Kundalini Splendor

Yesterday

Yesterday,
you were with me
for many hours.

I swooned into
a lake of joy,
thought I would drown
in such fervent passion.

Today, it is desert weather.
No real sun,
just bitter dust
swirling everywhere,
covering me
like a statue
made of earth.

Dorothy Walters
February 23, 2015

Lay Yourself Open


When you want to lay yourself open for the divine,
like a snare that is hollowed out to its depth,
like a canopy that projects a shadow
from the divine heat and light
into your soul,
then go into your inner place physically,
or to that story or symbol that reminds you of the sacred.

Close the door of your awareness to
the public person you think yourself to be.
Pray to the parent of creation, with your inner sense,
the outer senses turned within.
Veiling yourself, the mystery may be unveiled through you.

By opening yourself to the flow of the sacred,
somewhere, resounding in some inner form,
the swell of the divine ocean can move through you.

The breathing life of all reveals itself
in the way you live your life.

~ Neil Douglas-Klotz ~



(Interpretive version of Matthew 6:6 in The Hidden Gospel: Decoding the Spiritual Message of the Aramaic Jesus)

(picture from internet--Bernini, Teresa in Ecstasy)

Workshop with Andrew Harvey and Terry Patten in Berkeley

(from Andrew):

Join me for a special event

Friends, in less than two weeks, I’ll be co-teaching Radiant Embodiment: An Initiatory Journey with my friend and brother in sacred activism, Terry Patten. During the 4 day workshop, we’ll guide participants on an initiatory journey of sacred rites and rituals inspired by the ancient mystery schools of India, Egypt, and Greece. Together we will convene a sacred community of practice, anchored in the awareness that profoundly liberating transformation is not merely subjective; it is enacted in relationship, and ceremonially “made real” in community. I invite you to join us on this hero's journey, March 5-8 with an introductory evening March 4 in Berkeley, Ca. http://landing.terrypatten.com/




Andrew

Terry Patton is, to my mind, one of the most outstanding and inspiring wisdom teachers of our time.  What he says in this most recent video is a preview of his upcoming webinar, which covers ground that is basic to all who follow the "direct path" to union with the Beloved, especially those of us devoted to the kundalini experience.  Here is a poem I wrote which expresses the essence of his (and my) message:


Don’t Make Lists 

Every day a new flower rises
from your body’s fresh soil.
Don’t go around looking
for fallen petals
in a fairy tale, when you’ve
got the golden plant
right here, now,
shooting forth in light from your eyes,
your awakening crown.

Don’t make lists, or explore ancient accounts.
Forget everything you know
and open.

(From Marrow of Flame)




Dear Dorothy Walters,

I'm delighted to share the following short video with you from integral visionary Terry Patten, which packs a lot of wisdom in a small package. It will give you a clear and concise glimpse into the simplicity, aliveness and art of living the integral heart life.

Watch 1 ½-minute video: "The Secret to Authentic Spiritual Living" with Terry Patten

Terry's Living the Integral Heart training starts this week, and although the key to this heart-awakened approach to living ultimately requires giving up all methods and techniques -- as Terry shares in the above video -- you will need some guidance and practices on the way. And Terry is the perfect mentor for this profound journey.

His own four-decade quest to learn about and experience the higher reaches of the heart's intelligence -- and its capacity for love -- found him working with the Institute of HeartMath, leading the team that developed their first heart-rate variability device; working with philosopher Ken Wilber, translating his brilliant integral theory into a truly Integral Life Practice; and diving into his own committed spiritual practice and experiential studies of mysticism.



The core of integral heart living is to let go of all the striving and "approaches" and to simply SHOW UP. And Terry's course will help you to get to this easy-sounding, yet deeply challenging, place of true, soulful surrender.

In the first session of his training, you will discover the importance of "showing up" 100%... in every moment, beyond physical, emotional and spiritual contractions. This will include taking 100% responsibility for your own experience during the 7-week journey with Terry.

By taking this stand, we clearly discover what is in our way of this commitment, and ultimately, of being fully alive, conscious and powerful.

Living the Integral Heart will take you through a series of experiential processes and epiphanies with Terry's expert guidance and the course community's compassionate support.

These processes will gently invite your deepest integral heart forward... allowing its intelligence (informed by your whole-body intelligence, including mind, body and soul) to become not just the power source of your inspiration, but also the creative author of your most important life choices.

Showing up -- for this moment, for all of life's challenges and joys -- is the path to discovering, embracing and embodying our sacred self... the one we need to truly befriend so that we can then more fully open our hearts to others and all of life.

Living the integral heart is where the performance art of spiritual living comes alive. It's what makes the fully intelligent and compassionate heart beat, and it's at the core of authentic spirituality. Vibrant. Beautiful. Naked. Alive.

You can find out more and register for this truly groundbreaking new training -- which gives you a time-tested foundation for living life heartfully and as your wisest spiritual self -- here.

  in spirit,
Stephen Dinan
PS- Remember that you can also find out more about this profound course -- and ask your big questions about powering up your own integral heart -- TOMORROW, Monday, February 23, at 5:00pm Pacific during Terry's special Q&A session.

Here's how you can access this free event:

Connect to the webcast at
http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=66165528
Or dial (425) 440-5100 and enter the PIN 498523#

 

The world is not a courtroom,
there is no judge, no jury, no plaintiff.

This is a carvan,
filled with eccentric beings
telling wondrous stories about God.

~ Saadi ~

Getting There

You take a final step and, look, suddenly
You're there. You've arrived
At the one place all your drudgery was aimed for:
This common ground
Where you stretch out, pressing your cheek to sandstone.
What did you want
To be? You'll remember soon. You feel like tinder
Under a burning glass,
A luminous point of change. The sky is pulsing
Against the cracked horizon,
Holding it firm till the arrival of stars
In time with your heartbeats.
Like wind etching rock, you've made a lasting impression
On the self you were
By having come all this way through all this welter
Under your own power
Though your traces on a map would make an unpromising
Meandering lifeline.
What have you learned so far? You'll find out later,
Telling it haltingly
Like a dream, that lost traveller's dream
Under the last bill
Where through the night you'll take your time out of mind
To unburden yourself
Of elements along elementary paths
By the break of morning.
You've earned this worn-down, hard, incredible sight
Called Here and Now.
Now, what you make of it means everything,
Means starting over:
The life in your hands is neither here nor there
But getting there,
So you're standing again and breathing, beginning another journey without
regret
Forever, being your own unpeaceable kingdom,
The end of endings.


- David Wagoner
_

When the Earth Opened

All those things
you thought you would never survive
but you did.
When the ground crumbled under
your feet
and the earth opened
and you fell
into the dark chasm
where nothing was.

Somehow
you made it
back to the light,
and knew that whatever
came next,
this too you would survive,
for now you knew where
the soft places were,
the ones waiting to
give way and
swallow you again,
but now they had shrunken
to invisibility,
road signs that said,
Beware:
Danger up Ahead.

Dorothy Walters
February 18, 2015

Who would you be if you had no plan,
not even a grand spiritual plan;
for instance, to walk the labyrinth at Chartres,
or the Camino in northern Spain,
to show up at a silent retreat in the mountains.
or to read a book, to write a poem,
or face the creatures within that have kept you from Love?

You might experience a curious emptiness,
a pulsing vibrating aliveness in your solar plexus,
a pure void that doesn't need to be filled, that just is.
Who are you now?

You might then embrace your mind,
stunned, and yet willing, even eager
to surrender to this other sort of plan;
paradoxical, compelling, devotional.

Who would you be then?

Jan, February 14

Here is a notice of a formal devotional online series beginning February 23.  It requires a very serious commitment of time, for it is based on the repetition of a special mantra for many thousands of times.  However, even the description is interesting as a representation of the kind of devotion practiced in India and nearby regions for many centuries.  It also represents the highest exaltation of the divine feminine in all of her aspects.  (A Sadhana is simply a spiritual practice.)
As the description below explains, during the monsoon season in India, the river that runs through Kamakya's temple runs red, as the goddess menstruates.  Her sculpted images portray her with her menstrual blood running down her thighs.  Many many gather to witness this phenomenon.
Aditi Devi is an authentic priestess of this order.  She is also a profound scholar in this and related traditions, and in addition is a wonderful friend whose presence I love  (though I am not a practitioner in this (or any) lineage.)


Jai Ma! This is a reminder that you're receiving this email because you have expressed an interest in Aditi Devi Ma. Don't forget to add info@aditidevi.com to your address book so we'll be sure to land in your inbox!

Announcing a new online sadhana

Kamakhya and the Worship of Women

 Through Mantra Accumulation
and the Celebration of Spring Navaratri

 An Advanced Online 64 Night Sadhana for Returning Yoginis

Monday, February 23 ~ Friday, May 1, 2015

with

Aditi Devi Ma

kaamaruupam deviksetram kutraapi tatsamam na ca |
anyatra viralaa devii kaamaruupe grhe grhe | |

Kamarupa is a field of the goddess
and there is none other equal to it.
In other places, Devi is rarely present,
but in Kamarupa,
She is in each and every house.                                                            
~ Yogini Tantra


Dear Yoginis of the Womb,

In our recent online sadhanas, we have moved from the outer edges of the mandala into the bindu and back out to the edges again. It is time for us to take what we have learned and enliven the inner landscapes through feminine embodiment sadhana with our great mother, Kamakhya Ma, an ancient Shakta yoni Goddess whose temple is in Assam, India.

This online sadhana is open to any female practitioner who has sat with Aditi Devi Ma in person or participated with her in any of the previous online sadhanas.

At the beginning of the monsoon season in northeast India, the Shakta mother Goddess Kamakhya menstruates, and the river that flows through her temple runs red. To mark this auspicious event, tens of thousands of devotees celebrate the Ambuvaci festival, during which the earth, the body of the Goddess, women, and communities are all regenerated. Based on my participation in community and ritual life at this temple over many years, focusing on this rare yoni Goddess, we will learn about what are known as the Kali Practices: contemporary worship of women as embodiments of the Goddess across a woman's life cycle (young women, married women, and widows) and how this expresses itself in the richness of feminine embodiment sadhana focusing on non-dual ultimate reality Kali-Brahman. Along the way, we will deepen in our sadhana abilities (and link ourselves to the Goddess Kamakhya) by accumulating, or perfecting, one of Kamakhya's mantras during our night-time practice sessions. There are three options for accumulating the mantra depending on your time commitment (see below). In addition, we will celebrate the spring Navaratri festival in the unique style of the northern Kalikula.

What You Will Receive
* Ten live group telephone calls led by Aditi Devi lasting approximately one hour;
* Recordings of all calls to download and listen to later, should you be unable to attend the live calls;
* Membership in a private online community of women to connect with during this online sadhana;
* At minimum, you will receive one weekly content-rich emails from Aditi Devi. Emails will include an introduction to the online sadhana, shrine set-up, stories, myths, sadhana suggestions, poetry, images, and other musings;
* An exploration of the yoni Goddess Kamakhya from living Tantric lineages in the northern Kalikula including history, cultural background and more;
* A chance to deepen into your personal feminine embodiment sadhana with Kamakhya including material from the northern Kalikula lineages; this includes our ongoing focus on Yoni Crucible Sadhana (kalasa, ghata);
* An opportunity to accumulate, and thus perfect, one of Kamakhya's mantras (108,000 recitations if you choose the fullest sadhana option);
* An opportunity to sit with Kamakhya-Kali during the spring Navaratri festival and celebrate using the unique northern Kali-Kula style;
* We will also continue our focus on Tantric Offerings from the yogini's point of view.

Important Kamakhya Sadhana Dates
First email: Monday, February 23, 2015
First phone call: Tuesday, February 24, 7pm MST
First day of sadhana recitation: Friday, February 27
Second phone call: Tuesday, March 3, 7pm MST
Full Moon ~ Purnima: Thursday, March 5
Second email: Friday, March 6
Third phone call: Tuesday, March 10, 7pm MDT
Third email: Friday, March 13
Fourth phone call: Tuesday, March 17, 7pm MDT
Fourth email: Friday, March 20
Spring Navaratri begins and Amavasya ~ Dark Moon: Friday, March 20
Fifth phone call: Tuesday, March 24, 7pm MDT
Fifth email: Friday, March 27
Spring Navaratri ends: Saturday, March 28
Sixth phone call: Tuesday, March 31, 7pm MDT
Sixth email: Friday, April 3
Purnima ~ Full Moon Eclipse: Saturday, April 4
Seventh phone call: Tuesday, April 7, 7pm MDT
Seventh email: Friday, April 10
Eighth phone call: Tuesday, April 14, 7pm MDT
Eighth email: Friday, April 17
Amavasya ~ Dark Moon: Saturday, April 18
Ninth phone call: Tuesday, April 21, 7pm MDT
Ninth email: Friday, April 24
Final phone call: Tuesday, April 28, 7pm MDT
Final email and final sadhana recitation: Friday, May 1

For Traveling Yoginis
It is not necessary to be online or have computer access for the entire sadhana; I know that some of you will be traveling, offline, or entering into silent retreat with these practices. I will also be traveling during a portion of our sadhana. As you travel, or practice in retreat, you will be asked to keep up your daily Kamakhya Sadhana, even if you are not able to receive the emails for some period of time or come onto the live calls. Instructions for traveling shrines will be offered as well.

Your Commitments
This will be a deep, intimate, and intense sadhana that will require each of us to take a great deal of personal responsibility for our practice as well as for the community. We will need to resource the mature practitioner in ourselves as we make and hold a serious practice commitment in deep spiritual community.

Because of the depth of the Kamakhya Sadhana and the time commitment it requires, there are three options that you may choose from:

Option A: This is the fullest and most intense sadhana option. Here we recite one of Kamakhya's mantras 108,000 times during the 64 nights of our online sadhana commitment. This works out to approximately two hours of formal sadhana, at our shrines, each night. If you prefer two practice sessions a day, this would be an hour in the morning and an hour at night to recite about 17-18 malas of mantra per day. Along the way, we also will find time for rest during the first three days each month of our moontime (or three days at the dark moon if we are not menstruating) and thus you could have either six or nine days of moontime rest depending on your cycle. The missed accumulations from these rest days are spread across the entire sadhana (this has already been accounted for in the time calculations).

Option B: This option is for those who can commit to one hour of formal Kamakhya sadhana per day. In this option, we will do a half-perfection of 54,000 mantras of about nine malas of mantra per day. You will also find time for rest during the first three days each month during our moontime (or three days at the dark moon if we are not menstruating) and thus you could have either six or nine days of moontime rest depending on your cycle. The missed accumulations from the rest days are spread across the entire sadhana (this has already been accounted for in the time calculations). This option is useful for those who also have other Kalikula sadhana commitments or other spiritual practices. If you are engaged in other spiritual practices, your Kamakhya sadhana would be one session at night and your other sadhana would be a separate daytime sadhana.

Option C: This option is for those of you who are still new to these practices or are unable to commit to perfecting the Kamakhya mantra. In this option, you will do only one mala of Kamakhya's mantra per day accumulating between 6000-7000 recitations of the mantra. You will also take the moontime or dark moon rest days each month.

We will discuss all the complexities of the mantra accumulation inside the formal sadhana container.

Your commitment to this Kamakhya Sadhana also includes being entirely drug and intoxicant free for the week before the sadhana begins, during the entire sadhana, and for the week afterwards. This includes all social and recreational use of wine, spirits, drugs, and other herbal intoxicants including most medicinal uses of plant medicine (the use of flower essences, essential oils, and plant based non-intoxicating tinctures is fine). Please communicate with Aditi directly about all prescription drugs. This sadhana commitment offers us the potential to access the more subtle realms of our relationship to Kamakhya and her blessing power as well as to help us find our way more completely into our own depth relationship with the Divine Mother at the bindu, Kamakhya-Kali.

Suggested Offering
This is a donation-based sadhana. The offering bowl is out smeared with sindur and sandalwood paste, and fragrant with the night-blooming flowers offered at the feet of the menstruating Goddess.

The suggested offering, at full price, is $254 USD. Sliding Scale and Name Your Offering are available in consideration of those outside the US economy and for those yoginis who remain on the edge of the traditional markets. Payment plans are welcome. Trades may be welcome.

No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Please be in touch with Aditi Devi to discuss arrangements.

Please know that as part of your commitment to this sadhana, it will be up to each of you to make your offerings without promptings or reminders once arrangements have been made.

We are also accepting scholarship funding to support this offering structure. If you are able and want to make additional offerings, this would be most welcome and supportive.

Registration, Information, and Questions
Please email Aditi at puja@aditidevi.com with questions or to register. If registering, please note which of the options you are committing to.

I am looking forward to falling into Kamakhya's blood red love with you during this sadhana.
Jai Kamakhysha Ma Jai!


Lineage and the Sanctity of Teachings
Because we will be moving into the more inner forms of Tantric practice and knowledge as it has been taught and transmitted to me, and which I am authorized to teach and transmit, it is important to be clear with all of you. These teachings are based in lineage, and there is much study and embodied practice for each of us as we travel this path. I have brought together this material through my own devotion, dedication, study, and practice over the past 25 years. You may use what is offered during this online Kamakhya Sadhana course (emails, photos, online material) for your own personal practice, but I ask that you not share it with others. This helps create the container for us to do this work as well as maintains the flow of connection among us, and through lineage.

Participating in this course in no way implies that you are qualified to teach this material or offer it to others. In addition, it is important not to talk about the content with those not participating in this sadhana.

By participating in this online sadhana in any way, you are actively agreeing that you will hold this material as most sacred and secret and will act in accordance with the details shared in the above paragraphs.


 About Aditi Devi Ma
Aditi Devi began the study and practice of South Asia Tantric traditions almost 25 years ago. As an initiated yogini, pujarini (ritualist, priestess), lineage holder, and authorized teacher, she has lived and practiced her sadhana with adepts in Nepal, India, and Tibet. Aditi Devi Ma's practice, teaching, research and writing focus on the embodiment of the divine feminine in the Shakta Tantric traditions of India and Nepal. She earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology and Asian Studies, and was a Fulbright Scholar and college professor before turning fulltime to the path of the Yogini.

Aditi Devi is authorized to teach what are called the Kali Practices focusing on the reverence of women as embodiments of the divine and nondual awakening in the body, in deep relationality. These practices have their fullest expression in Assam, at the Temple of the Tantric Goddess Kamakhya, a yoni Goddess who is revered throughout South Asia (and indeed the world); this is one of Aditi's spiritual homes and practice seats.

 When not wandering, Aditi Devi Ma's teaching home is in Boulder, Colorado. Here, in the midst of a deep yogic community, she teaches privately, offers regular Kali Puja, yoga, and meditation. She is also a faculty member at the Integral Center. Her first book,  In Praise of Adya Kali: Approaching the Primordial Dark Goddess Through the Song of Her Hundred Names was released earlier this year (Hohm Press, 2014).

Aditi Devi | A remote yogini mandir | Boulder | CO | 00000

I Happened To Be Standing

I don't know where prayers go,
     or what they do.
Do cats pray, while they sleep
     half-asleep in the sun?
Does the opossum pray as it
     crosses the street?
The sunflowers? The old black oak
     growing older every year?
I know I can walk through the world,
     along the shore or under the trees,
with my mind filled with things
     of little importance, in full
self-attendance. A condition I can't really
     call being alive
Is a prayer a gift, or a petition,
     or does it matter?
The sunflowers blaze, maybe that's their way.
Maybe the cats are sound asleep. Maybe not.
While I was thinking this I happened to be standing
just outside my door, with my notebook open,
which is the way I begin every morning.
Then a wren in the privet began to sing.
He was positively drenched in enthusiasm,
I don't know why. And yet, why not.
I wouldn't persuade you from whatever you believe
or whatever you don't. That's your business.
But I thought, of the wren's singing, what could this be
     if it isn't a prayer?
So I just listened, my pen in the air.

- Mary Oliver

(picture from internet)
_____

Dear Dorothy Walters,

This is a quick reminder that integral visionary Terry Patten's LIVE virtual event, Activating the Integral Heart: 4 Keys to Unlocking the Hidden Powers of Your Heart Intelligence, is TOMORROW, Wednesday, February 11, at 5:30pm Pacific.

In our corner of the world, here in the US, many of us are gearing up for Valentine's Day this Saturday. In my book, any holiday that promotes love is a worthy tradition, yet what Terry is offering us is an opportunity to journey far beyond romantic love to activate a more expansive love that arises from your heart's intelligence -- what he calls the "integral heart."

Simply put, this involves an integration of your body, mind, heart, and soul. It's being mindful about what your heart is feeling and how your body is reacting -- taking you beyond sentimentality to access a heart sense that is also in tune with the thinking and sensory parts of you.

This allows for more clarity and an authentic sense of Truth that you can feel in a whole-bodied visceral way.

Ultimately, this greater clarity and sensitivity allows you to navigate complex situations with more ease, and you start to feel an ecstatic current of divine presence pouring through your body and mind, making you magnetic to what you most want to create in your life and what "It" wants to create with you.

How do you access this kind of spiritually mature love -- this feeling of oneness with Spirit and genuinely loving all and all of life?

That's what Terry is going to share with you tomorrow. So if you're even mildly intrigued and would like to learn to open your heart wider (and smarter), you won't want to miss this free event.

Here are your access details: Listen in on our free webcast at http://instantteleseminar.com/?eventid=65489412

You can also join us by phone:
Dial +1-425-440-5100 and enter the PIN 498523#


  in spirit,
Stephen Dinan
PS-Terry Patten is one of the foremost teachers in the Integral movement. He has four decades of experience in advanced mystical, intellectual and embodied investigation into the higher reaches of the heart's intelligence and capacity for love.


The Shift Network 101 San Antonio Rd Petaluma, California 94952 United States

11.




Inside the skull there is a place
where the essences of creation play and mingle -
the ecstatic light of awareness
and the awareness of that light.
The divine feminine and masculine
sport with one another in that place.
The light of their love-play illumines all space.

Rest in that light
ever present,
and gradually awaken into the steady joy of
that which is always everywhere.




12.




There is a current of love-energy that flows
between Earth below and the Sun above.

The central channel of the spine is the riverbed.
The streaming is as delicate and powerful
as the tingling touch of lovers.

Entering there,
radiance arches between the above and the below.

The whole attention resting in the nerve,
tingling delicately in the center of the spinal column,
tracing that current between earth and sun,
become magnetism relating all the worlds.




13.




Lift your hands, and with a thought, let the hands become
magical weapons, divine shields
that turn aside all the energies of the outer world.

Spread the fingers over the eyes,
covering the ears
the nostrils, the mouth,
and abandon yourself to the space inside you.
Enter the vital energies thus contained within.
As the charge builds,
lovingly and fiercely
plunge into the inner centers.

As the surge of light-substance rises
follow it up into the space between the eyebrows
where it breaks out as an orgasm of light.




14.




The light that sparks into being when the eyes blink
is witnessed by the single eye between the brows.
That eye is the place where the elements merge -
all the elements of your being.

Consider how lightly the eyelids touch the eyes
with each blink.
That lightly, place the fingers over the eyelids,
and become aware of the space between these two exquisite centers of seeing.
There is the singular eye, which sees into a different world.

With this eye, you can see very well
by the light of the inner fire.
The fire that is always flowing up the channel,
the medial channel of the spine.
Enter the core of any spark of that fire.

Be rooted in your heart, connect even to the tips of your hairs,
and attend the birthing of the light within you.

 http://amyedelstein.com/new-ecology-teleseminar/

Here is the link to the wonderful teleseminar that Amy Edelson gave recently on evolutionary mysticism and the new ecology.  It is well worth your time.

Evolution of consciousness is a topic that interests most of us, especially those who have experienced Kundalini awakening, for many of us (including me) feel that Kundalini is itself the main engine for the spiritual revolution we are now experiencing.  Any offers a clear and compelling account of such early evolutionaries as Teihard de Chardin and Shri Aurobindo.  Teilhard felt strongly that there was a clear direction of ascent in the evolutionary process, and that ultimately we would reach the "Omega Point" where the human would encounter the divine.

Sri Aurobindo likewise envisioned a thrust toward the divinization of the human.  Here is what has been said of this idea:

 The central theme of his vision was the evolution of human life into a life divine. He believed in a spiritual realisation that not only liberated man but transformed his nature, enabling a divine life on earth. In 1926, with the help of his spiritual collaborator, Mirra Alfassa ("The Mother"), he founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. He died on 5 December 1950 in Pondicherry. (from Wikipedia)

Amy also presents a most thoughtful description of the new ideas on the evolution of nature as a potent and extremely sacred element of our existence.

I was struck in particular with her account of a coffee table that sat in her house when she was a child.  Amy loved this table and used to  play on it and in fact felt a bond with it as if it were a living friend.  Indeed, this table had been crafted by a very gifted Japanese artisan/wood carver, whose works  were later displayed in the Metropolitan Museum.  I am especially interested in the experience she describes because I likewise have felt the very special energies emanating from certain works of art, such as paintings, vases, and wooden sculptures.  For example, once when I visited the Asian Museum in San Francisco, the energies flowing from a large Chinese vase were so strong I had to step back and move away from it.  When I went back to read its description, I discovered that this was a very special vase, fired in the emperor's kiln many years ago to celebrate his inauguration and the beginning of a new era.

Another time, I was contemplating a painting by Rothko in the Detroit Institute of Art when I again felt such strong vibrations coming from the piece that I had to step back.  Rothko is famous for his use of wide bands of color in and as his paintings.  I had always wondered why he did this and why others liked them.  But––until then––I had only seen reproductions of his work.  Now I was standing before the original painting and it appeared to retain and emanate the energies of the artist himself infused in the course of his creation.  It was extremely powerful and my friend felt them also.

These experiences confirm my belief that we exist in vast field of energy that connects us all and that certain beings (especially artist and poets and composers) are able to tap into and transmit this field in a special way.

Amy also discusses the sacred quality of nature, an aspect which we can each connect with as a feeling of oneness and joy.  I fully believe in this notion, since I have been a nature mystic since childhood.  When I was young, children could roam the woods and fields freely, and each time I entered such places, I felt instant connection and indeed went into what I now recognize as an altered state of consciousness.  I was elated to be in what was to me the terrestrial paradise.  I was very surprised later when I discovered that not everyone had such transcendent experiences in the natural world.  Such writers as Emerson, Thoreau, and certain romantics of the nineteenth century all shared this sense of deep connection with the mysterious and often magical powers of earth itself.  Today Mary Oliver carries on this same veneration for the amazing frequencies of our natural surroundings.

When I was in Ireland, I sensed the astonishing vibrations coming up from the earth at certain sacred places, always as bliss.  At Tara, I thought I might faint from the radiant energies rising from the ground to the surface and up through my body.  I experienced this same effect several times as I toured the country, especially at such sites as sacred wells and monastic ruins and I understood much about the response of earlier peoples to certain places in the countryside.

Who can explain this phenomenon to someone who has not experienced it?  What does it signify, other than manifest proof of our deep connection to the the sacred energies of earth as an expression of the divine essence?

Terry Patton is one of the best!  Listen to this if you can.  It is a rare opportunity––and it is free!


Awakened Heart News

February 5, 2015

Dear Dorothy Walters,

I want to let you know about a free seminar that my friend Terry Patten, one of the leading teachers in the Integral movement, will be offering next week. Terry has been investigating the feeling intelligence of the heart -- a capacity that many of you have studied with me, and explored in your own meditation. Terry's class uncovers some of the research on heart intelligence, as well as offering practices for igniting it.

Terry will share the fruits of three decades of advanced mystical, intellectual, and embodied investigation into the upper reaches of the heart's intelligence on Wednesday, February 11 in a FREE teleseminar called, Activating the Integral Heart: 3 Keys to Unlocking the Hidden Powers of Your Heart Intelligence.

You can reserve your free space here: https://shiftnetwork.isrefer.com/go/atihSK/sallykempton/

Terry has not only collaborated on a book of Integral practice with Ken Wilber, he also worked closely with the Institute of HeartMath, leading the team that developed their first heart-rate variability device. More importantly, he draws from decades as a student and teacher of esoteric spiritual practice.

During this free teleseminar, he'll share with you:

How to cultivate a daily Integral Heart Practice.
The keys to activating your Integral Heart bringing clarity, luminosity, and love to your relationships.
How you can contribute to the larger "revolution of love" by infusing your work with greater feeling-intelligence.
How to access the energies of different archetypes to "power up" areas of your life -- from business to the bedroom.
Please join Terry for an illuminating hour that will help you open the door to an entirely new relationship with your most powerful creative center -- your Integral Heart! https://shiftnetwork.isrefer.com/go/atihSK/sallykempton/

love,
Sally

P.S. Even if you can't make the live call, I encourage you to register, so you can download it later. Everyone who registers for this free tele-seminar will also receive a downloadable replay of the call after it airs. RSVP here: https://shiftnetwork.isrefer.com/go/atihSK/sallykempton/

Sally Kempton teaches at the cutting edge of ancient and contemporary wisdom, unfolding the energetic practices of the tantrikas in an atmosphere that creates space for real inner change. A former swami in a Vedic tradition, she has been teaching for nearly 40 years and is known for her powerful transmissions of meditative states. Sally is the author of the recently released Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga and the best-selling book Meditation for the Love of It. She also writes a popular column, Wisdom, for Yoga Journal.

There is a community of the spirit.

Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street
and being the noise.

Drink all your passion
and be a disgrace.

Close both eyes
to see with the other eye.

Open your hands,
if you want to be held.

Sit down in this circle.

Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd's love filling you.

At night, your beloved wanders.
Don't accept consolations.

Close your mouth against food.
Taste the lover's mouth in yours.

You moan, "She left me."   "He left me."
Twenty more will come.

Be empty of worrying.
Think who created thought!

Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.

Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being.

- Jelalludin Rumi

"The more protection,
the less God."
           Michael Regan

Ah yes,
the via negativa,
the emptying of self
in order to be filled with God:
excruciatingly difficult,
although it's only your mind that says so,
and thrillingly joyful when you finally let go, however briefly.
My dear, you are not
the first or special,
it's an ancient tradition;
it's time to acknowledge you are being called
to listen, to hear, to sense
how this truth burrows into your solar plexus
and resonates in your throat.
Can you simply say yes?

Jan Elvee, January 26, 2015

They said to him,
"Come and let us pray today,
and let us fast."
Jesus said, "Which, then,
is the sin I have committed,
or in what have I been vanquished?
But when the bridegroom
leaves the bridal chamber,
then let them fast and pray."
(Logion 104)


Commentary by Cynthia Bourgeault

If you took my other e-course on The Gospel of Thomas, you're already well aware of Jesus' wariness of external spiritual observances. In his famous Logion 6, when his disciples batter him about what particular practices he recommends -- fasting, prayer, tithing, abstinence from particular foods -- he responds by dismissing the whole program and offering in its place only two sweeping inner commands: "Stop lying and do not do what you hate."

So too, in our logion for today, his response to the pious request to pray and fast is simply "Why?" Has he committed a specific sin, hamartia or "missing the mark?" Has he wandered off-course and lost touch with the power of wholeness that comes from staying in alignment with his essential being? Clearly his understanding of ascetical observance is remediative, not preventative. Its purpose is to repair specific breaches and course cavitations, not to furnish the means to stay on course in the first place. That power comes from deeper within.

This unconventional attitude toward traditional spiritual disciplines certainly landed him in trouble with the religious professionals of his days. He was constantly at war with the Pharisees for their prioritizing of external observances over purity of heart. But his casual approach to the traditional Jewish purity codes was equally a stumbling block to the most earnest and devout seekers of his time. As we will see next week, his behavior seems to have posed a real conundrum for the disciples of Jesus' one-time mentor John the Baptist, who were sincerely confused about how a spiritual teacher who drank, danced, dined with tax collectors and sinners, and counted women among his closest friends and followers, could possibly be the "One to come" whom the prophets had foretold.

But for Jesus, the celebration was real. He knew only too well that "the bridegroom was in the bridal chamber." Now -- right now -- was the time that the prophecy was being fulfilled, that the marriage vow between heaven and earth was being consummated in the hidden garden of the human heart. In him, and through him, God was bringing to pass the great promise made to the prophet Ezekiel: "A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you." (Ezekiel 36:26). The task before his followers was not to store up merit for some future day of reckoning, but to open their hearts to see what was actually taking place right before them.

Advent is traditionally understood as a time of fasting and inner preparation -- admittedly a custom "more honored in the breach than in the observance." And this understanding is correct as long as we keep in mind what Jesus' core notion of spiritual preparation is all about. Fundamentally, it's not about external observances, but about a deeper, more alive way of being. It's about removing the veils that harden and scar the heart, so that we can at last see the divine radiance dancing in all things, inviting us to the dance . . . waiting patiently for us to find the courage to say "yes."