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by: Coral Conrad SPIRITUAL AWAKENING Over the last 20 years since my first introduction to 'spirituality' rather than 'religion' I have found that learning about universal laws, myself in isolation and myself in relationship with others, has become a daily fascination. I have also found that once we find this spiritual part of ourselves, we see our life becoming full of 'lessons' as we quietly and unconsciously ask for more growth within ourselves. These lessons do not give us an easy life. However, we see these differently to the sleepers who tend to see difficulties as punishments from God or Allah, or they see themselves as victims as they blame others. Sometimes the occurrences are just heavy burdens of life. Awakeners see these trials as something that we can overcome, rise above and use to become a better or 'whole' person. Everyday life takes on a new meaning. In this letter to you I will briefly touch on many subjects and many experiences. At a later time I will revisit subjects for closer discussion. I will respond happily to any particular areas of request. MY OWN AWAKENING I was first introduced to spiritual learning through my daughter - when she was about age of nine months. Many people find that they are 'instruments for another's learning' and she was mine. At this early age when most children say 'dada', she said to me, with her finger raised "remember where your duties lie" just as my deceased grandmother had once said to me. From memory I recall that my husband was also present and as shocked as I was. This was only the first of many amazing things that this child became capable of, however as a devout Catholic my husband chose to consider these occurrences as wrong doings and turn away. It was not the right time for him. My daughter became very ill and suffered a number of unexplained and unrelated problems. The doctors had to ignore many of them as they dealt with her life threatening asthma attacks and cardiac arrests. One day I was speaking to my brother on the telephone about these multiple unrelated illnesses. He said 'sounds like psychic attack to me'. A light flashed on deep inside me as he said that. He realised that as a gifted child it was likely she was a beacon to 'lost souls' seeking a bright light to hang onto. From that day I found that people started coming into my life who led me to information, books and others on the spiritual learning path of life.
Many people use spirituality and religion to hide their real agendas. I have found over the years that we live with the unfortunate fact that many people grasp an ideology and then use it to suit their own purposes in a way that adversely affects others and satisfies a negative attitude or pattern in their own life. For example, I know a man who was told once 'don't take on other people's baggage'. This business man's first focus in life, and his second, third and fourth, is money. He will vehemently deny it, of course. He has also shown a pattern of blaming others for his difficulties in life and relationship failures. One habit he has is to make two different arrangements with two different people if it means he will benefit financially from their cooperation. When these two people then fall out over the conflicting situation he has set up, he stands back and says ' it's their problem. I'm not taking on their baggage'. All he is doing is avoiding responsibility for creating the conflict. But he has succeeded in the meantime in getting their, usually free, assistance in one of his projects!! The ideology to be considered here is the first and the most important but usually the one that is overlooked in anything you will read - MOTIVE. When you ask for something - what
is your motive? Your motive must always be 'FOR THE GOOD OF ALL CONCERNED'. When this businessman liked the sound of this ideology to 'not take on board another's baggage" what was his motive? To step away from responsibility. When the man made arrangements with each person - what was his motive? To make money through other people's free labour. Was his motive 'for the good of all concerned?' No - he was not adequately rewarding others for their input or considering the repercussions of his agenda on other people. What was the result? Trauma and upset for the people who tried to assist him. Was he happy? He also suffered some difficulty because the assistants then became less cooperative Deep down this man is very unhappy because he is always surrounded by dissension amonst his family, colleagues, employees....and can't work out why. Overall his conscience is clear because he 'uses' the saying 'don't take on other people's baggage' as he had grasped years ago, to blind him to his involvement and satisfy any guilt he would otherwise feel. MORE ABOUT MOTIVE Most actions are underpinned by the negative energy we call fear. Fear can then bring about the negative actions of control, anger, manipulation, etc etc. Many organisations spout ideologies of 'using your mind power you can have anything you like'. I have spoken to teachers who have 'grasped' this ideology and taught this in schools. Sounds like a wonderful thing to teach young people, giving them dreams, hopes and enthusiasm for life. Yet I have never seen this accompanied by teachings on how to care for others as you get what you want. Or, how to look within to see why you want what you want? Do you want to control others? Do you want your own way so that you don't have to learn to share and cooperate? School age children, including teenagers, need firm guidance to develop into responsible adults. I learned this from classes with a celebrated psychologist. Teaching children just a portion of a subject is as dangerous as teaching them to drive but not to stop. Many adults are still operating on (or acting their life through) childhood pains and are similarly creating havoc in our society through misuse of very powerful knowledge. THIS POWERFUL KNOWLEDGE I believe that religion had its place in our world, and still does. I see it as the cradle that held us when we had litle understanding of the wide world - being the powerful knowledge off spiritual ideologies. The Catholic and Protestant religions withheld much knowledge from the ordinary person and the control and power lay within the ranks of the churchmen.Many, many centuries ago, we were too childlike to have been able to grasp or treat with respect some of the things we now know. If we had known that we could live this life and then another, would we have led a good life - or had a wow of a time, raping and piliging, because we could'fix it up next time'. My bet is on the latter choice. As this information is now becoming much more widely spread, we are facing many who are on the raping and piliging spree. Criticising them solves nothing except that it lowers us to their level.We still have a number of actions open to us. Some simple one are: 1. Have compassion for them that they have not yet been able to climb out of the cradle, and 2. Remain away from their influence until you are strong enough to withstand the effect they would have on you, or 3. Look for unobtrusive opportunities to show how good can bring happiness too.
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