TESTS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF

ONE'S SPIRITUAL PRACTICE #5

This blog itself is a meditation

(The Ancestors' wisdoms below have no acknowledgement assigned.)

 With time and dedication this is possible...

 

Time, space and matter comprise our physical universe and the source of power lies beyond the material, beyond time, space and matter.
Walk the path with awareness of both the something and the nothing. 

Of the realm of what is sensed and known and the realm of what is neither sensed nor known.
Each experience of this awareness is a moment between moments, a dancing in the mystery of the void....where one encounters the Source of power.

Krishnamurti taught that discernment was choiceless.

 

When you feel compelled and not commanded it will be as you thought it would be but not as you feared it might.
When you respond from within, all will unfold as it should from without.
You will know that the veil is illusory and you will lack for nothing

 

When you are compelled rather than commanded you will no longer need teachers and sages for you will know naturally. 
It is written on your heart. 
When you keep the commitment because you love not because you obey you will no longer need teachers and sages urging you to perform and refrain - you will do so naturally.
It is the way of the heart. 
It is the heart's wisdom and understanding that delights itself in the Infinite One.

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You will become more congruent with your Self and ...

 

Spiritual practice should help us to find our mission, purpose and destiny or our own unique core strength or archetype. This also is at the heart of the hero/ine's journey.

If we lose our self as in the little self or ego we can find our Self as in the Big or True Self.

Connecting with Self is not selfish - quite the contrary. It will lead to better serving others

Whoever and whatever does not make you more of your Self, make you less of your Self.

If you will not be you who then will be?

 

You must free yourself to be your Self.
Do not be captive to the demands of false duty.

Release yourself from what you are not accountable.

 Be attentive only to the responsibility of what compels.
Bestow blessings, refuse burdens.
What makes you beholden enslaves you.
What makes you grateful blesses you.
What you touch, touches you. What you let touch you, enhances or diminishes. 

Look carefully to what you aspire, cherish and guard so as not to squander your gifts nor lose your heritage.

 

The focus is on becoming more of who you are.
The most dangerous distraction is the lure of beguiling but essentially extraneous information - be it false or true. 

More important, is it useful to you, does it inspire, support, advance and enhance who you are and your relationship with God or is it merely speculative, and appealing to your curiosity?

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As one's practice deepens, we rise up the chakra hierarchy and our vibration increases. 

Initially we temper our fears (flight or fight - first chakra) and our second chakra of sometimes lustful sexual energy).

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And begin to experience increasing levels of:

Humility (third chakra).

We encompass more love, compassion, empathy and the ability to see the divine in others (fourth chakra).

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Become more truly expressive of our real Selves in whichever creative talent we possess (fifth chakra).

Develop more receptivity and access to our intuitive powers (Third Eye or sixth chakra).

Subordinate hopelessness, doubt and denial to hope, faith, belief, trust and surrender  and even develop a personal connection to the Infinite One.

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SIGNS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF

YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE #4

(As usual all quotes with no author assigned are attributed to the Ancestors.)

The process of "Being," Becoming" or "Awakening" is often subtle and almost unnoticeable. It is also frequently accompanied by periods of frustration, being in the doldrums and a feeling of a lack of any noticeable progress. As one goes deeper it often gets harder, not easier. 

These are some of the reassuring guidelines as to what may be happening as one progresses:

Increasing levels of equanimity and being able to rise above the challenges, stresses and strains of human existence. 

Manifesting and experiencing some of the sensory aspects of Kundalini vibrations happening in your body during practice, or at any time, even in sleep. This is not essential since the increase in vibration is often slow, subtle and may go unrecognized.

The soul’s essence should lodge comfortably in the body. "From the sound of my sighing has my essence (soul) cleaved onto my flesh (body.)" King David

It will be given to you according to the measure of your love.

The most challenging chakra to open is the heart chakra. Our heart or a feeling of love will tell us how we are doing. Forgiveness – both of oneself and others - is key to not only opening the heart but also informing that the heart chakra is opening. This is love as a commitment, not necessarily an emotion or feeling but as in; love your neighbor as yourself, however, while still protecting your "Self" at the same time.

There is no light as illuminating as the light of love.  
There is no wisdom as transcendent as the wisdom of compassion. Learn love! Learn compassion!

An increase in compassion, empathy and the ability to forgive and let go of grievances.

 It is all about cosmic union. Go forward with forgiveness which is essential to substance and joy. 

The most profound sound of all is that of silence - not the silence that is the absence of noise, of quietness but that in which we hear the longings of our heart and ponder our response. 

How can you be sure you are progressing? Does it serve love or acquisitiveness? Does it bring you closer to the Infinite One?

Gratitude is also a manifestation of the heart chakra, as is joy. Having more gratitude in one's life and paying the joy inherent in gratitude forward to others, is another good indicator.

There is no joy as transforming as the joy of gratitude. 
 Learn gratitude!

"Joy is not incidental to one's spiritual practice, it is vital!" Rev Nachman

 It will be given to you according to the measure of your humility.

Being able to subordinate ego to the higher Self and to one's mission in order to help others and any of the Four Beings of Nature; Still Beings (the planet,) Growing Beings (the plants and trees,) Wild Beings (the animals, wild and domesticated,) and the Talking Beings (us.) It should not be about our selves as in the little self. Rather it's all about the Big Self which reaches out to others. After subordination of the ego as well as releasing from the attachments we have to our desires and compulsions this teaching is attainable  ...

"God cannot be realized if there is the slightest trace of pride." The Upanishads

God’s breath is heard in quietness and felt in stillness. 
Beware the noises and clamor of ego which drown at the Divine whisper.

We need to empty ourselves of Narrow mind’s obsessions and venture into the expanse of Spacious mind. The more we look for the Divine in all Creation the more we will encounter Him/Her – “search for Me and you will find Me, seek Me with all your heart and I will let you find Me. (Jeremiah)”

Being more and more congruent with one's true Self and one's unique destiny or archetype given to you and you alone by the Creator. Experiencing the healing of having meaning in one's existence through one's mission in life.  

In other words, the hero/ine's journey.

 Opening the heart chakra is the first big challenge as one ascends the beyond the hierarchy of the lower chakras.

Ultimately when we get closer to the crown chakra; faith, belief, hope, trust and surrender will challenge us.

It will be given to you according to the measure of your faith.

The measure of your faith is the only limit to realizing the Creator's potential for you.

Increasing levels of trust and surrendering to something much bigger than oneself, accompanied with the faith that you are on the right path.

The journey itself is the place of Being. It is never finished. The Being is always Becoming. The road to this place is the road of Surrender.

          

Click on the links - play and meditate.

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 SPIRITUAL PRACTICE #3

Anything done for its own sake, to go inward, not to look good or perform, that is regular, enjoyable and sustainable and that gives balance and equanimity can be considered a spiritual practice. As in "Other" in the figure - playing a musical instrument, painting, dancing ... 

When folks come to me for divinations they are often surprised when the bones say that their spiritual practice is lacking. When I ask them what they do, the practices they seem to lack are either related to their meditations not being active or embodied or not in any way involved in connecting with their spirit guides and "asking to receive" through the container of an altar.

There are basically two kinds of meditation; Active and Passive. Most of us are more familiar with Eastern Passive meditation – calming the mind so that we can attain a clear blue sky or a pond without ripples. This differs from the Ancestors’ concept of Active Meditation.

 

There is a difference between passive meditation and active meditation.

Passive meditation makes the effort to calm the mind from inner stimulus. 

Passive meditation seeks to disengage from mental activity while active engages mental faculties to a directed focus.

Passive meditation is meant to achieve a mind empty of thoughts. It is done to better one’s state of being. 

 

Active meditation actually animates and intensifies inner thoughts to help concentrate, reflect and contemplate. It is rather to ponder, reflect and focus until one is lost in the thought of imagining or sensing until one becomes one with it. 

 It engages mental faculties to a directed focus to enhance connection to the Self and the Infinite One in whose image we are made. It can also reprogram the Subconscious positively.
Active meditation involves both intellect and emotion.

Through meditation and imagery we connect mentally, emotionally and spiritually with that perfection we ultimately will embody. 
We need to see ourselves in a new way, not just as someone striving and trying but as someone already having succeeded; not just intending or wanting but already at the desired level, free from all negative energy.

Guided imagery is also a powerful way of enhancing the Inner Healer and our life force to heal.

Many Eastern meditations are Mind-Passive. Vipassana or mindfulness meditation is Mind-Active - focusing on internal and external sensations to keep away from the flow of our thoughts. 

Body meditative can be Active or Passive. Active as in Yoga asanas, Tai Chi, Chi Gong etc. Passive when it is done to us, such as massage, acupressure, rolfing etc. 

Pranayama or breath meditation is distinctly sensory and active as are the postures in yoga - two of the eight limbs of the yoga path.

“Kabir says; what is God, the breath within the breath.”

God’s breath is heard in quietness and felt in stillness (and in connecting with the breath itself.)
Beware the noises and clamor of ego which drown at the Divine whisper. The Ancestors

The Creator wants a personal relationship with each of us. Kabbalah states that the Infinite One is playing "hide and seek" but no-one wants to engage, as in 

"Search for me and you will find Me, seek me with all your heart and I will let you find Me." Jeremiah

All Four Beings of nature; Still, Growing, Wild and Talking are all animated by the breath of the Divine - each of us with a different vibration. 

The breath that is in all beings emanates from the sacred  wellspring making us one – not the same but all one.         The Ancestors

The moment This Breath is withdrawn they, and we will no longer exist. We are continually being breathed by the breath of the Creator. When we leave the planet and the “silver cord” that connects the soul to the body is broken, that breath is taken from us. Breath meditation allows us to connect to that small microcosmic part of us made in the image of the Divine, animated by His/Her breath. Think of how desperate we become when feel we cannot breathe. Sacred sound, chanting and song or playing a flute or didgeridoo with right intention can be a part of this “breath meditation.”

Shamanic practices that connect us to our guides are usually done through ritual as prayer rather than prayer alone. They can be requests for healing, cleansing, protection or asking for scripted dreams. 

A gratitude practice has also been shown to be a powerful way of achieving inner harmony and experiencing more joy in our lives. It can increase neuronal density in the prefrontal lobe as seen in advanced meditators on F.M.R.I.'s. It is also an essential part of shamanic practice. We must ask to receive but we should also show gratitude when we receive. Gratitude is how we help them and make them come "alive", in a sense, by allowing them to do service through our free will.

 The senses are used to create a supportive climate.

 

The Ancestors teach that we need to feel it in our bodies!

Sangomas say; 

“We pray by drumming, singing and dancing.” 

And there is a Chassidic teaching that;

 “With song one can open the gates of heaven.”

Special songs and chants have the power to awaken the dormant and reveal the hidden and stir the energies that heal and glorify.

Similarly ...

Bhajans are devotional songs with a religious themes or spiritual ideas, specifically among Indian religions. The term is also commonly used to refer to a group event, with one or more lead singers, accompanied with music, and sometimes dancing. In other words, also an embodied practice.

 

From my flesh (the body) shall I behold the Creator.
The route is through our senses

 

The soul's fulfillment is through the experience of the senses. 
Soul conversation is not of the mind. 

It is best heard with the senses.

 

Spiritual pursuits are to be practiced with pleasure, welcomed with gratitude. We are to experience delight of the senses and be absorbed in joy - therein is the Supreme Being.

The Ancestors

There are other ways of having an active and sensory meditation; drumming. painting, journaling, surfing, hiking or dancing can be active, joyful, embodied ways of going inward.

"Joy is not incidental to one's spiritual practice it is vital." 

Rev Nachman

 

Nature as Spiritual Practice

God’s rivers of pleasure and good are fed by the watershed of the soul's capacity for enjoyment and of their emptying into its ocean. The Ancestors

 

For me nature is the best place for active sensory meditation and to connect with the sacred geometry of Divine Intelligence. We can also connect with the "magic of the ordinary" with the right intention – such as a feather, a spider’s web, a rainbow - without venturing into wild places.

 

Some shapes and designs lend themselves more easily and align more truly to a natural connection, for instance, the circle and the spiral. Their very form speaks to essence in creation.

Nature is the Creator's masterpiece and has multiple doors and window to spirit. Moreover when we expose ourselves to wild places we of necessity are balancing the numerous polarities such as; up/down, day/night, sun/moon, hot/cold, hungry/satiated, thirsty/quenched, exhausted/ rested. In addition we balance the polarity of the seasons and experience the soft fascinations; the sun and moon sets and rises, the mantra of the bush, the wind in the trees, the sounds of a babbling brook and the aromas and scents around us, This also helps us to find the middle way of the Buddha.

An Ancestor or Spiritual Guide Practice  (see prior blog)

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The Present Moment and Spiritual Practice # 2

(As usual, any quote not designated to an author come form the Ancestors)

…Through our choices and our efforts we go beyond ego and Narrow Mind's pursuits of immediate and momentary satisfactions to engage in Spacious Mind's on-going joys in searching for spiritual fulfillment - joys found in the very quest itself. Narrow Mind concerns itself with the one percent world and so its yearnings can never be gratified in a lasting way unless spiritualized in Spacious Mind. Spacious Mind helps us connect with some of the other 99%. (or the "Field.")

Escaping the present moment is not helpful or healthful. It promotes imbalance as well as a lack of equanimity and harmony.

There are only two feelings, love and fear. Spiritual practice is about subordinating fear to love. 

Fear resides is survival's Monkey (Narrow mind) which is our default mode unless we do spiritual practice. We cannot think our way out of monkey mind without one form or another of going inward. Monkey mind resides in our primitive mind and was designed to help us escape from a bear. It  is linked to our sympathetic, autonomic flight or fight reaction. Usually, however, it is in overdrive during work, fighting traffic and the other challenges of modern living. Monkey mind connects us to our primitive and often our harmful fear based emotions. Sympathetic overdrive is also a major cause of ill health.

Spacious or "Big" mind on the other hand can be located in the prefrontal lobe of the brain and is the default for advanced meditators who appear to have more neuronal density on F.M.R.I scans.

Spacious mind is the seat of our higher consciousness and linked to the positive feelings of a love vibration. It is connected to the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system or the so called relaxation response.

Emotions run high - feelings run deep.
Emotions require discipline.
Feelings require nurturing.
The better one controls emotions the more one can express feelings.

Fear can lead to harmful emotions such as; hate, envy, anger, vengeance, and our poor habits, compulsions, desires and addictions.

"Fear itself is not a foe but acquiescing to it empowers it to be a powerful one." Hillel

Love connects us to our higher ideas, ideals, notions, concepts, beliefs, discriminations and discernments. Spiritual practice is also about the heart and love. The Heart Math instituted tell us that coherence of the heart causes coherence in the brain and vice versa. 

Love generated by spiritual practice should help us subordinate Monkey mind to Spacious mind, our Shadow or Evil Inclination to our Good Inclination (being heart felt), our ego to our higher Self. 

Opening the heart chakra through meditation helps generate empathy and compassion and puts ego, monkey mind, judgment and cynicism on hold. 

The soul’s language is learned by listening with the heart. It has many sounds including that of silence. Its eloquence is universal.

 

The heart must honor the mind (monkey mind) for its understanding and the mind must follow the heart in its wisdom

Use the mind, do not let the mind use you!
Use it to support the heart’s wisdom (and spacious mind's wisdom.)

 

The more we steep ourselves in the immediacy of the moment, the deeper we travel into the heart’s chambers.
The lighter we tread with the mind, the higher the soul will soar.

Bushmen healers say that to be a powerful healer one must love everyone no matter what you think of them. The ancient teaching of love your neighbor as yourself, is a commitment not necessarily a sentiment or an emotion. Spiritual practice should open the heart chakra. We should be able to see the divinity in everyone even if we do not like them we can love that.

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 THE PRESENT MOMENT AND SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

The Present Moment and Spiritual Practice # 1

Meditation

“To continue with a spiritual practice that no longer serves you, is to carry a raft on your back after you have crossed the river.” 

The Buddha

If we are to make any progress in our spiritual transformation, we need to have a spiritual practice that helps us get there. If the practice we choose is not doing that, we need to think again. It is helpful to review what the Ancestors and others teach. 

 

“Meditation is inward work for restoration. It varies in accordance with the character and temperament of each disciple.” Arizal

It is not helpful or healthful to dwell in monkey, survival mind and to keep escaping the present moment.

 

“The Kundalini in the form of latency is coiled like a serpent. One who impels this Shakti to move will attain liberation.”
Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Ultimately when the sun and moon channels that spiral around the central channel of the spine are in complete balance, energy can enter the central channel, awaken the dormant serpent, feminine, Shakti energy, causing it to move up the central channel. This  induces altered states of consciousness. If it reaches the Crown chakra – the place of Shiva – the male principle, the two can fuse together causing Unity Consciousness or the Oneness Experience. Maslow described this as a peak experience which many of us have had if only for a few moments. It occurs when the Knower (that's you) – the Known (say a rainbow) and the Process of Knowing (the dynamic) fuse into one thing and you become the rainbow.

We all have this potential energy. It has different descriptions in varying traditions. The Zulu call it the Umbilini, the San Bushmen Num. Most Southern African tribes recognize it also as a snake in the lower belly which is key to spiritual power and fertility.

There are many variations of the Kundalini experience including; being transported beyond oneself, feelings of intense love, empathy or compassion, out of body and shamanic states, connecting powerfully with spirit guides and many others. The commonest experience of Kundalini is heat, vibrational or electrical, lightning like energy moving up the spine and in the body. It has also been described semi-scientifically as a cathartic conversion experience. It is often life changing. It also has the potential to be very disruptive if not channeled properly.

Balance is achieved by harmonizing polarities. 
Dualities come into harmony by negotiating a third or middle path, a path not of assimilation but a path of coexistence.

 

Somewhat less dramatic, but just as vital, is maintaining balance, harmony and equanimity in a challenging world. We need to navigate our boat down the river of life, keeping to middle and not setting up camp on either bank, be it light or dark, good or evil, happiness or sorrow, sacred or profane. We must learn to coexist ( ... a path of coexistence) with the negative and not to assimilate it. Moreover, to also not be attached to the positive aspects because of their impermanence. We require a dedicated spiritual practice in order to stay in mid-stream. We cannot think our way into this equanimity and state of balance – the method must be experiential.

Re going inward; “To achieve is to be externally oriented but to attain deeper effects we need to let go of the attachment to accomplish anything.
Goal orientation, rapture and equanimity are mutually exclusive in the present moment.”  Dave Cumes  

You must be in the moment and not think of the past or the future. Learn from the past but forget it or take from the past then leave it behind. Ancestors live in the moment.

Spiritual practice is also key to the spiritual hero/ine’s journey and becoming who we truly are. This is also the middle way of the Buddha.

 

“May the hero/ine awaken from forgetfulness and transcend all anxiety and sorrow.”  The Upanishads

   

Our spirit guides live in the present moment in a non space-time reality. In order to connect with them and their “Field” of potential it requires a dedicated spiritual practice to awaken the “Snake” or Kundalini, raise our vibration and open our Third intuitive Eye. This is how we navigate the ups and downs of life. Conflicts encountered along the way can be considered tests of our spiritual practice as well as of our karma.

Any practice done 

for its own sake, 

not to perform or look good, that turns us inward and that is enjoyable, regular and sustainable can be a spiritual practice. It does not have to be Eastern or exotic in origin . It can be playing a musical instrument, painting, walking on the beach alone and in silence. 

 

All must be done for its own sake, 
not for reason of an outcome. 
All is a journey not a destination and it is a continual arriving.

 

The most needful time for spiritual practice is when you feel you have no time.

God most delights when you are 

most you, when you are being most yourself.

There are many forms of transformation just as there are many sacred prayers and holy paths. You are to find the one that is made for you.

God looks not only to your willingness to His call but to your creativity in responding. This honors and delights Him.

 

In the eyes of God Himself personal insight is more valuable than Divine revelation for if we depend only upon scriptures and the teachings of masters but have no personal insights of our own, all is worthless.

  

The menu is only the menu.
It offers, it describes, it suggests.
When the meal arrives do not put it aside.
Absorb the reality of your choice.
If you do not taste the nature of God or Self in your selection, you must choose another dish…
You need to choose the offering S/He has prepared especially and selectively for you.

The sages teach that all that happens; happens as it must.
What occurs cannot occur contrary to the conditions of its occurring or contrary to its nature.
A cedar tree does not spring from an acorn.

Others agree that we are all totally unique and have to find our own way of going inward. This will also help us find our own unique, divine given destiny.

 

“Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door.” Emily Dickenson

         

“Everyone has access to God but each person has a different access.”     M. Buber

 

In next week's blog we will discuss these various spiritual practice options.

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