Spiritual Art Blog - *Ed P

Memories of suicide from a past life

I recently came across some memories of having committed suicide in another lifetime. These are the feelings and realisations which hit me after I had killed my body.

At the moment I left my body because I had committed suicide, I realised that I had made a terrible mistake. I could now see that there was a relatively easy solution to the problem which caused me to kill my body. A few more steps or a different approach would have sorted the problem out. I just needed to be a bit more creative in looking for a solution.

I also realised that I had now cut my relationships with the people who loved me. I was now in a different world to them. I had removed myself from them and would not be in their circle. I would no longer be their friend as their focus was on their being in the outer life. I had to deal with my issues in this new inner world which I had so suddenly moved into.

There was also the knowledge that I had thrown away the gift of life. From this perspective I could see that I was given my life so I could deal with a number of issues I had with myself and other people who were in my life. Life had organised my destiny so I would meet these people during that life but now that opportunity was lost. It might take many lifetimes to meet them all again.

I don't remember the circumstances of how I died but I do remember the terrible feeling of loss and the realisation of the major mistake I'd just made. 

 

How could I have avoided this mistake?
One part of me says I needed to have the experience, even if it was just to be able to tell you about it in this article so that you could have some insight into what happens when one commits suicide. However I still feel deeply that it was a serious mistake.

I could have avoided it by being more patient, not getting frustrated with the situation so easily.

I could have been more creative in looking for a solution. I suspect there were some choices I didn't like but would have worked out fine had I given them a chance. 
The problem that drove me to suicide seemed like a huge issue to me but with this view from my inner worlds I could see that it was a small or insignificant issue to everyone else. I had focused too much on the issue which made it appear to be the main thing in my life. If I had moved my attention away from the thing that was causing me so much pain, I would probably have been able to live with it and eventually find a solution to it.

 

Get this viewpoint
Is there a way to get this viewpoint without committing suicide? Yes there is.

The main reason I got these insights is because I contemplate regularly. I visit my inner worlds every day so that I can get insights into what is happening in my life. It was during a contemplation that I recalled these suicide memories.

For me, my contemplation exercises are an essential part of my day. If I'm under time pressure and have to make a choice of having breakfast or doing my contemplation, I'll skip breakfast and spend the time I have in contemplation. I know I can grab some food at some stage during the day and I also know that if I don't take the opportunity to do my spiritual exercise early in the day, it will be difficult to find time later. 

 

Contemplation

I start my contemplation by sitting in a comfortable position, with my back straight. I take a few deep breaths and relax. Then I'll sing the word HU, pronounced like “hue”. This is an ancient name for the Divine or the Higher Power. I'll sing it about six times in a row on a long outgoing breath. I'll be quiet for a while and then start singing HU again.

In the quiet times I’ll listen for sounds within myself and also look for lights on my inner screen. Sometimes the sounds and lights combine to form a scene and I drift into it. I have a note book and small sketch pad beside me while I'd doing the contemplation because I've found that I get some great insights, good ideas and inspiration while contemplating. I spend about twenty minutes or so doing this each morning.

 

Our own happiness

If I had had this connection with my inner self in that life where I committed suicide, I'm pretty sure I would have found a way to sort out my problems. A regular connection with our inner worlds helps us stay sane and move our focus away from our outer life. We are able to see there is more to life than all the outer, physical and materialistic stuff. We get some insights into life and why it is the way it is and how we can make it easier and happier for ourselves. Our own happiness reflects out to those around us and raises them up a little too. 

Wishing you love and insights in every day of your life.

*Ed Parkinson

 

If you are looking for more insights into suicide and life, click here to go to the Spiritual Writings page.

My near death experience has made me homeless but happy

I met this homeless guy recently who told me about his near death experience. He'd prefer not to be named so we'll call him “Philip”. A long time ago he was in some kind of argument and got hit on the head with a block.

“I fell down on the ground. It was like a darkness came over me. It was like a warmth. It was weird. I floated up. I could see myself on the ground. I wanted to touch my body but I couldn't. As I went up I could feel a lightness and I fell into a sleepiness. At the same time I was going into a tunnel.

“You're going into a tunnel but it is narrowing and you hear voices that you recognise. You don't see them. You see images but you don't actually see them. The voices I heard were of people who were gone before me. Afterwards you drift back into your body. It was an in and out experience. You can only understand it if you experience it.

 

Outlook on life

“When I came back, my whole outlook on life was completely different. All this crap, the materialism, cars, people working, it all means nothing. It all looks hollow, empty and fake. It's hard to explain that. All this materialism, even now, well over thirty five years later, everything is different. Even today.

“It's all right , I'm not working for a family to put bread on the table, I don't have to do that. At the same time you see the fakeness of life. After that I wanted to live in the mountains away from it all. I'm still living that way but I'm happy in myself. Very happy in myself.

“I couldn't adjust back to doing things, going nine to five, I couldn't. I've done it but I couldn't do it. I go back to drifting, doing nothing. I've lived eighteen years with no money, no income whatsoever, no home, no electricity, no heat, no work. Living in tents, living in old sheds, on park benches, anywhere. It doesn't make a difference. I feel right, I feel right doing it.

“The “normal” purpose of life for me is bull. For other people it is to rear families, build empires. Fair enough, that's good. Every person has their own goal in life but they still don't think they have achieved it. That's my opinion. I don't think any person thinks that they have reached their potential. Maybe there is something else in life they are reaching for. Maybe a spiritual thing. Even men who have built great empires, when they get to a certain age, they still don't feel they have achieved anything. So maybe it is a spiritual thing they have to achieve. I don't know, to be honest. You'd have to ask a person who is in their eighties, who is dying, who has achieved something.”

 

My happiness

“I don't feel that I have achieved something. I feel that I've achieved happiness and peace for myself.”

Then I pointed out to Philip that it is more than the guy who has built an empire and still feels he needs more?

“Depends on who wants it. What good is my happiness when someone wants houses to live in and food on the table? If I was rearing a family and couldn't look after my kids but I achieved happiness, what good is that to them, if they are left poor and hungry?”

 

I've never been stuck

“I believe in God, one hundred percent. I don't believe in a God, I know there's a God. He looks after me. I've never been stuck for a bed, for a blanked, for food, for shelter. Never, not for one day. For eighteen years. I haven't made the effort. If I want money it comes to me. If I’m stuck for money, I walk around, I know I'm going to find a fiver or a tenner. I'll find food, shelter. If I want to go from A to B, I’ll get there, no problems to me.

 

Near death experience

We talked a bit more and Philip went back to eating the bread, tomatoes and chocolate cakes which a guy in a nearby supermarket had given him. I suspect most of the food was past it's sell by date but it was still good to eat.

It's interesting to note that since Philip’s near death experience he doesn't take welfare payments, doesn't beg, won't take up social housing but he is happy with himself and his life.

What's the moral here? Everyone to their own. We may look at a homeless person and presume it is a miserable life. We may look at a rich person a presume it is a wonderful life. We are making assumptions about people and things all the time but we really don't know. We need to connect with and get to know these people to know their story.

Philip's near death experience has given him a clarity about life most people can't get. It may be a view most don't want but his brush with death and the realisation that there is so much more beyond death has given him a trust in God or the Holy Spirit which I suspect we'd all like a part of.

However we all have our own path in life. We all have our lessons, gifts, challenges and blessings. Most of us won't have a near death experience but this insight into Philip's life may help us understand our own life a little better.

Wishing you love in your lessons and blessings in life. 

 

*Ed Parkinson

If you are looking for more info on near death experiences you may find something in the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

 

Unanswered Questions

I was chatting with a friend recently about her unanswered questions in life. Some can seem to be critical to where we go in life while others are not important. These questions can include:
Why is a certain person in my life?
Why have I got these difficulties and disabilities?
Why do I have my body and not a better / different / one?

Why do I have the family I have?

 

Why was I born in this country and not another?

With these unanswered questions our focus can be on the negative or what's wrong in our lives. It is easy to fall into this hole of dark negativity. We feel hard done by, we haven't got what we deserve and we are lost and alone in our darkness.

 

Unseen natural gifts

Lets move our attention to other aspects of our lives. Lets put a list together of some of the unseen natural gifts we have.

We are alive and in a reasonably healthy body.

We can breath, we can move and most of us have all of our senses.

We can walk and move around to explore the areas and places in our world such as the streets of a town, the parts of a market or shopping area or a trail through a mountain or forest.

We can see our way around our surroundings and occasionally see some natural beauty such as a sunset, a picture or even a good deed being performed by others. Let's not forget a good book, a movie or a TV programme.

We can hear sounds, people talking, music, birds and animals. The sound of the voice of a long absent friend can bring an exciting thrill. A piece of beautiful music can make our heart dance with joy and move us to some beautiful places within ourselves.

We can taste food of all sorts, savoury, sweet, vegetables, meat, breads and cakes. A nice tasty meal can be a real pleasure especially when we are hungry.

We can feel our skin, cloths, surfaces, textures and fabrics. Touching someone's skin, hair or hands can be beautiful and allows love flow between us. The feel of silk, satin or velvet can be pleasant too. The feel of the sun as it warms us or the rain as it cools us can be pleasant too.

We can smell perfume, the aroma of food and freshness of nature which can bring excitement, anticipation and insights. The smell of a tasty meal can whet our appetite. The perfume from a flower or a person can tickle us in a sensuous way.

These are all quite large unseen gifts we take for granted. They make our lives so rich, informative and beautiful. Some of us don't have all our senses but that gives us new skills as we learn how to adjust to the world without them.

Our unanswered questions could also include:

How do my senses work?

Why am I sensitive in certain areas?

How come I see beauty in things others are blind to?

 

Little gifts

Little gifts appear in our lives every day. We just need to be aware of them. For example, just now as I was sitting here in my office writing this piece, our cat, Rola, came in. She rubbed against my leg. I picked her up into my arms and petted her. She purred as I stroked her soft fur. We were together for about three minutes and then she moved off and out the window to continue with her day. It was a blessing to have her love and to be able to give her some love.

If I didn't take the time to pet her I would have missed this little bit of loving pleasure in my day. By putting attention on something outside of myself I received a lovely gift from our cat, Rola.

 

Most people will say they don't receive gifts like this but with a bit of observation and awareness we can begin seeing them. They can include:

A table becomes available in a busy restaurant so we can eat in comfort.

The traffic flows in a way that suits you.

A stranger greets us or says something nice.

 

A sunset or a beautiful arrangement of clouds appears in the sky.

A sweet perfume floats by us as we go about our day.

 

Why do these gifts come to us? That's another unanswered question.

 

The dark valley and the mountain of gifts

The key point here is the focus of our attention. If we look at what we haven't got we are looking into a valley of dark nothingness. We can easily get lost in there without the light of love. However if we look at the gifts we have, we begin to see how they stack up into heaps and heaps until we see the mountain of gifts and love that life presents to us. By turning our attention from the dark valley of what we haven't got to the mountain of gifts we do have we enter a brighter and more beautiful life. We will also discover that the view from the mountain top allows us to see some of the answers which were hidden from us the dark valley.

 

 

Beggar on the beach of gold

This song, Beggar on the beach of gold, by Mike and the Mechanics, tells the story of how our focus on the wrong things in life, like our unanswered questions, prevents us from seeing the gifts around us.

 

 

Wishing you joy as you move your focus from the unanswered questions to the unseen gifts around us in life.

 

*Ed Parkinson

 

If you still have unanswered questions you may find answers on the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

Recognising the play of life

How do we recognise the play of life? How do we see the things the Life-force is organising for us? How do we meet the people in our lives? Is it just chance or is there a plan or destiny behind the events in our lives?

 

Go with the Flow of life

Here's an experiment which may help us discover how the Life-force or Holy Spirit is working in our lives. We need to pick a day where we have time and we are not under pressure to be somewhere or meet someone. We can have things to do but are flexible about how and when they get done.

 

Start off with the declaration ”I am a vehicle for the Life-force, the Holy Spirit or the Higher Power”. Then we go about our day but we try to be aware of the ideas, intuitions and feelings which come into our awareness. The ideas may be illogical or unusual. The intuitions may seem weird and our feelings may point us in a direction we've never gone before.

Now, go with the flow of these ideas and feelings. See where they lead. Be sensible and responsible, so don't go hurting yourself or others. However we should try and do the things which are uncomfortable for us. For example, if we get the idea that we should buy a coffee or soup for a beggar or homeless person but have never done this before, we should try and do it. It will be uncomfortable for us but the person receiving the little gift will benefit a lot from it. We will learn a new ability and share some love.

 

Journal

Keeping a spiritual diary or journal can help us recognise how the play of life is interacting with us. If we note things like-

coincidences,

unusual events,

our own attitude and how it changes,

our dreams and possible meanings,

the challenges we have in life,

the new people in our lives.

All of these may seem insignificant at the time but noting them will help us to see the flow of life. Together they are the life we are living and well worth our attention.

 

When challenges come up

When things don't go as planned, we can stand back and see how things play out.

Have we made an error in our thinking?

Did we misjudge something?

What can we learn from this?

What will we do differently next time?

If we have the presence of mind to ask our selves these questions at the time or even later, we will learn a lot. We can sometimes react with disappointment or anger, which is fine, provided we don't inflict it on others. This can be our initial reaction but when reflecting on the situation later, asking ourselves these questions, we can make changes to improve the situation now or in the future. When challenges come up there is an opportunity to learn.

 

Lessons and blessings

We then get to the point where we see our choices, changes and challenges as lessons and blessings in our life. New people who come into our lives can bring us love and friendship while others can bring pain and trouble. They all bring something to help us move further up the ladder of awareness towards the realisation that we are a divine creation, Soul. This is what the play of live is trying to teach us, how to love ourselves and others and in the process become aware of the loving, happy and beautiful core of our being, Soul.

 

Wishing you love as you discover the lessons and blessings in the play of life.

 

*Ed Parkinson

 

There is another article on the play of life here, Learning from the play of life.

If you are looking for more insights into life, visit the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

 

Learning from the play of life

p>Learning from the play of lifeHave you ever wondered about the play of life and why things happen the way they do? Here are a few stories which illustrate some of the blessings we receive in life.

 

Change made, change received

Recently I had to do some shopping. We needed some groceries and some copy paper for the office. My usual habit is to get the groceries first and then go to the other shops to pick up specific items like copy paper. However today, it felt right to get the copy paper first. I wondered about this, should I go with this feeling or should I go with the usual tried and tested ways of doing the shopping? I decided to go with my feeling as I've learned that there is usually a good reason why the Life-force, the Holy Spirit or even my gut feeling is telling me to do something. I bought two packs of paper for €4 each. Handed over a €10 note to the cashier and got a €2 coin in change. I then went on to get the groceries and realised that I needed a €2 coin to use the shopping trolley. The only change I had in my pocket was the €2 coin from my paper purchase. I was happy to have gone with the play of life and followed my intuition. The change I made and the change I received helped make my life easier.

 

Understanding

A friend I'll call “Tony” was telling me about his son who constantly required the attention of his father. While he tried to facilitate his son as much as possible there were many times his son was frustrated by his fathers other commitments. This troubled Tony somewhat and he wondered about how to solve this issue.

A few days later Tony was travelling on a train and ended up sitting with a father and his two children. One of the children was the same age as his son. This child constantly required the attention of her father. When he spoke to others on the train, she interrupted to get her father's attention. This happened time and again. Tony realised that children of this age required a lot of their father's attention, it was a phase they went through.

Tony was grateful that the play of life had put him in a position to help him understand the challenge he had with his son.

 

A nice meal in a hurry

A few weeks ago I cooked dinner for the family but noticed that there were some vegetables left over, about enough for one person. I wondered why but assumed that the Life-force had some plan for them. I expected we'd have them the next day. However the next day we were all out until late and rather than cooking up a meal we decide to get some take away food.

The following day I came home around 5.30pm but I had to go to a meeting at 6.30pm and needed to get something to eat before then. The pot of vegetables were the perfect solution. As I was reheating the vegetables, I wondered about having some carbohydrates with them such as rice or potatoes. I only had about 15 minutes to cook and eat this meal so I made up my mind to be satisfied with the vegetables. When the veg was nice and hot I sat down at the table to eat and there in front of me was a packet of nachos or corn crisps. The perfect accompaniment to my vegetables. I smiled at how the play of life had organised the meal for me. It had set things in place over the last few days so that I could have a nice meal in a hurry.

 

Observe these little blessings

These are just a few stories from the play of life that were noticeable. There are so many that we just don't even consider. We often call them coincidences, fate, or think we are lucky the way things work out. When we can begin seeing this play of life which is organised by the Life-force or the Holy Spirit we can learn a lot and reduce the stress in our lives.

If we can learn to observe these little blessings, they will begin to add up quickly to the point where we can see that we are indeed blessed many times a day by the play of life. Keeping a note of them in a journal or notebook will help us see them. These notes can be uplifting and inspiring in times of trouble. They can remind us that there is light and love in our lives.

Wishing you love and blessings in the play of life.

*Ed Parkinson

 

Looking for more insight into the play of life? Visit the Spiritual Writings page for more insights by clicking here.

 

 

When things are not as you expected - a letter to a friend.

We can get upset when life doesn't go as expected. I recently met up with “Nora” again who is struggling with stress and pressure from work and life in general. I wrote a letter to her and made it part of an the article “How to Contemplate – a letter to a stressed friend”.

This is a second letter to her.

Dear Nora
It was good to see you over the weekend for lunch and hear all your stories about your recent trip.

When you arrived for lunch you quickly became frustrated by the situation which was there. Nobody was doing anything for the lunch except us two. Your frustration quickly turned to anger and stress because things were not the way you expected them to be.

 

Unfortunately most things in life do not work out the way we plan them. When we plan, we do it in our inner worlds using our mind, memories and imagination. We figure out a plan to go to lunch, the table will be set, the food will be cooked and the people will have arrived and be ready to eat. This didn't happen at our lunch.

We have to expect the unexpected. There are too many people involved in the things happening in our lives for them to go perfectly for everyone. For example, our lunch involved four different people with different expectations. You expected that the lunch would be almost cooked and the table prepared.

One of the guests was happily sleeping with no concerns or plans for the lunch. Another was doing stuff on the computer. He was busy enough and wouldn't bother about lunch until he got hungry. I was out and knew there were no rashers or sausages there to be cooked so I got them, as I expected to be the cook for lunch. Each of our expectations were different.

While you did have your little angry explosion, giving out about the other two, I liked the way it vanished when we all sat down for lunch so there were no arguments. It was quite a pleasant lunch and it was good for us to be together.

 

How do we avoid the disappointment?

So how do we avoid the disappointment, frustration and anger when things don't work out as expected? The key is to change our mind about what to expect from different situations. While we all like a bit of predictability in our lives, it is reasonable to expect that things will not turn out as expected at times.

You mentioned that you had done your contemplation exercise earlier that day. While doing our contemplation, the things which are expected to happen during the day may cross our mind. Observe them and see how they could change if different things happen. Note these possibilities in your mind, as they may actually happen. This is one of the benefits of a regular contemplation. You get to see other possibilities for the things happening in our lives. We are then somewhat prepared if things don't go as expected.

Man plans and God laughs
You may have heard the saying "Man plans and God laughs". When we consider how the Life-force is orchestrating events for every Soul on the planet, so we all learn something and make progress towards our goal of finding happiness and love, we can understand why God would laugh. Not all our little ideas or plans can be accommodated as we expected.

When we plan things we have to remember to leave room for other people's needs. We are unique and so is every other person. We have to allow others their space and the opportunity to be themselves so that we can be ourselves too.

 

Keep in mind...

The Life force is orchestrating things for us all.
Be aware that Life is working with us and other Souls too.
Other Souls have their own expectations.
Try and see why something is happening FOR you.

If God is going to laugh, we might as well join in the fun and laugh too.

 

Keep up the regular contemplation exercises, be prepared for the unexpected, try and see why things happen the way they do. Ask the question “Why are these things happening FOR me?” Don't take life too seriously, have a laugh now and then, and enjoy the journey.

 

Wishing you love, laughter and insights as you meet the expected and unexpected in life.

 

*Ed Parkinson

If this article isn't what you expected, you may find what you are looking for on the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

Putting the Puzzle of Life Together

Putting the Puzzle of Life Together

Life is like a jigsaw puzzle. There are so many different things going on in our lives that it can be hard to make sense of them all. We have relationships, our work and how we survive, our feelings and emotions, our ambitions and plans, our attitudes, opinions and how we look at the world. There are so many pieces in this puzzle of life.

 

Confusing Relationships
Our relationships can be one of the most confusing parts of life. We have our family, our friends, our work or school mates, acquaintances who we meet occasionally and people in our local community. We pay a varying amount of attention to these people depending on what we need from them or what they need from us. Our needs could vary from buying a bottle of water to the love and attention of a long term relationship. Our confusion often comes from our love friendships. We sometimes fall in love with a person who has no idea of our feelings for them. The opposite can happen to where someone is in love with us but we don't recognise it. This kind of stuff can mess up our emotions and stress us out.

 

These and other events in our life sometimes don't make sense to us. This confusion can easily happen if we are emotional about our relationships. Our feelings can bring is up and down, make us happy and sad, Then our mind gets working, coming up with different explanations and reasons for the various things happening around us. Our mind's logical solutions often don't fully sort out the puzzle because our it can't see a lot of the outside influences such as our karma (the lessons we need to learn in this life), the other person's point of view and what they need, and how it all fits into the greater flow of life. It's like trying to piece together a jigsaw without knowing what it's supposed to look like.

Having the completed picture

The key to putting a jigsaw puzzle together is having the completed picture in front of us so we get some idea of what fits where. Otherwise it can take a long time and a lot of frustration to fit the pieces together. We need to get an understanding of how life works and our part in it. Our lives only makes sense if we can get an overview of them. Here's an exercise which may help you see part of the picture.

 

The word "Mana" is associated with our memories and can help us travel deep into our past to help find the reason for some of the things happening in our life at the moment. To do this exercise, make yourself comfortable and take a few deep breaths. Ask the Life-force, the Higher Power, the Holy Spirit or an inner guide or saint "If it is right for me at this time, please show me why this situation is in my life". Then sing "Mana" on your outgoing breath a number of times. Be quiet for a minute or two and then sing "Mana" again. You may drift off into a daydream or inner experience. If the daydream is a thought from the mind which is like an interruption, then sing "Mana" again to get yourself back on track.

 

If you do get an insight, go with it and when you come back to your outer self try and commit what happened to your memory. If possible write it down in a note book or journal. It is unusual for this to work the first time but if you do it regularly for a few weeks you should get some insights into the different pieces of the puzzle of life.

 

Other lives
It becomes apparent that the abilities and disabilities we have in this life must have come from somewhere. When we get a grasp of what is going on in our life we begin to wonder about other lives we've lived. Having lived previously helps explain a lot of the puzzling pieces in our lives. It may be difficult to accept, if we have been brought up with the belief that we only live this one life, but reincarnation does help explain why we have some unusual pieces in the puzzle that is our life.

If we can get our heads around reincarnation we then see that this life is one part of an even bigger jigsaw puzzle. This life is the latest piece to be added to the picture which makes up our being. All the experiences we've had and all the lives we've lived help make us the person we are today. We have a lot of history behind us and it can help explain why we live where we do, why we have the skills and challenges we have and why we have the current people and relationships in our lives.

 

So try the exercise above, it can help you get insights.

I hope this helps you put the jigsaw pieces of the puzzle of life together.

 

*Ed Parkinson

If you need a little more help with th puzzle of life you'll find some insights on the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

 

We have a magnificent destiny

Thought for the week
Our consciousness is like an acorn. The acorn when planted will become a magnificent oak tree. It can grow to be bigger than a two story house. It is part of its DNA to become an oak tree. That is its destiny. We Souls are like the acorn but we are already planted. We have been planted in this physical world with all the necessary elements around us to help us grow into a beautiful Soul, like the acorn will grow into a beautiful tree.

The worlds of time and space
We begin our experiences when we as Soul are sown into the worlds of time and space. We can take the shape of many different life forms and eventually take on the human form. During our evolution have grown a lot and are now in the ultimate earthly animal state, a human being. As far as the animal kingdom is concerned, we have made a lot of progress but from a spiritual point of view we are still just a seed.

 

However there is a time when we become a spiritual seeker and explorer. We are begin to put up little sprouts, little feelers to see what is beyond our human consciousness, we are beginning to explore our spiritual consciousness. Similar to the way we have developed from being in the animal consciousness and became the the magnificent human being that we are today, we are now on our way to becoming the beautiful Soul that we are destined to be.

We are more than our human bodies
We have many things to learn. Some will be easy and some will be hard. We are like the acorn growing into a tree. We push down our roots into the earth through rocks and gravel to find the stuff to help us grow. As a result of our efforts we grow a branch with leaves to take in the warm and loving sunlight which enlighten our whole being. This growth starts with a realisation that we are more than our human bodies and develops into an awareness of our inner spiritual worlds.

 

When we realise the reality of our spiritual worlds it becomes part of our consciousness. When it is part of our consciousness, it is part of how we interact with the world, with life and with other Souls around us. We will become a magnificent Soul, a beautiful, loving, master of our inner and outer worlds.

A challenge
There is a challenge for us in this seed of a concept. We can choose to change or remain as we are. That might be the right thing for us at this time in our life or we may see the potential and embrace the changes necessary to grow into a magnificent Soul. There is no rush, we will grow at our own pace, a pace that suits us perfectly. Like the acorn which will grow into a magnificent oak tree, we as humans are the seed which will grow into the magnificent beauty of a Divine, loving Soul.

Wishing you love and joy as you grow into the beautiful Soul that you already are at the core of your being.

*Ed Parkinson

To explore more articles about your magnificent self, Soul, visit the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

Why do good things for others?

Thought for the week
Why would we want to do good things for others? For some of us it takes a real effort to do something nice and for others it is almost a natural reaction. Why is there such a difference? This is probably one of distinctions of a spiritually mature Soul. A Soul who is wise to the world and knows how it works and how to work with it.

For the most part, the giving Soul is a lot happier and more content than the non giving Soul. It's not that one is better than the other, it is just one is further along in their learning about life than the other. We will all eventually learn all the lessons we need to get us to the point where we are a happy, loving Soul.

Developing this skill is not too difficult. When we do good things for another person there is a nice feeling which comes with it. We feel that we have helped them in some way. Their lives are a little easier, they feel appreciated, cared for or loved.

Of course not all that we do will be appreciated. In fact sometimes the good things we thought we were doing for another person actually upsets them. It's all part of our learning. We are learning how to live life all the time. We make mistakes and we learn. That's the way life works. We learn the lesson, we move on and when we meet a similar situation again we know how to approach it.

Reasons for doing good things
There are several good reasons for doing good things:
We feel good when we do good
We usually make someone else happy
Love grows between us
Our heart is warmed
We develop ourselves as Soul

Divine Love
If we do good things without expecting any reward or recognition we are getting close to using unconditional love, similar to the love the Divine gives us moment by moment. Love is the whole reason for life. The love of the Divine sustains our worlds, our lives, our being. When we use this love in our lives we are getting closer to the Divine. We are coming more in tune with It. We are beginning to use the same Divine power It uses and we thereby get to know and realise how It works and how life works. The more love we give, the more we receive and we develop a better connection with the Divine.

List of good things to do
To help us on our way here is a list of good things to do:
Talk and listen to someone
Open a door for someone
Smile at someone
Say hello
Clean up after we've eaten in a restaurant
Leave a place better than we found it
Thank someone
Forgive others for their mistakes, even if they don't forgive us.

What would love do?
If we are in a situation where we are not sure what to do, a simple solution is to ask, What would Love do in this situation? What is the most loving action I can take at this moment?

Doing good things with unconditional love is not difficult, in fact we receive a loving feeling by doing this. It is a part of how we mature as Soul and become a happier person. Using Divine love connects us with the Divine where we get a better understanding of life. Doing one thing a day with unconditional love will help us become a wiser and happier Soul.

Wishing you love and good things in your life.

*Ed Parkinson

If you are looking for more good things too read, visit the Spiritual Writing page by clicking here.

Realisation

Thought for the week

In this picture, Realisation, I'm trying to show three different stages of realisation. The first is when we realise that there is something more to life than the physical world and all its problems, challenges and pain. Then we realise that we are Soul, that loving, happy and joyful part of us buried deep within ourselves. As Soul we are an individual part of the Divine. We then move on to realise what the Divine is and begin working with It as needed. While these are three significant realisations, we are realising new things all the time, it is part of living. We live, we learn and we realise.

The Story
The story starts in the bottom left of the picture with the couple on their knees, chained to the things around them. They are attached to their property, their status, technology, alcohol and lots of other stuff which is part of life in the physical world. However the girl is watching the other Soul in the light on the steps above, as he breaks through the veil into a brighter world.

The veil or curtain symbolises the the illusion which our physical life throws over us to prevent us from realising that we are really a beautiful, loving being, Soul. The illusion will cover us until we get to the point in our lives where we get tired of what the outer world has to offer. The realisation that there has to be more to life than out outer physical existence begins to dawn on us.

We then begin to work our way step by step into a higher consciousness. With each step we get closer to the light until we reach the point where we realise that we are truly more than our human body. We are more than our emotions, our memories, our mind and our intuition. We are Soul, a bright, beautiful, loving part of the Divine. At this point we break through the veil of illusion, that the physical world is the only reality. into a new realisation that we are a Divine being with the love of the Divine at our core.

A new world of wonder
A new world of wonder then opens up to us. We realise that we are Soul and not only that but everyone else around us is Soul too. From there we explore our worlds form this higher spiritual viewpoint that Soul realisation gives us. We also become aware of the Higher Power or the Divine and how we are part of Its plan. We discover divine love, how it sustains our worlds, even the physical worlds and the illusions we create within them.
The next significant realisation we grasp is what the Divine is. How it works, why it works and how we, a minute Soul within Its creation, can become a co-worker with the Divine.

Mel's Dream
This picture, Realisation, was inspired by a story Harold Klemp, the spiritual leader of Eckankar, told about a guy called Mel who had a dream. In the dream he was in a Middle Eastern city and met a bald headed spiritual master called Yabul Sacabi. Yabul gave him two large round etched bronze pieces of art and asked him to deliver them to someone in the city.. On the first etching was a man with his arms outstretched and detached from this world, which represented self realisation. The second piece showed a man standing quietly ready and willing to do as the Divine wished. This was God realisation.
When Mel arrived at the house with the delivery, he was invited in. On a table was a bronze sculpture of a man chained to confusing and seemingly unconnected events, and was desperate to be free from that which bound him. The man said to Mel referring to the sculpture, “There is more but I don't know how to find the next step.” When Mel gave him the two pieces of art, he was deeply touched. He had found the answers to his question.

How do we move into a higher realisation?
How do we move into a higher realisation? What is the secret to breaking through the illusion which our physical world surrounds us with? The simple answer is, Love. The Divine is Love. Our true selves, Soul, has its being in Love. If we can bring love into our physical worlds we will be bringing part of the Divine to those around us. As our love grows the realisation of who and what we truly are will begin to come into our being. With love we will begin to see ourselves and others as Soul, a beautiful, joyful and loving part of the Divine.

Wishing you love in your life.

*Ed Parkinson

If you'd like to explore some other articles to help in your realisation of who you are spiritually, visit the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

I still haven't found what I'm looking for

Thought for the week
An answer to this eternal question posed by the band U2

“I still haven't found what I'm looking for” is a statement many people who have searched for fulfilment in any area of life can agree with. We go seeking a goal which we hope will fulfil all our desires. It could take days, weeks, months or years until we get to the point where we achieve the goal but then we discover that it doesn't have what we were looking for. We still have an emptiness within. We then move on to our next goal.

If we are young in our lives we focus on something which we are sure will complete our dreams and make us happy. These goals could be:
Making a serious amount of money
Marrying the person of our dreams.
Buying a nice house
Getting a good job
Doing some charity work

If we have a lot of lives and experience we may recognise a pattern repeating itself. Here we go again searching for happiness in a new goal but we know in our hearts it's going to end up without us find what we are searching for. It's at this point where our thoughts begin to reflect the U2 chorus.
The rest of the lyrics seem to tell of a lot of experiences where he has climbed mountain and run through fields, spoken as an angel and held the hand of the devil. Here are the lyrics:

I still haven't found what I'm looking for

“I have climbed highest mountain,
I have run through the fields,
Only to be with you,
But

“I have kissed honey lips,
Felt the healing in her fingertips,
It burned like fire,
This burning desire.
I have spoke with the tongue of angels,
I have held the hand of a devil,
It was warm in the night,
I was cold as a stone,
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

“I believe in the kingdom come,
Then all the colours will bleed into one,
Bleed into one,
Well yes I'm still running.
You broke the bonds and you,
Loosed the chains,
Carried the cross,
Of my shame,
You know I believed it,
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for.”

The last verse seems to say he believes in “the kingdom come” or a life after death and the fact that Jesus “carried the cross of my shame” but even by the end of this worldwide hit he still says “I still haven't found what I'm looking for.”

A Suggestion
If I can offer a solution to this dilemma, it would be Love. What we are looking for is Love. Love, as in the energy from the Divine or Higher Power which warms our heart, brightens our worlds and brings joy to our lives. This Love is unconditional, as it is from the Divine.
This isn't a love which has conditions or strings attached. It's not the love we feel when we are sexually attracted to someone. It's not the love which says “I’ll love you if you do this for me.”
It is the love which accepts people, situations and things as they are. Without judgement, criticism or a desire to change them. It is a love which sees the Divine in all things.

How do find what we are searching for?
How do we find this Love?
One way is to contemplate on the word Love. Wonder about it. Sit quietly and ask yourself these questions:
What does Love mean?
How does Love appear in my lie?
Where do I receive Love form?
How do I give Love?
Is my Love conditional or unconditional?
Is there a better Love?

Let your thoughts ramble as you softly wonder about Love. Listen for inner sounds and watch for inner lights as these are how the Divine communicates with us.

If you'd like to hear the song, you can see it on YoutTube by pressing the play button below or on the official U2 website here.

 

I hope this helps you find what your looking for.

*Ed Parkinson

P.S. Have you heard any songs or lyrics which gave you spiritual insight or inspiration? Let's hear about them in the Comments below.

If you are looking for more spiritual insights, visit the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

How to Contemplate – a letter to a stressed friend

Thought for the week

A good friend of mine who we'll call Nora has had trouble keeping calm and finding time to contemplate or do any exercise to help her calm down. She realises she is getting stressed out and will often say "How do I get myself into this amount of stress? I can't handle it. How do I stop it?"

While I've tried to explain how to contemplate, do the HU song and suggest different approaches, it doesn't seem to sink in. I decided that I'd to write to her to explain what I think is happening and how she might change things. Here's the letter:

Dear Nora
You often say "I'm so stressed. How do I get myself into these positions? How come I get so hyper over the stuff in my life?"

I see these exclamations as a cry for help and while I feel I have something of value to offer you, I also feel helpless while you are in the stressed situation. At that moment you are so consumed by the stress and hassles that I cannot see a way through to you. It is not the right time to offer suggestions. It's like telling the captain of a boat in the middle of a storm that she should have checked the weather before she set sail.

The only time that seems right is when you are out of the storm or stressful situation and have some clarity of mind so you can see some hope on the horizon. Hopefully now is a time where you are somewhat less stressed and are in calmer waters. If not put this letter aside until you are a little calmer.

Your mind is running your life
Your mind is running your life, not you .This is a problem a lot of people have. They have all these things they have to do, projects they have to complete and ideas that they should be in a different position or a different place. They are not happy with where they are now. Why? Because there is a list in their mind of things to do. There's lots to be done.

The trouble is it all makes sense to us, so we have to get this stuff done. This is because we are looking at it from a mental point of view. We cannot see the higher view of life around us and how it all flows together. We have to take time out, away from the mind and its stresses so we can see a wider picture.

Contemplation
I've suggested contemplation to you before but you say you can only do it for a few minutes before you get agitated by all the stuff that needs to be done. Try to contemplate with a pen and notebook beside you, to jot down the thoughts that come to mind as you sit quietly. Try and continue sitting quietly for up to twenty minutes. That might seem like a long time, so start with five minutes and gradually build up the length of time you spend over several months.

How to Stay Focused
While you contemplate there are a few tricks you can use to stay focused. Sing the sacred word HU on your outgoing breath a few times initially. When your thoughts become agitated or you get edgy, sing HU again. If you have another word which you like, which brings a sense of peace to you, use it too. You can alternate between HU and other words. This will help your mind stay focused on your contemplation efforts.

Rise above your mental world
What happens when you contemplate is that you rise above your mental world into your intuitive level and if you keep at it you move into the loving, peaceful and happy core of your being, Soul. It's like getting a satellite view of your course before you set sail. You get insights into the weather, the tides, the rocks and how to use them to your best advantage. This satellite view doesn't happen immediately but over time the notes you jot down will become more insightful and useful as you go higher into your inner worlds. The objective is not to blank the mind but to observe it and its thoughts as you contemplate.

Sing HU
When you are going about your life and work and you feel under pressure or unbalanced, sing HU. Lots of music has a chorus with HU in it and most music can be hummed using HU. When I'm singing a song to myself, I often substitute the word “you” with HU. It makes it easier to get the benefits of this sacred word into our worlds despite the objections the mind puts up.

When you contemplate regularly the benefits include:
You calm the mind a little
You'll get some insights in the issues in your life
The insights help you deal more effectively with the stuff that stresses you.
When you contemplate regularly you connect with your happy loving self Soul and disconnect from the mind. The logic of the mind creates the stress because it is logical and makes sense to our mind. The viewpoint from Soul moves above the minds logic, into a more loving and compassionate place. From Souls' view we can see how life around us is interacting with us, our work and our friends.

You'll need to put aside the ten to twenty minutes a day to contemplate. It's not that long when you consider that we have about a thousand minutes a day of waking time. When the logic of the mind begins to object to this wasting of time, say to your self and your mind “I'm doing this so you, my mind, can have an easier time, be more intelligent and eliminate the stress these logical things you come up with can cause.”

I hope this helps. I'll touch base with you in a month to see how you are doing but if need to clarify anything let me know. I'll be happy to help.

*Ed Parkinson

That's the end of the letter but if you have ways of keeping calm in stressful situations or you have methods of avoiding stress, I'd love to hear them. They can be added to our collection of articles on living a happier life.

If you'd like to contemplate other insights into stress and life, visit the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

"Stuff happens" but why does it have to happen to me?

Thought for the week

Stuff happens but why does it happen to us? Why do we hit problems when things were going so well? Everything seems to be going fine, then we hit a bump in the road that sends us in a different direction. It then takes time to adjust to the new route or else we have to get ourselves out of the ditch we've fallen into. Why does this stuff happen to us?

While we think that life is under our control there are a number of things which affect our path through life and they are our karma, our destiny, our thoughts and our consciousness.

Our Karma
Our karma is the account of the good and bad deeds we've done during our many lives. As we go about living and learning about life, about other Souls and how to behave, we make a lot of mistakes and we do the odd good thing too. All this is taken note of. Like a sophisticated accounting system, our karma keeps account of the good and bad stuff we do and who we do it to. It all eventually comes back to be paid and balanced. During our lives the Life-force watches for opportunities where we can pay back a bit of karma and puts it in our path, creating a bump on our road through life.

Our Destiny
Before we were born we would have had a chat with our Guardian Angel, Spiritual Master or the overseer of our karma. During this conversation we may have been told that we had a number of issues to deal with and because of the situation we were going to be born into we would have the opportunity to deal with a number of them. Various turning points were laid out which would change the course of our life so we could deal with a particular challenge. This was the destiny of our new life. How we dealt with the turning points was going to be up to us when the time came.

These turning points could be a change in job, meeting a particular person, moving our home, committing to a relationship, an accident which affects our health or abilities and lots of other stuff which happens in life. Our destiny will bring us to various turning points in our lives. For some people this may be a slight bump but for others it's like falling into a ditch. What stuff happens to us depends on our karma and what we need to learn.

Our Thoughts
Our thoughts can limit or expand our possibilities. If you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you can't. If you think you can be happy, you'll find a way to be happy. If you think you can't be happy, you'll accept your unhappy situation and won't make an effort to change it. It comes down to the way we think or the thoughts we allow into our mind. It is very easy to allow negative thoughts into our mind and it takes discipline and awareness to spot them and eliminate them. It's a habit we have to develop. Catch the negative stuff and turn our thought to more positive stuff. The HU exercise below can help.

Our Consciousness
While you may agree with what has been said in this article it needs to become more than part of our awareness, it needs to be part of our consciousness. If we accept that stuff happens on a regular basis and particularly when we don't want it to happen, then we are preparing ourselves for the event. Life keeps changing and stuff happens. Life is unpredictable, so lets stop trying to predict it with our assumptions of how we expect things to turn out. If we expect the unexpected to happen and are not to attached to our plans and expectations, then we are beginning to get this concept into our consciousness.

Become more balanced
One of the simplest ways of balancing ourselves when stuff happens is to sing the sacred word HU. It will help us become more balanced and lift our consciousness to a higher level where we can see a bigger picture. By singing HU we are connecting with our happy, loving selves, Soul.
The next time stuff happens, sing HU (pronounced like “hue”) on your outgoing breath. If you are in a public place you can do it silently. Sing it for a few minutes. If you can take time to be alone, sit down relax, take a few deep breaths and then sign HU for up to twenty minutes. If you can do this once a day you'll find yourself becoming more balanced and less upset when stuff happens.

Wishing you love, peace and nice stuff in your life.

*Ed Parkinson

 

You'll find more ideas on dealing with life when stuff happens on the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

Keeping love in our life

Thought for the week

Love is in the air, especially with St Valentine's Day coming up in a few days. The core reason we are in life is to learn to love but it is something we have to want deeply in order to get it. Life is constantly trying to move our focus away from love to our physical world where we have to keep our body fed, safe and in good health.

There lies the challenge. How do we deal with all that is going on in our physical lives and learn love in a true, honest and spiritual way?

An Overview
Lets look at our situation from an overview.
We are a Soul, living our life in the best way we can and dealing with the problems, issues and stuff that is going on in our lives.
We are constantly seeking happiness, love and understanding in our lives.
We are one individual among billions of others on this planet.
Most of the other billions of individual Souls are in the same situations as we are.
There is obviously some Divine power keeping all this going.

A Playground for Young Souls
So the Divine has created this playground for us young Souls so we can learn about who we are, what the purpose of our lives is and how to love. Being aware that we are more than our human self is the first step. Learning to love is the real key. Its a real challenge to be able to love constantly. After all we have a lot of not so nice stuff to deal with in life but there is a way.
It's all down to being aware that at the core of our being is a sweet, happy and loving Soul. We also have to accept that the stuff in our lives, especially the dirty stuff we have to deal with is there to teach us how to live with love. Seems like a contradiction, how can difficulties teach us love?
The dirty stuff in our lives comes from the dirty stuff we gave to others in previous lives. Yep, we have to recognise that we have lived many lives before this one. Those lives are the source of the circumstances of our lives today. What we did in previous lives has its results in this life.

Keeping love in our life
Let's get back to the point of this discussion. Keeping love in our life. If we accept the fact that the difficulties in our lives are as a result of our own actions in the past then all we have to do is correct them.
When we did the nasty things in previous lives we were working from a selfish point of view. We wanted something so we took, stole, destroyed it or killed it. There was no love there except for ourselves.
When we did the nice things in past lives there was a benefit to others. There was some love there. As we went through our many lives doing bad things and nice things we eventually get to the point where we realise that doing the nice things is a lot nicer than doing the bad things. Love begins to grow within us as our experiences begin to educate us and we discover that it is nice to be nice.

Life has a balancing system so that we get what we give. It can take lifetimes to balance out but eventually it does. This is the reason we have difficulties in our lives. It's the bad things we did in other lives coming back to be balanced. We now have to suffer a similar hurt, damage or loss so we can realise how the other Soul felt when we did it to them.
If we can view our difficulties as ways of learning about life and love, it can make it easier to get through them. All of us Souls here in the physical world are learning about love

A Simple Contemplative Exercise
So that's the background information. What do we do, what actions can we take to bring love into our lives?
To get love we must give love. The more we give the more we get. Being aware that we are a loving Soul deep in our core, as are all the other Souls around us, will help us be a little more patient with ourselves and others. Here's a simple contemplative exercise we can use:
Take some time to be alone. Sing the sacred word HU a number of times on your outgoing breath. Think of someone or something you love. Be aware of the feelings your love generates. Now ask any of these questions, What is love? How does love work? How can I love more?
Don't expect the answer to come immediately. Just wonder about these questions. If your mind gets distracted with other thoughts, begin singing HU again and then wonder about the questions again.

After your contemplation, keep in mind or write down any insights you get. When doing things try and do with love. Do them because you love the person you are doing them for, or you love to it right or you just love doing it. The more love we give the more love we get.

Wishing you love in life always.

*Ed Parkinson

You'll find more insights on love on the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

Our Consciousness is changing every day

You will be a changed person after you read this article.That's a pretty bold statement but it's true. The insights or knowledge you discover while reading this article will change the way you look at things in life. The changes may be subtle but if you discover some new knowledge or insights your consciousness will be changed.

When we learn something we change. We use this new information to adjust our view on life. What we learn goes into our consciousness and becomes part of our being. When we go through a problem we have to learn something or deal with it. In dealing with it we change or adjust ourselves. When the situation comes up again we are better equipped to deal with it. Our consciousness has changed.

Part of our consciousness
Look at this picture on the right, what do you see? It's a landscape with some clouds. To know something is to be aware of it but to incorporate it into our lives is making it part of our consciousness. It's like adding a magnifying glass to a picture we are looking at. We can now see it more clearly. We are aware of the details which were hidden from us up until now.

This next picture moves us closer so we can see more detail. We are learning something more about the picture. We can now see there is some kind of structure in the sky and a connection of some sort from it to the tower shape in the bottom right of the picture. The next time we see the small picture above we'll be aware that there is more happening in the picture and it's not just a simple landscape. We have changed the way we view the picture.

Different types of consciousness
We have several different types of consciousness operating within us.
Our physical consciousness tells us about our immediate environment, the weather, temperature, the light, the surfaces we are standing or walking on, the air quality, the safety of the area and any other info about our surroundings.
Our emotional consciousness reacts to things that happen around us, particularly with other people. Some of us have more control over our emotions than others but they do effect how we react to things in life.
Our social consciousness tells us how we behave in society and with people. What to say, how to approach people, how we interact, what protocol we use in different situations and so on.
Our mental consciousness usually dictates how we go about things in life. It's based on logic, what we've learned before and how we work things out in our heads.
Our spiritual consciousness determines how we view things on a deeper level, what is behind the events, people and things in our lives. This is usually informed by our spiritual path, religion or our intuition.

As we go about our lives we are developing and changing our consciousness on all the above levels. Let's go back to the picture to explain this a bit more. The title of the picture is Meeting Place. It is an example of how we use our imagination to go to a place within ourselves to meet others so we can discuss a topic or issue in our lives and hopefully gain some insights.
As you read the last sentence your emotional consciousness may have warmed to the idea of going to somewhere nice within yourself. Your social consciousness may have begun wondering how to invite people there and what questions to ask. Your mental consciousness may have said, this is just imagination, there is no real value in this stuff. Your spiritual consciousness may have felt at home with this idea and recognised similar techniques you have used in the past.
Your physical consciousness wouldn't have been affected by this but all the others may well have been. It all depends on our awareness of these different levels with us.

Before you started reading this article you were probably unaware of some of the points raised here. If you incorporate the points into how you look at life you will change your consciousness. So in the five to ten minutes it took you to read this article your consciousness changed a little. How much does it change every day? As you interact with all the things life presents to you every day, you will change.

You are a different person to who you were as a four year old child and the changes keep happening every day we live. We live and we learn. If we can learn to live with more love in our lives and in our consciousness we will be living a good life.

Wishing you love in your life and your consciousness.

*Ed Parkinson

P.S. Have you had a notable change in consciousness. We'd love to hear your story. Click here to tell us your story.

To change your consciousness with some more insights visit the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.
If you'd like to read more about the picture, Meeting Place, click here.

Your Divine Message

Thought for the week

Have you ever received a message from God? How would a message arrive from God? Is it delivered by an angel? Does it arrive in a blinding flash of light or a vision? Does it come from a cleric, a priest, a rabbi or a religious person? Is it more subtle like a gentle inner nudge to do something? 

Where are the messages that come to our mind coming from? Most of them come via our experiences, what we've learned in the past, how we approached something and how it worked out. We get this info from our memories. Our emotions contribute their bit too as our memories stir up the same feeling we felt in a previous situation. These are all automatic reactions coming from our mind. The thoughts are logical and mental solutions to whatever we are facing.
Is there room for a message from a different part of ourselves? How do we allow other insights come to us? How do we override the automatic response to see if there is a different solution available?

God will save me
There was a man who prayed every day and had regular conversations with God. One winter it rained very heavily and the area around his house began to flood. His neighbour came by in his tractor and trailer and offered to bring him and his things to higher ground and safety. He replied, “I'll be fine, God will save me”. The flooding continued and he had to move up to the second floor of his house. Then a rescue boat came by to help the last of the people stranded in their houses. Again he said "I'll be fine, God will save me". As the waters continued to rise he then had to climb on to the roof of his house to avoid being swept away in the flood. A helicopter spotted him and dropped a ladder to help him come aboard. He refused the help saying that “God will save me”. Later that night the water rose again and the man was swept away and drowned. He then arrived in heaven and with a disappointed tone asked God “Why didn't you save me?” God replied " I sent a tractor and trailer, then a boat and then a helicopter, why didn't you avail of them?"

All of life is divine
To see Gods messages we need to recognise that all of life is divine. Our life is maintained by the Higher Power. We have to take time to listen. Saying prayers and asking for things is fine but we also have to listen for the answers the Divine gives us. As all of life is of the Divine, It will use all of life to communicate with us. Things like coincidences, a message or event repeated until we notice it, an intuitive feeling we get, a few words which seem significant to us from a conversation or the media. If we can accept them as guidance we can learn a lot.

Three nudges
Sometimes when I'm driving Ill notice a car coming out a bit too far from a side road. Shortly after that another car will do the same. Now that this has happened twice I'll take note that this is a warning that there may be a car up ahead somewhere which will pull out onto the road ahead of me. I usually slow down so I will be able to react when required. Sometimes the car does pull out and sometimes I don't see anything but that can because I've slowed down I've avoided the incident. Is this a message from God? I like to think so. It has helped me avoid a possible car accident.

See the message
Living in the moment can help us see the messages from the Divine. We look at life as it is now, not as we want it to be, not with the pains of yesterday but as it is now. Taking time to contemplate on on concepts like “All life is Divine”, “All people are Soul, all are equal as Soul” and “How does the Divine communicate with me?”.If you can, take five to fifteen minute just to wonder about these concepts. Spending time each day contemplating on different aspects of life will open our awareness to the Divine and how it interacts with us and sends messages to us.

Watch for a message from the Divine. It can help in little and big ways. We just need to look at life with love, gratitude and the awareness that the Divine loves us.

*Ed Parkinson

P.S. Have you had a message from the Divine or Life? Has something happened to you which helped you in life? Let us know about your experiences. Click “Comments” below and tell us your story.

You'll another spiritual message on the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

Maeve's Story - how love brightened & unchained her life

Thought for the week
This week you have two ways of accessing the Thought for the Week, by video or by text. Below is the video and below that is the text or the voice over from the the video. The video is 10 minutes long and depending on how fast you read, the text will take about 5 minutes. I hope you enjoy Maeve's story.



Maeve's Story
Maeve awoke one day with a deep feeling of frustration. She felt hemmed in and chained down. She felt she had no freedom to do as she wished or desired. The circumstances in her life left her with very few choices. She had a job she didn't like but had to keep it to get some money. She had been in a relationship which was going nowhere and was now over. Her family were a drain on her time, patience and resources. She felt chained to what she considered a crappy life. Her life was empty and without purpose.

Steps of Experience
She looked at the steps which had brought her to this situation. She couldn't see how she would have made any different choices. The family she was born into dictated where she went to school and how she would be educated. From school she developed her friends and her education decided what kind of career she would enter. Most decisions in her life were logical steps from the previous position she had been in.

Paths to God
Her thoughts then rambled on to where she had received her ideas about life. She looked at her childhood religion and some of the paths she had studied and joined over the years. They all helped bring her to a certain point in her understanding of life but they didn't give her the full story.

There came a time when she had reached the pinnacle of all the knowledge she could find. She knew all there was to know from books and teachings but she still wasn't content. She still had an emptiness deep within her. No matter where she went in the world this mysterious un-quenched desire was still there. There was no getting rid of it. Even after days of being drunk or on drugs, the emptiness was still within her.

Soul’s Human Life
As she contemplated on her life she looked at her whole physical existence. She was born, developed as a child, became a teenager, then an adult and would mature in years until she grew old and died. What was this all about? What was the purpose of life? Were we born so we could grow old and die?

We are not Alone
In frustration she cried out “Oh God, is there no peace to be had in this world? What is it all about? Please show me how to make sense of this life. Please show me how to find peace.” She collapsed sobbing and lost in her own disappointment.

Souls' Tree 
She looked at some of the main events in her life. She had been through some tough times. There wasn't much that came easy. It seemed like she was struggling in the dark, trying to find her way around rocks and blockages.

Then she heard a voice or it could have been a thought, “Have you forgotten the flowers that bloomed from your lessons in life?”
Her thoughts turned to the love and benefits she had gained from what she had learned in life. When she solved a problem she saw the benefits not long afterwards.
Her mother’s illness helped bring them closer together. Her possessive boyfriend had taught her about standing up for herself and helped develop her personal strength. For each struggle she went through there was skill learned like a flower blooming.

But she still felt chained to her life and cried, "Please tell me why I'm here."
"Have you not learned to love yet?"
Of course I have. I love my family and my friends.
"Is that not because you are expected to do that by society? Do you really love them?"
She had to think about that for a while. Some she said she loved but could just about put up with them. Some she did really care for and did feel a deep love for them.

Now that she had received a response from her plea for help she began to ask more questions and listen for answers from this voice or intuition. She began to think of this guidance as her inner guide. She put her guide to the test a number of times so she could verify that what she was being told was true. As time went by she began to trust her guide more and more.

Mountain Stream
She began to take this inner communication seriously, after all she was receiving positive instructions on how to do things in her life. To maintain this channel of communication she began contemplating on a regular basis. Each day she would spend time doing what she called her spiritual exercises.
On a few occasions she felt like she was part of a mountain stream with the water flowing over her and through her. She felt like she was part of the water, part of the stream. It was a beautiful experience.

Soul's Connection
During her contemplations she discovered that there are several parts within her self. Her emotions, her memories, her mind, her intuition and her true self, Soul. For most of her life her mind was the main driver. Its logical thinking, its opinions and its habits all drove the decisions she made. However the guidance she was receiving came through her intuition. These messages were coming from her true self Soul and her inner guide.

Lighthouse
When she returns to her physical world, she still has the storms of life to go through. She has to face life, with its problems, challenges and difficulties, and get through them. Life is still difficult.
With her regular Spiritual exercises, her inner guide and her intuition she has been able to hear the inner guiding sounds and see the light. The guidance she receives is like a lighthouse in the stormy seas of life.

Glimpse of God
With her connection to Soul more open she is able to live in the moment, in the now, more often. She is been able to gain some deep insights. With the help of her inner guide she has been able to venture to places she hadn’t even dreamed of before, she has even been able to catch a glimpse of God.

Friendship
Maeve has discovered that life is all about love. The Divine is love. We are a creation of the Divine, so we must be love too. And the way to freedom is through love and friendship. A love which doesn't impose rules or restrictions. A love that accepts each Soul as they are, with the right to be as they are.

When she looks at things with the awareness that the Divine has created life for us, her attitude changes.
Maeve has broken the chains by changing her attitude to one of love.
She no longer sees her job as a dead end but a place to be of service to her company and their customers. She can see the lessons her ex boyfriend taught her and how her family situation continues to build her strength, patience and grace.

As her awareness of life deepens with her regular Spiritual exercises she gains a little more freedom every day. She is happier and more content with life.

Her life may be difficult, but she does have love and a growing awareness of how that love helps her unlock her chains and release the secrets of life.

Maeve is now a happier Soul with the light of love unchaining her from the darkness, opening her heart and brightening her life,

*Ed Parkinson

You'll find more stories about life and love on the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

Let's forgive, find the lesson and have fun

Thought for the week
“To err is human, to forgive, divine.” wrote the English poet Alexander Pope. We humans certainly make mistakes but can we find that divine spark within us to forgive?

Holding on to anger or resentment is like keeping a bit of poison so that we can throw it at the person the next time we meet. The trouble is the poison is in us and it leaks and seeps into us poisoning our system. The anger we hold hurts us more than the person we are angry with. We hold the anger and it affects our emotions whenever we think of the person or situation. The anger burns us. The other person may be completely unaware of our issue with them. Our anger doesn't affect them but it does hurt us.

Compassion
One of the ways which can help us forgive is to try and see the situation from the other person's point of view. If we are compassionate and understanding of their position we may be able to see why they did what they did. We don't have to agree with it but we can understand it.

 

There has to be a reason the other person hurt us. They obviously were unaware of our position and how their actions would effect us. Some may have known the effects their actions would have and did them anyway.

 

When someone consciously hurts another it is because they see the hurt as a regular part of life. They probably suffer similar hurts on a regular basis. They carry out these actions as they are desensitised to the damage they are doing. These people deserve our compassion if they are suffering similar damage to themselves on a regular basis or if they see it as a normal part of their lives. If we are dealing with someone like this, knowing they have a tough life can make it easier to forgive them.

The Victim
Being the victim of a wrong requires acknowledging the facts, learning from them and then moving on in our lives. Holding on to the the idea that we are a victim makes us a prisoner of the wrong. Replaying the situation or event keeps our attention on it. Every time we do this we go through the same painful emotions again and we hurt ourselves.

 

We can acknowledge the event as a lesson, mistake or a misjudgement but leave it at that. Let's do what we can to avoid it happening again. Let's forgive and move on.

 

Life is a river of events, people, lessons, fun and adventure. Let's not get stuck in some mucky waters. Let's venture out into some fresh waters and experience the adventures and the love life has to offer.

 

Let's forgive, find the lesson and have fun in life again.

*Ed Parkinson

 

If you need more spiritual insights to help you forgive, have a look at the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

Listen to Life

Thought for the week
When we listen to Life it can bring a lot of benefits to us. We can learn what direction we take regarding a decision we have to make. We can discover insights into ourselves, our relationships and our daily life.

Listen to the challenges
For many of us life is a challenge. Each day is a test with difficulties to overcome and get through. These difficulties are teaching us something. If we resist them, they become more challenging, if we deal with them and learn from them we succeed in that area of our lives. If we look ahead to a point in the future where we have dealt with a difficulty, what will we have achieved? What benefit or skill will we receive? Looking to the that point ahead can help us see what we need to learn and thereby help us achieve it.

Listen to our Intuition
The Life-force or the Holy Spirit and our true selves, Soul, uses our intuition to communicate with us. They suggest things when we have to make a decision. The “first thing that comes to mind” when we are faced with a decision is usually a suggestion from Soul. Our mind often takes that idea, looks at it logically and adjusts or changes it based on its reasoning. We thereby loose that insight from Soul.
The trick we have to learn is to grab that “first thing that comes to mind” and work with it. Grab it and don't change it, even if it doesn't make logical sense. Soul has a higher view of our complete life, much higher than our mind. Its intuitions are based on what is best for our complete being. Listening to its suggestions can bring major positive changes to our whole being. Listening to our intuition can lead to surprisingly positive results.

Coincidences
Coincidences happen all the time but why do they happen? Are they trying to tell us something? Is Life organising things for us?
In the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises, Gordon, the police chief, tells Blake his new detective that, as a detective, "You're not allowed to believe in coincidences any more". We need to be aware of them and how they help us.
For example, recently a client I work with was looking for an easy way to edit photos. They needed to reduce the size of photos so they could put them on their website. I didn't have an answer for her then but the next day I noticed a comment online where a program was mentioned. I checked it out and it suited the client perfectly. It was a nice coincidence which helped out this client.

There are a number of coincidences which happen at awkward times. What is Life trying to do then? When we keep in mind that life is a school or university where we are learning all the time then these awkward coincidences begin to make sense. Just when we thought we had passed the maths test we are given an English test. Life can be like that at times but if we look and listen to what we are learning we will see some benefits. A good way of listening to coincidences is to ask, Why is this happening FOR me?

Listen to people
Conversations are a great way of learning about things and people. The trick is to be able to listen to the person and what they have to say, rather than trying to get our opinion or knowledge across to them. Listening to people is a way of loving people. We are putting our attention on them, considering their opinions and learning from them.
Asking open questions which start with ‘how’, ‘what’, ‘who’, ‘where’ or ‘why’ during a conversation is a good way of maintaining the flow and learning new information. If we are observant we can often pick up some info we have been looking for or learn something we may need soon.

Listen to life, learn and love
Life can be challenging but then we are here to learn. Listening and learning from our challenges, the coincidences we notice and the people we meet will help us grow in knowledge and wisdom. When we learn to listen with a good heart to others and to life as it leads us in a direction we will begin to see the benefits. Developing our intuition or our spiritual hearing can teach us a lot.

Listen to life, learn and love.
*Ed Parkinson

Listen to some more spiritual insights on the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

Spiritual Resolutions for the New Year

Thought for the week

What are you thinking of doing, giving up, starting or changing for the New Year? What is your goal? What would you like to do or achieve over the next twelve months? If you'd like to make some spiritual progress over the next year here are some suggestions:

Be happy, with what we’ve got. Look around, it may not be perfect but it's as good as it gets at this moment. If we want to change things, is there one small thing we can do now to start that change?

Live in this moment. Be aware of where we are, how we feel and what we are doing, right here, right now.

Be grateful for the blessings in life such as friends, family, home, city, country, career, talents, abilities, skills, our spiritual insights, etc., etc.

Be kind to others and ourselves by doing little acts of kindness whenever the opportunities arise.

Recognise our faults and the areas which need work. We're not perfect and we have a lot to learn. The Souls around us are learning too so we need to be patient with them. Those Souls are there to teach us too, so we need to be aware of what lessons we can learn from them.

Learn to listen with a good heart to others and to life as it leads us in a direction which will benefit us. If we develop our intuition or our spiritual hearing we can learn a lot.

Take care of our body. It needs care and attention to the food and drink we give it, how we use it and how we keep it working with regular exercise. Keeping our body in good condition helps to make our time here more comfortable.

Regular Spiritual exercises help us develop our inner spiritual life, like physical exercises help us develop our outer body. Spending up to twenty a day can bring enlightenment and peace to our daily life.

Be the best we can be. Whatever we do, whether it is cooking a meal, writing a letter, working in a shop , factory or office, do it as well as we can. Don't criticise yourself if you make a mistake. Learn from it and do it better the next time.

Forgive others and ourselves to release the anger or resentment we hold. Develop a better relationship with someone who can teach us something. Forgive ourselves for the mistakes we've made.

See the Divine in all life. We are of the Higher Power, we are Divine but it can take a lot of work to see that within ourselves and others. It is worth the effort to explore our spiritual side as we then begin to see the purpose of life.

Love those around us and ourselves a little more. Can we do something a little better to help someone else? Do it with love without expecting any reward just because we love them.

Wishing you a new year of love.

*Ed Parkinson

If you'd like some more ideas for spiritual resolutions visit the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.