The Truth is in Plain Sight

Notice the subtle consciousness has many layers to it. Spirit has many layers. As you get rid of all the baggage in your life, from decluttering things to letting go of what else you outgrow, it dawns who you are and why you exist beyond that. We all came from the same Source energy that holds everything together. During dreams, meditation, spiritual practices or while under hypnosis, pure radiance may feel like the Sun, but its not hot. Radiance is simply total love, bliss. Our concept of God, the Divine or words cannot express even a tiny thread of the totality. Soul is simply a tiny spark of light growing in awareness. A room or situation only exists because we collectively decide it does. Everything is an illusion. We are the producer, actor, director and scriptwriter of a holographic reality. As we go along, we are student and evolving light of ever-present awareness. Our script of reality is revised energetically by us. Our thought and feeling energy determines every moment of our lives, our perception and role in the story we tell ourselves. Our true power is unlimited. We are our own witness, judge, jury. We create experiences to deepen understanding and awaken to what we already feel in the heart. We are unknowingly attracted to certain forms of art or identify with certain shapes more than others. They “resonate” with us in different ways, because these shapes have a certain effect on our unconscious minds and the pace of awakening to deeper Truths. They guide travel through dimensions and evoke visceral feelings to find ourselves. We decide what we exist to learn. We choose parents, environment, the best situations to allow us to uncover the wider Truth. As you move through and discard adopted roles, labels, situations, you may feel like an antenna or receiver that exists to decode/ generate/ share incoming energy to other people in this world. Open channels are like stones that skip across pure water. They reverberrate energy in their midst. The shift from belief (in doing) to knowing and awareness (of being) is key to reclaiming innate power and freedom. If you cannot handle the growing intensity of incoming energy (translated into layers of illusions surfacing to burn away), Soul chooses to leave this world. Amidst apparent global changes, the same power of mind that creates fear and anxiety about the future also grounds you in this moment. Fear is nothing and only determines what you unconsciously allow. Fear of existence, fear of losing, fear of not being enough, any fear can control you if you allow it. How to transcend it? Fighting against it simply creates more conflict and can evoke suffering. Moving through pereived life challenges enables you to conquer fear. Rising up expands your perspective. You begin to see people around you fear nothing, create desperation in the mind and then manifest based on this vibration. The same powerful mind can be shifted into conscious creation. The sound of silence is playing right now. Tune into that and the bigger picture. Wholesness is not something to work toward or achieve. Pure presence is always here. Beyond self-image, one is limitless.  The Truth is Self-evident (In plain sight).

3 Tips to settle life's shake-ups

When life seems to get shaken up, familliar ways of living no longer work.  The tendency is to seek external reasons and find ways to settle things back into "normal."  In fact, the only way to respond to shake ups and have any lasting impact, is to address what this tells us about the state of our inner world.  As part of our coaching program, we explore this in detail as well as identify personalized ways forward.  For the purpose of this article, consider these 3 tips:

1. Identify emotional needs

This implies not only identifying needs such as belonging, autonomy, connection and acceptance, but also what prevents us from recognizing and satisfying these needs so we can release resistance.

2. Investigate links to energy anatomy

Every human being has energy anatomy.  This connects coherent mind-body and spirit functions. Each of our energy centres functions individually and together in varied ways. Blockages create congestion and block energy flow. This affects life in the physical world and what perception and experience we access. It pays to explore signs and signals in the body and how this impacts mind-body awareness.

3. Practice Mindfulness

Tuning into life's shake-ups invites practising mindfulness. As we pay closer attention to what is happening within, we begin to see the nature of our projections. To explore components of our emotions, we can practice mindful acceptance of each one.  This involves recognizing and accepting sensations, watching thoughts, labelling feelings and noticing urges as they arise.

Who do you know yourself to be?

It is one thing to describe who we are and quite another to experience it fully.  Ask yourself if your understanding of who you are only exists at the level of the mind rather than as your experiential reality.  We can "know" things or talk about them yet not experience them.  We can seek things and sometimes only briefly experience them.  A spectrum of possibilities exists.

When we describe who we are based on ideas that arise in the mind, we indicate the duality we live within. Engaging in meditation and/or eagerly focusing on the next echeduled meditation experience allows us to reconnect with a larger version of being and may also helps us 'get through' another round of unconscious physical experience.  Notice a deeper reasons for any stress or tension arising. Feel into this.  The truth is not found in the mind but felt directly.

What if breathwork practice can help uncover hidden reasons for stress, make the unconscious conscious and help us release blocked energy? What if we can deepen our Energetic knowing and manifest shifts in our life experience? The moment is right to allow ourselves to feel more alive and present. If this post resonates, explore blog search terms like; breath, breathwork.  Contact us to confirm a spot in our next breathwork workshop in Palmwoods on Tuesday, Oct 13th.

Moving beyond addiction

The subject of addiction is a popular topic for mediation. Ponder the the following:

"You look very insecure, sitting up there in your tree", said one highly-ranked Chinese official to a Ch'an master who enjoyed his life perched in the treetops. "Oh ho, good sir, YOU look very insecure to ME, down there on the ground!" replied the delighted master.

This often referenced Chan story contains a message which, we are told, the official was wise enough to understand. It was the official, whose life and fortune depended upon external favour and considerations, who was insecure. These were his unconscious addictions, the foundation upon which his life was built, on "shifting sands". It was his attachment to these external conditions that created his insecurity, his instability and restlessness.

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One day, the Buddha and his monks were walking down a road and were confronted by a frantic and miserable farmer racing down the road. He stopped them, saying "Good monks, I have lost my oxen, they were travelling this way. Did you see them?" The Buddha sadly replied, "No, we have not seen them. Perhaps they took the fork in the road back there." At this, the farmer wailed and continued his complaint. "Only this summer, locusts ate all my crops? What will I do?" and he ran crying down the road. The Buddha watched him go, and turned to his friends, saying "Dear monks, do you know how lucky you are? You never have to worry about your oxen or crops."

Thought and memory are the same. Until we know the difference between thought and awareness, no clarity arises. We are taught to take for granted our memories constitute who we are. Yet, 'who I am' in this moment, is not a thought. It is unrelated to what we think we have ot not. Rather, it is felt. As we are fully present, all that exists is awareness. Who is being aware? The monks know Being and no-One are the same, that is, everything. No-One is everybody. We cannot allow awareness to arise if we keep reverting to memory. The moment we feel a lack within, we feel separate, incomplete, like something is wrong or missing. This leads to addiction, the perceived need to fill a void. We do everything in our power to fill it, talk about it, do something to enable us to feel good about ourselves.

Alcoholism or other addictions allow people to experience what it is to feel uninhibited freedom. Becoming addicted to dark thoughts keeps one focused on and perpetuating the focus on the pain body. Until we realize the very nature of being is infinite. It cannot be destroyed. We forget we are whole, awareness. This starts the sense of lack, which brings separation, and the need to fill a voice from which emerges addiction and fear.  We are not afraid of something. We are simply fear. This fear exists because we are convinced something is lacking. We have lost trust not only in others but also ourselves.  The thought arises how could I be free of addiction? There is the amnesia of what is universal. You cannot prove it, you can only live it.

Similarly, when a person wants to know about love, he may read books, watch movies and hear about other people's experiences Yet, One does not know what love is until one begins to feel love, feel the love inside the self. Until he tastes love, feels it inside himself, he cannot know it.  Truth is not something we can prove. It is self-evident. We exist. When we wish to prove, we revert to memory and get lost in the quagmire.  As long as we live grounded in memory, we will fear death, old age, sickness , of so many things, everything.

The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results", says Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. Jesus too said that the Kingdom of Heaven is ever-present. Of course, the problem is, everyone is not always fully present. We are in the future, we are in the past, we are in our memories, we are in our anxieties, we are in our fantasies! Why? Because we are attached to our story; our personal narrative. We play it inside our head constantly. As we cook, we daydream. As we drive, we fantasize. As we work, we consider what better job there is for us out there. And as we love, we all too often do the same thing. So rarely are we simply aware of what we do, simply mindful.

Get out of that dilemma

I am sometimes asked why share Zen stories as part of my workshops and group sessions. In a nutshell, Zen stories may confuse or leave one hanging, yet they do not impart information or knowledge. They are designed to to get rid of something, to get rid of a false problem with which you are wrestling so that the problem will disappear as the result of understanding the story.  In this way, they invite joining the dots like stars into constellations and evoke eureka moments.

There was a Master walking, engaged in forest meditation with a group of his disciples.  Suddenly, he picked up a tree branch and said to one of the monks, "what is it?" As the monk hesitated , did not answer immediately, the Master hit him with it.  Then, the Master turned to another monk and asked, "what is it?" That monk said, "Give it to me so I can see."   The Master tossed it and the monk hit the Master.  The Master said, "Well, you got out of that dilemma." 

When we look for the mind that seems to be giving us so much trouble and realize it cannot be found, this is a pointer to the solution to our perceived problem. A dilemma is like a physical stick that many people hold within themselves, dwell on, discuss or allow to fester. Focusing on dilemmas harms ourselves. Letting go, going with the flow, acting spontaneously, implies less thinking, and more savouring this moment as it is. A dilemma is a state of mind. Albert Einstein echoes we cannot solve a problem with the same level of consciousness that creates it.  We can always tune in, and allow the rhythm of the breath to guide us. The power resides within.