The Wisdom of Presence

Notice where anger exists, pain or hurt lingers underneath. To be aware of this implies we no longer completely identify with it. If impatience arises, if we focus on or get worked up, overwhelmed about the next series of things, we are lost in continuous doing. Stress is the sense of feeling lost between now and later. Its common to feel lost in this gap in time or space. This dysfunction is amplified by technology which conditions people to focus on the illusion of "then." If we get uncentred, we get lost in thinking which underlies doing. This means we are lost in thought. Many thoughts hijack our attention to deny, devalue, disregard, reduce the present moment to a means to an end. How often are we taught the present moment is an obstacle to overcome? This revelation is a stepping stone to being here now- transcendence.

Dream Analysis of the Week- Butterfly League

Dream:

A man was seated at a round table in a club.  Each had different deep-coloured table cloths that hung to the floor.  Seated strangers talked in hushed voices. He waved for a standing lady to come over. She smiled, wrote something on a sheet of paper and handed it to him scrunched up like a boquet as she walked away. The writing said she was " out of his league." He set the paper down under a transparent glass butterfly paperweight.  The paper rolled itself up, covering the paperweight. Then it turned into a butterfly and flew away.  Suddenly, the man was alone. everythign else vanished. He became half man, half woman, drinking from a golden cup.

Insight:

On the surface, it may seem someone or something is rejecting or not validating you, but deep down, you can only ever reject or validate yourself. Every character (man, woman, strangers) and objects are a version of you inviting you to explore shadow fears.  The matter of opposites and the failure to recognise and integrate the shadow (all that is within us that we do not know about) are responsible for all out percived problems. 

Something or someone has had longstanding appeal and has also has been enriching your life experience.  Yet, as energy and priorities shift, what once held your undivided attention can lose/ has lost power and influence. Like a paperweight, it may now feel like its holding you down (or back) from your soul destiny. You are like the restless paper, ready to spread wings, fly into new freedom. This may be a turning point for letting go of attachments, emotions, karmic loops, situations that have had you feeling powerless until you awaken to truth. 

Round tables highlight decisions on the horizon which can bring or maintain inner peace and harmony.   Reason to feel imbalance tends to call for reinforcement.  As a metaphor, the Knights of the Round Table were a order dedicated to ensuring the peace of Arthur's kingdom, and were entrusted with mystical quest for the Holy Grail. The Grail echoes, the hero's journey, the true spirit of Western man. It is the myth of Western civilisation. 

Contemplation and silence enable the individual to allow the best of his or her own inner life to emerge. For the undisciplined person, however, ego can redirect attention into disorientation and misery, if his own defects and negative thoughts maintain control. Until we have conquered our own hidden shadows, no rest is truly given. The disciplined person relaxes and is quiet. He is in peace with life and himself, for he knows the inevitable challenges we all must face in order to grow. He gets that his greatest enemy has always been himself, and until he conquers that he can go no further. Until he does so, he will see himself as a victim of the trials and tribulations of life, which adds to the burden of his own unconscious.

On another level, the Holy Grail is a symbol of the Self, the psychic totality and ultimate wholeness of the human being. It is the vital force that drives us toward balance, the process of bringing unconscious mind into consciousness. If we are not trying to become whole, we are cut off from the true source of our being, and we feel empty. Encountering the Grail does not impart direct knowledge, but rather gives us an emotional readiness to receive a numinous experience of our inner centre. The Grail story is itself a projection of the Self as an inner centre, unrealised and inaccessible to most. It is the inner guide (God’s voice), the hidden disposition to wholeness which exists in the unconscious of each of us until awakened.

League refers to depth (i.e. 20,0000 Leagues of the Sea) as well as in distance one is willing to go to achieve a goal, solve a mystery, get to the truth, complete. a journey.  To interpret dreams, we must be willing to accept a soul's-eye view of our life. Ego goals focus on fear-based needs for food and shelter, survival for the body, food for thought, and the soul guides us to deeper spiritual sustenance. 

Butterflies are insect totems and symbols of transformation. They are also short-lived like windows of opportunity to make key decisions in your life.  Just as a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly, you, too, can transform and grow spiritually. Turning into a butterfly involves more than just a physical transformation.

We offer Dream Consultations which explore single and multiple dream patterns, components, categories and energies. We also offer an Astral, Lucid and Dream Yoga Course. 

Patience is a teacher

(Peruvian Pop up visionary art experience by Alfredo Zagaceta )

Notice the feelings evoked by words 'loneliness' and 'solitude.' It is common to fear or resist being alone. Ideas of loneliness evoke visions of boredom. So, a bored person finds another and they both take action to get through or beyond the ideas of boredom. On some level, boredom doubles. Doing has its place and provides a path to valuable lessons. It also takes one away from deeper truth.

The genius of mind creates illusionary escapes, places, illusions of togetherness. Our whole society, families, organisations, communities, hobbies, livelihoods, travel, are all escapes from visions of loneliness. Yoga is the process of growing aware of absolute loneliness and growing aware nowhere really exists to go.

Boredom is transcended by living fully in each moment as it arises. Be open to the unknown, to anything that may happen. Accept it as it comes. The denial, non-acceptance is the obstacle. To be open, receptive, to accept, is to unconditionally welcome it all. Create the situation and the happening will come by itself. Nothing truly valuable can be predicted. We cannot predict every aspect of life, yet we can set heartfelt intention, let things unfold in their own way.

To be patient is to surrender. Sit in solitude. People who resist waiting imagine the idea of certainties. They have said do this, and this will happen. The mind tells us the happening is a guarantee. Yet, in the big picture, this cannot be. Waiting lifetimes may not allow the thing to come. As one fully accepts this uncertainty, the heart settles. That is, knowing everything is happening now, is to be aware of everything as it is, to experience glimspes of the whole.

Ultimately, no one truly knows what is next. No one knows every possible path. No one knows exactly what this moment will bring. To accept what comes and make the best of it allows the best version of Self to blossom. This waiting is as easy or as hard as each of us decide. Our energy has the power to shape a new destiny, to allow us to shift timelines, dimensions or into what resonates.

Let go of will to control

Notice its common to wonder what determines how life unfolds. Yet, its not up to us. Its outside of our control. Feel into any resistance arising to not being in control. Everything that presents results from dynamic forces of equilibrium and natural laws interacting and creating what is seen and unseen. We do not have to know all reasons that needed to happen for everything to be as it is. This has nothing to do with us. Its completely impersonal. Everything is fine until we show up, judge it, attempt to force or manipulate. Energy flows where we are not. We are fine with that. We rarely or never complain about where we are not. Ponder this...

So, life is not about controlling energy. Its about our relationship with the force of creation unfolding outside us. We each inhabit a body and "the world" is outside. Energy is always unfolding, that includes before after time, before our birth and after body is gone.

Many people seek peace. Thing is, right now, we can be in a state of acceptance, awe, respect, honour, experience this moment as fresh and new. Insodoing, we gift ourselves whatever arises. We are the only being standing right here, now. From this view, no problems exist, simply experience we accept (or reject/ resist). For most, their relationship with life and self is not always peaceful. Why is that?

Well, we decide in the mind, develop ideas, of what life should be doing today, tomorrow, and beyond. In truth, we limit possibilities, make it all up, create a vison, goals, dreams we must realize and specific steps to get here. Ego decides what should and should not be, what we like and dislike, what is right and wrong in relation to our own self-created points of reference. A problem is that unfolding realities are not obliged to meet our expectations. Business projections are not always accurate. When what we want to happen, doesn't happen as we want it to and when, that is viewed as a problem. Yet, reality does not behave this way. We make up an alternate version of reality and get upset when the unfolding does not happen as ego wants. This brings suffering. We are the source.

In essence then, Buddha's Nobel Truths are simple. Everybody is suffering because they do not have the right understanding of the way things are, they have expectations for life that reality does not meet. The cause of suffering is desire, preference, our idea of ways things ought to be. We make it up and want things to happen, our way.

As it is, moments exist independently from the rest. Everything is interconnected. To end suffering, end attachment to desire and outcomes, stop being rigid about the way things must be. Come back to simplicity. The way the world is does not have to be the way you want it to be.

A key question to ask is what prompts us to fear things will not be the way we want? It evokes tension. A wise person does not renounce all desires. Yet, why do we insist on imagining an alternate reality instead of savouring the one that exists? Rather than struggle with life or ourselves, go deeper. Everything does not have to be a certain way for us to be loved, lovable, accepted, successful. We are a witness, guest and observer.

Awaken Energetic Nature

Notice everything unfolding in our midst is inviting us to awaken to the energetic nature of the phenomenal plane and the big picture. Only as we reach a level of insight can consciousness arise out of its limited body vehicle to enter a wider field of awareness and know liberation. The growing institutional, local, national, global market upheavals foreshadow the dissolution of the familiar, many levels of destruction and change, many of which are unfathomable in mind.

Part of the job of yogi, and all who are ready, is to ground self in a state of peace to hold space for the external crumbling of systems and conditioning we have outgrown. Soul is aware no chaos exists at the level of Infinite Self. It is transitioning from one age of human consciousness to another. The old paradigm, old ways of functioning, must fade, dissolve so a higher vibrational state can arise. Only then can the fear of death, loss and duality of our world be recognized as a portal to the birth of a new world free of the kinds of conflicts and illusions that led to this period of transition.

In a nutshell, time is of the essence. We need an extremely direct path to self-love and acceptance. Not much time for pilgrimage walks, ashram stays or reading libraries of books, taking courses. Destruction is happening and the familiar is fading fast. Surrender to love. Stop time travelling between the ears. Ideas of past and future reside only in the mind. They are illusion. Willingly let go of all that has been taught as distraction. Bravely sit to face yourself. 

To graduate from this level of reality, now is the moment to get the spiritual knowledge of the most profound sages of our planetary history. Embody their wisdom. Turn inward. See things as they are. Shapeshifting happens quickly to those who are wholehearted.