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Stuart Wilde: Some
people are run by the legislation of the ego and the personality
rather than run by the softness and the feeling and the sacredness
of their inner feeling. If you want to empower your life, the
first thing you've got to do is discipline yourself and discipline
your mind.
My system, or the system that I was taught, which I recommended
to people is: rising early, taking time to meditate, time in
silence, a very simple diet, a lot of prayer, a lot of sacred
tradition, sacred ceremony, and really processing and feeling
your way along. Returning from the hedonistic, totally self indulgent
world of the ego to a world of minimalism, simplicity, caring
and a world where those inner perceptions begin to open up. Because
naturally, as you return to spirit, then you return to the interconnectedness
in all things and through that interconnectedness in all things
you can develop enormous amounts of perception and esp and empower
your life through simplicity. You basically can see around corners.
Veronica:
What do you do every day? What is your personal spiritual practice?
Stuart Wilde: I
always rise early. I usually rise somewhere between 4:30 and
6:00. Sometimes I don't, but generally speaking, I do, and I
meditate and I walk. And then I spend most of the day, if I can,
except of course when I'm working, I try to spend time on my
own, time in silence. I walk down the street and I watch people.
I watch their etheric and I learn about energy. I feel out my
life and the people in it. I watch for any sudden shift of energy
and generally sort of sit there, a bit like a lighthouse keeper,
watching the boats go by and trying to stay in touch with things
going on at a distance without necessarily having to phone them
or fax them, but by just watching them.
Veronica:
Throughout your books, I kept getting that it is about one's
own personal empowerment, raising one's energy level to a place
where life becomes easier, less of a struggle. I understand and
agree with that, but how does this relate to the concept of grace,
or the power of prayer, you know, when you've done it all and
you don't have much strength left, and you let go, and then a
miracle happens. How does that work?
Stuart Wilde: At
that point where you quit, it's the point where the ego or the
personality has taken such an enormous hit in the struggle that
it finally sits down in a puddle of mud and sort of says "I've
had enough." At that point, the miracle appears. It's in
the very chasing after of things that you push them away. So
the ego will yearn and force and push and be desperate and demand
and be this brat. Of course, as you lean and push and demand
and strive and yearn for things, you actually shove them away
from you. The minute you pull back and sit down and enter silence,
the things start to come back toward you. I think sometimes in
that example, that you just cited, it's that moment of where
we reach zero resistance and suddenly those things that we desire,
pop up in front of us, effortlessly, and it's very beautiful,
isn't it?
Veronica:
Yes, it is. You also talk about detachment and non-judgement.
How does that work, really? Do we just walk around and observe
without having any opinions? What if we come across something
that does really bother us, do we deny how we really feel?
Stuart Wilde: There's
a middle ground. Basically, if you raise your energy, you're
going to take yourself out of the evolution of the people, because
you're going to move beyond their thoughts, their ideas, their
feelings. So, you're going to transcend out of the physical plane
without actually necessarily dying. By detachment and by disciplining
yourself, you can have the most enormous care and love and good
desire for the people without being intimately involved. Then,
if you can detach from your own stuff, because, you're not your
personality, you're not your mind, you're an infinite energy
inside a body, behind the mind, that's nothing to do with your
personality. So, if you buy your own emotions, if you buy your
stuff as being real, then you become a victim of this theatrical
display. Emotions for the most part are just opinions of the
ego presented in a theatrical scale for other people to observe.
So you jump up and down and wave your arms about and say "I'm
terribly angry" and everybody is supposed to sit up and
take notice. But, in fact, that's only an opinion, it's nothing
else. Then, as you become an observer of life and as you become
an observer of yourself, which isn't a sort of callous don't
care attitude, it's just a gradual, sweet retreat from the evolution,
in realizing that you are projecting yourself and working yourself
beyond the evolution of these people. Then, if there is something
that you feel very strongly about, you have to decide whether
or not you want to dive back into the great mud puddle of life
or not. It's up to you.
Veronica:
Would you talk about the 1000 day climb that you refer to in
your books?
Stuart Wilde: As
we are programmed through what I call tick-tock in my books,
the sort of very hum-drum 9-5 existence, the institutional education
of our children, and so on, and as we buy this ego's world, as
you start to make that turn, it's just my perception that it
takes about three years to make that turn complete. So, I call
that the thousand day climb. And obviously, while you're going
through that turn, it's almost like a big ship and you're turning
back and sort of rocking or bouncing over your own wash, the
waves that the ship created as it was going along. It's a turbulent
time and you can't really see very far in the future because
you might have been in that tick-tock programming for twenty,
thirty or forty years. So, three years to make a complete transition
to where you're just going to look at your life differently and
embrace spirit, is not a very long time. What I say to people
is, that while they are in that climb, don't try too hard to
become something new too quickly, because if you do, more times
than not, you will fail. More times than not, anything you start
will fall apart. It's best to just realize that the climb is
a dedication and stay focused on cleaning up your act, resolving
issues, processing your feelings and generally just raising your
energy. And then after the three years is over, usually one reaches
a sort of plateau, where one can consolidate and sort of think,
"well now I'll head out, and I'll do this, or I'll do that,
or I'll help humanity in this way, or I'll serve in that way,
or whatever."
Veronica:
Everything is energy. In short, what can we do to raise our energy
level?
Stuart Wilde: It's
a matter of discipline and a matter of perception and perception
only comes if you can control the personality. A lot of my courses
deal with developing the trance state. If you're not prepared
to go that far, then just by discipline, simplicity, conserving
your power, nurturing yourself and all the usual things of that
kind of mode will bring your energy up. The thing you do have
to control is fear, because without controlling fear, you will
always depreciate your energy. For example, you'll be very excited
about something and suddenly a lot of insecurity and fear will
come your way and you'll depreciate a whole chunk of your stock
so to speak.
Veronica:
And be careful who and what you surround yourself with?
Stuart Wilde: Yes,
definitely. I think the more you raise your energy, the less
and less people you'll find around you, or the people that you
have around you, will be more at arm's length. I think that regarding
the influence of other people, there is something very polluting
sometimes by some of the associations that we make and often
we know that we ought to be going beyond them. Dysfunctional
relationships, dysfunctional jobs, dysfunctional circumstances
can be very energy draining and bring one down. I think also
a part of the spiritual quest is this point of making the right
choices and cleaning up your act as much as possible.
Veronica:
My favorite quotation of yours is, life
was never meant to be a struggle, just a gentle progression from
one point to another, much like walking through a valley on a
sunny day. Why do you think so many
of us make it such a struggle? Do you think people have responsibility
tied into struggle?
Stuart Wilde: Well,
not necessarily. First of all, we teach people that it is honourable
to struggle. A lot of the religions said to people, "look,
you're very poor, you're struggling, but don't worry, you've
been chosen". So, struggle is just endemic to our people.
Obviously, if you're trying to materialize a certain vision,
an ego vision, and you don't have the energy to pull it off,
you're going to struggle. If you consume more than you have the
money for, you're going to struggle. Most struggle is economic,
some of it, of course, is emotional. The most simple places where
most of the struggle takes place is people living and demanding
a life style that they can't sustain. And that's just an opinion
of the ego. And, of course, negative energy in our dimension
is only anything that contradicts the ego. For example, if you
demand a lot of respect and somebody insults you, you've been
contradicted and you might be upset. Or, if you demand a certain
lifestyle and you don't get it, you might moan and be terribly
upset and consider it a very negative experience. If you demand
that your life is always cosy, safe and guaranteed and someday
something comes along that isn't cosy, safe and guaranteed, then
you will experience the ego being contradicted, and you will
describe that as negative energy. You see, there is nothing wrong
with demanding if you have the energy to pull it off, but one
of the things that is endemic to our society is that people are
so self indulgent, they are demanding without considering the
fact that they might have to put a little energy out.
Or, they'll put whimpy amounts of energy out and expect enormous
returns. So much of life nowadays is worshipping at the altar
of this completely self indulgent ego that demands all sorts
of things without ever having to lift a finger for it.
Veronica:
What would you suggest to people who want to make their contribution
to the world and want to do some spiritual service?
Stuart Wilde: Well,
I think that is the destiny of everyone who is on the quest,
in the end. And I think that everyone who is on the quest will
sooner or later find a place to serve because we live inside
a sort of evolutionary molecule which is the folk spirit or the
tribal mind of all of our people and we are only as good as how
much we can raise ourselves and others up.
Obviously, the best contribution you can make to the world is
for you to become serene and self sufficient and composed and
then teach that to others. I think as soon as one turns within
and raises ones energy a little bit, where you go to serve is
automatic. And some people will serve in a very big way, let's
say, because they're politicians or whatever, but most people
serve quietly, they're in a health food shop or at the yoga centre
or they're helping teach kids or whatever it is. To serve is
a great honour and privilege. And I think that is the destiny
of everyone on the path.
Veronica:
In your book, Whispering Winds of Change, you state that it would
take a crisis to shrink the world ego to the point where the
spirit can begin to win back control. Would you elaborate on
that?
Stuart Wilde: Well,
you can see that in a small way in each individual. Most people,
especially males, in their twenties and early thirties, when
the ego is rampant, and they are into making money and whatever,
they usually have to have some kind of crisis, before they'll
turn within. So, they need a car wreck, or a divorce, or a serious
disease, or a bankruptcy, because the ego won't give over power
until you actually dethrone it. There has to be some sort of
revolution. And the revolution has to be, of course, an internal
one, within your mind. However, it isn't often that the ego will
actually sit down and voluntarily abdicate.
So, in a national sense, or in a global sense, the world ego,
which is this institutional domination of our people by the patriarchal
white rulers of our western democracies, won't give away control
until such time as there is a crisis where they have to. A good
example is in the countries behind the iron curtain, where they
completely lost it and now are in a gradual state of change.
It will come to America, and it will come to Britain and Europe
as well. So, I think what you see in the individual level, you
see in the national and political levels, and the global level
as well.
Veronica:
What advice do you have to give our readers given the current
economic and political conditions?
Stuart Wilde: Well,
you're looking at a society in collapse. It's sort of like the
decline of the roman empire. You can either do nothing about
it and sort of whistle, while the place burns down, or you can
start to retreat. Of course, the retreat you make is an internal
one. So, if you're prepared to retreat within and get disciplined
and get inside your life, control your life economically, pay
off your debts, resolve your relationships, then as society bounces
out of control beyond you and outside of you, it isn't going
to affect you. I think a lot of the people who will be very seriously
affected are those that are prepared to do nothing and all of
a sudden change will be imposed upon them.
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