~The Power of a Story~
My friends,
I have been keeping this online account of my travels, internal and external, for almost 4 years now. At first, this was really a simple, effective, and cheap way of keeping in contact with close friends and family while traveling. Yet bit by bit, it has become something more.
I began to understand the power of the story. Not just any story, but a personal account of this human journey. As I reached deeper into my own story, I found myself more and more interested in the stories of others, other seekers making their way, through many different paths and expressions.
And now, after 4 years, I can see with some clarity the real purpose of this blog...why I continue to feel drawn to share with you. It is really almost nothing, in the scheme of the web (let alone the scheme of the cosmos). Yet it is what it is, my story.
And every once in a while, I find that it has, in some way, helped someone: to understand a certain point of practice/philosophy, to connect with a resource or technique, to share spaces and places, or simply to know that they are not alone in this journey up and through and home again.
In both the deepest spiritual understandings and contemporary scientific systems, we are seeing that this collective human experience arises from collective human agreements. We steer this cosmic ship called Humanity through our collective beliefs and understandings, and the resulting actions. Gautama Buddha called them ditthis (views), and said that the world is literally arising from this mosaic of ditthis.
Really seeing this, we see the power of a story. It is the power of what we tell ourselves daily; how we choose to see ourselves and others; how we bring meaning and purpose to our shared world.
And so I put the question to each of us...what are our beliefs, our agreements? What stories, conscious and unconscious, are guiding our life experience, while contributing to the whole? At this time in our collective unfolding, we simply cannot afford to be directed by unconscious agreements. We must see what is driving our journey, and decide whether such agreements and resulting direction is something we want.
One of the greatest dangers I see today in our global society is the forfeiting of our agency over our personal and collective stories to interest groups that have no interest in our individual and communal spiritual development. Government, corporations, mass-media...these are social systems aimed at manipulating and maintaining the social world. We can see daily the decisions they make and the images/stories that they pump out into the airwaves and water-ways simply do not value our spiritual development. And it is our collective belief-power on which these social systems rely; without it they would have no power.
In making such a sweeping statement, I know I am liable to lose something. So please, feel into this for yourself, and if indeed your intuition and insight see the same pattern, then be with this. Ask yourself how you give up your inherent power to these social, impersonal systems, and how you can re-empower yourself.
We are so blessed, as there are still many powerful systems of learning how to see clearly our internal and external environments, and how to move in these internal and external domains with wise intent and action. Discover all your beliefs and self-agreements. It is ours to choose what we see and live out. Beliefs becoming stories becoming perspectives becoming motivations becoming thoughts, words, and actions, we manifest our reality. Come to see this and free yourself. Your freedom is integral to global freedom.
Namaste,
My friends,
I have been keeping this online account of my travels, internal and external, for almost 4 years now. At first, this was really a simple, effective, and cheap way of keeping in contact with close friends and family while traveling. Yet bit by bit, it has become something more.
I began to understand the power of the story. Not just any story, but a personal account of this human journey. As I reached deeper into my own story, I found myself more and more interested in the stories of others, other seekers making their way, through many different paths and expressions.
And now, after 4 years, I can see with some clarity the real purpose of this blog...why I continue to feel drawn to share with you. It is really almost nothing, in the scheme of the web (let alone the scheme of the cosmos). Yet it is what it is, my story.
And every once in a while, I find that it has, in some way, helped someone: to understand a certain point of practice/philosophy, to connect with a resource or technique, to share spaces and places, or simply to know that they are not alone in this journey up and through and home again.
In both the deepest spiritual understandings and contemporary scientific systems, we are seeing that this collective human experience arises from collective human agreements. We steer this cosmic ship called Humanity through our collective beliefs and understandings, and the resulting actions. Gautama Buddha called them ditthis (views), and said that the world is literally arising from this mosaic of ditthis.
Really seeing this, we see the power of a story. It is the power of what we tell ourselves daily; how we choose to see ourselves and others; how we bring meaning and purpose to our shared world.
And so I put the question to each of us...what are our beliefs, our agreements? What stories, conscious and unconscious, are guiding our life experience, while contributing to the whole? At this time in our collective unfolding, we simply cannot afford to be directed by unconscious agreements. We must see what is driving our journey, and decide whether such agreements and resulting direction is something we want.
One of the greatest dangers I see today in our global society is the forfeiting of our agency over our personal and collective stories to interest groups that have no interest in our individual and communal spiritual development. Government, corporations, mass-media...these are social systems aimed at manipulating and maintaining the social world. We can see daily the decisions they make and the images/stories that they pump out into the airwaves and water-ways simply do not value our spiritual development. And it is our collective belief-power on which these social systems rely; without it they would have no power.
In making such a sweeping statement, I know I am liable to lose something. So please, feel into this for yourself, and if indeed your intuition and insight see the same pattern, then be with this. Ask yourself how you give up your inherent power to these social, impersonal systems, and how you can re-empower yourself.
We are so blessed, as there are still many powerful systems of learning how to see clearly our internal and external environments, and how to move in these internal and external domains with wise intent and action. Discover all your beliefs and self-agreements. It is ours to choose what we see and live out. Beliefs becoming stories becoming perspectives becoming motivations becoming thoughts, words, and actions, we manifest our reality. Come to see this and free yourself. Your freedom is integral to global freedom.
Namaste,
eka
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