Spiritual Activism & Ukraine
This is Your Dharma — With It You Will Change Your World
How to balance your Higher-Self & Lower-Self to be the best you and help make a better world for places like Ukraine.
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SECTIONS
[1] The “Witnessing I” & The “Small I” [2] Ukraine as a Spiritual Catalyst [3] Be Proud of Your Dharma [4] Heal Yourself, Heal Your World
[1] The “Witnessing I” & The “Small I”
February has been an intense month.
There is intense spiritual energy coming from the Sun, which I posted about early in the month in this Medium article. There was the 22/02/2022 spiritual portal on the 22nd, which I wrote about and played my gongs for in this Medium post. And there was the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which I discussed from a spiritual perspective in this Medium article.
It is, therefore, no wonder that my mind, body, and spirit shut down for the last couple of weeks to integrate the intensity of February.
I channeled for the first time in a couple of weeks the other day. The basic message was that there are events that happen, and my small I naturally reacts to those events. This is what “I” am supposed to do according to my dharma, which is my soul’s purpose for this incarnation according to Hinduism. (Other South Asian belief systems define dharma differently; I have heard that the best translation is “that which sustains”.)
But there is also the witnessing I, which is the aspect of me that simply watches, without judgment, the unfolding of events and my small I reactions to them.
“Think of a problem. Do your best to solve the problem. Leave the outcome to God.” (or the Universe, or Destiny) — Roger Castillo
Also, this week, I heard the quote above from the Advaita Vedanta teacher, Roger Castillo, in a recent satsang (on YouTube). I interpret this as we (our small I) do our best to solve the problems of our world. But we leave the outcome to God / Source / the Universe / Destiny, all of which are terms for our witnessing I that are beyond our small I comprehension.
From an Advaita (or nondualism) perspective, we (small I) have no control over what happens to us and our world. The illusion that we have control is all a story. But it is a very real and consequential story for our small I.
In Advaita, we assign control to God/Source or the unknown/unknowable. But we do not know how that works, because it is nonduality and we exist and think in a duality universe. The closest we can come to a knowingness of God/Source is through the witnessing I. (See my recent article on Radical Nonduality for more on this.)
We are always both our small I and our witnessing I at the same time. We have been taught, since early childhood, to identify only with our small I and ignore our witnessing I. But our witnessing I is still always present, except in deep sleep. We also refer to it as our consciousness, although that term has as many other meanings as well.
In another satsang, Roger uses additional terms to talk about the different core perspectives that are always in all of us:
- Witnessing I -vs- Small I (Witnessing I is Source/God/The Absolute/Brahman; Small I is the ego-self)
- Esoteric Perspective -vs- Practical Perspective (Esoteric is the higher-self/soul view of reality; Practical is the lower-self/ego view & experience of the world)
- Psychological Self/Response -vs- Biological Self/Response (Psychological is how others say we should be; Biological is our in-built physical reality needs)
- Thinking Mind -vs- Working Mind (Thinking is our psychological/comparing/judging mind; Working is our functional/practical mind)
- Judgment -vs- Discernment (Judgment is what my small I thinks others should do; Discernment is what others should do for the greater good of the universe)
There is a general correspondence between the concepts, but they are also different in significant ways.
- The Witnessing I and the Esoteric Perspective are similar and are our highest spiritual self; they are the opposite of our ego-self.
- #3, #4, and #5 are all general aspects of the Small I, far from our highest spiritual self; they are all aspects of our ego-self experience, which many see as the story and illusion of duality.
- The Practical Perspective, Biological Response, Working Mind, and maybe Discernment are similar aspects of our ego-self that are essential to function in our physical reality.
- The Small I, Psychological Self, Thinking Mind, and Judgment are similar aspects of our ego-self that we overemphasize in our physical lives; some say these are the source of our psychological suffering.
These categories summarize the multiple selves that are us into the most fundamental aspects of how we interact with reality. The main problem is we overemphasize our ego-self, which many spiritual teachings say is the cause of unnecessary psychological suffering.
In those terms, spirituality can be defined as the need to balance our outer ego-self with our inner soul-self. I like the way Seth/Jane Roberts describes this…
“…you have made physical reality something different than was intended. You did this through using your own free will, your egos have become overdeveloped, overly specialized. They are focused so strongly within physical reality and physical reality is far more painful than was originally intended. You are indeed in very strong respects within a dream. It is you who have made the dream too vivid. You were to work out problems and challenges, but you were always to be aware of your inner reality and of your true home. To a large extent you have lost contact with this. You have focused so strongly upon physical reality that it has become, indeed, reality. The only reality that any of you know.” — Seth/Jane Roberts, ESP Class Session, April 1969
(I have several articles on our many selves, and our inner and outer selves, in particular. These two are probably the most relevant to the discussion above: Ego, Self, Soul, God & More: Who Do You Want To Be Today? and The Outer Ego & The Inner Ego.)
[2] Ukraine as a Spiritual Catalyst
The Russian invasion of Ukraine presents a dilemma for many New Age Spiritualists (myself included). I previously posted a channeled response from my guides on the war, followed by my thoughts. My guides emphasized how we exist within the oneness of the universe. I tried to expand on the oneness message with the following advice to myself and all spiritually minded people (summarized here):
- Be Heart-Centered.
- Remember that Darkness is Not an Enemy — it is a natural aspect of the universe.
- Remember that We Create a New Reality in Every Moment.
- Respond as is Most Appropriate for Who You Are.
- Meditate & Be Patient.
I was trying to balance the Witnessing/Esoteric/Higher-Self perspective (which I naturally favor) with the Psychological/Practical/Ego-Self perspective. But it still comes across as spiritual bypassing, even to my mind. That is because:
Before seeking/awakening, mountains and rivers seem to be real. During awakening/enlightenment, mountains and rivers seem unreal. After enlightenment, mountains and rivers become real again. — Zen Buddhism
These 3 lines offer much insight into spiritual responses to the Ukraine situation, as well as similar challenges.
- “Before seeking/awakening, mountains and rivers seem to be real.” — When we are in pre- and early stages of spiritual seeking or awakening, we are more likely to see Ukraine from our Small-I and Practical ego-self perspective, with a strong emphasis on Psychological Responses, Thinking Mind, and Judgment. The nightly television news is one of the clearest example of that view.
- “During awakening/enlightenment, mountains and rivers seem unreal.” — When we are actively going through an awakening, we are more likely to see Ukraine and the world from our Witnessing I and Esoteric higher-self perspective. But we can easily judge this as spiritual bypassing because it denies the reality of the war.
- “After enlightenment, mountains and rivers become real again.” — When we attain this state of consciousness, our ego-self/physical and higher-self/non-physical are fully integrated — we fully identify with both. The world does not change, but our perspective is now balanced. For our Small I and Practical ego-self, the emphasis shifts to our Biological Response, Working Mind, and Discernment. Our higher-self perspective does not change — it is the eternal and unchanging silence and being.
The spiritual purpose of the Ukraine invasion is to shake up those spiritualists who are stuck seeing the mountains and rivers as unreal. That perspective comes from over-identifying or overemphasizing the Esoteric view of reality.
The news media are doing their best to be a spiritual catalyst to shake those people up. In doing that, they are also shaking up those of us in the “before seeking/awakening” category. I expect many of them to turn to spirituality as a response to the Ukraine invasion.
In addition, the spiritual response from our ego-self to Ukraine should come more from our Biological Response, Working Mind, and Discernment, and less from our Psychological Responses, Thinking Mind, and Judgment.
That is how we best express our dharma or individual purpose in this incarnation.
[3] Be Proud of Your Dharma
In this channeled message, my Energy Group/Higher Self says that we are here to be both our higher-self and our dharma (ego-self purpose or role in life). It is similar to the message the Krishna has for Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita.
As I suggest above, that means reacting to the world more from our Biological Response, Working Mind, and Discernment, and less from our Psychological Responses, Thinking Mind, and Judgment.
ME (10 March 2022): I am seeking a message that is in my highest and best interest. Blessings to all who hear this message?
EG/HS: Hello, Alan. Nice to see you again. Nice to be with you again.
Of course, we never leave. We are always here. We are always communicating. We communicate in many ways. We, being you, being everything that you experience, everything in your environment, there is always a message there.
And you are correct. Everything that has happened to you, everything that happens to you, every event that happens within you, within your existence, is you. You are far more than the boundary of your skin. You, the true you, extends beyond that inner witnessing space that is mostly centered in the 3rd Dimension and . But that is just a 3rd Dimensional construct.
It [the witnessing space] extends into the space around you and into everything that you perceive in every moment: when you open your eyes, everything that you see; when you listen, everything that you hear; and everything that you smell. And everything that you know from the world is part of that [witnessing space], even though you cannot directly sense all you know.
And every event that happens to you, that seems to have a specific source, from a specific person or persons, that event, that energy as it comes to you and is experienced and absorbed through your senses, through your mind, is you.
Yes, there are other people out there. And they are doing their thing. But how to fix you is your thing. So, feel that thing.
All of these negative synchronicities, as you call them, are, of course, you. They are aspects of you that you must integrate into yourself.
When you integrate them, you accept them, feel them, allow them to be what they are — part of the diversity of experience. It is what the universe wants to do through you — to experience that diversity.
And sometimes that diversity includes things you like to call “negative synchronicities”. Think of the service you are providing to the universe in doing so.
It is not you. It is the universe, which is you. So it is not you, and it is you, at the same time.
You, the witness, are experiencing yourself in this way. And the experience will always change. There will be negative synchronicities. There will be positive synchronicities. There will be neutral synchronicities. And they are all happening at the same time.
It is more how you perceive the universe that determines how they are interpreted, as positive or negative or neutral, and how you react to that.
That is your dharma. The reaction is your dharma. It is the purpose, the experience, that your soul sought when it came into this incarnation. You react differently from anyone else. Each person will react in their way because each person has their own dharma to fulfill.
And that is perfect. That is the diversity of existence. The reason existence exists is for that diversity of experience.
So be proud of your role. Be willing to serve your role to the universe. Be willing to serve the universe through who you are in this incarnation, through your dharma.
And take joy in that no matter what the synchronicity, what the event, no matter how you interpret it, from that silent space of witnessing, it is all neutral — both the event and how you, your dharma, react to that event. The witness is not part of either. It is just simply witnessing.
And there is no judgment. The event, and the reaction, is as it is. Both contribute to the universe in their unique and special way.
As you know, there is no wrong path. But there also is no right path. There is only the path. And take joy in that, because it is an amazing path.
We love you. Namaste.
ME: Thank you. Maybe I will write that up. Namaste.
[4] Heal Yourself, Heal Your World
In this channeled message, my Energy Group/Higher Self says that because everything is essentially one thing, when we send healing energy to one person or place (like Ukraine), we are sending it to all people and places — to our entire universe.
That relates to the discussion above because sending healing energy is our dharma, especially in this year of 2022. How we send it varies from one person to the next because each person or being has their individual dharma/purpose/role. But it all goes into the same oneness of everything. So it is all good, no matter how it is done.
ME (11 March 2022): I am seeking a message that is in my highest and best interest. Blessings to all who hear this message.
EG/HS: Hello Alan. Here is our message for you for today.
Recovery. This is the year of healing. This is the time of healing yourself. The planet is going through this period of time because you are going through this period of time in which things are being dredged up and stirred up so they can be healed.
That is the energy to send to yourself and to the world. That is the energy coming from the Sun. The Sun is stirring things up. That means your essence, your source, is stirring things up.
But everything that happens outside of you is also happening inside of you. They are one. They are connected. It is not one causing the other. They work in unison. Things happen in unison.
And so everything in your personal universe is happening in unison. In this way, when you heal any part of what you experience, you heal the whole. Heal yourself, and you heal outside of you. Heal what is outside of you, and you will heal yourself.
Heal one aspect of you, say, the physical aspect, and you will heal all other aspects. Heal the mental or the emotional aspects of you, and you will heal all other aspects because everything is connected in that way.
So do your meditation, do your yoga, do your sound healing. Do your humming chakra meditation. Do everything that feels right for healing.
And remember, it does not matter if you are focusing on anything. It does not matter what aspect of yourself you are focusing on healing. It does not matter what aspect of the world you focus on healing.
It does not matter who you are focusing on healing because every person is you. Every person you encounter is you — is an aspect of you. So when you send your healing energy to them, you are sending it to yourself, and you are sending it throughout your universe.
That is our message for today. We love you. We love your experience. Namaste.
ME: Namaste. Thank you.
Related
- ⬇ In this interview, Stephen Cope presents a Buddhist perspective on dharma, from his book, Dharma in Difficult Time (2022).
One thing he suggests is that there are 3 ways we find our dharma purpose in life: (1) pursing our passions, (2) taking responsibility for our duties, and (3) addressing the challenges that arise in our life.
- In this quote, Seth/Jane Roberts speaks to a class on following our Inner Self (or True Self, or dharma), which is beyond our thinking ego-intellect self. When he says the ego is “an excellent tool”, he means for negotiating our 3D physical reality.
“True wisdom, true wisdom, true wisdom does not need thought and true wisdom does not need intellect. Now, in the meantime, you will have to get by with thought and intellect because you rely upon it so strongly and there is nothing wrong with it. In the meantime, it is an excellent tool.
But the true wisdom within you, once again, allows your body to spontaneously breathe as you listen to me, refreshes yourselves as you listen to me, collects from realities that you do not perceive, infinite potentials of energy that fill your being as you listen to me. That is wisdom. And it does not need words. And it formed your intellect.
Upon its wisdom, your intellect rests, and the security of your intellect rests upon that support, which is the wisdom of the inner self.
I use words because presently they make sense to you. But hopefully, behind the words that I speak, you sense the inner vitality which has no need for them. And hopefully, listening to me, you sense, if only dimly, the wisdom of the self within each of you that is triumphant in its own wisdom, its own spontaneous freewheeling wisdom, upon which your intellect rests.
The fine and terrible weapon of the intellect should, indeed, terrify even the gods. For there it sits atop of your heads so sure of its function and its worth and its permanence, and its knowledge. And it judges everything according to those rules which it has itself established.
And so surely should our little idiot flower cower beneath this fine intellect of man, that even the seasons themselves should tremble before this fine instrument of the ego. And yet it seems to me, if I remember correctly, that idiot flowers, without a brain in their petals, manage to grow beautifully into what they are and to perfectly do their thing.”
— Seth/Jane Roberts, The Early Class Sessions, Book 3, ESP class session on February 2, 1971 (I reformatted the paragraphs and sentences to make it more readable than the original, but I did not change any of the wording.)
⬇ These articles were mentioned in the text above:
- For more on Spiritual Activism & Social Issues, see this collection of articles. Note that the articles in this collection are behind the Medium paywall. For paywall-free access to my articles, go to www.AlanLew.com, linked below.
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- Written in collaboration with my Energy Group/Higher Self. This is our perspective of the truth and not the whole truth of reality.
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