Surrender Through Gratitude (Class Eleven of Winter 2021 Session)

How did a rose ever open its heart

and give to this world all its beauty?

It felt the encouragement of Light

against its being, otherwise,

we all remain too frightened.

- Sufi poet, Hafiz

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Dear Wise Women,

As we continue our journey along the endless path of enlightenment, I invite you to pause and reflect on the wonder of creation that is all around us. The seedling pushing up through the soil, the leaves pushing through the bud on a tree, the opening of the petals of a crocus, the butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, the river flowing into the ocean.

What do all these life forms have in common?

They have no resistance.

Last week we experienced the felt sensation of non-resistance as we listened with an open heart to the prophecy of the Hopi Elders:

“You have being telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.”

Pushing off into the middle of the river is a metaphor for ascending to the fifth dimension - to raising our vibration and fully accessing life force energy. This is our purpose and NOW is the time!

Over the past ten weeks we have explored how Presence, Embodiment, Forgiveness, Integrity, Compassion and Kindness are needed to raise our vibration and to bring in the light that has been long suppressed in humanity…the light that is needed to balance the darkness. A common thread that has been weaving its way through the teachings is the need to let go and resist nothing…to “surrender”.

I now invite you (with a beginners mind) to explore the notion of true surrender and the role of gratitude in evoking it.

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“When we are in surrender we trust that all is as it should be; we trust in the goodness of life and in one another. In surrender we are in acceptance and allowing of everything that is happening right now. We trust life’s flow.

When we surrender in the dance, our heads fall back, chests lift, our arms stretch out and our palms open out. We recline in the arms of the divine; we give up all our fear, our shame, our pain and our blame and we open to feel whatever we need to feel to free the light in our soul.

When we dance in surrender, we are in rapture. There is no thought - only love, joy, and deep inner peace.”

- Leyolah Antara, “Kundalini Dance - Sacred Alchemical Evolutionary Keys

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“There is something within you that remains unaffected by the transient circumstances that make up your life situation, and only through surrender do you have access to it. It is your life, your very Being - which exists eternally in the timeless realm of the present.

Let me give you a visual analogy:

You are walking along a path at night, surrounded by a thick fog. But you have a powerful flashlight that cuts through the fog and creates a narrow, clear space in front of you. The fog is your life situation, which includes past and and future, the flashlight is your conscious presence; the clear space is the Now.”

- Eckhart Tolle, “The Power of Now”

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True surrender is NOT giving up, resignation or failing to rise to a challenge. True surrender is perfectly compatible with taking action, initiating change and achieving goals. In fact, it is essential!

And, when surrender feels impossible, gratitude provides the soft and gentle touch to nudge you back into that sweet place of non-resistance.

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“Gratitude is like a secret key that shifts your awareness. Gratitude changes your relationship with life from an attitude of rejecting and defending to one of acceptance and appreciation. To generate gratitude, first you need to recognize what this particular energy feels like in yourself, it is the feeling that you are welcomed and safe in your life. You feel that you are supported in whatever you want to be. The good things in your life show that abundance has included you. This is the natural energy of gratitude when you find it inside your own awareness. At the deep level where all possibilities exist, your awareness will renew this energy that is unique to gratitude. You can feel a surge of  gratitude simply by gazing at a beam of sunlight and watching how the bright particles are dancing in it. To gladden your heart, consider the perfectly precise chain of events that created this very moment. There is wonder in perceiving how the tiniest element fits into the whole.

True gratitude comes from knowing that you belong in the infinite dance of life. “

- Deepak Chopra

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Moving beyond Separation to Surrender

I am the seed of soul essence

A portal to infinite oneness

A golden ocean that has no shores

I am boundless infinite light

A golden gateway to intoxicated union with the Divine

Seat of the soul

A gateway to oneness

A gateway home

to rest in your divine essence.

Beloved Creator please help me

Help me

feel and release all that stands in the way of our union

I surrender it all up to you beloved

Please give me the courage to stand in your holy fire beloved

I am ready to burn

I am ready to feel

I can no longer live with this wall of pain that shrouds my heart

And keeps me separate

Come to me beloved

Kiss my heart with your love

Fill my heart with your sweet golden nectar

I long to dissolve back into your arms of love

and bathe in the ocean of your divine love.

- Leyolah Antara - “Kundalini Dance, Sacred Alchemical Evolutionary Keys”

Kindness: Compassion in Action (Class Ten of Winter 2021 Session)

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
- Rumi

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The Prophecy of the Hopi Elders: We are the Ones We've Been Waiting For

You have being telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.

And there are things to be considered…

Where are you living?

What are you doing?

What are your relationships?

Are you in right relation?

Where is your water?

Know your garden.

It is time to speak your truth.

Create your community.

Be good to each other.

And do not look outside yourself for your leader.

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, “This could be a good time!

There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination.

The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.

And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate.

At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over.

Gather yourselves!

Banish the word ’struggle’ from your attitude and your vocabulary.

All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for."

We believe, so be it/Yo lo Creo

- Hopi Elders' Prophecy, June 8, 2000

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Dear Wise Women,

Are you wondering why I chose to share the above prophecy and what it has to do with kindness?

Early in the morning, just upon awakening, is when I receive the most clear messages. On the morning of this writing, I got a message to share the Hopi Elder Prophecy as part of this week’s exploration of Kindness. My rational mind said “why?” but then I shifted to “I wonder what wants to be revealed?”

The Hopi Elders, in their own unique way, speak to the same message we are receiving elsewhere - that we are on the cusp of major changes here on earth and that we must transcend our fears, rise together in love and trust the destination. At an intellectual level I feel a lot of resonance with the elder’s message (my ego even feels proud for “getting it”)….but when I really feel into the words and allow myself to be completely honest, I find that I have tremendous resistance to the message. I have fear of letting go of the shore and I don’t like the idea of leaving behind others!

As I write these very words, I am reading and re-reading the Hopi prophecy and asking what it has to do with kindness. I am even deliberating removing it from the Treasure Trove and starting over again. But, there is a force that is propelling me forward.

And so I surrender and I allow myself to truly feel into kindness…and that is when the magic happens. Suddenly, my body relaxes and the struggle ends. The panic to stay afloat ceases and I realize that, in fact, the only way keep my head above the water and my eyes open is to compassionately welcome the sorrow and suffering. And from here, I no longer feel guilty for pushing away from the shore, I am no longer afraid of drowning, I am no longer resentful or afraid for those who are not yet willing to let go. I am being moved by the FORCE OF KINDNESS, felt authentically, perhaps for the very first time, towards myself.

I believe that kindness is a force that has been diluted, even disparaged over the past two thousand years. Our modern society views kindness, especially towards oneself, as a weakness. In truth, there is nothing more courageous than kindness.

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KINDNESS IS COMPASSION IN ACTION

“Kindness is the fuel that helps us truly “walk our talk” of love, a quality so easy to speak about or extol but often so hard to make real. Kindness is the foundation of unselfconscious generosity, natural inclusivity, and an unfeigned integrity. We have to find the power in kindness, the confidence in kindness, the release in kindness; the type of kindness that transcends belief systems, allegiances, ideologies, cliques and tribes. This is the trait that can transform our lives. ”

— Sharon Salzberg, “The Force of Kindness, change your life with love and compassion"

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And now please indulge me as I share one of my favourite scenes from a fairy tale classic. May you feel its power as much as I do, and may you especially feel the magic of having kindness for ourselves!

Have Courage and Be Kind - Cinderella 2015

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The River Cannot Go Back

by Kahlil Gibran

It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.

True Compassion (Class Nine of Winter 2021 Session)

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Dear Wise Women,

Welcome back! As I envision the continuation of our circles, I feel a sensation of stepping forward! Stepping forward into spring and stepping down a never ending path of unfolding wonder and miracles! I am reminded of a quote I read awhile ago…

“Each step taken from the heart unfolds a path of never ending love”
- Harold Becker

Over the past weeks we contemplated authentic Forgiveness and Integrity and their role in raising our vibration and returning us to unity and wholeness. This week and next we will reveal the true meaning and power of Compassion and Loving Kindness.

As before, I invite you to approach the subject of compassion with a “beginners mind”. This means to have an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner would.

Let’s begin by understanding the origins of the word:

The Latin root for the word compassion is pati, which means to suffer, and the prefix com, which means with. Compassion literally means to suffer with.

This definition may cause you discomfort , and if this is the case, please take a moment to pause and honour that sensation. What is arising? Perhaps there is a natural resistance to the idea of suffering with others? Perhaps there is fear? Perhaps there is judgement? All are ok and all are welcome. Simply witness all that arises, acknowledge the mind’s reaction, breathe deeply and soften the heart. Take comfort in knowing that compassion is not about taking on suffering in order for others not to suffer, it is about BEING WITH SUFFERING so that we all may heal. True compassion opens a portal to transformation for all.

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“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.”

“In order to have compassion for others, we have to have compassion for ourselves.”

―Pema Chödrön

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“Compassion is the awareness of a deep bond between yourself and all creatures.”

“There are two sides to compassion, two sides to this bond. On the level of form, you share mortality and the precariousness of existence. On the level of Being, you share eternal, radiant life. True compassion goes beyond empathy or sympathy. It does not happen until the seemingly opposite feelings of sadness and joy merge into one and become transmuted into a deep inner peace. This is the peace of God. It is one of the most noble feelings that humans are capable of, and it has great healing and transformative power.

True relationship becomes possible only when there is an awareness of Being. Coming from Being, you will perceive another person's body and mind as just a screen, as it were, behind which you can feel their true reality, as you feel yours. So, when confronted with someone else's suffering or unconscious behaviour, you stay present and in touch with Being, all suffering is recognized as an illusion. Suffering is due to identification with form. Miracles of healing sometimes occur through this realization, by awakening Being-consciousness in others -- if they are ready.”

- Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

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THE PRACTICE OF TONGLEN

Tonglen practice is a Tibetan Buddhist method for overcoming our fear of suffering and for dissolving the tightness of our hearts. By having the courage to face the pain of others and breathe it in, the Tonglen practice awakens the compassion that is inherent in all of us. Tonglen is difficult to do because it reverses the usual pattern of avoiding suffering and of turning away from our pain and, especially, the pain of others. Tonglen dissolves the layers of self-protection or walls we’ve built around our hearts…it dissolves the fixation and clinging of ego. It is a deep and courageous practice of being deeply present with pain, which is the only way to dissolve it.

The practice is a follows:

When facing pain, either our personal pain or the pain of others, we feel a connection to the millions of other people who are feeling just like us.

Contact what we are feeling and breathe it in, take it in for all of us.
As we breathe out, we send relief to all of us.

This is the core of the practice: breathing in others’ pain so they can be well and have more space to relax and open-breathing out, sending them relaxation or whatever we feel would bring them relief and happiness. Often, however, we can’t do this practice because we come face to face with our own fear, our own resistance or anger, or whatever our personal pain happens to be just then. At that point we can change the focus and begin to do tonglen for what we are feeling and for millions of other people just like us who at that very moment are feeling exactly the same stuckness and misery. Maybe we are able to name our pain. We recognize it clearly as terror or revulsion or anger or wanting to get revenge. So we breathe in for all the people who are caught with that same emotion, and we send our relief or whatever opens up the space for ourselves and all those countless others. Maybe we can’t name what we’re feeling. But we can feel it-a tightness in the stomach, a heavy darkness, or whatever. We simply contact what we are feeling and breathe in, take it in, for all of us- and send out relief to all of us. People often say that this practice goes against the grain of how we usually hold ourselves together. Truthfully, this practice does go against the grain of wanting things on our own terms, wanting everything to work out for ourselves no matter what happens to the others. The practice dissolves the walls we’ve built around our hearts. It dissolves the layers of self-protection we’ve tried so hard to create. In Buddhist language, one would say that it dissolves the fixation and clinging of ego. Tonglen reverses the usual logic of avoiding suffering and seeking pleasure

In the process, we become liberated from very ancient patterns of selfishness. We begin to feel love for both ourselves and others; we begin to take care of ourselves and others. Tonglen awakens our compassion and introduces us to a far bigger view of reality. It introduces us to the unlimited spaciousness

- Pema Chodron

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A Prayer for Compassion

Grant me the courage

to feel what others feel,

to feel what I feel.

Grant me the courage

to see what others see,

to see what I see.

Grant me the courage

to turn towards other’s suffering

to turn towards my suffering

rather than away.

Grant me the strength to see where we are all the same

to feel our shared humanity

and to realize that the walls around my heart

are only an illusion of safety.

Remind me that I am protected by a power

that is vaster than my mind can ever understand.

Show me that when I allow myself to open

to the suffering in me

and around me

I help to open the shared heart of humanity.

- Patti Wardlaw

Being In Integrity (Class Eight of Winter 2021 Session)

“Integrity implies an integration of soul, heart, mind and body. It is humanity becoming all that we are. A luminous thread in a seamless garment. Integrity implies a new way of being — with others and in the universe. It implies caring; a quality of attention which involves a total commitment to looking, listening, feeling, sensing, intuiting, being.
- Anne Hillman, “Awakening the Energies of Love - Discovery Fire for the Second Time”

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Dear Wise Women,

Immersed in the field of love and healing energy, let us continue our journey.

As we have learned, we access the fullness of life force energy when we become fully present. Awakening to the energy of presence requires a willingness to open the heart and a diligence to keep it open. As Michael Singer, the author of The Untethered Soul says, “we remain open by choosing not to close”. As simple as this sounds, our minds often trick us into believing that we are fragmented and incomplete and that we have no choice but shut down and separate our mind from our heart, body and soul .

As we explore integrity and its role in raising our vibration, I invite you to contemplate the root of the word integrity: “integer” which means whole, and is also the root of the words integrated and integral.

When heart, mind, body, and soul are fully integrated we move from having integrity to being in integrity.

When “in” integrity, our thoughts, feelings and actions align with ease and grace. We do not gossip, deny, complain, criticize, judge or blame; we are humble, helpful, honest and respectful - and we live this way not to receive external rewards or praise from others but because it is the only thing that feels true and whole to our Being. As Oprah Winfrey says, ““Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.”

“In the fifth dimension, thoughts, speech, and action all are in alignment; anything that is out of integrity is painful. True integrity is at the core of remaining fifth dimensional. When you think one thing, act another, and feel yet another, you have created a roadblock to being fifth dimensional. “
- St. Germain, Maureen J.. Waking Up in 5D: A Practical Guide to Multidimensional Transformation

Being in integrity is both a requirement and a result of fifth dimensional living.

With awareness and the energy of forgiveness we can learn how to recognize when we are not in integrity and willingly and compassionately return ourselves to wholeness.

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“When we understand integrity for what it is, we stop obsessing over codes of conduct and embark on the more demanding journey toward being whole.”
- Parker Palmer, “A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life”

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THE FOUR AGREEMENTS

I know of no better way to be in integrity than to live out the work of “The Four Agreements” by don Miguel Ruiz.

Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. Become immune to the opinions and actions of others.

Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama.

Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment and day to day. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse, and regret

At first glance, the four agreements appear to be instructions that are difficult, if not impossible, to follow. However, when looking closer, we discover that living these agreements are a natural by-product of true integrity. In fact, when the heart, mind, body and soul are integrated and attuned to the vibration of love it becomes nearly impossible to not follow these agreements. In this way, the four agreements can serve as gentle road-signs to “redirect” us back to the path when we wander off (which we inevitably will do no matter how “enlightened” we are). When we notice we are not living out one or more of these agreements, we can forgive ourselves and compassionately and tenderly come home to the heart!

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The Power of Words

We can begin by noticing our words and choosing to replace them with words that evoke unity, possibility and the vibration of love. The following table offers a wonderful starting point to access the transformative power of words.

From Awakening to 5D by Maureen St. Germain

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INVOCATION:
”My thoughts, feelings and actions are in alignment with the creative power of the Universe.”

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Photograph taken by Wise Woman, Katrina Campbell. Follow Katrina on instagram at km_bella

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Your integrity is who you really are, what you really are, the totality of your authentic self.

Spend a few moments every day to get in touch with the memory of what you are.

Allow yourself to imagine the possibility that you are made by a certain frequency of Light.

Light is the messenger of God; it contains all the information, all possibilities, and all power.

Imagine that you are made of Light, of Spirit.

There is nothing you need to do.

There is nothing you need to be except what you really are.

Remember what you are, and the dream of your Life will have no limits. 

- don Miguel Ruiz, “The Four Agreements”

The Power of Forgiveness (Class Seven of Winter Session 2021)

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“By far the strongest poison to the human spirit is the inability to forgive oneself or another person. Forgiveness is no longer an option but a necessity for healing.”

- Caroline Myss

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Dear Wise Women,

Let us pause, once again, and remember the work we are doing together. We are gathering as women to heal and to grow. We are willfully choosing to awaken and attune to the frequency of Love.

We have learned that the “new earth” that we desire is not a place or a transformation that occurs “out there” but is a transformation, a vibrational shift that occurs right HERE on earth and IN our bodies. This is why we can feel it in our bones and in our hearts.

When we allow ourselves to fully open up to the power of wonder and presence we feel the magic that is activated. The inner energy body comes alive and merges with the energy of the universe! This is our purpose and our path as human beings. We are here to remember our oneness and to merge our bodies with the energy of the universe - and to embody this energy to create on earth, in the physical realm!

With an emphasis on the importance of embodiment, we are now ready to expand our understanding of HOW to access and stay in the higher dimensional vibration.

Remember the invitation to view yourself as a midwife to the birthing of the new earth? Recall that as we move towards the new vibration, we will see an increase in the flare-up of polarities, both in the outer world and within our inner experiences. The challenge and the opportunity is to greet each painful contraction with fierce love and openness and assist others in doing the same.

With the energy of midwives, let us now meet and understand all that that holds us back, drops us down to lower vibrations, and pulls us into fear. With wonder and presence as our constant companions, let us courageously embody the tools of forgiveness, compassion, gratitude, integrity and acceptance.

We begin with forgiveness.

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Before you enter the body, forgive

“In a fully functional organism, an emotion has a very short life span. It is like a momentary ripple or wave on the surface of your Being. When you are not in your body, however, an emotion can survive inside you for days or weeks, or join with other emotions of a similar frequency that have merged and become the pain-body, which can live inside you for years.

So place your attention on feeling the emotion, and check whether your mind is holding on to a greivance pattern such as blame, self-pity, or resentment that is feeding the emotion. If that is the case it means you haven’t forgiven.

Nonforgiveness is often toward another person or yourself, but it may just as well be toward any situation or condition - past, present or future - that your mind refuses to accept. Yes, there can be nonforgiveness even with regard to the future. This is the mind’s refusal to accept uncertainty, to accept that the future is ultimately beyond its control. Forgiveness is to relinquish your grievance and so let go of grief. It happens naturally once you realize that your grievance serves no purpose except to strengthen a false sense of self.

Forgiveness is to offer no resistance to life - to allow life to live through you.

The alternatives are pain and suffering and a greatly restricted flow of life energy. The moment you truly forgive, you have reclaimed your power from the mind. Nonforgiveness is the very nature of the mind.

The mind cannot forgive only you can.

You become present, you enter your body, you feel the vibrant peace and stillness that emanate from Being.

That is why Jesus said: “Before you enter the temple, forgive.”

- Eckhart Tolle

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HO’OPONOPONO: THE HAWAIIAN FORGIVENSS RITUAL

Ho’oponopono means a return to the Divine Plan…

Ho'oponopono is a simple way of arriving at unity, inner peace and returning to harmony. It expresses the deep need to live once again in harmony with oneself and with humanity, nature and God. Ho'o means 'to make' and pono is translated 'right' or 'correct'. And so ho'oponopono quite simply represents to 'make rightly right'. To 'make anything rightly right' means to join oneself again with one's Higher Self and the Source of All Being - to be in one's own centre, returned to harmony, and balanced once again so that one is able to realign the environment and reshape reality.

The forgiveness ritual of Ho'oponopono is love in action. 'Making things rightly right' is a simple four-step procedure that helps you learn to forgive yourself unconditionally, to love, and, additionally to make things better.

I love you

I am sorry

Please forgive me

Thank you

These four sentences seem like a mantra or a magical formula, but they are rather a mediation and a prayer. They operate through time and space, beyond cause and effect, and transmit themselves directly to your Inner Family, the Higher Self, the Inner Child and your waking consciousness. After a short while you achieve inner peace and change from disharmony to harmony.

You move yourself from separation to union while you say:

love you. I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.

- Ho'oponopono: The Hawaiian forgiveness ritual as the key to your life's fulfillment, by Ulrich E. Dupree

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The Ho’oponopono ritual can be applied to any relationship or situation in which you feel disconnected or troubled. More often than not, you may find yourself saying these four sentences silently… they need not ever be spoken out loud. Please note that when saying sorry you are not blaming yourself rather you are expressing a heart-felt apology for being part of a situation or relationship in which there is disharmony. This is why we say “please forgive me”, rather than “I forgive you”. Ho’oponopono is about opening the heart and liberating guilt, blame and shame - it is a method of accessing the universal energy of unconditional love.

What I most want to emphasize is the power of these four simple sentences when applied to oneself…anytime you feel regret, self judgement, doubt, self-criticism or are otherwise separated from Oneness (aka: Source, God, the Universe, Divinity, Energy, Qi, Presence)…simply pause and say to these four sentences.

Invocation:
“I Love You. I am sorry. Please Forgive Me. Thank-You.”

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The Story of Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len

“Ho’oponopono may be the most effective method of solving problems and conflicts ever devised by a culture. It became known mainly through Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len and the record of his work in healing some psychologically ill prisoners. This achievement is considered a therapeutic miracle, and demonstrates the effectiveness of Ho’oponopono. Moreover, it is an acknowledged therapy in the USA.

In 1983 a trusted friend asked Dr. Hew Len to work in the psychiatric department of the state prison of Kaneohe of Hawaii. Thirty prisoners, all psychologically ill, were confined there, with a chronic shortage of staff. There was good reason for this shortage because both the institution and the work were commonly described as ‘the hell’. Most of the employees were either ill, unsuited for the work or gave in their notice as soon as possible after beginning employment. However, Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len agreed to work there - on condition that he was allowed to use a method that he had just learnt. It was arranged that he would only read the prisoners’ reports and would not talk with them.

What did Dr. Hew Len do? In the following four years he read the prisoners’ reports several times daily and asked himself, ‘What is there in me of darkness and negativity, of power and hatefulness, that something similar should exist in my world? What is my part in it that my brother has done such a thing? When he found something of that in himself and in his heart (power, aggression, hatred, vengefulness, envy, jealousy - the whole palette of the depths of humanity), he would say:

I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you.

Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len worked exclusively on the cleansing of his heart and consciousness and after one and a half years he had made a Ho’oponopono and changed the mold, atmosphere and climate in the prison hospital. After 18 months, none of the prisoners wore handcuffs anymore. The staff, warden and therapists now came happily to work and the illness figures declined. It became possible to hold therapeutic conversations with the prisoners, and after four years all the inmates, except for two, were cured. The institution was finally closed.

Did Dr. Ihaleakalal Hew Len really cure anyone? Those impacted, say ‘Yes’. However, in an interview Dr. Ihaleakalal Hew Len has explained that he only worked on his own purification and the deleting of information in his own subconscious. He did not speak of cures, but emphasized that the solution to respective conflicts succeeded because he had taken 100% responsibility for the existence of prisoners in his life. ”

— Ho'oponopono The Hawaiian forgiveness ritual as the key to your life's fulfillment, by Ulrich E. Dupr

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Angels are wonderful but they are so, well, aloof.
It’s what I sense in the mud and the roots of the
trees, or the well, or the barn, or the rock with
its citron map of lichen that halts my feet and
makes my eyes flare, feeling the presence of some
spirit, some small god, who abides there.
If I were a perfect person, I would be bowing
continuously.
I’m not, though I pause wherever I feel this
holiness, which is why I’m so often late coming
back from wherever I went.
Forgive me.

- Mary Oliver

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Embodiment: The Doorway Into Being (Class Six of Winter Session 2021)

“Breathe in deeply to bring your mind home to your body.”

- Thich Naht Han

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Dear Wise Women,

As we begin the second half of our winter session, we cross an important threshold.

We are shifting to the high frequency vibration of love. Through the power of wonder and presence we are activating our hearts to tune into this vibration. Each week for the past five weeks we have adopted a mantra or invocation to guide our awareness:

“I’m having a day of Heaven on Earth”

“I release the need to know and I open my heart to the power of  wonder”

“I am recalibrating to the vibration of the present moment”

“I see through the illusion of time and reveal the magic of this moment”

“Life lives through me”

These mantras and the energy they invoke help us to release the illusion that we are separate from Source and to realize our formless and infinite selves. Paradoxically, we cannot realize our formless nature without being in “form” (our bodies). Though we often try to escape the body with its pain and limitations, the realization of Oneness and the accompanying frequency shift can only happen through the body.

In her book, Awakening to 5D, Maureen St. Germain says that we chose to come into embodiment and experience the pain of separation so that we could fully realize Oneness. She says “We incarnate to increase that which would not be increased any other way”.

On the “path” to enlightenment it is easy to believe that the light is “out there”, or that we have to leave the body to “find” it. Many spiritual seekers spend a lifetime trying to transcend the body (and the material world) only to be disappointed when they return to the body and the material plane…which they inevitably must do. As Eckhart Tolle says “in the end you will always have to return to the body, where the essential work of transformation takes place.”

And so at this stage, half way through our session, we embrace the essential aspect of embodiment practices such as walking in nature, consciously connected breathing, qigong, yoga, and inner-body awareness (being fully present in our physical bodies). Through embodiment, we come to realize the full power of wonder and presence, and we will learn how forgiveness, compassion, gratitude, integrity and acceptance (and the embodiment of each) help us to shift to the fifth dimension and frequency of love….and to create Heaven on Earth.

“Transformation is through the body, not away from it.”

- Eckhart Tolle

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Embodiment: The Art of Inner-body Awareness

“To inhabit the body is to feel the body from within, to feel the life inside the body and thereby come to know that you are beyond the outer form. When you focus within and feel the inner body, you immediately become still and present as you are withdrawing consciousness from the mind. If a response is required, it will come up from this deeper level. Just as the sun is infinitely brighter than a candle flame, there is infinitely more intelligence in Being than in your mind.

Through the inner body, you are inseparably connected to the unmanifested One Life - birthless, deathless, eternally present. Through the inner body, you are forever one with God.”

- Eckhart Tolle, “The Power of Now”

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Qigong, an ancient practice is a powerful tool of embodiment. Through intentional breathing, movement and visualization we access the invisible body, life force energy…the “Being” that animates our physical bodies.

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Invocation:

“I am Being in a body”

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Photo taken by Wise Woman, Melanie, of her daughter.

The Hidden Treasure

Yearning to expand,

our souls chose to embody into human form.

To experience the polarities

of pain and pleasure

good and evil

dark and light.

To experience Separation

in order to increase Oneness.

We fell from the all-knowing

and woke up in human bodies.

Naked, afraid and vulnerable

forgetting where we came from and why

searching everywhere for the answer

until, finally,

we look within the most unlikely of places

THE BODY

…what better place to hide the divine?

The Power of Presence: Let Life Live Through You (class five of winter 2021 session)

"I am a hole in a flute that the Christ's breath moves through. Listen to this music.”
- Sufi poet, Hafiz

YouTube: Awakening Yoga with Bank โยคะตื่นรู้ "I AM the hole in the flute that the divine Spaciousness moves through. Listen to the music."

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“Every soul on earth is a flute! Experience carves holes in us. It does this because we are human. And just like nature is eroded over time, we have holes carved in us. This is all so the breath of spirit can breathe through them and release our song. Let the holes be carved all the way through.”

- Mark Nepo

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Dear Wise Women,

As we continue our journey together, I would like us to pause for a moment and remind ourselves of the sacredness of the work we are doing, and at the power of women’s circles.

“The fundamentals of spirituality connect us rather than separate us. When women come together and make a commitment to each other to be in a circle with a spiritual center, they are creating a vessel of healing and transformation for themselves, and vehicle for change in their world. The more circles there are, the easier others can form. At the same time, each circle adds to collective human consciousness.”
- Jean Shinoda Bolen

Wise Women, after witnessing the impact of our study over the past two weeks, I have decided to dedicate more time to the Power of Presence. This week’s teaching is inspired by what has been arising in our sharing circles, and in particular, a powerful insight from Mark Nepo that our dear wise woman Laurie brought to us:

“Presence re-establishes our worthiness”

This simple and profound statement has been an absolute game changer for me. As I wonder how presence re-establishes my worth, I am being gifted insights, ah-ha moments, and gems of awareness. The source of these gems is infinite and endless, and all we have to do to receive them is ask!

The biggest insight I have had (and the inspiration for the title of this Treasure Trove) came via a sensation rather than thought. When I allow myself to fully experience the magic of breathing, when I am present to breath and breath alone, I feel (if only for a fleeting moment) that I am completely worthy of this breath of life.

Could it be that this is how presence re-establishes our god-given birthright of worthiness? The worthiness that we lost somewhere along the way when we believed what we were told (or what we thought) and continued to do so through our mind’s incessant ability to replay and reinforce these beliefs?

Could it be that “Worthiness” is another word to describe “Oneness”? Could it be that our ability to detach from this moment, to be everywhere other than in in the Now, is what causes us to believe we are not worthy of being at One with the vibration of life?

I wonder. Will you wonder with me?

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The following passage and exercise offers a way of looking at what it means to fully honour your life in every moment. As you hear the words, feel free to substitute the word God and Jesus with whatever word resonates the deepest with you (energy, source, spirit). Remember the actual words are secondary, the essence or feeling they evoke are primary.

“We come from a very ancient, human-based, natural, biological, universally experienced understanding of God. God’s eternal mystery cannot be captured or controlled, but only received and shared as freely as the breath itself—the thing we have done since the moment we were born and will one day cease to do in this body. God is as available and accessible as our breath itself. Jesus breathes the Spirit into us as the very air of life (see John 20:22)! Our job is simply to both receive and give this life-breath. We cannot only inhale, and we cannot only exhale. We must breathe in and out, accept and let go.

- Fr. Richard Rohr

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AWAKENED DOING

Eckhart Tolle’s teachings around the principal of awakened doing align beautifully with Richard Rohr’s words and offer us practical insights on how to let live live through us, which means to align your self to the highest form of life energy in all moments, or as Hafiz so eloquently, to be the hole in a flute that Christ’s breath moves through.

“There are three ways in which consciousness can flow into what you do and thus through you into this world, three modalities in which you can align your life with the creative power of the universe. Modality means the underlying energy­ frequency that flows into what you do and connects your actions with the awakened consciousness that is emerging into this world. What you do will be dysfunctional and of the ego, unless it arises out of one of these three modalities. They may change during the course of a day, although one of them may be dominant during a certain stage in your life.

Each modality is appropriate to certain situations. The modalities of awakened doing are acceptance, enjoyment, and enthusiasm. Each one represents a certain vibrational frequency of consciousness. You need to be vigilant to make sure that one of them operates whenever you are engaged in doing anything at all–from the most simple task to the most complex. If you are not in the state of either acceptance, enjoyment, or enthusiasm, look closely and you will find that you are creating suffering for yourself and others.”

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Acceptance

“Accepting means you allow yourself to feel whatever it is you are feeling at that moment. It is part of the is­ness of the Now. You can’t argue with what is. Well, you can, but if you do, you suffer. Through allowing, you become what you are: vast, spacious. You become whole. You are not a fragment anymore, which is how the ego perceives itself. Your true nature emerges, which is one with the nature of God.

Performing an action in the state of acceptance means you are at peace while you do it. That peace is a subtle energy vibration which then flows into what you do.

If you can neither enjoy or bring acceptance to what you do – stop. Otherwise, you are not taking responsibility for the only thing you can really take responsibility for, which also happens to be one thing that really matters: your state of consciousness.”

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Enjoyment

“Joy is the dynamic aspect of Being. When the creative power of the universe becomes conscious of itself, it manifests as joy.

When you make the present moment, instead of past and future, the focal point of your life, your ability to enjoy what you do – and with it the quality of your life – increases dramatically.

Joy does not come from what you do, it flows into what you do and thus into this world from deep within you. To be more precise, what you are enjoying is not really the outward action but the inner dimension of consciousness that flows into the action. This is finding the joy of Being in what you are doing.“

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Enthusiasm

“Enthusiasm means there is deep enjoyment in what you do plus the added element of a goal or a vision that you work toward.

Through enthusiasm you enter into full alignment with the outgoing creative principle of the universe, but without identifying with its creations, that is to say, without ego.

Sustained enthusiasm brings into existence a wave of creative energy, and all you have to do then is ‘ride the wave.”

- Eckhart Tolle, “A New Earth”

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Invocation:

“Life lives through me.”

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Grace

Dear Grace,

Please walk with me today.

Please whisper divine wisdom in my ears,

Please reveal magic to my eyes,

Please touch my skin with life’s vibrant energy.

Divine Grace, I am open to unconditional love and I allow this love to:

Infuse my thoughts,

Prepare my words, and

Animate my movement.

Dear Grace, let me be a vessel

for your love to live through.

- Patti Wardlaw

The Power of Presence: Revealing the Illusion of time(class four of winter session 2021)

“The separation between past, present and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one.”
- Albert Einstein

“Everything seems to be subject to time, yet it all happens in the Now. That is the paradox. Wherever you look there is plenty of circumstantial evidence for the reality of time - yet you never find direct evidence, you never experience time itself. You only experience the present moment, or rather what happens in it.”

- Eckhart Tolle, “The Power of Now”

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Dear Wise Women,

Last week we (re)discovered how “present moment awareness” or “being present” activates a higher vibration we call “presence”.

With a spirit of wonder I asked you to feel how attunement with the vibration of presence IS the transformation of consciousness that we so desire. Paradoxically, we think of the “awakening of consciousness” as a future event when, in truth, it can only happen when humanity becomes fully present.

This makes me WONDER, and I invite you to wonder with me….

• “What if we no longer viewed awakening as a future event, but instead assumed it is happening right now?”

• “What if how we perceive time is only that, a perception?”

• “What if there was more power in presence than we could possibly imagine? What if presence, as vibrational energy, has the ability to positively influence our experience of clock time, as well as past and future events?”

As with all wonderings, these questions are valuable, not because they have specific answers, but because of the additional questions and imaginings that that they provoke. Though I will provide some pointers, I encourage you to focus more on what is possible than what is proven. For, as we have learned, it is in the wondering about what is possible that we gain access to a portal where unimagined possibilities are created!

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“Time is not what you think it is. Time is a construct. You can learn to work with time in the same way you can work with any idea. Time only serves as an aspect of consciousness that all agree on. Reality expands and contracts millions of times per second. Time is fluid. It is nested, spiraled, and convoluted in many ways. The past, present, and future are all happening and interacting simultaneously.

Each expansion and contraction allows you to change the reality of the next moment. Invite yourself to expand what you experience—shift your belief of what is possible. Shift your perception to expand to all that is holding your reality in place! Although you may not yet understand this, your actions in the present can alter past and future events. Your future events can alter the present and so on.”

- St. Germain, Maureen J.. Waking Up in 5D: A Practical Guide to Multidimensional Transformation

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The idea that the past, present and future are happening and interacting simultaneously is difficult to grasp and may even seem a little far fetched. Yet supportive theories have been and continue to be developed by physicists worldwide. I do not pretend to fully understand this, and I certainly cannot explain it at an intellectual level…yet something about it just feels true.

What feels even more true to me is that there is much more going on than we can ever understand or perceive. The following passage from Eckhart Tolle helps to understand and bring this into a practical context.

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“Usually, the future is a replica of the past. Superficial changes are possible, but real transformation is rare and depends upon whether you can become present enough to dissolve the past by accessing the power of the Now. What you perceive as future is an intrinsic part of your state of consciousness now. If your mind carries a heavy burden of past, you will experience more of the same. The past perpetuates itself through lack of presence. The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future - which, of course, can only be experienced as the Now.”

- Eckhart Tolle, “The Power of Now”

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CLOCK TIME VERSUS PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME

Eckhart Tolle suggests that “we learn to use time in the practical aspects of our lives - we may call this ‘clock time’ - but immediately return to present-moment awareness when those practical matters have been dealt with. In this way, there will be no build-up of ‘psychological time’, which is identification with the past and continuous compulsive projection into the future.”

In his book the Power of Now, which the excerpt above and below are from, Eckhart Tolle suggests that time is an illusion not from a quantum physicist’s perspective but from the very simple fact that there is never a time when your life is not “this moment.” This fact is so obvious that it might even seem meaningless, but once fully realized, it can cut like a sword through all the mind-created layers of complexity and “problems.”

Be aware of clock-time and let go of psychological time.

“If you set yourself a goal and work toward it, you are using clock time. You are aware of where you want to go, but you honour and give your fullest attention to the step that you are taking at this moment. If you then become excessively focused on the goal, perhaps because you are seeking happiness, fulfillment, or a a more complete sense of self in it, the Now is no longer honoured. It becomes reduced to a mere stepping stone to the future, with no intrinsic value. Clock time then turns into psychological time. Your life’s journey is no longer an adventure, just an obsessive need to arrive, to attain, to “make it.” You no longer see or smell the flowers by the wayside either, nor are you aware of the beauty and the miracle of life that unfolds all around you when you are present in the Now.”

NOTICE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CLOCK-TIME/ NOTICE HOW YOU TALK ABOUT TIME:

One of the biggest obstacles to maintaining presence is our relationship with clock time! How, after-all, do we be fully present to Now when there appears to be so much that “needs “to be done by a specific time in the future?

A clue to unravelling this conundrum may be in deconstructing our beliefs around the following commonly used expressions:

“If only I could manage my time better!”

”I ran out of time!”

”There is never enough time in a day.”

”I saved so much time today!”

”What should we do to fill the time?”

“When will I ever find the time to get finish this project.”

“Stop wasting time!”

“I’m just killing time.”

“I was robbed of time”

”Where did the time go?

“Time flies by too fast.”

Can you spot the paradoxes in each of these statements? Can you see how our perceived ability to control time is the work of our identified egos… and a recipe for endless suffering?

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YOU CAN STRETCH TIME, ADOPT THE MANTRA: “ON TIME, IN PLENTY OF TIME”

“When you believe you have plenty of time, you actually stretch time. You might say you are not stretching time; you are stretching your experience of it. In essence it is the same.”

Try this the next time you are in a rush and starting to “worry that you will be late.”

1. As you notice that your focus is on the negative possibility, on what you don’t want, change your thought to “I can arrive on time.”

2. Use your imagination—don’t look at the clock. Instead, see time compressing, expanding, and bending to serve your purposes.

3. Then, when you arrive at your destination, notice in your imagination that it was perfect timing. And don’t look at the clock afterward either! Instead know you have created divine timing.
   

   - St. Germain, Maureen J.. Waking Up in 5D: A Practical Guide to Multidimensional Transformation

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INVOCATION:

“I see through the illusion of time and reveal the magic of this moment”

Photograph taken by Katrina Campbell, follow on instagram at km_bella

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Dear “Time”

I am sorry

Please forgive me

for believing I was bigger than you,

for thinking I could

manage you,

control you,

shrink you,

waste you,

and even lose you.

I am sorry

for blaming you,

resenting you,

and feeling stressed “by” you.

Oh Time,

How misunderstood you have been,

viewed as an object and an enemy

instead of celebrated for who you really are:

a mere marker of the

endless, eternal and infinite Now.

- Patti Wardlaw

The Power of Presence (class three of winter session 2021)

Photo by wise women Katrina Campbell. You may follow Katrina on instagram at km_bella

This We Have Now

This we have now
is not imagination.

This is not
grief or joy.

Not a judging state,
or an elation,
or sadness.

Those come and go.
This is the presence that doesn't.

- Rumi

(excerpt from the translation of Rumi by Coleman Barks.)

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“The Universe is continuously emerging as a fresh creation at every moment. All point to this same, extraordinary insight. The Universe is not static, nor is its continuation assured. Instead, the Universe is like a cosmic hologram that is being continuously upheld and renewed at every instant. A universal encouragement found across the world’s wisdom traditions is to live in the ‘NOW.’ This core insight has a clear basis in physics: The present moment is the place of direct connection with the entire Universe as it arises continuously. Each moment is a fresh formation of the Universe, emerging seamlessly and flawlessly.”

The present moment is the place of direct connection with the entire Universe.

― Alexis Karpouzos, Cosmology: Philosophy & Physics

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Dear Wise Women,

Last week we explored how asking “I wonder” and “what” shifts the energy and opens a portal to additional information, information that is not retrievable from the lower dimensional vibration that is induced when we ask linear questions such as “why, how, when and where”. 

Together, we explored how fully opening our heart to wonder is akin to childbirth. How accessing a higher dimension of being requires us to lean into our resistance and discomfort and to embrace the contraction that inevitably precedes all expansion. With this analogy, I asked you to view yourself as a midwife to the birth of a higher consciousness.

Today we add presence to our midwifery bag of tools. We will discover or, more aptly, RE-discover the Power of Presence. 

I say RE-discover because I ask each of you to venture into this discovery with a sense of wonder. I invite you to approach the word “presence” as though you have never heard it before, for as we have learned this opens us up to new energies and heightens our ability to receive information that we may not have received otherwise (in Buddhism, this is referred to as cultivating a “Beginners Mind”).

Presence will be our topic for this week and next. This week we will feel into the magic of presence and next week we will explore what is possible when we open up to other ways of experiencing what we call “time”.

We begin by contemplating the subtle differences between PRESENT MOMENT AWARENESS and PRESENCE. This summation is based on my experiences and the perspective of various trusted teachers.

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Present moment awareness is something we practice.

Presence is something we become.

Present moment awareness opens the portal to a higher vibration.

Presence is the higher vibration.

Present moment awareness is the birthing process.

Presence is the creation.

When we practice being present by bringing our awareness to this moment and embracing it exactly as it is we open a portal to a higher vibration that causes the mind to harmonize with the heart - and in this moment we experience the magical creation of NOW. This IS the emergence of the higher consciousness, heaven on earth, or fifth dimensional experience we are talking about.
REMEMBERING IS THE RE-BIRTH!

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“The more you are willing to just let the world be something you’re aware of, the more it will let you be who you are — the awareness, the self, the atman, the soul.”

- Michael Singer, “The Untethered Soul”

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“Joy, abundance, and health are automatic by-products of present moment awareness. Like our Inner Presence, they are already within us. It is our attention that is elsewhere.”

— Michael Brown, “The Presence Process”

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“The foundation for a new earth is a new heaven - the awakened consciousness. The earth - external reality - is only its outer reflection. The arising of a new heaven and by implication a new earth are not future events that are going to make us free. Nothing is going to make us free because only the present moment can make us free. That realization is the awakening.”

“Awakening as a future event has no meaning because awakening is the realization of Presence. “

- Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

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The Magic (and importance) of Dreamtime

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“Waking up is the recognition that the eternal now is all you have. Waking up in fifth dimension is different from your current form of waking up. This should be obvious, but for the sake of discussion it is useful to say so. You will find that your rest will become deeper and deeper as you become more fifth-dimensional. You may realize that you have trouble “waking up” in the morning or awakening from naps. This is real. This is a new function of waking up in fifth dimension. This is because you are going deeper, connecting with other versions of you, and waking up your inner awareness of who you really are!

Certain alignments take place in the dreamtime that are essential to our ever-present now. Help yourself by choosing to slow down the wake-up process: allow your body to drift slowly into awareness from the dreamtime in order to bring your most evolved essence back into your body. This is your opportunity to maximize higher dimensional energies. Your physical rest is your time away from the body. You also may be bringing in a better version of the body you have.

One of the most important circumstances that keeps you out of fifth dimension is not getting enough sleep. In fact you may need much more sleep than you may think is necessary. Longer sleep times take you deeper and deeper into your fifth dimensional expression. This is because during these deeper rest periods you are able to recalibrate with your higher vibrational self which allows you to maintain your fifth dimensional self while waking.”

St. Germain, Maureen J.. Waking Up in 5D: A Practical Guide to Multidimensional Transformation

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INVOCATION:

“I am recalibrating to the vibration of the present moment”

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“In the stillness of your presence, you can feel your own formless and timeless reality as the unmanifested life that animates your physical form. You can then feel the same life deep within every other human and every other creature. You look beyond the veil of form and separation.

This is the realization of oneness. This is love.”

- Eckhart Tolle, “The Power of Now”

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The Embrace of Presence

Like a warm blanket

allow presence to wrap you up,

comfort you,

and hold you.

There is nothing to do

but to allow.

For the embrace of presence

awaits you

like a mother waiting to hold her newborn child.

All you must do is open up

enough 

to receive.

- Patti Wardlaw

The Power of Wonder (class two of winter session 2021)

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“To me it is enough to wonder at the secrets.”

- Albert Einstein

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“Whoever is devoid of the capacity to wonder, whoever remains unmoved, whoever cannot contemplate or know the deep shudder of the soul in enchantment, might just as well be dead for he has already closed his eyes upon life.”

- Albert Einstein

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Dear Wise Women,

Last week I invited you to feel into the immense opportunity presented to us. I asked you to consider and open up to the possibility that powerful forces are aligning for there to be a major shift in human consciousness - a paradigm shift from the low vibration energy of fear to the high vibration energy of love.

With the understanding that a “new heaven’”is the emergence of a transformed state of human consciousness, and “a new earth” is its reflection in the physical realm”, I invited you to begin each day by stating the following mantra: “I’m asking for a day of heaven on earth for myself and everyone I come in contact with”, or more simply the affirmation of “I’m having a day of heaven on earth”

The realization of heaven on earth or higher dimensional living means, amongst many things, an end to extreme polarities and to a balanced embodiment of divine masculine and divine feminine in all beings. As we move towards this new vibration, we are seeing an increase in the flare-up of polarities, both in the outer world and within our inner experiences. This is to be expected - for nothing is birthed without labour pains.

The challenge is this: Can we greet each painful contraction with fierce love and openness? As we know, a mother who closes in on the pain of labour will have a very difficult delivery. And so we must ask ourselves, how can we support the birthing process, both for ourselves, each other and for mother earth herself?

I invite you to see yourself as a midwife to this great birth…to be patient, calm, resolute, focused and aware of what is needed and when. Let us answer this call and begin our work! Each week we will add another tool to our midwifery bag. Many of these tools will be familiar to you, and together, we will re-explore their power!

We begin our journey by exploring the vehicle of WONDER!

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REPLACE “WHY” WITH “WONDER”

“I wonder” is infused with love, inclusion and abundance.

“Why” implies fear, exclusion and scarcity.

“I wonder” activates curiosity, non-linear thinking and healthy discernment.

“Why” activates judgement, linear thinking and limited possibilities.

“I wonder” opens the heart.

“Why” closes the heart.

When we say “I wonder what is going on?” we open up the door to new possibilities and activate a shift to higher dimensions.

When we say “Why me?” or “Why is this happening?” we close the door and lock ourselves and others into the lower dimensions of victim and victor, polarity and duality.

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Use the power of wonder to transform your questions…and watch what happens!!

“Get in the habit of noticing your questions. Do you ask so that you can assess a situation or compartmentalize it (such as as good or bad)? This is using your mind (mental body) alone. Once you decode whether something is good or bad, then you are compartmentalizing. This keeps you in third dimension. In fifth dimension, nothing is either good or bad.

The questions based on “Who? When? Where? and Why?” are guaranteed to keep you in polarity. They do this by gathering information that allows you to compartmentalize the answer and solve it with your ego. Only the “What?” or “Wonder?” questions are open ended enough for you to get all the information. Understanding this guides you to ask certain kinds of questions in particular ways that don’t reflect polarity. For example, instead of asking, “Why did this happen?” or “Who did this?” or “When did this happen?” you can ask “What’s going on?”

Amazingly, when you pay attention to how you ask you may discover a whole lot more information that was just waiting to enter your consciousness! When you use your heart to decide, you are honouring both your mind and your emotions. This allows you to validate your observations and choose wisely!”

- Maureen J St. Germain, “Waking Up in 5D: A Practical Guide to Multidimensional Transformation”

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CHANGE YOUR QUESTIONS AND CHANGE THE VIBRATION OF THE MOMENT

Begin to notice every time you say “Who? When? Where? and Why?”

Make it a habit to catch yourself saying these words and to pause and notice your energy and your heart in that moment - does it feel open or closed?

Notice when others use these words and notice the language that follows, become adept at spotting polarizing language and judgements. Try responding with “Yes, I wonder what is really going on?”, or “Hmmm that makes me wonder”. Then notice the shift in energy that occurs. Feel it with your heart and try your best to not analyze with your mind. Every time you do this you are upping the frequency of your heart’s vibration and transmitting this frequency to those around you.

Obviously, you and others will still need to use these words for basic logistical communication and you will spot the difference when used in this way (it will just feel neutral).

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“Spirituality is a wonderment with the experience of being.”

- Adyashanti

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Begin to Wonder at Absolutely Everything!

I took this photo a few days ago. Like many photos taken in the sunlight it has a patch of light in it. Years ago, I was told that these patches of light were “orbs” or messengers from the spirit world. Later on, I learned that they were simply specks of dust reflecting the light (known as backscatter in photography jargon) and I stopped feeling any excitement when they showed up in my photos.

Lately, I’ve decided not to ask “WHY” it is there here, but instead I simply “WONDER” about it. And guess what? Every time I do this an image appears within the light. I am mindful not to explain the appearance of the image away with logic. I just allow myself to feel the magic of what appears, and, in doing so, I feel a shift in my energy. It’s not about forming a new belief, it’s about opening up to the mystery. Its about being playful, curious and full of wonder… and it feels amazing!

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INVOCATION:

“I release the need to know and I open my heart to the power of wonder”

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“Being at ease with not knowing is crucial for answers to come to you.”

- Eckhart Tolle

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Wonder

Have you ever gazed up at the starry sky

and felt your body disappear?

Swept up by the mystery

the magnitude

the magic.

If so, how long were you able to stay in that sensation?

Was it just for a mere moment?

Or did it feel like a millennium?

Did your mind run interference and explain away what you were seeing

and bring you “back to earth”?

Or did your heart explode into the vastness

and take you into an experience of timelessness,

to a realm where there is no “you” and no “stars”… there just is?

The first is a response to asking:

“why are there stars”?

The second is a response to asking:

“I wonder what I am seeing”?

- Patti Wardlaw

The New Earth is not a place: it is a Vibration we are Becoming (class one of winter session 2021)

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.”

- Rumi (middle verse from “A Great Wagon”

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“AWAKENING TO OUR TRUE NATURE: Attuning to the Frequency of Oneness”

Both scientists and mystics agree that there is far more going on dimensionally than we can sense and feel with our senses. Many believe that we are currently experiencing a new era in human evolution. This “new era” is known by many different names; some call it the “New Earth”, others refer to it as the “Fifth Dimension”, astrologists understand it as the “Age of Aquarius”, some call it the creation of “Heaven on Earth”, and others simply refer to it as the realization of “Oneness.”

All seem to agree that this new earth/new age/new era is NOT a place we are going to, but is a VIBRATION we are BECOMING! It is a shift from the low frequency vibration of FEAR to the high frequency vibration of LOVE… a vibration that opens up the portal to new possibilities and new ways of being, a vibration that creates solutions to the problems of humanity…solutions we can’t yet imagine!

If this resonates as true to you, chances are that you came to Earth to be part of the solution. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that you (and we) were made for this time!

In our twelve week session and beyond we will we will explore and embody the potentiality of the unique times that we are living in, deepen our understanding of how WONDER, PRESENCE, FORGIVENESS, INTEGRITY, COMPASSION, ACCEPTANCE and GRATITUDE increase our vibratory rate, and open the portal to the new earth and how our HIGHER SELVES and GUIDES are available to help guide us (all we have to do is ask) .

Through qigong and meditation we will experience the invocation of Divine Light and the embodiment of heaven here on earth, in our physical bodies.

We will not be holding back on realizing our truest and highest selves and, as always, we will do so in a safe, practical, warm-hearted and supportive container...a container that will allow each of us to flourish and affect meaningful change in the world!

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A New Heaven and a New Earth

“The inspiration for the title of this book came from a Bible prophecy that seems more applicable now than at any other time in human history. It occurs in both the Old and the New Testament and speaks of the collapse of the existing world order and the arising of a “new heaven and a new earth.” We need to understand here that heaven is not a location but refers to the inner realm of consciousness. This is the esoteric meaning of the word, and this is also its meaning in the teachings of Jesus. Earth, on the other hand, is the outer manifestation in form, which is always a reflection of the inner. Collective human consciousness and life on our planet are intrinsically connected. “A new heaven” is the emergence of a transformed state of human consciousness, and “a new earth” is its reflection in the physical realm.

-Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, 2005

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Ascension and the Five Dimensions

At this point in human history, everyone is getting the wake-up call. For some, they are magnetically drawn to challenge what they valued, along with their current choices. This spiritual awakening is part of the Great Shift that has been predicted for ages. It began with the so-called end of the Mayan calendar. Many teachers are calling it Ascension. It’s not the end of the line but a shift so great that it might seem to be. It is actually the beginning of amazing, powerful energy and frequencies that unhook us from our past patterns and make it easy for us to transform. Many of us have been waiting a long time for this! This big shift is the transformation of an age.

St. Germain, Maureen J.. Waking Up in 5D: A Practical Guide to Multidimensional Transformation (p. 48).

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The Dawn of a New Era

On December 21, 2020 at the time of the winter solstice, a new era dawned with the closest planetary conjunction in the sign of Air in 800 years (Jupiter and Saturn are only 6 minutes apart). Each time this conjunction changes elements – what qualities society structures itself around and how it learns from them changes according to the element.

While this conjunction took place in Earth signs, our quality and curriculum was of the earth element: we learned stability, self-reliance, security, discipline and to function in the material world. We entered the Age of Industrialization which changed the nature of work, labour and economics. Let us take a moment to be grateful for the lessons and gifts of the Earth element: embodiment, mastery of creating stability, incremental growth and relative prosperity and security for many but not all. The shadow aspects of the earth element include abdicating our power to authorities, preoccupation with security, warring for territory, warring to enforce particular value systems on others, greed at the expense of others, dictatorships, authoritarianism, materialism, exclusiveness and the exploitation of our planet to meet our unquenchable desires has also brought many lessons and opportunities for transformation.

Can we step now through the eye of the needle into a broader life expression? Can we insist that all of our brothers and sisters are welcome to accompany us? Can we shake off control and fear and step into freedom, sovereignty, humanitarianism and vision? The new era of Air which this conjunction represents these qualities and more – innovation, energy healing, communication, technology, the science of energy, frequency, and vibration.

- Ariel Learoyd, Astrologist and Wholistic Counsellor

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In these times that are very tough for so many with lockdowns, extreme financial hardship and mental stress, our overriding instinct has to be kindness. With everything that comes in as a challenge to your world, step back and ask: 'WHAT WOULD LOVE DO?' before you respond.

Yes, in 2021 we have a wild ride ahead of us, often chaotic and unpredictable. But as more of us wake up, and we will, the momentum will shift even faster towards the New Earth. Some people are already there as this is not a change in place, it's a change in frequency which we can access at any moment. The way to do that is through kindness, compassion, joy and unconditional love. So live in your heart, and beam out peace to the world, especially when events are so heated. The more we can feel love, joy and peace in our hearts the more we develop 'heart coherence' which is measurable, and expands our electro-magnetic field.

- Pam Gregory, Astrologist

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CREATING HEAVEN ON EARTH

Photo taken in Calgary, Alberta by wise woman, Katrina Campbell

You are the container, and consciousness bubbles up from within you. You can have a narrow pipe or a giant-sized one. It’s up to you. You can open it with your will, your intention. You can also close it with your fear, judgment, rage, disappointment, and other negative emotions. Early in my spiritual work, I was shown how to ask for “a day of Heaven on Earth.” You can too. Start with that. Make every day a good one by using a simple prayer: I’m asking for a day of Heaven on Earth for me and everyone I come in contact with.

St. Germain, Maureen J.. Waking Up in 5D: A Practical Guide to Multidimensional Transformation

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INVOCATION:
(practice saying this every morning, before you get out of bed and several times throughout the day)

”I’m having a day of Heaven on Earth”

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The Circle of Presence

The circle of presence is a sacred space for speaking, listening and connecting. In our circle, we pass a heart shaped stone to represent our shared desire to open our hearts. Whoever is holding the stone is free to speak or remain silent while receiving full and unconditional presence of all other participants. The subtle energy created from using this respectful approach provides a sense of communion and interconnectedness.

• The person holding the stone has the opportunity to freely express in any way that is comfortable. She is safe to say whatever is in her heart.

• The person with the stone receives full attention from everyone in the circle. Listeners make every effort to listen attentively without forming judgements or comparisons (to listen to what is being said without relating it back to one’s own experience is one of the most divine gifts one can give to another). 

• After all have had a chance to share, participants will have another opportunity to speak by asking to hold the stone.

• Participants refrain from making comments or offering advice about what someone else has shared (positive relation to what someone else has spoken is welcome). 

• When passing the stone, visualize it as pure and clean and pass it on.

• As the facilitator, Patti may further relate or expand on what has been shared through her teachings. When the sharing circle is complete, participants may freely ask Patti questions about the teachings (holding the stone is not required during this interactive period).

•  The personal nature of what is shared is confidential to the circle. 

• Connection and communication outside of the sharing circle (during tea time before and after class) is welcome. Please be mindful and respectful that some participants may not not wish to further discuss what they shared in the circle.

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Dreaming

Could it be?

Could this be the time we have been waiting for?

That we were born for?

A time of transformation

and new possibilities?

The beginning of the end of

war

hatred

violence

winning

and losing?

Could it really be?

Or am I just a dreamer?

Dreaming that the shift is real,

that the veils are thinning,

that a new Way is possible.

Maybe so, but think I’ll keep on dreaming…

what if dreaming is what makes it real?

Will you dream with me?

- Patti Wardlaw

Embrace Hope...Embrace an Awakened Life on Earth

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness.”

- Desmond Tutu

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

- Martin Luther King Jr.

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In Mahayana Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person well on their way toward enlightenment who chooses to use their wisdom to help other human beings liberate themselves. On the threshold of an enlightened life, such a wisdom-being refuses to cross over, committing to wait till all beings can come and join. What moves me is the implicit truth that a bodhisattva knows that all will never come. And so, in essence, he or she embraces an awakened life on Earth. Not shaping or purifying others, but wandering authentically among the living.

- Mark Nepo

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Last week, we considered the possibility of joy being something quite different than most of us have been taught. Rather than joy being an emotion akin to happiness, we contemplated the idea that joy is a relationship we have with our emotional body in which we allow ourselves to feel all emotional states moving through our field of experience - a conscious communion with the vibrational in which we feel the elation of being alive. As we have learned and continue to learn, we access this communion when we are willing to listen beyond the voice in our head and tune into the energy (or the music) of the present moment. When we have the courage and the will to do so, we reveal a world of wonder and awe.

Today, as we conclude our autumn session, I wish to explore Hope. Discussing hope is timely as we are now in the season of hope - the midpoint of winter, the darkest period of the solar cycle. Throughout many cultures there are tales describing this time as the birth of the archetypal Sun King - including the Christian story of Jesus’s birth - representing the hope of renewal .(Steven Farmer).

I believe that, like Joy, the real meaning of Hope has become lost for many. So much so that many spiritual teachers including Pema Chodron suggest that we abandon hope. She is not suggesting we enter despair, quite the opposite, in fact.

If we're willing to give up hope that insecurity and pain can be exterminated then we can have the courage to relax with the groundlessness of our situation. This is the first step on the path... ...if we totally experience hopelessness, giving up all hope of alternatives to the present moment, we can have a joyful relationship with our lives, an honest, direct relationship, one that no longer ignores the reality of impermanence and death.

- Pema Chodron, “When Things Fall Apart”

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What Pema is suggesting is that we give up hope as we have come to know it, which is a wish for something other than the present moment. The invitation is to give up on this kind of hope …and embrace hope (or dream) as a state of being and not a place to arrive at.

We get so caught up in whether the dream comes true or falls away, when its purpose is to charge the circuit of life between us. I now think of dreams differently: not as individual aspirations, but more as transpersonal conduits of grace; filaments of soul that helps us find each other and illumine the world. When we can feel a dream moving through - and drop its name, even more, drop its game - it expands us with a moment of aliveness that enlights us, lightens us from within.

- Mark Nepo

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“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”

- Vaclav Havel, former President of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Rebublic

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Imagine a Woman I & II
by Patricia Lynn Reilly

Imagine a woman who believes it is right and good she is a woman.

A woman who honors her experience and tells her stories.

Who refuses to carry the sins of others within her body and life.

Imagine a woman who trusts and respects herself.

A woman who listens to her needs and desires.

Who meets them with tenderness and grace.

Imagine a woman who acknowledges the past’s influence on the present.

A woman who has walked through her past.

Who has healed into the present.

Imagine a woman who authors her own life.

A woman who exerts, initiates, and moves on her own behalf.

Who refuses to surrender except to her truest self and wisest voice.

Imagine a woman who names her own gods.

A woman who imagines the divine in her image and likeness.

Who designs a personal spirituality to inform her daily life.

Imagine a woman in love with her own body.

A woman who believes her body is enough, just as it is.

Who celebrates its rhythms and cycles as an exquisite resource.

Imagine a woman who honours the body of the Goddess in her changing body.

A woman who celebrates the accumulation of her years and her wisdom.

Who refuses to use her life-energy disguising the changes in her body and life.

Imagine a woman who values the women in her life.

A woman who sits in circles of women.

Who is reminded of the truth about herself when she forgets.

Imagine yourself as this woman.

II

Imagine a woman who is interested in her own life.

A woman who embraces her life as teacher, healer, and challenge.

Who is grateful for the ordinary moments of beauty and grace.

Imagine a woman who participates in her own life.

A woman who meets each challenge with creativity.

Who takes action on her own behalf with clarity and strength.

Imagine a woman who has crafted a fully-formed solitude.

A woman who is available to herself.

Who chooses friends and lovers with the capacity to respect her solitude.

Imagine a woman who acknowledges the full range of human emotion.

A woman who expresses her feelings clearly and directly.

Who allows them to pass through her as naturally as the breath.

Imagine a woman who tells the truth.

A woman who trusts her experience of the world and expresses it.

Who refuses to defer to the perceptions, thoughts, and responses of others.

Imagine a woman who follows her creative impulses.

A woman who produces original creations.

Who refuses to colour inside someone else's lines.

Imagine a woman who has relinquished the desire for intellectual approval.

A woman who makes a powerful statement with every action she takes.

Who asserts to herself the right to reorder the world.

Imagine a woman who has grown in knowledge and love of herself.

A woman who has vowed faithfulness to her own life.

Who remains loyal to herself. Regardless.

Imagine yourself as this woman.

Reveal Love...don't chase It

There is no greater mystery than this, that we keep seeking reality though in fact we are reality.”

- Ramana Maharshi

Not accepting this paradox is the cause of much of our suffering, as we are forever chasing horizons, forever searching for some secret of life other than where we are.

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“There is the search that chases life and the search that reveals life.”

Still the impulse to search is natural and human. We are born with a thirst for love and truth and meaning. But the deeper forms of search have no destination. At these deeper levels, we search more like fish who keep swimming because if they don’t keep water moving through their gills, they will die. Astonishingly, It doesn’t matter where they go, just that they go. For creatures living in the deep, this endless search is a way of being.

As spirits in bodies living on Earth, we swim through the rivers of time and experience, and the heart is our gill.

- Mark Nepo

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The search that reveals life is different than the search for gold, or an image of love, or an image of God. The storyteller Margo McLoughlin says, “I know my practice is slipping when I don’t feel wonder or awe.” This is a good way to discern if we’ve drifted from the search that reveals life-where-we-are to the search which assumes that what matters is always somewhere else. When these deep teachers remain absent too long, we must renew the deeper practice of searching without searching, of seeking with no destination. We must relax and open the gill of the heart.

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When we are involved in the the pursuit of happiness, we assume that joy in an emotion. We imagine that joy is a state other than what we are currently experiencing - a state in which we feel exceedingly happy all the time.

Joy may be expressed physically, mentally, and emotionally, but it is not an emotion. Joy is a relationship we have with our emotional body in which we allow ourselves to feel all emotional states moving through our field of experience. It is a conscious communion with the vibrational. Joy takes us into The Kingdom of Life, where all is constantly created anew.

Michael Brown, “Inner Alchemy”

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In the stillness of the morning I hear the whispers

calling me to expand

to release this illusion that I call “My life”.

And in those lucid moments of awakening

when my mind is not active enough to filter this voice

I feel the fullness and the vibration of

Love.

Joy.

Truth.

I Am Life.

I Am One.

I Am Divine.

There is no separation.

- Patti Wardlaw

Hold Nothing Back

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We are now ready to explore the third and final friendship - our friendship with each other. Mark Nepo says, that there are three intertwined and inseparable friends that we need to stay connected to if we want to live an awakened life - three friendships that we must listen our way into a: our friendship with everything larger than us (the work of being), our friendship with our experiences (the work of being human) and our friendship with each other (the work of love).

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“In order to live in this world, you have to be truly and completely in love.”
- Rumi

There is a love which itself has the power to free the human heart. Many remarkable people live in testament to this love, even though they are held in jail cells and prisons, or suffer the harsh conditions imposed by poverty, racism, adversity, war, and occupation. The truth of this love is that, if we can be uprooted from our daily preoccupations and taken by direct experience into its presence, then a profound transformation is possible. Whoever arrives at this place looks at the world differently. The distinctions on the surface no longer exist. Here it is possible to suspend our certainties and touch something greater: the Spirit within us.

- Richard Rohr

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How I LOVE people. I love how we root and bloom, how we twine around each other and reach for the light, how as far as we grow in the dark of the Earth is as far as we stand in the world. How being human, we are always charged with the vibrancy of a larger presence. How the complexity of our humanity mirrors this larger presence.

In truth, we mirror everything living as we climb and stumble our way up the mountain to the cliff of yes.

I recognize each person I come across because I am each on any given day. What matters is whether I shun those who bear my flaws or help them up; whether I turn away when this larger presence seems too strong or keep my birth-eyes open; whether I find a way to meet what is incomprehensible and somehow draw strength from it.

What matters is if we can make it to the cliff of yes and shout our secrets to the sky till Heaven is the song we choose to sing on Earth.

This raises a central question: What is the proper use of our will? How useful is it to insist that we can will things to happen, if we are seeds growing into roots and shoots breaking ground? What if will is how we give our all to that growth? What if will is the sacred gritty act of holding nothing back?

Perhaps this is the work of love: to hold nothing back. Brother David Steindl-Rast reminds us that I believe means I give my heart to this. Perhaps, despite our lists of dos and don’ts, belief is less about the assumptions or conclusions we enshrine as principles and more about our devotion to engage and listen to life.

Of course we don’t stay rooted in one place. And so, a paradox and challenge for every spirit born to Earth is how to inhabit a thoroughness of being wherever life takes us. This leads to a life of compassion, of being with other living things in a way that lets them grow. This too is the work of love.

Long ago, a disciple of Confuscius, Zi Gon, asked, “Is there any one word that could guide a person throughout life?” The master replied, “How about shu (reciprocity)? Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.”

This is another form of holding nothing back and giving your heart to another. This is one of the earliest voicings of the golden rule.

All of us are roots and shoots in the human garden. As far as we root in the earth is as far as we sprout in the world. Each of us destined to find our particular path to the light, so much depending on whether we choke each other or not along the way.

- Mark Nepo

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Discernment

“A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction
is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please,
or worse, to avoid trouble…”
– Mahatma Gandhi

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Discernment is one of those words that has its own innate intelligence and power. At its root, it means to separate and distinguish….but this definition barely scratches the surface of what it means to discern.

It was Pamela Wilson who first taught me the real meaning of discernment and she did so, not by defining it or speaking about it, but by gifting me with a visceral feeling of it. It is a feeling and a knowing that comes from the depths of the stomach and carries the strength of forty elephants.

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Let’s hear what a few of the “experts” have to say on discernment:

Discern means to detect with the senses.

Discern can be easily learnt by associating it with word concern, as the second half of both the words .i.e. cern is the same, hence giving both the words same sound to some extent. Further, if you have a concern to discern someone’s motives for someone else’s good then you have learnt the word with quite an ease.

- wordpandit.com

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Discernment is not the same as decision making. Reaching a decision can be straightforward: we consider our goals and options; maybe we list the pros and cons of each possible choice; and then we choose the action that meets our goal most effectively. Discernment, on the other hand, is about listening and responding to that place within us where our deepest desires align with God’s desire. As discerning people, we sift through our impulses, motives, and options to discover which ones lead us closer to divine love and compassion for ourselves and other people and which ones lead us further away.

- Richard Rohr

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Judgement says “this is good, that is bad”, “I am right, they are wrong”, “I am awakened, they are not”, and so on, ad infinitum. It separates and divides, and it is the origin of all conflict and violence.

Discernment simply knows what hurts and what doesn’t, and moves intelligently and spontaneously to resolve things without resorting to violence or name-calling, and without the need to be told what is right and what is wrong.

Where does discernment end and judgement begin? That is the fascinating exploration for all of us.

- Jeff Foster

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Discerning Right Action

Everyone has a dark acre between their days and the Source, not dark as in evil or forbidding, but dark in the way that the canopy of a forest filters out light. Crossing this acre is knowing who you are.

Another way to speak of this crossing is what the Hindus call parting the veil of illusion. In hinduism, Maya is the goddess of illusion. The word maya means illusion. It is believed that anything added to reality, to the truth of things as they are, is illusion. This veiling power of illusion creates the ignorance of the individual self that thinks it is separate from the rest of life.

We can look at the world through the veils of illusion, with all its possessiveness and isolation, as the prevailing story of conflict across time. And we can look at the interrelated unity of all life that waits beneath our illusions as the perennial, transforming story of spirit and love.

If we think of illusion as a persistent fog, what do we do when we encounter fog?

The first thing is to stand still till we can get our bearings. We try then to discern if the fog is temporary or something we have to live with. If permanent, do we live with it or live somewhere else?

The pilgrimage of living with things as they are, changing what is, or starting over is at the heart of humility and a Beginner’s Mind. When the fog of illusion is localized, the practice of serenity outwaits the clouds , while the practice of love and compassion burns off the fog. But when the fog is a cloud in our eye, or mind, or heart, then we must remake how we see, how we think, and how we feel. We must be born anew through a process of self-transformation. This has never been something that can be taught. We can only believe in an unclouded life and keep each other company along the foggy way.

- Mark Nepo

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Parting the Veils

So many clouds

between me and you.

So much smoke

between me and the answer

of what I’m to do.

Decisions to make.

Opinions to sort.

Actions to take.

Wanting clarity, wanting ease.

Yet, the harder I try

the heavier the fog.

And then I laugh, once again

at my attempts to “right” my way to the other side

at my unwillingness to simply stand in the fog

and let it permeate all my senses

without judgement, without an agenda.

I finally surrender

and see the illusion for what it is

and from a very different Source than before

I am able, in this moment,

to discern right action.

- Patti Wardlaw

The Smoky Mirror

Three thousand years ago, there was a human just like you and me who lived near a city surrounded by mountains. The human was studying to become a medicine man, to learn the knowledge of his ancestors, but he didn’t completely agree with everything he was learning. In his heart, he felt there must be something more.

One day, as he slept in a cave, he dreamed that he saw his own body sleeping. He came out of the cave on the night of a new moon. The sky was clear, and he could see millions of stars. Then something happened inside of him that transformed his life forever. He looked at his hands, he felt his body, and he heard his own voice say, “I am made of light; I am made of stars.”

He looked at the stars again, and he realized that it’s not the stars that create light, but rather light that creates the stars. “Everything is made of light,” he said, “and the space in-between isn’t empty.” And he knew that everything that exists is one living being, and that light is the messenger of life, because it is alive and contains all information.

Then he realized that although he was made of stars, he was not those stars. “I am in-between the stars,” he thought. So he called the stars the tonal and the light between the stars the nagual, and he knew that what created the harmony and space between the two is Life or Intent. Without life, the tonal and the nagual could not exist. Life is the force of the absolute, the supreme, the Creator who creates everything.

This is what he discovered: Everything in existence is a manifestation of the one living being we call God. Everything is God. And he came to the conclusion that human perception is merely light perceiving light. He also saw that matter is a mirror – everything is a mirror that reflects light and creates images of that light – and the world of illusion, the Dream, is just like smoke which doesn’t allow us to see what we really are. “The real us is pure love, pure light, “ he said.

This realization changed his life. Once he knew what he really was, he looked around at other humans and the rest of nature, and he was amazed at what he saw. He saw himself in everything – in every human, in every animal, in every tree, in the water, in the rain, in the clouds, in the earth. And he saw that Life mixed the tonal and the nagual in different ways to create billions of manifestations of Life.

In those few moments he comprehended everything. He was very excited, and his heart was filled with peace. He could hardly wait to tell his people what he had discovered. But there were no words to explain it. He tried to tell the others, but they could not understand. They could see that he had changed, that something beautiful was radiating from his eyes and his voice. They noticed that he no longer had judgement about anything or anyone. He was no longer like anyone else.

He could understand everyone very well, but no one could understand him. They believed that he was an incarnation of God, and he smiled when he heard this and he said, “It is true. I am God. But you are also God. We are the same, you and I. We are images of light. We are God.” But still the people didn’t understand him.

He had discovered that he was a mirror for the rest of the people, a mirror in which he could see himself. “Everyone is a mirror, “ he said. He saw himself in everyone, but nobody saw him as themself.

And he realized that everyone was dreaming, but without awareness, without knowing what they really are. They couldn’t see him as themselves because there was a wall of fog or smoke between the mirrors. And that wall of fog was made by the interpretation of images of light – the Dream of humans.

Then he knew that he would soon forget all that he had learned. He wanted to remember all the visions that he had had, so he decided to call himself the Smoky Mirror so that he would always know that matter is a mirror and the smoke in-between is what keeps us from knowing what we are. He said, “I am the Smokey Mirror, because I am looking at myself in all of you, but we don’t recognize each other because of the smoke in-between us. That smoke is the Dream, the mirror is you, the dreamer.”

- Don Miguel Ruiz, “The Four Agreements”

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Walking With our Weariness

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The role of spiritual practice is basically to exhaust the seeker. If the practice does what it’s supposed to do, it exhausts our energy for seeking, and then reality has a chance to present itself.
- Adyashanti

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Being human, we are constantly broken apart by experience. to reconcile our humanness means we are ever learning how to accept our suffering and restore our Wholeness. We are often distracted into thinking we can solidify ourselves against being broken or that we can sidestep suffering. Both are impossible. We are fated by this incarnation to come apart and to be put back together. It is the opening and closing along the way that holds the secrets, and there is no other way to that wisdom than to be fully human and to accept where that leads.
- Mark Nepo

Experience for humans can be what erosion is for the elements. Try as we do to fight it, we are worn to our beauty, a season at a time. - Mark Nepo

Sooner or later we are shown that life is one ongoing conversation. And none of what matters reveals itself unless we stop to listen. When you feel you can’t listen any more, listen some more. When you feel you can’t take any more, let more in. When you feel you can’t give any more, let one more thing go. All of this is the work of being human, from which none of us are exempt.

This is a good time to ask:
What do you do when you’re weary?
What do you do when beauty is close and you feel numb?
How firm is your trust in life these days? If wavering, how can you restore that trust?
Are your connecting points to life dislodged?
Are you being moved along or are you being opened up?
Are you letting fresh experience enter and combine, or are you obsessed with sorting and analyzing what comes your way?
Are you able to listen and receive, or are you observing and manipulating? We all do both.

- Mark Nepo

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How then do we reach for the light and stand in the light? In the face of life’s vast, impenetrable power, how do we not vanish? How do we not let existence crush us? How do we live in the open together? How do we - today, now, in every breath - try, by being real, to find our membership in the cosmic and global community that is greater than any one self?

I suggest that we don’t achieve or arrive at these states, but that we keep enlivening the presence of our soul by staying in relationship with ourselves, each other, and the Whole.

- Mark Nepo

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Exhausted

Weary

Dreary

Teary

“Fight these states”, they say, “don’t let them in”

Lighten Up!

Toughen Up!

Rise Up!

Can you imagine telling

the clouds not to release their rain,

the night not to shadow the earth,

the rock to resist being worn into sand?

Yet this is what we repeatedly tell ourselves

and the telling, in itself, is

Exhausting.

Will we ever become exhausted enough to

stop fighting,

stop trying,

and stop seeking?

So exhausted that we simply collapse into the embrace of stillness

and we Rest

And we See

And we Hear

The Truth?

We are Enough.

- Patti Wardlaw

Living Our Way Into Knowing

In Japanese mythology, the crane becomes immortal at the age of two thousand, when it is done being a crane. And the tortoise becomes immortal at the age of ten thousand when it starts being a wave.

So perhaps the experience is to wear us free of our names.

Perhaps, underneath all the distinctions we can imagine - all spiritual paths are one.

Perhaps all our ambitions and desires are like different cups dipping in the same well at center. And every name - every praise and blame - is such a cup, each holding the same sweet water.

Perhaps it doesn’t matter what carries us to and from that well but only that we drink.

Could experience be for humans what erosion is for the elements? Is the purpose of experience, over a lifetime, to carry us to what matters and then wear us away till we become part of the sweet water the next generation drinks?

If this is so, then what is the work of being human?

There is no tangible answer, any more than we can ask fire why it burns? But like a crane flying steadily till its wings disappear or a tortoise swimming mightily till its shell wears away, we can live our way into knowing.

- Mark Nepo

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This week, we begin exploring what Mark Nepo calls “the work of being human” or "listening into a friendship with our life of experience”, or “opening ourselves to the wisdom of life on Earth.”

Deep Silence, Deep Speech and Deep Questioning

One of our favourite teachers, Pema Chodron speaks about how the Buddhist teaching of the Heart Sutra, appeared. The sanskirt title of the Heart Sutra (sutra means thread or string) is translated as the “The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom" and the sutra states that "Form is empty, emptiness is form." Pema tells the story of how during the teaching of the Heart Sutra, Buddha didn’t say a word. He went into a deep state of meditation and let the bodhissattva of compassion, also known as Kuan-Yin, express his experience on behalf of Buddha. Then one of the principal disciples of Budddha, a monk named Shariputra, began to question Kuan-Yin who, in turn, was inspired by the questions and was able to access an even deeper understanding of what Buddha was conveying through his silence.

In essence, the parable of how the Heart Sutra appears suggests that deep silence, deep speech and deep questioning lead us to a depth of heart that lives below illusion. Our daily practice (in the work of being human) involves living below illusion in the wondrous and gritty nature of things-as-they-are, by listening, translating and questioning our experience.

- Mar Nepo (paraphrased)

Deep Listening
We listen deeply by listening to the Source through immersion, absorption, and presence. We begin by allowing ourselves to sink into the depth of whatever moment we are in.

Deep Speaking
We speak deeply by listening with heart to the Source, no matter who or what conveys it, and translating that presence into meaningful speech. We begin by accepting and working with what we hear. We so filter what we hear through what we believe that we limit what we take in to only what is familiar. Speaking deeply has something to do with letting things pass through our heart as they are.

Deep Questioning
We question deeply by listening to what is offered and surfacing its meaning and usefulness through further questioning and honest dialogue. Think of a deep question as a door that opens between you and what you experience, not as a veiled way to criticize or take things apart, or as a strategy to bide some time till we can pursue our own agenda. What can you ask that will open that door? What can you ask that will let you enter what has been opened? A sign of a a good question is that the questioner is more alive for having asked it.

- Mark Nepo (paraphrased)

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Part of the mystery of Oneness is that, like the sun, its light is everywhere and yet we need to grow toward that Oneness to know its light. To open our experience, we need to enliven our deep listener, deep speaker, and deep questioner. These skills are as essential as walking, breathing, and eating.
- Mark Nepo

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Which part of you - your deep listener, your deep speaker, or your deep questioner - is the most experienced and which needs more of your attention?

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Help me resist the urge

to dispute whether things

are true or false

which is like

arguing whether

it is day or night.

It is always

one or the other

somewhere in the world.

Together, we can penetrate

a higher truth which

like the sun is always

being conveyed.

- Mark Nepo

Becoming A Conduit of Grace

Grace is not knowledge or reason, but rather, grace is the amount of light in our souls.
- Pope Francis

When we can meet life with an open heart, receiving becomes indistinguishable from giving and we become conduits of grace.
- Mark Nepo

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Returning to what matters involves setting aside our preconceptions and opinions so we can listen to life directly. Living this directly opens us to the spiritual gravity that pulls us to the common center of all living things.

It is the pull to center that asks us to lean into all we don’t know. Leaning into life is the work of intuition, the chance to discover the learnings we are born with, the way a seed discovers the flower it will become.

The work of being is to listen deeply, to experience the one living sense that connects all things….the Source of all, the connection that holds the history of presence and wisdom.

- Mark Nepo

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Life waits full-born in the moments of our lives. How we meet and listen to these moments unfolds the path of our own transformation.

So the task now is to slow down enough and be present enough to enter each moment that calls.

How we recognize and see a moment can give us insight. This is valuable by itself.

To relate to and feel a moment can strengthen our heart through compassion and humility. This too is valuable by itself.

But when we can enter a moment, the world touches us with its unwavering illumination. Listening at such an intimate and complete level allows us the privilege of being permanently touched by what we encounter. When we can treat what comes our way not as an object but as a meeting with the living, then deep listening evokes a devotion that says, Stay in relationship with everything.

- Mark Nepo

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If the purpose and gift of love is to awaken and rewaken what is dormant within us (our soul), then when awake it is our responsibility to stay awake and keep the gift alive. We do this by deep listening. Not toward a goal or even toward a noble ambition but as a way of life, staying devoted to listening with our heart - more than once, to everything.

Deep listening requires letting go of our internal argument with the world. Before we can truly listen, we must exhaust ourselves of our assumptions. In truth, if we are to ever glimpse the world outside the stubborn certainty of our minds, we have to put down our ready answer to everything. This necessitates an inner discipline.

Every time we speak, we have to discern: are we speaking honestly or just barking from our wall into all we are afraid of? And every time we receive, are we actually hearing the truth of another or are we preparing the next argument like a brick to strengthen our wall?

When we listen deeply, we stumble beautifully into the spaces between our sufferings. This is why we dare to listen, so we might drop together into the truth that holds us all.

This is how we become conduits of Grace.

- Mark Nepo (paraphrased)

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One Living Sense

The urge to describe it is so strong,

yet all words fall short.

The longing to paint it is intense,

yet even the brightest colours pale in comparison to its felt vibrancy.

It is found in each moment that I dare to fully enter,

the space between giving and receiving.

I gasp as I fall into it,

and rediscover that the void I fear

is fuller than the mind could ever imagine.

- Patti Wardlaw

The Heart Is The Needle that Intuits True North

“There’s an art to reading and trusting the heart and mind.
Our mind maps out the directions, while our heart is the needle that intuits true north.”
- Mark Nepo

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We are now on week four of our eleven week journey through our autumn session. Each week we uncover another dimension of listening. Listening, as we have learned has infinite dimensions and there are infinite ways to listen, infinite ways to walk along the path…the path that has no end.

In the words of Mark Nepo…

LISTENING IS THE DOORWAY TO EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS

We awaken our hearts through the reverence of listening our way into lifelong friendships with everything larger than us (this is the work of being), with our life of experience (this is the work of being human) , and with each other (this is the work of love).

As we continue to explore the work of being we are now ready to reveal and develop the gift we are each endowed with - the ability to think and feel and sense our way into all that we don’t know…the art of intuition!

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Intuition is an art of discovery. To intuit means to look upon, to instruct from within, to understand or learn by instinct. And instinct refers to a learning we are born with. So intuition is the very personal way we listen to the Universe in order to discover and rediscover the learnings we are born with.

As such, intuition is a deep form of listening that when trusted can return us to the common, irrepressible element at the center of all life and to the Oneness of things that surround us, both of which are at the heart of resilience.

- Mark Nepo

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“Intuition is the voice of the nonphysical world.”
- Gary Zukav

Multi-sensory perception and intuition are the same thing, but multi-sensory perception is a more accurate name. Most people think that intuition is a hunch that occurs now and then, but it is more that. It is a very sophisticated system that allows you to know more than you can with your five senses. As we become more and more intuitive—and we all are—we encounter different kinds of experiences. 

There is no single way to experience intuition. It is different for everyone.

Some people have hunches. Some get ideas. Some people hear music, and others see pictures. Some people get sensations, others hear words. None is the correct, or the only, way. 

You can find your way by paying attention to what is happening inside of you. This is the biggest difference between five-sensory perception and multi-sensory perception: The five senses require you to pay attention to what is outside of you. Intuition requires that you pay attention to what is happening within. 

- Gary Zukav, Soul Stories

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Silencing the Tiger

Because the mind is a hungry tiger that can never be satisfied, that which is timeless swims in and out of our hands, bringing us forward into places we wouldn’t go. So listening to what we’re not yet aware of involves silencing the tiger and keeping our hands open so we can feel when something timeless moves through us.

This can be difficult, for sitting quietly with our hands open in the middle of the day is suspect in our age. We can be misperceived as lazy or incompetent or not quite tethered to reality.

But silencing the tiger in our mind and staying open is what keeps us connected to a deeper reality. By this, I mean a depth beneath all circumstances in which we experience a sense of meaning that doesn’t change, the way gravity doesn’t change though what it impacts changes constantly.

Like inhaling and exhaling, the ways we silence our noise and open our heart are forms of deep listening that must be engaged if we are to survive.

- Mark Nepo

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So how do we lean in and listen to all that is not us, to all that is calling, to the particular angel waiting to guide us more thoroughly into who we are born to be? While we can share insights, only you can discover this for yourself.

At every turn in every day we are presented with angels in a thousand guises, each calling us to follow their song. There is no right or wrong way to go, and only your heart can find the appointments you are born to keep. It’s hard to take this risk, but meeting each uncertainty with an open heart will lead us to an authentic tomorrow.

- Mark Nepo

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“It seems that intuitive listening requires us to still our minds until the beauty of things older than our minds can find us.”
- Mark Nepo

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Tuning Into the World

“Spirituality is the tuning of the inner person with the great mysteries and secrets that are around us.”
- U Thant

The great Jewish philosopher Abraham Heschel, suggests that the reward for such inner tuning is a sense of peace, and that by finding and inhabiting our place in the ever-changing universe, we strengthen the fabric of life itself:

By being what we are…by attuning our own yearning to the lonely holiness in this world, we will aid humanity more than any particular service we may render.

Herschel implies that the world is not complete until fitted with our yearning, that just as the Earth would be barren without trees, plants, vegetables and flowers, the holiness of the world, waiting just below the surface, will stay barren without the spirited growth of our dreams, creativity, generosity and love.

It seems that the first destiny of being here is to root our being in the world, that the world needs this as much as we need each other.

- Mark Nepo

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When fully here, we touch what is before us - life-force to life-force, essence to essence. When asleep or numb or moving too fast, we only touch surface to surface. And without the glow of life-force, that glow of essence, things just get in the way.

At the deepest level, the most essential level, listening entails a constant effort to feel that moment where everything touches everything else. It seems that the feel of truth and meaning waits below the surface, and it’s the heart of listening that allows the life-force in all things to touch us.

Stay devoted to moving beyond the literal fact of things. For waiting under the surface, like an inner sun, the life-force or heartbeat of the Universe will reveal itself and connect us to the sheer power of what is vital in life.

- Mark Nepo

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“It’s our ability to listen that saves us from the sheer fact of things.”
- Mark Nepo

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This fundamental listening invokes a commitment to keep what is true before us. Such listening opens us to the never-ending art of tuning our inner person to the mysteries that surround us. We do this through the work of honouring what we experience, with honouring every bit of life we encounter.

- Mark Nepo

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I HONOUR YOU

At the deepest level, when I say I honour you, this means that, when I become conscious or aware of you, I make a commitment to keep that truth visible from that moment forward. To honour you means that what I’ve learned about you becomes part of our geography. It means that what has become visible and true will not become invisible again.

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I HONOUR MYSELF

To honour myself, then means that, as I grow, I will not ignore or hide the parts of my soul and humanness that become more present in me and the world. To honour myself means that I make a commitment to keep the truth of who I am visible; that I will not let the truth of my being become invisible again. Or if it does, I will stay devoted to retrieving it.

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I HONOUR GOD

To honour God means that we vow to keep all that we become aware of in view; that we will not pretend to be ignorant of things we know to be true or holy. And if we forget or get distracted or derailed, we will stay devoted to retrieving the ever-present sense of the sacred.

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Near the end of his life, the legendary physicist Sr Isaac Newton, known more for his understanding of gravity than for the deep quality of his ability to honour life, declared with joy and humility:

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Let us continue our walk along the sea.

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The Heart Knows

All of us are musicians

whether we have been trained to read music or not.

All of us are musicians through the virtue of being born

like the petals opening on the rose

or the robin making her nest

we humans, too, know how to listen to the impulse of life

to attune our instrument to that of the orchestra.

Our hearts know.

And our journey, as humans,

is to remember.

- Patti Wardlaw