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Image by ~Aphrodite via FlickrWhat’s so wonderful about the Christmas season, despite the commercialism, is that our hearts open. During the ‘season of giving’, our generosity opens our hearts. There is a palpable shift in our individual energy and in the energy of the collective field. We more easily feel our connection to others – we feel the love. Read the rest of this entry »
In a conversation last week during our Wednesday night meditation/support circle someone expressed her frustration with her meditation practice because sometimes an issue from her day pops into her awareness and her mind begins processing it. She asked, “Isn’t there a value to meditating “on” an issue that surfaces in the mind?”
I shared that there is an important distinction to be drawn between meditating into the silence by intentionally quieting the mind, and meditating “on” a problem seeking a resolution, which more accurately could be called contemplation. The best approach is to allow space for both, as they both have value, but to maintain them as distinct activities. Quieting the mind in silent meditation is the more powerful use of your time, as the Unified Field of Pure Awareness that we connect with can provide us with the answers we seek spontaneously – in or out of meditation. Universal Intelligence knows exactly how to “speak” to us to provide us with the answers we seek.
I had a phone call with someone recently who shared this:
“Staff meetings at work have been tense lately with management pitted against employees around just compensation. I always have something to say, especially when my buttons get pushed, but I feel no one listens to me and I feel dismissed – I’m afraid they see me as weak and ineffectual. Then, later, I feel frustrated because I realize I didn’t say what I really wanted to say. What’s going on here? How can I change people’s perception of me?”
Here is how I responded:
The real power of our words comes from a place of neutrality and our commitment to speaking absolute truth. From this place there is no agenda and no investment in making someone right or wrong, or good or bad. This kind of egoic positioning actually blocks access to our intuition and higher intelligence and to our highest expression.
The astrological winds are blowing and I’m being called inward – since June’s full moon lunar eclipse and Grand Cross on the 26th, in fact. Potent astrological alignments like this are invitations to go within, availing ourselves of rare super-charged transformational energies. They offer us the possibility of making a leap in consciousness. Personally, I feel like a veil has been lifted. Consciousness has shifted and I am different – oh so subtley, but palpably, the out-picturing of this yet unfolding.
Taking time for meditation each day is in no small way making a bid for spiritual power. In meditation we prepare to meet the Divine, accessing our conscious awareness, and our lives change in profound ways. At the very least, we ride the inevitable waves of change with more ease, grace, and equanimity. If we also incorporate a process of self-inquiry with the intention of processing and clearing our limited personality patterns, we find ourselves accessing greater and greater levels of transcendental light. We grow and change, moving steadily towards Absolute Truth and the experience of what is real beyond the personality.
There are many beautiful writings by sages and mystics who, across time, have written about the benefits of quieting the mind. The Lake of Beauty is a favorite poem of mine by a more contemporary mystic – Edward Carpenter. Can you feel the power of this poem as it calls you home to the truth of your nature – to Self?
Let your mind be quiet, realizing the beauty of the world,
and the immense, the boundless treasures that it holds in store.
All that you have within you, all that your heart desires,
all that your Nature so specially fits you for — that or the
counterpart of it waits embeded in the great Whole, for you.
It will surely come to you.
————————————-
Yet equally surely not one moment before its appointed time
will it come. All your crying and fever and reaching out of
hands will make no difference.
Therefore do not begin that game at all.
Do not recklessly spill the waters of your mind
in this direction and in that,
lest you become like a spring lost and
dissipated in the desert.
————————————-
But draw them together into a little compass, and hold them
still, so still;
And let them become clear, so clear — so limpid, so mirror-like;
at last the mountains and sky shall glass themselves in peaceful beauty,
and the antelope shall descend to drink and to gaze at his
reflected image, and the lion to quench his thirst,
and Love himself shall come and bend over and catch his
own likeness in you.
Someone asked me recently: “When I get angry should I express it? Sometimes it makes a situation worse and we just get in a fight.”
When you feel anger rising in you it is best not to act from this anger. But, do pay attention to it as a vibratory field of energy. Some people are in the habit of suppressing anger and it gets tamped down into the cells of the body adding to a reservoir of suppressed anger that is dormant, but toxic. Eventually, it will get triggered by some external event and burst forth in an emotional explosion that will drain you and leave you feeling bad.
So, we witness that anger is present, and without engaging it with our minds, we simply allow it to be. Consciously we detach from any thoughts our mind wants to generate about it – that we have been wronged in some way – that we don’t deserve to be treated this way – that we will get our revenge etc. Any story we begin to tell about our anger only serves to justify the anger in our minds, which allows the anger to build. Then it becomes us. Then we become identified with the anger and it overtakes us, causing us to become reactive and say or do something that we will later regret. Anger, like any emotion, is just a frequency or vibration of energy in motion, and we have the power to allow it to pass through our awareness field. We bring the power of our Presence to bear witness to this wave of energy passing through, and we ride it out. In this way it will leave harmlessly.
In a situation with someone when your buttons get pushed and you feel anger come up, before you begin to identify with it, take some deep breathes and just allow the anger to be. Be completely present with it while detaching from your thoughts. Give yourself permission to excuse yourself from the situation momentarily if necessary. Then, when the anger has dissipated though the power of your witnessing presence, you can collect your thoughts and have your say from a more grounded and non-reactive place.
For a person with a reservoir of stored anger it is beneficial to release it in a therapeutic way. One exercise that does this very effectively without attracting a lot of negative attention (like screaming at the top of your lungs!) comes from Polarity Yoga developed by Dr. Randolph Stone, the creator of Polarity Therapy. Called the ‘Woodchopper’, it ignites the fire principle in the body, facilitating the venting of stored anger out of the cells. It is important not to create an object for your suppressed anger, but rather to maintain your neutral witnessing presence while doing this exercise. An explanation of how to do the Woodchopper is at the end of this post.
Remember, we are Pure Awareness. When you can allow the frequencies of existence, whether positive or negative, to pass through you, without pulling them towards you or pushing them away, you are free. Then you are completely available to enjoy the wonder and diversity of life, and, as my teacher says, “all that heavenly glory”.
Woodchopper
Note: The Woodchopper should not be attempted if you have back problems.
Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, keeping your knees soft. Clasp your hands above your head. Take a deep breath in through your nose arching your body backwards, and on your exhale, bring your hands down between your legs, hinging from the hips and dropping your head as if chopping wood. Let out a loud explosive “Ha” sound at the end of the stroke. Inhale and come up slowly and repeat as many times as necessary until the anger has cleared. The movement should be rhythmic and flowing. You may need to take a break and repeat the process before you feel complete. Please follow your own guidance on this and be careful not to strain or go too fast, as this can lead to dizziness.
On a phone call the other day, a student shared how she wants to be in her heart, but notices her judgments – her habit of judging others for qualities they do or do not have – keep getting in the way. “They seem to have a life of their own”, she complained. “How can I stop?”
Here is my response:
Our judgments seem to have a life of their own because they are unconscious to us, and they spring forth from this unseen part of ourselves because they are not grounded in our awareness, because we haven’t seen and accepted that they are part of us. In truth, there is nothing outside of us, and the judgments we have onto others are projections of unowned aspects of our own personality. The world mirrors back to us these unowned parts of ourselves that we have pushed away.
There is a couple who live across the street who are very private. When I see them at all, it is usually in their car pulling in or out of their driveway. They seem to have blinders on, never looking up, or around, sending a message of not wanting to engage. But that’s okay with me. If they ever choose to say hi, I’m available for that.
I have another neighbor who has a problem with these folks. He says he cannot stand those people.
“Why not,” I ask?
“Because they are so unfriendly; they are not nice people,” he responds with disdain.
So how do we explain the two different responses to to our neighbor’s behavior? It could be said that my friend has a conditioned belief that unfriendliness is bad, and no way is he that. He is not bad! He is seeing in these neighbors a trait in himself that he has denied and pushed into his unconscious – and what lives in the unconscious gets projected out. The world is mirroring back to him his own unowned personality trait.
Our judgments arise out of our conditioning about good and bad and right and wrong. They are polarized. And it is this polarized view of seeing the world that separates, that colors our perception and keeps us from seeing truth and the intrinsic nature of people and things. When we pull in our projections and own them, we create an integration and a healing and the world is seen just as it is, reflecting back to us our new-found wholeness.
The key to this healing is to see the world as a mirror. Even if we are unable to see this initially, in order to initiate our process of integration, we must assume that this is true. Then when we catch ourselves doing judgment, we can stop ourselves in our tracks with a little reminder: Everything I see is in me. In this way, a process of self-inquiry is initiated. The next step is to ask yourself: “How do I do this same irritating behavior?”; or What exactly is this issue that is unresolved in me?”
Your answer will lead you to find your humility and compassion, and your equality with others. You will see that there is no “outside” – that everything is you. And you will find your heart.
My yoga class the other day was exquisite. There was a particular effortlessness to the practice. Arriving at each asana, I felt an increased physical expansion as each breath filled the body more completely. Instantly, the pose lit up. Time stopped and all efforting ceased. I was held, supported by the light in a kind suspended animation. Such joy! My practice became a prayer of gratitude to the Divine, for life, for love, for the beauty of existence!
Then, leaving the yoga studio and reentering the world from this newly expanded place, I noticed all my senses were heightened, and a profound silence enveloped me. My attention was drawn to the trees lining the city street, and to the breeze gently swaying their branches. I was captivated by the moment, feeling Eternity calling me – calling me home to Self, to Oneness, to my divine nature.
You too have probably had glimpses of this Oneness, this peace, especially in nature. It was natural that my awareness was called to the wind and the trees when I left the yoga studio the other day. Nature pulses with this divine light. In truth, we all do, but in nature form is pure and pristine unencumbered by the veils that mask this radiance in us. Outside the buzz and chaotic energy of the city, we are drawn to nature and open spaces because we find solace there, and healing and rejuvenation – because in it we are connected to this Oneness that is our very nature.
Think of that remote spot you love to go to in the mountains or the forest. Ah, fresh air at last! You breath in deeply, relaxing into the scene. The mind becomes quiet and, within the stillness, Divine Presence expresses itself through the forms of the world: The wind’s exhale delicately wafts through the trees, and the leaves respond in a ripple of delight – so effortlessly, so inevitably. So lovely! You can appreciate the experience because a part of you recognizes this Presence. You resonate with it because it is in you. It is you! Breathing in deeply once again, you are drawn more completely into present moment. You relax, perhaps laying back on some grass, and your attention is called upward to powder blue sky, and within this expanse – billowy white cumulus clouds, so soft, so yin – gently moving – so effortlessly, so inevitably. You are entranced by this shape shifting visual delight! Heart feels full as it opens to the light that is within and that is without. This light is everywhere. It is all there is – light, Divine Presence, the Oneness that we are.
embracingOneness 