Heaven’s Gates by Marc Adamus

When you realize it’s a dream, you can afford to play. The same thing happens when you realize that ordinary life is just a dream, just a movie, just a play. You don’t become more cautious, more timid, more reserved. You start jumping up and down and doing flips, precisely because it’s all a dream, it’s all pure Emptiness. You don’t feel less, you feel more—because you can afford to. You are no longer afraid of dying, and therefore you are not afraid of living. You become radical and wild, intense and vivid, shocking and silly. You let it all come pouring through, because it’s all your dream. Life then assumes its true intensity, its vivid luminosity, its radical effervescence. Pain is more painful and happiness is happier; joy is more joyous and sorrow is even sadder. It all comes radiantly alive to the mirror-mind, the mind that doesn’t grasp or avoid, but simply witnesses the play, and therefore can afford to play, even as it watches.

-Ken Wilber

When I graduated from college, I deliberated decided not to get a job and do the whole career thing and instead devote myself fully to my spirituality, to really getting this whole enlightenment thing down.

Now, 3 years later, I have come to several conclusions.

1. I got into this wanting to know the Truth. Now I know that I really know nothing to know and this freedom and simplicity cracks me up. Somehow there is joy in this emptiness of not knowing *and* being totally at peace with it, in this not knowing and not trying to figure something else out. Instead there’s just the ecstasy of being who you really are.
2. When you surrender trying to get somewhere as if there’s some pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, you find that there is now a natural supportive unfoldment of life in this moment and that you are an inseparable part of it. When you let go and simply allow the joy of being to shine forth, call it shining your light or whatever, this is truly an amazing experience and seems to be how we were really *meant* to live before we got all caught up in egoland and attachmentville.
3. The desire of ego is essentially to obtain, acquire, and all that jazz… basically ways to achieve security, approval, control, and all the other things it feels it lacks. The desire of Spirit is to be itself, know itself, and experience itself in its absolute pristine glory, to experience the extraordinary in the ordinary, to experience what it already is now. It takes care of the well-being of the mind and body when we allow the energy of our Light/Spirit/Soul/Heart/Source to be what life is all about.

Enjoying Life

The basis of life is absolute freedom. The objective of life is absolute joy.

-Abraham-Hicks

It’s not about seeking Truth, but being Truth. It’s not about seeking Joy, but being Joy. It’s not about seeking Love, but being Love. You don’t go out into the world seeking Truth any more than you go to a movie theater to find the Truth. That’d be silly. Just because the movie is “an illusion” doesn’t mean you need to stop going to the movies. Similarly, that doesn’t mean you stop living your life. Instead, you go to the movies for the thrill of the experience. That’s it. The same with this world. Truth is found within and once it wakes up within you, there is a unique way that it’ll want to express itself out through you.

It is in the nature of being to see adventure in becoming, as it is in the very nature of becoming to seek peace in being.

-Nisargadatta Maharaj

and so, in the name of Pure Joy I am moving to Boulder, CO. My inner guidance and outer confirmations are all pointing towards this move. My intuition and excitement are all giving me the green light. Finally!! Full speed ahead! I’ve been wanting to do something for ages! I even tried to give it a go a few months ago but couldn’t fully commit to it since I couldn’t feel that inner okay. Now that it’s here, it’s been such a joy to watch as everything necessary for this trip thus far miracoulsly and synchronistically unfold when needed. I’ll admit there’s also a lot of sadness in letting go of my old home here in Roswell and saying goodbye to my friends and family. At the same time, there’s this deep joy of experiencing this moment AND experiencing the anticipation of what is yet to unfold.

Where am I gonna live? I’ll figure that out when I get there!

What am I gonna do when I get there? Let’s go find out!

What am I gonna do for money? Figuring out those details is the universe’s job! My job is simply to be happy!

Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.

-Joseph Campbell

It’s such a blast to actually follow my dreams and watch as the doors open. It’s not that you’ll know everything ahead of time. It’s that just start moving and continue taking the next step and watch as the doors open up, often times after you’ve already started heading in that direction. Seeing the Law of Attraction really work for you and actually getting a handle on creating your life experience, that’s a lot of fun!!

Keeping Up with Ariel’s Adventure

Since I’ll be on the road by the time this post goes live, I probably won’t be updating this blog as regularly. However you can follow my travels on my photoblog which I will be updating from the road. I want to document what it’s like to live life from a place of Oneness and Joy, as fully aligned with Source energy as possible.

My tentative plan involves going to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, stopping in Dallas to shoot a cheer competition, exploring the scenic desert landscapes in the southwest, hiking down from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and camping down on the floor, visiting several national parks in Utah including Canyonlands and Arches to hike, camp, and shoot photos, and finally making my way east across the Rockies into Colorado to settle in and find a new place to call home for however long, stopping to meet friends all along the way.

So stay tuned for more fun and games on the photoblog. See you guys around!

-Ariel

For the first time since starting this blog, I feel a sense of completion in terms of writing about spirituality, consciousness, nonduality, and the nature of the egoic mind. The recent post Want to Wake Up? Focus Upon the “I Am” sealed the deal. There are so many fun things to explore in the spiritual arena including chakras, past lives, the law of attraction, and all that jazz, but when it comes to waking up from the dream of separation, that post goes right to the heart of enlightenment. It is what I had heard many times while passionately seeking and yet continually overlooked and what what shines clearly today as the seeking energy is seen through. The sheer simplicity of the I AM, the I AM that’s ALWAYS here.

How then shall I live?

Something that Adyashanti once said has really left an impression upon me. He said that the first and primary question of the spiritual journey is Who Am I? Once that is discovered, the next question is How then shall I live? It is this second question that takes an internal realization and expresses it as an external manifestation. It is this second question which helps our internal transformation permeate all aspects of our being. It is this second question that allows you to come back and be in this world, but not of it. It is this second question that shifts us from simply knowing and being the Truth to LIVING the Truth, from realizing to experiencing, and to letting go of all that is not in harmony with the infinite being that we have realized ourselves to be. This is what this physical experience, from my perspective, is all about: experiencing more and more of who you really are. Since you are All That Is, what else is there to experience?

Adyashanti has a book titled Emptiness Dancing. While I haven’t actually read the book, I’ve heard him explain the phrase before elsewhere and it’s so apropos to this stage of the journey. It’s about the transition from simply being emptiness to coming back down off the mountaintop and being the emptiness dancing in the world. The world of form is not separate from the world of formlessness. They go hand in hand in one inseparable dance.

Doctors, lawyers, politicians and professors Modern science, the oppressed and the oppressors Religious leaders, the gurus and the shamans Everybody has one thing in common: We are nothing pretending to be something We are nothing pretending to be something -Here II Here, Plankton

So… how then shall I live?

Fully Experiencing Life in this Moment

The other day I was working on some childhood issues with a friend and found myself starting to leave my body again. It was basically a way of me trying to avoid life and not experience the unhealed trauma within and so I was guided to come back into my body and really feel what was arising within and leading to much of my unconscious behavior. It’s amazing how often I live in avoidance to life. For example, when there’s negative emotions (whether in myself or in others), rather than feel the energetic flow and fully allow the emotional energy to be here as part of the richness of life, there’s the (very understandable) movement to fix the situation and create a better feeling experience or somehow get rid of the negative stuff, but this only seems to invalidate the unpleasurable stuff, not release it and heal it.

“You have the right to think and believe whatever you want. I am simply here to love you as you are.” -Matt Kahn

We hear about people going off into a cave and that seems to be a great way of avoiding life, of trying to cut out the external world (including thoughts) so that you can experience the inner world. After all, the kingdom of God is within you and nothing outside of you makes you happy anyways, so spend time going within because that’s where the real treasure lies. So it makes sense that focusing on the internal world is the next step for those of us who had been completely and totally focused upon the external world of form. At this stage the journey involves swinging to the other end of the pendulum, from the world of form outside of us to the world of formlessness within, to the world of spirit. Eventually there is a natural rebalancing of the pendulum as the external world of form and the internal world of formlessness can be experienced together, until we discover that they can play together nicely.

“The practice of meditation is represented by the three monkeys, who cover their eyes, ears and mouths so as to avoid the phenomenal world. The practice of non-meditation is ceasing to be the see-er, hearer or speaker while eyes, ears and mouths are fulfilling their function in daily life.” -Wei Wu Wei

Eckhart Tolle calls it being present. Byron Katie calls it loving what is. Today I’d like to call it fully experiencing life as it is in this moment, being intimately one with whatever is arising. No more turning away, distracting yourself from, or protecting yourself from, but a total and complete openness to and embrace of what is. Nisargadatta refers to this as affectionate awareness. These are all beautiful pointers to deeply experiencing this moment.

Creating the Life of your Dreams

A few weeks back a TON of insights came through me on the topics of living the life of your dreams, living an unlimited life that is not held back by doubt or fear, going beyond your unhealed energy, living a life guided by your heart and soul, living life from a place of authenticity and alignment with universal law, and so on. It’s not about self-improvement, as if the point was to make a better/richer/happier/more successful mask, but to be that which is beyond all masks and express the unique essence of what you REALLY are in every moment, however your energy chooses to expresses itself. Instead of transitioning from who you believe yourself to be to something even better (self-improvement.. notice the implied sense of judgement from worse to better and the word ‘improvement’), it’s about expanding the degree to which you experience what you really are (being yourself).

You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge. But it can only emerge if something fundamental changes in your state of consciousness. -Eckhart Tolle

What was seen next was that before I could teach this to anyone else, I had to first live it and master it myself in my own life. Thus my life will become a teaching and a sharing, even though I don’t fully understand yet what all this will entail. As is often said, the best way to convey or teach a message is to live it. This is a gift I give not only to the world, but (perhaps first and foremost) to myself.

Being Unconditionally Supported

In a recent post featuring an interview with Lester Levenson, a story is shared how he travels around the country without the money or wherewithal to make the trip, and yet everything he needs is effortlessly and miraculously provided. I LOVE that!! He makes a point that once you master the ability to create what you need at will, no longer do you need to hoard lots of things as a buffer “just in case” you’ll need it in the future. For example, let’s say you were so incredibly supported by the universe that you had the ability to create for yourself whatever experience you so desired. In this case, how necessary would it be to save up or earn all the money first before heading out to go do what you wish to do? For many of us, we have the belief that we need to have the money available before we can do certain things. I’m not saying this is good or bad, right or wrong, but I am pointing out that it is a belief we have adopted and thus live by while there are other ways of being supported by the universe. Here’s a wonderful Bashar video where he helps someone open up to really living this way in his own life:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GfaaO-_Clk

When we think of our “life’s purpose” or our “mission in life,” typically it involves some form of outer doing. Maybe our purpose is to heal others, to repair cars, or to build a success business. For a long time my life’s purpose included waking up, teaching spirituality, opening up to loving myself and others, integrating various sometimes conflicting perspectives such as enlightenment and the law of attraction, and a few other things. You will notice that these are all doing-based activities.

Now an interesting thing to note is that all of these doings are all subject to change. They come and go as we evolve and walk down our path. These doings are ultimately all expressions of us being ourselves. When we try to permanently box ourselves into an outer role or set of actions, we actually begin to limit ourselves. When we tell ourselves that we must continue playing an outer role for whatever reason, this may actually impede our ability to fully be ourselves. On the other hand, when we decide that being ourselves is the most important thing, whatever form that takes quite naturally and spontaneously arises, it is experienced in a way that is supported by the rest of our being.

Be yourself. That is your inner mission in life. That is your purpose. That is why you’re here. To be yourself. It’s really simple.

“But what do I do!?” Just be yourself.

When you are focused on being yourself, the outer doing stuff arises quite naturally and easily out of that. You don’t have to give it a second thought, or even a first. You just do it, for no other reason than it’s you. You don’t need any other reason.

Addressing Fears of Being Yourself

When you are simply being yourself, what a tremendous freedom that is! Sure there may be fear around it at first that we need to bring awareness to and let go of.

Many of us have been taught over the years that it’s not okay to be who we are. We’ve been reprimanded and judged for sharing what is true for us. We may have been told that we shouldn’t feel a certain way. In any number of ways, we have been taught that it’s not okay to be ourselves and it is all this conditioning that we’re here to unravel and release.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with not being yourself. It can be a tremendously positive learning experience to experience NOT YOU. We may do this through imposing limitation upon ourselves, buying into limiting beliefs, diving into the energy of fear and separation, resisting what is, and so on. No matter in what way the energy of “not me” is created, it can be useful in helping us see that much more clearly what we REALLY are. The contrast really does serve us and my goodness, earth offers an abundance of contrast, does it not?

So not being yourself is here to serve you, until it does no longer and you can let it go.

Opening Up and Letting Life Flow

It’s amazing how when you let go of resisting yourself, what you want just shows up in its own way in its own time, and often times in ways you wouldn’t have been able to predict or orchestrate ahead of time. Not only does what you want manifest effortlessly and synchronistically, but the stepping stones in your path in life on an outer level become easier to follow. The decisions and actions that are in alignment with your essence feel joyous, exciting, light, and just plain right. It’s literally as if you are becoming more and more of who you are by traveling down your path.

As you recognize on deeper and deeper levels that being yourself, first and foremost, is what life is about, you find that all the outer expressions you take come and go naturally on their own, in perfect harmony with the ebbs and flows of life itself. It’s really quite amazing, far more beautifully orchestrated than anything a single limited mind could ever come up with. What needs to happen does. What doesn’t need to happen won’t. Life then begins showing you the essence of what is rather than you demanding life be a certain way. As you rest back into the observation of and appreciation of life, you see that things just fit. Way cool…

Mist Mountain Colors by Marc Adamus

So I’ve been doing a lot of letting go of my sense of obligation towards teaching. Some of this transition has been previously discussed, but I’ve been doing a lot of exploration on in the area and I’ve noticed that there was some energy of “People really need to hear what I have to say. It’s important that people wake up and that I am here to play my part. They need me. The best thing I can do for others is to share with them my truths (whatever they are) so that they can wake up ASAP. Don’t be fully yourself, but the version of you that I think you should be.”

haha wow, so there. I said it.

Although I would prefer not to admit to this, there was some invalidation of where you guys are and an attempt to “help” you see what I see, as if my perspective is better than yours. Ah, yet another layer to let go of, of being some sort of savior.

A lot of that has been dropping away and now more and more I find myself appreciating each and every person just as they are, wherever they are, no matter what their perspective, understanding, or level of consciousness is. Be whoever you are. I’m not here to fix you, change you, improve you, or teach you. I’d rather just love you as you are. That’s enough for me now.

You Guys Are Powerful!

What I’m discovering as well is that you guys are really powerful beings!

I’d like to acknowledge you all, individually and collectively. This awakening that is happening across the world, this ascension process or whatever you wanna call it, it seems like everyone is involved to a greater or lesser extent. It is happening with or without our help. Our involvement in “helping people wake up” may be unnecessary in an absolute sense, but it can certainly be incredibly beneficial nonetheless, not to mention fun! Our roles happen when the inspiration arises, not out of shoulds or shouldn’ts.

There need be no sense of obligation in this process. I no longer feel responsible for any of you, for helping you wake up, for helping you understand anything, or for getting you anywhere whatsoever. You’re here, and that’s enough. That’s it. Your awakening is between you and God.  I recognize the duality in that sentence, and it was done deliberately. Yes we are all one, yet there is an apparent individual here who is responsible for their own awakening. Plain and simple. We each have 100% responsibility for ourselves. No one else is responsible for us. In fact, there is no one else here to be responsible for us in the first place!

Each of us have the necessary seeds of wisdom within us that we need. In this moment we have all that require and nothing is lacking. Sure we can support, encourage, and assist one other in this awakening process, but we all are powerful enough to stand fully as who we are. We don’t need anyone else to hold us up or do it for us.

What I’m finding with my energy and my life path at this point is that I’m less and less interested in “teaching” spirituality directly, with the primary intention of helping people wake up. In fact, I’ve noticed that now when I go in with that intent, it doesn’t flow as harmoniously as it once did. I don’t have to wake anyone up. You guys are already doing that, with or without my help!

So rather than trying to lead people to awakening in whatever form that takes and share what I’ve learned, I’m finding it far more in alignment with who I am now to support those who are in the midst of their journey, to simply love them for who they are.

I’m not seeking to accomplish anything whatsoever by writing this post. I’m simply enjoying the flow of creative energy as it expresses itself in writing. It just feels really good, and I deeply enjoy this experience. It just feels right.

A New Direction for You Are Truly Loved

“You Are Truly Loved features content designed to guide people towards spiritual enlightenment, unconditional love, and inner peace through Self-realization. We Are All One.” That’s been the slogan for this blog since I started it nearly 2 years ago. I’ve really enjoyed playing my part in that mission thus far and it has been a wonderful stepping stone to get me where I am now.

“Each purpose, each mission, is meant to be fully lived to the point where it becomes empty, boring, and useless. Then it should be discarded. This is a sign of growth, but you may mistake it for a sign of failure.” -David Deida

These days I naturally find myself falling into a position whereby I help people gain a greater contextual understanding of the symptoms and path of awakening that are already happening, rather than trying to lead people towards the next thing.

I find myself synchronistically and effortlessly having wonderful conversations with beings who have realized their True Self and am interested in hearing what these people have to say and sharing their messages with the world. Why? I have no idea. It’s just what feels right within and I find the need to question it no longer necessary or even all that useful.

See, it’s not about a few people like Jesus or Buddha or Ramana or Tolle (or me) being the sole awakened ones teaching others about spiritual principles. In this day and age, so many people are now waking up. The greatest gift we can give another is not our own ideas and realizations, but rather the gift of themselves. Who YOU already ARE is greater than any gift you could possibly imagine. Who you ARE is nothing that needs to be learned or obtained from anyone else. It’s already here, and you already are That.

So here I am, naturally finding my energy shifting from apparently playing the role of a so-called teacher to simply being love. To just being.

This being, now, in this moment, wants to express itself as what it is, and the form it is taking is more of supporting those who are already walking the path, not in trying to get anyone anywhere whatsoever, including to a perceived better version of this moment.

This moment. Just being who I am. Loving. That’s enough. Nothing more is necessary. This feels right.

So you know the whole classic “Go meditate on a mountain and give up everything and if you can find inner peace and well-being without all the worldly stuff, then you can have true happiness” idea? That’s all well and good, but I don’t think that’s necessarily everyone’s path. Plus it can be a convenient cop-out from actually living life and being the truth and love that you’ve realized yourself to be.

When we get inner inspiration in whatever form, we can think of our physical vessels as a sort of container or pipe. In order for the inspiration to continue to flow into us, we must ground that energy into this world by manifesting and creating whatever it is that we are inspired to create. This way Source has a reason to give us more ideas. Why give us more if we’re not already using what we’ve already received? We’re given natural gifts and talents for a reason here… Yes we can try and stop or ignore that flow, but that resistance is quite painful to experience. It feels to be very much out of harmony with the natural flow. In a nutshell, it sucks.

Who does it serve if we play small? Imagine if Edison didn’t bother inventing, if Beethoven ignored his impulses to compose, if MLK Jr. decided he’d be better off keeping his ideas to himself. It’s a great disservice to All That Is if we choose to hold back and not share out gifts to the world.

The opportunity here, in these times of blossoming self-awareness, is to recognize the unlimited potential in who and what you are, and to gift yourself with permission to express that knowingness as you choose to.

-Rasha

Surrender isn’t actually about not-doing, tossing in your cards, and giving up on life, but about playing the game in full alignment with one’s inner guidance, intuitive wisdom, connection with Source, or whatever phrase you wanna use.

Being silent certainly has its place, but not when it’s used as a way to resist the flow of life, as if being silent is somehow more spiritual or whatever. When we’re called to be silent, we’ll be silent. When we’re called to speak, we speak. Being silent is not necessarily something that we need to do in every moment. The same applies with speaking. Silence is the home of Source, yes, our true home, yes, but manifest physical reality is not separate from that or in any way inferior to that.

“I had an urge to express certain things and now I have and the urge is gone. That’s really the whole story.”

-Jed McKenna

This creative process is quite natural. Flow of the river.

Now the ego may try to control this process, invest itself in a particular outcome, need something in particular to happen, want to do things right, and so on, but this is far more simple than any of that. Inspiration arises, action is taken, and then the next thing comes… unless it doesn’t. Whatever happens, and I mean whatever happens, our experience of life becomes a progressively increasing degree of acceptance and surrender to what is. You basically go with the flow. This was discussed previously in the post about the second half of allowing everything to be as it is.

We all have creative inspiration. It’s normal. It’s natural. And in fact that’s the way life should be. How do we know? Because that’s what is.

When we try to box our creative endeavors into a particular form, whether it’s painting, speaking, writing, or whatever else… when we try to fit this flow of energy into a particular box, we actually prevent it from taking its natural form.

Creative energies can take any and every form, and no form is better than any other. I’m writing this simply for myself, but since myself includes you, this makes things that much easier.

Anyways, it’s totally okay to allow your path in life to meander whichever way it goes. Our actions don’t always have to take a particular form in order for us to be living in alignment with this creative flow. It’s about being who we are, regardless of what outer expression it takes.

It’s yet another let go of control, of being this as opposed to that, and of trying to do it right. Just flow with it, whatever form it takes. Just flow…

“You’re not here to teach what you’ve learned, but to be who you are.”

-Matt Kahn

When Matt told me this in our discussion the other day, we could both tell he struck a major chord within me.

As I began exploring this statement more deeply, I found myself having no idea who I would be without doing the whole spiritual teaching thang… Whoa! How quickly we fall into our roles…

Improving the World

So a part of me wants to “make the world a better place” and all that jazz. Something that’s common amongst us guys is that we like fixing things. If someone has a problem, offer them a solution so we can solve the problem. If someone’s suffering and feeling limited, help them know the truth for the truth shall set them free.

With respect to teaching, this tendency may become so intense that it can develop into wanting to practically beat people over the head with spiritual concepts and becoming somewhat preachy, particularly when we first invalidate the other. I’m not saying that this energy is the driving force behind my sharings by any means, but it can occasionally creep in nonetheless. It’s helpful to bring awareness to this and to recognize when the ego is doing its egoey thing.

For a while now it felt like the best way I could be in service to the world and give to others was to help spread spiritual messages and share spiritual teachings, just like many of the great spiritual leaders of yesterday and today. Hence this blog. This teaching/sharing thing has been an integral part of my path for many years now. I am now recognizing a shift in energy and the progressive diminishment of interest in talking about all this spiritual stuff so much…

“We change the world not by what we say or do but as a consequence of what we have become.”

-David Hawkins

More and more I find myself wanting to simply live a more regular life (haha, whatever that means) and do what I love, without having to make it into a big spiritual event. Whether it’s something as ordinary as shopping for groceries, talking to your neighbor, or drinking a cup of tea, why not make your entire life be a living expression of and celebration of Love? Isn’t that what this is really about? It is, as Gandhi put it, being the change you wish to see in the world.

…Do we really need to change others in the first place?

Loving What Is

While we’re on this topic, something else huge Matt shared with me was his perspective when interacting with others. Even when another has a different belief system and is disagreeing with him, “You have the right to think and believe whatever you want. I am simply here to love you as you are.”

My goodness, how wonderful is that!? When we look at people in this way, instantly our desire to correct them, improve them, argue with them, or in any way whatsoever struggle with them drops away. So to does the need to teach them, save them, or actually do anything in particular at all. Gone is the need to react.

If they come to you and ask for healing or advice, by all means assist them if you so desire, but no longer do we invalidate other people for being the way they are. This is the key.

Instead, there is simply Loving What Is. Accepting them fully as they are.

This is the beginning of spiritual retirement, or perhaps the birth of true living spirituality.

This is the freedom from the egoic compulsive need to do, change, fix, attain, achieve, or improve.

No more needing to teach people something new, to be the observer of the interaction, to study how their ego or your ego is functioning, to do any of that stuff. It may still happen, sure, just like anything else, but much of it takes a backseat and becomes secondary if not completely obsolete. Really, there’s just Love. Simple, pure, innocent, and real Love.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRKLvkMFZ9E

A Shift of Purpose

If I didn’t talk about spirituality so much anymore and if I didn’t teach on spiritual topics unless specifically asked, who would I be and what would I do? (It’s really more a question of dropping the attachment than it is of dropping the activity altogether, but still.)

This question scared me at first, but the more I sit with it, the more excitement I’m finding in the opening of doors that allow me to invest my energy in other pursuits.

There’s a number of other exciting projects that lately I’ve been exploring investing my time into. Just doing a little light brainstorming/heartstorming aloud for a moment…

• Developing my alternative energy power source
• Bringing together many of the spiritual teachers and awakening/awakened people I interact with on Facebook and developing a connected and cooperative community of really conscious people
• Working on a project supporting those who are now stepping into the light and are getting burned out
• Going to Utah for the winter to work at a ski resort and learn to ski

Without the intense focus upon teaching teaching teaching, raising mass consciousness, and spreading awareness, suddenly there’s so much energy freed up for other endeavors!

The Freedom to Be Still

Yet nevertheless, regardless of what you do, the focus is on being what you are.

What you do, of course that’s likely to change over time as you evolve and continue on along your path. If you teach, cool. If you drive a school bus, cool. If you race turtles, cool. But this is all secondary. Our real purpose is to be who we really are, regardless of what outer form it takes. All actions and roles become a manifestation of being and no role is given any undo sense of importance over any other.

As we let go of our attachments and obligations to do anything in particular or play any specific role, there seems to be a progressive falling away of striving in doing, and we find ourselves resting in being within. Just being.

Doing or non-doing may both still happen, but the stillness of being becomes primary, everpresent and unchanging.

No more need to serve, to create, to give, to uplift, to share, or inspire. You can do all that of course, but you don’t need to. This is the freedom from all sense of obligation. This is the freedom from needing to change others or change the world. This is the freedom from doing anything at all. This is the freedom to just be.

Ahhh freedom…

It seems a big part of this whole spiritual growth thing is about the ego falling away. No surprise there, right?

One of the most noble things people can do is save the world, save the planet, benefit all mankind, or do something to change the world. You know the drill. In the movies we see superheros do it and we see regular people do it. No matter who does it, they get showered with accolades and appreciation by those who know of their wonderful deeds. It sounds like one of the greatest things one could ever do, y’know?

To use myself as an example, a part of my writing (not the whole part, but certainly a part) is based in wanting to do what I can to benefit mankind, to help others awaken, and to be of service to others.

I’m not saying this is good or bad, right or wrong, but it is something I’ve noticed about the intention of my behaviors.

What do we get out of such a thing? Perhaps a feeling of worthiness, respect, appreciation, success, fulfillment, or whatever else. As selfless as it may seem, we do still get a lot out of it. In a sense, both sides get something out of this. I benefit from it, and hopefully you do too. If not, oh well. I’m still having fun!

In any event, I’m noticing that a lot of my continuous effort in trying to save the world and share my truths as much as I possibly can is starting to fall away on its own.

It seems like my actions that were based in the ego, like wanting to act all enlightened so that people look up to me, wanting to be a good helper so that I can make people like me, wanting to promote certain products so that I make money in affiliate sales and can continue to eat and pay rent and feel safe and secure… all this stuff that boils down to actions that stem from egoic reasons, all that stuff is starting to fall away.

What I’m seeing in its place is that everything is actually just fine the way it is. Really. There’s nothing here to fix. I already am infinitely loved. I already am lovable. There is only more love that is already here for me to become aware of. I already am safe and secure. There is only a greater sense of this deep inner safety to come to consciously know. It’s very liberating and very healing.

Seeing the Dream

Let’s say you were to watch your dreams at night. Would you actually panic about the danger and death you saw people experience in the dream? You may want to go in and help the dream people and create a better feeling dream, sure, and you may want to experience yourself as someone who makes a difference because you like that feeling, definitely, but that underlying fear of “Oh no, they’re actually in real danger” wouldn’t really be there.

It’s like the danger is being declawed. The seriousness of what used to be feared isn’t being taken as seriously.

Letting Go and Being Your Natural Self

There’s a sort of detachment from the world that’s arising. A freedom to play in it, but not be too concerned about it. My mind tells me that I’m being heartless and uncaring (fear, judgment), but my heart tells me it’s okay and that I’m onto something with this (love).

When I want to speak, I speak. When I want to be silent, I’ll be silent. When I want to explain myself, I will. If I don’t feel like explaining myself, I don’t bother. If I say I’ll do something, I’ll go for it. If I change my mind, I go do something else. Even if I may be totally wrong with my choices or by following what I feel is my intuition, I’m not gonna feel bad about doing what I feel is right. It is becoming more and more important to stay true to myself than to listen to my mind or to others.

There’s a deeper degree of freedom in simply just being myself and doing what feels right, rather than moving from an inner compulsion to try and fix something that’s wrong or trying to save something that needs saving.

The interesting thing is that by letting go of the egoic stuff, a deeper thing is arising.

You step out of the game, only to step back in with a totally new energy.

Everything is perfect about the universe, including your desire to change it.

It’s like an internal experience of well-being and an outer expression of that well-being.

Beautiful words may still be spoken, but they are being sourced out of the well-being that is already here. They are not spoken to try and create well-being. This is the key. This is what’s being discovered.

(You LoA peeps will like that.)

Living Your Truths

It’s like when you let go of trying to save the world, you find that the world didn’t need saving in the first place and you free yourself from that energy. Yet the interesting thing is you may still feel guided to go in to the world and share with the world how it can save itself.

By letting go of the energy of trying to save the world, you paradoxically can now be of the most service to the world.

It’s not that you change the world, but you change yourself.

You demonstrate by virtue of your own life how to change. “You will know them by their fruits.” Remember that one?

You show that such a change is possible to others, others who without seeing your change, may never have known that such a change was even possible. You present new options for people to choose themselves, increasing the number of items on their menu.

You help empower the world to change itself. You don’t change it.

You help empower others to change themselves. You don’t change them.

It starts with you. It always starts with you.

Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.

-Ramana Maharshi

The energy of “I am here to make a difference in the world, to make a positive impact on society” is a great start.

If you really want to make a difference in the world. Be yourself. There’s nothing better you could possibly do, both for yourself and for the world.

Wake up. Spiritual awakening is not some woowoo thing that is totally disconnected from this world. It’s incredibly practical. Surrender and allow the energies of your ego to pass through your awareness and out without awareness getting sucked in. Stop going into fear, worrying, getting angry, rejecting yourself and others… Wake up. You don’t need to get caught by the drama of the ego anymore. It’s possible to step out of that energy, to rise above that game. Freedom is indeed possible here and now.

Wake up.

Be who you really are.

I recently had a brief interlude with a woman who was really into feminism. She said that feminism was about equality between the two genders, yet when I inquired about why it was called feminism as opposed to something like gender equality, she got heated, pointing out that it was about women having the same rights as men. (This being equal to That. Duality.)

I left the conversation, noticing how fired up and angry she was getting, and figured I’d move the discussion here.

It’s really common for us to move from one extreme to another when trying to find a balance. It’s similar to how a pendulum needs to swing from one end to another before gradually finding balance in the middle. A totally normal process in life. Nothing bad or wrong happening here.

When it comes to finding a sense of harmony between two apparently polar opposites and uncovering the essence of harmony and balance, ultimately what we’ll need to do is to throw out the labels entirely when we look at a person.

Are you a man or a woman? Who cares?

Are you black, white, or something else? Who cares?

Are you rich or poor? Who cares?

Are you gay or straight? Who cares?

Are you asleep or enlightened? Who cares?

Are you my enemy or my friend? Who cares?

Are you my significant other or a beggar on the street? Who cares?

When you look at a ladybug, do you care if it has 10 spots on its back or 8? Does this change how you feel about the ladybug? Probably not… For one reason or another, we buy into an arbitrary set of rules that say that this trait makes this person more worthy than that trait on that person. Baloney!

Unconditional Love doesn’t look at ANY of that. In fact, these differences are utterly irrelevant!

The essence of that which you are is what it is regardless of any superficial appearances. The Love that flows unconditionally is just that: unconditional. It doesn’t flow in spite of XYZ, as if it tolerates something it doesn’t like and yet puts up with it anyways, no no. It just doesn’t even consider XYZ at ALL.

By analogy, the sun doesn’t care if you are a good person or a bad person, black or white, man or woman. It shines on everyone equally because that’s who it is.

Regardless of if H2O takes the form of water, ice, or steam, it’s all still H2O. It’s about looking beyond appearances, into the sameness beyond name and form.

This isn’t to say that we should stop differentiating between this and that, man and woman, black and white, and somehow lose the ability to tell the difference. What IS being pointed to is to not let any mental judgments come between the sense of Oneness and Love that is everpresent in this moment.

This Unity we can feel with “others” arises prior to any mental sense of differentiation, prior to any mental judgment or ranking system.

You are loved. You are worthy. You are acceptable. You are forgiven. You are beautiful. Just the way you are. Whether you change anything or change nothing at all, your inherent sense of worth will remain just the same.

By virtue of that which you are: a nameless expression of All That Is, you are inherently worthy of all the freedom, joy, love, and appreciation.

In the end, it’s not about women’s rights, gay rights, animal rights, human rights, or any of that, for in focusing on “the rights of this subgroup,” you are automatically creating a sense of separateness, even if “this subgroup over here” is ideally meant to be equal in whatever way to “that subgroup over there.” In practice, this rarely happens…

Returning home to a place of Oneness ultimately leads us to an end of all division and separateness within, even though differentiation may still be expressed without. Externally, Oneness does not imply sameness.

We are ALL ultimately on the same team here. In fact, there is no team. There is just this, here and now. There is only this. This is it. What we call you and I are not separate. We are not two.

If you’re going to be an activist standing up for the rights of someone or something, stand up for the rights of everyone. Stand for the rights of universal peace and acceptance. Stand for unconditional love for the one and the all.

It’s not about this group or that group, but all groups and no groups. It’s about that which is beyond grouping.

It’s about the letting go of dualistic separation and really, truly, reconnecting back to the inherent sense of Oneness that never actually left and is always here.

Raise two fingers in peace, one finger in unity, open your hand as emptiness, and stand tall as All That Is.

Love. <3

It’s so easy to get caught in the trap of thinking that what I want in life is somewhere in the future, isn’t it? We hear the suggestion to be in the now, yet it often still feels like when things are different in the future, they’ll be better, or if things were more like they were in the past, things would be better.

Time really flies, and when we forget about the present moment, we miss the whole point of life: living and experiencing life itself!

Here’s a hilariously wonderful video by Alan Watts talking about life as if it were a musical performance.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-GC4

This moment. Right now. This is it. This is why we’re here.

Everything is here and now. There’s nowhere else to go!

What song are you singing?

What’s your dance?

Question:

Dear Ariel,

Are there lessons to be learned in the human body? Do you not believe in life being a test? Why are we in human form now? I thought I was getting this but now I am confused.

Thanks,

d.

My response:

Life is not a school with lessons that need to be learned so that we can eventually graduate to a higher level of existence. There is nowhere to go, no heaven to get in to, for everything is here and now. Heaven is this moment. It’s not something to gain access to, but realize that it’s already here. And you are it. You are the infinite. You are nirvana. You are joy. You are God. You are Love.

(The kingdom of God is at hand!)

You are the One. If you are the One and there is no one other than you, what else is there other than you to accomplish?

There is only the experience of yourself, being yourself, witnessing yourself, enjoying yourself, experiencing more of yourself.

Yes you evolve spiritually, raise your consciousness, become higher vibing and more loving, but that’s really just another way of saying becoming more of who you really are.

We are consciousness becoming conscious of itself, the Self experiencing the Self, the Divine forgetting who it is so that it can awaken to the incredible joy of remembering who it is, more and more and more.

There is no purpose to life in the sense that there is something that we must accomplish during our stay here or else our life is a failure. We are simply here, as the Divine, giving All That Is the experience of itself, one flavorful bite at a time.

That’s it. Everything you do, everything you think, everyone you meet, and every experience you have, it is all That experiencing That.

Life is not about tests, but simply a series of opportunities that allow you to be more of yourself.

When you already are everything, there is nothing new to acquire, including knowledge or education. There is only the realization of what you already know within, the awakening to your true nature, and the remembrance of who you really are: the Infinite.

The idea of learning lessons presupposes the experience of lacking something and subsequently acquiring something new. This is not possible given that you already are everything in existence.

So there is no destination to life really. You don’t ride a roller coaster to get to the end. You ride the roller coaster to enjoy the roller coaster. You ride life to enjoy the ride of life. This is it. This moment. In this moment we are experiencing ourselves in every way possible. It is in this world that we are bringing ourselves from the Unmanifest to the Manifest and thus experiencing all possibilities, all versions of All That Is, here in physical manifestation.

You are here so that God can know itself, so that the Divine can experience itself. God lives through us. It is thanks to you that God can experience itself and know itself, and God is infinitely thankful to you for your help in the experience, overflowing with appreciation and unconditional love.

The point of life is life. The “destination” is the journey.

This is it. Here and Now!

Welcome to earth.

Thanks for your question!!