The Writings of Gordon Phinn
Journey To Knowing
The Deity Is Not Up For Discussion
The Ladder, The Elevator
Almost any energetic or spiritual practice will lead you to the opening door of expanding consciousness. I have met many runners, swimmers, team sports players and yoga practitioners over the years who tell of sudden leaps in what they assume is perception, where watching themselves from near or afar becomes the new norm for at least a few seconds and sometimes minutes. They see another self, seemingly independent of the one who stretches and sweats, one who is calm, bemused, observant.
Higher Self and Soul Probes
When Higher Self envisions us, it sees divine beings lost in belief systems. Systems like democracy, progress, agriculture, manufacturing, worshipful subservience to science, prophets and deities. It sees children playing, frightened and ignorant, educated and desirous, mystified but lost in enchantments.
Old Souls and Young Souls
As we explore the various highways and biways of the esoteric teachings that guide our inner journeys, we eventually come to the notion that some souls are ‘young’ and others ‘mature’ or ‘old’. The distinctions manifest in a number of ways. One is derived from the discussions arising from life-between-life regressions where some recall careful planning with guides for the upcoming incarnation, while others tend to rush in enthusiastically without much forethought, often hell bent on resuming a life dramatically cut short by violence, accident or addiction. The feeling of being denied one’s life experiences through trauma and tragedy can be overwhelming, often dominating the ‘bliss’ potentials of astral life.
Citizens of the Soul
While some of us find citizenship to be “surplus to requirements” for the pressing business of career and family, and others are so disgusted with the fabrications and deceptions of politics, religion and big business they happily drop out of any such commitment, some seek to be citizens of their society, however seemingly corrupted, striving to be informed and actively engaged with the issues and challenges of the day. Others seek to be citizens of the planet, embracing the ideals of multiculturalism, brotherhood and internationalism, hoping to replace hunger with plenty and strife with harmony. And yet others strive, in one way or another, to be citizens of the soul, that amorphous enigma inhabiting all forms with the sentient spark we have come to call consciousness.
Prophets And Their Visions
Many of us have found our way to the inner journey of spirit after either rejecting conventional religious structures and practice, finding them self contradictory and unsatisfying, or seeing that the scientific materialism we grew up with failed to explain our personal experiences with the mystical and mysterious situations that repeatedly irritated our culture’s assumptions and norms…
Observing the Self and Bearing Witness
Various meditation techniques strongly emphasize the importance of calmly observing the self in acquiring the real knowing of who we are, where we come from and what actually motivates us to thought and action. The term ‘mindfulness meditation’ is the most commonly used in this context. It’s one that almost everyone on the inner journey recognizes, regardless of path or tradition. In aiding our understanding of who we really are, as opposed to who we think we are or would like to be, it is incomparable.
Exercising That Empathy Muscle
Many of us do it, whether we are consciously on the inner journey or not. As one of the many aspects of compassion, it is instilled in us from an early age, as well as many past lives, where we either employed it intelligently and saw its benefits, or failed to, and realized too late how we’d short changed ourselves and others by its glaring lack.
Choices Before Birth
I reckon it was at least forty years ago when I first started seeing references in past life regression books to groups of guides that the recently deceased would consult in reviewing their recent performance on earth. Entities like Seth spoke freely and illuminatingly about the purpose of many lives, and many of us were aware that both Buddhist and Hindu teachings spoke of the phenomenon without apology.
Confusing Dreams And Direct Contact
At whatever pace gives us comfort and a sense of learning we are all moving along in our inner journeys. And whatever stage you find yourself present is of less importance than the act of doing the travel as consciously as possible. We all have our preferred methods of exploration, rituals we enact when the time is ripe and the urge is on us.
Opening Up To Higher Self/Monad
As we move along our inner journeys towards what we assume is deeper understanding of the enigmas and mysteries of our real lives, sometimes racing along without the least bit of resistance, sometimes stumbling about, absentmindedly looking for clues, we come across mentions of the Higher Self, the Monad, the source self, a being whose existence seems as remote as archangels and ascended masters to our apprentice ears, about as distant as a PhD to a kid in grade five.
The Subtle Traps Of Spiritual Pride
As we evolve beyond the acceptable and approved norms of our society and class, risking criticism, mockery and outright rejection every step of the way, we collect various wounds along the path, those slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and we learn to deflect the blows, even as we come to recognize the old wounds they reactivate. We become careful as to what we say and to whom…