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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I AM: Natamba

I AM: NATAMBA

In my last blog, I shared a bit about what I understand of the Impossibilities and the Positive Possibilities. Once we allow ourselves to choose life in the Positive Possibilities, I AM consciousness begins to arise and our lives flower.

As a continuation of my last entry, in this blog I share my understanding of I AM consciousness. I also share how I feel my current show and album "Natamba" are an expression of my I AM journey.

Please enjoy and feel free to post comments or ask questions.
May all beings everywhere be happy.
Lokah samasthah sukhino bhavantu.
Parvati

I AM

I AM: the expansive experience of interconnection to all, through all, of all in each moment…pure consciousness arising. There have been moments I have experienced this. First though, must come the practice of rooting my life in the positive possibilities of being, a state in which I unequivocally know that my true nature is Love. In the positive possibilities I know and experience that I am loved in each moment, connected beyond the grasp of the limited mind to and within a vast, mysterious whole, of which I am an integral part. In this, there is release of the impossibilities tendency to grasp, repulse, constrict and try to control the moment. In the Positive Possibilities I meet this moment, without resistance, and witness what is. In that space of what is, I AM arises, and so flows the expression of pure consciousness. The positive possibilities is the fertile soil for I AM consciousness to grow.

NATAMBA

My life focus is the realization of the One. Art is a vehicle through which I express and explore this journey. "Natamba" is Grace for me. It provides me with an opportunity to activate, live and share the spaciousness and release I practice in sitting meditation. It provides me with a playground in which to practice non-attachment, to witness what is, to expand and share the joy of being alive.

Yoga is so much more than a series of bendy exercises for physical health. These are only an aspect of Hatha Yoga, the yoga that awakens pure consciousness through exercises that purify the body/mind. There are many branches of Yoga, from Hatha yoga, to Karma yoga, which focuses on self-realization through selfless service, seeing the love-light energy within all things, especially those in need. Yoga is a vast life science that explores and reveals to us our true selves, beyond the grasp of our limited ego and personal will.

The show and album Natamba celebrate the non-duality of life, that we are indeed expressions of the divine. Through song, lights, sound and theatrical elements, we are brought through a journey of transformation, beginning in the desolate landscape of isolation and despair of reptilian interference, to the lush expansion of Avalonian consciousness flowering on Earth. Natamba teaches us that yoga is everywhere: each moment, be it in a nightclub or in a meditation hall, provides us with seeds to awaken to who we really are.


www.parvatimusic.com

Positive Possibilities and Impossibilities

Through my spiritual practice, I have come to understand that consciousness - is. Yet in each moment, we have the possibility, through deepening our awareness of what is, to co-create with the consciousness that arises in each moment. In this process, there are two primary directives or energy tendencies. One is a movement towards the Positive Possibilities, the other towards the impossibilities.

In this blog, I would like to share briefly what I understand it means to live in the Positive Possibilities and what it means to live in the impossibilities. I hope you find the information useful. I welcome your questions and comments.

May all beings everywhere be happy.
Lokah samastha sukhino bavanthu
Parvati

Living in the Positive Possibilities:

Living in the Positive Possibilities is not about "being positive", an attitude that willfully conjures up a state of mind to overcome, with effort, a sense of adversity. "I am feeling lousy but I will try to feel positive." A world based on the Positive Possibilities is a world where each one of us knows that we are a loved, welcomed and an integral part of a much greater intelligent whole. Our very essence is experienced as love, which is the essential energy of life itself.

What is meant by “love” is neither the common notion of sentimental romance nor the feeling of being attached to things, but the expansive, ever present reality of wisdom-compassion. A person who is fully resonant in the Positive Possibilities knows within each cell that he or she is wisely interconnected to all things in a way that the limited mind, or ego, cannot grasp or comprehend. A person resonant in the Positive Possibilities understands that to love oneself unconditionally is to love all things equally.

I wrote about this in my song “Precious” after an awakening experience I had when I lived for a year in India. (You can take a listen, if you feel so moved, through the audio player on my website: http://www.parvatimusic.com/media/audio/). I realized “As I love myself, I love all things equally”. The only reality is love and love is all things. There is no separation. There is only a continuum of love that expands through all time and space. That is reality. A person resonant in the Positive Possibilities lives these truths moment to moment and understands that to do that which is respectful and loving to oneself is good for all. The Positive Possibilities is a connected and interconnected state of being.

The Illusion of the Impossibilities: 

Living in the impossibilities is like living life in a box, with walls built out of fear and disconnect. The ruler of that domain is a distorted sense of self, based on struggle, suffering and the belief in separation. This distorted self is determined to control and manipulate reality to suit its belief that there is no love, that one is not welcome on the planet.

The notion that the impossibilities are real is based on an erroneous perceptions of reality. How could this perception be real when all of Nature, all of existence is pure consciousness arising? Like an eddy stuck on the side of a beautiful, strong, flowing river, the impossibilities swirl around within itself, in an effort to self-perpetuate. One perceives daily events as against oneself. Life is experienced as a continual struggle, which perpetuates the sense of disconnect, loneliness and fear.

Consciousness stuck in the impossibilities is at the root of human suffering. In this state, one feels disconnected from love and therefore from life itself. The perception of this disconnect takes on a life of its own. One consciously or unconsciously attempts to prove that the disconnect is real and further the notion of disconnect. There is no evolution in that state, as the impossibilities keep one stuck, out of flow and out of the experience of eternal love. In the impossibilities, painful emotions such as judgment, loneliness, loss, guilt and shame, are born.

The Path of Possibility:

The way out of impossibilities is to fully realize that it is an illusion, perpetuated by our own attachment to an erroneous perception of reality. When we notice we are feeling mired and stuck, we can challenge the impossibilities by asking our self: “Is it true that I am not loved?” When we are open, ready and willing to release attachments to the impossibilities, the answer becomes: “No! The very essence of life itself is love. And I am of life. I am of Nature. I too am the stuff that is Nature. I am connected to everything, everywhere, always. I am love!”

The way out of the impossibilities is to fully under-stand -- to stand under, to be rooted in the Knowing that the impossibilities are not real. It is to see what a trip we are putting on our self! Life in the impossibilities is like staying stuck in a box, wondering where all the love has gone, when the love is in fact everywhere, all around and within. When we begin to understand that the impossibilities are not real, that they are an illusion, we no longer cling to them. They have no power, because the only power they had was the power we gave them. So we begin to let go of our attachment to them.

When we fully realize that the impossibilities are illusion, we let go and begin to be open, ready and willing. In that release, there is space, an ability to witness that which is. In that space of witnessing, possibility arises. In that moment, the Positive Possibilities are born. In that moment one can see that all along the sun was shinning. It was I who was standing under the rain cloud, wondering why life was so dark.