SHIFT HAPPENS! Robert Holden

Shift Happens! celebrates your unlimited potential to grow, blossom and evolve. It offers the keys to personal alchemy, the ability to take a piece of dirt, roll it around a few times, and fashion it into a pearl. This is what your grandmother called turning lemons into lemonade. It is what old wizards described as turning straw into gold. Shift Happens! is about staying open all hours for miracles. Robert Holden has healed his own life in the most dramatic way. Now, in brief but highly inspirational and powerful chapters, he shares his wisdom with us all. With this book, you will soon discover how just one new perception, one fresh thought, one change of heart, one leap of faith, can change your life forever.
242pp, 130mm x 196mm, Paperback, 2010

[Extract]

Two caterpillars were crawling along a tree branch one day when a butterfly flew overhead. One caterpillar said to the other,  'You will never get me up in one of those things.'

Shift Happens! is about personal alchemy and inner transformation. Some people 'go' through life; and other people 'grow' through life. Shift Happens! celebrates your unlimited potential to grow, blossom and evolve  - in spite of everything. It is a book of hope. 

Happiness is an inner light with no 'off' switch 

Dublin is a beautiful city. I am often invited to speak there. One year, I shared a platform with Dr Deepak Chopra, the renowned spiritual teacher and author. We had a thousand people packed into the hall that day. I began with a talk entitled From Hell to Happiness: A One-way Ticket. I think I was about twenty minutes into my talk when I first heard an odd gurgling  sound. As I searched for where the sound was coming from, I noticed a young mother and her small baby sitting near the front. It was the baby who was gurgling, and quite musically too! 

Now, I want you to know that I thought my talk was going quite well. I was espousing beautiful, sacred principles of truth that were undoubtedly insightful, enlightening, very wise and a joy to behold! However, it was soon clear to me that this little  baby had an audience. The musical gurgling had grown louder and was now echoing all the way down the hall. I graciously gave way. 

'Excuse me,' I said, addressing the young mother. 'How old is your child?' 

Ten weeks old,' she replied.

'Girl or boy?'

'Boy.'

He looked absolutely beautiful. Everyone was now straining their necks to take a look. 'Would you mind standing up so everyone can see your beautiful baby?' I asked. The young mother did so without hesitation. And one thousand people sang out 'Ahhh!' in perfect unison. We all melted. And then, guess what? One thousand  people started clapping. And cheering! 

When the ovation finally died down and the mother returned to her seat with her child, I was left to get on with my crummy old talk. A thought then occurred to me that I put to my audience. 'Do you realise,' I said, 'that if this young mother held up a forty-year-old man or woman no one would  have gone 'Ahhh!' and certainly no one would have clapped and cheered?' The laughter that followed made my point. 

What exactly had this baby done to earn such a tumultuous ovation of love and positive regard? Surely it had to do with IQ, academic excellence, resume, business acumen or financial status! He couldn't kick a football, he was no actor, and he was too young to have his own chat show. All he did was sleep, gurgle, dribble and pass wind. Adults tend not to get ovations for that sort of stuff. 

I believe that this young baby reminded us of something about ourselves. He was a symbol for our Unconditioned Self. This Unconditional Self is the real 'you'. It is the 'real you' that promised to be the presence of love, the light and the world, and God's angel on earth. 

Your Unconditional Self is your original potential. It is the memory of God that you forget about as you grow up and stuff happens, i.e., bumps, bruises, school grades, puberty, heartbreaks, job interviews, rejections, parking tickets, the rat race, traffic, the mortgage, a pension, etc. 

Since time began, the wise ones in every culture have carried a torch for the Unconditioned Self. This self is like an inner light with no 'off' switch. You may lose sight of it, but it never goes out. Zen masters called this the Unconditioned Self your original face; Taoists, the uncarved block; Christians, your original  innocence; Hindus, eternal bliss consciousness; Alchemists, your inner gold; St Francis of Assisi, your eternal loveliness; Thomas Merton, your secret beauty. And so on.