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Awareness
I often use this word, awareness, as a key word for both my blogs and Rosemary’s. It is a good synonym for “consciousness” and, I’m sure you know by now, we are all about increasing our level of consciousness, our awareness! I don’t think I have ever written about this subject specifically, but several events lately have caused me to pause and wonder just how developed my awareness is!
The other day I went to Radio Shack to replace a power supply for Rosemary’s portable DVD player. I took the player with me to be sure I got the right one with the correct tip to plug it in. I purchased the adapter which we tested in the store; it worked perfectly and even brought up the DVD in the player. I left the store with my purchase and drove off in the car for the next errand. When I got to my next stop I looked around for the DVD player and it was gone. I ransacked the car thinking it had slid off the seat or under a seat. It was nowhere to be found. I went back to the store in case I had left it there. No one had seen it. I retraced my route in case I had left it on the car roof and driven off with it there. No sign of it! Now I was frustrated, confused and upset; how could a DVD player simply disappear. I returned the power adapter to the store. The player has never shown up!
Awareness. My awareness shifted focus at some point in this transaction and I lost a DVD player. I was distracted by my next errand and failed to successfully complete the current errand.
And then again, the other day, I was preparing for my Qigong class. I have this delightful alarm-clock, Zen meditation timer that I began using a couple of weeks ago to gently remind me with a very pleasant chime where I am within the schedule of the class and practice. The timer was not in the bag I use to carry things back and forth to class. I looked everywhere, even the car in case it had fallen out of the bag in transit. A day or so later I decided to look for it in the place I used to keep it before I started using it for Qigong; and there it was! I have no recollection of putting it back in its old place!
These two stories remind me of an old favorite Zen story of mine; in this version it’s called “Full Awareness” and goes like this:
After ten years of apprenticeship, Tenno achieved the rank of Zen teacher. One rainy day, he went to visit the famous master Nan-in. When he walked in, the master greeted him with a question, “Did you leave your wooden clogs and umbrella on the porch?”
“Yes,” Tenno replied.
“Tell me,” the master continued, “did you place your umbrella to the left of your shoes, or to the right?”
Tenno did not know the answer, and realized that he had not yet attained full awareness. So he became Nan-in’s apprentice and studied under him for ten more years.
Yes, I can easily say I have, at least, 10 more years of practice to reach “full awareness.”
I am finishing this post just after returning from my Svaroopa Yoga practice. The opening and closing Shavasana focuses on body awareness; whole body awareness from the tips of the toes to the crown of the head. The guided meditation is a wonderful practice of total relaxation and yet a heightened sense of awareness. Ten years more is not such a long time!
PS: The contemplation for my yoga practice this week speaks pointedly to this subject of awareness:
Real happiness abides in Self-knowledge alone. All else is fleeting. To know one’s Self is to be blissful always. – Ramana Maharshi
How Are You Hiding? – Richard’s Commentary
True confession time! Frankly and in all authenticity I have been hiding at least since I retired from the corporate world at the end of 2007. Of course I have many excuses for this. But Rosemary’s question is not about “why” I’ve been hiding, good reasons or excuses, but rather about “how” I’ve been hiding. So, here’s the story:
I’ve been staying in the background, in a sense hiding behind Rosemary these past five plus years. I retired so we could start a business together. If you have been reading her blog or my blog, subscribing to her newsletter or know her in any way you realize the incredible talent she has on many levels, including the ability to communicate with The Other Side! She is a powerhouse and it’s easy to hide behind her.
Our business partnership was at least in part organized around this talent. She is the front-person for the business and I am the “operator.” She does all the outside work with clients and I run the back-office, the technology for the internet-based program, the financials, legal stuff, etc. This doesn’t sound too much like hiding out, does it? And it was certainly a plate-full for both of us as we started up our business in early 2008.
We did a lot of work, heavy lifting, to launch this business. We attended seminars and workshops, we did the research, we built websites and wrestled with emailers and auto-responders, Rosemary went to coaching events to help “jump-start” the business and I sometimes attended as a “free” guest at these events. We worked hard at this.
At these events I often felt awkward. Was I attending to understand better how to build her business, improve her internet presence, help market her talents? Sometimes I had the feeling I should be taking in the coaching, suggestions, technology patterns and marketing ideas for myself; in exercises during the events I would be half thinking about Rosemary’s business and half thinking about how I could apply the material to something I could offer.
And often I sensed the implicit and sometimes explicit motivation from the leaders and speakers at these events to apply what they were teaching to my own practice! (Whatever that might be.)
But I had too much to do to develop any kind of practice for me. What did it matter that I am an ordained minister in an Interfaith Tradition? What did it matter that I too have talents, sometimes even in parallel with Rosemary’s? Did it matter that I am this unusual male being, so often operating in this wonderful world of feminine energy I constantly find myself in? Rosemary’s coaches, mostly women, did seem to think it mattered!
I continued to hide through the upheaval of our down-sizing exercise, sale of our house in Colorado and move to Maryland (three separate truckloads of our stuff!) to hang out with daughter for a while as we catch our breath. We continue to work on the business and I continue to hide out in the back-office. But all of this is changing! I am not only processing Rosemary’sMuseLetters, shooting the videos, handling the blogs, keeping the website updated and running the business end of the business; I am also reading Rosemary’s prodigious volume of material and taking it all to heart.
I am done with hiding. The excuses for doing so are empty. There is more to me than “Chief Operating Officer.” And I have launched; I have begun to shine a brighter light out into our community! My first Qigong Class this past Monday evening was great: well attended for a first time offering, smoothly delivered and positive feedback received.
This time, 2013 and beyond, as we’ve written many times in these blogs, is a time of transformation. It is not a time to hide. We can no longer hide from ourselves or behind anyone else.
Answer the question for yourself: “How are you hiding?” Then look for ways to break down the barriers, open the doorways of opportunity and step through!
PS: There are beings you can’t hide from: your angels, guides, spirit guides and loved ones who have crossed over! Oh, you can ignore them; pretend they are only part of your imagination. But they won’t go away because they are here to help you! On June 14, at 7:00 pm, either online (internet or phone) or in person in Annapolis, you can join Rosemary for a Conversation with The Other Side to hear what those beings have to offer you. You can’t hide; you may as well listen! Get more information here.
Butterfly Maiden
When I was a kid growing up in Wisconsin we used to plant corn when the oak leaves were as big as squirrel ears. I loved this way of letting nature guide the farming cycles. Nature knows more about how to grow things than we will ever know with all our weather predicting technology and modern methods. This reminds me that we are patiently waiting for the first delivery of spring harvest from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm here in Maryland. But with the cool, wet spring things are late and we are probably still a couple of weeks away from first delivery. For a farmer from Wisconsin there should be no surprise here!
I wrote this thinking about corn planting and growing – the old-fashioned way! And I hope Butterfly Maiden is watching over our CSA vegetables!
Butterfly Maiden
The corn is planted;
The spring rains have come.
The holy ground is rich;
The loam warms the seed.
Soon there will be a splitting;
Soon the full moon will shine.
Soon the earth will feed that seed;
Soon the sprout will reach for sun.
Moon watches through the night;
Moon wanes through a fortnight.
Moon withers toward rising sun;
Moon winks out as the sprout sees dawn.
Butterfly Maiden sheds her cocoon;
Butterfly Maiden warms in the sun.
Butterfly Maiden grins at the grinning moon;
Butterfly Maiden guards growing corn.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
PS: Qigong starts this evening, Monday, June 3 at 7:00 pm. If you are in the area of Annapolis/Severna Park please join me: Details here.
Walking Through Doorways
It’s been a busy week! Walking through doorways of opportunity can occupy a lot of time. But when opportunities show up we have to respond or be left behind, at least as far as The Divine Feminine are concerned (ref: yesterday’s post).
My first door opened when I got serious about Qigong. I’ve blogged about this, my experience with Bridget Hughes for well over a year now, then my work with her teacher, Jeff Primack, culminating in certification to teach Qigong, and then launching my first two classes which begin next week. This is exciting enough! And yes, there is a bit of fear surrounding this; who am I to think I can teach Qigong! Well, I walked through the flaming doorway of opportunity, changed my mind about my ability (a long time ago I was an effective teacher of math and science) and announced my classes! I even have people signing up!
It seems that once opportunities show up and we say “yes” other opportunities follow. Last week I posted a recording of my message from The Other Side (post link). The main part of that message was from a Shaman Guide who basically told me to “access the shamanic world” more often. Well, I have followed this advice and have taken several journeys over the past week. And I have received guidance that with no uncertainty holds open a doorway of opportunity to get out there and do for others what I have been able to do for a few and have been hiding from for years now.
It is not cool to claim to be a Shaman. In the world of Shamanic Healing using traditional indigenous technologies that are millennia old, people don’t choose to be shamans, and when they are chosen they don’t necessarily walk around with a shaman’s badge pinned to their robes. If I feel a bit trepidatious about my Qigong classes imagine how I feel about this guidance to work with people using shamanic approaches to healing! This work is not for the faint of heart. I have a lot of training and I have a lot of warning that this is no easy path to follow.
But sometimes these doorways of opportunity, no matter how high the flames lick the posts, are easier to walk through than resist. And with that I revised my business card format and they just arrived fresh from the printer. Here it is:
And the byline, “Shaman of the Heart,” is not a label I choose for myself. A dear friend, mentor and teacher, Baeth Davis, called me this a couple of years ago. That’s a long story but the short version is I have all loops for fingerprints which means I am in the School of Love, my Lessons are about Love and my Purpose is Love; hence the title!
I am standing in this burning doorway ready to leap through. I trust there is someone on the other side who has a hand outstretched to me to welcome me and perhaps even to reassure me. But this time of opportunity is not waiting for me. It is waiting for no one of us.
Are you ready to step or leap through that doorway of your opportunity? Do it; join me!
Brain Science, Storytelling, and YOU! – Richard’s Commentary
I have a recent story to tell and I hope I only have to tell it once! As always it is a question of learning the lessons. Here’s the story:
About a week ago I started running a fever. I had no real symptoms other than the severe body aches and pains that often accompany a fever. As this one developed not only did the aches and pains get worse but the fever turned into significant shakes and sweats over a three-day and night period. I had not experienced this kind of illness since I came down with malaria in Africa more than 40 years ago – it was that bad!
The fever was at its worst right at the New Moon/Solar eclipse last Thursday evening. I went to the doc Friday afternoon about the time I started to feel just a bit better. Lots of causes, thankfully, have been eliminated. And now I am much better, finishing a course of antibiotics even though I suspect it was viral. But much more important than the medical report or even my symptoms and treatment are the lessons and symbols represented by this fever and my experience of it.
I have been processing this experience, this story since I was well enough to meditate and write about it. And my old friends, QRS (remember my “floating heads”?) have helped me with some interpretation. Here’s the real story of my serious fever:
What is the message from my unconscious mind via my body?
QRS: Your body heated up to burn out some impurities. The shakes were because you are not using the “shaking technique” from Jeff Primack (this is a Qi-generating approach by shaking the whole body for a period of time; we did it for 12 minutes at the Qi-Revolution weekend!). Do it for five minutes every day. It will help. The sweats were to purge impurities through your largest organ – your skin. Shower to cleanse away the toxins. Heat, fire is from the heart. You are heart-broken for multiple reasons. The fever was a reminder of the fire and passion of your heart and that you need to attend and mend the brokenness before you can do any real work of consequence. The fire was a tempering and a mending process. You will emerge from this stronger if you take these words “to heart”! The weakness was to get you to rest. You have to be quiet to mend. Your quiet time has helped. The aches and pains were your body knocking at your door to let you know it needs your care. Yes, Qigong has been good. But keep it up. Don’t let your body turn to brittle old bones!
Your mind has been in a fog. This was a reminder to not slip away into a fog like your dad did! Awaken! And stay awake.
You think you have been working hard on yourself. Don’t mistake effort for accomplishment. Working hard is only part of it. Achieving is necessary. Awaken! It is time to break out. Move beyond the chrysalis stage and emerge, fly. You have so much to do, but time is not infinite. Deaths of your friends are to remind you of this. Their time ran out; mission accomplished. Yes, you have your purpose, your mission, but you only have the rest of your life to fulfill it. Don’t let us down. Wake up!
This explanation of my story has helped me realize the fever had its purpose. And I have my lesson to take to heart. As I wrote this I also recalled the Buddhist prayer, or Evening Gatha, we recited at Zen Mountain Monastery when I spent some time there:
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 life.
Do not squander your life…
Are You Ready? – Richard’s Commentary
Rosemary’s opening to her MuseLetter article this week was certainly provocative:
Did you think you could relax because you made it through December 21, 2012? Think again!
The Shift has begun. Time has been speeding up for years and we’re moving ahead at an amazing pace. It’s time to grow, to transform, to evolve. Hold onto your hat!
Yes, the time is now. And I can certainly feel the urgency of the moment. I have been impacted a lot this week as we are in this very old moon energy in Taurus. My body hurts, my mind isn’t functioning at peak performance and my emotions tend to rule my tongue more often than I’d like! Is it just this old moon, impending new moon and solar eclipse coming our way that has me in such a state? And what can I do to “be ready”?
Then we came across this from one of our astrologer friends; we have trusted Steve Nelson’s readings for us and his deep writing for years! Here’s what Steve says about this time in May:
Karma is fate, dharma is destiny. Karma is in the body as chronic muscle tension that holds encoded past emotional memory. Dharma is our divine purpose to be revealed and realized as karma is let go. Past world patterning or karma can be released through exercise (especially yoga), deep breathing and ritual celebration. Collective karma, the shadow of the age, is up for clearing now. As we clear personal karma we clear world karma. Karma is cleared cosmically by New Moons and by eclipses of the Sun and Moon.
…
A solar eclipse is Mother Nature’s most powerful instrument for transformation. When an eclipse occurs above, things get eclipsed and are transformed here below. Whatever needs eclipsing comes up in the days/weeks before a solar eclipse. An eclipse is an opportunity to eliminate patterns of thought and behavior that trouble our world. This is an ideal time to clear away what stands in the way of dreams being realized. The May 9/10 solar eclipse is the subject of another prophecy by Nostradamus in Century 9 Quatrain 83: ”Sun twentieth of Taurus, the Earth will tremble mightily; It will ruin the great theater filled: And so darken and trouble air, sky and land, the unbeliever will call upon God and the saints.”
The May 9/10 solar eclipse in the 20th degree of Taurus may bring a great earthquake as Nostradamus predicted. We’re advised to stay away from crowded theaters on this day. Our old world patterns are broken one way or another; we can hope and pray for the kinder gentler way.
It sounds to me that all the energy I’m feeling is definitely part of this New Moon/Solar Eclipse energy. It may be a doozy. I’ll definitely “hold on to my hat”!
But what does this mean; how do we prepare and “be ready” for major events that may occur? Steve Nelson recommends ritual work. Ritual is a wonderful way to heighten our awareness and bring consciousness and intention to our plans and actions.
And Steve mentions yoga and deep breathing – no surprise here! As you know from my previous posts I am all about yoga, qigong and breath-work!
I am doing everything in my power to be ready for this New Moon/Eclipse this evening (it occurs here on the east coast at 8:29 pm). Here’s what Rosemary has said about it:
This Solar Eclipse ends a cycle and begins a new one. Look back at what was happening in your life on May 10, 1994 for some clues about your personal evolution. We are being invited to release the past, clear negative thought patterns and whatever else might be holding us back from expanded consciousness and evolution. According to The Mountain Astrologer magazine, Eclipses also affect cellular memory, facilitating our awakening and remembrance of our soul’s blueprint.
Karma and dharma: release the past and awaken to your soul’s blueprint!
With Steve I wish you a “kinder and gentler” experience of this powerful energy. May you use it for growth!
Monday’s Poem: Infinite Breath
I led a Qigong demonstration during our ACT (A Community of Transformation) meeting today. I began with a breathing exercise using a poem I posted here three weeks ago, Breathe. Breathing is always good, and a good spiritual practice to help both lift and ground us. Everything breathes in one way or another; which is to say everything is in some state of vibration. Here’s another poem about breath to start your week. Happy Monday!
Infinite Breath
We are all in mid-breath,
That infinite sigh that
Began long ago and
Blew us all into existence.
We tumble in the remnant
Turbulence of that long sigh,
No more than fluff of milkweed
Spiraling at the edge of the pool.
The exhalation continues for now
Expelling more flotsam
On each breeze generated
By whirling currents of emptiness.
And, at the end of this long breath?
Every vibration has a frequency
Measured by the return from the
Infinitesimal steady state.
There must be an inhalation, right?
The contraction is only preparation
For that next breath, a sneeze perhaps,
To blow something new this way again!
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Spiritual Practices: from Qigong to Prayer
The theme for the week has been Spiritual Practices, so I thought it would be good to close out the week with a laundry list of the possible. I’ll offer as examples my current practices that I do on a regular basis:
Qigong: Daily. I’m spending anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes every day doing either 5-Element Form or Jeff Primack’s Level 1 Form (which I’m also certified to teach and will be starting my classes very soon).
Yoga: At least every other day, at least 20 minutes. I also just returned from my Svaroopa Yoga class with my good friend Dharma, an excellent teacher. This is nearly a two hour class each week in this new to me style of gentle, yet very effective (I can feel tonight’s work already!) yoga.
Morning Pages: Daily. I write three long-hand pages every day in the style recommended by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. I find this practice to be incredibly grounding, a way to purge, a way to jump start the day, a way to record feelings, events, dreams, visions, plans, hopes, basically just about anything that comes to mind (or heart). I sometimes channel consciousness that just comes.
Poetry: I often write a poem or two through each week. I publish one here on the blog every Monday. And I read poetry often. I love this other-dimensional way of writing and expressing.
Divination: Daily. Currently I draw two cards, one from the Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards by Doreen Virtue, and one from the Crowley Tarot Thoth Deck. I use these cards to get an intuitive sense of the energies of the day. I write a page of notes about what they mean to me and how they relate to one-another.
As another form of divination, on new moons I cast an I Ching Gua for the moonth to gain intuitive insight on the energies for the upcoming moon cycle.
Chanting: I wrote in yesterday’s post about Mantra Meditation. I do this frequently, currently daily following Deva Premal & Miten’s 21-Day Journey.
These are my current daily practices. I spend about two hours each morning on these practices. And I consider them all forms of prayer. They are definitely forms of an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with a deity, an object of worship, or a spiritual entity through deliberate communication. (from the Wikipedia definition of prayer).
OK, I may be stretching a point a bit here, but the “spiritual entity” I communicate with is the Universe, Source, the All, and other ways of expressing or labeling something greater than I and yet also inside me!
I do sometimes wonder if I am over-doing it; if I am spending too much time at my practices. But they do serve me in many ways. I feel we are all on a path of expansion, evolution and transformation. Why else bother with all these sometimes hard lessons we keep encountering and, hopefully, learning! My practices help me through the changes, support my struggles, offer ways to feel my feelings, stretch my intuitive sensibilities, open me to embrace the greatness of human consciousness and the Divine Consciousness that is there for immediate access if we sharpen our methods to encounter and listen to the wisdom available.
How much time is this worth? For me it is priceless. Maybe I am not devoting enough time to my practices!
Enjoy your weekend. Find time to practice!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: What Is Your Spiritual Practice?
Do you meditate every day? Are you following a yoga or qigong or tai chi practice? Do you go for a walk in nature and call it a spiritual practice? Do you write in a journal?
How do you feed yourself spiritually every day?
So often we jump out of bed and start getting wrapped up in our to-do list. We have lists of lists and feel ready to spring into action checking things off. And, yet, at the end of the day, is that activity really the most important way you could spend your time? If you run out of day before you run out of to-do’s have you really spent your time wisely?
Let’s look at 2013 as the Year of Transformation that it truly is. What are we transforming?
How high on your priority list is your spiritual practice? If it’s not number one then maybe it’s time to re-examine those priorities.
This isn’t about religion but about the total YOU, the whole-istic YOU, the YOU who lives on Planet Earth in 2013 for a Purpose. The YOU who was born for a reason. The spiritual YOU lives in the Universe as a particular being at a particular moment in the life of the Universe so that you might play your part in the unfolding plan that the Universe has been revealing for millennia. You fit into a much bigger picture than your to-do list would indicate.
And every day it is good to check in and see how you’re doing with regard to that unfolding plan. Remember, this life isn’t about what you are DOING, but who you are BEING. Does your to-do list sometimes get in the way of your being you?
Allow yourself to define your spiritual practice by what feeds your soul. What uplifts you? How do you want to feel today?
It doesn’t really matter what you choose as your spiritual practice so long as it is important to your spirit and you do it consistently. Do you pray? Just when you need something or in thanksgiving or praise? Do you exercise? Is it just for your bodily health (or the eye candy at the gym?) or are you honoring your physical body and its assistance in your fulfilling your purpose on Earth?
Meditation can be a simple, short time to tap into something greater, to ask your higher self for guidance about the day. Of course, it can also be more elaborate, take more time, be more formal and contain even richer wisdom for you.
The Eastern practices, like qigong, tai chi and yoga, invite you to connect to your body and your breath in specific ways so that your energy can be organized for your day. Sometimes just tapping into ‘the feeling state of the Divine’ can bring you joy and peace for your day.
Choose a practice that you will commit to doing every day this week. Maybe it’s drawing a card from an oracle deck, or sitting with your morning coffee and watching the birds at the feeder outside your window. It doesn’t have to be formal and it doesn’t have to take a lot of time. But choose something that helps to feed your spirit and do it every day.
Watch how your to-do list takes on a new meaning in the context of your ‘to-be’ time!
MONDAY’S POEM: Breathe
I have been writing a lot about transformation, change, rhythms and cycles, birth, death, beginnings and endings. I received news Sunday that a dear friend in England, after a valiant struggle with cancer is transitioning, taking a last breath of the Mother’s air before moving through a new birth into some other dimension we don’t totally recognize but know is there. It occurs to me that any such transformation requires breath. We must breathe into newness. First breaths; last breaths.
Breathing is so natural, mostly completely automatic; unconscious; meant to keep us alive. Transformative breathing needs to be conscious. And then I found this poem I wrote a few days ago as I thought about my Qigong practice and meditative breath-work. I hope you find it transformative!
Breathe
In
Deep
Down
Belly out
To toes
Fill up
Higher
Expand
Stretch ribs
Open throat
Wide nose
Fill eyes
Crown lights
Hold
Accept;
Out
Slow
Top
Relaxing
To ribs
Press in
Backwards
Contract
Press belly
Flatten
To spine
Ease root
Empty
Let go
Release.
Repeat.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Men and The Goddess 