Spiritual Art Blog - *Ed P

Consciousness

I’ve been working on the details of each level of consciousness recently. In the image below are, left to right, Soul, Intuition and Mind. I’ll explain the guy in the background later when I’ve worked on him a bit more.

Using our Inner Guide to help us lead a happier life

Thought for the Week
An inner guide is a useful companion as we go through life. We can get guidance, instructions, wisdom, friendship and love from them. They are like the adult version of a child's invisible friend, a development of the concept to suit our adult life and a source of insights and guidance.

This presence or inner guide is outside of ourselves, guiding and leading us in directions that benefit us. It is like having a wise and loving friend who has our best interest at heart. 

Some of us have lost this contact because we didn’t like the direction we were lead to and from there on broke off the connection. This attitude can destroy friendships and create a distance between us and those who care for us. 

At this point we may have a better view of our lives and any previous incident we experienced, we may be able to see that it was our will, we were force on a situation. When get through a difficulty and reflect back on it, we see that the path we were led along was probably the best option for us. 

How do we find an inner guide?
If we'd like to have guidance and insights from an inner guide, to help us live a happier and more fulfilled life, all we need do is ask. We must invite a guide to help us. Some already have inner guides and work with them. They can appear in many different forms, such as:
Jesus, for those with Christian beliefs.
Mohammad, for those of the Muslim paths.
A saint, from any religion.
A guardian angel,
An invisible friend, as experienced by many children,
A guiding presence.
A protector in times of trouble,
A friend or loved one who has passed on.

A more beneficial inner guide, is one who is currently living in the physical and also offers guidance in the inner worlds. They can relate their teachings to how life works now, in their writings, talks and communications. The benefit of a living guide as opposed to one who is no longer with us, is that their teachings are current and relate to our lives as we live them today. Such living guides include: 
The Dali Lama, 
The Mahanta, the Living Eck Master for those in Eckankar, 
Numerous Indian and Tibetan gurus.

How do we ask for help?
We can ask for help in understanding life and learning how to go with the flow of life. We can put out an inner request for guidance or ask a specific person to help us. Depending on our spiritual belief system we can ask any of the above masters, a question like this:
“Dear ____ (the name of your preferred guide), please help me understand the situation involving ____ (here describe the situation you wish to have clarified)”. 

For answers to situations, we should pay attention to our dreams, daydreams and intuition. For simple “Yes” and “No” answers we can ask to have your answer in a particular form, such as. “If the answer is, Yes, please show me _____ (an object or sign that you will recognise) or if the answer is, No, please show me _____ (a different object or sign for a No answer). A friend who uses this technique likes to have his messages spelt out, so that he won’t miss them. He will often ask for answers like this. “If the answer is, Yes, please show me a giraffe. If the answer is, No, please show me a snake”.

The guidance can also come through any aspect or element in our lives, such as:
Coincidences, where events just happen to fall into place, 
Hearing or seeing something spiritual or which strikes a chord with us, in ordinary life, 
Happening to read or come across some wisdom which applies to us at that moment.

Wishing you a loving a fulfilling friendship with your inner guide.

*Ed Parkinson

Inspirational Inner Guide Quotes

“We are like children, who stand in need of masters to enlighten us and direct us; and God has provided for this, by appointing his angels to be our teachers and guides.”
 St. Thomas Aquinas


“I am with the angels and just completely happy, ... We are eternally grateful to the invisible hand that has guided us through this fantastic voyage.”
 Bertrand Piccard


“I am with the angels and just completely happy, ... We are eternally grateful to the invisible hand that has guided us through this fantastic voyage.” Bertrand Piccard

“These things I warmly wish for you Someone to love, some work to do, A bit o' sun, a bit o' cheer, And a guardian angel always near”
 Irish Blessing

“Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly”
 Anonymous

“Once you hear of them or perhaps even meet them, you will come to love and respect these wise, able, and compassionate men and women, who remain largely unsung and unheard in the annals of mankind. They live for one thing alone: service to God and all who desperately seek the Lord of Hosts.”
Harold Klemp, Those Wonderful Eck Masters.

Consciousness

At this point I’ve added people into each spiral of consciousness. The people are concentrating on a particular area of their consciousness in each spiral. It goes from physical on the far right to emotions, then memories followed by mind, then intuition and Soul on the left. I now have to add details which explain each of these inner parts of consciousness. I’ve just started on the Soul spiral.

Make your life a dream but don’t dream your life away.

Thought for the Week
Here's an insightful dream experience I heard recently. It gives us a look at what can happen depending on the choices we make and helps us appreciate what we have in our lives now. Here's the dream story.

It was told by a girl who is twenty one years old and a medical student. Recently she had been going through a though time with exams and hard work. She wondered if life was worth the effort. Then she had this dream.

Her Dream
In her dream, she was spending time with her family and suddenly her life was cut short and she died. Being a medical student, she knew the medical condition which caused her death. She was there for her funeral and witnessed the love and sorrow shown by her friends and family. 

As time passed, she saw that her family slowly forgot her, until it got to the point where someone asked her parents about their children. They said they had only two daughters. When they enquired further her parents eventually said, yes we had a daughter in the middle but she died a long time ago.

She was furious that her life had ended at such a young age and furious that her family had forgotten her so quickly.

The White Auditorium
Then the scene in her dream changed and she found herself in a big white auditorium. Everything was white and bright. She heard a voice. 
"It’s time to choose your new life."
She was still angry and their conversation went like this.
“How could you just end my life like that? I was so young, I loved my family, I was going to be a doctor, I had lots of things to do.” 
“Your time had come to an end. It is time to move on to your next life.”
“I want to go back to my life with my family.”
“You've already learned what you had to learn there, you don’t need to go back.”
“I want to go back to my family.”
“It is time to have new experiences.”
“I insist you put me back in my family.”
“That isn't possible.”
“Let me be another child of my parents, or I could be a child of my sister.”
“That's not possible but you could be a neighbour if you wish.”
“Is that the best you can do?”
“I'm afraid so but this life as a neighbour will be a waste for you.”
“I don't care, I want to be beside my family.”
“OK, if you insist.”


Her dream continued and now she was living next door to her previous family. She tried to tell them that she was their daughter but they didn't take much notice. She went to her sister who was so close to her, in her previous life but she said, “That's fine but that was then, this is now”. She was really frustrated with the situation.

When she looked in the mirror she couldn't understand why her face didn't look like it did in her previous life. She began to have plastic surgery to have her face changed to look like her previous face. Finally that life ended.

It's so good to be me
She was then back in the white auditorium again. She said
“That was a waste of a life, what a lot of useless frustration.”
“I'm sorry to say this, but I told you so.” 
Then she woke up from her dream and came back to her current life.

She was so relieved to be her old self, she said "It's good to be me, it's so good to be me." She kissed and hugged her parents and sisters. She was so happy to be her old self and not in some other body trying to be someone she wasn't. She determined to make the most of this life and be happy with who she was.

It was great that she could learn about making choices in her dream. She gained a new appreciation for her current life. As she said afterwards "I’ve decided to make the most of this life. I'm going to get my exams, become a doctor and do something good with this life.”

Make you life a dream but don’t dream your life away.


*Ed Parkinson

Inspirational Dream Life Quotes

“The realm of dreams will take you far beyond your daily life into levels of love and awareness that you only have dreamed possible.”
Debbie Johnson, Dreams: Your window to Heaven.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”
 Henry David Thoreau

“We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
 William Shakespeare

“Every evening at bedtime, visualise a golden cup to be filled with your dream experiences. The cup sits by your bed. When you awake in the morning, in contemplation or in your imagination, drink from the cup. You are dinking in the experiences, a conscious way of saying, I want to remember what I’m doing on the inner planes while my body is asleep.”
Harold Klemp, The Spiritual Exercises of Eck.

“Like a morning dream, life becomes more and more bright the longer we live, and the reason of everything appears more clear. What has puzzled us before seems less mysterious, and the crooked paths look straighter.”
 Jean Paul Richter

“Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together.”
 Anais Nin

“The timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness; and knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.”
 Kahlil Gibran

“You know from past experiences that whenever you have been driven to the wall, or thought you were, you have extricated yourself in a way which you never would have dreamed possible had you not been put to the test. The trouble is that in your everyday life you don't go deep enough to tap the divine mind within you.”
 Orson Welles

“I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.”
 Emily Bronte

Consciousness

Here’s the latest development in Consciousness or at least my attempt to put consciousness into a visual a form.

Discover Spiritual Gold in our Dreams

Thought for the Week

One of the main reasons we don’t remember our dreams is because when we are there, in our dream worlds, what we are doing is perfectly natural. Whether we are having fun and talking with friends or relatives, who have left this life, or doing fantastic things like flying around the place, we do not consider it unusual and therefore not worth remembering. So at that moment, we are not concerned with our physical life and not bothered committing the events to our physical memory.

Write down a few notes
If we ask to remember some of our dreams, it may well happen. We may wake in the night with a clear recall of the dream we have just come from. As we lie there going through the events and main points of a dream, we think, “I won’t forget this dream, I can remember every detail now.” In the morning as we get out of bed, we have a feeling that we had a dream and we should be able to remember it. But the memory is gone, lost until we return there when we go to sleep again.

The only way to avoid this happening is to write down a few notes about the dream when we wake from it. If we have a note pad and pen beside our bed, we are half way there. All we have to do now, is roll over and start writing. We can put down a few key words which will jog our memory in the morning. When we read the notes in the morning, we’ll be linked back to the memory of the dream and can then write it out in more detail.

Another life in our dream worlds
Once we begin to realise that we have another life in our dream worlds, we begin to loose our fear of death. Sleep is like a short trip to the place we go to when we die. When we wake up in the morning we return to our physical body. It is time to kick start the body again and get on with our tasks, our responsibilities and our current mission. 

If we can recall some of the things we were doing in our dream worlds, we may be able to get insights into some aspects of our physical life. We can ask questions as we go to sleep and sometimes we may receive an answer in a dream. We are requesting our spiritual or inner side to help us with situations in our physical life. If we can recall our dreams we can find some golden nuggets of wisdom and understanding in them. We can discover the spiritual gold in our dreams.

Dream Tools and Dream Types
To find that wisdom, we need to prepare, like a miner digging for gold. Our tools are:
Note pad and pen. These are like our pick and shovel which help us dig out the nuggets of golden wisdom.
Our discipline, to wake up and write down notes of our dream in the middle of the night.
Time to write, our dream in more detail when we wake up.

Our questions about situations in our life, can be a useful tool but they are not essential. Our dreams are a natural part of our journey through life. We take part in and recall many different types of dreams. They can be:
Historical, where we are in a scene from a time in history.
Learning, where we are in a class or practical situation learning something.
Fight or flight, where we are fighting or trying to escape from something fearful.
Fun time, where we are with friends enjoying them and having fun together.

If we recall a dream when we wake, that can be a signal that the dream is significant and we should take note of it. It is often more productive to stay in bed and write the dream down, or at least take notes about it. As soon as we start to get our physical body into motion we can easily loose our connection with our dream worlds. Staying in bed helps maintain the connection for a while.

If you are looking for more insights into dreams you may find these posts of interest:

Spiritual Tools – Dreams (part 1)

Spiritual Tools – Dreams (part 2)


Best wishes in your search for the gold in your dreams.

*Ed Parkinson

Inspirational Dream Quotes

"Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.”
 Wilma Rudolph quotes (First American woman Runner to win three gold medals at a single Olympics. 1940-1994)

“Our dreams are firsthand creations, rather than residues of waking life. We have the capacity for infinite creativity; at least while dreaming, we partake of the power of the Spirit, the infinite Godhead that creates the cosmos.”
 Jackie Gleason

“Dreams are the wanderings of the spirit though all nine heavens and all nine earths.”
 Lu Yen 

“Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.”
 James Dean

“Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.”
 William Shakespeare

“Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you.”
 Marsha Norman

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
 C.S. Lewis


“Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true.”
 Walt Disney

“There is nothing like a dream to create the future.”
 Victor Hugo

“Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.”
 Kahlil Gibran 

Consciousness

Consciousness is the working title of the picture I’m currently developing. What I want to illustrate in this image is the different levels of consciousness we interact with as we live our lives. We have our physical, our emotions, our memories, our mind, our intuition and our true selves Soul. Beyond that there are other levels leading in the direction of the point where we can realise and better understand God or the life-force or whatever it is that has created and maintains our being. The image below are some studies in trying to reach a visual method of illustrating our consciousness. Which one do you think works best?

Look beyond the clouds to our inner sky

Thought for the Week

While out walking recently I was struck by the variety of views on the horizon. Depending on which direction I looked, the scene changed completely. Looking North, there were dark grey clouds which looked like thunder. In the North East there were dull rainy clouds. In the East it looked cloudy, with no threat of rain. In the South the sun was breaking through the clouds and in the West we had a bright blue sky with a few clouds.

It I lived in a house which had a window looking in each of these directions, I would have had five different views. If I accepted any one window, as the true weather condition, I would have been wrong. Our view or the way we look at things can affect our life. If we accept the single view of what is in front of us as reality, we are making a mistake. We are only looking at a small part of the horizon. Unless we can get an overall view of what is going on around us, our view is limited and does not reflect the full picture.

Our current view
At the moment in most parts of the world there are a number of reasons why we could take the attitude that we are heading into some thunderous weather. We have a recession or as a friend calls it ‘a pre-boom period’. There is the possibility of swine flu, job losses, financial losses, company closures, etc. etc. 

There is also poverty in the developing countries, pollution, global warming and lack of energy supplies. Life is a constant balancing act. This life is never going to be perfect. We are here to learn about ourselves, discover who we really are and what our purpose in life is. 

Looking a little bit further we can see that it’s not all darkness. There is some light in the clouds. Our development so far has brought positive changes to our world. We have computers, the internet, mobile phones, better roads, cars, trains and cheaper air fares, etc.

The brighter side of life
Some of us can see the brighter side of life. We can see there is more to life than the doom a gloom being portrayed by the general media. Our media focus on the negative side of life. Good news doesn’t sell to most people. Most people want to read about the bad news but we don’t have to take that view. We can choose to see the brighter side of life. 

We can look at how we are developing, both individually and as a race or species. Compared to a hundred or a thousand years ago we have progressed a lot. Our physical world is accessible and our spiritual development has progressed too. We are much more aware of our inner development nowadays than we were in the past. We have access to learning, books, wisdom and teachers. There is talk among some that we are progressing from the Homo Sapiens to the Homo Lumens. We are going from the thinking man to the illuminated man. The man with a better connection to his inner, intuitive and spiritual side. 

We have to be careful about how our outer circumstances affect our inner circumstances. That is, if things in our outer life are stormy, we don't have to be affected by them too much. With a good overview of our situation in life, we can understand how the dark clouds fit into our sky. We are also aware of the blue sky on other parts of the horizon.

How to get a better overview
So how do we get a better overview? That depends on where we are. If all we can see at the moment are black clouds then we have to find a way of bringing some light into our lives. If life is cloudy we may just need to get to a higher place so we can see the bright sky above us.

We should take fifteen to twenty minutes a day to be in a quite space. A place where we quieten our mind and connect with our inner selves. This could be a time when we contemplate or meditate, say our prayers, sing for the love of it or enjoy the beauty around us. As we take our attention off the issues our physical life, we go within, gain inspiration, insights and link closer to our intuition. We rise above the clouds in our life to the sunshine within.

As we live our lives we are learning about ourselves, about people and how life works. Each thing we learn is another step up the mountain to God. We are becoming more enlightened with every step. We are getting closer to the light above us.
By taking this time for ourselves, we can stand like a mountain and let the clouds of life’s events flow around us. If we have a high aspect on life we will always be able to see the blue skies.

Enjoy the journey.

*Ed Parkinson

P.S. The photos were taken recently from my garden. Click on the large photo to see the full panorama of clouds and sky.

Inspirational Cloud & Life Quotes

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time”
 John Lubbock

“Revelations are found in clouds”
 Serge Kahili King 

 “A pessimist only sees the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all--he's walking on them.”
 Leonard L. Levinson


“Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; His soul proud Science never taught to stray, Far as the solar walk or milky way”
 Alexander Pope

“A believer is a bird in a cage, a freethinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wing”
 Robert Green Ingersoll 

“He that pryeth into every cloud may be struck with a thunderbolt”
 Proverb 

“As selfishness and complaint pervert and cloud the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision”
 Helen Keller

“Thunder clouds do not always give rain”
 Armenian Proverb

“The man who has seen the rising moon break out of the clouds at midnight has been present like an archangel at the creation of light and of the world”
 Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Many stars cannot be concealed by a small cloud”
 Maori Proverb

“In the hour of adversity be not without hope, For crystal rain falls from black clouds”
 Persian Proverb

“Human happiness has always its abatements; the brightest sunshine of success is not without a cloud”
 Samuel Johnson 

“He who ascends to mountain tops, shall find, 
The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow; 
He who surpasses or subdues mankind, 
Must look down on the hate of those below” 
 Lord Byron
   
“A cloud cannot cast a shadow unless the sun is shining beyond it”
Anon

Lighthouse

Lighthouse is finished, well everything except the final tweaks. Below is the story which goes with the picture. Click the image to zoom in.

Connecting with our inner Lighthouse

Thought for the Week
Within each of us there is a Lighthouse which tries to show us the way to peace, happiness and love. Our efforts to reach the enlightenment of the Lighthouse, is often prevented by the waves and storms of our daily life. However with persistence and an earnest seeking of what is right and true, we can reach this source of light.

If we can establish ourselves in this inner Lighthouse, we can begin to shed light on the world around us. If we can connect with the inner and enlightened part of ourselves, we can become a happier and more centred person. With this connection to our inner happiness we begin to radiate that happiness to those around us. They pick up on our contentment and can accept it into their lives, if they wish. People who have this quality are just nice to be around. It is not something obvious but very subtle.

Sharing the Light
By connecting with this Lighthouse, the true part of ourselves, Soul, we establish an anchor in our lives. We now have something solid where we can take refuge, while life’s storms rage around us. Finding our Lighthouse is not an escape from life but the beginning of a greater involvement and contribution to life and those Souls around us. By connecting with the source of light within us, we brighten the worlds of those who we share our lives with. We bring light to those who are around us.

We often receive guidance and inspiration from a higher source. This source is always available to us but because of the dark clouds of life’s storms, we often cannot see that there is this source of enlightenment available to us. This source of wisdom, our inner guides, are in close contact and are often a source of light for our Lighthouse, Soul. They are there to give us guidance and encouragement as we chart our course through life. 

Sea of change
The storms that sometimes rage in our life can force us on to rocks, where we remain stuck for a time. When the sea changes and the tide rises we can continue our voyage through life. Each wave of change in our lives can look like something that is out to destroy us and completely upset our boat as we search for happiness. We need to go with the flow of these waves of change, so that we can learn from them and let them help us get closer to our destination. 

We need to take time to look around to see where we are heading in our lives. Are we heading for the rocks, towards land, out to sea or are we going around in circles? With the constant sea of change around us we need to take time to chart where we are going. Are we still on course, where have the waves diverted us to, in what direction should be going? 

How do we get to our Lighthouse? 
How do we connect with our true selves, Soul? We need time each day to check our course. If we can sit quietly for fifteen to twenty minutes everyday and reflect on our lives, we will have a chance to reassess our direction and make any changes necessary. 

There are many ways of finding peace and quietening the mind. If you have a method that works for you, use it. Singing HU is an excellent way of settling the mind and connecting with our inner selves, Soul, the lighthouse in our lives. This quiet time is essential for our well being. We take shelter from the storms of life, are able to get insights into our situations and revive our consciousness with the light we receive. We often get an insight into the direction for our lives and which actions we can take at this moment. This wisdom can be enhanced by the guidance of our inner guide, angel, spiritual master or guru.

As we sail through these waves of changes we see that the past has disappeared. We have just the current waves of change and challenges to deal with. With a focus on reaching the lighthouse, Soul, we are able to steer towards our goal. 

Wishing you an adventurous and enlightening voyage to your Lighthouse.

*Ed Parkinson

This article, Life is change, change is life, which inspired the picture Lighthouse may also be of interest.

Inspirational Light and Lighthouse Quote

“Some souls there are that needs must taste
Of wrong, ere choosing right;
We should not call those years a waste
Which led us to the light.”
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“God appears, and God is Light, 
To those poor souls who dwell in Night,
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.”
William Blake 

“The Divine Light of the Infinite Lord, who owns the soul and the breath of life, is deep within the inner being.”
Sri Guru Granth Sahib 

“Darkness reigns at the foot of the lighthouse”
 Japanese Proverb

“Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or lighthouse, strewn with many a philosophic wreck.”
 Immanuel Kant

“We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won't need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining- they just shine.”
 Dwight L. Moody

“Just for six weeks, one time. A lighthouse keeps sailors from danger, to navigate from danger out there. The light is a comforting thing to see.”
Carolyn Harvey 

“In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.”
 Mahatma Gandhi 

“All things are inconstant except the faith in the soul, which changes all things and fills their inconstancy with light, but though I seem to be driven out of my country as a misbeliever I have found no man yet with a faith like mine.”
 James Joyce 

“The tendency, too potent in itself,
Of use and custom to bow down the soul
Under a growing weight of vulgar sense,
And substitute a universe of death
For that which moves with light and life informed,
Actual, divine, and true.”
 William Wordsworth