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ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Connect!
Your life is all about connecting. You were born into a family or chosen by one. You have chosen friends and partners. You bore children or sired them. You have worked with people, paid some for services, gone to the doctor, bought groceries. Every thing you have done has contained an element of connection.
Do you love to walk in Nature? Aren’t you connecting with Mother Earth, with the plants and animals as you walk?
Do you go to a job? Eat in a restaurant? Go shopping? Get together with friends for lunch? Spend holidays with the family?
It’s always about connecting.
And how much time do you spend connecting with the inner you? Have you connected with your inner wisdom, your guides, your angels, your intuition? This is the most important connecting you can do.
When you connect with the inner you, you are tapping into your own power, your essence. When you have a strong connection to your inner wisdom, your guides, you gain clarity and confidence.
People today seem to be searching for connection but looking outside for a place to ‘plug in.’ The real connection that they are seeking isn’t outside; it resides inside. Are you one of the seekers of an outside connection or are you remembering to connect to the inner you?
You don’t need to have a great love interest to be connected. It isn’t having a great job or a best friend or a perfect family that will give you the feeling of connection that you seek. All of those connections might be nice, but the most important one is the one that reaches inside you, into the depths of your inner essence, and brings forth the passion, your purpose, your inner divinity and shares that with the outside world.
It is a tall order to make that inner connection and then to share what you find with the world. Your inner light shines so brightly that it can dazzle those who wish to stay in the dark. Your inner guidance will point you in the direction of manifesting your dreams. The inner gifts that you reveal when you reach inside might frighten you with their intensity.
Are you ready to connect?
There are many ways to do this connecting. Your inner light is always shining. If you feel disconnected it is merely a forgetting, not a true disconnection. Meditation, guided visualization, working with a counselor, journaling – all of these techniques will help you to make the connection.
Many of the clients I work with are seeking the wisdom that they cannot hear from their own guides. Often I speak what they think they have been hearing and the guides are using me to confirm the message. It is a matter of trusting what you hear.
Do you trust the inner guidance that you receive? This is the most important aspect to the connection.
If you receive guidance after you connect but you do not trust the message, you will continue to stay stuck where you are. And isn’t the point to move forward, to grow?
Trust me when I tell you that you will have the energy to grow, to move forward, when you are connected to that inner YOU. Your passion, your purpose, your inner wisdom – all are ready for you to connect.
Are YOU ready? Connect!
Survive or Thrive? – Richard’s Commentary
The Divine Feminine challenge us in Rosemary’s article to make the key choice in this life: we can either scrabble for survival in what many think is a “dog-eat-dog world”; or we can step up and out to live our True Purpose, the reason the Universe supported our birth in this time and space, and thrive!
It really is that simple. And it really is a choice. Here’s how They put it through Rosemary:
Many people on Earth in 21st Century Societies are greedy for what they don’t have – riches, power, control, freedom, pride. These people are distracted from what is really important.
When one seeks to live one’s purpose, one finds that collaboration with others supports thriving in life.
There are the choices: survive or thrive.
Interestingly They do bring up karma, more as a threat than a factor in our choice. They say: Don’t think that you can thrive by pushing someone else to the brink of survival. Those who believe that this is acceptable will learn exactly what the rules of karma are. But doesn’t karma affect our choice, our purpose? Are people merely in survival mode because they have past “debts” to work through?
I am in the middle of asking this very question of myself, working through the process of purging karma, some from my younger days and likely a whole lot from past lives. I am practicing an intense “yoga” in preparation for Kalachakra Initiation, known asKalachakra Tantra Six Session Yoga composed by the First Panchen Lama. And things are coming up. Some days in the midst of practice I ask myself if I am making any progress, if all this is worth the effort. Can we really purge, burn up, karma? And, is this part of the choice we must make to turn mere survival into thriving?
When I ask the hard questions I am often blessed with answers. Today I received two “replies” to my deepest seeking. The first is from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. He quotes his guru, Sri Yuktesvar: “Forget the past. The vanished lives of all men are dark with many shames. Human conduct is ever unreliable until man is anchored in the Divine. Everything in future will improve if you are making a spiritual effort now.”
My second answer came from my Goddess Cards, art by Susan Seddon Boulet and words by Michael Babcock. Today I drew Hathor, a Great Mother Goddess. And here is what Babcock says of her: “Hathor reminds us that we, too, must acknowledge all parts of ourselves, that what we call destructive is sometimes necessary to allow our creativity and compassion to flourish.”
Wow; thank you, Universe! Ask and you shall receive!
I have full permission to step into my purpose and thrive. I will most certainly continue the Six Session Yoga to see what comes up next.
And you, too, have the permission of the Universe, in fact the demand, that you step into your purpose and thrive! The choice is yours!
Big Dreams, Joyful Exertion
In yesterday’s post and my commentary on Rosemary’s message on big wishes and dreams, I revealed my big dream for the year to attend the 2014 Kalachakra Initiation event offered by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Ladakh, India. It is a dream I am visualizing and in one way or another working on every day.
One of my practices this year is to work with a card deck, CD and DVD published by Sounds True called Living Wisdom with His Holiness The Dalai Lama. The cards are photos of His Holiness taken over the years by Don Farber. There are six sets of cards for the Six Transcendent Perfections with guidance on the Perfections from His Holiness on the reverse side from the photos.
The Transcendent Perfections are Generosity, Ethics, Patience, Joyful Exertion, Meditative Concentration and Wisdom. I draw a card each day after my “Morning Pages” and meditation. And the Perfection of the day is always right on the mark for what I need to hear and learn!
Yesterday was no exception. After writing my post the day before, I thought about the effort I’m putting into this Kalachakra Initiation Project I have set for myself. I wrote about that in my pages and then drew a card, The Transcendent Perfection of Joyful Exertion! And here’s His Holiness’ phrase that jumped out at me:
In spiritual matters, we should not allow ourselves to be too easily content, because truly there is no limit to our spiritual potential.
He goes on to say the only limit is to our lives. The real meaning of Joyful Exertion is to continue to explore, to search and seek the truth in all matters Spiritual; it is a life-long pursuit.
Practicing Six Session Guru Yoga as part of my work on my Big Dream is not an easy undertaking. Getting in three sessions during the day and three during the night means getting up in the middle of the night, sleep, to sit and practice. Yesterday morning at 4:00 am, falling snow not yet changed to rain, I wondered if I could continue. When I drew the card and read the words: “no limit to our spiritual potential” I received my answer. And for the remainder of the day my practice, my exertion, was joyful!
There is a Zen evening Gatha (prayer) that comes to mind:
Let me respectfully remind you,
Life and death are of supreme importance.
Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost.
Each of us should strive to awaken.
Awaken! Take heed!
Do not squander your lives….
How deep can you go, spiritually? His Holiness says there is no bottom to the depth of exploration. The only limit is the shortness of our lives.
I do not intend to “squander” my life! How about you?
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!
Monday’s Poem: Tonglen
As we move toward the close of the old Water Snake year and toward the Wood Horse year I am doing some “housecleaning.” Tonglen is a practice a bit like housecleaning!
Tonglen
Eagle flying high
Eagle-Eye
Beating heart
Wing rhythm
Revealing depth.
Deep winter sky
Layers of white
Pale Sun
Struggling to warm
Still returning.
Sleeping bear
Bear breath deep
Slow rhythm
Taking in the dark
Breathing peace.
Power to each breath
Inhaling misery
Transmuting rhythm
Alchemy of Love
Exhaling tranquility.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
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.
Dreaming BIG!!! – Richard’s Commentary
How are you doing with those New Year’s Resolutions? Did you make a few, a lot? If you are anyone like me you have given up on trying to change your life that way. No, I made no resolutions, but that doesn’t mean I have no big dreams!
The Divine Feminine are spot on when they address this issue of resolutions, dreams, transformation and how to manifest the changes you want to see:
Where are you looking for your resources? Are you waiting to win the lottery? If so, are you buying tickets? Are you using the word ‘someday’ in your vocabulary of dreams, always placing that dream in the far distant future? Do you know what you actually need to take a step in the direction of your dreams?
You need Clarity, Commitment and Consciousness.
For me, clarity means “clear intention.” If we are muddled in our thinking, unsure of what it is we want to change, hesitant about reaching for the big goal, then the Universe can’t support us. Clear intention lets the Universe know our direction and can then offer the resources to help us realize our goals. This is the first component of manifestation.
Over the past few months I have become very clear in the direction I want the rest of my life to take. And the Universe is responding! Just as a trivial example of this, I received a book as a gift from a dear friend; it is Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo. My friend had no idea when she picked this up for me that I have moved firmly back onto my Buddhist path. She had no idea that I am planning my own journey this year to return to my roots. Merullo’s novel and his characters have so much in common with my own life that it’s almost silly. My friend was moved by the Universe to place this book in my hands! (I’ll have more to say on Breakfast with Buddha in a future post.)
Now, I have studied, practiced, sat Zazen, read and explored in most ways possible this notion of Buddhism for many years. But I have never really committed to this path. This is the second component of manifestation. The Universe needs to know we are serious about our clear intentions. All of my past studies and practices, while I took them very seriously, were not true commitments to the path. They were exploratory, forays into the fascinating world, but with no real committed intention of remaining there.
This has changed. I am committed. My living habits are changing to support the commitment: diet, drink, sleep, dream-time, meditation are all much more focused, real, and supporting my commitment. Again, the Universe is responding to my commitment with the resources I need to continue.
And it’s really all about changing our mind, isn’t it? One of Rosemary’s expressions I’m fond of is: If you want to change your life, change your mind. Reality is after all nothing more than consciousness, the third component of transformation. We all encounter blocks along our way. Most of these stumbling blocks, scattered across our paths, are mental blocks, maybe old beliefs planted in us from childhood. Much like the main character in Merullo’s book, Otto Ringling, I was raised as a Lutheran in the Midwest. “Lutherans don’t become Buddhists!” We don’t even think about Buddhists, unless they are setting themselves on fire in Viet Nam when we are burning our draft cards at a safe distance at the University! I’ve been changing my mind about a lot of things over the past 60 years; it’s time for this once-upon-a-time Lutheran to admit his true colors. Through many cycles of birth, old age, sickness and death, I’ve traveled the road as a Buddhist! I think I’ll finish this one the same way!
The Divine Feminine conclude: Dream BIG!!! With Clarity, Commitment and Consciousness you can live that dream!
And I do have Big Dreams for 2014. I hope you do too!
I CHING GUA FOR THE NEW MOON IN CAPRICORN
We not only rang in a New Year at midnight on January 1, we also experienced a New Moon at 7:14 AM Eastern time on the First. Lots of new energy to begin the year!
As one of my practices I cast an I Ching Gua (a hexagram of yin and yang lines) on each new moon to “read” the energies that are coming in for us. The I Ching or “book of change” can be used as a divination tool, not so much to predict what is coming but to get a sense of the energies of change that may be coming up through the month. This is another of the many “intuitive tools” that are available to us to help us sense beyond the usual three-dimensional ways through our five senses.
To help with the interpretation of the Gua I rely on a book by Taoist Master Alfred Huang: The Complete I Ching. I find his translation to be thorough, detailed and clear. Of course there is plenty of room for my own reading of the Gua because the words and meanings of the I Ching can be open and obscure.
For January the Gua I cast using a 50-yarrow stalk method generated this hexagram:
The “x” and circles through the 3rd, 4th and 6th lines indicate they are “changing lines.” Master Huang recommends reading only the middle changing line when there are three. So, only the 4th line is used to generate a new, changed Gua as pictured below.
But first we need to understand “Hindrance.” This Gua is made up of two trigrams, Earth is the lower one and Heaven is the upper. This is not a particularly auspicious Gua because Heaven is above and drawing away from the Earth. There is a block here against progress. It is the opposite of “Advance” which is the preceding Gua in the I Ching sequence. But this is a natural flow: after advancing there comes hindrance. And, naturally, after a time of hindrance there can be further advance.
For me the energy here is to pause, for a short time. The Hindrance-Energy is on the way out with 2013. (Note the volatility of this initial Gua with three changing line.) Yet, there is no need to leap into anything big early in the New Year.
Using only the middle line, the 4th, as the changing line yields this Gua:
The Guan here is the same word as in Guan Yin the Goddess of Compassion. The literal meaning of her name is “Watching Sound.” In this sense Guan means meditating or concentrating.
The message for me is to meditate on any actions for the month and proceed with caution. In all things be an example. Watch yourself and also remember you are being watched by others. Contemplate before action. This Gua is approached from Hindrance. While the energy barriers are lifting and Hindrance is shifting there is no need for haste. Be considerate.
A further way to interpret a Gua is to form a new one from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th lines as the lower trigram and the 3rd, 4th and 5th lines as the upper trigram. This yields the “mutual gua” – in this case Bo, Falling away. This too holds a sense of warning energy. Conserve what you have. This New Moon will wax to fullness and then wane again. Proceed with caution during the waning moon.
Hindrance quickly yields to Watching early in the month. Meditate on all action. As the Chinese say about Pi: pi ji tai lai, which means: “Out of the depths of misfortune comes bliss. At the end of Hindrance appears Advance.”
Enjoy this moon-cycle and the start of this fabulous New Year however you wish to interpret the energies captured by the I Ching!
PS: My friend and astrologer, Gloria Hesseloff, had this to say about this Capricorn New Moon: “2014 invites us to continue ‘planting the seeds’ for the next 26,000 years, or at least the next few generations.” Planting seeds for generations certainly requires thoughtful patience!
The Success of Your Authentic Self – Richard’s Commentary
Rosemary and I just returned from our monthly gathering of the EQUAAC group we are part of. This is the Equality Anne Arundel County group who, among other things, worked for the passage of Marriage Equality in Maryland. It’s a wonderful, warm group of men and women, both gay and straight who happen to believe in “equality” in all things! Rosemary and I are always welcomed with open arms, hugs, kisses and big smiles. It is such a pleasure to be part of this group!
And one thing always strikes me when we get together: I can be my authentic self with these wonderful human beings. I don’t have to pretend; there are no pretenses; there are no hidden motives, no one trying to get an upper hand or convince anyone of something other than genuine gladness to be together.
Maybe this is a luxury of getting older. I can be myself no matter whom I’m with or what I’m doing. Why can’t it always be this way? Here’s Rosemary’s answer:
We forget.
We forget to reach inside ourselves for answers. We forget that we are ‘enough’ just as we are. We forget that no one else knows exactly what our Soul Contract with the Universe is and that we agreed to come into this world at this time.
I am forgetting less often! I am working very hard, through my various practices to remember who I am, why I’m here and to live with that level of authenticity. And it does take practice. The ego wants to pretend; it’s sometimes easier that way, less risky. The ego doesn’t always like authenticity. But inside there are better answers; “real” answers. When we go inside we do remember what’s important.
And it is a matter of remembering, as Rosemary points out in yesterday’s post. We all come in knowing and remembering our purpose, our true self and the true reason the Universe called us to BE, here and now. Society and our ego want us to forget. We go through our growing years and our “educational process” learning to forget! If we all remembered to fulfill our purposes society would be very different. And society, just like our egos, wants to maintain the status quo.
There may be stability in the status quo but I wouldn’t call it success. Where is the impetus for evolution if we all toe the line and forget our purpose? Where’s the progress if we ignore our inner truth and accept someone else’s judgment about that? Where’s the lesson, the gain, the success if we pretend we are something other than who we came here to be?
Our success can only truly be measured against our true purpose. We all know our purpose; we may have forgotten it but it is in there, inside. We came with blueprints; we can remember. It takes practice but it is there.
Rosemary’s clarion call is to “remember.” I echo this call! We are called to awaken to our purpose, to our authentic selves. What better time than now, this holiday season and at year’s end to take up this cause and remember!
The Emptiness of Inherent Reality
In yesterday’s post I wrote about the “belief in crystals” and stated that in the first place “crystals are real” and therefore, are not subject to belief. They just are part of this Earth-plane we inhabit. I also wrote: Not only are crystals helping me clear stuck beliefs, they are helping me understand the deeper nature of reality. Interestingly this deeper nature of reality is nothing but a belief system. The existence of crystals in the “real” Earth-plane is actually a belief.
We live in a consensus-based reality that we view as real but may not be as real as we would like to believe!
I am immersed in a deep look, with the help of crystals, into the Kalachakra Tantra Rite of Initiation by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama and Jeffery Hopkins. The core of the book is based on the rite of initiation conducted by His Holiness in Madison, Wisconsin in 1981. I have had this book for a long time. I have attempted to read it before but was never able to get into it. Now I’m plowing through it with ease and excitement. Maybe some of my former beliefs are giving way to allow in the wisdom of this Tantra.
I am far from new to Buddhist thought. I have studied and practiced a form of Zen Buddhism for much of my life. I have worked with and read several texts on the Heart Sutra and have memorized a version of it from Zen Mountain Monastery where it is chanted daily. I have been chanting the sutra nearly daily for more than a decade. But this does not mean that I have fully penetrated the enormous implications of this holy text. I am getting closer! And it is likely the study of a life-time!
The main theme in the Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra is the emptiness of the five conditions of life, of reality: form, sensation, conception, discrimination and awareness. The practice and realization of this wisdom, this emptiness is what relieves suffering, sickness, old age and death and leads to the liberation from the wheel of samsara. This is the Perfection of Wisdom, the Prajna Paramita.
This can be summed up in the simple yet profound phrase: the emptiness of inherent reality. Of course, this too is a belief. But it is a belief that can lead to liberation from all suffering, all the misery that the Buddha witnessed as a young prince and led him on this journey to enlightenment.
I too am on a journey to this Heart of Perfect Wisdom, the Prajna Paramita. A major step along this journey is the Kalachakra Tantra Rite of Initiation. (I’ll write a full review of the book in a future post.) One of the key gateways on this journey is my suspension of belief in inherent, independent reality. And this can be particularly challenging living in modern western society where we are bombarded minute to minute by the commercial, material world of consumption of all forms of consensus reality. What would happen if we all suddenly stopped believing in the very underpinnings of life as we believe it?
With the realization of the emptiness of inherent reality comes Wisdom and Compassion – the two prongs of Buddhist philosophy. The Kalachakra Tantra is a path to this deeper understanding, this liberating belief. It is a path I have taken and will be reporting on here along the way!
Om Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha!
Men and The Goddess 