Belonging to oneself and belonging in the universe

[Ulises]

The powerful need to belong to oneself and to belong in the universe are ultimately the same thing: the drive toward wholeness. And since this drive entails a pursuit toward fulfillment of the need to belong sometimes the need to belong is put first and people will join strange societies or cults in order to fulfill this need. However, belonging to a group may be the opposite of pursuing one's wholeness, especially when the requirements of the group are those of obedience and imitation, as is the case with most cults and even organized religions.

 

The availability of a path toward wholeness which is uniquely tailored to the individual has long been lacking, and the thought of it may even sound paradoxical. How could one pursue a path that is uniquely personal, uniquely individual? Where would the feedback come from? How would a person know when they are on such a path and when they are off it? What would the guidelines be? how would one come to arrive at such a path in the first place?

 

Surprisingly, the path has always been there in each of us. The feedback system is in place. And frequently the call is very powerful. And the invitation is simultaneously profound and mysterious, and it exists at the very heart of who we are. Why would it be that everything that grows, each animal, every flower, every tree, is invited and nurtured to grow into wholeness, into its completeness, but not the human being?

 

But each of us has been trained to ignore the path, to fear the call, and to doubt the feedback. And the system of training is called education. It requires conformity, obedience, a giving up of one's will to the teacher,a stepping away from one's true calling, and a learning to ignore the naturalness of the flow of one's own awareness. And an avoidance of one's own interests and a pursuit of commonality. On schedule, of course. For the natural rhythm, the natural sense of timing, the organic beat that is in each of us is subordinated to the tick of the clock.

 

...The source of the path is in the very seed-kernel of who we are, has been with us from the beginning, and continues to summon and beckon throughout our lives. And all it requires from us is relationship, true relationship, not the contrived obedience and conformity that were instilled in us in the name of child rearing. And true relationship requires being who and where we are and communicating that directly. For relationship is at the heart of coming into wholeness. We cannot get there by ownership, but only by relationship, a deep relationship with our own individual experiences.

 

- Stephen Gallegos, "Into Wholeness"

[Ulises]

There were no bells or whistles. There was no out-of-body flight or any sensations entering an altered state of consciousness. There was nothing as dramatic as what had happened when I was seven. I only saw a human figure appear in front of me. This was not a specific person but a generic individual, almost like a department store mannequin. It was not a being of Light as I was used to seeing, but seemed sculpted from light that glowed from within itself. It definitely appeared solid and physical, even though radiant with light. It seemed bursting with meaning; so much so that if information were heat and light, it would seem that this individual was standing in front of a furnace. I felt overwhelmed by the insights this figure contained, and could not grasp them all. Almost fifty years later, I'm still unpacking the information it had to offer. But one thing stood out.

This figure represented an incarnate person in physical embodiment. It was neither a spiritual nor a non-physical being. It was not an image of what a person might become if he or she left the physical plane or became some kind of ascended master. I t was an image of the spiritual Light contained within and radiating from the act of individuation and personhood. It was the light of being a person. As I watched, the figure changed into a chalice and then became a figure again. It did this three times altogether, as if emphasizing that this person also represented a quality of holding. Afterward, I thought of this figure as "the person who is also a chalice". At the same time this vision unfolded in front of me, I sensed the presence of a group of inner beings in the background, one of whom came to stand behind me. He said quite distinctly, "There is a new spirituality emerging, a spirituality of personhood and incarnation. It will represent a new way of being in the world."

 

~David Spangler, "Apprenticed to Spirit"