I have just began to read "The Not So Big Life" written by Sarah Susanka. Early on she writes "All of us have been conditioned by our parents, our schools, and our culture to become valued, contributing members of a society that depends on our willingness to play the game for its very survival. And we in turn oblige by going to work every day, bringing home a paycheck, providing for our famiies, and in the process purchasing an appropriate quantity of goods to support our consumer society. We rarely if ever stop and wonder if things are really the way they appear to be. Our conditioning tells us this is so, and we accept it. But could there be another way of perceiving things?"
I applaud Ms. Susanka's insight. Our response to the constant barrage of advertising to buy, buy, buy, had been to do exactly that. We buy because we are convinced we really neeed that excercise machine to maintain a physical appearance that will allow us to compete in the job market and the "relationship market" if you will. We need to upgrade our autos to stay in style and in step with the latest gizmos and add-ons. And of course how could we not respond to the call of the fashion sirens. We've made our lives so complicated that now we've created a market for goods and services that promise to simplify our complicated life. Stop. And when you have managed to become very still, listen to and follow your heart.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
New Age Spirituality
[The following is by Jennie Marlow http://www.blog.overcomingfearofuncertainty.com/. I loved it so much that I wanted to include it here. I hope you find it interesting and useful.]
New Age spirituality began in the 19th century with metaphysical movements like Spiritualism and New Thought. In the 1960s and 1970s, many counter-culture groups gathered themselves under the umbrella of the term. Some ideas that characterize New Age thought include reincarnation, an afterlife devoted to the soul’s journey of evolution in consciousness, and practices such as meditation, spiritual growth and energetic healing. Central to the philosophies of the movement are a higher purpose for a human’s life and the need for the individual to follow his or her own spiritual path. The New Age has sparked many popular life-style movements such as organic food, sustainable living, alternative medicine and an interest in Eastern practices such as yoga, tai chi and qi gong.
The “post-New-Age” is a term coined by Spotted Eagle to describe a shift away from the New Age idea that people can accumulate vast amounts of wealth and possessions through positive thinking and affirmations. Spotted Eagle disputes the validity of the core of these prosperity consciousness notions: the Ask-Believe-Receive model for “manifestation” and the “Law of Attraction,” an idea first proposed by 19th century lawyer and occultist, William Walker Atkinson, in a book entitled, Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World, published in 1906.
Spotted Eagle’s post-New-Age model focuses, not on wealth creation, but how we want our lives to feel. His model emphasizes essence, the feeling experience we desire from our possessions, relationships, careers and everything else in our lives. He says that fear of uncertainty is the root cause of our suffering. By avoiding or medicating our emotional pain, we lose sight of essence and reinforce behavior and thought patterns that cause us to suffer the effects of what he calls the “anxious mind,’ the part of our humanness that craves the illusion of certainty and security. In his post-New-Age model, perception, behavior and choices are demonstrated to create the vast majority of the outcomes of our lives. He posits that if we root out the out-of-power distortions in our perception, and resist the temptation to medicate or act out existential fear, then our behavior and choices will be authentic, guided by our desire to experience essence qualities like joy, creativity, ease, freedom, fun, unconditional love, satisfaction, contribution, and so forth. In Spotted Eagle’s model, positive thinking, when fantasy-based and used as a cover-up for fear, can be just as destructive as negative thinking. In the post-New-Age model, neutral, undistorted thinking results from exercising dominion over the anxious mind through such practices as observing our “story,” waiting out our emotional wave and seeking emotional neutrality before taking action. Through undistorted thinking, our emotional pain will be allowed to move to its natural conclusion of acceptance and balance.
To read & learn more of Jennie's work please visit:
http://steeltoedmoccasin.com/ http://www.jenniemarlow.com/
New Age spirituality began in the 19th century with metaphysical movements like Spiritualism and New Thought. In the 1960s and 1970s, many counter-culture groups gathered themselves under the umbrella of the term. Some ideas that characterize New Age thought include reincarnation, an afterlife devoted to the soul’s journey of evolution in consciousness, and practices such as meditation, spiritual growth and energetic healing. Central to the philosophies of the movement are a higher purpose for a human’s life and the need for the individual to follow his or her own spiritual path. The New Age has sparked many popular life-style movements such as organic food, sustainable living, alternative medicine and an interest in Eastern practices such as yoga, tai chi and qi gong.
The “post-New-Age” is a term coined by Spotted Eagle to describe a shift away from the New Age idea that people can accumulate vast amounts of wealth and possessions through positive thinking and affirmations. Spotted Eagle disputes the validity of the core of these prosperity consciousness notions: the Ask-Believe-Receive model for “manifestation” and the “Law of Attraction,” an idea first proposed by 19th century lawyer and occultist, William Walker Atkinson, in a book entitled, Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World, published in 1906.
Spotted Eagle’s post-New-Age model focuses, not on wealth creation, but how we want our lives to feel. His model emphasizes essence, the feeling experience we desire from our possessions, relationships, careers and everything else in our lives. He says that fear of uncertainty is the root cause of our suffering. By avoiding or medicating our emotional pain, we lose sight of essence and reinforce behavior and thought patterns that cause us to suffer the effects of what he calls the “anxious mind,’ the part of our humanness that craves the illusion of certainty and security. In his post-New-Age model, perception, behavior and choices are demonstrated to create the vast majority of the outcomes of our lives. He posits that if we root out the out-of-power distortions in our perception, and resist the temptation to medicate or act out existential fear, then our behavior and choices will be authentic, guided by our desire to experience essence qualities like joy, creativity, ease, freedom, fun, unconditional love, satisfaction, contribution, and so forth. In Spotted Eagle’s model, positive thinking, when fantasy-based and used as a cover-up for fear, can be just as destructive as negative thinking. In the post-New-Age model, neutral, undistorted thinking results from exercising dominion over the anxious mind through such practices as observing our “story,” waiting out our emotional wave and seeking emotional neutrality before taking action. Through undistorted thinking, our emotional pain will be allowed to move to its natural conclusion of acceptance and balance.
To read & learn more of Jennie's work please visit:
http://steeltoedmoccasin.com/ http://www.jenniemarlow.com/
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Overcoming Fear
"In order to overcome fear at the deepest level, we must first understand where the tendency to fear is sourced. The first thing we must embrace is that overcoming fear is the journey, our spiritual path, the reason we have come to the earth plane. When we understand that overcoming fear is our soul's intention, we can see why being human would be a crucial part of this experience." Spotted Eagle quote#
It really should come as no surprise as we consider this teaching from Spotted Eagle that we do experience fear on a daily basis to one level or another and considering the environment that we have created for ourselves as a species we seem to be very intent on learning this lesson. Perhaps a place to begin is to realize that in the moment that it takes you to read this you probably are not experiencing much fear. You are not hungry, you are not without a roof over your head and probably not naked. So perhaps in the moment is where we need to be. Not in the future imagining the worst or in the past berating ourselves with what we perceive to be our mistakes. If we have demonstrated nothing else we humans have demonstrated that we can and do learn. Let us put the lessons to good use in service to the good of all, to the oneness.
It really should come as no surprise as we consider this teaching from Spotted Eagle that we do experience fear on a daily basis to one level or another and considering the environment that we have created for ourselves as a species we seem to be very intent on learning this lesson. Perhaps a place to begin is to realize that in the moment that it takes you to read this you probably are not experiencing much fear. You are not hungry, you are not without a roof over your head and probably not naked. So perhaps in the moment is where we need to be. Not in the future imagining the worst or in the past berating ourselves with what we perceive to be our mistakes. If we have demonstrated nothing else we humans have demonstrated that we can and do learn. Let us put the lessons to good use in service to the good of all, to the oneness.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Security???
"Giving up security usually means giving up your drama about what you have been through in your life. This is because we often envision security as whatever will keep us from going through unpleasant events we have experienced in the past, especially in matters of money and love. No journey into consciousness is complete until we leave security behind, and learn how to be joyful without it."
This quote, from one of my teachers Grandfather White Elk, is probably at the heart of what challenges many of us. It bears contemplation. It ties in with being in the present moment and dancing with whatever uncertainty the universe may present you with in that moment. Which is most often pleasant enough and often quite pleasing.
This quote, from one of my teachers Grandfather White Elk, is probably at the heart of what challenges many of us. It bears contemplation. It ties in with being in the present moment and dancing with whatever uncertainty the universe may present you with in that moment. Which is most often pleasant enough and often quite pleasing.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Inspiration
"There is no more important spiritual endeavor you can undertake than the unflinching examination of your darkest fears and most spectacular fantasies. When you experience a surge of emotions, whether positive or negative, your psyche is displaying for you the Mind's fabrications. If you are able to focus your attention inward during these moments of intense reaction, and take full responsibility for the distortions of Mind upon your reality, your evolution will be served enormously." A quote from White Buffalo.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Spontaneity
"Employ spontaneity in the service of actualizing essence. Anchor yourself in the now. Dance with the potentials that are present. Allow a choice based on essence to set up a flow . Allow one essence-rich choice to lead you to the next, without having to know where the flow is taking you." This a quote from Spotted Eagle.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Health Care?
There has been much said about the body in metaphysical circles. To start there is a lot of mythology and misinformation about what bodies are for, what they are about, and what their condition reflects. A growing increasingly obvious objection to this New Age model of physical perfection is that it purports a Nirvana fantasy, that if we just get our thoughts in proper order, that a perfect body will suddenly be reflected.
The body is really the soul's vehicle for expression on the material plane. It is the only way the soul can access this classroom about fear, in our case, the Earth-plane. The human body is our current vehicle of choice, and this has proved to be a very effective choice because it has given the soul a very broad framework for connecting to physical awareness and then exerting its higher awareness in order to have dominon over biological urges. The body-psyche complex of a human being comes complete with a biological tendency to fear the future, so this makes the body a perfect tool for overcoming fear.
The above perspective was offered in a workshop given by Jennie Marlow on transforming your health and well-being. Perhaps the simplest first step we can take in improving and maintaining our health is to take responsibility for our actions that directly affect our health. How much and what we eat, what we drink, where we choose to live and what level of stress do we continue to bear in the quest for what marketers tell us we should have to be considered successful. That question could begin with a deep inner search to answer the question "What do I consider to be a succcessful life?" Above all we ought to take some time to look inside ourselves and explore what really lies there.
The body is really the soul's vehicle for expression on the material plane. It is the only way the soul can access this classroom about fear, in our case, the Earth-plane. The human body is our current vehicle of choice, and this has proved to be a very effective choice because it has given the soul a very broad framework for connecting to physical awareness and then exerting its higher awareness in order to have dominon over biological urges. The body-psyche complex of a human being comes complete with a biological tendency to fear the future, so this makes the body a perfect tool for overcoming fear.
The above perspective was offered in a workshop given by Jennie Marlow on transforming your health and well-being. Perhaps the simplest first step we can take in improving and maintaining our health is to take responsibility for our actions that directly affect our health. How much and what we eat, what we drink, where we choose to live and what level of stress do we continue to bear in the quest for what marketers tell us we should have to be considered successful. That question could begin with a deep inner search to answer the question "What do I consider to be a succcessful life?" Above all we ought to take some time to look inside ourselves and explore what really lies there.
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