Astonishing!

I am still regularly astonished with what happens. Many of us live in resistance to what shows up in our life. Ironically, we can be fighting what we want because it came in the wrong coloured wrapper. It didn’t show up the expected way.

Learning to be OK with what life brings you can take a lot of practice. Especially because life often uses the opportunity to throw you another curve ball. As soon as you get the lesson, it can come around again but now at a subtler level.

When you pass grade 54, 55 starts. It can be like peeling an onion, layer after layer. But if you pay attention, you’ll see that it is getting deeper. A little closer to the core. Sometimes, a little more difficult, more personal.

The key in this process is to learn to feel how it is. Not how you’re reacting and the superficial emotions but the subtler sense of it – perhaps it’s “rightness” or “goodness”. The mind may meanwhile be making a fuss, judging it wrong or saying “not logical!” But it’s the feelings to learn to trust. They’ll be the ones that keep you in the flow. If you can pay attention to that you’ll find life takes you places beyond your dreams.

You’ll find clear intentions show up and are easily maintained
Circumstances will arrange to support what is needed
Timing will be amazing – everything falls into place
Apparent problems may show up, but usually just to adjust the timing or tune some detail.

Sometimes, you only find out afterward how remarkable what happened was. It happened twice this week for me for bigger things, one of which is changing a loved one’s life completely.

As we let go and allow it to be as it is, the divine silent presence moves through us and our lives more and more. While what shows up can seem to be somehow more direct, life itself gets easier and easier. If we’re distracted by these new perturbations, we may not notice this. But life gets better, however it appears.

Now notice here that what makes life better is not life changing in any way. What’s changing is you – how you’re perceiving what is happening.

Of course, if you study gratitude or cooperation, you know that not resisting life will ALSO make the events of life better too. But not always in the way you might have once meant “better”. Perfect is much deeper than the minds conceptions.
Davidya

Levels of Existence

One of the things I’ve found fascinating is how the basic truths of reality can be found throughout the history of human thought: in religions, philosophies, and writings of old.

Often they are encumbered with a little too much person – either by the author or worse, the translator. For example, they see the perspective as “ultimate” and thus the only truth. They fail to see reality is so vast, our perception tends to be of one aspect, one way of looking. A series of experiences can give us some sense of the wholeness, but there is always more that can be included.

Some put an artificial upward limit on things, either because of a sense this has to be the highest truth or because of a feeling anything higher can’t be known. They forget that because we are That, higher can be known. But it may take more deepening and refinement.

In fact, there is no real upward limit on our perspective, simply because of the vastness and depth of it. Especially relative to the “special case” perception of humans. Even a cognition includes only everything from that one overview. One can experience the entire universe at once, yet still only know the baby fingernail of God.

Because we tend to open our perception in stages, we end up describing states and levels. Reality remains a continuum though. Also, the mind likes things in conceptual chunks, so comprehending and explaining things reinforces ideas like levels. We just need to keep in mind such divisions are broadly arbitrary. We could divide it any number of ways but what remains is one.

An example I ran into recently was in an interdisciplinary review of faiths. In this, the Baha’i are said to describe 4 “spiritual” levels.

1) hahut – unknowable God or essence “The way is barred and to seek it is impiety”
2) lahut – names and attributes of divine, the tongue of grandeur, the Word
3) jabarut – higher angelic order, all highest paradise, revealed God.
4) malakut – lower angelic order, concourse on high.
Man sits in the middle, body in the physical, soul in malakut
5) nasut – physical universe, mineral, plant, and animal realms

There was also some confusion in the presentation such as equating “central Orb of the Universe” and “hidden treasure” with hahut, the unknowable. The orb of the universe, what they call Hiranya Garbha in the Vedas, is far more expressed than hahut. Revealing any of the expressed spiritual levels could be considered finding a hidden treasure.

The difference I would observe is that the unmanifest hahut can be known because we are That. But it cannot be seen because it has no qualities. Hence:
“He is, and hath ever been, veiled in the ancient eternity of His Essence,
and will remain in His reality everlastingly hidden from the sight of men.”

Hidden but knowable, be-able, but only in higher states of consciousness, beyond basic unity.

Using terminology I use, we can compare the levels similarly:
1) Brahman, pure existence and preexistence
2) Creation: first impulse, divine love
3) Celebration, God in form, saints & sages. What Dante called Primum Mobile in Paradisio.
4) Universe construct – sometimes confused with creation due to similarities – as above, so below. Deva lokas.
5) expressed world

I typically break this down to correspond with the higher states of consciousness (what we awaken to) or the higher levels reflected in the chakras (ie: in 7).

It should be noted that we’re not talking about debated philosophical constructs, theories, and beliefs. We’re talking about experiencable values of existence. Subtler values of reality seen in different ways.
Secondarily, I was surprised to know that Baha’u'llah spoke of Hermes and said he was also called Idris and by special names in other cultures like Enoch of the Bible. You may have heard of the Emerald Tablet Hermes wrote. It was illustrated in the film The Secret, for example.

It was also suggested that Hermes was three different people. His “last” name “Trimegistus” means “thrice born“. This can also suggest what others call “twice reborn” or twice awakened, a way of describing someone in Unity.

I suggest this because awakenings can be experienced like being reborn or born anew. (permanently) In Self Realization, for example, there is a complete change in who one experiences one “is”. God Realization is a waking to an external reality, Thou art That, so is less a change in who one is. But it may also be experienced as being ‘born into God’ if it happens post unity. Unity itself is the typical second rebirth, awakening from creation into oneness. Of course, these are generalizations. Some experience only one or even all three as ‘rebirths’. As I’ve spoken prior, Awakening is without Rules. As product conditions suggest, “your experience may vary.” (laughs)

He also said “Know thou that every fixed star hath its own planets, and every planet it own creatures, whose number no man can compute.” They’ve recently figured at least 80% of stars have planets. Science is still catching up with what seers have seen for eons.
Davidya

Noble Intention

In a recent discussion over on Takuin’s blog, several people talked of not reading spiritual books for a time. Being in a place where such concepts no longer appealed.

I went through a similar phase, although partly this was simply the stage of life with a family and such. Spiritual life as a whole became more background for a while – present but not in the form of books and discussions and such.

Typically, I tend to be the kind of person who has a number of books on the go at any one time. Mostly non-fiction over a wide range of subjects. The Internet has meant that while I read more, I have less time for book reading. This means that my reading pile languishes and I buy fewer books now. And it means it can take awhile to finish one.

Recently, I’ve had the chance to come back to Constance Kellough’s book The Leap. I’ve quite been enjoying her ability to state things plainly but cover it well. A good skill and a good editor.

Last night, I read Chapter 8, Noble Intention. A great exploration of the subject. A few quotes to stimulate the connections:

“Intention is conscious creation through focused thought energized by feeling.”

I describe intention as directed awareness which stimulates thought and feeling. The key is noticing the intent rather than the thoughts and feelings effects so that we can recognize what we are asking.

“Often people feel that if they visualize something, they are creating it. But visualization is only a tool, not the creative source. The same is true of prayer, whether it is uttered verbally or silently. Indeed, both visualization and prayer are fostered by and flow from intent.”

“Intent is an expression of faith. It is something strongly held but not controlled by will, mental effort, or manipulation. Although intent holds to an end state, the intent is not specific in detail and has its own characteristic feeling-signature.”

“Although there is a thought component to intent, it is not mental energy that is required but heart energy.”

“While all intention is powerful, intention can arise from two different sources. The effect in each case is also quite different.”

“Ego-based intention, no matter how positive it may appear, is actually rooted in the negative emotion of fear.”

Sometimes we have the “right” thoughts but we’re intending those thoughts for reasons that cause other results than the thoughts reveal. Guilt is a common motivator of helping for example. The intention is thus distorted.

“When intention is based in ego, you may accomplish a great deal. …[but it] bears the hallmark of a voracious vacuum sucking into itself. …the good it can achieve is restricted by the boundaries of self-interest.”

“Instead of being motivated primarily by money, fame, or power, noble intention is love-based and flows from your heart. You come from a higher consciousness, and your intentions are simply an expression of the goodness within you.”

“Your intention, the initial stage of creativity, is an extension of your true Self. Because its accomplishments are the fruit of love, they bring about lasting good for your and for all concerned.”

She goes on to give examples of how Jesus taught noble intent. How prestige and affluence may result, but as they were not the motivating drivers, they are only positive and will not lead to attachment.

“…when others are blessed, the one who holds the intention is also blessed.”

“There is a difference between creating a goal and setting an intention. Goals originate in the human mind…”

“Willing an intention into being is just another form of the mind trying to be in control. A noble intention has to come from the heart…”

She goes on to explore this process in some detail. This is very important to understand. We are intending all the time, but often not consciously. Thus we are creating our world unconsciously. Becoming aware of the intention that underlies thoughts and feelings is a powerful way to gain insight and settle the drama and suffering. It is the seeds of a much happier and fulfilled life. A very noble intent.
Davidya

The Problem with Problems

Sometimes, problems can be a real problem. (laughs) In fact, so much so that I’ve seen people die over problems and dashed expectations.

But the real problem with problems is perception. The ego has an ingrained habit of making things wrong. When we run into a barrier or things don’t work out the way we want or expect, we see a problem.

Lets start by exploring a saying - if you want to get something done, give it to the busiest person. This is partly because action has momentum. When you put something in a fast moving stream, it goes forward faster. But another aspect is that the busy are people used to getting things done. They are used to making decisions rather than seeing problems.

Of course, there is also the saying that every problem is an opportunity – that’s one way to shift perception.

Difficulties that arise can also be a signal that something needs another approach or that greater energy is required. Keep in mind this flow. If things are static, there is inertia to overcome. If things are moving but in another direction, there is momentum to overcome. Action can sometimes be like changing the direction of a massive boat.

Thus, one should not be discouraged if some further effort is required for success. But pay attention to how it feels more deeply. Is there a need for more energy? Or is this a marker to say no, this is the way the flow is going, please join us. Or are you stubborn enough to want to change the trends of time? (laughs)

Another example is a person stuck. Typically, they’re faced with only a few issues. Maybe even just one. But their own perception and inertia are keeping them stuck, seeing the problem and no solution. This has the effect of magnifying the issue, making it seem bigger and worse. You’ve probably met people completely stuck on something you would consider trivial.

When we hold something as a problem, we see it as difficult. People will use extreme words to express this, like always and never. Can’t or won’t. Must or shouldn’t. Seen however as a challenge, we reframe it as something to work through. We shift it from a wall or barrier into a process or path. We shift from resistance to the way life is.

The key is of course intention and attention. Attention or awareness is the creative source. Intention gives it direction, moves it. When we focus on whats not working, we make not working real. When we focus on moving forward, we make that real instead.

From the energy and emotions we bring to it, we activate the laws of nature in support of that intention. We engage cooperation. But what cooperation are we engaging? The laws of inertia?

If we get mixed results, we may be giving mixed messages, chasing something we don’t really want, are unclear on our intention, or simply have no focus. A surprising number of people drift along unfocused, then complain they’re not getting results.

Another example I see regularly. If we have a fear of technology, when our computer hiccups, we’re unlikely to be able to do anything about it. It’s this annoying mysterious box that makes us feel bad. (well -that’s occasionally true for everyone) We defer the issue to someone else who’s more knowledgeable. But why are they knowledgeable? Lots of geeks are not pros at all. They’ve simply done it. Rather then going into the resistance, they’ve looked into what to do about it. Stepped past the fear. Do that a few times, and they get to know how to get things working. Or to find out how. (Doncha love Google?)

Sometimes we’re put in a position where the problems are not ours but we have to deal with them. A difficult family member or co-worker for example. Just remember – it takes 2 to tango. Try to avoid engaging the problem. Be present with what is true for you and solutions may appear. Worst case, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had a saying – See the Job, do the job, stay out of the misery.

Unfortunately, there’s another aspect to the ego. If someone is invested in a drama, they’re actively inclined to “collect” problems. They actually invite difficulties into their lives. This may be through finances, relationships, behaviour, gossip, even feeding on the news media as a source of things to be upset about.

Some people thus unintentionally live for problems. Their life is so involved in their story that they have to find constant ways to tell it and reinforce it. Without their story, there is just empty fear.

This is not to say we shouldn’t care. But there is a big difference between compassion and self-induced suffering. Between helping and stressing over things you can do nothing about.

So much drama and suffering. Our world is full of it. For what? Why would we choose this? It’s a kind of blindness. The story is self-reinforcing. All for want of an understanding of whats really going on and how we influence our own reality.

It’s rather like a large stage play began but the actors went so deeply into their roles, they forgot they were acting. The play was designed to be fun and entertaining but we’ve made it difficult and painful. We’ve forgotten the world is a stage.

All we have to do is see and our problems begin to end.
Davidya

The End of Evil

Recently, a rather intellectual comment showed up on a post from last year. In checking out their blog, a conversation ensued on the inclusive nature of unity and they brought up the ‘Problem of Evil’. (cue foreboding music)

I thought it was worth exploring this here.

Firstly, to frame this, we need to understand that consciousness comes in flavours or states. Different states of consciousness bring with them different perspectives and thus, different ways of understanding and seeing the world.

For example, the very real dream ends when we wake up. We change states and what is real or false changes. Similar kinds of changes take place in each stage of spiritual awakening.

These stages are dominated by a movement from duality into unity. In Self Realization, we experience an internal unity. In God Realization, an external unity of God/Divine and the world. In Unity, a joining of internal and external into a complete and inclusive unity or wholeness.

In the discussion, it was observed that if Unity or oneness is completely inclusive, then it must include evil. This is quite true. But if we explore the nature of our experience more deeply, we will see the causal force that creates the ‘dark side’ and thus we can see its end and solution.

It was noted that some describe evil as lack, much as ignorance is the lack of knowledge and darkness the absence of light. I think this is a valid perception. But this only reveals its nature. There is a deeper perception that reveals its cause.

The key here is that evil is an effect. Some of our cultural references will suggest that evil itself is inherent. For there to be good, there has to be an equal evil. But this is only true in duality. Most evil is also parasitic – it feeds off itself rather than good. As a lack of, it cannot stand it’s opposite energy.

“A problem is never solved at the level it was created.”
– Albert Einstein

Previously, I’ve explored how global consciousness cycles over time. That time is not linear but rather moves in cycles of rising and falling awareness. This is more obvious when we see that time is an effect of the process of perception. Thus it is directly influenced by shifting awareness. We’re currently moving out of a low cycle. In the prior fall of awareness, people gradually lost their connection to wholeness and began to feel fearful. This caused a desire to try to hold or grip control. This gripping or resistance creates a sense of separate I. An inner reality separate from the outer. This causes a sense of identity which enshrines our separateness from oneness.

This is the dawning of duality – me vs. other.

As awareness became more opaque, this core identity grip became subconscious. It drives the lower emotions, the feelings that divide. Because it is our experience, mind creates a mental construct of a me, what is commonly called the ego. The emotions drive this. As it is the conscious aspect, we became identified with that mind construct, completely divorced from our true nature.

From the perspective of a mind-driven ego, survival is about judgment. Who’s right and who’s wrong. To be right, the ego will make others wrong. Or make self wrong because others are right, however illogical this is. We will act according to the egos judgments or story. It’s very easy to see this. Just pick up any newspaper. A long list of who’s wrong and who’s to blame. Also what’s wrong. We also see this in self-destructive behavior.

Because we are driven by more base emotions and place the me at the center of our universe, we act from that place. Our story allows us to feel justified, even when we overspend, eat poorly, gossip, and otherwise act in apparently irrational or inconsistent ways. The logical mind can see the issue but the story driven emotions feel justified to continue. We develop internal conflicts.

The more deeply divorced someone is from others, the more likely they will pursue a course of action that is disrespectful of others. It should be no surprise that the alienated become violent. This is the origins of evil, the very bad. And you can find the story of their behavior in their history. While it is not rational, we can see the pattern develop.

The solution is of course to step out from under the ego and it’s story. By connecting to our true natures within, the fog begins to clear. Seen through, the story begins to collapse. From that greater clarity, life makes a lot more sense. As the connection deepens, the underlying unity begins to dawn and we start to see through the duality of good and evil. We wake up from the bad dream.

The magic thing is, it is only necessary for enough people to reconnect with themselves. It doesn’t have to be everybody, or even a majority. Because we are one, it just needs enough people to awaken to their nature and it will stir the awakeness in group consciousness and move everyone “up”.

This process is easily seen when people gather for a common good – meditation, intention, healing, prayer, music. You feel inspired or lifted. This is the lifting that’s taking place for everyone now. And it is the dissolution of the roots of evil.

This may seem farfetched. But remember the cycles of time. The golden ages are much longer than the dark ages. They are a time without fear. A time with little duality. A time when evil was not even an idea. Some people can remember those times.
Davidya

The Evolution of Bliss

While I can’t say there is standard evolution in how we experience bliss, I can suggest some of the broad points. This is because the world is expressed in layers, each a reflection of the prior that contains it. As we experience and then integrate each layer, that value of bliss becomes established. Even if we don’t experience it yet.

There are also gradations in how open we are to the experience. Even though we are integrating a given level, it may take several stages of surrender for the fullness of that bliss to be allowed. I touched on this in The Raptures.

For most of us, our first experiences of bliss are fleeting. An experience opens us up and we feel a wave of happiness washing over us. We may even surrender enough to touch pure love. This may happen listening to live music, creating art, watching a sunset, making love, or falling in love.

For those practicing an effortless meditation, they have a little more systematic way of experiencing bliss. Perhaps not frequent, but more often. This also brings us the reminder of how important it is to be rested for clarity. Fatigue tends to bring a fog to even the deepest experiences.

As I touched on in The Colour of the Dream, bliss is experienced when we return into mind from silent transcendence, when we cross the threshold with our attention. If we’re really clear, we may even notice the bliss going into silence.

Another lesson the transitory experience teaches us is not to hold on. While the high may lead to a big let down when it leaves, we slowly discover that the way to more is in release, not in trying to hold the experience.

We can for a time be swayed by the memory of an experience. This is fine as long as it doesn’t become an obsession. A memory is just a memory, a shadow of the experience.

All of these point to how it can be a trap. Unless we learn to let go, we will never keep it. The trick is not in establishing the bliss, but in establishing the silence. When we become that, the bliss comes with it. As always, the silent being is the key.

When we make the shift into awakening or Self Realization, there is the discovery “I am That”. We shift from being a person experiencing Self to Self experiencing a person. At first, the experience is often one of freedom and peace. Liberation! Then in time, as the physiology settles into the experience, the bliss begins to show through the clouds. Only now, not as a fleeting glimpse but as a backdrop to all experience. What the ancients call Sat Chit Ananda – absolute bliss consciousness dawns. But most remarkably, this is just the beginning.

As the perception further refines, we gradually begin to find that life itself is literally bliss. The life force driving us and all life into being and action is happiness itself.

During this phase, there can be deeply profound periods of almost overwhelming, rapturous happiness. Soon enough, we adapt and what was intense becomes normal. While events may still visit things on us that cause reactions like pain or anger, all of it takes place on a background of never-overshadowed, deepening happiness.

All of this greatly enhances our own healing and evolution. Far fewer boundaries exist to be surmounted. Far easier to release what remains.

On this platform, the divine begins to descend into our experience. The crust on the heart falls away, revealing the divine source within. Divine Love, the driver of bliss, begins to unfold in our experience. We begin to see (literally) life itself in all things. The lively bliss of life and the flow of love are visible all around us. We find ourselves in an ocean of love, together with all others.

Of course, you can see why a step by step process and integration is usually warranted. The idea is to make it real, not fall into ninny illusion.

In many ways, Divine Love and bliss are not really separate things but rather just interrelated expression. If we were to take a stream of life an an analogy, the flow of the stream is love, the ripples bliss. As usual, some experiences will be fleeting, then gradually integrated until they are always available to us with a simple shift of attention.

As unity begins to dawn and the core identity ends, the boundary between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ ends. There is just one continuum contained ‘within’. The world is all here. The inner bliss of life is now felt everywhere. The skin is no longer a boundary for feeling.

As the experience deepens further and we step into the depths of silence, we find the pure lively alertness, tickling our being. More deeply still, we find alertness and liveliness as separate qualities of Brahman. In that silence, the liveliness alone has a solidity to it. Bliss like concrete, unending and eternal…

Bliss is a very personal thing, an effect of our progress during times of clarity. Some are bliss cowboys/girls throughout the journey. Some find bliss fleeting yet progress step by step anyway. But at some point, for all of us, the clouds clear. The life of our being throbs in our veins and tickles our fancy. Where is suffering, whatever the pain, when we live in permanent happiness?

This is not a fairy story from a space cadet, although I have gotten that label before. (laughs)  It is the direct experience of our essential nature. Life is bliss. It is our legacy and our birthright. And now we’re living in a time when we’ll come to know this for ourselves. A fine thing indeed.
Davidya

The Colour of the Dream

Recently I ran into another quote from the Isha Upanishad, part of the body of work known as Vedanta or end of the Veda. Veda means knowledge so Vedanta is the end of knowledge, the highest truths.

Hiranmayena patrena satyasyapihitam mukham
The face of truth is hidden by a covering of gold.
– Isha Upanishad 15

I particularly like this one due to its many layered meanings. For one, it is a quite literal description of 2 points of transcendence. The first, the ocean of bliss that gives rise to life and the world. The second, the ocean of love in which all beings sit. Both are gold and both mask a deeper reality but are rich in themselves.

This also describes allegorically how we can get caught by “temptation” on the journey home. The bliss, refined perception, new abilities, knowledge and/or experiences can distract us from the deeper values of waking. There is an old Indian saying – Don’t go after the gold mine. Capture the fort and all the gold and diamond and silver mines will be yours.

And it touches on the “covering” aspect of the dream or Maya. It’s worth noting that the style of Maya changes as our perception evolves. This removes the covering and thus enables what is hidden to be revealed – until we come to the next “edge” of infinity.

Curiously, I had just made some observations about the ocean of bliss in comments over on Mike Sayers blog, wherein I was joking that he WAS indeed bigger than the universe – a title he had used in jest.

“Stepping outside of yourself is something for each of us to experience ourselves….Until it’s a shared experience, it’s just another concept.

…You may recall a wave of happiness during meditation when you came out of an experience of deep silence. You just experienced stepping back into the universe*. That wave of bliss was crossing the threshold, the edge of becoming, the ocean of om, the “quantum field of possibilities”. [the covering of gold] It’s not somewhere else or some other dimension. We’re standing in it all the time. You are becoming at every moment.

As the perception refines, you’ll be able to experience it more completely and see/hear/feel the process taking place. When you can step outside the box of the universe with the senses, then you can see how the universe is, how it works, etc. And how small a part of the picture it is.

Some describe this as one of the signposts or key points on the journey. It could be seen as the second waking, from the dream of the universe, although it’s only part of that and some get there before self realization. (first we wake up, then we open the eyes) But certainly, a major perspective shift. A vastly bigger picture. But you’re still experiencing within the divine dream, so a little more yet. (laughs)”
Davidya

*BTW – by ‘stepping in/out of the universe’, I’m not talking about something like astral travel. I’m talking about stepping deeper into who you are which is larger than the universe. As you step back into the person, you cross the threshold of the universe.

Denise Hagan

Friday night, I had the great pleasure of experiencing a livingroom concert by Denise Hagan. Her Irish roots brought out the story telling, giving background to her many moving songs. When I first spoke of her in Rise Up In Song, I heard just 4 songs during a talk in church. This concert was all Denise, ranging from a Joni Mitchell tune she listened to as a child to drown out the sounds of the military, through flute songs for the “elementals” (fairies or devata) into the song that came through when she called for healing of bone cancer. (‘Perfect Replications’, it worked)

“If you could see what I see, you’d never lose your smile”

In many songs, she speaks of her long journey home. ‘The life you’ve been Dying to Live’ line “I’ve worn out bodies like I’ve worn out shoes and I have no desire to waste another one” speaks to her desire to make this her last.

‘Glory and Grace’ are new words for the lovely hymn with overly somber lyrics, Abide with Me. And my favorite, ‘Amazing Space’, new words for Amazing Grace. Makes the heart sing.

“Sweet million years I’ve roamed this Earth in search of who I AM And still it never once occurred to Me that its right here where I stand…

In this Amazing space, Amazing Space that lyes right here in Me
The treasure deep within my chest that I at last can feel”

And she shares that feeling with the audience. You can explore more lyrics here:
http://www.denisehagan.com/album_lyrics.jsp

She has a powerful effect on the heart of ‘those Who Hear’, a song that came through from a past life saint. She left a singing career in Ireland to move to “heaven in Canada” on the west coast.

To give you an idea of just how connected she is to the heart, she offers a service  to help parents communicate with their autistic kids. She says they speak in feelings. She translates. “What if your child isn’t silent? What if he or she is simply tuned to another station, one that you haven’t yet discovered? In today’s world, most of us communicate on the verbal station. Language is our dominant means of expression. However, our beautiful [autistic] children are not hardwired for language. Instead they come hardwired with their own ‘Mother Toungue’… the language of feeling!” (she’s also a Special Ed teacher)

Amazing woman.
Davidya

Artists and the Future

At the end of last year, I wrote an article on the last What the Bleep newsletter. It was dominated by several articles on past lives. One of these lead to my reading and reviewing the book When the Soul Awakens.

Recently, Nancy Seifer wrote an interesting article on Artists and Spirit. She met several spiritually conscious artists and noticed how they can “can tell us about our future.” “…I interviewed all three to discover what the inner lives of artists can tell us about our potential to co-create a new world culture.“

“What most impressed me from these interviews was that each artist had found a way to connect with the flow of Spirit and allow that flow to enter the world.  When doing their best work, each is aware of being “plugged in” to the Source of life-giving energy—the energy that heals, nurture and inspires.  Each one has discovered how to “flip the switch” and release the current of energy that is always present but inaccessible until we learn to tap into it.  Meditators learn how to tap into this subtle energetic flow through spiritual practice; poets, musicians, writers, and composers often do so spontaneously.  The special gift of artists is their capacity to make that creative flow visible for others to perceive.  In so doing, they provide us with a glimpse of the future that awaits us.”

I thought this particularly interesting in light of the recent article on The Future.

The article and interviews:
http://www.whenthesoulawakens.org/index.php?page_id=348

Davidya

Unmasking Brahman

Recently, I’ve spoken of how the experience of source as emptiness or nothingness is  a phase. It seems you take everything away and you’re left with nothing.

But this is only due to the habit of experience. As we deepen into that apparent emptiness, what is then revealed is the nothing is everything. Without the layers seeming to mask it, source is revealed in it’s fullness.

The depth of this unmasking is profound. I’ve talked before of transcending existence or Being. Beyond I, Am, or Is. Pure consciousness, without content, vibrates without the quality of being. In a way, we can still say it “is”, but it is beyond what we would previously consider as “isness”. Put another way, it neither is not isn’t.

More deeply, consciousness settles into it’s source. No longer consciousness of. The liveliness ceases stirring alertness. They sit in silence. Brahman. The unchanging absolute. The permanent reality.

As the silence, Brahman of course contains those 2 inherent qualities – the alertness and the liveliness. That liveliness, on that level, is experienced as bliss. But bliss on that level is solid, like a concrete wall. Not some flighty wisp of happiness but absolute, permanent bliss.

This is the reality that underlies all experience. It is the essence of life itself. The core of our being.

More than existence, intelligence or consciousness, this is the true infuser of all things, bringing the rest along and thus the tools for all creation and expression.

It’s funny to think of something solid, unchanging, and concrete as underlying and infusing everything. But that’s what is-isn’t.
Davidya