Spiritual Forum

"Enlightenment is progressive Disillusionment" (The Buddha)

The healing work will amaze and surprise you
but be warned...

before you feel new, fresh, light and free
lifetimes of accumulated baggage will be shed
hard outer shells of resistances will peel off
limitations fall away...illusions will melt
old patterns will no longer be supported
and you may feel lost, confused, disillusioned
before you are found, know truth, and see light.

Unrealistic Expectations of Being Human
We build our role models up to be something more than human, for if they were just like us, we would have no excuse not to follow their example. We project all our hopes and dreams onto these "Spiritual Super Stars", and as long as they fulfill these roles, we love them (like we idolize actors instead of embracing our own inner “Star”). And if our heroes don’t perform to our expectations, we throw them away and find some other.

Change = Life

Of all things in life, constant change is the only sure thing. Any sort of attachment to a particular experience, event, person, place, thing, feeling or thought.. will always bring suffering. With this in mind, do not expect (nor judge) your healing to look, feel or be one way or another. With this attitude, you will never be disappointed in regards to the healing work or life in general.

And for goodness sakes, don't expect any healing to alleviate all your problems... otherwise, you will surely be disappointed.

When does it all Stop?

The ego-mind is constantly trying to solidify its hold on the universe - to "figure it all out" - to have the definitive truth tucked away in its pocket, never to be shaken or changed. The ego-mind wants to get to that place where there is no more need for search, no more change, where it can finally say "This is IT - I have Arrived".

But life does not end at any one point... rather, it is a series of moments occurring ever in the Now, and the Now, and the Now. To be waiting for any one definitive event or experience (that looks and feels just like "so" and "so") is not living in your HEART nor in the flow. Rather, it is keeping us in the judge-mental attitude that a certain experience is most desired, and another is not. Yet, while we are waiting for a particular experience to happen in some unknown future time, we are not being fully aware of the reality of "Now", and what experiences we do have that do not fit our ideal, are rejected, suppressed and "stuffed" into our energy field and subconscious, there to accumulate, stagnate, rot and die.

Managing our Expectations

Author Jim Collins once asked Admiral James Stockdale, a former Prisoner of War (POW) in Vietnam... "Who didn't survive the camps?" Stockdale replied, "Oh that's easy. It was the POWs who thought they'd be home by Christmas." Those who thought they'd be home by a certain date tended to despair and perish when they still found themselves in captivity after their expected freedom-date came and went. By contrast, Admiral Stockdale survived caustic captivity for 7 years by accepting the brutal reality of his situation, and being confident of eventual release. This belief kept him going. But he did NOT believe freedom would come by any specific date, or in any special way. This is what saved him from despair and death. Collins, in his excellent book "Good to Great," labeled these seemingly opposed ways of thinking the "Stockdale Paradox."

The Stockdale Paradox is...

"Recognizing and owning the brutal facts, while holding the determination that you're going to win, no matter how long it takes".

It's not positive thinking. It's not fantasizing about how great things will be when everything goes your way. Its all about being in the "Now".

The Now

To fully live, we need to be fully present to all our feelings and experiences in the ever changing "Now"... no matter how uncomfortable, without judgment expectation or attachment. We must be able to flow in each moment (to "bend like the reed"), no matter if all the rugs of our presumed reality are pulled from under us...

and all the rules and truths of yesterday change in the blink of an eye ...  and in the next moment we have to start all over again.

This is life “as it is” – it’s designed this way to keep us on our toes. The past is history. The present is a gift. The future is a possibility.

Heal the past. Live in the present. Dream the future.

The Profundity of Emptiness

Much healing work is not about the putting in... but the taking out of that which is stuck in your personal space. Such a clearing may not be readily apparent to or felt by your outer human consciousness, and understandably, this initial "lack of feeling" may cause you to reconsider doing more of this work. However, it is important to understand that

“Meaning in life is defined by the emptiness that surrounds it”.

Creating and appreciating “empty space” (called “Shibui” by the Japanese) is not something we are accustomed to in this culture. The beauty of empty space is that it makes what is truly meaningful come into view. For example, the black typed words on a page are not visible without the contrast of white empty space behind it. Within the context of spirituality, our awareness - when contrasted by a space free of mental and emotional stuff brings into focus that which remains - the Essence of our Spirit.

Spirit is like empty space its very nature is not more but less

The Subtlety of Spirit

Spirit comes to us as "a still small voice"

a  voice that is not outward, flashy, brash, inflated or proud

but a voice inward, soft, subtle, gentle, respectful, loving and kind.

Living in this overstimulating culture

our senses are not used to listening to such silence

to recognize and distinguish the inner voice from the outer.

The Jig Saw Puzzle that we are

On the human level of awareness, we do not have the overall perspective on our lives. Only Spirit knows the ultimate goal - the whole story and where everything goes.

If you look closely at the individual pieces that make up a jig saw puzzle, each piece presents a mixture of solid or blurry colors, some shapes clearly definable and ordinary, others oddly and uniquely cut. Yet to make up the whole finished picture, we need all these small pieces placed in their correct positions. In some ways, our own life is like a puzzle. There are times when we know exactly what to do, where to go, and why we are doing whatever we are doing. There are other times when we feel confused with life’s twists and turns... and it all seems nearly impossible to make out the details of our life or figure out where all the separate individual pieces of it fit into the whole.

Most of us experience ourselves (and the outer world) from the limited point of view of a consciousness so full of "stuff" (that actively or passively distort our perceptions) it's a wonder we can maneuver in life at all.

While we perceive life from a variety of sense organs, the interpretation or "narration" of that view occurs within our own mind as countless images and words... collectively making up the story of our lives. Though we are intimately “living” out this story from moment to moment, Spirit (our Higher Self) “knows” the plot line from beginning to end (Spirit won’t tell us all the details, otherwise that would spoil the mystery of our tale).

As human beings, we cannot see the "big picture" or know the complete "story line" of our life path... but Spirit does. Fortunately (or unfortunately), none of us are given that information down here (not fully). If Spirit did (besides taking the fun and suspense out of living) we would not learn what it is to live in faith and trust from moment to moment. Yes, we could try to force the pieces of our lives to fit into some shape, and we could try to force our life story to go a way we think it should, but there are more powerful forces (that twist and turn the universe) overruling our small human plans... making our lives never go exactly the way we desire. Besides, if we try to force the pieces of a puzzle into a shape of our own choosing, we end with loose pieces that don’t fit anywhere, and an image that will not make sense, be cohesive or harmonious. This is how our lives are when we run it from the limited perspective.

But until you do enough of healing, the immediate benefits may not be readily apparent. If during the times of your session there is felt even the subtlest shifts, let that be sufficient, for each healing you receive builds upon the previous, like the stones laid in the foundation of a massive structure - and the larger a structure, the more work before the finished product is realized. Our soul is massive and very complex, much more than any building on earth. So too, many sessions must be completed before the majority of benefits are seen (either in days, weeks, months, or lifetimes later).

Any great journeys take time to unfold, involves hardship, demands patience, persistence, sacrifice. There will be steep hills to climb, cold winds, and lonely dark nights, views that may be rather stark. Don’t expect to make sense of or "figure" anything out (that's the ego-mind trying to take control). Trust that as long as you continue the healing process, Spirit will get you to a better place sooner and easier than if done alone. Till then, The best thing you can do is enjoy (with full attention) the experiences along the way (otherwise you will be waiting for some far off event.. without enjoying the "Now").

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