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Spirit Has No Gender

The View from the Soul

CHAPTER 8

If at First You Don't Succeed...

We wish to inject a few words about circularity here. The linear view of the universe which has served you so well up to now has certain inherent shortcomings. Maintaining such a perspective requires the use of judgement. Some aspects must be better than others in order for one moment to follow the next. You see black and white alternating in every expression as all present moments demand placement between past and future. You are constantly comparing your present moment experience with both your past experiences and your aspirations for future experience. Of course, perceiving the perfection of the present moment becomes virtually impossible under such linear scrutiny.

As we have suggested, your aspirations are the voice of your Soul calling you into a larger awareness of your infinite Self. Even if those aspirations have taken on the density of modern human life (like a red Maserati), still they are a spiritual calling. As such, it is unlikely that your Soul will insist upon just one way to express its desire into form. It is unlikely that only one way exists to express the Soul's desire into form. It is unlikely that a desire as large and inclusive as your Soul's desire to experience itself expressed will be manifested in its wholeness in any one point in time and space. More likely, the spiritual desire will flow into and out of form and express a variety of aspects over a fair period of time; a lifetime, in fact. Your success or failure simply cannot be measured in human, physical terms.

It might certainly be a great comfort to you to be able to know your "life purpose". If only there was a single act that would satisfy your Soul for eternity. Then, there might be a chance to do the dramatic deed, fighting against the odds like the hero in an adventure story and be rewarded in Heaven. Perhaps you watch too much TV? Allowing your purpose for existing to be a more nebulous and ethereal calling from the depths of your being has a serious advantage. The former definition bears a large possibility of failure; failure to discover the act you are to do and failure to accomplish said act if you do figure it out. Allowing your life to be an expression of your deepest spiritual longings allows you to be always succeeding, always being the vehicle for expressing the desire of your Soul.

That takes a lot of pressure off of you doesn't it? Whether you are expressing or repressing your deepest desires, you are embodying them all of the time. Each manifestation of spirit is only the tip of the iceberg. Most of its wholeness remains unseen in the emotional, mental and spiritual levels of existence. On those levels, manifestation takes place as well. The manifestation of inspiration, thought and feeling are as real and valid and meaningful as any physical manifestation. Even if you repress a physical expression, the vital force of your Soul's desire reverberates through other layers of the Self and into form there. Imperfection is an arbitrary judgement based upon ignorance of the spiritual desire which drives expression or of the unseen layers of expression beneath the physical layer. You simply cannot screw up in any real way.

Failure only exists in comparison to standards you set for yourself based upon an immature awareness of wholeness. Only in such light can flaws be defined and observed. You really do get to be who you are. But, who is that?

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As you look lovingly at your life, you will begin to observe that things tend to unfold in a circular pattern. You go through periods of activity and periods of rest on every level of action. You have periods of seeing the abstract aspects of your life in a more pronounced fashion followed by periods of immersion in the details and actions of living. You move through life like the seasons move and change. Within the seasons are the motions of moon and sun, circles within circles. So too do you move within your life as days are built of hours, minutes and moments. Each specific goal or activity has circular components as you make decisions, learn skills and launch into actions, reach an end to activity with either success or failure, as you define it, and mull over the consequences of your efforts before starting again. Every point of conscious focus follows such cyclic flows.

When you indulge in judgement, it invariably springs from the perspective of where you are in your cycles at the present moment. Whether aimed at yourself or at another, your judgement assumes that there is a correct place to be on some cycle or another. If you are building right now, perhaps as a life's work or cycle, someone who is destroying right now seems wrong. Sooner or later, you move through the destroying part of your life's cycle of creation too. Will you be wrong then? Might you, from that perspective judge those who build to be wrong?

Keep in mind that people concerned with halting the "wheels of progress" that build cities and businesses upon once natural landscape are as involved in destruction as those who tear down the rain forests. They feel correct and justified from their perspectives, in trying to dismantle businesses that they deem unworthy. The other side of every coin also feels thoroughly justified and correct. Each side can point to benefits to the species with equal accuracy and fervor.

Recognizing this flow of life force in action makes it possible to embrace the wholeness from any point on the wheel. You can move into the center of the wheel to observe any activity with dispassion with a simple act of will. From there, you see that all perspectives around the wheel are valid and valuable. All new life is built upon the carcasses of the dead. Neither living nor dead is superior or more holy. Truly, nothing is sacred unless all things are sacred.

From this perspective, success takes on new meaning. A new definition is in order here. Step out of the humanized version of what makes an expression meaningful. Look at it as a spiritual experience and every expression is meaningful. Not only does this bring relief from the self-induced stress of your linear drive for success, there is also tremendous power inherent in this acceptance. Seeing every expression as successful, no matter which aspect is being manifested, adds strength, courage and power to your self-expression. Your judgements stand as barriers to this flow of power. Your true internal goals come more to the surface as a result and your Soul's desire is more forcefully expressed.

Using the circular model fosters such attitudes as forgiveness, compassion, patience and understanding, all of which lead you toward unconditional love. Standing in the center of the circle affords you that unconditional perspective of your spiritual Self which releases the joy in every point along the cycle. Whenever judgement pops up and you find yourself upset with Self or other, step into the center of the circle and look again at where you are right now as one point on the wheel. It is not the best point or the correct one, it is just one point on the wheel. In this one moment of perspective, you can release the angst of judgement and off you can go once more, free to enjoy the next moment.

In one regard, the circular model of creation is fraught with the same pitfalls as the linear, tetter-totter model. It can lead to the perception of cause and effect (though in a longer view relative to time). The movement through what appears to be beginnings and endings can get extrapolated into some "cosmic laws" like karma. You can use this idea of beginning and ending to hypothesize theories like reincarnation or evolution on individual and species wide levels. These theories, because they describe the view from the perimeter of the wheel are essentially self-limiting. Karma means you have bills to pay or rewards to reap at every turn. Thus, you remain focused upon the created universe and not upon your own infinite Self. Reincarnation means that you cycle repeatedly through human life, learning "lessons" and burning off karma. Maybe, if you are "good enough" you will find enlightenment and be released from this world. Evolution conjectures that you must achieve some ultimate goal of perfection as individual or species and a long period of time is an integral part of that equation.

How would such beliefs serve you? If you designed the universe (and could God do less well than you?) would you make self-realization so nearly impossible?

The repetitive cycling of experience is your creative gesture. When your gaze is narrow and all that you perceive is physical phenomena, you walk what appears to be a straight line, one moment at a time. Widening your beliefs to see your Self in a larger temporal sense shows you how all things return to God. All that begins, ends and begins again. Even reaching the pinnacle of self-realization as the infinite being that you are will result in your joyous choice to thrust into form once more. That, just because it is so much fun! After all, the quest you are on to experience your wholeness as an infinite being is the quest to directly manifest unlimited joy! What could be more fun than that?

So, we suggest you use this model of circularity as a springboard. By remembering that whatever you perceive in the universe is representative of a whole that contains its opposite, you move into the center of the wheel of creation and experience liberation. As you stand at a certain point of a cycle of creation, as our friend here stands as a middle-aged male human, remember that you are also the being at every other point on that wheel. You are the child exploring and creating a world of wonder and the old man contemplating death and its complications. You are the vital young human thrusting your ideas into form to create a life for yourself. You are the spiritual inspiration from which you emerged into form and from which each moment of your experience emerges. You are all the moments of your life at one and the same moment. You have chosen to define each moment as separate and only that definition limits your perception of the whole.

Each movement into the center of the wheel results in a sloughing off of limiting beliefs about who you are, like a snake shedding its skin. These beliefs, such as the one about being a victim of the world around you, or of your own body or even of God, lose their sense and power in the center of the wheel. Every belief you have is one of ever so many which line the circle of creation which is your life, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Each is a weight of varying inertia that holds you on the wheel, perceiving one moment at a time. Even the light, ethereal beliefs that the spiritual body might impart will be found to be limited and limiting. Step into the center, see it all in perspective and accept the wonder of who you are. The point of life is not to step out of form to see your whole Self but to express your whole Self into form. Just for fun!



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