Lifestream
Your Flow of Creative Living
© 1996, Carolyn Odom Burleson, Ph.D.
Session III
Principles of Change
“The old order changeth yielding place to new,
and God fulfills Himself in many ways.”
- Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
CONTENTS: (Click on any bar to return to contents.)
- Principles of Change
- Ultimate Source
- Fundamental Truth
- Essential Quality
- Necessary Faculty
- Natural Tendency
- The Pendulum
- Motivating Force
- Summary
- Other Workshop Sessions
- Flow with the Lifestream
The term "Principle" is defined by Webster as: The ultimate source or origin of something; A fundamental truth, law or doctrine upon which others are based An essential quality, element or constituent, especially one that produces a specific effect; A necessary faculty; A natural or original tendency; A motivating force upon which others depend; The law of nature by which a thing operates.
Let us examine the Lifestream as best we can discern to determine what principles we can apply to help us understand and flow with it.
As we have stated previously, the ultimate source of all creation is Divine Mind, and so the Lifestream had to have been sent streaming forth Through the activity of Mind (God ) by Divine decree. Since it is an emanation from God, it carries God with it as it streams throughout the universe.
Mind is; all emanations of Mind are becoming as life streams forth from God as creation. It streams downward in vibrations and increases in density the further it extends itself from its Original Source.
The Lifestream carries Divine Mind-Spirit-Life as it streams downward through all planes of existence, from the spiritual to the mental through the astral to the physical. But God cannot be divided from Itself, and so it exists simultaneously on all planes. This is the Law of Correspondence in operation. As above, so below. For every phenomenon we are able to observe on the physical plane, there is a corresponding desire, a mental phenomenon that formed it, and a corresponding spiritual phenomenon that holds it in place.
"Man, know thyself." This is a worthy pursuit, for as we study the laws of our own being, we gain insight into the higher laws of the universe. The physical plane only answers the call of the mental, and the mental plane likewise answers the call of the spiritual plane.
The Lifestream is an unceasing whirl of vibrating energy. Everything in the universe is constantly in motion, vibrating and whirling in a multiplicity of forms. All mental states have their accompanying vibration. Thus we are sometimes able to sense how people feel without them telling us. Thoughts of love have a distinctly different vibration from those of fear. Fear differs in vibration from anger, anger from anxiety, etc. Every thought we think, every emotion we feel, all mental states have a corresponding rate as well as mode of vibration. .Mental states (and thus vibrations) can be changed by an effort of our will. We can direct our thoughts toward whatever we choose and affect a change in the way we feel.
Exercise: Picture in your mind's eye the coldest day you ever remember. Recall what you were doing outside on that frigid day, and put yourself back into that experience. What does. your body feel like? What are you feeling in your fingers and toes? How does it feel to breathe that frigid air? What is going on in your mind while you are out in the freezing cold? ... Now come inside your house where it is warm. Run some cold water over your hands to thaw them out. Get into your favorite robe and make yourself a nice hot cup of tea or chocolate. Feel it warm your insides as you drink it down. Now turn on your favorite music; sit back and relax.
If you followed this exercise, I am sure that you felt a distinct difference between the vibration that you experienced out in the cold and of that you experienced in the warm, comfortable house. Although this change only took place in your imagination, it nevertheless had an effect upon how you were feeling.
Since the Lifestream flows from the higher, finer, more subtle vibrations to the lower, denser, more sensible vibrations, it expresses itself in pairs of opposites. This characteristic of opposition is known as Polarity. Neither can exist in isolation from the other, nor can either be understood except in relation to the other. We must understand, however, that though everything is dual in nature, opposites are in actuality only two extreme expressions of the same thing with many varying degrees between them.
Things that are fundamentally opposite are fundamentally One. However, Things of the same class can be polarized to express as one manifestation or another. For example: water can be polarized by the addition or subtraction of heat, to express as steam or ice respectively. The addition of heat to ice causes the molecular motion (thus its vibrator rate) to speed up and its form of manifestation is changed from a solid, ice, to a liquid, water. If we continue in this process, the vibration becomes finer and finer as the molecules move faster and faster until they break away from the mass, and H20 no longer manifests as water, but as steam which soon vanishes into thin air. Conversely, a reduction of the amount of heat in the air will cause the molecules of moisture to slow down and condense into droplets of water. Continued reduction of heat causes the vibrations to become more and more dense with the slowing down of the molecular motion until the water then solidifies and manifests as ice.
Our thoughts processes work in much the same manner. We can, by our own mental attitudes, polarize ourselves to a higher vibration. Thus, we have complete control over our feelings, our moods our mental states and our physical states if we choose to exercise it. From the exercise we have previously done you can easily see the change that took place in your physical body as well as your feelings simply by directing your thoughts, first to a frigid winter day, and then to a nice warm house. You can use this technique to change how you feel in any given situation.
If you do not like what you are feeling, do not fight and struggle against it, but allow yourself to experience the feeling. place it on a screen in your consciousness and examine it closely. Try to describe its size, shape and color. Listen to it, and describe the sound it makes. Taste it, smell it, feel it and describe it from as many different aspects as you can. By doing this exercise you will soon find that the feeling has lost its negative effect upon you because you have ceased to resist it. The experience is no longer viewed as your adversary but as an object of your examination. You will notice that the tension engendered by this experience is relieved by examining it instead of resisting it. Repeat this process as often as necessary to release the negative feeling.
The next step is to imagine yourself moving up the scale from a negative polarity to a positive polarity. You accomplish this by directing your thoughts toward the polar opposite of the original feeling, and by doing so you will change your own vibration. Just as, with the addition of heat, there is a point at which ice ceases to be ice and becomes water, at which water becomes steam, and at which steam evaporates, our mental, emotional and even physical states can be changed by thinking higher thoughts. Our own desire to be lifted up provides the "heat" i.e. the fire that refines our consciousness.
Consciousness collects by the activity of our minds. The more we direct our thoughts toward images that inspire us, the more we become attuned to those inspirations, and the more easily we are able to reach those loftier states of consciousness. Likewise, the more we individually raise our consciousness, the more we contribute to raising the collective consciousness of the entire race.
"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven... He hath made every thing beautiful in His time: also He hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." (Eccl.2:l&ll)
The universe breathes and pulsates in a regular rhythm. Everything sways back and forth between its two poles like a pendulum in measured motion. The sun rises out of the darkness, and then it sets. The tide ebbs and flows; the moon waxes and wanes; the seasons come and go. So goes the Stream of Life. Life's cycles travel on bringing mountains we must climb and valleys into which we must descend. Experiences bring pain and pleasure; people touch our lives and go; questions have answers which raise more questions. Kahlil Gibran says, "Vex not thy spirit with the course of things; they heed not our vexation." But do all you can to understand the course of things, for this understanding will help you to handle life's changes effectively.
The starlit sky surrenders its beauty
the splendor of the rising sun to see
The moon's illustrious light passes away
as nature turns the dark night into day
The dark clouds overhead provide the rain
that blossoms in the Spring may come again
Lovely flowers in short time disappear
with promise to return again next year
The warmth and brilliance of the summer sun
give way to autumn splendor and are done
The tides rush high upon the sandy shore
and with their ebb the sea is calm once more
We must know there's a loss for every gain
We purchase our life's pleasures with our pain.
The pendulum of life swings back and forth balancing out the scale of polarity. If you examine your life experiences, you will find that there is a cost for every profit and a loss for every gain. We have to forfeit the beauty of the starlit sky in order to enjoy the splendor of the sunrise. But with each dark night, no matter how dismal it may appear, we know the sun will surely rise again. For the New Day does not begin at dawn, but grows out of the darkest hour of the night.
The negative swing of the pendulum precedes the positive. God exhaled the Lifestream to emanate all creation, and will draw it back into Himself. The negative lifeswings are necessary experiences for our soul growth, and only for that. They are not to be wallowed in or dwelled upon, but grown through. Once we have learned our lesson from the negative experience our consciousness is lifted up so that the next time the pendulum swings back (and it will swing back) to the negative pole, we have risen above the level of its effects. This is an extremely valuable lesson. Once mastered, we have gained a new perspective from which to view, our lives.
There is a Cause and a Because to every experience that is or has ever been a part of our lives. The Cause is the Divine Law of Mind Activity. (Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind.) The Because is the conscious thoughts of man. We make the choice as to which thoughts we entertain (hold in mind) and consequently we reap the harvest of our own thought patterns.
Law of Cause and Effect operates behind all manifestation, be it a physical form or an experience or condition in our lives. Everything we see, sense or feel is but an effect of a higher cause. They enter our realm of experience because of our own level of consciousness operating in Divine Mind in accordance with the law. God has endowed us with free will, and the only limitation to the use of this freedom is the limitations we place on ourselves with our own thoughts. Understanding this, we can accept ourselves as co-creators and expand our limits by expanding our consciousness. We can change our emotional and mental states by changing the cause. We change the cause by attuning with the higher consciousness. The nearer we are in our consciousness to the center of the Cause, the freer the effect will be. (Let those who have ears, hear.)
1. Divine Mind is the Ultimate Source of creation.
2. The Lifestream corresponds in essence on all planes of existence. (Spiritual - Mental - Astral - Physical)
3. The Lifestream is an unceasing whirl of vibrating energy which manifests in a multiplicity of forms.
4. All mental states are accompanied by certain rates and modes of this vibrating energy.
5. Things which are fundamentally opposite are fundamentally ONE.
6. Our own desire is the "Fire" that refines our consciousness.
7. Consciousness collects through the activity of our minds.
8. The universe breathes and pulsates in regular rhythm.
9. There is a cost for every profit and a loss for every gain.
10. The negative swing of the pendulum of life precedes the positive.
11. Negative lifeswings are only for the purpose of our soul growth.
12. There is a Cause and a. Because for every experience of life.
13. Flow with the Lifestream
3
Workshop Session 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - Lifestream Meditation
© 1996 - Carolyn Odom Burleson, Ph.D.
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