Access more joy

Notice for some, joy may seem out of reach or not experienced regularly in daily life. What is your experience of happiness for no reason, that which is embodied, open, energetic, alive? Does anything arise? Were these passing states? Is it just a state you imagine when you feel stressed and seek to get somewhere else? What is required to tap into it as an enduring part of our Being? How often do we celebrate simply Being right where we are, come what may? How often do we sense beauty and tenderness? Aliveness and openness grow more accessible as we open and value the whole of existence. Its like shifting awareness from viewing life as a problem to solve, into seeing life a mystery to experience. Do we feel obligated to feel joy or is it spontaneous? In the same way, to commit to realize full potential, empathize with the suffering to around us makes us feel more connected to our world. It is also part of our commitment to being whole to feel open to loving the world as it is. As we cultivate presence, this natural capacity within each of us, we actually cultivate paths for joy. Being open to light-heartedness happens as we pay attention and cherish all of existence. The quality of life is experienced in proportion to allowing our capacity for delight to guide us. This is a gift we give ourselves as we pay attention. Joy happens. It arises from the simple experiences; jumping into piles of leaves, tuning into the scent of a flower, the wind blowing on our face, a snowflake landing on the tongue, the taste of a strawberry. The experience of joy is so-life giving that it feels natural to find joy in everything from sunrise to sunset and all that unfolds in between.

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.

Come Full Circle

(Image by  Mareh Kohen)

Notice at a given moment, you can only ever do "your best" based on your current insight, level or stream of consciousness. A focal point of awareness knows there is never anything wrong with you or how you do anything. How and what we see is simply a matter of perspective. Purpose and circle of compassion simply change (expand or contract) based on sense of self. So long as you view yourself as a separate individual, purpose is related to time and distance imagined to reach "success," in forms of a job, life role, sense of community or experience. As you tune into the Soul, and reframe 'coming full circle,' the only purpose is to love everything and everyone equally not only in mind, but also consistently in practice. There is nowhere to go, nothing to become. As it dawns love and acceptance are here now, one's circle of compassion expands. One gently stops recognizing difference or attempting to prove oneself, stops comparing and judging. Imagined boundaries dissolve. The ego mind could never understand for it cannot comprehend unity, equality or interconnectedness. The more you notice fear and/or love speaking through you, the more you come to notice the ego comes and goes whereas true divine Being is ever-present. As timeless Being takes the helm and navigates the ship (human body-mind), then choices change and love is the ultimate purpose and motivation in every area of your life. Trust and surrender are the compass. This does not often happen instantly, but it does happen. We are each like a stone skipping across the cosmic ocean, leaving ripples, deciding what stacks up, changing vibration in due course.

Access Absolute Freedom

Notice as you understand the truth of who you are, you are in union with the divine. The universal rules that run the HUman ego create a structure that guides each being to ego liberation. The physical world itself plays an intrinsic role: the perceived pressures, pains, fears, risks can shake us up and awaken us to more. Ego liberation happens through discipline and surrender beyond the ego itself. Freedom arises as an impeccable action aligned with the necessity of the moment yet, it could never be allowed or predicted by any structure or institution. This implies acting beyond constraints of the character that is still identified as the person in the dream. Imagine what it is to exist in absolute spontaneity without reference to any external criteria. To be here (in this state) legitimately, you must earn it energetically -eliminate all vibes of suffering within, all impulses to take yourself seriously (i.e. ego disappears). This is a complete elimination of the tragic side of life and illusion of separation from pure divine love. One shifts into a state of perception where everything is funny. Its all joy, beauty and laughable. This can only come in the fullness of reality as divine laughter. That is, the humour cannot be at any level. To earn the right of boundless freedom of joy, we have to purge all sense of suffering and all perception of bad things happening. Only then does one have clear vision. The presence of this consciousness, that level of lightness of being, enables the Soul to transcend to be One with the divine. One must free oneself from any karmic residue, no longer have any projections on anyone and be free of any other, where one cannot be hurt and one's joy is totally contagious and liberating. This kind of humour is not a secret egoic joke, or an effort to hide one's own egoic entrapment, certain identifications or concern for the life or death of the body. Ego death is required. Realize the real now and have the right to total blissful living without any concerns for mundane limitations. Freedom happens when you free yourself from materialism and other nonsense that the ego is imprisoned by and indocrinated into, let go of all belief systems that you have been born into the physical world.

Imagine what is emerging. The new focus is shifting out of old grids and timelines to grow into a living consciousness of pure light itself ever-changing. Reclaiming sovereign power is about creating realities in alignment with divine intention. As we unlock more codes, dormant capacities are activated, gifts from paralell realities grow accessible, the knowing of how to weave energy into matter re-enters awareness. Conscious alchemy enables us to create in a whole new way.

Equanimity is what you are

Notice the resistance that arises at the prospect of facing adversity. Sitting meditation in silence offers ideal conditions for preliminary practice, to develop tools to face what evokes discomfort, and yet, sitting as such is not the real thing. True meditation happens when you are amidst the action, the chaos, when you face impossible people, intense emotions, unavoidable situations. During such conditions, can you keep the mind in silence, solitude and peace? To do so, we must first raise awareness and stop attacking ourselves. Many of us have a mind split into a victim, rescuer and/or attacker for ourselves or "others". We may even change roles. Still, when we are fiercely equanimous, we do not perpetrate or yield to threats, do not cave at emotional manipulation or implications, remain unaffected from attacks and guilt-trips that come from our superego, our own unconscious. We dissolve it by refusing to ratify it. By calmly abiding, we see through the unreal. The ego mind attacks, would like us feel bad about ourselves, stuck in a spiral. The only way out of it is to stop being an ego self, be unaffected by desire or fear, pain or enjoyment. Our true practice is to come to view suffering as a mental exercise. Most of us are taught to fear death, pain and other challenges. Yet, to a Zen master, all are great blessings. The view is our enemies are our greatest gifts to evoke love, passion, forgiveness, self-empowerment in the realisation of the unity of all that is. They guide us to let go of the ego mind, that which would like to be in pain, to be in a state of inadequacy, guilt, shame, attacking or peaceless self -justification or self-reproach. These are all false relationships with the real. The Supreme Being is within us. Only through awareness and alignment with Soul can we claim this power. A guru cannot give it. Mantras or other spiritual practices do not give it. One must claim it and with the power of will, integrate it into our life. It happens when we are in a state of deep honesty and truthfulness with ourselves. If we allow it, our inner voice can sting us worse than a sword. Let us focus on remaining in unwavering stillness. Let us not react, but move instead into that state that dissolves into the pureness of our Being which is love. Let us follow our breath. Get into the mind of silent presence. This vital life force, or equanimity is what you are and it cannot be lost.