Personal Guidance

by Jean-Claude Gerard Koven -

Most religions make God so large and distant that only saints and prophets are deemed worthy of direct contact. What utter nonsense; God’s personal guidance is available to all of us, once we learn where to find it.

In my opinion, we all speak to God everyday, but we’re so caught up in our limited view of reality that we fail to notice. I can say this, perhaps, because my view of God is remarkably uncomplicated. 

To me, there is only God. Every bird, every tree, every person I encounter is another aspect of the Oneness expressing its infinite nature for my (and its own) pleasure.

Consequently, every voice I hear speaks the word of God, even though any two of them may be expressing opposing views.

Of course, this makes blind obedience to a higher power a bit of a challenge and ultimately I am left to weigh the words I hear and decide for myself.

Like most little children, when I was growing up I had a host of imaginary friends to keep me company.

I find they’re still very much with me today, although they’ve evolved over the years, just as I have. We’ve put away the games of our childhood and now, driven by the flames of new curiosities, we explore other parts of the cosmic mysteries together. 

By most objective standards, I’d probably be considered a late bloomer. After stumbling through high school and some college, I became a self-employed entrepreneur – probably because no company would have me.

I wandered around the world inventing new ways to have adventures while setting up a business venture here and there to pay my way.

En route I met the most amazing people and experienced the wisdom of numerous philosophies and religions.

By having no belief system of my own to defend or use as a judgmental lens, it was relatively easy to let myself be shaped by whatever culture I happened upon.

In the process, I unwittingly mastered the art of absorbing without the need to understand. 

Looking back, I can see that the entire process was divinely guided and that each new insight or ability prepared me for the direction my life would ultimately take.

So here I am, a child in an adult’s body, still having delightful conversations with any aspect of God that chooses to play with me. I find myself engaging in such conversations, for instance, when someone asks me to weigh in on a difficulty they are experiencing. 

A few days ago, Isabel, a lovely woman I met at one of my talks, sent an email asking my opinion. She had recently heard a channeling from higher entities claiming that it is possible to ascend without leaving one’s physical body and she was quite concerned about her husband and household pets who died several years ago:

“I wonder what becomes of those who have gone through the death transition rather than ascend with their bodies. Are they allowed to return in a fourth-density ..the next level of consciousness that awaits those who achieve ascension), or are they doomed to repeat additional lifetimes as third-density humans? Will I ever see my husband or pets again?"

I was fascinated by her question but had no idea how to respond. So I simply tuned into a higher point of view and spoke from there: I am starting to take more and more of what I hear with a liberal grain of salt. The stuff we like seems true to us; the stuff we don’t like, we usually toss.

There’s got to be a better way. For now, I am content to know absolutely nothing. That way I don’t have to worry about being right or wrong. Whatever exists for me is simply my perception – if I buy into it and induce others into agreement, I create a new consensus reality. Should I change my mind, everything falls away.

Hence the adage: "Change your mind, change your life."

“You are hereby invited to create whatever future you’d like. After all, that’s what you’ve been doing with the every present moment you’ve experienced so far, so why stop now?

As far as I can see, you’re in charge of the whole universe – so start acting like it. While you’re at it, I’d like a praline ice cream cone, please... May I have some chocolate sprinkles on it, too?"

Apparently these were the very words Isabel needed to hear: “You never fail to call upon my highest awareness with your responses.

In other words, you always make me think – not ‘think’ per se; perhaps ‘feel,’ ‘imagine’ or ‘remember’ would be a better word. Your invitation to create whatever future I like made me grin from ear to ear.

I choose Peace, Harmony, Grace, Freedom, Abundance, and Love; most of all, LOVE. That’s the reality I choose to create. And, of course, a praline ice cream cone for you – with chocolate sprinkles, of course.

“I love you, my dear friend. You make me reach deep down for the simple truth that is – it turns out – never farther away than my own choice to see it."

What we see always depends on where we’re looking from. 

Each of us is a continuum of points of view ranging from ego at the lowest end to Oneness at the highest.

The higher up the continuum we listen, the grander is the scale of the answer, to the point where when we lose touch with ego altogether, we feel ourselves in the presence of God and hear the answer coming from Allness.

When things appear difficult, it’s a sure sign that we’re stuck in a particular point of view. Having deep-rooted beliefs or convictions will almost always do that to you. I invite you to call upon your imaginary friends whenever you’d like a second opinion.

Simply put out the question to the universe and allow the response to come. There will always be an answer... I find this a simple process that invariably works.

trans4mind.com

Reclaim Your Essence

by Jean-Claude Koven -

"Most people are other people," Oscar Wilde once remarked. "Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

As he so wryly observed, the vast majority of us are not who we've been pretending to be and the lives we've been living until now are molded according to rules and values that are not our own.

Most of humanity is stuck in someone else's discarded chewing gum and has yet to break free.

• Unless you have been brave enough to forsake this trap, here is your likely portrait: 
• your religious convictions are those of your parents or community; 
• you root for your hometown sports teams; 
• your political allegiances conform to the party system that society offers; 
• you are an avid observer of the cultural pageantry, 
• like the Super Bowl and the Oscars; 
• your holidays are the standard ones, such as Christmas, New Year's Eve and Independence Day; 
• you look to your political and religious leaders for guidance and protection; 
• you feel driven to succeed--to make more money, to live a better life.

These are worthy and desirable choices that hold families and societies together.

They make you who you are, you might argue. True, but only if you are content with admiring the wrapping and never looking inside the box.

If you dared to look, you'd discover how these basic thoughts originate in a fundamental belief formed during the first years of your life: that survival depends on obeying the rules.

Children typically bend their perceptions and interpretations of reality to match those of their parents and others who care for them. They find clever ways to please in order to receive attention and belong. 

As they grow up, the people and issues may change over time, but the initial patterns of conformity remain deeply ingrained in the subconscious.

The price for surrendering to consensus is steep.

It is nothing less than the loss of individuality and curiosity. Without these two magnificent attributes, you disengage from the grandness of the creation and implode into the holographic illusion humans have come to call reality.

You become one of Oscar Wilde's other people, thinking someone else's opinions and assuming they are your own.

We are trapped in the daily drama that the culture and the media feed us: mortgages, sporting events, tsunamis, sex offenders, AIDS, terrorism, global warming, corrupt governments, and economic inequities . . . all demanding our attention.

The matrix plays us like an instrument. A thirty-second news bite can push our buttons.

We get hooked and riled, liberally lacing our collective guts with corrosive biochemicals unleashed by our righteous indignation.

This condition is virtually universal. It is also the underlying cause of the world as we know it.

People cling so tightly to their personal and social identities that they are blinded to anything that does not validate them. The inevitable product is a world of war, greed, and competition, driven by paranoia and fear.

The way out is easier than anyone might imagine. 

However, very few summon the courage, for it requires them to leave the comfort of their known world and walk alone, unaided by the crutch of belief and dogma, into the domain of pure consciousness.

Most people would rather get caught up in the business of earning a living, raising a family, or helping their community than deal with the unsettling immensity of All That Is.

Yet it seems that all humans are meant to take this epic journey of discovery at some point in their series of lives on this planet. 

If you choose to walk this path, you will find yourself gaining a new perspective--that of consciousness, where the mind, with its judgments and emotions, ceases to dominate and the heart is your only reliable guide.

The great issues of your daily life that once commanded your attention now seem wondrously arbitrary and irrelevant--simply interesting experiences that lasted far too long and became unnecessarily weighty.

The Illusion is a Game-Board Projection

You now see the illusion for what it is: a game-board projection designed so aspects of the Oneness can experience duality, fear and separation. It is no more real than a programmed matrix in a computer game.

You and I are merely units of awareness projected into the matrix, defining ourselves by the points through which we view, and believing what we see to be reality. Who did the projecting? You. Who is the projection? You. There is only you.

How do you get to this liberating place from which you can see the larger picture? The cosmic formula of creation is gloriously simple: 

Attention + Intention = Manifestation

Nothing in the universe evades this law. The reality you perceive is entirely a function of the only two forces at your command: your attention and your intention.

Bring conscious awareness to this equation--consciously monitor your attention and intention and what you are manifesting--and everything changes.

Through this ongoing process of self-observation it will become increasingly clear that the part of you that is projected into the illusion is in trouble. This realization, in fact, marks the beginning of your journey out of the illusion.

Once you begin to couple the law of Attention + Intention = Manifestation with the concept of Oneness, you begin to see a completely different picture. You are All That Is. There is nowhere for you to go, nothing to attain, no lessons to learn.

If you buy into the reality that you are an earthbound human stuck in the struggle of life, presto!, there you are. If you focus on the part of you that is watching you flounder in the illusion, snap!, you're free... 

It can't get much easier than that. Yet why are so few of us awake?

The written or spoken word can do no more than point the way. And trading one belief system for another accomplishes nothing. The answer lies elsewhere.

Waking up is a consequence of induction. Just a few years ago you might have placed yourself in the presence of a guru or master and through devotion, discipline, or some other practice, gradually assumed some of his or her enlightenment.

Now, using the law of A + I = M, you become your own master.

By focusing your attention on the part of you that is watching the rest of you floundering in the illusion, you are taking a giant step in restoring control over how your attention is commanded. 

If you add the intention of reclaiming your essence, you complete the formula that can only result in the manifestation of whatever your curiosity seeks to explore.

The payoff of having been so deeply mired in the illusion that you nearly succumbed -is compassion for those still stuck in the matrix, coupled with a large dose of humility.

You have learned that the illusion is perfect exactly as it is.

The only thing that needs to change is the point from which we view it. Now all that's left is for you to summon the courage to begin the journey home!

prismhouse.com