Stacey Lawson

Dissolution Of Self: All You Need Is Love

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:39:00 +0000

I've been writing these last weeks about the dissolution of the small, individual identity into the vast, eternal presence of the Divine. As St. John of the Cross wrote in the final stanza of his Dark Night of the Soul, "I remained, lost in oblivion; My face I reclined on the Beloved. All ceased and I abandoned myself, Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies." In our realization of oneness, we must inevitably become emptied of the self - dissolved into nothing, to possess everything.

In recent posts, I have shared personal experiences of this most blessed and intense process of dissolution. From the embers of the ego's burning arises a startling and profound phoenix from the ashes. Love. To simply be Present with whatever is arising, truly and single-pointedly Present, without strategy to distract, deceive oneself, resist or evade...that is Love. To stay Present to the most seemingly shameful or heinous qualities within ourselves or others, without judgment or resistance, is Love.

The love I speak of is not one of common definition. It is not an emotive love, dripping with sentimentality or affection. Nor is it a romantic love, infused with infatuation or adoration of another. It is not familial love, like one would experience through the bond of kinship.

This love is the naked opening into Grace. Unconditioned by any factor. It is vast and eternal, available without reserve in every moment. The Divine Mother holds everything within her bosom - joy and ecstasy abide side by side with pain, anger, jealously and every form of human suffering. There is not a single aspect excluded. There is nothing out of order. She is All That. We are All That.

As I open into Divine Presence, I recognize instantly and with certainty: for every part of "me" that feels lost and lonely and confused, 6 billion people feel the same way. Everything you feel touches my heart, and the tenderness my heart yearns for will also soothe your sorrow. We are not separate. We are one heart in this place of Presence.

For you, then, I love. I choose to stay present to whatever arises. And through Presence I care for all of us. Through meeting my shadow, I meet the shadow of all of humanity. And I stand here. With open arms. Greeting it ALL. I do this for every soul who cries. For every soul who is cold and hungry and alone. For every soul who carries heart sorrow beyond their capacity to hold it. And for every soul who longs to be home but does not feel at home in this world. My heart is stretched so wide that all of creation rests upon my breast and it is no longer heavy. It is as light as a feather.
This Presence is so unfathomably vast that all suffering evaporates like the morning mist, leaving only the radiant light of the Beloved. My Beloved. Our Beloved. OursSelf. In our Divine Love Making every drop of sweat is sacred. Every sigh, every heave. Every scratch of the fingernail and nick of the heart. Every inch of your sacred body is my body and as I love you I become You.

Confessions Of A Mystic

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:14:00 +0000

Just as one cannot adequately describe in words the juicy sweetness of a ripe pear or the shocking depth of the color indigo, so too it seems impossible to relay in words the ecstasy of divine union.

While I have been blessed with intermittent perception of divine union, these evolving enlightenment experiences have been more than enough to fuel a devoted inner journey. For years, I have engaged in intense sadhana, meditating, studying and traveling with an enlightened master who often reminds us his role is not to put out fires, but to start them. I have offered every part of myself without reserve (or so I believed) into the fire for burning.

Throughout this journey, I have yearned and prayed that my individual identity would be dissolved so completely that I might merge into permanent oneness with the Beloved. I have awaited the day when the Divine would take from me that which is not mine - this silly charade of an ego that keeps this great lover from her Beloved.

I must now confess. I never thought much about how this dissolution would look or feel, nor did it really matter. I suppose I assumed the intense but generally "manageable" dismantling I'd experienced over many years would simply come to a happy completion. How nice. My Beloved would simply say, "Come, my dear, you've been away for far too long", and sacred lovers would join in ecstatic embrace. It would be glorious and sweet...rapturous but gentle.

I did not realize the hard, irregular edges of my heart would first need to be shattered. That the chards would pierce me in ways I thought not possible to be penetrated. That the shadow realm would unleash its ghosts, requiring all aspects of the hidden self to be reckoned with and reclaimed. I did not know that the ego, like a vicious and wounded animal, would take hostage the internal witness, co-opting perception into the unbearable pain of its own dying. I did not know this. Thank you, mercy, I did not know this, but nor would it have mattered.

In this painful but potent process, everything has been stripped away - every belief, everything I thought I knew, every comforting sense of who "I" am and my place in the world. All gone. All concepts like quicksand under my feet. With no place to stand, I have prayed, "Devastate me if you must. Erase this ignorance until there is no "me" left, but only You. My heart feels broken beyond any hope of repair...so please don't stop until the job is done."

Into this naked and undefended heart-space marched a parade of disgusting and shameful qualities out the shadow. One by one these shadow aspects were received, first with resistance, anger, and argument. Then with humiliation, resignation. And finally, as all resistance crumbled, with acceptance and forgiveness. I am That. As the parade marched on it became almost freakishly humorous. The full range of misfits and derelicts in my psyche, and my insane resistance to them, would have been hilariously absurd had it not been so depressing to my ego. Ok, I get it, I'm all That.

In my last post, I shared much of this process in a very raw and tender way, but what followed in these last weeks was something new emerged. After reclaiming these shadow qualities came a phase of deep somatic reckoning. Visceral emotional states defying description moved in waves through my being. With no external provocation arose feelings of despair, depression, death. My teacher, Dattatreya Siva Baba, would continually ask, "Why are you so attached to your mind? You keep acting as if these experiences are you."

Even from within this terrible nightmare, I knew my identification with the experience was a fallacy. Of course, I'd been trained to cultivate meditative states of witnessing attention for over a decade. But I'd never been asked to die while doing it. How to relax? How to resurrect the witness while at the same time being crucified? The ego was experiencing such a radical and vicious dissolution that it was lashing out violently for its survival. "I" was consumed by the experience, identifying with the agony as everything I once called "me" evaporated into mist.

I prayed for grace. Grace responded. I was asked simply to see and feel 'What Is'. Be fully attentive to the moment. I was being taught deeper Presence by virtue of these most excruciating experiences. The ravaging was so complete that no possibility remained but abject humility. We all want to be special, but we are neither more nor less special than anyone else. We are only witness to 'What Is' in every moment.

Resisting the urge to distract myself or push away the experience, I acquiesced. First subtly and then more fully, I chose to stay present, to meet even the darkest moment with undefended awareness. I will see and feel 'What Is' in all its nakedness. No matter how heinous or heartbreaking, I will bear witness.

With this choice came a deep and undeniable...love. It was a startling and expansive revelation: Presence is love. Being fully available to 'What Is', however terrifying or sublime, is love.

With deep humility, I realized how limited my love has been. Confined and conscripted to the narrow set of ways I've felt comfortable offering it. Often subconsciously resisting or contorting 'What Is', rather than meeting it face to face, I have not fully loved. While many would say I have loved generously and well, the love of Presence was something altogether different - vast, unconditioned, infinitely capable and merciful. And existing right now.

By meeting this death with Presence, agreeing not to run or hide or change anything, choosing to stay right there as long as required - a day, a year, a decade, a lifetime - Grace was present. My Beloved was there. Waiting.

There was, after all, only One of us.

What It Means To Delete Everything And Start Over

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:46:00 +0000

Today's post is a personal journey. I haven't written in several weeks as I've been in a terrible state - lost, confused, despairing. Raw and vulnerable. Shattered. My only small comfort has been knowing this is a well-worn path. Many mystics have written about the Dark Night of the Soul, the narrow passage tread by those seeking freedom and union with the Divine.

I debated whether to write this post, questioning what value I could really offer from a place of such agony and confusion? Yet, some internal voice prodded me forward. Share the process, share the experience...

These last months have taken me into a depth of spiritual despair previously unimaginable. The experience has been a ruthless stripping away of my false, idealized sense of self. Having studied with a spiritual master for many years, this process is not new, of course...but it has never been this ruthless. This has taken me to ground zero - a massive deconstruction of the remaining image of who "I" am. It has mercilessly dissolved my most cherished beliefs, and shattered every assumption about what I thought was true.

The truth is, no matter how I attempt to project some virtuous image, the conflict of this world is a direct reflection of the qualities within me. One by one, in excruciating succession, these qualities have been paraded out of their safe hiding places -- during interactions with others, in discussions with my teacher, in meditations and dreams -- as if the doors to my inner shadow world have been blown open and all the demons released. I am judgmental and self-righteous. I am petty, jealous and angry. I am all these ugly qualities and many more. One by one, I have resisted, struggled, defended and finally confessed "Yes, I am That," reluctantly finding a place at the table for each of these haggard visitors. "Here you are, my dear, you are no longer excluded but invited as my beloved guest - please come home."

And while perhaps it sounds like a liberating process to face ones demons and invite them back into the heart, each step has been death. My idealized identity, the safe picture of "self" which has shielded me from these shameful aspects, is crumbling into nothingness. There is nothing to hold onto. There is no ground to stand upon. I am DYING. And it is terrifying.

Despite the pain and despair, I have tried to stay alert, watchful. I want to find out what this dying is. I have discovered an enormous burden of sorrow and suffering within me. I want to know if I can be free from this false self and from this sorrow.

As I have hurtled toward oblivion, it has felt like my skin is being pealed off, followed by muscle and tendon and bone until there is nothing left. Everything must die this inevitable death. What is Truth? How can one know the answer unless everything is stripped away? Every veil, every gauze of perception, every conditioned belief.

"Delete everything and start over," suggested a good friend. All my well worn beliefs? Piles of crap. Delete. Everything I thought I knew? Bullshit. Delete. My personality? A bunch of absurd story lines. I have slowly been deleting everything and starting over.

Well, nearly everything...everything except two of my most sacred attachments, my deepest heart longings -- seeking enlightenment (striving for some great liberation), and merging with God (transcending this mortal frame and experiencing union with the Divine). Since childhood these spiritual notions have been the bedrock of my belief. But now I see that, in my seeking, I can never arrive. In the Becoming, I can never Be. These beliefs must go too. My body, mind and soul are wracked with fear and grief. What will remain after my most cherished yearnings are cast away? My chest feels crushed with the pressure of a thousand boulders resting upon it. But in the completeness of my despair, I give up these too. I lay these most sacred treasures down and walk away from them.

Now I sit without God, without enlightenment. I feel dead inside. It is dark here. I wish I could say there is no pain left, but that would be a deception, a denial of What Is. What Is? A soft breeze. The sound of water running, and a helicopter thumping overhead. Warm mid-day sun on my skin. Lots of empty space inside -- a ravaged field with fertile ground, but nothing growing and no delusions about whether it should or ever will.

I am completely and utterly alone. Stripped naked. Raw. Seeing Reality, perhaps for the first time.

Oddly enough, I am reminded of the movie V for Vendetta, in which V tortures Edie mercilessly until she realizes that everything can be stripped away from her except her capacity to love. "Every inch of me will perish - every inch except one...it is small and it is fragile, but it is the only thing in the world worth having." In this realization, she becomes fearless and free.

Grace Light Meditation: Opening Up The Heartland

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:58:00 +0000

My post this week is a short chronicle from the road, deep from the heart of the Grace Light tour. Several weeks ago, I posted an article titled Amazing Grace, which explored the role of grace and divine intervention in awakening humanity to new levels of enlightened existence. Many of you responded, either in the blog comments or to me personally, and even more of you have approached me at subsequent Grace Light events.

Our planet, and all of humanity, is currently undergoing a major evolutionary transformation. This is impacting our environment, our social structures, and our individual and collective consciousness. In order to make a positive evolutionary leap, we must cultivate expanded capacities for compassion, peace and service, all of which emerge with the opening of the heart.

Great masters and mystics have long taught the necessity of awakening the heart. One such master, Dattatreya Siva Baba, an enlightened saint from the Tamil Siddha tradition of southern India has recently revealed a sacred process handed down within his lineage for awakening various centers in the subtle body, including the heart center. This process is essential, he says, to infuse the body with greater light and to activate the divine intelligence latent within us.

"Ours is a unique time in human history. A doorway is opening for each and every person to absorb profound divine energies and to be conduits for the greater awakening of the heart of humanity. This is an opportunity to be part of a global shift in human consciousness."

To help steward this transformation, he has created a series of public blessings called Igniting the Heart of Humanity which include a "Grace Light" meditation for opening the heart center. The first gathering, held just one month ago in the historic Grace Cathedral of San Francisco, involved over 700 people giving and receiving grace light with one another. Simultaneously that evening, events were held in ten cities around the world (New York, Toronto, Montreal, London, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Singapore, Chennai, etc.), with over 100,000 people participating in the Grace Light meditation globally.

Almost immediately YouTube caught wind of the program and featured the Grace Light meditation video on their homepage. Over 250,000 people watched the Grace Light meditation within 8 hours, followed by several million hits on www.thegracelight.com in just a few weeks. The message seemed to resonate.

"Our only real hope is to look deeper for the essential divinity within us," says Dattatreya Siva Baba. "Awakening compassion, love and divine intelligence on a collective scale is the only way to find permanent solutions to our problems."

As co-producer of the Grace Light tour, I've had the privilege to travel with Dattatreya Siva Baba and witness the impact first-hand. According to those who have received it (and speaking from personal experience), the Grace Light blessing is a profound healing experience. It involves opening channels in the energetic body through a process Dattatreya calls the "9-Gate process", which enables each person to become a carrier of the grace light and to emanate peace and joy into the world.

This last week the Grace Light tour rolled through the Midwest states, the heartland of America, with events in Chicago, Ann Arbor and St. Louis before heading back to Chicago and San Diego over the weekend for full-day workshops. It seemed somehow appropriate to be lighting up the heartland...not only of our country, but also of each participant.

"I have incarnated innumerable times in service to the Grace Light, as a saint or sage of nearly every religion," says Dattatreya. Even so, I am only one conduit to receive and spread the light. Who is going to transmit it? Every one of you. In this way, the light will quickly spread to all who need it. Let us all join together and embody the light and carry it to our fellow men and women."

If you are interested in attending an upcoming Grace Light event in Albuquerque, New York, Boston, Raleigh, or Washington DC, or to learn more, visit www.thegracelight.com.

Tune Into a New Channel

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:41:00 +0000

My previous post explored a short aphorism from the Siva Sutras - "Knowledge is Bondage" - which warned that grasping for knowledge obscures true wisdom.

Some of you expressed concern that I was condoning ignorance or apathy - quite the contrary! If you reflect more deeply on the sutra, you will see that it suggests a path toward supreme intelligence. Given the profundity of this message, I thought it worthwhile to explore further...

To start, we should make a subtle distinction between "knowledge" and "wisdom". Gaining knowledge is a process of structuring reality in a particular, defined configuration using the apparatus of the rational mind. "Rationality" comes from the root "ratio" or "ration" which means to portion, meter out, or restrict. Our rational mind uses a short-hand method for metering out reality so we can manage it. While this may seem a useful too for navigating a complex world, if we are not exceptionally careful and highly alert (which most of us are not), our rationing obscures deeper truth.

Wisdom, on the other hand, is a state non-linear intelligence free from rationalization or restriction. This intelligence is infinite. Omniscient. Indeed, enlightenment has been described as the direct apprehension of reality without the intervening gauze of preconception. The enlightened individual is free to use logic, or not, as the situation requires, since his or her experience of reality is free from conceptual restriction.

The rational mind and the omniscient mind work differently. It's something like this: Channel 2, 4, 5, 7 and hundreds of other channels are broadcasting simultaneously, yet the logical mind can only tune into one channel. Depending on our mental capacity, cultural conditioning and various other predispositions, we tune into the channel that matches our current frequency, or level of "knowledge". We resonate with people tuned into the same frequency and squabble with those on different frequencies, continually defending what we "know" to be true.

The Omniscient mind can apprehend all channels at once without any distortion or conflict. There is no separation in time or space. No distinction between cause and effect, or subject and object. There is no duality. Said another way, if you move your consciousness out of the logical mind, you can actually "tune in" to the simultaneous content of all channels. For an advanced yogi, this means direct apprehension of the fullness of reality without the intercession of any mental constructs.
In Patanjali's Yoga Sutra's, he says, "Yoga citta vrtti nirodha." Yoga is stopping the fluctuation of the mind. In his parlance, rational knowledge belongs to "citta" which is the mind. This is counterposed to "Cit" which is the wisdom or superconsciousness belonging to the heart. We are in a balanced state of union (or yoga) only when the mind ceases to fluctuate and comes into alignment with the higher intelligence of the heart.

"Hrdaye citta samghatad, drshe swapa darshanam," declares the Siva Sutras, and similarly Patanjali adds, "Hrdaye citta samvit." The essence of both of these aphorisms can be translated as "when the mind merges with the heart, supreme intelligence or pure consciousness is attained."

The goal is to release the mind from limiting constructs which obscure wisdom, so that you might become liberated in pure consciousness. In this enlightened state, you can wield logic as necessary but not rely upon it as your only tool.

If you choose, instead, to foolishly cling to your tiny bit of knowledge, it will become your bondage.

I'm certainly not proposing replacing knowledge with greater ignorance (in fact, sages and rishis would say we're in a pretty ignorant state already). I would, however, propose replacing knowledge with supreme intelligence...omniscience...the great wisdom of the heart.

Any takers?

Knowledge Is Bondage

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:58:00 +0000

We have come to believe in our society that acquisition of knowledge is the hallmark of an intelligent, accomplished person. We strive to better ourselves by taking in more information, learning more skills, processing more facts, assimilating more content, and applying more of what we know.

We are better off when we "know", right? After all, when we don't know, we are unsure of ourselves. We are uncomfortable and anxious not knowing. We perceive knowledge as giving us dominance over our environment and each other. Certainty gives us comfort and eliminates fear, so we desire to develop certain knowledge. We give it a top priority in our lives.

Let me offer a different perspective on knowledge from the wisdom traditions...

In the Siva Sutras, the enlightened being Siva, shares a pithy but powerful aphorism: "Jnanam Bandhah", which translates from Sanskrit as "Knowledge is Bondage." What does he mean? Siva manages to pack a mighty punch in this little statement. He uses each word with great diligence and precision, and the phrase is loaded with meaning.

First, Siva acknowledges that the process of knowing quite literally binds things together. From unbounded chaos, "knowing" binds information together which is otherwise disorganized. Like the binding of a book, we take many loose concepts with countless possible configurations and solidify them into a defined volume. The process of gaining knowledge requires the infinite to become finite. Finiteness gives us comfort because is manageable - we like things to be definite and bounded. However, by Siva's standard, knowing is a degenerative process.

Second, knowledge limits our freedom. By forcing the infinite to become finite, we lose unity consciousness and are thrust into duality. As we freeze reality into a specific, defined configuration, we lose perspective of the whole. We perceive ourselves as separate from others. Knowledge is a concealing factor that makes us ignorant of our true nature. This identification with duality, caused by our reliance on the intellect and sense perceptions, is the source of human suffering.

Jaideva Singh, in his commentary on the Siva Sutras explains, "Man is bound...so long as he allows himself to be confined to the limited knowledge of his senses and mentation. When he recognizes his true nature, he is free."

In the Bible, when Adam and Eve "fell" from grace, the first experience they had was "they knew." Prior to the Fall, they were in unity consciousness - one with the Divine. That knowledge-free state was supreme bliss and freedom. The state prior to the Fall is not very different from the Buddha's concept of emptiness and Nirvana. When we are free from knowledge, we can empty the mind and experience the bliss of our true nature.

Zen also touches on this notion with their phrase, "When you know, you don't know, and when you don't know, you know."

So, various traditions describe this state in various ways - Nirvana or "emptiness", Satori or "no mind", Nirvakalpa Samadhi or "though-free, divine bliss." In these states, supreme intelligence beyond intellectual knowledge is experienced. By dropping our attachment to knowledge, ironically, we can become all-knowing.

By declaring that knowledge is bondage, Siva is asking us to stop being a slave to our limited knowledge, and to become free. No matter how impressive our intellectual repertoire, it is childs play compared to the vast intelligence of the Divine. Give up identification with knowledge. Set yourself free from bondage. Be fluid. Be in the space of 'don't know', and from there you will know everything.

Stand Up For The Light

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:45:00 +0000

After reading my post on Grace last week (along with the string of blog comments that followed), a friend dashed me a quick note. Her email read something like this: "Don't let 'em get you down. Keep standing up for the light!"

Now, I'm well aware that the HuffPo crowd is a bit more urban-edgy than, say, the readers of BeliefNet or Christian Science Monitor. I'm guessing the "Inner Life" columns aren't what bring you salivating to the keyboard each Monday morning. Even so, for most of us, there's usually room for a little more brightness and insight (especially on Monday morning), so this week I'd like to explore the sacred symbolism of Light.

Carl Jung did a great service for the intellectual world by making sacred concepts palatable. He appropriated God and religious mythology through the notion of "archetypes", collective imagery or symbolism shared across traditions. Jung also theorized that every culture would interpret God through its own cultural lens, what he called the "cultural inflection" of the archetype. In this way, each tradition preserves its own idiosyncrasy while still relating to a deeper shared pattern.

The sacred archetype of Light appears in nearly every tradition, with myriad cultural inflections. Here are just a few to ponder:

Light as Liberated Matter (Body)

Scientists have proven that our universe, while often appearing solid, is a vast vortex of energy. Einstein discovered the famous equation that governs the mechanics of atomic behavior, E=mc2. A few simple but profound conclusions flow of Einstein's work. Matter is in fact congealed energy. As Einstein said, "Matter is light stopped." Yet, light prefers a non-material expression and its natural physic is to seek release from the confines of matter.

Similarly, our natural evolutionary impulse as psycho-biological systems is to evolve beyond the confines of matter. Great mystics like Sri Aurobindo and Swami Ramalingam spent their entire lives working to purify the body-mind so that matter itself would gain more intelligence and evolve, perhaps ultimately being released entirely into light.

Light as Consciousness & Intelligence (Mind)

The light of consciousness governs the emergence and disappearance of thoughts within the mind, as well as the discriminating function that chooses among them. Our level of consciousness determines which thoughts we identify with, how we respond, and ultimately our entire experience of reality. For many millennia, humanity has been operating in relative darkness, exercising a limited consciousness that creates conflict, struggle, poverty and suffering. Given our current identifications and reactions - most notably fear, scarcity and exploitation - we seem to be in need of greater light.

In esoteric traditions like kundalini yoga, the yogis discovered that certain energy centers in the body directly correspond to dormant parts of the brain which hold vast amounts of unlocked potential. As those energy centers become enlivened and enlightened, new mental and intuitive capacities are stimulated, awakening seemingly "super-human" or "divine" intelligence. This supreme intelligence or radiant inner light, often depicted on religious icons as an aura around the head or body, has been described by the saints, prophets and enlightened masters of all faiths throughout the ages.

In the Tamil language of southern India, this light is called 'Arul'. 'Arul' is defined as "soul intelligence" as opposed to 'Marul' which means "mind intelligence". Science and technology would fall under 'Marul'. Humanity's current mind intelligence, while certainly useful, is not sufficient to wisely correct our problems. The nurturing of a new "soul intelligence", a new type of consciousness beyond logic, is required to evolve both the individual and the collective into a higher order of enlightened existence.

Light as God (Spirit)

In the New Testament, John 1:5 says, "This is the message we have heard from Jesus and proclaim to you, that God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all." Light is an expression of the Divine, not of one religion but of all religions. It is the burning bush for Moses, the light of Jesus that blinded Paul on the road to Damascus, the power of Allah as perceived by Mohammad, the inner light of the Buddha and the enlightened ones of all faiths. There is not a single religion that doesn't glorify the light.

"The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by," wrote American educator and author, Felix Adler. "The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light." As we awaken divine intelligence, realizing the inherently radiant nature of the soul, the human becomes the Divine.

Now for the cynics among you: you don't need to take my word for it. You can know the light through your own direct experience. Test it in your life. Become a scientist. Investigate with an open mind.

For the rest of you: do the same. Tap into the collective archetype. Let the light fill you - body, mind and spirit. Given our deep connection with this shared sacred symbol, it doesn't take much to stand up for the light.

For more on "Grace" and "Light", visit www.thegracelight.com

Amazing Grace (VIDEO)

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:28:00 +0000

"Gracefulness has been defined as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul," wrote British essayist William Hazlitt. If gracefulness is the outer expression, then perhaps grace itself is the source of the inner light.

I have been reflecting recently on the notion of Grace. Nearly every religion has a concept or definition of grace: Grace is the "freely given, unmerited favor and love of God." It is the "spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or to strengthen them." And it is "Divine love and protection bestowed freely on people."

Each of these definitions hints in some way at the mercy of the Divine to shower us with blessings freely, without any pre-condition.In my post last week, I shared the inspiring and transcendent experience of astronaut Edgar Mitchell during his return trip toward earth in Apollo 14. I also shared my own transformational experience in India when, in a glorious instant, my consciousness exploded into radiant and ecstatic Oneness. All sense of separateness and individual identity vaporized and, for several (timeless) days, "I" was pure Being, imbued with supreme power and intelligence. That was grace.

I did nothing to deserve that experience. The day started out much like any other day. I had no forewarning that my body would soon erupt into brilliant, self-effulgent light, nor any reason to suspect my life was about to take a drastically different course. Yet when the illusion of separation was shattered, my fundamental understanding of reality was radically re-configured. Even this briefest glimpse of the inherent interconnectedness of all things changed "me" forever. That was grace.

It was nearly a year later when I thought to ask my spiritual teacher whether the experience had a name. "Of course," he said, "you experienced the light body."

This answer was profound coming from a sage whose lineage are masters of light and transcendence. His deeply mystical tradition teaches that ultimate enlightenment is not simply liberation of the mind (as if that weren't hard enough), but also liberation of the body. The yogis discovered that we have many layers of existence - from the gross physical body, to subtle energy bodies, to the radiant body of light. As we expand our capacity to hold greater light by awakening various energy centers in the body, we can ultimately transform the dense matter of the physical form into the spiritual body of light. Well-known eastern saints such as Babaji and Swami Ramalingam are documented as having achieved this liberation, the immortal "light body", similar to the resurrection of Jesus, the assumption of Mother Mary, or the ascension process in other faiths.

I share this whole story for a particular reason. Independent of your ability to perceive it, or your sense of merit or worthiness, everyone is infused with grace light. Grace light is the incredibly radiant light of the Divine within every soul -- compassionate, intelligent and almighty. It is not a physical light -- it is an explosive inner light, more brilliant and powerful than the sun. It is the burning bush for Moses, the light of Jesus that blinded Paul on his way to Damascus, the power of Allah, Buddha and the enlightened ones of all faiths throughout the ages.

Recognizing this universal truth, the Tamil Siddha lineage is acknowledging an emerging phenomenon - the awakening of grace light in the hearts and minds of more and more people around the globe. According to them, humanity is undergoing a major evolutionary transformation and the great masters of many traditions are here to help steward the process. This lineage believes that grace light will awaken both individual and collective consciousness, affecting a global shift into a new level of human evolution.

Every individual will play an important role in this shift, as the primary conduit for expression of light is the human body. Once various energy centers are opened, (a process the Siddhas call "opening the 9-Gates") you become a vehicle for transmitting light to others. It is an opportunity for everyone to contribute to a shift of consciousness on a global scale.

The beginning of this shift will correspond with a significant astronomical event on the eastern calendar. The "Full Moon of the Guru" or Guru Purnima (July 17th) is an ancient tradition in India when heavenly teachers offer powerful blessings to the human race. It is a time of opportunity for divine energy to enter the collective heart of humanity, bringing new levels of compassion, joy, peace, and divine intelligence to the world.

I encourage you to 'tune in' to the sacred energies during this time. Open into a state of receptivity and faith. Take time for prayer or meditation, let go of fear, and simply let the blessings wash over you. That is grace.

For more about grace light, watch this:

For information about grace light gatherings across the U.S., Europe & Asia, click here.

An Astronaut's Detour Into Inner Space

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:34:00 +0000

As astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, completed his Apollo 14 mission and returned home toward our big blue earth, he experienced a sudden and radical epiphany. Trained in all the disciplines appropriate for space exploration -- physics, engineering, orbital mechanics -- nothing could have prepared him for this life-changing experience:

"On the way home from the moon, looking out at the heavens, this insight - which I now call a transcendent experience - happened. I realized that the molecules of my body had been created or prototyped in an ancient generation of stars - along with the molecules of the spacecraft and my partners and everything else we could see including the Earth out in front of us. Suddenly, it was all very personal. Those were my molecules.

It was an experience of interconnectedness. It was an experience of bliss, of ecstasy...it was so profound. I realized that the story of ourselves as told by science - our cosmology, our religion - was incomplete and likely flawed. I recognized that the Newtonian idea of separate, independent, discreet things in the universe wasn't a fully accurate description."*

Upon his return from space, Edgar founded a research institute called the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) which was born out of his profound unity experience, and his desire to bring scientific inquiry to the frontiers of human consciousness.

I've just spent the weekend with Edgar and a handful of colleagues on the IONS board who inspired me to write this post, although this article is not really about any single individual. It is about our interconnectedness. It is about unity. Oneness. The direct experience of being non-different from all that is.

For some, Edgar's story might seem like merely a touching vignette but, for me, I delight in the connection of similar direct experience which was as life-changing for me as Edgar's epiphany was for him.

My transformational story took place in India (which might as well have been the moon, given its vast distance from my life in Silicon Valley at the time) when enlightened saint Dattatreya Siva Baba offered me an ancient and sacred transmission (called shaktipat) by touching my third eye. As I sat in meditation following the initiation, I felt the power of molten lava erupt up my spine dissolving my entire body into a blinding column of light, more brilliant and luminous than the sun. "I" expanded in wonder and ecstasy as the full array of my perceptual field -- people, objects, the space itself -- merged and exploded into pure, unified radiance. Instantly the sense of individual identity evaporated into vast, unlimited, undifferentiated intelligence and energy. "I" was Pure Being. All knowledge and all power existed in unity with the Self. The illusion of separateness was completely shattered.

I persisted in this state of supreme bliss and cosmic rapture for several days and, while I was not capable of holding this enlightened state indefinitely, it was a profound gift to see beyond the fallacy of separation, if only for a few days or a few hours.

Since that initial experience of universal consciousness, I've asked Dattatreya dozens of times, "Is it not possible to give all of humanity, if even for a moment, a direct experience of Oneness?"

This would be something akin to a spontaneous, collective vaporization of ego. For just one instant we would all understand the illusion of separation under which we toil. For just one instant we would experience our universal Self -- non-different, non-separate, undivided, complete, whole.

After being blasted to bits, our egos could then re-assemble themselves, like in the Terminator or Matrix movies where the villains, surprised and disoriented but not mortally wounded, shake themselves off and resume their trickery. We could resume our identity crises as Palestinian and Israeli, black and white, male and female, Sunni and Shiite and any other divisive orientation that we so pleased.

But I guarantee you, we'd be changed. The ego's ignorance would be irrevocably shaken. Once we saw beyond the wizard's curtain, the illusion of Oz would never hold quite the same appeal.

The metaphor for unity used often in spiritual texts involves the waves of the ocean. There are myriad expressions of a "wave", from gentle ripple to devastating Tsunami, each shaped by wind, tides, currents, salinity and a thousand other factors. But each wave is non-different from the ocean.

We are like these waves. While we express ourselves in 6B unique forms, a limitless bounty of shapes, sizes, personalities, roles, and identities, we are all essentially non-different from the ocean of universal consciousness that animates us. As Edgar Mitchell discovered upon his return to earth, "Seeing things as separate in the universe but experiencing them as one, accompanied by bliss...the more I studied, the more I realized that this type of experience can be found in every culture."

Spiritual teacher Adi Da refers to this principle as "prior unity," emphasizing that "unity is inherently the case - at a deeper level than all the apparent differences and conflicts in our world. Unity, in other words, is senior to all apparent signs of disunity." In his lexicon, the term "prior" does not mean "coming before in time" but something more like "always inherently true."

Our unity is always inherently true.

This inherent truth has deep implications, not the least of which is that nearly all of our current methods of resolving conflict are inherently flawed. We will never fully end conflict through methods predicated on the illusion of separation: dialogue (between two or more parts), negotiation (to divvy up value among the parts), compromise (to show goodwill to the other part), etc. We are still approaching our social, political, environmental and economic crises from a separation and scarcity consciousness. Not that these methods aren't helpful...but we have not yet embodied the truth of unity, so will continue to see schisms reflected in our world.

"Egos will never unify the world," says Adi Da. "Only egolessness (or inherent non-separateness) is the principle of prior unity."

Now, then, back to the question I posed to my dear teacher Dattatreya Siva Baba, "Is it possible for everyone to have a momentary experience of oneness? Can a brief glimpse of the inherent unity be offered to all?"

"No, not yet," was his first response five years ago. "All souls are on their own evolutionary journey, each at their appropriate level. They must continue to abide by the cosmic laws of cause and effect, learning from the impact of their own choices in order to ultimately recognize unity. But there will come a time, not too far off now, when humanity will be ready for the next level of evolution."

As I mentioned, I've asked this question a dozen times, each subsequent inquiry yielding a similar, patient response. "Not just yet." After spending time with Edgar this weekend, however, I felt compelled to ask again.

Today, the answer was different. "Many souls are now preparing to receive the grace of awakened consciousness."

For those of you dedicated to this process, you know who you are. I write these articles for you and salute your courage. I'll write more on this unfolding process in the coming weeks. In the meantime, see if you can tune into the interconnectedness of all things, relax the ego and its many agendas, open to the harmony that underlies apparent disharmony. Unity is always inherently true.

* Excerpt of Edgar Mitchell's experience from Living Deeply: The Art & Science of Transformation in Everyday Life (Schlitz, Vieten, Amorok)

Love The One You're WithLove The One You're With

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:05:00 +0000

Have you ever wanted to change someone? A parent, spouse, child, lover, co-worker, or friend? If they just behaved a little differently, or responded to you more lovingly, you could be happier. Their shortcomings are so obvious, you think, there must be a way to change them.

What may be less obvious is that your loved ones are mirrors for you - what you don't like in them is a direct reflection of what you reject or deny in yourself. By trying to change them, you are actually running away from yourself.

Unfortunately, when you reject a part of yourself and push away what "is", you lose the capacity to experience fully. You begin creating compensatory strategies (perhaps subtle or unconscious) to screen, filter, judge, or edit parts of your story line to avoid the things you don't like. In an effort to protect yourself from facing the distasteful parts, you keep your heart closed and your feelings muted. You don't fully embrace the moment, you don't fully smell the rose, you don't fully taste your food, you miss the essence and nuance of your experience.

So how can you keep your heart open? The answer is simple but not easy. Accept yourself no matter who you are. Accept your shortcomings rather than running away from your experience. Accept that you are the wretched, jealous, control freak you despised in your last relationship. Accept that you are the shy, meek person who is always getting used, or you are the cruel bully who manipulates people to get what you want. Accept that you are the greedy, hoarding miser that helps yourself before helping others, and you are desperate, destitute bum who has nothing.

Now take a deep breath and sit with this for a moment. I know many of you will be rejecting this notion outright, but others will find immense freedom in this place. Move your attention into the heart and see if you can expand it wide enough to hold it all. Move into the fullness of experience as-is, without analysis or filtering - there is nothing good or bad that cannot be included. You are the infinite. You are That.

A huge sigh of relief comes when you no longer need to resist all the self-perceived flaws you've been holding at bay. It takes tremendous energy to keep all our imperfections hidden. But let me share a little secret: your flaws are no secret. Despite the Herculean efforts you exert to feign perfection by hiding your flaws, it is actually in accepting imperfection that perfection is ultimately recognized. The Divine created every virtue and every vice. Nothing exists without the complicity of the Divine Will. By humbly acknowledging this, and by accepting ourselves with great love and an open heart, we can merge our individual will with the Divine Will without conflict.

"How you are" is the divine plan. You are part of the supreme consciousness. If you tune into this higher consciousnesses within you, you will recognize yourself as the whole. You become infinite.

With acceptance comes the ability to relate to others with compassion. Everyone you pass by on the street - you are that. Everyone you love and everyone you disdain - you are that. The infinite has differentiated itself into the many forms of this world, but is non-different from them. God is infused in every person, place and thing. You are the infinite.

When your heart can hold it all, then you have merged with the one heart...and you can truly love the one you're with.

Mantra: The Divine Word

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:28:00 +0000

Following from last week's post on the role of sacred sound in various spiritual traditions, I'd like to delve deeper into the ancient yogic science of sound and mantra. Capturing the essence of mantra (without oversimplifying) is a worthy undertaking, given the volumes of scriptures and thousands of pages of commentary on this profound and nuanced ancient knowledge.

What is a Mantra?

Often thought of as a sacred word repeated in prayer, "mantra" actually translates from Sanskrit as "protecting the mind." The word mantra derives from two related words: 1) 'manana' or 'manas' which mean thinking or mind, and 2) 'trana' which means protection. A mantra protects the mind by infusing it with potent sacred energies and directing one's thoughts from the profane to the sublime.

In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, he says, Yoga Citta Vittri Niroda. Yoga is stopping the modifications of the mind. Mantra is used to control the fluctuations of the mind by fixing it on a single object or energy. Rather than allowing the mind to generate anxiety, stress and fear, jump from thought to thought, or engage in senseless mind chatter, the mantra interrupts these patterns and injects the mind with a powerful sacred sound.

The energy in a mantra is like a mini atom bomb packing explosive power to redirect and elevate the mind. In fact, most mantras derive their power from the name of a god/goddess, archetype or higher state of consciousness. Jesus told his followers to do everything in his name. Jesus' name is a mantra. Similarly, the Quran reveals the 99 names of Allah - all of them are mantras.

Why Use a Mantra?

Those who have explored mantra understand there are many reasons to work with these magical sounds. While I can share a few reasons here, these cannot be fully understood through words. It is only by direct experience that one can truly discover their power.

First, mantra is a divine tool for manifesting our deepest desires. The creative power of the "Word" is an ancient notion. In Genesis, the scriptures say, "God said: let there be Light and there was Light." God speaks and things appear. In the Hebrew scriptures, the divine "Word" is also conceived as having creative powers. The entire manifest universe springs forth from the Word of God. From Unity flows the Many, from the first utterance of God the entire world process is initiated. Mantra is a sacred tool for empowering creation, both at the individual and cosmic level. Through the use of mantra, we can accelerate creation of our desires and consciously shape our reality.

Second, mantra can fundamentally restructure and elevate our consciousness. The mind is made up of sound - sound in the form of language and meaning. Each mind has a conscious and unconscious sound pattern. According to the ancient yogis, if you want to change your mind, change the sounds in your consciousness. You become as you think. By frequently thinking about the Divine, you become divine. By changing the sounds within the system, you can free yourself from limiting patterns of mind. Ultimately, mantra is a tool of one's own liberation.

How does Mantra work?

Whether using mantra for material creation or spiritual liberation, mantra works in a very special way. Mantra holds together mind and matter, word and object, cause and effect. Mantra collects the attentional energy of the mind, which is typically scattered across hundreds of disparate thoughts, and focuses it so intensely on the object at hand that all duality between subject and object dissolves.

In other words, mantras are like seeds. A seed holds the entire tree within it in potential form. If you sow the seed, it sprouts and matures into a full-grown tree on its own accord in due course. The seed and the tree are one and the same -- they exist as one packet of energy. Similarly with mantra, the word and the object exist as a single packet of energy. The mantra is both cause and effect. Why is that? The mantra interrupts the normal modifications of the mind, fixes it on a single target, and collapses the sense of duality (dissolves any distinction between word and object). The mantra is at once both the seed and the tree.

According to the yogis, to gain significant changes in your life, all you need to do is to rearrange the sound patterns of your own consciousness. This is what mantras do. To seek the direct experience of mantra, and to become attuned to the subtle vibration of these sacred sounds, is a profound exploration.

The Sound Of Your Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:40:00 +0000

If you've ever sat quietly and noticed the gentle whisper of your own breath...

If you've then listened deeper, finding the soft cadence of your heartbeat...

And if you've then gone even deeper, dropping into the resonant stillness of your innermost being, you might have heard it...

...the subtle, divine sound at the core of existence.

"Beneath the cacophony of life, there exists a sound of unsurpassed sweetness. It is not sound as we know it, not something to be heard as much as something to be felt. It is a vibration," says Swami Chetanananda. "For the most part it takes effort to feel it, simply because the powerful noises that surround us tend to block it out. Yet the individuals who seek depth in their lives will, at some point or other, befriend this sound and begin to explore it." And when you are seduced by this sweet inner sound, you can be comforted in knowing that you join the ranks of mystics and seekers from across the ages who have sought to understand this most essential vibration.

In fact, all of the great spiritual traditions have studied the subtle vibration of sound, each in their own way, for thousands of years.

In the Bible, sound is revealed as the source of all creation, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made."

The ancient sages of India were perhaps the earliest scientists of sound, performing deep investigation into the nature of sound and its relationship to the Self, repeating rigorous meditation practices, and recording their discoveries in elaborate scriptures and texts. From their disciplined observation of the subtlest sound vibrations arose the timeless theory and practice of mantra.

In the mystical sects of Judaism and Hinduism, the sounds of the Hebrew and Sanskrit alphabets (respectively) have been studied in rich detail, each letter representing a powerful sound vibration believed to reflect a unique aspect of the divine, creative intelligence.

The Greek philosopher Pythagoras acknowledged that subtle sounds operate at all levels of the cosmos, "Each celestial body, in fact each and every atom, produces a particular sound on account of its movement, its rhythm or vibration. All these sounds and vibrations form a universal harmony in which each element, while having its own function and character, contributes to the whole."

Through their inner investigation, the sages of India came to realize several profound aspects of sound: 1) Sound (vibration) is the essential nature of the universe, 2) Sound is the basis of individuated consciousness (body, mind, and soul), and 3) Understanding sound is the key to transcending individual identity and realizing the universal Self.

By understanding sound, we can free our consciousness from the illusory perception of the limited, individuated self, and begin to recognize of our eternal, cosmic nature. Over the coming weeks, I hope to write more on these sacred sounds, how they form the essence of the body and mind, and how a deeper understanding can liberate us into a fully awakened state of consciousness.

...it is such a splendid and vibrant internal melody, pulsing and alive with intelligence. If you listen closely, you can almost hear it...but if you feel deeply, you can most certainly sense this sweet chorus vibrating in your soul.

Mothering 6 Billion Children

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:40:00 +0000

Following an afternoon of family mayhem and mother's day celebration (which included a lively crew of great-grandmothers, grandmothers, mothers and their various husbands, children and pets), I felt drawn to write a post honoring the universal energy which animates us all - the Divine Mother - who compassionately conceived the 6 billion souls of our human family.

In the eastern traditions, the masculine and feminine energies are understood somewhat differently than the typical strong/weak or aggressive/nurturing polarities we ascribe to the genders in the west.

The masculine is understood as pure consciousness -- inert, motionless, and formless -- the unity principle. The feminine is the creative force -- energy, movement and form -- manifesting the multiplicity of the entire physical universe. The masculine is static and infinite; the feminine dynamic and multi-faceted. They are inseparable, two sides of the same coin.

Out of pure delight, the sacred feminine or Divine Mother creates all things. She is the ecstatic pulsation emanating from "Being," or sacred masculine. Through her cosmic play the entire universe is brought into existence.

As she creates, she unfurls the distinctions of time, space, and form, the limiting factors that spawn the many from the one. She births the individual soul, animating it with the sounds of consciousness and vital life force. She creates the individual mind that experiences the world through sensory perception. And she creates the body, along with all aspects of the physical world, the creatures of the earth, sky and sea, each evolving along a spiral of consciousness.

In her act of creation, the Divine Mother both conceals and reveals ultimate reality. As she reveals the bounty of our world and the myriad beings and objects that color our experience, she conceals the deeper truth - our fundamental oneness with all that is. The sacred feminine births us into individual expression, but also binds us in the illusion of separateness. Her play is a paradox. It is like a game of hide and seek with the Self. She conceals unity through an explosion of diversity, but simultaneously holds the key to awakening back into the One.

Many people live their entire lives bound within the concealing principle. They are completely consumed by the phenomena of the world, never experiencing anything beyond the stimulus of their five senses. Indeed, they even ridicule others who seek a deeper understanding of consciousness, accusing them of pursuing a fantasy of self-aggrandizement or grasping for the false security of something beyond themselves. But sages, saints, mystics and common people across the ages have discovered that the material world is but a fraction of human potential, the smallest sliver of consciousness. Once the Divine Mother reveals even the briefest glimpse of universal reality, piercing the veil for even a moment, she ignites the inexorable impulse to rediscover Being.

The union of sacred masculine and sacred feminine, being and becoming, consciousness and energy, is the essence of awakening as described by many mystical traditions.

The problem, of course, is that we have denied the sacred feminine widely for centuries. In our attempt to control the physical environment (as perceived through our senses), we have favored qualities of the embodied male - aggression, dominance, exploitation, penetration. We have over-developed these tendencies in direct proportion to the depth of our ignorance of higher reality. We are completely absorbed in the concealing factor. We see only that we are separate individuals in a world of separate forms. We are completely fooled.

These historical tactics for controlling the physical sphere will at best accomplish temporary dominion over temporal forms. At worst, they bring widespread suffering, pain and despair. As long as we buy into the charade of separateness, we will experience conflict rather than peace. We will continue to fight, struggle, and wage war within the illusion, a perpetually fruitless endeavor.

In order to free our consciousness to see beyond the veil, we must embrace and re-balance the feminine. She must be given her rightful authority within every evolving soul, male and female. The divine feminine holds the key to our ultimate liberation. She will happily reveal the higher truth to those who earnestly seek her, as she alone can unlock the mystery for us. She is at once our jailor and our liberator, waiting patiently for her 6 billion children to seek their freedom.

Conscious Politics: Transcending Party Identity

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:50:00 +0000

In previous posts, I've written about the possibility of liberating ourselves from the confines of personal identity - the conditioning borrowed from our tribe, caste, race, religion, gender, ideology, political party or other affiliations which make us smaller than the whole.

Politically speaking, I was raised in a moderately Republican yet generally apolitical household. "Work hard, make your own way, and mind your own," were the general rules of thumb in the blue collar mill town of my youth. Given the disheveled state of humanity, however, it seemed both right and imperative to embrace an expanded set of social and humanitarian values. "Minding our own" is essential for personal transformation, but not enough to mend our troubled world. We are all stewards of social and planetary well-being. Conscious evolution must meet compassionate action to create a world that works for everyone.

Now, imagine for a moment that each of the earth's 6 billion inhabitants shared a common ideal of planetary stewardship. This would be a significant ideological feat, indeed.

Yet the tragedy of most human endeavors is that they tend to become unconscious at the operational and practical level. While we might share a mutual ideal, such as ending poverty, our identities get activated when it comes to the politics of implementation. The habitual defense of our "partial" or "partisan" positions almost always derails our noble intentions and moves us from conscious to unconscious behavior.

I see a glaring example of this in our current democratic nomination process. Rather than celebrating the ideal of democracy and encouraging all voices be heard, no matter how long it takes, we hear party leaders invoking fear-based rhetoric over race or gender, or squabbling over whether continued campaigning will "harm the Democratic Party".

I suggest we take some guidance from the American Indian elders who led their people in conflict resolution by sitting in dialog as long as necessary, until every member was expressed (even their grievances and pain) and the path forward "emerged" from the collective wisdom. Party leaders' hallowed role is to create a container for fair and just democracy, where diverse viewpoints are considered and every vote counted. Far from "harming the party", a more enlightened perspective could help transcend divisions and allow a higher order alignment to emerge.

Philosopher Ken Wilbur describes it this way: "Our principal challenge is to create some form of governance that allows each stage [of consciousness] to be itself...and yet governs from the highest, widest, deepest, and most encompassing level of development emerged to date."

Unfortunately, very few governing bodies today have enlightened representatives as members. When picking a president, we should be asking not "who will best secure and defend my personal position", but "who is most prepared to guide the evolution of humanity". A primary test of our political leaders should be their ability to transcend division, to find unity amongst difference, to lead us toward a sense of our own connectedness and planetary stewardship.

Power To The Pope-ful

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:57:00 +0000

At a core level, somewhere beyond our religious ideology and distinctions, the Pope's visit has stirred something sacred. It has stirred our faith. It has sparked a little hope in the human heart, a sense of possibility and connectedness, a hint of excitement and celebration.

During his American tour, Pope Benedict XVI has talked not only of divine matters, but of human frailty - issues such as sexual abuse, war and human rights violations. Nothing has been off the table. He has demonstrated that the mundane and the sacred are not two distinct poles - one to be discussed freely in the public forum and the other to be hidden away in the private recesses of our personal landscape. They are inextricably intertwined, woven together into the very fabric of human experience. Beauty, truth, divinity, ecstasy are expanded states aspired to by every human heart, even as we grapple with the sometimes grim reality of the human condition. We are all seeking meaning, seeking to understand the contradictions of our lives, seeking integration within ourselves and connection with the broader whole.

It is this common search that holds potential for us to move beyond religiosity and divisive dogma into the realm of celebration of spirit - exaltation of the divine without bias of form or practice. While proselytizing Catholicism may have been part of his agenda, the Pope seemed more interested to bear witness to the sacred in all things, affirming joy and beauty while also addressing with compassion areas of human pain and constriction. The response from the American people was one of wide-spread embrace. Even non-Catholics felt the effect of his presence. We surprised ourselves.

Pope Benedict's visit was an example of how we can naturally recognize the holy, and be affirmed by it, without having to invoke the boundaries of religion. Faith is a universal concept. Holiness, sacredness, divinity, communion, celebration, exaltation, prayer, reverence are all universal energies that can unite rather than divide. We have the power and the connectedness of heart to transcend divisive religious distinctions and expand into unity of spirit. We can become "equal opportunity" people of faith. We can seek to find the higher order harmony that unites all faiths into one human congregation.

While we're at it, let's make room for the sacred in our public discourse, not just during Papal visits but tomorrow and the next day. Let's not strip it out, sanitizing our discussions into a secular safe zone. Let's instead call upon the sacred as a guiding force, beyond ideological distinctions, to bear witness to our mutual search for meaning and wholeness.

Despite the many woes of our world, we are on an evolutionary path toward recognizing our interconnection with this planet, with each other and with spirit. The Pope's visit was a sweet reminder. The divine is all around us. Despite our many troubles, we need not look further than our own heartbeat to know the sacred animation that governs our very existence.

May the blessings of the Pope and the many spiritual leaders who walk the path of interfaith harmony be a source of upliftment. And may we all seek unity of spirit in a time when we have come to view religion as a source of division...but when our world needs sacred connection more than ever.

What You See Is (Just a Hint of) What You Get

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:47:00 +0000

I recently watched a short clip of Oprah describing a magical moment in her redwood grove. She had visited this place in her garden a hundred times before, but this day was different. On this day she released the word "tree" from her mind and entered the grove with full attention, endeavoring to truly experience the essence of this majestic setting. She noticed something she had never noticed before - a vibrant, pulsating field of energy, as if the space was alive and conscious, and she was at once connected to and non-different from it.

Oprah's experience was not an anomaly, but an example of the capacity for higher human perception. While our world might appear full of familiar objects - the cars we drive, the food we eat, the bodies we inhabit - science tells us these are 90% empty space, swirling clouds of electrons and other particles vibrating at rates beyond the ability of the human eye to register. The world we occupy is actually a vast, energetic, vibratory field where boundaries are far more fluid than they appear. It is a subtle world of energy, light, sound, and thought just as real as the gross physical perception logged by our senses.

Yet so few of us experience this expanded reality on a consistent basis...why?

We have created shorthand of words and symbols to simplify our experience. We use labels like "redwood tree" or "coffee cup" as proxies for vibrant energetic systems. While imprecise, this shorthand is useful. As a colleague of mine said recently, "Life would get far too complicated if we described drinking our morning latte out of an 'interactive, vibrational field shaped like a cylinder and designed to hold hot liquid'."

However, using shorthand has a downside -- we often forget the deeper truth of our reality as we slip into the habit of using labels. Rather than staying tuned to the vital essence of our experience, we default to past memory or preconceived notions about how things will be. Our words and labels tether our mind to the historical. Our labels freeze reality. Instead of remaining alert in each moment, listening and seeing intently, we numb the intensity of our experience with comfortable ideas about what we think we understand...what we think we've already figured out.

Philosopher J. Krishnamurthy claims we never actually see or listen to anything "because our mind is not free; our ears are stuffed up with those things that we already know...if one can listen to something with all of one's being, with vigor, with vitality, then the very act of listening is liberation."

Oprah's visit to her redwood grove could have been an unremarkable replay of her many past visits but, on that day, she was open to seeing and listening in a different way. She brought a beginner's mind free of labels. She brought her full attention without prejudice. As a result, she experienced the raw energy and intelligence of the space which immediately transformed her perception.

My spiritual teacher Dattatreya Siva Baba puts it this way, "When you look at an object without words or thoughts, you will understand it in a completely different way. You will simultaneously lose all knowledge and all ignorance...but you will gain omniscience."

Just as a map can never convey the true essence of the territory, our shorthand descriptions can never capture the deepest essence of the world around us. In order to know the richness, aliveness, and creative pulsation that animates all things, we must look beyond seeing. Listen beyond hearing. Experience beyond words.

A Prescription For Living Deeply

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:46:00 +0000

"Transformation doesn't require going to the mountain top," shares Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, Ph.D., author of Living Deeply and researcher at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. "Something as mundane as road rage, for instance, is the seed for a moment of compassion."

Schlitz and her colleagues have spent the last 10 years investigating human consciousness and the nature of transformative experience. What is transformation? What are the common triggers? What barriers keep us from having transformative experiences more often? And how can we set the stage for these experiences as well as sustain their impact?

Their research project was inspired in part by Richard Gunther, a businessman and father, who had a significant transformative experience and wanted to understand if there were others like him. "I experienced a profound spiritual awakening...my awakening was this: we are all part of a single entity. I was part of all others and all others were part of me. I soared into this new awareness, losing all sense of myself as individual. There was no me alone, only a universal us."

Seeking to understand the mechanics of Gunther's awakening, and others like him, the team inquired into the triggers for transformation, which can be broad ranging. According to their findings, transformation can be sudden and unexpected, like the kind Gunther experienced while gazing down the dramatic Big Sur coastline on a brilliant, sunny afternoon. It can be triggered by crisis or intense suffering - a brush with death, loss of a loved one, ending of a relationship - that shatters our defenses and opens us to a new perspective. Or transformation can be gradual, taking form in our consciousness over time through the influence of certain experiences or personal practices.

The study defined consciousness transformation as "a profound shift in perspective resulting in long-lasting, life-enhancing changes in the way you experience and relate to yourself, others and the world." It is a shift in perception from the limited, individual 'I' to a consciousness that embraces the larger sense of the collective. "My 'me' becomes a 'we'," says Schlitz. "Even in our diversity we can see the whole."

Physician Rachel Naomi Remen describes witnessing this transformative shift with cancer patients: "There's a moment when the individual steps away from the former life and the former identity and is completely out of control and completely surrenders - and then is reborn with a larger, expanded identity."

So what keeps us from recognizing this expanded reality in our normal, everyday lives?

According to Schlitz, our cognitive science has a term called "inattentional blindness." It is something akin to patterned grooves in the mind that shrink our awareness to a very small percentage of what's actually going on around us. "Our culture primes us in a material, acquisitive, success-oriented worldview. When we form an opinion, it is based on our lifelong brain conditioning. As a result, our attention is focused on only a tiny fraction of the information available to us -- most of what we experience is not conscious."

Here, it seems, science and spirituality see eye-to-eye. What cognitive science recognizes as conditioned cognitive pathways, spiritual traditions have addressed as the limitation of "personal identity" or "ego" or the "false self". Both maintain that if we could see the full truth of our reality moment by moment, without censorship from our culturally and socially conditioned grooves or "blindness," we would experience a wholly new and expanded consciousness.

During their decade-long research, the Living Deeply team investigated how over 2,000 individuals (both masters and laypeople) across a broad range of spiritual traditions set about expanding the mind - how they create the conditions for transformative experience and how they've integrated their experiences in order to live more consciously.

According to Schlitz, it boils down to a few key concepts: Intention, Attention, Repetition and Guidance.

Setting an Intention: One of the primary ingredients of conscious transformation is personal choice - the desire to use the experiences of our everyday lives as opportunities for positive evolution. Clear intention is important because transformative practice isn't always a walk in the park - moments of sublime expansion may be juxtaposed with mundane moments of agitation, boredom or fear of the unknown. By setting a clear intention, while releasing the need for any particular outcome (a concept the Buddhist tradition calls "non-striving"), we can start to bring our whole self to every situation we encounter.

Shift in Attention: Another key component of transformative experience is a fundamental shift in perspective -- from a narrow, personal focus to a larger field of meaning. We begin to see the world through an expanded lens. Personally, I remember a meditation, many years ago, in which this transformative shift occurred for me. In an instant, I realized that every breath, every action, every movement was a sacred offering to collective humanity, a prayer for the peace and happiness of the whole. Pondering my personal well-being gave way to pondering the well-being of the collective body. Through shifts like this, we naturally start to develop deeper ways of attending to the world in which we live.

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition: Whether it's pruning the roses in our garden or a more formal practice like meditation, transformative experience can be enhanced by doing our practice repeatedly with a certain discipline and order. "With repetition, we lay down neural pathways," says Schlitz. "Our brains actually change. We can continue training ourselves to be unhappy, or we can find nurturing affirming ways to shift our intention and attention, then reinforce it through repetition."

Guidance from a Teacher: Finally, a teacher can enhance our own noetic intuition and inner authority. If we wanted to become physically fit, we would hire a personal trainer to expand our skills and confidence to enact a lifelong health regime. If we wanted to become an Olympic athlete, we would insist on having a world-class coach to guide our development. So it is with spiritual or transformational teachers who understand the unique territory of unraveling the conditioned grooves of the mind. A good teacher can gently guide us to our highest potential, supporting us on the path to our own realization.

What is the outcome of all this? What are we transforming into?

"When we integrate the essence of transformation, everything becomes practice. Life is the practice," says Schlitz. "Sacred is not some abstraction. It is every moment, even the challenging moments like when we are in conflict with ourselves or someone else. Every experience becomes an opportunity for deeper awareness and compassion."

A Dialogue With Myself

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:36:00 +0000

Have you ever had a situation where you wanted to love someone freely but you couldn't? For whatever reason you felt constricted or tight? Your heart longed to forgive, or to release, or to spontaneously become available to a higher energy... but there you sat, stuck and closed?

I've had a couple of days recently like that. With great sincerity, I desire to love freely in my life, to ignite this grand heart like a cosmic explosion. I revel in the warmth and courageous tenderness of an open heart and desire to invite every living being into that space with me.

But some days this darn heart just feels closed and guarded. It does not cooperate.

So, hoping to investigate this resistance to love, I ventured into an internal inquiry today -- a dialogue with parts of myself. What if I was an innocent bystander peering into this heart? What if I had nothing to defend and simply looked deeply without agenda? What if I could see my constriction with clear eyes, not clouded by identity or ego, as if I was examining someone else's life rather than my own? What would I observe here and how would I describe it?

Ego Self: I feel hurt, misunderstood, maligned, unappreciated...or any other number of emotions that accompany my constriction.

Higher Self: Who feels that?

ES: Well, "I" do.

HS: Who is this "I"?

ES: "I" am the one who wants to feel validated, understood, cared for and appreciated.

HS: And who is that?

ES: I am the competent, thoughtful, reflective woman who cares deeply for the peace, happiness, and well-being of all people and our planet. I pray that we all awaken into our highest expression and know the divine light that shines within. I commit my life to serving this global awakening and surrender my will to the universal will in whatever way is called.

HS: Sounds rather saintly.

ES: So how come I sit here feeling closed and tight? I'm supposed to be someone who's loving and compassionate, damn it. I'm supposed to be a lot of things, according to me, that I'm not feeling right now.

HS: But if I look closely and with beginner's eyes, with no need to defend or preserve even a single fragment of my current view of self, what is the truth about this identity? The truth is I'm defending a ghost. My identity is completely fictitious. It is a storyline made up by me, energized by me, and acted out by me, but is not who I am. My reactions and hurt feelings are a direct artifact of the very identity that claims to be so noble. Without an identity, there would be nothing at all to defend. There would be no image to protect. This identity is too small -- any identity is too small.

ES: If I don't have boundaries, definitions, or identifications to assert, then what is left of "me"?

HS: When the pretense and masks of the false self fade away, what radiates forth is the inner effulgence of the soul. It is the authentic love and authentic light. The light of pure intelligence imbued with rapture and delight. This is not the kind of love you add as a casual descriptor on your list of personal attributes. It is beyond personal. It is the cosmic radiance that infuses the core of every being.

When you feel constricted, know that you are being called into this greater love. The constriction is a pregnant pause, a signaling moment, to let you know the time is...now! The time to release the next layer of identity that obscures the brilliant and beautiful radiance that is you. Constriction signals the moment to summon all your courage and to truly see -- without blinders or excuses -- how your identity locks you into certain orientations in this world... and to let it go. It is time to surrender the standard defenses, voluntarily melting yourself down into a molten state so the majesty and splendor of your being can shine through.

This eternal effulgence is the truth of who you are.

You are the greater love. You are the radiance.

Principle #7: Embrace A Miracle Reality

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:58:00 +0000

This is the final post in the series "7 Principles for Consciously Creating Your Life". Previous posts covered Living in the Now, Entering the Divine Mind, Summoning Pure Desire, Interrupting Old Patterns, The Ecstasy of Asking and Relax & Let it Go.

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle," said Albert Einstein.

Pablo Picasso added his unique vote for the latter: "Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one's bath like a lump of sugar."

This week's post will be short (miraculous in itself you might say) and sweet, like a lump of sugar.

The process of conscious creation we've explored over the last seven weeks, at its core, has been about liberating ourselves from our limited view of reality.

When we move into the ripeness of this moment...

Releasing our old, conditioned patterns of thought...

Accessing the infinite intelligence of the higher mind...

Acting innocently from the pure, creative desire that stirs our soul...

And relaxing into the greater mystery without agenda or attachment...

What was mundane and limited becomes wondrous and unbounded.

You see, when we slow down and experience ourselves as a vast reservoir of intelligence and creative energy, we understand our own true nature. We recognize ourselves as infinite, eternal, as powerful co-creators of our reality. It's a transformative experience. The whole darn thing is an undeniable miracle.

Living a miracle reality means embracing this deeper awareness, bringing our full attention to every moment, compassionately shedding our restrictive conditioning, and living into our capacity to be limit-free.

A miracle reality is sourced from the pure delight of the soul. No thinking required. No agenda. No plan. The thought-free mind is a miracle mind.

Jesus lived a miracle reality. He recognized himself, with unwavering faith, as son and servant of God. Through the power of his faith, he performed miracle after miracle. And he invited us to step into this same power and knowing, "If you have faith like the grain of a mustard seed, you (too) can move mountains. Nothing will be impossible for you."

When asked the definition of faith, Dattatreya Siva Baba responds simply, "Faith is utter positivity."

When we open into the awe and wonder of the mystery, we are simultaneously giving less energy to the negative, doubtful thoughts that keep us stuck in a non-miraculous reality. We are usually so full of worry and concern that there's no room left. But as we empty the cup, it can be filled with unpredictable blessings.

Miracles will come in unexpected ways. They will come as insight, spaciousness and delight. They will come as spontaneous healing. They will come as the effortless resolution of seemingly intractable problems. They will come as deeper personal connections, moments of meaning, acts of kindness both given and received. They will come as new opportunities to live in alignment with our most authentic calling.

Miracles will come as quiet appreciation for things large and small, good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant, exhilarating and challenging, simply for the wisdom they bring into our lives.

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change," said the Buddha.

May you experience miracles.

Principle #6: Relax And Let It Go

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:09:00 +0000

This post is sixth in the series "7 Principles for Consciously Creating Your Life". Previous posts covered Living in the Now, Entering the Divine Mind, Summoning Pure Desire, Interrupting Old Patterns and The Ecstasy of Asking.

I'm writing this week's post from India. While traveling through the Chennai airport a few days ago, I happened upon a billboard with a favorite line from the Bhagavad Gita. Lord Krishna instructs the great warrior Arjuna: "Seek to perform your duty, but lay not claim to its fruits." In other words, strive to act boldly, but lay the results of action at the feet of the divine. Be not attached. Act faithfully and surrender the outcome.

This is sage advice, as meaningful today as it was several thousand years ago. We have little control over how things go in this world. We can either become attached to having things a certain way and suffer when they don't work out, or we can do our best in every moment, offering our highest contribution, and then surrender the outcome.

The latter is the essence of our 6th principle: Let it go.

We often want to dictate to the universe how our manifestations should show up. We want to be in charge of every detail...when, where, how, with whom. We are control freaks. Despite knowing the fallacy of this attitude, we become attached to attaining certain results and suffer when reality doesn't meet our expectations. The more we fixate on particular outcomes, the more we set ourselves up for distress. A pithy Zen aphorism declares, "Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional." Suffering is what happens when we resist our life experience rather than relaxing and letting go.

So what does it mean to let go? How does one do this?

In the Gita, Krishna did not tell Arjuna to hang up his sword and take a vacation in Hawaii. As one of the most powerful warriors in all the land, it was Arjuna's mission to fight. Krishna instructed him to fulfill his duty, to put forth his very best effort, yet to detach from the outcome. The fruits of his action were not his to claim.

There are several details of this story I find particularly revealing and powerful:

First, in this epic tale, Arjuna is pitted against warriors for whom he has great respect, many of whom are his own relatives. Arjuna sinks into despair at the prospect of engaging in battle. He doesn't want to fight. Krishna replies, "Your sorrow has no cause. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. There has never been a time when you and I and the kings gathered here have not existed." So the first thing Krishna does is to remind Arjuna of his True Self, the immortal self that spans across time and space. He immediately puts things into perspective.

Second, Krishna reminds Arjuna that inaction is not a solution: "You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. Perform work in this world, Arjuna, as a man established within himself - without selfish attachments, and alike in success and defeat." His instruction is very clear - centered in your understanding of the true self, offer yourself in service without hesitation, but don't fret over whatever happens next. Give up the need for any particular result. The fruits belong to God.

Finally, Krishna goes on to tell Arjuna that every action should be born from love. In other words, not only shouldn't you fixate on the outcome - that's the wrong place to put your attention - but you should surrender every deed as a love sacrifice to the divine. Everything you do, do it as a prayer. Do as an ecstatic offering. Do it in love.

After that, the outcome is immaterial. When you operate from love, success and failure are irrelevant.

Why is it we think one outcome is better than another, anyway? Being attached to an outcome is an ego response. We have an identity to uphold and, in order to reinforce that identity, we are hoping for specific things to happen. Success is a better outcome than failure because my ego feels better about it.

But, really, honestly, who are we to judge each infinitesimal outcome in the vast complexity and variety of the cosmic play? Isn't it pretty audacious, arrogant even, to think we could definitively conclude one outcome superior to another in the intricate tapestry of a lifetime? We've all had the experience of lamenting a challenging situation only to find later that, in fact, it held hidden blessings and lessons that were essential for our greater development.

My teacher says simply this, "If I succeed, I celebrate. If I fail, I celebrate. If it works out I celebrate, if it doesn't I celebrate. Nothing can rob me of my celebration, because there's no outcome to be had that is bad."

Surrendering our compulsion to control is relaxing. It makes things pretty simple. It takes the tension out of the body and mind. If failure is the outcome, then it's the perfect outcome. You are a divine instrument and your instrument is being played brilliantly. You can't even take your next breath but for grace. Release your sense of "doership."

Now, to be clear, this doesn't mean everything in life will suddenly be pleasant and trouble-free. Living in duality means that energies like greed, conflict, violence and poverty will still exist. Our world is full of many woes. That's why we are drawn to act in the first place. As social workers, peace-builders, healers, change agents, activists, environmentalists, clergy people, police officers, etc. we, like Arjuna, must fulfill our duty.

We must act. We must respond to the pure desire within us, which propels us along an evolutionary path toward greater wholeness, integration and remembrance of our true, divine nature. And on that path we surrender. This is not running away from life, but running toward life with arms and hearts wide open. We offer out best into the world, in love and service, and lay the outcome in the hands of the divine. We let it go.

Principle #5: The Ecstasy Of Asking

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:50:00 +0000

This post is fifth in the series "7 Principles for Consciously Creating Your Life" on cultivating a life of joy, prosperity and abundance. Previous posts covered Living in the Now, Entering the Divine Mind, Summoning Pure Desire, and Interrupting Old Patterns of Thought.

You may be wondering by part five of a seven-part series: when do we get around to asking for what we want? Today is the day. The previous posts have been preparation for this moment: the ecstasy of asking.

Our universe is gloriously beautiful and abundant. But how can we experience this abundance in our own lives?

We started the series by recognizing the possibility of creating from the infinite potential of the higher mind, rather than our limited ego mind. While the finite ego mind can be a fabulous tool for analysis and planning, it is also conditioned by memory and old patterns of thought - doubt, fear, worry, tension, negativity, upset - which are counter-productive to the process of creation. When we operate solely from this level of consciousness, we end up creating a mixed bag of experiences. Rather than manifesting our wish list, we manifest a range of experiences reflecting the untidy state of our mind.

But if we take the time to become present, to relax and release old thought patterns, and to quiet the mind, our intention becomes much clearer and the resulting experience more coherent. Similar to a noise dampener in a radio, we want to clarify the signal of our intention before broadcasting. If we start with a noisy signal, we will broadcast static and disturbance into our daily experience. If we minimize the noise in the system, the fidelity of our intention is higher and the resulting experience much more enjoyable.

As we become more clear and aware, we can consciously use the power of thought to create. What is a powerful thought? It is a thought with no other thoughts around. The yogis understood that if you drop in a single thought into the thought-free mind it will have incredible power to manifest.

Sounds great, you might say, but how do we cultivate this condition?

Powerful thoughts can arise either spontaneously out of the pristine desire of the infinite mind (evoking the sensation of sudden insight or of being in the "flow" with the divine will), or can be intentionally introduced by an adept of conscious creation. The yogic masters developed techniques for the latter, involving use of the energies of the subtle body and of sound, to activate the creation process. Returning to the radio analogy, once we have clear signal, we can use an amplifier to increase the signal intensity, ensuring maximum expression and enjoyment. Similarly the next step in conscious creation uses joyful, ecstatic energy to amplify the power of our intention.

This is how it works. By bringing our awareness into specific chakras, "wheels" or vortexes of energy within the subtle body, we can consciously activate the creation process. Specifically, we move the creative energies found in the sacral chakra, which is located in the lower abdomen and related to procreation and sexuality, up into the third eye chakra, the spiritual center located between the two eyebrows. After focalizing this energy in the third eye, we introduce a thought of what we'd like to manifest. In this powerful state, we become one with the thought. Essentially, we "ask" for what we want by dissolving any sense of difference between ourselves and the object of our desire in rapturous energy of the third eye.

The experience of this is somewhat like an orgasm of being, where all separation between self and other, thought and object, idea and form are radically dissolved. It is like disintegrating the body and mind down to the atomic level, co-mingling with and indistinguishable from our creation. We dissolve in joyful union with an abundant universe.

By consciously moving this energy, we shift its expression from sexual activity and procreation into the ecstatic creation other desires such as health and well-being, loving relationship, a peaceful environment, fulfilling work experiences, spiritual awakening, or other aspects of life that allow us to feel fully abundant.

Here is the full meditation, called the "Ah" meditation by the Tamil Siddha tradition:

"Ah" Meditation - For the "Ah" meditation, sit quietly in a comfortable upright position with eyes closed. This meditation follows the process described above and uses the sacred sound "ah". The sound "ah", which represents divine intelligence, is found in often in the many names of the divine - God, Yahweh, Siva, Krishna, Allah, Ra, Kali, Durga and many more.

As in previous weeks, bring your attention to the central channel of energy in the subtle body, called sushumna, which runs parallel to the spinal column. Visualize a luminous channel of light running up the spinal column, from the tailbone up to the crown of the head and out into infinite space.

Now move your attention down the spinal column to the abdomen region, just below the navel. This is the region of the sacral chakra which relates to procreation and sexuality. Tune into the energy of this chakra and begin to tone the sound "ahhhhh". Repeat this for several rounds as you connect with this internal ecstatic energy. As you tone the sound, let all thoughts fall away. As you continue to tone "ahhhhhh", imagine this energy rising slowly up the spinal column from the abdomen, through the navel, the heart and the throat, into your third eye. Let the sound penetrate your third eye as you feel the energies focalizing there.

Now, with your attention and energy focused in the third eye, bring to mind an authentic, heartfelt desire that you would like to manifest. Put the thought and/or visual image of this desire into the third eye and empower it with the sound "ahhhhh". This meditation is about the expression of joyful creative energy, so enjoy the sound and your manifestation as much as possible. Dissolve into the ecstasy of this creative union. Continue toning the sound for as many rounds as you like, celebrating the joy and elation of creating abundance in your life.

The "Ah" meditation was revealed to the West by Tamil Siddha master Dattatreya Siva Baba. He shared the technique with Dr. Wayne Dyer, who wrote of it in his book Manifest Your Destiny, which he dedicated to Dattatreya (then called Guruji).

Principle #4: Interrupt Old Patterns Of Thought

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:31:00 +0000

This post is fourth in the series "7 Principles for Consciously Creating Your Life" on cultivating a life of joy, prosperity and abundance. Previous posts covered Living in the Now, Entering the Divine Mind, and Summoning Pure Desire.

For those of you who've been following this series on manifestation, you've probably noticed that rather than extolling the traditional model of striving, working hard, and exerting willpower, I'm suggesting a radically different approach. Manifestation can be easy, effortless and graceful...if we become present.

While our unruly minds make implementation difficult, the concepts are really quite simple: 1) become present in the moment, 2) access the infinite potential of the higher mind, and 3) allow your soul's desires to arise from the wisdom of that state. While we have a few more principles to cover, these are the starting conditions - moving beyond individual ego gratification into an expanded state of awareness - which are essential for conscious creation.

Unfortunately, this is the point where trouble often arises. For three weeks you've been willing to suspend doubt, to humor me while you gleaned the gist of where we're headed. Perhaps you even experienced a glimpse of omniscient mind during the meditation practices when...wham! A rush of thoughts and emotions flood in. "This sounds too good to be true, it's too simplistic, too idealistic, too whatever. It can't be that easy. I need to work hard to earn things. There's no free lunch."

These wayward thoughts - old emotions, subconscious beliefs, or conditioned thought patterns - keep us from believing we can attain unlimited abundance. They tend to fall into several categories:

Doubt. We've been conditioned to rely heavily on the rational mind to attain our goals. First we must create a plan, then acquire the resources to fulfill our plan, then execute it step by step. This linear sequence must be followed to accomplish our objective. If our new dream home costs $600K, for instance, we need to wait for the next promotion, then clean up our credit, then get approved for the mortgage, then, then... If any step in the sequence is unachievable, our dreams our dashed. Entertaining the possibility of creating in a non-linear fashion brings up massive doubt from the mind. "That sounds impossible. Nothing comes without hard work. If I don't control everything, things won't work out right." Releasing doubt is a necessary step to unlocking our creative potential.

Fear. Most of us live in a constant state of low grade anxiety - anxiety over relationships, family, career, health, finances. This anxiety, and our addiction to the swirl of underlying thought processes that generate it, keeps us trapped in mediocre lives. When we endeavor living into our full potential, fear can arise even more acutely. "What if I fail? What if I'm not good enough? What if my dreams are too bold and my heart gets broken?" We are often more afraid of stepping into our power and dreaming boldly, than of staying small.

Shame. Humans are the only species on the planet who worry about whether they are "deserving" of beauty, goodness and abundance. We hold destructive beliefs such as, "I'm not worthy to be successful. I don't deserve to be happy. I must fix all my flaws before I can be abundant." The nightingale doesn't question whether she deserves to have a beautiful voice -- she just sings. You should too.

So what can we do when drawn into the fear, doubt, shame or any other old thought pattern?

Practice radical gratitude. No matter where you are or how you feel, find something to be grateful for. Give thanks for life's small miracles, for a smile, or a sunset or for any of nature's wonders. Even if the only thing you can appreciate is your next breath, then give thanks for that. Slowly, let the appreciation grow inside you. Feel the heart open as your gratitude expands. Even the smallest spark of gratefulness, fanned with enough attention, can grow into a raging fire of appreciation.

Why do this? Because gratitude is a "pattern-interrupt". It is impossible to be in fear or negativity when we are filled with appreciation. Try it, it's quite extraordinary. Giving thanks centers us. Giving thanks brings us back into this moment. Giving thanks drops us into the heart and creates a natural detachment from the fluctuations of the mind.

Appreciation, acceptance, curiosity, joy. All these are natural "pattern-interrupts" which help us to dis-identify with disabling old thought routines. Once we detach our awareness from old patterns, we can see the higher truth -- fear, doubt and shame are not who we really are. They are simply ignorant thoughts that have momentarily captured our attention. There is no need to identify with these beliefs. Gratitude opens spaciousness within us, allowing a fresh perspective to emerge unsullied by past conditioning. Appreciation transforms our consciousness.

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami shares a parable about the transformational power of appreciation: A guru was sitting with two disciples under a sprawling banyan tree in India. The older student inquired, "Guruji, how long must I wait until I realize God?" The teacher responded, "Enlightenment is not something that can be predicted, but since you have asked," he leaned over and spoke in the right ear, "It will be twenty more lives." "Oh, no!" the youth cried in dismay, "I don't know if I can wait that long!" The other follower, naturally curious, asked of his own future. The guru whispered, "Liberation will come after you live as many lives as this banyan has leaves!" Hearing this, the seeker jumped to his feet and began to dance. Why? He was suddenly overcome by the assurance that he would ultimately be liberated. Ecstatic with appreciation, he transcended the mind and attained his liberation that very moment.

Appreciation offers the possibility of instantaneous transformation. If you experience any constriction this week, I invite you to practice radical gratitude. Here is an exercise to get started:

Giving & Receiving - The Tibetan Buddhists have a lovely practice called Tonglen, which means 'taking and giving'. The intention of Tonglen is to acknowledge the difficulties and struggles of being human and hold those challenges with the utmost care and compassion. We start by acknowledging ourselves and then expand out to widening circles - loved ones, family, friends, acquaintances, our community, nation, world, even to those we dislike or have challenges with.

Start by sitting comfortably, with eyes closed and spine straight, breathing naturally. On the in-breath, breathe in any challenges, constriction, fear or pain you might be feeling. Feel it being soothed and comforted by the energies of the heart. On the out-breath, breathe out love, compassion, and appreciation for yourself. Thank yourself for all that you do and for the preciousness of your being. Allow yourself to bask in this appreciation for as many rounds as you like. Next, expand your attention to your circle of close family and loved ones. Breathe in their struggles and challenges, allowing them to be held compassionately in your heart, then breathe out appreciation, acceptance, love or anything that would take away their pain. Honor and thank them for who they are.

At your own pace, continue to expand the circle to friends and acquaintances, repeating this process. When you feel ready, hold in mind someone whom you are in conflict. Without judgment, breathe in their pain, fear, and stuckness and hold them in your heart, then breathe out appreciation and understanding for them. Continue expanding to widening circles until you are holding the entire world in your attention, breathing in the suffering of humanity, and quietly breathing out love, appreciation, compassion and care for all beings. Breathe in and out for all of us.

Principle #3: Summon Pure Desire

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:59:00 +0000

This post is third in the series "7 Principles for Consciously Creating Your Life" on cultivating a life of joy, prosperity and abundance. The first two posts covered Principle #1: Live in the Now and Principle #2: Enter the Divine Mind.

Last week several readers commented on the description of this series - cultivating a life of a joy, prosperity, abundance - and wondered whether I was promoting a materialist viewpoint.

In my various travels, I've rarely met people for whom material possessions actually made them feel abundant. I've met billionaires who still look for parking spaces with money on the meter, and penniless mostly-naked sadhus filled with supreme delight by a scoop of rice in their begging bowls. Whether rich or poor, something other than money has evoked the experience of prosperity...or prevented it.

"The most important factor in the quality of life for a human being is how the person's mind is managed," writes Richard Thurman, a Tibetan scholar who travels frequently with the Dalai Lama. "Transforming our consciousness is the most important work we can ever do."

How we "manage our minds" is central to how we perceive reality and how we feel about the circumstances of our lives. Creating consciously is about moving beyond the pursuit of external pleasure into the natural abundance of the awakened mind.

Which brings us to Principle #3...tricky territory indeed...Desire.

How do we work with desire without getting lost in it?

The Buddha warned that desire is the primary cause of all human suffering. He said our continuous craving for comfort, pleasure and material possessions can never be fully satiated, so inevitably we end up in pain. John Cleese declared the modern version of this, "I used to desire many, many things, but now I have just one desire, and that's to get rid of all my other desires." The Buddha would have approved.

But now we have a dilemma. While many traditions recognize desire a source of human torment, we also know that desire is an essential element for creation. Whether it's the sexual desire to conceive a child or the social desire to save the rainforest, how can we create without desire?

It's useful to return to a distinction made in last week's post: the distinction between the ego mind and the Divine Mind. Our egos are ripe with individual desires and attachments that ultimately cause us anguish, as the Buddha discovered so many centuries ago.

Alternately, the Divine Mind or universal consciousness is imbued with a different kind of desire -- pure, unpolluted, non-judgmental desire. This desire is the primordial desire of creation, from which the entire world manifests. It exists in the heart of the universal Self, beyond duality, beyond right and wrong, where creation is simply a playful movement of consciousness. By accessing this state, we can know and live the purest desire within the Self.

In Living Deeply (Schlitz, Vietan and Amorok), Yoruba chief and storyteller Luisah Teish shares how her African tradition describes this kind of experience:

The way we talk about it, we would speak of a person realigning their aurie, their earthly head, with ip'ori, their heavenly head. Ip'ori is that part of a person that is connected to spirit, that always has been and always will be. And ip'ori knows what your contract with creation was when you chose to take a body and come into this world.

Transformational teacher Angeles Arrien relays a similar concept held by the Inuit:

There's a lovely Inuit saying that there are really two plans to every day: there's my plan and there's the Mystery's plan. [The first] is an egoic plan. But there's a deeper plan that is much stronger than any egoic plan. This plan gets revealed in silence, with specific intention and attention. What often happens for people in silence and in nature, in prayer or affirmation, is that once they let go and really listen, something else emerges that wasn't on the agenda.

For me, after many years of meditation, I finally asked myself: From which of these states would I rather create a life? From aurie or ip'ori? From ego's agenda or Mystery's agenda? I could spend my whole life exerting my ego to what avail? Even if my ego were capable of making me the next Oprah (which is highly dubious), that would still be paltry compared to cosmic consciousness. What is this incarnation dedicated to after all...or any incarnation for that matter?

I committed to live the Mystery. While my execution is highly imperfect, the intention changed the course of things. And what I've discovered, dissolving into the desire in the heart of the Self, is a doorway into the cosmic bliss experience described by the mystics of the ages. This verse in the Siva Sutras expresses it beautifully: "Hrdaye citta samghattad drshya swapa darshanam." Loosely translated it says when the mind falls into the heart consciousness (Divine Mind), you simultaneously experience both the void and the arising of the entire manifest universe. Experiencing yourself as both emptiness and the entire universe, you become everything you could possibly desire.

As my teacher would say, "You are meant to fulfill desire - not in a human way, but in a divine way."

Exercise for Tapping Pure Desire - Last week we started exploring the yoga of sound. According to the yogis, various sounds carry unique energies that can awaken specific parts of the brain and subtle body. This exercise builds upon last weeks' practice of bringing awareness into the central energy meridian, called the sushumna, and using specific sounds to activate desired energies. Today, we'll be working with the sound "eeee", the seed sound in Sanskrit for the energy of pure desire and divine will.

Sit quietly and bring your attention to the spinal column. Visualize a luminous channel of light running up the spinal column, from the tailbone up to the crown of the head and out into infinite space. Now bring your attention to the heart center in the middle of the chest. As you focus on the heart center, softly tone the sound "eeeee" either out loud or inwardly. Repeat the sound as many times as you like, feeling it vibrate within the entire chest cavity. As you work with the sound, hold the intention to be guided toward the highest desires of your soul. After the mediation, write down any guidance or intuition you receive about desires that are meaningful for you to create.

Principle #2: Enter The Field Of Infinite Potential, The Divine Mind

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:05:00 +0000

This post is second in the series "7 Principles for Consciously Creating Your Life" on cultivating a life of joy, prosperity and abundance.

Some of you may have seen the popular, Oprah-acclaimed movie The Secret which claims to reveal a closely guarded ancient secret - that you are a powerful, volitional co-creator of reality. You manifest your experience directly through your thoughts and intentions, the movie asserts. Your thoughts carry a certain energy which attracts objects and experiences of similar vibration to you through the "law of attraction".

This notion of "attraction" is an imprecise approximation of the mechanics of manifestation as understood by the yogis (we'll come back to that shortly), but the overall conclusion is consistent: you create your reality in every moment.

In fact, it is the very nature of the Self to create. You are imbued with infinite creative potential. "As the great banyan tree lies in the form of potency in the seed, even so the entire universe lies as a potency in the heart of the Supreme," says the yogic text Paratrimsika. Creativity is the essence of divinity. As you awaken to your true divine nature, you can access the vast creative power inherent in the heart of your being.

There's only one problem -- most of us are still operating from individual ego identities. Our minds are cluttered with thoughts, doubts, fears, and worries which unconsciously manifest into frenzied, conflicted and chaotic lives. In order to consciously invoke your creative potential and begin manifesting a life of peace and wholeness, you must be willing to soften your addiction to the rational mind and move your awareness into the "Divine Mind." Let me explain.

The word "rational" comes from the root "ratio", to divide or particularize. The rational mind is particularized into discrete thought constructs which operate at conscious and subconscious levels to create your reality. Referred to as karma in the eastern traditions, this condition of being beholden to habituated patterns and predispositions of thought, limits your free will. Because your thought patterns are relatively fixed, your ability to create a wildly audacious new reality through the rational mind is virtually zero.

Alternately, the Divine Mind holds unbounded possibilities. The Divine Mind is an infinite field of non-dual awareness beyond thought, variously described as the superconscious mind, ultimate reality, source, emptiness, void, no-mind, universal consciousness, etc. by different traditions. It is omniscient, all-powerful and eternal. By relaxing into the thought-free Divine Mind, "you" cease to exist, becoming one with the unlimited intelligence and creative potential of the supreme Self, liberated from the small habituated patterns of ego. In this universal state, individual karma also ceases to exist (think of it as a karma-free zone) and powerful new realities are possible.

Sounds intriguing, you say, how does this work?

Let's return to the misnomer of "attraction". According to the yogis, reality is not "out there" waiting to be attracted to you. Instead, the entire phenomenal world arises from within your own consciousness. While the perception of duality created by your limited sense organs might lead you to believe you are separate from the rest of creation, even our science knows that you are mostly swirling electrons and empty space, non-different from the chair on which you are sitting or the computer screen displaying this article.

Creation is not about attracting objects to you, it's about entering the Divine Mind which holds all things simultaneously in indistinguishable unity. Here you are non-different from that which you desire to create. Thought and form are inseparable, an idea and its physical expression are indivisible. By collapsing subject and object, you become infinite. Now, the true yogic secret is revealed: if you drop a single thought into the thought-free Divine Mind, it will have atomic power to manifest.

"In the Divine Mind, energy and matter are the same. Subject and object are the same. At that level, there is truth without duality," teaches Dattatreya Siva Baba. "Go into this divine state and then visualize what you want to create. By building castles in the air, you build them in reality."

The exercise for this week is to cultivate access to Divine Mind:

Entering the Field of Infinite Potential - This exercise builds upon last week's practice of bringing awareness inward. Sit quietly and bring your attention to the spinal column. Visualize a luminous channel of light running up the spinal column, from the tailbone up to the crown of the head and out into infinite space.

The central channel is called "sushumna" in Sanskrit. It is the primary channel for awakening spiritual consciousness, as well as for distribution of vital life force energy throughout the subtle body. As you practice maintaining your awareness within the sushumna, imagine also a brilliant flame burning in the area between the two eyebrows.

If this feels difficult, you can use a series of tones discovered by the yogis to help purify and awaken this channel. The following sounds can be chanted out loud or silently while moving your awareness up the spinal column as described. Start by focusing your attention on the lower abdomen region, and tone the sound “ahhhhh,” (as in “awe”). Slowly move your awareness up the spinal column to the heart center in the center of the chest, and tone the sound “ooooooo,” (as in “tune”). Now moving your attention further up the spinal column into the throat region, tone the sound “maaaaaa” (as in “mom”). Finally, imagine a flame burning in the third eye between the two eyebrows, and tone the sound “Ommmmm” (as in “home”). Repeat this cycle as many times as you like. By awakening this channel, you open into the Divine Mind.

Principle #1: Live In The Now

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Lawson) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:00:00 +0000

As promised, this week starts the series "7 Principles for Consciously Creating Your Life" on how to create more conscious, joyous and abundant lives. Many of you have asked for practical suggestions on how to initiate personal and spiritual exploration. While there is no single roadmap -- there are as many unique routes up the mountain as there are unique trekkers blazing the trail -- a few simple, universal principles can help bring us into alignment with higher sources of wisdom. Once we understand the relationship between our internal landscape (mind and thoughts) and external landscape (events and experiences) we can begin to consciously create the lives we desire.

The first principle of conscious creation may sound incredibly simplistic, but is actually quite challenging to master: Live in the Now.

The natural tendency of the human mind is to race around from one thought to another. Rather than maintaining awareness in the present moment, we spend countless hours rehashing the past and fretting over the future. Let's take a look at both...

Imagine the last time someone insulted or offended you. How long did you cycle over it in your mind? "He was wrong. It wasn't my fault. She's to blame..." If you are a like most people, the incident kicked off a deluge of internal dialogue, probably lasting hours or days, all fixated on a single (already old) moment. When you hold resentments toward others, you bind those individuals to you energetically. As you cycle over past transgressions in your mind, replaying the memories, you lock yourself in bondage to past experience. These trapped memories are stockpiled in the subconscious mind and, unbeknownst to you, subtly flavor all new experiences. Rather than living a new reality in every moment, you recycle past resentments over and over.

Alternately, if you're not rehashing the past, your mind is likely projecting out into the future, worrying about how things will play out for you. "What if you're not successful? How will you support yourself?..." You constantly fret over possible future scenarios, feeling fear and anxiety even though your fantasies have no basis in reality. Arianna recently laughingly shared a quote by Montaigne she keeps on her desk to ward off phantom fears. Liberally translated from French, it says, "There were many terrible things in my life and most of them never happened."

Ultimately, this mischief of the mind limits your creative power - you cannot create from the past, nor can you create in the future. You can only create in present moment...in the Now.

The Now is eternal and unbounded. It is without content. It is free from any orientation or attachment. Some traditions describe the Now as the gap between two thoughts. By slipping into the gap of the Now you can structure an entirely new experience. When you are fully attentive to the moment, you can access the field of infinite potential...where past, present and future do not dictate your reality.

Every moment is truly new. Every moment is pregnant with possibility and imbued with vast creative intelligence. Your job is to constantly empty the mind, giving up old moments in favor of unlimited possibility. No matter what has come before, a new reality is possible this moment. No matter how "bad" your day has been, you have the power to create the best day of your life.

I want to give you three exercises this week to practice staying in the Now:

Offering Forgiveness - Write down all the resentments, misunderstandings, grudges, conflicts and confusions that you are still holding onto. As you complete each page, offer forgiveness to all those on the list and ask that all old emotions, energies and memories be released and healed. Crumple the paper up and burn it in the fireplace. When the mind sees the fire consuming the paper, it will intuit that the burden is gone and the emotion of the embedded experience can be dissolved.

Cultivating Breath Awareness - The breath carries life force energy and meters the natural rhythms of the body. Sit quietly and imagine the breath traveling in a continuous circle, from the in-breath to the out-breath, round and round. Let the breath flow naturally and comfortably. Notice when the out-breath turns into the in-breath and vice versa. This process of observing the breath will quiet the activity of the mind. You will relax into the Now.

Bringing Awareness Inward - Most mystical traditions recognize the existence of an energetic body, corresponding to the physical body, which directs the inner flow of subtle energy throughout the system. The central energy channel runs parallel to the spine, from the tailbone to the top of the head, and connects the lower instinctual centers with the higher functions of intuition, spiritual sight and divine guidance.

Sit quietly and bring your attention to the spinal column. Visualize a channel of light running up the middle of the spine. Imagine your breath moving through this channel, starting at the base of the spine, moving slowly up the spinal column, then out through the top of the head. Repeat this as many times as you like. By doing this you will become aware of your inner essence, the eternal witnessing presence that rests in the Now.