At the core of my being I am a troublemaker – a rebel. I am not going along with the cultural conditioning of the masses, asleep to the Truth of our being. Yes, I am a messenger; you might say an evangelist, the origin of which means “bringer of good news.” And what is this good news? We are the creators of our experience.
“God” is the Ground of Being
“God” – Allah, Yahweh, Buddha, Jeshua, Tao, Cosmos, Universe, Christ, Spirit, Heart Flame, Inner Light, Sacred Heart, Divinity, Higher Self, All That Is, I Am that I Am, Source, are all names or labels for the infinite, loving intelligence, awareness, presence, essence, consciousness, the energy that permeates all of creation. This loving intelligence is the ground of all being; it is the life-force of Love unfolding and evolving itself. It is the intelligence that initially created and continues to create and evolve the universe. It is within each of us, accessed through our hearts. There is no Supreme Being, only a ground of being that permeates all. The purpose of Life is to humbly, gratefully, fully, and completely embody this truth. This is Self-Love and Self-realization.
“God” is a reality that infuses all that is; we are one with “God” by virtue of our existence. We are called to experiential knowledge of our innate divinity, Self-realization of our unity with the omnipresent energy that permeates all. “God” is the indivisible absolute of which we are a part; nothing exists apart from the One, apart from Love. Perhaps the “God Particle” in Quantum Physics is exactly this.
What is your relationship with this, your true nature? How do you feel when you hear that you are “God” or “Christ” or “Allah” or “Buddha” or the “Cosmos”? Can you entertain this possibility or do you shut down? Imagine yourself as a child of 5 or 6, and ask yourself what was your perception of “God”? What were you taught? What do you now believe about “God”? This is how you see a part of yourself that’s trying to get your attention through life. What would you like this relationship to be? What is it you really want from “God”? For the most part our relationship with “God” mirrors our relationship with our parents and visa versa. If we were taught and expect that authority figures reward good and punish bad, then our relationship with life is one of quid pro quo – always getting something in return or having something taken away. When love is conditional, equated with rewards, then withholding love is punishment and we came to believe that we must get/have something tangible to “prove” love; when the material is withheld, we are being punished. If we do anything solely for personal or material gain, it is ego and our intent will be revealed and bite us in the butt. Love serves; ego seeks to be served in pursuit of gain.
For a fair number of us, we are in a relationship with a part of ourselves based in fear of what having this relationship will bring. What are the relationship dynamics with your parents? Sometimes this isn’t clear until after they are gone. Trust, betrayal, abandonment, security, survival, respect, love… What did you receive? What did you “want”? How was this reflected in your actions towards them and others (“God”)? As in all relationship dynamics, trust breeds trust, betrayal breeds betrayal, abandonment breeds abandonment, security breeds security, survival breeds survival, respect breeds respect, love breeds love. It’s all a mirror, a never ending reciprocating cycle until someone puts and end to it, for good or ill. If you believe in a punishing “God” for “sins”, you see “punishment” in life. This is nonsense; our essence is eternally innocent. We break any spell of negativity through Self-love.
Love is an openness and reverence for life. Self-love is a committed, thoughtful decision to bring Self-integration and Self-realization of this infinite part of our selves, whether or not a “loving feeling” is present. It is Self-evolution of our “higher” intelligence or consciousness. When we relax into this unity, all else dissolves. If you can’t get to accepting and loving your “God-self”, at least open to the possibility of a “Higher Self’, an infinite, loving intelligence that continuously guides our life experience (whether we choose to see it or not). At the heart of Self-love is devotion; devotion to the Truth of our divinity invites and empowers it to become transformative.
It’s about having an open mind entrained with the heart – what HeartMath calls “heart coherence.” When we slow our minds and bodies they sync with our heart and “soul.” “Soul” is our individuated expression of our infinite self; individuated yet indivisible from the whole. We are so focused on our external, physical experience and material things as the only “reality”, we have difficulty acknowledging what is unseen within and throughout the universe. Our heart knows; our minds really aren’t smart enough to “figure it out.” It’s about balance and integration, the inner with the outer, the unseen and the seen, bridging and merging the “lower” self with the Higher Self, bringing the polarities of spirit and matter into union.
One reader said it is “egotistical” to say that we are “Christ.” “Christ” means “anointed one.” We are all “anointed ones”; we all contain the divine spark of the eternal flame of the heart. It is the ego – egotistical and arrogant – that denies our true nature, our essence, our totality of being. However we choose to describe or label another, we are actually describing ourselves. How we see, judge and react to what is said or done by anyone is based what is inside of us and has nothing to do with what is actually there. Excuses, denial, justification, looking for evidence to prove one’s point are always ego-based fear. We fear change. We fear the unknown. We fear the vast expanse of Love that we are. This bumps up against and disturbs our conditioned beliefs. It’s the ego that refuses to make this declaration of our true nature. Ego seeks to Ease God Out, irrespective of the name we give “God.”
Truth is ego’s worst nightmare. The mind will overlook or ignore what is not defined in a way it can control, even when the “undefined” is always present. We die in all ways, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically when we judge or dismiss Truth as fantasy.
The Radiance Within
The heart is the door, the gateway to our “soul”, our inner light. The mind, the ego, our thoughts and beliefs that generate “negative” emotions close this portal: “This is not how I want life to be.” Our emotions tell us whether or not we are “aligned”, whether or not the door is open and how wide. Emotions are our body’s reactions to thoughts about a situation, a feeling generated by thought. We are free when our thoughts no longer determine our inner state of consciousness. Our inner state, our relationship with our true nature is our primary responsibility.
Every one of our choices has a consequence. Positivity increases positivity. Negativity increases negativity. If we choose love, our entire being thrives and expands. If we choose fear, our entire being contracts. In a series of books, David Hawkins describes the Levels of Consciousness. The lower Levels of Consciousness, those governed by the ego include pride, anger, desire, fear, grief, apathy, hatred, guilt, and shame. The objective is personal gain; thoughts focus on causal (if-then) specifics and self-interest. It results in our conditioned reactions of striving, force and conflict.
The higher Levels of Consciousness governed by the heart (soul) include courage, neutrality, willingness, acceptance, reason, love, joy, peace, and unity. From the higher levels, we view the world through overall context, non-causal meaning and spiritual significance. It is our natural responsiveness of congruence, expansion and power. This is how we really want to be.
Our hearts literally radiate our emotions, energy in motion, into both our personal and the collective experience. The image is of the electromagnetic field of our hearts (HeartMath). Are you contributing harmony and joy through your inner harmony and joy? Are you contributing energy to the collective chaos and negativity through your own chaos and negativity of complaints, blaming, retaliation, etc.? Is your energy focused on self-serving, self-interest for personal gain and control? This includes shoring up one’s personal beliefs and self-image. If so, it is based in fear and ego.
It is when we are mentally neutral that the heart, Love, can express itself. Belief and thought generate separation, without our thoughts we naturally love, that is seek unity. Our mental neutrality allows Love to come forth into expression, enact itself and move in life.
If action truly benefits everyone and everything and comes from a place of genuine care, understanding and respect, it is based in love. Ask yourself, who benefits and how? What is gained for myself and others? What control is present? Love is living with an open mind and open heart and letting life in as it is, as it unfolds. Only love empowers oneself and others to fully realized potential. A shift in perception and attitude brings the ability to acknowledge and feel emotion to completion without judgment and reactivity. Ego asks: “What can I get out of this situation or relationship?” Love asks: “What can I give to this situation or relationship so that it fosters wholeness (holiness) of all?”
When we release ourselves from the glamour, security, lust/greed, and competitive power and their fear-based perceptions and behaviors, our limited, self-centered identity awakens to compassion towards all life as an expression of our divine Self. We awaken to our full potential. Life doesn’t necessarily get “easier”; there will still be “difficult” or “painful” situations. They are the catalysts for growth. Experiencing them with love for all, life becomes clearer, deeper, more meaningful, and simpler.
Who We are Called to Be
It is simply a matter of a heartfelt intention and commitment to have a conscious relationship to bring Love fully into one’s life and believe you are worthy and deserve it. To Love that part of yourSelf that is consciousness, the creator ever-evolving into more. We are the love we seek. When we relax into the experience of unity and Self-love, we see the luminosity of Life and the rest falls away. We see through the fallacy of mind-generated illusions.
Imagine that we are one with all that is. Imagine that our consciousness, our thoughts and emotions, create all that is. Imagine that part of your being that is all-knowing and all-loving. Imagine your life as infinite love. These images are reality. This is what you are. We cannot truly live or “master” life until we accept that we, our consciousness, are creating it. We created the split, the separation between spirit and matter; only we can end it and allow “spirit” to dwell within us. We each are a perfect thread of Love in the divine tapestry of Life. The mind is the emissary of the heart. Let your heart lead, the mind in service to the heart. Living in and through the heart sublimates, transforms fear to love without suffering.
Self-love is expressed through our “higher” purpose, our essence expressed in life. It is the Love we came to bring to the world. It is this secret held in our hearts that sustains us. It is the ground of our personal being. We when bring this into consciousness and align our thoughts, emotions and actions with this deep purpose, we know fulfillment, abundance and joy. It our personal source of being in the world but not of the world. It is at most 1 – 2 words that are simultaneously a vision, a virtue and our deepest value that we commit too. First we commit to Self-love, to merge. Then we can know and commit to the nature of our love. This is the catalyst for our experience of unity with life. From this experience of unified love, all that is contradictory is revealed. At the end of the day, the only relationship that matters is our relationship with the One within; the self with the Self.
What we focus on we create. Focus is a form of “prayer.” Self-love is profound. Its only desire is to give Love expression – to expand the expression of Love – to grow and evolve into more of itSelf, to know itSelf in new ways. Conversely, worrying is praying for things we don’t want to happen – and our focus can create them, a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Letting go of old concepts, no matter how flawed, is not easy. The only thing that is up to us is whether or not we make this transformation proactively or reactively. The only one stopping you from being the love you are is you. It is a postponement of the inevitable. We can engage willingly and gracefully or suffer if we resist. As we give more of ourselves to ourSelves, we naturally give more of ourselves to others and life.
When you are “done” living less than you are, your fullest potential, make this heartfelt intention and commitment: To Live the Truth of Who You Are as Divine Love. If you want “help”, call forth and invite your own “teacher” within. Step beyond the confinement of ego and flourish. When we do, we stop blaming others for how we feel and looking outside for identity, definitions and answers. An engaged, empowered and fulfilled life is lived from the “soul”, the essence, from source as Love. To allow Love’s free flow, abandon the identity of the ego-self as the source of existence. Living in fear is a learned habit; real power comes forth when we set aside fear. There is no other way.
Through our energetic connection of Love within all things, we add to the well-being or the detriment of the whole. There are no small actions. Everything we think and do generates an energy that becomes part of the infinite intelligence and produces countless ripple effects. Think of the flap of a butterfly wing initiating a hurricane a half-world away. Look beneath the surface to address issues; they all originate inside.
Difficulty is Growth
M. Scott Peck said “Life is difficult.” It is. We don’t grow and evolve unless we are challenged. Once we accept this, all “difficulty” disappears. Spiritual growth and integration is not a process of change but an evolutionary emergence to become the fulfillment of potential, like a larva becoming a butterfly. Creation is evolution by virtue of the emergence of potentiality into actuality (David Hawkins).
We only grow when we are challenged. If you find yourself uncomfortable or angry with what is written, great! There is an opportunity for growth. What is the perspective or belief that is ready to shift? What in this writing, triggered judgment? That judgment is inside of you, a part of how you “see” yourself that you are recognizing in me as a mirror. Write down all of these judgments, “good” or “bad” and reflect on how, in what ways they perhaps describe you. “Lj is out of her mind.” – I can’t live like this; I will be seen as crazy or lose my mind. “Lj is too open and personal.” – I fear what I will learn about my true self. Or, as one reader commented: “This is amazing.” – Yes we are. We can always resist or retreat from discomfort or we can move into it and allow its source to be revealed. When it is, the cause is dissolved. Allow the discomfort to be what it is with relaxed awareness, without reacting with drama and watch it dissipate.
Everything is an outpicturing of the consciousness within. When we gaze in awe at the cosmos, we are observing the vastness that we are. When we turn away from or fixate on pictures of war or famine, that war or hunger is raging inside of as well. When we are touched by nature’s beauty, that beauty is inside of us. Nothing is ever an “accident.” It’s all an opportunity to recognize and be the Love that you are.
As we love ourSelves, love flows through all of our interactions with one another and with life. We act as a “tuning fork” for those around us. Life is calmer. One no longer engages in the drama, rather acts as witness. Life becomes extra-ordinary in ordinary circumstances. Everything we engage with, including “difficult” situations, is joyful. We are literally enthusiastic about all that life offers. If we look to “master” anything in life, may it be empowered surrender. The jihad is within playing out on the world stage.
We are Divine. Our Essence is Love. Leadership in Service to Life. Leading as Love. Universal Leadership. Love makes a leader a Leader. Realized Potential. Leadership is not a role. Leadership is a state of being, the integration of all levels – body, mind, heart, and soul – as love. Leadership is being in integrity with oneSelf. When we are full of ourSelves, Love, it overflows and we are in service to all. What is the good I want to share with the world? When we allow our reunion with the source of all life, our lives are used for the highest good at all times. We achieve nothing without Love. Nelson Mandela embodies this.
If we have everything planned out according to a template, it’s impossible for us to be the movement of Love, of Light, in the moment. We can have a few guiding principles for how we engage with life. It is more pragmatic to incorporate these “spiritual” principles in everyday life and lifestyle. Choose even just one principle as an inner rule to be applied no matter what. Our Higher Self merely awaits activation by invitation and assent. What is your commitment for this life from the deepest core of your being?
Life on Planet Earth
If you got this far in reading this, some of you might say: What planet is Lj on? What do I do with this? I’m on Earth, just like the rest of you. I stepped back and broadened and deepened my perspective beyond the five senses and our social conditioning to include the consciousness of emotions and thoughts and that which can only be seen with the heart. I began to see clearly what makes all the truly effective leadership and organizational practices effective, like Appreciative Inquiry, Emotional Intelligence, Positive Organizational Scholarship, Servant Leadership, Transformational Leadership, to name a few. A blinding glimpse of the obvious that we would rather not acknowledge: They all honor and nurture the soul, the spirit within each of us, our totality of being; they call forth our Love. Personally, what can you do? First and foremost, deeply commit in your heart to Self-love, being the Love that you are, and surrender the prison of the mind. Then bring into consciousness the essence of your expression of love. This is your unique purpose; align your life with this.
Heaven is not a place; it is the state of unity with all of creation. Why is our true nature so elusive? Why do we resist and reject the Love that we are? What is so frightening about accepting the perfection of our imperfections? Allow your higher consciousness to take over, the consciousness that comes from the heart. To be the Self is the greatest accomplishment one can achieve; to create from the wellspring of the embodied Light within is true abundance and well-being. Why choose to be less than you are? It may appear that I have “lost” my living; I have gained my Life and livelihood.
Recently the film, E.T. – The Extraterrestrial, came to mind as a metaphor of how our “soul” might feel when landing in a body and life on planet Earth – alienated, lost, being chased and imprisoned, longing to return home. Perhaps this accounts for the universal and lasting popularity of the film for more than 30 years: At a deep level it is our shared human story, we identify with these feelings. The lesson: “Turn on your heartlight. Let it shine wherever you go.” Our Light is eternally on. Let’s stop hiding from what we are and allow our radiance and brilliance to shine forth. Be the Love you Are.
Collectively we create our life experience. The purpose of leading is to bring people together in a common cause – to create unity in diversity. It should be clear by now that the use of force does not unite. Only the power of love can dissolve what separates us and move us forward – Leading as Love. The only way we can unite and make progress is through love. 
