Shamanic Dreams

Shamanic Dreams

The Shaman

is disguised with pelts, fur and bones so we don’t mistake him for the individual. He is a transcendent being coming again and again to beat his drum. He is an eternal being and he hides his face behind a mask. He dons hides and feathers, smear his face in ash and his limbs in mud and dust of the soil. He awakens the spirit in all that behold him, he mirrors your soul and your ancestral home. Humans, animals and plants alike find in him their true being. Death does not threaten him, nor decay and illness. He has no medicine but his own self appearance. His dance echoes in your heart as you take his place in a long line of succession.

Test of Character

Two references, at least, was needed to be admitted into Morihei Ueshiba’s dojo to insure that their character was honourable and trustworthy. Why waste time on scoundrels and insincere people? Yet we see that most students were plain normal folks. Yes some were from the privileged classes but most young ones were just ordinary Budo bums. Some that sadly were lost to the war. Being nationalistic and proud was not seen as an impediment to a strong and loyal character. Fighting material had to be robust and committed. So most people are decent enough to train our Budo but that does not mean they are at all spiritually interested. Even joining religious orders or spiritual schools does not ensure a mature motivation. Everyone without exception have from the start no idea of what a spiritual commitment means and implies. Contrary to everyone’s opinion it’s not a walk in the park, it’s not already there, and you can’t claim that just being a decent human being will qualify you for serious introspection and soul searching. Spirit is something you must find. It will not be handed to you on a plate. And guess what, your years of practice might not get you any closer. To dismiss spiritual aspirations as nonsense and escapism is just your own way to avoid looking closely at your own life. O Sensei’s spirituality did not stem from his martial ambitions. It was not simply an eccentric way to explain physical mastery but more of a genuine attempt to funnel an inner vision accrued over a lifetime. That this vision overlapped with his ‘divine’ techniques only marks the seamless quality Truth has when ‘embodied’ and funnelled through a realised and mastered body and mind. Letting Truth seep through everything you do will enhance and help whatever you choose to do. Needless to say, we all need to put in the hours of work to gain any proficiency in the arts we choose to pursue regardless of ones spiritual achievements. Yet what spiritual Truth confers is a humble heart. It knocks you off your pedestal and you begin to see the world in a much bigger context. If it does not confer any self reflection and scrutiny do look again. Truth is a reality check. It clarifies the real and true. It opens the heart to love. And it’s never a closed book, it always have more to teach us. So don’t take it for granted. So again, what is that mark of character we’re looking for?

O Sensei said, "There is nothing in this world that cannot teach us. Some people, for example, will shy away from the teachings of religion. This is evidence that they have not grasped the deeper meanings of these

teachings. Religious teachings contain much insight and wisdom. You must understand this and express your understanding through budo.”

Parvati

I was in Rishikesh, northern India, speaking with Swami Krishnananda in the Shivananda Ashram. I had heard about the story where Parvati was meditating in the Himalayas to gain Shivas notice. A couple of years earlier I’d travelled down the Kullu valley in Himachal Pradesh and discovered a side-valley named Parvati. Supposedly where she had undergone her penance. I spent a few days up there by a hot spring where many Shiva sadhu ascetics resided. These were early days in my quest for truth and enlightenment and I was simply a tourist taking in the sites, storing the story in the back of my mind. Now back in Rishikesh this story had resurfaced and I was fascinated by the deep spiritual message it contained and it made me want to go back to the valley. I queried Swami Krishnananda about it and he laughed out loud. So, he said, you want to meet Parvati do you? I blushed and blurted out ‘no no, I just want to understand the meaning of the story’.

Seeking and finding Truth

Within and without religion we can find the Truth. If you want to know, you’ll have to find out. You can find Truth within the established religions and in the well established spiritual paths like Buddhism, yet Truth itself is not limited to their modules alone but can be found and explored between the accepted boundaries of the various schools of thought and faith. We can do that within or without religion. We can follow well established forms and path-ways to cultivate a sensitivity toward our inner life, toward understanding ourselves in relationship to life itself and in relationship with our deepest most sense of being itself. We yearn to know and to understand where we come from, who we are, and where we are going. It’s a fundamental existential quest for meaning and purpose. This does not require you to follow a specific spiritual order or a set dogma of any kind. If you’d like to you can. You can immerse yourself in religious doctrine, philosophical debate, spiritual meditation or contemplative introspection and explore prayer and esoteric teachings. Yet if you want to find the Truth you have to be willing to be humble and sincere.

To be willing to seek for the answers you look for, within or without religion.

You don’t need religion to find the answers. Yet religion will help to inform your search and it will also enrich your findings. Truth itself is not an idea nor does it belong to any one religion or to a set of doctrines. Truth is not an opinion that we either agree or disagree with. It’s a living, breathing reality that we can become acquainted with. Truth is the basis of all religions. To the extent it has been revealed and explored is what is being presented today as their path. If you find Truth and spend time exploring it, you will come to understand the varied expression it takes through culture and through religion. You’ll come to understand how conditioning and time shapes religious evolution. Yet Truth itself never changes. Truth is revealed in what we say and do, yet there is a profound understanding that lies at the heart of everyone’s quest. Contrary to opinion, it’s not arbitrary nor personal. That’s the reason we can ‘meet’ in Truth and be ‘one’ in Truth. Not because we agree with a certain idea or strand of thought, but because we see and know something that is completely impersonal and universal and that is affirmed through our participation of it. Contrary to opinion this is not a new age fantasy nor idle speculation. Yet Truth is infinitely deep and profound and requires much introspection and learning to be fully appreciated and understood. With or without religion. Deep study is the requirement regardless of choice of path and humility is the beginning and the end. Yet in the end it’s only revealed in relationship. It’s not a private affair. Holding on to any set of beliefs or ideas only prevents you from freely learning and gaining access to a living dynamic relationship that is enacted every time we meet.

Then we can explore together and nothing is more exciting than that.

Guest and Host

Don’t ignore what we don’t know. I should be able to learn from anyone yet I’m not obliged to adhere to anyone’s chosen belief system no matter how well presented. Most people only argue their own corner; their worldview, beliefs and opinions, which usually serve as their only reference to understanding life itself. The more educated and informed it is, the more likely they are to be convinced that it is superior to any other perspective. At best they accept but not agree to other views just to keep the peace. The only way to find common ground is to agree with and share their point of view and to learn their ways. If I am a guest that’s what I’ll endeavour to do.

I’ll listen and try to see where they are coming from. I’ll walk a mile or two in their shoes. Like Gautama, the Buddha to become, went to the two most famous teachers of his time to learn. Once he had accrued their knowledge and experience he continued his quest to come to full understanding of himself and reach final liberation. People can only give of what they have.

They can’t part with and share what they don’t know. So learn as much as you can from anyone, say thank you and move on. This world contain so much knowledge and wisdom you’re hardly likely to find it all in one place.

And as you learn be ready to empty your cup again and again in order to take something new in. Always humble because we can always learn more.

Understand rather than reject. Religion is many times misunderstood.

Spirituality even more so. These fields of knowledge however deal with your own experience of being. No one is suggesting a blind belief in any of them.

Yet they all point at the fundamental question we all face in our life, who and what are we and what is the meaning and purpose of it all? Even if you’re not consciously asking yourself these questions, you are still stuck with your own being. How far have you explored yourself? What is your plan? How will you investigate? Or have you already made up your mind? And do you seek confirmation from like-minded to cement your viewpoint? From where do you draw inspiration? Is there room to find something new? Have you ever wondered existentially who you are? This is a question we can carry with us our whole life. It will serve as a wedge to infer healthy doubt into your already established sense of self. It will make you dare to question your assumptions, give you the interest to learn what other people mean. Say even if you’re already a firm believer of a certain Faith, or a practitioner of a certain Path, there’s still room for learning. Because the goal is to be free.

And if you are free, how free are you? Having a staunch self-asserted belief, a firm conviction, an immovable faith, a rigid opinion, a fixed idea or set viewpoint. Religious or atheist, apolitical or political. Regardless of what you believe in, if there is no room to move, no allowance to question, no openness to learn, no flexibility to listen, you’ve boxed yourself in, isolating yourself and others that share your perspective. Certain of your assumptions you find strength in your outlook on life. Fanaticism is born from this attitude.

Luckily most of us being a little less radical we allow other people to believe in what they think is right, yet sticking to our own conclusions won’t really change anything. This is the world we live in. Different camps, different viewpoints, and as long as it’s amicable no harm is done. Yet we can learn from each other. Add information to our own knowledge base. Gain insights

into other perspectives. We can see with other people’s eyes, walk a mile in their shoes, even live their lives to some extent. By doing so we open up to take in something new that will change us. We may venture outside our own box. What is your box? What is it made up of? Do you know it? Identify it, see what defines you. Can you see how sticking to your story you refuse to try to understand any other perspective. Isn’t it much more interesting rather than rejecting we ask for clarification so we can come to understand what the other person mean?

Thinking No Thoughts

Thinking no thoughts in a free flow of mind is the Buddha. It is the eternal Dharma. Some call it creative thinking but it’s more than that. It is seamless and endless, like pouring water. It does not hinder nor obstruct. It is the vividness of the enlightened mind, it’s neither sacred or profound. It’s your everyday mind functioning without friction. Mind is Buddha. This mind of ours, there is really nothing wrong with it, and it's not even limited. Our mind is infinite and contains everything. Thinking is not limited. Thinking is the activity of total freedom. Where is there a limit to your thinking? Mind is really ungraspable. It is the most mysterious of all the secrets. Mind is Buddha, and you are using mind every day, and you are using Buddha without even knowing it. It has infinite capacity yet it has no shape, it only manifests in relation to something else. The only mistake you make is to postulate an "I".

This is pure mind. Not tainted by ignorance.

Parallel Universes

Inhabiting the same space yet living separate realities. Side by side, never once crossing over like two train tracks running parallel. One true the other less so. One that time outlines since the very beginning and one that convention has it to be, made up and amassed over millennia. One dependent on the other yet not able to detect it, the other standing as it were by itself, never missing a beat. One real and one fantasy. There is one crossover point through where the false may get a taste of the real thing. It is where love breaks through. It opens a window to the real world.

Unfortunately this usually only happens in short instances where there is

either intimacy or crises in our lives. There’s a near impossibility to occupy both spaces at once so when you choose to side with yourself you relegate yourself to the made-up scheme of things, believing in the conventional story of your life. But if you dare to leave all that behind you’ll experience a breathtaking vista of an absolutely friction free passage through time. A freedom from beliefs and conditioned human history, a freedom from self.

Then you’ll realise you’ve been caught in a dream and you and everyone else are so invested in it we can’t let it go. Yet once there’s a break in the fabric you really can’t forget about it. You’ve seen something so real yet you don’t know how to cross over. And you need to know, you can’t have it both ways.

So all attempts to accommodate one to the other will fail. They are not compatible, they do not occupy the same space. This is the biggest thing you’ll ever face. It may take years to contemplate and examine, to learn and understand. Too see how stark this reality is is mind boggling. It will challenge everything you’ve ever been led to believe. Not many will be able to give you advice about it but you can seek them out. Krishnamurti called it freedom from the known.

Beyond Appearances

As long as we personalise our spiritual journey we won’t be able to see clearly for more than a few brief moments. Why is that? Because we keep referring back to ourselves. Everything we experience happens to ‘us’. We see everything from our point of view and many times we miss the bigger picture and fail to see the impersonality of experience itself. Relax the ‘I’ and trust that by pursuing spiritual insight and understanding everything is working towards your own liberation and freedom. Rest in not knowing and pursue your heart. Insights and revelation will follow. Then be authentic and speak from your experience without the stifling self-referral. It’s a practice so please be patient.

Live by the sword, die by the sword

How many of our heroes are transformed warriors? Soldiers that by the end of their lives saw the futility of war and personal struggle and opted to lay down their arms to cultivate the mind and heart to end their days in peace?

Siddhartha Gautama, Shakyamuni, the Buddha himself from a warrior caste, left home and his fathers kingdom as a young prince, shaved off his warriors hair and donned the monks robe, renouncing his birthright.

O Sensei called Onisaburo Deguchi his teacher and by that declaring his alliance in spirit to the religious sect of Oomoto Kyo and its spiritual root teachings of Shinto.

Both the Buddha and O Sensei were early practitioners of their respective spiritual paths. This spiritual foundation was laid and cultivated from an early age. O Sensei pursued his Budo side by side with his spiritual interest and although both influenced each other’s disciplines what took priority was his spiritual understanding, always alleged to in his esoteric talks. These talks did not only refer to his martial capabilities and yin and yang understanding of internal power but to a greater spiritual perspective gained through years of seeking, studying and association with his spiritual teacher Deguchi. O Sensei’s spiritual enlightenment transformed his martial art into a spiritual art.

It did not water down his martial capacity nor compromise his skill but it elevated it to a greater moral and ethical context to which all else would have to conform. Martial arts in its rawest function is not pretty. It’s violent and bloody. It’s gruesome and awful. Taking up arms must be the last resort to stop violence itself. And thank God we have soldiers that dare to defend this normal state of being that is called peace. Fraught with difficulties this can never be entered into lightly yet we must have the capacity to respond without hesitation when a situation arises. And how we stop the violence depends ultimately on what we have learned, on what tools we’ve been trained with. If all I know is to use an AK47 that’s what I’ll use. Mahatma Gandhi used Ahimsa to guide his action. Non-violence and non-killing as a motto to overcome violence and oppression. We all fall somewhere along the spectrum. With that in mind, there’s a natural progression towards the spiritual ideal of laying down our arms. Which way are you heading?

United we stand

What does that mean? We may share the same ideas, the same views and outlook on life. We may share nationality or gender, race and ethnic background. We may support the same football team, share the same religious conviction or political agenda. We may share an equal love for science and for fact-based knowledge. We may see the oneness of mankind

as a unifying factor, as a universal norm. We may see the wholeness of the universe as a unifying principle. We may side with the good and just, with the true and real. We may feel independent and free and stand next to other free men and women. We may feel and know we are the centre of the universe itself; our own universe. We may experience our body, mind and heart as a holistic system, as a unity within a larger unity.

Whenever we share unity with others we feel together, we share a common link that connects us with each other. We share physical, emotional and psychological ties with family, with brothers and sisters. We share this in larger and larger circles, including more and more people as our identity widens from the near personal relations to the wider social and universal principles that hold all of life. To see yourself as a whole within a larger whole completes you. It’s natural to flow between the different identities that you have depending on the situation and context. The difficulty arises if and when we fix our notion of who we are on any specific identity. The flexibility and fluidity of your sense of being will always allow for an immediate and natural adaptation to the present situation. Who you are is not a fixed and rigid matter but a free flowing ability to be part of a larger context, to see and act out of a greater perspective that includes more. This freedom does not confuse you because you’re secure in your own knowledge of who you are.

To experience a death of self or loss of self identity can result in confusion and fear but can also equally free you up to become more than you thought you could be. Death of self kills the egos self-centred focus and opens a fearless relationship to the whole of life as a single unit, as part of an ever evolving life process that sees no separation whatsoever. This newfound oneness can be consciously shared and experienced with others. The nature of this unity is love. Seeing with the same eyes, knowing with the same heart, we suddenly experience a sense of one being. Our identity is no longer measured from the individual but from the wholeness of being that includes all. From that perspective our own ego and individuality finds its rightful place, seen from a larger understanding that enables you to meet another as yourself. When two or more people come together in this experience all division is seen as the rigid adherence to self as opposed to the other. Consciously meeting the other as your very own self will dislodge any notion of separation. You’ll be able to see clearly and act appropriately in sync with the situation. Love and care will underline your engagement.

Because if you’re able to see the unity that is there you cannot but feel the compassion that arises out of misconstrued separation. This is the minds

ability to see from a unified perspective, yet see the division that exists inherent in Man. This is a choice and we must choose it just as we choose our self-identity in any specific situation. Coming together is a conscious choice by all people involved. You can choose to stand outside but then you’ll never know the liberating effect of oneness. United we stand by choice.

A Divisive Mind

Always measuring and judging. Doubting and debating. Arguing this and that to no end. A divisive mind can’t let go of itself. It clings to itself desperate of loosing control. It’s quite natural for the mind to do this since it only knows itself. But you have to discover its tendency to do this if you want to overcome it. If you want to be free of its compulsive habit to dig its heels in, you need to give yourself a lot of room to be able to see it clearly. Give yourself time and space to see its automatic function play itself out every time the mind meets with an unknown quantity, when it faces something it doesn’t know or understand. The mind jumps into survival mood, scrambling to come up with something to counter the alien intruder. Cynicism is a first quick fix and poorly hidden aggression comes second. The mind is like a gatekeeper only letting in what it already knows, nothing too threatening or foreign, nothing too big to handle.

Hui-Neng, the sixth Zen patriarch of China said for this reason there would be no arguing in his school of thought, leaving us with a simple yet potent reminder with this story: ‘He proceeded to Fa Hsin Temple in Canton. As he was walking in, he found two monks disputing about a flag that was fluttering in the wind.

First Monk: “The flag moves” Second Monk: “It’s the wind that moves” The two of them argued about who was right. Hui Neng remarked “Dear Sirs!

It is not the flag that moves. Neither is it the wind. It is your mind that moves.”

‘Truth does not exist as a separate reality as a static Absolute. It has no meaning as an idea or concept. Truth is expressed in what we do. Therefore we can't talk about it without being it. It has to be proven as we speak about

it. It has to be manifested through our understanding of the immediacy of awakening. It is now and now and now. Anything less will only be an expression of ignorance and of arrogance if we believe we know something.’

If we want to dispel the separate sense of self; the ‘I’ sense, the Ego, when we meet with others it’s imperative that we ‘want’ to share this union with each other. This will create the unified experience of being part of one Self, of unity and of wholeness. Consciously we enter into unity and choose to leave our separate sense of self behind. This will be a shared experience, mutually recognised and ‘proven’ as we converse. Any hint of Ego will be disclosed when we let slip back into a personal mindset and express that into the united field we all partake in. This is a good thing as it will be seen as utterly impersonal and non-threatening. As the collective space is impersonal so is the Ego’s manifestations. This will enable all to stay true to themselves and to the collective flow in the moment, learning ‘on the job’ so to speak, how we can live and share an awakened perspective in real life, with oneself and together with others where this becomes an ongoing manifestation and revelation of a living truth, always new and fresh, miraculous and liberating.

This is a rare endeavour in spiritual domains and we need to learn about it.

Therefore come together to explore a shared vista, a unified experience that will take your spiritual understanding to new heights. It’s imperative if we want to grasp what Ego is all about. Spiritual enlightenment is not a private matter nor a solo journey.

The tipping point

51% is what tips the balance from complexity to simplicity. The pivot point where everything changes. You don’t have to reach sainthood before fully embracing a spiritual life. Realising that simplicity is what tips the balance over to Truth. Wanting to be free is the difference between simplicity and complexity. The Truth is ultimately simplicity itself. Nothing needs to be added. Forget your worries and despair. Life fundamentally is not complicated. Embrace simplicity as freedom itself.

Then wherever you find yourself you’ll be able to be free. Unhindered by all circumstances. Able to live and love despite all hardships. It’s not about you, it’s about the truth. It’s not about me, it’s about life.

The Spiritual Path

Is a very specific path. It is the one path you’re on right now. You might not be aware of it yet or it might be confused with many other ways. The moment you first realise that your life actually can have a direction you’ll be overwhelmed. It’s such a revelation to find meaning within your own life and it’s a relief. A relief that you actually have something to do, a purpose to fulfil.

It’s a very singular path, not one that can be confused with other paths. It’s clear and direct, it takes you from A to B in an instant. It’s a relationship to your maker, to the original source of your being. It takes you home. Yet you walk it every day, eyes up ahead, feet on the ground. Every step a blessing and a growing. Life sprouts beneath your feet as you move forward. Flowers spring up and abundance follow in your trail. You run towards your love throwing caution to the wind.

How do you find this conviction? Seek within. Look for the truth of all things.

Don’t give up, persist in your desire to know. Go beyond mental knowledge and emotional satisfaction. Find a purity of self unburdened by time.

What is a spiritual perspective?

Many people hesitate to use the word spirit or spiritual because they do not have a frame of reference within themselves that correspond to those words.

Others use those words exceedingly liberally, to mean all varied sorts of experiences. If we use these words we need to be able to explain and show clearly what we mean. If we do not have a clear grasp of what they mean, we need to investigate what the actual meaning is, in our own experience. If we are confused or believe they can mean anything we like, we need to look more closely yet again.

A spiritual perspective is how you view things, how you see and perceive things. What makes a perspective spiritual? What is the difference from a ‘normal’ perspective? Spirit is pointing to something within yourself. To something prior to body and mind, before heart and soul. So a perspective from the Spirit implies something in you that exists prior to time and space.

Your present conscious experience of being, guides us inward toward your deepest sense of who you are. Without using your memory you can still know who you are. From that point of view, you are a fully functioning self.

From that vantage point you see the world without needing to rely on

memory, history or opinion. Without thought you see things clearly just as they are. This is the default position of being, from which we can assess everything correctly. In this perspective we recognise that we all are the same and possess the same internal frame of reference before overlaying it with your personal story. This perspective has the potential to free you from falsely identifying with a false sense of self, an ego identity or an inflated notion of who you are. This present conscious awareness and vision will enable you to communicate clearly without needing to reference back to yourself. You will be able to detect when others either come from a selfless perspective or come from a limited understanding of who they are. This is what we can call a spiritual perspective or outlook. It bypasses the egos need to see itself as separate from another. With this present conscious vision you are able to see things clearly, and if you don’t understand you’ll have the freedom to ask.

What is a spiritual dialogue?

Following on from my post on a spiritual perspective, I’d like to explain what an engaged spiritual conversation can look like. We already possess everything we need to speak from the deepest part of ourselves. We need to be sincere and attentive. Meeting together to pursue a joint inquiry into the essence of being itself can feel daunting as it’s not readily seen. We endeavour to speak from our present conscious experience without relating it back to self or other. We leave our personal bias behind and join a larger context, a context shared by all participants. This takes a certain kind of sensitivity, to listen to the other as you were listening to your self, to participate fully and seek to find the common denominator. Separate the personal and see the impersonal aspect of being as a thread running through you all. The more you let go of your self and the more you lean into the flow of the conversation, you’ll find an exhilarating stream of consciousness running the show. But stay on topic. Don’t venture to personal opinion, historical facts, past knowledge. Stay in the present conscious experience and allow that to go deeper by dropping the personal attachment to who you are. Not knowing is fine and an actual fundament to be able to listen and to be creatively alive. This takes practice and a guiding hand to sort out the impersonal from the personal. Fully in the impersonal stream of consciousness we will see and experience the truth of being and furthermore

we will see the truth pertaining to all things we care to look at. The selfcentred egoic mind will be laid bare for all to see and therefore not anymore a personal hideout. All things levels out and we come to share in an extraordinary union where we see eye to eye and share the same heart. This communication has no end as there’s a sea of samsara to sort out.

Elvis has left the building

Vacated, empty and at peace. Knowing nothing, having nothing, being nobody, what can you be but happy? Everyone has left the building. No one’s around. Alone in your seat, music died down and lights off. You sit in darkness, feeling your breath. Eyes closed and yet, the King lives on.

The Conceit of ‘I’

Always self referencing allows for no objectivity. Viewing things starkly as they are without inferring a self; an ‘I’, ‘me’ or ‘mine’ ensures that the experience remain impersonal. This will free your perspective from bias and enable a shared experience and understanding. Even subjective experience can be seen as impersonal as we all share the same cognitive basis, we all participate in the same human make-up. Rely on your own ability to see things just as they appear; no more, no less. Then human behaviour will stand out and we will be able to bear our own incongruities as well as seeing others struggle with their own sense of self or lack thereof. The Buddhas doctrine of no self becomes evident, and the evanescent nature of our experience reveals the impermanence of all phenomena so that any reliance on any notion of self will prove unsatisfactory.

What’s Love got to do with it?

Spiritual liberation, Ego-death, and Awakened Consciousness, all speak of a very distinct condition. It’s never about a mishmash of ideas, randomly selected idioms to suit oneself. Nor is it a specific brand of religion, ones favourite Faith. A liberated state of being looks and feels the same across the board. Personalities differ but not the awakened selfless quality and its

underlying nature of Love. This conscious present experience is what is recognised eye to eye with other people that live the reality of the spirit of Truth.

Find then, the common denominator that unites all of us that care for spiritual liberation and awakened understanding. This is real communion in the Spirit, bigger than any single one of us. Share this ground of being in your daily life as you meet others. See no difference, experience no difference.

Why is Spirit the ultimate leveller?

Where lions will lie down with the lamb? Where your skills are not counted against someone else’s. Where differentiation does not separate. Where a natural order exist, where children are children and adults can be adults.

Where there is one saviour and one Spirit. And why is he the son of man?

Mystery upon mystery. Yet so simple in the end. Reclaim who you are and don’t hold it against your next of kin. Where psychology matters less and heart takes centre stage. This is a very present reality we can share right now, it’s the ultimate leveller. It highlights the unity as well as the individual differences.

Read, study and contemplate. There’s no end to revelation. Think, meditate, realise. Question, inquire and commune. There’s no end to spiritual evolution.

The Fabric of the Universe

Like a gigantic cosmic puzzle all the pieces fit snugly into each other. So if you move or stir one piece all the rest instantly follows suit. Meaning there’s really no action and reaction but a simultaneous movement across the board, from here to the farthest reaches of the universe. That’s how in quantum mechanics one thing can affect another simultaneously seemingly without any connection. Many of us read our star signs as to see how they affected our birth. Or people read tea leaves or coffee grounds. All sorts of divination methods has been used throughout the centuries to read past and future events. I Ching or Tarot, sublime or superficial, they all take snapshots of the present reality, or rather, they are a momentary map coexisting with the rest of the universe in the present moment in time. Whether we say a

prayer, read the lines in your hand, the stars up above or question the I Ching, we all refer to the present situation through an equally present vehicle or method. That does not elevate the medium or tool we use to a higher realm nor does it make it special. They are but tools we use to see the interrelated functioning of all things. Some methods are more profound than others but they all work on the same premises that all things are intimately connected in this very moment. Whether the stars affected your birth or you affected the stars with your birth we can never tell. It took place simultaneously and there was no action reaction effect. Like the Buddha said; if you want to know your past, look at you now, and if you want to see your future, look at you now. It’s really no mystery but an unfolding living reality that is so connected in every way possible. Nothing has really come before you nor will anything ever happen after you. Simultaneous manifestation on all levels, in all fields, all the time.

Anatta - No self

A laying down of the idea of a separate self-hood. There is no individual, no entity, no separate selves. There exist no separate life. There is no "my life".

There is existence, life and consciousness. There is only the whole. You don't exist. If you believe it, you separate yourself from life and become unreachable, because you place yourself on an island. The Buddha called it "the conceit of I". A belief in "I" places you among the non-believers. The laying down of this idea of a separate self-hood places you among the normal.

Being nobody implies laying down the notion of separate existence. Being nobody implies freedom from self. "Buddha nature" signifies no separate existence. Being nobody implies no entity. Being nobody refers to no one.

Absence of separate self.

Lay it to rest.

There can be no point when one is ready to be nobody. There can be no working towards it. As if you are building up strength to be able to let go.

Like if you have a refuge at the time of laying down the pretence. Like if it is safe to be nobody.

There is no separate self. So there is no safety for a separate self. Absence of self is absence of fear. Fear is an illusion created by the need to stay alive as a separate entity.

If who you are is always defined by the need to see yourself as separate, you have not escaped the wheel of life and death.

It's a package deal. It's an impersonal one. All carry the same raw material.

See it as the human predicament. All partaking in the same drama. A multi coloured display of life.

Bodhicitta - your motivation

The Buddha is revealed only to free living beings. This is the motivation. This is the Bodhi-citta. That is its purpose. The Messiah appears only to save humanity. That is its function. That is his mission. That is our saviour.

Establishment of the Bodhi-citta is the establishment of the will to the supreme. This is the norm. This is the standard. This is the function. This is the criteria. This is its purpose. This is ones motivation, ones intention, ones will. Ones will to the truth. This is taking upon oneself the full responsibility for being a human being. It is everything. Having sole responsibility for the welfare of every living being and having sole responsibility for the planet as a whole.

You can save history by taking responsibility for our heritage. By taking full responsibility for everything that ever happened you redeem the wrongs and the pains of the past. You in fact redeem the world and save the dead as well as the living.

It is not difficult to show the truth, because it is self-evident. You only need to point out the obvious. No need to look for anything. Therefore it is so beautiful. Therefore it is so full of love.

If there is the will to the truth it is already accomplished. All these pointers are only for the ones who have the will to the truth.

Simply said, it’s your motivation that will guide you. And wanting to understand life in the fullest we must take on its highest aspirations.

Tension Release

Tremors from within not too dissimilar to a chill shrug frees momentary tension through the body. The body’s self-help system of literally shaking off blocked and tense areas are experienced as waves of vibrations moving through our body. Both deep and surface layers are affected. Spontaneous

or induced these movements activated by our nervous system gently or sometimes quite energetically strong, will counter built-up tension and help release old traumas and patterns being held in the body. There are many schools of thought about this energy release work and we will also find its manifestation in spiritual and religious settings. But important to remember is that this is a natural unfolding that most of us have already experienced in one form or another as we have been growing up. Tension release of the body is a spontaneous movement of the nervous system to deal with a tight body as well as with pent up feelings and thoughts. Shaking and shudders momentarily releases an unhealthy fixed mindset. The physicality of the motion affects our mind as well as our body. Maybe not too dissimilar to the old slap in the face to bring someone to their senses?

In religious settings it has always been a part of the process to purge, cleanse and purify as the spirit enters you. To free up the vehicle for the spirit to have access to all its parts. That’s why a spiritual pursuit in itself will at one point or another move you through a passage of purification, to open up your body and mind to a greater perspective and to a greater activity. This energy work has been harnessed in many different forms, some more elaborate and intricate than others, some more profound and insightful, yet they all point toward the same mechanism; the freeing up of your body and soul to give the Spirit room to move within you. A natural process yet we can enhance it greatly by grasping and understanding its principles. Nei Gong with its Chinese Taoistic philosophy works systematically with your Qi to release and open your body and mind. The Indian Hindu religion have its strong energetic bodily movements through their philosophy of the Kriyas.

Evangelical Christianity express this as the Holy Spirit enters the believers body. Truth has a quality that blitzes the body almost as an electrical shock, releasing strongholds as it streams through your mind and body. Some Buddhist Vipassana schools advocate deep meditative contemplation of energy patterns through the body. Many modern schools of thought and therapy incorporates energy release as a major part of their counselling work.

Though the way and its form differ greatly from system to system I’d like to highlight the reason and purpose behind this process. To me it ultimately has a spiritual aim and goal. So I would advocate that our intention and motivation aligns with that understanding so our focus is not hijacked by the process (and its quite dynamic effects) leading towards a freer, richer, fuller and more fulfilling life. Energy work is not itself the end goal nor is its many

beneficial attributes. It’s a passage you will pass through, onward towards spiritual liberation. Where once the major work has been done you only require a daily dose of normal restoration. Breathe easy and release.

Zen Spring

The fountain of youth. Why is spiritual liberation always associated with youth, agelessness and immortality? Why does the release of the minds hold on reality and its associated relaxant body always feel like a young mans vibrant state of being? Why do we feel so alive in the spirit, so fresh and new? Is it because we have given up restricting views, fixed opinions, misinformed judgements, misplaced identities? Is it because we have shaken off a burden, released our grip and surrendered our claim? Years of accumulated conditioning, past karma and self identity have made us old and veery. Weighted down body, mind and soul. And on the contrary isn’t there something with the nature of Truth itself that speaks of a freedom from the past and of an everlasting peace of being. Would it not lend us to believe that a spiritual pursuit both nurtures a free and healthy body, a calm and relaxed mind, and a penetrating insight into the essence of being itself. Spirit revealed in all its glory. Eternally so?

Rules of Engagement

How are we supposed to train when students and teachers alike want different things? Let’s see if we can disentangle the confusion regarding the practice of Aikido. By all means do add your thoughts if you find this lacking.

Let’s begin with the famous American budoka Donn F. Draeger’s ‘four objectives’ of a system:

* Shiai – Competition

* Goshin – Self Defence

* Satori – Enlightenment

* Shobu– Killing/Lethal

* Donn made it clear that you can really have just one objective. One of the four. If you claim to have more than one of them, you end up with none. I think Aikido can be said to contain at least some traces of the four above mentioned objectives depending on what branch of Aikido you study and

under what teacher. Yet within each objective there are several ways to train. I will pursue this inquiry based on my own objective for training Aikido. As a kid I began training because it was, pure and simply, just so much fun. Then learning technique was very satisfying; building and coordinating your body in relationship to the other. Being so young it was never about real life self defence for the street. It was the art that was attractive. Growing up with sports, both individual and team oriented, started to give way once it became more about the competitive element and making the cut. Aikido stayed with me as I could progress in my own time with no pressure to compete or make the team. So my own reason to train Aikido was never about Competition nor for pure Self Defence and of course, never for Killing. Neither was it for Enlightenment. I was way to young for these considerations. In retrospect I now see it was the non competitive attitude that set Aikido apart from the rest. I never had to ‘fight’ the other. It was the Uke/Nage dictated relationship in training that appealed to me. The learning of giving and receiving that was so satisfactory. The mindset was and is so radically different from a fighting perspective. And it is with this frame of mind today that I teach Aikido and it is also from where a spiritual claim can be made. Not just in the uke/nage sense of complimentary practice but in the holistic understanding of one’s own Self based on non-separation, with its essence in love itself. And only recently learning about the internal martial arts and finding them to be an ultimate tool to grasp the martial as well as the esoteric origins of Aikido.

Stress training and combative competitive experience will surely help the fighting aspect of the art, but will it detract or enhance a spiritual objective? Are the two mindsets compatible? With which objective do you want to train Aikido?

The Bull in the China shop

At one point we stop listening to slanderous talk. It rubs us the wrong way.

Jesus, we don’t have time for this anymore! When we commune, we care what we say, we want to interact, not react. There shouldn’t need to be any difficulty communicating with each other, especially among friends. Aikido can be like this sometimes. We don’t listen to the other. Instead we just run them over. Oh sorry wasn’t your ukemi up to scratch? We cover up our violence with humour. But it’s not that fun in the long run. Joints and

ligaments can only stretch that far. This is where refinement comes into the picture. We can’t always use ‘we’ve always done it this way’ to cover up our insensitivity. When we speak with each other likewise we can monitor and sensor our input, become more careful in how we come across. If you don’t care and have multiple excuses of why not, then either you’ll only have likeminded people still listening and engaging with you, validating each other’s state of mind, while most people that care to have a more nuanced constructive dialogue will just stop interacting with that kind of language and behaviour. The dojo itself should serve as a sacred field where Misogi is high up on the list of things to do; purifying our way of being. O Sensei should be an inspiration and the dojo-cho should set the tone. Thinking you know it all already will prove to be the major obstacle for any real engagement and inquiry. Aikido is a process of learning and so is the art of communication. It is so for our body and mind but it is also so for the Spirit. Why? Because we are trying to get along. Not just simply not to hurt each other but to elevate our relationships to something we very rarely touch; communion in oneness.

Realise that our speech and actions affect people around us. If not for yourself, at least respect the space around you. In the dojo Senpai always leads by example.

It’s so hard for the Ego to listen to…

The Ego doesn’t want to hear it nor comply to it. It wants its freedom to do whatever it wants to do: ‘Do not tell me what to do!’ Even suggestions from itself it will scoff at. Pay attention and notice this movement and reaction within your own heart and mind. This is the clear indication of who is the ruler of the house. Who’s in charge of what is adhered to and what is not.

This is Ego laid bare and exposed for what it is; it doesn’t care! Fiercely selfprotective and suspicious, it smells Truth a mile away, mocking it long before it reaches the doorstep. But once addressed it has nowhere to run, it can’t hide. Here is the divide, what are you going to do?

Random System?

Systemise it or wing it? Mapping spiritual evolution in retrospect may lay out the landscape for present and future seekers but does it represent a set

standard? Do we inject a linear process where there is none? Knowing that certain actions have specific reactions and lining them up one after another gives us the illusion of progress? Or is there a natural development just as there is in growing up and maturing? Social and psychological developmental stages that we must go through? Mapping them has been good for parents to understand their children’s upbringing. Kids grow up nevertheless but is it advisable and beneficial to all parties involved to understand the process? The step by step stages they go through? How fixed is the development? How sequential is our growth? Is it the same for spiritual growth? If part of a holistic natural maturing process of becoming a human being then one would think that all parts grow as an organic whole; body, mind and spirit. Religions have mapped this development through the ages but do we understand it? Is there a way where we can see a universal norm applicable to all? Or is it intricately linked to culture and social conditions? Do our kids grow up as society dictates within a cultural norm or is there a preset DNA code that sets the development? Is spiritual awakening part of the plan, part of the blueprint for human evolution? Is it a linear progression or a random learning? Have we ticked all the boxes? Have we missed a few on the way? Do we all personally need to cover every step? Or do we as a humanity fill in the blanks as a whole? Does the species develop as a whole, as a blanket covering all holes? Then spiritual development is not dependent on the individual. All pieces serve to complete the puzzle.

Follow then, your star. Let it lead you wherever it takes you and you’ll be part of that beautiful mosaic that we call an evolving universe. Yet more understanding can’t be a bad thing can it?

Shadow

The greater the sunlight, the starker the shadow. A superstition regarding the shadow reach far back in history yet it is much more related to the quality of a persons soul rather than to his or her visible shadow; you didn’t want to come across someone with a dark soul that could invariably affect you negatively. These days the term is used for our conscious and unconscious habitual patterns in the new age scene. They are seen as conditioned responses that need to be brought to light in order to be free from them. No doubt it’s better to be aware than not, yet spiritual freedom points us fundamentally beyond our superficial layers of the accrued self to a centre of

absolute purity. This in no way denies the fact that our conditioned being needs addressing but it does highlight from where we should look. It focuses our intention on what’s most important; on what is most real. The shadow stands no chance once exposed to the glaring sun. This can be demanding as it is knowingly much more difficult to stare into the sun than to behold our shadow play.

From All Walks of Life

Will your profession hinder you? Will your convictions stop you? Will your approach limit you? Will your ideas, opinions and judgements make it impossible for you to engage? Will your knowledge stop you? Your prejudices? Will your fear or pride stop you? If not, then why not share? Even the Buddha knew that not everyone would like his method and message. So what, he decided to beat the drum regardless. Good for him, and for us.

Truth is to be shared if it’s ever going to have any real significance.

Communication is the preferred tool of transmission between humans. Yet we do not argue our point. We don’t insist to be right. We listen and learn.

We ponder and consider. We ask instead of offering our opinion, we question in order to find out. No matter who you are, no matter what you know, we all meet on the same platform to engage. Respect then, the space and don’t hold out on us. In for a dime, in for a dollar.

Spirit Being

When there’re no more limits to your being you are free to experience all of life. You enter lives, cross into realms, move through dimensions, as an image is cast upon the surface of the restless waves of the ocean. Deeply at ease with no fear, travelling through endless space, throughout all of time.

Coming full circle

Sometimes spiritual practice can fool us to believe we will gain something out and beyond of what we’ve already got. Especially this is a marked theme

within very detailed linear progressive spiritual teachings, like for example the Chinese Taoist Path of Nei Dan. If you religiously follow the step by step instructions, ideally under an accomplished teacher, you will experience an unfolding inner transformation that will affect your whole life over time.

Although it is stated clearly that the majority of practitioners of that certain path will not, can not, reach the higher achievements. Either through lack of training or lack of potential, many of the higher teachings and therefore their results, will not reach most students. And though we can say this is generally true in regards to any art or skill that needs time and effort to be mastered, we must be careful to apply that to the highest attainment of spiritual liberation. If we make true spiritual attainment impossible but for the most astute and diligent we are in danger of alienating most of humanity from ever coming into contact with who they truly are. Believing that Truth is a far-away mansion in Heaven that can only be achieved through an alchemical process of internal training will always paint the highest goal to be near to unreachable, as some teachers willingly admit. This misunderstanding of true spiritual practice creates a distorted and wrong view of what real spiritual freedom is all about. It kindles a sense of separation of those who know and those who don’t. It perpetuates the arrogance of the selfish ego believing in his own mastery (or lack thereof). Ego death and the surrender of the separate sense of self must underline any genuine seeking or desire for spiritual liberation and understanding. True humility can only come from this realisation. Be wary of mastery that is connected to extraordinary skills and powers. Being who you are does not require you to learn or acquire siddhis, or magical powers. Spiritual liberation is not a personal gain. It’s a loss of ego, and a gaining of deep compassion and love for all mankind and this being expressed through everyday living in communion and in relationship.

It’s returning to your normal and natural self. Coming home full circle; having nothing, knowing nothing, being nobody. Yet with a love that will transform everything.

On a Blank Canvas

When we start off we lay down what we rely on. Have nothing with you. You can’t be anyone coming into it. It’s a fine balance of knowing and not knowing. Remain present and aware, listen and respond. Do not champion your own opinion. Seek a broader understanding wherein we all fall. See the

context we all partake in. One mind, one conscious being, one heart. Leave yourself behind and join the group consciousness emerging among you all.

But don’t assume it; make it real between you. Enact it through a gentle dialogue and introspective inquiry. Leave the personal behind. Don’t make it all about yourself but more about the impersonal objective truth we all partake in; our shared experience of Being. Remain with your conscious present awareness as you investigate the nature of your self. Retain your focus on the group, on the other in order to break the grip of the ego, the self-centred part of yourself. Open up to a larger perspective where all are seen as one, within your own conscious being. Where we all partake as one entity. This shared intention will reveal our true nature, our real self, and it will also easily lay bare our Ego. And because it’s happening in communion it can’t be mistaken and claimed by the individual self. It will remain an impersonal enlightenment for all to see and share. Becoming conscious of our shared identity frees us from the spellbinding quality of our individual Ego. ‘We’ are no longer the main player. Suddenly our individual pursuit of truth is seen in its proper context and our Ego can’t hijack our attempts. It’s an impersonal affair and the mirror of reflection grants us the objectivity to see it from a greater perspective.

This is such a relief because for the first time we can come together with others without having to hold on to our own conclusions. Everything is seen and revealed in the awakening of a shared perspective where each and everyone are conscious of the empty ground of being itself; the platform we all must step onto. That means we can’t simply assume it once seen but it must be taken hold of by stepping into the circle and act and speak from its centre. Then we’ll enact and activate the power of the spirit to come through; to become manifest among us. We’ll empower the dormant spirit hidden in the impersonal realm, to come alive through our shedding of our individual egos and creating a communal body through shared inquiry and contemplation. Meditation will serve as a backdrop to this investigation and provide the calmness needed to let go into something much bigger. Building trust is a fundamental object among us as doubt is a formidable obstacle that can’t be taken lightly. Gently penetrating and loosening the egos grip on ourselves is never easy. Be careful and thorough. Look closely. It’s an individual pursuit with a collective result.

The Platform

Why is it a platform? Why can’t we just be where we are? This is the mystery we must penetrate if we are going to understand spiritual revolution. To come to insight and to realise your Self is not enough. You then must enact this new knowing through active participation. Only then will your life change. If it remains an inner knowing, it will just become another bastion your ego will claim. But if you express your realisation all will be laid bare; the good with the bad and the ugly. Only then will we come to see the full spectrum of the conditioned world as well as the potential of a liberated perspective. The great news though is that this engagement does not need any prior experience or realisation. Prior insights and revelations can be a catapult into a different way of seeing things but it can equally stop you from wanting to let go of your own views. This can happen when we are adamant that we ‘know’ and though this may be true, the moment you’re afraid to let it go it will hinder you to come together with another, unless you’re satisfied with just to agree to agree, sharing an opinion instead of enacting a living true perspective between you. Without prior knowledge will at least let you face the inquiry with fresh eyes and with a beginners mind. This is in itself the very condition we need to cultivate, both to penetrate to the truth and equally to sustain a free flowing engagement of a true perspective. To awaken the collective flow between us reveals the potential such an endeavour has. In it we come to see ourselves and others in an objective resonance; we will gain a true confidence in who we are and we will not be afraid to share it. Since it’s not personal we have nothing to fear.

Old Knowledge

Harking on about this and that teaching, being well versed in Scripture, years of accumulated knowledge, can become a noose around your neck if you want more than just be a teacher. There comes a point where we must let go of being the knower and embrace a multidimensional interactive process in relationship with others. Meeting others afresh to discover something anew means we can’t rely on the known. We can’t use our knowledge-base to sustain a living investigation. Freedom has no history so therefore we can’t rely on the known. We can’t use old knowledge to sustain a new perspective.

There’s a living quality emerging from selfless participation that needs no

reference to the past. The collective unconscious carries with it all of our shared past anyway so there’s no need to bring it. It will all stand revealed in the light of the living Truth as we meet. This conditionality is the same for all of us, no matter who we are and no matter what we know, we all must come naked. Guru and disciple alike.

When Jesus said; ‘I call you friends’ he made us all one in the experience.

"-No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”

Then he goes on to pray; “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

When Fear takes hold

It ceases you, incapacitates you, brings you to a halt.

There is no way out. It has truly set in, you will not escape. Fear.

It is the strongest of foes. If you have not experienced it you have no idea.

You can’t brush it aside. It’s like a wall rising up before you, a sheer rock face towering above you. You can’t fight it.

Bound by the immensity you give up.

When we see this, what can we do? Explaining it has no effect. Reasoning makes no sense. Leaving it will not make it go away.

Love and patience seems to be the way. Acts of kindness and joy may slowly wear it away. Just like we led Amaterasu out of the cave. With singing, laughter and dancing we managed to break the spell. God of strength got a hand into the crack and opened the rock door wide.

Zen-master Bankei said that if one person has made the effort to seek out the water then all others could equally benefit from it. He described it as a traveller getting thirsty on his ascent up the mountain and getting off the path to look for a water source to quench his thirst, making his way down the gully to find the stream. Upon reaching it he could fill his gourd and bring it back to his fellow companions walking the trail up the mountain, satisfying their thirst as well. This describes that the effort made and travail exercised

need not be the case for all. Because the quenching of the thirst comes from drinking, and not from searching for the water. Bankei’s point and subsequent teachings was always directed at the normalcy of seeing and of the naturalness of apprehension. That it did not need a long and arduous journey to comprehend one’s own inner nature and its accompanying spontaneous function.

Sometimes this is lost on people that made it their mission to complete all practices, to master the esoteric teachings and who find great confidence in their acquired skill and knowledge. No doubt this is an admirable quality and deserves all respect yet does it liberate? Does it quench your thirst? Do you need to make effort to be free? But before anyone can object, of course this does not mean that you can chillax and take something for granted. What is your intention walking the path? Does it make you thirsty? What do you want?

Reliance

What do you rely on? What do you need to sustain yourself? Shelter, food and company? What more? A sense of self? A father? A mother? A friend and a lover? Identify this need of yours and see how much it grips you? Are we bound by these needs? Do they hinder us to be free? Can you live without them? Can you surrender them in favour of freedom? Or do you need them too much? Can we act without relying on any thing? Can we interact without holding on to one or the other? Can we be free to see who we are without any needs? The Buddha’s source of suffering has always been translated as ‘desire’; to want, to crave, to psychologically need. This need, or desperate reliance on something, must be seen through and surrendered in order to be free. To be free from ‘suffering’; dukkha, literally meaning unsatisfactoriness, means the need to know, the need to have, and the need to be, has been vanquished.

So, what do you rely on?

Break the mould

The hardness of the heart makes it impossible to meet, but spiritual egos don’t care. Siding with oneself nothing will improve. Unforgiveness is such a

prevalent decease but it’s not recognised as such. Too often it’s misconstrued as personal choice, as a sign of integrity and of sound judgement. We do it all the time, we choose our environment, our context and with whom we surround ourselves with. If we fall out with someone, we dismiss them to history and move on. We become heroes within our own world, amicable and humble as we like, or as knowing and dictating as we please. We may refer it to a larger whole to avoid personal scrutiny, being in the right place at the right time. ‘We’ can’t be wrong.

Now, do you want to break this mould? Spiritual liberation can’t be had unless you do. If you already claim freedom as something close to you, you won’t have a problem with this but if you dismiss it you’ll find you haven’t even begun to address it. You can’t avoid it as it is the state of the world. It’s so close to us we’d never suspect it. Now does this mean I must forgive the whole world? Yes it does! But not for their sake but for yours. Though they’ll be relieved that you do but really it’s for your own freedom. Once you see through your own decisions you’ll find an utter liberating relief pouring through you. Examine then, your choices and release them. Not once but over and over again until it becomes second nature to you.

Understanding Christmas

Or for that matter, any spiritual occasion according to itself. Don't dismiss it or misrepresent it. Don't ignore it or make light of it. Don't trivialise it or read into it. If you want to know about it go to the root of the occasion to see what it signifies. Learn about the essence of it and realise for yourself what it means and stands for. If you don't know and don't care to find out, better to be quiet about it. Accept that there may be others that know more about it than you. When we come to follow a spiritual life and actively seek out the truth, we can't afford to be ignorant. We can't let us be biased or blasé because we'll shoot ourselves in the foot. If you call yourself a truth-seeker your obligation is to extract the spiritual essence from any and all occasions that stem from religious, spiritual and mystical traditions. If you don't you will unknowingly miss the deep-lying wisdom and knowledge which many of these ceremonies represent and contain. Don't take for granted that the official explanation is the deepest truth. Usually the standard version of events is shrouded in mystery and takes some digging to unearth. Have confidence that many of these normal traditional festivities are more than

what meets the eye. If you laugh at the superficial layers without examining the origin, you’ll join the superficial in their shallowness. Why look elsewhere when everything can be found right here at home, right now at Christmas time? These are our Holy days and we will celebrate the birth of Christ yet again.

From Acceptance to Creativity

In the spiritual landscape of the East and West alike there’s a similar understanding that when we, reach enlightenment, realise the Absolute, find God, know who we are, we are accepted as we are, warts and all, all seen for what it is in Truth, that we can finally relax, take a breath and rest. Joy and release comes with ecstasy and insight. Final freedom has at last arrived. No more to do, no more struggles, no more worries. You’re free!

Acceptance. This is usually such a huge revelation that we’ll suck on this caramel for years to come. Yet if we look closer once the stardust has settled there’s more to do. Life suddenly is serving up new opportunities where your creativity is asked for. We can’t remain living watching in the rear mirror even if that mirror of the past contains everything you’ve ever been up to this very present moment. All of that has been accepted and seen. Now we need to create ourselves anew. We must dare to face the future with nothing but that freedom we’ve found. Without looking back we rely on our conscious present awareness. Coming together with others we bring the mystery of being itself to bear on our communication. Freed from the personal stranglehold of old we are able to unite in a creative field of the uncharted future. This is the meaning of never looking back; that Freedom itself has no history. Each moment then, is seen as new, created anew over and over again. This can never remain as an inner knowing but must always be our living experience in our daily lives. Ever new. Enacted present reality.

Convictions, Heart, and Forgiveness

I’d like to address a forgiveness that is an absolute standard if one wants to be free. In the secular world some advocate a ‘forgive and forget’ approach in order to move on. Another is to be stuck in the past, unable to leave it behind. Cleaving to it like life depends on it. These two views usually oppose

each other and never meet. Out of these two approaches, whole systems of thought has developed; therapy and self-help, regression and past lives theory, the focus is on what you have been before, taking you back in time, delving into your past unearthing hidden trauma, releasing and freeing up.

Another approach is the Indian philosophy of Advaita, the ‘be here now’; no past no future. Be free now. Don’t linger, stay present. Find freedom in the unsullied timeless Self. Thirdly there’s the crossover where therapy and Advaita joins hands, where psychology and yoga meet and are appropriated including the future-oriented and positive goal-motivated teachings. Past, present and future all packed into one big holistic self-help program. Integral and evolutionary.

But the forgiveness I’d like to speak about is of the hardness of heart in oneself. We make up our mind about things and cleave to our conclusions like they are written in stone, making them into eternal truths. We’re unwilling to change our mind and we have no time to question our own motivations.

This is really the easy way out. Everyone does it, spiritual or not, an unconscious habit of placing everything into a fixed structure. This rigidity or un-forgiveness of the heart hardens you. It’s not about forgiving the other nor is it about forgetting the past. It’s about being free in oneself, by oneself and with another. Separation is the rule and standard among all. Yet if you claim to be spiritually interested you must examine your own held convictions. If you are to be truly free there will be nothing that can separate you from the other and there will always be an opening to come together. This will always be the measure of anyone’s realisation. Can we be one with another over and over again? Or will you harden your heart and stick to your convictions?

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?’

Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!’”

And he goes on to say that you must ‘forgive your brother from your heart.’

Jesus stresses that it is your own convictions that needs addressing, your own heart.

“Do not judge, or you will be judged. For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye? You

hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Narayan

I voice my concern but it is drowned out in between the waves. The shimmer of your sea cascades onto land strewing jewels that disappear upon contact.

You sweep the entire cosmos with your hand as through sand on a sunny beach. I pledge my obedience but it’s lost among the stars just as grains of sand run beneath your feet.

Having hands and fingers his reach is everywhere. I saw You stretch across the universe, one being with legs and arms just like us. He is the one person we are but a reflection of, just as innumerable scattered pieces of broken glass all reflect the same object matter.

Coming home

Returning to your self every time you find yourself lost. If you do know yourself you will be able to express yourself clearly without hesitation. The whole path can be summed up in two words; ‘know thyself’. Knowing yourself is not something you arrive at on your death bed, nor is it something that needs to take an excessive long time to figure out. It is not the culmination nor end of the path. It’s there in the beginning, middle and end.

It’s the best starting point. If you’re blind it’s when you regain your sight.

Suddenly you’re able to see. And by seeing you can walk the path. The path is near about endless so better regain your sight at the beginning so you don’t spend your time fumbling in the dark. Knowing yourself is not difficult.

Just stay present. Your present conscious awareness devoid of added thoughts will reveal who you are in its pristine nature. This conscious aspect of your being will upon close scrutiny show that you are existing prior to form, name and time. Devoid of history you stand in yourself. From this default place you’re free to question, to inquire, and to realise, deeper and deeper, who and what you are. You will also be able to scrutinise all things in the same light; you yourself as well as all others share the same fundamental mind/body/spirit makeup and therefore what applies to you applies to all.

Coming to understand that your deepest-most nature of your being is nonseparate from others breaks the notion of separation. Suddenly all is seen just as it is. Regardless of who we are we come to share the same stage. If we can recognise this together we will experience a profound communion; and dialogue and communication will become vibrant and alive. Return home from wherever you are and start again. Break the illusion of separation and share your experience as one. Do it sooner rather than later and save yourself the personal struggle of self-development.

Go your own Way

Why make excuses for other people? Why try to reconcile opposites? Why stay in the quagmire of division? Why not offer something different?

Something altogether breathtaking. Step away from the norm and conflict of society. Any one who wants to leave their troubles behind must dare to embrace a future where there is no problem. Dare to leave it all behind. Lay down your arms and walk away. Walk away free from the past. Conflict will always be the way of the world. But there’s another Way that is free, a higher, supremely light way which we can follow. You will meet other free people there and other people that aspire to leave the world of conflict behind. Hold up an alternative to strife and suffering. Be an example of peace of heart and mind. Say there’s a meadow where we meet, beyond the struggles that we’ve faced, where lies a new beginning. A place where arguments don’t bite nor resentments will stick. Love is this place, but love demands that you come to it alone. Leave the world behind. Leave your weapons behind. Walk away from anger, fear and ignorance.

Masters of Self delusion

Spiritual freedom implies freedom from self; freedom from identification with ego, with your separate sense of self. The conceit of ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘mine’, although relevant in a relative sense, when it comes to spiritual liberation and ultimate freedom it has no bearing on the real state of our natural being. The Buddha spoke of Anatta, no-self, as one of his three truths discovered. The other two, Dukkha and Anicca, suffering and impermanence, refers to the true state of existence. His Mahayana appeal with the Bodhisattva vows

points to the truth of non-separateness. Akin to Jesus sacrifice affecting all of mankind; past, present and future, the Buddha Dharma teaching points to the wholeness or oneness of experience. And by that alienating and estranging some of his monks as happened in the Lotus Sutra. They could not listen to the ‘hard’ talk of no separation and were forced to leave due to their inability to give up their own self-importance. These days this Ego pride still masquerade as spiritual mastery. Skills and knowledge is replacing true selfless action. Being someone, knowing something, having something, no matter how subtle, will leave you in charge for your own gratification. Being no one implies no self. Just like anyone else, nothing special, no different from the next bloke on the street. Freedom from self releases you from seeing yourself as different, separate and special. No matter how much you know and no matter how much skill you have. How invested are you? In your self?

In your reflection I see my Self

All of it. I see all of it. First I see the unadulterated Truth, the absolute essence of who you are. But I see not only you but also the space you exist in, the environment you inhabit, the nature around you. This is the emanation of Spirit shining through all things, like the sheen off the still surface of a forest lake. Hidden in its dark depths lie all possible motivations ready to surface at a moments notice. How vast our potential is. Infinite like the stars.

It is seen in your face, in your smile and in your eyes. But you can’t hide your pain. Scars are as evident today as yesteryear. Your beauty reflected back astonishes me. I can only see my true self. This love should be more than enough to heal any discrepancy you might hold on to. Therefore, I learn from you. By gazing at you, from a distance and close up, your every step brings me closer to God. Now I see why he said it was all good.

Shedding Ideas

It’s true that a deep spiritual insight and revelation can usher you into an alternative way of seeing and perceiving. It will definitely help you to disassociate with your body/mind and give you a larger perspective in which

to hold your experience. But it doesn’t necessarily automatically dislodge your habit of self-identification nor will it automatically shed all your belief systems and ideas. This takes practice and this practice you can begin with even without any direct insight into the nature of being. How is this possible?

It’s possible because your true nature is not dependent on an insight. Your real self is your present conscious experience and therefore nothing needs to be added. The process of shedding your ideas must take place regardless of the level of spiritual understanding. It’s like peeling an onion, start with the outer layers of ‘me’, ‘mine’ and ‘I’. Then question the more deep seated ideas and pursue it till nothing remains. Find absolutely nothing to sustain your sense of self in the end. This is when it becomes harder. The closer you get to the core the more solidified are our strongholds. Surrender and giving up now becomes the motto. You may stop at any point, shedding a little at a time, but if you feel compelled to go all the way you must see it through till the end. Until nothing is left to hold you down. This is scary. When you come close to giving up your self you’ll face the biggest decision in your life. To hand over your life. Spiritual insight and revelation will be your companion on this journey of self discovery but your inquiry remains independent from them. Learn from them yet pursue your own disillusion, which is the shedding of all your ideas of who you think yourself to be.

Internalise

Let years of practice settle in the body. Slowly life comes into these old bones. Something’s moving and it feels good. Acquired skills? Probably not but more like an awakened system that feels alive. A liquid mind that can flow through your veins, a conscious body that feel all its parts. It’s like enjoying a hot drink, the heat goes all the way out into the fingertips. A gentle stretch from top to toe, connects and directs. Sometimes it feels like a mountain, sometimes like a generator or dynamo. But much of the time like nothing at all. Empty space holding precedence over matter and energy.

Connecting the dots, taking out the slack, my eyes are allowed to travel inside and out. In no time I reach the other side. Makyo moves my mind, endlessly shimmering on the surface. Yet its sparkling and evanescent nature afford me at least some lasting amusement; I am this, I am this, I am this.

Inner Contract

The classic scenario is when the young novice seeks out the master and is made to wait outside the temple gates. He asks for permission to enter but is denied. So he waits patiently for one day, two days, three days and finally his commitment is rewarded and is let in. Another famous encounter is when the student is made to work for no apparent reason but to show his worth, like when Milarepa was made to build a tower in stone just to be told to tear it down upon completion. Not once but trice. These kind of initial rites or testing trials are a common feature in spiritual literature where young aspirants seek the Truth from renowned teachers or lineages. One is made to wait before being let in on the secrets. This is meant to reveal the level of sincerity and desire of the student. Teachers and Gurus are known to use different methods to test their students resolve, sometimes to the extreme.

Abuse and mind control is sadly a regular occurrence. But even benevolent methods meant to push the student beyond his or her own self-imposed limitations can be too contrived. There’s an unspoken bond between teacher and student that can easily be hijacked by a less considerate teacher.

Unscrupulous teachers can have a tendency to want to bind the student to them. The Truth itself has a quality of dependency that the teacher can, consciously or not, make use of. A true teacher/guru will have no need to exert a personal influence up and beyond what the Truth already possess in itself. The Truth itself has a magnetic quality that draws to it all that seeks it sincerely. The student will be laid bare without any personal wrangling needed. To bind a student to oneself, to make them dependant on the person, is distorting the Truth. The Truth is fully capable to fulfil its work without needing the teacher to impose his own agenda upon the pupil.

Beware if you’re told that you must do this or that. The Truth will make clear what’s needed. It will not be easy and it might get tough but you don’t need a teacher to add to the already high stakes. If the teacher is true he or she will always be there for you, but not in the way you’d expect. He will not need to exert personal influence over you because he knows Truth does that all by itself. That’s why patience and silence are sometimes the best tools a teacher have. By making a student dependant you take away their innate freedom and actively hold them away from Truth. Nothing is more damaging.

The inner contract is with Truth itself. It will demand everything from you so don’t stop short. And as far as the teacher is true you can’t blame him or her for your own limitations. All are welcome.

White Light

The pure brilliance of the Spirit. To allocate it to any specific part of the body can be a useful way to highlight a region and its function. It can also be beneficial to withdraw it from certain parts, for example moving it away from the thinking mind to the lower abdomen or to the heart region in order to learn to detach from your identification with the thought-stream. The white light can often be seen to inhabit the space behind your eyes. But on closer scrutiny no exact place can be found for its residency. You may allocate any point of reference for it but when you examine it you’ll find no limit nor boundary to it. It becomes the essence or nature of that which you are.

Hemmed in by the personal you tend to think it belongs to you but in fact it is a universal quality we all share, like the sky or sea in which we all exist.

The different areas of the body serve different functions and in that it can be useful to bring conscious understanding to each part. But once you see the impersonality of ALL parts, including your mind, you’ll have no fear of having the white light permeate your whole being as one glorious sense of self. Your body, mind and heart all equal and unified within your true nature. No more fear of the thinking mind, of your selfish thoughts or of our narrow understanding. We are now free to find out. Open to investigate, to learn and to explore. Universal being outshines any personal effort. Our learning is now happening within a larger fully encompassing context, wherein the personal self has its appropriate place and function yet subordinate to the greater whole. Go deep then, into your soul, discover your spirit from where you come. Allocate space for it so it has room to grow. Welcome it into your life.

In the state of Truth

No matter where you’re at, no matter how deep or profound your insight is (or not), we all meet in the state of Truth. Anyone can meet you there. Face it squarely and abide in the present moment. Then no one is outside of the realm of Truth. Remaining a silent witness to it is ok but to engage in a mutual dialogue from it is much more rewarding. It’s there where our prejudices are laid bare. If you upon contact immediately assess and judge the other you have no chance to meet them in a state of Truth. Because you

have already set yourself apart, either superior or inferior to them. Even if you judge yourself as equal that will still limit your ability to meet in a state of Truth. Can you meet life simply as it is? Without adding or subtracting anything. If you ever meet a real guru you will be dumbfounded as you will only meet yourself. He or she will simply mirror your true self back at you. In their reflection you’ll be able to see truly who you are in essence AND who you are as a person. You will also see who they are, in essence and in person. Of course, if you have the luxury to spend prolonged time with them, your perception will deepen and you’ll learn more and more of them as a holistic being. But fundamentally they’ll open your eyes to see what they see.

It means by their example you’ll be able to see the same thing they do. It’s made possible simply by the very perspective they hold. They show you what is possible and you simply adapt to their way of seeing. It’s like learning a craft. Someone will show you the way and you just copy what they do. It’ll take a little time to get used to it and longer to master it but nevertheless it’s there from the beginning. They only show you what’s there already. Right in front of your eyes. This state of Truth knows of no separation. It’s not biased towards low or high. That’s why you feel so at home in their presence.

Realise that this state of freedom has a price. Your life. But you do not win it by practice alone, though training is not a bad thing, but you win it by wanting it more than anything else. By pursuing your own hearts deepest desire towards the Truth. Following your own will toward the Absolute. This means that nothing is more important to you than finding your own salvation.

Whatever way you choose to follow this intent will lead you there. Don’t stop short then. Don’t accept anyone’s idea of a final resting place. The final mile you will have to walk alone. Don’t be afraid.

Freedom has no History

You don’t need to rely on old data. We don’t need to use established spiritual vocabulary. We don’t need to use foreign terminology or religious axioms.

The point is if we opt to use one cultural system we alienate all others. It’s fine as long as you’re happy to stay within the perimeters of any particular path and of course it is essential in order to fully know and understand it thoroughly. Yet the liberated freedom, the unequivocal nature of spiritual emancipation lays beyond the confines and restraints of ANY particular religion. Like the famous Krishnamurti said; freedom is a pathless land.

So the challenge lies in the present situation. Can we utilise what is at hand, use our normal language, to get through to the truth of the matter? If you’re bound by any creed or faith-system, even by a set of practices, you will find it difficult to let it go when asked not to rely on what you adhere to. But if you get a glimpse of that freedom has no history you’ll understand why all of your baggage must be left behind to embrace the exhilarating nature of spiritual liberation. Then truly you’ll be able to use your own words to speak the truth in an authentic and real way. And you’ll be able to communicate across borders, meet all kinds of people, explain clearly what you mean without having to rely on any religious dogma. The Truth is wonderful in this respect.

Suspicious minds

We keep apart, suspecting intrigue. We, like a good detective, make our observations and come to conclusions based on what we see. Like Poirot we pride ourselves on our keen discernment. Yet this witness attitude and its practice of mindfulness can leave us cold high up on the mountain. Too distant to engage the world, too removed to feel the other. The crystal clarity that you can experience in your solitude stands us well in our meditation.

Deep absorption in your self is a relief from the outer turmoil, a sanctuary we rather not leave. So we wait. We hold off engaging, fearing confusion, not knowing how to proceed. Leaving the mountain is always a nervous thing, reentering society, learning how to communicate. How to speak of these inner matters? It’s an art in itself. Join the dialogue just as the Ganges river flood the plains when it exits the mouth of the Himalayan foothills.

Walk with Giants

I found myself defending my view. It was not heartless and cruel. A different perspective altogether it cannot go side by side with the normal take on life.

It’s not cold and uncaring. It is of a different order and I can’t budge on its premises. So I found myself alone again. I worked up a defiant tone and I was strongly making my case, finding in it a conviction that transported me to the land of Giants. I’m no giant and so I claimed yet I realised that there are giants out there living free and I rather live in their presence. The Bible

spoke of extinct giants but they are still around. Lucky if we catch a glimpse of them. Now make your choice, do you want to live in the land of the living or in the land of the dead? It’s a different world altogether and we can’t mix them. It’s a thin line but they’re a gulf apart.

It’s not personal

Don’t take it personally we say, yet we do. When we meet can you resist the urge to always self-refer? ‘I, me and mine’ always angles the perspective from your point of view. It limits the experience to your own apprehension of it. It doesn’t matter if that personal point of reference is large or small, it’s still hemmed in by your own conclusions. What if we decide to leave experience to simply what it is; an objective state of affairs, nothing personal. Then we might be able to see that we all can equally participate in the overall context as one undivided entity. One conscious being that partake in all experience, regardless of whether that’s mine or yours. Maybe it takes a leap of faith to leave yourself behind and join a larger objective field of recognition? But you can also do that out of keen interest. Out of wanting to know. Spiritual inquiry is just that; leaving yourself behind in the quest of Truth. It might be a bit tricky at first but once you get the hang of it you wouldn’t want it in any other way. It alleviates you from the burden of the personal. You’ll be able to see yourself in a much larger context where all of our human traits are seen within a greater realm of perfection. You’ll be able distinguish truth from nontruth and learn to walk free from your own mind. It takes some getting used to. Speaking about our present conscious experience without selfreferencing and without objectifying it as to speak about it, we will realise there is a natural flow and an instantaneous response inherent in the unfolding communication between us. This is liberating and dynamic. We will find a freedom of expression that does not rely on thought and our mind will work without the inhibiting limits of an imposed ego identification. To be interested in, and in pursuit of, one’s own freedom requires us to want to be able to discuss consciousness itself in the living present experience. We need to be able to express who we are in the moment, without inferring time or self. This is the purpose of spiritual dialogue.