Michael S Barth
Master of Spiritual Awareness Final Essay
Humans today are experiencing a spiritual awakening. With the technological advances made over the few centuries, the world is becoming more connected through advances such as the internet, airplanes, medicine, cell phones, faxes, etc. These advances have allowed for speedy transmission of information allowing people to access information that would have otherwise taken a longer time to obtain. Also, with the airplane, humans can travel to almost any place on Earth in a considerably short time which might have taken months on a ship. People are thus able to learn more about other cultures and to actually experience the culture first hand.
Many teachings from different cultures have made their way to places on Earth where they may not have occurred. These teachings include such things as Transcendental Meditation which was introduced to the West in the late 1950's by His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Buddhism which is becoming ever more popular in the West especially since His Holiness Dalai Lama was exiled from Tibet in the late 1970's.
As far as the First Insight of Awareness is concerned, coincidences that occur just do not randomly happen. People are trying to awaken themselves to the unseen power of this universe. In the past, I have experiences where I had gone somewhere and remembered being there before. One example is when I was in the Boy Scouts and attending the National Jamboree at Fort A. P. Hill in Virginia, just outside Washington, D. C. Our troop was touring the area and we stopped off to tour a Navy ship. When we started walking up to the ship, I was flabbergasted when I had memories of being there before as a child. I asked my mom when we had been there but she told me that I had not been to the Washington, D. C. before attending this Boy Scout Jamboree.
Also, in the West, our lives have become more complicated and more fast-paced that sometimes we do not have the time to think about what we are experiencing or what exactly we are doing. I have lived this way for a long time as well as many people I know. Things would happen where I did not think about it much. Things that I experienced while living this fast-paced lifestyle is thinking about calling someone and they called me first or thinking about writing a letter or e-mail to someone I haven't talked to in a long time but I get something from them first. For along time, I just wrote these events off as coincidences and never gave them much thought. Now I give these events some thought onto why it occurred. Now-a-days, my thought is that these coincidences were supposed to happen and might have been planned by unseen divine forces that humans are not consciously aware of.
I have been incorporating this First Insight of Awareness of the last three years without realizing it. I learned Transcendental Meditation and I have started going back to church. Also, some attitude changes have occurred but have only realized it recently. For many years, I partied hard and I did not care about anything or anyone, including myself. About three years ago, I decided to quit partying because I realized that I was bored of that lifestyle since it was the same people doing the same thing over and over again. After I quit partying, I started thinking about life and what I was supposed to be doing with my life. Then a series of meeting the right people and some events, I got to thinking more. This is how synchronicity has worked in my life. I did not know this at the time but these events were the action of divine forces.
I did not know at the time that I was starting on a new journey that I would not have considered at an earlier age. When I was younger, I was almost obsessed with material possessions and trying to accumulate as many items as I could. This started changing the farther down the road I got. The items I was hording sometimes I did not even need at the time I got the item. Now, I have either given these items away to people I know that needed these items or I donated the items to charity. Also, I started making new friends and these friends are on their own journey.
One of the other lessons in this course that I learned and was not aware of it until I read it was the Fourth Insight which is the tendency of humans to take or steal other people's energy. I did not realize that I was trying to do this in my own life. My energy level always seemed higher when I tried to force or manipulate other people to do things my way. This was done a lot at work and at home. I was not aware why I had more energy when I did this but I now know why. Now, my energy level is higher when I connect to God. I connect using the Transcendental Meditation that I learned and through prayer. Prayer was hard at first because I learned I was not praying the right way, but now that I have learned the right way I am trying to keep do the right form of prayer.
With connecting with God on a daily basis, I am less likely to anger problems, my attitude is better, and my mental/emotional illness is getting better. Also, I have a lot fewer days where I am symptomatic of my mental illness. Also, connecting with this universal energy, I feel more secure about myself and have had a lot less conflict in my life. Before, I was always feeling insecure about myself and I was in these conflicts with people that do not happen as much now as they did before. Today, I do not worry about how I look or if I make a mistake. I do not worry about being corrected in front of people nor do I worry about making the right impression just to feel better. With conflict today, I do not correct people like I did in the past. In the past, I would correct people in front of other people in a demeaning way just to make myself look good. I would purposefully start arguments just for the heck of it. Now, I correct people by pulling the person to the side or if I have to do it in front of people, I do it in the most respectful way. I do not go around starting arguments just for the heck of it.
These results are not by accident. When I started this course, I did not know exactly what I was going to be learning. Going through this course was thrilling because I learned about why I was doing things like starting an argument. It was like being in the Child state saying "I didn't do it" or "Everybody hates." These actions (e.g. TM, prayer, etc.) have helped me realize this and I have incorporated these actions into my daily life.
I enjoy sharing my experience and journey with other people. I tell them the path that I took to get to where I am today. When telling other people about my experience/journey, I do not shove anything down their throats like I use to. If people have questions, I give them an honest answer or point them in the direction of someone who can give them a better answer. I also have allowed people to disagree with me and not starting an argument at the same time. My relationships are better with people.
In the past, I would have told people that there is only one way to get to where I am or how to do things and that was my way doing things. Now, I let people walk their own path and I let them decide now how to walk whatever path they would like. I just try to provide with the tools for that journey or try to help them to locate those tools. Also, I let people know that I love them no matter what even if they make mistakes no matter how big or small or even if we disagree with each other.
Before taking this course and others offered at the ULC Seminary, I would have thought that only losers get into this area. But now I know that people explore courses like this to live better lives and that these people are winners. This course was very helpful to me in many ways. I was able to look at my behavior with a new light. My behavior before I started this journey was less than ideal. Now, my behavior is more ideal. This course was time well spent. It was laid out very well and can tell that the instructor really knows this subject well. There are things that I am still incorporating into my life from this course. This course has a lot of useful information in it. Now I can share my journey better and can add new things too. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone.
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