Healing cannot be imposed; where the heart and mind are broken, it is even more important that healing must be a collaborative exercise.
When people cannot face the outside world and have locked themselves away in rooms of their own making, then it is they who hold the key, not you.

For those who are healers, always listen inwardly and seek to be pure instruments through which communication divine may flow. Do not think of yourselves an healers think only that there is healing. Then let healing happen where and when it may, in accordance with the will of those who need and desire it, as that aligns with the greater desire.

The divine desire for all of your lives is that they may be whole and full, just as the desire of the river is to flow to the sea unimpeded.

Hello

Here are 2 chapters (excerpted with the author's permission) from an exceptional book I've read recently, "We Are Here To Learn" by Lou Bognon from South Africa. She conveys with great clarity some key elements of universal spiritual wisdom that can prove to be very useful on the path to spiritual realization. If you are interested to find out more, please contact Lou Bognon at lou@loubognon.com and visit her website at www.loubognon.com

These are invaluable "spiritual nuggets" that are worthy additions to the previous existing ones archived at

Jean Hudon
Focus Group Facilitator
http://www.aei.ca/~cep/focusgroup.htm

This material is archived at http://www.EarthRainbowNetwork.com/FocusArchives/SpiritualNugget5.htm

CHAPTER 4

LEARNING TO CONQUER FEAR

If your idea of God is small
Your problems tend to be big
But if it is your idea of God that is great
It is your problems that tend to be very small

Traditional Jewish saying

There is nothing to fear but fear itself

This lesson is just a natural extension of the previous one. As we have seen before, and as we shall see throughout this book, all life lessons are, just like life itself, interconnected and interdependent.

We find ourselves better equipped to learn to conquer fear when we have learnt to trust the flow of life and to surrender to the infinite wisdom of our soul. When we have faith, the greatest gift of all, this becomes an easier lesson.

Of all emotions, fear is the one that engenders in humanity the greatest pain and trauma. It is also one of the lowest vibrational frequency emotions and the one responsible for the worst atrocities ever committed. People kill for fear of being killed; judge for fear of being judged; hurt for fear of being hurt, rob for fear of not having enough, lie and cheat for fear of the truth - and it has been so for aeons of time.

It is because of fear of the different and the unknown that we have in the past killed those who have spoken their truth from soul and spirit, those that we perceived to be dangerous - in general anyone who did not wish to conform to intolerant societal rules. We have come a long way since as we no longer systematically kill all those we disagree with, but a lot remains to be learnt. Unfortunately in some parts of the world and in many societies, fear still remains the sole entrenched ruler.

Ours has been a fear-based civilisation from the beginning of time. Fear has been used as a tool of darkness in order to control and manipulate how we feel and how we respond in every single aspect of our lives. In fact fear has been institutionalised to such a degree that every form of establishment has fear of some kind woven through its very foundation: fear of God in our institutionalised religions, fear of failure in our institutionalised society structures and rites of passage, fear of being unworthy of love and respect in our relationships. Everywhere, fear permeates our lives.

Wherever we look, fear has been woven as a very deep, dark and thick thread into the very fabric of life on Earth, and humanity has responded like sheep, without ever questioning their fear.

As a strand of dark and dense energy, it is really an all pervasive one that is truly hard to conquer, for, in whichever direction we look, it stares us in the face and bombards us with heavy, dark, negative and unloving messages: not good enough, not smart enough, not in synch with the prevailing fashion, alien to the current mass culture, too fat or too thin, too dark or too light, too slow or too fast, too clever, too stupid. Fear has been so deeply ingrained in us all that we find it hard to believe that we can escape it and break free. And yet we must if we are to ever achieve our soul potential in human form.

This is really about the ultimate power - the power we have given away because we have not learnt to conquer fear, because we have forgotten that as souls, we have immense courage - just to be here on this planet takes enormous amounts of it. Of all the universes, only the bravest souls are here!

The first thing we need to do is to become deeply aware of how we have allowed fear to rule our lives, how the establishment in all its forms has been perpetuating and holding the threads of this negative energy together, in order to further its own interests. In fact, most of our excesses of consumption, in all its forms, are fed by fear: fear of starving to death, of not being able to survive, fear of having less than the next person, fear of not being able to compete, fear of not looking good enough, being clean enough, young enough, or thin enough, or being smart enough, fear of being unloved, fear of falling sick, and so on. Such are the real 'messages' behind the messages staring at us from most billboards anywhere on the planet.

This lesson therefore is about reminding us that, as soul and spirit, we are all just perfect as we are - for we are unique expressions of divinity and as such, we should be spending all our time and energy in bringing forth that uniqueness and not in trying to conform to somebody else's idea, ideal, suggestion, product, system, technique or agenda.

If this uniqueness becomes the focus of our lives, then we slowly learn to conquer the fear of rejection, because we soon understand that those who reject us are themselves still ignorant of the laws of the universe and the lessons they should be learning. People who reject others are often just beginners who have not yet learnt the first lesson anyway, so they should not be allowed to become our reference points on how to get on with our own lives. Never forget that those who meddle in other people's lives always do so in order to avoid facing their own problems, issues and unresolved conflicts. Typically, such people know it all when it applies to others, but fail miserably when it touches their own lives.

It is a bit like when we were little children in the classroom: some of us just kept busy with our crayons and soon learnt how to produce good drawings, while others spent their energy pointing out and criticising how ugly your little blue flowers looked. Still you learnt to draw, amongst other lessons, and went on to make something of your life.

I cannot help remembering how, as a very young child, I always used to draw blue flowers to the dismay of my class teacher who once asked me angrily: „what is wrong with you? Have you ever seen blue flowers anywhere?‰ In truth, where I grew up in the coastal areas of Mozambique, there were indeed no blue flowers anywhere, but I recall telling that teacher, long before I had ever travelled to other latitudes: "I like blue flowers and I am sure that there must be blue flowers somewhere in the world". Needless to say I have since travelled to places in the world where entire mountains are covered in blue flowers. One such place where this memory moved me to tears was in the Southern Franco-Italian Alps on a fine spring day after I had completed my first book. In fact, as I write these lines, I recall my sense of wonder and validation, and the feeling of having to be ever so careful not to squash too many blue flowers as I sat on the mountain top to express my gratitude for the privilege.

Know that as far as learning goes, nothing has changed: we are all still and forever in class and those who look within will learn, while those who look without will eventually fail or drop out altogether. Which is also all right - they will just have to keep coming back - again and again!

Learn to trust yourself and the inner voice whispering in your heart all the time. Learn to move on with expressing your own inner beauty and uniqueness instead of worrying about conforming to whatever someone else has decided you could or you should be. Take care that you never give your power to anyone or anything. Refuse to become a slave to any trend, tendency or fashion. Keep your inner power all to yourself, rejoice in your uniqueness, treasure it as the precious gift that it really is. Be an original. That is who you really are.

Learn to be bold and dare to be different - after all, that is not just who you are, but also what you came here to share with the world. Learn to fear nothing and no one in the knowledge that there is indeed nothing to fear but fear itself.

Never fear your God for He is Love. God is unconditional love, non-judgement, perfect peace, perfect abundance, perfect health and all the joyful expressions of life. Learn to develop a joyful, ongoing dialogue with Him in all things that you do or dream of doing and He will guide and inspire you at all times. Learn to trust the fact that if He walks with you, who could possibly stop you?

Learn to see all fear in your life for what it really is: an emotion, albeit a powerful one, but also a sign of your disconnection from God - the Source of All. The greater your fear - the greater your disconnection. In all things, trust that you are cared for. Control your fearful and limiting thoughts for they keep creating more of the same reality you have already created.

Learn to discard the need for outside approval and look for it within your own soul. Ask for guidance and protection from the divine presence within yourself. Make sure that all you do and all you dream about is for your greater good and the greater good of all. This is how you will conquer fear of failure in all your endeavours.

When you learn this lesson and integrate its power, then you really trust and know that you are sustained and loved infinitely whatever happens. Lovers or friends come and go, but your love for yourself stays and where there is love there can be no fear. Where there is love there can be no judgement, where there is love there can be no doubt, no lack nor failure of any kind.

Learning to conquer fear is learning to see all others as you see yourself - divine in essence and unique in the heart of our Loving Father/Mother/God.

This is what Nelson Mandela said (quoting Marianne Williamson) about fear back in 1994 in his acceptance speech as the first democratically elected President of South Africa:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are not good enough. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond all limitation. It is our Light and not our darkness that scares us the most. We ask ourselves the question: who am I to be brilliant, radiant, talented and wonderful? In fact who are you not to be? You are a child of God. To limit yourself, to live a small life does not render service to the world. Enlightenment is not to act smaller so as not to render others insecure. We are born to manifest the Glory of God within us and that Glory is not only to be found in some chosen few. It is in all of us. And as we let our own Light shine we unconsciously give others permission to do the same.”

You will know how far you have progressed when there is no place in your heart for racism or any form of prejudice, no need and no place for any form of judgement or separation, no place for worry about tomorrow, no fear of survival, when you no longer experience the need for outside approval, when you cease to worry about being alone, because you will know that you are never alone, even if all other humans were to collectively abandon you, still you would never be alone.

As souls, we belong to the Father and in Him we have our being. To Him we return when our time here is up. For most this is the greatest fear to conquer - the fear of death. Death is only a return to our place of origin, it should be a time for celebration not sorrow, after all, that is the time your soul finds itself freed from all the needs, pains and aches of the denser body.

Learn especially not to worry too much about tomorrow, for it may never come to pass. Learn to live a day at a time and to cross every bridge when you have to, or when life brings you to it. Use your gifts wisely and know that all is well in your world.

Most of the time we worry about things and fear crossing bridges that never ever materialise. And we know that worry or fear never solve the problem - worrying simply makes the problem greater and fearing makes the fear grow. Where we focus our energy, it grows, so do not focus on fear or you will scare yourself silly.

Learn to transmute fear by seriously engaging in a spiritual practice like meditation. Learn to abandon yourself to the Creator and learn to ask Him to assist you in reconnecting with that from which you have been severed, either through ignorance or fear itself.

Learn to use the words: 'you have no power' each time a situation, a person or a thought creates fear or anxiety in you.

I suggest you use the following mantra in all situations of anger or conflict, where fear can bring out the worst in you and take control of your mind and words. Learn to say instead:

I am Love
You are Love
We are love

Next time you are confronted with any situation of fear, be it in the form of aggression, rejection, unhealthy competition or outright anger, try this sacred mantra which was given to us by Lord Maitreya.

I am Love
You are Love
We are Love

Keep repeating it silently to yourself and watch all things of fear melt into nothingness. Fear is a thing of ego. Soul is free of it.

Learn to conquer the fear of being, of speaking and of acting your truth. Recover your power and speak with dignity, integrity, compassion and wisdom. Speak here can also be used figuratively, some of us speak through art, others through music, yet others through silence.

Take a couple of deep breaths; when ready, visualise a spiral of white light above your head, covering your throat and penetrating all the way to the heart; then say aloud in your meditation:

I AM
I LOVE
I SPEAK

Then go out there and be, love and speak. Share your gifts with the world. That is why you are here. That is why I am here. That is why we are all here.

You could use the previous chapter's affirmations, as they are also very appropriate and easy to repeat, so here they are again:

I am divinely protected
I am divinely guided
I am divinely loved
I am divinely sustained and provided for

---

CHAPTER 10.

LEARNING TO STAY CONNECTED

"The power of God gives only what we take"

Anonymous

Trust more in God.
Believe that He who created you
Will maintain you.

Yogananda

Of all the lessons so far, this one is perhaps the easiest to learn and to apply - after all it depends solely upon our will to maintain our connection with the divine.

This lesson, more than any other is about the real, good and continuous use of our own power of intention.

Will yourself, make it a purpose and intention in your life - to remain so connected, to pray so often, to live in such a state of gratitude, to feel so alive, to meditate so frequently, that you become a living, walking, eating, sleeping meditation. This is what learning to stay connected is all about.

Seeing the sacred in all things, and all things as being sacred, even those we think of in terms of polarity and duality like light and darkness.

Feeling life and your own heart beat in sync with the heartbeat of God in all things: from the grass where you may want to lie down to ground yourself and connect to the heartbeat of Mother Earth herself, to the dog sitting at your feet, the smallest flower bud proudly displaying its colours, the clouds in the sky, the birds as they fly, the river as it flows, the majesty of any mountain -learn to feel the pulse of life and the divine love in all things and then you will really know what it means, not just to be connected but to really feel as one with the All.

Before you learn to do this, I want to share with you another sacred teaching, this time by the beloved Saint Germain, as taught in the 'Unveiled Mysteries'‚ by Godffré Ray King:

“Universal substance is obedient to your conscious will at all times. It is constantly responding to humanity’s thought and feeling, whether they realise it or not. There is no instant at which human beings are not giving this substance one quality or another, and it is only through the knowledge that the individual has conscious control and manipulation of a limitless sea of It, that he begins to understand the possibilities of his own Creative Powers, and the responsibilities resting upon him in the use of his thought and feeling.”

This quote is very powerful, not just to this particular lesson but also to the next one, because as I have said before, all life lessons are interconnected. The importance of this lesson though is that the moment we learn it, the next is just pure and simple fun.

Remember therefore that when you have reached this level in the school of life, you are colouring‚ your own palette at every instant, in other words you are continually living and creating with awareness, so you can really make the effort to produce good and beautiful things with your colours imprint and paint everything you think, do or say with the divine qualities and colours of love, joy, laughter, gratitude and abundance, and still more joy and more joy and more joy.

Our planet is still far too darkly coloured and imprinted with sadness, sorrow and a mentality of greed, fear and lack. When you learn to be connected you consciously send out entire strings and entire rainbows of beautiful colour, the rosy colour of love, the blue colour of healing, the mauve-violet colour of transmutation and healing, the white and gold colours of purification and the golden ruby colour of laughter and joy.

Of all the lessons, this is my favourite one. The fact that I am a healer and therefore meditate for hours at a time has made altered states of consciousness a sort of parallel norm for me. And I have really learnt to surrender to the love divine when I am connected and to feel it almost as tangibly as if Father/Mother/God himself/herself was giving me a loving embrace.

I just love staying connected, I love living between the worlds, visiting other dimensions to speak to all other life forms in the universal language of love, so much so in fact, that to an outsider, I may not exactly even 'be here'. Close friends and family members often tease me about this with comments such as: "Hey get down from your mountain"; "Are you on the right planet today?" or, when I allow the teacher in me to take over, they clap their hands and say: "Wake up! You are on Earth now and it is dinner time!" or something to that effect, which is quite sweet and funny really, seen from my planet mountain‚ as they put it.

If only they knew what it really feels to be so connected, they would also know that I am very much awake, on earth, here and now.

When you learn to stay connected, you see magic where others see absolutely nothing at all or pure nonsense, at the best of times. Let me share with you my experience of yesterday as an example:

As I walked along the banks of the Magaliesburg river in the company of Storm, the farmhouse border collie who temporarily decided that his life purpose was to watch over me, and as I caressed all the trees that touched my heart (if you read my first book you know how I feel about trees), I made my walk, as always, a prayer of gratitude to my Father/Mother/God.

Like a happy, dreamy child I still lovingly speak to trees and the grass, before I step on it, and so I went along the river bank sending kisses to the purple dragonflies as I admired their beauty. Then I lifted my head and both my arms up to the heavens and I said the following prayer aloud:

"I love you my Father in all this beauty and I am so grateful to be here, now, with all my awakened senses - physical, emotional and spiritual, to be able to afford a few days in the beauty and peace of this place, for the lovely words I have already been guided to write, the insights I have been able to gain."

Soon I found myself really lost in my prayer, becoming my prayer; in short, I had entered into a lovely and joyful state of grace.

Suddenly out of the blue, clear, sunny and perfectly cloudless sky, one single dewdrop fell on my lips. It tasted, smelled and felt to me, as I had always imagined Divine Nectar would feel, taste and smell. And I knew, in that instant, that it was a manifestation of my Father/Mother/God to acknowledge my prayer. I just knew.

To most people of course, I must really sound like a nutcase—the more tolerant ones would say that surely a bird flew past and peed on me, others would ask, are you sure a plane did not fly past, perhaps it was at high altitude, so you could not hear. and other such similar comments, which I fully understand.

But, when we are connected, we know. No need to explain, weigh or measure, no need for scientific confirmation, or any other type of confirmation, we just know. Our inner knowing is the confirmation. We know without any trace of a doubt that there is perfect order in the universe, that Divine Intelligence is as much a part of the ivy, which instructs itself to grow little arms in every direction to hold onto any surface, as it is of the sunflower as it offers its beauty to the sun, the perfect symmetry of a butterfly's wings and the magic of a child's joyful laugh.

I still recall as a child being taught that animals had no intelligence or feelings as these things were supposed to be exclusively human - and so fiercely did I disagree with my science teacher that she thought I might be having a fit.

How could she talk such nonsense, I asked, when I knew for a fact that my dog was my friend? He loved me unconditionally, followed and protected me everywhere I went, was even willing to die for me, and more importantly, he understood everything I told him, for he listened in perfect silence each time I spoke of my sorrows and dreams.

Now you know about two of my teachers: the art one who could not stand my blue flowers and the science one, both of whom as you can imagine were neither very open nor compassionate. Not surprisingly I cannot recall their names, but I bless them both from the heart, for they too were my masters and from them I learnt to fight for what I believed in, albeit not always in the easiest or most peaceful way.

We learn from everyone who crosses our path.

Learning to stay connected allows us to experience this inner knowing and it will allow us to colour our life accordingly. How can we contribute in any positive way to the planet if we do not experience the inner knowing that this is the very reason why we are here in the first place?

Look at the humble earthworm - how do you think that he would know how to aerate the soil, which is one of his main purposes, if he had not come here already encoded with that knowledge?

The earthworm does not confuse itself with the worm that becomes a butterfly, while each one is a worm, the one's encoding tells it to work the earth, the other's to work the sky.

What is your inner knowing telling you? Learn to stay connected until you too can remember.

Science, which seems to follow in the footsteps of spirit, is fast catching up: now we speak of mathematical, linguistic, logic, emotional and spiritual intelligence. At last! Better late than never.

I will go one further: Divine Intelligence, the one permeating all of life throughout the universe. Learn to stay connected and you will know and experience It too.

It is time to acknowledge that a very powerful paradigm shift has happened already on our planet, both in major planetary transformation issues and in terms of the words we use and the concepts that best express things of soul and spirit.

This is a whole new energy with a simpler vocabulary and approach.

Whereas in the past we would have said - it takes faith - or faith can move mountains, which it really can, we would rather say today something like:

It is the power of intention that the universe registers as the ultimate reality.

If your intention is to really learn to stay connected, to make your journey here as light as possible, to receive all the guidance and inspiration you need, the love and the wisdom to tackle anything, learn to use the following prayer when things, people, situations or dilemmas are a bit more challenging than expected.

Divine Presence
Take command here
And bring forth your perfection,
your love and your wisdom.