[Book Launch]
University of Sao Paulo and State University of Northern Parana, respectively, Brazil.
Juris North Monthly Discussion
Holy books have several passages that insist on not hiding our light. Yet, we insist on diminishing and belittling ourselves daily. In a society that praises instant success and discards tradition, hard work and positive values, we are constantly reminded on TV, the news and social media that we should aim to be like someone else, achieve a certain standard or just not to care at all.
“Your body should be healthier” or “own your body even if you look like a balloon,” “pay attention to this or that historical figure and how they changed the world for the better” or “accept yourself even if your life will not impact positively anybody,” “aim high” or “do not aim at all,” “save humanity” or “be careless,” and so many other contradictory messages are around us. Yet, most people go on autopilot from one extreme to the other, one day feeling empowered about who and how they are and the next day trapped in anxiety, depression and unhappiness.
The key is simple: ““You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others…” (Matthew 5:14-16). It is not about mirroring or pleasing others or some external specifications. It is about honouring who you are and acknowledging we all have a different gift. There is a proviso: the gift is not yours. You are only responsible of protecting and sharing the gift you have been given with others. And the caveat too implies the bigger the gift, the bigger the responsibility and, most probably, the inner and outer challenges.
Because the gift is for you to share with others, avoid self-centeredness and self-righteousness, two of the many inner challenges. Remember you are a vessel and your job is to channel the light within and be a beacon for others. As important as the inner challenges, rest assured you will have to face outer resistance. In a previous post, we have already mentioned all these challenges and relevant defences and we will explore them in detail in the future. The post today is solely here to remind you about your gift and the fact you have two options: to honour your light and let it shine or to hide it.
In a message that illustrates both inner and outer challenges, Rumi said it well: “Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah…it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.” On the surface, “people” here may appear to be the external challenge but it will be your own, for example, feeling of embarrassment or inadequacy that may stop you from shining bright. “People” will still be there whether you glow or not. Moreover, “huge” and the reference to “Noah” do not mean you have to change the world or become the Prime Minister overnight. It means that, regardless of who you are, there is a “knowing” in you that you should follow. Be the best Mum, the most resourceful personal assistant, the wisest philosopher, the fastest typewriter you can be. Again, remember, this is about you and your own light. This is not a competition. The previously mentioned examples seem to suggest comparisons in which one individual is somehow better that another one or the whole. Wrong interpretation (and surely, an interpretation that will fit perfectly with our ego). More precisely, your gift is your responsibility and you do not need to compare yourself with anything or anybody else to “know” if you honour your call or not. There is a deep certainty that will shine through regardless of any externality when you give your all.
In brief, you are now transiting the physical realm. Your soul decided to be or was sent here. Whether you chose to be here or you were sent for a reason is irrelevant. You are playing the game called life. Because we are living in a physical vessel we have to comply with the laws of physics. Yet, your soul is still here. The same is true about your light. Simply put, your soul is luminous. There is no need to ignite, accept or acknowledge this. Trust me, trust yourself, as I know, you too do. What separates you from shining is not your ability but your will. You may choose to honour God, Allah, the Universe, the Source, the Eternal, the One, the Many and do it. It is easier than that. Surrender. Choose to honour yourself and shine. Because by being a beacon of light you are who you are meant to be, who you have always been.
Christ Consciousness. 4: A time for everything
Available at: https://drjorge.world/2021/03/18/christ-consciousness-4-a-time-for-everything/
Wednesday 24th March 2021
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez
Twitter: @DrJorge_World
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Christ Consciousness. 3: Threats and defences, reaction, response and proaction
Available at: https://drjorge.world/2021/03/17/christ-consciousness-3-threats-and-defences-reaction-response-and-proaction/
Thursday 18th March 2021
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez
Twitter: @DrJorge_World
The first post introduced the idea that “no-one will come to save you.” Therefore, if you want to get through the pandemic and anything else in life, at least spiritually, this is a challenge you have to face yourself. No-one else can do it for you. True, there may be others who may have empathy or sympathy towards you. Yet, if you do not want to make the change yourself no-one will be able to do it for you. Similarly, but in a larger scale, if our communities intend to improve and finish with quarrel, wars and any other negative trait, each of us will have to help co-create a better, healthier and more luminous reality.
I referred too to threats and defences. Indeed, like any change in the real, ideal or metaphysical realm, to go to the next level implies challenges. Some of these challenges are within while some others are without. The good news is that we already have everything we need to overcome these challenges individually and as a collective. The defence mechanisms, however, require intention and action and, in some cases, omissions. I will broadly mention the threats and defences below and, thereafter, we will explore each of them in more detail in the future.
By external threats I mean what some religions usually call “Satan’s strategies.” Consider here Satan as a metaphor of things like false prophets, gossip and some (maybe most) daily news. To defend ourselves from these external threats we need the “armour of God.” Whether you follow any religious tradition or not is not relevant. Through God, Allah, the Universe, the Source, the Eternal, the One, the Many (like in every post, the name we use here is irrelevant. It is just a man-made label for communication. Therefore, I use them interchangeably) each of us knows, or at least has an idea, about justice, faith and truth. These and a few more positive values are the elements that should form our armour.
By internal threats I refer to things like ego, negative thoughts and emotions. For many, these are the most difficult threats to overcome. The means to deal with them is “living water.” Similar to the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, we have a tendency to go for easy and quick fixes when we feel, for example, emptiness, boredom, envy or jealousy. True, at that point in time, the quick fix does the trick. But, like the Samaritan woman, after a while, emptiness, boredom, envy and jealousy take over again. The same is applicable to ego and any negative thought and emotion. The defence, which I call “living water” refers to a more profound change, the one Jesus offered in that encounter at the water well and in many others.
The above is a brief account of the kinds of threats we face as individuals and as part of the collective, externally and internally, and how we may tackle them. Obviously, there is more we can do. The defences I have just mentioned are predominantly responsive. Certainly, we can be more committed towards ourselves and our evolution and that of others. I insist on this point. If we want to get to the next level we too need to think about the wellbeing of others, what I refer to as the collective. There is no doubt there is a need for individual work. If we want to move to the next level, though, we must create the platform together. That is what I call co-creation.
In addition to how we may respond to internal and external threats, we may be as well proactive. Let me explain what I mean. A threat may come into our life and we may either respond or react. The examples detailed above are responses because the aim is solely to protect us and the collective; not to inflict harm on the attacker or the threat itself, whether they originate in another individual or our own self. If we choose to react and answer back with a counterattack we simply feed the threat’s energy. All in all, while a response neutralises the threat and protects us and the collective, a reaction feeds that same threat and helps it grow and become stronger, more painful, darker.
We will explore reactions and responses, threats and defences in more detail in the future. I just wanted now to introduce these distinctions as well as the more proactive option. Instead of getting ready in the event a threat happens, we may work on strengthening our internal armour and our external armour. The way is simple: we may strengthen both the internal and external armour by honouring our soul. For an entity such as us that is now experiencing the physical and ideal realms the first challenge is to accept our soul, to surrender to it. The expression “leap of faith” perfectly describes this first step. We either have faith and believe or we do not. The second we ask for proofs, start intellectualising the metaphysical or try to find experiential evidence, the second we neglect the invisible, the untouchable, the unthinkable.
To recapitulate, we can protect ourselves and the collective from internal and external threats by being responsive or reactive. The former brings balance in us and others while the latter enhances the gap within and without. By gap I mean here the “distance” between us, our physical and ideal “I” or “We” and our soul. We have more options. We too can work on ourselves and the collective by going back to us, our soul, because by going back to our soul we go back to the Source.
Christ Consciousness. 2: We are not all born equal
Available at: https://drjorge.world/2021/03/16/christ-consciousness-1-we-are-not-all-born-equal/
Wednesday 17th March 2021
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez
Twitter: @DrJorge_World
Often, we see on the news, in rules and speeches that we are supposed to be equal. This is a mistake or, at best, not a truism. It is important here to distinguish between realms.
We know now there are different realms, the factual or empirical, the logical or ideal and the metaphysical. Our soul is part of the metaphysical realm. When our soul comes into existence in this physical world it is when we may argue whether we are equal or not. Souls do not argue about this… or anything. Souls just are.
In principle, all souls are equal because we are all part of the same entity we called God, Allah, the Universe, the Source, the Eternal, the One, the Many (the name is irrelevant. It is just a man-made label for communication. Therefore, I will use them interchangeably from now on).
When we come into existence in the physical realm we cease to be equal. Each of us arrives with a different purpose and a different journey. Hence, each of our bodies and minds are designed to navigate this existence. Some of us are born as baby boys while some others are born baby girls; some of us may be born differently abled (maybe blindness, deafness, Down syndrome); and so on.
Physically, for our sensory systems, we are different. Remember our five physical senses—sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste—are simply tools we use in our physical form to comprehend and navigate the physical realm. It is because of this fact that human beings create ideal conceptualization to enable different people to interact safely with each other.
Consider law, morality and religion. We create normative systems (a set of acceptable behavioral standards) in order to treat each equally regardless of our physical differences. In short, when our souls are born into a physical body we stop being equal and in order to interact with each other, be safe from threats, provide for our basic needs, etc. we create normative systems. One of these systems is law. There are many more examples such as morality, religions, rules of etiquette and about how to play a certain game.
Our mind, the interpreter of the ideal realm, is directly linked to our physical existence. Our mind has to do with the thoughts and emotions that are created in our brain, part of our physical body. Therefore, our mind is connected with our human physical experience through our physical body in our interaction with others, our culture, our language, our relationship with our parents and neighbors, peers and so on. In that sense, our mind is conditioned by our physical body, our experiences and our environment.
The fact that our physical bodies and our minds are conditioned does not mean that our soul is. We are only different and, consequently, differently abled in our physical and ideal realms (our physical bodies and our minds have different abilities). Once again, I am going to a stress it is important to distinguish different realms. Our soul is part of the metaphysical realm and out of reach for our sensory systems and mind. It is impossible to capture through our five senses or through our intellect our soul and the complexity of the metaphysical realm. The closest we are able to reach are glimpses of this realm through experiences such as what we call the sixth sense, prophecies and epiphanies.
You may ask why some people are more aware of the metaphysical realm and other are completely oblivious. We usually call the ones who may get glimpses of the metaphysical realm gifted. This gift is in reality a difference by design in the body and mind, what nowadays we refer to as neuroplasticity.
Our mind is used to understanding empirical experiences, concepts and ideas in a logical way. From childhood, we learn information such as notions, procedures and structures and we make sense out of them in a myriad of ways. For example, we may apply logic by inducing or deducing something as well as empirical analysis by experimenting. Our mind will translate any kind of results we find into concepts and we will add labels to this concepts through our language—e.g. Spanish, English, Portuguese, Italian, technical, scientific, colloquial. Language, like any other human creation, is man-made.
Because the metaphysical has to do with a reality that is not perceived by our senses or by our mind, it is impossible for any language to be able to translate exactly the content, nature and meaning of the soul. It is beyond those realities and, therefore, it cannot be comprehended empirically or intellectually. That is why for some people that have glimpses of the metaphysical realm is so hard to express their experience in any man-made created language.
It is for that same reason that all religions agree on this point: in order to see God, we must have faith. Allah is not accessible through our senses or our mind. Conversely, because the Eternal cannot be intellectualized, religions disagree about several things. When all these religions refer to the Source, they point out to same entity, the same realm, the metaphysical. The problem they fail to acknowledge is that they use different approaches and different languages. As a result, they refer to a different angle of the same realm or to the same angle in different forms. Consider the expressions “God” and “Dios.” Both expressions refer to the same entity but in different languages, that is “God” in English translates into “Dios.” However simple, if two people had an argument about “God” or “Dios” they would not understand each other unless they spoke the same language or they were able to translate the expression. In a similar fashion, this is applicable to religions when they use different physical or ideal experiences and notions to refer to the metaphysical realm. Unsurprisingly, they do not understand each other and, consequently, disagreement, disputes and conflicts happen.
There is still hope. I will finish today with a quotation that sums up the way. We will discuss this point in more detail soon.
"men of diverse tribes, professing diverse religions, and speaking diverse languages, have taken the strange decision to be reasonable. They have resolved to forget their differences and stress their affinities."
Los Conjurados, Jorge Luis Borges.
Christ Consciousness. 1: No-one will come to save you
Available at: https://drjorge.world/2021/03/14/christ-consciousness-1-no-one-will-come-to-save-you/
Tuesday 16th March 2021
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez
Twitter: @DrJorge_World
