Soul Centered Authenticity

by Andrew Schneider - 

The greatest social and familial pressure everyone experiences is to conform. We learn early in our life that if we want to get others to help us or cooperate with us, we need to do what pleases them. We also find that we get approval for how we are when we conform to others’ expectations of us.

By conforming to gain acceptance and approval, we pay a very dear price. We lose ourselves. 

We create a split within ourselves – a division between who we feel we are, and who we give the impression of being. Our self-image that we show others becomes our dominant self. But this self-image betrays our true self, and we suffer accordingly.

When we live on the outside, we are dependent on circumstances and others.

When focused only outwardly, we are superficial and we do superficial things to try to satisfy our desire for fulfillment. Not finding what we are looking for, we go from one thing to another. It takes greater and greater stimulation to achieve some sense of being alive – more intense music, extreme sports, drugs, to name but a few.

The Soul Journey is a shift of perspective from outside to inside. 

Taking the Soul Journey is a voyage to authenticity, a return to our true self. The journey does not involve disowning our self-image, our negativity or the limitations of our personality.

We acknowledge, explore and accept what we are in our personality, but we base our living and actions in the core of our being. We learn to go outside from the familiar place we have discovered within.

To be fully alive requires that we live from the source of life. This is within. 

Living with attention and presence to our innermost reality makes us independent and able to contribute in meaningful and fulfilling ways in all aspects of our life. We then know we are alive, and can direct our energies at will. 

Giving from our authentic self is not only fulfilling but it is creative and empowering to others.

When we get caught up in conformity, neglecting the true self within, we are only semi-conscious. The truth is that we can only be as authentic as we are conscious, which means as we are soul-centered and we are only authentic when we are soul-centered.

thesouljourney.com

The Eyes of the Soul

by Andrew Schneider - 

The most intimate reality in the world is a face. It reveals everything about you. It shows your joys and sorrows; it is a record of your life story. But more significantly it also manifests your inner world, the soul that you are.

The face shows the soul and its distortions. 

Fear you can see in the eyes. Compassion and love you can see in the eyes. Look at people and surroundings with the eyes of compassion and you make connection. Look with fear and you create what you fear.

It is for good reason that we have a saying, ‘the eyes are the windows of the soul.' When we look deeply into someone’s eyes we touch their essence. That is a powerful experience, and one of the reasons why many people (often men in Western culture) feel uncomfortable in making and holding eye contact. That is also why looking directly into the eyes of some wild animals can be threatening to them.

We can either look at others with hard eyes or soft eyes. 

When we look with hard eyes we are analytical, perhaps judgmental, and at times fearful and defensive. We want to control the relationship at that moment. We maintain a separate stance. When you look at someone with hard eyes they often become defensive because it can feel threatening.

When we look with soft eyes we are open and receptive. 

We want to make connection, to understand and touch the heart. Soft eyes emanate from an altered state of consciousness with more alpha than beta brainwaves. With soft eyes we can more easily find our place in right relationship to what we are relating to. We can see the bigger picture more easily and at the same time are aware of more of the details within that picture. Many athletes use soft eyes in order to be more aware of where other players are at any moment.

When you have compassion toward another you cannot maintain hard eyes, but invariably adopt some degree of soft eyes. Compassion makes connection. And in order to be compassionate you must be open and receptive toward the one you are expressing or feeling compassion.

Compassion or love that emanates from your core, the soul within, is always a choice rather than an unconscious emotion. 

When you choose to be compassionate and you look at someone with your compassionate, soft eyes, you touch their soul in a way that they can feel. They might not know what is happening, but they usually know that something is happening. If they are sufficiently open they will feel happy, and will often smile. If they are fearful they might initially feel threatened, but then you have to show them through your actions that you are not a threat.

When you see fear or pain in someone’s face, give them the gift of your compassion. 

When you look into their eyes see the beauty of soul that lies behind that fear or pain. Show them compassion so that their love can be stirred to transform their fear and give meaning to their pain. This is a gift you can choose to give any time you meet someone. Go beyond just understanding and attain more perspectives, experiences and integration to enable you to heal the past and create the future.

thesouljourney.com

Soul Centered Authenticity

by Andrew Schneider -

The greatest social and familial pressure everyone experiences is to conform. We learn early in our life that if we want to get others to help us or cooperate with us, we need to do what pleases them.

We also find that we get approval for how we are when we conform to others’ expectations of us.

By conforming to gain acceptance and approval, we pay a very dear price. We lose ourselves. We create a split within ourselves – a division between who we feel we are, and who we give the impression of being.

Our self-image that we show others becomes our dominant self but this self-image betrays our true self and we suffer accordingly.

When we live on the outside, we are dependent on circumstances and others. When focused only outwardly, we are superficial and we do superficial things to try to satisfy our desire for fulfillment.

Not finding what we are looking for, we go from one thing to another. It takes greater and greater stimulation to achieve some sense of being alive – more intense music, extreme sports, drugs, to name but a few.

The Soul Journey

The Soul Journey is a shift of perspective from outside to inside. Taking the Soul Journey is a voyage to authenticity, a return to our true self.

The journey does not involve disowning our self-image, our negativity or the limitations of our personality. We acknowledge, explore and accept what we are in our personality, but we base our living and actions in the core of our being.

We learn to go outside from the familiar place we have discovered within.

To be fully alive requires that we live from the source of life. This is within. Living with attention and presence to our innermost reality makes us independent and able to contribute in meaningful and fulfilling ways in all aspects of our life.

We then know we are alive, and can direct our energies at will. Giving from our authentic self is not only fulfilling, but it is creative and empowering to others.

When we get caught up in conformity, neglecting the true self within, we are only semi-conscious. The truth is that we can only be as authentic as we are conscious, which means as we are soul-centered. And we are only authentic when we are soul-centered.

Exercises:

1. In what areas of your life do you habitually and consistently conform and why?

2. No one can be true to themselves unless they value themselves. How do you value yourself?

3. List the issues ongoing in your life that you are avoiding.

thesouljourney.com

Esoteric - What Is It?

by Andrew Schneider -

The word 'esoteric' simply means that which is inner, contrasted with that which is outer or 'exoteric'. Esotericism is therefore the body of knowledge or wisdom about all aspects of life which are within, behind or beyond the outer appearance, form or expression of life's many aspects.

True knowledge or wisdom is not something we can acquire solely by using our minds and brains, learning it in an academic way. 

It can only be gained by experience. Experience does not imply doing something physically, but rather necessitates a direct contact between one's consciousness and a state of energy. 

For example, if you meet someone who has just suffered a severe loss and you attune to that person, feeling what they feel, you have an experience that can make you a wiser person, knowing more about the nature of loss and its consequent pain. 

If, however, you are able to experience that person at a deeper level of being, you will gain the wisdom of knowing the real purpose of the loss and its meaning in that person's life.

To have this deeper experience requires the ability to have conscious awareness of Soul, or Higher Self. 

To take this example even further, if you have conscious awareness of the Planetary Soul you would be able to experience the person's loss in the light of all losses that everyone experiences and see what place loss has in the unfolding intelligent and loving life of the planet. 

The wisdom derived from such experience would be very profound.

What is esoteric cannot, as you see, be neatly and simply defined or confined to narrow parameters. There are many levels of what is inner and many dimensions of energy states that can be experienced.

Behind every phenomenon exists a 'world' of energies. It is energy which produces phenomena or forms when it descends or manifests in the lower three worlds of thought, feeling and physical matter. Beyond these worlds are other formless but real worlds or dimensions of life energy.

All of that which exists is some type of energy that has its source in ultimate simplicity or purity of formless energy. 

For reasons beyond our comprehension, we perceive this simple energy manifesting itself by degrees in greater complexity. As it does so, it descends through many levels of expression, first formless and then formed. 

When it is formed, we experience it with our form nature -- our bodies, emotions, and brain-minds. When it is still formless we can, however, also experience it with the formless aspects of our individual consciousness -- namely our higher minds, intuition, Soul and Spirit.

Every stepping down of energy from a higher (simpler and more inclusive) state to a lower (more complex and particular/exclusive) state is cause-producing-effect. 

It is the higher state of energy, being cause, that is the purpose and meaning of every lower state or effect. If we do not relate to or search for the cause, if we do not attempt to experience beyond phenomena, we cannot know the higher purpose or meaning of anything, least of all ourselves.

It is also this level of cause which is the quality of a thing or person. Quantity is a measure of the outer characteristics, such as size, physical features, weight, etc. 

Quality is an indication of the energy which produces the form. It is through the experience of quality that we are able to direct energy, including our own, and actually become it to the point where we are able to function as conscious causes rather than unconscious effects of life. 

This ability enhances our power, enables us to love unconditionally and opens the door to true understanding.

What makes us who we are is our individuality. We usually equate our individuality with our personality (physical body, emotions, brain-mind). 

The personality is but the outer or exoteric expression of individuality. 

The Soul is the inner or esoteric expression of individuality. 

Being esoteric, it is of a higher energy state more inclusive, more creative and causative and therefore more real and central to our being.

As consciously aware Soul beings, we can and do serve in our capacities as Redeemers, Saviors and Interpreters. 

We function as the mediating principle between higher and lower, bringing the energies from higher sources down to earth, anchoring and grounding them. 

We relate the formless causes to the formed effects; we embrace the form worlds as meaningful creations of our unconditional love, and we bring clarity and purpose to all that happens.

The principal means whereby the higher energies are grounded is by incorporating them consciously in ourselves and expressing them through our thoughts, feelings, and actions as virtues and qualities of being, such as kindness, sharing, sacrifice, discipline, unconditional love, forgiveness, acceptance, patience, etc. -- in short, all quality reflective of truth, goodness and beauty, producing ever-increasing oneness or unity!

innerself.com