Higher Purpose Law #11

‘Be certain that all members can clearly state the shared purpose by heart… It is for each individual to find their personal alignment between group purpose and their life’s purpose… Once ‘cross-purposes’ are released, the energies can flow freely, and Higher Purpose can be accomplished.

     (from Higher Purpose card, available at www.thewisdomwheel.com)

Only 5% of Americans believe they are living out their Higher Purpose. Are you one of them? Imagine working with people who love what they are doing so much they'd do it for free? What difference does it make when you believe you are spending your days doing what you are meant to? 

On the Wisdom Wheel, the Law of Right Action balances Higher Purpose, as you can see above. It is easier to know what to do when your sense of deliberate intention informs every one of your Choices. Think of people you know who are living purposeful lives, not in a self-righteous way, but from a place of deep Commitment. What is the cost of not living from a place of deep, abiding purpose?   

For the next ten days, make Higher Purpose your watch word. Bring it up in conversation as often as you can. Learn more about how people discover their Higher Purpose. If you knew you only had a year left to live, what would you spend the next 365 days doing? This might hold a clue to your true purpose. 

Identify one thing you can do this week about your Higher Purpose, or to help someone else with finding or living by theirs. Don't wait till it's too late.

      

Here are some nuggets of wisdom about Higher Purpose from others.

This law says that we have taken physical form to fulfill a purpose. You have a unique talent and a unique way of expressing it. There is something that you can do better than anyone else in the whole world--and for every unique talent and unique expression of that talent, there are also unique needs. When these needs are matched with the creative expression of your talent, that spark creates affluence.

Deepak Chopra in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

Becoming a force of nature doesn't mean that all of our aspirations must be ‘grand.’ First steps are often small, and initial visions that focus energy effectively often address immediate problems. What matters is engagement in the service of a larger purpose rather than lofty aspirations that paralyze action. Indeed, it's a dangerous trap to believe that we can pursue only ‘great visions.’ 

Peter Senge in Presence : An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society

A man…who knows the ‘why’ for his existence will be able to bear almost any ‘how.’ … What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him. 

Victor Frankl, psychologist & concentration camp survivor  

Every life needs a purpose to which it can give the energies of its mind and the enthusiasm of its heart. Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible. 

Saint Francis of Assisi

The Vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart - this you will build your life by, this you will become. Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment. They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pityings, all of which are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately planted seeds, to failure, unhappiness and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power-evolving universe.

James Allen (1864-1912) British philosophical author of As A Man Thinketh

Creating a joint venture between head and heart puts a power pack behind your goals. Getting your head in sync with your heart and harnessing the power of coherence gives you the energy efficiency you need to achieve changes that haven't been possible before. The head can notice what things need to change, but the heart provides the power and direction to actually bring about the changes.... By using your heart as your compass, you can see more clearly which direction to go to stop self-defeating behavior. If you take just one mental or emotional habit that really bothers or drains you and apply heart intelligence to it, you'll see a noticeable difference in your life.

Doc Childre and Howard Martin, The HeartMath Solution

There are three components to the Law of Dharma…a Sanskrit word that means ‘purpose in life.’

-The first says that each of us is here to discover our true Self.

-The second component is to express our unique talents; the expression of that talent takes you into timeless awareness.

-The third component is service to humanity.

When you combine the ability to express your unique talent with service to humanity, then you make full use of the Law of Dharma. 

Deepak Chopra in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous.

Dr. Wayne Dyer

Chase your passion, not your pension.

Denis Waitley

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. And it will leave you unfulfilled.

Barack Obama, US President

Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others...for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German American physicist won 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics

We are visitors on this planet.  We are here for ninety, a hundred years at the very most.  During that period we must try to do something good, something useful with our lives.  Try to be at peace with yourself and help others share that peace.  If you contribute to others’ happiness, you will find the true goal, the meaning of life.

The Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader

The sole purpose of life is to grow... everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from. ...The greatest rewards in your whole life will come from opening your heart to those in need. The greatest blessings always come from helping... It is very important that you do only what you love to do. You may be poor, you may go hungry, you may live in a shabby place but you will totally live. And at the end of your days, you will bless your life because you have done what you came here to do. 

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross,(1926- 2004) Swiss born psychiatrist and researcher studied death and dying and popularized the five stages of the dying process, books include memoir, The Wheel of Life. 

I'll post the next Law of Integrity ten days from now. Stay tuned.

Trust Law #10

Can you Trust these people? If a sudden fire broke out, who would risk their life to pull you to safety? Would you risk your life for anyone in this room? For everyone in this room? Is it easier to risk our lives than to Trust others with our truth?…

            Cynthia Davidson from Wisdom Wheel Trust card 

(To order cards, stones or a poster visit www.thewisdomwheel.com)

Who do you Trust? 
Are you a trustworthy person?  
The lack of Trust creates the absence of Integrity. These values Balance each other on the Wisdom Wheel, as you can see from their positions above, Laws #10 & #12, anchoring the North and South Directions. 
Each time you hear of another scandal; in business, politics or the personal lives of people you know, realize it's a breach of Trust. 
Such a short, simple word, yet how difficult to get it back, once it's been lost. Imagine the worst possible betrayal you could suffer. Losing your Trust in a spouse, a parent, friend or spiritual leader can trigger the most intense crisis; anger, depression and the questioning of all your beliefs. 

For the next ten days, make Trust your watch word. Bring it up in conversation as often as you can. Learn more about who and what inspires your Trust. Why is Trust declining, while lawyers and their fees continue climbing? When does distrust begin? What do you do when you doubt some one?  

Identify one thing you can do to increase the degree of Trust you have in yourself, at least. Do you tend to give your Trust too early or too late?

      

Here are some nuggets of wisdom about Trust from others. 

The key to trust is action... Trust goes hand in hand with truth. Lying is always a breach of trust...telling the truth establishes trust, lying destroys it...The worst enemies of trust are cynicism, selfishness, and a naïve conception of life, in which one expects more than one is willing to give. Resentment, distrust, and in-authenticity are the result.... The freedom provided by trust is the freedom to think for ones’ self and to speak one's ideas.

Fernando Flores & Robert C. Solomon from their book, Building Trust: In Business, Politics, Relationships and Life (2001)

Self-trust is the most basic and most often neglected form of trust. Distrust is often a projection of missing self-trust.

Fernando Flores & Robert C. Solomon

To create a relationship of trust, ‘x’ and ‘y’ must learn each others’ beliefs. 

Robert Muller, ex-U.N. Assistant Secretary General, retired Chancellor of the University of Peace, in Costa Rica

Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.

William E. Gladstone Minister (1868-1894) British Statesman and Prime minister

Trust is a leap of faith that makes us vulnerable – to betrayal, exploitation, incompetence, chance and the unexpected – a leap that flies in the face of guaranteed fail-safe passage.

Allan E. Mallinger, M.D. & Jeannette DeWyze

Trust cannot be forced…Love, trust and safety can be brought to our relationships once we have found them in ourselves, by letting go of fear, guilt and defensiveness.  …emotional nurturing and reflection enable us to release defenses that prevent us from experiencing wholeness.

Jack Gibb in Trust

To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.

George Macdonald

We don’t let go into trust until we have exhausted our egos.

Rob Lehman

The inability to open up to hope is what blocks trust, and blocked trust is the reason for blighted dreams… To sit patiently with a yearning that has not yet been fulfilled, and to trust that fulfillment will come, is quite possibly one of the most powerful ‘magic skills’ that human beings are capable of. It has been noted by most ancient wisdom traditions. 

Elizabeth Gilbert (1969 - ) American novelist, books include Eat, Pray, Love

Imagine what the world would be like, if we could not trust the food we buy, the water we drink or that the people we depend on would not manipulate or harm us? ...The only way we can expect trust is to be trustworthy ourselves. Unfortunately, many people don't trust themselves, nor their judgments and decisions, therefore, we experience disharmony in our lives...

Sidney Madwed

When they lose their sense of awe,

people turn to religion.

When they no longer trust themselves,

they begin to depend upon authority.

...The Master observes the world

but trusts his inner vision.

He allows things to come and go.

His heart is open as the sky.

Lao Tzu (c.604 - 531 B.C.)

It is possible to have mistaken expectations, but it is impossible to be “too trusting.” Real trust is deepened and informed by disappointment, just as spiritual vision is refined by disillusionment. Trust prepares us for the best by teaching us to prepare for a future far

better than what we may merely be hoping for.

D. Patrick Miller

Trust is about honor, integrity, and accountability. There is no greater freedom than absolutely knowing that you can trust another person. Trust brings peace. Trust lets me sleep at night. Trust feels right. Trust feels good. Trust is being free from worry.

Being trusted is an honor. Being trusted carries a responsibility and with that responsibility, there is pride. There is dignity. There is self worth. Trust is human. Trust is transformative. Trust is care. Trust is virtuous. Trust is authentic. Trust is pure. Trust is sincerity.  

Mark A. Taylor

You can Trust me to post another entry ten days days from now. It will be on Higher Purpose, the 11th Law. Until then, enjoy your Trust lessons.

Right Action Law #9

'...Right Action is grounded in soul knowledge, not the man-made world's aims or values. Very few have the patience for the 'waiting and becoming' that precedes Right Action...'

                       Cynthia F. Davidson from Wisdom Wheel Right Action card

(To order cards, stones or a poster visit www.thewisdomwheel.com)

Right Action isn't about goading yourself into doing more and more. We are human beings, not human doings, after all. Sometimes no action is the Right Action. Too quick to seek approval, curry favor, or make money, we do things we have not thought all the way through to their final consequences. 
In your heart you know what Right Action is, though if you refuse to listen to your heart, that wisdom is harder to access. Right Action is not about self-righteousness, dogma, or following arbitrary rules others made either. It's about your personal code of ethics and whether you use it to guide all your actions.

Love was our last Law, and it's worth remembering that Right Action becomes easier to see when Love directs us. And yes, even moving your money from a big bank into your local community credit union, is an example of Right Action, unless you find big faceless banks easier to Love. Social justice is one area of Right Action that takes others into account as well as ourselves.  

For the next ten days, make Right Action your watch word. See what happens when you practice asking yourself before making your decisions, 'Is this the Right Action for me?' Listen for internal and external voices, old tapes, and excuses. Bring up the subject of Right Action every chance you get; with friends, co-workers and family members. See who else has wisdom to share about this Universal Law. Right Action comes from right thoughts, right 

feelings, right health and being right with spirit.

       

Here are some nuggets of wisdom about Right Action from others. 

Now this Law or Rule about Right and Wrong used to be called the Law of Nature.  Nowadays, when we talk of the 'laws of nature' we usually mean things like gravitation, or heredity, or the laws of chemistry.  But when the older thinkers called the Law of Right and Wrong the 'Law of Nature', they really meant the Law of Human Nature. The idea was that, just as all bodies are governed by the law of gravitation, and organisms by biological laws, so the creature called man also had his law--with this great difference, that a body could not choose whether it obeyed the law of gravitation or not, but a man could choose either to obey the Law of Human Nature or to disobey it.

C. S. Lewis

So act that your principle of action might safely be made law for the whole world. 
Immanuel Kant

However a man works to right his world, it will never be righted until he has put himself right.

James Allen

Imagine if all the energy that goes into trying to prove the other side wrong were channeled into actually thinking about what was best for whatever the dispute is about. Having to be right becomes a barrier to learning and understanding. It keeps you away from growing, for there is no growth without changing, correcting, and questioning yourself. … once you experience the power of not having to be right, you will feel like you are walking across open fields, the perspective wide and your feet free to take any turn.

John Naisbitt

 The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart. 

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Sometimes you can fight evil and beat it, and sometimes you can only keep it in check. I learned never to feed evil with evil, nor hatred with hatred, nor to fight fear with fear. I learned to fight with love for even those things that I despised.

Tom Brown, Jr.

It is a feeling that no matter what the ideas or conduct of others, there is a unique rightness and beauty to life which can be shared in openness, in wind and sunlight, with a fellow human being who believes in the same basic principles.

Sylvia Plath

Hate is an unfaithful weapon. Be neither brave nor afraid, but at peace.

Master Kan

There is no easy formula for determining right and wrong livelihood, but it is essential to keep the question alive. To return the sense of dignity and honor to manhood, we have to stop pretending that we can make a living at something that is trivial or destructive and still have sense of legitimate self-worth. A society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that frequently fills our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls.

 Sam Keen

Any economic system that does not benefit the natural communities on which it is based is unsustainable, immoral and really stupid.

Derrick Jensen

I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by looking at the men at the top. 

Frank Moore Colby

Like our indigenous ancestors, we can be willing to engage in the struggle to liberate our bodies and souls from external and internal colonization and discover more fully our own deeper story and what it is that we came here to do.

Carolyn Baker

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. 

Howard Thurman

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. … It's not the failure that holds us back but the reluctance to begin over again that causes us to stagnate.

Clarissa Pinkola Estés

For thirty years I used to say, ‘Do this’ and ‘Give that; but when I reached the first stage of wisdom, I said, ‘O God, be mine and do whatever You want.’ 

Abu Yazid Al Bistami, Muslim mystic 

How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself?  There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions.  You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.  

Barry Lopez

There is a crisis point in activism, and because of the complexities, our efforts may seem to fail. We need to expect this and be ready to cope with it in a spiritual context…The solution to our discouragement is to become more communal in focus…trusting others enough to submit our cause to a larger purpose. We cannot do it alone, when we are ego-bound, we have the least hope…You are in charge of your level of openness to the Universe. Take in and transmit only the amount of energy you are comfortable with and is appropriate to your situation.

Christina Baldwin

There are really only two things to do:

-Be still and listen

-Take spiritually based action.

Everything else is bogus activity which only gets in the way of our real understanding.

Joy Houghton

 In another ten days, we'll take up the Trust Law #10. Stay tuned & experiment with do only what is right. 

Love Law #8

'If we could only love enough, we could be the most powerful people in the world,' said Emmett Fox... If Love is not present, go no further until you bring it in.

                               Cynthia F. Davidson from Wisdom Wheel Love card 

(To order cards, stones or a poster visit www.thewisdomwheel.com)

Are you feeling the Love these days, or not? Are you able to offer your Love unconditionally? I struggle with feelings of powerlessness when loving no matter what. It helps to have the Faith (of the last Law) when facing the massive needs for Love in this world where punishment, condemnation, violence and war are so popular. 

Some days you can feel like a real fool for believing that Love cures all, yet when I'm in Balance, with enough Awareness, of Higher Self (in others too), within the framework of Right Relationship, with Cause & Effect and Process in mind and heart (those preceding seven Laws), things certainly look different and more lovely. 


So for the next ten days, I'm going to make Love my watch word and see what happens. Join me, and bring up the subject of Love with friends, co-workers and family members. See whether the belief in it, as a Law of the Universe, outweighs the cynicism. Explore Love of the mind, of the emotional type, the physical and spiritual sorts as well.


Write Love in a few places where you'll see the word often enough to put it into practice, despite your resistance, for that's when it most needs to be offered. Let your understanding of Love evolve, especially your ability to accept it. Share your discoveries in this blog.  Here's some of what others have experienced about the Law of Love in action. 

Whether humanity will consciously follow the law of love, I do not know. But that need not disturb me. The law will work just as the law of gravitation works, whether we accept it or not. The person who discovered the law of love was a far greater scientist than any of our modern scientists. Only our explorations have not gone far enough and so it is not possible for everyone to see all its workings.

Mahatma Gandhi

The Greeks defined four kinds of Love:

FILIA is the love within the family

EROS is romantic, sexual and sensual love

STORGE is the love of faithfulness, for ‘better or worse’

AGAPE is love without prejudice or boundary, unearned & freely given.

Kathleen Hurley & Theodore Dobson in My Best Self

Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.

Erich Fromm

Infantile love follows the principle: "I love because I am loved."

Mature love follows the principle: "I am loved because I love."

Immature love says: "I love you because I need you."

Mature love says: "I need you because I love you."

Erich Fromm

To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind.

Theophile Gautier

Free love? As if love is anything but free! Man has bought brains, but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love. Man has subdued bodies, but all the power on earth has been unable to subdue love. Man has conquered whole nations, but all his armies could not conquer love. Man has chained and fettered the spirit, but he has been utterly helpless before love. High on a throne, with all the splendor and pomp his gold can command, man is yet poor and desolate, if love passes him by. And if it stays, the poorest hovel is radiant with warmth, with life and color. Thus love has the magic power to make of a beggar a king. Yes, love is free; it can dwell in no other atmosphere.

Emma Goldman

Why love if losing hurts so much? We love to know that we are not alone.

C.S. Lewis

Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.

Anais Nin

Some people mistake being loving for being a sap. Quite the contrary, the most loving people are often the most fierce and the most acutely armed for battle… for they care about preserving and protecting poetry, symphonic song, ideas, the elements, creatures, inventions, hopes and dreams, dances and holiness… those goodly endeavors that cannot be allowed to perish from this earth, else humanity itself would perish…

Clarissa Pinkola Estes in The Dangerous Old Woman

The wise want love; and those who love want wisdom.

Percy Bysshe Shelley English romantic poet

If you have love in your life it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you don't have it, no matter what else there is, it's not enough.

Ann Landers

Who would give a law to lovers?  Love is unto itself a higher law. 

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, A.D. 524

There is a law that man should love his neighbor as himself. In a few hundred years it should be as natural to mankind as breathing or the upright gait, but if he does not learn it, he must perish.

Alfred Adler

If there is love, there is hope, to have real families, real brotherhood, real equanimity, real peace. If the love within your mind is lost, if you continue to see other beings as enemies, then no matter how much knowledge or education you have, no matter how much material progress is made, only suffering and confusion will ensue…

to abuse or mistreat each other is futile. The foundation of all spiritual practice is love.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

The law of Love is one of the seven laws…  it is the home of our desires, and the origin of the feelings which we call personal love. In its lowest form, Love shows itself as animal passion. In the highest form it manifests as pure Love. We are unfailingly responsible to act with Love in every thought, word, deed, intent, motive and action.

Margo Kirtikar PhD., in Flowing with Universal Laws

         In ten days I'll post the 9th Law, of Right Action, so stay tuned.

Faith Law #7

To have Faith and to be faithful come from the same place...If we remember who we really are Faith will fill us again.

                          Cynthia F. Davidson from Wisdom Wheel Faith card 

(For a set of cards, stones or a poster visit our website www.thewisdomwheel.com)

How's your Faith doing these days? Mine's been taking a beating lately, as I question the capabilities of our political, legal, economic, educational, health and social systems. 

I no longer have Faith in corrupt, cannibalistic capitalism, divisive organized religions or pseudo-democratic institutions, as they devolve into bitter partisanship battles and gridlock, instead of doing their jobs. The basic needs of so many are not being met and things are getting worse, not better. So, what can we still believe in?

Everything boils down to our belief system, for that's what we've really put our Faith in. And obviously our beliefs have created our systems, and to fix one we have to address the other. 

For the next ten days make Faith your watch word and see what happens when you talk about Faith with family, friends & co-workers. Do you squirm when thinking about bringing up this word? Why? Does Faith seem naive these days when cynics and hecklers get all the attention that hasn't already been hijacked by fundamentalists of all stripes? Don't limit your discussions about Faith and beliefs to one Faith system or religion. Ask about emotional, intuitive, intellectual and spiritual beliefs and forms of Faith. And their outcomes.

Write the word Faith where you'll see it often; on a Post It note, in your journal or on a rock. Let your relationship to the meaning of Faith evolve during the next 10 days. Ask for the gifts and blessings of Faith each morning, and evening. 

Look for news about all kinds of Faith in the world. Share what you find in the blog. Your comments and questions are welcome. Here are some words of wisdom about the Law of Faith. 

Faith is a more practical way to deal with everyday life than cynicism, toughness, or defensiveness. Faith can be sensible and savvy, and practicing it daily increases its usefulness and reliability. Yet faith is also tinged with mystery, for it is the connection to our unknown potential and the power of creation itself. Faith is the way out of misery, the way into self-knowledge, and the way toward a more fulfilling and effective life...

D. Patrick Miller in The Book of Practical Faith

It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself.

Thomas Paine

An emotionally healthy person is committed to a principle higher than himself: he has faith.

Sue Wahlroos

Belief is truth held in the mind; faith is a fire in the heart.

Joseph Fort Newton

Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.

Khalil Gibran

Faith is a function of the heart. It must be enforced by reason. The two are not antagonistic as some think. The more intense one’s faith is, the more it whets one’s reason. When faith becomes blind it dies.

Mohandas K. Gandhi

A faith that hasn't been tested can't be trusted.

Adrian Rogers

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.

Wilson Mizner

Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible.

Stanislaw Lem

Scientists were rated as great heretics by the church, but they were truly religious men because of their faith in the orderliness of the universe. 

Albert Einstein

Faith is the feeling of light...the presentiment of knowledge. Like a motive force, faith intensifies the energy. Despair is the death of faith.

Margo Kirtikar, Ph.D

The religion that is afraid of science dishonors God and commits suicide.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Imagination is the …very eye of faith.

Henry Ward Beecher

In Buddhism, faith is defined as: a positive attitude to virtue and objects worthy of respect. It is the doorway for all positive qualities. Different types of faith include:

a. Uncritical faith, motivated for no apparent reason

b. Longing faith, motivated by an emotionally unstable mind

c. Conviction, motivated by sound reasoning

Faith comes with practice. Live by faith until it becomes rocklike, and unshakable, find the true freedom of the Spirit.

Eileen Caddy

Faith is to believe what you do not see;

the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.

Saint Augustine

The word Faith is used, but it is really a feeling. What they say in church every Sunday can't be proved, but the feeling that people have can, because they have it.

 William Trevor, Irish novelist

Faith is trust in what the spirit learned eons ago.

B. H. Roberts

Faith is not something we acquire once and for all. Faith is an insight that must be acquired at every single moment.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Not truth, but faith, keeps the world alive.

Edna St. Vincent Millay


(In 10 days, I'll post #8 The Law of Love in this sequence of 36. Stay tuned.)