To Life: A Journey of Home Coming and Re-Discovering Our Self and Our Humanity

By Rachel Angel Sussman

To Life brings to paper the authors thirty-year journey of inner and outer exploration. It aims to support the readers toward the way back home and to ultimately contribute to humanity and our planet.

The author recognises that it is only by means of each individual coming home that personal lives can be enriched and bettered and that hope can be brought to todays troubled world and humanity.

To Life asks the essential questions about life, humanity, and individual existencequestions that must be asked if we are to live consciously, meaningfully, joyfully, and fully and be whole and at peace with ourselves, with each other, and with all life on this planet.

To Life is not only inspirational but also practical. The nature of an inner journey with its potential joys and trials unveils as the author takes the readers by the hand, supports, encourages, and guides them toward taking the steps required to make their own discoveries and to realise who they are at essence as human beings and as the individuals they are. Indeed, they are shown the path back home.

These steps include the unveiling of the human condition with its gifts and pitfalls, the discovery of ones centre and learning how to stay with it, the unveiling of the mystery of lifes experiences, of ones feelings and thoughts and learning how to be with them, and the realisation of the true power, freedom, and love within.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514430330

Rachel Angel Sussman

Rachel Angel Sussman was born in 1950 in a refugee absorption centre in the newly established state of Israel. Her childhood was a mixture of joy, hope, vision, and hardships—all of which laid the foundation to an inner and outer inquiry of life, humanity, and her own identity. The author migrated to Australia in 1971, following her marriage to an Australian citizen. Whilst the questions and seeking were always there, it was only in her thirties that the author’s conscious inner journey commenced. This journey included the completion of tertiary education, a working life both as a counsellor in private practice and as a social welfare worker in the public arena of community services, and an ongoing personal inner journey. Writing has always been the author’s way of expression, but it was in her late ’50s that she was internally guided and inspired to put pen to paper and share her journey and To Life was born.

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Copyright © 2015 by Rachel Angel Sussman.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015919780

ISBN:        Hardcover       978-1-5144-3036-1

                  Softcover         978-1-5144-3035-4

                  eBook              978-1-5144-3033-0

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Rev. date: 01/05/2016

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Contents

Author’s Notes

Preamble Life Is A Journey…

Introduction: A Credo To Live By…

Chapter 1 An Overview To Realizations 1 And 2

Chapter 2 Realization 1—Existence And Humanity From An Eastern Perspective

Chapter 3 Realization 1—Existence And Humanity From A Western Perspective

Chapter 4 Realization 2—How We Live Matters

Chapter 5 An Overview To Realizations 3 To 11

Chapter 6 Realization 3—We Are Spiritual Beings; We Are Also Physical And Psychological Beings

Chapter 7 Realization 4—Valuing The Oneness And The Sameness As The Individuality And The Difference

Chapter 8 Realization 5—Who Am I?

Chapter 9 Realization 6—Finding The Key

Chapter 10 Realization 7—Unveiling Experience And Learning How To Fully Experience Our Experiences

Chapter 11 Realization 8—Unveiling Feelings And Learning How To Fully Feel Our Feelings

Chapter 12 Realization 9—Unveiling Thinking And Thoughts And Learning To Use Their Gift Wisely

Meditation For The Journey Of Homecoming And Self Rediscovery

Chapter 13 Realization 10—Unveiling The Dance With Nature And Nurture And Learning To Dance In Harmony

Chapter 14 Realization 11—Unveiling The Conscious And Unconscious And Learning How To Bring The Conscious To Light And Allow The Unconscious To Make Itself Known

Chapter 15 Coming Full Circle…

References And Recommended Reading

About The Author

In dedication to Self;

to Humanity;

to my life partner, daughters, and grandchildren—

all are always in my heart…

Dedication%20image.jpg

If you can see Life through my eyes,

feel it through my heart and know it as I do;

you may come to discover it through your eyes,

feel it through your heart and know it as you do.

(Rachel Angel Sussman)

There is only one failure in life, the failure to

get up, dust our clothes, and set on the road once more.

But even such a failure is not a finality—for the choice to turn around is eternally there.

Only fear stops us…

Yet it is not fear itself that is our challenge but rather fearing fear and succumbing to it;

hence, it is not the absence of fear that we need to pray for.

But Wisdom, Courage, and Trust…

The Wisdom, Courage, and Trust to

go toward what we fear, not away from it;

seek truth, clarity, and understanding (as given to us by the gift of Grace at any particular time);

know it is time and move forward even if with a pounding heart that calls, Turn back to safety!

realize our essential goodness and that our Soul and God (however perceived) seek our highest good.

All these are the key to self-discovery, growth, and realization…

May we each find this Wisdom, Courage, and Trust so that

we can be who we really are, all that we are, and all that we can be;

as we leave this world, we’ll shine even more brightly than when we entered it;

the world is a better place for our existence…

(Rachel Angel Sussman)

Author’s Notes

Take the first step in faith. You do not have to see the whole staircase.

Just take the first step.

(Martin Luther King, 1929–1968)

D ear reader, know that at the core of growth is the willingness to sit silently with what is uncomfortable and let it unfold and open, and this requires the willingness to take the first step even though you cannot see the whole staircase, and when you take this first step, change has already begun…

To Life is the outcome of such willingness; it is the outcome of a personal inward journey, a quest to understand and know (as best as I can) who and all I am, what we call God, and life—to come Home. The journey (unconsciously) began the day I came to this world, or maybe even prior, but consciously it began when I turned thirty, and it is ongoing, for the journey within is a lifetime journey and beyond—it will cease only when I cease.

From my early twenties, turning thirty held an unexplained fascination for me. It was something I looked forward to with a sense of excitement and anticipation. Little did I know that as I turn thirty, I will be married, with two young daughters, and that my partner and I will just begin to relax after two difficult years of caring for our younger daughter, who was born with a physical condition requiring ongoing medical attention. And it seemed that for me, with the relief that all was well now came a letting go and a plunge downward, resulting in an inward journey of searching. Or maybe indeed I knew.

I suspect that on a deeper level I did. The excitement and anticipation I was feeling were in relation to the outcome, not the pain and fear of the journey itself nor the magnitude of living up to the discoveries.

Socrates said that a life not reflected upon is a life not worth living. I believe he is right, yet as I write these lines today, I am also reminded of the importance of surrendering to having only the best answers or even to not having answers.

Even as a child I sought a sense of purpose, meaning, and understanding, but I feared asking questions. I feared not having the answers as much as I feared the possible answers, so I put the questions at bay. Then one day, life knocked at the door. Sometimes life is like that. We wait until a tap on the shoulder tells us in no uncertain terms that it is time to wake up, that it is time to grow up.

I am grateful to life for its promptings even though the journey is a burden as much as it is a joy. I am grateful to the gift of Grace for sustaining me, granting me inner strength and the courage to embark on the journey and the ongoing determination to stay on the path, regardless of my weaknesses, constant stumbling, failures, and fears. I am grateful to the insights that the gift of Grace bestowed on me, showing me where I falter, as well as providing the direction toward the light.

I have come to see that life’s challenges are inevitable and can provide tremendous opportunities for personal growth. It is not easy when we are in pain, despair, or confusion to accept this or see that there may be a silver lining and a light at the end of the tunnel. But if we can remember that these possibilities exist, we can choose to open our heart, mind and being to the universe—and we are always free to choose our response even when we feel or think otherwise.

Whether we recognize it or not, we are all on the same personal journey to a collective destination—Love, Light and truth, Wholeness and Freedom of Being and Choosing.

The path is living life authentically, consciously, and meaningfully. And this is what I want.

Living an authentic, conscious, and meaningful life requires the ongoing seeking of truth and clarity so that as best as possible and at any particular time, we know and understand all that we are—body and soul, human being and individual.

Then it requires that we follow and live life from inside out, from the spirit, from the totality of being and all that we are as it mysteriously unfolds moment by moment.

And still, it requires that we live this totality in the light of higher consciousness.

Higher consciousness means living from the center of awareness while guided by the qualities of the heart of heart and by intelligence, creativity, and wisdom. This guidance is the source of infinite love and qualities, of infinite intelligence, creativity, and wisdom as within us. It allows us to create an outer world that reflects the diamond of the true inner world for it guides us to know what to manifest so to shine with our given gifts and what to overcome or govern so to grow with our given challenges.

Living an authentic, conscious, and meaningful life means and results in actions that are loving and giving to all we are, as they are loving and giving to all else there is and to the Source of all Life itself.

It means and results in living in true freedom, joy, love, and creativity; with surrender, acceptance, humility, and gratitude rather than in fear or struggle or with arrogance, rebellion, or rejection.

And it means and results in being a true and conscious cocreator with the Source of Life, with its flame within me (Self) and with life. The Source of Life as I experience it is the Life Force Energy from which all life, including me and you, emanates. You may experience it to be God, the Creator, a higher power, the collective consciousness, even the big bang or whatever else—it is all of these. Chapters 2 and 3 will hopefully support you to reach your own experience of the Source of Life.

This is the essential journey we all share, and as wisely stated by A. H. Almaas (Essence, 181) it is a journey that does not bring improvement or perfection but rather maturity, humanity, and wisdom

And yet this essential journey we share is also unique for each of us because as also wisely stated by A. H. Almaas, my (and your) journey cannot be according to any system. It has to resolve and clarify your own situation. The realization must satisfy and fulfill your heart, not the standard of some system. The liberation must be of you, you personally… (Essence, 181). Indeed, I strongly sensed that I have to find my own understanding and make my own discoveries of what it means to be human, what it means to be the individual I am, and come to grips with this truth, with God, Life, and my life. I needed to find the best answers to the many questions I felt life posed to me and learn the many lessons I needed to learn.

And still, I also knew it to be true that while my journey must inevitably be mine, while I have to make my own discoveries and find my answers and understanding, since I share this essential journey with all humanity, then I can also utilize the so far discovered road signs. It is said that whatever any human discovers becomes part of the Soul of the World (or the collective consciousness) and is available to all other humans. Hence I could draw from the Soul of the World with gratitude and learn from the many paths already discovered. Indeed I have drawn endlessly from the Soul of the World.

And so, as I began to put my questions forward, sometimes the answers came to me from deep within or through the gift of an insight. Other times, in some mysterious way, I will happen to come across a book or an article or have a discussion with someone that unexpectedly provided the answer—gifts of Grace given in their own way and time. Indeed I had to learn to ask—then listen, be mindful, be aware, and wait patiently. I had to learn that Grace has its own mysterious way of providing and guiding in its own time, pace, place, and way.

The essential journey lasted well over ten years, but it was only in the year of my turning sixty that I once more felt a little tap on the shoulder telling me it was time to put pen to paper and start writing. And so I enthusiastically wrote To Life and distributed copies to family and friends in December 2010. But little did I know that this was just another beginning because shortly after, with little warning, I found myself on a limb. It seemed as if the universe was letting me know that To Life is not complete (indeed it will never be) and that it was time to move in the journey and do more self-clearing and growing.

I felt devastated, tested, and challenged. It felt as if not only was To Life lost to me but also that I was in a darker place than before. I had to find the courage and strength to somehow pick up the pieces and start all over again. I had to follow my own advice and remember that the only failure in life is the failure to get up, dust our clothes, and set on the road once more. I was forced to rediscover, refine, add, extend, and face what, consciously or unconsciously, I failed to face. I stumbled one day, found the way the next day, only to lose it again the day after and take two steps back. It has been (and still is) a long journey, at times joyous, at times painful—the journey of life can be relentless and manifests in its own way.

A while ago I came across a beautiful poem written by Martha Washington (1731–1802) and titled Don’t Quit. Some of its lines reflect wisdom and truth that stayed with me and acted as a constant encouragement to stay on the path. In gratitude to Martha’s wisdom and insight, I would like to share these lines with you, hoping that they support you in your adventure in life and in your journey, whatever this journey is:

. . . Often the goal is nearer than

It seems to a faint and faltering man;

Often the struggler has given up

When he might have captured the victory cup;

And he learned too late when night came down

How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt

And you never can tell how close you are

It may be near when it seems afar…

This version of To Life is the outcome of my second time around journey.

To Life is my heart of heart’s wish—a celebration of life in its full kaleidoscope, as it is.

To Life is not having all the perfect and complete answers, nor is it the closure of the journey, because the journey will continue for as long as I breathe and can never be taken for granted. It rather is a certain way of travelling day by day as I recognize and sense that the pieces of the puzzle—the road signs—are finally joining.

More still, To Life is the confirmation of this inward journey and declaring its discoveries and road signs to the world. And as I do so, I not only consolidate and strengthen To Life within me but also share it and contribute it to the Soul of the World.

To Life is a legacy I wish to leave to my children, grandchildren, and to you, the reader, whoever you are… For while I know that like me, you, too, will need to find your path, I hope that To Life will contribute, even if in some small way, to your special journey—whatever this journey is and whenever you choose to take it, just as the drawing on the journeys of others supported me in my journey to realize To Life.

As you read To Life please read slowly, one chapter at a time. Feel and experience the words in your body and heart, not just understand them in your head and with the intellect. You may not grasp it all, it is OK. Please do not be discouraged. Just take what you can and continue; it will all fall into place, for what was not grasped or may feel overwhelming in chapters 2 or 3 will become clearer in the chapters that follow, especially from chapters 5 onward. So take heart and journey well…

Preamble

Life Is a Journey…

Life is a journey of experiences and choices.

It is true that yesterday’s choices created today,

But today we can choose to clear the mud,

start afresh and make new choices;

And today’s choices will create tomorrow…

Today is the only time to live in, today is a

present

.

So today do not block the memories and choices of the past, even if painful;

For they are the gateway to coming home—

To all you truly are…

(Rachel Angel Sussman)

L ife can be seen as a journey limited by space—the physical body and physical world—and time, from the moment of conception until we take our last breath. You may believe that you are born once, have one life, and there is nothing after this life. You may believe that life continues in some form on another sphere after death. You may believe that you have the chance of a new life in another body. But regardless of your belief, what is certain is that the life we have now is a gift, and it offers us ongoing and unfolding opportunities and challenges.

At its essence, this adventure of life simply requires that we be and live. But what does that mean?

Being requires the willingness to know ourselves as best as we can, to accept, love, and embrace who and all we are.

Living requires the willingness to both be as to accept, love, and embrace life as the gift it is—with all its opportunities and challenges.

Being and living require the recognition that the ongoing inner-world and outer-world experiences will offer us challenges and opportunities, highs and lows, joys and sorrows, laughter and tears, pain, fear, darkness and light. It requires that we flow with it all and welcome the lessons and growth opportunity that these experiences offer.

To flow does not mean that we do not have choices. On the contrary, it requires the recognition that we are totally free to make true choices and the trust that we have the resources, support, and guidance to make them.

The Freedom to Choose

Recognizing our freedom to choose requires that we learn to distinguish between the actual inner-world or outer-world experience we are having and our response to it. It also requires the recognition that it is not the inner or outer experience itself but rather how we choose to respond to it that will determine the outcome—how we experience ourselves, others, life, and the Life Force itself—today and tomorrow.

Such recognition requires mindfulness.

The First Response

Mindfulness begins with the awareness that when something happens to us, either from within ourselves or without, we most likely initially respond with a host of feelings (be it emotions—such as fear, anger, joy, sadness, etc.—or physical sensations) and/or a host of thoughts and perceptions. These responses seem to be automatic. They are the expression of instinct, nature, or the result of self-created patterns and programming—that is, ways of being, expressing, and responding established and enforced resulting from past experiences, past choices, and/or conditioning (this will be clearly understood throughout the chapters covering the eleven realizations of my credo). We do not seem to choose these responses; they just happen. I call them the first response.

The Second Response

There is however a window of opportunity that I call the second response; it is the opportunity to respond to the first response. This opportunity is our true freedom and liberation because it is this second response that has the final impact, and we have the power and freedom to choose the second response.

The second response is the power to be aware of the first response and to see, discover, unveil, and uncover all that we are and are not. It is the power to surrender, accept, embrace, and love it all, to joyfully be it, yet also to joyfully govern. It allows us to navigate the canoe as we allow it to flow with the river without senselessly resisting it yet also without senselessly sinking in it.

This power must be used wisely. It does not mean engaging in an inner battle with or rejecting the first response but rather the opposite—surrendering, accepting, and respecting it. It means being willing to be still and allow the first response to unfold so that we can see it as it is for what it is, as best we can. Then with this clarity—and only then—can a free and wise second response be made.

Living in the Light of Higher Consciousness

Recognizing the freedom of unveiling the first response and using the power of the second response are not intended as egoistic acts but rather acts in the light of higher consciousness—that is, guided by God’s intelligence, qualities, and values innate within us: intelligence and qualities that are our very own essence and everyone else’s.

Therefore, being and living ultimately also require that we unveil, recognize, listen, love, and manifest this essence within and surrender to its guidance.

Hence we live freely, joyfully, mindfully, and consciously one day at a time. We meet life’s opportunities and challenges. We allow all we are to unfold, we give our gifts and transcend our challenges. We create a life aligned with God’s qualities and wisdom as within us—in the light of higher consciousness.

Life is a journey… a journey of the choices we make with the cards handed to us.

We may or may not have a say about the cards handed to us, but whatever we experience from within ourselves or from without, whatever befalls us, however grand our fortunes, low our misfortunes, or big our challenges, whether we recognize it or not, we are absolutely free to choose our responses and define who we are by what we do with what we were given.

We have the potential to be cocreators with Life and its Source… cocreators in the light of higher consciousness… But this requires that we move toward our own spiritual growth and hopefully support others to do the same, and this is the journey of To Life.

Introduction:

A Credo to Live By…

Each of us has a song to sing;

Write your words—make them simple and clear;

Create your tune—make it easy to follow;

Then sing your song—the song of your life…

(Rachel Angel Sussman)

T his song is a credo, and To Life is the journey in search of a credo as it is a credo.

Finding a song/credo is a personal task. No one can provide you with it; only you can find it. It is a journey of asking and challenging while knowing that sometimes, the questions are more important than the answers; sometimes there are questions but no answers, and sometimes questions may have many answers.

It is a wonder to me how many of us tend to go through life never consciously finding and declaring such a song/credo.

What Is a Credo?

It may be easiest to answer what a credo is by understanding what a credo is not.

A credo is not born purely by means of mental processing. A credo is not a set of mental constructs, intellectual concepts, a theory, or a philosophy. It is not a set of rules and regulations, a long list of should and should not, of rights and wrongs, and of good and bad.

Instead a credo is a realization born from experience. It is the welling from within of the truth that already existed within, allowing it to be deeply felt and choosing to live it in wholenes of mind, body, being, and heart. A credo is the gift of the truth of freedom as given to us.

Having a credo does not imply that one has worked it all out, has all the answers and a 100 percent certainty with no doubts or insecurities. For working it out is a lifelong journey and beyond, and as beautifully stated by Carl Jung, Doubt and insecurity are indispensable components of a complete life. Only those who can lose this life really can gain it. A complete life does not consist in a theoretical completeness, but in the fact that one accepts without reservations, the particular fatal tissue in which one finds himself embedded and one tries to make sense of it or to create a cosmos from the chaotic mess into which one is born (Clare Dunne, 2000, Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul, p. 175).

Eastern philosophies underscore same saying that it is not the nature of reality, life, or the human condition to have certainty all the time, and striving for such is self-defeating.

Both Jung and Eastern philosophies wisely invite us to recognize this reality and to relax with it and with the strange paradox that as conscious beings, we have the capacity, and indeed the calling, to know self, life, and to self-realize; yet we are also called upon to recognize that moving toward such knowledge and realization does not invite the expectation to have all the answers, all the truth (or indeed any answer or truth), and certainly not all the time. We need to learn to accept times of unrest and uncertainty as part of the journey. We need to leave room for not knowing, for lack of clarity, and for uncertainties alongside the knowing—the clarity and the certainty. We may soar in joy with clarity and truth one moment and find ourselves in the dark the next.

Likewise it is when it comes to our own past, present, or future—we do not always have firm ground or certitude. All we can do is to simply learn to be open to life and to ourselves, to surrender and accept that our past may not always be clear to us and is most likely clouding our present. We can then allow the present to be as it is, surrendering with gratitude to savor its beauty and work with its hardships wisely and lovingly. As we do so, we can then allow the future to bring whatever it brings.

Indeed it is no wonder that at the age of over sixty, after much journeying and with all the insights and discoveries given to me by the gift of Grace, I cannot claim either to have all the answers or to being free from all insecurities, fears, etc. I still have to be content with much nonclarity from my past, which I know contaminates my present, to which I have no choice but surrender. Nor can I claim to have total control over the future, and I never will.

Letting go of the expectation that we can know and be certain all the time can be threatening, especially if we harbor such a need and insist on living and choosing only from absolute knowing and certainty. Nevertheless, there can also be relief once we are willing to let go of such fixation. As for me, not only did it bring to awareness how arrogant and self-defeating such expectations were, but it also allowed me to see all the damaging techniques I used in the past, and still stumble with in the present, to avoid the discomfort and confusion of not knowing.

These damaging techniques included

• ignoring, avoiding, and denying

• closing my heart and shifting to intellectual certainty

• invalidating whatever answers I have because there is still so much unknown and uncertainty at hand

• creating stories to fill the gaps in knowledge and understanding

• sinking in despair

• giving up and/or running restlessly inside in panic

Paradoxically, I began to see how the fear of not knowing and of not having answers or certainty kept me unknowing and uncertain, for it became a barrier to asking questions. It was a barrier to seeking truth and to being open to the possibility of receiving the gift of seeing the truth or the best answer by Grace. Not asking protected me from not finding an answer, from having only partial answers, and from the resulting sense of defeat, frustration, hopelessness, and failure.

More still, I became aware how I misused the notion of unavoidable uncertainties. On one hand, I used it in a nihilistic fashion and as an excuse for not seeking the truth or facing dilemmas. After all, is it not human to not know, to be uncertain? Is it not true, so I paradoxically concluded, that truth cannot be found? On the other hand, I used it, even if unknowingly for a while, as a way to foster my own doubting fixation and consequently as an excuse for not moving forward with surrender, humility, and gratitude and honoring the gifts of truth as given by Grace.

All these expectations and patterns were, and are, unfortunate errors resulting in shutting out life and Self, hindering growth and awakening and living on a superficial level. Coming to terms with these patterns was essential in my journey, and so it may be for you.

I had to learn to wisely surrender and relax with the truth that I will not always know the truth or all the truth nor be always certain and that it is okay. Life is a blend of certainty and uncertainty, of clarity and unknowing.

I had to learn that regardless of this potential to know or not, to receive or not, asking the questions and seeking truth and the best answers is important, worthwhile, and indeed of the essence, as is being peaceful, calm, centered, and open to receive what is given when it is given.

While waiting for answers, I had to learn to surrender and be patient, to sit with and fully experience the unknowing, uncertainties, insecurities, and fear, all the while graciously recognizing that it is better, truer, and more real to live with true uncertainties, with honest not knowing, than with false or superficial or arrogant certainty. With Grace’s will, the answers I seek may or may not unfold in their own time. Whether they do or not, I can still remain open, joyful, surrendered to what is.

And as the gifts of Grace were given, I had to learn to honor them, be graciously grateful for them, and be supported by them to move forward with an open heart.

I also had to learn to distinguish true uncertainties and not knowing from self destructive patterns of doubt and invalidation.

And so it is that a credo is not about having all the answers but rather about having a direction for travelling with road signs and signposts to a way of being and living.

The journey to finding these road signs requires that we find the courage to ask questions and seek truth and then move forward following the road signs given to us at any particular time. Whatever outstanding questions we have must remain with us as we remain openhearted to receive more road signs. And when these are revealed to us, we can take yet another step forward.

These road signs are the gifts of insights.

What Is an Insight?

An insight is not an intellectual concept to explain an experience, dilemma, or question—although intellectual reflection, when aligned with the infinite intelligence within us, may contribute to, prompt, and support an insight. It is rather a spiritual awakening by means of the gift of deep understanding and realization. It is the powerful gift of the best answer available at a particular time, given to us by Grace to point us in the direction of light, freedom, and truth.

An insight can come to us through many forms. A deep inner feeling, an image, a word, an inspiring thought or realization, or even a dream—it wells from deep within, it comes from Spirit and Soul. Whatever form the insight takes, there is always a deep sense of inner knowing, of seeing and realizing truth. There may be a kind of ha-ha feeling, a sense of physical release or of joyful clarity.

It is important that we are open to receive such gifts and that we greet them with gratitude, humility, and appreciation, honoring and embracing them. We must be careful that the gift of insight and its message does not lead us to become deluded or arrogant, and we must remember that they are gifts given to us by Grace. And still we must remember that insights are gifts to share so that we grow as individuals and support the growth of others. It is therefore our calling to integrate the message they bring and use it with an open heart. Otherwise it is a wasted opportunity, both for ourselves and for humanity.

This is well expressed by Molly Young Brown when she said, Many moments of inspiration fail to materialize as positive change in life because they are not grounded in conscious choice and actions. What we need is to learn how to use the will to act upon our knowledge and insight (1993, Growing Whole, p. 111). And likewise, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, when he said that there are moments when a person is given a gift. Sometimes it is for a minute, sometimes it can last for a day or for months. Usually it is not a permanent change—just a gift, so to speak, a loan… These things will only last a certain time, but they will pass. The only significant thing you can do is make use of them. If you don’t make use of them they will disappear and leave you in the same position that you were before (2007, Parabola Series, p. 142).

Indeed, as I experienced, these are hard yet essential lessons to learn because insights usually come with incredible clarity and joy. It can feel like being on a high, and it is important not to hang on tightly to this feeling because however beautiful, it is bound to leave us sooner or later—just as Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz said. We need to remember that it is the message that comes with the insight that is the true gift, and it is this message that we need to utilize. So enjoy the state of clarity and joy, soak in it, then let it go. The elation is not the gift! The true gift—the message—is never truly lost to us nor taken away from us but is always ours unless, consciously or unconsciously, instead of utilizing it we choose to throw it away by invalidating it, ignoring it, rejecting it, and going back to how things were before we got the gift. Utilizing the gift means consciously integrating the message, let it become our felt and lived experience, make it our way of living and being and manifest it into actions.

Integrating the Gift of Insight

We need to understand and learn what integrating truly is and how to wisely integrate the gift and its message.

Integration starts with softly acknowledging the insight and its message in the conscious mind, making it the new consciously held knowledge and truth. We need to let go of no longer relevant past knowledge and truths. In this way, we constantly align what we hold to be true with new understanding, knowledge, and realizations.

It is important that the insight is integrated with the simplicity and clarity with which it was given. We must be mindful of creating a host of mental constructs to replace this simplicity, and if we do—maybe to put an insight into a frame that is meaningful to us—we need to be aware and distinguish between what was given and what we constructed.

But integration on the conscious mind level must not be confused with living from the head or from intellectual knowledge (possibly with intellectual arrogance). Indeed doing so will fail us in many ways for it stands in the way of true change, is not real, and will inevitably separate us from who we are and the truth. It is so because there is a world of difference between living something as an intellectual knowledge or, worse, as a mental construct created around knowledge and living it as a living and experienced truth from Being and Soul. Truth is a living experience and so is who we are—we will not find truth nor who we are in the head.

Most of us have experienced at one time or another that conscious or intellectual knowledge and understanding can form part of and act as a basis for change. It can aid and support change, but true change, growth, and evolvement do not occur from conscious or intellectual knowledge but from Being. That is why knowledge that comes to us from without is only information unless experienced as truth within, and unless checked with the infinite intelligence—the Source of the conscious mind—to be the truth. Likewise, when by the gift of realization an insight is experienced and felt to be true, mental acknowledgment is where it begins but not ends. The insight needs to become integrated into our Being, and this means allowing it to fill each cell in our body and heart because this is where the energy of our Being—of who we are now—flows.

Hence, we not only know it to be true in the conscious mind and intellect but also in Being, and it becomes a living, felt, experienced reality and truth— the conscious mind and Being are integrated, whole and one. More still, because insights come from Spirit and Soul, it allows the conscious mind, Being, and Soul to be integrated, whole and one. Living from the head does not allow such integration and wholeness. Indeed, true mental integration, as opposed to living from the head, is the surrender and alignment of the conscious mind to its source—the infinite intelligence—a surrender and alignment that naturally connects us with Being, while living from the head separates us from it.

Living from the head also leads to substituting the moment-by-moment experience with the mental knowledge of the insight and its message and still with