Transforming Your Life Inside Out (orginally posted 4.14.2011)

Been reading a new-to-me book called Core Transformation: Reaching the Wellspring Within by Connirae and Tamara Andreas. The book is fascinating in the basic premise that at the very center of our being, we all want and need the same things—these same core states of existence: Just Beingness, Unconditional Love, Inner Peace, Oneness, and OKness.

You might think, ‘Sure, that’s nothing I haven’t heard before,’ eh? Pretty New Agey.

Well, these practicing therapists run clients through the actual process of taking any presenting surface problem back to that person’s unconscious basic need for one of those 5 core states. They use a hypnotic sensory-questioning technique to peel the onion back layer by layer to find the root of the problem that has been manifesting as an initial presenting problem, believing that the presenting problem was simply a more visible call for help to reach the necessary unmet core state.

An example might be someone having constant conflict with a spouse or a child, and when traced back far enough (through feeling lack of respect, control issues, self-doubt, feeling fearfully unsettled within) to that person’s underlying basic need not being met behind the presenting problem, it may come down to that person needing to feel a deep sense of Inner Peace or Unconditional Love.

Once the core state need is uncovered, the therapist (hypnotically) helps the client to acknowledge and embody that core state (like Inner Peace) at the unconscious level, and then to simply relax into that state (Inner Peace) as the therapist walks the client back up through each of the tangent problem areas (the onions’ peeled-off layers) previously expressed to reach that core need.

In effect, the client is then lead back up through each presenting problem layer using the same triggering situations that might have earlier driven him into a rage. But now feeling a deep sense of Inner Peace as his Core Essence, the person shrugs the previously enraging situation off as insignificant, because he already HAS Inner Peace, so the initial presenting problems now seem more insignificant and have little effect on him.

His spouse’s or his child’s behavior may not have changed at all, but the client now reacts differently because he views the situation differently, and is now able to put the interactions into a broader context.

By NOT REACTING as he usually would to the spouse or child’s behavior, he has reset the entire situation and allowed them to NOT REACT to his previous overt reaction. By not reacting, everyone automatically shifted perspective, and a clean slate allowed for rebuilding the relationships on different values and expectations.

While these techniques would definitely be interesting to hypnotherapists and to therapists in general, what amazed me most was that they seem pretty shamanic-based, because the authors recognize that those core states not being realized are a part of another larger problem, and that problem involves having parts of our being split off from us and feeling separate from us.

From a shamanic perspective, the therapists were identifying split off soul-parts at various ages of life, and welcoming them back by providing them the core essence that they felt lacking—if those parts of us felt threatened or unwanted, they split off and left home, leaving us feeling like we are missing some part of ourselves—and justifiably so—because we are. It is a common problem.

And from a shamanic perspective, this book’s greatest Core Transformation techniques utilized are those that successfully reintegrate those recognized and retrieved soul-parts back into that client almost immediately.

As a trained shamanic practitioner as well as a trained hypnotherapist, I find that the Andreas’ techniques are excellent for quickly reintegrating soul-parts (particularly split-off child soul-parts in adults), which can otherwise take days, weeks, or months, if not years of work for the client to successfully reintegrate a child soul-part that left because of some childhood trauma.

Folks walk away from the sessions more whole and solid, with greater awareness of their core problems, the problems’ quick resolution, and a completely different perspective on their life.

So if you are into a good read about how to help yourself and others reset your lives by discovering and embodying those 5 basic core states: Just Beingness, Unconditional Love, Inner Peace, Oneness, and OKness, then this book is for you.

Sri Anandamayi Ma (originally posted 4.10.2011)

Joy Permeated Mother, Beautiful Mother of Bliss, Embodiment of the Divine Feminine—Anandamayi Ma has many names.

I would say “She HAD many names,” since she left her earthly body in 1982, but to many who still feel her loving presence within them and around them, she has not really left her devotees.

Anandamayi Ma was one of those major-league enlightened beings of the last century that I had mentioned in an earlier entry. How I became aware of Ma was another one of those “search and search for something of value, until you trip and fall face first into it” moments for me.

Around the year 2000, I started my own publishing company (evidently more for my own enjoyment than for anything related to profit). Within months of becoming an official publishing house, queries from aspiring authors came trickling into my PO box and email account asking if my publishing company would be interested in their creative endeavor.

Some manuscripts, or condensed synopses of a manuscript, were very intriguing, but being so small and underfunded as a publisher, I could do little other than offer a few fellow authors encouragement and suggestions on which other publishers to query next.

One day I received an intriguing email from a Swami Mangalananda of the Omkareshwar Ashram, in India. Swami Mangalanda was an American who had devoted the majority of his life to following Sri Anandamayi Ma while she was still living, and he had written an amazing journal documenting his personal experiences of meeting various saints, mystics, and sadhus during his many years in India. To me, his manuscript read like one of my favorite-books-of-all-times, a modern-day version of Autobiography of a Yogi—the Life of Paramahansa Yogananda. I thought it was phenomenal.

I told him that he needed a publisher who could do him justice, promote the book the way it needed to be handled, to really put some money behind the book—and I felt this book could be every bit as popular as Autobiography of a Yogi, had been. I then offered him the only thing that I could give—a book review that he could quote from if it helped him to sell the manuscript to another publisher.

He was such a nice man, and we communicated back and forth for awhile—which I truly enjoyed, and I still receive the ashram’s newsletter, which is what I wanted to now quote from because it was in yesterday’s email and sort of applies to what I had just been blogging—to keep your eye on the prize (who you really are and how you wish to live your life) and don’t be distracted by life’s dancing rats and con men's shifting shells.

Matri Vani (Words of Ma)

(From “As I Have Known Her” and “Matri Vani” Volume 2)

[The author speaking:] Full of emotion, one day I said to Ma when I found Her alone: “Ma, after we have seen you, we have no more duties to attend to.” In support of my point, I quoted Paramhansa Sri Ramakrishna, who said, “If you light just one match stick in a room which has been left dark for a thousand years, it is instantly lit up.” At this Ma observed, “That is an odd plea that people often put forward. The thousand-year-old darkness may end instantly, but how will the foul odor in the room, which has been closed for a thousand years, go off? The task is not quite that easy. Sadhana (dedicated and disciplined cultivation of knowledge) has to be done!

 

In order to go beyond belief and disbelief, believe in Him (God). Instead of doing so, you believe in all kinds of other things. Just as there is a veil of ignorance, there is also a door to Knowledge.

Be it meditation or the repetition of a mantra (japa); engage in some practice of this kind. Try to keep your mind on God. The impressions and dispositions developed in countless lives act as a cover of ignorance, veiling the true nature of things. Endeavor to get rid of the screen.

Knowing that one is but an actor on the stage of this world, one lives happily. Those who mistake the pantomime for reality are of the world (samsari) where there is constant change and reforming, ceaseless going and coming and the oscillation between happiness and sorrow. Those who are dressed up in various disguises and costumes must not forget their real nature! Verily you are the offspring of the Immortal. Your real Being is truth, goodness and beauty (Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram)!”

Thank you, Ma. To learn more about the life of the amazing Anandamayi Ma, visit the website: www.SriAnandamayiMa.org  And if you would like to receive their newsletter also, you can sign up for there.

You Simply Have to BE LOVE (originally posted 3.1.2011)

One of the books I’ve most recently read is Be Love Now: The Path of the Heart by Ram Dass.

I’ve read Ram Dass before, but I was not a fan of his prior to this book. However, in Be Love Now, as he nears the inevitable end of his lengthy spiritual journey, he appears now to be a more humbled and reflective traveler of life’s winding path, than I have read in his previous works.

Because I’ve long been fascinated by the yogic traditions—especially hearing of the amazing siddhas—the perfected beings—the yogic saints—the realized ones, I like the book because it recounts his personal stories of siddha interaction, particularly with his own guru (spiritual teacher) Maharaj-ji.

There are many books out on those perfected beings with whom we, in the West, are most familiar: Paramahansa Yogananda, Anandamayi Ma, Swami Muktananda, Sri Yukteshwar, Sri Ramakrishna, to name a few, and to me, reading or hearing about them is fascinating.

Those “incarnational labels” (names) listed above are examples of the truly “Enlightened Ones” that have been known to many over this last century. Through personal and witnessed accounts of their lives and teachings, these highly advanced beings have shared their experiences of connecting into the ONE and becoming that “always open” connection for the rest of us who might never know of it any other way, other than through them or by hearing of their descriptions. They bring “bliss-consciousness” to our awareness level.

In Be Love Now, I think Ram Dass has nearly reached what he has so long sought—to simply BE—to BE that love—to BE that transcendent awareness.

As he said in the book, you don’t have to go to India to find this ONENESS connection. You simply have to open your heart wide enough to allow that all-encompassing LOVE to flow into you and to allow LOVE to become your life.

When all you know is love, and all you give is love, then all you need to do in life is simply BE love, and you will have reached that desired unity with the Great Beloved.

“Mind-tracks” (originally posted 1.30.2012)

I was reviewing some old journals before cremating them—gleaning the “important stuff”, like notes taken from all those books I’d read over the years, from the more mundane ramblings and daily grumbles—when I ran across a couple paragraphs that distilled for me what I believed to have been the TRUE reason for writing any of my journals over the years.

My finally reaching a willingness to burn these 20+ years of hand-written pages had only come recently when I arrived at a point where I could “let go” of all that once-valuable-to-me wood pulp and ink. With a single match strike and a puff of black smoke, 20+ years of once-documented living would simply cease to exist.

Why this was so hard for me to do is that as one contemplates mortality one looks for evidence of that which makes one immortal. To me, the journals represented my tiny contribution to the whole of humanity—my thoughts, my words, on those dog-eared pages—all visual evidence of what made me, ME—and presented for all to not see, more likely than see, my take on the world. So the contemplation of my journals’ demise was almost as disturbing as though I were contemplating my own.

But any attachment to anything comes with a price. I finally realized the journals didn’t prove that I existed. They merely followed the process of my growth DURING the time I existed. To move forward now in this latter phase of my continuing developmental process, I had to be willing to ‘let go’ completely of the old phase—the ‘how I got where I presently am’ phase; and I can do that now.

So here’s the setting for the journal excerpt from October 23, 2008: News stories had just hyped a recent find of dinosaur footprints-in-mud in some deserted canyon in Utah or somewhere. Reporters were making quite a case for how the reptilian occupants back then seemed to travel back and forth along that stream bed as though it were a dinosaur-highway of sorts. The point stressed on the news was that if the tracks had not been fossilized in that mud base, we, in the present, would never have evidence that they had existed there at all way back then—eons ago. To this backdrop I wrote:
 

“I may burn all my journals soon. I’ve thought about it a few times. Maybe I’ll keep them as an end-of-life review of what I’ve felt or done, but sometimes I think I keep them just for some solid matter that shows I existed and thought things and felt things and liked the words of others carefully transcribed from their books—books that affected me, inspired me, and helped me cope or move forward with my life, helped me understand or reach higher in some way.

     To me, books are very important, so my journals become important to me as well as they log my experiences and “mind-tracks” as I wander around in the wet-clay streambed between my ears. But actually, the journals are useless to anything but making mind-tracks and I’m the only one who wants to see where those tracks lead. I think they just go back and forth from ear to ear and haven’t figured out how to escape the streambed yet. Someday they will climb that bank and head out over the hill. Then no one will see them anymore. And that’s okay.”

So I am now freeing the dinosaurs from the streambed knowing that it isn’t so much important that we speculate on how they did what and when, but more so important that WE know why we do what we do when we do it.

The past may have gotten us to the present, but it is the NOW that matters to make for a better tomorrow.

Recreating a Meaningful Life (originally posted 7.5.2012)

Seems like the energies that are penetrating us and discombobulating our lives at present—releasing all the old memories from our somewhat damaged psyches—all those fantasies, untruths, and self-deceptions that once filled us with such delusions of this reality—what we thought our lives to be—our tainted self-beliefs of whom we were and what amazing tasks we had yet to perform before we died.  I think all those things we once hid behind as reasons for doing or not doing something impactful to ourselves and for others, are coming to the surface now for proper release.

We’re letting go of our delusions.

We are clearing out our self-deceptions, because to be who we truly are, we have to let go of all that we are not.

Yes, in my humble opinion, here we now are, like the used water glass that has sat long on a dusty shelf whose remaining contents had long ago grown dark and stagnant, thick and slimy, finally dehydrating day by day into nothing more than a crusty residue still caking the sides of the hollow container.  

It’s funny, but in some ways, those decades-old, self-deceptions never completely dissipated as we moved through our lives—they just dried out and caked on our insides. We’re just a dirty glass from ages past with residues of what we once were, or more likely thought we were, still coating the insides of it.

What a lovely picture, eh?  Here I am, in the here and now, needing to replenish myself from the presently available water tap, but all I’ve got is this dirty old glass to use.

So,…perhaps it is time to crank up the dishwasher (that’s ME in our house) and give that old glass a good scrubbing before we try to refill it with nourishing liquid to replenish our souls.

In essence, I think that’s what’s happening in our world at present.

That’s what is happening to us in our lives. We are getting our contents dumped out completely and getting a good scrubbing before we refill with the good stuff.

We are recreating our lives to be more meaningful and pertinent to a higher consciousness existence.  And unfortunately, we are getting some suds in our eyes and ears in the process, and that’s not pleasant.

But just try to imagine how nice it will be to get that cool, clear drink of well water from a crystal-clean glass that you’ve just polished yourself.

Take a drink of the ‘good stuff’ now and see if that doesn’t taste even better than it might have before you cleaned that glass. I think it will.

Hang in there! It will get better. Just keep polishing your glass.

Book Review of “Becoming Real” by Robert Sessions (originally posted 7.2.2012)

This is a good book if you like psychology and philosophy, which are two of my favorite subjects. The entire title is Becoming Real: Authenticity in an Age of Distraction, by Robert Sessions, PhD. Sessions, who has probably retired from it by now, was a professor at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa City, for many years.

So, …being an Iowan myself: born, raised and quite familiar with the stoic attitudes of toughness including that ‘get ‘er done’ work ethic of most Midwesterners, I could appreciate much of what he defines as the culture of the region, past and present, to how similar his own South Dakota rural roots were in that respect.

As individuals, …we are, who we are,… for many reasons, and as Sessions describes, our quest for authenticity and genuineness—our desire to live from our core being and actually BE that most desirable identity that we so admire and wish to create for ourselves, requires us to view our lives as ‘beings in the process of becoming,’ because we are constantly reinventing ourselves and our lives to match the situations we encounter along the way, as well as marking our place in the time period we inhabit during our journey—how our existence affects the collective we inhabit.

So to BE REAL, to be an authentic person, is to know yourself so well that you befriend yourself despite your perceived faults or shortcomings, and allow others to befriend you as well.

The nature/nurture (genetics vs. the ‘Village raising of the child’) counter-theories of who we are and why we do what we do, are always present and at work in our lives because essentially we are both the sum total of all we have experienced and all that we believe ourselves to be. Our identities, forged in our own psyches and under influence of the dominant culture surrounding us—those archetypal ideals with whom we align ourselves, or the beliefs that we follow without question or failing, or the narratives (stories) we follow like roadmaps to a meaningful life, or the myths we create or adhere to that hold us strong and steadfast when our knees are knocking at an uncertain future or when our backs and minds are near breaking with an overwhelming burden—those character-building situations that test our metal—our response to those affecting influences, is how we identify ourselves.

And whether or not we ring true to our self-identity concepts is whether or not we live with integrity and authenticity—whether or not we are genuine—or REAL.

The other possibility on being not-real is that we are simply deceiving ourselves in some way, and keep living “Grade B-movie” lives without meaning and purpose. We ‘phone in’ our lives rather than actually experiencing them. To actually ‘live life’ means things get messy once in awhile. You don’t walk through the cow pasture long before you inadvertently step in shit no matter how careful you try to be. Does that misstep mean your life is LESS meaningful? Or does it just mean you need to clean your shoe?

To me that’s where all the concepts examined gets a little sticky…defining what IS a REAL life, from a life of self-deception and careful maneuvering, but cow-pie avoidance.

Is a REAL life one of material accumulations, or lists of accomplishments, or numerous “friends and acquaintances” (Facebook now makes a distinction between the two—I think that’s REALLY funny for Facebook to do!), or is it altruistic actions and self-sacrifice, and monk-like devotion to spiritual principles?

It’s a little like that ZEN phrase about “What do you do before enlightenment?—Chop wood and carry water. What do you do after enlightenment?—Chop wood and carry water.”

So what makes for a life of meaning and purpose?  Is it how much you DO in your life, or is it how much you DON’T do because you are ‘just BEING’ in the moment? The Taoist philosophy of “Just Being,” and merging with the moment, is a primary path for many who search for meaning and purpose to life. To a Taoist, you can find meaning everywhere, in everything, and everyone is your equal and just like you, they are trying to find purpose and meaning to their lives by simply living them.

See, that’s where it gets confusing on how to live an authentic life—how to live with personal integrity and genuineness in all actions. But Sessions also notes the conundrum of “Beauty, as well as life’s meaning, is often in the eyes/mind of the beholder.” 

However, overall, I do believe this part of his philosophy: I think that we all need to know that in some way, however small it may seem, we DO matter to the greater scheme of things—to the people we interact with and to the world we inhabit, because despite how it often seems at times, we are not really alone here; and our thoughts and actions affect not only ourselves, but all others because we are simply small parts of the greater whole. Meaning: “I may exist for me, but I affect you in the process of my doing so.”

Anyway, as I said, if you like philosophy and psychology, you will probably like Sessions book: Becoming Real: Authenticity in an Age of Distraction, and get a history lesson in philosophical thought that led him to pen it.

(PS: I hope you like footnotes— Just teasing Robert!)

Coming Back Into Balance (Originally posted 6.11.12)

There is a well-known story in shaman circles of the ancient weather shaman who was summoned to a village set in a parched land—a land that hadn’t seen rain in months—a land whose crops were withering in the field and whose people would starve without the much-needed rainfall to nourish those crops to grow and produce sustenance for the people.

 

The shaman arrived, looked upward at the barren, cloudless sky, and said “Build me a hut right here, on this spot.” And the villagers did.

When they were done, he said, “Now leave me alone until I come out of this hut.” And they did as he requested—vacating the area as he walked into the hut and closed the entrance flap.

After three days and nights, the old shaman stiffly pushed the flap aside and peered out at the world around him through squinting eyes, and smiled.

He then placed his mat on the ground in front of his hut, and sat cross-legged, in deep calmness and repose. Shortly after his reappearance from the hut, the clouds began to gather above him—a few at first, very wispy and light, then more and more clouds appeared, until they built one upon another and reached high into the heavens.

As the sky began to darken, all the villagers heard it—the distant rumble of the Thunder Beings stirring to life. The people came running to the shaman’s hut to see him perform his sky magic.

As they gathered, oohing and ahhing at the ever-increasing clouds forming above them, the shaman sat quietly in peaceful repose, smiling and saying nothing.

Soon a drop of water plopped down, hitting someone in the head. The person squealed with delight, shouting, “RAIN! It’s raining! He did it!”

Then a second drop plopped down on a child’s eager face, looking upward at the precious water falling so delicately—teasing them with promises of what might happen next.

And as the villager’s moods changed from desperation and despair, to glee and anticipation, the heavens opened wide, and the Thunder Beings let loose a tremendous roar with lightning flashes streaking over the nearby mountain peaks. The rains began to pour forth over the land with generosity and abundance.

The old shaman continued sitting serenely, unmoving, unflinching, as the villagers danced all about him. They wanted to hug him and thank him for his “magic” but there was something about the shaman that made them stay away, even in their own jubilation. His power was mighty—his reputation as the best weather shaman in the land was well-known by all.

But today he didn’t look the part of the fierce brujo he was often described as being, he was simply extremely composed, serene, and at peace.

The villagers continued to dance about him, in the now-forming mud, splashing and shouting, and hugging each other until they were exhausted, collapsing on the ground around the shaman, still singing joyfully with hoarse voices and slapping themselves through their soggy clothes.

In a few more moments, all became silent—as silent as the shaman still unmoving before them, and they bowed their heads in silent prayers of gratitude and appreciation for all they had just received.

The shaman opened his eyes, smiled broadly, and gathered his “tools”—his feathers, his rattles, his sage, his other special stones and sacred objects, and began to leave as the rains continued to pour across his shoulders.

The village elder jumped to his feet yelling, “Wait! Wait Great One! Come back! Let us celebrate! Let us pay you in some way.”

The old shaman turned slowly back to the people who sat staring in disbelief but appreciation at him, and said, “I am NOT the Great One. I simply came back into balance WITH the Great One—Great Spirit, and HE let the rains fall. I merely held the space of balance in the land for you, until you could hold it for yourselves.”

Then he turned and walked away.
 

And WHY did I tell this old story now?

Because that’s what we are trying to do—all of us who attempt to hold a higher frequency in the midst of chaos all around us. We are trying to bring the world back into balance. But it requires more than trying to do so. It requires that we actually DO it.

And to bring this chaotic world back into balance again, we first have to come into balance ourselves—to hold the space for others to follow us.

For like the ancient shaman, it is better cultivating our relationship with Great Spirit that paves the way for others to offer gratitude and appreciation for the many gifts of this life that we receive daily.

Give thanks joyfully and often.