Natural Reflections
True Success Nurtures Our Soul, Our Culture, and Our Evolution
by Maureen Latta

Our society stresses successful achievement, even if it is to the detriment of our physical or mental health, the quality of our family life, and the health of our environment. Many of us, at some point in life, stop and ask ourselves, “What is success?”

The answer might be that the definition of success to which we have been adhering is imposed on us from a society that values material production. Success is a high salary, a nice house, a conspicuous accumulation of goods, and regular holidays to sunny climates where we expect to be shielded from the poverty of the local inhabitants.

Inevitably there comes the realization that this definition of success is not enough to satisfy the soul, or to assuage the guilt of increasing environmental destruction and extreme poverty among the majority of the world’s citizens. Perhaps becoming a parent makes us think about the coming generations and what kind of world they will inherit because of our actions or inaction. Perhaps our accumulating financial debt makes us aware that something doesn’t make sense in this picture. Maybe this wake-up call comes in the form of a heart attack from job stress, or cancer from some unknown source of environmental or spiritual toxicity in our lives. Or maybe it is just the deepening conviction that something is not right with the way things are going in the world.

Responding to this call is one of the most exciting things we can do. That’s because it begins a two-fold process: finding our true path as individuals and becoming part of the global movement to usher in a new era in human development. The great spiritual masters and mystics heeded this call and initiated not only their own personal heroic journey, but in the process established new systems of religion and thought that literally changed the world. Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha), Muhammad, Teresa of Avila, Mother Teresa - each one has furthered our understanding in important ways about how we should relate to each other and to the rest of creation. Clearly we need all of their combined wisdom, plus new teachers who are pointing to what needs attention today.

Each has had to step off the beaten path and enter into a new definition of success. Today some are authoring books, others are in demand as teachers or founders of new organizations, and others are using their artistic gifts to awaken humanity. Some are becoming experts in tracking the destructive impacts of our current technological and economic systems. Some are demonstrating gentler ways to live on the earth by pioneering agricultural practices that regenerate the soil or by using solar and wind energy in their homes.

When hearing the stories of people who heed the call of their spirits, it becomes apparent that divine guidance precedes and follows the decision to enter the unknown. When the path is a true calling, it will result in service to humanity in some form, and there will be assistance from unknowable forces. This divine guidance is apparent in the stories of the masters and mystics, and it is felt in what are seemingly the most humble of lives in the form of intuitions, chance meetings, “coincidences,” dreams, and visions.

Douglas Cardinal, the Prairie-born, Metis architect who had a deep conviction that our cities can be more in union with the natural environment, is a case in point. Having lost all his clients and deemed a failure, Cardinal had a powerful experience in which he left his body and met spiritual beings who taught him to be a fearless warrior in his quest to contribute to a society that didn’t appear to want his ideas. Following this, Cardinal competed for and received, against all odds, the opportunity to design the Canadian Museum of Civilization. With this kind of help, we do have the power literally to change the world.

Attaining true success means allowing old expectations to die and be reborn in a new, more powerful form. Success based on spiritual aims, rather than material aims, nurtures not only our own soul but extends far beyond us in its impact on our time, our culture, and our future evolution.

Maureen Latta is a freelance writer living in Saskatoon. This article is reprinted courtesy of EarthCare Connections, P. O. Box 2800, Humboldt SK S0K 2A0. Phone: (306) 682-2407, Fax: (306) 682-5416, Email: earthcare@sasktel.net, Website: www.earthcare.sk.ca.