The Celestine Vision
Living the New Spiritual Awareness
by James Redfield
Copyright © 1997
ISBN: 0-446-52274-0
Publisher, Warner Books, Inc.,
1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
Website: http://www.twbookmark.com/index.html
The Celestine Vision Website: http://www.celestinevision.com/main.html
Chapter 9
Pages 144 - 148
LIVING THE NEW INTERPERSONAL ETHIC
Excerpts:THE IMPORTANCE OF UPLIFTING OTHERS
But what if, after finding ourselves in a synchronistic meeting with another person, no messages immediately come to the surface - or, more likely, the messages are blocked by fear or a control drama of some kind? First of all, we can go within and try to increase our own energy level by focusing on love, lightness, and connection with the environment.
From this higher energy state, we can look with fresh eyes at the person with whom we've been talking. As we discussed in an earlier chapter, when confronting a control drama, we must first send loving energy to the person by focusing on him completely. What we are actually doing is sending spiritual energy to the higher self of the person; that allows him to ease the rigid assumptions defined by his control drama.
The mystical traditions tell us this is done in a special way.2 A face, with its features, contours, and shadows, is much like an inkblot, the kind used in psychological tests. In a like way, we can see many expressions in a face, depending on our own attitude. If in our control drama we expect everyone we meet to be intimidating, or foolish, or neglectful, then that is the look that we will find. In fact, the person we're speaking to will usually begin to feel that way, perhaps even speaking threateningly or foolishly or thoughtlessly, reporting later that he seemed to be cast in that role in the conversation.
Remember that the universe responds to our intentions. Our thoughts and beliefs go out like prayers into the world, and the environment tries to give us what we seem to want. The key is to keep our energy high and to use the power of our intentions in a positive way.
But how, precisely, can we accomplish this? How do we apply this new focus to another human being? When we look at another's face now, what do we focus upon?
The answer, of course, is that we must focus on the wholeness of the other's face with an attitude of openness. As the other person talks, if we look closely, we can begin to see the higher self of that person, the particular expression that reflects the individual's greater awareness and knowledge. This idea is expressed in various religious traditions as seeing the glory on another's face, or the Christ, or the genius. However we express it, if we begin to speak to this higher self, this genius, projecting love at the same time, the person will begin to move into that awareness while we are interacting with him, perhaps feeling it for the first time. This is the process of uplifting others in which we can now engage consciously. I believe more and more of us are using this process as a higher, ethical stance toward others. We have known for thousands of years that it is important to love one another and that transformative outcomes can be the result. Now we are learning and integrating the spiritual details of how to send this love.
What's crucial is that we understand that loving others is not just a question of being nice. There is a precise, psychological method to loving others that must be engaged in with specific intention and focus. And yet this ethic is entirely selfish, because if we practice it, we always get more out of the encounter than we put into it. When we strive to uplift others, they move closer to their higher-self knowledge and sense of purpose. And in doing so, they often bring up a subject - be it a project, solution, or plan - that provides us with a synchronistic message, perhaps the very one we were waiting to hear.
Another personal benefit is an increase in our own energy level. As we send love energy to others, we become the channel for an energy that originates with the divine source and moves through us, like a cup filling and spilling over to others. Often one of the fastest ways of regaining our inner divine connection when we feel separated is to uplift someone else.
UPLIFTING OTHERS IN GROUPS
The process of uplifting others leaps to new heights when we practice it in a group setting. Imagine what happens when members of a group are all interacting in this intentional manner. Each person focuses on the best self, the genius, the light in the faces of all the others, and they all simultaneously reciprocate.
Once again, implementing this procedure is a matter of intent, beginning as soon as the group starts its interaction. As the first person begins to speak, everyone else searches for and finds the higher-self expression on his or her face and begins to focus there, sending love and energy. The result is that the person feels a flow of energy coming from the other members of the group and achieves a higher sense of well-being and clarity. This leads to a greenhouse effect within the group, since the speaker who is being given energy adds the energy to his or her own and sends the accumulation back to the others, who experience an even higher energy to send back. In this way, the energy of the group compounds in an ever-increasing cycle of amplification.
This systematic increase in everyone's energy is the higher potential of every human group. It is the phenomenon referred to in the biblical passage "where two or more are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Connecting with and amplifying the amount of divine energy is the true purpose of coming together in groups. Regardless of whether the group is part of a church or a technical work team, this process can enhance the creative power of the individuals involved to incredibly high levels.
Notes:
2. M. Buber, I and Thou (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984)
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