posted June 21, 2007 01:36 AM         

HOW DOES ONE PREPARE FOR THE UNKNOWN?

There is a great deal of talk about the upcoming year 2012. The Mayan Calendar and many other writings speak of 2012 as the “end of the world as we know it.” There’s great hope around the possibilities that 2012 might bring. Peace on earth, prosperity for all, love and goodwill, and blessedness, are some of the things that could be coming in a few short years. Many of my friends have been talking about this for 20 years, so as we get down to five years from the magical date there’s a certain amount of excitement building. Many people ask me what I believe the new era will be like, and what they can do to prepare for it.

There are, of course, some people who believe that there will be cataclysmic events that precede the shift. Others believe that they will personally ascend, leaving this realm behind.

When I’m asked what I believe will happen, I have to reply, that I have no idea. If we are talking about the end of the world as we know it, then all will be new, so how can we even speculate. So, I’m just as clueless as anybody. I do have a sense of what a world of peace, beauty, love, and prosperity for all, might feel like. But I have no idea of how it will happen, or what it will look like. There are scholars who like to talk about “millennium madness” that seems to occur every thousand years. But this isn’t about the millennium. This is about the end of a 26,000 year period, and scholars don’t have much data to compare with the previous 26,000 year period shift.

So, how does one prepare for a shift that has no precedent? What can we do to be ready for this prophesized event?

What I’m noticing with myself and my clients, students, and friends is that we seem to be being pushed by a higher source to become the best human beings that we can possibly be. We are being asked to dig down into the depths of our psyches and transform the most core of our issues. We are being moved toward forgiveness, first for ourselves and then others. We are being called onto the carpet by our own higher selves to become accountable for our lives.

Many people believe that we create our own heaven or hell right here on earth. I think I’m one of those people. Yes, I believe we are multidimensional beings, who live in a multidimensional universe, that time is simultaneous, and we are members of a universal family of beings that is beyond our greatest scientists and greatest spiritual teachers wildest imaginations. And I also believe that we are magnificent and unique parts of this glorious multidimensional universe, and that we have the power to actually create heaven here in this very mundane reality that we call twenty-first century planet Earth.

So, it seems to me the question is, how do we create heaven on earth? And my answer is, we open our hearts and let it flow into being. We can’t possibly control what it will be, or how it will look. But we can spend time each day in meditation, step up to face our most ardent personal demons in meditation and in other healing practices, and choose the light over the darkness. There is a sign at my meditation and healing center that has a quote by Carl Jung. “As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.”

The greatest fear any of us have is the fear of the unknown, so, as exciting as this idea of a new era that may possibly begin in 2012 is, the prospect is scary. Since it is still five years away much of the fear is still below awareness. To come to grips with this I’d like to suggest that you face a similar fear that many of you are much more familiar with. The fear (disguised often as laziness, or too busyness, or fidgety-ness) of sitting in daily meditation. Sitting with closed eyes, listening to your breath, and just opening to the light, and to whatever arises from the deep consciousness, and trusting that you are a part of the divine universe and that all is in perfect balance and harmony, is frightening to many people.

But in fact, this is how I believe we prepare for the unknown of a new era or any unknown. We open to the unknown within. We allow it to be just what it is. We surrender to the flow of the universe, and we smile into being a new era in our own souls.