Acceptance is an act of love.

“The spiritual practice of relationships is about working on ourselves only, freeing ourselves from the constricting grip of our own unhappiness. It is not the other person’s job to take our unhappiness away; our discomfort is our own responsibility. Attending to our spiritual tasks – seeing our judgments, opinions, beliefs, demands, and staying present with the fears out of which they all arise – frees others to move toward us. Then, when they no longer feel the need to defend, they become more willing to take care of their job. Thus joy in relationships becomes possible.” ~Ezra Bayda~ 

Every relationship in your life, no matter how fleeting, provides an opportunity to practice loving, healthy interactions. The more proficient you become, the more peace you experience in your day-to-day life. When others become lost in the grip of ego, your balance and equanimity can transform even the most challenging of situations into spacial awareness. 

How would your experiences change if you were not subject to disappointment? What would it take to simply allow those who grace your life to grow at their own pace while offering acceptance, love and support for their journey? These states of higher consciousness are more easily accessed when you are free of expectation. 

Encircle the world with your love. Small, consistent kindnesses can spark the light of consciousness to awaken. Everyone and everything is our teacher.

When you are able to celebrate all life as sacred, there is nothing to fear.

“The great miracle of Zen is in the transformation of the mundane into the sacred.. and the miracle of Zen is neither interested in the past nor in the future. Its total interest is in the present. Maybe that’s why the miracle is possible, because the past and the future are bridged by the present.” ~Osho~ 

As we place our focus on the present moment, we discover that we are entirely capable of handling whatever arises. Courage is discovered and expressed in the Now. The mind creates future-based fear through the pondering of the unknown – what will the future hold? How will I survive when I am old? What if…? Realize that all thought forms are insubstantial. Quiet the mind and experience the fullness of this moment. Then act.

When you recognize the sacredness in all things, it brings a different quality into your experience. Operating from a detached sense of unconditional love also brings courageous to the surface. Detachment allows us to give without demands. It is a purity that expresses itself through us. What would your expression of life be if you were fearless? Be that. Do that. Live that.

This is the moment of transformation. How will you use it?

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

“Lord make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy O divine master grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled as to console
to be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it’s in dying that we are born to eternal life.” ~St. Frances of Assisi~ 

When you witness hatred, know that it’s opposite is absolutely possible. As a conscious soul in the process of awakening, you have the opportunity to play the role of love in that type of equation. The trick is to recognize the dysfunction while choosing to remain in balance and non-reactive.    

It takes practice to maintain a sense of calm in the face of intense negativity; however, that is the purpose of the spiritual seeker. After all, anyone can be zen while meditating on a mountaintop. We are called upon to bring a higher energy to challenging situations.    

While you already have the tools you need to face these circumstances with grace, your challenges provide an opportunity to hone these skills and witness them in action. It takes the ideas and concepts you are learning and allows you to put them into practical motion.  

We are light-bringers in a world that often seems filled with darkness. Your purpose is to awaken, to teach and to serve.  

You are never alone.

“These friends and helpers offer assistance in a variety of ways. They can act as teachers, healers and providers of knowledge both for yourself or for other people through you. You may have one recognized spirit guide or literally hundreds. Sometimes you work with only one, or perhaps with a variety, each specializing in a different area.” ~Jose Stevens~ 

Everyone has spirit guides. Many are members of your soul group who are between lifetimes. Some intentionally choose not to incarnate because they want to walk by your side and be of assistance throughout your entire life in spirit form. Others are those you’ve loved who have passed, and after a time of rest and life review, are free to provide love, insight and assistance. Spirit animals may walk with you as well – if you notice an attraction to a particular species, learn all that you can about it. This will help you understand the messages they have to share.

Spirit guides live outside of the limitations of time and space; therefore, they are often able to provide information about the past, the future or movements of energy in different levels of existence. One challenge that we face is learning how to interpret the messages or communicate with these loving helpers. Begin with visualization and meditation. We must learn to quiet the mind in order to receive clear messages.

Guidance may come mentally, physically (feeling tingles or other bodily sensations), via images or pictures, or through touch. Healers are often led by feeling warmth while working on others. In our digital world, many enjoy interpreting messages of repeating numbers. Shamans work with animals and earth energies.

Some are repaying a karmic debt by helping. Others have evolved and no longer need to have the human experience; however, they choose to assist those of us who are still seeking enlightenment.

Experiment and discover what style of communication works best for you. Then, cultivate a relationship with your guides. You are never alone.

Let your life be your message.

“To be a seeker is the beginning of the gamble. You are risking your life, you are risking your ego. You are risking because you are dropping all your securities, all your safety arrangements. You are opening windows – who knows who is going to come in? The friends or the enemy – who knows? You are becoming vulnerable. That’s what seeking is all about.” ~Osho~ 

Know thyself. Throughout our history of awakening, the great masters have shared insights that provide a glimpse into the mystery. There are two aspects to the experience of awakening – the Oneness that connects us, and the very unique human expression of that Oneness. 

The paradox lies within cultivating the ability to recognize the Divine in one another while accepting the differences between us as vital and important aspects to the process of awakening. Contrasts allow us to learn. Dark and light are two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other. 

Consider the person, or type of person, that you see as “wrong.” You may notice a lot of judgment arising regarding the role they play on the planet. Yet, how would you know that you are judgmental without their willingness to reflect it to you? 

By going within, by knowing yourself – all your skills, insights, foibles, challenges and potential – you bring something unique to our planetary collective experience. Let yourself shine. Honor your gifts and recognize that the process of your awakening is a sacred, beautiful dance between you and the Divine.

Attachment creates suffering.

“Disappointment is always a reminder that you’re still attached to something. Take that disappointment as opportunity to investigate.” ~Ezra Bayda~ 

Consider the moments in your life when the mind has attached to a specific outcome. How much energy was wasted by planning, worrying or attempting to get life to conform to a specific idea of what is “right?” The entire process is draining and is created by the ego to distract from the power of the present moment. 

The Now is always your doorway to higher levels of consciousness. When you can quiet the mind and seek instead to experience what life has to offer with an open heart, you’ll discover the many opportunities to rise above the mundane. 

Everything unfolds in the way that is most appropriate for our awakening. Rather than resisting what is, practice seeing life as perfect in its perceived imperfection. There is always far more happening on your behalf than you may realize.

Visualize the minor chakras in the soles of the feet opening to receive the grounding energy of mother earth. Affirm that with each step you take, you become more and more open to the highest truths:  you are loved, guided, supported and protected each and every step of the way.

This is the moment of transformation.

“The little self, driven by fear and a craving for comfort, identifies only with ‘me.’ The true self, driven by nothing, identifies with the unbounded awareness that we truly are.” ~Ezra Bayda~ 

For those of you who know my backstory, my most challenging relationship this lifetime was with my father. From a karmic standpoint he is in my soul support circle as my Discipline person. This means that he has the potential to trigger me and helps me to cultivate a very disciplined spiritual approach through our interactions. 

After leaving home at 16, my relationships assisted me in clearing the wounds and limiting beliefs that I carried. Spiritual awakening began at age 23. For nearly 30 years, various situations have allowed me to clear my self-imposed blockages and create the life of my dreams. Now, nearing the end of their lives, my parents have asked me to build a home for them on our property. As I go through the process of navigating all that entails, our interactions have gone from periodic structured visits to daily phone calls, emails and letters, I’ve noticed some triggers arising once again. The next several years will be interesting to be sure.

Typically, it takes me about an hour to write these emails and then perhaps another hour to fall back to sleep, so I’m used to a pause in my sleeping habits; however, last night I found myself tossing and turning. One hour became two, then three and I realized that my ego (Moe) was running amuck. No matter how much I observed it’s antics and attempted to shift my perception, the thoughts would creep back in stretching thin the illusion of time and disrupting my peace. 

Finally, the thought arose – “What can I do differently?” I’d tried rationalization, re-framing and positive self-talk when I joyfully realized that gratitude was the answer. I’d barely gotten started with expressing silent gratitude for Kizzy and Minky, the kitties, the sleeping man by my side, the gift of doing work that I love… when I found myself waking hours later to the light of a new day – rested, at ease, and ready to share my journey with you.   

Gratitude takes us higher. It changes our energetic frequency and declares our willingness to take responsibility for our own joy. Gratitude transforms our responses to life situations and challenges while allowing us to see things from a higher and healthier perception.

The peace you are able to experience in the present moment is a barometer of your current level of consciousness.

“We taste the profundity of existence by simultaneously holding both the suffering and the wonder of being alive.” ~Ezra Bayda~ 

When you really pay attention, everything and everyone is your teacher. Life presents endless opportunities to explore the vastness of love, acceptance, forgiveness and healing. Choose to see yourself as an awakening master who walks purposely in the world. 

Many are lost in thought. They see the world’s challenges as things that are “wrong” – within their family, relationships, society, health or work – rather than as opportunities to learn. In the present moment you have two options: resist or accept. Resistance creates disharmony in your experience. Acceptance opens up worlds of possibility.

Nothing is more important than your joy. Whenever you observe yourself reacting or being triggered by your life circumstances, realize that by consciously changing your responses, you bring a new energy to old repetitive patterns and thus, begin to break free from them.

Walk gently, be kind, breathe and face life with an open heart.

Illness is just another pathway to awakening.

“Believing that we ‘create our own illness’ and that with ‘better’ practice we can ‘defeat’ it, is another version of believing in sin and salvation. Sickness, old age, and death are natural parts of life; and pain simply is. None of them are sins, enemies, or failings.” ~Ezra Bayda~ 

I read of a conversation between teacher and student once. To paraphrase: The student asked, “Teacher, how can I tell if my illness is karmic, trying to teach me something or an imbalance created by my actions?” The teacher replied, “I don’t know. Begin by clearing any internal blockages, do your work, move into love and forgiveness for everyone. If it remains it is simply what your soul requires in this moment to awaken.”

Our human experiences will take us many places. None is right or wrong, each is simply another aspect of person-hood. Illness can be a teacher in a multitude of ways. It can remind us that we need to nurture ourselves if stress or overwork has created an imbalance. It might allow us to meet someone with whom we have a healer/healed karma – perhaps we helped them to heal in another life and now we must have a situation that allows them to return that gift. In the journey toward wholeness, perceived problems lead us to discover certain teachers, books or knowledge that we would never have been part of our explorations without the imbalance.

When the body begins to change, keep stillness inside of you. See yourself and the various aspects of of your journey without judgment. There is sacredness to be discovered within any situation. Always begin with the knowledge that everything works toward your highest good, move into stillness and acceptance and make any necessary decisions based upon love rather than fear.

When you shine the light of consciousness, everything is transformed.

“If you understand it, the world is a great device to make you more conscious. Your enemy is your friend, and the curses are blessings, and the misfortunes can be turned into fortunes. It depends only on one thing: if you know the key of awareness.” ~Osho~ 

Do not run from the darkness when it appears in your life. Moments of confusion, disappointment, depression or anger can become the most important aspects of your spiritual awakening. Begin your practice by bringing consciousness into your experience right now. First, walk for a few minutes while completely engaged in thought. Then, while standing still, take a few slow breaths and begin to walk consciously while deeply engaged with the world around you. Notice the difference? 

The idea is to purposely access consciousness often throughout the day. This will change the quality of your life experiences. Being aligned with the present moment, tension disappears and the subtle joy of being alive arises. 

When you are deeply rooted in awareness, you’ll notice that you eat slower. There will be a new quality in your communication or your work. Life becomes a walking meditation. By extension, when challenges arise, your consciousness will be easier to access because it is already an active aspect of your daily experience… and from there, transformation is possible.