Kundalini Splendor

Dear Friends,

My leg has not improved and likely I will go back to the hospital today and thus may be offline for a few days.

Sending love and blessings to all--back soon!

Dorothy

(My friend Daniela, who lives in Rome) sometimes translates my poems into Italian.  Here are two of the latest.)


In the Golden Dream

In the Golden Dream
we are the prince and the princess
combined.

We travel abroad
in our Golden Chariot,
from cloud to cloud,
sun to distant stars.

Back home we live in a universe
that is constantly beautiful--
faces of those we love
or have not yet met,
landscapes filled
with magic lakes,
waterspouts, dunes,
trash heaped at the gutter's edge,
forgotten letters--
all radiant, glistening,
touched to beauty.

Then one day
we awaken
and discover that
the sheen is gone--
the world is dull, laid over with
the usual we know so well,
the forgotten dust
of the years.

We arise
and face another day
and wonder what it was
that held us so before.

Dorothy Walters
November 1, 2015

Nel Sogno d’Oro

Nel Sogno d’Oro
noi siamo il principe e la principessa
uniti.

Viaggiamo all’estero
nel nostro Carro d’Oro,
da nuvola a nuvola,
il sole fino alle stelle lontane.

Tornati a casa viviamo in un universo
che è costantemente bello—
volti di coloro che amiamo
o ancora non abbiamo incontrato,
paesaggi riempiti
di laghi magici,
pluviali, dune,
spazzatura ammucchiata all’estremità della grondaia,
lettere dimenticate—
tutto radiante, scintillante,
toccato alla bellezza.

Poi un giorno
ci svegliamo
e scopriamo che
la lucentezza è sparita—
il mondo è opaco, coperto
dell’usuale che conosciamo così bene,
la polvere dimenticata
degli anni.

Ci alziamo
ed affrontiamo un altro giorno
e ci domandiamo cosa fosse
che ci teneva così prima.

DW
1 Novembre 2015


Two

Yes, there is the exalted self.
The one that shines like the sun,
that rides clouds to glory,
converses with saints.

Then there is that other,
the quieter, less obtrusive one,
like a watcher that is always
hanging around,
waiting for the moment
to enter the house,
take over.

This one is filled with regret,
with a sense of repeated folly,
all the scars of the years,
the stumblings,
the blows given and received.

Sometimes they peer at each other
across the distances,
catch glimpses,
remember the presence that is there,
wonder,
Who I am?

Dorothy Walters
October 26, 2015

Due

Sì, c’è il sé esaltato.
Colui che brilla come il sole,
che conduce le nuvole alla gloria,
conversa con i santi.

Poi c’è quell’altro,
il più tranquillo, il meno importuno,
come un osservatore che è sempre
in giro,
aspettando il momento
per entrare in casa,
rileva.

Questo è colmo di rimpianto,
con un senso di follia ripetuta,
tutte le cicatrici del tempo,
gli inciampi,
i colpi dati e ricevuti.

Qualche volta appaiano l’uno all’altro
attraverso le distanze,
afferrano la rapida visione,
ricordano la presenza che è lì,
si chiedono,
Chi sono io?

DW
26 Ottobre 2015

I am now back home and will resume posting tomorrow.

Thanks for all the good wishes.

Love to all.

Dorothy

May be off a few days.  Have to go to emergency to get checked for blood clot.

A Few Sips

You told me to drink your wine.

How was I to know?

I took a few sips
and my heart opened.

I no longer walk straight
in the world,
for now I know everything.

Dorothy Walters
December 21, 2015

Praise Song

Praise the light of late November,
the thin sunlight that goes deep in the bones.
Praise the crows chattering in the oak trees;
though they are clothed in night, they do not
despair. Praise what little there's left:
the small boats of milkweed pods, husks, hulls,
shells, the architecture of trees. Praise the meadow
of dried weeds: yarrow, goldenrod, chicory,
the remains of summer. Praise the blue sky
that hasn't cracked yet. Praise the sun slipping down
behind the beechnuts, praise the quilt of leaves
that covers the grass: Scarlet Oak, Sweet Gum,
Sugar Maple. Though darkness gathers, praise our crazy
fallen world; it's all we have, and it's never enough.

~ Barbara Crooker ~

   
       THE SECOND COMING
                    William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
    Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
    Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

    The darkness drops again but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?



The Second Coming was written in 1919 in the aftermath
of the first World War. The above version of the poem is
as it was published in the edition of Michael Robartes and
the Dancer dated 1920 (there are numerous other
versions of the poem).

When I first read this famous poem many, many years ago, I did not fully understand it.  Of course, it pointed to a time of chaos and destruction, but such an era seemed quite remote in the l950's.  Now, however, the message contained in the poem seems more clear.

Yeats was an occultist and a visionary.  The central image of the poem--the threatening beast--is taken from an inner vision he experienced.  Yeats felt that history runs in cycles, and that the time is near for a reversal from a Christian and more rational as well as a more tolerant age to one of cruelty and chaos.

The opening uses the image of the falcon who fails to return to the arm of the falconer to represent how things are out of balance in today's world with the result that "The center does not hold." Indeed, the world appears to be falling apart at all levels.

The next lines seem to describe our own time, one of anarchy (no controlling authority or belief) and chaos (evident everywhere in the world today).  We live an era of bloodshed and destruction (the blood dimmed tide), and all sense of innocence is lost in the violence taking place everywhere.  Many people of developed mind have lost all hope for the future (the best lack all conviction) and the worst of humanity are  controlled by adherence to extreme views, which they embrace with a "passionate intensity" so strong they are willing to die or kill others for their beliefs.

Yeats now refers to a "Second Coming," but this is not the second coming of Christ to earth as many have predicted.  Instead, it is the direct opposite, as captured in the image of the beast which follows.  Yeats says this image derives from "anima mundi"  (the world soul, where all images and thoughts abide and which the developed mystic can draw forth in a prophetic state.)

Yeats locates his image in "a waste of desert sand," clearly a reference to the Middle East, with its vast deserts.  At the time of my earlier reading, the Middle East was seldom given much attention, and it certainly was not seen as a likely birthplace of universal horror.  Today the reference is clear.   The Middle East is the center of the current rebirth of universal terror. This creature, with a gaze as "blank and pitiless as the sun," is slowly moving toward Bethlehem to be born in this terrible "second coming."
The description of his gaze clearly describes the faces of the terrorists of today, who kill wantonly, but who look on their deeds with eyes "as blank and pitiless of the sun," as if they were no longer human.

The reference to "twenty centuries of stony sleep" is not clear to me, unless it means that the sleeping world lacked all awareness of the nightmare about to erupt some 2,000 years after the birth of Christ.

The following line is a puzzle to me, since I don't think the beast would have been placed in a "rocking cradle."  Perhaps the beast (the embodiment of horror) is to be born in human form, one who will orchestrate the universal destruction to come.  Perhaps it simply means that twenty centuries of the Christian era finally led to the "nightmare" of the age of terror which humanity was oblivious to in the preceding centuries.

At one time, I read closely in Yeats' book called "A Vision."  In this book he goes into great detail about the cycles of history, and I gathered that the next great shift from one era to the next would be coming in about the year 2025.  Thus for many years I have been more or less expecting this world changing event to occur and now it appears to be happening.

However, I hold out a vision of hope in the midst of the despair.  I have also long felt that massive spiritual awakening (especially through kundalini) would occur at this time when the outer structures of society were collapsing, bringing a major transition as a product of the crisis.  I still think this universal transformation can occur, and carry us into the next stage of human evolution.

Late November

Now, after this time of summer's waiting,
we have at last reached it,
the first snowfall higher up
and soon the turning of the
seasons.

Yellow leaves still fall on the balcony,
dancing their way into oblivion,
and the trees, unabashed,
display their naked limbs
like dancers in a club
before an approving audience.

Night comes early,
and the news is not good.
More dead and wounded
for some reason
we do not understand,
more vows to obliterate us,
and we wonder what
we have done.

Dorothy Walters
November 18, 2015

Proclamation

Whereas the world is a house on fire;
Whereas the nations are filled with shouting;
Whereas hope seems small, sometimes
a single bird on a wire
left by migration behind.
Whereas kindness is seldom in the news
and peace an abstraction
while war is real;
Whereas words are all I have;
Whereas my life is short;
Whereas I am afraid;
Whereas I am free - despite all
fire and anger and  fear;
Be it therefore resolved a song
shall be my calling - a song
not yet  made shall be vocation
and peaceful words the work
of my remaining days.

- Kim Stafford
_

Dear Dorothy,

Just yesterday a fellow contacted me because he was in pain and he had heard that meditation could relieve suffering, but after trying it, he said it didn't work.

This is a very common experience and I certainly had it myself early on in my training. People are often mislead by just the word meditation and then their expectations can take them further astray. The word meditation is often used as if it had one commonly known meaning. It doesn't and a lot of confusion occurs because of this.

Sometimes the word meditation is used to refer to a particular practice - sitting, walking, breath, mantra, mindfulness, etc., which are all different even though they share some common elements.

At other times the word meditation is used to describe a process. It's a process of change that occurs through meditation. "Meditation makes me so relaxed." "Meditation lowers my blood pressure." Certainly one aspect of meditation is the process of change and transformation that occurs both during the immediate practice of meditation, as well as cumulatively over time as one repeatedly practices meditation. Most of the scientific research on meditation focuses on the measurable dimensions of these change processes.

There are immeasurable dimensions of meditation that go undiscussed in scientific literature simply because they can't be quantified, in fact they may not even be able to be spoken of - meaning the experiences can't be encoded by the very limited nature of words. They are ineffable. That doesn't make them unknowable.

In science we have instruments of measurement and observation which are very useful. At the same time, each of us possesses the power to know, the power of Consciousness, which goes beyond scientific instruments.

To directly know the extraordinary dimensions of meditation requires fully entering the state of meditation. Here we are on dangerous ground for the mind as we try to approach what is beyond the mind and beyond words with words! It's good to remember the old Zen saying, "don't confuse the finger for the moon." Words may point at the state of meditation but they aren't the state of meditation, nor will all the words of all the sages of all traditions ever communicate a full description of meditation. There is no substitute for the direct experience of the state of meditation; upon this all traditions agree.

In the deep state of meditation the mind, words, sense of self, all agitations and cravings are extinguished. The 8th century poet sage Li Po wrote "We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains." This goes far beyond the stress management or health and fitness models of meditation which are so popular. It's not for everyone. Entering the portal into meditation is entering the cloud of unknowing

What is unknowing for the mind is the pure knowing of the One.

The mind belongs to the waking and dream states.

Meditation is the eternal state of the One, the Source, pure, unbounded, Self-effulgent Consciousness, your true nature.

May the light of meditation illumine your way.

Lawrence Edwards, PHD

Silence

is a shy woman who wears gray,


has laryngitis and is easily frightened.

She asks “What really matters?”

and does not tolerate easy answers,

prefers the unsayable.



Though she is eternally around,

she only appears by special invitation

and sometimes not even then.

But when she comes,

she always brings a gift.



Meditators and monks know her deeply

as do deer and mice.



I want to give her a tiny engagement ring,

so she could know how deep

are my intentions to love her.

Penny Hackett Evans

Flare

12.

When loneliness comes stalking, go into the fields, consider
the orderliness of the world. Notice
something you have never noticed before,

like the tambourine sound of the snow-cricket
whose pale green body is no longer than your thumb.

Stare hard at the hummingbird, in the summer rain,
shaking the water-sparks from its wings.

Let grief be your sister, she will whether or not.
Rise up from the stump of sorrow, and be green also,
    like the diligent leaves.

A lifetime isn't long enough for the beauty of this world
and the responsibilities of your life.

Scatter your flowers over the graves, and walk away.
Be good-natured and untidy in your exuberance.

In the glare of your mind, be modest.
And beholden to what is tactile, and thrilling.

Live with the beetle, and the wind.

~ Mary Oliver ~

(The Leaf and the Cloud: A Poem)

We Are A River

Our life has not been an ascent
up one side of a mountain and down the other.
We did not reach a peak,
only to decline and die.
We have been as drops of water,
born in the ocean and sprinkled on the earth
in a gentle rain.
We became a spring,
and then a stream,
and finally a river flowing deeper and stronger,
nourishing all it touches
as it nears its home once again.

                                      *

Don't accept the modern myths of aging.
You are not declining.
You are not fading away into uselessness.
You are a sage,
a river at its deepest
and most nourishing.
Sit by a river bank some time
and watch attentively as the river
tells you of your life.

- Lao Tzu
(translation by William Martin)
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For some reason, my blog is malfunctioning.  I can't transfer my draft forms to print.  I'll catch up once this problem is resolved.

Jeff Carriera is a writer, master teacher, and intrepid explorer on the spiritual path.  Until a few years ago, he was a close associate of Andrew Cohen, founder and publisher of the publication then entitled "What is Enlightenment?" and later "Enlightenment Now."  During his time with this publication, he was part of a small group that regularly met together to meditate and share insights.  Here is an account of one of the illuminating experiences that Jeff experienced with the group.  He says it was "almost a collective Kundalini awakening."  Jeff will have a new book appearing soon: "The Soul of a New Self: Embracing the Future of Being Human."

Once the last person was fully present, there was
no longer any fear, hesitation, ambivalence, or
separation in the field of consciousness between us.
There was no murkiness, no uncertainty, and no
doubt. There was a clear and direct perception that
we were all experiencing. We were participating in a
singular emergence of higher consciousness together.
When any of us spoke, it came from the same source
of awareness. We were now all connected to a higher
mind that was free to examine its experience of reality
through our conversation. We were allowing a
collective being to experience itself through us.
The moment when that last individual entered
fully into the collective awakening experience was
very dramatic for me. At that instant a burst of energy
swept through us. It swirled faster and faster around
the circle, and then it shot straight upward. The top
of my head opened up to the heavens, and a
profound power surged through me. It felt like a
collective kundalini awakening. I felt the stars above
me through the opening in the top of my head, and I
knew that we had become a portal to another
universe. In my eyes light was shining through us and
swirling around everyone in the room. Here is the
journal entry in which I shared my first thoughts
about that moment:
When we meet together, a perception is available to me
that is not available when I am alone. Initially I feel a
building intensity of energy and anticipation, and then my
awareness seems to spontaneously fall out of focus for a
moment. When my focus returns, I recognize that I am
now in the REAL. Today it seemed that God was given
direct access to the world, not as the revelation of any
particular individual, but as a free independent entity
formed in the recognition of Oneness shared by many
persons simultaneously. We all saw ourselves in every
other and recognized the One that we all are. Those of us
who had the honor of being present to this moment of
collective awakening were given the most precious gift—the
opportunity to see the world through the eyes of God.
In each meeting we would explore spiritual truths
with a power of illumination and insight that none of
us had ever known before. It was also clear that this
was an awakening that was held between us, not
inside of us as individuals. We each expressed
ourselves uniquely, but nothing we said belonged to
any of us. For three weeks our meetings retained a
wildly energetic quality. After the retreat, the intensity
slowly diminished over a period of months.

Dear Dorothy ,

For the past few weeks I’ve been telling people that my dear friend and fellow meditation teacher Craig Hamilton and I will be leading a virtual meditation workshop on Saturday, November 7.

We still are, and it’s free…

AND since I first mentioned it our plans have really expanded.

You see, as soon as we started talking about the content of our workshop we also started talking about how we could really support people to sustain the subtle and delicate consciousness of awakened mind – and let’s face it, one more workshop (no matter how powerful it is) won’t do it.

Many of us have tasted the peace and penetrating clarity of meditative states of consciousness and want our lives to be anchored in that. We also find that in the midst of life’s challenges we often lose equanimity, lucidity and perspective.

What would happen if we didn’t lose our inner balance even under stress?

What if the sacred dimensions of life were always in view?

Regular spiritual practice done on our own helps, but it also isn’t enough.

Over decades of dedicated practice we have made some fundamental discoveries about what it really takes to sustain higher awareness.

First we must gain fluency with essential inner postures and practices of an awakened mind.

Then we need to take time out periodically to spend extended periods of time immersed in meditative consciousness.

And finally, we need to have those profound depths of awareness activated and reactivated in our own being by a teacher who has the power to take us into them.

After a few weeks of conversation, Craig and I have decided that we want to work together to guide a group of people on a year-long adventure into the unchartable waters of awakening.

So in 2016 we will offer a year-long virtual program in which you will…

learn and strengthen the inner postures of awakened mind
have regular and convenient opportunities to immerse in awakened consciousness
experience the building momentum that comes from successive activations of awakening in your own being
work together in shared spiritual pursuit with individuals from around the world
engage deeply with both of us, as your teachers, guides and fellow travelers on a journey into mystery

Our free workshop on November 7 will introduce you to everything we’ve been discussing over the past few weeks and give you an experience of direct activation.
Actually we are not calling this a workshop. It is An Enlightenment Activation Session.

On November 7 you are invited to join us for a two-hour virtual Enlightenment Activation Session called “Essentials of Awakening.”

In this session you will learn about the inner postures of awakened mind and the role that immersion and activation play in maintaining it.

Much more importantly we will all sit together in the deepest part of our being and you will experience the power of activation from both of us.

We will also be sure to tell you about our plans for 2016 so that you can decide if you feel called to join a pioneering group that is dedicated to experiencing and maintaining awakened consciousness.

Our November 7 session is being offered at no cost – you don’t even have to register to attend.

Simply click on the link below at 10am Pacific Time (1pm Eastern) on Saturday November 7 to listen online, or dial-in by phone.

Essentials of Awakening
A Free Enlightenment Activation Session
with Jeff Carreira and Craig Hamilton


Saturday November 7
10am to Noon Pacific Time
(1pm to 3pm Eastern Time)

CLICK HERE to join.

We look forward to working with you,
Jeff Carreira



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By Ginger Withee
Spiritual Facilitator and Teacher in the
STANDING IN THE LIGHT® program
amstandinginthelight.com

SEEING THROUGH THE ILLUSION OF SELF-IDENTITY

What holds you back from identifying primarily as your Divine Self rather than your personality self in this body? Intellectually, we may believe that we are all One, all connected through the same energy source, and yet may find that we are still attached to our identities as individuals.
You are God expressing as Jane or Bob, not Jane or Bob who is allowing God to express through you.
The language seems subtle but the difference is profound. We are very accustomed to our identities as physical beings:  I’m a tall man, I’m a long-haired woman, I’m a mother, I’m a husband, I’m an accountant, I’m an athlete.  All of these descriptions carry some level of expectation and belief as to what they say about us.  They can also limit us.  Any of these phrases may describe your current form or role but they are not who you are.  You are God.
“I am” is a very powerful statement. In the Bible, God identifies as “I Am” or “I Am that I Am.”  No descriptions or identifiers.  No qualifiers-  simply I Am.  It might be time to take a look at the language you use when you declare “I am” (insert word).  How you identify yourself and the language you use may be re-enforcing old patterns, old beliefs, old energies and limitations.  Even our identities as members of a spiritual community can be limiting: I am a teacher, I am a healer, I am a visionary.  You may have come to be a teacher or healer and share your gifts, but it is still not the sum of who you are.
Identifying these roles can be a very useful tool in getting clarity on what you came here to offer as your service, but to the extent that it holds you in the belief that it’s who you are or that it sets you apart from others, then it’s just another limitation. Take a look at all of the labels you ascribe to yourself and ask if they are still useful to you.
Try seeing yourself through the eyes of your Divine Self; not as a woman or a man, not as an American or a Russian, not as a husband or sister or daughter, but simply as a bright, beautiful aspect of God. Because from the spiritual perspective we are pure energy.  We are all One.  We are all God.

(above reprinted from Ravi's Riff––by Ravi Dykema)

Those who have experienced full kundalini awakening will find this perspective easy to understand.  Once the inner energies rise into the open crown, and the divine energies pour in, one knows for certain that oneself is but tiny particle in the divine flow––that one's assumed identity as male, female, whatever––is but a myth and an illusion, and that these vast indescribable energies are the only reality.

The Poets Hang On

The poets hang on.
It’s hard to get rid of them,
though lord knows it’s been tried.
We pass them on the road
standing there with their begging bowls,
an ancient custom.
Nothing in those now
but dried flies and bad pennies.
They stare straight ahead.
Are they dead, or what?
Yet they have the irritating look
of those who know more than we do.

More of what?
What is it they claim to know?
Spit it out, we hiss at them.
Say it plain!
If you try for a simple answer,
that’s when they pretend to be crazy,
or else drunk, or else poor.
They put those costumes on
some time ago,
those black sweaters, those tatters;
now they can’t get them off.
And they’re having trouble with their teeth.
That’s one of their burdens.
They could use some dental work.

They’re having trouble with their wings, as well.
We’re not getting much from them
in the flight department these days.
No more soaring, no radiance,
no skylarking.
What the hell are they paid for?
(Suppose they are paid.)
They can’t get off the ground,
them and their muddy feathers.
If they fly, it’s downwards,
into the damp grey earth.

Go away, we say -
and take your boring sadness.
You’re not wanted here.
You’ve forgotten how to tell us
how sublime we are.
How love is the answer:
we always liked that one.
You’ve forgotten how to kiss up.
You’re not wise any more.
You’ve lost your splendor.

But the poets hang on.
They’re nothing if not tenacious.
They can’t sing, they can’t fly.
They only hop and croak
and bash themselves against the air
as if in cages,
and tell the odd tired joke.
When asked about it, they say
they speak what they must.
Cripes, they’re pretentious.

They know something, though.
They do know something.
Something they’re whispering,
something we can’t quite hear.
Is it about sex?
Is it about dust?
Is it about love?

-  Margaret Atwood

This sardonic poem by Margaret Atwood does, in fact, correctly describe--at least in part--the situation in contemporary poetry where often suffering and confusion reign, and the poetry of affirmation is only occasionally encountered.  Loneliness, sorrow, loss--these are the major themes of our time.  Yet––clearly there is a universal hunger for more than these--witness the great popularity of Rumi, Hafiz, and others from an earlier time who wholeheartedly gave of themselves to joy as well as deep felt connection to Source.  To write in a similar spirit today is to go against the grain--but to find a small but understanding audience of mostly non-poets.  Poets today tend to confine themselves to minor topics--personal experience, self rumination.  The Big Connections––the divine essence, the transcendent moments, the Beloved--are ruled out for safe subjects that do not require profound personal commitment to anything beyond the apparent.

It is not clear who the speaker in the poem is.  It could be a reader of Atwood's own poetry, for she often writes in a brilliant but ironic vein and eschews the "easy" answers such as transcendence, illumination, or God.  Or else, it could be the words of a serious reader complaining about the current failure of modern poetry (as well as art and music) to deal with significant issues and dwell on what is safe but ultimately less consequential,
such as social issues or the minutiae of daily life.

In the Golden Dream

In the Golden Dream
we are the prince and the princess
combined.

We travel abroad
in our Golden Chariot,
from cloud to cloud,
sun to distant stars.

Back home we live in a universe
that is constantly beautiful--
faces of those we love
or have not yet met,
landscapes filled
with magic lakes,
waterspouts, dunes,
trash heaped at the gutter's edge,
forgotten letters--
all radiant, glistening,
touched to beauty.

Then one day
we awaken
and discover that
the sheen is gone--
the world is dull, laid over with
the usual we know so well,
the forgotten dust
of the years.

We arise
and face another day
and wonder what it was
that held us so before.

Dorothy Walters
November 1, 2015

Note:  When we first awaken, we often undergo a period of seeing and feeling the world as if it is one beautiful spectacle after another.  It is easy to feel a loving connection with all we see and all we meet.  This heightened state of awareness can last a very long time, even for years.  But all too often transcendence is followed by a return to mundane existence.  Our glorious experiences disappear, and we are left with the dull repetition of the daily and a memory of what we seem to have lost.

Yet often the time of loss is followed by a return to the exalted state.  Once more, we know heaven on earth.

Such cycles of joy and despair are typical of the transformation process.  Each is a reminder that nothing in this world is permanent, for all is constant change and flow––including ourselves.