2001 - The Spiritual Odyssey
Towards the Light of a New Dawn Continues
Hello
As we enter a new millennium, it is fitting to stand back for a few moments and contemplate the long journey behind us all as a species, take stock of our current global challenges that must be faced willy-nilly, and consciously choose where we want to invest our attention and resources so as to make the best out of the endless possibilities available to us right now. In so doing, we may then find a keener sense of where we are headed, a better grasp of what it means to be alive at this crucial crossroad of our planetary evolution, and, in the end, experience perhaps a hint of our true Oneness with the deepest part of our Universal Self and a fathomless, blissful, joyful ecstasy bursting forth through every cell of our body and well, well beyond...
The never-ending Odyssey continues
Jean Hudon
Focus Group Facilitator
http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com/FocusArchives/home.htm
and Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com
The End of Suffering - The Beginning of Rejoicing
Across centuries, millennia and metamorphic eras, our species has travelled towards this moment in time. We started as a mere speck of Life somewhere in the primeval ocean and we gradually and oh! so slowly evolved to become the intricately complex life form we are today, with trillions of atoms and billions of cells forming our bodies. And as we grew, so did the vast numbers of other life forms with which we share this incredibly beautiful and yet so fragile planetary vessel and blue pearl of Life swirling around its star with its sister planets within the infinitely vast expanses of our galaxy, which is only one spiralling island of lights amongst hundreds of billions more galaxies, ad infinitum, all around us, as far as we can peer out of our telescopes, into the empty, black void of space.
One of the most amazing feats we can accomplish, amidst the innumerable abilities we have, is to think and expand our awareness to encompass and understand our past, present and potential future while contemplating the astoundingly vast multidimensional universe we live in. Poets, philosophers, artists and scientists have all contributed towards developing a multifaceted culture that keeps expanding at breakneck speed as we plunge headlong into a new era of global interconnection and experience in the process a growing sense of unity in our splendid diversity.
This is in a nutshell where we have arrived so far. But there is another side to this bright, stimulating picture. Despite the best and ever growing efforts of a multitude of organizations and people devoting themselves ceaselessly to make sure no one dies for lack of food in a world that produces more than enough to feed all its human inhabitants, despite the persuasive warnings of concerned scientists and environmentalists as to the increasingly dire state of our worlds threatened ecosystems, and despite the best efforts of countless groups dedicated to bring about peace in human relationships and between nations, we are still battling seemingly insurmountable odds as we come closer and closer to the slippery slope that leads directly into a massive collapse of all that we have taken for granted for far too long.
So it can be said that we are collectively standing on the very brink of either a new unprecedented era of amazing breakthroughs in technological, social and cultural sophistication as well as endless opportunities for the expansion of consciousness and the harmonization of humanity within the living sphere we call Earth, or a descent into ever more environmental degradation and spiritual impoverishment. The crucial realization to make however is that the choice is ours as to which route we want to take. We are NOT powerless to make the needed changes that can and do make a huge difference when we collectively set our minds and hearts upon a series of goals emerging from a shared vision and then go out of our way to achieve the possibilities we have seen.
But how do we go about sharing a common vision and defining - and let alone pursuing - such goals when there are so many conflicting voices and views clamoring for our attention and so many other distractions to contend with, many of them vital ones when just surviving another day, if you are poor and destitute, takes absolute precedence, or when the crushing pressure of an ever accelerating modern way of life deprives us of the time and inner space needed to even consider what is offered above?
The simplest answer is that there is a built-in wisdom in everyone of us, a sort of Master Plan of Life if you will, that is gradually emerging in all of us as a guiding beacon for all our thoughts, words and actions and that is taking us, in this very moment, towards the surest path of success and the brightest future we can imagine. If Nature has been able to design and maintain over aeons of time the vast and intricate Web of Life that graces our world - and undoubtedly a nearly infinite number of other worlds throughout the universe - with superb and absolutely perfect life forms fitting purposely with each other into a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, then it is only reasonable to conceive that we are being provided in this very instant with the proper instructions to proceed as a species towards the next stage in our odyssey through the time-space continuum.
However the analogy of a natural blueprint can be misleading for there is not a fixed series of steps to follow to achieve a certain result. Actually, because of our self-sentient awareness and the free will hence granted to us by our ability to make conscious, intelligent choices, we have become co-creators with the unrelenting Force of Life that has gradually shaped us over all those millions of years. And we are learning to become more acutely aware of the still small voice within which is prompting us, moment by moment, towards contributing, each in our own unique and essential way, to the accelerating upliftment of all human lives and the shifting of our rapidly globalizing civilization into a higher frequency of loving, caring and mutually empowering relationships with each other and with all other life forms.
This may appear difficult to see when considering the day-to-day dribbling of frequently negative news and distressing information we get through the mass media. Yet, if one makes time, as more and more people do, to take a respite from the pressing demands of daily life and enter a deep state of meditative awareness, in synch with the inner pulse of Life, then, sure enough, one will experience a sense of peaceful mindfulness and inner strength that speaks volume as to the actual direction our world is taking. Not only is there hope for our planet and all its inhabitants, small or big, but we can definitely pick the growing chorus of souls attuning as One to the common pool of conscious awareness emerging as the collective voice of humanity. And this voice resounds with the will of Good, the power of Love made manifest as the juggernaut of Peace rolls onward, pushing down all the remaining obstacles to complete world harmony and joy.
A Ray of Hope, a Beacon of Unification
Among the numerous initiatives that have emerged in the last few years to further facilitate the opening of a greater number of minds and souls to the innate, transformative power each human has to channel massive amounts of positive energies and love-filled vibrations into the emerging global awareness of humanity, the Global Meditation Focus Group is gradually being recognized as a simple and yet powerful instrument to help catalyze such a change. Resulting from a consensus made through the Internet among a small number of active lightworkers from several countries as to the necessity to better coordinate and regularly circulate calls for synchronized global peace and healing meditations in relation to critical situations occurring around the world, this Global Meditation Focus Group has rapidly defined and occupied a niche of its own in the field of meditation-assisted work designed to alleviate human suffering and foster world peace and a greater cooperation to protect our fragile planetary environment.
Needless to say, this is still a fledging initiative in its infancy and many possibilities remain to be explored and manifested before this global spiritual task force may reach the full expression of its potential. But there are encouraging signs indicating that a growing number of people are participating every week in support, through their prayers and meditations, of its general aims and specific Meditation Focus regularly suggested to everyones attention. And so far, it appears that the invisible yet pervasive influence exerted by all the good souls, joining weekly or daily in those moments of spiritual unification with the global family of like-hearted souls, is having a very positive impact on world events and world priorities with regard to alleviating human suffering and creating better conditions for peace, justice and environmental sanity on Earth.
This growing positive influence felt by many as well as the innumerable positively-oriented movements, groups and individuals actively working to make this world a better, safer place for all mean there is every reason to rejoice as more and more people shift their attention and priorities towards the Light of a New Dawn steadily emerging, against all odds, and heralding a new era of spiritual renaissance and expanding awareness of our common responsibility to help make the dream of Peace, Love and Harmony on Earth come true.
As for the choices we can each make to better contribute to the unfolding odyssey of our collective spiritual evolution, lets just say that the first place to start to find out what our best options are is within, in the silence of meditation and contemplation. Unless we decide to make time for such a vital at-one-ment with the guiding beacon of our spiritual Self, and in so doing create and nurture the inner Knowledge of our Unity with our greater Universal Self, we will be left spinning in the void of illusion, gripped by the clenching hands of materiality and possessiveness, forging ahead aimlessly without any deep sense of our true purpose and mission in life, unable to see beyond the immediate torments of our times the glowing promise of a brighter future for all human beings and every other life form on Earth. The end of suffering is at hand. Let us all rejoice as we make the conscious choice of serving the Light, sowing Love and learning to live in Peace with ourselves and the rest of the world, here and now.
For more information about the Global Meditation Focus Group, please go at:
http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com/FocusArchives/home.htm