by Otto Bathurst, UK
I remember really clearly, when I was a 13 or 14 year old boy, looking around me, at the world, at my parents, at the huge buildings, the big roads, the zillions of people, the machines, the days passing me by, back and forth to school, the adults back and forth to work, the books, the sports, the whole thing really, the whole of life and asking myself… “ is this it? all this gargantuan effort, scale, history, noise, life…. there MUST be more to it than just this?”
Now, it wasn’t that I was depressed or anything like that! In fact I was having what I thought was a really nice time – it was just that I didn’t really see the point to it all. Not in a heavy way; just something inside of me was niggling.
Around the same period, there was a very popular computer game called Donkey Kong – you were a big ape and wooden barrels came rolling towards you. You had to jump over them, and if you were good enough you’d work your way up through the various levels of the game (it was actually pretty good fun). Anyway… I remember I used to say to my friends: “It’s like we are all stuck on the first level of Donkey Kong.”
So, once I left school, I began digging around, searching, checking out various religions, new age stuff, travelling a lot, trying all sorts out. Not the whole time, it wasn’t a focused crusade, sometimes life would sweep me up for a year or two… but always in the back of my mind was the question… “is this it?”
And then, one day I came across Serge Benhayon and the teachings of Universal Medicine.
So, what’s it all about?
It’s actually really, really simple.
Stop at any point in your day and take a very, very, very honest look at that day: and at every decision that you made, during that day.
Were the decisions that you made, made by you, purely you, only you… or were they made because of the life that you are in, because of the world that is all around you?
Initially you think, “Yeah, course they were made by me, I’m not nuts… who else made them?”
But then be more honest. Look more closely.
For me, a huge amount of the time, it is the latter. I am being run by my life. I am not running my life, I am being run by its ZILLIONS of ideals and belief systems. I am being run by what I think I should be: as a man, as a father, as a partner, as a television director, as a son, as a friend, as a funny guy, as an upstanding member of the community. I am being run by my need for recognition and acceptance. I am being run by my emotions, by my hopes, fears, ambitions, expectations. I am being run by the hopes, fears, ambitions, expectations of others… the list goes on and on (believe me – it really does!).
But, things are changing… more and more now, the decisions in my day are made by ME.
And that difference is EVERYTHING.
That difference is what Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon are all about.
It’s not complicated. It’s not voodoo. It’s not trickery, magic or space-agey. It’s not hippy, weird or left-field. It’s just a simple choice. Do you want to be making the choices, or do you want to have the choices made for you?
That’s all there is to it.
And thanks to the Esoteric Teachings, I am now off the first level of Donkey Kong.
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
Otto, as I’ve grown up I’ve not come across any computer games, it was something that never tickled my fancy, even to this day. But that doesn’t mean games are not playing out, so I understand what this blog is about.
Sometimes I used to feel I was on a ferris wheel, continually going round and round. And as you correctly stated ‘the decisions in my day are made by ME,’ is the key to how we feel about us and us being in life. Let the decisions be made by you, then anything else that seems to run this planet. It isn’t self fish either, we are not puppets of something else running our lives or show, we are puppets of our souls, much grander and worldly then anything else.
The other question to ask is how much are we still attached to this game of life, especially if we have become very good at this game? I am not talking here about suicide – but what I am referring to is the fact of knowing that this is a game and trialling our what it is like to not play by the rules of ideals and beliefs and conditioning? I know for myself that I find this scary, to step away from what we have always done and are familiar with takes courage and a willingness to feel like you know nothing when in truth you are a master. When we first step away from the game it is like realizing what a fraud you are for even playing the game but then you get to realise the master you are. But extricating yourself from the game does not happen over-night and it is something I too am still working on – like Otto so beautifully described, you still have to work your way through the levels – L1, L2, L3, to L4 etc. And only by knowing it is a game and not being caught in the game allows you to play the game whilst being free of it and each level teaches you the next parts to free yourself from. Thank you Otto for this brilliant analogy!
Henrietta, moving away from our ideals and beliefs is a bit scary at the beginning, but its either that or we stay in that something missing in our lives and be ran by that. Which spirals to many other things, illness, disease etc. Or we make the decision to do something about it, and it is a process of us stepping into different levels, they are not harder, they then become more spacious and worldly…
It is a great question to ask – who is actually making the decisions? Are we really connecting to a deep part of ourselves to make decisions or are we allowing the ideals beliefs and conditioning to make all of the choices in life? Do we want to get to the end of our lives and then realise that we have been playing the game to someone else’s rules (the ideals and beleifs) and getting ‘virtual vitality points’ OR do we want to play by our deepest impulse and accrue true ‘heart health’?
Otto, I love the simple analogy that you have given with being stuck on the first level of Donkey Kong. Life in so many ways is a like a game, in fact it is a game and one that we are stuck in. Only we do not have to play by all the rules as you have shared as the real game is about being who we are rather than what we are conditioned to be.
Thanks Otto, it’s been great for me to review your blog again as I am looking at how affected I am by what’s going on around me, and the choices that I then make that are not self supportive. “Were the decisions that you made, made by you, purely you, only you… or were they made because of the life that you are in, because of the world that is all around you?” Lots to reflect on.
Ideals and beliefs can be very strong in running our lives, and so it is not really us then making choices, ‘I am being run by its ZILLIONS of ideals and belief systems. I am being run by what I think I should be’.
It is indeed that simple, we can make a choice how to live in every moment, and that is what we need to understand and then we will understand how powerful we indeed are.
It is so much wiser to admit that we are stuck at the first level rather than keep insisting there’s no such thing while feeling and suffering the entrapment nonetheless.
Yes, I love what you are saying here Fumiyo, the earlier we admit we are on the wrong path the faster and easier we will find back home.
It’s a great question Otto, ‘who is making our choices – is it ourselves or have we given our power away to something outside of ourselves?’
What a great analogy about life. It does seem like life keeps throwing barrels at us to jump ever higher over or yet more hoops to jump through but we don’t have to. We can choose to leave the game completely and walk our own path.
Before Universal Medicine life was like a ‘barrel,’ which was drifting towards Niagara Falls with me inside it with the inevitable bumpy ride and big shock from a free fall, with the inevitable jarring splash at fitting into a life of endless questioning of what was True. When it was realised life was full of choices and one could get out of the barrel and we could swim up stream against the current of ideals and beliefs and even extricate ourselves out of the water by simply re-connecting to our essences, so life becomes simpler as we understand the pitfalls.
It does feel like we are caught in a video game at times, things can feel so surreal. I love the honesty that Serge asks us to consider. He has changed so many of our lives for the better because he has given us the freedom to be more aware of the games at play so we have more choice.
It is not that it is either you who making the decisions or these being made for you. The latter takes the edge of responsibility out of the picture. It is still you making the decisions, but the you have accepted it as being you, responding within a range you find acceptable to what you have accepted life is.
I have not ever played the game Donkey Kong but I love its analogy and how Otto uses it to highlight how so many of us live at the mercy of life, rather than being the architect of our lives. To change this very sad state of affairs boils down to the simple fact of us reclaiming our power and taking full responsibility for how our life currently is, and then to go forward in the knowing that it is our own choices that will determine the quality and harmony with which we live.
I can really feel and appreciate the open-door-invitation of the way you write the Elizabeth. Zero judgement, zero pandering. A choice; ours and only ours.
Too me it’s like being played with by a large cat, I’m the mouse trying to get away and the cat allows me to think that I’m getting way, and just when I feel I’m free, it pounces and I’m caught in its grip again and the same things happens time and time again an endless game. There has to be another way and that way I have discovered is Serge Benhayon, I have listened to his presentations, read his books attended the workshops and I feel now that there is away to live that at last answers my question
“There has to be more to life than what I’m currently living”
For some it was a question about life, Is this it? Can it be just this? For others, the question was not so much about life itself but about the life being lived: is it any way to leave it behind and to construct something different? Is it possible to change our vital circumstances to something that allows us to flourish? The latter questions were equally important but without a body that can connect deeply with itself, it is easy to get trapped into the into the possibilities offered by the system try to make life better and to firmly believe in this possibility.
We can allow life to run us by all the beliefs, ideals, desires, wants and needs, or we can start taking responsibility for our choices and being honest with where we are at and choose to live our own life.
Great blog Otto, to start changing our choices and not just going along with the choices we allow life to make for us, but to start taking responsibility is huge.
‘I am not running my life, I am being run by its ZILLIONS of ideals and belief systems’. Ideals and beliefs that keep us on the same treadmill year after year, decade after decade of retracing the same old repetitive steps over and over… Instead of stepping up to new the understandings and awareness’s about ourselves and human life collectively that we always have the opportunity to embrace in every single experience we have that allows us to not only grow and evolve, but break the ideals and beliefs we are locked in which completely retard us from living our potential.
“I am being run by my need for recognition and acceptance. I am being run by my emotions, by my hopes, fears, ambitions, expectations. I am being run by the hopes, fears, ambitions, expectations of others…” – there was time when I thought that was what life was all about – being recognized, emotional, hopeful, ambitious – I thought those were what made me me.
I agree, I thought all of that as well. I didn’t know, or if I am honest I chose to forget, that there was another way, a more true, loving and connected way to live that did not look for individualistic recognition.
Spot on Fumiyo – the drama was what I thought too was what had to be played with. Thankfully I now know differently.
Thanks Otto. Being ourselves may not sound like a big shift in life, but it is the most significant change I have made in mine. Big thanks to Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon for showing the way.
Awesome RIchard – me too… What level of Donkey Kong are you now on? In some parts I am still in L1, other parts I am in L2, other parts yet I am in L3 working my way and learning layer by layer. In working through these layers I too can say it had only been possible with what has been shared so openly and lovingly through Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon.
From within there are two pathways, one that is the way that we truly are, one that is not. The problem is that most of us aren’t aware of this difference, and yet in meeting Serge Benhayon and listening to what he offers, it is clear very quickly that there are two, and therein is the great key of life.
I remember the same question popping up many many times in my life, “is this all there is?” or similar to it. The snap shot was that no matter what level I reached there was always a part missing. Universal Medicine, Serge Benhayon and others have supported me to touch back into the answer to this. I was chasing things in the outside world to make up for the empty feeling I had inside and yet now I truly take care of the inside the more and more stable the outside looks. Essentially this question would come as I was living my life outside in instead of inside to out. As for Donkey Kong it was a simple game that kept us all entertained for hours and has a simple message for me, it comes back to just taking care of what’s in front of you, no use thinking about jumping the fourth barrel if you haven’t even seen the first.
Cute. The Philosophy of Donkey Kong taken to another level! Love it Ray.
Yes and how many of us are still worried about that fourth barrel and haven’t noticed the number of times we have had to restart after being bowled over by the first and possibly second!
It is so true Otto, that amongst all this constructed grandiosity and stateliness that we have surrounded ourselves with in society, in which we pat ourselves on the back for creating, champion and congratulate ourselves for the intelligence it supposedly represents, what is truly evident all this has not changed the fact that our quality of life, our quality of connection, our quality of health and well-being has not evolved. Our relationship with ourselves and each other have not changed, and in fact we still treat ourselves and each other abusively, without care or love. There is a difference between living in the shadows of the grandiose buildings led by their ideals and belief and all they seemingly represent, and living by the light of the true grandiosity that naturally resides with us all, which represents the love we innately are within and our true way of being together.
“is this it?” I often asked myself this question while at the same time feeling rather guilty as on the surface I did have a lot more than most but when I was introduced to the presentations by Serge Benhayon I knew that ‘Yes, this is it.’
So what was I run by today, what a seriously awesome question and I see that it’s been me for part of it, but also ideas I have of what I think I should do and how I should measure up and it’s great to read this and stop and just check in again and track it back to see that in fact I was there for large parts of my day, very committed and at other parts not and to understand that I still have pictures of how I think I should be and what I should do and so then of course I have pictures of others too, and in fact with both I limit myself and others. But the cool thing in all this is I know this now and here I am reminded again, of how I’ve been me and where I’ve not been me and that I can go deeper and embrace more of me and in doing so I drop pictures of both me and others.
I love this article. Today someone asked me if “I got something out of life for myself?”
My answer was that I choose a lovely way to be in my life, and I enjoy my life to the fullest, there is nothing more I need than that.
I didn’t ask the question in quite the same manner but I certainly asked the question, what is life about, what is the purpose of ‘all this’? ‘is this it? all this gargantuan effort, scale, history, noise, life…. there MUST be more to it than just this?’ Love what you share in this blog Otto.
Donkey Kong is such a great analogy for life. When I think about different levels it is also a reminder that the moment you reach another level, immediately there is another one in sight.
“Do you want to be making the choices, or do you want to have the choices made for you?” I have been a sucker for saying yes to having the choices made for me most of my life until I came across UniMed. I have been astounded just how much and deep in my body I was not making choices for me. I was out of control not knowing how to come back after a sick momentum of escaping my sensitivity and that niggling tension of this is not it. I knew it and no matter what I did or what drugs I took I could not escape. It blows my mind what blessing it is to heal and surrender back into my body and know that it is ok to be this sensitive in a world of tension we cannot ever escape!
Thanks Otto, a delight to read again… you have distilled the entire Ancient Wisdom teachings down to a single, simple understanding and approach to life. To me that shows the truth you have offered as it provides a way forward that brings understanding and simplicity to life’s entanglements and complications.
I love that honest look you speak of Otto, who is in charge here, us or what we have allowed in our lives and what we have taken on; how much of it is true, and how much is it that we do not want to look and we’ve fallen into a comfortable habit or idea of how we think it should look, and behind all of this are those niggles you speak of, the quiet question that goes ‘is this it?’, ‘what is the point of this?’ And when we stop and allow ourselves to honestly appraise this, and bring that honesty into all we do, slowly we begin to untie ourselves from those ideas, those ways which do not support us to be us in life, and we for sure move off that first level! And for me that appraisal came truly when I found Universal Medicine, I knew instantly no matter how uncomfortable I felt (and I did) that this was true and it allowed me the space to stop and get honest with me and my life and understand there is a bigger wider purpose in how we all are and how we live, that everything matters, and the starting point is to be honest.
I had that feeling from my teenage years also, that there had to be more to life, that something was missing. After decades of searching I found that “something more” with Universal Medicine, I reconnected to my essence (the true me that I’d lost), reconnected to my soul, to God, understood the process of evolution, my part in the Universe…and so much more. Boy does Serge Benhayon deliver! Yet it’s not something taught, it’s something shared and then confirmed by how I feel and what I experience, it’s a re-awakening of an awareness and reconnection to a universal truth. Finding the work of Serge Benhayon is definitely like coming home.
The Way of The Livingness is the greatest tool possible to get off not only the first level but to forever keep climbing.
“Were the decisions that you made, made by you, purely you, only you… or were they made because of the life that you are in, because of the world that is all around you?” This is an awesome question. Thanks for the tip Otto. What I appreciate is that although the question seems almost obvious, when it is presented in another way, from another angle or perspective, it can open a door that before just stayed stubbornly closed. It shows me how important it is that we all express in our own way as each one of us has a unique perspective on life and we never know which doors will open in others from us expressing simply what we see and feel.
I can very much relate to the feelings ‘there has to be more to life than what I see around me’ throughout my life on and off and they subsided when I met Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine are supporting me to reawaken to truth but with all the wisdom and knowledge presented and as my awareness expands and felt more deeply, what it comes down to is choice, the choice to be and live me in every moment. Thank Otto for sharing such an awesome blog.
Otto I am sure at some point in all of our lives we stop and wonder that there must be more to life than this? We build amazing buildings and bridges and we are really clever at all sorts of technology and infrastructure, but there is so much unhappiness with life, with each other and with ourselves. When we look at animals they simply operate in their own frames of reference, they don’t push themselves more than they are able to, they are almost content with their world and their place in it. I can certainly say that has not been the case for me. Always searching, looking to improve, find a better version of myself – but none of that was me and that was what was so saddening. I would then be on the search again, but this was only temporary relief. Knowing that I don’t have to search for anything or go travelling anywhere to find myself has been like taking my first breath. Through the presentations of Serge Benhayon I have come to understand that everything is within and all I need to do is connect and listen to my heart.
Love this sharing, Otto, you have succinctly delivered the simplicity of what Serge Benhayon offers humanity. That the whole of life is a choice, one that we always have to make. If we believe we have no choice, than life is running us. Simple.
You are right… the more you choose to look honestly at what lies behind each choice and are able to unpick the ideals and beliefs that can permeate them, we are left to let go of what has stood in our way and choose what is true… and ultimately begin to make our way up the levels of life rather than fooled into thinking where we are is all there is.
I love this. What I feel is that a lot of people are no longer even questioning this. They are going through life, not really enjoying it but are not asking ‘is this it’ they are just accepting this. I love the perspectives of teenagers as often they do question this and we need to listen to this, not indulge their reactions but see beyond this to the fact that often they can be asking for more.
A very true expose of how much we let ourselves be dictated by the world and it is indeed very liberating to be presented with the possibility that there is a choice in every moment and that we can step off the merry-go-round we had believed life to be.
Thank you Otto for a great sharing, so much of our life is lived by outward forces, until we realise that we have a choice, this can then clear the way for us to live life by our own choice and not life living us.
Otto thank you so much for sharing so honestly that there is a way out “off the first level of Donkey Kong”.
Love this Otto, and could relate to all of what you have shared, except mine goes along the track of being a woman with those zillion beliefs and ideals. I also delved into the new-age and relied heavily on fate and if it’s meant to happen it will happen… which I I realised eventually that nothing was happening from me but I was being pulled along by outside influences. It’s an absolute contrast to how I live now thanks to the practical and simple teachings of universal medicine, that there is a responsibility to check in with ourselves to whom or what is making decisions as it affects us.
I enjoyed reading this blog again Otto. Its funny that with each new level we get to, there can be a coasting that occurs, rather than a readiness to keep going, (without any drive or push.) Its great to remain open to what the next level of learning has to offer.
Thank you Otto. I love the analogy you use here, jumping over barrels all the time is hard work and sometimes they take you out. The presentations made by Serge Benhayon have given me the opportunity to let the barrels roll by without being impacted by them.
Life can be likened to a game of Donkey Kong. Today I walked home feeling like I had jumped those barrels and explored other levels just like in the game. Like Donkey Kong, we don’t know what the next day will bring but we sure can be prepared.
This is brilliant and so true. It’s actually quite uncomfortable, painful or disheartening to feel that we’ve been puppets to make almost every choice we have. However being honest about this, accepting the truth and not choosing guilt, shame or hurt we have a marvelous opportunity to step out of this and re-empower ourselves to make choices that come from and are aligned with love, respect, joy, responsibility and heaven.
I agree Danielle, it is uncomfortable and disheartening to feel the ill-choices I have made but unless I am honest and feel them then I am going nowhere but around and around, stuck on the treadmill. It’s not about criticising and being judgemental on myself but to see the awareness as a wonderful opportunity to continue to re-imprint loving choices and evolve.
My teenage years were pre computer games but felt I was dodging barrels and wondering what the true purpose of life was really all about. I was stuck on the first level of life until my mid-fifties when I attended my first presentation by Serge Benhayon and I became aware of the Ageless Wisdom that has always been there waiting for me to return to the true purpose and responsibility of being who I truly am.
‘I am being run by my life. I am not running my life.’ When we get to this point, it’s time to realise we’ve outsourced our control to values, beliefs and attitudes about how our life should be and it’s a great opportunity to begin to make different choices – ones that support us rather than having us running behind our life, trying to keep up with it.
“…there MUST be more to it than just this?” The self-same question that I am sure many of us have had at some point in our lives. Your response: “It’s just a simple choice. Do you want to be making the choices, or do you want to have the choices made for you?” So clear and simple – thanks Otto.
Great blog Otto, I love your level of honesty and your choice to go up a level in life. I can so relate to feeling stuck wondering what the point in life is. But I too have learnt to appreciate that there is so much more, it is not about endlessly searching but about living and continuously making choices that I know I have made from being me. Not by the whole list of ideals and beliefs you mentioned but by connecting to my heart.
Awesome blog Otto, I can relate on so many levels.
Otto I thank you for your simple but insightful sharing. I was looking for many years for the answer to ” is that all there is ” also. It was something I knew I would find but the journey was long and when I found Universal Medicine and the Teachings of Serge Benhayon I came home to the answer!
True freedom is what the whole world is looking for, whether we are honest about that or not, our bodies do not lie. All the things we have done to look for freedom, and it is actually very simple, to just be honest. What does not feel so easy is to be honest again after a long time of choosing not to, we have so many more layers to go through, and so we have to also bring in acceptance, a lot of tenderness, care and understanding. Ah, but none of these we have to fret about as we cannot do them ahead of time, and they are only revealed when they are needed when the time is right, so responsibility has never been more simple, and life is actually so awesome.
I agree Adele, very beautifully said. Honesty is key to keeping life simple and appreciating it in every way.
I don’t know this game Otto but I do understand being stuck on level one, knowing there are more but not finding the key to get there. Through the teachings of Universal Medicine I am evolving and feeling (ever slow slowly) past the first level of the game of life.
‘I am being run by my life’. Very cool line Otto that would confuse many, but bring truth to many more. It would make one question if their action of day to day life are shaping their choices. Are they in motion without question? Is the day pushing and pulling them and they don’t ask where. I love this line.
I do know the feeling of being run by choices not truly made by me but the ideals I have of how I should be. I sometimes just go with it, but I can feel how great it feels to take responsibility and choose that what I do. Being in control of life, not in the mercy of it thinking all is chance and just happens to us, which is an enormous non truth to not take responsibility. I am at the steering wheel, which feels awesome.
Otto I have never played Donkey Kong, but I relate to your question “Is this it?” that I used to ask myself. Deep inside there was this feeling that this life that I was living and that everyone else was living, was limited, and all the ideals and beliefs that you have mentioned – I did not realise that they were the prison walls. It felt like I was on a treadmill, and I couldn’t get off. So I love your conclusion that it is a simple choice, of energy, and how liberating to be jumping over those barrels.
I too have asked myself this question Bernadette, feeling overwhelmed and lost. It certainly does feel very stuck remembering when I wasn’t able to see past my protective walls that life is in fact very grand and magnificent. It’s not because it was not there it was because I wasn’t choosing to see it or live it. I can see so clearly now that it is a simple choice to choose to live what we are here offered with abundance, LOVE.
There are so many ideals, beliefs and roles we can choose from, it is almost like we can tailor our ideals, beliefs and roles to perfectly fit our life, either that be to play small or to be the guy that everyone likes etc.
Otto, I love this analogy of breaking through the first level of Donkey Kong. We so often accept life as it is, with all our ideals and beliefs and bury the feeling of knowing that there is something more, taking responsibility for my choices was the beginning of breaking the cycle, for me and finding there was so much more to life.
I remember at about 14 years of age looking around too and asking if there was more to life than the script I saw outplaying -school, job, marriage,mortgage and kids. I don’t remember any unhappiness but it was the start of an itch under my skin of what to understand life and its meaning, I always looked for answers outside of myself of course and it was not until meeting Serge Benhayon did I gain any confidence to look within, it has also taken a long time to understand and be more accepting of the power I have to choose.
Otto it’s so cool you’re off the first level, with the second level the barrels start coming at you a little faster which is exactly what happens when you start to run your life. Things can happen really quickly but they are not overwhelming as you are prepared for them because you are running your life.
I like this Lindell, they start coming faster on the second level as the more aware we become the more the barrel wants to knock us back to level one. If we have learnt enough from the level one we can choose to keep building our love mussels and become aware of where the barrels come from making this level fun, enjoyable and we get ready for level 3.
Great blog Otto sharing just how simple and self-responsible the esoteric actually is, so simple and self-responsible that it is easily dismissed and ignored, but that does not change the facts. The facts are we are constantly being influenced or affected by something and so we might as well be honest about it and understand it more.
Thanks Otto for spelling it out so clearly. There are people who are wary of Universal Medicine and what is presented, but the real truth is that all that is being presented is what you share here: you don’t have to continue on the merry go round of life, or the incessant, repetitive levels of a computer game, but that we all have a choice in every single moment, to make decisions that are actually from us, from the well deep inside us that is rock solid and protected from what we call life. It’s not to avoid life, but rather work with what we’ve got, not be used by what we’ve created and then see what happens.
By the way, I got Donkey Kong for Christmas about 25 years ago now, played it all day, and right when I was about to get off a level and move to the next one, I bombed out. I got so angry I flung the screen against the wall and smashed it to smithereens. Aaaah, the magic of God (in hindsight)… telling me to get off the conveyor belt 🙂
This is a really fabulous analogy Otto. Those barrels hurtling towards us are unrelenting when we get swept up in what happens when we let life run us. The tools offered by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and the further inspiration received from observing them, and the many students, now living a life with very few barrels ( and those now bobbing by to learn from instead) have turned my life around also.
I too remember as a child questioning what life was really about and finding it odd that nobody seemed to know and just kept doing what they were doing, essentially jumping over one barrel after another. Then I met Serge Benhayon, a man who had answers, continues to have answers to so many more questions than I would even consider asking, he knew all about and could explain life’s barrels and made sense of the game being played, and is constantly pointing out the way to the next level.
I love what you have written Barbara especially ‘constantly pointing out the way to the next level’. This is so true. When I was a teenager I felt there had to be more of a reason as to why we are all here. It didn’t make sense that we are born, we become adults and then we die. What was the purpose of this? But like you, I met Serge Benhayon and started attending Universal Medicine events and the answers to my questions started flowing in and they still do. It’s all a game.
I found that too, Barbara, that other people continued on with the repetition and the meaninglessness of life, seemingly quite happy to do so – I could never understand how others did not have the loud knowing that there was more to life than this? So the search began and continued (for many years) until I met Serge Benhayon and thankfully the search is now over and the work has begun.
Hi Otto
I totally was allowing others to make decisions for me, I recognised my need for this and the huge lack of responsibility I was allowing. Since starting to make decisions for me from my body wow that experience is the best and that best isn’t just for me, it’s for everyone. Thank you for your sharing.
When we take full responsibility there is so much liberation in making a true choice that takes the ‘all’ into consideration.
Choosing to take responsibility has been an empowering process and choice that really puts everything into perspective.
“Were the decisions that you made, made by you, purely you, only you… or were they made because of the life that you are in, because of the world that is all around you?” – I love this. What a beautiful way to give myself a stop moment.
So simple and yet so very true Otto. I remember having those thoughts as a child even. But then half way through teenage life all the dramas and issues had swept me up an left me at the mercy of the same list you describe.
It really is that simple, ask yourself ‘is this me’ and if it is not then nominate what belief, ideal, pattern or need it was and let it go. No rocket science but it will sure get you over the moon :-).
Wow Otto, thanks for posing the question that unlocks the conundrum of life so simply ‘Do you want to be making the choices, or do you want to have the choices made for you?’ I can relate to feeling ‘Is this it?’ at so many points in my life until I met Universal Medicine and started to unpick the many ideals and beliefs that had been running my life up until that point. I am discovering ever deeper layers of ideals and beliefs that can still trip me up – it’s like I am now playing Donkey Kong in reverse as I simplify my life and make choices that support me rather than getting caught in the barrel jumping that is everyday life for most people.
love that ‘off the first level of donkey kong’ it sure does rock living free of that first level, funny though how I seem to like the first level and actually chose to reset and go back to the start of the game and play out the same old stuff over and over again, even when I know how to get out and off that to be free and responsible for the choices made. This is happening less and less but it is by no means a straightforward game of going up levels – I am sure it can be with true purpose it would be easy its just it seems we are very attached to the illusion that the first level is it.
The old reset button. I’ve done this a few times, maybe more. I know exactly what you mean by knowing how to get off the first level but choosing not to because it’s familiar and because I thought it was easy and I knew how to play the game. By making more loving choices I can now see my confidence growing and gaining control of my life. This sets up a foundation and rhythm so I can easily ‘jump the barrels’ so to speak.
Sometimes it seems that we don’t have a choice in life yet we always have a choice. The moment we think we don’t have a choice, is a moment we are invited to have a honest look and realize that no one else makes our choices. It is us, always us. Thank you Otto for this brilliant blog.
It’s really interesting to consider that everything is a choice. I often hear people say “I had no choice!”, about the most simple things and it’s really not true. When we are faced by someone making those choices and not just allowing them to be made for them, it’s time to be inspired.
Life is ‘the big game’ which we can choose to be a player or step aside. It’s crazy to watch how involved we become when we are in it … I have surrendered in the game and walk my own path, occasionally being drawn back in and am quickly aware its not my path which no longer fits with the simplicity and loving ways I choose.
Wowsa
What a powerful to the point simple depiction of where we make choices from!
Spot on and well said Natasha, that’s exactly what it was.
Thanks Kim
Thanks Otto and Natasha, I agree, and for me it is a simple choices and responsibility to make loving choices to be in the amazing light and love of our soul!
Absolutely agree Gregbarness88 ! Simple yet markedly powerful choices that support our bodies and our soulful return.
I enjoyed the analogy with Donkey Kong Otto, and can relate to feeling “I am being run by my life. I am not running my life…” Using the techniques presented by Serge Benhayon I’ve been able to reconnect to my true self, feel more in control of my life and get to ‘level 2’.
What a great blog about life Otto, I really enjoyed every word. So true! Thank you.
Otto, this is such an awesome blog. So simple and so true, and the question you ask is so real and relevant, today and every day. And sometimes we think we have moved off the first level, only to realise we have subscribed to a whole other set of ideals and beliefs! Much to ponder on here and a great invitation to return to the simplicity of truth.
Beautiful Otto, I love your ‘donkey kong’ analogy to modern day life, it is just so appropriate and true. And if my memory is correct, those barrels that ‘donkey’ had to jump just kept coming faster and faster the longer you played….
How about Heart Kong Otto? Focus on everything inside you, feel the body, express all you are, never worry about racing the clock as there’s no time just cycles, let go of getting anywhere and surrender to what you already are. The levels are the easy part as there is always a much greater love pulling us forward. Each level brings more love to share – winners everywhere! 🙂
Beautiful Otto! It’s so simple isn’t it, connecting to the inner heart and finally feeling I’ve left “Level 1”. The cool thing is, now I feel life is unfolding for me and I get to move along quicker and quicker the more I surrender to me. No more barrels (or almost none!).
Otto I remember that game and can relate to being stuck on level 1. Like you it been only through the support of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine that I have been able to truly understand and embrace I am responsible for the choices in my life. It’s been so freeing to get past level 1 and the many other levels since then.
Otto, great analogy to be stuck in one level of a video game and effectively keep going around the circle. And often we are, until we start to get honest and see what is truly going on, are we in the driving seat or being driven. And often it is the later and as we start to look we are surprised by how much of the later is so many things that isn’t truly us and it’s a continual discarding process as we see another layer or level of where we are being drive for us to discard, but as we do, we become the driver more.
The Donkey Kong story is a great analogy Otto. Thanks. I do recognize a lot in your story. It feel that I was stuck on Level 1 and no matter what I did I stayed stuck on Level 1. The creepy part of the Level 1 in real live is that appearances on the outside could change so that I could fool myself that I was actually moving ahead, but if I am really honest, I was not.
Thanks to Universal Medicine I know I am moving to the next levels. And it feels I am equipped with all the knowledge, tooling and support to deal with the challenges which occur on the next level which I have now entered. The next level is more beautiful than the one before, but also asks me to be more. It asks me to be more of ME.
Yes Willem it’s like Groundhog day until we recognise we have choices.
I love the Donkey Kong analogy, life is constantly throwing barrels at you, and you don’t get time to just pause and take a breath, there is constant tension and a state of having to be ready for the next thing coming your way. Life really does happen to you if you don’t stop and start making choices from you.
I could relate so easily to what you have written Otto. To stop at any point in the day and to ask the question where am I right now, where have I been and did I make those choices. More and more we are all getting caught up in the ‘push’ of life which is dictated by things outside of ourselves, things we are not even aware of. To start with stopping and checking in is a great way to arrest that ‘push’, starting a new way of living our lives from our own centre. Our choices made from this place will have more of us in them and less of all the ideals, beliefs and forces dicated from outside of ourselves.
Thank you for the comment, it really can be as simple and as practical as taking small moments to pause or stop and feel where we are at, and feel whether our choices are truly honouring of ourselves.
So well written Otto… I was hanging off every word on this blog.. I do feel like sometimes I go through a day and think.. well where was I in all of that? Because I know that it’s not always me making my choices, my choices are in a momentum that I’ve picked up from ideals and beliefs of how I should be and behave but I am not consciously choosing all day, everyday what I feel is true. When I’m in the momentum of choices I’ve picked up on, it’s like the repetitive cycle where everything is the same like you were describing in the beginning of the blog and wondering what is the point.
Great to know we can break the cycle and just how powerful our choices are. we don’t need to be victims to life we have the power to change, we may need support sometimes but none the less the choice is ours. Thank you to Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon for leading the way and empowering true choice by exposing all that gets in the way of our freedom to choose.
Yes Caroline, it is wonderful to finally know, thanks to the inspiring presentations by Serge Benhayon, that I am now able to break the destructive cycles that have run my life for so long. And it is as equally wonderful to know that I do not have to be a victim anymore, I simply have to make the choice to run my life, not let it run me.
Yes we have the power to choose. Well said. At any given time.
Yes Absolutely Caroline Raphael. Our choices are our power too. I can absolutely relate to what Otto has shared with us. He is not refering to an imaginary picture, but actualy a reality. I have lived a life where I was actually not making choices from my own conscious presence. It seems almost that even though I was there and choose things, I was not really really choosing, but an energy that came with it. Of Course I was responsibile for that source to enter through me, but at that time I knew no different, just like many many people in the world. Therefore Universal Medicine has opened up a livingness, where I am able to be fully present now and choosing the right energy to connect with and make my choices from. I am feeling not an empty vessel anymore , but a strong being that is very able to make her choices.
It strikes me Caroline, that this power to truly choose is actually one of the greatest freedoms you can ever have because when we are trapped in the thinking that that momentum is just us then we are owned by the systems of life and always live at the expense of it rather than just being ourselves