A Meditative Experience

Through both my mothers love of yoga and Erich Schiffmann, I was invited to, in exchange for helping set up for the yoga retreat, attend two of the gatherings and lectures of Erich Schiffmann.
Erich was a large, nearly towering man, with long, curly, blondish-gray hair, broad shoulders, and a soft, open face. His voice was also sort of soft, and he spoke gently. He moved with the grace and energy unmatched by most male yoga teachers I have experienced. One could say, without hesitation, he was in touch with his divine masculinity.
Erich spoke to us about intuitive yoga practice and led us into a guided meditation. (Note: I currently adore guided meditations, maybe because I need more self confidence, maybe because I never really know exactly what to do or think once in meditation in order to actually get somewhere.)
What I experienced sitting there on my yoga mat was quite the experience. My mind became quiet, and for a split second, a small crack or window in the physical dimension opened up. Love, eternity, joy, and ecstasy all came flooding into me. It was a glimpse of the inner workings of the universe I will never forget.

What is a Free Spirit?

A free spirit dances in the moonlight, sings in the sunlight and doesn’t care whose watching. Playing past dusk and awake past dawn, a free spirit doesn’t abide by anything but their own spontaneity residing inside their sun-kissed shell. A free spirit doesn’t regret the past – relationships, arguments, or losses. A free spirit doesn’t worry about the future – trials and tribulations that may or may not lie ahead. A free spirit lives in the present moment: Now. They find light in the dark world that lies around them and sometimes within them. They accept the shadows in their human experience – identify, discover and grow from them. An internal focus of control gives them the ability to live, love and learn for themselves. Not self-centered but always self-respecting. A free spirit realizes he or she has a house within nature but not always a place to call home. Never lost, because they are never going anywhere in specific, they wander the lonely roads with a smile ear to ear because they are what everyone else wishes they could be: Free.

A Wise Woman told Me

“I knew a wise woman

And she said to me

That the river would mold me

And the wild wind would cool me

The the trickster the coyote

He would fool me

That father sun would warm me

Mother earth would clothe me
Grandmother moon would greet me

And of the old ways she would teach me
Wise woman, she told me

To always walk lightly

Tread the earth ever gently

Lovingly so preciously

And take from her sparingly

She said, to share with others

What you have learned from me

Be still and breathe, ever patiently

For the web of life

Has woven what is to be

But you must still chose

Your own path, you will see

And lastly, the wise woman said to me
To listen to the wise one

That dwells within me

To walk my path in balance

Is too be free

More than just words

So mote it be”

Lucille Moore, A Wise Woman

How to Become Enlightened

Ten steps to enlightenment:

1. Stop trying to become enlightened. Put down the practice, go inside you and ask yourself: What do I hope to experience by becoming enlightened?
Ask yourself, what do I not have right now that I want to have? Success, peace? Freedom from worry, fear, death? Be specific.

2. Get really quiet and ask yourself this: What am I willing to do to achieve this goal? Are you serious about this, or do you want someone else to enlighten you so you can go make money and be free from your egoic self-identity at the same time? This is a real trap!

3. Are you happy today? What are you feeling right now? Peace, boredom, fear? Write it down. What do you think you need in order to be happy? Write it down.

4. Do you think that enlightenment is achieved through suffering of some kind? Be serious and write down whatever comes to mind.

5. Do you think that your body can give you enlightenment? For example, through postures, sitting for long periods, breathing, etc. Be honest.

6. What is your idea about God? Write whatever comes to mind. This is a very important point. Ideas about God are always limiting.

7. Do you pray and why? Do you know who you are praying to? Are you sure there is someone there? Do you hear a voice speaking to you? Do you feel a presence? What is it like? Describe it.

8. Are you willing to change your beliefs about God? What if God’s Will for you is perfect happiness…would you believe that?

9. Are you willing to take responsibility for every thought you are thinking by accepting the fact that you are the thinker? Most people just accept that their thoughts are true because they are thinking them. What if none of them were true? How would that make you feel? Would you want to know what is true?

10. If God created you perfect and whole, is this what you experience now? In other words, are you totally aware that you are a complete idea in the Mind of God? Do you want to know yourself as this? If not, go and try to achieve something here. Good luck and enjoy all of it totally. You will either find it or not. But it should be an adventure either way.

Why Does It Hurt so much to be on Earth?

Sometimes I feel like I don’t belong here. Like coming here was a mistake. But then again who doesn’t feel this way on occasion.
Personally I think I have had previous reincarnations on other planets, although I do have memories of being here as well.
Even though the burden here on earth can be quite heavy sometimes I know I left my other homes and soul families because through the pain I learned compassion; anger gave me clarity and strength I needed to endure. My loneliness taught me self awareness. By experiencing my greatest fears I learn courage.
All these pains are simply the gathering of experience. We grow by learning; we wouldn’t know happiness without the knowledge of sadness.

How to Find Inner Peace

This article pretty much sums up everything I’ve been trying to convey.
And I know it’s long but it’s worth it, I promise.
Enjoy!

How To Find Inner Peace

By Phil Rowen

The path to inner peace is not simple or short. You cannot just wake up one day and decide you are going to have inner peace from that point forward. It is a process, a journey that needs to be appreciated every step of the way. You need to be willing to let go and accept your full spectrum of emotions. You need to be ready to step outside the box you have allowed yourself to be put into and start from scratch, getting to know yourself all over again and be willing to make mistakes. And most importantly, you have to realize that only you have control over your emotional responses and reactions and they can be changed for the better.
No one article or even one book is going to give you the answers to achieving inner peace. What they can do is assist you in initiating change within yourself by bringing light to something you were not previously aware of. Once you become aware of ways you can improve how you live your life, you can begin true transformations. These transformations are paradigm shifts or evolutions of the mind, spirit and soul. Once you really change your ways to be in alignment with your true self, you will never go back, just like a tadpole to a frog or a caterpillar to a butterfly.
Often, people live within a false sense of inner peace. The saying “A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what a ship is for!” is an example of this. If you live your life in “the harbor” and never go out of your comfort zones, then you will be misleading yourself into believing you have harmony within. You need to be willing to experience a full range of emotions and face some challenges on the path to getting to know yourself through others and your experiences.
Offloading Your Emotional Baggage
Everyone has a certain amount of emotional baggage they carry with them everywhere. The idea of finding inner peace is to offload this baggage so you can feel light, healthy, vibrant, free and maybe one day even enlightened. What is emotional baggage? It comes in many forms and some examples could be shame for past deeds, judgments towards others, being victimized, being abused, guilt for past mistakes, distorted beliefs about yourself and others, insecurities and body image problems. Every person is unique in their genetics and socialization. Add to that unique experiences through life and we get complex individuals who bounce of each other every which way they turn, sometimes positive, sometimes negative.
The secret to clearing your issues is to take your ship out of the harbor and interact with others. This is a vital part of learning about yourself. If you have ever heard one important thing to remember in your life on this earth, remember this: Anything you see in others, you have in yourself also and any judgment you make towards another, is really about you. This applies to both “good” and “bad” things you recognize.
An example of what this means is if you react in anger towards someone who is crying, having no compassion for their situation, it could be you are angry with yourself when you get sad, seeing it as week and don’t ever allow yourself to cry. When you refuse to accept something in yourself, you also will not accept it in others.
Another example, a teenager comes home from school and tells her mother a crude joke she heard about drug addiction. The mother immediately goes into a rage and yells at her to go to her room and that she is grounded. Mum stands there shaking, and angry that her buttons have been pressed. She had a brother who was a drug addict and they had never told her children about him. She never spoke about him and never dealt with the issues around the subject. When she reacted to her daughter that way, it was all her own anger and issues about the situation and nothing to do with her daughter.
We need to start looking at the way we react to people and to situations. We need to work on smoothing these “buttons” we all have everywhere, because you can’t find inner peace if you are constantly judging yourself and others. This is process of learning and being willing to admit to yourself and others when you are wrong. This is a cure way to learn a lot about yourself very quickly!
Once you open your self to the truth there will be no going back. The idea is simple – if you don’t have the emotion, thought, trait, personality in you that you are seeing in others, you would not recognize it in someone else. We see someone make a face and because we make that face when we eat something sour, we presume they are also experiencing the feeling of eating something sour. This is not the case – this judgment projects from our mind like a movie of our own experiences played on cue for any situation, and we aren’t even aware we’re doing it. Use your interactions to better yourself and grow in your compassion for others through realizing your own faults and problems.
There is more good news – you can also own your admirations. This means all the things you admire or maybe are even jealous of in others, you have in yourself also. Maybe you have always admired the guy next door for his ease on the basketball court, yet he practices every day and disciplines himself. You know deep down if you did that too, you could be just as good. You can choose to realize this is where your jealousy comes from, and use it to change yourself through your new self awareness or sit around in bitterness and jealousy, denying your own undeveloped talents.
Another example is women who make comments about other women’s clothes. Often they are really the most insecure ones of all. Instead of feeling in competition, they need to deal with their own issues as to why they feel a person’s clothes have anything to do with the person themselves. Do they think their clothes make them a better person, and if so, why?
Letting Go of Control
You will have to let go of control to find inner peace. This is control you have over any one in your life and control over life itself. One thing you can’t do if you want peace, is give anyone else power over your feelings. When you try to control someone, ultimately they are controlling you. If you feel you need to monitor someone’s every move, or have them be with you all the time, you are really restricting yourself to the same. You have to develop trust and let go of fear.
If you feel scared, accept it for what it is, a harmless yet uncomfortable emotion. No big deal and when you’ve overcome it a few times, it becomes easy. Never say “You make me feel so angry/sad/frustrated!” because you are choosing to feel those things and what someone else does with their life should not impact on you. It is about developing emotional intelligence and allowing people to live their life without being responsible for your reactions.
Trust those who say they love you and trust every interaction you have. Don’t be trying to read into things, there’s no point. What other people think is none of your business and you will never be guaranteed to work it out, so just let it go. This won’t happen in a day, but keep working on yourself. Any time you catch yourself wondering what someone says or thinks about you when you’re not around, just make a point to change your mind to something else. If you keep doing it, you will re-train your mind, and before you know it, you will be free from the opinions of others.
Fear for some reason has been applied to so many situations in our time. Fear is actually an adrenalin response to a situation we instinctually feel the need to flee from. Anxiety, stress or worry are not fear. You may be worried about going out in crowds, you may be anxious about the promotion interview and you may feel stressed about going by yourself, but you aren’t afraid. Acknowledge these emotions when they arise, let them know they are justified, then continue with your plans.
Rest assured that the more times you continue, regardless of the feelings, they will soon fade away. An example is a lady who hasn’t dated for five years and someone she knows and trusts has set her up on a blind date. Initially she is very excited and as the time draws near, she begins to tell herself she is too afraid and can not go through with it. She ends up phoning her friend for the mans number, lying to her friends, then calling the man to tell him she has become suddenly ill and can’t go. If she just said to herself “yes this is difficult and I AM nervous, but I can do it anyway and anyone would be nervous in this situation, it’s just human.” What is the worst that can happen? Maybe she will sound or look nervous, but that’s not bad and no where near as rude as canceling at the last minute.
Denial is like a disease that spreads through the minds of you and your friends. Like attracts like and you can bet your friends are more like you than you realize. So many groups or circles support each other’s denials, which inhibits personal growth. An example is those who work in the wine industry. Many are serious alcoholics and if you ever go to a dinner party with them, you will see they all talk about how much they haven’t been drinking, yet they drink every day. They excuse each other’s binges and quickly try to change the subject if anyone brings up drinking too much. Then there are the ones who openly joke about being alcoholics together, bragging about their experiences. They are all stumbling blocks to each other and they are supporting each other in their denial.
We Can Only Change Ourselves
Why would anyone want to bother with all this inner peace stuff? To end the cycle of ups and downs, emotions popping up when you don’t want them too, interactions with others become diplomatic and helpful and you will be able to experience an inner calm and confidence that words can not describe. You will no longer have petty conversations that are full of gossip and bragging, but will begin to talk about ideas and events that are interesting and positive. What you put out, you really get back in life. So if you think and feel negatively towards others, you will think and feel negative about yourself as well.
The time old saying “Mind your own business” is based in wisdom. We can only change ourselves and it is not for us to judge the way anyone else lives their lives. As we have already discussed, any judgment we make is actually really related to ourselves anyway. Don’t waste precious time or energy on what others are doing with their lives, and learn not to take anything personally.
Whenever someone makes a decision as to how they spend their own time or energy, it is their decision to make, so don’t go sticking your nose in where it isn’t wanted and don’t think it is all about you. There is no way you can know the repercussions of your advice of judgments towards others, so keep your lips sealed even when the urge seems overwhelming to give your opinion. It is not your place, and unless you have been overcome with some phenomenal amount of wisdom and perfectionism straight from the heavens, you don’t have the answers and shouldn’t act like you do.
Meditation and Inner Peace
Meditation is very important part of finding inner peace. Mediation is not only relaxation, it is a way of living. When you meditate as a form of relaxation, you access areas of your mind which are normally hidden behind everyday thoughts and memories. You are able to clear away all the petty thoughts and get to your deeper subconscious mind to deal with what arises. This can help to fast track your road to inner peace, as it relaxes and vitalizes you physically, emotionally and mentally and reconnects you spiritually.

The New World Shift

Quoted from Bella Capozzi-
The faith [trust] and fortitude of Humanity is being put to the test, challenged in it’s ability to place love first, before all else. To believe that underneath whatever and however things appear on the surface, that there is an underlying Divine plan at work. Gaia is shifting. She is twisting and churning and shaking off the darkness and debris of the Piscean Age – an age which is fading and dying and rapidly coming to a close. Like a set of clothes which are too tight, she rips free of her old bondage. Gaia is patient. Gaia is kind. Gaia is forever tolerant of the her children’s follies, even at the expense of her own health and comfort. But now, at last, today is Gaia’s day. From high up in the Heavens rains down the crystalline rain to wash her clean and lift her higher up, closer to God, and further distanced from the destructive paradigm of old. The Earth is moving, she is transmuting. She is taking you with her on her Holy journey, thus in turn rendering you – her willing passengers – transformed as well.

Enlightenment through Suffering?

It is possible for Enlightenment to be achieved through suffering, although in our current times it is not necessary. For example, Jesus was in the desert for 40 days. It can be nice to relieve our bodies of consuming or digesting for a while and focus our energy elsewhere. That is most likely where fasting first originated from.
But the teachings of Buddah say “For six years he practiced severe asceticism thinking this would lead him to enlightenment. He sat in meditation and ate only roots, leaves and fruit. At times he ate nothing. He could endure more hardships than anyone else, but this did not take him anywhere. He thought, “Neither my life of luxury in the palace nor my life as an ascetic in the forest is the way to freedom. Overdoing things can not lead to happiness. ” He began to eat nourishing food again and regained his strength.” It is one thing to experience suffering when you have never truly witnessed it and want the personal experience. Sometimes suffering comes from deep childhood hurts, and in order to release them, we need to feel and sense into them. Be with them, relive them, meditate on them. Only then they can be released, our ego will dissolve and our vibration will lighten.

Loving Yourself

In order for others to love you, you MUST love yourself first. I cannot stress this enough. If you are one of those people searching for love, stop, just for a moment and ask yourself if you really do love and accept yourself for who you are. If the answer is yes, then all you need do is to wait. Love will come to those who love themselves first. And remember, Patience is a virtue and the key to love is acceptance.
When you love yourself, it is easier for others to love you. You will find that you will be receving more love from outside yourself. It really does work. When you look in the mirror, don’t seek out or search for your flaws. Instead try admiring your beautiful eyes, or those awesome brows. This is a good start. It is the first step to loving yourself.
Next take a look at your personality and spirit. This is what really counts.
Also keep in mind loving your body is important because it is the temple for the soul, but loving who you are on the inside is what really counts. In reality anyone can be beautiful or handsome, but the real key to finding a successful relationship is a good personality.
Be sure to keep in mind not to be too vain. Being to full of yourself is not healthy for the ego. One must try and humble themselves. Remember, balance is necessary here.

The Flowers Within

Enlightenment comes from within. The entire universe can be found within ourselves and our hearts. We are limitless. We are immortal souls. Only when we return to the original source of god will we “die” and even then we won’t really die. We will just return to something greater. Death is mearly a transition. It makes people sad because they think their loosing something separate from them, but in reality they are gaining a piece of that person or animal. If we are all one, and death is just our soul rejoining the universe, then the soul that left the body is rejoining ourselves. We will always have that person or animal within ourselves because we are all God.