From Rick Jarrow: creating

This came in email and is quite profound. It busts the "new age" notions of "creating your own reality as you please" and goes into "creating your own reality as God wants you to have".

Coming Out of the Cocoon

To be consciously in your "right place at the right time" requires a genuine release of egoic desire: the placing of one's imagined self at the center of life, while trying to manipulate thought, other beings, and events to manifest some sort of pre-conceived outcome. The idea of "creating one's reality" is only creative when one's process is awakened and in touch with Shakti, the divine energy of creativity and manifestation.

In truth, we never really know if we will wake up the next morning; every day and every way is an act of trust and abandon. Awakening to Shakti need by no means eradicate the ego, for its sense of separation and desire for experience is also a part of her play and has its own gifts to offer.

For too long, however, we have been trained to use ideas about our life to protect us from life itself: our projections, imaginings, and thought constructs build a cocoon that enfolds us in incompleteness. To open to the raw energy of presence and to the intelligent and beauteous unfolding in every moment is to leave the cocoon, and to feel so alive and vital, so connected with each and all, that there is no need for living in contraction, doubt, and hesitation. Unfolding one's wings and opening to "the Way" does not preclude pain or suffering, for these are purifying fires that burn away our misalignments and clear us deeply. If the starting point is faith, then we can relax and know that we are always in the hands of a living and loving universe.

Opening freely to the fullness of presence, rather than dissolving the structures that support us (families, jobs, houses, communities), gives these structures the space to renew themselves--to morph in accordance with what it best for ALL.

Since we do not know what is best for us (not to mention for anyone else) we have a choice. We can continue with one effort after another to conjure up scenarios that ought to make us happy, or we can be happy just to be here, and let that joy reveal the path that we take. Such joy is real, and its path is miraculous, a way of grace and authenticity that ever affirms that we are here to share in the sweetness of the Creative Flow of Reality.

Announcing our New Website: http://rickjarow.com - a comprehensive information station for the work of life alignment and manifestation, a place to "check in" (instead of checking out), and a place of remembrance. Also the Alchemy of Abundance BLOG (http://alchemyofabundance.wordpress.com), a docking station for shared inspiration, information, and renewal.

Announcing this year's Advanced Manifestation Gathering at Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York on November 22, 23rd. In the midst of political and financial chaos - a calm and creative center, we continue to gather together. We become stronger. We claim the lives we were meant to live ("It is never too late to be what you might have been" - George Eliot). We open to the Creative Source that can move our hearts, transform our circumstances, and guide us to our peace.

For more information on the workshop, email Sheri Bresson at manifestation44@cs.com