I continue to present the ideas of Pamela Kribbe from her wonderful book Heart-Centered Living. In the previous article, the topic was surrender as a way of life, and now I will present the blockages that prevent us from letting go of control and relaxing in trust in the flow of life.
In the language of this book, these are called three false idols:
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God is an authority over you.
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The standards and ideals of society.
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Pitying others and walking with them along the path of their suffering.
I will now begin with the first of these, which is also connected to one of the most important characteristics of contemporary spirituality and its relationship to high levels of mental health — the search for God within, rather than outside oneself. Although many people share this attitude, I know that there is often a discrepancy between what they think and what they actually do.
“Many of you think that you have already freed yourselves from the traditional image of God.
You say that you no longer believe in a judging and punishing God who sits high above you and keeps records of your successes and failures like a school inspector. You say that you believe in a God of love, who always forgives you and who gently cares for you and supports you. At the same time, in the harsh and unloving way in which you often treat yourselves, this old God is still very much alive! Do you not often tell yourselves that you have failed, that you are not doing it right, that you should have made more progress, whether in relationships, work, or spirituality? Do you not torment yourselves with ideas such as: I am not living up to God’s expectations; I am disappointing my spiritual guides or my Higher Self; I am failing in my mission; I am not contributing anything meaningful to the world?”
Heart-Centered Living: Messages Inspired by Christ Consciousness, p. 16
It is precisely the last two sentences that made me want to share what Pamela Kribbe writes about this blockage. They describe a problem I often encounter — namely, that even when we tell ourselves we no longer believe in a God who sits high in the heavens, the old harsh and judgmental morality continues to exist as an inner voice that we do not question. In other words, God has remained the same; only the form has changed.
“Many of you, so to speak, believe that there is a higher order to which you must submit or to which you must answer.
Whether this is a ‘spiritual mission’ assigned to you, or a spiritual hierarchy that has a ‘task’ for you, or a spiritual guide who tells you what to do or not to do… in all these cases, you believe in the existence of a higher authority, in a spiritual level that is above you and that you had better listen to. But the moment you believe in an authority outside of yourself that is capable of offering you guidance as to what you should do in your life, you are back with the traditional God. According to this image, there is a level of truth where things are decided and clearly determined, and all you can do is either live according to that or not.
This is a false image.
Certainly, when you were born, there were intentions in your soul for the life that was about to come. One could call this the higher purpose of this life, but it was not created by anything external to you. You are the one who chose it, and it was born from your own desires and intentions. The things in your life that were ‘predetermined’ — in the sense that they are very likely to happen, since nothing is strictly fixed — were created and chosen by you. You can connect with your life purpose or inspiration at any time by listening to your feelings, to the voice of your heart, to your deepest longings.
I would advise you not to listen too much to high-strung spiritual doctrines about how you should live. Listen especially to the so-called lower part of you: the powerful emotions that express themselves in your daily life. Through these emotions, your soul is trying to reach you and tell you something.”
Pamela Kribbe, Heart-Centered Living
The language Pamela Kribbe uses is psychologically penetrating. The old God lives in the mind through judgments of good and evil and continues to condemn. The new God lives in the heart and manifests through the effort to understand our emotions without judging them. In the language of psychology, this is called emotional and spiritual intelligence. In this book, the connection between these two parts of us is described as the relationship between our angel (the soul) and our inner child (the emotions).
“In the image I draw of the angel and the inner child, there is no place for the authoritarian figure of God.
The ‘higher’ and the ‘lower’ complement each other in open, dynamically developing relationships.
The angel dictates nothing to the child, nor does the child have the authority to impose itself on the angel. It is precisely in the play between these two that you will discover what is appropriate for you in this moment.”
At the highest levels of mental health, a person is their own authority — guided by their inner truth and trusting what they feel. The leading values are independence and autonomy; we no longer seek an external spiritual teacher, because life itself becomes the teacher. The only thing we need in order to learn from it is greater trust in ourselves.
“General guidelines on how to lead a spiritual life are almost always inadequate, or at least not universal in nature. Truth is formless. Every living being has its own form, its own way of living the Truth.
This is the miracle of your unique spiritual essence.
True spiritual teachers do not teach ‘do this’ and ‘don’t do that,’ or ‘meditate for two hours a day.’ The true teacher knows that all of this is so that you may find your own truth in deep communion with yourself. Teachers may point out what was helpful to them on their own path, but they will not turn this into a rule or doctrine.
If you look at the way God has been portrayed in most religious traditions, this is exactly what has happened. Most of them are traditions of fear and abuse of power. The need for clear rules and dogma and the tendency toward hierarchical organizations always indicate that fear and power are at work.
Take, for example, the many predictions and especially speculative theories that have been circulating lately. If you look at them without consulting your basic feelings about them, you may feel very insecure and begin to wonder: ‘Am I doing things right?’ ‘What if I don’t become enlightened in 2012?’ or ‘Is the state of my chakras pure enough for me to enter the fifth dimension?’ These kinds of questions are definitely not very helpful for your inner growth.
I ask you: turn inward. Do not look to the movements of the planets or stars, to climate changes, or to the judgments of an ‘ascended master’ to determine your level of heart-centered living.
You are the center of your universe; you are the criterion and the measure for your own world. There is no God outside of you who knows better or who determines things for you… God’s principles are within you, and all beings are one playful force, growing and unfolding in open and unpredictable ways.”
Pamela Kribbe, Heart-Centered Living: Messages Inspired by Christ Consciousness
For some people, the above may seem self-evident. I know, however, that this is not the case for everyone. That is why I am sharing a letter from a woman who describes how the transformation of her spiritual beliefs took place. I believe that after her sharing, what Pamela Kribbe writes will gain even deeper meaning.
“…in my battle with life, fear, anger, and rejection, my scattered soul turned faith and my relationship with God into agony. I turned icons (especially those in my home) into Masters of fear, whom I served with rituals in order to achieve an illusory sense of control… Recently, even the darkest corner of the room was illuminated, and my fear, hatred, and anger toward God emerged in full honesty…
At one point, my fear of the heavenly powers became so great that I no longer knew who was bad and who was good — I was afraid of all of them, and to me they were identical… I had to kill the illusory and false God I had created for myself, with whom my relationship resembled all my other relationships in being… And when I wrote eight pages of pain and hatred with mind-stopping honesty, and when I was impossibly sincere despite the total resistance and fear of my mind, something astonishing happened in me — a huge wave of warmth and an unfamiliar sensation flooded my solar plexus and then my whole body. Then something extraordinary happened — I wished to fall to the ground, completely powerless, to merge with everything. I cried as never before with rapture and boundless love for God, and everything I experienced cannot be described in words. And then something made me stand up and lift my gaze to the sky…
For the first time in my life I had such an experience. For the first time, the only thing I needed was to lie down on the ground and relax in total surrender. It was a feeling of surrender that was so liberating; I felt so held and soothed, yet also very embodied and present. In that moment I knew that I was merging with the Earth, and I knew, without thinking, that merging with God passes through this falling and this merging with the Earth. And I knew, without thinking, that this had always been my greatest resistance and what I had tried to avoid at all costs…”
We live in times when a renewal of our spiritual beliefs is necessary, so that our relationship with the Whole is in harmony with the criteria for high levels of mental health. This is why I am drawn to what Pamela Kribbe has written and why I wanted to share it here on my site.
Kameliya Hadzhiyska
Note: The quotations are translated from Bulgarian and are not presented as verbatim citations.
See the next two blockages:
