Never Ending Inner-Growth: a Dynamic Conscious Way of Living

22nd March 2014

One particular aspect of my life that I take very seriously is that of a spiritual teacher. I still tend to cringe a bit with that description of my work/life, but its truth is undeniable. My main focus is to inspire unconditional Love in the participants of my Intensives or Seminars. We all have this capacity for unconditional Love, but somehow it seldom gets used. We get lost in the drama of the personality, in our petty issues and in the emotional baggage of our past. We lose sight of the fact that real Love, unconditional Love, is the power of creation. It is not an emotion as is so commonly believed by today’s society.

As a spiritual teacher, I expect the participants at an Intensive to emotionally and spiritually grow. This means that the consciousness of the spiritual teacher must also be growing, that his or her field-of-energy must contain inner-growth. When the participants spend five days in the field-of-energy of a spiritual teacher dedicated to inner-growth, this triggers, nurtures and enhances the inner-growth of every participant. This ‘growth’ connection is absolutely essential. I must state, however, that it is possible for a person to isolate themselves from this ‘growth connection’ simply by being so strongly in their head, in their own beliefs, that they are not actually participating.

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Conscious Living – No Separation!

I have to say, however, that these people are now very rare in my Intensives. And the reason is me! Going back nineteen years, and during the first maybe ten years of my doing Retreats, I quite often came across them. Of course, I blamed them for being the way that they were. It was not my fault . . . but over the years I have learned that I was wrong. In those days I was teaching ‘them’, the participants; now I am teaching/inspiring ‘us’, including myself. I have learned that the difference between the spiritual teacher and the participants is zero. The expressions of how the teacher and the participants live our own lives may well be very different, but we are all of one human consciousness. Whatever is in the consciousness of the participants is in the consciousness of the spiritual teacher. The reverse is also true. Whereas the evolved spiritual teacher may have resolved all his or her personal issues, we are all connected in consciousness.

If a person has an alcohol problem, there is nothing that I know about this as I have never experienced it, but we still connect in the same human consciousness. I can certainly learn information about such problems, but it still remains outside of my field of experience. However, with or without such knowledge, I can connect with such a person in the areas of care and compassion. I can reach across that space of inexperience and connect with them on the purely human level of emotions. No matter how the emotional body is disturbed, whether by drugs or alcohol, or simply by anger and judgement, the effect is the same; emotional disturbance.

A number of years ago I spoke to several groups of indigent people in the U.S. These talks were free and were mostly well attended. I remember one group was composed basically of middle-aged black women. They looked at me with a fair degree of scepticism and scorn. “So what does this white Australian honky think he has to teach us?” was the clear but unspoken comment. Fair enough. I told them I look at life in terms of what does, and does not, work for you. Humanity has an addiction to what does ‘not’ work, and repeats it endlessly. Drugs and alcohol do not work. Poverty does not work any more than extreme wealth. You can get just as lost in extreme wealth as in poverty. I told them that we explore all the extremes of what does not work; chief among these are the different modalities of attacking yourself. Self-criticism is extremely commonplace and, whether wealthy or poor, people do it constantly . . . it does not work. Self-judgement, getting angry with yourself, comparing yourself with others, none of these work. Put the whole lot together and you get the heart diseases, cancers, sicknesses and poverty that are all spreading so rapidly today.

Then I told them what does work. You could have heard a pin drop. I had their attention.

So, you are asking, what does work? Answer: unconditional Love for yourself. It never fails you. Never. But I am talking about unconditional Love, not high, emotive thoughts of love. Unconditional Love is a dynamic conscious way of living. This Love is not an emotion, nor is it thoughts of self-worth. While you have a physical body, you are still learning the dimensions of unconditional Love. I know I am. And this is where we started this column. The spiritual teacher is a teacher only if he or she is living in this conscious state of Love. They are truly teaching only when they truly Love all the participants in the room with them. And you do not have to know a person to Love them. Anything less than this is simply disseminating spiritual information. And sharing spiritual information has no more to do with ‘true’ teaching than the school teacher who perceives him- or herself as separate from, and above, his or her younger students.

Scientific studies now reveal that the attitude of the teacher to the students, what they think of a student, smart or stupid, pleasant or unpleasant, competent or incompetent etc., will have a dramatic affect on the performance of the student. What was your relationship like with your teachers when you were at school? More importantly, what was theirs with you? By Loving the people in my Intensives I bring them to the doors of Loving themselves. Of course, the people have to do the inner-work. All I am doing is empowering that possibility by Loving those who find it difficult to Love themselves. And that’s everybody. And I do this by Loving myself. If I cannot Love myself, then I cannot Love other people. Oneness, remember? Unconditional Love is not selective, it is all embracing. All is One. One is All. No separation!

If We Live Consciously, We Learn

Naturally enough, I too get plenty of opportunities to ‘inner grow’. Without making this story too detailed, let me simply say that two people whom I love have, for their own reasons, put me out of their lives. One of the people I had a row with, the other I did not. However, because I have loved these two people for a long time, long enough to foolishly believe that I actually ‘knew’ them, I found that I was very hurt by the two episodes. Both incidents took place in almost the same time frame, so it was like a double ‘whammy!’

I was emotionally involved . . . rather than instantly seeing this as yet another opportunity for my growth. It’s called being human! For a long time I thought that it was all about a clash of realities, but gradually another picture began to emerge. From one person came anger, very ugly anger. From the other came nothing; his life simply took a hugely different direction. For the next six months I felt deeply hurt, even while in denial of being hurt. We so easily fool ourselves! It was while on tour that I was compelled to face my inner-hurt.

Out of the blue, a friend in the U.S. sent us some of her university students art as an example of how they illustrated an increase in the right-brain hemisphere after having done three of the inner-exercises that I devised for our Intensives. I hasten to add that the exercises are nothing to do with art, but have a lot to do with brain patterns. One of the drawings was an arty arrangement of words with which I am very familiar: you are not a body with a soul; you are a soul with a body. As I said, this was not new to me, but as I read the words they had an impact from a whole different angle. I tottered on the edge of a deep inner-revelation, but as I reached for it, so it slipped away. I was not dismayed by this. I knew that in perfect timing all would be revealed. And so it proved to be.

At eight-thirty on the morning of my birthday, I was looking in the mirror shaving. Once again I became aware of my feelings of inner-hurt. I readily acknowledged them this time, easily accepting their reality. Then, a series of inner-realisations all happened simultaneously: the words “I am a soul with a body” suddenly threw a brilliant Light into the arena of hurt. At the same time, I knew that unconditional Love does not feel hurt; where Love is unconditional, hurt cannot exist. With clear new insight, I could now inner-see/experience these two souls moving into a very intense period of expression in their own lives, for whatever reasons pertain to them. I inner-felt two souls, each saying, “You are not going to like what will happen/is happening. As a soul, all I need is your unconditional Love.” And just like that, I felt it. I felt a wave of unconditional Love sweep into me, expanding the Love I already have. Hurt was instantly gone, and all I could feel was a deep and unconditional Love for these two people. I felt a complete and total release from them. Whatever they do, whatever . . . it matters not. Love is all that is. I ‘Love’ them. And unconditional Love is a state of inner freedom. Let me be clear that this does not mean that I now suddenly approve of their directions in life, or their expressions of life; it means that I no longer give my inner-peace away. We are each free of each other. Unconditional Love is a freedom.

Interestingly, my wife Carolyn, who has also been involved in the unpleasantness, stepped out of the shower at that moment, and as I began to share with her she said, “Oh wow, I was just experiencing a similar insight. Almost the same thing.” I wanted to send them emails and say “Thank you”, but Carolyn thought that would be inappropriate. I agreed. This is strictly between souls, not personas.

A few other insights were revealed. Both of these people had a deep emotional attachment to me. They may or may not agree with this, but their souls verify it. An emotional attachment is always negative. Not bad or wrong, but always negative. Love is a freedom, never an attachment. The only way a person can break a negative attachment is negatively. This generally means with a lot of anger or complete withdrawal. And this is exactly what happened. All in all a wonderful growth experience, even if it generated a lot of unpleasantness to facilitate it.

I have shared this for one reason only; you may be going through a similar experience. Or, you possibly will in the not too distant future. Allow yourself to experience your emotions, then lift your energy from the emotions of the solar plexus, higher and higher up to the open heart and the place of unconditional Love. As Carolyn often says, “There it is no difference between giving offence and taking offence.” One of these people offered me offensive hurt, the other offered me none. I, however, took offence and hurt from both of them. Now, I am released. I pray that it works out as well for them. We live – and if we live consciously – we learn.

In Love and Light, Michael

Previous articles by Michael Roads:

About the author:

Born in England in 1937, Michael Roads discovered at an early age he was able to communicate with nature and go beyond linear time and space. He immigrated to Australia in 1963 where he was a beef and dairy farmer, and prominent in the early organic movement. He wrote the first book on organic gardening in Australia, which was an immediate best seller. After becoming spiritually awakened in 1986, Michael wrote about his metaphysical experiences and has since published 14 books, translated into 16 languages. 2014 marks his 23rd year of traveling around the world giving talks and 5-day Intensives on unconditional Love and emotional balance.

Connect with Michael at michaelroads.com

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Conscious Living – No Separation!

If We Live Consciously, We Learn

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