Source Seminars

The ONE Essential

Good Morning!
I had a very deep experience this morning which I choose to relate.  I noticed when I began meditating I was experiencing fairly intense anxiety.  I examined my thoughts and noticed the several things contributing to this overall feeling of discomfort.

I was worried about the National election as I had been emailed about the very real possibility of yet another stolen election via voter-machine fraud.  I was worried about some compadres who are having very challenging financial times and don't seem to be able to control spending or change lifestyle.  That led to worry about Level IV and it staying intact with those I feel certain I am going Home with.  I worried about some health issues involving those close to me and about my daughter presently traveling in South America.

Suddenly I reflected on the single Most Important outcome of my life: God Realization!  Was I worried about that?  No!  I wasn't.  I felt secure in my Relationship with my ONE.  I then considered the rest of my worries...were they REALLY that important?  Did I trust my ONE to take care of things...was ANY of it "my business"?  I realized with the assurance of being with my Beloved, each of these anxieties melted away.  I physically felt my energy move from my third chakra into my heart, my fourth chakra.  The anxiety and fear, so strong, became great Joy and Love when it vibrated in the higher place.

This solid experience lasted throughout the meditation and right into daily Mass.  I felt so loved, so peaceful, so secure. 

I have no requirement for ANYTHING else.  My only requirement is my One, and my experience of my Love for and from my One.

Such Joy comes when I reduce my life down to it's ONE essential: GOD!

In Him, through Him, with Him, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit...all honor and glory is yours O God!

Loving you, k

The Yogi and the Catholic

Dear Ones,
I know it's been awhile....my lame excuse is that since the subscription process wasn't working, I felt folks would not be seeing the posts anyway.  I thought perhaps God was over my doing this...and that's NOT the Guidance I have received, so here goes....

When I was in Israel, I read a most wonderful account of Christ's Passion (from the time of the Last Supper through His Resurrection.)  It came through the incredible visions of Sister Anne Emmerich, a Catholic nun who left the body around 1823.  She was so much in tune with Jesus that she received on her own body the stigmata...the wounds Christ received on the cross.  She also experienced the Crown of Thorns...and her head sometimes bled copiously because of it.  She was utterly selfless and saintly, and extremely humble.  She hid these visible signs of her deep communion with her Christ.  She was also responsible for the healing of many souls by taking on their mental and physical afflictions.  She was never canonized...perhaps because her exact and specific visionary accounts did not precisely match those in the Bible.  Of course hers were far more detailed...yet she never claimed their perfection...just that they were the visions she was granted.

This marvelous book, The Dolorous Passion of Jesus the Christ, coupled with visiting the Holy Places to which it referred, awakened in me a deep inner Connection with Jesus.  I had such a Connection as a young Catholic girl...and truly it seems to have returned.  I find myself relishing the experience of Communion at daily mass, which I attend as often as I am able to complete all or nearly all of my 3 hours of meditation before mass begins.  I feel clearly that it is important for me to put my meditation first...and also to experience it in one solid block of time.  This is the inner attunement for which I have waited lifetimes, I know, and even the extraordinary experience of the Eucharist is somewhat more outward than the one-on-one experience of my meditation.  Still....the two together seem the perfect combination.  Outward and inward Devotion and Love are a sweet coupling.   The solitude of my dome meditation, the privacy of my relationship with the One, is balanced with the sweet participation of the Community of those celebrating the mystery of the Mass.  I exchange my "Sign of Peace" with these dear devoted attendees and it is a very special moment.  Yet, there is nothing more special than those secret, intimate exchanges between myself and my Beloved alone in the dark in the early morning hours.  Right now, I feel surfeit in these two very different aspects of my daily sadhana...or spiritual practice.

What does it mean that I return to my Catholic roots after so many years solely a Yogi?  I think it is a remembrance of my many, many lives lived as monk or nun in monasteries throughout Europe.  It is so sweetly familiar...and so long cherished.  Yet, I know this is my Red-Letter Life to have been given the blessed opportunity to practice Kriya yoga...the airplane route to Divine Awakening.  So many lives I prayed and waited, practiced ritual with utter devotion...yet the utter dissolution of my self in Spirit eluded me.  I was always aware that myself and my Beloved were separate, our Union was never complete.  This lifetime I sense that I will experience what I have longed for throughout ages.  If such is true, I also know that gift will be mine because of daily hours of practice of blessed Kriya.  In the middle of November my one and only offspring, my beautiful daughter, will also have the blessing of initiation into Kriya Yoga.  How my heart rejoices!

I reflect on the fullness of my spiritual life...the Yogi and the Catholic, and I experience amazing Thanksgiving. 

Loving you always, k

On HIS schedule

Good Day!

I meditated later today as I got a lot more sleep than usual.  I noticed my mind was way more busy as it got lighter and lighter outside.  I have a resolve to get up early enough to do my 3 hours, run for an hour (every other day) and then attend daily mass.  I choose to get that done by 9AM and feel surfeit in soul and body.

I wrote the above yesterday and as we know, Environment is Stronger than Will Power.  When the key person in my environment produced a video last evening, I sat down and watched it!  It was inspiring, and we probably will even screen it for a Source Movie Night, BUT it was not my Highest Choice.  I got to bed later than usual so I arose later than usual and as the housekeeper was coming before 8AM,  I had a load to accomplish before she showed up.  I had really desired to attend daily mass this morning and I bargained with Jesus if He could just assist me to get it all done super-quick (truly this appeared impossible) I would join Him at mass!  I told Him, "You help me pull this off and I'll blog about it".  "You won't write about Me if I don't?" He said.  "I wouldn't have anything to say...." I answered, shrugging my shoulders.

I don't know how He did it...but somehow things were in a state where I could leave...yet the housekeeper had to show up first.  Just as I muttered those words, she knocked at the door!  Glancing at the clock, it looked dim that I could make it on time..."but we can sure try" I said to Jesus. 

We zoomed off and ran into a long line of traffic.  I glanced in the mirror...I looked a bit raggedy.  Jesus won't care, I thought, yet I didn't feel quite right about it either.  I missed the big light at Encinitas Blvd and had just enough time to get my make-up on before the light changed.  "Now that's better" I thought, and somehow felt Jesus thought so too.

Still, the clock said I was already late and I hadn't gotten there yet.  I parked quickly and took the stairs in twos.  Entering the church, I noticed the entry procession of priest and altar helpers hadn't begun.  Amazingly, I was on time!

I sat behind all the fourth graders who attend the parochial school connected with the church and reflected that it wouldn't have served AT ALL to show up raggedy.

It was so sweet to watch the priest ask the 4th and 5th graders what his reading of the Gospel meant...as he handed them a portable microphone.  Their high, young voices singing the responses, or psalms, or whatever, were dear indeed.  It was a lovely, lovely mass with the best part, of course, being receiving the Eucharist, Body and Blood of Christ, living within me.  The priest spoke of the importance of not just receiving Christ in this moment, but of taking Him with us into the world and behaving in Christ-like fashion.

It was a wonderful way to begin my spiritual day and returning home to the 3 hours of meditation, I was perceptively calmer.  Though it was 3 hours later in the day than yesterday's morning med, I had fewer thoughts.  Even as the dome started baking as the sun reached it's zenith, I was more still and content.

Though my intended schedule was topsy-turvy, I was instructed in how each devotional activity guides the next into greater intensity and love.  Tomorrow I hope to get in my 3 hours, run, and then do mass.  I believe I will experience it in even deeper fashion having interiorized, then exercised, my body.  We will see.  We have Source October Closing Class tonight so I may not get to bed very early.  No doubt this may effect my rising time once again.  No worries.  God and Jesus and ALL my Great Ones will be waiting for me...no matter what time I arrive!

Loving you always, k

Recipe for Ease and Grace

Inshallah

Good Sunday Morning!

 

We are currently giving a Source Journey training and I have not been writing because I endeavored to do all my morning meditation (3 hours) before the training started each day.  This meant getting up REALLY early and trying to get to bed very quickly after the training was finished each night.  It was truly a great decision as I felt much more grounded in the training...more intuitive and solid.  I learned that it isn't just getting in a certain amount of meditation each day...it's how long you sit at one time!

I woke up at one-thirty this morning and got down to the training room earlier than expected..to say the least.  Our Saturday event went incredibly well (grads know what I am referring to) so the room was absolutely permeated with Divine Grace.  I went the deepest of the week and became very interiorized. I was gloating over the absolute darkness, my favorite, and a rarity at the training.  Everyone else was sleeping and God and I were alone in the Dark.   Some time later I heard a noise nearby...Dennis sitting down to meditate.  Unexplainably, he hadn't lit the candle...something he always does.  More hours of darkness, more hours of bliss! Later I asked him later why he didn't light it, and he said it was so dark he thought any light would be too bright.  I secretly thought it was a little perk from God...allowing me the gift of the sweet darkness longer.  In fact, the staff slept in, and participants came later than usual to meditate, so Den and I shared a uniquely longer, quieter, meditation. 

We went out to the outdoor temple with the group and another 30 minutes of meditation passed in a twinkling!  We all were so absorbed and still... I stared at my timepiece in disbelief.  How sweet it all is when God is so available and we actually take Him up on the invitation.  Things are going unusually well pre-graduation also.  It looks like we and the group  will get to meditate another half hour before the public and "the world" comes in.  My experience this week and especially today again demonstrates: Meditation IS the recipe for Ease and Grace!

Loving you always, k

 

 

Lessons from the Holy Land: Religious Freedom

Good Day!

The Holy Land is a place of very orthodox religious observance.  There are more orthodox Jews there, I am guessing, than anywhere else in the world.  You see the Hasidic Jews everywhere in there long black coats, white dress shirts, and black hats perched atop their heads.  Even the Hasidic children reflect this outerwear.  Very young boys have their side curls and black hats and the young girls wear long-sleeved blouses to fully cover their arms, and quite long skirts. I believe nearly all the Jewish men where a yamaka, at least.  I met one on the plane on our way to Israel and asked him what the yamaka meant.  He said, "God is here!"  I really liked that.  I asked what about the women...how did they observe this Remembrance?  He said, "Like you."  I happened to be wearing a little woolen cap.  He added it was most common for women to keep their heads covered with scarves.  This tradition is shared with the Muslims; many Muslim women keep their heads covered as well.  I saw many in full purdah, with long black gowns and scarves.  Young beautiful girls were fully covered save their happy, lovely faces.   Roman Catholic nuns and priests living there have not adopted the habit-less trend of the Catholic monastics in the west.  They are usually in full habit with head-covering and all.  Franciscan fathers are responsible for maintaining the protection of many of the Christian Holy Places and they are seen in their full monk robes as well.  The Orthodox Catholic monastics, both Greek and Russian, can be identified with their more elaborate habits,  headdress, and beards and most of the lay women are scarfed as well.   In other words, there is no "fooling around" over there....folks proudly proclaim their religious orientation and feel very comfortable doing so.  I was asked the question "What religion are you?" more than once....people choose to know this most important thing about you!

There is something very refreshing about seeing so many people so committed to their religious life.  They don't mind looking and acting different.  It brought home the realization that we do make these choices before ever coming in, and these people made very serious choices.

This intense orthodoxy also had it's very real impact on us.  Our yogi life-style was not understood or accepted.  We were not part of the 3 main traditional religions.  We consider ourselves yogi Christians...yet there were no Christians around who really would have understood that.  I was raised Catholic and still very much enjoy Mass and Communion.  My full participation in this aspect of our living situations (commonly in monasteries or convents) and Dennis' frequent accompaniment to Mass, made us both welcome and comfortable to the nuns and priests.  They would not have understood our armrests for long practice of the Aum technique, our Kriya practice and all that entailed, or just sitting for so many hours without outward prayer or movement.  This necessitated us rising in the middle of the night to go down to the church or chapel to do our sadhana.  No one ever disturbed us because no one else had that type of sadhana.  We were careful to put our armrests away very early just in case someone else might enter the place of worship.  It did put a pressure upon us...even a kind of paranoia.  We would not leave our books or pictures around lest someone cleaning our rooms, or visiting, came upon them.  I began to comprehend the incredible degree of religious freedom we experience in America.  I practice any of my techniques in the airport, on a bus, anywhere I may be staying without much of a second thought.  I certainly never feel I must hide my religious life to be accepted.

I feel so grateful for choosing birth in the United States this lifetime.  This melting pot of so many diverse religions, ethnicities, lifestyles makes it so much easier to be who I choose to be.  I feel a lot more acceptance and much less judgment about being a vegetarian, a yogi, a seeker of God in my more unusual way.

We were happy to get back to our dome and leave any pressure and paranoia behind.  The Holy Land offered so many sublime places to meditate AND it seemed the easiest and most hassle-free to utilize them in the middle of the night!

May we each reflect on the freedom to pursue God in the way we choose...and not take it for granted.  It is worth both appreciating and protecting our right of Religious Freedom for ourselves and all who come in the future.

God Bless our Founding Fathers!

Loving you! k