Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Surrendering into Love


~ The Moon is Full ~


She came into fullness early this morning (well, yesterday by the time this gets posted), middle of the night for a friend of mine in Australia. I was facilitating a POD alignment at the time, so we all got to partake of the moment of fullness on the other side of the world.

The full moon illuminates, shines a spotlight on the issues and alignments at hand. For all of us, everything is 'up' where we have not surrendered into love. This full moon, in particular, is spotlighting relationships and authority. In tandem with the Mercury retrograde, we are asked to inwardly communicate with our highest vibrations, our deepest inner truths, particularly those we have locked away and perhaps thrown away the key. A truth about relationships and authority is that, in a true soul-bond there is no such thing as 'authority' except for that deep inner authority within each party, aligned with Truth.

How am I certain of this? Practice. Eons of it. In a soul-bond we hold our inner authority, and encourage the 'other' to do the same. Each, a corner of a triangle pointed 'upward', walking our paths with heart, honoring the Source within first, within the ALL absolutely. In the age to come, no other honoring will be needed, no other authority perceived. It is what we have worked for, prayed for and endeavored for, for lifetimes.

The key is the heart, always. Whatever we 'lose' we have given back to love. For love is the only and always, the source of us all.

I recently made a conscious project of this. I opened the locked places, dug up the long-buried feelings and offered something I have greatly loved back to the Great Mother. At last, a part of me had found what it sought, or so it thought. Or so it thought. I had traveled from inner agony to the ecstatic realms in the arms of love, and yet - the unity had fallen short - been just out of reach, so very very present and yet... and yet... Releasing all commitments, all vows, other than this deep and conscious offering, with my heart opened fully, I offered this great longing back into the arms of the Mother of All. Releasing love into love. It kicked my ass. ;)

And yet - the Mother's love filled me and brought my tears from fullness, to simply LOVE. It is Her gift to us, if we choose to align with Her.

This does not mean aligning 'against' some other form of truth. That is not true alignment, that is 'taking sides'. Truth wears many guises. In wholeness, there are no 'sides'. This, I remembered, in the silent knowing that, as I have long remembered, so now it is time for letting go.

There is no more time. Time has broken. And the moon is full!

She asks us to open and receive, to be willing to open enough and to allow and to know not what we 'do'.

May Every Blessing Find you!
?
http://www.delphicwave.com

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Truth about (Un)Becoming



We, all of us, have trained our minds to believe in what is 'real'. What is real? The truth is that what is real is what we choose to 'make real'. That sounds like spiritual double-speak, doesn't it? And the truth is... nothing is more certain than this.

We sign up for the incarnational 'ride' to experience a virtual version of 'real' that we design. We have help, of course, from the Master Architects, until our souls remember enough and we have honed those skills.

What is real is what we choose. And when we tire of choosing, what then?

This excerpt from Adyashanti is very clear about the 'realities' of the path 'home', the path of un-becoming, of un-weaving and dismantling all that we have made real.

More soon! But give this a read! There is truth here, of the un-distorted kind.

(and see the film 'Inception' produced by Legendary)

Thank you Adya, for your honesty!
Full Awakening


"Through the process, there was a deeper, more extraordinary dissolution of the egoic self than I had previously experienced. It wasn't a dissolving like when you sit in meditation and your sense of self dissolves into a wonderful state of presence. It was more like someone was ripping layers off me, one by one. It was very unceremonious. It wan't nice, it wasn't kind, and it wasn't easy. It was existence shoving a mirror in front of my face and literally holding me there so I could not look away for even a second... I saw that what happens in the body and mind ultimately can't be avoided. Everything has to be dealt with - everything. Everything has to be seen through... I tell this story because everybody has a story.

We all have our own ways in which life is attempting to hold up a mirror, to squeeze the conditioned self out of us, to squeeze out of us the holding and grasping, to squeeze out all of our beliefs and ideas and concepts and self-images. If we are willing to look, we will see that life is always in the process of waking us up. If we are not in harmony with life, if we are working in opposition to it, then it is a rough ride indeed... When we are not willing to see what life is trying to show us, it will keep ramping up the intensity until we are willing to see what we need to see. In this way, life itself is our greatest ally. To think that enlightenment only comes through wonderful experiences is to delude yourself. For most of us, the path to enlightenment is not rosy. We need to acknowledge this, because otherwise we're only going to let ourselves travel toward that which feels good, that which supports our image of what the path of awakening should be. For most people, the path of awakening does have wonderful, profound moments and realizations. But it is also a gritty thing. It's not what most people sign up for when they say they want to be enlightened.

The truth of the matter is that most people who say they want awakening don't actually want to awaken. They want their version of awakening. What they actually want is to be really happy in their dream state. And that's okay, if that's as far as they've evolved. But the real, sincere impulse toward enlightenment is something that goes far beyond the desire to make our dream state better. It is an impulse that is willing to subject itself to whatever is needed in order to wake up. The authentic impulse toward enlightenment is that internal prayer asking for whatever it is that will bring us to a full awakening, regardless of whether it turns out to be wonderful or terrible. it is an impulse that puts no conditions on what we have to go through. This authentic impulse can be a bit frightening, because when you feel it, you know it is real.

When you have let go of all conditions - when you have let go of how you want your own awakening to be and what you want the journey to be like - you have let go of your illusion of control. In fact, we have to be willing to lose our whole world. That may sound romantic when you first hear it - "Oh yes, let me sign up! I'm willing to lose my whole world." But when your whole world starts to crumble, and you start to emerge from unimaginably deep states of denial, it is something altogether different. It is something altogether more real and gritty. It's something that some people sign up for and some people don't. This isn't a journey about becoming something. This is aboutunbecoming who we are not, about undeceiving ourselves. In the end, it's ironic. We don't end up anywhere other than where we have always been, except that we perceive where we have always been completely differently. We realize that the heaven everyone is seeking is where we have always been. Once again, what is required is a certain sense of honesty."
~ Adyashanti ~

May Every Blessing Find you as your dreams crest and unwind,
Nalini
(Mary)
http://www.delphicwave.com

Monday, August 2, 2010

The Luminary and the Visionary ~
the Dance of Being and Doing



In this transit time of “much ado about everything” new awakenings are rampant, frequent, almost everyday occurrences. [For a discussion of the difference between awakenings and ‘enlightenment’ please see my previous post by Leslie Temple-Thurston. ]

What is non-hierarchical enlightenment? At first glance, this sounds quite attractive. And it is. Hierarchy is a concept form the old cycle and is part of the addiction to boxes and labels and classifications of form.

One might be attracted to this concept because “if it is non-hierarchical at least I won’t be on the bottom”, and/or “maybe I have a chance to be ‘make it to the top’ if there is no pyramid to climb and no rules to obey and no ‘class system’, etc. etc. ”... that is NOT it.

Non-hierarchical enlightenment in its first manifestations is begun in the dance between Illumination and Vision. Illumination, in its true formlessness, will attract the necessary efforts / actions for the space it holds, regardless of what ‘form’ (person, place, thing or situation) takes the actions or makes the efforts... luminaries tend to attract visionaries and visionaries are attracted to luminaries, because without the luminary the configuration of the visionary lacks purpose. In duality then, without the visionary, the luminary can feel ‘without purpose’ because s/he holds space for ‘nothing’. The visionary can feel ‘without purpose’ without the illumination that guides the vision. When these two configurations are not merged, are split, or held in duality, all kinds of misunderstandings and misalignments can occur.

Cosmic laughter here!!! In unity, the luminary IS the enlightened state and the visionary configuration allows that to flow into the current reality where consciousness is focused (remember they are ALL virtual) in a divinely guided way. Put another way, the awakened or illumined heart simply shines, guided by the singularity of the divine nature, and the visionary is the configuration that guides the taking of action or making of what appears to be effort in our reality of friction and movement and form. The illumined heart breathes ‘inspiritus’ into vision, which then creates form from formlessness, or formlessly guided form. (If your mind is still struggling with this, relax and let your heart take over ~ it will understand immediately and begin to let go.) Illumination holds the light, the space, and Vision holds the guided movement into form from formlessness. It is the inner marriage of the cosmic dance.

If we merge and reconcile the luminary and the visionary, still respecting the distinct energy configurations of each, what happens is that the luminary holds space for ‘space’ as ‘space’ (light, love, divine influx) and the visionary guides the flow of that into creation by whatever means s/he is guided to by merging with the inner luminary (which can out-picture in a person, place, thing, tradition, or any form that is helpful to that creative process). Creation itself initiates, supports, nurtures and drives this process.

From the Divine Feminine perspective, the solar feminine is the Source of the lunar... remembering that the lunar light is a reflection of the Source within, as in this reality, our ‘moon’ shines with the reflected light of the sun. Nature in collaboration with the Divine architecture of creation.

So, the merging of luminary and visionary energies is another way of talking about merging formlessness and form both into and from the ocean of divine resources. Some of us embody more of the formless, some more of the form. Each, in its own unique way, is a Divine Manifestation, containing the All within.

What does this have to do with Non-Hierarchical Enlightenment? As we release into the new cycle, we will be shown!

What will your embodiment be? Ride the waves and see!

May Every Blessing Find you,
Mary – (Nalini)
http://www.delphicwave.com

{Please note, that FB and Twitter are currently suspended, as formlessness refreshes and re-shapes itself within the wave, once again}

Sunday, August 1, 2010

The Difference between Awakening and Enlightenment

This article was written by my friend and mentor, Leslie Temple-Thurston of http://www.corelight.org. It is the best description of a confusion I encounter daily in my work, that I have ever read. I hope it serves you well!
Blessings!
Mary (Nalini)
http://www.delphicwave.com



"Many of my students are moving into advanced spiritual studies and making good, sound progress towards advanced states that bring the resolution to this long journey we have been making together. Because of this I feel the need to address something that I have wanted to talk about for quite sometime. It has to do with the way in which we all seem to interchange the words “awakening” and “enlightenment.” There is a difference between the states that these two words represent—a rather large difference in fact, and I would like to discuss this with you now so that we can all get clear on it and find a deeper understanding at this crucial time in our evolution.



Awakening is a term that is used a lot now, much more than the term enlightenment. I can only hazard a guess as to why this is—maybe it’s because “awakenings” are happening every day to lots of people and enlightenment is not! And maybe it is just a more up-to-date term for the kind of movement that many people are making these days, who knows! It seems there are many different kinds of movements towards awakening nowadays! However, there does seem to be some confusion happening here and it is time to clarify this. Essentially, it appears we are talking about two different states of consciousness—in the same ballpark, but in outcome and reach, actually different. Defining the difference between them is what I would like to do now.



I, like most people have used the term “awakening” as well, and I know that in my mind I have a precise sense of what I mean by that, just as using the term enlightenment is also clearly defined in my mind. But I don’t think that the differences the language conveys are necessarily observed by others or even understood. The two terms are being used inter-changeably, which is something that I would not do. So I would like to get a bit clearer about this with all of you, so that we can all be on the same page with what we each mean about where we are going.



Let’s start with the way I see and define the word “awakening” and then move on to the other one. Awakening seems to denote moments of sudden “ah ha’s” in our lives where we suddenly and unexpectedly have big breakthroughs in our understanding of reality, and cognize the resulting shifts in consciousness that are taking place in us. This all leads us towards a broader perspective on the ultimate Truth of life and who we are. These shifts come non–stop when one is an enthusiastic student seeking liberation from the old, structured 3D ego states. But these are openings of various sorts on the journey, not the attainment of the final destination—that of knowing the ultimate Truth of who you truly are. The road to enlightenment is marked by many of these awakenings of the kind that are taking you in a certain direction—to Oneness and the knowledge of who you truly are!



I suppose to someone on a slower path, an awakening of the sort I am speaking of would seem like “The Awakening”—and that someone could choose to see themselves as “The Awakened One”. However, I am sure you can see that this would be a mistake on their part, and I am not sure that too many people are that naive any more.



What really happens on the journey to enlightenment is that someone must experience repeated changes and breakthroughs of a certain particular kind, in order to move specifically towards enlightenment—even if they do it at breakneck speed (which is certainly increasingly possible in today’s climate for change.)



There are other options of course that cultivate breakthroughs that are not taking someone towards enlightenment. One could be consciously seeking a level of shamanic insight and have many breakthroughs along the way. The goal is simply not the same however as the path to enlightenment. There are many examples I could offer here, but let’s take just one here. One can have shamanic experiences that are also helpful along the way to enlightenment! But without seeking the specific goal of “enlightenment” one will not be able to move into that state—and no matter how many awakenings one has, something else will happen. It is possible to accumulate knowledge about many different spheres of reality—all very interesting, even useful in one’s life, but not necessarily being the state of enlightenment.



Enlightenment is the moment of ultimate Truth when all the cumulative shifts come together to produce a state of realization like no other—a realization that opens awareness way beyond the personal, small self and into knowing clearly what the nature of Divine Reality is, as well as One’s Own True Nature. It is pure consciousness realizing the Ultimate Truth about non-duality, about yourself really being the Oneness. No longer being able to see the state of separation of the human as true or real. This shift is a quantum leap into a completely different mode of perception. Gone is the perception of duality, the world, how one perceives life, or the dualistic perception of god from the ego’s point of view, and everything else one can think of, as being real.



The birth of non-dual consciousness in someone who has lived in duality all their lives results in a vast sea-change in everything about the one who experiences this. One’s perception of life changes (for the better), and an entirely new phase of one’s journey begins within the context of the knowledge of non-duality. One is no longer awakened or awakening, one is simply something else, Oneness.



Enlightenment is a completely new state that comes in after one has had many, many small and big awakenings of a specific ego-dissolving nature, over the course of linear time! So, enlightenment is the cumulative effect of someone’s consciousness changing in a certain specific direction, mostly by returning to its non-egoic state sufficiently often, to where the cumulative effect of all the changes create one major change in the perception of Truth and who one is within that Truth, before one can see it as the completion of one’s work. This may sound intimidating, but it must have been your experience thus far, so don’t worry. Many of you are entering the most interesting phase now!



Enlightenment only comes after a structured journey of many, many awakenings. And it has a fairly defined appearance, one that is common to most people who have reached it. This new state is so different in its manifestation that it has the effect of ending one’s old life-perception in all ways except the physical. In other words the journey from dualistic reality to non-dual reality is so different, one cannot conceive of it with the dualistic mind. One gets to keep the body with enlightenment, but all the rest, the ego stories and states of consciousness of the old way of perceiving and living, have gone away. One is in a state of unity consciousness, seeing Oneness everywhere, and no longer relating in the same way to the duality of the relative world, and all that this implies.



I believe that the word “awakening” is a way of describing the journey to another reality and there are other realities besides the enlightened state, such as the shamanic one I described earlier. These other options can also have stages of working through the dualities and finding some unity in some places yet also still dealing with places in oneself that are still battling with old ego habits that keep us in separations still and holding some dualities still to be dealt with—all very similar to what the path to enlightenment feels to many of you right now. But I think the question is where do you choose to stop? Are you willing to put in the time and go all the way home?



Enlightenment is a huge doorway out of ego and into full realization of who one truly is –in its totality—a new paradigm in being something entirely different than one’s ego capacity seemed to be, and a graduation into another world. A world of total balance, total seeing, total insight into the what’s, why’s, and wherefore’s about human ego, life, death and who we REALLY ARE once we escape the disguise of the limited ego self. So enlightenment is knowing the truth of existence, that it means being beyond ego, no limited person there—only voidness, vast yet totally intelligent, coherent voidness—the birth of the luminous, golden void after you have made the laborious journey through the illusion of the dark void of the shadow ego and come home into the luminous, golden void.



One has become “the One without a second”. Yet You/It still can appear to play in the fields of the illusion as “Oneness in service to humanity”, but Your Awareness is clear that there is no such thing as ego, no person doing anything, no “real” world, not really, just the Truth of Divine Intelligence as Light, playing by creating virtual realities for its own joy.



If you have come so far as to be reading this, be aware that this lifetime is truly a defining lifetime for you. Make no mistake about the fact that you are doing a study of enlightenment rather than making a more tentative movement towards higher consciousness. It means that your soul has seen that it is ready to make the big leap forward. No matter if you don’t make it into full and complete enlightenment in the next two and a half years, you will be able to reach a much clearer connection to your own Oneness, such that this time will constitute a huge surge forward in your evolution.



It is certainly worth a massive effort to get as far along as you can, with the energy currents right now supplying “the wind beneath your wings”! This opportunity will make all the difference in the end. It’s a not-to-be-missed experience. Simply to give it all you’ve got now!


I will see you there."



©2010 Leslie Temple-Thurston, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.

All rights reserved.

You may use or reproduce as long as the text is unaltered and appropriately credited.