Monday 25 April 2011

Freewill – its meaning

I think that most people would never realize that the ability to chose it in fact a gift. We take it for granted that we make choices and so never really give much thought to the choices we make, since many decisions made on a daily basis are almost automated. But at what point do we actually start paying attention to the choices we make? It is one thing to be aware of the choices we make regarding our career direction or within our family environment but do we really consider the implications of those choices? Do we really think forward enough to consider their impact both positive or negative?

If we think about it making a choices is a creative process which can allow us to lead a more fulfilling life but consider living in an environment where you are surrounded by choices and individuals who make those choices can have an impact on the choices you make. How do we make sense or even begin to make a choice for ourselves? We are faced with opinion after opinion on a daily basis that influence the choices and decisions we make. There is also our past that we must contend with because decisions made, as a child, have a huge impact on how we perceive the world. Consider our emotional reactions to the world we live in and decisions we make according to those emotions. Are our needs healthy and based on living a positive life or are they based on insecurity and devoid of any true understanding?

It is fair to say that despite the more automated aspect of our decision making process the capacity to exercise our freewill is somewhat complex with a huge range of influences. But do we really feel comfortable making choices beyond the scope of understanding? Many people tend to avoid more complex choices due to the impact that they might have on their perception of the world and more importantly how other people perceive them since we all have the basic need to feel a sense of belonging. So fear is yet another important factor that impacts on our decisions making processes.

Our freewill in it's true form is to exercise a creative force and it is our attitude towards this creative force that can determine many an outcome. Having a basic understanding about how powerful our ability to make choices are is a good starting point and also one that is underestimated. But to truly understand its power is to understand how the choices we make impact the life we live. This can bring us to a level of consideration that is beyond our basic needs and begin to direct us towards actually thinking about how we chose to live a person. And it is this choice that can have a truly life changing impact.

How we chose to apply our freewill and how we chose to be creative begins with awareness and it is with our growing awareness that must also begin with a choice because we can chose to be ignorant or to be aware. To be aware does not just happen over night, it begins with understanding and making the choice and taking the time to understand. We can either live our lives trapped within the limitations of our ignorance and exist lacking in any true fulfilment or we can live a life of exploration and enlightenment. This is not to say that living a life of valued existence is an easy task, far from it, as any significant change also involves a shift in attitude and behaviour. It is a process of taking what already exists, examining it and understanding the impact of how any behaviour or attitude has shaped our decision making. It is though this exploration that we can begin to find peace and a sense of belonging that is truly our own. Thus our freewill to chose is truly free.

Thursday 15 October 2009

My Example of Conflict of the Human Mind Within One Individual

Here is a fine example of the development in human understanding. The two writings below have been done 7 months apart from each other. As you will read the individual who done the writings has approached each one from a different perspective. This is a useful exercise in development circles to see how our understanding changes.

The original writing "Spiritual growth as related to human understanding" can be found on page 19 in the channeled book. "The Light in your Life is Spirit".

A) SPIRITUAL GROWTH AS RELATED TO HUMAN UNDERSTANDING

This subject is vast in terms how we comprehend our understanding in relation to spiritual growth. What is spiritual growth? How can we measure it? Can it be measured? Our human understanding in relation to this how can this be measured? I suppose from this angle it is not something that can be clinically proved and there are many people out there who want proof before they can start believing in something. A guy I work with does not believe in the afterlife which is fair enough, he had a well known medium from Dunbar give him a reading and he was talking about his brother who had died and how much he was there for him in spirit. My work colleague does not believe in the after life, spirit or whatever name is chosen so how can he work on spiritual growth that he may not be aware of regarding his purpose on his journey?

I suppose in my case I am lucky I am aware of the facts to a degree but have conflict with my soul on a daily basis from miniscule things to more detrimental ones. But I feel there is nothing that I can't change, but change can happen with effort and application and it is I that is in the driving seat this lifetime and I have a satnav in God if only I switched it on more often. Human desire is a strong element in today's society and is it giving us peace of mind and hope for the future? Not really. I am lucky I am aware of it but there are many people who are oblivious to this situation which is only prolonging a sense of emptiness and hunger for more desires to be fulfilled. The capitalist system is collapsing before our very eyes like other empires throughout the ages in Mesopotamia, the Roman Empire and the British Empire to name but a few. You would of thought that the so called more intelligent people in our society would have twigged now that this system collapses in on itself as it has done for centuries yet we still use the same or at least a similar blueprint and keep making the same mistakes! Man is driven by greed and power and particularly in the western world and I feel this is what we as the masses are driven to attaining. But firstly this is an impossible dream for most of the world could not sustain itself and many already are starving and dying because of man's ignorance and greed for the dollar, gold, shares and property etc. We are in most cases a selfish, self absorbed society only looking out for our self and often at the expense of less fortunate individuals. Even if we attain this great wealth how many happy billionaires and millionaires do you see not many I bet?

Mankind right now is crucifying the life out of his soul and mentally diminishing the spirit within through his poor choices, ignorance, fear, indecision and uncertainty. However there are rumblings of discontent as people are now looking for answers outside of the normal paths that they take. Some are going towards God in a religious sense, others have taken the new age path and it is good to find like minded individuals but I feel what we look for down these paths is often misleading and has no true depth or meaning. With a lot of organised religion people go the church and the mosque every week and think that this will help their spiritual growth, but if they do not understand what spiritual growth is about how can they truly feel they are closer to God? The new age revolution has lead to a lot of charalatans claiming they have the answers and they are often admired by people looking for answers but mislead people by their false truths and superficial views on spirituality. We as humans still want others to give us the answers and this leads to a pretty big market for gurus, priests, Reiki Masters, ministers of the faith and so on. So what makes these people more elevated and enlightened than the rest of us? Are they super beings brought down to be worshipped, followed and adhered to? I am sorry but that does not sit right with me anymore, although I too have had people I have looked up to and wanted the answers and asked for the direction that I needed to go on in life. To a degree this helps if the person has one's genuine interests at heart but how can we know this for sure? I feel our soul is the core of whom we are and here lies all the answers, that does not mean to say that we cannot be inspired by other people but it is important we do not follow blindly everything they tell us. Even God could not give us the answers and fix things for us, what would we learn from this? That is like having the questions and answers of an exam paper in astrophysics and copying it down to gain the qualification; I don't think we would learn much do you? I feel God is part of the evolutionary chain as we are; it is just he has being doing it a lot longer and is more open to learning and evolving. Now I am not saying that we can become like God but we certainly can attain growth through effort, fortitude, courage, wisdom and an inner belief that we have a real purpose in being here which is beneficial to our own soul growth and the journey we are on. But do we want to and is it worth the effort? I feel it is even though I myself often take one step forward and three back yet I still want to continue on this path.

My Earthly distractions are the reasons I am not getting with the program as these American gurus sometimes say, but that needs to be addressed and the sooner the better as time is ticking away and the evolutionary clock moves on regardless of whether I go with or against it. I know that if I had not started walking this path my life would have been one of fear ruling every aspect of my being. Even though I feel I am still a toddler learning the ropes, I am still an adult and have a responsibility for my soul and to be frank I have been and am still irresponsible for my growth. But no one can do this for me; the mosque or local church hasn't the answers for me as an individual or the Buddhist centre's or new age facilities that are around the country. That is not to say people within these places cannot attain spiritual growth they can but with it comes responsibility and every action has a reaction and a consequence to that action whether that be good or bad. The key is to understand our self and it does not matter how you get there as long as you get there because the evolutionary cycle moves on regardless of our freewill choices. It can be a good thing freewill but we are still children in spiritual development, I feel it is like giving a child the keys to a toyshop or sweet shop and telling them to be responsible and help the business to grow. The child has not got the understanding to achieve this as this takes time, effort and a mind for business through understanding. All that would probably happen here is the child would call his friends over and eat huge, copious amounts of sweets and play with the toys and let his friends do the same. Life has many distractions, many paths which are dead ends and fruitless through what we perceive are opportunities, chance meetings with people, poor choices and a lack of understanding through low self esteem and ignorance. Honesty is the best policy here if we can understand why and how we can keep shooting our self in the foot or making poor choices, whatever the reason maybe it is imperative that we understand the importance of it and the importance of nurturing our soul the life force which I feel is connected to God. Our soul is like a seed that needs care, love and attention we cannot afford to take our eye off the ball, it needs constant feeding and nutrients to survive and fertile ground on which to grow. Our soul needs love and security and if we did not get this in our earlier life then it is important we try and understand who we are beyond the masks and identities we have created along the journey, let's be truthful and let's be totally honest have we really made the grade? Maybe not but our life isn't over because we haven't found that inner peace and quiet confidence within our self, there is still time to grow. God can guide us but we need to apply and make a real effort to overcome adversity in our life to hold our hand's up and admit yes I could of done that better but I wasn't ready or was too self absorbed or fearful at the time, whatever the reason God's loving hand can help us but we are the gardeners to our soul he is the observer who gives us some insight and direction but we need to truly want to walk this path and understand how to unravel the past to create the future path which will lead us back to the source and God who loves us in spite of our perceived misgivings and shortcomings.

30/03/09

EP

Is this why man has failed to grow faster?

B) SPIRITUAL GROWTH AS RELATED TO HUMAN UNDERSTANDING

Where are we in our growth as a species in the evolutionary scale of life? I guess when you talk to the scientists, entrepreneurs and religious leaders in most cases they feel we have advanced as a species, but who is measuring growth? Are they the human beings who claim to be at the so-called enlightened stage of our development as a species here on Earth? There are even those who think we are the most intelligent species in the universe, the most advanced beings if you like. I suppose we have to be in an advanced stage to rape the Earth of its mineral wealth at the expense of Earth's fragile ecosystem! Very enlightening stuff this, pretty impressive. It certainly seems to be to the bank balances of the conglomerates and those in power. Yes we have moved rapidly in our eyes regarding our technical achievements of the twentieth and twenty first centuries, we can now communicate by text instead of face to face that is some advancement. As we become more embroiled in our technological advances and move from the Internet to the hyper net or whatever you call it we have become more isolated, insular and closed off from our friends, family and other people who come and go in our lives. Of course when we are communicating with others on the World Wide Web, skype, face book or whatever we can create ourselves in whatever way we want to be. How is this other person going to know we don't live in a mansion in Beverly Hills and snowboard on the piste in Aspen in the winter? Human beings in general have been deceiving themselves and their fellow man since we evolved from our Stone Age ancestors. In most cases we are driven by our desires and Earthly needs and the more we crave this need the more we are in disharmony with our spirit but how do we know that? Well that is up to each person to figure out for himself or herself. But put it this way if having a house in Beverly Hills is so great and having more money than you can possibly spend, then why are so many people who crave Earthly possessions and in some cases attain them so unhappy and so cut off from their spirit within? If you go to some of the poorest places in the world, the warmth and generosity you get in these communities is often genuine and the people often have no hidden agenda in wanting something in return for their warmth and hospitality. So what do they have that the wealthy people driven by money don't?

I now look at where I am in my life and I must admit I do not feel strength of spirit and why is this? Well for one I am constantly avoiding looking at myself and working through my issues relating to the past. Now and again I may do a bit of work upon myself but I could be doing so much more. I had to drag myself up the stairs to type this but I am glad I did, as it is as if I am shedding dead skin as I open my mind to new possibilities for growth and awareness. The other day I was in a mess as I clearly felt my son was struggling and all I did was lecture him about taking the next step to do things outside of his normal routine. Academically he has done remarkably well and I am immensely proud of him to say the very least. However I feel he struggles socially and perhaps I am reflecting my fears and insecurities onto him, but I am concerned. But feeding him with my own fears and doubts is not going to benefit him, if only I had made more effort to understand myself I am sure this then would give me far more clarity and perspective of where he is in his life. This will take courage, discipline and a strong need to work through all my issues and negative thoughts relating to my past, I have got to start somewhere. My understanding of me is still limited so how can I help my son with his spiritual growth when I am frozen by my own fears within mine. Only I can change my perception of the world and my part to play in it and I feel it will take more effort on my part to achieve this but I have made small steps forward at times. But now I believe it is time to stand tall and march proudly forward overcoming all adversity and fear in my life, words are not enough action is the key to finally understanding the social paralysis I have created around my life and world. I have shut the door of my potential and frozen my creative self and I let my fears and regrets from the past haunt me. I cannot change the past yet I still more often than not carry it forward, weighing upon my soul and spirit for living. I feel it is time to cut the straps and walk forward and smell the roses.

We humans often struggle to overcome things in life because we simply fail to understand the mechanics of it all, when we break things down to their simplest form this helps to understand the simplest things in life that could prevent us from growing up and moving forward to a place where heartache and melancholy thinking is a thing of the past. As the John Denver song goes "It's Up To You", and it is up to us do we repeat the same mistakes on the cycle of our own heartfelt pain or do we break the chains and mould which we have let condition us to this form of living? I feel this in truth is about existing never striving to challenge our deepest fears and shying away from life and true inner peace and happiness. Would it not be better to understand our self and let go of the past, knowing we are no longer at conflict with our self but are striving forward and living and thriving on the challenges that come our way? I just watched an old cowboy film where the wagon train makes it way across America to Oregon to start a new life, yes their were challenges and people died along the way but the spirit of the collective group got them through their own adversity to succeed and start a new life in what was that time a new place undiscovered and unexplored. That sounds like my own soul and spirit within, there is so much I do not know and I believe there are opportunities to create a future in which me and my soul are one in the same, where I can share my experience of growth with other's and hopefully inspire them to create a better future for themselves and even be inspired by them and each person I meet in life. I am a novice at this journey of spiritual growth but only making progress can open the doors to my spiritual freedom, and applying my understanding then acting upon it can release me from my needless fears and anxieties. It's worth a shot in fact it sounds quite exciting, I feel quite lifted by this writing thank you God for using your battering ram to get through my thick welsh skull to help me see the wood from the trees.

6/10/09

EP

Tuesday 22 September 2009

The Failure of Logical Recognition in Mankind

Why does mankind fail to recognise obvious errors in logical thinking that are irrational, for example people who do not believe in any form of spiritual force in human existence in life state that their life is a one shot deal with no future beyond. Whereas those who believe in god or other spiritual forces believe a variety of different ideas about this life and the next life or lives.

About 20% believe they can talk to dead relatives and friends, about another 20% believe that the souls of the past can help them solve their problems. The remainder are full of uncertainties and are constantly latching on to the latest idea that gives them comfort. Those who believe in God ask his help occasionally, quite frequently, or frequently, and surprisingly is as high as 95% do so. So the silent majority who do not speak about their beliefs still have the sense to pray or ask for help. Those in the group that firmly believe in the immortality of the soul and the resulting afterlife are fifty percent of the total, and forty percent of these still act and believe they are talking to the dead souls.

As the soul is immortal it is alive, and that applies even though it has passed over when a person dies, so when a person speaks to spirit they are speaking to a live immortal soul. Here on earth you may here a person say of another person that they have an old soul, well what they are referring too is that person has had a higher growth of their essences of love, sensitivity, compassion and understanding than average, and are therefore more mentally developed due to a higher degree of learning in earlier existences.

Since the early existence of man some humans have believed in immortality and this has increased over the centuries until the mid 1950's when the western world went into the mode of “ALL THINGS SCIENTIFIC” and “FREEDOM WITHOUT RESPONSIBILITY” this caused a slackening of standards of social behaviour compounded by poor governments who did not understand the consequences of their actions which continues even today.

The blessing of science and technology has continued at a very fast pace along with the attitude that science and medical advances will solve all our problems! The reality is the opposite, large parts of the world are starving due monocultures grown to feed the west. Corruption and greed causing death and destruction, and we even have religious wars being encouraged to keep western industries in business and all of this due to a lack of understanding, poor intellect by leaders, and worst of all the worship of greed, money and corruption. All this will continue the cycle of more starvation and wars.

What I have written in the above paragraph would appear to have little to do logic or spirituality but it is what is causing the destruction of the human race and the humanity so essential to its future. All life is special and yet science cannot tell you how it is alive, yes it can explain how the heart works, or the liver, or the circulation functions, but it cannot tell you what switches life on, and that applies to all life. This fundamental question has still to be answered. Could it be that energy source we call God? All life requires an energy source to switch it on.

Religion and Science have clashed since the dark ages brought about by their emotional and bigoted view of what god stated as right for mankind, all created by leaders who laid down the law according to their view. (Basically they created gods word to suit their own ignorance and bigotry)

Science coming from a background of religious persecution took the stance that mans own ability created the scientific knowledge, not God, further logical proof and repeatability of any work was essential as proof. Again this narrow black and white approach caused its own bigotry and this has led to divisions within the scientific community and has led to that grey area of statistics. Finally, however both sides are beginning to recognise each other’s contribution to humanity. Scientific truth is constantly changing with growing understanding on the positive side, but increasing financial pressure is producing material that does not survive investigation on the negative side.

RELIGIONS which are several thousands in number are a progression from pagan rituals which covered fertility, seasons, appeasment and sacrifice and so on, all mainly based on fear and gods of many kinds, all controlled by a few people in positions of power, and so it is still today. Modern religions follow many versions of gods and goddess or prophets. The introduction of education, television and computers are reducing the number of worshipers at an ever increasing pace, though some religions are turning to the African continent to replace their losses, this is however opening up a gap in the level of religious understanding between the two groups of worshippers.

The main problem with religion is that the material used does not stand up to logical examination and causes emotional trauma and their clergy are too closed minded and self serving protectionists. Here we get people calling themselves religious or spiritual, the latter has become more popular in recent times, but if one looks at many religions they go against the principle of Spiritualism.

SPIRUTULISM is a way of life based on that energy force called God or his many other names; it is based on Love, Sensitivity, Compassion, Understanding, using truth, trust, logic and reasoning. No one on this earth is perfect so one has a lot to learn which will benefit one’s character; it is therefore beneficial to heed your conscience (your soul). Be positive about life, noting that all learning is growth to your character, lastly in this voyage of discovery remember that God gave you free-will, use it wisely, think before you act.

Author: G.A.Thomson

Tuesday 1 September 2009

Writings for the spiritual development circle

Writing and expressing ones thoughts is an important aspect of the spiritual development cirlce. Although it can seem like a daunting task to begin with, the rewards speak for themselves. The circle format encourages thinking by asking the individual to take one of the writings from the channelled book "The Light in Your Life is Spirit". Each writing is done sequentially starting from the start of the book when the spiritual development circle begins for the first time.

Each week the circle participant reads one of the writings from the book, "The Light in your Life is Spirit". They are then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings about that writing. This aspect of the circle helps to stimulate the participant’s ability to think as well as teaching a broader view of humanity and spirituality.

More information about the book…

Below is an example of a writing from a circle participant who has attended a spiritual development circle for a number of years. The writing was on the soul on page 7 of the book “The light in your life is spirit”. The writing is from the individuals understanding of what they have read and it must be stressed that it is important that circle participants try their best not to compare themselves and their understand with the other circle participants. The writings are to be enjoyed and to encourage spiritual growth.

Soul

Tens of thousands of years of human evolution and today we barely understand or even acknowledge the human soul. It is difficult for most people to comprehend something that cannot be physically seen with their own eyes and so feel more comfortable to dismiss the idea of the human soul’s existence into the realms of fantasy. But on the other hand systems of religious faith and belief were created to nurture the belief of the soul and to encourage its growth. But regardless of the belief system acknowledgment of the human soul requires faith, blind faith. It seems rather ironic if not a bad joke that the one thing that matters the most is what we understand the least.

Perhaps to get a better understanding about why the human soul is so important it might be an idea to establish one obvious fact, the human soul aids our evolution. Not just personal evolution but also social locally and globally. The reason the soul has the power to influence the human being is because of its origins, it is not some random piece of floating space energy, far from it. What the soul is, or rather who created it defines the souls purpose more clearly. The soul was created by God and if you consider God as its creator therefore it must have purpose as defined by the universal laws of cause and effect and functionality. So what was the soul created for, what’s its purpose? Why did God make or create this thing that is contained within human beings. I should point out that every creature on earth has a soul albeit in a more limited capacity compared to the human soul.

So why, what purpose does this all serve? Always so many question and such limited answers. The universal purpose is exactly that, its universal and this energy, this soul, is encouraged to grow. And the experiences on earth in human form are to encourage this growth or evolution. Once a certain point of growth has been achieved the soul moves on to other universal experiences that will also encourage its growth.

It all seems rather logical and straight forward but because human beings have freewill, we have the ability to make choices, and it is our capacity to make these choices that affects how we perceive this purpose. Life is and always has been a learning experience and in order for us to learn the obviousness of the soul’s existence is obscured by our physicality, it is only when we see beyond our physical appearance that our life’s true purpose begins to make sense. And it does not seem to be by any accident that our lives are combinations of learning experiences that shape our character and our behavior for better or for worse.

So whether we believe in the human soul or not, it is a constant that is contained within us that has only one purpose and that is to evolve. We take it for granted our own functionality and the obvious fact that we are more than just physical beings. It is with our emotions that reach out and experience the world we live in. And it is the interaction between our emotional experience and its relationship with the soul that provides us with the opportunity to move beyond what we think we are and evolve into what we are, we are creation.

DB 25.08.09

Please feel free to comment on this article.

Sunday 29 March 2009

The existence of God or Scientific Theory?

On Tuesday, 24 March 2009 an interesting article featured on the BBC News Magazine web site. What appeared to be a small and mundane little article might actually be the beginnings of a spiritual revolution. A revolution that could be started not by one of the named religions but rather from an area of science that has had little or no public exposure, the field of Quantum physics.

French physicist Bernard d'Espagnat was awarded the Templeton Prize for contributions to "affirming life's spiritual dimension" So how can the work of one scientist herald the beginnings of a spiritual evolution?  As the article states the filed of quantum physics has been hugely successful with its predictions of the behaviour of sub atomic particles. The field is also in the process of trying to prove the existence of, what has become known as the Higgs Boson or (God particle) utilising the scientific capabilities of the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN Institute in Geneva Switzerland. The potential discovery of the Higgs Boson (God Particle) is significant because it could bring scientist to closer to discovering the origins and subsequent early evolution of the universe. To explain in a more simple way, the Higgs Boson or God particle can be defined as the creative life force present throughout the entire universe. So if science can provide clear proof that a creative force exists within the universe then this may offer proof that God exists?

So what we could be looking at is the proof of origin and the power that lies at the heart of origin, the power of creation, and humanity gave name to this force by calling it God. We have to keep in mind that when the idea first surfaced about the existence of a single God or force, humanity did not have the knowledge or scientific instrumentation to define this idea clearly, so our human ancestors can be forgiven for associating mythology and abstract definitions to what is essentially the creative force that is inherently present in all living things.

So does this change or challenge our perceptions of what God actually is or what God actually means?  Perhaps we can begin asking ourselves a rather obvious question, instead of asking ‘who is God?’ we can start to ask ‘what is God?’ When we begin to ask the question ‘what is God’ we must consider the relevance of that creative force within our own lives. If that creative force exists within all living things within the universe then does that force therefore resides within us all?

If the field of Quantum physics is on the cusp of discovering a particle that may define the life force and origins within the universe then surely they will discover that one universal constant that life cannot avoid and that is, evolution. And if evolution is a universal constant driven by the dynamics of this creative force then perhaps it will shine the spot light back onto humanity and clearly state that the purpose of human life is to evolve.

Additional link

http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs.htm