Like Picasso

 like Picasso

dark colours

from your messy palette

 drip upon the canvas of your mind

sloppily yet intentionally

the brush you cling to

paints the world as predator

and yourself

…a tiny but significant form

curled up in the center of this creation…

as prey

this world you are making

doesn't have to be so dark

 you get to choose what you paint

 on the spacious backdrop

of your life

like Picasso 

you are capable

of both, “The Tragedy”

and the “Joie De Vivre”

select the latter

let the muse within inspire

hold the brush

loosely in your grip

dip into  brighter colours

choose the yellow over grey

joy over grief

 

better still

wipe this dark drama

you are creating

away with a perfect stroke

 of white and light

 

step back away from the easel

and have a look

at the purity of unblanched canvas

then, and only then,

choose wisely

what colour

and what stroke

you will use

like Picasso

you can paint a masterpiece

paint a masterpiece of joy

 

© Dale-Lyn (Pen), February , 2024

Reflection in the Glass

Reflection in the Glass

I look into the glass at the wrinkled face staring back at me.

Is that me staring at me? 

How can that be? 

How can the me I see be the thee I be? 

 

I hear mental voices echoing that time is running out...

as this aging form stares back at me.

I watch as this form twists its head in pensive thought.

Am I these thoughts that I am thinking?

How can that be? 

How can the thoughts that are heard being thought

be the hearer of those thoughts? 

This question pulls me deeper into the eyes of this reflection. 

Is that me staring at me? 

How can that be?

How can the me I see be the thee I be?

 

As I watch this image in the glass, I feel the body's sensations,

I sense the aches and pains of age, and the tension of 

a life time of resistance forming one big knot

in the center of this gut,

while this reflection stare back at me.

Am I this that is sensing the world around me and in me?

How can that be?

How can that which senses be that which it is sensing?  

How can the thoughts that are heard being thought

be the hearer of those thoughts? 

These questions pull me deeper  into the eyes of this reflection. 

Is that me staring at me? 

How can that be?

How can the me I see be the thee I be?

 

 

I watch as the brow scrunches up with fear and worry 

over the body's eerie reminders.

Am I the emotions I am experiencing?

How can that be? 

How can the fear I feel be the me that feels? 

How can that which senses be that which it is sensing?  

How can the thoughts that are heard being thought

be the hearer of those thoughts? 

These questions pull me deeper  into the eyes of this reflection. 

Is that me staring at me? 

How can that be?

How can the me I see be the thee I be?

 

Aha.

I am not the form I am staring at.

What I see is just a surface reflection

temporarily captured by the glass.

It will not last.

I am not the passing sensations,  

the thoughts,

 or the emotions

being observed and experienced.

I am the eternal Observer, 

the Experiencer, 

the “I Am,”

that exists beyond the eyes that are looking

and the eyes that are staring back. 

I am not the “me” that I see

because there is no me.

I am the “Thee”.

And I am the "Be"

that will be there when I look away. 

 

© Dale-Lyn (Pen), February , 2024

Well that came out of me after listening to the below podcasts/videos and thinking about yesterdays' poem, "I am Thee". . 

A line that caught me today...might be paraphrased...my bad. 

You are the Seer, the indwelling being; you are the one who knows you are there. Michael Singer

 All is well!

Michael A. Singer/ Letting Go (February, 2024) Coming to Peace with Your Heart and Mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egzp65HXa6E

Thich Nhat Hanh/ Plum Village App. (2020) Calm-Ease. Guided Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHvtIcaD194

I Am Thee

 

I came to see my beloved.

The doors were closed.

I knocked,

and a voice came from inside.

"Who art thou?"

"I am so and so"

The door was not opened.

A second time I came

and I knocked.

I was asked the same question, 

and gave I the same answer.

The door opened not. 

I came a third time,

and the same question came. 

I answered,

"I am thee, my love." 

and the door opened.

Translation of an ancient persian poem offered by Vivekananda. Complete Works, Kindle Edition 

Relax and Release

[Samskara] That is a resisted event that didn't make it through you...anything that disturbs you [as a self concept] you stored it. ...

If you want to know the nature of consciousness...don't leave. Let go [of the object of consciousness]. 

The only way to find the nature of Self is by being there. When you feel you are being drawn down into the object of consciousness...let go. That is how you maintain the seat of consciousness...don't leave. You in that there that is being pulled down into that stuff...relax and release. 

Michael A. Singer

All is well

Michael A. Singer/Temple of the Universe( February 19, 2024) The Source of Consciousness. https://tou.org/talks/

A Spoke in a Wheel

Like Dante's Wings

Like Dante's wings.

moved not by his own will 

but by the same love 

that moves the sun 

and starry fires,

in the perfect revolution

of an invisible wheel,

...

I breathe,

I move,

I.

 as one spoke,

am. 

That is my purpose.

© Dale-Lyn (pen), February, 2024

Inspired by : 

But my own wings were not for such a flight, except that smiling through the mind of me, there came fulfillment in a flash of light. That my volition now , and my desires, were moved like wheel revolving evenly,  by love that moves the sun and starry fires.

Divine Comedy, Paradiso 33...Dante Alighieri ( one translation as recited by Alan Watts in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IGgGQZth08)

Note: Of course, Dante lived and wrote this in the early 1300's before Copernicus discovered that it was not the sun moving around the earth, but the earth moving around the sun.

All is well.

Working the Pause, Part Three

 You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Two big words in this quote: "Stop" and "Look". When we are working the pause...we are stopping, stepping back, and then looking deeply into what is showing up in our experience. We are not resisting any of it by pushing away or down. When it comes to fear...our healing involves being willing to stop our running, sit in stillness, and look at it in the face. 

And...

We need to know how to work the pause....

The most important thing we can do when it comes to working the pause is relax.  Relaxation is the opposite of resistance.  Without resistance there would be no reactivity. So the moment we feel stimulated and triggered...we do what we can to relax.  Please know that we are not asking the samskaras and their associated sensations, feelings, and thoughts to relax...we are not expecting that the anxiety or the  discomfort go away. Our intention is that we, as the Objective Observer, do the relaxing as we observe and experience what is happening in this pause.  We can mentally or physically step back from the trigger, take a few deep breaths, close our eyes for a microsecond, encourage muscle groups in the body to relax, reframe the situation in a positive way or do a mantra like "I can handle this !" Then we make clear conscious choices for action or non-action. This also doesn't mean we continue to endure an unhealthy  external situation, that we do not do what can be done to change the situation if it is called for. It just means that instead of flying into an action that didn't come from a healthy place, we choose what step to take next from a healthy place.

Hopefully, we have done some practicing  in relaxing and working the pause in non triggering times. Amongst daily meditation and mindfulness practice, I encourage the frequent practice of Progressive Muscle Relaxation. PMR can help us distinguish between resistant/ tense and relaxed body sensations. A frequent and regular  practice can help us to truly relax in the face of a real trigger. 

In that space, above all else...Relax.

 All will be well! 

All is well!

Springing and Pouring Forth: Don't Close

 Man is like an infinite spring, coiled up in a small box, and that spring is trying to unfold itself; and all the social phenomena that we see the result of this trying to unfold. All the competitions and struggles and evils that we see around us are neither the causes of these unfoldments, nor the effects. As one of our great philosophers says- in the case of irrigation of a field, the tank is somewhere upon a higher level, and the water is trying to rush into the field, and is barred by a gate. But as soon as the gate is opened, the water rushes in by its own nature; and if there is dust and dirt in the way, the water rolls over them. But the dust and the dirt [our stored stuff from life events?] are neither the result nor the cause of this unfolding of the divine nature of man. They are coexistent circumstances, and therefore can be remedied. 

Vivekananda, Location 7398

What the fork, crazy lady?

Those words captured my attention today when I breezed through what I have highlighted so far from this massive read, The Complete Works of Vivekananda.I was looking for something that echoed what I heard today from Michael Singer and what echoed what was floating around in my mind about keeping the pause/the space between stimuli and our habitual tendency to react as spacious and pure as possible. 

So far in my discussions about the pause, I haven't said a lot about what it is meant to be like, have I? This is what I have come to understand about this space. This pause , this space is the timeless present moment, the here and now. It is presence.  It is stillness. It is who we are at our essence. 

This pause is supposed to be pure, empty, spacious. It is supposed to be clean enough so we can see the divinity that is there beneath the dust and dirt we have collected.  It is meant to be open enough ( with no gates of will barring it shut) so the purifying, hydrating, and life giving flow of Shakti can pour through it. 

Who we are as "human", who we are as "being" (a reflection of the divine) meanwhile are all coiled up in a tight container of the mind...trying to unfold bit by bit, attempting to grow. We are not okay in this constraining box but we are doing whatever we can to be okay. We react and those reactions are simply the result, not of our natural need to unfold, but of our trying to be okay all coiled up. We may be unfolding bit by bit, but we are holding back our springing forth nature. We are trying to make this box comfortable instead of just opening up the top so we can spring out and be free...like the water that flows into the field when the gate is opened. We are longing for this freedom...this purification and hydration a free flowing Shakti can give us. 

What the heck does that have to do with anything Michael Singer talked about today in his podcast? 

Michael Singer is always talking about "not closing". Most of us are closing in reaction to what Life is handing us. This closing is resistance in its ultimate form and this leads to all types of reactivity, and therefore the creation of unfavorable social phenomenon.  Our gates, our staying coiled up, our refusal to have the top of the box opened...is our resistance to the reality of what Life gives us and who we are. We are not the dust and dirt in the dry field. We are not the rusty, aching bends and knots in the springs.  We are the tanks up on higher ground looking down.  We are the uncoiled springs. We are meant for light and spaciousness yet we stay coiled up into these little human dilemmas. We are not okay inside because we live by the dust and dirt we accumulate [our samskaras] rather than the Shakti waiting to pour through us if we would only keep that gate opened. 

Open the top of the box we are in and what happens?  We uncoil and unfold from the contracted position we were in. We have room to expand and grow.  We embrace the light. We are free.

Open the gate of the irrigation field, and what happens? The water of Shakti rushes in...the dirt and debris we were holding onto is flushed away...We are hydrated, cleansed, purified and engulfed in the joy, peace, love and bliss Shakti is. 

We just need to realize that what most of us do, how most of us process through life is not the way to go. We have to realize we are not okay inside with all this dirt and debris or this cramped up coiled position. We have to realize that we  are doing the blocking with our stuffing and storing. We have to realize that we really don't want it this way.  We have to realize that it doesn't have to be this way.  We have to realize who we really are. We have to realize that we were meant to spring forth into light...to be immersed in Shakti. We have to realize we are responsible for holding the top of the box closed and the gate shut. 

....And we have to be willing not to close.

Hmmm! All is well in my world. 

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the universe. ( February 18, 2024) Learning Not to Close. https://tou.org/talks/

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (1989) Kindle Edition

Practicing Releasing During the Pause

If we practice and are able to release, we can be free and happy right now, today. If we can't let go, we will suffer not only on the day when we're finally forced to do so, but right now today and everyday day in between, because fear[and shame] will constantly be stalking us. 

Thich Nhat Hanh, page 35

I am reflecting on two samskaras that arise from deep inside me, for investigation purposes, when I attempt to expand that pause that exists between my realization of what Life is giving me and what I tend to do about it ( mentally, physically, or energetically). Both samskaras are wrapped in the emotional charge of fear and shame. 

Let's look at a couple of equations that may help us to understand our own growth and evolution, before we explore what is going on in "me":

A Stimuli - an Extended Pause= A  Reflex, or a Reaction ( unconscious, potentially unhealthy action for self or others. Leading to "negative" consequence /karma.)

A Stimuli + An Extended Pause= Response (conscious, clear action or nonaction that does not lead to harm for self or other...little to no "negative" consequence/karma))

Samskara Observation

When Life hands me something that is a bit challenging...a stimuli that triggers some old stored stuff within me...I am really trying hard to slow down my reaction time, as part of my yoga practice. I am fully aware of the potential for reactivity. I am aware, now, of that tendency I have to jump into some unconscious action ( a physical deed, a thought stream, an emotional pit, or a negative energy flow) that potentially may not be healthy for me or others. I have made a strong commitment to "work the pause"  before I "do" anything. In that pause I am now stepping back, breathing, and observing objectively, as best as I can. I am taking time to observe  the stimuli itself, the habit  pull I have to react a certain way, and, most importantly, I am observing all that is coming up from inside me that I would normally avoid or do anything to push back down below conscious awareness. My samskaras! I know that this stored stuff and my habit tendency to want to resist and avoid experiencing it, is greatly responsible for my reactions in the past. I know my reactivity, my resistance to the stimuli and what the stimuli triggers is keeping me stuck in a karmic loop. As long as I am stuck in this loop, I am not healing or growing.  I will not heal or grow until these samskaras are released and there is nothing inside me left to be triggered by stimuli. 

So what emotional charges are coming up the most?

Shame and Its Derivatives

Though I have released so much "shame" already,  there is still an underlying force field of it  in me, that is easily triggered by life events...the "stimuli" in this equation. That shame is more of a guilty feeling now and it borders on remorse.  Remorse, some teachers say, is healthier than guilt.  Remorse is equated with empathy...feeling the pain our actions may cause other people. When we feel the hurt we knowingly or unknowingly inflict with our actions, we are more likely to learn and grow from it...making other healthier choices in the future. Remorse serves the higher Self. Guilt, on the other hand,  is the  uncomfortable feeling we get when we believe we are not meeting social expectations, when we are displeasing others, therefore not serving our own egos or other egos.  Guilt serves the ego. There is a big difference between hurting others ( and hurting our Selves karmically by hurting others)  and not meeting  unhealthy ego needs. One is an emotion of compassion, the other is an emotion of self deprecation. 

Both remorse and guilt are derivatives of shame.  Shame is a deep sense of not being good enough.  In shame, it is not so much what we "do" that is deemed as being wrong or bad but who we are that is. The original wounding, with all its messaging about our inadequacies, whether it be something that happened in our life span or something we are carrying from our ancestor,  will remain  as raw  and tender as it was in the beginning...until we heal it.  Most of us, do not work to heal our shame.  We do whatever we can to keep it down from conscious awareness. We carry a samskara of shame whether we know it or not.  

I have been investigating my own shame for years and have developed enough awareness and understanding of it, that I have been able to release a great deal. I am truly healing and there is less inside me to be triggered by Life's stimuli. Don't get me wrong.  I still have a lot left to heal...I am still reacting...In fact, just today I was reflecting on the guilt I was feeling over the possibility of not pleasing my employers by choosing my health over being more available for them. I was so aware that teh people pleasing tendency was still there and that I feel guilt when I don't meet the expectations others have for me. but the more I practice, the more I am releasing.  I am more likely  to feel remorse for my unwholesome reactions than shame or guilt, and  therefore I am more conscious to respond rather than react.  I am working the pause. 

Fear

Fear has always been the greatest samskara within me...the one thing that leads to a great deal of reflexing and reacting. (As it is for many of us). Not only  have I been scarred, as we all were to various degrees,  by what the Buddha called the "original fear"of our birth ( Hanh, page 8), I carry with me the fears of my ancestors. (My parents and grandparents have had to endure a lot). Past trauma has also left me with a very overactive amygdala. I therefore desire safety over everything else and I seldom feel "safe" enough. Deeply stuffed fear wounding, then, is easily triggered by the stimulus of Life events.  I believe fear is the biggest aggravator, if not the cause,  of my current health issues...especially this thing in my gut. 

Working the pause, because it so often pulls us into a reflex, is a bit more challenging when it comes to fear. Yet, I am determined to expand the pause between the time Life presents a stimuli I would normally react to with fear and my reaction. And I am really observing my fear, calling it up even, sitting with it.respecting it, and honoring it.  I find myself saying, "Oh you are back fear.  I can feel you in my gut and that desire habit I have to run from you. I am not going to  follow you blindly  into reactivity though...not this time. I am just going to sit with you, get to know you a bit better without any judgement or blame. I want to understand why you are here and where you came from. I want to give you a way out through the front door when you are ready too.  No pressure.  Just want you to know you have a way out. "  I am working the pause. This creates a completely different experience.

Anyway, how I ramble.

All is well in my world.

Thich Nhat Hanh (2012) Fear. New York: Harper One

Great Teachers on Getting Rid of Your Stuffed Stuff!

 It is always beneficial to be near a spiritual teacher. These masters are like gardens or medicinal plants, sanctuaries of wisdom. In the presence of a realized master, you will rapidly attain enlightenment. In the presence of an erudite scholar, you will acquire great knowledge. In the presence of a great meditator,  spiritual experience will dawn in your mind. In the presence of a bodhisattva, your compassion will expand, just as an ordinary log placed next to a log of sandalwood becomes saturated, little by little, with its presence.

Dilgo Khyentse. 

Hmm! That is a beautiful passage, a sweet compelling argument for seeking out a guru as is the tradition for many Eastern wisdom practices.  I, in my western skepticism, however, am still a bit skeptical about guru seeking and devotteeship. I watched too many cult shows, I guess. Still I do seek and discover great teachers as I progress along this path.

Whenever I hear Michael Singer speak I have this sense of connecting with someone in the most inexplicable way.  It is like the epitome of "like-mindedness"...I just feel we are on the same level. I totally get what he is saying and I believe he would totally get what I am saying.  (Does that make me sound grandiose? Not my intention.)  So much of what I write here comes after I listen to his podcasts. His message and delivery inspires a sense of knowing already in me. At the same time, so much of what he speaks about seems to come after I write or speak about a certain topic or idea. I am fully aware that he doesn't have a clue, on this green earth, that I exist and that I am writing this blog. We just seem to be on the same  wavelength of thought somehow( No ...I am not speaking about anything "woo-woo" like telepathy) ... We just think so much alike at the same time. It could be that we are both yogis, and that we both studied and practiced ancient teachings.  I don't know...but the term "kindred spirit" comes to mind. The first time I read a page of his thoughts, it was a,"Aha! I get you!" 

Say what, crazy lady? He is a well known spiritual teacher and you are not.  You are thinking pretty highly of yourself aren't you?

No...it is isn't that I am thinking highly of myself.  I am aware that I am not in that league of external notoriety he is in. I have yet to publish anything acclaimed and there is a good chance I never will. I accept that and the more I grow the less I desire this notoriety. Fame and fortune are not motivating me to learn or share my learning. I am not attracted to either.  Nor am I attracted to teachers who have or need such things.  In fact, if anything, I am more inclined to shy away from so called "gurus"  for that reason. Humility touches me more than anything else.

I do not see him or any other living being as my "guru". Even though I listen to every podcast, and learn so much from him I can't call him my guru. I mean...he is a great teacher in my mind. When I listen I take notes, reflect upon what he said, and I take his messages deeper by reviewing the ancient teachings related to what he is saying or by reviewing more contemporary stuff like poetry, great literature, psychology, philosophy, and science that also echo the same messages in one way or another.  Most importantly, I practice what he teaches!   He inspires me to learn more about my yoga practice. For that reason, I respect his teachings and his mission. I have been practicing what he teaches, though,  long before I ever knew he existed. When he came into my life...unbeknownst to him, he gave what I was doing more context and meaning. I truly appreciate that.  Still...I don't call him my guru. Actually when I reflect on what I get from him there is little to no "my". It feels more like a yogi to yogi thing. Maybe? I really don't know what that connection I feel is. I do consider him a great teacher. 

Is he the only teacher that you listen to or read and to whom you feel connected? 

No, there are many, many teachers in my life. Few of them are still breathing. :) One great late teacher who so perfectly fits the above quoted description was/is Thich Nhat Hanh. 

I have also been inspired by Eckhart Tolle whom I knew longer( in the reader/learner sense) than both Thich Nhat Hanh and Michael Singer. Strangely, his message didn't click with me on the intellectual level when I first read him way back in 2007? I was studying ACIM at the time not knowing that he was once a teacher of that as well.  (ACIM was also way over my head when I first began to study it. )  Something deeper within me connected with his teachings though...otherwise I wouldn't have kept reading. I couldn't conceptually understand what he was saying at that point of my learning.  It wasn't until half way through his first book that I had that "aha!" moment where intellect caught up with higher Self and I "got it!" I really got it!  Then I was able to grasp with eye opening realization the teachings in A Course in Miracles as well. Eck. hart Tolle is partly responsible for one of the biggest steps I took in my spiritual evolution

I do not think of him as my guru either though.  An important teacher in my life for sure...but not a guru.  I have hundreds and hundreds of pages of notes from what I learned from him ( as I do of Michael Singer's and Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings). I do value his teaching and him as a fellow human being very much. 

So I digress: Back to what I learned from these three wise men on the importance of "Getting Rid of Your Stuffed Stuff". I have been trying to articulate what I mean about expanding the pause between what Life gives us and our recativity...in order to delay and eventually get rid of reactivity all together. We need to acknowledge that which is holding us back...our samskaras, our stuffed stuff.  As serendipity often does, it led me to these three teachers and their teaching about the need to be free and spacious inside. The following  is an example of what I do when I am listening. I take notes. Most of this will be paraphrased.

From Michael Singer:

• There are three states humans can live in. The first sate is one of non well being -" I am depressed.  I am not well.  I am not happy in this life". The second, is a state of conditional well being- "dependent on conditions matching my expectations and desires"...And the third is a state few of us know about: unconditional well being -feeling and experiencing everything with ups and downs but accepting and honoring all of it...finding beauty and joy  in everything.
• Psychiatry [and psychology] don't even believe that unconditional well being can exist. They focus on working with the conditional well being.
• Unconditional well being is what the yogis work to attain and teach
• That unconditional state of well being exists inside us
• 1.3 million earths fit inside the sun...the sun is one of a few billion stars in this galaxy and there are trillions of galaxies...yet we are busy focusing on "me and my drama".
• Most of us are not okay inside. We want to be okay inside. Mind is always thinking about creating or recreating situations that we  stored the memories of inside so we can be okay, or we do what we can to avoid recreating those things that made us the opposite of okay.
• There is a state of total well being inside us already
• There is a difference between remorse which leads to learning and growth and guilt which leads to shame and constraint.
• "your consciousness is on the wrong side of these blockages"
• What we resist persists.
• Samskara: a pattern of energy stored inside
• We let that thing that happened fifty years ago to a five year old determine our life.
• "unless you let that stuff go...and you become open and clean...you will not interact with the present moment"
• We are not the psyche but that which watches the psyche=the sum of learned experiences
• All decisions are based on how it makes us feel=how it matches our insides= how it matches our blockages= preferences in conditional well being living.
• preferences
• We have all the conditions we need to be happy already inside us[ The Buddha taught this in many of His sutras].
• When we live unconditionally we are living to simply express the unconditioned within us...joy for joy's sake...love for love's sake.
• It gets nicer and nicer as we let go of our stuffed stuff. We get higher and higher and more and more living with unconditional well being takes place.
• We need to practice letting go...of the stuff that happens outside that we normally react to 
• [Letting go of our reactivity is expanding or working the pause...stop storing more and allowing the store stuff to come up and eventually we let go of that.]
• The sun is 93 million miles away and we can feel its heat. Wow! That's amazing yet we complain about it being too hot.
• When we can handle the stuff outside and we are not shoving stuff down on top of it...the stuff on the inside will start coming up
• [I feel the fear coming up...my belly especially...feel the energy there.]
• instead of saying, These are the conditions where I can be okay", how about saying, There are no conditions"?....Use every situation from life to let go of yourself...let go of the me =growth
• Every single experience is your teacher; ..pulling you down into your stuff but eventually it will pull you up away from yourself.
• Anything is doing better than doing something that doesn't work

From Thich Nhat Hanh:

• ...if we bury worries and anxieties in our consciousness, they continue to affect us and bring us more sorrow. page 2
• To be mindful means to look deeply, to touch our true nature of interbeing and recognize that nothing is ever lost. page 2
• Understanding the origins of our anxieties and fears will help us to let go of them. page 4
• if you make a habit of mindfulness practice, when difficulties arise, you'll already know what to do. page 6
• When we suppress our fearful thoughts, thy continue to fester there in the dark. We are driven to consume (food, alcohol, movies etc.) in an attempt and to keep those thoughts from resurfacing in our conscious mind. Running away from our fear ultimately makes us suffer and makes others suffer, and our feras only grow stronger. page 31
• The Buddha taught that when we call up and get in touch with the truth...our fear -and the foolish things we do to try not to feel it-will cease. We no longer act out our fears unconsciously and fuel the cycle that makes them grow even stronger. page 31
• Death is a reality we have to confront...Our defense mechanism pushes us to forget; we don't want to hear about it.But in the back of our minds, the fear of Death is always there, pushing on us. page 31
• If we practice and are able to release, we can be free and happy right now, today. If we can't let go, we will suffer not only on the day when we are finally forced to do so, but right now today and every day in between, because fearwill be constantly stalking us. page 35

From Eckhart Tolle: 

• Inner resistance always pulls you back into unconscious doing
• "I am never upset for the reasons I think I am" ( Lesson 5, ACIM)
• Stillness is a return journey to Source/ Acting and Doing is a backing away from Source...We need to create harmony between the two :
• Let the person become transparent to the Light of Consciousness
• Stillness happens without the traditional sense of doing
• Be a nobody...be a presence...Our ultimate goal is to shed the person
• A "frequency holder" doesn't have to do anything but embody presence
• Judging others as not being enough, gives ego a false sense of superiority

Hmmm! All is well.

Thich Nhat Hanh (2012) Fear. New York: Harper One

Michael A. Singer/Temple of the Universe ( February 16, 2024) Attaining Unconditional Well Being.https://tou.org/talks/

Eckhart Tolle (January, 2024) New Year, New Goal: Eckhart Tolle on Transforming Desire into Fulfillment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rGipsgBfQY&t=5s

Singapore bots are still infesting this site.  Well, infesting is a strong word...but you know what I mean. I just don't understand why? Why do they keep coming back...why do they crawl all over these pages if they are not getting anything from them? What is the purpose? I don't know...I just don't know.

Looking Deeply at Fear to Expand the Pause

 

The first part of looking at our fear is just inviting it into our awareness without judgment. We just acknowledge gently that it is there. That brings a lot of relief already. Then, once fear has calmed down, we can embrace it tenderly and look deeply into its roots, its sources. Understanding the origins of our anxieties and fears will help us to let go of them. Is our fear coming from something that is happening, right now or is it an old fear, a fear from when we were small that we kept inside? When we practice inviting all our fears up, we become aware that we are still alive, that we still have many things to treasure and enjoy. If we are not busy pushing down and managing our fear, we can enjoy the sunshine, the fog, the air, and the water. If you can look deeply into your fear and have a clear vision of it, then you can really live a life that is worthwhile.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Fear, page 4 

I talk alot, lately, about that pause between the stimulus and our reactivity, about karma, and about the need to create a spacious expansion between what Life hands us and what we do about it ( physically, mentally, and energetically).  Part of creating this spaciousness in that pause, as we work to dig up the roots of our resistance, is recognizing our samskaras that often get shook loose by actual or potential challenging outer circumstances. They are the source or root cause of our resistance and reactivity. Being free of them will create the space needed to respond to Life in a healthy and wholesome way.

One of the biggest energetically charged human aspects that we stuff, and which later becomes a samskara blockage... keeping us from experiencing light, joy, peace etc, is our fear. Fear, I believe, is at the basis of most of our reflexing and reactivity and therefore it is the thing that most often keeps us from living the full and free lives we are capable of living. Thich Nhat Hanh obviously felt the same way when he wrote Fear: Essential Wisdom For Getting Through The Storm.

I also say again and again that all paths lead to one truth.  Though I study and relay what I have learned about yoga...I also study Buddhism and other forms of ancient eastern wisdom.  I study psychology, philosophy, literature, and science. I see the one truth all are pointing to: Our healing from the root cause of suffering will bring us spaciousness, and inhabiting this space will bring us to the Source of everything which really cannot be named or explained adequately. 

Hmm! Fear is too often in the way of our happiness.  Fear often leads to us reflexing and reacting when Life presents us with difficult circumstances or people....or when we assume it will present us with such. We often follow the direction of our overactive ( conditioned to be so) amygdalae over the calm inspiration of our higher Selves.  We respond to Life unconsciously without exploring the pause between stimulus and response. This is reflexing or reacting. This is resisting that which we judge and deem "unpleasant". This is not living fully. Living in fear is the opposite of living fully. 

Stuffed fear is one of the many things that may arise to be seen and later released during that space. In order to be free of fear we cannot keep stuffing it back down when it comes up.  We cannot keep running from it.  We cannot keep resisting it.  What we resist persists and that is especially true when it comes to fear. We need to be willing to allow the fear to come up into conscious awareness when it gets loosened by outside triggers. We need to be willing to look deeply at our fear ...examine it, explore its roots in an objective, nonjudgmental but caring way.

When we are willing to look at our stuffed fear we are no longer putting all that energy into resisting it. Without our focus there, we can pay more attention to the beautiful world and life we have been given to explore. We will see that it was never fear itself that was creating the blockages to our happiness and freedom...but our resistance of it that was. 

Without these blockages created by stuffed and resisted fear...we will open up the space between what Life offers us and how we respond. We will therefore respond to life in a joyful and wholesome way. 

All is well.  

Thich Nhat Hanh (2012) Fear. New York: Harper One

Consciousness with Limitations

 

Mind is consciousness which has put on limitations. You are originally unlimited and perfect. Later you take on limits and become the mind. 

Ramana Maharshi

Singer teaches, in the below podcast, how our thoughts and feelings are not who we are. It is just that consciousness is pulled down into them and we begin to believe that is who we are.  It isn't.

All is well. 

 Michael a. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( February 12, 2024) What do you define as success in life. Trading Personal with Universal. https://tou.org/talks/

 

Expanding Beyond the Personal Mind

 

You know what you know but you don't know what you don't know.

Michael A. Singer

Say what crazy lady?

This is not a how much wood can a wood chuck chuck...type of statement.  The above line is just to remind you, as it did me when I listened to yesterday's podcast again,...that most of us are living from a very restricted and contracted frame of reference. We are using this amazing tool of a mind with its unlimited potential and focusing its light down on this tiny speck(me) stuck to a grain of rotating dust by the powerful force of gravity as it spins around  in a galaxy of over a million stars, in a universe of over a trillion known galaxies, and as it shouts out with great disgruntled righteousness after stubbing its big  toe, "Why is this always happening to me?" 

We only know what we experience, right?  What the five senses  bring in to us from the tiny section of earth we are standing on? Most of us, don't even experience that because we are too busy observing and experiencing the dramas of our minds that have nothing to do, possibly, with what the senses are bringing in at this moment. It is so limited! Yet, we build our experience of Life on this very limited reference.

The vast majority of what you experience is the yackety-yack of your mind....Singer.

The human mind is absolutely amazing.  Just think of all the great things it was able to discover, create, do over the eons humans existed and evolved. Absolutely amazing! Yet we narrow this powerful consciousness down to the "personal" and blur out all the impersonal.  We get lost n this drama of "me and my story" ...a drama that takes place in the personal mind and not in reality.  The personal mind is so distracting with all its thoughts and feelings, we get swept away by our addiction to it. We contract, and restrict our focus of Life down to this speck on this speck stuck to this speck of dust when there is so much more we could be experiencing with impersonal mind.

We listen to, believe, and follow the mixed up directions of  personal mind as if it is our master and we are the chained servants.  That is ridiculous when you truly think of it.  What personal mind is telling us is nothing more than some offbeat assumptions it has made based on its very limited experiences ( most of which were just snippets in a loop recording of old video footage playing over and over again in the head). We really do not feel good inside when we we allow personal mind to call the shots. Yet, we call this reality and "my life". We are not experiencing Life and the world around us when we do this...we are simply experiencing what the personal mind is doing. Yet, most of us spend the 80 or so years we have on this amazing planet doing just that..."living in our heads". We are using this amazing tool we have been given to experience Life fully with and using it to ruin our lives.  How sad is that? 

There is no limit to the capability of our minds, except what we are doing with it (contracting it). Let's stop contracting and start expanding it.  Let's lift our gaze, the light of consciousness, away from the dramas of personal mind and start shining it on the glorious revelations of impersonal mind. Let's expand beyond "me" to "all".  Let's start living while we can. Let's get beyond ...

Our ignorance, and it is based on the egos we have. It is the unwillingness to go beyond the ego. 

Edgar Mitchell (Former astronaut, awakened human,  and Founder of IONS)

You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics [and most human drama] looks so petty. Edgar Mitchell

All is well. 

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( February 11, 2024) Expanding Your Frame of Reference Beyond the Personal Mind.https://tou.org/talks/

Penetrating the Mystery of Reflexes, Reactions, and Responses

 Don't become a mere recorder of facts, but try to penetrate the mystery of their origins.

Ivan Pavlov

All is well! 

Working the Pause

 Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Victor e. Frankl

All is well!

Personal Mind Versus Intellectual Mind

 

There is no difference between the purified mind and the true Self of man. The mind is pure when it is single, that is when it it is devoted to one. If you wish to see God, the only way is to get rid of all selfish desires and make the mind single. 

Ramakrishna

In his podcast this morning, Michael A. Singer spoke of the two parts of our minds: the personal mind and the nonpersonal/ intellectual mind.  Hmm! What part of your mind are you using most? 

Once again we need to make the distinction between the brain and the  mind.  The brain is an organ in the body. It is not the maker of thoughts, feelings, concepts, ideas etc.  It is simply a filter for processing this energy. And thoughts are energy. If I dissected your brain right now under a high powered microscope I would not find one thought. There would not be one visible memory, belief, or concept showing up in that tissue that I could point to. Yet, you know thoughts, feelings. beliefs etc are part of the  human experience. Where does this energy come from, then, if not the brain? The mind. 

The mind, according to many yogis including Michael Singer , is just a field of energy on which the thought forms are created.  It is consciousness. I am reminded of Thich Nhat Hanh's beautiful teachings on  store consciousness and mind.  We have, he taught, seeds for thoughts and feelings and all other types of mental formations housed in our store consciousness just waiting to grow up into the  mind. I kind of see it, now after listening to Singer, ( and I could very likely be way off base) as store consciousness being universal, intellectual mind with so much potential and what Hanh referred to as "mind" being personal mind...what we are aware of as "me". 

Anyway, I digress. Michael Singer tells us that most of us are so focused on our personal minds...those things related to "me and my story"... that we fail to see and use all the potential of intellectual mind. We are using our will to focus this amazing power of consciousness down on the inner and outer dramas of personal mind: our feelings, our thoughts, our beliefs, our samskaras, etc and using this mind in an offbeat attempt to protect and preserve the idea of "me". If we were using intellectual mind, however, we would see and experience so much more than "me drama". We would see and seek to understand the magnificence of the universe... the perfect order of its apparent chaos. We could be more inspired to create, and to experience all the gifts we have been given. And there would be nothing personal about it...no "me" in the way.  We would see that we are a part of it all but in the most wholesome and singular of ways.

Hmm! Wouldn't that be something? 

All is well.

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( February 8, 2024) How Empty Mind Creates Personal and Impersonal Thoughts. https://tou.org/talks/

Looking Up

 

Yoga does not transform the way we see things, it transforms the person who sees.

B.K.S. Iyengar

806 views in the last 24 according to the stats page, one according to Google analytics lol.  Or man these bots are like a bad case of cyber lice crawling all over my page...annoying, sucking blood so they can keep going, growing in numbers but relatively harmless as they lay their eggs. Are they harmless? As long as they maintain the  symbiotic relationship contract, they will be harmless....annoying as heck, but harmless.   I assume it will be a painstaking process to be rid of them. Need to get rid of all the nits in order to be free of lice but that is a long and tiring process. Do I have the energy for that right now?  The other alternatives include using a strong force against them that potentially harms other things besides them or  to shave the head by removing  my blog from this site...but those means are pretty drastic when it comes to things like lice. Lice? Man...what an analogy. I don't know why, but it came to my mind as soon as I saw the numbers on my stats page this morning.  I will have the one reader I do have scratching their head, for more reasons than one, as they read along.lol. 

Okay Singapore bots...(now infiltrating to countries around you, it seems), what do you want with this tiny obscure site that I barely publicize?

The Ups and Downs of Negativity

Anyway, watching my mind the last few days.  (When am I not watching it?) I observed the up and down motion of it.  When it was down (recovering from illness, dealing with some stuff I feel I have no control over, a lack of sleep etc) the external world seemed to reflect that negativity. I was still not feeling 100% physically. The pain started again and I had to deal with that and all the questionable story around it.   I automatically "assumed" things about people's reaction and approach to me...thinking they meant something they didn't....assuming they were viewing me negatively.  I viewed myself negatively, noticing my mistakes more than the things I was doing right, thinking I was not reaching out enough or helping those who needed me enough...that I wasn't enough. I was so sure others were mad at me for my mistakes that seemed so big. The world also seemed a little callous, chaotic, and "out to get me" with one little annoyance after another: sleeping in, missing the garbage collection when the bin was full to capacity and knowing we have to go another two weeks, a meditation practice where I just couldn't focus,  not being able to find what I needed to wear when I am in a hurry to get to work, the cat getting sick on my bed, noticing the yoga studio needing an extra amount of cleaning before class when I was so tired, people approaching me with their problems ++ but not heeding the advice they demanded I give them, people not responding to my hellos as I walked by.  Everything seemed negative!

Inside not Outside

My mind was super sharp at zooming in to the negative...to these apparent mistakes, to my faults and failings...to the world's. In this narrow focus all the rest was blurred out.  When I reflect on this "down" that lasted a little more than 48 hours, I see how it had little to do with what was going on "out there", about what life or other people were doing.  In fact, most, if not all, of what I was  perceiving was based on an "assumption" and not fact. It was based on an old belief that arose to the surface to obscure reality, an old habit I was looking through.  Why did it arise?  Hmm!  Maybe, the belief and negativity  didn't rise up? Maybe, my consciousness was pulled down to it. What I think of as rising up...may simply be a focusing down. Positivity is up...negativity is down. Positivity doesn't go down, negativity doesn't come up...but that which is observing and experiencing Life can look up or look down. 

Looking Up or Down?

So how do Samskaras fit into this idea of looking up or down?   I always imagined samskaras ( our stuffed and stored emotionally charged memories and mental habits) having this natural intention of rising up with the flow of Shakti beneath them to be released? Isn't that negativity rising up?  Hmm! 

Maybe when the attention is narrowed downward into the stored past painful experiences...consciously or unconsciously (as in suppression and repression...consciousness is always fully aware of the stuff we stored, even if we are not...) it becomes a force...the force of consciousness' attention or conscious awareness ...that creates a lid over the Shakti flow. That lid is there blocking light, holding Shakti flow down,  because attention is pulled downward. When consciousness moves its attention upward, it pulls the lid up, open, and away from Shakti flow, unblocking it.

Opening and Closing the Third Eye

 I imagine an eyelid drooping and closing somewhat when we look down and opening when we look up  Let's imagine the third eye (whether you are into chakras or not) opening and closing as we look up and  down.  When you look down, the lid drops and much of the light (positive energy)  is blurred out. Vision is narrowed and there is not a lot of photons getting to the eye. Things appear darker. When we look up from there, we are observing and experiencing light, we are experiencing the positive energy that has always been there. Light and positivity is up, darkness and negativity ( which is merely an absence of light) is down. The world outside has not changed...the direction of our gaze or our focus has.  According to many yogis, including Michael Singer, it is "will" which determines what direction to point our gaze...up or down.  Though habit mind is addicted to the downward pull, we can learn to break that habit and look upward in the way we were intended to. Most kriya yogis, like Yogananda, stress the importance of keeping the attention on the third eye chakra...that space between your two physical eyes and not dropping the internal gaze down to the lower chakras during kriya practice. This is done to allow the Shakti to resume its normal flow upward. Shakti...what we would call positive energy ( joy, bliss, peace, and love) is always flowing and on the move upward. The only reason we do not always experience it, is because we are using our will ( the power of focused attention) to stare downward....therefore dropping the lid over this flow, blocking it.

 So, when I was feeling down a day ago...I, as conscious awareness, was looking down, pulled into a little mental drama by habit mind ( which is a form of will). I was not seeing reality fully in my dropped lid perspective.  I wasn't seeing much in this darkened gaze but that which was dark. It was not the world or the people in it causing me problems.  It was the focus of my gaze downward.  I, as that which was observing and experiencing, always had the choice of using my will to draw my attention back up...away from old beliefs and tendencies toward negativity ( the lower chakra stuff). Hmm!

Suddenly, it seemed , after this realization, I was up again.  Feeling more energetic and peaceful and happy without anything out there changing.  Oh, at first mind was trying to tell me..."Oh you are just feeling better because circumstances have changed."...but I realized they hadn't.  My perceptions about what was going on out there changed.  I realized how most of my perceptions were incorrect assumptions.... how they were coloring my view of the world.  I could see so clearly that thing in me wanting to pull the gaze downward into taht perspective but I knew it was just habit. I decided to use my will to look up instead of down...and almost instantly the world became this amazingly pleasant place to be in. Not because it changed...but because I chose to keep  my attention up rather than down.Shakti flowed in the way it was meant to and I felt it.

Anyway, I am rambling as I ponder these new "aha" realizations.  I am probably not articulating clearly.  I will come back to this.  For now...let me leave you with a bit of insight.  Do your best to look upward! Life is a lot nicer up here. 

The highest spiritual habit by which the devotee can maintain a watchful awareness of the inner presence of God is to keep the consciousness always centered on the spiritual [third]eye. 

Yogananda 

All is well!

Find the Barriers Inside

 Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that  you have  built against it.

Rumi

What is wrong with us that we are not okay...not happy, peaceful, joyful and loving all the time? Sat Chit Ananda is our birthright.  The question is not: "What can I do or get to be okay inside?"  It is:  "Why am I not open to this experience that is in me? What am I doing to bother myself?" 

All is well.

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( February 6, 2024) The Key to Happiness: Stop Bothering Yourself.https://tou.org/talks/

Snags in the Closet of Your Mind

 Snagged

I see you ...

barring the closet door shut 

with all your might, 

your breath heavy 

and your knuckles white with effort.

 I see you , 

leaning against the door

with a quiet determination, 

a perfect image in the finest fashion, 

forcing a smile for normalcy's sake.

I see you ...

tensing up,

squeezing your eyes shut

whenever you open that door 

just enough 

to pull things out,

or push things in.

I see you,

assuming no one is watching,

wince in pain, 

as you pull back 

your bloody limbs and torn sleeves

from the insides of that closet.

I see you...

pull the tattered sleeve

over the scars you now bear

after pushing  the unpleasant down

away from view and

 before reaching again  "out here" 

for more pleasant things 

to store "in there."

I see you,

 collecting,

stuffing and storing.

So much you collect,

so much you stuff inside...

both the ugly and the beautiful.

I see you,

turning away from what is inside.

You dare not 

view the contents of your collection

in fear of what  you will see

if you open the door. 

I see you,

trembling to be free

of the heaviness inside,

not seeing a way through.

I know it is frightening,

but open the door wide 

and look inside.

The answer is inside.

Look inside.

Can you see ....

how the once empty and pure space,

once bright and well illuminated,

is now darkened

by a  tangled mess of knots 

made by these snags?

Can you see...

 Threads of all different 

colours and textures,

plucked, and snapped, 

pulled or snipped  

from the garments 

Life has given you to wear

hanging awkwardly and messily inside.

Can you see...

how these snags

obscure the  hungry splinters 

that impatiently wait 

to pierce your clothing

and scratch the skin beneath

whenever you blindly reach in

to push down or to pull out. 

Can you see...

there is a way to stop the pain

that comes with reaching and stuffing?

Can you see...

you are so much more than this cluster

of loose threads, snagged  over time,

on  the rough splinters that line

the closet of your mind? 

I understand your fear

and your desire to protect 

both the fine garments and your flesh 

but

... can you see that

your attempt to protect and preserve

that which is meaningless

is what is causing you your suffering? 

The snags are only there 

to catch your attention...

recognize them,

honor them. 

The more you cut yourself off 

 the more rips and tears 

you will make in the outer surface,

the more menacing and determined

 these splinters become, 

the more they will snag,

and  the more messy and dark 

the insides

of this space will be? 

Can't you see....

that the material

you cling to is not you...

you are simply the wearer of it?

Let it unravel if it must.

Open the closet door wide.

Push past the threaded fragments 

to see a second door 

hidden in the  back

behind the mess you made

of your mind,

a door that has always been there,

waiting for you to discover it. 

Open that small door too,

to allow the experience of Life to enter. 

Create a pathway 

for breeze and light 

to flow through.

Let it blow right through you.

Stand there and watch 

as the light exposes

what needs to be exposed

and as the breeze

smoothes each splinter, 

lifts and carries away 

each tiny knotted thread

until there is no more there

to obscure your vision. 

Release and let go 

of all that held you back.

Purify this mental closet

once and for all.

Embrace the healing freedom 

purification offers.

Then when the room is empty of all

but light and space,

allow yourself to fall back

through the second door

into all that is. 

Refuse to be snagged

any more.

© Dale-Lyn (Pen), February, 2024

Being Willing to Let Go of Your Stuff

 If you can let go of your stuff, you can get along with anyone. [And you can handle anything.]

Michael A. Singer

Letting go of our stuff; cleaning out our insides; purifying; removing the blockages/samskaras; and getting beyond our habit tendencies is the healing path yoga and other practices encourage. Any change or cleansing process begins with something called "will". Will is focused attention.  Are you willing to focus the  amazing light of conscious attention away from the "little me and its drama" it is too often focused on and point it in the direction of your own healing?  Are you willing to let go and release all that which you erroneously kept stuffed inside and preserved because you thought it was who you were? 

I often say to a loved one I am trying my best to support and coach into healing, "Don't begin your affirmations for healthier choices with "I want ...", begin them with , "I am willing to...".  When we are willing to...we are not fighting against anything and we are not preferring.  We are simply allowing what is and surrendering to a better way. We are willing to let go of that which is holding us back.

Our samskaras, the  stored and stuffed emotionally charged memories we use to define ourselves  in this story we are writing  called, "My Life, " have to go.  They are in the way of us experiencing what is real.  Without them we will be pulled up rather than down. We will no longer be disturbed by other people or other things that are happening around us. 

Are you willing to let go? 

If so ...focus your attention on that willingness rather than on what is in the way.  Let go of or simply allow whatever is stuffed inside to come up and be released. With everything we let go of, we open up more and more to what is. We feel lighter, less attached to the outer world. We get higher and higher. We free ourselves from the confining absorption on "me".  Use your will and your willingness to get you there.

All is well. 

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( February 4, 2024) Understanding the Source of Will. https://tou.org/talks/

 

Being Pulled and A Sign

 Therefore when I considered this carefully, the contempt I had to fear because of the novelty and apparent absurdity of my view, nearly induced me to abandon utterly the work I had begun.

Nicolaus Copernicus

I copied this quote from one of yesterday's viewed articles, (according to my stats page...more than likely  bot skimmed not read). It was kind of significant. 

You see, I asked in meditation this morning...(I have been adding a practice of listening to my meditations, in hope of gaining better clarity as to how to best use the remaining time I have left on this planet) this question: "Am I making the most of my time or am I wasting it on things like the hours I spend in the morning listening to wise people speak and writing  on these topics  most people think are woo-woo? [These  novel and apparently absurd views?] 

I then did the woo-woo thing of asking for a sign.  It gets pretty frustrating at times to heed that inner calling everyday and to never know if you are doing what you are supposed to do. ...to see, possibly, that the only things you are reaching with your words  are web crawlers . One has to wonder if this overwhelmingly strong compulsion is misguided.  I need a sign every now and again that I am going in the right direction. So, I asked for one. 

Well, I  didn't get a phone call or text message with a thumbs up from above during the meditation lol. When I came out here and opened my page, however, viewing what was read by all the Singapore bots out there in the last 24 hours, this entry from March 16, 2017 was the first one that came up, encapsulating this quote. 

When the quote was originally shared here I was just switching the focus of this blog to "Waking up" and I was wondering if it was the right thing to do. I knew, like Copernicus did when he was trying to convince the scientific world in the 1500's that it was the earth that rotated around the sun, not vice versa,  how absurd I must be sounding to all those who read. At the same time I was convinced of the truth in this very scientific finding. ( Yoga is a science of examining objectively the human mind and human experience, of collecting data, and of testing the data findings in everyday life). 

The question arises when we face the prospect of contempt from others, "Should I abandon my work?" Well, centuries later people have come to see Copernicus's claim as truth, and though it has taken centuries, maybe the world will start to see the claims made by ancient yogi's as truth too. 

I got a clear sign this morning that I shouldn't abandon my work. Hmm! Probably couldn't if I wanted to.  I am pulled here every day by a force as strong as the magnetic  pull that keeps the earth rotating around the sun. Like the earth, I am nothing more than a speck of dust heeding the pull of something greater I have yet to fully understand.

Pretty cool! 

Psychology May Tidy Up the Mind...but Yoga Does the Heavy Cleaning.

 Psychology talks to you like you have no choice, yoga talks to you like you do. 

Michael A. Singer (somewhat paraphrased)

I often talk about karma, samskaras, reactivity, and every challenge we face in Life being  something we are responsible for.  

What you sayin, crazy lady? I 'm to blame for the shitty things that happen in my life?

That sounds harsh, I know. You are not to "blame" but,  yes, I believe you are responsible for your life. As I am for mine.

Beyond Psychology

I studied psychology for years and though I probably have enough credits to pursue one, I do not have a graduate degree in psychology.  Over the years of my life, I simply soaked up university courses and independent learning in many areas, including this one, in what ever way I could out of interest and a keen desire to learn. I was seldom focused on the outcome. Like all the learning fluttering around in my mind, I now have a mish mashed and confusing collection of transcripts that point in many different directions.  I absolutely loved what I learned about psychology and I added that "knowledge" to a cup already pouring over with many things. It is a very messy cup lol. I am a very messy learner. Therefore, I am not an expert in any field (other than nursing, maybe) and  have no valid academic credentials to rightfully  entitled to say that you are responsible for your life. Many would also argue that I have  no right to say that psychology is limited in its ability to explain the human condition. 

Still, I continue to say, with great faith, that it is limited and that you are totally responsible for your experience of Life.

Psychology Limited by Its Tidying up Focus 

Through my own examination of psychology, I have come to see its  limitations. I have come to see how it is focused on the psyche...(psychology is actually translated from its latin origin into English to mean...the study of the mind) and not the whole. It does not see beyond the "me" to who we truly are. Its goal is to help people cope with the problems and troubles of this psyche, this "personality", this "personal mind".  Its duty is to soothe and make life better for this "me", or the personal sense of self as if that is who we are.  It doesn't look beyond the veil of the mind to examine the "whole picture".

Psychology tends to say when it views the mess inside us , "There, there. It is not your fault. You didn't put that stuff in here and you cant get it out.  We will help you to "tidy up" the mess, make it neater and more orderly so you can get by." It recognizes suppression and repression as sometimes useful ways of coping and encourages them to a degree in its tidying up tendency. 

Yoga Unlimited by Its Purification Focus

Yoga, on the other hand does not stop at the mind.  It goes beyond the mind. Yoga helps us to see the "whole picture" because it is all about the whole picture. It is all about not only seeing Life and that which we really are  clearly but about experiencing it fully. It doesn't try to solve the problems of the personal self so it feels better. It sees the personal sense of self as the problem. It sees the "me"as being  in the way of us experiencing who we are. 

 Yoga doesn't just tidy up our insides...it attempts to allow for heavy cleaning. Its goal is to clear the mess out completely so there is nothing blocking that which is who we are , so the joy that has always been within us has a clear pathway to flow.   Yoga is a way of removing all that is in the way...to purify. It teaches that whenever we repress or suppress we are just adding to the mess and to the blockages; we are  resisting the cleansing yoga can offer us. 

And unlike psychology yoga teaches that we are responsible for the mess inside.  We created it and we are adding to it everyday.   Being responsible doesn't mean we have control over what Life hands us in terms of what is unfolding in front of us...it simply means we are responsible for our reponses ( which in too many cases are reactions).  It teaches that the suffering we endure is directly and indirectly caused by our messy insides.  Life has little to do with it. We are responsible for the stuffing, therefore the mess. We are responsible for the way we are constantly bumping into this mess, and therefore reacting. We are responsible for the consequences of our reactions and therefore our life experiences.  reacting as a result. We are, therefore, responsible for our life experience. 

Responsibility is not "blame". No one is doing anything wrong here as we learn.  Suppression and repression are common defense mechanisms most of us use.  I use them all the time by habit. They are "normal" and conditioned ways of coping with our human experience.  Yoga, though,  doesn't care about normalcy and conditioning. It is concerned about what is healthy and freeing. It teaches that  we do not have to be trapped in these normal human habits.  We can transmute them and transcend them.  Responsibility is simply our ability to respond. Yoga is about taking back the power over our  responses to life, our habitual human tendencies. We do not have to stuff more down on top of that which we stuffed and we can let the old stuff come up and be released. We do not have to stop at tidying up with psychology.  We can go deeper and start cleaning up with yoga. We have that choice, we have that power; we have that responsibility!...

Hmm! All is well in my world.

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( February 2, 2024) Exploring Methods of Inner Work. https://tou.org/talks/

Under Observation

 

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life. 

Marcus Aurelius

I am sitting here with a mixture of "stuff" ebbing and flowing inside me. This little bug that is taking longer than expected to recover from is leaving a dark cloud in the mind. Some negativity and samskara leakage is resurfacing.  It is a little challenging to be all enthusiastic and energetic right now.

The body and mind are so connected,  remember. When the mind receives a shock, as in trauma say, the body absorbs these reflex warnings and emotions. It clings to them for self preservation reasons. There is such an automatic connection there. This works both ways. When the body receives a shock as in illness...it sends messages to the mind. These messages ...seem to say, "Okay I need to get better here.  I need rest. So don't be all perky and energetic like right now, k? Just kind of go into a funk somewhere so I can take care of business, alright?" These messages  fatigue and depress the mind a bit. 

So, when the body is down, we are down mentally.  And when we are mentally down, we are down physically. Of course, the opposite is true.  If I am up mentally, I seem to have more physical energy.  If I am feeling on top of my game physically, I tend to be happier and more positive mentally. Just watch yourself to verify that connection between your body and your mind. It really is a truth that goes beyond the "woo-woo" teachings of a western yoga teacher lol

Investigate; Observe

So anyway, I am observing my body through this bug and I am observing my mind.  I watch when I slip into negativity and old conditioned ways of thinking and feeling.  I watch how my body wants me to say no to extra work while my mind drags up old messages "You cant say no!  You can't displease people etc. Take care of others...not yourself." I watch the self deprecation tendency, that still lingers a bit inside me, arise  and flitter about in my psyche.  I watch as it dissolves when the body gets louder. I watch the desire for self care emerge, I embrace it, and then I watch as it too flitters away.  Up and down I ride the samskara wave triggered by this little virus.  And a lot of time, I just find myself leaning back watching what the world around me is doing, watching what the body is doing, watching what the psyche is doing, and saying from the position of awareness, "Wow! Look at what I am observing and experiencing. Isn't this all amazing?" 

When I catch myself there, I realize how far I have come on this journey. I truly am detaching and disidentifying. It is an amazing feeling to watch the body and mind react in whatever way they are reacting and to know that you are just watching and experiencing it.  If you are observing and experiencing, you are not that which you are observing and experiencing, are you?  You are that which observes and experiences. Wow! 

So cool! All is well.