A Path With Heart

It felt like a very solid day and I feel firmly rooted on my path.  However, paradoxically, I’m not sure what that path is beyond being strongly connected to God, asking for guidance, doing the next right thing and being of service.  I do not feel attached to much of anything in the created order.  I also have no idea where my path will lead me.  My path has no firm boundaries, limits or direction, and that is excellent, but a little strange.
I had four clients today.  I clearly “comforted the afflicted” with the first and “afflicted the comfortable” with the last two. The second was a mix.  All actions were taken with the utmost love respect and I had a good connection with each.  I was a good conduit today!

Connection With All Things

I have been reading a book called Wolfkiller which consists of stories and wisdom of a Navajo sheepherder from early in the 20th century.  His stories and wisdom were, in turn, passed down to him from his mother and grandfather, through their oral tradition.  He lived close to the earth.  Through his stories it becomes quite clear that he realized and treasured the knowledge that we are all connected to everything and everybody.  It is also quite apparent that knowing of that connection changed his life and made it quite beautiful and fulfilling.  Knowledge of that connection changed his general attitude and the way he interacted with the world around hin.  I too value that connection.  There is a love and respect for all things there and knowing of that connection has also changed my life dramatically.

Understanding is not Required

When I say “understanding is not required”, it is an acknowledgment that I do not need to thoroughly understand something intellectually.  As in the last entry, my accepting a very limited, and totally non-intellectual understanding is based on love and faith, not intellect.  Pursuing a thorough, intellectual understanding would be fear based and would very likely detract from or completely eliminate the spiritual experience.  As several workers in the field have realized, scientific analysis and an attempt at a thorough understanding of spiritual things frequently conflicts with or eliminates spiritual events.  The intellect and the spiritual represent different paradigms and one cannot be used to evaluate the other, except in very simple ways.  For example, it is possible through scientific study to show that healing touch expedites healing in mice but not why or how.

Divine Assistance

We had a very strong lodge tonight and I was clearly “targeted” by the lodge, meaning the lodge, which is more closely connected with God than I am, had selected me as its target for special interest.  The targeting actually started before the ceremony and continued during.  Before the lodge began, the smaller and older of the two lodges on our property summoned me to it and had me place my hands on it so that it could better connect with me.  When I placed my hands on it and began to focus and be open, it began to do a combination of a transcendental healing and a “downloading” (the best description for how it feels) of information into me.  It was so intense I found it necessary to make contact only for a minute or so, before taking a break to walk around some.  While walking around, I was in a dazed state and only minimally connected to what we think of as reality.  I did the contact and walking around several times before lodge time.  During the ceremony, which was in the large lodge, the process continued in much the same way, but less intense so that my connection with reality was stronger and I was more able to interact.  Quite an honor!  I can’t say that I understood what took place but I do know that God and the lodge was helping me with my healing and helping me to be the person I wish.  Understanding is not required.

Beginning My Day Pre-dawn

Why get up at the insane hour of 2:00 A.M.?  The short, and somewhat glib, but true answer is because that is the time I am awakened and urged to start my prayer and meditation.  The fact is I never use an alarm and once when I was on heavy medication that should have kept me under for several more hours, I still woke up/was awakened at that time.  I am then ready to start my day and unable to get back to sleep.  When I was working full time, I only got up at 4-5:00.
A longer, and more complete answer is that the pre-dawn hours are a sacred time, for me and others.  Walsch puts it well, when he writes: “In the stillness, you will find your true being.  In the silence you will hear the breathing of your soul ---- and of God.  I have told you many times, and I tell you here again: You will find Me in the stillness.”  (Communion with God, by Neale Donald Walsch).  In short, it is when I make my best connection with life, my own soul and God.  I also find that if I start my day that way, I can carry it with me through the day.

Human Potential

Two days ago I spoke of re-introducing a young man to B2B and my doubts about the outcome of that process.  I used my connection and faculties carefully and well.  I felt strongly that my approach was right for all those concerned.  I just did not know what the outcome would be.  As is often the case, the action was up to me but the outcome was not.  I found out today that it was a very positive experience for all, with an outcome that far exceeded my hopes.
I was working with the same young man today.  We were talking about some alternative healing techniques and touched on the Noetic Sciences, which promote alternative healing and the general development of human potential.  My day-to-day practices, mentioned above, and my use of alternative healing techniques, remind me that human potential is way beyond what we think it is.  I think I just scratch the surface and the results frequently blow me away.  I also know that the main things that hold me back are me and my beliefs.

Beyond My Understanding

Earlier in the week a friend told me that he had connected with his soul/essence during meditation, as I had suggested he do.  He said that he received some information that was very profound, but he did not remember what it was, a feeling I am very familiar with.  It feels like the information is more than my conscious mind can handle and that the content cannot be expressed using the words and concepts that I know.
I had that feeling in the lodge tonight.  I was warned/told that something would happen to get my attention and that I should be alert and receptive (I have to admit that part of me thought “oh no!!”).  The first stone that came in landed in the pit right in front of me, split open to show its heat and redness and almost left the pit in my direction.  It scared me and definitely got my attention.  Once that happened, I spent the rest of the lodge experiencing the feeling I described in the previous paragraph.  I have complete confidence that the information I received will change my behavior and that I may understand it some day.  Good enough for me!

Prayer & Meditation in the Morning

In the meeting tonight, as is often the case, it was acknowledged that spending time doing some sort of meditative activity like dog walking or sitting, just after getting up, even if only for a few minutes, sets a very positive and peaceful tone for the day.  Starting the day with some sort of prayer and meditation.  Hearing that at meetings is why I started doing it and I certainly agree that beginning my day that way, changes my day dramatically.  It was also widely acknowledged that most people either do not do it or struggle with it.  For example, they set their alarm a bit early and when it goes off they press the pause button until it is too late to take the time for peaceful meditation.  What I just described puzzles me a bit.  What I did was recognize the benefits of beginning my day with prayer and meditation and disciplined myself to do it.  Now I enjoy it and do it each day, without questioning.

Placebo Effect

Today I returned, once again, to the psychic healer that I go to in Oak Creek Village, near Sedona.  I was also reflecting on what most people refer to as the “placebo effect”, that results when trials are performed on potential medications.  It’s the effect that taking a sugar pill can have on the body, if a person believes that pill to be the actual medication.  To many people the placebo effect is just thought of a the imaginary effect of a sugar pill.  To me it simply demonstrates that the mind can and does have an effect on the physiological processes going on in the body.  I go to the psychic healer because another person’s mind, like the healer, can also impact on my own physiological processes.  We are connected.
I usually use a guided meditation of a lemon for the recovering people I work with.  In that meditation, I have them visualize a ripe, juicy lemon, which I have them cut into quarters and then bite down on.  The effect is almost always increased salivation and often being able to smell the lemon or have their mouth pucker up.  It is only a thought, there is no lemon, yet they have a strong and noticeable physiological response.  The response is not imaginary, though I find that some people think of it that way.
I have been using the placebo effect for many years to my benefit!

A Quiet Day

A quiet day of exercise, introspection and interaction with Maria, my wife.  I did my regular getting up at 2:00, spiritual activities until 4:00 and zoning until 6:00.  I spent the rest of the morning exercising, interspersed with computer work.
My introspection involved several periods of meditation and contemplation.  At first I checked myself for any fears or other feelings that I was trying to hide from.  I encountered minimal fear, some impatience with my disability, gratitude that my disability is as minor as it is and some self-doubt about the actual impact of the things I do, an interesting mix of feelings.  Most of my meditative time is spent on sorting through the events of the last several days.  I do this last by allowing my consciousness to drift over the events in an unstructured and non-sequential way.  I just observe the feelings come and go, without grasping or pushing them away.
I realize now that I interact with Maria in much the same way that I do my meditation and contemplation.  I don’t talk much since talking is difficult for me, but during the day we touch on a variety of topics, usually briefly.  I let the thoughts and feelings come and go without grasping or pushing them away.