Unity and Dreams

Blessings for 2019!

I welcome being able to draw a line under the past year, despite bringing a deeper awareness and wondering, it did not come without struggle, many of which have been internal and unyielding. I had started last year with the motivation to change what wasn’t working in my life, like so many others, I imagine. I was left anxious, depressed and exhausted and no further along with the goals I had set. However, I was forced to question the purpose of all this struggle and in turn, began to realise, with some certainty, that the material existence I had associated with living, was an illusion. I began to look with more meaning at the world around me, learnt to begin quieting my mind and observing what was going on inside me, without assumption. I started to experience a child-like enthusiasm to explore this other reality, I began this blog. My perception of the world around me has changed. Although I still find aspects of living tricky at times, I cannot escape a sense, deep inside, that I belong, that I am on the path I need to be on and in the fullness of time, I will understand what life is trying to teach me.

This New Year reminded me of childhood, opening a new exercise book at school, personally vowing to take pride in presentation and to show growth but with such high expectations comes anxiety, which can both help and hinder the progress that unfolds. Whether a fresh page or a new beginning, great importance is put on the first mark we make, creating unnecessary pressure, when perhaps it should begin with a pause, time to check in with ourselves and acknowledge what has been and consider the flow of energy. Wishful thinking for a miracle to come along and save me from myself, expecting, waiting and striving for a perceived goal, based on a judgement of where and who I should be, has not served me well. Instead, I intend to be alert to the sensations and synchronicities around me, to put trust in the flow of life and try to attune to its wisdom. I may not be able to predict the outcomes, but I will put value in the journey instead.

Whilst the changing of one year into the next, logically, may have no more significance than any other dawning day. Nonetheless, I suggest that when on mass people direct their attention towards a specific aim, they interact with the flow of energy through that intention, creating possibility. In that way, I wonder if the emphasis of letting go of the old and throwing energy into hopes and dreams, magnifies the power of such manifestations to come into being. I suggest that in the same way the power to create change is less to do with fighting the systems and more to do with a flow of energy and how we interact with it.

I felt curious at the start of this year to connect with the energy I could feel around me, I vaguely pondering what the coming year could bring globally, as humanity seems to be on the cusp of deciding it’s future. Surprisingly when I stilled my mind the words ‘year for the dreamers’, came in. It was so surprising, multiple thoughts sprang to mind and disturbed the stillness. I considered whether this could indicate a revolutionary invention and I think of green energy or whether this would be a new understanding, it felt creative, hopeful and even exciting. These feelings were accompanied by a sense that the principle of unity would be of reoccurring importance. With widening divisions, both in the UK but seemingly an issue common to many places around the world. Greater harmony is needed on every level. For me, many of the issues we face are symptoms of the separation we have from the source energy within us, the energy that also flows though all things, connecting everything to everything else. We have lost our sense of oneness.

2018 was a year that seemed to highlight the extent to which we are losing touch with ourselves, each other and our environment. I am reminded of Sir David Attenborough’s address at the UN Climate Change Summit and his frank and passionate description of the detrimental consequence and crisis caused by human disregard for the planet. The extinction of species and ecosystems is devastating to me, images of oceans full of plastic, I could go on. These images initially impact on people’s consciousness, I hear conversations where people express their genuine concern but many then detach from the issues because they feel powerless to make any visible difference and have to let go of the emotion it causes. A sentiment of ‘what’s the point?’ grows.

The human race seems to be on route to self-destruct. The media, political powers and large corporations present a smoke scene of fear and confusion, burying any clarity or truth. There seems a real lack of will to seek solutions, let alone implement action. Too often, corruption and self-interest are the main ingredients that maintaining this crumpling status quo, dominating over the voices calling for compassion, meaningful change and harmonious, cohesive living. I watch parliamentary debates and observe little communion aimed at solutions, the players are lost to a sickness of power and the ego. Consequentially, there seems to be growing unrest, increased oppression and inequality, more conflict, persecution, aggression, violence, destruction, displacement, poverty and desperation. I have spoken about the attributes of fear in a previous blog, how it increases divisions and fuels a sense of crisis. People are looking for salvation and being manipulated in multiple directions by self-serving forces. Unity is needed to redress the balance.

I happened to watch a film from my childhood on television, “The Neverending Story”, I don’t know if anyone else has seen this film? As an adult I was astonished at the wisdom in a film aimed at children. Yet we see many insightful creations, aimed at inspiring the imaginations of minds, still open enough to understand these messages at a deeper level. I shall not fill you in on the whole story, but I will refer to a scene near the end, when the hero character, a warrior called Atreyu, meets G’mork, an enemy sent to stop him from saving Fantasia. Fantasia is a world made up by the hopes and dreams of mankind but is about to be completely destroyed by a force called the Nothing, made up of human despair. Atreyu asks G’mork why he is serving the Nothing. He replies “because people who have no hopes are easy to control. And whoever has control has power”.

Randomly, I found this film reflected my thoughts on what happens when we stop seeing the point, but I was reminded of ‘year for the dreamers’. I began to realise that this was the way the world would change, the way humans would evolve, through imagination, through believing that all things can be possible. To dare to dream. I feel there is an aspect of ourselves that becomes truly inspired when we use our imaginations without thought of expectation but with a heart for adventure.

So many people are sick of feeling they are nothing. But strangely it is when we start to detach from our ego, that we begin to notice what else is there. I think this is a process I began last year but not because I woke up one day and made a decision to try and increase my awareness, in the pursuit of a more meaningful life. I feel like circumstances beyond my control, showed me just how fragile and unhelpful my ego was, and the more I fought to hold on to it, the more it created more problems and a greater sense of isolation. Feeling like you are nothing, when you can clearly see you are something, perhaps, sets the conditions to be able to ask the unanswerable – What am I?

Eastern philosophies consider how suffering can bring on enlightenment and perhaps circumstances are such, to enable a mass increase in consciousness. I believe there is energy in this direction, I think its effects can be observed but I contemplate to what extent we need to have openness to be able to be influenced by it. Eckhart Tolle in ‘The Power of Now’ suggests that, “whoever or whatever enters that field of consciousness will be affected by it, sometimes visibly and immediately, sometimes at deeper levels with visible changes appearing at a later time”. This seems to indicate that as one, an increase in consciousness, will further increase the overall consciousness, as these are not separate things. We are only separate because of our ego. We are all becoming more conscious in different ways, but we are not necessarily aware of it. This is perhaps the direction of human evolution, away from the delusions of the ego towards the reality of consciousness.

Unity is about people coming together but it goes far deeper than that. It is about recognising the power in the energy that flows through all of us, that unites all of us and connects us to all other things. By becoming more conscious of this divine force and appreciating its many forms, we create the conditions for limitless possibilities to manifest. We create a process rooted in love.

The power is within us and around us, we just need to be open to observing its affects. The energy we put out acts like raindrops, which when together with others, have the power to become rivers, feeding ecosystems and promoting life. Alternatively, raindrops can form to be destructive, maybe slowly eroding like waves or with sudden force causing floods. We can see the effect an angry person can have upon others around them. In contrast, an event or action that reminds us of the beauty of human kindness, feels like it hits our very soul and encourages us to send out love. Being enlightened enough to start breaking some of our negative thought patterns and rejecting our egos self-serving personality, is part of shift which can take humanity forward.

There is a sense of timeless magic within our imagination, that links with ideas of hopes, dreams and inspiration. Imagination is, perhaps, a beautiful state of openness, where all possibilities are plausible. I do not know if when we imagine we create or whether we are influenced by a divine energy. I like to think it is a union of the two, which is why imagination is infused with mystery and intrigue, but we must never disregard its power to transform, from what may appear as a thought into something we can sense as considerably more real.

I shall end this blog on a quote by Nikola Tesla:

“My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists.”