If you really live

deeply in spiritual practice

then this moment is intense.



Moment to moment,

life is shaking you

out of what you know;

shaking you out of everything

that is comfortable.



So much so that

all you can do is surrender

to this moment.



All you can do

is allow everything

to be as it is

and fall deeply

into impersonal being.



It is in this that

deep transformation happens.



It is in this that

you really realize

that you exist beyond everything.



That you are the personal yet

you are completely beyond the personal.



The intensity of the Shakti

pushes you beyond yourself

and you learn to remain

surrendered in this intensity

with great silence,

great humility

as consciousness…

It's amazing how many spiritually minded people I've met over the years who have experienced what I would call 'complicated' lives.

I do wonder sometimes if people become more spiritually aware because they have had to overcome difficulties in their lives, or,  were they born 'knowing' that they had chosen to walk a problematic path through life because their soul was already spiritually aware?

In my own experience it has been rare to talk to anyone at a workshop or in a spiritualist church, circle etc who has not gone through some pretty traumatic events in their life.  You may say, well that goes for everyone, but I truly believe that is not the case.  I have known many, many people over the years, who have had what I would call, easy lives, and who are not at all interested in anything spiritual.

So, (avoiding the are we/aren't we  re-incarnated…

Unity is a very important theme. It is critical to the resolution of the many problems facing our nation and our world today because without it we will never be able to engage the necessary solutions.

In this election year it’s painfully clear that there are many people with many differences. Many needs. Many perspectives. Many polarities.  Many grievances. Many resentments. Many biases. Many prejudices.  A great deal of intolerance. A great deal of hostility. A great deal of rage and aggression.

We have forgotten who we are. We have forgotten that we originally all came from one Source. We all came from a place of Unity, a place of Universal Acceptance and Love. And then we fell into a dream of separation, a dream of selfish egos competing with each other rather than cooperating, attacking each other rather than…

Here I will relate my first satori (temporary experience of enlightenment) that really put me on the path to enlightenment:

I was in college in Vermont, having a bad day.  After classes and meetings with teachers, I went back to my dorm room and sat down to meditate.  When I sat down, I just surrendered.  Not that I knew what surrender was but looking back on it, that was what I did.  I didn't practice a meditation technique; I just accepted all of the insanity that had accumulated that day and gave up, not holding on to anything, not figuring anything out.



This happened automatically.   And automatically I fell into silence, a place of just blackness.  And for about half an hour there was just this blackness.  It was nothing profound, no spiritual awakening, just almost like being in deep sleep yet fully conscious.



It was when I came out of this meditation that I noticed…

By Eric Allen Bell

When it comes to the subject of Enlightenment I am no authority. I do not possess special knowledge nor do I profess to speak to you now from some elevated state. On all matters Divine there is but one authority and that is The Great Mystery.

Enlightenment is often said to be a state of conscious communion with Divine Source.

According to some spiritual traditions this state is something of a finish line. One's existence is seen to be a cycle of birth, death and rebirth as one's soul…

With each passing day, as I look inward and as I take in what is going on with the world outside, my heart opens. And the more it opens the more I understand why I have kept it shut for so long. The more my heart opens, the more I understand why the world has closed its heart.

ॐ

I find it harder and harder to criticize the world from a place of anger or disappointment. The screwed up world and the screwed up self are not only reflections of each other, they are one in the same. I am the suffering and the beauty and everything in between - not as some new philosophy but as a felt…