Spiritual Art Blog - *Ed P

Past Lives, Dreams & Soul Travel

In this picture I want to portray the three concepts of Past Lives, Dreams and Soul Travel. If you ‘read’ the picture from top left to bottom right, like you read any English text, then the order is correct. That is you see Past Lives first, then you ‘read’ on to Dreams and below that is Soul Travel.

Pay attention to our attention

Thought for the week
We need to pay attention to where we put our attention. Wherever we put our attention, we will be drawn to or it will be drawn to us. That means we have to be mindful of our thoughts because whatever we are thinking of, is where we have our attention. If we are constantly thinking of our fears, they will be attracted to us just because we have our attention on them. If we have our thoughts on more positive things, like getting ourselves to a position of comfort or accomplishing something, those are what will be attracted to us. We need to train and discipline our mind so that our thoughts and attention are on the right subjects for us. 

Before writing this post for the blog, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to think of a proper subject. My attention was on ‘not being able to find a subject’. When I realised this, I then switched my thoughts to seeing myself finishing the post. Now I was looking at the sunny side of the situation, where the task was completed. I was no longer looking at the dark side of the situation. 

A tool for tough times

This can be a useful and practical spiritual tool, for people who are currently going through tough times. For example, if we find ourselves in a difficult situation at the moment, our thought will usually turn to the challenges we now face in our lives. We think of how it will affect us financially, our family, our commitments, etc. We have our thoughts and attention on a crisis. We need to put our attention on to something more positive if we want to move on from our current position. If we keep our attention on the difficulty it is going to take a while to extract ourselves from it.

If we can move our thoughts onto a time in the future where we are out of the current difficulty and in a better place, we begin to see a glimmer of hope. To help us grasp this idea we can ask ourselves questions like:

What will it feel like to be in this better position?
How will it affect me?
What will have to happen to get there?
What steps can I start now?
When we get even subtle answers to any of these questions, we should write them down, immediately. They have a tendency to evaporate if we don’t catch them when they appear. Write down as many answers as we get. This can happen in the space of an hour, or we can collect them over several weeks, as we roll the concepts around our mind. Now, with our attention on positive possibilities we begin to get closer to our goal of a positive future. 

Discipline to change our habit

This all sound fairly easy, and it is, but it does require discipline on our part by guarding our thoughts and our thinking. We need to be aware of what we are thinking at all times. If we are in the habit of dwelling on the negative side of a situation, it is going to take time to change that habit. We should start small and let the little bit of progress we make motivate us to try bigger challenges. 

For example, if we are in a situation where we have a bad relationship, a tough job, some health problems, a difficult environment and we lack finances, it is going to be hard switching our attention for all of these challenges. It will be easier to start with one, like the health problems, and once we’ve made some progress on that, we can move on to the relationship issue. The bit of progress we make in one area will motivate us to try it in another.

Let’s keep a watch on our thoughts, so our attention will attract something positive into our lives. We need to pay attention to our attention.

*Ed Parkinson

Inspirational Quote

“If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.” 
Isaac Newton

Fountain of Youth Exercise

There are many legends of Fountains of Youth around the globe. Alexander the Great came close to finding one. There is a legend of a spiritual valley in the Himalayas where the people there live for centuries so they can perform their duties. In contemplation it struck me that there must be a Fountain of Youth in the area. The image of the fountain below came to mind.

I like the idea of being youthful and healthy. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to visit this fountain now and again to get a sip of the life-giving water? Using our imaginations we can get there. You may have heard the saying "If you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you can't". Let's make it work for us now.

Prepare a nice drink, hot or cold water will work well, depending on the weather temperature. If it's hot outside get a cold drink, if it's cold get a warm drink. If the sun is shining find a spot where the sunlight can fall on your face and body. Now, think about being in a holy place. Feel the light brighten your body. Take a drink. Feel the liquid flowing through your body. Feel it nourish and revitalise you. With every mouthful feel the liquid bringing life and energy to the cells of your body. Imagine being at the fountain in the picture below. Enjoy the scene, enjoy the life-giving flow of the drink, enjoy the journey into your imagination.

Our dream life begins at death

Thought for the Week

I was at a funeral during the week and I was struck by the sadness of the family of the Soul who had departed. It is true that when a friend or loved one moves on to a different place, we will miss them, but we can still meet with them and enjoy their company on a new level.

A friend was telling me, while she was out for a walk recently, she met her very good friend who had died about two years ago. In her imagination she was able to talk and enjoy being with her friend. When the experience was over she was really happy to have spent time with him. She was glowing with the love from her friend for hours afterwards.

While her friend may not have been with her, here in the physical reality, the warmth and love she received from being with him, was very much a reality. She definitely felt better after meeting her friend. 

Imagination
As children we used our imagination to play games and pass the time as we got through the day. As adults we’ve been taught that anything that we can’t touch, see, smell or hear is not ‘real’. However we have our emotions, memories, thinking and intuition which we use on various levels. These inner facilities help us understand our outer world but they are also the link to our inner world.

At the funeral, a family member told me about one of the grand children who went into see their dead grandfather. When he came out someone asked the child “Did you see Granddad?” His answer was “That’s just a body, that’s not Granddad.” The child could see the person he knew was gone and all that was left was a body, not the real person.

When we die
When we die, we cease contact with our physical world but our inner world keeps running, we still have our emotions, memories, thinking and intuition working. We just don’t have to worry about our physical body any more. The easiest way of grasping this is to look at what happens when we sleep. 

When we go to sleep, our physical body stops functioning, we leave our physical world. We then begin to dream and we enter our inner worlds. When we sleep we leave our physical world on a temporary basis. When we die we leave it on a permanent basis. We take up permanent residence in our inner or dream worlds when we die. Not a bad place to be, is it? 

Blessed with Love
This is one of the reasons I rarely cry at funerals. I know the person is in a better place. They’ve left their tired and sick body and now have a much younger and healthier body to work with. When people tell of meeting their older family members who have died, in a dream, they usually remark how young and healthy they look. Of course they do, they are in their dream worlds which is generally a nicer place than our physical world.

So the next time you think of a loved one who has passed on, enjoy the time with them, now, in your thoughts and imagination. Have fun with them, chat with them, ask them how they are, what they are doing. Enjoy their company. When you return, you’ll be blessed with the warmth of their love in your heart. 

* Ed Parkinson

Inspirational Quote

"Seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean.”

 David Searls

Fountain of Youth

I’ve been working on the main character in the picture. Painting her hair, face and cloths. There is an exercise that goes with the picture. I’ll explain it next week.

Daydreaming, how to wonder and wander in our inner worlds – a Spiritual Tool

Thought for the week
Wandering into our inner worlds is something we do all the time. Too often we do it unconsciously and wander off in directions which are not beneficial to us. If we can do it on a more conscious level we can gain control over our travels, go to where we want and gain from the experience.

Daydream
The most common form of wandering within ourselves is daydreaming. This is where we follow a thought in our imagination. In a daydream we can return to a time and place in our past, explore something in the present or wonder about the possibilities of a future situation.. As a child we often went daydreaming to escape a boring or uninteresting time. The student caught off guard, by the teacher, in class is a typical example. As adults we often lose this ability from lack of use. It is something we can all do, we just need to start practicing again.

How to daydream
It may seem like a ridiculous idea to a child, who does it naturally all the time, that we need to learn how to daydream but with a little conscious effort we can be back to our happy childhood daydreaming in no time. Some of us ‘think too much’. That is we tend to go down a negative route when we think about things and end up imagining all kinds of terrible situations. To avoid this we need to start in a positive frame of mind.

To help get to the right frame of mind we could sing HU. There are instructions on the HU song here. This will get us to a high spiritual point, above the mind and hopefully clear of any negative thinking. 

If we can bring to mind an image or thought that warms our heart and brings a little love into out thoughts, this will be helpful. Bring the subject you wish to explore to mind. Now, just wonder about it. Wonder about: 
How it works, 
How it would look from a different position? 
What would happen if something changed it? 
What effect would a change of colour have? 
How could it be made better?
How do others see it?
What will it be like in a few months time or a few years time?

Benefits of Daydreaming
There are lots more aspects we can examine as we wonder about a subject. As we wonder we begin to wander off in new directions and discover different insights into a subject. While our daydreaming can be relaxing it can also be very informative as we gain different viewpoints and new knowledge on a subject. One of the other benefits is the possibility of changing our consciousness or attitude about something. Our thinking moves up a level because we now have a better understanding.

Wishing you a wonderful time, as you wander around your worlds within.

*Ed P

News

If you are into looking after your health you may like to know that Patrick Holford will be speaking in the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin on Saturday 28th March. It’s a one day Seminar,10am to 5pm, in the O’Flanagan Theatre, Royal College of Surgeons, St Stephens Green Dublin 2. He’ll be talking about Preventing diabetes, obesity, vascular disease, depression, dementia, addiction, with nutritional medicine and lifestyle changes. 
Click on the image below to enlarge it.

Inspirational Quote

“People don't come to church for preachments, of course, but to daydream about God.”
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Fountain of Life

The Fountain of Life is a place we can go to be revitalised so that we can continue on our path in this life. This is just a rough of the picture. I’m currently working on the clothing, which is why the two lads have none yet.

Spiritual Tools - Past Lives

Thought for the Week

Past lives is a subject which people still have trouble getting to grips with, that is in Western society. But the concept is gradually becoming accepted as a possibility by most people. If it is a subject we can come to terms with, we can gain a lot of benefits such as. 
A better understanding of our current life,
Better insights into how life is organised,
Getting an overview of our path in life,
Gain insights into our relationships with the people in our lives.

Discover our past lives
So how do we find out more about the lives we lived previously? To discover some of our past lives we just need to look at a few details and behaviours in our current life. Do we have particular hobbies or interests? Do we have an attraction to a particular part of history or a country? Do we have a skill or talent for which we have received no proper training? If we can answer yes to any of these questions then we have a clue to help us start checking out a past life.

Hobby or Sport
For example, if we have a hobby like sailing, surfing or wind surfing, we may have had a life as a sailor or had some connection with the sea. If we examine what it is that attracts us to the hobby or sport, we may pick up a few hints which link to the past and from there we may get a glance into a past life. 

History
If we have an interest in a particular part of history, such as the First or Second World War, it is likely that we had some involvement in those historic events. 

Skills and Talents
The skills and talents we have 'naturally' are definitely something we have learned in a previous life. For example, my artistic ability. I have never been to art school, yet I have a good understanding of colour, light and shadow, perspective, composition, etc. If I didn't learn about these things in this life, when did I learn them? It had to have happened in other life times.

Relationships
Look at the relationships and people in our life. Why do we treat some people with suspicion and others with trust. Why do we have the family we have? What attracts us to our friends? Some researchers have discovered that most people have had a number of lives with their family members. It seems we spend a number of lives with the same Souls. Our relationships change and we swap roles. In this life we may be a son or daughter to a particular Soul but previously we may have been a mother or father to the same Soul.

Exercises to remember past lives
Here's an exercise to get a better idea of how our characteristics link to our past lives. Find a quiet spot. Take a few deep breaths and sing HU on the outgoing breath. Ask Holy Spirit or our Angel or Guide, to give us an insight into one of our characteristics. Now relax, don't be concerned about anything. We could wonder about the question. Just let it float around our mind and observe what appears. 

We can also use our dreams to get answers to questions about past lives. Before we go to sleep at night we can frame a question like this. “If it right for me and is good for the whole of life, I would like an answer to the following question.” Then we ask the question. In the morning we may remember a dream regarding the question or even a dream that seemingly has nothing to do with it. Take a note of these dreams, we may be able to decipher them later.

We may get the answer the first time we try these exercises but it usually takes a few times doing them, before they work. The answer may come to us in something we read or see as we go about our normal day. There is an art to the exercises. As we get into the habit of doing them we begin to get results. Keeping a journal of our dreams and contemplations is a good idea, as we have something to refer back to in a physical form. It helps bring our spiritual worlds down to earth. 

If you have a question about past lives, please click ‘Comments’ below and ask your question there. I’ll answer it as best I can.

Enjoy the journey of discovery.

*Ed P

Inspirational Quote

“The Holy Spirit works in subtle ways, but you have to remember to ask. Most people can’t hear. You learn how to listen and how to see the messages from the Holy Spirit that come to you—and everyone—every day.”
Harold Klemp, The Language of Soul