This article was first published in the January 2014 issue of the New Day Herald.<\/em><\/p>\n One of the keys to your relationship with the Traveler is that you do your part. \u00a0It\u2019s there for you as your responsibility. When you consider Soul Transcendence, look at the meaning in how your life translates itself in this world. In effect, could you essentially do whatever and the Traveler would still engage you in what is Soul Transcendence?<\/p>\n At one level, the answer is \u201cyes\u201d because the Traveler applies to you unconditionally. In your life expression, that\u2019s taking place in a perfection. There\u2019s nothing outside of that perfection. That alone is like the ultimate safe harbor, meaning wherever you go, God is. That\u2019s a complete statement. So whatever you\u2019re looking at, whatever you\u2019re dealing with, God is. And you\u2019re always in safe harbor with the Traveler.<\/p>\n We may not consciously understand whatever we\u2019re dealing with, but we don\u2019t need to understand. It isn\u2019t necessary. And yet the perfection remains intact. Even when we don\u2019t understand, there\u2019s nothing wrong or outside of God. It\u2019s all still fine because it\u2019s all in God\u2019s creation.<\/p>\n From a higher view, we would say, \u201cNo matter what happens, you\u2019re going to make it.\u201d So what\u2019s the big drama? \u00a0That\u2019s an excellent question. Why do we worry? Why do we ever doubt? Why be afraid if we know how the story ends?<\/p>\n In MSIA we teach that we know how it ends, which is of course not an ending. It\u2019s more a fulfillment of how things work. It\u2019s a completion, and it comes to an amazing completion. Put the knowing that you will endure into what you\u2019re working with so you trust regardless.<\/p>\n Trust is something more than acceptance. Acceptance is a neutral position. Acceptance is not for<\/i> and not against<\/i>. It’s neutral by surrendering to whatever is present as a way of acknowledging what is taking place. The first opportunity is not about doing anything with whatever is going on. Just be aware of what is present. That\u2019s acceptance.<\/p>\n Trust is when you are engaging yourself. Trust is more about wanting to cooperate. Trust is choosing, \u201cI want to do my part for my Soul Transcendence.\u201d<\/p>\n We often are introduced to acceptance, the first law of Spirit, but we don\u2019t necessarily remember there are other spiritual laws. All of the spiritual laws are important to how we function in the Spirit. Cooperation is the second law. So consider, how do you cooperate? How do you engage your trust in cooperation?<\/p>\n Learn how to cooperate with what is taking place. How do you do that? Through your awareness, and through your awareness of what already is. With that awareness you apply what you know based on where your intention is directed. Ask yourself, what is my direction? What is my purpose?<\/p>\n Paying Attention <\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re sailing in a boat, consider what you are doing in that boat. Are you going somewhere? Is there a destination? Are you there just for the ride? \u00a0Are you there just because you\u2019re not somewhere else? \u00a0Are you adrift? \u00a0Maybe there\u2019s a strong wind and your boat may capsize. If you capsized, then there\u2019s something to notice about what\u2019s going on. Maybe God just said, \u201cGame over!\u201d<\/p>\n You may say, \u201cGod, that\u2019s not fair!\u201d Yet, it is fair. You won\u2019t be sailing that day because God has something else in mind for you. You may ask, \u201cOh, God, did you have to resort to this? Before I got in the boat, couldn\u2019t you have put up a little sign? A warning like, \u2018We won\u2019t be sailing today.\u2019 And then I just wouldn\u2019t have bothered. I wouldn\u2019t have gotten in the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n Often there is a sign, but you didn\u2019t notice or read the sign. Maybe you were so excited and enthusiastic about what a wonderful day it was, that you didn\u2019t realize the weather could change. Even when things seem so good at first, it\u2019s important to pay attention and read the signs along the way. \u00a0In this world, things change. So it\u2019s important to keep checking things out.<\/p>\n By continuing to check it out, that\u2019s part of how we stay out of harm\u2019s way. We watch, we look, and we listen. When we\u2019re young, that\u2019s what we do when we\u2019re learning to cross the street. So watch, look and listen because maybe you can hear something coming even though you can\u2019t see it yet. \u00a0Keep working with the signs. \u00a0Keep paying attention. That\u2019s a key to doing your part in your Soul Transcendence.<\/p>\n In MSIA, we teach that you survive no matter what. What\u2019s essential in looking at Soul Transcendence is that you\u2019re not your physical body. In fact, you\u2019re not a number of bodies that are psychic and material. You\u2019re not those. So whatever happens to those bodies, who you are goes on intact. Your soul survives one hundred percent intact. Who you truly are isn\u2019t somehow compromised or depleted by what goes on in this world. So what does that mean? That translates to, \u201cDon\u2019t worry.\u201d It\u2019s going to work out. You will survive.<\/p>\n What if you\u2019re being told that you\u2019re going to die? \u00a0That you have a certain amount of time to live? What\u2019s on your schedule? Would you like to change your schedule in terms of the world?<\/p>\n That\u2019s a relative fact of life. It relates to this world. Don\u2019t ignore the signs about your life in this world and how you conduct it. Is your life cooperating with this level? \u00a0Are you a master at how to cooperate and get along with this level such that the end result of your life is that you manifest a contribution?<\/p>\n Bring in the Spirit with you in this level so that Spirit translates from what\u2019s above to below. That is how what is unmanifest translates into the manifest. The goodness of the Spirit replenishes the level.<\/p>\n I like to point out that God \u201cplenished\u201d this level which means it was created fully with a creator with unlimited supply for keeping it full and increasingly good. So how is it replenished?\u00a0 Whatever you take out of this level, return it with something equal or of greater value. In MSIA terms we say, \u201cLeave this place better than you found it.\u201d Let that be spoken at your wake or as your epitaph. Maybe it\u2019s an epilogue or a soliloquy. That would be good too.<\/p>\n Intentionality and Direction<\/span><\/p>\n Our lives work off of intentionality. When I was in college, proceeding along the way to having a Masters in Counseling, one of the assignments was to declare my specialty. I was asked to define if I am a \u201cthis or that.\u201d There was \u201cthis\u201d therapy and \u201cthat\u201d therapy. Or I could create my own, if I dared, knowing someone would likely be looking over my shoulder questioning how I was allowed to do that. In any case, I came up with Spiritual Counseling. So I went to my advisor and said, \u201cI\u2019d like to do Spiritual Counseling.\u201d And he said, \u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d which was a good question.<\/p>\n My basic rationale was it seemed that in my generation, at least, there was a greater disenchantment with things that are conventional such as religions. From my experience, more and more people that I checked in with or listened to were telling me they were raised Catholic or Jewish or whatever, but they weren\u2019t really prescribing to their religion. I heard them say, \u201cI don\u2019t have that faith. It\u2019s not my thing. I\u2019m not following that. I just did it because my parents made me.\u201d Yet, they still had questions about God, and they didn\u2019t know how to work out some of those questions. They had a few \u201cwhys and what’s,\u201d but nobody to check in with.<\/p>\n I thought it would be good if a counselor could come from a neutral place and talk about that issue, the God issue, without having to attribute it to a particular kind of faith. My advisor sat back and thought about that and then said, \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like working as a Chaplain. Are you thinking about being a Chaplain?\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cNo,\u201d because I thought Chaplains worked for the government, the military or something like that. My dad was in the military, and I knew I didn\u2019t want to do that. The advisor said, \u201cIf you\u2019re not a Chaplain, I don\u2019t know how you would apply your area of specialty.\u201d<\/p>\n So I didn\u2019t pursue spiritual counseling. Instead, I kind of specialized in career counseling. \u00a0When I would work with people as a career counselor, I would ask them, \u201cWhat\u2019s in your heart?\u201d That\u2019s really what it boiled down to — discovering the work they loved. \u00a0Working in career counseling was good because it helped me with finding this career, the career of my heart of hearts. So if you want to do a work of love, then find out what\u2019s in your heart that you love to do.<\/p>\n Often people are disconnected from what\u2019s in their heart of hearts to do. \u00a0They\u2019ve resigned themselves to believing that there\u2019s no such thing. They see work as drudgery or a burden. That\u2019s how they believe you get along in this world, that there\u2019s no reality to loving to work. The reality is that you can love what you do. And if in the process of that, you realize your gifts, and your attunement, then all the better. That\u2019s an application of being conscious and aware of how you have been gifted and where your talents are.<\/p>\n For example, if your talents lie in, \u201cI can put up with the smell of garbage like nobody else!\u201d that\u2019s a great gift. If you think about it, that might be worth a lot of money to have somebody deal with the garbage so the rest of us don\u2019t, especially if someone does it really well. \u00a0They handle it so we don\u2019t have to smell it because it makes us sick. Yet for them, they love it. In the perfection of this world, there are peculiarities such that what is one person\u2019s poison is somebody else\u2019s medicine.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re doing something that is disturbing for you, you have a responsibility to take a look at that. Is it a self-imposed disturbance? Or is it really that your make up such as you are, what you were born with as a body-born condition, is counter to certain things?\u00a0You weren\u2019t really meant for certain things?<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another example — if you\u2019re a fish, then you belong in the water. If you\u2019re out of the water, you\u2019re not going to do well. You\u2019re going to suffer. \u00a0A fish may say, \u201cBut I want to be like everybody else.\u201d \u00a0Yet, the fish is still a fish. So it needs to be in the water. You may need to test the water to find what\u2019s true in your heart of hearts. One of the measurements of cooperating fully is the experience of knowing you\u2019re in the right place at the right time, right here, right now. There\u2019s nowhere else you would rather be. You know you are meant to be right here, right now. That\u2019s synchronicity. Those are moments where we are in complete cooperation.<\/p>\n How did you get to that moment of synchronicity? Because you chose it. You may feel you lucked into it, but that\u2019s a statement reflecting your lack of awareness. You didn\u2019t luck into it. You chose into it. You just didn\u2019t observe how you chose into it. Even if something feels natural, easy and there\u2019s no resistance, somehow, someway you chose into it.<\/p>\n If someone with a very loud voice said, \u201cStand there! Don\u2019t move!\u201d And you went, \u201cOkay,\u201d and then the whole ceiling caved in and the only place it didn\u2019t come down was right where you were standing, you might wonder who delivered that message. Somebody warned you who knows you, loves you and protects you. And you chose back. You paid attention. Yet, that protectiveness isn\u2019t invoked unless it\u2019s called forward for your highest good.<\/p>\n For example, you wouldn\u2019t call the fire department right now unless there was a fire. Why? Because the fire department is about coming out when there\u2019s a fire. You wouldn\u2019t call them and say, \u201cWe just wanted to see if you would come.\u201d \u00a0That’s a false alarm. \u00a0If an hour later, you call them again and say, \u201cWe just wanted to see if you would come again. Just because you came an hour ago doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019d come an hour later.\u201d \u00a0That’s another false alarm. We call the fire department when there is a fire. It\u2019s a choice to be in cooperation. Our purpose in life is like that. We work in cooperation with what is. In Soul Transcendence, we cooperate with this level of this world, paying attention to the signs of the Traveler in our heart.<\/p>\n The Light of the Traveler<\/span><\/p>\n In MSIA, we encourage you not<\/i> to come into the face of somebody who\u2019s been spending time in the shadows and darkness and blast them with your light just to show them how bright you are. There\u2019s something off in that approach. You\u2019re misusing your gifts. Your natural gifts and talents are not for showing off at the expense of someone else.<\/p>\n People sometimes ask the Traveler, \u201cIf you\u2019re so high and mighty, why don\u2019t you do this or that?\u201d referring to some manner of showing off. The Traveler is not about showing off. The Traveler has this amazing independence. So the body on this level is amazingly independent in this level from the body in the next level and the body in the next level. All those bodies are fully functioning in their levels. Yet, what it is spiritual is fully connected throughout the levels. The Traveler is in all the levels, and it doesn\u2019t function in contradiction. The Traveler functions in integrity.<\/p>\n We are all Travelers and Travelers in the making. It\u2019s in our destiny. It\u2019s something on the way forward. Some people may ask, \u201cDid you just tell me I\u2019m the Traveler? If so, would you mind getting out of the way so I can be the Traveler?\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes people approach the Traveler more or less like that, some with a little more rudeness than others. That\u2019s fine. My point of view is if you take the position, that\u2019s a graduation. And I\u2019m for graduation. There\u2019s no argument about serving the Traveler. As a Traveler, there\u2019s no resistance like, \u201cGet out of here, this is my hill.\u201d From my view I say, \u201cGo ahead and see if you can do it. It\u2019s not my idea. It\u2019s up to the Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\nCooperating Here and Now<\/span><\/p>\n