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THE WAY “living the real life” OUTLINE WITH BENEFITS
The above is the first sentence from a poem by Max Ehrmann entitled Desiderata. This was written in the last century between the 1st and 2nd world wars. Desiderata translates from Latin as “things to be desired.” This course is designed to help you focus on a desire to “make your life matter.” Together you and I are intent on exploring how this is made possible. I am merely a guide and I hope a humble guide. You are the one that will make your life matter, not I. I encourage you to do so because I believe it is the best way to find meaning and contentment throughout your life. It is the way to abundance and prosperity. It is the way toward healing the absence of love in many lives. Each month I take a section from Max Ehrmann`s poem and develop it as a lesson in learning to live in the 21st Century. This is a practical lesson with tips and techniques that you apply in order to create a life that matters. I will be encouraging you all the way. The most difficult aspect of The Way of Desiderata is that you make it more conscious. In doing so you will be subject to change. None of us likes change but it will happen. It is better to instigate it now rather than spend all your energies avoiding the inevitable. guiding you to knowing who you truly are.
Let us begin with the beautiful poem we are intent on studing.
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
And whether or not it is clear to you,
Lawyer, businessman, poet, dramatist SHORT HISTORY OF DESIDERATA
Max Ehrmann wrote the poem in 1927. This poem represents a philosophy that he developed throughout his life. He wrote in his diary in 1921 “I should like, if I could, to leave a humble gift – a bit of prose that had caught up some noble moods,” He sent out Christmas cards including the text of Desiderata in 1933. When Adlai Stevenson died in 1965, a guest in his home found a copy of Desiderata near his bedside and discovered that Stevenson too had planned to use it in his Christmas cards. . This is a poem rife with applicability in today’s world. I remember it from my own childhood. My twin brother has a copy prominent above his workstation. I recall it from my time in the sixties. This poem found a foothold with those who embraced the philosophy of love and peace. It seems to me that we need to remind ourselves of it perennial truths. “Be Cheerful” or”Be Careful” There is some dispute regarding this phrase near the end of the poem. One of the publishers states that Ehrmann himself changed the wording. Another story is that an errant publisher accidentally changed it from “cheerful” to “careful.” I will during the development of this course look at each option.
If you are prepared to “make your life matter” you begin a journey which throughout the ages has been referred to as the “hero’s journey.” It is a journey of discovery and the only journey really worth taking. This journey has been taken by everyone who ever made their having lived on earth matter in a way that improved the lot of human kind. They have left clear signposts along the way. These are signposts that I will introduce you to along the path toward a fulfilled and happy life. If it were so easy we would all be taking this journey. There are advantages and disadvantages to embarking on such a journey. At the outset let me quickly list some of these. I will then give you more detailed explanations in relation to each advantage and disadvantage. Here are only some of the advantages that you will experience when you enter “The Way of Desiderata.” ADVANTAGES 1. YOU will be more focused
Now let me list some of the disadvantages 1. YOU will need to be disciplined. Let me outline these disadvantages in more detail in order that you can make a more informed choice.
Learning to become more focused in your actions will allow you to manage more effectively the increasing pace of change. This increasing pace of change will be a major characteristic of the 21st Century. This increased pace of change will have adverse consequence on your physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. More and more demands will diffuse your energies and put pressure on your time. How you manage your energy and your time requires that you become more focused. The future demands of society will make your thinking more diffuse. You will be more like a light bulb than a laser. You are likely to be more subject to burnout. Learn now how to focus on what is really important in your life. Learn to ask the more difficult questions in relation to what is important to you. These are questions that transcend culture. These are questions related to your humanity. These are the questions that this course helps you to answer. These questions have been asked throughout time. These questions take you on a quest. This is the only real quest worth following. It is the quest of seeking for and expressing your full potential. This quest means that you cannot allow your energies to be displaced in activities that do not keep you engaged with the purpose of your life. You are distracted each moment of the day. You are deprived of your birthright. You are entitled to have all you can imagine. Your present economic system is not designed to give you contentment. It promises much but delivers little. It is certainly not concerned if you lead a life that matters. It is only interested in your leading a life that consumes. This is the meaning for most people’s lives in the Western world today. This does not imply that you are to lead a life of abstinence and poverty. This course will show you how to live your life way beyond the limited world view that presently exists within our society. You are born for so much more and have settled for so much less. This is not your fault. You have been educated to believe that this is it. You have been promised that the larger house, faster car, more of this and more of that, is the answer to human happiness. This is why focus is needed. It is like a magnetic force. If you choose to make your life matter you are going to have to be more discriminating in the choices you make. These are choices in relation to how you will act. guiding you to knowing who you truly are.
2. YOU WILL LEARN
TO LOVE YOURSELF. Many people I meet do not like themselves very much. In fact, there are many who think that they are unlovely and unlovable. This is probably the most endemic problem that confronts human kind now and in the future. I think that more lives have been destroyed by lack of love than all the wars that have ever been fought in the history of human kind. When you choose to “make your life matter” you become a hero. This is a hero not only to you but also to all those souls, who ever felt unloved, uncared for and not cherished. Continue this course and you make the commitment to cherish yourself. This is not the selfish act that so many people think it is. Thinking so is a mere indication of how little self-appreciation you allow in your lives. One of the greatest fears expressed when I discuss this matter is you think you will become bigheaded. Most of you express the concern that self-love equates to self-indulgence. Self-love is quite the opposite. Self-love is heart centred. In this 21st Century the heart will need a lot of nourishing. It is up to each one of you who wishes to make a difference to understand your role in effecting this change. Self-centeredness is a clear sign of a lack of healthy self-regard and love. It appears in all sorts of disguises and it is important that you learn to recognise it in yourself before you can see it in others. Self-love is quiet and it is kind. It is empowering and it is strong. It is a cloak that you can learn to wear. It will protect you in times when you feel alone. You can use it to cloak others (with their permission) when they too are feeling between a rock and a hard place. Self-love is not sentimental. It is focused in the moment. It is focused in feelings and in the body. It is a flow of energy that is honoured just for what it is. It is not judgemental. It knows that “there for the grace of God go I.” Self-love is not for the lazy or for one who wants ever more instant gratification. It is not for those who are prepared to blame others for circumstances of their lives. It is not for those who will not exercise forgiveness of others. Self-love is a difficult path. You have not been encouraged to experience what this feels like. You have been greatly discouraged in gifting this dynamic to your life. One who practices self-love will make a place in their life for what matters.
Today we celebrate the cult of celebrity. Everywhere I look I see pictures and headlines about a person or persons who is today’s leading celebrity. If I were to go forward two or three years 95% of these people would not ever be heard of again. Mostly the information that you are given about these people is related to failed relationships or poor behaviour. Celebrities are alternately adored and abhorred. There is no middle ground. There is little compassion and sympathy for the so-called monsters that publicity helps create. There is little acknowledgement of the focus and talent that has been developed to take them to the place they are now. You recognise something in them that you want. You too want your life to be noticed. You want to be celebrated for having been. This I believe is a natural expression of being in human form. You too have talent. You too have presence. You too are unique. Why does no one see this? You have been encouraged to play safe. Do you think that celebrities become who they are by simply playing safe? They have dared. They have fallen and risen again. They do so because they often have another who believes totally in their talent. I am reminded of another song Bette Midler sang with the line “You are the wind beneath my wings.” So often this is true of celebrities. There is someone who loves this person not for what they do but for who they are. This may be a parent or a good and fierce friend who for a time is their “wind beneath their wings.” They are the lucky ones (or for many not so lucky). They dare to shine. Often what was original to each of them becomes puffed up. The media tell them things about themselves that they always wanted to believe and never could. They begin to believe everything that is said about them and want more. It is then they begin to slide down the slippery slope of fame. In the beginning they have cultivated presence. They know who they are and what they want to achieve. Their focus on what is to be attained is not lukewarm. They have striven with a passion to get where they wanted to go. Many times it turns to ashes in their mouths. They want to be loved yet their fame ultimately increases their sense of isolation. They make their lives matter for no one other than themselves. This is why so many have fallen so quickly. . To make your life matter you are required to focus on celebrating your life. This is the experience of living your life day to day. It is not just about living for some imagined future when you will become something other than who you are now. This does not mean that your life will not change day to day or that you should ignore your future potential. You learn to know that the only time to love is now. It is in this present moment. This is the true power that every one of us has now. You are discouraged in recognising this fact. You are told that you are this and not that. Mostly well intentioned people have given this information to you. They want you to be safe. They do not want you to be hurt. They want you to be like them. Many do not want you to be more than they are. The result is you’re beauty, your talents and creative potential remains dormant. Focus will assist you to develop a greater sense of presence and presence will develop a greater sense of love of self and others. Take a chance. Here is another opportunity. Dare to become the richness that lives within your heart. This is your choice. Begin and make your life matter today. 4. YOU WILL BE HEALTHIER AND MORE WHOLE When you make the commitment to “The Way of Desiderata” you begin to channel your energies in one direction. This is a direction, which aligns with your purpose and your creativity. It is my personal belief that you are a child of God. This means you are co-creator in this ever-changing universe. You are given free will to make the choice to align with this creative potential. The degree to which you refuse to do so results in dis-ease. You become not at ease with your true self. Your creative energy becomes blocked. When blocked this results in the discomfort and suffering we all experience to more or greater degrees. Follow the course of action outlined in this course and you begin to harmonise your energies. Your sense of who you are begins to get more stable and secure. You can be at the centre of the storm and remain calm. Build a life that matters on a firm foundation of values, strengths and talents. Learn to give yourself wider and wider choice. Learn that the one thing that holds you back is fear. You discover that the only thing that makes the difference between you and those you admire is that they took action despite their fear. They are no more courageous than you. They simple did it anyway. Learning to live a life that matters needs courage. It also needs lots of encourage-ment. This is the purpose of this course and the purpose of our developing website. It is a place where you can go in order to receive balm for your battered soul. As your energies flow you will begin to feel a sense of wholeness. Your time will be spent less and less in actions that have little or no purpose. You will learn to align more with the true rhythms of your body and the rhythms of nature. You will learn about how important it is to love the body and maintain it in optimum health. This will not be about focusing on your body in order to make it fit some stereotypical shape it should or should not be. You are more and more becoming a homogenised shape that is designed to satisfy some economic function. If you are not that shape then you are not part of the in crowd. You are judged not to fit(in more ways than one.) This destroys your sense of your true self. I see it eating away at the self esteem of the young. This is particularly so in the case of young women. They seem to be obsessed by what is wrong with their shape. This has given rise to more and more incidence of diseases of self-esteem. Learn that love has two sides. There is the giving and the receiving. Most of you go around in the world with begging bowls. You hide this bowl behind your back hoping to meet with someone who will fill it up. I have been that person only I imagine at one time I needed more than one bowl. When you feel whole you are wholesome. People sense your wholeness. You become attractive as a presence. You are a whole person that can be accepted and celebrated. You are not an object. You are not just a body beautiful. You are internally beautiful and that radiates outward. 5. YOU WILL EXPERIENCE GREATER HAPPINESS It remains a mystery to me why we are not taught the psychology of happiness. I have been educated in the West and I do not ever recall being taught how to be happy. The pursuit of happiness is enshrined in the American constitution. There is one thing I have learned for certain. One way to avoid happiness is to pursue it. Happiness is like a bird. You have to learn to keep the window open and hope that she will fly in. In The Way of Desiderata you will be introduced to the idea of “flow.” It happens when you learn to be in a particular frame of mind and body. This state is not dependant on having any particular body shape. It is not dependant on your economic circumstances. I have seen more of this “flow” from people living in the third world than I have ever seen in the most affluent neighbourhoods of our major Western cities. Increased happiness is related to the practices of focus and presence. Each of these practices builds into a series of habits that you can acquire. You learn to make happiness a habit. It is not dependent on the weather. It will not be dependent on your financial circumstances. It is not dependant on any condition other than the one you choose to create. Happiness happens when you are prepared to come to your senses. Happiness happens when you understand your relationship to time. Happiness happens when you understand you relationship to wanting rather than desiring. Happiness is not something to be acquired only via the intellect. Happiness happens when you learn how to get out of the way. Happiness happens when you are prepared to understand the difference between satisfaction and delight.
6. YOU WILL WORK AT WHAT YOU LOVE. This is one of the major advantages of this course. During this course I will dis-tinguish clearly between Work and work. Notice the capital letter for one and not the other. Most of you will work at some stage of your lives. Many of you will never do the Work that you alone are meant to do. This is the difference between you and your celebrities. They have focused through times of high and low on expressing their God given talent/s. They have been one pointed in their endeavour. Many many of them do not reach the heights of television or popular cinema. This does not invalidate their Work in any way or their commitment and passion for what they believe in. The workplace in the 21st Century is a very different place to what it was at the beginning of the last century. Change is accelerating. It is imperative that you learn to deal with this accelerated change. You can either fear or embrace it. I suggest that you learn to take the opportunity it offers with both hands and a large heart. You are likely to have several careers rather than one. Throughout “The Way of Desiderata” we will show you how to focus on your strengths so that you channel your energies in the optimum direction for you. We will show you how to examine your core values and how to make them a foundation for the Work that you do. You will be shown how to focus and plan the Work that you alone can do. This is not some ego trip. It is, I believe, what is intended for each of us. It takes determination and courage. These are the attributes of any hero.
When you learn to be yourself you will feel more attractive. Many people I meet have an incessant desire to make themselves better people. They are in a Catch 22 situation. Their real desire is to be loved for themselves warts and all. When they learn to behave themselves as they suppose they are to do they get approval. They want what is called “unconditional love” but learn to settle for what is “conditional love.” They know and you know that love that is “conditional” is not love at all. Feeling attractive is both internal and external. Our culture focuses mostly on external attractiveness. Women are particularly vulnerable to this focus. They become more concerned about how they look the older they are. Age is not celebrated but something to hide and be ashamed off. We live in the cult of youth. You spend inordinate amounts of money trying to maintain this illusion of non-aging. Attractiveness in its truest sense is an internal experience. It is related to the flow of energy through the body. It is the experience of being in touch with all our senses. It is feeling sensual. This improves your skin and affects the aging process to a greater degree than any outward application ever will. I have met with teenagers who are old before their time with their concerns and worries of ever finding happiness and love. I have met with ninety year olds who behave like children and who have a light in their eyes that is a mischievous as elves. You are encouraged to ever think about your life. You forget about sensing your life force in this creative moment. You are never encouraged to be happy now. Your happiness is ever dependent on something. You have forgotten what it means to be delightful. This means to be full of the light. This light is your life force and it will fill you up once you are determined to receive it and honour it for its true worth. You have become a clone. You are not encouraged to be the hero. You become a man or woman of straw. You all think much the same thoughts in the same way. You listen to talk shows where all the taking heads are interested in one-upmanship and hearing the sound of their own voices. You take all this chatter to mean that they have arrived. You have become a passivity junkie. You are not a man or woman who make their life meaningful. There is little that is whole in you. You are willing to accept answers from the experts. You are not willing to be a hero and become your own expert. No one can and ever will know what it is like to be you. Do you not realise that you will not be again? You are unique! You grow old and you live your life in the past. You are young and you live your life for the future. You are hardly if ever present to the wonder of you own existence. This wonder is with you in every breath you take. Learn to see your life, as it can be if you make it important enough. This is not out of mere self interest. We all need you to make your life important. When you do this we all get a boost. Your heroism will impact upon our fears. Your courage will shine a light into our places of darkness. This is love in action. It is not any self-centred action. It is a discovery that you can co-create this world with your heart-felt commitment. Once you open your heart to this possibility you experience compassion for others. This truly is a delight. You can then dance you life force into each day and you will have others join you. When following the practices in “The Way of Desiderata” you will begin to experience what it feels like to have true security. You will learn to establish the mentality of abundant thinking. This will lead to greater harmony and satisfaction. It will turn you around in a way you could not have imagined. Your sense of security will be enhanced through a simple technique that you can practise each day. If you make this a habit people are going to ask questions of your sanity. They will, in private moments, ask if you are always this happy. You will smile and tell them that mostly you are. Security is an internal experience. You cannot find it behind locked walls and burglar alarms. You cannot find it in ever increasing economic advancement. You have not been taught to understand your ever loving connection to your nature. You have been discouraged in enjoying your natural God given gifts. This needs to cease. Choose to have a greater balance in your relationship with yourself and your nature. Your incessant chatter has overshadowed it. You have been convinced that if you have enough of this or that you will be happy. The pursuit of this philosophy has proved to turn to ashes in the mouths of many of those who espouse it.
In The Way of Desiderata you will become more disciplined. This means having to make clear choices in how you spend your time and energy. All who have journeyed in this world and made a difference have adopted strict disciplines. This is an unpopular word in our modern undisciplined world. It is not the kind of action that is encouraged in the modern age of have it now pay later. Discipline is exercised in the pursuit of any art. This happens in the case of music, poetry, writing and dance, just to name a few. All these creative expressions require regular focused practice. Nothing of value will be accomplished if you only practice when you simply feel like it. You are to become the artist who accepts the discipline in The Way of Desiderata. I remember a quote by a famous musician who when asked how he managed to get to Carnegie Hall in New York replied, “Practice and more practice.” This course is essentially a “how to” course. It is practical. You may read the information contained here and not apply it. It would then be like having a thoroughbred racehorse and keeping it in the stable. Practice and more practice is a daily task. Practice itself then becomes a habit. You make your life matter through a series of well developed habits. I will tell you your future simply from the habits you adopt. You are all creatures of habit. Most of these are learned unconsciously from others. Discipline means taking responsibility to cultivate the techniques that will then make your life matter. This requires patience and fortitude as well as commitment. There will be times and even many times when you do not wish to do the exercises each day. From the exercise of discipline you are developing your WILL. You are willing your life to matter. You are going to come across resistance to making changes. This is natural. Why not have another half hour in bed? Why not work on clarifying what is important tomorrow night? Let me give this a rest until the weekend. There will always be another excuse. There will always be another time you reason. Resist the Work you need to do to “make your life matter” and you are settling for the mediocre. This is your entitlement. You simply fall out of the connection that makes living such a profound and meaningful experience. This is not a punishment. It is simply one of those universal laws. You can either come along or learn to be co-creative with God, the universe or whatever name you care to give, or you settle for less. 2. YOU WILL NEED TO BE TOTALLY COMMITTED. This is another requirement that many of you will resist. Commitment is often considered a dirty word. It carries with it the image of a lack of freedom. It is my experience that the people with the freest energy are those who are fully committed. Being fully committed is different from being busy. Busyness has become the modern disease. I know people who have each and every hour of their day filled with things to do. They are often the most disorganised and chaotic people I have had the misfortune to work with. Julia Cameron calls such people “crazy makers.” Busyness to them gives their lives significance. They are intent on filling their time because that they do not want to experience time alone. They are rarely committed to anything and certainly not to making their lives matter. Commitment has a paradox. The greater the commitment the greater the freedom. All great partnerships are committed partnerships. The less committed the person the greater difficulty they have in keeping promises. They want the choice not to make a choice. They fear their precious freedom to run away will be curtailed. Lack of commitment means you find it hard to shape your life. I find people who are in uncommitted relationships like a jug without a handle. I sometimes find it hard to know who they are. Commitment is an act of courage. It is being prepared to be your true self warts and all. Lack of commitment I believe arises from the fear that you will be seen and having been seen will be confirmed as being unlovable. If you feel unlovable this in itself makes the act of non-commitment logical. To make your life matter is to commit to becoming all you can be. It means being committed to giving up judgement of yourself and others. It means being committed to learning a language of empowerment and celebration. It means learning about all the ways you sabotage your creative potential. Commitment is about community. It is joining the journey of the hero with others. As you take this journey with courage you begin to meet with others along the way. They are there to support and guide you in your endeavour. You will find things happening that you label co-incidence until you find that these co-incidences are happening more and more. Your commitment will be rewarded. You will find that others commit more to you as you commit more to The Way of Desiderata. Relationships will deepen. Your feeling life will expand and you may even come to your senses. Your days will be purposefully directed and you will feel at peace with yourself.guiding you to knowing who you truly are.
3. YOU WILL NEED TO BE COURAGEOUS Courage is one of my favourite words. It means,
“to enter the heart.” Learning to make your life matter
will mean that you are going to reconnect with your heart. The practice of courage does not mean the absence of fear. There would not be courage without the experience of fear. This is not blind courage. It is feeling afraid but despite this taking a step into the unknown. It does not matter if this is a small step or a giant step. Each of you will be at a different stage. The important thing is to take the next step. You need to practice courage in order to become a hero. Practicing means that you make one of your commitments the task of stepping out of a comfort zone. You know what these are. You all have things you want to do and resist doing. You have dreams that you imagine one day you will follow. This day will always be tomorrow. When you decide to follow your dreams it will still be today. Why not make it this day? Make a beginning now. You may tell yourself that you will do this once you have worked up the courage. I will tell you, as your celebrities will tell you, this is an avoidance technique. It would be better to say “I won’t do it now because I am afraid.” You will need more courage later because you have conditioned your mind to remember the fear. When you practice courage in The Way of Desiderata you do not do this recklessly. This indicates a lack of love for yourself. This is courage practiced from a weak ego sense that needs bolstering. Do not put your physical and psychological being at risk without clearly measuring such risk. Courage is a muscle. You develop it as you use it. You can practice higher and higher levels of risk taking. If you decided that you wanted to sing you might start in a small group. Later as a practice in risk taking you might advance to a larger venue What is important in practicing courage is that you learn that you will not fall apart Sometimes you may feel embarrassed but you will get over it. You will build higher and higher levels of self confidence. You will not build increased self confidence through affirmations or positive thinking alone. It will be out there beyond your comfort zone. It will be developed when you are feeling vulnerable and wondering how on earth you were ever encouraged to do what you are doing now.
For me being alone was a real issue when I was first introduced to the idea that I could make my life matter. I was feeling lonely and I did not wish to engage in any further activity that would increase this sense of loneliness. I have over the period of my own journey found that there is a clear difference between feeling alone and feeling lonely. In fact I have found that one is the antidote to the other. I now insist on time alone otherwise I would feel less resilient. As a writer I spend much time alone. When the words flow I find that I am happy and contented. Often the sense of loneliness appears the moment I sit before the blank page and know that there is little that I feel I am able to write about. This is where discipline comes in. I am only required to turn up and start to write or type whatever flows through this thought process at each moment. It often takes time until I am writing with a sense of “flow.” We live in a time where there is an epidemic of loneliness. This is particularly amongst our old people. They have served their economic usefulness and are left with their daily dose of news and television together with a brain that has begun to atrophy. As an aside I heard recently that a study of older people showed that they lived longer happier lives according to the degree of self esteem they developed earlier in their lives. Those with low self-esteem had brains, which were demonstratably smaller, than those who did not. This validates a maxim that I believe to be true of the mind and body. This is “use it or lose it.” Committing to The Way of Desiderata will ensure high levels of self-esteem and a clear mind in later life. You will correctly use your mind and your body. In following this course to make your life matter you will be called to take time alone. This is a private and personal time that you create. It is when you honour your uniqueness. You will find you will be discouraged from this practice. You will be given all sorts of reasons why this practice of time alone should not be adhered to. One of the most common reasons is designed to guilt trip you. You will be told that this practice is “a little selfish.” When you are told this it means the other person has become afraid. You are changing. They fear this change will impact adversely on them. They are intent on maintaining the status quo. Better leave well alone they will argue. These are the very people who often turn nasty. They do not like you beginning to develop your own purpose. They want you to be concerned with their needs. Discrimination in certain forms is to my mind distasteful. It tends to say more about the person who discriminates than those discriminated upon. Discrimination has its place but not as prejudice or bigotry. In The Way of Desiderata it is a technique that you learn to use wisely. There are many options for you to choose from in developing a sense of purpose. There may be several ways of doing so and you may feel all of them are worthy of consideration. You are subject to subtle and not so subtle psychological pressures to conform. This allows you to feel part of the group but it can stifle your individual creativity. It takes courage to step into the place where you can say “this is me.” There will be those who assure you that you are moving in the wrong direction. They will most likely reject you. This is a sign that they feel they have lost control of a relationship that they were controlling. It is important for you to make your own mistakes. Thomas Moore, author of “Care of the Soul” advocates praying for some failure if you have not yet experienced such. Failure is a loaded word. It is such a judgemental and creatively destructive word. It is one of those words we teach you to avoid in “The Way of Desiderata.” Discrimination is a process of making choices. This act of discrimination is clearly directed by your knowing your values. If you value honesty, compassion or integrity to name a few you will be asked to make choices that confirm your allegiance to these personal values. All great teachings have directions. These are called commandments, precepts or some other such word. These are firm guidelines for action. In The Way of Desiderata you create clear guidelines for yourself. No one is going to come along and judge you should
you fail to adopt these. Certainly I shall not be doing so. You
will stumble and fall. You are advised not to beat yourself up
with some guilt trip. This is a sure sign of an element of self-pity.
Guilt has its place but it is an emotion I believe that often masks an over inflated ego. It is enough to acknowledge that you have fallen short of your ideals. Take action to atone but leave the guilt alone. You are often encouraged to feel this way for no good reason. If you come across any teacher who inculcates a sense of guilt in you my advice is be very discriminating. Run as fast as you can and do not apologise. Chuck Spezznoi wrote a book with a great title “If it hurts it isn’t Love.” I think this is a great piece of discriminating advice.
When you do the work to make your life matter you find your relationship to other people deepens. You will be more in tune with you own needs and the flow of your energies. As you do this you begin to attract people whose influence comes to bear on the Work you are doing. You will begin to speak of things that are more heart centred. . You will be less interested in celebrities or television programmes that fill time and drain your emotional energy. You will feel you have found something new and precious that you thought you had lost. You are returning to the child within. This is the eternal child that wishes to dance your life energy simply for the sake of play. You will be more concerned about helping this unfoldment and how better to partake in the joy of this dance. Each day will be a new opportunity to Work and play. You will concentrate on finding experiences to celebrate the very fact that you live on this earth. Petty problems will begin to fall away. Compassion and inspiration begin to be your closest friends. As you develop these qualities you will attract like-minded people who are at higher levels of understanding than yourself. You still need to be discriminating. If any such newcomers make you feel uneasy then back off. There are those who would convince you that they have the answer and that you should do it their way. This is a sure sign of egomania. Avoid it like the plague. It is very insidious. Friendship will become central to your life. You will make this a foundation upon which to build a life that matters. This is not the friendship of names only. You will learn to become a good friend and in doing so you will receive great friendship. There will surely come a time when you need it. At these times you will have a friend to hear your heart and to support you. If you do not give your commitment to this aspect of life then you can be sure of one thing. You will feel lonely and unloved. This is because of the Universal law that what you give you receive. Make your life matter. Do not wait for the politicians or the clergy or anyone else. They are just as vulnerable and lost as most of us are. Many of them think they have the answers to our human problems and are insistent that we listen to them. Listen to your own heart. Listen to that inner voice which is the best guide that you can have. It will show you the direction in which you are to go. Do not let anyone tell you that you have ever failed. You can never fail. You can only stop trying and even if you do this do not give yourself a hard time. There are many opportunities to make your life matter. You only have to learn how to response to such opportunities as they appear. There is a saying “when the pupil is ready the guru appears.” This guru can be the sound of your inner voice calling you to make a difference. It is calling you to take the hero’s journey. It is calling you toward a place of meaning and contentment. It is calling to say that no matter what you do you matter. Make your life matter now. Start taking another step out of the darkness and into the light of unconditional love. In the first part of the course “The Way of Desiderata” we will look at how to proceed next. We will take the phrase “Go placidly amidst the noise and haste.” and examine how we mean to go on. There is no point rushing off and finding you are on the wrong path or your ladder is leaning against the wrong wall. May you have miracles.
Go to next part of course
tony@irishblessingsmatter.com
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