Are We There Yet?: Spiritual Explorations and Insights on Living in Happiness on the Journey to Enlightenment

by Felix Ntiforo

Overview

There is something for everyone in this insightful book .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504381611
Publisher:	Balboa Press
Publication date:	07/21/2017
Pages:	148
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.32(d)

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CHAPTER 1

WE ARE LOVED

It is said that "the wheel of God grinds slowly and efficiently" This certainly seems true of the process of growth. Sometimes it can feel like I am going nowhere, fast! For example, it took me over 60 years to truly begin to realize that Love is the force behind all of creation. My heart keeps beating automatically and I keep breathing even when I am sleeping! I eat and my food gets digested with no thought or effort required on my part. If these life-sustaining facts don't demonstrate to me that I am loved, then I know I have quite a bit more struggling to do before I wake up to reality. Everything is in order - waiting for me to wake up and put myself in order, and then proceed to get myself out of the way.

Realizing that there is a learning curve to life has helped me get rid of the judgemental notion that "mistakes" are bad. This idea has been replaced by the encouraging concept of "continuous attempts at success." The first notion comes from a source of guilt and blame (which are junior associates of power and fear), while the latter has its source in unconditional love and peace.

The idea that Love allows me as many attempts at success as I need has led me to have a firm belief in reincarnation. There is so much to learn and enjoy on Earth that I know one lifetime provides nowhere near enough time to learn all the lessons to be learned and to become ready to be a co-worker with the source of creation. From everything I have come to know so far, that seems to be the whole purpose of human life.

It all begins with understanding that we are loved beyond all understanding. Then we share that love. Love is the name of the game.

CHAPTER 2

HOW I FELL IN LOVE WITH LIFE ... AGAIN

I know for a fact that it is possible to fall in love with life again, or to fall in love with it for the first time if you've never done it before. When a person is in love, they become more alive. There is a sort of glow or positive change that can be seen and felt around them. A study in the USA found that athletes even perform better when they are in love! Does it make a difference if they are in love with another person, with themselves, or with life?

Falling in love is a merging with the spirit of love. The human experience of falling in love is merely a microscopic, microcosmic version of the real falling in love, which is falling in love and in line with the Holy Spirit. That is the macrocosmic version of falling in love. When a person falls in love with life (the Holy Spirit), they develop a shining countenance - the sort of glow depicted in paintings as a halo around the heads of saints. Put in this context, the idea of nuns being married to the Holy Spirit is beginning to make some sense to me. I can, at present, only imagine how it will feel to fall completely in love with the Holy Spirit - I am sure the feeling is beyond description. I do, however, know what it to fall in love with life, which is a great first step.

For me, the process of falling in love with life again began at about the age of 62. I began to recall and get quick glimpses of how I felt before I started attending first grade. Back then, I often slipped into a feeling of what I can only describe as the utmost feeling of comfort - which was followed by an infusion of pure joy. It happened regardless of what was going on in my life at the time. I had a haunting sense of being in the scene of life, but not really of it. That feeling of detached beingness had made me feel vibrantly alive, which was quite different from how I was currently feeling at that time in my life. I guess this was because I was finding it almost impossible to find that comfort and joy in life at 62 years old, even in a part of the world where material plenty was supposed to make the combination of comfort and joy easily accessible.

I was quite comfortable with my physical experience. I was a healthy 62. I had a good job that paid well. I had all the physical resources I needed to cover up the inner discrepancy and lack of real joy in my life. What I mean is that I had enough activities in place to avoid having to feel and resolve the ever-increasing inner void within me. Now that I am able to look back at it with more detachment, I realize that the bigger the void grew, the more activities I sought or devised to fill it. For a long time, it was fun doing just that. It certainly seemed to be what everybody else was attempting to do, and I managed to do it better than most.

When I paused to honestly consider the state of my life, I felt uncomfortable. Of course, I realize now that life in a physical body is full of discomfort for a good reason: Souls are not encouraged to stay there. We are meant to realize the full scope of our beingness and spiritual potential!

I was no stranger to religion - my dear father was a minister of the Presbyterian church - and as I pondered my life during this time of inner turbulence, I was surprised to realize how deeply my inner core as a person had been shaped by what I had learned during my Christian upbringing as a child. I am going to mention here the main reminders that kept coming into my mind at that time, and will touch and expand on them as I go along:

1. Ask and you shall receive - in effect, you are never too big to ask for help.

2. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added unto you.

3. The Kingdom of God is within you.

4. Do unto others as you would like to be done to.

5. In my father's house there are many mansions, so there's room for everybody that God has deemed fit to create Everybody is loved.

Perhaps you have also heard that we must become like little children before we can go to heaven. That is another biblical basic that remained in my consciousness and outlook on life.

I have also explored other religious faiths in my journey over the years, and have been shaped by some of the teachings and concepts I have come across. For instance, my core beliefs also include the ideas that:

1. Everybody acts as a teacher and a student. You can learn from everything and everybody.

2. Life is a learning curve and there is no such thing as a mistake. A wise person's life is one continuous mistake!

3. Do not judge, especially yourself.

4. There will come a time in your life when you must ask for a spiritual guide.

5. Watch your dreams. You can get help from your dreams.

6. We are made in the image of God, and we are put on earth to be shaped into the likeness of God.

I have also learned that we need to be in control of the ego. The ego is not an independent entity. It has the need to be accepted or not accepted. It functions only in the worlds of duality and only knows wins and losses - it doesn't know peace. There is no real happiness for the ego. In fact, the main obstacle between you and God is your self - the little self - the ego.

I've learned that Vanity keeps a person out of the arena of peace and joy, while Humility leads a person eventually to the world within. So yes, we want to seek first the kingdom of God which is within everybody, but it requires humility to get in there. Practicing the qualities of love every moment is what gradually brings a person into a happy state of being. What are those qualities? Love is patient, forgiving, nonjudgmental, respectful and honest, just to mention a few.

Armed with all these insights and understandings which I had gathered throughout my years, and inspired by the memories of my childhood, I set out to recover the joy I had as a child. What happened? Gradually, I found myself waking up from a deep slumber, falling back in love with life, and regaining a childlike sense of wonder.

This seems to be ajourney we are all bound to take. Simplicity and joy often mark the first stage of our journey in life. Then, in the second stage, we develop ego, sophistication, seriousness, gratification ... and discomfort! Stage three brings a return to simplicity again, this time with maturity and an infusion of more and more joy.

In stage one, a mountain is just a mountain. In stage two, a mountain is a complex composition of various components, which we play with and within which we hide. And in stage three, we return home like the prodigal son, and discover that a mountain is still just a mountain. The main difference between these levels of consciousness seems to be the different levels ofjoy and love.

CHAPTER 3

TRANSFORMATION, GROWTH, AND THE EGO

I had a dream once in which some old geezer was making a comparison between the human growth and purification cycle and the caterpillar's transformation into a butterfly. The first stage of human growth was compared to the larva stage in the formation of a butterfly. This made a certain amount of sense to me at the time, and makes even more sense now that I am an old geezer myself. After all, there are cycles within cycles and, in this brief life of mine, I have been through at least three main cycles that I've noticed. In my larva stage, I was cared for and my primary teacher was my mother. Then my older siblings and my father and close relatives also chipped in to guide me, as is often the case. Modern living and civilization has brought variations and modifications to this early process in which we get a necessary taste of unconditional love, but the process seems to be fairly universal. It is even evident in most animals. Some primitive species in the animal kingdom may not follow this "initiation into love" approach, but most human beings tend to lean towards working with unconditional love when dealing with a newborn baby. I know, however, that it is also true that some babies are destined for an initial environment in which care and love may not be unconditional, and I speculate that this may contribute to shaping the character and personality of the individual. I feel that this is neither a good nor a bad thing, mainly because I am coming to understand that there is an underlying divine reason for absolutely everything. There are no accidents or coincidences. I believe the word "karma" attempts to explain this phenomenon.

The larva stage in my life probably went on until I was about 6 years old. Then I slowly started to learn the ways of the world that existed outside of my mother's protection. Slowly the environment took over and I unconsciously picked up survival skills. I started to harden up, for lack of a better expression. Perhaps this was like the formation of the hard chrysalis in the butterfly's transformation. I can only refer to it as the beginning of the formation of my ego — that necessary survival armour, which is provided by nature for a good purpose. Every sport has protective gear that has been carefully prepared and lovingly provided for the safety of each player. Since the whole world is supposed to be a stage designed for Souls to play and learn in, I think of the ego as the necessary protective gear for the sport of life.

Nature has set the stage for this play on earth. The trees grow and provide fruit for nourishment. We have food and playmates. Winning feels good and losing fees awful (which always reminds me of the expressions "sweet and sour" and "bittersweet"). At the larva stage of one's development, the idea and practice of playing has the illusion of being eternal. There are no worries. Interestingly, this worriless state is said to be the way we're supposed to feel when we come to the end of our training in a human body. Hence the idea that we must become as little children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. At that point, though, we will also have gained maturity and responsibility, as well as the feeling of peace and tranquility that comes when one's personal will blends with divine will. When we are ready, we will be in the state of selflessness. We will be outside of ourselves, and the life force will draft us into the service of life. It is not up to us when we get "picked". This process is above our ego. Meanwhile, the ego has a job to do, which is to help us get ourselves ready - that's all.

CHAPTER 4

PAYING ATTENTION TO COMMAND CENTRAL

Attention, attention. Please keep quiet for a moment. I need your attention!

Close your eyes, take in a deep breath, listen to the sound of the air as you breathe it in and out. Listen to your heart beating.

"Be still and know that I am God!"

God speaks to us all, individually, and we need to pay attention or we will miss what is being said. Keeping still is the only way to get ready to hear this voice within. The mind must be empty - like the emptiness of space, like a chip of wood or a piece of stone. That's how we can come close to feeling some affinity with our true or original mind. The original or normal mind is empty. It has not picked up things along the way. It is like water that is calm, deep, and crystal clear, so that the moon of truth can reflect fully and perfectly upon it. Most of the time, people's minds are like murky water, constantly being churned by the waves of delusive thought. The truth of the moon still shines steadily upon its waters, but, because the water is in a constant state of turmoil, the reflection of the moon cannot be clearly seen. The result is meaningless lives, filled with frustration and misery. This is being lost in the illusion. So, we need to pay attention.

You can only hear the teacher if you pay attention to what is being said - by the teacher, not by the people around you.

It has been said that you are where your attention is. Any time I think of not paying attention, I get this image of an astronaut who has landed on the moon and is not paying attention to Command Central because his (or her) attention is on something that interests him personally - yes, he has a personal agenda and he forgets he is on a mission! He is off and running. He will be off licking his chops for as long as his battery pack lasts. Only then will he be looking back to Command Central to be re-charged. Let us hope he is not too far to make it back or too lost to be able to hear and follow the instructions to lead him home. He might be too far to even see where the ship is! Cannot hear, cannot see, so it would be goodbye and good luck with that personal agenda, at least for that lifetime.

I have been there and done just that! I have definitely been lost and now that I have been found, I can assure you I won't even come close to doing that again! I do not quite remember the details of how I got lost or how I was found. All I know is that I was not given up on because I - like you - am a beloved child of God. Love was patient, and Love found me - and now I know better. I am with Love always, and Love is always with me! It took being lost to make me realize that I am here because of love, so now I readily and willingly drop my personal agenda and follow the way of love! I stay tuned into the divine command centre all the time now. That command centre hovers above and tells me where to point my battery charger to get charged, so that I can keep going and fulfill my part of the mission. I do not worry anymore. I just pay attention, listen, and do what the command centre of my heart guides me to do!

During the formation of my ego, I used to think of myself as a body with a Soul inside of it. I believed that my mind resided inside of my body too - just like my brain. I am not sure when this belief started to change, but I now realize that my thoughts and actions at that time stemmed from allowing my brain and body to act as the command centre. This is what I learned in the beginning of my formative years because it was what I saw everybody else doing, and school actively encouraged the use of one's brain as the ultimate means of survival in the playing fields of the animal kingdom.

Gradually, though, my mind and Soul have taken over as my command centre. Acting from the brain was good and fun while that period of my development lasted. However, acting from the mind under the direction of Soul is acting from the heart. There is a natural infusion of joy and happiness that comes when I'm able to operate from this new direction. By working from my heart, I'm also able to choose to be in touch with the source of life. This realization is one that I grew into gradually, and I must admit that it is quite a relief to be this way now, acting from the heart and directing the mind!

CHAPTER 5

LOST AND FOUND IN THE PLAYPEN OF LIFE

The earth is really just one big playpen. No matter how lost you think you are, Love has you penned and you will be found. The gift of free will and getting lost is all part of the program. You see, the playpen is not really that big; it just looks big. It's an illusion. The huffing and puffing of our own ego and vanity is what makes it all appear to be so big. Take the hot air out of the ego and the illusion will fade away, and you will feel and do much better. You will be able to hear the small voice within and will know where to go. Stop looking too far ahead or too far behind, so you can see the obstacles right in front of you. Oh, and by the way, those obstacles are really stepping stones or stairs for you to climb up towards your destination. They are not there to trip and bruise you. That is not the way of Love! Love will find all of us.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Are We There Yet?"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Felix Ntiforo.
Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction: Walking the Talk, ix,
We are Loved, 1,
How I Fell in Love with Life ... Again, 3,
Transformation, Growth, and the Ego, 7,
Paying Attention to Command Central, 9,
Lost and Found in the Playpen of Life, 12,
Surrendering Our Thought Bondage, 14,
Outer and Inner Order: Steps to Knowing Yourself, 16,
The Bully and the Play of Love, 19,
Learning to Die Daily, 22,
From Duality to the Middle Path, 25,
The Gratitude Attitude, 28,
What Can the Practice of Gratitude Do For Me?, 32,
Catching the Love Train, 34,
Defeating Mental Terrorism & the Breath Hijackers, 36,
Karma and Life's Paradoxes, 39,
Heaven and Hell, 42,
Limitations, 44,
Peace on Earth, 46,
Graceful Living, 48,
Butterflies, Flowers, Frequencies, and Fragrances, 50,
Cries of Desperation to the Full Moon, 53,
Burning Up the Ego, 55,
The Building Blocks of Ego, 57,
Angry Cries, 59,
A Closer Look at Lust, 61,
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, 63,
Greed, 65,
The Strings of Attachment, 67,
The Play of the Ego, 69,
Letting Go, 71,
God Will Get You, 75,
Are There Many Gods?, 79,
To Be on God's Side, 82,
Tuning Your Instrument, 85,
Keeping It Simple, 87,
Loved Ones, 89,
I Am That I Am, 91,
There's Always Another Step, 93,
Anti-Aging, 95,
Expectations and Security, 97,
True Wealth, 99,
Addicted to Soul!, 100,
Lights in the Bootcamp, 103,
Are We All Connected?, 105,
The Source of Joy, 108,
Letting Spirit Shine Through, 109,
Breathing in Tranquility, 111,
Being Transparent, 114,
Asking For Help, 115,
The Amusement Park of Life, 120,
Arms of the Divine, 123,
Tailor-Made Timing, 124,
Becoming the Nature of Love, 126,
Purification, 128,
Living From the Inside Out, 130,
Repetitions, 132,
Are We There Yet?, 134,