Monday, September 22, 2008

United In Spirit Connection Vol 18

Welcome to the one and only official newsletter of the United In Spirit Community which covers two amazing sites and many sub sites.

This week we have had many new members join our community across sites, please give them all a very warm welcome!

On behalf of the United In Spirit Administration Team, please feel very welcome, browse the site/s, post as you feel drawn, join groups that resonate, but most of all enjoy what we as a community have to offer and have fun! Big Grin

In other News...

A great new feature has been installed in the United In Spirit Ning site which incorporates the ability to rate profiles, blogs, forum posts and group posts. So if you enjoy and article on a specific topic, rate it and we will endeavour to provide more on that subject. See a member's profile that you think rocks, let them know via the rating system! Peace Sign

This compliments the latest release from Ning which included a new tab manager which has provided a more versatile tool to align tabs for your navigational needs...find these at the top of the Ning site.

Wanted

United In Spirit is seeking an industrious member who has good knowledge  base of Wicca and it's practices to establish and lead a group on our Ning site. The candidate must be willing to actively participate and share their knowledge base with all group members. Qualities: non judgemental, non racist, not biased regarding belief systems, leadership skills ad dedication.

If you think you are what United In Spirit is seeking, please email

Jodie~ United In Spirit Founder  @  unitedinonespirit@yahoo.com

 

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Applying our Truth

Each step on our spiritual path gives us new insight and information to reconnect us to our power and to Source. As we receive this information we are challenged to change our beliefs, open ourselves up to new possibilities and accept new truths. When we understand our spiritual Truth, that we are divine, perfect beings who deserve a reality of abundance in peace, joy, prosperity and unconditional love, we are at a crossroads and the next step we take is an important one.
Our spiritual Truth is often in conflict with our material truth, which is generally focused on lack and fear. Every place in our life where we feel we are undeserving, unlucky, unable to create joy, abundance or love is a place where we are out of balance with our spiritual Truth. But what we do with that information is very important. Where do make changes and do we have the courage to do so?
We can accept our spiritual Truth, knowing that we exist in perfection and then are unable to use this information to transform our material world. This can take us into depression and even self sabotage, where we believe this is true but cannot steps necessary to apply our knowledge. Unable to move forward, we feel even more stuck in our life and go into judgment, telling ourselves we should be able to do this, but feel powerless to do so. When everything in our life contradicts our spiritual Truth we are challenged to change everything about ourselves. But we really only have to change one thing, all we have to do is accept the spiritual Truth of who we are.
The Universe has a wonderful way of showing us where we are stuck and where transformation is needed. If we are in self sabotage or fear mode, we can see this as further proof of our powerlessness. But we can also see it as an opportunity to allow the energy in our life to flow, in whatever direction it needs to and to accept the spiritual Truth, so that transformation can occur. Applying our spiritual Truth to every area of our life means acknowledging the perfection of each moment, our ability to learn from our lessons, heal our soul wounds and from that point, acknowledging that we are empowered with our learning and can create the reality of our dreams.

www.urielheals.com

 

Angels_in_love_by_Orrik

 

As you think so you become

Sri Swami Satchidananda

Think well, you will be well. Think ill you will be ill. It’s all your thoughts. Sometimes you might not be thinking ill of yourself, but are thinking ill of others. That is still thinking ill. Whether it is about you or somebody else, that is what you are thinking. When you think of that you will become that. That is why we say “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. If you see evil, hear evil, and speak evil you will become evil. It’s not to save others that you are asked not to think ill, not to speak ill. You will not be hurting them, but you will be hurting yourself. In our lives we should always think well. Train your eyes to see the bright side of everything.
We receive according to our tuning
All the thoughts that the entire world is thinking and will think and has thought before are already in the cosmic mind. They are there waiting for you to draw upon them. By thinking of something, you literally become a sort of receiving set. All the similar thoughts come to you. It’s not that you create anything new. Actually, there is nothing new; nothing can be created and nothing can be destroyed. Nobody has ever created any new thinking. We are receiving constantly. And we receive according to our tuning. The music is there, but if you tune into the wrong station you will get atmospheric disturbance. Both are there. You call it “disturbance” because you don’t want it, but it is there. The music also is there. So we simply tune to receive. Sometimes even without your conscious effort, the tuner of your receiving set seems to be in certain locations; all of a sudden it receives and then you say, “Oh, I am experiencing something new. I never thought of that before.” It just comes to you, even without your conscious effort, because the mind simply rolls to that frequency and happens to receive it. Your mind is nothing but a part of the cosmic mind, and a part of the cosmic mind is function through you.

DaliAscension

 

One Message Runs Through All Faiths

It is only at the human level that we make divisions

A desktop or laptop can connect us instantly to vast knowledge sources. A computer can link us to the news, stock reports, airline bookings, shopping, medical breakthroughs, and information in almost every other sphere of knowledge.
The information connectedness that we experience with computers is a small sample of the potent connections we can make with our empowered soul. The empowered soul experiences universal connection with all beings. Becoming aware of this unifying force can help us realize our essential unity. Walls of division separate people.
If we are born in one part of the world we say, "I am a citizen of this country, or that country". If we are born into a certain religion, we say, "I am a follower of such and such religion". Religions are man-made. There was no Buddhism before Buddha. There was no Christianity before Jesus.
It was the followers of the great saints, mystics, and prophets who organized their teachings into a religion. Most often, we become a member of a religion based on our parents' beliefs. A Hindu infant who is orphaned and who is later adopted by a Christian may become Christian.
Similarly, the way we live is dictated by the peculiarities of the region we live in. Many people worship God through prayer. But the way they pray is different. In some warm climates, it is customary to remove shoes before entering a holy place; in colder climates, going barefoot may be impractical.
Over time, customs that originate for climatic reasons become sanctified and become part of religious law. People tend to use those differences as a basis for prejudice and hatred. Another dividing factor is language.
When people in different religions use different words for the same concept, it becomes an excuse for thinking the other religion is not as good as one's own. Each religion has its own name for God, based on the language or culture in which the religion originated.
God is Allah to Muslims, Wahe Guru to Sikhs, Paramatma to Hindus, God to Christians. Whichever the language, the words refer to the same God. Yet we make these language differences a source of contention and separation.
We forget that God existed before language was created. By drawing boundaries we limit ourselves. The soul, however, is limitless. There is a unifying force beyond the physical plane, connecting all life. We are full of the love of God. It is only at the human level that we make divisions.
The soul is a part of the Creator. For us to be able to truly understand ourselves, we need to recognize all the divisions as walls that surround our true self. These walls keep us from truth.
Sant Darshan Singh spoke of Oneness: "What does it matter if I am called a man, In truth, I am the very soul of love. The entire earth is my home, And the universe my country".
Through lack of self-know-ledge, we create separation. Through our soul, we can experience connectedness and create more peace and har-mony among the inhabitants of this planet.

 

c6c61982

 

Open Our Hearts Everyday

By Rigpa Fellowship

Evoking the power of compassion in us is not always easy. I find myself that the simplest ways are the best and the most direct. Every day, life gives us innumerable chances to open our hearts, if we can only take them. An old woman passes you with a sad and lonely face and two heavy plastic bags full of shopping she can hardly carry. Switch on a television, and there on the news is a mother in Beirut kneeling above the body of her murdered son, or an old grandmother in Moscow pointing to the thin soup that is her only food. . . .

Any one of these sights could open the eyes of your heart to the fact of vast suffering in the world. Let it. Don’t waste the love and grief it arouses. In the moment you feel compassion welling up in you, don’t brush it aside, don’t shrug it off and try quickly to return to “normal,” don’t be afraid of your feeling or be embarrassed by it, and don’t allow yourself to be distracted from it. Be vulnerable: Use that quick, bright uprush of compassion—focus on it, go deep into your heart and meditate on it, develop it, enhance and deepen it. By doing this you will realize how blind you have been to suffering.

All beings, everywhere, suffer; let your heart go out to them all in spontaneous and immeasurable compassion.

 

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Is the Darkness Winning?

What is described as the battle between the darkness and the light is not a battle at all, it is a choice for humanity to make from the two different paths that have always been available to it. The path of the Light leads to unconditional love, the path of the Darkness leads to fear. At this time humanity is being presented with the choice of which path to take and there is no more middle ground. Each being must commit to the amount of Light they are willing to carry. The choice between dark and light is another aspect of the choice between fear and love and is part of the polarity energy of the material plane.
As more people agree to the path of the Light there are fewer people to hold the energy of the darkness. It may seem, for a time, that the dark is gaining ground as the actions of those holding this energy become more desperate and more pronounced. That is not because the dark is winning; it is because there a larger gap between the two energies and those who are willing to hold the dark energy will hold more of it than before. And those who hold the light have turned away from the darkness so they are more aware of the difference between these two energies.
Even the Earth is facing this choice and there is an enormous cleansing energy that is being activated to clear old vortexes, replacing grids that were capable of holding the darker energies with those that can hold a higher vibration and even moving Lightworkers into areas that need their vibration or are more receptive of their light. As the earth goes through this cleansing you may experience fear and wonder whether you will be in the path of danger. You will be guided to where you need to be at the right time.
This is not a foretelling of the catastrophic prophecies you may have heard as those do not need to happen when enough of humanity chooses the path of the Light. Those who accept the darkness as their path have made a choice to experience its transmutation and they will have to live through all aspects of the shift of this energy. As each of you have experienced the Shift you have seen upheaval in different aspects of your life. Through your transformation you have initiated the energies that allow all of the material plane the opportunity to choose the light. All is well and in divine order and you and the planet are ascending into higher vibrations. Be at peace, hold your own light and know that you are protected and guided in all you do.

www.urielheals.com

 

inspirational-thought-true-freedom

 

Examining the Reality and Truth of Thoughts

By Gina Lake

Thoughts may have some wisdom to them, but for the most part, they are stabs at truth and tell us little about how to live in this moment. Instead, they keep us at arm’s length from the moment. They keep us living in a mentally fabricated reality—the realm of ideas—rather than in the now. They interfere with life rather than enhance it.

This is contrary to our deeply held belief that thoughts are important, relevant, and meaningful. Somehow, we have been convinced of this rather than the opposite—that they keep us from Reality and Truth. But that is what we are here to discover!

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Thoughts are the structure of the ego and what hold it in place. Without them, the ego would not exist. This belief—that thoughts are important, valuable, and meaningful—is the lynchpin that, when removed, causes the whole game to fall apart; and where we land is smack dab in Reality, in this alive moment.

Aside from conditioned ideas and beliefs, thoughts are largely about the past and the future. It is obvious how our thoughts about the past and future keep us from the present moment, even if it is less clear how others do. When we are thinking about the past or the future, we are mentally reconstructing images of the past and the future and seeing ourselves in them.

Who is it you see in the past or future? Isn’t it just an idea of you? In these images, you see yourself at a distance, as if you were viewing the entire scene. Meanwhile, who are you really? You are not this thought of yourself in the past or the future, but for the time being, you are identified with it, just as you become identified with a character in a movie.

While this is going on, you are no longer in touch with what is going on in the moment, with the sensations and the experience of the moment. Instead, the moment has been covered over by thoughts of some other moment in time. The present moment still exists, but it is not being experienced purely, simply.

A part of us doesn’t want to experience life purely and simply—the ego. It would not exist without the mental drama it creates. It exists and thrives on thoughts about the past and plans of the future. It constantly mulls over the story of me: “How’s it going for me?” “How am I going to do?” “How did I do?” “What do I have to do to get things to go my way?” Evaluations and plans are the stuff the ego feeds on, which cause it to grow, until it looms large in our consciousness, blocking out awareness of other aspects of Reality. When we live in the egoic state of consciousness, life is about the story and how it is going and all the worries, fears, concerns, and problems entailed in that. This is the ongoing drama the ego is engrossed in.

However, there is another life living itself under or behind or beyond all of that, and that is Reality. Reality is unfolding beautifully moment by moment, and it allows the ego’s drama to take center stage as long as it will. Eventually it will get old and Reality will break through, and we will choose it over the ego’s entrancements. That is the beginning of a new awareness and a new willingness to realize the Self—our true nature.

In the meantime, the ego—the me—appears to exist, although it actually only exists as a thought. It appears the ego is having thoughts, but the ego itself is a thought. This is another of the great illusions, which keeps us enmeshed in the egoic state of consciousness. The ego seems very real, and yet it has no substance. If you look very closely, you see that it is composed of thoughts about me and nothing more.

Furthermore, these thoughts about me are constantly changing, so the idea me is not even stable or continuous: One moment you are clever and the next moment you are not. Your ideas about yourself are always changing. Take your self-image, for instance: You look different in your mind’s eye from one day to the next, depending on who you are comparing yourself to or what other ideas or beliefs are moving through your mind.

Exercise: Examining the I Thought: Who or what is this I that you imagine yourself to be? When you say “I,” what do you imagine? What thoughts and images make up this I? Is this I the same throughout your life or even throughout your day? Have you always imagined and talked about yourself in the same way? How hard is it, really, to change the description and images that go along with I? Isn’t it only a matter of exchanging thoughts and images for other thoughts and images? How difficult is that? Is this I who you are? Who is it that is able to think about this I? Could that be who you really are?

The mind is primarily the instrument of the ego, since so much of our thinking is an attempt to get the ego what it wants. Nevertheless, it can also be the instrument of the Self. Occasionally, thoughts—not just intuition—are the vehicle for communicating the Self’s inspiration and plan. When thoughts from the Self appear in the mind, they ring of truth and are accompanied by excitement, happiness, relaxation, and mental clarity. On the other hand, thoughts that have little truth to them are accompanied by mental confusion, energetic contraction, and tenseness in the body. This is how we can tell how true a particular thought is and where it is coming from.

The mind performs many useful tasks, and we need it to function and keep us safe; but it is also full of useless and incorrect information—conditioning—that passes as facts. Self-realization entails a certain mastery of the mind, which includes being aware of our thoughts and being able to discriminate between ones that have some truth and usefulness and ones that don’t. This takes some practice, but most of all, it takes sensitivity to the signs that something is true or false. Not only do we need to be aware of our thoughts but of their impact on us energetically, mentally, and emotionally.

Exercise: Exploring the Effect and Truth of Your Thoughts: What are you thinking right now and how does it affect you? Does it expand or contract your consciousness? Some thoughts cause us to become more contracted and ego-identified, while others cause us to become more expanded and identified with the Self. Those that do the latter could be said to be truer than the former. This is because truth puts us in touch with Truth, or the Real, while untruth puts us in touch with what is not true, or not real—the ego.

Although we can’t control our thoughts, we can learn to become aware of them. This may seem like a simple thing, but becoming aware of our thoughts is a very big step in evolution. It requires dis-identification with the mind, which is why it is such a big step. When we are not aware of our thoughts, we are likely to be identified with them and respond without questioning them. This results in a lot of suffering and more difficulties than necessary.

When we are identified with the mind, we believe that we are who we think we are: our self-image and the labels we have for ourselves. But is that who you are? If that is who you are, then who is it that is able to think about this question? What is it that is aware of the ideas that make up your self-image? What is it that is aware of the coming and going of thoughts?

This idea me may seem to reside in the body or the mind or both, but what is it that is aware of the body and the mind? Could that be who you are, and the body and the mind just function within that awareness? In that case, would you be limited to just the body and mind, or could you actually be anything you are aware of right now? Could all of it be you? What if that were true? What would that mean? Life would be lived from a very different place.

These questions can wake us up out of the egoic state of consciousness. Questioning the assumptions of the mind is a very powerful tool for awakening. Becoming aware of the mind, its thoughts, and their truth or falseness can help us bust through the web of illusion cast by the mind and the ego, which fools us into thinking that we are separate when we are not.

Exercise: Who Am I? What are you aware of right now? If you are aware of a thought, ask: Who or what is aware of this thought? If you are aware of a feeling, ask: Who or what is aware of this feeling? If you are aware of a sensation, ask: Who or what is aware of this sensation? The tendency is to become identified with the thought, feeling, or sensation and lose awareness of our true nature, which is pure Awareness. The purpose of this inquiry is not to come up with an answer to the question but to experience who you are. If you find yourself thinking, go back to the question and stay with the experience, which is one of not knowing rather than knowing. The real you is there in this not-knowing.

It turns out that the mind is part of the human animal and a tool for both the human and the Self, but it is not what it pretends to be—who we are. The mind dictates the supposed truth to us about who we are and how things are, and we believe it—until we don’t. The mind is an imposter dictator: It tells us this and it tells us that, but it is spinning a false reality.

Beyond the mind lies Awareness, which is aware of the mind, the body, and everything that exists—and that is who we are. We are the Awareness that allows the mind to spin its illusions and create the drama in which the Awareness—the Self—delights. There is no mistake here. The mind, the ego, and the illusions are all intended to make manifest the Self’s playground. Meanwhile, the Self participates in its creation by being aware of it all.

Copyright © 2005 Gina  excerpted from Radical Happiness

Gina Lake has a Masters degree in Counselling Psychology and over twenty years experience supporting people in their spiritual growth as an astrologer and a channel. She is the author of several books on spirituality, including: Radical Happiness, Anatomy of Desire, Return to Essence, Choosing Love, Getting Free, and Living Your Destiny. Gina is available for astrological and channeled phone consultations that support awakening and living a conscious life. For more information or to order any of these books, to read excerpts, to listen to talks, to receive a free newsletter, or to download Radiance: Experiencing Divine Presence for free, please visit http://www.radicalhappiness.com

 

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Ponderings

Is there anything that you adore that most others don't quite get? What strange or unusual love (or loves) do you have?

What do you love that others don't necessarily understand?

 

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Quote Of The Week

"You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your
attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering
change rather than allowing it to master you."- Brian Tracy

 

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Healing List

Angel-healing 

  • Shade Law
  • Vonda
  • Cheryll and husband
  • Gina
  • Ccreature and family
  • Slientangel and family
  • Ken
  • Earth
  • All Earth's Animals
  • And all that need healing

Thank you to all that send much needed healing, it is a great gift you share.  Big Hug

 

passion

 

Release

Well, they drew the battle lines in the sand
What they did not realise was
This was not a line she chose to cross
Nor one that bothered her,
Deep in her soul
For that line was her freedom
From all that she had been made to feel
She could never achieve…no, not her!
Oh! What a long path she had travelled
What demons she has wrestled with along the way
Never short of confirmation from the other side
That this was all her fault
In agony of spirit she has called out

To her God and her 'mother' to somehow
Penetrate her inner being, understand the turmoil
That drove her to want to take her life
The silence was deafening,
The prayers fell
On arid ground for she had become a burden
An embarrassment, a failure, not “conventional”
So, she took these things into her wounded heart
And many dark nights she endured,
questioning,
doubting

Then they drew that precious line in the sand
Between life and death,
success or failure
Acceptance or possible ridicule
And her heart almost broke out of her chest
So powerful was the affirmation,
SO profound the knowledge

"Your path is not their path
Your sky is not their sky
Nor your world their world
Although you share in that
Matrix of dreams"

And the universe unfolded
And she saw with new eyes her kin
Not born of this world
But birthed in the spirit
And her heart shape-shifted
Into a mighty eagle
As it soared away

and the stars laughed
And welcomed her home...

© Alison Stormwolf

http://www.soul-awakening.com/poetry/p-personal-transformation.htm

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Well we come to the end of yet another newsletter.....may you all have a wonderful week and stay safe!

In Love and Light Always,

Jodie

Founder of United In Spirit  Love Struck Rose

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