Fresh Thinking, Inspiration, and Vision on the Process of Spiritual Transformation

From the Monthly Creative Field Global Teleconference, August 7, 2011

I want to talk today about victory, no matter what. And I also want to talk about man becoming a living soul. As I was preparing what I would say today, I thought “What do you say when God calls you? Do you say, ‘Sorry, I’m busy,’ or ‘Why don’t you try me tomorrow’ or ‘Who, me?’” Those of us who know that spirit well stand ready and available, no matter what, when God calls.

In thinking about victory, I was reminded of the seminal piece that Uranda wrote, called “Through to Victory,” where he talks about walking through walls. You may remember it: “If walls can stop you, you will be stopped.” That’s somewhat present in my experience currently. There are many things in the way that, if I choose, I could be stopped by. It’s the same as when God calls. Do you say, “No, sorry, there’s a wall in my way”?

Uranda said this: “This is the only way to victory. If walls can stop you, you will be stopped. If human beings can upset you, you will be upset. If discouragement can turn you aside, you will be turned aside. That is the situation. If walls can stop you, you will be stopped. It is only for those who refuse to stop for any wall, who keep right on going, that there can be any true sharing in the victory.”

So exploring a little bit of what it takes to go beyond the known, Uranda talks about going through brick walls. A brick wall, made with bricks—it’s a known material to us. But from another perspective there is always a way through.

It is also true that many of us gathered in this particular body know a lot about pioneering—going beyond what we know in our capacities, being available for that call from spirit, despite our capacities. There is no map for this territory. It has not been covered before, and it requires courage, as I was speaking about last month. It is scary, unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory. It has strange, shadowy shapes in the corners and in the distance, and it sets the imagination working. Those pioneers of America who crossed the Great Plains in covered wagons, going west towards the unknown, going towards a sea that they only knew about in hearsay—men, women, children, cattle—took their worlds with them, and they took each step, fulfilling their vision, to cross those great expanses. In these days we are still crossing great expanses, only of another nature.

There also seem to be ancient fears coming up in our capacities, things that are perhaps murmurs of distant memories in our personal and family cultures, but may be further removed than that—they may be race memories, collective memories, triggered by the echoes of the way things were long ago. These are no less present in our capacities now and will tend to trip us up if we are not alert. So there’s conscious work to be done.

I’m also aware that in the culminating phases of any creative cycle, questioning the current reality is intrinsic to the cycle. Individually we question our own capacities: “Did I fail? Have I been bad? I’m actually not sure what’s happening. I think I’m a failure.” Anybody recognize those thoughts in their own capacities? So what do you say to yourself? I have a conversation with myself that goes like this: “There has to be another way. I need to look at this differently. Oh, so this is what I need to be doing right now.”

These feelings are part of what we need to face as we continue to move in these culminating phases. There is much evidence in the world that is telling us we are culminating in a particular cycle. No need to speculate on what or how—we only have to live fully in our bodies to know what it’s like in this intensity. So there is something required of us to actually acknowledge and own everything we have in our capacities, while still knowing we are on the right track and do have whatever it will take to fulfill the cycle.

A phrase in the Bible came to my attention while we were considering things in the Leadership Program: “And man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) He wasn’t just in the air, a sort of disembodied spirit. He was on Earth; Man became a living soul, something manifest, available right now, present in our daily life. In the Old Testament, God is often referred to as “the living God”—present right now, experienced in every moment that we choose to be open to it.

Many of the spiritual practices that I’m aware of invite us to go to a place of bliss or stillness, or love and harmony and light. They describe a process of ascent. And while there is a distant memory of harmony and peace and light, the fact of the matter is we’re on this planet now to transform exactly what we’ve got, now. Actually it matters not whose fault it was that the world is now in this situation. Ours is the job we have now, to be a living soul, present now. And this is where we need people who are willing to walk through walls! I think that could be described as a magic trick, a sleight-of-hand, something conjured by our imagination. But actually it takes courage to be in the world but not of it, to not be ruled by the structures and concepts and beliefs that we’ve put together and that we now live behind.

I’ve been reading some material by a Sufi writer. He tells the story of a man being taken out of his body to a place of light, and there being given the choice as to whether he wanted to go back to Earth or whether he wanted to stay in the place of light and love. The answer the Sufi gave was, “I am a Sufi. I am here to be of service.” That is also the Emissary function: “I’m here to be of service. I will live in this world. I will take on what I need to take on, and I will be a living soul in this world.” I’m reminded also of the goddess Kwan Yin, who, though she reached the supreme state, would not ascend until all of humanity could ascend with her. She chose to stay on the planet.

I’m also reminded of a service by Grace Van Duzen, in which she spoke about being willing to stand and hold the portal open, to stand and hold the space until all who want to have crossed over. I think that is our function: to hold open that space in consciousness until all who want to, who choose to cross over, have done so. That is our service to the world.

What if the structure of the walls we create—the bricks and mortar—has been created by human nature, purposefully built by people, by ideologies, by laws, by power structures? These walls stand, very effectively separating human nature from the light, the source. And they are so effective that we accept them, forgetting what is on the other side. Every denial, every avoidance only makes those walls stronger, and we are not here to strengthen the walls of separation but to break through them.

So as Uranda said, we can go right through these constructs of our own making, simply by being fully conscious in our living in every moment. We no longer need to accept the world of shadows and half-truths. We don’t need to be swayed by illusions. We can walk right on through—yes, we can! I’m aware that the pleasure and delight of being in the light, of providing light, being open enough to let the light shine through, is all the result of an act of surrender. It is amazingly simple to let go of all our pettiness and our preferences, so that, bowing to the light, the glory becomes ours. Who would not want to do that? Who would not want to walk right on through those walls? We need to be pioneers who have the required courage, because the time is shortened, the intensity is on. We feel that intensity in our immediate world and in the world round about.

So if not now, when? And if not me, who? Let us carry right on through!