Call off the search

Call off the search

Before any truth can bear fruit in our daily lives, it must move from our minds to our hearts. This is the difference between mental knowledge and truly knowing something through experience.

by John English — 

The search is over! You can call it off. Every answer you are looking for in every situation already exists within. Sit with this for a moment and let the peace, serenity, hope and power of this truth sink in. If we take the time to contemplate this statement, many of us will be able to understand it.

Before any truth can bear fruit in our daily lives, it must move from our minds to our hearts. This is the difference between mental knowledge and truly knowing something through experience. So how do we call off the search when, for so many of us, the search for meaning has become such an integral part of our daily lives?

One way is to discontinue the practice of seeking meaning in each encounter and situation and become the one who brings meaning. Another way is to quit asking our experiences to serve us and ask how we can serve our experiences.

Accepting the responsibility for always looking within is a big step, but imagine the possibilities. Allow yourself to dream for a moment about what this world would be like if the majority of us sought to bring meaning to each encounter or situation. This practice not only provides us with inner peace and a means for being of service in this world, but it can shift the energy of every encounter for everyone involved. We can reduce all the turmoil in our lives by accepting responsibility and asking, “Why have I created this and what am I trying to learn here?”

Asking every experience to serve us instead of serving the experience is not only selfish, but it is a slow way to learn. Fortunately, we have some excellent examples of how to do this in people who have served their experiences, both good and bad: The mother who started Mothers Against Drunk Driving, cancer survivors who have taught others how to do the same, and the masters who have devoted their lives to teaching without expectation of anything in return.

When we bring meaning to each encounter, we become lights in the world, and when we serve our experiences, none of them is negative.

John English is a shamanic healer and the author of The Shift: An Awakening. He conducts private sessions and workshops on destiny and the dreamtime, shamanic healing, and journeying and the medicine wheel. dreamtimeonline.com or 480-473-8957.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 24, Number 2, April/May 2005.