Connect to the divine...

Take a deep breath... close your eyes... Now exhale and let yourself drift slowly into this moment.

Envelope yourself in the presence that we are now in.

Find the nuances of each glance, each step, each breath...

Sit in the stillness you find in between each word or each musical note...

Realize that all is one, the spaces and the cacophony of the collective all talking at once and this peace is a piece of the divine, this knowing, this spiraling effervescence of our divinity is contained in those spaces between these atoms,
the ones you are contained in,
the ones you accept as your reality, as your reason for being, as your presence...

Be present in this instant, know that it is eternal, it will never not be right now. 

Embrace the feeling of interconnection as you gaze into the eyes of those around you and experience the depth of your soul.

Revel in the expanding universe as you peer into the depths of the universe with the twinkling stars dancing through your view in the endless night sky above.

Even the most unassuming of times can extend outward revealing the infinite, this perpetual dream we flow in and out of interweaves our destinies. 

There is a reason you were in my dreams...

Just be in the stillness,

and know you are divine.

Light for your path...

Just be.

Rebirth... part 1

Renaissance means rebirth... 

A rebirth is a revival of the beginning, a bringing back of that time before, of that being when  we were in that child-like state, where all things were possible. It makes me think of the allegory of the movie, "the Neverending Story."

The tale's big underlying theme is about regaining or in the main character's position, retaining that child-like innocence. Saving the child-like empress in the ivory tower of pure unbridled spirit in each of us from the terror that is the nothing. This nothing being the loss of imagination or open ended awareness. It represents the complacency and loss of our ability to be aware and awake to the possibilities of the infinite.  

The nothing creeps into so many of our lives early on and robs us of our innate wonder of our pure connection to the divine and to the potential to be anything. It keeps us from pondering our personal dimensionality and if we are truly a 3 dimensional being living in a four dimensional universe or are we more than that?

So has "The Nothing" conquered your life presently?  Here are some easy signs: (but don't worry, it's not too late!)

1.You are complacent with where you are in your life.  Complacent here doesn't mean happy, it means content enough not to change things you know you could, and it kind of means you have given up on your potential, things are good enough.

2. Does television or the internet occupy most of your time, distracting you from what is really happening in your life? 

3. Do you avoid difficult situations often because you are afraid of change or what might happen so you endure misery?

4. Do you often feel bored and listless where things just don't have that same luster or excitement?

5. Do you feel stuck in your path, but can't think of a new way to solve it?

Just as we feel like things can't be changed and that we are powerless, so it is.  Think of the famous Ford quote, "whether you think you can or you can't, you're right."  if we accept our fates to be tied to complacency and mediocrity then that is all we can be.  If this is all you accept as being your reality, then your cutting yourself off at your own knees. 

The box you have created from your beliefs is the one you can't get out of...

Our limits are those which we have learned to accept.  It reminds me of the old gorilla from the film Instinct, which is based off the wonderful novel, "Ishmael,"where they offer the gorilla his freedom and he doesn't bother to go.  He has accepted his fate, he has been broken. "The nothing" has consumed his wild, untamed soul.  So it is with us. 

This experience of being consumed by our cages leaves us in a listless droll state of fearful perception.  Some of us are able to retain some of our power and potential, but unfortunately those are among the very few.  Many people let it reconstruct their psyche in such a way that they lose that feeling of joy and even the simpler form of happiness. 

Leonardo DaVinci, who, oddly synchronous enough, is considered the first and most prominent person associated with the renaissance time period, was a major advocate for maintaining the child-like empress in our lives.  He reveled in his child-like wonder.  He fought against his loss of innocence with creativity and innovation as his guides.  One of my most favorite quotes by him is where he describes using the imagination to find pictures in the cracks and imperfections of a wall.  He kept himself sharp intellectually by exercising the most important mental muscle we have and that is our imagination.  To draw in another epically famous mind, this time from the 20th century, 

Albert Einstein emphasized the fact that the imagination is more important than knowledge.  He understood that the freedom of the mind to wander and explore was something we needed to grow so that even further innovations and advancements in our society and thereby consciousness are able to come to fruition.

So how do we rediscover our old core being, our essence we showed up on Earth with?  How can we defeat our "Nothings?"

Having our own renaissance may not be as hard as it sounds.  All it takes is reflection and some reteaching so we can unlearn the programming we have been force fed by societal structures.  Call back into your mind that time of your innocence if you still can,those feelings of gentle building excitement where things are boundless. 

If this proves too difficult try this, stare at a spot that looks broken and cluttered or find a spot in the sky on a cloudy day.  Now just gently look at this spot and just for a moment try to connect what is there into something.  Make it into an object you are familiar with in your mind. Can that cloud look like a bee if you turn your head, or can those cracks or splotch of paint on the wall or in the sidewalk look like the body of a dragon? 

Take a brief moment here or there throughout your day to reconnect with your own wonderment and see where it takes you! 

We are as young or as old or as open or closed off as we accept.  Don't be afraid of the mystery of the unknown you enjoyed as a child.  Conquer your nothing, climb on Falcor and become the something you truly know you are!!!  

Light for your path...

Timeless awareness

To create healing now we must be in this presence to embody our past in order to move through it...

This awareness of now is the key to release, the key to peace and moving away from a life lived in the past or for the future.  So what does that truly mean, being in the now, living for today, or staying fully present? 

Being present isn't just about being aware of where you are physically, although that is a factor. A main secret to it's mastery is in the embodiment of being in the now emotionally as well.  So what does that mean?  It means being beyond the emotions, knowing that they are but passing states caused by events in the past or future oncoming events we are focusing on.  The release of this pent up storage of feeling puts you beyond hurt or worry, to a place where it is easy to see that everything will work out in the right and perfect way.  We will see things as Thom Yorke from Radiohead put it with, "everything in its right place."

So just as I have been bringing back in over and over in these posts, a major part of emotional presence lies in embracing or acknowledging these feelings or emotions so that they can be let go of.  This isn't just referring to the negative feelings either, for good must be released as well.  When we let go of them we do not enter into some emotionless state though, if that is where your thoughts were taking you.  No, rather the opposite takes place really.  We go into a hyper-emotive state where we can more objectively see others emotions clearly as well as understand our own motivations for our feelings as well. 

It's like stepping back and pulling the wool off of our emotional eyes so that we can understand all the "Whys" to our emotive experiences.  

It gives us a clear picture of who we are without all of our emotional baggage that everyone gets buried under whether through suppression or from over expression.  Remember, suppression of emotions doesn't make them go away, they only fester and well up.

So let me give you a shovel so you can start to dig yourself out of this emotional grave...

An easy mental exercise to help you identify these aberrant emotions we are working to be beyond lies in seeing the emotions as detached from your highest self.  So how do we check in with this true self, with our "silent witness," as Deepak Chopra would call it?

Taking about ten minutes each day on your own to do this visualization will help to become more aware of yourself and your emotional states so that you can work to transcend.

Now follow along and visualize this to yourself, picture it in your mind, as you read along with me. First take a deep, full breath in, all the way down to your belly and let it out slowly now, and spend a few moments just focusing on your breath as it comes in and out slowly and calmly.  Now picture the sky up above you with the bright sun high up overhead.  Feel the warmth of the sun on your face as you continue to take deep full centering breaths calming and relaxing you now as you bask in the light of the sun.  Just be still in this moment.  Now as you are quiet and still notice as thoughts about your day, worries about deadlines or any of life's difficulties just spill out into your stillness, almost as though you are holding back a levee of thoughts and its slowly seeping out.  Now see in your mind these repetitive thoughts, some negative, some not, these thoughts you have about who you are and what you are, how you feel and what you think of your surroundings.  You know those thoughts that play like a tape recording throughout your day.  Watch now as the thoughts transform in your mind into clouds as they fill up the sky and block the warmth from the sun.  So now picture yourself safely rising up into the sky through those clouds of busy and negatively patterned thoughts. 

Realize that as you are coming out of the cloud cover up back into the brilliance and warmth of the sun that you are moving beyond these limiting thoughts back to the you that is eternal.  You are transcending to the witness, that infinite part of you that is not attached to any emotions or preconceived notions of what the world is like. It is being in that childlike innocence.  This is where you are now.  See the clouds below you now as they drift past and feel the powerful connection from the warmth of the sun revitalizing your true self.  Know that you are beyond your emotions.  Now slowly bring yourself back into this space, the room you are in feeling comfortable and relaxed in your body, knowing in a deep place that you are better for this, and it is so.

Being beyond is its own state of perception, apart from our normal waking consciousness for the simple yet deeply significant fact that we become self aware and fully conscious in a metaphysically open state.  

In other words, there is nothing binding us to our ego.  This is the hyper-conscious state that athletes describe when they are having their best performance or game and are in the flow state where everything seems effortless.

Keep practicing with the visualization and comment below on how it is helping you move to the timelessness of now.

Light for your path

Mirroring our truths out in all directions

What are we but mirrors...

If it is indeed true what science as well as the quantum gurus of our time have come to recognize and indemnify, then we are indeed mirrors of the reality around us under the assertion of the idea that this is definitely a holographic universe. 

A hologram is a three dimensional projection coming from a specially designed plate with light being sent through it.  The essence of this is that the holographic plate is a mirror of the whole in both directions from the micro to the macro extending out in fractal patterns. This is saying that in every piece of this echo of reality therein contains all aspects of itself.

So how does this fit into our mirror?

Our perception is looking out at this mirror of infinity only to see itself, so then the bigger question is, "How then do we not all see ourselves as this infinite, beautiful, magnificent perfection?"

This calls into the idea that our mirrors we are shining out to reflect back are dirty and blemished by our experiences and thoughts and views on the world.  This causes us to see just that, a world sullied and damaged by our own perceptions.  The clarity of the whole is marred by our picture of it.  Our perception, as the buddha said, is our reality.  So our reality is, in effect, as though we are looking through a shattered splintered mirror of ourselves.  What we are seeing is this vision of who we perceive ourselves to be as we project that system of judgments on someone else, someone outside of ourselves.

So everyone we see and interact with is never seen as they are truly, they are merely seen as we are and judged accordingly. 

We are our worst critic whether we admit it or not.  Take a second to recall your past session of self talk.  Were you encouraging yourself or berating yourself for doing something that made you upset or experience difficulty?  Now think back to the last time you said something positive to yourself, not just pride for an accomplishment, but expressing gratitude for efforts or just a happy sense of well-being about who you are as a person.  Most of us really have to search for such a moment if we can indeed find one at all.

So how do we shine up our mirror so it can show all that there is?

An often difficult first step to this goal lies in cleaning out our inner potty mouths.  We almost have to think of it like washing our mental mouths out with soap.  The negative thought we have form our negative words and this spiral extends outward as it affects each person we interact with and so on and so forth.  These words repeated enough form our actions which is what people base our character and personality on. 

It is not that we are what we have said or done, it is that our actions reflect out to the world our true nature.

So let's clean up those dirty mental mouths...

An easy but arduous task to accomplishing this soaping of our mind is a simple method called noticing.  Noticing involves just that, noticing or focusing on our internal monologue as it is happening by creating a conscious effort to pay attention to it.  Building this awareness of your own mental process will help you to free your thought patterns of the same negative degrading thoughts. 

The trick to making it work and not getting drawn into the thought patterns themselves involves two aspects, intention and detachment. 

For it to be effective one must strive to see it in an objective or detached way, to just see the thoughts as things and nothing more.  The intentional aspect of it comes before, when you decide on how you will do it.  Creating an intention to do it sets your ego mind up to be ready to be observed.  Once you have this intention in place being able to separate yourself from your mental chatter and your tape of thoughts you play over and over again will be just that much easier.

Realize that you are not your thoughts, and that you are not your feelings attached to them.

You are but the observer in this reality, just looking at the moving pictures as they dance by as shadow's in Plato's "Allegory of the Cave."  Step back from the chains in the cave and realize they are but illusions to soil your mirror.

Realize that the mirror points out of the top of the cave, to the stars shining so brilliantly in the sky.

Let's go for a walk now, out of our caves...


Light for your path...


Just be.

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Plato-s-Allegory-of-the-Cave-357719728

by Tara Shaffer

Embracing the Shadow, Healing the Past

Maybe the only thing each of us can see is our own shadow. Carl Jung called this his shadow work. He said we never see others. Instead we see only aspects of ourselves that fall over them, shadows, projections, our associations. The same way old painters would sit in a tiny dark room and trace the image of what stood outside a tiny window, in the bright sunlight, the camera obscura. Not the exact image, but everything reversed or upside down.                                                                                                                                   ―Chuck Palahniuk

Embracing the Shadow,

Healing the                         Past

          In this Saturday afternoon workshop on June 20^th, led by Rev. Brien

 Egan CHt, CRM, CKRM, you will be a part of a powerful group healing and 

releasing workshop using EFT, hypnotherapy, visualizations, the Sedona 

method, and pranic breathwork.

You will learn to identify the aspects of your shadow self and the fears of your subconscious to embrace and release the held past trauma and stressors of your life keeping you from your full potential. 

         Exploring your shadow self and how to relieve the past by being present 

and aware in the now, you will discover how to affect lasting change in your life 

journey.

Join us June 20^th from 1pm-4pm!

www.beoneherenow.webs.com

nowherebe8@gmail.com

Can we illumine our shadows?

So what is our shadow self? 

What definition does science give for the natural phenomenon of shadows?

Science tells us that a shadow is created where light is hidden from a space or blocked.  This creates a darker area where it is more difficult to see.  It is perceived as being shaded and less bright.  If an area is completely enveloped in shadow it may be an area of total pitch black darkness.  It will be an area without color or form. 

Light is what gives these objects in the dark their shape and definition.  It illumines those hidden things and gives a meaning and purpose to reality.  As science tells us at the core level, we are all just packets of light quanta reflecting the hologram of the universe back giving consciousness to the matter created in the interconnection of the subatomic realms as space connects with time in all directions at once.  The blocking of the sun from what is being perceived almost makes it disappear in a way.  A shadow will conceal or distort what is truly there.  It will keep what is real masked and in the dark.  And so it is with us...

Carl Jung focused a great deal of his work on revealing and working with one's shadow self.  He was very interested in tearing away at those hidden constructs in our psyche which form negative aspects of the ego self.  The ego being that face which is put on for the public to see and judge with its masks and filters.  These efforts were made to study and know how the subconscious and unconscious mind work were so that he could learn and understand how to free our personality and persona from those negative behaviors and actions which have defined us and caused our reactions to the world. 
His early work with Freud helped him to see how those aspects of ourselves that are imprinted on our subconscious mind at a very early age are able to dictate how we will act and be for our entire lives if attention and work is not done to adjust our behaviors and destinies.  He wanted to help show us how we can free our experience from the difficulties we create for ourselves in our life by becoming more conscious and aware.
His work looked at through the scope of Buddhism or Hindu perspective has us viewing the release of our attachments as a first step to breaking down our ego self to get to the deeper parts of our experience, those parts which are hidden, a.k.a. our shadow selves.  It is those parts which we either can't even see ourselves, or those parts which we desperately try to look away from that form our ego mind and shape the way we interact with and view the world around us. 

Jung recognized, just as the Buddhist, Sufi, Essene and Hindu monks have understood for thousands of years now, that in order to reach those higher states of being and consciousness (some call samadhi, moksha, nirvana, enlightenment, being in the christ-like or buddha state) we must illuminate our shadows in all aspects of the self.  Every great master in history has had to rise above turmoil to achieve their enlightened state.

So how on earth could we possibly do that?

This daunting task which most people shy away from or vehemently fight against will shake a person to the very core of their existence.  That is precisely the process though, to strip away all aspects of the self until we can see what is truly there.  We need to shine a spotlight on every aspect of our selves from the simple flaws we might not see all the way to the deep dark skeletons some keep tucked away from the world.  It is only by examining and revealing all aspects of ourselves that we can work through those difficult shadows. 

The first and most important step though in working through something difficult, as explained by any effective major psychological teaching is to recognize what is there, and owning it.  Embracing our shadows, losing the fears we drown our lives in, will help us to overcome those aspects we can't seem to rise out of.  Admitting and owning ones flaws and struggles us a task for the courageous, for we must have resolve and strength if we are to endure our undoing to be able to give our consciousness the reboot it deserves. Just as Bill W. tells the world with AA, the first step is admitting that there is something to improve.  It is acknowledging that we are imperfect.

Can you see your imperfections?

The hardest part of our journey is recognizing where we are and taking steps to move beyond what we are and what situation we came into on this earthly plane.

Let's work together to rediscover our true selves...

Let's follow Peter Pan's lead as he found his shadow and reattached it to himself, just as he made himself whole again by embracing his shadow, so too can we!

Light for your path...



A "novel" introduction from the book, "The Art of Falling" by Rev. Brien Egan

After the Fall

“Success is a series of glorious defeats.”

-Mahatma Ghandi

          

Everyone has experienced the sensation of falling, the rush of weightlessness, that odd rush of adrenaline when you don’t know what is going to come next. It’s that sense of xenophobia we all get, the fear of not knowing what is in store for us. Will we be caught? Will we hit the ground? Will we be hurt or for that matter, survive? What will befall us in our descent? Can we find the courage to trust ourselves or others to cushion our fall or to make it less painful, either physically, spiritually, or emotionally?

            In what ways do we fall? As a child, scrapping a knee was traumatic, as was being shot down by the pretty girl I had a crush on. When rollerblading as a child, it took me many years and many falls to master the art of falling physically. I had to experience each nuance of the fall, along with the pain accompanying it, to learn to catch myself so that I would not be as injured. A few casts and ER visits down the road and the ability to transfer my weight and glide to the ground instead of slam it, was achieved. But physical falling is definitely not all there is to falling and not the only form of falling I have mastered over the years in the trepidations and trials of my life.

            People fall in love, they fall for a gag, they fall asleep at the wheel, both metaphorically and literally. They fall apart, fall from grace, or have a falling out. Some fall in a hole or fall out of sync, while others have everything fall into place. Why do we signify so many things in association with such a difficult experience everyone has felt? What does it mean to really fall?

            It means letting go, being in that fear and uncertainty, thriving in it, or writhing in it, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. It means losing yourself to something, embracing change and flow in the unknown with that sense of freefall. It might mean approaching destiny or defeat, depending on what’s happening and how you look at it. Think of it as a cusp, a climax, a turning point, that last moment before the buzzer, whether beneficial or difficult. Sometimes it is losing your way and having to start all over, or maybe just needing to rekindle that fire deep within your soul. It could be not retaining control of our emotions when interacting with others or losing face in the eyes of those who revere us. Feeling stuck in a situation of trapped or duped by someone could push that sensation of losing our balance with our lives. Being unconscious while living our lives would create a perpetual sense of fearing what is to come.

            All of us have these moments in our lives. Some more than other, like myself, choose to fall way more than needed in order to learn the right way to do it and then thrive after it has been experienced. This doesn’t have to be everyone’s path though, as much as I have enjoyed taking the long way to get to my goals, I know that there are far more rapid paths to our goals than I have chosen. The great leaders and masters of all fields of study seem to live by this “road less traveled by” mentality though. It is this art of falling, of losing yourself to something greater, trusting your descent and reveling in the sharp crisp feeling of that brief rush of fear, knowing all will work out as it needs to whether we like it or not. Little has been studied or explored in this phenomenon. We simply dismiss it as ill timing or unfortunate circumstances. Many of the greats have used it to their advantage and capitalized on their failings, faltering, and fumbles to create many masterpieces and discoveries. It is by analyzing the misgivings and those mistakes that we are able to pick up and strive forward to realize our true callings.

            Maybe some of us can’t see the stars until we are truly are, in the gutter, to quote Oscar Wilde. Together we will analyze what this gutter is like and see where the stars will take us, because things and events in our lives serve us as ways to grow and improve. We will work to cultivate that mindset in order to see those silver linings everyone talks about or hopes to find. By embracing the fall, we may follow our bliss. By accepting our flaws, we may find our true strength. We will work to bring more consciousness or awareness to our lives so that any descent we make for ourselves will merely be that backing up to get a running start. During these falls we will identify how to gracefully glide to our resting place to begin anew. We will explore the passion and the butterflies of a romance as well as how to keep it fresh and re-ignite the fervor of love as we leap blindly into it. Acknowledging our egos we will learn to let go of their vicious grip on our psyches and their needless control and difficulties they inflict on our lives in the name of self-preservation. We will experience how it can be safe to not always be in control.

“Reading spiritual books is like reading the menu at a restaurant. Don’t forget, you must eat the meal.”

                               -Trunga Rinpoche

Are you ready to master the art of falling?