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Happy New Year!
Last updated on: January 5, 2012 at 8:39 pm by chrisjohnson
Happy New Year! 2012-01-05T20:39:14+00:00 chrisjohnson
Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.
By Bruce Adams
Well it seems that we find ourselves facing that grand moment once again. On a global scale I can not think of a more celebrated day than New Years.
What is it about a new year that gets everyone so excited and so full of expectations?
I believe if you researched the celebration of New Years from the view point of various cultures, you would find some differences but also many similarities. One of the modern day similarities that can be found is the belief that with each New Year, we are afforded an opportunity to reflect on the past year or years and decide on the things we would like to change.
Since I believe that everyone who has come into this world has come here to become awakened to their True or Authentic Self, I would like to talk now about how time both helps and hinders our ability to do just that.
As I have come to see things, time exists for the ultimate purpose of teaching and learning through experience. In fact, whether you are talking about a moment, a year or a lifetime, the duration of time is not as important as to what is received/realized through experience based in time. In short, experience is the key and the ultimate reason for the existence of time.
At some point however, that which served a purpose on one level must be replaced with a higher reality or it becomes an anchor and an obstacle.
“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways.”
1 Corinthians 13:11
Einstein once said, “You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it. You must learn to see the world anew.”
For those who have the eyes to see, the following parable spoken by our brother Jesus will perhaps be understood differently then when you heard it as a child.
Matthew 6:24-30
25 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon (materialism).
26 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith.”
As I see things, Christ was teaching that there are different states of consciousness that bring us totally different experiences. At some point, everyone must decide whether the human view based on linear time is their goal and objective or open to a new reality (the spiritual view).
For further clarity, it may be helpful to compare the contrasting states of experiences between the human view verses the spiritual view. Simply put, the human view is linear in nature and has a beginning (birth) a middle (aging) and end (death). Conversely, the Spiritual view/expereince is eternal and is infinite.
One look at these differences and it becomes obvious that, how you see yourself (human or spirit)
will determine and set the limits on each moment. For those who do not yet understand, these differences are as extreme as the difference between day and night or awake and asleep, and yet they can be experienced while in human form.
Is this not why, when asked if he was a God ,an Angel, or a Saint, Buddha simple stated,
“I am awake”
In closing, I would like to say, whether you are talking about New Year’s Day or any other day you must claim your reality. Ultimately, it always comes down to choosing between Love (spirit’s view) or Fear (ego’s view). How successful you are in maintaining your New Years resolutions is determined entirely by you! For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. It is impossible to not experience your hearts desire**. It is only possible to be unconscious to them.**
Happy New Year!!!!
Regardless of your path or what religion you practice, if you wish to awaken yourself and live awakened in this world you may find yourself reinterpreting your view of reality itself!
More to come…
Love and Light,
Brother Bruce
Prophet or Madman
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