OK, let me clarify the title, which was used to get your attention. I don't see anyone as being a sucker; we can sometimes behave like suckers, and I observe this in how people cling to hope. Our behavior is just another teacher for us when we are aware. It is not who we are.
Many of us learned that hope was some kind of virtue. Consider the possiblity that hope may be one of our most love-draining distractions. Though our dictionaries may not express it this way, our culture defines it as inherently including a sense of vanity: you may not get what you hope for.
And our culture uses the word hope to imply that some outside source is going to save you from whatever it is you think you do not want. With your attention on your heart, please contemplate that.
Somebody else or some outside thing is going to fix the world for us? Does this make sense to the heart?
We tend to look outside of ourselves for the very things that are best found within. We hope that the next trip to India to visit the guru will save us from our anguish. Maybe you deify the guru, forgetting that true oneness is all about accepting our divine equality. We hope that the visit to the latest vortex of light will transform us. Maybe the next book by your favorite guru will fix you; the last one was pretty good, but somehow your life seems to be the same as it was before you read it. Those words didn't fix you, but maybe if you read more of it....
While astrology, tarot and divination tools can be very helpful in giving you clues about the will of your heart, some folks rely so much on these things that they allow ego to use them as tools to avoid going in and being with and listening to the will and the wisdom of the heart. Now is the time to wake up to the true loving power of the heart.
When we drink the 12-pack of beer, watch the mud wrestling on TV, or immerse ourselves in romance novels or other mind-numbing intoxicants, we do it in the hope that we will feel better.
If you are hoping that something outside of you is going to fix everything about your self and your world that you do not like now, you are feeding the egoic part of yourself that does not seem to exist except as you feed it.
It's interesting to note that the campaign themes that brought both Adolph Hitler and Barack Obama into power centered on the theme of hope. I say that without judgement; it's just an observation, one of life's curveballs.
We tend to hope that our government or our religion will save us. We hope that the government will bail us out, and that it will back off its behavior of bleeding the middle class, its torture of terrorist suspects, its insistence on fighting stupid,destructive wars. We hope that there is some god who will save us from eternal torture, who will find some writers to give us some scripture that will not be so contradictory, who will deliver us into his heaven.
For a 9 minute video wake up call that includes a brief meditation on dragonfly medicine, click here.
We are just beginning to see that all these external institutions are simply mirrors for the ego. The following is adapted from "TheWake Up Book," which I finished writing late last year:
How Most Religions and Our Governments are Mirrored by the Human Ego
(I am observing the following about false religions that feature a harsh God, eternal damnation or dogma that suggests “correct” belief makes the believer better or more worthy than others. Only some of the so-called “minor” religions may be seen as uniting and empowering, so the following would not be referring to them.)
• Our corporotocracy government thrives on the promotion of war
• They give the illusion of freedom and choice while dedicated to virtual enslavement.
• They refuse to take responsibility for their actions, blaming something outside.
• They pretend to be great bearers of truth and justice. In reality, their very existence is built upon hiding the truth from people as a way of maintaining their power.
• Religion takes simple things like Love and makes them appear complicated, attaching rules and conditions.
• Religious dogma and books (like governments’ laws) are purposefully self-contradictory and misleading.
• Both’s number one weapon is deceit. They are imposters.
• They are centered in creating fear of condemning judgment by God or other “superior”, “more worthy” beings/authority figures
• All have stories that justify their existence. Most of the stories, upon rational observation, are either simple fabrication, rewritten history, or clever lies.
• So far in our history, their apparent motto has been “Order Though Chaos.” To maintain their apparent power, these institutions require us be feel weak and divided. Internal reflections of each of these---government, religion, and ego---appear to fight with each other, fanning the flames of our inner battles as we engage in both inner and outer debate. Much of the message contradicts itself, discouraging our reliance on reason and common sense as it encourages division and feelings of weakness or powerlessness.
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Hope is simply an anemic substitute for trust. And we can choose to trust all of our experience as our teacher. If the experience is easily seen as loving, it is easy to love back: the caress of the most desirable lover is easy to reciprocate. And if someone is attacking you verbally without any reason, is it worth building your trust in yourself to simply respond with love or just calmly walking away?
Trust of self is only possible when one is truly willing to go within and get in touch with oneself. In a world in which there is so much chaos and suffering, we are being asked to tap our inner courage to move through all the changes more gracefully. It takes courage to move from the known--even when the known is so difficult--into the unknown, the unexplored.
And one cannot have courage until one is tested. You don't build it when you are either feeling like a victim or feeling like every day is like a day at the beach. Trust is the precursor of true courage. And the paradox is that it takes courage to claim true trust, the courage to move beyond the the tired, old ways of living. This is at the heart of what spiritual empowerment means.
Ego, like most of our governments and religions, wants you to stay stuck. If you do not trust that what is unfolding is a more loving and harmonious world, then, at best, you are hoping that something outside of yourself might just save you, and you are also believing that maybe it wil not.
Collectively, this month will give us plenty of opportunities to make heart-based choices for loving trust. Calm and trust will be two of the greatest assets you can have during the tumultuous times that I see going into much higher gear in the coming week. Big wake up calls are coming from the Universe and these wake up calls will become more and more in our collective face starting this week.
As Gary Zukav has so eloquently pointed out, at all times you are coming from one of two orientations: either love and trust or fear and doubt. If you are just hoping that everything will work out, that something outside of yourself is going to make it all better, you are sapping your own strength and forgetting to tap one of your most valuable resources: loving trust.
I'll let one of my favorite teachers, Yogi Bhajan sum it up for me: "Trust only comes when you trust yourself. When you trust your dignity, you will always be dignified. When you trust your love, you will always be lovable. When you trust your beauty, you will always be beautiful. When you trust your greatness, you will always be great."
Please click on your pause button and maybe let that sink in.
Suggested keywords for the week:
Calm and trust.
All Love,
Carlo
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I have created many tools for those who see the value in unfolding their loving power. Many of these are included for free on this website, including over 40 very short inspirational videos. The books, eBooks, and CD are designed to help you move along the spiritual path with more grace, calm and speed.
