Ask Parvati 20 - Tantra: Yoga Is Everywhere, Part 7 - Being Relaxed And Alert

BEING RELAXED AND ALERT

(Continued from Tantra)

 

There are many faces of Yoga. Ultimately, yoga (that is, the face of the divine) is everywhere. If you feel stuck on your yogic path and you feel you need to expand and try something new, ask yourself a few important questions before any big changes:

 

- What motivates my desire for change?

- Is the desire to move coming from a place of agitation and constriction or from a place of expansion and ease?

- Is this period of transition a reflection of me having met aspects of myself I find challenging and am trying to avoid by changing my practice?

- Is this the voice of my soul guiding me to expand into new areas of possibility?

 

As a rule of thumb, when I first started my sitting meditation practice, I would allow for the voice that said “enough, time to go” to come knocking three times before I got up from my cushion. Our minds are hungry. We tend to be agitated. Our egos want. We are habituated to feeding these tendencies. Spiritual practice is about overcoming and retraining these tendencies so that we may experience eternal bliss. We must therefore train our mind into moving through and beyond these hungers so that we may be truly fulfilled.

 

I believe deeply in the notion that digging many holes leads to just a lot of incomplete holes. But by digging one hole deeply, you will strike gold. It is important to stick with a practice, but one must do so with a sense of serious delight, focused playfulness and surrendered joy.

 

If you feel you are not moving away from your practice from a place of avoidance, always trust your gut when you feel drawn to try something new. Another rule of thumb is that that which feels rooted, vital and expansive supports your highest good and, as such, the highest good of all. That which feels constrictive and ungrounded is not in your highest good and is best released.

 

I do believe we are on the planet to have fun, to experience the bliss of the divine. We learn in both Hatha yoga and meditation practice to balance that which is alert and that which is relaxed. Discipline, when overly rigid, limits. But too much free flow is unguided and has no clear avenue for expression.

 

If you have developed a practice that is disciplined, keep that fire alive. It will serve you well. If you need more flow, do so in ways that bring delight into your life. See if you can shift your practice into a sense of freshness. What has been habitual may be experienced as new, with a beginner’s mind.

 

Ease up where you have been tight or pushy. Apply more attention where you may have been missing aspects of the practice. But above all, remember that yoga is not limited to your mat. Yoga is in how you perceive your mat as well as how you stand on it. Yoga is everywhere.

 

May we become fully awake so as to experience yoga everywhere, always.

May we all realize oneness soon.

Jai Ma,

Parvati

 

Ask Parvati 5: How To Begin Meditating

How To Begin Meditating

March 27, 2011

Thank you for this week’s questions. This week, we take a look at the power of meditation.

As part of the blog this week, I include a guided visualization for Japan. When I launched my new online store at http://www.PositivePossibilities.com/ last weekend, I led a meditation for Japan, which I recorded. Please join us in sending the people of Japan and our planet much-needed healing. The meditation is posted here. Please forward the link to whomever you think may be interested.

To get your question in for next week's blog, please send it to ask@parvatidevi.com by Thursday, March 31.

Sending prayers for deep peace,

Parvati

The power of meditation

Dear Parvati,

I have been considering starting a meditation practice, but I'm not sure where or how to begin. Can you please share how you began meditating, and how I might go about getting started?

Thank you for your question. The topic of meditation is very dear to me. It is something that fuels my life. I would even say it is the foundation to all that I do. It is a deepening, ongoing process that continues to teach me the true value of learning to fully live and love.

I first saw the effects of meditation when my grandmother walked out of her room after her quiet time. She seemed bigger, taller, more luminous than ever. The light that emanated from her seemed to make her ageless. I was only six at the time, so through my child’s eyes, I saw a truth that has stayed with me ever since.

When I was ten, I saw a friend’s mother come out of her yoga room after her practice with that same glow. There was a magic surrounding her, a peacefulness and a vitality, something that just said “yes” to my heart and soul. I wanted THAT.

My grandmother was not a religious person, nor one who had an easy life. In fact, through the war, she was struck with a mysterious illness diagnosed as terminal, with a husband off at war and three children under the age of ten to feed. Somehow she just knew, faced with all of that stress and uncertainty, that all she could do was lay herself down, go to bed and give her whole life over to God.

She was in bed for a year, during which her life completely changed. As she made that choice to let go, a woman she had never met before came knocking at the door of her tiny wartime house asking if she could have room and board in exchange for housekeeping. This woman's need was an answer to my grandmother's prayer. As my grandmother said “yes” to her health and vitality, a surrogate mother appeared to care for her children while she healed.

It was during that year that my grandmother started to, as she would say, “listen to her Maker”. Every morning once she rose, she spent an hour, sitting upright, eyes closed, going within, quietly listening. She did that every day, without fail. It was her way of connecting, tapping into the power of life and finding unspoken direction for her day.

All religions that I have been exposed to speak of the need to connect within to touch the true potency of life. Each practice is slightly different, but all seem to point to unifying truths: We are connected to a force beyond our ego. We are interconnected through that force to all things. We realize our connection to that force through a surrendered process that is beyond what we can intellectually comprehend or control.

Just as there are many religions, there are many meditation practices. A meditation practice, in that way, is personally rooted in order to touch the transpersonal. One must find their own way in, a way that suits their personality and temperament. I have most knowledge of Buddhist, Hindu and Christian meditation practices, so my practice stems from my relationship with sacred sound and stillness. As I mention in the bio on the sidebar of this blog, I have always felt that my way in is through the symphonic quiet of Nature and the stillness in all that is.


I have found that for me, the IAM technique (Integrated Amrita Meditation) offered by my guru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi of South India, also known as Amma or the Hugging Saint, is the most potent and comprehensive meditation technique that I have tried. As such, it forms the foundation of my personal practice, in which I also include daily an extensive beingness meditation practice that focuses on mantra (sacred syllables given by a realized master) and mindfulness breathing.

I feel that meditation is my medication. It’s my way of tapping into what is real, important and eternal. And as such, it treats and heals a misperception that we have as humans: that we are in some way separate from all that is. So the practice of meditation is like developing a new consciousness muscle in which our awareness is focused on the vastness of possibility, rather than the seduction of the temporal.

For a yogi, concentration is the first step to a meditation practice. I often hear people say that meditation is the stilling of the mind. I also hear people say that they cannot get their mind to stop, so they can’t meditate. Yet it is the nature of the mind to be busy. Through the practice of meditation, eventually one transcends that busy mind and touches and exists within the quiet, open, vast universal mind, the all-seeing mind, a vast field of pure potentiality. Meditation is the state of absorption upon which one concentrates. In a deeply meditative state, there is no “me” or “other”, but a oneness flow that returns the perception of individuality to the pure state of undivided consciousness.

There are two primary forms of meditation practice: those that are convergent, that help the mind focus, and those that are divergent, those that help the mind open and expand. The end result is the same, the transcendence of the mind, but the means are different. A convergent practice would be the Zen practice of focusing on a phrase, such as the sound of one hand clapping. The focus on something that transcends reason eventually exhausts the mind’s desire to divide and control and breaks the habitual field of awareness into new states of consciousness. A common divergent practice is a Buddhist vipassana practice that focuses on the breath. The breath is vast and expansive in nature, so by focusing on it, the practitioner can touch realms that exist beyond the limits of sense perception and physical attachment.

Some meditators are more visual and rely more on using the mind’s ability to create and invoke divine states or scenes. Others are more sensate and prefer to stay with feelings and physical sensations. There is no right or wrong way. You must do that which works for you. To find out what suits your temperament, try different techniques for a short while and eventually choose one. Choosing one practice is very important. As I said earlier, it is the nature of the mind to be busy, and a meditation practice is to develop the skill to move beyond the mind, so we don't want our busy mind to be restlessly seeking out a “perfect" practice that will bring instant bliss. There is no such thing. Meditation practice is exactly that, a practice. You get out of it what you put in. So sticking with one is really key to the success of your practice. And again, remember, it is the nature of the mind to be distracted, so there will be a curious hunger within that will come and try to distract you once the going gets a bit rough. Stick with it. Having many meditation practices is like digging many shallow holes in the ground, whereas sticking with one practice is like digging one deep well that will eventually strike water.

CONCENTRATION EXERCISE

Here is an example of a concentration exercise you could do. It is a classical practice from hatha yoga, called Trataka, which means “to look” or “to gaze”.

1. Find a quiet and relaxed environment, one that is away from the busyness of your life. It could be a separate room, or it could be a quiet corner of a room. Choose a spot where you feel safe and relaxed, that is not your bed.

2. Sit upright, either on the floor or on a chair. It is best to sit free from any back rest such as the wall or the back of a chair. You can sit on a cushion and/or prop your legs with cushions as needed so that your hips and spine feel as relaxed and as supported as possible.

3. Light a tall candle or raise a shorter candle (not a tea light) so that the golden flame is about at the level of your eyes.

4. Gaze at the flame with relaxed, focused eyes, without blinking. Keep your eyes open, even if they begin to tear.

5. When you feel the need to close your eyes, do so and keep them closed. While your eyes are closed, you will still see the image of the flame. Focus now on this for as long as you can, until it is no longer visible. While you are focusing on that gold flame, feel that you are the gold flame, that you are internalizing the gold light.

6. Open your eyes again, and return your gaze to the flame as in Step 4. Repeat steps 4 through 6 for about ten minutes.

7. After ten minutes, conclude the practice by keeping your eyes closed, taking three long breaths, feeling the energy of that gold light in your spine and your whole being, and give thanks inwardly for this practice.

MEDITATION PRACTICE

Here is a basic breathing practice you can do.

1. Find a quiet and relaxed environment, one that is away from the busyness of your life. It could be a separate room, or it could be a quiet corner of a room. Choose a spot where you feel safe and relaxed, that is not your bed.

2. Sit upright, either on the floor or on a chair. It is best to sit free from any back rest such as the wall or the back of a chair. You can sit on a cushion and/or prop your legs with cushions as needed so that your hips and spine feel as relaxed and as supported as possible.

3. Close your eyes and bring your awareness to the crown of your head, and slowly scan through your whole body. Over the course of about one minute, begin at the crown, move through the face to the top of the spine at the base of the skull, through the neck, shoulders, arms, ribs, lungs, belly, pelvis, sitting bones, legs and feet. Allow yourself to feel rooted. Then return your awareness to the crown of your head while maintaining a rooted feeling through the sitting bones, so that you feel through your spine the rootedness in the pelvis that connects you to the ground, and the lightness through the crown that connects you to the sky.

4. Bring your full attention to your breath. Begin to notice the details of the mechanics of breathing, such as your lungs expanding when you inhale, and contracting when you exhale. Notice the muscles involved. Notice any tension that’s there. Notice any expansive feelings.

5. Begin to become aware of the sensation of breathing, the feeling of the air moving through the lungs, allowing yourself to relax with this process, keeping your mind both relaxed and focused on the breath.

6. When you notice your mind wandering onto random thoughts, gently allow your awareness to return to your breath.

Repeat this process for two to five minutes, for a beginner.

It is best to choose a length of time during which you can maintain your focus, rather than choosing a time that is too long, where you become overly distracted and lose the practice. It is much better to do two minutes of meditation with focus than to do thirty minutes without focus.

TIPS

- Meditation is a discipline and is best seen as such. Regularity and consistency yield maximum results.

- It is ideal to choose the same place and time of day to do your practice. However, that is not an excuse not to do your practice. Any time is the right time to practice.

- Set a timer so that you don’t feel tempted to watch the clock.

- Avoid the immediate urge to talk or get busy right after the practice. Allow there to be a transition for a few minutes.

- It is best not to meditate on a full stomach. The ideal is to meditate after bathing and before breakfast.

- It is of tremendous benefit to meditate under the guidance of a true master. I list a few in the references section.

- No two sits will be the same. That in itself is part of the practice, for you to let go of expectation and keep doing the practice. A meditation practice is not goal-oriented, but an organic, surrendered unfolding that slowly reveals one’s true nature.

- It is very important to stay connected and present in your body, and not space out. Meditation is not leaving your body, but developing tremendous relaxed presence in the face of whatever may arise.

- Meditation is not a happiness pill. During a meditation practice, one will become aware of uncomfortable, even painful aspects of oneself. This is natural and healthy and not to be feared. By giving ourselves the space to witness them, and by being present with them as they arise, we are giving ourselves the gift of true freedom and the opportunity to permanently cease suffering.

- During any meditation, you may experience periods of elation or periods of distress. It is very important not to become attached or identified with, nor resistant to, any experience, and to just continue doing the practice.

REFERENCES

For your reference, these are links to some books and spiritual centers and teachers that have touched me in some way:

Masters:

Amma: www.amma.org and www.ammacanada.ca/toronto

Insight Meditation Society: http://www.dharma.org

Pema Chodron: http://www.gampoabbey.org

Dalai Lama: http://www.dalailama.com

Shambhala Center: www.shambhala.org

Thich Nhat Hanh: http://www.plumvillage.org/

Texts:

Buddhism:

Kornfield, Jack, A PATH WITH HEART - A GUIDE THROUGH THE PERILS AND PROMISES OF SPIRITUAL LIFE, (Bantam, 1993)

Chodron, Pema, START WHERE YOU ARE, (Shambhala)

Chodron, Pema, WHEN THINGS FALL APART: HEART ADVICE FOR DIFFICULT TIMES, (Shambhala 1997)

H. H. The Dalai Lama, THE ART OF HAPPINESS, (Riverhead, 1998)

H.H. The Dalai Lama, AN OPEN HEART: PRACTICING COMPASSION IN EVERYDAY LIFE, (Little, Brown, 2001)

Eppsteiner, Fred, editor, THE PATH OF COMPASSION: WRITINGS ON SOCIALLY ENGAGED BUDDHISM, (Parallax, 1988)

Goldstein, Joseph, INSIGHT MEDITATION, (Shambhala)

Hayward, Jeremy, SACRED WORLD, (Bantam, 1995)

Kabat-Zinn, Jon, FULL CATASTROPHE LIVING, (Delta, 1990)

Kabat-Zinn, Jon, WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE, (Hyperion, 1994)

Nhat-Hanh, Thich, THE MIRACLE OF MINDFULNESS, (Beacon, 1975)

Nhat-Hanh, Thich, TOUCHING PEACE, (Parallax, '92)

Nhat-Hanh, Thich, PEACE IS EVERY STEP, (Bantam, 1991)

Salzberg, Sharon, LOVING KINDNESS, (Shambhala Press)

Trungpa, Chogyam, CUTTING THROUGH SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM, (Shambhala, 1973)

Christianity:

Fox, Matthew, A SPIRITUALITY NAMED COMPASSION, (Harper & Row, 1990)

O’Brien, Justin, A MEETING OF MYSTIC PATHS, YOGA AND CHRISTIANITY (Yes International Publishers, 1996)

Hinduism:

Mata Amritanandamayi, CONVERSATIONS WITH MATA AMRITANANDAMAYI Volume 1-9, (M. A. Center, 1986)

Swami Amritaswarupananda, AMMACHI: A BIOGRAPHY

OF MATA AMRITANANDAMAYI, (M. A. Center, 1994)

Hixon, Lex, Great Swan: MEETINGS WITH RAMAKRISHNA,

(Larson Publications, 1997)

Swami Vivekananda, LIVING AT THE SOURCE, (Shambhala)

Satyananda Saraswati, MEDITATIONS FROM THE TANTRAS, (Bihar School of Yoga, Bhargava Bhushnan Press, 1983)

Paramahansa Yogananda, AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI,

(Self-Realization Fellowship, 2006)

Contemporary:

Ford, Debbie, THE DARK SIDE OF THE LIGHT CHASERS, (Riverhead Books, 1998)

Grof, Stanislav and Christina, THE STORMY SEARCH FOR SELF, (Harper Collins, 1991)

Muller, Wayne, LEGACY OF THE HEART: The Spiritual Advantage of a Painful Childhood (Fireside, 1993)

Instant Karma

INSTANT KARMA




I value the honest sharing in response to my weekly blog posts. Thank you. I admire your transparency and candor. Through it, I feel we all grow, myself included. I would like to answer a question I received in response to my last blog entry Finding Balance In Relationships: “When do we stay in relationships for our own personal growth and when do we end relationships because the other persons neediness and controlling behaviour has made it toxic for us?”



When Do We End Relationships?



I understand and believe that all that happens in our lives is for our growth. The universe lovingly supports us, be it through situations we find painful or pleasant. Usually we experience pain because we are in resistance in some way. When we are not in resistance, there just is, witnessing, unfolding, I am. In that state of co-creation we are connected and interconnected to all that is.



A relationship that challenges us is an opportunity to go deeper into self-awareness and ask ourselves what we are being asked to learn. In that state of receptivity, we begin to sense what we are learning. When a relationship feels constrictive, it is good to remove ourselves for however long we need, be it for a moment through skilled witnessing, as I described last week, or be it for weeks, months or years to gain some quiet objectivity. In silence, we go within and explore what triggers our constrictive reaction. Then, if it feels expansive to do so, we go back to explore the relationship with that new-found wisdom. Through the practice of witnessing, we can experience release and spaciousness where there once was reactivity. We learn to be present, to be with what is, rather than trying to change this moment to suit our needs.



We can find in most relationships an inner, expansive presence in which to evolve. However, when a relationship begins to feel predominantly constrictive despite one’s effort to practice witnessing, it is time to move on. When we do so, it is good to leave in gratitude for the teachings we have learned, rather than in anger, judgment, resentment, guilt or blame. Inwardly or outwardly we can thank that person, as he or she has been our teacher. As we move on, if there is any doubt that we have not learned all we could, do not worry. The laws of the universe will ensure that we do, either with this same person somewhere in our future or with another, in which very similar patterns exist. In this place of gratitude, we maximize our ability to receive the gifts of each moment along our path.



We Are All Students



I too am learning to practice balance in relationships. Relationships touch root issues and provide perfect fertile soil for growth. Inspired by the candor in the responses to my weekly posts, in this entry, I share a humbling process that keeps the teachings alive and real for me. Please know that each time I post, whether I say so or not, I too am working my own process. I trip. I stumble. I soar. I cry. I laugh. I doubt. I transcend. I believe. I live. I am. We all share this humbling, rich and powerful journey.



Instant Karma



Virtually minutes after I posted my last blog “Finding Balance In Relationships”, I was brought face to face with opportunities to put into practice what I had just shared. I call that “instant karma”. Like a universal, predestined "put your money where your mouth is" law that guarantees we walk the talk, "instant karma" ensures that our actions align with our thoughts and speech. It may come as a gentle feathery tap on the shoulder, or a bold, even life-threatening strike. Instant karma is a wake-up call to help us be righteously aligned with our highest potential. We may miss it, attached to our ways and absorbed in the speed of life. We may see it as we slow down and receive its grace. Maybe willingly we have learned to slow down and expand, or maybe we have been cornered by some unbending circumstances that seem to have conspired for us to learn the lesson without fail. However we come to see it, what I call “instant karma” provides an amazing opportunity to evolve…quickly.



Walk The Talk



I am often shown ways to ensure I am living what I speak, teach and sing about. As a performer and healer in service to awakening I Am consciousness in all beings and in all I do, I feel a deep calling for integrity. As such, I welcome instant karma. In my current show and album “Yoga In the Nightclub”, I step into the role of an Avalonian Goddess Natamba whose wisdom-compassion transforms the desolate Earth into a blissful I Am landscape. More than entertainment, the show is full of active invocations such as in my song "I Am", as well as unseen invocations of energies that converge to create a transformative group experience. If I am to be a channel for multidimensional transformative energy, I feel I must be true to my word, which must align with my actions with complete integrity and transparency. If I am to be of service to awakening I Am in others, I need to be fully aligned with that within myself.



I see instant karma at work whenever I put myself out there in an expanded way, be it in media interviews, live performances, or teaching and healing individuals and groups through YEM: Yoga as Energy Medicine, or just talking to friends. Whenever I am seen by others in expansion, the universe reflects the energy of such back to me to ensures that the expansion is fully integrated in my own body being. The universe compassionately provides an opportunity for me to internalize and embody the expansion that I just shared. If I experience something in an expanded state that I have not yet fully integrated, I will get an instant karma opportunity to integrate the wisdom personally.



The Perpetual Student



So…last week, moments after I posted a list of relationship principles that I choose to live by, I was given a chance to look at my relationship principles. In particular, I had to look at how I express my needs through healthy boundaries and follow through to act upon them. As we all know, it is one thing to think or write about something and another thing to do it. When we align our word, thought and action, we give ourselves a chance to experience the infinite power of multidimensional co-creation. Touching down of sorts by bringing the breadth of thought and inspiration into active form, we bring together the power of expanded, infinite spirit into the finite, temporal body and material form. With sincerity and humility, evolution towards I am happens as we align our thoughts, words and deeds with our soul's expanded voice, which is an expression of the universal.



To ensure I was integrated with my sharing, I had another chance, just moments after my last posting, to put to action what I had just written. This time it was about the gift of people pushing my buttons. One such person in my life who has an uncanny ability to push mine did so right away. Instant karma. I was given an opportunity to voice and act upon what supports me from a place of balanced witnessing. Yet, this time, my witnessing wore thin. I lost my patience and I jumped into the lake along with the button pusher. "Ok", the universe says, "Nice words! Have you fully embodied these teachings?" and I, the perpetual student, reply, "I am open, ready and willing to be completely restructured around the positive possibilities of being me. I lay my ego down and surrender to die the temporal death and be reborn into I Am." Faced with the knee-jerk desire to react in anger, I remembered the story of the master who took the annoying chai boy on his meditation retreat to the mountain caves, the master telling his students that this boy was his teacher. So thanks to instant karma, I am humbly reminded that my button pushers are my teachers and I a perpetual student. How the universe conspires to inspire!





Deeper Still Into Dreams



Clearly, these immediate teachings right after my posting were not enough. That night I had a significant dream. In it, I saw that within the basement of my psyche I have more clearing to do, which involves changing the way I am in the world and the way I treat myself. In the dream I saw unseen layers of my blind spot and was given tools to grow stronger through releasing them.



My Recent Instant Karma Lessons



Thanks to the instant karma teachings after my last blog post, I have been able to think, speak and act with new strength in situations I have found previously challenging. I saw new layers of how my mind still goes towards wanting others to make me happy, relying on their behaviours to be the source of the way I feel.



In my daily meditation practice, I cultivate a place within that is steady no matter what the outside may be. This place can only come when I have released attachments to the external projections of my mind, be it wanting, seeking or pulling on the outside to try to fill me, or pushing things away to keep me feeling ok.

Last week I posted “The Chinese Taoist master Lao Tzu from the sixth century B.C. reminds us: "If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never be truly fulfilled." In that I got to see myself. Then I came across a similar quote “by chance” from my guru Amma: “Peace and contentment depend entirely on the mind not on the outside.” Relying on others to make me happy would be like relying on the wind to keep me steady. Then I asked, what is steady? Even aligning ourselves to the rhythms of the Earth is a non-constant, as it too fluxes with radiant sunny days and devastating Tsunamis. Is it then not only the quiet, immense and perfect expanse of this moment, pure consciousness arising, upon which I can rest? And do I rest, or do I dissolve there? It seems in the dissolving, in that death, there is true life and an eternal constant. I know that I wish to make others happy, because it brings me great joy to see others smile. I expand when others do. We all win. Yet sometimes, there is selfishness there. In what seems like giving, the sneaky ego can in fact be trying to get... get approval, get attention, get temporary connection, get a wanting fix to keep the voice of loneliness at bay, ever for just a moment, until it rises again. When I meet those with an insatiable appetite to take, I am reminded that I too am in the picture, my voice, my space, that inner flow which is no less or greater than the another. My “I AM” voice within tells me when it is enough, when I feel I have given enough.



When we take that leap to try something new and not chase the person who is leaving us because we want their approval, or wish for their love, but rather pause and wait, breathe and be, there is a vast space that opens beyond the pain of constriction, of holding onto old patterns, beyond the fear of being alone, left helpless in this big world. In that space, we find a new life, a freedom from limiting beliefs, a renewed vitality, and a field of possibility. We also find that we are alone.



For the faint of heart and for those new to the path, the aloneness can teeter into feelings of abandon and loneliness based on wanting and a fundamental disbelief in our own innate beauty and ability, capability to be here, to be now, to be interconnected in this moment. For those who at that juncture wobble into incapability and constricted emotions, a new opportunity will return to once again give them the chance to release the holding of old patters.



For those who welcome the aloneness, we find tremendous strength and renewal. In that aloneness, everything is. There is the space to be who one is without interference. There is the place of possibility to connect with another without losing oneself. In the aloneness we are not in any way severed from anything but majestically and richly interconnected to all. In that aloneness we are more "with" than without. In that place of aloneness, we can touch our own place of enough. Aloneness does not need to exist in physical solitude, thought it may. Aloneness exists in the contented completeness within the infinite Self that is everything, everywhere.



Instant karma highlighted these things for me this week. For this, I feel grateful.



Beginner’s Mind



It is healthy to be in a place of renewed beginner mind, ideally, constantly. This really helps us receive the teachings of instant karma, especially after the ego can creep in when we have put ourselves out there in an expanded way. The universe immediately comes swooping in to give us a chance to grow beyond ego. In this way we learn best when we are humbly open and receptive to this moment and all it brings. Even that which we feel we already know becomes new and fresh. There are always deeper teachings and richness that may be revealed to us.



Take The Instant Karma Challenge



So in the coming week, I invite all who read this post to take the instant karma challenge. Notice when you say something wise or do something new or think something inspiring. See what immediately follows. Do you see the universe reflected back to you? Do you see the opportunity to align to what you think, say and do? What are you learning?



Instant karma is such a loving gift. Open to it. Thank the universe and willingly receive. To me this is part of the co-creative dialogue we all have with the Universe at all times, whether we are aware of it or not. What comes back to us is a reflection of what we put out. What comes back, be it pleasant or not, is the universe caring for us, giving us all we need to grow. There are no mistakes. All that occurs is perfection, teaching me how to live rooted in I am and return to the One. And, yes true to my word, I will soon write about what that means to me, as promised in response to a posted request a few weeks back. I have not forgotten.



May all beings be free. May all beings be happy. May all beings be well. May all beings be at peace. Lokah Samastha Sukhinoh Bhavanthu.



Jai Ma,

Parvati