As the out-breath and in-breath of God create the greatest expansion and contraction cycles within the macrocosm, so too are they mirrored within the microcosm. There are those who live primarily in expansion (output) and those who live in contraction (input). Feeling at home within life on earth requires first that we familiarize ourselves with these principles and then create balance between these expanding and contracting cycles in our lives.

Living Within Expansion

Those who live primarily in a state of expansion are the people with wings. They want to explore, to achieve, to conquer and to live a life full of adventure that pushes the boundaries of the known into the unknown. They are the fire-carriers who reach for the new and find ruts and routines soul-deadening. Their love is poured into what they do, which is passion.

Expansion: Type of energy

The electrical (masculine) energy is dominant over the magnetic (feminine) energy and as a consequence these individuals sometimes prefer the fall and winter when the magnetic energy is stronger and helps balance their overabundance of electrical energy. Their pursuits are active rather than passive. Their mental activity is very strong and they might find it difficult to relax.

Expansion: Positive Tendencies

They like being a cause rather than an effect. They like to build and turn their goals into realities. Their strong suit is original thinking and problem solving. They delve into the unknown where growth originates and therefore grow and change rapidly. They prize achievement and growth.

We were deliberately disconnected from our sub-personalities by the undeveloped light as a means of control because if we become scattered and dysfunctional, we are powerless.

Expansion: Negative Tendencies

If growth is too rapid, their ambitions can be very ungrounded and lack the proper foundation. People lose their sovereignty when they have wings but no roots in that they feel the need for a place of grounding. They yearn for a home, and tend not to nurture themselves; this makes them susceptible to manipulation in relationships. In some instances, they become over-sexed in an attempt to bring their lower chakras into balance. They sometimes tend to be inattentive during relationships.

Expansion: Causes of Over-Balance

Social conditioning that stresses that the value of the individual lies in what he does, rather than who he is, is a significant factor in causing this over-balance. It may also be the result of unresolved past events such as a very stressful home life, or issues that cause the need to prove himself. Another contributing factor could be a worldview resulting from past life experiences where passiveness produced calamity.

Expansion: Solution

The higher the flight of an individual's thought, the greater the need for roots. The inner child and inner nurturer in expression provide a source of magnetic energy to help create wholeness within. A concerted effort needs to be made to incorporate nurturing elements into one's environment. For example: cozy shoes to wear under one's desk; packing a favorite pillow and blanket for a hotel stay; a back support and favorite music in the car and a stash of protein drinks or herbal teas available during regular breaks.

Living Within Contraction

Those living within contraction have traditionally been priests and shepherds rather than kings and conquerors. They seek joy versus passion; to walk in a cool, green forest rather than search for a lost treasure. Their roots are deep and their connection with the earth strong. They enjoy simple pleasures and get contentment from creating.

Contraction: Type of Energy

Their magnetic energy dominates their electric energy. They tend to value security and are therefore not fond of taking risks. They are the water bearers and value the quality of the journey over the end-results. They are receptive and their energy is more passive.

Contraction: Positive Tendencies

Those who are over-balanced in their magnetic energy tend to feel at home wherever they go. They are nurturing to self and others and generally are comfortable around others. If their basic needs are met, they find contentment in the experiences of everyday life. They excel at creating a pleasant atmosphere around offices and warmth within the home. They bring creativity and quality to the journey of life.

Contraction: Negative Tendencies

Those living within contraction tend to over-polarize towards the light (the known) where they feel safe and secure. But because growth is found through embracing the unknown (the dark or un-yielded light), they tend to stagnate. They are less adept at original thought and planning and therefore lack confidence in their ability to achieve. This can cause a lack of sovereignty and a neediness that can be manipulated in relationships. When such a person feels very disempowered, they can become destructive and critical of those attempting to build and achieve. Some use meditation as an escape from challenge (television and other addictions can also be used as an escape). Others may become obsessive about self-nurturing.

Contraction: Causes of Over-Balance

When past life and childhood experiences reveal the world as unsafe and unstable, the desire to remain in the safety of the known becomes obsessive. Risk taking and venturing into the unknown becomes undesirable. This type of over-balance also occurs when someone grows up in a household where the peace is disturbed by bouts of threatening rage. Passion is then seen as destructive.

Contraction: Solution

To bring new energy in to dispel the stagnation, new experiences must be pulled into their lives. A deliberate attempt must be made to push the boundaries of their comfort zone a little bit further every day until their wings allow them to fly. Looking ahead and setting a goal, then breaking the goal into projects and the projects into daily tasks, will help build confidence and self-determination.

Whenever there are pieces within that are undeveloped, we become invested in finding them without, giving our power to another to complete us. But balance cannot be found without if it is not found within. This means the flow of awareness has to shatter that relationship in order to mirror to us that an outside source is not a reliable place to find our sustenance.

As long as we have wings without roots, we will be dependent on another to make us feel at home. Conversely, as long as we have roots without wings, we will stagnate and draw in pain to prod us into change and growth. We will also need to rely on others to help us achieve. When we become confident in our ability to determine our future, we balance the expansion and contraction cycles of our lives. We will cease to yearn for the higher spheres from whence we came but instead grow in feeling the satisfaction of being at home on earth.

The Laws of the Cycles

To understand why these cycles move in expansion and contraction, pulsing from one to the other, we have to remember that there are degrees of polarity. One thing can be a little negative in relation to another and a third thing can be very negative in relation to it.

As the door of everything, we have the same vastness within as we have without and the same laws apply. Therefore, the same principle will snap us back from expanding too far into passion for example, as it would in turning the outbreath of God to the inbreath. In human lives, someone who has somehow lost this safety mechanism that prevents cycles from going out of bounds becomes manic depressive.

The unknown has a negative polarity as has our own inner feminine, which holds our own unknown pieces. The known has a positive polarity, as has our own inner masculine, which holds our own known pieces.

As we delve into the unknown of our world, desiring to know it (which is passion), we are traveling from A to C. The emotion of passion has a positive polarity and is drawn by the negative polarity of the unknown. On our circular graph (See page133, The Cycles of Expansion and Contraction), the further poles are apart, the greater the degree of polarity and the stronger the attraction. By the time the expansion has moved all the way to C, it is further away from its own feminine pole B than the feminine unknown without and is therefore suddenly more attracted to its own inner negative pole. This therefore pulls the expansion back to the stronger attraction of B into contraction and the desire to live (joy).

By the time life is pulled all the way to B, the pull from C becomes so strong that it pulls everything into expansion again. The momentum of any cycle is fastest immediately after it reverses direction, slowing down the further it progresses. We can therefore expect that the first part of the blue road home will occur very rapidly.

The further we expand into the unknown, i.e., the further we extend A-C; the further we snap back and extend A-B, making our circle large and larger. As a practical matter it means that the more valiant we are in fulfilling our agreement to explore the unknown portions of existence, the deeper our joy becomes. In exactly the same way, the other three sets of emotional poles pulse and help each other grow: Fear (-) shows us what parts of existence we have not yet included in our love (+). Anger (+) breaks up that which is no longer needed so we can see clearly what is worth protecting (-) or fighting for. Pain (+) as the desire to change removes that which is not life-enhancing so we may find that which we desire to keep, which is contentment (-). In this way the dynamic balance of our emotional cycles stays intact even as the cycles become larger and larger and we include more and more of existence in our experience.

Finding Our Passion

When the social conditioning of our lives has left the clear impression that it is unsafe to fully participate in the game of life, we may hang back in the safety of the known, afraid to make ourselves a target by being noticed. We may fear that passion could cause our light to shine so brightly that others might try and tear us down so that their own lack of luster isn't as obvious.

If we deny our desire to express passionately long enough, we will end up being strangers to passion; not knowing how to find it nor recognize it even if we do. The lateral hypothalamus tells us when we have eaten enough. The ventromedial hypothalamus tells us when we are hungry. In the same way, if we deny the promptings from these portions of the brain, we will end up either obese or anorexic. When that happens we have to gently coach ourselves into recognizing what their promptings feel like. When passion beckons we feel warm and excited, our faces flushed and our imagination stirring with questions of “What if?” and “What lies beyond the next horizon?” It inspires us into action and gives us the belief that we can take risks and build.

We find our passion by following the yearnings our moments of joy evoke within our hearts. It is the lost song the singer feels hiding within the shadows of his mind. It is the lost rhythm the dancer forever seeks. It is the mysteries of the cosmos that wait for the scientist or the metaphysician to unlock. It is the desire inspired by the innocence in our child's eyes to build a life of wonder and beauty for our family.

If passion has become a stranger to us, we might have to become re-acquainted with it one facet at a time. When expressed, passion consists of taking risks; of accomplishment and the building of something new. It adds new experiences, further boundaries, and new depth to our lives.

To train ourselves to hear the voice of passion once again, we find the yearning of our heart and follow where it leads. We make a concerted effort to break free from the prison bars of ruts and expectations, socially conditioned limitations and self-imposed belief systems that keep us in mediocrity. We take a few minutes a day to dare to dream of what would make our hearts sing. We awake each morning and determine to live the day before us as though it were our last. We look at our lives as though for the first time, with a fresh perspective that can detect the joyless, self-sacrificing areas. With courage and great consideration for the consequences of our actions on others, we implement our first steps to bring the glow of passion back to these areas.

A decision may take a minute to make, but for it to be as life-altering as we would want it to be, it needs to be supported by a firm foundation. This requires planning and also a certain amount of analysis. What is the goal? What resources will be needed? Is there a discrepancy between what we need and what we have and how can we fill it? Many businesses fail, taking many dreams with them, because not enough thought is given to what is needed to support them in terms of time and money. Once a goal is identified, break it into projects and tasks. Jack London is one of the most highly paid authors if one takes inflation into consideration. He used the same method for achieving success. An immigrant and dockworker, Jack London had a dream of breaking free from the hard grueling labor and becoming an author. Before his long day began, he studied English grammar for an hour, and then worked to earn his bread and butter as a dockworker. At night, he took a creative writing class at the library and when he got home, he did his writing. His goal was broken up into projects, then into tasks and his day structured to accommodate them.

Many envy the achievements of others, but they are not prepared to put in the work. Sometimes it takes burning the candle on both ends to fulfill a dream. It is our passion that keeps our enthusiasm lit and gives us our second wind to fly higher than we ever thought possible.

Finding Our Joy

As passion explores the multitude of possibilities through which we can express, so joy is concentrated on the simplicity of the moment. Joy is a mindset, a certain focus that sees the perfection of the here and now, casting a golden glow over the experiences of yesterday. It turns the mundane into poetry and captures the moment in a still-life image.

Milton said: “The mind in its own place and of itself can turn hell into heaven and heaven into hell”. The great English master painter, Turner, at the end of his life said that in his entire life he'd never seen anything ugly. Franz Liszt was urged to write his memoirs, but he said: “It's enough to have lived such a life”. He found such joy in his experiences, he didn't have to externalize them to appreciate them.

Joy can be recognized by the deep feeling of satisfaction it brings, by the feeling that one has come home to oneself. It taps into the quiet place within that nurtures the soul and replenishes the mind. When under its spell, joy makes us feel light and young again, connected to the earth and freed from our cares.

The key to finding our joy lies in our ability to work with time. In a world where mounting responsibilities urge us to accomplish more in less time, most tasks are hastily performed. Yet we don't seem to have any more time to enjoy life. The time that is supposed to be leisure time has even more undone chores competing for it. The reason this is so is that when we rush, we speed up time and we seem to have even less at our disposal.

Just as building with passion requires careful and disciplined time allocations, living with joy requires the ability to compress time. If we focus on the details in front of us at this moment, time slows down. Even if we cannot find an hour today to do the things we enjoy, we can find the time to enjoy the things we are doing. In cutting up vegetables to make a stew, we can see the colors of the carrots, explore the different textures of each vegetable and smell the fresh fragrance as we cut through their skin.

Even repetitive work can become a mantra, or a production line a prayer as we send blessings and angelic assistance to the homes where the products will end up. Walking in the crowded street, we can feel the sadness of others but can turn it into joy by envisioning blessings pouring into their lives. The loss in the lives of others can be used to inspire praise and gratitude for the blessings in our own.

In our choice of the joy to fill our leisure time, we look for that which will inspire us into achievement. As the joy flows inward on the surface, the passion it inspires folds outward beneath the surface. The greater our joy, the greater the actions it will inspire.

Letting Our Light Shine

Traditionally, it hasn't been safe to let our light shine; to demonstrate too great a passion or too deep a joy. It has brought about persecution from the tribe whose lack of luster becomes apparent by comparison. Tribes exist everywhere people see the safety of uniformity and these groups reject that which cannot be controlled.

When confronted with anything superlative that lies beyond the status quo, the tribe has the uncomfortable choice of either living with excellence in their midst and feeling less by comparison, changing their own behavior to match the new standard or, alternatively, to eject from the tribe the ones who excel.

Throughout history those who have demonstrated great passion or joy have been all too frequently ostracized and shunned. The great ones in our midst have found that, more often than not, the price of greatness has been solitude. But to still our inner song to conform to mediocrity is psychological suicide. We have come too far through space and time to be the wayshowers of this planet, to allow ourselves to blend into the grayness of the unaware masses. Surrounded by our own inner family, driven by passion and sustained by joy, let us with courage walk the path of a life well lived. Let us fulfill our destinies as light beacons unto the world.

Living a Balanced Life

There is a saying, “Life is a journey, not a camp”. We are either moving forward or moving backwards, but we are never standing still. In the vast river of change we call life, any life form either moves with it or is swept away to be replaced by another.

Life forms that consistently oppose life may, after many lifetimes, even lose the ability to incarnate into physicality at all. Lack of growth weakens the life force at someone's disposal. Without sufficient life force and energy, the formation of a lower or physical body cannot take place. It requires an enormous amount of energy to create material form.

Because everything is in constant flux, balance cannot be stationary–it has to consist of movement. Many light seekers think of balance as always living in serenity and peace no matter what occurs. What they fail to understand is that by refusing to embrace the dark, they call it forth. Anything that we deny the right to exist by failing to acknowledge its contribution within the cosmos is strengthened either within us or within our environment.

We are the microcosm of the macrocosm, but the macrocosm is anything but peaceful and serene. Although some parts of it may be tranquil, it is also destructive and explosive and gloriously passionate. The only constant is the matrix; the underlying grand scheme that gives the overall purpose and the allotted time and space within which creational cycles play out.

As we enter God-consciousness, we see the big picture. Not until we re-enter the human condition do we pay attention to the stormy ups and downs of life. Even as we cry and laugh once more in the drama of human life, we still keep our inner focus on the big picture; the perfection of the divine plan. Like the cosmic matrix that underlies the passionate drama of the cosmos, this large inner perspective underlies the stormy changes in our lives. It provides stability within flow, measure within movement.

Keeping our eyes fixed on the perfection underlying appearances can be called the first half of balance. It is the masculine, positive polarity of balance. Learning to bring balance to the movement or flow of emotion is the second half of balance, the feminine, magnetic aspect. If we have expanded vision without allowing the balanced interaction of emotion to occur, growth stops and we start to stagnate. When emotion is denied the right to exist, it eventually surfaces as jagged and disproportionate; in other words, out of balance.

Anger is often shunned, whereas joy is valued. Few utilize the immense value of anger and learn how to bring it into balance. To the same degree that it is suppressed, anger will surge and frequently become destructive. The more we identify anger with destructiveness, the more we tend to suppress it and in this way an escalating imbalance builds up that not only stifles anger, but also joy.

The great gift of anger is that it breaks up stuck patterns. If we allow anger to surface, not directing it at another but simply feeling it throughout our being, it can run its course. When it is spent ask the question: “What can I now see that I couldn't see before?” If we question persistently enough, hidden insights will reveal themselves. Increased perception brings increased energy and power, which in turn increases our desire to live. The desire to live is joy. The desire to live in turn propels us into an exploration of life and the unknown. The unknown portions of life are the most ‘stuck' of all parts of existence and have not yielded during all previous creational cycles. Anger is therefore needed to assist in breaking up the illusion.

In this way, opposite emotional forces within us yield each other. Fear alerts us to those parts of creation we have not yet included within our compassionate understanding so that our love can grow. Passion and joy alternate by prompting each other.

As all these inner components are given equal value, a dynamic, growthpromoting balance is born. A back and forth flow and movement provides the impetus to help drive us upward along the spiral of awareness. The steady gaze we keep on the large picture, on the other hand, provides the balance we need to ensure that we maintain an eternal perspective.

The Three Bodies of Information

Information can be divided into the known, the unknown and the unknowable.

The Known

The left brain is responsible for accessing the known, which constitutes 1/12th of that which can be known by man without being in God-consciousness. It uses two tools for this task.

The first is not-doing. It is invaluable in helping us see the big picture because we lift ourselves above the circumstance to gain a broader perspective. It keeps us from becoming hung-up in details. Therefore, it is a tool for applying discernment while making decisions.

When not-doing becomes a constant mode of operation for the left brain, we are embarking on the first stages of disconnecting from ego and entering into God Consciousness. Just prior to entering Godconsciousness, it feels as though we are observing our life through a tunnel, from afar.

The second tool left brain uses in decision making is seeing behind the appearances. It is the ability of left brain to pierce the veil of illusion and see the essence of what is really going on. It teaches us to see symbolically, which prevents us from taking things at face value—a trap that could lead to incorrect decisions.

The sub-personality connected with left brain is the warrior, which guards left brain's thoughts diligently to ensure that it doesn't think limiting or disempowering thoughts that could create adverse circumstances.

The sage has instructed the warrior that thoughts create reality and its job is to ensure that the reality produced by the thoughts is of the highest possible manifestation. The adult contributes its experiences so that the logical mind can form deductions and file the information for future reference. The sexual persona uses the physical merging with another to teach the left brain to surrender its rigid grip on life so it can surrender to God-mind.

The Unknown

It consists of 11/12ths of that which can be known without entering God-mind. It is accessed by right brain, which gathers information from other realms, the future, from unseen guides and allies, by intuiting motives and feelings from other people. It is also accessed by the subconscious that gathers information from our Higher Self and the collective consciousness of humanity.

The subconscious is the receptacle for the experiences of the inner child. It accesses truth with feeling and provides vital input for making decisions. For example, we meet a new person and we immediately experience a shrinking feeling. If we have recapitulated our past and know this person isn't reminding us of a former perpetrator, this feeling could indicate that even though strangers present themselves as friendly, they could be hostile.

The right brain is where the nurturer downloads his or her experiences. For instance, the nurturer may notice that the stomach muscles tighten every time you walk past an alley on your way to work. It reports this to right brain who feels out the situation to aid you in making a clear decision. Could it be that somebody was killed in an automobile accident at this location? Is there potential danger in the future?

When right brain, through being in an altered state, intuits this to be an unsafe place at some time in the future, it relays this information to left brain, which logically concludes that a different route to work must be found.

The Unknowable

God-mind accesses the unknowable, which includes the majority of Creation. When one enters God-mind, making decisions takes on an entirely different meaning. First of all, consideration about the future is very difficult to grasp because it isn't seen as one straight line but as many probabilities. The past doesn't exist, for one has entered eternal time by living in the moment.

The inclination is to only allow, especially during the first stages when the vastness of Creation becomes part of one's mind. It is difficult at this time to make any decisions because we cannot find the voices of our sub-personalities. However, unless we do, we cannot bring the Divine fully into the flesh.

The sage gains insights from its interpretation of the experiences of its collective family, namely, the other sub-personalities. It downloads this to Godmind, and in this way, keeps God-mind connected with humanness.

All self-identity is gone, but it is crucial to maintain selfawareness because it is our link to sanity. God-mind is fulfilling the purpose of its Highest Self, which is a being as vast as the cosmos. Its decisions are made as follows: it lives in an expanded state of awareness and merely places its intent upon its wishes. Then all of creation moves to make it so. It doesn't have to think, for it recognizes that thinking takes too much energy. It effortlessly knows.

Almine.

http://spiritualjourneys.com/ascension/