• Tag Archives wisdom

  • Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche – Bill Plotkin

    Posted on by AndrewMichaelChallies 1 Comment
    Wild Mind by Bill Plotkin
    Wild Mind

    What does it take to crack the shell of prolonged inactivity when it comes to blogging? The mind has been at work for the last two years reading, changing, looking but somehow the importance of tapping at the keyboard and exposing my soul has been missing. Time has been taken up with other things.

    A couple of months ago an invitation arrived to review Bill Plotkin’s new book Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche. The publishers had seen that I’d made mention of SoulCraft in Sacred Sorrow: Powerlessness 2. It was enough to break the chains of slavery to the routine that had drowned the inspiration to blog.

    That and an innovative approach to publicising the book…… http://bit.ly/wildmindtrailer and an interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqT2AQ3Yvfs with this man who has thirty years experience in the human potential arena focusing on his clients’ relationship to nature. This symbiotic relationship provides a path to the fullest expression of their humanity.

    Field Guides generally assist readers in identifying the flora and fauna; provide maps; and describe points of interest relevant to a particular region. Wild Mind is no different – it allows us to recognize the aspects of the psyche that will direct our passage through life to create a naturally enhancing & sustaining personal and global culture.

    What Plotkin has done is create a map for seekers who wish to experience a life that embodies the fullest expression of our humanity. When he embeds a personal story from someone who has used the map the terrain of his idea becomes more visible.

    The major landmarks of this map use the Medicine Wheel and the directions (North, South, East & West) as a template for an engaging exploration of the facets required to fully express ourselves and to carry that into our communities and nations to bring about transformation that spirals out into global consciousness.

    The Facets are:

    • North: Nurturing Generative Adult – compassionate and competent
    • South: Wild Indigenous One – sensuous, emotive, instinctual, playful
    • East: Innocent/Sage – pure, simple, clear, lighthearted, wise, perceptive
    • West: Muse/Inner Beloved – adventurous, visionary, symbolic, mythic, poetic

    One of the directions will be our preferred way of being in the world. Its polar opposite points towards our weakness. Our weak facets may be the horizon from which our symptoms, our addictions, and our dysfunction arise. Those weaknesses are the sub-personalities formed in early childhood by an immature ego creating a sense of safety for allowing us to co-exist in a world that appears to be maleficent to our under-developed ego. By acknowledging and assimilating the strengths the other directions hold we come into harmony within ourselves allowing us to then radiate this harmony out into the world.

    Plotkin writes:

    “We’re being summoned by the world itself to make many urgent changes to the human project, but most central is a fundamental re-visioning and reshaping of ourselves, a shift in consciousness,” writes Plotkin. “We must reclaim and embody our original wholeness, our indigenous human nature granted to us by nature itself. And the key to reclaiming our original wholeness is not merely to suppress psychological symptoms, recover from addictions and trauma, manage stress, or refurbish dysfunctional relationships, but rather to fully flesh out our multifaceted, wild psyches, committing ourselves to the largest story we’re capable of living, serving something bigger than ourselves.”

    In order to attain this Original Wholeness Plotkin offers some ideas around managing the process. One of these tools is “the four steps of emotional assimilation”

    1. thoroughly experience the raw emotion itself without interpretation, censoring or sanitizing (south)
    2. explore (a compassionate self-examination) what this arising of the emotion tells us about ourselves (expectations, values, needs, desires, attitudes) (west)
    3. expression in a kind hearted and non-violent way (north)
    4. review entire emotional process, see how how fits into our life story, have a good laugh (east)

    Another idea that opens us up to inspired living is that of a three dimensional ego – an ego that has matured to the point that it is “blessed with some degree of conscious communion and integration with the Self, Soul, and Spirit“. When we are anchored in this 3D-Ego we may “experience ourselves not only in service to Soul & Spirit but also as Soul and as Spirit.”

    Towards the end of the book he offers … healthy, mature cultures emerge from and have always emerged from nature from the depths of our individual and collective psyches from the Earth’s imagination acting through us, from the mythic realm of dreams or the Dreamtime, from Soul, from the soul of the world, from Mystery….emerge and evolve naturally and organically through the coordinated activities of mature humans, humans who have learned again what it means to dream the impossible and to romance the world. Mature cultures are self organising. They can only be dreamed into existence.

    Has the South Asian kingdom of Bhutan embraced their Wild Mind and provided a key to our discovering a template for a mature society? Instead of a Gross National Product they have a Gross National Happiness indicator. This is used in their five year planning and is supported by four pillars: Promoting sustainable development, preserving and promoting cultural values, conserving the natural environment, and establishing and maintaining good governance.

    Blessings

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  • Sacred Sorrow: The Sacred Wound Part Four

    Posted on by AndrewMichaelChallies Comment

    A wise old proverb says, “God comes to see us without bell;” that is, as there is no screen or ceiling between our heads and the infinite heavens, so there is no bar or wall in the soul, where man, the effect, ceases, and God, the cause, begins. The walls are taken away. We lie open on one side to the deeps of spiritual nature, to the attributes of God. Justice we see and know, Love, Freedom, Power. These natures no man ever got above, but they tower over us and most in the moment when our interests tempt us to wound them.

    Ralph Waldo Emerson.

    What if our higher selves were – at every moment seeking the most potent expression of our existence? What if it was asking us to create the reality that was in the best interests of not only humans but all the beings that inhabit Planet Earth? I know I have been procrastinating as I consider this post and what meaning there might be behind it. Procrastinating? I’m not so sure now. Every time I come back to work on this I look at it and seem to be blocked. There’s just something about it that won’t allow me to move forward with it. I had hoped to expand on the reference to the enneagram I left at the end of Part Two of these series of posts. I made a start and yet each time I came back to it I’d look at it and it’d look back at me and there’d be nothing going on. Uninspired – I was blocked.

    The enneagram is full of complexity, follows many nuances of character. I doubt whether I would have done it justice within one post and I certainly don’t have the depth of understanding that would enable me to talk intelligently and fluently over another series of posts. The enneagram is one of many great tools to use if you are seeking understanding about yourself and your motivations. I gained some insights into myself through reading and maybe if I’d dedicated myself to it I may have found a path to enlightenment. I don’t know if I have some sort of spiritual attention deficit or whether I’m looking for a simpler path, but I found myself leaving that behind and seeking other ways. I’m not sure I felt it at the time but now it seems life is complex enough without following someone else’s ideas about finding enlightenment. I did the reading, talked about what I found, discovered as I said in the earlier post that I sat at point five on the enneagram, and wasn’t sure I liked being pigeon-holed. I guess being “the Thinker” I find it easy to get lost in ideas and the seeking of wisdom in books, while all the time it waits for me to get out there to physically embrace life and find my own wisdom through experience.

    As I sit here, dealing another hand of Mah-jong, I’m visited by a spider. I seem particularly sensitive to its path across my hand. And I flick it off. Hardly exemplary behaviour seeing as I favour the Buddhist philosophy of doing no harm to any living thing.

    The story of Robert the Bruce and the spider springs to mind. Robert sought the answer to whether he should continue fighting the English. What am I seeking the answer to as I follow this trail through the Sacred Wound and should I continue? Am I clutching at straws? Seems the Spider thinks I am on the right track as he has taken his leave of me.

    It seems this post has been slowly coming into focus over several months, since December, in fact. And paradoxically what has now come into focus is mist. While road tripping to Mount Cook with my daughter I was touched by a synchronicity as I listened to the retelling of a Maori myth and heard a piece of native wisdom. It is said that Mt Cook or Aoraki as it called by the Maori is a place of Spiritual Enlightenment and it is hard not to be awe-struck by the grandeur of the place.

    Mt Cook
    Mt Cook

    The first time I visited Aoraki I was blessed with an uninterrupted view of the mountain. This second time the weather seemed against us. From the vantage of the hotel the mountain was covered in mist. Having observed this phenomenon, the tohunga, their spiritual leaders discovered the wisdom for their chiefs of not always being available for the tribe, of having time away. Wisdom also is not in full view. It must be found in our encounters with life.

    We sought a closer view the following day and were rewarded. So it is with enlightenment itself. It is said by some that we are already enlightened we just have to remember it is so. And yet sometimes the face of the mountain, the face of enlightenment is shrouded in mist. It is easy to get lost during those times, to forget we’re always a spark of the divine and then to create trauma for ourselves and others, tearing open the fabric of the soul. This tear may become the sacred wound in its turn opening you or the other to the possibilities of a benevolent soul consciousness.

    The myth I heard told the story of Aoraki and his three brothers, off-spring of the Sky Father – Rakinui and Maori Earth Mother, Papatuanuku. They had set sail voyaging round Papatuanuku when their canoe ran aground on a reef. They climbed on the top side of the canoe, but the wind rose from the south freezing them, turning them to stone. The canoe became the South Island, “Te waka o Aoraki”. Aoraki being the tallest of the brother’s, became Aoraki the mountain, and his three brothers the peaks surrounding him. The rest of the crew became the Southern Alps, the mountain range for which the South Island is famous.

    As I pondered this the words of Emerson came into focus. From an enlightened perspective there are possibly no greater attributes than those he speaks of in that quote – Justice, Love, Freedom and Power. Just as those mountains tower over us so do those values. They’re something to aspire to. In the routine of our lives it is easy to lose sight of these aspirations. I guess these aspirations are what bring us to study the concepts contained in the enneagram and other systems of spiritual guidance.

    Each of these aspirations lies on a continuum, Justice-Injustice, Love-Fear, Freedom-Slavery, and Power-Impotence.  I feel impotent in the face of what the earthquake has wrought. I had my year mapped out – an exit strategy for my job, a move into something new. All this is on hold for now. This opened up a feeling of slavery to the job I was already in and on-going frustration with the mundane nature of the tasks ahead of me. As I read these words now I’m touched by a sense of injustice. That an earthquake can affect not only the physical, but also the mental and emotional is a testament to the power of nature. And my lot is nothing to what others have endured. It brings me back to gratitude and humility. Is it fear that holds me in place, keeping me safe until I’m ready? Or can I venture something new now, generated from the passion in my soul for transformation.

    Blessings

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  • Sacred Sorrow: The Sacred Wound: Part Three

    Posted on by AndrewMichaelChallies Comment

    The Hero’s Journey

     At a depth of 5km below the Earth’s surface a quake registering 6.3 on the Richter scale struck the people of Canterbury on February 22. Though 8 times less powerful than the 7.1 which struck on September 4 at a depth of 10 km this quake was far more devastating. With an epicentre less than 10 km from Christchurch and its timing, 12.51pm in a city already weakened by the September event the quake left 166 so far confirmed dead and many still unaccounted for, as well the centre of  Christchurch in ruins.

    earthquake damage

    I had hoped to carry on from the previous post and explore the enneagram further. Thoughts around that subject were beginning to gel and then another quake. Everything else began to pale into insignificance. Was this our Mother Earth lulling us into a false sense of security pending the release of the masterstroke? Had we become complacent?

    At Wainui I was catering for two schools when it struck. The intensity of the shake, while not as long as the 7.1, and the almost immediate loss of power convinced all present that this was a “biggy”. Buildings were evacuated and all protocols adhered to. The worry for teachers and parent helpers was evident and in the wake of the previous quakes the children were well drilled in keeping themselves protected.

    I was lost for the first week not sure what my role was in all this. My process is that I focus on what is in front of me in that moment and allow it to unfold. This meant attending to those closest to me as the days past.

    Eventually I realised that this quake required a separate post and at the outset I seemed lost for words and ideas. How does one do justice to something like this? How does one honour those whose lives were taken?

    Looking through some of the faces in the paper of those feared dead I found a face that looked familiar. I recognised him as a regular in a bar that I also drank at a few years ago. I don’t remember engaging him at all though we may have sat in the same group on the odd occasion. It turned out he died entering a building to bring injured people out. There is sadness for me in not having connected with him in some way.

    <iframe src=”//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/UqFiVYjOuIdA8″ width=”425″ height=”355″ frameborder=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no” style=”border:1px solid #CCC; border-width:1px; margin-bottom:5px; max-width: 100%;” allowfullscreen> </iframe> <div style=”margin-bottom:5px”> <strong> <a href=”//www.slideshare.net/AndrewMichaelChallies/heros-journey1″ title=”Hero’s Journey” target=”_blank”>Hero’s Journey</a> </strong> from <strong><a href=”//www.slideshare.net/AndrewMichaelChallies” target=”_blank”>Andrew Challies</a></strong> </div>

    The word Hero fits many of the people who were caught in town when the quake struck and just did what needed to be done in the circumstances. As I pondered it further, listening to news reports, listening to politicians, hearing the stories, it seemed a perfect example of the Hero’s Journey unfolding in a short space of time.

    I had touched on the Hero’s Journey previously in my post Working with Qualities of Soul: Cyclical. I follow the work of  Carol Pearson who developed a system of 12 archetypes that assist the path of evolution for our souls. My initial discovery inspired an on-going passion for the work.

    The journey evolves through 3 stages – the preparation, the journey, and the return. Within those 3 stages there are 4 archetypes encountered as we assimilate the rememberings required to move to the next stage. The archetypes of preparation are the innocent, the orphan, the warrior, the caregiver. In the journey stage we have the seeker, lover, destroyer, and the creator. Finally on our return we are governed by the ruler, the magician, the sage and the fool.

    The devastation wrought by an earthquake as experienced in Christchurch can immediately precipitate people, both individually and collectively, into encountering the archetypes of the preparation. An abrupt transition from innocent to orphan as the quake wreaks havoc upon the populace. From an apparently innocuous sort of day we become victims once more to thrashing of the earth. This sense of victim is one of the attributes of the orphan archetype.

    earthquake damage

    People began instantly and instinctively to look after those who had been obviously injured, or going into wreckage searching for those trapped. These are prime examples of the archetypes of the care-giver and warrior. I speak as one who watched from afar seeing the images on a television screen.

    My reality was different being 80km away from the centre of Christchurch. As a chef the archetype that was strongest for me was, I imagine, the caregiver. There was a sense of frustration as I waited for the groups present to decide if they were going or staying so that the warrior element in me could respond to the call to action and begin cooking. When the power returned I watched the TV with fascination as the story unfolded. There was an aspect within me that would have liked to have been amongst the destruction having my mettle tested and at the same blessed because I was away from the worst of it, not having to face the pain obvious to those who had first-hand experience of death and damage.

    Within the exploration there is the challenge of not attempting to make the events fit nicely into an ordered unfolding of the Hero’s Journey process. With any kind of process there is fluidity around the steps. As the drama unfolds a particular stage may arise out of sequence. As the dust settles the services – Fire, St John’s, and Civil Defence – attempt to impose some sort of order on the scene. That sense of order can be identified with the ruler archetype.

    After those initial hours of people working instinctively a more structured approach begins to take shape. Within that structure there can be instances of archetypes showing their faces as events unfold. Each of the archetypes may play its part over the course of a day. Each day holds the potential of seeing ourselves as innocent or victim, caregiver or warrior, as seeker or destroyer, lover or creator, as an opportunity to take responsibility like the ruler, find our personal power like the magician, the wisdom of the sage and the joy and freedom of the fool.

    The Christchurch quakes have become threshold events enabling us to look more closely at these archetypes. The features of the preparation are seen in the immediate responses to the devastating effects as the virtuous aspects of the archetypes – optimism, realism, courage and compassion – play out. That said, there are also the negative aspects, wrought by fear – abandonment, victimisation, weakness, selfishness.

    There seems to be a cycle involved here, where a fearful focus may precipitate us into the next fearful experience of an archetype. Awareness of the process may assist us to arrest the downward spiral and refocus with a more positive attitude.

    The initiation sets up the continuing journey and the qualities we’re hoping will be embedded in our psyches – a sense of autonomy, of humility, acceptance, passion, commitment, and the sense of an individual calling. The archetypal passage of the journey tends to cycle through seeking, destroying, loving and creating and in fact one of the insights from “Awakening the Heroes Within” suggests that from a lifetime perspective the path of the hero may end in the journey phase. I somehow felt sad that perhaps people weren’t getting the most out of their lives, that it was interrupted before the opportunity to live it fully presented itself. And I also understood how one could be quite satisfied by the loving and creating aspects of the journey

    The journey isn’t about the acquisition of things or knowledge although these may arrive as part of the process – physical representations of the inner passage. The gifts of this unfolding are those that nurture the psyche – the virtues being shaped within our characters and personalities.

    It seems the further we travel the path of the Hero the gifts become less tangible. I know for myself I began to question the almost constant seeking – the “looking” for answers. I was doing course after course acquiring knowledge and somehow feeling I did not yet know enough to do what it was I was meant to be doing.

    I think that was when I began to move into the return. I took the Ruler’s responsibility for what I already knew and allowed it to colour my personality, to expand my character. Essentially all we can be responsible for is how we respond in any given situation.  Whether we follow our heart or our fear is a choice and that can be changed in the blink of an eye. As soon as we accept that responsibility the other aspects of the return seem to come into alignment quite quickly – the personal power of the Magician, the wisdom of the Sage, and the joy and freedom of the Fool.

    Knowledge of the Journey doesn’t take away the challenges. It allows you see the landmarks ahead safe in the knowledge that when this one is reached another one is beckoning. Feel the freedom of the fool and know the optimism of the Innocent is just around the corner motioning you onward to the start of another journey.

    During the last week as the post has been slowly coming together I was informed of another tragedy – and old Air Force friend had been killed while assisting people in a car accident in Queensland. I remember the laughs we shared and not only am I reminded that joy matters on the Hero’s Journey but that Death is the ultimate return and going out with the Heart of a Hero is a true blessing. I’m also reminded to notice the areas of my life which are undergoing change, to acknowledge those things which are passing away,  let them go gracefully and then embrace the new – that which is becoming.  Thank you, Alan. Your inspiration will live long.

    Blessings

     

     

     

     

     

     

     


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  • Questions

    Posted on by AndrewMichaelChallies 2 Comments

    I’ve had a challenging week. I’ve been working and it has meant not attending to my blog. I’ve felt something amiss. Back to working in kitchens. Standing on my feet in one spot for hours. Preparing the same old dishes for the same old rugby games. Feeling the pain in my feet at the end of the day, looking forward to a day off and the pain to recede. Knowing its going to be the same old again when the next shift starts.

    Arriving home last Wednesday and turning my computer on I found the message, “msconfig is missing or corrupted – use recovery disks to reboot your system”. And I knew what that meant. I’d loose everything that was there and I’d have to start anew. Starting anew. And that was the way I saw it a new start. I was back online by later that night. Downloading updates. My laptop is circa 2002. And the speed of cable broadband. A few hiccups and stumbles. Still stumbling even now. A toddler just getting up on his legs for the first time. Finding it interesting with both Firefox and Internet Explorer on my system after the recovery. Downloads not working in Firefox will work in IE.

    Questions arise when things aren’t working properly. How do I make this work. Are the resources I have limiting what I am able to achieve. I was working on a website for a friend just prior to this happening, inspired by the tutorials I found on YouTube, and the templates in HostGator. I can do this I thought. And the more I used the little knowledge I had the worse it got. Am I meant to do this? I’d love to put this together for him. Playing with the templates in Photoshop. Sorting through the code, but not really feeling I know enough about more complex pages. Sure I’d put together a simple page but somehow this was different. I need to honour my limitations and be honest about them and either seek help or pass the project on to someone more knowledgeable.

    The Code. A funny thing happened to me while I was in a bookstore. I found a book. The Code. ByTony Burroughs. It is subtitled 10 Intentions for a Better World. Was my sorting through html code in fact a pointer to a deeper code? A code poses questions. A code delineates an ethical basis for living. And The Code certainly does that. The 10 Intentions are: Support Life, Seek Truth, Set Your Course, Simplify, Stay Positive, Synchronise, Serve Others, Shine Your Light, Share Your Vision, and Synergise. Each of these intentions will beg a personal question or questions from us. How do I? What might I? Who with? Where will I?

    When we set set an intention and walk with trust into our day we are posing a question of Life, of the Universal Intelligence, – “How will my life unfold now I have set this intention”. No doubt there will be wonder and mystery.

    I was inspired by my blogger colleague Marvin D. Wilson from Free Spirit where he poses the question, “Should Christian fiction provide answers or lead us to questions?”

    Maybe that question could be posed for not only Christian fiction but also for fiction of a spiritual nature. And non fiction as well. As Marvin says, “In non-fiction, say the memoirs of a Christian missionary, or a theological discourse, or a texbook for seminary, then yes – of course – you are writing for Christians … present your best Christian ideas and revelations and lay out your premises for leading a good Christian life. Give me your scholarly interpretations if you have exemplary intelligence and enlightenment on the subject of Christianity and are able to explain the path in new and refreshing ways”.

    These can also lead to questions about whether what is interpreted is a truth for me personally or whether I need to walk a different path in order to discover my personal truth. I prefer to exchange the words Christian and Christianity for the words Spiritual and Spirituality. They offer a more universal context.

    Mythology arises from the spirituality of ancient and not so ancient cultures. And as a result we find questions arising as we study different cultures. Though there is a certain disbelief to mythological stories what are the things we can believe? What are the elements that we question? Are there questions we imagine will lead us to an understanding of our spiritual natures.

    Questions create answers. Answers create meaning. To look more deeply into ourselves we need to ask the deeper questions of ourselves. And the more profound the questions the more wisdom becomes rooted in our psyche. I heard the term Coyote Teaching from a VisionQuest protector trained by the Tracker School in New Jersey when he visited Christchurch early last year. It seems this method invites trainees to look more deeply into whatever process is going on for them and to pose more questions based on what they discover.

    Each question we pose of Life opens up more questions for us. There is no doubt that each question posed will open up cracks in the shell of the ego allowing the light of divinity to shine more brightly as time unfolds. Through questioning the Divine Sculptor chips away at the stone of our being carving out the beauty of our soul’s form.

    Nothing is certain when following a path of intention. We’re not sure what the universe will provide. In the unknowing is a darkness and the deeper into darkness I go the closer I feel to the light.

    Blessings.

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  • Working with Aspects of the Soul: Wisdom

    Posted on by AndrewMichaelChallies Comment

    Wisdom is simple.

    I have always believed in numbers, in the equations and logics that lead to reason. But after a lifetime of such pursuits I ask, “What truly is logic?” … It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logical reasons can be found.
    Russell Crowe playing mathematician John Nash in A Beautiful Mind

    I was going to tell you how moved I was by the final scene of the movie “A Beautiful Mind”, from which the quote above comes, until I Googled it and found Holt UnCensored. What is the wisdom in keeping the truth from people? The Movie – I keep capitalizing the M in movie this morning for some strange reason – becomes a fictionalised account of the truth. Maybe it serves a purpose for the wider public to give them courage to face the demons of their own lives. Perhaps I’m being caught up in a truth and lies thing. When we see anything that gives us heart whether true or fictionalised it simply gives us heart.

    When I heard it I thought what a wonderful piece, I can use that tomorrow when I ‘m writing about wisdom. I see it now as a sentiment meant to engender an emotional response from an audience. And I was touched by the words, though I find it sad that the makers felt they had to change the substance of the movie to somehow make it more palatable for a wider audience. That even in truth the story is a triumph over adversity. There may have been no need to softsoap the movie-going public.

    I visited my friend Wendy Joy for a Conscious Connected Breathing session yesterday morning. Also known as Rebirthing, the session is guided by the practitioner firstly to get the client into and maintain their breathing pattern initially, at regular times along the way, and then if they appear to be in some difficulty as the session unfolds.

    Yesterday I had a most beautiful experience as I connected with the void. In previous experiences there was a darkness – not an unpleasant darkness – but a darkness nonetheless. Yesterday an experience of light in the void. I struggled some of the way with the breathing but after a while it took on a life of its own. While it somehow seemed significant to experience the light, the moment Wendy placed her hand on my back I finally understood. That’s when the tears came. The tears of absolute blessedness. If I seek the light or anything connected with the light to the exclusion of all else, then I miss the point of our material existence. To experience each other as physical. One hand gently placed on my back was enough to discover the wisdom of being here in the physical.

    Wendy also lent me the book A New Earth by Eckhardt Tolle. There is a wonderful passage early in the book where he tells the story of the Buddha giving a silent sermon in which he simply contemplates a flower he is holding gently in his hand. Only one of his monks understood the power of the sermon.

    As I looked at my own wisdom yesterday in the context of the challenges I’ve been facing I see the ways in which I am able to delude myself, lie to myself, love myself, be in the moment, follow my path, be myself as I feel the expectations of those around me or are they in fact my own expectations projected outward.  All is well and I am Blessed.

    Blessings

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  • Living in Soul: Aspects – Part Three

    Posted on by AndrewMichaelChallies Comment

    Serenity
    A deep calm devoid of emotional disturbance distinguishes the disciple who is focused in “a mind held steady in the light”. The surface of his life may be in a state of violent flux. I spite of all he stands firm, poised in soul consciousness and the depths of his life lie undisturbed. This is not insensitivity – it is intensity of feeling transmuted in focused understanding.

    I know the state of violent flux. I stand in it at this point. I spoke in the previous post of my financial condition. There is an inner knowing within I need to make a change in my life and what is change but flux. The infrequency of employment weighs heavy at this time but I know this is only temporary. I sit here composing my post. The sun is blazing away in the sky at 7.30 pm and there is stillness as I write. Birdsong is gentle yet persistent. They’re speaking to each other and to me. Plants need water and I’ll wait for the intensity of the sun to drop before I slake their thirst. I feel serene within – my heart does not complain. Serenity touches me most when I’m in nature. It is there at all times if I stop myself to feel it.

    Inner Calm
    Have patience. Endurance is one of the characteristics of the I AM Presence. The I AM Presence is that which is immortal within us. It is always seeking to be acknowledged in our lives…. The attitude and experience of Inner Calm is for all those who persist in their high endeavour, who count all things as nothing unless they achieve the goal and who steer a steady course through circumstances, keeping eyes fixed upon the vision, the ears listening for the voice of the God within that sounds in the silence of the heart; the feet firmly placed on the path that leads to the Portal of Initiation, the hands held out in assistance to the world, and the whole life subordinated to the call of service….. Then all that comes is for the best – sickness, opportunity, success and disappointment, the lack of comprehension on the part of those we love – all is but to be used, and all exists but to be transmuted.

    Patience, endurance. Am I being patient? Am I enduring? Or am I in a place of safety, fearing moving into a life of service. Service I take to mean bringing all of the talents I have acquired on the journey for the good of the community. Living my vision, living my One Decision. Surrendering to both and allowing the magnificence to take me. To be here in this moment in Perfect Poise feeling the exquisiteness of the Beloved Presence.

    Perfect Poise
    The freedom from emotional reaction which enhances mental clarity. I ponder this and what comes to mind is a texture of absolute unity with my vision. A place where I won’t allow myself to be distracted from the Path. A place of no fear. The place of absolute knowing. Not only absolute unity with my vision but an eternal unity, a oneness with life’s perfection.

    The more I ponder Perfect Poise the deeper the subtlety of its effect on being. What would my life be like in a constantly perfectly poised state? Not only is there unity within and without but a sense of infinite opportunity and possibility. It is a place of soul connectedness. A place as it says free from emotional reaction. Open to whatever life requires from you in each moment without attachment to concerns which are all illusory in an abundant universe.

    I begin to see the beauty of perfect poise when I look below at the characteristics of Wisdom and Intuition and see how it provides the space for them to be fully present at all times. It is a wonderful gift.

    I had a conversation with my boss after I finished work the other day regarding my plans for the New Year. In the back of my mind were the concerns of the infrequency of the work at this time of the year and because of that financial pinch I was experiencing. I got home later and started working on the post and looking at Perfect Poise and I saw the conversation could have been very different if I’d been in that poised state.

    Freedom
    The more your soul grips you, the more your mind will awaken, and feeling (in the personal sense) fade out. Feel free, but be sure it is not a freedom demanded because the sense of failure to organise your time and reduce your personality to rhythmic living hurts your pride. The more you take hold of your soul, the more you will learn to use the time as a responsibility. Beware the glamour of freedom.

    Beware the glamour of freedom. Yes. Freedom do what? If the freedom comes not from using all with which you are gifted in service to the greater good, then freedom takes on an emptiness.

    I thought I loved the freedom to have a cup of coffee on the way to and then on the way home from work at a particular couple of cafes. Yes it did feel good to do that – to take time out to and from work, supping great coffee, reading my book, forming relationships with the staff over time, chatting with them, sharing a joke.

    While it had all those good points I realized that a habit had formed during that time bordering on an addiction. Almost a co-dependence that only I was aware of. The same could be said of my working as a chef. That, I feel, is also a form of co-dependence. I said to a colleague earlier this year that it wasn’t actually the cooking that was a possible addiction but rather I was co-dependent on the money I was receiving from it. How insightful that comment was has really hit home as I regard how I’ve been feeling without money making its way regularly into my bank account over the past two or three weeks.

    Bureaucracy likes to label us. It makes their job easy. Its easier to keep a person on the same path rather than in assisting them to change to a fuller expression of their talents and gifts.

    When regular income withered I went to a government department for assistance until such time as it would flourish again. I said to them that I wanted to change paths to encompass the other talents I’ve acquired over the years and it seemed that all they wanted me to do was apply for one of the hospitality positions that they had available. I walked out. There is sometimes no reasoning within bureaucracy. This was another indicator of how free I wasn’t.

    Another benefit of this period of scarce income has been eating less – maybe only one meal a day without any pangs of real hunger. More insight on how we can become habituated to our routines. Having had a client who had fasted for 21 days and in talking with friend who was familiar with the fasting process I am fascinated by how little we may need to live a healthy lifestyle without the rigors of intense physical training. The longest I have fasted for is four days and I was surprised at having only minimal hunger during that time. As my body adapted the process was easy.

    True freedom is in my mind and my heart. If I’m feeling trapped by external circumstances I change my thought processes regarding the trap and take action based on those new thoughts.

    Wisdom
    Wisdom deals with the essence of things rather than the things themselves. It is the intuitive grasp of the truth without the reasoning behind it. It is our innate perception allowing us to distinguish between the false and the true, the real and the unreal.

    It is…..The growing capacity of the Thinker to enter increasingly into the mind of the Logos, to realise the true inwardness of the great pageant of the universe, to vision the objective, and to harmonise more and more with the higher measure.

    It is.….The realisation of the Kingdom of God within.

    As I mentioned before wisdom comes from a state of perfect poise. It is a connectedness to the divine in each moment. Wisdom is always with us if we take a moment to merge with our soul presence.

    Wisdom comes with experience. We understand an event by being mindful during its unfolding. Allowing all its textures, sound, physical sensation, taste, sight, smell to create a fullness within. Experience is neither good nor bad it just is. And through our humanness we have the faculties to discover what it is about any event that will assist our evolution to greater expression of ourselves. What is we perceive as pleasurable is indicative of our higher path. What we perceive as disagreeable can lead us to the places within we needed to work on.


    Intuition
    Intuition is the energy which carries revelation of divine purpose and brings with its appearance three qualities:

    Illumination – the “Light of the Ages” – recognition through experience of the complete identification with the Universal Mind.

    Understanding – an increased ability to love all beings and yet at the same time preserve personality detachment.

    Love – the synthetic, inclusive grasp of the life and needs of all beings in which it is the high prerogative of a divine Son of God to operate. It sees no distinction, even when it appreciates need, and it produces in one who loves as a soul immediate identification with that which is loved.

    ……Thoughts of revealing potency for the helping of many may drop into the mind. Some new light upon an old truth may penetrate releasing this truth from the hindrances of orthodoxy, thus illuminating consciousness. Become sensitive to Divine Ideas. The hope of the world and the dispelling of illusion lies in the development of intuitives and their conscious training.

    ……Fleeting moments of this high freedom come to all true aspirants at times during their life struggle. They have then an intuitive flash of understanding. The outline of the future and the nature of the truth sweeps momentarily through their consciousness, and life is never again the same.

    Again the perfect poise of being anchored in our soul presence is a prerequisite of intuition. We all have this inherent ability. As with any strength it needs practice. It may manifest as inner vision, inner voice, or inner sentience. It is the sense of absolute knowing, of absolute truth as perceived by your soul essence.

    Intuition may challenge us to leave behind our physical perception and allow soul perception to take hold. It is asking us to evolve not only toward our perfection for this lifetime but also a universal perfection. That we may feel connected to all things.

    Intuition may call us to be more in tune with the elements of the natural world – as all is energy thus we are connected with the rocks, the plants, the animals and life-forms big and small

    Intuition can speak to us through the heart. Centreing and anchoring yourself in the heart if you’re feeling disconnected is one method of returning to the space of perfect poise. Practice being heartful. As heartfulness is firmly fixed as presence you open to more spontaneity and joy in your life.

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  • The Soul: Part Two

    Posted on by AndrewMichaelChallies Comment

    What follows are ideas from the Soul Life audio retreat of Thomas Moore. A peaceful resting place on the journey to discover what a soul-connected and soul-centred existence might feel like. The qualities Thomas Moore speaks of regarding the Soul outline an internal rather than external reality.

    Qualities of the Soul

    Individual – He describes the soul as being individual. For me this idea asks that when I engage my soul consciously I may have to form my own values rather than those I inherited from my parents, my peers, teachers, politicians and others to whom I may feel beholden. I make my own choices of how my life will unfold, of how I imagine my identity in this world. This is a concept of having freewill. And in this I may have to be eccentric. What is it that is eccentric about your life? What is it you do that makes you different? Are you celebrating that difference?

    Vast – The soul is vast as the words of Heraclitus expressed in the previous post. I see from my bodily perspective the physical universe, our solar system, the galaxies far beyond our reach and yet I may have something similar going on in my spiritual self. A vast potentiality within. A universe of possibilities to explore as a human. Logos, Moore explains as being the “mysterious, unfathomable nature of soul”. I was drawn to the word as it is used in English to describe the study of different areas (geo-logy, astro-logy). In a way this soulpath is a way to discover the mystery of who I might become in this physical existence. My Creative Mythology for this lifetime. From this vast potentiality within, what will I become?

    Madness – Plato says the soul may require me to do something that to others will appear crazy. This mad act may be, by all appearances, detrimental to the life I’m living at the time. If, as has been suggested, that we have a sacred contract to fulfil in this lifetime then this madness may precipitate learning experiences for us or move us on towards the very things we have contracted to do. Or maybe open us up to a new way of being and give us a fuller experience of life itself.

    Complex – Moore says the soul is also complicated. I wanted the explanations for the way my life unfolded to be simple so that I could just put it behind me and get on with living. Moore suggests that there are many influences woven together that make up our lives. And some of those influences come from the way our extended families functioned. I imagined that if I could lay the blame for what appeared to be my dysfunction in this life to parents or grandparents then all my problems would be solved. Not so. These threads that I inherit and spin together with the threads I have been given are part of the weaving of the larger tapestry that is life. I may not know how some random act of kindness I perform will affect the beauty of that larger tapestry. So I embrace the threads I am given and acknowledge those who played their parts in my creation.

    Cyclic – The wheels of soul turn eternally in the grand scheme of things. And as I spiral upwards I may require in the interests of the divine evolution, a downward slide. And it maybe one step forward and six steps backwards with the soul. The same themes may come up. Sex, money, relationships. Why the difficulties with these universal themes? Have I not got it yet? Have I not yet understood the difficulty. And there maybe only one theme behind it all. The soul crying out for me to be conscious of it. Difficulties are the soul calling to me. What does it want? And as the soul engages the difficulty may fall away. I breathe a sigh of relief and with the next revolution my tyre is punctured in another way. Life is never boring with the soul engaged. An extra gear that clicks in when Life might be at its lowest, or perhaps I’m racing ahead and getting out of touch with what is important.

    Shadowy – Another reason why I felt these ideas may hold a key to what I’d been going through was based on some of the ideas of Carl Jung. He spoke of the animus & anima. The animus being the male aspect within the female; and the anima, the female aspect within the male. And both being integral to the nature of the soul. Why are they shadowy? In today’s world these aspects are little understood and what is not understood can lend shadow to our world especially if these aspects are making their presence felt in the unconscious. Because they want to be acknowledged. They are part of the archetypal realm. In that, they are a part of the shadow world, they are formless, even though on a subtle level they have a certain power. They are abstractions, and enable us to form experience around them. They engender emotion as they present themselves. Jung’s description of archetypes include the images of them being; “active living dispositions, ideas in the Platonic sense, that preform and continually influence our thoughts and feelings and actions”; and he also calls them “inherited possibilities of ideas.” The ‘idea’ being an image that holds the deepest or greatest potentiality, in the grand scheme of things. And those potentialities remain in shadow until they come to the fore in the ebb and flow of life. As they come into our consciousness the light of our awareness shines upon them.

    Jung also protrayed the anima as having four stages in it’s development.

    First Stage: Purely instinctual and biological relationship.
    Second Stage: Romantic and aesthetic level still with sexual characteristics.
    Third Stage: Love with the aspect of spiritual devotion.
    Fourth Stage: Wisdom going beyond even the most holy and most pure.

    I can understand the first three stages from my own experience and also the fourth. My imagining is that a wisdom that goes beyond what is most holy and most pure would not be easily understood by everyone. My understanding is that all experience even that which does not appear outwardly to be holy or to be pure is honoured in the Godhead. And so a sense of detachment is required. Honouring the pain, and the darkness of our existence while acknowledging that it will in time pass.

    Also the shadowy nature of the soul can manifest through those experiences that we envision as having dark overtones in our lives. Those times when we go through a passage of suffering, when the only friend we imagine having is our misery, when we’ve sunk into a blackhole and are unable to find a way out, the list goes on. And yet it is through these experiences, if we can allow ourselves to feel fully the emotions which arise, and to embrace the darkness that we begin to see the beauty of this shadowy place.

    Other – When I mention the anima/animus aspect of the soul I’m drawn to Moore speaking about an otherness quality to the experience of our individual soul and also his ideas about the daimon, which he translates sometimes as angel or guardian. He talks about living in tune with the daimon. Honouring what the daimon requires of us in this lifetime. Being in accordance with what the daimon wishes to evoke within us he refers to as “eudaimonic living”. “Eu” in Greek meaning good. To the Greeks the daimon was a personal intermediary between god and human. They make possible the birth of the soul into the physical body. In some ways we both possess and are possessed by the daimon. The path to be able to fully express through our daimon is blocked on occasion by experience of the demons of our nature.

    Sandra Lee Dennis has written of her experiences in “Embrace of the Daimon” and for her the imagery was what might be termed demonic until she allowed herself fully accept it in all its montrous nature. When this happened the imagery transformed into something beautiful. What seemed most figural in her stories were snakes, either singly or as groups and there were other manifestations, human and animal. And this seems to tie in with Moore’s ideas that this other may present not only in one manifestation but also as a multiplicity of images.

    Resources:

    Thomas Moore
    Soul Life:How to Nourish and Deepen your Everyday World. Available here
    Thomas Moore’s site:Care of the Soul

    Sandra Lee Dennis
    Sandra Lee Dennis – Embrace of the Daimon

    Carl Jung – http://www.cgjungpage.org/

    Anthony Stevens – Archetype: A Natural History of the Self

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