RECEIVING THE SACRED ROOT
I recently received an osteopathic treatment. Biodynamic osteopathy looks at balancing bio-electric, bio-chemical and tissue so that one may experience what is considered to be our natural state, balanced flow. These sessions are a gift to me, a time to dive deep within, to let go and open to the healing presence that is available, ultimately, in every moment.
Being a giver by nature, receiving has not been my strong suit. I have learned, on the road to living a balanced life rooted in I AM consciousness, that giving and receiving are part of a dynamic whole and are not separate. A true act of giving is receiving and the converse is also true. For many of us, myself included, giving can be a way of hiding, avoiding the vulnerable yet powerful state of openness found in a true energy exchange.
This osteopathic session revealed gems of insight. Healing began with the practitioner’s hands on my head. I quickly realized that me becoming overly wilful during the previous days, faced with a heavy project timeline, was the source of the tension headache I brought to the session. As a Yoga practitioner, I practice the release of the limited sense of "I" or ego as the doer, and instead, open to the notion (much to the ego's displeasure) that when in a state of expansive balance, "I" am in service to a creative flow that is beyond my limited ego or will. I was being reminded of this.
Soon after, the therapist moved her hands down to my feet. My immediate reactive thought was: “what are you doing down there?” Notions that my feet were a waste of time or dirty as compared to my head came in waves of judgmental thoughts. I witnessed and allowed those thoughts to be, letting go of the potential to judge the judgment.
What followed was an expansion experience, which illustrated that I needed to touch down and both receive and be received by the Earth. The earth is my mother, providing me with nourishment for my body, sweetness to fill my heart, and a lush expanse to inspire my spirit. What I was resisting was taking root, on this earth, allowing myself to BE HERE. I knew developing that sense of beingness to be the foundation of spiritual practice. I was now deepening my experience of such. In resisting being here, on this earth, at this time, I was sabotaging the possibility of my own state of balanced evolution.
I allowed myself to settle in deeper. My body/being came into a broad and deep sense of relaxation. I saw waves of colours all around me. I felt both spiritual expansive and rooted and vital. This was where I need to be. This was home.
As the session came to an end, I thought of the offer I had been recently given to pay homage to my guru Amma by a traditional ritual called padapuja. In keeping with a life following a Satguru, events unfold with a remarkable sense of alignment. For months prior to this auspicious offer, images of Amma’s feet would come to me in moments of expansive adoration while meditating or while moving through my day. At one point while out doing errands, the whole world was her feet and I was just a speck of dust floating along them.
Realizing the parallel between the offer to do padapuja and now becoming more aware of the gift of a life rooted on Earth, I spontaneously felt a desire to do padapuja to my own feet, showing gratitude for the gift of this body, this life, this Earth, where I can evolve and learn. What a gift to learn to walk this earth so that I may experience the rich balance in the energy exchange through giving and being received.
The osteopathic session ended and a few days later, I found myself at the feet of my guru, washing and anointing her holy feet. It is said that padapuja to one’s guru provides the aspirant with the opportunity to worship being established in pure consciousness. In this way, the aspirant may cultivate the qualities of such a state of being, through the release of one’s ego, developing qualities such as humility, devotion and faith. By offering our selves, we are purified. In this ritual, I saw faces of my ego that have been eclipsed to my sight. The perfect guru showed me where I need to grow. Touch down. Surrender more and then more. Rest in the Knowing of I AM. In allowing myself to receive, I am received. In giving wholly of all I am, I receive and am born again and again, moment by moment, until I am eternally home.
May each one of us feel inspired by our unique, sacred rooting on the Earth, in service to The Divine and to the Planet, our Mother. May each one of us live with respect for each other, our brothers and sisters who walk along side us as we travel the path back to the One.
Jai Ma,
Parvati
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Finding Light in the Dark (Practice during a Solar Eclipse)
After I posted my last blog entry, I noticed a comment asking me what "return to the One" meant. Thank you for the question. I loved and appreciated the interest and will happily answer what I do know of this in a blog post very soon. In this blog however, I feel it more apropos to contemplate what illuminated action means when transiting through a solar eclipse.
This past Sunday, our planet experienced a solar eclipse. This happens when our Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth. The Moon fully or partially eclipses our view of the Sun. The effect of an eclipse can be felt a few days on either side of the eclipse time, so we can still feel the effects right up until Wednesday of this week.
Traditionally it is considered an auspicious time for introspection, meditation, spiritual practice and soulful evolution, a time in which progress in these areas can be made. It is not considered a time where it is recommended to pursue worldly affairs and business. How come?
Most of us identify with our world through the lens of matter, form and physical substance, filtered by our field of emotions. We are attached to our egos, our will, our emotions, our bodies, our thoughts, our perceptions believing that they are who we are. For most, this is what we know to be real.
From a worldly perspective, the sun is the center of our universe. In this way, our ego and will is the center of our own personal universe, driven by our likes and dislikes. When we go through a solar eclipse, we lose sight of our common vantage point, the energy of the sun, which influences our personality, ego and individual will.
For this reason, it is not considered a favorable time for practical and business affairs. It is a dark time when our perception is obscured and things are more difficult to fully see, feel, understand and perceive. So it is not a good time to spontaneously buy what you think is your dream home. Somehow, something is eclipsed from view and will not come to light until after the sun has returned to illuminate areas that were in the dark.
Conversely, for a spiritual aspirant, an eclipse provides an optimal time for spiritual progress and work that is done in the light of selfless service. For precisely the reasons above, the darkening of the worldly tendencies dulls our attachment to our ego and will. In the dark of the eclipse we can access, with much greater ease, the light of pure consciousness that is animating the entire universe. Most of the time, the access point to that infinite light is overshadowed by our attachments to the temporal light of the sun, our physical universe, our limited perceptions and ego. In the darkness of the eclipse, we can see the spiritual light more clearly. The veil of illusion is thinner so that we may peer through it and gain insight into our true nature. In this way, an eclipse is a powerful time for profound and lasting release of our attachments to our ego and limited sense perceptions and open to that infinite light of pure consciousness.
If you have a guru, mantra or spiritual practice, it is an ideal time to dive much deeper. These are the days to "step it up", meditate longer, surrender more, open wider and then wider still. The progress made during the eclipsing of the ego drive, when one roots one's actions in selfless service, will then fuel the connection to that infinite source of light when the tempting attraction to the temporal light of the sun returns and that window into the mysteries of pure consciousness is harder to find.
If you don't have a mantra, guru or active meditation practice, how can you take advantage of this cosmic window into pure consciousness? Find a quiet time before the end of Wednesday. Allow yourself to sit quietly. Then consider the thought that you are in the dark. Consider that from the physical points of view. An eclipse is affecting the Earth. You are now in shadow more than ever. Your body casts a shadow. Your mind is full of shadows, shadows of dissatisfactions, unfulfilled desires, the nagging feeling of lack, and lingering, painful emotions. Consider that much of your life is driven by the desire to escape those feelings, a painful void within. Consider that much of what you think you want would not in fact bring you happiness, because there still would be shadow. There is shadow as long as life is driven by the ego and limited will. There will be suffering until we release our attachments to our perception that we are disconnected from Source.
Then consider the notion that you are part of a much greater picture. Consider this in relation to your place with those around you, then your place on the planet as a whole, then your place within the universe. See if you can open to the possibility that beyond the life you think you live, the likes and dislikes you believe you have, the things in your life that you feel define you, there is an infinite expanse of pure possibility. Allow yourself to expand and go beyond limiting self-perceptions. Surrender them to the light. Let them go into the darkness of the eclipse, like a cosmic recycling bin. Allow yourself to expand. Imagine, sense or feel that you are in fact an infinite ray of that infinite field of light. You always have been, but you have not seen it because of your attachments to your ego and limited perceptions. Allow yourself to expand more and then even more. If you are a visual person, sense yourself becoming that light. Stay in your body. Feel your body. This is not about leaving to find some other place. Allow this light of pure consciousness to fill you up. This is who you are. There is no need to try to go "out there" and find it. There is no "making" it happen. You are not the doer. The infinite field of light is. All you have to do is allow this expansion to unfold.
Whether or not you feel lighter, allow yourself to feel the possibly of something beyond, much bigger than your daily life, something so vast it is beyond reason, something so infinitely full of love and possibility, you are eternally loved and received. In this quiet place, allow your soul to flower and your mind to be. In beingness, there is expansion.
This is a time of possibility. We can allow pure consciousness to become the driver of our lives rather living in the shadow of a longer lasting eclipse than the one we are temporarily experiencing: the bondage to our attachments to that which obstructs our view of who we truly are. Let us awaken to the Reality that we are infinite beings of love and light.
May we all realize the infinite light of pure consciousness,
Jai Ma,
Parvati
Please free to visit me at www.parvatimusic.com or www.parvatihealth.com
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This past Sunday, our planet experienced a solar eclipse. This happens when our Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth. The Moon fully or partially eclipses our view of the Sun. The effect of an eclipse can be felt a few days on either side of the eclipse time, so we can still feel the effects right up until Wednesday of this week.
Traditionally it is considered an auspicious time for introspection, meditation, spiritual practice and soulful evolution, a time in which progress in these areas can be made. It is not considered a time where it is recommended to pursue worldly affairs and business. How come?
Most of us identify with our world through the lens of matter, form and physical substance, filtered by our field of emotions. We are attached to our egos, our will, our emotions, our bodies, our thoughts, our perceptions believing that they are who we are. For most, this is what we know to be real.
From a worldly perspective, the sun is the center of our universe. In this way, our ego and will is the center of our own personal universe, driven by our likes and dislikes. When we go through a solar eclipse, we lose sight of our common vantage point, the energy of the sun, which influences our personality, ego and individual will.
For this reason, it is not considered a favorable time for practical and business affairs. It is a dark time when our perception is obscured and things are more difficult to fully see, feel, understand and perceive. So it is not a good time to spontaneously buy what you think is your dream home. Somehow, something is eclipsed from view and will not come to light until after the sun has returned to illuminate areas that were in the dark.
Conversely, for a spiritual aspirant, an eclipse provides an optimal time for spiritual progress and work that is done in the light of selfless service. For precisely the reasons above, the darkening of the worldly tendencies dulls our attachment to our ego and will. In the dark of the eclipse we can access, with much greater ease, the light of pure consciousness that is animating the entire universe. Most of the time, the access point to that infinite light is overshadowed by our attachments to the temporal light of the sun, our physical universe, our limited perceptions and ego. In the darkness of the eclipse, we can see the spiritual light more clearly. The veil of illusion is thinner so that we may peer through it and gain insight into our true nature. In this way, an eclipse is a powerful time for profound and lasting release of our attachments to our ego and limited sense perceptions and open to that infinite light of pure consciousness.
If you have a guru, mantra or spiritual practice, it is an ideal time to dive much deeper. These are the days to "step it up", meditate longer, surrender more, open wider and then wider still. The progress made during the eclipsing of the ego drive, when one roots one's actions in selfless service, will then fuel the connection to that infinite source of light when the tempting attraction to the temporal light of the sun returns and that window into the mysteries of pure consciousness is harder to find.
If you don't have a mantra, guru or active meditation practice, how can you take advantage of this cosmic window into pure consciousness? Find a quiet time before the end of Wednesday. Allow yourself to sit quietly. Then consider the thought that you are in the dark. Consider that from the physical points of view. An eclipse is affecting the Earth. You are now in shadow more than ever. Your body casts a shadow. Your mind is full of shadows, shadows of dissatisfactions, unfulfilled desires, the nagging feeling of lack, and lingering, painful emotions. Consider that much of your life is driven by the desire to escape those feelings, a painful void within. Consider that much of what you think you want would not in fact bring you happiness, because there still would be shadow. There is shadow as long as life is driven by the ego and limited will. There will be suffering until we release our attachments to our perception that we are disconnected from Source.
Then consider the notion that you are part of a much greater picture. Consider this in relation to your place with those around you, then your place on the planet as a whole, then your place within the universe. See if you can open to the possibility that beyond the life you think you live, the likes and dislikes you believe you have, the things in your life that you feel define you, there is an infinite expanse of pure possibility. Allow yourself to expand and go beyond limiting self-perceptions. Surrender them to the light. Let them go into the darkness of the eclipse, like a cosmic recycling bin. Allow yourself to expand. Imagine, sense or feel that you are in fact an infinite ray of that infinite field of light. You always have been, but you have not seen it because of your attachments to your ego and limited perceptions. Allow yourself to expand more and then even more. If you are a visual person, sense yourself becoming that light. Stay in your body. Feel your body. This is not about leaving to find some other place. Allow this light of pure consciousness to fill you up. This is who you are. There is no need to try to go "out there" and find it. There is no "making" it happen. You are not the doer. The infinite field of light is. All you have to do is allow this expansion to unfold.
Whether or not you feel lighter, allow yourself to feel the possibly of something beyond, much bigger than your daily life, something so vast it is beyond reason, something so infinitely full of love and possibility, you are eternally loved and received. In this quiet place, allow your soul to flower and your mind to be. In beingness, there is expansion.
This is a time of possibility. We can allow pure consciousness to become the driver of our lives rather living in the shadow of a longer lasting eclipse than the one we are temporarily experiencing: the bondage to our attachments to that which obstructs our view of who we truly are. Let us awaken to the Reality that we are infinite beings of love and light.
May we all realize the infinite light of pure consciousness,
Jai Ma,
Parvati
Please free to visit me at www.parvatimusic.com or www.parvatihealth.com
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Thursday, July 8, 2010
This Blog Is Green!
Trees are our great healers and I donate a portion of my income to reforestation. So I am happy to find ways to make this blog carbon-neutral too.
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