Ask Parvati Finale: The Miracle of Nature's Healing - Part 3: Prayers Are Always Answered (Just Not The Way We May Think)

(Continued from “Following The Call to Nature Co-Creation”)

 

When I was at the top of the world, I did some shamanic healing work on the planet, while the sacred Hindu 1000 names of the Goddess were being chanted – all as a gratitude offering for the benefic bounty of our Mother Earth. Then I quietly prayed with all my heart and said to the planet herself something like, “Mother, I know you are suffering. If there is any way I can help, if I can help alleviate your burden in some way, let me know.” And that was that.

 

A shamanic ritual can be likened to a portal being opened, a window into larger sight that provides an ability to see beyond the lens of our habitual self. And seeing something larger is what I did.

 

In the months that followed the ritual, I had a very intense time trying to integrate the immensity of suffering I saw in our world: the way we resist the exquisite joy of being here; the way we hold onto pain and make it “mine”; the way millions all over the world suffer from not having very basic needs met; the way those with so much squander their gifts and take for granted the bounty. I cried for weeks, not because I was particularly “sad”. I was in shock from what I saw and felt, and I was grieving. My heart was breaking open to a whole new reality.

 

A couple of months after I returned from the Arctic, that phase of grief started to subside. I felt more integrated so I thought that my life was going to return to normal and I could resume the musical tour I had put aside for the North Pole journey. But the emotional shift I was experiencing was just the tip of a huge iceberg I had hit up against. The crack in my heart and soul and the fissure that was bringing in new information into my consciousness was just beginning to open. The whale had not completed its teachings and my prayers to help alleviate the planet’s suffering were still floating in the ethers. What happened next I would never have imagined possible.

 

(Continued tomorrow with “My Own Personal Tsunami”)

Ask Parvati 38: Finding Centre in the Busy Day - Part 4: Seeing All As A Reflection of The Divine

I believe that prayers are always answered, just not always the way we think they will be. We ask for help getting over our tendency to feel angry and have outbursts. Next thing you know, a really irritating person has arrived in your life and you repeatedly blow up. We think the Divine will just take away our problems, when in fact, we have to do the work. We get that irritating person to practice letting go of anger.

 

You may pray for a raise at work and instead of getting more money, you get fired, only to then find that you really did not like your job anyway and want to start your own company and end up earning far more than you had ever imagined. What first seemed like the opposite of what you wanted, ends up being better than what you had asked for.

 

Grace always is. It is everywhere, in everything. We can walk through our days, habitually numbed out, feeling hard done by and seeking love externally. Or we can open to the possibility of always being supported.

 

Today, when you practice, begin thankful for everything that happens. Grace is at work, even when you don't see or understand it. Stay open to what is and receive this moment. Miracles are everywhere.

 

More tips tomorrow.

Enjoy this day,

Parvati

Ask Parvati 30: Creating Your Reality - Part 2: Reality (Capital “R”) and reality (Lower Case “r”)

Dear friends,

Before we start today's blog post, I would like to take a moment to remember that a year ago today, I landed at the top of the world. There, I performed and shot video for four of my songs. Then I spent a couple of hours in deep prayer and meditation, really tuning in to all beings and the planet. Thank you so much, again, for your support.

Parvati

North Pole Retrospective: Day Four

Day Four, Part One: Up, Up And Away!

Somehow, I like this plane. Perhaps the purpose of the journey itself inspires me and makes all things uncomfortable seem meaningless. Neither the prevalent smell of gasoline nor the uncomfortable, collapsible seats made of woven, synthetic fabric hung over metal rods is a bother. I have ridden for hours in a tropical jeep crammed with more than twenty sweaty people as we bump over dirt roads. I have slept on concrete rooftops, park benches, on the soil of dense forests and on the sand in open, raging beaches with few necessities. As the adventurer and one ready to serve the highest good in all, I feel ready for anything...

Day Four, Part Two: Eureka, Angels, Natamba

As we land, Mark, already on the ground, opens our cabin door to help us deplane as it is a five-foot descent down slippery stairs. To his surprise, he looks up and sees Natamba in full costume emerging from the dark out of the cabin door hole. Amazed, he takes a few steps back and says: “Wow! THAT is cool!”...

Day Four, Part Three: At The North Pole

We are here for two reasons: for me to perform my songs at the top of the world and to do healing work for the planet Earth. Both of these are to help raise awareness of the speed with which the ice now beneath our feet is melting. In just a few years, we will be among the few who were able to stand here....

Day Four, Part Four: Frozen Music Video Shoot

My face is now tight and numb, and icicles are forming on the strands of hair that escape from my hood. It does not even occur to me that it may be hard to sing in this dry, freezing weather. I start to sing. Rishi shoots. All is going well until about one minute into the song...

Day Four, Part Five: Healing The Earth At The Top Of The World

In monk-like quiet, Sunanda pulls out from beneath her Arctic wear a book that she, Rishi and I very much respect. It contains the Lalita Sahasranama, Sanskrit prayers to the Divine Mother. We have traveled over 3000 miles (5000 kilometres) to chant these ancient prayers and make this offering to the Earth at the top of the world. The Earth is our Mother. She provides us with life and sustains us. But now, due to human ignorance, she is in distress. May our offerings serve in some way to alleviate suffering for all...

 

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CREATING YOUR REALITY: PART 2: REALITY (CAPITAL “R”) AND REALITY (LOWER CASE “R”)

(Continued from What Does It Mean, “We Create Our Reality”?)

I have shared in past blog entries that our personalities tend to be the summation of our perceptions, which are the outcome of our experiences. These are processed through our senses and filtered through our mind. They are not absolute truths but subjective experiences.

Beyond these perceptions, there is a substratum that lies beneath the temporal quality of life. This exists beyond our likes and dislikes, beyond things that are born and things that die. In the eternal, we find pure consciousness that weaves through all the temporal things of life.

When we speak of reality, I feel we need to define what we mean. When we say, “That is real for me,” we speak of our senses, our experiences, and our thoughts. This reality is subjective and changes for each individual. When we speak of ultimate truth, we speak of a reality that is timeless and permanent.

I find it useful to refer to “reality” (with a lower case “r”) as the summation of our experiences. “Reality” (with a capital “R”) refers to the field of pure consciousness. They are very different yet beautifully interrelated and interconnected.

Where perhaps some of the explanations I have heard for “we create our reality” fall short for me is in the implication and encouragement of the notion that “we” are the doers. With the desire perhaps to help people feel peppy and in charge, the emphasis becomes on the idea that “we” create our reality. That just does not feel right for me and does not express my personal experience with manifesting.
In terms of manifesting, I have seen that our joys come to us when we are feeling full and grateful, not when we are feeling lack, separation and wanting. From the perspective of Reality (with a capital “R”), I have seen how “we” really are not doing anything.

There is an immense, vast, intelligent flow to which we as our limited, temporal selves learn to surrender and witness. We learn to show up and be present. Ultimately, the best thing we can do is get out of the way of that immensity. That way our reality with a lower case “r” is in service to Reality with a capital “R”. We are in service to the divine, creative flow. It is only then that we live rooted, vital and expansive in I AM consciousness.

There is a subtle yet very tricky shadow at play with the idea that “we” are the doers, that “we” create anything, because it implies “we” are in control. The ego loves that! “I am in control! Me! Great old me!” Uh oh! Me? What is that? Is it not just a passing series of thoughts, like a cloud over the sun? Are we not ultimately the sun, the universal light that shines eternal truths?

Yes, “we” do have some control, in terms of our free will. But ultimately, “we” have very little control. Our power lies in our ability to make wise and conscious choices about how to deal with our selves and where we place our awareness. From my understanding, how we choose to manage our consciousness is at the root of the idea that we create our reality. If we have the power to focus, to place and direct our awareness, then where are we focusing? Are we focusing on “reality” or “Reality”?

(Continued tomorrow with Life Is A Mirror)

 

 

 

 

North Pole Journey: Epilogue

A week after my return: Friday, October 7, 2010



COMING TO OUR SENSES



It has been about a week since I have been back from the North Pole. Though I’ve slept well these past days, I feel very tired and strangely, I think I feel something like culture shock. My heart is heavy having seen even more clearly and palpably the effect of human ignorance. Yet there is new life being born in me beneath the undeniable process of grieving I am experiencing. Perhaps that baby Inuit I felt wiggling in my soul while in the Arctic is shape-shifting into a wiser, more compassionate self. Though my eyes these days are continual fountains that do not run dry, my chest feels like a chrysalis bursting into freedom. The force moving through me feels like the power of Life itself. As I evolve, I am charged with an even stronger pull to wake up and inspire positive growth for all.



I know that when my heart breaks, I have a choice. It can either break to close down or it can break open. I feel my heart is breaking open after seeing a much bigger picture of the ecological crisis than I previously knew existed. This week doing the media circuit, people seem interested in the problem, but also bound by the perception of helplessness and disconnect. I know my tears are my own, yet I feel acutely aware of the pain of the planet. This may sound grandiose, but it is true: the pain I feel feels like the pain of the world. There I was at the North Pole, praying to be a vehicle for transformative healing for the living Earth and for all beings, offering myself completely to Her. I understand that the spiritual purge I am going through now is the result of the prayers I did from the bottom of my heart at the top of the world asking that our world may be free from all interference. I am part of the world, literally. Resistance to life in the form of fear, judgment, anger, shame…all those painful emotions that disconnect me from my truest beauty, adds weight to my health and well being and also to that of the Earth.



We use this expression commonly: to feel the pain of the world. But when we say that, we mean the pain of the people on the Earth, but not the pain of the planet itself. Yet, the people who live on it are also made of it. I understand now within my very cells that there is no pain in the world that Nature itself does not feel. We speak about being one people, interconnected. Yet we are also intricately connected and interdependent with the living earth as a conscious being.



I knew before going that the planet is in trouble. What I saw at the North Pole makes me even more aware of how big the problem is. Unanimously, elders, healers, politicians, hunters, pilots, environmental activists, scientists shared the same message: the ice is melting very quickly, the animals are dying and people must stop polluting. The winds carry our pollution to the Arctic. People there are experiencing what we will see soon. This is serious and we must take action now.



What my heart is teaching me is that the environmental crisis is a gift to learn to connect more deeply. It is like the call from the planet, our mother, teaching us, yet again (as a mother would), how we must grow up and become wiser and more compassionate beings. She shows us that we are all connected because when we act in a disconnected manner, life dies and so do we. What I do affects you. What you do affects me. What we all do affects the planet. We are not isolated islands but one Earth family.



Through this process of potential awakening, I see that there are two levels of change we are being called to implement. One is external and one is internal. They inform each other. Externally, we must reduce CO2 emissions. This is not new. We have known that for some time now. But it is more urgent than ever. There is a saying that what we resist persists. Similarly what we avoid gets bigger until we must give it due attention. It is like life drops a tiny feather on our shoulder to remind us to wake up, then a pebble, then a stone. Finally a huge grand piano comes crashing down on our head to help us wake up. I see the natural disasters like the ice caps melting, the Tsunamis, what happened in Haiti and Pakistan as the grand piano. We can be easily complacent in Canada and other developed countries because we have not yet personally experienced these horrors where we live. It is happening “over there”. It may well take people turning on their taps and seeing purple water before everyone understands that there is a global ecological crisis and we must change. I do hope not.



Yes, we must plant trees, turn off lights and electrical devices when not in use, conserve water and take shorter showers; look for alternative transportation to cars, such as car pooling or taking the public transport. Beyond these external things, I believe we are spiritually called to awaken to realize we are part of a much bigger whole. When we begin to see that each decision we make, we don’t make for ourselves alone but that we affect everyone on the planet, we naturally begin to act with more compassion. When we have more compassion, turning off the lights when not in use, or riding a bike becomes more natural. We realize the full impact of our actions.



The realization of our interconnection inspires personal responsibility and transformation. That in turn creates global change. We must realize that we are connected and what one person does affects everyone and the planet. We all breathe the same air and live on the same living organism. Varied in race and creed, we are one Earth family, children of the same mother, our planet. On this Earth, there are wonderfully rich cultures, races, creeds that are like a beautiful tapestry window dressing. Let’s look through the window and welcome the light of possibility, of interconnection into our lives.



I wrote on Satish’s fabric, “we are wealthy when our world is healthy”. I believe the ecological crisis is happening now as a call to change, not because we can’t, but because we can. We can meet this as a powerful opportunity for tremendous personal and global transformation.



I am so grateful to all who have supported this North Pole journey. It has been so very graced. May we continue to wake up, connect to ourselves and to each other and realize our true nature. Mall beings be free of suffering.

With Grace, may it be so.



Parvati

North Pole Journey: Day Four, Part Five - Healing at the Top of the Earth

 

Day Four: Sunday September 26, 2010

Part Five

HEALING HAPPENS IN THE UNSEEN

Healing work happens in the unseen. It is a process of becoming still and surrendered, enough so that we align with a much greater truth, beyond our limited ego or will. In that state, we move from a monochrome, black and white reality to what I call ‘hyper-real’, a tapestry of technicolour possibilities and infinite, co-creative abundance.

I have been privy to extraordinary and exceptional grace over the years, witnessing profound beauty emerge and be born from this state. It seems that the breadth of our human potential goes largely untouched. In the compressed, me-me-me centered rush of our busy, self-absorbed lives, we unconsciously play out old stories we developed as children and from times now long gone.

Here, in this place of vast Arctic immensity, surrounded in all directions by kilometers of pristine, crisp, absolute white snow and ice, I am acutely aware of what most of us, as a human species, are missing: the magnitude and magnificence of this moment. Everything lies there within, a place of infinite potentiality, void of all wants, the fulfillment of our deepest longings, loves and desires.

Faced with this expanse, there is nothing I can do now but bow to the Supreme Consciousness that is beyond comprehension, that defies understanding. It is this compassionate and wise life force that permeates and pulsates through all living things – the force of our universe and beyond - that of which I am made.

The technicalities of our video shoot seem far in the past. As we return to our airplane, our pilots share good news. We do not need to pitch a tent on this frigid ice. While we were shooting the performance footage, they located a wind shelter, courtesy of Parks Canada, that we can use.

We move through the snow that lay between the plane and shelter with single-minded focus. We enter a small cabin that is surprisingly sound. Equipped with a butane stove to cut through the fierce chill, it is has solid flooring, walls and a roof. It seems that the angels continue to grace our mission to serve all beings and our planet Earth at the North Pole.

HEALING THE EARTH AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD

In monk-like quiet, Sunanda pulls out from beneath her Arctic wear a book that she, Rishi and I very much respect. It contains the Lalita Sahasranama, Sanskrit prayers to the Divine Mother. We have traveled over 3000 miles (5000 kilometres) to chant these ancient prayers and make this offering to the Earth at the top of the world. The Earth is our Mother. She provides us with life and sustains us. But now, due to human ignorance, she is in distress. May our offerings serve in some way to alleviate suffering for all.

Sunanda turns on a recording of a monk chanting these sacred words. She attentively joins in. Rishi and I enter deeply into a meditative state. This is a setting I can use, a gift I have had since I was a child. As one Vedic astrologer said to me, I have a very strong relationship with the unseen. With my eyes closed, and with no attachment or agenda other than to serve the highest good, I begin non-verbal communication with unseen presences, energies as alive as that which are in flesh. In this, a transformative process begins to unfold.

Feeling cradled by the penetrative sound of the Sanskrit chanting, I let go and expand. In this field of possibility, I become witness to a rearranging and clearing that takes place all around us that we cannot see. We are far from alone.

Just as the North Pole is a dumping ground for our world’s physical pollution, I now see that it is also a dumping ground for the psychic pollution in the thoughts of humanity. I watch as energies shift, move, clear, reveal and disappear. All of life is unfolding, arising and falling - first in the unseen, then in the seen.

As I allow my body to be a physical conduit for the Earth (matter from which this body is made) to the unseen (source from which I am), an alchemical process unfolds within the next two hours. As witness, I see first a clearing of the space, which include evicting a variety of energies, then opening a gateway for benevolent Cosmic Intelligence energies so they may provide healing support for the living organism, the Planet Earth.

From deep within this meditative state, I am shaken. The pilots summon my attention. We have at most 20 minutes until we must be on the plane to make it back safely.

Sunanda concludes her second round of the Lalita Sahasranama, the thousand names of the Divine Mother, as I begin to bring my full awareness back to the physical reality of this Earthly shelter. As I open my eyes, I see that my breath still creates frost, despite our little heater hard at work. My body is dusted with black soot from the camphor we have been burning continuously.

The pilots encourage us to the cabin door. It opens and reveals dusk light. We must make our way back to the plane and begin our journey across the British Empire mountain range over Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, heading southbound back to Resolute Bay. We still have a four-hour flight until we are back to safety.

Once on board our tiny sea otter plane, I feel elation. Surprisingly not exhausted by the already twelve-hour day in extreme conditions, all I see outside the plane window is Nature shining. It seems She is very pleased. I sense all of creation singing joyfully.

Though the sun was almost gone from view, hidden behind the Earth’s surface, the world, the universe, feels lighter, bright and more expansive. In the sky, on the journey here, a strange, sharp, sparkling, golden light seemed to follow us. When I looked at it then, all I could think was that it was angel Ariel supporting us, with us, present.

Now en route back, a similar otherworldly light fills the sky, this time surrounded by rainbow colours of the setting sun. It is clear to me that we have succeeded in this mission to support healing the planet. It is clear to me that this trip, from beginning to end, is Grace, orchestrated from far beyond, and so much bigger than us all.

North Pole Journey: Day Four, Part One

Day Four: Sunday, September 26, 2010

Part One

UP, UP AND AWAY!

The morning alarm goes off just a couple of hours after I had stretched myself out to sleep. I pop out of bed, surprisingly not tired. This is the day I have been preparing for. We are going to the North Pole so I can perform my songs there. Rishi will shoot the video, and then we will offer healing to our Mother Earth at the top of the world – all to help raise awareness that the polar ice caps are melting at an alarming rate. I feel connected to warrior-like steadiness, ready to meet whatever this day may bring.

I peel back the curtains of the hotel window in Resolute Bay to see the dawn light not yet breaking amidst flurries, blowing snow and overcast skies. Today we are scheduled to travel about 800km by air. A momentary thought passes through my mind: will our trip be postponed due to inclement weather? I rule it out. I don’t want to go there, even though, over the last couple of days, we have been warned of bad weather and potentially having to reschedule our departure. We have been actively praying for all to go smoothly. I choose to only believe that am protected and lucky.

We quickly get ourselves dressed and downstairs to contact the airport for today’s weather forecast. Rishi makes the call. Is our private flight a go? He returns with a radiant face, saying the weathermen were surprised to report what they saw. The weather is low visibility everywhere except in the small stretch where we plan to land. Based on this report, we can leave. Sunanda, Rishi and I smile at each other. We all know that this is grace.

Meghan, the innkeeper, kindly drives us quickly out to the airport where a tiny Sea Otter plane awaits our arrival. In the twilight of dawn, amidst the blowing snow and -15º C icy winds, Captain Troy and co-pilot Mark greet us and help get our gear onto the plane.

As we board, we are told that today we have the “executive suite special”: Captain Troy points jokingly to a garbage bag-lined bin that is our only toilet for the day. The cabin is perhaps 18 feet long and four feet wide, half the space occupied by large, rusty metal barrels, our fuel reserves to make today’s journey.

Somehow, I like this plane. Perhaps the purpose of the journey itself inspires me and makes all things uncomfortable seem meaningless. Neither the prevalent smell of gasoline nor the uncomfortable, collapsible seats made of woven, synthetic fabric hung over metal rods is a bother. I have ridden for hours in a tropical jeep crammed with more than twenty sweaty people as we bump over dirt roads. I have slept on concrete rooftops, park benches, on the soil of dense forests and on the sand in open, raging beaches with few necessities. As the adventurer and one ready to serve the highest good in all, I feel ready for anything.

Wrapped in our down snowsuits, we each find a seat and buckle ourselves in. The engine starts abruptly, igniting a very loud sound that makes it impossible for us to speak to one another. I now understand why, when we boarded, we were given orange foam earplugs. It is now nearing 9am and it is getting light out. We must depart if we are to succeed our mission before nightfall.

ONE WITH THE SKY

The body of the plane shakes as we rise. Air vents switch on, providing some heat. Below us, the tiny box-like houses of Resolute Bay look increasingly distant. Inside this small cabin space, I am immediately struck by an intimacy with the sky, an almost physical connection to the air, the clouds and the atmosphere. I begin to feel as though the body of the plane is an extension of my own.

Aware of the warnings of the dangers of this trip that were echoed by the Inuit healers we met in Resolute, Sunanda, Rishi and I are busy invoking grace every minute of the trip. In the silencing noise, we are left alone to go within. We each quietly meditate and pray, tuning into the purity of this mission to serve all beings. We pull out our mantra books and each recite the thousand names of the Goddess, an ancient Sanskrit prayer to the Divine Feminine. The Earth is our Mother. To Her we offer these prayers.

Though the land looks pure, white and untouched, I sense the presence of energetic congestion. I can see it in our cities, the weather patterns changing, extreme heat, extreme cold. I can see it in people’s faces all over the world, the stress, the fear, the disconnect. Here too, I can feel it in nature, the agitation, the weight of the collective consciousness at this time on the planet. The earth is burdened. Here, Sunanda, Rishi and I are doing what we can, playing our part in helping to lighten the load. May these prayers serve. May these actions inspire. May all beings be free…