The Longings of the Soul

July 10, 2012 By 5 Comments

weaving the longings of the soul, the guidance of the higher self, the patterns of the natural world, and the necessities of everyday life……into a workable kind of spirituality

My own sense of my personal soul, or psyche, is that it is an underpinning element, perhaps even the core, of my awareness. This soul is both personal yet also, at the same time, non-personal and transpersonal. This soul operates in a personal sense in that I am a coherent individual, who is a vehicle, a transmitter, a transformer of energy into actions and speech and vibrations. (When I use lower case, as in “soul”, I am referring to the individual soul, and when I use uppercase, as in “Soul”, I am referring to the Soul of the World, which of course includes all the individual souls.)

The personal soul needs and is drawn to certain experiences in order to relate to the souls of others and the Soul of the World — in specific, awakening and enhancing ways. When affected by unaddressed trauma or a learned false perception this soul/psyche is vulnerable to a muddying effect that clouds our ability to be present and to react to people and situations with clarity, immediacy, and compassion.

Experiences I have had (for example in meditation, ceremonies, and dreams) have shown me that even though I need a sense of individuality in order to survive, relate and create, the soul dimension of life is in fact contiguous, non-separate, non-dual, and non-egoic.

I am guided in connecting with the Soul (of myself, others and the world) through (non-neurotic) feeling states, dreams, and observation of meaningful meetings, inspirations, surprises, and synchronicities. To the extent to which I can cultivate a calm and receptive mind, I am more available to the Soul.

The longings of the soul are how the Soul expresses its needs and future direction through the individual.

Longings show themselves through attractions (driven by strong feeling), dreams, and fantasies. These all bring important information and should be paid attention to, especially when they persevere over time.

Unfolding and examining longings can be a crucial factor in spiritual development, which is why I have included this phrase, the longings of the soul, in my description of what this blog is all about.

Until the mind is clear and past trauma has been healed, longings have to be carefully analyzed before action is taken, as they may arise more from the need to compensate or from false conditioning than out of a genuine urge to be creative and awakening.

In today’s world, with its predominately capitalist structures, we have to be especially careful of longings that have been created by the indoctrination of advertising. The current mythology is that wealth solves all. The conflation of self-worth, good looks, and material prosperity is a fundamental error, and betrays the extent to which our minds have been influenced by free-market capitalism, which after all is just the current model of human organization and not the be all and end all.

Individual fulfillment varies, thanks to the wondrous diversity of our amazing world. For many, great wealth is the last thing on their genuine agenda. So clarifying what is true for oneself at a deep level is part of our soul work, part of our spiritual wholeness, part of allowing ourselves to be authentic and truly happy.

What we dream of is what we are longing to become, and within these dreams lie the future not only of our individual experience, but also of our world. We need to be free to dream our own dreams, to listen to the part of the self that is free of corruption, and then work to fulfill these dreams in ways that benefit all.

The soul and its longings have been historically and universally expressed through poetry, song, and music. Partaking of any of these, whether through making or receiving, can give you immediate access to both your personal soul and the Soul of the World. Notice which poems, songs, and music draw you. Watch also for visual art, movies and television shows that move you rather than being simply entertaining. As always, pay attention to your dreams. What is all this abundant information telling you about the longings of your soul? The more you focus on this, the more specific the information will get, and then you can work on turning that longing into direct experience that transforms and brings joy.

Next time, an investigation into The Higher Self and how this concept relates to notions of best wisdom, spiritual guidance, angels, and deities.

 

 

Filed Under: The Soul 5 Comments
  • Chris Algoo

    Great article! Looking forward to The Higher Self.

    • laraowen

      Thanks Chris. Just posted it!

  • http://sambrightwell.com/surfacing sam brightwell

    Lara, you’ve explained this so well. It’s given me some real clarity about something that’s been troubling me for a long time. The part where you say “until the mind is clear and free from past traumas” is something I’d really like to ask you more about. How can one get a clear, reliable answer from one’s Higher Self when you know that your mind is clouded by emotional traumas, longings, grief etc?

    • laraowen

      It takes focus and trust and intention, Sam. It is totally possible — so fear not! There are three main steps: 1. Start establishing a relationship with your dreams (good info on this in my book Growing Your Inner Light). 2. When past trauma that is unhealed is getting in the way, you may well need to work with a therapist or healer to come to terms with what happened and release it. 3. Sit everyday quietly and even if you don’t do a formal kind of meditation, be still and listen to yourself. At the same time, you can pray — you can ask for guidance. And then see what comes in. It can be useful to have someone wise in your life as a sounding board to check the clarity of what you are “hearing”, but ultimately of course you are looking for your own sense of rightness to kick in.

      • http://sambrightwell.com/surfacing sam brightwell

        That’s great – really helpful, Lara. I really didn’t expect you to make the first point (assumed you would say something about the need for meditation). I’ve always been in two minds about value of paying attention to my dreams. The funny thing is, recently they have become more vivid, more disturbing, and actually quite memorable, when for years I could never recall what I dreamt. I attempted keeping a dream diary, years ago, when I first began meditating and walking the spiritual path, but I found it so disturbing that I gave up. I’ve listened to women who talk about their dreams being portentous or being some kind of oracle, and just thought that it’s all a bit unreliable, as dreams seem like a lot of jibberish and turmoil to me. But as pathways to illuminate issues that remain unhealed in the mind, well, that feels reliable to me.
        Thank you.