Us vs. Them: A look at interconnectedness

  
We live in an very ego driven world. The ego likes to label, judge and categorize things and experiences. Usually we judge things as threats or not threats. We can decide whether to defend ourselves and throw up our protective shields or not. 

This has served us all very well in the past to ensure the survival of the species. By keeping us in a state of fear and on our toes, the ego has helped us avoid certain death from predators, or cars hurtling toward us down the street. I’m not saying the classifying behaviour isn’t useful, but it’s worth thinking about what would happen if we dropped the automatic judgement. The ego divides us into us and them, and allows us to dehumanize others based on socioeconomic status, religion or beliefs. It allows us to make someone else “less”.  

Pema Chödrön writes:

Suppose we spent some time every day bringing the unknown people into focus, and actually taking an interest in them? We could look at their faces, notice their clothes, look at their hands. There are so many chances to do this, particularly if we live in a large town or city. There are panhandlers that we rush by because their predicament makes us uncomfortable, there are multitudes of people we pass on streets and sit next to on buses and in waiting rooms. 

Think about that for a minute. The number of people that you blindly interact with on a daily basis. The people you don’t notice because you are likely making up a story in your head about why you shouldn’t or aren’t required to see them. 

Chödrön says: 

It can become a daily practice to humanize the people we pass on the street. When I do this, unknown people become very real for me. They come into focus as living beings who have joys and sorrows, just like mine, as people who have parents and neighbours and friends and enemies, just like me. I also begin to have a heightened awareness of my own fears and judgments and prejudices that pop out of nowhere about these ordinary people that I have never even met. 

It’s funny. I took a social work course a couple of years ago and part of the course was on prejudice and becoming an ally. I’d always thought of myself as an accepting and unbiased person. Once I started working on that module of the course, I began to really notice the beliefs I had. The pre-programmed stories about people that made me quite uncomfortable. It can be hard when your own buried, unconscious beliefs come to the surface, but once they are at the surface you can acknowledge them and let them go. 

See the humanity around you today. As Deepak Chopra says, 

The other is just myself in disguise. 

There is no us and them. The person in front of you wants to be loved, just like you. The person in front of you has a family and friends who love them, just like you. The person in front of you does not want to suffer or be in pain, just like you. The person in front of you will eventually grow old, just like you. 

You and I really aren’t so different after all when you look at the nuts and bolts. By seeing the other as yourself, you acknowledge the interconnectedness of all of us. I think that’s pretty cool!

You’ll likely bring up some things you may have to work through to release, but it will be well worth it to see the world and your fellow human beings in a different light. 

Remember: if you liked this post, please share it with your friends. You can also follow me on Twitter @talking2spirits. 

Without the ego, all is love

Today’s meditation from Holy Shift is this:

You believe that without the ego, all would be chaos. 

Yet, I assure you that without the ego, all would be love. 

Text 15 V. 1:6-7. 

Can you imagine it?

A world without ego. No self-doubt, no second-guessing, living fearlessly Aligned with our purpose in love. 

Nobody would be better than anyone else and people would help their fellow man. The thing that the ego does best is keep us in a star of fear and fear is an effective ruler, putting us in a state of us vs. them. It individualizes and divides us. 

By being mindful and realizing that all things are within our own control and will work out for the highest good, we can quiet the ego. I don’t know whether it’s possible to silence it entirely, but we can certainly work on distancing ourselves from it and differentiating the voice of the ego from the divine guidance of our soul. 

If we all just took that step, I’m sure there would be a noticeable shift in the global level of consciousness. 

I can dream, right!?

Remember: you are always in control

 

Tonight, I thought I’d take a couple of minutes to talk about personal power, and forgiveness as a tool to get your power back.

We have immense amounts of personal power, but we seem to like to give it away by living in fear, or ego mode. We hold on to resentments, we get angry. We get upset to the point where sleeping or eating is a challenge. Who is this detrimental to? You! Why are you doing that to yourself?

Now wait a minute, before you get all defensive and start a sentence with, “but he..” “but she..” “my job..” stop and think about this for a second.

Grievances area a major cause of anxiety and resentment because we feel that somebody wronged us. If somebody wronged us, why are we hanging onto that perceived wrong? We did not do this to ourselves and this was not in our control. By hanging onto the resentment or the grievance, we are giving our power away to that person we perceive as having wronged us.

If we believe that where our thoughts go expands, then why are we allowing our thoughts to perpetuate more resentment?

Part of getting our power back is forgiveness. Yeah, that’s what I said. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong, and it’s a gift we give ourselves.

By taking the “high” road and forgiving people who we perceive as having wronged us, we retrieve any power we have given them. We can acknowledge the wrong done, we can release it to the universe and send love to the person we feel wronged us.

Many times when someone wrongs someone else it’s a call for love. It’s a bit backwards, but we should respond with compassion toward these people and I’ll use a phrase I use a lot around here related to compassion: we have to assume that everyone is doing the best they can from their level of consciousness.

The only person you are responsible for is yourself. You have amazing amounts of personal power. Remember that you are always in control of your choices, the way you feel and react, and what you manifest in your life.

Don’t give away your power!

I already have everything I need in life.

Carrying on the same train I was talking about yesterday with the Law of Attraction being portrayed in mostly the material sense, I saw a meditation in Holy Shift for June 7 which I thought aligned with what I was thinking about. Forgive me for skipping a few days ahead. 😉

In the ego’s language,
“to have” and “to be” are different,
but they are identical to the
Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit knows that you both
have everything and
are everything.

Any distinction in this respect
is meaningful only when the idea
of “getting,” which implies a lack,
has already been accepted.

This is why
we make no distinction between
having the Kingdom of God and
being the Kingdom of God.

Text – 4. III 9:4-7

It is difficult not to think in terms of lack, and lack permeates our entire society. That’s how the ego works and why ego based thinking has taken over. Fear is an effective ruler. Once we have whatever society dictates we need, we’ll be successful, we’ll find someone to love us, we’ll lose the extra weight we are carrying, etc.

The ego works so well, and due to so many of us abiding by its rules, the world is the way it is. As we continue to waken and send the ego love and release it’s fearful way of thinking, society will change and evolve. We can only start with ourselves.

We know that we are provided with all of our needs by the universe, the creator, God (whatever you want to call it – we are non-denominational here at Metaphysical Musings). Just like my post a week or so ago about heaven being a place I choose now, there is no “going” to heaven if heaven is where we already exist. The quote says that there is no distinction between having the Kingdom of God and being the Kingdom of God. Heaven is not somewhere we “get to”, it’s the place where we already exist.

Take a good look at yourself and how amazing you are. What a miracle it is that you are standing in front of that mirror looking at your own face. Think of the people in your life and the needs that you have. In the moment, without projecting into the past or the future, is anything lacking right now? Is it in your control?

I’d bet that most of you would say that you are content with all that you have in this moment and that nothing is missing.

I’ll just use myself as an example.

I’m sitting in my kitchen, writing. It’s unseasonably hot, but I’m not complaining. My sliding door is open and I am listening to a curiously loud bug zapper on someone’s porch zapping bugs. I’m comfortably seated. I am completely content in this moment.

I was thinking about setting an alarm on my phone or my watch for more reality checks through the day just to see how I’m doing. Am I comfortable, is there anything else I can do to make myself happy in this moment? I might try it for three random times through the day and see how it goes.

It is only when we doubt that we already have everything we need that we start to convey lack. Lack is like a black goo that sticks to us and magnetically attracts, you guessed it, more lack! Maybe by being more conscious of our thinking, we can work together and trust in the abundance of the universe. All you control is the present moment. The rest is up to the Universe.

You are enough. Live the life you want NOW.

I was thinking more today about the ego and the little box it keeps us in. I’ve blogged on this subject before and about our constant striving to do more, see more, have more and keep up with the joneses. This is our ego, keeping us in a state of fear and keeping us in a small box.

I can be successful when..
I meet the person of my dreams,
When I have the perfect job,
When I have material wealth,
When I lose 20 lbs and finally feel beautiful.

I’m here to tell you that you can be successful in any endeavour. Now. As you are. You are enough. you are wonderful, beautiful and perfect exactly the way you are in this moment. Do NOT let the ego put you in a box.

You know what feeds the ego, and defines what we think we need for success? Advertising. Yep. I said it.

Advertising makes a lot of money for companies by making us feel inadequate. I’m speaking from a woman’s point of view, growing up in the world we live in, the societal pressure on women in general is enormous. We have to look a certain way, act a certain way and have certain things. It seems now that in advertising the tides are turning a bit now to target inadequacy in men as well. As consumers, we keep buying into it and I’m telling you to take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror and stop buying this crap.

I’m going to say it again. You are perfect. I am perfect. As we are. Right. Freakin. Now.

Look at yourself. You are amazing, and you are enough. You are full of good ideas, you are full of positive contributions just waiting to fly out into the world, and you, my friend are a co-creator of your life experience. You are not pushed around by life, you define it. You are not a victim and you are in power now. You’re in your element and you are fantastic.

At least I think so. You should too! Honor yourself now by living the life you want. Don’t delay until the perfect time comes along. There is no perfect time. There is only now.

I think the Dalai Lama said it best with the quote I’m going to post below. You have to live in the now. Stop striving. Do what you want and do it now. Do not die having never really lived.

Practicing what I preach

Here I am, surfacing!

Things are going well with me and I hope they are for you too. It’s been a pretty busy couple of weeks with starting at the new job, and my son came down with croup last Wednesday which was absolutely awful. I’m glad to report that he is on the mend now. I expect that by Saturday, he should be pretty much back to normal.

I guess with the sick child, and the lack of sleep, I lost a bit of a grip on my spiritual self and the good old auto pilot, Ego stepped in. Last week I would probably have rated my anxiety level around an 8 out of 10. Now since I started this journey, I really haven’t rated it more than a 2 in quite some time, which is a testament to my ability and willingness to practice what I am learning.

I was in quite a state last weekend wondering if I would pass the probation period on this job. I think by the time I went to bed on Friday I’d convinced myself it was all just going to fall apart. I sat down with my journal and I wrote the question, “what is my emergency?”

You know what? There wasn’t one.

Then I wrote, “what is the problem right at this moment?”

I thought and thought. Hmm. I am sitting in my warm bed, in my house, my child is sleeping at the moment so I can also get some rest, I have eaten dinner, I’m not hungry or thirsty. Nothing is wrong in this moment. You know what? I actually feel pretty good!

It’s amazing how much just stopping and pulling yourself out of that worry loop helps. Who is driving this thing, anyway? Spirit, or Ego? Ego. Crap. Who do I want driving it? Get back in the driver’s seat, Spirit!

This week I have been concentrating on not coming from the fear based ego and staying more firmly rooted in the now.

Next time you get stuck in the worry loop, stop and re-evaluate. A journal or a pad and pen works for me, but you can use any medium you like.