Expect and Accept the Best

This is such a profound life metaphor we are focusing on this week: Life Is What You Make It. Every word in this schematic formula carries great potency:

LIFE is what you make it.

Life IS what you make it.

Life is WHAT you make it.

Life is what YOU make it.

Life is what you MAKE it.

Life is what you make IT.

I invite you to circle one of the above, and ponder.  I choose: Life is what YOU make it.

This is a very empowering affirmation.  Since life is what I make it—and because often what I make OF whatever happens in my life is the catalyst for further development or change—then I have the freedom to create the life I choose. I accept that the response-ability is first and foremost on my own shoulders, although it may require my willingness to cooperate and collaborate also with others.

A good friend of mine, Denise,  shared a similar statement this week to “Life is what you make it” to express how she approaches creating a positive life from day to day and altogether.

“Expect and Accept the BEST,” says Denise.

That followed from a statement I had mentioned of: “Expect the best, and accept the rest.”

“No,” Denise replied emphatically. “Expect AND Accept the Best!”

Notice how this slight tweak in wording alters the underlying paradigm. If I expect only the best of myself, then I will not accept anything less and I can proceed with confidence in the pursuit of my goals and the fulfillment of every task and endeavor. If I expect and accept the best from others or from the unfolding of events, this means I will look for and see the best in everything that occurs, even when this means I might need to alter my interpretation or perception so I can learn a valuable lesson or decide to forge a new relationship with some person or situation.

Now of course, I can expect the best of myself in the moment and gradually come to a greater understanding of what my best may be. When I expect the best of another, this means I will allow the other to also be doing the best they can in the moment, and then I can respond accordingly, with flexibility and mindful awareness.

Life is what I make it has helped me as a postulate this week to reconsider how to take positive action in the direction of fulfilling a very important (to me) life dream. Since life is what I MAKE it, I must and can take action rather than waiting unrealistically for others to take action on my behalf. ‘What Can I Do Now?’ has become a mantra this week that has led me to a revised plan of action for working on a vital creative project.

What can YOU do Now because your life is what YOU make it?

I welcome and encourage your comments, life insights, and stories!

******   ******

Postscript: When I shared a draft of this blog with my friend Denise, she reminded me I had left an important aspect of Expect and Accept the Best unstated. I asked her to email me a statement about this crucial element, and here is what Denise shared:

“So expect and accept the best. Accepting the best, I think, is the key. But if I’m working in partnership with spirit then my best may be less than what spirit is offering. Acceptance and compromise keeps me on the right track.” – Denise Naughton (author)

Life is… What You Make It

 

“If life were made of Moments, we wouldn’t know we had one.” – (The baker’s wife, Into the Woods (S. Sondheim)

Are you the actor, character, author, or the director of your own Life Story? What might it mean to recognize that you are all of these? In Life Paths, my aim is to allow you to reconstruct and MAP your own Life Story, literally. By reflecting on the significant, shaping events of your life and especially those events that have been so critical that you feel you were not quite “the same person” before and after these events have occurred, you can identify the thematic Turning Points and Life Chapters of your own Life Story and you can reflect on “who” you have been throughout these chapters as the protagonist of your own life-mythic narrative.

 

Life is what you HAVE made it, so you always have the capacity to continue to  make any changes that allow you to realize your goals, from chapter to chapter.

 

For this next few days, in a very open format, I invite you to simply reflect upon what “life chapter” you are in right now, and at what STAGE in this chapter you are at. Are you just beginning a new chapter? In the middle? Nearing a major transition? What are your goals for the Life Chapter you are currently living? How can you maximize the advantages and the strengths or lessons you are gaining in this chapter? Do you anticipate another specific chapter to follow from the one you are in? How can you prepare for that transition?

I welcome your insights and stories!

Parallel Lives?

 “Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.” ― Zhuangzi

Since Life is but a Dream…

It presents a web of potentiality framed around themes you are focused upon Now. It constructs a seemingly coherent life history with the illusion of a consistent identity, a life story that you develop from infancy until your departure.

Yet you are by no means limited to this Reality. Daydreams, nightly dreams, and creative visualization provide many windows to open and avenues to explore that are not bound by your daily drama.

Have you ever wondered about parallel realities and how this notion might pertain to dreaming?  Have you had glimpses of what felt like parallel lives?

A few years ago I had a lucid inner experience just before waking. In this alternate reality, I was a female scientist returning home to her family after having been on a space voyage (routine travel in her reality). She is met at the door of her home by her husband, who welcomes her home. She knows he is her husband and that they have two young children. But beyond that, she suddenly realizes that she doesn’t remember anything else about her own life; she is experiencing a form of conscious amnesia in the moment. Her husband says some friends will be coming over that evening for dinner. She tells him, “I’m sorry but you are going to have to cover for me when they come. I am not remembering anything right now about my life!”

I then shifted consciousness back to my body and life in Colorado and opened my eyes ‘here.’ I felt immediately that I had been experiencing a “dual conscious” state of awareness. I understood that this was what was causing the partial amnesia in my alter-Self awareness. Because of the dual-conscious moment, some sort of overlap had occurred between two parallel realities, two of my own parallel identities.

This experience also reminds me of a Star Trek Next Generation episode where Captain Picard lives an entire alternate lifetime in 40 minutes. He has been affected by a probe from a planet that had been destroyed when its sun “went nova”; they had programmed the probe to reach one person who would learn this way about their lives and existence.

What stands out to me about the parallel life awareness is that this was something other than a normal archetypal “personal unconscious” dream event. It did not feel symbolic at all, but very lucid (I was aware somewhat of the dual consciousness state while it was happening), and it was simply very real.

What can we learn from this sort of glimpse into a parallel reality? Mainly, for me I suppose, that there is “so much more” to Life than what our limited minds can perceive. Also, it suggests to me that a true change in consciousness can allow us to alter anything about our current life dream “drama” that we deeply CHOOSE to change. This is by no means easy, because it requires a true change in our conscious construction of the life we are living. It is not simply a matter of having a strong intention so that a “law of attraction” can operate. It requires a fundamental shift in your awareness of what is possible, and then a conscious choice and decision to act on establishing appropriate changes in your life.

So, allow me to end this week’s pairing of the life metaphor Life is a Dream with the universal archetype of the Teacher with a self-development journaling technique I invite you to try for yourself:

In first person, present tense, simply establish an alternative identity. Maybe this identity would realize a wish you may have had about a life you might have lived if you were not ‘you’. Describe yourself in this alternative lifescape.  Be as detailed and as descriptive as you can be. Write until you feel like you are really experiencing this other lifetime clearly in your imagination.

 

When you finish this technique (which you can also do multiple times from several different alternative life perspectives), just take some time to reflect. At very least, this technique might help you to become aware of some unrealized but desired (or, not, depending on the alternate identity you have imagined!) potentials in this life.

I would love to hear your insights or stories from exercising this Better Endings practice!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Gandalf, Dumbledore, your Inner Teacher, and You!

Two fictional examples of the Teacher archetype aiding an ensemble cast of protagonists to alter their dreamlike lives so they might achieve better endings are Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings saga and Dumbledore from the fantasy mythic adventures of Harry Potter and his friends. Gandalf and Dumbledore have always seemed to me to be the same kind of mythic personage, though Gandalf is cast more for the young adult and Dumbledore more for a child’s conception of the Teacher or Mage  (per Jung or Campbell) energy.

Myths are projections of archetypal personae and challenges that we all face in our everyday lives as everyman and everywoman heroes; so Gandalf or Dumbledore are—as we project onto them as readers or as moviegoers—our own intrinsic Teacher-selves made manifest. These mystical Teachers allow their charges to accomplish what they otherwise might believe to be unllikely, yet they are the hero’s own Higher Energy propelling her or him forward toward the realization of their “impossible dream.”  Saving the entire wizarding and muggle worlds from a force too dangerous even to Name; returning Middle Earth to a state of balance and harmony instead of chaos: these are the tasks of an orphaned boy and of a tiny hobbit; or, you and me. But the magical Wizard Teacher is a protean shape-shifter, a transformer of pure energy into otherwise unimaginable new Forms.  All is possible if we set our hearts to following the directives of this all-knowing, all-powerful Higher Self Ally of the Teacher.

Have you noticed how Wizard Teachers like Gandalf and Dumbledore conduct their novice apprentices to the attainment of their most worthy desires?  Like Glinda for Dorothy, Gandalf and Dumbledore seem always to know exactly when their presence is of utmost value; they appear only when they are needed, otherwise they remain in the background, invisibly watching.

Now then, this week as I have been contemplating how the Teacher appears in my own heroic journey of Soul, I find that my Inner Teacher(s)—whom I recognize to be “as close as my heartbeat”—are always present yet they appear exactly when and how I require their precious aid. I will share a true example of a life and death situation in which I was quite literally saved by my own Inner Master (an ECK Master associated with the spiritual path of ECKANKAR, which is the belief system and practice to which I adhere). Your own Inner Teacher or Guide may take the form of Christ or Buddha or of Socrates, Rumi, Glinda or whatever archetypal—yet very real—personae you recognize, so long as you believe in and deeply value their protection and guidance.

I was living in a duplex apartment in Tempe, Arizona with a housemate who worked a four to midnight shift. One early morning while sleeping in the living room, I had heard voices outside so looked out the front window and witnessed a drug transaction involving the scurrilous group of tenants living on the other side of the duplex living room wall. They saw me witness the transaction and started terrorizing me for the next several months, making overt threats in loud voices from the other side of the thin wall separating our lives. One April or May afternoon, I was sitting in a living room chair after a hard morning at graduate school. Suddenly, as clearly as I could hear a person standing in the room right beside me speaking into my right ear, I heard a male voice that I immediately recognized as my spiritual Teacher. He stated very calmly but firmly, “Linda, lock the door.”

I stepped over to the door, which was slightly ajar, and as I was placing my right hand on the doorknob to close and lock the door, the ringleader of the neighbor gang was reaching to grab the doorknob from the other side, to come in! I just barely closed the door and turned the lock before he could enter. Then I looked out the picture window to my left—the same window through which I had witnessed the drug deal transpire. Huddled down just beneath the window frame was the bodyguard of the drug gang, waiting to abscond me if I were to have run out of the house to escape. I kid you not; this was one of the most dramatic events of this lifetime and I am absolutely certain that had my Teacher not intervened (I know him as Harji, the Inner form of the still current Living ECK Master, Sri Harold Klemp), I would not be on this earthly plane today to share this story. Oddly though, I was not afraid at all after this happened; a calm set over me like a cloak instead. And even more oddly when I look back to it now, I didn’t even call the police. I called a friend, asked her to come pick me up at the house, and I never slept another night in that duplex apartment. I slept for weeks in a sleeping bag on the floor of my Ph.D. advisor’s office until I could locate a new roommate and move into a safer space.

I ask you to be thinking about how the helpful presence or guidance of your own spiritual or inner archetype Teacher has appeared in your own life experience. I would love for you to share your own memories or stories about how your Teacher or Guide has been leading you to fulfill your own meaningful life lessons or Quest.

Finally, it makes sense why the Teacher appears most clearly in our lives only when most needed. It is because it is not ABOUT the Teacher or Master himself or herself; we are not here to simply follow someone who has already attained to all that which we seek. We are apprentices, aspirants or Learners who are striving to become Masters of spiritual essence and formations of life for ourselves; we may then become or appear as the Teacher for others as we gradually come to master our own lessons and unfold in our own awareness.

I invite and would love to share YOUR insights and stories about your own Inner Teacher or guidance. Tomorrow I am going to see the new Hobbit movie; maybe we might meet somewhere in the Middle Earth of our dreams!

Thin Boundaries for Better Endings

“You’ve been given the ability to build a magical tunnel that will quickly and secretly connect your home with the location of your choice — anywhere on Earth. Where’s the other end of your tunnel?” (reblogged from The Mobius Strip blog by dreamwalkeramrita)

 Consider the idea that some people have “thinner boundaries” than others.  Drs. Michael Jawers and Marc Micozzi have written about this in a study of sensitivity factors in humans. In The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion  these authors describe boundary issues as follows:

The personality construct of Boundaries was developed by Ernest Hartmann (http://www.tufts.edu/~ehartm01/) , a psychiatrist and sleep disorder researcher. He asserts that each person can be characterized on a spectrum of boundaries from thick to thin. Thick boundary people “strike[s] us as very solid and well organized; they keep everything in its place. They are well defended. They seem rigid, even armored; we sometimes speak of them as thick-skinned.” At the other end of the spectrum, thin boundary individuals are “especially sensitive, open, or vulnerable. In their minds, things are relatively fluid.”

Other characteristics of the thin boundary personality type are:

• A less solid or definite sense of one’s own skin as a body boundary
• An enlarged sense of merging with another person when kissing or making love
• A penchant for immersing oneself in something – whether a personal relationship, a memory or a daydream
• Sensitivity to physical and emotional pain, in oneself as well as in others
• An enhanced ability to recall dreams but also a tendency to experience nightmares

It seems to me that thin boundaries relate to what we have been discussing this month in relation to the life metaphor “Life is but a Dream”.  Let me start the final week of this month’s topic then by considering how enlisting your Teacher archetype to help you “mine” the positive metaphor Life is but a Dream can lead to your own Better Endings.

Life as a Dream opens unlimited potentials because by their nature dreams allow creative flexibility.

 

I invite you to ask your inner Teacher to help you envision a “better ending scenario” for some situation you have been feeling ‘stuck’ in or hampered by. If you could transform this current situation-scenario by imagining a ‘better ending’, what would that other ending be, from the standpoint of your Inner Teacher? Let me role model briefly with a Teacher and Self dialogue:

S: What CAN I do to move forward with my book project? Nothing is happening; it feels stuck without communication from others.

T: Step back so you can look at the whole picture. Aim to gain a greater vision of what you are trying to express and share.

S: Should I edit then? Revision the whole approach?

T: One small step at a time, dear. Envision how you might reformat according to your highest Vision.

Do you see how direct and easy Archetype Dialogue can be? It allows you to immediately tap into your own multiplicity, to query and then to listen to your own interior, alternate perspectives. This can help you to resolve inner conflicts and to move forward after “checking in”.

The common notion of following your “inner counsel” is enhanced by envisioning your Inner Council of archetype Allies who are your intrinsic, ‘personal unconscious’ ensemble cast of mythic characters. Get to know your inner ALLIES, because that is what they aim to be, working together toward your own highest Good!

I welcome YOUR comments and stories.

A Portal to Other Dimensions

 

Blogging has been a great blessing to me in and of itself. I thank all of you who are reading these posts. They have become for me a new kind of journaling as a conversation with Self and Spirit (including the spirit in You). This year’s process of combining positive life metaphors with monthly archetypal profiles and dialogues has been truly alchemical for me already, as conducting these blog posts engages me in deeper connections with my own archetypal inner assembly.

This week’s pairing of the metaphor Life is But a Dream with the archetypal orientation of Teacher has opened a portal to a profound realization for me, so I hope some of you will also apply the techniques to arrive at your own realizations.  What I have realized this week is how the recognition of “life is a dream” provides access to other dimensional levels of awareness!

Here’s an example. Last Saturday night after putting up the blog about The Learner–where I dialogued with Rumi as an inner Teacher–I had a dream in which I was simply petting my cat in bed, yet when I looked I saw that the cat I was petting was neither Loki nor Emily (my living cats), but it was Arthur, my cat friend that I lost to dental surgery a few months ago. Not just that, but this form of Arthur that I was petting was a little lion cub! His hair was bristly to the touch and he had a short mane forming. The reason this is significant is because I had ‘felt’ after Arthur passed that he may have been in this life here to protect his petite sister Emily, and that he was meant to go on after this life to become a lion in the veld. Arthur, you see, never seemed to me to be fully happy as a domesticated house cat; he was always more the loner type of feline, except for his dinner tidbits and delightful brushings that he could not resist!

So perhaps Arthur came back within my dream state for some loving attention that he remembers from me as he is “now” in a wild lion embodiment.  Never mind about dimensions or time frames being simultaneous since time is an Illusion.  My personal insight is that because I recognize that this waking life is as much a ‘dream’ as is the substance of a nightly or daydream, this very awareness opens a portal BETWEEN these alter-dimensions. That is, there is less of a divide and rather a continuum of consciousness that you can shift between, seamlessly.

 

I am grateful. Arthur, you are welcome in my universe of consciousness, any time!

I welcome YOUR insights and stories!

Follow Your Heart to Embark on Your Greatest Adventure

 

How might your inner Teacher help you benefit from understanding that “life is but a dream”? To find out, I invite you to simply open a conversation! You can do this by journaling (as below) or through direct, active imagination and then write about it or otherwise represent what you gain from this later.

I’ll share an excerpt from an archetype dialogue with my Teacher part of self:

Self: I call upon my Teacher persona. Are you there?

Teacher: Always, yes.

S:  How would you like to be addressed?

T:  It depends on your reason for calling me; what is it you need?

S: Just to chat, for a blog topic about the metaphor “Life is a Dream”.

T: Okay then, call me Coach.

S: Okay then. Why Coach?

T: To realize the potentials of manifesting your Dream, a life coach can help you expose your goals.

S: That could be helpful. What would you suggest then?

   {Synchronicity (aside): As I am in the process of engaging this dialogue, Tolkien’s Return of the King is on TV. I had forgotten that Frodo and Bilbo Baggins both depart with Gandalf at the story’s finale, on an elvish boat that heads out to unknown and indescribable Adventure.}

T: How could it be otherwise? Bilbo and Frodo are Adventurers by their deepest nature.

S: How does this relate to living life as a Dream?

T: You must follow your dreams. To do this, listen to your heart, then act accordingly.

S: My heart aches lately. I long to embark on the next phase of my great adventure, too. But I wish I could do this, when I go, with fellows such as Frodo has; true friends of the Soul.

T: Follow your heart then.

S: I don’t know what you mean. 

T: You are never alone, not when you realize HOW Life is a Dream. Your fellows are right beside you, and within, always.

S: Thank You. I begin to perceive what you are teaching me.  Separation is an Illusion. 

T: Trust the process. The law of spiritual economy ensures that everything is interconnected; nothing is wasted…

I gain from this encounter that since Life is But a Dream, there are no limitations except for those we choose to accept for purposes of learning life’s lessons. There is a freedom to ACT in the direction that accords with our own deepest nature.   A dream is malleable; it can be redirected according to the will of the Dreamer. This does, however, require (and reward!) an exercise of mindful awareness.

On another level, as someone reminded me this week, we can also think of God or Higher Wisdom itself as “the Divine Dreamer”. In this sense, mine or your dream-life is neither accidental nor random.  Remember to ask of any life situation: “Whose Dream IS this, really?”

I welcome your comments and stories. I invite you to engage in Archetype Dialogue with your own Inner Teacher persona!

Invite Your Dream Guide to Show the Way

Jung would say the Persona is the general archetypal domain for all 12 of the primordial universal archetype figures I am presenting to you here based on the archetypal psychology of the late Dr. Charles Bebeau’s Avalon Archetype Institute. These persona archetypes often appear in our dreams. They may take either masculine or feminine forms and they might present in positive (I call this their Strengths aspect) or in negative (Shadow) manifestations.

This week we can combine the Life Metaphor of Life is a Dream with the persona archetype of Teacher.  The Dream Master or Dream Teacher is a figure I work with closely in my own spiritual practice.   You can invite your own Teacher archetype to appear in your dreams as an Inner Guide or to communicate with you via the dream state.

A couple of years ago I had a wonderful inner encounter with my own Dream Master. In a dreamscape just before waking, I found myself among a small group of people at the base of a canyon area. My Inner Guide was there. He showed us that our destination was on top of the canyon and said there were two ways to get there. We could either try to climb the rock canyon wall directly up to the top, or there was a wide, winding trail that we could walk. The people in this little group were of various ages. Two of them, a young man and a young woman, immediately went scrambling up the nearly vertical cliff wall and they were out of sight quickly, en route to a quickly attained destination. The rest moved off toward the long, winding trail to make their gradual ascent up the canyon.

I watched the two young people scramble up the cliff wall and saw the older group walk to the gradual pathway. I wanted to be like the younger two, so I started trying to scale the rocky cliff. I took about five footholds in the ascent and suddenly, I was stuck! I couldn’t climb up for fear of falling, nor could I descend because I could not see where to place my feet.

I looked down to the canyon floor; my Teacher was still there, watching. He was wearing colors like those of Superman, with royal blues and red.

I called down to him:

“Master, can you help me?”

He beckoned where to place my foot to descend back to the canyon floor:

“No, not there; a little further down and to the right. Yes, that’s it.”

Very quickly I was safe at the bottom. I walked over to my beloved Teacher.

“Thank You!” I said.

“I have the ability to watch,” my Teacher answered.

Gratefully, I moved on over to the long, winding trail, content now to take my time as the relative oldster I have become. This was the path of wisdom for me. It was clear that my Teacher helped me to descend so I could climb the canyon on a more gradual incline.

I have never forgotten the wonderful feeling of being loved and cared for by my Dream Teacher’s inner guidance. I knew from reflecting on the dream that it was important that I had ASKED for this guidance. My Teacher has “the ability to watch”. But I have to be willing to ASK for his ever-present protection and  guidance.

Have YOU had a significant dream experience with an Inner/Dream Teacher? I welcome your stories!

The Learner: A Question Of Afterlife

Oh soul,
you worry too much.
You have seen your own strength.
You have seen your own beauty.
You have seen your golden wings.
About anything less,
why do you worry?
You are in truth
the soul, of the soul, of the soul.

~ Rumi ~

(picture and poem reposted from Theresa at Soulgatherings, Dec.10, 2014)

This week while focusing on the Teacher archetype, what has come forth for me is a Learner part of Self. I have been asking and asking, what can I learn from some of the more difficult life experiences I am confronted with lately?

I lost a friend whom I thought very highly of last week. He passed away suddenly after battling an illness for a long time that he never told me about. I should have known, I felt. I should have questioned him when he uncharacteristically issued a swear word in our usually very positive exchange at Words with Friends.  What would my Teacher say?

I will name my inner-self teacher Rumi, after the poet I admire whose poetry I deeply appreciate. Please, teach me, Jalal.

I envision a desert oasis. I walk around, exploring.  I hear music, the sound of a wooden flute, and I think of Rumi’s “Song of the Reed”, and here he is, sitting across a wooden table from me at a quiet tavern.  The music that fills the air seems to be coming directly from this gentle man with dark hair, otherworldly eyes and olive toned skin, wearing an off-white cotton overshirt, without a turban. A stack of of cloth papers and a quill pen sits on the table before him.

“Where do we go when we leave this pale plane?  I know we go on forever, in various forms, but do we retain the sense of a unified consciousness?”

“Do you fear your own freedom so much that you would seek to contain its expression after your bird-soul is released?”

“I know that at least in this body-state, for all of its slow progress and limitations, it is solid; this lifetime is predictable, consistent. I go to sleep at night and I awake the next morning in the same body and Mind, day by day by day, for many decades. Without this solid frame, I don’t know where I will be.”

“Where are you, Now? Who are you, really?”

“I am Soul and not this body; yet there is comfort in the familiarity of my little-self personality and identity.”

“When you dream at night where do you go? Who are you Here?”

“Much of the time I am still me; other times I am personas from within the dream, or something greater.”

“What happens in these dreams when you feel yourself ‘something greater’ than your little ego form?”

“I am just a perspective, often. Not with a body although it doesn’t feel that way. But I am still me, as a point of view.  Sometimes I can fly; sometimes I ride a Pegasus. But I am not aware of having a body in those experiences.  Yet still, you see, that is my question. These dreams are episodic, not connected to one other. I am here or in another here, but I do not live a connected lifetime. I am afraid of letting go of that thread of continuity.”

Jalal sighs, a twinkle of laughter in his patient look. He slides the paper he has been writing on across to me on the table. Then he pushes his chair back from the table and gets up. He walks to a wooden platform on the side of the tavern where a man has been playing a stringed instrument like a lyre. Rumi sits tailor fashion on a large silk pillow on the platform stage. He draws out a reed flute from his wrap. He closes his eyes and lifts the flute to his lips and he begins to play.

I look at the writing on the page in front of me, listening to the delicate music. It is a poem, one I have read before, many times:

This Disaster

Why am I part of this disaster, this mud hole for donkeys? Is this the place

where Jesus spoke? Surely not. A table has been set, but we have not been served

sweet spring water yet. Evidently we came here to be bound hand and foot. I ask

a flower, “How is it you are so wise so young?” “With the first morning wind and

the first dew, I lost my innocence.” I follow the one who showed me the way. I                 

extend one hand up, and with the other I touch the ground. A great branch leans

down from the sky. How long will I keep talking of up and down? This is not my

home: silence, annihilation, absence! I go back where everything is nothing.

–Coleman Barks, The Soul of Rumi

Forging an Archetype Ally

As one of twelve primordial archetype character modes, the Teacher is associated with the element of Earth, with a Dissolving energy mode, and with Sagittarius (hence, December).  A Teacher perspective usually involves practicalities or facts rooted in solid foundations, revealing in that sense an earthy nature.   Teacher also brings a dissolving or resolving energy, allowing questions to be answered and transitions forged. And Teacher may cut to the heart of a matter with constructive critique like the Sagittarian archer.

Regarding our archetypal aspects of Self as potential Allies, Teacher is a very positive ally to cultivate in its Strength mode.  If in Shadow, Teacher can be overly didactic or attached to a rigid point of view. But in its positive nature, Teacher can be a transformative Ally, showing the way to new vistas or a more flexible, new way of being.

In order to harness the positive strengths of your inner Teacher potentials, it is necessary first to get to know yourself in this dimension.  In my personal development book and Handbook, LIFE PATHS, I will be presenting a complete Archetype Dialogue process to facilitate your “alliance building” in this respect. For now, I invite you to start an “active imagination” form of conversation with your Teacher energy.

I invite you to simply seat yourself in a comfortable armchair or lie prone on a couch or bed. You might chant a favorite mantra or a prayer, or breathe deeply several times and release your breath to relax into a mindful or aware state. Focus inwardly on that spot between your eyebrows, gently expecting to encounter a part of your Self that has a Teacher aspect to him or her. Imagine this inner Teacher energy; it could be someone who has been a teacher for you or a fictional character or your inner Teacher may take her or his own unique personal form.  Allow yourself to spend some time with this inner character. Allow your experience to unfold in its own way. Meanwhile you can have a conversation with your Teacher figure. Ask whom s/he is and what s/he would like for you to know about him or her. Continue the encounter as long as it naturally unfolds.

When you return from your active imagination session with your Teacher part of Self, you may either continue the dialogue before opening your eyes, then record in your journal all that you remember; or, you might open your eyes after your main interaction and then start journaling an immediate dialogue in your journal.

When Jung returned from an active imagination experience–as described in his THE RED BOOK–,he would first journal about what he had experienced, then he would often draw a painting  or create a mandala to represent the lesson he had learned.

 What does your Teacher archetype look like? Does s/he have a name? Now that you have shared an encounter with him or her, do you feel a little differently for having included your inner Teacher energy more consciously within your Awareness?

Inwardly you can invite this figure to remain part of your consciousness from now on! You can offer to be more attentive and caring about his/her interests and concerns. You can work together to help achieve your common goals.

I welcome your insights and stories!

THE TEACHER ARCHETYPE

TEACHER is such an obviously universal Archetype. The role of Teacher exists in all cultures throughout history in relation to the sub-archetype image of the Learner (or, Student). This relationship and the roles expressed may take different forms, though.  Some Teachers instruct quietly by their very example; others may be more didactic and direct.

One of my favorite Teachers served as a role model for my own apprenticeship to teaching while in college. Antoinette Mann Paterson (now long departed from this pale plane) was a Philosophy professor at the college I first attended in Buffalo, New York.  She would teach in front of a large Introduction to Philosophy class with her eyes closed! It was like she was channeling the information to be transmitted to the young, fertile minds in the classroom. Then suddenly she would open her eyes, turn and face a specific student with a direct question.  There was something amazing to me about the passion she displayed.

 

One day Dr. Paterson had been invited to visit a class in Creative Studies which I was taking.  I arrived about twenty minutes early to the open studio area we held our class in; she was already there, sitting unidentified with a couple other students around a table. Suddenly she turned to a young man who had brought a paper mache piece of art he had created for another class. “How in *** did you DO that!”, she asked him. “I could not do that; how did you transform paper, nothing really, into that magnificent FORM?” The student was dumbfounded. I don’t remember how he might have tried to answer Toni.  But this is how she began introducing us to a “Philosophy of Creativity”.

 

Another time at the beginning of a semester I went to Toni Paterson’s office to ask if she would conduct an Independent Study for me.

“About what subject?,” she asked.

I said the first thing that came into my mind: “ Silence,” I answered; “A philosophy of Silence.”

In the course of our following discussion, Dr. P. asked me what I thought about the meaning of Life. I had been in a depressed state at that time because of something that had affected me emotionally the prior summer. So, I answered her: “Life…Really? So, what?”

“Take out a pen and a piece of paper,” Dr. Paterson directed. “Now then, I want you to write down a question with two words in it: ‘SO …WHAT?’ Bring me the answer in ten pages or more by next Thursday!”

When I came back to Dr. Paterson for my conference the next week, I had scoured a wide range of literature about the meaning of life. But Toni Paterson took this further. She sat me down at a table with a pencil and a large sheet from a sketching pad. She asked me to arrange “WH-question words” around the corners of the blank page: WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? WHY? Then as we talked she drew a diagram linking all these to a central, newly constructed word: WHAN! That was the answer to “So, What”, she suggested:

“The answer to ‘So, What?’ is “WHAN!”

She was so right! Whan, that elusive common denominator principle has from that moment on been a torch of Light in the Darkness for me.  There doesn’t need to be an answer to everything; the ESSENCE is WHAN! See? This enigmatic Lesson lifted me from my depression. Life didn’t have to have a meaning or to “add up to” anything; It IS what it IS; it JUST IS! This freed me to start thinking “outside the Box” (or as a later friend has taught me: “There is no box!”)

So, how did Dr. Paterson TEACH me such a life affirming lesson? First, she set me to task, rather than trying to answer my facetious question, “So, what?” for me. Second, she took that question of mine quite seriously, as a matter I was deeply concerned about. Third, she helped guide me to a satisfactory resolution of the anxiety I brought to my question, by encouraging me to read about what others had thought about in relation to my subject (showing me I was not alone in my angst). Then she helped me to comprehend a deeper underlying principle that gave rise to the question in the first place!

Toni Paterson was THE TEACHER incarnate! I have never forgotten HOW she approached teaching, and this has helped me to cultivate my own TEACHER strengths.

But what do I mean by calling THE TEACHER an Archetype?  What do you think? Have you ever “let out” your TEACHER part of Self? Sure, you have, right?  I still after 35 years of university teaching often feel THE TEACHER coming forth through me in a classroom. When I first began teaching, I knew I could rely on “stepping into” the ROLE of TEACHER in order to overcome my naturally introspective personality and to shine forth expressively to share about what the students were there to learn.

Maybe you have experienced your own Inner TEACHER in your role as a parent or as a scout leader; or, when you have felt a strong impulse to share a point of view that you feel instinctively someone else could benefit from hearing. We all have a bit of THE TEACHER within us, as well as the counterpart character of the LEARNER. In fact, a Teacher cannot but be the Learner first!

I am deeply indebted to and grateful for all of the wonderful MENTORS I have experienced as Teachers in my life. These were not always formal classroom Teachers; they were friends, family, even my pets who have taught me the true meaning of Life! Which is WHAN?   Yes, that’s right; it is the WHAN of unconditional or divine Love, the essence of Life Itself. For, what else ever really matters?

I welcome your Insights, Comments and Stories!

 

You are the Dreamer

God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

–Reinhold Niebuhr

Last Sunday I shared how using Life is a But a Dream as a mantra the night before led me to a receptive state so that my inner guidance could communicate with me about stopping my habit of drinking soda. Then a few nights later, after having stayed away from sodas but thinking I could still drink IZZE drinks (carbonated natural fruit drinks), guess what? I dreamed I was drinking one of these then read the label; it said SODA in big letters on the front of the bottle. I poured out the rest in my dream and woke with chagrin. No more fooling myself; if I want this inner help, I need to follow it!

So here’s a technique many use, called the “15 times technique”. Write out a positive affirmation fifteen times every day. Let’s try this with our weekly Life Metaphor:

“Life is But a Dream”

Life is but a dream

Life IS but a Dream

LIFE is but a dream

Life is but a DREAM

Life is but a dream

Life is BUT a dream

Life is but A dream

LIFE IS BUT A DREAM

life is but a dream

Life Is But A Dream

LIFE… is but a DREAM

life IS BUT a dream

Life is but a Dream

Life… is… but… a… Dream!

What does this statement evoke, for you?  For me, it opens a realm of unlimited freedom and possibility. As in a nightly dream, all things are possible in your waking dream as well.  As some nightly dreams recur–but can change as we alter our awareness—our daily life reveals patterns of thought and behavior that we  can also change by becoming more aware or mindful of our recurring attitudes and habitual behavior.

 

As YOU are the DREAMER of your own life, you have the license and the responsibility to change or improve what you can. So, take stock of where your current waking dream is taking you.  Where would you like it to lead?  Dream it and it can BE!

I welcome your comments and stories!

Change Your Dream, Change Your Life

So, what is your current dream-life about? What story does it tell? Who are you in your current story? Who are others? What messages does your dream express? If you were to interpret this dream, what might you learn?

One consideration based on the metaphor Life is a Dream is to ask, Where is this dream leading to; how might this dream story end?

A common dream technique (mentioned in The Art of Spiritual Dreaming, by Harold Klemp) is to wake up from a dream and if you don’t like where it was going or how it ended, go back to sleep to finish it better, or simply use your imagination or journaling to alter the ending of your dream more to your satisfaction. This may help you to feel better throughout your day rather than carrying around tense feelings from your dream.

But think about this: if you can change how a nightly dream develops or ends, you can do this with your waking dream, too!  Simply reflect on a situation in your day to day life that is not going as you would like and apply your imagination to creatively envision how you could handle the situation differently and better.  You can also use internal dialogue with someone you are having an issue with, changing how you might normally interact with or speak to that person.

If you can DREAM or envision a more positive outcome, you can act consciously to bring that about, or at very least you can learn to respond better to how the situation needs to be. It is important that you are empowered with this approach; you can take the responsibility to alter your own attitude or behavior in a manner that allows the outer situation to change. For remember, you are the Dreamer!

Have you had an experience in your life where you have been able to change the outcome of a ‘stuck’ or a habitual situation? Standing back from your life-dream to reflect upon what is happening, as if “life is but a dream” you can interpret, can offer you the distance to apply a more mindful solution; your “recurring dream” can thus be resolved!

Recognizing that your waking consciousness is only qualitatively different from your dreamstate helps to strengthen the link between your conscious and sub-conscious awareness, so you can become more receptive and accepting of important messages coming to you from within. 

I invite your comments and stories!