We need to beware escalating external distraction out there in the mainstream right now. The system is losing its grip, and they know it, that's why you'll see all manner of charades and shennanigans, such as what's happening on the world stage right now. It's all designed to distract by adding another level of fear and control. Don't let it!
In terms of the inner inquiry through meditation, the first thing to be clear on is what you want to achieve. This in itself is a tricky question because it's going to be much more effective if the answer is NOT coming from the ego, which is often based on a sense of lack.
I still see plenty of people advocating and teaching intentional manifesting. There are two dangers behind this: (1) It's still coming from identity, which is saying it needs something, or for it to be a certain way, when The One in you can embrace all states. Therefore you build in a constraint, another limitation, another box. You inadvertantly surpress and deny The One in you. Thus you are not free.
On the Openhand gatherings I often speak about the importance of the "50% rule". Which means that whatever is going on "out there", it will be of great help to you to have 50% of your attention "in here". The external is so seductive, especially at busy times of the year. It's easy to lose oneself in the drama. You end up actually enjoying it much less.
The best form of divine guidance is all about supporting your own empowerment and soul sovereignty. It doesn't spoon feed, but reflects possibility. It illuminates both the light and the shadow within. It works selflessly and never says, "you owe me". When it's work is done, benevolent guidances fades back into the cosmos leaving you in the sure knowing that you made the important integrations yourself.
Namaste
If you can dive courageously into the center stream, and keep centering in it through all of life's experiences, then you will learn, evolve and grow like no other time in your existence.
There will come a point where you're so surrendered that you realise you have nothing to lose any more. And a miraculous juxtaposition happens at that point - you see it in the eyes of those who've suffered near death experiences. It's a light that has decided to embrace the absolute fullness of life. To live today as if there were no tomorrow!
Namaste
Remember, it's not just about firing the soul, it has to be forged in the crucible too. That will certainly mean being authentic in your relationships, being honest and true about how you really feel. We'll be in society, yes, and it'll require us to honour the truth of others, but that doesn't mean compromising our own soul. You don't have to agree with another to honour them.
We so often here about "surrender and letting go" on the spiritual path, but with that I often see an acceptance of "anything goes", which is not being in the soul either. Yes surrender can take you into the Eternity of The One. But from that infinite potential, soul will arise and yearn to express. And if you learn to ride that wave as it surges through you, then you can constantly stay on the edge of reality, always expressing from the Void of Potential.
There is a flow, which you can tap into, when you're prepared to step into the void of not knowing. Think about it, where there is emptiness, there is the infinite potential before the moment is born. This is where the flow comes from, this is what brings life alive, this is what breaks the continual repetitive limitation of ground-hog-day. But you've got to work for it. You got to test it, challenge it, work to open out through it - to accept that you simply don't know, and be awesomely okay in that. This is the key to living the flow - being awesomely okay with not knowing.
The Enlightened Aproach is to realise the nature of the relationship between Soul and Presence: when there is presence, then soul naturally flows from it without efforting. It just arises, mirroring the bigbang experience that flowed from presence to create the known Universe - it just happened. So here's the key: align with the soul, and presence will naturally start to happen due to the interrelation with presence.
The hardest thing is to change yourself. Because that takes responsibility, ownership of your sh** and a willingness to change. If you can dig deep, and find this quality, if you can own your creative path, then you have what it takes to meet the crucial obstacles of change - those inside yourself. And when you do decide, the path is actually quite straightforward - not easy, but straightforward: begin with the moment right now, what are you feeling? What are you resisting? What are you being invited to let go of inside yourself? You know which step to then take.
I think there's a generalised belief in some spiritual circles that when you attain Enlightenment life's trials and tribulations all fall away. You've reached some higher dimensional beach, whereupon, you can chill out and just hang ten. Think again! There is only the process. In Enlightenment the difference is that there's complete recognition of it, a complete surrender to it, and above all, a constant turning into the density that presents, a constant unwinding through.
