Vampires, Monsters, and Masters - The Life Enrichment Center
Vampires, Monsters, and Masters
by Rev. Stephanie Sorensen | Nov 1, 2021 | Spirituality A-Z, Sunday Talks
Many of us fear change because we worry we won’t like what comes next. The Spiritual Master, Osho, said, “Courage is a love affair with the unknown.” A love affair with the Unknown requires trust that the ever-moving Nature of Life, as It changes in form and expression, is moving in ways we will enjoy and appreciate. It’s trusting that the Pure Positive Energy that is the Invisible Source of all visible Life is filled with Unlimited Possibilities for Good, and that change is the avenue through which more and more Goodness expresses.
Invisible, Unchangeable Good is at the heart of the impermanence in the visible world, including our visible self. We didn’t come to stay, but we did come to play! We came into this human experience to wear as many costumes as we can, to live as fully as we can, and to be a Master of disguises fully aware that all costumes are temporary and removable, including our human costume. Change doesn’t change who we truly are, i.e., a free-flowing soul having a human experience.
A love affair with the Unknown allows us to accept the progression of time, and the changes it brings, as not only inevitable but Divinely orchestrated, and to let Earth life’s diversity, variability and unpredictability make life interesting, rather than fearful, for us. The question, “What’s next, ”becomes a joyful one that is filled with wonder and curiosity, rather than a “What’s next” filled with anxiety and dread. If we want to be happy in this shape-shifting world, we need to learn to trust that the Unknown wants to be Known by us for the pure Joy of Divine Exposure! The Positive Energy that lives in us is the Source of all Joy, and carries within It our happiness and well- being.
We may believe that if nothing changed, nothing could get worse. But if nothing changed we’d be unable to access and materialize at least some of the infinite possibilities that life offers us. Thich Nhat Hanh said, “Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible. Because nothing is written in stone, anything can happen in any moment. And, if we allow it to be, it will be something good. Change not only facilitates evolution and transformation through Mother Nature, but through human nature as well. It reveals new possibilities for us to choose from, no matter how limited our choices may have seemed in the past. It brings new understanding for us to express, no matter how limited our self-expression has been. Change offers a fresh start if we’re interested.
Author, Marty Rubin, wrote, “Seize the day, then let it go.” We can appreciate what is and still flow gently into what’s next as we accept that nothing is meant to stay the same. If it did, we’d stop growing and expanding in new awareness and the expression of our Divinity through our humanity. Our body is just a vessel for our amazing Being-not a safety deposit box to hide our spirit from world.
In tribute to Halloween, someone posted on Facebook: “You are a ghost driving a meat-coated skeleton made from stardust, riding a rock hurtling thru space. What do you have to be scared of?” Thank God we are so much more than the human costumes we wear! We are free to stick our focus inside our physical form and ignore the twinkling light of “stardust” that is animating it. But if we do, if we fool our self into believing our physical body is all there is to us, is it any wonder that we feel frightened, vulnerable and needy? From inside our body it surely looks like everything we need to be healthy, happy, wealthy, loved, and safe is outside of us.
When we believe that the world has the key to what we desire, we’re a lot like vampire depending on what is outside of us to sustain our life. Our fangs are pointed towards the world, ready to go get what we need from anyone who might give it to us—family members, friends, coworkers, doctors, lawyers, strangers, a job, or just plain luck—we don’t care as long as what we need is there. And, when it’s not there, we become afraid that it never will be, and often attribute the absence of what we want to our unworthiness to have it. We convince our self that there’s something wrong with us that we need to hide from others in order to get what we want.
Even if we “get lucky” and find a human source that seems willing to give us what we need, because we know the world is all about change and impermanence, we live in fear we might lose the love, happiness and security we need at any time. Fear of impermanence causes us to try to control the world around us. We try to keep others prisoner to our desires so that we can have what we want for as long as we want it. If others fail to do what we want them to do, say what we want them to say, and provide what we expect them to provide, fear causes us to puff up in order to appear more forceful so we’ll be more convincing through intimidation. We say and do monstrous things when we feel out of control, hurtful things we regret. The biggest bullies in the world, no matter who they are or how powerful and important they seem, are afraid to show their neediness and fear of loss. Bullies are looking to the world to provide what they are not experiencing within themselves.
If we want feel happy, satisfied, and unafraid in this world, we must become a Master of our own life so that we can direct the flow of Pure Positive Energy within us into our life experiences in happy and satisfying ways. Abraham-Hicks tells us, “Like the air you breathe, abundance in all things is available to you. Your life will simply be as good as you allow it to be.” How good are we willing to allow, not force, our life to be. We can learn to trust that time is on our side when we make good use of it. But, so often it seems as if there is either not enough time, or too much time wasted, for us make good use of our Earth time, most of time, and to practice being a deliberate creator in life. The 16th Century French philosopher, Jean de La Bruyère, wrote, “Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.”
It’s easy for us to embrace the concept of time moving quickly, yet when it comes to the swiftness of our making positive changes in our thinking that will open us to greater spiritual awareness and more fulfilling experiences in our life, those changes seem to move in slow motion, if they move at all. Change doesn’t take time. We take time to change! Most of the time old thoughts seem to stick around as if they have no place to go. Familiar thoughts feel comfortable even if they’re not happy ones. We feel safe with old thoughts because they have been with us for so long. We choose a love affair with the known rather than the Unknown, even if what we’ve been thinking about self and life is keeping us from experiencing the change we desire in our body, relationships, and freedom of self-expression. We hold on so tightly to what we already know that we can’t grow in ways we’ve yet to know. We get stuck like a deer in the headlights, afraid to move at all, when we’re meant to ride on the beam of light.
Rumi wrote, “You think you belong to this world of dust and matter. From this dust you created a personal image, and forgot the essence of your true origin.” We are so much more than our personal image, so much more than our human body. No one outside of us can give us a life worth living because we brought our power to create such a life with us when we arrived in this human experience. We didn’t come to fearfully hold onto anything, or suck the life out of anything. We are here to freely experience the fullness of life so that we can experience more of the Infinite Possibilities for living life that are available to us. We’re here to let the door to our mind fly open to Infinity. But, we won’t gain access to our Power, and become a Master in using It, unless we remember our true origin. When we remember we are a Divine Being simply wearing a human disguise, and that beneath it Wisdom and Truth abides, we realize our well-being and all that goes with it—health, happiness, love, and safety—are our birthright. And, as we do, amazing things begin to happen.
We can’t fool the Universe with our costumes even while we play trick-or-treat with the world. We are now, and we will forever be, Its powerful Sons and Daughters. We may have fooled our self and forgotten the Truth of who we are, but the Truth will never forget us because we are forever One with It. We read in A Course of Love, “God’s heartbeat is the Source of the world, the Soul of the world, the Sound of the world in harmony, existence with no beginning and no end.” There is no God and us. There is only God as us wearing a human costume. God provides all we desire every moment while we are here because God desires it for us too. We were Masters before we came into this human experience. Our body is just a vessel for our amazing Being. But we can only set our self free by using the Master key.