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Posts Tagged ‘Spirituality’

Update and a Poem: Testimony

June 20, 2017 Leave a comment

I have not posted here in a while but I have been busy! Personally I have been deepening my study and practice of Qigong to become a better teacher. The more I study, the more I realize Qigong is not only my life-long practice for health, happiness and longevity, but also my passion to share this health-giving, life-saving technology from ancient China. And it is so simple, so easy, and FREE!

One of my teachers, Jeff Primack, came to Baltimore in early April for a three-day intensive. It is always great to be with a teacher; and I had a profound experience of energy rising during the closing “breath circle.”

In late April Rosemary and I traveled to Sedona and the Mago Retreat Center for an amazing experience with Teacher of Soul, Katye Anna Clark and about 30 other travelers from all over the country. The retreat was a four-day intensive immersion for “Living from the Heart.” Wow! Another transformational experience of opening the heart to live more fully from the soul. And I had the distinct honor of teaching Qigong every morning of the retreat in the beautiful settings of Mago.

And in mid-May I traveled to Daytona Beach to spend another three-day intensive with Jeff Primack, this time at his National event: QiRevolution. And I met another of my teachers, Dr. Roger Janke who offered profound insights into health and wellness from his 40-year perspective of teaching and practicing Chinese Medicine and Medical Qigong.

It was a magical spring. I am honored and humbled to have experienced profound shifts. I am grateful for my further awakening. And I am motivated for share my insights.

And with that I offer:

Testimony

Health is a personal thing
And it is a choice.
It’s personal because it comes from inside;
And only you can make the choice.

Look to the outside;
Visit the impersonal health-care facility,
The hospital near you, the place
You would go if seriously ill or injured.

Do you see health there?
Oh, there is plenty of care.
Sickness, disease, crippling injures
Are within the realm of care here.

Look rather to the inside
If you are seeking health care.
There is where your health lives;
It is in your heart, your mind, your soul.

Your body is a walking, fluid, pharmacopeia.
Visit is often to find wellness.
Breathe, meditate, seek inside
The magic pill of health, happiness, longevity.

Be the testimony to your free choice.
Breathe the richness all life offers.
Move inward to seek the Light.
Balance in the flow of boundless Love.

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©2017 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.

A Post from Rosemary worth the read: “LIVING BEYOND”

February 23, 2017 Leave a comment

Let’s start examining Life on Planet Earth as it REALLY is, not as it appears to be. Living BEYOND the 3 Dimensions we think of as ‘reality’ gives us a much bigger picture in which to operate. Can you grasp that concept? Do these words resonate with you?

In a series of newsletters I will be teaching about the Dimensions and how to live Beyond 3-D. My guess is that you already know a lot of this but there has been no way (or no where) to discuss your experiences. In the coming days, I hope you’ll join our Community to share and to explore.

Here is an introduction to the concept of Living Beyond:

“The Levels of Consciousness are accessible to those who are willing to move beyond 3-Dimensional thinking and expand their awareness. The process of expanded awareness is simple and yet no one is taught this as a child young enough to embrace the practice as habit, although some children come into the world with a remembrance.

Why would anyone want to experience expanded awareness? The simple answer is that solutions to problems lie beyond the circumstances that created them.

For example, if a person is having an issue with another person’s behavior, they can choose to judge that behavior based on previous exposure to that behavior or they can reach beyond their own experience to allow for the possibility that the other person has a different set of past experiences at play in the situation. For example, when a couple gets to start a life together, they may have different family traditions that clash – one person’s family always opened birthday presents in the morning and the other’s after dinner. Is one way ‘right’ and the other ‘wrong’? No, they are both neutral options. But it might never have occurred to each partner that there was another way to do it until they stepped out of their own experience and saw another possibility.

If someone in the workplace seems to be slowing down on the job it might look as if they are being lazy. The truth might be that they have a sick child who is keeping them up all night and they are merely tired.

These may seem like trivial examples but they illustrate the point that a narrow focus does not always provide the full information about what is going on.

Now let’s step further beyond 3-Dimensional Consciousness.

Do you believe that there are more than 3 Dimensions or do you think ‘this is it’?

What if Time were the 4th Dimension?

Maybe this linear thing we humans call ‘Time’ isn’t really the total picture?

The truth is that all Time exists in this present moment.

I’ll say that again.

All Time exists in this present moment.

There is the history of remembrance and the energy of creating the future. But it is all in this present moment.

If Time is a Dimension that encompasses the 3-Dimensions we are familiar with, then we are really always ‘In Time.’ (This is not the same as being always ‘ON time,’ as in meeting a friend for lunch at precisely noon. We use clocks and 3-D time so that we can agree on a time to be at the restaurant together.) We are constantly creating the future by our choices in the present moment. We can recreate the choices we have made in the past (our history) or we can choose to do things differently.

Thinking of Time in this way shifts our Consciousness into an expanded awareness of how powerful a creative force we can be in every moment of our lives. And when we realize how powerful we have been in creating the circumstances of this moment, we can channel that power into creating the expanded life of our dreams.”

This is only the beginning of understanding the Levels of Consciousness. Stay tuned for more teachings about this!

My “New” Manifesto

February 10, 2017 1 comment

A week or so ago Rosemary brought several of her long-term clients together for a group VIP day. I was fortunate enough to be included and to do the work with this select group. And we did some excellent work.

Rosemary led us to create our “manifestos” for ourselves. We did some deep work exploring our purpose, our big “Why?” We answered questions like:

“What do you stand for?”
“How does your heart, your soul and your personality come together in this life?
“What is your declaration about this life, independent of any ‘shoulds’?”

We also answered the five questions that Matthew Goldfarb asks in his book, “Corporate Renegade.”

“What are you pissed off about?”
“If  you could change one thing about business or the world what would it be?”
“Why do you want to start a business in the first place?”
“Why are you willing to go broke to make this business work?”
“Why are you willing to go for broke to make this business work?”

And then we went to work. Some of us got out paper and scissors, colored pens and fancy tapes, decorating their manifestos with frills and flourishes. I’m a word guy and not overly skilled at the crafty work so answered questions, took note of my priorities and wrote out my manifesto. Here is the result:

manifesto

Inauguration Day Thoughts

January 20, 2017 Leave a comment

Not so many words, just thoughts, and feelings:

Transfer of Power

The motor fires, turns, idles;
Yet there is no movement, no action
Until the transmission engages
To transfer power to the axles.

The wind blows, spins blades;
Yet there is no change, no traction
Until the mill turns generators
To transfer power to the grids.

The tides heave, ebb, return:
Yet there is no launch, no sail
Until the turn from full, to flow
To transfer power to the ships.

The trees stand, grow, clear air:
Yet there is no transition, production
Until the axe clear-cuts for lumber
To transfer power to building.

The government pauses, idles:
And there is no action, no change
Until the constitution orchestrates
To transfer power to the chief.

Fire, Wind, Water, Wood all transform.
Power is transferred into the Earth.
Chiefs go and chiefs return, no change.
The transfer of power remains.

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©2017 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.

A poem for a rainy day: Inner Practice

January 17, 2017 1 comment

It is a dreary day here in Maryland. It is dark and gloomy with rain coming down steadily. It is a good day to practice!

Inner Practice

The breath begins with emptiness.
The inner curve of the belly
Is a waiting, a pause,
An anticipation of the new.

The breath proceeds with a rise.
The curve of the belly fills with
An action, expansion;
Excitement lifts on an inner note.

The breath rises on its inner path.
The spine straightens and lengthens,
Action peaking, seeking the crown,
Expanding outward and upward, reaching.

The breath follows the inner curve.
The skull bone directs its passage,
Downward through the hollows of the face,
Ending in the empty space guarded by teeth.

The breath remains in this inner space.
This is a waiting, a pause.
Inaction holding, resting in peace,
A suspension of the doing – just being.

The breath descends from its quiet rest.
The inner curve of the chest opens
With soft action, a contraction,
A sinking downward and inward.

The breath expels what no longer serves.
The inner curve of the belly forms,
Compressing, flattening, sending out
The last of the used, the spent, the old.

The breath ends in emptiness,
The inner curve of the belly restored.
Resting, contemplating, anticipating
The inner practice of breathing.

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©2017 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.

New Year’s Eve: Out with the Old!

December 31, 2016 Leave a comment

One of the teachers I am working with has asked us, as part of our year-end review, to release all the old habits, feelings, beliefs, thoughts that are not serving us. I’ve spent this week reviewing the year, in fact the past nine years, to dredge up and lever out the old “stuff” that’s “down there!” As another of my teachers would say, “it is time to metabolize that “stuff” and turn it into compost for new growth!”

2016 is a 9-year, a year for completion. 2017 is a 1-year, a year for new beginnings! Today is a great day to release the old to make room for the new.

Here is my poem to reflect on this process; a riff on the five elements of Classical Chinese Medicine and Philosophy:

Release—

Anger through forgiveness:
Grow through the lessons,
Rise with the lengthening days,
Draw on all the resources,
Create your own destiny!

Anxiety through surrender:
Expand through the lessons,
Allow engaging relationships,
Mature in thoughts and actions,
Manifest inalienable joy!

Worry through service:
Serve from the lessons,
Share from the heart,
Engage in all life offers,
Adapt to the Way of life!

Grief through acceptance:
Transmute through the lessons,
Balance loss with gifts,
Release emptiness for fullness,
Purify life through praise!

Fear through trust:
Contemplate life’s lessons,
Believe in your own power,
Feel free and confident in life,
Flow through the currents to Wisdom!

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©2016 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.

Happy Christmas Eve, and all the other Eves we celebrate as the year winds to a close!

December 24, 2016 Leave a comment

Enjoy! Celebrate! Live, love and laugh the old year out and the new beginning in!

Eve

The day, the evening before:
Christmas
New Years
All Hallows
Changes and more.

The women, Mothers of All:
Adam’s wife
Jesus’ Mother
Holy Mother of God
Peace before the fall.

The birth, renewing Light:
Solstice
Deepest dark
Returning Sun
The dawn following First Night.

Eve, new hope at last:
Forgiveness
Light
Love
Release of all that’s past.

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©2016 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.

A post-election day poem

November 9, 2016 Leave a comment

Often when I am upset by circumstances, events, things beyond my control or even understanding, I turn to my pages to write and I turn to my poetry journal to see what might help, if not penetrate to an understanding, at least bring me into a state of grace and gratitude. In this post-election denouement this is what came to me:

Change (with gratitude for a Pawnee proverb)

Fortune cookie:
Mistakes are portals to discoveries.
Me:
Then there are no mistakes.

Optimist:
Every problem is an opportunity.
Me:
Life is all about lessons.

Electoral College:
Trump is the President Elect.
Me:
Half the country has voted change.

Rosemary:
Hold in the Community of Love and Light.
Me:
Embrace me, Community.

The Divine Feminine:
Your purpose is to live in Joy.
Me:
Facing the Sun I see no shadow, only Joy.

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©2016 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.

 

Happy Halloween! A poem for Samhain

October 31, 2016 Leave a comment

The veil between worlds thins at this time of the year. Samhain is the holiday in Celtic tradition that celebrates this special cross-quarter day, half-way between Equinox and Solstice. It is the new year! A time of letting go and resting as we approach the long nights of winter.

Feeling the Other Side most clearly at this time I offer this as my treat:

Thin Little Veil (with apologies to Bob Sima)

The season drifts toward the dark;
Slanting rays glance lower, shorter.
The bright light of high summer fades
To the sadder shade of yellow tinged with gold.

The cold creeps slowly along the road;
Longer nights hold it to linger there.
The warmth of high sun is but remembered
As the chill settles deeper in the bones.

The veil ‘tween here and gone shreds;
Thinner now, revealing more it drifts.
Gossamer, hiding nothing, not even shadows
As it wisps away as fine mist.

This Halloween the thin little veil
Opening the way to the Other Side
Stands as a welcoming sign
And beckons us to listen well.

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©2016 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.

A New Poem: Nothing is Real

September 27, 2016 Leave a comment

I actually wrote this as a prose poem while doing my “Morning Pages” the other day. Then with a few edits I turned into today’s poem. It is kind of an answer, almost an antithesis, but not really, to the notion that “We are Light”!

Nothing is Real

Too many thoughts and concerns;
They are all just puffs of smoke in the great field,
Specks of dust in the moonbeam,
Tiny ripples on the still clear mirror of the pond
Reflecting the dust and smoke.

These are all reflections, images of mist
Floating over a sea of nothing.
It is not real, this picture.
And this picture is a poor reproduction of some unreality
That is a guess at a grasp of
What truly is – or is not.

If nothing is real, nothing matters.
And, yet I stroke this pen on the page,
Sip my tea and ponder.
Something there is that ponders me, echoing my own.
If everything is a reflection
Then reflect on this:
The image within the mirror
Holds a mirror reflecting me.
We are that and that is we.

So, what is the consternation about anyway?
Let it go. Remain in flow. Just be.
Be with this. Everything is okay.
You are okay. You will survive. Or not.
What is survival anyway,
But remaining in a current incarnation of illusion,
The image in the mirror.

Is there any point in hanging here?
Of course!
Take the meaning, the learning;
Pass it through the mirror into Consciousness.
And, perhaps the lessons will carry well
Into a new incarnation of a new reflection.

And the mirror may be that much more perfect
Reflecting more clearly, brightly, purely
Than the current reflection can manage.
And it, no matter how bright and light,
Will remain a reflector!

©2016 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.

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