By S. Roger Joyeux
Sometimes I wonder how all the profound wisdom that has come to me through The Story of Light applies to our everyday lives. It does. Others see how, and many times, I see how too. Let us examine one of the primary contributions made by the guiding light of Earth to third dimensional consciousness. Earth’s contribution is balance.
From chapter 11, section 1.04 of The Story of Light, Through Heaven’s Gate entitled: “Earth”, the section begins with this paragraph:
“Earth is primarily a planet of balance. Earth is heart, mind, balance, duality, ground and sky, day and night, consciousness, flow and fluidity, physical plane, and the lowest place of consciousness in the Universe. Earth is a wild planet that has its own sense of order. Some species dominate while others scavenge. Earth’s truth lies in the balance of duality—not good or bad, not war or peace. The balance of duality is one of Earth’s primary gifts to the consciousness of this Solar System.”
If Earth’s contribution is balance, how does that apply to the Next Top Spiritual Author contest? In the first round of voting, the contest organizers were still fresh and had not worked through many of the issues of fairness that arose. Many authors voted for each other or solicited other author’s support. The general response was quite positive. Here were a group of spiritual people entered in a competition. There will be only one winner of the competition, so with a paucity of incentive, self-interest was put aside in communications with others. What arose was a sense of community without self-interest. This community manifested as radio program invitations, blog article exchanges, facebook friend invitations, gifts of various healing sessions and workshops, mutual voting support, and getting to know people from around the world. On my website, you can see the links page of “Authors of the World” (http://thestoryoflight.com/aw.php) as it grows with the books and introductions of some of the authors with whom I made connections. While this developing community may seem to be the higher purpose behind the project of the contest, we are on Earth where balance rules. Competition is a self-interested endeavour, and it was the driving force behind the larger effort.
Perceiving the competition as the lower purpose and the developing community as the higher purpose may have some validity. Judgments, however, need to be put aside to see the genuine energy that gives the truth its place. Without the competition, there would be no developing community. Without the developing community, there would be little incentive for the majority of the participants to bother spending time and effort. Yin, yang and the yo-yo goes up and down and down and up again.
If the developing community were given all of the energy expended, higher purpose would be fulfilled, but higher purpose is exactly that—higher. We are on Earth where purpose is grounded and real only in the physical plane. Higher purpose cannot be sustained without Earth’s energy to keep it going. To abandon the competition for the developing community would soon dissipate the driving energy. To abandon the community for the competition would put higher purpose in the toilet as self-interest would take over.
Balance is the key to understanding the truth of the outcome. Judging the community that helped its members to move into the second round as having an unfair advantage would blind a person to the value of community and all the sharing that is taking place. Judging the competition for promoting self-interest would eliminate the driving energy that stimulated the participants to pursue their writing endeavours. Some of the contest’s participants naturally gravitated to one polarity or the other. A competition-oriented person might report a fellow contestant to the authorities for soliciting votes due to his or her self-interest and a blind adherence to the rules. Community-oriented persons might give away all of their energies to supporting others and not pay attention to their own need to garner votes to continue in the competition. Both scenarios will inevitably be a part of the Next Top Spiritual Author contest.
So here we are in now in round 2. Round 1 was not constrained with specific rules to prevent authors from soliciting each others’ votes, but round 2 is so constrained. What is noticeable to me, as an author and contestant, is that the email traffic from others has virtually died off. There are a few authors who may not have read the round 2 rules, so some email traffic is apparent, but those who were very visible in round 1 are relatively unseen now within the authors’ community. Competition, based on the rules of fairness, is being enforced by the contest administrators, so community is no longer developing.
So where is the balance?
Balance is the truth of the overall outcome. For those with a strong competitive-orientation, the rules are important to prevent the unfair advantage as the competition narrows the field of participants to the single winner. Unfortunately, one winner means numerous losers, especially to those to whom competition is the only motivator. One could point to a few other benefits of going farther in this competition such as visibility for one’s book to publishers, but even secondary incentives inevitably arrive at the point of balance. For those with a strong community-orientation, proceeding further into the self-interest of the competition with only a 1 in 271 chance of becoming the winner is losing its appeal. The reduced participation in the developing community, clearly evident in round 2, is a real disappointment to the community person. Without an interest in competing, this person will drop out.
So where is the best place to be?
The answer lies in understanding who you are and what you want. Are you driven or altruistic? I am that I am without self-judgment. Define yourself, and you will understand better where, on the sliding scale of action, you need to be. The point of balance within the contest lies between community and individualism. The community that developed in the first round cannot continue to grow into the second round. If community was your interest, then count your blessings now and cultivate the community that came to be as it is. If competition was your interest, then steel yourself for the struggle to come. Blessings to both sides of Earth’s balancing act in the Next Top Spiritual Author contest.
To supplement this article, I have posted an audio reading on my audio page for the section entitled “Earth” from whence this article was inspired. See http://thestoryoflight.com/audio.php The place I wish to be, for myself, in this contest is to continue. I have developed a significant community with other authors of this competition and intend to cultivate that community at every opportunity. I am positioned at the mid-point where both community and competition have an equal place. I do not believe that the balance point has yet been reached.
Therefore, as a continuing competitor, I would appreciate any and all support that anyone reading this article might offer by voting for me. http://www.nexttopauthor.com/profile.cfm?aid=715
There is a chance you will win my books, and a certainty that you will become a part of my spiritual community.
Please feel free to post this article without changes, unless approved by the author, wherever you see fit.
http://www.thestoryoflight.com
Sometimes I wonder how all the profound wisdom that has come to me through The Story of Light applies to our everyday lives. It does. Others see how, and many times, I see how too. Let us examine one of the primary contributions made by the guiding light of Earth to third dimensional consciousness. Earth’s contribution is balance.
From chapter 11, section 1.04 of The Story of Light, Through Heaven’s Gate entitled: “Earth”, the section begins with this paragraph:
“Earth is primarily a planet of balance. Earth is heart, mind, balance, duality, ground and sky, day and night, consciousness, flow and fluidity, physical plane, and the lowest place of consciousness in the Universe. Earth is a wild planet that has its own sense of order. Some species dominate while others scavenge. Earth’s truth lies in the balance of duality—not good or bad, not war or peace. The balance of duality is one of Earth’s primary gifts to the consciousness of this Solar System.”
If Earth’s contribution is balance, how does that apply to the Next Top Spiritual Author contest? In the first round of voting, the contest organizers were still fresh and had not worked through many of the issues of fairness that arose. Many authors voted for each other or solicited other author’s support. The general response was quite positive. Here were a group of spiritual people entered in a competition. There will be only one winner of the competition, so with a paucity of incentive, self-interest was put aside in communications with others. What arose was a sense of community without self-interest. This community manifested as radio program invitations, blog article exchanges, facebook friend invitations, gifts of various healing sessions and workshops, mutual voting support, and getting to know people from around the world. On my website, you can see the links page of “Authors of the World” (http://thestoryoflight.com/aw.php) as it grows with the books and introductions of some of the authors with whom I made connections. While this developing community may seem to be the higher purpose behind the project of the contest, we are on Earth where balance rules. Competition is a self-interested endeavour, and it was the driving force behind the larger effort.
Perceiving the competition as the lower purpose and the developing community as the higher purpose may have some validity. Judgments, however, need to be put aside to see the genuine energy that gives the truth its place. Without the competition, there would be no developing community. Without the developing community, there would be little incentive for the majority of the participants to bother spending time and effort. Yin, yang and the yo-yo goes up and down and down and up again.
If the developing community were given all of the energy expended, higher purpose would be fulfilled, but higher purpose is exactly that—higher. We are on Earth where purpose is grounded and real only in the physical plane. Higher purpose cannot be sustained without Earth’s energy to keep it going. To abandon the competition for the developing community would soon dissipate the driving energy. To abandon the community for the competition would put higher purpose in the toilet as self-interest would take over.
Balance is the key to understanding the truth of the outcome. Judging the community that helped its members to move into the second round as having an unfair advantage would blind a person to the value of community and all the sharing that is taking place. Judging the competition for promoting self-interest would eliminate the driving energy that stimulated the participants to pursue their writing endeavours. Some of the contest’s participants naturally gravitated to one polarity or the other. A competition-oriented person might report a fellow contestant to the authorities for soliciting votes due to his or her self-interest and a blind adherence to the rules. Community-oriented persons might give away all of their energies to supporting others and not pay attention to their own need to garner votes to continue in the competition. Both scenarios will inevitably be a part of the Next Top Spiritual Author contest.
So here we are in now in round 2. Round 1 was not constrained with specific rules to prevent authors from soliciting each others’ votes, but round 2 is so constrained. What is noticeable to me, as an author and contestant, is that the email traffic from others has virtually died off. There are a few authors who may not have read the round 2 rules, so some email traffic is apparent, but those who were very visible in round 1 are relatively unseen now within the authors’ community. Competition, based on the rules of fairness, is being enforced by the contest administrators, so community is no longer developing.
So where is the balance?
Balance is the truth of the overall outcome. For those with a strong competitive-orientation, the rules are important to prevent the unfair advantage as the competition narrows the field of participants to the single winner. Unfortunately, one winner means numerous losers, especially to those to whom competition is the only motivator. One could point to a few other benefits of going farther in this competition such as visibility for one’s book to publishers, but even secondary incentives inevitably arrive at the point of balance. For those with a strong community-orientation, proceeding further into the self-interest of the competition with only a 1 in 271 chance of becoming the winner is losing its appeal. The reduced participation in the developing community, clearly evident in round 2, is a real disappointment to the community person. Without an interest in competing, this person will drop out.
So where is the best place to be?
The answer lies in understanding who you are and what you want. Are you driven or altruistic? I am that I am without self-judgment. Define yourself, and you will understand better where, on the sliding scale of action, you need to be. The point of balance within the contest lies between community and individualism. The community that developed in the first round cannot continue to grow into the second round. If community was your interest, then count your blessings now and cultivate the community that came to be as it is. If competition was your interest, then steel yourself for the struggle to come. Blessings to both sides of Earth’s balancing act in the Next Top Spiritual Author contest.
To supplement this article, I have posted an audio reading on my audio page for the section entitled “Earth” from whence this article was inspired. See http://thestoryoflight.com/audio.php The place I wish to be, for myself, in this contest is to continue. I have developed a significant community with other authors of this competition and intend to cultivate that community at every opportunity. I am positioned at the mid-point where both community and competition have an equal place. I do not believe that the balance point has yet been reached.
Therefore, as a continuing competitor, I would appreciate any and all support that anyone reading this article might offer by voting for me. http://www.nexttopauthor.com/profile.cfm?aid=715
There is a chance you will win my books, and a certainty that you will become a part of my spiritual community.
Please feel free to post this article without changes, unless approved by the author, wherever you see fit.
http://www.thestoryoflight.com
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