May 2022 - Compassion Group Notes
This woman’s name is Abena. Do you know what it means? What does your name mean? Why were you named this? Language has great power, names have power. Everything is energy. Do you wonder where she is from? Do you actually study images and explore their meaning in an aware way? Journal about this picture….
Tao Te Ching Verse 12
Mindlessly regarding the five customary colors
leads to color blindness.
Mindlessly hearing the five customary sounds
muffles one’s ability to listen.
Mindlessly tasting the five customary tastes
dulls the tongue.
Excess wastes energy and yields only
unnatural and dehumanizing things.
Unguided by heart-mind nature,
mindless attention leads only to insane choices.
Thus only mind-full needs—not mindless desires
—guide the Sage.
Focused thus, one knows exactly when to let go,
and when to hold on.
Marc Mullinax translation
We are going to be exploring expanding our awareness through the study of sacred texts of all traditions. The great teachings are the guides given by mystics through the ages to humanity for study and guidance on how to live human life. They are the spiritual words of those whose souls are deeply connected to Spirit and are so able to align their lives to the purpose of Consciousness/God.
This capacity is available to all humans, but very, very few ever attain this degree of awareness. It requires not living in the narrow confines of rational thought, logical deductions and facts, but expanding awareness into the meaning and principles, blueprints and dynamics underlying the concrete, material existence of your lives. It will mean using intuition and gnosis. It will mean forfeiting what you think you “know,” and getting a much more expanded understanding of the universe, your life and the purpose of existence.
What does this text above from the Tao Te Ching mean? If you do not understand it, you will have to ask yourself questions and do some deep introspection. You will have to live the questions until you find the answers. Bring your insights to group in the next month. This is a journey into deeper realms. All of you have done enough work at the ego level. All of you have some capacity to observe your ego functioning. All of you have a yearning. Now we will be embarking on deeper work. Our existence as a species demands it.
“Beneath the coarse surface of material being, I managed to touch the eternal purple hue, and I came to know the radiance of divinity.”
~Solovyov
Sky Meditation
If you keep being trapped and collapsed in the worldly experiences of your life instead of knowing yourself as the observer of inner and outer experiences, practice this meditation. Remember that you are the observer, and the experiences of your life are as ephemeral and transient as the clouds passing through the clear sky of your consciousness. Observe – serenely, calmly and attentively – learning all you can from the experience, but knowing your experiences are just like clouds passing in the sky. And that you are the clear sky. This way you can no longer be gobbled up, drowned, overwhelmed, or destroyed by the clouds. Know you are not that which you observe in any permanent way. You have mastery and universal power over what you observe. When you use words like “overwhelmed” it is because you have identified yourself with the clouds instead of the sky.
You are made of the earth and informed by the sky. You are matter and you are Spirit. Spirit is eternal and matter is temporal. Remember this and be careful where your loyalty and identity rest. All you experience with the 5 senses will pass, all you know as Spirit is forever.
Obedience
The word obedience is a trigger word for many people. The spiritual path demands obedience and so this word must be understood and examined. As a child you had to be obedient to the will of your parents, your teachers and authorities in the your community. This demand for obedience came from a place of human fear, need, shame and guilt. And so it was experienced as shaming, frightening, guilt inducing and controlling. We were either obedient out of this fear and shame or rebellious. Either way the motive remained the same. It is now time to give up this kind of obedience and be in allegiance to obeying the rule of Love, instead of the rules of Fear and Shame. This is the exact opposite of what was demanded when you were a child, and yet the word keeps us stuck in rebelling and mindlessly complying. As a exercise review your childhood and find all the ways you were obedient out of fear. Can you find the connection between your fear of being shamed and your obedience or disobedience? Think too, of those that inspired and encouraged you lovingly so that you became a disciple willingly. In both cases there was obedience and yet the quality of the experience was completely different. Now is time to be obedient to Spirit, and no longer ruled by the fears of the ego. Obedience to Spirit often results in civil disobedience. Ponder the paradox. How are you a slave to the ego and how are you one with Spirit?
“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.”
~Henry David Thoreau
“The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.” ~Banksy, Wall and Piece
Go and see the Bansky exhibition at the MIA
Study these two quotes and the picture carefully and really consider if you are a slave of the ego or a free spirit/human being. Think about the Russian soldiers in the Ukranian war right now…. and the Ukranian soldiers torturing and killing Russian soldiers. All “good obedient” men. Study the work of Bansky - watch the movie about him and think about whether he is obedient or disobedient - to whom and how?
“People who are committed to living their truths are like sunshine in a darkened room. They simply light up, bless and encourage Life wherever they are.
"We are – all of us – always works in process. But the nature of the work changes as we make choices to live consciously. Each stage brings new insights, challenges, and opportunities. Many of us have studied spiritual practices and taken responsibility for our lives for years through therapies and teachings. It is now a time of distilling, deepening, focusing, choosing, releasing and claiming.
Now is the time for synthesizing both knowledge and wisdom.
"As disciples of the Beloved, by whatever name we honor Presence, we are empowered in our quest by the sharing, intimacy and encouragement of others of like mind. Once awake and committed, we become participants in the caretaking of the new vision for our earth. In order to stay poised and balanced in the Way during the chaos of change, we need to be both still and skilled. That vision asks us to become practical mystics whose inspirations are from the heavens and whose feet are on the ground.”
~Gloria Karpinski
Fabulous youtube video of what it means to “Play” in relationships. Consider the word “play” as a mature spirit being, not a small unaware child.
And this too is play: https://rubinmuseum.org/spiral/at-the-center-of-a-messy-beautiful-existence
And this too is play:
Enough
I'm not good enough.
I'm not smart enough.
I don't know enough
I'm not perfect enough
I'm not enough.
Enough!
It's time to tell the truth.
I'm alone, hurt, and sad.
I feel shame because of these beliefs that I perfectly learned.
It's time to tell the truth.
I feel shame, and that shame doesn't mean I'm bad, wrong, and have no value or even negative value.
I feel shame, and I am enough.
I always have been enough.
I always will be enough.
I am enough.
When I fall back to those beliefs, I vow to say enough.
I vow to say the truth with love.
I am enough.
I am love.
I am.
Enough.
Mom and My Little Girl
I hate you!
Mom never said this, but the message was there because I say this to my little girl.
My little girl says, "I hate you!" when I tell her to stop her feelings.
I send her off to change her attitude and come back when she's good.
I want to change my relationship with my little girl.
Dear one,
I'm sorry I dismiss you, diminish you, and hate you.
I have kept telling you that you are not good enough and you need to shape up and then I will love you.
That's not love or truth.
I am sorry, dear one.
Your feelings don't make you bad or wrong.
I want to know your feelings for they will help me know you.
They will help me change these beliefs that hurt you.
They will help me to love you.
I love you, you beautiful girl!
© Karen Lahn
