HJ: Have you ever had the urge to truly understand why you are here? What life means? Have you ever felt that there was something more to life than what is typically presented, but perhaps you could not put your finger on exactly what it was? These are all signs of our spiritual awareness rearing its head into our ‘everyday’ consciousness. In the article below, Neale refers to this drive towards spirituality as Yearning, an apt description. We are all born with various levels of yearning. Some may wander through life never really acknowledging or embracing their inner yearning until some event or circumstance brings it squarely into their awareness. Others may immediately embrace it and begin their spiritual journey with vigor and the rest will usually fall somewhere between the two extremes.
The point is that this inner yearning is our innate spiritual self seeking to come into full expression. It is how the universe gently nudges us to recognize our true origins and divinity. One could even see it as an instinct — a semi-biological drive towards full spiritual awareness and expression. To me, it is a symbol that we live in a conscious, spiritual universe that if founded on unconditional love. It always gently guides us to our highest expression. We are given the ability to ignore our spiritual instincts, but they are always present, waiting for us to acknowledge and embrace them. Yearning is the mechanism which drives the upward spiritual evolution of our individual and collective consciousness.
– Truth
‘Yearning’ Is a Tool of Awareness
My dear friends…
Did you know that even when your Soul is physicalized (that is, living with a physical body) it embarks upon a spiritual journey—often without you knowing it? You may not be consciously aware that you are having a spiritual encounter, but you are.
On the other hand, it is possible for you to produce such an encounter with full conscious intention. That is what the Spiritual Steps into Non-Awareness of the world are all about. So we are picking up here where we left off last week in this Bulletin. And now comes a little surprise. A being can move into Full Realization by using any one of the Ten Instruments we spoke about here last week. Each Instrument, standing alone, can build to the Holy Experience.
Actually, this should not be a surprise at all. I’ve already said that the Holy Experience may be had without using any of the tools at all. It therefore makes sense that using any one of them could lead to the desired destination, just as using all of them or none of them could.
So, in that context, let’s take a look at these Ten Instruments in the weeks ahead. I think you are going to find this string of article very, very useful. We’ll begin by exploring…
THE FIVE TOOLS OF AWARENESS, one by one, over the upcoming Weekly Bulletins. Then, we will go on to Instruments 6-10, the Tools of Non-Awareness.
[smartads]
Tool #1: Yearning
Yearning was my first step into Awareness of the world as it really is. Without it, I do not think I could have made it. Perhaps it is the first step for many. Particularly “regular” folks who are not conscious of entering life with an already-existent, “built in” kind of Knowing, and who just proceed from there.
Of course, we all enter life with a “built in” Knowing. It’s just that most of us forget what we Know—until we don’t anymore. We abruptly cease forgetting at what has been called our Moment of Awakening.
All of us come to that moment, but many of us do not come to it until after our death. Yet our goal is to arrive at that Knowing during our time on the earth—and so we come back, we return, over and over again, seeking to Know ourselves in our own Experience. It is a joyous returning, this reincarnation event, not an arduous one, for all the experiences of physical life are a celebration of Life Itself in its wondrous variety, and the soul revels in every moment of it, for it is the soul which has created every moment of it.
This is difficult to believe for the Still Forgetful. This is the major challenge of life for the many “regular folks” who fill the ranks of the Non-Remembering.
Yearning is the first step in the process of meeting that challenge. It is the announcement that the Mind has begun noticing Itself in a new way. It is the immediate aftermath of nearly all raising of self-consciousness.
When a sentient being has become self-conscious (that is, when a being is able to distinguish him- or herself from the environment, and thus, separate him- or herself from that environment), that being then learns to interact with its surroundings—and to yearn for things within it, for the being understands that all the things within the environment were placed there for the purpose of allowing the being to Experience what it Knows.
Only creatures of a certain consciousness can do this, because only creatures at a particular place on the evolutionary cycle experience yearning. A sea slug presumably does not emotionally yearn for things. A dog does. So does a human being.
And we will continue this fascinating exploration in this space next week.
Hugs and love,
Neale
Neale Donald Walsch is a modern day spiritual messenger whose words continue to touch the world in profound ways. His With God series of books has been translated into 27 languages, touching millions of lives and inspiring important changes in their day-to-day lives.
