Trail Blazer
Chart A Path To Both Individuality And Oneness.
Photos, unless noted otherwise, are by Don Pierce
What is gained in materialism is lost in long-term suffering.
Look from where you are to the edge, and beyond.
Focus more on being inspired and inspiring than on being informed and informing.
Rather than listening to what others tell you about your purpose, listen instead to your own heart.
Model the work of others who have known their purpose but also keep your own individuality.
Most humans have already chosen the road to instant gratification. While this highway of the Ego often eases short-term pain, what is gained in materialism is often lost in long-term suffering.
We as a species need to blaze a new course that is based on the awareness of both individuality and oneness.
To become whole again requires one to break the hard shell of one’s Ego and thus develop beyond one’s lower nature to higher realms of consciousness. With wider perceptions and access to the higher realms of consciousness one can have better thoughts and, thus, a better life.
I know someone who perceives things almost solely from where she is right now and, from where she is at the moment, things are usually bad somehow. Things are unpleasant for her now because of a neglectful and abusive husband. It seems that she can only see a horizon where her life will get worse because of her reduced finances after her impending divorce. It is as if, metaphorically speaking, she can only see from her back porch, across her lawn, to the edge of the marsh, and the whole span is, for her, worrisome. She needs to look at life beyond the yard, beyond the present domestic situation. She needs to see in the marsh beyond the edge of the grass the serenity and safety she will experience after her separation; in the ocean beyond the edge of the marsh her new life living close to her grown children, where she will live after her divorce; and in the sky beyond the edge of the ocean her freedom and opportunities for fun, romance, and growth after the dust settles.
The author of Sight and Sensibility: the Ecopsychology of Perception, Laura Sewall, writes that the . . .
“edge is where one thing becomes the next. The edge is also shared, although it seems to belong to the one thing more than the other, to the mountain more than the sky, the self more than the other. We tend to see the edge as the property of the figure we are attending to. But any edge also delineates the ground––the background, the negative space, or the unattended form. It marks what is on the other side of our attention, of our current reality, signifying that the world is more” (Sewall, 1999, p. 135).
Look from where you are to the edge, and beyond. Alter the way you perceive things and the things you perceive will be altered. The way to find higher realms of consciousness begins by surrendering your relatively “little mind” to the relatively “Big Mind” of Spirit. Then, determine how to use your innate and developed talents plus your desire to best serve others. Remain blissfully deaf to the reality-check repercussions that the Egos of others give to you as a way to keep you from wondering into the uncharted inner world terrain where greatness can be found. Remember that the Egos of your friends may not want to you get ahead of them in this way.
Ignore what others tell you about your purpose. Listen instead to your own heart. It and the universe always work on your behalf. Then, model the work of others who have known their purpose but also keep your own individuality. Be thankful for the opportunity to live purposefully. Live happily on purpose. Living this way requires that you write down your purpose, that you be the peace you seek, that from time to time you start over without regrets, and that you practice forgiveness. Experience what you intend before it shows up in the Realm of Exteriority. In a prayer-like message to yourself, say: “I am spiritually developed.” If you are not where you want to be in your spiritual development, say it is so as if it were so. You are not lying. You are reorienting your perspective. Doing so often casts away anxiety, despair, depression, and stress. It also clears the way to find connection to your Source. To boost the positive results of these prayer-like messages, find silence (it is the Voice of The Absolute Spirit), meditate, and pray. Live in a state of appreciation. Uplift others. Focus more on being inspired and inspiring than on being informed and informing. Know that you are a success, do not hoard or become attached to what comes to you materially in life, and further your practice of forgiveness by doing the following activity:HumaNatureConnect Activity.
Nocturnal Pilgrimage
Make Your Dreams Come True
One cannot expect much from affirmations if they consist of words without much feeling. Feel your desires earnestly and they will come true. For practice, intend to have a lucid dream with both present tense words and strong feelings. At the moment you realize that you are awake in your dream, catalogue your elevated feelings right at the “A-Ha” moment. Resolve to repeat such wonderful feelings by living a life full of frequent realizations, both day and night. Let the realizations bring you the feelings and let the prospects of having the feelings encourage you to set up opportunities for the realizations.
