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.

I’ve begun to realize that I really am complete in this moment as I am. My home is the eternal NOW so I am always at home no matter where I am. All living beings are my brothers and sisters so I am always with my family, never alone.

I no longer believe my beliefs because they are just thoughts with no inherent reality. I don’t need to believe what I think. I can just honor my thoughts as I honor the passing weather and honor the thoughts of others without being threatened by them. When you don’t identify with your thoughts as who you are or as an absolute truth you become free of the prison of your mind. The mind can then become a more fluid tool to use to interact with the world of form and create within it.

There is no need to fear, to worry or to suffer. There is no need to figure anything out. Life can be quite effortless if we can let go of trying to control it and live from a higher level of consciousness which is our true nature. Flow with life rather than resisting it. Co-create with the divine. See the dream as a dream and realize yourself as the dreamer. This isn’t something to think about. Its not something to believe or another interesting philosophy. Its not something to know or to attain in the future. It is and always has been right here right now, it is what you already are. You are free, you are divine, right now.

Will you choose to step into that? I hope so, I sure am.

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.

Step 1 – Become Present

For me this is the core spiritual practice and it is analogous to living an awakened life. We cannot avoid pain or hold on to pleasure as each is but a transitory state, change is a universal law. Although as human beings we will experience pain and lose that which brings us pleasure, the suffering we most often experience along with it is optional. Suffering arises when we perceive reality through the thought forms of the mind and mistake those thought forms for reality. We create thoughts and weave them into stories about how things should be and when life doesn’t conform to these stories we suffer. The mind stories most of us create are usually centered either in the past or the future, both of which exist only as thoughts in our minds. We live in our memories of the past and feel guilt, regret, sadness and anger about how things may have unfolded. We live in our imagination of the future hoping for things to be better or fearing what might happen to us. We even begin to identify with our stories to the point where we fear letting them go because we can’t imagine life without them, they become familiar and there is a kind of comfort in the known. In all of this we miss the reality of the present moment.

Step 1 is letting go of the past and the future and entering the Now, which is all that really exists, it is stepping outside of time, the realm of suffering. Step 1 is bringing our attention from the mind and its stories to the body and the feeling sense and feeling our connection to what is happening right now right here. The Now is where life is and when we bring our attention fully to the Now something magical happens. We connect to the power of life and the “source” of our being. To make this connection with the moment however we must surrender and accept what is. If we don’t like what is happening we will resist the moment and imagine into the future for a time when we will like what’s happening more. This cuts us off from life and from our true power and causes us to again live in a mind created fantasy. If we look at the present moment as a reflection of the Divine then whatever is happening is an expression of it even if its painful or unpleasant. Surrendering to what is, is something that happens in the moment and does not mean we condone negative events or experiences and it does not mean we are passive about changing things but it does mean before we work for change we pause and surrender and accept what is so we can work for change with the power of life behind us.

Step 2 – Go Back to Step 1

Step 1 is the key and there can be a great deal of resistance at first to really entering the Now because it can involve feeling unpleasant emotions or confronting painful stories. When you are really present and aware in the Now you begin to see how you create your suffering with your mind. Many of us are not used to practicing “being” and the tendency can be to jump right into action without first grounding. However without our connection to the present we will get lost in the mind and our action will not have much power or meaning behind it because it doesn’t originate from a very deep level. This grounding connection to “source” is the key to an awakened life and the practice is to make our home in the Now.

Step 3 – Take Action from Presence

When we are ok with what is and grounded in the present we can take the most appropriate action for any given situation usually without needing to figure anything out. Our natural wisdom is available in the Now which is a level of consciousness where we can experience absolute clarity. The direction of our life as well as what we should do are already clear at this level, we need only be quiet enough to listen to this inner wisdom. The more experience we have “being” in a state of presence the easier it will be to “trust” the power of our true nature and begin to rely on it for our peace of mind, our guidance and our safety and security. If we can find these things within we will be less dependent on our outer world being a certain way. Ironically when we are already in touch with peace and joy within the outer world will more readily reflect them back because the outer is a reflection of the inner.

Step 4 – Receive

To live a life in the power of presence means to first ground in the moment and only then take action. Living in the moment requires us to live in a very open way because we cannot tap into abundance if we are closed to the limitless possibilities that the present moment offers. It involves embracing the unknown which is what many of us fear most because living in the unknown means living with limitless possibility. Trusting the unknown comes from seeing things clearly in the moment and flowing with life without resistance.

Step 5 – Go Back to Step 1

The point here is that there is a need to keep returning to presence over and over again. We recognize that we are lost in the mind either because we feel upset or we feel confused. In that moment of recognition a choice becomes possible and we can, with intention and gentleness, return to the present moment. Over time we live in presence more and more until there is no more suffering and imprisonment in the mind, we are free.

]]> http://www.awakeninthenow.com/2010/07/the-five-steps/feed/ 1 http://www.awakeninthenow.com/2010/01/2010-the-year-we-make-contact/ http://www.awakeninthenow.com/2010/01/2010-the-year-we-make-contact/#comments Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:00:11 +0000 bodhidude http://www.awakeninthenow.com/?p=1044

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?

We are in a time of incredible transformation to be sure and this has caused great fear and chaos as well as great change and expansions in consciousness. However in my view as we approach 2012 the process of transformation continues to increase exponentially in intensity. 2010 is likely to bring some monumental events which help to catalyze the end of the old paradigm and the beginning of the new. This is a painful process as letting go of the familiar comfortable ways of being always is but it is essential for our survival. It is not uncommon during times of intense transformation for external events to occur that accelerate the shift. 9/11 was such an event both in terms of its symbolic power and impact on the everyday world. Its symbolism is represented by the archetype of The Tower in the Tarot. The Tower represents dramatic change and upheaval and we saw the tower struck and watched it fall and even saw people falling out of it on 9/11. With the towers fell the true power of the old materialistic imperialistic patriarchal power structure and indeed the World Trade Center symbolized this old power structure very well as a seat of financial control, the most recent method of enslavement. Since then the world has not been the same and the old structures have begun to collapse with greater and greater speed. We are truly at the end of the world as we have known it but we are also at the beginning of a new world that is unknown and filled with unrealized potential.

My sense for this year is that we are very likely to experience another 9/11 type event except many times more intense. It may or may not be destructive but there certainly is that potential. However I don’t think it is helpful to indulge in fear and imagining negative outcomes because this helps make those things a reality. 2010 is going to be a powerful year (See The Trance-formations of 2010 on Reality Sandwich for an Astrological perspective on this) and I would like to envision a monumental event occurring this year that helps escalate a shift in consciousness and puts the final nail in the coffin of the old corrupt power structures and belief systems. One event I can see having that effect is the revelation of alien life. This could be through alien species making themselves known to us openly or by the government coming out with their knowledge of alien life which I believe they have (See the Disclosure Project and Disclosure Endgame for more on this).

It is hard to imagine the impact it would have on people individually and on the society at large if alien life was not only confirmed but known to be present with us here and now. Knowing that we are not alone in the universe could have the effect of shattering our sense of separation and isolation because our actions take on wider significance. Whether consciously or by Divine influence I think we are being prepared for this through many channels one of which is entertainment. Movies depicting alien life are incredibly common and even though many are violent and destructive others have a deeper message. The movie Contact explored the impact of alien contact. The recent movie Avatar also had a powerful message to convey in the sense of showing how a species might live fully interconnected with life as we once did and how they might have something powerful to teach us. Of particular interest to me in this regard are the movies 2001 and 2010 by Arthur C. Clark. These movies showed contact with alien life being of profound impact and initiating a process that brings humanity, which is on the brink of destruction in the second movie, into a new era of peace and cooperation. The timing is interesting too as the date of the first movie 2001 coincides with the year of 9/11 which was in my view an initiatory event in the process we are in now and which in the movie initiates the process leading to 2010. The second movie corresponds with this years date and is entitled “2010: The year we make contact”. In the movie contact is finally made with the aliens and it is around a magnificent event which changes life as we know it in the solar system. Was Clark trying to tell us something with these movies and their titles?

Some question whether alien beings would have ill intentions rather than being friendly but I sense that advanced intelligent life is likely to be friendly, conscious, compassionate and wise. A civilization advanced enough to make a trip to another star system is likely to have worked out its destructive tendencies if it survived to become so advanced. We are a great example of how destructiveness and technology can bring a species to the brink of extinction if it continues on that path. The fact that they have not made themselves known on a large scale suggests to me that they are waiting for the right time and may have some sort of non-interference guideline like we see in Star Trek. In the Star Trek universe you see a galaxy filled with intelligent life which to me is another reflection from fantasy as to what may be waiting for us out there as we take the next step in evolution and become galactic citizens and realize that the web of life doesn’t stop at the boundaries of our magnificent little planet. If we become aware of them on a large scale this year we would certainly be profoundly impacted on an inner level as well and would be forced to question our beliefs and perceptions of the universe and reality itself. This is my vision and intention for 2010. What do you imagine?

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.

The only coherence I’m finding these days comes in the here and now and in the now I only know that I am. I can feel the aliveness and the energy pulsating through me and its me but its not me.

I have a sense of purpose but it defies words.

My life is infused with meaning but it can’t be understood.

My world is rich with abundance but it can’t be grasped.

The unknown is my reality and the possibilities are limitless.

My stories no longer seem so believable.

The only security I have is within.

The world is safe when I feel safe and dangerous when I’m afraid.

There is no objective truth and nothing to be right about, yet truth is everywhere.

Time has become a blur and a burden to be put down.

I love but not in the old way.

I feel the suffering of those around me to the point of tears.

But that suffering doesn’t seem like a problem.

I can no longer expend effort for money yet somehow it still manifests.

My demons are still here but I find myself welcoming them more and more as friends.

I’m not sure what any of this means or what to expect from the future if such a thing exists but somehow it seems alright. Well actually more than alright, amazing…….wonderful………magnificent……as well as confusing and terrifying (but only when I’m holding on)…..

My apologies if none of this makes sense, its not important. I could use a cup of tea.

May you be in joy in this moment………..

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.

As I anticipated it was an expensive movie with amazing special effects, poor acting that modeled stereotypical American roles and carried forward a theme which has been developing for some time. The amazing special effects were devoted to depicting as realistically as possible the utter destruction of our planet and almost everyone on it. There were graphic allusions to 9/11 with images of crumbling skyscrapers with people jumping or falling out of them while others are crushed by rubble or tidal waves. The poorly developed shallow characters go through a non-stop frantic nearly impossible adventure to be one of the privileged few survivors. In the movie, high tech arks are built for the elite while everyone else is left to die, not too surprising either. The transformation the planet goes through is entirely physical with the same underlying consciousness being carried into the “new world”.

As I watched this movie, I noticed that there was a part of me that loved it even though it was a lousy negative movie. What I loved was the disaster and how well the imagery depicted it. I began to question why I would find enjoyment in watching such a realistic depiction of my planet being ravaged and my fellow human beings dying violently? What dawned on me was that this was the part of me that sees the dysfunction and pain of this world and secretly longs for the whole mess to finally be over. This is the part of my psyche that is invested in the world of materialism, struggle and work. The old paradigm which constitutes a life devoid of meaning, compassion and loving-kindness. Why wouldn’t I want “that world” to be over? It is the death wish of the ego that is cut off from life, spirit and meaning.

I began to see this recurrent theme of disaster and destruction in a new light. A reflection of the dying paradigm we find ourselves in today. The death throws of the materialist world and so why wouldn’t that look like massive explosive violent destruction on a material level? The outward images of destruction also represent the incredible inner turmoil so many are experiencing right now as the inner conflicts that are at the source of what is playing out in the world continue to be illuminated. For me, 2012 isn’t a date it is a wake up call for the psyche. It is an evolutionary threshold and if we wish to evolve beyond this point an expansion or elevation in consciousness is required so that we can embody the incredible power we have in healthy non-destructive way. If not, that power can destroy us much like in the movie except we are not victims but the architects of our own destruction brought about by our resistance to awakening.

What this movie represents is potentially a valuable tool if we look at what it is reflecting inside us. An invitation to go inward and address the inner conflict and destructiveness that is at the root of our own shadow side. If consciously faced on an inner level this incredible destructive force can be transformed into light, into awakening, into the very power of true transformation. Our practice in my view is to find a middle path, not indulging in it unconsciously but also not turning away from it in denial. When we embrace the light while denying the darkness, the darkness eventually takes us over. Ultimately demons cannot be overcome by force or by avoiding or fleeing from them because they are created by separation and resistance. They can only be dissolved through acceptance, compassion and direct conscious engagement because they are a part of us which has been cut off. We then free the power that they hold and reclaim it for our growth and realize there never really was a demon just a part of us screaming for attention.

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).

What is a demon?

It is important first to look at what we mean by demon in the context of this practice because its not the classic Hollywood evil spirit. This type of demon is a part of our own psyche that has been denied, repressed, avoided possibly relating to some form of trauma or conflict. It could be the pain of a parent leaving us which we didn’t fully feel and express, a traumatic experience such as war, rape, or an accident, or simply a feeling of anxiety or sadness deep down that we can’t bear to fully feel. Demons are any part of us that is unconscious and impacts us in a painful or destructive way that we cannot control. Addiction is a great example of this, the painful and destructive use of a substance or behavior that is self destructive but which we tend to get taken over by causing us to act out a repetitive destructive pattern which we feel we can’t escape from. Indeed, the more we try to fight it, resist it and escape the stronger it becomes. These demons prevent us from fully living our potential, from being truly happy and fulfilled. Psychologist Carl Jung called demons autonomous complexes because they are parts of the psyche that take on a life of their own as if they were a separate entity. This is a result of our cutting these parts of us off through our repression and denial of them.

However these repressed parts of us, and we all have them, are not really negative or evil they simply need attention and healing. The feeding your demons practice provides us with a direct approach to heal these parts of ourselves if we are willing to face them with courage. It is incredibly effective because it allows us to drop the conflict or the battle against the parts of ourselves that we don’t like or are ashamed of. Instead of fighting for change we can go directly to the cause of negative patterns and heal what is at their root so that the surface pattern or behavior naturally changes as we dispell the energy behind it. Addiction is again a good example because most often when people stop drinking, gambling or otherwise avoid the addictive behavior it usually takes another form because the root cause is not the alcohol or drug, it is the wound beneath it and until that is healed the addiction will continue in one form or another.

The practice

The practice is simple and I will briefly describe it here but if you are interested in this I encourage you to read the book because it presents a more complete version. We begin by sitting in a quiet place and engaging in some slow deep breaths to get into a relaxed state. We then decide which demon we want to work with and this can be done by looking at what we are struggling with most right now. If its an argument with our partner we can focus on that. We do that by paying attention to our body and the sensations we are feeling in the moment. If we bring to mind the argument with our spouse or some other painful situation we can notice where we feel discomfort in the body. The idea here is that there is always a physical component to our mental and emotional issues and focusing on the body allows us to get in touch with it without getting lost in thought. Once you feel the discomfort in your body notice its location, how it feels, the qualities of the sensation and really pay attention to them, allow yourself to really “feel” it rather than analyzing it rationally.

Next we bring in the imagination because the imagination works with symbols and images which is the language of the unconscious so it provides us direct access. As you feel the bodily sensation, imagine it taking a form right in front of you. Imagine the demon or painful part of yourself taking an animated form sitting across from you. Allow yourself to accept whatever form it takes without judging or thinking about it, the first thing that comes to mind is usually it. Notice this form or demon very carefully, see its qualities but don’t push yourself if its not clear, be gentle and let it be whatever it needs to be. The ask it these questions: “What do you want from me?”, “What do you need from me?” and “How would you feel if you got what you needed?”.

Before you imagine the figure answering these questions, get up and switch places with it. Sit in its place and allow yourself to feel what its like to be the demon. Then answer your questions as the demon. Again accept whatever answers come up without second guessing or judgment. Note the difference between what the demon wants and what it needs. My demon of lack and scarcity manifested as an angry little troll with a coin pouch that had a hole in it while he angrily protected the one little penny he clutched in his little hands. When I asked him what he wanted he said he wanted me to be poor and realize I was worthless and would never have what I wanted, that I would end up on the street and homeless. However when I asked him what he really needed from me he said he needed attention and he felt powerless and incomplete so he craved power and fulfillment. He said he would feel abundant and fulfilled if he got what he needed.

After you answer the three questions from the place of the demon move back to your seat and imagine transforming your body into exactly what the demon needs and offering it to him. In my previous example I imagined my body transforming into a white energetic nectar of abundant power and I feed it to my lack demon. You allow him to feed until he is completely satisfied. You are not only giving this part of yourself attention rather than avoiding it, you are also giving it what it needs. Often you will find when you do this the demon transforms or disappears altogether. The figure that it transforms into is what the book calls an Ally. The ally is the hidden wisdom within the demon which we can uncover when we make the demon conscious and heal it by giving it attention and feeding it. My demon of lack transformed into a magnificent white elephant that looked like a Hindu God when I fed him. When the Ally appears you ask another set of questions: “How can you help me?”, “How can you protect me?”, “What commitment do you make to me?” and “How can I call on you when I need to?”. Then you switch places with the ally and experience how it feels to be the ally answering each question from that perspective. My white elephant ally told me he represented abundance and complete fulfillment and he would always be there to remind me of abundance when I forgot.

Once we answer the ally questions we move back to our seat and imagine the ally dissolving into us and then we sit is silence for a few minutes and allow ourselves to integrate the experience. We’re not thinking about it just sitting with it in stillness. The root of the word demon is daemon which is a Greek term for spirit or supernatural being. It could be a negative figure but was not inherently negative and would often take the form of a spirit guide offering support and wisdom. It is interesting to note that when we transform our demons they often assume a positive supportive form and contain wisdom and power which can really help us in our lives. In the end, the only real problem is our resistance and avoidance of the painful or seemingly negative parts of ourselves.

In working with the lack demon I found my struggle with money and resources really begin to shift. I felt more trust in the universe and in abundance not just as a concept but as an actual experience. I was able to let go a lot more of my struggle with money and was amazed to see it begin to flow into my life in unexpected ways. I actually felt abundance in a very real sense for the first time in my life. Since I have worked with many other demons including anger, attachment, anxiety, fear and self doubt. This practice really offers a very direct way to address the parts of us we are struggling with and to hold them in compassion rather than avoiding them because the demons are parts of ourselves that desperately need attention. When they get attention and nurturance they don’t need to create chaos, conflict and obstacles in our life anymore. We experience freedom.

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.

The Spiritual Nomad is an in between state where one begins to awaken out of the dream of mainstream life and has a growing awareness of the higher dimensions of life. The initial impact of this is often experienced as extremely stressful, chaotic and disruptive at least from the point of view of one’s previous life. Things start breaking down or shift in almost every area including work, finances, relationship, living situation as well as inner processes such as beliefs, sources of meaning and direction. It is essentially a process of having ones life deconstructed and rebuilt from a new perspective. Old patterns and beliefs become illuminated and we can see how they no longer serve us.

As this shift occurs we may find ourselves unable to maintain our usual life. This might involve not being able to stay in our job or any job, not being able to make money, watching relationships shift and fall away or change radically and possibly even being homeless. These effects are temporary and occur because we are letting go of old ways of doing things and learning to approach all aspects of life from an awakened point of view. This involves directly engaging abundance and creating what we need in life in ways that reflect our true nature as abundant beings and the nature of the universe as lacking nothing. Access to higher levels of consciousness shifts our perspective on everything and we may sense a greater purpose to our life. However this higher purpose may be at odds with what our personality or ego self wants and so we experience conflict while we resolve the discrepancy. As we open more to the divine and to our own higher self we are able to move with spirit with less resistance and follow our true heart path.

The period of the Spiritual Nomad comes to an end when we fully step into our new life as an awakened person. We are then able to offer the immense power of our full actualized potential to the world doing exactly what comes naturally and effortlessly to us. The interim period of the Nomad may last for a few weeks, months or even years and can be quite a difficult period to work through but it is temporary and a life of unlimited freedom, peace of mind and fulfillment awaits us on the other end. As I go through this myself and see more and more people experiencing it I find great optimism for the future because from my perspective we are awakening as a species and as a planet. This awakened consciousness which we all possess is the medicine that is needed to transform this chaotic world and to heal the conflicts both within and without. If you are experiencing this kind of chaos and challenge in your life know that you are not alone and maybe even seek out your fellow travelers on the path for support.

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.

Lets take climate change for example. While we’re not responsible for everything going on with the climate we have had a great impact on it with our blind use of fossil fuels and unchecked industrialization. The results of this are something that we created and are responsible for and we’re reaping the consequences. We also know what to do to correct it. Lets face it, our environmental problems are not beyond our means to resolve but to really resolve them we’d have to change the way we live, work and play considerably and on a mass scale we are not yet willing to do that. So the situation continues to get worse because we’re still creating the causes for it to, no mystery there. The petty efforts governments make to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and all their talk about climate changes doesn’t amount to a fraction of what is necessary to truly and effectively address the issue.

In my view this is due to the degree of unconsciousness on the collective scale. There isn’t yet enough conscious awareness to cause enough people to see what is happening and accept what needs to be done. People need to care and feel a personal connection to what is playing out. They need to want to change things and that requires conscious awareness. No amount of education or information can raise someones consciousness if they are not open to it, if they are not ready for that to happen and there are those that would rather die than wake up. So the question that I raise is what will it take? We seem to be creating more and more intense experiences in this world on a personal and global level. It feels like a higher power or energy is turning up the heat to produce a shift in consciousness, to catalyze a mass awakening. I’m seeing it happen to individuals all over the place. I’m seeing old organizations and power structures collapse under the weight of their own dysfunction. But what will it take to tip the scale on a collective level?

Its been my experience that human beings often need crisis to be prompted to make real changes and to wake up to their unconsciousness, I certainly have had my share of it. Is it going to take even more intense large scale events to jar people out of their delusional comfort zones? Events like an ice sheet melting and flooding coastal cities? Would that be significant enough and if not what would be? I’m asking these questions because I wonder how intense we have to dream things up to be to facilitate an evolutionary shift in consciousness and I believe that is inevitable unless we utterly destroy ourselves. I’m optimistic myself, I think we will awaken and evolve. I also see the struggles going on in the world today as the fuel for change and growth. Growth is usually painful but when the pain is worked with it produces transformation and so isn’t a negative thing. The amount of pain and suffering in this process seems to be directly related to the degree of resistance to change. Resistance prolongs and intensifies the process. When resistance is released change happens effortlessly because its a natural process. When that mass letting go happens we could see a time of unprecedented radical change and transformation. Its already begun, its just a question of how it plays out, what do you think?

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.

On the outer level it is being reflected by the changes I see women going through. I’m seeing more and more women stepping out of the old roles prescribed by the patriarchal society and questioning all aspects of it including their roles in relationship, family, work and government. It doesn’t stop there however because women are taking the lead in many ways in creating change and alternatives to how things have typically been done. What this comes down to in my view in an incredible surge in power particularly among women and it makes sense considering the disempowered role women have held in society until recently.

I’ve been a fan of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for many years and he has been a spiritual mentor for me. A comment he made at a recent peace summit in Vancouver BC really struck me, he said “The world will be saved by the western woman”. Buddhism has typically been a male dominated religion as many organized religions have been so this is a powerful statement coming from a Buddhist leader and someone of the Dalai Lama’s wisdom. On another occassion he made the comment that women represent the source of human compassion and compassion is something needed in abundance in this time of transformation. The Dalai Lama’s feelings about the importance of women in this time of change reflect my own because I see it as the pendulum swinging back in the other direction. The time is ripe for women to take the lead in many ways and for men to support that process and also reap the benefits of what it can mean for society and the world.

This has also been an inner process for me as most of my spiritual teachers have been men from male dominated traditions until recently. I’ve felt for several years now a growing desire to commune with the Divine Feminine and to rediscover the Goddess both within me and in the external world. This has lead me in a new direction spiritually as well as in other aspects of my life. While I work to fulfill my dreams and my purpose I have a sense that part of what I’m here to do is to support women, to take a more supportive role as they step into the lead in many areas. This isn’t to say men don’t have an important role to play as well in creating a new society but I don’t think it will be as prominent a role in the same way because we may be experiencing a balancing process after so many years of patriarchy. Men have an incredible challenge in reconnecting with and reintegrating the Divine Feminine within and stepping into new ways of relating to women in their lives. We’ve held more power than is natural for far too long and it has done great damage to men as well as women. I see it as a healthy step for men to let go and surrender to the Goddess which is a part of their nature. Male power can only be truly empowering when it is grounded in the feminine otherwise it becomes extreme and destructive as we have seen so this is a process of men taking their true power back as well and living a more fulfilled existence.

This is an incredibly exciting prospect. When I imagine a society that strongly reflects the presence of the Goddess what I see is something very nurturing, compassionate, and abundant not to mention healthy. We’ve been out of touch with this aspect of ourselves for too long. The time has come for the Goddess to reassert herself in a powerful way and that is what I see happening and the results will be good for both women and men. Ultimately I think we will end up in a place where the polarities of masculine and feminine return to balance as equal reflections of the Divine but we must heal the imbalance before we can get to that.

Read more about the Dalai Lama’s statement here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ariane-de-bonvoisin/the-dalai-lamas-amazing-p_b_324760.html

Image: The Godess Brigid by AvalonSky via deviantART

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.

Two common responses to this that represent two ends of a spectrum include indifference or denial on one end and anger and resistance on the other. While these two responses seem to be polar opposites they have a common underlying basis of fear. It would be quite unbelievable to honestly take a look at what is happening in the world and not experience some degree of fear. Have you allowed yourself to see and acknowledge fully what is happening? These are very challenging times and the future has never been more uncertain but how we see these events and how we respond are critical in determining what form this uncertainly takes. Uncertainly or the unknown tends to evoke fear in human beings because of our habitual way of seeing ourselves as separate beings in a material universe. This illusory separation is the root cause of fear. The unknown in truth contains the limitless possibility of abundance which is our true nature but fear arising out of separation cuts us off from this natural abundance. This is important because if we face the current uncertainly with fear we will collectively create our worst nightmare. So what do we do if fear naturally arises in response to these trying times and it has the power to create what we least want to experience?

Empowered Engagement

One possible answer to this question is to transform our fear into empowerment. Denying or avoiding fear only pushes it into the unconscious where it wreaks havoc on our lives causing us to feel victimized by our life situation because we don’t see how we are creating our own suffering. Acting out of fear or anger masking fear is no better because it produces results that are infused with the energy of fear and dis-empowerment and this can only produce more of the same. If however we recognize and acknowledge our fear we open up the potential for transforming it. This can be done through the practice of mindfulness which I describe in detail in my article “Mindfulness and the practice of RAIN”.

By owning our fear we not only initiate healing for ourselves but we begin to act as healers for our society as well because we bring empowerment instead of fear to the collective consciousness. Being aware of and accepting of our fear transforms its raw energy into conscious empowerment which we can then put to effective use to create real change. In a state of conscious empowerment we cannot be manipulated or deceived and we directly see that we are not separate from the external world but in fact co-create it with what we think, feel and do. This co-creation of our experience can happen consciously or unconsciously and I would say we find ourselves at a stage in our evolution where unconscious co-creation is no longer possible, it has become too destructive. With empowerment we also have a powerful impact on those around us because we touch and trigger their empowered nature even if they are not aware of it at the moment. This allows us to confront destructive behavior in a much more effective way, we don’t condone it and we don’t resist or fight against it, rather we confront it with fearless empowered presence. We can do this because our fear has been owned and transformed into the very power we use to create change and we create that change by stepping into it ourselves as examples of what a fearless empowered life looks like.

We have a choice as to whether we take destructiveness to its most extreme manifestation or whether we consciously step into our roles as divine co-creators and help shape a new more healthy more nurturing society. We cannot do that without facing the darker parts of ourselves including our fear and our needs that result from past trauma. Both we as individuals and as a society are in dire need of healing and this healing needs to start within each of us. I think the positive aspect of our world situation is that its pressure and intensity will not allow us to avoid this healing any longer, we cannot continue the way we have been without destroying ourselves. We can use these intense times as the fuel for change and healing if we understand how to transform our fear and let go of our separation. Then we can respond to whatever happens with empowered engagement.