DECEMBER 2022
Reluctant Messiahs
Follow up from last sessions: “The highest potential (“I am”ness) is not reserved for just a chosen one or few (as most religions adhere to)…each of us is that total consciousness/Divinity (omnipresence) that may achieve the purest reflection/highest potential we can on the earthly plane as Dr. Beckwith mentions.”
“Illusions: The adventures of a reluctant messiah,” by Richard Bach (“JL Seagull”) has handwritten notes in the preface about barnacle-like creatures: https://colinbeavan.com/a-parable-about-letting-go/
Full book:
https://www.amazon.com/Illusions-Adventures-Reluctant-Richard-Bach/dp/0440204887
Messiah Defined: A leader or savior of a particular group or cause. In religions this is reserved for a uniquely anointed singular individual. Religions with a messiah concept include Judaism (Mashiach), Christianity (Christ), Islam (Isa Masih), Zoroastrianism (Saoshyant from pre-Islamic 6th century BC), Buddhism (Maitreya), Hinduism (Kalki) and Taoism (Li Hong)
All such messengers are first viewed as radical and outcast, then “special and unlike me.”
Vedic worldview, which predates all religions, says that everyone is this same source, has this same potential, not allotted to only one individual, a “chosen one”.
All we need to do is let go of the assumptions we’ve created/adhere to/agreed to (or have been indoctrinated in or “domesticated” to follow as described from Toltec wisdom in 4 Agreements) and practice becoming the clearest vessel for emanating the pure Consciousness/Divinity/Love that we already are. (If everything is ONE thing then we are that one thing and the work is in remembering this = stop ignoring/forgetting…it is a process of greater and lesser moments of ignor-ance to more full awareness)
To get there:
· Learn about the ego mind – why the body has and how it works at protecting the body
· Be open to this possibility and read/explore other interpretations…what feels charming at a supra-ego/supra-intellectual level (rather than comfortable or makes sense); shouldn’t have to ignore some aspects in accepting the others.
· PRACTICE. Practice meditation – being still, being the observer; practice ego-correction strategies and speeding up the process of being able to identify when the ego is dominating thought/behavior rather than being in awareness.
NOVEMBER 2022
Earth & Body Are One
Sadhguru: “Inner Engineering”
“Body responds moment it touches the earth. That is why spiritual people in India walk barefoot…the body is given a strong experiential reminder that it is just a part of this earth.
This restores stability to the system and enhances the human capacity for rejuvenation greatly.”
“Sadhana” = realization, which means both to become fully aware of something and to become a physical form.
TREES: We breath in what they breath out and they breath in what we breath out.
WALNUTS: look like our brains…and are good for brain function!
Nutrients. 2020 Feb; 12(2): 550.
Published online 2020 Feb 20. doi: 10.3390/nu12020550
High concentration of DHA, a type of Omega-3 fatty acid, that protects brain health in newborns, improves cognitive performance in adults, and prevents or ameliorate age-related cognitive decline.
Resistance
In the Vedic world view resistance is the opposite of acceptance. Resistance is what stands in the way of life flowing easily through us and stems from the ego mind trying to be in control, always seeking safety, comfort, survival of itself- the body. If we believe the talk of the ego which is preyed upon by all manner of external influences marketing to it, then we think we are here on the planet to have a good time, stay young forever (or at least look it) and that any discomfort is a problem to be immediately solved.
The most ancient wisdom teachings tell us quite the opposite, that we are here to expand, to be pushed to remember our oneness with consciousness-with life itself…and that is never a walk in the park for the ego mind…but it is precisely what leads to complete acceptance of all experiences and thus unconditional love for all things, yes even “them” because we see the human condition for what it is and compassion arises in place of separation, hate, anger and blame.
Interestingly, in physics, resistance is the opposition to the flow of current in an electrical circuit and measured in units called ohms…OHM (au-oo-mm) in the Vedas is the triad sound for the experiencer the experience and experiencing – complete consciousness. As I look at this use of the word ohm as a measure – it is the collection of totality being blocked from moving through AS US, as all things. Consciousness is always in flow, it’s only ourselves that block it, and as it gets blocked/collects/bunches up by our ego expectations wanting things to be different than they are, then we feel this in emotions of boredom sadness irritation, and so on.
Meditation allows up to unblock the dam, to view life differently, to be more in flow with whatever is in store for us, whatever is showing up to expand us, to wake us up no matter how uncomfortable for the ego. It is of course a process…a lifelong process but the more we practice, the more we recognize resistance showing up and the better we get at letting go of it, the more of life we will enjoy.
90 Second Rule and Brain Huddle: Emotional experience and dissipation
Emotions are a body experience the chemicals of which are interpreted by the brain
· “We can choose to nip an emotion in the bud and feel the circuit run in our body and let it dissipate after 90 seconds, or we can act it out for 90 seconds, or we can rerun that circuit into a loop of emotion that goes on and on and on for 90 minutes or 90 years.”
WAIT why am I talking/thinking
Brain Huddle (B-R-A-I-N):
· “The Brain Huddle requires that I push the pause button, which is essentially the same as running the 90 Second Rule. Pausing for 90 seconds allows whatever chemicals are running through my bloodstream to flood through and then completely flush out of me.”
· “We have much more power over what is going on inside of our heads than we have ever been taught.”
https://www.sloww.co/whole-brain-living/
Weapons of Mass DISTRACTION
Visiting neighbor with toddler having a tantrum stopped by to visit the chickens…to distract the toddler brain from its supposed catastrophe. Our ego minds, our bodily survival instinct, is a bit like a toddler brain seeking comfort, certainty and tangibles to hand onto. Most humans spend their lives distracting themselves from the Truth, from the big questions of life, like where did we come from and where do we go when not in a body. This is a natural defense mechanism of the ego survival mind whose job is to keep the body alive, so it is threatened by lack of control and by non-3 dimensional/manifest explanations of life and its goal is always going to be safety and satisfaction.
So, the ego mind seeks (and our western culture and materialistic society provides) all manner of distractions about what our purpose is…”to get” more money, more degrees, a better status job, a bigger car/house, perfect partner and so on. These are “weapons of mass distraction” and we stay DISTRACTED until the reality sets in that none of that matters – none of that answers the questions and none of that feels fulfilling long term, certainly not at the moment when we depart.
So we meditate, we disconnect briefly from the ego mind, we reconnect with that which is before and will be after the body and therein lies the knowing that is beyond the intellect, the comfort that is beyond the senses. What becomes important is more of that remembering. We can touch it throughout the day with awareness meditations and rest in it during deep transcendent meditations.
From Jeff Kober’s website & podcast 6/16/2022:
What is the content of the Upanishad? It is 'Brahma Vidya' - knowledge or understanding of the 'Brahman’…the Supreme Reality behind the entire phenomenon we see. The Supreme Reality that is within us, in you and me, that which pervades the entire universe. The understanding of this Supreme Reality is known as 'Brahma Vidya'.
Sri M
There is a reality within each of us. It is this same reality 'which pervades the entire universe.' When we contact this reality within, through meditation, we are able to experience it, and experience ourselves, without the distraction of our thinking, without the distraction of relative-world phenomena.
Phenomenon being a fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen
LIVE your best message…&
What message is your life delivering today, yesterday, tomorrow…what message will it’s sum total be when the body is departed?
Gandhi’s train was pulling out of a station, a reporter ran alongside his compartment window. "Do you have a message that I can take back to the West?" he asked.
But it happened to be Gandhi’s day of silence, so instead of speaking, he scrawled these words on a slip of paper and handed it to the reporter: "My life is my message."
"We don't meditate to get better at meditating. We meditate to get better at life." — Sharon Salzberg
BE the SERENITY you seek
You cannot make the world serene. It is always unfolding to reveal the dominant mental and emotional agreements that are passing through the human condition. But you can bring serenity to the world. Not by trying to change people, but by changing your perception and how you see other people. MBB Sept 4 2022
EVOLVE Constantly
Classic story of the chicken in the egg…same idea terrified to leave the safety of the only thing the chick has known – the comfort and familiarity of the shell…until it is so cramped inside it is forced to peck its way out.
"And then the day came, when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." — Anais Nin (1903-1977 Novelist, essay/diarist – first to write female erotica)
“Go where you are not” Guru Deva (Swami Bramhananda Saraswati) the only words at gathering where people waited days to hear him.
If you go into that space where you’re able to touch the no-thingness within you, the spaciousness within you, observing all those thought-forms coming in and out of your awareness without resistance and with a devotion of intentionality to be the next great vision and version of yourself—if you can sit with that awareness—you will forge a new destiny for your life.
Michael B. Beckwith, September 4, 2022
Without resistance because you’ve come to know yourself as that which is NOT the thought, and have experienced and cultivate an understanding of life’s experience as the play and display of consciousness…not WHO you are.
SEPTEMBER 2022
Trusting intuition over intellect may be good advice this week with Pices full moon coming and mars in retrograde (intellect governing in retrograde).
Could feel foggy, confused supposedly, but his allows for cultivating the non intellectual consciousness Self – listen and trust the inner piolet light – the hear, gut, intuitive you for clarity.
Sometimes when we can’t make a decision (intellect) we may not have all the information we need and I am not speaking of intellectual information solely…there’s information that may not yet have presented itself, or as in this week, maybe it is not the correct time to make decisions.
So, we settle out of activity of the mind-out of the ephemeral, in the direction of our least excited state to connect with the enduring, ceaseless consciousness awareness that we are through meditation and we patiently avoid decision making and cultivate trust in our non-intellectual self to be more of a guide right now.
TRUST in Sanskrit has many variations and both masculine and feminine…PranyAsa f. Pranyasi m. (VishvAsa is both masculine possessive and adjective)
Friday I received email from MB Beckwith: You want to make up your mind that today, all your needs are met! Say to yourself, “Today, everything is working together for my good! Today, I am safe and secure! Today, all of Life wants to live through me!”
AUGUST 2022
DO WHAT YOU LOVE – Trust that Nature will organize in support.
And Choose from Awareness
“When we can examine ourselves and have a deep sense of inquiry and reflection, we can begin to take back our power and instead of allowing cyclical moods and habitual thoughts to determine our emotions, perceptions, and experiences, we can look at it and make a different choice. Choice is a function of expanded awareness.” ~ Michael B. Beckwith
Look at fear and failure from this same lens and we will see the learning. Meditate to expand the awareness to cultivate this ability
Comedian Jim Carrey
2014 commencement speech: “My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that was possible for him. So he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job, and our family had to do whatever we could to survive.
I learned many great lessons from my father—not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”
FAIL = First Attempts at Learning
…and FAIL along the way – it doesn’t mean you can’t/it’s not what you’re meant to do…it means there are valuable lessons leading you to your success!
We get what we need
“Don’t always get what you want…but you get what you need”
What the ego wants or believes to be the remedy is not necessarily what Nature’s Intelligence (your Higher Self) delivers, or knows is best…and who really knows best after all!? Ego mind always thinks IT DOES, but as we have witnessed, left to it’s devices alone we end up in less than optimal spot; very often the path of least resistance/fear, but not led to what really makes us happy long term.
I’d really like to be a more patient person. The intellect may try to remain calm in a trying situation as a practice strategy, but Nature’s Intelligence may really give us a whopper for a lesson opportunity. If we are only looking with the intellect/ego we will not see that we are in fact getting exactly what we need to address what we wanted unless we learn to “see” without the ego – retrospection sometimes allows, but meditation speeds the process.
Good definition of ego and why needed (not enemy)- look at Dr. David Hawkins’ work
· Your mind’s a liar!
https://www.google.com/search?q=David+Razowsky++%2B%22your+brain+is+a+liar%22
Unblock Consciousness’ flow as you
Do you realize how much effort it takes to block your blessing? How much effort it takes to prevent God from being God as your life? All of those habits that have been ensconced within you–the normalized fear and regular complaints, worry, and doubt–have been an effort to go against the universal flow. Release it all now and start living in an adventure of expanded awareness! Prepare yourself for the great reveal which is, we are the light!
Michael B. Beckwith Excerpted from Agape's Sunday service on July 17, 2022
You are an eternal being. A capital “S” Spirit who, although may have many incarnations, has never been born and will never die. One who is forever radiating the Infinite potential that’s within you and is here to create something that is everlasting in vibration and/or form. This means you have to wake up every day and say to yourself, in substance, “I need nothing, I have everything,” so that you’re walking in the world as the lawful expression of Infinite potential. In response, Sacred Law wraps Itself around your high vibratory feeling tone, which then shows up in your life as the opportunities, possibilities, wisdom, tools, and guidance necessary to reveal the everlasting through you, and to reflect the beauty, goodness, and love of your soul.
Michael B. Beckwith Excerpted from Agape's Sunday service, June 30, 2019
ACCEPTANCE: THE STORY OF APPRECIATING TREES
When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever.
And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.
The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’ That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.
— Ram Dass
Ram Dass, originally named Richard Alpert died in 2019, was a PhD educated at 4 different universities including Stanford and Tufts, was part of the eastern spirituality in the west movement of the 60’s and 70’s and was of high consciousness in part due to the consciousness-enhancing effects of psychedelics (“mind expanding”).
JULY 2022
SATYAM & RITAM
Satyam is Truth (origin/consciousness itself) and Rtam (ritam) is the Natural order/laws of universe/life that govern consciousness expression. These terms are sometimes described as inseparable aspects of “Purusha” which is the whole unified universe. (When thinking stars and planets as universe we are limiting our definition to only the manifest expression of consciousness; remember that all things are consciousness itself)
Truth was born and the Law of Truth (1), From the kindled fire of Energy of Consciousness.
Rig Veda 10.190.1
My take: Consciousness exists and its very nature is to express, thus the kindled energy moves truth into being, into action/expression. This is not puppeteered, but is the impulse of consciousness.
The Truth (satyam) and the Truth-in-movement (rtam)
Dr R.L.Kashyap (Sri Aurobindo Kapaly Shastry Institute of Vedic Studies) describes these words as follows:
The Supreme Reality is not a mere existence, immutable and featureless. It is supremely aware; it is a Consciousness. And this Consciousness is again not a mere awareness. It is dynamic, it is a Power. When this Consciousness as Power moves into action, creation ensues. First the Truth (Satyam) behind the creation, formulates itself leading to the Law of the working of that Truth (Rtam). This self-determination of Truth is the seed of creation and it's Law lays down the lines of manifestation and governs its development.
Vedas, the Truth explained, and Vedanta = Truth applied
OPTIMAL Experience of this in action is achieved though observing both the Truth and the unfoldment of Truth. Riding the crest of the wave where you can see the arising of the energy of the story’s unfoldment with clear view of the past (story taking form) and can see where it goes in the future (story playing out) but stay at that vantage point and in the moment of experiencer.
THE UNIVERSE
The new Web telescope taking photos from outer space deep into space.
Vedic world view of “big bang” is not a beginning with expansion and then retraction, but simultaneously happening at all times.
Leptoquark wave form that is there/not there constantly…in every manifest object from stardust to the cells of grass to the cells of our retina, bones and lungs this wave process is the essential element.
“Naryanum” – Nayran = the first bend in the oceanic consciousness…the first wave form…the first before the second wave; “other”
Shruti is the hum of this constant creation going on… the breaking of symmetry that manifests all things.
We are at once a grain of sand in the ocean AND the ocean itself…if we can keep this feeling of individuality and awareness of our universality present at the same time, our experience of life will be expansive.
(Wed July 13 is Guru Purnima…remover of darkness – full moon. Tonight is the full moon which reflects the sun brightly illuminate the night sky… we are here to reflect the light of pure consciousness that we all are.
CHANDRA
Disidentify
It is said that the greatest step towards enlightenment, towards highest consciousness is knowing ourselves as something other than the body…the body which includes the mind with all its programing for survival, all its thoughts based in past experience projecting into the future. When we meditate we dip into this awareness, we forget the body the little s- self with a name, with sensory input, and with all the animal instinct baggage. The key then is to take this state with us into the eyes-open state.
David Hawkins reminds us that when we learn to disidentify with the mind and time we create a gap in the stream of mind and the light of our consciousness grows stronger. We will know we are approaching this when we start smiling at the voice in our head as we might smile at the innocent antics of a child…”you no longer take the content of you that seriously, as your sense of self does not depend on it.” (D. Hawkins)
Hawkins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkGiEAjZLI0
Miya = illusion…the illusion that we are separate from the infinite, the Divine, Totality.
The illusion that we are our thoughts
Radical Devotional Non-duality and the point of reaching & maintaining highest consciousness where the state achieved in meditation carries with you into eyes open state.
Michael Beckwith: “Your mind is one with Divine Mind. When you start to catch ideas and inspiration, they aren’t coming from the world of effect, circumstances, or experience; they already exist in the mind of the Infinite.” We simply need to get our over active animal/body quieted down enough to hear!
Why so much fear and reactionism going on?
“Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.” ― Pema Chödrön
And for the ego survival mind (of the body) fear requires defenses – either physical or when defenses are of philosophical in nature then ideological rightness; often through proving some other person or goup’s wrongness. Maybe all the rifts escalating around us right now are evidence of moving closer to truth.
Truth is non-duality, truth is no separation, but his is destabilizing for those who have built a scaffold of beliefs that give them comfort or what they think are answers to questions – questions we all have, but ultimately may not be provable evidence to answer
Existential OCD – intrusive repetitive thinking about questions that cannot be answered…usually revolve around meaning and purpose or reality of life; existence of the universe of even of self.
Meditation, being still in Nature -to sense the essence of and connection to all things (without thought), to trust in the order of the universe at one with all things. (Like a tombstone in NC cemetery I read years ago)
JUNE 2022
Bigger Container
If can’t change the current uncomfortable situation or feeling about it:
Focus energy on creating the conditions for change or in some cases at least conditions for change of perspective
"We don't actually need to change our experiences; we actually just need greater support for the experiences underway." —Matt Kahn
One perspective shifter is to ask yourself “will this ‘stressor’ impact me in 5 years?”
Instead of listing the Pillars of flourishing activities – see them as a map – places/territories you can visit
“Take one step towards Totality and Totality takes 100 steps towards you”
PrAtibha n. (pra-teeya- bah) INTUITION
As a noun, it refers to that which we are…that connected infinite knowing.
It is always there, it is always what we are, but we forget; it becomes blocked by the NOISE of human life. Sometimes the ego survival mind, the demands in our human life and the unsettled world around us make it hard to stay connected to, aware of and trusting of our inner pilot lite…so we take breaks, we meditate, we slow down, we simplify so that we may keep shining the light that we are despite it all, because that is what the world needs, it is what brings solutions to discord and fulfilment to our day.
Hormetic Stress and Radical Acceptance
Hormetic Stress: Just the right amount and short duration acute stress is + = clean up mode triggered and anti aging, young mitochondria = better energy. Amount and type is individual
Radical acceptance…for that which I have no control of/over and that isn’t changing – “reality as it is now” temporary experience…does not mean it’s ok, or you like it, or you condone it or wish to engage in it.
Ecosystem wellness Spectrum
---FLOURISHING ---
HIGH Symptom ----------------------------------------- LOW Symptom
---LANGUISHING---
Doing our “best” keeping in mind current ecosystem state; and finding ways to flourish even when feeling less energized, less enthused, or high symptoms
Intentional practices – go to’s for those times when to the left on the horizontal scale
No formula offered, but I’d say that the farther to the left on the horizontal, the more activities, intentional practices and grace we give ourselves in order to move vertically.
FLOURISHING Go-to’s list:
Hot sauna/ infrared / hot tub 104 degrees 2x/week (see article on Sauna and Aging in Experimental Gerontology by Patrick and Johnson 2021)
Ice shower 15-30-60sec
Box breathing 4 in-4 hold-4 out-4 hold while doing any task
Minerals! Especially B12
More Ideas: https://globalwellnessinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-02-at-3.19.55-PM-768x646.png
JANUARY 2022
Where we spend our time (and our money which is/comes from our time) reflects what we value. If it is primarily working, chores, cleaning, social events, to-do lists, instead of expanding our consciousness, instead of doing our meditation then it is in the support of/giving into the ego which resides fully in the realm of the manifest, the temporary, goal-oriented on the survival of the body. The degree to which we allot time to those things the outside world tells us lead to happiness and comfort is the degree to which we are still experimenting with them being the source of fulfillment, of true deep joy and contentment.
That’s not to say we stop working, or doing these other things, but we meditate regularly to reconnect with inner joy, pure consciousness and bring that with us in all that we do…awareness (mindfulness) while doing. With consistent practice of meditation you may find that you are watching yourself in the act of doing - while working, during dinner with friends, driving, doing dishes – present to both perception and the perceiver, the activity, the actor the avatar of consciousness itself aware of it all.
Story of the Mayo Jar – Put into your day, your life, those things that matter the most – the golf balls – then let the rest fill in
https://alltimeshortstories.com/the-mayonnaise-jar/