It is possible for us to feed, clothe and house every person on the planet in dignity, if we chose to do it. It is possible for us to live in a prosperous world where disease is all but eradicated and war a thing of the past, if we made it a priority. We now have the technology and means to create life as never before possible for every person on the planet. It would not even be that difficult to have an entirely different life experience for us all. The problem is that although we have advanced technologically, we are still run by the ideas and conditioning of scarcity and fear. We are managing 21st century resources with 19th century and before conditioning. But something is shifting.

The Quickening
Change is afoot on the planet. Many of us are beginning to question our old familiar notions of reality and are choosing to live in ways that support our collective greater good, connecting with our spirits and reintegrating our values into our everyday lives. In a ground breaking study for the Institute for Noetic Sciences, Paul Ray discovered a group of 44 million Americans he calls the Cultural Creatives who are creating an "integral culture". The Cultural Creatives according to Ray are leading a comprehensive shift in values, world-views, and ways of life. Though his study focused on the U.S. population, I believe that this is a global phenomenon.

We are waking up to new possibilities for ourselves and for humanity as a whole, and realizing that we now need to explore new ideas of what it means to be human in the truest sense of the word. We see it all around us with talk of connecting with your spirit, spirit at work and meditation slipping into common use. It makes my heart sing as I see what is happening around me and I know that as many are coming into a new sense of themselves, many more of us are stuck and often crippled by conditioning that limits their ability to experience freedom and participate in the changes. The secret longing, the quiet and at times not so quiet urging, is being felt by more and more of us lately. Life as we have known and lived it is no longer satisfying, if it ever was. For some it is manifesting itself as a crisis of spirit and life circumstances and for others a low-level gnawing feeling that just won't go away no matter how much they eat, shop, watch T.V. or whatever else they do to try to silence it. We are being called to growth.

"Your daily life is your temple and your religion. Whenever you enter into it, take with you your all."
- Khalil Gibran

Awakening to Our Greater Good
The call to high service is really about awakening to our greater good and taking the high road. It is about honor, and dignity and alignment with something greater than our individual selves, furthermore:

1. The call to high service is about doing the work to free yourself of your past, limited conditioning of fear, anger, hatred, scarcity, self-doubt, racism, sexism, shame and the like, in whatever way it may manifest itself in you. And then learning the skills necessary to function optimally in your life and the world.

2. It is about going beyond healing to communing with your spirit and seeking inner guidance on a daily basis. It is actively walking the path of life and honoring your inner wisdom contacted by regular prayer, meditation, and any other positive life-affirming spiritual practice you are called to do. It is recognizing that at our core we are all spirit, beings of infinite dignity and worth.

3. It is getting clear about your values. It is about adopting life-affirming and life-sustaining principals and having them as the basis for your every action. It is acting in integrity for principal-centered living.

4. And, it is holding an active vision for what is truly possible for us as humans. It is honoring the diversity of our life expressions and experiences and the individual journeys of our fellow travelers on the path of life. It is about showing up consciously as an act of service and being the point of peace in the midst of chaos, if necessary. It is about making everything we do an act of service.

Full-cup Giving
Service in the 21st century is about giving from a full-cup. The cup is full because we have gone to the well of our spirits to fill it. We are giving from the overflow, a feeling of enough and more than enough, where we naturally want to give from a spirit of generosity. Giving from a generosity of spirit can only come if we have taken time to commune with our spirits and nurture ourselves. Full-cup giving is a gift from the heart that infuses the gift of service with juice and blesses the giver and the gifted. It ensures that we will always have enough and never be burned out by serving. It is conscious serving that has behind it the force of love. It is an act of consciousness.

"To keep the lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it."
- Mother Teresa

What's possible?
Truly we have the opportunity to change our view of reality and what's possible, and thus change the world. What is common and everyday for many of us, the simple act of reading this article on the Internet would have blown most of our ancestor's minds only one short generation ago. And yet, a few people dreamed, and their dream has created a new frontier and greater possibilities for us all. What other frontiers await us if we only open ourselves to them? If the imagination and active holding of vision can create all the incredible technological advances we are enjoying, what could our actively holding a vision of higher consciousness and a better world create?

What if we consciously chose to have every act we do be an act of service- using our skills and knowledge to do only good?
What if we truly committed ourselves to creating a world where, war, strife and poverty were a thing of the past? What if we forgave everyone and everything, releasing hatred and bigotry? What if we all forgave ourselves of our past mistakes and began anew? What if no matter what happened around us we consciously chose to love? What if we modeled for our children, lives of integrity where our every action was in line with our professed ideals? What if we honored, rather than judged every person? What if we embraced the whole of humanity as our brothers and sisters, as reflections of our self? What if we truly respected the sanctity of all life, honoring our mother Earth and all her inhabitants? What if we lived up to our true potential as humans? What would life be like for us then?

The code of love: Love is a force.
It has the power to melt seemingly impenetrable boundaries and to allow us to soar to heights we have never before known possible. Every major religion and mystical tradition in the world speaks of the power and tenacity of love. I believe that it is part of the very fabric of creation and can be harnessed and used as we use gravity to fly our airplanes. I am not describing the soupy stuff of popular love songs. I am talking about love in its purer, more potent sense. Love is what allowed the Christ to work His miracles. It is this kind of love that propelled Mother Teresa and gave her the vision and stamina to maintain her ministry. Martin Luther King used the power of love to lift himself when he felt at his lowest point. Love is what inspired the Buddha to seek the path of enlightenment and then to share His teachings with the world.

"Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand."
- Mother Teresa

We all have access to it.
Love is in the air we breathe and it holds our organs in place and pushes air through our lungs. It is written in the very fabric of our DNA. I believe that love is essentially what we are and therefore our most potent force and tool. By honoring and living by what I call the code of love we can truly accomplish great things with grace and ease. We can rise to our highest potential as humans and create the world that we all long for in the silent recesses of our hearts. Buckminster Fuller summed it up poetically when in his revision of the Lord's prayer he wrote: "Love is metaphysical gravity."

O.K., you may be saying, Marla has gone a little "out there" for me. But, before you click away and write me off as just another flake on the Internet, really consider it. Have you ever been in a situation where despite what your head told you, you forgave someone close who had betrayed you? Have you been forgiven? What is that thing that makes us go crazy for babies and small children? What is behind that feeling you get when you are doing something you truly love? What is it that you see in the eyes of your beloved that makes your heart skip a beat? Would you say that love has made you do some crazy things, made you feel freer than you ever felt? What is it that your dog or cat showers upon you? How do they know how to do it?

"Where there is great love, there are always miracles." - Willa Cather

Honoring the code of love is making the decision to consciously connect with the sense of feeling of it everyday and having it be your guiding principal, informing your every thought and action. It is choosing to love, rather than hate, bicker, backstab and the like. It is choosing everyday to honor the diversity of life in its entirety and to express gratitude for the blessings you have. Honoring the code of love is having the courage to go against the status quo; to hold the higher vision and to love unconditionally, starting with yourself. Love is the call to high service, calling you to a life of peace, prosperity and joy…our natural state.

Consider This
Ten thousand years ago, the development of agriculture was speeding the rate of human progress. A century ago, it was industrial breakthroughs. Today it is information technology that is pushing the rate of development ever faster. Tomorrow we may be in a new phase of progress. The exploration of human consciousness could take over from information technology as an even faster arena of quickening. If so, it would be spiritual evolution, not technological, that takes us into what mathematicians call singularity- the date at which the pace of change would become infinitely rapid and the equations used to graph it breakdown and cease to have any useful meaning.
Source: Waking Up In Time by Peter Russell


Affirm Daily
I am an instrument of God's love. I choose to live life in its fullest sense and serve wherever I go.


Ask Yourself (the answers will come in time):
How can I remember who I am and from this place of knowing share my gifts with the world? How can I have my life be a blessing to all I share it with, including myself? What is the high vision I need to hold today?

Act Now:
Tips for Answering the Call

Commune with spirit
Honor your essential nature by taking time each day for some type of spiritual practice, to fill your cup, to remember who you really are.


Own your own shadow
Our shadow is that negative voice that sometimes sounds like our parents, telling us we are not good enough, or will never be anything, yada, yada, you know the voice. Sometimes we ignore it and just project it onto other people- our spouses, children, "those people" of that other race, town, or side of the tracks. Own your shadow, accept what's yours good, bad and ugly and then heal it.

Get healed
Do the work of healing your family of origin issues- we all have them, they come with the package. This is a powerful act of service and will give you a happier and more fulfilling life and greater access to your higher spirit since you won't be using all the energy hating your mother, or something like that.


Let your life be an example
Choose to live your life as an example. Maintain integrity between your words and actions. Always choose higher ground. Consciously choose to have your life be an act of service. Give and share what you have to offer from a generosity of spirit.

Get on purpose
Get clear about your values and why you chose to be here now. Decide what is uniquely yours to share and go for it.

Honor your path and the path of others
Honor your path as it unfolds before you. Stay active and focused on it with softness. Be patient with yourself and take time to celebrate and acknowledge your growth and the changes you are making. Honor others, wherever they may be. We are all on the journey home.


Forgive
Forgive everyone and everything as often as necessary. Hold no grudges. Imagine what a world we would have if everyone just forgave.

Choose love
Consciously connect with the sense of feeling of love everyday and have it be your guiding principal, informing your every thought and action. Allow it to speak to you. Move towards those things that make your heart sing. Choose to love, rather than hate, bicker, or get-even. Honor the diversity of life in its entirety and express gratitude for the blessings you have. Stay close to Spirit.


Share your story- participate in sangha
Sangha is a Buddhist term for sacred community. Sangha provides a safe place to share deeply and honestly, and to provide sacred witness for each other. Get a group of people together and share your stories, your hopes and dreams. Share your vision for the world. Stay on higher ground with and don't make it into therapy- go to the appropriate places for that. The gift will come from the communion.

Hold the vision
Hold the vision of our greater good. Actively imagine a world where peace in the Middle East is a reality, where all are fed and healthy, where we recognize and honor our individual and collective Divinity. You have your own piece of the vision. Get in touch with it. Write it down and then read it at least weekly, preferably daily.

© Marla Durden, 2001

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