{"id":7804,"date":"2021-08-25T03:51:56","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T03:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.weriseup.com\/thejournal\/?p=7804"},"modified":"2021-09-02T20:56:40","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T20:56:40","slug":"the-universal-currency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.weriseup.com\/thejournal\/stories\/the-universal-currency\/","title":{"rendered":"The Universal Currency"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Photo Credit- Karl Wolfgang\n<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Universal Currency is Love<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"IMG-AUTHOR-Nicolas-Vesey@2x\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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BY NICholas VESEY<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Nicholas Vesey is the Minister at the non-denominational Aspen Chapel in Colorado.\nHe is an ordained minister in the Church of England, where he served as a priest for 17 years.\nHe has studied many of the \u2018Wisdom Traditions\u2019 and is as much at home with the Tao Te Ching or the Upanishads as he is with the 4 Gospels.\nBefore the church, Nicholas worked in advertising, ending up at Saatchi and Saatchi, as a self-awareness trainer and as a broadcaster.\nHis interest has always been in discovering how to live life more skilfully, and to that end has made a study of the connection between consciousness and spirituality. \nHe is the Author of: Developing Consciousness \u2013 A Roadmap of the Journey to Enlightenment published by O Books and Living the Life-Force published by Ozark Mountain Publishers.\n<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Teilhard de Chardin, the spiritual writer silenced<\/b> by the catholic church in the last century said, \u201cLove is a sacred reserve of energy: It is like the blood of spiritual evolution.\u201d

\n\nFor most of us, it is money that makes the world go round\u2014 and the main reserve is a federal one.

\n\nBut Teilhard makes the increasingly popular point that the central driving factor that makes the world go round is not money, or atomic energy, or some other force of nature yet to be discovered by scientists, but love.

\n\nOf course, that begs a definition of love and an understanding as to how it all fits together. But all in good time.

\n\nThe starting point for this conversation has to be enlightenment.

\n\nWe cannot begin unless we are on the same page as to the reality of the universe, and through the ages the enlightened ones tell us that we are all part of a unitive consciousness or beingness.

\n\nThat is the reality that \u2018being enlightened\u2019 conveys to us, and if we are not on the same page here, then probably best to turn this page right now rather than wasting your time.

\n\nBut if we are on the same page, then we are accepting that all which is apparent in the universe, all of our consciousness and everything else is, as Wayne Teasdale, Thomas Keating\u2019s colleague describes it, \u201cOne system in which all parts are interrelated.\u201d We are a part of that system, and our enlightenment tells us that we are the universe made conscious of itself.

\n\nThat consciousness was manifested at the big bang and has gradually, through 13.7 billion years, evolved through space, planets, and atoms into life. Then into more complicated life forms, driven not by a selfish gene, but driven by conscious awareness of possibility. The light outside the water drawing fish from the sea. Animals becoming more conscious that as Teasdale puts it, \u201cEverything is possible.\u201d

\n\nAnd then humanity appears. Able to self-reflect. The Universe becoming conscious of itself. And more than that, we can reflect on our origins, and take that next step of the evolution of consciousness, the consciousness of the higher self, or enlightenment.

\n\nThe Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and Lao Tzu all demonstrated the ability to understand that they were one with the divine, or whatever we want to call the primal source of all. (Which by the way, we can never know\u2014we can only know our place within it.)

\nAnd so we come to ourselves\u2014in the present moment. Aware of our place within the great scheme of things. What should we do?\n

\nWell, we are now aware that we are a product of the evolution of consciousness, and our role is now to consciously become a part of that evolution. \n

\nYou can see an evolution of consciousness in recent time; the changes in racial consciousness, gender consciousness, and most profoundly in the rise of global consciousness, especially with modern communications.

\n\nEach of us has a role to play in that evolution, and the currency we are given to be a part of that role is the currency of love.

\n\nMy definition of love is \u2018giving with no expectation of a return.\u2019 Giving with no bargain involved. No outcome to be negotiated. No end point in mind. Just giving.

\n\nThe universe came into being in this way. It was given with no expectation of a return. And we were given our lives in the same way\u2014with no expectation of a return.

\n\nIn this way everything comes into being as a gift. Trees, plants, animals, humans, we all appear as a gift with no expectation of a return.

\n\nFor the last 13.7 billion years the universe has evolved in this way. A consciousness that has given of itself with no expectation of a return.\n

\nSo, when we love, when we give of ourselves with no expectation of return, we unite with the universe and become one with that currency that has always been at the center of everything. When we give with no expectation of a return we become love, and we become at one with the deep purposes of the universe.\n

\nHow does that work?\n

\nWell, it is all about the way we respond to life as it comes to us. If we are all of a one with the cosmos, then those things that uniquely happen to us in our lives are what we are given by the universe to use as a way of bringing love into the world.\n

\nEverything that happens to us, good or bad, is there to enable us to respond with love, and therefore make our contribution to the unfolding of the evolution of consciousness. \n<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Photo Credit- Karl Wolfgang<\/a><\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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We are all involved in this \u2018emotional alchemy.\u2019 All that happens to us, the pain, the distress, the joy and the happiness, it is all there for us to use to bring about a shift in that evolution of consciousness through us transforming it into love. <\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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To give with no expectation of a return, whatever happens. Even unto death.

\n\nThis is the way of the heart, as opposed to the way of the mind.

\n\nTo follow the way of the heart is to abandon the \u2018me first\u2019 of the mind and instead take up the role of the living sacrifice.

\n\nLiterally sacrifice comes from the Latin words, sacre ficio \u2014to be made holy.

\n\nThe way of the heart is the way by which each of us becomes the light for others who follow, and that aids in the transformation of all consciousness.

\n\nThe way of the heart is the way by which we give ourselves in our lives to all that is around us. We allow the universe to give us what it will, and then we attempt to respond from our hearts rather than from our minds. In doing so our lives become not about survival, but about being a portal for love into the world.\nIn doing this we are becoming that love by which the universe was given, this planet was given, our lives were given, and, in dealing in this currency, we become that which we deal in. We become the love at the center of the universe and our lives find their true purpose.\n

\nLove is the currency that makes everything turn. Our role in life is to discover this and then become a part of it. There is nothing more.<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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aspenchapel.org<\/a><\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Photo Credit- Karl Wolfgang The Universal Currency is Love BY NICholas VESEY Nicholas Vesey is the Minister at the non-denominational Aspen Chapel in Colorado. He is an ordained minister in the Church of England, where he served as a priest for 17 years. He has studied many of the \u2018Wisdom Traditions\u2019 and is as much\u2026 <\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,21],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-7804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issue-2","category-stories","tag-issue-2"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Universal Currency - WERISEUP<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n