A month later, my car window was smashed and my new GPS stolen...another $350 gone. This was my first experience of a car break-in too. Then, a week after that, my son accidentally reformatted our entire computer, wiping out hours of work I'd done the day before and had not yet backed up.
Strangely, rather than feeling angry and resentful, I felt rather unperturbed by all these events...a bit surrendered. I came to experience what master teacher John Sherman refers to as the SELF that never changes, the SELF that can neither be helped nor hurt by anything. Any successes and failures don't really touch the true SELF. You can read more about John's teachings at http://www.riverganga.org
Anyway, I now have contents insurance AND I set the burglar alarm before I leave the house. Funny, I think, I used to call myself an 'Empowerment Coach'. Hmmm? Is there something beyond empowerment?
A few days ago, I viewed a video of an interview with another master teacher, Joe Vitale, http://www.mrfire.com/.
Joe talked about the four stages of mastery, and I really took what he said to heart. The first stage he described was a stage where many people spend their whole lives: 'Victimhood'. This is a stage where everything is someone else's fault, and one's life circumstances are largely due to circumstance. In this stage, we take little personal responsibility for what happens to us in life.
The second stage Joe described was 'Empowerment'. This is the stage
which could be referred to as feeling like you are GOD...in other words, you create everything that happens to you. It is only you which is controlling and directing your life, and you take responsibility for everything.
The third stage was called 'Surrender'. This is the stage where you realise that even though you set goals and have dreams, that sometimes Life points you in another direction. Relationships come and go, and events happen which you do not foresee or predict. Surrender is letting go and opening up to divine guidance and holding the possibility that perhaps rather than you BEING God as in the Empowerment stage, that perhaps you are just one 'drop' in a vast ocean of GOD...that perhaps it's not ALL just about YOU.
The fourth stage beyond surrender is 'Realisation'. In this stage, you aren't surrendering to the divine, you are ONE with the divine, moving with divine intuition in absolute grace moment by moment.
You and Life are one and there is no separation.
In the fourth stage, there is peace, because you're not a victim of Life, nor are you GOD by yourself, you're not surrendering to Life, you are one with Life.
So, where am I on the scale of mastery? After the burglary, I could have gone into victimhood with a 'poor me' attitude (which I allowed myself to do for a brief moment). Fortunately, I did not stay there for long. I could have stayed at the 'empowerment' stage with an 'I created it' attitude. (I did that when I said to myself, I did say I wanted to get new jewelry and clear out the clutter on my dresser - I did say I needed a new computer and a new video camera anyway) I would like to think I moved rather quickly into the third and fourth stages of mastery, surrendering and moving with life and doing what needed to be done in the moment with grace.
Where are you on the scale of mastery today? We can all move forward and backward in these stages at different times. It may be useful for you to keep in mind these 'four stages' when dealing with any 'crisis' or 'problem situation' that you might deal with in the future.
Here's to smooth surfing in the ocean of Life!
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