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.