Creation Meditation

The Story of All Creation

admin — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 17:07:11 +0000

Going within is like taking a step into the underground, that black and fertile place that sustains and supports your life. You see, when you turn within, you will find thoughts, ideas, sensations, dreams, feelings, moods, and most of all, images being born in you, being created in you, moment after moment. It is a fountain, a spring of life. Though it feels personal, it is indeed a force of Life.

If you were to build a relationship with this fountain, you would come to discover, that these inner experiences are not yours, they belong to everyone. They are not individual but collective. They are not just personal but transpersonal. That inner fountain, though at the surface feels like your life, is in fact a beautiful thread in the tapestry of all existence. It is a sacred sentence in the story of all Creation.

The Artist as Healer of the World

admin — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 01:17:21 +0000

The artist, the one who listens to the creative process as it unfolds from within, the one who deepens intuituion by following the inner creative thread, the one who shines the bright light of attention inward, can be a healer of the planet. The artist heals herself and others by stepping into the unknown, facing and accepting the inner darkness, and expanding the inner landscape. Doing so, it is the artist who shifts the world within and creates a new outer reality. Then, as more and more artists and individuals do this, together we will be able to achieve what healer Paul Levy envisions for humanity:

"This universe is a mass shared dream that all six-and-a-half billion of us are collaboratively dreaming up into materialization. When we realize this, we can put our lucidity together so that we can co-creatively dream a much more grace-filled universe into incarnation. This is nothing other than an evolutionary quantum leap in human consciousness, unimaginable until now." ~ Paul Levy

Create, Create, Create! Create for your soul, for your evolution, for your unfolding. Create for healing, celebration, and co-creation. Create for me, for you, and for the world. Create for the great Mother Earth.

Just by getting the creative flow active in your life for the sole purpose of connecting to it, that alone is a shift for the planet. Most of the collective is logical, rational, and analytical, and though there is nothing wrong with being intelligent, the problem arises if it means dismissing the creative contributions that arises from within. By keeping the unconscious at bay, we deny the creative force. We deny the power of God moving through us. We resist the evolution of the cosmos which is unfolding and expanding moment by moment, day by day, hour by hour. As a collective, we are ignorant of the fact that the creative, sexual, generative energy of the universe ceaselessly gives birth to and sustains our lives. Repressing and denying the creative/sexual energy has led to destruction of the Earth, extinction of species, starving children, violence against women, and millions of both men and women experiencing rape or sexual assault. These are deep, psychological symptoms of the continual disregard of the unconscious and its ceaseless creative intelligence.

The Sacred Black Madonna

admin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 16:40:02 +0000

You know who she is.

And somewhere, deep inside, you know she's rising up from within you. She is the sacred, the holy, Black Madonna.

As Madonna, she is a mother, a symbol for the great and pregnant void, the nothingness from which all form arises. She is black because she represents all that is dark – the mysterious, the unknown, and the great unfurling you must go through to find your lost and forgotten self. She represents the darkness of winter, the black night, death and the unconscious.

As she rises up from within you, give her your attention. She is there to teach and heal. She will encourage you to create and use the creative-sexual energy of the cosmos. She will say, "You can heal yourself." She will bring with her the long-awaited opportunity to see and accept the part you keep pushing away. Above all, she will point the way for you to finally see the world as a living, breathing Whole.

The One Great Birth

admin — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 04:32:00 +0000

You are finally getting it.

You are realizing what a remarkable, amazing and sacred creature you are. You are making the shift from self-hatred to self-love, from self-condemnation to self-appreciation, from feeling separate and isolated to feeling wise, deeply connected, and whole. You know that you are a wisdom-keeper, a master, a sage.

If you'd like to facilitate this shift in you, if you'd like to deepen the love for yourself, if you'd like to embody the wise woman or man in you, deepen your relationship with creativity. Strengthen the connection to your creative flow – the intelligence, the power, the wisdom of the universe. Allow every aspect of creation to come through you. Your voice, your art, your thoughts and visions, no matter how small, are adding to the one great birth we are all in labor for.

Six Steps to Wholeness

admin — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 03:55:39 +0000

By watching or observing experience, you become what you already are – the nothingness out of which all experience is born. You return to your innate wholeness. Suffering comes when the little self pushes experiences away. To return to wholeness…

1. Connect with the Peace within you.
2. Study and observe the Pain.
3. Probe into when, where, why, and how you push pain away?
4. Allow the full Participation of pain.
5. Play the role of the observer.
6. Remember that you are Pure Awareness, a host for all experiences, painful and pleasurable.

Within Your Pain Lies Your Purpose

admin — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 03:47:54 +0000

      No one likes pain. For many people, emotional and/or physical pain can burden and depress a life that offers many moments to be grateful for, so much material abundance to appreciate, and so many relationships in which to find and express love.
    Yet, there is a reason why Paul Brand, a long-time researcher of leprosy, proclaimed pain to be the gift nobody wants. Though disguised with suffering, pain bears many blessings. When unwrapped using inquiry and self-exploration, pain can lead to inner peace, understanding, insight, and self-acceptance. When each layer of pain is peeled away, there is a core energy that lies within, a sort of nucleus holding an entire cluster of painful emotions, memories, thoughts, and images together. That energetic center is where one can find the gift within the suffering.
    That core within, where pain and pleasure are one, where spirit and suffering meet, can lead to the authentic expression of a soul-aligned purpose. At the heart of us is a place of surrender where we can transform our painful poison into medicine. Carl Jung, the great Swiss psychologist, believed that at the core of every complex – an unconscious psychological knot of painful feelings, memories, and images – rests an archetypal energy that can become the guiding principle and purpose in one’s life.
    For example, one’s battle with addiction may later become the inner drive to advocate for sobriety. A traumatic event can later lead to writing screenplays, books, and poems. In my case, I never would have thought that I would be teaching Tantra. No, I am not instructing people to position themselves in certain sexual poses with their partner, but I am a teacher of the creative force and how it can be used to expand consciousness. Often when people hear or read Tantra, they think of sexuality. Yet, the word Tantra comes from the two Sanskrit words tanoti, which means expansion, and trayati, which means liberation. Tantra attempts to expand awareness to include all opposing aspects of oneself, such as male and female, dark and light, pain and pleasure, thereby awakening to the wholeness of the universe as a creative expression of the supreme being.
    After a life-altering sexual experience at the age of eight, writing became the way in which to explore my inner world and uncover ways to work with pain and discomfort. In order to feel safe after that experience, I became intellectual instead of imaginative, contained instead of creative. It was as though something within stopped moving, stopped flowing, stopped swaying. The ocean inside froze up, leaving me disconnected to the forever flowing universe and therefore depressed and dispirited. Journaling was a method to investigate suffering and to ride on pain’s emotional waves, seeing through its transparency and discovering it as nothing more than a form of energy. Writing not only got the flow going again, it also led to a center within where energy is born, where all things are possible, and where pain and pleasure are one. It led to the cradle of creativity, a place I call a holy nothingness.
    Many people believe that when they discover their purpose, all will be well and that life will be void of trouble. Actually, the pain and suffering in life is part of one’s purpose. The wholeness of life will bring experiences which we perceive in the form of opposites: pain and purpose, light and dark, human and divine. In that quest towards wholeness, the person one becomes as a result of no longer pushing pain away and instead seeing through its layers to find a guiding purpose is a gift that benefits humanity.

Your Source and Your Shame

admin — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 00:52:08 +0000

      Though you wouldn’t think so at first, creativity can lead you to the darkness within. When I say darkness I don’t just mean that dark source of intelligence where all things emerge, where the moon becomes the muse, where artists and dreamers go to find generative threads of their creation. I don’t just mean the kind of darkness that is the void, the emptiness where fullness is born.
   I mean the darkness you want to keep hiding. Your particular heaviness, the parts of you kept in the shadows because it is hard to face, difficult to accept, and terrifying to feel. I mean your black night, the shadowy raven within that you keep hidden, caged, and tied down. And though you have rejected this part of you, let me clarify that you want it too. In fact, you are always wanting it, forever feeling its absence, your loneliness and therefore your incompletion.
   Creativity can lead you to both types of darkness, one a prelude to the other. You see, when you let anything come out of you by giving your inner world creative expression, when there is no critic, no judge, no censor, then there is just the unmediated expression of your inner world. Little by little, bit by bit, as you continue to give outer manifestation to whatever arises from within (through writing, painting, dancing, sculpting, etc), then you eventually become the source. You become the beginning from which the river of your creativity streams, and when you yourself become the void, the place where all your opposites are born then you will come to witness your light and your darkness, your goodness and your badness, your sainthood and your sins.
   So the simple act of bringing something out of nothing is a healing method that can release your dark somethings out of holding and create a whole, radiant and authentic you. Creativity heals by mending the split between what to hide and what to reveal, by uniting what is shameful and what is beautiful, making all of your expressions, good and bad, the manifestations of one holy source.
   Once you finally free your shadow from the cage you keep it in, then you no longer have to hide anything. When you arrive at the darkness of the Source as well as the darkness of your shame, then you will finally experience the bright light of yourself shining and radiating out into the world, and that is a gift the entire planet is waiting for.

Expand Your Viewpoint with Creativity

admin — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 00:40:35 +0000

You have a particular perspective of the world. From this perspective, you experience and view life in a unique way. Your viewpoint is so unique; it has been created by every single one of your experiences – painful and pleasurable, remembered and forgotten, fully or partially lived through. If you’re like most people, that perspective sees the world in mostly limited ways. It is inherent in the conditioning of us all.
          At the same time, I’m sure you’ve experienced the opening of that viewpoint towards the boundlessness of the universe. When you experience that expansiveness, you might feel that all is fine with the world. Nothing is wrong. In fact, it’s all perfect and unfolding in the most brilliant of ways. Whatever is happening in your life – good and bad – is part of the wisdom of the whole. Most of all, you can feel your vitality, your greatness, and your soul shining through.
          Yet, those feelings of boundlessness, peace, and vitality do not always last, making it helpful to have a daily practice that consistently connects you with the cosmos. If you haven’t found a consistent way to access your expansiveness, your greatness, your power, I’ll share how I access mine.
          It is, without fail, a practice of creativity. By consciously engaging in a process of creation, that is by bringing forward what is within (just as the universe does moment by moment anyway), you become the Creator. You access what is bigger, larger, greater than the small version of yourself.
          For example, with writing, there may not be too many words that rise to the surface of the mind at first. Yet you move your hand anyway, even if you’re writing “I don’t know what to write now.” Slowly, what appears may be the stories you’ve created about the days events or the worries you have about your vacation next week, or your true feelings about the conversation you had with a good friend. You write out the unspoken thoughts and feelings about the happenings of your unique life.
          As you continue to let your attention rest on the inner world and give it expression, the energy inside starts to build. Your hand starts to swing from one end of the page to the other. More and more thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories, dream snippets, and bodily sensations enter your field of consciousness. You write it all out and meanwhile the energy increases. Soon, there is a fountain of activity inside and your hand can barely keep up with the fire within. The vitality that’s there is not so much about your reactions to everyday life. Instead, it is an expansive sensation, an energy and intelligence offering you creative ideas, innovation solutions, and feelings of connection, ease, and timelessness. This is the creative flow.
          Tapping into this energy is accessing the power of God, the life force that keeps the universe in motion. This creative force is limitless! Look at what it’s created – an expanding galaxy, twirling planets, seven swaying oceans, conscious human beings, an incredible and alive Planet Earth, stars that shine on ceaselessly, clouds, a sun, birds, and much, much more. Accessing this creative flow is like reaching the fountain of life, invisible water that sustains and nurtures the soul.
          When you pick up your creative accoutrements – a sculpting tool, a paintbrush, a pen – you have the opportunity to expand our unique viewpoint, to link it up with the cosmos, and become the greatness that is you.

From Shame to Shaman

admin — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 22:49:19 +0000

There’s something shifting, can you tell? There’s a new you that wants to be born. There’s an expression of a Higher, Intelligent Being that is leading humanity into a new phase. That energy is the evolutionary impulse; it’s the creative energy that drives this entire existence, and the sexual energy of the universe. It’s your sexual energy.

The problem is so many of us have been shamed by sexuality. We don’t want others to see our shame, our badness, our wounds. If this is true for you, then likely it’s challenging and even painful to be fully yourself, to let the fullness of you out, to rely and trust on the wisdom you inherently posses, to stand firm in the path of your life, to know what you know.

Yet, the universe needs your wisdom. The unfolding of humanity’s transformation hinges upon the full expression of you. The shift into a new species, a new planet, a new way of life hangs upon the full expression of your authenticity, your passion, your genius. The world needs your truest, most genuine self.

The truth is inside your deepest expression, within your most authentic self is the “one who knows” – the shaman, the master, the sage. At the core of your being is the medicine man or woman to guide you, heal you, and point you towards your purpose. This shaman is ready to emerge. Can you feel it?

In fact, the root of the word shaman means “one who knows”, and the root of the word shame means “to cover”. When you’re in shame, you’re hiding your wisdom. When you’re in small, you are repressing the big Intelligence that emerges from within you day after day and reveals moment by moment the way to a new humanity. You are preventing the great birth of the universal human and the emergence of a collective shift.

So, how do you move from shame to shaman? How do you access that great Intelligence and then fully and freely allow it to emerge from within you?

First, point attention inward. When you do that day after day with consistency, focus, and intent to find the shaman in you, you will. Besides, everything, no matter what it is, lies within. All life begins within the dark dome of the inner world. When your attention points inward, you will finally face the Source of Life, the creation of this existence, and it is there you will find the shaman, the sage, the master. This High Being knows that the Dream of life starts here and every expression of the Creator, every iota of Creation is sacred and filled with the purpose of Service to all.

Second, no matter what appears, write out whatever is moving through you. The glory and Intelligence of that High Being moves through you. (You, the flute and Wisdom, the breath of God.) Higher Intelligence moves upward through mind into your consciousness. You’ll need to empty your mind first, then become receptive, and then allow anything to arise. Most importantly, bring those subtle, soft images forward from the dark cave of the unknown and come to know the visions of the future, not just yours but the future of humanity. Finally, make it a regular practice to write and discover how the deepest part of your being is and wants to express itself.

Meanwhile, as you are cultivating a state of mind that is open, receptive, and accepting, allow the Master in you to speak, liberate the Sage in you, and form an ongoing relationship with the Shaman who knows that shame is a mere disguise for Divinity.

This post was published as an article by Soulful Living.com

Practicing the Yoga of Creativity

admin — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 22:42:59 +0000

Being creative can lead to awakening. It sounds odd, I know, because anyone on the spiritual path has heard that if you want to become enlightened or awake from suffering, meditation is necessary. That is, you must practice Raja yoga, the method of focusing on a chosen object thereby controlling emotions and mental noise. At the very least, you should practice Karma yoga, the yoga of service to the world, or Bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion. These ancient practices have led to self-realization for many spiritual masters and teachers. In fact, all of the yogas including Hatha yoga – the practice of balancing the mind and body through various physical poses, Jhana yoga – the yoga of cultivating wisdom, and Mantra yoga – the yoga of chanting spiritual words or phrases are meant to lead to awakening and liberation.
      The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj, which means “to yoke” or “to unite”. Essentially, yoga means to join the human soul with supreme consciousness, or simply put, to unite human and divine. Like yoga, creativity is a union of personal and transpersonal aspects of oneself. To bring something out of the realm of what does not exist into the realm of what does exist requires a union of opposites. Known and unknown, fullness and nothingness, conscious and unconscious, male and female, human and divine must become one in order to produce the creative third. In fact, any method of making art – writing, dancing, composing music, painting, sculpting, or story-telling- is a form of yoga too.
           The yoga of creativity is the art of developing a relationship with and trusting the unknown. It is cultivating an inner state similar to that of the famous cinematographer, Ingmar Bergman, whenever he conceived of a new film. “It is a mental state,” he said, “abounding in fertile associations and images. Most of all, it is a brightly colored thread sticking out of the dark sack of the unconscious. If I begin to wind up this thread, and do it carefully, a complete film will emerge.”
The state of mind that Bergman describes is like sitting on the shoreline within. Imagine the shoreline, the place where the ocean and the land merge, as a symbol for where the unconscious and conscious minds come together or where unknown and known meet. This is where awareness can rest while a creative endeavor unfolds. To cultivate this state of mind, that is to reach the inner shoreline, the artist becomes receptive and listens for the intelligent unfolding of the creative process. As inspiration appears, there may be a feeling of uneasiness and awkwardness because it is risky to follow the unknown. The artist never knows what will happen. Yet, by doing so, he or she becomes a vessel through which the divine can flow. The intelligence of the transpersonal becomes one with the personal, allowing what is new to unfold from the dark into the light of the world.
          If the flow of creativity feels far away, start by choosing a beginning point: a word, a brushstroke, a dance posture. Then let the creative process unfold from there. Even if the creative flow is barely present, the artist only needs two things: a starting point and attention. In writing, for example, one image combined with attention brings another image into being. While the hand moves across the page, another part of the writer keeps attention inward and listens. The creative process continues as the writer follows hints of guidance from within and pulls on the brightly colored thread. Although it feels uncertain, trust deepens by recognizing that each inner impulse followed is important and necessary to receive the next piece of creative direction. Little by little trust in the unknown strengthens by listening and continuing to follow what the creative process is asking for. The yoga of creativity requires a letting go of the ego, giving up any plan or agenda that the mind might make up, and surrendering to the natural rhythm that is occurring within.
          Just like all yogic disciplines, a practice of creativity has certain spiritual guidelines so that wisdom and purification of the mind can be reached. Giving non-judgmental expression to whatever arises, allowing anything at all to surface within, and becoming a witness to the inner experience are three pillars to a strong, spiritual practice of creativity. While practicing Hatha yoga, for example, students are often instructed to keep attention on the breath while the body stretches out in Adho Mukha Svanasana, or Downward-Facing Dog. Similarly, in creativity, attention remains on the inner world while another part of the individual gives non-judgmental expression to whatever surfaces inside. Allowing anything at all to arise softens a judging mind, frees the creative process, and widens the boundaries of the limited ego. As inner experiences unfold and the practice of creativity deepens, the artist learns to become a witness to the inner world versus being identified or attached to any part of it. As a result, the inner world rises up freely and effortlessly while the artist expresses the fullness that passes through her.
          Of course, there is reason why some yogis would resist this kind of practice. They may know intuitively that it will lead to a dialogue with darkness. All the parts of oneself considered worthless or distasteful hide behind the wall of the ego and get buried in the dark. Opening up to whatever arises in creativity can lead to facing what was buried long ago. Like Raja yoga, which challenges the mind with concentration, leading to inner states of discomfort, the yoga of creativity challenges the individual sense of self by allowing all inner experiences to arise, no matter how distasteful they are to the ego. The word "allow" could be broken down to "all" and "ow", meaning to receive all including the ow – including what is painful, what is unsettling, and what hurts. The creativity of one’s life embraces all experiences: good and bad, pleasurable and painful, joyful and mournful. Suffering at its deepest level comes from resisting or pushing parts of life (and parts of the self) away. Reversely, allowing anything to arise can lead to incredible healing, wholeness, and union.
          These are a few of the benefits to a spiritual practice of creativity, simply another name for Tantra. Often when people hear or read Tantra, they think of sexuality. Sex can be a means to practice Tantra, though the yogic practice itself is not so much concerned with sexuality as it is with the creative force. The word "Tantra" comes from the two Sanskrit words "tanoti", which means expansion, and "trayati", which means liberation. Tantra yoga attempts to expand awareness to include all opposing aspects of oneself, such as male and female, dark and light, pleasurable and painful, thereby awakening to the wholeness of the universe as a creative expression of the supreme being.
          This deep practice, call it Creativity or Tantra, can lead to awakening, as I mentioned at the start. By awakening, I mean dropping one’s belief in a separate self or ego. The continued practice of being a non-judgmental witness to all of life’s experiences lays the foundation for union with the divine and self-realization. Being aware of experience versus identified with it leads to recognizing that all of form is temporary, simply appearing and disappearing, and pointing to a single source before and beyond reality. Just as in creativity where something emerges from nothing, all worlds of form, are the creative expression of a supreme being. Awakening to this truth can release the belief in being separate from the whole and lead to the eternal union of human and divine.