I enjoy thinking of the human experience in musical terms. It seems to offer a language that goes beyond the usual descriptions and concepts that much of our therapeutic community holds. We had looked into the indoctrination process that unfolds during our developmental years (see the story of Amy in "Journey to the Well" in earlier posts) and wondered what possible escape route from the limited “lower octaves” might present itself. What happens when we stand at the door of the “higher octaves” of our being?
Let’s imagine ourselves as a fine musical instrument. At this point in our life we decide to put it in the hands of a competent, talented musician. The key to our artist’s fine performance on this amazing human instrument lies in executing a resonance that allows the heart to vibrate and increase its magnetic field. Since the heart is the gate to the “higher octave”, the whole creative vision now focuses to produce a tone that unlocks the door to the energetic heart. As it develops a richer, deeper, tone, the entire quality of this human instrument begins to change.
Contrary to social opinion, it is the heart, not the mind, that provides us with the avenue to become fully human. It is heart intelligence that produces a sound beyond the objective intellect and entrains the mind. Heart intelligence is a multi-layered composition that reveals itself when we enter more and more fully into its space. This space, or the lack of it, is the foundation that governs our entire relational life. Navigating this heart space is nothing less than a divine science. It is the alchemist that gathers and refines the debris of all our wounding experiences. This heart-alchemist transmutes the pain into expressions of love and wisdom. Within its fires our meticulously fabricated defense strategies give way to our true passion and creativity.
Perhaps this is the relationship that can re-parent and re-define our early developmental imbalance. Perhaps here, heart engages the mind to re-think, or perhaps “un-think”, and generate re-conciliation in our life.
How do we decrease our resistance and expand our ability to say, “ yes “ to this heart? How do we practice to develop our most beautiful sound? How can we keep bringing the attention back to this energetic heart and building up its magnetic field? What divine sounds will resonate from its open door?
I invite you to explore these sounds with me as we look deeper into the mystery of becoming fully human in the next postings.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Our Attempt to Change
Today, a friend sent me a beautiful quote, “life is not about waiting for the storm to pass; it is about learning to dance in the rain". I sat with this simple, yet profound wisdom for a while. For me, sitting is different than thinking; it is more like curiosity and waiting. I find that it usually opens into landscapes that I could not reason my way into. I could feel the texture of “learning to dance in the rain”, not the concept, and a deep appreciation for life with all its expressions began to rise.
Then a pivotal question, perhaps for all of us, who are considering change, arrived. This question holds the foundational nature and principle of our spiritual investigations. It examines our motivation for change and the integrity we bring to the change process. Here is the question: What is the actual reason we attempt to change?
So, what happens when we observe that a thought, word, or action no longer represents an accurate picture of who we are? . The awareness that something is no longer congruent with who we are now is an open armed invitation for change. However, what happens if we seek change because we evaluate something as “wrong”? What happens to awareness in the presence of such opinion and judgment? Do we not re-enter the wheel of suffering when we look in the direction of the mind’s preoccupation with endless evaluation?
When I look back at change in my own life, it does not seem to arrive on the battlefield. The instances in which I have labeled myself as “wrong, deficient, incapable, unworthy, or unlovable never became fertile ground for change. It was the moments when the heart opened once more with compassion for creating such pain in my life, that the energy and inspiration for a new direction appeared.
I have concluded that the only reason we can step into change is the heart’s longing to remember who we are. It is the split second reflection of our true face that gives us the courage to reach into our deepest inner resources.
It is here that we recognize our innocent mistake, the belief that an aggressive stance with ourselves has valuable. It furthers the war and establishes us as perpetrators within our own being. If we consider that we are always in the process of creating, anytime our “creation” is labeled “bad”, we become “bad creators”. This experience being a bad creator is so painful, that we prefer to disown our “bad creations” rather than meet the pain directly. This act of disowning our creation traps the energy and arrests any change. It takes tremendous energy to keep the pain of being a bad creator suppressed.
In the greater picture, all that we have labeled as “wrong” will become our stories about victims and villains. I invite you to consider a very subtle trap: Could it simply be that choosing the difficult/bad experience is not the actual mistake, but rather labeling the choice as wrong/bad is. Could we just notice that this creation is no longer congruent with who we are now. Feeling this subtle difference requires impeccable attention.
Could we cultivate a new way of relating to ourselves, not through a punishing hand, but through a gradual change from fighting to feeding?
May we be transformed through the deepest nurture and self-care.
Then a pivotal question, perhaps for all of us, who are considering change, arrived. This question holds the foundational nature and principle of our spiritual investigations. It examines our motivation for change and the integrity we bring to the change process. Here is the question: What is the actual reason we attempt to change?
So, what happens when we observe that a thought, word, or action no longer represents an accurate picture of who we are? . The awareness that something is no longer congruent with who we are now is an open armed invitation for change. However, what happens if we seek change because we evaluate something as “wrong”? What happens to awareness in the presence of such opinion and judgment? Do we not re-enter the wheel of suffering when we look in the direction of the mind’s preoccupation with endless evaluation?
When I look back at change in my own life, it does not seem to arrive on the battlefield. The instances in which I have labeled myself as “wrong, deficient, incapable, unworthy, or unlovable never became fertile ground for change. It was the moments when the heart opened once more with compassion for creating such pain in my life, that the energy and inspiration for a new direction appeared.
I have concluded that the only reason we can step into change is the heart’s longing to remember who we are. It is the split second reflection of our true face that gives us the courage to reach into our deepest inner resources.
It is here that we recognize our innocent mistake, the belief that an aggressive stance with ourselves has valuable. It furthers the war and establishes us as perpetrators within our own being. If we consider that we are always in the process of creating, anytime our “creation” is labeled “bad”, we become “bad creators”. This experience being a bad creator is so painful, that we prefer to disown our “bad creations” rather than meet the pain directly. This act of disowning our creation traps the energy and arrests any change. It takes tremendous energy to keep the pain of being a bad creator suppressed.
In the greater picture, all that we have labeled as “wrong” will become our stories about victims and villains. I invite you to consider a very subtle trap: Could it simply be that choosing the difficult/bad experience is not the actual mistake, but rather labeling the choice as wrong/bad is. Could we just notice that this creation is no longer congruent with who we are now. Feeling this subtle difference requires impeccable attention.
Could we cultivate a new way of relating to ourselves, not through a punishing hand, but through a gradual change from fighting to feeding?
May we be transformed through the deepest nurture and self-care.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Imitation Security
Throughout my years of research in the field of consciousness, I come back to the question of what constitutes the stability of our inner foundation. If we consider all the obstacles that our friend Amy encountered in her early developmental stages (previous postings titled “Journey to the Well”), we may wonder how any foundation could find a solid ground in the environment of the social mind.
Every spiritual tradition offers some type of architecture for our inner landscape with which to point the way. The models include such frameworks as the American Indian’s use of the Four Directions, the Buddhist Mandala, the Sufis’ Dimensions of the Heart, and the Kabbahlistic Tree of Life.
All of these architectures ask us to discover the source of our security, guidance, wisdom and power. Each tradition approaches these qualities in a unique way. Nevertheless we can speak in some general terms. Guidance refers to the source of direction for our life, the internal frame of reference (perception) that governs decision-making. Wisdom describes an integration of principles that allow wholeness to be the organizing axiom of our life. Power refers to the capacity to act. It is the vital energy of choice, which includes the ability to move beyond deeply embedded habits.
In all these systems, security takes the position of the cornerstone of the foundation. It seems to refer to the origin of identity and to the emotional anchor it creates in our experience. As we become more aware of the agenda of the social mind and our participation in its beliefs and institutions, we notice how a false identity has solidified itself, one that places much of its trust in the external world for its security. Such an identity’s relationship with the world is utterly dependent on external circumstances for its sense of security. It cannot be used as a stable cornerstone.
If we consider the purpose of any spiritual architecture, we can see that it functions as a kind of map. Within these maps, both our distortion and wisdom reveals itself. The maps' purpose is to cultivate a new way of relating to life, not through the force of will, but organically, through a gradual expanding awareness of our distortions. The repeating patterns of our fear, impatience, anger, doubt, and loneliness reveal themselves. Our habit of projected opinions or justifications to medicate these uncomfortable feelings and to avoid any direct encounter with them becomes apparent.
This combination of disowned feeling and projection has created core themes, stories that have familiar melodies. And yet, it is in the “conscious” present moment of these repeating top tunes that we can dissolve the patterns of all our imaginary identities and their fixations. What presents the possibility for change is a conscious awareness of these tunes. When we notice that a particular tune is currently playing, that awareness unveils Who We Really Are. In that moment of observation, that melody transforms itself from a jailer to a liberator. if we have no opinion, no label, about what we observed, that becomes a moment of freedom.
Can we consider that our current experience in the world is very similar to our own inner landscape? We can appreciate that the death of limiting false identity liberates that which is the flower of our human consciousness. Might we also open our arms to a more authentic worldview and see what is happening through the eyes of opportunity? Would we see expanded possibilities in the collapse of the structures that offered us only imitation security?
Is security that arises from the ground of Who We Really Are, individually and collectively, not our deepest refuge? Is it not the only candidate whose guidance, wisdom and power can navigate our amazing life and that of our planet with a sacred hand?
Every spiritual tradition offers some type of architecture for our inner landscape with which to point the way. The models include such frameworks as the American Indian’s use of the Four Directions, the Buddhist Mandala, the Sufis’ Dimensions of the Heart, and the Kabbahlistic Tree of Life.
All of these architectures ask us to discover the source of our security, guidance, wisdom and power. Each tradition approaches these qualities in a unique way. Nevertheless we can speak in some general terms. Guidance refers to the source of direction for our life, the internal frame of reference (perception) that governs decision-making. Wisdom describes an integration of principles that allow wholeness to be the organizing axiom of our life. Power refers to the capacity to act. It is the vital energy of choice, which includes the ability to move beyond deeply embedded habits.
In all these systems, security takes the position of the cornerstone of the foundation. It seems to refer to the origin of identity and to the emotional anchor it creates in our experience. As we become more aware of the agenda of the social mind and our participation in its beliefs and institutions, we notice how a false identity has solidified itself, one that places much of its trust in the external world for its security. Such an identity’s relationship with the world is utterly dependent on external circumstances for its sense of security. It cannot be used as a stable cornerstone.
If we consider the purpose of any spiritual architecture, we can see that it functions as a kind of map. Within these maps, both our distortion and wisdom reveals itself. The maps' purpose is to cultivate a new way of relating to life, not through the force of will, but organically, through a gradual expanding awareness of our distortions. The repeating patterns of our fear, impatience, anger, doubt, and loneliness reveal themselves. Our habit of projected opinions or justifications to medicate these uncomfortable feelings and to avoid any direct encounter with them becomes apparent.
This combination of disowned feeling and projection has created core themes, stories that have familiar melodies. And yet, it is in the “conscious” present moment of these repeating top tunes that we can dissolve the patterns of all our imaginary identities and their fixations. What presents the possibility for change is a conscious awareness of these tunes. When we notice that a particular tune is currently playing, that awareness unveils Who We Really Are. In that moment of observation, that melody transforms itself from a jailer to a liberator. if we have no opinion, no label, about what we observed, that becomes a moment of freedom.
Can we consider that our current experience in the world is very similar to our own inner landscape? We can appreciate that the death of limiting false identity liberates that which is the flower of our human consciousness. Might we also open our arms to a more authentic worldview and see what is happening through the eyes of opportunity? Would we see expanded possibilities in the collapse of the structures that offered us only imitation security?
Is security that arises from the ground of Who We Really Are, individually and collectively, not our deepest refuge? Is it not the only candidate whose guidance, wisdom and power can navigate our amazing life and that of our planet with a sacred hand?
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Journey to the Well: Final Thoughts
The story of Amy’s developmental stages in several previous posts called “Journey to the Well” has perhaps shed some light into the harsh landscape of our conditioning. As I ponder the nature and purpose of the social mind programs, which operate to modify the lens we look through at life, I am astonished at the magnitude of their reach into all aspects of our experience.
Just like Amy, had I continued to seek refuge in the social mind agendas, I would have come to a dry well. The thirst for a vibrant life would still burn in my heart.
How honest can we be about the social mind fears that take authority over our lives? Do we even consider that each fear harnesses a percentage of vital life force from our energetic circuit? Are we aware enough to notice when we have hooked into the program, and when limited energetic integrity is actually left for our own use?
If so little energy is left, how do we access guidance about what life brings us? Will we be able to access the intuitive voice that lets us know the appropriate time to move our family, exit a relationship, end a job, begin a new career, risk a new direction or a new friendship, if we run this intuitive energy through the entire social mind fear agenda? Can we illuminate the dark shadow created by the consuming chatter from the fear agenda and touch our natural trust. The shadow is precisely what we have repeatedly hooked into and empowered.
Often, we end up ignoring the ringing internal guidance and postpone our natural alignment with life. Now the pressure from the ignored guidance builds up. Each ignored intuition adds to our system’s fire. The result of this refusal to attend to what guidance points us toward, will literally railroad us through the feared hardships in order to complete an act of surrender. Life will force us to our knees in a sheer act of love. It will drag us from resistance to receptivity. Can we see these experiences as “love coming back for us”? Can we recognize these experiences as water from the well ?
As life faithfully creates an environment that invites awareness about resistance, it frees up the external focus in our life. It offers many opportunities to retrieve the disowned, lost and denied fragments. Our awareness becomes “soul retrieval” work. We become our own shaman.
Let’s consider that we have participated in fueling the social mind programs instead of our own life. We can do so without making ourselves wrong or feeling shame about this participation. We could observe this fact through the compassionate lens our evolutionary history. For thousands of years allegiance to the village or tribe was necessary for survival. It guaranteed our biological safety. This is deeply programmed into our genetics and continues to operate in our desire for assurances about the external world. With this in mind, are the institutions that offer such things as insurances, savings accounts, contracts, and safety rules, not operating with the same survival-safety agendas? Are they not hooked into physical outcome in the external world? Can we notice that this "savior-ship" model may no longer be congruent with who we are becoming?
Dare I extend these observations to our religious institutions? I am not speaking about the enlightened beings that walked the earth. I am referring to the doctrines that arose around these enlightened souls and became enslavers of our own internal guidance? Did the original message become absorbed by a group mind that institutionalized our spiritual lives? Has this mechanism entombed the” living” spiritual truths of our blessed prophets into dead doctrines? Where is the living water?
To disengage from all these programs and beliefs would shift the power from the village back to our precious lives. Responsibility could be handed back to us as individuals. And as the social mind viewpoint about how life works comes into question, we can stop blaming the village. We can quench the thirst and drink from our own well.
Just like Amy, had I continued to seek refuge in the social mind agendas, I would have come to a dry well. The thirst for a vibrant life would still burn in my heart.
How honest can we be about the social mind fears that take authority over our lives? Do we even consider that each fear harnesses a percentage of vital life force from our energetic circuit? Are we aware enough to notice when we have hooked into the program, and when limited energetic integrity is actually left for our own use?
If so little energy is left, how do we access guidance about what life brings us? Will we be able to access the intuitive voice that lets us know the appropriate time to move our family, exit a relationship, end a job, begin a new career, risk a new direction or a new friendship, if we run this intuitive energy through the entire social mind fear agenda? Can we illuminate the dark shadow created by the consuming chatter from the fear agenda and touch our natural trust. The shadow is precisely what we have repeatedly hooked into and empowered.
Often, we end up ignoring the ringing internal guidance and postpone our natural alignment with life. Now the pressure from the ignored guidance builds up. Each ignored intuition adds to our system’s fire. The result of this refusal to attend to what guidance points us toward, will literally railroad us through the feared hardships in order to complete an act of surrender. Life will force us to our knees in a sheer act of love. It will drag us from resistance to receptivity. Can we see these experiences as “love coming back for us”? Can we recognize these experiences as water from the well ?
As life faithfully creates an environment that invites awareness about resistance, it frees up the external focus in our life. It offers many opportunities to retrieve the disowned, lost and denied fragments. Our awareness becomes “soul retrieval” work. We become our own shaman.
Let’s consider that we have participated in fueling the social mind programs instead of our own life. We can do so without making ourselves wrong or feeling shame about this participation. We could observe this fact through the compassionate lens our evolutionary history. For thousands of years allegiance to the village or tribe was necessary for survival. It guaranteed our biological safety. This is deeply programmed into our genetics and continues to operate in our desire for assurances about the external world. With this in mind, are the institutions that offer such things as insurances, savings accounts, contracts, and safety rules, not operating with the same survival-safety agendas? Are they not hooked into physical outcome in the external world? Can we notice that this "savior-ship" model may no longer be congruent with who we are becoming?
Dare I extend these observations to our religious institutions? I am not speaking about the enlightened beings that walked the earth. I am referring to the doctrines that arose around these enlightened souls and became enslavers of our own internal guidance? Did the original message become absorbed by a group mind that institutionalized our spiritual lives? Has this mechanism entombed the” living” spiritual truths of our blessed prophets into dead doctrines? Where is the living water?
To disengage from all these programs and beliefs would shift the power from the village back to our precious lives. Responsibility could be handed back to us as individuals. And as the social mind viewpoint about how life works comes into question, we can stop blaming the village. We can quench the thirst and drink from our own well.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Journey to the Well: Part Three
In the last few postings of "Journey to the Well", we have followed our precious Amy and witnessed her precarious first two developmental stages unfold (postings 3/29, 4/3 and 4/29). In the final phase of Amy’s story we watch the development of her intellect, personal values and attitudes. This third stage acts as her ego’s powerhouse and governs her thoughts. Here, she may develop the will to reveal the truth. Here, also, she may develop the automatic response to retreat from truth through her defense strategies.
By the time she arrives at this level of consciousness, she has already been deeply impacted, perhaps wounded, at levels one and two. At this next level, she could solidify an image or identity and experience a limiting, fixed sense of self. As this false self continues the dance, Amy could spin further and further from the core of her true nature. Now the dance-steps take on a more dramatic texture, solid features and routines.
The energy of this third stage is intended for the development of Amy’s personal integrity, an honor code with herself. The boundaries, the ethics of what she will actually negotiate or where she will draw the line, spring from here. Her self-respect, self- trust and her confidence for acting with personal power in the world originate here in her solar plexus, which is the energetic source of this third stage. What will happen to her intuition and inner guidance if her eyes stay fixed on Mr. SM?
Will she channel her intuitive voice out of her own being for use by Mr. SM’s safety/comfort paradigm?
Addictions to external status symbols, the need to categorize, materialism, and performance anxiety could all erupt from here. Will Amy become confused or will she begin to question who she really is and how she can connect to others authentically?
This is the point where Amy can buy into what the social mind has decides is the correct, attractive image. This is the stage at which she can be totally absorbed and subjugate her personal guidance to the social mind standard. Allegiance to its fears could become Amy’s lot. Fears about being alone, about failure, about being wrong and criticized, about being abandoned, being worthless, unwanted and unloved can haunt her. Fears about being rejected and punished, and beliefs about overwhelming loss could become the anxious undercurrent of her precious life.
The society’s demand for obedience to its institutions, structures and forms can appear so real, that Amy may fall into the habit of pleasing others instead of herself. We wonder if she will compromise her personal honor code. Will she become trapped by a lack of self–awareness, siphon off her internal energy and be pulled into the external world? Will she allow other people and situations to become energetically charged by the attention she projects out toward them? Will we see her create an imitation reality that cuts her off from what is actually real?
We hold our breath and pray that Amy’s life remains her own. We plead with her to not become compelled, to not attach to stories that make gods out of a world obsessed by power, dominance, and separatism. We beg Amy to not allow society’s success symbols to become the addictions that medicate the pain of a fragmented life-dance.
Dearest Amy, please do not dedicate your life force to fuel who you are not. See through the hypnotic dance rhythm of your partner, Mr. Social Mind, and keep just the lightest touch on his arm. Break free of his embrace and leap into your own masterful steps. Take refuge in your heart’s intelligence and let it lead you into the mystery, the unknown territory that is so vibrantly alive.
May this small window into Amy's story activate the deepest compassion and understanding for all our conditioning and the suffering it brings. May it offer more awareness to the tight rope we walk as long as we remain invested in the social mind fears. May we recognize how we will attract the mirror image of these fears to our life in the form of relationships and events that prove them true. And may we remember that in this human experience we would so often rather be “right” than “happy”.
By the time she arrives at this level of consciousness, she has already been deeply impacted, perhaps wounded, at levels one and two. At this next level, she could solidify an image or identity and experience a limiting, fixed sense of self. As this false self continues the dance, Amy could spin further and further from the core of her true nature. Now the dance-steps take on a more dramatic texture, solid features and routines.
The energy of this third stage is intended for the development of Amy’s personal integrity, an honor code with herself. The boundaries, the ethics of what she will actually negotiate or where she will draw the line, spring from here. Her self-respect, self- trust and her confidence for acting with personal power in the world originate here in her solar plexus, which is the energetic source of this third stage. What will happen to her intuition and inner guidance if her eyes stay fixed on Mr. SM?
Will she channel her intuitive voice out of her own being for use by Mr. SM’s safety/comfort paradigm?
Addictions to external status symbols, the need to categorize, materialism, and performance anxiety could all erupt from here. Will Amy become confused or will she begin to question who she really is and how she can connect to others authentically?
This is the point where Amy can buy into what the social mind has decides is the correct, attractive image. This is the stage at which she can be totally absorbed and subjugate her personal guidance to the social mind standard. Allegiance to its fears could become Amy’s lot. Fears about being alone, about failure, about being wrong and criticized, about being abandoned, being worthless, unwanted and unloved can haunt her. Fears about being rejected and punished, and beliefs about overwhelming loss could become the anxious undercurrent of her precious life.
The society’s demand for obedience to its institutions, structures and forms can appear so real, that Amy may fall into the habit of pleasing others instead of herself. We wonder if she will compromise her personal honor code. Will she become trapped by a lack of self–awareness, siphon off her internal energy and be pulled into the external world? Will she allow other people and situations to become energetically charged by the attention she projects out toward them? Will we see her create an imitation reality that cuts her off from what is actually real?
We hold our breath and pray that Amy’s life remains her own. We plead with her to not become compelled, to not attach to stories that make gods out of a world obsessed by power, dominance, and separatism. We beg Amy to not allow society’s success symbols to become the addictions that medicate the pain of a fragmented life-dance.
Dearest Amy, please do not dedicate your life force to fuel who you are not. See through the hypnotic dance rhythm of your partner, Mr. Social Mind, and keep just the lightest touch on his arm. Break free of his embrace and leap into your own masterful steps. Take refuge in your heart’s intelligence and let it lead you into the mystery, the unknown territory that is so vibrantly alive.
May this small window into Amy's story activate the deepest compassion and understanding for all our conditioning and the suffering it brings. May it offer more awareness to the tight rope we walk as long as we remain invested in the social mind fears. May we recognize how we will attract the mirror image of these fears to our life in the form of relationships and events that prove them true. And may we remember that in this human experience we would so often rather be “right” than “happy”.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The Journey to the Well: Part Three
Let's catch up with Amy in this next chapter of "Journey to the Well" (see last posting 4/3/09) as she stands at the threshold of a defining experience. Will she abdicate responsibility for creating her life to Mr. Social Mind, or will she embrace this responsibility? If she allows her partner to be in command of all the movements on the dance floor, she will not only hand over her responsibility but also her energy circuits. Her dance partner will use these to fuel his own agenda. As a result, Amy could limit her life and creativity and simply be used to fuel Mr. SM’s institutions.
Consider the possibility of Amy becoming invested and controlled by Mr. Social Mind's evolutionary process instead of her own. What meaning might this take on for her body, relationships and available resources in the second developmental stage, the sacral chakra? It follows, then, that the more she is energetically invested in the external world of Mr. SM the more authority over her reality he can hold! This external authority significantly affects her access to personal, internal guidance. After all, Mr. SM’s agenda is safety and security, not individual development. Amy could loose sight of her true face and give up her lifeblood very early on in the dance.
As Amy’s feeling nature now develops in the second stage of the dance, it will dictate her boundaries, her relationships, her power in the external world, and her sexuality. The possibility of entanglement, the misuse of allure and attraction, confusion between pain and pleasure, melodrama and thrill seeking all appear on the horizon. Will she have enough of her own energy source available to say “no” when necessary? Will she be susceptible to energetic violations and betrayal?
Two important questions begin to arise for Amy at this stage. These inner question are: What do I feel? What really excites and fascinates me?
Will she be capable of discerning the answers? Will she be seduced by Mr.SM’s beliefs and pledge her allegiance to the social mind propaganda? Will she accept the cultural belief that financial energy equals sexual energy, that the competitive edge dictates success, and that being “on top” of your game is essential? How will she respond to the accepted behavior model of being in someone else’s business?
At a personal level, the sacral chakra, or second energetic developmental stage, energizes the feeling nature and the creative urge to express. Should Amy become unbalanced, she might identify with intense feelings and urges and appear frantic, overly sensitive and needy. This development stage is the energetic source of co-dependency patterns. Here, Amy’s developing ego learns to experience life as relational. Constrictions or build-ups at this level can flow into negative expressions and sexual extremes.
They often become Shadows, collecting unexpressed feelings and holding them in the subconscious mind. Amy could express a host of patterns that might include disassociation, deep depression, inappropriate sexual behavior, and other emotional addictions.
The push to create, that defines this second energetic level, can take various forms, the most obvious one being the urge to recreate ourselves in our children. The energetic spark to put an artistic or musical creation out into the world also rises out of the same flame. If Amy’s creative urge rushes through an unbalanced second chakra, she might have the tendency to reach for titillation and gratification from outside objects or people. If she becomes identified with such strong feelings, her personal power will be given away to them. In her hunger for intensity, Amy may take “a walk on the wild side “. Such dramas will mask her real emotions.
As Amy waltzes through this second developmental period, the base chakra’s survival/security aspects around money move into a more individual version of the society’s belief system. In general, what originates in the base chakra as social mind indoctrination about money, now impacts her life force in the second chakra in money interactions with individuals. All her expectations around money and security, which began in her first dance steps with Mr. Social Mind’s base chakra program, are now fine-tuned. These steps are now played out in the relationships Amy attracts into her life. She will get to prove the beliefs she accepted through “human homeopathy”. Her beliefs become a tuning fork for life experiences that hold identical vibrations. These proofs about her beliefs are drawn to her in packages such as betrayals about sex, power and money.
As we watch Amy’s next steps, we wonder just how she might navigate the manipulation and control we all become energetically familiar with at a very young age. Let’s keep in mind that the method of education in our families, our schools, and our religious institutions is based on the same dynamics as any political propaganda program. Amy will bump up against the indoctrination style of repetition, reward and punishment. It will be justified to her as the need for “ behavior modification.”
Be ever so still, dear Amy, least you become overwhelmed in Mr. SM’s fast moves and accept his agenda for creating good citizens instead of freedom and creativity.
Amy’s second developmental stage, her sacral chakra, empowers her one-on-one relationships. It impacts her need to control another human being, events, and the environment. As her dance takes on more complex patterns, if she follows her partner too closely, she will forget her heart’s vision and the capacity to nurture herself.
We now notice that Mr. Social Mind’s pace across the dance floor is rapidly increasing. What exactly is Mr. Social Mind trying to control with the steps he insists Amy pour her life force into? Does his motivation perhaps include an attempt to control Amy’s rate of evolution?
Please join us for Part Three as Amy’s journey moves forward.
Consider the possibility of Amy becoming invested and controlled by Mr. Social Mind's evolutionary process instead of her own. What meaning might this take on for her body, relationships and available resources in the second developmental stage, the sacral chakra? It follows, then, that the more she is energetically invested in the external world of Mr. SM the more authority over her reality he can hold! This external authority significantly affects her access to personal, internal guidance. After all, Mr. SM’s agenda is safety and security, not individual development. Amy could loose sight of her true face and give up her lifeblood very early on in the dance.
As Amy’s feeling nature now develops in the second stage of the dance, it will dictate her boundaries, her relationships, her power in the external world, and her sexuality. The possibility of entanglement, the misuse of allure and attraction, confusion between pain and pleasure, melodrama and thrill seeking all appear on the horizon. Will she have enough of her own energy source available to say “no” when necessary? Will she be susceptible to energetic violations and betrayal?
Two important questions begin to arise for Amy at this stage. These inner question are: What do I feel? What really excites and fascinates me?
Will she be capable of discerning the answers? Will she be seduced by Mr.SM’s beliefs and pledge her allegiance to the social mind propaganda? Will she accept the cultural belief that financial energy equals sexual energy, that the competitive edge dictates success, and that being “on top” of your game is essential? How will she respond to the accepted behavior model of being in someone else’s business?
At a personal level, the sacral chakra, or second energetic developmental stage, energizes the feeling nature and the creative urge to express. Should Amy become unbalanced, she might identify with intense feelings and urges and appear frantic, overly sensitive and needy. This development stage is the energetic source of co-dependency patterns. Here, Amy’s developing ego learns to experience life as relational. Constrictions or build-ups at this level can flow into negative expressions and sexual extremes.
They often become Shadows, collecting unexpressed feelings and holding them in the subconscious mind. Amy could express a host of patterns that might include disassociation, deep depression, inappropriate sexual behavior, and other emotional addictions.
The push to create, that defines this second energetic level, can take various forms, the most obvious one being the urge to recreate ourselves in our children. The energetic spark to put an artistic or musical creation out into the world also rises out of the same flame. If Amy’s creative urge rushes through an unbalanced second chakra, she might have the tendency to reach for titillation and gratification from outside objects or people. If she becomes identified with such strong feelings, her personal power will be given away to them. In her hunger for intensity, Amy may take “a walk on the wild side “. Such dramas will mask her real emotions.
As Amy waltzes through this second developmental period, the base chakra’s survival/security aspects around money move into a more individual version of the society’s belief system. In general, what originates in the base chakra as social mind indoctrination about money, now impacts her life force in the second chakra in money interactions with individuals. All her expectations around money and security, which began in her first dance steps with Mr. Social Mind’s base chakra program, are now fine-tuned. These steps are now played out in the relationships Amy attracts into her life. She will get to prove the beliefs she accepted through “human homeopathy”. Her beliefs become a tuning fork for life experiences that hold identical vibrations. These proofs about her beliefs are drawn to her in packages such as betrayals about sex, power and money.
As we watch Amy’s next steps, we wonder just how she might navigate the manipulation and control we all become energetically familiar with at a very young age. Let’s keep in mind that the method of education in our families, our schools, and our religious institutions is based on the same dynamics as any political propaganda program. Amy will bump up against the indoctrination style of repetition, reward and punishment. It will be justified to her as the need for “ behavior modification.”
Be ever so still, dear Amy, least you become overwhelmed in Mr. SM’s fast moves and accept his agenda for creating good citizens instead of freedom and creativity.
Amy’s second developmental stage, her sacral chakra, empowers her one-on-one relationships. It impacts her need to control another human being, events, and the environment. As her dance takes on more complex patterns, if she follows her partner too closely, she will forget her heart’s vision and the capacity to nurture herself.
We now notice that Mr. Social Mind’s pace across the dance floor is rapidly increasing. What exactly is Mr. Social Mind trying to control with the steps he insists Amy pour her life force into? Does his motivation perhaps include an attempt to control Amy’s rate of evolution?
Please join us for Part Three as Amy’s journey moves forward.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
The Journey to the Well: Part One
In the previous post, we were turning the introductory pages of a story we called, “The Hidden Treasure”. We had followed our precious child, Amy, through an initial scene of early development and left her wandering in a disorienting landscape of social conditioning. All her attention has been harnessed. Her eyes are now pointing in the direction of the external world. How this affects Amy’s energetic resonance and her body/mind is our story’s next focus.
If we follow the architecture of Amy’s development, we will notice that it seems to be hierarchical in nature. Any distortion at one level is carried forward into the next. For example, unbalanced security and survival issues at the first physical/sensual stage will take on more emotional force in the next developing feeling stage. These will then be brought into Amy’s forming mental/cognitive nature and self-image.
To help us grasp the full picture of how Amy creates her personal history, the story establishes a structure around which to organize her experience. It utilizes an energetic framework and creates architecture for examining the false self, the ego. This framework organizes Amy’s developmental stages into an energetic language, known to us as the chakra system. It allows us to follow how she manages the vital force, as it encounters the social conditioning. Amy’s dance into the landscape of “ the social mind program” begins.
The story describes Amy’s dance as a waltz with a partner called Mr. Social Mind. The first few steps determine just how tightly Mr. SM will hold Amy as he waltzes her across the dance-floor. As the music starts, we begin to wonder how easily she will be able to extract herself from his embrace and spin into her own free style solo. What now unfolds in the story brings us deep understanding and compassion about her struggle for genuine happiness in this partner’s arms.
With the first spin around the dance floor Amy begins to create her primary sense of safety and survival. The basic grounding rod begins to take shaped. In energetic terms, this dimension is called the base or “ root “ chakra. It actually controls the adrenal gland, and the health of the spine & kidneys depends on its integrity. This is the root of Amy’s sense of security, her feeling of being grounded and having a firm foundation. With this energy she will attempt to stand on her own two feet in life and be clear about her willingness to fully inhabit her body.
If her development remains stuck at this stage, feelings of despair, rage and isolation will create the world as “ unsafe “. So, now a projection of “ the self against the world (others) “ moves her into a sense of separation. If Amy attaches to this viewpoint, her behavior could expand into extreme aggression and the urge for immediate gratification.
At this point in the story, we are following Amy at a particular level of consciousness, one dictated by its focus on survival and security issues. This is Amy’s initial dance as creator of her own reality. Here, she could easily become hypnotized by her partner’s tight hold and abdicate responsibility for her own steps in the dance. Her partner, Mr. SM, might take command and hijack the innocent energy that drives her step. Our concern for Amy now escalates. If Mr. SM is successful in taking command, he will also usurp the energy needed to fuel her biology. She may become his life support instead of her own.
As Part One of “The Hidden Treasure” closes we wonder about Amy’s future. Who might she show up as, if she extracted herself from Mr. SM? If she took responsibility for directing her life force, instead of letting her partner lead, what would she create with this model of awareness?
Please stay tuned for the next chapter.
If we follow the architecture of Amy’s development, we will notice that it seems to be hierarchical in nature. Any distortion at one level is carried forward into the next. For example, unbalanced security and survival issues at the first physical/sensual stage will take on more emotional force in the next developing feeling stage. These will then be brought into Amy’s forming mental/cognitive nature and self-image.
To help us grasp the full picture of how Amy creates her personal history, the story establishes a structure around which to organize her experience. It utilizes an energetic framework and creates architecture for examining the false self, the ego. This framework organizes Amy’s developmental stages into an energetic language, known to us as the chakra system. It allows us to follow how she manages the vital force, as it encounters the social conditioning. Amy’s dance into the landscape of “ the social mind program” begins.
The story describes Amy’s dance as a waltz with a partner called Mr. Social Mind. The first few steps determine just how tightly Mr. SM will hold Amy as he waltzes her across the dance-floor. As the music starts, we begin to wonder how easily she will be able to extract herself from his embrace and spin into her own free style solo. What now unfolds in the story brings us deep understanding and compassion about her struggle for genuine happiness in this partner’s arms.
With the first spin around the dance floor Amy begins to create her primary sense of safety and survival. The basic grounding rod begins to take shaped. In energetic terms, this dimension is called the base or “ root “ chakra. It actually controls the adrenal gland, and the health of the spine & kidneys depends on its integrity. This is the root of Amy’s sense of security, her feeling of being grounded and having a firm foundation. With this energy she will attempt to stand on her own two feet in life and be clear about her willingness to fully inhabit her body.
If her development remains stuck at this stage, feelings of despair, rage and isolation will create the world as “ unsafe “. So, now a projection of “ the self against the world (others) “ moves her into a sense of separation. If Amy attaches to this viewpoint, her behavior could expand into extreme aggression and the urge for immediate gratification.
At this point in the story, we are following Amy at a particular level of consciousness, one dictated by its focus on survival and security issues. This is Amy’s initial dance as creator of her own reality. Here, she could easily become hypnotized by her partner’s tight hold and abdicate responsibility for her own steps in the dance. Her partner, Mr. SM, might take command and hijack the innocent energy that drives her step. Our concern for Amy now escalates. If Mr. SM is successful in taking command, he will also usurp the energy needed to fuel her biology. She may become his life support instead of her own.
As Part One of “The Hidden Treasure” closes we wonder about Amy’s future. Who might she show up as, if she extracted herself from Mr. SM? If she took responsibility for directing her life force, instead of letting her partner lead, what would she create with this model of awareness?
Please stay tuned for the next chapter.
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