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ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Possibilities Playshop 2015!
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: Possibilities Playshop 2015!
The video for this week is a brief selection from the end of Rosemary’s 2014 Possibilities Playshop she held last week. We had a great time creating our guidebooks for 2014. If you want to create one for yourself, you can purchase the video product and all the bonus material she offered. And this might be a great way to also prepare for the 2015 Possibilities Playshop! Details Here
Get Ready for the Big Shift! – Richard’s Commentary
You’ve been hearing about this “big shift” from Rosemary, many others and me for a long time. We talked about it leading up to that momentous pivot point of the Winter Solstice of 2012. And we have been talking about it for more than a year since that point. Is it coming? Is it here? And most importantly:
Are you excited about taking a quantum leap forward in your life?
I am excited! And I do sense this is the time. Rosemary says this:
Now is the time! The world around you is showing you in not-too-subtle ways that you have turned the corner into the place where you are facing the biggest shift of your life. Are you willing to shift?
But notice something here: she is not talking about something on the outside; this is not necessarily a change that is coming at you. She says, “you have turned the corner.” Indeed we have all turned a corner and we now have to embrace what we have generated.
This “change energy” is an internal potential. The calendar has little to do with it other than to focus our attention and intention on a specific time. Yes, there are many factors pointing to this time as important: a Mayan calendar change, a rotation of the wheel of the Zodiac through to a new sign, other calendars, other potential physical shifts in galactic space, even a potential shift in the Earth’s magnetic poles.
But the shift Rosemary and I are talking about is a shift in consciousness. Yes, this shift may be influenced by one or more of these external factors. But, the important shift comes from within. This is a shift in awareness. This is a shift in who we think, and feel, we are as conscious beings.
So, the question of being ready does not motivate building a bomb shelter, stocking the basement with a year’s supply of food and water, getting all of our affairs in order or preparing in some physical way for impending earth changes. Preparation is an internal check-in; it is a matter of preparing our bodies, emotions, minds and spirits for the next phase of human evolution.
If you are reading this post you are a “cultural creative”, you are on the leading edge of expanding human consciousness. And you are key to this coming shift!
How do you get ready? That may be a personal question you must answer for yourself; you are likely already preparing, may even be fully prepared. Here’s what I’m doing:
I am meditating more – more frequently through the day and for longer periods of time. I am reading through the Kalachakra Tantra Rite of Initiation by His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Jeffery Hopkins. I am practicing yoga and qigong. I am practicing the six Transcendent Perfections of Buddhism (as best I can). I am attending to my body, speech and mind. And I am planning to attend the Kalachakra Initiation of 2014 in Ladakh, India this July.
I may not be ready for the “big shift” but I am “being the big shift.” I am practicing what I can to be prepared. And I am excited!
The Moon is new today at 4:38 pm Eastern Time. This marks the end of the old Lunar year and a shift into the Year of the Horse. I feel the energy gathering and galloping in. I am as ready as I can be for this shift and the bigger shifts to come.
I hope you are ready with me!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Get Ready for the Big Shift!
Are you ready? Are you prepared to shift? Are you excited about taking a quantum leap forward in your life?
Now is the time! The world around you is showing you in not-too-subtle ways that you have turned the corner into the place where you are facing the biggest shift of your life. Are you willing to shift?
Or are you feeling a bit scared and wishing you could turn around and go back to the way things were?
Think of a baby in the midst of the birthing process. What if the baby decided to turn around and stay inside Mommy? It might be thinking, ‘I don’t know what’s out there so I think I’ll just stay here where it’s comfy and warm.’
That is what you do when you choose not to grow, when you opt out of your next quantum leap, when you try to keep things just as they are.
It is easy to look around for the quantum leap when everything feels as if it is falling apart in your life. This is the point at which you might as well leap because there is just nothing for you if you stay stuck where you are. It is more difficult, though, to leap when things seem to be going smoothly and you don’t want to take a chance on ‘rocking the boat.’
Ah, that’s when the quantum leap is most powerful, however!
You are always at a point of choice about your life and how you will live it. You can always choose to resist the tide of change and remain stuck where you are, not doing the personal growth work that is available to you. But this choice takes so much energy that you will exhaust yourself and still be stuck. Why choose this?
When you decide to GROW you face a field filled with possibilities that beckon to you to leap in, choose a path, try it and decide to stay on that path or choose another one to try. When you fully participate in life and go for the quantum leap, even more possibilities will open up before you.
That’s how possibilities work. If you feel as if you are looking through a narrow field into choices that look like ‘either-or’ choices, one or the other opportunities, then it is your field of view that needs to change first. There are always possibilities, even if you cannot see them in this moment. There are plenty of possibilities that are the ‘and’ kind, the ones where you can have this AND that. But if you only look through the lens of ‘either-or’ you will miss all the other options!
This is a time filled with great potential for each person on Planet Earth. The energy field is shifting. The magnetic field, the poles, the very Planet herself – all are contributing energy to support you in making your Big Shift.
We are in the Center of the Milky Way Galaxy, looking out in every direction at the rest of the Galaxy. Where would you like to leap? You have the power to move forward in any direction.
Shift and leap. Examine the possibilities in 360 degrees around you. Reach out beyond the first ones that you see and look for the possibilities that might seem to be just beyond your reach. Make bodacious claims for yourself about who you are and who you can be.
Shift. It is a choice and there is an amazing world of possibilities just beyond your view. Leap into it!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: The Big Shift is Coming!
My Two-Minute Video for this Week: The Big Shift is Coming!
Possibilities Are Right in Front of You – Richard’s Commentary
Rosemary opens her post with a wonderful belief:
The ‘possible’ is constantly under attack because someone thinks it is improbable, or impossible, or difficult, or ‘not the way we do things.’
I call this a belief because it comes from an optimist! Optimists believe in the “possible” – and everything is possible!
I’ve been an optimist my whole life. I too believe anything is possible. This doesn’t mean everything I’ve ever attempted in life has succeeded, been possible in the long-haul. But this hasn’t changed my basic belief.
One of my last major programs for the company I retired from a few years ago was a satellite-based tracking system that we targeted to long-haul trucking companies. The idea was to offer a low-cost, easily installed device that could pin-point a unit’s location and even communicate with the driver using text messaging. The concept was developed long before smart phones, texting, immediate GPS-based location services, super-cheap hardware and ubiquitous cell-phone coverage. We developed the technology from the ground up and partnered with a new satellite company. We faced many hurdles, delays, technology short-fall, cost-creep and even market push-back. I was in charge of marketing and welcomed the possibility of major market penetration. I became really excited when we developed a device to track truck trailers when they were decoupled from their trucks. In fact during testing with a customer we actually located and recovered two trailers that had been stolen and taken into Mexico; we even helped recover the load on the trailers!
Exciting, right? My sales team began to take orders. The “pipeline” was growing! Majorpossibility here! Then…further delay; satellites didn’t launch as scheduled; technology failed; delivery of component parts was late; competing technology came on strong; and the company, wisely, withdrew development funding from my program. I took nearly a year to shut the program down, redistribute staff, sell off piece-parts, resolve lawsuits and close the program office.
Possibility turned to failure. I look back on this as a wonderful example of a “possibility right in front of me.” In this case it was handed to me; and I grabbed it and took it as far as I could. The program did not succeed; but I did! I made sales. I installed units and they recovered stolen equipment. That possibility was realized. And, oh by the way, I had a heck of a good time doing my darnedest to make the whole thing work. I even learned a great deal about the trucking industry! There was a lot of success inside this program that I look back on with good feelings and pride.
Eternal optimist? Yes. And I have had many great possibilities fall into my lap since that “failed” program. They keep on coming. My next one for 2014 involves a major trip mid-year that is exactly inline with my purpose and my entire world-view. It may be the biggest possibility of my life so far. I will be sharing more about this possibility as it unfolds, as I unfold it! Stay tuned!
Are you an optimist? Do you look at all the possibilities right in front of you? Do you follow Rosemary’s advice?
There are possibilities right in front of you but you may have donned your filter-glasses so that you can’t see them. Take off the glasses. Part the veil. Reach for the possibilities and stop listening to anyone who tells you that you can’t do it.
Impossible things are happening everyday!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Possibilities Are Right in Front of You
The ‘possible’ is constantly under attack because someone thinks it is improbable, or impossible, or difficult, or ‘not the way we do things.’
This year, embrace ‘possibilities’ as your theme. Search for the possible. Learn to recognize the possible. Talk about the possible. Catch yourself cancelling an idea before you’ve explored the possibilities. Catch other people trying to squash your dreams of what is possible for you.
So often we start out making a plan, setting goals, creating ‘resolutions’ because we think we should. The first rule of goal-setting is that it be realistic. ‘Realistic’ can be the enemy of ‘possible.’
Now, realistic can also just be realistic. But I have seen too many dreams crushed under the accusation that they are not realistic and therefore must be discarded.
What would happen today in the US if the President were to suggest that, in a decade or less, we would walk on the Moon? And, yet, despite all the naysayers, this country made that happen. (I know, there are those who say we didn’t really do that but, remember, I worked for NASA on the Hubble Space Telescope Project and I don’t think they can create a coverup that big!)
Possibilities draw us up to our greatness. Possibilities stretch us beyond what is comfortable and realistic to the former you and invite you to grow, to expand, to explore beyond what you already know into the possible you.
What is possible for you to consider? What dreams do you have that you can pursue?
In working with clients I sometimes have to catch them speaking a belief as if it is a rock-solid truism about how the Universe works. When we address that belief AS a belief, the world of possibilities can open up for them and the excitement starts.
Who is limiting you? Not ‘what’ is limiting you, but ‘who’? The answer is YOU. Even if you think you can list a bunch of folks who are holding you back, the real answer is YOU. You are believing the limitations of the past, the definition of ‘realistic’ that someone else has planted as a truism. You believe of yourself that you might not be able to reach for that dream and so you decide not to reach at all, rather than suffer the indignation of a potential failure.
There are so many possibilities and they are lurking right in front of you but they might be hiding behind that veil of illusion. Take some time alone to reach behind the veil and see what is there. What might you do if you forget about how you will accomplish it and just seek the possibilities? What dreams may lie beyond the veil that you haven’t dared to dream because you didn’t think they were realistic?
Our stories and myths contain all sorts of impossible things happening. Cinderella marries the Prince. Rodgers and Hammerstein even wrote a song for their version of Cinderella titled ‘Impossible’ that contains the line, ‘Impossible things are happening everyday.’ Rumpelstiltskin thought it was impossible that the miller’s daughter would guess his name but guess it she did.
There are possibilities right in front of you but you may have donned your filter-glasses so that you can’t see them. Take off the glasses. Part the veil. Reach for the possibilities and stop listening to anyone who tells you that you can’t do it.
Reach for the Moon. Impossible things are happening everyday!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Possibilities
Rosemary’s Two-Minute Video for this Week: Possibilities
PS: Do you want to open up the possibilities for you in 2014? Join Rosemary’s playshop, in person or by video link, and expand your vista of possibilities; then lay out your play script for 2014! January 25. Details Here
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Connections for 2014
Rosemary’s Two-Minute Video for this Week: Connections for 2014
PS: Do you want to create some new connections in 2014? Come to Rosemary’s playshop, in person or by video link, and connect to a great group; and lay out your play script for 2014! January 25. Details Here
MONDAY’S POEM: Practice
I mentioned in an earlier post this year that my “word for 2014” is Patience. Some days I think it is my word for this lifetime! But I am actually in conscious practice of all Six Paramitas, the Six Transcendent Perfections. My thought-poem for today is my meditation on these Paramitas:
Practice
Generosity begins with self, home.
Giving of oneself, even life itself,
Gains everything: Peace, joy, long-life
And the Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.
Ethics begin with the mind, thoughts.
When the mind is clear, present,
The words of speech and
The actions of body follow, as does
The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.
Patience is the pivot point of all practice:
Anger is the teacher,
Patience is the lesson,
Long-lasting happiness is the path to
The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.
Joyful Exertion is the power
Fueled by courage and determination
That propel ordinary beings to Buddhahood,
And the Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.
Meditative Contemplation is the only
Pathway home, to neutral mind,
To virtuous mind, to True Self,
And the Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.
Wisdom, the exact nature of things:
All is impermanent,
All that is impure is suffering,
All is emptiness:
The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
“Breakfast with Buddha” – A Book Review
I mentioned this book in my post yesterday as a sign of alignment of my path with the Plan of the Universe. It was a delightful Christmas gift and I raced through the book anticipating each new scene and experience: a good laugh, a shed tear, an unfolding story well told. Here is my short review:
I had not read anything by Roland Murello before I received this book. And I haven’t read a good “road-trip” story in a long time. Both encounters have been very rewarding. And perhaps the rewards have been deeper because I could so easily identify with all of the characters!
You don’t have to identify with any of the characters, however, to enjoy the book. If you are interested in a story of the movement of a fairly typical upper middleclass, middle aged American guy moving through early spiritual awakenings, then I highly recommend this well written book.
Otto Ringling is the main character. He grew up as a Lutheran in the Midwest (North Dakota) on a wheat farm. (I grew up as a Lutheran on a dairy farm in Wisconsin.) He is comfortable in his life: loving wife, two teenage kids whom he adores, great job publishing food books (he loves to eat fine food accompanied by great wine); all is going really well for him. But he has these nagging little discomforts with all of this; small inner tremors that begin to shake things up a bit.
Otto has a sister, Cecelia (mine is a sister-in-law). He calls her Seese (I call mine Cees). He claims his Seese is “as flaky as a good spanakopita crust.” (I won’t say anything here about my Cees, except that I love her!). Otto’s journey truly begins with the sudden death of their parents, the bigger tremor that really begins to shake his foundation.
Otto’s gradual awakening is guided by a Rinpoche, a “friend” of Cecelia. The story unfolds as a road-trip (just Otto and the Rinpoche) from Cecelia’s home in New Jersey to their parents’ farm in North Dakota. There are hilarious scenes through the whole trip, well described, often involving the search for the perfect meal along the meandering journey, as Otto serves Rinpoche a dose of true Americana and Rinpoche serves Otto a dose of the true way to awakening.
The book is light, fun, poignant, silly, profound and just plain enjoyable as a spiritual awakening travelogue. Perhaps I enjoyed it so much because it rang so true for me. But I think anyone who is beginning to get in touch with the truth and their own spiritual awakening will also enjoy the book.
And the best news for me is there is now a sequel: Lunch with Buddha. I can hardly wait to get my copy; and I’ve got a B&N gift card to spend!
Men and The Goddess 