Our true purpose in life is not a chore, it is our greatest joy. It can also be the one thing that we hold dearest in our hearts and it might just be our greatest challenge as well. If we don't do it, our lives feel lost. If we do, it brings to us our heart's desire. Joseph Campbell said we must, "Follow our bliss." And Peace Pilgrim said that we must each, "Find our calling."
Peace further advised that if we don't already know our calling, we can seek it in reflective silence. She said we need to, "Do all of the good things that you are motivated to do, even if they are only little good things, and to give these first priority in our day over all of the ordinary and mundane things that customarily clutter our human lives." And it's true, so often we give all of our good energy of the day to the things that matter very little in the long run, saving what little is left at the end of the day, for our inspirations, when we are dog tired and ready for bed.
Bronnie Ware, an Australian Nurse who worked in palliative care with the dying found that among her patients the number one death bed regret was, "I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, rather than the life that others expected of me." Our loved ones care for us; they love us; they want to keep us around and keep us safe. Though well intentioned, they don't want us to take risks and they speak up if we do. Ram Dass tells a funny story about his parents. He said they made it very clear to him that he should: achieve, be responsible, be successful, bring pride to them, stay healthy, and if he accomplished all of that, then he should be happy as well. But this is not a recipe for an authentic life. This is a recipe for a life lived according to the plans of others.
Howard Thurman said, “Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” And when we ask, we engage the great spiritual law of asking and receiving. This will then guide us into our truest life well lived.
Following our heart's desire is like a love letter of gratitude to the Universe for our lives. I've heard it said that the foundation of our spirituality is to be appreciative of the gift of life. To have fun. To play. To laugh. To see our lives as a piece of God." So, I like to say, "Stay in your joy!" It is the surest compass there is for a life well lived.
© Josephine Laing, 2015
"I Don't Know About You, but I Live in a Reincarnational Reality" This was a quote from Ram Dass that I've adopted as my own. Our lifetimes are like going to sleep at night. We dream and then we wake up again to a whole new day. It's just that with reincarnation it's on a slightly bigger scale.
There was some wonderful research done at the University of Virginia in the late 1960's by a man named Ian Stevenson, MD who was a professor of pyschiatry. He gathered 2,500 case studies of children who at around the age of two or three would speak openly about their previous families. They also spoke about their former lives and the way they died. Many of these children had nightmares about their past life experiences because when the volume is turned up loud (as is often the case in someone who has died relatively young by some violent or unexpected means) the memories can come through more easily.
My dad was one of these kids. He wasn't in Ian Stevenson's research group because he was born about 40 years earlier, however my dad did exhibit one of the characteristics that Ian covered in his research, which is known as xenoglossy. Xenoglossy is the ability to speak in a language that you've had no former exposure to, at least not in this lifetime. My dad grew up in relative isolation in the Arizona desert, and as a little tiny boy he spoke a few words of Hindi. He named his cat the Hindu word for cat. He also told my British grandmother and grandfather about his death experience in his most recent past life, where at the age of 11 he and his whole family died suddenly at the dinner table; crushed under the timbers of their home as it collapsed during an large earthquake.
This kind of experience is common for these reincarnational children: a young and sudden death, recalled at a very young age. Some of them have birthmarks or defects that match the wounds that their deceased former self had experienced. Until recently, these accounts have mostly lain somewhat dormant in family recollections or in the desks of researchers like Ian. They were usually passed off as unexplainable anomalies, wondered at briefly and then forgotten about. But now that nearly 3 billion of us are connected via the internet, we have access to lots of information that has formerly been unavailable, like Stevenson's research, along with other new discoveries in the the topic of the ongoing nature of consciousness.
Though reincarnation is not readily accepted in the West, it does have a history of recognition in the Gnostic Christian texts, as well as in the ancient Kabbalistic Jewish teachings. Throughout most of the world reincarnation has widely and wholeheartedly been embraced. Hinduism and Buddhism both acknowledge its reality. And the oral traditions, the numerous nature-based religions of the world, have always accepted the cycles of life and death and rebirth.
Lots of current research like the explorations into near death experiences show us that consciousness continues after the body and brain have died. This helps us to change our understanding about life and death. It frees us to realize that our spiritual growth is a process and that we don't have to accomplish everything in one go. We are reborn together again and again as we progressively embrace our interconnectedness and move closer and closer to love. Voltaire said, "It is not more surprising to be born twice than once." Know that love is never lost and that we all dance together again and again. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
© Josephine Laing, 2014
