DR. JAY KUMAR

Well, after years of hype December 21, 2012 is here! Unless you've been hiding in a cave with no internet access the past few months, I'm sure you've read or heard in the collective media about the possible fate of the world on this day. Whether you're a skeptic or believer that this popularized calendar date has any major significance for humanity is to be seen. 

I've been frequently asked over the past few weeks by students, clients, and many people what exactly does this event mean for the planet. So I thought, why not just share my views on the matter with everyone, once and for all. So do I believe that our world is coming to an end? No, I don't! What I do believe is that our current worldview is coming to an end!  

How many of you remember the lyrics to the famous David Bowie song, “Turn and face the strange ch..ch…changes!” It seems that everyone is experiencing change on some level. All around us major transformations are occurring in humanity and around the planet. While I’ve explored the nature of change and why we can sometimes fear it in previous posts (full article here), many of us still might be confused, anxious, or even fearful of the monumental shifts happening all around. 

One of my favorite quotes comes from Charles Darwin who says, “It is not the strongest of the species
 that survives, nor the most intelligent,
 but the one most responsive to change.” In essence, change is inevitable! Ironically, change is the only constant of the universe and of life. The more we resist change, the more we suffer, the more we remain in fear, and the more we get stuck on the journey.

However, another way to view change can be as an awakening. One of my favorite movie lines comes from an old 1980’s film Joe versus the Volcano with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. It goes, “Almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know, everyone you see, everyone you talk to. Only a few people are awake, and we live in constant and total amazement.” So when you can begin to see life not as a fearful and dreaded element of change, but as an adventurous, joyous, and exhilarating journey of awakening, that is when you truly start LIVING! 

Whether it was the Arab uprisings or Occupy Wall Street movements that were happening both here in the US and globally, one thing is for sure–the new emerging paradigm on the planet is about BECOMING AWAKE. Awake not in the physical sense, but in the context of human consciousness and global awareness of feeling alive, whole, vibrant, and most of all individually and collectively empowered. On the contrary, the old paradigm we’re releasing as a species was about being ASLEEP by feeling disconnected, isolated, depressed, devalued, ignorant, and disempowered.

I personally believe that humanity is in a time of tremendous transformation. All the current long-standing structures of the planet are transitioning as we awake to an emerging worldview of wholeness, interconnectedness, compassion, tolerance, and justice. In order for this shift to occur, all the old structures of separation, domination, oppression, nationalism, and fundamentalism have to come up in our collective consciousness so that they can be healed, if humanity is to evolve as a species.

A phrase I've said repeatedly in reference to Dec. 21, 2012 is that “THE SHIFT IS ABOUT TO HIT THE FAN – BIG TIME!” Depending on what side of the fan you’re standing on, that will determine how easily you’ll make the shift. If you happen to be standing on the side that fears all the changes, you might not like it when the “shift starts flying!”

In essence, what is happening right now and currently manifesting around the world is an AWAKENING! In Eastern philosophy, the word for "one who is awake" is known as a Buddha. The renowned Buddhist spirtual leader, Thich Nhat Hahn, nicely sums up this notion of global awakening by saying that the next Buddha is not going to be a person, but the actual planet and humanity! THE ENTIRE PLANET AND HUMANITY ARE THE NEXT BUDDHA.

This notion of transformation and awakening is even evident in the Biblical traditions. The Biblical concepts ofthe Apocalypse and of the Revelation both derive from words that mean to “reveal, awaken, lift back the veil.” The word apocalypse derives from the ancient Greek verb apokalyptein "to uncover, disclose, reveal," which in the Latin version of the Bible became the word revelatio “to reveal, unveil, uncover, disclose.” So for all you doomsday types out there who fear the Apocalypse or the Revelation as the end of the world, to you I say, “BEWARE, THE BEGINNING IS NEAR!”

Humanity's emerging worledview of wholeness and interconnectedness is not only a concept advanced by the many spiritual traditions of the world, it is one that science also states to the be the actual reality of our universe. In the exciting field of quantum physics and mechanics, there is the fundamental understanding that at the very basic level of the quantum realm, everything in the universe abides in a state of undivided wholeness. In this worldview concepts of time, space, and possibly even consciousness itself are entangled together in a unified state. According to academic colleagues of mine, who happen to be renowned quantum physicists, this new paradigm of holism is gradually evolving within the sciences with the potential radically to transform all of humanity's platforms such as medicine, ecology, economics, neuroscience, and the very evolution of human consciousness. Indeed, we are living in exciting times!

As more of us become awake, the more this awakening accelerates around the planet. It only takes a small but dedicated few of us to be catalysts for humanity’s great awakening. As the noted anthropologist Margaret Mead once insightfully observed, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Always remember just how amazing and incredible you are, and just how joyous and magnificent life is. The key to navigating these times of change and transformation is to “change” your attitude toward change. Once you begin to understand that the personal and planetary changes are nothing more than humanity’s powerful awakening, you will be just fine!

Keep on Living Your Light® as you keep on Awakening Into Your Light!

Dr. Jay Kumar
www.drjaykumar.com
Facebook – Dr. Jay Kumar
Twitter – docjaykumar 

 

 

Dr. Jay Kumar

 

www.drjaykumar.com
Facebook – Dr. Jay Kumar
Twitter – docjaykumar

How many of you remember the lyrics to the famous David Bowie song, “Turn and face the strange ch..ch…changes!” It seems that everyone is experiencing change on some level. All around us major transformations are occurring in humanity and around the planet. While I’ve explored the nature of change and why we can sometimes fear it in previous posts (full article here), many of us still might be confused, anxious, or even fearful of the monumental shifts happening all around.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Charles Darwin who says, “It is not the strongest of the species
 that survives, nor the most intelligent,
 but the one most responsive to change.” In essence, change is inevitable! Ironically, change is the only constant of the universe and of life. The more we resist change, the more we suffer, the more we remain in fear, and the more we get stuck on the journey.

However, another way to view change can be as an awakening. One of my favorite movie lines comes from an old 1980’s film Joe versus the Volcano with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. It goes, “Almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know, everyone you see, everyone you talk to. Only a few people are awake, and we live in constant and total amazement.” So when you can begin to see life not as a fearful and dreaded element of change, but as an adventurous, joyous, and exhilarating journey of awakening, that is when you truly start LIVING! 

Whether it was the Arab uprisings a few months ago or the current Occupy movement happening both here in the US and globally, one thing is for sure–the new emerging paradigm on the planet is about BECOMING AWAKE. Awake not in the physical sense, but in the spiritual sense of feeling alive, whole, vibrant, and most of all individually and collectively empowered. On the contrary, the old paradigm we’re releasing was about being ASLEEP by feeling disconnected, isolated, depressed, devalued, ignorant, and disempowered.

Humanity is in a time of tremendous transformation–all the current long-standing structures of the planet are transitioning as we awake to an emerging worldview of wholeness, interconnectedness, compassion, tolerance, and justice. In order for this shift to occur, all the old structures of separation, domination, oppression, nationalism, and fundamentalism have to come up in our collective consciousness so that they can be healed. Basically, “THE SHIFT IS ABOUT TO HIT THE FAN – BIG TIME!” Depending on what side of the fan you’re standing on, that will determine how easily you’ll make the shift. If you happen to be standing on the side that fears all the changes, you might not like it when the “shift starts flying!”

A few weeks ago, I decided to experience this momentous awakening on the planet by spending a night at the Occupy Los Angeles movement. While there, I could palpably feel the energy and power of transformation taking place. People from all walks of life–students, educators, war veterans, architects, doctors, lawyers, and, yes, even a number of business people were sharing their voices by saying NO to the old ways and advancing social change. In essence, what was happening there at the Occupy LA site and what is currently manifesting around the world is an AWAKENING! In Eastern philosophy, the word for "one who is awake" is known as a Buddha. The renowned Buddhist spirtual leader, Thich Naht Hahn, nicely sums up this notion of global awakening by saying that the next Buddha is not going to be a person, but the actual planet and humanity! THE ENTIRE PLANET AND HUMANITY ARE THE NEXT BUDDHA.

Interestingly, the Biblical concepts of the Apocalypse and of the Revelation both derive from words that mean to “reveal, awaken, lift up the veil.” The word “apocalypse” derives from the ancient Greek verb apokalyptein "to uncover, disclose, reveal," which in the Latin version of the Bible became the word revelatio “to reveal, unveil, uncover, disclose.” So for all you doomsday types out there who fear the Apocalypse or the Revelation as the end of the world, to you I say, “BEWARE, THE BEGINNING IS NEAR!”

As more of us become awake, the more this awakening accelerates around the planet. It only takes a small but dedicated few of us to be catalysts for humanity’s great awakening. As the noted anthropologist Margaret Mead once insightfully observed, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Always remember just how amazing and incredible you are, and just how joyous and magnificent life is. The key to navigating these times of change and transformation is to “change” your attitude toward change. Once you begin to understand that the personal and planetary changes are nothing more than humanity’s powerful awakening, you will be just fine! Keep on Living Your Light® as you keep on Awakening Into Your Light!

Dr. Jay Kumar
www.drjaykumar.com
Facebook – Dr. Jay Kumar
Twitter – docjaykumar

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has a wonderful quote that encapsulates the nature of suffering. He says, "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional." The point here is to recognize that suffering is different from pain. Knowing the distinction between pain versus suffering is an important aspect for our personal growth and wellbeing. 

 

I view pain as a physical condition and grief as its emotional correlate. Hitting our toe against the table causes physical pain, while the loss of a loved one can produce emotional grief. On the other hand, the cause of our suffering is self-inflicted and produced by our mind and thoughts over the event that initially caused the pain. In essence

 

Pain = Physical
Grief = Emotional
Suffering = Mental

 

Here's a personal and every day example that distinguishes between pain and suffering and that also illustrates the cause of suffering. A few weeks ago I spilled liquid on my laptop requiring me to take it in for what I dreaded would be a costly repair. I experienced the instant "pain" of that one action as panic in my body wondering if I had ruined my computer. My "suffering" was caused by incessantly mentally berating myself over my carelessness the next FIVE DAYS of not having a computer, even though there was NOTHING I could do to change the situation. 

While suffering is the product of how our mind chooses to respond to the pain, we each experience and respond to suffering in our own unique way such as anger, fear, anxiety, depression, etc. Even though suffering is a natural human response to pain, it is not physical but a mental condition that exists independently of pain. Paradoxically, we can suffer even after the pain has gone. Neuroscientists now believe that while most organisms feel pain, certain animals, e.g. elephants, primates, and dolphins, appear also to experience emotional grief. However, it is only humans that experience suffering! 

Suffering is also directly connected with change. If we recall from last month's article, loss is just merely a form of change that is part of life. Change is something that is an integral part of life and nature. The more we resist the inevitable force of change and the acceptance of change in our life, the more we suffer. There exists, then, a direct correlation between suffering and resistance that I express in the following equation.

Suffering = Resistance x Change.

Putting it more simply, suffering is just resistance to accepting change. Our suffering is, therefore, proportional to the degree to which we resist change. While change is constant and something that we may have no control over, we do have a choice to how much we resist change and, thus, how much we suffer. To the degree that we can embrace change, especially when it occurs as loss, the less our mental suffering becomes.

Readapting the Dalai Lama’s quote, I now say, “Change is inevitable, suffering is optional.”

Keep on Living Your Light® as you learn to embrace the flow and change in your life!

Dr. Jay Kumar

 

Dear Friends,

Happy summer, everyone (or winter to my friends below the equator)! As always I hope this month's newsletter finds you enjoying and manifesting your full potential in life. It feels that recently many of us, myself included, are currently learning to deal with loss in some form. For you, it might be losing a dear family member, ending a relationship or marriage, your job, your home, or even the way of life you once knew. For me, loss is manifesting in the gradual departure of my best buddy Pico, a beloved 14.5 year-old golden retriever. I, therefore, wish to dedicate this and the next issue to all of you, or people you know, coping with loss and transition at this time. While loss is undoubtedly a painful and overwhelming process, there can actually be some valuable lessons learned from the experience. In part one of this series, I begin with some advice on how you can shift your attitude toward loss and hopefully view it in a new light.

The first step toward coping with loss is to view loss as change! You may wonder, "What's the difference?" I believe that change comes in two forms, as either a joyous experience that you embrace or as a painful process that you dread. Most of you would agree that certain life events, e.g. getting married, having a child, going to college, getting a new home, etc., are all happy and joyous moments in life. Looking more closely, all of these celebratory situations also take on a form of loss, e.g. loss of being single, loss of youth, or loss of an old way of life. On the other hand, the painful loss of a loved one, a relationship, or career brings grief and sadness.

So why is that we embrace the positive form of change but not when the change manifests as loss? Perhaps it is due to the innate human condition that views loss as something that causes uncertainty of the future over which we have no control. While we each experience loss in different ways, most of us react to loss through anger, grief, despair, frustration, or even denial. While all these emotions are valid in their own form, they are merely the ways in which we similarly react when life events seems out of control. Let's face it, for most the loss of a job, partner/spouse, pet, loved one, or a home is generally something that, despite how much we try, cannot be changed. The key phrase here is "cannot be changed!" If you can learn to shift the perception of loss to see it merely as just one form of change, the process of healing can begin as we transform our suffering into acceptance. I will explore this matter in next month's issue.

Again, the fundamental way to work through loss is to view it within the larger context of change. Both the good things in life that bring you joy (marriage, children, new relationship, job, etc.) and the challenging things that yield despair and suffering (death, divorce, unemployment, etc.) are in actuality just two sides of the same coin, known as change. The difference between the two is how we choose to view them and in the corresponding emotional labels of "good or bad" placed on them. In the same way that the change brought on by marriage and children is an opportunity for growth and expansion, I believe the same is true with loss. The key resides once you merely see loss for what it truly is-change. 

In next month's issue I explore how suffering relates to loss and how to transform suffering into acceptance.

Even in this time of change, manifesting as loss, know that you have the power and the capacity to embrace loss with acceptance, faith, and trust that all will be well soon. I hope you enjoy the newsletter as you continue Living Your Light®. Please feel free to share with friends and family who could use the encouraging words in their time of loss.

Dr. Jay Kumar

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What is consciousness, what is the Self, what is the mind? How do our thoughts and beliefs influence and shape our reality, both individually and collectively? Tune in to this weeks' show - 'Psychology and the Emerging Transformation in Global Consciousness' as we explore these topics with Dr. Ralph Metzner.

Dr. Metzner is an acclaimed author, clinical psychotherapist, and pioneer in the field of transformational consciousness. He earned a BA in philosophy from Oxford and a PhD in psychology from Harvard. His books Maps of Consciousness and The Unfolding Self have been widely acclaimed to be at the forefront of transformational studies. Hear Dr. Metzner discuss how humanity is awakening and evolving to a new global consciousness.