I agree. Old story, new story. And, the transitions I read here are mostly philosophical. I like landing theory in every day life, by changing practical stories. For instance:
Old story: my wife is irritating me right now. New Story: my wife is telling me something I really should listen to. Old story: I love eating nachos. New story: I'm choosing a salad. Old story: I don't want to hit my drive into the water. New story: I see my golf ball 220 yards out in the middle of the fairway.
I know these examples aren't nearly as inspiring but my life is full of choice moments like that and ever since I discovered the power of telling the stories I want everything has changed. And, those everyday choices translate into the larger issues. Old story: I'm powerless to change the world. New story: I'm changing the world with every thought and word and action I make from an empowered place.
Love this share Will! To anchor it in the "mundane" everyday reality is really when it becomes a practice. Thanks for this. Old Story: I avoid challenging conversations and people because they annoy me. New Story: I neither avoid nor encourage conflict, but take it as a growth opportunity when it arises.
Old story: one person (structure, dogma, religion) proclaims. New story: the circle expands on the theme, co-creating meaning, nuance, and texture. Old story: winners and losers. New story: ever expanding diverse, co-created learning communities
Thanks Charles for getting the ball rolling and Will, for beginning to ground the game in practical examples.
This resonates with every bone in my body. Thing is, I have felt this way since childhood but kept trying to fit into the old story that was all around me. Fortunately I was given many opportunities to stay on track with the new story and now suddenly it feels like there is momentum building and every living being, non-human and otherwise is feeling this shift. People are uncomfortable in their skins, their ways of doing things, their ways of being in the world. I include myself in this, its as if we are outgrowing an old skin and it is painful to shed the skin partly because we're not sure what's on the other side of letting go of that old protective layer that we believe kept us safe and sane. If anything is true now its that everything is uncomfortable and morphing into something else. Your essay makes me feel less alone and full of excitement for what is to come. There is another way and it is being born at this very moment. Thank-you for witnessing and holding the space for the new to come forth.
Such a beautiful illustration of this emerging new story in contrast to the old story. You put words to the intuitive feeling I have of this intangible movement so many of us feel a part of (on a soul-level).
Great post, and you identify some of the biggest and most important underlying issues of our age, which seems to be a time of transition between cultural narratives.
An analogy: in a world without mirrors or cameras, a person relies on the drawings made of him by others to "know" what he looks like, but every drawing looks different; and none of them is three-dimensional or complete. The old story was a bad drawing from behind, that highlights the ass crack and is completely distorted. The new story is a better drawing from the front, featuring the face. The new story/drawing is certainly more helpful for understanding what the person looks like, but it is still just an artistic rendering, not the complete person. It, too, will be revised, and probably a better understanding can be gained from comparing and contrasting it with other drawings (such as the stories told of humanity by other cultures and other ages). Anyway, you gave me a lot to think about with this. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thanks for this meaningful contribution, Daniel D. Yes, a story, "New" or "Old," is still a story. But maybe this New Story will lead us back to trust -- in ourselves and one another -- to more authentically embrace Mystery.
Yes, Daniel, and in advocating fear-based striving for dominance, presumed hierarchy. There's liberation offered by the New Story, along with unimagined responsibility ... but it's still a "story" ....
I am reading A Course in Miracles. I have been reading and rereading it for 2 decades now. This book and your essay put into words my deepest thoughts and feelings, what moves me.
A close friend and I have spirit level conversations and we feel it, this old + new story. Where once we felt crushed by old, we are slowly feeling a lightness in a new. We talk about this on our walks.
As I read other comments, Two quotes from ACIM came to mind.
“A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience. It’s not only possible but necessary”
“ The goal of this course is to allow you to evolve past the images you have made, past the thought you think you think. To a point of reality, to a point of truth, which is independent ... of conflict”
My comment maybe short but sweet…as I’ve been living the “new story “ for quite a while sustaining the inevitable ridicule during the transition process which is an expected part of transition. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this community. It has helped my disposition in hopes for an awaking of humanity. Thank you Charles, for your continued insight, as it has been a beautiful mirror to my own transition during this time of awakening. I appreciate you and the community for sharing.
A myth is akin to a little lie we sometimes tell ourselves so that society can coexist. In the 50s, the myth was the American Dream of Freedom, which has slowly been breaking down.
What replaces this?
The myth of technology as savior, which is being touted as nature and soul itself, which I believe is being done as a purposeful inversion of reality.
If you want your own community of seed-savers and hippies, you must be "selfish"...why not go along with the abundance of technology that will "save the planet" and stop raising livestock?
Like the Blue Star Kachina prophecy states, we are at a fork in the road. One way goes the way of anti-God/Nature by being separate in our AI reality while being told we're together, the other goes the way of God/Nature by being together in human reality while being told we're separate.
I think on their surface the sentences might be described as a 'mixed bag' but, for me at least, it felt like the same thing being repeated in different configurations with the New ideas feel rooted in unity and the Old ideas in seperation.
yes, and my response of course is subjective judgement, feeling drawn to bits of both temporally labeled goods Charles offered up for our reflection. Am appreciative of the food for thought
So good Charles, thank you! I recently discovered a gal in Australia named Shar who has been sharing her awakening process, she is mirroring what you have shared. I've known these points for so long, and feel really uplifted when others perceive this too, thank you so much.
Your new story is a salve to my soul. My body softened with every word. My heart opened. Yes, I can imagine. It is a fierce vision to hold. It takes real gusto to hold it strong in the face of this shit storm of intensity. But persevere we must, brothers and sisters. There are things that must be done. This is one of them. HOLD THIS VISION STRONG EVERYONE!
Actually I feel that I am being asked to let go of all the stories. Old, new it doesn't really matter. One may be more comfortable or more user friendly than the other, but at the end of the day, they are just stories. And all stories no matter how wonderful become a skewed replacement for direct experience of the full spectrum of reality . As Lao Tzu points out there just isn't that much difference between heaven and hell, only what we decide there is.
Here we go...thank you Charles for communicating simply and clearly our true nature, our orginal story is now playing louder than ever before and dispelling the unnatural, seperate story of self...time to step up.🌠
Glad you put in these words at the end of your essay - "We may not always agree on what the story is. We may hold healthy resistance to uniformity of our stories" I have a very large overlap with the new story you shared, but don't feel and experience that God and creation are one as you do. This duality doesn't negate the sacredness of the creation IMO.
I have another contribution -- a writing by William Saroyan, in 1936:
"In the time of your life, live -- so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed. Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are the things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world. Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart. Be the inferior of no man, nor of any man [or woman] be the superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart. Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil. These, understand. Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret. In the time of your life, live -- so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.
I had this on my refrigerator in plain sight for many years. I moved 15+ years ago and I imagine it is still pack up somewhere. I've always thought it held the Keys to the Kingdom and I am very grateful that you've posted it here. Blessings!
I definitely choose the Story of Interbeing. I wonder, though, if the Two Paths prophecy of the Hopi has not already manifested. There are people who still want to tell the Story of Separation, to go further into materialism, into transhumanism, into the unnatural and the inorganic. There is an undeniable split happening. I will focus on what I want, and I will hold out my hand to my fellow beings to take if they so choose and plant seeds of love and life wherever I can.
I agree. Old story, new story. And, the transitions I read here are mostly philosophical. I like landing theory in every day life, by changing practical stories. For instance:
Old story: my wife is irritating me right now. New Story: my wife is telling me something I really should listen to. Old story: I love eating nachos. New story: I'm choosing a salad. Old story: I don't want to hit my drive into the water. New story: I see my golf ball 220 yards out in the middle of the fairway.
I know these examples aren't nearly as inspiring but my life is full of choice moments like that and ever since I discovered the power of telling the stories I want everything has changed. And, those everyday choices translate into the larger issues. Old story: I'm powerless to change the world. New story: I'm changing the world with every thought and word and action I make from an empowered place.
Old story: I'm annoyed my wife is picking at my face telling me there's food stuck to my beard.
New story: I should be grateful I have someone caring for me.
Old Story: put up with that shit for 19 years.
New Story: divorce & and peaceful solitude.
hey well peace and solitude is always better later than never!
New Story: I AM grateful I have someone caring for me. Much love, brother. ❤️
Love this share Will! To anchor it in the "mundane" everyday reality is really when it becomes a practice. Thanks for this. Old Story: I avoid challenging conversations and people because they annoy me. New Story: I neither avoid nor encourage conflict, but take it as a growth opportunity when it arises.
Love that, thanks, I'll use it!
Old story: one person (structure, dogma, religion) proclaims. New story: the circle expands on the theme, co-creating meaning, nuance, and texture. Old story: winners and losers. New story: ever expanding diverse, co-created learning communities
Thanks Charles for getting the ball rolling and Will, for beginning to ground the game in practical examples.
Old story - competition
New story - cooperation
amen to that. old "fake" story as given to us by Darwin.
This resonates with every bone in my body. Thing is, I have felt this way since childhood but kept trying to fit into the old story that was all around me. Fortunately I was given many opportunities to stay on track with the new story and now suddenly it feels like there is momentum building and every living being, non-human and otherwise is feeling this shift. People are uncomfortable in their skins, their ways of doing things, their ways of being in the world. I include myself in this, its as if we are outgrowing an old skin and it is painful to shed the skin partly because we're not sure what's on the other side of letting go of that old protective layer that we believe kept us safe and sane. If anything is true now its that everything is uncomfortable and morphing into something else. Your essay makes me feel less alone and full of excitement for what is to come. There is another way and it is being born at this very moment. Thank-you for witnessing and holding the space for the new to come forth.
Such a beautiful illustration of this emerging new story in contrast to the old story. You put words to the intuitive feeling I have of this intangible movement so many of us feel a part of (on a soul-level).
Great post, and you identify some of the biggest and most important underlying issues of our age, which seems to be a time of transition between cultural narratives.
An analogy: in a world without mirrors or cameras, a person relies on the drawings made of him by others to "know" what he looks like, but every drawing looks different; and none of them is three-dimensional or complete. The old story was a bad drawing from behind, that highlights the ass crack and is completely distorted. The new story is a better drawing from the front, featuring the face. The new story/drawing is certainly more helpful for understanding what the person looks like, but it is still just an artistic rendering, not the complete person. It, too, will be revised, and probably a better understanding can be gained from comparing and contrasting it with other drawings (such as the stories told of humanity by other cultures and other ages). Anyway, you gave me a lot to think about with this. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thanks for this meaningful contribution, Daniel D. Yes, a story, "New" or "Old," is still a story. But maybe this New Story will lead us back to trust -- in ourselves and one another -- to more authentically embrace Mystery.
It should be better than the old story, which was just one form of dogmatism replacing another.
Yes, Daniel, and in advocating fear-based striving for dominance, presumed hierarchy. There's liberation offered by the New Story, along with unimagined responsibility ... but it's still a "story" ....
The map is not the Territory
And If we would see more videos of ourselves, we would become more aware of some of our unconscious 'things'...
Thanks Corinne - Suddenly thought of Robert Burns
O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
from To a Louse, On Seeing one on a Lady’s Bonnet at Church
I am reading A Course in Miracles. I have been reading and rereading it for 2 decades now. This book and your essay put into words my deepest thoughts and feelings, what moves me.
A close friend and I have spirit level conversations and we feel it, this old + new story. Where once we felt crushed by old, we are slowly feeling a lightness in a new. We talk about this on our walks.
Appreciation for your words!
Josee - Right there with you. Have also been reading Brent Haskell’s The Other Voice & Journey without Words.
Like Disappearance of the Universe and the books by Marianne Williamson the help make ACIM more accessible
As I read other comments, Two quotes from ACIM came to mind.
“A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience. It’s not only possible but necessary”
“ The goal of this course is to allow you to evolve past the images you have made, past the thought you think you think. To a point of reality, to a point of truth, which is independent ... of conflict”
Yes!
My comment maybe short but sweet…as I’ve been living the “new story “ for quite a while sustaining the inevitable ridicule during the transition process which is an expected part of transition. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this community. It has helped my disposition in hopes for an awaking of humanity. Thank you Charles, for your continued insight, as it has been a beautiful mirror to my own transition during this time of awakening. I appreciate you and the community for sharing.
Couldn’t love this more 🙏🏻
A myth is akin to a little lie we sometimes tell ourselves so that society can coexist. In the 50s, the myth was the American Dream of Freedom, which has slowly been breaking down.
What replaces this?
The myth of technology as savior, which is being touted as nature and soul itself, which I believe is being done as a purposeful inversion of reality.
If you want your own community of seed-savers and hippies, you must be "selfish"...why not go along with the abundance of technology that will "save the planet" and stop raising livestock?
Like the Blue Star Kachina prophecy states, we are at a fork in the road. One way goes the way of anti-God/Nature by being separate in our AI reality while being told we're together, the other goes the way of God/Nature by being together in human reality while being told we're separate.
Love your writing!
loving the _very_ mixed bag of ideas you presented in this post.
a wonderful assortment of points to exercise discernment & meditate over ~
thanks!
I think on their surface the sentences might be described as a 'mixed bag' but, for me at least, it felt like the same thing being repeated in different configurations with the New ideas feel rooted in unity and the Old ideas in seperation.
yes, and my response of course is subjective judgement, feeling drawn to bits of both temporally labeled goods Charles offered up for our reflection. Am appreciative of the food for thought
I agree...it's very well done!
So good Charles, thank you! I recently discovered a gal in Australia named Shar who has been sharing her awakening process, she is mirroring what you have shared. I've known these points for so long, and feel really uplifted when others perceive this too, thank you so much.
Your new story is a salve to my soul. My body softened with every word. My heart opened. Yes, I can imagine. It is a fierce vision to hold. It takes real gusto to hold it strong in the face of this shit storm of intensity. But persevere we must, brothers and sisters. There are things that must be done. This is one of them. HOLD THIS VISION STRONG EVERYONE!
🙌 Yes! Thank you!
Actually I feel that I am being asked to let go of all the stories. Old, new it doesn't really matter. One may be more comfortable or more user friendly than the other, but at the end of the day, they are just stories. And all stories no matter how wonderful become a skewed replacement for direct experience of the full spectrum of reality . As Lao Tzu points out there just isn't that much difference between heaven and hell, only what we decide there is.
Agreed. And through that process we experience (and appreciate?) the way in which all stories are as impermanent as we are.
Here we go...thank you Charles for communicating simply and clearly our true nature, our orginal story is now playing louder than ever before and dispelling the unnatural, seperate story of self...time to step up.🌠
Glad you put in these words at the end of your essay - "We may not always agree on what the story is. We may hold healthy resistance to uniformity of our stories" I have a very large overlap with the new story you shared, but don't feel and experience that God and creation are one as you do. This duality doesn't negate the sacredness of the creation IMO.
We can simply recall desiderata and take heed and not get despondent.
Some pertinent points IMO.
GO PLACIDLY amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too
have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with
others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than
yourself.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark
imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less
than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be
at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in
the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
For the Government and their medial lackeys - Get stuffed
Thank you, Sunface Jack --
I have another contribution -- a writing by William Saroyan, in 1936:
"In the time of your life, live -- so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed. Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are the things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world. Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart. Be the inferior of no man, nor of any man [or woman] be the superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart. Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil. These, understand. Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret. In the time of your life, live -- so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.
Wow, really beautiful Jim!
When it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed...
To see with clear eyes!
And I don't like and I don't understand: ' if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret'?
In dutch there is a prononciation: to kill time. That means: do something so as not to get bored.
Yes, beautiful: Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. - And we can get rid of it.
The universe is unfolding as it should. Unconscious it is going through us. And we cn dance with it, conscious. More and Moore.
Nice name, sunface!
I had this on my refrigerator in plain sight for many years. I moved 15+ years ago and I imagine it is still pack up somewhere. I've always thought it held the Keys to the Kingdom and I am very grateful that you've posted it here. Blessings!
I definitely choose the Story of Interbeing. I wonder, though, if the Two Paths prophecy of the Hopi has not already manifested. There are people who still want to tell the Story of Separation, to go further into materialism, into transhumanism, into the unnatural and the inorganic. There is an undeniable split happening. I will focus on what I want, and I will hold out my hand to my fellow beings to take if they so choose and plant seeds of love and life wherever I can.