Editor's Note: Conversations with Lorian is a collection of different voices and perspectives responding to inquiries pertaining to Incarnational Spirituality. Often we receive questions that don't have a single, uniform answer, due to the ways that individuality and sovereignty shapes our practice. At times like this we like to gather a number of responses from teachers, priests and other colleagues in order to honor our diverse yet complimentary approaches to Lorian's work in the world.
If you have a question you'd like the Conversation team to respond to, please email info@lorian.org.
Question : “I am feeling discouraged by the state of the world. What advice do you have for someone losing hope that things will get better?"
I have to be honest, it is going to be a long process for things to get better. That is a reality. So I have to look at just where my hope needs to be grounded. What do I need to do to in myself to keep my focus on loving my world, feeling joy in its beauty, treasuring the creatures and people within it? What can I do in my small way to make a difference?
I fundamentally believe in the inherent goodness of most people. There is a lot of kindness, community, compassion and caring in our world. Look for it. Support it. I look for what can I do to create hope around me. I might not be able to affect the big wide world, but I can lighten my locality. And for every person who reaches out to connect and lighten their neighborhood, hope spreads in ripples.
- Julie Spangler
I fully understand how you or anyone can get overwhelmed by the stream of news about incidents and developments around the globe and nearby. How I have learned to deal with this is as follows:.
Instead of just focusing on the presented situation, I try to center and focus upon myself, feeling overwhelmed. I see and experience myself being in that state. Then I step back from that aspect of myself, as an observer, and while I observe, I experience being in a quiet state. When I see that I am able to "step-out" and possibly look with compassion to the suffering part of myself, I realize I can choose between distress and peace, or at least choose a neutral state. From there, I can experiment with feeling joyful and positive, just for the sake of it or for the things that I know are still there to enjoy.
I do not have to wait until depression strikes, I can exercise this right now, allowing myself to upgrade my current state. By practicing this on a regular base, I master my moods and make myself available to make a positive contribution to our planet and humanity, just from where I am. Good people will often feel themselves being like Atlas, carrying the burden of Earth on his shoulder. The Earth, however, does not need our shoulder, but our joy, and even without that, she can manage. Even so, she will enjoy a free Atlas as a partner.
- Floris Rommerts
Remember that you are not alone. Have courage. I often think of the warrior when I hear the word courage. The warrior steps into the fray, weapons drawn, despite the fear of injury or death. But in meditation recently, I saw the warrior image fade away. Instead, I felt my sense of courage opening up, taking on a very different image. This courage stood on the ground of self-knowledge and then stretched into an inspired state of imagining something better, something different. It stood on the self knowledge that awakens me to my sovereignty and to my power as a source of light. It beautifully imagined something better, thereby taking me out of a weakening descent into hopelessness. But more important than that, this imagining courage is full of power to lend shape to a better future.
And we don’t imagine alone. We join the community of the courageous—seen and unseen. We join them whether or not we know or are aware of all those connected beings. So take courage that you are not alone. And then imagine. Imagine the most beautiful, peaceful, vibrant, nurturing world. Hold that vision and feed it even as you face the world we are in right now.
- Drena Griffith
IS is a co-creative project from the subtle worlds. Initially it was to teach people how to enhance the soul and personality to work together as partners and not see the personality as something to be subdued or destroyed. There are two of what you might call pressure waves that effect us. One draws us towards the physical and matter and the other toward spirit and the transpersonal worlds. IS teaches us to balance these two so we can achieve what one might call an alchemical buoyancy space. We can freely embrace incarnation and still have our connection to the sacred. We embrace the world in joy, love and will and can then foster the dynamic presence of wholeness in the world around us.
- Tim Hass
Your question leads me to consider what is at the root of hope for me. Underlying all the experiences I would define as “bringing hope” or “being hopeful” is a sense of connectedness. Hope for me flows out of my connections to life and the Sacred, more than a particular set of activities or state of the world. So when I feel discouraged, and I do sometimes, it is not a state of mind or a particular configuration of events I look to change. Instead I work to reestablish connection with the sacred pulse of life. A hopeful attitude and positive choices flow naturally out of that focus.
Hope is always there for me within aliveness. I can’t really lose it, but I can move away from my connections with the pulse of life. Reconnecting myself by engaging in relationships - sharing laughter or a kind word with another person, breathing in the beauty of nature, or settling into the peace held in a moment of wonder - helps to reset my connections with aliveness and leads me back to hope.
- Freya Secrest
Views from the Lorian Community publishes essays from a team of volunteer writers expressing individual experiences of a long term, committed practice of Incarnational Spirituality (and the general principles shaping such a practice.) Views expressed do not necessarily reflect the sentiments or thoughts of any other person in Lorian or of Lorian Association as a whole. If you questions or comments, email the editor at drenag@lorian.org.