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In the beginning was the Logos,
the Big Bang, the primordial Om.
Big Bang theory says that
the physical universe
spiraled out of an
unimaginably hot and dense
single point called a
singularity - billions
of times smaller than the head of a pin.
It does not say why or how.
The more mysterious
something is, the more we take for granted
that
we understand it.
It was thought that eventually
gravity would either
slow the expansion or contract the universe
in a big
crunch. However, images from
the Hubble space telescope
show that the universe's expansion seems to
be actually
accelerating. Expanding faster and faster
as it grows
out of the Big Bang. Somehow, there is more
mass in the
universe than physics predicted. To account
for the missing mass,
physicists now say that the universe
consists of only 4% atomic matter
or what we consider normal matter. 23% of
the universe is dark matter
and 73% is dark energy -what we previously
though of as empty space.
It is like an invisible nervous system that
runs throughout the universe
connecting all things.
The ancient Vedic teachers
taught Nada Brahma -
the universe is vibration.
The vibratory field is at the root of all
true spiritual experience
and scientific investigation.
It is the same field of energy that saints,
Buddhas, yogis, mystics, priests, shamans
and seers have observed
by looking within themselves. It has been
called Akasha, the Primordial Om,
Indra's net of jewels, the
music of the spheres,
and a thousand other names
throughout history.
It is the common root of all religions,
and the link between our inner worlds and
our outer worlds.
In Mahayana Buddhism in the third century
they described a cosmology not unlike the
most advanced
physics of modern day.
Indra's net of jewels is a metaphor used to
describe
a much older Vedic teaching which
illustrates the way the fabric of the
universe is woven together.
Indra, the king of the gods, gave birth to
the sun and moves the winds and the waters.
Imagine a spider web that extends into all
dimensions.
The web is made up of dew drops
and every drop contains the reflection of
all the other
water drops, and in each reflected dew drop
you will find
the reflections of all the other droplets.
The entire web, in that reflection and so
on,
to infinity.
Indra's web could be described
as a holographic universe,
where even the smallest stream of light
contains the complete pattern of the whole.
The Serbian-American
scientist, Nikola Tesla,
is sometimes referred to as
the man who invented the
20th century.
Tesla was responsible for
discovering alternating current
electricity and many other creations
that are now part of every-day life.
Because of his interest in the
ancient Vedic traditions,
Tesla was in a unique position
to understand science
through both an eastern and western model.
Like all great scientists,
Tesla looked deeply
into the mysteries of the outer world,
but he also looked deeply within himself.
Like the ancient yogis, Tesla used the term
Akasha
to describe the etheric feel that extends
throughout all things.
Tesla studied with Swami Vivekananda,
a yogi who brought the ancient
teachings of India to the West.
In the Vedic teachings,
Akasha is space itself;
the space that the other elements fill,
which exists simultaneously with vibration.
The two are inseparable. Akasha is yin to
prana's yang.
A modern concept that can help
us to conceptualize Akasha,
or the primary substance,
is the idea of fractals.
It wasn't until the 1980s that advances in
computers
allowed us to actually visualize
and reproduce mathematically
the patterns in nature.
The term fractal was coined in 1980
by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot
who studied certain simple
mathematic equations that,
when they are repeated, produce an unending
array of changing mathematical
or geometrical forms
within a limited framework.
They are limited, but at
the same time, infinite.
A fractal is a rough geometric shape
that can be split into parts, each of which
is approximately
a reduced sized copy of the whole pattern
-
a property called self similarity.
Mandelbrot's fractals have been called
the thumbprint of God.
You are seeing artwork generated by nature
itself.
If you turn the Mandelbrot figure a certain
way,
it looks sort of like a
Hindu deity or a Buddha.
This figure has been termed
the "Buddhabrot" figure.
If you look at some forms of
ancient art and architecture,
you will see that humans
have long associated beauty
and the sacred with fractal patterns.
Infinitely complex, yet every part contains
the seed
to recreate the whole.
Fractals have changed mathematicians' views
of the universe
and how it operates.
With each new level of magnification,
there are differences from the original.
Constant change and transformation occurs
as we traverse
from one level of fractal
detail to another.
This transformation is the cosmic spiral.
The embedded intelligence of the matrix of
time space.
Fractals are inherently
chaotic-full of noise and order.
When our minds recognize
or define a pattern,
we focus on it as if it is a thing.
We try to find the patterns
we see as beautiful,
but in order to hold the
patterns in our minds,
we must push away the rest of the fractal.
To comprehend a fractal with the senses
is to limit its movement.
All energy in the universe is neutral,
timeless, dimensionless.
Our own creativity and capacity for pattern
recognition
is the link between the
microcosm and macrocosm.
The timeless world of waves and the solid
world of things.
Observation is an act of creation through
limitations
inherent in thinking.
We are creating the illusion of solidity,
of things by labeling, by naming.
The philosopher Kierkegaard said,
"If you name me, you negate me."
By giving me a name, a
label, you negate all
the other things I could possibly be.
You lock the particle into being a thing
by pinning it down, naming it,
but at the same time you are creating it,
defining it to exist.
Creativity is our highest nature.
With the creation of things comes time,
which is what creates the
illusion of solidity.
Einstein was the first scientist to realize
that what we think of as empty space is not
nothing,
it has properties,
and intrinsic to the nature of space
is nearly unfathomable amounts of energy.
The renowned physicist Richard Feynman once
said,
"there is enough energy in a single cubic
meter
of space to boil all the
oceans in the world."
Advanced meditators know
that in the stillness lies
the greatest power.
The Buddha had yet another term
for the primary substance;
what he termed kalapas, which are like tiny
particles
or wavelets that are arising
and passing away trillions
of times per second.
Reality is, in this sense,
like a series of frames in
a holographic film camera
moving quickly as to create the illusion of
continuity.
When consciousness becomes perfectly still,
the illusion is understood
because it is consciousness
itself that drives the illusion.
In the ancient traditions of the East,
it has been understood
for thousands of years
that all is vibration.
"Nada Brahma" - the universe is sound.
The word "nada" means sound or vibration
and "Brahma" is the name for God.
Brahma, simultaneously IS the universe and
IS the creator.
The artist and the art are inseparable.
In the Upanishads,
one of the oldest humans records in ancient
India,
it is said "Brahma the creator, sitting on
a lotus,
opens his eyes and a
world comes into being.
Brahma closes his eyes,
and a world goes out of being."
Ancient mystics, yogis and seers
have maintained that there is a field
at the root level of consciousness.
The Akashic field or the Akashic records
where all information, all experience past,
present and future, exists now and always.
It is this field or matrix
from which all things arise.
From sub-atomic particles, to galaxies,
stars, planets and all life.
You never see anything in its totality
because it is made up of layer upon layer
of vibration and it is constantly
changing, exchanging
information with Akasha.
A tree is drinking in the sun, the air,
the rain, the Earth.
A world of energy moves in and out
of this thing we call a tree.
When the thinking mind is still,
then you see reality as it is.
All aspects together.
The tree and the sky and the Earth,
the rain and the stars are not separate.
Life and death, self and
other are not separate.
Just as the mountain and the
valley are inseparable.
In the native American
and other indigenous traditions
it is said that every thing has spirit
which is simply another way of saying
everything is connected to
the one vibratory source.
There is one consciousness, one field,
one force that moves through all.
This field is not happening around you,
it is happening THROUGH you
and happening AS you.
You are the "U" (you) in universe.
You are the eyes through
which creation sees itself.
When you wake from a dream you realize that
everything in the dream was you.
You were creating it.
So called real life is no different.
Every one and every thing is you.
The one consciousness looking out of every
eye,
under every rock, within every particle.
International researchers at CERN,
the European laboratory
for particle physics,
are searching for this field
that extends throughout all things.
But instead of looking within,
they look to the outer physical world.
Researchers at the CERN
laboratory in Geneva,
Switzerland announced that they had found
the Higgs Boson, or the God Particle.
The Higgs Boson experiments
prove scientifically
that an invisible energy field
fills the vacuum of space.
CERN's large hadron collider consists of a
ring
17 miles in circumference,
in which two beams
of particles race in opposite directions,
converging and smashing together at nearly
the
speed of light.
Scientists observe what comes out of the
violent collisions.
The standard model can not account for
how particles get their mass.
Everything appears to be made of vibration
but there is no 'thing' being vibrated.
It is as if there has
been an invisible dancer,
a shadow dancing hidden in
the ballet of the universe.
All the other dancers have always danced
around this hidden dancer.
We have observed the choreography of
the dance, but until now we could not see
that dancer.
The so-called "God Particle",
the properties of the base material of the
universe,
the heart of all matter which would account
for the
unexplained mass and energy that drives the
universe's expansion.
But far from explaining the nature of the
universe,
the discovery of the Higgs
Boson simply presents an
even greater mystery, revealing a universe
that is
even more mysterious than we ever imagined.
Science is approaching the
threshold between consciousness
and matter.
The eye with which we look
at the primordial field
and the eye with which the field looks at
us
are one and the same.
The German writer and luminary Wolfgang Von
Goethe said,
"the wave is the primordial phenomenon
which gave rise to the world."
Cymatics is the study of visible sound.
The word cymatic comes from the Greek root
"cyma"
which means wave or vibration.
One of the first Western
scientists to seriously study
wave phenomenon was Ernst Chladni,
a German musician and physicist,
who lived in the eighteenth century.
Chladni discovered that when he spread sand
on metal plates and then
vibrated the plates
with a violin bow, the sand arranged itself
into patterns.
Different geometrical forms appeared
depending on the vibration produced.
Chladni recorded an entire catalogue
of these shapes and they are referred to as
Chladni Figures.
Many of these patterns
can be found throughout
the natural world. Such as the markings of
the tortoise
or the spot patterns of the leopard.
Studying Chladni Patterns
or cymatic patterns
is one secret way in which high-end guitar,
violin
and other instrument makers determine the
sound qualities of the instruments they make.
Hans Jenny expanded on
Chladni's work in the 1960's
using various fluids and
electronic amplification
to generate sound frequencies
and coined the term "cymatics".
If you run simple sine waves through a dish
of water,
you can see patterns in the water.
Depending on the frequency of the wave,
different ripple patterns will appear.
The higher the frequency, the more complex
the pattern.
These forms are repeatable, not random.
The more you observe,
the more you start to see how vibration
arranges matter into complex forms
from simple repeating waves.
This water vibration has a pattern similar
to a sunflower.
Simply by changing the sound frequency,
we get a different pattern.
Water is a very mysterious substance.
It is highly impressionable.
That is, it can receive
and hold onto vibration.
Because of its high resonance capacity
and sensitivity and an inner readiness to
resonate,
the water responds instantaneously to all
types of sonic waves.
Vibrating water and earth
make up the majority of mass in plants and
animals.
It is easy to observe how simple vibrations
in water
can create recognizable natural patterns
but as we add solids and
increase the amplitude,
things get even more interesting.
Adding cornstarch to water,
we get more complex phenomena.
Perhaps the principles of life itself
can be observed as vibrations
move the cornstarch
blob into what appears
to be a moving organism.
The animating principle of the universe
is described in every major religion
using words that reflect the understanding
of that time in history.
In the language of the Incas, the largest
empire in pre-Columbian America,
the word for "human body" is "alpa camasca"
which means literally, "animated earth".
In Kaballah, or Jewish Mysticism,
they talk about the divine name of God.
The name that can not be spoken.
It can not be spoken
because it is a vibration
that is everywhere. It is
all words, all matter.
Everything is the sacred word.
The tetrahedron is the simplest shape
that can exist in three dimensions.
Something must have at least four points
to have physical reality.
The triangle structure is nature's only
self-stabilizing pattern.
In the Old Testament the
word "tetragrammaton"
was often used to represent a
certain manifestation of God.
It was used when talking about the word of
God
or the special name of God,
Logos or primordial word.
The ancient civilizations knew that at the
root structure
of the universe was the tetrahedral shape.
Out of this shape, nature
exhibits a fundamental drive
toward equilibrium; Shiva.
While it also has a
fundamental drive towards
change; Shakti.
In the Bible, the gospel
of John usually reads,
"in the beginning was the word"
but in the original text the term used was
"Logos".
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus,
who lived around 500 years before Christ,
referred to the Logos as something
fundamentally unknowable.
The origin of all repetition, pattern and
form.
The Stoic philosophers who
followed the teachings
of Heraclitus identified the term with
the divine animating principle
pervading the universe.
In Sufism the Logos is
everywhere and in all things.
It is THAT out of which the
unmanifest becomes manifest.
In the Hindu tradition Shiva
Nataraja literally means
"lord of the dance".
The whole cosmos dances to Shiva's drum.
All is imbued or ensouled
with the pulsation.
Only as long as Shiva is dancing
can the world continue
to evolve and change,
otherwise it collapses
back into nothingness.
While Shiva is representative of our
witnessing consciousness, Shakti is
the substance or stuff of the world.
While Shiva lies in meditation,
Shakti tries to move him,
to bring him into the dance.
Like yin and yang,
the dancer and the dance exist as one.
Logos also means unconcealed truth.
He who knows the Logos, knows the truth.
Many layers of concealment exist
in the human world as
Akasha as been swirled
into complex structures
concealing the source from itself.
Like a divine game of hide and seek,
we have been hiding for thousands of years,
eventually forgetting about
the game completely.
We somehow forgot that there is anything to
find.
In Buddhism, one is taught to
directly perceive the Logos,
the field of change or impermanence within
oneself
through meditation.
When you observe your inner world,
you observe subtler and subtler sensations
and energies
as the mind becomes more concentrated and
focused.
Through the direct realization of "annica"
or impermanence at the
root level of sensation,
one becomes free of attachment to transient
external forms.
Once we realize there
is one vibratory field
that is the common root of all religions,
how can we say "my religion" or "this is my
primordial Om",
"my quantum field"?
The true crisis in our world is not social,
political or economic.
Our crisis is a crisis of consciousness, an
inability to directly experience our true
nature.
An inability to recognize
this nature in everyone
and in all things.
In the Buddhist tradition,
the "Bodhisattva"
is the person with an
awakened Buddha nature.
A Bodhisattva vows to help to awaken every
being
in the universe, realizing that
there is only one consciousness.
To awaken one's true self one must awaken
all beings.
"There are innumerable sentient beings in
the universe
I vow to help them all to awaken.
My imperfections are inexhaustible.
I vow to overcome them all.
The Dharma is unknowable.
I vow to know it.
The way of awakening is unattainable.
I vow to attain it."
The Pythagorian philosopher Plato hinted
enigmatically that there was a golden key
that unified all of the
mysteries of the universe.
It is this golden key that we will return
to time
and again throughout our exploration.
The golden key is the intelligence of the
logos,
the source of the primordial om.
One could say that it is the mind of God.
With our limited senses we
are observing only the outer
manifestation of the hidden
mechanics of self similarity.
The source of this divine symmetry is the
greatest mystery of our existence.
Many of history's monumental thinkers such
as Pythagoras, Keppler,
Leonardo da Vinci, Tesla and Einstein have
come to the threshold the mystery.
Einstein said, "the most beautiful thing we
can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all
true art and science.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger,
who can no longer pause wondering and stand
rapt in awe
is as good as dead. His eyes are closed."
We are in the position of a little child
entering a huge library filled with books
in many different languages.
The child knows someone must have written
those books.
It does not know how.
It does not understand the languages
in which they are written.
The child dimly suspects a mysterious order
in the arrangement of the books
but doesn't know what it is.
That, it seems to me, is the
attitude of even the most
intelligent human being toward God.
We see a universe marvelously arranged and
obeying certain laws.
Our limited minds can not grasp the mysterious
force that moves the constellations.
Every scientist who looks deeply into the
universe
and every mystic who looks
deeply within the self,
eventually comes face to face with the same
thing:
The Primordial Spiral.
A thousand years before the creation of the
ancient observatory at Stonehenge,
the spiral was a predominant
symbol on Earth.
Ancient spirals can be found in all parts
of the globe.
Thousands of ancient spirals such as these
can be found all over Europe,
North American New Mexico, Utah, Australia,
China, Russia.
Virtually every indigenous
culture on Earth.
The ancient spirals symbolize growth, expansion
and cosmic energy embodied within the sun
and the heavens.
The spiral form is mirroring the macrocosm
of the unfolding universe itself.
In native traditions, the spiral was the
energetic source, the Primordial Mother.
The Neolithic spirals at Newgrange, Ireland
date back five thousand years.
They are five hundred years old
than the Great Pyramid at Giza
and they are just as enigmatic
to modern observers.
The spiral goes back to a time in history
when humans were more
connected to the Earth-to the
cycles and spirals of nature.
A time when humans were less
identified with thoughts.
The spiral is what we perceive to
be the torque of the universe.
Prana, or creative force, swirls Akasha
into a continuum of solid forms.
Found at all levels between the macrocosm
and the microcosm,
from spiral galaxies
to weather systems,
to the water in your bathtub,
to your DNA,
to the direct experience
of your own energy.
The Primordial Spiral is not an idea,
but rather that which makes all conditions
and ideas possible.
Various types of spirals and helices are
found throughout the natural world.
Snails.
Sea coral.
Spider webs.
Fossils.
Seahorses' tails.
And shells.
Many spirals appearing in nature are
observable as logarithmic spirals
or growth spirals.
As you move out from the center the spiral
sections get exponentially larger.
Like Indra's Net of Jewels,
logarithmic spirals are self-similar
or holographic such that the
characteristics of every part are
reflected in the whole.
2400 years ago in ancient Greece,
Plato considered continuous
geometric proportion to be the
most profound cosmic bond.
The Golden Ratio, or divine proportion was
nature's greatest secret.
The Golden Ratio can be expressed as
the ratio of A + B to A is the same as the
ratio of A to B.
To Plato, the world's soul binds together
into one harmonic resonance.
The same pentagonal pattern that exists in
a starfish,
or in a slice of okra, can be seen in the
path of
the planet Venus traced in the night
sky over an eight year period.
The intelligible world of forms above and
the visible world of material
objects below, through this principle
of geometric self similarity.
From the self-similar spiral
patterns of the Romanesco broccoli
to the arms of galaxies, logarithmic
spirals are a ubiquitous and
archetypal pattern.
Our own Milky Way galaxy has several spiral
arms which are logarithmic
spirals with a pitch of about 12 degrees.
The greater the pitch of the
spiral, the tighter the turns.
When you observe a plant growing
in time-lapse video you witness it
dancing with the spiral of life.
A golden spiral is a logarithmic
spiral that grows outward
by a factor of the Golden Ratio.
The Golden Ratio is a special mathematical
relationship that pops up
over and over in nature.
The pattern that is observable follows what
is called the Fibonacci series
or Fibonacci sequence.
The Fibonacci series unfolds such that each
number is the sum of the previous two numbers.
The German mathematician and astronomer
Keppler discovered that self similar
spiral patterns are observable in the way
leaves are arranged on stems of plants.
Or in the floret and petal arrangements of
flowers.
Leonardo da Vinci observed that the spacing
of leaves
was often in spiral patterns.
These patterns are called
"phyllotaxis" patterns
or leaf arrangement patterns.
Phyllotaxis arrangements can
be seen in self-organizing
DNA nucleotides
and in everything from the family trees of
reproducing rabbits,
to pine cones,
cacti,
to snowflakes
and in simple organisms such as diatoms.
Diatoms are one of the most common types of
phytoplankton;
single celled organisms that provide food
for countless species
throughout the food chain.
How much math do you need to know to be a
sunflower or a bee?
Nature doesn't consult the physics
department to grow broccoli.
The structuring in nature
happens automatically.
Scientists in the field of nanotechnology
use the term self-assembly
to describe the way complexes
are formed such as
in the initial hexagonal
phase of DNA formation.
In nanotechnology engineering,
carbon nanotubes are
comprised of a similar
arrangement of materials.
Nature does this type of geometry over and
over, effortlessly.
Automatically. Without a calculator.
Nature is precise and extremely efficient.
According to the famous architect
and author Buckminster Fuller,
these patterns are a function of timespace.
DNA and honeycomb are the shape they are
for the same reason a bubble is round.
It is the most efficient shape for
requiring the least amount of energy.
Space itself has shape and allows only
certain configurations for matter,
always defaulting to
what is most efficient.
These patterns are the strongest and most
efficient way to build
architectural structures such as geodesic
domes.
Logarithmic spiral patterns allow
plants maximum exposure to insects
for pollination, maximum
exposure to sunlight and rain
and allow them to efficiently spiral water
towards their roots.
Birds of prey use the logarithmic spiral
pattern to stalk their next meal.
Flying in a spiral is the
most efficient way to hunt.
One's ability to see the spiral of
life dancing Akasha into material form
is related to one's ability to see beauty
and symmetry in nature.
Poet William Blake said, "the
vegetative universe opens like a flower
from the Earth's center,
in which is eternity.
It expands from stars to the mundane shell
and there it meets eternity
again both within and without."
The study of patterns in nature
is not something that is very
familiar in the West, but in ancient China,
this science was known as "Li."
Li reflects the dynamic order and pattern
in nature.
But it is not pattern thought
of as something static,
frozen or unchanging, like a mosaic.
It is dynamic pattern as
embodied in all living things.
The arteries of leaves, the markings of the
tortoise
and the veined patterns on rocks
are all expressions of nature's
secret language and art.
The labyrinth is one of many Li patterns.
It is found in coral structures,
mushrooms like the morel,
cabbages,
and in the human brain.
The cellular pattern is another
common pattern in nature.
There are a myriad of
different cellular structures
but all have a similar orderliness defined
by their purpose and function.
It is easy to be mesmerized with
the constant play of forms,
but what is most interesting is
that certain archetypal forms
seem to be woven into the fabric of nature
at all.
The branching pattern is another Li pattern
or archetypal pattern
that is observable at all levels and in all
fractal scales.
Take for example, this incredible image of
a supercomputer simulation
known as the "millennium run"
showing the distribution of dark matter in
the local universe.
It was created by the Max Planck Society in
Germany.
Dark matter is what we previously thought
of as empty space.
It is like an invisible nervous system that
runs throughout the universe.
The universe is literally
like a giant brain.
It is constantly thinking using a type of
dark or hidden energy
that science is only
starting to understand.
Through this immense network, unfathomable
energy moves
providing the momentum for the
expansion and growth of the universe.
Nature creates branching patterns automatically
when we set up the right conditions.
Nature is an art generating machine
or a beauty-creating engine.
Here, electricity is being used
to grow silver crystal branches.
The footage is time-lapsed as
they grow over several hours.
The crystals form on the aluminum cathode
as ions are electrodeposited
from a silver nitrate solution.
The formation is self-organizing.
You are seeing artwork generated by nature
itself.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe said,
"beauty is a manifestation of
secret natural laws which otherwise
would have been hidden from us forever."
In this sense, everything in
nature is alive, self-organizing.
When higher voltage is used the fractal
branching becomes even more obvious.
This is happening in real time.
In the human body, tree-like structures and
patterns are found throughout.
There are, of course, the nervous systems
that
Western medicine knows about.
But in Chinese, Ayurvedic and Tibetan
medicine the energy meridians
are an essential component to understanding
how the body functions.
The "nadis," or energy meridians
form tree-like structures.
A post mortem examination will not reveal
the chakras or the nadis,
but that does not mean they do not exist.
You need to refine your tool that you use
to look.
You must first learn to
quiet your own mind.
Only then you will observe these
things first within yourself.
In electrical theory, the less resistance
in a wire,
the more easily it can carry energy.
When you cultivate equanimity
through meditation
it creates a state of
non-resistance in your body.
Prana, or chi, or inner energy
is simply your inner aliveness.
What you feel when you bring your
consciousness within the body.
The subtle wires within your body
that carry Prana, the nadis,
become able to move more and more
pranic energy through the chakras.
Your wiring becomes stronger as you use it,
as you allow energy to flow.
Where ever consciousness is placed chi, or
energy, will begin to flow
and physical connections blossom.
Within the brain and nervous
system, physical wiring patterns
become established by repetition.
By continually placing
your attention within
and lowering resistance to the sensations
you are experiencing,
you increase your energetic capacity.
In Taoism, the yin yang symbol represents
the inter-penetration
of the spiral forces of nature.
The yin yang is not two and not one.
The ancient concept of the
"hara" is represented by
a yinyang or spiral swirl.
It is the power center located within the
belly below the navel.
Hara means literally sea
or ocean of energy.
In China, the hara is
called the lower dantien.
In many forms of Asian martial arts,
the warrior with strong hara is said to be
unstoppable.
In the Samurai tradition one form of ritual
suicide or
seppuku was hara kiri, which was often
mispronounced as "hairy cairy".
It means to impale one's hara
thereby cutting off one's
chi or energy channel.
Moving from this center creates
the grounded graceful movement
that you see not only in martial arts,
but in great golfers,
belly dancers,
and Sufi whirling dervishes.
It is the cultivation of single-pointed,
disciplined consciousness
that is the essence of hara;
the stillness in the eye of the hurricane.
It is the gut instinct in
connection to one's energy source.
A person with good hara is connected to the
Earth
and to the intuitive wisdom that connects
all beings.
To think with your belly,
"hara de kanganasaii"
is to tap into your inner wisdom.
The ancient Australian Aboriginees
concentrated on the same area
just below the navel-where the cord of the
great rainbow serpent lay coiled.
Again, a representation of the evolutionary
energy in humankind.
It is no accident that it is in
the hara where new life begins.
The
Enteric nervous system, sometimes referred
to as the "gut brain"
is capable of maintaining a complex matrix
of connections
similar to the brain in the head, with its
own neurons and neurotransmitters.
It can act autonomously, that is with its
own intelligence.
You could say that the gut brain is a
fractal version of the head brain,
or perhaps the head brain is a
fractal version of the gut brain.
A healthy bear has strong hara.
When a bear knows where
to forage for herbs,
it follows the movement of chi through its
senses,
centered in the hara, or belly.
This is the bear's connection to the dream
lodge; the place in native
traditions where all knowledge comes from
- to the spiral of life.
But how did ancient peoples know about the
spiral if modern science
is just starting now to
recognize its significance?
Ask the bees, for they have not forgotten
how to love.
Bees have a special
connection to the source
as part of a symbiotic system helping
beauty and diversity to flourish.
They are a bridge between the macrocosm and
the microcosm.
There is one heart that connects
all, a hive mind if you will.
Like an open brain, the hive sends out its
dreams to the world
to be manifested.
In nature many creatures
know how to act unison,
to move with one spirit, one direction.
But not all benefit the
other species around them.
For example, the locust will
devour everything in its path.
A locust has no choice but
to act like a locust.
It will never make honey or pollinate
plants the way a bee does.
A locust's behavior is rigid, but a human
is unique
in that we can act like a bee or we can act
like a locust.
We are free to change and
manipulate the patterns
of how we interact with the world.
We can exist symbiotically
or as a parasite.
Today humans try to understand the spiral
with the rational mind
but it was never thinking that connected us
to the spiral of life.
We have always been connected.
Thinking has been what keeps us
in the illusion of separateness,
within our own identities.
Thinking IS the creation of separateness.
The experience of limitation.
The more we align with thought, the
more removed we become from the source.
Ancient cultures that were less
thought-oriented aligned themselves
with the spiral in a more direct
and personal way than we do today.
In ancient India, Kundalini
is a representation of one's
inner energy which moves in snake-like or
helix-like pattern up the spine.
In the ancient yogic traditions of
India the inner worlds of people
at that time were comparable to
those of hara centered cultures.
To balance the power of the spiral with the
stillness of your
witnessing consciousness is to align with
your full evolutionary potential.
To blossom into the unique multi-faceted
being you were designed to be.
"Ida" -the feminine or moon channel
is connected to the right brain
and "pingala" the masculine or sun channel
is connected to the left brain.
When these two channels are in balance,
energy flows up a third channel,
Sushumna, along the center of the
spine, energizing the chakras
and unlocking one's full
evolutionary potential.
The word "chakra" is an ancient
Sanskrit word meaning energy wheel.
Kundalini is nothing less
than the primordial spiral
that dances your human life into existence.
It is a different order of energy than we
normally understand.
Like a bridge from "gross matter"
to the most subtle energies.
You are that bridge.
Kundalini is not energy that can be forced
by will, effort and friction.
It is analogous to growing a flower.
All we can do as good gardeners is prepare
the soil and proper conditions,
and let nature take its course.
If you force a flower to open prematurely,
you'll destroy it.
It grows with its own intelligence,
with its own self-organizing direction.
The egoic mind which fixates on the outer
world
is what keeps you from experiencing
your true inner vibratory nature.
When consciousness is turned within
it becomes like the sun's rays
and the lotus within begins to grow.
As Kundalini awakens within one's self one
begins to see
the signature of the spiral in all things.
In all patterns within and without.
This spiral is the link between our inner
worlds and our outer worlds.
Prior to the dawn of Western civilization
and written language
science and spirituality were
not two separate things.
In the teachings of the
great ancient traditions
the outer search for knowledge and certainty was
balanced by an inner feeling of impermanence
and intuitive understanding of the spiral
of change.
As scientific thinking became more dominant
and information multiplied,
fragmentation began to occur
within our knowledge systems.
Increased specialization meant that fewer
people were capable of seeing the big picture,
of feeling and intuiting the aesthetic of
the system as a whole.
No one was asking,
"is all this thinking good for us?"
The ancient knowledge is here in our midst,
hidden in plain view.
But we are too preoccupied with
our thoughts to recognize it.
This forgotten wisdom is way to restore the
balance
between the inner and the outer.
Yin and yang.
Between the spiral of change and
the stillness at our core.
The Serpent and The Lotus
In Greek legend, Asclepius was the son of
Apollo and the god of healing.
His wisdom and skills for healing
were unsurpassed
and he is said to have discovered the
secret to life and death itself.
In ancient Greece the Asclepian healing temples
recognized the power of the primordial spiral
Which is symbolized by
the rod of Asclepius.
Hippocrates, the father of medicine,
whose oath still forms the moral code of
the medical profession is said to have
received his training
at an Asclepian temple.
To this day, this symbol
of our evolutionary energy
remains as the logo of the American Medical
Association
and other medical organizations worldwide.
In Egyptian iconography,
the snake and bird represent
the duality or polarity of human nature.
The snake, the downward direction, is the
manifested spiral,
the evolutionary energy of the world.
The bird is the upward direction;
the upward current oriented
towards the sun
or awakened single-pointed
consciousness;
the emptiness of Akasha.
Pharaohs and gods are
depicted with awakened energy
whereby the Kundalini snake
moves up the spine and pierces
"Ajna chakra" between the eyes.
This is referred to as the eye of Horus.
In the Hindu tradition the bindi is
also representative of the third eye;
the divine connection to spirit.
King Tutankhamen's mask is a classic example
showing both the snake and bird motifs.
The Mayan and Aztec traditions combine the
serpent and bird motif into one god.
Quetzalcoatl or Kukulkan.
The plumed serpent god represents the awakened
evolutionary consciousness or awakened Kundalini.
The person who awakens Quetzalcoatl within
themselves
is a living manifestation of the divine.
It is said that Quetzalcoatl,
or serpent energy,
shall return at the end of time.
The snake and bird symbols can be found
within Christianity as well.
Their true meaning may
be more deeply encrypted
but the meaning is the same as
in other ancient traditions.
In Christianity, the bird or dove
often seen above Christ's head
represents Holy Spirit or Kundalini Shakti
as it rises to the sixth chakra and beyond.
The Christian mystics called Kundalini by
another name; Holy Spirit.
In John 3:12 it says, "and as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the son of man be lifted up."
Jesus and Moses awakened their Kundalini
energy, bringing awakened consciousness
to the unconscious reptilian forces that
drive human craving.
Jesus was said to have spent forty days and
forty nights in the desert,
during which time he was tempted
by Satan.
Similarly, the Buddha was tempted by "Mara"
as he sat to reach
enlightenment under the
bodhi tree, or wisdom tree.
Both Christ and Buddha
had to turn away from the lure of sensory
pleasures and worldly grasping.
In each story, the demon is the
personification of one's own attachments.
If we read the Adam and Eve story in the
light of the Vedic and Egyptian traditions
we find that the serpent guarding the tree
of life is Kundalini.
The apple represents the lure and
temptation of the external sensory world,
distracting us from the knowledge
of the inner world,
the tree of knowledge within.
The tree is simply the network of Nadis or
energy meridians within ourselves,
which literally form tree-like structures
throughout the body.
In our egoic quest for
external gratification
we have cut ourselves off from the
knowledge of the inner world,
our connection to Akasha
and the wisdom source.
Many of the world's historical myths about
dragons
can be read as metaphors for the inner energies
of the cultures in which they are embedded.
In China, the dragon is still a
sacred symbol representing happiness.
Like the Egyptian pharaohs,
ancient Chinese emperors who had
awakened their evolutionary energies
were represented by the winged snake,
or dragon.
The royal totem of the Jade
Emperor or Celestial Emperor
shows a balance similar to Ida and Pingala.
The yin and yang of Taoism, awakening the
pineal center
or in what in Taoism is
called the Upper Dantien.
Nature is full of different light detection
and assimilation mechanisms.
For example, a sea urchin can actually see
with its spiky body
which acts as one big eye.
Urchins detect light striking their spines
and compare
the beams' intensities to get a
sense of their surroundings.
Green iguanas and other
reptiles have a parietal eye
or pineal gland on top of their heads which
they use to detect
which they use to detect
predators from above.
The human pineal gland is a small endocrine
gland
that helps to regulate waking
and sleeping patterns.
Even though it is buried deep inside the
head the pineal gland is sensitive to light.
The philosopher Descartes recognized that
the pineal gland area or the third eye
was the interface between
consciousness and matter.
Almost everything is
symmetrical in the human body.
Two eyes, two ears, two nostrils-even the
brain has two sides
But there is one area of the brain that is
not mirrored.
This is the pineal gland area and the
energetic center that surrounds it.
On a physical level
unique molecules are formed naturally
by the pineal gland such as DMT.
DMT also forms naturally at the moment of
birth and at the moment of death,
literally acting as a unique bridge between
the world of the living and the dead.
DMT is produced naturally during states of
deep meditation
and Samhadi, or through entheogenic means.
For example, Ayahuasca is used in the
shamanic traditions in South America
to remove the veil between
the inner and outer worlds.
The word pineal itself has the same root as
pine-cone
because the pineal gland exhibits a similar
spiral phyllotaxis pattern.
This pattern, also known as the flower of
life pattern,
is common in ancient artwork depicting
enlightened or awakened beings.
When the pine cone image is seen in sacred
artwork it represents the
awakened third eye; single
pointed consciousness
directing the flow of evolutionary energy.
The pine cone represents the flowering of
the higher chakras
which are activated as Sushumna rises
to the Ajna chakra and beyond.
In Greek mythology the worshippers of
Dionysus carried a thyrsus
or giant staff wrapped with spiraling vines
topped with a pine-cone.
Again, representing Dionysian
energy or Kundalini Shakti
as it travels up the spine to the
pineal body at the sixth chakra.
In the heart of the Vatican you might
expect a giant sculpture of Jesus or Mary
but instead we find a giant
pine-cone statue
indicating that in Christian history there
may have been knowledge
of the chakras and Kundalini
but for whatever reason
it was kept from the masses.
The official church explanation is that the
pine-cone
is a symbol of regeneration
and represents
new life in Christ.
Thirteenth century philosopher and mystic,
Meister Eckhart said,
"The eye with which I see God and the eye
with which God sees me
is one and the same."
In the King James bible Jesus said,
"the light of the body is the eye,
if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole
body shall be full of light."
The Buddha said, "the body is an eye."
In a state of Samadhi one is both the seer
and the seen.
We are the universe aware of itself.
When Kundalini is activated, it stimulates
the sixth chakra and pineal center
and this area starts to regain
some of its evolutionary functions.
Darkness meditation has been used
for thousands of years
as a way to activate the sixth chakra
in the area of the pineal gland.
Activation of this center allows a person
to see their inner light.
Whether it is the proverbial yogi or shaman
retreating deep into a cave
or Taoist or Mayan
initiate, or Tibetan monk,
all traditions incorporate
a period of time
during which one goes into
the darkness.
The pineal gland is the gateway to
experiencing one's subtle energy directly.
The philosopher Nietzche said, "if you
stare into the abyss long enough,
eventually you find that the abyss stares
back at you."
Dolmens, or ancient portal tombs
are among
the oldest remaining structures on Earth.
Most date to the Neolithic
period of 3000-4000 BC
and some in Western Europe
are seven thousand years old.
The dolmen was used to enter into perpetual
meditation as a way
for a human to bridge the inner and outer
worlds.
As one continues to
meditate in total darkness
eventually one begins to observe
inner energy or light
as the third eye becomes active.
The circadian rhythms which are governed by
the sun and the moon channels
no longer control the functions of the body
and a new rhythm is established.
The seventh chakra, for thousands of years,
has been represented by the "OM" symbol.
A symbol which is constructed by Sanskrit
signs representing the elements.
When Kundalini rises beyond
the sixth chakra,
it begins to create an energy halo.
Halos appear consistently in the religious
paintings of different
traditions in all different
parts of the world.
The halo, or the depiction of an energy
signature, around an awakened being,
is common to virtually all religions
in all parts of the world.
The evolutionary process of awakening the
chakras
is not the property of one
group or one religion,
it is the birthright of every human being
on the planet.
The crown chakra is the connection to the
divine;
that which is beyond duality.
Beyond name and form.
Akhenaten was a pharaoh
whose wife was Nefertiti.
He is referred to as the son of the sun.
He rediscovered "Aten", or the word of God
within himself,
uniting Kundalini and consciousness.
In Egyptian iconography,
is represented by the solar disk
seen above the heads of gods
or awakened beings.
In the Hindu and Yogic traditions, this halo is
called "Sahasrara", the thousand-petalled lotus.
The Buddha is associated with the symbol of
the lotus.
The phyllotaxis pattern IS the same pattern
as can be found in a blooming lotus.
It IS the flower of life pattern.
The seed of life.
It is the fundamental pattern
into which all forms fit.
It is the very shape of space itself or a
quality inherent to Akasha.
At one time in history, the flower of life
symbol was prevalent all over Earth.
The flower of life is found guarded by
lions at the most holy places in
China and other parts of Asia.
The 64 hexagrams of the I Ching
often surround the yinyang symbol
which is yet another way of
representing the flower of life.
Within the flower of life is the geometric
basis for all of the platonic solids;
essentially every form that can exist.
The ancient flower of life begins with the
geometry of the star of David,
or upward and downward
facing triangles.
Or in 3D these would be
tetrahedral structures.
This symbol is a yantra,
a sort of program
that exists within the universe;
the machine which is generating our fractal
world.
Yantras have been used as tools for awakening
consciousness for thousands of years.
The visual form of the yantra
is an external representation of
an inner process of spiritual unfolding.
It is the hidden music of the universe made
visible,
comprised of intersecting geometrical forms
and interference patterns.
Each chakra is a lotus,
a yantra, a psycho-physiological center
through which the world can be experienced.
A traditional yantra, such as can be found
in the Tibetan tradition,
is invested with rich layers of meaning,
sometimes incorporating a complete
cosmology and world view.
The yantra is a constantly evolving pattern
which works through the power of repetition
or iteration of a cycle.
The power of the yantra is all but lost in
today's world
because we seek meaning
only in the external form
and we do no connect it to our
inner energies through intention.
There is a good reason why priests, monks
and yogis traditionally have been celibate.
Today all but a tiny few know why they are
practicing celibacy
because the true purpose has become lost
Quite simply, if your energy is going into
producing more sperm or eggs
as the case may be, then there is not
as much to fuel the rising of Kundalini
which activates the higher chakras.
Kundalini is life energy,
which is also sexual energy.
When awareness becomes less focused on
animal urges
and is put into the objects reflective of
the higher chakras,
that energy flows up the spine into those
chakras.
Many of the tantric practices teach how to
master sexual energy
so it could be used for
higher spiritual evolution.
Your state of consciousness creates the right
conditions for your energy to be able to grow.
Entering a state of consciousness takes no
time.
As Eckhart Tolle says, "awareness and
presence always happen in the now."
If you are trying to make something happen
then you are creating resistance to what is.
It is the removing of all resistance
that allows evolutionary energy to unfold.
In the ancient Yogic tradition,
yoga postures were used
to prepare the body for meditation.
Hatha yoga was never intended
solely as an exercise regime,
but as a way to link one's inner
and outer worlds.
The Sanskrit word "hatha" means: sun "ha",
and moon "tha".
In the original yoga sutra's of Patanjali
the purpose of the eight limbs of yoga are
the same as the Buddha's eight fold path;
to liberate one from suffering.
When the polarities of the dual world
are in balance, a third thing is born
We find the mysterious Golden Key that
unlocks the evolutionary forces of nature.
This synthesis of the sun and moon channels
is our evolutionary energy.
Because humans are now identified
almost exclusively with their thoughts
and the outer world, it is a rare individual that achieves
a balance of the inner and outer forces which allow
Kundalini to awaken naturally.
For those identified
only with the illusion,
Kundalini will always remain a metaphor,
an idea,
rather than a direct experience
of one's energy and consciousness.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We live our lives pursuing happiness "out
there"
as if it is a commodity.
We have become slaves to our
own desires and craving.
Happiness isn't something
that can be pursued
or purchased like a cheap suit.
This is Maya,
illusion,
the endless play of form.
In the Buddhist tradition,
Samsara, or the endless cycle of suffering
is perpetuated by the craving of pleasure
and aversion to pain.
Freud referred to this as
the "pleasure principle."
Everything we do is an
attempt to create pleasure,
to gain something that we want,
or to push away something that is
undesirable that we don't want.
Even a simple organism like the paramecium
does this.
It is called response to stimulus.
Unlike a paramecium,
humans have more choice.
We are free to think, and that is the heart
of the problem.
It is the thinking about what we want that
has gotten out of control.
The dilemma of modern society is that
we seek to understand the world,
not in terms of archaic
inner consciousness,
but by quantifying and qualifying what we
perceive
to be the external world by using
scientific means and thought.
Thinking has only led to more thinking and
more questions.
We seek to know the innermost forces which
create the world
and guide its course.
But we conceive of this essence as outside
of ourselves,
not as a living thing, intrinsic to our own
nature.
It was the famous psychiatrist
Carl Jung who said,
"one who looks outside dreams,
one who looks inside awakes."
It is not wrong to desire to be awake, to
be happy.
What is wrong is to look
for happiness outside
when it can only be found inside.
On August 4th, 2010 at the Techonomy
conference in Lake Tahoe, California,
Eric Schmidt-CEO of Google,
mentioned an astounding statistic.
Every two days now we
create as much information
as we did from the dawn of civilization up
until 2003,
according to Schmidt.
That's something like 5 exabytes of data.
Never in human history has
there been so much thinking
and never has there been so much turmoil on
the planet.
Could it be that every time we think of a
solution to one problem,
we create two more problems?
What good is all this thinking
if it doesn't lead to greater happiness?
Are we happier?
More equanimous?
More joyful as a result
of all this thinking?
Or does it isolate us,
disconnect us from a
deeper and more meaningful
experience of life?
Thinking, acting and doing,
must be brought into balance with being.
After all, we are human beings, not human
doings.
We want change and we want stability at the
same time.
Our hearts have become disconnected
from the spiral of life,
the law of change,
as our thinking minds drive
us towards stability,
security and pacification of the senses.
With a morbid facination we watch killings,
tsunamis,
earthquakes and wars.
We constantly try to occupy our mind, fill
it with information.
TV shows streaming from every conceivable
device.
Games and puzzles.
Text messaging.
And every possible trivial thing.
We let ourselves become mesmerized with
the endless stream of new
images, new information,
new ways to tantalize
and pacify the senses.
At times of quiet inner
reflection our hearts may tell us
that there is more to life than our present
reality,
that we live in a world of hungry ghosts.
Endlessly craving and never satisfied.
We have created a maelstrom of data
flying around the planet to facilitate more
thinking,
more ideas about how to fix the world,
to fix the problems that only exist because
the mind has created them.
Thinking has created the whole
big mess we're in right now.
We wage wars against diseases, enemies and
problems.
The paradox is that whatever
you resist persists.
The more you resist something, the stronger
it gets.
Like exercising a muscle, you are actually
strengthening
the very thing you want to rid yourself of.
So then, what is the
alternative to thinking?
What other mechanism can humans
use to exist on this planet?
While Western culture in recent centuries
has focused on exploring
the physical by using thought and analysis,
other ancient cultures have
developed equally sophisticated
technologies for exploring inner space.
It is the loss of our
connection to our inner worlds
that has created imbalance on our planet.
The ancient tenant "know thyself" has been
replaced
by a desire to experience the outer world
of form.
Answering the question "who am I?" is not
simply a matter
of describing what is
on your business card.
In Buddhism, you are not the
content of your consciousness.
You are not merely a collection of thoughts
or ideas
because behind the thoughts is the one who
is witnessing the thoughts.
The imperative "know thyself" is a
Zen koan, an unanswerable riddle.
Eventually the mind will become exhausted
in trying to find an answer.
Like a dog chasing its tail, it is only the
ego identity
that wants to find an answer, a purpose.
The truth of who you are does not need an
answer
because all questions are
created by the egoic mind.
You are not your mind.
The truth lies not in more answers, but in
less questions.
As Joseph Campbell said,
"I don't believe people are looking for the
meaning of life,
as much as they are looking for
the experience of being alive."
When the Buddha was asked, "what are you?"
he said simply,
"I am awake."
What does this mean, to be awake?
The Buddha does not say exactly, because of
the flowering of
each individual life is different.
But he does say one thing; it is the end of
suffering.
Every major religious tradition has a name
for the state of being awake.
Heaven,
Nirvana,
or Moksha.
A quiet mind is all you need to realize the
nature of the stream
All else will happen
once your mind is quiet.
In that stillness, inner energies wake up
and work without effort on your part.
As the Taoists say, "Chi
follows consciousness."
By being still one begins
to hear the wisdom
of the plants and animals.
The quiet whispers in dreams,
and one learns the subtle
mechanism by which
those dreams come into material form.
In the Tao te Ching, this kind of living is
called "wei wu wei"
- "Doing, not doing."
The Buddha spoke of the "middle way" as the
path
that leads to enlightenment.
Aristotle described the Golden Mean - the
middle
between two extremes,
as the path of beauty.
Not too much effort, but
not too little either.
Yin and yang in perfect balance.
Vedanta's notion of Maya or illusion,
is that we do not experience
the environment itself,
but rather a projection of
it created by thoughts.
Of course your thoughts let you experience
the vibratory world
in a certain way, but our inner equanimity
need not be contingent
on external happenings.
The belief in an external world independent
of the perceiving subject
is fundamental to science.
But our senses only give
us indirect information.
Our notions about this mind-made physical
world
are always filtered through the senses and
therefore always incomplete.
There is one field of vibration underlying
all of the senses.
People with a condition called
"synesthesia" sometimes experience
this vibratory field in different ways.
Synesthetes can see sounds as
colors or shapes or associate
qualities of one sense with another.
Synesthesia refers to a synthesis
or intermingling of the senses.
The chakras and the senses are like a prism
filtering a continuum of vibration.
All things in the universe are vibrating
but at different rates and frequencies.
The Eye of Horus is made up of six symbols,
each representing one of the senses.
Like the ancient Vedic system,
thought is considered to be a sense.
Thoughts are received simultaneously
as sensations are experienced on the body.
They arise from the same vibratory source.
Thinking is simply a tool.
One of six senses.
But we have elevated it
to such a high status
that we identify ourselves
with out thoughts.
The fact that we do not identify thinking
as one of the six senses
is very significant.
We are so immersed in thought that trying
to explain thought as a sense
is like telling a fish about water.
Water, what water?
In the Upanishads it is said:
Not that which the eye can see,
but that whereby the eye can see.
Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not
what people here adore.
Not that which the ear can hear, but that
whereby the ear can hear.
Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not
what people here adore.
Not that which speech can illuminate, but
that by which speech can be illuminated.
Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not
what people here adore.
Not that which the mind can think, but that
whereby the mind can think.
Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not
what people here adore.
In the last decade, great
advances have taken place
in the area of brain research.
Scientists have discovered neuroplasticity
- a term
which conveys the idea that the
physical wiring of the brain
changes according to the
thoughts moving through it.
As Canadian psychologist
Donald Hebb put it,
"neurons that fire
together, wire together."
Neurons wire together most when a person is
in a state of sustained attention.
What this means is that it is possible to
direct your own
subjective experience of reality.
Literally, if your thoughts are
ones of fear, worry, anxiety
and negativity then you grow the wiring for
more of those thoughts to flourish.
If you direct your thoughts to be ones of
love,
compassion, gratitude and joy,
you create the wiring for repeating those
experiences.
But how do we do that if we are surrounded
by violence and suffering?
Isn't this some kind of delusion or wishful
thinking?
Neuroplasticity isn't the same as the new
age notion
that you create your reality
by positive thinking.
It is actually the same thing
that the Buddha taught
2500 years ago.
Vipassana Meditation or insight meditation
could be described as
self-directed neuroplasticity.
You accept your reality exactly
as it is - as it ACTUALLY is.
But you experience it at the root level of
sensation,
at the vibratory or energetic level without
the prejudice or
influence of thought.
Through sustained attention at
the root level of consciousness,
the wiring for an entirely different
perception of reality is created.
We have got it backwards most of the time.
We constantly let ideas about the outer
world shape our neural networks,
but our inner equanimity need not be
contingent on external happenings.
Circumstances don't matter.
Only my state of consciousness matters.
Meditation in Sanskrit means to be free of
measurement.
Free of all comparison.
To be free of all becoming.
You are not trying to
become something else.
You are okay with what is.
The way to rise above the suffering of the
physical realm
is to totally embrace it.
To say yes to it.
So it becomes something within you,
rather than you being something within it.
How does one live in such
a way that consciousness
is no longer in conflict with its content?
How does one empty the
heart of petty ambitions?
There must be a total
revolution in consciousness.
A radical shift in orientation
from the outer world to the inner.
It is not a revolution brought
about by will or effort alone.
But also by surrender.
Acceptance of reality as it is.
The image of Christ's open heart powerfully
conveys the idea
that one must open to all pain.
One must accept ALL if
one is to remain open
to the evolutionary source.
This doesn't mean you become a masochist,
you don't look for pain,
but when pain comes, which
it inevitably does,
you simply accept reality AS IT IS,
instead of craving some other reality.
The Hawaiians have long believed
that it is through the heart that we learn
truth.
The heart has its own intelligence
as distinctly as the brain does.
The Egyptians believed that the heart, not
the brain,
was the source of human wisdom.
The heart was considered to be the center
of the
soul and the personality.
It was through the heart
that the divine spoke,
giving ancient Egyptians knowledge of their
true path.
This papyrus depicts the "weighing of the
heart".
It was considered a good thing to go into
the
afterlife with a light heart.
It meant that you had lived well.
One universal or archetypal
stage that people experience
in the process of awakening
the heart center
is the experience of one's own energy
as the energy of the universe.
When you allow yourself to feel this love,
to be this love,
when you connect your inner world with the
outer world,
then all is one.
How does one experience
the music of the spheres?
How does a heart open?
Sri Ramana Maharshi said,
"God dwells in you, as you,
and you don't have to do anything
to be God-realized or self-realized.
It is already your true and natural state.
Just drop all seeking,
turn your attention inward
and sacrifice your mind to the one self,
radiating in the heart of your very being.
For this to be your own
presently lived experience,
self inquiry is the one
direct and immediate way."
When you meditate and
observe sensations within,
your inner aliveness, you are
actually observing change.
This force of change is the
arising and passing away
as energy changes form.
The degree to which a person has evolved or
become enlightened,
is the degree to which one has gained the
ability
to adapt to each moment,
or to transmute the constantly
changing human stream
of circumstances, pain and pleasure
into bliss.
Leo Tolstoy, author of
"War and Peace", said
"everyone thinks of changing the world,
but nobody thinks of
changing him or herself."
Darwin said the most important
characteristic for the
survival of the species is not strength or
intelligence,
but adaptability to change.
One must become adept at adapting.
This is the Buddhist teaching of "annica"
- everything is arising and passing away,
changing.
Constantly changing.
Suffering exists only because we
become attached to a particular form.
When you connect to the witnessing part of
yourself,
with the understanding of annica,
bliss arises in the heart.
Saints, sages and yogis throughout history
unanimously describe one sacred union that
occurs in the heart.
Whether is the writings of St. John of the
Cross,
Rumi's poetry,
or the tantric teachings of India,
all of these different
teachings try to express
the subtle mystery of the heart.
In the heart is the union
of Shiva and Shakti.
Masculine penetration
into the spiral of life
and feminine surrender to change.
Witnessing
and unconditional
acceptance of all that is.
In order to open your heart,
you must open yourself to change.
To live in the seemingly solid world,
dance with it,
engage with it,
live fully,
love fully,
but yet know that it is impermanent
and that ultimately all forms dissolve and
change.
Bliss is the energy that
responds to stillness.
It comes from emptying consciousness of all
content.
The content of this bliss energy
born of stillness IS consciousness.
A new consciousness of the heart.
A consciousness that is
connected to ALL that IS.