This is a time of year when thoughts tend to turn to spiritual matters.  It happens twice a year and is aligned with ancient rituals associated with the solar equinox.  These are glorious and highly energetic times full of reflection and the promise of new life.  In our age the subject of Ascension is even more prevalent during these times.  The popular definition of Ascension is a raising of one’s frequency or vibration to something higher than yourself.  To be associated with higher energies such as that of the Earth, the Solar Logos or perhaps even the Galactic Center.  To “Dance with the Stars”, to be more in tune with our Higher Selves.  These are great ideas and highly aspirational.  But how is this done?  And what benefit in day to day life would be realized if you could indeed undertake and “accomplish” something like this?

This blog, Salient Focus is all about simplification.  The ego thought system has already given us enough blind alleys of complexity for us to run down, finding yet another maze with little reward at the end.  Few have taken the time to seek out firstly the means for peace let alone exhibited the discipline to achieve it.  And yes, I equate Peace with Ascension.

Today I submit to you three simple guidelines:  Look up.  Focus.  Reach up.

The first two I have covered in previous posts and I will elaborate on below.  Let’s start by considering a simple statement:

If you are trying to ascend, reach up!  For there is someone there waiting to take your hand

If you are reading this, you probably have a reason to believe this.  We all have had supporters in life.  From the time when we were infants, when we wanted to go higher and travel faster, we raised our arms up to the sky and a taller, stronger and more mature individual raised us up to heights we could not achieve by ourselves.  In business you not only have mentors, but you have sponsors as well who can elevate you or your ideas into new vistas of opportunity.  If you find yourself in a hole, either figuratively or literally, you reach to the sky that you may be lifted up and rescued.  So why should the concept of Reaching up Spiritually be so difficult to accept?  Let’s take another example.  Most would consider much of the power source for physical life to come from the sun.  What does a plant do when it wants to bloom and bring glorious colors and succulent fruit into the world?  It raises it’s head to the sky.  It is fructified and energized by the light above.  Are we not as deserving of this light as the flower?  Contained within the Light is Life itself, always there and available to help anything that merely asks to grow.  We have Big Siblings and Helpers given to us by none other than God Himself.  And it is easy to ask, but the method may not be familiar to you.  That’s ok.  As they say, there’s an App for that.

A Course in Miracles (And it’s companion document, A Song of Prayer) provide a highly detailed method to reach up.  A further broken down summary can be found in Gary Renard’s fine book, The Disappearance of the Universe.  Here is my summary:

 

Look up

Take some time each day to think of things outside of time.  Think of what it would be like to fly across the galaxy.  Light a candle and imagine your problems going up with the smoke.  Listen to some ambient music for 15 minutes.  Look at the Blue Sky for 10 minutes and see that you suddenly see differently.  Imagine yourself walking on water.  Imagine yourself having dinner with an Archangel.  If you can dream about these while asleep, why not imagine these and other examples during your waking hours.  The reason to do this is because Time is a trap, designed to keep you focused on the past and fearful of the future.  If you can begin ever so faintly to realize that the truly important and magical things, the miracles, have nothing to do with time, you have taken the first step towards Ascension.  Forever is the endless Now.

Focus

What is it you really want to do?  What are your goals?  What makes your heart sing and doesn’t just pay the bills?  What would total peace and serenity look like?  Paint as detailed a picture as you can.  Meditate.  More than likely, the picture is already there waiting for you.  Your focus and desire is your method for bringing it closer to your everyday experience.  “The best meditation is a yearning to be one’s best and to live one’s noblest, and if this yearning is derivative from the spirit of compassion, welling up in the heart like a holy river of energy, it will lead one quickly to the Gates of Gold” – The Dialogues of G. De Purucker, KTMG Papers #31

 

Reach up

Ultimately, the smallest ant or the biggest galaxy only want one thing, to be in the presence of God.  For what else is there to truly ask for?  What benefit and joy could you derive beyond this goal?  The trick is that while you are reaching for this, to let all else go.  This does not mean you have to give up the roof over your head.  It does mean however that when you reach up and if you desire to be Lifted up, you must first place the things which you formerly focused on, before God.  This simply lets God know you have no other gods before Him.  You might have heard this statement before…  Imagine the analogy you being in a ditch, in a hole.  If you are looking down at your so-called treasure, you cannot Look up.  If your Focus is misplaced, you quickly become disorientated and If you insist on being raised out of the hole, but you have 200 lbs of “stuff” hanging around your neck, it makes it that much more difficult for you to Reach up and to be rescued.  Now, there are no obstacles to God, but it us who have the Belief that there are.  It is our beliefs which blind us to a Reality we cannot see.  Put the things you “Don’t” need, good or bad down before Him first, as an offering.  This will demonstrate that He is the only Source you need.  Do this, give him this “Gift” and you will see the magic start to happen.  For giving is receiving.  We must learn to sing to God with a clear voice.  The Song you share because the Mind is One.  The mistake we make is that we ask for things which really have no chance of giving us Peace.  The Song you share through this act of Prayer is One.  What you may receive in the byproducts or Harmonics will be unique to your situation.  You however can’t ask for the harmonics directly.  The goal is to learn to share the will of God, to Decide with God, and remove all obstacles to this new decision making process.

 

When you have learned how to decide with God, all decisions become as easy and as right as breathing. There is no effort, and you will be led as gently as if you were being carried down a quiet path in summer. Only your own volition seems to make deciding hard. The Holy Spirit will not delay in answering your every question what to do. He knows. And He will tell you, and then do it for you. You who are tired will find this is more restful than sleep. For you can bring your guilt into sleeping, but not into this.”
A Course in Miracles, Text, page 280.

 

To Reach up, to Ascend becomes much easier when you acknowledge that you need help, and then accept help.  The beautiful thing is that our Help is truly limitless.  There is absolutely no limit to what you can achieve once you realize Who really walks beside you, Who really is available to Lift you up, once you Reach up, and is willing to help you to become who You really are.  Your destiny once you truly accept it, your pinnacle of Ascension is much loftier than you have ever imagined it to be.  This season, start your journey by Reaching Up.