Yes, yes!!  And like Osho writes,

           We humans are like fish who don't know they're wet.

Or, like the main character in the film Sankofa states
 
           If you was born a slave like me, it was easier to accept things like they was.

That’s why our non-attachment is so important.  All you can do is your best, all you can do is offer a Truth when opportunity permits, and to word it in the way that is most likely to get it absorbed.  Beyond that, the choice is someone else’s free-will choice.  If they want to listen, if they want to awaken, they will.  IF they don’t we must let go and let them be.  Who are we to mess with their karma, their free-will, their choice to continue to suffer?

If we are unhappy, SOMETIMES it is because we are allowing the Sleeping Ones to make us unhappy.  If we are unhappy about the state of other people’s awareness, perhaps the problem is in our attachment to fixing, to making the world how we want it (like we are spoiled toddlers). 

Why should we allow ourselves to be unhappy?  We are awake. Let us rejoice!

Let us shine brightly, all it takes is one candle in the darkness to inspire another person to spark up.

If I look at the last decade of my life, even when I was struggling to balance, my light did spark off the light of others, even when I was not trying to wake them up….

probably precisely because I was not trying to wake them up!

I need to remember this...

LIGHTWAVE wrote:
“Sometimes I am so disillusioned I want the whole thing to end, sometimes I do ok and handle living in this state and others times I just feel this is crazy…Some days I feel so alive and blessed and grateful and other days I am flat on my face wondering how the hell am I going to go on with my life knowing what I know now.“?

I can relate to this.  A decade ago I had succumbed to a deep depression.  Of course depression is based on illusion.  Apparently, Evagrius the Christian Mystic identified an eighth deadly sin, which somehow got lost in the Christian Tradition, and that sin was Depression!

There are times when I get depressed, but I have come to see that this comes because the part of me that can see beyond 3d gets ahead of my current space-time self, and gets upset at the disparity between ideal and current reality.

Coming to understand this greatly helps me to calm down when things are discordant.

The past few weeks I really came out of another “dark night of the soul“? which was weighing on me the past few months, and I returned to that state of joy, peace, trust. 

I believe this to be a much more natural state, and I believe we have a right to "earn" that state if we keep things in perspective and remember that we are here for lessons, to strengthen ourselves and to share our light.  (I love montalk’s analogy that Earth is a weight-training room, resistance all around, designed as a place for us to bulk up and gain strength!) Yes, we volunteered for our trials and tribulations!

It was also extremely helpful for me to read the article on Emotional Management on montalk’s site.  Something really clicked.  I felt like I was the last one to “get it“?!!! 

I don’t have to repress and deny my emotions (I always get wary when anyone seems to be suggesting that I do so), but rather I have to learn to manage them and not let them control me.  Experience them, let them flow, but that doesn’t mean I hafeta let them see me sweat….

Rather, just be COOL!!!

LIGHTWAVE, your inner tenderness and sensitivity register with me, I relate.  Those things can be a source of strength to us if we learn how to manage them.

             "Only the strong go crazy.  The weak just go along...."

We must learn how to drive our machines in order to, like you say, watch the bullets stop mid-air. 

Yeah, it’s dope, let’s keep getting stronger!

I like NEOMATRIX’s quote of Bob Monroe getting bored in that “Home“? realm.  Lightwave, we were probably bored where we were, so we chose to come down here to get stronger.  Let’s do it, let’s not loose our nerve, let’s have the guts to carry out our missions.

We have to be vigilant, we have no choice.  We can let go and flow but in a protected space.  When interacting with others who are unaware, we have to be careful and not pout about the fact that we must be careful.  But we are working towards greater light!

LIGHTWAVE, you ask,
“How do I manage to go on without being so depressed and worn down by it all and continue to believe I am not crazy?“?

Well, I promise you, you are not crazy!  So just KNOW that and let go of the struggle there.  You are who you are, you are here for a purpose, rejoice that you are “on the winning side“? and that you are awake. 

Cause we all know, as painful as our experiences are, we are not suffering as greatly as the sleepers.  Otherwise we’d all turn around and go back in the pen/the jail/the matrix and go back to sleep.

Also, LIGHTWAVE, I wonder if you project an expectation of rejection.  What self-fulfilling prophecies does this create?

But sometimes I feel that we are so bombarded with these events in other areas of the planet that we cannot control that it overwhelms us….we feel powerless and confused about what to do….

While obviously what is happening in Iraq DOES have lots to do with what is happening in my life (we are all here on singular, connected, spaceship Earth after all) I do know that sometimes I feel really overwhelmed when bombarded with so much info about world turmoil that feels way beyond the scope of my control, at least in the immediate sense.  I feel sometimes I do have to shut it out and put my energy into proactive creativity.  I don’t permanently ignore it, but I can understand the need to shut it out at times….

SOLOFLECK wrote:
“We can never be alone, because we are part of everything, so loneliness is a self-imposed illusion generated by ego and emotion.  It's another effect of 3D duality.“?

Yes, true dat!!

I have spent the better part of the last six weeks isolated in the mountains and then six months ago just returned from two years spent far, far away in another country….

And it’s interesting how my telepathic connections with friends and family STRENGTHENED as I isolated myself.  We can never be truly alone, even if we try!!

SOLOFLECK wrote:
“We can't blame them for believing the same lies that we also once believed.  We can't be angry with them for what they do when we realize it's not personal.  It's not about us but about the lies they believe about themselves.  They don't know what they're doing.“?

                Forgive them Father for they know not what they do!

SOLOFLECK wrote:
“We do know and that puts us in a position of greater responsibility where others are concerned.  If they are sheep, then we are shepherds.“?

Yeah, and our responsibility now is to become the wisest shepherds we can.

              For, if the shepherd is lost, what hope have the sheep? 

SOLOFLECK wrote:
“?We automatically set ourselves apart when we stop making and participating in the emotional drama which energizes the dream of hell the rest of the world is living.  Instead with truth and love we energize a new personal dream of heaven.  Our connection with the source of unlimited true knowledge does make us more than human; hyperhuman, maybe, because we acknowledge our hyperdimensional true selves.“?

True, true.

However, our anger and sadness and disappointment are legitimate.  They are fuel, they drive us to carry on.  Yet we must always keep an eye on the larger picture, a balance. 

When interacting with someone who is asleep, I believe that although their “Waking-Life Self“? does not know, their Higher Self does!  And let us try to always contact that higher self…

Always look for the Light in another being, and attempt to connect to that, while still keeping a sharp eye peeled on their petty or dark side which might come out and smack ya at any time!

Now, as for OP’s this may be a trap, so we must remain vigilant….

But generally speaking I do believe there is light in most humans, and I look for it immediately.  I speak to that part.

As soon as we start LABELLING people as Sheeple, OP’s. STSs, we shut out our connections and commonalities.  We shut down the pathways of connection.  We shut down the possibilities of communication.

Maybe this is not the best approach?

Yeah I also came to the realization in the past couple years that some, if not many, people have kids to satisfy their own emotional needs and deficiencies….then they have the nerve to make the kids feel guilty about their existence!

SMEENE
Your jail analogy is fantastic.  Why do I still worry about approval from those detained?  Why not just forget about their approval and only seek to release them?

"GAME OVER"
I recently found this mantra spontaneously erupting in my head.  After returning to my home city after years of travel, moving, being a gypsy, I tried to fit back in.  But life had moved on without me. 

Furthermore, the shiny pretty things that used to excite me no longer do.  I can’t get any satisfaction in the things the average person believes are satisfying him/her.

So now I have to take the responsibility of creating my own world…..

I can’t go dance at the clubs anymore because the vibration has sunk so low.  There is less ceremonious joyous energy, more frontin’, posing, pretense.  Nasty.  So I had to find satisfaction in dance classes and dancing alone.

Game over, game over, game over….

Which is to say, THE GAME HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN!!!

ZONANBI: "Solve Et Coagula": Destroy to Recreate. I think this is a very important statement in regards to the process of creation, and carries with it the unspoken assumption that what is (eventually) put back together will be vastly superior in form to that which was originally destroyed.“?

Word, yes, right-on, exactly.

And on the spiritual level that is the reason for the current break-up, dissolution, mixing up and reshaping of cultures and society.  Racially, ethnically, religiously, class-wise we are all being shaken up like a funky-ass cocktail from a new-wave futuristic bar.

THANK YOU ALL for your contributions to this forum.  It has shifted so much energy around in me and given me great strength.  How delicious!

I’ma write stream-o-consciousness style, hope that’s OK.

“There are worse things than being alone.“?
Charles Bukowski

A few years ago I began to realize that the time I felt most lonely was when I was in groups of people….

I am fortunate to know individuals with whom I can communicate quite deeply and feel connected.  But whenever large groups come together we sink to the lowest common denominator….so many systems of wisdom caution against hanging out in crowds for this reason.  I avoid large groups now like the plague. 

I really enjoy one-to-one exploratory conversation, deep exchange with another who is not communicating thru ego but thru heart.  How fortunate I am to have some of these friendships!  Also I don’t mind smaller groups when all involved trust each other and the vibration is open and nurturing and joyful.

But large groups–only when I absolutely must, like family events. 

However……
Recently at Thanksgiving I had an opportunity to introduce some ideas that were completely foreign to my relatives.  My sister actually said, “You know, that just really made something click for me.“?  This was nice.  Others were more subtle in their reactions.  Others teased me for the next few days about my ideas.  But I really do think that, by approaching the topic slowly, gently and smoothly I actually got my foot in the door of consciousness.  This gave me a bit of “hope“?….a dirty word, I know, but it was encouraging.

I try to be loving while still protecting myself.  I try to stay open in case opportunities for communicating a deeper truth arise…..

I also learned that the best way to create this kind of exchange is to be the first to open the door.  By embodying openness, I encourage others to be open.  By dropping my mask, by saying, “Hey y’all, let’s quit playing games and just be real“? I help others to put down their swords.

I accept who I am and that I am different than most people, although it has been a long journey to reach this acceptance.

The article on Montalk about OPs and STS people confirmed that I had made the mistake so many times of assuming that others were basically like me.  It took a really bad relationship with a possible OP (or at least a not-fully-souled man) which left me feeling guilty and completely drained of energy, frustrated and confused (“Why is he acting like that, I just don’t get it?“?) because I assumed he and I shared the basic human trait of empathy.  I believed his big talk that he wanted to grow and become more realized…..but all he really wanted to do was feed off my energy and then make me feel guilty when I needed to be alone and recuperate. 

My codependent relationship with my parents (I feel that I spent most of my growing-up years nursing their emotions and making sure my mother in particular felt secure) made me prepped and ready for such an attack.  I had mis-learned that love was about control and so this OP’s behavior didn’t strike me as so bizarre in the beginning. 

As for the question of spending time alone, it might just be a necessary habit for those who awaken, until such time as the society is, as a whole, more awake and therefore less draining.  I visited Ermolai’s site, http://www.reclaimyoursoul.org .  It features excellent articles about schizophrenia and shamanism.  Many on the path of awakening (and learning to bridge the different dimensions) have felt a deep need to be alone.  We need that space to figure out what is real and what is illusory, who we are, where our free will begins and ends, etc.

Perhaps we just need to cycle through alone times and “public“? times. 

I have always enjoyed spending time alone.  I remember as a child relishing it. I find that some people take my need to be alone as a rejection of them.   They cannot see that instead it is an affirmation of my Self.  Nothing to do with them…that’s the whole point!

If I had grown up in a different society, a more traditional spiritual society, I would have been recognized early on and raised in a way that developed my skills for the benefit of Truth.  Instead I was labeled “gifted“? which meant I had to be pushed through the Matrix Machinery so that I could become the ideal peg.  I jumped through the hoops for years…

Not because I was stupid, but because of a fear, a co-dependency, a fear of being separate.

I remember even in high school recognizing that if I really, really became who I truly was, if I really went for what I knew to be true, I would have to really detach from most people I knew.  This scared me.

So this brings me to this idea of the sheep being dumb…..

What if it isn’t stupidity but FEAR?

I think many of the sheeple are ignorant but not stupid.  I think that the Matrix wants us to believe that they are stupid so we will give up, feel more alone and become elitist and separate. 

It’s the same tactic played out through race, class, religion and ethnicity.  Separate, divide, make hierarchies and conquer.  Keep communication lines broken.  Keep us all from seeing One Love, All-One.  Keep us all from the beautiful secret:

                             All Human Suffering Is The Same. 

In fighting the Lizard People, let’s take care we don’t become one!

Maybe the sheeple are afraid and therefore ignoring Truth because it scares them.

People don’t recognize the Truth because they see it so rarely.

Also, I think the principle of acting in the most beneficial way possible without being attached to outcomes is a good approach.  Plant a seed.  Don’t expect it to bloom straight away.  I know there were people decades ago trying to get through to me.  For whatever reason (prolly fear, insecurity, cynicism) I wasn’t ready to awaken, but the seeds they planted eventually sprouted.

The path of subtlety, the clever use of parables and questions, these can be far more effective.  Get in through the back door, the side door, the trap door.  Be tricky!  Be clever!  Make it a fun game!

We are all getting down.  Yuck.

Stay up.  It’s too crowded down there!

Do the best you can and then trust that goodness will eventually come from it.  Work without attachment to the fruits of your labor.

We must emulate the calmness of The Oracle in The Matrix.  She sees ALL yet remains calm, compassionate, loving, centered.   Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, nice.

Just thought I'd share this!  Was reading through these posts and got upto the one that said:

Just as I was reading the new posts on this thread the latest Green Day song came on the radio. I'm sure it's not intended to be a spiritual song, but I thought the lyrics were quite fitting:

Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

I walk a lonely road

And guess what happened as I was reading the lyrics? Yes the song came on the radio!   

DALE

I AM NOT SURPRISED!!!  That's just how "IT" works. 

Can I get a witness?

I used to call it weird.  My brother finally suggested I take that word out of my vocabulary....

When the "weird" starts to become the norm....
or when I realized it always was, I was just ignoring it....
it became silly to call it weird.

I find I still say things are "weird" when I am putting on a mask around the people who really do think it is weird.  I play the nut-role to get in, make them think I am "one of them" and then I seduce them into the light.

POW!

They say they want people to "think out of the box", " be innovative" yeah right!! Some of these people in power meet someone like that and they shit their pants and then will make sure you are made to shut your mouth.

I was speaking to a friend of mine who used to own his own business.  We discussed this very problem.  He said to me, "Thinkers are hard to employ.  As an employer you want people to come in, do their job, not try to control things, just fit in their place."

He himself recognized how messed-up this fact is.  He got frustrated with this and dissolved the business.  He left the country to go travel and is making money through trading so that he has more freedom.

I have had similar frustrations in my jobs.  Hard to bow down to people I cannot respect.  Hard to pretend that they can really manage me when we both know I am more intelligent!!!

It is things like this that I find so bizarre to deal with. I want to say, well what difference is it if the whole state agrees with you, this is ridiculous! But, I end up defending myself to balance things. I said, well it really doesn't matter how many agree, it's a preference. I feel compelled to take a stand for individuality, but then I get in trouble. My friend said it wasn't a big deal and did prefer unhemmed pants, to which I say fine, but it was like they could agree, but I could not express an opposing view. Once the consensus was agreed upon, we all then had to then agree. Because "everyone else" did not have a problem, we now needed to get in line with everyone else and usually in a situtation like this I try to hold my own in a polite way, but it usually fails and I walk away feeling like I did something wrong. I can never understand why we all needed to agree on the unhemmed pants. Why could there not be 2 or even 3 different viewpoints. No, we all needed to agree to be of one mind. My friend later after wearing the pants had to again go on about getting me to see the error of my ways and that unhemmed ones are really better.

A question for you:

Do you want to win?

For a "newbie" you speaka da langeege preeety good ... TPTB (the powers that be) are going to be very mad at you!!  

Christine B.
PS: Just to clarify TPTB aren't the good guys. 
Edited to add the PS

There is a whole lot in this thread that I have marked it to read and re-read.

I tried pretty much every variety of the sheep pen and found a serious lack of effort. In one situation a person said they felt we didn't need them...I thought, "you're right. I have my family and the peace within me, what more do I NEED?" Until I have come to realize that to move from a "believer" to a "knower" as Neo puts it, we have to do in the "real world". So what I have perceived was what ermolai identified as the lack of REAL LOVE.  And for me I have realized it begins with me...I don't know how to love (but I am learning).

In order to love I figured you have to give up you desires but as Neo said in another thread maybe you don't. I agree, I think what is needed is to humble yourself to help a person, love a person for who they are completely, knowing that you are going to receive that love for who you are desires and all from someone/ somewhere else.

And as tillibullu is getting at (if I am reading correctly) love even the unloveable, sometimes this will be the STS's and those stuck in the MCS, but by Loving them you don't give them loosh, and you take the strength out of their attacks. This is some what simplist as there are times when discernment is needed to not enable the other, but foundational none the less.

entities (people included) in the STS think only of themselves, neglecting others, which is wrong.
entities (people included) in the STO think of others, while denying themselves importance/priority, which is wrong.
and even further comtemplation made me realize that BOTH of these basic orientations forgot to include several other aspects of service...

THERE IS AN ANSWER, I SAW, TO THIS EQUATION:

Service to All [STA]
my vision was one of integration. our planet, the special earth, is the place of integration between polarities, it was chosen by the founders, God, and the Aliens- to be the place to resolve conflicting polarities.
with this knowledge in mind, i saw that both of these orientations are fine and work for people, but they do not work with each other. another thing i saw was that neither of these orientations took into consideration providing service to the many non-living things that make up our world/reality, such as the earth(trees, grass, environment) and space (stars, moons, astronomy) and many other invisible factors that really have alot to do with our reality.
SERVICE-TO-ALL is what I envisioned, an orientation that provides Service to EVERYTHING, all things considered on their priorities. This orientation should balance the importance of helping others with the importance of taking care of thyself. they should also consider helping the Earth as it is our home planet, our base for living, our foundation.

YES!!!!!!!!  This is fantastic.

And guess what happened as I was reading the lyrics? Yes the song came on the radio!   

DALE