When you’re about to cross the bridge to your Soul, that’s when your fears and resistance may be the most intense. However, fear doesn’t make it into the Soul. What does make it? Love. So when what you fear comes upon you, love it. – John Morton
This article by John Morton was first published in the New Day Herald in May of 2012.
When a person is fully in touch with their courage, their heart energy, it overpowers the senses and perceptions. Although your perceptions may say, “Fear! Fight or flight!” the heart can say, “This is the right thing to do.” With courage, you can walk into the lion’s den. You can walk into fire. Courage is what moves a mother or father to go into the burning house to get their child. How could a parent go into the fire? Their heart ruled their actions. They overcame any fear and moved forward with the courage of the heart.
The first part of the word courage, comes from the French coeurs or from the Latin cor which means the heart. In Spanish, corazon translates to the heart. The latter part of the word courage refers to the action or the state of being of the heart. Courage is then the energy and action of the heart.
In MSIA, we refer to Soul Awareness Discourses as the teachings of the spiritual heart. So we’re going after the highest heart we can get a hold of and put that part of us in charge of our life. When we do, we realize our courage and can overcome our fears.
Learning from Our Fears
We don’t have to throw away our fears. We can use fear as part of how we act, like elements in our repertoire. If necessary, fear can be used for fight or flight. Fear can also be transformed into courage and strength to move forward, loving it all and using every experience for our Soul’s learning and growth.
Sometimes people can have fear of themselves, especially when it comes to self-realizations and sharing about themselves in a deep way. Having the courage to encounter yourself and to face yourself in the mirror allows you to look at yourself in all of your being and all of your existence, which actually is all right here and now. You may realize you haven’t known everything about yourself. There’s more to learn and experience about who you are.
Consider that you know a vast amount about yourself because of your life experiences. On one side are those things that you like about yourself. On the other side are those things you don’t like about yourself. Perhaps you remember times you were loving and joyful. Perhaps you remember times you were being dishonest or deceitful. You can discover new things about yourself, positive as well as negative. At some point you may wonder, “What am I really like deep inside? Am I truly good? Or perhaps I’m truly bad, and I’m just doing a good job of covering up?”
If that sort of thinking feels familiar, the fear might be, “I don’t want to go too far in getting to know myself because I might find out I’m a bad person. It’s better not to know than find out I’m a bad person.” If you’re thinking about yourself in that way, you may stay away from allowing yourself to know who you are more fully. The process of self-awareness takes great courage, and it starts with accepting and loving yourself unconditionally.
If you’re afraid to reveal yourself to other people because you’ve become accomplished at the cover up, you may keep yourself hidden. You may think, “They’ll treat me nicer if they don’t really know me, rather than if I let them see my bad side.” Maybe you worry that if you reveal yourself, you’ll be rejected, banished, tarred and feathered, imprisoned, killed, or the like.
Let’s consider that we do have prior lifetimes and that this life isn’t the total of our existence. What we carry forward from those past lifetimes might be called primordial memory. You might also refer to it as karma. However we refer to our past existence, most of it is unconscious and not in our immediate awareness.
Levels of Awareness
One way to look at self-awareness is as if we’re standing on the surface of a lake. The surface is the level that we’re on here in this world right now. So the awareness we have may seem like just one millimeter. That’s the level where we are consciously aware of ourselves. Yet, we know there are many levels. Just as a lake has far deeper levels than we can see from the surface, our existence goes much deeper than our conscious awareness, perhaps more than twenty thousand kilometers when we compare to what we can see at the surface.
There’s tremendous depth to our consciousness because we are a result of our entire existence. We are a culmination of all we have experienced and learned. We may still be influenced by our past because we have things yet to complete or resolve in this lifetime.
In the Bible, there’s a reference to Paul saying, “I could die daily” [I Corinthians 15:31]. Let’s say that message has something to do with when you go to sleep, it’s like you “die” that day, and it’s over. Then the next day you’re born again. You start a new day. Consider how many days in your life you went to sleep with things left unresolved and incomplete. Consider that we don’t remember most all of our existence and yet we are influenced by all of it.
Consider that your lifetimes are like days in your existence. Just like the days that have been incomplete in this life, you’ve also had lifetimes that were incomplete. You’ve carried all that forward. So what does that have to do with encountering yourself?
Let’s consider that in all of your existence, in all of your lifetimes, you did things that brought you unnecessary and painful experiences. An unconscious part of you records those experiences, and that part still influences you. The underlying message you hear might then be, “Don’t get caught! If you get caught, they’ll punish you!”
Such a fear might play out with your process of self-revelation including your willingness to look at all of the parts — positive and negative. So if there’s a strong fearful influence inside of you that says, “Don’t get caught!” then it’s going to resist you revealing yourself because it thinks you’re going to be punished or even executed for revealing the negative aspects. That part of you that fears and resists, which has to do with your survival, often expresses through the basic self, which expresses through the subconscious and unconscious levels.
In Fulfilling Your Spiritual Promise, John-Roger explains that the basic self is that aspect of ourselves that has responsibility for our bodily functions and the psychic centers of the physical body. You could relate to it as an animal instinct or to the areas of habits, memories and emotions. The basic self resides in the unconscious level and has access to all of the other levels, including the conscious self and high self. So the basic self is aware of all its prior existence. It’s also assigned a very important responsibility to do everything to preserve the body and make sure you survive. When you have unconscious fear, your basic self is probably going to put up some resistance in your process of self-revelation which you may experience as fear or trepidation.
The Value of Soul Transcendence
In MSIA and Soul Transcendence, we’re going after the Soul. The Soul is your true self, the perfect nature within you. There’s nothing flawed or handicapped about your true self. Not only that, when you become conscious of your Soul, it’s a magnificent, beautiful experience with no exceptions. Soul Transcendence is worth everything you do to get to it. You’ll be grateful for whatever happens along the way in order to have the experience of your Soul.
There’s great value when even one of us is directing our energy towards the Soul. There’s an even greater value when more than one of us is doing that. If all of us are doing it, it becomes miraculous as a transcendent experience entirely of the nature of the Soul. So we get together in workshops, seminars, retreats and informal gatherings remembering that, “Where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them” [Matthew, 18:20].
If you have apprehensions or anxieties about your process of self-revelation, that would be ordinary as you become attuned to what is taking place within. Your consciousness is aware that you are on a journey into your Soul. It’s also aware you’re on a journey of self-revelation, and the part of your consciousness that is subject to illusion may be anxious about what could happen that is difficult and painful. You might then be aware of some fears, doubts, judgments or resistance– whatever that level of consciousness might do to stop you from revealing yourself.
We look to lift that resistant consciousness with love and Light. We are all going to be the ones that lift ourselves in our experience. However, God is the power that’s doing the lifting. How much power does God have? All the power needed. You decide how high you want to go through your faith and trust in God. And you find out what you can handle as God does not give you anything you cannot handle.
When we come together as a group, each one of us influences and is influenced by the entire group. So we’re part of the overall lifting of this consciousness. If everyone is cooperating in this focus, then everyone makes a contribution to the lifting of the energy. Even if you don’t do it for yourself, be open and willing to do it with the group. In truth, you’ll still be doing it for yourself because that’s how it works. You help yourself and you help others.
Power and Strength of Your Soul
Who you are is more than anything you’ve done or created. As human beings, we all deal with self-doubts, which become energized by looking at things that we’ve done or have happened to us in the past which we experienced as painful and difficult. Based on those things we’ve done or experienced, we may make a decision that we’re not good enough. We’re not capable. We’ll be rejected. We’ll be abandoned or left behind. But that’s the message of the false self, not the true self which is who you are as a Soul.
The strength inside of you, the power of your Soul, is more than whatever you’ve done or has happened to you in your prior existence. John-Roger has taught that, “Not one Soul will be lost.” Does that include you? Yes! In your heart you know that truth but not necessarily in your mind. So have the courage to remind yourself, and move forward from that inner knowing of your eternal nature.
In encountering yourself, you may run across things that seem scary. Consider nightmares or an inner experience that was scary — something that was scary not from out here in the world but directly inside of you. Parts of your consciousness are just like nightmares. They may not be easy to face because they bring up fears.
Do you remember how you’ve responded when you had a nightmare? You were probably very thankful to wake up and not be in the reality of that nightmare. It’s possible that you’ll face a nightmare. However, you know that you’ll be okay if you encounter a nightmare. You know you’ll survive. Our life can be like an adventure film, where we have to encounter beasts and monsters to get to the treasure. That precious treasure is your Soul. The journey of your Soul may seem in some ways to be precarious. Yet the Soul is worth whatever we encounter along the way. We’re not having experiences in order to encounter nightmares. We’re having experiences in order to encounter the Soul. The Soul is the most precious thing that you could possibly experience. So would you be willing to go through a nightmare to get to it?
Crossing the Bridge to the Soul
Imagine being in dense jungle mountains, where there’s a narrow wooden foot bridge suspended by rope. You notice how the rope is old and a few boards are missing. Yet we’re all going to cross that bridge. We’ve all done it many times. So you’re with friends who are guiding and supporting you along the way.
You might say, “I’ve never been across this bridge before. I don’t want to fall. Maybe I’d rather stay at this side of the river.”
I say, “Come on! This process of Soul Transcendence is about crossing the bridge. We’re in this together, and we have instructions for you along the way.”
It’s important to pay attention to the instructions in your Soul’s journey, as if your life depended on it. Those instructions include ground rules identified by John-Roger:
Take care of yourself so you can help take care of others.
Don’t hurt yourself and don’t hurt others.
Use everything for your learning, upliftment and growth.
Is this process of encountering your Soul fatal? No, but life in this world is fatal, and your fatality is between you and God. In MSIA, we don’t do anything to quicken your fatality. If anything, our focus is to do things that will enhance your stay here in this world. So remember to take care of yourself first. By always taking care of yourself, you will help maximize the experience of your Soul.
In looking inwardly, there is nothing spiritually dangerous. However, survival in the world does require your utmost focus and attention. Like crossing a bridge that can swing and shift, if you’re not hanging onto the side ropes or you aren’t tied to those in front and behind you, you may slip through the boards. So that means pay attention and follow the guidance that is provided for you. If you do, you’ll cross the bridge, and not just one bridge but many bridges.
In the practice of Soul Transcendence, we’re crossing bridges every day. In moments throughout the day, you may be doing things that could be considered precarious and require your close attention. The result is you’re going to move higher, eventually to the top. That’s where we’re all going — to the best experiences that we can possibly have as a Soul in this world.
If you have resistance to following the ground rules, perhaps that relates to fears about revealing yourself. You may have had experiences that when you gave over your trust to others and revealed yourself, they demonstrated they weren’t worthy of your trust. So you may have a sense of mistrust or resistance to revealing yourself again.
Perhaps you haven’t had enough experience yet to be willing to take the risk to reveal yourself. If you choose to follow the ground rules and dedicate yourself to Soul Transcendence, the actual risk you may experience is in losing your fears, doubts, and self-judgments which is in your favor. Clearing and letting go of negativity allows you to move closer and more fully into your true self.
When you’re about to cross the bridge to your Soul, that’s when your fears and resistance may be the most intense. However, fear doesn’t make it into the Soul. What does make it? Love. So when what you fear comes upon you, love it. The amazing thing is when we use love as a way to overcome our fears, we discover that love is the way and it’s pervasive. The true identity of everything and everyone is love.
In the Bible it says, “God is love, and he who dwells in God dwells in love, and God in him” [I John 4:16]. So choose to move forward in your faith and trust in God. You will find your courage. You can say to yourself, “I see the fears and the resistance because I’m about to cross that bridge. Yes, I’m going to cross that bridge, and I’m going to do it with my courage. My courage will make one foot go in front of the other.”
Choosing Your Soul
Your Soul is not your physical body. Your Soul is not your mind, your emotions or your personality. Your Soul is eternal. It doesn’t die. It doesn’t even get hurt. So looking at who you are from that level, there’s no risk. You’ve got it made. Not only that, you’re already there.
In MSIA, we say “baruch bashan” which means the blessings already are. That means the blessings already are existing. They are present. It is done. God’s will is done. We’re just waking up to that truth.
You may be just realizing the blessings already are. Your spiritual awakening is a process to assist you in realizing that the blessings already are present and available for choosing. However, in this world, there are distractions, and they are part of everyday life. In other words, you have a choice to focus your consciousness directly in the Soul. You can also choose to go into distractions, illusions and all sorts of negativity.
I encourage you to leave distractions behind. Allow yourself the time and the place to minimize the distractions and go inside. Set up your inner and outer environment so you can worship and do spiritual exercises. It may take some discipline. There’s great value in holding the focus, being present here and now, and tuning in to your true self, your Soul, as though your life depended on it.
John-Roger has said, “If you made your Soul as important as your next breath, you’d be in Soul consciousness right now.” We all understand that our breath is very important to our life. If you’ve had an experience where you weren’t sure you would get your next breath, where someone had your head under water or was smothering you or there wasn’t a lot of air, you probably experienced great power in your physical strength. You realized there is a great power that comes present when your life depends on it. It’s a wonderful experience to know that power within.
Rarely, if ever, in your daily life is the full power of who you are necessary. However, it is possible to experience the full power of who you are right now in this moment. That’s what we’re going after in Soul Transcendence — to experience the full power of who we are as a Soul right here and now. Then we move forward with the courage in our heart.
Treat your process of Soul Transcendence as vital as your next breath. Move forward in your life from the energy and action of your spiritual heart, taking care of yourself and others, letting go of fears and judgments as distractions and nothing more. Embrace all of your Soul’s adventures with love, not hurt, knowing each experience on this journey is for your learning, upliftment and growth. You will then come to know more fully your courage as the energy and power of your loving heart.
Baruch Bashan
WATCH A BLESSING WITH JOHN MORTON
