sharing
I think a lot about enlightenment, ascension, transfiguration, incorporating Divine Life into the life of the body, all that kind of stuff, whatever you want to call it. I am one of those people who thinks that there are people who have done it, that there are living examples of real people who have become more, who have somehow succeeded in releasing earthly (bodily) limitations, surpassing the death of the body.
Jesus is the obvious example from Western, Christian culture, but there are examples from India (Shri Haidakhan Baba, Ramakrishna), Tibet (Djwhal Khul) China and Japan (Quan Yin), even from the pre-European-invasion Americas (Dendreah, the White Buffalo Calf Woman/Earth Mother). Please note, I am not referring to the kind of immortality advocated by Aubrey de Grey, which focuses on a physical suspension of aging. While I find his work interesting, it is different than the ascension of a spiritual master, which is what I am referring to.
I seem to think that if they’ve done it, I can too.
It’s not about wanting to get out of this life, or this body. It’s about loving this life and this body (as a tool for Divine use); I want to stay here. It’s also because, when people die, they forget, and when they come back they just have to learn to remember all over again. I’ve learned so much! I have so much momentum going for me that I want to keep going and keep learning without any interruption.
Living life in union with the Divine: that’s the ultimate Journey, the upward spiral, the spiral of ascension. Others have done it; others have gotten past the limitation enough so that their momentum is fully upward, and they can ride it like a leaf on the wind (without getting complacent, because if the wind stops, the leaf falls).
But then I think, “But I am just a regular person. How can I achieve what they’ve achieved? Doesn’t it require years upon years of monasticism, self-deprivation, self-denial, millions of prayers, 40-days in the desert, any and all of that stuff? How do I do that in ‘today’s world’? Those things require a very specific lifestyle, a lot of willpower, and walking away from everything about this world, including family, job, friends, house, etc.” Or does it?
I also tend to believe that everyone has their own unique path to ascension, right here, right now. In the right frame of mind, everything and anything frees us.
Don’t get me wrong: I would walk away in a heartbeat, if it’s what I thought Divine Will really wanted of me. But I think being a regular person, doing this work, every day, is what Divine Will’s Will is for me.
Because we are not Jesus, or Enoch, or St. Germain, or Dendreah, or any of the others who have already done the work of ascension. They went through this all on their own, they figured it out. We can too, just regular people.
You have the ability for ascension in you right now: “Every moment, every second that you open to simply being willing to allow Love to enter is a moment offered to Eternity; a moment offered to healing, a moment offered to Unity.”
“You are worth the effort it requires to move your mind to Love.” As you live as your Divine Self, you as this body, this mind, become One with the life of your Divine Self, which is eternal and infinite. You can bring the life of the Divine Self into the Life of the body, and as you do, It transforms you.
“You are worth the time of waiting, in patience, for Knowing to arrive.” And when it does, renewal is automatic, instantaneous, and natural because the Divine Self is True and Real, and that is the only thing that you want and need.
SusanWithPearls 