We are free! July 19, 2010
Posted by bodhidude in : Spirituality, Transformation, articles , 1 comment so far
Over the last few years struggle, chaos and upheaval have permeated all aspects of my life. It has been very difficult and even terrifying at times. I’ve lost my job, my living space, relationships, many aspects of my identity and most of my material possessions. However I created this experience with the simple but powerful intention to be free, truly free at all levels. All this difficultly came about as I confronted my doubts, fears and attachments and learned often the hard way to let go of all that is not my essence. I have no regrets, I embrace the pain with the pleasure, the bad with the good. When you take away the dualistic labels everything is an expression of the divine and from that perspective one can experience true equanimity, accepting and embracing what is in each moment. Flowing freely with life. Co-creating your world with the full creative force of the universe behind you.
The Five Steps July 17, 2010
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As I’ve walked my spiritual path I’ve engaged in many practices, some more effective than others. I’ve found that the simplest techniques are usually the most effective because in my view the aim of the spiritual path is very simple and immediate. That aim is to realize our true nature, to return to wakefulness, to awaken from the dream of separate/dualistic life. On the path, we can get distracted by looking for the truth somewhere “out there” but I think the truth is right under our noses. Its right here, right now in this moment and it is life itself. It cannot really be spoken of but it can be lived. No special knowledge, talent or preparation is needed because it involves being what you already are at the deepest level. All that’s needed is to remember and to clear away anything that obscures what we truly are, that is, anything that distracts one from this moment. We just have to be interested in this process of awakening so that we are wiling to give it our full attention. The five steps I describe below are a tool I have used lately to help me return to my true nature when I forget.
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2010: The Year We Make Contact? January 19, 2010
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I’ve always been a strong believer in alien life because it seems absurd to me that in such a vast cosmos humans are the only intelligent life. In fact it seems egotistical and counter-intuitive. Over the years, I’ve seen objects in the sky that I could not identify, some of which might be explained rationally and some which defied explanation of any kind because they displayed characteristics that should be impossible. My sense is that we have been visited and continue to be visited to this day by alien species who have taken an interest in our development but who refrain from interference until a culture is ready. History is filled with references to visitors from above and they appear in the mythology and artwork of almost every culture. The question I’ve been asking myself lately is whether this may be the time when their existence is revealed on a large scale?
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Encountering the Zero Point January 2, 2010
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As we enter the year we call 2010 on the Gregorian calendar, I find myself letting go of more layers of myself. I don’t really know how to describe it but parts of my life and identity continue to fall away. I don’t know who I am anymore. All my efforts to define who I am and what I do fall so far short that they now seem meaningless.
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2012 and Disaster Lust November 29, 2009
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It has been interesting over the last few years to watch the concept of 2012 emerge into mass consciousness and grow into the household word it is today. Given its popularity there are now a wide range of perceptions as to what meaning the 2012 date holds. As it has become more popular, I find it interesting but not surprising that it has assumed the projection of a destructive apocalyptic future. This is most clearly illustrated by the current blockbuster film “2012″ which I watched for the first time yesterday more out of curiosity than anything else.
Feeding your Demons November 16, 2009
Posted by bodhidude in : Healing, Psychology, Spirituality, Transformation, articles , 4comments
Have you had the experience of having intentions, goals and aspirations that you are passionate about but never seem to fully come to fruition? Do you find yourself struggling with habits, addictions or feeling stuck in familiar patterns in your life that no longer serve you but resist your efforts at change? Do you ever feel like there is a part of you that is working against your wishes? Well for me the answer to these questions has been most definitely YES, and for a long time my response was to increase my effort and fight against the tendencies in me that I found to be obstacles or to throw up my hands in frustration and sink into depression. However I began to realize the more I struggled to rid myself of the qualities I didn’t like about myself, the more I tried to force change by sheer effort and willpower and the more I judged myself for not succeeding the way I felt I should I only made these seemingly opposing forces or qualities stronger. Recently I discovered a powerful practice that directly addresses this issue which is known as “Feeding Your Demons”. Having put it into practice I find my life transforming in amazing and powerful ways and I don’t find myself so much in conflict. Feeding your demons is an old Tibetan practice known as Chud which originated in the 12th century with a female Yogini named Machig Labdron. It is presented in a very simple and accessible Western context by Buddhist teacher Tsultrim Allione in her book “Feeding your Demons” (see resources section).
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“The Spiritual Nomad” October 28, 2009
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I recently read a post on Reality Sandwich entitled “The Spiritual Nomad”. In the article the author Lisa Renee describes a process that more and more people are experiencing after a spiritual awakening in which their life is turned upside down. I resonated with this article a great deal because it clearly described what I have been experiencing for the last two years and what several of my friends are going through now.
A Massive Wake Up Call October 22, 2009
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It is my belief that with the challenges facing us today what ultimately must happen for any real change to occur is a shift in consciousness or an awakening out of a collectively unconscious state. The level that our human collective conscious is currently operating on continues to allow things like war, hunger, environmental collapse, economic problems and more destructive processes to play out. I would even say that it is our collective as well as personal unconsciousness that fuels these things. Yet we still go about futilely trying to resolve them on an external level. Most (not all) of these efforts however don’t quite make it because we still have the issue of the level of consciousness on a mass scale not being able to support real change.
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The Age of the Goddess October 19, 2009
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A powerful trend is growing in our society as we move deeper into this time of transformation. It is becoming more and more clear to me that the changes we are experiencing involve the movement of the Divine Feminine into a more dominant role in the world and society. This is being reflected for me on both an inner and an outer level but it feels like it is a very powerful and important aspect of this transformative time.
From Fear to Empowered Engagement October 5, 2009
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What does the current world situation bring up for you? This question produces a variety of responses depending on who you ask. There are seriously alarming things playing out right now many of which are major global events such as climate change. Beyond that we seem to be creating increasingly oppressive governments even in our so called free western societies. Our society at least to me appears to be suffering from a degenerative sickness which is entering a terminal stage. The degradation of our society is evidenced by many symptoms including increasing extremism, a poisoning of the food supply due to genetic and toxic contamination, a health care system that is based on profit instead of healing and sells poison under the guise of medicine, an almost complete lack of honesty and morality in government, a numbed out population that spends its time entranced by mass media promoting extremely dysfunctional behavior and propaganda and an economy where both greed and manufactured scarcity run rampant.
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Who needs work?! July 6, 2009
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For most of us working sucks which I think is why work is a four letter word. Have you ever really thought about why you work and what role it plays in your life? Most of us work because we think we have to, to pay the bills or really to survive. We might have a job that we can’t stand or we might even have a job that we like or no job but when whatever we do becomes work it takes on a quality of struggle. If we work for ourselves doing what we love often it becomes work when we struggle to make ends meet. Our society is built on work and struggle, the idea that you have to sacrifice much of who you are to survive. Right behind the struggle is lack, the belief/feeling that we are incomplete or lacking something that we must seek externally whether it is money, love or fulfillment.
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Meditation: Finding freedom in the present June 14, 2009
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There are two things about life that never cease to amaze me, one is how painful it can be and the other is how simple and beautiful it can be. When things are going well it is very easy to grab onto that experience and expect life to remain good and comfortable but inevitably it changes and we experience pain and difficultly which we tend to want to avoid or push away. You could say that this process of attachment and aversion is one of the main causes of suffering and dissatisfaction in life because we can’t hold onto the good stuff and we can’t avoid the painful, the one constant in this is change. Often we are not aware of the way we hold onto or push away parts of our life. We can pretty much count on almost everything being temporary and this is just a reality of life which doesn’t need to be a problem, but when attachment and aversion arise it quickly becomes problematic.
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Romantic relationship in the new paradigm May 28, 2009
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We are living in transformative times there is no question about it. It seems almost everything on an external as well as internal level is undergoing radical change these days. This is an exciting, powerful and often painful process to be involved in but the potential is amazing. Many of the structures from the old paradigm including government, religion, financial and social are beginning to crumble, the weight of their dysfunction finally beginning to overpower their momentum. As these old structures break down it is important for us to engage a creative process collectively to form new systems to take their place. New systems that reflect a new era and a different level of conscious and that redefine boundaries that reflect the next level of growth we are entering into as a society.
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Turning it around, creating from the heart March 13, 2009
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I’ve been working a lot with trying to balance the perceived need for money with what I really want to create in my life. In working with this I’m seeing how the process of creating has been reversed at least relative to the way I am choosing to do it now. The way I would do it before would be to focus on money first. I would need to make money usually by getting a job or doing some kind of work. The amount of money I was able to make which was always limited would then determine what resources I had access to which would also be limited. I’m seeing more clearly now the way this process is dysfunctional why it has involved struggle and lack.
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Service March 11, 2009
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I’ve been working more lately with what it means to offer service, well really with what service actually means for me in practice. Service is a major part of my spiritual practice not only as a means of expressing my connection with others but also to express my gratitude for the incredible gifts I’ve received in my life and to give some of that back while reducing self-centeredness. I really had a limited idea of service up until recently imagining that it had to be some clear fixed activity that was labeled service and offered as such, something like volunteering for a charity or spiritual organization.
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Survival March 9, 2009
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Now that I have left my job and chosen to pursue my heart path I am yet again directly up against the edge. One thing I always find at this edge is the fear of not being able to survive. Letting go of the world of career and work immediately brings up the fear that without that paycheck I won’t be able to survive, to eat to have shelter and clothing etc. Its ironic that making a choice to follow the heart leads to a question of survival but it shows how deeply ingrained the beliefs about security and material needs are in our society. In the old paradigm, following the heart and living in the moment is not taught to be a way to responsibly and effectively live life. Instead we are taught that we must sacrifice, struggle and make money if we want to have what we need and be ok in life, often at the expense of the heart and perhaps even our health and relationships.
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Holding on to a dead paradigm, and letting it go February 11, 2009
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The year 2008 marked the beginning of the current financial crisis. However I would say that what it truly marks is the beginning of the end of the capitalist, consumer based economy in the US and probably the world. Just like the fall of communism (what remains of communism today is like a more totalitarian version of capitalism especially in China) in the late 80s and early 90s, free market capitalism is a corrupt and purely dysfunctional approach to managing the resources of a society. It’s practices and ideology could be maintained for a long time and propped up by governments and central banks but the dysfunction inherent in the system is finally catching up and bringing us back to reality. Our system in its current state cannot be maintained indefinitely.
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The power of I don't know February 7, 2009
Posted by bodhidude in : Society, Spirituality, Transformation , add a commentThere is a great article on Reality Sandwich by Daniel Pinchbeck entitled “The Age of Uncertainty” (http://www.realitysandwich.com/age_uncertainty). It seems like I can find all the evidence I need to support opposite conclusions on almost every issue these days a few of which are mentioned in this article. But I think the I don’t know is the key because in my view reality is moving into a state of intense contradiction on one level. A state where the rational mind cannot figure things out in the ways that we felt it could in the past.
I don’t know has incredible personal meaning for me these days as I have needed to let go of relationship, work, ways of living and even many seemingly integral parts of my identity. I don’t know who I am anymore, I don’t know what my future holds or even what to do with myself in terms of livelihood. But I’ve begun to see that I am being lead to embrace the I don’t know and let go of trying to figure it all out. The place of I don’t know is powerful because it contains immense potential but can also create intense fear because it involves learning to be ok with the unknown in a very direct way. The thing is I find that the more I embrace I don’t know and let go of trying to rationalize my way through life the more I am able to be present and connect to life in the here and now and I’m finding incredible peace and clarity in that. What to do and how to address life seems to emerge naturally from that place of peace and clarity and action becomes rooted in it instead of fear and confusion. Its so simple and subtle that it can be easily missed.
I’m starting to see the shifts happening now as a powerful force to move us beyond our addiction to thinking and the ego and into true presence putting the thinking mind in its place as one tool for higher consciousness to interact with the dualistic world. A tool but not the driving force of life. I think the new world or new paradigm has already begun to come into being, it just depends on where you choose to focus you attention because I see much suffering and destruction but I also see a great many people beginning to awaken and cast off old habits and ways of being. Its happening right now and the practice is the choice of putting our attention on the old and holding on or letting go and embracing the new, right now.
Another level of letting go February 2, 2009
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Jesus what a process this has been. Once more into the breech of the unknown. I met with some people from my community today to discuss our relationship with work, money, livelihood etc. I’ve come to realize two things very clearly. One is that I must fully let go of the old careers that have sustained me for so long – information technology and counseling. These are the ways that I know to make a living, to make money to pay the bills, to survive. But its completely clear now that their time has past. I’ve held on far too long now and have tried everything I can to make them work. Whether its a computer job or doing counseling work I just have no more passion for it and it won’t work anymore to fake it to bring in the cash, I’ve tried every way I know to drag it out. What I’ve realized is that on a deeper level I just need to let go, to allow these old approaches to fully fall away in order to make space for something new to emerge.
But that leads to the second thing that has become clear. I don’t know what to do next. I don’t know where the money and resources to sustain me will come from. I don’t know in which direction to go with my livelihood. I don’t even know who I am anymore on one level as what I do has been such a key part of my identity. I feel incredibly excited and yet incredibly terrified. My mantra has become I don’t know and I see now that I just need to surrender to that and allow myself to fully and completely not know. One person commented today how powerful a place not knowing can be because from that place all things are possible and I feel that too but its so scary. The fear is the unknown and the part of me that wants and needs to know kicking and screaming. For me the unknown is becoming a way of life more and more. I’m learning to appreciate it more and realizing that actually I never really did know what to expect or what was going to come next in life, I only imagined I did. This seems more clear, more authentic, not to pretend to know anymore but to surrender to not knowing and allow true heartfelt knowing to emerge naturally from the only place it can, the present moment. Here there is clarity and all is as it should be, nothing to figure out or worry about, just the awesome power of life unfolding in all its beautiful perfection.
A foot in two worlds January 30, 2009
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How do you move forward when you have one foot in an old paradigm and one foot in a new paradigm? That has become my koan lately and that’s the way its felt. I still have one foot in the old paradigm. The old paradigm being the world where ego and the rational mind leads the way, where I need to struggle and work hard to make ends meet, where I react to change and transition with fear and where I limit what comes to me to known channels or pathways. I also have one foot in the new paradigm. The new paradigm being the world where the heart leads the way and the rational mind is only a tool, where I no longer need to struggle because I live in abundance, where I allow life to flow naturally and don’t need to hold on, where I am open to the infinite pathways of creation so I am able to manifest what I need effortlessly and where I become an instrument through which the divine consciousness of the universe flows in service of the whole.
Quite different ways of looking at life and the world. This place of feeling caught between two worlds is quite painful. It feels like I engage in a creative process to dream up my life and then thoughts and fears come up that short circuit that creative dream. I can’t quite go back to the old way and think my way through, work at a job to make money, or hold on to people and situations. Believe me I’ve tried and these ways no longer work. Trying to figure things out results in confusion, trying to work at a job for the money brings problems and disempowerment, and trying to hold on to relationships causes them to fall away quicker. I can’t seem to fully step into the new way fully either although I can see more and more clearly what that might be like. I feel like I’m trying to shed a lifelong addiction or break the most stubborn habit, this way of existing in lack and separation where I’m always the victim of someone or something. I can’t buy into that anymore because I’ve seen through it but I also cannot seem to stop the habitual patterns that go along with it. I know from a spiritual point of view that this is a natural part of the path, when you see your unconscious patterns but they still have enough momentum that you can’t yet fully free yourself from them.
The practice of meditation and more importantly the practice of mindfulness in every activity does seem to be creating more and more awareness. I’m finding with that awareness I am seeing the thoughts, feelings and beliefs that keep me stuck in the old patterns of lack and fear. It is becoming a moment to moment practice of noticing a limiting thought or feeling in the moment, feeling it, letting it go and refocusing my attention in a creative direction. For example I see the end of my job coming and I feel fear and imagine struggling to pay the bills. When I realize this I can acknowledge that fear and then quickly let go of it and refocus my attention on what I want to create in place of the job, seeing myself having a full abundant life with all my needs met. These things come up constantly and it requires a good deal of awareness to illuminate them so they can’t continue to support the old way of being. I’m seeing that each time I feel, release and counteract such negative thoughts its like pulling a thread in the old way of being weakening it just a bit more. I can feel it collapsing around me and that brings up more fear, fear of the unknown or maybe fear of life in its full intense wholeness, fear to be released.
I think I’m ready to pull my foot out of the old paradigm and fully step into the new one.
Letting go of the need to control the dream January 25, 2009
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A recent article by a friend of mine entitled “One Great Dream of a Single Dreamer” (Click here for article) has helped me gain some clarity in my process of unfolding my life into the next stage. In the article Paul points out that our individual identities are ultimately an illusion being dreamed up by a universal consciousness. When we awaken to the illusion of our small self we become aware of our connection to and oneness with this universal consciousness or great dreamer. We could call it God, the universe, ultimate reality, the divine, a higher power, whatever you prefer but I think its all the same thing in that it is the greater I AM, who we truly are beneath our surface identity.
My process recently has been to work with manifesting my life using the power of awareness, intention and visualization so as to creatively guide myself along a heart focused path and create a life that reflects a more conscious direction. I think one of the challenges in this process at least for me is that in embracing the perspective that I create my reality and have the power to manifest the life I choose, it can easily become the small or egoic self that is hijacking the path as means of regaining control. Paul points out in the article that if we think that awakening is going to mean we can become billionaires or gain some kind of status we are still subtlety enmeshed in an illusion. If we instead surrender our surface desires and allow the divine to work through us we naturally flow where we are needed in life and our life itself becomes a service to the greater good.
To be more clear this feels like another step in really following the heart where the ego finally has to accept that it is taking a back seat and is not in control. Opening fully to the divine and freely allowing it to work through us moves us into what we need to be doing right now, who we need to be with right now and brings us everything we need in life even if it doesn’t necessarily satisfy our ego desires. I have a sense that this is real fulfillment, real purpose, real peace. The practice becomes cultivating enough awareness to recognize when the ego is coming in and trying to redirect the creative process to self serving needs and then refocusing on the present moment and the direct experience of our truth and our power. I see this clarification as reflecting why I’ve had trouble creating my dream recently, I see that I haven’t fully let go of the need to control the dream. I’ve been able to create some amazing things but they haven’t really seemed fulfilling in the end and I now see that its because I have become more adept at creating but what I chose to create was still coming from ego. Even when we are able to create from this level it doesn’t really bring us happiness because of its limited scope. I don’t think this means that we shouldn’t want or enjoy things in life like money, material possessions or sexual experiences but I think its a reminder to remember their limitations and make our primary focus something deeper.
Mindfulness and abundance January 22, 2009
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What does washing the dishes have to do with creating what I want in my life and being happy? Well everything it seems. I’ve embraced the concept of abundance for some time now believing that we have the power to create what we choose to create in our lives because we live in an abundant universe from which we are not separate and it is through the power of our attention and intention that we can transform abundance into form. However sometimes it seems so damned elusive. I believe it and on some deep level I know it but it seems like a very different thing to actually put it into practice on a daily basis to create the resources I need to survive and flourish without sacrificing my truth and my path, well actually without sacrificing my heart. It has been a painful process of trial and error.
Lately I’ve come to realize more just how simple this whole thing really is. The question keeps coming to mind of if I don’t feel like I can access abundance what is it that is cutting me off from it? The answer for me seems to be disconnection from the present moment and addiction to compulsive thinking. I noticed that when I am feeling fearful, limited, unsuccessful or just plain confused and crazy I am always lost in my head and not in touch with the present. I have been swept away by a train of thoughts and feelings which are a part of a habitual pattern of lack and fear and come up consistently and powerfully.
The simple practice of realizing that I am lost in my head and then coming back to the present almost always dispels the fear and anxiety and negative thoughts and emotions provided I leave space to acknowledge and feel them without judgment. What I find when I become present is peace, simplicity, clarity and power. The only thing is there is a powerful habitual pattern of not being present, being addicted to compulsive thinking and worrying so it becomes a constant practice of mindfulness. In Zen this is known as doing one thing at a time with our whole body and mind. When you do the dishes just do the dishes rather than planning your entire day at the same time and not giving much attention to the action you are in the middle of.
This seems a bit ridiculous at first because why would you want to give all your attention to something so mundane as doing the dishes? The answer is because that is what is happening right now and right now is where your power is, where life is. Doing the dishes is only mundane and trivial from an ego centered point of view, its just an everyday task, a means to an end. But from the perspective of complete presence it is a manifestation of life, of consciousness in action and it is beautiful. From this perspective everything is sacred and filled with wonder and power, if we just pay attention. In the moment there is clarity, the problem we can figure out becomes clear in stillness and we find we already knew the solution.
This translates into a very simple yet powerful practice of mindfulness, just paying attention to right now. Its amazing that when you really do that the problems of life begin to dissolve. Its not that there is no suffering and difficulty, there is, but it just isn’t so much of a problem anymore and how to address it is clear. To become present however requires that we surrender to our experience right now because if we are resisting what is we cannot become fully present. The resistance creates separation and we are cut off from our power and left in a painful state of confusion. With surrender we let go of resistance to what is and become present and ironically then we can see clearly how to change things if they need changing and its within our power. But whether we can change an external situation or not we can always find a state of peace inside by accepting what is and having an open full and harmonious relationship with right now…….
Co-creating change November 8, 2008
Posted by bodhidude in : Society, Transformation , add a commentWe’ve experienced a historic moment in this country with the election of our first black president. That fact alone is transformational with our long history of racism, segregation and inequality. It changes the collective personality of the nation and potentially opens the door for greater and deeper healing around the issue of race. On election night the celebrations were spectacular and incredible as they should have been however now that the election is over and Barack Obama is President-elect the question becomes what happens to the incredible energy that fueled his campaign? The energy of hope, empowerment and change which so many people helped to create. Does it continue to evolve and grow to usher in fully manifested transformation or does it fizzle out in disappointment as politics as usual takes on one more mask?
I think the answer to that question depends on you and I and what we do and how we choose to participate in co-creating the change we want to see. Can we actively envision it or do we give in to pessimism? Do we truly believe its possible and inevitable or just a nice dream that we embraced for a short time before returning to a harsher reality? Will we consistently and enthusiastically work for it or will we give our power away to people in Washington (or somewhere else) to do it for us? And finally will we look inward to illuminate the ways that we have participated in creating what we don’t want to see in the world or will we assign blame to someone else or some other group?
I’ve read a lot about Barack Obama and studied his record and I can find all the evidence I need to support the idea that he is a fake, a corporatist who comes in a prettier package but has no interest in real transformation. I can also find plenty of evidence to suggest he is a thoughtful, passionate, skillful person who genuinely cares about this country and the people in it. Which is true? niether? both? Who knows, I sure don’t. But I think that in the role of president at this critical point in history ultimately Barack Obama will be who we dream him up to be on a collective scale. He can be a lighter kinder and more insidious version of Bush or he can be a figure to channel real change and transformation or something in between, its up to us. We will have to dream him up, we will have to hold him accountable and not accept anything less than true transformation and we will have to take full responsibility for our part in the process.
We have the power if we only realize it and use it……
The Engine of Personal Creation August 23, 2008
Posted by bodhidude in : Livelihood, Spirituality, Transformation , 1 comment so far
In choosing to take responsibility for my experience and create the reality that I desire I’ve studied quite a bit of material on manifestation and how our external world reflects our internal experience. I fully believe that I have created everything that I experience in my life so its been a process of trying to understand how I’ve done it and with that understanding be able to do it more consciously. Needless to say its been a frustrating process at times and at other times quite incredible. From this point of view our external world is a reflection of what we think, imagine, feel and believe. If we want a mirror of the beliefs and thought patterns we have held in the past we need only look at our life as it is right now. If we don’t like what we see we can change it by illuminating the inner processes that created what we don’t want and put our energy into imagining and embodying what we do want to see in our outer world.
So how do we take something we wish to create from an idea into a physical reality? For me it starts with knowing what I want to create and making an intention out of it. This is the first step that makes the declaration to the universe that I’m engaging in an act of creation and this is what I want to create whether it be a relationship, money, a new computer, health, peace or whatever. From here I begin to create a vision, a mental picture of just what my creation looks like with as many details as possible including what it looks like visually, what it sounds like, smells like, feels like etc. This may just be happening in the mind but if external experience reflects internal as I believe then we are engaging in a process of giving external reality something new to reflect. The imagination is powerful and with it we can experience almost any quality of what we want to create.
The mental image or vision is not enough however because a vision alone lacks the power to create a physical form. This is where it can get challenging due to our habitual patterns, fears and doubts. What we need to do is infuse our vision with emotional energy. We take all the details we imagined when we created our image and feel that our creation is already manifested, that it is here now, its already complete. This would definitely feel a certain way. If I wanted to create a relationship it would involve a lot of feeling to actually have that relationship, to be in it and experiencing it. We have the power to imagine this. This is the process of fully stepping into our vision and making it a reality for us. If it is a reality at all levels inside then our external experience will have to reflect that. We focus on the end result and feel that it is completely real and present in our life now. We don’t focus on how it will come to pass, we focus on it as already present. This allows us to be open to the unlimited channels that something can come to us through rather than limiting it to just the ones we know or can imagine. The process of creation has the potential to be infinite if we allow it to be. If I can only imagine creating money through a job then my experience will reflect that by only bringing money into my life through a job rather than it being open to infinite sources of wealth that I may not be able to imagine at the moment.
The challenge here is often that we don’t really believe in our vision at a deeper level and so aren’t able to fully feel and experience its presence. Therefore we aren’t able to infuse it with sufficient energy to complete the creative process. It can help here to illuminate the doubts and fears that get in the way and allow ourselves to look at them and release them. It can also be helpful to study the creative manifestation process in depth so we can build confidence in it and understand how it works. We can then find examples in our lives of how we have already manifested things, both things we wanted and did not want because we are creating our experience all the time its just usually unconscious and haphazard. The process works whether it is conscious or not and we can equally bring positive healthy forms into being as we can negative destructive forms. The motivation behind our vision and the quality of energy that we infuse it with will determine the quality and effect of the resulting creation.
If your intention is to create money in your life it is helpful to look into where that intention is coming from. What part of your consciousness the vision comes from also determines what quality of emotional energy will be needed to activate and empower it. If I build a vision of more money in my life to acquire possessions, buy a car as a status symbol and impress women the quality of energy that will be compatible with this vision is going to be a denser emotional energy such as greed or a visceral form of pleasure. If I envision money to help my friends, meet my basic needs and support charitable causes it will likely be compatible with a lighter vibration of energy such as joy and peace. There is no judgement in this in terms of what ones motivation should be or what is right to create and what is not. It is simply necessary to know where ones desires originate from and the emotional energy that is most appropriate to empower them. This is where people can feel that the process doesn’t work because the energy infusing the vision is insufficient or not compatible with it so it does not produce the desired result. The kind of emotional energy we need to manifest a vision is the same kind of emotional energy that is present when we experience that vision as a physical reality. The key in this process is the ability to step into the vision of what one wants to create fully and experience all elements of it in the present moment. When you embody your vision fully in this way your outer world must reflect it because it becomes what you are projecting “out there”.
Personal Power: Beyond Hope and Hopelessness August 3, 2008
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I’ve thought a lot about hope and hopelessness lately in light of my process of inner growth and also with respect to what is going on in the world. I know many people feel hopeless about the direction the world is taking as well as with their own life situation. They feel helpless to do anything to change it and frustrated that they can’t seem to create what they want and I know how they feel. On the other hand, I know people who feel a sense of hope that things will be ok and will be transformed. I see this especially with spiritually minded people and people who are into things like 2012 and other viewpoints that see a positive future.
For me however, both hope and hopelessness are two poles of the same continuum of powerlessness. In looking at this in my own experience and those around me I see two common elements of both hope and hopelessness. The first is giving away ones power and the second is focusing on the future at the expense of the present. When we feel hopeless we usually feel powerless to change an experience we do not want. We basically don’t want what the present moment consists of and we extend that into the future feeling as if we have no power to create something different. A hopeful feeling is similar in the sense that hope usually focuses on the future. We have hope that things will get better or change , in the future, because if they were the way we wanted right now there would be nothing to hope for. By hoping for a positive future outcome we are saying we are powerless to create this desired outcome now and so need to hope that it occurs in some imagined future by some unknown means. Hope and hopelessness are the same from this viewpoint expect in imagined quality of their outcome.
The future, whether we fear it or hope for it in a positive way does not exist. It is simply a thought mixed with various emotions in the present. Putting our hopes or fears into the future results in us giving away our power because our power, the essence of who we are exists only in the present. Nothing is ever accomplished except in the present. If you put something off until tomorrow you will still have to accomplish it in the present if it is to be accomplished. What I’m working on in my practice is letting go of the past and the future and putting as much of my attention and energy as possible into right now. I find it incredibly empowering and when I am able to be fully present there is no hope or hopelessness, there is only now and all the power and possibility that it contains. The present moment is not always pleasurable but it is always powerful and alive. If we can accept the natural suffering of life when it is present instead of fighting or avoiding it we have the opportunity in that acceptance to go deeper and experience real peace and power. To be free of pain and pleasure, good and bad, right and wrong and the whole dualistic delusion. If something needs to be done we know exactly what to do and when to do it because we function from a place of clarity and power. We are fully alive and a participant in life.
The Wandering Yogi 5: Acceptance and the Now June 28, 2008
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Acceptance is often a term one encounters in spiritual practice and in other areas of personal growth. It is certainly a term I have heard many times and a concept that I thought I had an understanding of. However conceptual understanding of acceptance does not produce much transformation and for me lately my practice with acceptance has become more experiential. Acceptance has often been something I have struggled with because if what was happening was not to my liking it felt like accepting it would be perpetuating it or inviting more of it. If I accepted that I didn’t have much money I would be validating it and ensuring that I would continue to be broke. So instead of accepting I unconsciously resisted and fought my experience when it seemed to be hostile or negative. What I didn’t realize is that the very act of resisting it is what made it hostile or aversive. In other words the external situation was not really negative but just what it was, instead my unconscious judgment was that it was negative and my resistance to it caused it to resist back further validating my perception. Resistance to anything seems to create a counter force in the opposite direction. But this fails to take into account that I am the source of my experience so when I am fighting or resisting what is I am creating separation between myself and life, imagining that the qualities I experience in the situation are inherent to it rather than my projection.
The way to really see this process first hand is by practicing acceptance. When I began to truly accept what is, accept the present moment the resistance and fighting dissolved and I could see things with greater clarity. Things didn’t seem as hostile or aversive anymore. I also realized that acceptance does not mean that we continue to create the same experience over and over by condoning it or become passive. Not at all. It means that by not resisting what is we become free to change it if that change is needed and if change is needed we will be able to see clearly just what needs to change and how to accomplish the change because our action comes out of spaciousness and the joy of being ok with the present moment. When we are resisting what is our action has the quality of coming out of that resistance and so produces results similar to it in quality which is not usually any better than what we were resisting in the first place.
What it comes down to for me is that if I first accept or surrender to what is I become fully present and in touch with my experience and therefore my power. I realized that I have created my experience in this moment and it cannot be other than what it is but by accepting it and taking my power back I have the ability to create something different if thats called for. By accepting what is I become truly free because there is a deep source of peace that is allowed to shine through the experience of the moment when we are surrendered to it. That source of peace is pure consciousness, the divine, the unmanifest, emptiness or whatever you prefer to label it and it is the source of everything. The only place to find it is right here right now.
The Wandering Yogi 4: Surrender June 16, 2008
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I seem to have reached a new stage lately with my process of transition and transformation. Until recently so much of it has been an experience of fear and anxiety, of self doubt and judgment and feeling like a victim even though I consciously chose to take the path of renunciation. Lately however those negative emotions which I realize needed to play out as part of this process have begun to subside somewhat. What has begun to shift the experience is surrender. I’ve reached a point of surrender to my in the moment experience, a place of completely accepting what is and that subtle shift in perspective has changed things significantly. It has transformed the experience from one of fear and confusion to one of joy and freedom. I feel like I’m no longer fighting or resisting so much. I now feel the limitless possibility of where I’m at and realize my ability to build a new outer experience from here that mirrors much more clearly my inner purpose of awakening. The idea of surrender is that as long as you are fighting what is, the now or the present moment, you are disconnected from being or from the divine because the present moment is the only way to access it. When you surrender to what is you immediately reconnect with being or spirit and all possibilities become available again. It does not mean that you remain in a situation that is not serving you but only that you no longer fight it and by not fighting it are able to see clearly what action needs to be taken if any. I continue to practice this in each moment.
One final note, I cannot recommend highly enough the teachings of Eckhart Tolle. He is in my view a true spiritual teachers who expresses universal truths in words that speak directly to a higher part of us and in a way that is easy to understand. His teachings along with regular Zen practice has upleveled my practice tremendously.
The Wandering Yogi: 3 June 8, 2008
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Well its been an interesting process lately. I’ve let go of my counseling practice yet again. This was the second go at it but I was not able to attract the clients to make it work despite feeling great fulfillment in the work I did do with people. However I’ve come to realize that I do want to work with people and perhaps the reason why it hasn’t worked so far is that I have not quite found my approach to doing this work. The way I was doing it before even though it was labeled contemplative counseling and had eastern techniques incorporated into it was still mostly a traditional western approach or that is mostly talk therapy, work at a cognitive level and I don’t think that represents what I am here to offer. So I’ve let go yet again to allow spirit to guide me and focus my attention on my own unfolding path in the present moment with trust that I will see guidance when it is needed. Trust is such a primary factor in my day to day experience now.
In the meantime I’ve been attempting to do various types of odd jobs including general labor type gigs, yard work and some of my old technology type work with mixed results. It has been very frustrating because even after putting a great deal of effort into these things they seem to yield little financial return and instead produce the most bizarre experiences. Like the other day when I went to help a woman with her yard and felt completely ill at ease working there and then dreamed her up to be displeased with how fast I was working. After I accidentally pulled up her sunflowers in an awkward attempt at weeding she freaked out on me and I proceeded to remove myself from the situation and head off down the street feeling like I had certainly stepped into the most freaked out world imaginable. I’m giving these kinds of jobs a chance in any case to bring in some resources as my current goal is to be able to provide for my own food and expenses prior to getting a place. The jobs are coming in it will simply be a practice of being present when I’m at them and focusing on the work and being of benefit to the person as best as I can as well as look at what these experiences have to reflect to me about where I’m at and what I’m putting out there.
I took this process to my group the other night and shared my frustration around livelihood and the reflection I go was being asked the question, what is it I really want to do right now. My answer when money is put aside is to do spiritual practice, to meditate, so the group suggested I put aside a few days to do just that and maybe a clearer direction would emerge out of that. Seems like a no brainier its just the fear is an obstacle so much of the time and clearly is also coming up as the part of me, the ego, that does not want me doing intensive spiritual practice. Resistance. Well I’m going to do some of the things I’ve been wanting to do including spending some time meditating several days in fact, taking a mushroom journey in the park on the next nice day we have and doing an urban vision quest by spending a night wandering the streets. Am I sounding crazy yet? Yes/No? Well I am to me, except that one of my teachers says when you walk the path you indeed become crazy because you identify with mind less and less so your actions and decisions don’t make sense at a rational level because thats not where they are coming from. Hmmmmm makes me wonder what the difference is between going crazy and awakening. Oh wait yes the difference is awareness, is one aware and conscious of what is happening or have they lapsed into unconsciousness. I’ll let you know…..
The Wandering Yogi: 2 May 26, 2008
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Over the last few weeks I’ve experienced everything from intense fear to great bliss and freedom. Its been an amazing experience to live like this for a time. What I’ve come to realize is that this process of letting go has been one of tearing down or clearing away my previous life situation. This has served two purposes. One is that is as allowed me to let go of old things and patterns that were no longer serving me and were actually obscuring my connection with being fully alive. Letting go of my life situation had given me more direct access to being, spirit, the divine or whatever you want to call it. Its amazing how much all the things, situations, roles and processes of our lives can distract us from the present moment and the core of who we truly are as well as consume our energy if we are unconsciously trying to maintain things that aren’t congruent for us anymore. The other purpose is that in deconstructing my life situation and getting back in touch with life itself I can now begin to build a new life situation, one that is much more infused with the vibrant energy of the present moment. A life situation that is less rigid and dense than before, more fluid and open, a more accurate reflection of who I truly am.
I’m now in the process of recreating my foundation, building the basics of food, shelter and other basic needs back in. Once I have reestablished my foundation I will begin to build my outer life purpose on top of it. I’ve really connected with the idea of an inner and outer purpose. My inner purpose is to awaken and become fully conscious, to practice being fully present and aware. This inner purpose now guides the outer purpose which for me is the practice of healing in the form of counseling and through other means. This phase of my life has been about getting in touch with this inner purpose and making it primary so my outer purpose can be guided by it and not the other way around. I now have the opportunity to rebuild my life from the ground up in a more conscious, more healthy, more harmonious way.
Letting go of so much and living in such a basic way has illuminated my fears, feelings of lack and highlighted how little trust I had in myself and in life. A shift in perspective from one of fear and lack to one of presence and trust completely transforms my reality making a scary threatening situation into a freeing amazing space of limitless potential. Living this way has brought consciousness to so many things that I used to take for granted. Not knowing where your next meal is going to come from really makes you appreciate it when it does come. I can say I truly appreciate every morsel of food, every place that I have been able to sleep, every bit of support and literally everything in my life at this point. I used to take so much for granted and would spend immense amounts of money with little or no consciousness and even less appreciation. Going from making $75,000 a year to $0 is a sobering experience especially when it is done by conscious choice.
I would actually recommend this process to anyone on the path of awakening. Going through it for at least a brief period illuminates attachment and fear, brings consciousness to what you seek to acquire and create and generates appreciation for what you have. It may not be necessary for everyone but it has been a powerful part of my path. Now when I rebuild my life it will be with a vastly different relationship to material things, people and everything in my life. I feel much more at peace now that I am in tune with the still place of awareness within and less at the mercy of impermanent external things and situations for my happiness.
The Wandering Yogi: 1 May 19, 2008
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Its been almost a year since I quit my job and began a process of seeking a conscious congruent means of livelihood. I’ve been letting go of things at various levels including traditional relationship and most of my material possessions. Most recently I moved out of my apartment and have been in a state of floating without a long term living situation. It was a difficult process to let go of my apartment which had been my comfort zone but I am grateful to have such a deep degree of attachment illuminated so I can release it.
I’ve decided to do a series of posts entitled the wandering yogi because thats what a friend of mine recently referred to me as due to my lack of a place to live, my roaming and my unfolding process of awakening. It is turning out to be quite an adventure and a very freeing one at that. I am heartened that so many in my community have reached out and offered me support at this time in terms of temporary places to stay, food, emotional support, car use and much more. They are all very much appreciated and loved by me. I never planed to be without a place to live but this is where my path has taken me in this moment and so I surrender to it and seek my stability, security and peace within. I am creating what I need each day in the moment and this has brought me into much more direct contact with my core being as well as my fears and resistance.
Its my intention to create a new long term place to live but until that manifests I will continue to wander and enjoy the present moment wherever my path takes me. My concern each day is simply to remain fully present, accept what is, put joyful energy into my vision and be of whatever benefit I can to others.
This truly is a beautiful dream…….
Mindfulness Meditation and Transformation September 7, 2007
Posted by bodhidude in : Psychology, Spirituality, Transformation , add a commentSince returning to the practice of counseling and therapy I’ve begun to develop an approach to working with people that uses mindfulness practice and meditation in a systematic way. Its begun to take shape as a four step process which first involves creating space for ourselves then using mindfulness to become aware of thoughts, feelings and behaviors. With this awareness the next aspect is identifying, accessing and feeling frozen or stuck emotional energy so as to release it. Following this, one is more able to connect with and access a deeper level of consciousness to find greater peace and happiness.
In order to get in touch with our experience in a more direct way I usually suggest to people that they create some sort of sacred space at home that they can use to spend quality time with themselves. Having a personal sacred space is a very powerful thing to create because it is a place to let go of the roles and dramas of everyday life and just be. This space should be peaceful and set to some degree away from the rest of the living space. It should be created with objects and images that remind one of peace and stillness and whatever one finds sacred. Creating it is a very personal experience. Once a sacred space has been created we can begin to spend time in it with ourselves, something much of our culture is designed to distract us from. This time initially should be unstructured without any kind of expectation or agenda and it can just be a regular time each day to be with ourselves. Here we can just sit and reflect or we can do some activity that grounds us and brings us peace but doesn’t distract us in a way that takes us away from the moment. Such an activity could be journaling, making art, listening to peaceful music or anything else that reflects who we are rather than who we should be. The creation and use of this kind of space is also a way to bring meaning back into our lives if we are feeling disconnected from ourselves and overwhelmed by life, it is a sanctuary.
Once a sacred space has been created and we have begun to spend some time in it each day we can introduce a mindfulness practice which is basically just being intentionally aware of what we are doing, thinking and feeling in the present moment. This sounds very simple but it can be quite challenging at first and also quite profound because we may not be aware of how much of our experience occurs unconsciously or without much awareness. If we are wanting to change our lives or experience we will not have much success doing that if the causes of our difficulties are unconscious so we need to start off by making more and more of our experience conscious. I usually ask people to start by being aware of their environment focusing on the sounds, smells, sights and sensations they experience as they sit in their personal space. Then we can add the body focusing on how our body feels and noticing all its nuances. Next we can start noticing our thoughts and feelings, the keyword here is noticing we just want to be aware of what’s happening at this point without judgment or shame regardless of the content. From here we can focus our awareness even more and bring it to something such as the breath.
Breathing meditation is a basic yet very powerful mindfulness practice. The breath is always available and is always connected to both the body and mind in the present moment. To practice breathing meditation we begin by sitting on a chair or cushion in a position that is comfortable but allows us to keep the back as straight as possible. Keeping the back straight enables our energies to flow more easily and aids in concentration however we can use support cushions or something else if needed because we want to balance that with comfort so we are not too distracted by pain. Once we have a comfortable sitting position we rest our hands in our lap or on our knees and tilt the head slightly forward while we rest our gaze on the floor a few feet in front of us. At this point we slowly bring our awareness from our environment to our body and try and let go of any tension we may be feeling. When we are ready we bring our awareness to our breath at first just being aware of the flow of the breath in and out. Next we pick a specific point to use to focus our attention. This could be the tip of the nose and the sensation of the air moving past it or it could be the rising and falling of the abdomen or some other area. The important thing is that you pick one place to pay attention to the breath that feels right to you and you stick with that place for the duration of the mediation.
To do the practice we now keep our attention on the breath at the place we chose. If we find it difficult or the breath too subtle to focus on we can mentally say “breathing in” when we breath in and “breathing out” when we breath out to help our awareness stay on the breath. Naturally our attention is going to wander and we will get distracted by thoughts, feelings and external distractions. This is perfectly normal so when we find that our attention has wandered from the breath we simply and gently place it back on the breath without any kind of judgment. This is a key part of the practice, focusing-realizing we are distracted-putting our attention back on the breath. Over time we will be able to remain focused for longer periods and the distractions will lose strength. When we have finished it is good to slowly allow ourselves to come out of the meditation by bringing our awareness back to our body in general and then to the environment and slowly rising from the cushion.
Initially it is good to do this practice for short periods of time and not to force the process but keep it light and gentle yet with intention. The most important thing with meditation practice is consistency; it is effective if its done regularly over a long period of time and the effects are cumulative. Ideally a short period everyday at the same time will eventually establish it as a pattern. You can work up to longer periods as you become used to the practice but its good to try and always finish a session when you still feel fresh so you will want to come back to it. One common misconception about this kind of meditation is that it is designed to help us stop thinking. This is not the case at all because directly trying to stop thinking is rarely effective and usually results in frustration. Instead we allow ourselves to have any thoughts or feelings that come up without any judgment. We however don’t give them our attention; instead we place our attention on the breath while the mind continues to do what it will. If we get distracted we return to the breath. Over time thoughts and other internal distractions will slow down on their own due to the lack of attention paid to them. Another obstacle people commonly run into is feeling like they can’t do the practice because of the state of mind they are in. If one is feeling angry or anxious its easy to feel like we can’t meditate or like we can’t sit still but this is often because we feel like we need to change our state of mind or we have judgment on ourselves for feeling such things. When these states of mind come up the solution is to accept them and allow them to arise, we simply practice where we are without trying to change it.
Once we have begun doing mindfulness practice and developing our concentration by focusing on the breath or some other object we can use that skill to go more deeply into our experience. In the practice we will begin to notice what’s happening in the mind, our thought processes and emotional patterns. Often people especially struggle with certain emotions that cause them suffering or discomfort such as depression, anger or anxiety. These emotional patterns can be caused by past traumas, conditioning and experiences that created an emotional response that was not fully felt and healed. We all carry such stuck emotional energy and it usually exists buried in the unconscious where it wreaks havoc on our experience and health without our conscious control. In my view, emotional energy is a free flowing aspect of life in the moment. It is energy that needs to flow freely as we engage life and have emotional experiences generated by it. If we carry significant amounts of stuck or frozen emotional energy the free flow is blocked and we are not able to fully experience life but rather we consistently re-experience the stuck emotional pattern. Our resistance to feeling these so called negative emotions openly is what keeps them stuck as does our judgment and shame for having them. We continually re-solidify them in this process rather than releasing them.
In our practice when we are feeling negative emotions we can apply our meditation technique to them in such a way as to facilitate their release. We do this by first being aware of the emotion using mindfulness. Then we give the emotion space and permission to fully arise while we make it the focus on our meditation practice much the way we did with the breath. We place our awareness on the emotion we are experiencing and allow it to arise fully. As we begin to feel it we can bring consciousness to the experience by understanding we are intentionally inviting the emotion to arise and seeking to release it. The only way to release it however is to fully allow ourselves to feel it and cease labeling it as problematic. During this process it is also important to bring in compassion for ourselves by realizing that we are human and feeling this hurts and that it’s natural for us to have these reactions but we don’t have to hold onto them anymore. In this way we can begin to more fully and openly feel our experience and break through the pattern of avoiding feeling certain unpleasant emotions while we chase after and try to grab onto pleasant ones. It becomes a process of accepting what is in the moment and allowing it to flow.
As we develop more mindfulness and awareness and learn to openly feel our experience allowing it to be what it is we can begin to access a deeper level of consciousness. This level of consciousness you could call your higher self, or inner nature or your truth. Whatever you label it, it is a deep level of consciousness that is unaffected by external situations and by internal states of mind. Its nature is clarity, joy, power and peace. This is the internal ground of being and is the ultimate source of happiness described in all the major religions and mystical systems. Ultimately this is what we need to get in touch with to find happiness, freedom and peace because the source of those things is within us and not generated by anyone or anything externally. By practicing mindfulness and meditation and learning to focus our awareness and by clearing away emotional baggage we open the door to this level of being because it is always there in the moment if we can learn to pay attention properly. The more we cultivate it the more power we will realize in our life and the more we will be able to create what we want and realize our full potential.
Crop circles and ETs: Archetypal aspects of transformation? November 25, 2006
Posted by bodhidude in : Transformation , add a commentI’ve recently been considering the phenomenon of crop circles in the larger context of this time of transformation that we find ourselves in. I’ve always considered them an interesting curiosity because I couldn’t accept that it was solely a human creation and I also couldn’t accept that somehow alien spacecraft were coming down and leaving their galactic signature either. I guess at this point I’m more of the impression that these things are an expression of planetary consciousness or archetypal symbols emanating from the collective unconscious of the planet. To me it cannot be a coincidence that these things began appearing as we approach a turning point in planetary history. I’m really starting to see them more and more as external emanations of the process of transformation we’re in. From that point of view I think they may speak to us at a deep level and are potentially activating unconscious aspects of our consciousness that we are needing to embody going forward into a new way of existing. It may be helpful to contemplate them in this way with an open mind and see what they stir up and evoke for us. The mainstream resistance to taking them seriously is also illuminating as we see the old ways of thinking resist and deny anything that threatens their dominance and rigid grasp at existence.
For a long time I’ve also considered the standard image of the ET to be an archetypal figure projecting itself from the collective unconscious to give voice to our search for larger meaning. The commonality of the ET experience across cultures whether it be UFO sightings or the description of aliens themselves is indicative of an archetypal pattern. We live in a culture that has lost its connection with the spirit and with the deeper meaning that comes from a healthy relationship with consciousness. So it seems understandable that we generate such projections as we continue to repress our inner nature and wrap ourselves ever tighter in materialism and the physical plane. It is certainly interesting to look at what plays out with these and other such phenomena as we move forward and become more activated at a deeper level………
Interest in 2012 October 1, 2006
Posted by bodhidude in : Society, Transformation , add a commentI have recently started looking into the idea of 2012 (the end date of the Mayan calendar) for two reasons mainly. One is that 2012 has become a symbol of transformation or transition. A symbol of an ending of old systems and ways of being that have become dysfunctional and a beginning of a new way of being and new systems of society that are more integrated and healthy.
The idea of transformation is one that I see reflected all across society and the world at this time both on an individual and a collective basis. We see old systems moving into greater and greater states of dysfunction and breakdown. Examples of this include the system of government in this country sliding into fascism and totalitarianism, the environment fast approaching a critical point of biospheric breakdown, the addiction to materialism and disconnection from the spirit reaching a point where a greater percentage of the population could reasonably be considered mentally ill, the extreme rigidity of the scientific paradigm and its inability or unwillingness to account for large portions of human experience while it provides the tools for destruction of both the planet and the human race. What I see in these and many many other such examples is a winding down or last gasp of an old grand paradigm or age preparing to give way to a new one.
On an individual level I see more and more people experiencing personal transformations on a scale I have never before witnessed, myself included. By this I mean people going through drastic life transitions where not just one part of their life is thrown into chaos or forced to change but their whole way of being and defining themselves. The kind of transformation where old habits break down and don’t work anymore and the person is almost forced to change or lose it completely. This isn’t a new thing obviously but I have never seen it on the scale I am seeing today. Its as if transformation is beginning to occur and accelerate on a planetary level and effecting all aspects of the planet from the smallest beings to the largest global institutions. The way this process of transformation affects the individual is of particular interest to me as a student of both eastern and western psychology as well as a spiritual seeker.
The other interest I have in 2012 is an interest in the Mayan approach to time and cycles as I find this fascinating. I also think tribal cultures and tribal spirituality have much to teach us going forward because they represent much of what we have become disconnected from and need to reintegrate. I’m not sold on the idea that 2012 itself is some sort of drop dead date for the end of the world, not at all but I do think its a powerful symbol of the increasing and intense period of transformation this planet is in. I seek to understand that as best as I can and put that knowledge to use to play an active role for the benefit of all beings on this planet and beyond.
The process of transforming September 14, 2006
Posted by bodhidude in : Transformation , add a commentI hear a lot of debate these days among spiritual people regarding how to deal with the state of our world today and considering my approach to this has occupied my mind quite a bit lately. Some people I know choose to ignore what is going on in the world and focus on spiritual practice, positive activities and conscious people. They don’t really want to give any attention to the negative events that are unfolding. I’ve gravitated towards this at times myself but the problem I have with it is that by not acknowledging these events and situations I think we give them power and we don’t realize the part we have played in creating them. By not acknowledging whats playing out in the world we disconnect from our own shadow side and fail to integrate the darkness with the light. Our shadow can then manifest unconsciously and help give rise to negative processes in our external as well as internal world.
Others give so much attention to world events that they become disillusioned, depressed and hopeless. They become so caught up in the negativity of the world that they can no longer see beyond it. I don’t think this is healthy both because its not an accurate picture of whats happening and because engaging in this attitude is like throwing fuel on the fire of negativity.
I’ve been trying to maintain a balance between these two extremes and find the most effective way I can to relate to the environment I find myself in. For me I find it necessary to track what is happening in this country and the world and also to reach out to people I disagree with so as not to become insulated. There is no real way to work for change without being in touch with what you want to change. I also feel like there is a great lesson in the ignorance, delusion and evil that is currently playing itself out and the center piece of that lesson is how we all have a role in creating it. This world is our collective dream and it is all of our karma to be a part of it at this time. If we can come to understand what our role is in it then we can find a real unique way to effect change but first we must acknowledge the negativity and take our share of the responsibility for it. Its not something “out there” that we have no part in, how could that be because we are all interconnected?
On the other side of the coin is the positive potential that this degree of negativity activates. Our world is so skewed in a negative direction right now that there is immense potential for positive
energy and action. The more spiritual practice we can do, the more we can love people unconditionally, the more we can work through our own shadow process, the more we can practice patience and understanding, and the more healing we can do ourselves and help others with the more we can bring this world back into balance.
So I see the process as seeing the negativity and evil for what it is and integrating it while at the same time transforming it into positive loving energy and action. This is like an alchemical process of taking something in, transforming it and sending something else out. This is similar to the Buddhist practice of Tonglen where we take in the suffering and pain of others in the form of black smoke, transform it through our compassion and send them back healing energy in the form of white light.