Consciousness and the Circles in a Life

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own."

Benjamin Disraeli

We attended a memorial service for an friend a few days ago. It was at a Friends meeting house and it was a lovely acknowledgement of a man's life.

We sat in concentric circles with Jeff's family in the inner circle surrounded by his and their neighbors, colleagues, friends and community. He was not present in body, but he was present everywhere among the hundred or so gathered to honor and mourn him.

Set amidst different musical pieces I am sure he enjoyed, we came together to sit and share in Jeff. The bulk of the service was about this. To sit in unity and recognize, reflect, share and grieve for what would be no more in a body. We were witness and served as a collective eulogy. It was powerful, it was wonderful, it was grace for him and us. 

Death has a way of focusing us and stripping away the clutter of life into its real center, connection. His was a big energy packed into a stocky powerful form that reflected his inner blacksmith. Boisterous, full of stories, knowledge, wisdom, booming laugh, alongside opinions and yet willing to change them if convinced. 

Jeff, in his lifetime demonstrated grace, respect, friendship and mentoring. He was a man of deep convictions and moral integrity. Both as a consciousness objector in his time of war and offering his hand to another. Honed with degrees, an encyclopedic mind, no one's fool, he was robust in expressing life, he was a puppy inside.

He was a living connection to our past less mechanized and industrial society and the history of creation then.You made what you needed. There was no Home Depot down the street.

His joy was in making things, getting his hands dirty, and diving in, whether it be a marriage, helping a child develop into an adult, creating a company, being an expert in his field, home and landowner and as a blacksmith. He had the eye and tolerance to help foster others into being the best they could be and not what he might have wanted. His was an artist's eye to see into the medium in front of him as raw potential and help to bring it out, while also humble about his helping.

In the reflected warmth of his friends sharing their Friends Meeting Room, we each sat in those concentric circles around his wife, 3 children and their families.

The space provided support and the opportunity for any to share as they were so moved and many were moved to share, to acknowledge for themselves and us a relationship of worth. We were allowed to feel what we each felt.

We reflected his passions and shared interests. Young blacksmiths sat next to a grieving longtime grateful business partner and friend, neighbors who shared fences with his ever changing artistic Victorian home, friends of his equally powerful partner in his wife, his talented children, and the young artist community of sculptors, metalworkers, painters and creative minds that he had been a father energy to. The good kind of father we each want.

As I listened and felt, I was aware of how all had gathered and given witness to what had been real beyond my own limited experience of Jeff. Sometimes it does not happen to share a lot of time with someone. The gift is in the moment of being together. I remember these moments.

We then shook hands with those around us to have the physical connection of life that Jeff created.

He was able to spend his last months with his family, friends and colleagues that brought that connection front and center. He had a chance to see what legacy of connection and warmth of spirit he had created in being himself. Every moment was an opportunity to express gratitude and he did.
In every picture he is glowing.

He appreciated the wholeness of life, the give and take, the joys and sorrow, the hand in hand of experience of being with others that all lives contain. It was a full life. It was the man we gave witness to in the circles of his life.

Janet Barrett
Life in the Beyond/Journeys Into Enlightenment
www.janetandbeyond.com
janetb@janetandbeyond.com 

Consciousness, E=MC2 and 100th Monkey Principle in Play with Steve Farrell

A lot of people wonder if they make a difference in being alive. How important are we each in the in the scheme of things, this life? Joining Janet is Steve Farrell, director of Humanity’s Team, a global grassroots spiritual movement. They will share how our individual sense of conscious leadership affects each of us and the world around us. Being is the alignment of one individual as the One in action.

Check out this episode!

Your Invitation to Going Beyond/ JIE Episode 12

Journeys Into Enlightenment with Janet
Episode 12 E=MC2 and 100th Monkey Principle Realities

More of us are awakening to our connection to all life on this planet as Oneness. More are becoming aware of Wholeness. Oneness is about being connected and Wholeness is the totality of what that includes. We have individual experiences and shared experiences that combine and create our thoughts and realities. We each add to the whole.  

Our habituated shared realities are what Rupert Sheldrake PhD explores. He promotes the awareness that what shows up in our world is habituated thinking that is being projected into being. The collective genetic memory creates the mechanism of connection of the habituated thought.

We don’t have to ask our question of “Do any of us make a difference?” We know in physical terms how it only takes one human with an automatic weapon or bomb to eradicate life around him discriminately and indiscriminately. It takes only one company dumping pollution and then an industry that starts the ball rolling. It takes only one voice promoting fear as reasonable.

We are acting like it is okay to be armored in battle as such is urban life and that every neighborhood anywhere is a battlefield. Guerrilla warfare among civilians in the extreme. 

It doesn’t not have to be this. But we are allowing it to be okay. What we are feeling and thinking about life is the issue.  It is not a question of “Does one make a difference?”

We are now in touch in ways as never before with what we may not have known we had lurking inside. Society is reflecting our racial bias, gender bias, male/female bias, etc. etc. etc. We have got biases coming out of our hearts that have been eating away at us. Locked in feelings of fear, hopelessness and despair abound about feeling powerful to create what we want to live. We are receiving our slaps into awareness.

What if?

What if there is no weapon pointed at another?

What if instead?

What if I pointed love at another? What if I pointed kindness at another? What if love and kindness radiate out of me in every direction? What if others are doing the same thing at the same time? Feel the difference?  

Each of us is our own leader of Self. What if this is your sense of leadership then? Leaders radiating out love and kindness as that is what they are accessing within. Sharing in a global awareness of limited resources to be cared for and used wisely and respectfully? No one against another but with differences to be appreciated. 

What if there was no side to take, only unity? This kind of leadership is about Wholeness and Oneness at core. Nothing falls outside of the Collective Consciousness. 

Do we witness our Leaders radiating love and kindness and respect towards one another and others as that is what we are doing? Not only our spiritual leaders but our political leaders? And aren’t they the same?

The real question might be more “What am I offering as part of the collective presently active memory of Man?”

Janet Barrett

Podcast Host Journeys Into Enlightenment with Janet

www.janetandbeyond.com

janetandbeyondpodcast@outlook.com 

Consciousness and a Man of Transcendence

Donald Malarkey's story caught my attention during the 75th anniversary of D Day a few days ago. The Oregonian newspaper here in Portland, Oregon did a nice piece of a few of the stories and remembrances of survivors. I took the time to read about these people before us, in a different America and their comrade in arms. I wanted to honor them for what they gave up for us then and now. 

What struck me different about TSGT Malarkey's story of service is what he was to later say about his time in the war. He, in essence, expresses the Wholeness in Being that we can demonstrate. How we transcend beyond the suffering and the pain and cruelty that humans can inflect on others and show our capacity of human endurance and resiliency. There are always sides in any conflict.There are no sides in Oneness. 

TSGT Donald Malarkey was just a regular Joe, from small town America, like so many others. He was awarded several medals during World War II. They include and are not limited to a Bronze star for heroic actions, Purple Heart, Presidential Unit Citation, Good Conduct Medal, Parachutist Badge with 2 jump stars, and the French Legion of Honor Medal for military merit.

His story of service was as a member of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne. Malarkey, age 21, was one of the legendary Band of Brothers who jumped behind enemy lines to destroy German artillery on D-Day, 1944.  His unit took part in the assault on Brécourt Manor. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his bravery that day. But it was a long slog for Easy Company. Marlarkey was a sergeant by the time they took part in the ill-fated Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands. They also fought in France, Belgium, and the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, the last major German offensive.

Malarkey was haunted by memories of combat and the devastation of losing fellow soldiers and friends, his family members said. Author Stephen Ambrose’s “Band of Brothers” and the subsequent HBO series were cathartic for him, his family told AP.

“There is not a day that has passed since that I do not thank Adolf Hitler for allowing me to be associated with the most talented and inspiring group of men that I have ever known,” Marlarkey once said.

I was in tears. For him, being a shining example showing the rest of us what Grace is and the potential in Being. I am sorry I did not know him. He sold insurance after the war. He lived to age 96 and there probably was never a day he did not remember the men and their shared experiences.

I know of others like him who have graced us with where the wounded human, going beyond his emotions, reaches into its essence at core never forgetting his connection of something bigger. I see it demonstrated around me all the time in the people I share this work with, my life with. They are my neighbors and countrymen and others from other countries. Many are in our past and some not yet in form. Some I know, some I like, some have titles of distinction, some do not. Most are strangers to me. Some come as the other side. 

Giving in to pettiness and separateness, fear and loathing is easy. 

Challenging ourselves to go within and find Oneness is also easy when you appreciate Wholeness in this physical realm of contrast. Just a shift of focus. Just make the choice.

We each can be transcendent.   


Janet Barrett
Life in the Beyond/Journeys Into Enlightenment 
janetb@janetandbeyond.com 
www.janetandbeyond.com 

Consciousness and the Wholeness in Our Holes with Dr. Mmatheo Motsisi, Part 2

This is a continuation of Episode 9. What role does illness play in our expression as spiritual creatures in human form? Each of our bodies represents wholeness in Being. Illness can take form and register in our mental, emotional and or physical realms creating a sense of ‘holes’ in our wholeness. Dr. Mmatheo Motsisi, holds degrees in indigenous and Chinese healing and appreciates Western medicine with its different references. She joins me as we continue our conversation about our spirits expressing in the human form and how to listen to what is being said through our bodies.

Dr. Mmatheo Motsisi, is an Indigenous Knowledge System Practitioner(IKS). She also holds several degrees of healing including in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and acupuncture. She has traveled far and wide working with indigenous peoples in Nepal, India, China, USA and Motherland Africa.

She is the author of Odyssey of a Healer, in which she describes a ten-year personal spiritual pilgrimage and the experiences of other healers she interacted with on her journey exploring the ”Healing Power of Nature.” Her quest has been to unravel the mystery that underlies the foundations anchoring ”Our State of Oneness,” beyond the created and perceived divisions in existence.

Her Holistic Practice is located in Orange Grove, Johannesburg, South Africa. Her complete bio and more information is on her website: www.mmatheomotsisi.com You can reach her at mmatheo@worldonline.co.za. Odyssey of a Healer is available on Amazon.

Check out this episode!

Consciousness and the Holes in Our Wholeness with Dr. Mmatheo Motsisi, Part 1

What role does illness play in our expression as a spiritual creature in a human form? Each of our bodies represents wholeness in Being. Illness can take form and register in our mental, emotional and or physical realms creating a sense of holes in our wholeness. Dr. Mmatheo Motsisi holds degrees in Indigenous and Chinese healing and appreciates Western medicine with its different references. She joins Janet in conversation about our Spirit expressing in the human form and how to listen to what is being said through our bodies.

Dr. Mmatheo Motsisi, is an Indigenous Knowledge System Practitioner(IKS). She also holds several degrees of healing including in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and acupuncture. She has traveled far and wide working with indigenous peoples in Nepal, India, China, USA and Motherland Africa.

She is the author of Odyssey of a Healer, in which she describes a ten-year personal spiritual pilgrimage and the experiences of other healers she interacted with on her journey exploring the ”Healing Power of Nature.” Her quest has been to unravel the mystery that underlies the foundations anchoring ”Our State of Oneness,” beyond the created and perceived divisions in existence.

Her Holistic Practice is located in Orange Grove, Johannesburg, South Africa. Her complete bio and more information is on her website: www.mmatheomotsisi.com You can reach her at mmatheo@worldonline.co.za. Odyssey of a Healer is available on Amazon.

Check out this episode!

Consciousness and The Grace to be Found in Dying with Bud Jahn

Death is a vital element in the flow of Life. Bud Jahn, a long-time hospice and respite volunteer, and I will explore the beauty of the Spirit in transition, recognize the calamity of emotions and feelings from all those involved, consider what happens when resistance gives way, transcending into the delight of sharing in the humanity and Spirit present, and the Wonder of Life.

Check out this episode!

Ep 11 Consciousness and Death is Only an Illusion of Final

Journeys Into Enlightenment with Janet

Episode 11 Blog

Death is only an Illusion of Final

Wholeness is appreciating that Death will happen at some time to us physically and that is as it should be. We set the length and conditions of life by our biases and our physical choices. It means that we understand that Death is essential and a vital element to living in the flow of what we experience in totality of Being. We can live in relation to Death as denial, resistance, out of sight out of mind. But not really. That is illusion.

Death will register in many ways. Can be a physical death or it might be of an idea, an ideal, a belief. It is always going to be the end of some illusion. About what we thought was important. About what we felt was valuable.  It can abrupt and not planned for or we can be given notice of it coming up sooner than later. And someone or some thing might be dead a long time before we find out about it. It can leave us settled or unsettled. This is illusion.

Life is like a Mobius strip. The point where the strip or pattern turns on itself is going to be either life in form or life out of form. That point we will call birth or death is a moment of transcendence. The looping in either direction is that time and space of transition one finds in form and out of form. For life in either reality is motion, flow, sense, state.  

Many have complaints about being in form, about being stuck in a body, being alive. This is illusion.

And, in the same space, there may be a fear of death. This might be a contradiction. This is illusion.

We can have many stories about death. Which are illusions of how we think we would want it to be and not as it is. We might like to think someone who has been a miserable person to deal with, will. all of a sudden see the light of their behavior and repent and pardon and apologize. That is a nice story that can be true or not. We might think in terms of suffering and salvation elusively beyond reach in life and that is a nice story too.

How is death more about us and confronting our own fears and sense of self than it is about the person who is passing from us? Do you catch the hook there? They are not abandoning us. They are on their journey which you shared time with on your journey. You may have enjoyed that time or not and maybe only after this part is over does it come into clear view of what was and not what you thought it was. This is illusion.

So, l sit. I sit and feel my breath and my opening into Heart Centered Awareness. I don’t hard focus on the breath so much as I let my sensory being be present. Mind is all about construct and story. So, I let my awareness of being more than just human drive and mind to share with me what is present about Death as an energy and movement.

How I am relating to it?  From a gut feeling, a sensation of some sort, a thought or stories flashing through? All are valid. I can feel what holds my attention and just let it. I don’t try to make or fix or think or go to that all powerful ‘do something’ space. There is nothing to do anything with. This is illusion.

I just let myself be present with it. No need to let go. Just let. Let it be. In the letting is the lessening of resistance that I might be holding in so many ways, in so many patterns and layers of story or visions, in my story of illusions.

I breathe. I let myself feel emotions or aches or pains as only trapped energy looking to move through that is not yet doing so.

We are each in our story and we are always in our story as we are generating our story. If we are clued into our beings as much more than what we think we are, we can then be more present to others in their stories and how they might be running tandem and parallel and crossing over only now and then. They are not in the same mind sync as you. Which is as it should be. But you can have plenty of crossover when you stop your story from running and you can hear them in theirs.

That can be one gift that Death provides. It stops us in our story often. It clears the decks of belief and false truths and projections and emotions that may have been holding us in their grip for years.

Sit with someone dying and just be present. Just be and notice.  

Sit with someone who has already passed over.  And just be present. And just notice.

And then, just sit with yourself and just be present. Just be, realizing that this is illusion. 

Janet Barrett

Podcast Host Journeys Into Enlightenment with Janet

janetandbeyondpodcast@outlook.com

www.janetandbeyond.com