Implementing the Lessons You've Learned

Discussing how this life provides both intellectual and skill based lessons, how you can tell the difference between them, and what to do once you know.

Transcript

Implementing the Lessons You've Learned

The common wisdom and message in spiritual community states souls embody on this planet to learn lessons. This is presented as if souls go through a school system somewhat like we have in North America or Europe where there is a specific structure for what lessons are learned at what age and in what order. Here young children learn addition, then subtraction, multiplication and then division. Older children will go through Geometry, Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus and possibly Statistics. All of this through a system where the lessons are carefully curated by an authority or authorities and once a lesson is learned intellectually and can be applied in an academic setting, then the process is complete, and the next lesson provided. The idea being that once all the lessons are learned there's no further reason for incarnation and the soul "graduates".

This has created a focus on "getting the lesson" as a remedy for issues, problems, frustratingly repeated patterns, negative or mal-adaptive habits, or anything which seems to be keeping us from the life we're trying to have. Therefore, if we can wrap our head around things, get the meaning or the message which is trying to be conveyed, plug the enlightenment into our knowing, then everything will magically shift, and we can move forward.

The problem with this model isn't that it's wrong. Nor that it's like a broken clock which is right twice a day whether it likes it or not. This is in fact a good description for embodiment, just not a complete or adequate one. Dealing with embodiment as if it's all about lessons is a bit like buying a car, but finding it only has two wheels when it needs four, has no driver's seat to sit on and only part of the engine. You have a car, but it's a fixer upper and not one which is going to get you where you want to go any time soon.

But before we go forward, let's back up a moment to get a clear idea of why this is.

Embodied life on this planet is meant to be educational. This is an educational space where souls come to learn. While there are thousands upon thousands of lessons which are taught here, just like there are in an education which spans ages 6-18, the main thrust of them is love and fear. Soul's don't need to learn about love. We come from love, are created of love, and live in a loving state everywhere but here. What this planet teaches in infinite variety is what it means to be without love. This is a place where fear is real, has meaning, and can be experienced on every level. It is a place, which, like Dark compliments and supports Light, gives meaning and depth to love, allows us to expand our full being experience of it, and expand into conscious, active acts of love: love of self, love of the other, love of environment, situations, objects, concepts and so much more. Not passive, but active loving and being actively loved, or not.

In particular, this planet teaches about a specific way of actively loving, which is about attachment to a unique individual.  This place begins the lessons a soul needs in how to love and create bonds with another such as a child, parent, sibling, or chosen other.  This embodiment is about the personal vs. the global and all of the complex intertwinings which can occur between them.  For instance, you can experience lessons on how to stop focusing on your personal needs to have and act on empathy for other(s) as individuals or groups.  Or how to stop focusing on others or social "should's" and instead value creating healthy boundaries and empathy for yourself.

Add to this lessons around experiencing emotions.  In our natural soul state in the Akasha where we are beings without containment or separation, we communicate empathically and telepathically.  We feel directly what the other feels; receive their thoughts as our own. Because of this we live lives of pure and unconditional love and infinite care for the other. We are literally our brother's keeper because what we feel, they feel and what they think we know.

Embodied life with its individual containers, its artificial yet distinct separations gives us the freedom to experience ourselves fully. Everything here is sharp and technicolor and in every variety of the rainbow. It can be sensory overload, but it is our brief window into the full throttle experience and not to be wasted.  We don't bring all we are into embodied life, we bring what we choose, what we need.  The less we bring the more our bodies help us forget all but this life now.  The more we bring the less our bodies can keep out of sight, the more balanced and therefore sensitive we will be. Not everyone is overwhelmed by this experience. Some are more sensitive to the world around them; others retain or regain their knowledge of the universe beyond the physical and who we truly are.  This is a function of embodiment, a balancing of universal and embodied energies.

All of which is just a very brief, incomplete overview of what embodiment here is about.  Think of it like an artist's tool kit and pallet.  It doesn't determine what the painting will end up being or even if it will be.  It provides a means for the artist to create and possibly some inspiration as well.

Life as a human being is complex by its very nature.  We are social beings interconnected in a myriad of ways just within our own family let alone our social/economic group, race, ethnicity, country or origin, profession, interest groups, and so on and so on.  So, it's rare we come to learn only one lesson or anything simple.  This just isn't the right setting for that.  Instead we weave together many different lessons to learn throughout the life, matching the expectations we have for what we can achieve at various maturity levels with the possibilities the life could afford us.

This means while some lessons need to be learned sequentially like math, others can be learned all at the same time, like English Lit. and History.  And it often makes sense to have them all going at different rates or different levels all at once.  We can be a pro at manifesting but really awkward at leadership.  Or struggle with being overly blunt while excelling at craftsmanship or navigating complex systems. There are exceptions to this, however.

There are some lessons which can stop us in our tracks.  Lessons which we simply can't skip past or defer so if we don't get them the first, second, or third try, we might decide to put everything aside, therefore we focus solely on them.  It's not uncommon to see this in people who absolutely refuse to accept responsibility for anything they have, are or will do.  They won't get a job and can live with relatives way into their 4th or 5th decade.  They refuse to take any actions to resolve issues around quality of life, even very, very small ones, all the while complaining about them.  They stay in jobs which cause more problems than they are worth all the while a change would be simple, easy, and a relief. They stay in relationships which, while not harmful to anyone, aren't really relationships at all and seem stalled, never going anywhere or providing any happiness.

Lives of this kind are usually set up to force the person to take responsibility.  For anything.  Any small thing.  So, the lesson is encoded in every small particle, action, and interaction.  It's like forcing a puppy's nose into piddle when they consistently pee in the wrong place.  Any step in the right direction will be rewarded, anything else will just keep the nose in the piddle.

It's important to note these types of lives aren't punitive. They aren't a punishment doled out by an authority, but the choice of the soul themselves.  The soul sets them up like blinkers on a horse or a quiet floor in a college library to force themselves to focus and prohibit avoidance.

So, with all this said, lessons are a major component of why we're here and once we get them, we incorporate the wisdom into our lives and move on. 

However, the myths about how this happens can cause people frustration or even to be self-sabotaging.

Myth 1: Getting a lesson intellectually means the lesson is complete. 

We've all experienced how this is rarely the case.  How many times have we intellectually known there is a tack strip, small extra step, staple or nail on the floor somewhere we walk, and yet we trip over it time and time again.  Knowing something intellectually without applying the knowing in some concrete way, doesn't necessarily help.

Myth 2: All lessons are about learning something intellectually or becoming enlightened.

The easiest way to think about this is to think about how you learned to drive a car. There was an intellectual component, whether you took a formal class or not. Usually to get a license you need to learn all the laws and rules for driving safely and pass an exam, but even if this wasn't a part of your experience, you had to intellectually understand the rudiments of driving at some point, usually before anything else, as the process starts long before your feet can reach the pedals.

However, driving is a physical thing and so requires you to learn physical actions and reactions. Rarely is anyone a savant at anything so there is usually a lot of awkward beginnings, literal false starts, near misses, possible actual scrapes, mistakes, and a TON of experiential learning. All of which transforms us from who we were into something completely new.

It also creates a gateway for more possibilities, opportunities and potentialities. Like a flower opening, petals radiate out from this: hearing message through songs played on a device while driving from here to there, road trips as bonding events with others, exploration of new geographies-cultures-groups, intense emotional/social situations and so on.

Getting your head around driving is necessary, but actually a very small part of the process. The doing of driving, the being a driver, and participating in driving with others, is the majority of it.

Which is why, if people get overly focused on looking for the intellectual lesson in a situation they are in they can miss the point entirely.

Embodied life can be focused, not on lessons, but on skill building. Once a lesson has been learned, we still have to apply it and not necessarily in a simplistic way. This reminds me of something an elder of my tribe taught me decades ago. Don't pray for strength. There's only one way to acquire it and that's by going through events which require you to be strong or break you down, so you'll be forced to build yourself up. Instead, pray for things which support you being strong such as grace, health, abundance, and insight. Life will cause you to develop strength whether you like it or not.

It's not uncommon for souls to design lives where they are required to use things which they have learned and to repeat this specific style of life over and over again, because practice makes perfect, and repetition creates muscle or soul level integration. We become what we do and overtime what was something foreign we needed to focus on consciously to achieve, becomes just part of who we are. We can therefore carry it from life to life, stop focusing on doing it and instead BE it.

Lives can also be about personal development. Rather than focusing on one specific lesson or skill, they can be about entering into an entirely new aspect of being. This is somewhat like moving from medical student to being in residency. Once all the lessons are learned, the skills acquired, the tests taken and aptitude has been proved, then it's time to start using them. However, this isn't just about performing in a certain way. Residency is an act of transforming the self from one state of being to another. Moving from learner to be-er, from individual responsible to and for self, to authority responsible to and for others.

This is a very complicated "pat your head while rubbing your stomach" process of trying to keep all of the knowledge and skill accessible consciously while at the same time being completely available to the needs of others while holding appropriate boundaries, taking in feedback from authorities, and deciding on best practices in each case.

The same process can be seen in "the trades". Intellectual learning is required for plumbing, electrical, construction and so on. Once you've done the initial learning then there is an apprenticeship program where you are a journeyman learning not only how to apply your skills, but how to do so under deadline pressure, with specified (if not best) supplies, under circumstances which are unique to each project and often not ideal. The process is transformative, moving the soul into a better, more complex and complete version of the self.

While it can seem like the goal is to achieve something, create something, make a unique impact on the world, often with these lives the point is not one sterling achievement, but the process itself. Like with any craftsman, each project is another chance to be better, to create more perfectly, but never the final destination because their life is about being a craftsman. To be better than the self each time, to unfold more of the self, discover more of what is possible with each iteration is the point.

So if you've been looking for the lesson and can't find one...if you've beaten your head against the wall so long you've created a permanent flat spot on your skull and a relationship with each individual brick, perhaps it's time to pull back and take a pause. You might have already learned the lesson and instead be developing new skills, which is always an awkward process the first few...hundred times...you do it. If so, then don't see the repetitions as failures, but as progress. Look back at where you started, see how far you've come, and glory in how much better you are now. Then keep going because it will just keep getting better.

Or it might be you're now working with the skills you've developed in order to unfold an entirely new version of yourself. And like most birthing processes there is pain and mess before we get to the "trailing clouds of glory" part ...but we do get them and our most precious selves besides.