And you may ask yourself, “What kind of world is this, with all bad news, with all bad people in power, with all bad outcomes screaming at us?” We have to ask all the scary questions when we are in the surround-sound of the current human and nature catastrophe. And then we have to not answer. We have to do the next thing, take the next breath and see what is going on in the next frame of the movie we find ourselves in.
We are prisoners of the world of circumstance, whether the circumstance is our body—working okay, not working okay—our sphere of relationships, desired or undesired, and the greater worlds around us of economics, politics, technology, ethnicity, race, karma, the weather and ultimately the is-ness of what is. It is a lot to deal with, this modern world of colliding worlds. There is only one sanctuary of freedom: our minds.
The guidance that comes from the timeless spiritual insights from every culture always comes down to one reality: you are inherently free to choose your thoughts. Unfortunately, a lifetime of programming has interfered with that freedom, and the journey to escape the programming and reach the state of the free mind is a heroic enterprise. On the good-news side, our deepest self knows the way and will respond to our intention to find the path through the maze.
In times that are so fraught and fractured, where the awareness of global suffering is so available and the prospects of redemption are seemingly so remote, making it better on an individual level has to be a priority. The fork on the path is pointing to a clear crossroads. One way leads to more suffering through reactionary thoughts heavily weighted by fear, anger, depression and escapism, and the opposite way points toward an equanimity that can endure the external hardships and imagine redemption.
If you chose the path toward a peaceful mind, the first step tends to be fighting the dragons of resistance to habitual thoughts that are part of the programming. These are conclusions we have drawn about life from childhood suffering or lectures from authority figures or strategies for “winning” or the bundle of lies that accompany the phrases “money makes the world go ‘round” and “time is money.” Those are the linchpins of a scarcity complex that is responsible for most of our problems as the master program for controlling humans. Unplugging from those thoughts is monumental. The reward is liberation. Hallelujah.
What actually makes the world go ‘round is a complex interaction with a majestic field of fourth-dimensional dynamics sourced in the divine center of creation. Contemplating that is a practice that appeals to certain restive minds and produces far better results than worrying about money. Time is a creative dimension of synchronization that expresses itself as a quality of consciousness. Becoming an adept, or even just playing in the realm of the dimension of time, has a really big payoff. It becomes possible to navigate in time and amplify timing so that you have time when you need it. Artists are time masters who feel at home in this consciousness, and that is why the great ones can create timeless art.
As the process of deprogramming unfolds, it liberates stored energies and emotions that wreak havoc in the physical being. We start to see the world through the eyes of the divine child, both innocent and powerful. Each of us needs to find which path of exploration suits our essence without judgment about other paths and other people. The famous saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears,” is amazingly true. The Dalai Lamas and Ram Dasses and even the Wavy Gravys of this world shine great beacons, but your teacher could be the book that falls into your hand at the yard sale. It’s a universal truth that everything is present at all times everywhere; seeing the bigger picture is a function of your perspective, not the picture.
When a person continues on the other path, driven by programmed fears and expectations, she goes deeper into fixation. The word fixation describes a mental condition that is focused small and hard and narrow to the point where it burns up part of the psyche and becomes a mental illness. Fanatics, fundamentalists and perpetrators of hate crimes have this illness and are behind the madness we are witnessing worldwide. Fixation is cultivated by forces that want to keep this planet under their control and is amplified through mass media and subliminal messaging.
The collective intentions of a new year, no matter what calendar you keep, call for a pause to reassess. We resolve to do better. We can’t really re-solve—solve again—with the same old techniques and tools. It takes a leap across old patterns and a willingness to not know before we find the security of new patterns.
Today all this is taking place against the backdrop of collective planetary transformation. All of suppressed history is being revealed and judged. The forces of prophecy are coming into focus. End Times. Armageddon. Day of Judgment. You name it. Some very powerful changes are going to be in play in the year 2020, the year that rings with a reference to perfect vision. No matter how old or young we are, our soul chose to be here now not because it was going to be dreadful but because we could do something of value in an auspicious time. This is a time of fulfillment. No one has to tell us what to do. We already know.
Elizabeth Whitney is a lifelong journalist now writing from a respite in Bali, where the interplay of simultaneous and diverse realities comprises ordinary life.