Seeking the Unspeakable

Seeking the Unspeakable

I have been seeking some form of satori for many years.  Not for the high, high energy flows, the Siddhis or even the Bliss....I was just looking for peace. 

Still...I have been looking into yoga energy in hope of having it clean me out. I thought, "Hmm...it would be so cool to be at peace all the time , no matter what is going on.  Satori might help with that." 

Well, Michael A. Singer made a statement from the below video that left me thinking and understanding that what I really want from this state is "escape" from this world as I know it.  I am seeking a way out of this "what isness" this human I call me is experiencing because it is often too uncomfortable for the psyche. 

He asked something to the effect.

"How are you going to handle all those high energy flows if you can't even handle  this everyday stuff?"

That is what brought me once again from Yoga to contemplation of the Buddhist philosophy.

Spirituality isn't about escaping "what is".  It is about embracing it. We find peace in that.

What is it like to have satori?

It is like ordinary everyday except  about two inches off the ground. (D.T. suzuki)

marvelous power and supernatural activity...drawing water and carrying wood (Layman Pang)

What iz Zen?

When hungry eat...when tired...sleep.

The goal of action is contemplation. Alan Watts

Hmm!

All is well.

Michael A. Singer ( March, 2025) T.H. Inspiration. (October, 2024) Alan Watts for When You Need to Stop Thinking.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVerqpMjYYg

Th Inspiration ( October, 2024) Alan Watts for When You Need to Stop Thinking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVerqpMjYYg

Handling It?

 You either handle Life or you don't handle Life.

Most of us are not trying to deal with reality. We are trying to feel better and are doing whatever we can to make it feel better in here.  We use defense mechanisms...we push away, avoid, deny, repress, suppress, displace, project etc etc....we resist!

Spiritual growth is all about learning to handle it.

All is well

Michael A. Singer ( March, 2025) Mastering Life: The Art of Handling Everything.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlNkggVrXGM

The Unthreatened

 You are the light of the world.

Matthew 5:14

Eckrt Tolle began his video today quoting this famous phrase from A Course in Miracles:

 Nothing real can be threatened; 

Nothing unreal exists; 

Herein lies the peace of God. 

There is only one thing ( if you want to use the word 'thing') that is omnipotent. There is only one 'thing' in Life, as we know it, that is real...and that is God.  Knowing that brings peace. 

Are we not real? The only real thing about us, as human beings, is our consciousness. Is the "being" part of that noun we use to describe who we are. Being , however, is a verb, not a noun.

As Alan Watts said:

You are a function of what the whole Universe is doing, in the same way that a wave is what the whole ocean is doing. 

So we, as consciousness, are functions of the universe. We are living representations of Life...of God.

So this consciousness in me, is it God? The answer to that, according to Eckhart Tolle, is "yes and no".

Is the light of the sun...the sun itself? Yes and no...it is an enemation of sun.

Is the light of God (consciousness) God? Yes and no...it is an enemation of God.

Be the light in you. Don't diminish that light. Don't hide that light away out of a fear it will be harmed.  It can't be threatened. 

All is well. 

Eckhart Tolle (March, 2025) Your Indestructible Essence with Eckhart Tolle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c6ZAa4o6CI&t=9s

The Walk of Shame

As we let go of egoic consciousness guilt disappears [and is replaced with wisdom].

Eckhart Tolle

I grew up in a very strict Catholic household.  I was raised to be guilty and to expect punishment for every mistake I made or for every mistake my ancestors made. Heck, I was conditioned to believe that I was a terrible sinner no matter what I did or didn't do (for things I didn't even know I did...for just breathing maybe) and that in order to escape the fiery depths of Hell after I died as retribution for my "sinful nature"...I had to make my life a walking  penance.  It was like doing the "Walk of Shame" from the Game of Thrones everyday. ( Which, by the way, I actually walked down in September when I was visiting Dubrovnik...so cool.)

Well...of course that wasn't the healthiest conditioning lol. There are probably more catholics on  the proverbial "couch" seeking healing than any other demographic for that reason. We grow up believing we are bad and worthy of shame.  "Shameful sinner" becomes our identify and that leads to a deeply entrenched sense of unworthiness for anything but punishment. This type of upbringing creates shamed based personalities or what I refer to as very strong shamer egos and therefore strong redeemer egos. It creates big egos in general. Egos that judge, not only the self harshly, but others harshly too. 

I decided to raise my own children differently. Yes, I brought them up as Catholics ..(I thought somewhere in my psyche that I or they would go to Hell if I didn't)...but... I enforced the belief in them they were "not sinners".  That they were, in fact, not what they do and others were not what they did.  I taught them to seperate deed from doer. I taught them to look at mistakes and misguided actions as just lapses in consciousness. I taught them not to beat themselves or others up for those unwholesome things that are done that hurt others or self but to learn and grow from them. 

Hmm! They couldn't escape all the conditioning, I knew,  but I was determined not to be part of the establishment of any such destructive core beliefs in them. 

I also taught them, when they expressed feelings of shame and guilt, that these were toxic and unnecessary emotions.  I tried to teach them to look at the situation with eyes of wisdom, to make the unconsciousness of their actions...conscious... so they could see that it is not wise to hurt others or self.  I encouraged them to reflect on and feel the pain of the others that were hurt...so that they didn't repeat that action again.  

So often in my life after making less than wise choices, as I am sure  many of you have as well...I heard this toxic statement, "You should be ashamed of yourself!" I identified as a bad person who deserved to walk in shame.  I still live with that in me. 

 I did not want my children to live like that.  I wanted them to take accountability for what they did,  to feel "sorry" for what they did...but not ashamed. 

"What you did might have been  'bad, or wrong' ", I would tell them, "but you aren't bad or wrong. Make better choices next time."

I am not sure what good that did...if any :) This is ultimately their journey and they need to deal with their own interpretations of shame, guilt and worthiness.  I still make it known, however, that I  don't feel any of us have to do that "Walk of Shame" Cersei did. We do, though, have to take accountability and responsibility for the consequences of all our actions, thoughts, or words as we learn and grow. This is wisdom, not guilt.

My actions are my only true belongings. They are the ground upon which I stand.  I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. The Fifth Remembrance

All is well. 

Eckhart Tolle (March 2025) Eckhart Tolle on Replacing Guilt with Wisdom.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kDA3CN-hco

Teacher Testing

Those who know, do.  Those who understand, teach.

Aristotle

Another potential teacher has come into my view. Whenever I receive a resonating message from someone else...a teacher....  I love and absorb the message but man...do I put the teacher under the microscope...especially if they say they had a transcendent experience.  I really want to know if they can be trusted as the carrier of a certain potential truth.

First...I look for intelligence. I want to know that they have the capacity to truly understand what they are expressing and calling truth. Then, I look to see how what they teach merges with science or with plain practical wisdom.  Can what  they are teaching and what they say  about what they experienced be validated?  I also look to see what backgrounds they come from.  From there I ask what is motivating their teaching: Ego with selfish, possibly narcissitic needs, or the Deeper Self that has a genuine desire to assist humanity? Then I ask how does all this resonate with what I already "know"? 

Well, when I put a teacher through this mental testing not all teachers pass. Some have seemed so intelligent  until I actually bought or read their books and I realized they were teaching something they truly did not understand enough to teach. I gave up on those teachers.  Others wrote right over my head...using intellectual jargon that made me feel "dumb" and confused....it seemed it was almost on purpose.  I said "adios" to those teachers.  

If there isn't enough connection to science ( quantum physics or yogic science mostly)  or practical wisdom (like Buddhism) in their teaching, I say "No...not for me." ( I tend to gravitate to a Buddhist, yogic, or quantum physics undertone.) That is a "tester bias"  on my part :).

  I walk away from teachers who put down...condemn...or say other teachers or fields of thought are "bad, wrong, shouldn't be." Like if they are against physicians or against natural medicine; if they are proscience, anti-"woo-woo" or all "woo-woo", anti-science; if they are against the spiritual practices of others; or if they don't teach to a holistic approach ...that emcompasses it all, is open to it all....then it is "Nope." They need to show me that they understand that "there are many paths to the same destination."

 When they fail my "Is what they say true?" question, I am out of there! That is a big one for me. How do I know they are telling the truth? How do I test what they say as truth?  Is there validation, research, evidence for what they deem as truth? Science helps with that one...do they offer scientific evidence? Do they seem honest and authentic? How do they describe the experience they had? Are there loop holes? Does it sound realistic and sincere?

What is their background?  I like to know how people got to the point they are teaching this stuff. If I find out that they were once 'struggling' actors who never got far (no offense to actors), hypnotists, performers of some kind, the kind of people seeking fame or fortune, people who once had large cult followings, or had any history of "conning" others...I will automatically step back look deeper into what they have to say about who they are. That is a warning for me of a possible cult leader potential. As soon as I suspect something akin to cult leadership, I stay away from that teacher and more than likely their teaching.

I love it when the potential teachers have a purely science background and from there, are now exploring  non materialistic concepts like "consciousness". What kind of ridicule and opposition did they meet in expressing themselves openly with these ideas they are now teaching? They must really believe them and be courageous professors  of the truth in such cases. If they have a "M.D.". behind their name , I am especially intrigued because those two initials encapsulate a very finite, materialstic mindset...one that is hard to get passed. If they get passed that, well, maybe what they have to say is more authentic. It will likely also contain science to some degree. I feel an authentic purpose in those who challenge the established scientific view. 

I have a hard time with others who promote the "Doctor" before their name though. I see that as a gimmick.  I often find that this "Doctor" that modern society would see as belonging to an allopathic practictioner, is actually used by those with a phD or who are practicing natural medicine...like naturopaths or chiropractors in the promotion of their teachings. Sure...they can all be called  doctors. I have no problem with them using that title....they go to school long enough.   It is just another concept, after all...but I do believe that title is often used to gain trust from a potential audience knowing how society still tends to revere allopathic medicine. It is a little promotional trick that bothers me. Come right out and tell the audience you are a chiropractor or naturopath...don't leave that specification muddy. 

It is funny that allopathic teachers often do not refer to themselves as doctors when they promote their teachings...look at Deepak Chopra, Gabor Mate, and David Hawkins...to name a few.  (Maybe, they leave that "Doctor" out because of the scrunity they would receive from their community?) The background of natural medicine, on the other hand, doesn't require such a leap of faith into teaching these things. These practitioners  have already been immersed into these ideas. They do not risk the scrunity of their communities.  And, sadly, they are probably already used to confronting the biases from conventional medicine.  I do not like it at all, either, when conventional medicine refers to such practices as "quakery" .  That would turn me off from a teacher pretty quickly.

What is motivating the potential teacher's teaching? Is it the Deeper Self or is it ego?  Is it a sincere desire to help humanity? Or is it a desire to help themselves? Are they doing this to get rich and famous? Are they charging a lot of money for their teaching material? How much money are they making? How many "Rolls Royces" do they own? How are they living? Not that anyone has to give away their work...no, no,no...but they need to make it accessible to all.  If only the rich and elite can afford your teachings, what about the rest of humanity you are professing to want to reach? Who is really benefitting from that? And of course...if you are blessed with abundance as an "added on"... enjoy it...but...continue to assist the less fortunate with your blessings...Is that being done? This teaching can not be a "business" in the mind of the teacher, for me to adhere to it.  It has to be an honest vocation with the intention of serving humanity...not little self.

I really watch for the ego in teachers when they are speaking. Are they all "I,I,I...me, me, me"? Are they preaching, "This is the way it is...listen to me"? or are they open to the possibility that they might not be right...that they don't know everything? If they have to be right and go on like they know everything... then there is a problem.  They won't keep my attention. I like to hear a questioning tone in the teacher's speech. I like it when a teacher embraces the questions of their students...embraces skeptical doubt and fills their answers with "maybe" rather than false certainty. The greatest teacher, I believe, is one that openly realizes that they do not know but they too are on the journey to understand. 

The most important thing is...how do they and what they have to say resonate inside me when I listen. How do I feel and respond at a visceral level when I am listening?  I mean, I am aware that some people have charsisma...a personality that is very attractive to other personalities and that can draw people in.  I try to look beyond their personality and see how that "essence",if you will, is impacting whatever this is that exists beyond my personality.  Do I hear and feel the truth of both their message and of them?  If I don't "feel it",  I won't listen.

No teacher out there is going to pass all of my testing criteria.  Nor, should they ever want to. Who the he%& am I to test anyone? There is no perfect teacher in human form because there is no perfect person. All of us will have some lingering form of ego attached to us until we die...I see some form of ego in all the people I listen to. I know there is a "human" that preceeds the "being" in all of us. So, I ask, "Is their essence more dominant than their ego? What is coming through when they are teaching? Where is that coming from...a place of superficiality and regurgitated knowledge? Or from a place of deeper wisdom? " 

I need to feel the "Ultimate Truth" working through that human being it is using. What they say and who they are need to resonate with this Truth already in this human being I call "me" for me to want to listen. 

You will know who embodies what resonates to me because I will often quote them or refer to their teachings here.  It is obvious that the tecahings of ancient Masters like Christ, the Buddha, Socrates, Plato, Yogananda, Patanjali and Vivekananda etc resonate with me.  Teachers like Thich Nhat Hanh,  Eckhart Tolle, Michael Singer, Pema Chodron, and Deepak Chopra and others to some degree have passed my testing enough for me to settle into their teachings. You will hear me reciting them or referring to them often here. 

How will this new potential teacher fit in to my listening practice? I don't know yet...They definitely do not pass all my testing criteria but I have a good feeling about them. I will read what they have written and I will keep exploring what they have to say and how they say it. 

I am open to all teachers and all teachings but they do have to pass the ego scraping test before I commit. :) This is, I hope, what you are doing as you read anything I have written or listen to anything I might have said. Even if I am not here to be your teacher, my goal is to point you in the direction of the only truely reliable teacher there is...that Truth within yourself. Be your own teacher, as I am ultimately mine.

The best teachers are those who tell you where to look, but don't tell you what to see.

Alexandra K. Trenfor

All is well. 

From the Horse's Mouth

This is what I learned from listening to Andre Paqum's interview with Dr. Sue Morter.

Our job is not to feel good.  Our job is to get good at feeling. (Andre quoting someone)

Suffering is the cost of admission to this illusion of seperation. (Andre quoting someone)

Drop back into the deep sense of feeling that will lead to healing.

Ask the questions: How does it feel in your body? Build a library of felt sensation and experience.

Where in my body can I let energy feel more freely?

We become  a part of something rather than a part from it. 

The body's intelligence can do its thing when it is given permission to so.  

In the mind of genuises, we find once more, our own neglected thoughts.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

The body is the translator between the infinite possibility and what we think is possible.

Mind knows it is here to serve something greater than itself but when we identify with the mind...the mind creates a story and identifies with that.

Mind, body and breath...life force energy...need to be re-integrated.

The breath is a bridge...the breath makes healthier regulation of all systems

One eye on the inside and one eye on the path...

Allow the quantum flow to flow

The solar plexus is the seat of the mental body.

The area below the navel is the seat of the feeling.

Who was I before I needed scientific]evidence?

We need to root to rise. Anchor self into body and breathe deeper into the earth because it is an extension of us. 

[Unlike the mind]The body always tells the truth.  It isn't delusional.

Don't ask why.  Ask where.

Get busy not being so busy and begin really feeling into what is true for you. 

...becoming that which is filling the vessel

The cause of all human suffering is a perspective issue

...operating as a soliution on the planet rather than as another survivor

Love is the universal solvent...it isn't a sentiment.  It is a realm. It is a reality.  There is a version of life that is based in 

...the breath of loving presence...the appreciation of this moment. 

Notice the beauty of Life. the knowingness of the beauty that is here...the unfolding of the miracle that is upon us

What matters is the vibration of devotion...when the heart and mind are working together.

As close to the actual words as I could get.  :) It is all good!

Andre Paqum/ Know Thyself Podcast. ( March 2025) How to Awaken the Body's Energy Field. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0TWCSEPl3A

The "Splat" from the Inside Out

We do not need to connect with the essential true Self inside, we just need to allow ourselves to be it...

There is a vibration that resonates your true essential self when you are not interfering or interupting.

Dr. Sue Morter

Serendipity...serendipity...serendipity...ahh...serendipity...

Yesterday, I wrote about the realization I had that we have to change our spiritual process. Instead of peeling the onion of false selves away from the outer layers to get at the core, the True Self, we as these outer layers we identify as need to let the True Self simply emerge from the center of who we are.  We as  bodies and psyches= "little mes", need to step out of the way and stop interfering with consciousness attempting to do Its thing. 

So that was on my mind as I was flicking through the Youtube channels looking for something positive to watch before going off to bed. I was visualizing Self/ Soul/ Atman in the middle of a circle with body, mind, and energy at the periphery of that circle.

Then I came across an Andre Duqum podcast with Dr. Sue Morter as the guest. Within a few minutes I was standing on my feet shouting "Yes!  Yes!  That is what I'm talking about!!!"  

I have never heard of this woman prior to that podcast but everything she said resonated in the deepest core of me. What she said touched not only my intellectual mind, but also that mind beyond the mind. 

What did she say?

Her work is in bioenergy, teaching how to utilize and move the energy in the body that is meant to flow through us but so often is blocked from doing so, causing us to lead unfilling lives. 

Huh? 

From what I understand...

It is like we (a Mind, Body, Soul Combo) plop down into this incarnation with a big splat. (Like the  circle I was envisioning but in a messy form. Ironically, "splat" was also a word I added to my EAL presentation yesterday and I had been repeating it over and over again because I liked the sound of it.)  Mind and body, flow out from the center of who we are. They pool and stay on the outer periphery of that big splat...trying to make sense of the external world they are seeping into. The senses pick up the info from the outside world and the mind attempts to make sense of it.  Soul stays in the center. 

Consciousness or Sat Chit Ananda...the amazing light energy we are, waits to find the opportune time to come down into the soul to manifest  through us. This omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient energy is meant to come in from the top of the head...pour in all the way down to where we are now rooted in the earth...and  then rise up and out of us like a fountain into the world, thusly  impacting everything around us.

Why don't we experience this blissful consciousness?

Our awareness, as we focus on mind and body in the periphery, is stuck in survival mode. The external world we are touching and picking up with our senses is so threatening and we are busy trying to figure it all out. Safety and survival become the priority. The mind needs 'certainty' in order to focus its forces...even if it is certain of something terrible...As long as it is certain about something it feels secure. So perception is colored, often negatively.  We close to much of it and only take in a tiny bit of the data we have the capability of  experiencing. We get stuck here and become identified with the body and mind in this surival mode as being who we are.  It is "so in our face", it is all we see and 'know' at the intellectual level. We forget that there is a soul in the center of this splat...we lose contact with our true essential Self. 

Intellectually, after so much time suffering in this mind, body, survival mode...we may decide to leave the periphery and go deeper in to this splat to discover its Center. When we leave from here we bring our dependency on sensory input with us, we drag along our egos and our psyches-our limiting self concepts. We bring along our attachment to the external world...our desires and our aversions.  We bring along this habitual need we developed to "do" and "fix".  What we do, then, is get in the way of the natural flow of this divine energy. We interupt and interfere,  preventing it from naturally cleansing all that is in Its way and  just coming through us . 

We ...as a self concept...as an overidentification with body and mind...need to get out of the way with our interuptions and interferences. We need to allow the soul and what it is inputing from universal consciousness to just flow through us and into the world.  Not just for our sake but for the entire world's.

Consciousness is an energy that is the foundation of the entire world. 

Looks like I will be buying another book.  I still use my intellectual mind to take me to the  Vijnanamaya kosha in hope that it will help me to transcend even that. Maybe if these teachings help to unlock me, it will be the last book I will need. :)

All is well. 

Andre Duqum/ Know Thyself Podcast (March, 2025) How to Awaken the Body's Energy Field...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0TWCSEPl3A

Dr. Sue Morter ( November, 2024) Unlocking Your Energy Bodies.https://drsuemorter.com/blog/videos-2/

Seeing through the Koshas to the Basic Principle of Life

 ... the three fundamental factors of consciousness are I exist, I know, and I am blessed. The idea that I have no want, that I am restful, that nothing can disturb me, which comes from time to time, is the central fact of our being, the basic principle of our life.

Vivekananda on the Vedanta

Michael A. Singer in his podcast this morning speaks of this vedic truth as he discusses each of the Koshas, the bodies or sheaths we as human beings wear. I love to hear other yogis speak of these things because I have a hard time speaking of them to others. I feel so isolated, like a strange stranger in this understanding. Most people look at me and utter, "What the fork, crazy lady?"

Yet,  I cannot help , at this point of my learning and growth, to see things in this way.  There is the basic principle of Life as my central thought stream. I want that to be my focus in life. Is It? 

...I catch tiny, tiny glimpses of the realization that "I exist, I know, I am blessed." (Sat Chit Ananda).  It is not so much, I am very slowly coming to see, this "me" in physical and mental form looking through all these outer koshas to the inner one...the Atman or Purusha...but I am learning to see how this Self is  looking from the "central fact" of my being, through all these sheaths to the outer layers, and getting distracted and stuck in that focus, especially the mental Kosha.  

I am getting a head of myself. Let's look at the yogic Koshas:

Annamaya kosha (physical sheath): This is the most outer layer of this onion-like unravelling.  It consists of the physical body and all that makes it such. We know now taht as matter, it is a compilation of atoms coming together to form molecules, cells, tissues, organs, systems and the then the human body. It is not who we are.  It is something we use and are in. 

Pranamaya kosha (energy sheath): The energy body or inner body as Eckhart Tolle often refers to it...It is the body that houses "prana"...the vital Life force from which breath emerges.

Manomaya kosha (mental sheath): This sheath is where most of us are stuck. It consists of our "personal minds": our thoughts, feelings, ...this idea of who we think we are. Concepts and conceptual knowledge are found here.

Vijnanamaya kosha (wisdom sheath) : "The mind beyond the mind".  Some might refer to its as the "universal mind beyond the personal mind focus". This is where true wisdom is housed...a wisdom that is non conceptual and can only be experienced, not known.  It is from here where intuition and creativity arise and are then sent to the mental sheath for follow through. 

Anandamaya kosha (bliss sheath): It is where the essence of who you are resides....the Self...It is the  house of the pure joy state of sat chit ananda . It really cannot be described, only expereinced. It is where we all want to be whether we know it or not. 

Then with the attainment of Samadhi we can even get past this state to a deeper, purer state of  Atman or Self Realization. (Vivekananda refers to as Purusha in his discussion of Samkhya philosophy). 

Peeling from the Outside In?

I have always looked at it as a peeling away of layers we were once identified as. The object of the apparent dive inward is to free this Self from all koshas...to expereince true yog or "Oneness":

Existence absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss absolute. That real existence is limitless, unmixed, uncombined, knows no change, is the free soul; 

Why then do we not all experience this "free soul"...this Oneness and unity with all?  Let me continue with that passage above from Vivekananda's lecture

...when it gets mixed up, muddled up, as it were, with the mind, it becomes what we call individual existence. ...That bliss, when it gets clouded over, we call love, attraction for gross bodies or fine bodies, or for ideas. This is only a distorted manifestation of that blessedness. Absolute Existence, absolute Knowledge, and Absolute Blessedness are not qualities of the soul, but the essence....So with existence the existence which we know, the limited sphere of existence, is simply a reflection of that real existence which is the nature of the soul. Vivekananda

Huh?

We perceive ourselves going from outer to inner and too often get stuck in the physical and mental sheath...the body and mind. 

The Three Outer Koshas

So, we start in our evolution...our peeling away of the onion layers,  with an over identification with the body.  Seeing, as the materialist view conditions us to see that all there is, is physical. We see, therefore, that we are our bodies. That consciousness, if we even go there, is a function of the brain. 

We may then progress in our understanding past the physical sheath and become aware that there is someone inside this body...someone that thinks, feels. We may recognize the mental sheath. We may even sense there is an energy body, as well, if we dare to go deeper. We see this someone as a seperate little entity in a seperate little body at the mercy of all the phenomena going on around it and in it. These thoughts and feelings, this up and down movement of energy, we come to believe, is who we are and man can it be painful!  We need to protect this "person" inside...who we beleive ourselves to be.  We build a little house in there, around the mental and energetic sheaths. We put up walls of defense mechanisms: suppression, represson, denial, avoidance, etc. and we crawl  inside in an attempt to live comfortably. We have created a psyche...an ego...a masquarading self. ...all based on a tiny reflection of something deeper.  We step out of our comfortable nest that we created and called "self" only long enough to manipulate the outside world so it doesn't get through our walls to all that junk we stuffed and stored and are trying to protect and hide. We by this process, by the stuff in the house...and all the energy and effort needed to protect it...identify ourselves with it.  We seek all the superficial things that will feed it; push away all the superficial things that will disturb it and we do not go any deeper. Most of us are here and stay here, in our undersatnding of reality!

The Wisdom Kosha

Resisting Life through desiring, clinging, averting, supression and repression...messes up the physical body, the mental body, and the energy body. When we realize that, we might decide to go a little deeper. We might seek to move into  the Vijnanamaya kosha.  I, fortunately, because of the suffering that comes with a messed up body, mind, and energy  have gone deeper to take momentary dips into this kosha. I consider myself to be a very rudimentary form of a jnana yogi.

I sit often in the seat of objective observation...observing my energy, my mind, my body. When I as a "me" get out of the way I can reach glimpses of  Vijnanamaya kosha in my witnessing...I not only observe  the distance between the thoughts or feelings this human is experiencing; I not only can identify in the body where the energy blockages are...I am often downloaded with a certain intuition, creativity, and knowing that I know is beyond my mind. I know it has nothing to do with "me".  When I write a piece of poetry, for example ...that is the mind beyond the mind. It is not "me".  It is a wiser part of me seeing Itself in the three outer sheaths, like It is catching glimpses of Itself in a mirror as It seeps around the blockages in me. 

From this place I see something else. Since it is the midway point in and the midway point out, I see that it is not so much that I, as a "me" am peeling an onion from the outside - in so that I can get to the core. What is really happening...is that which I seek from the inner most kosha is actually looking from the inside up through these outer koshas...It is an inside -out type of thing.

You have to look through  esctasy to look at this junk. Michael A. Singer

The Bliss Sheath

It...this blissful Awareness is getting stuck and distracted by the fluctuations in energies, the feelings, the thoughts, the body sensations It is observing. This energy of the Bliss sheath is meant to flow up...but instead it is looking down at the mess "me" has made. Now, there is no "me" ...it is just a concept built from the physical, mental, and energetic sheath. Yet, the mind causes so much drama...that the "I Exist, I Know, and I am Blessed" are focusing on that instead of on ItSelf. 

Allowing It to Come Up

Hmm! So it is not  really a matter of digging our ways down. It is more of a matter of allowing It to come up and through. We really do not have to do anything but relax and release...to let go. The house we built is in the way of the Flow.  We need to, first of all, stop adding to this house...stop fortifying its walls with more resistance, stop adding to the stuff inside. Then, we need to allow the walls of resistance to crumble so the stuff inside can naturally flow up and out with the shakti.  This is actually a passive dismantling of the psyche through letting go and a purification of  the energy body... so wisdom and then bliss can flow through.  

Once all the koshas are cleansed of their blockages and we have a flow of Sat Chit Ananda, we can then  reach a state of Atman realization. We can merge with the One...and the ideas of going in or coming out will be no longer needed. Duality in any form disappears. With the freedom of the soul...there is a return to spaciousness...to shunyata...the Om...the primal vibration from which all was created. 

 Hmm! How was that for deep? lol

All is well. 

Michael A. Singer (March 27, 2025) From Mind to Enlightenment: Understanding Yoga's "Layers of the Self''. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLTR-ncjMrk&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=1

Swami Vivekananda ( n.d.) 2.6 Practical Vedanta and Other Lectures from The Complete Works. Kindle Edition. 

Creative Pull or Ego Motivation?

 Desire implies some form of lack; creation comes from wanting to give from the fullness you sense within you.

Eckhart Tolle

I am always questioning why I do what I do.  I ask if I am being motivated by ego or motivated by the deeper part of this human I call "me". I know with poetry...it is just a matter of the poem wanting to be written.  It has so little to do with "me".  There are other writing adventures that are less obvious in their motivation.

When I wrote the little book I wrote last year ( all the books I wrote last year), I felt pulled by something other than ego.  Like it is when I come here, I had this stuff in me (that I was learning) that I wanted to share. Sure...redeemer ego was sitting around encouraging me to go on with, "Well maybe if you write that you will prove to others that you now know what you are talking about.  It is so important that people know that you are knowleagble. You can't let Shamer win here." Shamer ego, was also repetitively saying, "Who the heck are you to write this book?  Despite your years studying, you do not have enough initials behind your name. " I will often look over at Redeemer and Shamer ego and say, "Will you guys shut the Fork up?" (Of course, I am not actually seeing or talking to a visible seperate entities  lol...this is all self-talk).  

Though ego was still a noisy presence in the background, I truly wanted to give, however, from the fullness within me. This carried on to me wanting to create tutorials related to the book to assist others who couldn't access or afford the book. So I  work on these tutorials and it is a very creative process that brings me joy. There will be times, however,  where the work will suddenly disappear before I have a chance to get it up. ( a lot of work)...and I am like "Okay...I will just start over".  At those times, I see how I am not attached to the outcome as ego would be.  I am enjoying the process. I am giving for the sake of giving.  Even ego cannot be upset with that. Can it?

Sigh!

Desire of the ego is disquised desire for God.

All is well!

Eckhart Tolle ( March, 2025) The Impulse to Create: Eckhart Tolle on Discovering Your Creative Potential. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQsKeyKBheY&t=385s

Healing Mantra

Don't store it negative...Leave it positive

Michael A. Singer

This is the mantra I have been reciting lately during some of my meditations. 

I am opening.

I am releasing.

I am cleansing.

I am healing.

I am allowing.

I am embracing.

I am touching the joy

of Shakti within me.

opening...releasing

cleansing...healing

allowing...embracing

touching joy...touching Shakti.

Bizarre? Maybe but this is what it translates to for me: 

I am opening:  I am not closing to anything out there. I am staying open. I am learning to be nonreactive and nonresistant. 

I am releasing: I am letting go of all that I was clinging to that does not serve my higher purpose, especially the negative.

I am cleansing: I am purifying...cleansing out the samskaras. I see how they are clouding my vision and impacting my approach to Life. 

I am healing: I know that by cleansing out what was making me sick, I am healing at the deepest level.

I am allowing: I am allowing Life to do what it does...to flow through...I am not resisting what unfolds in any given moment. I am not pushing away, which equates to stuffing and storing anymore. I am also allowing the stuffed and stored stuff to rise into my conscious awareness. I am not resisting any of it.  I am not pushing it back down.

I am embracing: I am looking at all of me and all of Life with compassionate eyes: the "good", the "bad", and the "ugly". I am not judging or resisting the uncomfortable that Life gives me in any given moment.  I am embracing it for its learning potential. I am not condeming the pain I have stuffed and stored. I am embracing it as it emerges and  I gently release it.  I am not beating up my ego as it slowly crumbles in front of me...I am lovingly holding it like a mother holds a child before sending the immature child off. 

I am touching the shakti:This is one of the few manifestation visualizations I will use. I visualize and make the intention  of myself touching Shakti...the joy I was born with. When the channeles within this human are open, cleansed, and healed, Yoga teaches that Shakti can flow.)

to flow freely within: I am seeing that all the things I once looked for out there: freedom from suffering, peace, joy, love, are and have always been in this human I call "me".  I just didn't know it because of the blockages I stuffed on top of it, because of this "me"I built that is always in the way.  Shakti can flow freely once I let go of all that which is in the way. Shakti can flow freely. I can finally be free.

Still pretty bizarre to ya? Maybe... and that is okay. You see they are all just words and concepts. The experience of healing they point to is what is important. 

All is well. 

Accepting the Eventuality of Loss

 All the things I hold dear, and everyone I love are also of the nature to change.  I can not escape being seperated from them.  I cannot escape loss.

All is well!

One Foot In and One Foot Out

One foot in this world.  One foot in the transcendent. This is the dance.

Eckhart Tolle 

Are you dancing? Or are you determined to have both feet stuck together on one spot? I spent most of my life, like many of you too, with both feet in the physical world...little me's world. And though I was being called to the transcendent for as long as I can remember, I just dug my heels in and pulled my ankles even closer together. All the while  I sung out as loud as I could, "Leave me alone!"

Personal mind will not let consciousness go to the intellectual [creative mind]...it distracts you from your bigger mind. Singer

 I was stuck in the wall shadow world.  It was not comfortable. Yet, I didn't want to leave to explore the other world.  I didn't want to walk out there onto the dance floor. I was needing to make it feel comfortable in here so I did whatever I could ...ignoring the music and the calls to step out, stuffing and storing, defending and attacking, attaching to other wall flowers and things, pulling some things in...pushing so much out.... doing whatever I could to make "me" feel better.  It was all about "me". 

...because  I am thinking about me, I am caught in this tiny little space of me...and it isn't too comfortable...so I need to do things to make myself feel better...I am compensating for the fact that I am not doing okay. Singer

Until lately, that is. 

Suffering...joyous, wonderful suffering... has pushed me out of the wall shadows and into the light. It led me to examine this "I...me...mine" program so many of us are stuck in, that keeps our feet together in the physical world. It was like someone turned on a light and I could see so much more than what I could see in the shadows. It was like someone gave me a mirror and I looked in and I saw a big old mask staring back at me, an ego mask. It was like someone cranked up the music...I could hear the beat calling me.  I began to dance.

Albeit, I was a very awkward dancer at first...still awkward, in fact.  I started by just pulling my ankles a part, and lifting one foot from the earth...I slowly, and very tentatively dipped my toes into a world I didn't understand...the same world that was calling me in my dreams ever since I was little. I did not take off the mask, at first.  I needed it on. It kept all the nasty in. I dipped my toes in the other world and I quickly pulled my toes out...again and again and again. 

There were glimpses of something as I danced...just little snippets of a truth began to emerge in me, through me, despite "me"...

Humans have to taste the truth of that for themselves

The Universe also wants deep inner peace...you also want to be rather than do...to return to the Source.  And this is what presence is.

Presence is the conscious relaization[connection] of the Source of all Life. Tolle

I began to place my whole foot down into this other world, and then I would pull it out and get all lost in "me" again.  I gave...then I went back to taking.  I thought of all other beings and then I pulled back to think of "me"... I was absorbed in "being" but would then pull back to get all lost in "doing" again. I loved openly and then I pulled back, as fear led me to close up again and again. 

What a strange dance I was performing lol...a little bit like Wednesday's dance in the Adam's Family movie lol

At one point I began to jump with both feet from the physical world to the transcendent...that wasn't healthy either. 

Tolle, in the below linked video relayed the story of Ramana Mahrashi who jumped head first into the transcendent world. Once he became enlightened, he became completely immersed into Source to the point he didn't talk or eat. Gradually he dipped his toes into this world again but not completely. He still spent more time in Source...but eventually there was a bit more balance so that he could serve this world and this lifetime.  Eventually the Source began to create through him and an ashram was built around him...a place where other seekers could go to at least touch Source through him. 

I am no Maharishi :) but I am still dancing ...moving  from one world to another...It is getting to be more of a waltz or an awkward  ballet movement that I perform, where one foot sweeps the floor in one world and the other foot sweeps the floor in the other. I am also removing the mask of ego...knowing how it stops me from experiencing the true joy of the dance.  I am attempting to find balance.

...balance between dwelling in Source awareness...and participating in the act of co creation with the Source.  Tolle

So, though there is so much truth in Singer's comment, The mind is a serious problem and the answer is not to give it what it wants. ...we still need to utilize the mind so that we keep one foot in this world while we dip our other foot in the  transcendent world. 

Hmm!

All is well! 

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( March 24, 2025) Breaking Free from Negative Thoughts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i7_v7xQ3uc&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=1

Eckhart Tolle( March, 2025) Eckhart Tolle Discusses Two Ways to Manifest Your Desires. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJN-4O9VKCA

The Most Important Body System

 The body function is all about the senses being able to sense....

I didn't teach Anatomy and Physiology like this in all the years I taught it, but Singer and other yogis  tell us the primary system in the body is the sensory system.  Why?  Because we are in this body to experience Life. How do we experience Life?  Through what we pick up through our senses. Hmm? What about the musculoskeletal system?  Well that system holds us up erect so we can point the senses to the world around us.  Hmm! (In yoga meditation..it is all about being erect). The muscles help us to move from place to place so we can see, hear, touch, taste, smell different things. 

What about the nervous system? Well that intreprets all that information we pick up.  And the endocrine system? Well that helps us with the hormones so we can respond to what we pick up and which allows us to experience more deeply.  And the digestive system? Well you need energy to keep the body alive so you can experience...the digestive system breaks down food into energy so you can absorb it. What about the cardiac and respiratory systems? These too help us to get much needed oxygen into cells...so we can keep the body alive so we can experience life? Get it? 

We are here to experience Life. We are in bodies that are equipped with atennas (to help us do that).  Like the skin system...the body is porous meant to allow Life to come in and allow Life to go out. We are not the body...we are that which is using the body.  The body is like a semi-permeable spacesuit we are wearing. All of Life is just meant to come in through the senses and pass right through. Why? So we get to experience it all. 

The  mind is the control switch that helps us move around in this body.  Too often we misuse the controls. We use the mind to select experiences. We stay open to certain things we deem as "pleasant" and  shut down to certain things the senses pick up that we deem as "unpleasant".   We cling to certain sensory experiences. We resist certain experiences.   We use this spacesuit to create a world that makes us feel good inside....instead of for what it is here to do...allow us to experience it all. 

Reminds me of a poem I wrote a while ago...

Space Walker

Navigating around this place,
in this suit of many layers,
 reptilian scales
and mammalian glands,
I follow, 

however reluctantly,
 the robotic directions,
 a woman's
monotone voice,
 not my own.
The voice  echoes from within
a hidden  circuit
of programmed instructions,  
"Take a left 

then a right,

go straight, 

turn around..."

the downloaded data chirps
as I make my way
to the flag before me.
I am told when
to fight, to flee, to freeze
with each zap of current that
courses through me
from the exposed
and tender roots
of the  electrical network,
humming on the outer layer
of this suit I think I am.

This entangled wiring,
with its preprogrammed function
to warn and protect,
makes the fleshy portion
of me within
jump and retreat
like a skittish fawn
with each bump, 

each change in atmosphere,
each misstep.


I walk carefully,
slowly,
feeling the weight
of mechanical
and social gravity.
Each foot I lift
is heavy and slow,
precisely calculated
to be acceptable,
just like those
of the walkers before me,
leaving a deep
irreversible imprint
on the ground beneath  me.

I reach out my hungry  
telescopic limbs
to grab what is valuable ,
collecting  the moon rocks
and galaxial gems
 that will make
this journey worthwhile,
placing them in the suit's
many  storage compartments,
feeling somehow lighter, 
the heavier the container
and I  become.


I decorate my suit
in the beads of star dust
that fall around me,
making myself,  
even in this heavy garment,
as attractive and unique
as I possibly can.
I display my hard earned titles
and initials on a well lit placard
that dangles around  my neck,
making sure it is especially visible
as the light around me fades.
I am told by this robotic voice
that I must stand out
amongst the other walkers
and
at the same time
I must blend in.


I hear my breath
panting and heaving
within the confines of my suit
as I make my way
to the center of my Life.
I do my best
to heed the directions,

to absorb the waves of pleasure,
to avoid the zaps of pain,
to make my imprint known,
to take what I can,
and be as noticeable
and recognizable,
yet as similar
and unobtrusive 
as a separate walker
 can be...

But the suit is so heavy,
and the programming  
so restrictive,
and the flag
that does not move
in the windless air
seems to get farther away
with each step
I take toward it.  

Something within me,
some little voice
beneath the programming
and the installed
external  reactivity
whispers..."stop".
I do.

I stop in my tracks
and remove the helmet.
I breathe
for the first time
without the need
of external support.
I remove my heavy garment
and feel the weightlessness
of unlimited space
as I rise untethered
into emptiness.
I watch from
an elevated  distance
as the rocks and gems
that were once
tucked within the suit's
many pockets
 roll away.
I am free.

© Dale-Lyn (pen) July, 2020

 

This poem is about pratyhara...the fifth limb of yoga which involves getting past our senses and what they bring in. Prior to that step we must recognize who we are within this sense ridden body and see its purpose as being there to help us experience all of Life. 

Our aspiration in Life should be about learning to allow it all in so we can experience it all...then allowing it all to go out. Our purpose is to recognize who is in there wearing that spacesuit, experiencing it all. We are not the spacesuits we are in.  We are not the mental control switch...we are that which is watching and experiencing and we are the One with their formless hands on the switches. Hmm!

All is well

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe/ Sounds True ( March, 2025) Your Highest Aspiration: Finding Your True Self. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A_t1NEskq8&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=2

Don't Trample Down the self

 

Elevate yourself through the power of your mind, and not degrade yourself, for the mind can be the friend and also the enemy of self. 

B.G. 6:5

Between arrogance and being humble  is usually a state of self-degradation and shame that we need to recognize,process, and release . There is usually a reason for our displays of arrogance: The Redeemer Ego at work in in its attempt to out do shame. 

Is that where our "humble" journey  ends? 

 No, I believe there is a deeper and purer state called humility that has nothing to do with ego. Humility means being free of both shame and a need for redemption of the ego. Infact, in requires being free of ego all together. In order to reach that state we have to be careful when we reach the point of being humble not to take the fork in the road that leads to more self-chastising and to take the road that leads to Self-love. 

When I am "put in my place" by my own thought stream or the words or actions of others, or by life circumstance...I recognize "Oh, I was getting lost in arrogance again.  I was allowing Redeemer Ego to take the reins again." I am grateful for that realization now...where as before I would have reacted strongly.  So, there has been some growth. 

I am still not where I want to be though. Ego is still hanging around.  I know that because when I hit that "humble" point I seem to veer quickly towards a pattern of chastising myself, putting down myself, diminishing and punishing this "ego" that I created. We are not meant to hate our egos...to hate anything actually. We are meant to lovingly and compassionately understand how these egos were created and why...to take responsibility for them, for sure...but not to wallow in shame and guilt for their actions and the consequences of them. Humility is a positive state for Self...shame isn't. 

Michael A. Singer often quotes the Gita, "Don't trample down the self with Self , ..." Though I cannot find that translation anywhere I prefer it in this explaination. 

All is well

This Too Shall Pass

 This too shall pass....

Rumi

This ebb and flow of events and people in my experience is so interesting to watch. It is even more interesting to watch this that "I am" watch this human I call "me" watching it.  I watch  the ebb and flow of emotion that takes place within me and that is expressed around me. I watch it come in, sometimes like a tidal wave, and I watch as it is pulled back.  I watch the waves of pain and sorrow, of gain and loss; of sunlight and rain; of light and darkness; of ease and difficulty....just this constant ebb and flow.  Things come into my experience, my moment. Things leave my experience, and another moment arises. Nothing lasts.  

I realize when I feel the light on my face and the warmth in my heart; when I feel that I have won the favor of others; that I have succeeded at something...that, "This too shall pass," and I enjoy it while I can without clinging to it.  When I notice that I have failed or have been criticized or rejected or have fallen into moments of languishing so intense I fear like I might drown in it...I know that the experience and the nature of the moment will change into something else soon enough.  "This too shall pass." ...And I just allow it, observe it, look deeply into the "felt experience" without relying on any attachment to a  story. 

I hear my body and mind reacting sometimes and I simply observe that reaction, that resistance without judgement or attachment, knowing that it is all just phenomena...a ripple or a wave in the spaciousness of what is...and it too will just change. 

It is so bizarre the way I am experiencing Life now.  It isn't always pleasant or peaceful but I am so aware of Something in me that remains peaceful and undisturbed as Life ebbs into my consciousness, and flows out of my consciousness. I am detached , I guess, without being indifferent. I am still connected by some invisible tether but in an unusual way. I am no longer being strangled by these tethers.

It is like I am reaching out to touch Life as if it were a colorful flower I suddenly notice. Instead of grasping it and clinging to it, I now gently place my fingers on its petals as I reverently drop my head down to smell its fragrance...being careful all the time not to disturb anything, not to get in the way of the other beings who depend on this flower. Hmm! 

Its weird and I feel weird at this stage of waking up. I am sure others think I am acting strangely and I really don't care. I have no desire to please their egos anymore with my own masquerading self. I feel layers of "me" being pulled off that which I am. It is not a pleasant debridement lol but a healing one. I am changing.  I don't understand what is happening to me and at the same time I don't feel like I have to understand.  I just have to flow with it.  Hmm!

Anyway, all is well.

From 2000 to 2: Accepting the "Isness" of It All.

 

It is what it is.  It will be what it will be.

More and more I see the ebb and flow of Life without getting attached to any crest or any trough. I watch with a certain equanimity. I participate with a certain level of detachment. I get puffed up less and less, I get sucked down less and less. I do not grasp or cling.  I push away so little. If there is any action taken by this body and mind...it is not reaction.  I am just there bobbing up and down on the surface of impermanence, allowing it all to be what it is. Hmm! This is a totally different living experience than the way I approached Life, say, twenty years ago.  It took a great deal of practice and searching to get to this point but alas here I am. 

Let's look at the so called readership on this blog, for example. For the last month my readership appeared to be way up. Last week I was getting over 2000 readers (or hits, or whatever they are) on some  days. They were  being picked up by Google analytics and seemed quite legit. For a brief second, I felt a quickening in my gut, "Maybe, this ...whatever this is that I am doing here is receiving the assistance of the universe now...maybe it is reaching others, possibly even helping others...maybe, I am being shown that it is a worthwhile task." I even felt just a flush of ego, "Yeah I am doing a good thing here." Then out of nowhere it was like a wind came in and blew all that away and replaced it with, "It is what it is.  It will be what it will be." It didn't seem to matter anymore.

Then when I came to the site today.  I see there has been 2 readers or whatever in the last 24 and,  though I felt a momentary sinking of the remaining ego as the question arose, "What am I doing wrong?"...it passed as quickly as it came. I now feel the same as I felt when there were 2000 readers...possibly even a little more comfortable and relieved ( I was never much for crowds lol). 

"It is what it is. It will be what it will be."

Very grateful for all readers who take the time to read what I have written...or, should I say?... what came through this human body and mind I call "me". Very grateful...be you 2000 or 2...thank you. 

I am not sure what I am doing or not doing that causes readers to leave as quickly as they come in.  I am not sure if anyone will ever like what I write here.  I am not sure it even matters. Man, I do not even understand the purpose or process of this blog lol...how can I expect to understand the outcome? I just feel the pull to come here everyday to do exactly what I do. I feel I am satisfying my part of the bargain when I do.  The rest is not up to me. 

Anyway...just bobbing along here. Maybe you will catch a glimpse of what I leave behind or maybe you won't.  It is all good. 

It is what it is.  It will be what it will be. 

All is well

Be the Essence...the Dimension of Space Within You

 Essence is the truth in man, personality is the false. But in proportion, as personality grows, essence manifests itself more and more rarely and more and more feebly.

George Gurdjieff

As Eckhart Tolle puts it, with a heavy personality you cannot go any deeper...there is a closed door of the personality... If the personality recedes...than something more vital and more essential can shine through.

The dimension of spaciousness[of consciousness] is within us.

The Kingdom of Heaven is within you. Luke 17:21

Your primary task, as a human being, is to find that dimesnion of space within you.

Hmm!

All is well

Eckhart Tolle (2023) Eckhart's Perspective on Jesus's Teachings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDHPcy5u8Po

Peripheral Phenomenon or Thoughtless Perception

There is a longing in people to be free of the incessant thinking in their mind. ...of the noise in the head

Eckhart Tolle.

Life, according to Eckhart Tolle, is often reduced to a peripheral phenomenon when we are lost in thought. 

How often do we say, "I don't have time for sunsets...beauty...I have a lot on my mind."

Many of us "live in our heads". We see the world, then, through a periphal view and just catch glimpses. of it. We are perceiving the world through the veil of thought, rather than through thoughtless perception.  Two fold nature of perception is to be aware of what we are seeing and more importantly of Self as awareness.  We will see more in that which we perceive  when we do that...We will  see the conscious awareness in ourselves and in that which we are looking at.

All is well

Eckhart Tolle (February, 2025) Eckhart Tolle on Giving Attention Without Thinking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpGIfnIUyps&t=3s

Kapila's Soul

 

The soul has neither pleasure nor pain; it is the witness of everything, the eternal witness of all work, but it takes no fruits fom any work. As the sun is the cause of sight in every eye, but is not itself affected by any defects in the eye or when a crystal has red or blue flowers placed before it, the crystal looks red or blue, and yet it is neither; so the soul is neither passive nor active, it is beyond both. The nearest way of expressing this state of the soul is that it is meditation.

Vivekanada on Kipala's psychology

Lord Kipala was said to be a vedic sage who lived prior to Buddha sometime in the 6th or 7th century BCE? He greatly influenced, according to Vivekananda, all psychological thought that exists today. It is believed that Pythagoras studied under him and brought those teachings back to Greece later influencing Plato. It is also believed that most of Buddha's teachings are heavily influenced by him and the sankhya philosophy as well. 

So what is being said above?

The soul or purusha in vedic understanding...according to Kapila, is the true essence of every human. It is formless [not of nature or prakrti], omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.  It is the cause of everything and the witness of everything else that is form...yet it is not affected by any of it.  It shines on and reflects the world we see but it is not that which it sees and reflects.  It is observer, reflector ...neither active or passive in the events it is witnessing.  It is the ever present essence found in meditation.  

Vivekananda further describes Kapila's psychology or philosophy  like this in 2.6.13 Sankhya and Vedanta in his Complete Works.

By itself the mind has no light; but we see it reasons. Therefore there must be someone behind it, whose light is percolating through Mahat [intelligence] and consciousness, and subsequent modifications, and this is what Kapila calls the Purusha, the Self of the Vedantin.

...the Purusha is a simple entity, not a compound; he [she, they] is immaterial, the only one who is immaterial, and all these manifestations are material. 

The soul, Self, or Purisha is the part of the human that is immaterial...it is the only part that is formless.  The mind is material and the soul is behind the mind observing, interpreting and causing the response. 

...First, the external instruments will bring that sensation to the nerve-centre, to the Indriya according to Kapila; from the centre it will go to the mind and make an impression; the mind will present it to the Buddhi[wisdom] but Buddhi cannot act; the action comes, as it were, from the Purusha behind. These, so to speak, are all his servants, bringing the sensations to him, and he, as it were, gives the orders, reacts, is the enjoyer, the perceiver, the real One, the King on his throne [ the queen on hers, the ruler on theirs], the Self of man, who is immaterial.

The sense organs are the servants of the body and mind and the body and mind are the servants of the Purusha.

Because he is immaterial, it necessarily follows that he must be infinite, he cannot have any limitation whatever. Each one of the Purushas is omnipresent, but we can act only through the Linga Sharira, the fine body. The mind, the self consciousness, the organs, and the vital forces compose the fine body or sheath, what in Christian philosophy is called the spiritual body of man. 

It is this body that gets salvation, or punishment, or heaven, that incarnates and reincarnates, becasue we see from the very beginning that the going and the coming of the Purusha or souls are impossible...what goes or comes from one place to another cannot be omnipresent.

The soul or Purusha is infinite and limitless. Because it is immaterial, however, It can only act through form...the form of the fine body or Linga Sharira. This fine body consists of the mind, the psyche ( self consciousness), the organs ...including most importantly the sense organs...and the vital forces like prana. This fine body may be referred to as the spiritual body by Christians.

The soul is onmipresent...and eternal and unchanging.  It is stillness and presence. It is that which never leaves but that from which  body and mind are reincarnated again and again.

Thus far we see from Kapila's psychology that the soul is infinite, and that the soul is the only thing not composed of nature. He is the only one that is outside of nature, but he has got bound by nature, apparently. Nature is around him, and he has identified himself with it. He thinks "I am the Linga Sharira", "I am the gross matter, the gross body", and as such he enjoys pleasure and pain, but they do not belong to him, they belong to this Linga Sharira or the fine body....

The soul is the only part of the human being that is beyond nature in its formlessness, but It has become overidentified with the nature that surrounds It. It has identified Its infinite Self with nature and both the gross body and the fine body, believing Itself to be that which is finite. It sees the experiences of both the gross and fine body as belonging to It...when they do not.  

I read all this last night and highlighted it thinking I would write about it today.  I opened up to Michael Singer's podcast today and lo and behold he was basically talking about the same thing. It is so kooky how that works.

All is well.

Vivekanada's Complete Works, Kindle Edition

Michael A. Singer ( March 17, 2025) Beyond the Illusion: Awakening to True Consciousness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzMG7EiOTc8&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=3

Psuedoscience?

Science is not only compatible with spirituality, it is a profound source of spirituality.

Carl Sagan

Hmm! Carl Sagan also spoke a lot about the dangers of psuedoscience...?

Why is everything that cannot be explained by the "materialist" view in science called psuedoscience when science is all about exploring that which we have yet to understand? How can there be a "psuedo" to this process?  Why are individuals (scientists) who dare to explore the immaterial, that which is yet to be seen, measured, and understood, things like consciousness, ridiculed, condemned, excommunicated from the scientific community in some sort of witch hunt?  Shouldn't the most important tool used in science, be an open mind? 

I just do not understand the gate keeping that goes in the scientific community.  Hmmm!

Yoga would definitely be deemed a psuedo science by many...a "woo-woo" science. Yet, yoga is a science of the mind.  It is an ancient science...and the rishis...the scientists in this field of study realized many, many things about Self, and the universe, about mind, and perception. Their labatory was their own minds.  Through an experiential process of going inward and observing the inner workings of the mind and what is beyond it, they traced back everything to vibration in a spacious realm of akasha.  They did this thousands and thousands of years ago. Yoga and yogis are definitely not members of the Western scientific community. :) 

Yet, their discoveries have now been validated by modern day science. That tracing back to spacious vibration is the same thing the quantum physicists have done at Cern...They traced back matter to atoms, from atoms to subatomic particles, and from subatomic particles to wavelets(bosons, quarks, and leptons) in a field of energy and vibration known now as the "Higgs field". "Akasha" or "Higgs Field"  are just concepts pointing to the same thing, are they not? 

These ideas posed by quantum physicists , too, were shunned from the community until recently. In fact, "quantum mechanics" has been for the longest time viewed as a little too "woo-woo" for main stream science.  Why?  Because it challenged materialistic view. It took a lot of scientific experimentation to prove its validity. Eventually, the community came around.

So, why, then is it so hard for science to accept the probability that "consciousness" is a "thing" that exists "outside of matter/the brain" worth exploring? Why are those that partake in this endeavour automatically shut down? I am thinking of the "Telepathy Tapes"and the research done by neurosceintist, Dr. Diane Powell. There was definitely a witch hunt done on her and attempts were made to burn her at the stake...it seems.  She was ridiculed, discredited, suspended from her position at an infamous university,  and later had to be reinstated because the charges against her had no merit.  Whether or not what she had to prove was valid or not, that was a witch hunt if I ever saw one. 

I am not sure if Telepathy is a thing.  I have never observed it or experienced it. Powell was a well credited scientist, a neuropsychiatrist, with a lot to lose when she went on this experiential journey to prove it was a thing. Her tests used to prove its existence, also, seemed quite rigorous and scientific to me in my ignorant but skeptical mind.   I know that telepathy is something the ancient rishis are also said to have discovered. Infact, telepathy is said to be one of the siddhis attained by some very advanced yogis after years of intense meditation. The rishis were not wrong about akasha. There is then a chance that they are not wrong about telepathy. Maybe the neurodivergent pathways in nonverbals mimic the brains of those advanced meditators? 

The thing is...who really knows? It is a question.  And isn't it the job of science to attempt to answer such questions?  Yet, the scientific community seems to be shutting down the question before it is even completely asked. Instead of embracing the question, they tend to want to shoot the questioner. Hmm!

I am also thinking of Dr. Susan Blackmore, another neuroscientist who studied paranormal psychology at Cambridge university and spent years of her life trying to prove the existence of paranormal truths like telepathy. She has recently switched gears and debunked the existence of such things on the grounds she was unable to prove anything with all her rigorous scientific studies. She looks now to brain activity to explain phenomenon such as Near Death and Out of Body experiences. Telepathy, well that just doens't exist as far as she is concerned. She explores consciousness, now, in the way it relates to physical matter and neuronal firing.  Hmm! I can not help but wonder...if the pressure received from the scientific community was the catalyst that made her debunk that which she studied for so long?? 

Regardless...we see two sides of the line with these woman.  One was a devoted neuropsychiatrist in line with scientific thought who stepped over the line to explore consciousness in terms of paranormal activity; and the other a rebellious paranormal researcher, challenging the limited view of consciousness,  who stepped back over the line and is now conforming with scientific materialistic thinking when it comes to consciousness. Both risked or risk so much in an attempt to validate what the rishis discovered to be real. 

Is telepathy  real or not real? Proving its reality sets a framework for understanding consciousness, reality, etc in a way that would blow our minds. 

What is the truth?  Though part of me wants so badly to believe in things like telepathy...another part remains skeptical.  Like Susan Blackmore, I need proof!! I remain open minded and I question...I will not shut down the possibility until someone prooves that it can't exist. At the same time, I will not believe that it it is real until someone prooves that it is. Unlike many scientists, I am committed to staying open minded.

I will not call anything that starts with a question a psuedoscience!

What about you?

All is well.

The Weekend University/Dr Susan Blackmore ( 2000?) The Science of Out of Body Experiences-Susan Blackmore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VoixOyTPwg

New Thinking Allowed (2024)Psychic Abilities of Autistic Savants with Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIYk0ZGcVnE

Awareness: A Space for Transformation

 Awareness is the greatest agent for change.

Eckhart Tolle in The New Earth

As far as inner transformation is concerned, there is nothing you can do about it. You cannot transform yourself, and you certainly cannot transform your partner or anyone else. All you can do is create a space for the transformation to happen, for grace and love to enter. 

Eckhart Tolle from The Power of Now.

I am remembering back to when I really started to evolve in my transformation.  It was 2006? I was about to get divorced, still living with my ex but in the process of buying a house near by. Someone recommended "A New Earth" to me.  I was reluctant to read it. Though I was always a bit "spiritual"(quietly so)...aware of something that could not be seen especially as a child, I had developed a very scientific mind that depended on empirical evidence to explain reality.  I guess, I became a bit of a  materialist. I was also so very egoic at the time...identified so much with my "me" and "my" body and what it "was doing and going through",  that if someone were to tell me I wasn't this body or its problems, let alone this "me",  I would have told them they were absolutely nuts!!! Sure,  I was studying and practicing yoga but I stuck to the Hatha component because I felt the other stuff was a "little too woo-woo".  And though I was also reading writers like Wayne Dyer and Marianne Williamson, I focused on the psychology of their teaching rather than the parapsychology. I was not, by any means, easy to convince that consciousness was a thing, let alone who we are. Yet, the experience of the divorce was opening something in me. So, I proceeded to read Tolle's book.  

At first, there was the usual resistance, "This is nuts!" or "I don't get it!" ... but as I kept going, this crack that was opening in me began to widen, and there was like these waves of pure knowing emerging in me. The resistance was soon replaced with a lot of very profound "aha" moments! My perceptions were shifting. "This is truth!" I found myself reciting to anyone who would listen (and few would listen...people were convinced I was having a breakdown).  I was beginning "to get it", albeit very slowly and at a very rudimentary level, but it felt like it was coming from inside me. I still was not even sure what "it" was. 

I then read "The Power of Now" and many other books like it. I felt compelled to go on to read A Course in Miracles for the first time.  That was a heavy read.  It took me a long time to get through it. It wasn't until the third time through that the learning became assimilated into my inner knowledge library. I began to look at the other things Wayne Dyer was teaching. I looked at things like Abraham and the Secret and began consciously trying to manifest.  All the while, I was still practicing yoga and opening up a little more to the teachings...hesitantly, because my religious conditioning was warning me of the dangers. 

My mind was not satisfied...I realized somewhere in 2014, maybe after another sick leave from work and finding myself at the verge of losing everything I owned, that there had to be more to it; that I didn't have to look out there, I had to look in here. I upped my meditation practice. I put away my dream boards and my need for the  law of attraction to bring into my life what I thought I needed.  I began to ask for peace of mind no matter what over anything else. I looked into Buddhism and was floored by the absolute wisdom I found there. I upped my yoga practice. I read Patanjali's sutras. I began practicing all limbs (realizing that I had already been practicing them to some degree but I reinforced my commitment to a sadhana.) I discovered Michael Singer.  I  studied the suttras and scriptures of other ancient wisdom traditions from the east. I soon began the studying necessary to become a yoga teacher. I studied to become  a meditation and mindfulness teacher. All the while, this knowing in me kept growing and expanding to the point I can't believe that I ever thought differently than this. I see now! There is no going back to that foggy and distorted vision I had. "It", whatever It is, is sooo clear to me. 

I also began to come down from my head where I had lived my entire life and into my body and moment. I began to pull away from my past and future focus and started to live in the here and now. I began to see this me as 'this human I call "me". I detached from my absorption in it.  I lost so much attachment to those things that once consumed me. I stopped resisting Life...and found myself opening up, accepting and appreciating all of it'. 

I am no longer attached to the past story of "me", but I do know I have stored samskaras inside that I need to release and that is where I am now. My life changed completely. And this inner knowing I had is now being replaced by a not knowing. The more I think I know the less I realize I know.  I am seeing so clearly the limitation of words and concepts. It's crazy!

So, to me, sometimes as I speak to my loved ones, or go on and on in my blog entries and videos, I forget that not everyone sees it the way I see it.  A lot of people are not there yet....wherever "there" is.  Not that this "me" is superior in any way shape or form for being here now....not at all...this "me" is not even real! Man, that blows me away. 

Anyway...I just felt compelled to share that.  

All is well.