The following is all from that email written by Shepherd Hoodwin:
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Here are excerpts from some recent posts I wrote for the Michael teachings Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MichaelTeachings). This thread began in response to a comment on my essay, "Compassion for Evil."
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I used to believe that I created everything. At first, that was a step up for me. I looked for the symbolism and lessons in everything that happened. I learned a lot. However, then I started to think it was simply my many personal defects that prevented me from having my version of perfection. The idea that I created everything had helped me feel in control, but it wasn't working. In time, I realized that I was being unrealistic about how the physical plane works. It was a relief to accept the lack of perfection here, and to be less invested in the results I'm getting. Imperfection is not "the end of the world"--it *is* the world. Our school books get tattered, and eventually recycled, but we keep the learning.
For example, I've never had great health. Maybe I'm still unconsciously creating that, despite my doing every kind of work I know how to do about it. Or maybe it's just part of the package I signed up for, or maybe things haven't gone as planned (which is what I think). In any case, it is what it is, and my task is to deal with it as constructively as I can without judging it. I'm willing to see any negative beliefs I still hold, but I don't think my beliefs are going to become perfect in this lifetime, either. Not that I'm holding a limiting belief about that! I'm totally willing to become a bilocating, levitating breatharian ascended master, but I'd settle for having a waistline.
I still look for how I might have created something; I just don't assume that I did.
We can't assume that a particular misfortune was a choice--each case is individual. Some who died in the Holocaust chose it on a soul level (karma, lessons, or whatever) and some didn't.
Beliefs are just models we use to see the world; they're made up of words and concepts. Truth itself is not words. Beliefs are positive if they help us expand into greater joy, and negative if they hem us in. A belief can start positive and turn negative over time, which means we might be ready to find a more expansive view. I don't knock what works for someone else (which is up to each person to decide). I just know what works for me.
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Sometimes, what we learn from bad experiences helps us prevent even worse things later.
I once had several boxes of cassettes stolen from my unlocked car parked in my driveway, and the person also entered my living room (without taking anything) through sliding glass doors that were open because it was a hot night. I felt quite violated, but it did make me much more careful about locking things.
Another time, three high school guys who had helped my neighbors move in saw how easy it would be to break into my apartment through the front window. They came the next Sunday afternoon (I was almost always home, but I happened to be gone that day). They cut the screen, slid open the window, opened the door, and were about to move my valuables out into a pickup when my roommate came home and scared them off. Now, I have an alarm on that window (the only vulnerable one) and a stick in the slider.
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Self-karma a broad term encompassing karmic-like charges/energy imbalances that are not specifically with other people, but internal. As example might be chronic low self-esteem focused on a particular issue, such as one's waist.
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Losses are harsh regardless of how they are interpreted, and grieving hurts like hell--there's no way around it. We *can* make it worse if we have baggage around it, such as blaming ourselves OR God. What works best is to just feel the feelings with love until they shift.
For some, it would be harder to hear that it was the soul's plan to make them suffer so; for others, the idea of just having been in the wrong place at the wrong time seems more cruel. I would never assume that something was either accidental or planned; I would get channeling or a deep intuitive reading on it if I really wanted to know, since every circumstance is unique.
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I've read some Jane Roberts Seth and Abraham Hicks books, and thought they were excellent. Like much of the best channeled material, reading them can draw one into a higher-centered experience beyond the words. But even above the physical plane, souls have their own beliefs, their own ways of framing reality. Our spirit guides, for instance, may be full of love, but they may hold beliefs that we find don't entirely work for us. Plus, we are all evolving our understanding together. What was state-of-the-art a couple decades ago may no longer be.
An example is that our collective understanding of sexuality has grown a great deal recently; older channeled or other spiritual material may now look homophobic through our eyes. Guides are learning, too.
Seth believed at the time of a channeling that we create everything we experience; maybe he still believes that, maybe he doesn't. There's no question that anyone serious about the spiritual path will want to become more aware of his beliefs and work to align them more with love. Our beliefs are crucial--they are our software. However, to say that they literally create everything seems off to me--the way I'd put it is that they create the *climate* for everything we experience.
That particular point is a relatively minor matter of dogma that doesn't much matter to me. If I just created a zit because of a pus-filled belief of which I am unaware, well--it's just a zit. If I created that driver who didn't look and almost hit me, all I can say is, "Damn! I'm good!" What concerns me much more is the way that the mass-market versions of YCYOR ("You create your own reality") promise the moon.
To be fair, the version of YCYOR channeled from Abraham is more subtle than the version publicized in "The Secret," which the Abraham channel disavowed. "The Secret" and variations going back to other self-help books such as "Think and Grow Rich" and "The Power of Positive Thinking" are about getting what you want (or think you want), whereas the Abraham material, as I understand it, is more about surrendering to your higher good.
I know a lot of spiritual/new age people, and I have yet to meet one who has managed to create a home run in every area: relationships, health, wealth, etc., or who has defeated aging and other challenges of the physical plane. Is there currently alive even one human being in perfect health?
I've heard about some guru types, mostly in India, who seem to have transcended their bodies, and I have no trouble believing that that's possible. In fact, I believe that just about anything is possible. Not having met one, I reserve judgement, but if it's true as advertised, that is very cool, but those rare individuals are playing a different game than most of us. I love the Michael teachings' emphasis that our lives are worthwhile just the way they are. We don't have to transcend them; it's just about living them well and growing as much as we can. That's practical for all of us who are not called to meditate several hours a day or undertake other strenuous spiritual practices. We can awaken wherever we are.
I was part of a group called Emissaries of Divine Light. One of their tenets is "Let love radiate without concern for results." I've never heard a better summation of the spiritual path. If any of us is able to create wonderful things through intention, too (a great relationship, health, a hit daytime talk show, etc.), that's terrific. You go, girl! But if, like Job, we are able to keep loving even when things aren't going so well, then we're truly free. Our results can give us useful feedback, especially if we observe repetitive patterns, but insisting they be a certain way is a trap. If we just keep doing our best, and then let go, things will go about as well as they can. There will probably be some suffering included in the package, but perhaps we can keep it to a minimum. If we expect perfection, though, it will hit us harder than if we can take it in stride.
The Emissaries also taught that if we're fully paying attention to our own choices, we don't have any time left over to judge other people's. We have some instinctive hardwiring that makes us want to mind other people's business--another trick for keeping unruly tribe members in line--but that's one of those evolutionary traits, like vengeance, best left behind. Even baby souls can respect other people's right to choose, especially if they have role models for that. Although community expectations weigh heavily at that point, how that manifests has a lot to do with the local culture. Baby souls who believe in reincarnation look different from baby souls who believe in hell and damnation or those who don't have religious beliefs.
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I have long been fascinated by the symbolism in our lives. It's easier for me to think that a single event is happenstance, but when there are repeating patterns, that gets my attention. However, even then, we can't assume that there is a larger meaning. Sometimes three cigars are just three cigars.
Since March, my car (which can represent one's body) has been having trouble starting. I'd just been given some guidance about the need to jumpstart my body. First, an old, defective car alarm was removed. That rich symbolism was not lost on me: letting go of being unduly alarmed, overreacting (as car alarms tend to do) with fear would help me move forward. However, two months later, the car wasn't starting again. Not sure what to do, my mechanic put in a new starter, and it again worked right for a while. A new starter also sounded like a good thing for my body. However, shortly thereafter, another problem with starting started. I had to fiddle with the steering wheel until it locked in before it would start. Then, it wouldn't start at all; it needed a new electrical switch. Our nervous system is our body's electrical system, and mine probably needs a new switch, too. I've been working with a healer, an old artisan, who thinks about the energy body in these kinds of structural terms. For example, she installed a new pranic tube, and I really felt a difference.
However, when I asked Essence if all this symbolism is correct, if I was creating the car problems or if they are reflecting my issues. I got a clear "no": It's simply a 16-year-old car, and eventually, things wear out. One item wearing out probably put stress on the others, so they happened roughly together.
Too bad! Were it symbolic, it would be a much juicier story. However, maybe essence is wrong. In any case, there's no harm in seeing it as reflecting that I'm making progress with my body. On the other hand, if I decided to get a new car, that could indicate that I'm about to die and reincarnate. Maybe I'll just stick with the "old car" theory.
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RANDOMNESS
I googled for Einstein's famous quote, often paraphrased as "God does not play dice with the universe," and found this great page, full of his insights:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein
Incidentally, it includes a link to a marvelous photograph of him and Rabindranath Tagore:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Einstein_and_Tagore_Berlin_14_July_1930.jpg
The word "random" can conjure different connotations. To me, it means "spontaneous" or "unplanned in advance." In my view, this is some randomness in the universe. I could go with the idea that nothing is random if, by that, you mean "totally without cause or intent." The latter is impossible--there's always a cause (often multi-pronged).
It's like trying to answer that question, "Do you believe in God?" Let's say that five billion people believe in God. However, in each person, that conjures up at least a slightly different set of connotations, so there are five billion different versions of "God." A simple "yes" answer doesn't tell us much without knowing what the word actually represents to someone.
Anyway, I just asked God about this, and She told me that she actually does enjoy a good game of craps occasionally. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," She is fond of saying.
Best,
Shepherd
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sgh@summerjoy.com
http://summerjoy.com
BLOG: http://newagevillage.com/perspectives/
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