Life is a series of activities.

When activity and motion stops in our lives, we define that state as death.

The reality we are thus defining here is one of life, of activity, of participation.
Within that reality, we have choice. But behind and beneath that choice we have imprinted patterns, trauma-induced energy block reactions, educated fears and proud intolerances, experience-driven assumptions, fantasy-derived expectations, peer group acceptance standards, reward for socially accepted moral values, praise for politically promoted duties, payment for economical contributions to a prevailing economic structure, need-based desires, and, a context of worth which encompasses the universe as spiritual determination without imposition. In the modern highly structured, heavily militarized, extensively law burdened, hugely populated, and economically suppressive society, life for each person is no longer as simple as it once was.   (1)

Every politically and economically structured society prides itself on the freedom of its leaders, and sometimes its citizens, to make choices according to self-determination ... according to rationalization. These accepted structures of intellectualization that stipulate how we "should" think we call norms. They are our status quo. They are the basis of our common forms of mathematics, our manner of conducting trade and commerce, our relationship roles, our styles of dress and grooming, and, our interaction with the non-social world which includes the spiritual. It is not that social values cannot share a spiritual integrity. History and the present demonstrate that when humanity concentrates on the power of secular materialism everything is reduced to mathematical and mechanical efficiency. Persons no longer provide value beyond their economic contribution. That may be translated into how much social respect they carry, how much capital they hold or control, how much money they earn, how many children they have, how many cars or houses they own, ... it is always a statement of how much.   (2)

The living we reference as those ingredients in the universe that move with a degree of self-determination.
We give value to that life as greater than simple inanimate matter by the benefit of it possessing some motivational force we term spirit. Without a spirit, the physical form returns to "life-less" and becomes inanimate --- simply physical. So, it seems that humanity has, and does, create a problem for itself through its growth in population with its necessity for organization and human leadership. If we must accept being treated as an inanimate, mathematical number in the society we are part of, how do we recognize the spiritual value of ourselves and appreciate the spiritual value of others?   (3)

A defence is only required when a freedom is jeopardized.
When our freedom of choice is confined or restricted, and when we are aware of that restriction, we either surrender our freedom or defend it. This is not the simple equation it could be. When we add the power factors of acceptance, fear, security, and survival to the equation and place them all on the side of "surrender", it is easy for us to discount the value of freedom. As humans we pride ourselves on the concept of freedom. But what value is that freedom. What does it mean? Why is it that politically, freedom can mean so many different things, yet, we miscommunicate so frequently because we all assume that everyone else believes the same meaning that we ascribe to the word.

If you study political linguistics, you will discover that most of the misunderstandings, conflicts, and power struggles that we expend huge amounts of resources on all arise from assuming that other people mean what we understand certain words to mean, while in reality we are speaking of concepts and values which may be as far apart as opposites. Our cultures struggle against such a condemnation of freedom by attempts to structure our realities within the confines of rituals that allow them to trigger favor or repulsion by our association of fear or joy with motivational words. How often have two nations gone to battle, each fighting for the word-idols of "freedom" and "democracy."   (4)

You never miss what you've never known.
This is one way of describing the learning mechanism of imprinting.
If you were placed into a cage when you were born, as we do with many animals in zoos and laboratories, you would never know the experience of free-ranging movement. Your level of comfort would extend to the degree of security and dependency which form your constructed experience of reality. Your range of choices would never extend beyond what was available within the cage and what was required of you by the gods who controlled that reality. You would eat when they fed you ... and would come to assume that those times were the only times to eat. You would interact only with those others who were relatives and those who could be friends such as your god-parents allowed you access. You would quickly learn what actions were necessary to afford you more food, more contact, more space.

The prospect of having more choices, more challenges, more opportunities, more awareness, more freedom --- would be unthinkable. We come to accept and expect the reality which is consistently constructed around us by those who say they love us. Yet, a restriction of our freedoms holds us apart from reality and apart from a spiritual perspective. Such restrictions deny us spiritual experience without which we cannot build spiritual strength.  (5)

An imposed structure creates an environment devoid of experimentation and acknowledgment to build self-awareness. It is also devoid of free association with others to build a confidence in community. What it does allow is a reality of comfortable dependency. When we see such a structure in cultures we define as ethnically, religiously, politically, or economically different than our own we call the participants "slaves," or "prisoners". Yet these people we call slaves refuse to see themselves as slaves. Indeed, they see themselves as totally grateful to their parental and leader gods for simplifying their choices in life. Never having had to make more than simple choices based upon a reduced awareness of reality, they are terrified when others tell them of the freedom that could be theirs. How could anyone be so foolish and careless as to want opportunities which require skills which one does not have.

There is a certainty of failure in the appearance of such open challenges to risk entry into foreign territory of which one holds no understanding or preparation. The opportunity to develop a spiritual awareness and spiritual skills is always present, but never imposed. It is there, waiting patiently and for as long as we live, always ready to be explored. There are no schedules, time limits, contests, or timelines involved. We can move only when and as fast as we are encouraged, allowed, and self-motivated to make the effort.   (6)

What role does work play?
We participate in activities which through our sacrifice and self-discipline contribute to our potential security and safety. Work provides us with a fantasy of assured survival. It offers us social acceptance, material wealth, and political power, if, we acknowledge and follow the persuasions of those who hold authority in these areas. We may do the calculations and the planning ourselves, or, we may follow the planning that another has carried out. In the industrial age, work has most often been the routine activities we carried out under the direction of someone else in order to receive an income.

Totally co-dependent, with neither the employer nor the worker able to exist through self-sufficiency, security and survival became factors of obeying others in order to buy one's life. The more you obeyed, the more you benefited. Such secular values are purely mathematical. You are only of value as an equation contributing to the financial balance sheet of the employer, and the government which sanctions it. The more you are self-sufficient and the less you are dependent upon physical wealth, the stronger you are spiritually. It is not a question of how much wealth you have. It is an equation of how much wealth you need. The more you need, the easier you will sell your soul, and, the weaker you are.  (7)

Work was self-directed self-sufficiency in the agricultural era before industrialization.
You knew what needed to be done on a routine and daily basis so that you would have food, fuel, clothing and housing for the present and for times ahead. When traveling bands of distressed and spiritually defeated persons threatened thievery, rape, and violence, you produced a surplus, sold it, and paid for a protection service by way of your lord who was the property owner you rented land from, or, your political magistrate. Neighbors were also farmers so they empathized easily with you and whenever you were sick or disabled or needed extra labor ... they helped out. Of course, you appreciated the support and were glad to return the favor.

This spirit of togetherness, caring, and participation was quickly wiped away as the desperate poor migrated into towns and cities and sold their labor for money. Effort was now mathematically valued and devalued. You were only as good as the least that an employer needed to pay in order to purchase the number of workers he needed. Many writers grieved what they considered to be the loss of the spiritual aspect of work: the personal confidence, self-directedness and reward relative to degree of participation which was idealized in agriculture. But neighborliness had failed to provide for a wider community and huge numbers of desperate poor grasped at whatever change promised them material survival.   (8)

What spiritual defences could have changed this and other histories?
Some anthropologists suggest that the development of mass society grew from the benefits of farming and that farming represented the fall from spiritual grace noted as the beginning of humanity in a number of widely accepted religious documents. Before farming, surviving bands maintained a practice of continual expression of reverence and a no-emotion trance like state of "listening" to their surrounding. The information which they received provided them with the most efficient ways of finding, preparing, and storing foods. Communication requirements were simple, direct, and assertive for we see no record of organized aggression. With agriculture, and extended intensively with industrialization, humanity lost its spiritual skills and its confidence in spiritual knowledge.

What was not taught could not be learned.
What was not learned could not be practiced dependably.
Without reliable skills, one was forced to think out the solution for oneself.
It was easy and rewarding to remember one's successes and frustrating to recall errors.
So, errors were largely forgotten and denied. Increasingly proud, humanity decided it did not need advice from God except in emergencies, so, every man was encouraged to play god, for oneself and others. Periodically this process led to catastrophe. Acting from fear, greed, pride, and authority ... we have continually created disasters so terrible that the only choice we could construct led to even greater disasters. We could always have asked for Spiritual Guidance, and chosen to follow it.   (9)

What are some of the major activities of living which afford us choice?
We can address these in several groups of related uses of energy and participation.
Maintaining our own survival and a degree of comfort is normally a high priority.
Once we can be less concerned about ourselves, we can turn our focus to include others.
When we include others in our actions, we encourage them to return the benefit to us.
This social give and receive dynamic can be strengthened by developing it into a formality.
Formal social patterns of interaction quickly develop into extensions of our respecting others, assisting others, enduring others, or celebrating with others. Each separate style of activity provides us with opportunities to express spiritual strength, or, to allow our spiritual strength to be weakened. Only if we are aware of the dangers can we plan constructive ways of coping with them.   (10)

Maintaining our own survival is often confused in the mass culture.
With the cultural institutions taking an avowed responsibility for our survival through the family structure, police and military protection, organized educational services, co-ordinated medical services, ritualized religious activities, and a multitude of career opportunities --- it becomes almost an embarrassment and shameful for any criticism to be expressed against the experts who lead us.

Indeed, for us to take responsibility for ourselves and take credit for any achievements we have made is often shunned. We are made to feel too inexperienced and too immature to be capable of making truly valuable decisions about our future and our form of participation in life. By expressing our own confidence and self assurance, we are chastised for not respecting institutionalized authority. So, to continue to accept institutional sheltering, we assume a role of servitude. A spirit in debt, is a spirit facing starvation.   (11)

What is learning?
We are often confused in the information intense and institutionalized education structure of our modern culture as to what constitutes learning. Before either of these influences entered our individual lives or our cultural history, we were learning. It has often been lost sight of in the idealism and rationalism of modern 2000 government policies that humans learn either by trauma or by repetition. Many of us know that going through a skill behavior once does not make us proficient. Learning by traumatization and the generation of energy blocks makes us good robots but doesn't leave us much choice.

Without that freedom of choice we are stripped of our spiritual strength.
Consciously, we no longer have control over our actions.
The frustrations, shame, and guilt fed by our errors further weakens us with feelings of confusion, anxiety, and rage. We all have experienced reading something and understanding it, yet, being unable to recall it later. Understanding is not learning. For spiritual strength you must decide where you want to go, acknowledge that effort and focus will be required to journey there, and then take the action on a consistent basis in order to reach your destination. Spiritual Guidance can provide that focus and direct your learning in the way most advantageous for you in the long-term.   (12)

Language is a tool with strengths and weaknesses.
Where it is a strength, it is not a problem.
Yet its strength depends upon our awareness of its weaknesses.
It is only as good as we are at qualifying its relevancy and confirming meaning with our audience through feedback. And, the larger our audience and the more complex our meaning, the more impossible it becomes to produce one version which carries the same meaning for all. Before language there was little opportunity for misinterpretation. Every communication would have had to be verified and re-verified for meaning. Anything complex would have been impossible to consider expressing.

If you take a look at the findings in the field of political linguistics, you discover that people the world over use the same terms with quite different meanings. Even persons in the same state, community and family use words that hold a different meaning for each. The oft disaster is that each person usually expects the other to know what they mean without verification. Before language, we could not infer that time and life were finite and unchanging. For centuries, we have spoken and written of what we see and know as if by our experience everything came to a standstill. These illusions frustrate our spiritual perceptiveness. Spiritually, truth is reality, and, reality is change.   (13)

Reality protects and challenges the spiritually aware person.
Such a person commits to living life upfront all the time. Life is not something lived out there at a distance. For them, they ask no one to live life for them. They accept their responsibility of participating and contributing the best they can as a reward for life. That acknowledged, they want no one else to mess up their opportunities and are readily humble to ask for direction and to always seek self-improvement. The only way to strengthen one's spirit is to exercise it.

Through the action of choice, the repetitive power stored in one's Unconscious (Reptilian Structure) is placed at the service of one's Personal Spirit. Like muscles and the skills they can learn to carry out with precision, the never used Personal Spirit becomes lazy, dull, and weak. Until a spiritual perspective is strengthened and honed by awareness and practice, it is always difficult to bring it to the forefront when the opportunity to benefit from it arises. While we are searching for what we have lost, our other, more used expressions of our identity --- will quickly step in to satisfy our need for direction. If you don't want to be ambushed, develop a strong manager, your Personal Spirit.   (14)

What is a party?
When we meet with a group of other people whom we regard as friends or friendly with the express intent of celebration, we have a party. Celebration is expressed through states of reverence, appreciation, encouragement, joy, happiness, singing, dancing, eating, caressing, Parties take many forms. In North America, we have segregated parties into respectable, and, self-indulgent types. As history marches on, cultural attitudes and expectations about what can be called a party, and, what is a party that must be dignified with a special designation differs.

For some, a party can only be seen as drunken excess resulting in abusive and irresponsible behavior.
For others, a party is a time for persons to meet to enjoy entertainment, food, and discussion as a form of reverence for an event held sacred by the attendees. Parties may include expressions of dominance and pain, through which sacrifice an initiate is accepted into a "family" with great demonstrations of joy. Whether a party contributes to spiritual strength, or simply denies spiritual values in rebellion, determines the benefit or danger present.   (15)

What may be seen as acceptable and desirable in one decade and to one generation may develop later into an activity which raises feelings of disgust and shame. From a spiritual perspective, the only priority for consideration in a party is whether the participants are showing self-respect and respect for each other. One cannot be showing self-respect if one endangers their health through the excesses of over-eating, over-drinking, or the use of mood altering drugs and herbs. Neither does a person who values health and the gift of life attend parties in which they are constantly exposed to the smoke of the cigarettes of others or the constant encouragement to join in behaviors of excess. Neither is one protecting their reservoir of spiritual strength by placing themselves in a position of emotional or physical disrespect from others. You are best not to be where you are not wanted.

Parties in which the secular ritual of wealth display and appreciation, in their denial of the spiritual worth of the person, also serve to drain away one's spiritual strength. Parties in which persons are encouraged to perfect, repeat, and strengthen behaviors of anger, intolerance, competition, and irreverence also serve to frustrate and reverse spiritual values. Frequently, parties encourage a uniformity and consensus of participation in certain ritualized behaviors. We may term these rituals games, etiquette, teamwork, services, meetings, speeches, enthusiastic displays, or membership.  For spiritual strength-building, we must ask ourselves if these activities increase our experience of inner strength and reverence connected to a reality beyond the group, or within the group? What are we learning to worship?   (16)

The bigger the society, the more kinds of parties are available.
The more people that are in close proximity to you, the more kinds of activities can be shared amongst groups of persons with special interests, concerns, desires, and incomes. Keeping in mind that parties are celebrations involving persons of similar interests, the following are parties: movies, videos, dvds, family television, volunteer groups, toastmasters meetings, bowling, golfing, team sports, live theater, opera, ballet, art gallery exhibits, orgies, stadium games, museum tours, prayer groups, sit-ins, strikes, gatherings in bars, tea parties, seances, social activism demonstrations, planetarium showings, birthing classes, coffee shop meetings, exhibitions and fairs, and many others.

It is not a question of whether one participates in parties or not.
Rather, it is a question of which parties and how much party involvement is supportive of the Basic Personality of the individual and of spiritual values. It is not difficult to become aware of the absence or presence of spiritual influences at a party. Basic Personality strengths and weaknesses are quite individual and may determine whether the nature of a party is excessive, balanced, or deficient in spiritual contribution to support one's spiritual strength. Some persons may be more analytical, others may be more playful, still others may be more intellectually oriented. Differences in degree of comfort may be associated with the numbers of people present, the degree of intimacy involved, the nature of the concern or focus of the group and party. Differences in expression of thinking styles result in differences of how one perceives parties and interacts with the others present.   (17)

For an Idealist thinking style of person, a party is a networking opportunity.
Their form of celebration is to be empathetic, open, tolerant, and interested in others.
They are not very good at being assertive so they often try to steer the developments at their party towards one of consensus, harmony and working together. This facilitates the "party" remaining calm, respectful, joyful, and emotional. They are not very good at coping with conflict or discussions which concentrate on evaluating facts or strategies, and, this is fine because a party is never a meeting.

A party is a celebration. A meeting is a mathematical exchange of alternatives for solving one or more problems. A party is only constructive if the members share a sense of trust. Meetings are persuasive events in which power, politics, manipulation, and argumentation is much more present, and expected. From a spiritual perspective, for the idealist, there must be a sense of honesty, togetherness, and joy. An expectation and intent is present whether the reality makes it so or not.   (18)

For a Pragmatist thinking style of person, a party can be a brainstorming meeting or strategy session, a chess tournament, a sporting event, a discussion in a bar, a sales motivational session, a publicity interview, a stimulating classroom exchange, a debating society contest, attending comedic mass entertainment, performing for a cause, supporting social activism, or, dancing and singing. Like most other thinking styles, the pragmatist assumes that the way he or she has fun and finds joy, of course, all others must as well. Anyone choosing not to join them is simply boring, stuck up, or unhealthy.

Waiting lines, traffic jams, and lengthy unfocused shopping explorations are not an attraction.
And the more often those enter the picture, the more the spiritual strength of this person drains away through responses of frustration and anger. A spiritually aware person is more accepting and understanding of different thinking styles. It is never an assumption, for them, that because the other members or the tone of a party is challenging for them that they must stay and be frustrated, or, that those who choose to stay are somehow less spiritually aware, or less intelligent.   (19)

For a Realist thinking style of person, a party is a limiting and often wasteful exercise.
They really don't want to be long at a cocktail party unless they find others there to talk about business or politics, and, will agree with them. Of course, any highly regulated sport or game is a good consideration for it will have a predictable course. Joy will come from the assurance that everything will work out as expected. There will only be a certain number of innings and the performance will end at a pre-ordained time. Anything different and the joy is in danger of being lost.

For this person, spiritual strength will be challenged if he or she meets with any serious opposition or if procedures, timing, and rules begin to be ignored or fall short of expectations. A person dominated by a realist thinking style will have difficulty in cultivating spiritual skills and awareness. For them, the reality of their experience and expectations interprets all possibilities as finite and inflexible, definable and predictable. There is always a right way, which leaves all other choices wrong and irrelevant. This short-sighted confidence holds one apart in disrespect of a spiritual perspective which acknowledges change and individual worth and experience.   (20)

For a Synthesist thinking style of person, a party is a time to express one's opinions and to hear those of others. Unless one is confident that they are going to have interesting and equally informed, curious, and passionate participants --- the Synthesist will find most "parties" to be boring and wasteful. Others may find them to be too disrupting for while others are celebrating what each other has in common, the Synthesist is celebrating the differences.

So, many synthesist thinking style persons are happier in small groups or celebrating on their own.
And if their Basic Personality has a focus on innovation and learning, they will likely find it easier to be reverent studying, listening, learning, searching, and creating. All this means is that activities which strengthen and protect the Personal Spirit of one person can sometimes weaken the Personal Spirit of another. Whether it is good or bad for you depends on who you are when it comes to the degree of exposure and integration into the party. So knowing yourself is a defence against spiritual abuse. Staying long at a party will siphon away the spiritual strength of one person, have little influence on another, and, perhaps even increase the spiritual strength of another. It is not spiritual awareness or expression that is addressed here but one of the duration of one's exposure to, involvement in, and response to the behaviors of others. It is a question of how sensitive you are.   (21)

A challenge to anyone who wishes to seek and choose to follow Spiritual Guidance is the increasing frequency with which we may be exposed to the violent acting out of frustrated persons, the will for domination by those who have been abused, the desire for Ego assertion by those who have been abandoned, and, the lashing out of those whose denied experiences of anger explode in rage. Each of these sources of unjustified violence responds constructively to a different set of options. How do we determine which response will be most constructive? Having to draw quick conscious assumptions about the behavior of another person is very error driven.  If we misjudge the other person and respond to them inappropriately, they are justified in assuming that we disrespect them and are a threat to them.

Unless we can temper the development of meeting the other person, we have no control over the time we have to prepare our defence, or response.  If we are aware of our surroundings, rather than day-dreaming or being obsessed in speaking with someone at our side or at our ear, we may have the time for observing the stranger as they approach from far to near. But in our stimulus filled urban environments, our focus is often minimized to the local. Extending it beyond that requires practice. Utilizing spiritual awareness to sense accurately at a distance requires more self-discipline. Safety and assurance ultimately depend upon preparation. You can choose to build spiritual strength, or, you can allow it to be taken away.   (22)

You are walking through a park with a friend or associate.
Suddenly, you find yourself either approaching or being approached by a group of noisy persons of similar age and race, who are so self-involved that they appear to be acting out in total disrespect for anyone else in the neighborhood. You have been exposed to dramatic stories of violence and abuse being carried out in other city parks throughout the hemisphere in the past few weeks.

Are these individuals dangerous, immature, or simply from a different cultural group which socializes in a way quite different than yours? Is this group looking to act out some degree of pent-up rage, or, are you largely invisible in their awareness of the surroundings? What you perceive and how you respond may have a critical contribution to how safe you and your friend remain, and, how aware of and involved with the strangers you become. How can you know what to do before it is too late to decide? Without a certainty of direction, you open yourself to fear, and fear weakens your spiritual strength.   (23)

Simplistic, intolerant, destructive responses deny a spiritual perspective.
You are what you believe and accept to be real.
If your social environment protects you from reality with fantasy and myth, you are only as safe as it is capable of protecting you. In any society suffering increasingly from the individualized destructive expressions noted above, anarchy is in place. No society has yet found a constructive manner of reducing anarchy except by taking responsibility for it. Such societies accept that anarchy arises from the injustices present in their society and they initiate activities to correct and remedy such injustices.

They assist the abused to acquire more constructive communication skills.
They provide a basic self-respecting standard of living for those who have been placed into material desperation. They protect the kind from the possessive. They demand and reward self-control and self-discipline. They offer energy block release rather than pity and condemnation. We choose to have few societies of such strength. Spiritual awareness takes leadership, awareness, and humility. Our cultural environment can have a significant influence on the degree to which an expression of spiritual awareness and skills is allowed and challenged.   (24)

Magic is the worship of an ability to effect an outcome through personal power.
If those who were astonished by the outcome understood the processes which resulted in the prized outcome, they would hold respect for the skill of the magician but would not worship him or her as a god capable of dispensing power by choice. Anything believed to be unquestionable has been assigned a power equal to, even greater than God. For many of us, we are instructed and mentored to make gods of many devices. If it is powerful for us, we demonstrate our dependency and voluntary servitude by contributing our time and effort to its continuance. Early government began in such a way. Today, we often place mass media, money, cars, social expectations, and the admiration of others in the place of, or in addition to the idols of the past.

For the Spiritually Guided person and the person who wishes to retain their strength of spirit, no question is taboo. The question not asked betrays the god we serve. Do we ask about which social events are BEST for us to attend? Do we ask about what is BEST for us to eat? Do we ask about what is BEST for us to wear? Do we ask about what work our skills, experience, personality, and current economic realty is BEST for us? Do we ask what we are BEST to give away? If we do not ask is it because we are afraid that the answer will deny our desire? And if that is the truth, we are smothering our spiritual strength. And after we have done what we want, in denial of what God knows is BEST for us --- will we then go and beg God to save us from the consequences?   (25)

The power-based nations of the world, including ALL those with nuclear weapons, teach their citizens simplistic, destructive, intolerant responses. Authoritarian political systems are always in denial about the abuses they create. It is always easier to treat others as if they are inanimate equations than as people. In the secular materialistic world there is the constant rationalization that we have to treat people poorly now so that we can build a better world for the future. We are always destroying the present for a future that never comes. We are taught by our institutions that if we mean well, we can't do wrong. And yet, how can our GOOD intentions be any more than self-centredness if we never make the effort to understand others and remedy the problems.

Spiritually, ignorance is no defence.
You are responsible for your actions. If you regret those actions, learn better responses --- and encourage them in others. The spiritually aware person does not shoot the suspected rapist and then offer apologies to the dying person who only wanted to ask for help. It is always easy to act first and suffer shame and guilt later. That's not good enough. Your fear is a factor of the weakness of your spiritual skills and awareness. The pattern only changes when we make the effort to develop our awareness of ourselves, and from that, an awareness of others.   (26)

Tell me how you would respond to a group in the park bent on assault.
They are approaching you with wild actions, taunting slurs, boisterous behavior --- an aggressive attitude.
You may be alone, with a loved one or close friend, or with a group of peers.
You only have time to make choices for yourself in the rapid development of activities.
If you have been prepared ahead of time by your friends or peers, or, you have assisted in their preparation - a confident, unified response, whatever it is, will assure a positive outcome more than a fragmented, confused response. Assault can take a variety of abusive forms: physical, sexual, emotional --- and all contribute to spiritual loss. Assault, unlike rage, always takes place between persons who know one another. It often involves a miscommunication or misperception of one's previous actions, involvements, or statements.

Often, this error develops from expectations and assumptions which we connect with certain phrases and movements which, unaware to us, have different meanings for others for cultural or personal reasons. Usually we understand the nature of the intended abuse. An unprepared reaction is to raise defences and prepare to return aggression, or, to flee aggression. Unless we know with certainty that we can escape the aggressors, we encourage them further by signaling to them that we agree with their motivations and feel deserving of the abuse. Otherwise, why run? And, if we stay and prepare for battle, we are signaling that we believe our perceptions and values are better than theirs, so they are not respected. Unless we are truly guilty of the apparent perception of our aggressor, the spiritually strong person will acknowledge openly that there is a difference of opinion involved and honestly offer to hear out the aggressor in return for their consideration. The foundation for discussion and negotiation is that both parties value each other, or, want to be valued by the other. Without this focus, there is no value in trying to coerce another into accepting or acknowledging you. A call for honesty and openness may bring understanding rather than retaliation or oppression.   (27)

What are sources of spiritual protection?
Like many other aspects of the spiritual realm, protection is not as we have come to perceive of it on the physical plane. Spirituality involves openness and interactivity so there are no boundaries that can be raised nor actions taken to repel someone. Rather the sources we must be concerned with include the awareness of what can weaken us spiritually and what will strengthen us. For these same factors will weaken or strengthen others around us, friend or foe.

With this knowledge we can make choices to avoid persons, events, activities and attitudes which challenge our physical identities expressions, like our Ego, and, we can choose to build those skills and be around those persons who facilitate our adopting a spiritual perspective, mentor us, and encourage us. The best source of protection is preparation to be closely followed by Guided choice. And sometimes our Higher Self will guide us into spiritually challenging situations so that we have the opportunity to become aware of the negative influences and so provide us with the motivation to prepare for similar experiences, and be able to empathize with others. It all depends as to what your Higher Self knows you can cope with, learn from, and must face ahead of you.   (28)

Knowledge of God versus the knowledge of humanity.
Unless we have been greatly fortunate in our cultural and physical environment during our childhood, we will likely have a very solid foundation of how people create their histories by the time we become adults. That foundation of experience will likely be filled with idealistic fantasies that we are yet too naive to place into a context of reality. So also, we will likely consider certain intense experiences as an indication of the general reality when in actual fact they represent a minority behavior. Depending on our culture we will have often heard many references to God, both casual and formal, with there being a confusion between what God is responsible for and from that what God's attitude is towards us and the rest of humanity and what that suggests about our choices and opportunities in life.

It is a rare person in a highly structured mass society who will have been encouraged to regularly ask for direction from God on a personal basis and who will be respected should they establish clear communication with their Higher Self. Yet, it is only by making such a connection, asking for and following Guidance on a regular and frequent basis that one can develop a true sense of what we mean to God. That reality provides you with a strength of spirit which is reinforced with each new response to us from God.   (29)

The more you are evolved spiritually, the less you need materially.
As long as we feel a sense of discontent, of loss, of desire, --- we are needy persons.
Difficulty arises when you are needy and want to become or remain spiritually strong because needy persons are addicted. No matter how much of what they need they acquire, it is never quite enough. You cannot buy contentment. All that extra frenzy just equals more waste. All that added anxiety and frustration simply demand more calories. It is not so much that spiritually strong persons must be poor, relative to those around them, it is that they are not motivated, controlled, and driven by such riches. Spiritually strong persons may range in economic standing from homeless, to self-sufficient to of moderate financial well-being, yet, you will never find them wealthy.

A spiritually strong person could never be so uninvolved, self-obsessed, or lacking in compassion and empathy as to love their wealth and themselves more than those in need around them. Giving away all of your possessions will not increase your spiritual strength. Neither will maintaining a healthy income or moderate standard of living necessarily weaken your spirit. The answer lies in what God wants for you. That will be an extension of the Basic Personality and the life mission you have been gifted with at birth. This is part of spiritual reality: Enough for one does not compute enough for another.   (30)

Passion is total involvement. 
It is not acting out, hysteria, or rage. It is not being with it but being within it.

It is being there in reality. You cannot be aware and distant at the same time. To be Spiritually Guided you must release your experience driven defences and embrace reality. With that openness, you will have a passion for your mission, whatever it is. Surrounded by the negative influences of materialism, the spiritually aware person must restrict their involvement in the human constructed commercial reality so that their massive empathy (love), sentimentality (grief), and romanticism (hope) are not spent uselessly in torrential outpourings. Rather, the spiritually aware person accepts that their capacity to experience reverence depends upon their self-directed choice of environment.

An Ego-driven or SuperEgo willingness to pull out all the stops in an attempt to greedily maximize one's experience of passion is spiritually counter-productive. The spiritually aware person expresses their humility through self-monitoring of her or his capability and expression of passion. Balance is the key. To become and remain spiritually strong, one must learn to manage their passion so that it becomes self-regenerating rather than diluted and spent.   (31)

People are not one-dimensional.
People have individual histories and basic personalities, different sets of energy blocks, as well as different levels of skill development and awareness. Passive aggressive authoritarian cultures indoctrinate you with the belief that human experts are qualified to direct your life from a distance. So, rather than learning how to observe, evaluate, analyze, and choose to participate in complex personal interactions --- we accept the simplified cultural idolized examples imprinted on us and educated into us.

Our culture tells us that we don't have the time to learn and appreciate those realities.
That time is time taken away from those activities which make our culture powerful.
It cuts our materialistic producing capacity. It reduces our earnings. It lowers our tax payments.
Then, our government doesn't have the money for large armies and expensive armaments.
And then, we don't have money for the social programs necessary to undue the destructiveness which we have generated. Spiritually, this isn't good enough.   (32)

A bored group is approaching you in the park and they are looking for excitement.
How do you respond? Do you stiffen and prepare for conflict? Do you smile with friendliness and hope that it is not mistaken for the pride that demeans them, or, as a suggestion of flirtatious invitation for their involvement? There are a huge variety of expectations and responses that are possible. The spiritually strong person will remain open to a consideration of all options while using their spiritual sense to detect the true mood of the group, and, using their Spiritual Guidance to determine the most constructive form of interaction.

One response would be to simply remain calm and absorbed in one's own concerns, or the natural surroundings, and ignore the group. Another response would be to call the group over and point out to them something strange and wonderful that you have noticed. A further response could be to mention quietly to them as they pass some form of organized entertainment or volunteer activity that is nearby and is planned for persons of their age, gender, and other noticeable characteristics. There are many variations of these kinds of interactions and none are inherently disrespectful, demeaning, or fear dominated --- any and all of which would incite defensive attitudes and encourage aggressive behavior. We either encourage self-respect in others or we challenge their self-respect.

If we are spiritually strong, we know there is no such rationalized approach as "no influence."
We can choose to have a minor or a greater influence; a destructive or a positive influence.
Boredom is a condition of not being aware of reality. A spiritually aware person is never bored.
Sharing our excitement often increases our spiritual strength.   (33)

Know the enemy if you wish to succeed.
Every true hunter knows this axiom. It is only the casual hunter who kills for sport in an effort to regain some of the excitement of the risk of life without societal protections and restraints. The true hunter only hunts to satisfy self-survival needs. He grieves the taking of life and the pain which the other animal must endure. His focus is on the fast, clean kill that will minimize the pain, terror, confusion, and shock to the prey. His actions bear out his desire to take as little as possible by a willingness to utilize everything acquired for some useful purpose, and so, satisfy present need and decrease longer-term demand.

The first step he or she takes is to acknowledge reality.
They assess what the characteristics of the prey are with an expectation that it has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, even as the hunter acknowledges of himself. If you underestimate or overestimate the capabilities of yourself and your potential opponent, you risk defeat, or waste. Acknowledgement must also be given to which capabilities have been developed into skills and which have been left untouched. It is one thing to know that you can develop spiritual skills, it is quite another to practice them and put them to use. Most wild animals are not dangerous to humans unless they sense or experience aggression from us. That perception may be mistaken and unless we are aware of the focus of their concerns and the likelihood of over-reactions at those times, we risk being attacked without mercy and without warning.   (34)

Your Ego expression of your identity can strengthen your Spirit, confuse it, or, sabotage it.
The natural inclination of your Ego is to keep your focus on your self and the satisfaction of your personal desires.
These are not needs, but, it will use your conscious mind to convert them into necessities unless you discipline it.
Ignoring it will not make it go away, you better hope. Without your Ego, you would be a very boring, humorless, slow, slave to the desires of others. The expressions of our Ego are the most immediate in our conscious awareness.

Unless we train ourselves to focus on a spiritual orientation, including frequent requesting and use of Spiritual Guidance, the desires and expectations of our Ego will always spring to mind first. If anything is present before our spiritual perspective, it then becomes a challenge to deny or set aside that perspective long enough to bring the spiritual perspective into clear focus. We can best include our Ego perspective in our Spiritual perspective by allowing ourselves to experience the benefit of Spiritual Guidance. Some of those benefits will please the Ego perspective such that it can acknowledge that such deference is worthy of patience. It will never allow those initial experiences, so, you must strengthen your Personal Spirit enough so that it can take control at those times. Humiliating your Ego responsiveness with conscious reminders of its many errors will give it pause. Reminding it of the benefits it receives from Spiritual Guidance will enable it to relax.   (35)

Your SuperEgo expression of your identity can strengthen your Spirit, confuse it, or, sabotage it.
It is more subtle, persuasive and thus potentially more powerful than your Ego.
It has the support of parents, leaders, teachers, mentors, employers, experts, and anyone else we volunteer or are encouraged to view in awe. Our acceptance of others as human gods, always to be believed and never to be opposed enslaves us to their values and their decision-making processes. If they have and support the expression of spiritual values and imprint those on us, we are easily strengthened in spirit and find it easy to maintain that strength.

More often, even those who define themselves as valuing spiritual principles will provide us with confusing and hypocritical expressions of behavior. A proud and poorly defined expression of spiritual strength is a huge source of spiritual weakness. Anti-spiritual attitudes, behaviors, and decision-making assumptions will prove more fragmenting and discursive to our spiritual energies than no example at all. Choose those you spend time with carefully. They will help you or hinder you even as you may influence them in a positive or spiritually destructive manner. The most difficult decision for some persons is to accept that for a time, spiritual strength-building may require your having few or no friends beyond your Higher Self. Friends may come and go but your Higher Self will always be there.   (36)

Your Unconscious expression of your identity can strengthen your Spirit, confuse it, or, sabotage it.
It is more all-encompassing, pervasive and thus more powerful than your Ego or SuperEgo by themselves or together.
Being the biochemical and physical memory of your body, it provides a ready and learned set of responses, reactions, and patterns of behavior to every consciously aware stimulus as well as thousands we are not aware of until others bring our attention to them. Taken for granted, these reflexes of breathing, heart pumping, digestion, and emotional responses to foods, words, and images direct our lives like computers run automated assembly lines.

If the instructions to our biochemical computers were spiritually-oriented much of the time, humanity would be peaceful and contented. What we more often experience are habits built by spiritual destruction formed into energy blocks. Until every human rids him- or herself from energy blocks and builds spiritually-oriented habits, spiritually deadening misery will abound. If the processes our unconscious is following have been learned through a chosen repetitious training in spiritual attitudes and responses, then it will assist us in building and maintaining spiritual strength. Choose you lessons well. Then put those lessons into practice as often as you can. A weak habit makes for confusion and error.  (37)

Your Basic Personality expression of your identity can strengthen your Spirit, confuse it, or, sabotage it through the ease or difficulty it provides in the development of spiritual awareness and skills and attitudes which either support that awareness or diminish it by distraction. It is a given of capabilities, strengths, and weakness in skill development which can be allowed to simply play itself out, or, more often, can be frustrated, denied, and twisted by the motivations of parents, social leaders, and cultural norms. You have been gifted with a personalized foundation to your identity which is as individual as your time and place of birth. It is a key to your spiritual mission and of your ultimate experience of contentment. It is only through your discovery of and use of Spiritual Guidance that you come to perceive that such a parallel exists.

The fact that you have a significant part to contribute through your participation in the physical reality of life on the planet Earth and that you have been gifted with an ease to develop skills supporting that mission, as well as weaknesses in the developing or expression of other skills which would confuse and frustrate such a mission is a true sign of the love which God holds for every individual. Nothing is expected of you which, with the Guidance available from God, cannot be accomplished. In other words, a spiritual awareness and an ability to access spiritual Guidance and a readiness to follow such Guidance is, a guarantee of success. What more could be asked of the most loving parent, mentor, or spouse --- then that they provide us with all the support which they can so that we be content. It is still our responsibility to make it happen. Success will not be forced upon us any more than failure.   (38)

Your Personal Spirit expression of your identity can make finding harmony, allowing domination of, or producing anarchy from the combination of your identity expressions difficult or easy. It is always in the background because the mandates of physical existence call upon other expressions of our identity first. To the extent that those other expression are traumatized, rewarded, disciplined and ignored, our Personal Spirit may be effectively shoved so far into the background that we lose sight of it. Like all things spiritual, our Personal Spirit does not impose itself into our consciousness. We have to learn about it and choose to acknowledge it.

Unless our culture encourages this process, we often become first aware of it when the realities supported by our Ego or SuperEgo, or even our Unconscious --- threaten to implode. Catastrophic emotional, social, or physical failure tend to drive us to appreciate the core of life and of reality --- the spiritual. We may also be invited to investigate this realm through the examples of others, or, by our own nagging dissatisfactions with the experience of a spiritually unaware life. We are all gifted with a spirit at conception. How strong that spirit becomes and is maintained is influenced by how much it is acknowledged, how much it is challenged, and how much we follow the Spiritual Guidance we ask for and receive. Avoiding asking and not following Guidance is more spiritually weakening than not asking at all.   (39)

Spiritual strength must reside within the individual.
Only the experience of the individual can give integrity to one's actions which follow from a spiritual perspective. I cannot feel empathy on behalf of someone else. I cannot feel reverence for you. I cannot ask for Spiritual Guidance for myself and then infer that my personal direction should or must be the direction for anyone else. If we were all crew on a ship and my task was to keep the top deck clean, it would be destructive for everyone to follow my example and ignore or deny their own personalized assignments. There would be no one to navigate, to communicate with other ships, to steer the ship, to fire the boilers, to prepare the meals, to service the air conditioning and heating, to maintain the washrooms, to provide first aid, or any of a myriad of other services necessary for the travel experience to be constructive for the crew or the passengers.

We each are gifted to make a special contribution.
It is our responsibility to find out what that mission is and to do our best to complete it.
If everyone worked towards the completion of their mission, there would be harmony amongst all persons. Instead of wasting a great deal of energy in trying to gain everything for ourselves (Ego) or in trying to gain what we value for everyone else (SuperEgo), or in simply doing what was easiest to do (Unconscious), we would be choosing to follow a spiritual plan designed so that each individual would find contentment according to their capabilities and needs.   (40)

There is a bit of you in every action you take.
Your actions are what forms a memory of you for others.
The pattern of your actions suggests to others the values you hold and the decision-making patterns you follow. Cultural expectations developed out of human-authority imprinting, mentoring, education, and social reward encourage us to assume that each person has a static personality with little ability for change. Every energy block we accumulate contributes to this rigidness and intolerance. The more norms that our culture rewards and penalizes, the more we either adopt, react, or rebel against commonly expressed behaviors. If we adopt them, we are considered acceptable, If we react and do the opposite, we are considered bad, evil, or criminal. A rebel breaks this for-against pattern selection by aggressively insisting that values expressed are values enforced.

Rebels are not reactionaries.
They simply hold their culture to its preaching.
Their commitment to truth and justice in acting out the current expressions of social belief can make them tyrants carrying out ethnic cleansing, or, tyrants carrying out environmental change. Yet all of these predictable patterns of behavior frustrate and deny the spiritual perspective. A spiritually aware person acknowledges that there are a potentially large number of contributing factors to the response of any person, or to any form of constructive longer-term decision-making. They humbly acknowledge that no human is so knowledgeable, aware, and resource laden as to be capable of ever reaching the one best answer.

So, they choose to depend on Spiritual Guidance.
And that makes them appear unpredictable to others.
Their actions cannot be grouped in convenient categories of self- or social-interest. But what the observer can become aware of is that the actions of the spiritually aware person most often are easily interpreted as constructive. The more one follows such awareness and Guidance, the more often they are rewarded with the certainty of success. That certainty contributes to the inner confidence that is spiritual strength.   (41)

No action can be cause for spiritual vulnerability.
When faced with an opportunity to contribute or to hold back or to retreat, confusion can cause us to make a quick conclusion in order to avoid anxiety, or, it can place us in the holding pattern of procrastination. If we are all too aware of the errors of the past or the penalties for making such errors, fear will encourage us to delay. After all, you cannot be held responsible for what you have not done. Ours is a society which readily rewards and penalizes you for taking action. If you are correct, you are a hero. If you are wrong, you are an abomination. But what if you have done nothing. Then, you are just you. Neither cursed nor praised.

So, for many it becomes easy to hesitate.
We tell ourselves that if the action is really important, someone else will carry it out, or, it will remain an opportunity until we are certain of its correctness. When the opportunity goes, we excuse our inaction with forgetfulness as we concentrate on the future. For the spiritually aware person, it is a lack of decision, neither action nor inaction, which is shameful. An opportunity has been gifted to us and we have refused it. It will not return and the gift of spiritual strength that we would earn by making a Spiritually Guided or spiritually aware decision has been allowed to trickle away, like blood flowing out of a wound. If we are spiritually strong, we hold a certain confidence from previous considerations and practice. If we are Spiritually Guided, we have a readiness to face the challenge and humbly request the Guidance we know will strengthen and safeguard us.   (42)

No rest and no patience raises the potential for making spiritual errors.
Spiritual awareness and the calmness and openness required for asking and receiving Spiritual Guidance utilizes a great deal more attention and conscious involvement than just responding with our easy rituals, reacting with stress welded reflexes, or, following those well-disciplined educated answers we have been told we can rely on. While one may save considerable time and energies by avoiding the errors and waste associated with rationalized best guesses and intuitive expectations, the reward of time saved should not be squandered. In our Ego-SuperEgo pattern of decision involvement we are always trying to make more decisions in the hope that if we make enough, the good ones will eventually cancel out the bad ones. Our Unconscious knows the tally. In the quiet recesses of our mind we can't remember but we feel the anxiety of not having succeeded enough, yet.

The person acquiring a spiritual awareness and building skills for Spiritual Guidance reception must guard against this guilt-tinged obsession. On a spiritual level there is no tally. It is never a case of how many good versus how many bad. It is only a question of how many decisions were assisted with spiritual awareness, or made with Spiritual Guidance. There are no negatives. Only the positives are counted. And each positive is unique, unequaled, a whole unto itself. So when we benefit from such a positive and dependable approach, it is our obligation to acknowledge it through the experience of reverence. That experience requires us to rest. By offering appreciation we remind ourselves with contentment of the confidence we have, and will again experience, and so use the power of our Unconscious to strengthen our Personal Spirit.   (43)

The choices we make to be involved or removed determine our growth or decay.
Determined not to stagnate through inaction, nor to burnout through boastful involvement, we are continually challenged to make decisions based on awareness. We have chosen spiritual awareness as our basis of evaluation so, we have schooled ourselves in spiritual principles and ever seek to apply them. This will take much study, practice, preparation, decision-making and reflection, but, we will constantly improve. If we are fortunate to be receiving and using Spiritual Guidance, then, our manner of growth is most apart from our learning in the materialistic world. There we are mandated and rewarded for activating our Ego intellect, or the cultural SuperEgo recorded wisdom that is so easy for others to acknowledge and understand or dispute. There, we totally discard the possibility of Spiritual Guidance --- except that which others reputably have defined as the authority equally for all persons.

When you receive Spiritual Guidance, most often there will Not be an obvious and rational interpretation as to the why of the solution. It is only by carrying out the Guidance with faith that we gain the opportunity to learn from the outcome of the decision. As the outcome unfolds, the pieces of the multi-factored puzzle, not previously available to us, begin to glide into position. Soon, to our amazement, the unfolding reality exposes new awareness to us, new opportunities, and an outcome we are encouraged to respond to as miraculous. Each new insight adds to our spiritual strength. It is when we lack the courage to risk our social credibility and to manage the expressions of our identity that we progressively weaken our Personal Spirit.   (44)

What is a sacrifice to one person may be a challenge to another.
This is the value of the differences between each of our Basic Personalities.
A sacrifice takes place when we give up something we want or would like to have.

A challenge takes place when we are given an opportunity to expand our abilities through effort.
That effort may take a bit of self-discipline such that we learn new skills or improve those that we already have. A challenge can motivate us if we have the imagination and foresight to focus on the potential benefit that will arise from our persisting until we succeed. If we are Spiritually Guided in our choice to accept a challenge, we are assured that we will succeed even though all our other expressions of identity tell us it is impossible. The more we accept such challenges and complete them, the stronger our Personal Spirit becomes. A good defence is confidence.   (45)

The individual in the park may be more dangerous than a rowdy group.
People who have been traumatized by real or perceived abandonment tend to develop a compulsion to resolve intense loneliness, insecurity, and low self esteem. They can become oppressive to others in their expression of attachment, co-dependency, sexual aggressiveness, and possessiveness. Often, only one of these expressions may appear obvious to others, and, for the traumatized victim, everything seems normal ... because it is so overwhelming and automatic. We're talking about approaches again. How would you respond to someone moving too fast to intimacy for you? The Ego of many of us would be flattered that a stranger would so quickly recognize our worth. For a few persons, their Ego would feel embarrassed that anyone could be so naive as to assume such a positive perspective of us.

Yet, for many of us, our Social Conscience, embodied in our SuperEgo, would throw up the defences high and fast. Both the advice of many others and our own experience would have sensitized us to the deception and manipulation so often expressed through false praise. Whatever you give the rowdy group, they will return it ten-fold. Defensiveness may be returned as aggression. Friendliness may be responded to as if it were flirting. Confusion may be returned as intolerance. So what can you do?

From a spiritual perspective, the rowdy group needs acknowledgement ... not sympathy.
A humble question expressed with a positive tone as to what has sparked their excitement could have them pause long enough to reflect such that they can share that focus with you. Then, you have an opportunity to assist them in following through on that focus. The follow through may be to change direction because previously unknown risks are now revealed. Or, an intense or erratically developing approach may now take a more planned and considerate direction. Anarchy is always dangerous until it is focused. Like confusion and noise, if we allow anarchy to impose itself on us, we allow our spiritual strength to be disbursed.   (46)

What is Intimacy?
In North America, intimacy is often considered to be the same as sexuality.
This is a gross simplification of the human experience, one that serves to dehumanize and suppress the individual to the secular roles of worker, owner, leader, icon. It is difficult to abuse, deceive, manipulate, underpay, beat, and express ultimate authority over another person if you consider them to be an equal and yourself to be more worthy than a resource to be used by others. If you open yourself too quickly, you make it so easy for another to deceive and manipulate you to the satisfaction of their own ends that you almost encourage them to do so. Your weakness of need translates into a disrespect for them, for if you respected them, you would show much more interest in them before fully exposing yourself.

Intimacy is about being honest and open with another person.
Intimacy is about sharing your concerns, frustrations, and weaknesses with another person in the hope that by doing so they can acknowledge you as a full-bodied person. It is hoped that with a true understanding of you, they can be considerate and supportive. Without that acknowledgement, they can have no awareness of your personal needs, desires, fears,  ... and lacking that awareness, they will be poor in contributing to your happiness and good in frustrating your participation in life. The same holds true for you relative to them. Being intimate with another person opens your Personal Spirit to hurt or joy. How do you know which?   (47)

Empathy is when you can relate to the reality of someone else.
This is not some idealistic intellectual projection of how we expect that other person should feel or some recollection of an imagined account expressed by a novelist. You can only truly feel the reality of someone else if you have had a parallel experience. In the protection of our mass institutionalized society we are withdrawn from many experiences of life on the assumption that they are too risky or dangerous for us, or, because it is deemed that we do not have sufficient coping skills. We are rewarded for choosing to live the least challenging, most dependable, routine, boring lives. Our complacency is purchased with more than ample opportunities for fantasy entertainment. Soon we hardly know the difference between fantasy and reality.

Rather than educate us with better coping skills, our society promises to look after us and distracts us with controlled experiences. If we truly want spiritual strength and to develop spiritual skills we must restrict our exposure to fantasy and take the courage to step out into the real world. Work beside another person as a volunteer for a day or a week on the premise of learning a new skill that they use. Deeply listen to the recounted experiences of others. Acknowledge them. Express trust. Ask what they did and what was important for them to continue. See yourself truly in their past experience and ask yourself, what would you do, how would you continue?   (48)

Forgiveness, from a spiritual perspective, cannot be imposed.
Forgiving a person who is unaware of having done anything demanding forgiveness is convicting them of a crime without allowing them a hearing. It is passing a sentence and then returning to offer that if the victim submits to your authority, you will remove the penalty.

This is hypocrisy involving the self-righteousness of one's SuperEgo and the pride of one's Ego.
True forgiveness must be sought, not offered. Only a person who voluntarily acknowledges their guilt and offers remorse in the form of a desire to atone for the disrespect carried out and a conviction to never repeat such an error again --- is available for forgiveness. This bond brings two sides together to produce a co-supportive whole. Neither side can do it alone.   (49)

Compassion is making allowances for someone else while wanting them to be able to experience some of the positive outcomes you have benefited from. Unless you have suffered disappointments, losses, and failures, and, have acknowledged and accepted the emotional pain connected with them your sense of compassion is little more than pity. North American social tradition has been for men, in particular, to never acknowledge or demonstrate emotional pain. Instead, the demand to contain and deny such pain has often resulted in expressions of rage in which physical abuse is expressed upon the emotional abuser, too often a wife or girl-friend.

Spiritual strength comes from acknowledging such pain, not denying it.
Spiritual strength comes with the assertiveness of taking action to remove oneself from the presence of those who disrespect us so that we are not co-opted into a cycle of abuse. If you have experienced, and truly feel, and remember that pain --- you recognize the potential spiritual devastation connected to such pain and sincerely grieve for others who also feel such pain. The spiritually aware person can be strong in motivation by their desire to end such pain. The choice of not rushing to judgement and of trying to perceive the inner person in others is the positive step of compassion.   (50)

Commitment is the only safeguard for expressing intimacy, empathy,forgiveness, and compassion.
To be flippant in our expression of trust in our interaction with others is to open ourselves to the spiritual abuses of deception, manipulation, and betrayal. Trust is something which is earned by a consistent demonstration of honesty. Honesty requires us to give feedback to others who are important to us --- feedback which we know those persons may dislike, reject, or find emotionally cutting. From a spiritual context, we always seek to provide that truth in as gentle yet assertive a manner as we are capable of.

This often requires the suggested opposites of humility and confidence in our statements.
It is normal to experience fear at such times, unless we have gone through this process successfully with the person or persons involved before. Our fear is that the individual will banish us along with the message. Spiritually, we must know that lies do not show either respect or love for the other person. By introducing our observations with the admission that there may be a miscommunication or misperception that requires clarification, we show our commitment to the person before the apparent facts. Commitment is a mutual expression of personal worth, honesty, and humility. All of these contribute to spiritual strength.   (51)

A spiritual perspective values life and such a value abhors waste.
Out of respect for him- or herself and of the prey, the efficient hunter wants to utilize as much of the resource hunted as possible so that more resources do not have to be tracked and withdrawn from the environment. Nor does the compassionate hunter wish to cause any more pain, distress, anxiety, or fear in the live prey than is absolutely necessary. Such would be irreverent of the life which has been given one and of the life which must be ended to extend the first. So how does one come to recognize the value of life. You cannot value something you never take pleasure in. Most civilizations eventually get to a point of encouraging their followers (citizens) to sacrifice today for the benefit of the future.

Often as people age, the weight of continual present disappointment with the myth of the opulent future never arriving encourages a reverence for the past. In the past, one was more ignorant, less informed, less experienced, more confident in their earthly mentors. It seemed simpler, easier, happier then. We miss the fact that such a past was a lie which experience has uncovered. Reality does not consist in covering up the truth so as to be happy with the lie. That is a waste of experience. Even as much, living only for the future deprives us of any appreciation for the present and allows us to evade our responsibilities a we sell our freedom for expectations built on the assumptions of others. Out of despair, we may focus on the Ego perspective of the present in hopes that we do not survive into the future and in such a fantasy world of self-obsession we can drown away the past. All of these outlooks drain away our spiritual energies.

The spiritual perspective is to live vibrantly in the present reality while acknowledging the errors of the past and one's capability for change growing into an ever improving future with the certainty and hope available through the reality of Guidance. Acknowledging that reality and seeking, receiving, and following Guidance strengthens us spiritually.   (52)

Knowing the enemy means being able to understand the enemy.
It means being able to remain relaxed and flexible in response, not reacting from fear.
Spiritually, it means being able to remain in or enter the combined states of no-emotion and reverence so that one can acquire the always constructive wisdom of Higher Self Guidance. You can't do that if your Ego or SuperEgo are reacting with physical or emotional or spiritual violence. You can't do that if your Unconscious is rushing you into panic through your imagination or paranoia. What are we talking about here.

Feelings!
It is not a case of denying and shutting off most feelings so that we can swim in a few positive ones.
The challenge is to be aware of our feelings. We cannot do that if we continue to build on the mess of complex and contradictory combinations of emotions and attitudes which our imperfect society has imprinted into us. We have to re-build. We have to get in touch with those emotions --- cleanly and strongly expressed. Research, and human history before, has demonstrated that positive emotions only exist because their opposing negative emotions are present. Strip away one, and both are lost.

The important question is that of control.
We don't want negative emotions that we cannot control.
They will make us losers and failures. So we make the choice to develop our awareness and acceptance and expression of them for ourselves. If we do the practice, we control the circumstances of the expression and the beginning and the end. That intimacy with our negative emotions provides us with the choice of choosing which of the opposing emotions to release and when. A clear understanding of one's emotions enables us to manage them. That ability allows us to choose Reverence or No-Emotion at will. That ability allows us to acknowledge the presence of fear and anger and find ways to resolve them rather than allow them to drive us. These abilities maintain our spiritual strength.   (53)

What is Conflict?
Whenever we are faced with situations of potential conflict, we instinctively react with defensiveness, unless, we have been mentored by a very caring and peaceful family and society. Not many of us have that positive advantage. Many of us learn early that certain body movements and tones of voice preclude violent expressions. Those expressions may be physical blows, attacks with weapons, harsh words, demeaning statements, or threats directed towards persons, animals or things that we value. Conflict is when someone disagrees with or misunderstands us. They have locked on to a perception or point of view and are more confident in supporting it than in humbly exploring alternatives.

Recognize the huge distinction between disagreement and conflict.
Disagreements are open to discussion, feedback, negotiation, re-appraisal, acknowledgement, and forgiveness. If we assume conflict first before it has been confirmed, we are contributing to ensuring conflict where none may have been. The challenge is to assume disagreement until conflict proves itself. Conflict is a rush to judgement growing out of one's insecurity, expected denial, and assumed perfection. If we did not assume personal perfection, our first thought on encountering statements that we understood to be aggressive and disrespectful would be to confirm with the other person if what we have heard is what they intended. The spiritually aware person learns to expect misunderstandings and seeks to confirm meaning before assigning value.   (54)

The enemy is not the prey any more than it is ourselves.
A lack of self-awareness and self-discipline on our part puts the potential for success with the other participant. You can't win spiritually if you are only thinking of your own safety or of how you will look in the eyes of those who depend on you or those you want acceptance and respect from. Winning spiritually means being able to get out of the box and see all the options, quickly. It means choosing the best manner of participation, or non-participation, for the most constructive result. We are the ones who are difficult to move, to motivate.

Most people live in misery because they cannot bring themselves to accept the fact that they can make a difference in their lives and the lives of others. Many of us have been mentored to accept what we are given and ask for no more. Equally negative is the attitude that we can go into reality and make anything happen if we want it compulsively enough. Such SuperEgo self-worship pride always ends in spiritually crushing failure. Ask yourself every day, how can I improve? Reward yourself for your positive choices and discipline yourself for your poor choices.

Either you take a leadership role in your life, or, your life is a crap shoot.
Gamblers always expect to win. They always lose, sooner for most, later for the unlucky ones. Unlucky because the deeper they become involved the more certain they are that they will win by playing the game. Life is no game. It is for real. You don't get any chances to replay your turn, or to pass, or to quit. The spiritually aware person knows the odds and the reality. The only way to win is to keep improving.   (55)

How do you find and use the strength to follow Spiritual Guidance?
Most everyone you know and meet will deter you from following your Guidance.
They will question the sanity of a person who dares suggest that God would befriend any person.
They will question as to how insignificant and imperfect you could be so graced to receive an audience with God. If they see the outcome of your Guided direction they will be quick to condemn you as evil, for they can only see that by some form of God-controlling magic could you harness such power. Or, in the opposite direction, they will expect that you should become, or should want to become, some Earth-based god --- a stand-in for God before them.

Most educated persons have been sold and bought the myth that humans are only little people: play-pieces on God's game board. If you can exclude these surrounding influences from you consciousness, then you still have to cope with your inner terror. What if! What if you can and you do receive communication and direction from God. The weight of the huge responsibility which such a gift carries is crushing to one's Ego and SuperEgo. In the face of such power, they are nothing of importance. How do you accept that you can do that which all your physical identity expressions tell you is impossible. Love. If you can accept the utter depth of Love and Confidence which God has for you in entrusting such Wisdom to you, together with the realization that such Love is available to all those humble enough to ask --- you will accept that Love to empower your Personal Spirit.   (56)

So back to the park again and now we have a group of enraged persons approaching.
What do you do? Do you prepare for battle? Do you run? Do you plead for mercy? Do you fall faint? Do you call for help? Do you kill yourself? Do you understand what Rage is? If you do not understand the reality that is approaching you, confusion reins and the likely outcome is disaster. Rage develops when a person has been forced, either by the physically or emotionally overpowering nature of an aggressor, or, by their training to be passive and non-assertive --- to take one experience of abuse after another. This may continue for years, and often decades.

The often justified anger suppressed and held within the individual is magnified by repeated remembering into hate. The hate accumulates until it consumes the consciousness of the person. Now, all that magnified and accumulate fire must be dissipated or it will burst out in an explosion. A weapon can be directed at a particular person. It can be controlled. But an explosion cannot be controlled. It is indiscriminate. It lashes out in all directions destroying any and everything in its path. So with human rage. If you oppose it and try to contain it, you add fuel to it, and it destroys more than before you participated.

If you run from it, it simply destroys those around you.
Talking, pleading, calling, questioning --- are worthless, brushed away in a moment.
From a spiritual perspective the preventative of no tolerance for abuse, assertive communication, and constructive use of anger is the preferred solution. But after the fact, it is too late. It may mean defending yourself with the knowledge that you will physically lose. The knowledge that if the rage is dispensed on you, it will not be magnified and used to destroy many more people further along the path. The only sure answer of how to respond to what is at hand is by Spiritual Guidance.   (57)

For a Spiritually-Guided thinking style of person, a party is any choice of activity, or inactivity which brings joy to that person and those around him or her. This is generally heightened by the fact that such choices have arisen from a demonstrated commitment to follow Guidance requested. This can turn a meeting into a party. The Guided person is overjoyed that he or she has been able to contribute options or suggestions to the meeting which will be constructive for all concerned --- even if the others attending are not yet aware of such a reality.

For the Spiritually-Guided, a party may be oneself in communion with their Higher-Self and the miraculous outcome of a Guided action. For them, a party may also take the form of intimate contentment or an anxiety-free state of rest or meditation. Joy may be shared with another person, with one's Higher Self, with another spirit, or, all of these together. A party for a Spiritually-Guided person is never an event in which one must hide the truth, ignore or support abusive behavior, follow ritual expressions of respect for the material in abhorrence of the spiritual and God. Unless one avoids such exposures, one invites a contamination and weakening of their Personal Spirit.   (58)

Questions, not Answers!
With the advent of the printed word, it became possible for humanity to record descriptions of reality with certainty and authority. Verbal communication existed for perhaps hundreds of thousands of years before writing. Writing allowed one to commit promises to public record. First, it was used to confirm economic transactions. Then, it was used to reduce anarchy by stipulating rules for acceptable community behaviors, laws. Individuals surrendered more and more of their power and choice to leaders so that they could share in the increased opportunities, security, and material wealth of larger settlements and the routine of mass production. With little exception, writing has provided answers. The more structured and larger the society, the more we are inspired from birth to expect that the best answers are the key to success. Yet these answers are always the best guesses of persons we ascribe the status of god to and call experts.

Spiritually, you cannot have divided loyalties.
Such is dishonest. It sponsors deception, manipulation, and betrayal.
Who do we follow this time? Next time? For the Spiritually-Guided person, humility dictates that the question is more important than the answer. For how can you know the answer, if you have never asked the question? The relevancy of the answer is a parallel to the relevancy of the question and an extension of our ability to understand. If you want more detailed answers, you must become more aware of the possibilities available through experience and study. The best answer to a poor expressed question is confusion. It is your responsibility to know the significance of what you ask. Insincerity weakens your spiritual strength; sincerity strengthens it.   (59)

What is Rest?
Must one be alert and vigilant always?
The spiritually aware person has the deepest sleep and the most intense relaxation because such a person is always confident that they have done and are doing the best that they are capable of. They accept the reality that others who have chosen to deny, avoid, or ignore the benefits of Spiritual Guidance and a spiritual perspective will never encourage them and seldom acknowledge them. They find satisfaction in the reward of continued and improved spiritual contact arising out of their commitment to choose such an avenue often to assist their decision-making.

Unafraid to ask what is desired of them, they are also equally courageous to confirm that they have not done something in error, or, that they have not left something undone, or unasked. There will be disappointments, but these they sincerely seek to learn from. And, like a rebellious child who acknowledges its mistake and asks for forgiveness, the person who chooses to accept and follow Spiritual Guidance is always attended with open arms and a love as large as the universe. Their rest is only disturbed when they are called by their Higher Self, or, disturbed by evil.   (60)

Evil is that which easily weakens our spiritual integrity.
For each person, what constitutes evil has a lot to do with the energy blocks they carry and the social and political environment in which they live. We know that energy blocks are formed from the unresolved traumatic experiences of ancestors or ourselves. By removing our freedom of choice and addicting us to reactive attitudes and responses, they have the power to force us to make errors which frustrate and endanger us as well as those we interact with.

Beyond that evil, like a warm cozy blanket wrapped around us, are the social norms which encourage and reward us for our self-centredness and our disrespect for the rights of others. To the extent that our society does not surround us, mentor us, and reward us and others for honesty, integrity, and open and humble acknowledgement of God, it is evil. By its omission, or exclusion, it invites and encourages denial of and abandonment of spiritual values. Half of one's defence is in knowing that which weakens you; the other half is in coping with it and avoiding it.   (61)

Distraction closes you off from the spiritual perspective.
Distraction accomplishes this by stimulating one or more of the identity expressions you have to assist in providing you with a continued physical experience: Ego, SuperEgo, Unconscious. Stimulation leads to involvement and commitment of energies and resources. Too much stimulation encourages feelings of confusion, anxiety, fear, frustration, acting out, anger, abuse, rage, violence.

We have constructed a world which shelters us from an experience of life behind walls of certainty, security, and safety. Stripped of the natural experience of risk, change, challenge, and beauty, we fashion substitutes, often technical in nature, which are more appearance than reality. Remove the cover and everything within is cold, hard, predictable, boring, lifeless. Stripped of the dynamic of living, we are encouraged by the media, commerce, and our peers to drink in our fantasy images which never deliver the real high of life.

So, like an unsatisfied addict unwilling to set aside the fantasy and courageously enter reality, we seek more distraction. A spiritual perspective is intimately in contact with reality. It cannot abide mind-numbing distraction. Your choice is efficient and effective Spiritual Direction, or, the undelivered promises of distraction.   (62)

Solitude is no accident of spiritual growth.
How can one see the forest if one is obsessed with the trees?
If you fill your senses with noise, how can you hear the messages being transmitted?

Our physical reality and the expressions of our identity which support that reality greedily seek to dominate our consciousness. Yet we know from our experiences that those expressions are filled with good intentions and many errors. Those mistakes and failures encourage us to both push ahead in an effort to improve our score, and, to pull back in reservation and fear lest we worsen our outcomes. No matter how much energy we expend and no matter how active and involved we become, neither will assure us of success and continued success. Unless we are mentored to be aware of the benefits of a spiritual perspective, we may expend our lives in a hopeless quest for material-based contentment.

Solitude allows us to make a temporary break with the demands of the physical and the expectations of a materialistically oriented society. It allows us to step back and afford ourselves the opportunity to experience the wider and deeper reality of a spiritual perspective. Solitude enables us to take self-responsibility rather than always having to rely upon others for our experience of life. Solitude allows us to acknowledge ourselves and seek for Spiritually Guided direction to assist us in our decision-making and our awareness of opportunities.

By devoting yourself to listening to and telling others, one has no time to receive. Taking and giving are neither beneficial for growth. One leads to wealth; the other to poverty. The way of spiritual strength is to receive what one needs and assist others, if they request an opportunity for change.   (63)

Going beyond the physical is a requirement of spiritual awareness.
The dream of the commerce-based materialistic society is that one should have all of their needs met to the point of satisfaction, with ease. Physical needs that is. For emotional needs are only met when we are acknowledged and we are valued by others as well as ourselves. And we can never receive that recognition and appreciation with sincerity and openness unless we earn it through our respect for the needs of others. That honest expression towards others requires an element of trust and for that we must risk loss, abuse, deception, manipulation, and abandonment.

In the mathematical simplicity of the economic equation, such risks are foolish sentiments.
Yet without such risks there is no possibility of reaping the emotional rewards.
So also with the need for spiritual peacefulness, understanding, and harmony which we yearn to experience as contentment. It is not a given. If you want spiritual strength you must be willing to open your mind. Open your mind to experience the beauty in and of the design of your existence. Open your mind to the challenges of the reality that surrounds you. Open your mind to understand how you can best share and work with the other living beings that surround you. Open your mind to experience the wonder of spiritual direction. Open your mind.   (64)

Look around you and look at human recorded history.
Human history is a record of the repeated rise in power of human co-dependent associations until they self-destruct by way of their inflexibility of response, loss of individual self-sufficiency, focus on short-term goals and strategies, and obsession with their achievements. True to pattern such concentrations of power cannot arise unless individuals sacrifice or volunteer their energies in support of the choices made by a variety of human gods called leaders, specialists, professionals, priests, and owners. Such possession-based power is most often expressed in the abuse of rights of others, the wasteful consumption of everything, the devaluation of everything and everyone to some numerical reference, and, the co-opting of others into the system by first stripping away their self worth, then selling it back to them, piece by piece, with the new currency of materialism. (65)

Most large societies are spiritual abattoirs.
Unable to freely express spiritual values and skills, the individual often feels compelled to deny their spirit and buy in, rather than be excluded into anonymity. In the interest of commerce, North American society expresses a hypocrisy that motivates to participate, rewards for contributing, extracts by taxation, abandons when burnt out --- the citizens who have the stronger Personal Spirits.

The resulting grief, despair, anger, and loneliness are effective at weakening one's spirit. It is the learned confidence in one's political, legal, and social system of mythical god-likeness that discourages the experience of reverence for God. Time becomes a mathematical commodity demanded by our dependency to restraining our worth to the practicality of routine only to try and buy it back through the purchase of the fantasy worlds of mass entertainment and the worth of our possessions. Time for God and unstructured reality are butchered away for the ever increasing demands of temporary satisfaction. If your society is structured in a spiritually positive way, you will be rewarded for presence, not your contribution. A person who feels accepted and values wants to contribute. You don't have to buy their soul.   (66)

Modern society prepares you to fail in these circumstances.
You run away or attack back. Almost every North American movie, TV adventure or science fiction series, novel, cartoon, advertisement, and radio commentator --- follow the authoritarian approach to conflict resolution --- destroy! If someone irritates you, strike them. If someone threatens to kill, kill them. If someone assaults you or someone dear to you, return twice the aggression. Always show the other person who is boss. What we really mean is use more force to win over lesser force. Either way, you often lose.

Only the choice of better options leads to a win.
Being a better brute isn't acceptable in the spiritual realm.
In the true reality of experience, the would be aggressor has often learned their pattern of confrontation as a defence against the aggression of and a replication of the aggression they have received from others. Failing to offer them a way of learning to value themselves and to respect others only perpetuates the pass-it-on aggression cycle they have learned. So you win. The result is that you intensify the aggression cycle in the other person and bring them closer to rage. That is not good enough. You are now responsible for the increased severity of expressed aggression which your opponent brutalizes his now larger number of subsequent victims with. How can you know the options if you don't understand the interaction? Why accept losing when you can win?   (67)

What is Wisdom?
Have you ever noticed how every time people ignore God and get into trouble they blame it on God!
In a form of reverse SuperEgo idealism, we feign ignorance and assign the responsibility for the deaths of those involved in avalanches, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, forest fires, floods, tornado, and a host of other natural events to God. Yet it has always been known, and consistently ignored, even persecuted, that individuals were able to know before the event that it would happen.

If it was known, it could be planned for and damage could be minimized as well as potential injuries and deaths avoided. Sometimes, this forewarning has come from scientific studies and observations, yet, the communities involved have almost always chosen to neither move from their comfort, or to plan with self-determination. On average, tens of thousands of people have died in such ways every year or two for our span of recorded history.

More often, spiritually skilled, spiritually strong, or, spiritually gifted persons have received the foreknowledge, or an indicator of it, either spontaneously or through prayerful request. The latter is something which anyone can learn to do. So, it is our opportunity and our responsibility to receive and act on the knowledge that is available. Of course, there are requirements for such benefits. We have to develop our awareness of and our spiritual skills through learning and practice. Most of all, we have to shed our comfortable complacency and inertia and take action. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is undeniable truth acted upon. Deny its existence and choosing not to follow it both drain away our spiritual strength. (68)

Humility and faith are necessary for one to benefit from spiritual wisdom.
If we are not humble enough to ask, the knowledge will not come, for, from a spiritual perspective, knowledge and action are not forced upon another. If we do not know that the knowledge can be asked for, it is because our parents, peers, politicians, priests, and professionals have implied through their imprinting and mentoring behaviors that such does not exist, is not important, or, cannot be accessed. Why would they do that? If they truly love us and care for us and are responsible for us, as they tell us, why would they seek to keep us weak and dependent? Why would they take comfort in such a position of cultural co-dependency and spiritual enslavement?

In such an environment of confidence in human authority and question of individual worth it necessarily demands considerable humility to ignore the potential for social ostracism that so often attends the determination to do anything different from what is accepted practice. That humility can be initially derived from the positive example of one or more others, or, from the desperation that attends unresolved critical questions of survival. Once we begin to access and choose to follow Spiritual Guidance, we are awed by the outcomes. It is that personal experience of awe, remembered as reverence, which gives us the confidence of faith to act independently. The more we ask, receive, and respond, the greater our spiritual strength becomes.   (69)

What you are not prepared for will kill your spirit.
Physical life is not spiritual life, yet while the physical cannot be integrated into a spiritual lifeform, the spiritual can be integrated into our physical being. We are born with this capability so even as we develop our abilities to walk, talk, and make things --- so also we can develop our spiritual awareness and skills. We can either prepare to be a benefit to all that surrounds us, or to be a disadvantage.

If we learn to be aware of all life and seek to cooperate with it, our choices and actions will provide a return of our energies; otherwise, our adversity to it will drain our energies. This is the common cause we all share with existence. How can we best appreciate and utilize the gift of life? That which has given us life knows the purpose and mission intended for it. It is only by communicating with that Ultimate Source of Wisdom and by requesting and following the Guidance available to us on a spiritual plane, that we can come to learn about and carry out our mission. If we choose to do that, we will live as well as possible.

Request and accept such Guidance day by day.
Expect no more than its reward of more life, more experience, more wisdom, more joy.
The energies expended in anger, hate, rage, abuse and violence waste our spirit.
Seek to be self-sufficient so that you may destroy as little as possible, humble as few as possible, and avoid your responsibilities as seldom as possible --- for these all turn us from the strength of our spiritual calling. Appreciate the beauty and wonder of all that surrounds you, that is within others, and which can radiate from yourself. Hold reverence for the opportunities so provided by God and respect the challenges by which you can continually improve and from which you can benefit. You can only be as strong as your preparation is relevant.

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