The Journey From Head to Heart
by John Dorsey Wolf
What is written below is a summary of some “homework” over the last couple of weeks: me being asked to think about how to apply to myself the material received via guidance. The emphasis was on the difference between intellectual understanding and wholehearted acceptance, and the work involved in between.
From my joint mind came two questions: “What is the value (to you) of having this connection and the knowledge that comes from it? And what value is the knowledge if it is not believed and taken to heart?” (Admittedly, the second question was more of a statement than a question.)
My answer: The Seth, TGU, Rita/Frank material, along with that which I am able to get directly has the capacity to a) significantly reduce my fear of death, b) reduce my fears of living (this may take some elaboration), c) change my perspective, d) advance my understanding of ancient truths, e) provide trusted guidance, and prepare me for my post-death life.
But none of those happen automatically; hence, the instigation to face up to the second part about the importance of being believed and taken to heart. To ferret out the issues, I decided to to work further on “reducing our fear of death”.
“You’ve been thinking about the factors involved in why many people have a great fear of death. As noted, it’s not just the lack of knowledge, because there has been knowledge available for centuries, from multiple sources.”
For example, the resurrection story has both positive and negative motivations as far as encouraging one to face death. On one hand it brings hope and promise of survival of death, but on the other hand is a reminder that death can be the result of violence and brutality.
Death as an end to pain and suffering, or injustice, and a better life thereafter is a common religious theme. Yet it is often is delivered with an intolerance that one’s beliefs must be consistent with specific dogma.
Removing all dogma, the story (or myth if you prefer) of death and resurrection is our own story if we view the cycle differently: loss and restriction as we enter physical life, followed by challenge after challenge, followed by death of the body and acceptance of self as a newly reborn being. Physical birth as a form of death, physical death as rebirth.
Understanding modern metaphysics of consciousness, and acceptance of all aspects of ourselves as responsible for life and death is perhaps too big of a leap for many. Nevertheless why, after thousands of years of teachings, and more recently the direct near-death experience of millions of people is the fear as high as it is?
We prepare and manage many personal transitions, but do we prepare ourselves for the one absolute sure transition in life: death? Why not do the same level of preparation as we do for a new home or a new job? (Of course I am not talking about taking care of the business of wills and trusts, and directives for handling the body, and conducting remembrances and services.)
The fear of the unknown remains, as does the fear of potential pain and trauma that potentially proceeds death. Beliefs can get in the way, such as:
1. There is no on-going life after death.
2. We cannot know what comes after our body dies.
3. Death brings pain and trauma, best not to face it until it can’t be avoided any longer.
4. What others have learned through their near death experience is a figment of their imagination.
5. The only way to experience life after death is to die.
6. Death is bad, the worst of the worst, and (physical) living is what matters. (Another way of saying we are here to live, not to die.)
7. Death brings judgement and I may not measure up.
8. (Please add your favorite.)
My interpretation of Seth, TGU and Rita tells me that every one of the above beliefs are either off base, or at best only partially true.
Admittedly, the intellectual understanding in my head didn’t move to knowings in my heart until I had the opportunity to experience it for myself. And that is the way with many major changes in thinking.
Beyond these belief issues, there are even more hurdles as we face our guilt, our regrets, and our concerns that our life has had meaning. These are “internal” issues that cannot be avoided and we will face them, if not before transition then after.
Is there anyone who doesn’t have some guilt over what they have done or not done in their life? Is there anyone who feels they have no regrets whatsoever for what they didn’t do or didn’t “accomplish”? At what point do we understand that our life has had meaning?
Bucket lists are “in” for working off potential regrets. Asking for forgiveness is a well known prescription for reducing guilt.
There is nothing wrong with either of these, but at some point we will have to accept ourselves and our life as lived. In the process of acceptance we may find how tiny we are as a human, how significant we are as greater beings; how little what we think matters actually does; how far our energy ripples out; how insignificant our perceived individuality is, yet how magnificent we are as a mind community.
As the writer, producer, star, and audience of the play were are in there is no better place to look for meaning and acceptance of our life than inside ourselves. We give ourselves physical life, we give ourselves a reshaping, we give ourselves a rebirth into an eternal life, and we create the billions upon billions of sustaining perspectives, each a unique contribution to the one mind.
From the perspective of a one-off life lived and judged accordingly, every human life will have it’s imperfections. From the perspective of greater consciousness, we are both part and whole, and it is all us.
If we are going to take this material to heart, one thing we can work on immediately is acceptance of ourselves and our lives, and that in itself can bring a significant reduction in our fear of death. It is a step toward taking to heart what is in the head.
That’s one look at it. What do you think?
John
Good work, John! I feel you may have missed on factor: hope. I have deep love for the natural world, the unfathomable diversity, abundance, lushness, and interweaved complexity, the colors, scents, textures, and tastes, the deep, energetic, communicated feelings of family, of unity, and the aliveness. Here is my greater self delightedly dancing in the world. Yes, only poetry, only much better poets than I can capture what I feel.
I watch the accruing devastation that we are reaping on my beloved and cry. Hope’s wings flutter. It is not too late, life survives, and if we can break the bonds of our limiting stories, we may become vehicles for our higher beings to swing powerful healing psychic skills into the fray. Then, I just learned that the geoengineers, via chemtrails, are spreading life-poisoning heavy metals all over the earth in order to change the weather for “their” tactical benefit. This floored me and hope flew.
That night, I brought this to my guidance and was immediately reminded of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Marlene and I treasure the experiences we have had at live performances well staged and acted of Shakespeare’s plays and marvel how emotionally involved audiences become in the tragedies.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Finally, the actors take their bows and exit the stage.
You do look, my son, in a moved sort,
As if you were dismay’d: be cheerful, sir.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
The inspiration then struck me that our hopes are not vain foolishness, but the driving forces behind out intent to live. Thus, Alexander Pope:
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest.
Blessings, Don
Don,
Poetry always says so much with so few words, as opposed to engineers like me :-). Thanks for that. And I agree with you completely about hope.
John
And another quotation, though not poetry: “All is well. All is always well.” If the guys could say that in the wake of the century that includes Stalin, Hitler, two world wars, two atomic bombs — no need to continue the list — either they’re nuts or they know something, and i know which way I’m placing my bets.
Which brings us to another application of this material: reducing the fear of living. In many ways, that is even more challenging than reducing the fear of death!
John
Dear John, Don and Frank(and all of us of course in the learning). I do agree with ye all the way.
I cannot but thinking it is all about “an awakening from the sleep.”
And in the early morning….woke up with a sentence in my head(my cat woke me up):
” Hear no evil, see no evil, no man is your Enemy.”
I could not recall more from my nightly conversation this morning as my cat obviously finding it to become the time for “the awakening”(he, “he” is a he-cat, and wanted to go outdoors).
BUT, at the same time in my abrupt “awakening” this morning; THE FEELING was rather peculiar, though, if I can call it “a feeling or emotion” that is — BECAUSE “the feeling/emotion”, was complete PEACE of mind as if nothing matters…it “felt”(if it was “a feeling” that is) as a kind of a complete acceptance of everything(a sort of neutral impersonal joy?)….Hm, rather a feeling of RELAXATION, as “come what may…” when thinking it over afterwards.
I am ever grateful for ye…thanks a lot. And I do believe all of us to have an innate faculty in to find the beauty about us, because we ARE our own Thoughts.
B&B, Inger Lise.
John,
Good work … and I use that word the same as in your post: the effort needed to slowly grow this intellectual knowledge into usefulness and understanding in life (3D, non-3D, All-D)
My list (of values) tracks yours: pretty much the deep and (we say) important issues of life. So one would think we’d be focusing all available attention on ‘taking them to heart’!? I wonder about the feelings that I’m not; here are a few things from that ‘wondering.’
A. Maybe I AM focusing all of my available attention; the ‘work’ is in moving it away from (less) useful ‘places’ to have more focus on the areas Rita and TGU suggest.
B. Some questions that might be a ‘roadmap’ for the above:
– “What is the value (to me) of having this connection and the knowledge that comes from it?”
– How much have I gotten from this connection so far?
– Where can I put more effort every day into growing this connection to get even more?
C. I have to watch out for ‘we-our-us’ pronouns; when they show up in my thinking and writing, it can mean I’m sliding off into generalizations, getting away from the specifics of my life.
The books and blog posts have carried us each to a view of ‘higher reality’, the bigger picture. I’m feeling the next step: each of us working use that view to shape our own unique life as we choose. For me right now it’s
b) reduce my fears of living and
a) significantly reduce my fear of death.
Pretty exciting stuff!
Jim
A few little connecting thoughts: Those studying Neuro-Linguistic Programming point out those negative thoughts are often accompanied by eyes focused down to the left, while eyes pointing upper right engender positive feelings and visualizations. Try it; it works. Castaneda carries this further to right brain—left body. And, here is the heart and HeartMath. Surely tiny, seemingly insignificant practices. Yet, here is that doorway through which we each may access our higher Spirit and It mayreach us.
“All is well. All is always well” may be for TGU but it so lacks in compassion or understanding for the millions that have suffered in the last 100 years. Or is it the ‘loosh’ that was gained that makes it ‘all well’ …?
Reply
Neither lack of compassion nor “loosh” production. I can’t go into it at length here, but I did find this passage from The Sphere and the Hologram that touches upon it:
R: Why is that there are inherently some physical or mental or attitudinal difficulties? When a person is choosing a lifetime why not make everything perfect, or as perfect as possible?
TGU: Well, you could say that it is, given that the purpose of the lifetime is to exercise your muscles and choose. It’s the old analogy of the baby bird coming out of the egg: If it didn’t have to struggle to get out of the egg, it couldn’t develop the muscles it needed to fly. The whole purpose of being in space-time is to have delayed consequences. And it’s true – and we really do understand this; we know what pain is, and what suffering is, from your point of view. But –they’re just so useful to you.
If knowing “All is Well” reduces one’s compassion, then I’d say there’s misunderstanding about what that means.
When I comfort a first-grader who’s upset because “It’s so hard!”, I don’t waste time giving him/her the six-year-old’s equivalent of “All is well!” But my connection with that understanding helps me connect with someone who’s angry or crying or pouting because they have to do so much in class, are given homework, and even have to take tests!?!?
My ‘value’ to that first-grader comes from knowing he/she is OK, that those things they don’t like are important, and they are moving successfully (if not happily!) toward the second grade. My compassion doesn’t remove my knowledge of the consequences of NOT moving through the school grade system; the (imagined) consequences of not moving through the 3D/non-3D/All-D ‘system’ makes me shudder!
Jim