Compassion Group Notes - October 2022
Silence and Stillness - Sound and Movement
Child Labor on Cobalt mines in the Congo - happens everywhere…. how were you exploited as a child instead of taught self respect and how to meet your own needs?
Harmony, Frequency, Vibration, Movement within the Body
“Do you know that our Soul is composed of Harmony?” Leonardo Da Vinci, Notebooks (1451-1519)
“If you want to know the Secrets of the Universe, think in terms of energy, frequency & vibration.”
In the upcoming months we will be expanding on this topic more and more. As an introduction, read this interview with Philip Shephard and/or the book - highly recommended for the book study. Please join our book study run by Walter or if you have a specific book in mind that you would like to share with a few others that you know, do so. Anything that expands our knowledge and understanding is good!
https://embodiedpresent.com/the-worlds-hidden-harmony/ - PLEASE READ
From April to September next year - preceding our big Pilgrimage to Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, we will be studying Sound as Creation as well as eco-spirituality. You will learn to know vibration and frequency in your own body, discover meaning in your body, regain your instinct and intuition, reconnect your soul to Spirit in some of the most beautiful, silent and wild parts left on our planet, through the study of sound, harmony, frequency, vibration and movement. This 6 month teaching will culminate in the experience of a life-time for those of you that can make it happen for yourselves. This will be a pilgrimage like no other for advanced and committed Pilgrims on the Path of Devotion to fulfilling their life’s purpose. And it will be so much fun and adventure. too! For those coming on pilgrimage, all these teachings will be free.
Information evening on this trip - Friday October 7th at 6.00 pm.
Saturday morning, October 8th, 9.00 am to 12.00 pm - the First in a Series of Sacred Hymn Workshops to bring awareness to your authentic Self of Vibration and Frequency
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
How do we Learn to be Externally Focused and Interpersonally Exploitative?
https://www.instagram.com/reels/audio/1034758440516962/
As children we learn to override our own instinct and intuition and go against ourselves to be socially conforming to the external world. Our needs and feelings become secondary to winning the safety, belonging, approval, “love",” acceptance and value from other people. We develop a false persona whose role it is to use and exploit others to get unaware basic needs met and feelings tended to, because we were never taught as children to do this for ourselves, or even to be aware of our feelings and needs. They had to be over-ridden to survive in society. This becomes a habitual attitude and way of being entitled in the world in every aspect of our being. We are externally focused on the world giving us what we want and meeting our needs. Really work with this dynamic in yourself - check off the list below and see why you would have learned this. When you understand why, the judgment over leaves and the heart can open. Read the inventory and notice how you feel. Do not shy away from the feeling - investigate and seek to understand why you have acted in these ways.
Now consider how you allow yourself to be exploited by people - take the inventory and see how you are vulnerable to these people. We are of course, always both.
“In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People.”
― Eugene Victor Debs
War, genocide and environmental destruction are the end result and sum total of each individual psyche trapped in the unawareness of exploitation of the external world to calm inner unaware needs and feelings, based in belief systems of self preservation.
Recommended Reading
The next book in book club will be “The Things they Carried.” by our own Minnesotan Tim O’Brien. It is raw, visceral and a very authentic examination of the human psyche and what exploitation of a government of its own people and the exploitation by the troops of another country destroys. It is a personal confession and authentic sharing of the effects on the soul and the world when we do not listen to our inner voice and follow the dictates of those in power that are out to exploit and benefit from the spoils of war. We all have our private wars. Let us all, through the deep examination of our own souls, make a confession and return to our True Self, that knows only Love and Truth and would never exploit self or other. Remember war can only happen if we have without our own psyche the dynamic of allowing ourselves to be exploited, or of exploiting others.
Consider how the exploitation of others and the environment by ourselves, is a desecration and betrayal of OURSELVES, that leaves us damaged, split, broken, depressed and anxious.
I highly recommend studying this book, either in Walter’s book study group or by yourself. It is revelatory, thought provoking and deeply moving - it awakens the heart.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Eco-Exercise for the Soul - Practice Holy Communion
I remember sitting day after day at the same table in a dull restaurant where I had to eat my lunch. There was a beautiful red rose in a small vase in the middle of the table, I looked at the rose with sympathy and enjoyed its beauty. Every day I talked with my rose. But then I became suspicious. Because while my mood was changing during the week from happy to sad, from disappointed to angry, from energetic to apathetic, my rose was always the same. And moved by my suspicion I lifted my fingers to the rose and touched it. It was a plastic thing. I was deeply offended and never went back there to eat. We cannot talk with plastic nature because it cannot tell us the real story about life and death. But if we are sensitive to the voice of nature, we might be able to hear sounds from a world where man and nature both find their shape. We will never fully understand the meaning of the sacramental signs of bread and wine when they do not make us realize that the whole of nature is a sacrament pointing to a reality far beyond itself. Henri J. M. Nouwen. “Nature as a Sacramental Pointer” in Creative Ministry.
Everything exists so that something else can exist. Every time that you eat, whatever it is you ate gave its life so that you may have life. When we start understanding that this giving and receiving is symbolic of giving and receiving divine love (wine) and truth (bread) we can begin to understand the enormous responsibility of becoming a worthy sacrifice ourselves - may we be the bread of Truth and the wine of Love that feeds and gives life to others. And may we be eternally grateful to those that have been bread and wine for us and given us life.
© Lyndall Johnson
Five Gathas for Mindful Eating - Thich Naht Hahn.
Serving Food - In this food I see clearly the presence of the entire universe supporting my existence.
Looking at the Filled Plate - All living beings are struggling for life. May they all have enough food to eat today.
Just Before Eating - The plate is filled with food. I am aware that each morsel is the fruit of much hard work by those who produced it.
Beginning to Eat - With the first taste, I promise to practice loving kindness. With the second, I promise to relieve the suffering of others. With the third, I promise to see others’ joy as my own. With the fourth, I promise to learn the way of non-attachment and equanimity.
Finishing the Meal - The plate is empty. My hunger is satisfied. I vow to live for the benefit of all beings.
