Enlightenment Doesn’t Exist — But You Can Definitely Become More Enlightened

Spiritual awareness is an ever-continuing process. It is not a final attainment. That means that the people who claim that there is a final state of enlightenment are confused by a common misunderstanding about what enlightenment is. They have been taught that a person somehow becomes enlightened, as if there is a pre-enlightened state, and then a post-enlightened state.

Stories that take place in a conveniently ancient time claim that after a seeker had some special experiences, the person became totally and permanently enlightened. It is very convenient that it takes place in an ancient time, isn’t it? And you won’t be surprised to hear that this person, after their enlightenment experience, magically understood everything in the universe there was to know.

If you like to believe such stories, without asking deeper questions about the situation, then enjoy them as mystical tales, but don’t take them literally.

What really happened in those ancient stories? The person described in such stories had a consciousness changing experience. Well, that’s wonderful — for them. But there are many details left out of these stories. Most of all, such accounts seem to always assume that when someone has had a consciousness changing experience, and that experience is named as enlightenment, that this means that the person became entirely and perfectly aware of all things.

Why do these spiritual stories claim that this complete, one hundred percent enlightenment is exactly what took place? The stories have to claim that, because if the stories were realistic, then they wouldn’t become larger-than-life mythic accounts. If the stories were realistic, they would be recognized for what they really are — accounts of people who had their own personal transformational experience.

You are in a continual process of spiritual evolution

Actually, you are in a continual state of awareness expansion. You are learning in each moment of every day — your soul is maturing. You could say that the older souls who have a deeper universal perspective have a more enlightened perspective than younger souls. They are relatively more aware. And that suggests that enlightenment describes a gradual process, rather than a permanent condition.

Many well-intentioned teachers have repeated what they have been told about enlightenment. For many years, people assumed that enlightenment was a permanent condition — once you’re there, you’re automatically enlightened forever. Over the centuries, many teachers have tended to label certain people as enlightened, and most others as unenlightened.

The idea that certain people are permanently enlightened makes many spiritual students feel secure, because it makes the universe seem tidy and easy to understand — just like a school, where you take advanced degrees, and finally you graduate to enlightenment. And then, when you have that advanced degree, everyone knows that you are an officially acknowledged expert. Or, are you?

Having a college degree may, or may not, mean that you are truly skilled. Not having a degree doesn’t mean that you are any more or less skilled, either. You have to assess each person individually, and that means that your world is not quite as tidy and compartmentalized as you would like it to be.

If having a degree doesn’t prove anything, this is even truer when you consider spiritual attainment. The inability to categorize people may worry many spiritual students, and it makes them feel insecure. If there is no such thing as being officially enlightened, then how do you properly categorize people as truly spiritual?

What if you had no definite way to know if someone was enlightened or not? But maybe that is the wrong question. Here is an inspiring possibility — maybe you can stop asking whether someone is enlightened, and start asking more useful questions. But to form those questions, you need to realize that this is a universe of vibrations, and everyone is expressing their own unique combination of vibrations.

Everyone is participating in the spectrum of consciousness

There is a spectrum of consciousness, from unaware, to very aware. It is a vast spectrum, with infinite degrees of subtle variations within it. You are within that spectrum of consciousness. And everyone is participating in this one broad spectrum of consciousness as well.

You could even call it the Continuum Of Enlightenment. It is like a big community that everyone is a member of. Everyone is in that spectrum, expressing varying degrees of awareness.

However, there is no specific point on that spectrum that is definitely enlightened. Rather, there are infinite degrees of enlightenment, from low to high. But, the high range stretches to infinity, and it has no limit. That means that your task is to become incrementally more aware than you were yesterday.

If enlightenment is the gradual expansion of awareness, and if awareness is unlimited, then your explorations in consciousness have no final completion place. There is no official ending place where you graduate. You will be capable of being more aware tomorrow than you are today. Awareness is always capable of becoming more aware — it is always seeking to become more conscious.

Even the person who seems enlightened to you is only relatively more enlightened than someone else. That so-called enlightened person is on the same spectrum of consciousness that you are on, exploring how to become more aware. From that person’s point of view, they are not yet enlightened — they realize that they will always have new vistas of consciousness to explore.

Illusions about being permanently free of problems

But what about those people who are confident that they have attained a permanently enlightened status? Beware — they are making a self-deluded mistake. They assume that there is such a thing as a permanent condition of enlightenment. Consciousness expansion is not so easy, however, because as you evolve, your sub-conscious patterns gradually surface.

When your patterns surface, you are surprised to find that the issues that you thought you had addressed years ago are still surfacing. They emerge from even deeper levels in your subconscious, but perhaps in a more subtle way than before. To acknowledge that this is happening requires that you humbly recognize that you aren’t quite as supremely aware as you had assumed. This is why people who have become ego-identified with their so-called enlightened status encounter serious problems.

It is difficult to name yourself as enlightened when you are still experiencing issues — so the would-be enlightened person must deny all problems. When people delude themselves that they are free of issues, they are not able to assess their actual problems clearly. This leads to self-deception, and self-deception leads to the negative, even destructive behavior that you sometimes see in spiritual teachers who have an inflated opinion of their spiritual power, their ability, their wisdom, or their spiritual status.

So everyone is on the Continuum Of Consciousness — or you could call it the Scale Of Enlightenment. Does this mean that everyone is the same? Not at all — everyone is different, because they are all expressing their unique vibration. That means that people have varying degrees of enlightenment — and their spiritual awareness is expressed in many unique and diverse ways.

For example, one person is able to access higher consciousness through their emotions, and another person is able to access higher consciousness through their mind. One person expresses higher consciousness through one of their chakras, and another person through a different chakra. There are infinite sub-categories for accessing higher consciousness, and everyone is doing this in their own distinctive way. So it is an over-simplification to assume that enlightenment is one thing.

Learn to notice these higher qualities within others, and within yourself. Notice that people have spiritual accomplishments, but notice, as well, that people are not perfect. They are still working on many of their aspects. Becoming aware of this can free you from regarding others as perfect, and it frees you to see everyone as they really are — beings who are expressing their range of qualities, and seeking to express their deeper potential

Your uniquely multi-faceted learning process

When you find that you are experiencing higher consciousness in one way or another, that doesn’t mean that you are entirely enlightened. It only means that you have some deeper awareness today that you didn’t have yesterday — just as the people in the ancient spiritual stories had their consciousness expanding experiences. Don’t get a special attitude, because you are always discovering, and you have much more to learn. And assume that everyone else is always learning as well.

You exist on many levels, and you’ll have many opportunities to cultivate your awareness in the varied aspects of your being. And you’ll certainly meet your subconscious patterns as they surface, as well. So don’t get overly identified with your attainments as you develop deeper awareness.

If you find yourself with spiritual skills, integrate them as best as you can, and continue moving forward with ease and grace. But, don’t judge yourself if your evolution sometimes feels more clumsy and troublesome than easy and graceful.

When your friends and family tell you that these limitations do not apply to their favorite teacher, saint, or holy being, politely agree with them. Arguing about this matter is pointless, because the people who need to label their spiritual figureheads as perfect don’t want to hear your explanations about the infinite path of continuous enlightenment. They need the security of knowing that the spiritual luminaries of their spiritual path are perfect and enlightened, so let them have their belief if it makes them feel more secure.

How to sense the frequency scale of consciousness

You can learn to sense this range of vibrations that exist for humanity, and for you, by drawing a Frequency Scale. It’s easy to make one and to use it:

1. Draw a vertical line on a piece of paper.

2. You label one end of the scale as lower frequencies, and the opposite end as higher frequencies.

3. Slowly move your finger along the scale, and you’ll be surprised to discover that you can sense the varying degrees of awareness that different people have.

4. Notice the different readings you get for different people.

5. Notice the readings you get for yourself:

   5a. Check your emotional awareness level.

   5b. Check your mental awareness level.

   5c. Check your soul awareness level.

6. Notice that this process helps you learn to sense the subtle differences between different states of consciousness, so you can treat this as exercise as a meditation into the levels of consciousness.

7. With practice, you realize that you don’t need the scale, because you have learned to sense the subtle states of consciousness as multi-sensory phenomena that you can feel, see, and hear.

Your world is an ever-evolving multidimensional reality

Of course, sensing frequencies on a little scale is a rather simple way to tune into the world. Your actual experience of a person is a profound, multidimensional exploration — and that experience transcends tuning into frequencies on a scale. But this little exercise is a good place to start if you want to understand that the universe around you is made of infinite vibrations.

As you practice this sensing, you realize that you really can become aware of the subtle differences between people. And you can discover that within any given person, there is a broad range of frequencies, reflecting their multifaceted awareness.

That means that each person is not just a vibration — each person is a universe of frequencies — a rare unity of varying rates of vibration. So to label any person as specifically enlightened is inaccurate. But why is this realization so unsettling to some spiritual students?

They want to know that their teacher or saintly being is genuine — they want that teacher to be labeled as definitely enlightened. But if teachers are on their own evolutionary path, becoming ever more aware each day, then that means that teachers are imperfect, and continually growing. Recognizing this could be empowering for you — more so than your supposing that someone else has attained a special enlightened status.

When you understand that you, and everyone else, are all on the same spectrum of consciousness, then you become free of the need to put teachers on a high separate pedestal. If everyone is within the same spectrum, then there is no elevated divine tower outside of the spectrum. There are only relatively higher and relatively lower vibrations, all on the same scale. And this understanding frees you from the problems that affect you when you place teachers in a special category of ultimate perfection.

The problems with assuming that certain people are spiritually perfect:

1. If you assume that certain people are permanently enlightened, then you are probably naming yourself as unenlightened. Even if you don’t consciously intend to do that, your sub-conscious may make limiting assumptions about your supposedly low spiritual condition.

2. If you put some people on a higher pedestal, then you are probably seeing yourself as less capable, or even incapable. Some students even believe that it is improper, or unspiritual, to assume that everyone is equally capable of enlightening experiences.

3. If you are assuming that there are people who are free of all problems, then you are probably using the fact that you have problems as a way to categorize yourself in a negative, limiting way. Acknowledging that everyone is evolving and learning lets you perceive people, and yourself, in a more mature, empowered way.

4. If you designate someone as definitely enlightened, then you might not realize that his or her type of higher awareness is a uniquely personal style, and you may judge yourself for having a different style of awareness. Recognize that everyone expresses higher awareness in their own distinctly personal way. This frees you from overly simple judgments about yourself, and about others.

5. If you categorize someone as enlightened, then you will have to deny any evidence that they are imperfect, and that denial leads to many problems — for you, and for that person. Don’t participate in such illusions. Let yourself see people as individuals with a certain level of spiritual awareness, rather than as special higher beings.

How to learn from others without judging yourself

What do you do when you encounter someone who is definitely holding a higher consciousness? You recognize it as a certain level of attainment — and nothing more. It doesn’t mean that you have to regard that person as perfect. It doesn’t mean that you have to regard that person as above scrutiny. Just honor their attainments for what they are.

Learn from those who have attained something. The most important learning for you is the simple recognition that if they attained a state of awareness, then you can attain that state as well.

Do you suppose that those who have attained higher states want your devotion? If they need devotion, their awareness is actually rather limited — so don’t get stuck in that disempowering game.

When you recognize that everyone is on the Spectrum Of Consciousness, then you are empowered to truly learn from people. This is because you can tune into the higher consciousness that another person has attained, and you can activate, at least to some extent, that higher consciousness within yourself.

Learning in this way happens through resonance. You let the desired quality vibrate within you, through the intention of your imagination. You aren’t taking anything from anyone else. You are simply letting the positive energy resonate within you, to activate your own natural potential. That is the key that lets you grow spiritually, rather than stagnating in a passive state of devotion to another being.

The positive states of consciousness that another person has accessed represent what you can access within yourself. You recognize that any person with any attainment is a mirror for your own self, showing you what is possible. This is why it limits you when you label others as enlightened or perfect. They aren’t permanently enlightened. They just accessed a level of higher awareness, and they represent that you can do the same.

When you’re putting someone on a higher pedestal, you give your subconscious the message that you can’t attain what that person has attained. Unfortunately, many people have a curious sense of security when they define their teachers as permanently enlightened. Here’s why — If your teachers are permanently living in higher awareness, then you can look up to them as a substitute for becoming aware yourself. But why would that make certain students feel secure?

Are you giving your spiritual power away?

Many students have given their spiritual power away, and seem happy to do so. They feel devotion to teachers, and elevate the teachers on a pedestal. How convenient — when you name your teachers as enlightened, then you don’t have to work as hard on raising your own consciousness. You have replaced the dedication that would otherwise go into cultivating your own awareness with a substitute action. The problem with this is that your devotion, focused upon a presumed enlightened being, seems to give you a feeling of spiritual satisfaction.

Maybe devotion to a teacher or a group was acceptable in the past. Now, it can be seen for what it is. Your devotion is more appropriately dedicated to the deeper divine truth. To attain deeper cosmic awareness requires that you responsibly tune in to everything in your world. Uncritically devoting yourself to an admired teacher diminishes your spiritual power, and falsely elevates that teacher’s ego — a bad combination that diminishes everyone involved.

True devotion is when you are deeply dedicated to your daily spiritual awareness practices. Devotion is no longer sentimental admiration heaped upon a beloved teacher. When you realize that the old type of devotion takes your attention off your spiritual work, then you can realign your devotion in a healthy way. You can see teachers as showing you possibilities about your own capabilities, rather than as beings to passively admire.

The habit of giving status and power to teachers — especially those that the group mind collectively elevates as higher beings — is a pattern to observe carefully. When you find yourself giving power away, or you notice that you are passively admiring someone, shift that awareness. Recognize that you can cultivate higher states within yourself, and that you are responsible for accessing these states. Here is a meditation that will help you get your power back, while still learning from teachers whom you have admired.

Meditation to cultivate healthy devotion to higher consciousness:

1. Tune into a teacher or saintly being — either living, or from history.

2. Sense the unique brightness or presence of that teacher.

3. Notice any special qualities in that presence.

4. Now bring your attention to your own inner essence, and tune into your energy.

5. Sense that your soul essence is shining brightly within you.

6. Let yourself activate, within yourself, a similar spiritual presence or quality to that which you sensed within the teacher.

7. Let that activated inner presence flow and re-circulate through your body, mind, and soul.

8. Breathe in that newly activated spiritual presence, so that it integrates with your being on every level.

9. Acknowledge that the newly activated presence is yours — it belongs to you, because it is formed from energy that emerged from deep within you.

You can learn to be free of labeling yourself as enlightened or unenlightened. To do this, begin to notice the subtle energy shifts in your awareness, from moment to moment. A simple way to do this is to recognize that from any state of awareness that you are in, you can always make a subtle shift to a higher or deeper vibration. You don’t have to make a radical shift, and in fact a gentle shift is easier to integrate. Here is a meditation to help you explore raising your consciousness, anytime you choose.

Meditation to raise your consciousness:

1. Tune into your energy.

2. Imaging that you could turn a consciousness dial that gradually raises, or deepens your consciousness.

3. Slowly turn the dial, and gently feel higher, divine essence vibrations emerging within you.

4. Notice how this feels — with each breath, let yourself relax into the experience.

5. Gently breathe the emerging higher vibrations into your body, and feel the energies uniting your body, mind, and soul.

6. Let your body relax, so that you can experience the higher vibrations as natural and easy.

7. Repeat as needed. Each repetition may feel different — because your consciousness is ever-shifting, and ever-evolving.

Now you have had the experience of sensing how you can shift your consciousness intentionally. This practice helps you sense your own awareness as being in a continual state of evolution. That is very freeing. It releases you from the stagnant perception that you are either unenlightened, or enlightened. It brings you to the deeper recognition that there are infinite degrees of awareness, and that they are always shifting.

If enlightenment is a process, and not a permanent condition, then you can explore enlightenment in each moment. You don’t need to be on a mountaintop, or in a mystic temple. There’s nothing wrong with those environments — but why limit yourself, as if higher awareness was only available in a few locations?

Your daily exploration of vibrations lets you find higher consciousness in many places, and within many people — and especially, within your own infinite cosmic essence.

Maybe you meet someone who has their own variety of higher consciousness — in their own unique style. Perhaps you meet someone who has a way of carrying a loving vibration, and another person you meet has a bubbly sense of humor that lightens the room. You might meet someone who carries a peaceful energy, and another person who has a dynamic spiritual radiance. Tune into the essence of these energies — don’t be mystified by them, or in awe of them.

Discover spiritual mastery where you find it

You can call certain teachers masters or experts if you like, but recognize that their positive presence and spiritual attainment represents what may well be possible for you. Don’t copy their style, because your way may be different. But when you recognize excellence in any form, start to notice it as a vibration. And if you are drawn to activate that quality within yourself, do so. This practice helps you cultivate enlightenment as a daily process.

What enlightens you? That’s the question to ask yourself. It’s not one thing, one process, or one person — it’s a vast range of possibilities that exist in your world now. Let yourself discover answers to this empowering question every day.

Your evolving enlightenment is part of your life, rather than a fixed thing, or a limited concept. It’s how you approach each moment, rather than a frozen symbol or a rigid belief. And if you feel that your progress was slower today than you would have preferred, you still learned something valuable that will help you in ways that you aren’t yet aware of.

Tomorrow is a fresh opportunity — but not to be enlightened, since there is no such thing. But an opportunity to have enlightening experiences — these you can have in abundance, with each breath you take.

Many Blessings,

Joel Bruce Wallach

Founder, Cosmic-Living for spiritual empowerment — tele-classes and self-paced mp3’s


When Is Positive Thinking Actually Negative?

And what are the steps you can take to practice healthy, balanced, positive thinking?

If you’re a positive thinker, what does that mean, exactly? Does being positive suggest that you will only entertain positive thoughts? How could you possibly do that? Some people try, unsuccessfully, to do so. The reason for their difficulty in maintaining a so-called positive outlook is obvious.

Each day, an endless number of problems occur, and those problems demand solutions. But to find solutions, you have to consider the problems, and that seems to bring up a conflict in people whose goal is to be entirely positive. After all, you can’t be aware of the need for a solution unless you’re also aware of the problem. So unless you are avoiding all problems of any kind, you’ll realistically have to think about problems quite often.

If it’s common sense that to find a solution you have to look at the problem, then where did the idea come from that you should only notice the positive? It may come from a uniquely American idealistic tendency. It’s  worth exploring how this attitude — that anything is possible if you’re positive enough — became both an asset and a liability that affects would-be positive thinkers everywhere.

This can-do spirit, when utilized appropriately, is associated with the confidence that lets you move forward, in spite of all apparent limitations. This can be a wonderful asset, at least when it gives you the strength to move forward amidst apparently challenging circumstances. Such positive attitudes have helped creative thinkers attempt bold projects that had never been attempted before, and have yielded great inventions, new styles of art, new businesses, and innovations of all kinds.

It’s a shame that this bright side of positive thinking has become so tempting to so many people that they fail to see the limitations that often surface when you’re exclusively seeing only the good aspects of everything.

It’s sobering to consider the shadow side of the can-do spirit. Consider the case of a company like Enron that refused to consider problems that their whistle-blowers were warning about. This can-do spirit, when combined with self-delusion, put the company in serious trouble, because they were so full of their own positive hot air that they considered themselves as beyond the need to listen to the warnings. Instead, they tried to escape into their own positive cloud of arrogant illusory assumptions about reality.

How a cheerful pop song illustrates the positive thinking dilemma

The willingness to deny problems is strongly expressed in the popular Johnny Mercer lyrics of the Harold Arlen song, Accentuate The Positive. It was written after Johnny Mercer attended a sermon by Father Divine, who focused on the idea of eliminating the negative in your thinking, and focusing on the positive instead. In the context of a sermon, such ideas can be helpful and inspiring.

You go to a sermon to be lifted up, inspired, and given hope to face the upcoming week. And to those who were mired in the dark cloud of their own negativity, that message was probably perfect for helping to blow those heavy clouds away. Sermons have a useful purpose, and they also have their limitations when their emotionally charged enthusiasm is substituted for clear thinking.

Suppose that you do become entirely positive? Once you become inspired enough to get out of your own dark cloud, what happens when you shift to only letting yourself think happy and hopeful thoughts? There is a serious limitation with trying to cover over problems with exclusively positive thoughts. The happy talk makes you feel better for a moment, but it won’t fix your problems — they’re still there. Unless you start looking at the situation and examining possible solutions, nothing will change.

When you look at the lyrics of the Accentuate The Positive song, the urge towards Denial is made plain, because you are urged to eliminate the negative. Now that seems, at first, to be a suggestion to avoid hopelessness. And ideally, maybe that is what the song is supposed to mean. If the song were suggesting that you can learn to be positive enough to consider creative solutions to your problems, this would be helpful.

Unfortunately, you can take the lyrics another way — as a suggestion to avoid mentioning or thinking about problems. Many people take the meaning in just this way. Notice that immediately after the suggestion that you accentuate the positive, you are advised to eliminate the negative. Well, how will you interpret that suggestion? Ideally, you would eliminate the tendency to give up — you would rise above hopeless attitudes. Properly understood, you would question your excessive negative assumptions, and start looking for reasonable solutions to your situation.

However, many people take this line of the song, about eliminating the negative, as a suggestion to not bother thinking about issues, or dealing with problems at all. Such people tend to say that they are trying to stay positive. That often means that they don’t want to look at problems at all — also known as avoidance and denial. Such unwillingness to actively find solutions through honest assessment, while putting a gloss of positive spin on everything, actually leads to a downward spiral of disempowerment.

How well-intended metaphysical teachings contribute to denial, despair, and disempowerment

Metaphysical teachings seem to have contributed to this tendency towards denial, through simplistic teachings about the power of resonance. You may have heard that everything in the universe functions through resonance, where everything is compared to tuning forks that resonate with each other. Notice how this innocent belief, attempting to take a principle of physics, and use it as a metaphysical teaching, leads many people into the state of denial.

First, you are told that everything is resonating like a tuning fork. Then you are told that your positive thoughts are resonating with all the positive forces in the universe. And then you are admonished that your negative thoughts will resonate with all the negative forces in the universe.

How will you interpret that understanding? It all starts to sound serious and foreboding, and it brings up an irrational fear about discussing problems at all — after all, they’re negative, aren’t they? When you fear something, you try to avoid it. You may come to believe that looking at problems, or discussing concerns, is somehow amplifying a negative reality that will only make things worse.

Too often, the metaphysical teachings leave you with a modern version of the old-time fear of the devil. Except that now the modern fear is that if you look at a problem, or talk about concerns and issues in the world, that is somehow Negative and Bad, and must therefore be avoided entirely.

If only metaphysical teachings would share the fine points of how to utilize resonance in a balanced empowered way, that would be fine. They generally don’t. Instead they provide the ingredients for fear and denial, where everyone has to agree that everything is fine, and that everything is magically getting better.

This used to be called sweeping things under the rug, and with extremist positive thinking, that lump in the rug gets bigger and bigger.

There are entire groups of metaphysical students who think it reasonable to only respond in conversation with positive agreement. They imagine themselves as contributing to a positive universe, and see every agreement and supportive statement as co-creating an ever-better world. If only it were so simple — you could affirm your way to continual success in life, in a positive upward spiral of continually perfect improvement — with never a mention about any problems.

Regrettably, this tendency to cover it over with happy talk leads to the opposite of happiness, because you feel gradually dissociated from reality, and disconnected from useful solutions.

Maybe this reminds you of the old saying, that if you don’t have something nice to say, then don’t say anything at all. Sounds suspiciously like disempowering denial, doesn’t it? Does anything improve through this avoidance, or does a stuck situation just stay stuck?

The ever-positive style of possibility thinking has spilled into the business world, in which the upbeat, continually positive person is considered as helpful to the business, and the employee who scrutinizes the problems, or acts as a whistle-blower, is considered as a troublemaker to be shunned. Certainly there is a place for the upbeat personality, but positive spin and the can-do spirit can never replace clear thinking. And let’s look at that phrase — clear thinking — for a moment.

Why neutrality and clarity have been wrongly judged as less effective than positive thinking

Clarity is neutral, which is neither positive nor negative. And without clarity, you are either dazzled by the cloud of positive hopeful glitter in your mind, or brought down by the heavy clouds of despair. So this fear of hopelessness is somehow connected to the self-dazzled condition of puffed-up positive thinking.

Could it be that those who dogmatically insist that everyone should be positive at all times are actually harboring despair?

No wonder they have to be so positive all the time — they fear that they will sink into a negative state. And they will, too, because they haven’t found the middle way — the state of clarity — the path that transcends positive and negative thinking. Neutrality and clarity are neither positive nor negative, and so this frees you to see your problems in a calm, clear-headed way.

Where in modern thinking is the missing neutrality — the needed clarity? Strangely enough, it shows up in the Johnny Mercer lyrics. After being told to accentuate the positive, and after being advised to eliminate the negative, you are warned not to mess with Mr. In-between. Ah ha — it seems that Mr. In-between is the code word for that neutral state of mind that is neither positive nor negative.

But is it true what the song says — that you must eliminate the in-between state? No wonder people think that they have to avoid that dreaded in-between state — the realm of Mr. In-between — so that they can enter the glorious land of the glittering positive state of mind.

But you weren’t told about the wonderful, helpful aspects of in-between thinking, were you?

Whether in a spiritual sermon, or in a new age class, or in a business seminar, you were given the clear choice to be either positive or negative. That isn’t fair to you, because most states of consciousness aren’t positive or negative — and they aren’t supposed to be. Why is that?

Beyond positive and negative

When you look at a problem, you need to consider many possibilities for what the cause, or causes of the situation may be. You need neutral clarity for that.

When you consider possible solutions for the situation, you need to be able to verify those various solutions. You need to be able to consider the solutions with the clarity of mind that lets you recognize whether the solutions are appropriate and doable. Again, you require neutral clarity — Mr. In-between.

What happens when you forget your neutral clarity?

Notice how when you replace your neutral clarity with simplistic positive thinking, your ability to scrutinize solutions becomes limited — because all the solutions look great. Every idea is genius — Not.

Likewise, when you get stuck in negative, hopeless thinking, your ability to find solutions is definitely limited — because there is no room in the mind to consider solutions at all.

But why shouldn’t positive thinking automatically give you the solutions — after all, aren’t positive energies supposed to inevitably lead in a positive direction?

The reason that positive thinking becomes negative is simple to understand, when you examine it for a moment. Positive thinking assumes that something is good, merely because you shower it with confidence and belief. And in real life, not all choices produce useful results — and some can be dangerous. Positive thinking assumes that everything will work. In real life, that just isn’t so. Positive thinking assumes that any choice, entered into in a positive frame of mind, is bound to be useful. This is not necessarily true.

Does this mean that if you let go of having to be positive all the time that you’re giving up on positive thinking? Not at all — you’re giving up on extremism. You’re giving up on denying your common sense. You’re giving up on denying your intelligence. You’re letting go of the positive thinking extremism that prohibits your right to calmly discover the solutions that are available to you — when you are willing to access them.

So what is the proper place for the can-do spirit — the anything-is-possible attitude — the nothing-will-stop-us feeling? These are all designed to uplift your emotions. When you need an emotional lift, use these positive attitudes and feelings to lift yourself out of the swamps of hopelessness. But never assume that positive thinking is going to give you wisdom, common sense, or clear answers — it’s not designed to do that.

Properly used, positive thinking sweeps the cobwebs clear, and reminds you that solutions are possible — but then, you will need neutral clarity to move forward effectively.

You need to be able to utilize positive thinking wisely, and you need to be able to use it for its intended purpose — to keep you from getting stuck. But if you let yourself get locked into happy-talk land, where no problems exist, and where all solutions are equally good, then your condition is only slightly better than when you were stuck in negative thinking.

Guided meditation to help you access effective solutions with wisdom, clarity, and grace:

1. Look at a situation that concerns you.

2. Imagine that you are containing that situation in its own bubble of energy. This gives you a bit of healthy distance, and lets you remain stable and centered.

3. Here’s where you get to be positive — tell yourself that there are solutions for this situation. Don’t start thinking about what they might be just yet — simply know that solutions can be found. That’s real positive thinking.

4. Now put your positive thinking hat aside for a moment, and put on your clear-thinking neutrality hat. Imagine that you can look at the situation with a clear-thinking set of x-ray spectacles, so that you can clearly look within the situation — and you’re still wearing your clear thinking neutrality hat.

5. Look at the obvious solutions. Don’t agree with them. Just write them down. Obvious solutions are the solutions that anyone would come up with. Just consider them, but don’t align with them yet.

6. Now consider the creative solutions. Just write them down in a list, even if them seem improbable, difficult, strange, or not typical solutions. Don’t agree with them, and just get them written down.

7. Now you’re going to look over each possible solution — the obvious ones, and the creative ones. Wear your clear-thinking neutrality hat.

8. When you look at each solution, put that solution in a bubble of light. This keeps it in its own little universe, and keeps you from getting too attached to it. In this way, consider the obvious solutions, and the creative solutions. Write any insights you have about these.

9. Look over your notes. You’re still wearing your clear thinking hat. If any of the solutions really seem inappropriate, cross them out of your list.

10. Look at the possible solutions. While still staying fairly neutral, have a bit of a creative brainstorm with the ideas. Get a sense about which solutions are doable. Sense if you’d like to combine any of the solutions.

11. In the coming days, explore — in a sensible, grounded way — the ideas that seem most useful.

12. If you find yourself getting into the dark cloud state, put on your positive thinking hat, and remind yourself that solutions are definitely available — when you access them.

13. And most of the time, you’ll be wearing your clear thinking, neutrality hat. That’s because you need to have a clear awareness of what’s happening, so that you can move forward intelligently.

Clarity and neutrality — the exciting new stars of higher awareness

If this idea of being clear-headed and neutral sounds boring, think again. Clarity is like turning up the magnifying lens on a magic microscope or telescope — you can see the beauty of the heavens, or the deeper reality of anything you choose to examine, with exquisite clarity. Neutrality lets you be totally present. It’s what the ancient sages were talking about when they told you to come out of your waking dream. They were always telling you to wake up, and now you have a sense of what that means.

Maybe it occurs to you that you can be positive and clear-headed at the same time. You can. The reason for suggesting that you put your positive hat aside for a time was so that you could get familiar with neutrality, and learn about what it can teach you. Positive expectations are all well and good, but when they interfere with your ability to have a clear sense of things, then you’re indulging in something that is no longer positive — ungrounded fantasy or denial.

Now you realize that you don’t have to puff yourself up with continually positive happy talk. But, are there people who really are too negative? Of course — they are the people who insist that there are no possible solutions, and that you have to just take life as it comes to you, since everything is futile. That’s passive, hopeless, and negative. Don’t get stuck there, either.

You aren’t one of those negative people. More likely, you’re reading this because you’d like to be more positive, but you had suspicions about whether positive thinking was the simple solution it’s sometimes claimed to be. And now you realize that you can be positive in a healthy balanced way, because you have the means of being intelligently and sensibly positive.

There is a curious sameness about the world of the positive thinkers and the negative thinkers. The earthly waking dream of the negative thinkers, surrounded by their negative hopeless clouds, is not so different from the relentlessly positive thinkers who are puffed up with continual happy talk. Both types of people are stuck in a limited, waking dream that keeps them from the rich depth and clarity that life offers in each moment.

When you explore any situation without sugar-coating it with hyped-up positives, you have the means to confront the situation and discover creative solutions that really can make your life better.

Your life is endlessly fascinating — not because you’re pumped up with happy bubbles — but because being present puts you in the front-row seat of the greatest event — your own life. When you’re present in each moment of your life, and you experience it with clarity, you realize that there is something more meaningful than dazzled happiness, and more fulfilling than a hazy hope for a miraculous fantasy future.

Welcome to this moment. Life awaits you, but it’s here now — not in a cloud of hope just down the road. Breathe into it now, let yourself look at any situation that deserves closer examination, and discover that the solutions are clearly there — when you neutrally let yourself explore them.

Many Blessings,

Joel Bruce Wallach

Founder, Cosmic Living for spiritual empowerment — tele-classes and self-paced mp3’s


Finding Your Own Spiritual Aura

Your aura, or energy field, reflects your state of consciousness from moment to moment, because it is always dynamically shifting in wonderfully subtle ways. Your aura is also an expression of all your experiences throughout your lifetimes. The qualities of your aura are formed from these countless experiences, and these patterns give your energy its distinctive character. But how can you find your own spiritual aura amidst the innumerable layers that have accumulated within your own energy field?

You may be concerned that your past-life experiences, many of them being rather less than positive, could obscure your spiritual nature. Fortunately, your deepest spiritual essence remains undamaged throughout all your experiences. In fact, you are learning from your experiences, and so your continual process of spiritual learning through your lifetimes actually builds new radiance into your aura.

It is a good thing that your aura is changing in each moment, and this can give you hope, because your aura is not frozen. Your dynamic living aura can change — it can heal and brighten, to reveal its true radiant light. And because your aura is reflecting your state of consciousness in each moment, that means that each moment is an opportunity for you to utilize your consciousness in more effective ways. You could even say that you are learning how to be conscious about your consciousness.

Where is your spiritual essence located? Is it hidden underneath the other experiences? In a way, it is hiding in plain sight. The stresses and challenges are layers of surface experiences, and they draw your attention at first, so that it seems that your spiritual aura is obscured.

However, your thoughts, emotions, and experiences are not your essence. But, your thoughts and emotions do form layers in your aura, and they can affect your awareness, just as sunglasses affect how much light you can see. How can you transcend these limitations to discover your spiritual essence?

You have the power of consciousness — you can choose where you place your attention. Simple though that may sound, it reveals why you have the power to sense underneath the surface patterns, so that you can find the deeper spiritual essence within.

Here is a little awareness experience that will get you started in making the distinction between surface characteristics, and deeper essence.

Guided meditation to distinguish between the material world and the subtle energy of things:

1. Notice an object in the room around you.

2. Notice its surface features — color, shape, size, and texture.

3. Imagine that you are looking into the tiny molecules of that object — just pretend that you are doing this.

4. Let your gaze sense the molecules, and just relax and breathe as you do this.

5. Gaze first at the molecules, then at the surface of the object.

6. Repeat number 5, going back and forth between gazing at the molecules, and then gazing at the surface of the object. Each repetition helps you sense reality in a deeper way — it is both material and non-material.

7. To complete the meditation, sense your body as a safe and stable vehicle for your consciousness, focus your attention in the present moment, and choose to continue your day with centered awareness.

This simple exercise frees you from the narrow understanding about the material world that ordinarily limits your consciousness.

You can apply this way of sensing to your own aura, and it will free you from seeing yourself superficially. In this material world, there is a tendency to reference everything, and even yourself, as a material being. This is one reason why the goal of knowing your spiritual aura can seem distant — until you know how to shift your consciousness.

When you release from defining yourself as a collection of physical characteristics, you empower yourself to experience the cosmic energy being that you truly are. There are more benefits to this than merely having an interesting spiritual experience. This is because your aura is gradually healed every time you utilize your consciousness effectively.

The idea that you can build the light of your spiritual aura by learning to sense in a multidimensional way can motivate you to seek daily opportunities to work with your consciousness. Here is another awareness experience that will help you know your spiritual essence.

Guided visualization for experiencing your spiritual essence:

1. Notice your body, and notice your breathing.

2. Imagine the space within your body — don’t try to analyze it — just notice it.

3. Gently sweep your attention through the space within your body.

4. Notice your breathing as you do this.

5. If you notice tensions, gently sweep through them, but do not react to them.

6. Become aware of the overall presence within you — the consistent quality that seems to exist as subtle energy throughout your body.

7. Gently sweep your attention through this subtle quality of energy that exists within you.

8. Notice your breathing as you sweep your subtle energy with your attention.

9. Complete this experience by looking around the room — notice your physical body, and realize that you are a focused, physical being, grounded in a safe, stable reality.

You have made a subtle, but important shift in your awareness. Recognize that you now have the ability, when you choose, to shift your attention to include your subtle energy essence. This frees you from defining yourself from only the material perspective. Now you can explore your essential nature. Why is this subtle way of sensing so spiritually important?

Compare how your essence seems to be a mirror of the universe itself:

Spirit, or consciousness is vast and infinite.

Your soul is vast and infinite.

The universe contains its wisdom within each part of itself.

You, being made of universal energy, contain your cosmic soul consciousness within every part of you.

The universe contains all creative possibilities.

You, from your essence, can discover all creative possibilities.

The universe contains the divine spark within every particle of itself.

You, in your essence, contain that same divine spark in every particle of yourself.

Before we go any further with this discovery, realize that there are some people who will warn you that to compare yourself with the universe is not appropriately humble, or is somehow un-spiritual. They make these statements because they haven’t yet recognized their own essential spiritual nature. They call themselves spiritual, but they actually define themselves as primarily material — and limited.

Realize that your deeper spiritual experiences do not boost your ego — it is a humble recognition to know that you have the same spiritual spark within you as that of a tree or a rock. Of course, your soul is much more advanced in certain ways than a tree, but that is simply because your soul has evolved in its individual consciousness over many lifetimes. However, the basic spiritual essence between you and the tree is the same essence.

You can be assured that knowing your essential spiritual nature does not elevate you above anyone else, nor does it diminish anyone. To recognize that you are made of divine substance is to also know that everyone else is made of that same divine substance. This brings up another issue that some people will warn you about.

When you cultivate an awareness of your spiritual aura, and come to know its divine nature, there are those well-meaning people who will express a concern about you. They worry that you probably have the illusion that you are God.

They may have this strange fear about cosmic awareness because they see themselves as separate from the divine. Here is the important distinction that lets you know that you are having valid spiritual experiences, but you are not egotistically assuming that you are God:

1. The divine, supreme, creative force that created the universe created you.

2. The divine creative force created you out of its own divine substance.

3. Therefore, you are made of divine substance, but you are not the creator of the universe — you are not God.

This should be simple to understand. After all, you are not your parents. They helped create your body, and you have some of their characteristics, but you do not confuse your own identity with theirs.

When you discover your essential divine nature within, you can do so with the knowledge that you are tracing your essence back to its divine source. This is a wonderful discovery that is spiritually liberating, and everyone has the freedom to make this empowering discovery for themselves — but only if they choose to.

What can you do to cultivate your spiritual aura daily? Several times a day, when you have a moment, do a quick check-in with your spiritual essence. It only takes a brief shift of awareness to notice your breathing, sweep your attention through the space in your body, and notice your subtle energy essence. This gradually builds your deeper recognition that you are not only a material being.

Why does making a shift in your consciousness shift your aura? Your aura is always reflecting your consciousness. If you see yourself as only material, that constricts your aura, and lowers your consciousness. But does that mean that you should avoid seeing yourself as material?

You do have a material aspect of yourself — your body. And you are living on this material planet — or are you? Yes, you are living within this planetary influence, but this planet is only one small point of awareness amidst this entire universe. And knowing this helps you use your consciousness to recognize your spiritual nature more easily.

Though you are living on this planet, you can see the deeper truth with your imagination. Your imagination is able to sense that which is beyond your ordinary material senses. With your imagination, you can sense the subtle reality that you are a spiritual being of divine energy, and you are living within the infinite divine universe itself.

You can recognize this without denying that you are in a body. You can recognize your divine essence without denying this planet. You are just broadening your perspective to include the vast multidimensional reality.

Guided meditation to broaden your spiritual perspective of reality:

1. Notice your physical body.

2. Breathe, and gently sweep your awareness through your body.

3. Relax, and notice the room around you.

4. Breathe, and gently sweep your attention through the space of the room around you.

5. Sense beyond the walls of the room — use your imagination — and sense how there is no limit to the space that extends beyond the room.

6. Let your gaze gently sweep that space that extends to infinity.

7. Notice that you are breathing comfortably in your physical body, but your consciousness extends to recognize the universe.

8. Notice that you are in the same room as before, but now you realize that it is a small point amidst the greater infinite universe.

9. To complete this exploration, notice your breathing in your body. Sense that your body is stable and focused, and calmly continue with your day.

Each time you explore this broader perspective, you build your awareness of the deeper reality that you actually live within. You appreciate that you really do live in an infinite divine universe, of which the earth is a relatively small, but important part.

You can bring this broader perspective into each moment of your life, so that you recognize that your spiritually mystical experiences are natural and ordinary, rather than rare or strange occurrences.

Your deeper recognition of reality goes beyond theory. It is a deeply personal experience, and it helps you transcend ideas and books. Such books can be useful catalysts that inspire you, but only if you use the books as springboards for your own spiritual discoveries. At a certain point, you need to practice using your consciousness. Reading spiritual books gives you a collection of thoughts, but spiritual awareness is much more than that.

This is why you need to recognize, as you grow spiritually, that the books are only partially correct in what they say — they can’t really express deeper truths in mere words. This is because your spiritual truth is only really validated through your own experiences with your consciousness. You may express your spiritual truth somewhat differently than the books, and that is why the books are not entirely true. This is not to judge them, but just to recognize that your own spiritual experience is the real teaching.

Don’t wait until you’ve read yet more books — start exploring your consciousness today. These personally meaningful explorations are the ones that touch your heart, mind, and soul.

So do study, and do listen, but not in the uncritical way that many naive students do. Don’t be impressed with any teaching merely because it sounds impressive, complex, or lofty. Let yourself have your own spiritual experience, and discover what you can learn from your experiences when you tune into the universe directly.

Imagine that the divine consciousness of the universe itself is inviting you to study it. In so doing, you are studying about your own essential nature, and learning for your own self just why spiritual awareness is so meaningful. Whether anyone else understands why you are doing this is irrelevant. You are exploring your spiritual aura because it is the mirror that reveals the deeper nature of reality, the face of God, the secrets of the cosmos, and the meaning of life. And any other fascinating reasons that are meaningful to you.

May each breath bring you into the cosmic realization that you are a uniquely living and breathing expression of the divine. Look about you, and let yourself see that universal spark shimmering within everyone, and within everything.

Many Blessings,

Joel Bruce Wallach

Founder, Cosmic Living — spiritual instruction tele-classes and home-study mp3’s


3 Ways To Improve Your Karma

What does it mean when people say that they have bad karma? Actually, karma refers to the patterns that you’ve created over your many lifetimes. So the karmic patterns aren’t punishment at all. The universe isn’t trying to make you feel bad. No, these patterns are simply the result of your accumulated thoughts and actions.

This should give you hope, because this means that karma is just an ancient way of saying the popular expression, What goes around, comes around. That’s good news, because this means that you created patterns, both good and bad, in the past. You are experiencing the results of those thoughts and actions now. And the good news is that you aren’t condemned to repeat these past patterns.

Here’s where it gets interesting: Though you have good and bad karmic patterns, they are not permanently frozen — they are always in a process of changing. That is because the good thoughts and actions have their own transformational energy to them. So as you generate positive thoughts and actions, the positive energy gradually heals, or transmutes the deeper negative karmic patterns.

So this means that one of the secrets to improving your karma is to generate good thoughts and actions. However, it’s not enough to just know about goodness as a concept. Nor is it enough to automatically follow so-called good behavior patterns in a robotic way.

Genuine good karmic patterns come from how you approach your life, and each person has their own customized lesson plan. With that in mind, now you can explore three ways to improve your karma.

1. Observe other people, and notice when they are expressing good patterns, and notice when people are behaving badly — don’t judge it; just notice it.

Why does observing other people help your karma? When you recognize bad behavior, that is because you have already learned that particular karmic lesson. You were stuck in that inappropriate behavior many lifetimes ago, and your soul gradually came to recognize the wrongness of that behavior. It could also be that you recognize the behavior from your own younger experiences in this current lifetime. Now, you easily recognize the wrongness of the behavior when you observe it in others.

Every time you see recognize the pattern in others, it reinforces the lesson that you learned when you were doing that very same thing. This explains why you don’t want to judge or condemn others, even when you observe the inappropriateness of their behavior. Judging them, when they are in the middle of their karmic lessons, is no different from judging yourself.

If you are not judging others, and if you do perceive that another person is behaving inappropriately, what attitude can you reasonably have about that person? Bless them, and imagine that they are learning their lessons as quickly and easily as possible. It just takes a moment to bless another person — and blessing creates good karma, too.

2. Look at the lessons you’ve learned in this present lifetime, and discover ways each day to follow the wisdom path that those lessons lead you to. 

Maybe you used to eat junk food, and now you don’t. At least, you generally don’t, but here’s the wonderful karmic opportunity. You gradually recognized that your body felt better when you ate healthier food. When you were younger, you didn’t notice how food affected you. Now you do — you learned the lesson. This provides you with an opportunity for generating good karmic patterns, because you are potentially strengthening the divine temple of your body with your intelligent daily choices.

You potentially create good karma each day, and even in each moment, in the small choices you make. You have this opportunity each day, at each meal, with each bite, because you are either choosing food that helps you feel more conscious, or you are choosing food that lowers your consciousness.

It’s a simple choice, and many karmic choices are. That is the elegant simplicity of karma — each time you make a healthy choice, you create good karma. But not because the universe is rewarding you — it is because you are building a healthy positive pattern. So if you’ve learned the lesson that healthy food feels better, then you use that opportunity each day to make healthier choices.

Or, maybe you used to enjoy making fun of others, or gossiping about them. You came to realize that this activity lowered your vibration. It didn’t feel good any more. But the tendency may still be there, and so your karmic opportunity each day is to find healthier ways to communicate. Each time you make the healthier choice, your good karma grows, and your negative karma lightens and releases.

You might be wondering how people can learn at all, since they seem to be so affected by ignorance, confusion, and illusions. Actually, you learn through experience, and when those experiences don’t feel good, you do some deep soul-searching. That is the secret of karmic improvement, because soul-searching leads you to your deeper soul wisdom. Alignment with your soul is the key to improving your karmic situation.

When you gradually realized that your negative actions were hurting you, you gradually learned to explore different choices in thought and action. Your soul helped you to consider these possibilities. That is why some people are referred to as older souls. It is not that they are automatically wise, but that they have more experiences that they have learned from. The older souls have cultivated a deeper soul alignment that they can draw upon, but the younger souls still tend to get stuck in their automatic reactive thoughts and behaviors.

But before you start judging those reactive younger souls, remember that your judgmental response to them is curiously automatic and reactive. You are learning how to notice things, without getting stuck in a dramatic response. And that leads you to the third way to improve your karma:

3. Release your condemnation and judgment about yourself and others, so that you can calmly explore the best options, and take your karmic lessons to the next higher level.

For example, suppose you experienced that when you rudely condemned and gossiped about people, it created bad energy for you, and only spread bad vibrations around. You noticed this, it didn’t feel pleasant, and so you vowed to minimize that kind of behavior. But what about your own self-talk — the voice in your own head that condemns and gossips about you?

This is an example of taking your karmic lessons to the next level. You learned what happened when you judged others harshly. Now you’re learning what happens when you judge yourself in that same rude way. So you always take the old lessons, and discover each day how you can refine them, and take them to that next level. In this example, you notice the judgmental inner voice, you thank it for sharing, and you re-write its judgmental words so that they are more empowering and useful.

Each day, you have the chance to look at your behavior, and to look at people around you, and there are amazing karmic opportunities in how you respond to what you see. You can notice when you find yourself going into an automatic reaction pattern — you can even shift it in mid-conversation.

Who do you think is most apt to judge others who are gossiping? That’s right — the person who is still working on that karmic lesson. How do you know if you’re still working on the lesson? Well, if you’re quick to condemn others who do it, then it’s still your lesson. Otherwise, you’d be more accepting of other people learning their own lessons. You would recognize that everyone is your mirror — showing you your past and present issues and patterns.

But how can you recognize that another person is acting inappropriately, while not condemning them? Don’t you have to dislike or condemn what is wrong? There is a higher way that takes daily practice, and it is the key to moving forward spiritually:

Learn to calmly observe, while clearly recognizing the lesson, and yet without emotionally judging.

This is a powerful way to discover your higher truth, and to generate good karma. It bypasses denial, it bypasses condemnation, and it leads to your being able to recognize positive choices. When you center yourself, you are able to act on wisdom, because you align with your deeper soul wisdom.

The behavior that you see in other people is a mirror for you, because you see your own patterns, past and present, in their behavior. When you have an abrupt emotional reaction, that suggests that you are still judging your own patterns. Your reactive attitude suggests that you have not forgiven yourself for your own patterns.

If you are unforgiving to yourself, then you create a division within yourself,  because the condemned part of the self can become angry, shameful, and resentful. This can lead to bad behavior. However, when you acknowledge your patterns, with love and non-judgment, then you can calmly shift your behaviors in a healthy direction.

Whether you see bad patterns in yourself, or in another, that is a karmic opportunity. Noticing the problem, and recognizing healthier alternative behaviors, is an important step. Stepping out of the judgmental attitude is another important step in creating good karma. The non-judgmental path lets you calmly consider the options for yourself, and lets other people live their lessons at their own pace.

Notice that whether you see another person gossiping, for example, or whether you find yourself starting to gossip, the lesson is there. In fact, the instant you find yourself moving down the negative pathway that looks familiar, and you sense that it is wrong, that is the perfect time to create some good karma. It is the crossroads of your karmic path.

This is the decisive moment when your soul is sharing its wisdom with you. You are able to sense how something in your behavior doesn’t feel right. Anything that you do to switch to a healthier path, in that moment, is a powerful inner victory.

Each positive choice means that you are reinforcing your soul connection, learning from your past mistakes, and doing something to improve your karma. Patterns take time to change, and so your goal is to make as many small healthy karmic choices each day as you can. Every shift in your consciousness builds healthy karma, and melts old karmic negativity away.

In the world of karma, there is no total success, and no total failure. Karma is a dynamic system, and your karma is shifting in subtle ways every day. There is no such thing as being totally good, or totally bad. That is the beauty of karmic patterns, because the patterns are always dynamically shifting in accord with your moment to moment thoughts and actions.

This means that whatever your situation may be, it can change. You are not permanently condemned. It also means that even when you create good patterns, the effect is good, of course, but it is not permanently good. It’s sobering to realize that even if you have generated tremendously good karma, that can change each day if you start generating negative karma. You have a choice in each moment.

Your thoughts and actions, in each moment, are building your karma, for better or worse. Your soul wants to help you. Tune into your inner wisdom. Slow your mental chatter, feel your breathing, and get a sense of your deeper truth. If you aren’t certain of the healthy alternatives for a situation, ask your soul to guide you to those positive choices. Let the wiser choices come to your attention.

Life brings you the opportunity to learn, through the circumstances that emerge for you each day. You have the three ways to improve your karma, and you can use them each day to build your positive energy in alignment with the highest good. To sum up, the three ways are:

1. Learn by observing other people — and also bless them.

2. Learn from your own lessons — do have high standards — and bless yourself, too.

3. Release judgment, so that you can take your lessons to the next level of excellence.

Where do you start? Begin with bringing your attention to each moment. Gently shift any moment, in a subtle way, into a more positive direction. Create small victories, and you will find that you can generate a positive karmic path for yourself.

For now, notice your breathing, and discover how you can be more gently present in this moment. Be calmly aware of your chattering inner self-talk, without judging it. When you discover the quiet voice of inner truth — deeper and more subtle than the chattering voice, you’re beginning to hear the deep teaching presence of your soul. May each day bring you into ever deeper alignment with the stable love and wisdom that your cosmic soul eternally shares with you.

Many Blessings,

Joel Bruce Wallach

Founder, Cosmic Living – spiritual instruction via tele-classes and home-study mp3’s

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Is There Really Such Thing As Inner Peace?

What does inner peace mean to you? This is an important question, because you’re more likely to find inner peace when you know what you’re looking for. When you create a definition that is real, practical, and usable in ordinary situations, you will have access to real peace — practical inner peace.

Let’s be real about inner peace. It doesn’t mean that you’re away from everything, meditating blissfully on a mountaintop. You want a definition that you can take with you into your daily reality. But doesn’t peace have to be total peace?

Ah ha — you want inner peace, and inner peace takes place within you. That means that you don’t need to have the all-encompassing one hundred percent peace that you fantasized about. You need something more subtle than that, and more real than that, too.

But how can you have peace in this material world, anyway?

Your reality has challenges, and those challenges aren’t going to go away. But you can face them, and that gives you a clue. When you face your challenges, at first, you may actually feel some moments of tension, fear, sadness, or any natural emotional response. But here is the key to understanding this at a new level of awareness…

You have the choice to be aware of your emotional response. There is an amazing power in simply noticing your response. You can notice this emotional response, but you don’t have to get stuck in your response. And you don’t have to fight your response, either.

So if you aren’t enmeshed in your emotional response, and if you aren’t vigorously fighting it, then where does the inner peace come from?

Peace isn’t the all-encompassing bliss-out state that many imagine. Real inner peace is alive and dynamic. Peace, as you are coming to understand it, co-exists with this world. Peacefulness is your ability to be present in any situation, while being present with your response to the situation. For example:

If you are focusing on your work, and there is a sound of a lawnmower outside, how is that going to affect your inner awareness? Is the sound distracting? Actually, it is somewhat distracting. But is the sound literally preventing you from working? Ah ha, the sound is a challenge, but it is not preventing you from working. But what is keeping you from your inner peace in this scenario?

The major element affecting your inner condition is not the sound of the lawnmower. Yes, the sound is admittedly somewhat bothersome, but it is not totally distracting. But if the sound is not the main issue, then what is the matter?

The irritant is your own response to the lawnmower sound. Your emotional response that troubles you is your own inner voice. Your inner voice is saying something about the bothersome lawnmower. And what’s more, your inner voice is insisting that until the sound is gone, you can’t work. Let’s look at this, because the moment you recognize your inner self talk, that is the moment that you get closer to inner peace.

Your inner voice is speaking automatically. It is always commenting on your reality. Some of your self talk is helpful, but much of it is merely reactive responses from your ego, and these emotional or dramatic responses are particularly unhelpful. To understand how to respond to your inner self talk requires understanding something about the art of being centered.

The centered person is able to notice their self talk. They do not deny their inner talk, but they do not give in to it. There is a special power in your being able to listen to your self talk. It is this: When you listen — without getting wrapped up in the words — the inner voice feels satisfied that it has shared its concerns. You have listened to its dire warnings about reality, and it is happy with that.

Now you recognize the purpose of the inner ego voice. It is trying to help you, but in its own somewhat childlike, dramatic way. And what would happen if you denied the existence of this inner dramatic voice? That is called denial, and it creates another problem, because to successfully avoid your inner voice, you have to suppress your aliveness. Suppressing your consciousness actually takes a lot of energy, and that is devitalizing — and it is distinctly not peaceful.

This is a fascinating paradox — if you want inner peace, it requires being present to your inner self talk, but not taking it seriously. And if you thought that inner peace was something that you would attain if you could entirely block your inner voice, think again. People try to block their inner self talk with drugs or alcohol. It doesn’t work, and it has side effects.

So you can have true inner peace, but now you have redefined it. You recognize that inner peace isn’t some blissful state of ignorance about the world. Inner peace is your capacity to experience something, to notice your response, and to keep on breathing and doing whatever you’re doing.

The first time you try this, your inner voice may remind you that you still feel tense, and so this approach isn’t working. Nice try, inner ego voice, but not clever enough. The shift to peace within comes from your being willing to explore this process gradually — you don’t get instant total results. Rather, you cultivate the ability to explore subtle levels of inner peace from moment to moment.

That is because the little shifts in consciousness come from your noticing subtle things that you didn’t notice before. For example:

1. You are now noticing your automatic inner voice response to a situation. You hadn’t been aware of it before.

2. You are now noticing that you don’t have to automatically repress your negative self talk. You can listen, thank it, and continue with your life.

3. You are noticing that you have natural bodily processes, such as your breathing. You are discovering that even if a situation seems to make your breathing tense at first, you can become aware of this response. And when you notice it, and gently become aware of your breathing, the breathing becomes smoother.

4. You are noticing that people, events, sounds, sights, and various influences do not actually prevent you from moving forward. You can choose to move gradually forward in your life, in spite of any influence.

5. You are noticing that when you follow these practices, you begin to sense a subtle glow of aliveness within you. That is the dynamic inner peace that you are discovering.

6. You are noticing that inner peace is not an all-or-nothing situation. Rather, peace is an ever shifting landscape, where you are exploring being present amidst situations, and you are discovering the many subtle aspects of peace within all those situations.

So you have made some new discoveries about inner peace, and you realize that peace is not as magical or mysterious as you may have thought. The recognition that peace is dynamic, existing in many forms, may be a revelation to you. This frees you to experience peace as it really is, rather than as a rare experience.

Isn’t that what you want? Something real that you can use in the world, every day? Not something that you have to wait for, or something lofty and unattainable, but something that is already within you. The tools are yours — your awareness, and your willingness to use your awareness to notice your breathing, notice your inner self talk, and your willingness to move forward towards your goals in each moment.

It almost sounds too easy. Here is another paradox — yes, this practice is easy, but it does require a bit of attention. If you’re willing to notice a few things, and play with these ideas, you can experience inner peace as it really is. But you might have to give up some lofty fantasies about an all-encompassing peace that exists in some mystic dimension. But in place of the idealized notions about peace, you will have attained the real thing — dynamic peace, in all its subtle levels of experience.

Yes, there really is inner peace. You already have the capacity for it, and you may well have created that kind of subtle peace many times before, perhaps without realizing it. You are invited to enjoy a peaceful day today — true dynamic peace as you now understand it — the peace that doesn’t resist the sound of the lawnmower, and that doesn’t resist your self talk about it either.

And besides, you can always close the window, notice your breathing, smile at the silliness of the situation, and continue with your work. May you enjoy the delights of your enriched perceptions in each moment, with every breath you take.

Many Blessings,

Joel Bruce Wallach

Founder, Cosmic Living, spiritual instruction, training-mp3-sets/

Resource: the folks at BackPackerVerse have found some interesting pathways to peace: https://backpackerverse.com/awaken-spirituality-reconnect/


How Do You Contact Your Soul?



It was likely a real shock.























Soul Contact Meditation


















Many Blessings,

Joel Bruce Wallach



Why is heaven above you, and how do you get there?

When you think of heaven, you probably look upwards. You may have assumed, as many do, that heaven must be up beyond the skies. But is this tendency merely a habit that you have learned from society, or could it be ancient historical conditioning, or is it something else entirely? This is neither habit nor history, because your upward glance results from the amazing link between your physical eyes and your spiritual anatomy — your chakras.

Your upper energy centers, or chakras, are your resonators for deeper cosmic realization. And when you access the deeper spiritual awareness of your higher energy centers — especially your crown chakra atop your head — you really do tend to look upwards. This is why people in a state of prayer and contemplation often find themselves looking upwards — towards heaven, as they would generally describe it.

When you look upwards, with sincere spiritual intention, you truly open an energy doorway that grants you a more profound cosmic perspective of reality. And you may be inclined to interpret your mystic visions as a window into heaven, as if heaven were literally above you. This perception often happens because when you sense the universe through the refined perception of your upper chakras, you are sensing the deeper divine essence of everything. And you are sensing the world as an interconnected energy field. And it is only natural to assume, when you first experience this, that you’re accessing a different world entirely — the world of heaven.

Every day, you are generally sensing the material world that you are familiar with. When you open your consciousness to a deeper spiritual reality, you may not realize that you have shifted your chakra viewpoint, and that you are now sensing the universe through a higher frequency window — your crown chakra. And so you may have no conceptual framework to explain what you’re seeing, other than the familiar material plane concepts that you are already familiar with.

Is this starting to explain why heaven seems to be floating in the sky above you?

Your reference point is generally the material plane, and so you can only interpret your upper chakra perceptions in the usual words and concepts of the material plane. They didn’t teach you about your crown chakra and cosmic perception in school, did they?

In other words, you have come to believe that heaven isn’t here in this material dimension. So your mind does its best to understand the spiritual vibrations that you access in prayer and contemplation — and concludes that you are accessing the realm of heaven. Or, the metaphysical equivalent to heaven, the celestial higher dimensions, or the realm of light — a place far, far, away. And you imagine, from your familiar material plane reference point, that this wonderful vibration that you are sensing in your contemplation must be somewhere a great distance away from this material world.

That is why you may have interpreted your spiritual experiences, perceived through your upper chakras, as coming from a distinct heavenly place that is beyond the skies. As you know, in the material world, everything is divided by location. You are here where you are standing, and your pet cat is sitting by the door, and your sister is in the next room. That’s the reality of the material plane — everything has its own location.

Heaven has no particular location. 

If heaven were a place, then it would be in one location. If all the people, in all the galaxies of the universe, all had to go to one particular place when they pass on, that place would be infinitely large. But if heaven isn’t a particular location, then it must be a state of consciousness, or a specific range of vibrations. That explains how people in infinite numbers can be there, because a vibration doesn’t require a location. A vibration easily exists throughout the entire universe, unlimited by location.

Heaven is a deeper state of consciousness, in which you are in resonance with your soul wisdom, your heart wisdom, and your deeper intuition. You feel more connected with the cosmic united web of all consciousness in the universe. But what about the people who have had near-death experiences, and who reported that they went to heaven, and that there were beautiful buildings and gardens there? They seem to be referencing an actual place.

When you pass from this world, and you are experiencing the heavenly dimensions, you are accessing it in a way that you can comprehend. And that means that if you are symbolically enlivened by Beauty, then you may experience heaven as beautiful flowers or sparkling meadows. And when you sense the shining divinity within souls on the heavenly dimension, you are sensing the divine light of their auras. But if you are unfamiliar with auras, you might interpret every bright aura as coming from celestial angels, or whatever symbolic interpretation you require.

If you were no longer in a physical body, your soul would exist on the vibration that you were best suited to. Your habitual states of mind define where your soul lives when you are no longer living in a body. This is why various ancient teachings refer to levels of heaven, and levels of hell. It is not that the universe needs to punish or reward anyone, because the law of resonance, popularly known as the law of karma, brings you to the vibration level that you naturally resonate with.

You may have heard the idea that heaven is in your mind. This is a valid concept, but it doesn’t go far enough in explaining that heaven is accessed through the law of resonance. Very simply, your state of awareness is in alignment with energies similar to itself. For example, if you habitually spend some time every day contemplating the divine essence of life, you build a pattern where you can access that vibration more easily. Those who never access their divine nature would have more difficulty accessing that reality when they finally release from their body.

So you aren’t being punished at all, either in this life or in the hereafter. You create habits of heart and mind, and these patterns attract similar patterns. When your personal patterns are out of balance with the higher states of consciousness, you lose that divine resonance. Not because of punishment, however, but simply through a temporary lack of resonance with your preferred state of awareness.

Many people, especially in a religious context, are concerned with getting to heaven. They evidently don’t realize that heaven is a vibration that they could access now. So let’s look at their wish to someday get to heaven, but interpret it with a higher understanding of heaven as a vibration.

Start with the understanding that heaven is a deeper state of consciousness. Heaven reveals your divine nature, and heaven opens you to the divine nature of the entire universe. And let’s further assume that you do have the means to access heaven — not as a place, but as a living, divine energy field.

Here is the method for accessing heavenly realms now — 

– Feel into the truth of these universal principles, so that you can really sense the living reality within your body, mind, and soul.

– Breathe, stay in your body, and open your imagination:

1. Your body and soul are a spectrum of vibrations — low to high frequencies — and you can learn to choose where your attention is focused in your vibration spectrum.

— This means that you are a conscious energy being — feel into that reality now.

2. Your vibrations include the core divine creative essence that actually created your soul.

— This means that you can access the spark of the Creator within you — imagine it and sense it now.

3. Your vibrations include the soul spark that was created by the divine, which is your own unique soul signature.

— This means that your soul essence lives within you — breathe into your essence now.

4. You can choose which chakras, or energy centers, you are sensing through.

— This means that you can scan the entire frequency spectrum of reality, from the material plane, all the way to cosmic consciousness — your crown is the window, but you are going to stay centered in your body while you look through your crown.

5. Everything within you is connected, so you can use the higher cosmic vibrations within you to help the aspects of yourself that have become stuck or limited.

— This means that you can create harmony and healing between your earthly and cosmic aspects, because they are all interconnected parts of you, united as one being, called you — let the lighter parts of you enlighten the shadowed parts.

6. Any quality that you associate with heaven is also accessible to you. Your spectrum of vibrations includes these heavenly qualities.

— This means that the love, wisdom, insights, and divine assistance, are all universal principles that live within you, and also live within the cosmic web of interconnected consciousness that you are part of — feel the higher qualities resonating within you.

7. When you resonate with those heavenly energies, you are touching heaven, here and now. You don’t have to go anywhere else to do this.

— This means that the heaven that seems to be above you is, in fact, all around you as a cosmic energy, and it is within you, as a cosmic energy, and you can learn to resonate with it, and breathe it into your body — imagine that you can reach out and touch heaven, within you and all around you.

These lofty words may be easy to say, but how easy is it to actually do these practices? When you re-read through the above list of divine principles, realize that you are being invited to explore qualities, rather than things. As you recall, heaven is a quality, or vibration. It is real, and not simply made up. Heaven is a living field of divine energy. But, it is not a place, and it is not a thing.

If you are going to explore the resonance of heavenly vibrations, you need to sense the difference between a quality and a thing.

An example of a quality is the feeling that you get when you experience the aroma of incense, as distinct from the physical incense itself. What actually happens within you when you experience the aroma? It is much more than just a sensation in your nose. Beautiful incense actually opens subtle dimensional doorways in your soul. This subtle experience gives you a sense of what a vibratory quality is.

Or, you could explore the love that you feel within your heart when you hug a loved one. The feeling you get in your heart is distinct from the physical hug itself. The feeling is different from words of love, because it transcends words. The vibration of love, as a living vibration in your heart, gives you a sense of what the resonance of love is.

Now that you have a deeper sense of how to access qualities, rather than things, explore the list above again, and let yourself start to taste the delights of heaven, as subtle resonances within you. They are here for you, here and now. People may say that heaven is in your mind, but heaven is bigger than your mind. Heaven is everywhere. It is within you, within everyone, and existing throughout the universe.

When you consider that heaven is everywhere, you realize that waiting to die to experience heaven is a rather limited way to go through life. And you begin to wonder, though, if there might be a deeper symbolic meaning to the various beliefs that people have about getting to heaven. For example:

Spiritual teachings generally suggest that being a good person helps you get to heaven. There is something to this idea, but it is often presented in a rather limited way.

For example, people are taught that if they attend a religious service, they are being a good person. What is the deeper symbolic meaning to this teaching?

When you resonate with the divine vibration within you, you are accessing the heavenly reality. When you notice what puts you in alignment with the divine, and what separates you from it, you are discovering how to attend the true religious service — alignment with the divine vibration. So whether or not you attend an official religious service, you always have a choice to align with the deeper divine reality — the sacred space that exists in each moment, when you choose to access it.

Essentially, the deeper teaching is that you are learning how to access heaven now, and that you don’t have to wait to experience heaven.

And you realize that the teachings about hell must also relate to your life now. Spiritual teachings advise people to avoid going to hell by avoiding bad behavior. Ah, but what is bad behavior, exactly?

Briefly, bad behavior puts you in an unbalanced state where you can’t access the heavenly vibrations. These negative states would include the usual overtly negative, anti-social behaviors. But negative states also include those various times during the day when you get stuck in bursts of anger, limited and tense thoughts and emotions, ungrounded fears, and confused behaviors that take you out of alignment with your body and soul.

So hell, if it exists, is simply this — hell is when your unbalanced states of consciousness keep you separate from the heavenly states.

However you describe it, hell is not bad or sinful, but it is certainly a less enjoyable state, because you are out of alignment with the divine universal truth. So when you don’t feel that you are in heaven, you are probably accessing hellish states of consciousness to some extent. Without making yourself bad or wrong, you can start to notice this. That will free you to gently move your attention towards the heavenly states.

Breathe, center yourself, and explore your choices. Switching from one state to another takes patience, and if you judge yourself for being in a less than perfect state, then you will prolong the unpleasantness. The good news is that heaven is here. It is accessible to you. And you aren’t being kept from it. Heaven is something for you to explore, whenever you’re ready. And this moment is as good as any, so remember the resonance of a smile, and breathe that smile into your being right now.

Many Blessings,

Joel Bruce Wallach



Are some people truly evil? Part 2

In part 1 of this article, you learned how everyone is evolving spiritually over the course of many lifetimes, and how the younger soul is still learning the basics of free will, though sometimes in a crude way. 

There is another question that comes up around the topic of badly behaving people. It is the almost universal recognition that many people have had when they looked into the eyes of a person categorized as truly evil. There is a strange quality that the person isn’t there.

Either there is a curiously vacant quality, as if the original tenant of the house isn’t home, or you might have the frightening feeling that you are detecting someone else — a strange tenant — living in the house, and looking out of the person’s eyes.

This question about who is at home in the case of so-called evil people is worth examining, because the answer explains much about the behavior and motivations of souls who are learning some very difficult lessons. There are several reasons why badly behaving people may seem to be not at home, or may have a strange presence around them.

Take the example of the person who does evil things, and whose gaze seems perpetually angry or fearful. This person has experienced trauma, and so they are in a fragmented or shocked state that has become part of their daily way of being. You are seeing in their eyes only certain frightened or angry aspects of that person, as if they have become limited to only that narrow aspect of themselves. They have become disconnected from the full range of their soul.

Sometimes you will see the vacant or blank look in people who have committed atrocities, and they seem to be vacated from their personal home, so to speak. This is the way that some souls protect themselves from trauma — by staying partially disengaged from their body, as if their consciousness is dispersed and permanently unfocused. In the case of a soul who does evil things, that dissociated state becomes a way for one part of the soul to do something that the other parts are unaware of.

What exactly are you seeing when you look into the eyes of a disturbed person, and someone else seems to be looking out at you? This is the strange gaze that you see, and the heightened, unreal, or chaotic feeling that you sense when you are in the presence of a person who is influenced, or as it is called, possessed, by another lost soul. How and why does possession happen?

A traumatized soul is too fragmented to maintain their soul vibration integrity. This can open them to entity possession, where their soul is under the influence of another troubled spirit, or lost soul.

There is an important connection between trauma fragmentation, as recognized by psychologists — and entity possession, as recognized by metaphysicians. Trauma fragmentation and entity possession are generally regarded as two different things, but they are often connected. Understanding these problems can free you from seeing challenged souls as intrinsically evil.

To be clear about this, not all traumatized people are possessed. But, you could say that when someone is possessed, it is likely that they were traumatized first, and that left them psychically open to external control.

Another thing to be clear about is that traumatized souls are generally good people who just need understanding assistance to release the layers of trauma, and to weave their parts together. There are trauma specialists who can help with this. The percentage of possessed people who do bad things is comparatively small. But now you have a better sense of why beings who are capable of evil actions seem to be not entirely themselves.

Yet another category of possessed souls involves those who are what the psychologists call the psychopathic personality. They are the ones who, on the surface, appear as high functioning people in society. However, they are the power-crazed beings who can can coldly destroy people, businesses, and even nations, because they seem to enjoy harming and shaming others, and wielding power over them. They are capable of mesmerizing gullible people, and can appear to be powerful, capable leaders — at least until you observe and sense their energy more closely.

Unless you sense the fragmentation in their aura, or the possessing entities mingled in with their soul, they may be able to mask their negativity from you, because they are experts at creating a smooth exterior image. This group, supposedly no more than about four percent of the population, are sometimes described, after their evil acts are discovered, as evil beings. They are not intrinsically evil souls, however, though they are deeply lost, and disconnected from the divine source.

Though such beings are capable of hiding their unbalanced soul patterns from the general public, who innocently see their surface persona, they cannot hide from your deeper sensing if you scan their energy field at the soul level. When you start scanning soul energy, sensing beneath the surface of reality, you find that you are less readily fooled by the projected image — the illusory appearance.

Still, the question comes up as to whether these destructive beings are truly evil. No, they are stuck in some very negative patterns — what some metaphysicians would call heavy karmic patterns. They are following a difficult path of soul growth — trying to maintain a separation between their willful personality and their higher self. You could say that they are still learning the baby soul lessons about how to use free will with love and wisdom.

Now what about the fragmented soul? Why is the fragmented soul seemingly unable to help itself? Is it not true that the divine soul is within the core of all people?

People become open to possession when they are not integrated between their body and soul. There is a sacred unity that ideally exists between body and soul, where they are united together in harmonious partnership. Trauma, war, drugs, alcohol, psychologically overwhelming experiences, and even the distorting effects of modern media can disrupt this harmony, and leave people open to negative influences.

In most cases, these challenging influences are not evil as such, but are simply mildly bothersome influences that keep the person from fulfilling their highest potential. However, when there is a mixture of very challenged soul patterns, combined with traumatic experiences, combined with entity possession, then that combination can add up to a person who does evil.

Sooner or later, the soul will recognize what they have done, and will deeply regret what has happened. The soul will take steps to transcend the pattern, and to shift into a higher quality of functioning in the world. They will recognize that although they have done a truly evil thing, they themselves are not truly evil, and they will slowly be ready to forgive themselves. However, this path to recognizing the patterns, and choosing to change them, can take lifetimes in some cases.

And so the fragmented soul has temporarily forgotten its true divine nature. This is the mirror that you can learn from, because to some extent, everyone is recovering their soul fragments that they have given away. All souls are learning to be complete. Regrettably, this idea is too confronting for some people, and that is why it is easier for them to simplistically categorize the world as consisting of truly good people, versus truly bad people.

When you realize what is happening on a deeper spiritual level, your understanding makes the world seem less mysterious. You can see things in the context of soul evolution, and this lets you learn about yourself from the mirror that these challenging events present you with. Knowing that souls are going through their spiritual lessons helps you rise above blame and judgment.

When you see the slow progress of humanity, you are seeing a mirror for your own long process of spiritual evolution. The troubled souls have a long way to go, but then, we all do, too.

Everyone is on the scale of consciousness, and everyone is evolving. That doesn’t mean that everything you do is necessarily wise, however. This is why observing people as a mirror can help you on your spiritual path. The obviously negative behaviors that you observe are showing you something about yourself. Not literally, of course, but metaphorically.

You can ask yourself, when you see people at war, how are you at war with yourself? Or, you might ask, how are you at odds with people, even if it only takes place at the level of petty conflicts or judgmental thoughts?

It is humbling to realize that you could very well be going through the same lessons that you observe being acted out in the world — but on a much more subtle and refined level. And that is why your recognition that everyone is learning is important. You can let go of the category of intrinsically evil people, and see them for what they really are — souls who are in the midst of some very difficult lessons.

You are letting go of judgment about others, and when you do that you are also letting go of self-judgment. Some people suppose that humanity is truly evil. No, humanity is learning, perhaps more slowly than you would like. Although some some people seem to have forgotten their inner divine spark, that doesn’t mean that the spark is gone. It is always there, awaiting recognition of its eternal light.

The people you name as hopelessly evil are your mirrors. They aren’t hopeless. They are learning. And so are you. Evil behavior is not going to go away any time soon, though, because there are always younger souls who are learning their baby-step lessons. By all means, do what you can to create a positive world — your contribution is important. But do it with an honest recognition that this universe is always evolving, and isn’t as perfect as your ego would like it to be.

At the very least, it may give you hope to know that the people you think of as evil will evolve over time. This evolution process may well take place over a very long span of time. When you recognize this more expanded range of time, you can see everything in the context of time from a universal point of view. And that is comforting, and even healing, because it diffuses and lightens the drama that you may feel about this modern era.

The eternal scale of time gives you a spacious perspective to see yourself in. It helps you recognize that humanity is slowly but surely moving forward. Perhaps not as quickly as you would prefer, but moving towards higher spiritual consciousness, nonetheless.

It is empowering to recognize that everyone is somewhere on the scale of consciousness. Everybody is on the scale, at their current vibration, and everybody is a soul who is learning, and evolving at their own pace.

Learn what you can from people, and let their mirror teach you what you need to know about yourself. When you let go of the evil category, you can recognize that you are observing evil actions, performed by souls who are younger and learning, or lost and fragmented, or possessed — most likely, a combination of these.

No matter how lost the soul seems to be, their divine spark is still there. It may be faint, and the soul may not recover itself significantly for many lifetimes, but understand what is happening. The soul you judge today is expressing a similar situation that you may have forgotten from your own vast spiritual history. It is the spiritual situation that you were in, back when you were still learning about the basics of free will. That was a long time ago, but from a universal perspective, it was just yesterday.

Anyway, you’ve learned a lot over the long path of your many lifetimes, and here you are today. And you may be wondering what you can do with this information that you have now. Just set the information aside for a while, and let yourself digest it over time.

Here is what you can do right now:

– Tune into your breathing.

– Feel the light of your soul in your body.

– Thank your soul for all the hard work over the lifetimes that led to your spiritual discoveries along the way.

– And thank the cosmic consciousness of this divine universe for everything.

And thank all the souls who are showing you the mirrors that help you learn. And while you’re at it, send their souls a blessing. It might not make a huge difference, but who knows? A little blessing could help them just a bit, and that might make the universe a more pleasant place.

Thank you for incarnating as the unique self that you are. Your contribution is making a positive difference in the universe. May you walk in grace each day.

Many Blessings,

Joel Bruce Wallach



Are some people truly evil? Part 1

This should be a simple question to answer, because it seems to be a yes or no question. However, it’s not simple at all, because people aren’t material objects that you can put in a simple category. People are richly multidimensional patterns of energy.

You can have an opinion about people, and an opinion about their behavior. But to say that certain people are all good energy, or that certain people are all bad energy is inaccurate.

Everyone is expressing their unique vibration patterns in each moment. You could measure their vibrations on a frequency scale — a spectrum of consciousness. You might be inclined to define the low range of the spectrum as the evil range, and the high range of the spectrum as the good range. This sounds simple enough, at first.

However, people are not just one vibration — they express a range of energies, and they are not fixed at one point on the consciousness scale. This is the problem with simple categories like good and bad. There is more to the story of humanity than just naming certain people as intrinsically good, and naming other people as intrinsically bad.

But certain things about humanity should be obvious, shouldn’t they? After all, you can certainly recognize the difference between saintly Mother Teresa and brutal Attila the Hun. But just because Attila represents evil to you doesn’t mean that his soul is one hundred percent evil. So admit that you really don’t approve of his behavior, and leave it at that.

Obviously, you can define the actions and behaviors of people as generally good, or generally bad. And you might be inclined to describe people who consistently perform very bad actions as evil people. However, this is not quite accurate, because when you look at the hidden scenario in the soul of so-called evil people, you begin to see them through the spiritual perspective of their many lifetimes. An amazingly deeper story emerges.

To understand what is happening with any behavior, you need to know that everyone has a soul, and that their soul is made of divine substance. Over the countless lifetimes of a soul’s incarnations, the soul makes many bad decisions. It is their way of learning, and it would be too easy to describe a soul, in a particular lifetime where they are doing very bad things, as an evil person. But what is really happening in these situations?

Souls learn by doing. You learned in the same way. You made mistakes, and when your soul looked back at that lifetime, you vowed that you would never make that mistake again. But why would a soul, made of divine substance, need to learn in that crude way?

You would think that if the core of all people is divine, they should have access to their inner soul wisdom. It is obvious that there are degrees of divine alignment — from barely aligned at all at one end of the scale, to expressing strong alignment with divine source at the opposite end of the scale. But why is it so often true that the soul needs to learn crudely, and slowly refine itself? It seems like a rather pathetic situation.

Actually, your soul is on a path of learning that starts from its ancient roots, as a fresh young soul. In its innocent, naïve state, the soul fresh from the divine source is made of divine substance. You would suppose that if the soul is made of divine essence, it would be exceedingly wise. However, it has been given free will, and that explains why the soul has to learn in the laborious way that it does.

Free will is given to each individuated soul so that the soul can multiply the intelligence of the universe. Each soul does this by adding its own unique soul consciousness to the universe. Get a sense of how your soul was given free will so that you could radiate your unique soul vibration — your love, wisdom, creativity, and all that you are — as a gift to the universe, moment by moment. Your presence is a contribution that adds value to the universe.

But how does the process of being created with free will relate to those who are named as evil?

When a soul is a new soul, it is still learning about free will. That is, it doesn’t really appreciate that free will is a sacred gift to be used wisely. And the soul learns spiritually in what you might call baby steps. Just as a baby hasn’t learned to walk with skill, and just as a baby falls down in the process of learning how to walk, so too does a baby soul learn how to work with their free will — in a rather clumsy way.

Of course, if you have read this far, you are a relatively older soul, and so you are more adept than a baby soul in utilizing your free will. Your style is much more smooth. For example, you know that even though you might, as an exercise in free will, drive your car on the sidewalk, you instinctively know not to do that. It’s obvious to you that the consequences would be awful, and so you would never do such a thing. And you can’t imagine anyone behaving in such a thoughtless way.

Ah, but how does a soul that is still learning about free will deal with this same situation? What seems obvious to you is less obvious to a very young soul. They don’t appreciate what the consequences of their action will be. They haven’t developed the refinement of heart and mind to comprehend how their actions will affect people. And so, when you observe their bad behavior, you call them evil people.

No — their actions are quite bad, but they are not intrinsically evil people. They are more properly called confused, naïve, ignorant souls. But what is the value of your knowing this? If evil actions are taking place, does understanding the deeper story of their soul’s development really matter?

Actually, there is a deeper lesson here, beyond the obvious one that you can have compassion for ignorant souls, rather than hatred of those younger souls who are slowly learning their soul lessons. The deeper lesson is that everyone is a mirror for you. And that recognition explains something about this question of whether some people are truly evil.

When you want to name certain people as evil, it is for the sake of convenience. If you can put someone in a convenient category, then you don’t have to attempt any understanding about their motivations, and you don’t have to examine yourself either. It’s simple really, because the bad people are categorized as bad, and that means that you are in the good category. This is very convenient and tidy. You’re good, they’re bad, and that’s that.

Well, if their example is a mirror for you, then what are they mirroring? This is too difficult for many people to think about, and so their response to this question is this: Bad people are doing bad things, and so they are completely different from the good people. If only everything were as simple as that.

Yes, certain people are doing worse things on the scale of consciousness, but here is the revealing recognition — they are on the same scale of consciousness that you are on. We are all on the scale, and we are shifting our position on the scale all the time, according to our thoughts and actions. Perhaps that continually shifting state of things is one reason not to name people as intrinsically good or bad.

When you assume that you are all good, you might become arrogantly unaware of the subtle ways in which you are moving out of balance. Remember that everyone is on the same scale of consciousness — and that includes you.

This means that at times you can move up the scale, towards higher consciousness. However, in a mild bout of ignorance, you might at times move down the scale. And so, when you are too quick to name others as being evil, you might, at the same time, be assuming that you are all good. And that could be the seed for self-deceiving assumptions about your own perfection.

The people doing very bad things are learning their lessons, from the slow level of consciousness that they are at. And they are showing you, by their example, what you have likely done in your own long legacy of past lives, in which you learned your own difficult lessons. But how is their crude example a mirror to the more refined stage of development that you have attained?

You aren’t, after all, driving your car on the sidewalk. But what are you doing that is not as safe as it could be? How do you mistreat yourself, or others, although in a much less crude way than driving on the sidewalk?

You aren’t, after all, leading murderous campaigns against innocent populations, as evil leaders have done, but in what way are you treating yourself and others in a somewhat callous manner? Maybe it is on a very subtle level. But that is the subtle way of learning that your soul is experiencing now. Your lessons are gentler, at least most of the time, because you have moved through most of the cruder lessons in your earlier lifetimes …

… This article continues in part 2. You will learn about the hidden aspects of so-called evil behavior, including important connections between challenged soul patterns, trauma, and entity possession. And you will discover the ways of cultivating your deeper understanding and compassion that can help you in your spiritual development.

Many Blessings,

Joel Bruce Wallach



Is marijuana OK from a spiritual point of view?

No, it’s not the magical doorway to cosmic consciousness that many hope for.

Now it’s possible that you didn’t want to hear that brief and definite answer. However, this negative response is not a vague bias. There are specific adverse effects that marijuana has on your aura and on your soul, and this affects your spiritual development. You won’t generally hear about these insights, because the people speaking about this topic, whether in favor or against, generally lack the subtle energy sensitivity to describe what happens to your energy field when you put marijuana in your body.

Of course, it is possible that you agree with these conclusions about the inadvisability of smoking this substance, but it’s important to clarify exactly why marijuana is a problem, because otherwise, the argument about it can get sidetracked. For example…

One of the superficial reasons often given for avoiding marijuana is the argument that because it is illegal in many locales — at least at the time of this writing — it “must” therefore be a bad substance. However, there are actually other historical reasons for marijuana’s illegality, having mostly to do with the economics of hemp.

As is well known, hemp is an inexpensive replacement for paper, for oil, and for many other products. In other words, legal hemp would be an economic competitor in various industries. It is for that reason that various large industries seek to demonize marijuana, so that public opinion will continue to believe that marijuana and hemp must be kept illegal.

Yet another reason claimed by those who hold negative views about marijuana is that it is not as safe as alcohol. The spiritual problems with alcohol can be detected through subtle energy sensing, and there are unfortunate similarities between alcohol and marijuana, especially in how they both adversely affect the aura and the soul. In spite of the obvious differences in how people drinking and smoking behave, the basic issue remains the same…

Marijuana and alcohol interfere with the connection between the body and the soul, and both substances, in their own way, create a dissociated condition that interferes with spiritual growth and well-being.

There are various arguments that marijuana proponents make to support their choice, and they are all based upon beliefs that seem, at first, to be acceptable. However, the essential problem with marijuana is that it creates a split between the body and the soul. This is something that can be detected with subtle sensing, and so those who have not developed this sensing ability will probably entertain doubt about these assertions. I am not the only energy-sensitive person who detects these issues, and so I am going to describe them as I sense them, and you can reach your own conclusions.

Marijuana proponents say that smokers tend to be peaceful, in contrast to alcohol drinkers. Though this can be observed easily enough, it still doesn’t validate the use of a substance that creates an energetically fragmented condition in the aura. I observe that the fragmented aura condition of marijuana smokers keeps them seemingly peaceful, but at a price. The fuzzy aura condition of smokers keeps them from fully feeling their emotions, and when you understand this, it reveals a different, and somewhat less happy explanation regarding their preferred emotional suppression method.

When people have emotions or thoughts that are troubling, they tend to want to leave their body so that they won’t have to feel their discomforts. People wanting to not feel their feelings have some popular choices: They can drink alcohol, they can eat devitalized junk food, they can space out in front of the television — which is known to induce a quasi-meditative alpha state — or they can smoke marijuana. All of these choices can create a fragmented energy field, in which the clarity of the aura is compromised. But the spiritual problems from marijuana use seem to last longer than the side effects from the other methods.

The alleged peacefulness of smokers is their convenient excuse. They may feel more peaceful than they would if they weren’t smoking, but unfortunately, they are not transcending their pain in any useful way. Their escape from emotional discomfort is temporary. This means that they can’t really address the pain, and that leads to a problem. If you can’t address something, because you don’t feel it anymore, then you have to keep pushing the denied emotions down, so that they are out of your conscious awareness.

This may explain the notion that marijuana is not physically addictive, but is psychologically addictive. After all, if you need to keep smoking in order to not feel what you don’t want to feel, then that may well be a psychological addiction.

The popular expression with marijuana smokers that smoking helps them “take the edge off” is a euphemism that hides the emotional pain they seek to avoid. And to be fair, it is reasonable to acknowledge that emotional pain can be frightening, and that confronting it takes a great deal of courage and determination. However, smoking isn’t going to build courage and determination.

This is because the focus required for determination is associated with a strongly linked soul and personality within a coherent aura — and marijuana interferes with that.

Ideally, the body, the emotions, the mind, and the soul are all united in a coherent energy field — your healthy aura. Uniting these aspects within yourself is key to being aligned with your true self, so that you can do the things that you came to this lifetime to do. Anything that muddies the clarity of your aura is slowing your progress on all levels. It is better to be clear in your perception– even if this involves challenging realizations — so that you can confront your emerging feelings and thoughts, rather than hide in a fragmented, diffused understanding of yourself.

You could imagine your soul as the eternal divine essence of your being. Your soul carries the spark of the creator, and so your soul is your connection to higher spiritual awareness. Ideally, your body, heart, mind, personality, and soul link as one, with the soul being your cosmic cohering energy presence — the divine glue that holds you together.

When your divine soul is integrated with your body, you become more conscious about how you treat your body. When your soul is able to shine into your emotions and mind, you can achieve a unified level of consciousness that lets you confront issues. You can move in a positive direction in your life. Marijuana disrupts this unity, and creates a muddy aura that short-circuits your spiritual empowerment.

Another concern with this substance is that it mimics spiritual experiences, but actually interferes with spiritual realization. To understand how that happens, imagine the spectrum of consciousness as a range of vibrations. At the lowest part of the awareness scale, there is low, unaware consciousness. At the highest level of the awareness scale, there is cosmic consciousness, or divine consciousness.

Now suppose that a person is stuck in a narrow, exclusively earth-bound level of perception. Such a person might find that marijuana helps them feel and see beyond their narrow material range of perceptions. And that seems impressive, at first. It even seems to suggest that marijuana might be a consciousness expanding substance.

The problem, however, is that marijuana can, in a limited way, seem to help those who are stuck in a narrow materialistic perspective. It seems, at first, to give them a more expanded view of the universe. However, this benefit is limited by marijuana’s intrinsically lesser quality of vibration. When a substance keeps you at an intermediate level of consciousness, then try as you might, you will be chemically limited from attaining higher states of spiritual realization.

The so-called consciousness-expanding benefits of marijuana are only somewhat broader than the narrow materialistic worldview of the uptight, tense person. This means that when a person who feels rigid or stuck smokes, they get a temporarily expanded sense of things, and this impresses them. They believe they have a found a solution that frees them from limitation.

Unfortunately, marijuana has only raised their consciousness somewhat. Especially troubling is that the marijuana, though seeming to raise the consciousness a bit, keeps the smoker at a level of awareness that is only somewhat expanded beyond the lower materialistic range. To understand this, imagine that there is a range of consciousness between one and ten. One represents limited, stuck consciousness. Ten represents cosmic consciousness.

A person stuck at level one or two could go to level three or four with the help of marijuana. They might be impressed by this shift. As they would argue, their consciousness has been expanded, they feel more creative, and they have a broader sense of reality.

It seems like a convincing validation, until you realize that the marijuana is keeping them from going above level four. And this is the problem with marijuana that smokers would rather not consider.

In addition, the marijuana inhibits their ability to heal their own problems — their level one and two problems, so to speak. These are the energy blocks that they were trying to escape. However, unaddressed problems stay stuck. Your ability to honestly sense your own energy blocks is a vital element in your self healing.

You are a spiritual being. Your soul is made from the eternal cosmic essence of the creator.

You incarnated to bring your eternal soul into the experience of this lifetime. To receive the light of your soul, you need to create a fit physical vehicle that can be in harmony with your soul. In spite of the claims of marijuana proponents, marijuana cannot provide you with assistance if you want to progress spiritually.

The popular claim that marijuana generates peacefulness is based on a limited definition of what peace is — peace is not merely the absence of strife or violence. This limited definition of peace leads people to pay a spiritual price that isn’t worth the alleged benefits — your soul alignment is worth more than any temporary peace. And when you realize that this so-called peace is just a dissociated condition that ultimately inhibits your well-being, you may be empowered to re-examine this topic with a deeper understanding

If there were no other options for attaining inner peace, or for dealing with your emotions, then the beliefs of marijuana proponents might be convincing, but there are, in fact, many options:

– Learning to feel your feelings is a powerful teaching that builds strength in many levels of your being. It’s not always easy, and often not fun, but when you gently breathe through your feelings you discover that you are stronger than your fears.

– Learning to question your automatic self-talk lets you get out of the mental and emotional loops that can trap you in negativity. Learning to talk to yourself in an empowering way puts you, metaphorically, in the driver’s seat of your life, rather than in the back seat with your subconscious patterns in control of the steering wheel.

– Learning to move and exercise, by whatever means you choose, gives you an option to raise your vibration every day, so that your feelings and thoughts don’t sink down to the lowest levels of your problems.

– Learning to meditate, visualize, concentrate, and create a coherent aura helps you discover your true spiritual identity as a multidimensional being. Spiritual practices empower you to live in alignment with your true divine identity, so that you are less affected by the negative influences from the media, from other people, and from the world in general. You observe the world with a deeper wisdom that expresses your true self.

One spiritual concern with marijuana use is that it causes users to get stuck in an intermediate spiritual dimension known as the astral plane. These intermediate dimensions of consciousness, though not bad in themselves, are the levels of illusion. Ideally, the astral dimension is a state of consciousness in which you can invent and create. However, the astral dimension is only safe for you if you are also aligned with higher levels of divine consciousness, and safely grounded within your own physical body. Without this higher divine alignment, and without your grounded physical presence, the astral plane is merely the plane of illusion and fantasy, taking you further from your true center.

This is important to you if spiritual awareness is your goal. I don’t pretend that this article will change the minds of those who are committed to using marijuana, although I do hope that any user will consider the options to using a spiritually negative substance.

But what if you are undecided about this topic, and spiritual awakening is important to you? Have you let yourself be impressed with the glamorous images presented in the media, in which creative people or celebrities are associated with marijuana use? It is to you that this article is specifically written, because glamorous images are only superficial descriptions of a false reality — that is, they are not real.

False images are reflections of the astral plane — the dimension of illusion. And when millions of people hold false images, the effect can be powerful. Fortunately, even powerful false images can be seen for what they are — fake realities that only interfere with spiritual awareness. When you have real spiritual experiences that integrate you, uniting your body, heart, mind, and soul with your spiritual potential, then you build clarity in your consciousness. You learn to recognize fake realities as superficial images with no spiritual core.

Spiritual realization is something that you develop over time. It is not something you can put on like a coat, or take like a pill, and for this reason, you want to develop your spiritual awareness as a daily practice. In the same way that you can build physical muscles through exercise, you can build spiritual strength through cultivating your awareness. One of the benefits of a regular spiritual practice is that your alignment with your soul wisdom grows. And this lets you see illusions as the deceptions that they really are.

When you don’t have a spiritual means of connecting with your soul, you can be easily influenced by the powerful distorted energy fields of millions of people who are trapped in fake illusions. And marijuana doesn’t help you grow or evolve beyond that, because it gives the illusion of expanded consciousness, while trapping you at a merely intermediate level of consciousness. It claims to take you beyond the average state of human consciousness, and then leaves you at a muddy, intermediate level.

And the energy at that intermediate level, I notice, is sticky. That might sound a bit strange, but the aura quality of marijuana smokers is sticky, fuzzy, and open to entities. That is the opposite of the brightness and clarity associated with those who are in alignment with their divine soul.

But no matter where you are in your spiritual development, whether you are smoking or not, you can always make the choice to move in a healthier direction each day. In the same way that the public is moving towards the realization that healthy food is better than junk food, and in the same way that the public is moving towards the understanding that exercise makes you feel more alive, so too are people becoming aware that anything that interferes with their soul development is to be avoided.

If you’re already moving in the direction of seeking healthy food choices and exploring exercise, then you are able to appreciate how negative substances can interfere with your vibration. When you consider how a seemingly popular substance, marijuana, can lower your spiritual vibration, it invites you to make some new healthy choices. Anything that disrupts your body-soul unity is worth avoiding. It’s time to tune in to your true divine essence, and make some healthy decisions for yourself.

Your essence is made of divine substance. If you want to feel your aliveness, then realize that your emotions, your thoughts, and your body all need to be aligned with your soul — so that you can be truly alive on all levels. And that may mean, at times, that you will feel emotions or thoughts that you don’t enjoy. However, you can learn to breathe through your challenges. You can learn to stabilize and integrate your mind-body-spirit energy. You can learn to bring the divine light of your soul — and the cosmic intelligence of the universe — into your life.

And when you align in this way, you get a sense of what it means to be in tune with the cosmos. You can feel in alignment with the eternal vibration of the creator, humming within you. You are in alignment with the truth of your being, which is a spiritual vibration that is alive in the deepest sense of the word. It is the higher consciousness that is capable of knowing its true infinite nature.

And you want to be aligned with that infinite universal consciousness, because it is who you are — you are one with the source of all reality. Breathe it into your being. It is the true elixir that you can partake of every day. Let every breath unite you with the aliveness that wants to vibrate joyously within your every cell. Welcome to this moment.

Many Blessings,

Joel Bruce Wallach

Founder, Cosmic Living – transformational home-study mp3’s, and private consultations


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Resource: This site looks useful – their approach seems to be similar to the 12 Step programs: https://www.marijuana-anonymous.org/


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