Morning Practice

In the morning we should notice what windows have opened up for us in our psyche. For example, if we wake up fearful or angry, we will attract these situations that will magnify these feelings.

1. First it would be a good idea to do a body scan and note where we are.

2. Next we should make a commitment to live the day in the highest consciousness we can manage. This can be done during morning meditation.

3. Ask for the protection of the angels at a fifth dimensional level.

If during the day we meet up with someone who will pull us down, it will be easier to lift ourselves back up because of the commitment we made in the morning. Gossip lowers the vibration and opens the door to the memory of our own experience which might be similar.

The Spiritual Aspect of Tenacity

Being tenacious means that we know where we want to go although we do not always see the path clearly. How tenacious are we in our life right now? We have to be comfortable in our chosen path so as to be tenacious. We have all chose a path to achieve wellbeing in mind, body and spirit. What other tools can we use to smoothen our path?

To be tenacious we need to be flexible as well as soft (the part that helps me to see very clearly with deep vision). By connecting to the soft side of the heart centre, we access that energy that is welcoming, opening, transparent and non-judgmental. There is no fear but a sort of child-like strength.

The Heart chakra generates love. Hard love or tough love sometimes entails that for a brief period in a difficult situation the role of being tenacious is taken over by a third party until the person concerned is able to be tenacious himself once again.

Our soft side has vision. We can see clearly and far away. It teaches us clarity and depth. The hard side wants immediate results. The softer side does not generate love only but also compassion which is unconditional love. Tenacity cannot be attained without compassion which respects and motivates the reason to grow and gives us stability. Compassion is generated by a clear mind and open heart. A sense of flexibility which is flowing and child-like. There are no emotional blockages. Compassion totally accepts without any condition. It is the refined love of the spiritual person – the God DNA.

The Spiritual Tool of Letting Go

We are like the serpent, removing old skins as well as old habits and discarding old ways of relating. What comes out of this process is yet unknown. This process, like that of the serpent has to happen slowly and fully. It has to respect our psychic openness. If we let go a little, we can only receive a little and the process will be stifled and we will experience ourself in fits and starts and this will depend on the degree of our openness and letting go, to allow for the new us to enter. For sure, if we make the commitment with ourself to change and put in the effort, it will happen and we will receive. However, if during this process of receiving we put up blockages, that which we receive might upset us.

Primarily we have to do the process of letting go which has to be a smooth one that respects our rate of progress. For some, letting go sometimes happens in times of crisis, but do we have to go there? The spirituality of letting go is the spirituality of humility – of acknowledging. The way we experience the Divine is the way we shape our path.

We need courage to let go of some of the spiritual ideas we have which might have been instilled in us when we were young and for which we might not have been psychologically prepared. We have to know ourselves so well that we take steps in our life that are respectful of our psychology. Spirituality has always got to be open to life and respectful to who we are. Like this, our spiritual process is faster because it is totally respectful of who we are.

Our discernment on our experiences in life will form our spirituality and stabilise us. If our spirituality is always pulling the carpet from under our feet it is of no use to us. We have to integrate our spirituality with our personal experience. This will teach us how to let go. The spirituality that places us in a box with one set of rules is not respectful to the evolvement of our own spiritual experience. Our spirituality grows from our reflective experience which we test with the spiritual tools that we have learnt, thus becoming a source of growth in our spiritual life, helping us to experience the love of the Divine which is expansion and our experiences are always new which then work to build us up. The experience of Life is not the same , so we cannot stick to the same ways of dealing with it. The more we allow and the more we let go, the more we will experience things in a different way.

How Do We Integrate Things That Bother Us

We can integrate things that bother us by unlearning learning. As we start to change spiritually and become more stable, we start to allow what had been repressed to come out. We suppress because we always try to find a balance (sometimes dysfunctional) in our situation for which we pay a price by suppressing what is legitimate. This dynamic makes us weak because we decide to prioritise balance in a dysfunctional way.

Usually by prioritizing peace we suppress our true feelings in our subconscious. The women’s role in society is usually to coalesce things together for which she pays a very high price to keep the peace at all times, sometimes at the cost of self-sacrifice thus giving women a lot more to unlearn.

Since women have now taken responsibility for their own happiness, the result is quite dramatic as all the suppressed emotions a woman kept to keep the peace will now unleash.

Female psyche has two aspects. That of the Destroyer and that of the Giver of Life. We will begin to notice that women will take a stand which is not wrong as their spiritual progress depends on their taking a decision to be true to themselves which might cause conflict. This is all part of the process to find a new balance whereby she can express herself with power thus seeking relationships on a basis of justice and respect. Guilt destroys our spiritual life because any spiritual path grows only when there is a space of free responsibility. Remorse is different and builds the spiritual life in a constructive way.

Solving Problems with Shape Shifting

How do we normally deal with problems and challenges? Is it not often done through stubborn determination as dictated by our mind? And what about an alternative way ....

As westerners we usually get deep into the nitty gritty of the issue and try to figure out how to solve it. By doing so we get sucked into its energy in a downward spiral often leading to frustration and depletion of energy – having solved nothing. We use our minds for solving the problem and get aggressive with controlling the outcome trying hard to find a solution.

If we are in tune to Nature we can learn a better way of dealing with problems. Shamans know very well how to tap into the archetypes of animals and plants to read between the lines of what these can teach us.

Take for example the panther - a fast runner but it instinctively knows when to slow down when need be. When searching for prey such as a deer what does it do? It is expert at shape shifting itself into a trunk, blending with it so that it could be inconspicuous and ready for action when appropriate. It can walk slowly if its prey is a slow animal and at the right time is able to run fast after it. The panther does not force itself into controlling the situation and is ready to take its time as long as need be. It knows that in the dark reality changes from that in the light and it uses this fact also to get its prey.

From this we can learn that the universe is more fluid, nothing is fixed as we think it to be. Like the panther, our psyche can expand and contract accordingly and be able to see a problem from a different aspect. Every problem has an exception to the usual patterns and we can appreciate this fact to deal with it, knowing that it is not a fixed entity needing force to crack it down.

We lost the skill of adaptation due to thinking that our mind needs to get in the way. Like the panther we need to be aware that reality is fluid and not fixed (as when seen through dark or light) - like the panther we can shape shift to what is required - and like the panther we can integrate with an environment making it less hostile and more manageable.

Article and Photo by Mary Attard

The Dynamics of Temptation

Temptation is an inner dynamic (counterforce) which pushes us away from our commitments. Something happens within us that goes counter to our needs and moves us towards our desires. In the realm of temptation we fall into the desire trap.

‘Desire is the root of all suffering’ – Buddha.

We need to distinguish a healthy desire. This will give me a wholesome experience. This desire is linked and is aligned to my real needs. A desire which is not linked to my real needs becomes a temptation to deviated me from my path. We always know when we feel weak or strong and the dynamics of temptation go directly opposite to how we are feeling. Therefore, if we are weak, the temptation will be very strong and vice versa if we feel strong the temptation will be more subtle.

To build ourselves up and take a commitment, we need to take small achievable decisions every day which are accumulative over time, thus building up a discipline. As we become stronger, the temptations would be small and subtle and would try to deviate us from our commitment and break the resolve of the discipline. A whole chain reaction is then set into motion and within a day or two we go back to square one.

‘When I am weak, then I am strong’ – St. Paul 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Vulnerability knocks out the ego, so when we are weak, we are more alert whereas at our strongest mode we lose our sense of proportion and judgment, as well as respect for others, so the temptation there will be insignificant and subtle and it will then be our downfall. Awareness keeps us balanced in this dynamic.

We must put praise where it belongs and never allow ideas of grandeur to set in and to go to our heads whereby they then take a life of their own.

The Spirituality of Perception

Without proper perception, our way of seeing will be flawed and we will not be grounded in reality. We perceive through our senses, so perception is on the level of consciousness which is at the level of senses. We base our life on perception and constantly transform knowledge into wisdom.

To perceive properly, we need to have all the channels clear. Up to now we have perceived through the senses. That is how we acquire knowledge and information. This information is then processed through the mind whereby we come to a conclusion. Our sense of perception is linked to our personal experience and emotions, so it can sometimes be flawed since our experience is not a direct one and we are using emotion, as well as experience as an intermediary to filter it. For right perception we need direct experience to find peace and stability which will then influence every aspect of our life. We should not opt for less than direct experience.

Meditation take us into an area of our psyche which is not influenced by our senses. It bypasses the habitual way whereby we relate to everyday experiences. When direct experience becomes a habitual practice, we move into transformation because we no longer have control over the process since we allow the situation to speak to us on a level that is clear and clean because we will not be using our senses as a filter. A situation can create a range of possibilities, but experiencing the situation directly will allow the situation to speak to us in a different way.

Some people are viewing 2012 through their perception of fear. Through a direct experience, it will be perceived that it is an experience of transformation and co-creation. Our thoughts then become manifested in reality because we open up to a higher dimension which because my thoughts are aligned with source, they will then be manifested. People who are not aligned will still manifest their thoughts but if these thoughts are directed inward, they will self-destruct. We have to be responsible for our thoughts, transforming knowledge into wisdom, giving us a direct experience with what is. Perception has to help us remain balanced whatever happens.

Karma

All we do builds or breaks up a vibration. Everyday we end up with a mathematical sum of the positive or negative deeds done throughout the day which affects the total global vibration either by lowering it or raising it.
In every situation, we have the choice to expand within it. We were born with a certain level of consciousness which is our karmic footprint and which we will need to work on to expand. If, for example our learning lesson is the need to learn to trust, we will attract all those situations that will put us in a position to learn to trust. The need to learn to trust will be sending messages at a subconscious level to the Universe which will look after different situations to teach us the lesson we need to learn
We resist what we need.
We attract what we need.

The Peak Experience

The spiritual path is very personal but here are some rules and conditions that apply to all. It is never organic, so does not follow a straight line and cannot be compartmentalised. That is, it does not follow a logical path and cannot be analytical.
One cannot control the spiritual path because it works with energy which contracts and expands. Energy can only be experienced as it evolves. The spiritual path has periods of intensity as well as periods of stagnation, so it is difficult to understand it or see the logic. We try to judge our spiritual path which cannot be done – this because we are in great need of stability and to judge our progress or lack of it is futile.
With some, the knowing becomes a matter of life and death, but the answer to this will be a deep void of silence pushing us back to the reality of the spiritual path. So the spiritual path is the dynamic relationship between us and the Divine which gives rise to the different motions of the relationship which cannot be controlled. One can create the circumstance whereby the spiritual path can expand and move forward. The process cannot be controlled but we can create environments that allows for the expansion to happen with for example meditation, mantras and keeping our psyche uncluttered in any way that works for us.
The spiritual path can be the path of greatest illusion or greatest reality depending on whether we decide to cultivate a sense of freedom and service, or if we opt to feed our ego. How fast or deep our spiritual life progresses does not depend on us. The spiritual path is a gift of love and it does not matter how fast you move in it. God loves us unconditionally whether we make progress or not.
When creating the right environment, we receive love in as much as we can handle, but if we open ourselves up more, we will receive more. By knowing our gifts and talent s which are unique to us we can hasten the process of experiencing love because through them we open up a channel to a higher vibration.
The peak periods in the Spiritual path come unannounced and are the visualization of the next step – a preview, so to speak. It is a period of intense expansion. In the peak experience, problems or suffering are integrated. We should not throw any experience of our life away because once we integrate it, it will become the building block for the next step. A peak experience makes you free, If the end result is that it makes you proud or egoistical, throw it out. An authentic peak experience becomes a source of strength each time you connect with it.

Seeking Our Own Truth

Because we are working on ourself, we are moving into a higher vibration. As we progress in our path, subtle as well as dramatic changes begin to occur and our life is different. One important aspect is that we will have a hunger to know more about ourself, according to the judgement and interpretation of certain events that occurred in my life and how we were influenced by others. Because of this, the information that I have will not be relevant if I move out of the present consciousness. My ‘ME’ story is in fact not my story but the interpretation of events that took place in my life that I got stuck with. Once the shift in consciousness takes place, a certain void will occur where we do not know ourselves anymore, since we now see things from a higher perspective. Therefore it is important for us to drop our story NOW. We do not need to repeat it to ourself or others. Once we are strong enough to do this, it is like a re-birthing experience and we may not even be able to recognize ourselves.
Now it is the time to dissolve blockages and allow for healing. To affect deep healing, once can root himself into the NOW moment. If we catch ourselves moving into the ‘ME’ we just have to let it go. As we journey forward into the way of openness, we receive new information (the truth of who we are), which will be our guiding power which we will flow with. We will realize that one of the tools is the capacity to let go. So what is changing is the perception as well as the fact that we will become better equipped to move into higher consciousness.
Sometimes we discover truth by an exercise of contrast. This happens because we have a dualistic mind. As we move into higher consciousness, both ends of the contrast become the truth in a unified way and there is no longer duality of the mind and therefore we see deeper into things. We will no longer need to analyse because ‘what is’ will be the truth. We have to re-work who we are in this context. Good and bad will not disappear but will be the contrast of each other and both are true. We are presently living in situations where the consciousness is not elevated, so we are living in a superficial reality which we have through a higher consciousness which results in chaos. The movement of consciousness will separate us from each other. These are times of transition where we have pieces of the old and pieces of the new coming together which can be quite confusing.
So now is a time of healing and integrating our experience into a harmonious one where I can see that in all the aspects of who I am, I reflect God.

Seeds of Opportunity

Every moment in our life throws seed of opportunities because we are part of this evolutionary process. We are completely oblivious and unaware, therefore we miss these opportunities. If we live in awareness, we will see these seeds which will present to us opportunities for growth. Through our own free will, we can disrupt this process but if we live lives where we flow in this process, we see each moment as opening up something. We do not talk of positive or negative experiences but just experiences without labeling. The mind puts things in compartments to feel safe but like this we kill the moment.

What we think was a negative experience could be the best opportunity to grow spiritually.

1. No Labels – They prevent me from seeing reality as it is.

2. Every moment is neutral because it is up to me to make these seeds grow. The
worst thing that can happen is an emotion or blockage that has made its home in
my psyche.

3. To find balance in all circumstances. The balance we achieve is sometimes the
result of a compromise, sometimes by finding a balance in a dysfunction. We
will sense this because we still feel some level of discomfort in the
situation. The knowledge of this is positive and the fact that we acknowledge
that in this situation means that there is still some area in our lives that is
trying to mature.

One has to carry the dysfunctional balance with deep awareness and acknowledge the situation as being neutral. If we get stuck in the inner drama, we kill the seeds of opportunity. We must commit ourselves to allow the seeds of opportunity to manifest in our lives which will then open up new doors.

The spiritual life has many perspectives like a crystal with many facets, which will present different directions and opportunities. We will never know the best direction but by moving into the spiritual life and seeing different aspects of the prism, we will be presented with different spiritual impulses which will then take us through our own process to the best possible us.

Fear restricts our vision which does not allow the multi-faceted aspect of our vision to develop.

Signs of the Times

The current times are particularly unique to other periods in history. We are experiencing chaotic times on both a macro and a micro level. Around the world various types of upheaval is taking place, both as natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, eruptions and global warming – and man made disputes like wars, famine, displacements of thousands and dismantling of whole systems such as the health and financial ones.

On a personal level we are finding ourselves likewise unbalanced – not quite knowing where we stand with our belief systems, emotions, desires and general mental stability. What worked before is now becoming questionable and often needs to be changed.

As our planet and the universe move through a Galactic electromagnetic shift which peaks around 2012 we are finding ourselves experiencing fast changes in our way of behaviour and relationship to others. This will cause friction and uneasiness urging us to act in often unusual ways to balance things in our own lives.

We are starting to realise that our past stability in certain areas of our lives was often a dysfunctional balance, This is causing the need to act in even drastic ways, where before we would think twice to act in such a way. The same is happening with worldwide rebellion of suppressed peoples who had put up for years with corrupt leaders.

It is now, more than ever, that we need to find our balance by being aware of the occurring shift in the general consciousnesses and realise that the apparent chaos is all leading to a cleansing of past distorted realities. Meditation practices should help us ground ourselves and understand the changes surrounding us – all for the better of mankind.

Article and Photo by Mary Attard

Spring Holistic Therapy Marathon

Knowing Thyself

Why should we know ourselves? Who are we, anyway…..

Our spiritual life provides us with a clue. Many are those who like to stay in their comfort zone, a place where they feel safe and unthreatened. This is done through an identity acquired through beliefs and attachments to which they can relate and therefore feel safe.

Our beliefs about ourselves also contribute to our perception of who we are. If we tend to be easily angry, for example, it is a sign that we let ourselves believe that we are certain of what we think or say, as if we hold the whole truth about anything. Our beliefs get challenged and our identity bruised…..

One need to be aware that having an identity is nothing more than enclosing oneself in a box where two things might happen. Either, one becomes too big headed and thinks that he knows it all or else feel deluded and helpless. Both situations cut a person off from being open to growth and expansion.

To grow spiritually we need to strip ourselves from any attachments to let ourselves be open in receiving new insights. Having no particular identity gives one a great sense of freedom. There is no argument to win or lose and other aspects to a situation could be happily explored.

As a baby in his mother’s womb is nourished through the umbilical cord, we, likewise, get our inspiration to our ongoing needs from our higher universal powers that get tapped to us through our higher chakras that connect us to our divine source. But we need to let this route open for such reception. If we encase ourselves with a patina of ‘identity’ issues we are risking losing this spiritual nourishment from reaching us.

Like a child we need to be open to possibilities and viewpoints beyond any rigid thinking while still using our discretion.

It is a time of taking decisions boldly – rather than keep deliberating about them - with the understanding that in spite of the best of intentions our decisions might still be faulty (on hindsight) - and that is fine too provided we can learn to take home something out of the outcome – whatever it is.

Our actions need to be motivated by love but without the necessity for attachments to results that will hold us back in our spiritual growth.

We are free beings nourished by a higher source. That is what we are. Any acquired identity will only handicap us from moving forward.

Article and photo by Mary Attard

The Dynamic of Love

Our life has to be a celebration of love. It has to be one that manifests love which is the deepest and most profound desire of everyone.

We are always walking on a tightrope because love is such a powerful experience that it easily makes us lose our balance, so we try to find love in everything we do, our lifestyle, belief system, thought patterns etc. It is a celebration of love which becomes a continuous & permanent dynamic in our life without which we will not have a full human experience.

One difficulty is that we are short-sighted. We go for one thing which becomes absolute and total and we believe it will fulfill this hunger for love. Some do it through their job or friendship or even relationship. The problem is if the process becomes a totalitarian one, it will take over our life which will only end in disappointment.

To celebrate love, we need to build a base where the structure of love becomes possible. This is done slowly and progressively and gives rise to a structured situation that we choose and cultivate so that love progressively manifests in our life in a fluid way. Making the process absolute is dangerous and an illusion.

How do we create this structured situation?

1. It demands a certain type of structured discipline – rigid and flexible at the same time. This is because love is so powerful that it surprises us each and every time but once it manifests, it holds you. There should be a certain degree of openness which is a discipline in itself. It is important that we are open to surprises as dealing with the energy of love will bring about surprises.

2. We would need to cultivate a certain discipline of the body, that is, we give the body the very best. The energy of love has to manifest itself in the body. This requires that habitually we choose the best for our body in all aspects which is also a discipline.

3. The third level of discipline has to do with the psyche in that with time and training we move into a discipline of psyche that allows those conditions that are the best for us. We sometimes relate to our psyche in some strange ways which usually have its roots in our childhood. We allow it to remain wild, without discipline and we let everything in. If when young I allowed my psyche to function with manipulation, the relationship of the child with the psyche is that he allows it to be wild and it will infect all other areas of his life with the bug manipulation, thus curbing his freedom.

The psyche cannot be stimulated by different energies but has to be disciplined – enough that it is coordinating with our desires in all aspects. It has to be in unison with the rest of our efforts, namely openness and body.

Together they create a structure which is the foundation to experience love in our lives.

Discipline becomes love and love becomes the discipline. Without the discipline of love there will not be the stability to live situations of chaos. Love has the power to transform any situation.

Who do you think you are?

From the beginning of time man tried to seek the answer. Throughout our life we build an identity and we think that this is what we are. Our consciousness creates a personality, the way we behave, and erroneously perceive this personality as being us. This concept was explored lately at the Centre.

We forget that our consciousness is only part of a universal consciousness and we are all interconnected in a network. No one is totally independent in his thoughts and actions as these are influenced by our surroundings and other circumstances and beings.

So when one is experiencing a problem, it (the problem itself) is due to many factors often beyond our control. This fact should relieve us from thinking that we are totally responsible for any problem we might have as this was created through a whole dynamic of events. This is a very practical and important factor to remember.

If we, on the other hand, take it on ourselves to solve the problem we will be trapped in our own belief that we are the only ones that can or should untangle the matter. We would limit ourselves from tapping into higher consciousnesses for receiving aid thus stressing ourselves unnecessarily in shutting up our energetic aura.

And likewise when we have some successes it is not all due to our own efforts either, as it is the result of various happenings and other people’s interventions too.

By now you could realise that what we think we are – we’re not…or perhaps it is only our ego playing games.

Understanding this will enhance our life as we feel supported by the universe in what we do and experience. We are not alone when confronted by some challenges as the realisation of our interconnectedness will relieve the weight for the need to solely sort an issue. By surrendering into the process of life we will be inspired to do the right thing in its due course.

Osho explained it very well when he said, ‘All life is of the Whole. If you are trying to live on your own, you are simply being stupid. It is as if a leaf on a tree is trying to live on its own — not only that, but fighting the tree; fighting other leaves, fighting the roots, thinking that those are all inimical to him. We are just leaves on a tree, a great tree — call it ‘God’, or ‘the Whole’, or you name it, but we are small leaves on an infinite tree of life. There is no need to fight. The only way to come home is to surrender.

So, to the question for knowing who we are the answer is that we are part of a network of consciousnesses and any identity we think we have is only skin deep.

No one is an island and we all need each other to live harmoniously……and healthily.

Article and Photo by Mary Attard

The Medicine Wheel

The Medicine Wheel is a tool for the journey of self-discovery. There is always an unknown in the relaity we experience as we are not capable of seeing all. Even in prehistoric times they were aware of this because they used to look outside of their reality eg astrology. The Medicine Wheel is a circle that represents the Earth. It is divided into four sections. The belief was that if you understood these four sections you would be able to understand yourself better. This was practised by The Native Americans, Celts and others. To understand something deeper you create a Medicine Wheel. This can be universal or personalised.

The Centre is NOW. The smaller the NOW circle, the less awareness one has, so we have to work to expand the centre circle equally in all quadrants, otherwise out view is warped and we lose contact with ourself. When we move out of the NOW center unevenly we unbalance.

Fear sends us either to the Future which is an illusion or else to the Past and not where we are in the present moment – the NOW. The more we open and expand the centre NOW circle, the more we move toward the outer circle thus reaching enlightenment since reality would then have become one.

If our energy is transferred to the Future, we experience uncertainity and fear or else an infinite possibility of hope. If our energy is transferred to the Past, we experience guilt or nostalgia. If our energy is transferred to the Subject we experience grandiosity or depression/self-pity. If our energy is transferred to the Object, we experience anger, jealousy or envy.

The law of gentle return takes us back to the centre.

Drawing a simple medicine wheel gives us an awareness of where we are at this point in time. When we sleep with our problems without integrating them, they sink into our subconscious and continue to work. With a healthy attitude it might resolve by a dream, but the experience continues to work at a level that we have no control over. Therefore before sleeping, we should distance ourselves from the problems if they cannot be resolved before sleep.

Putting our intent in the NOW is sufficient for the power of intent to work. It is important that we are rooted in the present moment.

When the past is helping us to understand the present moment, it feeds the inner circle – the NOW centre which begins to grow, so it no longer energises guilt etc. But energises our present moment, empowering the NOW.

The Future can help us to strengthen the NOW by non-attachment to thoughts and material objects. The Past can bring about a process of forgiving ourselves as well as others. Our past experiences can also help us learn how to love ourselves. The Object can express compassion and empathy towards others and the Subject will begin to doubt the stories about itself with all the titles and labels we collect along the years. We are then liberated, that is, we realise that we do not have the whole truth about ourself and all previous beliefs about ourself fall.

For the inner NOW circle to expand it needs to be fed with Joy, Love, Stillness, Gratitude and Presence (comfortable in being).

When we do not live in the NOW and get stuck in our problems, the inner NOW circle shrinks because it loses energy which is wasted on Past/Future/Subject/Object.

Psychosomatic illnesses come about when we lose this energy and begin to weaken. When our consciousness is scattered and fragmented, it causes damage to us. The arrows have to be inward focused, so that anything out there, Past/Future/Subject/Object gives us energy not depletes us. Future should be lived as possibilities.

When we live in the inner NOW circle, we will automatically learn how to protect that space. As the inner NOW circle grows, it automatically begins to repel those situations that can lead it to shrink. It grows and shrinks everyday according to our life circumstances until we reach the critical point, where the only way is then forward.

When making a spiritual step forward, there is the tendency to be attacked by those issues that usually shrink this inner circle because the energy that was usually outgoing rebels which can even lead to absurd thoughts and ideas that are out of nature and that we do not normally indulge in. This happens as an attempt to pull us down to a lower level of vibration.

Ways to have Spiritual Guidance in my life.

If I do not know how to move forward in my spiritual guidance, I get confused. Before it used to be solely the prerogative of the Church, however, there has now been a spiritual shift which has made our spiritual progress the responsibility of each and every one of us. There are signposts as guidelines:

1. It is important to know where I stand at this point in time. We

tend to fluctuate on this and sometimes function through

different parts of our personality, in a range from immature to

mature. We emphasize different aspects of our personality

according to our circumstances, family background etc.

2. It is important that with total honesty, we can examine what part

of the personality we are functioning from at all times, either the

mature or immature part without guilt feelings since it has

nothing to do with us but the circumstances we met up with.

3. A good indicator could be signs that the physical body manifests

eg. anxiety, fear. The physical experience reflects my thought

pattern at that time. When we wake up, the first hour is the time

when we take the decision which will give us our direction for the

whole day.

Spiritual Guidance – I believe that there is an inner push that is guiding me for full development whether I want it or not. If I accept it I move into a dynamic of collaboration, if not I get into a dynamic of confrontation and thus find myself in a crisis. The more we use our spiritual guidance to take decisions to enhance our life, the more we strengthen it. Sometimes, we choose the road of confrontation, and then experience life as fragmentation or negativity.

Unity of Opposites

Duality is an everyday experience which we move into on awakening. If I experience sadness, I am aware that there is the opposite of that and vice-versa. Everything has the flipside, thus duality. Some people take this as an experience of fragmentation and they can never find stability in life, thus it is the source of their unhappiness. So if something joyful comes to them, they always live in the fear of the sadness that might me awaiting them round the corner. In this way, they never live their experience of joy to the full, causing deep unhappinees in their psyche. This because they constantly live in fear that something will happen to unbalance them. This sometimes becomes pathological and does not let them experience long periods of peace.

Many spiritual traditions have unfortunately encouraged this way of thinking by creating a chism between what is good and what is bad. The duality is emphasized and people are encouraged to choose one part which they call ‘good’ if they are to be happy and save their soul. This has harmed many because it has created a conflict within some people since it has created a psychological struggle which to them ends at death.

In every spirituality, there are the rules of the religious part which is so to speak, the rules of the club which empasizes the duality part. However, every spirituality also has the mystic part which goes beyond, with the belief that duality is not the real human experience. The personality is experiencing wholeness through integration of the opposite poles. Thus it does not experience it as a split in personality but deeper integration and maturity. By rejecting one part one can never experience unity of opposites.

An example of this is the relationship some people have with their sexuality, where they are afraid of thoughts that come to them and struggle to reject them. This is an experience of opposing attitudes that come up of their own accord. Because of this, many people go through life riddled with guilt which is often misplaced. They can only achieve balance if they accept all their experiences as sacred, not to be suppressed or rejected. This can be done by unlearning some of our beliefs and basing our spiritual life on the mercy of God.

When in a conflicting situation, it is wise not to suppress one part but to allow both sides space to manifest in ones life. If we believe that ultimately all human experience is one of unity, it is only there that we can find balance and happiness, thus allowing conflict a place in our life.

Our Spiritual Identity

Where am I? Who am I? Where am I going?

The baby is totally connected to the body. It has no dilemmas with identity and is living the pure human experience. It is identifying with its’ true self by deriving its’ identity through the body. One cannot experience God through the mind. The baby’s smile is indicative of its experience in the human body where it is happy to be. In time, the baby begins to have different experiences because of exterior stimuli. This will create a different experience or identity called the false self which comes about because fo the reflective process and it is through this process that we suffer and feel pain, thus slowly losing touch with our initial process of joy. In this way we set off on a complex journey with a different path of identity.

The False Self is an imaginary self which we create as a by-product of the reflective process. This creates a world of its own, full of emotions and mental activity which gives us a false identity of who we really are. We then carry this false identity throughout our life, thinking and believing it is whom we really are. We then start with the internal dialogue which causes us to suffer because we are never satisfied and at peace because there is this sense of lack and the more we shift into this persona, the more lost we become because the mind continues to create situations where we then get lost because we cannot find ourselves and become slaves to internal dialogue.

We relate to the world and people through this internal dialogue – hurt, hopeless, extremely good etc. Therefore, we filter reality through the internal dialogue using the skills and mechanisms we have experienced in our life. People have difficulty relating because they create a world of their own i.e. I know who I am because of my problems.

We get to a point in our life where we have to take a decision. We might experience a deep crisis of identity which might require us to take a decision. This illusion of false self cannot feed us any more and we come up against a wall. This is the most fruitful moment because crisis will give us the opportunity to decide the path we wish to follow. It will show that the previous path we followed did not give us life. This will then initiate a process within us which will want to transform the way we live. Difficult experiences in our life like shock, degressions, end of a relationship, loss of a job etc will freeze our mind and internal dialogue. Our mind can no longer cope with these experiences of life and shuts down, thus giving us the opportunity to go back to the pure experience of the baby. The true self of human experience makes a comeback bringing us intense and short periods of joy, reflecting the connectedness with my being. Like the phoenix , new life comes out of the ashes. We then start to move again into a dynamic of human experience.

Paradoxically, I have found peace because I have always been dissatisfied. My moments of depression and despair turn out to be renewals, new beginnings. If I were once to settle down and be satisfied with the surface of life, with its divisions and its cliches, it would be time to call in the undertaker... So, then, this dissatisfaction which sometimes used to worry me and has certainly, I know, worried others, has helped me in fact to move freely and even gaily with the stream of life. (Thomas Merton)