8 - H4H News: How Might We Experience the Pain of Loss?

Synopsis: Hope for Humanity News is a series of three to five-minute weekly podcasts designed to educate, inspire, and comfort listeners during these challenging, but hopeful times. 

Hi everyone! Welcome to Hope for Humanity News! I’m Reverend Joan Kistler.

Last week, we talked about how waking up can be both pleasant and painful, and one of the pains we will have to face is the pain of loss.

We might find that we can no longer relate to dear friends or even family members because we have changed so much. We may no longer wish to join with them behaving in certain ways that no longer feel “right” for us. For example, we may no longer desire to repeat or even listen to racist jokes, gossip about others, or complaints about “the world.”

We might experience some social snubbing. Those who operate out of ego-consciousness will not understand why we waste our time meditating or waste our money on organic food or bother to recycle or are stupid enough to forgive people. But what really bugs them is the fact that nothing bugs us. They can’t understand the peace coming from us, and their egos are quite threatened by it.

We might also lose interest in being competitive, which may lead to us changing careers. If we work in a corporate environment, we might lose our taste for that dog-eat-dog environment. If we’re listening to our hearts, we might realize that and leave on our own. If not, Essence might arrange for us to leave through not-so-pleasant circumstances for our own good.

So, it’s important to listen to our heart.

Because of these loses, we might experience the pain of loneliness. It might take some time to connect with people who are also on the path of awakening. Don’t worry; there are many of us. You might want to try attending a yoga class or a meditation retreat. The good news is that loneliness eventually gives way to the joy of being alone. The more we disconnect from the ego and connect with Essence, the more we will enjoy our own company.

But how do we tell the difference between the ego and Essence? Well the differences are like night and day because the ego and Essence are opposites. One main difference is how the ego and Essence deal with the present moment.

How does the ego deal with the present moment compared to Essence?

Tune in next week!

7- H4H News: How is Waking Up Both Pleasant and Painful?

Synopsis: Hope for Humanity News is a series of three to five-minute weekly podcasts designed to educate, inspire, and comfort listeners during these challenging, but hopeful times. 

Hi everyone! Welcome to Hope for Humanity News! I’m Reverend Joan Kistler.

Last week, we talked about how we know we are waking up and suggested that the experience of waking up can be both pleasant and painful.

How can it be both?

As I said in a previous video, the ego is the cause of all suffering. That’s because it constantly talks to us up in our heads, telling us all about what’s wrong with us, what’s wrong with others, and what’s wrong with life in general. It conjures up solutions to its fake problems and then uses fear to motivate us to act out its solutions.

Unless we’re running from a saber-toothed tiger, doing anything out of fear doesn’t work out well. It only creates more problems for the ego to solve. This is how the ego keeps us engaged with it, which is the only thing that makes it seem real. So, the less we listen to the ego and obey its commands, the less we will suffer, and the more we will experience freedom and joy. That’s what’s pleasant.

What’s painful is that we have to face that thing, and that requires being totally honest with ourselves. The ego creates and feeds off of negative emotions, so any pain within us has to be rooted out and released: all those stories about the wrongs we’ve done and the wrongs we’ve suffered. We need to make room in our being for love, peace, and joy. Love, peace, and joy can’t abide where there is bitterness, hostility, and misery.

This can seem like a never-ending process. Just when we thought we dealt with something, it says, “Hello there! I’m back!” It’s like peeling away the layers of an onion; we’re simply releasing the pain on deeper and deeper levels. We might need professional help to face certain pain, so we shouldn’t hesitate to seek help if we need it.

This process is all about stripping away all the layers of our human conditioning, so that we can return our awareness to Essence and be free to live our lives in ways that are most meaningful to us: to dance to the beat of the desires and dreams of our hearts instead of marching to the beat of the dictatorial drum of that voice in our heads.

When we wake up, we might also have to deal with the pain of loss.

Tune in next week.

6- H4H News - How Do We Know We're Waking Up?

Synopsis: Hope for Humanity News is a series of three to five-minute weekly podcasts designed to educate, inspire, and comfort listeners during these challenging, but hopeful times. 

Hi everyone! Welcome to Hope for Humanity News! I’m Reverend Joan Kistler.

Last week, we talked about how planetary shifts, other changes in the cosmos, and the end of many long cycles of time are giving humanity a golden opportunity to wake up.

How do we know we’re waking up?

Well, do you currently feel or have you ever felt that life is meaningless? If you have, congratulations! You’re waking up! Life is not meaningless; it’s just that many of the ways in which we have been living our lives have virtually stripped it of its true meaning.

That’s what you, and many others, are beginning to realize.

We have been taught that a meaningful life is a successful life and that the definition of success is the accumulation of wealth and material possessions. Unfortunately, this kind of “success” doesn’t make us happy. In fact, making the accumulation of wealth and material possessions the main focus of our lives ultimately makes us and everyone else miserable. That’s because this kind of “success” makes only the ego happy – until it decides that it’s not enough.

If this kind of success doesn’t make us happy, then what good is it? Life is meaningful when we are happy, so we could say that success equals happiness. We’re successful at life when we’re happy.

So, another sign that we’re waking up is the loss of the desire to work just to make money and to buy more stuff. We might find ourselves choosing to leave a well-paid but joyless job and getting rid of stuff we don’t need.

We may also become aware of some changes in how we experience this world. As we wake up, we become more focused on the present moment and less on the dreamlike past and future. Living in the present moment allows us to experience the world more fully and directly, so we may find ourselves awestruck by the beauty of a sunrise or a flower or fluffy white clouds in a clear blue sky.

And we may experience some changes in how we perceive ourselves. Rather than feeling like islands, we may begin feeling a sense of connection to people, animals, or even all of nature. We may begin to sense our unity with all living things. This awareness naturally inspires empathy, compassion, gratitude, and contentment within us.

It all sounds so pleasant, right? Yes, it is, but it can also be painful. How can it be both pleasant and painful?

Tune in next week.

5 - H4H News: What Help Are We Getting?

Synopsis: Hope for Humanity News is a series of three to five-minute weekly podcasts designed to educate, inspire, and comfort listeners during these challenging, but hopeful times. 

Hi everyone! Welcome to Hope for Humanity News! I’m Reverend Joan Kistler.

Last week, we talked about how humanity is in the process of waking up and entering into Unity Consciousness with the help of the cosmos. What kind of help has the cosmos given us? 

Well first, we experienced the Harmonic Convergence in the summer of 1987 where the sun, moon, and six of our planets aligned in what is called a Grand Trine. Astrologers consider this highly beneficial to the human race because the trine indicates harmony, ease, and creativity. Some believe the cosmic energies made available to us by this alignment has been fueling a growth spurt in our consciousness.

Then in 2012, we went through what was called the “Shift of the Ages.” This year marked the end of many long cycles of time, the most notable being the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar on December 21st. Some believe this year marked a new starting point in history, like turning the odometer on a car back to zero. 2012 marked a critical juncture for humanity to look at where we’ve been and which direction we want to go from here.

Some astrologers believe that 2012 or thereabouts also marked the end of one astrological age and the beginning of another. Around 400 B.C., the Piscean Age began, and the energy of Age of Pisces was all about hierarchies, competition, and scarcity. We have moved out of the Age of Pisces and have entered into the Age of Aquarius. Yes, as the song suggests, the Aquarian Age is all about equality, harmony, and abundance.

The Age of Aquarius is predicted to usher in a new Golden Age on earth.

So, in a nutshell, planetary shifts and other changes in the cosmos that have raised the frequency and vibration of energy available to us as well as the end of many long cycles of time are creating a golden opportunity for humanity to wake up, smell the coffee, and start taking responsibility for our lives on Planet Earth.

How do we know we are waking up?

Tune in next week.

4 - H4H News - Was Ego-Consciousness a Mistake?

Synopsis: Hope for Humanity News is a series of three to five-minute weekly podcasts designed to educate, inspire, and comfort listeners during these challenging, but hopeful times. 

Hi everyone! Welcome to Hope for Humanity News! I’m Reverend Joan Kistler.

We’ve been talking about how humanity is in the process of “waking up” – of transcending a lower level of consciousness known as ego-consciousness and entering into a higher level of consciousness we’re calling “Unity Consciousness.”

Was the development of ego-consciousness a wrong turn in our evolutionary journey?

Well, as Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” We have this brilliant playwright, the Creator, who has created this grand play called “Life.” In order to have a play at all, a playwright has to create a story and characters, and the best plays are the ones with a variety of different characters and many challenges to overcome.

Each character may have his or her own story in the play, but his or her story still contributes something valuable to theme of the play. In this grand play called Life, our character is our “self.” Those of you who have ever done any acting know that the best way to perform a role is to really “get into” your character by imagining how he or she would think, feel, and act given his or her disposition.

One time, I was in a play about a girl who went to a new school, but she had trouble making friends. In one scene, she got angry and stormed off the stage. Once I got backstage, the director took one look at me, laughed, and said, “OK Joan, you can stop being angry now!”

Yeah, it’s so easy to take our “starring role” a little too seriously – so seriously that we get swallowed up by this “self,” and we forget who’s really playing the part – Essence.

For humanity, growth in consciousness is the theme of Life. And yes, sometimes growth can be painful. It is Creator’s desire for humanity to awaken to its presence as Essence in all creation, to re-unite our will with the Creator’s, and to consciously wield our co-creative power: the power of Love.

In this world of duality, we can’t realize who we are without experiencing who we are not. The ego provides this contrast. But it’s time to wake up already! The good news is that we are in the process of waking up with plenty of help from the cosmos.

What help are we getting from the cosmos?

Tune in next week!