Tuesday, March 19, 2024

From conditioning to conscious being

 When energy is stuck in the lower energy centers, we are conditioned to act whether we like it or not. Like robots we run around sending subconscious signals and invite life to trigger these subconscious processes and bring them into our conscious awareness. Spiritual living is essentially the ability to process everything that life throws at us with the higher energy centers, heart chakra, third eye and crown chakra. I had a very interesting meditation session recently when I was made aware of this biological energy mechanism. 

 

I sat down in meditation and after a while felt the troubled energy field moving from the root chakra to the heart chakra. In the root area we react. It’s instinctive what happens there. That’s where the bipolar actions happen in response to the events that jerk us around.

 

Feeling this chaotic energy in my heart chakra was not fun. It felt like someone had put a lock around the heart. The voices in the head were still going strong, but at least it felt like that at this level one already had a choice. Still, the energy was heavy, and I felt like being in a cage. 

 

After an hour or so the energy moved. I felt that familiar pressure in the neck area. A little pain is associated with it but the voice in the head starts shutting up. At this point the degree of freedom returns. What was it that was wearing heavy on my mind? I couldn’t quite recall at that stage.

 

The last move of the energy is into the head area, somewhere in-between third eye and crown chakra. At this level you feel the heavy energy dissolving. The thoughts stop altogether. I could even taste the dissolving energy in my mouth. Whatever problem existed; it was suddenly gone.”

 

We talk a big game when it comes to spirituality. We talk about love and conscious choices, but the truth of the matter is that a lot of the spiritual progress is subconscious in nature. True, life forces us to face these unhealed energies and encourages us to let go of them, but we can also accelerate this healing process. As demonstrated in SuZhen Liu’s “Letting Go—Release Your Suffering” book, we can even bring interfering subconscious processes to the surface and let go of them. 

 

 

Monday, March 18, 2024

Awakening: you will travel light

 Time is of no relevance when it comes to the feat of letting the higher energies prevail, but time has its usefulness when it comes to letting go of some of the interferences that the self loved to cling to. “The fruit falls when it is ripe” said the spiritual sage Nisargadatta Maharaj. We travel our spiritual journey to the best of our abilities, but the breakthrough comes when it does. There are opportunities to get the self out of the Way every day, and when the next spiritual breakthrough occurs, we travel even lighter. 

Sunday, March 17, 2024

The power of awareness

 There is a Sufi story on the power of awareness. A king gave a golden begging bowl to a holy man to honor him, and a thief wanted to steal it from him. At night he was waiting for the holy man to fall asleep, but he already knew what the thief was up to and threw the bowl in the direction where the thief was hiding to prevent him from stealing it by simply giving it away. 

 

When the thief saw that he was so impressed that he went up to the holy man and ask him what powers he possess that it is so easy for him to part with the treasure. “Teach me your power”, the thief implored. The holy man told him that if he wanted to gain his powers, he should keep doing what he was doing, even if it meant to be stealing, but do be aware of what he was doing. 

 

Seven days later he saw the thief who was depressed. The thief told him that since he was conscious of his action, he just couldn’t rob anyone. For seven days he had not robbed a single item. The thief was obviously stuck and had a choice to make. Either to embark on a spiritual quest or return to his unconscious days. Once awareness is activated, he couldn’t do his old job.

 

That’s the power of awareness. There are some eternal eyes watching over us, with an equanimous mindset. Once we tune into this frequency, the ego’s automatism is gone. It’s still possible to jump on the ego’s bandwagon, but that’s an active choice now. Try it for a few days. Observe everything from this view, without judging and agenda. Go and observe this for yourself. 

 

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Spiritual level confusion

 Why is the spiritual literature so hard getting our arms around? After all, isn’t the simple takeaway that in Oneness we should do unto others as we want them to do unto us? Taking our self out of the picture, let go and let God?

 

The problem statement is level confusion. There is a psychological level that we can be aware of. There is a spiritual dimension, a “making right” that we can feel and act on, and there is the realm of higher energies where the self ceases to exist and magic happens.

 

We frown on psychoanalysis, but inner work now and then requires understanding of the linear mind thinking, and the wounds where our confused actions arise. We get excited about being spiritual, but it has to dawn on us that this perceived light-worker is still an illusionary entity.

 

Some people are born with spiritual awareness, others have breakthroughs later in life. We all have the timeless moments when the self identification takes a step back, but they unfortunately come and go. Every seeker will find what they are looking for; there is just a little letting go of the imagined seeker figure.

 

Ponder this for a moment, who is reading this post?

Friday, March 15, 2024

Dropping the “you”

 The issues in your life may not be the problem, the problem is how “you” feel about them and approach them. In fact, the issues have been subconsciously chosen to help getting the self out of the Way.

 

The thoughts and feelings that bubble to the surface may not be the problem either. Instead, they provide a tool to spot the self at work. All “thoughts-feelings-experiences” tell us what we identify with.

 

Be open to what bubbles to the surface, welcome what enters “your” life. The opportunity is in grasping the identification and letting it pass through. Without the “you” at work, freedom awaits. 

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Go figure!

 I am standing at the kitchen counter writing a check to pay off my monthly bills. Suddenly a smile appears on my face. “Hey, who is looking through those eyes as I a make out the amount? How is that moment any different from everything I have experienced thus far? The eyes watching are always the same.”

 

The ego or “I”-identification is a curious thing. We want to be benevolent and kind and we hate it when we are greedy or angry. Yet, who is that entity that perceives life that way? It’s a made-up entity, is it not? Yet the moment at hand is always fresh. The eyes watching are always the eternal ones whether we are aware of this fact or not.

 

A Facebook friend came up with the expression “ego-ing” as a verb. That’s a step in the right direction. It’s the prevailing fog that clouds the incoming light. It comes and it goes while the metaphysical light always is. I would call ego an energy system. We can be aware of its presence. We can let it flow through us. We can step out of it and let go of it.

 

For me the quest is over once we have found a way to get our arms around the lower energy so that we are (mostly) in a position to invite the higher energies in. Everyone has a slightly different approach to deal with this “me, myself and I” energy. This morning while writing the bills I realized that even the quest to be spiritual is ego energy. Go figure!

 

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Discover the essence

 Whether we think we

master our manifestations or not,

our essence shines through.

 

Whether we live 

a spiritual life or not,

our essence shines through.

 

Life is designed to 

strip the “you” so that the

essence shines in Oneness.

 

What’s all the talk of

enlightenment or transformation;

let’s shine here and now.