Realize the Rite of Passage

Notice every genuine spiritual tradition echoes the right of passage. Each tradition offers stories, symbols and metaphors that are understood differently based on level of consciousness. Of course, we can misunderstand a message, resist deeper truths or, only allow ourselves to be taken part way along a specific journey. The thing is, partial success does not yield a rite of passage. One either passes the test or, clings to what holds one back until ready to make a leap.

One metaphor is the idea there is no going back to the previous level of ignorance (and "levels" exist). Another metaphor is the need to endure 1 or several ego deaths, so to experience rebirth at a higher level. Letting go here is key to clarity and access to "higher" reality. And then, the metaphor of alchemy, a refinement process, a gradual extraction of who you are from a false construct. You might surmise this is worse than a quick ego death, as it involves many processes--burning, distilling, simmering. This said, clinging to ideas about suffering is problematic. Its made complex or simple.

Funny- the ancient yogic view echoes 'rite of passage' is not at all a "passage" or "ordeal". It is simply awareness of one's own mistaken perception. In the metaphor of a rope for a snake, the snake never exists, only a rope. Rather than a rite of passage as is so often assumed, the key is to realize (see) things as they are. The truth is that no snake exists and thus, it has no need to be feared, killed, controlled, avoided, alchemically transformed or burned. So why not take the easy way? Why turn self-realisation into an ordeal? The "ordeal" is only attachment. Ego resists letting go of its suffering, narrative, or belief it is/is becoming what its not. The ego resists giving up mental ideas, defenses, those things that are creating its problems and tearing it apart. No snake then needs attention. No rescuer is required either. Seeing energy as it is never happens in the future, only now.

In a nutshell--Samsara is Nirvana. There is no nirvana other than samsara seen as it truly is. To see clearly, simply remove the scales, veils, delusions, projections, false beliefs, all of those qualities that have ego think its unique and special. Simply tune into silence, dissolve into absolute consciouness, in which one is never differentiated from infinite intelligence and never born. No metaphor captures the truth of supreme reality. And yet, it is what one is and one cannot be anything but that. One is yoga.

Once one attaches to the imagined process, one splits into self and others and the prospect of disappointment, betrayal, sense of dependency unfold. "We" get caught in that double bind that begins to replicate itself in every situation: it cannot know what it wants for it always wants and wants the opposite of what it wants, because the one consciousness is torn and split. At times, it seems one never left the infantile state for one was too attached to being cared for by the other. The illusory adult is simply a strategizing construct that struggles to separate itself from its attachments and codependency and its inability to gain real power and real freedom. So long as any construct whatsoever exists, any system of belief or any projection of a world, so that there is any illusion you have a name and a form, so long as any hallucinations and delusions infest the mind, there cannot be realisation of the Oneself as the Absolute. What happens, that samskara, predisposition once the physical verhicle dies, creates another and another, in attempts to liberate itself from suffering. Nothing heroic about it. Only suffering must be sacrificed. This happens at any moment as nothing really happens.

The Zen koan everyone is facing is the attachment to their baggage. As Ramana said, "you are on the train, holding your suitcase on your head as if you are convinced it will not come with you." You can leave Samsara for Nirvana, but samsara will never go away. Turning this into some long-term process is not a rational path to self-realization, but it is common. Why extend suffering? To end it now, use your power of reason and love. Together they guide you to liberation. Being free opens you to the beauty and bliss of a reality you can choose over the unreality and never return to unhappiness.

May your third eye open to see the real, such that all illusions fall away. May you know freedom from all attachments, attitudes and judgments that consciousness hides within (including highest hopes and worst fears). Liberation is now or never. May you choose the Truth Now. May you choose peace that comes with the realisation that inner and outer are one. May you choose the knowing of self-created illusions, realize you are never born, never changed and you have never left mirvana. You have always realized the paradoxical nature of the real for that is what you are. May you know the supreme bliss of getting the joke in the wonderful sense of humor of the Divine Source who abides as the ultimate knower in your heart.

Tune into Kairos Time

Notice part of you already knows the outcome but you are here anyway as events must still play out to activate the alchemy. Life unfolds as energy flow which is the ultimate timekeeper. Among all creatures, HUmans are the only ones who measure time and suffer fear of time running out. Ancient Greeks spoke of two types of time: Chronos time is linear time, measured in seconds, minutes, hours, years. It is required to do normal everyday "time." Chronos is the forward propelling time that we measure with clocks, on watches, and by the evolutionary phases of the moon. Kairos time is soul time. It is the point at which all healing happens, where all wisdom and intuition resides, where all serendipity happens and where all creative ideas arise into consciousness within you whole. Retrain the mind: more kairos and less chronos time. Love more. Work less. Connect with the wise, greater part of yourself. Embody all you came here to be. Express who you are at soul level, fall into harmony with the universe. Imagine your inner light, soul, spirit, ancient self. The part of you bridging heaven and earth, constantly whispering the best course to take. This timeless, tender part of you invites you to listen and allow it to navigate the most compelling life direction.

The Point of Meditation

Notice meditation is about opening the sacred heart or Third Eye. This is not a vestige or organ living in the head. Its a blossoming of awareness that presents based on expanding consciousness. One aspect is not the part of you that identifies the "I" that associates you with the limited physical body. As we examine this first "I" more, it is a mosaic of childhood conditionings used to fulfill agendas that even this "I" does not understand. It does not know what it says and is completely unaware of what is beyond it. The second eye is an entity frozen in time, the Inner Child, the self you were long ago that refuses to dissolve, that runs the show to gain power or sensory gratification that it did not have as a child. It has many different agendas. It is anti-love, or resists love for it knows not what love is. This second eye arose from a sense of rejection. It was created in an environment that was not unconditionally loving. It may not know its gender or whether its alive or dead. Until this unfulfilled or empty ghost is flushed out and seen as it is, it cannot be dissolved. Until then, the second eye perpetuates itself through activities of the first "I" (unbeknownst to the first "I") that projects the second eye in the form of "the other". Things go on with the second eye that the first "I" doesn't know. The second eye enjoys the vex, suffering, self-defeat. To get beyond suffering, you cannot simply analyze the first "I" because the second eye controls the thoughts the first "I" is allowed to retain. The truth keeps falling away, yet it consistently slips away as the first "I". The key is surrendering to the Third Eye, pure awareness, love and the unborn, eternal Self. It sees all. As one turns inward, the first "I" comes to surrender to divine nature and the second eye can be fleshed out, cherished and integrated into the whole. The first outranks the Third Eye. Only as the rightful owner of the mind is allied with the conscious mind can all vexations and unconscious agendas be overruled and absorbed by the Divine. It is not "I" that actually lives within us but Supreme Reality, that which is beyond any name or form. We can point to it but it only reveals itself as we make our way through the winding web of illusions and love ourselves fully. We can surrender to it. If you are meditating and the mind refuses to be quiet, this is simply resisting the ever-present divine within you, the very life of our Being. To surrender through the act of silence can overcome the ani-love force that has created illusion, ignorance and the wheel of reincarnation. Liberation arises as one accepts oneself fully and knows one has been the divine all along.

Love brings clarity

Notice love invites us to remove the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we can no longer accept or live within. The path of removing our masks, requires dismantling the life we have come to think is real, tolerating pain, and seeing through our suffering. What makes the journey worth it is we long for reality more than we want to hide inside illusions of those masks. Recall the story of the Golden Buddha. The gold of this buddha was hidden for centuries under simple plaster and clay. It went unnoticed, a reminder it seems natural we develop layers of ego coverings, that we learn ways of hiding, enhancing and ignoring our True Self. When we feel really fearful, the covering gets thicker, more solid. We add layers to what is always here and do not recall the gold. We are identified with the coverings and forget the Truth of Being, our genuineness. Turns out, "real" is not how we are made. Its not our outer coverings symbolized by plaster and clay. Something more formless, intrinsic and pure is awake. As we shine the light of awareness on the plaster coverings, we bring the warmth of love, humor, acceptance to those coverings. This is what melts them so golden authenticity shines through. As we grow more mindful of our patterning (represented by the coverings), we realize the illusion of the anxious, needy, lonely self. It dawns the underlying radiance is more true to who we are than the clay coverings. Wakefulness, openness, creativity, aliveness only shine through as we allow maturity, inner wisdom to reign. The poet Rumi reminds us that is is through love that pain transforms into medicine. We are our own healers that transform into beauty and goodness with perfect timing. We know we are supposed to love ourselves into healing, to face the ego states and love ourselves through it. The most fundamental layer of conditioning is the one that does not recognize the painful coverings are illusions. We hate ourselves for the coverings. We are supposed to love the coverings, the parts of the ego that make it hard to open tour heart to ourselves. When negative emotions arise, we are taught to dislike or hate ourselves, and the master emotion, shame shows its head as if "something is wrong with me/us". Every emotion has its place and can get amplified. We are culturally- rigged with a deep fear of judgement and rejection. Whatever comes up, we come to believe we shouldn't be feeling this way. The core feeling of badness imprisons us in the mind until we are ready to let go of the covering that glues itself to all other coverings. In the stress of life, we forget the subjectivity and realness of each other. The key to being real is to remove layers of conditioning, to listen more attentively to each other. The messages of bad "other" repeat. Shame is exacerbated by cultural caste systems. We are wired to not like our own conditioning and think that is who we are. The healing comes from seeing and loving the conditioning so it can become more transparent though we have an aversion to it. The gold of loving awareness is always available, much like the sun is always here regardless of how many clouds exist in the sky. Through love, all pain and suffering dissolve. Clarity remains.

Allow energy to flow with ease

Notice what occurs to our dreams, sense of being and purpose as we refocus to navigate existence with energy awareness. Shifts in consciousness happen as we allow "light" to guide us. Although sensing energy is second nature, (only to sight), this ability usually lies below conscious awareness. It flows in the background, remains unconscious until we decide to be aware of its presence. To recall we are energy beings, existing in an energy world, helps shake us out of unconscious patterns. Ancient wisdom and modern physics both describe the sea of quantum energy in which we exist, and our body is composed of oscillating fields within a liquid crystal structure. Consciousness itself is captured within the brain’s matrix of holonomic photons. Familliar physical senses distract us from energy awareness. Intuition provides energetic information (as energy and info are inseparable) about another person’s feelings, the negative energy in a particular place, or even about food quality. Bringing this natural sensing ability into conscious focus is the key to shifting into consistent heartfelt living. Tuning into this innate sensory capacity transforms your experience. Beyond the obvious, it is key to the flow of spiritual paths. Unleashing True Nature is about moving through 3D distractions to activate the light body. This requires inner work with shifting, changing, and monitoring body energies over an extended period. We can learn to pack bioenergy into certain areas, condensing, storing, and distributing finer forces. The alchemical refinement of our subtle energy systems and purification of the five elements demand the same skills. The entire process is about awareness moving within our body field with ease. Purification is initiation to activate more advanced alchemy. The process invites tuning in to sense and contain our core energies, to-get-to-know energy on a visceral level. If it resonates, we begin to experience how emotions and thoughts all ride these energies. We grow aware of stored forces within the bones, the abdominal plexus, the gonads, and other tissues. With energy awareness, we may also begin to see, from a practical, not just moral point of view, how useless it is to waste precious energies on hatred, ill-will, jealousy and unconscious engagement. Energy awareness accelerates transformation. Without valuable preparation/ inner work, we are a priceless bioenergetic missile, possibly unique in our galaxy, ready to launch, but with no fuel or insight to power it. Growing aware of energy blockages, then accessing and fine-tuning energy within u, is the groundwork to initiate a natural process. Only then do inner flames ignite and illumination occur.