Crossing the Threshold to Awakening

Greetings of the New Year!

So the Mayan “Apocalypse” has come and gone and we’re still here. By the time you read this, America may have gone over the “fiscal cliff” or narrowly averted doing so, and we’ll all be standing around scratching our heads wondering what’s going to happen next.

The world did not end on December 21, 2012, as some had feared or predicted. It’s 2013 and life goes on, as most of us knew it would. The Mayan calendar signaled the end of an epoch. It did not indicate the end of the world.

In a previous post, and for much of last year, I have written about this time in our human history known by indigenous peoples as the time of the Great Shift, also called The Great Awakening. The Mayan legend has it that the end of their calendar signals the end of time, and some would add, as we know it. These words, as we know it, are key, for based on appearances only, we might not be able to discern anything different on the material plane.

Stepping into this New Year, notice your experience. Does anything feel different for you or is it pretty much the same as before? Maybe you haven’t taken the time to check in with yourself. Maybe you, like me, have been very involved with your family and the holidays and you’ve been busy having a good time. And maybe this hasn’t necessarily a time of self-reflection.

So tune in to your inner world for a moment. See if you can carve out a few moments of time and put some space around you so you can drop in to yourself and see who’s there, waiting to be met by you, right now. If you stopped whatever you’re presently doing, became still, and tuned your awareness inward, past all the noise of the outer world, who would you meet? Who is this person expressing itself as you, now? Be with that person for a moment. Tune into them and listen. What do they have to say to you?

If you were standing at the threshold of a new time for the personal and the collective, and if the person you’re becoming is the one you just met when you checked inside, and if that person had an important message to tell you about who you are to become starting now, what is that message? Who are you becoming?

Whatever message you receive, consider that it could be the key to your own awakening, a map to your own future, the one that wasn’t already going to happen anyway. Let me explain:

There are several possible futures awaiting you. There’s the one you can see already. It’s the predictable future and it’s based on all the choices you’ve already made leading up to now. This is the future you can see and describe and it probably looks a lot like your past. You’ve already set this future in motion and it’s on its way already. It’s coming and will be here soon. You can look on your calendar and see it already laid out.

But there’s another future out there, also waiting for you. It’s the one you can’t see from here, the one you could never predict and certainly the one you couldn’t see from your past. This is the future that doesn’t look possible from here. But it’s also on its way. Whether or not this future ever arrives at your doorstep will be up to you. As the founder of Science of Mind, Ernest Holmes, taught, “It is done unto us we believe.” Your beliefs will determine the kind of future you call forth.

When we talk about a collective shift, we are talking about an awakening of our collective consciousness. And even though there are not yet massive indications of that happening “out there” in the world, it is happening as an “inside job”, within those who are ready to awaken. Does this include you?

Looking at the world today, not much has changed in the outward appearance of things. There is still much suffering. Humanity is still warring and killing, and fighting and operating from fear and scarcity. There are still homeless people and families struggling to make ends meet. The consciousness of fear and uncertainty still dominate the land.

This is the context in which we find ourselves, here at the beginning of 2013. And—— within this context, we are being called to awaken. In the face of what looks like the deepest and darkest times in modern history, when humanity looks as though it has really gotten it wrong and lost its way, in these times, we are being called to awaken.

So whether or not it looks any different to you from the outside, know this: waking up is an inside job. Whatever you expect your future to bring isn’t going to show up “out there” until you’ve done your homework from the inside out, and have taken upon yourself as your sacred responsibility to awaken.

This is how I hold it. Waking up and helping to awaken others is my sacred responsibility. There is no greater service to mankind than to be a catalyst for one’s own awakening. But you can’t stop there. That’s just the beginning. It’s also about using your light to awaken the light in others. That’s a mighty and holy task. Are you up for that?

For this is what it means to be part of this time of awakening. This is why you and I are here, on this planet, now. We’ve come to be here to help illuminate the darkest times. We can likely expect that conditions will worsen before they get better. Our task is not to bemoan the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Ours is to remain connected to the truth of our oneness, regardless of appearances.

Regardless of all the shootings that may occur that rip our hearts out and bring us to our knees, our task is to be a living reminder that Love trumps fear every time. Regardless of all the pain and suffering that still dominate the world, our task is to know, on behalf of the whole of us, the bigger, deeper and transcendent truths about who and what we are.

No matter what it may look like; if the oceans didn’t part, if the sky didn’t open, if the angelic choirs didn’t ring in the new era, our task is to be still and know that all is One and to hold that knowing near and dear to our hearts, especially during these times of upheaval.

A reader wrote to me seeking advice about what to do now. She shared that her dream was to become a coach and support others seeking to know themselves. But after reading my last post, she decided that job probably would no longer be necessary, since everyone was going to awaken all at once. I assured her that supporting others to know who they are is a perfect “assignment” right now, and to pursue her dream, for she will be needed now more than ever.

And so this is the thing about waking up. It is an inside job. There is nothing that is going to happen to you. Awakening will happen from you. You can wake up, because of, or in spite of, whatever’s going on around you.

The portal has opened. Your name has been called. It’s up to you to step across whatever appears as obstacles and proceed into your future. Do not worry about how to get there. Your mind cannot see the way. But your soul knows the way. It’s always known the way. Follow your soul. It will lead you home.

My very best wishes to you for the New Year. May this be a year of peace and prosperity. May you come into full recognition of your own magnificence. May you open to the abundance that awaits your willingness to receive it. May all that is good and true dwell in your heart.

I’d love to hear from you about how this time is occurring in your life. What do you see or feel about your own future and the future of humanity?

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(This article is cross-posted at the Huffington Post)

Every human being who ever walked the earth has a collection of beliefs, attitudes, opinions, behaviors and stories that speak to his or her struggle for self-realization and to their disbelief in themselves. We all harbor beliefs that affirm our smallness and deny our greatness and thus come up short in recognizing and living from our highest and greatest selves.

But if I were required to name a person who, for all his human foibles, approaches a state of self-actualization, which Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs defines as “what a man can be he must be,” I would nominate Nelson Mandela. This is not to say that Mandela has lived a spotless life. Far from it. But in spite of all, or perhaps because of all that makes up his own story and the story of his people, Nelson Mandela stands out as one who has achieved a high state of consciousness on the planet today.

Looking at the context from which Mandela was shaped, it’s hard to imagine that he could have turned out any other way, for he comes out of the African tradition of ubuntu – “I am what I am because of who we all are.” If we want to get a clue and catch a glimpse of what’s possible for humanity, Nelson Mandela would be a good person to study.

For him to forgive those who imprisoned him for 27 years, he had to know and believe something that most of the world has failed to grasp. For him to emerge from prison and to state: “As I walked out the door toward my freedom I knew that if I did not leave all the anger,
hatred and bitterness behind I would still be in prison.” He had to be connected to a belief about the true nature of humanity and thus his own. He had to be committed to living that belief, undeterred by the events that resulted in his imprisonment.

What was that belief? I can’t say for sure, but I suspect it had something to do with the philosophy of ubuntu. Last week’s post: “Embracing the Spirit of Ubuntu,” included the following story told by Mandela:

A traveler through a country would stop at a village and he didn’t have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu, but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?

In the consciousness of ubuntu, when met with conflict or harm, forgiveness is the very path one must travel to know freedom. Therefore, for Mandela, forgiveness was not optional. It was the only way forward. It was the only way for him to reclaim his own life and by so doing show the way for others to reclaim theirs. There was nothing to do but forgive those who imprisoned him and perpetuated the system of apartheid against his people.

This idea remains a difficult one for many, even the most enlightened, to embrace. To forgive the one who hurt or betrayed you seems like just another betrayal, a selling out, a giving up. And yet, just the opposite is true.

Forgiving an action is not the same thing as condoning it. In forgiveness you are not saying that what happened was OK. But instead of seeking revenge or retribution or needing to be right, through forgiveness you are choosing from a higher consciousness than the one who betrayed you.

For example: In a state of non-forgiveness, we close our hearts in order to protect ourselves from any more hurt or pain. In this state we’re cut off from feeling love, not only for the person who hurt us, but for ourselves as well. Our belief in separation hardens us and builds the walls even higher.

To forgive requires a higher consciousness. It requires knowing a greater truth about the nature of reality. Forgiveness opens the door to the heart and allows love to return. To forgive means “To give as before.” When you forgive the very one you think betrayed your innocence, something greater is unleashed and abundance flows into the opening. Forgiveness is a recognition of our ubuntu nature, which is the truth of who we are.

Ubuntu tells a story about humanity that allows us to see the bigger picture. And here, Mandela makes an important distinction that is worthy of taking notice. “Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves.” But he also cautions, “Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?”

This is a key distinction, for it requires a consciousness of abundance and generosity from which comes the knowledge there is more than enough to go around. In the consciousness of ubuntu, one’s self-interest is not separate from that of the greater whole. Neither is one’s self-delusion. Enrichment is inclusive. All are beneficiaries. But so, then, does victim consciousness and withheld love impact the whole in equally powerful ways.

When we empower others in the spirit of ubuntu, we expand our definition of who we are. The sense of “I-ness” doesn’t stop at our skin. We are more than our biology. In the act of going beyond our old boundaries we are free to become the person we came to the planet to be, and thus realize more of our own potential.

The very willingness to take this kind of stand in the world, the world right where you already are, requires that you see yourself as abundant, and from this abundance naturally flows a generosity. This generosity cannot be stopped. It cannot be impeded. Generosity flows from abundance like a river, with all the force of nature behind it. And thus, your ubuntu nature is unleashed.

The work begins with you. Living in an abundant universe characterized by infinite possibility, doesn’t it stand to reason that what is required of us is get out of our own way so that we can be available for the abundance that is already there? Abundance already is and is freely available for all who are willing to receive it. You don’t need to grasp, strive or fight for it. You only need to receive it.

Maybe the only forgiveness necessary is self-forgiveness. Forgive yourself for forgetting the truth of who you are and for believing in the illusion of separation.

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Africa, the birthplace of the first human, may just hold the key to the survival of humanity. How fitting and appropriate that the country where homo erectus was first identified is also the birthplace of the philosophy that points the way toward a sustainable future for us, its offspring.

No, I’m not talking about a new technology that will solve our dependence on non-renewable energy resources or that will stop climate change. Not directly at least. But I am talking about a way of seeing the world and all its inhabitants that, if adopted by a critical mass of human beings, would have a major impact in our ability to work together and ultimately shift the context of what it means to be a human being living on Planet Earth in the 21st century.

The philosophy is simple enough. It doesn’t cost anyone a single dime. But it does require a massive shift in how we think about ourselves, how we see each other, and how we view every other living thing on the planet.

I’m talking about the philosophy called “Ubuntu,” which translated means “I am what I am, because of who we all are.” The word “ubuntu” has its origins in the Bantu languages of southern Africa.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu defines it this way:

“One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu — the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality — Ubuntu — you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.“
“A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.”

Nelson Mandela describes it thus:

“A traveler through a country would stop at a village and he didn’t have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu, but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?”

Sometimes the hardest thing in the world to do is to change is one’s mind. And yet, a massive changing of minds is what will be required if humanity is to weather the challenges we now face.

There are those who believe, and I would be among them, that everything begins with consciousness. Your state of consciousness determines your experience. Period. End of story. Two people can experience the same event, and depending upon their state of consciousness, can have entirely different accounts of what happened, what they felt, what they saw, etc.

Imagine that you and I are standing in line at Disneyland waiting to ride on the rollercoaster. Neither of us has ever ridden it before. Both of us feel a heightened sense of energy in our bodies, anticipating the experience ahead. Our hearts are beating fast, our palms are sweating, our throats are feeling dry and tight.

So far, we’re having the exact same experience at the physical level. But one of us is having an internal dialogue that says, “I’m really scared, I don’t know if I trust this. What if I fall out of the car? What if the ride is mechanically faulty? This is very scary!” And the other one of us is thinking, “I can’t wait! How exciting is this? I’ve always wanted to ride on a rollercoaster! I’m going to throw up my arms and shout ‘Woohoo!’”

Different states of consciousness produce entirely different experiences of the same event. And so it is that the predominant state of consciousness in the world today, that we are separate from one another, produces the experience of separation, which produces what we have on the planet: war, poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, injustice, greed, etc.

It does not take a rocket scientist to see that this story is not headed toward a happy ending. We all have different ideas of how to solve the problem if we even concern ourselves with the problem at all. Mostly we deny there is a problem or ignore it or think it’s someone else’s problem to solve. Or a small group of those who wield the most power among us want to solve it in a way that benefits their interests alone and neglects the interests of the vast majority.

In the main, we do not see ourselves as connected to each other. We see that there’s “me” and there’s “you.” “You’re” different (and separate) from “me.” You’re in that body over there, which is very different from mine. You live in a country far away from mine. You speak a different language, have an entirely different culture, different beliefs, make different kinds of choices about how you want to live from the choices I make, etc. From a consciousness of separation the paradigm is “You’re on your own.” “I’ve got mine. Get your own.”

We see this consciousness demonstrated in our politics, but it’s not limited to such. A belief in separation is woven into most of the world’s religions as well, which teach there is only one way to salvation and that’s the way of (name of religion here). The world is divided into good and evil, those who believe according to the teachings and those who do not. Unbuntu transcends all this.

Ubuntu is not a religious philosophy. Neither is it political. But it challenges every belief of most religions and political ideologies. It simply states, “I am what I am because of who we all are.” It requires a state of consciousness that understands and accepts the fact that at the quantum level, we are all made of the same star stuff. We all come from the same origins. Beyond the appearance of separation, lies a greater truth. We are all connected.

Ubuntu is about having an impact on each other in ways that expands and deepens our understanding of why we’re all here on the planet and our responsibility to one another. Even though one would be hard pressed to find evidence in our current cultural ideologies, the truth is, none of us wins unless all of us win. Collaboration is the ultimate winning strategy.

Imagine that you could view Earth from outer space. Imagine you could witness, at the same time, all of the ways in which humanity does harm to itself. Imagine you could view all the rapes, murders, abuse, starvation, and greed that we perpetrate upon each other and the planet. Imagine that you could experience all the hurt and anger in our collective hearts because of what we do to one another.

Now imagine that all human beings were suddenly able to see with clarity their connectivity. Imagine that instead of hating or judging, we opened to compassion instead. Then, imagine that we could all hear a little voice in our heads asking “What can you do to make a difference?” What would you say to yourself? What would you do? What could you do?

Now think about Ubuntu: “I am what I am because of who we all are.” What if what you want to be will only come about when you ensure that others get to be that as well? And what if all of humanity was on your team, working toward your good?

What if you were to make it your mission to express Unbuntu in your daily life? Do you think you’d see others differently? And if you did, what would be the impact in their lives? And what about your own?

Imagine the kind of world we’d have if the spirit of Unbuntu was the dominant paradigm. It can happen, but only if enough people see it and claim it as their personal responsibility. The choice is ours. The time is now.

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And now the darkness of these times brings a recognition. It is a time for reckoning, or as my friend would say, a “come to Jesus.”

Boys and girls, you and me, all of us, each of us, we have reached a critical moment in our story. We’ve come to the part where the would-be hero is faced with a crisis, and we know that means there is both danger and opportunity ahead.

We’re faced with many critical and important choices, but let’s just pick out two of them and call them Choices A and B. Choice A represents the danger part of the equation. Choice B, the opportunity.

Choice A takes us farther down the path we’re already on. We know this path well. This is the path of the Drift, that nameless face of the collective, primarily the aspect that is still asleep in consciousness. This would include the majority of us. Most of us are still asleep. How do we know? Look around. What have we got? What are we doing to the planet? What are we doing to each other?

A gifted young man who traces his roots back to the Mayflower, whose family background and credentials are sterling, a scholar, a seemingly “normal” human being, allegedly commits a heinous crime by killing a dozen people and injuring several dozen more. We wake up for a moment and make some noise about gun control legislation, feel the hurt collectively, feel our connection to one another for a moment, and then we fall right back asleep again, and nothing changes.

What happened in Aurora was only one incident in a world of incidents equally tragic and senseless. War is tragic and senseless. Starvation, rape, torture, child abuse, “man’s inhumanity to man” is tragic and senseless. Tragic and senseless things are happening all the time, everywhere. Because we are asleep. Because we’ve forgotten who we are.

And therefore, we haven’t created a critical mass of awakened ones to generate a shift in the consciousness of the collective. Yet. And so this lesson keeps coming back around and will continue to do so until we get it. There will be more tragic and senseless things happening in the world and in our lives as long as we stay asleep.

Choice A takes us farther down this path of the Drift, where we’re asleep and therefore unconscious. Here’s the dangerous part: In this state, we <em>appear</em> to be separate. In our illusion of separation, we see all the pain of the world and we think it’s happening “out there.” We think it’s about “them” or “those people” or “you people.” We don’t get that we’re connected; therefore, we also don’t get that this is about us.

“Whatsoever you do to the least of my people; that you do unto me.” (Matthew: 25:40)

There are no “you people.” We are all descended from the same source. Carl Sagan was right. “We’re made of star stuff.” We all trace our ancestry back to Africa, where humanity was born. And some believe we came from Adam and Eve, hence was born the story of our separation, the story of Adam and Eve and their fall from grace. We have lived out that allegory for millennia. Perhaps it’s time for humanity to write a new creation story.

What we see happening in the world today is the product of our collective consciousness. Together, we are weaving the tapestry we call “life.” And yes, there are those who exercise more “power,” at the mundane level, than others in the world. They appear to have the power to destroy or to build. They appear to have the power to bring war or to bring peace.

But don’t be misled into thinking this power to destroy or create does not also apply to you. We all have and we all exercise that power every day. A young man walks into a theater and allegedly uses his power to destroy life, and the collective is impacted by that choice. What we do with that experience, how we respond, who we become because of it will also tell the story of our collective intelligence. When do we become the expression of our highest nature, of the “all good”? Now would be a good time.

There are 7 billion people on the planet, and each of us matters. You matter. Your consciousness matters. It’s that simple. It’s that complex. It’s complex because the majority of us still believe in the illusion of separation. In our sleeping state we have momentarily forgotten the truth, which is that we’re all connected.

This is a difficult concept for humanity to grasp. It certainly doesn’t look like we’re all connected when we go around hurting each other. Nor does it feel like we’re all connected. But the truth is, we are. It’s time to become more skillful in helping our human family get this one.

In the illusion or the dream of separation we’re driven by fear, which produces the experience of scarcity. Scarcity and insufficiency appear to be the prevailing winds of our time. This is not the truth. This is part of the dream of separation. Out of this dream of scarcity, greed is born. And out of this greed, more scarcity is produced. And if our individual and collective consciousness accepts this as the way it is, then that becomes the way it is by right of consciousness.

Welcome to the Drift, home of the fearful and the not so brave. And here’s the thing, we all live in the Drift. We are not separate from it. But — and this is a big but — we still have a choice about how we’re going to be in it. For we can wake up in the Drift and make different choices. Every time someone wakes up in the Drift and inspires some others to do the same, the Drift transforms. And that’s Option B.

Transforming the Drift 

It’s time for humanity to write a new creation story. This is the opportunity part of the danger and opportunity equation.

Let’s step up and admit this is a crisis point for humanity and then be about the business of saving ourselves. It’s time for our collective slumber to be over. We get to choose how this thing is going to come down. You get to choose how it’s going to come down for you. And so do I. Based on the choices we make collectively, this thing is going to evolve or devolve.

We’re at the Dark Knight of the Soul, the intersection of Choices A and B, the point where we choose what kind of future we’re going to live into and pass on to the next generations.

What will it be? More of the Drift? More fear, greed and scarcity? More wars and killing? Or will enough of us awaken to form a critical mass of awakening, transform the Drift and bring the darkness into the light?

The light is already here. There’s nothing to do but embrace it, accept it, realize and recognize it as the essence of who we are. Recognize and embrace our oneness with all things, see what’s really going on here.

At the level of the truth, it’s all good. It’s the “all good.” Lean forward into it. Fall back into it. Get it all over you. Take a bath in it. Eat it from a spoon. Pour yourself into it and drink heartily of it. Drink from our collective cup of kindness, equanimity, compassion, generosity and love. It is the very nature of abundance, and it’s all ours. There is enough for everyone.

And let us pray for each other. And if praying isn’t your thing, do whatever is. If activism is your thing, get active. Do what makes your heart open. Do what needs to be done to heal your soul. Do what makes you know the truth about who you are and therefore who everybody else is. Connect. Love. Give. Open. Receive. Be grateful.

And keep doing it until you and the Drift wake up, for it is only by bringing the darkness into the light of our own love and acceptance, that we can possibly begin to transform the darkness of humanity. It is time to pass through this collective “dark knight” and emerge as the realization of our highest selves.

We send our love and prayers to those who suffered loss in the tragedy last weekend and to those still healing from its wounds.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Do leave a comment below. For personal contact, reach me at judith@judithrich.com

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In last week’s post, “Accessing the Wisdom of the Soul,” one reader posed the question: “Shouldn’t we prove that the soul exists?” Others wondered if the soul has a religious connotation. All this talk about soul, but do we know what is it exactly?

My own idea of what the soul is and how it operates has been deeply imprinted by my study of archetypal psychology and the work of Dr. James Hillman, the father and founder of archetypal psychology, an approach to working with the psyche that addresses the primacy of the soul and its process in shaping our human experience.

From an interview with Dr. Hillman in the New Kabbalah on the soul:

The classical problems of “… what it is to be truly human, how to love, why to live, and what is emotion, value, justice, change, body, God, soul and madness in our lives,” as well as the more immediate problems of sex, money, power, family, health, etc. are all insoluble. Their eternal purpose is simply “to provide the base of soul-making.”

From Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul:

“The ‘soul’ is not a thing, but a quality or a dimension of experiencing life and ourselves. It has to do with depth, value, relatedness, heart and personal substance.”

So whether or not you agree or can even remotely align with the idea or concept of a human soul, there are thinkers throughout human history who, while not necessarily agreeing on the word, have given the subject of that part of human existence that transcends body and mind, that is more than the sum of its parts, a great deal of thought and consideration. In this discussion this is what we are calling “soul.”

One reader last week suggested that the soul is equivalent to an “animating life force.” I can align with this idea. Within every human being, at the moment of birth when the very first breath is drawn, this life force enters the body. It remains with us until we take our very last breath. With the final expiration, this force which has animated our life our entire lifetime, leaves the body and the body dies.

Whether or not the soul lives on into eternity is a subject of much speculation and little agreement. However, the eternality of the soul has been celebrated throughout human history. From the ancient drawings of the cave dwellers in southern France, to the temples built to guard and ferry the souls of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt, to man’s earliest creation mythologies in Sumeria, the human story has always included the story of its soul.

According to Dr. Hillman, this animating force, embedded in us at birth, comes with a “calling.” He states “we enter the world called.” He borrows this idea from Plato’s Republic. In a nutshell, Plato’s idea is that the soul of each individual is given an image before it’s born. He calls it a “soul companion” or a daimon. The daimon carries the pattern for our lives and guides us over the course of our lives in its unfolding. It is the carrier of our destiny and our life’s guardian.

Whether this is factually true or simply a myth cannot be proven. But imagine for a moment that it were true. If you begin to “inquire within,” to consult your own soul for what is its calling, it might just set you on a wondrous adventure of discovery.

One way to discern the soul’s calling is to take a look around. Look closely and you will see that it’s all over your life. Seen through the filter of the soul’s calling, look at your environment. It will tell you the story.

Is your environment orderly or chaotic? Are you drawn to vivid colors or quieter serene ones? Is beauty in your space important to you or is your living space a place to hang your hat only? What about gardening and flowers? Art? Music? The soul thrives in many different kinds of environments. There is no one way for the soul. What is your way?

Look at your relationships. What state are they in? Are they smooth and functioning well? Are they bumpy and rocky? Do you pay a lot of attention to relationships in your life? Do you tend to seek solitude and avoid relationships altogether?

Look at your work life. How does it feel? Are you happy and satisfied, pleased with your accomplishments? Have you quit or lost jobs, started but never finished things? What are the patterns you see? Are you where you want to be in this domain?

Your soul is expressing its calling and its stamp is all over your life. There are many ways to tap into the psyche of the soul. Last week, many readers offered up poetry in their comments. A response no doubt inspired by the soul for poetry is one of the soul’s favorite means of expression. Writing, poetry, art, music… all call upon the creative realm where the soul dwells.

The soul is a poet by nature. So here’s an invitation to let your inner poet out and see what emerges. You needn’t try to figure anything out or make it rhyme. The soul follows its own rules for expression. If you feel so inspired, create some poetry, right here on the spot and leave it as a comment. What does your soul want to express?

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You see, when weaving a blanket, an Indian woman leaves a flaw in the weaving of that blanket to let the soul out. — Martha Graham

Matters of the soul have been the focus of my writing here  since I first began blogging nearly four years ago. Many of my articles are cross-posted over at the Huffington Post, where I’m a featured contributor on the Mindful Living page.

What a delight to learn that HuffPost has just launched an entire section devoted to matters of the soul!  And rightfully so, for one might say that we are now living in those “interesting times” of which the ancient Chinese proverb speaks. And in these interesting times, we often find ourselves rudderless and in need of some kind of guidance system.

I find this idea of using technology to help us get and stay connected with the soul and learn how to nurture it in our daily lives an interesting concept, for I’ve always thought of the soul itself as our internal GPS. This concept expands the envelope of how we humans can relate to the soul, but something in me is not quite ready to jump on the technology bandwagon when it comes to addressing the needs of the soul.

I may be slow in coming to this party, but not because I automatically reject new ideas. Quite the contrary! I’ve always been an early adapter/adopter, at least for my generation. However, when it comes to technology and matters of the soul, for me, the jury is still out. What I do delight in, however, is the importance being placed on the place of soul in our lives and cultivating one’s ability to be informed by the soul’s calling.

The idea that the soul expresses our true nature is not entirely accurate. It would be more accurate to say that the soul serves as a conduit to our true nature and thus, when we attend to its needs, we will be brought into alignment with its agenda. And the soul’s agenda is always about evolving in the direction of our highest possibilities. In this way, the soul is the guidance system that is always seeking alignment with its own true North.

But often times, perhaps even most often, the soul will take the deepest path to get to its destination. The soul is about deepening, for in the depths is where we’ll gain access to the wisdom it seeks.

Wisdom is to the soul what health is to the body.

The wisdom your soul seeks is the very reason for your existence. What if we are not bodies with souls but rather souls with bodies? Kind of gives it a different perspective. Consider that you have taken on a body as a vehicle for your soul’s journey. In this context, you are here to carry out your soul’s agenda, which is to realize your true nature and to live in alignment with it.

Wisdom is essential for the soul’s evolution and is rarely found at the surface of things. If that were true, we’d all be very wise souls and the world would be a much different place. If wisdom were easy to gain, we’d have already figured out how to solve the greatest problems facing mankind.

Wisdom might not be easy to gain, but the soul’s wisdom is always available to us. The thing is, we’re not always available to it. And this may be the very justification for using technology to nudge us in the right direction when we’ve gotten off track. I’m open to that possibility.

Crossing the Spiritual Desert

In my own experience, however, there is a purpose to be served by the very act of “being off track.” It’s not an accident. In truth, being off track is part of the awakening process. It’s the soul’s way of letting us know we’ve fallen asleep, made a wrong turn. It’s the soul’s course-correction process. There is wisdom to be gained in the desert of our journey. When we feel most lost and rudderless is when we finally can stop grasping for answers and solutions and become still. The soul finally gets our attention.

Granted, technology might be able to hasten the process so we end up spending less time in the desert. But there is something to be gained in that experience that a “quick fix” cannot heal. There in the desert, in the moments when you feel like you don’t know where to turn, in the times when you’ve lost your moorings and all the things you’ve relied on to keep you going no longer work, is when you’re required to deepen in order to discover what lies beneath all the old patterns.

For more about this aspect of the soul’s journey, please ready my earlier post, “Crossing The Spiritual Desert.” This post, written two years ago, still generates considerable personal email from readers, inquiring about their own process. It seems we all find our way to the desert at some point in our lives.

The soul thrives in the deep waters of solitude and stillness. It thrives in the darkness. It thrives in confusion and doubt. This is the very place where the soul can best emerge. Thomas Moore, who wroteThe Care of the Soul said:

“It is only through mystery and madness that the soul is revealed”

Consider that the soul will even craft the flaws in order that it might emerge. It’s those “flaws” the ego considers mistakes. To the soul, cracks and flaws are just openings for new possibilities to enter and blossom forth.

So if technology can help guide us to the places where the soul can best be heard, sign me up. The trick is, however, when we’re most in need of a tap on the shoulder pointing us in a new direction, is usually the very time when we’re the least available to receive it. Ask me how I know.

In my own experience, when I’m out in the desert and on that lonely stretch of the soul’s journey where no life seems to exist, I don’t want to be contacted by anyone or anything. I need to give my soul a chance to grieve whatever is being lost, whatever I’m being called to release. And frankly, the last thing I want at times like this is an electronic device nudging me to move in another direction. The work is to trust and honor the call of the soul and follow its river wherever it leads. Can a gadget teach me to trust? I’m skeptical, but open to discover what lies down this path.

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Mother Theresa with Dr. S. Brahmochary (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“We get tested along the path, and we are asked, ‘Are you in this for the ride, or are you in this to go as deeply as you can into the path of service and into the expression of who you could be?’” — James O’Dea, Former Executive Director, Seva Foundation

In January, we began a series of articles exploring the principles of transformation and how to apply them in everyday life to facilitate the awakening of consciousness. You’ll find those earlier articles listed in my author’s archive here.

Today’s offering is a continuation of this discussion and centers around the principle of service as a path to the awakening and expansion of one’s individual and our collective consciousness, and thus, transformation of the human experience.

There are many ways to approach this conversation, for indeed we are immersed in the concept of service nearly every moment of our lives. But not all service is offered with the intention to cause transformation.

Today we live in a service economy , where fully 85 percent of non-farm workers in the U.S. are employed in the service sector, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. This likely includes you and your job. You are either providing a direct service to the end user, aka customers, or indirectly through business-to-business relationships. Either way, chances are good that on a daily basis, you engage in the delivery, the support or the acquisition of services.

What determines whether the kind of service in which you engage the greatest part of your waking life is transformative or simply a means to an end? Is it possible to be doing an everyday, routine kind of job and create a transformative experience, or does one have to become a Mother Theresa in order to be a true servant?

Recall the last time you ate in a restaurant. What do you remember about the person who took your order? What was their name? Did they engage you beyond the perfunctory greeting and ask for the order? Did you engage them beyond giving your order or asking questions about the menu? Did you learn anything about yourself or them through the exchange? Were they just a worker doing their job and were you just a customer being fed? What kind of human beings were you with one another in the exchange?

This is the kind of routine interaction we experience often, whether or not we’re eating in a restaurant. It could be a straight-forward experience in which goods and services are provided in exchange for money and that’s it. Or the experience could be a “moment in time” when the veil between strangers is lifted and something more occurs; a human connection takes place beyond the business at hand.

Take Anika, for example, who works at one of my favorite place: The Sunnyside Café in Berkeley, Calif. She is a master server, but more importantly she is a master servant. Anika is infinitely patient with her customers, namely me and the group of 6–8 people I usually go to brunch with on Sundays after church. But Anika’s warmth is not limited to us. That’s how she is with everyone: present, connected, patient, understanding, helpful and human. Anika goes out of her way to make sure her customers are being served in a way that leaves them not only full and fed but nurtured from the inside out.

What Anika serves is not listed on the menu but is greater than any dish that is. Consider that every interaction with every single person you encounter has seeded within it the possibility of connection at this level.

You know people like this, I’m sure. You’ve had experiences with someone who came to your home to provide a service and in the process you encountered a human being so special you would have paid them twice their fee. This is what I’m calling “transformative service” or Seva, which is a Sanskrit word meaning “selfless service.”

Consider what James O’Dea, former executive director of the Seva Foundation, has to say about the subject:

“Service is not a form of moral obligation. It’s more about feeling the potential of the universe, the latent energy within the universe that is waiting to be released and expressed through you and your own unique qualities. There is no single paradigm of service. How do we truly release ourselves into the field of action?”

How Can You Serve Humanity?

You don’t need to go to India or to a third world country to make a difference. An aspect of seva is “compassion in action” — to bring a conscious awareness of compassion to your every action. A good question to ask yourself in the midst of what you’re doing is:

Who’s Doing the Doing?

You know when you’re being served in a way that leaves you with more than you paid for, in a good way. But how do you know if you’re offering the same thing in return?

If you want to know if your actions result in a difference being made for others, a good question to ask is, “What is my motivation for doing what I do?” Who are you being in this very moment?

With the people at work, with your family, your friends, with the grocery store checker or the person in front of you in the line at ATM, who are you being?

Are you going through the motions, AWOL from the experience, disconnected, cut off, caught up in your private world of worries and concerns? Or are you focused out? Are you focused on the person right there next to you or in front of you?

How’s it going for them? What do they need and how can you serve them right now?

Intention is Everything

Compassion in action or selfless service doesn’t require heroics. You don’t have to save someone from a burning building or snatch them out of the way of a speeding truck in order to serve.

A true servant is one who has answered an inner call to show up and be present to what is right before them, and who asks the question, “What can I contribute?”

Sometimes, the best way to serve is not always to say “yes.” It takes a great deal of discernment to know when saying “no” will serve a higher good. Sometimes what’s being asked is to serve another’s addiction to unworthiness or fear, and a true servant will have the courage to decline, rather than enable another’s smallness.

But intention is everything. It’s from our intention to make a difference that we engage in actions that forward the whole of humanity. Imagine if every single person engaged in just one act of compassion every day, multiplied by 7 billion — what would we be creating?

We’re all serving something all the time. The question is: What are you serving?

You’re either serving a belief based on the ego’s distorted conversation about what is true, or you’re in service to a greater truth about who you are and the nature of the universe and your place in it. What will it be?

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Dear Rush,

As a feminist, I’ve tuned in to your show off and on since the early 1980’s when you first became a national talk show host. Periodically, I’ve listened to your show in order to know what’s going on at your network, the EIB (Excellence in Broadcasting) Network.

Interesting word, excellence. Webster defines it as ‘the quality of being outstanding or extremely good”. This label fits you to a T, for indeed, you are outstanding and extremely good all right. You are an outstanding example, indeed, you are the very essence of ten thousand years of misogynistic treatment of women.

When you speak against women, as you did with Sandra Fluke last week, you’re not only speaking with your own personal voice, you’re echoing all the collective male voices throughout human history that have used their power to denigrate, dominate and control women.

We get it Rush. We know you hate us. And maybe you feel justified. Perhaps you had a mother who abused or abandoned you and maybe you feel justified for feeling as you do about women who own their power and who don’t abdicate it to a man.

And no, this is not a mass indictment of all men by another femi-nazi, man-hating woman. I happen to love men, having been married to a couple of them and loved a few more.

I love men who know them selves to be more than their bank balances, more than their job titles, more than the number of sexual conquests or trophy wives they’ve had. I love men who see beyond the cultural definitions of who they’re supposed to be, especially as dictated by people like you.

I love men who in knowing themselves to be more than their net worth, more than their golf scores, or the number of cars or jet airplanes they own, can look in the mirror and see beyond appearances, see their inner beauty, listen to and trust their heart.

I love men who can be spacious enough to let their women shine, secure enough to let their women be as big and as beautiful as can be. I love men who are humble, and who inspire women to feel safe enough in their presence to open to their deepest, most vulnerable self.

I love men who aren’t afraid to be wrong, men who have the courage to say that they don’t always have the answers. I love men who have a regard for what’s sacred, what’s holy, what’s unnamable, what’s invisible. I love men who don’t take a woman’s love or anything else for granted. I love men who get that a woman in her power is the most beautiful creature on the planet. Oh, I love that kind of man!

So let’s be clear Rush, although I might be a liberal, elder, feminist, one you would undoubtedly call a femi-nazi, I’ve been close to enough men in my life to get who they are and I’m very happy there are two different genders on the planet.

What’s more Rush, I know you really don’t care what I think about men or what I think about you for that matter, and I understand your point of view. You, after all, are the famous one with millions of listeners on your EIB network and I write a blog read by a few hundred or maybe a few thousand people.

But for what it’s worth, Rush, just as like when you spoke and behind you were thousands of years of misogyny, I know that I am also speaking not just for myself. My voice echoes millions of women, probably more than the number of your listeners, throughout human history who now say, “enough”!

We have had enough. Women have had enough with the snarky sexual innuendoes. We’ve had enough of being de-valued and discounted because we have vaginas. We’re done with laughing away our discomfort for fear of being ridiculed or accused of being too weak, too angry or too sensitive.

We’re no longer willing to pretend we don’t feel angry when a man demonstrates his ignorance about women in the way you did last week. Not any more, Rush. I must thank you for going over the line the way you did, for while you have brushed up against the line of indecency many times over the decades, this time you finally crossed it.

And now, all bets are off. You have unleashed a giant. And we vote! And we buy things! And we know who the advertisers are who continue to support your show. And we know who has pulled their ads from your show. And we’re keeping track.

Did I mention that we buy things? We buy flowers and mattresses and software and computer back up and internet services and we do have a choice about who to give our business to. And Rush, you can count on that we, and I don’t mean just women, we women and the men who love us and who love women, the men who have mothers, sisters, wives and daughters, we will no longer support any company that advertises on your show.

For, Rush, we will not stand for what you stand for. We will not stand for women being treated, talked to, or talked about in the way that you talked about Sandra Fluke. And we will not stand for those who stand for you or the likes of you. We will not stand for you or anyone, disrespecting the ones who brought you here, the ones who raised you, bathed you, fed you, changed your diapers, and wiped your fevered brow.

Rush, it is time for you to go. What you stand for is over. You had a good ride. You rode to the top. You’ve been a king-maker. You’ve sat in the seat of power of one of our country’s main political parties. You’ve been the master puppeteer. So don’t be greedy now. Your time is up.

Humanity is moving on and we are moving in the opposite direction as you. I know it doesn’t look that obvious that we are parting ways, for you still appear to wield considerable power in the halls where power counts. But like a big ship changing course in the middle of the sea, this ship called humanity, is turning around. And you represent exactly what we are moving away from. We are headed down the path, on which men and women know they are just two sides of the same coin called humanity. We treasure ourselves and one another. We love and respect all life, humans, plants and animals. We respect our mother, the planet. We live in an abundant universe and know there is a place for everyone. Even you, Rush. We even have a place for you.

How would you like a part time job working at a women’s health clinic near your home there in Florida. Newt could probably get you a job working the night shift as a janitor or maybe you could even dispense contraceptives to those crazy college-aged women down there. You know, the ones who are having so much sex they can’t afford to pay for it? (You might want to do some homework on how contraceptives actually work, Rush.)

To your continued excellence,
Dr. Judith Rich

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This is a continuation of our series on Living Transformation, in which we are examining a series of principles essential for creating a new future for humanity. Previous posts in this series can be found here, here, and here.

We don’t have to look too far afield to know that we are witnessing the unraveling of the old order. It’s systems are crumbling, even as its so called “leaders” desperately attempt to keep it going. It’s like the proverbial “re-arrang­ing the deck chairs on the Titantic”. No matter how the chairs are arranged, the Titantic is sinking.

Humanity is already moving into a new paradigm, even as we are standing in the rubble of the old one’s demise. In this moment of time, when the chaos and disarray are still mounting and we cannot yet see the formation of what will follow, we can wring our hands and fall into fear, which is how the old domination model has maintained control throughout human history.

Or we can turn our eyes towards building a future that embodies the principles of “we’re all in this together, how can we best serve humanity and the planet?” instead of “how can I profit and benefit at all costs?”

Creating a future that works for everyone and not just the privileged few, will require a major shift in consciousness on the part of those who stand to benefit the most by maintaining the old order. It will require a shift in how we view the world and our place in it, how we view our relationship with the earth itself and whether or not we have a responsibility to serve the earth vs. pillaging its resources, including ourselves, into oblivion.

Do we really want to perpetuate the old paradigm espoused by some of today’s politicians who preach that we are not here to serve the earth, the earth is here to serve us? This is the epitome of the old paradigm, crafted in a time when the human population could be measured in thousands instead of billions. That kind of thinking long ago outlived its relevance and clearly will not serve humanity going forward.

In our awakening to the work that lies ahead for all of humanity, it is imperative that we get what is being required of us now. We can no longer “live by the sword” as of old. Our “sword”, in all of its iterations, from bombs to pepper spray, is being blunted and replaced with awareness.

Take note of what happened at the UC Davis campus in the wake of the pepper spray incidents there a few weeks ago. After brutal pepper spraying at the hands of campus police, students lined up in silent protest as the university’s Chancellor, Ms. Katehi, walked past them from her press conference, held to explain and defend her actions. She was forced to hear, in the silence, the true voice of the people. In meeting their eyes, she was forced to see that they were present and wide awake.

The sleeping giant is awakening.

Take note of what happened on the steps of the state capitol in Virginia this week, when thousands, mostly women, came in “silent” protest at the new legislation mandating sonograms and vaginal probes for women seeking abortions. They too, stood in silence as their state legislators filed past them on their way to take up discussion on HR-1, the bill in question. As a result of this demonstration by the people, state legislators chose to postpone their discussion. They may ultimately pass this legislation against the will of the people, but they cannot pretend they don’t know that the sleeping giant ultimately has a vote.

David and Goliath

These new “weapons” are being used in the confrontation between David and Goliath wherein David, aka the people, is putting Goliath on notice that we are awake, we are watching and we are listening. And we are aware. It is the very thing Goliath fears the most. For in our awakening, we can no longer be manipulated into fear and instead are claiming our voice and our responsibility to use it wisely for the benefit of all.

The sleeping giant, aka humanity, is coming out of its collective slumber and beginning the journey through its own birth canal. We are in the labor pains of delivering ourselves to an entirely new way of relating to ourselves, each other and the planet. In the process, each of us is being called to awaken our own sleeping giant within.

Having just crossed a major threshold in my own life, turning 70 last week, I am aware as never before, of the unlived life still awaiting my discovery. I know that I am here to be part of this grand unfolding wherein together, we human beings step up and into a higher expression of consciousness. In this new paradigm, the awakened giant becomes Cupid, using love as the only weapon necessary for the healing of humanity and a return to wholeness.

I welcome this transformative process along with its birth pains. It is our collective labor of love and we are all here to be midwives in the process. It’s time to scrub up and begin delivery. Our future is about to arrive.

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