This article by John-Roger was first published in the Movement Newspaper March 1983.

We have a tremendous challenge as individuals and as collectively connected human beings. We can choose to be negative and debase ourselves and others, or we can choose to be loving and supportive of ourselves, our friends or even total strangers.

This may seem like a simple choice to make but if you are caught in your own negative thoughts, they may get in the way of you being the loving person you would like to be. It’s difficult to love someone else if something inside you hurts. Those hurts might look like anger, tears, revenge, remorse, self-pity or not caring. When you have any of those present inside you, all the input you receive from others has to come through your negativity before it can reach the part of you who listens.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone who says, “Yes, yes, I know” all the time you are talking? Then later you find out they didn’t hear one word you said. That person is so wrapped up in their own beliefs that it’s difficult for them to hear anything anyone else is saying. They end up defending themselves even when the other person is not attacking them. They have their excuses laid out ahead of them so they won’t have to be right or wrong.

People get themselves in trouble when they label and place restrictions on the information coming to them. They become recalcitrant, which means they stay set in their position, unwilling to give it up. If they did give it up, they would have very little left because they have formed the habit of doing things certain ways. It may not be the best way, but it’s their way.

When you run that type of game on yourself, you won’t move forward in your life. You’ll have one foot nailed down in the past with one foot dangling in the air trying to decide where to land and you’ll be thrown off balance. You’ll look, act and talk funny and you’ll wonder why things aren’t going the way you want them to go. You have to give up the past in order to live in the here and now of your life.

We can all look back on our lives and say, “If only I could do it over I would do it differently.” However, it won’t change what happened back there, so you might as well accept what happened in your past. You can’t change it and you don’t have to dwell on it. Those so-called negative experiences we had in the past can be the very foundation our strength and wisdom is built upon today. Everyone of us have had to go through the hurt or we wouldn’t know the joy. We’ve had to experience the dark so that we would recognize the Light.

If we closed down the “hurt” input channel, we would not know when other people hurt. If you don’t know that, you can’t be caring, loving, sharing and supporting to assist them. The optimum condition is to have all your input channels open and functioning – the ones that recognize suffering as well as happiness. Having them all open is being spiritual and there is a divine protection that is extended to you so that you cannot be “hurt” in your openness.

Newborn children are very open. Their love is unconditional – it is also unconditioned. No one has yet told them or taught them that they can be hurt in any way. And in their openness, they receive unconditional love back from us.

Unfortunately, in this society, we’re taught that our physical, emotional and mental behavior has to match up with the tradition our mothers and fathers have set up for us. When a child does not fit into the “tradition” he may be considered a problem – the “condition” is set upon him. Who he may really be is someone who is saying, “I don’t fit the mold of mediocrity so please expand your sensory input channels because I’m opening new ones for you. I want a little more freedom to pursue this new avenue.”

It becomes our responsibility then to always be open for a new way. The very next person who we meet may have the key in his personality or actions to set us free. Their behavior may be very different from the rest of society, but they may be living in total freedom inside themselves. And as each one of us becomes free to listen and learn from each other, we can all become free of the restrictions, regulations and rules we run in our minds.

Freedom is the ability to do those things that you know are right for you and are not based upon the judgments or restrictions of other people. Be true to yourself in spite of your personality, emotions, mind or physical mannerisms. They are tools to be used to communicate to the rest of the world. That greater part of you, your spiritual nature, communicates itself in spite of those other conditions. Learn to get out of your own way, to free yourself of the past and set aside preconceived beliefs in order to gain a greater understanding of yourself.

The underlying keynote is that beyond the body, the personality, the gender and the economic status, there is a commonness that is in every one of us. In every culture, in every race and in every religion, people have common experiences. We all love, feel pain and happiness, hurt and joy. If we looked more for the things we have in common, rather than look for the differences we would be able to appreciate each other more. And in our mutual appreciation, our perceptions would increase and it’s possible to do so much more.

Man, as a collective self, is now in the process of taking the next step in our evolution. And that next step is taking responsibility as a being who is both cause and effect upon itself and the environment. What we do counts because we are not separate from each other or this planet. We count on more levels than you can imagine. Just having a good thought can impact the rest of the world.

We can use the tool of the imagination to imagine a cleaner and more peaceful world. We can use our minds to think good thoughts. We can use our emotions to love others and to love ourselves. And we can use our physical bodies to produce the results and get the work done that we are here to do.

When the cell levels of your body become enlightened, through any kind of realization, through the act of forgiving, through laughter, through catching a joke, through a feeling of goodness toward somebody, they explode as a radiant form of Light energy. That Light energy moves through our consciousness from the cell level and when that happens, you have spontaneous healing, awareness and enlightenment.

You are the source of what is happening around you in your world. If you change your behavior, people around you will start changing their behavior also. Be an example of what you want in your life.

If you want loving people around you, don’t act mean to try to get them to be loving. That’s like fighting for peace. All you’re doing is fighting yourself because that person you are fighting is just another aspect of yourself. Suspend your belief systems long enough to allow an open communication with that other person. Let go of habitual responses enough to experience the similarity with that other person. Be open enough to let spirit into your life to direct you back into your own Soul awareness.

All energy is the same – it comes from the same place. The source of that energy allows you to do with it anything you want because it loves you in spite of what you do, not because of what you do. It is the energy of unconditional loving.

Baruch Bashan.
John-Roger