Unearthing the Sacred

Recently, I joined a Facebook group called Idealists of the World. When I found this group, I had this overwhelming sense of community and love pour forth. I spent most of my life feeling as if I am an “other,” separate and different from the rest of the community that I surrounded myself by – knowing I didn’t belong. It wasn’t until this past year, I felt a sense that my tribe was being called forth. A slow trickle of like-minded individuals began to come into my vicinity. When I found this group, it was like a flood of tribe members rushing forth. One of the reasons for my excitement was due to a personal post that I wrote a few months prior:

“The Maharishi Effect, named after Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is based on the idea that only 1% of any given population practicing transcendental meditation can affect great change within their community and bring about peace and love. Through experimentation using this technique in the 80’s, researchers figured the minimum amount of practitioners to affect change – that being the square root of the 1%. If my math is correct, of the world’s population, that would be only 8,718 people.” [Currently the number is more like 8,800.]

Imagine: If only about 8,800 people are truly needed to affect positive change, can you imagine what 36,464 (the number of members in group) can do?

It is said there have been 3 waves of healers come into this world since WWII. These healers specific “job” is to maintain the love within themselves which will cause an outward emanation of love and positive energy for all who come into contact with them, who will then emanate that love to others.

In our society, love hasn’t been used in the manner it is meant for – as unconditional, otherwise known by what has been called the “Christ Consciousness.” One thing I have been working on, on a personal level, is in the understanding that when I react to others or situations negatively, it is my choice to respond in such a manner. This would be a conditional response, or, you could say, conditional love – I’ll love you as long as you meet these conditions… We always have a choice in whether we give in to a base, negative emotional response to external stimuli. Do we choose unconditional love or conditional responses?

Something to try:

When I was younger, I would keep a gratitude journal – or, at least, I tried. The reason I couldn’t be consistent is that it, frankly, pissed me off. It didn’t change how I felt about the world. I was grasping at things to be grateful for and so when I wrote anything, it was a mere action with no emotional content – I didn’t feel gratitude. Recently, I’ve begun the gratitude “prayer” at the beginning of the day. When I first started, I was quite general in what I was grateful for, until I was able to become more specific. The difference, you’re probably wondering, between the journaling I did years ago to now is the emotion. I refuse to acknowledge anything that I don’t have an emotional response to. If I want to acknowledge something, I must find something about the person or situation that gauges a positive emotional feeling of gratitude. For example, say there is a certain character that keeps popping up in your life that causes you to lose your cool for one reason or another, every single time. Obviously, it’ll be hard to be grateful about this person or situation. Be grateful instead for finding compassion, empathy, being taught lessons about yourself. Sometimes, the gratitude is a future event, so being grateful for a situation or person in the present can be difficult at best and, perhaps, not the wisest course to take. Be grateful instead for what you are being shown about yourself or for the understanding that you will be finding. This creates an ability and desire to connect with the Universe in ways that avoidance of anything disagreeable can’t. When we can feel the gratitude, we then have the ability to not only maintain that reservoir of love but allow it to grow and connect with all that is. Creating a morning ritual of gratitude can help stabilize the rest of your day with the strong intention of love, gratitude, and connection.