Transform your mornings from a hectic routine of chaos,
into a tranquil time for preparing to face the day.
When I wake in the morning, my mind slowly gathers, and I begin to move, the early morning light just starting to seep in.
I have a glass of water, start the coffee, then meditate. Then I enjoy the coffee, a good book, and the quiet before the dust and din and steam of the day begins. Then I write.
This is my Lovely Morning, and I get an inordinate amount of pleasure from it.
It wasn’t always this way: I used to wake later, rush through a grumpy routine before diving into email and work and errands and meetings. It was frenetic and dreadful, but that was my life, and I didn’t think it would change.
I was wrong. I’ve changed my mornings for the better, with a few simple ideas.
I’ll share them with you here, and if you begin to enjoy the peace of your mornings more, send a smile in my general direction.
Wake a little earlier.
If your mornings are rushed, the simple solution is to get up a bit earlier. This means going to bed a bit earlier too. Do it gradually, just 10 minutes earlier a week, and you’ll barely notice the change.
There’s a myriad of methods for meditation. Some are easy and some are difficult. All require daily practice to perfect. Here are five of the most popular methods of meditation and what they each bring to the Meditation Table. Here’s why You Should Mix them for Maximum Mindfulness.
Mindfulness, or Spiritual Method:
A most popular method comes from Buddhist meditation practice of Vipassana. It’s all about practicing detachment from each thought and being centered in the “here and now.” It focuses on situational awareness and “in the moment” presence. There is also a focus on communion with the cosmos, which can translate to prayer, but not necessarily. The best way to commune with the universe is to ask questions as opposed to seeking answers. In the mindfulness method, answers are mere side-effects of good questioning.
How to: One can practice mindfulness in any position, even lying down. The key is presence with the present moment, and clear and concise communion with the cosmos.
Zen or Zazen Method:
Also from the Buddhist tradition, this method is all about simply sitting. It is often done for long periods of time. Its focus is mostly on posture and spine alignment with minimal focus on breathing techniques. It is the most monastic of all the methods and is therefore difficult to make progress in. Most monks practice this method while concentrating on a Zen koan or spiritual parable.
How to: The most effective positioning of the body for the practice of Zazen is the stable, symmetrical position of the seated Buddha. Keeping the back straight and centered, pretend a silver thread is pulled taut through your spine and up through your head, connecting to the ceiling.
Kundalini or Transcendental Method:
This method comes from the Vedanta Hinduism tradition and ties into different forms of Yoga practices. It focuses more on breathing patterns than the previous methods, using the power of breathing to launch one into a higher sense of self, or even a transformation of self. The electromagnetic field created by the human body is akin to the electromagnetic field created by the Earth. Transcendental method is all about tapping into the stream of energy naturally created by the relationship between the human body’s energy chakras with the environment’s energy vortexes. The main focus of this method is to ride this rising stream into infinity, to learn what needs to be learned, and then to return to the finite realms with new-knowledge in tow.
How to: Breathing is primary. Positioning is secondary. Relax your body, take three deep breaths; then proceed to take deep breaths and hold them for at least ten seconds each. This allows for the oxygen to cleanse the chakras and then release toxins through exhalation, while increasing kundalini energy.
Fractal Enlightenment| There’s a myriad of methods for meditation. Some are easy and some are difficult. All require daily practice to perfect. Here are five of the most popular methods of meditation and what they each bring to the Meditation Table. Here’s why You Should Mix them for Maximum Mindfulness.
Mindfulness, or Spiritual Method:
A most popular method comes from Buddhist meditation practice of Vipassana. It’s all about practicing detachment from each thought and being centered in the “here and now.” It focuses on situational awareness and “in the moment” presence. There is also a focus on communion with the cosmos, which can translate to prayer, but not necessarily. The best way to commune with the universe is to ask questions as opposed to seeking answers. In the mindfulness method, answers are mere side-effects of good questioning.
How to: One can practice mindfulness in any position, even lying down. The key is presence with the present moment, and clear and concise communion with the cosmos.
This method comes from the Taoist tradition. It is all about hyper-focus on breathing techniques and/or bodily movements to cultivate and maintain life energy. This is the most philosophical of the methods, deriving most of its techniques from martial arts and meditative healing methods. It focuses on moving Qi (life force) through the body through focused breathing, mental techniques, and precise movements. This method is all about the balance and equilibrium of both inner and outer forces.
How to: No matter what Qi exercise you’re doing, imagine the Qi moving through your body as you breathe in an out. As you inhale through your nose, imagine the Qi moving through your body and down to your Lower Dantian, or naval area. As you exhale through your mouth imagine the Qi moving through the rest of your body. Repeat.
Drumming and/or Om Method:
This may be the oldest form of meditation known to humanity. The drumming method is typically used by native and aboriginal cultures, and is generally shamanic in nature. The Om method is traditionally from Vedanta Hinduism, though the sound itself is fairly universal to mankind. These methods focus on breathing and heart rhythm in accordance with, or even dissonance with, the sound and feel of the percussion or mantra.
The heart beat itself is a drum. Breathing is a drum beat that we can control. These two methods are all about transformation through vibration and the awareness of cosmic frequencies. Shamans often use drum meditation to cross physical, mental, and spiritual thresholds. It’s a bridge that carries them to a higher sense of self in accordance with the greater cosmos.
How to: Create a sacred place. Clear your mind. Breathe with intent. If you’re the drummer, infuse your intention into the drum before drumming. Begin playing or listening to the drum. Give yourself a few minutes to fall into rhythm with the beat. Fade your drumming into silence, feeling your body’s response to the beat, then return to the drum. Repeat with clear intent.
There you have it: a minor helping of meditative methods. Each have specific techniques, but they all overlap in various ways. One of the keys to becoming a meditative master is to use all the methods to your advantage, while also allowing for personal creativity by giving your meditation a signature as unique as your own fingerprint.
Remember: the heartbeat that sustains your life is acting on the same frequency that sustains the universe. The heart with which you feel God is the same heart with which God feels you. May the Om be with you.
Gary ‘Z’ McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide awake view of the modern world.
As written by Mariana Caplan, Ph.D. It is a jungle out there, and it is no less true about spiritual life than any other aspect of life. Do we really think that just because someone has been meditating for five years, or doing 10 years of yoga practice, that they will be any less neurotic than the next person? At best, perhaps they will be a little bit more aware of it. A little bit.
It is for this reason that I spent the last 15 years of my life researching and writing books on cultivating discernment on the spiritual path in all the gritty areas–power, sex, enlightenment, gurus, scandals, psychology, neurosis — as well as earnest, but just plain confused and unconscious, motivations on the path. My partner (author and teacher Marc Gafni) and I are developing a new series of books, courses and practices to bring further clarification to these issues.
Several years ago, I spent a summer living and working in South Africa. Upon my arrival I was instantly confronted by the visceral reality that I was in the country with the highest murder rate in the world, where rape was common and more than half the population was HIV-positive — men and women, gays and straights alike.
As I have come to know hundreds of spiritual teachers and thousands of spiritual practitioners through my work and travels, I have been struck by the way in which our spiritual views, perspectives and experiences become similarly “infected” by “conceptual contaminants” — comprising a confused and immature relationship to complex spiritual principles can seem as invisible and insidious as a sexually transmitted disease.
The following 10 categorizations are not intended to be definitive but are offered as a tool for becoming aware of some of the most common spiritually transmitted diseases.
1. Fast-Food Spirituality: Mix spirituality with a culture that celebrates speed, multitasking and instant gratification and the result is likely to be fast-food spirituality. Fast-food spirituality is a product of the common and understandable fantasy that relief from the suffering of our human condition can be quick and easy. One thing is clear, however: spiritual transformation cannot be had in a quick fix.
2. Faux Spirituality: Faux spirituality is the tendency to talk, dress and act as we imagine a spiritual person would. It is a kind of imitation spirituality that mimics spiritual realization in the way that leopard-skin fabric imitates the genuine skin of a leopard.
3. Confused Motivations: Although our desire to grow is genuine and pure, it often gets mixed with lesser motivations, including the wish to be loved, the desire to belong, the need to fill our internal emptiness, the belief that the spiritual path will remove our suffering and spiritual ambition, the wish to be special, to be better than, to be “the one.”
4. Identifying with Spiritual Experiences: In this disease, the ego identifies with our spiritual experience and takes it as its own, and we begin to believe that we are embodying insights that have arisen within us at certain times. In most cases, it does not last indefinitely, although it tends to endure for longer periods of time in those who believe themselves to be enlightened and/or who function as spiritual teachers.
5. The Spiritualized Ego: This disease occurs when the very structure of the egoic personality becomes deeply embedded with spiritual concepts and ideas. The result is an egoic structure that is “bullet-proof.” When the ego becomes spiritualized, we are invulnerable to help, new input, or constructive feedback. We become impenetrable human beings and are stunted in our spiritual growth, all in the name of spirituality.
6. Mass Production of Spiritual Teachers: There are a number of current trendy spiritual traditions that produce people who believe themselves to be at a level of spiritual enlightenment, or mastery, that is far beyond their actual level. This disease functions like a spiritual conveyor belt: put on this glow, get that insight, and — bam! — you’re enlightened and ready to enlighten others in similar fashion. The problem is not that such teachers instruct but that they represent themselves as having achieved spiritual mastery.
7. Spiritual Pride: Spiritual pride arises when the practitioner, through years of labored effort, has actually attained a certain level of wisdom and uses that attainment to justify shutting down to further experience. A feeling of “spiritual superiority” is another symptom of this spiritually transmitted disease. It manifests as a subtle feeling that “I am better, more wise and above others because I am spiritual.”
8. Group Mind: Also described as groupthink, cultic mentality or ashram disease, group mind is an insidious virus that contains many elements of traditional co-dependence. A spiritual group makes subtle and unconscious agreements regarding the correct ways to think, talk, dress, and act. Individuals and groups infected with “group mind” reject individuals, attitudes, and circumstances that do not conform to the often unwritten rules of the group.
9. The Chosen-People Complex: The chosen people complex is not limited to Jews. It is the belief that “Our group is more spiritually evolved, powerful, enlightened and, simply put, better than any other group.” There is an important distinction between the recognition that one has found the right path, teacher or community for themselves, and having found The One.
10. The Deadly Virus: “I Have Arrived”: This disease is so potent that it has the capacity to be terminal and deadly to our spiritual evolution. This is the belief that “I have arrived” at the final goal of the spiritual path. Our spiritual progress ends at the point where this belief becomes crystallized in our psyche, for the moment we begin to believe that we have reached the end of the path, further growth ceases.
“The essence of love is perception,” according to the teachings of Marc Gafni, “Therefore the essence of self love is self perception. You can only fall in love with someone you can see clearly–including yourself. To love is to have eyes to see. It is only when you see yourself clearly that you can begin to love yourself.”
It is in the spirit of Marc’s teaching that I believe that a critical part of learning discernment on the spiritual path is discovering the pervasive illnesses of ego and self-deception that are in all of us. That is when we need a sense of humor and the support of real spiritual friends. As we face our obstacles to spiritual growth, there are times when it is easy to fall into a sense of despair and self-diminishment and lose our confidence on the path. We must keep the faith, in ourselves and in others, in order to really make a difference in this world.
As written by Mariana Caplan, Ph.D. It is a jungle out there, and it is no less true about spiritual life than any other aspect of life. Do we really think that just because someone has been meditating for five years, or doing 10 years of yoga practice, that they will be any less neurotic than the next person? At best, perhaps they will be a little bit more aware of it. A little bit.
It is for this reason that I spent the last 15 years of my life researching and writing books on cultivating discernment on the spiritual path in all the gritty areas–power, sex, enlightenment, gurus, scandals, psychology, neurosis — as well as earnest, but just plain confused and unconscious, motivations on the path. My partner (author and teacher Marc Gafni) and I are developing a new series of books, courses and practices to bring further clarification to these issues.
Several years ago, I spent a summer living and working in South Africa. Upon my arrival I was instantly confronted by the visceral reality that I was in the country with the highest murder rate in the world, where rape was common and more than half the population was HIV-positive — men and women, gays and straights alike.
As I have come to know hundreds of spiritual teachers and thousands of spiritual practitioners through my work and travels, I have been struck by the way in which our spiritual views, perspectives and experiences become similarly “infected” by “conceptual contaminants” — comprising a confused and immature relationship to complex spiritual principles can seem as invisible and insidious as a sexually transmitted disease.
The following 10 categorizations are not intended to be definitive but are offered as a tool for becoming aware of some of the most common spiritually transmitted diseases.
1. Fast-Food Spirituality: Mix spirituality with a culture that celebrates speed, multitasking and instant gratification and the result is likely to be fast-food spirituality. Fast-food spirituality is a product of the common and understandable fantasy that relief from the suffering of our human condition can be quick and easy. One thing is clear, however: spiritual transformation cannot be had in a quick fix.
2. Faux Spirituality: Faux spirituality is the tendency to talk, dress and act as we imagine a spiritual person would. It is a kind of imitation spirituality that mimics spiritual realization in the way that leopard-skin fabric imitates the genuine skin of a leopard.
3. Confused Motivations: Although our desire to grow is genuine and pure, it often gets mixed with lesser motivations, including the wish to be loved, the desire to belong, the need to fill our internal emptiness, the belief that the spiritual path will remove our suffering and spiritual ambition, the wish to be special, to be better than, to be “the one.”
4. Identifying with Spiritual Experiences: In this disease, the ego identifies with our spiritual experience and takes it as its own, and we begin to believe that we are embodying insights that have arisen within us at certain times. In most cases, it does not last indefinitely, although it tends to endure for longer periods of time in those who believe themselves to be enlightened and/or who function as spiritual teachers.
5. The Spiritualized Ego: This disease occurs when the very structure of the egoic personality becomes deeply embedded with spiritual concepts and ideas. The result is an egoic structure that is “bullet-proof.” When the ego becomes spiritualized, we are invulnerable to help, new input, or constructive feedback. We become impenetrable human beings and are stunted in our spiritual growth, all in the name of spirituality.
6. Mass Production of Spiritual Teachers: There are a number of current trendy spiritual traditions that produce people who believe themselves to be at a level of spiritual enlightenment, or mastery, that is far beyond their actual level. This disease functions like a spiritual conveyor belt: put on this glow, get that insight, and — bam! — you’re enlightened and ready to enlighten others in similar fashion. The problem is not that such teachers instruct but that they represent themselves as having achieved spiritual mastery.
7. Spiritual Pride: Spiritual pride arises when the practitioner, through years of labored effort, has actually attained a certain level of wisdom and uses that attainment to justify shutting down to further experience. A feeling of “spiritual superiority” is another symptom of this spiritually transmitted disease. It manifests as a subtle feeling that “I am better, more wise and above others because I am spiritual.”
8. Group Mind: Also described as groupthink, cultic mentality or ashram disease, group mind is an insidious virus that contains many elements of traditional co-dependence. A spiritual group makes subtle and unconscious agreements regarding the correct ways to think, talk, dress, and act. Individuals and groups infected with “group mind” reject individuals, attitudes, and circumstances that do not conform to the often unwritten rules of the group.
9. The Chosen-People Complex: The chosen people complex is not limited to Jews. It is the belief that “Our group is more spiritually evolved, powerful, enlightened and, simply put, better than any other group.” There is an important distinction between the recognition that one has found the right path, teacher or community for themselves, and having found The One.
10. The Deadly Virus: “I Have Arrived”: This disease is so potent that it has the capacity to be terminal and deadly to our spiritual evolution. This is the belief that “I have arrived” at the final goal of the spiritual path. Our spiritual progress ends at the point where this belief becomes crystallized in our psyche, for the moment we begin to believe that we have reached the end of the path, further growth ceases.
“The essence of love is perception,” according to the teachings of Marc Gafni, “Therefore the essence of self love is self perception. You can only fall in love with someone you can see clearly–including yourself. To love is to have eyes to see. It is only when you see yourself clearly that you can begin to love yourself.”
It is in the spirit of Marc’s teaching that I believe that a critical part of learning discernment on the spiritual path is discovering the pervasive illnesses of ego and self-deception that are in all of us. That is when we need a sense of humor and the support of real spiritual friends. As we face our obstacles to spiritual growth, there are times when it is easy to fall into a sense of despair and self-diminishment and lose our confidence on the path. We must keep the faith, in ourselves and in others, in order to really make a difference in this world.
As written by Mariana Caplan, Ph.D. It is a jungle out there, and it is no less true about spiritual life than any other aspect of life. Do we really think that just because someone has been meditating for five years, or doing 10 years of yoga practice, that they will be any less neurotic than the next person? At best, perhaps they will be a little bit more aware of it. A little bit.
It is for this reason that I spent the last 15 years of my life researching and writing books on cultivating discernment on the spiritual path in all the gritty areas–power, sex, enlightenment, gurus, scandals, psychology, neurosis — as well as earnest, but just plain confused and unconscious, motivations on the path. My partner (author and teacher Marc Gafni) and I are developing a new series of books, courses and practices to bring further clarification to these issues.
Several years ago, I spent a summer living and working in South Africa. Upon my arrival I was instantly confronted by the visceral reality that I was in the country with the highest murder rate in the world, where rape was common and more than half the population was HIV-positive — men and women, gays and straights alike.
As I have come to know hundreds of spiritual teachers and thousands of spiritual practitioners through my work and travels, I have been struck by the way in which our spiritual views, perspectives and experiences become similarly “infected” by “conceptual contaminants” — comprising a confused and immature relationship to complex spiritual principles can seem as invisible and insidious as a sexually transmitted disease.
The following 10 categorizations are not intended to be definitive but are offered as a tool for becoming aware of some of the most common spiritually transmitted diseases.
1. Fast-Food Spirituality: Mix spirituality with a culture that celebrates speed, multitasking and instant gratification and the result is likely to be fast-food spirituality. Fast-food spirituality is a product of the common and understandable fantasy that relief from the suffering of our human condition can be quick and easy. One thing is clear, however: spiritual transformation cannot be had in a quick fix.
2. Faux Spirituality: Faux spirituality is the tendency to talk, dress and act as we imagine a spiritual person would. It is a kind of imitation spirituality that mimics spiritual realization in the way that leopard-skin fabric imitates the genuine skin of a leopard.
3. Confused Motivations: Although our desire to grow is genuine and pure, it often gets mixed with lesser motivations, including the wish to be loved, the desire to belong, the need to fill our internal emptiness, the belief that the spiritual path will remove our suffering and spiritual ambition, the wish to be special, to be better than, to be “the one.”
4. Identifying with Spiritual Experiences: In this disease, the ego identifies with our spiritual experience and takes it as its own, and we begin to believe that we are embodying insights that have arisen within us at certain times. In most cases, it does not last indefinitely, although it tends to endure for longer periods of time in those who believe themselves to be enlightened and/or who function as spiritual teachers.
5. The Spiritualized Ego: This disease occurs when the very structure of the egoic personality becomes deeply embedded with spiritual concepts and ideas. The result is an egoic structure that is “bullet-proof.” When the ego becomes spiritualized, we are invulnerable to help, new input, or constructive feedback. We become impenetrable human beings and are stunted in our spiritual growth, all in the name of spirituality.
6. Mass Production of Spiritual Teachers: There are a number of current trendy spiritual traditions that produce people who believe themselves to be at a level of spiritual enlightenment, or mastery, that is far beyond their actual level. This disease functions like a spiritual conveyor belt: put on this glow, get that insight, and — bam! — you’re enlightened and ready to enlighten others in similar fashion. The problem is not that such teachers instruct but that they represent themselves as having achieved spiritual mastery.
7. Spiritual Pride: Spiritual pride arises when the practitioner, through years of labored effort, has actually attained a certain level of wisdom and uses that attainment to justify shutting down to further experience. A feeling of “spiritual superiority” is another symptom of this spiritually transmitted disease. It manifests as a subtle feeling that “I am better, more wise and above others because I am spiritual.”
8. Group Mind: Also described as groupthink, cultic mentality or ashram disease, group mind is an insidious virus that contains many elements of traditional co-dependence. A spiritual group makes subtle and unconscious agreements regarding the correct ways to think, talk, dress, and act. Individuals and groups infected with “group mind” reject individuals, attitudes, and circumstances that do not conform to the often unwritten rules of the group.
9. The Chosen-People Complex: The chosen people complex is not limited to Jews. It is the belief that “Our group is more spiritually evolved, powerful, enlightened and, simply put, better than any other group.” There is an important distinction between the recognition that one has found the right path, teacher or community for themselves, and having found The One.
10. The Deadly Virus: “I Have Arrived”: This disease is so potent that it has the capacity to be terminal and deadly to our spiritual evolution. This is the belief that “I have arrived” at the final goal of the spiritual path. Our spiritual progress ends at the point where this belief becomes crystallized in our psyche, for the moment we begin to believe that we have reached the end of the path, further growth ceases.
“The essence of love is perception,” according to the teachings of Marc Gafni, “Therefore the essence of self love is self perception. You can only fall in love with someone you can see clearly–including yourself. To love is to have eyes to see. It is only when you see yourself clearly that you can begin to love yourself.”
It is in the spirit of Marc’s teaching that I believe that a critical part of learning discernment on the spiritual path is discovering the pervasive illnesses of ego and self-deception that are in all of us. That is when we need a sense of humor and the support of real spiritual friends. As we face our obstacles to spiritual growth, there are times when it is easy to fall into a sense of despair and self-diminishment and lose our confidence on the path. We must keep the faith, in ourselves and in others, in order to really make a difference in this world.
When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that will never leave.
~ Buddha
The key to mastering the mind is learning to, as the Buddhists say, “surf on the waves of your thought,”- a happy alternative to letting yourself get tossed and pummeled by them on the shore. You can do this by observing your thoughts as they come and go, watching rather than reacting. Your thoughts, like waves, will arise naturally- but now you can choose to ride them smoothly.
For the next few days, notice when your thoughts start racing and stress levels begin to escalate- and take that opportunity to stop and observe this process. What are those thoughts about? Where are they coming from? What’s causing them? The more you can detach from spiraling thoughts, the less likely you are to become victimized by them.
Begin your day with this inspired Sunrise Guided Meditation, and use this time to simply observe your thoughts as you begin your day. Namaste’.
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Grace and gratitude have the same Latin root, gratus. Whenever we find ourselves in a stop-the-world-I-want-to-get-off mindset, we can remember that there is another way and open ourselves to grace. And it often starts with taking a moment to be grateful for this day, for being alive, for anything.
Exercise: once a day, list ten things you’re grateful for and count them out on your fingers. Try it this week.
You’ve got up early when it’s quiet and serene, made a cup of coffee and sat down on your porch with your laptop in the coolness of the morning to take in the splendor of the rising sun while you slowly reply to the questions of the outside world. This is your first attempt to be mindful, to really try and put into practice the sermons of the great Zen teachers you’ve been reading and listening to on YouTube. You’re mindful of your own mindfulness, and as you reproach your ego for telling you you’re doing a great job, chuckling at this little joke the universe has decided to share, you don’t notice the light from your laptop screen has attracted a mosquito.
The parasitic little mosquito lands unseen on the wrist you’re using to hold your coffee mug, and promptly digs in to the feast under your skin. You have a vague sensation of discomfort and your coffee hand jerks slightly, but you’re distracted by a must-read article on your news feed and you don’t notice the blood-sucking critter, nor do you see the small drop of coffee that has spilled onto your space bar.
You teeter unknowingly on the edge of catastrophe, and then, while still sitting comfortably in your chair, fall headlong into the abyss.
Your wrist begins to itch. A lot. At first you scratch it half-heartedly, but this soon turns into a frenzied, four-nail digging that provides only temporary relief. Half-way through each sentence in response to an important email from a client, you have to stop typing and scratch. You lose your train of thought repeatedly.
In between seeing to the agitation of your epidermis and trying to construct a coherent paragraph, you’re also having to stop writing to move the cursor backwards and at times fairly hammer the spacebar to affect standard grammatical norms. This is extremely annoying as it is slowing you down even more and why won’t the thing just work, anyway?
Suddenly you realise your feet are overheating. You’ve got socks and slippers on, as is customary in the morning, but the sun is turning these into a sheepskin kiln and there is sweat between your toes. Just as you’re about to do something about this the dog runs past with the remote control in its mouth. You prepare to shout at it but now you really need the toilet. Caught between the call of nature and the summary destruction of an important piece of technology, sweating profusely at both ends, unable to work and not knowing how to proceed, inside you the clam pool becomes a torrid heaving sea and you break.
As the smoke clears the remote has been saved by the sudden appearance of the neighbour’s cat, your wrist has stopped itching, you’re dressed and ready for work as usual, and you’ll answer those emails later with no trouble. But the day is lost. All attempts at mindfulness are on hold as your bad mood propels you through the following hours with all the joy of a fly moving through treacle, resigned to the end and simply willing it to come.
You tried so hard, you really did. You were so proud of that effort, and you had such high hopes.
Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.
Do you consider yourself creative? Creativity is not found just in the chosen few who exhibit artistic talent. It is a force that flows through every single one of us, allowing us to dream things up and make them happen. Creativity, in other words, is more than art, it’s a key that unlocks our basic goodness.
What story could you tell about yourself in three minutes that would significantly shift people’s views of you? Tell it to someone.
Learn to Quiet The Mind in this first of 15 Steps from the Healing Rhythms Program presented by Wild Divine. This video is an excellent introduction to mind-body training and features instruction and guided meditation from Doctors Andrew Weil and Dean Ornish.
Evening and morning and at noonday I will pray; and He shall hear my voice. ~Psalms 55:15
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SEASONAL FOCUS: Flowers announce the promise of fruition.
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The Angel of WATER – Thursday Morning
In this Communion all forms of water were contemplated establishing as a living reality the unity between the waters of the body and the waters of the planet.
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THE PHYSICAL COMMUNION: This is the day of purification, of cleansing. Carry the spirit of purification with you into your meditations. Arrange to bathe in cool water and in a leisurely and contemplative atmosphere. Consider the connections between water, the rivers of the earth, the sap of the trees and the blood in your veins.
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THE DEEPENING: Hold a bowl of water as you commune with the Angel this day. When finished, drink the water in deep reverence and feel it, like the rushing current of a river, fill your body and soul.
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MORNING COMMUNION:Angel of WATER I invoke thee; whether lake or stream or water of the well, enter my body and become my blood. Give unto me thy gift that sustains all life. Your blessings hath cleansed my spirit and quenched the thirst of my soul and as each morning comes, I shall embrace thee.
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MEDITATION: As the wave of natures glory reaches its crest and then flows on, I have gained perspective. The waters that rage in the rivers and the rains that fall from the sky are the same as the blood that flows in the veins of my body. The Earth and I are one.
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NOON CONTEMPLATION OF PEACE: Peace with CULTURE. Though thy brothers be of different origin, we all do toil in the vineyard of the EarthlyMother. We all lift our voices in praise of the Heavenly Father, and together, we all break the bread of wisdom and share in the Holyfeast.
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The Angel of WISDOM – Thursday Evening
Thought was held by the Essenes to be both a cosmic and a physical function. They considered the cosmic ocean of thought pervading all space, containing all thoughts, as the highest and most powerful of all energies. It never diminishes and is never lost.
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EVENING COMMUNION:Angel of WISDOM I invoke thee; for only through the wisdom of thy Holy Law doth the Angels guide the children of light. Descend upon my thinking body and enlighten my thoughts, my mind, my intentions and my deeds. To follow the Holy Law is the root of all blessings, and as each evening comes, I shall embrace thee.
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THE BLESSING:When at first a fledgling bird tries to fly, his wings cannot support him, and he falls again and again to the earth. But one day he soars aloft, leaving the earth and his nest far behind. And so is it with the thoughts and intentions of the sons and the daughters of men; The longer one walks with the Angels, and keeps their Law, the stronger ones thoughts shall become in Holy Wisdom.The day will come, when the thoughts of men will overcome even the kingdom of death and then shall he soar to the heights of ever lastinglife in the kingdoms of the Heavenly Father.
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There is no greater power in heaven and earth than in the thoughts of the Son of Man. ~The Isaiah Effect
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Each of us has deep within the knowledge of all things, and when we are ready to remember, the knowledge is there to be known. ~The Essene Book of Days
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Only when we surrender to our inner nature can we begin to hear the wisdom that comes from deep within.
There is no other message today but this: live in joy.
Find moments to create happiness, to draw from the deep well of the Divinity within you to literally create joy. You can find the places where joy is not, and put it there. You can find the hearts where joy is missing and share. Let joy be your net of love, and use it to catch the life you want and the love you deserve.
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Image: This date, the flowers called Zeni’aoi, or Malva sylvestris, are open on the roadside in Osaka, Japan.
Evening and morning and at noonday I will pray; and He shall hear my voice. ~Psalms 55:15
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SEASONAL FOCUS: Flowers announce the promise of fruition.
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The Angel Of Life – Monday Morning. This Communion was dedicated to the life, health and vitality of the human organism and that of the planet and brought about a dynamic unity between them.
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THE PHYSICAL COMMUNION: A day of practicing silence. Change nothing in your daily routine with the exception of talking. “See” the world around you. Contemplate how the medium of speech dilutes the meaning of actions and intentions. Always abstain from false speech, idle gossip and making promises that cannot be kept.
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THE DEEPENING: God so made life and ALL living things that they, by the living word, would teach the laws of the Heavenly Father and the Earthly Mother, to the sons and the daughters of men.
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MORNING COMMUNION: Angel of LIFE I invoke thee; for in everything that has life is the Holy Law written. In the grass, in the flowers, in the forest and in the trees. In the animals, and the birds and the fishes in the seas. All life speaks to us and if we listen, we can understand the tongue and the will of the living God.
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MEDITATION:The life-force within me cries out. That which I am longs for experience, and to know, and to understand. May I gain the wisdom of the connectedness with all that there is, for I am the one, and I am the many.
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NOON CONTEMPLATION OF PEACE:Peace with the MIND. Evil thoughts cannot abide in a mind filled with the Light of the Holy Law. He who hath found Peace with the Mind, hath learned to soar beyond the realm of the Angels; For I tell you truly, the lightning that cleaves the mighty oak, or the quaking that opens great cracks in the earth, are as the play of children, compared to the powers of the thoughts of men.
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The Angel of Peace – Monday Evening.
The Communion with the Angel of Peace was dedicated to man’s deep inner intuition of peace within himself, with the earth, and with the cosmos.
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EVENING COMMUNION: Angel of PEACE I invoke thee. Cast your blessings to the peoples of the world and to all that are weary or do suffer. And as long as the sun and moon endure, and throughout all the generations to come, may peace prevail over the earth as the waters cover the sea. And in remembrance of thee, I shall ever greet my brother by your name, and as each evening comes, I shall embrace thee. ~ Peace be with you.
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THE BLESSING:The whispering of a flame invokes peace within me. Reminding me of my task and of my journey. I have been given a peaceful heart and my path is before me. I joyfully take up the task, to reach the center, and to realize that I am a channel for peace.
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Thou hast purified my body to join the angels of the earth, and my spirit to reach the congregation of the heavenly angels. Thou gavest man eternity to praise at dawn and dusk Thy works and wonders in joyful song. ~ from the Thanksgiving Psalms; The Dead Sea Scrolls
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The Communions are a bridge between man and the angels. And like a bridge, can only be built with patience. Yea, even as a bridge over a river that is fashioned with the stones that are found along the water’s edge. ~Gospel of the Essenes
The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
How do you feel when you look at your boyfriend, your wife, your children, your dog? Do you thank god for the joy they bring and treasure every moment with them, or are you a bit sad because you know one day you will lose them forever? Jason Silva asks us to contemplate the fact that everyone, everything, everywhere ends, and to choose how we would like to respond to that fact.
This letter spontaneously appeared as an unsigned typewritten letter amongst David Crawford’s personal papers just at the moment of his departure from New Mexico for California.
We believe it is a spiritual message from Ascended Master El Morya intended as our compass in these, the latter days of our Journey on The Path together. Peace be with you all.
You have made a magnificent journey.
As you’ve listened to these words … as you’ve looked at ancient mysteries, the insights of the metaphysical realm and the laws of Quantum Physics … looked at your own personal experiences, you come now to the Final Chapter.
It is the final chapter of this book, but also the final chapter of Life and its multitude of experiences. What lies beyond this moment in Time? Look into this moment, where you exist now, where you are experiencing life … it’s joy, its sorrows, its disappointments, its frustrations, its passions, its tears and its laughter … contemplating all that is beyond here, all that is here and all that has been … Look into the moment of NOW.
You are listening to these words. Perhaps they say things you already know, truths you have already gained … and they have not told you anything you didn’t know somewhere inside yourself.
Now, move beyond these words.
You can see the greater truth unfold for the future … for a battle rages during this time in Life. It is an ancient battle where fear and greed fight love and hope. There is only one outcome and it is beyond this moment of Now. No matter what course mankind takes, we will eventually move out of this realm.
Following the path of fear and greed, the apocalypse of natural disasters, war and famine looms large. Yet, this apocalypse will force mankind to find a higher way. Following the path of Love, the same inevitable end comes … but through a different way: through a loving, gentle way … Man passes into the millennium, which prepares those for eternity.
Through your personal experiences of love, you learn of your eternal home. Moving through life, you learn the deep understanding that you are loved by your Father; that you are loved eternally. Within that understanding is a reward of love, hope, comfort and security.
Within the consciousness of fear and greed, you feel unworthy, undeserving … that you have not done enough. You cannot accept yourself. You struggle to gain through the illusion of what is waiting for you in eternity. And in that struggle, love and hope elude you. From fear and greed, you offer a kind of superficial love: Duty and Labor.
Even with the knowledge and ability to cause mountains to be moved, and having infinite knowledge of all things … you still do not have what you seek. You miss it. You do not realize that the necessary offering is the true offering of the heart shining through your motive, not your intent and deeds.
When the offering is from the heart, perception and judgment are not clouded and truth gives manifestation to your motive. You then learn that to love others is to understand and accept their ability to receive love, to accept their sense of perception and interpretation of love as precious, unique and a part of their eternal identity. You offer your love, expanding it to encompass the perception that each unique individual has.
It does not mean that you agree or disagree, or you respond or don’t respond with them.
Unfolding from that sense of loving and being loved, in that atmosphere of hope and comfort will be a 1,000-year reign. The spirit of mankind emerges from life to a much higher, greater sense of man’s own being … that which man will be in eternity.
You have come to the final chapter. You are loved with the total love of your Creator. If you are not conscious of that love, take comfort: by all that is True, you are loved.
Your expression of love may be fraught with every imaginable curse of psychology or personal debauchery, fear, hatred or anger. Your fear and your anger exist because you don’t feel that love surrounds you. You hate because you think that what you really want is not given.
But, love is always with you. You are loved in a unique way. Take comfort from these words.
You that do not know the deep comfort of the truth of love itself, of its creation … of this reality in life. You that only know the bitterness of the physical, emotional and spiritual pain that you feel in this reality.
Know the hope that this pain comes to an end. It comes to and end and is completed. The eternal truth, the truth that gave this creation reality, you will appreciate more than others whose path is not as difficult as yours. Your reward will be great in the love and richness you will experience. A love designed uniquely for you, awaiting you at a moment in the future.
Allow yourself to unfold and allow it to unfold for you.
Allow the truth of your eternal identity to unfold within your consciousness. You are an eternal being, an eternal entity, embodied in flesh … but you are not limited by life and the constrictions of that body. You are eternal, and you shall find love, joy and happiness that is unique to you.
You will feel love as an infant within the womb. You will feel love as a child that goes through the pain of birth and feels life for the first time. You will feel love from nurturing arms. You will feel love of family, friends and loved ones caring for you. You will feel the liberty to express love, and the liberty to receive it.
How will this moment of emergence come for you?
Will it be through understanding the quantum physics that bind all the forces together … or, through seeing the eternal reality itself as the greatest example?
Will it be through understanding that you express the Divine Formula in your deepest desire to love and be loved?
Will it be through your realization that you desire to be loved by others as you truly are, rather than through trying to be what you think others want you to be?
Will it be from your acceptance of the truth preparing the pathway of your consciousness to enter into eternity into the great spectrum of reality beyond this life?
Will it be from your acceptance that this earthly life is an illusion and the dream?
No matter what your path is, the reality of love and its eternal sense will bring us to a place where we can greet one another with love that is unconditional and non-judgmental, revealing the profound beauty in each aspect and action of every individual.
We will experience that same love for ourselves and know that it is the same love God has for each, as you, His precious child. This is the gift you wear as the mantle as you ascend into the Presence.
At this final chapter in the school of our lives on this planet look deeply into what all of this means to you here in the present and to the physical consciousness of mankind.
Two roads are parting, both coming to the same end. One is Fear and Greed, reaping as much as it can gather for itself with no regard for anything else. You can see how we have traveled on this very road in what we have experienced in our own lives … how it has brought us here. It has brought us here as much as the Love and Hope we have experienced. We’re just sharing a small dream about what it is like to be in the body of an animal … to feel the pain, the heartache and the pleasure … to have victory and defeat … to have hope, passion, desire and anguish. We are dreaming of life at the level of Light where it slows to a place called Earth … GAIA …
And when you awaken you will remember you were here walking down that pathway finding in your dream our true character.
The master of this insight, the worker, or the Enlightened One has always laid down his life for God to help him guide the lives of others into Truth, Light and Love, maintaining God’s covenant with Man. The masters have served mankind continuously. Their numbers are great.
It may be that you stand within that group yourself, even unaware. For those of you who do stand within this midst … within these Temples … within your private lives … standing alone within the Light of Truth and Love in whatever you do in your service to Him is what you do to others.
You may be called from this life experience at any moment, so that the Divine Formula can unfold. The prophecies have proclaimed it and the Time approaches when a new and unique pattern is formed for this human race. The subatomic universe is the same as the cosmic galaxies of the stars. It is the same fractal pattern. The future of mankind unfolds naturally, as it unfolds in everyone’s life … in YOUR life. Mankind’s battle is the same battle as yours: the battle of Love and Hope versus Fear and Greed.
To experience the struggle is the Prize. It is simply the way that it is. It is based in the Hope of Mankind to love and be loved. It is your hope to love and be loved. This is man’s deepest desire and your deepest desire. Its manifestation is within the spectrum of perception and is unique to each individual unique to you.
The pattern you manifest is just as true and real to all as it is to you. What can you do to change the course of events for yourself? What can you do to change the course of events for Mankind?
Simply open your heart to love and be loved … to God’s unconditional non-judgmental love.
If it is a smile … if it is a kind word for another … if it is that unselfish charitable act, which you simply do spontaneously … It is the greatest victory you can give to your brothers and sisters. It is the greatest triumph throughout Eternity.
For in your dream of life, you were loving …
In your dream of life, you learned that you were … you just were.
In your dream of life, you discovered the Truth and lived the final chapter.
In your dream of life, you awakened and found the way Home.
Have you ever experienced the majesty of a very tall, very wide Sequoia tree? Sequoias are one of Earth’s oldest living organisms, veritable witnesses to our humanity. Imagine these ancient trees as Elders of our world community … those who possess the greatest stories of resilience, stories of tragedy and triumph, past and future … but above all, stories that humble our human lives, which seem like the blink of a cosmic eye against the timescales of these ancient organisms … organisms that have unflinchingly witnessed all of our own tragedies and triumphs, our wars and our revolutions, our holocausts and our renaissances, and have remained anchored to existence more firmly than we can ever hope to be.
Now, imagine you have the fortitude of a Sequoia tree … Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Today, try to notice the living things around you that have been around longer than you have. Take a moment to feel the interconnection to that which is beyond your own individual existence.
We’re always thinking about something else these days, and missing what is here right now. Our obsession with the expectations of a global society continually pulls us away from our true selves, and to find that, we have to stop the chatter in our heads. The guru Alan Watts explains this, in simply the best and most concise interpretation of, and justification for, meditation out there.
If, as Gandhi said, man often becomes what he believes himself to be, then self-confidence is the beginning of every great thing we are capable of doing.
It’s often believed that awakening will make us strong and confident, somehow immune to the vulnerabilities of being human. It’s believed that in awakening we are made “perfect”, that every word we say is a reflection of the utmost clarity, that every action is aligned with the highest frequency, that we have somehow transcended the fragility of human expression. But this is not so. What is more accurate, is that awakening has nothing to do with strength or confidence or perfection. It has everything to do with openness and honesty and innocence.
The personality vehicle is always “flawed” in some way, it is bent into shape – and out of shape – by the particular storm that passes through our lives, the circumstances of our specific karma and conditioning. For some, this so-called storm is more like a gentle breeze, for others it is a hurricane of immense proportions. The expression of awakeness is inevitably filtered through this vehicle. What matters is not the vehicle itself, not even the perfection of the words spoken, but the capacity to be meet every nuance of the human experience in open discovery, in beginner’s mind and beginner’s heart .. and to be OK with this.
Awakening brings an often excruciating sensitivity to all movement of energies, both inner and outer. This sensitivity is both a blessing and a burden. There is a sense of rawness, of nakedness, nowhere to hide, no defenses, no running away from the depths of what is. It’s also a transparency, a permeability, in which the personality becomes more fluid, unattached to opinions or ideas of how things should be. It is not the words that matter, but the emanation of light or presence that reveals itself through the spaces between words. Stability comes from inner silence, from the open emptiness of being. It’s like free-falling into the unknown. And it’s unavoidable once the flower of awakeness has revealed itself!
Our ability to experience love has nothing to do with getting love from someone else. We don’t need to be good enough or gorgeous enough in order to make love a dominant part of our daily experience. We are the only person who is responsible for how much love we experience in our lives.
So … take some time out today … each day … and get to know yourself a little better. You might think you know everything about yourself, but chances are there are a lot of things about yourself that you have ignored or overlooked because they weren’t “important”. Listen, and ask yourself how you are really feeling. Get out some nice paper and a nice pen and share these real feelings, as if you were writing to a best friend. Take this time to listen to yourself, and get used to the feeling. Ask yourself: what things are important to you that you are neglecting right now?
Take action to show love to yourself by honoring something that is important to you, even if someone else might not approve or think you deserve what it is that’s important to you.
As you go through the day, stop to remind yourself that you deserve respect and admiration, just for no other reason than that you deserve love. Let your heart open, and enjoy the feeling. This feeling can become a constant companion, and it becomes something we can share with the world around us.
How many of us live in fear of being wrong, messing up, making the wrong choice, or not being good enough? Too many. The time has come to leave behind our fears and step into our power as creative manifesters. Lose your fear of being wrong today. Test out the waters of confidence. Then tell us all how great being great feels.
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. — Carl Sagan
Passion … is the element that makes it possible for a real breakthrough in thought to take place. And beauty … goes a long way in establishing the bona fide results of scientific experiments.
Where do you see beauty when you take a closer look?
Take a moment to write down one small (perhaps even microscopic) thing for which you are grateful.
Hālau 'Aha Hui Lānākila 