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What are your issues with migrating to ‘Heaven on Earth’?
Hanging out with inhabitants of 'Heaven on Earth', an Oyster Catcher family.
Currently we live in ‘Ego-land’ where ego culture shapes our lives and dictates our behavior. Behavior that attacks, competes, has us being inauthentic and creates a world of lack, defensiveness and fear. Some of us are paying enough attention to notice the destructive culture we live in, a culture that leaves us feeling fearful and oppressed; some of us notice enough to long for a more attractive ‘country’ to live in.
Some of us notice that there is an enticing new ‘country’ appearing. Eckhart Tolle calls it ‘A New Earth‘, I like the name ‘Heaven on Earth‘, a land where ego-type thoughts have no place.
The natives of ‘Heaven on Earth’ have banished their ego and instead they come from love while co-creating dreams based on win/win for all as their life’s purpose.
Although some of us are settling in well to living in ‘Heaven on Earth‘, most of us are not successful migrants yet. We are having trouble adjusting to its ego-less way of behaving and as a result we are still outcasts.
Migrating and adjusting to a new land obviously has its issues; I know.
In my past as a career consultant I often was approached to deal with unsuccessful migrants. They were highly skilled professionals but unable to adjust to New Zealand’s culture, to assimilate and find work. They were hopelessly lost, all self confidence gone and they had become increasingly resentful of New Zealand and what they perceived as its false promises to migrants. For them there was nothing promising about New Zealand at all.
A migrant myself I too had experienced how inaccessible New Zealand can be for foreigners.
As I had transcended the misery and had found ways to adjust to ‘wonderful’ New Zealand, it was me to the rescue.
I will share one of those migrant stories as an analogy for your inability to adjust to ego-less living in ‘Heaven on Earth‘.
He was a Russian nuclear physicist, 40 years old with wife and two young children, 6 and 8 years old. You would expect him to be capable of thinking and being able to assess this new country and find his way in. He wasn’t and he didn’t.
My strategy was always to get to see the partners together and let them talk first. It gave me a chance to see how they related and what their preoccupations were.
I observed and listened while he went to town spilling his misery and showing the tension between him and his wife.
After he had run out of steam and while catching his breath for the next round, I took my chance.
“What language do you speak at home?”, I asked knowing full well it was Russian as his English conversational vocabulary was limited. This rhetorical question was always worth asking, would he get my drift?
“What language do you -migrant to Ego-less land- speak at home, ego talk?
How had he decided on his job hunting techniques and were they based on his former Russian experience? Another rhetorical question, of course he did it the Russian way, he after all was a physicist from Russia! Ahum, but, but wasn’t he in New Zealand which firstly is against nuclear power and secondly specialized jobs of high caliber are few and far between, often a closed shop and only available if you are one of the in-crowd? Well, he would have none of that, he was granted entry and thus there should be a nuclear job for him, period. A man of his caliber did not have to jump through hoops to get a job or accept one of lower professional status. His wife threw me a look and I knew he was a handful for her too.
Can you -migrant to Ego-less land- imagine the question I would ask you on this subject and how you would answer it? Are you forcing results instead of going with the flow knowing there is a bigger plan you have to trust?
How much time did he spend on his job hunting? I expected him to say 24/7 and he didn’t disappoint me. His search for work had become an obsession leaving no time to relax and enjoy this beautiful country with his wife and children. No time for some peace from his relentless but hopeless pursuit. He also had no time to connect with the community so he could practice conversational English, learn the culture and get to know some New Zealand friends. Of course that left him terribly isolated with nobody to introduce him to New Zealand ways, to soften his Russian temperament and judgments. He just stuck to the same old same old job hunting techniques even if he had no results to show for his efforts. A man of his caliber?! Hmm.
To put the death nail in his coffin I asked how his wife and children were getting on. He growled; “They are doing fine!”
No surprises there either AND there was no sign of him paying any attention to what they were doing differently while they successfully settled into their new homeland.
Are you paying attention to how you are adjusting from Ego-land to ‘Heaven on Earth’?
Sometimes I succeeded to guide them through and we parted as friends, sometimes I failed miserably and the migrant returned to a private hell, feeling offended and misunderstood.
There is not much difference between this highly intelligent Russian migrant and those of us who too are seeking to enter a new country, A New Earth, the ego-less ‘Heaven on Earth‘.
It is very much the same process believe it or not.
I am again transcending my old culture to enter a new one. I once again am learning how to adjust and the WomenLikeMe program is my current vehicle to guide migrants.
I make people realize once more that they do already live in their new country of choice, ‘Heaven on Earth’, if only they could assimilate and adjust to its way.
If you recognize yourself as a ‘Heaven on Earth’ migrant then check out how you are getting on with assimilation via these questions:
- Are you paying careful attention to the wholesome ‘what is so’ of your daily life?
- Are you practicing at home with your family the new language of love, appreciation and acceptance. Have you given up speaking your old ego language of judgment and attack?
- Are you taking time out to relax, to build faith knowing that all is well and to enjoy everyone and everything around you?
To adjust, you need to hang out with the inhabitants of your new country, you need to emerge yourself into their context and pay attention. To adjust to ‘Heaven on Earth, you need guidance; you need to be encouraged to practice the ego-less ways.
That is what the WomenLikeMe program and its community can do for you, for less than the price of a latte a day. Your choice!
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22 Comments to “What are your issues with migrating to ‘Heaven on Earth’?”
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Wilma,
Thank you thank you thank you for this!!!
I am a migrant to heaven on earth. I say a whole hearted yes to your three questions because it is how I live…but it is your closing paragraph that strikes me..For, sometimes I find it a bit lonely because I have not met many inhabitants of my new country. Do you know why??? Because I am actually surrounded by these new inhabitants, some of whom are trying to welcome me with open arms, but I had no idea until this moment…because I *was using* my old vision finders…
I speak the language but it sounds foreign, because I am *not among the people* so it is foreign and sometimes rather than slip back into my old language which no longer suits me, I just stick with what I know, by myself and with my children….and I grow our little community from there..
Now I see, and I have a bit of work to do to further release and embrace…I love this new country…I celebrate this new country, and now I may feel more settled in this new country…
Wow..I needed this far more than I can express…Thank you!!!
Joy´s last blog ..Monday Blessing: Uniqueness…
Dear Joy. You have all the hall marks of a migrant to ‘Heaven on Earth’ because it is about love and joy. I too realized that I am absolutely attracted to what ‘Heaven on Earth’ stands for. And like you I too noticed I am lonely, but at least I have John. I think there are not many people living the full ‘heaven on earth’ way yet, most migrants are still struggling to completely live this way and slid in and out. However to find the few that are living this way fully and consciously and can help us cross the bridge and make it more familiar, we need indeed to learn to let go of our old vision finders. As you say here;
To find these ‘real’ inhabitants we need to pay close attention to how they live their lives; they take some effort to find. John for example is very invisible, he doesn’t grow three horns and yet he lives life from a totally different perspective. But most people do not see that because as you say they use their old vision finders. Even friends we thought were on our wave length in the end were not and did not see us. It is tricky but once you get a sense of what is the wholesome’ what is so’ of assimilating, it becomes easier and easier. Once migrants saw what was going on, they trusted me and we could begin the assimilation process and correct their ‘old’ ways.
So lets trust each other and together let the assimilating process begin.
Thank YOU Joy for taking this explanation yet a step further. Much love and peace in finding your way into this new world. It is a totally different place and I do not think we have realized how different. I never knew that New Zealand was so different from Holland but it sure was. Living on a boat is different and not many people know how different. It is so exciting though, this ‘Heaven on Earth’ is such a beautiful place AND it is available to us right NOW!
xox Wilma.
I haven’t really stepped out of my southern Oklahoma/Texas culture comfort zone. But I have had to really adjust at my new/old job. Not with the people, but with the job itself. See my new job is answering the phone after a caller has been on hold for a bit. We catch the “roll outs”, meaning who they were intentionally calling were not available. Part two of new/old job is emergency service. People who call are in a crisis situation. Flight cancelled or missed flight, wrong booking, etc.
It’s not the easiest thing. My ego gets bruised because I may not work with that account exclusively and don’t know all the detail by heart, so it takes longer, or I ask a question they deem unnecessary or so, and so never asks me that. The ego definitely takes a beating.
But it also makes me perfect for this job, because I keep my calm and my ego in check. I don’t have to know it all. I just have to listen to my client.
Heaven on Earth….indeed Wilma!
XOXO
Angelia Sims´s last blog ..Today is a big day
Dear Angelia, I see you adjusting all the time. You adjust when money needs to be spent on things you do not want to for somebody you no longer want to be involved with. You adjust to a new family and living together, all in an ego-less way.
You are stepping out of your culture comfort zone all the time in my humble opinion.
You will be great for that new job, you will pay attention to the people you are dealing with, you will hear their concern and their upset behind their rudeness.
You sure are here with me in ‘Heaven on Earth’ and I love having you as a fellow heaven on earthian.
XOX Wilma
Great post Wilma. I really liked that comparison you drew between living on earth in a new way and living in a new place. You are so right that they both push you beyond your comfort zone. The key is to to learn as much as you can so that one day things just seem more natural. Your new style of living then becomes the way you know and there are so many great things that come along with that. As always, great post with so many wonderful insights. Thanks for sharing this story.
Sibyl – alternaview´s last blog ..How to Really Experience the Current Moment
Hi Sibyl, the issue to recognize is that it requires a totally new way of living as you enter a completely different culture where things are done in quite a different way.
People do have difficulty adjusting to a new culture and tend to rather stay with the known hence ghetto forming and all the issues that comes with that. Having made the comparison has opened up more clarity about what to look out for when we want to make the shift to a new paradigm of living. I wholeheartedly agree with this;
XOX Wilma
A powerful invitation, Wilma, and you are right on in my book. I was just reading this thought this morning: “All the way to heaven in heaven,” Teresa of Avila. We make life so. A heaven, a hell, a little miserable clod of complaints, or pure gratitude for being here. It is how we choose to be and see and live….I am glad that you are on this path. Me too. Bless all of us who are finding our way….
Dear Jan, I love this line “All the way to heaven in heaven,”. We are already here and we make that so indeed. The irony for me has been that I did NOT see I had a choice how I could live life differently. I did not know there were other ways and I still do not always see when I am wandering off the path. I am so grateful to have my friends around me like everybody here and you, who are all sharing this journey and can contribute to us staying on this path of choice and knowing what choices there are.
Indeed bless all of us, xox Wilma
I’m a migrant again. First from Belgium to the US, then from wellness to health challenges, and now, to Ego-less land. I’m going to point here that I do not take the ‘less’ as ‘absence of’ but as ‘not as much of’. I believe that my ego is here for a reason. At the minimum to teach me about living without putting it in the driver’s seat. In an ideal scenario, as I’m migrating to that new land, it’s with me to help me handle life as it comes. It keeps me organised and alert while I flow and co-create. Like we have two brain hemispheres (the left for human doings and the right for spiritual being), we have Love/God as our driver and the ego as the navigator. But migrating we must. Because an Ego driven life of control is not only exhausting, it’s doomed to fill us with stress, dread, and fear. So I’m joining the bus to Heaven on Earth.
Thank you, Wilma!
Maryse´s last blog ..BARE HANDS IN THE SAND
Oh Maryse, isn’t migrating something? It really shakes your foundations to live in another culture AND that is a very good thing. We take so much for granted, we do so many things on automatic. I agree;
When migrating you learn about different values, different ways of doing, even learning a different way of speaking. So I love to share experiences on our bus ride to Heaven on Earth. I am so thrilled to have you come as you have indeed experience in migrating and have gained a lot of wisdom.
Much love, Wilma
Wilma,
My favorite line in A Course In Miracles is “Heaven is now there is no other time. Heaven is here there is no other place.” Ya gotta love it! Thanks for being on this journey with me. I remember the first post I read here was relating to Marianne Williamson. My ego loves to compare me to her and lose…but there’s no room in heaven for that now is there;) xo
Tess The Bold Life´s last blog ..Oil Spill: Taking Personal Responsibility
Hey Tess, there is only one Tess and I do not want her to become a Marianne Williamson clone. spare me. You are right, there is no room for that at all here, I love you as you are and more.
We are in Heaven, don’t let anybody take this belief away from us anymore.
XOX Wilma
Wilma, for me, I don’t believe we can banish the ego. As long as we are in human form we will have one. I used to think the ego was a “bad thing.” Now I don’t. I see it as a “finger pointing toward the moon” and that moon is my soul, my spirit self.
I’m aligned with Teresa of Avila on this who said, “All the way to heaven is heaven.” Truly, it can be. Our journeys are so simple really. We notice, we listen, we choose. We choose heaven as here with us~now~ as the way we choose to walk in this physical worlds, or heaven as goal, some place in some distant time and space. It is up to us. I prefer Teresa’s way. It is all a matter of perspective and orientation.
My husband often describes this journey as “coming home.” HOME being an anachronym for Heaven on Mother Earth. It has a nice ring to it! Blessings to you this day!
Jan Lundy´s last blog ..Growing Your Inner Garden
Dear Jan, I like that too, the road to heaven IS heaven, I do not think ignoring our current existence as heaven is a wise thing to do with our time right.It is a waste of my life to think otherwise. I cannot think God is withholding heaven from us.
About the ego, I recognize it as a way of thinking, and I do think ego and mind are the same thing. The mind is useful when it works like the servant of the heart which is the real intelligent one. When the mind is NOT guided by the heart but by outside dogma like science or societal beliefs, which we just parrot, we generate an ego mind with thoughts that are generated outside ourselves and that ignores our inner wisdom. We have inner wisdom, we have inner knowing, our mind can tap into the Source but we need to believe in that. Like we need to believe ‘all the way to heaven is heaven’ and go beyond what our ego trained mind can currently grasp.
We also need to ‘catch’ when our mind goes to thoughts that show disbelief we are in heaven. Your meditations are a good way to sit still and notice these unserving thoughts. We need to train the mind, the mind is good when it is guided by the heart, it is an obstacle when it is filled with ego trained thinking.
I also love what your husband says, coming HOME to mother earth. Oh Jan, nature is so much more than we know and it is wonderful to explore that and what a treat your husband can say this. Much blessings to you too. Love Wilma
Hi Wilma .. very interesting .. for me particularly having spent four years, as a secretary/admin, working in the background for two organisations in England that exported capital plant and machinery to Eastern Europe .. so our reps in England were ex East Europeans from each of the nine countries .. and I met East Europeans when they came to visit. I did go to Czechoslovakia too – Prague and Brno ..
I can understand your Russian .. but he knew no other way .. even though his wife and kids had adapted .. his ethics (if that’s the right word) were ingrained .. I asked some Romanian State visitors .. wouldn’t they like to be free – and I got a sheepish stonewall .. they couldn’t think like me .. they weren’t allowed to.
I don’t know if you’ve come across a film “Good Bye Lenin”? here’s the link .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Bye_Lenin! & wiki read .. it is eye opening as to what life was like in East Germany then .. similar to your guys – except worse as it’s Russia.
I’m obviously reading this post from a different view point ..and you migrated from a free European country .. as I did to South Africa .. with its apartheid .. if you’re part of that way of life .. you follow the crowd – so getting out and thinking differently is difficult.
Though your Russian was pretty naive .. but those opportunities, or way of thinking wouldn’t have been in his ‘ken’.
Really interesting .. but back to banishing our egos .. and paying attention .. and I can tell you coming back to England again is interesting!
If you have travelled and moved countries – then our eyes are a lot more open .. we know we must adapt to our surroundings .. and as you so rightly say hang out with the inhabitants of our new country .. where we wish to be. I didn’t succeed .. I needed to get home – but that was for the culture .. the 10,000 years of history – little did I know then .. what an influence history would be?!
Changing and adjusting is a mind shift … and not many people do it .. they are probably happy and successful doing what they’re doing .. but they’re not really relating to the world beyond their own world .. nor thinking of others and their plight.
I think I’d better stop .. it’s very interesting .. I don’t know if you can get the film .. but it is very funny, very true and very sad .. but very funny 20 years on .. thank goodness ..
Have a great weekend .. and I hope the camper van has found a home? Look after yourselves and hugs from here – Hilary
Hilary´s last blog ..Nature in Balance … and the Dark-Bellied Dew Lover!
Hi Hilary, this is cool. This is what we do with all our thinking and the metaphor for migrants is a way to really show how invisibly ingrained certain ways of behaving and thinking are. So I love your stories about your contact with a total different culture.
So how can we think abundance when everybody around us thinks scarcity? How could your Russian think freedom when there was none where he came from. I needed to point it out carefully to my Russian to have him see what was invisible to him in the first place. But there is so much invisible to us as well.
We do not believe we live in heaven on earth, as like the Russian with his freedom, we too have never experienced freedom from fear, scarcity and aloneness.
How can we think all is well when the whole world around us speaks of fear and doom and gloom. Who can see their way out of this ego-culture when nobody shows us?
This is big Hilary, and you are spot on;
It is really hard to keep your faith in that the universe provides when it doesn’t look like it.
And you are so right again;
We do not pay attention and sometimes we cannot see beyond what we know, like the Russian and we need help to go beyond. And that is what some of us do with our blogs, we do point out a different way of being and doing and thinking. You have to be open to these new thoughts and it is so great to see that you are. I do think having been in different worlds does help.
We haven’t found a place yet, but we are going to look at a very interesting one next weekend. It is such a lovely process, to meet farmers, see how they live energetically and then visit their land. There are heaps of miraculous opportunities when you create and do things differently. There are for you as well, look at how your blog is pumping.
You have a great weekend too, much love to you and your Ma. Hugs Wilma
Hi Wilma .. I didn’t focus properly on the post – because my little brain was tickling across so many other thoughts. I know you would have given your Russian your loving input .. and it is frightening to think that his mind was so embedded in an ego fear controlled attitude on top of his pedestal and everyone else was elsewhere inconsequential.
I guess a lot of people are like that without being immigrants .. and your concept that heaven on earth is here for all of us, if we dare to embrace it .. and have the temerity to work towards it ..
Thanks – I love everyone’s comments .. so interesting to see and read others’ thoughts .. I hope next weekend works out – but as you say .. looking around and garnering ideas and thoughts is always so informative – it will come and your little patch of heaven on earth will be flourishing with yours and John’s love .. spring will blossom with you in situ .. have a happy weekend .. Hilary
Hilary´s last blog ..Nature in Balance … and the Dark-Bellied Dew Lover!
Dear Hilary, I love your genuine interest in what we dialogging here. I really appreciate your inquiring mind and your follow up. You pay attention and that is rare.
I did not feel that you were not respecting my way of dealing with migrants, I know that you know I am only making a point here not telling the whole story. However it is interesting when you can only really understand when you have experienced something; like you experienced only via a close up contact with a migrant how our worlds can be totally different. Only then can you appreciate the enormous gap there can be in people’s thinking based on what they have been brought up with. THAT is indeed the point, we are so NOT aware of how our thinking is following a set pattern and how hard it is for us to deviate. However it is time for us to do just that; think differently and act differently, this world cannot go on as it is. Tess pointed it out in her post about the oil spill, we all nod but how many of us actually know how to change our lives to make the earth a healthier place. I’d say not many.
There is sooooo much we do not know but it is there in the books to find it IF and WHEN we take the time to really apply ourselves to get this different way of thinking. I saw that some migrants did and some didn’t and that made a huge difference. It was too good an analogy to not use. It was indeed frightening to see the mental block we all can have, like you said;
Much love to you, and know that I appreciate your input hugely. xox Wilma
Hi Wilma .. thanks for coming back to me .. your migrant .. it was just I hadn’t acknowledged your career knowledge and personal knowledge coming from another country as I thought I should have.
People ‘are funny’ .. when I was in SA, a friend who was in HR – similar to me .. not a lot of money, not particularly good marriage, but head of that part of Personnel .. talked to an African who was leaving after many many years of service .. and she gave him her spiel (guess you’ll understand that word?) etc about being careful about how he spent his lump sum and his ongoing pension etc etc …..
once she’d finished .. he quietly said .. well I’ve got my taxi business here in Soweto, and the one in Bloemfontein .. so I’ve got lots to keep me busy and I employ x number of my family etc etc etc .. – poor Clare she was ‘gobsmacked’.
This weekend .. I asked one of the carers, a Filipino, to help me take some pots of geraniums, that were too big for me to lift, from here up to the Home. I’d forgotten he’d previously told me he had a v good job with Coca Cola in Manila .. and had come here purely for his wife who’s a nurse .. but yesterday we were talking money .. as he was saying they were thinking of getting a mortgage etc .. I with my pearls of wisdom?! .. anyway he said he wanted to travel too .. and money wasn’t his concern as such -he’s fairly religious .. but then said .. he too had a business in the Philippines .. a fish farm, which his brother is running. so we never know .. our facades never give the big picture….
Got my plants up there! .. got a friend coming to day for some of the kitchen clutter for her 2 daughters who are setting up home .. everything going to good homes – is my objective … washing curtains now – the buyers are extremely nice ..
Bye and thanks for coming back to me .. oh yes & I did take on board re my blog – but again forgot to acknowledge it .. yes – lots of opportunities and ideas .. have a great weekend .. and happy days .. with hugs Hilary xo
Hilary´s last blog ..Nature in Balance and the Dark-Bellied Dew Lover-
Oh Hilary, yes I loooove those stories you tell. There is soooo much we do not pay attention to, we rush in with advice based on stereotype and uniformity, we never give anything a chance to reveal to us in its wholesome ‘what is so’, do we?
That is why I always let the migrants talk first, to get an idea where they are at and as we live an uniform life most it predictable BUT not everything and that is where we get tripped up. Innocent perception is the key here, forget what we have learned to be the norm and keep asking and behaving if we do not know when we want to enter a new Earth, heaven on Earth that is still very unfamiliar to us.
.
I realized it is close to the time you will have to move house. All the best wishes with that, you deserve and probably dialed up these great new buyers, our intent and the help from the universe is very powerful. Hugs and much love. Wilma
Dear Wilma,
I am just catching up –
Your example of the Russian in New Zealand was very good – and describes perfectly what happens when those who lead with their Ego first try to migrate to heaven on earth. In yoga, we’re taught to lead with our heart – to quiet the mind and really listen. This can be very difficult as we are not used to listening and allowing our heart to lead – much like the Russian couldn’t figure out how to let his old ways be quiet so that he could listen to the new ways and the rythym of his new adopted country.
For many of us, it takes years and years of practice….for me, it is a daily practice to quiet my mind and lead with my heart.
Love,
Peggy
Peggy´s last blog ..Over-Booked- Over-Scheduled- and Over-Committed
Hi Peggy, yes you had quite a week, last week. Cool to see you comment like you do.
It is huge to change cultural thought patterns, huge, huge, huge. And as long as we are not aware of its enormity, we do not give it enough attention.
I love the similarity between yoga and what we do at WomenLikeMe; I find it so encouraging to see a fit everywhere. We are all going in the same direction and that is beautiful, For once there seem to be congruency in the message and nobody is excluded as in religion.
Hugs Wilma