 |
 |
| |
| Departments |
Home
Columns, Special
Topics & Features:
The Columns:
Angels, Guides, &
Loving Spirits:
Angel Blessings:
with Dr. Doreen Virtue
Ask Valerie Morrison,
Internationally
Acclaimed Psychic
Trust Your Vibes
By Dr. Sonia Choquette, PhD.
Internationally Acclaimed Psychic Healer & Author
Astrologer's Notes:
Carin Martin,
Astrologer
Donna Cunningham, MSW, Astrologer
Basil Fearrington,
Astrologer
Diana Stone,
Astrologer &
Huna Shaman
Jeff Jawer
Astrologer
Glenn Perry,
Astrologer
Ray Merriman,
Financial Astrology:
MMA Market Week
Noel Tyl,
Astrologer
Daily Aspect Calendar
by Care
MoonWatching with Dana Gerhardt and Friends
Creating Bridges:
The Spiritual &
Philosophical
Act of Power
Discovering the Key to Living Your Sacred Dream
by Lynn Andrews
Avant-Gardening:
Insights
by Frank & Vicky
Giannangelo
From The Heart:
Alan Cohen
Teachings from the Western Mystery Traditions: The Esoteric "Paths of Return"
by Jacquelyn Small, Eupsychia
Spirituality in Daily Life: by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron
The Conscious Column
by David Ault
Spiritual Mastery
for the 21st Century
Dr. Gwen MacGregor
Pearls of Wisdom:
with Care & Aeon
Encounters on the
Shaman's Path with
Dr. Hank Wesselman, PhD.
Anthropologist, Zoologist, Author, Shamanic Healer & Teacher
The Divine Human
by Ornesha De Paoli
Awakenings
by Karen Johnson
Worshipping by Wondering with
Sankara Saranam, MA Founder of the Pranayama Institute
A Woman's Beauty
by Robin Rice,
Shaman & Author
Wisdom Walks
In Circles
Margaret Lewis,
Shamanic Practitioner
The Awakening Generation
by Ann Marie Judge
Divination Systems:
Be Your Own Oracle
By James Wanless, Ph.D.
Creator of the Voyager Tarot Deck
Feng Shui & Chinese Metaphysics:
Inside Chinese Metaphysics
by Barbara Finch,
Feng Shui &
Chinese Astrology
In Practice:
Juliet's Marketing Wisdom
by Juliet Austin, MA Marketing Coach, Author & Consultant
Kabbalah:
Kabbalah Revealed:
Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, Kabbalalist
"Letters from Heaven:" Spiritual Guidance from
the Hebrew Alphabet
by Avigayil Landsman
Pet Care:
Dr. Carson's Holistic Animal Care
by Dr. Kathleen Carson, D.V.M.
Tarot:
Moment to Moment
by Gigi Miner
Author, Tarot Consultant, & Teacher
Reviews:
Tarot, Cartomancy,
Oracle Decks,
Books, & Software.
by Bonnie Cehovet,
Tarot Master
Humor:
Wake Up Laughing.Com:
Swami Beyondananda
Features:
Blessings & Messages
Event Calendar
Historical Notes & Data
The MetaPersonals
Opinion-Editorial
News Briefs
Symbols, Seals,
Amulets & Talismans
The What in the
World Department
Trivia & Life's Other
Novel Moments
Interviews:
Watch for Upcoming Announcements
Healing & Alternative
Health:
Living in Harmony-Astrology, Yoga & Ayurveda:
Venkat & Christine Machiraju
"Spirit and Practice
of the Wise Woman
Tradition"
By Susun Weed
Tai Chi & Qigong
by Bill Douglas
The Holistic Mystic,
by Lonny Brown
Medical Intuition: Tune
in to Your Body and Improve Your Health
by Caroline Sutherland, Sutherland Communications
Transformational Healing through the Violet Flame!
by Eva Kettles
Herbs for Health
with Kami McBride
Lose Weight Permanently: Stop the Endless Cycle of Dieting
Rena Greenberg,
Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming & Hypnotherapist
The Directory
The Book Nook
Archives:
Past Issues
|
|
|
|
|
|
Creating Bridges: Spirituality & Philosophy: The Awakening Generation
Nothing, Everything,
And the Art of the
Awakened Life
|
|
|
by Ann Marie Judge |
|
|
My Story: All Things Are Nothing to Me
Last year, my senior year of high school, I had a mantra. “Everything is nothing, nothing means anything.” As morbid as it may outwardly seem, that phrase got me through many a tough time as I was ending one part of my life journey and embarking on another.
While everyone was making a huge deal about everything, from college applications and acceptance to test results, I was just thinking that this all was really just... nothing. Don't get me wrong, I unfortunately subconsciously allowed myself to be swept up in their frantic struggles to study, pass tests, make grades, and dazzle teachers with hopes of shining letters of referral into grand, life-changing college and vocational programs, too. But underneath it all, that mantra would be repeating itself quietly in my head, and at the end of an exhausting day, it would rather frustratingly remind me for the thousandth time that none of what I was doing actually meant a thing.
Not-so-frustratingly, though, it helped me through a lot of emotions and confusion about some big choices. Like, for instance, where do I go to college? That's a question pretty much every teenager is being faced with these days, beginning at an alarmingly early age—one of my good friends has known his college destination since middle school; imagine if you knew what your life was going to generally look like at age twelve!
But even through all these early pressures to map out our lives, many of us still get up to that senior year decision time and are tearing our hair out with implications of which place? And why? What do I want to study? And am I really doing this for myself, or is this just what dad has always wanted me to do?
The relevance of my mantra here helped me realize that really, it didn't matter at all where I went! I could have gone to college in Mozambique and it would not have mattered. I am just one person, I have no real ability to affect any change; I am but a tiny speck in the vast Universe.
Though this may seem slightly depressing, for me, it was entirely freeing. If I had no real ability to affect anyone or anything, I could never truly anger anyone, I could never make any mistakes big enough to hurt anyone; in short, I could do anything I wanted to, and it wouldn't do a thing! I could go outside right then, scream at the sky, dance around, make flower chains, and sleep under the stars.
Heck, I could do that for the rest of my life if I wanted to, and all the strange looks and potential ridicule I would get would just be words coming out of people's mouths from their own ideas that this place meant something at all, a fabrication of their minds to make them feel like they had some kind of place or purpose.
Then, I came to college. I was immediately plagued by a homesickness I truly hoped would cause me to waste away so much that everyone would say I could not stay in college, I had to go home, if simply for the state of my rapidly-declining health.
A part of me still knew I had to stay here, no matter how much my body rebelled and fought against the idea. One day, I saw a blue flier on a wall for a Tao-Zen retreat; I immediately saw this as something I needed to do for myself, a way to try and return to myself after all the anger and feelings of self-betrayal (“How could you keep me here in this place when I am in such pain?” my wounded self said.)
So, I went on the retreat. And on a sunny, gorgeous afternoon, the second day of the retreat, I found myself lying on a rock beside the lake we spent our daytime retreat hours at.
My mantra was still the same, “Everything is nothing, nothing means anything.”
As I was rather contentedly sunning myself like a turtle on the rock, a butterfly came and landed on my big toe. I listened. This is what I wrote in my journal:
“The butterfly... made me laugh as it just sat there and tickled my toes. Once, it came. Twice, three times it alighted on me... Three times for truth... It said, 'Float on the breeze, child! If I weighed as much as you do, I couldn't possibly fly! Feel how much you weigh, and know that the only thing that matters is... nothing! So fly, child! In flying with nothing, you will obtain everything-ness! (And there will always be rocks and flowers to land on if you get tired. Watch where you land and protect your wings, but remember that any souvenirs you pick up on the ground will keep you from taking off again!) Isn't it lovely?! (Psst! Holding on to other people's things weights as much or more as your own things do!)'”
Through this nothing-ness, I came to learn of all that just IS. I continued to write in my journal:
“Do not fear!
Who you are is always, always there.
Nothing can 'remove' it or 'replace' it because it just IS!
You can choose to acknowledge it or not, but it just IS.
To try and remove it would be to live without air; it is neither possible, nor does it need to be possible.
But this 'air' is the only thing that I truly AM—effortless, free, nothing, everything, light, dark, love, the Universe...
Therefore, all that I need to take is air—all that I need to take is nothing!
Everything that is hard to hold onto, anything that weighs anything at all, anything that is anything, I can leave behind!”
I AM that I AM
Through the idea that nothing meant anything, I was able to see that things just ARE, I just AM, the world just IS. Even the Christian Bible has countless places where Jesus and God refer to themselves and each other as such: “I AM that I AM.” In many other theologies and spiritual practices and ideologies throughout the world, there is the idea of the “I AM presence.” Though these ideas refer to a divine presence, the idea is the same: you cannot be what isn't. And as confusing as it may seem, there is nothing but nothing. In short, you ARE, and you simply are nothing. All is nothing, and nothing is all...
And then, I took this into my heart and my soul, knowing in me the ALL and the NOTHING and saw that they were one and the same, saw the unity of it all, thus floating off into the sky, transcending my human body and becoming one with the unity that IS...
Ok, so maybe I didn't.
The Deceptive Allure of Enlightenment
There is something in transcendence and enlightenment that people always seem to find strangely alluring. In especially rough moments in life, the idea of just floating away seems entirely preferable. And for some people, that life is the route they chose to take.
But our bodies are constant reminders that this isn't really why most of us are here.
Think of all the ascetics you've heard of, the stories of great masters who live off of just seeds for countless years, or who live in caves in the wilderness, or the people who abandon their homes and their comfortable lives to beg a living from the generosity of a few kind souls. You read those stories and cringe, thinking of your Friday night bubble bath you have every week, or how much you love the smell of the food on Thanksgiving, or how just how much hell you would go through if you couldn't have your morning coffee.
So if most of us really don't want to float away, or live off of seeds and bread in order to reach unity and the Divine, what need to find out what we DO want, which leads me to my most recent “discovery.”
The Conscious Choice
Alas, I chose the route of being a human, as we all do every time we chose to come back into this world and take on more lessons and more experiences in these beautiful and imperfectly perfect bodies. I chose to see the separation, to still be able to perceive the difference between “everything” and “nothing,” “light” and “dark,” “right” and “wrong,” and the list is endless.
(Yes, no matter what we believe, we all have that choice to simply float away, to see the world only through our third eye and no longer distinguish between shadow and sunlight. The unity is within everyone, this non-duality of “everything is nothing, nothing is everything.”)
When I was younger, I used to cringe at the idea of a “perfect heaven.” I remember thinking to myself, “When I go to heaven, I hope people can still yell at each other!”
I thought of this when I was making my choice to stay in this form, to stay down here in the dirt of human drama and life; if my dream was still of a heaven where people could argue with one another, I was in no way desiring of transcendence! Rather bashfully, I thought it was quite a shame that angels couldn't have sex, either...
Yep, obviously not ready to go just yet...
To Be Unplugged and Still Enjoy the Steak
For all of you out there who haven't seen The Matrix, let me explain.
There is a scene in the first of the three films in which one of the “unplugged” people—people who were released from the Matrix into the “real world” which is frankly a very ugly, dangerous, and rather sensory-deprived place—decides he wants to get “plugged back in” to it, to experience the pleasures of the material “Matrix” world again. The scene takes place in a restaurant, and the man is eating a steak, wishing that he could just taste it again. (Unfortunately, this means that he has to betray his friends to the bad guys in order for them to plug him back in. But, in any case...)
As much as I enjoyed the Matrix, there's something interesting I find woven very deeply into it: humans have no choice to be “plugged in” to this material world, and the material world is, whilst shiny and attractive, an entirely fake illusion.
Yes, there is truth in the fact that our society is all too indulgent materially, which becomes especially bad when we begin to find out that our little niceties are at often the mortal and economical expense of other peoples and other cultures.
But there's something we're missing, a belief we've not really allowed ourselves to have yet: we chose to be human, to have bodies and needs and desires and passions and pet peeves and hurts and loves.
What would it mean if we found out we actually chose to enter the “Matrix?”
Ah, but that would mean that we ourselves were the ones responsible for putting ourselves in these bodies! I won't even start to delve into the implications of that, for fear of all the hate mail I would receive. (Think of it this way: if you think you are overweight and you blame it on your body's slow metabolism, that would mean that you chose to have a body with a slow metabolism, not to mention all the lessons and trials that came of it! Continue along those lines, and you can see how a lot of people would not be happy with me.)
I will say this: If you realize that your body was always, and continues to be, your own choice to reside in, change, maintain, love, hate, belong in, despise, or nurture, you can no longer blame anything, any outside influences.
But what does this have to do with “nothing” and “everything?”
From Nothing, Everything is Born
I recently wrote an article on the idea of being “awake” versus being “enlightened” and it seems all-too-relevant here. In the article, there are a few very central aspects of this concept of being “awake,” what I endearingly call the three “P-bombs”: projection, perception and paradigm. Each of these three ideas shapes our human experience, and basically, being “awake” is simply being aware that you have the choice to view any situation in any light you so desire. These three “P-bombs” are tools for being able to clearly see the world you have created for yourself, and consequently, to change it.
And the connection to “nothing” and “everything?”
First, I went through the breakdown of everything in my life to get to nothing. Then, I was able to see things just ARE, I just AM, and so fourth. And thus, I reached the place where I could choose to see the unity that “everything” and “nothing” are the same—transcendence, enlightenment—or I could stay in this body and be human and experience the duality of human life. And because this became my conscious choice to be in this body, I realized it was entirely in my hands as to what I made of my body and my life. So, when I became aware of this choice, I called it being “awake” and sought out what it meant to be an “awake” human, aware of all the choices I could make; to be happy, sad, angry, elated, frustrated, et cetera. The three “P-bombs” (projection, paradigm, and perception) helped me to see how I was viewing my world.
And from the nothingness, everything was born.
Now that I know everything just IS, and I, as a conscious and awake human, have the choice to assign any meaning I want to anything. Talk about power! I can make a forest a frightful, dark, dangerous place, or a beautiful, moonlit grove. I can transform an ugly, toothy grin into a joyful expression of elation. I can even transform pain and death into growth and life. I have ultimate control over my entire universe.
Truth be told, I've known this for a while. It's just no fun sometimes to realize that you are holding all the keys, paintbrushes, and hammers to create, open, close, paint, demolish, and decorate your entire universe. This is especially true when you might have to face the fact that on some dreary days, you create things that are frankly just plain ugly. Sometimes, it's just nice to be able to say that it wasn't your fault. Sure, being “asleep” is part of being human sometimes, too.
What it comes down to is awareness of the choice. I don't always choose to enjoy myself; I've been accused more than once of creating all sorts of obscure dramas and problems in order to “spice up life a bit.” Strangely enough, when I realized that it was in my hands alone to make my experience what I wanted it to be, I didn't want it to be all sunshine and sugar. I have to say that I enjoy the dark as much as the light, and I embrace it as a part of a colorful and diverse live.
When you actually believe that it's all in your hands, everything becomes a little more beautiful, even the dark blood-reds and deep inkwell-blacks of life.
The point is, though, that you are always aware that you made that choice, and to eventually return back to your own projections, paradigms, and perceptions as the cause of your joy and your misery.
The Conscious Life-Artist
One very important message I have for you is this: be sure to give yourself credit for the times when you paint something truly beautiful. Your life is your canvas and you are the artist. Everything you do is a swipe of your divine paintbrush. No matter how terrible things may seem, all you need to do is ask for the tools necessary for your next project and—if you truly believe yourself worthy and deserving of them, which you are, but it's YOU that must believe—you will receive all you need. Mentors and guides are ever at your beck and call.
Anything you do is a testament to the meaning and color you gave to your life. If everything just IS, would you not rather see the beauty of it all? If everything really is just a thing—a tree, a rock, a pen, a sunset, a tabletop, a child, a slab of pavement, a smile, a flower—and you alone, out of all the other beings on this earth, were given the gift of awareness, of consciousness, to turn a weed into a burst of color, would you not want to use it to see this beauty?
“A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ann Marie Judge
Crystal Child, Student of Life, Spirituality, & Writer
|
 |
Ann Marie graduated from high school in 2005 and is currently an eighteen year old freshman at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin. She is majoring in English and religious studies.
Not yet old enough for acronyms at the end of her name, she considers herself a student of life, and has been deeply involved in the spiritual community since her first awakening at the age of twelve. Since then, she has had much education in the metaphysical and spiritual arts by a wide variety of teachers and healers. She was very quickly recognized as a Crystal and Indigo child, as well as a clairvoyant and intuitive.
Because she was able to began living for the spiritual at a young age, her dream is to reach out through her writing to other young people that are experiencing similar awakenings while still being within the educational system and a society that often does not recognize or nurture young, spiritually-gifted ones. Her vision is to form a community of spiritually-minded young people so that the younger generations will be prepared to be guides and teachers as the spiritual consciousness of the world continues to rise.
Though much of her life is still largely potential, she feels this time in her life is the first step in fulfilling her dream of becoming a published writer so as to serve the children and young people of the world that feel the spiritual stirring within. As well, she hopes to educate parents on how to nurture and understand what is going on in their children's minds from a young person's perspective.
Visit her website at
www.RandomActsof
Literacy.com
to read her works, view
her art, and gain insight into the spiritual experiences of an Awakened young person."
This Month at Random Acts of Literacy
Drop by www.
RandomActsofLiteracy.
com for the referenced article, entitled “The Awakened Life: 'P-bombs,' Language, and the Machine,” as well as a new section of photography and an archive of my other columns and writings. Every week, there is also a new Weekly Musing, which are anything from poetry and articles to photography and artwork.
So, please drop by and above all, enjoy the beauty of your very own divine creation called life!
|
 |
You'll find it in
The
Directory! |
|
|
|
|
