Participation is Inevitable

Today we’re gonna talk about participation in life, and how there is literally no escaping participation, and how nothing but your unavoidable participation is required of you. Unless it isn’t.

Either way, I promise you that you are perfect, whole and complete no matter WHAT you're doing or who you think you are.

I’m gonna say this a lot, but - I hope this one lands! (I’m hoping my way into a landing. That totally works, usually. Sometimes?)

1. So……this whole section at the bottom is kind of a mess. And you can see where this paragraph started. Welcome to my brain.

When I first wrote it, everything was written to “you, yours, yourself” - which I have a habit of doing. It’s the preachy soapbox part of me that likes to externalize everything as though I’m not part of the equation. I was watching this understanding unfold as I wrote. So I went back and changed everything to “we and our” to make sure I was bridging any gap of separation that I’d created for myself as I channeled these thoughts.

Here it is typed out in case any of it is too illegible:

"…it’s a collective creation, with mandatory participation. We can’t not participate.

Even if we kill ourselves, learn zero in this incarnation (impossible), we are participating & are coming back until we learn what we’ve forgotten to remember. None of it is good or bad - it's just what’s happening."

2. When re-reading this entry I didn't like the word "mandatory" - it had an authoritarian connotation to me, so that DEFINITELY had to go. I decided on Participation is Inevitable instead.

So, here’s the deal:

LIFE is participation. Existence is participation. The mere fact that you’re here is participation.

Every conceivable component and principle of division of everything that exists in our reality - physical, mental, spiritual - are all energetic in nature and are therefore part of an inextricable web. Furthermore, this web is holographic, meaning that every part of it contains the whole. Hello, God!

I wanna tell you something - You are perfect, whole and complete just for existing.

I was recently listening to a recording of Peter Crone working with a client, and as he was explaining the above concept to his client, he mentioned how people don't judge the worth of a baby based on it’s activities. All a baby does is cry and sleep and eat and shit, but we don't criticize the baby. The mere fact that the baby exists makes that baby worthy of unconditional love and acceptance.

But as we age and ego is born and we begin to engage more with society, our family/caretakers/friends/communities/social circles are continually inundating us with performance expectations of one kind or another. A whole lot of “shoulding” going on about how to look, what to do, how to work, our personal relationships, being self-sufficient, etc. All of this "shoulding" originated as just a thought, an idea - probably with shaky evidence behind it, if any. At some point it was projected onto us - verbally, behaviorally, or energetically. Instead of allowing these projections to wash over us, to experience them and let them go, we cling. We start to adopt certain ideas and perspectives as something that we possess, something that defines us.

Why do we do this?

Because...“We get some bad information plugged into our computers from a very young age.”

-Pema Chödrön

I’ve recently started working with an NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming) therapist, who is really helping me understand an important component of how we bog ourselves down with these bullshit, fictional stories that we carry.

Going back to the baby - as we grow and these expectations, “shoulds”, start to get dumped on us from external sources, it is always in reaction to an action, a DOING, an activity. You are not your actions, your doings, or your activities. Furthermore, you are not your thoughts, emotions, or even your body. What? Yeah I know. (Fuck, hoping this one lands!)

From the moment we’re birthed into this physical realm, our actions have potential to trigger reactions. Reactions that are projected back at us - verbally, behaviorally or energetically.

When we are very young, we have no concept of the existence of any separation between our actions and our being. Therefore, judgements passed on our actions are interpreted as judgements passed on our being. The more feedback of this nature that we receive, the more we begin to believe that we aren't functioning properly as human beings and there is something wrong with us. But there never was, and never will be, anything wrong with us!

As we grow up we allow all those bullshit (but also perfect) projections from outside ourselves to take root in our minds. The more we think or do a thing, the more habituated we are to it, which manifests as literal physical grooves in our brains - neural pathways made up of synaptic sequences.

So a projection is hurled at us, and the frequency of that projection interacts with our electromagnetic field at the very least, which has an effect on our being, people! When the projection is perceived on some conscious level, it first creates a sensation in the physical body, which we give a label- often it is what we define as an e-motion (energy in motion). From an emotion quickly comes a thought, and if we play that interaction out one step further, we choose the experience of ACTION. The more we repeat any particular sequence the more it becomes habitual, and consequently feels “normal”. Not necessarily comfortable, mind you, but normal - familiar. The ACTION turns into REACTION.

All the while, we are interpreting these projections as judgements of our being, and we believe that there is something wrong with us. The idea that there is something wrong with anyone is a lie. We are all human - all thoughts, words and deeds as a physical incarnation of spirit are attributes of humanity. If you are being, thinking, feeling, and acting in any way you are being HUMAN and that is absolutely ok. Not just ok, but perfect.

However, from a very young age we get downloaded with (false) ideas of what all these different labels are supposed to look like. Until we start to gain some awareness around why we do what we do and start to ask critical questions, we can be subconsciously ruled by the ideas and expectations of others. And while that sounds like a fucking pity, it is the nature of our reality, and it is perfectly ok. Perfectly perfect.

“Perfect is perfect!”

-Josh Wright

I like to think of this play as an inheritance - conundrums that get passed on by those who can’t solve them (no judgement!) so others can take a stab at it. And once again, we are choosing to incarnate in order to experience ourselves in order to offer our unique contribution to the collective. We birth ego and believe lies of separation and all the "shoulds" and judgements because they pull us out of alignment with who we really are. We choose this intentional forgetting in order to remember and experience who we REALLY ARE, again, for the first time! We are everything! YOU are everything. You ARE that. I don’t know about you, but I think that is berry, berry cool.

There are no expectations in this reality aside from the ones we create. It’s completely up to us what we do with this experiment. We are simply here to experience ourselves - that’s it. To experience ourselves as a unique contribution to the collective. We are all collectively experiencing for the whole - for everything - for spirit.

Pure awareness, pure knowing, pure consciousness - has no basis for comparison with which to experience itself. There is no contrast because everything is everything, everything IS that, so everything KNOWS everything. So everything chose to incarnate in the physical so that everything could experience itself through relativity, through duality, through paradox. And then everything had to forget that it was everything, so that it could experience itself in remembering. That is literally it. This is an experiment in experience. An experiment in remembering. We literally cannot fuck it up.

The idea of fucking up only exists in our minds, and eventually we will rejoin with source and realize that the notion of fucking up was tied to our physical existence. Even if a life seems to be relatively void of meaningful contribution, this is a misconception. There is no separation from the whole or wholeness wouldn't exist. Therefore, every component of the whole is equally valid and important. Just like the cell that turns cancerous because it experiences separation from its purpose, so can people manifest a similar contribution to existence. But it isn’t to be judged. Observed, yes. Acknowledged, yes. Familiarized, yes. Misunderstood, yes. Learned from, yes. Used as a tool for remembering, yes. Incarnated as a contribution which impacts others in a way that is perfectly aligned with the path that they chose for themselves, yes.

It’s not good or bad, its just what’s happening. We assign meaning to things - that is something extra that we add.

Every idea, every particle, atom, feeling, emotion, event, interaction, reaction, physical incarnation - all are valid, perfect whole and complete, because ALL of that collectively IS source and pure consciousness - and it can never not be that way. None of it can ever be left out, and that is fucking beautiful if you ask me.

I really absolutely love chewing on this shit. When I write about it I feel like a babbling moron making zero sense, while hoping some of it lands for my readers - but also reminding myself that however I am or am not received is exactly perfect as it is - that the way my god damn blog post has or has not impacted others has nonetheless contributed to the intermingling of our unique experiences. Even if I hadn't written the post at all, I would have contributed to the collective experience in a different way, and like the butterfly effect, who knows what different worlds those independent decisions could help to create.

We exist, and therefore we are participating. The next time you feel unworthy, that you're not enough because you've believed some lie about your worth being tied to your doings, remember that, as you stand there feeling the way you feel, you are still participating. It is the one thing that you can’t choose to not do. So thank yourself for choosing experience, for choosing existence, and forgive yourself for having any other expectation of yourself. And if you have a preference for how you would like to show up and contribute - then for fuck’s sake go get after it. But don't shackle yourself to any “shoulds” - use what is useful, create what is inspired, make your own formula, share it. It is just an experiment. Allow it to be one. We can relax. It’s all ok.

If you are feeling very shackled by your past and your habituations and would like to choose a new way of showing up for yourself, if you would like to bring more awareness to why you do what you do, then just start with an intention. And probably buckle up and hold on! Whatever you want, ask for it, and it shall be. Be careful what you ask for, however, because you will fucking get it.

But also, next week’s blog will outline some useful steps on how to stop kicking the wheel of habituations that no longer serve you, so I hope you check it out.

Maybe play with this idea if it tickles you:

“Since my participation is guaranteed no matter what I choose, what would I consider the most exciting, ecstatic and vital way to show up and contribute in my participation?”

Also, I didn't get into it in this post, but we are MOTHERFUCKING DIVINE. I will have to dig in to that more later, too. I believe in magic.

Today I invite you to take a load off. Don’t make excuses, make choices. Everything is meant to be.

I hope this spurs some good thinks. Godspeed, my friends. You don't need luck, you are so much more powerful than that.

Namastizzle.

H

Shit to check out:

Conversations with God

Peter Crone

Pema Chödrön

The Power of Neuroplasticity