Living with Passion

Living with Passion

I am 10% Mentor and 90% Protégé, still, after decades of making a living as a teacher and a Teacher. A protégé is defined as a passionate student, someone who loves to learn and that is my biggest passion in life. I study, everything. I study and practice what I learn, for fun.  I learned to fix cars, trim horse feet, socialize and train pets.  I learned self-parenting, and how to improve and expand my telepathic, empathetic, clairvoyant and healing gifts, talents and energies. That others can “learn” from me and my studies and my mistakes is a pleasant “side effect” of my joy and passion for learning.  In our culture, when one is more interested in learning than “proving” to be right, you will often appear to others as “slow” or confused and inconsistent. In a culture that worships ambition, money, prestige and most of all narratives if you are a lifelong “learner” you most certainly will not be respected for your desire to learn, for having what the Zen practice refers to as a “beginner’s mind” .  If you are not willing to wast your time and energy presenting as an “impressive” person you can be sure that you will then be “taughte” or shown a great deal more from those who desire to “set you straight”. When one presents as an expert (other than when you are asked to teach, lecture, demonstrate etc.) people will typically either feel threatened and will shut down around you or they (and their ego) will choose to find ways to prove they are better and smarter than you.  Only those who can sense energy, who can see Souls, and “hear” Spirit are not fooled by the beauty of living life as a protégé.

Living as a protégé of Spirit means you live a passionate life and reaching is proof of your passion. Waiting for, demanding, expecting or accepting being spoon fed is not passion, it is a time killer and you can live a lifetime of killing time, of waiting. That too is a choice.  Life presents problems and problems demand solutions. Problems are the seeds of reward. When you have a problem in your life it is an opportunity for you to experience significance in your life. You value your Self and your life more every time you solve a problem. Problems force you to see differences and if refuse to see the problem it will escalate into pain and finally become a strong enough pain to grab your attention and focus. This does not mean if you have pain that you did something wrong. Pain is a kind of problem however you often realize in hindsight that you could have woken up sooner with less pain especially if you became more committed to learning rather than “being right”.  Time is the ultimate teacher.  With time you learn. You learn how to learn and with time you are forced to make different choices and to take risks which are also a part of learning. Should you choose to start living life as a learner, as a protégé your conscious choice to be a learner will help you to better “hear” Spirit,  make better choices and to make those better choices sooner rather than waiting for time to escalate the pain to force you to see and make different choices.

Wisdom is the study of differences. You learn the difference between what works and what doesn’t work. You cannot make decisions or choices without seeing differences. You make your choices based on differences. You have to discover differences to see them and in order to discover you need to reach. Being told or sold will only make you lazy and blur your senses.  The mind is your greatest asset when it comes to becoming aware of differences. The mind is the tool of self-awareness, the practice of mindfulness and is able to gather information in order to discern differences. The mind either re-plays painful memories or focuses on creating a new and different future. You use the mind to see the differences from the painful past into a projected future of better choices. Pain will show you differences between what works and what doesn’t work. If you don’t learn wisdom, pain becomes your Teacher. You can choose to let pain be your Teacher or you can choose to take the “class” currently in front of your face (be it clean your house or eat better food or start educating yourself on better choices).  If you do choose to take on your studies (the classes you signed up for when you were a ball of light, before you incarnated) you will need to choose to channel your energies into a passion for attaining wisdom. What does this look like? It looks like reaching. You reach out, ask questions, read, study, practice, take (mostly) calculated risks, experiment, and learn from your mistakes. You don’t try to cover up your mistakes or shortcomings, you don’t settle for a quick answer, a quick fix. You learn to observe, see, hear, feel and sense subtle and not so subtle differences, nuances.

Your mind is the steward of the Spiritual Guidance you receive and your mind needs to be open to Guidance, instruction. learning and the mind needs a hero. Instruction comes from Spirit and Spirit will show you what you need to study and learn. The mind is the tool of education and learning. Spirit can “show” you what you need to learn, however you need to make the effort to learn, research, read, and practice what you learn.  You study to learn about differences, about the variety of choices available. Spirit does not and cannot live your life for you. You came here to learn and while Spirit can present learning and guide your learning, you still have to use your mind to choose to give your attention, time and energy to your learning. There is absolutely no shortcut here. No magic wands.  And your mind loves having a hero to serve. Spirit is your hero but so are you. You are your own hero or you will be your own worst enemy. Become your own champion, your own knight in shining armor. You are the hero that reaches for new horizons and the mind follows you as a faithful warrior wanting to serve rather than to constantly get caught up in the endless cycle of reviewing and recreating your past. Your mind needs something to do or it will find something to do, and like a small child left alone for too long, when you leave your mind unattended the choices made will not be good. Why? Because without seeking Spiritual instruction, without then pursuing learning and education, without a hero, the choices available to your mind are only the ones you currently know: your old choices, your dysfunctional choices, your past.

 To follow Guidance and instruction from Spirit you need to invest your attention, time and energy in an actual Spiritual Practice as well as in learning and education your Self.  You will need to make an actual effort to feed your mind what Spirit shows you. Remember the mind never rests and if left unattended your mind will feed itself; it will recycle your past because that is all it knows is to function from past choices. Without your attention, time and energy as a protégé, your learning will only come from pain, times of neediness and fear or your over indulgences when the mind seeks out the use of pleasures to keep uncomfortable feelings buried. You are feeding your mind all the time, however most people are feeding their mind with their unconscious choices without considering outcomes and without being mindful of the whispers of Spirit. 

Having an actual Spiritual Practice (daily) teaches the mind to “listen” and practicing Mindfulness, self-awareness throughout the day means you are attending to the life of your mind, like feeding your body a healthy diet.  In addition to making the time to have a Spiritual Practice you can use your environment, your house or at the very least a room in your house to support your desire to follow Spirit and feed your mind. Your environment affects you. You can make your environment a place for distraction or a place for reverence and learning, a place that feeds your mind as well as your soul. You can have places in your house for you to find rest, safety, and fun.  You can also have places in your house or throughout your house that remind you why you are here on Earth, to learn and to grow.  Mind, body and Spirit all need your attention, time and energy.  With the commercial holiday season upon us, consider giving to your mind and Spirit and withdrawing from the pressures of the materialistic demands of a holiday season that has become a frenzy of shopping and eating. Consider giving your Self and your family the gift of living a passionate life.

Journey On