Units of divine light, finer than electrons and other subatomic particles, are the bricks of which matter is composed. All things seen on the screen of the universe are differentiated currents of cosmic light…

— Paramahansa Yogananda

In the physical world objects are illuminated by outer light, not having a light source of their own. Objects can only be seen by the light which reflects off of them. It’s the same with colors. We see the color of a red apple because it absorbs light except for the frequency equivalent to red, which is reflected back to our eyes.

On the other hand, human beings have an inner light. Although housed in a physical form, the human soul provides a source of light from within. Without the soul we’d be hollow, rudderless. Our eyes would be dull; no evidence of light would exist in us.

Other living things can be said to be structured the same way, or at least interact with available external light such as the case with plants and photosynthesis.

“Nature emits a light, and by its radiance she can be known. But in man there is still another light apart from that which is innate in nature. It is the light through which man experiences, learns, and fathoms the supernatural.

Those who seek in the light of nature speak from the knowledge of nature; but those who seek in the light of man speak from the knowledge of super-nature.” — Paracelsus

The sun is the greatest provider of light and heat to the world, and artificial light has made it possible for life to go on even at night. Humans absorb and use different components of sunlight through the eyes and skin. The production of vitamin D is one example. Another is how light travels into the eye where retina sends nerve signals to the visual cortex in the brain. From there light also travels to the limbic system, which has a role in emotion, learning, memory, and sexuality. The hypothalamus is also stimulated by light, and is linked to both the autonomic nervous system and the pituitary gland.

Color and light have also been used in healing since ancient times:

The priests of ancient Egypt, Babylonia, and China used color or colored light in many of their healing practices. Sunlight therapy was a common medical practice in historic Greek, Chinese and Roman times… — Richard Gerber, MD

Matter can exist in different states such as solid, liquid, and gas. In actuality solids, liquids and gases are different vibrations of the One Light. This primordial light is sound, light, heat emotion, thought, matter and all other things and processes that exist in the universe.

The omnipresent light of Spirit evolves all creatures and forms and forces in the universe, and sustains them by the continuous manifestation of that light. — Yogananda

Then there is the light of awareness. Spiritual light is the fundamental light of consciousness and awareness.

In the heart of every person is a spark of light, the secret of divine presence. This is the seed of our consciousness. Without this light there would be no consciousness. — Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee

The true nature of the human being is light. It’s an inborn light. Being self-reflective, it can show the way. It leads to understanding and wisdom. It ignites the mind and the heart. It’s the light that enables us to evolve. Within it is everything we need to create, improve and prosper.

The light is there in everyone. Some recognize and know it more clearly and powerfully. Those with a greater light quotient can utilize it to help others and the world. Each person has the capacity to increase their light, whether it’s by facilitation from another or direct awakening. Awakening is the dawning of light in the darkness of ignorance. This ignorance isn’t related to education, but the knowing of the true self, and the nature of reality.

We all know intuitively that light is a positive force, an on an empirical level we can see how important light is in nature and our surroundings. Light makes crops and vegetation of the earth grow. We can observe houseplants follow the light, turning their leaves toward its nourishment…

Spiritually light is central to many traditions, celebrated at festivals and other commemorations with candles, decorative lamps, or sacred fires. Light is associated with divinity in several faiths…

Despite our attempts to describe it, absolute light transcends the limitations of space, time, measurement, or concepts. It is inseparable from the enlightened mind and total openness.

— Tulku Thondup

When life is easy, let’s shine the light. When life is hard, let’s shine the light. Whether it’s meditation or laundry, the light is there. Let’s hold space for it every moment.

Holding the light is a singular act of power.

The light is on every moment, switchless, wireless. Awareness ignites this truth, so every activity is graced by it. We’re illuminated from the inside. The source of all light is subtle. Even so, it’s observable and we can wield it. We can use it for good.

In 2012 how are you going to make the light visible and where will you direct it, in what will you invest it?

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© Pamir Kiciman 2010 Text, Photo and Digital Art

Buddhism is a one of the world’s wisdom traditions. To illustrate just exactly how a wisdom tradition works and why it’s so precious and significant, let’s look at one buddha and the inner workings of related teachings. The Japanese names are going to be used since this is a Reiki blog, but Sanskrit versions will also be given.

DAINICHI NYORAI  大 日 如 来
Literally, “Great Sun” (Mahavairocana or Vairochana in Sanskrit)

This is an image of Dainichi Nyorai (Vairocana) in the Kongo-kai (Diamond World) who makes a Chike-in sign (entering the world of Buddha's wisdom) in front of its chest. Dainichi Nyorai is the central deity of the Kongo-kai Mandala that represents the structure of the spiritual world in esoteric Buddhism.

Variously known as the Great Buddha of Universal Illumination, Cosmic Buddha, All-Encompassing Buddha, Life Force of the Universe, Spreader of Light in All Directions, or Great Shining One, Dainichi is a ‘celestial’ buddha. Buddhism teaches that there are three bodies (kayas) or manifestations of enlightenment. Of these dharmakaya is that aspect of the Buddha which is unchanging and eternal, referring to the essence of awakened being, absolute buddha nature. It’s the basis of all existence, including human. It’s also the spiritual body or “truth body” of all buddhas. This is Dainichi Nyorai, and where the ‘cosmic’ or ‘celestial’ reference comes in.

Dainichi is said to be omnipresent and all things, like the air we breathe, with all other buddhas and deities being emanations of Dainichi.

The first virtue of Dainichi Nyorai is the universal radiance that dispels darkness, with the ability to destroy suffering and despair. The second virtue is that this radiance has neither beginning nor end, and that the light of wisdom is like the sun, which always shines regardless of whether it’s day or night. The third virtue is an ability to enlighten living beings, and that great compassion is the parent of life which continues to nourish all living beings at all times.

Dainichi Buddha corresponds to the historical Buddha’s first turning of the Wheel of the Law in Deer Park in Sarnath, India. This is where the historical Buddha gave his first sermon after attaining enlightenment. The Turning of the Wheel is a metaphor for the teaching of the path to enlightenment.

One of the ways that wisdom comes into play is in understanding the mind of enlightenment and its various facets. The “five buddha families,” is an ancient Buddhist system of doing just that. The buddha families are traditionally displayed as a mandala. Each buddha in the mandala embodies one of the five different aspects of enlightenment. These manifest themselves as enlightened qualities as well as neurotic states of mind. The buddha families clearly present a complete picture of both the world of enlightened mind and the world of ego.

Traditionally, at the center of the mandala is Vairochana [Dainichi Nyorai], lord of the buddha family, who is white and represents the wisdom of all-encompassing space and its opposite, the fundamental ignorance that is the source of cyclic existence (samsara). The dullness of ignorance is transmuted to a vast space that accommodates anything and everything.

In the east of the mandala is Akshobya [Ashuku Nyorai], lord of the vajra family, who is blue and represents mirror-like wisdom and its opposite, aggression. The overwhelming directness of aggression is transmuted into the quality of a mirror, clearly reflecting all phenomena. Vajra is associated with the element water, with winter, and with sharpness and textures.

In the south of the mandala is Ratnasambhava [Hōshō Nyorai], buddha of the ratna family, who is yellow and represents the wisdom of equanimity and its opposite, pride. The fulsomeness of pride is transmuted into the quality of including all phenomena as elements in the rich display. Ratna is associated with the element earth, with autumn, with fertility and depth.

In the west of the mandala is Amitabha [Amida Nyorai], buddha of the padma family, who is red and represents discriminating-awareness wisdom and its opposite, passion or grasping. The intense desire of passion is transmuted into an attention to the fine qualities of each and every detail. Padma is associated with the element fire, with spring, with façade and color.

In the north of the mandala is Amogasiddhi [Fukūjōju Nyorai], buddha of the karma family, who is green and represents all-accomplishing wisdom and its opposite, jealousy or paranoia. The arrow-like pointedness of jealousy is transmuted into efficient action. Karma is associated with the element wind, with summer, with growing and completing.

— Irini Rockwell (brackets are mine)

Correspondingly, Dainichi’s characteristic hand gesture in Japan (although not always) is the Mudra of Six Elements (seen in the picture above as Chiken-in — also called the Knowledge Fist mudra.) In this mudra (hand gesture), the index finger of the left hand is clasped by the five fingers of the right. It symbolizes the unity of the five elements (Goshiki) — earth, water, fire, air/wind, and space/void — with spiritual consciousness.

Wisdom Fist mudra or simply Wisdom mudra speaks to the truth that only by adding the sixth element — mind, perception, or spiritual consciousness — do the five elements become animate. This equates to the Diamond World (noted in the picture above, it’s a metaphysical realm inhabited by the five wisdom buddhas, also detailed above). Put another way, there’s “unity” only when the sixth element is added. Without the sixth element, ordinary eyes see only differentiated or separate forms or appearances.

In summary, Dainichi Nyorai is known as the Supreme Buddha of the Cosmos in Esoteric Buddhist thought, being the source from whom all other deities and everything in the universe emanates, as light does from the sun. The hands form the mudra of perfect knowledge, which holds the power to restrain passions that hinder enlightenment. With the left index finger surrounded and protected by the fingers of the right, this gesture expresses the all-encompassing union of the spiritual and material realms of existence, and how the spiritual gives life to and sustains the material.

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Through the ages, meditation has always brought great benefits to the human condition. Remember that meditation has been around since well before the time of the Buddha, stretching way back into antiquity. Today, it probably holds the greatest benefits for us than it ever has.

Meditation practice predates Buddhism and all of the world religions. It has lasted through the centuries because it is direct, potent, and effective. — Sakyong Mipham

In meditation, what we’re doing is looking at our experience and at the world intelligently. — Sakyong Mipham

What is intelligence? On one level it’s what an IQ test reveals. Intelligence doesn’t end there. It moves into knowing, wisdom, intuition, and clear-heartedness. Without these forms of intelligence we’re nothing but math geeks or some kind of super efficient robots. Intelligence includes our humanity, which includes our spirituality.

For a short while the immortal ray of light that is our soul wears a perishable mortal garment…but for all eternity the soul is sustained by the Infinite Source of that light. The more we meditate, the more we feel that consciousness. And the less we meditate, the less able we are to transcend identification with the little self—so many pounds of flesh encasing a limited mind bound by sense perceptions to the troublesome environs of the world. We have to get to the Self beyond its physical and mental instrumentalities to realize we are not fragile mortal beings… — Daya Mata

The human mind, normally equated with the brain by neuroscience, is limited. As Sakyong Mipham puts it, “Meditation is based on the premise that the natural state of the mind is calm and clear.” This is the knowledge that our various wisdom traditions have imparted. There’s the daily mind, and a higher mind with greater discernment, accessing wisdom and knowing.

This level of mind is termed buddhi in Sanskrit, from the root bud which means ‘to perceive’ or ‘to become awake.’ This form of intelligence discerns the true and the real from the false and the unreal. As Matthieu Ricard says, “It is through this unconditioned aspect of consciousness that we can transform the content of mind through training.” That training is meditation. Otherwise we remain in manas, or ‘outer,’ ‘sense’ mind, which is on the surface and handles impressions.

Here are a couple of more perspectives to help understand this:

Our minds are field-like, they are not confined to our brain. — Rupert Sheldrake

The conscious mind fails to grasp that which lies beyond the spheres of time, space, and causation. — Swami Rama

Pure consciousness without content is something all those who meditate regularly and seriously have experienced… — Matthieu Ricard

That “content” is the stuff of personality, the not-so-fun stuff! We want to move from content to substance. The substance of eternals like compassion, peace, and wisdom.

We’re also dealing with a paradox. There’s the real nature of the mind, and the mind we’re stuck with every day. There’s our humanness, then there’s our divinity. Leonard Jacobson puts it well: “We are on a journey of becoming that which we already are. That is the impossible paradox of our lives.” It’s not really impossible. It feels impossible until we get informed and empowered, and put into place a set of practices, the primary of these being meditation.

Meditation transcends time, the senses, and the subject-object relationships. By transcending these three, meditation takes us beyond the intellectual or rational level of consciousness. It is like looking through a screen; on one side of consciousness is all existence—thoughts, emotions, negativity, and our life patterns; on the other side is a very fine energy level—a deep meditative state. — Tarthang Tulku

Meditation is a first-person experience. It’s not looking at the world in the third-person. It’s not trying to understand our inner workings in the third-person. The first-person realm of meditation is holistic. It doesn’t cut reality up into pieces. It doesn’t need to understand how the brain works, to improve the workings of one’s mind. In meditation what’s known as the discursive mind can be disengaged. This is the mind that rambles. It’s unable to settle, to find its own depth. It remains on the surface, distracted and can’t get to the essence of things.

Whether it’s understood in terms of mind or being, our minds and our beings have a place that is calm and abiding. Calm abiding lives within us. It’s always there. There’s no app for it. There’s nothing to install. There is, however, an uncovering.

We have to uncover this lost place through meditation, and the application of meditative insight and orientation in daily living. Calm abiding is lost underneath all our pettiness, delusions and neuroses. The rational mind and the five senses informing it in their regular mode, give us only a partial and incorrect view of reality. This view keeps us trapped and attached. We’re operating within a limited informational field in daily living. In meditation, we have access to an informational field that penetrates the heart of reality.

It’s only from this wider and deeper field that we can make choices and decisions about how to best live, and to actually live well. It’s from this same field that we can positively influence the current state of affairs on our planet, and ensure a multi-generational sustainability of living and social systems.

When we talk about the techniques of meditation, these are techniques of life. — Sakyong Mipham

Meditation is a vast subject. Here’s some related material to help you with it. You may also add your input or ask questions in comments below. Often, answers tailored to your questions about meditation are the best way to get help with meditation.

Related:

Meditation reveals…

Put on the brakes with meditation

The Life of Meditation

Why Do Humans Meditate?

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— Shih-Wu (1272-1352)

Shih-Wu or Stone House was a Chinese Chan (Zen) poet and hermit. He also served as abbot of Fuyuan Temple (near Hangzhou) for eight years.

Bill Porter, who’s lived as a Buddhist monk and translated various works, including Stone House’s poetry says this about him:

… he was one of the exceptional Zen students who became a poet. Stone House had a genius for poetry that is unique. I’ve always said that he was the greatest of all the Chinese Buddhist poets. And although he was a hermit, he was a Zen teacher, too, and he taught individuals through his poetry.

This is why I love wisdom, and the world’s wisdom traditions. Ages before we had terms like ‘brain plasticity,’ ‘neruoplasticity,’ ‘cortical remapping,’ or ‘brain malleability’ there was a Zen poet who already knew, had already experienced it, and was teaching it.

While Shih-Wu was an abbot for some time, he preferred his mountain hut, where he lead a frugal existence. The windows of his hut were made of oiled paper which ripped easily. He ate a wonderful variety of food he farmed himself on terraced banks on his mountain. He built his hut by a spring and as Bill Porter who has visited the site relates: “The spring was still flowing right behind the hut, the only spring on the mountain.” He had a few possessions, some tools and kitchenware.

Today, neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life, is seen and measured with sophisticated technology such as PET scans and MRIs. These technologies cost in the tens of thousands.

I don’t want to dwell on that so much. I want to dwell on the teaching.

I’ve always been an advocate of practice-based spirituality. Not sermon-based, not book learning, not intellectual grasp of truths. Not the surface inspiration of a quote, not the spiritual catchphrase. Not talk only. Spirituality has to be a part of us. Not a garment that comes on and off. Not an appendage. But a part of our being.

Spirituality must be embodied to be true and real, and indeed give its gifts. The best and most effective way for spirituality to be embodied is by practice.

This isn’t the practice of ‘practice makes perfect,’ it isn’t the ‘best practices’ of business, nor a drill, or social observance.

As Shih-Wu indicates, it isn’t even a practice to better yourself, improve skills, get over an emotional hump, lose weight or develop a character quality. It’s of an utterly boundless order. There isn’t even a box here.

He’s talking about being a ‘buddha.’ No, not that guy! Well, alright, he’s a good model. He’s talking about you. He’s talking about being awake, which is what ‘buddha’ means.

Buddha means “awake one.” Awake to what? That can be answered in many ways. Let’s stay with the poem. Awake to nonphysicality. If rocks are some of the most solid things we know, and they can be worn down, is there any reality and permanence to matter? Whoa, now Shih-Wu is dancing at the quantum level. Wait, when did he live?! Matter isn’t fixed to a single state.

I love the humor too. He knows we’re thick-headed. He also knows that’s an illusion. Fact is, the mind is bendable. It can be bent to wisdom and compassion. It can be bent to the heart where it becomes heartmind. The mind can be informed by sources other than the brain’s processing. And it’s also not fixed to a single state or pattern.

How? Practice. Shih-Wu also knew that the mind is nonlocal. It’s not not only limited to the brain, it’s not limited to geography, time or  habit. Bill Porter again:

By staying up on his mountain, he was able to affect the course of Zen in Korea. A prominent Korean monk came and studied with him at his hermitage and then took the robe and bowl of Stone House back to his country and established the Chogye Order, Korea’s main Zen tradition.

That’s quite something from a man who wore simple robes made of mulberry paper or lotus leaves in the summer, and a sturdy hemp most other times.

As he says:

Nothing is better than being free
but getting free is not luck.

So. Practice. I’ll see you there.

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How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god. — Alan Watts

The short answer is that what we experience through the five senses is limited and often misleading. In his lecture for being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, Yasunari Kawabata in part said:

The Zen disciple sits for long hours silent and motionless, with his eyes closed. Presently he enters a state of impassivity, free from all ideas and all thoughts. He departs from the self and enters the realm of nothingness. This is not the nothingness or the emptiness of the West. It is rather the reverse, a universe of the spirit in which everything communicates freely with everything, transcending bounds, limitless […] The disciple must, however, always be lord of his own thoughts, and must attain enlightenment through his own efforts. And the emphasis is less upon reason and argument than upon intuition, immediate feeling. Enlightenment comes not from teaching but through the eye awakened inwardly. Truth is in “the discarding of words,” it lies “outside words.” And so we have the extreme of “silence like thunder,” in the Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra. Tradition has it that Bodhidharma, a southern Indian prince who lived in about the sixth century and was the founder of Zen in China, sat for nine years in silence facing the wall of a cave, and finally attained enlightenment. The Zen practice of silent meditation in a seated posture derives from Bodhidharma.

The five senses are highly conditioned. They perceive through multiple filters: Our childhood, parents and family, culture and religion, peers, and our own wounds as well as biases, often based on wounds. The senses which inform the brain, and the brain directly are influenced very powerfully by the accepted and promoted version of “reality” we’re educated into. A “reality” the senses verify because they are constantly turned outward.

The only real way out of this conundrum is silence. Silence is at our core. If we stop we can reacquaint ourselves with it. The outer world is noisy and busy. Our senses are trapped in the noise and busyness. But those aren’t our real nature.

“Buddha-nature, the essence of awakened enlightenment itself, is present in everyone. Its essence is forever pure, unalloyed, and flawless. It is beyond increase or decrease. It is neither improved by remaining in nirvana nor degenerated by straying into samsara. Its fundamental essence is forever perfect, unobscured, quiescent, and unchanging. Its expressions are myriad.” — Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche

Meditation nowadays has become a marketplace item, like everything else. A relaxation or guided meditation CD, going to the beach, swinging in a hammock, listening to running water all dim the input of the senses, or rather access the senses’ inner counterparts. These are all good places to start. It has to be emphasized that the seduction of the senses turned outward is overpowering. To break this hold needs a more serious method and its engagement.

Meditation reveals the silence within. Meditation reveals that the five senses have subtle counterparts that access silence and everything it is. Meditation reveals that silence is an abode, constant and eternal. Meditation reveals truth. Meditation is respite from the racing mind. Meditation is unlearning.

Meditation, simply defined, is a way of being aware. It is the happy marriage of doing and being. It lifts the fog of our ordinary lives to reveal what is hidden; it loosens the knot of self-centeredness and opens the heart; it moves us beyond mere concepts to allow for a direct experience of reality. Meditation embodies the way of awakening: both the path and its fruition. From one point of view, it is the means to awakening; from another, it is awakening itself. — Lama Surya Das

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The following is taken from The Three Pillars of Zen, compiled and edited by Philip Kapleau, a seminal work on Zen Buddhism. While there are certain references specific to Zen, the appeal of the hara and its cultivation is obvious.

Hara literally denotes the stomach and abdomen and the functions of digestion, absorption, and elimination connected with them. But it has parallel psychic¹ and spiritual significance. According to Hindu and Buddhist yogic systems, there are a number of psychic centers in the body through which vital cosmic force or energy flows. Of the two such centers embraced within the hara, one is associated with the solar plexus, whose system of nerves governs the digestive processes and organs of elimination. Hara is thus a wellspring of vital psychic energies. Harada-roshi, one of the most celebrated Zen masters of his day, in urging his disciples to concentrate their mind’s eye (i.e., the attention, the summation point of the total being) in their hara, would declare: “You must realize”—i.e., make real—”that the center of the universe is the pit of your belly!

To facilitate his experience of this fundamental truth, the Zen novice is instructed to focus his mind constantly at the bottom of his hara (specifically, between the navel and the pelvis) and to radiate all mental and bodily activities from that region. With the body-mind’s equilibrium centered in the hara, gradually a seat of consciousness, a focus of vital energy, is established there which influences the entire organism.

That consciousness is by no means confined to the brain is shown by Lama Govinda, who writes as follows: “While, according to Western conceptions, the brain is the exclusive seat of consciousness, yogic experience shows that our brain-consciousness is only one among a number of possible forms of consciousness, and that these, according to their function and nature, can be localized or centered in various organs of the body. These ‘organs,’ which collect, transform, and distribute the forces flowing through them, are called cakras, or centers of force. From them radiate secondary streams of psychic force, comparable to the spokes of a wheel, the ribs of an umbrella, or the petals of a lotus. In other words, these cakras are the points in which psychic forces and bodily functions merge into each other or penetrate each other. They are the focal points in which cosmic and psychic energies crystallize into bodily qualities, and in which bodily qualities are dissolved or transmuted again into psychic forces.

Settling the body’s center of gravity below the navel, that is, establishing a center of consciousness in the hara, automatically relaxes tensions arising from the habitual hunching of the shoulders, straining of the neck, and squeezing in of the stomach. As this rigidity disappears, an enhanced vitality and new sense of freedom are experienced throughout the body and mind, which are felt more and more to be a unity.

Zazen (meditation) has clearly demonstrated that with the mind’s eye centered in the hara the proliferation of random ideas is diminished and the attainment of one-pointedness accelerated, since a plethora of blood from the head is drawn down to the abdomen, “cooling” the brain and soothing the autonomic nervous system. This in turn leads to a greater degree of mental and emotional stability. One who functions from his hara, therefore, is not easily disturbed. He is, moreover, able to act quickly and decisively in an emergency owing to the fact that his mind, anchored in his hara, does not waver.

With the mind in the hara, narrow and egocentric thinking is superseded by a broadness of outlook and a magnanimity of spirit. This is because thinking from the vital hara center, being free of mediation by the limited discursive intellect, is spontaneous and all embracing. Perception from the hara tends toward integration and unity rather than division and fragmentation. In short, it is thinking which sees things steadily and whole.

The figure of the Buddha seated on his lotus throne—serene, stable, all-knowing and all-encompassing, radiating boundless light and compassion—is the foremost example of hara expressed through perfect enlightenment. Rodin’s “Thinker,” on the other hand, a solitary figure “lost” in thought and contorted in body, remote and isolated from his Self, typifies the opposite state.

¹ “Psychic” here does not relate to extrasensory phenomena or powers but to energies and body-mind states which cannot be classified either as physiological or psychological.

Serene Buddha and The Thinker

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I’ve featured the haiku of Mitsu Suzuki here before. She wasn’t only a haiku poet, but wife to Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and with him played an important role in bringing Zen Buddhism to North America. First a couple of her haiku written in the summer months, then a spiritual teaching from Suzuki Roshi based on his visit to Yosemite National Park.

by RobW

Too small
to call it a Zen garden
moss blossoms
—
Gardenia’s
whiteness remains
the night is complete

——

I went to Yosemite National Park, and I saw some huge waterfalls. The highest one there is 1,340 feet high, and from it the water comes down like a curtain thrown from the top of the mountain. It does not seem to come down swiftly, as you might expect; it seems to come down very slowly because of the distance. And the water does not come down as one stream, but is separated into many tiny streams. From a distance it looks like a curtain. And I thought it must be a very difficult experience for each drop of water to come down from the top of such a high mountain. It takes time, you know, a long time, for the water finally to reach the bottom of the waterfall. And it seems to me that our human life may be like this. We have many difficult experiences in our life. But at the same time, I thought, the water was not originally separated, but was one whole river. Only when it is separated does it have some difficulty in falling. It is as if the water does not have any feeling of being separate when it is one whole river. Only when divided into many drops can it begin to have or express some separate feeling.

Before we were born we had no such feeling; we were one with the universe. This is called ‘mind-only,’ or ‘essence of mind,’ or ‘big mind.’ After we are separated by birth from this oneness, as the water falling from the waterfall is separated by the wind and rocks, then we have such feelings. And you have difficulty because of such feelings. You attach to the feeling you have without knowing just how this kind of feeling is created. When you do not realize that you are one with the river, or one with the universe, you have fear. Whether it is separated into drops or not, water is water. Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore and we have no actual difficulty in our life.

— Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

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Time seems to be malleable, even when it seems to exist. The ancient Greeks had a special way of looking at this; they had two words for time, kronos and kairos. Kronos or Father Time refers to chronological or sequential time. Kairos signifies a time in between, a moment of undetermined length in which something special happens. Kronos measures, it goes tick tock and is quantitative. Kairos is qualitative in nature, it flows.

Kairos brings meaning because it’s accessed in those moments we transcend the finiteness of time.

When we participate in time and therefore lose our sense of time passing we are in kairos; here we are totally absorbed in the present moment, which may actually stretch out over hours. –Jean Shinoda Bolen

It’s unlikely that Dali was in kronos time when painting his famous canvas.

The ‘now’ moment is creative and fathomless. It’s where we live out our passion and purpose. We get to express our true self and touch a depth that exists perennially. Now is like a great river. It flows with the totality of cosmic and human experience. When it’s tapped, that totality is available to the individual, who brings another stream to it, and so it goes on.

How can you deepen your presence in now? Journal using the following prompts. Remember to let your thoughts, feelings and intuitions surface on the page without being censored.

• What makes me regularly feel I’ve stepped outside of time?
• What does it feel like when I’m engaged in this?
• How do I lose my sense of flow?
• How can I bring flow even to routine activities?
• Who’s with me when I step out of time?
• Who pulls me back into time?
• How does now enhance my contribution to the world?
• What would I be living if I didn’t have responsibilities in time?
• How can I live my essence while in time?

I am letting go of my idea of time. I see that eternal life is not a question of “I will be forever,” but of “Now I am.” Eternity is time dying in me. –Jean Lanier

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I wear a watch only occasionally. I still have to get my son from school at a specific time. And the basketball game or nature show we want to watch starts at a specific time. Payments on credit cards are due very precisely too. Car loans are typically for 60 months and mortgages for 30 years. Time rules life on earth.

Yes, it does. Life on earth. We are more than earth, more than physical bodies obeying mechanical strictures. Dealing with time is a dichotomy, because clearly the body ages, and clearly everytime you meditate, you enter a timeless dimension.

Then there are meditation timers and the recommendation that you meditate for 20 minutes. Wait a second! These come from the recognition that we are here and have responsibilities, and our hereness and all it entails is profoundly enhanced by meditation or any other concept-busting practice.

And in these practices we are timeless. We become one with our true nature which is timeless.

When you know that you are eternal you can play your true role in time. When you know you are divine you can become completely human. –Mother Meera

How do we walk this; this being timeless and having to live in what seems like time? Recently it was Valentine’s Day, a day that if you’re a man in a relationship, you’d better remember! No matter what the commercial calendar says, I like to turn my thoughts to underlying truths. So in February I was thinking of love quite a bit, not that it’s relegated only to that month.

As a meditator, healer and citizen with a spiritual worldview, I dwell on, practice and embody love as much as I’m able. Love is a perfect buster of concepts for it can’t be contained and it doesn’t conform. Borrowing from and simplifying quantum physics, it became apparent to me that love is both wave and particle.

Love simply exists. It seems to have no origination. It needs no place and time. It’s pure potential and possibility. It’s in wave form.

When you kiss your child goodnight, love becomes a particle.

I believe what Mother Meera is hinting is that while time doesn’t exist as ultimate truth, it structures our temporary sojourn here, and we need that structure because we’re in form. Further, as we navigate time and form we need a purpose. This purpose isn’t merely to fill time and form, but to better and perhaps transform it. Usually this is impossible if your purpose is driven from inside time/space perceptions. From inside the ‘game,’ your purpose may only serve your ego, or keep you in servitude to a paycheck, or limit your potential because others on the inside have negated you.

We must take love from a wave possibility and make it a particle of value in the world. Just like love, we are a continuum that has frozen into a biological form for a certain duration, on a physical planet. And equally like love, we were before and will be after this.

Love is there naturally, but it’s deepening is moment to moment cultivation. If you’re anxious, depressed, fearful or ill, step outside of time and observe what happens. Observe how much power becomes available to you, how resourceful you become. Watch the peace descend and the joy rise.

Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time? That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere, and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future. –Herman Hesse

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There are worthy commemorations like Mother’s Day, and historic holidays have their place, but again with language like “Black Friday” it seems these have become focused on the exterior of life.

There’s quite some disagreement that the Gregorian calendar is even valid and authentic to natural and cosmic cycles, and plenty of other calendars available, some still in use. But, essentially the whole world has adopted a premise of 24 hours in one day, 7 days in one week, 52 weeks in one year.

It’s stifling! And not true. Time is a human construct. It actually works pretty well for living in a physical body, driving on asphalt and going to work in steel structures. It organizes life. And it runs out. That’s why it’s called a “deadline.”

The truth about time is that is doesn’t exist. Well, it does exist in the gears of your watch and for your kid’s soccer practice and a host of other events that make a life. So we’re dealing with shades of reality conjoined. We have to operate in time, but we come from outside of time.

Actually it’s not even “outside of time,” but timelessness. We originate in and return to timelessness and in between a large part of us hangs out there. Where? Um…”there.” If time doesn’t exist, there must not be space either, you may be thinking. Bingo! There isn’t.

Well, there’s the space you’re sitting in and the cosmos out “there,” and walls will stop you painfully. So again, we’re dealing with gradations of reality.

Let’s focus on the interior of life. It’s a common misconception to think of eternity as an endless span of time, whereas in fact it is timelessness; the nonexistence of time.

…time and space are in you; you are not in time and space. –Swami Vivekananda

This is very liberating! For instance, when we look at the potential of healing through this lens we understand that symptoms are data in time. Healing takes place at a meta level. Healing isn’t a cure as a cure is in time/space, whereas healing is abiding.

Spiritual healing is to erase the ignorance of what we are as metaphysical entities. When we take form, some limitations are imposed because that’s the nature of physicality, but we arrive and are unlimited.

Once this is remembered, life is lived with an expanded perspective, an and/also not an either/or. Breath is freer, creativity flows and the mind is sprung from its trap.

to be continued…

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I spontaneously started channeling fifteen years ago when I first began meditating. It was Kuan Yin who visited, to my great honor. I had a friend living in China at the time who mailed me a white porcelain statue of Kuan Yin after hearing my loving praise of her. This statue is 18 inches tall and fairly substantial. It arrived unannounced one day in my mailbox, together with a giant batik of Kuan Yin. These items still decorate my home.

My friend didn’t tell me she was sending it. The statue was unscathed in its journey from China, and it wasn’t even wrapped that well. That’s what Goddesses do. They show up in your mailbox in all their splendor.

I’m a conscious channel, meaning I hear, know and experience all that is being transmitted at the time, and remember it once it’s finished. I’ve channeled several well known beings, and some that were personally significant to me. For some years now, I haven’t formally channeled.

Before I stopped, it was communicated to me that I’m an integral part of the message, shaping, interpreting, vocalizing and embodying the transmission. And later messages were all from Spirit, not a particular being, as is the one I share here.

I haven’t taken this blog into this arena until now. Since March of this year, I’ve been sharing monthly Reiju / Community Healing / Life Alignment. There are two hundred names on the sign up sheet. Click here to find out more.

The following came through during September’s Reiju which was conducted on 9/9/009. You can search online about the significance of this date. I hope it moves, informs and helps you.

The Error of Ways

There’s greatness in you. A greatness that comes from being here in this time of shifting. The shift is felt in lots of ways, and is often disguised under turbulence. Don’t be fooled by this. This is only the surface effect. What lies underneath is harmony.

A shift in the error of ways is bound to throw up a dust storm, a debris cloud. This error of ways is longstanding, entrenched and deep in the subconscious of humanity.

But deeper still in human memory and DNA lies truth. The truth of egalitarian ways, ways that honor life and others and fellow beings. The tree is your fellow being, the person to your left or right is of the same origin.

The error of ways is a deluded departure from the heart to the brain, from spirit into matter, from unity to strangers. It is the way of ego, of smallness.

This now is a time of Heart. Those with the biggest and strongest Hearts will usher in the shift. Those same don’t fear the turbulence, recognize it as an effect only. This is the greatness you have inside. You don’t buy the temporary. Your greatness comes from an ancient memory of harmony.

You were born for this. It doesn’t matter what your life looks like, your bank account, your health, your relationships. What matters is you’re here and have chosen a peaceful way, a way that recognizes it’s bigger than you. You are not your symptoms, but the light that shines in spite of them.

You are great. This now is the end of greed, of duplicity. This now is the coming forth of supernatural generosity and gifting. The Earth is bestowed with a garland of generosity. You are here to decorate every living thing with it. To give life new fragrance. To dress life with the colors of sublime love, the chromatic splendor of true light.

The shift wouldn’t be a shift if it was business as usual. It’s precisely because there’s chaos and uncertainty that you know there’s change. When a wrecking ball takes down an old building, it’s not pretty. The error of ways has gone so far that only a great crashing, a tumbling of huge magnitude will make an impression, and way for the enlightened.

The enlightened prefers to whisper, gently suggest and let free will and choice pick it up from there. This is the norm and it still operates. When you meditate or heal, the enlightened is in subdued mode, waiting for the guidance to take hold in you.

Many of you have also known that even on an individual basis, the enlightened will pick up a jackhammer to let you know something’s got to give. There’s a major mess in your life, then with your action and cooperation, order returns.

So much so when the error of ways is global and doesn’t only threaten society but the very planet on which societies exist: The inescapable necessity of the shift has to be communicated in stark terms for it to take hold, for society to stop the madness.

Stop the madness of plundering natural resources, abdicating human and animal rights, amassing obscene fortunes, pushing the planet to the brink, allowing hunger and poverty, stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, turning your health over to pharmaceuticals, war mongering, genocide, personal and cultural aggrandizement. Stop.

You are great because to a large degree you have stopped. You. There are much bigger forces at play and at times it seems your stopping the error of ways is having little to no impact. Stop this thought too.

You are forerunners. Wayshowers. The ballast. If it weren’t for you, it may already have been too late for this planet. Your power may be unnoticed in the halls of earthly power, but it’s recorded in eternity. And this is eternity delivering a wallop to the power holders and brokers.

If you weren’t a transition-maker, you wouldn’t be here, be in the exact circumstances you’re in. Don’t undervalue your place, don’t get caught up in the symptoms of your life. You’re doing your own work too, and some of it is messy. But greater than any of it is the work of ages being done by you and through you.

The only school for this work is lifetimes. The only degree is evolutionary motive. This is not your first commencement!

–Spirit through Pamir Kiciman 9/9/2009

If Reiki were a tree, its trunk would be the meditative teachings of Reiki; hands-on Reiki would be one limb; and the precepts Usui left behind would be Reiki’s living tissue. This was explained in great detail in a previous post: Modern Reiki.

Today we’ll look at Usui’s Reiki precepts again. Since they are the living tissue of the teachings, it’s important to dwell on these simple words again and again. Not only dwell but bring them into full focus in our lives. The translation used here is:

For today only: Do not anger—Do not worry

Be humble

Be honest in your work

Be compassionate to yourself and others

Let me first quote from the previous post:

Without anger, conflicts would be resolved and new ones circumvented. Without worry, fear would end and we wouldn’t exacerbate suffering. Humility is respect and the willingness to include all viewpoints. Honesty; would there be a worldwide financial crisis if there was honesty?

And compassion. Compassion is both a prerequisite and condition of enlightenment. In compassion there’s no separation, no other, no stranger. Compassion is the true democracy! Enlightenment is a state of Oneness. If there’s compassion, there’s understanding and appreciation. Compassion unifies and in that unity we find enlightenment.

Enlightenment isn’t only a spiritual pursuit. There can be enlightenment in government, technology, business, science and social systems.

In delving deeper into these simple words, we have to consider that translation from Japanese, a language based on ideograms,  leads to rich interpretations; aphorisms are pithy and packed with meaning; and such concepts are layered in meaning.

Copyright Usui-Do Eidan

For today only: We mostly understand a day to be 24 hours in the Gregorian calendar which defines our lives. This is fine for what it is.

However, here we’re considering ‘today’ as also ‘this moment,’ ‘this duration,’ ‘this task,’ ‘this activity,’ or even ‘this interaction.’

If you’re serious about your Reiki practice as a spiritual one, a path, not only a healing practice or worse a modality, then you understand that it’s lifelong.

A life and a path is made up of moments. Before you’re intimidated by what is asked of you, stop, breathe and take a moment to consider both how fleeting and how endless it is.

You don’t have to master For today only, today.

Do not anger: Anger is an afflictive emotion and we all have it. It’s hurtful to those it’s directed and to person who is angry. It creates suffering for everyone. Sometimes righteous anger is justified, but in the end anger is never skillful or successful.

Anger heats up the mind and it makes mistakes, and anger shuts tight the heart. With and overheated mind and closed heart you’re a danger to yourself and others. Anger can also escalate to rage.

Whereas if a higher feeling state like love is cultivated, when it escalates it leads to bliss!

I feel Usui isn’t only saying don’t let anger prevail, but also heal your anger. This is a major undertaking. Anger is pernicious and insidious. It hides under layers.

Start today with some smaller angers and move onto bigger ones.

Do not worry: Let’s start with the worst case scenario…when worry escalates it becomes fear and/or anxiety. Worry as it is hangs around, niggling away and ruining your outlook as well as inner environment. Worry is powerful in its constancy. It’s a mindset that traps and holds hostage.

It holds hostage your physical, mental and spiritual energy without any purpose. For instance when faced with a dangerous wild animal, fear has a purpose. Escalated fear and ordinary constant worry which are baseless cause more harm than do good.

Worry is a creation of the mind and indicates that your mind is leading you, instead of you leading your mind. The mind is powerful but worry is an unskillful use of its power.

Be humble: Often recommended, seldom understood. Every other avenue that influences daily life tells us to be loud, boastful, self-aggrandizing and to stand out. We cringe at humility. It seems weak and wimpy.

It’s actually a fearless act to be humble because all self-promotion is really a way to hold fear at bay. And it goes further to change your orientation to non-ego. In fact humility is another way to stay in the present, for today only…If you’re not ego driven then the trappings of ego aren’t there either which removes fear and limitations.

Be honest in your work: On one level this is integrity, which starts inside with yourself and extends to all your expressions in your life and the many ways you touch people.

‘Honesty’ in this sense also means consistency, commitment and sincerity, and these apply to your spiritual ‘work.’ Transformation is real. It’s available and occurs, but not without the practitioner partaking daily in the teachings and practices.

And if the ground of your being is transformed from ‘honest’ practice, then the work you have outwardly in the world will be honest as well.

Be compassionate to yourself and others: This is the big one isn’t it?! It also brings the others full circle.

Compassion is a win-win, skillful means always. It’s inherent whenever Reiki is practiced. In fact, Reiki practice teaches about compassion in a visceral way; it’s felt and its qualities are understood.

Compassion leads to understanding which leads to unity. In unity we find a greater degree of enlightenment because we feel “at one.” Feeling one with yourself, others, the environment, the cosmos and the Divine is one quality of enlightenment.

Fortunately with compassion you don’t have to be enlightened to feel and benefit from it, and help others through it.

Compassion blesses everyone equally. It can remain as such or for the dedicated practitioner, compassion can lead to unity states of consciousness, which in turn deepen compassion.

How do you contemplate, engage and learn from the Reiki precepts Usui Sensei placed at the core of his teachings?

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Many systems of spiritual meditative practice give a model of the various stages of meditation and self-realization. It’s useful to look at other systems sometimes to bring meaning to Reiki.

I’d like to use a model given in Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John Powers as a way to draw some parallels. All aspects of Reiki are relevant here, but RDH illustrates the parallels best.

We’ll look at RDH from the viewpoint of a Reiki practitioner. For the practitioner, regular practice of RDH:

• opens the spiritual heart by first healing the emotional heart
• infuses with a great dose of spiritual energy
• boosts intuition and subtle perceptions
• helps you experience universal compassion seen in enlightened ones
• draws you closer together to people and communities
• brings the joy of spiritual fulfillment

Compassion is a stable emotion. The emotional energy of compassion is selfless and focused. It has equanimity, and motivates the intent of the practitioner to utilize one’s resources to help others. Ordinary emotional energy can be self-indulgent, scattered, attached, perturbed and unstable. It’s difficult to help oneself with such an emotional makeup, let alone others.

Compassion can be seen as the sincere heart-desire to soothe the suffering of others. Present in this wish is to alleviate not only their present unease, but the root causes of their discomfort. First is the recognition that all beings have the capacity for compassion. Intention and motivation are also crucial. The best outcome is possible by keeping your intentions alive and making them pure, noble and vast. It may seem impossible to help countless others, but once you start, and with the unique ability of RDH, your intention becomes true.

RDH is designed for the benefit of others, but simultaneously you, the conduit, receive untold gifts from the regularity of its practice.

Compassion cultivated by the transformation of ordinary emotional energy is known as ‘skillful means,’ for it enables the practitioner to skillfully use their mind, wisdom, love and energy for the benefit of others as well as their own spiritual development.

Bodhisattva of Compassion

The primary model of altruistic intention is the Bodhisattva.

Speaking of the Bodhisattva, Powers says,

The Sanskrit term literally means ‘enlightenment (bodhi) being (sattva),’ and it indicates…someone…progressing toward the state of enlightenment of a buddha….Bodhisattvas…are motivated by universal compassion, and they seek the ultimate goal of buddhahood in order to be of service to others….At the beginning of the bodhisattva path, they realize that their present capacities are limited and that they are unable to even prevent their own sufferings.

How true of Reiki. We come to Shoden (Reiki I), take responsibility for our own welfare, begin healing with the power of love (loving-kindness as a quality of compassion), develop spiritually, and move to Okuden (Reiki II) as a way to heal deeper, establish an abiding spirituality and increase our capacities. This includes RDH.

Powers continues that “a bodhisattva begins a training program intended to culminate in the enlightenment of a buddha.”

Among the good qualities generated by this training he lists six

perfections:

1) generosity
2) ethics
3) patience
4) effort
5) concentration, and
6) wisdom

These constitute the core of the enlightened personality of the buddha.

It’s uncanny how easy it is to put a Reiki spin on these:

1) Generosity is inherent in Reiki since the vital energy you access through its practice is so abundantly available, enriching you and those with whom you share it.

Along with this energy comes wisdom, insight, knowledge, peace, healing, compassion and light. These attributes are unlimitedly available. This prime generosity is expanded at the local, global and universal levels many times with RDH, and it creates a domino effect of generosity.

2) Ethics, i.e., the Reiki Precepts. Every spiritual system has these, for as you become empowered a strong foundation is crucial. Usui Sensei set forth these five points:

For today only:

Do not anger
Do not worry
Be humble
Be honest in your work
Be compassionate to yourself and others

“For today only” indicates that you do the best you can, for the precepts are a tall order, despite their simplicity. However, it also indicates that you practice everyday to fulfill this tall order.

Beyond ethics, Usui’s precepts are actual teachings, the underpinning of the system of Reiki. It’s because the ethical challenge is demanding that other techniques are included (such as RDH) to help the practitioner actually live the precepts.

The ethics of RDH itself come into play too. RDH is a process of Oneness with the receiver or target. It’s an extension of a personal spiritual practice and the integrity gained there forms the foundation of providing healing energy in this way. The intention is the highest good of the person. Results are surrendered, together with any worries about effectiveness.

3) Patience is the quality which helps you process each level of training before moving on; having equanimity in the face of unchanging symptoms; and doubting not the power of Reiki. We live in a very results-oriented society, yet spiritual growth and healing are much more open-ended and organic.

This means that patience really becomes the wisdom to follow the energy and drop the need to achieve certain results. While intentions support spiritual and healing work, having a black and white agenda of results is detrimental.

You never know where growth or healing is going to show up. Being patient and wise enough to allow the energy to bring the best-fitting gift is a peaceful approach, rather than forcing a result or limiting what is available with a narrow and restless agenda.

4) Effort means to use Reiki as a practice and not just another tool. Spiritual teachings are really only effective when practiced and applied. It’s the depth of daily practice which ensures that you have the ability to respond in the spur of the moment with the greatest effectiveness.

Effort means to continually refine one’s understanding and application of Reiki. Building on what you have been taught by your teacher is the heart of your practice.

5) Concentration in Reiki is the quality of meditating on the energy as you apply it. This ensures non-interference of ego or distractions. It also enhances the experience of Reiki both for receiver and giver. (Yes, Reiki flows all by itself, but we hold an intention and meditation is concentrated mind.) In RDH concentration is even more important since you’re dealing with the formless (etheric).

6) Wisdom is the quality which completes love and without which we are lopsided. Universal Mind is close during RDH and gives your mind the opportunity to be informed by wisdom that you can then carry into our lives and the world.

These apply to the whole of Reiki, but the focus here has been Reiki Distant Healing.

When one is illumined, he sees himself as the one Spirit throbbing beneath all minds and bodies. Such a person, after liberating his own personality, tries spiritually to liberate other personalities—knowing that they belong to his own Self. –Paramahansa Yogananda

Fortunately, this desire to help others evolve usually springs up fairly early on one’s path. It’s also fortunate that enlightenment doesn’t have to be fully ripened for the pathwalker to receive tremendous benefits.

Enlightenment teachings work all along the path as long as the practitioner is consistent and internalizes the transformation and wisdom that’s made available. You don’t have to be on the final tier of illumination to reap deep rewards. At each stage and everyday, enlightenment practices keep suffering away, and make life successful and beautiful in every area, not only your spirituality.

Enlightenment is the transformation of personal consciousness to universal consciousness. According to the wisdom traditions of the world, this transformation is not an anomaly or departure from human nature, but rather the actualization of human potential. –Deepak Chopra

Human potential is part of your entire life. You apply your human potential at work, in business, at home, with your family, with your friends, in sports and recreation, in your own mind and your body. Doesn’t everyone want to be better at life?

Mainstream methods of success and happiness focus only on material concerns, and not only in the sense of money or possessions. Material also in the sense of brain or thought improvement, emotional intelligence (which is a good thing), physical prowess, career goals and personal development.

Intelligence is valuable. What’s worth considering is what “smart” is and what kind of “smart” are we talking about? People read smart authors, follow smart people in social media; there’s smart money and investing, smart career moves, smart real estate and smart car buying.

But are we actually any smarter? We haven’t found a peace solution for the Middle East, a true alternative to oil, the economy is in the tank, global warming is still denied, pharmaceuticals are the answer to all our personal and health issues and people go hungry every single day.

As we move more fully into the universal values of the cosmos, we progressively express the qualities of love, compassion, intuition, insight, imagination, and creativity. We find that our thinking and behavior begins to function in harmony with the forces of the universe, and we notice more conscious choice-making, observations of synchronicity around us, the spontaneous fulfillment of our desires, and the manifesting power of our intentions. –Deepak Chopra

News flash! Overarching methodologies are all-encompassing, i.e., enlightenment filters down to all aspects of your life and the world. Enlightenment addresses your innermost self which like a giant Russian nesting doll encompasses all of you. When a transformative practice is used to evolve your innermost self your body, mind and outer life are also bettered. You can address all those parts one by one, or work on the central being in which those parts are unified.

The most important thing about spirituality is that it gives you awareness or puts you in touch with who you are. Who you are is not what you have been doing on this earth-plane, who you are related to, and so on. Who you really are is the Being whose task it is to understand the infinite levels of awareness, of consciousness. –Dattatreya Siva Baba

This is so because spirituality is both the only way out of the conundrum of human existence, and also the way of making your everyday shine! The two are one, there isn’t any separation between your spiritual and financial, familial and personal excellence. How could there be? Your outer life is an extension and only a brief moment in the life of your unified, real Self.

Divesting instead of investing in your spirituality (which uncovers enlightenment) keeps you in darkness or ignorance. There are many more choices to counter what’s unsatisfactory in your life than the list of professionals and services you may find in the phone book. Spirituality is a comprehensive response to the challenges of life, offering practices, philosophy and art. You must realize that solutions are right there in whatever is unsatisfactory. Awakening is always available but you must initiate it.

The practices of awakening make it possible to melt your hardened habitual nature and patterns. You use a method, a technology or system for everything else in your life. The guarantee of spirituality is that everyone can awaken! The practices have been designed by others who have traversed the inner planes. These practices are time-honored and have worked for so many in different cultures and times. In this day and age there are new and effective practices that enrich the field of human awakening.

Will you at least dip your toes?

Related:

Energetic Integrity

How Oneness leads to Energetic Integrity