Monthly Archives: June 2007

I heard someone on the radio recently discussing the concept of fate or destiny—and our perpetual fascination (some would say obsession) with answering the Big One: “Why am I here?”

It reminded me of my own questions–not only the Big One, but related ones about how much of what happens to us, how much of what we experience in any given go-round (assuming you believe we have more than one), is decided or otherwise determined before we get here? What about predestination? What about soul contracts? What about free will?

I couldn’t think of anyone better to ask than The Shower Team, so I tossed the Big One and its cousins at them . . .

You tell yourselves all sorts of things on this subject. Some of you choose to believe that your lives are essentially mapped out for you from start to finish and it is your job—or your “destiny” to simply find and follow the map. Others of you prefer to believe that it’s all basically a crap shoot and you just hope that the dice roll in your favor more often than not. Still others of you hold to the notion that
nothing is planned and that your experience is exclusively an exercise in free will, and you can become rather indignant at any suggestion to the contrary.

What we would suggest to you is that what you believe about this really only matters to the extent that it invites or interferes with your choice to let well being abound for you. You could choose to hold any of these positions or any combination of them and as long as you are having a great time either because of or in spite of it, you would be on the right track.

If pressed to answer a question about “What is fate?” or “What is destiny” we would offer that you do come forth into physical experience with some formed intentions. In other words, you do come here with some ideas about what you want your experience to be like or to be about. Some of you come forth with more specific or more focused or more powerful intentions than others. However all of you come forth with the intention of benefiting and expanding and becoming more as a result of your experience. None of you plan a miserable time for yourselves. None of you come forth understanding or being resigned to some silly notion that this will be a payback lifetime—designed to punish you for past sins. None of you come forth with some expectation of martyrdom for this go round because you were such a jackass the last time you were here.

We would also offer to you, that none of you decides before you come forth that there is ONE thing and one thing only that you must do here and that you must do it only one way and/or with only one person and in only one place at one certain time. In other words, you do not limit your options except, in some cases, to decide that you will focus your energy in either some general or some more specific way. For example, some of you come forth with the intention of having a particularly powerful experience of freedom. Some of you—many of you—come forth with an intention of being teachers or being individuals who will be focused on uplifting others.

Where we see you tripping yourselves up is in your holding of the belief that there is a particular and detailed plan or design for you made prior to your emergence into physical and that you must somehow stumble upon it or spend a good chunk of your lives fretting and fumbling and floundering until you—if you’re lucky—happen upon this holy grail where you can finally relax and do what you are ‘supposed’ to be doing.

In the simplest terms, your “fate” or your “destiny” is to have the most expansive, thrilling, fulfilling experience that you can have. You jump gleefully back into the ocean of your physical experience because, from your broader nonphysical perspective, you know what perfection it is . . . and you are eager to get back in there and to experience the breathtaking variety that is available to you and to respond to that variety by making new choices and forming new preferences and allowing yourself to expand and to grow and to experience all the delicious flavors of life that are available to you.

You jump back into that ocean because you know, from your broader nonphysical perspective, that you will learn how to swim and that you will be guided every step of the way by how you feel nd that as long as you listen to and trust your heart or your emotions or your inner knowing that you will not only survive but you will thrive . . . and your destiny is to make that experience as luscious and satisfying and enriching and stimulating and joyful as you possibly can.

Whether or not your intentions coming forth are more general or more specific doesn’t really matter much as long as you are following that guidance, because when you are following your guidance, you will know every single time you turn toward or turn away form your “destiny.’ As long as you are turning toward what delights you, what inspires you, what thrills you, what stimulates you, what lights you up, what turns you on, what makes your heart sing . . . then you are following your destiny.

So we would prefer that you all just sort of lighten up on this topic and rather than spend so much time scratching your heads and seeking ‘experts’ who can tell you why you are here this time, just pay attention to what really fires your rockets or floats your boat. No one—not even The Shower Channel—knows better than you what you should be doing in this or any other lifetime.

So if you want to decipher your destiny or figure out your fate . . . ask yourself the simpler questions about what makes you feel most like you . . . what makes you laugh or smile or sing or dance? What lights you up? What brings you your greatest pleasure and your greatest sense of satisfaction? The answers to those questions are your fate, your destiny, as you planned them when you were getting ready to dive back in to this ever expanding, ever evolving, ever thrilling sea you call a physical lifetime.

I wonder why I’m suddenly feeling like buying some water wings. Sometimes even I think The Team sounds a little like a Carnival Cruise line infomercial. On the other hand, it’s an awfully nice idea that we really do come here intending to follow our bliss—and that if we really will let joy lead, then we really and truly can’t get it wrong.

I bet all those fortune cookie makers are glad not everybody has figured this out yet. No doubt other questions will arise on this topic at some point. . . but for now and for me, it puts the Big One to bed. And it leaves me feeling, for the moment, fatefully complete.

I continue to sit in the middle of questions lately about, for lack of a less over-used term, manifestation. Like most people I talk to about spiritual matters, I seem to be as fixated as the next guru on how to give form to my dreams, how to make them real—that is, how to get the stuff I want.

Clearly I’d never make it as a Buddhist. So as I sit here stewing once again in my impatient wondering about how to get from here to there and how to walk the talk . . . I talked again to The Shower Team about how to live my dream rather than just living with it . . .

What most of you do the moment that you return to conscious awareness every morning is to begin to throw your attention at the things that you remember from the day before that did not please you or to aim your attention at the things you anticipate in the day ahead that will not please you or to scatter your attention among the many things going on in your experience that do not please you . . . . And as a result you immediately begin to pinch off or to disallow the well being that is available to you for that day—even before your feet hit the floor.

Allowing or alignment is not a band-aid you slap on over a cut or scrape. It is not a pill you pop or an ointment you apply or a shot you take in the hopes that your life will immediately or soon thereafter snap back into shape. Allowing is not a step or two (or twelve) that you can follow for a while and then forget about. It is not a process that you can play with for a few days or weeks and then be done with. Allowing and alignment with your desires is a lifestyle—and for most of you, a lifestyle change. It is the difference between a crash diet before a vacation and fundamentally altering the way you approach food for the rest of your physical lifetime. It is a way of being and it is the way that we so want you to choose to be because as you ‘be’ that way, then all the well ‘Be’ing that abounds can flow so freely to you . . . and all that you desire—that is part of that ever-flowing stream of well ‘Be’ing can flow to you . . . or more specifically, you can flow toward it as you continue to make the choice that “well” is how you are going to be on all fronts.

We really want you to get a sense of the way that your life is a perceptual field of possibilities always competing for your attention. At any given moment there are multiple, countless options available to you in terms of where you beam your focus, what you throw your attention at and therefore, countless options available to you in terms of how you can feel about your life at any given moment. If you understand that how you are perceiving . . . what you are choosing to look at and how you are choosing to respond to the object of your attention is always—ALWAYS—determining how you are feeling—and that what you are thinking and how you are feeling are always a match to what you are experiencing . . . then you begin to understand the critical importance of choosing your focus consciously and deliberately with your sole aim being to feel as good as you possibly can about whatever you are focused upon.

We hear you pooh pooh much of this sort of talk as pollyannaish or as airy fairy positive thinking drivel and we hear you offer instead what sounds to us like the real drivel when you go on about the value or importance of being “realistic” or being “practical” or facing what is. And we continue to offer to you the idea that “what is” only is because that’s what you or others have given your attention to and so “it is” because you keep noticing it. As soon as you withdraw your attention from what is, it no longer “is” in the sense that you are no longer noticing or observing or caring or being particularly affected by it.

What we would so much like to see you do is to come to an understanding of the abundance, the wellness, the prosperity, the love, the passion, the satisfaction, the fulfillment, the success—the boundless and infinite joy and possibility that is ALWAYS in front of you if you will just allow yourself to notice it. It is a decision you can make anytime under any conditions—to give your attention to what feels better.

We would love for you to just try—just try—waking up in the morning and instead of letting your thoughts meander toward the least pleasant or most difficult or most worrisome thoughts available to you . . . for you to decide—to make a conscious choice—to flow your thoughts in the direction of anything you can think of that pleases you. We would encourage you, as soon as your eyes flutter open in your bed, to begin to consciously decide the direction of your thoughts. Consciously throw your attention in the direction of an idea that provokes eagerness or anticipation or joy . . . Begin to wonder what wondrous and satisfying and surprising things might come your way that day. Begin to ponder the fun you could have, the satisfaction you might experience, the pleasure that could be available to you at work or play. Begin to imagine your day going beautifully. Begin to imagine yourself being joyful and content and engaged and satisfied . . . Literally decide as you lay there in your bed, fresh from your dreams, that it WILL be a good day.

You’ve practiced not doing this for most of your physical lifetime and we would, somewhat respectively, ask “How’s that working for you?” And then we would, also somewhat respectively, suggest that you not knock this alternative we are offering until you have tried it. Go to your dreams as frequently and fervently as you’ve deviated from them . . . give it a shot. All you’ve really got to lose is your lack of progress toward those dreams, in our admittedly not so humble opinion.

Well somebody thinks pretty highly of Themselves. Is it just me or am I getting wonderfully varied renderings of the same answer to my question? I wonder how many rounds I/We could go and keep getting yet another response that is basically telling me to do what I already know to do but keep hoping I can somehow get a shortcut around.

Somehow the idea to “Go to my dreams” . . . has just a fresh enough feel to it to intrigue me. I don’t have to get hit over the head (much) to get the point. So I will give it a shot and let you know how it goes. Just having that much of a plan feels enough like progress to keep me in the game for another round, and to let me feel, for the moment, playfully complete.