Sunday, March 11, 2018

Blessing Space


We can bless each space we enter, leaving a sweet energetic footprint behind.

Physical space acts like a sponge, absorbing the radiant of all who pass through it. And, more likely than not, the spaces we move through each day have seen many people come and go. We have no way of knowing whether the energy footprints left behind by those who preceded us will invigorate us or drain us. Yet we can control the energy footprint we leave behind for others. In blessing each space we enter, we orchestrate a subtle energy shift that affects not only our own experiences in that space but also the experiences of the individuals who will enter the space after us. While we may never see the effects our blessing has had, we can take comfort in the fact that we have provided grace for those that follow after us. 

When you bless a room or an entire building, you leave a powerful message of love and light for all those who will come after you. Your blessings thus have myriad effects on the environments through which you pass. Old, stagnant energy is cleared, creating a vacuum into which fresh and invigorating energy can freely flow. The space is thus rendered harmonious and nourishing, and it becomes a hub from which positive feelings are transmitted. Intent is the key component of the blessings you leave in your physical wake. If your intent involves using your own consciousness as a tool for selflessly spreading grace, your blessings will never go awry. Whether you feel more comfortable performing a solo blessing or prefer to call upon your spirit guides for assistance, visualize each space you enter becoming free of toxins, chaos, and negativity as you speak your blessing. Then imagine the resultant emptiness being replaced by pure, healing white light and loving energy. Even a quick mindful thought of love can bless a space. 

This type of blessing is cumulative and will grow each time you bestow it. Try blessing every home, business, and office you visit for an entire week and observing the effects of your goodwill. Your affirmative energy footprint will help brighten your day as you contemplate your blessing's future impact on your siblings in humanity and your environment.

Thursday, March 1, 2018

The Four Cardinal Virtues of Human Excellence According to Plato

“Wisdom is the leader: next follows moderation; and from the union of these two with courage springs justice.” ~ Plato
Human excellence is the art of character. Character is the art of practicing the four cardinal virtues. Practicing the four cardinal virtues (courage, moderation, wisdom, and justice) leads to moral virtue, which is best encapsulated by the concept of arete. And arete cultivated over a lifetime can lead to eudaimonia, human flourishing.
The concept of arete is from Homeric times. Although there is no specific definition, it is associated with bravery and effectiveness, intimately bound up with the notion of fulfillment and the act of living up to one’s full potential.
But it almost certainly hinges on the four cardinal virtues. In The Republic, Socrates assumed a wide acceptance of them as the core qualities in an excellent human. Let’s break them down…

1) Courage (fortitude):

“Without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” ~ Maya Angelou
Courage is the bedrock of human excellence. Without the initial leap of courage there is no freedom, and so there can be no excellence. One is merely restricted to the conventional, inhibited by the whims of others, imprisoned inside the box of the status quo, and hampered by outdated reasoning.
With the leap of courage, however, one is emancipated. One is delivered into liberation. The world unlocks. The mind unbolts. The soul unfastens. Inhibitions dissolve into serendipity, adaptability, and improvisation. Boundaries transform into horizons. Comfort zones stretch into adventure.
But, there is a fine line between courage and recklessness. Courage involves seizing one’s impulses just as much as it involves seizing the day. One must be able to respond to a given situation with the proper balance of apprehension and confidence. Too much courage leads to recklessness; too little, to cowardice. Fitting that the next cardinal virtue is moderation.

2) Moderation (temperance):

“After the ecstasy, the laundry.” ~ Jack Kornfield
The beauty of life is that in order for it to exist there must be balance. The ugliness of life is that we are usually unable to understand what that balance is. Moderation can be deceiving, especially when we’re not tuned into healthy frequencies.
Luckily, health is a benchmark for moderation. It’s the core of universal law. Unluckily, this benchmark is hidden in a ‘language older than words,’ which can sometimes seem impossible to decode.
Although some things must be moderated more than others, extremism in anything is the bane of health. We can breathe too much oxygen. We can drink too much water. We can even live too much in the moment.
We moderate ‘being in the moment’ with the realization that even the moment needs a past and a future to define it. We maintain our personal health through moderation so that health in general can become manifest. Indeed. I live simply, so that you may simply live.
A good rule of thumb is: moderation in all things, to include moderation. This way we’re proactively injecting balance into the cosmos, while at the same time enjoying life. The key is to accept responsibility for the consequences of both our moderate and immoderate choices. Tricky, but wisdom can help.

3) Wisdom (prudence):

“To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.” ~ Lao Tzu
Wisdom cannot be taught. Knowledge can be taught, but not wisdom. We can discover wisdom, live in it through experience, do wonders through it thereafter, but we cannot teach it.
If we define wisdom as a practical understanding of cosmic law and the skill (intention) in applying it to an ever-changing impermanent world, we see how it cannot be taught, only experienced. Wisdom is hands-on, never second-hand. Knowledge is second-hand, quantifiable, and measurable, but not wisdom.
As Dostoevsky said, “The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.” It’s the humility at the heart of wisdom that cleanses hubris from the eye so that justice can be actualized.

4) Justice (liberty):

“The fairest rules are those to which everyone would agree if they did not know how much power they would have.” ~ John Rawls
Humans are social creatures. As such, we are also story-telling creatures that create deep mythologies out of the stories we tell each other. Some of these stories are fiction and some of them are nonfiction, but they all require honesty and forthrightness in order to be just. Honest communication is the key.
Justice, essentially, is honest social communication and interaction. It’s being responsible with our power, no matter how much power we might have. Human excellence is predicated upon how responsible we are with our power over others.
If we lord our power over others, we are being unjust. If we use our power to help others flourish, we are being just. If we hoard power at the expense of others, we are being unjust and tyrannical. If we expiate power to empower others, we are being just and prestigious.
Ethos (ethike arete) is the heart of justice. It’s an essential ingredient of a robust character. An ethical human tends to be an excellent human. The art of character is a mastery of ethics practiced through the four cardinal virtues. Courage frees character. Moderation balances character. Wisdom guides character. Justice socially stabilizes character.
Through these four virtues the excellent human emerges as a venerated and valuable catalyst for human flourishing. New, unique, incomparable human beings who give themselves values, who create themselves out of courage, moderation, wisdom and justice. Who set up platforms for the next generation and for the healthy and progressive evolution of humanity.

Link: https://fractalenlightenment.com/44563/wisdom/four-cardinal-virtues-human-excellence