Thoughts

Meditation: Charles Robinson and Project Divinity

This 23 minute meditation was recorded live with Charles Robinson on his open conference call on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 8:30pm.  The music is by Project Divinity. The songs are:  Ethereal Awakening, Floating, and Inside a Cocoon.  Charles calls this meditation “Connecting with the Earth” so listen, and take a walk in the boundless sky inside. Then bring your piece of the Divine Sun back to Earth.

Project Divinity has generously shared these songs under a Creative Commons license on Jamendo.com

To download the mp3 file of this Meditation, right click the “meditation” link above, and choose “Save Link As”.  It will download the file to your computer or mobile device.

The Way Through: Cultivating the witness

Photo by Brian Jeffery Beggerly

When you allow your mood to be determined by circumstances, your well being goes up and down.  How you feel is contingent on things turning out a certain way and when they don’t turn out that way or even come close to turning out that way, then you’re down. And then you’re up only when things start to work out in a way you’re attached to.

It’s like riding a wave.  The wave is going up and coming down. There’s ebbs and flows.

If you sit in the position of the witness, you’re able to watch things go up and down. And you’re better able to navigate.  The waves aren’t carrying you with them. The witness is in the position to see opportunities as they manifest.

The witness is just witnessing. The witness doesn’t have any attachments.  The witness doesn’t have the ups and the downs.  The witness is just reviewing the whole scene. When you are in the perspective of the witness, you’re able to see the path of least resistance to what you want.  You can see the next step. It will reveal itself in front of you because it is just about taking the next step – instead of being about the need you think you have to satisfy NOW.

Through the eyes of the witness, you’ll see an opening – even if it doesn’t make complete sense. You get an awareness of the action to take. The witness has the benefit of intuition, but it’s also combined with knowledge that you have of the circumstances.  It’s what you know and what you understand, but it’s more than that. It’s an awareness of the flow.

Consider taking a “mini-retreat” as the witness.  This is the kind of retreat you can do in 10 or 15 minutes.  A retreat is being present in the moment.  Sitting on the porch can be a retreat.

There’s a part of you that knows the right action to take in a given moment. It’s your inner advisor.  You just need to regain that trust in yourself.  The more you do it, the more that trust increases.

Walk in Paradise – Charles Robinson and J.S. Epperson

Every feeling is accessible through your thoughts.  Every manifestation begins with a thought.  All potential is here in each moment.  Relax and experience this pure freedom with this meditation.  It will take you on a journey. A Walk in Paradise.  The Paradise within you.

Meditation by Charles Robinson.  Music by J. S. Epperson, Gammadrone (Quantum Edit) – generously shared through HigherMusic.com
and a Creative Commons license –CC-BY-NC-Share Alike.

To download the mp3 file of this Meditation, right click the “meditation” link above, and choose “Save Link As”.  It will download the file to your computer or mobile device.

Without the story

Without the story

When I let go of what I am,
I become what I might be.
— Lao Tsu

One of the things I love about Kai Chi Do is that we meet without our story.  How refreshing and liberating that is!

In most places in our lives, there are stories we habitually tell.  Especially when we’ve just met someone and we’re trying to get them up to speed quickly on who we think we are.  And we invite them to do the same. We tell our careers in answer to the inevitable question, “What kind of work do you do?” We tell about our families.  We might even tell about those big life events that shaped our beliefs.  Mistakes we’ve made.  Or we tell our opinions – politics, the economy, the news, someone else’s mistakes.

But when I show up for Kai Chi Do on Sundays, I don’t know your story.  You don’t know mine.  We’re not dragging our past along with us.  We’re not sharing our judgments and evaluations of life.  We just meet in the moment.  We enjoy the moment together, the beauty of the place, the aliveness we feel, in the moment.

It’s clean.  We all get to start new.

We don’t tell our stories – We don’t need to .  We define ourselves by the energy we bring in that hour.  We reveal our identity through the safety we create for each other and for the group, the emotional vibration we project, the Life we allow to flow through us.  We reveal the truth about who we are when we release and let go of all the stuff that stands between us and that brilliant flow of Energy.  And when we are content with ourselves.

In that hour, we have the courage to let go of the stories we tell and be free.

I’ve been meeting with some of the same people for years of Sundays, and I know so much about them from our experience together.  But none of it includes their story.

I know your name and probably a nickname that Tina has given you.  I know your coordination and how it’s gotten smooth and graceful over weeks of Kai Chi Do.  I know your intensity, your laughter, the sound of your voice.  I know your smile and your T-shirts.  I might know whether you can carry a tune.   I know what you look like when you’re happy.  I know how it feels to hold your hand.

I like meeting you in that place that is deeper than our stories.

“Welcome New Light” illustration by Cornelia Kopp, aka Alice Popkorn, on Flickr Creative Commons

The Value of Upset – Dancing on the Volcano

The Value of Upset - Dancing on the VolcanoHow can you use a conflict or upset as something that will benefit your own healing process?  Use the strength of your emotion to fuel change.  You can feel the power in your emotion.   Use that power for good.

Everything that we’re projecting as far as the way people are, the way situations are, is based on our previous experiences and the conclusions we’ve drawn about how life is. It’s all based on how it’s been, how it was before.  We really never get the opportunity to fully appreciate and experience how it is.

Your beliefs influence your experiences.  Your beliefs create expectations.  You brought your beliefs into your upset or conflict.  They may even have contributed to the upset.   They influence how you behave. They influence how you interpret the behavior of others.  They define the limits of what you believe is possible.

But in the present moment, you get to choose. Knowing what you don’t want gives you the chance to decide what you want, to declare it clearly – to yell it at the Universe if you have to.  I’ve had this experience in the past and now I know, I don’t want that! I want this instead. I want this!

You know you’re stuck in the past when your beliefs are interfering with what you want and desire. Your beliefs are so very real to you.  But even when you’ve formed beliefs that take you out of alignment with what you want, even when your past experiences weren’t what you hoped for, even when you wander, you can still find your way home – you can still find your way into a clean new perspective in the present moment. You have beliefs – They don’t have you.

No matter how bad the upset, you can find a thought that will move you in the direction of what you want – move you in the direction of the life you hope for.  No matter how bad the upset you can find a meaning that serves you.

Quiet your mind for a moment.  Withdraw your attention from how things are. And imagine how you want them to be.

Create a belief that is in alignment with that vision.

A belief is just a thought that feels true to you.  Reach for a thought that feels true to you and is ALSO in alignment with what you want.  A thought that moves you forward instead of taking you back.  A thought that feels better, that gives you relief, that allows you to take a deep breath.  A NEW THOUGHT.

Finding a new set of beliefs is not the same as being hopeful.  It’s not making wishes and hoping they’ll come true.

Finding a new belief is a statement of your truth – without contradiction, without doubt, without justification.  Choose it wisely.  Invest your energy in beliefs that open new possibilities.

You decide.  No one else.  You decide your worth.  No one else, no force outside you, holds that power. Your beliefs are your declaration to the Universe.  Your thoughts, your beliefs, define your intentions.

Take action. But bring your beliefs into alignment with your goals first.  Then you take action from a place of inspiration, not desperation.

The value of upset is twofold – That upset is generating pure raw emotional power and you’ve also got absolute clarity about what you want.  The bigger the upset, the bigger the clarity and the more intense the emotion!  You decide how you want to use that power.  You can feed old beliefs, the same beliefs that brought you here.  Or you can use that power to fuel your new creation.

Special thanks to by Angela Marie  for her “Dancing on the Volcano” illustration on Flickr.
Shared under Creative Commons BY-ND.