by Joel L, Australia
I had an uncomfortable realisation that I had signed up for many mainstream and ‘out there’ things over the years, and did so without question. Why did I do this, and do others do the same?
Why did I excitedly and with minimum resistance choose to sit in a boiling hot ‘sweat lodge’ chanting in the dark with other naked sweating people? The leader told American Indian parables (even though he was a born and bred Australian). I left feeling invigorated, but at no time did anyone ask me – if you feel invigorated now, what was going on beforehand? No-one said, ‘why did you need chanting and super hot temperatures to stimulate the blood flow to FEEL invigorated?’
Is it possible that I mistook indulgence for true exploration of my life? And because it didn’t ask me to admit this, I didn’t need to challenge it?
Why did I follow the religion of my birth without question? Sure, its general tenets were like many others: be good to your fellow man (do unto others and all that), don’t challenge other religious views (tolerance), stay part of ‘our community’, it will all be okay once ‘the messiah’ gets here. Why didn’t anyone point out to me how kindergarten says something very similar, ‘play nicely with the other children, don’t wander, and wait until mum/dad picks you up’? Where is the empowerment in that? Why did I not question the concept that God sees us all equal, but each religion sees us as different?
Is it possible I preferred to feel included than to really explore my relationship with God? And because they didn’t ask me to admit this, I didn’t need to challenge it?
Why did I eagerly train in modalities like Reiki, and then happily trained other people in these modalities, without someone (including myself) asking whether the energy of anger might be different to the energy of love? Or what effect does the practitioner have on the quality of the energy (eg: if we do drugs or alcohol the night before, what happens the next day?).
Is it possible that the ‘titles and training’ gave me recognition? And because they didn’t ask me to admit this, I didn’t need to challenge it?
And so the list could go on – years (maybe lifetimes) of going along with things that never truly challenged me. Years (maybe lifetimes) of choosing to be challenged by things that told me I was not enough… and needed to do, and be, something more.
Only once has my growth occurred through someone (a group of people in fact) reflecting back to me just how much I truly was already. And in the deep stillness of this reflection I was given a choice: to keep going as I was, or feel the joy that sat patiently waiting for me to return.
Why did I challenge, question, resist and fight that reflection for so many years, and yet so easily followed everything else?
Could it be that something inside us prefers comfort to truth? Could it be easier to withhold what we feel so we don’t upset the apple cart? Could it be easier to defend our right to harm ourselves and others, than it is to start asking some real questions?…
- Why are religions at the centre of so much war and abuse? And why don’t other religions say anything?
- How do health professionals become unhealthy?
- Why does the education system care more about a student’s spelling than their health?
- Why do people in ‘love’ (under the current definition) – kill, hate, cheat, abuse?
- And of course, the ultimate question… what am I feeling right now – and what have I done to feel that way?
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
‘Could it be that something inside us prefers comfort to truth?’ Great point Joel, too many of us have turned a blind eye to the truth preferring to stay in comfort and not rock the boat. The power of us reclaiming our truth and expressing this brings about true change as it supports and ignites others who have been silent to also express where they have held back.
“Is it possible I preferred to feel included than to really explore my relationship with God?” How often do we get lead this way (down the garden path) because it is easy and less responsible to respond to what is needed (what we are feeling) , and possibly create tension by showing others there is more, and basically getting them to admit it too. Of course this is not always welcomed however, if you allow and appreciate it is not just about you all will be revealed- it is a greater position to be in why not get used to it?! This is the challenge worth being up for – How much can I allow through? How much joy can I feel after it comes through? This is the true concept of ‘work’ and possibly why we don’t enjoy what work is today.
Joel, I love how you present this so simply, we fall in line with the most unfathomable things with no good reason and yet those things which truly support us we fight … we definitely prefer comfort to truth and I know for me personally I often don’t want to be the person who stands out and says enough, and yet what is that saying – am I willing to stand by and tolerate abuse to myself and others (I have been) and yet that’s not how I see myself and it’s not how I can want to live, and so I continue to find that places where I do not stand up and learn to take the steps to stand. After all that’s what love is.
In the disconnection of the love that we are, we are always in search of bliss as a filler for that which we are not willing to embrace witin ourselves. It is only by deepening our relationship with truth we will finally evolve the love that we truly are.
Very reflective thoughts – “no one really knows the answer to that” is a common get back but the truth is there is an answer to all those things. And the answer in within us, as is the truth of all things.
I agree from my heart Joel! Lets question!
With every question and truly seeking for an answer I have the opportunity to go deeper into understanding and my view does expand – so it is worth doing it. If not to say: a responsibility to do so.
Questions can liberate or dam us further into the ignorance we have chosen.
Thank you Joel for a really great blog, I did not question much in life but went along with things until one day I didn’t any more. These days I am open to the whys and the wherefores of my life, not in criticism but in learning. I was caught up in the never enough feeling which lead to the searching outside of myself for what I though I didn’t have, while all the time it lived inside of me waiting to be connected to.
Joel I had to laugh because of your second question: “Why did I excitedly and with minimum resistance choose to sit in a boiling hot ‘sweat lodge’ chanting in the dark with other naked sweating people?” I did this as well once and I too did not question it. It seemed that my mind was not open for such a question. Since I met Serge Benhayon I am more aware and I love it to ask myself questions like: “what am I feeling right now – and what have I done to feel that way?”
I have wondered for a while now about not wanting to ‘upset the apple cart’ when we ask – what am I feeling – and what have I done to feel that way? Who’s apple cart are we upsetting? who we truly are or the false ‘me’ I have invested in? Because the more that my feelings and the true reflection of who we truly are in essence as shown by Serge Benhayon upsets the apple cart the more of who I truly am I get to be aware of. In fact who I truly am doesn’t need a whole apple let alone a whole cart of them!
These are great questions Joel, I for one have not questioned anything as much as I questioned the Truth when I came upon it as in all my years of searching it was the only thing that ever truly asked me to step out of comfort and take responsibility for myself.
And that’s the point isn’t it Kathleen? If we question – we get an answer. And this answer is maybe challenging us and asking us to make a change….and to get out of our comfort.
I love the questions that you ask Joel. These are questions that are really asking for truth and true change, these are questions that help us break out of our ill behaviours.
Yes Joel, we really need to ask questions. As a teenager I drove my friends mad at times asking questions, no one else seemed interested in either the questions or the answers – “let’s just keep having a good time” was the usual response! I feel it’s a natural thing to want to know more. And, questions are very necessary to draw out the truth. We seem to accept with complacency the way the world is when in actual fact we need to deeply question the way it is. We seem to care far too much about facades and politeness whilst the world is crumbling around us. Here’s to asking more questions and asking for transparency.
Simply brilliant Joel, your questions are gold. It feels very uncomfortable when we realise we have been choosing a life of comfort and various forms of indulgence to avoid the truth and the truth what we have accepted that has not been supportive ourselves or others. To take a moment to ask ourselves these questions is very supportive and assist us to take responsibility for our choices. I feel the ultimate indulgence is in avoiding truth and as a society we seem to be displaying behaviors that reflect this in all areas of our lives. Your blog and the teachings of Universal Medicine inspire us to question life as it currently is and ask, ‘Is there another way?’ Because the way humanity is currently living now is definitely not working. And the answer is yes, there is another way and that is to return to living with love and truth, to continuously discern what is true and what is not and allow the intelligence of our body to guide us through life.
“We seek to be more when we have forgotten that love is enough” – this is such a pearl of wisdom Liane… it shows the reality of the things we do to replace what can never be lost.
Honesty is called for here Joel – even to hold the honesty whilst pondering the answer to the big questions you have posed feel difficult. Everything feels based on the fact that we ‘think’ we ‘think’ and because that is the case, we lay claim to all we think as being the ‘Truth’. We live according to this truth because we believe we are right and that we are ‘good’ people but many of your questions blow this out of the water. I particularly loved your last question Joel – ‘And of course, the ultimate question… what am I feeling right now – and what have I done to feel that way? – this is very timely for me right now. Thank you for sharing your enquiry, honesty and wisdom.
“Why did I follow the religion of my birth without question?” This is a question that always hovered in my mind but I didn’t want to explore as I knew it would then ask me so many more questions that would definitely ‘upset the apple cart’. When I met Serge Benhayon I realised that all the ideals and beliefs in my apple cart were rotten and the wheels on the cart were leading me in the wrong direction, away from the love of who I truly am. It is in The Livingness of all that I am that I find my way.
A great point, Joel – we mistake indulgence in perceived personal change panaceas for a true exploration and understanding of what has brought us to the moment when we feel we need it. So once the heat, the calm, the bliss, the placebo effect has worn off, nothing’s changed except our bank balance and our sense of disappointment.
love it Cathy, the looking like we are doing good, work hard, working on our stuff…all so we can actually avoid true responsibility.
Love the examples you have given here…I was walking through a local market a few month ago and a spiritual medium was having a stand up abusive shouting match with his partner…it was so violent, I needed to get his attention to break the momentum. none of the surrounding stall holders stepped in or even questioned how so much violence could come from stall supposedly representing the divine.
Great blog Joel. “Could it be that something inside us prefers comfort to truth? Could it be easier to withhold what we feel so we don’t upset the apple cart? Could it be easier to defend our right to harm ourselves and others, than it is to start asking some real questions?…” Although always searching – and getting caught up in the spiritual new age – I was always looking outside of myself for the answers to life. I too didn’t ask the right (true) question and can reflect now that comfort played a huge part – for lifetimes. Now I have woken up to this (again) I am going for truth.
It seems the reason why we don’t challenge the ideas of obviously miss-guided theories is because we have become invested in someway. If that be being accepted, gaining recognition or simply living a comfortable life.
Until we start to question our motivation it is nearly impossible to tackle the bigger systems at play. In saying that it is also difficult to look at our motivations until someone else points out otherwise. This is why inspiration is so important and working together in brotherhood is essential.
Investments are a huge thing Luke…the more time, money and identity we sink into something the harder it is to be objective about its true merits.
We do indeed Liane, and the way you have worded this shows the ridiculousness of this All our pursuits ‘to become more’ of what we are not’ as we exhaust ourselves running from the love that we are.
It sure does Liane! And that is not the only ‘problem’ that ‘lies in the eye of the beholder and not in the beholding light that is love’!
Thanks Kathleenbaldwin the comfort of the search is a huge one to over come, follow quickly by the comfort of wallowing in the clean up 🙂
Haha, so true Joel, we are the masters of comfort. We can find comfort in almost anything!
so true, we can be comfortable in the most uncomfortbale places
So, so true Joel just like the comfort I am getting right now having the last say. hahah
The resistance to do some things can be so enormous and the unquestioning to do other things is equally worth a question! Why don’t we get educated to learn to ask the right questions that keep us self-empowered?
Hi FelixSchumacher, Perhaps it is because we are more interested in protecting our comfort than finding out the truth. The truth brings responsibility. It seems that we avoid responsibility like the plague. I have noticed that I even find it hard to spell responsibility . . seem to need spell check every time!
It is true felix, at times we rush into things that are so very harmful and then at other times we delay, ignore, resist things that are so very supportive and beneficial. as you say, we are not taught to understand why this is.
This is true Kristy, if we are all capable of having those aha moments, then we are also capable of keeping ourselves ignorant of just as many.
True Kristy. We love to avoid as much as possible, but what we don’t realise is, what we avoid never ever goes away, like a niggling pain. We are so much better of asking these questions and answering them as and when they come up. Imagine clearing all that rubbish that consumes us daily? Is that not the ticket to freedom or what?
Joel, I love your posts – this one in particular. Quite the thought provoker. The very last question you pose is a killer! I’m really starting to question how little we actually question and how much we simply accept. I’ve given my power away on several occasions for the simple reason that I have wanted to avoid feeling the truth of what I feel, and would prefer someone else dictate it for me. All I can say is – it doesn’t work people!! If you choose to ignore your body and yourself, there will be consequences, I am a living example of that, as are most of us. Self care, appreciation and love – a recipe that insures a joyful life experience.
So true Elodie, our thirst for truth is so palpable and powerful that we will grab anything to quench this thirst. But just like soft drinks, start off feeling like they do the job, much of the new age, leaves you more thirsty than when you started.
Exactly Kate and not only does every thought, word and action impact on the way we feel it also impacts on all others. We are all responsible for the whole not only the part. The real question is why do we shirk this responsibility so readily turning a blind eye when if each of us stood up and took responsibility the world would change in an instant?
The power of what we reflect to each other…if we are all engaging in an activity, or, at least a number of us engaging in an activity, we feel socially validated, irrespective of whether or not that activity is our truth or not. We have such power to endorse and confirm each other…great questions, Joel: why do we use this power of confirmation and validation for things in life that are so much less than who we truly are?
What happens when we use the power of confirmation and validation for our truth? See “Universal Medicine” to research this latter situation….
Joel you have highlighted here a great truth that definitely needs to be addressed – Why are religions at the centre of so much war and abuse? And why is no one saying anything? Is it really worth it to remain silent and to be unquestioning in our following while there are such human acts happening, that do not need to happen.
All great questions Joel, and the fact of having been asked therein lie the answers.
Great explanation Alexis
Awesome questions Joel, I too can relate to a complacency, like a stagnancy – a lack of action and a lack of want for action that can take over and govern our lives. It is like a veil that drops over us – a veil that stops us from seeing, hearing and thinking clearly – a veil that is there to keep us in the fog of not-life never seeking more and never seeking true answers. Those that begin to break through the fog and begin to ask questions are also those that then get silenced in some way by another force or by the collective force of those enmeshed in the stagnancy. But this veil is on some level a choice – a choice to not hear see nor think that which frees us…and frees all of humanity. To be truly free from this veil does come with a level of responsibility that most of us will shy away from, hence the deliberate choice to live with the veil. What a crazy conundrum – we live a false repressed and reduced life, by choice and yet we know this and cannot stand it, yet when it comes to breaking free of it, we struggle to claim that truth and stand for it in full, unless we are put under the pump.
Once we start observing what we are up to with honesty, there will be a number of questions arising, as suddenly we will realise that what we thought to be reality was but a creation from our minds.
Greatly succinct summary, Michael: “what we thought to be reality was but a creation from our minds.” Yes….we allow ourselves to be duped and our folly is to be a socially endorsed and accepted reality. Why?
Or do we dare not rock the comfort of others for fear of leaving our own behind?
Perhaps it is that we are being asked to stand in our power and deep knowing in a world that is sold on comfort and maintaining the status quo. Comfort doesn’t ask you to be honest, real or enquiring of life – in fact it will either leave you alone or will give you anything you desire as long as you agree to not disturb its nest.
What comes first – the questioning that initiates the answer or the answer we already know that initiates the question? In appreciation – Thanks Joel
Great question ch1956!
It is interesting here how you have raised the question about being in the playground. Is it possible that as children we do in fact feel everything that is going on and have all these questions but can see that they will not be accepted, and so hold them back? Is this the start of holding back as an adult, not questioning or telling it like it absolutely is?
I relate to this Linda, the questioning never goes, but because the questions are so often reacted to and the answers seem to fall so far short of what you feel to be true, that it becomes easier to give up and join the life others appear to have accepted as ‘the way’ to be. But there is another way.
I totally relate to that cycle in my life, Joel: I always questioned – never stopped- but the answers often added more and more layers of complication so that, eventually, after decades, I started to ‘give up’ or just allow the status quo to be, as there was no other way presenting itself as absolutely true….now having re connected with truth through Universal Medicine, it is necessary not only to heal the falsehoods of the past, but also the giving up energy within my body, the reluctant, but exhausted resignation that came after these decades of questioning and finding nothing.
The system protects itself well in this regard.
How true Joel..”Why did I challenge, question, resist and fight that reflection for so many years, and yet so easily followed everything else?”
Great questions to ask Joel, and ponder upon. When we allow tolerance or comfort to be the norm we allow untruths to proliferate and this results in more division amongst humanity.
Love instead unites and heals.
Joel I love your blogs, this is another great one… it is so true, I did that exact thing – sweat-lodge, naked, native american parables, stinking headache, felt sick… but somehow never questioned it. I just thought I was the problem! Today that seems almost inconceivable and yet l’ll still be doing a version of that with the things l’ve decided are ‘comfortable’ now… how and why is definitely something to ponder deeply, thank you!
Yes… Willingness is something I have come to know much better lately, and our heads can be saying yes, yes, but if our actions don’t follow suit, then it is a case of the Will is saying a very clear No!
“And because they didn’t ask me to admit this, I didn’t need to challenge it?”
Equally i hold my hand up to drifting through life without questioning much of what i knew did not feel true. I became a people pleaser which kept the apple cart steady, but evolved no one and felt increasingly empty – i abandoned myself & lost the will to see that i even had a choice. Meeting Universal Medicine was like being asked to wear yourself inside out – no one had ever asked me to be this honest with myself, the apple cart came crashing down and the truth was looking straight at me. I mean where had i been that i needed to be given permission to feel & honour my body?
Thank you Joel. Great questions you pose. All these questions, though, for me come down to one to be constantly asking myself, ‘Where I am accepting comfort instead of questioning what is be presented to me?’
Before i had met Serge Benhayon I lived a life where I avoided asking these questions although they where there so obvious in my face. Instead I was continuously searching for ways to avoid to go to the truth that was there waiting for me to look at. Serge Benhayon has awakened me out of the horrible dream by openly asking this questions that opened my eyes to what was there all the time to show me the truth of life but what I not wanted to truly look at.
Such powerful questions posed Joel. So many that I feel are never considered in today’s society out of fear of what other’s may think or say. Living in comfort is fleeting and living with love is enduring forevermore.
Awesome Joel, you are asking the right questions – how is it that we have not questioned so much of this before, even when we knew the world was out of kilter we chose to resign ourselves to it or give up and go into our own little comfort zone. Becoming honest about why we choose to not speak up is the first step towards being able to understand exactly why the world has become so crazy, and our role in allowing that to happen.
I could relate to all these unquestioned choices and the fact that they didn’t ask me to look at anything I wasn’t prepared to let go of. The comfort of this feels like a well worn path but one that leads us round in circles, not back to ourselves, brotherhood or God. Arrogance and the need to think we are able to choose/be individual, whether that is good for us or not seems to be a big factor that keeps us choosing these comfortable options.
That is so true Fiona , I have felt the same in my life, I have deliberately chosen this comfortable ways to not move on with my things (hurts) in life, like you said: anything I wasn’t prepared to let go of. That feels so true. I have chosen this comfort over truth as it suited me better as an individual, or at least I thought. My set-up to fail and not show and live the truth I know is truth. This was leaving me empty and power-less as I was choosing to leave my truth and love.
To me this blog is very powerful in many ways because it is offering us truth again on those areas where we have not allowed the truth to be what it is and expose our choices. And that is offering us the fact that we are not lost, and we can choose power, truth and love again.
Thank you Joel, its crazy indeed that all these questions don’t get asked. I can feel how I didn’t ask them to not be reminded of what I left and how I and the world are lost in some crazy things that are not truly us.
I have had experiences where I questioned my religious teachers for example, as for me there were so many holes in the bible and what they were teaching. I asked the same question to many teachers and I got a different response every time, so I figured that I would have to work it out myself, and that the bible was not a reliable source of information entirely, that there was more to the picture. I wasn’t exactly ‘rebellious’ but I couldn’t sit back and just accept what was on offer.
This is great and thought provoking Joel. Why are we so unquestioning? What I felt when reading the blog was that old chestnut ‘responsibility’. If we lay low and don’t question, then chances are we don’t have to take responsibility for ourselves or our actions. Part of it for me was also that endless search – Reiki was a good example, studied right through to “masters’ only to find that it wasn’t it – and it’s true, no-one ever questioned my life-style or what energy I was in previous to any treatments.
Fumiyo such a great point. I reacted to everything I saw pretty much. The church I grew up in, the government services I worked for. My reaction was to run away essentially because ‘what could I do to change anything’. While it’s important to feel all of what goes on in society, the strength and the steadiness to remain involved but to live another way, without reaction is the true gift.
Joel this is super powerful. Like you I have gone through life really questioning very little, in fact I often studied and then practiced modalities because the idea of them sounded great (but the practice of them where often somewhat different). Why do we eat things, that we know are not good for us? This lists goes on. But as your point says comfort is the real thing that we do need to start challenging for ourselves and that source of comfort may be different for each of us and holding onto our hurts blinds us from seeing and feeling the extent to the rot we get ourselves in because of such comfort. It does hurt to see this, but opening ourselves up and beginning to ask ourselves questions, we begin to work through all of that that holds us back from who we we are.
I too learnt Reiki and not long after I can remember sitting in front of my fire place feeling such a coldness and dampness in my heart that I knew it wasn’t right. I actually raised this with a friend, who also happened to be doing Reiki and even though she was telling me that it was ok, it would pass, deep inside I knew it wasn’t true. It took until I began studying with Universal Medicine for me to feel just how much I had known that the coldness in my heart was definitely my body reacting to what I had subjected it to. For now I can feel the warmth in my heart of true connection to myself, something Reiki never offered to me. So yes Joel what you present and the questions you ask are very important, for they give us all a moment to stop, evaluate why we do what we do and to maybe begin to choose to follow the warmth of our own hearts.
I feel comfort has an enormous hook in people and not wanting to rock the apple cart definitely plays a role in people not speaking up. This is done usually to not upset or offend anyone. But at what cost are we doing this. As a school teacher I can only tackle certain and accepted issues with children. For example I cannot suggest a child is obese at the age of 12 and needs support with food and healthy choices as the sugar in their diet is effecting their ability to learn, but I can report them for smoking, drugs, bullying etc. Society has said what we can and can’t do and this suits the comfort we coast along in. The cost of this financially and emotionally will be sky high. Like with most areas of human life it will have to get so bad before we stop and try a new direction. There is another way though. The Way of The Livingness as presented by Universal Medicine . A way where you take responsibility for your life and choose love in all you do.
What a great observation Tracy.. it’s so true what you point out about what can and can’t be ‘pulled up’ or supported in kids at school… it’s crazy when you put it like that!
It is obvious from the numbers of people partaking in activities such as bickram yoga, crystal healing, sweat lodges, drugs, ashrams, self help books and alcohol just to name a few, that a huge proportion of humanity is searching for something. I imagine the search will continue until the right questions are asked, like the ones you have proposed here Joel. In the meantime, what’s used, such as caffeine, to fill in the blanks between what we have and what we are searching for is on the rise. What if it is the questions that we are asking ourselves or rather not asking that will be the catalyst?
Joel I appreciate your lightness and wisdom you have shared in this blog. The questions you ask here are certainly worth reflecting on – thank you for such an awesome blog.
Some awesome questions Joel, this blog has definately initiated some self reflection for me.
So many great questions…. I love that you are now challenging them all!
What a way to start the day, reading this blog. A reminder that a choice question is so often more powerful than a hundred pieces of advice. The blog reminds me of my search for truth growing up. I was fascinated by religion but just didn’t get it. I joined discussion groups with the school chaplain, did a theology A-level and later a parallel degree in theology, all to try to get to the bottom of it. Yet I never could – so much of it didn’t feel true. I remember studying the ‘4 idols’ – death, love, sex and money and how each religion teaches different things – how can that be? So I claimed atheism in place of truth and that stemmed my questions for a while – in more areas of my life than just religion. The God and humanity questions never truly went away, though. It wasn’t until I picked up a book by Serge Benhayon’s that I found my answers – TRUTH jumping off the page and speaking to the core of my being. Thank you for opening up a wider and deeper line of enquiry, Joel; there is a lot more to explore for me here about what I am accepting today that is not truth.
Comfort over truth, our pride and attachment to creation drives this wilting apple cart forwards – how many apples will we need to upset before we are prepared to open up to the possibility of another way forth.
Maybe we gave up questioning because we could tell the answers we were getting weren’t true.
This is a very thought provoking blog, Joel. I really relate to the line “Could it be easier to withhold what we feel so we don’t upset the apple cart? “. I feel that I have spent many lifetimes doing just that. Until the last few years, I was always so careful to not upset the apple cart. I have realised recently, the huge amount of control that was involved in this, I always wanted to have harmony around me, and the way to achieve that control was for me to “walk on eggshells” I have put it, or never “rocking the boat”, to try to keep harmony, first within my family of parents and sisters, then my own family, husband and two sons. I was always trying to control situations and “keep the peace”. Interesting all the sayings we have describing very similar behaviours.
It has only since meeting Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, that I have learned that it is much more self-loving and loving of others, to lovingly express my truth about situations where it is required for them and myself to evolve.
This is a great blog Joel asking some some very important questions. For me it would have been staying in comfort and as long as it didn’t affect me, there was no need to get involved. But, in truth, everything that happens in this world does affect everyone and it is time that we started to ask these questions.
I never questioned anything until I came across the work of Serge Benhayon.
Like you Joel I never questioned that what I was doing and wanting and trying to get in life had a hidden agenda which was Recognition. I wanted to be recognised for what I was doing and it always left me with a void inside. No matter how much I did that emptiness came up day after day and played havoc in my life.
Ending this behaviour with the help of Universal Medicine has given me a life today that is filled with true deep contentment. I know I am enough and that is my start point.
My next thing is to QUESTION anything and everything and I cannot imagine living another way now.
Agreed Bina Pattel, the real game changer is coming to these questions not from anger or fear but quite simply from Love.
So true Bina Pattel. The knowing to be enough is such a massive change to most of our lives. Suddenly we cannot but question anything and everything, as close to nothing that we accepted as normal before seems to be acceptable anymore.
Hi Simon, how gorgeous are your words!!! Knowing we are enough already does indeed take the fight out of life…..here’s to blossoming! It beats fighting anyway 🙂
Yes we can Simon, and it is such a huge difference once a person shows the gorgeous feelings they have found for themselves back to others and to the world.
Such a great question Joel and thanks for asking. Your sweat lodge story reminded me of a time I went along to a women’s healing night. There were a series of activities, a discussion and presentations, drinking chai, then a loud cathartic experience whilst music played of moving our bodies and making noise that all felt, very hard, awful and far from the grace and delicateness I know myself as today. Followed by lying on mattresses in the semi dark writing in our journals. I left that knowing I would never go back to another one and sensing that there was another space I had to go into that wasn’t me, so it didn’t bring me a clearer or deeper connection to myself as it was advertising itself as.
There is so much disparity in the world, so much presented as right and true yet when you check the energy and how it feels in your body, it’s not the case at all.
Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon was the first organisation/person that truly presented on discerning what you see, hear, read, are told and questioning is a very healthy way of living so long as it is not intended to harm anyone or cause argument.
Love what you bring and how you bring it Joel. I signed up without question for so many things and as much as I told myself at the time I was looking for the truth and for answers I can feel now how much I just wanted relief, a distraction from the practicalities of life and as you called it, indulgence. Great questions especially why we will sign up for anything but when the truth is presented we hesitate.
Wise wise questions to ask Joel, Such Truth in your words.
It seems to me that we have been searching and trying to get out of all the different sweat lodges without knowing how to do it on our own. Serge Benhayon has shown us that there is another way to live, and that love is the answer to all our questions.
This line really stood out for me Joel “Could it be easier to withhold what we feel so we don’t upset the apple cart?” I can say a big yes to this one. I have done this time and time again holding back so as to not upset people. But what happens then is as I hold back it stops me from offering that person a point of evolution so in affect holding back is not just harming me, but also another.
I was a big yes to that too Donna, less so now but I still hold back and the crazy thing I know that I am doing it. As you say this affects everything and everyone, not just me and not just the other person. I can find myself almost ‘predicting’ a possible outcome, which I use as my excuse to do say what I need to say. It’s all a game.
Maybe when we accept that the truth in all its power is likely to create disturbances, we can all begin to realistically feel ok with saying what is there to be said, and knowing there are likely to be reactions and if so, that it is a normal thing. It is better for truth to rise up in us all even if a mini internal earthquake must accompany what has been spoken.
Before I came to Universal Medicine and learnt about energetic integrity and energetic responsibility I worked as a masseuse and energy healer. At this stage in my life I drank, took drugs and smoked cigarettes and was extremely unhealthy, apparently no different to many other health practitioners working in the field. As you say Joel, no-one questioned this; it was considered ‘normal’. I now know this was harmful for, not only myself, but all the clients I treated. Now I do not smoke, nor drink, nor take any drugs and I lead a very healthy lifestyle, therefore taking responsibility for the energy I am in when I treat clients.
Comfort is momentary, true loveliness is constant. Great blog.
A powerful blog Joel, I truly appreciate all these questions you have asked.
Thanks Joel, awesome questions that we should all be asking ourselves. We as a society don’t challenge life and just go with the flow but it’s not getting us anywhere and certainly not to where we enjoy more vitality and love in our lives. Why?
It’s crazy isn’t it Franciscoclara8? So much so that our worlds deteriorating health is definitely terrible, but believed to be part and parcel of growing older. This belief is so harmful as people genuinely believe this and don’t even question does this have to be the way and that we can live, as you say a life where we enjoy more vitality and joy everyday and be involved and committed to life.
Love it Joel, superb questions that we should be asking every day. Why do we care more about a child’s ability to spell a word than their emotional and physical wellbeing? Why do our religious beliefs result in war? What does the word Love really mean? These are fundamental questions that we all have a responsibility to ask and address. When we begin to truly care for ourselves, to know our own worth just for being ourselves, only then can we bring this care to humanity in its totality. Understanding brings compassion and resolutions, so taking a step back to observe, see the bigger picture, join the dots up and ask questions is essential to resolving our differences and establishing unity.
A classroom where there is a true equality between teachers and students and where students are as well teachers as teachers are students.
From what I have experienced through the inspiration of Universal Medicine is that we are the only ones responsible for what is going on in our lives. It is us who can observe with honesty why we have made certain choices and that everything in our lives is a result of our choices. It maybe quite confronting not to have anyone to blame for what does not feel right or easy in your life, but in fact it is just the most freeing experience you can make: the only one who can change your life is yourself – independent of anyone or anything.
This blog makes me think why was I so reckless with myself and if I did have a thought to do something different, why would I not listen to that and go against the grain. Could it be that by going against the grain would mean that we would get noticed and stand out? Do we so desperately want to fit in with everyone else that we choose to change ourselves in order to do that? For myself I can say that I have been a chameleon and changed myself to suit other people in order to please and be liked.
So true…a lot of us do go through life not asking these questions. Could it be because of comfort and we just want to fit in? I wonder….
Maybe if we started asking “Why” we can start a new deeper conversation that challenges the comfort and brings a greater clarity and a more considered choice.
Top blog once again Joel Levin.
I questioned as a young child the hypocrisy of the Hindu religion as it made no sense. I had a questioning mind but was never satisfied with the answers I got. I soon gave up and stopped questioning. I recall then becoming a follower of the new age spiritual movement and never questioned anything. It was like I lost my ability to ask questions and things changed once I came to the teachings of Serge Benhayon who gave me the tools to discern what is Truth and what is not.
Have you seen those little plastic nodding dolls in cars or on colleagues desks at work, this article reminded me of them, you can rock and bump them, they’re just going along for the ride taking on everything that’s being dished out yet, their lips so tightly sealed not a peep will be uttered, is this what we have let happen by being so unquestionable.
Love this blog Joel. What stands out to me from the many true points and questions you raise is: ‘years (maybe lifetimes) of going along with things that never truly challenged me. Years (maybe lifetimes) of choosing to be challenged by things that told me I was not enough… and needed to do, and be, something more’. Exactly, mad isn’t it? Except we get to stay where we feel safe (comfortable) while deluding ourselves we are actually ‘doing’ something worthwhile.
I agree Roslyn, it’s awful to accept that comfort has allowed the world to be how it is today – with war, sexual abuse, suicide, cancer etc. if it doesn’t affect us personally we believe we need not do anything about it. How arrogant is this?
What about brotherhood?
Great questions Joel, To have the ability to question must be applauded, and that when asked, it has the potential to expand the universe, and bring correction or evolution.
what a gorgeous and exposing blog Joel. I did ask the question but never really was ready to listen to my own answers. My comfort and avoidance came through doubting what i felt and the often thought phrase ‘who am i to doubt/crititise this person, modality etc’ It is a great way of not being responsible for the choices we make and for breaking free from the mold we have so readily accepted.
Great questions and great blog Joel. I agree with the comments shared. Why have we stopped asking questions and accepted and switched off our feeling that lead us to the truth of this world. The fear of standing out is a big one for me. Being different is not openly accepted or encouraged in our society. But where has this fitting in gotten us. It is clearly not working evident by the deep dissatisfaction that people feel in their lives. To be curious to ask questions and evolve is our natural way. Suppressing these natural propensities is indeed an insidious way of staying small.
I just had a big laugh when I read about your sweat lodge experience, It made me think of my sweat lodge experiences. I did not ask why, why Mariette are you doing this? The experience was awful and I had to leave the tent as my body was reacting to the intense heat and all the emotions. So many things I have done without discerning what is truly going on. Thank you Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, for reflecting truth.
What a pearler Joel! So many questions that do not get asked enough.
Your sweat lodge experience really struck a chord with me as I too did not ask, I just went along with the others thinking I was elite for ‘indulging’ in spirituality and shamanic rituals.
I disliked the experience very much and needed to stick my head out of the bottom of the tent so I didn’t pass out! All the while feeling somewhat possessed by the constant chanting. I didn’t honour how I felt and didn’t ask the questions to explore what was really going on. Spiritual indulgence, comfort and hiding.
You make such a fantastic point in this blog, Joel. There are so many things in this life that I have gone along with, jumped into head first and/or followed with rigorous pursuit without question. Yet when I had it reflected to me that everything I am was already there inside me – and amazing! – I questioned it, scrutinised it and turned it over and over, almost unwilling to accept it. At the same time there was a deep knowing, with every fibre of my being, that it is true. So yes, I do believe there is something inside us that prefers comfort to truth, but just how comfortable is it really?
Absurd! Why would we do that, that is not question something that is not loving, yet resist with all our ‘might’ something that is? Well presented Joel you expose the falsity behind this so clearly.
Reading this blog I can feel how astounding it is that we do not question the many things that make no sense. We get taught that security is the only thing that matters when all we crave is love. The comfort that we stay in as a result of staying silent is actually awful. Thank you for reminding us all how important it is to question the truth behind it all Joel.
Great blog Joel, I can feel how choosing comfort over truth is such a way of life for so many that it seems to encourage more of the same, and that questioning things can be seen as uncomfortable, annoying or not normal. I know I have chosen comfort over truth many a time and still do at times – I can feel how much this needs to change, for if it doesn’t start with ourselves, where does truth come from?
“Is it possible I preferred to feel included than to really explore my relationship with God? And because they didn’t ask me to admit this, I didn’t need to challenge it?” I agree and what a statement Joel. What was I feeling when I was younger and didn’t really want to go and play football on the oval at school? Why did it hurt so much to play anyway? thanks for asking these questions Joel and allowing us to do the same, and question all of our choices, have they been true to our inner-most?
They’re great question Joel, definitely ones to ponder on. Thank you for sharing this blog
Great questions raised Joel and absolutely agree with what you say here “Only once has my growth occurred through someone (a group of people in fact) reflecting back to me just how much I truly was already. And in the deep stillness of this reflection I was given a choice: to keep going as I was, or feel the joy that sat patiently waiting for me to return.” as previously any groups or study I turned to kept me in my mess by providing more distractions and ways to deny and numb what was really going on and needed to be addressed. I have never met anyone or a group of people who have supported me in my growth as Universal Medicine.
I love your blog Joel, the way you pose each question makes the whole blog so open. I love your analogy of the kindergarteners, waiting to be picked up by their parents as being a metaphor for many religious people who are waiting for someone to come and get them/save them. I felt your ending question was really powerful, especially as I sit here with the beginning of a stinking cold – how do I feel and what have I done to feel this way?
So many beautiful, worthwhile questions posed in your blog. It sometimes feels like we have given up on asking them and yet in posing them we open up a new curiosity inside ourselves and can get to a level of responsibility. And yes I have certainly favored comfort over truth.
Joel your questions ought to be getting asked in many places, and perhaps this blog is the beginning.This one: “Why did I challenge, question, resist and fight that reflection for so many years, and yet so easily followed everything else?” is very revealing. You spoke about staying in comfort. Well it seems to me that being presented by a reflection of a powerful and responsible way to be, and resisting and fighting that reflection while passively accepting the things that let us stay irresponsible – indicates going for comfort instead of uncomfortable truth. Only uncomfortable because we know it wasn’t right to be silent and accept contradictions, inequalities,
abuses and suppressions.
Absolutely Dianne, until the point comes that what was comfort begins to feel uncomfortable because we know what is true.
This messiah thing is so practical, as it helps us to be busy and not aware of the fact that our fears for example make sure the traffic will contiunue.
True Michael. It also allows us to live in disregard without taking responsibility because the messiah is coming and will ‘fix’ it all anyway.
So true revans917…. I wonder why is it so easy for some people to give all their power away by saying “god will fix it”, instead of taking responsibility for it themselves? Could it be if they take responsibility for it they then know they will have to face it?
Yes Jody, not only do we have to face our choices, we also have to choose differently once we have felt them. For me, it is very hard to live in disregard and ignorance once I have said yes to taking responsibility for myself. There is something very beautiful about being accountable for our own actions and something I am committed to working on.
That ‘Messiah will come and take away all our sins and fix it all’ thing really bothered me even as a child. I saw younger children being toilet trained, later shown how to wash & dress themselves, how to prepare food, use the phone, make their beds, etc. It was a natural progression of learning self-responsibility in the world. So to me, this ‘somebody else fixes it’ mentality was unnatural, and the opposite of the natural learning and claiming of self-responsibility. Why does the church promote the relinquishing of responsibility by people for their harmful choices?
I love the powerful questions at the end of your blog. Every single one of them asks us to stop the sleep walking through life and be more responsible.
Oh my God, I just love this blog. What a great question you ask Joel. I remember going to church on a Sunday and then the very same people who were in church would go outside at the end and collected money for a paramilitary organisation. How crazy is that and yet lots of people went along with it. You are correct, we go along with so much stuff that does not feel right yet when love presents itself to us we fight it, or try and reduce it to something else or just plain deny it. What are we so afraid of? Perhaps we are afraid of getting the very thing we have always wanted which is to be loved for who we truly are. If that occurs we would have no one to blame for anything and then we would be faced with our own responsibility and choices.
Yes, Sunday always seemed a strange day to me as a child, all that was said in church, the best clothes that we wore and our ‘Sunday’ behaviour didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the week.
To me, more so now, there is no special day, because every day has the potential to be special, it is my choice.
That is exactly what love reminds us of Elizabeth, that we have no-one to blame and that we are responsible for all of our choices. Love asks us to see both the grandness that we are and the choices we make to hold that back.
Since I came to understand and feel what comfort is, then a mirror has bee held up to me and each of your questions Joel reflect that comfort. ‘Where have we been?’ is another way of asking many of them! Thank God we have been directed back to our own self responsibility and shown that the love we already are is waiting right inside of us!
This blog touches on something very deep in our consciousness and exposes the ridiculousness of human life in its current forms. We all deeply want true love but we will do almost anything to avoid it! Why? And why are we not asking why more often?
Indeed andrewmooney26, “we all deeply want true love but we will do almost anything to avoid it!”. It is crazy really and makes no sense. Because the love we are from and all innately are asks us to be responsible for all our choices, for many this is too much to handle and so it is then easier to reject love when it comes rather than fully embrace it.
When I think back to how I was prior to finding Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon, I now know that I wasn’t asking enough questions, but accepting everything as that’s the way it is and I can’t do anything about it, type of thing. There was also this belief that those people who did speak up and questioned things didn’t have anything better to do with their time. I can now see how wrong I was.
Great questions, Joel, that highlight how so many of us choose a lack of awareness rather than challenge the status quo. What will it take to knock humanity in general out of its slumber enough to see what is really going on and, as your questions reveal, how nonsensical many major things in the world around us are?
And why do we accept it all and fight love, when we know it works, to live misery so comfortably? And why do we play less when we could each be so great? I loved your exposé Joel, and have added some questions for myself. It’s impossible not to ponder the scary thought that if Serge Benhayon had not come along, I may still be doing these things without question.
“ponder the scary thought that if Serge Benhayon had not come along, I may still be doing these things without question.” A worthwhile pondering indeed, Melinda! It is a scary thought. Serge Benhayon is the best apple-cart-upsetting I’ve ever experienced. If the apples are rotten, the cart sure needs to be upset.
This is a big one…. why do we fight love to live misery?…. ouch.
Thanks Joel, yes it its all about comfort and not upsetting the apple cart ,we have settled for a life of protection and that is why evil gets to play out in so many ways. I liked this in relation to you birth religion and going along with it ” Why didn’t anyone point out to me how kindergarten says something very similar, ‘play nicely with the other children, don’t wander, and wait until mum/dad picks you up’? Where is the empowerment in that? Why did I not question the concept that God sees us all equal, but each religion sees us as different? ” Thanks for presenting the questions that we choose not to ask when playing out our lives in comfort, protection and numbness.
Sheesh Joel, what a great blog to read. You hit the nail on the head when you outed your preferred feeling of inclusiveness. That is super prevalent for me in many areas of my life. Instead of asking questions and feeling for myself I will go along with what everyone else is doing. A great thing to look at…
‘Is it possible that I mistook indulgence for true exploration of my life? And because it didn’t ask me to admit this, I didn’t need to challenge it?’ so true Joel. I love how you express yourself and reveal the comfort we are hiding in…
Indulgence or true exploration?
There are some great questions asked, and there is indeed a big amount of unquestioning going on in this world, everything is at it is. But what if there is much more than the way the world is right now? I would never have found out if I wasn’t inspired by Serge Benhayon to question this norm, and feel that there is much more to explore. And we are much more than the norm in this world says we are.
Amazing blog Joel, thank you.
Awesome question Benkt: what if there is much more than the way the world is right now? What if there is another way, a way back to a harmonious way of living full of love? And yes, we are much more than the norm in this world says we are. We are superintelligent and superwise beings playing a game to not own up to that.
When it is simply exposed, as in your examples draganabrown, it seems ludicrous we don’t question what just doesn’t make sense. Clearly something is being missed here.
I can relate Joel, it was very uncomfortable in those sweat lodges, that’s for sure. 🙂 You pose some great questions here Joel and one especially stands out,”what am I feeling right now – and what have I done to feel that way?”
Lots to ponder on here Joel, as it is true we can choose to go through life without questioning what we align ourselves to based upon our upbringing or the mentality that “it’s just the way things are”. If this is so why is it, as you say, ok that so much of it brings pain, hurt, confusion and conflict? Perhaps it is time we all began to dig a little deeper and begin to question our role in it and consider whether or not we want to continue to contribute to it or choose to perhaps live another way.
Joel you have proposed some great questions. Why do we accept the status quo and not speak out when certain things don’t feel right? e.g. challenge the education system; question the law re detractors; the right to perform the death penalty in certain countries; hide the sexual abuse that goes on by priests; be made aware of alcohol intake or lack of sleep experienced by surgeons before doing surgery etc?
If we don’t speak up and offer another way of thinking then change will not happen.
So thank you Joel for doing so in your blog.
I agree Loretta … Speaking up and challenging the status quo must occur for changes to happen.
Joel, I just so enjoy your reflections. Yes why can’t we see that God sees us as equals but religions see us as different and question how that makes us truly feel inside. I was with a religion from birth knowing that it was not the truth but also for a long time scared that if I left it something “bad” would happen to me! It is a relief and a blessing that I have been able to shed the ideals and beliefs around this religion and after much questioning am now able to understand that being connected to God is about being connected to me in the most loving way.
‘Is it possible I preferred to feel included than to really explore my relationship with God?’ I can so relate to this question and can see the trick it has been playing in my life. The truth is, when we do explore our relationship with God we naturally feel we are part of everything so the need to feel included or fit in drops away.
I love this question Joel! Why are we so unquestioning? It shows our complacency. As children we all had a lot of “Why?” questions – what happened to them? Did we give up, because we did not get any answers? Or did we shut up because we were told so – or out of fear because we could feel that our questions rocked the status quo? Going through life without asking these questions is not a very healthy way to live.
It is a well known fact that small children from the time they speak they ask WHY questions about everything all the time and as you had said Judith – did we give up, because we did not get any answers. It takes 5 years to be taught how to speak and then spend the rest of our growing up years being told to be quite! College students ask one or two questions a day… is this what we have been moulded into? I had a tee shirt when I was in the military I liked to wear, an office once told me I could get in trouble for wearing that, and I just replied yes, I know. The shirt said ‘question authority’.
My favourite book when I was a child was about an inquisitive calf who went around the farm asking all the different animals what was going on and why. I loved that book and haven’t thought of it for over thirty years but reading this took me back to that time when I was like that calf as I constantly used to ask my father questions. Maybe we gave up questioning sjmatsonuk because we could tell the answers we were getting weren’t true.
Love the tee shirt Steve, and the answer even more. Because yes, we do know. that small soul voice gets bigger and bigger, louder and louder until we begin to listen, and all our questions come alive again, and are answered.
Very true alsionmoir, the standing out and seemingly being different to everyone else is a big reason why we shut up.
I have found the same as well Judith, lots of why questions – I remember my grandmother getting annoyed at me for asking why this and why that – I can see now that without trying to it was challenging what she was doing. It was easier to put me down, in my place and to defend what she was doing rather than answer why. I know I have found it much easier at times to do the same, especially when I have been doing something I know does not seem to be the best thing to be doing. The innocent questioning is something we should allow children to explore, I know I will with my children!
I can remember a few children who used to ask why? after every answer they were given. Many years ago I can remember giving one child answer and after answer until I ran out of answers and could only answer ‘just because that’s the way it is.’
I remember feeling uncomfortable about never giving an answer that fully satisfied his questioning. I was unnerved by being unable to answer a four year old’s most simplest of questions – what if I didn’t actually know it all as I’d assumed. I noticed others getting irritated with his why questions, perhaps because we like to protect our ignorance knowing it gives a semblance of an excuse to carry on in ways that harm ourselves and others.
Some great questions asked here Joel – great now you don’t have to sit in a sweat lodge anymore to feel you.
There a great number of great questions here Joel but for me the one that stands out for me on this time of reading is, “Could it be that something inside us prefers comfort to truth?” Oh, yes, never a truer word spoken!
Yes Johnathan comfort over truth… Our greatest illness?
It is an age old theme comfort. Even protecting our own family at the expensive of another is a comfort – not love.
Indeed comfort and the lies it brings vs truth. Logically truth is a no brainer, it makes sense yet because we want to ‘fit in’, and have allowed truth to be so morphed that what is now considered a ‘normal’ way to live is a million miles away from what is normal for the body. Truth then comes along and challenges our new ‘normal’, which is accepted by society and so many people do not actually want truth as this would mean making choices to change the way they have been living and taking full responsibility for their life’s. For me, yes I have found it hard at times, but only hard because of how much I have invested in comfort and the lies. I know when I express truth my whole body says yes, and supports me fully.
Crazy isn’t it that we choose comfort over and over again. When in actual fact that ‘comfort’ is restricting, painful, keeping us down and holding us back from seeing, and being, the amazingness of who we truly are.
I agree Catherine…I wonder why some of us do it to ourselves?
Joel, you ask great questions, what struck me in particular is your question of what is considered in ‘love’ it is crazy when you express it as truthfully as you have.
One of the many aspects of Universal Medicine I love is that I am encouraged to question.
Great questions indeed Joel. Although they would be at the back of most people’s mind, we go with the flow. It takes commitment to challenge the status quo and ask WHY?
A true thought provoking blog Joel. When I read your blog I could recognize myself in what you were sharing about not questioning life as it is. A long time I did not think outside of the current belief systems but slowly, after attending workshops and presentations by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, my innate ability to feel what is true is awakening again and this part of me starts to speak very loudly. It makes me aware of so many common sense things like: how our society is not working as how can our society be called successful with the rates of illness and disease that are sky high, the high level of stress and anxiety, depression, violence, abuse and so on. It is truly empowering to start to think like that and I feel my responsibility in all this.
Wonderful observations Judith. The “Whys” from children can be very testing as, we as adults can be very challenged to answer as it can feel very uncomfortable at times. I don’t know when I stopped asking why, but doing so certainly lead me down some paths I would rather have not gone down. Now, with much more awareness, I do ask why more often, but still not nearly enough. And I now love answering the why questions from my grandchildren, and if I feel uncomfortable in doing so, I simply ask myself, why?
Yes Lee, if we want change in the world it begins with us, and that change will come about by asking the same questions that Joel has asked – but we will need to be ready for the answers as they will rock our world and our comfort, because that is what truth does.
WOW, Great questions you are asking here, Joel! They are spot on and revealing with no holding back how much we live/ lived in comfort – AUTSCH.
Oh, the old sweat lodges. This brings back memories. I can still remember sitting there very quietly thinking to myself how very strange the whole experience was. I did question it but not loud enough to say ‘how on earth does this change a thing.’
hilarious really Vicky, me too… very similar experience. Hot sweaty and red faced for hours afterward and nothing had truly changed.
Thank you Joel – the depth of wisdom you write with is beautiful. Your last question is what can be considered confronting and answers why we are so unquestioning. To answer honestly would mean we have to look at the part we play in how we feel and be open to seeing that it may not be true that things just happen to us or that they occur randomly.
Joel, another one of your gems I found here! I really enjoyed reading your blog, especially: “Why did I follow the religion of my birth without question? Sure, its general tenets were like many others: be good to your fellow man (do unto others and all that), don’t challenge other religious views (tolerance), stay part of ‘our community’, it will all be okay once ‘the messiah’ gets here. Why didn’t anyone point out to me how kindergarten says something very similar, ‘play nicely with the other children, don’t wander, and wait until mum/dad picks you up’? Where is the empowerment in that?” Too true…. and well said. And for myself it’s: why did I not look for the answer within myself when I realised nobody I knew around me as a child would know the answer to my burning question of what the difference between soul and spirit was….
The ‘could we be more comfortable not questioning life’ makes a lot of sense when taken into account the seeming nonchalant or even defeatist behaviour people display when problems arise or get questioned. It is either ‘not my problem’ or ‘just have to live with it/can’t do anything about it’ – but why? Questioning my life in a way that includes me in the making of my life has only ever supported my understanding of the last question you posed. This blog reminds me of the ‘Why?’ game I used to play as a child, just keep asking why and eventually the game brings up irritation and dismissing – why is it that we prefer to not know the answers to why life happens the way it does? When we have the phrase ‘Everything is Energy and Everything is Because of Energy’ then why continue to say ‘I don’t know?’
Joel you pose so many great points and I feel it all comes back to asking ourselves to take more responsibility for choices made and asking the question “why?” more often. Thank you.
Thank you Joel for posing so many great questions. I feel we’re so well indoctrinated from a young age not to question that we come to accept this as normal even though deep down it doesn’t feel okay. To not challenge authority, upset the apple cart etc., etc. As a child I would do everything I possibly could to not attend Sunday school and church. What was hilarious was that my mother whilst driving me there would declare them all to be a bunch of hypocrites. There’s a certain amount of giving up and going with the flow because it’s all too hard and yes it becomes easier to just get on with life, family, children, work, etc. until we get to the point where we realise that none of this is easing the deep well of emptiness within and when we do start to awaken and look around there’s not much there and what is there can hold just enough of a kernel of truth and we give whatever it is a go for however long until we become further dissatisfied realising that nothing we’ve tried has offered the deep and lasting changes we were looking for and go in search for the next thing. This all changed for me when I found Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and being presented with the truth that we need to understand that life is about taking personal responsibility for everything we’ve created and that there is a way to live that involves deep self care and honouring of ourselves which then naturally flows on to honouring others in the same way.
Funny how each of us are FULL of questions as soon as we have the words to ask, when we are kids, what happens to our curiosity?
Awesome Dragana, and as Joel says, how is it that we don’t ask the questions when something so obviously doesn’t not seem right. I spent time observing a healer in Brazil – and while thousands flocked to see him, his life was a complete mess. There were excuses made for him because he did such great work and sacrificed himself – but the whole picture didn’t add up.
Exactly Lee. And each of one can make a big difference by simply choosing to look at his or her responsibility and from there start to live a different life. A life full of simplicity, joy and harmony, that will truly inspire others. By that a single person can be an amazingly powerful inspiration: just like Serge Benhayon, who simply lives and shares his truth and with that has inspired an amazing number of people to walk the same path and by that make amazing changes to their lives and the lives of everybody around them.
While reading your blog Joel I was feeling how arrogant it is to not ask the questions about our responsibility. I have been in a various range of new age modalities and I realised just now that I knew it was not true but it gave me recognition and the feeling I was a better person than people who were against all the alternative courses and workshops. It feels as though I rather stayed in the ignorance than to ask why are you not content with yourself, why do you smoke, why do you eat so much chocolate and telling me your choice is the answer. The last years I have made the choice to observe and to take responsibility for myself and my choices. And for the first time in my life I am truly joyful.
Why do we not question life is definitely a question that needs to be asked, because once we start questioning we realise how little life makes sense. Of course it does not make sense for health professionals to be unhealthy – but once you ask that one question a thousand other questions pop up!
Joel you pose a great question that I too had to ask myself and the answer was that I was more invested in comfort than the truth! Although this was a hard pill to swallow, I now have commited to knowing and sharing the truth as a priority in my life.
Yes, I hear this too Sharon, I’ve gone with comfort and hiding over the years – and interestingly this has only lead to tension and discomfort within me. I now understand the expression – ‘the truth sets you free’
Great questions Joel and many that I have often pondered on over the years. I also recognise though how for most of my life I stopped questioning what was happening around me and I certainly didn’t question the choices I was making, I just went along with everyone else – I guess you could say I took the easy road and definitely the comfortable one!. My son has actually reminded me of the importance of questioning with his constant why? Bring on the questions I say from kids and adults alike.
Well said Michelle; I agree, I was so compliant and didn’t ask any questions, just keep the peace; and of course keeping myself and everybody around me ‘comfortable’, not pushing anybody’s buttons. It’s a big ouch, and a reflection of the lack of responsibility taken. Now I am making different choices, even though it may not always seem convenient for myself and others, but it’s true and offers a different way.
What a great surprise to find another blog written by you Joel. This one just happened to not meet my eyes when it was published and was saved for today.
I love what you share here:
Why did I eagerly train in modalities like Reiki, and then happily trained other people in these modalities, without someone (including myself) asking whether the energy of anger might be different to the energy of love? Or what effect does the practitioner have on the quality of the energy (eg: if we do drugs or alcohol the night before, what happens the next day?).
Is it possible that the ‘titles and training’ gave me recognition? And because they didn’t ask me to admit this, I didn’t need to challenge it?
I did the same thing, train and then train others, not question why we would still drink or be angry whilst doing all of the “healing”. I know for sure that I was identified with it all. It gave me the false impression that I was something, because at least I was reiki master.
What an illusion was I in!
There are a lot of obvious questions not being asked. I can sense the discomfort that would be if we start asking those questions, and realise how much we do prefer comfort to truth, but to clearly see the situation we are in because of not speaking out, it really highlights how important it is to ask those questions. Ultimately, truth is much more precious than staying in comfort.
I have spent so much of my life being unquestioning and can really feel how this has been because I preferred comfort and fitting in over asking questions that challenged the ‘status quo’ even though I could feel the contradictions there under the surface and had to work hard to suppress them. Love the questions you pose particularly ‘what am I feeling right now – and what have I done to feel that way?’ so much more supportive of a return to a joyful way of life. Thank you Joel for getting to the heart of the matter.
Absolutely Judith children naturally ask ‘Why?’ when things don’t make sense to them but if they are surrounded by adults who have become unquestioning they are not supported to explore the many contradictions in our life currently.
Is it possible that I mistook indulgence for true exploration of my life? Wow, this line really stood out for me and explains so much of why I also trained and gained titles in Reiki, rebirthing, yoga and a few more…which made me feel good about myself at that time, but nothing ever changed in my life, and actually just buried all my ‘stuff’ or issues deeper, so that I did not have to feel the emptiness inside and how disconnected I was to my body. That has all changed since I began to take responsibility for my life and past choices as mentioned and truly began to heal and clear my child hood issues/hurts. This happened for me when I met Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and attented courses and presentations.
A great exposé Draganabrown. Today, the integrity of the practitioner is foremost for me and I do ask these questions.
I love the clarity with which you write. And the humour – the comment on kindergarten saying the same thing as religion made me laugh. Your blog made me question why I had done things like train in Reiki and followed so many things without questioning. There is a lot there for me to ponder on. It is scary what potential harm we can do to ourselves when we blindly follow without stopping to feel from our body if this is what we want to do.
I love what you have written here Joel, “And in the deep stillness of this reflection I was given the choice: to keep going as I was, or feel the joy that sat patiently waiting for me to return.” This is the choice we are all given. Thanks Joel.
Thank you Joel. I really like this blog. In particular, the fact that your association with Universal Medicine opened up a series of matters you made decisions on, based on the logic of inclusion, without ever considering in full what was at stake. Now that you can see the whole picture, you can understand why the decisions you made did not evolve you and add “because they didn’t ask me to admit this, I didn’t need to challenge it”. How many things, we have accepted at face value, did not consider in full the implications of our choices and this fact gave us the peace of mind of not knowing different and belonging?
I always love reading your blogs, Joel! This one touches me because it hits a point – comfort. Yes, it is the first step to take – to ask myself as you shared “what have I done to feel that way?” I’ve let go of responsibility, love and acceptance. Instead I had chosen comfort in blaming others, shutting down, preferring recognition to traue love. Very exposing.
Joel, I found the simplicity of what you have presented by your questions to be really profound. I am sitting here reflecting back on the multiple ways I have chosen comfort over the truth. The arrogance, pride and recognition seeking behind the comfort has many strings attached which feel very ancient but are slowly getting called out as I continue to learn to believe in the real ‘me’.
Sensational questions Joel that make you stop and feel the ridiculousness in which we live. So much of life needs to be questioned like this and as you have shown, so much about ourselves…for yes the comfort for most is indeed seemingly preferred to truth and so the reasons for which are worth challenging and exploring….and upsetting the apple cart!
I had to laugh – sorry but your description about people “chanting in a super hot temperatures to stimulate the blood flow to FEEL invigorated” was very funny for me and I was asking myself immediately why do they so???? So thanks Joel for your amazing blog and all the questions you are asking . . . I also love the point when you mentioned: “to feel the joy that sat patiently waiting for me to return.” From my own experience I can tell you that joy is also infectious . . .
Another very inspirational blog from Joel, this time posing some very pertinent questions for our consideration, while at the same time highlighting how many of us (me included) have chosen comfort over truth.
Great questions Joel. There are so many of us (including myself) that accept what we are presented with from birth, without asking these questions. Perhaps there is a niggling feeling in the back of our mind throughout our life and these questions arise, but another voice tells us to keep quiet, not ask, we doubt and sit down and say nothing. That’s been my experience anyway. I am deeply grateful to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for presenting these questions which have led me to discover that there is another way – a way that discerns what energy we choose to live in and from and that every choice we make has an affect on ourselves and on others. We then become responsible and our life isn’t just ‘the way it is’ but a result of ‘how we choose to live’.
Some good questions, and for me the question about accepting formal / mainstream education is the big one. Just because lots of others are doing it, or it is accepted as normal, the mainstream has been something I have been happy to follow my entire life without questioning why these lessons have not led to happier / healthier human beings?
For me I was happy to follow many alternate practices as they were age-old and were “traditional”. I didn’t question them as I had subscribed to the belief that because they were ancient they must have ancient wisdom in them. Eek!! Even writing that now my body does strange things to tell me this was so wrong.
What if we have chosen to distract ourselves in the asking questions from a stance of unknowing, to avoid admitting that we know the answers? and have done all this time.
Great question Leigh. It’s like Joel has noted we question the truth but happily accept all those comfortable lies. Could it be that the deep knowing you speak of knows and that we know if we truly feel and live it, things have to change and maybe just maybe we’re not fully ready to see that we never needed to be anything other than love, we never needed the mess we created for ourselves. We tricked ourselves and love is there ready and waiting and we know it, but we’ve not been willing to admit we hurt ourselves, we created our own misery. Time to drop the pride.
Joel, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said ” could it be that something inside us prefers comfort to truth” ?
Joel your reflection on life and how we have lived is spot on. I also had spent years searching for truth, but was still caught up moving with the pack of what was the norm. As you said ‘joy that sat patiently waiting for me to return’ is there waiting for everyone.
Some great questions here Joel. Thankyou. “Could it be that something inside us prefers comfort to truth?” I put up my hand for this one, an uncomfortable feeling in my body as I do so, yet I know I still do this, ouch, much less than I used to, but…….Something to ponder on more deeply every time I make a choice – comfort – or truth.
Joel, It is such a huge thing to ask ‘do we prefer comfort over truth?’ Now that I am asking more and deeper “whys” I’m feeling that once we clear away the pain of not living the truths we know inside, there is something way beyond comfort…and worth every discomfort to come back to!
Thank you Joel, you have raised significant points…..a timeless post.
Joel, love your questions, so spot on and make absolute sense – yet I like you and others bought into things I knew weren’t true just to fit in – for comfort. I settled for comfort rather than truth until I happened upon Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon and began once again to ask ‘why’ and see and feel again what I’d bought into that just wasn’t true and ouch, I knew it. Thanks, your questions remind me to continue to allow that deep honesty.