September 2019 Audio Meditation

Sitting in Central Park on a Sunday morning, there is a loud and enthusiastic race going on nearby with lots of hoots and hollers as people run by.  I’m here amongst my tree friends and what I’m aware of is the pervasive and steady quiet they radiate into my awareness.  This moment has taken me back to my experience of the foreground/ background dynamic that is always present.  By bringing my awareness to the background of pervasive quiet here amongst the trees, it shifts into the foreground of my awareness even as the enthusiastic shouting of the race slides into the background.  I feel my body relax into the quiet, into the pervasive silence that the trees radiate.

This got me to thinking yet again about how important it can be to be able to choose what we bring into the foreground of awareness and what we allow to hover in the background.  In my practice of attending to wholeness as much as possible, I do my best not to leave out an awareness of what’s happening around me, what’s happening in the world, and to acknowledge not only what brings me ease and happiness but also what touches into an awareness of suffering, outrage, and compassion. And so, shifting things from foreground to background and vice versa doesn’t mean to actively go into denial about what’s unfolding in my immediate environment or in the world. Rather, it offers a way to choose which awareness is most appropriate and most healthy in any given moment.

Read More “764th Week: Choosing the Focus of Attention—Foreground/Background”

I’ve noticed that I haven’t generated a new practice since September of this year. In that last practice, I described the journey and impact of losing one of my feline family members to kidney disease, a genetic condition that he shares with many members of his family. I described the deepening I experienced during and after the four-month-long process my beloved boy-cat and I engaged as he moved through his dying process. His two sisters are still here, and the difference in the energy and tone of our little family is powerfully changed by his absence.

As these post-death months have moved along, I found myself moved to create videos on multidimensional living, videos that offer information about the way that I move through the world from a multidimensional perspective. This shift in focus arose after what I thought was going to be an inner journey to connect with my optimal future self. Instead, I connected with what I think is more accurately described as an alternate self.

The idea of alternate selves arises from current thinking about the possibility that we live in a multiverse where there are many versions of ourselves co-existing within different versions of reality. The idea of a multiverse resonates with some people and appears ridiculous to others. Whatever your response, one of the ways I would think about this from a guided imagery or hypnotic perspective is that both alternate selves and optimal future selves can be metaphors through which we can tap into new body states, new states of mind, new responses.

The way this all makes sense to me is that I think, or probably believe at this point, that we live in an “information universe”, where information comes first and then becomes energy and form that resonate and shape themselves in response to the new information. For me, these kinds of journeys allow my bodymind to access new information which then becomes the prompt that supports reorganizing my experience and ways of being. Often, these journeys have opened up surprising new possibilities for me that draw on resources I hadn’t known were available. Posting videos on multidimensionality is one of these surprises.

I’m not sure how many more of these practices I’ll be posting, so they may continue to be sporadic, as I find my creative energy moving in somewhat unexpected directions. I’ve offered weekly practices for many years and have enjoyed the opportunity to ponder, explore, and share possibilities through them. So, my intention is to continue, but it’s not lost on me that it’s been quite a gap between this one and the last.

For this practice in conscious living, I invite you to play with the more quantum-oriented possibility that the process of generating intentions and the probabilities they engage is accessible to you. One of the things I’ve been asking people to play with is to say each day, “I am receiving and living into my optimal life.” An important part of this practice is to then get out of the way and allow yourself not to know what this means or what it will bring. Staying out of the way mentally allows for a deeper receptivity.

Then, along with allowing yourself not to know, another step along the way is to stay open for thoughts, flickers of awareness, new ideas, unexpected interest in something you hadn’t thought about before. All these are examples of intuitive awareness dropping in. The next step is to pay attention to these kinds of intuitive flickers and tickles in the back of your mind and to notice which ones you want to explore more deeply or respond to in some other way. For me, these new awarenesses often arrive when I wake up in the morning. They are just there, as if I had always known them.

As with all these practices, please remember to bring along curiosity as your constant companion and to pat gently on the head any judgments that may arise, allowing them to move on through without your having to do anything with or about them. Please also remember to allow mixed feelings, as they are a natural aspect of your underlying wholeness.

Here’s the audio version of this practice if you’d rather listen to it.

Walking through Central Park one morning, the sound of the birds, the slow but steady haze of green emerging on the trees, the emerging daffodils and other spring flowers all offered gifts that are part of the park’s waking up to a new season.  As I walked, I took in the sounds, smells, and visual delight of this emerging season and the experience got me to thinking about the process of receiving.

Receiving is an active, reciprocal process.  It acknowledges that something has been given and recognizes that the act of receiving can be an expression of generosity that can enhance this experience. I often invite people to notice their style of receiving.  For example, when they sit down on a chair and receive the support available, do they actively take in the support that is present?  Do they engage the reciprocal process of receiving what is offered with awareness?  This may apply to any kind of receiving:  support, friendship, kindness, much-needed food, clothing, or shelter, a smile—whatever is offered.  How would you answer these questions? Read More “711th Week:  Receiving Generously”

Whenever I begin any kind of group, I invite people to take a moment to follow the next out-breath down inside and find the place that is their natural landing place, their internal center of gravity. This is the place in us where we touch into a couple of very important aspects of ourselves. One is the steadiness that lives here. It is a steadiness that can never be disturbed. Another is arriving to an awareness of the quality and tone of our inherent core presence, the unique energy signature that we radiate throughout our bodymind being and out into the world around us in every moment, without exception.

We live in a world that appears to be solid and yet is actually comprised of an infinite variety of frequencies of energy. As Einstein says, “Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. This is not philosophy. This is physics.” 

If our human senses were more attuned to these frequencies, we would be aware of ultra-violet light and color, x-rays, and so much more. We are aware of a very small range of frequencies that are present and part of our physical lives.

Read More “899^th Week: Your Unique Energy Signature and the Spaces Around You“

Listening to the news these days can be a challenge with all the reports of rabid polarization, anger, and fear. This got me to thinking yet again about processes of subtle activism—things we can do within our own body-mind being that might add something positive and, at the very least, not add to the distress going on all around us.

This morning, as I sit in Central Park taking in the green of trees and abundant birdsong, I remember that we all “interare”. The word “interbeing” was created by Thich Nhat Hahn, the Buddhist monk and teacher, and he offered it as a way of reminding us that we are not only dependent on each other and on every other life form that is part of our ecological niche, but we are also related to everyone and everything on the planet. Even when we violently disagree with one another, we are related, part of an earth community of interbeing.

For this week’s practice in conscious living, I invite you to spend some time living with this idea. If it’s already natural to you, then take it a step deeper and find even more earth relations you may have left out of your experience of connection. In a world of interbeing and interdependence, no one and nothing can be omitted. We are part of one global ecosystem and we deeply depend on this earth family with which we are connected.

Read More “842nd Week: Interbeing: Connection, and Interdependence”