The Leading Edge of Soul Growth
By Katharina Wehrli
Western philosophy and modern religions have embraced an image of the Source as perfect, while human beings are seen as lacking perfection. For some unknown reason Spirit had a desire to create souls and universes. If Spirit were perfect, it would not have needed to create anything. Life is therefore the manifested evidence of the Source’s desire for evolution. It equals the process of becoming, a metamorphosis of limitations. The notion of perfection within earthly existence is a myth recently created by cultures that have lost their connection with the natural roots of existence.
On the leading edge of soul growth, human nature and cultural conditioning require closer examination. The religious idea that humanity is separate from God or Goddess causes a loss of inner authority. People are then prone to giving away their personal power to outside sources. This enforces codependency. It is easy to control individuals who do not think and act from an inner knowing of the non-severable unity with that which created them (God or Goddess). Instead, the concept of God develops into an intimidating male figure in the sky that judges and punishes from his lofty place of cold detachment.
Judgment permeates the collective unconscious in ways we cannot even recognize any longer. It brings about an illusionary kind of guilt. This guilt originates from concepts such as the Garden of Eden myth of original sin. Nature is portrayed as evil or inferior, and the organic human functions and processes linked with the body and the primary brain are condemned. This generates the thinking that there is something immoral about us human beings to begin with. Over time the mindset that the body and emotions are bad, and only thoughts and spirit good, started a wailing wake of bad karma. In the delusive thinking that they are less than what they are supposed to be many people become obsessed with trying to find out what they do wrong, or how to fix it. It is as though they were constantly looking backward in reflection, asking themselves what they have done wrong.
Physical processes such as breathing or elimination, as well as sexual and emotional dynamics are instinctual functions. Once people are disempowered from their sense of autonomy, they begin to suppress those emotional reactions their culture labels as unacceptable. Because the primary brain’s responses are automatic, the emotional feedback continues to occur of its own volition. Rather than being able to run its natural course, these instinctual dynamics become crippled or hopelessly distorted. People do no longer feel within themselves the whole gamut of emotional responses to life's many good and evil facets. As a result they are inclined to have one of two subconsciously induced reactions. Either they deny within their own psyche those feelings that are suppressed, while demonizing them in others, or they desperately try to atone for what they sense is unacceptable.
In the first case these faulty notions and suppressed emotional responses lead to an aggressive behavior of blame. Individuals whose focus is mostly mental take to it in a detrimental attempt to disperse their uneasy sense of inner emptiness, insecurity, and unnatural guilt. Those who are emotionally susceptible take the victim’s stance, accepting their situation in powerless passivity. The two behaviors lock into a tragic dance of dominance and submission, which becomes the culturally conditioned mode of operation. To this very day this unfortunate pattern perpetuates itself for lack of better judgment and right discrimination. Lost in darkness people keep hurting each other in the absence of love and caring their invented sky God reflects in punishment and crisis.
The bondage to invented beliefs such as lack of perfection, and separateness from nature and the Source need healing. Through realigning the body with the mind, and the emotions with spirit, natural forms of spirituality permit self-empowering instinctual responses. They re-establish trust in the innate wisdom the human organism is endowed with. We feel the resistance to this process as anxiety, stress, and tension. We also experience it as compulsion, chronic problems in existing relationships, inability to trust, despair, depression, and an array of other psychological or physical symptoms and conditions that are lacking successful diagnosis.
Any spiritual practice that links the body with the mind through concentration and specific disciplined actions takes advantage of the naturally divine connection within the body/mind continuum. Such practices are yoga, tantra, tai chi, and so on. Suppression as a means to an end, on the other hand, cannot replace true soul growth. Purging the artificial gap within the culturally conditioned psyche of modern people is necessary. Without accepting all our emotional and sexual dynamics as equally valid as our thoughts and spiritual ideals, we will not be able to grow past them.
To keep hypocrisy and pious ego delusions from spreading pseudo-spirituality, we are wise to consider all our instinctual responses to be natural and healthy. How we choose to act after acknowledging them is an entirely different question. This is where will power and self-determination come into action. Emotional excess, and indulgence in sensual or sexual activities, of course, is not the goal. Greed, lust, rage and pride are some of the hungry beasts that lurk within the deep recesses of our nature. The more we feed them, the more powerful they become. They are connected to our ego and the primary brain with its instinctual functions. The mind, however, is by no means free from temptation or evil. It can easily be perverted to act as an agent of the dark forces. Premeditated crimes committed in cold blood are a gruesome testimony to this fact; war is another.
In the manifested universe Spirit created soul, and soul in turn created ego. This is so we know who we are as independent beings. There is no individualized identity without ego. The interplay between ego, mind, and soul allows us to use our physical being to act, create and learn. What decides how much we let our nature be influenced by darkness? It is the ego’s identification with either itself in its finite limited physical entity, or with the soul – our true and undying essence. Forgetfulness of our infinite nature causes us to act on the immediate gratification of limited awareness. In blind hunger for the satisfaction of unrefined primal urges we let our potential go to waste. We all have these instinctual dynamics operating to some degree. What makes all the difference is how attached we get to any of them. In this degree of attachment lies the answer. Bondage or liberation, aimless groping for tangibility or obedience to higher consciousness, the choice is ours at all times.
The future can only be understood from the point of view of the past. This means that we orient ourselves on the old and familiar ways to see the world. Needing self-consistency and predictability in order to feel secure is intrinsic to human nature. Even so, no change is possible in this way, as we are perpetually recreating the past. By accepting the divine creative principle as part of our own true nature in all our functions, we re-discover our authority. Inner security and self-reliance can then replace powerlessness and the need for codependency, victimization and unconscious needless guilt. Through this act of self-empowerment we are able take responsibility for outer circumstances and inner reality.
Instead of thinking: “I must deserve crisis and punishment for some unknown reason,” or helplessly asking: “Why is this happening to me?” the question needs to become “Why may I have needed to create this?” Those who readily blame others need to stop and take a look at what they are doing. Rather than self-righteously insisting on a dominant stance, they need to develop the desire to act in ways that are right and equitable to all.
The reason for purging of the aforementioned cultural conditioning patterns to be of such importance at this point in time is related to the fundamental changes that are manifesting on our Planet. The times are moving in an accelerated fashion, and our brain is in the process of adapting and changing in amazing ways. By gaining confidence in the process of becoming (evolution), we can allow these changes to unfold naturally. The core of this process is a gradual shift from invented paradigms to natural principles. If we can embrace these new and challenging thoughts, we can find the courage to let go of the past and build a solid foundation in the present moment. In terms of our evolving consciousness these are the directions that will eventually lead to more balanced and sustainable cultures.
When we agree to take charge of the realities we create and experience, a journey into new forms of being is initiated. The need for artificial judgment based on perfection and separateness becomes obsolete. It is replaced by compassion for self and other people, as well as for the world in its present state. If we are to be happy and fulfilled, we need to understand that perfection is the soul’s secret whish to merge with Spirit. Final merging can only occur within a consciousness that has the power to transcend all ego boundaries in favor of the unconditional love for its Creator. While accepting that we are part of something bigger, we experience the path toward self-realization in collaboration with nature and with Spirit.
Katharina Wehrli MA, CAGS, RPP is a healer and teacher. She is also the author of “The Why in the Road - Soul Healing for Changing Times”. For more information visit http://earthlit.com/bookstore/index.html
This article was posted by Katharina Wehrli
