If Thine Eye be Single…

February 4, 2024 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

As we see in the news everyday, this is a world divided. It is polarized. Yes, we have our political divisions, so very apparent. But more fundamental than this, this world is dual by its very nature; it is a world of opposites, of positives and negatives. The positive and negative forces within atoms give rise to all form in this world. And form includes not only physical form and the physical body, but our thought forms and emotions as well.

So we have positive thoughts and negative ones; we have positive emotions and negative emotions. And instinctively we push away the uncomfortable negative, while reaching for the feel good of the positive. Of course, why would we not?!

Aah, but, but this is a trap! For spiritual law says:

everything in time shall turn into its opposite

So although we may temporarily find and relish the positive state, inevitably, at some point, our experience will flip and we will find ourselves in the opposite, negative place. With this constant flip-flopping, no wonder we often feel off balance and confused! So turns the wheel of karma as we teeter-totter between positive and negative, never coming to rest.

The good news is that there is a place in our awareness which rests outside of the dual nature of the mind and emotions, and this is our way through. This neutral witness or observer aspect of ourselves is able to view the transitory nature of life, of thoughts and emotions, with detachment. Yes, the positives and negatives of life still happen, but the neutral observer avoids assigning a value to one experience over the other and rests outside of the action, simply watching. 

Then something amazing happens. Instead of riding the roller coaster between positive and negative, our inner world of swirling mind and emotions comes into balance and we begin to ground our awareness on what rests between the opposites of the world – the fullness of our true divine nature of peace, light and Presence. This is the Field Rumi writes about in his familiar poem and which I wrote about in my previous blog post.

When I mentor others and they come to me in pain or feel stuck in their lives some way, it is this witnessing place that I hold for them. In our sessions together we process and find our way back to this neutrality, anxiety is relieved and new ways of coping and perceiving are instituted.

Jesus said “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be filled with Light.” In other words, beyond the two eyes of negative and positive is this third channel of awareness – the single eye – our neutral observer. 

Begin to befriend this benevolent Presence, and as you build its strength, your reactivity to life will be lessened and you will begin to discover the treasure that is beyond even the positive – an equanimity with all of life. And the pure joy of Being.

There is a Field…

September 23, 2023 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

photo by Tara Glaser

In meditation this morning as thoughts subsided and pure awareness moved to the forefront of my experience, this poem by Rumi came to mind:

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”

doesn’t make any sense.

It is the silent awareness that we experience in deep meditation that is the field Rumi is talking about here. Between your thoughts… in the space between your breathes … lies this field. Here awareness is both empty and full.

Such a paradox: empty of thought, yet full with the ineffable presence of being. And in this beingness, in this silent field, we leave behind the thinking mind, with its positives and negatives, with its right and wrong and its good vs. bad. All polarity resolves as we come to rest in this still field of Unified Consciousness or Oneness.

Oneness is all there is, and in this shared experience, in its fullness and in its profundity, language becomes unnecessary and wholly inadequate.

Closing the eyes direct your meditations here. Form the intention to quiet the mind and lie down in this, Rumi’s grass. This field is everywhere the mind is not! Yes, find it in meditation, but also anywhere you can find a quiet moment. Discernible in nature, especially, the natural world subtly pulsates here in silent wonder.

At this critical moment in a world so filled with chaos, in a world so desperately needing peace, we can choose to spend time in Rumi’s field. We can choose to leave the polarized nature of the lower mind behind with its relentless searching thoughts never resolving.

Instead let the mind be still. Be the change you want to see. Spend time in Rumi’s field, where all inner and outer conflict is resolved and, instead of a world of strife, a world of possibilities appears.

Flow

April 22, 2023 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Many now, with the shaky economy, are beginning to contract and withhold. With all the news about the financial instability in our banks, the stock market etc. fear rises its ominous head and we instinctively contract. In truth, the Universe is the source of unlimited supply, and our inner Light, the light of oneness that we are, is inseparable from that supply. But when we succumb to fear and buy into lack, this Light begins to diminish cutting off that support.

Fear begins with a thought; the IRS tells us we have a big tax bill due, for example, and our conditioned and limiting beliefs about money are triggered. It is these thoughts about money and what we are telling ourselves about our situation that becomes our reality e.g. that there is not enough to go around, and I must be careful of losing the little that I have; we create a scarcity mindset, a poverty consciousness. And this us what we will manifest.   

But there is another way! Rather than contract in the face of what appears to be limited resources, what if you were to expand? What if you embraced Flow? Flow is an ever-present current of love, grace and light from Source that supports us and furnishes our needs no matter what the circumstances. Flow is simply divine intelligence fulfilling its evolutionary imperative to take care of its own! It will move through your life by surrendering to it and by having faith and trust that it will. Then our mantra becomes: The Universe is the source of unlimited supply, and I am not, nor have I ever been separate from that Flow.

We can most easily make contact with this Flow at the spiritual or etheric heart in the center of our chest. Love lives here, of course, and Flow is really just love in action! So when you are feeling blocked and your bank account is beginning to trigger fear, return to your heart. The technology needed here is 2G, but don’t think old cellular network here! This 2G runs on different current, for it is a mystical network, and its power radiates from the heart.

It is the two Gs of Generosity and Gratitude of which I speak, which open your heart, and connect you directly to to the abundance that the Universe is eager to supply. How does your heart feel when you give to someone in need? Notice the radiating warmth there, and the fullness of being. Generosity opens the heart. In the East, it is known as the art of selfless giving, or Karma Yoga. When we give generously, and especially without thought of reward, divine intelligence notices! The beneficence we create through our selfless act returns to us because we are in a divine realm now where love is the operating system and where out-go creates in-Flow.

Gratitude, too, opens the heart. Gratitude bypasses the negative mind taking us directly to the higher vibrational heart, where Flow resides. Even in tough times, if you can find gratitude for what you do have you open the door to the abundance that Flow provides.

Practice gratitude daily, raise your vibration, and step into an energetic field that will create a buffer of light against the vicissitudes of the third dimensional world. Your own inner luminescence will become an attractor for abundance and Flow to move through your life.

This economy will always have its ups and downs, but you do not need to become a statistic. Practice your two Gs! Surrender your fears, open your heart and welcome Flow.

To be Grateful

December 12, 2022 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Recently, a mentoring session began with the young man lamenting about his current state of affairs. He was not happy about his job; he was luckless in his search for a significant other; his creativity felt blocked; compared to his peers’ accomplishments in life he was feeling inferior. Overall, he was in a funk.

I explained why he was feeling down. With all of his worry and limiting thoughts he was buying into “lack” and “loss”and his light level was dropping. So rather than see his life as half empty I suggested he begin to see it as half full. I suggested he come back into the fullness his heart.

I shared with him a shortcut: gratitude opens the heart! “What are you grateful for?”, I asked. He stopped and thought for a moment. Still, feeling blocked from seeing ways his life was actually working in his favor, I reminded him that he is employed and able to afford a roof over his head, and to buy food to eat, and even to enjoy some luxuries. So many in this world struggle to meet their basic needs. “Can you appreciate how much you actually do have?,” I asked.

His energy began to shift and he was able to share with me many things that he can be grateful for. He was finding his way back into his heart and into the fullness of love and life we discover there. 

Let us each not ever settle for a “down” state and a loss of light. States of mind, whether positive or negative, are transitory and not who we are as eternal timeless Presence itself. We can always make the choice to shift our reality and access our inner light and power, and gratitude will do it every time! 

And especially on this auspicious day, 12/12/2022, as a portal opens into the invisible realms, culminating in the magic of the winter solstice, grace is especially palpable and welcoming.

Her blessings of transcendent effulgent light uplift us, touching and opening our hearts, inviting us to be in gratitude, to be in love. 

Take a moment, allow the blessings, open your heart. What are you grateful for?

Centering

July 31, 2022 in Uncategorized | Tags: | Leave a comment

In my previous post I wrote about the mystical column of light, the shushumna, as our resource in turbulent times. Aligning our awareness in the subtle physical body in this way is the process of centering. With our awareness we locate our center, the “eye of the hurricane”, and the mind quiets, the body relaxes and we feel at peace. Resting here, we build our inner light, radiating it out into the world.

And our light is needed now more than ever. The density of consciousness and the extreme polarization we see on the planet is our own collective shadow manifest. When we can hold our center in the face of it and commit to maintaining this neutrality, we become spiritual beacons, counterbalancing the shadow of the world.

There are other ways to find our center as well. The practice of yoga will beautifully center the mind, body and emotions. Practiced with mindfulness and conscious breath, the body naturally aligns with the core, our center. Also, the martial arts of Tai Chi and Chi Gong will confer the same benefit. Even a quiet walk in nature naturally grounds us with our center as we begin to feel our connection to the earth and to the elements.

All of these practices involve a silent mind. An activated mind takes us outside of our core state in the shushumna. The thinking mind will actually ride flows of polarized energy that wrap around our central core, keeping us off balance. Try holding tree pose in yoga while thinking about the bill you forgot to pay. You won’t be able to stand on one foot for very long!

Quieting the mind in meditation or with any of the body-centered practices described above neutralizes this polarized flow of energy, bringing it into balance. We align with our inner light in the shushumna and find the peace and natural intelligence that emanates from there.

Trees, vertical and tall, mirror the shushumna of our energy body, radiating their own light out into the world. Near where I live is Muir Woods, an ancient grove of redwood trees. I love finding a quiet place to stand there among these giant sentinels. With their palpable presence, their roots interconnected, these beneficent beings hold the oneness for the world, patiently waiting for us to meet them there.

Light of Oneness

December 18, 2021 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

This comment was made to me recently by someone who is feeling the intensity of these challenging times: “Sometimes it feels as though everything is just falling apart in the world and there is nothing to hold on to at all!

True, searching for something to hold onto in the external world of form, which by its very nature is in flux, is futile. So in chaotic times, and whenever you are feeling unstable, rather than looking outside of yourself for something to ground on, turn your attention inward. And find gold!

The mystical teachings from the East tell us that when we turn our attention inward into the subtle physical, or energy body, we can align our attention with a column of golden light that runs through the midline of the body from head to toe. Called the Shushumna, it is our center, the calm center in the eye of the storm of our external lives.

The Shushumna is the Light of Oneness, the luminous core within a world of duality and form that holds its opposites in equilibrium. When we align our attention here the either or mind quiets down we become centered and still, and we begin to feel the immensity of our divine eternal nature.

If there is action to be taken, that intuition and the impetus toward action comes from this still, quiet, alignment. Take this moment…

With the eyes open or closed, begin with some conscious breaths. Breathe in and out and bring your attention inward, feeling into your energy body. Begin to visualize or, with your psychic perception, see a column of golden/white light about three inches in circumference sitting just in front of the physical spine. Stay with it for a moment or two. Now, maintaining this awareness feel into a spot at the base of your spine at the perineum. Take a couple of slow conscious breathes in and out here. Then slowly follow the line of light and energy up the midline of the body to the top of your head at the crown. Breathe in and out through the top of the head a couple of times.

Now, once again, visualize the whole line of energy, like a fluorescent tube of light. Not confined to the body, it actually extends into the aura and beyond. Feel it. Relax into it. Merge with it. Know that you are home and that all is well. Stay as along as you wish, and return here anytime, but especially when feeling unstable and ungrounded.

The world is going through its paces, its growing pains, as it were. We can observe the turbulence from a grounded core place in the Shushumna. Then we serve the world and its evolution by simply being at peace, by radiating peace. By simply returning home to the Light of Oneness and our divine eternal nature.

Be an Awakener

August 25, 2021 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Someone who mentors kids asked the question: What are the best ways to build self confidence in a pre-teen?

As I pondered a response to the question and began formulating a list in my mind I saw that it was the qualities of the heart that would lead the way… but of course! The spiritual heart or the heart chakra is where the ascended balance states of being live. These states neutralize or balance polarity and hold a higher vibration than the polarized either/or states of the lower mind, and they are intrinsically imbued with love. 

The wisdom of the heart comes through intuitively when we choose our words and actions from fourth dimensional love, rather than third dimensional polarized power. So whether we are mentoring a student or just living life and having relationships in a polarized world, we can create unity in our consciousness simply by naming and beginning to actualize the higher vibrational states in our lives.

The ascended balance states include acceptance, compassion, generosity, patience and selflessness, among many others. In my response to this mentor I saw that it was the heart-centered states of respect, humility, presence, honesty, and authenticity, along with an overall attitude of flexibility and non-attachment that would foster growth in a student, allowing them to find their own way through the lesson or task. So, specifically, my recommendation to build self-esteem in a pre-teen was:

  • Avoid acting from a position of authority with the student; that’s already implicit in the relationship. Respect them for who they are and meet them from a place of humility.
  • Look for opportunities to allow the student to express themselves and invite them to share their ideas and feelings. Be a present and attentive listener.
  • Set the student up for success with clearly defined goals. Break down larger overarching goals into smaller achievable increments. Remain flexible.
  • Make a commitment to always offer honest feedback to the student. Look for opportunities to praise, but keep it authentic. Praise when not genuinely earned may boost the ego temporarily, but may inhibit emotional resiliency in the long term in face of the ups and downs of life.
  • Avoid criticism in favor of constructive feedback. Offer options and suggestions rather than answers, allowing the student to find their own way to a satisfactory outcome. 

A popular quote attributed to Robert Frost comes to mind here:

“I am not a teacher, but an awakener.”

When we commit to the awakening heart in our mentoring relationship and in life in general we invite Spirit to lead the way, where the light of unity consciousness can work its magic.

Stopping Time

March 5, 2021 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A common theme these days among those I mentor is worry about the future. At this moment in time on the planet and with the arrival of the corona virus last year, many are feeling  ungrounded, unstable, fearful, and uncertain about the future. Thoughts come up such as “Will I ever be able to manifest that soul mate for whom I long so deeply?”; and, “will I be stuck in this rut of a job forever or will I ever able to realize my dreams…?”; and lurking in the background is “will this pandemic ever end so that can we can get back to normal?!”

The truth is there is never a good reason to worry about the future, as we are actively creating it by the choices we make moment to moment. As spiritual teacher Ram Dass has famously advised Be Here Now! When we are able to quiet the mind with its ruminations about the past or anxiety about the future, we enter a portal of timelessness. It is the entrance into our soul’s wisdom and the guidance that serves its evolution and highest dharma. But thought forms about the past or about the future create a veil blocking this intuitive knowledge from reaching us, often breeding anxiety or even depression.

In a recent Leslie Jamison article in The Atlantic magazine about men in prison who create art, researcher Nicole R. Fleetwood talks about the lesson that abstract artist Jared Owen learned while incarcerated.

“To fixate on the past or to focus on the time remaining on his sentence was to succumb to rage and depression. Such thoughts would make him angry about the years spent away from his two sons, both very young when he went away.”

But through his art Owen was able to hone a practice of staying present and tap into his creative impulse, which was both therapeutic and inspirational; and through his pain he discovered that when the mind is quiet and our intention is in simply being present with what is, each moment and deed is aligned with our soul purpose. In his case creating beautiful abstract art. As we practice this new mode of being we begin to perceive spirit’s invisible hand at work behind the scenes as wonderful life-enhancing synchronicities become commonplace. In time an unshakable faith in the support of the invisible realms allows the soul’s wisdom to direct our life through inspiration, intuition and direct knowing. We enter the realm of the miraculous, where time stops and the inevitability of our evolution becomes manifest. We are at peace and at one with the Creator.

Early 20th century mystic and poet Edward Carpenter eloquently describes this place in this poem. May you find your way Here…

The Central Calm

Drawing back for a moment from Time, and its superficial claims and conclusions,
Realising for a moment the artistic nature of the utterance of the Universe:

That all is for expression, and that for this end commencement and finale, first evolved and latest evolved, are equally important;

That Progress is a word which may be applied to any world-movement or individual career in the same sense as it may be applied to the performance of a musical work,
Which progresses to its final chord, yet the conclusion of the whole is not in the final chord, but in that which runs beneath and inspires the entire web–in that which from first to last the whole complex succession of chords and phrases indicates:

Realising this–

Realising–thus for a moment withdrawn–that there is no need to hurry, no need to dash against the bars;
But that Time itself rushing on with amazing swiftness in its vast and endless round, with suns and systems, ages and geologic epochs, races and tribes of beings, mineral, vegetable, animal, and ethereal, circle beyond circle, infallibly fulfills and gives utterance to the glorious whole:

Like one in the calm that is the centre of a cyclone–guarded by the very tornado around–
Undisturbed, yet having access equally to every side,
I drink of the deep well of rest and joy,
And sit with all the gods in Paradise.

Expand into the Contraction: vote

October 30, 2020 in Uncategorized | Tags: | Leave a comment

I was having an email exchange with someone who was contemplating not voting in the upcoming election in the United States. She felt, being the conscientious person that she is, that by voting she would be aligning herself energetically with the old polarized dysfunctional third dimensional paradigm and would be giving her power and sovereignty over to that. By putting her focus on creating the new heart-centered paradigm that is birthing on earth now she felt she would be better serving higher consciousness.

I agreed with her that the Patriarchal social system that we have now, and which we have had for the last 5,000 years (and within which our democracy is bound), is ego driven, dysfunctional, and often corrupt. But when we choose to throw up our arms and abandon it by not voting, and instead only acknowledge the light, aren’t we doing spiritual by-pass? When we turn our backs on the dark and look only to the light, personally or collectively, we are ignoring our shadow and transformation will never take place. I like the Zen koan-like phrase that my teacher coined years ago: expand into the contraction. As seekers our calling is to shine the light of consciousness on the unconscious contraction so that it may be transmuted and transformed.


Yes, we are being asked to vote (to vow or to wish) within a corrupt 3D political system. But it is of our own creation! It is a manifestation and a reflection of our own collective unconscious shadow. To vote is to choose to work within the system that we created to direct our enlightened energy and attention to the side of an issue or to a candidate that feels, given its 3D limitations, most likely to evolve the collective, or to at least point us in a more expansive direction. 


This does not make us partisan. We can make our choice with discernment and detachment and pray for the highest good without demonizing the other side or playing the game of right vs. wrong. What is our heart telling us? We quietly vote by trusting the power of our divine nature and intention to create the change we seek.

So voting is an act of power and a statement to the divine that we are not denying our human experience, but that with her help we choose to transform it.

The Wake-up Call

April 27, 2020 in Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I was mentoring with someone on Skype the other day. She has been out of work for nearly a year, and although there were interviews for jobs, no offer had manifested. And now, with Corona Virus, she was feeling intense fear and panic and a sense of scarcity. She is a sensitive soul and I could see that in addition to the emotions coming from her personal story she was picking up fear from the Collective (the overarching field of consciousness held by humanity), amplifying the intensity of her emotions.

Due to loss of income from the stay at home orders from the virus, survival issues are up for many. Even simply being told to “shelter in place” can be an emotional trigger. This uncleared shadow has its origins in our childhood, and even from ancestral memory stored in the cells of our body. Our issues of survival are bound up in the first or root chakra at the base of the spine. When it is closed down we feel fearful; we fear for our survival. We fear death, and our fear blocks our ability to perceive the divine support that is always available to us.

Emotions are vibrational frequencies, and whether they are our own or we are picking them up from others, they can be witnessed, felt and released. Opening up a closed root chakra… ah, we feel grounded again. Connected to the earth and to our core light our fear subsides and we are able to manifest what we need.

Simply approaching your fear with the intention of releasing it begins to release its grip. The witnessing presence that I wrote about in my previous blog post is your ally here. In a quiet moment, begin this process by journaling about your situation and invite your emotional body to participate. In other words, allow any emotions that are coming up to be there. Witness them without judgment. Feel them and allow them their full expression, whether anger or fear, or some, as yet, unnamed feeling. Know that are not who you are; they do not define you. Allow them to pass through the clear light of the witnessing presence that you truly are!

Over the years I’ve helped lots of people process and clear their personal shadow using specific clearing techniques, including Releasing Frozen Children. If you’d like some help with this, I’m here for you. Please click the Mentoring/Guidance link at the top of this blog for more details.

So here we are, the entire world brought to a standstill by this microscopic, but super efficient, contagion. Is this just an accident… simply our bad luck? We live in an intelligent universe, and its impetus is to evolve. For humanity this means growth towards higher consciousness, from the separateness of the individual ego to the unity of the one heart. Rather than seeing the Corona Virus as an adversary to overcome, I believe it has arrived as a wake-up call with a karmic message for humanity:

You are out of balance with nature and the earth, and you are out of balance with each other. Stop. Go inside. Be at peace with the unknown. Out of the chaos and dissolution will come a rebirth. Allow the heart to lead the way and all will be well.

As soon as we are able to grok this message, even a little, this virus will cease to be a problem. This is my prayer for the world.