The Destiny Discovery – A Virtual Discussion With Author Michelle Casto

Today I’d like to share with you a virtual discussion I had with Friend and fellow author Michelle Casto, who is also known as “Bright Michelle.” My own observations of Michelle is that she is a woman who is fully engaged with life. She truly is “bright” as her alias would suggest and the life she has created is one of opening doors to the light we all have within us. I have asked Michelle some questions that I think will provide insight into her as an author and as a spiritual leader and are questions we all ask as we walk through this life. She has graciously agreed to answer these questions which will be the content for this blog. I hope you enjoy Michelle’s inspiration and I recommend her book as well. There are many free gifts from Spiritual luminaries of all walks of life that are yours when you purchase your copy of the book. You won’t be disappointed.

Here is the discussion preceded by a short introduction of Michelle. Enjoy:

A renowned Life & Business Coach, Michelle L. Casto is an advocate for “everyday enlightenment”, and author of the book The Destiny Discovery: Find Your Soul’s Path to Success. Throughout her 20-year career, she has published over 30 life empowerment and career development books, including Get Your Career on the Fast Track. A former university lecturer and career counsellor, Michelle has worked with thousands of international clientele to find their ideal career path. A natural-born empath and healer, Michelle has become well known for her potent magic that transforms people into knowing & honoring who they are at a very deep level. Michelle’s mission is to awaken people to their soul purpose through her unique Destiny Success Process. She lives in San Antonio, Texas with her beloved husband and two dogs. These days, Michelle’s mission is to awaken people to their life purpose through her unique Destiny Success Process.

Yesterday, Michelle visited Paula Tarrant at http://inspiredwomenwork.com/finding-your-souls-path-to-success/, where they talked about Work, Career & Soul Purpose.

Carl Bozeman: Michelle, What is our “soul,” how do you discover it and how do you integrate it with the human experience?

Michelle Casto: The Soul is the spiritual essence within your physical form. It is eternal, unlimited, and connected to Infinite Intelligence. It knows who we are, why we are here, and where we are going. The Greek origin for the word psychic means ‘of the soul,’ which is exactly what you want—information from your spiritual essence. Soul is the perfect expression of the Divine essence of God, the eternal aspect of you, and your Soul knows that while you are here making a HOME (heaven on mother earth), it is on a chosen mission.

The great philosopher, Plato believed that the Soul of man was eternal, pre-existent, and wholly spiritual. Many who believe in reincarnation believe that our life not only purifies the soul, but the purification comes through opportunities to learn if the Soul is willing. Unfortunately, many people let the challenges of life bring them down rather than embracing them as the curriculum they were intended to be. They ignore these lessons for personal growth and walk through the world wounded, sending out lower vibrations. Wounds and unhealed trauma can take you away from your path of Destiny if you fall into victim mentality.

The irony is that when these same wounds and disappointments are seen as sacred gifts and are integrated with acceptance, they will lead you directly to your Destiny.  Learning to let your Soul guide you is what the Destiny Discovery is all about.

Carl Bozeman: Michelle, what kinds of things get in the way of our connection to “soul” and, as you refer to it, our “soul’s purpose?

Michelle Casto: I would love to tell you that the path to Destiny is a straight shot with very few detours or times of anxiousness, but that would not be giving you the information you need to succeed. In the book, I discuss eight “deadly D’s to watch out for.  Let’s start at one of the most common, that being “detours.”

One way to tell if you are blocking your Divine Destiny is when you keep running into experiences that hurt a bit too much and then call it fate. You may even hear yourself saying “this always happens to me.” Well, the reason it keeps happening is that you have not yet mastered the lesson that life is offering to you.  When we fail to listen to our inner guidance, then we often miss important signposts that will lead us more easily and quickly to the Destiny that is waiting for us.

As long as you are awake and aware of synchronicities, you will see invitations to take new roads that lead to people and opportunities that can guide you. Luckily, there are physical and symbolic signs all around. For example, when I was living in Atlanta, Georgia and was thinking of moving to Texas, I started to hear dozens of Texas related ‘signs’ such as license plates, conversations, songs, etc. I did make the move, as it was part of my Destiny to be Texan, but, of course, I had to choose it. When you are oblivious to the signs around you it’s a bit more painful. And when you are unwilling to see what your Soul is trying to show you, you fall back into “default mode” which looks like the same experiences over and over again

Carl Bozeman: Michelle, can you share some practical ways we can all use to discover our “soul” connection and destiny and how to stay plugged in to it on a continuous basis?

Michelle Casto: My company, Everyday Enlightenment has a motto of Know, Honor and Love Thyself and this is on purpose.  Many of my clients know themselves at the intellectual level, and may be quite adept at reading, even reciting self-help philosophies.  But unless, we are honoring what we know, we are falling short of truly loving ourselves.

It is not enough just to know ourselves, as in what we like to eat, where we like to shop, or what we like to read.  We need to dig deeper to know our True Selves (Soul), and the Soul has a purpose unique to itself that it wants to express through our lives.

So how do we know, honor and love ourselves?  We do this by developing a close, intimate relationship with our heart and soul.  We look within for our guidance.  For example, when we are considering a path, person or possibility, I teach my clients to ask “Does this make my heart sing?  Can I bring more of my Soul into this relationship, opportunity or experience?”  “Will this be fun and rewarding?”  If the answer is yes, then you are on the right track.

There is a definite difference between living a life of default and a life of destiny.  And my greatest dream is to have everyone on the planet living a Yes, Yes, Yes life full of pleasurable, fun and fulfilling experiences. Living YES is by staying plugged in to our inner self.   A key to staying plugged in is to disconnect from mainstream thinking and go on your own search for Truth.   You can connect very easily through journaling or talking with a trusted friend or mentor.  Our soul is always ready to share with us, we just have to be the space for the communication.   We also develop a trust in God/Source/Divine. Trust that the same power that gifted you with your potential knows how to help you bring it forth.  Trust that this higher power wants your dreams to come true. Trust that you already know what to do to make it happen with ease. And always remember that when you are aligned, you are unstoppable.

———-

I hope you enjoyed this interview with Michelle Casto and that you’ll check out her book The Destiny Discovery: Find Your Soul’s Path to Success at http://www.liveyourdivinedestiny.com/book-launch/pages/pre-launch.html

Here’s why:

 

Although the below event took place on January 10th, 11th & 12th, 2012; you can still listen to the audio replay for a limited time if you register at http://liveyourdivinedestiny.com/book-launch/pages/telesummit.html.

 

The Discover Your Divine Destiny Telesummit

 

How Can We Discover Our True Destiny in 2012?

11 Destiny Mentors Discuss this Question on this

FR*EE 3-Day Online Event

January 10th, 11th & 12th, 2012

10am Pacific/1pm Eastern/6pm UK

 

Over the course of 3 days, we’ll be exploring the journey of AWAKENING to the path of destiny, FINDING the path of true destiny, and SUCCEEDING on the path of destiny.

 

Here’s our wonderful guest line-up:

• Michelle L. Casto – Life & Business Coach; author of The Destiny Discovery
• Lynn Serafinn – Coach; marketer; author of The 7 Graces of Marketing and The Garden of the Soul
• Christine Kloser – award-winning author; mentor to transformational authors and conscious entrepreneurs
• Paul Zelizer – business success coach for spiritual people
• Brenda McIntyre – healer, business coach, spiritual mentor and award-winning singer
• Dee Wallace – acclaimed Hollywood actress, acting coach, internationally known healer, author of Bright Light
• Dr. Roy Martina – world-renowned holistic medical doctor, author of #1 bestseller Emotional Balance: the path to inner peace and harmony, and 40 other books
• Nan Akasha – CHT Mind over Money Coach, #1 bestselling author of Already Rich! Secrets to Master Your Money Mind.
• Eva Gregory – master coach, conscious channel, speaker and author
• Jackie Lapin – speaker, coach, transformational business consultant and mentor in Practical Conscious Creation
• Gail Goodwin – Founder of InspireMeToday.com, providing free inspiration from world-renowned luminaries every day to members in more than 120 countries

This special 3-Day telesummit is Michelle’s FR*EE gift to you,

to celebrate the launch of her book, which is coming

Tuesday January 17th, 2011.

FREE GIFTS TOO!

When you buy Michelle’s book on Tuesday January 17, 2012, you can ALSO receive the MP3 download of all 3 days of this inspiring telesummit, plus a complete library of beautiful personal development gifts from authors, speakers, coaches and other enlightened professionals from around the globe including one from me;

Free E-Book: “Addressing the God That You Are – Who is Listening”

To claim your FREE pass to the Discover Your Divine Destiny Telesummit

and read about the free gifts, go to:

http://www.liveyourdivinedestiny.com/book-launch/pages/pre-launch.html

Thanks for reading! As usual, please feel free to share your comments and thoughts below. I love reading your feedback.

AND… be sure to follow Michelle tomorrow when the next stop on the Virtual Blog Tour is Lynnet McKenzie, who will be interviewing Michelle on the subject of What are the keys to the door of destiny?  To visit that “stop” on the tour, go to http://www.openingtoecstasy.com/discover-your-divine-destiny.

Breaking Down the Barriers to Spirit – A Way to Live for 2012

Instead of asking you to reflect on the year just ended and create resolutions for the new year just beginning I would like to share a pattern for life that will put you on a path of breaking down the barriers we all have when trying to access our spiritual natures. These are not resolutions rather they are a guide for living everyday, regardless of year, that never requires renewal or reflection. They are a guide for living in such a way that we are always open to our own divinity.

Accessing our spiritual or divine nature is difficult in light of the control ego has on us. Ego is opposed to anything beneficial to others and to ourselves. A Course in Miracles says, “The ego wishes no one well. Yet, its survival depends on your belief that you are exempt from its evil intentions.” 

How do we penetrate egoic devices that keep us from accessing the good within? Here is a list of characteristics that will not only penetrate our ego natures but help form a barrier that will prevent ego from having any influence in our lives, whatsoever.

1. Never point the finger; never and at no one: Pointing the finger steers us outward away from who we are. It is an easy thing to do to look away from ourselves while focusing on others. In fact, all of us need to always be singularly focused on our inner selves, where no inclination, whatsoever, exists to point away toward someone or something else. Pointing in any direction, even towards ourselves, is a good way to distance ourselves from that being who dwells within.
2. Ceasing to judge anything: Our judgment blinds us to reality. It skews our perceptions to finite criteria which limits infinite possibility. Gods have no limitations of any kind. They are bound to nothing, even so called physical laws. Judgment is the glue that holds us to the idea of impossibility. We like saying “nothing is impossible”, but our judgments convince us otherwise. When we cease to judge anything, the doorway to everything opens up to us.
3. Give up holding onto the past: Our history is the “school” of our judgments. We learn well our definitions of life in the school of past experience. Those definitions not only become the criteria for judging others, but also for judging ourselves. Judgments are confining to our senses and to our essence as gods. When we give up holding onto the past, newness and freshness strikes us in ways we cannot imagine.
4. Speaking kindly: Humans are said to be hardwired for communication. The ego, which is uniquely human, is programmed to defend itself. No ego ever wants to be perceived as “less than” its preconditioned criteria. While other egos may not reciprocate, always speak kindly of others. We can never know where anyone is coming from. No one knows your history nor do you know theirs. Speaking kindly allows everyone some ease and safety. It is an opening of your heart and theirs.
5. Expressions of love soften the ego, speak them often: The only thing “hard” about humans is the ego. It is the shell we all have that supposedly protects us from the onslaught of other egos crucial judgments. Ego is a defensive mechanism built up over time. It is the past brought forward into the present. It is the preparer of future defensive engagements. It is strong against the devices of other egos. It is defenseless against love and kindness. Speaking kindly and expressions of love break down egoic defenses and opens the door to the soul where our defensive walls give way to our divine nature. Expressions of love are gods speaking to others and to us. Nothing can stand against such expressions, especially our own egos.
6. Love everything: This is difficult because we are never programmed to do so. We are programmed to judge and place our affections on those things we have been taught to see as good. Finding a way to see beauty in everything is a way to open our minds to what our hearts already know. There is beauty and wonder in everything. It is all worthy of our love. Everyone, everything!

Practice these things everyday if you can. You will feel your heart soften toward everything going on in your experience. You will also notice doors opening to you that were once closed and you will be filled more and more with the wide-eyed wonder you had as a child. Each day, less and less will escape your view.

Enjoy your new awareness, enjoy the new year but most of all enjoy yourself right now this very moment.  You are god. All my best,

Carl.

A Holiday Message – Before Giving….Release

During this holiday season I would like to share some thoughts about the greatest “gift” you can give to yourself. I hope you won’t mind my making reference to Jesus as this time of the year is especially focused on the birth and subsequent life of Jesus but the message is universal and certainly non-denominational.

Christians the world over look to Jesus as a gift, given to the world by a kind and benevolent Father and that we should pledge strong belief and allegiance to him. Christians miss much about this great man. The life of Jesus and all his subsequent teachings were about “release.” Our “giving” should be about giving away the things in this life that we attach ourselves to. It is believed that Jesus gave his life for the sins of those who would but believe in him, however, where we err is that the “giving” is about Him and not us. We consider his great kindness to us and we are forever obliged and in his subjection for having sacrificed as he supposedly did.

The idea of giving away our sins is not so much about giving away our sins to him as much as it is about releasing ourselves from carrying them.  We should not feel burdened with life. Giving is a difficult thing to do when the giving is from the abundance of our egoic identity. Egoic abundance is all that ego holds as reality, truth and belief when most of it falls into a realm of illusion and untruth. We are all full of such abundance and all of it comes with the attachments of fear and guilt and second guessing our own unique and divine nature.

True giving is releasing ourselves of our burdens. This is a greater gift then that of giving from our physical wealth because “release” frees us of our emotional ties to things past that no longer exist other then as memories coupled with the original emotions they carried. Giving always carries emotion which is not really giving. Release instead, your identity with the things that cause you fear and doubt. These are the only things that make you question your own divine nature. Release your grief, your sorrow, your sadness, your unhappiness and your pain. These are the greatest gift you can give to life and everyone who experiences you in their life.

It is my hope that you make this holiday season, not about the traditional “giving” we have come to think it is, but about “releasing” ourselves of our limited ideas about how incredible we are. Let everything go and enjoy to the fullest your divine nature and the divine nature of everyone you come in contact with.  Nothing you have done, do, or will do will ever impact your place in eternity. When you get to this place you no longer “give” of your abundance. You give of yourself and those to whom you give will sense the release you have experienced. This will release them.

All my best during this holiday season. Let yourself be merry, happy and free of anything you believe holds you to a view of yourself that is anything less than the god you are.

All my love,

Carl

 

A View on Compassion (via Cbozeman’s Blog)

Some good questions asked about “A view of Compassion.” also a way is described on how to get a free copy of my ebook “Addressing the God That You Are – Who is Listening. Take a look,

Recently I was asked a question by someone visiting my website. Here is the question and what follows is my response. While the response is a bit lengthy I believe there is some important information for those who ask the same questions. I'd love to hear your response. Comments: I just continue to have a problem with people who take other's lives and rape etc. I find that difficult to be ok with and that it is the god within at work you have to b … Read More

via Cbozeman's Blog

A View on Compassion

Recently I was asked a question by someone visiting my website. Here is the question and what follows is my response. While the response is a bit lengthy I believe there is some important information for those who ask the same questions. I’d love to hear your response.

Comments: I just continue to have a problem with people who take other’s lives and rape etc. I find that difficult to be ok with and that it is the god within at work you have to be kidding me. How can we offer love to human life forms who are capable of this???? We must still believe that there are many who are not Intuitive enough to realize who they are or from where they came… so walk a destructive physical life. How can we be ok with this and offer love to these people??? Please explain to me…

My Response:

Vicki,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. You ask, perhaps, the most complex questions that can be asked for any human living in this existence. There is no easy answer mainly because our egos get so attached to what they have determined to be right or wrong in the world. You must think of yourself (we all must) as two individuals. One that is human and one that is divine (God). The human is everything physical that you experience including your thoughts, dreams, aspirations, etc. The divine is the observer of the experience the human is having. The divine does not interfere with the human experience because, after all, the divine came here specifically to have the human (that YOU are) experience. It did not come here to change anything. I know this sounds a bit bizarre, but the essence of our human existence is to experience the wondrous-ness of being humans and to interfere (as gods could) would be to alter the reality of that experience.

After having established this, I will try to answer your questions. Let me be perfectly clear that “the god within” as you mentioned could be okay with rape, murder and all the other forms of violence we experience in the world. Gods, as I mention in my Book “On Being God-Beyond Your Life’s Purpose” do not encroach upon the experience of other gods. They have no need or inclination to do so simply because they possess all the power to create whatever they want. Having said that, however, as for this human experience the “divine” in us has also agreed not to interfere in the “human” condition as part of the overall “human” experience. It is the “human” condition that commits the acts of violence and control on other humans. It is the human condition that tries to stop it and it is the human condition that decides if it is “ok” or “not ok” to “offer love” to those who commit such acts. Nothing that is going on in the physical sense is “because” of gods. It is all because of humans.

As a human, you can decide whether to “offer love” to those who perpetrate such things on other humans or not. As gods the question of “love” doesn’t even come into question. What comes into question for the divine in you is compassion. Now, the world has misunderstood
the meaning of compassion. The world (egos) thinks of compassion as a higher form of love which it is not. Compassion has nothing to do with love. The only words we have in our human language (English) to adequately describe compassion is “acceptance of  everything” (careful not to confuse acceptance with apathy). Gods “accept” what is because they know that in the grand spectrum none of what goes on here “as humans” has any significance in the “eternal” spectrum.

What has happened in this “human” experience is that the ”ego”, both individual and collective, has attempted to “out do” what is divine in us and in so doing has gotten out of control, to say the least! In other words, those who commit such horrible things no longer know
what they are doing. They are, for the most part, cut off from the divine nature within and have been largely taken over by the egoic nature that always looks outward for satisfaction and satisfaction often takes on vengeful and inconsiderate forms. Vicki, “they know not what they do.”

Here is why I say that we try in every way to love such individuals. To be angry, vengeful and unforgiving of those who have lost their way is to put yourself in the same kind of mind-set as they are. In other words, the ego in you is saying “why should ‘I’ be this or that” when they have done “this or that,” which “I,” for whatever reason, believe is wrong. Do you see this? You cannot fight against that which you despise or don’t accept (these are egoic responses) and not have it running wild in your experience. Love is a verb. It is one of the only things that can “actively” alter the egoic nature of the human experience, be it, individually or collectively simply because “love” alters YOU – not them. If you are holding on to your feelings of disapproval, anger and indignation, you are being as “disconnected” from the divine in you as any of those you judge to have hurt you or others. Your path is as “destructive” as theirs; not to say that you harm or hurt others but destructive to your own spiritual well-being. Why would you do that to yourself, Vicki?

In the end, Vicki, you choose (as a human) how you can view this experience. However, in the infinite scheme of things, none of what happens here matters. You will proceed into eternity as the God that you are and you will not judge anything that happened here or anywhere else, because everything to our innately divine nature is wonderful. As gods we don’t “see” with eyes that judge. We only see that everything is “good.” That is the “compassionate” nature the god who dwells within you. Find the divine in you and you will experience this knowing. Question every one of your judgments for they are of the ego. This is how you can tell whether or not you are connected to the divine within you.

Long answer to your question, Vicki. I hope you will contemplate what I have said. As I state on my website, “my purpose is to help get you out of your mind”. When you discover that YOU are not your body, your mind or your ego you will be at the point of discovering “WHO” you really are. It will amaze you how that will change your life. I wish you all the best in your spiritual endeavors.

Blessings,

Carl

Are You Worthy of Your Dreams?

The statement: “You are worthy of your dreams” is to accept that you, at the present moment” are less than those dreams. Actually, YOU are the “dreamer” therefore you are greater than the “dreamed.” To try to convince yourself of “worthiness” is really an affirmation of “unworthiness.” People will often condescendingly refer to themselves as “not being perfect” as if to say ” I accept my imperfection but my efforts to improve will compensate for my lack of “worthiness.”"

Every single one of us is perfect! Now there are many now who will agree with this but with the caveat: “I’m perfect in (a) or (my own) certain way” which, again, is another way questioning worthiness. We are so good at putting ourselves down we don’t even know we are doing it. Or, we have somehow convinced ourselves that we are somehow “more worthy” if we openly acknowledge our unworthiness.

Worthiness of ones self should never come into play in our daily expressions but more importantly in our thinking. We cannot fail at life. It is simply not possible and therefore nothing we do, say or think will ever be able to stand in the way of us “being” a full expression of “who” we are. Who we are is so much greater than any description the human mind can conceive. There simply is no need to try to describe, in terms the mind understands, how incredible each one of us “uniquely” is. Any attempt to describe it will fail because we don’t have the mind or the communicative skills to express it. Consequently we shouldn’t even try!

Don’t question your worthiness. Simply…dream, dream big, dream, dream, dream…then “be.”

Honesty – Do You Tell the Truth or Does the Truth Tell You?

From the moment of our birth onward over the span of our human sojourn, we are conditioned to be other than what we truly are. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in our general understanding and subsequent expression of honesty.

We are all liars. In fact, we are so good at lying, many of us will take offense at such an accusation, but perhaps more importantly, we have become so good at it we don’t even know it. Our conditioned nature has us convinced that our little withholdings and untruths are necessary to negotiate the collective human condition. We even come up with metaphors to express this conditioning even though we will not acknowledge the pervasive nature of our lies. We say things like half truths or little white lies to soften the blow, so to speak, so that our fragile egos do not have to face the fact that we are indeed liars. Collectively, we have come up with terms such as spin and techniques have been developed to divert the collective attention away from the truth.

We even accept that certain groups such as lawyers or politicians are dishonest and that is just the way it is. We will support individuals representing a political view, but overlook that they fall into a faction we know (and accept) as dishonest. We will even defend them to the point of anger or rage if they are attacked by another individual who is supported by a faction representing an opposing political view. Individually and collectively we have become defenders of our dishonesty.

Egoically, we have even gone so far as to determine that no individual ego, whether child or adult, should ever be told where they have missed the mark or fallen away from a particular guideline, without following up with where they have done well. Well, we don’t want to hurt any feelings now, do we? We are so concerned about preservation of feelings (ego), that we cannot speak the truth, or as we might say, the whole truth. It is interesting that we have books titled Radical Honesty, proposing that what was once simple honesty has become so elusive that telling any truth has now become radical. In other words, we have conditioned ourselves into the proverbial corner, that honesty is no longer the best policy, rather it has become the exception to the rule, both individually and collectively.

 Perhaps in no other aspect of the human experience will it be more apparent how difficult it will be to alter this current conditioning. We have completely given way to the idea that feelings should not be hurt. We must conduct our lives in such a way that only the softest of blows are ever exacted against our own and other egos. The loss or damage of self-esteem is untenable in any circumstance. In other words, tell the truth if you can, lie if you must, but always spare the ego – always!

Gateway to Inner Knowing

If we can learn to listen to our inner talk, we can begin to notice the deceptions playing out in our minds. If we listen carefully, we can catch ourselves every time we tell a lie and hopefully, in time, catch it before we express it outwardly. In so doing, our dishonesty can become a window into the nature of our conditioning. It can become the way back to a life of integrity and truth. It is through that same window that we can begin to see once again our divine self. The who of our existence rather than the what the ego creates. Once found, we see life as it was before our conditioning took over our awareness.

Who you are always comprehends honestly. Finding who you are is the way out of the darkness of a life that is cloaked in a false illusion and untruth. In fact, it is the only way to have a life that is fully aware of something beyond our limited and egoic view of it.

It is seeing without eyes, hearing without ears. It is a life only a god could know.

Choices: You Choose, or Do You?

Life is not really about the choices we make.  It is, rather, about repeating what actions to take which we have been conditioned to take.  The so-called knowledge we gather is nothing more than an adding to the base of criteria we are taught to use to create our so-called choices. 

When we are born into this world, we are born without conditions of any kind. Some of us even remember, as small children, that our lives were lived, not as decisions to make, but more as taking in as much as we possibly could, without having to decide if something was good or bad.  We lived our passion, and moved from one thing to another, driven only by curiosity, wonder and awe!  Life was not about choosing.  Instead, it was a series of experiences, unjudged by any set of rules or guidelines.  We simply experienced our experience.  What happened?  Why did this non-judgmental experience go away?

From the moment of our birth, the human process of conditioning us begins. With that conditioning, we are taught preferences and the reasoning behind those preferences. We become so adept at that reasoning that, in time, we no longer really choose.  Of course we say we do, but the reasoning we are taught to judge between things always steers us to make “not” real decisions, but more a series of the same actions with only circumstances and scenery being different.  In reality, what we think are choices are really nothing more than a repetitive sort of a variation on a theme. A theme we enact every day as a way to confirm over and over again that the choices we make are well thought out and correct.  When we look out at the world at large, what we see confirms this to us, when, in fact, we haven’t really chose anything at all. All we have done is what we have always done before.  All of it is based on conditioning that took over our minds so long ago that most of us have no memory of it.

Day by day, we simply act out what we think we know without deciding anything.   Most of us, regardless of how we define success or failure, or the levels of human experience we achieve, always move in the direction we have always moved in.  We may raise the bar and achieve so-called greater heights, but it is, more or less, variations on the same reasoning theme we have always used.

Who among us turns down a job or promotion so that the job can go to the individual we know could perform it so much better?  Our reasoning, the so-called intelligence and knowledge, we claim to possess practically forbids us from ever making that kind of decision, and yet among the truly real decisions, that one really is a choice! 

Most of us have forgotten how to live spontaneously, guided only by our intuition and sheer appreciation for every exhilarating moment life has to offer.  Instead of living and enjoying each breathless moment in time, we try to control it with our reason.  We have reduced an expansive, endless experience to a small, little place we uphold with our minds.  We play it safe by our reason and our so-called choices become nothing more than barriers holding us back from the larger reality we knew as children but have completely forgotten as adults.

We think we choose but we do not. We repeat over and over again what our conditioning tells us is acceptable, and in so doing we stay confined within that tiny, little world we have created for ourselves.  

Life was never meant to be about choosing.  Life is about living – living without fear of our decisions.

Each of us needs to challenge every choice we “think” we make in light of the awareness that what we typically do is what we always do anyway and then do the opposite. That is a real choice and a real challenge, not unlike, the way we went about our lives as little children.  It has been said that “awareness” creates (real) choices but in truth awareness really opens us to the wonders of existence, which are always before us if we let go of our reasoning and judgments. Ultimately, when the awareness of “who we are” becomes apparent to us an existence of so-called choices disappears and is replaced by a life of spontaneity, wonder and awe.   We find ourselves always moving in the direction of who we are and life seemingly unfolds around that. Pretty cool!

A Rift in Illusion – My Father

Few of us ever escape the chains of our reality and see beyond the forms before us.  We mire in our knowledge and all the things we gather to us, forming a shell that hardens with time.  For me I have seen past it only a few times and always in the strangest of ways.

He came to me so subtly and he was hardened by a life of struggle and hardship that was so developed his own mind no longer doubted the truth of anything he said.  His was a life of total fantasy and yet it was through this hardness and fantasy that I would see far beyond this earthly view.  He was the catalyst for a rift that broke through all my illusions and perhaps, his own.  I think he knew it himself but any expression of it had to pass through the shell of his imagination of which little if anything was believable.  It would be his secret, but not without first finding a way to peer out into horizons which are rarely known but always there.

We all walk alone through this life even though we are surrounded by others on every side.  They, too, harbor the depths of loneliness and fear we all feel but neatly tuck away inside us.  We wear our masks and wrap ourselves tightly in the things that best cover us from exposure to a brighter light.  It is the nature of humans.  Beasts of the field who walk stoically into life afraid to show how truly scared and alone they are.  We are taught to survive no matter the cost.  Spare no one or thing in preserving that which you are.  The strong survive and the cost to the weak is of no consequence.  This we must do and yet in some there arises the awesome awareness that it is not just the “man” that is important, but that life, all of life, is.  For some, the rift allows just enough light to shine through that we sense something greater than mere survival.  We turn to the light and see that we can survive without the “need” to survive.  We no longer need to run to or from life gathering as we go.  All we need is to walk with it and life itself becomes the giver. 

I saw this rift in a hospital room with a man, my Father, whose hardened life would take pause and see something far beyond the things and forms of normal life.  Most of my time with him was spent listening to his illusion of the events of his life.  Even in my own illusion his life, his illusion, was incomprehensible.  He was an enigma of the highest order.  Some might say crazy.  Yet he could not be more certain or proud of the life he lived.  I envied him.  It was, like most of us, the unexamined life.  Safe, but edgy.  Dramatic but fun.  Full in every way, even if it was imaginary.  I resigned myself to never knowing any of his history that began when I last saw him as a boy and when I met him a year ago. A history that would span over fifty years, now buried in the recesses of an imagined life. That part of him is and always will be a mystery. A parenthesis in time with no explanation.  

I didn’t know just how short his time would be in that hospital room.  Nothing indicated he was about to go.  But I should have known, I guess, because he did a most unusual thing.  He lifted his left hand upon which he wore a ring. In the short time that I knew him, I had never seen him without it.  He wore it on his ring finger even though he had been divorced and single most of his life. 

He removed the ring from his finger and handed it to me with the admonition to “make sure you give this to the boy.”  I asked “Which boy are you talking about?”  He replied earnestly, “You know the boy… Oh, what’s his name…?  Oh Carl.”  I asked, “Carl who?”  My father many times would speak directly to me about me which was one of many things about him I found so charming and fun.  I often would remind myself that his memories of me must have been of that 7 year old boy he left just as my memories of him were of a younger, more vibrant, beautiful man.  We both retained our earlier images of each other and in one sense, he was talking to that little boy by way of the man he had become.  These were always sweet exchanges.

He responded “You know…. Carl.”  “But I’m Carl,” I replied and he said, “I know.”  He added, “Make sure the boy wears that ring, it’s magic.  It will protect him and he will never want of anything.  Just make sure he gets it.”  I responded, “Okay, I’ve got it.”  He again reiterated the ring was special and would protect the boy.  I should’ve known he was telling me good-bye and passing along to me something he cherished and wanted his boy to have.  It was a tender moment. It was also a profound telling of what was to come that I should have recognized but missed completely.  

It was also in this moment that I saw him as he was before his shell had formed.  Sweet, kind, gentle.  That is what showed through that rift.  Then almost inexplicably, he spoke softly and solemnly.  “I’m so sorry for what I did to you kids.”  He shook his head and looked as if he would cry.  “I’m so, so sorry,” he said again.  I looked at him and he at me and that’s when he cracked wide open.  The light shined through and the mask of his life fell away. I saw him not as man but as God.  There were others there with him but his light reached out and grabbed me, filled me, and then lifted me – and then it was gone as suddenly as it had appeared.  He looked at me and smiled as if he knew just how much he had opened up.  Through his smile and with a glint in his eye, he winked and said simply, “That’s enough.”  I wanted to shake him but I knew the rift had closed.  That was the last time I saw him alive.  He passed quietly, shell and all. 

I returned to the hospital after the call came in and as I sat beside his lifeless but still warm body, I filled again, only this time with a rush of emotion and sadness.  He had left again as he had before.  It was sudden, unexpected, and without explanation.  This time, however, I saw into him in a way I could not as a boy.  As I sat there holding him in that quiet room I saw him flying, as it were, on the wings of Eagles soaring free, at last, from the darkness of his mind. He was at peace and wore the expression on his lifeless face. Looking back just a few hours earlier his smile said it all and I know, even now, he is not gone.  He, in fact, surrounds me in every way, only now it is pure light without the dreams and fantasy.  It is a brilliant light indeed. 

Life is sometimes perceived as desolation.  A hard journey through a maze of missteps, broken dreams, struggle and sadness.  It is like a maze through which we struggle to get through.  In time we become the maze and it becomes us, but all the while we move on.  We choose life in spite of the troubles along the way.   That is life’s relentless pull on all of us. We are life’s creators. We uphold it as we have learned to perceive it. It never is as we think it is even if we see its awesomeness. Life is always more grand and wonderful then the physical eyes through which we view it. It took knowing him before I knew this. 

I had waited as a boy first, then an adolescent, and then as an adult, for my Father to appear.  But when he did, it was unlike anything I imagined it would be.  I created my own illusion of what this visitor, must be when he did appear and the weight of it pressed down on me inexorably.  My illusion of him was a grand one. When he did appear, he was simple, broken, and feeble but he carried an unseen power that put into question everything I thought I knew and most certainly everything I had imagined.  He was indeed grand but in his way, not mine. The small was made great, the weak strong.  He was unafraid of the immensity of the universe and in showing me, I too became unafraid.

My father stepped across a great abyss and in the grandeur of those last few moments, he simply turned his head toward me and smiled.  The rift between what he was and what he became had been breached.  With a smile and a wink, I looked into eternity and saw again the worth of souls.  Together, for just that moment, we looked out into infinity and his light became one with my own.  I am not the same.

“You” The Divine

The greatest misconception of the concept of divinity is that it typically excludes us as divine.

We are gods endowed with more greatness and power than any God we can create in our minds. Within each of us is the divinity, power and energy we ascribe to our mind-made gods.

We have simply forgotten that godlike part of ourselves that can perceive all things and comprehend every aspect of our energetic natures. Intuitively, we all know that we are the God we seek, and that we are of godly nature, but we have accepted a lesser view of ourselves.

Any search for God is a search for the self we have buried in the process of our lives. Much of our lives are spent learning and accepting a three dimensional understanding of the world we live in. As such, we are conditioned to look outward for interventions by entities we have created who are capable of the god-like nature we seek to become ourselves. In looking outward to such a being, we often succumb to the idea that we can never be so. In fact, in Christianity, it is believed that we can in no way be saved without the intervention of Jesus, who saves us from our lowly status, without whom there is only damnation and suffering following this life.

We are our own saviors. The only place God exists that any of us need to be aware of and continuously develop is inside each of us.