Kundalini Splendor

A Twist in the Road

One day there was a twist
or turning in the road
and after that
I was no longer
part of the crowd.
Although to be quite honest
I had never been part 
of any crowd or group
or gathering.
Because I always knew
that I was different,
set apart as if
there was something wrong
with me,
a birth defect,
an incapacity that I had
no name for,
that I compensated for
by the knowing itself,
and thus defined myself
as the unfortunate other,
homeless in the sense
of one who has no home,
just a restless discomfort,
never fully assuaged.


Dante said, "Midway in the journey of our life
I found myself lost in a dark wood,"
and thus began his story of his
long journey home,
arrival at the place
where the angels danced,
where the air smelled 
of a sweetness 
like honey made by
sacred bees,
like perfume manufactured
by the apprentice gods
learning to be holy.
His journey took years (metaphorically),
lifetimes maybe,
but mine took only seconds,
or seemed to make a transition
from one state to the next
in the famous blink of
the famous eye,
and left me stunned,
immersed in rapture
before I had time
to name it or wonder
about it,
I knew only
that I was being overwhelmed
by an unknown force,
commanded by love
to release all remorse
and regret
and simply be
that which was happening
from which I could never return.

And now I was outside
the outsiders,
alien among aliens,
stranger even to that reality
of suffering I had claimed
as my own.

And so I became other,
both witness and alchemical subject,
experiment in progress
and new being in love with 
and loved by the invisible,
nameless suitor,
self rediscovered at last.

Dorothy Walters
March 29, 2020

The Truth

Do not forget
the truth 
you have been given.

Your scholarship
was 2,000 years
in the making.

Sages and prophets
have slaved for years
for this knowledge.

Only now
have the books of heaven
been opened
for humanity to grasp
their treasures.

Secrets are being whispered
into your ears
at night.

Do not forget them
when daylight
arrives and the veils
drop once more.

Dorothy Walters
February 27, 2020

Chips in the Brain?

Technicians now are learning to insert chips in the brain to allow information to interface with the hard drive of computers.  They claim that this connection will allow the recipient to have more brain "bandwidth" and thus to function more efficiently in the world.  They also assert that this brain-chip arrangement will do wonders for paraplegics and Parkinson's victims and thus will serve a very worthy function in society.

However, there is a price to pay for these improvements.  The use of these artificial devices will diminish the effectiveness of your natural ability to cope with similar conditions.  This notion also raises the fear that a new "species' will be created through the fusion of human and AI elements.

Will a robot- like creature be the product of such joining?  Will the result be something that suggests a sci-fi-movie?  Will we as humans lose those essential qualities that define us as humans?  Who will supervise these basically experimental efforts?

All sorts of possible nightmare  outcomes suggest themselves as possibilities.  Will they aid those with certain disabilities as is claimed?  Will the result be instead unexpected side effects?

Once we tamper with nature  in this way, we may face serious consequences.  The prospects are sobering.

The "click here" button does not work on this copy, but I feel certain that if you e-mail Jeff at his address above, he will enroll you in the seminar.  Jeff is a major spiritual teacher who is well worth listening to.


Hi Dorothy,  

Thank you for registering for the 2 hour workshop 'Opening Your Heart to the Challenge of Crisis'

Opening Your Heart to the Challenge of Crisis
In times of crisis, it is possible to go in the opposite direction. Even under pressure we can open rather than shrink.

**This workshop will be recorded for those that cannot attend live**

View all details here
with Jeff Carreira

Date and Time
Saturday, March 28th: 11:00 am – 1:00 pm US Eastern Time

Location: Zoom Video Conferencing
>> Enter The Workshop Zoom Room <<
Or use meeting ID: 557 225 570

A reminder email will also be sent one hour before the workshop starts.

Sincerely,
Jeff

e: jeff@jeffcarreira.com w: jeffcarreira.com 
w: mysteryschool-memberscircle.com


Sent to: dorothywalters72@gmail.com 

Unsubscribe 

Emergence Education, P.O. Box 63767, Philadelphia, PA 19147, United States

Corona

Bursting red flowers

Invisible to the eye

Your beauty slays us

We lather our hands

And with only you in mind

Close ourselves from life

We listen for stars

For wind rapping at our doors

And discover peace

In our solitude

In the true present moment

It is all we have

It is all we need

Our essential bouquet


- Katherine Hastings 

Pandemic

What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love--
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

- Lynn Ungar

Hi Dorothy,

The ultimate goal of my work is to cultivate and nurture Artists of Possibility and that is the primary focus of my upcoming 12-week intensive. 

Please read this essay so you can understand exactly what I mean by that. 

I hope you enjoy it.

Jeff

(Jeff Carreira is one of the major spiritual teachers of our time.  He is also the co-publisher (with his wife Amy) of my books through their firm Emergent Education Press.  They are a delight to work with.)

~~
Calling in an Unimaginable Future

The aim of my work is to support people to serve the future as Artists of Possibility. That means supporting people to discover and develop their own unique expression of an unimaginable future. 

There are aspects of the future that are imaginable, almost predictable, but there are also things that happen that were unprecedented. These things couldn’t have been predicted and they usher in dramatic change. These are paradigm shifting events and they generally brought about by people who have a profound openness of vision. 

Think of a flat Earth to a round Earth, from the Sun going around the Earth, to the Earth going around the Sun, or from disease caused by evil spirits to germs. 

I believe the big paradigm shifting leap in consciousness we need now is from a universe of separation, to a universe of Oneness. Those who will usher in that dramatic leap are today’s Artists of Possibility. They are the paradigm shifters. 

The idea is simple. We exist as part of a living, conscious universe. The consciousness that we have as an individual is an expression of that higher, universal heart and mind. 

Our life, including our thoughts, our loves, and our actions, are already coming from a universal source, but how clear a reflection depends on how open a channel we are. 

The deeper source of our being is filtered through our conditioned mental, emotional, and behavioral patterns, and shaped by our deepest assumptions about the nature of reality. 

To become an Artist of Possibility we must relax our habits of reactivity and question our most fundamental assumptions about everything. Then we can discover and adopt new ways of understanding and experiencing the world. 

In short, we must learn to relax reactivity in order to creatively illuminate new worlds of possibility. 

If we embark on this journey, we will eventually find ourselves in an awkward position. We will see clearly that the world as it commonly presents itself, is not nearly the limit of what’s possible and we will want to share the riches of new possibility with anyone who is open to them.

The questions that arise at this point are: What do we share? How do we share it? And do we have the courage to stand behind what we see?

In my work, people use the practice of meditation to relax their deepest habits of reactivity and attain a profound freedom of spirit. By practicing what I call the Art of Conscious Contentment, they discover a profoundly calm and equanimous peace of mind. This liberates them from conditioned patterns of being and it’s an essential step on the journey to new worlds of possibility. 

The next step in the journey involves using paradigm shifting philosophical inquiry and experimentation to literally shift our experience of reality. The paradigm we currently exist within is held together by a few assumptions that are buried so deep in our experience that they seem unquestionable. 

By questioning assumptions such as the separation between us and the world, or the existence of the self, or the linear passage of time, we uproot the foundations of reality. And once we begin to free ourselves from these assumptions, we can consider different ways of understanding and experiment with different ways of being. This is the work of creatively illuminating new worlds of possibility.

As we relax patterns of reactivity and creatively illuminate new worlds of possibility, our sensitivity to the source of consciousness opens up. We become aware of realms that we were previously blind to. And we feel called to express the love, wisdom and majesty we find there.  

We are all reflections of a divine source, but we are not just open channels, we are unique channels, with particular interests and capacities. There is an expression of the cosmos that each of us was born to share, and our spiritual work ultimately means sharing it fully. 

What we find as we open to our unique gifts is that they have been part of our lives from the beginning. Even in a semi-conscious state we could not help but express some portion of our gifts. If we keep an open mind, we will see that we are in the perfect position to express our deepest wisdom and love right now. 

The different pieces of our life will fit together in new and exciting ways. We will understand why we’ve always been interested in the things we were interested in, studied the things we’ve studied, succeeded in the ways that we have, and failed when we moved to far from our gifts. 

Our work now involves choosing the best medium for expression, developing our voice, and allowing our passion to carry us into the life of an Artist of Possibility. 

~ end ~

Sincerely,
Jeff Carreira

On Mar 7, 2020, at 4:28 PM, Lawrence Edwards wrote:

Wandering Through the Forest

Wandering through the forest
We come upon an open glade.
O my Beloved,
You suddenly let the fullness
of your Divine Presence
be known,
enveloping,
no, 
Being,
all I could perceive! 
You, the soft petal of the
late winter crocus, 
You, the scent of ground
thawing, leaves decaying, 
incense suffused with You
my Beloved!
Shafts of sunlight
amidst columns of trees,
You! You, my beloved!
Daffodil shoots 
and promises
of brilliant yellow blossoms, 
You! You, all You!
Who's experiencing all this!
Perceiver and perceived, 
mind and body,
You, You, all you!
Lover and Beloved, 
You! You, only You!
Nothing left but You!
Om Kali Ma! 
Om Kali Ma! 
Om Kali Ma! 


Love to you dear Dorothy! 

Kalidas 


Lawrence Edwards, PhD, LMHC, BCN Senior Fellow
www.optimalmind.net 
www.thesoulsjourney.com

The Radiance Sutras––Lorin Roche

The Radiance Sutras is a lively version of a classic meditation text, the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, which describes 112 different doorways into meditation. The text appeared in Kashmir around 800 AD and is characterized by a wide-open embrace of all of human experience. It is addressed to people who live in the world and want to have rich inner and outer lives.  (from Amazon's description)  I consider this one of the most beautiful translations available.



vayu dvayasya samghattat
antah va bahih antatah
yogi samatva vijnana
samudgamana bhajanam

Pour one breath into the other,
Out-breath into the in-breath
Into the out-breath.

In the harmony of this fusion
Where one rhythm turns into the other,
Awaken into equilibrium.

Tend to breath in this way,
Claim the power
Of oneness with the Self.



yatra yatra manas tustir
manas tatra-eva dharayet
tatra tatra para ananda
svarupam sam-pravartate

Wherever, whenever you feel carried away,
Rejoicing in every breath,
There, there is your meditation hall.

Cherish those times of absorption—
Rocking the baby in the silence of the night
Pouring water into a crystal glass
Tending the logs in the crackling fire
Sharing a meal with a circle of friends.
Embrace these pleasures and know,
This is my true body.

Nowhere is more holy than this.
Right here is the sacred pilgrimage.
Live in alertness for such a moment, my Beloved,
As if it were your one meeting with the Creator.

asane shayane sthitva
niradharam vibhavayan
svadeham manasi kshine
kshanat kshena-ashaya bhavet

Sitting on a soft seat,
Or lying on your mat,
Experience the space below
As offering no support.

You are simply suspended,
Floating in space.

Structures of the mind release,
The reservoir of habits dissolves.
In an instant, lifetimes of patterns
Vanish.



chitti adi antah kritih nasti
mama-antah bhavayet iti
vikalpanam abhavena
vikalpaih ujjhitah bhavet

People talk about mind and ego.
Let’s just drop this whole conversation.

Consider instead:
There is no mind.
There is no ego.
There is only the incandescent reality.
At play, beckoning.

Adapted from The Radiance Sutras: 112 Gateways to the Yoga of Wonder and Delight, by Lorin Roche. Copyright © 2014 by Lorin Roche. Sounds True, August 2014.

To My Guru Who Did Not Come

(For those who tread alone)

O holy one,
I longed for you.
I wrote precious poems,
 said prayers,
yet never saw your face.

You gave me an assignment,
to follow a path that was, like you,
invisible,
trod by few.
You sent overwhelming
love
into my body,
to show me the way.
Often you came,
often we melted together
into one,
how beautiful, this
yab/yum of the soul.

Oh, my guru, my beloved invisible one,
little did I guess,
that you were my unseen guide.

Together we made our way
into the unknown.
You and I, we were wed,
two souls in one body,
secret union.

Oh, my holy one,
you are with me always,
even now.

Dorothy Walters
March 1, 2020

I Have forgotten

Milarepa

May I be far removed from contending creeds and dogmas.
Ever since my Lord’s grace entered my mind,
My mind has never strayed to seek such distractions.
Accustomed long to contemplating love and compassion,
I have forgotten all difference between myself and others.

Accustomed long to meditating on my Guru as enhaloed over my head,
I have forgotten all those who rule by power and prestige.
Accustomed long to meditating on my guardian deities as inseparable from myself,
I have forgotten the lowly fleshly form.
Accustomed long to meditating on the secret whispered truths,
I have forgotten all that is said in written or printed books.
Accustomed, as I have been, to the study of the eternal Truth,
I’ve lost all knowledge of ignorance.

Accustomed, as I’ve been, to contemplating both nirvana and samsara as inherent in myself,
I have forgotten to think of hope and fear.
Accustomed, as I’ve been, to meditating on this life and the next as one,
I have forgotten the dread of birth and death.
Accustomed long to studying, by myself, my own experiences,
I have forgotten the need to seek the opinions of friends and brethren.
Accustomed long to applying each new experience to my own spiritual growth,
I have forgotten all creeds and dogmas.

Accustomed long to meditating on the Unborn, the Indestructible, the Unchanging,
I have forgotten all definitions of this or that particular goal.
Accustomed long to meditating on all visible phenomena as the Dharmakaya,
I have forgotten all meditations on what is produced by the mind.
Accustomed long to keeping my mind in the uncreated state of freedom,
I have forgotten all conventions and artificialities.

Accustomed long to humbleness, of body and mind,
I have forgotten the pride and haughty manner of the mighty.
Accustomed long to regarding my fleshly body as my hermitage,
I have forgotten the ease and comfort of retreats and monasteries.
Accustomed long to knowing the meaning of the Wordless,
I have forgotten the way to trace the roots of verbs, and the
sources of words and phrases. 
You, 0 learned one, may trace out these things in your books

– Milarepa

Milarepa was one of the most celebrated of the early Indian saints. His life story is one of transgression and repentance, for he spent his younger years inflicting vengeance on those who had wrongfully stolen his inheritance, thus leaving his family in poverty.  Ultimately, he realized that his was not the correct path and sought to rectify his misdeeds.  The legend relates that, among other things, he lived in a cave and ate only nettles to survive.  He is said to have turned green from his diet.  He wrote countless poems/songs that are still remembered today.
I especially like this poem, for he abjures pedantry and dogma, and follows the promptings of his "Guru enhalowed over my head." 

The Fawn
        
Sunday morning and mellow as precious metal
The church bells rang, but I went
To the woods instead.

A fawn, too new
For fear, rose from the grass
And stood with its spots blazing,
And knowing no way but words,
No trick but music,
I sang to him.

He listened.
His small hooves struck the grass.
Oh what is holiness?

The fawn came closer,
Walked to my hands, to my knees.

I did not touch him.
I only sang, and when the doe came back
Calling out to him dolefully
And he turned and followed her into the trees,
Still I sang,
Not knowing how to end such a joyful text,

Until far off the bells once more tipped and tumbled
And rang through the morning, announcing
The going forth of the blessed.

      - Mary Oliver
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