What Are Your Motives?

"Examine the structures in our lives. Ask ourselves is this job, house, partner, activity or direction bringing me essence, and if not what is the essence that is missing here? If you are telling yourself you have no choice you can know that this is never the truth. What is true if you are saying this, is that you are afraid to make the choice that would bring you essence. So he would ask you, examine your true motives for doing what does not bring you essence and if it is a list of fears then you are not being authentic and essence will elude you!" ~ Spotted Eagle ~ on "Creating With Essence"

Small Steps Preceed Big Leaps

Spotted Eagle asks that at all times and in all circumstances, learn how to focus our attention on our desire for essence. When we are anxious or afraid, breathe and ask ourselves what is my heart's desire for essence in this moment? When we are uncertain what to do ask ourselves what small step could I take that would bring me closer to my treasured essences? When we are depressed ask ourselves where is my attention? Has it left the reality of the present moment? Has it wandered into the fearful or empty future that I am manufacturing in my imagination? Is it distracted by the past that I am judging and therefore left to regret. Then redirect your attention to your heart center and find there your desires for essence. Attention the essence you have even if it is not being expressed as fully as you would like. ~ Spotted Eagle ~ on "Creating With Essence"

There is a lot that is going on today in our lives to distract us from the essences that we can still enjoy moment to moment to whatever varying degree that might be. If we spend more moments of our time attentioning the essences that we already have, fewer moments are spent worrying about a future that does not exist resulting in a small incremental step to living an essence rich life.

"We must learn how to be authentic in our thoughts, our words and our actions, uncompromising in the face of our insecurities and our neediness. We must hold firm in our intention to experience essence while we honor the timing of the universe which may be very different from our own. We must be aware in those moments when our fears would dictate a choice that is not authentic. We must embrace the growth and learn that we must grow and evolve into the person who can live his or her life as an expression of essence, purpose and authenticity. We must learn to be present with the truth of what is there, what we have already created without criticism, fear or judgement. We must value the truth present in each and every moment even if it is uncomfortable, uncertain or even painful. And finally we must embrace the crisis that healing often brings as the most powerful force in the restoration of our wholeness." ~ Spotted Eagle ~ on Creating with Essence

Here Spotted Eagle speaks further to elaborate on the fact that we are here to create our lives not in the way that most of us have been taught by the culture but in a spiritual way. It's not easy to let go of our fears of the future that drive us to establish a level of security vested in cars, homes, perceived wealth and other forms. Instead we need to trust that if we live our lives authentically with our desire for the experience of essence as the quiding force for the universe in creating our lives, that we can instead have a life that is spiritually rich. This is truly why we have taken on the challenge of living in this world.

New Culture, New Ways

"The culture has ways of supporting what it demands by way of the form. So if you say you have a goal for fast cars, big houses and lots of money no one will argue with you that this goal has no essence. If you say instead that you have a desire to experience freedom, to experience fun or to follow your heart's bliss, he can guarantee you that there is probably no officer in any bank that will loan you money for this endeavor. If you quit your high stress lucrative job there are probably not going to be many people in your life that will support your decision unless that job has already managed to give you some life threatening illness.

His message is that in order to create with essence we must discard the culture's ways. First we must stop measuring the results by the form so we must discard measuring amounts of money, or the value of our possessions, especially if we view them as a means of security. We must stop measuring the success or failure to meet a goal. We must stop resisting the unintended consequences or the results we did not expect. Especially we must stop worrying about how others evaluate or judge or view us and what we are doing.

Creating with essence requires that we develop an entirely new set of skills and first among these is that we must be responsible for our own feelings, responding in the present moment to the choices that are truly before us and make those choices based on the essences we hold most dear. We must monitor essence in our lives and examine each moment for opportunities to create more essence. Vitally important is that when the essence leaves an endeavor and we have only our goal and our fear of not achieving it as our reason for staying with something; if we are staying with it for fear of our security we must be willing to engage in a process that will allow us to abandon this investment and move with courage to discover our new dreams for essence." ~ Spotted Eagle on Creating With Essence

Cool Essence

"To create from our desire for essence is actually much easier than creating the form, but it takes a set of skills that are undeveloped in this culture. The skills we are conditioned to using are of little or no value when we are creating with essence and these are things like planning, defining, goal setting, forecasting, working harder, not making mistakes, setting time limits or targets and the most lucrative, having a clear picture of the form you are trying to create and putting yourself in that picture." ~ Spotted Eagle from "Creating With Essence"

I listen to this recording time after time to remind me of what I have been doing wrong in trying to create my life and most importantly what I must do correctly. I have tried the methods that our culture teaches and they have not succeeded for me. Living my life authentically and giving myself over to the universe and holding onto my desire for essence as a guiding force for creating my life has begun to give me a life that is not steeped in forms but is growing richer in the essences I desire most. Those being freedom, creativity, and joy to list a few. I can't explain it if I look through the lens of what my culture has taught me and I am in wonder how it is coming to be but I am not arguing with it and I am not stopping. I just spend each day efforting to pry myself from the cultural claws that clutch at me in a desperate attempt to keep me within its grasp. Some days are good and some not so good but the flow is there.

One analogy that could be applied to the whole effort is that of floating on a river and I am headed for a falls. The flow of the water is increasing and so is the fear of the approaching falls, ever increasing and my mind keeps telling me I cannot survive this but my heart tells me, yes you can. Finally, inevitably there it will be, the falls and I will plunge through what my mind told me I could not survive, to the quiet pool at the bottom. There I can enjoy the peace and tranquility of a cool swim, giddy with the joy at surviving what was once perceived as unsurvivable.