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NAMASTE and Happy October Dear Friends,
 
Not unlike each season's unique essence of Being, the infinite beauty of autumn shines everywhere these days.  What a beautiful model for us to emulate--for us to use as our view of Self: beauty everywhere manifested, beauty Being unto itself.
 
October is quite the perfect month to look deeper at our view of Self and all that surrounds us.  Certainly, the idea of what "surrounds us" holds us mostly to looking outside ourselves for the various forms of beauty. 
 
What does the month of October have to do with beauty, let alone with how we view our Self?  Well, of all the things we usually celebrate in October, the one we spend the most money on and give the most attention to is Halloween, the time and energy we give to the wearing masks and costumes of all kinds--and eating (swallowing) things we normally wouldn't if we thought more highly of ourselves.
 
Let's use our current focus on Halloween to shift how we look at masks and costumes to finally admit that, for most of our lives, we wear a host of masks and costumes to reflect what we think we have become--largely through the eyes of others--and thus to look for beauty and completion outside our Self.
 
Through the voice of one of the main characters in his last novel, Adultery, the brilliant writer and sage, Paul Coelho, makes the point this way: "We aren't who we want to be. We are what society demands.  We don't want to disappoint anyone; we have a great need to be loved.  So we smother the best in us.  Gradually, the light of our dreams turns into the monster of our nightmares.  They become things not done, possibilities not lived." (p. 135) Perhaps the idea of adultery is at least equally applicable to adulterating our Self to erroneous views tied to belief and opinion--and smothering our innate essence of Love--our inner Light--in the process.
 
Thus, our view of Self, however amassed from those outside us, becomes the
monster of our nightmares, and is portrayed quite dramatically by the masks and costumes we wear. Indeed, such illusions become "the things not done, possibilities not lived." In contrast, the dream is to live true to our Self, to shine our innate essence of Love upon the world. 
 
Contrary to popular belief, shining our Light onto the world does NOT require us to fix all we think is wrong with us before we can turn on the switch that frees the beam of Love throughout the Universe.  Spiritually speaking, we don't really need to shed all our masks and costumes to begin living Truthfully. We need but stand naked, and clothe our Self anew in the glow of INNER reality.  
 
Should one begin and end each day by going inward and claiming the immensity of what we truly are, the ideas we hold about being "less than," the Truth of our innate being would begin to fall away.  These nightmares of feeling "less than" won't disappear all at once, but they will, over time, fade from view.  The clearer our awareness of Self becomes, the more our erroneous ideas about ourselves fade--and how we manifest our view of Life comes to match the Love we are, expressed through ALL we do and say.   
 
Then--one day, seemingly quite suddenly--you will see this reality of One, of spiritual completeness, wholeness, come to Life in the now. And you'll know it will be this way forevermore--for you'll see beyond the remaining masks and clothes, right into the innately loving heart of all. 
 
So, my dear friends, let's commit to stepping beyond our masks and costumes, that we may stand naked before our inner Truth, Truth seen clearly now as the mirror of Life's reality.  By the time Halloween arrives, you'll be well on your way.  I wonder what meaning Halloween will have for you then...
 
Happy Halloween and a glorious autumn to one and all!  NAMASTE!
Jim

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