Recognizing the Secret Community
from the Interfaith Observer
December 15, 2017

Recognizing the Secret Community

by Deborah Moldow

A vast spiritual community is emerging all over the world. It has no name. It has no church or temple and no scripture. No one sees it. And yet it is among the most potent forces for evolutionary change on the planet. You are a member because you are participating in the spiritual renaissance that is underway, whether or not you are aware of it. And it is here to stay.

As we awaken to identify ourselves as planetary citizens, members of a diverse human family deeply rooted in a global web of life, this sense of oneness begins to pervade our worldview. We see our heritage, culture, nationality, and religion as gifts to be enjoyed rather than a source of our tribe’s superiority. This expanded vision has a profound impact on our inner life that is showing up as a new spirituality.

The emerging spirituality is not a new religion, since its members include devout practitioners of a wide range of the world’s beautiful religions along with humanists and atheists. It stands on the shoulders of the interfaith movement of the past century and the explosion of access to scriptures and practices that were once held in secret or confined to groups in the know. In the 1960s and 1970s, Eastern spiritual concepts came into popular Western culture through such modern interpreters as Alan Watts and Ram Dass, while renewed interest in Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi grew. Popular music sang out messages of peace and the Beatles spread the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, telling us that “All We Need is Love.” The young Dalai Lama began traveling the world with his infectious smile and emphasis on simple kindness. Eastern health technologies such as acupuncture and yoga gained popular acceptance and, far and wide, people began to meditate. East meets West.

In the meantime, North was meeting South as indigenous cultures began to encounter one another in fulfillment of the legendary Eagle and Condor prophesy, which says that the uniting of the masculine and feminine energies of North and South could bring about a next level of consciousness for humanity. At the same time, respect for indigenous wisdom was growing, especially in the face of looming climate change, runaway pollution poisoning our air, water and soil, and other challenges caused by modern civilization’s disregard for our natural habitat. The recent historic stand at Standing Rock to protect water for future generations increased solidarity among indigenous peoples and those willing to stand with them to honor the Earth.

Our worldview was perhaps destined to change from the moment we saw the first picture of the Earth from the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, dubbed “Earthrise,” showing our stunning blue planet rising from the darkness of space. And the new physics is helping us to peer into the mystery with a radically new sense of consciousness pervading all reality.

From all directions, our eyes are opening to one planet, one people, one life in a universe that teems with purpose.

Sudden Insights

Sudden insights,
bursts of knowing––
where are they from?

Conclusive theories,
whole symphonies
arriving intact,
Einstein, Mozart,
you know the list.

Some say aliens arriving from other
planets,
some say from the termas,
texts or objects
hidden in rocks or earth or wood,
else embedded
in the psyche
even before birth,
now brought into the light,

What if such awareness rests
in all of us always,
ready to be discovered,
longing to be known.

What if we too
can access everything,
ready to be retrieved
like a safe of jewels
waiting for the right combination.

What would we do
with this immense revelation?
Would we simply vanish
in a flash?
How would we ever remember
the being who is us?

Dorothy Walters
December 29, 2017

Note: In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, termas are hidden teachings preserved in certain locations in nature or infused into the psyches of future masters (tertons), who will unveil them at the proper moment in history.  The purpose of the terma is to revivify and disseminate the truth of the dharma in ages of confusion or forgetfulness.  The tertons are those given the responsibility of unearthing and then spreading these fundamental principles among humankind.

(Image of Yeshe Tsogal from internet.  She, along with a companion, hid many wisdom teachings (termas) to be discovered later.)

Reading the Akashic Records

Recently, I talked
with someone
who is dead.
It was a pleasant conversation
and I was glad to know
that she is doing well.

Now I am being told
that I could read
the Akashic records.

This thought gives me pause.

What if it were true?
What if I checked in
and told them all I saw
and then came across something dreadful,
something better forgotten?
What if there were some old feeling
deep within that soul,
some buried anger ready to explode
like a quiescent volcano
waking up
or a reservoir of grief
preparing to overflow?
What have I done?

I have decided not to go there.
I am happy where I am,
secure in my own comfort zone,
ready to explore certain suspect areas,
but ready to draw the line
if need arises.

Let others dabble
in such unproved realms
that could be true
or else tricks of the
imagination.

I hold to the Beloved.
I love her and
She loves me in return.
Our rendezvous are delicious
and that is enough for me.
Perhaps in some other state,
another phase of my existence
when I am someone else
free of the body's concerns
I can look at the records
and see what is written there
under my name.

But for now the dishwasher is
finished, and the laundry
is almost dry,
ready to be folded neatly
and put away
in the proper drawer.

Dorothy Walters
December 28, 2017
(image from internet)

Note: I intended to post this yesterday, but somehow that did not happen.  I am putting it up now and will post yet another  poem today.

About "Merry Christmas"

Let me say at the outset that I am not Jewish nor do I have an affiliation with any religious institution or spiritual lineage (though I do strongly believe in the divine reality, and like the Dalai Lama, my religion is kindness ––and the joy of sometimes union with the Beloved Within.")

I watched the news last night and saw that "that one" bragged that he had "ended the war on Merry Christmas." What was he talking about?  I think he was speaking to those who hold that their own religion (Christianity) is the only acceptable faith and any deviation from that is somehow irreverent or unAmerican.  These are the "make America great again" folks who somehow forget that we are a nation that welcomes diversity, that put the separation of church and state into law, and who do not practice bigotry and hate as public policy.

So I ask myself, "How would I feel if I were part of a religious minority (Jew, Muslim, even atheist) and had been informed that in effect that if I did not embrace the celebration of the birth of the founder of what become the Christian religion I was somehow failing to embrace what was right and  proper for my country?

 Thus "Happy Holiday" (which applies to us all) is wrong and "Merry Christmas" is right.

Once again I am appalled and embarrassed at this humiliating view on the part of the "leader" of our country.  Such antics do nothing to "make America great" but moves us closer to a non inclusive, authoritarian and even fascist state.

 

Where We Are Is Our Temple

Jack Kornfield


Expanding our spiritual practice is actually a process of expanding our heart, of widening our circle of insight and compassion to gradually include the whole of our life. Being on earth here in human bodies, this year, this day, is our spiritual practice.

It used to be that most of Eastern spiritual practice was preserved by monks and nuns in monasteries and temples. For centuries much of Western contemplative practice in Europe took place in cloisters as well. In our modern times, the monastery and temple have expanded to include the world itself. Most of us are not going to live as monks and nuns, and yet as lay people we seek a genuine and profound spiritual life. This is possible when we recognize that where we are is our temple, that just here in the life we are leading we can bring our practice alive.

My old guru in (Mumbai) would teach us in this way. He would let students stay just long enough to come to some genuine understanding of life and love and how to be free in the midst of it all. Then he would send them home, saying, "Marry the boy or girl next door, get a job in your own community, live your life as your practice." On the opposite coast of India, Mother Teresa (would send) home the hundreds of volunteers who come to help in (Kolkata), saying, "Now that you have learned to see Christ in the poor of India, go home and serve him in your family, on your street, in your neighborhood."

[...] We are all one family. This can be felt most directly in the silence of an undivided heart. When the mind is still and the heart open, the world is undivided for us. As Chief Seattle reminded our ancestors when he surrendered his land:

"This earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. [...] We did not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web we do to ourselves."

When the heart is undivided, whatever we encounter is our practice.

 (from Jack Kornfield's book, A Path with Heart)

(image from internet)

Things

My house is buried in the deepest recess of the forest
Every year, ivy vines grow longer than the year before.
Undisturbed by the affairs of the world I live at ease,
Woodmen’s singing rarely reaching me through the trees.
While the sun stays in the sky, I mend my torn clothes
And facing the moon, I read holy texts aloud to myself.
Let me drop a word of advice for believers of my faith.
To enjoy life’s immensity, you do not need many things.

~ Ryokan

Ryokan was a maverick Japanese Zen poet/hermit who lived from 1738-1831.  Here is the description of Ryokan from poetry chaikhana:

His reputation for gentleness was sometimes carried to comical extremes. A tale is told that, one day when Ryokan returned to his hut he discovered a robber who had broken in and was in the process of stealing the impoverished monk's few possessions. In the thief's haste to leave, he left behind a cushion. Ryokan grabbed the cushion and ran after the thief to give it to him. This event prompted Ryokan to compose one of his best known poems:

The thief left it behind:
the moon
at my window.

A Christmas Angel

A few years ago I happened to be getting into the passenger's side of my car, then stopped in front of a country inn/restaurant.  As I did so, a little old man appeared from nowhere to help me into my car.  (Actually, he was not just old, but indeed ancient).  Then he declared with joy,  "Isn't it wonderful to be alive?" and disappeared, as mysteriously as he had come.

I often repeat these words for they express a truth we must never forget.  Whatever else happens in this topsy turvy world, it is indeed "wonderful to be alive."

Happy holidays and blessings to all,
Dorothy

P. S. I have a new resolution for the coming year.  I went to a Klezmer concert last night and now wish to learn to do the wonderful circle dance to that beautiful, plaintive, deeply moving music that is part of the Jewish heritage.  In the meantime, I will try to improve my walking and spend time listening  to that music, which I love.

Also, I will think of things for which I have gratitude.  Foremost among them is gratitude for so many wonderful friends I have found through this (blogger) site and FB.  Such connections mean a great deal to me, especially when I recall the 15 years I spent in near total spiritual (and social) isolation at the beginning of my kundalini journey.

And I recall an I Ching reading I got many years ago: "Gather your friends around you.  In friendship there is strength." And, of course, the Beloved is the greatest friend of all.

Saying Hello

It does not really matter
what day it is.

What time, either.

What is important
is to open
the small door in your heart.

To cry "I love you"
and then hear the words
echo back to you
and thus know once more
that She is there.

Dorothy Walters
December 18, 2017

Fred LaMotte

Yesterday at 7:34am

Dear friend, why belabor
this petty distinction
between darkness and light?
Find the Beloved
whose joy was yours
before evening or morning
of the first day.
Sun, moon, and pole star
rise and set in her silence.
She is nearer than flesh.
Can you not taste
the whole sky in a breath?
Her sea of emptiness
pulsates with love-pangs,
brilliant moon-threads
of compassion spinning
this entangled earth
out of the space in your heart.
Consider that you,
you also,
could mother creation
just through the work
of being still...

Angels Unclothed

"When naked to naked goes..."
                               Yeats

I look for angels,
and what I find
are kewpie dolls,
cartoon depictions
of  infant cherubs,
a child's toy.

Is this what angels are,
small figurines
who reassure and
do nothing to offend?
Images to lure us
into the certainly
that God as we call him
has shrunken down
to less than human size
so as not to frighten
or disturb?

When Zeus came down
to Leda, her thighs opened
to a feathered rush,
and she bore gods
and goddesses.
remembered still.

When Moses asked
to see the deity
he only glimpsed
the backside of God
as He passed by:
"If someone sees my face,
he will not live."

And Semele, who asked
to see Him
in His unclothed form
had her wish granted
as she was burned to ash.

Eliot said, "Humankind can bear
only a little reality,"
and so we wonder
how much transcendence
can we withstand
before we are blinded
with the light
of the Ultimate,
the final inescapable
Truth?

And yet we long to see,
to be enfolded in glory,
and some say that It also
is seeking us.

Dorothy Walters
December 21, 2017

The Turning

In the darkness
there is indeed a seed,
a ray breaking forth,
a message heard
for the first time.

It is telling us,
once again,
that we are here,
we are living in sacred space,
we are stumbling forth
into love
everywhere we turn.

Harken.
The angels are singing.
There is glory in heaven.
They are singing for us.
We are being born anew
and we are blessed.
Be still and listen.

Dorothy Walters
December 21, 2017

Sheila Foster––Temple of the Sacred Feminine

Trust

I see the so-called future as only an idea, a way of organizing our lives in this third dimension. In Reality, there is only Now, and it is utterly unpredictable, mysterious, and everything is always changing and sending us into the Unknown. The source and essence of Life is creation which is never static, and just as we conceive a child or a project or a vision of what is to be, we don’t really know. Often our creations are very different than we imagined they would be, just as our lives are.

There are countless times when change rises up out of still waters like an unexpected hurricane or life-shattering accident, or we simply come to the end of a road, a path, a relationship, an event in our lives for which we may have prepared, or not. We still don’t really know what is going to happen, despite any plans or plane tickets we have. How often do we expect or believe someone or something is going to be a certain way and it doesn’t turn out the way we imagined, expected, or hoped, and we are disappointed or hurt?

Knowing, I have come to see, is highly over-rated. It feels to me like a creation of ego to avoid or deny the discomfort, the pain, the shame, the anxiety, the fear and terror, that we have learned to associate and/or create with not knowing. Yet this myth of knowing and our attachment to knowing is constantly busted just about every day. Paradoxically, if there is something important for us to 'know' such as guidance, something important out of the blue, or some kind of spiritual 'knowingness', it will arise in the the space of not knowing.

The stories we tell ourselves about the unknown or what will happen if we don’t know, generate our fears. We grow up in families and schools where we are conditioned to know in order to feel safe or avoid unpleasant consequences. When I was a kid in grade school and high school, I was terrified of certain nuns because they were so punishing or shaming when we didn’t know the answer to a question. I can re-member and feel the physical sensations of shock, numbness, and terror in my face and small body when confronted by my second-grade teacher, Sister John Agnes, who shamed me in front of my class and I did not know what I did wrong—I nodded like I did when she yelled at me, “Do you know what you did?” but I still don’t know what I did that was so terrible in her eyes.

Things like this may have happened to you, too. We may have been traumatized for not knowing at one time or another. As a child in a highly dysfunctional family, I felt like I had to know what was going on for survival. I listened at doors and to phone calls, hid on the stairs, looked through desk drawers, eavesdropped as adults talked around the kitchen table because I felt it would somehow protect me from a repeat of the horrendous shock and trauma of being sent away again without being told it was going to happen or why.

This is Life having a human experience in duality. What comes, goes, and this cycle repeats itself so many times in one lifetime. Sometimes, like the buffalo who are now heading away from the possibly erupting volcano at Yellowstone, our bodies let us know change is coming. We may feel uneasy or anxious and not know why, or we are standing in the grocery store and our intuition sends us home immediately just in time to be there when the call comes telling us something has happened to one of our beloveds. In my healing work, a sense of that something is needed arises, “the stretcher from Grace” appears, and I cannot claim that it is the ‘I’ that knows what is being called for, but whatever appears is what I offer and often turns out to be just right for that moment. Guidance arises and emerges as words, intuition, or a felt sense, and I can follow this lead very easily as I trust it far more than I trust my egoic mind that thinks it knows. So often ego tells us to do this or that, then chastises us when we do, or hangs us up in conflict as it swings back and forth trying to decide. All that to say that we may have more access than we realize to right action from trusting what we do not consciously know. We have access to direct experience when we don't know.

(Image from above site)

Brahman and Atman

"Brahman is without a beginning and without an end and yet is within all. Brahman is cosmic spirit and infinite consciousness.  The universal principle and eternal truth.

Brahman is the divine source of everything that exists and does not exist.  Brahman is genderless and yet has a dual nature that encompasses both male and female.  The male aspect known as Purusha, “that which fills,” and the female aspect known as Shakti which means “energy” or “dynamic force.”

Jeanine Goode-Allen

When I was about eleven years old, our history class studied world religions, including Hinduism.  The only thing I remember about the class was this sentence: "Brahma is Atman, Atman is Brahma."  I thought to myself, "Well, of course.  That is obvious."  Every thing I encountered thereafter was a footnote to this observation.  I now believe that we are each a part of Brahman (God) in the way a cell or a corpuscle is part of our bodies.  It is us, and yet is by no means all of who we are.  Our spirits are part of a larger Spirit, yet by no means are we the full reality of the Mystery.

This idea of human oneness with the divine has been a point of contention throughout history.  Tolstoy wrote a book with the title "The Kingdom of God is Within You," a notion considered quite radical at the time.  Mansur Al-Hallaj (c. 858 – 26 March 922), a Persian mystic, was killed in a very brutal way for having asserted "I am Truth."  "Truth" is for Sufis one of the names of God, and his enemies contended that he had thereby claimed that he was God.  Some believe he was slain for this "heresy," but others feel he was executed for political reasons.

The traditional mystic path leads to the annihilation of the ego self into the Divine Mystery.  I believe that when we experience states of rapture we are at those moments one with the Divine Essence, which I call "the Beloved Within."  At those times it is difficult to know which is the holy flow of love from Source, and which is the familiar persona of the personal "self."  I previously wrote a poem about our union with the Beloved that concluded with this sentiment: "Our journey ended in each other."

"Brahman is Atman, Atman is Brahman"

Dorothy Walters
December 18, 2017

(image from internet)

Rumi's Wedding Night

I don't know what I can tell you
that you don't already know.

Indeed we are spirits located
in these temporary vessels
of flesh.

We two communicate,
but we are not the same.

When one takes ill,
the other suffers.

When one experiences joy,
the other celebrates.

But that is for now.

Overall we must remember
that what is real
is this divine flow,
the bliss that is the universe,
the reality that loves and
and whom we love in return.

At the end,
we will, like Rumi,
celebrate our wedding night
with the eternal,
shed our flesh garment
and know reunion with the source
of all that we call our world,

Pilgrims still visit his tomb.
It is said that the energies of rapture
and sweet perfume of prayers
fill the air around
as if from circling angels
and each pilgrim is exalted,
knows that they are blessed.

Dorothy Walters
December 17, 2017

(image from internet)

Rumi's "Wedding Night"

by Ibrahim Gamard, 12/98 (revised 12/00, 11/02, 12/08)

The night of December 17, is the (solar) anniversary of the death of Jalâluddîn Rûmî, who died in 1273 in Konya, Turkey (which for many centuries had been known as "Rûm," the Anatolian peninsula long ruled by "Rome," meaning the Eastern Roman, and then Byzantine, Empire). The observance of the anniversary of a sufi saint is called (in Arabic), `urs, which means "wedding," because the saint is believed to have attained "union" (or utmost nearness together with other saints and the prophets) with God, the Only Beloved.

Dear Dorothy,

“What planet are you from?” Have you heard this question from friends or family when you express ideas that are completely outside the paradigm of the “normal” human being? Have you ever felt like you are actually from another planet and may have been left here by mistake? Perhaps you have felt like you are an emissary from another galaxy who has been sent here for a particular purpose to help with the ascension process here on Earth. Even though this question is often uttered in jest, what would happen if it were actually true?

How would you react if you were told by a psychic or a channel that you are indeed from another star system here on earth for a particular mission? Would it seem ludicrous and cause more doubts? Would you accept it as empowering and cause you to be more deeply committed to your mission on this planet? Would you be eager to become acquainted with others here that might share your heritage? It all may seem quite unrealistic, yet as we know, what we have accepted as real doesn’t always prove to be the case. How would your life be affected if you were open to the possibility of a deep connection with the cosmos playing out on this planet in a way that is far beyond our current comprehension?

Love and Light,
Ted (Murray)

Ted here raises an interesting question.  Many of us feel like "strangers in a strange land" here on earth and some believe they do indeed come from another planet, and have a special mission on earth at this time.  But there are realms of origin that are not material.  These are spiritual dimensions that exist outside our awareness.  Those who like Plato and Wordsworth (and yours truly) felt  (feel) that the soul exists before birth would agree.  Rumi said "I am from some other place and when I die I plan to return."  This realm or dimension is, in my view, what we connect with when the divine energies enter our bodies and we know unconditional love.  Indeed, we feel we have come entrusted with a mission, and that mission is to aid in every way we can the current transition into the new human.

Bodidharma

I have gone through the stages.
I have felt the extremes of joy and pain.
Flowers have spoken to me.
Trees have held me in their arms.
The Beloved has come often,
often unannounced.
Music has inhabited
my soul.

Now I wonder what I must do next.
Perhaps just this,
speaking to whoever
wishes to hear.

When I had my original awakening experience, I was given the new name of "Bodidharma".  I did not know what a "Bodidharma" was, so I looked this word up and found that he was an ancient world teacher who took Buddhism to China.  I did not dare to believe I was an incarnation of that great being, but rather thought that perhaps I was named after him.  I translated his name to mean "truth speaker" and so he was.  And I have tried to be such in my own life through writing and speaking..

Snow

I know.
Each moment is but preparation
for the next,
and once observed,
is already gone.

How, then,
can I live
in a present
that has already vanished?

Last night
the snow fell
while I was sleeping.
Today the trees
are wearing white aprons,
and the grass smoothes itself over
with its pale quilt.

I stand at the window
and look at this winter scene
with abandoned  joy,
content to live
in my past.

Dorothy Walters
December 14, 2017

To the One Within

I have nothing.
Not even a robe
or a mark on my brow.
I do not wish to wear jeweled garments
and wear a halo around my head
and talk to large gatherings of people
to tell them what to think
or get smashed in crowds
at festivals and celebrations.
No longer able to do floor yoga,
instead I stand.
I bring no incense or offerings
of fruit or flowers,
kiss no feet.
My temple is silence.

Yet at times
I know You are there.
When You come I forget
all else,
what the others think or do.
It does not matter
if I am clothed or naked,
fed or hungry.
My moves are subtle,
yet they bring much bliss.
Others would not believe
even if I told.

These meetings are secret.
Something between the
two of us.
Something some
are looking for
and often have not found.

Om shanti, om shanti, om shanti, om

Dorothy Walters
December 13, 2017

(painting by Jan Elvee)

The Devoted

They kept on going, no matter what.

The famous writer
who tied his pencil to his wrist,
so he could keep on writing
to the end.

The painter whose eyes went dim,
and so he painted what he saw,
blurred images that took us into
other realms, new ways of seeing,

The great composer
who kept on producing
his majestic works,
even when he could no longer hear.

The epic poet who was quite blind
but produced a masterpiece,
eternal work of art.

The poet, bent and hunched,
who gained fame in his time.

The painter who, even when his mind
was torn,
kept on painting
the images that came.

Study these.
Listen to the messages they send.
They tell us things
we need to know.

Dorothy Walters
December 11, 2017

(The creators, in order of reference: Joyce Cary ("The Horse's Mouth"); Monet "The Water Lilies"; Beethoven; Milton "Paradise Lost"; Alexander Pope (famous in the 18th century for his rhyming couplets); Willem de Koonig (painted even with dementia).

(image from internet)

Holy Gifts

Much Madness is Divinest Sense
                           Emily Dickinson

And some have been given gifts.
They hear on a different level,
see in the distance or even nearby
that which is not perceptible
to the rest.
And some of us feel the extraordinary.
Stand before us
and we will know
the undetected bliss
of certain chakras.
On sacred ground,
we will sway
as the sweet energies
of earth itself
stream upward
into our breasts
(Tara and the holy wells
of Ireland,
Delphi and its surroundings
where the Maenads played
in Greece).

Let us touch
or even view
those works of art
into which
their creators have poured
their own life energies
(Rothko in Detroit,
that Chinese vase
fired in the emperor's kiln
so many centuries ago
to mark the beginning
of a new era, a new regime)
your Buddhist thangka from Nepal
with its bliss still alive,
flowing rapture into your head
when you bowed before it).
That Mozart chorus,
intensities so strong
you were but
a sounding board
fraught with resonance,
rapture flowing,
you had to struggle
not to ascend.

In public
you do not tell
or open,
try your best to look and act
like a proper
member of the tribe.

But in private,
secret practices,
movements so subtle
they cannot be perceived,
high frequencies entering
the body,
the head,
in rapture so refined
it cannot be described.

When the Greek armies,
starving and exhausted,
kept on marching toward
their mother, the sea,
the ones at the front were
the first to smell salt in the air,
and then the first sight.
The shout rang out and
echoed down the lines:
"Thallata, thallata."
Many wept with joy
or knelt in thanks.
The gods had listened.
They were going home.

Dorothy Walters
December 11, 2017

Emergence Education Press

Recently I announced that my book "Kundalini Splendor: The Future as Ecstasy" had been accepted for publication by a new firm called Emergent Education Press.  The founders of this publishing house are Jeff Carreira and his wife Amy Edelstein.  These two are each doing remarkable work in the world, all in the service of bringing needed change to our world.  Amy does truly exciting work with inner city students, helping them to  find ways to increase their inner stability in an unsteady world (for example, by learning to breathe deeply in the face of crisis).  These students respond by telling her how helpful such techniques are for them.

As for Jeff, he is extremely active as a writer and meditation leader, giving workshops and webinars in many countries.  He has a devoted following and I feel they will be a responsive audience for my book.  I feel extremely fortunate to work with such a dedicated couple in such a critical area as bringing needed change to our world through a spiritual approach.

Here is a letter I recently received from Jeff describing his plans for the coming year.  I am printing it here so that you can know about the folks I will be working with on this project.  Maybe you can even attend one of his workshops.
  
Hi

Today I want to tell you about some exciting plans I have for 2018. A new emphasis is emerging in my work, which is enhancing the way I teach, and I want to share that with you.

What I'm feeling is that I want to spend more time doing in-depth work with people who want that type of engagement. Lately I have felt my love for spiritual intensity very strongly. I've been doing more practice myself and I feel called to create opportunities to share spiritually charged awakening opportunities with others. You are invited to contribute your brilliance, your energy, and your inspiration as part of this journey.

I am dedicating this year to efforts that will catalyze energetic openings and spiritual awakenings in as many people as possible and then I'll create  structures for engagement that will allow us to stabilize in a new level of consciousness together.

So let me spend a few paragraphs explaining what I feel so inspired to share.

I am an idealist. I don’t believe that reality is built up from bits of matter that combine to eventually form life and consciousness. I believe that reality is conscious and awake from the start. I've spent hours in spiritual practices of all kinds allowing myself to become more and more comfortable with the fact that reality is not a three-dimensional space filled with material objects - reality is a living source of intelligence and care.

A mind that has never perceived beyond time and space cannot conceive of this. Without such an experience we assume that the three-dimensional world of time and space is all there is.

And even a mind that does experience beyond the mental confines of time and space cannot hold any memory of what it just experienced once it returns. All that remains after such a miraculous journey is the memory of how it felt and the mental impressions those feelings produced. The mystery remains a mystery even to those who have experienced it.

A great deal of spiritual work is aimed at reproducing the feelings and mental impressions of the beyond - but these are shadows of the actual awakening.

The secret to awakening as far as I've discovered is to let go of any need to conceptualize. If we learn to allow the unknowable to remain unknown then we find ourselves immersed in the mystery of being that is always all around us. Even the most vague concept that we hold about the mystery restricts our access to the unknowable beyond.

Awakening practices are often referred to as esoteric which means secret. This is not only because they have tended to be practiced by small numbers of people who prefer to work privately outside of the gaze of the public eye.

They are called esoteric because they illuminate realities that cannot be known by the mind. They will always be a mystery to our mental processes and if we in any way want them to conform to our conceptual capacities we will find them forever out of reach. We will endlessly swim in the invisible swirls of illumination while assuming we don’t see them.

Awakening is not something that we can see. The term Spiritual materialism refers to the habit of relating to awakening as if it were a feeling or experience that we could possess. We insist that unless we are actively feeling it or seeing it, it doesn’t exist. Our tendencies toward spiritual materialism must be released before we can perceive the imperceptible.

I will be honest with you, I don't intend to teach as publicly as I do now indefinitely. I believe that everything has a natural life cycle. A spiritual teacher has something to share and they share it and then it is time to let new voices bring fresh energy and light into the world. At that point I imagine that the teacher is free to work in different ways supporting those they have trained and using their energy to hold a community of awakened souls together for the mutual benefit of all.

I don’t believe that those whom I support need to teach what I teach. They will have their own expression and their own experiences to share.

What I do believe is that the greatest service I can offer to a new generation of teachers is to support them to stabilize in the mystery beyond time and space. That is why I want to dedicate my energy in 2018 to a journey into the highest consciousness we can enter and stabilize in together.

My work has come to a new level of fruition and I am interested in mentoring those who either are already sharing their experience or will share in the future. I want to create structures of connection that will hold a diverse group of awakening individuals so that they can exchange freely between each other and grow together with me.

In this spirit I want to share my plans and enthusiasm for what I see coming in my work in 2018.

Preview of 2018

In 2018 Craig Hamilton and I will continue our amazing collaboration in the Opening to the Infinite program. For the past two years Craig and I have provided a container in which hundreds of people have experienced the miracle of awakened awareness and sustained it together over time.

Next year will also be the fourth year of my rigorous philosophical program called The Breakthrough Intensive. In this program we actively shift our perception of reality beyond the current paradigm by studying and bringing to life ideas and perspectives that transform our fundamental assumptions about reality.

Next year you will have more opportunities to work with me in person than ever before.

I will be teaching in-person every month in Center City Philadelphia and at the Aligned Center in Irvington, New York.
There is an exciting collaborative workshop planned for late January in Irvington, a weekend retreat in Asheville, NC, and a daylong retreat in beautiful Montreal in May as well.
In June you can join me for a three-day retreat in Switzerland held at the magnificent Villa Unspunnen Retreat Center. This is an opportunity to explore the union of meditation and philosophical inquiry in a spiritually rich environment.
My fourth annual 6-day summer retreat is the most focused and intensive opportunity to engage with me and it will be held in August once again this year, but this year we will be working together at Highland Lake Cove in Flat Rock, NC - a beautiful new retreat center built around the banks of a picturesque mountain lake.
Looking all the way ahead to November 2018 I will be leading a meditation and yoga retreat on the awe inspiring southern coast of Portugal with my friend Silvia Rodrigues. This will be a very small (approximately 18 participants) and intimate opportunity to relax into spiritual practice and awakening together.

2018 is also going to be the year that I launch a venture that I have been envisioning for the past three years.

I am happy to announce that in March of 2018 I will be opening The Mystery School for a New Paradigm membership program. The Mystery School will offer weekly guidance in condensed time efficient forms, as well as monthly forums for engagement and an audio teaching library at a cost that is affordable to anyone.

You are invited to engage with me to whatever degree fits your needs and interests. You can simply look at the essays I periodically send, join one of my free events, become a member of The Mystery School, participate in a course or program, or join me on retreat somewhere in the world.

The goal of my work is to initiate and stabilize as many people as I can in a direct connection to the unknowable mystery and  support them to share the fruits of that connection in their own unique way.

As I finish writing this letter I feel so much love and appreciation for you and all you do to awaken the world.

Thank you for all of your interest and support.

Love,
Jeff

Seeds

We are all sent down here alone.
It is as if someone had
flung seeds from a higher place
and we came forth, blossoming
and seeking light.

Some of us took refuge
in already established forms,
ways of being.

We poured easily into pre-established molds.
We did not question, but accepted
what was given,
glad for the comfort
of others of our kind.
Others of us were restless,
wanted  answers,
rummaged ancient texts,
challenged teachers,
sought to remember,
where we came from,
our assignment here.

No one had an easy path.
Some were seduced by riches and success,
custom, their own talent.
Others forged ahead on
their own way,
a difficult journey,
no companions,
often no landmarks,
only savage sun,
blinding snow.

Our progress varied.
Those who did not travel
very far
were often happy just where they were
and had no desire to explore.
They chose not to ask too many questions
and took for granted what was given.
Others kept trying new pathways,
different routes and investigations
to move ahead.

And when these finally seemed
to arrive
at a longed for destination,
a different vision,
the rest were often suspicious,
felt indeed that they had
lost their way, needed help
or censure.

Nonetheless the adventurers
stood by their choices,
gave thanks to find at last
the hidden jewel
and knelt before what they knew
was holy,
the reason why they came.

Dorothy Walters
December 8, 2017

Bringing in Light––Ted Murray

How do you bring light into the world? Each of us has a unique way of accomplishing the same mission, bringing light and love into the world. Some do it through the strength of their meditation, where they actually connect with the great central sun and draw the light from Source into the planet. Others focus on opening their own heart, purifying their soul and being an example of what love looks like in the world. This bringing of the light into the 3D world can be as subtle as smiling to strangers on the street or as grand as creating a non-profit that addresses the needs of a group that you are passionate about.

Business can be a way of bringing light also. Creating a new product that helps improve the environment while treating employees with respect and concern for their welfare can be a tremendous way to bring love into the world. Being a teacher or other form of role model for the next generation can have an enormous impact. You don’t have to be a well-known celebrity to bring light into the world. It can be done in many ways, and the world needs your unique way. What’s important is to consciously bring light and love into your life and share it with others in as many ways and as consciously as you possibly can.

Love and Light,
Ted

The Solitary Ecstatic

Don’t surrender your loneliness
So quickly.      
                        Hafiz

Hafiz, do you know what it is
to be utterly, totally alone?

To be visited again and again
by those elements
that some call God
and still no friend
to share with, tell what is happening.

To be shaken to your roots
with pleasure,
and yet no one
standing beside you.

No one near
to hear your story
extend a welcoming hand.

Sometimes even God
is not enough.
Sometimes the loneliness
and something called rapture
are all you have.

Dorothy Walters
December 6, 2017

St. Augustine

"If you can understand it, it isn’t God."
                          St. Augustine

Indeed, what you know is a tiny fraction
of what there is to know.

What you see,
is merely an iota
of what there is to see.

What you feel is a tiny particle
of what there is to feel.

Yet, the mystery is there.
It will fill you totally
with its love.
Then you will know
that you are in fact
part of this vast, indefinable,
immeasurable reality
of all that is.

You will be swept up
in the arms of an unknown essence
you cannot see or name.
No matter how hard you try,
you will never understand it.
Yet you cannot deny
its truth.
It is who you are.

Dorothy Walters
December 5, 2017

(image from internet)

I dream often, but almost never remember these later.  But last night I had a dream just before I woke up that I did recall, and, to my surprise, it was about politics.  As far as I know, this is the only such dream I have ever had, though I frequently think about such matters.

In the dream, some sort of meeting was being held in an auditorium.  It was sponsored by some kind of progressive group, and I was clearly part of them.  There was also a repressive faction that was trying to stop the presentation, even literally tackling a person who was setting up a screen or something.  However, ultimately the good guys won, and at the end I announced, "We have just achieved another victory for democratic values."  But by now the audience was leaving, and most were uninterested in what I had said, for they were apathetic about it all.

Clearly, this dream is allegorical, representing on the one hand the authoritarian, regressive takeover we are now experiencing on every hand.   Yet in the midst of this attack on democracy (which many support), many of us are well aware of what is happening and seek to oppose it.  And of course others simply are tuning our and refusing to get involved.

Socrates said the democracy can succeed only with an educated populace.  Seemingly a large segment of voters today are incapable of using their own intelligence to see the destructive pattern we are engaged in, as if they were blind to the facts in front of them.

My analysis of the current situation is as follows:

We are witnessing the pathology of greed as a prime factor motivating those who lust for ever more material goods and possessions.  What do they want with their increased wealth?  More private planes, bigger mansions, more expensive autos and wardrobes?They are like beasts with a hunger that cannot be assuaged, ever, and they are constantly seeking more material items to satisfy their lust for things.

In addition, others are afflicted by the pathology of power.  They want more and more control over others, to satisfy their own inflated egos.  We see this trait in many dictators and tyrants (think of Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini as well as many CEO's as well as those in the political realm who seek to obtain positions of power and authority to show their own innate superiority over others.)

I think that the psychologist Adler even saw the lust for power as the primary motive of human behavior, a greater force than sex or other desires.

We seem to be in the grasp of those who are victims of such pathologies and whose ruthless methods are such that they are destroying all that we think of as democratic or even Christian and the basic spiritual values of many faiths.

I follow the news carefully and watch with amazement each new and disturbing development.  I think that we should each be informed and, though we acknowledge the severity of the present crisis, keep ourselves composed and steady, without succumbing to either overwhelming anger or grief.  We are witnessing a huge turning point in history, the destruction of one era and the birth of another.  I am convinced that even as the outer institutions of society are collapsing, the inner, spiritual structures are being rebuilt in an ever increasing rate, and we are witnessing and participating in this phenomenon as beings who came here to be part of this critical time in human history.

(photo from internet)

The Problem

The problem is
that there was
always a price to be paid.
Love and betrayal.

The degrees and the
unbearable job.

The friends who cared
then left,
just went away.

The wonders of nature
then too stiff to walk very far.

Reaching a certain age,
and too many things
not working right.

But truth is
it has been
a splendid ride,
full of exquisite surprise,
unexpected good fortune,
all blessings
one could wish,
friends surrounding me
bearing lit candles
in their hands,
poems falling like flowers
onto my screen,
music so sweet
it was like nectar from unseen realms,
the Beloved
always near.
How lucky
can you be?

Dorothy Walters
November 28, 2018

Good News

I have just learned that my latest book (prose) has been accepted for publication.  I am overjoyed.  The title is "Kundalini Splendor: The Future as Ecstasy."  I strongly believe that Kundalini is the driving force behind our current transformation into divine beings, and I feel if such sudden awakenings as occurred to me in Kansas so long ago could take place under those conditions, then anything can happen to anyone at any time and anywhere.  We will enter this new age together.

Who knows how this script will unfold?  It is joy and glory in the very midst of desolation and despair.  "Acknowledge the shadow but stand in the light."

Love to all,

Dorothy

December 3, 2017

(image from internet)

Are you lighthearted and joyful or are you simply unaware of the challenges in the world? One of the most difficult things in today’s world is to be aware of the myriad problems that face the planet and yet remain joyful in your daily life. How can the two co-exist without you going crazy? The key is to look into the future and realize that we are entering a phase of enlightenment of the planet. Current news certainly doesn’t seem to recognize this; however, the fact that so many long-buried secrets of horrible acts are coming to light now is one sign of the awakening.

People are becoming aware of the abuse of power and are beginning to reclaim their own power. When you reclaim your power as a creative spiritual being then you have the choice of creating a joyful life. Instead of allowing fear and anger to overwhelm you, which will bind you to the negativity, instead be a beacon of light in the darkness. When you radiate joy, even with full awareness of the problems in the world, you allow others to experience the light of love that can open their heart. Humor and joy open hearts much faster than anger and fighting against injustice.

Love and Light,
Ted Murray

(photo from internet)

P. S.  I love this perspective.   If we ignore all the problems of our time, we are failing to recognize what challenges we face.  But if we get so involved in the shadows that are emerging that we become angry and upset all the time, we ourselves become part of the shadow.  I think we should always seek balance––acknowledge the shadow but stand in the light.

Having crossed the river,
where will you go, O friend ?
There's no road to tread,
No traveler ahead,
Neither a beginning, nor an end.
There's no water, no boat, no boatman, no cord;
No earth is there, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford.
You have forgotten the Self within,
Your search in the void will be in vain;
In a moment the life will ebb
And in this body you won't remain.
Be ever conscious of this, O friend,
You have to immerse within your Self;
Kabir says, salvation you won't then need,
For what you are, you would be indeed.

~ Kabir (India, 15th century)