NobleSouls.Net

One of the lessons of life that I have been priviliged to learn is to let go of what I have been conditioned to believe is ‘right’ and discover the ‘rightness’ for me.

A classic example of this is that I was brought-up to believe in ‘duty’ - what one must do. Duty was bound up with honour - therefore if you did not do your duty then you were not an honourable man. Now I recognise that these are outmoded concepts for many today but they were important to me.

The extension of course of not being an ‘honourable’ man was guilt. Now there is a useless emotion - one than binds us and brings us down. It serves no purpose except to control and limit our passions, our purposes and true, adventurous selves. It is a ‘programmed’ emotion and one which is designed to create conformity and control. The pain I have seen in people eaten up with it - their inability to live the one life they now have, all ruled by guilt.

I don’t ‘do’ guilt’ anymore and I no longer act out of ‘duty’. Both of these I believe are driven by the threat of shame and exclusion and serve no purpose in a rebel soul. We choose to live out of passion and purpose. We don’t do ‘duty’ but we do ‘responsibility’. For, taking control and accountability for our actions and engaging with others in a responsible manner is something that is driven by love.  Love for oneself and love for others.

I had a fascinating dream the other night. I was seated at a meeting of beings - all gods (the ‘god within me perhaps?) . One of them was a gentleman who was dressed as a Chinese Emperor and appeared to be kneeling at the table with his imperial gown covering all of his body - the other was human sized Praying Mantis.

As we got up to leave the table I noticed a snake’s tail being slid in underneath the emperor’ clothes and the tail was definitely his. He and the Praying Mantis - which I judged to be female - were deep in what appeared to be telepathic communication.  Almost in equilibrium - the masculine and feminine.

When I came down to breakfast that morning I discovered that my young son (who had visited the Chester Beatty library in Dublin Castle the day before) had brought back a post card of an Oriental design on which were pictured nagas - serpents with legs and human heads. I thought that I had glimpsed this going to bed perhaps and this had been the cause of the dream but was assured that the card had only been taken out of his school bag just that morning.

Later with some Web research I learned that the emperor would be known as a naga - a divine human/serpent from whom the Chinese imperial lineage was derived from and that the Praying (Preying?) Mantis also had spiritual legends connected with it.

The dream made such an impression that I need to do some research on it but would be delighted if anybody could comment on the imagery.

I came across something about ‘la petite morte’ recently - the French for ‘the little death’ or the period of blackout during or after sexual orgasm.

This blackout or intensity has often been linked to the ecstacy of enlightenment and is the intensity of the experience during communion with the Divine. It amuses me how religion has controlled or removed the power of sexuality from any form of faith in the Divine. How the very religions which are meant to celebrate and honour creation have also sought to control that creative process through rules of how and when it can make itself manifest in relationships - usually by controlling the feminine power. Yet the saints and mystics of these religions are the same ones who have dedicated themselves to achieving the ecstacy of divine union.

In ancient times sexuality and sex was as much a part of the celebration of life and spirit as any form of prayer or ritual. Girls would offer themselves at temples to celebrate the act of sex as the act of creation and acknowledgement of our place as co-creators in the world.  The act of union of the divine in the masculine with the divine in the feminine is a powerful affirmation of the place that joy plays in creation and the power that ‘communion’ has to lift us to alternate experience. Where the ‘animal’ within us can unlock the bridge to the ‘divine’.

While on holiday recently I read ‘Nei Kung - The Secret Teachings of the Warrior Sages’ by Kosta Danaos. As a a 4th Dan blackbelt myself in the ancient Japanese martial art of Bujinkan (or more popularly known as Ninjutsu) I harbour an interest in the martial arts as a path for both physical and spiritual development.

This well-written book had less to do with fighting skills and more to do with a serious understanding of the science of Yin and Yang - the eternal opposing and complimentary energies of the universe and of spirit.

In the book Danaos makes mention that his master taught him the importance of not standing out in the crowd, of being a man that is invisible (in a sense) to others. My own interpretation was that he worked to become an ‘unremarkable man’ - a person who can move anywhere and blend in anywhere - someone who does not draw attention to themselves.

The phrase ‘an unremarkable man’ stayed with me however and helped me with what (for me) became a profound insight.

I came to realise that most of what I had striven to achieve in my life to this point was for the purpose of satsifying my own ego. All the pressure that I had put myself under, the striving, the work, the timetables, the targets, the deadlines - even many of the dreams I harboured - existed only for the satisfaction of my personal ego and pride - and I had not even realised it.

I had always understood the admonishment of ‘be humble’ to mean somehow ‘less’ or to put yourself in a space where others could walk over you or take advantage of you and that you had to ’suck it in’ and take it for the benefit of spiritual growth. Needless to say - I didn’t ‘do’ humility.

But, for me, I realise now that being humble is not about that. It’s about letting go of your ‘ego’. Realising that it is through the desire to fulfil our egotistic desires that we are controlled in this world. It’s the ego that is targetted when we are told to be beautiful, rich and ‘have it all’. But how can we possibly be happy with ‘having it all’ - most people who should be happy - who have it all - are not. The marketeeers just change the shape and the model or the definition of fashion and you’re constantly back in the game playing catch up.

As I looked at business magazines and newspapers it suddently really hit me at how much of the world and the fate of its people, is based on the ego of little people being constantly fed with a diet of acclamation or fascination.

But losing the ego rids you of all that. It’s like a weight comes off your shoulders. Resolving to be a person who does what you do as well as you can but for the service and satisfaction of yourself and the people that you choose to be of service to and not the recognition, acclamation or desire of others, changes things. It gives you an inner sense of power and rids you of the compulsion that exists in society ‘to have more, be more, do more’. It has started to change me. It allows you to create a personal world free of outside competition and pressure. You come to self-acceptance.

I can’t show you how to lose the ego that we have all nurtured and shaped for our lifetimes. It may be a personal journey and an insight that will come now that you can start to see things with new eyes.

For me it has come in a simple phrase - for me to be all that I can be to walk the path of ‘perfecting’ but as far as others are concerned, from this point on, I am happy to be ‘an unremarkable man’.

In conversation with PJ Francis last week over a cup of coffee we discussed the importance of joy in the pursuit of the spiritual path. P J Francis is a clinical psychologist and an heir to the teachings of Anthony de Mello with whom he worked for many years.

Joy as represented by The Trickster in the Path of the Rebel Soul, seems to me to be the very essence of spirituality in this plane of existence. When one experiences true Joy it seems that all things flow, that we are in synch with the beating of creation, that we transcend the ego and are completely in that moment of being. Nothing stands in the way when one experiences Joy. There are no obstacles and all things are possible. We are at one with the world and bear no malice towards any creature.

I believe that all beings seek Joy - that it gives us energy and life and is part of our right of being spiritual creatures. However, we have been led into believing that it is only the material accomplishments of life that bring Joy. It would appear that elements such as the media and ’society’ conspire to crush joy in our workplaces and society. They want us to be ’serious’, to follow the rules, to obey. Why?

Is ’society’ afraid that joy is liberating, anarchic, creative, frightening - is the idea of unrestrained joy a power that ’society’  fears?

But what Joy exists when one looks at one’s children talking excitedly about a new discovery or a lover’s face or when we take the time to reflect on a sunset or the complexity of a flower? ‘Simple’ Joy comes from the ability to take stock, to take time out of the world and begin to really see and experience the simple things that surround us and the heightened pleasure that they can bring when we slow down to work at a pace and speed at which the world is really unfolding itself and not the artificial speed of the current age.

Joy is a spiritual birthright but we have lost the eyes to see it and the spirit to experience it. To reclaim it we need to see the world through eyes that are renewed and a willingness to break out of accepted patterns in our lives.

Far back in pre-history woman was deemed divine.

She was the provider of children - a magical and mysterious thing for those who did not understand the science of creation. She sustained the tribe. Any wonder that the Earth became a Goddess who brought forth bountiful sustenance to feed our bellies and keep us nurtured? She provided the fruit and the creatures that kept us alive.

Came the gods of the arid desert and the power of the feminine waned as the power of the masculine grew into the ascendant . The time for the new male religions of Christianity, Islam and the Jewish sole masculine, paternal, god myths had come - with masculine energies of power, domination, competition, success, protection, technology and obedience. (Not that the power of the Goddess was not also destructive and fearful (the Goddess Kali and the Crone aspect of the Goddess in the West).

The Maya talk about the end of ages in 2012. It is an end - but not of the world, merely of a time. The age of masculine in the ascendant ends and the age of the feminine begins. The Maya could not comprehend a time when women would be in the ascendant but it is only the natural cycle of the ages.

We have seen the rise of women in the suffragette and liberation movement, in business and in all other aspects of society and now the increasing reclamation by women of motherhood - now by choice and in search of personal fulfilment. They are reclaiming their true power and bringing the feminine values of community, communication, networking, strength of endurance and nurture into a world that is now suffering from the ravages of having been disconnected long enough from Gaia the earth mother.

Welcome to the new age.

With the presence of a generation of people that have faced more change than any other generation that has ever walked the face of this planet before them - comes a need for a new view of spirituality.

With the fall of the pillars of the old world (the church, ‘big’ business, politics, the ‘old’ media) and the age of masculine energies and with the rise of the new feminine age of communication and collaboration (the Age of the Heart) - a new view of who we are, our purpose and the place that we have in Creation is being sought. Rebel Souls is about creating a fellowship of collaborators, facilitators, mentors and seekers who wish to walk a new path of spiritual enlightenment.

The philosophy of a Rebel Soul is that the Creator/Observer - the Divine Principle - ‘God’ - however you may term it - is an imperfect creator.

It is not perfect - for to be perfect is to be sterile - It is in fact evolving It’s infinite potential. Therefore It is in the process of constantly perfecting and It is doing so by being creation (as we understand it and of which we are a part) and able to perceive creation from outside of creation (both immanent and transcedent). This means two things - forgiveness is ours to take and we are co-creators of creation itself.

The ‘Great Work’ of humanity is therefore for each individual to take responsibility to evolve their most ‘perfected’ self before they move on in their spiritual journey and to assist others to do the same. In doing so, we serve the Creator by assisting in It’s own evolution. The ‘created’ working in tandem with the ‘creator’. (As Above So Below - As below So Above)

With values and teachings grounded in ancient ways and hopes for a brighter future of co-operation, community, collaboration and prosperity the philosophy of a Rebel Soul is a philosophy of personal development and spiritual evolution.

To do so we walk 4 Paths to integration and perfecting - the Path of the Warrior, the Path of the Healer, the Path of the Mystic and the Path of the Fool.

We are surrounded by images of perfection.

Everywhere we look we can see images of perfect bodies, lives, cars, clothes, holidays, families, businesses people and so forth. But that’s all they are - just images - graphically enhanced, distorted and shaped to create unfulfilled desire and the urgent need to sacrifice all, even life itself, to fill what is (and can only be) an empty promise, formed of an empty image.

What broken relationships and lives are left behind by the relentless pursuit of the material things that convey the outward signs of success? Things can be fun, great fun - but for a time only. Even the most perfect dream will end if it is based on the pursuit of the material alone because we are on an unending spiritual quest.

The desire that these things are supposed to fulfill, can only truly be fulfilled by looking within and not without.

Consider perfection for a moment. Something that is perfect has reached it’s pinnacle of being. What does it become then? Does it stop being? Does something that is perfect eventually become sterile, unchanging and eventually uninteresting and then begin to stagnate and corrupt? Becoming a shadow of it’s former self.

It is said that life is a journey. Which means that we walk a path that leads us, not to some perfect place or being, but on an unending journey of perfecting. When we realise that we are walking the path of perfecting and not perfection, life makes more sense and we can view the world with eyes that see all things as transitory and their value and meaning to us becomes what we choose to take from our interaction with them - how we choose to let them effect us.

Perfection and all the people who would tell you that your satisfaction, acceptance and love comes from being an acquirer of something, is a lie and are liars. Only by being an experiencer , by being an active part of creation, by being a creator of memories shared and experienced, only from this can we evolve to be who we truly are and take our place in the Great Work that we are here to do.

When we come to realise it is not things but experiences that brings us wisdom, self-understanding and self-acceptance ,then we truly have begun to live the life of a spiritual warrior and to create our own personal legend in the annals of the world.

I met someone recently who was proud to call themselves an atheist - because belief in a divinity of any kind was not logical. For them the world was pure logic - emotion had no part to play in it at all.

It was interesting to explore with them their experience of faith - they had even studied Christian theology in their own personal quest for enlightenment but had remained steadfastly atheistic seeing neither sense nor reason in the belief of something beyond our understanding.

We chatted around things over a drink and gradually it came out that they placed little value on emotion. That, for them, logic was stronger than emotion every time. As we discussed this I asked “if it is perfectly logical to self-preserve, to serve only oneself where does the motivation come from for a father or a mother to willingly sacrifice their lives for the lives of their children. To place themselves in harm’s way, even death itself, to protect those they loved? Surely that demonstrated that love was beyond the self? That logic was not the stronger power but emotion? Is it not emotion that gives us the strength to act selflessly, to act when everything screams not to?”

Then they shared that they had not yet experienced love - that this was still a journey that awaited them.

Love is a powerful force - it can cripple and break us or it can raise us to new heights of existence - and between those levels there are many other levels of what we term ‘love’. But the absence of love itself is a terrible thing.

I’ve always believed that the Creator - however you may perceive it/him/her - speaks to us through our dreams but sings to us through our emotions.