Kundalini Splendor

Christmas Light

When everyone had gone
I sat in the library
With the small silent tree,
She and I alone.
How softly she shone!

And for the first time then
For the first time this year,
I felt reborn again,
I knew love's presence near.

Love distant, love detached
And strangely without weight,
Was with me in the night
When everyone had gone
And the garland of pure light
Stayed on, stayed on.

Beannacht
("Blessing")

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

- John O'Donohue

Although I am always a bit of a skeptic when I encounter material such as this, I feel it is important to keep an open mind and consider all possibilities.  I actually agree with much of what is presented here.  Certainly everything is vibration, both on the material and spiritual planes.  Indeed, we do feel the presence of heavenly beings in certain situations.  For me, that might be through listening to certain music or entering the bliss states that are awakened in states of altered consciousness.  Instead of personifying the blessed presences in these experiences, I simply think of these times as becoming aware of the Beloved Within, for when these transcendent moments occur it is indeed as if the small self opens to and unites with the Larger Self, the Divine Reality which is love.
Again, I feel such frequencies when I am in the company of certain ones who themselves have higher vibrations, such as Rob Wergin, the energy healer I have mentioned.  He states that he is the vessel through which the healing angels operate.  For whatever reason, I typically go into deep rapture in his presence.  I do not see the angels, but I feel them strongly within.
I feel that such transitions into higher frequencies is the means by which we as a species are moving into our next state of human evolution.  Kundalini is an important phenomenon by which this raising of our vibrations is occurring.  Indeed, it is happening!

December 27, 2014
Connecting with the Archangels
by Sunny Dawn Johnston

The following is an excerpt from the "Connecting with the Archangels" on-line course from Om.  If you would like to enroll in the course, check it out on the Om Site.


Angels can unleash hurricanes of healing,
release tidal waves of love,
move whole mountains of hatred,
melt icebergs of jealousy
and evaporate oceans of pain.
˜Unknown

In order to understand how to connect with the Archangels, you first have to understand vibration. Everything created is energy, and energy vibrates at different levels. Just as a singer has a vocal range that moves from lowest to highest, so do human beings have a vibrational range. In other words, you move up and down a vibrational scale. The more you work on loving yourself, the higher your vibration rises and the easier it is to connect with the higher vibrational beings that I refer to as Spiritual Helpers. These helpers are also known as deceased loved ones, Spirit Guides, Ascended Masters, Angels, and Archangels. Everyone is born with a different vibrational scale, but everyone possesses the ability to reach the highest level through appreciation, forgiveness, joy, meditation, and love. If you wish to connect to higher vibrational beings, then you simply raise your own personal vibration.

You might be wondering why you need to raise your vibration. The universal Law of Attraction states that like energy attracts like energy; and because the beings in the spiritual realm will not lower their vibration, you must raise yours to connect with them. The more you stay in a higher, lighter, clearer vibration, the more you will connect with the spiritual realm.

Physical beings are you and me and everyone you see with a body and a heartbeat.

Deceased loved ones are family, friends, co-workers, and loved ones who have passed away, transitioned, kicked the bucket, died, dropped their body, and so on. They have released the dense energy of their physical bodies and have automatically moved up the vibrational scale. Deceased loved ones can raise their vibration even higher now and can become Spirit Guides, if so desired and chosen. In my experience, there is often an amount of divine time, not measured time, where they "prepare" for this, as it is not typically instantaneous.

Spirit Guides, who once inhabited a physical form, had the same journey or purpose as the physical beings they are now guiding. Upon leaving their physical bodies, Spirit Guides choose to become teachers or guides to those of us still in the physical realm. They offer guidance, comfort, and, at times, warnings and protection. Spirit Guides are often the spiritual essence of deceased loved ones.



The Ascended Masters are Divine Beings that lived earthly lives as great teachers, healers, or way-showers of ascension. They released all their fears and grew and raised their vibrations in order to ascend. Ascended Masters come from all cultures, modern and ancient civilizations, and are often spoken of and remembered in religious context, such as Buddha and Jesus.

The Ascended Masters bring light and love to everyone regardless of their religious beliefs or feelings of worthiness. The Ascended Masters know and teach that we are all worthy of love and guidance.

Angels, Guardian Angels, and Archangels are higher vibrational beings who exist only in the spiritual realm and do not incarnate into physical form as humans and animals do. Angels help, guide, comfort, and assist us in our earthly journey by uplifting and protecting us. Each physical being is supported by one Guardian Angel throughout his/her entire physical life, from birth to death. A Guardian Angel's job is to unconditionally love and protect us. Archangels are the powerful overseers of the angelic realm. Call on the Archangels any time for anything, and they will be there immediately.

Throughout my life, angelic beings have presented themselves in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and forms. Their appearance was often determined by what I was feeling, seeing, or knowing in the moment. Over time though, their forms have changed and evolved as I've grown spiritually. Therefore, the definition or visual representation of Angels can be as different as seashells on a beach. Each individual will experience Angels based upon his or her own perceptions. I believe that all impressions of the angelic realm are valid.

Angels show themselves in a way that you are able to perceive and understand and are often gentle and comforting in their approach.

The Divine is the God of your understanding. My understanding of God does not come from religious beliefs or scripture but from my own journey inward. When I reached a point in my life where I recognized I had to take responsibility for myself and that I had no control over anything or anyone but myself, I came to understand that God was in everyone and everything.

I realized that God is Love. I am God, you are God, we are God. As are the wind, the trees, the ocean, the animals, the clouds, the rainbows, and the sun. The God of my understanding is everywhere, in everything, and is simply Love.

The Weary World Rejoices



I like to walk

down our street

after dark

at this time of year,

seeing glimpses

of Christmas trees.

Trees that say  Namaste

from within

darkened houses.

Divine inner lights

of a sort

reminding me

that I too

have an inner

divinity that I must

remember to

plug in – especially

when it is dark.

This Being Human

This  being  human is a guest  house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression,
a meanness,
some  momentary  awareness  comes  as  an unexpected  visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even  if they're a  crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your
house empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you
out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame,  the  malice,
meet  them at the door  laughing,
and  invite them in.

Be grateful  for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Rumi

Toward the Winter Solstice


Although the roof is just a story high,
It dizzies me a little to look down.
I lariat-twirl the cord of Christmas lights
And cast it to the weeping birch’s crown;
A dowel into which I’ve screwed a hook
Enables me to reach, lift, drape, and twine
The cord among the boughs so that the bulbs
Will accent the tree’s elegant design.

Friends, passing home from work or shopping, pause
And call up commendations or critiques.
I make adjustments. Though a potpourri
Of Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Sikhs,
We all are conscious of the time of year;
We all enjoy its colorful displays
And keep some festival that mitigates
The dwindling warmth and compass of the days.

Some say that L.A. doesn’t suit the Yule,
But UPS vans now like magi make
Their present-laden rounds, while fallen leaves
Are gaily resurrected in their wake;
The desert lifts a full moon from the east
And issues a dry Santa Ana breeze,
And valets at chic restaurants will soon
Be tending flocks of cars and SUVs.

And as the neighborhoods sink into dusk
The fan palms scattered all across town stand
More calmly prominent, and this place seems
A vast oasis in the Holy Land.
This house might be a caravansary,
The tree a kind of cordial fountainhead
Of welcome, looped and decked with necklaces
And ceintures of green, yellow, blue, and red.

Some wonder if the star of Bethlehem
Occurred when Jupiter and Saturn crossed;
It’s comforting to look up from this roof
And feel that, while all changes, nothing’s lost,
To recollect that in antiquity
The winter solstice fell in Capricorn
And that, in the Orion Nebula,
From swirling gas, new stars are being born.
- Timothy Steele

The following is by Peter Fenner, but he quotes liberally from the Gospel of Thomas.
Basically, the message is expressed by Tolstoy who said, "The kingdom of God is within you."  As Fenner notes, such is the essential teaching of all mystic traditions. Kundalini is one such tradition--when the self and the Self unite, there is ultimate "nonduality."  This is not a state we think about––it is a realization we experience.

"Western Judeo-Christians are often uncomfortable with the word "nonduality." They often associate it (negatively) with Eastern religions. I am convinced, however, that Jesus was the first nondual religious teacher of the West, and one reason we have failed to understand so much of his teaching, much less follow it, is because we tried to understand it with a dualistic mind."
~ by Fr. Richard Rohr, in The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See

I think it is important to stress the fact that the saints and sages of India have no title-deed to the Truth over and above the devotees of other lands and religious traditions. Every religious tradition worth its salt recognizes the same eternal Truth; and all great religious teachers have taught according to their own intimate experience of God, their “mystical vision” -- whether it is called “samadhi,” “nirvana,” “fana,” or “union with God.”

Since there is but one ultimate Reality, which all share, each one who has experienced the Truth has experienced that same ultimate Reality. Naturally, therefore, their teachings about it, and about how one can experience It for oneself, are bound to be identical.

The languages and cultures of the various teachers who have lived throughout history are, no doubt, different from one another. Their personalities and life-styles are different. But their vision is one, and the path they teach to it is one. In the mystical experience, which transcends all religious traditions and cultures and languages, the Christian and the Vedantist alike come to the same realization: They realize the oneness of their own soul and God, the Soul of the universe. It is this very experience, which prompted Jesus, the originator of Christianity, to explain at various times to his disciples that he had known the great Unity in which he and the Father of the universe were one:

“If you knew who I am,” he said, "you would also know the Father. Knowing me, you know Him; seeing me, you see Him. Do you not understand that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? It is the Father who dwells in me doing His own work. Understand me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me." 1

This is the truth that Vedanta speaks of as “Non-Dualism.” The term, “Unity,” is, of course, the same in meaning; but it seems that the declaration, “not-two” is more powerfully emphatic than a mere assertion of oneness. Indeed, the word, “Unity” is often used by religionists who apply it to God, but who have not even considered the thought that they themselves are logically included in an absolute Unity.

Non-Dualism, the philosophy of absolute Unity, is the central teaching, not only of Vedanta, but of all genuine seers of Truth. This position is embodied in the Vedantic assertion, tat twam asi, “That thou art.”

Once we begin to look at the teachings of Jesus in the light of his “mystical” experience of Unity, we begin to have a much clearer perspective on all the aspects of the life and teaching of the man. His teachings, like those of the various Vedantic sages who’ve taught throughout the ages, is that the soul of man is none other than the one Divinity, none other than God; and that this Divine Identity can be experienced and known through the revelation that occurs inwardly, by the grace of God, to those who prepare and purify their minds and hearts to receive it.
His disciples asked him, “When will the kingdom come?” Jesus said, “It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying ‘Here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ Rather, the kingdom of the Father is [already] spread out upon the earth, and [yet] men do not see it." 4

"... Indeed, what you look forward to has already come, but you do not recognize it." 5

The Pharisees asked him, “When will the kingdom of God come?” He said, “You cannot tell by signs [i.e., by observations] when the kingdom of God will come. There will be no saying, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is [experienced] within you.” 6

They are those same two principles we have so often run into, called “Brahman" and "Maya,” “Purusha" and "Prakrti,” “Shiva" and "Shakti.” It is the Godhead in us, which provides the Light in us; it is the manifestory principle, which, in the process of creating an individual soul-mind-body, provides us with all the obscuration necessary to keep us in the dark as to our infinite and eternal Identity.

Jesus said, “If they ask you, ‘Where did you come from?’ say to them, ‘We came from the Light, the place where the Light came into being of Its own accord and established Itself and became manifest through our image.’ If they ask you, ‘Are you It?’ say, ‘We are Its children, and we are the elect of the living Father.’ If they ask you, ‘What is the sign of your Father in you?’ say to them, ‘It is movement and repose.’” 11

The teaching, common to all true “mystics” who have realized the Highest, is “You are the Light of the world!" You are That! Identify with the Light, the Truth, for That is who you really are!” And yet Jesus did not wish that this should remain a mere matter of faith with his disciples; he wished them to realize this truth for themselves.

And he taught them the method by which he had come to know God. Like all great seers, he knew both the means and the end, he knew both the One and the many. Thus we hear in the message of Jesus an apparent ambiguity, which is necessitated by the paradoxical nature of the Reality.

In the One, the two -- soul and God -- play their love-game of devotion. At one moment, the soul speaks of God, its “Father”; at another moment, it is identified with God, and speaks of “I.” Likewise, in the words of Jesus to his disciples, we see this same complementarity: At one moment, he speaks of dualistic devotion in the form of prayer (“Our Father, who art in heaven”); and at another moment he asserts his oneness, his identity, with God (“Lift the stone and I am there . . .”).

"I took my place in the midst of the world, and I went among the people. I found all of them intoxicated [with pride and ignorance]; I found none of them thirsty [for Truth]. And my soul became sorrowful for the sons of men, because they are blind in their hearts and do not have vision. Empty they came into the world, and empty they wish to leave the world. But, for the moment, they are intoxicated; when they shake off their wine, then they will repent."

Peter Fenner

Notes

1. John, Gospel Of, 13:40. back
2. Ibid., 17:25. back
3. Ibid., 8:54. back
4. Thomas, Gospel Of, 114; Robinson (trans. by Thomas O. Lambdin), pp. 138. back
5. Ibid.,51, p. 132. back
6. Luke, Gospel Of, 17:20. back
7. Thomas, Gospel Of,3; Robinson, 1977, p. 126. back
8. Ibid., 83, p. 135. back
9. Ibid., 24, p. 129. back
10. John, Gospel Of, 1:1. back
11. Thomas, Gospel Of, 50, p. 132. back
12. Ibid., 77, p. 135. back
13. Matthew, Gospel Of, 5:14-16. back
14. Mark, Gospel Of, 9:1. back
15. Thomas Gospel Of, 111; Robinson, 1977, p. 138. back
16. Ibid., 59, p. 132. back
17. Ibid., 70, p. 134. back
18. Ibid., 17, p. 128. back
19. Luke, Gospel Of, 18:18. back
20. Ibid., 18:18-30; Matthew, Gospel Of, 19:16. back
21. Matthew, Gospel Of, 5:17. back
22. Thomas, Gospel Of, 105, p. 137. back
23. Ibid., 28, p. 130. back

7.




Let your attention glide
Through the centers of awareness along the spine
with adoring intent.

There is a song to each area of the body.
Listen to these sounds resonating in sweet vortexes,
long rhythmic vowels.

Ah . . . .
and Eee . . . .
Hummmm . . .

resonating on and on.

Listen to these as sounds,
then more subtly as an underlying hum,
eventually as most subtle feeling.

Then diving more deeply,
expand into freedom.




8.




Rest the attention easily in the forehead,
in the eye that is made of light.
Follow the flow of breath outward from there
into the spaciousness before you.
Tenderly permeate that spaciousness.

Awakening attention notices it is on a bridge,
outside the little house of the skull.
Extending not only outward, but upward,
into the radiant space above . . .

Set free to travel the bridge, the small self
enters a radiant omnipresence.
This it remembers, and knows as its truth.

Gradually the luminosity of that truth
fills the body to overflowing
as it rises through the crown of the head
into a shower of light.




9.




Embrace each of your senses in turn,

Seeing as being touched by light.
Hearing as immersion in an ocean of sound.
Tasting as enlightening.
Smelling as knowing.
Touching as electrifying.

Then leave all these behind,
and be intimate with the unknowable.





10.




Whenever the attention rests on anything -
on the emptiness of space,
looking at a vast blue sky,
when looking on a wall
or some wonderful person,
let that attention gradually be absorbed into itself,
so that the one who is paying attention be known.

The above is an image of ShaktiShiva at play.  It is entitled "Bhairava and Devi traversing the Night Sky," (from Lotus Sculptures)

What is being described in these sutras (verses) is indeed a description of the play of Kundalini within the body as acute bliss, as lover and beloved become one.
See his website at www.lorinroche.com/


3.



Enter these turning points
In the play of respiration and expiration,
Where the rhythms of life transform
Into each other.

Breath flows in, then surrenders to flow out again.
In this moment, drink eternity.

Breath flows out, emptying, emptying,
Offering itself to infinity.

Cherishing these moments,
Mind dissolves into heart,
Heart dissolves into space,
Body becomes a shimmering field
Pulsating between emptiness and fullness..





4.




In any quiet moment when you are breathing,
the breath may flow out and pause of itself,
or flow in and pause of itself.
There experience opens into an exquisite vastness
with no beginning and no end.

Embrace that infinity without reservation.
Dive into it, drink deeply of it and emerge renewed.




5.




Follow the path of the radiant life force
as she flashes upward like lightning
through your body.

Attend simultaneously
to the perineum, that bright place between the legs,
to the crown of the skull,
and to that shining star-place above the head.

Notice how this living electricity becomes ever more subtle
as she rises, radiant as the morning sun
until she streams outward from
the top of the head into all-embracing gratitude.

Thus become intimate with the life of all beings.


6.




Or trace the river of life that flows through you,
the luxuriously rising energies,
Gradually kissing each of the centers along the spine,
Savor each particle of color along the way.

Enter each area tenderly, loving as you go
and then finally, gently
dissolving in the crown of the head.

The Big Heart

 “Too many things
are occurring for even a big heart to hold.”
W. B. Yeats

Big heart,
wide as a watermelon,
but wise as birth,
there is so much abundance
in the people I have
and all in their short lives
give to me repeatedly,
in the way the sea
places its many fingers on the shore,
again and again
and they know me,
they help me unravel,
they listen with ears made of
conch shells,
they speak back with the wine
of the best region.
They are my staff.
They comfort me.
They hear how
the artery of my soul has been severed
and soul is spurting out upon them,
bleeding on them,
messing up their clothes,
dirtying their shoes.
And God is filling me,
though there are times of doubt
as hollow as the Grand Canyon,
still God is filling me.
He is giving me the thoughts of dogs,
the spider in its intricate web,
the sun
in all its amazement,
and a slain ram
that is the glory,
the mystery of great cost,
and my heart,
which is very big,
I promise it is very large,
a monster of sorts,
takes it all in—
all in comes the fury of love.

- Anne Sexton

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Lorin Roche--the Radiance Sutras (full version on Amazon and also on his website at www.lorinroche.com/‎ )

from Wikipedia

'The Vigyan Bhairav Tantra (Sanskrit: विज्ञान भैरव तन्त्र, Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra) is a key text of the Trika school of Kashmir Shaivism. Cast as a discourse between the god Shiva and his consort Devi or Shakti, it briefly presents 112 meditation methods or centering techniques (dharanas). These include several variants of breath awareness, concentration on various centers in the body, non-dual awareness, chanting, imagination and visualization and contemplation through each of the senses. A prerequisite to success in any of the 112 practices is a clear understanding of which method is most suitable to the practitioner. . .

The text is a chapter from the Rudrayamala Tantra, a Bhairava Agama. Devi, the goddess, asks Siva to reveal the essence of the way to realization of the highest reality. In his answer Siva describes 112 ways to enter into the universal and transcendental state of consciousness. References to it appear throughout the literature of Kashmir Shaivism, indicating that it was considered to be an important text in the monistic school of Kashmir Shaiva philosophy. . .


Bhairava means "terrifying" and it is an adjective applied to Shiva in his fearful aspect. Yet in Kashmir Shaivism, the three letters of this name are taken in a different manner. Bha means bharana, maintenance; ra means ravana, withdrawal and va means vamana, creation of the universe. . .

Tantra is also the name for a treatise or article.

An agama is a sacred text, a portion of a tantra.
“If you love Rumi, Hafiz, The Tao, if you love words dancing out of the mystery, welcome to The Radiance Sutras: these are among the most profound, exquisite and luminous verses you will ever read.” - Jack Kornfield, Author of A Path With Heart

"Lorin Roche's rendition of the Vijnana Bhairava is truly radiant, filled with insight and poetry, and illumined by the power of his practice." – Sally Kempton

“Like feeling and reading Shakti in print. I read a little bit each day, then close my eyes and do the exercise, or ponder the thought. I let the warm sweet loving words and imagery wash and heal my many layers of self.” - Lilias Folan

There there have been many translations of this ancient text, but Lorin Roche's version carries a special power.  It is perhaps the most poetic, the most appealing in terms of the shakti it contains and conveys.  The entire text is reprinted on his website.  Here is a sample:



One day The Goddess sang to her lover Bhairava,


Beloved and radiant Lord of the space before birth,
Revealer of essence,
Slayer of the ignorance that binds us,

You, who in play have created this universe
and permeated all forms in it with never-ending truth.
I have been wondering . . .

I have been listening to the songs of creation,
I have heard the sacred sutras being sung,
and yet still I am curious.

What is this delight-filled universe
into which we find ourselves born?

What is this mysterious awareness shimmering
everywhere within it?

What are these instinctive energies
that undulate through our bodies,
moving us into action?

And this “matter” out of which our forms are made -
What are these dancing particles of condensed radiance,
Are they an illusionist's projection?

What is this power we call Life,
appearing as the play of flesh and breath?
How may I know this mystery and enter it more deeply?

Beloved, my attention is ensnared by a myriad of forms,
the innumerable individual entities everywhere.

Lead me into the wholeness beyond all these parts.

You, who hold the mysteries in your hand -
of will, knowledge and action,
Reveal to me the path of illumined knowing.

Lead me into joyous union
with the life of the universe.

Teach me that I may know it fully,
realize it deeply,
and breathe in the truth of it.

1.

The One Who is Intimate to All Beings said,
Beloved, your questions require the answers that come
through direct living experience.


The way of experience begins with a breath
such as the breath you are breathing now.
Awakening into the luminous reality
may dawn in the momentary throb
between any two breaths.

The breath flows in and just before it turns
to flow out,
there is a flash of pure joy -
life is renewed.
Awaken into that.

As the breath is released and flows out,
there is a pulse as it turns to flow in.
In that turn, you are empty.
Enter that emptiness as the source of all life.

2.

Radiant one,

The life essence carries on its play
through the pulsing rhythm
of outward and inward movement.
This is the ceaseless throb, the rhythm of life -
terrifying in its eternity, exquisite in its constancy.

The inhalation, the return movement of breath,
sustains life.
The outgoing breath
purifies life.
We breathe out the old air, the old thoughts, the old feelings.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x13kqkz_the-ghost-inside-my-child-s01e02_shortfilms

Check out Ghost Inside My Child, a new LMN series that explores the stories of children who appear to have lived a previous life, only on myLifetime.com!

If the above link does not work, then google the title of the program.  I get it on DirectTV, I think on Saturday evening.

The notion of reincarnation is one that continues to intrigue many of us.  Often we ourselves have had brief glimpses of such seeming recollections from other lifetimes.  And sometimes we encounter others who appear to retain vivid memories of events that occurred before their birth on earth as their present identities.

A great deal has been written on this topic, but much of it focuses on children born in India or other countries where reincarnation is accepted as a believable occurrence.  In America, where such is not the case, accounts have been rare and skepticism the norm.

However, a recent T. V. series sheds new light on this subject.  Called "Ghost Inside My Child," this series presents children now living in the U. S. who appear to retain clear memories of their previous lives and the nature of their deaths.  Many feel that they have perished in various accidents of prior times.  Sometimes they are convinced they were soldiers who died in battle, or passengers who drowned when a certain large ship sank.

In the latter case, a young man successfully identified the ship he was on (not the Titanic but rather the Lusitania) and was able to locate the living mother of the presumed young man who drowned in the water.  He visited with her and she believed his story and accepted him as the reincarnation of her son.

In another, a very young boy was convinced he had been killed as the pilot of a certain airplane that had been used in WWII.  Ultimately, with the help of his parents, he was able to locate a picture of that particular plane, even though it was not as well known as others in service at that time.

Often these children start recalling these incidents even before they can explain it very well in speech. And many times they seem to be reliving the fear that they felt in their death trauma.  Many times they draw pictures to indicate what they are talking about.  In most cases, the parents are confused and disturbed by their child's behavior, since the majority have no acquaintance with the subject of reincarnation.  But they are concerned that their children are unhappy, and often they are––ultimately––convinced.  They want to help their children get over apparent past life trauma and get on with their new lives.  Once the child is freed of such haunting memories, they can go forward in their new identities.

I am wondering if a young child I know is not such a case.  When she was only three years old, her mother noticed her carrying food to a table where there was a small statue of the Buddha.  When her mother asked her what she was doing, she replied that she was "feeding the Buddha."  Now, I do not know if it was common practice in earlier times to "feed the Buddha," but it was often the custom in Eastern temples and ashrams to awaken, bathe, and feed sculptures of the gods and goddesses.

This child is now nine years old.  Recently her grandmother was proofing some manuscripts  for me and happened to read aloud a poem I wrote some years ago called "Living with Buddha."  As she read, the youngster listened carefully, all the while drawing something on her tablet.  She had actually created a kind of collage, incorporating many of the images and themes from the poem, such as heart, light, ascension and several others.

This is a very long poem.  Many adults would not have the patience to listen to it.  But this child was enthralled and created her own visual response.  Somehow, I can't but wonder if she was recalling some past life when she was herself a follower of Buddha, and now was recreating some of the rituals and images that honored him.

I myself seemed to remember one past life incident which described how as a young man in eastern Tibet I had escaped a cruel master and sought refuge in a monastery.  What impressed me most about this memory was how terribly frightened I was when I reached the monastery.  Everything was strange and indeed intimating to me, a country lad who had never been anywhere at all but the horse ranch where I had lived.  I almost wept with sympathy for him.

Then I had another glimpse of his life after he had lived at the monastery for a while.  He was out collecting yak dung for fuel, using a long fork and tossing the patties into a basket on his back.  He was deliriously happy, and kept repeating to himself, "I have a job! I have a job!"  Again, I was very moved by his emotion and felt a strong identification with him.

The Rhythm of Each

I think each comfort we manage-
each holding in the night, each opening
of a wound, each closing of a wound, each
pulling of a splinter or razored word, each
fever sponged, each dear thing given
to someone in greater need-each
passes on the kindness we've known.

For the human sea is made of waves
that mount and merge till the way a
nurse rocks a child is the way that child
all grown rocks the wounded, and how
the wounded, allowed to go on, rock
strangers who in their pain
don't seem so strange.

Eventually, the rhythm of kindness
is how we pray and suffer by turns,
and if someone were to watch us
from inside the lake of time, they
wouldn't be able to tell if we are
dying or being born.

- Mark Nepo

 
_

There Is No One But Us

There is no one but us.
There is no one to send,
nor a clean hand nor a pure heart
on the face of the earth,
but only us,
a generation comforting ourselves
with the notion that we have come at an awkward time,
that our innocent fathers are all dead
- as if innocence had ever been -
and our children busy and troubled,
and we  ourselves unfit, not yet ready,
having each of us chosen wrongly,
made a false start, failed,
yielded to impulse and the tangled comfort of pleasures,
and grown exhausted, unable to seek the thread, weak, and involved.
But there is no one but us.
There never has been.

- Annie Dillard

 


"I said Oh no! Help me!
And that Oh no! became a rope let down in my well.
I've climbed out to stand here in the sun.
One moment I was at the bottom of a dark fearful narrowness,
and the next, I am not contained by the universe.
If every tip of every hair on me could speak, I still couldn't say my gratitude.
In the middle of these streets and gardens, I stand and say and say again,
and it's all I say, I wish everyone could know what I know."

Rumi

Please know that Lawrence Edwards, one of the major figures in our Kundalini world, will be having surgery on Thursday for his back.  We met many years ago and he has been indescribably helpful to me and many, many others ever since. Please send prayers and healing thoughts for Lawrence on Thursday.

Thanks and blessings to all.

Dorothy

Securely Held

Securely held,
and yet helplessly
tumbling
into the deepness
of the unsayable,
you look around,
stunned, and ask,
What just happened?
slowly realizing, once again,
that you've been had.

Jan  December 5, 2014

Lately, I have been thinking about how essential the subjective level is in any attempt to define "reality."  Aesthetic responses are definitely subjective--the do exist, and any attempt to define a work of art by the ingredients used to paint it, or its place in the history of art, or what kind of brush strokes were employed––is doomed to failure.  The entire world of literature, music, visual art, dreams, peak moments and such rests on individual perception and felt response.  These responses cannot be measured or weighed. Yet they comprise our daily lives, how we navigate and interpret the world, what our lives mean to us.
Science has mainly ignored the subjective world and claimed that only that which has physical presence is "real."  I think this is the great error of science.  The "real" as it defines it is not real at all.  The "real" includes all our personal feeling responses to outer stimuli.  These feelings define the "world we live in."  To claim other is to deny the validity of the human experience.

I have even been writing some preliminary thoughts on this topic, and may even try to incorporate them into a book on the topic.  Here are some my initial reflections:

Kundalini and the Transcendent

In recent years, books have appeared with titles like “A Theory of Everything” or “All There is to Know About Everything That is.”
.

Such books are useful offerings, perhaps giving us new insights into unfamiliar ways of approaching the great mystery we call “reality.”

But somehow none of these incorporates the level of feeling itself as a (indeed, the) major component in reality itself.  It is indeed impossible for any of us to know the “whole” of that vast entity we think of as the familiar universe.  True, we can measure the distance of the stars, travel into outer, outer space, and reduce the molecules into atoms and even more minute bits of matter—which then turn out to be non matter or space or energy or perhaps light itself.

But these are all objective endeavors.  Yes, the experimenter can control the outcome of the experiment.  Yet, in truth, we ourselves are the experiment, our limits defined not only by what we think but how we experience the whole enterprise.

Yeats said, “Man (sic) can embody truth but never know it.”  Embodied truth is that which is felt, realized through moments of union of divine origin, an actual somatic sometimes erotic plunging into those invisible realms where ultimate reality (the ongoing Mystery) exists.

We cannot know or adequate define God/Goddess, but we can feel her in our bodies.  We can connect on an undeniable level with that great power/energy that surges through the cosmos, brings into being all that is, and lifts us into states of blissful connection that are, inevitably, beyond words, yet proof that we ourselves are not defined by the material components that make up our bodies and surroundings, but rather we are infinitesimal particles in the unfathomable forces that comprise the “everything” that is.  It is our own subjective experiences that tell us that we inhabit a “cosmic love field” that is invisible and often undetected, yet is the ultimate reality that can be known once we are in proper alignment.

Thus, this is a book about and some reflections on feeling—in particular, the inner sensations of delight and joy that arise through the awakening of the of Kundalini energies within the “self”.

The ancient ones knew that it is through Kundalini that the energies are aroused and then rise to join the very crown in ecstatic delight.  For the crown then opens, like a thousand petaled lotus, to receive the infusions of divine love that come pouring in, and thus join human and the invisible Other in holy union.

This state is that which the alchemists of all ages have sought to achieve.  It is the divinization of matter that many have described.

It is Shiva/Shakti in ecstatic union.  It is Adam Kadmon of the Caballa.  It is the light body of contemporary literature, the Merkaba rider’s goal of earlier eras.  It is Teilhard’s Omega point, where god and human merge.  It is the Shaman’s voyage to the world beyond time.

It is a taste of Enlightenment itself, the state that many have yearned for and sacrificed much to attain.

Though such transcendent moments are often temporary, they offer to us glimpses of a condition beyond the mundane, and reveal realms that exist beyond the human ordinary.  These are the times of arrival, the coming home, the knowing of who you really are.

This book is the result of on ongoing effort to reclaim the centrality of the subjective, to describe as far as possible, the feeling level of transcendent experience, and thus to validate what it is possible to “know” not only by weights and measures but by immersion into the Love Field which surrounds us and is our authentic home.

Temenos–– a Sanctuary

by Peggy Wrenn

A word called a “temenos” in the Greek language,

trips in your mouth, sounds like “tremendous”

a safe place where we willingly share confidences



This is a "sanctuary" where we meet in a field

full of red poppies with delicate vulnerabilities

a lush field, where one can’t be exploited or betrayed



Here people who come, they can only speak truth,

each one can tell her own truth and tell her story,

all her parts, inside, the whole truth, all welcome



He puts down his armor, drops his weapons,

lets his hands be empty, he hears soft lullabies,

encounters songs of unconditional love, a garden



we went seeking, instead found this surprising field

traveling along an untrammeled path, a temenos

a space neither here or there, no past nor future, yes



“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing
 there is a field.  I’ll meet you there.”
Rumi, remember?

Recently I was in a conversation with friends who were interested in how we perceive and are perceived by others.  They pointed out that for another, we are merely this--a perception that may or not tally with the essence of the other person.

This observation made me think back to a time when I was much younger when I was fascinated by what I then called "simultaneous reality."  By this I meant that each of us lives in our own world of perceptions, each observer defined and limited by what we are able to notice and integrate into our personal vision of the world.  Thus the fellow fixing your car may indeed live in a very different "world" than that of the librarian who checks out your books for you or the musician who directs the symphonic orchestra.

And then I started drawing overlapping circles to illustrate just how much each of us might share with the another's world view.  Thus, if two circles (representing separate visions of "reality") are placed side by side, they may overlap to some degree.  In this middle space, each participant will get a glimpse of the other's special way of seeing and interpreting the universe and individual experience.  Each will be comfortable with sharing some of that personal vision.  Sometimes a great deal will be revealed.  But outside this shared space, there will be a region (the rest of the circle, the private inner self) that will be "invisible" and indeed totally unknown to the other.

But if one of them has an encounter so far outside the other's own experience that he/she can make little or nothing of it--what then?  Suspicions of all sorts may arise.  Someone may be seen as  "a weirdo," "off their rocker," even sent to an institution.  Often the visionary may realize that he/she must not reveal their inner discoveries to others and shut down any real communication.

Something of this sort often happens when people undergo intense Kundalini awakening.  Close friends and family, unable to interpret these descriptions of unfamiliar states, may become disturbed and even angry at such claims which they consider false or signs of mental disturbance.  One side of the circle expands as new experience provides an expansion of how one now defines "reality."  The middle section which once reflected a kind of mutual agreement between the two, shrinks significantly.  The awakened one has discovered new realms of being and knowing, regions invisible to the other.

And so the awakening of Kundalini can come with many challenges.  How can we reconcile the new world of insight with the old familiar notions?  How can we live in the two realms (the familiar and the new) simultaneously?

How do we survive when we no longer conform to "consensus reality" and indeed violate  the accepted norms of society?

I knew one woman who said that after her awakening she went home, threw out all her old clothes and started anew.  We too are called on to throw out all of our "old clothes"--thoughts and mental patterns and notions of how the world "is"--and begin again as we reshape our lives into new configurations.

This process may be difficult and last for a long time, but in our heart of hearts we are grateful to have been thrust to this new level of awareness, for we know that we are meant to be explorers of these unfamiliar realms, and that we will meet others who share a similar journey and so validate our own.