Paradigms

There are many patterns or systems in our world. In sociology you learn about the mores and belief systems that form our societies, which are our paradigms. Belief systems are not only spiritual or religious systems but also include; social, scientific, educational, monetary and political belief systems.

There are other forms of paradigms for instance, a Labyrinth is a paradigm. It is a symbolic pattern of a belief system. A labyrinth is defined as a structure or system of interchanging passages through which one must navigate, sometimes with great difficulty to reach the center or source. Like our Spiritual Quest for God, a spiritual paradigm.

How society forms paradigms or belief systems.

Throughout recorded history the major paradigms that have been part of society have been determined by those leaders "who won the wars and controlled the people". Thus, the military in tandem with the political leaders of an area determined what systems or paradigms were acceptable and these were thrust upon the inhabitants.

Every paradigm that has ever existed came about from the need of a better way of living or doing, or the belief of some person or group that they had a better way of doing things. Sometimes, this came from a person saying they received Divine Revelation. The various religious paradigms began as Divine Inspiration or Revelation given to one person, who shared it with others, who chose to follow the same path. As the number of believers or followers grew, we may have seen doctrines and sacraments developing. Often upon the original Inspired Person's passing, a hierarchical structure often developed. The original revelation or beliefs may become altered along the way to fit the changes in a society, or to influence the mores of society based on the needs of the followers. These changes being interpreted or determined by the hierarchy of caretakers.

In the political system, paradigms are created from the needs of society and the extreme of changes thrust upon the population such as: poverty, crime, famine, suppression, rebellion, war and greed. A perfect example of this was the Roman Empire, a Republic Paradigm composed of elected officials. Their existence and expansion based upon their military strength, allowed them to maintain and expand their territories. This was aided by their tolerance, and incorporation of the belief and social systems of conquered nations.

They provided to the free land holders of their society, art, music, education, literature, travel, luxury trade items and class mobility. It was not perfect, they had slaves and bonded people, the extremely rich, extremely poor and both were supported by the taxes on farming and middle class merchants.

In their desire for MORE of everything, goods, knowledge and land, they expanded to quickly unto the point where the state could no longer feasibly defend their territories. Quickly some of these extreme needs and changes occurred, with Christianity being declared the state religion, so that all the goods of the non-Christians could be absorbed into the church and state. This created tremendous inflation and tax burdens upon the middle class, who were unable to meet them. Without funds the army grew weak, and they were unable to defend the territory and protect the roads for travelers, so trade dwindled and luxury goods, diminished. Without anything to sell the merchants lost their homes and businesses and the tax support base dwindled further. Books were burned that were considered inappropriate and were banned by the church, allowing publishing and what people learned was controlled. Education suffered and schools began to close, illiteracy, poverty and crime grew.

Seeing the lack of security in the outlaying territories, the 'barbarians' who had seen the wealth of the empire began invading the territories. The farmers and small towns were at their mercy. They were forced to pay protection to the barbarians. The strength and influence of the Barbarians was growing and the FEUDAL SYSTEM was born. We entered the Middle and Dark Ages of Human History.

This is an example of how paradigms are born, change and die, culturally, religiously and politically.

Another pattern or paradigm is the pattern of creation.

This image is called the "Flower of Life".

It is the image for creating life, the pattern. Within this pattern exists the patterns

of the building blocks of life, the sacred geometric forms of the platonic solids.

It is the expression of the template of life.

How do we develop our personal paradigms?

When a child is born into this world they are filled with unlimited potential to become and manifest that which they are in Heaven upon the Earth, to manifest their Divine Gifts in Service to God and Humanity, that which they were Divinely appointed to do.

One of the basic laws of creation is that ENERGY FOLLOWS THOUGHT.

For example in the Christian Bible it says:

"In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light; and there was Light.'"

God thought, God spoke and the energy followed the thought and manifested Light. Another way of seeing this is to see all the darkness in the night sky as unrealized potential. It is the latent and un-manifest energy waiting to manifest. The stars are the end result of manifestation of the unrealized potential being acted upon by the intent or attention of the Creator. God thought of Stars, the Masculine aspect of Creation being the Intent, Will or Impetus of Creation. Then God spoke the Word, "The Child of the Creator, the Neutral or Balance aspect of the Creator, is the pattern of Creation, the Personalization of God. Next the energy or Spirit of God, the Feminine Aspect of the Creator, followed and acted upon and with the void or darkness and stars manifest in the sky. A simplified version of Creation. In this understanding we can look at how we are able to manifest in the same manner.

Going back to that child of unlimited and unrealized potential we begin by looking at attention. Attention is the ability one has to discern and focus on one thought, action, object or person out of all the things happening around us. As a baby, one learns how to receive attention. It is a natural process of crying to be changed, fed or loved/held. So, through their crying they are rewarded with positive attention. As they grow, they learn that certain behaviors earn them differing rewards, such as punishment for what their parents deemed bad behavior.

Through the rewards and punishment paradigm they are taught which actions and systems are acceptable to their family and society. They learn to filter out those actions that are unacceptable, and to suppress them. This is a function of the inner child. They are learning where to place their attention in order to receive what they desire. In an emotionally distant family where a child is shown little attention or more punishment than rewards, they may resort to repeated bad behavior. For attention feeds the ego and for a child learning and dependent, even bad attention is better than none at all.

Once they begin to walk they are journeying towards independence. They learn the word "NO" and how to use it. When asked to do something they don't wish to do, they use this new term repeatedly. They are beginning to develop a personality of choices. They have learned as babies that attention can get them rewards and they base their worthiness upon this system. If they are punished for saying "NO", they begin to adapt. These paradigms are being thrust upon them. They are socialized into accepting and fitting into their parental and societal paradigms.

As they grow into their teen years, they are now searching further for their own identity, wanting to be independent of their parents. Some may totally comply and fit into the accepted norms. Some totally rebel and become outcasts. The majority learn how to manipulate the system to meet their personal needs, wants and desires. They learn to be careful to cover this manipulation to avoid discovery and punishment.

While these ones are becoming independent of their parents and family they are becoming more and more dependent on the positive attention of friends and peers. They begin to be like actors upon a stage, having different masks. They act differently for different people and situations. Even many who conform to their family paradigms do this with their peers. They know the rules of each paradigm and how to survive and manipulate it for their reward and to avoid punishment by breaking a rule.

Some, especially those who as children adapted to the 'even bad attention is better than none' paradigm, are so engrained in this paradigm, that they perhaps receive an emotional rush or thrill in breaking the rules, and seeing if they can avoid punishment. This pattern can be tough to break once established, but NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH THE DIVINE.

As young adults, people have developed internal rule books, that they use to monitor themselves and those with whom they choose to socialize. The inner mother and father. If they don't begin to make changes at this time in their lives, these patterns may follow them throughout their lives, and they pass them on to their children. For those of you who have children or are into middle age these are those moments when you say or do something and you realize "I remember my parents saying or doing that and I swore as a kid I never would be or act like them."

When as an adult we come across a new idea or situation, our internal rule book begins to evaluate the situation or idea. We do the rewards or punishment check. Will this new paradigm cause me to be an outcast or different from my peers. Even worse, if this is true will the Life Long Paradigm, I have held as true collapse, leaving me without a structure in which to determine the situations in life. This is a tough time of CHOICE.

If we do nothing we simply continue on with the old status quo of our parental/society paradigm. There is nothing wrong with this choice, this is the choice of many and it is how the status quo is maintained. However, sometimes the desire to change is great but in making the choice to change you may find family, friends and society loudly objecting to your changes. In a book by Bruce Wilkerson called,"The Dream Giver" he simply and with great inspiration addresses this situation. The story being about Ordinary, who lives in the Land of Familiar. Ordinary receives a dream from the Dream Giver that inspires him, but to manifest his dream he has to leave Familiar. The story follows his journey as he encounters the Border Bullies who include his family and others that try to stop him out of fear. Their fear coming from perhaps losing him, losing their own comfort zone, or facing the fact that their Familiar might not be all that there is. He has to face them as he leaves his Comfort Zone in order to manifest the Dream given to him and all that involves as He learns to trust fully the Dream Giver to guide him.

That is what we face if we choose to follow our dream. For our Dream is that which we know or feel that above all else we could do or be in this life, this would bring us PEACE and JOY, and all else would seem ORDINARY in comparison. Yet, that is exactly why we came into this world to follow that DREAM. The internal rule book may say you can't, society may say you can't, your family and friends may say you can't, but ultimately the CHOICE is YOURS to follow or live in ORDINARY.

How can we step from our comfort zone? By asking the Divine to guide us for the Divine Creator gave us this dream. If you believe in Angels, ask them to help you and guide you, for they can't interfere with your freedom of choice, you must ask for their help.

You can never reach enlightenment if you do not believe you are worthy.

That is one of the most common barriers we must overcome is that lack of self worth. It may have come as a result of our paradigm indoctrination, or our experiences in life that as a result of the outcome not being what we believed or wanted created a feeling of failure within us. Another paradigm to overcome. This is a beginning look at our personal paradigms. I will be posting on my members page, a worksheet on this subject to help on an individual level if you are interested please email me to be notified when it is ready or you can contact me with specific individual questions at shekinahesh@hotmail.com.

We are on the verge of not only changing personal, but planetary paradigms. This requires a vision of what is to come and holding that vision in the energy of Divine Love and Light until such time as sufficient energy is joined from others with yourself to manifest the Dream or Paradigm. This is something that you can read about, join with others of like goal and heart. I will be posting more information on this on my members page and in the Freedom Flame Program. You can email me for more information, and I will notify you when the Home Study Program - Freedom Flame is available.

In the meantime the following books are very good and can be purchased at Amazon simply click on the image.

Choose to follow your dream stop being Ordinary, leave your Comfort Zone to live a life beyond Familiar and if you run into some border bullies, simply ask there is help available in both the physical and spiritual realm.