Spiritual Art Blog - *Ed P

Happy Now

This picture, Happy Now, is finished. You’ll notice a number of different paths leading in various directions as well as the rocky road in front of us. If we can be happy now, it really doesn’t matter what our outer conditions are like. It depends on our attitude, its an inner state and really doesn’t depend on our outer circumstances. With the right frame of mind, we can be happy now.

How to make decisions

Thought for the Week

How to make decisions is one of the skills we learn as we go through life. They vary from minor to major. What will we decide to eat or what direction should our career or lives should go? The better our skill the better a life we will have. We can’t always get our decisions right but even when they are “wrong” we can still learn something. We may have to make a lot of “wrong” decisions to find the correct one. In the process we have learned how not to do it or possibly learned how do something else.

Our attitude
Our attitude to life and our decisions are key to how happy we are in life. If we view our decisions as wrong or right we can only have a negative or positive outcome. If we view them as a discovery and a learning process, our decisions become part of our education. Thomas Edison, the famed inventor of the light bulb said, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work”.

Gut feeling
Is there a way of making better decisions? One way that I use a lot is going with my gut feeling. If it feels right in my gut, around the solar plexus, I will go with it. It I get a pain in my gut when considering a subject, I won’t go for it. The pain is like a burning in the stomach. It feels uncomfortable. It doesn’t feel right.

Using our gut is a facility we all have but we may have turned down our sensitivity to it. Some people have good feelings or bad feelings about things. Some like the “vibe” of a person or thing. Whatever system we use we’ll probably find that it is a more reliable way of making decisions than using logic and our mind. The mind is good for working out mechanical and logical solutions but for more subtle things we can find that our gut, intuition or feelings are a more comprehensive tool for helping us to decide things.

Ask for hints and signs
We can also ask Life to give us messages about our decisions. Ask for hints and signs which give us a clear answer to our question. Recently I was out cycling and came to a crossroads. I wasn’t sure which way I should go. I asked the Life-force to show which was the correct route for me. Then a car came along and I got the message to follow the direction of the car. As I cycled down the road, the wind created a pleasant musical whistle in my ear. To me that was confirmation that I was going the right direction. When I got to my destination there was someone there to meet me. The timing was perfect. We were all going with the flow of life.

The way things happen
We can also watch for “coincidences”. The way things happen to lead us in a direction and point us to a particular decision. Using this method we are going with the flow of life. We tune into what direction life is leading is. It is up to us to accept the direction we are shown or use our free will to go wherever we decide.

This is how we learn about how good our decisions are. If we keep a note of the direction we have been shown but go in a different direction, we can check back later after the results of our decision are known. If we had gone in the direction Life was indicating, would it have been a better decision? We can check this a few times and then decide on the best system for us.

Be happy with our decisions
Just to sum up. Our attitude towards our decisions is key to how happy we will be with our decisions. If we look at them as a way of exploring life, we’ll have an exciting and fun life. We can use our gut feeling, our intuition, our feelings or see the vibe of things to help us with our decisions. We can also ask for signs and hints from life and in doing so watch for ‘coincidences’ which life arranges for us to answer our questions.

Let’s be happy with our decisions as we explore our lives, ourselves and the worlds around us.

*Ed Parkinson

Inspirational Decision Quotes

“Everyone wants to make good decisions. But how do you know when you are being guided by the Eck (Holy Spirit) or the mind…. If guided by the Eck (Holy Spirit), you are more likely to change your mind when new information comes along. You’re quicker to admit that an earlier decision based on sketchy information needs to change.”
 Harold Klemp

“One way you can take charge is by using the dream state to help you make decisions. Our minds have to play tennis with a problem until we tire of the effort. Then we can surrender the problem to Divine Spirit in the dream state.”
 Debbie Johnson

“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Thomas A. Edison

“The chief enemy of creativity is "good" sense.”
Pablo Picasso

“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.”
Buddha

“If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.”
John Wooden

“We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.”
Barack Obama

“We made too many wrong mistakes.”
Yogi Berra

“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”
Benjamin Franklin

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
Oscar Wilde

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
George Bernard Shaw

“We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.”
Stephen Covey

“It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.”
Jim Rohn

“No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently.”
Agnes de Mille


“Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.”
Robert H. Schuller

“It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.”
Isaac Asimov

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy Now

This is a picture I’ve been working on for a book cover. The book is about happiness. In the picture I’m trying to show that happiness is here with us now. We just need to grasp it or become aware that it is here now, in this moment. We can be happy now if we can learn the ways of the wise Soul.

 

 

The Equality of Men & Women

Thought for the Week

Recently I was asked by a friend to give my opinion on the equality of men and women. Here is my answer.

“We humans are all Soul. We sometimes live a life as a male and other times as a female. It depends on what experiences we need or would like. As Soul we are all equal but when we live in this world, in either a male or female body, we experience differences. There are advantages and disadvantages to each body type.”

Let me explain my thinking a little more…

We need to accept the fact of reincarnation, the fact that we live a number of lives gaining experiences and a better understanding of ourselves as we go through these lives. In each life we live as a human we will have to be either a male or female. We go through a number of lives in each body type gaining the experiences offered by being man or woman.

Because the male and female body are different they cannot be equal. They are constructed differently, each one suited to a different role. One is better suited to some skills than others. Obvious differences are a female's ability to bear children and a male’s physical strength.

Attracted to the same sex
We may have many lives as a female or a male and then we move on to the other body type. Having being used to being of a particular sex for a number of lives, it can be confusing for the person to adjust to the new sex type. This may be an explanation for those who are attracted to the same sex in their current life, as they were attracted to that sex in their previous lives. For others it may mean that they identify with the opposite sex, as they spent so many lives being that gender in their other lives.

My female side
We have often heard reference to “Your female side” or “Your male side” as a figure of speech. I experienced my female side while on holiday in Tunisia a number of years ago. As Tunisia is a Moslem country there was very little night entertainment available in the local town. There was an entertainment manager in the hotel who organised activities for the guests. One evening there was a competition for the men to dress up as women with a grand prize of a free meal in the hotel. My family signed me up for this and I was obliged to enter. I decided I’d give it a go and have some fun doing it. We had to perform a number of things as a female. Dressing up in my wives cloths, this was a bit of a squeeze. Prancing around, talking in a female voice and a number of other actions.

I took on the role fairly easily, which surprised me. I found it easy to act like a woman, whatever that means, but the audience were impressed. As a result of my efforts, I won the competition and was carried aloft by the crowd and then dumped into the swimming pool. That brought me back to my male reality.

Later some of the friends we had made on the holiday said to me “You played that part too well. How did you do it?” While contemplating on it later it struck me that I must have been female in a recent life. I had never done anything like it before. I’d never played as a female on stage or anywhere else. The ability to be female just switched on, as it were. I slipped into the role required at the time.

Something we learned previously
We may have gone through similar experiences ourselves, where we were able to perform some action required at a particular time in our lives. It could have been scaling a tree, helping someone in a peculiar situation, doing something we were never taught to do, reacting instinctively to something. These all indicate a link to something we learned previously, most likely in a past life.

The equality of man and women
Back to the original query, the equality of man and women. On a human level we cannot be equal any more that an apple can be equal to an orange. However on a Soul level, we are equal. We have probably been through a number of lives as both male and female. When we take this viewpoint of our lives, the ‘battle of the sexes’ is futile. We are fighting against ourselves as we will likely reincarnate as the opposite sex in our next life or we may have been so in our last life.

Whether we are male of female is of little consequence in the long run. We are equal as Soul. We are looking for happiness and love regardless of which body type we currently have. We are Soul and as Soul we are all going in the same direction. We are all searching for the contentment we can only get by realising we are a part of God, searching for It’s love. The Equality of Men & Women is unimportant when we realise we are all equal as Soul.

Wishing you love as Soul.

*Ed Parkinson

Inspirational Equality Quotes

 

“Herein, lies the key to love. Love builds bridges. Soul exists because God loves It. Soul equals Soul; no one Soul is greater than another. Experience the greatest love of all.”

  Harold Klemp

“It was the contemplation of God that created men who were equal, for it was in God that they were equal.”
  Antoine de Saint-Exupery 


“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”
  George Orwell

“A youth is to be regarded with respect. How do you know that his future will not be equal to our present?”
  Confucius

“Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.”
  Timothy Leary

“It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.”
  Helen Keller 

“I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”
  Winston Churchill

“To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness.”
  Benjamin Franklin

“Democracy arose from men's thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.”
  Aristotle

“All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents.”
  John Fitzgerald Kennedy 

“The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.” 
  Emma Goldman

“For every low there is an equal but opposite high.”
  Norman Cousins

“We do not live an equal life, but one of contrasts and patchwork; now a little joy, then a sorrow, now a sin, then a generous or brave action.”
  Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Other Side

Below is a work in progress (WIP) of The Other Side. I’ve rotated it again to show a different side. See last weeks post about other views/rotations.

We Souls play as Human Beings

Thought for the Week

Living as a human beings brings limitations and requirements with it. We are still Soul but now we have taken on this human body which has a number of rules it must abide by. Some of these rules and instincts ensure the survival of the human race, such as our sex drive, our urge to survive, our social habits, etc. These rules of being human limit the abilities we have as Soul. We loose the freedom of Soul which allows us to move, do and be, where, when and how we wish.

Instincts
These basic human instincts ensure we stay in the human state until we develop ourselves spiritually. Until we master all our human desires, urges and instincts we cannot move on to becoming aware of our spiritual nature. It is all part of our development from animals to saints.

For a lot of us our human body and its requirements mean that we get so involved in human life we loose sight of the fact that we are Soul. We forget we are divine beings. We look on ourselves as physical beings. We have lost sight of the fact that we are a spiritual being, Soul, in a physical body.

We Souls play as Human Beings
The Higher Power, Allah, God or whatever you wish to call it, created an area where we Souls could play with our own creative powers, in an environment where we could do what we liked without causing damage to the Higher Power or those loving and aware Souls. To contain this area of experimentation It created time and space.

Soul lives in the here and now. It lives in the moment. It has all it needs now, if it desires something It receives it now. By creating an area of time and space, the actions of us Souls in this experimentation area are kept within time and in the area of space which we occupy. This limits the damage we may cause as we experiment with our powers to this area of time and space. This is the place where we Souls play as human beings.

Different lessons to be learned
For example, if I decide that I need more land to grow my crops to feed myself, there are a number of options available to me. I can rent, buy or steal land form a neighbour. Each option has different consequences. If I rent the land some of the crops I grow will go to pay for the use of the land. If I buy the land I get to keep all the crops but I have to have the money to buy the land or use the crops to pay off the money I borrowed. If I steal the land I may get to keep all the crops without any payment for a while. Eventually the owner of the land will charge me for the use of it or just take all the crops I planted on it.

There are different lessons to be learned from each option. Over time I could actually try all three options. I could steal the land and later discover the pain and trouble that brings to my life. Then I may rent the land and be happy with the payment for the use of the land. I may buy the land and go through the payments and rewards of doing that.

We are almost like Soul observing
As we look at this example of me using various methods of growing crops, we are almost like Soul observing the experiences as we go through the various options. We are observing something taking place in a capsule of time and space. This is similar to how Soul, our true self, observes us as we work through our lives in this physical world as human beings. We try things that we think are the right thing to do but we make mistakes. We try something else and we learn what works best. Our experiences teach us.

Instead of us growing crops, we are growing ourselves. We are developing our awareness of ourselves and of our world around us. As we Souls play as human beings we are constantly having experiences. Each one teaches us something.

For a number of people it is a boring experience because they can only see the physical side of their lives. They haven’t woken up to the fact that we are spiritual beings going through a human experience. With the knowledge that we are Soul, developing our awareness, life becomes more interesting. We can see that with each interaction with the people or Souls in our lives we are learning something.

Passions and Virtues
As we Souls play as human beings we get to use lots of toys and tools which allow learn lots of stuff. We have all the human passions:
Lust,
Anger,
Greed,
Attachment and
Vanity.

There are the human virtues too:
Patience,
Charity.
Truthfulness,
Justice,
Humility and
Trustworthiness.

That’s just a short list of the things we Souls play with as human beings. When we finally discover the greatest toy we have Love and how it works, how it is at the core of our being, not just our human being, then we begin to wake up to the divine part within us. Love is the key which will open us to the light and sound of the beauty of life. It will lead us to the place where we discover who we are, why we are here and the whole purpose of our human existence.

When we discover Love our lives become much more fun as we Souls play as human beings.

Wishing you Love as you play with life.

*Ed Parkinson

Inspirational Human Soul Quotes

"Any of these passions - lust, anger, greed, attachment, and vanity - are simply just too much of a good thing."
Harold Klemp

"Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood."
Helen Keller

“If Life Is A Game, These Are The Rules:
You will receive a body.
You will be presented with lessons.
There are no mistakes, only lessons.
A lesson is repeated until learned.
Learning does not end.
"There" is no better than "here".
Others are only mirrors of you.
What you make of your life is up to you.
All your answers lie inside of you.
You will forget all of this at birth.”
Cherie Carter-Scott

“God has erected the temple of the body; He has placed the nine doors, and the soul-bride sits within. She enjoys the sweet play again and again, while the five demons are plundering her.”
Sri Guru Granth Sahib

“My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on; Judge not the play before the play is done: Her plot hath many changes; every day Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play.”
Francis Quarles

“The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul is so limited in power! We reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that hides the infinite from us.”
Maria Mitchell

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness; on the confines of the two everlasting empires, necessity and free will.”
Thomas Carlyle

“Not in achievement, but in endurance, of the human soul, does it show its divine grandeur and its alliance with the infinite.”
Edwin Hubbel Chapin

“Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the Divine gift of articulate speech.”
George Bernard Shaw

“The human soul has still greater need of the ideal than of the real. It is by the real that we exist; it is by the ideal that we live.”
Victor Hugo

“Every hardship; every joy; every temptation is a challenge of the spirit; that the human soul may prove itself. The great chain of necessity wherewith we are bound has divine significance; and nothing happens which has not some service in working out the sublime destiny of the human soul.”
Henry Fielding

“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.”
Marshal Ferdinand Foch

“Love is the vital essence that pervades and permeates, from the center to the circumference, the graduating circles of all thought and action. Love is the talisman of human weal and woe--the open sesame to every soul.”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“If sensuality were happiness, beasts were happier than men; but human felicity is lodged in the soul, not in the flesh.”
Seneca

“Every hardship; every joy; every temptation is a challenge of the spirit; that the human soul may prove itself.”
Elias A. Ford

The Other Side

You may have noticed that each sketch I’ve posted of The Other Side is from a different angle. I have rotated the image each time. Because there are six different ‘sides’ there will always be something in the picture which look correct no matter what way you rotate the picture. If you’d like to compare the angles of the previous sketches…

This link will open last weeks sketch.

This link will open the previous weeks sketch.

Animals to saints

Thought for the Week

With the variety of human Souls here on the planet, ranging from animals to saints, we can see a whole spectrum of different types, races, states of awareness, abilities, and attitudes. There are some who behave like animals and some like saints. Most of us are somewhere in between either extreme. 

Why are there such extremes of Souls?
We need to take look at this question from a higher perspective. Souls are coming and going from this planet all the time. People are being born and others are dying. It is the natural process of our existence here. We are born. We are nurtured and reared by our parents or guardians. We learn to survive in the world. We then establish our own independence. We go out into the world to discover new things and learn about them. We may have children and work at caring for them. We may have other goals in our lives, such as:
having fun,
gathering wealth,
being of service,
developing ourselves,
looking after others,
leading and guiding people,
being powerful,
teaching,
learning,
escaping through drink and drugs,
and many other occupations. 

These are the things we as people do with our lives while here on Earth. We are all learning something. Each experience teaches us what is beneficial or not to us. When we die we are given an overview of our lives and we get some idea of what was really good and bad for us. 

A training area for Soul
The awareness of Souls, on our planet Earth is always going to vary between animals to saints. Once we realise that we are in a training area for Soul, we will begin to be relaxed about finding happiness here on this planet. We can find happiness within ourselves but the happiness we find in our outer world is only temporary. This world constantly changes so we can learn form the different situations we find ourselves in. 

Our main problem as humans is realising that our physical world is only temporary. Our mind and our body are programmed to survive. This survival instinct can dominate our senses blinding us to the fact that we were once born and we will die. Our focus is on the physical world and we have lost sight of our inner being. Most of us only become aware of our inner reality when we die or have an out of body or near death experience. 

Why we can never have peace
As each Soul is learning Its own lessons, there can never be complete peace on this planet. If one Soul is learning about power and control, he may see that taking someone else’s property, goods or land is the right thing to do. The Soul who is a victim of this will defend his property and fight the perpetrator. We now have a little war taking place. These little wars can happen within families, neighbours, towns, cities, countries, groups and whole races of people. The war can be between us and our ‘friend’ or between one race and another. This is why we can never have peace on our planet. Earth is a training ground for us. We learn by making mistakes, hurting ourselves, hurting others and being hurt by others. Most of us only learn when there is pain involved. We don't learn much when things are easy. 

We humans want to bring heaven down to Earth so we can be happy. We get this urge for happiness from our memories of being Soul. As Soul we live in heaven but because our focus is now on our physical world we can no longer see our heaven. Any of the great saints and saviours such as Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and others invited us to go within to find peace, heaven and/or God. The saints attempted to lift us up to heaven and didn't bring heaven down to earth. We must move our state of thinking and awareness to the point where we can see heaven in our daily lives. 

Whispers of wisdom
How can we be in heaven and still be alive in the physical world? There is a part of ourselves which is in heaven, that part is the true, loving and inspirational part of us, Soul. With our constant focus on our physical world, this soft, gentle and loving voice has been drowned out. We can no longer hear its whispers of wisdom. 

One method we can use to re-establish our link with Soul is to sing a holy name or mantra. Some of us have used “Aum” which brings us to the mental area. It is good but we need to go further. The holy and sacred word “HU” is an ancient name for God and it also resonates with Soul. It helps to open the link between our physical selves and Soul. With a regular practice of ten to twenty minutes of chanting HU each day, we will begin to re-connect with Soul and gain access to Its wisdom and insights. Soul’s whispers of wisdom will bring happiness and heaven to us. 

This simple but sacred word, HU, can help us develop from animals to saints. 

*Ed Parkinson 

P.S. For more info on the HU Song have a look at this page.

Inspirational Animals to Saints Quotes

“If you have a pet, you are aware of the bond of love between yourself and your pet. This bond of love exists because you are Soul – a particle of God sent here to gain spiritual experience. Ultimately, to learn how to give and to receive love. What most people don’t realise is their pet is also Soul. Animals are Soul too.”
 Harold Klemp 

“When human beings have been fascinated by the contemplation of their own hearts, the more intricate biological pattern of the female has become a model for the artist, the mystic, and the saint. When mankind turns instead to what can be done, altered, built, invented, in the outer world, all natural properties of men, animals, or metals become handicaps to be altered rather than clues to be followed.”
 Margaret Mead 

“Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.”
 Aristotle

“Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”
 Oscar Wilde 

“Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened.”
 Anatole France 

“Men say I am a saint losing himself in politics. The fact is that I am a politician trying my hardest to become a saint.”
 Mahatma Gandhi 

“He that falls into sin is a man; that grieves at it, is a saint; that boasteth of it, is a devil.”
 Thomas Fuller 

“Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.”
 C.S. Lewis 

“To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine.”
 Ralph Waldo Emerson 

“Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.”
 Dag Hammarskjold 

“The basis of all animal rights should be the Golden Rule: we should treat them as we would wish them to treat us, were any other species in our dominant position.”
 Christine Stevens 

“Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.”
 Albert Schweitzer 

“Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve.”
 Erich Fromm 

“Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to.”
 Mark Twain 

“Man is the only creature in the animal kingdom that sits in judgment on the work of the Creator and finds it bad - including himself and Nature.”
 Elbert Hubbard