The world is changing. That is a simple fact. Whether we choose to fight
those changes or help to create them, change is the nature of our
evolutionary path. We are moving away from everything that is familiar
to us into an unknown territory that we may call "the New Reality." What
does this mean? It means that our familiar behaviors and interactions
with each other will not bring the same results. It means that familiar
ways of survival in the world will no longer work. It means that our
familiar methods of exchange (work for money, money for food, etc.) may
no longer be effective. Many of us have lost jobs or changed jobs as we
struggle to find our place in the changing world. It means that even our
weather can no longer be trusted to follow familiar patterns.
It also means that what can be proved by Science is changing moment by
moment, too fast for us to know what are solid "facts" and what are only
beliefs upon which we have built our understanding. It means that what
can be discovered through trust is unfolding with unprecedented
opportunities for our own growth. What we once believed is no longer
true, and we have to trust that truth will be revealed as we step away
from we "believed in our minds" and into what we "know through our
hearts." We must be courageous enough to let go of every old belief,
allowing ourselves to form different, more holistic thoughts, and take
actions from a different place, actions that are based on the highest
good for all. For some of us, this may mean simply surrendering the idea
that we know best, and learning how to listen to what others may know.
For some of us this may mean that we learn to listen to our own inner
wisdom and stop asking teachers, healers, and leaders to "fix us." We
are accustomed to a certain hierarchical order, wherein we have given
the power for change to others, rather than recognizing our own power to
make changes. In our current reality, many of the changes we are
experiencing are coming from outside of us: earth changes, political
changes, financial changes. But the real power of change comes from
within us, and when we take back that power by working on ourselves
rather than simply accepting changes as they come to us, we gain the
opportunity to co-create a new reality, one of our own choosing or
design, rather than the familiar one in which we are now struggling. To
do this we must step outside our comfort zone of familiarity. We must
expand our hearts and minds to find other possible ways of being in the
world, ways of being and doing that cause us to cooperate with one
another rather than to compete with one another; ways of being and doing
that are based on love, rather than fear. Before we can make those
changes, however, we need to understand the basis of the familiar
reality in which we are living. The first thing to understand is that
everything that we think (and much of what we feel) is based on duality,
on polar extremes of different opinions, different experiences, and
different beliefs. Thought, by nature, is dualistic, and we typically
adhere to polar positions of what we believe to be true. That is the
familiarity that causes us to fight for a cause or that keeps us trapped
in positions where we continually give our power to others to make
decisions for us. Duality gives us the position of "us" and "them," and
it is from this familiar position that most of us struggle through life.
To create the new reality, we must move away from our dualistic
perspectives towards a focus of more unity with each other. There is a
way, if we help to create it, that we can experience our lives from a
more multi-dimensional perspective, one that allows both positions of
any situation to be true. That multi-dimensional perspective
incorporates duality within unity, and it is from a place of
multi-dimensionality that we can find the blessings of everyone's
position, bringing us closer to the real truth. In the new reality,
duality and unity do not represent opposites concepts. When we let go of
our familiar attachments to any polar position and expand our
awareness, we can stretch ourselves to bring all positions into harmony.
Think of a couple or a family or a country. Each can be seen as an
individual energy that may offer different ways of interacting in the
world. Yet each couple, each family, and each country can also be viewed
as a unified energy, representing a greater whole. In mapping a new
reality, we are being called to step beyond the individual pieces of who
we are into a greater unified whole. If we choose, we can evolve from
citizens of a country to citizens of the world to citizens of the
universe. Familiarity keeps us loyal to old belief systems, trapping us
in structures that prevent our growth. To live as citizens of the
universe, we must step out of our limited zone of familiarity into the
larger reality of unity consciousness. Let's explore how we can do that.
From the beginning of human awareness, the accepted perception
of reality has been based on concepts of duality. Everything we
experience has a polar opposite: dark and light, hot and cold, male and
female, us and them, right and wrong. We have become conditioned to
expecting that there is an opposing force to everything we think,
believe, or do. That sense of opposition has caused us to compete with
one another, believing that there is always only one "right" way to do
something. That sense of duality and opposition has also caused us to
fear that there is never enough for everyone, and from that position, we
have learned to compete with one another rather than to cooperate.
It is easy to see how we came to cling to those beliefs when we look at
the path we have taken for our survival as a species. Each belief has
been based either upon our direct participation with life or upon things
that we have been taught are true. In order to have some stability in
our lives, we have chosen to hold on to certain beliefs as truth and
allow our past participation (history) to direct our future experience.
Yet if we look at what we have created through our beliefs and our
actions, we see that much of what humanity has done has caused us to
suffer the pain of separation and war. Each place we have defended as
the only truth divides us from others who may hold another aspect of
the truth. We often stop listening when we hear ideas that are
unfamiliar, strange, or that do not align with our own beliefs. In order
to grow, each of us must be willing to move beyond the zone of
familiarity, letting go of our need to be right. Our planet is based on
dualitisic perspectives, but that does not mean that the forces of
duality are the only way that we can exist.
However, as long
as we are living on a planet full of duality, we might as well use it,
instead of suffering under the pull of its polarities. Being a woman who
has experienced monthly cycles gave me the idea that we are more than
the simple opposites represented in duality. Writing my first book
helped me to understand the gifts inherent in duality- the opposites
contained within me as a human being: conflicting thoughts, ideas,
emotions, and beliefs. Co-authoring my second book taught me how to
better move towards unity. What I wish to share with you now are ways
that we can use duality to further our growth and to expand ourselves as
human beings. Duality can actually be utilized to help us attain unity,
oneness, or love, however you envision those ideas. To me, they are all
the same thing.
There are some concepts we must examine in
order to move from the zone of familiarity into the new reality. For
purposes of this article, we can call these concepts map points, places
of potential change in the direction of our journey. The concepts
duality and polarity have already been addressed and will continue to
weave their way throughout our journey. A deeper understanding of these
terms show us that they are necessary experiences for our own growth.
The experience of polar opposites pushes us to grow. When we work with
the polarities of duality, it allows us to experience everything in a
more balanced way.
Other concepts we need to examine are time,
the Mayan Calendar, change, and fundamentalism. What exactly is time? I
have been fascinated with the concept for as long as I can remember. I
have always felt some kind of mystery about time. Only recently, through
my experience of feeling that time seems to be speeding up, have I
understood that time is a concept that we as collective consciousness
have created. The universe does not operate under laws of time. The
universe operates through laws of energy. We use time here on Earth to
measure that energetic movement. On earth, we humans have agreed
collectively to define our reality by a measurement called time. But
even if I accept the collective agreement that time is a defining
structure of our existence, I think we have collectively made a huge
mistake in understanding how it works. All modern cultures who use clock
and calendar to structure their reality view time as linear, stretching
from past into future, one sequential event following another. This
linear view of time has had a tremendous effect on modern thought,
including our view of reality. Because we see time as linear, we are
preoccupied with progress. Through the modern focus on linear progress,
we have forgotten the greater principles of Nature: that energy (and
life) move in spirals and cycles, not linearly! And with that
misunderstanding, we have warped the true reality, creating the
artificial one which we believe to be true: a reality where we attempt
to control Nature’s cycles (and each other) rather than participating
with the energetic cycles of life. In order to reach the new reality, we
must release the familiar construct of linear time and change our
understanding of how we are participating with the universe. We can map
this journey by trying to see the whole picture, rather than just
particular parts (our polar beliefs). By allowing that each part of
duality is part of the greater whole of unity, we can begin to move away
from a familiar reality based on linear time into the territory of the
new reality--which is based on energy.
My study of the Mayan
Calendar enhanced my knowledge that our current reality has an incorrect
understanding of time. I have already said that time is not linear; it
cycles. Actually, it spirals, up and up and up (or down and down and
down) towards a central point where it does not exist at all, a point
where everything converges (unity). There are cycles within cycles
within cycles in the cosmos. The Maya represented these cycles in a
calendar of energetic understanding. Their calendar is not a measure of
time at all: it is a tool for guiding our own energetic cycles through
the duality of earthly existence. When we look at our view of time from
this vantage point, it is easy to see that, as quantum science points
out, everything is energy-- even time! On our journey, we need to
release our need to control time or to operate under it's limited but
imaginary power; we must learn to navigate cycles of energy within our
own lives. Learning how to do this leads us towards the new reality,
where we can truly understand that all polarities (duality) are
contained within each moment (unity.) It is this multidimensional
perspective that will show us how to incorporate duality into unity. The
Mayan Calendar is a map towards oneness, and we can use this map to
guide us to the new reality. This map shows us the merging of duality,
and when we reach the central point, duality will cease to exist. That
is the meaning of the end of time.
To step out of our comfort
zone of familiarity into the new reality, we need to examine and to
absorb the principles and dynamics of the reality we are hurtling
towards. The principles of unity include everything- every dualistic
opposite, every polar viewpoint. Unity is large enough to contain it all
in harmony! In fact, unity is infinite. Quantum physics says that
everything exists at once. We must allow that truth to grow within us,
and change accordingly, releasing our need to hold fast to polarized
concepts we have previously regarded as the truth.
Life by
definition is change. Everything on Earth is interwoven into a living
system of cycles. Cycles of Life are systemic, and balance is maintained
through the energetic exchange brought to us by each of these cycles.
There is a rhythm to life that makes it work. Humans, as part of life,
are also governed by rhythms. Every part of being human includes a cycle
of some sort. More than one hundred functions and structural elements
in humans oscillate between maximal and minimal values once a day,
including our breathe, our blood, and our hormones. It is difficult to
find any aspect of being human that does not include a cycle of some
sort. However, humans have done their best to ignore natural cycles,
abandoning natural human rhythms for the more controlled industrial,
technological rhythms of life. Moreover, we have allowed our belief
systems to fool us into thinking that we can control these energetic
cycles. Right now, these rhythms are changing, and we must change with
them. The simple truth is that in order to survive, we must change.
This article is intended to give some guidance into how we can proceed
with the necessary changes. In order to make conscious change, we must
first grasp the idea that we need to change. When we have a clear idea
that what once worked is no longer working, then we can proceed. The
second step to mapping the new reality is to let go of what we think we
know and have the courage to imagine something different. When we keep
trying the same old things and thinking the same old thoughts, we
prevent the flow of better opportunities and we prevent ourselves from
growing into better people. In other words, we are blocked from our own
growth.
Have you ever watched a moving river? There are no
problems as it flows along, until something blocks its flow. The river
then either overflows to go around the blockage or it becomes a stagnant
pool standing still. We need now to see ourselves as rivers (we are,
after all, primarily made of water!) We cannot afford to allow
blockages to cause us to stagnate; we must instead meet every challenge
with trust in the overflowing of possible solutions. We must learn to
view problems as opportunities for growth, or we may become stagnant
too. But we are not accustomed to viewing problems as opportunities for
growth; we are accustomed to seeing them as challenges we must overcome.
Typically we resist them, hoping to remove them in order to settle back
into our comfort zone of familiarity. To change this pattern of
behavior, we must redefine "problem."
The dictionary defines
"problem" as a difficult situation, matter, or person. Now what makes it
difficult? Could it be the very idea that the situation, matter, or
person is not conforming to what we want or what we believe to be right?
Could it be that the problem is only apparent when we see it in
opposition to our familiar beliefs of how things should be? Is there a
problem when another person is simply going about her own business
without our interference or judgment? As long as the other is
considering how her actions affect others, there is no problem. We move
into "problem" status, when the energy of one person or situation
conflicts with the energy of another. So the first step is to become
aware that every thought and every action we have affects all others and
take responsibility for everything we think or do. That moves us from
the familiar dualistic position of "individual rights" to the more
unified position of "highest good for all." If we can re-train ourselves
to consider our every thought, emotion, and action before we release
them into the world, then the energy we present will hold less conflict,
and less problems will occur. There will be more flow, because we are
aware of and responsible for everything we do.
I have noticed
that most "problems" stem from fundamental differences in our opinions
or beliefs. We want whatever "the difference" that is creating the
"problem" to move over to our end of the polar spectrum, to join us
where we are. And if that doesn't work, we seek a "compromise," not a
"blending" of both polarities. The fundamental difference still exists,
because we live in a world of duality, and so we seek over and over
again to "correct the problem" by moving it to our polar position.
The second thing we must do to re-define problem is to accept that the
dualistic concept of "right" and "wrong" is no longer serving us. We
must stop our attempts to convince others that we are right or to prove
that they are wrong. The only ones we can ever change are ourselves, and
the first step towards change is taking responsibility for our own
thoughts and actions. We cannot shape a person to match our design of
what we think is right or what we need. Nor can we always manipulate
every situation or every circumstance around our desires. The next time
we feel a situation is not to our liking or that someone is not behaving
as we wish they would, we can notice how quickly a "problem" arises. In
our current reality, the minute something blocks us from getting what
we want, it becomes a problem. In the new reality, the minute we feel
something different, we will explore what opportunities for growth it
may be offering.
I would now like to look at the remaining
concept serving as a map point towards the new reality: fundamentalism.
The dictionary gives several definitions for the word fundamental:
(1) relating to or affecting the underlying principle or structure of
something; (2) the lowest frequency in a vibration or periodic wave.Both
of these definitions strike at the heart of the points I am about to
make, for I am about to discuss fundamental beliefs and fundamental
attitudes.
The dictionary definition of fundamentalism is:
"the belief that a doctrine should be implemented literally, not
interpreted or adapted."
I have a "problem" with both meanings of
fundamental and fundamentalism, but beyond that I have a problem with
the concept. If I follow my premise that problems are opportunities for
growth, I would abandon the concept of fundamentalism altogether, as it
seems only to serve allegiance to duality. The ideas represented by
fundamentalism seem to create stagnation, not growth. A literal
(fundamental) interpretation of any belief or principal does not allow
for interpretation or adaptation. Doesn't holding on to something
literally by the letter of the law block the flow of creativity and
adaptation to specific circumstances?
Now let's look at
definition #2: fundamentalism as the lowest frequency in a vibration or
periodic wave. The lowest frequency indicates the one with the least
amount of movement. Again we are bumping up against stagnation,
something that does not allow for creativity. People who hold on to
fundamental beliefs and ideas about the world are, according to the
dictionary, structuring their world on the lowest frequency vibration
available to humans. Not only are they holding that out as the essential
truth for all humanity, they want to convert anyone who does not see
the "truth" of their beliefs. I find that quite constricting. In fact,
the river called Rebecca (for I too am water) does not feel good when it
is blocked by such structures of belief. I do not want to be damned up,
confined, into such a limited position as a human. I want to be
interpreted according to the context in which I live. Don't you? I do
not want to be boxed in to something that I was yesterday when I am
still evolving into what I will be tomorrow.
Fundamentalism is
not only about the lowest frequency of being. It is also about polarity.
The practice of fundamentalism in religion is a prime example of
fundamentalism's great cost to humanity. Fundamental Christians and
Fundamental Muslims have latched on to opposite polarities, and are
willing to kill others who cannot live by their rules. In my humble
opinion, that is the lowest vibratory frequency possible: to be willing
to take a life because a person does not hold your beliefs. Most
fundamental religions, if not actively engage in killing as their
religions have done in the past, they are busy trying to convert others
to their polar belief system. This is a battle of ideas, if not physical
battle. Unable to see that anything else could exist as "truth", they
turn blind eyes and ears to ideas that could promote world harmony,
sticking to the fundamental polarity that they are "right." Some even
believe that they are the chosen of God and that everyone else is doomed
for a Hell (however they define that term.) In any fundamental belief
system, people see their own truth as the only truth. As already
discussed, in unity, truth can hold many dualistic perspectives. In
fact, the flow of the universe produces only truth and beauty when
allowed to flow unimpeded.
I have noticed that whenever I am
locked into a polarity of belief, I constrict the opportunities that
might be possible. When I detach from what I think must be right, I also
detach from the thought that anything different from that will cause a
problem. Conversely, when I am feeling joyful and spacious inside
myself, when I am accepting of who I am as well as my outer
circumstance, I have a more expanded view. I flow more, allowing
everything that is possible to arrive when and as it should. At those
moments, I trust the universe and I have no fear. I am not afraid of
being judged or rejected. I am not trying to control things out of fear
that I won't get what I want or what I need. I am not afraid that I will
lose myself by honoring someone else. There is no polar attachment to
anything, but I exist somewhere in the middle, just being. In short,
there is nothing to be afraid of because I am experiencing so much joy
that I trust everything is as it should be. And things usually work out
quite well when I can manage to live this way. This is living from the
place of love, the position of unity where duality is incorporated as
part of the whole. We have all experienced spaces in our lives where we
are living from the place of love. When we are in those moments, food
tastes better, sunsets are more glorious, our mates look more handsome
(or beautiful) and more attractive to us, and whatever is happening
seems just right.
When we are not operating from the place of
love, we must struggle to remember that whoever or whatever has created
the perceived "problem," disharmony, or difference is acceptable, too.
It is nobody's fault. Others are just being who they are, living their
lives, and hopefully, doing it with responsibility for how they affect
others. (That is the place most of us need to work: in realizing that
everything we think and do individually affects everyone else as part of
the unified whole.) If I fall out of resonance with someone, I don't
have to blame them or change them, or even tell them what I am feeling
about the "problem" (although open communication without judgment or
blame is always a plus.) I don't have to focus on fundamental
differences or latch on to my desire to correct the situation. I can
simply move out of the energy that is not supportive of me at that
particular moment, remembering that there is room for us all, the only
thing I can change is myself, that I must take responsibility for my
thoughts and actions, and that as I learn to do it differently, my
individual efforts for greater harmony within myself will affect the
harmony of the greater whole. Or perhaps, if the lack of resonance is
increasing, I glean an understanding that I must leave the person or
situation permanently to support myself. Each of us has a choice, and we
make it by asking this question: "Do I want to participate in a battle
of polarities that is causing difficulty, or do I want to let it go,
moving back towards my own sense of flow?"
There is no point in
repeating disharmonious situations over and over again, hoping that it
they will have a different outcome next time. (In fact, that is a very
good definition of mental illness!) The thing that needs to change is
within me. It is here, on the inside, where I can examine my
insecurities and my fears, that I can take responsibility for my
emotions and learn to understand what is called for. It is here inside
of me that I also learn to take responsibility for how my thoughts and
actions affect others. It is only a belief that what we are wanting or
needing or experiencing is more important than what the other person is
wanting or needing or experiencing that causes conflict. In the moment,
there is a clash of expectations, and like a cold front hitting a warm
front in the weather, lightening can occur. How we choose to deal with
the clash of polarities is what gives us the potential to grow. We must
want to get back to the state of love and unity. And to do so, we must
follow the new map, making choices that are not based on any fundamental
belief. We are not fundamentally right while others are fundamentally
wrong. Likewise, situations are neither right or wrong; they simply move
into and out of energetic harmony. To restore energetic harmony to the
whole, our best choice is to either correct our own abilities to accept
others' experience, or vacate the space for a while, allowing them the
right and the space to be exactly where they are. When we can learn as
humans to do this, "problems" will be over. There will be no fundamental
differences.
Leaving the zone of familiarity and following the
map to the new reality is about thinking differently and acting
differently, unwinding those patterns that have kept our familiar
comforts and discomforts in their polar places. The old familiar ways
are not working, and I, for one, do not want to continue living life
from the viewpoint that suggests that life is hard, life is a struggle,
or that I have to fight to get my share. There is enough for all of us.
Everyone owns a piece of the truth, and each polar perspective offers us
another vantage point of the whole. There is no right way, (although
some ways certainly flow more easily because they are more connected to
the benefit of the whole.)
Our world is changing. We must now
evolve or die. We need to learn to • detach from belief systems, •
surrender fundamental polar positions of extremes in favor of unified
concepts, • accept the gifts inherent in the viewpoints of others, •
have gratitude for every opportunity to grow and change, • cooperate
rather than compete (including mind games and competitive sports), •
live from love rather than from fear, and • accept energy rather than
time as the basis of our existence.
In the new reality, these
ways of interacting with life may become more necessary than air.
Without air, we die. Possibly as new humans, without a new attitude and a
new perspective that is loving and non-judgmental, we will also die. It
is possible that an atmosphere created by beliefs that contain judgment
and fear can be just as toxic as an atmosphere that contains only
carbon dioxide. We cannot live without oxygen. Can we live without love?
The concepts I have offered on my map to the new reality are limited by
the use of human language, another aspect of duality and our current
reality. I share as best I can, my hopes, my dreams, my questions, and
my understanding. But all of these words come from the shared
familiarity of the English language. To step out of familiarity into the
new reality, I must share from the core of my being, from the place
within me that is love.
Communication occurs on more levels than
mindful speech. Communication comes through the expressions on our
faces and the energy we hold in our hearts. If I were able to truly
communicate and connect with each of you reading this article, in the
new reality I would step out of the zone of the familiar use of
language, and I would simply give you a hug.
With love and light,Rebecca Smith Orleane, Ph.D.
Copyright by Rebecca Smith Orleane, Ph.D.
Without a plan, without priorities in living, it's difficult - perhaps impossible - to achieve traction in experiencing your progress in a fulfilling life. I do believe life is meant to be fun, working your plan by living your priorities keeps you up to speed with all you can be, do and have.
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