The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Seventh Chakra--Spirit

And now, at last, we come to Sahasrara, the seventh chakra, the abode of spirit.  Faith.  God.  Goddess.  However you conceptualize the ultimate realities of existence, that frontier beyond our rational minds. "What was the shape of your face before your parents were born?" and "what is our ultimate destiny after death?"  Every civilization on the planet has wrestled with these questions, and because flesh is mortal, so must we all.  However you engage with them, the answers you evolve must work for you.  You're not going to be able to lay this one off on parents, or society, or church...no one is responsible for your soul but you.  No one will be taking the step across the line between life and death with you.  This is your journey, and you have to come to conclusions about it that will get you through the night.
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This arena is so incredibly rich.  More people have fought and died for its answers and questions than for any other single reason in human history. The potential power locked within the issues of life and death and ultimate meaning is simply beyond calculation.  Some say there is nothing beyond the veil. Others, that there is everything.  WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON IT?  YOUR BELIEFS?  If you haven't questioned the explanations given to you in childhood, it may be time to examine them anew.  You need to have serious reasons for your position on the universe, whatever that position is.
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Remember the Hero's Journey?  It states, very clearly, that no worthwhile goal can be approached without entering the Dark Night of the Soul, the moment of dispair, when all of your personal resources have been exhausted.  A completely disproportionate number of world-class champions in every endeavor of life have a belief in the divine.  This, of course, doesn't prove the existence of God--it does, however, suggest that a belief in something larger than yourself is one of the most useful things to have if your intent is to reach your ultimate potential.  In striving for excellence, we all reach the end of ourselves.  We all have times when there is nothing left.  What then sustains us?  Well, according to the Hero's Journey, there are only three things:
1) Belief in Self
2) Belief in Companions
3) Belief in a Higher Power.
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That's it.  And if you run out of all three, man, THERE is some depression for your butt.  It is horrifying to encounter someone who has run out of all three.  They can be absolutely paralyzed with fear and fatigue.  Believing there is nothing left, they just wait to die, give up completely. The trick, of course, is that there is always something left. The truth is that we never know how close to victory we are.  We never know if one more shovel of dirt will hit the mother load, one more pitch get the sale, one more push will beat the opponent.  We don't know.  It is not ours to know such things.  It is ours to choose life paths worth dying for, and then spend our life in the pursuit of excellence. 
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So we come to the end of the basic structure of Lifewriting: the Hero's Journey on the X axis (horizontal), and the Chakras on the Y axis (vertical).  Meld the two, and you have the beginning of a truely profound understanding of your life.  Because the Hero's Journey is a description of the path from one chakra--one level of development--to the next.  Because every good story is the tale of a human being rising from one level to the next.  Meditate on this, and the value of balance, and the management of stress, and you will find the secret of mastery.  You won't need teachers, or gurus, or therapist, if you can walk this road.  It is not for everyone.   It is for people who are basically healthy, capable of self-governance, and willing to seek career success, fitness, and a bonded relationship.  You now have the basic pattern.  Next, we begin to play with it.  See you then.

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