Searching For What
Attaining spiritual serenity is a process that involves an evolving of our consciousness. To be able to evolve our consciousness we have to decondition ourselves from our habitual materialistic thought patterns. Now I know this is not an easy task, and it takes much hard work to reverse the social programming that starts from the day we are born. We must learn to set aside or normal everyday ways of thinking, to allow ourselves to look at things from a different perspective and a different state of mind. This is what expanding our consciousness and starting to become aware of higher realms of existence is all about.
I don’t know if it is just me or if there is actually a profound growing interest in spirituality among the population of the Western countries. Could it be a quickening in the minds of the populace as we get closer to the alignment that is to come in 2012? It seems that more people are questioning the traditional forms of spiritualism, and looking beyond for questions of Who Am I, Where Did I Come From, and What is My Purpose.
There is an ever growing pilgrimage to spiritual places such as India, or Sedona in Arizona. Could it be because these places are vibrating with certain energy fields that other so called spiritual places cannot claim? For centuries India has been a symbol of spiritual phenomenon, and people have been flocking there from all over the world in search of themselves. What is this emptiness that we are feeling, and what is it that we are searching for to fill that emptiness?
I feel that it is the connectedness to One that we are searching for, the realization that we are all the same, call it christ consciousness. (when I say Christ I do not attach that to Christian religion) I believe the reason that there is a continuous searching and no finding is because we are trying to find answers outside of ourselves, when it is as simple as looking inward.
I think my biggest feeling of freedom came when I realized that there is no hell, and that I was not going to burn forever somewhere if I wasn’t a good boy. And this is a good example of a social programming aspect that I overcame, and I continue to overcome social programming of this nature on a daily basis. This allowed me freedoms to start searching other areas that had otherwise been taboo. For example I would have never looked into other religions and forms of spirituality when I was still under the belief system that Christianity was the only way and that I would go to hell for even picking up a book about Buddhism.
This is an example of taking another step On the Path, to fill myself with more knowledge about who I am and what my purpose is. The reason I maintain this Blog is to try and give people freedom to search further beyond the constraints of the ways that they were brought up. And in so doing this I also get to meet others on the journey and here different opinions that also help me further along on the path.
One person I have met recently that I want to recognize is Deb, who is doing a great service to our men and women in the armed forces. Now you don’t have to like the policies of our current administration, and I have already made my feeling clear on that. But having been in their shoes, there are many great people putting their lives in danger for us. Check out Debs site at Deb_Inside . I am very blessed to have made her acquaintance.
Until next time my friends, Take Care.
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Comments
This is a great post. I find that people who desire to expand their higher awareness deepen their consciousness as the result of leaving what they know and stepping into the unknown. This includes things like travelling to a new place geographically, taking up a new hobby, making a conscious effort to meet new people, or simply choosing to meditate and close their mind off from what they have come to see as their reality.
I agree that nature is a profound teacher. We each discern what we’re ready and willing to discern, nothing more and nothing less. The setting matters less than the mental preparedness. This can evolve with us.
Your words are so true Charles….
“It’s as simple as looking inward”
Every ~place~ has the potential to be a sacred place when we first view ourselves as sacred.
I was just sharing with some friends a place that is
a sanctuary for me… it’s a park in the Cleveland Ohio area that is known as the Metro parks. The Metro Park land was set aside in 1912. The park system is supported via
taxes. It was called the Emerald Necklace for the way it
circles the counties around the Cleveland area.
This particular part of the parks is known as The Bedford
Metro park. A creek named Tinker’s runs through the park.
Here is a link to a photo…
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/5018/img09121kb1.jpg
I try and hold the thought that the people who seemed the
most removed from being awake, are MY greatest teachers.
If you shift your thinking just a little bit Norman perhaps your sister in law sacrificed her awareness on the path of life to be your teacher. Teaching the emptiness of getting caught up in the glitz and trappings.
What seems like her late blooming, might have been planned all along.
My hubby has made several business trips to Vegas.
He just can not understand WHY I have no desire to ever
go there. LOL Now if he said, how about a cabin
in the middle of the woods… I’d be running to dig out
the suitcase.
Thanks Charles for the mention in your post.
My involvement with military support came only after my son
joined the Air Force in October of 2002. He and his Air Force wife are stationed in Texas.
Both ‘kids’ are turning 24 this year.
Both have served in Iraq. Had it not been for his service, I’m not so sure I would be in the support role
that I am.
Once you land on my site, it’s clearly not just focused on military, but it’s quite near to my heart. Being a military Mom, it just feels like they ALL are my kids. !!!
I am just as blessed to have met you too Charles. 
Speaking of Sedona Arizona, my wife’s younger sister who has lived in Tokyo for more than 20 years, and still does today, took a trip to Sedona Arizona, late in 2007!!! Before, she has always taken a trip to some place which can be considered a “tourist trap”, a place where a person can enjoy all of the superficial la la land type pleasues that the human flesh can melt right into. This is the first time that I know of, where she has made a journey to a so-called “power spot” (vortex concentration). When I heard that she was going, I asked her to buy me 5 peices of Indian Jewelry, of very specific types. She did, and I paid her back the money for the silver and turquiose jewelry. Maybe after more than twenty years of getting up real early to ride on crowded trains for 3 hours each and every day, so she could go to her job at a “prestigious” company, she finally asked herself; “WHY am I living this way?” She went to Sedona, to find some answers. I think she found some, there. Like, NATURE IS THE GREATEST TEACHER, etc. She has just started on the path. Better late than never.
Norman D.