Peaceful as a Monk - er, Borg?

Some people worry that if they become "awakend" or "enlightened", they will become so peaceful, and so still and quiet, that they will be bland, lifeless and lack emotion. They think they will lose those very emotional qualities that make them who they are. They are afraid they will no longer be passionate, creative, or different than any other "peaceful" monk-like awakened people.

I can understand this, because at one time I entertained this thought too. I worried that some of the more fun stuff, like flirting, sex, and snow machining wouldn't appear very "enlighted," and so it'd all have to go. But I laugh at this old belief now, because it just isn't so, not from my experience. And most of the awakened spiritul masters who are alive in this day and age are deeply and happily in love, and many are married ... and according to them, having great sex!

From my experience, since starting my own awakening just a few years ago, I have had more beautiful, passionate feelings and expressions, stonger and clearer discoveries and epiphanies, than I ever did in the 40 years prior. They only get more frequent and more profound as I become more of who I really am, as I let go of old fears and the need to judge myself and others.

The difference between me then and now - and what this whole "awakening" thing is about - is that I am simply becoming aware of those negative emotions that no longer serve me: anger, fear, stress, and thoughts that arise from judgments and criticism. When I recognize a negative thought, I just notice it as a thought, and the negative feelings that go with it, like anger, stress, grief, or fear, dissolve.

From my experience, when we awaken, you become even more disecrning in your thoughts, and tend to simply think higher, more positive thoughts. There is room in this world of awakening for growth, change, expansion, and even desire. It is hardly a state of being tedious or dull or "the same" as others. And just like a finger print on a finger, we're all different, and we all choose different thoughts no matter how enlightened we are - and there are millions of thoughts! Just because we choose to awaken doesn't mean we choose to never think a thought or choose to never make decisions.

The thing that most awakened people do choose, tends to be those thoughts that are positive. And so, no, you don't see stress, fear, anger, annoyance, judgment and frustration. And then again, sometimes fearful thoughts do arise, but the awakened person just notices them, and in that noticing, they are dispelled.

This Q&A came from the Eckhart Tolle website, and I delight in the Borg metaphor and it's turnaround.

October 8th, 2008 by Eckhart Tolle

Dear Eckhart,

Do people really have the ability to choose? As an enlightened being, do you feel that your will and the will of God is the same? I worry that I will become like the Borg on Star Trek, just part of one collective. Thanks for your time, Eckhart.

Dear Gregory,

You are already a Borg. You have already been assimilated. As long as you are unconscious (spiritually speaking), you ARE part of the collective, and the belief that your thoughts are “your” thoughts is an illusion, an illusory personal identity. Both the content and structure of your mind (i.e. what you think and how you think) are forms of conditioning. You don’t think: thinking happens to you. You are being thought by the collective mind. So it’s not a question of not being assimilated into the collective, but stepping out of the collective dream of unconscious thinking, that is to say stop being a Borg.

Flying Books

A few weeks ago a book was knocked off my window shelf by a set of blinds that couldn't have possibly moved unless someone had deliberately altered them.

No one had been in the room, and the blinds are in perfect condition - no way to malfunction. I like to "debunk" these sorts of occurances, probably a throw-back to being raised by a family who refused to be duped into anything. But no matter what I did, I could not recreate the scenario.

And yet ... this sort of thing has happened to me before. Even with the same book shelf. It was last spring and I had submitted an article to Edgar Cayce's magazine Venture Inward. The editor had contacted me and liked the article and photos, but after I sent the final pictures, she just suddenly stopped communicating. I thought perhaps she had a change of heart, yet she wasn't returning my emails. It didn't make sense because in the publishing world, 'no' is the most common word, followed closely by "go" and "away." Ultimately, it's just not a big deal to say "Thanks, but not this time."

Then one afternoon, after a week or so of no communication with the editor, I was making my bed lost in thought about whether Venture Inward's spam filter may be just a little too strong, when a book fell off this same window ledge. It was Edgar Cayce's biography, There Is a River. At that moment, I just knew that I could stop worrying about the article, and that everything would be fine. I wasn't even sure why or what would happen, I just knew I could let it all go. So I did. Then two months later, the editor contacted me, saying her daughter had had a life-threatening illness and she had spent the summer nursing her back to health. She wanted me to know the article would be published in the November/December issue.

So I knew better than to believe that a set of perfectly-functioning blinds would adjust themselves, knocking off a book sitting on this flat, deep shelf, for no reason.

The book was "You Can Heal Your Life" by Louise Hay. I bought this book for the large chart near the back that shows what illnesses are caused by certain thoughts and negative emotions. Never thought about actually reading it. I've never considered myself unhealthy and firmly believe that if I dwell on my "owies" I will only get more owies. But now I knew it was time to give it a read.

I began to read it about a week after it came off the shelf. I can hardly put it down. It is as if it is filling in the missing pieces of the puzzle. It's rewording concepts I already knew to make them more clear and understandable at a deeper level.

This is an excerpt that has allowed me to accept my current path fully; it has validated that what I'm doing in life is exactly what I should be doing. It may not be profound to anyone else, but it has changed the way I look at my life, my situation, and the way I look at myself.

The emphasis is added by Louise Hay:

"When people come to me with a problem, I don't care what it is - poor health, lack of money, unfulfilling relationships, or stifled creativity - there is only one thing I ever work on, and that is LOVING THE SELF.

"I find that when we really love and accept and APPROVE OF OURSELVES EXACTLY AS WE ARE, then everything in life works. It's as if little miracles are everywhere. Our health improves, we attract more money, our relationships become much more fulfilling, and we begin to express ourselves in creatively fulfilling ways. All this seems to happen without our even trying.

"...accepting, will create organization in your mind, create more loving relationships in your life, attract a new job and a new and better place to live, and even enable your body weight to normalize."

That's just the beginning. I'm in.