From Your Higher Self

This is formatted as a blessing to be spoken aloud in a meditative circle.  If you're reading this on your own, bring some loved ones into a circle of your imagination and the results will be good.

We have a blessing to share, and it is coming from your own higher self.  This blessing is for you, from your extension into the highest realms of spirit. 

Let us remember first that the space we share here is truly sacred.  It was sacred before we got here and it will be sacred long after we leave.  It has been consecrated by months and years of spiritual activity and all we need to do is join it, to participate in its holiness.  And our pathway toward that begins with our own sense of inner calmness, that calm that we all know and we all have within us.  And it is coming to you right now, even if you haven't had a calm thought all day, because you know what it felt like to be calm at one time, and as you think about that feeling it is created within you.  The attention you direct toward that feeling causes it to grow.  Your attention creates growth wherever you direct it and right now it is growing that sense of calm peace within your spirit, and it grows to fill your entire body and it overflows out beyond your skin and it joins with us and flows into our shared space and makes it even more sacred than it was.

And within this feeling of peaceful calm there is a strong sense of deep love.  The love you have within you that does not need an object, the love that flows from deep within, filling your entire body, the love that flows into the space around you and into the space we share, adding to the sacred nature of that space and making it truly holy.  The love we have for each other and ourselves grows together and it mixes in our shared space and draws more love like a magnet, and we feel the presence of Michael,  Faith, Grace, Raphael, Uriel, Charity, Hope, all the archangels and archaeia, Lady Yumanali, Kuan Yen, Bast, Ra, Isis, Apollo, Mars, bring your own, invite your own spirit guides and your own guardians to enjoy the blessings of our loving spirits and add their own love in this sacred space, this meditation that we all share.  They're here with us and they add their energy to the blessings we share.

And there is one more entity who would like to come forward.  We can reach for that one now.  Imagine a divine golden glow that runs from your crown to the bottom of your spinal column, and let it build in power and let the light glow brightly inside your back, and then let the golden cord continue below you, reaching down into the earth.  Through the topsoil, the clay, the crust of the earth into the molten core that warms us, touching the spirit of Gaia herself, the earth mother who feeds us.  And keeping that contact solid, we take our attention back upwards, through our body again and up from our crown to the spiritual realm, above the planet, beyond the sun and the galaxy, to the highest and most sublime levels of the cosmos, and at the very top there is the glow of this beautiful luminous being.  And this is your higher self, truly sitting at the right hand of God, connected directly and individually to you and all the levels of dimension you're touching.  

This is the one who was with you before you were born, and to whom you will return, the one we are an extension of, living in these dimensions to show them the experience here.  They were eager to come here and see through these eyes, to enjoy the sunsets and the rainbows, the flowers and each other's faces and more.  We were eager to come to this lovely planet and hear the sound of vibrating strings, and to sing and run and laugh and touch and hug and more.  And we came here to enjoy this and to do whatever else we agreed to do, and now we get to check in with this one who sees the bigger picture, this one who launched our little ship on this lovely voyage.  And this awesome luminous being stands before us now as a reflection in a spiritual mirror and just radiates beauty, showing us clearly what wonderful stuff we're made of.  And we can take a moment to enjoy this lovely light, this brilliant color, this beauty in front of us which is ourselves.

And there is a message.  This message is very individual.  We are going to speak the same words for you all but the meaning will be different for each one of you.  And you are going to see how that can happen right now.  This message is specifically for you, from you, yourself, from a context of great vision, great wisdom, and great love.  It is yours alone.

Hello.  Hello, you.  I am glad to see you because it has been quite a while since we stood together in the first cause of all this.  I hope you're enjoying your journey.  Because enjoyment was one of the original goals of all this.

We had other goals too, and it will be very productive to realize them and remember them, as that will help you accomplish them.  And these were not small ideas.  They needed to be substantial and worthwhile because the force of intention behind these goals is where the energy came from to drive you into this dimension in the first place.  It's an amazing transformation to go from a luminous pure spirit like me to a tangible physical presence like you, and it is truly a miracle.  There's this whole channel of dimensional thickening to go through until at the end you can actually touch something and feel it, and that takes a lot of energy.  And if it 's not right, if the goals aren't worthwhile and honorable and for the highest and greatest good, the energy doesn't work.  It doesn't  happen, and you don't get born.

But you did.  And because of that we know there were some pretty good ideas you and I cooked up together in the beginning, and we'd like to bring them out now and look at them clearly.  But that's no small trick because there was some forgetting built into the human creation process.  After you got through that dimensional channel and arrived, and felt the loving warmth of mother's body all around you, the job wasn't done yet.  Because then you grew and developed and ran out of room and then there was pushing and shoving and then light, and air, and fingers, and we had to learn to work all that, then walk, and speak, be together, and separate, and that's a full time job.  And then we have school.  It's a wonder anyone remembers there was ever such a thing as an original purpose in the first place.

But you did.  You came here, and you stayed this long, probably to find some things out.  And one of the key questions is, "What the heck was that original idea about?"  And together we can discover this because I have a clue for you.  And it is this:  What do you like?  What things have you done in your life so far that have been the most fulfilling?  What has given you the most joy, the greatest sense of wholeness, what has touched your spirit most directly?  Think about these things because they are connected to your primary purposes.

Have you ever looked at the next deeper question of why we like the things we like?  We are drawn toward some things and not others because of agreements we made long ago, and we can see into the nature of those agreements by noticing what kinds of things we're drawn to.  And it is going to be a very helpful thing for you to know your core purposes.

So this is a clue.  It's not the whole homework assignment but it's a head start.  Knowing your attractions will give you insight.  Attraction is a primal force, it is a First Cause.  It is the beginning of motivation, it is the point at which creativity occurs.  And as such, it is divine.  It is not challenged.  "I like what I like because I like it."  That is enough of a reason for anyone, because it's a central thing.  It's at the core, it's divine, we've already agreed to it.  And this is your first clue, and it's a big one.

This clue is your blessing and it's your homework assignment.  Bring these agreements out into the open and re-adopt your original purpose.  It's what you've got to do to earn your blessing.  And your life will become richer and more fulfilled, your overall flow will become more free and easy, you will see more joy, more love, more blessing in your moments by keeping your own original sense of purpose in mind.  This is not a project to get over and done, it's a continuous inquiry.  Get what you can now, and keep looking for depth because it will be there.  And your life is going to be wonderful because of it.

And now that we have stood together again, and reunited our purposes again, we can be closer to each other again.  Notice the feeling of my presence now so you can remember it and recognize it later.  Close your eyes and ask, and I will come to you again.  Listen, and soon you will hear my guidance.  I will bring you blessings beyond anything you can imagine and together we will find great joy.

And now I'm not going to go anywhere, I'm going to stay here with you and let the evening unfold as it should.  But I am finished speaking for the moment.  I love you.

Trains

A train of thought is a very strange train.  It takes you for a ride like a real train, the kind with steel rails, but you never know where it's going to take you.

To take a ride on this train, try to count from one to ten.  Give each number about three seconds, or a full breath, and try to think only about the numbers.  Do you think you can concentrate for thirty seconds?  Go ahead, try it now.  If you find yourself thinking about something other than the numbers, just start again with one and see how it goes.  You might want to take each count after inhaling, before exhaling.  The breath is a pretty good timer.  Just close your eyes and try it.  This will still be here when you're done.

OK - so how did that work out?  Did you get past four?  If you did, either you've meditated before or you're truly exceptional.  Perhaps both.

Or maybe you got on a train.  If you do this for more than about three minutes, you definitely will.  The human mind is made to think, its job is to produce thoughts and ideas in random, creative, wild, wonderful ways.  And our job as owners of these minds is to manage them.  As good as the mind is at generating all that creativity, it can be unruly and hard to tame.  It can go off on its own and take you with it, before you even know you've been taken.  It captures our attention and our awareness, and leads us into turmoil as easily as calm.

The only way to control this process is to be aware of it.  We could say that the only way to get off this train is to realize you're being taken for a ride.

It sounds simple, to be in control of one's mind.  And in a way it is simple, but it is far from easy.  It takes quite a bit of practice just to count to ten, even a few times, without jumping on the old train of thought to take another little ride.  It is truly a realization to experience how the mind goes off on these expeditions of its own accord.

There will actually be many realizations about the nature of the human mind if you explore this.  You may notice the marvel of this idea-generation system you have within you.  As you try to control it and tame it, be sure to respect it.  You have a wonderfully creative ability and it's truly an asset.  Far better to train it like a beloved child than to squash it like a bug.  Be gentle, train it with love.

As you bring your attention back to the counting and the breathing (over and over again,) notice the strange places your train takes you to.  Some of these little trips such as resentments or arguments may not serve you well, but some of them will be tempting playful fun thoughts and some will make you laugh out loud.  Some of them will bring real advancement.  You will certainly be surprised at what you see.

Most meditations are 20 to 40 minutes.  Dedicated monks have sittings for 8-12 hours and more, and their minds wander too.  They're better at it than I am, but the wandering is part of the process, and a key part of the practice is when you bring the attention gently back to the counting and the breathing.  This is the part that builds awareness of the mind itself.  It's a case of using the mind to observe the mind directly, without external reflections or any view of mind as some outside thing.  It's direct fundamental awareness and it's powerful stuff.

Throughout the process there is a gradual deepening of feeling that brings a sense of calm, it creates a peaceful spirit with a direct awareness of love.  As we begin to see thoughts arising without getting lost in them, we develop the power to choose whether to follow them or not.  We could intentionally choose to develop an idea, and to grow it when it's helpful, or we could choose just to let it pass without our mental investment if it's not so productive.  And if we do just let it pass, we may notice that it's kind of thin, actually somewhat hollow, not nearly as important as we will think if (or when) we just jump on the old train and take a ride with it without that awareness.

It's an important choice, whether or not to give our power to any old thought, because they affect us.  We can get off that train in a very different state then when we got on.  We may start out in Illinois and end up in Confusion.  Or Turmoil, or Despair.  And yes, Bliss is possible too, but it's random unless we have the power of choice. 

The big point here is that we can choose our inner attitude.  We can add to our mental power by cutting out the fluff.  We can add to our focus and create spiritual strength by proactively managing this wonderful resource we've been given.  In this way we actually create our own personal authority.

And the best news is that anyone can do it.  All it takes is practice.

A Word from Athena

Athena is a warrior and an artisan, known for wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill.  She and Poseidon were the most important deities in Athens.  She's associated with the snake (connection to the earth) and the owl (wisdom.)   It is a practical wisdom, useful in tangible application, not overly philosophical.  Her first gift to the city of Athens was an olive tree, useful for heat, light, food and construction materials.

The philosopher GWF Hegel famously wrote, "The owl of Athena flies with the dusk," indicating that wisdom comes after the events which trigger it.  Some have extended this by saying that wisdom comes with age, only after life has largely been lived.  These things are true as far as they go, but Athena herself would like to say some things about her own owl.

Do not consider the dusk as if it were only the end of the day, as if the night doesn't matter, as if the daylight hours are the only ones that exist.  There is value in the night which we do not want to miss.  You can embrace darkness and it can be very helpful.

New wisdom arrives often at times of apparent darkness.  It is not when things are bright and sunny, smooth and easy, that we are most open to new insights.  We seek deeper understanding when we've been challenged, when our view of the world no longer fits, when we see something new we can't understand with the thinking we've developed so far. 

We don't usually welcome such events, they look like trouble and they can be upsetting.  But trouble sometimes carries the hidden blessing of deep understanding, which is easy to miss if you don't seek it out.

So in times of trouble you can enhance your own wisdom by looking for lessons contained within the chaos of upsetting events.  There are sometimes aspects of fulfillment to be found even in the most turbulent times.  They may have arisen as a direct result of the turbulence itself.  If these aspects can be preserved, even cherished, they can add to the depth of your understanding.

How many times have you worked on a problem with your rational approaches, studied all its aspects and tried to force a solution, and nothing seemed to work?  It looks like barriers all around and we end the day in a form of darkness, not seeing how we're going to resolve the issue.  Then the next morning, sometimes in the shower, the path is clear.  After the apparent darkness, illumination comes freely and easily.

One foolish fellow decided to spend more time in the shower just because of that.  But without the darkness it didn't do him much good.  The darkness has a value, it prepares the field for new growth.  We don't seek it out for its own sake, but sometimes we can see its worth:  The owl of Athena flies with the dusk.

Athena is not a dark energy in any way, she did her weaving and metalworking, forming shields and swords by the light of day, but darkness was part of her twenty-four hours and her nocturnal wisdom is worth embracing.

Athena's owl is usually shown as a small likeness of Athena
herself, as in this statue in Venice.  She's not often shown with
the owl, she is the owl - she is the personification of wisdom.