OK to be me
One of the phases in the evolution of a soul is the one where other people's needs take precedence. It is an important phase, because it marks a transition from self interest to the interests of the whole. However, it brings with it certain loops of behaviour that can be hard to break out of.One of those loops is the idea that what everyone else wants takes priority, and that our own wants are not at all important, because we are somehow not deserving. Now, this particular loop can be expressed in a huge variety of different ways, but it all boils down to the same thing.People in this loop might always criticise their own actions, looking for their flaws and tryin

The problem with religious texts...
When we try to read spiritual and religious texts literally, we get into all sorts of problems. I was talking to a friend last week about the Bible, and about channeling. Channeling works through the co-operation of two sets of energy: the energy of the channel, the person on this Earth, and the energy of the guides in spirit who transmit the information. The two sets of energy vibrate at very different levels, making direct communication very difficult. The guides who work with us light up circuits in our brains, delivering meaning, but using our brains as the medium for that meaning. So thoughts come through and we speak those thoughts, and the more we learn to trust the

Judging meditations
I seem to have had a lot of conversations this week about meditations. The common theme seems to have been that a busy inner voice implies "having trouble" with meditations. I'll agree, those meditations where the inner voice is quiet often feel very wonderful. But the ones where the inner voice keeps chuntering away are just as useful. When we meditate, we raise the level of our consciousness, which means that we are shining a brighter light on ourselves. When we shine a brighter light we see what's there more clearly. If what's there is a jumble of thoughts and feelings, then those are the things we will become aware of. Shining a light on them helps them to

A muse on yearning
When we yearn for something, we put a lot of energy into longing for something we haven't got. The longing not only takes us off balance, it also reinforces the notion within us that we haven't got what we long for. It makes the lack a self fulfilling thing, which feeds itself through more lack. The only way out of this self perpetuating cycle of lack is to let go of the need for the thing we are yearning for. And the way to do that is to develop faith in the all rightness of things just as they are. If we can take ourselves, even for a brief moment, out of the thought pattern that says, "I need...", then within that brief moment, we can create space for wellbeing. The more

Belief and emptiness
We have a tendency to fear silence - to fear emptiness. The only reason for this is that, if we really experience emptiness, we discover that many of the beliefs we have clung to are just illusions. Because we associate our beliefs with ourselves, the idea of discovering they are illusions is frightening.But what might these beliefs be? And would it be such a hardship to be without them?For example, one such belief might be that we are not somehow up to the grade. This is an illusion shared by many, even if the focus of it varies enormously. Some people doubt their abilities in a work setting, some as a lover, some doubt their looks, some doubt their likability,