"Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we have learned here. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and the acceptance of love back into our hearts."
---Marianne Williamson
"1. Honor your enemies. It is they who make you strong and wise. (But see #4.)
2. Define your own reality. Let no one tell you what to think, how to act, nor how you are supposed to feel.
3. The heart cannot be broken. Only the barriers that protect the heart from the pain of life can be broken. Although never sought, heartache can be seen as a deep opening of the heart.
4. Do not be kind. Honor the love you shared; be decent in all your actions, but recognize that in these circumstances, kindness is a lie.
5. Cut all energetic bonds between you. They can be used to manipulate you and hurt you further. If there is to be reconciliation, let it be from new material, not the re-engagement of the previous energies.
6. Think of yourself first for one full year; beginning right now.
7. Let go. Give up. Die. (But don't really kill yourself, please!) The earth will recycle you. Lay down on her and pour your pain into her. Envision yourself as a dead body. Let yourself be eaten by the beetles and worms and excreted as manure for the plants which are eaten by people like you. It all goes round, so let go. Let go of blame. Let go of shame. Let go of guilt.
8. Smile. Even if you don't feel like it. Smiling--the actual tightening of the muscles involved in making a smile--causes the release of feel-good chemicals (endorphins) in the brain. When in pain, remember, smiling is more effective than drinking or drugs."
---Susun Weed
"Realize now that when your heart breaks you have to fight like hell to make sure you are still alive… because you are, and that pain you feel is life. The confusion and fear? That is there to remind you that somewhere out there is something better, and that something is worth fighting for."
----Unknown
"Pain is important; how we evade it, how we succumb to it, how we deal with it, how we transcend it. "
---Audre Lorde
"I did not know I was on a search for passionate aliveness. I only knew I was lonely and lost and that something was drawing me deeper beneath the surface of my life in search of meaning. There is a hunger in people to go to those deep depths; to know that our lives are sacred; that our hearts are truly capable of love. It is a yearning to be all the we can be. A longing for what is real. "
---Anne Hillman
"Know that there's enough room for everyone to be passionate, creative and successful. In fact, there's more than room for everyone;there is a need for everyone."
---Marianne Williamson
“The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.”
---Rumi
"He knows that you can't force an understanding. You have to let it happen. It has to coalesce, not unlike love or pudding, he supposes. You stir and stir and watch the bubbles break the surface, you wait and keep the perfect heat underneath it and if you are very patient it finally, suddenly thickens up, silky shiny smooth as if to say, 'This is what I was always meant to be. Thank you for waiting. You may now lick the spoon'."
---Unknown
"You must be a lotus, unfolding its petals when the sun rises in the sky, unaffected by the slush where it is born or even the water which sustains it!"
---Sai Baba
"'Discipline' is a difficult word for most of us. It conjures up images of somebody standing over you with a stick, telling you that you're wrong. But self-discipline is different. It's the skill of seeing through the hollow shouting of your own impulses and piercing their secret. They have no power over you. It's all a show, a deception. Your urges scream and bluster at you; they cajole; they coax; they threaten; but they really carry no stick at all. You give in out of habit. You give in because you never really bother to look beyond the threat. It is all empty back there. There is only one way to learn this lesson, though. The words on this page won't do it. But look within and watch the stuff coming up-restlessness, anxiety, impatience, pain-just watch it come up and don't get involved. Much to your surprise, it will simply go away. It rises, it passes away. As simple as that. There is another word for self-discipline. It is patience."
---Henepola Gunaratana
"The challenge of the path of joy is to create freedom. True joy comes from operating with Inner-Directedness and recognizing who you are."
---Unknown
Who AM I? What AM I all about? This past year has been a series of lessons in my authentic self. It started with learning how to ground. I met a man by happenstance who "came to me" in the form of a massage therapist/craniosacral worker. [I, of course, had to break the rules and try to get to know him personally. And I suppose I have to some degree. But, I can definately say it has not been easy.]
After the first session, the therapist adamently stated that I needed to work on grounding at least three times a day. I was tickled. The circumstance in which he connected to me in that session was my high cycle phase. I am sure my body was quite interesting to work with like that. [And startling!] My body is quite mystical, quite energetic during that type of phase.
Over the years, I have gotten used to my unusual body rhythms. Average human beings scarcely experience the kind of highs and lows I experience regularly. [My ex-boyfriend used to say I touched the gods!] And when I experience my highs, they often surface as hypomanic periods. In other words, I flit dit into heavenly zones of psychic awareness again and again.
For many years, I didn't understand that others could not relate to the speed ridden thoughts and feelings that I took for granted. I just knew I would skip from brainstorm to brainstorm and I thought people could follow along. I refer to this extreme rhythm as "quantum leap" thinking.
Eventually I sensed disparity between my mind and the minds other people. And so, in order to compensate for the odd kind of mental distances I would leap, I learned how to "leap and return to the original thought" so people could "get me." I would draw mental and verbal lines from the conclusions and the initial "visions" in order for the thoughts to be understandable to each by-stander.
[When I am seriously ill, I just keep skipping and skipping until nothing makes any sense. Sometimes I can create amazing thoughts/materializations during my manias---especially when I tear and save magazine pages that I "relate" to in some way. Usually, however, I just randomly flip from mental and/or emotional correlation to mental and/or emotional correlation creating a mass of confusing ideas and feelings. And my body becomes quite ill as well. For example, I cease to sleep. My organs have to work double time. My heart feels like it wants to explode.]
When the massage therapist spoke earnestly to me about grounding, I was inspired. I don't know why. I just felt like one of my "magic buttons" was depressed. Suddenly, without warning, I heard the sound of my inner self bellowing forth. I was awakened to a need of mine, and I reached to fill it. I instantly affiliated my mind with many, many parts of myself. And I felt a strong desire to ground.
It was a funny night. I remember "flying" through my session, enamored by the power of the man who worked upon my musculoskeletal system. Minute after minute I watched my body from above the table. Simultaneously, I, also, saw the universe through my mind's eye. I enjoyed the visions I had, and I equated each of them to the therapist's inquiry to work with my Highest Self. It was very thrilling. I wanted more! And so I went for more.
I created a book on grounding so that I could further understand the process.
Step by step I began to sense my ability to ground. For nearly a decade, I felt like I was at the mercy of my crazy mind. I knew very little hope. I felt trapped in my despair. Within weeks, I learned I had so much empowerment to "remain" on planet earth [to remain in my health-conscious self]. I discovered a method to manage the racing thoughts. I gained a new perspective regarding my diagnosis (At that time as well, I, ironically [or maybe not], briefly acquired a new physician that changed all my meds around.) of Bipolar Disorder. And, I was given an intangible gift that said to me, "You can do this! This is completely different than you think it is. Trust me. Trust me."
And so I trusted the voice of the gift. I believed things could be very different. And they have been.
With the grounding ability, came my sense of authentic self. This new self had been growing in me for a few years. Grounding enabled it to manifest liberally. I felt strongly that I could be all that I wanted to be. The chakra system aligned up my spinal column. I was becoming the wholeness I read about and desired with all of my heart.
Obviously, this has been a process---a journey. But knowing my ground, I realize that every moment in the process has been needed and necessary. The pain I have lived with and suffered through has become a reasonable aspect of living. And that gives me great amounts of comfort.
People rarely recognize their place, their important influence in others' lives. My friend the massage therapist just went to work one day. He did his job. That was it. But for me, that day was life changing. And that was a massage appointment for goodness sake! Yet, that evening, I felt and knew something I never imagined existed. I found a new path; one that would lead me into dazzling discoveries within my own body-mind.
Similarly, I worked in a cardiac intensive care waiting room a few years ago. I learned during that experience, that if I smiled, I could turn somebody's whole life around. This is my life's desire...to be a part of the glory of our life Source..daily. To share in the breath of the universe's soul. I want to feel the gratitude of living each and every second I walk upon this earth. Because I long deep within to live as I have always been meant to live! I am a Divine child. I want to believe it. I AM the spirit of God incarnate and true. Each piece of me was created from That which I worship---That which I know. My body-mind is full of mysteries. I cherish each one. I desire to awaken the farthest recesses of my heart. There is the Truth that calls each one of us day after day after day. There is everlasting, unconditional Love.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
"Enlightenment means literally aligning to the Energy of my Source. And genius is only about focusing." ---Abraham.Hicks
"Every man is a channel through which heaven floweth."
---Ralph Waldo Emerson
"You are not creating through action, therefore effort and energy and time are irrelevant. You are creating vibrationally through energy which gives you huge leverage. So you could create hundreds of things simultaneously because you did the Step 1 - the asking - incrementally.
You didn't just today set forth all of those things in motion. You've been setting them in motion, they've been evolving, they've been expanding and now you have done Step 1 - you've already asked.
Step 2...source has already answered that, so everything's already lined up and in place. So your work is to pick anything from among that that delights you, give it your attention, not because it needs your attention but because it feels good to give it your attention. Use it as your excuse to come into alignment with who you are and when you are in alignment with who you are, all of those things that you have already put over there in vibrational escrow begin expanding, evolving.
You do not have to orchestrate the path through which things unfold. It's all tended to at a broader level.You just have to get out of the way so that you can see the opportunities as they come."
---Abraham-Hicks
"We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our or other people's models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open."
---Shakti Gawain
"My thoughts before a big race are usually pretty simple. I tell myself: 'Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win...channel your energy. Focus."
---Carl Lewis
"Goals help you channel your energy into action."
---Les Brown
"If you dam a river it stagnates. Running water is beautiful water. So be a channel."
---English Proverb
"Become one with the person, then heal yourself." ---Dr. Eric Pearl
I am slowly learning about the body, the ego, the being, and God. Two weekends ago I attended a course called, Energetic Transformations. I was, of course, enraptured with much of it. The course was an opening to wholeness. It was a place to connect me with healing---for myself and for others.
I was diagnosed with a chronic illness 16 years ago. I have spent my adult life trying to contend with the diagnosis and the disease. It has not been easy. Many times it has been relatively deadly.
When I was 21, after two back to back hospitalizations, I was handed a prescription drug, I was told to never cease taking the pills or things would get worse, and I was informed that having children would probably never be an option.
Years later, when I was 27, I had become very wrapped up in the charismatic Christian Church. God was my answer for everything. I urgently sought Him to find myself and to escape doom and gloom.
As I lived through that phase of my life, I must have heard people say I was possessed at least a dozen times. In addition, I must have heard as many times if not more that I just needed faith to overcome my illness. It was so troubling, and altogether, too influential for a young woman just grappling to understand her broken body-mind. What did I really know about anything at that point in the game of life?
Driven by my passions for God, love, healing and evangelism, I went overseas to do missionary work. My faith soared!!! However, my meds got all messed up in the translation between countries; my new doctor knew little to nothing about Bipolar Disorder; I, also, knew little about my diagnosis; the East-West time difference dinked my circadian rhythms; and I got very sick and was hospitalized.
Like 1992, that time frame radically shifted my paradigm. When I returned to the United States, I was holding onto my life by a thread. For quite awhile, I tried to maintain my focus on "God as everything;" and then finally...I just let go. The "everything" module was too heavy for me. I had become very fragile in both body and mind. There was nothing that I could consciously do to retain my faith. I tried and tried. In the end, the frayed "silver cord" snapped. I lost MY life. I lost MY world. I just began to float.
I had no idea where I was or where I was going. I was nearly on empty. I stopped praying. I stopped believing. And I just WAS. It was then that I met a man filled with beautifully dark thoughts and feelings. He was a great poet. A spirit of the night. His name was Chris. Without thought, my heart swelled and I "blew him a breath of fresh air." He latched onto it and onto me. We instantly became one in every way I knew how. We became one in every way he knew how. [That is saying A LOT!!!]
We lived FOR one another for quite sometime. My illness sky-rocketed as we "shared" a life. Our relationship came apart from the constant strain of our "togetherness" orientation. We needed to part, and so, we did. It was desperately hard.
Yet, despite our heart-wrenching, emotional break up, I know that everything I now study, I first learned from him. He was gifted in many ways. He was self made and very inspirational. He hadn't known safety/security since he was four years old. As a result, he showed me paths I never knew existed. [His genius stemmed from his ability to reinvent himself as necessary. He was (is) a phoenix that rose again and again from the ashes.] I am very thankful for him to this day.
I suppose it is quite interesting that I now work to know myself in order to know God. My being is a channel for the God force called Love. My heart disperses the love into the various parts of me and then pours it out into the surrounding universe. It is our unique hearts that are the vessels that foster our ability to give and receive. We all have the capacity to love fully and completely. Many times, however, we are unaware of such capacity. Perhaps we were educated to disbelieve in ourselves, or perhaps something more aggressive such as abuse is responsible for the unawareness.
Chris and I's break up taught me the importance of loving myself first. I, literally, almost had to die to realize the everlasting aspect of my Highest Self. Chris and I's relationship showed me that God is inside and outside my body-mind all at once. It is a funny thing. I had a head knowledge of the inside-outside thing, but it took the experience of denying that which is within to enable me to understand the power of God's omnipresent being.
I opened many new doors after the break with Chris. I was hungry. I didn't know for what. A friend introduced me to yoga. The first class I took was about four years ago. I heard the word, Namaste. I did not repeat the word initially. I had no idea what I was saying, and I still held SOME of my Christian ideologies fairly firmly. My teacher---that I really loved---noticed I wasn't saying anything. She explained Namaste meant, "The Divine in Me Worships the Divine in You" (I have since heard slight variations).
I felt deeply connected to the phrase the first time my teacher explained its meaning. While many Christians would keel over and die at such a statement, I felt whole. It was as though the cascading Holy Spirit in the shape of a descending dove re-entered my heart and grew into the personification of God, Jesus Christ, sitting upon the throne in the holiest of holies [right next to God the Father]. It was astoundingly beautiful! It was masterfully powerful. I felt one with the Almighty. And that oneness was filled with the most sublime and humble feeling love.
My heart was the place of complete reverence. Diety was perfect. Diety was a graceful given. Each person IS Divine within. WOW!!!
The heart of man is what the title of this blog speaks about when it says the Energy of our Source. As we open ourselves to the Divine within each of us, we open our hearts to love. Yes, you can reach outside yourself to find and know God. He is, afterall, everywhere. He knows how different we all are. He knows our individual needs and desires. But, speaking from my own personal experience, the most direct and constant route to God is going inside myself, determining what is love and what it is not, and then living that love as fully as possible. I still use Christ as the model for love. In my mind, He is the most perfect personfication of Love. You, however, may know another model much better. A model that is more comfortable for you. It is of no matter. Any which way you look at it, Love is God. Believe that and a world "resembling" heaven is at your footsteps.
If we wake each day to the knowing of love, we will grow immeasurably. I no longer believe in the apocalyptic Revelation in the Protestant text. Rather, I believe in God's eternal love. He alone is constant.
Each new day I get closer and closer to an understanding that mankind was designed to be completely cherished. I know it can be difficult sometimes to see that or to feel it. But, as I study the examples of love throughout history, I become more sure that man has distorted God's Word. [OSHO in a discussion regarding Tantra said that the priest and the politician have created a world free of holistic and sensual love. Their creations empower their own agendas, and at the same time, disempower the natural inclinations of man. As a result, man becomes dependent on the priest and the politician. {How powerful is that???} Man divorces himself from his own body---his temple.] Just as the Pharisees and Sadducees of the Christian Bible distorted God's messages because of their own wants, I believe the "concept of love" has been pulled and pushed and dissected until it is no longer easily visible or tangible to the average human being.
To me, nothing is higher than love. And, I believe, love is encapsulated in each man's being. It is unfortunate that people are caught up in rules, regulations and dogmas. [I have certainly been there!!!] If you look into the eyes of a newborn, you will know love in its purest form. People are drawn to the "innocence" of children. But more importantly, people instinctively sense the power of God in the newborn's countenance. There is little distance between God and a baby.
We all grow out of our most natural love for God as we age. We become an individual and we know solitude. This is all good. It is part of the Divine plan. But, it is, also, the Divine plan for each of us to choose God's love. For some it takes a lifetime. For others, who knows. I have only experienced my own story. And I am just beginning to really understand that!
I have struggled with my life quite a bit. I scarcely felt God in my life from 17-21. I was angry. I felt abandoned to my crazy home life. I found the Christian Church deplorable. I went hog wild (well, not really, but I sure thought I did).
When I discovered my chronic illness in 1992, I returned to the Church as a zealot. I was terrified. I felt wicked and sinful. In my mind, I NEEDED to repent like wild fire. As I hyper-focused on God every minute that passed, I rarely felt the grave depressions I once had known throughout high school and college. Depressions that would foster suicidal ideations and actions. Yet, I, also, failed to notice the frequent dramatic "highs" known as hypo-mania. The charismatic church helped me to see each "high" as a mystical moment. And, I suppose it was. [After many years, I have finally come to realize that every ounce of my being---"Bipolar diagnosis" aspect and all---is a valid experience of who I AM.]
The last few years of my life, I have explored the chakra system as means to better health. Chakras are not integral aspects of religions. However, they are spiritual centers; and, some religions recognize them and use them to practice their traditions. Chakras are energy vortices. They are metaphysical wheels that run up and down the energetic spinal column and allow the flow of energy . There are minor chakras involving the nadis and meridians.
Through the chakra system, I have come to realize the natural flow of energy. My youthful experiences caused my first three chakras to be damaged. [I had no clue!!!] As a result, I had a tendency to "hang out" in my top two chakras (the crown and the third eye). The crown is the spiritual gateway. The third eye is heavily connected to the mind's eye.
Growing up, I did not like to be grounded because my experiences with "grounding" felt dangerous and scary. Really, though, nothing could be further from the truth. The first chakra is the chakra that relates safety and security. It is the energy center that identifies one with his/her family of origin. If one is grounded, one can manifest one's desires and beliefs. If one is not grounded, all sorts of negative consequences can befall the body. We are meant to be grounded to the earth so that the power of the planet can run through us and move out to the universe in a healthy, positive manner. Earth and sky are one just as we are one with the universe. The energy of the universe is the energy we are to use daily. If we do not absorb from the universal supply, we will experience problems as well.
As I have begun to learn how to ground successfully, I am starting to recognize the subtle distinctions of the energy body and what it can do if it is healthy. I can refine my health as I understand what I am feeling and experiencing. As I accurately sense myself, I will know how to rectify blocked, closed, or hyper chakras. It is exciting and empowering.
If we run the universal energy up and down our chakra system, our ability to perceive and know love is vastly improved. The heart chakra is the central chakra. It guides the energies of the universe into the feeling and knowing of love. The fourth chakra connects us to everyone and everyone to us. Imagine what occurs if this energy is blocked, closed or hyper active.
Many hyper-spiritual people do not understand how problematic their beliefs and actions are for their bodies. Often people ask to transcend pain and difficulty. This is not healthy for the body. Instead, it is important to allow the body to work through pain and difficulty. The body will remain grounded. the pain will be diminished one bit at a time. Skipping chakra centers can open the body to various forms of decay and/or illness. The body is meant to operate as a whole unit. I have been learning this lesson slowly but surely. To learn more about the chakras, read Wheels of Life by Anodea Judith.
My focus is love. In order to do this effectively, I must make my body health a practice. The body is a temple. It houses the God within. Each person on the planet has access to the God within. There is nothing super spiritual that must be attained in order to locate "the door" to God. One need only be aware of his/her options and then go within. A love that is unimaginable awaits us all. Don't believe those who speak about fear and finality. God is infinite. You, also, are infinite. Believe in your power to know, feel and give love. You are the House of the Great Shepherd. He loses no one, because all are His. Always!
As I learn what loving IS, I reach out to your heart and invite you in. You are my focal point. You are love.
---Ralph Waldo Emerson
"You are not creating through action, therefore effort and energy and time are irrelevant. You are creating vibrationally through energy which gives you huge leverage. So you could create hundreds of things simultaneously because you did the Step 1 - the asking - incrementally.
You didn't just today set forth all of those things in motion. You've been setting them in motion, they've been evolving, they've been expanding and now you have done Step 1 - you've already asked.
Step 2...source has already answered that, so everything's already lined up and in place. So your work is to pick anything from among that that delights you, give it your attention, not because it needs your attention but because it feels good to give it your attention. Use it as your excuse to come into alignment with who you are and when you are in alignment with who you are, all of those things that you have already put over there in vibrational escrow begin expanding, evolving.
You do not have to orchestrate the path through which things unfold. It's all tended to at a broader level.You just have to get out of the way so that you can see the opportunities as they come."
---Abraham-Hicks
"We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our or other people's models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open."
---Shakti Gawain
"My thoughts before a big race are usually pretty simple. I tell myself: 'Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win...channel your energy. Focus."
---Carl Lewis
"Goals help you channel your energy into action."
---Les Brown
"If you dam a river it stagnates. Running water is beautiful water. So be a channel."
---English Proverb
"Become one with the person, then heal yourself." ---Dr. Eric Pearl
I am slowly learning about the body, the ego, the being, and God. Two weekends ago I attended a course called, Energetic Transformations. I was, of course, enraptured with much of it. The course was an opening to wholeness. It was a place to connect me with healing---for myself and for others.
I was diagnosed with a chronic illness 16 years ago. I have spent my adult life trying to contend with the diagnosis and the disease. It has not been easy. Many times it has been relatively deadly.
When I was 21, after two back to back hospitalizations, I was handed a prescription drug, I was told to never cease taking the pills or things would get worse, and I was informed that having children would probably never be an option.
Years later, when I was 27, I had become very wrapped up in the charismatic Christian Church. God was my answer for everything. I urgently sought Him to find myself and to escape doom and gloom.
As I lived through that phase of my life, I must have heard people say I was possessed at least a dozen times. In addition, I must have heard as many times if not more that I just needed faith to overcome my illness. It was so troubling, and altogether, too influential for a young woman just grappling to understand her broken body-mind. What did I really know about anything at that point in the game of life?
Driven by my passions for God, love, healing and evangelism, I went overseas to do missionary work. My faith soared!!! However, my meds got all messed up in the translation between countries; my new doctor knew little to nothing about Bipolar Disorder; I, also, knew little about my diagnosis; the East-West time difference dinked my circadian rhythms; and I got very sick and was hospitalized.
Like 1992, that time frame radically shifted my paradigm. When I returned to the United States, I was holding onto my life by a thread. For quite awhile, I tried to maintain my focus on "God as everything;" and then finally...I just let go. The "everything" module was too heavy for me. I had become very fragile in both body and mind. There was nothing that I could consciously do to retain my faith. I tried and tried. In the end, the frayed "silver cord" snapped. I lost MY life. I lost MY world. I just began to float.
I had no idea where I was or where I was going. I was nearly on empty. I stopped praying. I stopped believing. And I just WAS. It was then that I met a man filled with beautifully dark thoughts and feelings. He was a great poet. A spirit of the night. His name was Chris. Without thought, my heart swelled and I "blew him a breath of fresh air." He latched onto it and onto me. We instantly became one in every way I knew how. We became one in every way he knew how. [That is saying A LOT!!!]
We lived FOR one another for quite sometime. My illness sky-rocketed as we "shared" a life. Our relationship came apart from the constant strain of our "togetherness" orientation. We needed to part, and so, we did. It was desperately hard.
Yet, despite our heart-wrenching, emotional break up, I know that everything I now study, I first learned from him. He was gifted in many ways. He was self made and very inspirational. He hadn't known safety/security since he was four years old. As a result, he showed me paths I never knew existed. [His genius stemmed from his ability to reinvent himself as necessary. He was (is) a phoenix that rose again and again from the ashes.] I am very thankful for him to this day.
I suppose it is quite interesting that I now work to know myself in order to know God. My being is a channel for the God force called Love. My heart disperses the love into the various parts of me and then pours it out into the surrounding universe. It is our unique hearts that are the vessels that foster our ability to give and receive. We all have the capacity to love fully and completely. Many times, however, we are unaware of such capacity. Perhaps we were educated to disbelieve in ourselves, or perhaps something more aggressive such as abuse is responsible for the unawareness.
Chris and I's break up taught me the importance of loving myself first. I, literally, almost had to die to realize the everlasting aspect of my Highest Self. Chris and I's relationship showed me that God is inside and outside my body-mind all at once. It is a funny thing. I had a head knowledge of the inside-outside thing, but it took the experience of denying that which is within to enable me to understand the power of God's omnipresent being.
I opened many new doors after the break with Chris. I was hungry. I didn't know for what. A friend introduced me to yoga. The first class I took was about four years ago. I heard the word, Namaste. I did not repeat the word initially. I had no idea what I was saying, and I still held SOME of my Christian ideologies fairly firmly. My teacher---that I really loved---noticed I wasn't saying anything. She explained Namaste meant, "The Divine in Me Worships the Divine in You" (I have since heard slight variations).
I felt deeply connected to the phrase the first time my teacher explained its meaning. While many Christians would keel over and die at such a statement, I felt whole. It was as though the cascading Holy Spirit in the shape of a descending dove re-entered my heart and grew into the personification of God, Jesus Christ, sitting upon the throne in the holiest of holies [right next to God the Father]. It was astoundingly beautiful! It was masterfully powerful. I felt one with the Almighty. And that oneness was filled with the most sublime and humble feeling love.
My heart was the place of complete reverence. Diety was perfect. Diety was a graceful given. Each person IS Divine within. WOW!!!
The heart of man is what the title of this blog speaks about when it says the Energy of our Source. As we open ourselves to the Divine within each of us, we open our hearts to love. Yes, you can reach outside yourself to find and know God. He is, afterall, everywhere. He knows how different we all are. He knows our individual needs and desires. But, speaking from my own personal experience, the most direct and constant route to God is going inside myself, determining what is love and what it is not, and then living that love as fully as possible. I still use Christ as the model for love. In my mind, He is the most perfect personfication of Love. You, however, may know another model much better. A model that is more comfortable for you. It is of no matter. Any which way you look at it, Love is God. Believe that and a world "resembling" heaven is at your footsteps.
If we wake each day to the knowing of love, we will grow immeasurably. I no longer believe in the apocalyptic Revelation in the Protestant text. Rather, I believe in God's eternal love. He alone is constant.
Each new day I get closer and closer to an understanding that mankind was designed to be completely cherished. I know it can be difficult sometimes to see that or to feel it. But, as I study the examples of love throughout history, I become more sure that man has distorted God's Word. [OSHO in a discussion regarding Tantra said that the priest and the politician have created a world free of holistic and sensual love. Their creations empower their own agendas, and at the same time, disempower the natural inclinations of man. As a result, man becomes dependent on the priest and the politician. {How powerful is that???} Man divorces himself from his own body---his temple.] Just as the Pharisees and Sadducees of the Christian Bible distorted God's messages because of their own wants, I believe the "concept of love" has been pulled and pushed and dissected until it is no longer easily visible or tangible to the average human being.
To me, nothing is higher than love. And, I believe, love is encapsulated in each man's being. It is unfortunate that people are caught up in rules, regulations and dogmas. [I have certainly been there!!!] If you look into the eyes of a newborn, you will know love in its purest form. People are drawn to the "innocence" of children. But more importantly, people instinctively sense the power of God in the newborn's countenance. There is little distance between God and a baby.
We all grow out of our most natural love for God as we age. We become an individual and we know solitude. This is all good. It is part of the Divine plan. But, it is, also, the Divine plan for each of us to choose God's love. For some it takes a lifetime. For others, who knows. I have only experienced my own story. And I am just beginning to really understand that!
I have struggled with my life quite a bit. I scarcely felt God in my life from 17-21. I was angry. I felt abandoned to my crazy home life. I found the Christian Church deplorable. I went hog wild (well, not really, but I sure thought I did).
When I discovered my chronic illness in 1992, I returned to the Church as a zealot. I was terrified. I felt wicked and sinful. In my mind, I NEEDED to repent like wild fire. As I hyper-focused on God every minute that passed, I rarely felt the grave depressions I once had known throughout high school and college. Depressions that would foster suicidal ideations and actions. Yet, I, also, failed to notice the frequent dramatic "highs" known as hypo-mania. The charismatic church helped me to see each "high" as a mystical moment. And, I suppose it was. [After many years, I have finally come to realize that every ounce of my being---"Bipolar diagnosis" aspect and all---is a valid experience of who I AM.]
The last few years of my life, I have explored the chakra system as means to better health. Chakras are not integral aspects of religions. However, they are spiritual centers; and, some religions recognize them and use them to practice their traditions. Chakras are energy vortices. They are metaphysical wheels that run up and down the energetic spinal column and allow the flow of energy . There are minor chakras involving the nadis and meridians.
Through the chakra system, I have come to realize the natural flow of energy. My youthful experiences caused my first three chakras to be damaged. [I had no clue!!!] As a result, I had a tendency to "hang out" in my top two chakras (the crown and the third eye). The crown is the spiritual gateway. The third eye is heavily connected to the mind's eye.
Growing up, I did not like to be grounded because my experiences with "grounding" felt dangerous and scary. Really, though, nothing could be further from the truth. The first chakra is the chakra that relates safety and security. It is the energy center that identifies one with his/her family of origin. If one is grounded, one can manifest one's desires and beliefs. If one is not grounded, all sorts of negative consequences can befall the body. We are meant to be grounded to the earth so that the power of the planet can run through us and move out to the universe in a healthy, positive manner. Earth and sky are one just as we are one with the universe. The energy of the universe is the energy we are to use daily. If we do not absorb from the universal supply, we will experience problems as well.
As I have begun to learn how to ground successfully, I am starting to recognize the subtle distinctions of the energy body and what it can do if it is healthy. I can refine my health as I understand what I am feeling and experiencing. As I accurately sense myself, I will know how to rectify blocked, closed, or hyper chakras. It is exciting and empowering.
If we run the universal energy up and down our chakra system, our ability to perceive and know love is vastly improved. The heart chakra is the central chakra. It guides the energies of the universe into the feeling and knowing of love. The fourth chakra connects us to everyone and everyone to us. Imagine what occurs if this energy is blocked, closed or hyper active.
Many hyper-spiritual people do not understand how problematic their beliefs and actions are for their bodies. Often people ask to transcend pain and difficulty. This is not healthy for the body. Instead, it is important to allow the body to work through pain and difficulty. The body will remain grounded. the pain will be diminished one bit at a time. Skipping chakra centers can open the body to various forms of decay and/or illness. The body is meant to operate as a whole unit. I have been learning this lesson slowly but surely. To learn more about the chakras, read Wheels of Life by Anodea Judith.
My focus is love. In order to do this effectively, I must make my body health a practice. The body is a temple. It houses the God within. Each person on the planet has access to the God within. There is nothing super spiritual that must be attained in order to locate "the door" to God. One need only be aware of his/her options and then go within. A love that is unimaginable awaits us all. Don't believe those who speak about fear and finality. God is infinite. You, also, are infinite. Believe in your power to know, feel and give love. You are the House of the Great Shepherd. He loses no one, because all are His. Always!
As I learn what loving IS, I reach out to your heart and invite you in. You are my focal point. You are love.
Monday, April 14, 2008
"Be resolutely and faithfully what you are; be humbly what you aspire to be." Henry David Thoreau
"We are ever dying to one world and being born into another."
---Henry David Thoreau
This weekend I was at a local library and I picked up a book that I had to glance through despite the fact that reading it caused me to balk and feel so contentious. Reading it was like how I used to watch horror flicks when I was young. I would cringe---even hide---to avoid the parts that stung too hard---the parts that were too scary. I really try to maintain an open mind as much as possible. In the past, I have noticed that opportunities lie in happenings like the "library book" aggravation. If I shut out and batton down the hatches of my heart and mind, I am apt to lose something I could have, at least, been witness to; something I could have grown from.
After flipping through the pages of the book, I decided to check out a Wayne Dyer book instead. I felt like Wayne's words were much more synchronous with my emotional guidance system. But, the other title did make me think of some stuff.
The first thing that spoke to me from the title was "responsibility." Josiah Charles Stamp said, " It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities."
I highly believe that personal responsibility is paramount to living with integrity and strength. In other words, I believe that the "buck stops here." Looking at the chakra system, chakras one through three define our sense of personal responsibility. The muladhara creates personal responsibility in an individual by setting a foundation for instincts, security and survival. The Swadhisthana creates personal responsibility in an individual by developing a strong emotional system that is healthy and productive. Furthermore, it develops an individual's creativity and sexuality within the same terms. The manipura creates personal responsibility by aiding the transition of simple emotions into complex emotions. An individual's energy is assimilated in the manipura.
Too often these days, I am caught in the dilemma of rejecting ideologies that diminish personal responsibility. Yes, I very definitely believe in our power to choose what we do with the aspect of our lives that we are co-creating. I, also, believe that our stance on things can frequently make or break us, and that those lessons help us achieve a path which takes us to our Higher Self. But, most importantly, I believe in the human body and its innate wisdom.
I have spent much of my life "paying the price" illness-wise for depriving my body of its rightful place in my life [actually, better stated, understanding my body's rightful place]. And because for years I have equated my body to that of a holy temple, I guess it is now pertinent to examine why I believe that.
The number one reason for that "temple" belief is my spiritual upbringing. Since I was a small child I heard that my body was a temple so I just accepted that it somehow was. Right or wrong that is how the belief transpired. The second reason for the belief is that we only get one body per incarnation and it is unique. That makes the body extremely rare and valuable. The third reason for the belief is that I have come to know through the years of my life how a temple works and how my body is a metaphor for that temple in various different capacities.
I especially think the chakra system defines the very platform of a holy temple. Each of the seven levels bring us easily through the human body to worship and relate with God who is very real and extremely tangible. And each of the seven levels is laid out in an orderly fashion within every human's energy network.
I say that the chakra system brings each human being easily through the body to God because for decades I had a very pronounced context of spirituality that made things difficult for me. In other words, I was so far up in my head and heart but I had little grounding. [And what I did have, I really lost when my family fell apart] Unbeknownst to me, I was locked into excessively open upper chakras in order that I might experience God and the mystical; and this particular position in my energy network was such a strain that I believe it tore me in half. I, literally, blew through the "glass ceiling." I experienced psychosis not once but several times.
Yes, my energy system was so far out of whack that when my body developed and matured according to its natural divine blueprint, I eventually just split. My bodymind became: body<<---->>mind [and sometimes just: body---->>>mind].
I have a chronic illness known as Bipolar disorder. It has a strong genetic component. But, at this time in my life, I must speculate that if I had learned about my energy network when I was young, would my disease be so intense today? Would the "kindling" have become so horribly hazardous to my body? OR could I have learned how to better balance every aspect of my overall energy patterns? (I did have some extraneous medical treatment back in the early 90's that I believe created a big physical disparity, also; but I believe that is outside the scope of this blog).
My ex-boyfriend initially taught me about the chakras, energy and how they can impact my health. I have continued the work he started. It has been quite a trek. I have branched into yoga, acupuncture, Bodytalk, Reiki, craniosacral, etc. [Of course not all at once, and I have not been able to sustain many of the practices regularly due to time and/or finances.]
What I do know is that I am healthier now than I have been in ten years, and I am so grateful for that. I work very hard to maintain my body's balance. And I am constantly developing my confidence in me which helps for sure!
I see the human body as a vessel that enables us to interact with God and other life forms on the spiritual, energetic and material planes. Moreover, I know of (and have experienced some directly) seven formative energy field bodies. The energy field bodies are the physical body, the etheric body, the emotional body, the mental body [which incorporate ordinary reality represented in time and space], the astral body [incorporates gradations of light], the etheric template body, the celestial body and the causal body [which incorporates spiritual reality].
As I was growing up I heard all sorts of spiritual propaganda regarding the importance of the the body. Many Christians will tell you that Christ's passion, His crucifixion, was the most heart felt plea as to the importance of our current incarnation. And since that was my foundation, and I tend to operate from a quasi-Native American perspective that says every part of the "animal" is just as important as any other, and that every part must be used, I tend to buy into the passionate view. In addition, to my Christian foundation, I have since done a lot of research regarding the Tantric belief system. Tantra is the religion of the body. It honors every aspect of the human body, especially its sexuality. So I think the two views complement rather than oppose one another.
My reason for saying all this is that I want to try to impress on people the connection between the importance of the body in conjunction with our sense of personal responsibility, as well as our co-creating "leading-edge" thoughts. Again, I feel I must address the most obvious aspect to my perspective which is, despite the fact that we have a Higher Self which is eternal and free of the ego; we, too, have a set of bodies that incorporate our ordinary world---that incorporate and support the Illusion known as Maya. And pain and death are strong attributes of the ordinary world. Because we all experience pain and death, I want to contend that we must be aware of ourselves and our fellow life forms that inhabit the universe with us.
There may come a time, and I believe it could happen at any moment, when these factors are not so important to consider; but, right now, the vast majority of the planet is affected by these "types of relationships" that we share with one another.
We have incredible amounts of power to overcome and succeed at this thing called life. Certainly many of us recognize higher levels of understanding that enable us to disregard various levels of pain as creative pathways to a more rich and diverse life. Some of the levels even enable us to totally recreate our existence as we know it. But many...many...many people and beings do not currently have access to these by-ways.
I am a highly sensitive human being. I work on developing "shields" that keep me from experiencing pain and/or disturbance within my various bodies. Nevertheless, I would appreciate it if the individuals of this earth would learn to take the personal responsibility to love first and act second.
I have learned to love my Selves over the last 3.5 years; but I am still expanding my knowledge and my consciousness. And I feel that when I learn effectively, I will teach. Learning then teaching is my nature---my overall purpose at this juncture.
Life IS/was/Will BE about love. Everything in the universe was intentionally created with love and joy for love and joy. I implore everyone to recognize their roles in loving themselves and in loving others. It is the most important thing we can endeavor to do. For as we love ourselves, we love the universe around us. Ultimately, love is where we need to be, and who we already ARE. Please join with my heart in learning how to practice your love---our love---Love. It is not easy, but it is simple. Believe!
---Henry David Thoreau
This weekend I was at a local library and I picked up a book that I had to glance through despite the fact that reading it caused me to balk and feel so contentious. Reading it was like how I used to watch horror flicks when I was young. I would cringe---even hide---to avoid the parts that stung too hard---the parts that were too scary. I really try to maintain an open mind as much as possible. In the past, I have noticed that opportunities lie in happenings like the "library book" aggravation. If I shut out and batton down the hatches of my heart and mind, I am apt to lose something I could have, at least, been witness to; something I could have grown from.
After flipping through the pages of the book, I decided to check out a Wayne Dyer book instead. I felt like Wayne's words were much more synchronous with my emotional guidance system. But, the other title did make me think of some stuff.
The first thing that spoke to me from the title was "responsibility." Josiah Charles Stamp said, " It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities."
I highly believe that personal responsibility is paramount to living with integrity and strength. In other words, I believe that the "buck stops here." Looking at the chakra system, chakras one through three define our sense of personal responsibility. The muladhara creates personal responsibility in an individual by setting a foundation for instincts, security and survival. The Swadhisthana creates personal responsibility in an individual by developing a strong emotional system that is healthy and productive. Furthermore, it develops an individual's creativity and sexuality within the same terms. The manipura creates personal responsibility by aiding the transition of simple emotions into complex emotions. An individual's energy is assimilated in the manipura.
Too often these days, I am caught in the dilemma of rejecting ideologies that diminish personal responsibility. Yes, I very definitely believe in our power to choose what we do with the aspect of our lives that we are co-creating. I, also, believe that our stance on things can frequently make or break us, and that those lessons help us achieve a path which takes us to our Higher Self. But, most importantly, I believe in the human body and its innate wisdom.
I have spent much of my life "paying the price" illness-wise for depriving my body of its rightful place in my life [actually, better stated, understanding my body's rightful place]. And because for years I have equated my body to that of a holy temple, I guess it is now pertinent to examine why I believe that.
The number one reason for that "temple" belief is my spiritual upbringing. Since I was a small child I heard that my body was a temple so I just accepted that it somehow was. Right or wrong that is how the belief transpired. The second reason for the belief is that we only get one body per incarnation and it is unique. That makes the body extremely rare and valuable. The third reason for the belief is that I have come to know through the years of my life how a temple works and how my body is a metaphor for that temple in various different capacities.
I especially think the chakra system defines the very platform of a holy temple. Each of the seven levels bring us easily through the human body to worship and relate with God who is very real and extremely tangible. And each of the seven levels is laid out in an orderly fashion within every human's energy network.
I say that the chakra system brings each human being easily through the body to God because for decades I had a very pronounced context of spirituality that made things difficult for me. In other words, I was so far up in my head and heart but I had little grounding. [And what I did have, I really lost when my family fell apart] Unbeknownst to me, I was locked into excessively open upper chakras in order that I might experience God and the mystical; and this particular position in my energy network was such a strain that I believe it tore me in half. I, literally, blew through the "glass ceiling." I experienced psychosis not once but several times.
Yes, my energy system was so far out of whack that when my body developed and matured according to its natural divine blueprint, I eventually just split. My bodymind became: body<<---->>mind [and sometimes just: body---->>>mind].
I have a chronic illness known as Bipolar disorder. It has a strong genetic component. But, at this time in my life, I must speculate that if I had learned about my energy network when I was young, would my disease be so intense today? Would the "kindling" have become so horribly hazardous to my body? OR could I have learned how to better balance every aspect of my overall energy patterns? (I did have some extraneous medical treatment back in the early 90's that I believe created a big physical disparity, also; but I believe that is outside the scope of this blog).
My ex-boyfriend initially taught me about the chakras, energy and how they can impact my health. I have continued the work he started. It has been quite a trek. I have branched into yoga, acupuncture, Bodytalk, Reiki, craniosacral, etc. [Of course not all at once, and I have not been able to sustain many of the practices regularly due to time and/or finances.]
What I do know is that I am healthier now than I have been in ten years, and I am so grateful for that. I work very hard to maintain my body's balance. And I am constantly developing my confidence in me which helps for sure!
I see the human body as a vessel that enables us to interact with God and other life forms on the spiritual, energetic and material planes. Moreover, I know of (and have experienced some directly) seven formative energy field bodies. The energy field bodies are the physical body, the etheric body, the emotional body, the mental body [which incorporate ordinary reality represented in time and space], the astral body [incorporates gradations of light], the etheric template body, the celestial body and the causal body [which incorporates spiritual reality].
As I was growing up I heard all sorts of spiritual propaganda regarding the importance of the the body. Many Christians will tell you that Christ's passion, His crucifixion, was the most heart felt plea as to the importance of our current incarnation. And since that was my foundation, and I tend to operate from a quasi-Native American perspective that says every part of the "animal" is just as important as any other, and that every part must be used, I tend to buy into the passionate view. In addition, to my Christian foundation, I have since done a lot of research regarding the Tantric belief system. Tantra is the religion of the body. It honors every aspect of the human body, especially its sexuality. So I think the two views complement rather than oppose one another.
My reason for saying all this is that I want to try to impress on people the connection between the importance of the body in conjunction with our sense of personal responsibility, as well as our co-creating "leading-edge" thoughts. Again, I feel I must address the most obvious aspect to my perspective which is, despite the fact that we have a Higher Self which is eternal and free of the ego; we, too, have a set of bodies that incorporate our ordinary world---that incorporate and support the Illusion known as Maya. And pain and death are strong attributes of the ordinary world. Because we all experience pain and death, I want to contend that we must be aware of ourselves and our fellow life forms that inhabit the universe with us.
There may come a time, and I believe it could happen at any moment, when these factors are not so important to consider; but, right now, the vast majority of the planet is affected by these "types of relationships" that we share with one another.
We have incredible amounts of power to overcome and succeed at this thing called life. Certainly many of us recognize higher levels of understanding that enable us to disregard various levels of pain as creative pathways to a more rich and diverse life. Some of the levels even enable us to totally recreate our existence as we know it. But many...many...many people and beings do not currently have access to these by-ways.
I am a highly sensitive human being. I work on developing "shields" that keep me from experiencing pain and/or disturbance within my various bodies. Nevertheless, I would appreciate it if the individuals of this earth would learn to take the personal responsibility to love first and act second.
I have learned to love my Selves over the last 3.5 years; but I am still expanding my knowledge and my consciousness. And I feel that when I learn effectively, I will teach. Learning then teaching is my nature---my overall purpose at this juncture.
Life IS/was/Will BE about love. Everything in the universe was intentionally created with love and joy for love and joy. I implore everyone to recognize their roles in loving themselves and in loving others. It is the most important thing we can endeavor to do. For as we love ourselves, we love the universe around us. Ultimately, love is where we need to be, and who we already ARE. Please join with my heart in learning how to practice your love---our love---Love. It is not easy, but it is simple. Believe!
Friday, April 4, 2008
"The Earth is what we all have in common." Wendell Berry
"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives."
---Henry David Thoreau
"Prophecy might be based, not on haphazard fantasy, but on attunement to subtler levels of reality – on forms of awareness that the modern West forfeited, temporarily, in order to develop empirical and rationalist thought. As Armin Geertz, an anthropologist of the Hopi culture, writes: “Prophecy is not prediction, even though it purports to be. Prophecy is a thread in the total fabric of meaning, in the total worldview. In this way it can be seen as a way of life and being.”
---Daniel Pinchbeck
"The problems in relationships begin when we imagine that the warmth ignited in our heart isn't really ours, that it's transferred into us by the other person. Then we become obsessed with the other as the provider of love, when in truth the warmth we feel comes from the sunlight of great love entering our heart....
No one else can ever provide the connection that finally puts the soul at ease. We find that connection when the window of the heart opens, allowing us to bask in the warmth and openness that is our deepest nature. When we look to others for this ground, we wind up trying to control and manipulate them into being there for us in a way that allows us to settle into ourselves. Yet this very focus on trying to get something from them prevents us from resting in our own ground, leaving us outwardly dependent and inwardly disconnected."
---Unknown
"As you grow, you develop the ideal of where your true belonging could be - the place, the home, the partner, and the work. You seldom achieve all the elements of the ideal, but it travels with you as the criterion and standard of what true belonging could be."
---John O'Donohue
"Duality is not merely a philosophy; it is a physical state of being as well. The very atoms that make up our cells are based on positive and negative charges whose opposition sustains a certain life-form. Lipton has coined the phrase the “biology of consciousness” to summarize the transformational idea that living organisms, including humans, rather than being empirical givens, are actually malleable thought-forms. In other words, adopting a quantum perspective, we are basically waves that only cohere as particles through an act of consciousness. By changing our consciousness, we change our physical form and functioning."
---Sol Luckman
"The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal and family history, belief systems, and often political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you."
---Eckhart Tolle
Who am I? I AM. [I have been repeating this since my youth. I clung to the phrase "I AM" instinctively. It wasn't until much, much later that I stumbled upon a whole groupthink that centers itself around the same phrase.]
But what does all this mean??? I am still trying to figure out the bigger picture. I like to read Tolle. My mind expands when I do; but, his writing, also, makes my head hurt. Maybe if I spent a day with him I would better understand. I am sure he could simplify his concepts for me. That is what I need...simplification.
I currently live within the illusions we have been weaving since the dawn of Time. And, I wonder if at one place in our history if we lived as One---One with God, One with man, One with woman, One with The Cunning Serpent who was said to be the angel Lucifer transformed. Just One. I can imagine the infastructure of the various planes of existence linked and strong---fluid. Why, and according to Protestant Scripture, even the dirt and the rib were woven together at the very start. Try that in the song that goes, "The hip bone is connected to the thigh bone..."
It sounds inconceivable. But, I suppose we must go back to the beginning where we were God unfurled. [Oh, sounds heretical, huh???]
Big questions I ponder are, "When did God decide He wanted all of us; and, furthermore, when did He decide He wanted us to just mulitply over and over? Not to mention, what was a day like before Time? How long was the sun in the sky? How long was the moon?"
Thomas Troward said, "The great secret in life is learning to see things in their wholeness, and to realize the inside and the outside simultaneously." I really like this thought. I imagine all things as whole [which, from where I sit, they actually ARE]. I see the universe and all its galaxies as breathing in and out as One giant organism. I cultivate the preconceived notions of the various systems I know about [and don't know about] and I turn them into this miraculous Body that is working efficiently and effectively---smoothly. No illness permeates its Being. It is complete. It is beautiful. It is Christ.
But then, ironically, I remember, all at once, that knowledge taken before life "severed" all easy and coherent ties between LIFE. The elixir of separation BECAME seemingly infinite. However, separation was not. Knowledge is merely a lot of thought put together and defined as such.
"Knowledge is the perception of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas -- John Locke
Locke gave us the first hint of what knowledge is all about. Since that time, others have tried to refine it. Davenport and Prusak (1998, p. 5) define knowledge as, 'a fluid mix of framed experience, contextual information, values and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information.'
Notice that there are two parts to this definition:
First, there is content: 'a fluid mix of framed experience, contextual information, values and expert insight.' This includes a number of things that we have within us, such as experiences, beliefs, values, how we feel, motivation, and information.
The second part defines the function or purpose of knowledge, 'that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information." Notice how this relates back to Locke's definition -- we have within us a framework (one idea) that we use for evaluating new experiences (the second idea).' " [http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/knowledge/knowledge.html]
I can fathom that when the "ax fell" on humanity [And I believe our minds had to think of our lives that way in order to process things as efficiently as possible] thoughts seemed all powerful. I am sure thoughts felt heavy and cumbersome. I am sure they seemed omnipresent. Afterall, if we follow the Scripture a bit further, Adam and Eve had pure consciousness with God. And then suddenly, at the bite of the "forbidden" fruit, Adam and Eve KNEW everything lock, stock and barrel. Boom! But they had no information specialists to help them sort and understand the mother load. They were newly "created" beings. Naive. Innocent??? They went from being an "infant to being fully grown" mind-wise rather instantly.
It must have felt like a giant room full of ominous clutter. And the room probably often appeared to have shadows and demons that were like the creatures in Where the Wild Things Are.
But despite all this hubub, eternal life continued its faithful course of Being just as knowledge---through some form of education---began to make more and more sense to all the creatures known as Man. The only trick was that God removed the eternal life factor from the hands of Adam and Eve because He knew it was a virtual loaded gun (An Anarchist's Cookbook for the masses)because it was an incomplete picture of God's perfect Heaven; and that, for an eternal viewpoint would be hell.
But God had a plan from the start. He knew His creations---His children. He knew He would deliver eternity (whole and precise) back to "their" hands many, many years later--- many millenia, actually.
Nevertheless, the Stream of Life was always "around..."waiting for the faithful sort to jump in and take a swim. Each new generation yielded the same dose of pure consciousness with God. [Think of Noah, think of Abraham, think of King David...]
But, each new generation, also, yielded bodies that would continue to diminish and, eventually, die. Afterall, genuine separation did occur between God and humanity. Our life cord was cut to give us our freedom. And that cord cutting BECAME a schism [a thought form] that created a new definition of life. Many individuals could no longer instantly perceive their connections to God. They felt alone, perhaps estranged. They had to do something to replace the "loss." Often, they knew the word survival before they could understand the word love.
Yet, the divisions and separations BECAME a pass time for the human race. Divisions and separation made learning easier. As the human brain is categorized into the right and left hemisphere, the earth is categorized into the East and West hemisphere. People of each hemisphere have slowly but surely over time begun to learn and grow and be. Each hemisphere has brought forth gifts and abilities, ideas and projections that have often become so solid they are seen as material.
Both hemispheres have offered the spirit of illumination and mysticism. Primarily, the West brought forth Christianity and Judaica and the East brought forth a myriad of religions and schools of thought to enlighten. Both hemispheres housed some form of paganism.
I come at life from a "Cosmic" Christ perspective. I "know" eternal life through the Son of God. But it is my position that eternal life is freely available to us all at this point. No strings and no catch. Just pure Agape Love flowing freely between the Creator and the created. I found great discension in the Christian concept that one must be saved. I didn't "come" to Christ through salvation. I "came" to Christ through joyous relationship. I was six years old. What did I really know about needing salvation??? But, I assure you, I knew God.
I believe we are all of the Body. Period. We cannot be out of the Body---ever. We are energetically connected to "our place" in the Body and we will remain an inherent part of its functioning forever.
Tolle talks of the ego. [I haven't read his most recent title, yet.] The ego is the lesser self, in my opinion. ACTUALLY, what I mean by that is the lesser self is still BECOMING while the greater Self just IS. And the ego, to me, is important---as is every part of our finite body. We do live in a world that still bleeds. We must be cognizant of that or we can damage someone to the point of death.
I don't easily distinguish between mental, emotional, spiritual or physical pain. That is probably why I am enraptured with Holistic and Alternative lifestyles and/or healing modalities. I have a chronic disease that flares on all four pain fronts at one time, and it can be overwhelming.
To give an example of how I recently witnessed the body-mind react as One. I had a massage. I had been undergoing a lot of emotional pain prior to the session, but I thought it was tolerable enough. I thought I had it "under control." I just wanted to experience relaxation. Just following the massage, I became excessively snippy. Overwhelmingly so. It didn't take me long to realize that I had experienced an emotional release when I was on the massage table and it was working itself out of my body-mind system. Oh ugg! I prefer something a little less intense.
I am at a place in my lesser life that is shifting deeply, profoundly. I am beginning to know my higher Self more and more regularly. I am learning to accept all parts of myself. It is a weird thing. I view life from a continuum. I believe we were, are, and are to come. I am not sure when the human body is going to become resilient and immortal, but I can certainly conceive of the possibility.
When I look at the world around me I see pockets of thought>>>pockets of energy. I acknowledge different groupings that bring about significant change. And I wonder how I can interject a thought or two that will create the world I can imagine. My ego is filled with growing pains. But I AM full of love. That Love is what I want to share and gather. It seems as if love must pour through each of us; and when I gaze about I wonder if some humans experience love at all.
How does a world of One become dark and filled with question? When will the illusion turn inside out and upside down? The earth is what we all have in common. We came forth from its womb. Love penetrates every molecule---every speck of it. Love can bring light to the shadowlands and overcome the oppressions. The love begins with the heart and processes to the mind. Our thoughts create forms. Our forms make the world go 'round.
It starts now, right here, with my choice to give and to receive. Will you join me? All you need to concentrate on is this moment. Believe in your power to love. Love is alive. It will automatically grow. My thought and your thought will bring the deepness to pass. Trust. We ARE One. We have been One. We will be One.
---Henry David Thoreau
"Prophecy might be based, not on haphazard fantasy, but on attunement to subtler levels of reality – on forms of awareness that the modern West forfeited, temporarily, in order to develop empirical and rationalist thought. As Armin Geertz, an anthropologist of the Hopi culture, writes: “Prophecy is not prediction, even though it purports to be. Prophecy is a thread in the total fabric of meaning, in the total worldview. In this way it can be seen as a way of life and being.”
---Daniel Pinchbeck
"The problems in relationships begin when we imagine that the warmth ignited in our heart isn't really ours, that it's transferred into us by the other person. Then we become obsessed with the other as the provider of love, when in truth the warmth we feel comes from the sunlight of great love entering our heart....
No one else can ever provide the connection that finally puts the soul at ease. We find that connection when the window of the heart opens, allowing us to bask in the warmth and openness that is our deepest nature. When we look to others for this ground, we wind up trying to control and manipulate them into being there for us in a way that allows us to settle into ourselves. Yet this very focus on trying to get something from them prevents us from resting in our own ground, leaving us outwardly dependent and inwardly disconnected."
---Unknown
"As you grow, you develop the ideal of where your true belonging could be - the place, the home, the partner, and the work. You seldom achieve all the elements of the ideal, but it travels with you as the criterion and standard of what true belonging could be."
---John O'Donohue
"Duality is not merely a philosophy; it is a physical state of being as well. The very atoms that make up our cells are based on positive and negative charges whose opposition sustains a certain life-form. Lipton has coined the phrase the “biology of consciousness” to summarize the transformational idea that living organisms, including humans, rather than being empirical givens, are actually malleable thought-forms. In other words, adopting a quantum perspective, we are basically waves that only cohere as particles through an act of consciousness. By changing our consciousness, we change our physical form and functioning."
---Sol Luckman
"The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal and family history, belief systems, and often political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you."
---Eckhart Tolle
Who am I? I AM. [I have been repeating this since my youth. I clung to the phrase "I AM" instinctively. It wasn't until much, much later that I stumbled upon a whole groupthink that centers itself around the same phrase.]
But what does all this mean??? I am still trying to figure out the bigger picture. I like to read Tolle. My mind expands when I do; but, his writing, also, makes my head hurt. Maybe if I spent a day with him I would better understand. I am sure he could simplify his concepts for me. That is what I need...simplification.
I currently live within the illusions we have been weaving since the dawn of Time. And, I wonder if at one place in our history if we lived as One---One with God, One with man, One with woman, One with The Cunning Serpent who was said to be the angel Lucifer transformed. Just One. I can imagine the infastructure of the various planes of existence linked and strong---fluid. Why, and according to Protestant Scripture, even the dirt and the rib were woven together at the very start. Try that in the song that goes, "The hip bone is connected to the thigh bone..."
It sounds inconceivable. But, I suppose we must go back to the beginning where we were God unfurled. [Oh, sounds heretical, huh???]
Big questions I ponder are, "When did God decide He wanted all of us; and, furthermore, when did He decide He wanted us to just mulitply over and over? Not to mention, what was a day like before Time? How long was the sun in the sky? How long was the moon?"
Thomas Troward said, "The great secret in life is learning to see things in their wholeness, and to realize the inside and the outside simultaneously." I really like this thought. I imagine all things as whole [which, from where I sit, they actually ARE]. I see the universe and all its galaxies as breathing in and out as One giant organism. I cultivate the preconceived notions of the various systems I know about [and don't know about] and I turn them into this miraculous Body that is working efficiently and effectively---smoothly. No illness permeates its Being. It is complete. It is beautiful. It is Christ.
But then, ironically, I remember, all at once, that knowledge taken before life "severed" all easy and coherent ties between LIFE. The elixir of separation BECAME seemingly infinite. However, separation was not. Knowledge is merely a lot of thought put together and defined as such.
"Knowledge is the perception of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas -- John Locke
Locke gave us the first hint of what knowledge is all about. Since that time, others have tried to refine it. Davenport and Prusak (1998, p. 5) define knowledge as, 'a fluid mix of framed experience, contextual information, values and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information.'
Notice that there are two parts to this definition:
First, there is content: 'a fluid mix of framed experience, contextual information, values and expert insight.' This includes a number of things that we have within us, such as experiences, beliefs, values, how we feel, motivation, and information.
The second part defines the function or purpose of knowledge, 'that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information." Notice how this relates back to Locke's definition -- we have within us a framework (one idea) that we use for evaluating new experiences (the second idea).' " [http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/knowledge/knowledge.html]
I can fathom that when the "ax fell" on humanity [And I believe our minds had to think of our lives that way in order to process things as efficiently as possible] thoughts seemed all powerful. I am sure thoughts felt heavy and cumbersome. I am sure they seemed omnipresent. Afterall, if we follow the Scripture a bit further, Adam and Eve had pure consciousness with God. And then suddenly, at the bite of the "forbidden" fruit, Adam and Eve KNEW everything lock, stock and barrel. Boom! But they had no information specialists to help them sort and understand the mother load. They were newly "created" beings. Naive. Innocent??? They went from being an "infant to being fully grown" mind-wise rather instantly.
It must have felt like a giant room full of ominous clutter. And the room probably often appeared to have shadows and demons that were like the creatures in Where the Wild Things Are.
But despite all this hubub, eternal life continued its faithful course of Being just as knowledge---through some form of education---began to make more and more sense to all the creatures known as Man. The only trick was that God removed the eternal life factor from the hands of Adam and Eve because He knew it was a virtual loaded gun (An Anarchist's Cookbook for the masses)because it was an incomplete picture of God's perfect Heaven; and that, for an eternal viewpoint would be hell.
But God had a plan from the start. He knew His creations---His children. He knew He would deliver eternity (whole and precise) back to "their" hands many, many years later--- many millenia, actually.
Nevertheless, the Stream of Life was always "around..."waiting for the faithful sort to jump in and take a swim. Each new generation yielded the same dose of pure consciousness with God. [Think of Noah, think of Abraham, think of King David...]
But, each new generation, also, yielded bodies that would continue to diminish and, eventually, die. Afterall, genuine separation did occur between God and humanity. Our life cord was cut to give us our freedom. And that cord cutting BECAME a schism [a thought form] that created a new definition of life. Many individuals could no longer instantly perceive their connections to God. They felt alone, perhaps estranged. They had to do something to replace the "loss." Often, they knew the word survival before they could understand the word love.
Yet, the divisions and separations BECAME a pass time for the human race. Divisions and separation made learning easier. As the human brain is categorized into the right and left hemisphere, the earth is categorized into the East and West hemisphere. People of each hemisphere have slowly but surely over time begun to learn and grow and be. Each hemisphere has brought forth gifts and abilities, ideas and projections that have often become so solid they are seen as material.
Both hemispheres have offered the spirit of illumination and mysticism. Primarily, the West brought forth Christianity and Judaica and the East brought forth a myriad of religions and schools of thought to enlighten. Both hemispheres housed some form of paganism.
I come at life from a "Cosmic" Christ perspective. I "know" eternal life through the Son of God. But it is my position that eternal life is freely available to us all at this point. No strings and no catch. Just pure Agape Love flowing freely between the Creator and the created. I found great discension in the Christian concept that one must be saved. I didn't "come" to Christ through salvation. I "came" to Christ through joyous relationship. I was six years old. What did I really know about needing salvation??? But, I assure you, I knew God.
I believe we are all of the Body. Period. We cannot be out of the Body---ever. We are energetically connected to "our place" in the Body and we will remain an inherent part of its functioning forever.
Tolle talks of the ego. [I haven't read his most recent title, yet.] The ego is the lesser self, in my opinion. ACTUALLY, what I mean by that is the lesser self is still BECOMING while the greater Self just IS. And the ego, to me, is important---as is every part of our finite body. We do live in a world that still bleeds. We must be cognizant of that or we can damage someone to the point of death.
I don't easily distinguish between mental, emotional, spiritual or physical pain. That is probably why I am enraptured with Holistic and Alternative lifestyles and/or healing modalities. I have a chronic disease that flares on all four pain fronts at one time, and it can be overwhelming.
To give an example of how I recently witnessed the body-mind react as One. I had a massage. I had been undergoing a lot of emotional pain prior to the session, but I thought it was tolerable enough. I thought I had it "under control." I just wanted to experience relaxation. Just following the massage, I became excessively snippy. Overwhelmingly so. It didn't take me long to realize that I had experienced an emotional release when I was on the massage table and it was working itself out of my body-mind system. Oh ugg! I prefer something a little less intense.
I am at a place in my lesser life that is shifting deeply, profoundly. I am beginning to know my higher Self more and more regularly. I am learning to accept all parts of myself. It is a weird thing. I view life from a continuum. I believe we were, are, and are to come. I am not sure when the human body is going to become resilient and immortal, but I can certainly conceive of the possibility.
When I look at the world around me I see pockets of thought>>>pockets of energy. I acknowledge different groupings that bring about significant change. And I wonder how I can interject a thought or two that will create the world I can imagine. My ego is filled with growing pains. But I AM full of love. That Love is what I want to share and gather. It seems as if love must pour through each of us; and when I gaze about I wonder if some humans experience love at all.
How does a world of One become dark and filled with question? When will the illusion turn inside out and upside down? The earth is what we all have in common. We came forth from its womb. Love penetrates every molecule---every speck of it. Love can bring light to the shadowlands and overcome the oppressions. The love begins with the heart and processes to the mind. Our thoughts create forms. Our forms make the world go 'round.
It starts now, right here, with my choice to give and to receive. Will you join me? All you need to concentrate on is this moment. Believe in your power to love. Love is alive. It will automatically grow. My thought and your thought will bring the deepness to pass. Trust. We ARE One. We have been One. We will be One.
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