November 10, 2004

To speak, or not to speak, about God

My friend Kathrin sent me an email where she shared with me how hard it is to share with people the "mystic view", and especially how the word "God" turns people off almost systematically. I reply:

"Yes, you gotta NOT throw the whole thing in people's face, it doesn't work. Only when they're ready. You gotta go really step by step, i.e. figure out what they need and give it to them.

Especially, the word "God" is a complete no-no in our society (France, Germany, etc, Europe – or among intellectuals / white-collar people in general, unless you know that they share your understanding of all this, which generally takes some time, or knowing the people very well. If you say "God" and they think "religion" (and most people will), then you're screwed. NEVER mention God if you think they'll think that it has to do with religion. You do NOT need the pointer God to explain things – look at the Buddhists. You have to learn to understand what words will work with what kind of people. And give them JUST what they need, or even less. This is an art :-)

Give them something that can immediately improve their lives – often it does not involve TALKING actually but just DOING, providing an example. If they find peace and joy and love in you, they'll be attracted like flies and try to understand how it is you have that and they don't. If you exhibit anything less than complete peace and joy and love and light, then people will not listen to a word you say."

Later:

"I think a key to not trigger resistance is to avoid by all means the word "God" – a lot of people in the Christian world have been bruised by that word. Easier to point to the moon using the "consciousness" or "evolution" fingers. I was uncomfortable with the word God myself until, say, just about 6 months ago – and I'm cool with it now, but I know most people are not cool with it at all, so careful...

Ken Wilber is a very, very good author for people like us vs. "God" talk: he introduces us to the trans-rational/trans-logic using the rational/logic approach (vs. what most people associate with pre-rational/pre-logic)."

November 11, 2004

The stone and its atoms: a matter of perspective

There is a metaphor that I use a lot, to try to explain God-consciousness, or mystic awareness, or the awakened/enlightened state, or the spiritual perspective, or what have you. I must have picked it up somewhere (but where?). It is the metaphor of the stone and the atoms that constitute it.

Human beings are like atoms inside a stone. When we operate at the atom level (ordinary consciousness) we have atom problems and don't even realize (we have forgotten) that we are the stone.

God-consciousness, mystic awareness, the awakened stated, what have you, is about all of a sudden remembering/realizing that you are, in fact, the stone, throwing your consciousness there, and operating from that level – as the stone.

It is just a matter of perspective. Nothing has changed, atoms, stone, same reality – and yet everything is dramatically different.

January 15, 2005

FAQ

Who are you and what is this about?

Photo2_2My name is Annelene, and, at the request of a few friends, I have endeavored to tell, in a blog format, the story of my recent "spiritual transformation", thinking that it might assist others who have engaged on a journey to "find their Self". All posts prior to today is in fact written as of today (this is what I call retro-blogging!)

What's in this blog for me?

Well, you tell me! It could be:
Realize that there has been, in fact, through the ages and all traditions, only one "spiritual teaching"
• Make peace with the word "God", with the religion you grew up with
• Learn more about other religions, or philosophical systems (e.g. Buddhism)
• Get some answers to some of your deep questions about the reality of things

• See how you can integrate in your life the wisdom of the ages, and the teachings from some Great Masters of Life that have walked this Earth

• Get a taste of what an integral embrace of all things may look like...

• Read on how others have faced depression, questions of life purpose, or other life difficulties
• Read on how others have survived relationships and sometimes turned them into an all-encompassing Love!
• If you have already engaged on a spiritual journey, discover what are some of the steps and pitfalls!
• and more...

What are some of the immediate benefits of developing a "spiritual life"?

A few immediate, personal benefits that I found from opening up to Spirit:
• Heal relationships
• Deepen relationships
• Experience states of ecstasy, bliss
• Gain clarity, inner guidance, no more confusion

• Strong sense of purpose, of direction in life
• Better memory, easy access to all memories of life
• Better sex :-), food tastes better, music sounds better, sights look better, etc: everything acquires a limitless DEPTH dimension that was not quite perceived before
• Healthier body, more in touch with one’s body, more perceiving of what’s going on in one’s body
• No more anger, no more jealousy, more control over negative emotions
• Deep, joyful love relationship is possible

What are some of the key elements in your path?

Some key elements which have, I think, been an essential part/manifestation of my spiritual growth:
• Seek the Truth – be open – ask (and it will be answered) – listen
• Learn to control my thoughts, become the neutral Witness
• Look at negative emotions in the face: do not resist pain, dive into it, understand it
• Overcome all fears, become fearless
• Purify / heal myself of all negativity, past and present
• Create my life with intent

What are the hurdles on the path?

In my experience, here are the key hurdles:
• Pride (#1 hurdle by far)
Taking the finger for the moon
• Failing to integrate your Practice in your Life
• All forms of righteousness
Fear
• Lack of openness
• Lack of trust (in others, in oneself)

Does God exist? Is there a proof that God exists?

Well, no, there is no "proof of God". Asking whether God exists is not dissimilar to a fish asking: "does water exist? Can you show me a proof that water exist?" God is the ocean, and you are a wave in the ocean.

As every mystic has told you: God is All That Is.
Of course it sounds like a truism, or a paradox, but it isn’t.
God is not to be proved, She is to be experienced, and that experience is not one of the mind.

Once you experience God, you know that She is not a guy in the sky with a grey beard ;-). In fact, you don’t ever need to use that loaded word anymore. You may want to call Her Life, or Spirit, or Being, or Love, or The Ultimate Consciousness, or Pure Awareness, or The Unmanifest, or The Universe (manifest and unmanifest), or The Clear Space of Mind, or Allah, or Yahve, or Rama, or Atman (the Self), or The-Energy-that-Pervades-All-Things, or The-Texture-of-All-Experience, or What-Is, or (you get the idea) whatever fits you best. "God" is no more than 3 letters pointing to the moon! It is just a word. What it points to cannot, by definition, be articulated. "The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao".

In essence, once you experience God, you know once and for all that God is your Self, you declare like all mystics of all times have: "I Am That". You are now the ocean. Why not try to experience it for yourself? Here is a preview.

And in any case, you may want to make peace with the word "God" if you haven't...

Do you believe in God?

Well, read the answer to the previous question and decide for yourself… :-)

More generally, I have never believed in anything, so all questions that start with "Do you believe in…" don’t quite work for me. All my life has been a quest for the Truth, and it has never made sense to me to "believe" in something. In fact, I do not understand what "believe" consists in. In my world, there are things I know, and things I don’t know… (I know this statement rubs some people the wrong way – but this is how I feel).

Do you believe in reincarnation?

Same as above: I have never believed in anything, and all I can talk about is what I know from direct experience. Reincarnation is obviously not something that can be grasped by the mind and there cannot be a "proof" of reincarnation. To grasp anything that goes beyond the individual wave, you have to become the ocean – i.e. experience "God", or ultimate consciousness, or whatever you call it.

Then, once you realize that, in fact, "You Are That", you are All That Is, and that there is no time (because that awareness IS OUTSIDE OF TIME), well, you start to see that all sorts of things that your mind couldn’t grasp before are possible now... But better let you discover for yourself! :-) (for more on this wild subject, you may want to check out this pretty good essay from Ken Wilber -- may take a minute or so to download).

In practice, what is the spiritual path?

Practically, the spiritual path consists of creating the conditions in which God-consciousness (or Space-consciousness, or Emptiness, etc) may arise, and, if all goes well, stay with you. Every path is of course as unique as you are, and not two are the same, but common practices that help create these conditions include the following:
• Meditation and other contemplation, mindfulness and concentration practices (learn to control thoughts and emotions)
• Introspection, clearing the past
• Affirmation, intention, visualization: living more consciously
• Peace with the body (through exercise and healthy diet)
• Reading spiritual texts and seeking the company of spiritual friends!

The goal is the path and the path is the goal! :-)

January 18, 2005

What is the glory of God?

I quite like this article I found here, from modern (and now quite controversial) teacher Andrew Cohen:

"What is the glory of God? What is the defining expression of that which transcends yet includes all things?

The glory of God is the shattering realization that everything is always perfect. The glory of God is the inherent perfection of all things at all times, in all places, through all circumstances. Even earthquakes, disease and bloody warfare—that's all the glory of God too. The glory of God is the inherent perfection of all things as they are. You see, from an absolute perspective, the eye of the Self sees only God and makes no distinctions whatsoever. Heaven and hell, good and evil, everything known and unknown, seen and unseen are all recognized only to be different expressions of that one inconceivable mystery beyond name and form. Beyond all pairs of opposites, the glory of God is all there is—just absolute, incomparable perfection.

Before time and space, before the universe was born, there was nothing. Then suddenly from nothing came something. There was an explosion, and what we all are right now—including you and me—is that explosion in motion. That explosion in motion is one radiant being—conscious, whole and undivided.

Enlightenment is the direct recognition of one's own true face as none other than that radiant being—conscious, whole and undivided. And it is the recognition of the utterly complete and always perfect nature of that true face that releases the sense of individuality from identification with the hypnotic grip of ego consciousness.

But there is more to Enlightenment than the liberating discovery of the inherent perfection of the absolute or non-dual nature of all things. And that is the emergence of a powerful imperative to evolve. When something came from nothing, and the explosion in motion that is all of life came into being, a perpetual state of becoming was born. In the spiritual revelation, that movement is experienced as an impersonal command from the Self to transcend, to evolve, to utterly transform this world so that it can become a dynamic, living expression of the perfection that it already is. This spiritually inspired passion, which arises from the Self, unleashes the fire of absolute love and ego-defying compassion into this world. It is always a force to be reckoned with. Its unceasing demand is evolution and its tangible expression is to create order out of disorder. Indeed, the boundless creativity of this evolutionary impulse in action strives to manifest higher and higher expressions of miraculous wholeness and integration. This call for transcendence and evolution experienced in the spiritual revelation is the unrelenting scream of the Absolute beckoning all who have the ears to hear and the eyes to see to surrender wholeheartedly for the sake of that evolutionary imperative.

This ceaseless imperative to evolve is also the glory of God. And the greatest paradox is that that glory is both the radiant, ever full and complete, always perfect ground of all that is and the very foundation and essence of that explosion in motion that strives to manifest higher and higher expressions of wholeness and integration."

February 10, 2005

The wave raises all the boats, yet again (2)

Just a few days after some quite encouraging news, Marco just wrote to me, today, that he’s just had his first mystical experience!

He writes: "Now I know! And I know it's just the beginning cause I feel it can get much stronger, and bigger and brighter...."

Yes Marco, it’s getting better all the time! But don’t forget, of course, to not get attached to these "peak experiences", and take them for what they are: incredible blessings and confidence-builders, warm and joyful inns along the path!

He also says: "You are the first, and probably the only one I will share this with, nobody else would understand, seems so difficult to talk about it."

Well Marco, this blog is dedicated to you. Welcome to the party!

Questioning spirituality or the mystical experience

When I share about my spiritual life, or about my meditative or mystical experiences (e.g. here) with people around me who have not had a recognized taste of Spirit yet, I sometimes get from them looks that say, like the embryo in Rumi’s poem:

"There is no "other world."
I only know what I've experienced.
You must be hallucinating
."

Read about sex, or do it.
Read about sushi, or try it.
Well, same with the experiences of the mind.

(And in the end, pretty much everybody LOVES making love and eating sushi!)

March 10, 2005

Who am I?

At the coaching roundtable I attended a few days ago, and where I decided to become an integral life coach, we were offered to answer a few questions about ourselves as an introspection exercise. The first question was: "Who are you?"

My answer (I guess, in the full mystical tradition!):

"I am That
I am That Which Is
I am
I am I-Am-ness
I am consciousness manifesting in this precious human form."

Indeed... what else? ;-)

April 11, 2005

The one taste of life and the victory of love

OK, I was told my initial 4 posts for today were a little "raw" and personal :-), so I deleted them, and here is just a summary of the story: my boyfriend and I hit a rough spot in our relationship about a week ago and decided to take some time apart to think things through. This time was like a journey into the dark side for me with break-up-like symptoms: broken heart, obsession with the relationship, loss of appetite, and generally going through a variety of disturbing states of mind: fear, anger, etc, while defocusing from most of my own projects. [Note: we are now, April 18, all rekindled and back together!]

In the midst of all this, however, and here is the good news, I was able to also see in this an important milestone in my spiritual journey, like a "test", so I was also feeling a lot of joy at this opportunity that was presenting itself to demonstrate whether I have learnt anything useful on the spiritual path so far…

For example, practising deep relaxation through the past week showed me that, indeed, you cannot be deeply relaxed AND in pain. (Try it!) Also, I was able to practice equanimity to a certain extent. I wrote to a friend:

"I'm growing through this too – this is good. This is the good stuff of life. I am quite happy to see that I am managing to welcome my pain with as much equanimity as I welcome my happiness. I'm holding them both in my hand the same way – no preference for one or the other. Both are interesting (pain is actually even more interesting!) (…) I feel that I can see how much I've grown now... you need ordeals to know if you have grown spiritually or not! I'm very grateful for "being put to the test" here. I can really see that I am NOT the person I was before. That I hold to my center no matter what happens – I don't get lost. So this is good."

On Saturday, though, the pain reached a peak and was starting to blind me (all I felt like doing was letting him know how much I was hurt). Instead, however, I decided to try and get into a higher state of consciousness by meditating, see if I would be able to see things more clearly.

I started meditating, and an amazing thing happened: I entered into a sort of mystical state again, a state of great clarity of insight and bliss. And this time, for the first time ever, I started writing in my journal while in that state. It was pretty much "automatic writing": I didn’t really know what I was writing as I was writing it, it just flowed from my hand, like in a state of hypnosis. This experience of mystical insight and automatic writing was quite interesting in itself but, more importantly, it totally transformed the way I view the current situation. I can see how this situation, far from being a curse, is actually an incredible opportunity for my boyfriend and I to get to know each other better and deeper. The episode threw me back in a state of complete, solid joy. I totally quit my obsession with the situation, while it paralyzed me all through the past week, and am back doing my own business.

Also, in the state I am now, there is no attachment to the outcome. I know that my only job here is to love him, to do nothing but loving him, but the result strictly doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we both grow from this, which is the case. I can see how pain comes ONLY from non-loving. When you love, there is no pain. I trust (and know) that my soul and his soul will be able to realize their respective callings in this life – whether it is to bundle up, or whether it is not.

Some excerpts from my "cosmic writing" experience:

"All is nothing and nothing is all. When I move, the entire universe moves. There is all but one consciousness. I access it now. We are all the Whole. There is nothing outside of us. It’s all a big game that’s being played. There is only one of us. Wake up! It’s about seeing where it’s going. It can go any way we want. At any minute. We can change everything. Everyone of us can change everything. It’s enough to WANT it. (...) There's only one of us. (...) If you recognize the whole, then you ARE the whole, and you can move it the way you want. (...) The more you know, the more is asked of you. (...) Let go when you don’t know the answer. No need to torture yourself, let go, even if it looks big. Big or small is all the same, it is just to name things. In fact there is only one thing happening, all the time. It’s all the same so you have to go with the biggest act of love. (...) You can push things in any direction you want, through space and "time", at any time you want. There is only one moment, things altering each other. One change in one part of the web = the whole web changes. (...)

You cannot do everything. Just do what you can and leave clues for the next person. I mean, the rest of the web, to give them an incentive to move things in one direction or the other. Be the clue. Let your life be the clue. I think it is better, in this case, to announce the victory of love over doubt and gloom. (...) It is better to inspire with love than with discourses. (...)

It’s the concept of fractals. You move one piece on the game, and it is a different game altogether! We choose to memorize what we want. [What I’m trying to say is how we also impact the past from the present]. There is no reality. Nothing is real in reality. You make it ALL (in its smallest details) up completely right now. You choose everything. (...). You see, every action affects the whole. (...) You make it all up in your mind, there is no other tool. Your One Mind. How do I access the Whole? You let go. You trust the process, you relax. It’s OK whatever role you are playing. You are being them all at once. The victory of love. This is what to demonstrate. (...)

This is the victory of love. You must make love triumph inside of you because this is the only place there is. And the more you develop the love within yourself, the more you can alter the Whole. Because the more love you have, the further you reach in your embrace to include as many souls as possible, the more you become the One and then there is no choice, you must just play your role. (...) Love you will find in depth. Show your love! Dig in! It is in depth, not in variety. You stop being harsh, you start being loving. Act without regard for the outcome. Just do the most loving thing to do (often when it is painful it is it! But take only a pain that you can take). (...)

We are all one. Sometimes you see it when you look at a person. You see it in their eyes. There is a recognition. (...) If you gather, then it is stronger, you put more of alike energy together in one spot. So you get more power when you gather together. You must seek to gather with others. By definition you’ll get better results. (...)

Cultivate Love in yourself. This is the only work to do. (...) Know who you are (God) and where you are (God’s mind). You are God’s mind. I trust the process. Let me just relax into it and manifest more joy, more humor, etc. Why do I take everything so seriously? It is stern! Nothing is for real! Just relax! RELAX! Let this one happen, it will all be for the better, because you know where you are going. You are pulling the string of Love. You can select. There is the great quality. Being able to select which string to pull. All the strings exist for everyone all the time but not everyone picks them up. Most people can’t see many strings. They just see 2 or 3 that they can pull, the rest is in the dark. The more they go on the spiritual path, the more they know about skillful response to events, because they see more strings that they can pull. (...)

Reincarnation is obvious once it is understood that there is no time. Time is a dimension that we have invented and have forgotten that we have invented. So we pretend it’s real. While in fact it’s not. Same in space: we are one through space also. You are the Whole across time and space. You are everything that has ever existed. When you die, you think you die, but in fact you don’t die. You will just recondense at another time. All of space and time is within your embrace. For this you need to love more, this is the only path here. (...) The victory of love over non-love, this is all it is. (...)

The only path to Love is to love. (...) I am learning (slowly) to not act impulsively on my emotions. Emotions are not real, you make them up, so it doesn’t make sense to act on them, except if it is to express the Greatest Love. Use emotions, good and bad, only [as opposed to being used by them to do things you don’t really want to do]. (...)

When you hold love in your heart, and just love, YOU DON’T SUFFER. (...) Follow the light. Seek the light in others. Look for the light in them. And then listen. LISTEN! I need to listen to my love! Understand him! (...) Just need to understand – this is the only work. When you understand, you can change, i.e. deploy the power to move things the way you want. When you don’t understand, you are powerless. (...)

Don’t trust yourself when you feel down, you don’t see very much of what’s truly happening. Your view is totally distorted, you are looking at the darkness instead of at the light! Keep totally focused on the light, always!"

June 02, 2005

Essence

While I was away, I read this book: Essence, and The Elixir of Enlightenment, from spiritual teacher A. H. Almaas, founder of the Ridhwan School and the Diamond Approach to personal development. His approach is a contemporary path to spiritual realization based on merging ancient spiritual teachings (Buddhist, Hindu and Sufi, mostly) with modern, Western psychology. I find the approach attractive in its modernity and intend to explore it further in the following weeks.

I particularly like the language Almaas uses: self-realization (or enlightenment) is about retrieving/getting back in touch with our Human Essence - what lays at the core of our Being, what shines in the eyes and presence of babies or spiritual masters for example (Essence here is what others have called the Self, Being, God, Higher Consciousness, etc). The approach is not only focused on loosening the personality/ego's grip on our consciousness to retrieve Essence, but also on leveraging whatever Essential aspects are already manifest in ourselves to retrieve more Essential aspects (Love, Truth, Joy, Will, Light, etc).

The book is a little wordy a times (it is a far cry from some beautiful works of spiritual literature like Power of Now or Conversation with God!), but I warmly recommend it to the serious spiritual seeker, for a refreshing, no-nonsense, alternative approach to describing what spiritual realization is about. From my perspective, what the book does, mostly, is: provide a new, practical language to describe spiritual transformation, introduce elements from the Sufi tradition, and elegantly blend ancient spirituality with modern psychology. I will soon see how the approach works in practice!

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