Today has been a good day — exhausting some, new challenges presented, but good.
I had the opportunity to live some more of the truths I write about. For instance, I talk about choosing how I want to feel for the day, and I have been doing that for awhile now. I realize that I am responsible for the way I act and react and the emotions consequent to my actions. The further implication of that means my emotions cannot be bound to or dependent on anyone else’s life or behaviors. So what? Well, this morning as I thought specifically about love and abundance, it struck me that often I wait for things to happen that I would then respond to with my chosen emotions. In other words, things will flow to me to cause those rather than me being the cause of them. The scenario would be like, “I choose love and abundance today. Now, what will happen so I can feel those?” My Heart told me this, not directly in those words. As I’ve often said, Hearts know things. And while I knew I should not count on anyone else “making” me feel a certain way, I saw the magic of Spirit using others to give me opportunity to grow and to live my truth. I should mention this isn’t exactly new, but it was like a re-emphasis, an extra depth in my journey of awakening. How did it happen? My son who was off work today, as we were, called and asked if he, my daughter-in-law, and baby granddaughter could come over. Now, it would have been easy to say no. The furnace/AC installers were here for the third day, left over from last week, which meant things are still in disarray. Saying Yes would be saying yes to experiencing love first hand. I chose it, I was given the opportunity, and I created it. What about abundance? Well, I had been thinking about plunking down many thousands of dollars for the furnace work. My Heart let me have it, as it were, opening my mind and soul to the reality of what I was doing. Never in my life could I have paid cash for something as big as this. I had the opportunity to express abundance by paying for that this evening. I was the abundance. Big deal, right? I know it’s not earth-shaking, but so many times we “know” things but don’t really understand them as fully as we could. I thought further this morning of Mahatma Gandhi’s famous words: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” I wished to see love, and Spirit presented me with the opportunity to love by saying yes to see my granddaughter on a much less than ideal day. Then, the very thing troubling me, making the day not so ideal, was another opportunity to live my other chosen emotion, abundance. I had to give love and abundance to feel love and abundance, to be love and abundance. I didn’t need to expect anything from some indistinct somewhere or someone, just know that the opportunities were right in front of me. I didn’t wait for the emotions to wash over me; I created them by my actions. And on this special day, Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, I thought of his words, too. If we wait for someone else to change things, to make us feel a certain way, to make life the way we want it, then we can expect nothing. Dr. King said, “Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” Proactive love! Do we want our country and society to be different? We need to listen to Heart, and it doesn’t hurt to listen to those who walk in the light and love of their Heart. If we want to know love in our society, choose it and do it. Don’t wait for others to stop hating. Many, though, don’t believe Heart-considerations or love have much place in government, politics, or policy. Listen again to Dr. King, who knew his Heart: “I have decided to stick with love…Hate is too great a burden to bear.” If governments and politicians and their policies create hate, then we certainly should be considering proactive love. Yes, choose the good feelings and choose the actions to create those feelings. We can’t expect other people or circumstances to produce them. We can be them. Yeah, I definitely want to be change that expresses love in this life. I’ve got no time for anything else.
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This afternoon, I read through my ebook manuscript, making some revisions. I really have no idea how it may be received. I do know, however, I reject all the Ego questions I have been hit with throughout today.
Oh, yes, I have experienced those Ego doubts as they infiltrate my mind, which in turn affects my soul and emotions. How does Ego work? To try and protect me from disappointment, my Ego whispers those little nagging thoughts: You can’t afford to pay an editor and other professionals. Do your followers even understand what you have been writing the last two weeks? All this time and you might be able to give away 50 copies. Do you really think you will sell ANY? Quit all this, get a haircut, and find a job. You need proof? How does a grand total average of maybe 50 or 60 “likes” a day sound? Okay, I actually allowed my Ego to feed me those questions. Now, here is the reality of the fellowship with my Heart. I knew I would write those and I can switch instantly to Heart. I can choose how I will feel, create it. How? I feel the way I intended to feel: accomplished, happy, inspired, thrilled, and resolute. My writing, as the largest part of my Vision and Mission, yields those emotions. I know it’s my best expression of love to this world, no matter who reads it, no matter when or if it gets formally published, no matter what Ego or others think. It’s my best expression of love because it’s the offering of my core Self. Having made this point, because I want to be a writer, I am not naive. I have made connections and learned some things. Publishing and marketing present new challenges and must be done — if I believe what I produce has value. It does. Therefore, this week I will be preparing the text to send to my editor. While I plan on finishing this, I have no sense of urgency because I choose a settled peace and love as my foundational emotions. I will be publishing! As a writer, I find finishing the writing part of a project to be disruptive to my emotions. Why? Because like Ulysses of Tennyson’s creation, “It little profits” that I stop my primary purpose to focus on aspects of publishing I do not know very well, so I leave those to professionals who have their Purpose in those areas of publishing. Me? “I cannot rest from travel,“ the travel of exploration and discovery and sharing my findings and my creations in my writing or speaking. Part of the magic and miracles in my life seem to center on recognizing those wonderful energies of life all around. However, I hear that Ego urge to rest, to take some time. I’m sure I will feel that, too, when I hit a full year of posting every day. However, I do not want to settle in. I thrill to generate new and fresh material to help others see, discover for themselves, see things far beyond what I do, see what miracles and magic are bound in the depths of the eternal Heart. Even though this is very personal to my situation, I think the ego temptations may exist for everyone in terms of self-doubt. If so, be encouraged: Heart responds instantly when we call. Listen, consider, and execute Heart counsel. Can’t go wrong. While I do not know outcomes, I do know myself. I have no intention of either giving up or even easing up. Again, it’s not a sense of urgency; I love doing this. How about doing anything else? “How dull it is to pause, to make an end…” Onward and upward! Blessings! Not a lot to say in preface to what I think may be my ending thought for my ebook. I still don’t have a title, but this entry tonight…emotional for me, positive, blessed.
Some Responses to the 7 Elements of Awakening As I consider my experiences and emotions resulting from living these elements of Awakening, I’m thrilled. No, more than that — exhilarated, encouraged, and fulfilled. I also have a strong sense of significance and resolution, a resolution to continue in my life of discovery of the magic and miracles of life, a resolution to continue living my Purpose and Vision. My feelings of significance result from doing what I have created and designed through Heart-energy as opposed to Ego. Whenever anyone works from Ego, they will continue to question if their works, their actions, or their outcomes are worthwhile or not. It’s why I think some very talented people who accomplish wonderful works and creations in many fields end up disillusioned, unhappy, and feeling like they never measure up or meet others’ expectations. See, one thing I have learned in the past few years and much more specifically over the past eleven months is that my work in writing and all the relationships and communication subsequent to that is exactly what I should have been doing, exactly what the world needed, and exactly what I co-created with Heart. And I am resolute because I will keep moving forward, even though I have no idea what actual bottom lines will be. Whatever they are, my creation will be responsible for them. I don’t need to know the end to know I am doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing as I type this very sentence. How do I know? Because all those emotions — exhilaration, encouragement, significance, resolution, fulfillment — flood me as I do this. That’s how I know. Oh, and one more — Love. I love myself for doing this; I love Spirit here in me and the experiences we share; I love this Universe and my fellow creatures. (Yes, I wish some things were different, but I will get to that!) Therefore, for myself, I have answered those two big life questions, questions of eternal import that have direct bearing on this second of existence in time and space, which means the questions and their answers are reality rather than anything else going on around me at this moment. Who am I? I am, I exist, I am Spirit, eternal energy contained in this body and personal identity: This is Awakening. Why am I here? I am here to experience the Universe of which I have been co-creator, and my personal mark, the flavor, the seasoning I infuse to this specific expression of Spirit, Heart in Michael Foster DePung, is the essence of Discovery. My Vision for expressing discovery is through my exploration, observations, and analysis of life and to share discovery with the Universe in my writing and communication skills. Knowing the answers to those questions forms my Grand Unified Theory of Humanity. The answers to those questions and the elements of awakening implied in those would give a complete, beautiful life experience of light and love to every individual choosing to arrive on this scene. We would have fulfilled, significant lives of wonder, magic, and miracles, and we would face challenges and grow and love one another and enlighten one another and be at peace as we continued to explore, discover, create, and innovate. And we would each be expressing our core Self because we want to feel certain ways. How do I know that this includes all of humanity in terms of metaphysical, psychological, transcendental, and the spiritual nature of each of us? Because we each ask those two big questions. Because when we answer them, we know peace and love. Because all is right with our world and we can explain or accept everything in relation to ourselves. Oh, I don’t want to forget this: if everyone experienced the seven elements of awakening, all of the social, political, governmental, and personal ills would be annihilated. We would still get to work through issues, but notice I said ills, the destructive nature of Ego being dominant and used against others would be eliminated. I also know these elements of Awakening in the negative consequence can be observed when they are not appropriated. The news stories, wars, atrocities, greed, egoic rationalizations, sicknesses, and corruption without dialogue of love or peace, with ulterior, wicked, ego-charged motives — all of those are direct results of not Awakening to Self, of individuals comprising families, communities, regions, nations, organizations, businesses — any social conglomerate of humans who believe the ends justify the means and who obtain their ends at the destructive expense of others. Yes, answer those questions: Who am I? Why am I here? See how things change. In fact, I am encouraged because I believe many things are changing. I believe many more are awakening to Self. I believe many more are creating their own Purpose and living it. My hope, though, is many more, an exponential more, will do that. I want to help others discover their power and divinity to create in light and love along with me. I want to continue in fellowship with my Heart, and one day look up from my work and see You doing the same as we join in The Fellowship of the Heart. This is the seventh “Element of Awakening” in my ebook. It brings me to the fullness of why we came to this scene.
The Fellowship of the Heart As an English teacher, I find beauty in the nuances of words.The difference of a preposition distinguishes between this element of Awakening and the previous one: Fellowship with the Heart and Fellowship of the Heart. Why the distinction? Fellowship with the Heart, which I wrote of last night, holds deep, rich, exquisite joys for me as I feel, experience, and learn of eternal energies that transcend where I’m sitting and typing at this moment. Yet, this is where I exist and express all of those wonders. It is what we come here for. Without this fellowship, I do not grow, and neither will anyone else. It’s about knowing the reality of eternity and being invested in our own divinity, and this occurs to such a degree that we create Purpose, Vision, Mission, and Goals with abandon and joy. This fullness and significance results from fellowship with my Heart. When people engage in living core Self, they transmit life energies in wonderful, positive, high frequencies. Those frequencies radiate into the Universe, straight to Spirit. Those who fellowship with their Heart and live those Heart truths in similar frequencies will cross paths because the law of attraction operates that way. When that happens, we share, work, feel, think, or love together in an expanded, interconnected fellowship. Share — what great depths in that word! This bring us to The Fellowship of the Heart. I have been privileged and blessed to experience this, but it’s not something that happens often. It may be that as I continue in fellowship with my Heart, I will know an increasing experience of The Fellowship of the Heart. I have learned over the years that seeking such, making that an object of manifestation, doesn’t work. What works is being absorbed in manifesting our Vision and living our Mission. When I do that because it’s what I want to feel and experience, then I live in the moment. I’m fulfilled. I’m emitting positive life energy. I’m allowing blessing, goodness, and those positive energies to be my joy, while releasing negative energy. Such energy and work lead to flow, but it is flow that Ego will protest. Why? Remember, Ego seeks to protect by isolating, either convincing us that we’re superior and right and everyone else is wrong or by rationalizing with us about the futility of ourselves and life. Either way, we end up alone with either a false impression of greatness or a false sense of worthlessness. The option of The Fellowship of the Heart offers an unnatural joy to an ego-bound soul. We need to realize and allow the positives into our life, hear our own Heart, and live with the mindset we came here to know. When that happens, we recognize that Spirit works all things together for our good; this is a blessed, true reality of love. Human composition dictates that when we discover something we value, we want to share it, experience it with others. We know the Unity we desire, the reality of all that we came here for. This is embracing the full scope of Awakening, and when we do that, we experience The Fellowship of the Heart. This next section of my ebook holds such deep, exciting, real meaning and experience for me. I hope it helps you discover core Self in an even deeper way!
Fellowship with Your Heart This element of Awakening thrills me, mainly because it is the spiritual space I experience daily with my Heart, a time of fellowship, a sacred time. What does that mean to me? More than anything, fellowship means sharing. I speak to my Heart, sometimes in writing, sometimes in thought, sometimes audibly. My Heart answers me in a distinct, honest, and loving voice. No mush here, just honest talk, evaluation of things like Purpose, Vision, Mission, and Goals. Development of gratitude, resolution, and a mindset of growth. Exploration, deep exploration, of beliefs and opinions about anything or everything. Judgment is never an option and never exercised. Encouragement, mounds of encouragement. Working through personal past in order to understand myself, an understanding that helps me identify why I act and react like I do at certain times, behaviors that sometimes are troubling to me, things that derive from shadow selves or family patterns or even deeper reasons — Ego things. Heart does not pull punches — ever. Heart loves — ever. Heart judges — never. But all these things are learned through this process of fellowship. We will always be learning, growing, strengthening that relationship, and it is all internal to us. In some ways, it’s a mystery. In others, the clarity is unparalleled. Fellowship with the Heart are these sacred times based on everything we have ever experienced, thought, felt, or done — soul-mind-body — a direct insight into self from that true Self who arrived within, as part of and integral to our mortal body. And Heart came for this purpose: to be known, be one, be light, be love and bring our whole being into Spirit life. Heart seeks to establish this connection, and when we recognize it, discover core Self, it appears as an epiphany to us, an ah-ha moment, even though Heart has been whispering, interposing, speaking to and appealing to us throughout life. Awakening is not only an epiphany, but also it’s a process, one experienced in fellowship with the Heart. The personal nature of this makes it impossible to even suggest some formal procedure. However, I do have a semi-formal practice every morning, but that does not mean “Fellowship with Heart” is the first item on an “Action List” to be checked off. That would be like eating breakfast, ripping my stomach out, and leaving it at the table. I need it throughout the day; I need my Heart throughout the day. I speak to my Heart throughout the day. In the morning, my personal writing involves a dialogue between my Heart and me. It’s rather like automatic writing when my Heart speaks through the writing. It’s distinct and specific and I really don’t know what’s coming. What I do know is never one time have I questioned or addressed Heart and not had an answer. If we don’t consciously choose to address Heart, we will get what we put into it. When I speak to my Heart, meditate with Heart, work in conscious connection with Heart, I know I have a super power energy coursing throughout my whole being. I grow in the experience and knowledge of this power every day. It connects me with the energies of life, those vibrational frequencies coursing through the Universe, those which we may learn to detect in ourselves, cultivate in ourselves, and use through the power and agency of Heart. These give us the ability to access, create, and practice the magic and miracles in this Universe. I expect them, have experienced them, and learn to produce them. When in fellowship with my Heart, I also learn to release old Ego patterns, responses, and longings. The Heart operating system works in dramatic contrast to Ego. Ego isolates and protects. Heart connects and expands and risks in order to grow and experience the fullness of eternal Spirit; I am, because of Heart, divine. And so are you. Consider these questions; they may help you discover the wonder of You: When and how often do I speak directly to my Heart, not just a fleeting thought but a conversational or even insistent tone? How much time do I leave to actually listen for an answer? What ways might my Heart answer me? (I write, so my Heart and I have worked through that medium. Yours may work through elements of your Vision and Mission.) How do you remember or record your conversations? (As with every one of these elements, there is no right or wrong for any of this — just askin’ !) How much time do I leave for quiet, definite meditation? (More is not necessarily better; three minutes focusing on your breath with an awareness of your Heart can produce amazing life changes. Your Heart knows the reality of life energies, and meditation based on that refreshes me. Search YouTube for “Chakra Meditation Balancing and Healing” and find even a 10 minute guided meditation — just listen and breathe.) Speak to Heart and know that fellowship. This is exciting, enlightening, and the continuing process of Awakening, one that manifests magic, miracles, peace, light, and love that comes from unity with eternal Spirit. Boom! |
Questions to consider:How many times have you asked yourself or simply thought about the following questions?
Who am I, really? What is my truth? How do my actions reveal what I really feel and believe? What would I do with my life if I could do anything? What is my passion? Why am I here? How can I discover answers to any of these questions? If you have considered any of these questions, I hope that my experiences and writing will give you some guidance. Please read my blog and comment and share your thoughts. I would love to hear from you! Archives
December 2019
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