Steps to Bliss
By
William Whitecloud
Best selling author and
creative development master William Whitecloud contends that living
one’s bliss is as easy – and even more rewarding – than
learning to ski.
Recently
I had the
pleasure of lunching with one of my brother-in-laws, whom I had not
met before. As everyone usually does, there came the point when he
asked me to describe what I do for a living. I always find it
difficult to explain exactly what I do because my vocation, if that’s
the word, is so multi faceted. But I thought I must have done a good
job when my relative responded by saying, “Well, I guess there are
many people like myself who would love to leverage their passion into
a satisfying way of life.” They were not the words I had used,
though exquisitely spot on.
Joseph
Campbell,
the mythology guru, always asserted that the highest potential of we
humans is to live our bliss. It’s a wonderful ideal, evoking an
incredible sense of passion and freedom. I mean, who wouldn’t want
to be in a position to do exactly what they would love to be doing,
being who they would love to be, and – luxury of luxuries – still
having their world conform to the way they would love it to be? After
all, that pretty much sounds like a description of heaven. And,
sadly, while virtually everyone dreams of heaven, not many people get
there.
In
the Bible we
find the classic saying: “Many are called but few are chosen.”
I’m sure something has been lost in translation there. I don’t
believe in a chosen few. It’s more conceivable that of the many
called, only a few work out how to follow the calling. The one thing
in life that still takes me by surprise is when people say how much
they would love to follow their bliss if only things were different.
Even people that we would normally perceive as powerful betray their
lack of true power by uttering words to that effect. I remember
meeting the director of one of Australia’s big four banks who told
me: “I’d just love to play music but I have a wife and three
kids.”
Sadder
still are
those who try and then fail, re-enforcing the idea that following
your dream is just that – a delusion. A lady came to see me once,
very disillusioned with the universe and the whole notion of “do
what you love and the rest will follow”. She had given up her job
as a senior nurse in a big hospital, taken out a whopping great loan
and gone travelling, expecting some great new direction to unfold for
her. She was shocked when all that happened overseas was that her
money ran out.
The
reason people
don’t get to heaven is because they can’t see how they can reach
it from where they are. Sometimes, the desperate or the half informed
take the dumb hero option and throw themselves over the edge in the
hope of being rescued by some miracle, only to be “dashed against
the rocks by reason of their own folly”, as the Hermetic
Philosophers liked to say. This creates a cosmic paradox, in that to
do what you love you just have to begin doing it, and yet, when
people seemingly do take unconditional action in following their
dreams, they are generally bound for failure. Most people are aware
of the statistic that nine out of ten new businesses fail.
Nevertheless,
just
because people don’t know how to change, it doesn’t mean that
change can’t be managed in a very effective and powerful way. The
first time I tried skiing, I seriously believed it was impossible
until an instructor taught me the principles involved, after which I
began to enjoy the second most thrilling past time I have ever come
across. Most things are easy, never mind possible, if we just
understand the principles involved. Successful change is facilitated
by its own set of principles.
Joseph
Campbell was
so interested in mythology because he discerned in the collective
wisdom of the ages a consistent blueprint for self actualisation, a
dynamic in which we shift from being the slave of our conditioning to
following the sovereign calling of our hearts. As I understand it,
Alchemy is the time honoured study of this process. If, as physicist
Amit Goswami says, quantum physics is the science of possibilities,
Alchemy is the science of intentionally shifting from one possibility
to another, one paradigm to another, i.e. transmuting states of mind.
While
self
actualisation involves a dramatic shift in consciousness, one that
transports the initiated into a parallel universe, it is still
governed by a set of principles that are no harder to handle than
learning to become a good skier. With sixteen years of practicing and
teaching Alchemy under my belt, I propose that there are five
essential
steps that will
lead inexorably to
anyone being transformed from gobbling turkey to soaring eagle.
Follow these steps and you’re guaranteed to leverage your passion
into a very satisfying way of life.
Step
1: Take
the time to learn how you create your own reality.
In
metaphysical
terms the feminine principle is considered to be the creative aspect,
and as the feminine aspect of mind, your subconscious is the part of
you that creates your reality. In many traditions as diverse as
Neoplatonic Philosophy and the Kahuna culture of Hawaii you will find
the premise of three levels of consciousness: the super conscious,
being our higher mind or self; the self conscious, being our waking,
rationalising self; and our unconscious, the limited, conditioned
self. These levels of self are constantly providing input into the
subconscious, which then creates according to the messages it
receives.
I
think that it’s
important to note, firstly, that the subconscious makes no moral or
ethical distinctions. It is a fertile void, and what gets planted in
that void grows out of it. Secondly, the subconscious is constantly
receiving messages, many of them contradictory, so it determines
which messages have the power, and then creates them. Metaphysically
speaking, the state of your life at any given time is a reflection of
which messages in your consciousness are being given the most energy.
Step
2:
Develop your awareness.
While
everyone may
know that they have one set of eyes through which they see the world,
few people realise that two distinct personalities share those eyes,
and that what they see when they look out at the world are totally
different pictures. Both the super conscious and the unconscious have
their own modes of awareness.
The
unconscious
mode of awareness is Perception, which means experiencing reality
through the senses, mainly thoughts and feelings. Perception is very
tricky because, while it appears to be conveying reality, it is
actually conveying our conditioning. The definitions we hold
unconsciously about ourselves, others and the world create an
impression consistent with what we believe, not with what is.
Intuition
is our
super conscious mode of awareness. It is the awareness we experience
outside of our thoughts and feelings, free of our limited notions of
time and space. When we try and work things out, we subconsciously
refer to the definitions stored in our unconscious, thereby
triggering our Perception. Intuition is born of innocence, that
quality of not needing to figure everything out.
The
quality of
information that these two modes of awareness give us is vastly
different, and as a conscious creator, you need to know the
difference between them, and be able to tell which one you’re being
informed by in any given moment.
Step
3: Know
your identity.
They
say that a
fish doesn’t know the water it is swimming in, and so too are we so
steeped in our identities that we can not see them without the proper
awareness. Your identity is the person you have become by adapting to
how you believe yourself, others and the world are. Your identity is
great in that it gives you your personality, your passion and your
humanness. At the same time, it is the part of you that is always
working on ensuring the conditions it believes your safety and
survival depend on. It is the part of you that creates the impression
that you are not ready for change.
While
our lives can
seem incredibly diverse and complex, our identity is surprisingly
basic, and as a consequence, limits us to an equally narrow range of
fundamental experience. Our beliefs and perceptions, and the patterns
of behaviour and experience they manifest, become easily identifiable
with the aid of personality typing systems like the Enneagram,
Astrology or Numerology, and the deeper, objective awareness of a
functionally developed intuition.
Step
4: Know
your passion.
If
you truly love
something, it means that you want it for its own sake, not because
you believe it will get you something else in turn. The nurse I
mentioned before did not go for what she loved; she did what she
believed she had to do to force a shift in her life. Magic does
happen when you go for what you love, but the truth is most people
simply do not have the awareness to know what really matters to them.
They fail to see how their identity is tied up in what they go for,
and thereby do more to perpetuate their identity than move towards
their bliss.
True
end results
are easy to manifest. The trick is to discern true end results from
egoic agendas, which entails sinking through your perceptions to the
vision of your heart. The ability to get out of your own way and
stand in innocence is crucial to uncovering your genuine passion.
Step
5:
Prepare yourself for what it takes.
To
quote Dr.
Stephen Covey, “Personality will only get you so far, but character
will take you all the way.” One of the negative side effects of the
self help movement has been the proliferation of the magic bullet
fantasy. People have been encouraged to assume that there is some
belief clearing technique, some affirmation, some magical insight,
some do-good practice that will change their lives without them
having to contribute anything from within themselves.
When
you understand
Alchemy, though, it is a function of inner harmony – tolerating all
the forces at play in your consciousness, not giving them any energy
until you’re clear where you want the power to be. You assign your
unconscious messages the power by reacting to your thoughts and
feelings, and you give your super conscious input the power by making
centred choices. Character, as I understand it, is not about avoiding
painful feelings, but about upholding a set of values. And the value
at the heart of Alchemy is serving inner truth.
My old mentor,
Scott Washington, used
to say to me, “Don’t be a seeker – be a finder.” If you
insist on searching for the magic bullet, good luck. But if you are
willing to put some energy into learning the basic principles of
change, you’ll find that your bliss is right there – like snow on
a ski field. I can’t recommend living your bliss highly enough. It
is the most thrilling past time I have ever come across.
William
Whitecloud is author of the best selling book ‘The Magician’s
Way’, and founder of the year long self transformation training of
the same name.
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