Joy Awaits

My friends, through decades I have been blessed by encountering many spiritual paths, teachings, and practices. All encounters have born fruit but some have excelled in what they have offered me. This book is my effort to share with you what I have found to be true, useful to spiritual awakening, and produce joy and peace in myself and in many around me. Whether the few paragraphs below speak to you or touch your Soul in any way or you simply wish to live a more serene, happier and love-filled life, this book will offer you concepts and methods to support your journey and the attainment of your goals. They are certainly are doing that for me. I want to share the experiences, concepts, and practices that have made my life much gentler and more loving. I want to share everything that I believe can help us all make our way through these times with less pain, greater success, and more ease. I want to share whatever will assist us in understanding the nature of our spiritual journey so we may enjoy the experience of our travels and the bliss that comes with the true feeling of oneness with all life. This level of spiritual awakening requires coming to know our identity as the Divine Soul that never dies and has placed us on a mystical path which is now at a difficult crossroads. Most of us recognize that the planet and all it contains is in a very challenging transition at this point. This early part of the Twenty First Century is a critical period. Much in our world and our personal lives is in turmoil. These are unprecedented times and very painful for many, and yet immensely filled with possibilities for our future. Our planet is being permeated with transformational energy that any and all of us can make the most of - or the least of. It is our choice. Joy does await us and will expand within us as our consciousness embraces ever-greater spiritual truth. It is our Soul’s birthright; joy and love are the nature and core of our very existence. They enfold us as we remember who we truly are. For us to rise up in our consciousness requires that we deeply examine our thoughts, emotions, words, and deeds. We must recognize those that are in our way to higher wisdom. What are our current belief systems, attachments, and desires that hold us and others down in unhappiness and fear? To achieve this advance in insight and the resulting shift in behavior in ourselves and restore the Divine Plan on earth requires an entirely new system of ethics and values. We are invited to arise in love – to love and accept ourselves in our entirety and to recognize and experience the eternal Divinity within – and then to love our neighbors as ourselves. All creation is in our neighborhood. We are asked to expand our vision and extend our love into a practice of sharing with all so that all are cared for. The reward that comes with that expansion is world peace and a union with all our brethren. The joy and inner fulfillment that will be ours as this comes about is beyond words. We can transform ourselves and the world. Our next chapter is entitled “The Time is Now”. And it is. This is it! This is our time of living our choice, our time for healing. My hope is that something in these pages will help us to see ourselves and the entire world from a more advanced viewpoint. It is time for us to really come together and move forward in greater light; to become a part of that “critical mass” - a reference to the number of enlightened souls needed to tilt the scale of the world wide consciousness. A change in perspective is what is now requested and required for healing. That’s the invitation being extended from above and within the depths of our being. It is an invitation extended to us all. Most of you know the metaphor about the blind men and the elephant. I’d like to share a somewhat abbreviated form of this wisdom as I recall and interpret it. Several blind men expressed an interest in knowing what an elephant looks like. So a well-meaning individual took them to visit one. The men proceeded to feel the elephant; they used their hands to form a mental picture. Now as the metaphor goes someone asked the men after their encounter how the elephant looked to them. They all described it somewhat differently having touched different parts of the immense creature. Some emphasized tusks, or large solid feet, tough hide, a rounded belly or the trunk. Everyone had a different image to present. A couple of them had put several parts together for their picture. Each man felt his image to be correct and the others wrong; none understood the limitations of their singular viewpoint. Some arguing ensued. Eventually they came to comprehend that all views were needed to form a true picture of the whole. Conflict ceased and harmony descended. That’s where I think we are spiritually. We’re exploring more and getting a bigger picture of what’s going on in the Universe. However, few of us have a vision of the whole spiritual canvas. We’re describing parts and too often think the part is the entirety. Judgment and blaming occur. Self-righteousness abounds. It can be a blessing to realize we still know so little and thus release the conflict. In these chapters I have shared the parts I have come to know. There are many more. Let’s put my parts together with your parts and see what further we can grasp and become wiser. These chapters are a myriad of shared thoughts. There is a section based on teachings that have proven themselves to me time and again for decades, leading me on to deeper stillness and awareness. There’s a section on various methods of moving forward with greater ease and wholeness which have demonstrated their effectiveness to me on a daily basis for many years. And a few testimonies, stories of my experiences, and wise words from a few dear friends are thrown in here and there. Reading the chapters in order will allow for easier connections among them but feel free to jump in anywhere that calls to you. I will address key concepts from different angles at times; repetition of important truths is very useful to not only grasping the concepts intellectually but, more importantly, taking what’s right for us into our inner self and living it daily. The phrase “what is right for us” is crucial. Please take from these pages what feels useful to you, what registers as being productive to your journey and awakening. Let’s make a deal. I can share what has become higher truth and fruitful practice for me and you can choose what is right for your present process. That gives both of us a lot of freedom. So please join me in this inner adventure. Let’s ramble along this path of love and light. Allow our time together to bring you greater peace, hope, and understanding of who we truly are, what our lives are about and the enlightenment that awaits. I’d love to have your company.