Drawing by Louise Bourgeois
We are always becoming the place to which we arrive at ourselves. There is not one endpoint; there is no final destination. There is, simply put, infinite moments of arrival. At every experience there exists a new opportunity to arrive, renewed, awakened, and refreshed. Arrival is not only acceptance of the self, it is pure intent to listen to oneself with grace, honor one's inner world, and explore the expansiveness of consciousness.
Ten Ways to Arrive at Yourself:
Voice. We arrive at ourselves through the cognizance and comprehension of sound and thought. More importantly, our own voice takes precedence over our reality. We create our physical reality from our thoughts and our thoughts can never remain neutral. Neutrality is not the path of least resistance. Passion is the path of least resistance because passion is what fuels the path to move forward endlessly. We must remain both passionate and non-attached at all times. Non-attachment to the outcome of everything will alleviate the ways in which we voice ourselves, to ourselves, because non-attachment means living free from worry. Be gentler, be softer, in the ways you speak to yourself. And use your voice to speak up against injustice and intolerance because unanimous liberation is necessary for all of human consciousness to arrive at themselves through the empowerment of their voices.
Against Hate. Hate and love are not opposing forces, but rather the same emotion experienced from different perspectives. We need to eliminate the ideology that in order to expand we must love ourselves fully or be consistently positive (the term for this is spiritual bypassing). Loving ourselves fully does not come from the emotion of love itself, but rather the unconditional sense of surrender. To hate is to show ourselves what we do not love, what we do not care to receive, what evokes shame, or pity, or disgust, or fear. Hate is strong in that it is an emotion of separateness, whereas love is an emotion of connection. But you cannot have one without the other. Connection would not exist if we didn’t understand or recognize that separateness, although an illusion, is a construct used to create divisiveness. Connection is not an illusion. Connection is the true nature of our soul as it exists on this physical form with other physical and non-physical entities.
The Mirror of Illusion. Our reality is constructed through a series of mirrors that sway and distort the perception of our true selves. We can only arrive at ourselves when we escape the room that contains the mirrors. However, this is not a physical place in the three-dimensional world. The mirror of illusion is a mindset that keeps us small, distorts what is true, and allows us to stay in a certain space of unfamiliarity to the soul-level self. Imagine seeking Universal Truth from a place in which every direction or path offers different “truths.” How can we discern which truth is valid? The fact is, we cannot. Truths that extend from the physical and material world are as changing as the cells in our body. There is not one that exists as ultimate. Universal Truths are not taught, they do not exist in text nor in language, but they are the Truths that radiate from the core of our being. They are in essence what you know without having to be told from others. We can only escape the mirror of illusion by looking inward. The goal is not to escape ourselves, but integrate our inner worlds wherein absolute Truth lies, within our physical vessels until the mirror of illusion disappears.
The Energy of Push and Pulls. Arrival indicates a balance of all dimensions working in a harmonious unison for the elevation of universal consciousness. While we recognize pushing and pulling as it relates to the gravitation relationship to earth, a push and pull exists on all planets and galaxies within the universe. Push and pull, metaphorically speaking, is the duality that creates wholeness. Duality is not negative; it is not these austere binaries that keep our thinking black and white. Duality is simply the recognition that for every perspective that exists, there are others that are opposing but equally valid. Being freed from the concept that our truth is the only truth, that our lives are “right” while others are “wrong” allows us to approach the human experience with unconditional love for others. We are all connected; there is nothing that separates us except physical form. Our goal, as humankind, is to reach a state of consciousness in which harmony exists in all aspects. While we assume world peace is fantastical, only to be hypothesized about or witnessed in fictional stories, it is very possible. When we strip away the illusion of ourself and others as separate: you pushing, me pulling, we recognize that we are all the same force. When the whole of humankind comes to this realization, we can be freed from the concept of duality as separateness, and recognize the truth that duality is all of us experiencing the same emotions and consciousness from varying physical and intellectual perspectives.
Inner Home. Everyone’s inner home needs tending, maintenance, upgrades, and nurturing. A house is not a home unless it receives nurturing. The same perspective applies for our inner home, the soul that exists within our physical form. In this earthly lifetime, our inner home also includes our physical body. At every moment, the physical body and soul self need different things. One day you may wake up with the thought “I could go for a big bowl of fruit!” and the next day you think “I would really love a cheeseburger.” Are you attaching guilt or shame to which thought you perceive as better and which is worse? There is no guilt or shame when we clear out our inner homes of old belief systems that do not serve us. Everything becomes good. Everything is positive. There must be no attachment, even to our thoughts, or the outcome of our thoughts. But one day you will arrive at the conclusion that your thoughts are constructed not only your inner world of mindset, but also as the reflection of your outer world of physical experience. The more you stay on this path of self discovery and arrival, the more your thoughts will align with what your inner home craves and needs. Until then, there is no judgment. Judgment does not serve the inner home any purpose.
Meditation. Meditation is not sitting and emptying the mind of thought. Although, that is one way to arrive at meditation. Meditation becomes the perspective of being conscious of one’s own life experience as they go through their waking hours. You might start meditation practice by sitting on a cushion, or in a chair in an upright position and being quiet. You might find that stillness is difficult, especially mentally. You might begin a walking meditation practice instead. One day, this concept of meditation will disappear, and you recognize that every living moment is meditation. When you come to this arrival, walking down the street is not simply walking down the street. Walking down the street becomes a powerful force in which you recognize the interconnectedness of all beings and things. Smiling at a stranger is meditation, cooking a meal is meditation, rest is meditation. And then, nothing else exists.
Non-Physical Entities. It is very difficult to find arrival within ourselves without the recognition of the non-physical entities that guide us. Have you ever, in a moment of creative expression, or in a state of flow, realized that what you have created is not actually your own? While your hand might have moved the paintbrush or the pen, you cannot claim ownership, from the ego sense of self, to this work. That moment occurred from the assistance of the non-physical entities as a way for us to connect to our higher selves. Gut feelings, little voices “in the back of our heads,” synchronicities, dreams with visits from deceased friends and family are all signs of the non-physical working for us. The more we place trust in these experiences as valid, the stronger our connection to our own inner source is, as well as the relationship with the Universe, or God, or whatever other term suites you.
Cloud Metaphor. Consider who you would be if everything were stripped away from you. Not in a scary, apocalyptic sense or an end of the world scenario. Imagine yourself in a room, your room, with absolutely nothing in it. Who would you be? Next, imagine yourself as you exist now without your physical body. Who would you be? Can you effectively recognize the answer to this question? I did not ask if you could answer the question, but if you can recognize the answer within yourself. The answer is within you, and that is your purpose. Your purpose is not tangible but can be developed through tactile and material experiences, because we were gifted a physical body through which we become creators. If it is hard to recognize your soul purpose, imagine yourself as a cloud. Would you exist to protect others from the sun’s heat or rays? Would you exist to provide rain and nurture the earth? Or would you simply exist to be continually transformed, day after day, into whatever form the earth wants you to take? Are you attached to the form you currently hold? What no longer serves you? A cloud is not attached to its shape nor its purpose, just as you should not be attached to your own shape or purpose. If you find yourself in attachment to anything around you, envision yourself again with nothingness, until you arrive at yourself with a sense of peace and gratitude for what you have within yourself.
Material Escape. As we exist on this earth to be creators, we can recognize the beauty within the material world. And it is simply magnificent and continually expanding. The natural world, the treasures of rocks and seashells, the plants which provide us with food, the water which sustains us, is endlessly beautiful. Yet, we are attached to so much in the physical world. Can you learn to appreciate all of the physical abundance that exists without attachment? The recognition that every moment is transitory and impermanent comes with a price of gratitude. When we learn to feel deep gratitude for every moment, we can escape from the mental ties we have to physical things, including our physical bodies and outer appearances. Escape from the attachment to external possessions until you also learn to escape from the attachment of the mind. And therein lies liberation.
Celebration. Celebration speaks for itself as the last step to arrival. It is the joyfulness and honoring of the abundance that fuels us. List the ways you celebrate your own life experience, not through transitory pleasures but through gratitude and recognition that your soul-level self exists to be happy. When we celebrate ourselves, we break free from the construct that our lives exist to experience suffering and attempt to free ourselves from it. You are worthy to live a life free from suffering. You are worthy of celebration each and every day. You are unconditionally worthy.