Seeding a Gift-Culture

Recently, I had the honor of attending a gift-culture seeding workshop with Charles Eisenstein. I learned and evolved quite a bit in that short time… and am sharing some reflections, experiences and such.

What I learned out of the workshop, being around Charles, and as I am reading the book [The Ascent of Humanity] is that we ARE the gift. Each one of us is the gift, and we are all one.  And so if we are the gift, born in gratitude, all we can do is gift it.  We can live in a space of being the gift so that others too can be the gift.

The gifting creates an obligation– in a very positive sense.  An obligation is a tie- it essentially creates community.  Since, we once lived in Union- with ourselves, each other, and nature– we were the gifts that flowed freely.  When we decided we were separate and independent, we used money as a way to exert our independence, to break obligations: If I give my gift, you give me money for it.  This was the “age of separation” as Charles called it. This is the old story- the story of war, hatred, fear, anger, numbness, grief, greed, etc etc.

And, this too served a purpose– we were to grow through to learn our lessons and evolve. The age of separation is not to blame, judge, repent, punish, etc. It all was necessary and ‘right.’

Money was used as a token of gratitude- it was a way to show thanks for something I gave, and I could use that token in the future to show thanks for something I received.  We are slowly moving to that place again… in the “age of reunion.”  This is the age in which we can tell a new story. We are the gift. In this age, we give our gifts freely, and through this create community in which we are called to live and be our gift. In this story, we co-create, as opposed to being at effect.  In this story, we live in harmony with each other. In this story, we live in harmony with lover earth.  That’s right– earth was once the mother that gave and gave and gave– and we’ve sucked her dry.  In the new story, she is our lover– we love her, and we are equal to her… we care for her as we would a lover, we co-create… and we birth the new world….

That would be the short version of his message. What I can’t transmit though is his presence. His incredible living in the knowing of the truth of the new story.  His belief is that the new story is alive… and stories have and will be what create our realities. So, its a matter of “personal” choice- which story do you want to believe? The story you believe is the one you will create….

For example, I had a story… a story that I’ve told myself again and again, probably since about 17 years of age (at least that I can remember… it may be older than that, running into past lifetimes, but who knows).  It ran so deep. One of the exercises that we did over the weekend was writing down a story that we believed to be true.  So this is the story I wrote down… it was a story that held a lot of pain, and brought up sadness, and a bunch of other emotions. So, I wrote it down. Then… he says okay, now write down the opposite of this story.  For literally 5 minutes, I sat there— unable to think of the opposite story!!! I couldn’t believe it. All weekend, I’d been like yeah yeah, stories, co-creation, watever. I know we have choice and we create our realities. And then this simple exercise completely shattered all the ego. I was like WOAH!?!?! Is this for real? I can’t think of a simple opposite for this story that I don’t even want to be true? And then… once all that passed, the ego fell to the ground, and a new story emerged. I didn’t create it– it just emerged for the depths of knowing-ness and truth.  So I wrote it down… and I said, YES, this is the true story, this is the story that feels alive, this is the story I CHOOSE. And it’s the story I now believe…

I realize this may seem like a pretty simple exercise– but I recommend everyone to try it, at least once. Write down something you believe to be true. Then pause, take a deep breath, and write down the opposite. Once you have them both written, take a step back and each of them. See which one feels most aligned and true for you. Then, choose which story you want to embody.

Another exercise that was really earth-shattering for me was eye-gazing. I have pretty much been the type that doesn’t look directly into people’s eyes for more than a few seconds. It used scare the crap out of me– not so much knowing other people’s truth… but more seeing myself reflected in others. So we did this eye-gazing thing with three different times.  And that was pretty intense. The 4th time, we were to have a conversation with our partner just by looking into each other’s eyes.  My partner was Charles. We ended up in a 20 minute conversation (other folks had switched partners a few more times).  At the end, we exchanged reflections on what we thought we’d talked about.  To my dis-belief, we had had the same conversation!! And… we’d actually talked about so much more than we could have in a 20-minute word-full conversation.

After coming back from this incredible journey into knowing-ness and being-ness, I realized I already knew him! I was reading one of my blog entries from last year– turns out I quoted him last October! Pretty incredible eh?

Hmmmm it’s interesting… I’m sharing some pretty intense things on a blog… I have no idea who’s going to read this.  I do trust that the people that come upon this blog are ones that are meant to… and I trust that there has been something of value in what I’ve shared with you.

What I’m strongly feeling to share right now is that I really cannot transmit his presence through written word… I couldn’t even do it in person! So really, you all just have to meet him yourself. He’s touring all over… he’s in the Bay Area Thurs, Oct 22nd.  You can check out the event details here (please RSVP if you want to come).  (If you can’t open this link because you’re not on Facebook but would like to come to the event, just email me and I’ll email you the details)

He’s also in LA from 25-27th, details here.  I know there’s near-future plans of workshops and seminars in Philly, DC, NYC, and Vermont…. so if you’re in any of those areas, you can find out details here.

Also, you can read some of his thoughts (in his own words, instead of mine!!) that he writes for Reality Sandwich here.

Oh yes, one more link… here’s the youtube channel which has a few videos up.  I know he’s working on getting some more up, so stay tuned.

In truth, light, and love,

Aumatma (and yes, I’ve changed my name… it’s more in alignment with my true self)