Seeds of potential present themselves in everyday life events. The moment, each moment, gives us a seed, maybe more. There's something to see about ourselves or others or the unfolding dimensions of our life. These are seeds and they carry life potential. To be able to see them, spot them, can be as simple as raising our awareness.
Awareness works the soil, takes us into the digging under and the under going of what it is that needs to speak to us. Without awareness we traipse along going through one thing after another, nothing really effecting us, nothing taken in, nothing ingested, absorbed as psychic nutrient. We end up going through things with the shock or trauma, the unhappiness, the pain or joy not being metabolized. We go through things on the surface, they stay on our surface, we surface it along through life and end up skating over and so having to go through the same old thing over and over because we never allowed it, things, happening, and ourselves to dig down deep and under. It's the under going in life that works in the seeds of potential in the fertile ground of upsetting and stressful life situations.
"The art of the fire and the key to alchemy means learning how to warm, excite, enthuse, ignite, inspire the material at hand, which is also the state of one's nature so as to activate it further into a different state." James Hillman, depth psychologist and scholar of all things alchemical, wrote of this alchemy of seeds, the material at hand, what life dishes out to us to work into the soil of our being. Seeds present themselves everyday, every moment, so we can see them, spot them, raise our awareness and work them, our nature, so as to activate ourselves "into a different state."
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Inner Truth
"The root of all influence lies in one's own inner being: given true and vigorous expression in word and deed, its effect is great.." The I Ching speaks to inner psychic energy influencing our outer life. Our energy is off, our life is off. There is no way to back away from this inner truth or pretend it's not there. We try to run from inner truth, it gets us smack dab in our everyday life.
Ever felt like something is so wrong and you just can't put your finger on it. That something is always on the inside. It had its beginnings with a fear, a lie, denial of some sort. Then, things start churning, guilt and shame about the fear or lie or denial start burning and get acted out in everyday life. Something out of the blue hits and we feel bad. We've made ourselves suffer for the inside thing we didn't want to face.
The mind blowing reality is that we can deal with outer drama as though it were a dream. Inner truth acts itself out as drama in our everyday life. We can listen to the unfolding as we would a symbol. Symbols carry psychic energy that has a message, conveys inspiration, and generates the potential for change. A person told me that they felt stuck. Nothing was particularly wrong. And nothing was particularly right either. Their life energy was stagnant. This was its own form of dramatic enactment.
One day as they were slugging along in their life a roadrunner sped past, right in front of them, inches from where they stepped. It shocked them. It struck them as lightening out of the heavens. It energized them out of their psychological rut. "I quickly turned my head to look for it. It was gone. It was like it came out of a dream. It was a spirit guide that came and did what it did then disappeared. That's how I took it because that's what made sense to me."
Inner truth as waking dream. Symbols as they come in daily life. Messages everywhere if we will but listen, see, take in and understand. Life gives us chances, hope, meaning, opportunities to feel inner truth and to let its effect be great!
Ever felt like something is so wrong and you just can't put your finger on it. That something is always on the inside. It had its beginnings with a fear, a lie, denial of some sort. Then, things start churning, guilt and shame about the fear or lie or denial start burning and get acted out in everyday life. Something out of the blue hits and we feel bad. We've made ourselves suffer for the inside thing we didn't want to face.
The mind blowing reality is that we can deal with outer drama as though it were a dream. Inner truth acts itself out as drama in our everyday life. We can listen to the unfolding as we would a symbol. Symbols carry psychic energy that has a message, conveys inspiration, and generates the potential for change. A person told me that they felt stuck. Nothing was particularly wrong. And nothing was particularly right either. Their life energy was stagnant. This was its own form of dramatic enactment.
One day as they were slugging along in their life a roadrunner sped past, right in front of them, inches from where they stepped. It shocked them. It struck them as lightening out of the heavens. It energized them out of their psychological rut. "I quickly turned my head to look for it. It was gone. It was like it came out of a dream. It was a spirit guide that came and did what it did then disappeared. That's how I took it because that's what made sense to me."
Inner truth as waking dream. Symbols as they come in daily life. Messages everywhere if we will but listen, see, take in and understand. Life gives us chances, hope, meaning, opportunities to feel inner truth and to let its effect be great!
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
In Your Own Skin!
"You know I consider myself lucky. I found myself a long time ago. And I'm grateful for that...It really just means being comfortable in your own skin. That's all enlightenment is, isn't it? The Buddhists can do their crazy calisthenics, their marathons of silence and ritual bullshit, but at the end of the day if someone's happy in their own skin, that's the Buddha. People think they need that perfect job or perfect inspiration or perfect spiritual practice but all anyone wants or needs is peace of mind." ---The Empty Chair by Bruce Wagner
This quote reminds me of how hard we make the process of enlightenment. Often, it's with us far more than we imagine. We look here and there, do austerities, and all the time it's in the moment. We pass up moments. Moments of awe, gratitude, wonder surrounding and drenching us. It's the drenching part, I believe, that frightens us. We want, even crave, peace of mind, being content in our skin; but, so often our healthy desire is from a distance.
People come in for depth psychotherapy and say they feel they're jumping out their skin. It's anxiety. It's the everyday crazies. It's as though we crave peace of mind, but find ourselves colluding with uptight, anxious, crazy ways of living. Dreams are taken over by bugs. We say we're buggy, jumpy, jittery.
We're jumping out of our skin because we need to be out of our skin. The old ways don't work anymore. They need to be shed. The rigid ashram Buddhas, old plastic Jesus, deities of dogma be gone! Human skin, deep psyche, flesh and blood and bone, passion, caring, dreams and visions are the stuff of enlightenment, the peace of mind that makes us comfortable in our own, new, skin!
This quote reminds me of how hard we make the process of enlightenment. Often, it's with us far more than we imagine. We look here and there, do austerities, and all the time it's in the moment. We pass up moments. Moments of awe, gratitude, wonder surrounding and drenching us. It's the drenching part, I believe, that frightens us. We want, even crave, peace of mind, being content in our skin; but, so often our healthy desire is from a distance.
People come in for depth psychotherapy and say they feel they're jumping out their skin. It's anxiety. It's the everyday crazies. It's as though we crave peace of mind, but find ourselves colluding with uptight, anxious, crazy ways of living. Dreams are taken over by bugs. We say we're buggy, jumpy, jittery.
We're jumping out of our skin because we need to be out of our skin. The old ways don't work anymore. They need to be shed. The rigid ashram Buddhas, old plastic Jesus, deities of dogma be gone! Human skin, deep psyche, flesh and blood and bone, passion, caring, dreams and visions are the stuff of enlightenment, the peace of mind that makes us comfortable in our own, new, skin!
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