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Thursday, December 05 2019

 

 

Mother Earth Qi Healing

 

 

         Yesterday morning, I enjoyed breakfast with my friend Jerry, who is a QiGong Master.  He told me about an exercise he learned from our teacher, Spring Forest QiGong Master Chunyi Lin.  I tried it in meditation group tonight – and it went so well, I thought I’d share it with you.

 

         The exercise draws on the loving/healing energy of the earth, Mother Earth Qi, and involves moving light of various colors up through the main, vertical energy channel in the body – from the perineum at the base of the torso to the crown at the top of the head.  This can be done lying down, sitting or standing.

 

         First thing in the morning, before getting out of bed, Jerry practices Mother Earth Qi healing.  He touches the perineum with the fingertips of his left hand and the crown with his right-hand fingertips.  According to Jerry, the physical touch helps, but is not necessary.  The energy can move just fine with only visualization/imagination.

 

         The twilight time just after awakening can be an especially powerful time for healing/transformation.  Other times can also work well.

 

         Here is the sequence Jerry suggests.  Note that it includes seven healing colors and (for the last five colors) the organ system and healing emotion that correspond to the color.

 

         Gold – a powerful, all-body healing color

         Purple – a color for spiritual transformation/healing

         Green – heals the liver system – happiness energy

         Red – heals the heart system – joy energy

         Yellow – heals the stomach – peace energy

         White – heals the lungs – contentment energy

         Blue  - heals the kidneys – gratitude energy

 

         The practice can be done quickly – opening the perineum (with touch or visualization to signal the intention to open) and imagining each color moving up the main channel between the perineum and crown – not focusing so much on the specific organ systems or emotions.

 

         The meditation/exercise I guided tonight took a good 45 minutes.  We spent time upfront connecting with Mother Earth.  We lingered with the movement of each color.  We bathed each organ system in its corresponding light and healing emotion.  We moseyed.  With plenty of quiet time, the process deepened naturally – and powerfully.

 

         Some final thoughts:

 

1.     I found it helpful – but not necessary – to coordinate the upward movement of energy with my in-breath. 

2.   If you decide to try this practice, please don’t work too hard.  Don’t aim for perfection. 

3.   Feel free to adapt this exercise in any way that suits you.  For example, you can spend more time, or even most of your time, in a particular area where healing light is most needed.

 

         Mother Earth Qi is an amazing resource.  Enjoy!

Posted by: AT 12:13 am   |  Permalink   |  Email
Wednesday, November 27 2019

Great Fullness

 

         “The grateful heart sits at a continuous feast.” (Proverbs 15:15)

 

         This proverb suggests that abundance is largely an internal matter of the heart.  For me, abundance is an attitude of gratitude.  It is cultivated, over time, by thousands of conscious choices to see beauty and goodness. 

 

         Hard-wired, our survival consciousness focuses on what’s missing, what’s wrong, what’s dangerous. 

 

         The habit of gratitude doesn’t make us oblivious to what’s negative in life, but it does create a balance, in which negative stories are less automatic, less dominant, less likely to run amok.  Our hearts learn to hold gratitude and grief at the same time. 

 

         With practice, the gratitude attitude assumes more leadership in our lives.  Our hearts soften and expand.  Abundance consciousness thrives – prompting us to receive freely and give generously.  We feast.  The inner economy booms.

 

         Gratefulness naturally leads to great fullness.

 

 

 

         Happy Thanksgiving – and great fullness – to each of you!

Posted by: AT 07:46 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email
Thursday, October 31 2019

Companionship and Growth

 

         I once read – where, I don’t remember – a phrase that has stuck with me for years, “the tyranny of self-improvement.” This nagging, tyrannical approach to growth imprisons us in the not-good-enough land of perpetual striving and perpetual discontent.

 

         In the presence of an inner dictator, we can still grow – but we grow, despite this judging presence, not because of it.  Force impedes growth.

 

         So, where do I plant myself in support of my growth intentions?  How do I exercise leadership with myself?

 

         My short answer: compassionate companionship.

 

         I invite a connection between the wise elder within and all the other parts within me - most of whom are younger, some of whom resist growth, all of whom are welcomed.

 

         From the leadership stance of this wise elder, I talk with myself, not at myself.  I don’t overpower resistance.  I listen respectfully and problem solve from a win-win perspective.  I work toward inner alignment.

 

         Sometimes, as the wise elder, I’m gently firm with myself - persistently encouraging and rewarding small steps forward.  Sometimes, when I encounter resistance inside – especially strong resistance – I honor and accept the message that I’m not ready for a particular step at a particular time.

 

          Healthy relationship is the source of all lasting influence.  Compassionate companionship builds healthy relationship.

 

         Our desire for excellence is innate.  Growth is a natural unfolding within us.  Compassionate companionship trusts this unfolding - and nurtures it. 

 

         In the nourishing environment of compassionate companionship - guided by the inner wise elder - we flow and we grow.  

 

          

 

        

 

        

 

        

Posted by: AT 12:14 am   |  Permalink   |  Email
Tuesday, October 08 2019

Be Here Now

 

    88-year-old spiritual teacher, Ram Dass, author of the classic text Be Here Now, is failing physically and readying himself for death.  In connection with a recent talk, Ram Dass was interviewed by David Marchese for a September 2nd New York Times article.  My friend, Dan, sent the article my way.

 

         In response to a question about his teaching, be here now, Ram Dass replied:

 

         “In each moment, go into the moment.  Our minds take us back and forth in time.  I teach a moment.  And I teach that we identify with the ego.  The ego is a mind warp, and most people don’t identify with their soul.  They’re worried about excess meaning.  The soul witnesses the ego and witnesses thoughts.  ‘Be here now’ gives people an opportunity to re-identify outside of their thinking-mind ego and into that thing that’s called the soul.  It is the perspective from which we could live a life without being caught so much in fear.  To re-identify there is to change your whole life….

 

         “Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts:  Those are the daily attention-grabbers that make it so that you can’t come from your mind to your heart to your soul.  The soul contains love, compassion, wisdom, peace and joy, but most people identify with the mind.  You’re not an ego.  You’re a soul….

 

         “Go to the spiritual heart and there will be a doorway to the next plane of consciousness:  soul land.”

 

         Presence in the moment connects us with heart.  Heart leads us to soul.  Be here now.

 

          

Posted by: AT 11:23 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email
Wednesday, September 18 2019

Heart’s Healing Path

 

         Last week, while guiding a group meditation, I received an insight about the connection between the heart, the emptiness and the energy of universal love.

 

         We started the meditation with a focus on the heart – a grand central station, which receives and radiates love.  The heart is like a divining rod or a gyroscope for love.  When we ask the heart to guide us toward universal love, it leads us to the emptiness – the deep quiet at the center of being, which is the wellspring of all love.

 

         From that inexhaustible source, love flows freely and naturally to the heart, where it radiates as we intend.

 

         Sacred emptiness - where the center of each being and the center all being come together - is the source of all love and all healing.  Spending even small amounts of time in this deep quiet renews and restores us.

 

         Sitting in meditation - hands on my lap, with palms up and fingers relaxed and apart - I invite the universal energy to gather in my hands.  For me, this produces a tingling.  Others may feel a temperature change.  When inhaling, I imagine this palpable love energy flowing from my hands into my heart.  When I exhale, I follow the breath, guided by love, into the quiet within.  Each exhalation takes me deeper into quiet.

 

         A slight variation skips the hands part.  I breathe love energy directly into my heart, then follow the out-breath from the heart into the quiet.

 

         Distractions?  No problem.  Gently - patiently persistent - we begin again and again and again. 

 

         We each have access to the deep quiet, the emptiness within.  It’s the wellspring of universal love, the source of all creation and re-creation, our resource for healing and re-programming.  

 

         The heart knows the way.

 

        

Posted by: AT 05:31 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email
Monday, September 09 2019

 

Hunger Games

 

 

         For several weeks, I’ve been on an extended hiatus – spending hours late into the night reading science fiction, following sports, skimming news headlines, studying the bridge column, chuckling over the comics, solving Jumbles.  These and similar activities were entertaining, but not deeply satisfying.  The enjoyment did not bring joy.  I was entertaining myself, but not nourishing myself.

 

         My soul has been hungry – and the more I fed it poorly, the hungrier it became. 

 

         Sleep suffered.  Exercise suffered.  Spiritual practice suffered – as did my writing practice.  Weekly Wisdoms have become “periodic posts.”   (Actually, Periodic Posts may be a more appropriate title for this blog.) 

 

         So, what am I learning as I review this period of spiritual hunger and see the cycle I’ve caught myself in? 

 

         Mainly this:  Slow down and listen!  Don’t run from the hunger.  Attend to it gently from the wisest, most loving part of myself. 

 

         When I slow down and listen, I can feel the difference between a sugary treat and food that really nourishes.  At the spiritual level, I can feel the difference between what deeply satisfies – and what doesn’t.  I can feel the difference between escape and true connection.

 

         The quiet feedback from deep within is a trustworthy guide.  In my case, it calls me to care for my body with good sleep, nutrition and exercise.  It calls me to nurture my soul with regular meditation and QiGong practice.  It invites me to soften to the beauty of each moment and surrender to the mystery of oneness. 

 

         When I listen deeply - caring for body and soul - all those other entertainments, done moderately and mindfully, can shift from escapes to sources of joy – no longer hunger games.

 

 

 

        

 

 

Posted by: AT 10:28 am   |  Permalink   |  Email
Tuesday, August 13 2019

Odd Moment Loving

 

         Odd moments, when there’s a lull in activity, occur hundreds of times a day.  Typically, during these moments, the mind wanders automatically to old habits of inner chatter.

 

         What if we paid more attention to where the mind goes?  What if we made a conscious effort to develop a new habit? 

 

         We could use our odd moments to practice inhaling and exhaling universal love – nurturing ourselves and others with intentional breathing.

 

         What a wonderful way to enter the flow - to have fun and feel joyfully alive!

 

         Love in, love out – odd moment loving.

 

        

 

        

Posted by: AT 06:17 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email
Tuesday, July 23 2019

Love Seeing Love

 

         The Hindu salutation “namaste” is often translated as “the divine light in me bows to the divine light in you”.  I resonate with this reverent acknowledgement of our essential nature and our essential oneness.

 

         According to my favorite cosmological story, at the very beginning, a creative and intelligent emptiness – the nameless mystery some call God – burst into the energy of love.  Love, the first expression of God, gradually cooled to become everything and everyone.  So, in this story, everything and everyone is love.  Divine light is love.

 

         I invite you to try a thought experiment.  For the next week or so, whenever you look at someone or whenever you look in a mirror, imagine this:  Love is seeing love.

 

         Namaste! 

 

 

 

        

Posted by: AT 11:22 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email
Sunday, July 14 2019

Love-Flow

 

         Love is a complicated, sometimes loaded, word.  Its meaning changes with the people using it and the context in which it’s used.  Despite its baggage, it’s the word around which I organize my soul’s purpose in this life stream. 

 

         When I speak of love in my teaching and writing, I’m referring to universal love or unconditional love - as distinct from egoic (personality-oriented) or romantic love.

 

         For me, love is a verb and a noun.  As a verb, to love means to flow freely with the positive, intelligent, creative, healing energy of the universe – the energy that permeates everything and each of us.  As a noun, love is the flow of universal energy - a dynamic process of receiving and radiating. 

 

         If we try to radiate without receiving, we exhaust ourselves.  If we hoard energy and try to receive without radiating, we get spiritually constipated.  Receiving and radiating are equally essential to love-flow.

 

         Love is unconditional.  It makes no judgment about the worth or value of whom or what we love.  It’s like the radiance of the sun, which shines on everyone and never withholds its energy because someone isn’t a “good” person. 

 

         Love is intrinsic to who we are.  At the heart/soul level - the deepest level of being - love is what best defines us.  And, when we’re most connected to heart/soul, this flow is not just who we are, it’s what we do.

 

         Love moves through us.  We don’t have to earn it or work to create it.  We simply need to soften and surrender to its flow.  This is a bit like stepping into the current of a river and allowing it to carry us – simply, naturally, effortlessly.  Love does the heavy lifting.

 

         Simple, yes.  Easy, no.  The theory course on unconditional love is not that difficult.  The lab is where it gets tricky.

 

         We’ve learned so many ways to impede the flow of love – so many ways we block ourselves from receiving and radiating.  Habitual emotions, stories, beliefs, expectations and patterns of behavior – mostly related to fear and unworthiness – trick us into tightening down, creating barriers and holding ourselves back from the river of life.

 

         As we focus on receiving fully and radiating freely, we become more mindful of our barriers and, hopefully, more compassionate toward them.   As we inhale universal/unconditional love into our fear and unworthiness, we gently invite these obstacles to melt away.  Gradually, they do melt.  And if, again and again, we breathe love into our hearts and breathe love out from our hearts, we will deepen our capacity to receive and radiate – fully and freely.

 

         With persistent practice, new habits of love-flow take root and blossom.

 

        

 

          

 

        

 

        

Posted by: AT 09:28 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email
Sunday, June 30 2019

Cultivating Contentment

 

         It’s easy for us to get caught in habits of discontentment, where our inner world focuses on the negativity of what’s missing, what’s wrong or what could go wrong.

 

         A couple years ago, knowing he’d been dealing with some physical pain, I asked my friend Rich how his shoulder was feeling.  He said something like:  “It still hurts some.  But then I remind myself of the thousands of other body parts that feel great and are working just fine - and I feel grateful.” 

 

         I was awed by that response.

 

         As a psychotherapist, I know the benefits of what we call “cognitive restructuring” – making conscious efforts to alter habits of thinking that don’t serve our highest good.  We can cultivate contentment by deliberately noticing what’s good in our world, appreciating the beauty around and within us.

 

         Spring Forest QiGong offers another approach.   In that system, contentment and discontentment are associated with the lungs.  Lately, I’ve been breathing the energy of contentment into my lungs and exhaling discontent - picturing butterflies flitting off into the universe, where all energy can be transformed into some aspect of love.  Often, after just a few breaths, I feel contentment as a warmth that begins in my chest and melts into the rest of my body.

 

         I soften and relax.  My body smiles.  Cultivating contentment opens pathways to peace and love.      

 

Posted by: AT 11:14 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email


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