Christ Consciousness and Animal Wisdom

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   "Compassion will change our fate"                        ~ A message from the Animals. March 2010

A remedy for dealing with pet loss grief and Animals as ushers to Christ Consciousness

Posted on S.O.U.L Academy: School of Compassion Facebook page on November 23, 2011

                                  
Killing yourself, or a New Life Purpose?

One day while I still practiced as a Pet Loss Counselor and therapist I received a phone call from a very desponded man who was driving while speaking and right away declared that he is about to kill himself. Since I JUST happen to pick up the phone I did not have any knowledge of this man, who he was, or why he was about to kill himself. I only asked that he would please park his car so that we can speak safely. When he agreed to do so, I had only a few fragile seconds to ask for the nature of his pain and decision.

The man shared with a broken voice:

 "My dog died this morning. I have no reason to live anymore!"

I have been a practicing counselor and educator on this very sensitive condition called Grief (specifically pet loss grief, which to some people seems to be at times even more profound than human loss)  - for approx. 8 years. I truly cared for both the human client and the animals who have departed.  These sorts of phone calls were the norm for me during those days, yet nevertheless each one needed full attention and compassion. In my heart I asked for the right words to come through, so that this grieving man can remain with me on the phone until his pain subsides enough to make a different decision. I then said gently:

"My dear, I don't really know you, and I don't have the power to make you not kill yourself. You have the right to do so if that is what you truly want, and although this act would devastate the world around you, truly I can't stop you from doing it. BUT before you do so, and just for a moment, could you think back and tell me - how have your beloved dog touched your life? Did she manage to teach you anything at all during her life on earth?..." 

There was a brief silence on the other line and I began to worry a bit. But then the man replied hesitantly:

"Well, yes... she taught me plenty. She taught me to get outdoors and play, she taught me to socialize with other people, she taught me how to laugh... she taught me how to LOVE."   

As he reflected on his words, I asked further:

“Do you not see what a terrible thing it would be for you to take all that she taught you – TO YOUR GRAVE, instead of helping her gifts live on by sharing them with others in her honor? Do you see how she trusted you and left you here with a JOB to do; and a mighty holy one indeed?!”

I heard his breathing returns to normal slowly but surely. Another moment of silence came between us, but this time it felt as if we were held in the arms of something bigger than ourselves – perhaps it was a moment of connection, human to human, or maybe it was a moment of insight that led to deep healing.

The man then shared the following with me:

“You know something? For the first time in days I feel as if I have a reason to go on, a new purpose to my life. Thank you!” he cried, but this time tears of relief. We completed our chat with a blessing.
I did not even know his name, but he was a brother in need.

What if his dog led him to me at the right time and space – so that he be reminded of her last wish?

   ___________________________________________________________________________________

This is an incredible time of human evolution that is best marked by a global revolution. How touching it is to see people coming in UNITY to stand up for a social justice cause everywhere around the world!  This is also a time like no other to wake up to and embrace a way of life what is referred to as "Christ Consciousness" - remembering that all life carries within a core essence that is holy and divine - and as such we are eternally linked to one another as brothers and sisters. 

When we begin to truly embody this understanding of "Oneness," we can begin to see everyone through the eyes of compassion. We begin to see others as God sees us. In fact, we then are able to see through the eyes of Unconditional Love...  

Sounds familiar? Perhaps you have a fuzzy teacher of these virtues at home?! 

How can you share the gifts you have been receiving from your companion animals - with the world and take part in the bigger plan? Do it in their honor, for your own spiritual healing and growth! 

With love,

Shiri Joshua
Spiritual Director,

S.O.U.L. Academy:School of Compassion
Nov 2011, Vancouver B.C

Reposting: Message of comfort from the animals about end-of-life and helping them die

This is a re-post of a popular message from the animals themselves, which has been giving many people around the globe comfort and peace, especially in times when making a decision to help an animal peacefully die...
This message was published in the online version of the Sedona Magazine, and is included in the newly published book "The Animals' Messenger"

Please see complete message here, and may it bring healing to your heart and soul, and peace to your precious companion!

On this day...

On this new day that is upon me

Thank you for my life
Thank you for my healthy body

Thank you for my shelter
Thank you for the warmth
Thank you for my bed
Thank you for the rain

Thank you for the animals
Thank you for humanity
Thank you for our Mother, Earth
Thank you for the food and water

Thank you for the companionship of Pfizer, Bauer (who likes to sleep right on my stomach), Elite, and Chips - my beloved pets

Thank you for my loving friends
Thank you for reminding me that I am loved so deeply...

On this new emergence 

Let me get out of the way
Let my soul lead and create my day

Please use me
Please let me -
Offer a miracle
Receive a miracle

Make someone laugh
Learn something new
Meet someone new
Make a difference in someone's life
Offer forgiveness
Receive forgiveness
Share Love
Receive Love

And if it is thy will, may I
reach the end of this precious day
and be content and without regrets

Thank you!
Shiri

What is important in times of transition?

Linking here recent Animal Cons. Newsletter

Dog teaches Selfless Service amid the tsunami devastation

A Miracle Delivered: by precious dog.

Last night I prayed for a miracle.

A miracle for humanity, for our planet, and also for my own mind - to be healed, so that I may wake up in the morning  reminded and re-membered with why was I put here on earth, how might I be of service, and what my role is in the bigger picture. Most of all, I wanted a reminder of the relevance of what I was working on with such intense dedication: S.O.U.L. Academy: School of Compassion, a vision that came through the purity of the animals' plea for humanity. A vision given to me last year following an incident with seeing chickens being driven to slaughter.

In the midst of global shifts and vast unknown, I wanted a reminder of why it is even that important or relevant...

I feel that our "job" these days is to remain in our light as much as possible - as my dear friend Dafna reminds me - to show the way, to stay heart-focused and compassionate, rather than participate in the energy of fear. But last night I had enough. I was tired, fatigued, and broken. I ache when I see images of suffering. I ache even more deeply when I see and hear people who are not yet awakened to what is going on around us. Still busy-ing themselves with pursuits of expensive gadgets and possessions that really would mean nothing at the end, competing with those around them for resources or status...  It puzzles me to the core that there are some people who still are so unaware of the shifts, and are unwilling to become mindful of their ways. Will anyone ever understand the truth about Compassion, Unity, and Selfless Service, as the animals' have asked of us to consider?

I began to doubt my life's mission and its relevance...

In all honesty, it has not been easy  - the path of service and absolute dedication to my purpose. I have left a career behind as a child & adolescent therapist, a nice paycheque, a packed-schedule, a growing client-based, a field I pioneered out of passion to offer help as a Pet Loss Counsellor and Intuitive Animal Healer... I left behind all that I knew in order to birth this vision into life - because I so believe in it!!!

I am not alone. Many in my life right now are feeling that "something is missing," wishing for deeper connections, more meaning, honesty, and purpose. Many are also struggling financially, aimlessly trying to get by. Money might not be here for much longer, but for that to happen, we ALL need get on board. We all need to learn to share, offer what we have and help one another in whatever means we were blessed with - like old times. I don't have an answer as to "when" this would happen, and "how" but I do recognize that a mega-change must happen on a cellular level for all of Humanity and indeed it is happening - the nuclear threat isn't over yet, earthquakes and tsunamis are still happening daily... (Living in British Columbia, I finally caved in and prepared an earthquake emergency bag! Something I never really wanted to place much energy into). 

Perhaps all this chaos is in fact perfect Divine Order - forcing us to come closer to one another, restoring our faith in a Greater Intelligence that rules this universe instead of believing that man does. Enough already, let us surrender, go down on our knees in humility, and get back to basics, back to God...

We are all in this together. What is going to save us is not how much money we have, our precious cars, or even our homes (especially when these crumble like jelly when the earth opens up). What is going to save us is the opening of our hearts, doors, and hands to one another. Offering shelter, food, companionship, friendship, a phone call - to those in our lives who might be struggling, fearful, lonely, needing forgiveness, or sad - without any gain whatsoever other than the mere moral obligation to do so, and out of  LOVE.

And so I got foggy and sad, and went to bed praying to be shown the way to global peace. I truly wanted to be reminded of what I can do to help, what God and the animals’ wish of me / us to consider, and how I might take my holy part in the bigger plan...  I think I even cried myself to sleep. I care so deeply for our fate, for the animals, for humanity, for our planet, for those who are refusing to see that we must must must wake up... I am not the norm, I've known that from birth, but still I feel deeply and cannot, nor do I want to, change who or what I am (and being a sensitive Cancerian doesn't help!)

The next morning my miracle was delivered!

It came in the form of a YouTube clip of a precious dog patiently standing beside another one amid the ruins of devastations following Japan's tsunami. The dog barked and got people's attention, and eventually returned to sit by the injured dog until he/she too rose up from the ground. The two dogs licked each other in gratitude and what looked like joy!

THIS IS IT!! THIS IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT!

I felt a surge of renewed hope and energy, as I re-membered with the truth of why I must go on talking about Selfless Service and the animals' teachings despite all difficulties...

A Miracle is merely a shift in perception, so that we may be able to see things through the eyes of Love and not through the eyes of fear. An inner change in how we see and think, followed by an outer / external change in reality. A miracle then is simply the awakening to the presence of love.

This beautiful furry angel was my Miracle! It was what I prayed for - a reminder of what is truly important in life these days... A pure embodiment of Unity and Selfless Service - the willingness to sacrifice our life for the sake of helping another, without a personal account of "what's in it for me?"... How come animals can do so more effortlessly than humans? I believe we have much hope - if we begin to learn from them and apply their wisdom in our lives.

The new world that is upon us consists of living our life differently... We must see that the old no longer works. We must shift towards Kindness, Absolute Truth, Unity, and Service. No other way can save our fate, and time is too precious to be wasted.

This is merely an invitation and sharing. Awakening to our Truth is not for everyone... It takes immense courage, faith, letting go, and patience. But what is the alternative?? Walking half asleep during these times of change, and allowing life to pass us by is harder in my opinion...

Share your light with the world - it was given to you for this exact purpose! With much love,
Shiri

Minding your Love-Ometer

“Loves Heals” stated boldly the black and white sticker someone placed on the back of a “no parking” sign.  It was small yet not too shy in broadcasting this universal truth to passerby. I smiled as I pondered the message. What is it about love that heals? I thought to myself, is Love a healer on its own or does it require a transmitter, a conduit, a messenger?

Working with animals and people as my 'ministry' and service, I encounter again and again that which facilitates profound joy and expansion of the spirit through companionship with animals. By virtue of their conditioned-free, judgment-less acceptance of us, animals awaken us to the pure essence of love. Many of my clients and students attest to the intensity of their kinship with their animals and their gratitude for being accepted by their furry (and non) companions just for who they are with no complex stipulations or expectations. We all crave it so since the feeling of unconditional love bears a residue of familiarity to us. It inspires the energy of spirit as originating from a place deep within our soul. In their ability to love us unconditionally, animals re-member us with our own God-like self from which some of us have become too detached in our daily pursuits for peace, happiness, and "more."

As humanity we are going through powerful shifts in our evolutions. Our global consciousness and awareness are being asked to open up to levels that will either wither us into dust, or lift us up to a new level of be-ing in unity and collaboration with one another and that giving life-force creator of all creations. 

This is a time of great awakening (a rude one, if we resist or ignore the signs along the way, as I myself had a taste of and have written about in previous blog articles and my upcoming book). In the current planetary circumstances that are upon us we are the only ones to shift our fate and destiny. But how?

Recycling helps, praying helps, noticing the intuitive voice within that is our soul's cry for attention certainly helps in making us more fulfilled. Yet something bigger and more prevailing exists within our reach: the energy of love.
I am not talking about the emotion of love felt on a human level, such as "being in love with another," or "the honeymoon phase" of new relationships. I am referring to the much more profound force of Divine Love that is omnipresent, dizzying, full-filling, and all-encompassing all-that-is and all that is life to the smallest sub-atomic particles!

This purity of love has no human interference, no density, no thought process, no mass, no body. In fact, as soon as we apply thinking, we lose touch with this consciousness!  A Course in Miracles reminds us that "I am not a body, I am free - for I am still as God created me." Studying this concept over many days, I asked for some guidance around that. I wanted a felt-experience of what it means to be free yet "not be a body."  The answer came in a dream - in it I was not a body, I was floating freely and lightly as an energy being; the sensation of pure JOY and PEACE were profound and beyond words. No worries were present. There was no sense of past, future, present, money, bills, sorrows of the world, animals and people's suffering, tasks, to-do lists, etc. No-thing existed in that realm of pure and utter freedom from form. There was also no thought whatsoever! I remember "floating" there in bliss-land for a few long minutes (or was it seconds? months? years? - doesn't matter really). I remember smiling, I remember my heart  - it expanded in luminosity and L O V E. I was all heart and nothing else for those few blissful moments in my dream.

And then it all ended abruptly!

In the dream - as I was floating in thin love-based-air, I "bumped" into someone else. That is, I touched his (it was "He" for some reason) body and wooooop - I came into mine! I once again returned to my physical body. "He" got all upset that I bumped into him and began scalding me. I felt shameful and confused. And herein lies the core of our separateness: Once I became a body again, with thoughts, plans, goals, unconscious processes, ego, fears, etc - I lost consciousness! I was no longer connected to that Divine essence that is the real "me." And so I became a body again bumping into other bodies that are seemingly unrelated to one another.

Don't get me wrong - of course having a body is GOOD THING. It is a marvelous thing. It is a joyous thing! But when we begin to identify with it as if we are it, we lose something of great value: our connection to the fountain of our origin, were we are much more than a body, we are extensions of GOD; able and equipped to experience this life as God. 

Yet it is only through our "connective tissue" to the greater consciousness, we may become the vessel for this divine pure love. As soon as we engage our human mind in reason or analysis, we “come back” into our physical body and tend to bump into each other with less tolerance and lack of compassion.

Gratitude and compassion are messengers of Love. They are the components that carry the spiritual molecules of love by transcending the physical illusion of mass, time, and space. Through intention we can choose to mindfully tune in to the purity found in living through these virtues rather than through our ego-self that is much harsher and at times unkind (to ourselves and others). By so doing we extract the necessary ingredients for connection to the infinite One Mind. We then automatically become conduits to love and are better able to assist in the production of miracles and healing of all conditions. It is through us then that Divine God Love is expressed and therefore can produce healing. Our main purpose as humans is indeed to be the vessel for God to express love onto all of His creations. It is our job to facilitate the conditions for the transmission of such love. In making ourselves available through inviting our Spirit-Self or soul to lead the way, we allow the process of purification of the mind to take place in transforming that which is mortal (what we think is our given reality) into that which is eternal and infinite and therefore of God essence.

Thought interferences with the process of connecting ourselves with the infinite One Mind where all answers exist and plenty abides. This connection to Source energy allows the conduction of love-essence to flow through us and facilitate healing on a much deeper level than any man-designed therapeutic method could ever reach. Thought is a mechanism of brain activity, while consciousness is the universal spiritual flow that is consciousness.

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience” taught the French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Indeed, as humans we are filled with too many filters, fears, judgment, and other attributes of the Ego-mind. As spirits, we make ourselves available to the transference of pure divine love to flow through us. As we aid God in the transmission of love-energy, we participate in global healing of any condition where love is blocked. This of course is how prayer and techniques such as distance or remote healing produce change in the quantum energetic field of their recipient.

Another teaching by A Course in Miracles states that “A miracle is a universal blessing from God. Miracles occur naturally as expression of love…through miracles love is expressed. In this essence, everything that comes from love is a miracle.”

If everything that comes from love is a miracle and if miracles are expression of God’s blessings upon us; it thus implies that everything that is not love is not of God and therefore is mortal and unreal. Since we all have originated from this love source and possess within us an eternal, abundant divine element, it is unnatural for us to experience anything but love!

Indeed, ‘miracles are natural. When they do not occur something has gone wrong” is further taught. We can then appreciate that all situations where anything other than the existence of abundance (as it is the expression of love), are in fact symptoms pointing to something that has gone amiss in the natural flow of miracle-production. All lack is a manifestation of blocked love. For if “God is love” there could never be anything that is of God that is lacking anything, unless it is unwelcomed by the human ego. For example thoughts and unconscious beliefs of undeserving are an expression of us blocking God’s abundance and love from entering into our lives. Thus any circumstance that presents as lack can be viewed as an underlying obstruction of love for self and/or other (usually when love is blocked for another it is also blocked for the self or vice-versa). This of course can be represented in many forms such as lack of money, health, vitality, relationship, joy, harmony, or peace.

To find your way out of an undesirable condition of lack try the following steps:

1. Imagine your own private technology: A “Love-ometer” decorated to your liking with special switches, gauges, and indicators that give clue to the level of pure divine love in your life.

2. Centre yourself through deep mindful breathing and grounding (this need not be efforted or lengthy).

3. When ready, let the breath carry you to your heart-space, the “storage room” for divine love, and invite the answers to come onto your field by honestly asking yourself:

“Where in my life is loved blocked?”

For example, you may sense an intuitive inner voice indicating: “love is blocked for me in the areas of self-respect, self care, self esteem, or in deserving a comfortable abundant life for myself.” The answer may be shown to you as a certain color, shape, or symbol that is located in certain areas within or around your physical body or in the ether. You may not “see” or “hear” anything of significance. Still, examine what comes without judgment or interpretation; simply take note of what is presented to you. If you find yourself straining, you are trying too hard. Remember that thought interferes with your connection to the One Mind where all situations are already healed and all answers are available to you.

Once you receive any clue to the presenting blockage, see if you can send pure unconditional love to the situation. Feel your heart expands with the healing chemicals of love to produce change. This will surely transmute any clutter into order, any dis-ease into wellness, and any lack into plenty. In truth you are restoring the natural flow of miracles in your life by measuring where love is blocked and opening the door to it once again.

I am reminded of the typical instructions we receive after suffering a cut or injury: “Apply pressure to stop the bleeding”… Now change “pressure” with “love”, and see what happens!
:-D

Shiri Joshua
http://www.soulacademy.ca/

Footnotes from A Course In Miracles :
Chapter 1, The meaning of miracles: Principles of Miracles.