Having a Part to Play in Life
Like so many others, my history is one of not wanting to do anything that is too visible. I've wanted to live a quiet life, loved country living and there is also something left over from childhood about staying safe by being as invisible as possible. That way nobody can throw rotten tomatoes at you, or take exception to your doings in any way. A lot of us are that way it seems. It's a good way of staying out of trouble! But as we loosen our grip on this mind-made identity that we were working so hard to keep safe... as we don't mind so much whether that version of us gets what it wants or not... as we more and more just BE WHAT WE REALLY ARE and forget about all the rest of that hoopla... ...then we become willing to do whatever life moves through us to do. Even if it brings on all the rotten tomatoes we have avoided all our lives. It's so interesting how those proverbial tomatoes don't hurt like we thought they would anyway! Yes, they are a bit smelly in the moment, but it washes off! When we started out we just wanted to survive, but now its not about that any more. The fact is we're here. We might not be here tomorrow but right now we are here. So how can we really meet that? How can we make each moment count... after all it may be our last! There might be a meteor or a stroke coming our way in the very next moment! Probably not I agree, but that sense of the here and now being all we really have is REAL. There is something vitally alive in being aware of that. We take nothing for granted in the old way. What if we stayed true to ourselves in each moment as if it were our last, for a whole day, for a whole week? Would we go to work and do the right thing and please our spouse and raise the kids right? Uh oh, we don't know, do we? We really can't say what would happen, can we? Now it is obvious -- what we have tried so hard to pretend wasn't true -- we can't really control life anyway. Now what do we do? Well, what is already happening? What are we already in the middle of? Raising a family, earning a living? OK, so we'll do that. It's in front of us, its all around us, it would be hard not to, its obvious. We do the next obvious thing but something is different. Somehow instead of us doing it because we are trying to control everything -- now we are riding a current of energy that this moment and this moment and this moment is moving through us as energy and coming out as these actions. Now instead of exerting our personal will to raise a family or earn a living, those actions are occurring through us, and we feel how life has put us right here to do that. We are willing, and we move freely in our willingness, letting life live, just as it is, here and now. Are we staying aware of the miracle of how the energy flows through us to put dinner on the table? How it flows into our physicalness through the food, blessing us, and flows out in innumerable ways into the activities of our daily lives, even into our supposed mistakes and failings. This is a miracle beyond anything, this existence we have! But then what if life moves through us to do something more? What if life invites us to have a larger part to play in the scheme of things? Can we be willing there too? Be willing to stick our neck out and be who we really are in public? What if you had a part to play in life that wasn't what your safety oriented strategies had planned on? What then? Can we be willing there too? What if some action life might choose to take through us could turn the tide of world events in some way? How can we ever be sure that that is not already true about the things we did today. We don't know that either, do we?
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Early Endorsements for
Life Beyond Belief,
Everyday Living as Spiritual Practice I am again and again bowled over by the early endorsements that are coming in for the upcoming book, (which, by the way should be in print by late October. Thank you to all who are participating in this amazing process. If there are any of you who are in a position to write reviews or have connections that I should know about at this stage of the authoring/publishing process, please contact me at this email link. Below are a couple of the endorsements that I guess will be on the back cover... a sample of the many verbal blessings that are coming in at the moment. “Life Beyond Belief welcomes us to the simple wonder of what is, to the effortless Self that is always present behind every thought, every action. This is a journey from mind to heart, from separation to oneness. Follow its thread, because these are words that can open what is closed, free what is imprisoned, and help you to live awake.” Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee Ph.D., Sufi teacher and author of Working with Oneness and many other books. workingwithoneness.org “Excellent book, beautifully structured, and written. Alice's personal touch creates a bond with the reader. She leads you from exactly where you are -- physically, emotionally, spiritually -- through layers of beliefs, programming, and conditioning, to a place of greater freedom.”
Jerry Katz, nonduality.com.
Editor, One: Essential Writings on Nonduality
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