Earth medicine, p.26
Earth Medicine, page 26
Must avoid: Timidity. Indolence. Procrastination.
12.19 PRIMARY FUNCTION AND LIFE-PATH
The primary function of Wolf is understanding the meaning of love and nurturing it into outward manifestation.
This is the last path on the Wheel of Life, but it is not the end of the road. Rather it is an elusive world where boundaries have dissolved and where new potentials are arising.
It is a path that indicates an unfoldment of deeper latent abilities and which stimulates an urge to bring them to the peak of fulfilment and achievement – to reach for the mountaintops.
The prime purpose of this path is to bring about a realization that there are no endings and no beginnings – only changes – as the traveller rides the spirals of eternity, and that what is of true value has its potential in love, is fashioned in love, and finds its fulfilment in love.
12.20 THE I CHING TRIGRAM: Chi’en. The Creative Heaven.
People born during the Blustery Winds Time are positioned on the north-north-east on the Wheel of the Year.
The Creative Heaven indicates that the emotionalism of an idea is what changes desire into reality.
12.21 How TO COPE WITH WOLVES
Wolves respond to love, kindness and consideration. They have an instinctive reaction, so never betray their confidence or you will lose their trust.
* * *
PART THREE
The Practice
* * *
Wakan-Tanka’s Talk
Wakan-Tanka talks with me
Through the pages of no book
Penned by the thoughts of men.
No words, no creed, no dogma
Writes He to bind me to a clan.
In flight of birds that wing their way
To lands beyond my sight
In trees that root and take their time
To grow to their full height
In flowers whose petals hold
Such fragrance in their clasp
And every single animal
With purpose in its grasp
In Sun that rises with each Dawn
To herald a new start
In Moon that holds the ebb and flow
Of tides within Her hand
In Venus, Jupiter and Mars
And stars that form His heavenly band
In everything that breathes
And moves
And crawls
And flows
And stands
Wakan-Tanka talks with me.
Kenneth Meadows, 1988
3.1
The Path to Rediscovery
SELF-IMPROVEMENT IS NOT ABOUT BETTERING THE SOCIAL IMAGE or gaining the approval of others. It is getting rid of what is inhibiting us from becoming what we want to be – a reflection of our True Self. How do we find – or rather, rediscover – our True Self, our own, individual Higher Self? Our Soul Self?
The American Indians, like the ancients, approached life in accordance with the principle, ‘As Within, So Without’. It was a principle based upon the premise that the external world that was being perceived was the substance of spirit.
Space – that immeasurable quality that appears between objects in the external world and in which all living things live and move and have their being – was regarded as the substance of eternity, which was a condition of universal Spirit. Every human being occupied space in the external world and a place in eternity because the human being was an individualization of a universal Spirit.
But space is in all things, impregnating everything, and existing in all things. As modern science has discovered, all matter is composed largely of ‘empty’ space. Nothing is actually ‘solid’ at all, although it may appear so. Every tiny atom, with its electrons whirling at tremendous speeds around the neutron, is like an infinitesimal solar system and, like the universe, is mostly space. So vast is this ‘emptiness’ of space within the atom that the neutron might be likened to a pea in the whistle of a referee standing on the centre spot in the middle of a huge sports stadium, with the electrons, even smaller than the pea, following an orbit beyond the outside of the stands.
So there is space within as well as space that can be perceived without. The external world was regarded as containing the substance of Spirit and the internal world as containing the essence of Spirit before it comes into existence as substance. Since there was only one universal Spirit – humanity, and the animal, plant and mineral ‘kingdoms’ were all manifestations of that one great Spirit.
That was the essence of the spirituality of the Amerindian and of all ancient peoples. When we grasp that concept we can perhaps begin to understand why the Amerindian enjoyed a relationship with Earth and with Nature that extended far beyond the protectiveness of today’s conservationist, the concern of the ecologist, and even the sincerity of the naturalist. It was a communion with Nature that recognized, with all the love and simplicity and innocence of a child whose trust and understanding had not yet been impaired by the complexities and cynicisms of adulthood’s sophisticated knowledge, that Nature was not something that was separate from themselves but, in a sense, an extension. Nature, with all its wonders and beauties, was a manifestation of that one universal mind in which the individual human entity and all of Creation was immersed. Each human being was thus an individuation within that one great Spirit.
American Indians of old had no concept of the human mind. What could be seen, heard, touched, tasted and smelled was physical, and what could not be seen, heard, touched, tasted or smelled was non-physical and therefore perceived as being spiritual. What we call the mind is also intangible and similarly cannot be measured, weighed or dissected as can anything material. The mind might be regarded as an aspect of the spirit for it is related to intelligence. What some American Indians referred to as Great Spirit might, in the terminology of present-day psychology, be referred to as Universal Mind.
Within each human being was a non-physical inner reality which in modern psychological terms is referred to as the psyche. ‘Psyche’ is a Greek word which actually means ‘soul’ and ‘breath’. The psyche, or soul, is thus likened to breath. The breath of life is an inbreathing and an outbreathing – a pulsation of that living soul.
But if the psyche or soul is non-physical, how does it breathe? It undergoes its inbreathing by drawing in energies from the impressions and experiences of the outward, conscious activity in the external world of physical reality. Its outbreathing is the outgoing energies of the psyche’s inner activity into the external world. So the way the external world is perceived is, to an extent, conditioned by the inner world of which we are not normally consciously aware. This Looking Out and Looking In is another movement of the yang and yin, then This and That, in each of us. Yang is the Conscious Without, the apparent external world of physical appearances. Yin is the Unconscious Within, the invisible reality.
The psyche, or soul, is a means by which the human being perceives. It is not the originator of thought. It is not the self. It is an instrument or vehicle of thought and it operates on different levels of awareness.
Level 1: is the conscious, and is the middle realm or Middle World.
Level 2: is the subconscious, and is the lower realm or Underworld.
Level 3: is the unconscious and it, too, is in the lower realm and deeper still in the Underworld.
Level 4: is the superconscious and is in the upper realm or Higher World and is the realm of pure essence or spirit.
Level 1 might be regarded as the level of awareness of the physical world of ‘ordinary’ reality. It is our concept of what is happening to us and all around us and which we consider as ‘real’.
Level 2 might be regarded as the level of imagination and instinct, and of symbols and images. It is part of the world we might regard as ‘non-ordinary’ reality. It is the subconscious. It is the place of ‘becoming’.
Level 3 is deeper still. It is the area of unconscious activity which keeps our heart beating regularly, that controls our breathing and bodily functions of which we are totally unaware. It is the level of automatism.
Level 4 is the superconscious which is beyond all these states. It is the level of dreamlike being. It is the level of our true reality, our spirit self.
We spend most of our time on Level 1 which is the level that engages our physical senses. If we liken the mind to a globe or, perhaps, an onion, the conscious level is like the surface which can be peeled away. We might call this level the surface mind. Beneath it is another level – which psychology calls the subconscious mind. It is a lower mind, an almost robotic mind since it acts on instructions that penetrate through to it. Deeper still, if we peel away the subconscious, is the unconscious mind, the automatic mind that carries out the work.
Then there is the inner mind, the mind of our own inner reality which is at the very core of our being. It is the superconscious mind, the mind of the ‘divinity’ within which some have called the ‘soul’ within everyone. It is the essence of our true identity and of our Higher Self. It is our superconscious – our soul or ‘spirit’ self. It is part of the world of unreal reality where time and space laws do not apply, where all that ever was, is now, and ever will be, has noumenal existence.
Let us always remember that through that part of our consciousness called imagination, we can actually create – we can change reality. In a very real sense, then, the Great Spirit is in us, as in all, and we can channel Its creative power.
Mankind knew nothing of the subconscious mind or the so-called superconscious until the end of the nineteenth century yet the American Indian shaman and the shamans of Europe and other cultures had a knowledge of their existence that went back thousands of years. Of course, they did not identify them by such names, but personified them. None the less, they were aware of their existence, function and abilities.
The shaman considered that a human being was composed of four ‘selves’. There was the self concerned with normal, everyday, conscious activity and which functioned in the realm of physical reality. This was the ‘middle’ self functioning in the realm of ‘appearances’ which some American Indians referred to as the ‘Tonal’ world and the European shaman called the ‘Middle World’. It is the realm of what I have previously described as the Surface Mind.
The Middle ‘self’ operated in partnership with the Low ‘self’ which corresponded with the concept of the subconscious of modern psychology. The Low ‘self’ was the seat of conscience which was conditioned by concepts of right and wrong, morality and immorality, impressed into it through the Middle ‘self’. Whereas the Middle ‘self’ was reasoning, the Low ‘self’ was unreasoning and acted on instructions which filtered through to it.
The Low ‘self’ was sometimes referred to as ‘the Child Self’ – the ‘child’ that is within us whatever our age and position in life and which finds expression in our actions when we act ‘like a child’.
According to the ancient teaching, the Low ‘self’ relayed thought-patterns to the Higher Self with which it was said to be linked by an invisible cord. The Higher Self was the Soul Self, the True Self that had permanence and functioned on a level that was above that of normal consciousness and in a state of timelessness which the shaman called the Nagual. The Higher Self was the protector and guardian of the Middle ‘self’ and the Low ‘self’ through which it was enabled to experience material existence.
The Higher Self also fashioned the thought-patterns fed to it from the Low ‘self’ into thought forms that materialized as the Middle ‘self’s’ conscious reality in the future. The thought-patterns were energized by the vital prana or mana force which I referred to in Chapter 6. The strength and power of this pranic or manic energy determined the clarity of the thought-pattern from the Low ‘self’ and thus the actuality of the thought-form and its ultimate materialization. This vital force responded to mind.
There was also a Body ‘self’ which was the centre of consciousness of the physical body. The Body ‘self’ is that part of you that acts instinctively in times of crisis, and that is mostly concerned with physical survival and the desire to perpetuate itself. It is that part of you that ‘fights’ or ‘flees’ when threatened.
All four ‘selves’ are part of your totality. The Higher Self might be regarded as the eternal, spiritual self; the Middle ‘self’ as the temporary personality of this present life – your everyday self; the Low ‘self’ is the ‘child’ within, and the Body ‘self’ is that part of you whose emphasis is on the physical, on self-preservation and survival and self-interest. The Higher Self has eternal life but seeks experience whereas the Body ‘self’ at the other end of the polarity has experience and seeks eternal life.
This concept of the four ‘selves’ and four ‘minds’ was a key to the magik of the shamans and of their healing powers. It was also a key to the question of human identity. Each of us, at some time, has questioned the truth of our own identity that goes beyond the name we were given at birth or acquired on marriage. The eternal questions of human existence have crossed our minds and we have sought answers to them. But the answers seem to elude even the most educated minds. Philosophers have tried: they offer us hope. Religionists have tried: they offer us faith. Spiritualists have tried: they offer us comfort. But none give us the answers we seek.
We expect the answers to come from someone in ‘authority’, from someone who is ‘qualified’ and better educated than ourselves; from someone more spiritually ‘advanced’ perhaps – from a spiritual teacher, a philosopher, a religious leader, a mystic, a guru; someone in the ‘know’. We never think to look within. We never turn to the one absolute authority in our own lives, the one who really knows us better than anyone, the one who was with us at our birth, is our constant companion throughout every moment of every day and will there at our death: our ‘Real’ Self; our ‘True’ Self – our Higher Self. The Soul Self that is to be found in the one place we have never looked – within. We have looked everywhere but within.
The Higher Self is not somewhere ‘up there’ above us, not in some inaccessible ‘heavenly’ realm in Outer Space, but ‘in’ here, deep ‘inside’ us in ‘Inner’ Space, but existing on a higher vibratory rate than our conscious, everyday ‘self’.
We have each of us been so conditioned by parents, by the educational system, by our cultural background, and by society in which we live, to look outwards for knowledge as if it were a commodity that came from beyond ourselves that we much feed on and absorb. But what we obtain in this way is only external knowledge – knowledge that comes by and through the Surface Mind, knowledge that is based on appearances, on experimentation, on arguments, judgements, opinions and beliefs. We are not told that we can have access to an inner knowledge – a knowledge that comes from within and is based on realities that exist beyond the appearances of physical existence. We are not told because the way to that knowledge has become lost, or hidden or obscured.
Our Surface Mind has been thus programmed by other people – first by our parents, then our teachers, and by the traditions and customs of the society in which we were born. Its input has been the beliefs and attitudes, opinions and prejudices and influences of others. It has been conditioned by the consumer society in which we live, by advertisers who stimulate desire. It is manipulated by the media, by politicians, by commentators, analysts and instant pundits. It is fashioned by husband, wife or lover, by parents, by friends and neighbours, by people we work with or work for. The Surface Mind causes us to act as others expect us to act. It causes us to believe what others say about us. It causes us to conform to the image others have of us. We can rarely be ourselves.
With all the constant chatter and incessant sound which engulfs us from the world around, we never pause long enough to listen for the answers about ourselves which can come only from within. Yet only the ‘You’ within knows you intimately enough to know who You are, what you’re doing here, and where you’re supposed to be heading. That ‘You’ has known the answers all along. The trouble is that the ‘little’ you, the you of the Surface Mind, has cut itself off from the recall channel and has lost its way.
If you truly want the answers, you must have the courage to take off the ‘headset’ that allows you to be under such constant bombardment. You have to learn to listen to the Internal Mind that will help you to know the truth about yourself and bring you the contentment that you crave. And what is contentment? Contentment is when you are not aware of actually wanting anything. Of being satisfied with what the moment holds and drawing pleasure and profit from the time you are in. Just imagine – finding pleasure and knowledge in the moment! That might seem an impossible dream, but you can attain it if you will because, essentially, that is an overall purpose of life.
Life is intended to be pleasurable, not something to put up with, to be suffered and endured. Life is wonder-ful. Life is purpose-ful. Life is for the purpose of gaining knowledge through the wonder of experience. That knowledge has little to do with the gathering of useless facts which sometimes masquerades as ‘education’: it is the knowledge that can be transformed into wisdom so that wisdom can be activated into Love. That is the essence of the message of all true religion, which is man’s approach to the sublime. Light, law and love – the sacred expressions of the ‘mind’ of the Great Spirit.
That is how we ‘evolve’. For the true purpose of the ‘evolutionary’ process is the cultivation of the Spirit. That is what it is all about.
Figure 40.
Part Three of this book is intended to provide a finer tuning of Earth Medicine and to indicate practical uses of its principles. We make use of them and experience for ourselves their validity by developing a capacity to align with the universal mind and by coming into harmony with its manifestations. Once we begin to do this, we extend and expand our conscious awareness and develop a perception of that which is beyond ‘ordinary’ reality, thus cultivating the spirit.
12.19 PRIMARY FUNCTION AND LIFE-PATH
The primary function of Wolf is understanding the meaning of love and nurturing it into outward manifestation.
This is the last path on the Wheel of Life, but it is not the end of the road. Rather it is an elusive world where boundaries have dissolved and where new potentials are arising.
It is a path that indicates an unfoldment of deeper latent abilities and which stimulates an urge to bring them to the peak of fulfilment and achievement – to reach for the mountaintops.
The prime purpose of this path is to bring about a realization that there are no endings and no beginnings – only changes – as the traveller rides the spirals of eternity, and that what is of true value has its potential in love, is fashioned in love, and finds its fulfilment in love.
12.20 THE I CHING TRIGRAM: Chi’en. The Creative Heaven.
People born during the Blustery Winds Time are positioned on the north-north-east on the Wheel of the Year.
The Creative Heaven indicates that the emotionalism of an idea is what changes desire into reality.
12.21 How TO COPE WITH WOLVES
Wolves respond to love, kindness and consideration. They have an instinctive reaction, so never betray their confidence or you will lose their trust.
* * *
PART THREE
The Practice
* * *
Wakan-Tanka’s Talk
Wakan-Tanka talks with me
Through the pages of no book
Penned by the thoughts of men.
No words, no creed, no dogma
Writes He to bind me to a clan.
In flight of birds that wing their way
To lands beyond my sight
In trees that root and take their time
To grow to their full height
In flowers whose petals hold
Such fragrance in their clasp
And every single animal
With purpose in its grasp
In Sun that rises with each Dawn
To herald a new start
In Moon that holds the ebb and flow
Of tides within Her hand
In Venus, Jupiter and Mars
And stars that form His heavenly band
In everything that breathes
And moves
And crawls
And flows
And stands
Wakan-Tanka talks with me.
Kenneth Meadows, 1988
3.1
The Path to Rediscovery
SELF-IMPROVEMENT IS NOT ABOUT BETTERING THE SOCIAL IMAGE or gaining the approval of others. It is getting rid of what is inhibiting us from becoming what we want to be – a reflection of our True Self. How do we find – or rather, rediscover – our True Self, our own, individual Higher Self? Our Soul Self?
The American Indians, like the ancients, approached life in accordance with the principle, ‘As Within, So Without’. It was a principle based upon the premise that the external world that was being perceived was the substance of spirit.
Space – that immeasurable quality that appears between objects in the external world and in which all living things live and move and have their being – was regarded as the substance of eternity, which was a condition of universal Spirit. Every human being occupied space in the external world and a place in eternity because the human being was an individualization of a universal Spirit.
But space is in all things, impregnating everything, and existing in all things. As modern science has discovered, all matter is composed largely of ‘empty’ space. Nothing is actually ‘solid’ at all, although it may appear so. Every tiny atom, with its electrons whirling at tremendous speeds around the neutron, is like an infinitesimal solar system and, like the universe, is mostly space. So vast is this ‘emptiness’ of space within the atom that the neutron might be likened to a pea in the whistle of a referee standing on the centre spot in the middle of a huge sports stadium, with the electrons, even smaller than the pea, following an orbit beyond the outside of the stands.
So there is space within as well as space that can be perceived without. The external world was regarded as containing the substance of Spirit and the internal world as containing the essence of Spirit before it comes into existence as substance. Since there was only one universal Spirit – humanity, and the animal, plant and mineral ‘kingdoms’ were all manifestations of that one great Spirit.
That was the essence of the spirituality of the Amerindian and of all ancient peoples. When we grasp that concept we can perhaps begin to understand why the Amerindian enjoyed a relationship with Earth and with Nature that extended far beyond the protectiveness of today’s conservationist, the concern of the ecologist, and even the sincerity of the naturalist. It was a communion with Nature that recognized, with all the love and simplicity and innocence of a child whose trust and understanding had not yet been impaired by the complexities and cynicisms of adulthood’s sophisticated knowledge, that Nature was not something that was separate from themselves but, in a sense, an extension. Nature, with all its wonders and beauties, was a manifestation of that one universal mind in which the individual human entity and all of Creation was immersed. Each human being was thus an individuation within that one great Spirit.
American Indians of old had no concept of the human mind. What could be seen, heard, touched, tasted and smelled was physical, and what could not be seen, heard, touched, tasted or smelled was non-physical and therefore perceived as being spiritual. What we call the mind is also intangible and similarly cannot be measured, weighed or dissected as can anything material. The mind might be regarded as an aspect of the spirit for it is related to intelligence. What some American Indians referred to as Great Spirit might, in the terminology of present-day psychology, be referred to as Universal Mind.
Within each human being was a non-physical inner reality which in modern psychological terms is referred to as the psyche. ‘Psyche’ is a Greek word which actually means ‘soul’ and ‘breath’. The psyche, or soul, is thus likened to breath. The breath of life is an inbreathing and an outbreathing – a pulsation of that living soul.
But if the psyche or soul is non-physical, how does it breathe? It undergoes its inbreathing by drawing in energies from the impressions and experiences of the outward, conscious activity in the external world of physical reality. Its outbreathing is the outgoing energies of the psyche’s inner activity into the external world. So the way the external world is perceived is, to an extent, conditioned by the inner world of which we are not normally consciously aware. This Looking Out and Looking In is another movement of the yang and yin, then This and That, in each of us. Yang is the Conscious Without, the apparent external world of physical appearances. Yin is the Unconscious Within, the invisible reality.
The psyche, or soul, is a means by which the human being perceives. It is not the originator of thought. It is not the self. It is an instrument or vehicle of thought and it operates on different levels of awareness.
Level 1: is the conscious, and is the middle realm or Middle World.
Level 2: is the subconscious, and is the lower realm or Underworld.
Level 3: is the unconscious and it, too, is in the lower realm and deeper still in the Underworld.
Level 4: is the superconscious and is in the upper realm or Higher World and is the realm of pure essence or spirit.
Level 1 might be regarded as the level of awareness of the physical world of ‘ordinary’ reality. It is our concept of what is happening to us and all around us and which we consider as ‘real’.
Level 2 might be regarded as the level of imagination and instinct, and of symbols and images. It is part of the world we might regard as ‘non-ordinary’ reality. It is the subconscious. It is the place of ‘becoming’.
Level 3 is deeper still. It is the area of unconscious activity which keeps our heart beating regularly, that controls our breathing and bodily functions of which we are totally unaware. It is the level of automatism.
Level 4 is the superconscious which is beyond all these states. It is the level of dreamlike being. It is the level of our true reality, our spirit self.
We spend most of our time on Level 1 which is the level that engages our physical senses. If we liken the mind to a globe or, perhaps, an onion, the conscious level is like the surface which can be peeled away. We might call this level the surface mind. Beneath it is another level – which psychology calls the subconscious mind. It is a lower mind, an almost robotic mind since it acts on instructions that penetrate through to it. Deeper still, if we peel away the subconscious, is the unconscious mind, the automatic mind that carries out the work.
Then there is the inner mind, the mind of our own inner reality which is at the very core of our being. It is the superconscious mind, the mind of the ‘divinity’ within which some have called the ‘soul’ within everyone. It is the essence of our true identity and of our Higher Self. It is our superconscious – our soul or ‘spirit’ self. It is part of the world of unreal reality where time and space laws do not apply, where all that ever was, is now, and ever will be, has noumenal existence.
Let us always remember that through that part of our consciousness called imagination, we can actually create – we can change reality. In a very real sense, then, the Great Spirit is in us, as in all, and we can channel Its creative power.
Mankind knew nothing of the subconscious mind or the so-called superconscious until the end of the nineteenth century yet the American Indian shaman and the shamans of Europe and other cultures had a knowledge of their existence that went back thousands of years. Of course, they did not identify them by such names, but personified them. None the less, they were aware of their existence, function and abilities.
The shaman considered that a human being was composed of four ‘selves’. There was the self concerned with normal, everyday, conscious activity and which functioned in the realm of physical reality. This was the ‘middle’ self functioning in the realm of ‘appearances’ which some American Indians referred to as the ‘Tonal’ world and the European shaman called the ‘Middle World’. It is the realm of what I have previously described as the Surface Mind.
The Middle ‘self’ operated in partnership with the Low ‘self’ which corresponded with the concept of the subconscious of modern psychology. The Low ‘self’ was the seat of conscience which was conditioned by concepts of right and wrong, morality and immorality, impressed into it through the Middle ‘self’. Whereas the Middle ‘self’ was reasoning, the Low ‘self’ was unreasoning and acted on instructions which filtered through to it.
The Low ‘self’ was sometimes referred to as ‘the Child Self’ – the ‘child’ that is within us whatever our age and position in life and which finds expression in our actions when we act ‘like a child’.
According to the ancient teaching, the Low ‘self’ relayed thought-patterns to the Higher Self with which it was said to be linked by an invisible cord. The Higher Self was the Soul Self, the True Self that had permanence and functioned on a level that was above that of normal consciousness and in a state of timelessness which the shaman called the Nagual. The Higher Self was the protector and guardian of the Middle ‘self’ and the Low ‘self’ through which it was enabled to experience material existence.
The Higher Self also fashioned the thought-patterns fed to it from the Low ‘self’ into thought forms that materialized as the Middle ‘self’s’ conscious reality in the future. The thought-patterns were energized by the vital prana or mana force which I referred to in Chapter 6. The strength and power of this pranic or manic energy determined the clarity of the thought-pattern from the Low ‘self’ and thus the actuality of the thought-form and its ultimate materialization. This vital force responded to mind.
There was also a Body ‘self’ which was the centre of consciousness of the physical body. The Body ‘self’ is that part of you that acts instinctively in times of crisis, and that is mostly concerned with physical survival and the desire to perpetuate itself. It is that part of you that ‘fights’ or ‘flees’ when threatened.
All four ‘selves’ are part of your totality. The Higher Self might be regarded as the eternal, spiritual self; the Middle ‘self’ as the temporary personality of this present life – your everyday self; the Low ‘self’ is the ‘child’ within, and the Body ‘self’ is that part of you whose emphasis is on the physical, on self-preservation and survival and self-interest. The Higher Self has eternal life but seeks experience whereas the Body ‘self’ at the other end of the polarity has experience and seeks eternal life.
This concept of the four ‘selves’ and four ‘minds’ was a key to the magik of the shamans and of their healing powers. It was also a key to the question of human identity. Each of us, at some time, has questioned the truth of our own identity that goes beyond the name we were given at birth or acquired on marriage. The eternal questions of human existence have crossed our minds and we have sought answers to them. But the answers seem to elude even the most educated minds. Philosophers have tried: they offer us hope. Religionists have tried: they offer us faith. Spiritualists have tried: they offer us comfort. But none give us the answers we seek.
We expect the answers to come from someone in ‘authority’, from someone who is ‘qualified’ and better educated than ourselves; from someone more spiritually ‘advanced’ perhaps – from a spiritual teacher, a philosopher, a religious leader, a mystic, a guru; someone in the ‘know’. We never think to look within. We never turn to the one absolute authority in our own lives, the one who really knows us better than anyone, the one who was with us at our birth, is our constant companion throughout every moment of every day and will there at our death: our ‘Real’ Self; our ‘True’ Self – our Higher Self. The Soul Self that is to be found in the one place we have never looked – within. We have looked everywhere but within.
The Higher Self is not somewhere ‘up there’ above us, not in some inaccessible ‘heavenly’ realm in Outer Space, but ‘in’ here, deep ‘inside’ us in ‘Inner’ Space, but existing on a higher vibratory rate than our conscious, everyday ‘self’.
We have each of us been so conditioned by parents, by the educational system, by our cultural background, and by society in which we live, to look outwards for knowledge as if it were a commodity that came from beyond ourselves that we much feed on and absorb. But what we obtain in this way is only external knowledge – knowledge that comes by and through the Surface Mind, knowledge that is based on appearances, on experimentation, on arguments, judgements, opinions and beliefs. We are not told that we can have access to an inner knowledge – a knowledge that comes from within and is based on realities that exist beyond the appearances of physical existence. We are not told because the way to that knowledge has become lost, or hidden or obscured.
Our Surface Mind has been thus programmed by other people – first by our parents, then our teachers, and by the traditions and customs of the society in which we were born. Its input has been the beliefs and attitudes, opinions and prejudices and influences of others. It has been conditioned by the consumer society in which we live, by advertisers who stimulate desire. It is manipulated by the media, by politicians, by commentators, analysts and instant pundits. It is fashioned by husband, wife or lover, by parents, by friends and neighbours, by people we work with or work for. The Surface Mind causes us to act as others expect us to act. It causes us to believe what others say about us. It causes us to conform to the image others have of us. We can rarely be ourselves.
With all the constant chatter and incessant sound which engulfs us from the world around, we never pause long enough to listen for the answers about ourselves which can come only from within. Yet only the ‘You’ within knows you intimately enough to know who You are, what you’re doing here, and where you’re supposed to be heading. That ‘You’ has known the answers all along. The trouble is that the ‘little’ you, the you of the Surface Mind, has cut itself off from the recall channel and has lost its way.
If you truly want the answers, you must have the courage to take off the ‘headset’ that allows you to be under such constant bombardment. You have to learn to listen to the Internal Mind that will help you to know the truth about yourself and bring you the contentment that you crave. And what is contentment? Contentment is when you are not aware of actually wanting anything. Of being satisfied with what the moment holds and drawing pleasure and profit from the time you are in. Just imagine – finding pleasure and knowledge in the moment! That might seem an impossible dream, but you can attain it if you will because, essentially, that is an overall purpose of life.
Life is intended to be pleasurable, not something to put up with, to be suffered and endured. Life is wonder-ful. Life is purpose-ful. Life is for the purpose of gaining knowledge through the wonder of experience. That knowledge has little to do with the gathering of useless facts which sometimes masquerades as ‘education’: it is the knowledge that can be transformed into wisdom so that wisdom can be activated into Love. That is the essence of the message of all true religion, which is man’s approach to the sublime. Light, law and love – the sacred expressions of the ‘mind’ of the Great Spirit.
That is how we ‘evolve’. For the true purpose of the ‘evolutionary’ process is the cultivation of the Spirit. That is what it is all about.
Figure 40.
Part Three of this book is intended to provide a finer tuning of Earth Medicine and to indicate practical uses of its principles. We make use of them and experience for ourselves their validity by developing a capacity to align with the universal mind and by coming into harmony with its manifestations. Once we begin to do this, we extend and expand our conscious awareness and develop a perception of that which is beyond ‘ordinary’ reality, thus cultivating the spirit.
