The Benign Universe, Inside Out, and Connectivity: Making the Future Look Bright.
- Bob Norton
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
1. The Benign Universe
You may easily recall to mind that, at certain moments of joy, achievement and success you may feel as though the whole world is on your side and working for you. And similarly, at other moments, you may feel quite the opposite, that the world is working against you, that you are the victim of others’ misperceptions and your efforts are but mere struggles which amount to nought and end up bringing you down. Feelings are fickle things - or so we may believe - but they form our moods and our actions and they form how we present ourselves to others. It may surprise you to know, however, that the Universe is neither for you nor against you, it only reflects or mirrors back to you what you emit out into the world. If you feel sad you will experience more sadness. If you feel joyful you will experience more joy. It's as simple as that.
Another feature of the universe which may assail you with dread or overwhelm you with delight is that it tends to present you with experiences that are designed to enable you to learn. This will be a learning which, somehow, is designed specifically for you and not for anyone else. For example, this may involve experiences which help you to become more patient, more tolerant or more accepting – especially when you need to resist less and show gratitude instead. If you want to see changes in the world such that everyone has become more accepting and less oppositional, less argumentative and more together, remember that the Universe mirrors back to you the features that you present of yourself. If you want to change the world you have to start with yourself therefore: you have to be the change that you want to see in others. Not all of us are as self-aware that we like to think and before you embark on any journey remember the old dictum: Know thyself. Not so easy when self-deception can loom like an invisible hovering wasp.
Let your awareness reveal to you that the ego - or the little me - always needs to be right, and that selfishness and the need to be right are not the pathways of 'going with the flow', nor the direction-finders towards inner peace. This is how you make your universe benign.
A difficult step in this process is the whole notion of control. We have all heard, at one time or another, people saying that they are in control of the situation, or in control of others. Nothing can be further from the truth… The only thing we can control is ourselves, our thinking, our behaviour, our actions. Particularly easy to recall to mind are the major regrets when we did not control what we said in a fit of pique or anger… when we last had a tantrum. Unfortunately, one of things we need to control most is the machinations of our own mind, our own thinking, the little voice inside which won’t leave us alone and many have to work hard to quell or dispel it.
If you truly want to see great changes in the world, for it to become a better place to live for yourself and your loved ones, then you must start to change yourself, specifically to reach to become a higher vibrational state of being, of peace and calm, of joy and love, of oneness and togetherness, and this can be tough going. It’s going to be much harder if you start by needing to let off steam, throwing a wobbler, or by giving someone a piece of your mind. A fundamental question you can ask of yourself is :’Is this thought a result of thoughtfulness, patience, acceptance, going with the flow and getting to peace with myself?’ If it is not, dispel it. If it is the little egoic me, then drop it. Empty your mind, change your thoughts and words and seek to think and say something more purposeful. If you want revenge and recompense, drop it. If you felt victimised, stop it. Change your mind. If you want to be ‘right’ - drop it. (There is no right nor wrong, merely a difference in perspective). Ask yourself if you can genuinely rise above the need to be right or the need to speak your peace and simply allow yourself to be, accepting that none of this really matters. Believe that not making an issue of a molehill is something you used to do before you thought you knew better.
Reaching a state of inner peace is not something that comes from argument or dissent. It is something that comes from within you, more from your heart than your mind. Now just take a quick look at all the things that the world throws at you and that you have to get to grips with one way or another.
2. Inside Out
Major Influences on your Consciousness from the Outer World:
TV, News, Media, Smart Phone, Internet, Friends, Family, Colleagues
Your Major Defences/ Receptivity:
You mind, heart and soul
Your outer world suffers a lack of consistency, integrity and peace. It is often in turmoil as is easily observed by the nature of the news and other media-hype. It is riddled with pre-set agendas and varied control mechanisms designed to maintain the status quo by making you feel needy, lacking and wanting. Everything that occurs or appears before your senses is geared to appeal to your ego, that much modern advertisers and propagandists have mastered. You are either for it or against it, but it - whatever it is - is in your consciousness.
Your outer world is not the place to seek inner peace and calm, or truth. Your outer world is full of delights and wonders, and turmoil and inconsistency. So, we are left with our inner world – the home of our mind, heart and soul - to find peace and meaning. Our mind can often reflect the outer turmoil we perceive and our heart may bring compassion and warmth to our overall perspective. But what of the soul? Let’s put that on one side just for the moment and focus on what we have all perceived about ourselves. There are at least two principal selves involved here – your higher self and your lower self. Over time, you grow to understand these two selves existing and acting within you. Whether you are aware of it or not, you are always experiencing both these selves throughout your lifetime.
You have, for example, experiences of gratitude, forgivingness, of giving and receiving love, of generosity, of intuition, of kindness. All these experiences make you smile, feel good and enjoy life and make you feel that the Universe is on your side. Your wonderful and loving higher self is at work when you are experiencing these positive and elevated feelings. When you are experiencing these higher emotions, you are in your higher self-state and you are said to be vibrating at a higher frequency. The higher self is the beautiful god spark within you – within all of us, sometimes lying apparently dormant, sometimes emerging to bring out that knowing smile when a sense of universal oneness and interconnectivity breathes through you and makes you feel and know that there is something far greater within you, than your everyday regular self. This is the soul acting and which you can only be aware of through your inner feeling and knowing.
On the other hand, there are times when you experience guilt, shame, regret, grief or apathy, when you are frightened or anxious, or you feel desires which lead to cravings or disappointment, or when you experience anger, even hate. These lead to feelings of sadness and helplessness, perhaps misery. When you feel low, negative emotions such as these, you are allowing your fearful and lower self to reign. Here, you are vibrating at a lower frequency. The lower egoic self emerges when the lower feelings take hold of you, feelings such as jealousy, guilt, frustration, sorrow and anger. If you continue to feel these negative unwelcome emotions, you inevitably attract more of them. What you feel, you attract – there is no escaping it. Resisting or refusing this notion will not work because while resisting it, it will still hold you at the same frequency attracting more of the same.
As the higher self is the soul, the lower self is known as the ego. You can overcome your ego by letting go of the need to win, or be right, the need to feel superior, the need to have more, bigger and better, feeling offended or victimised. If you want peace and a real capability of togetherness, these lessons have to be learned again and again until you can assimilate them into standard behaviour and practice. Until you do, those ugly experiences will keep recurring, while the only punishment is what you do to yourself. Only when you can consistently be living in a state of higher vibration can you break through the illusion of superiority and separateness. This is when you begin to have true connectivity, true togetherness with - what we can call - others.
3. Connectivity at a higher level
Connecting at a higher level means connecting more to humanity, putting aside old differences, disassociating from long-standing corruptive or deceptive practices which used to be described as clever or erudite. Many of us are now yearning for more simplicity along with a search for peace and authenticity, less focus on competition, more on cooperation, an outcry against injustice, a stronger pull towards Nature and a desire to clean up the planet, a sense – at long last – that the notion of the fabled ‘brotherhood of man’ might just be edging towards reality, a sense that humanity is having a wake-up call towards togetherness and unity away from the old world of separation.
Other examples of connectivity at a higher level - manifestations of rising consciousness, both individually and collectively - include:
Meditation and yoga, once fringe practices, are now increasingly becoming mainstream activities.
A shift in consciousness away from Big Pharma to embrace, natural, alternative healing modalities such as Reiki, sound healing and crystal therapy.
Subtle changes in life-style include shifts in diet, heightened sensitivity to noise, chemicals and negativity.
New models of living are witnessing growth in eco-villages, local currencies and bartering which reflect the rise of cooperation over competition.
Changes in career orientation to quit unfulfilling work to passionately pursue work with purpose and integrity.
‘A friend of ours was offered a well-paid job. When she found out the company produced and circulated false propaganda, she turned the job down. Her friends chided her and called her a fool, scolding, “Somebody has to get paid to do that. It might as well be you”. This open chastisement of people who make conscious decisions on behalf of their own integrity for the common good indicates that, in the fog of massively meaningless information and the static of cynicism, many have learned to tune out the inner voice that longs for a more loving and sane world. That voice has been drowned out by manipulative dialogue that is little more than two dogmas barking at each other across an imaginary divide. Could it be that this imaginary divide is something implanted into our consciousness to distract us from connecting with each other?”’.
(Extract From Spontaneous Evolution – Our Positive Future and How to get There from Here, by Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman. Hay House, 2009, page 191).
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