The great thing about living longer is that it provides you with more opportunities to learn, grow, and expand your awareness. I sometimes call this the expansion of consciousness. We usually start our life with a set of rules and beliefs we acquired from our family and community. As we continue our life journey, most of us will start to question those rules and beliefs we were given. When I gain a new insight of awareness, it gives me the freedom to purge the antiquated belief I may still carry with me. I have come to realize that being open to discover new truths and release the ones that no longer fit you or are needed is part of the process of expanding one’s consciousness.
For example, I was raised Mormon and taught there was a God who looked like an old white man and acted very similar to a Father. In fact, we called him a Heavenly Father. He had a pecking order as to who was important. Obviously the first one was Jesus and after that it was white Mormon men, then rich men, then other men, then children who had died before they were 8, and then finally the females - obviously the beautiful, subservient, and quiet ones were first in the female pecking order. We all prayed to Heavenly Father but knew he had conditional favorites. We also knew that if our prayer was not answered it was because we either didn’t deserve it or because we were being taught a lesson.
What I came away from this religious I had a mental construct that God acted similar to the men in our community - he was busy, chauvinistic, authoritative, judgmental, and had favorites.
When I became an adult, I learned about the Tao and its inclusiveness. The Tao literally means everything, and include both positive and negative energies as well as positive and negative experiences. I also learned how the Tao desired to learn, grow, and progress, and so divided itself into smaller pieces - it fragmented, and we are a fragmentation of the Tao. Because of these ingrained and perpetual desires are a part of our nature, it is as if we are programmed to try and have new and different experiences in our life journey. Afterall, this was the primary reason for the Tao to fragment - to diversify and increase the odds to have an unlimited number and variety of life experiences.
This made sense to me. There is a compulsion to explore and we are perpetually curious and are seekers, explorers, and feel the desire to see how and why things work. There is also a desire for security and safety, which is a pull to play it safe and be part of the group. This push/pull force is what keeps things in motion and constantly changing.
In addition, the Tao doesn’t judge nor take sides - everything has value in the process of learning and growth. However, the Tao also was aware that positive energies (love, joy, laughter, support, etc) creates more energy than negative energies (hate, anger, fear, etc.) and so designed systems where the harmony of balance of energies will always be tilted toward the more positive. These positive energies can propel us to do good works as well as pay of karmic debts.
These concepts made complete sense to me and I embraced them and gave up the religious views of my youth. I consider this to be one of my first moments of true awareness and one of my main stepping stones for my life journey.
I am now in the senior years of this life experience and aware I have received many moments of awe, wonder, and new stepping stones of truth and awareness. My current desire is to share some of these moments that changed and expanded my consciousness. I think there is value in sharing experiences that created change in my life or others. Virtual communities with a focus on expanding one's consciousness and awareness will become the new norm in humanity's future.
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