Now when the bardo of dying dawns upon me,
I will abandon all grasping, yearning and attachment,
Enter undistracted into clear awareness of the teaching,
And eject my consciousness into the space of unborn Rigpa;
As I leave this compound body of flesh and blood
I will know it to be a transitory illusion.

A  verse by Padmasambhava from the Tibetan Book Of The Dead.

In these words, a dying person about to enter the bardo, the transition place between death and rebirth, is being advised to not be distracted. They are asked to focus on Rigpa, the primordial, pristine awareness of the clarity of mind. We too are in a bardo, a transition time. The time has come when we have no choice but to go inward and re-examine all our values and rethink what our priorities in life are. It is no longer a time for idealistic rhetoric, but to engage fully in living the spiritual truths. It is the time when the forces of nature have brought to bear the results of the follies of a grasping society bent on selfish materialistic gains. In this video, Dr Helen Caldicott explains the nature of the nuclear disaster that is taking place in Japan. Its magnitude is perhaps many times greater than that which occurred in Chernobyl, and we are not being informed.

What is sad about this turn of events is that our leaders are carrying on as if nothing has changed. All of life as we know it is forever impacted. Our air, food, water and the entire earth has been poisoned again. No one is immune from the effects of this disaster. The biosphere is a closed circuit in which everything that affects the air and water has its repercussions in the food chain, endangering the life of the smallest sea creatures to the humans at the top.

What intelligent creatures would engage in practices that will poison the very source that sustains their life? What can motivate our leaders in government and corporations to deliberately act in ways that will mutate life on this planet where their children and future generations will curse them forever?

From the perspective of the spiritual healing journey, it certainly looks like we have come to the part of the road where we no longer have to decide which turn to take, it has been decided for us. We are all headed on the path that leads to the destruction of life as we know it. What we do have control over is the attitude with which we will live as we carry on with the rest of this journey.

This post may seem very dark and it is in one sense, and it is also pointing us towards the light. If not now, when? What are we waiting for, to engage in the practices that sustain life? Our physical life is being compromised, our air, food and water is being poisoned. It seems we no longer have any control over the outer environment. We can focus on what we do have control of, the inner environment of  our minds and hearts, to live with grace and loving kindness towards ourselves and all our relations.

O son/daughter of an enlightened family, what is called “death” has now arrived, so adopt this attitude: “I have arrived at the time of death, so now by means of this death, I will adopt only the attitude of the enlightened state of mind, loving kindness and compassion, and attain perfect enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings who are as limitless as space…”

From the Tibetan Book Of The Dead excerpted from The Tibetan Book Of Living And Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche

In these times as in all times, the prime directive is to stay centered, to be still and know that we are already free. When we live with an enlightened attitude, we can be more open to practicing compassion which is life sustaining. We no longer live in fear of the uncertainties of life or of dying. Seeing the fruits of grasping and selfish actions, we engage the wisdom practices of loving-kindness and compassionate embrace of all beings, for just as we suffer, so too all beings are suffering in this world of impermanence.

The 14th century Tibetan Dzogchen master, Long Chen Pa said: Since everything is but an apparition, perfect in being what it is, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter….

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. Now more than ever we have the capacity to make all our wildest dreams come true; to travel to the ends of the earth for knowledge or pleasure, to enjoy the greatest comforts and entertainment that money can buy. On the other hand we have also precipitated the greatest disasters that humans have ever been capable of, and now we face the challenges of living with the effects of our creations, such as radiation, pollution and the attack of the super-bugs.

Last night I watched a National Geographic documentary that was made in 2004. It was about a chain of events related to global warming that is causing a rise in Asthma in children in  the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago. This same phenomenon is also responsible for other related events such as the death of coral reefs in the Virgin Islands. These incidents illustrate the  evidence that we are one world community, not only in our spiritual connection but also of our interdependence in a shared fragile, physical environment.

Research has shown that there is a direct correlation between the occurrence of dust blowing from the Saharan desert, monitored by the meteorologists  on any given day and visits of asthmatic children to the hospital emergency ward. In other related research, dust samples collected in the Virgin Islands contained dust from the Saharan desert carrying a strain of virus that is causing the coral reefs to become diseased and eventually die.

The documentary went on to show how a chain of events from a decade of drought caused the waters of Lake Chad, once the largest lake in the world, to be diminished considerably. Between 1963 and 1988, the lake had already lost more than 95 percent of its original size. In turn, the waters of the Indian ocean have risen in temperature over the past few years, causing a shift in the patterns of the wind currents that affect the winds over the Saharan desert in Africa. The winds over the desert are now more forceful, carrying more of the dust of the dried lake-bed of Lake Chad over to the Americas.

As I sat in the comfort of my home watching this documentary and as I write these words on my laptop, it occurred to me how everything that I do and think affects every other thing in this universe, sentient or insentient. The physical manifestation of my desires has a direct impact on the finite resources of the biosphere.

Recent trends in some spiritual groups teach a philosophy of manifesting abundance in physical reality as our gift from God. How can we sustain endless growth that uses physical resources from a limited biosphere? If we stop to consider these claims of our right to own all that we desire  to live freely and happily in God’s creation, and then look at the state of the environment, we would wonder if we really need to experience so much outer abundance, when the inner satisfaction of a contented heart would suffice. The irony of it all is to listen to the proponents of  “the end times” living their abundance philosophy as if the state of the world  has no connection to the consequences of how we are living today.

Everyone of us is responsible for that child in Trinidad, having to go to the hospital every time the winds blow her way from the Saharan desert. In the words of Pablo Neruda:

…yet from every dead child rises a rifle with eyes,
yet from every crime bullets are born
that one day will find the target
of your heart…

Am I going to give up my laptop, and my cell-phone? We do not have to live with austerity, but we can be more mindful of how we consume. I don’t really need to buy that convenient gadget that allows me to download books to read. My husband and I are committed to traveling less for professional development, to choose web seminars and local workshops when possible. We are choosing to buy food grown locally when possible, and to be conscious not to engage in trends that encourage consuming more than is needed. If we are conscious of how our actions affect the earth, we would consider doing without the vacations to warmer climates just because we deserve one, or not buying the latest version of IPad, sending the old one into retirement, choosing not to think about where it ends up.

Yet with all that said, from the aspect of consciousness, although we are destroying the earth’s fragile beauty, making ourselves sick, creating an imbalance on the one hand with overabundance in contrast to stark poverty amongst cultures, perhaps everything is perfect as it is. Perhaps this is what we have to experience in order to come to an awareness of the sacredness of all of life, and the interconnectedness of all that exists. If all of this is a dream, an illusion of our own creation, the time has come to practice lucid dreaming, to change the dream reality to one that is uplifting and life preserving.

Sweet Dreams!

A jumble of newborn puppies
Twelve squirming bodies
All one, vying for the center
A symphony of calls and responses
Guides each to love’s embrace.
In their sightless world
Comfort is each other
Peace is the warmth of presence
Happiness is the still-point
Seeking
Finding
Contentment
Alas, it begins all over again.

Grey clouds hovering
Dissonant thoughts abound
White owl lands on a bough
Whoot! Be Aware! Be Awake!
Drowning in a sea of apathy
What Can You Do?
Listen!

The hidden focus is lust
Discontent in drag
She comes knocking:
Shiny toys
Power
Eternal youth.
More!

What Can You Do?
Helpless women and children
Victims of wars powered by greed.
Everywhere you look, exploitation.
From gilded towers, edicts from the gods of style
Determine the fortunes of men
Feeding the mill of ‘not enough.’

Like a hungry ghost
A narrow throat
A bottomless belly
Lust has no limits
Lays waste a field of broken dreams
Makes a restless person abandon her path
Strangles the hope for success through effort and hard work.

When Mother Nature stretches her limbs
When sickness and old age come calling
What Can You Do?
Some things you have no control over
With mindfulness we can live in grace
Avoid shifting Tectonic Plates
Caused by craving for more

One air we breathe
Recycled atoms of breath of eons past and future
Nothing is ever destroyed
Joy and sorrow we breed
Sadness is in the air
Loneliness is in the air
We take it personally, an endless cycle.

The soul’s journey is free.
The lessons of life we choose
Are of the partners: Lust and Greed
These two we fail to know
A ripple of indulgence rages into waves of global fate.
Nobody is ever doing anything wrong
Forgive yourself, just learning!

What You Can Do:
Beware the fire of lust
Temper her voracious greed
Be grateful
Practice contentment
Remember Truth
All is impermanent.

I have used this quote from Thomas Merton in my blog before and I come back to it again and again:

To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times.

I have been staying off the blogosphere for the past three months in keeping with my commitment to alone time. Yes, you are not alone even in the virtual world. The previous post has been sitting in the back of my mind for some weeks now, and this morning I was inspired to start writing again. My husband told me about a dream he had last night in which he knew why things are as they are today, and that he was teaching this to people. When he awoke though, it had all left him. He couldn’t remember what he was teaching others. I thought that my ideas for the previous post were related to his dream and that it was a sign to get back to the keyboard and start blogging again.

The blog has been an opportunity to make friends with like-minded people, many of whom I admire and from whom I have learned much. I am deeply appreciative of your comments and inspired to write, knowing that there are other seekers like myself who are trying to understand and to embody spiritual truths in their lives.  I realize that these posts that I write are not for others so much as for myself. In giving voice to the words that hover under the surface of my consciousness, I am fleshing out the bones of a body of wisdom teachings that I have gathered over many years and perhaps lifetimes. Contemplating the truth is an important spiritual practice. This is a valuable way to spend my time, though sometimes I am concerned about the amount of time that keeping up with a blog can take. So instead of lamenting my time on the computer, I am committed to be more vigilant as to how I use it. I put the blogs that I read on Google Reader so that I can keep up with what my favorite bloggers are saying. I may or may not choose to comment but I can stay in touch. I may not write as frequently as I used to, and then again sometimes some posts keep nagging at me, wanting to be written.

So here is my resolve for the blog this year. From the Tao:

There is a time for being ahead,
a time for being behind;
a time for being in motion,
a time for being at rest;
a time for being vigorous,
a time for being exhausted;
a time for being safe,
a time for being in danger.

The Master sees things as they are,
without trying to control them.
She lets them go their own way,
and resides at the center of the circle.

From The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace by Jack Kornfield

More than ever in these chaotic times, we have to make up our minds as to what reality is. In an atmosphere of fear of “End Times” and conspiracy theories, exacerbated by the images in the media of chaos that dominates the world, we are called to embody the spiritual teachings that we take for granted. The time to put our spiritual beliefs to the test, where the rubber meets the road is now. When we waffle around truth, we succumb to the predominating consensus as to the nature of reality and become ensnared in illusion.

I read a biography of Jungian analyst, Robert Johnson in which he mentions  his experience of hearing a voice as he was on his walk near the Christian monastery where he lived for some time. The voice told him that he had to make up his mind, either everything is the body and blood of Christ or it isn’t. I believe there comes a time in the life of every spiritual seeker whether Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or non-denominational, to make up their minds. No more playing around with doubt, waffling between non-duality and illusion of a separate self. I was reminded of this when I met someone who was relating the conspiracy theory about a few families taking over the world’s economy with the help of the military. He also told me he was a devotee of a guru of the Vedantic tradition. I was amused by the irony of the fear mongering he was buying into, while he is a student of the philosophy of non-duality. If you believe in the reality of a non-dual existence, then there is no place for  conspiracy theories in your framework, even if there is such a ridiculous attempt towards autocratic rule as espoused by this theory. Everything is Consciousness, yes, even the conspirators, and the illusion they live in is just that.

Here are some wise words from the sage Nisargadatta Maharaj:

The world is the creation of your own consciousness. It is seen only due to duality. If there is no duality, there is no world…

The world will never provide an answer to your questions. Find out for yourself what it is that is changeless…

The world exists within oneself…

“I am prior to everything and the knower of it.” This is the path of wisdom…

It is impossible to establish order in the world…

The wisdom of the sages of all traditions tell us that there is only one consciousness and we are all emanations of the one. All teachings tell us that the only purpose of this life is to allow all delusions to arise from the unconscious making them conscious. They become purified when we stand in our self-love to embrace all these aspects and bring them back to the state of non-dualism. This is exemplified in the words of all traditions:

Christianity: Everything is the body and blood of Christ.

Shaivism: Everything is Shiva.

Vedanta: I am That.

Islam: God is One.

Buddhism: Form does not differ from emptiness.

Native American Wisdom, Black Elk.: At the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit and that center is really everywhere…

Here is a beautiful poem that says the same thing:

LIFE AS ART

As each moment arises,
Appreciate it aesthetically,
Contemplate it symbolically,
Like the expression of the greatest
Most profound artist composer Dramatist.
Ultimately, all events and Artifacts are Emanations of
One Cosmic Creative Force.

Follow the light of love
Back to the core of your being
And bring divine radiance
Into all of your expressions.

We are here to celebrate
A new alliance of creativity and spirituality.
As artists of our own lives,
We use the medium of our consciousness.
To appreciate living In the unfinished
Masterpiece of the Great Creation.
Look at anything until it becomes a
Sacred Mirror and you see God there.
Our world, our Cosmos,
Our relationship to others and to the world,
Is a holy co-creation.
Each of us is a living breathing miracle
Of the evolutionary creativity of the cosmos.

poem by Alex and Allyson Grey

Image credit: edshealthtips

I had an insight on healing past trauma as I lay on the table having an acupuncture session today. As I drifted off in my endorphin induced trance, I watched in my mind’s eye, the events of my life as if I were  looking out towards a nearby valley surrounded by gently rolling hills. As the events drifted by my conscious awareness, the younger me and the events were like distant figures upon a far away stage, no longer the focus of attention. I had the distinct knowing that this is how we can heal ourselves. We can choose to see that we are not the same person we were when those events happened. We have lived a lot since then, becoming steeped in the lessons of gain and loss through all of the dramas of our life’s experiences. From the vantage point of the present moment, we can look with kindness and compassion upon the younger, less evolved person that played those roles. We could choose to send love and forgiveness to who we once were and to those who had commitments to our learning. We could watch with detachment from the perspective of wisdom and learning and offer gratitude and appreciation for the opportunities for growing closer to love, to coming home to the heart of awakened presence, the greater aspects of who we truly are.

This poem from Rumi reminds me of these insights:

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

– Jelaluddin Rumi,
translation by Coleman Barks: The Illuminated Rumi.

image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage team

Experience is in the consciousness of the beholder.
Moses parted the Red Sea to freedom
Krishna’s flute beckoned the milkmaids  on a moonlit night
Arjuna picked up his bow and fought the just war.
Stuck in a mythic paradigm
How do we communicate
When a literal translation informs your worldview?

From the ground of nothing
You argue for a creative intelligence
That oversees the laws of nature
Orders the universe in a grand design.
You say the mind cannot comprehend this source
Is it science or is it God
Does it matter by what names we call the Creator?

History tells the stories of our plight to understand
The fundamentalist, the pluralist, the rationalist
Each in our own world.
Move beyond these filters
Embrace our common goal
Let love become the center
Stand firm on the ground of our shared humanity!

The sage Nisargadatta Maharaj said, “The world is the creation of your own consciousness. It is seen only due to duality. If there is no duality, there is no world.” This is a very sublime teaching which we are not able to comprehend unless we are immersed in the state of non-dualistic experience. Even though we may not identify with such a world-view, living as if it is so, can accelerate the unfolding of the truth of this philosophy. This is a challenge when we look outside of ourselves with our separate identity, and expect to see divinity in all we encounter. When we can apply the teachings of a high philosophy in our own lives, then it is meaningful or else it is mere philosophy. I learned a lesson from a wise teacher that perhaps brings us closer to the experience of non-dualism.

We are all emanations of the Self that exists through all manifestations, there is no other.  With a world-view such as this, how do we remain focused in this state when we are not yet immersed in the experience of oneness? The path to the experience of oneness is a slippery slope when we are not able to identify with it yet.  All of life points to others and their impact on our experience. When the sage says, “there is no world,” how can that be when all our senses tell us otherwise. From the point of view of physics, we learn that all matter is a quantum soup of energy molecules colliding and coming together in a myriad of configurations, creating what we interpret as form. Yet I don’t think this is what the sage is implying when he says, “the world is a creation of your own consciousness.” It seems to me that these words are pointing us in the direction of the awareness of how we create the drama of our existence through our misinterpretation of the nature of reality.

One of my teachers is relentless in bringing me back to center through this one lesson, no matter what the cause of my confusion. This perspective teaches that no matter what another person or entity is doing, they are not doing anything wrong. In the dualistic society that we live in, a crime committed is punishable by law, whereas in a non-dualistic world-view, all actions are the soul’s way of learning about the Self. Even when a being breaks the law of non-violence, it means that that being is still in a deluded state and is in the process of learning about truth. When we are able to perceive all actions that we may judge as wrong in this way, it changes the dynamics of relationship. Then there is no one to blame, to fix, or to be the cause of our pain. All there is that is left to do about anything, is to heal the pain and suffering that is triggered in us by the actions of another.

When we hold the view of non-duality, all beings are the Self. We are all in the process of uncovering the illusion that prevents the experience of non-dualistic reality. When this is so, our wanting to change another person, judging what they do as wrong, we are being disrespectful of their soul’s journey by wanting to take away their learning process. Each person has to do what they need to do to get to the experience of oneness. This also applies to the body politic. That said, then how do we deal with the innocent victims of perpetrators that unleash undue suffering on others. We have to step in and bring comfort to all levels of their well being. Even in this situation there is a learning from the experience. An analogy is a child learning to walk. Only the child can do it, a mother can hold her hand, encourage her and comfort her when she falls.

Living in a non-dualistic world is a radical way of life, we go against everything we have been taught. The path of the spiritual healing journey is not easy. It leads us to the difficult work of seeing that all of life is about us. It is not about anybody else causing our suffering or about doing good to change the world. We can only change our own self, and perhaps by our presence, we can be a beacon for those with whom we come into contact. With a compassionate heart we reach out to comfort others, knowing that we cannot change their experience of the world, but can be a catalyst for their growth, a reflection of the truth of the divinity that we all are. Our approach to life becomes non-dualistic and as we live in this manner, we slowly begin to uncover the truth of our nature and learn that, “the world is the creation of our own consciousness.”