AWAKENED LIVING NEWSLETTER
Creating Community for those in the Spiritual Awakening Process. Vol 4 12/21/20
(For upcoming January webinars with Bonnie Greenwell please scroll to bottom of page)
Remembering our True Nature during the Holidays
For many of us this year the holidays will be an inward time, separated from family and alone perhaps in a way we have never been before. My husband and I plan to set up zoom to connect with our extended family of children and grandchildren during their holiday dinner as we feel we cannot drive the length of California nor take the risk of covid this year. As we age we are more cautious and have less stamina than we would like. So these are the limitations of the human form. Adyashanti once said that Enlightenment is having no argument with reality — and these days are a good reminder of that which still needs to be released before freedom is fully stabilized.
Being alone can be painful, but it can also clarify how valuable it is to feel the strength of our own connection to Source, or to what some call the Divine within. Loneliness can push us to find our wholeness, where we can discover an interconnection with all life. This is not an easy task, because the mind is often preoccupied with what we are missing rather than wholeness, churning up expectations and desires that are still unfulfilled. The mind reflects in opposites, always comparing, measuring, imagining more or better, feeling fear and doubt. This pushes us ahead in life and makes us find ways to meet our human needs, but it often leaves us grasping for what we want, while rejecting the circumstances we are in, including our inherent connection to the whole.
The illusive True Nature at our core has a different position – it is just aware, present, open to what is. Its expression is simple – the Sat, Chit, Ananda of Vedanta – existence, aware consciousness, and bliss. Resting in silence or inner peacefulness opens us to these basic qualities of existence. It is the long-term potential of meditation.
Here are some lines from the first chapter of my first book Energies of Transformation:
A Guide to the Kundalini Process, published in 1990.
“It appears that when people pray, meditate or just turn inward to find God what they ultimately can experience is the direct connection with Sat, Chit, Ananda. Sat is existence or beingness, the substance or essence that is all things. Eastern scriptures state that prior to creation there was only Sat, one without a second, undivided. Sat exists always and everywhere. Chit is cosmic intelligence or knowledge that fills everything, a consciousness without personal identity or separation, holding all potentiality. Ananda is ecstatic bliss. Indian pandits identify these three qualities as the essential nature of existence. Direct intuition of them becomes possible following the eruption of kundalini energy, which is latent in each of us. When this primal, intense energy awakens it seems to move with intentionality throughout the body and psyche and is believed by eastern mystics to have the power to transform a person at the cellular level.”
The momentary experience of these qualities is life-changing – it is like discovering your roots or your true home. I have learned through observation that this opening can happen as a glimpse for many reasons before kundalini is activated, and this realization is often the space into which one’s consciousness feel merged at the peak of a kundalini process. Sometimes we become attached to the bliss and the mind takes over later with a great longing to stay in what was considered a peak experience. But actually we touched our always existing True Nature. Once we learn to observe our mind with all its desires and conditioned patterns without identifying with its content, this Sat Chit Ananda becomes more available as a relaxed way of being internally. The high bliss does not endure in my observation, but becomes a quieter peace that permeates presence or being, and simply adjusts with acceptance to whatever arises.
It can take months and years for this deep relaxation into life to become stable, and overwhelming physical issues like illness, grief or hunger can pull us back into our human patterning. But awakening is knowing what we are and this knowing, once experienced, never leaves. The mind can generate doubts about whether that “experience” was true but if you take yourself into stillness, deeply, you find it is still there, this human nature, and its’ Sat,Chit, Ananda, always waiting for you to return. When mystics refer to Christ-consciousness I believe it is this kind of presence and awareness, and so we might think of Christmas as a reminder of the Truth of who we are, bringing light and love into the darkest time of the year. For what is bliss if not love?
So take time during these holidays to appreciate moments of aloneness, to sink deeper within and beyond the anxieties and disappointments of thought, seeing if you can recall the simplicity you came in with – just open awareness, existence, presence, wonder and availability to life before you ever had any understanding or conclusions about it. You can certainly feel alone, but you can never truly be alone because you are connected to every element of existence. You are at-One even more than you are alone.
(Art above is “Buddha Flowering” by Frederick Jon Hopman, and is from the cover of my book The Awakening Guide. It was painted at the height of his own awakening, and made available to me for my book.)
BOOK OF THE MONTH
Mandala: Luminous Symbols for Healing by Judith Cornell Ph.D
According to the depth psychiatrist Carl Jung, creativity is the bridge between the numinous and the human aspects of existence – it offers a way to express what is inexpressible through the mind alone. I have found when in the throes of a difficult emotion, or physical challenge, or psychic confusion related to a spiritual awakening it is helpful to turn to a creative expression – dancing, singing, painting, freeform writing, poetry, clay – whatever seems to call us. Here is a wonderful book that came from the awakening of my late friend Judith Cornell Ph.D, a distinguished artist whose workshops have helped thousands discover their own inner numinousity. She has been called a modern-day Hildegard (another mystic I will someday tell you about!)
Judith wrote several beautiful books related to art and spirituality, including a biography of Ammachi, with whom she was associated for many years. Her book Mandala: Luminous Symbols for Healing describes a technique she developed for painting mandalas and includes many pages of sacred art as well as inspiring mandalas created by her students. Her method is easy to learn, beginning with inner reflection, then using white pencils on black paper. She believed “contemplating and creating mandalas can help heal our sense of spiritual and psychic fragmentation, help us to manifest creative energy and optimism, and reconnect us to our essential Being.” This book is a feast for the eyes and balm for the soul.
Altogether Now —
Resources for those in the Spiritual Community
A few years ago I began holding webinars to train people to support others in a kundalini process. The criteria included previous work with me, being comfortable with your own process, and being in a role where you might encounter people who needed your support. Here are a few referrals from people who completed my training:
Cynthia Abulafina is a yoga teacher who offers in-depth continuing educational programs for understanding the subtle body, and teaches non-dual self-inquiry from a heart-centered perspective.For a description you can see:
https://www.cynthiaabulafiayoga.com
She tells me you can see an interview with her through the link below. This will give more information on her program, her intention, and exactly what she offers:
Cynthia has offered my mailing list 20% off using the code Inspire20.
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Tree Wiseblood works with energy and awakening in New South Wales, Australia and on the web. She is holding a workshop on the web on Jan 24. She writes:
“The awakening journey can benefit from greater nervous system health and support. Sometimes on the path we experience anxiety, depression or unsettling energy shifts. This workshop teaches simple exercises to enhance and ease your process by creating a path to a more balanced nervous system.”
NERVOUS SYSTEM BALANCING WORKSHOP FOR AWAKENING
Jan 24 2021 8 to 11:30 on zoom. For more info go to: Tree Wiseblood
www. awakeningthroughthebody.com.au
Here is a description of Tree’s therapy approach:
“I offer deep presence in spiritual mentorship, normalizing the awakening process, offering support in the form of listening and discussion. I believe that healing trauma can precipitate awakening and assist in the process. The work I do is assisting the release of trauma, tension and stress from the body and balancing the nervous system - with TRE®, Transformational Bodywork, Nervous System Support and Shamanic Healing. Moving out contraction and memory held in the tissue of the body, calming the mind and regulating the nervous system”.
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Julia French works in Blean, Kent in the UK as a trained and ordained interfaith minister/Spiritual Counsellor specializing in spiritual counseling and mentoring, working with those coming out of Spiritual Traditions into a more Interfaith or non-dual perspective. She has training and qualifications in Creative Arts Therapy and Humanistic counseling and a background in mental health work. She provides support to those in an emergence process in the U.K. and internationally, via skype or zoom. Her website is www.theopenmonastery.org and her email is juliajofrench@hotmail.co.uk.
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Marit Fischer lives in Spokane, WA and is a Pastlife and Spiritual Regression therapist and hypnotherapist who is available to “witness and support people as they navigate their own unique experiences during the process of kundalini and spiritual awakening.” She offers counseling, transpersonal therapy and subtle energy work and is a specialist in regression therapy. Currently she is not working in person but is available for appointments on zoom for consulting counseling and subtle energy work.
Her website is www.maritfischer.com and her email is maritfischer@gmail.com.
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Jill Buchholz is an RN and an energy healer who works with people who are awakening through individual sessions and support groups. She is offering two groups on zoom at this time, one for those in an awakening process, and the other for empaths or highly sensitive people. both programs are $10 to $15 a session and open-ended. Here is her group description: Her groups are a great benefit in finding connection with others in the Awakening/Kundalini process, receiving extra support dealing with energies, and refinement of tools for the path of embodiment. Her groups are available on a sliding scale donation of $10 to $15 through Paypal. For going deeper, Jill also offers spiritual mentoring in one to one sessions.
You can email Jill at diamondheartflowing@gmail.com
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Dr. Sara Bryce is a psychiatrist in Durham, North Carolina,who is available for consultations with therapists who have clients experiencing a spiritual emergence or awakening. She tells me “I can provide consultations to patients and to other clinicians helping with diagnostic questions ( spiritual emergence vs psychiatric or medical issues vs a combination) and treatment resource-finding, validating Kundalini and other spiritual processes while helping to navigate psychiatric and medical workups/ treatment. I also have trauma sensitive mindfulness training and am a Buddhist teacher with a special interest in Parenting as a spiritual path.” Currently she is consulting rather than taking on long-term clients, and is meeting people on the web imstead of her office. She can be contacted by email at sbrycemd@gmail.com.
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Nathan Lee is an engineer in Minnesota who is hosting a meetup group for people who have experienced kundalini activation meeting (for now) on the web. You can contact him at snoboardnathan@gmail.com or through https://meetup.com/Minnesota-Kundalini-Awakening-Community.
He tells me “we are always very happy when people join our group and they are not just confusingly interested in doing "kundalini yoga"! We are a group only for camaraderie on an esoteric process and Kundalini seems to us to be the best model to explain our experience. For some people, and particularly people in a particular lineage or religious tradition it may be more helpful if they just look for interpretation under their lineage/tradition.”
While they are limited in ability to help with serious issues, they provide sharing of suggestions that have worked for them individually, with emphasis that people need to always use their own discernment. They have a list of locally vetted therapists (one therapist with their own K experience). Vetted simply meaning the therapist was open and accepting of a spiritual interpretation for what the person that saw them was experiencing.
ORGANIZATIONS RELATED TO SPIRITUAL EMERGENCE AND KUNDALINI
ACISTE (American Center for the Integration of Spiritually Transformative Experiences) is a non-profit community that welcomes experiencers of diverse backgrounds and beliefs and addresses a wide variety of STEs. Their website offers support for experiencers through a forum where you can communicate with one another, a directory of counselors and guides they have certified who work with STE’s, discussion groups, articles, conferences and announcements of research and other related projects. They have a practitioner certification program for therapists and coaches and are developing a peer counseling program, and their site also lists a few peer online support groups. You can learn more about them at https://aciste.org.
The Emerging Sciences Foundation is a 501(c)3 public charity non-profit founded in 2009 with the mission to create a more conscious world by pioneering fields of scientific investigation which have the potential to cause dramatic shifts in our collective worldview and development. Their approach is to study Kundalini phenomena scientifically and raise global awareness of Kundalini through global research. Their annual online symposiuns titled From Spiritual Awakening to Global Transformation: The Key to the Future of Humanity are designed to be a conduit for scientists, philosophers, mystics, activists, thought leaders, and wisdom-keepers to connect with a growing international community of supporters.
ESF states that kundalini is one of the most important ideas in the world today, with the power to revolutionize our understanding of all major aspects of human life, including the environment, politics, economics, health, psychology, etc. They bring together thought leaders from diverse fields to encourage new knowledge, inspirational ideas, and new ways to connect knowledge with practice. I was fortunate to be a speaker in their 2018 gathering, which is available on their youtube site. The talks from their gatherings are 100% free and their most recent symposium videos from Oct 2020 are being released weekly on YouTube. Here is the link to their youtube site,
ESF also offers free weekly meditation sessions on Wednesday mornings at 8 am Pacific Time and Wednesday evenings at 7 pm Pacific Time.
Subscribe to their email list to know who the moderator for that week will be and to receive the link to the Weekly Meditation Sessions.
If you would like me to consider another organization that supports spiritual emergence please comment here:
GUIDELINES FOR KUNDALINI SUPPORT
Solutions for Kundalini Imbalances
This section of the newsletter will focus on specific issues that arise for those experiencing kundalini activation. Feel free to add comments or questions on topics you would like to see covered in this newsletter.
Heightened Sensitivity in an Awakening Process
Many people find that after they have experienced an expansion of consciousness all of their senses become heightened, and their sensitivity to the energy fields of others, or to places, is so much greater that they pick up vibrations, and even emotions and thoughts from others, that can be overwhelming. It is helpful at these times to create a clearing process where you allow your nervous system to release any energies that do not belong to you.
I was a therapist who sometimes did emotional release work such as breathwork with clients, and found my physical response heightened after my own kundalini awakening. One way I managed this was to lay on a bed and ask my body to release any energy that did not belong to me. Often if I relaxed into it my body would shake, jerk, and stretch involuntarily for 15 or 20 minutes and then I would deeply relax, feeling more grounded in my own natural state.
Other methods of releasing excess energies include showering and visualizing the energy washing down the drain; bathing in a tub with epson salts; using sounds that cleanse the chakras, which you might find on youtube; using movement or dance to loosen yourself up; or meditating and visualizing the impact of the “other” vibrations going out into the universe, which is great enough to hold them.
It is also helpful to remember that if you are so porous that you take in other people’s feelings you are porous enough to let them move all the way through and out. Try to be aware when you are with someone who is suffering from sadness or anger that you can witness it and let it move through, because there is no advantage to holding it with them or for them. Just as you cannot eat to fill their needs, you cannot hurt to stop their hurting. However, your capacity to witness, and to allow them to release, can give them the freedom to let go, especially if you can hold with love the knowledge of their true nature until they are able to claim it for themselves.
Our consciousness and the vibrations we experience are shared — all arise from One source. As this fluidity of consciousness increases so does our sensitivity to others. Some experience this as intuition about another person’s state of being, and others as simply vibration and even discomfort. Many who find themselves more sensitive learn they cannot go into big box stores, subways or crowds because they feel overwhelmed.
Often we need to make adjustments in our lifestyle, at least temporarily. We may need to opt out of our family gatherings if they seem oppressive or negative, and spend less time with family members who disturb us. Take frequent breaks to go for walks or sit in a park if you cannot avoid a stressful family or business gathering. We have to learn to know our personal rhythm and honor our needs as we move through this transformational time in our lives. It is a myth that spiritual awakening means you will be undisturbed at all times. There may come a day when you are no longer reactive, but until then your body and consciousness are in a major transition, and you need to find the right alignment for your unique needs.
Also, for a few in this process there are temporary changes in vision, hearing, taste and smell. It is as if the senses are more alive. Generally these are brief experiences and not long-term so are nothing to be concerned about.
Do you have a question you would like discussed in this newsletter? Let me know by clicking here.
KEEP GOING ON SONG
A friend passed on to me this sweet message to ease the challenges we have all had with staying home so long these past few months. It’s a gift I am passing on.
MORE LINKS FOR YOU….
FREE DREAM SUMMIT……If you are interested in dreams there is a free dream summit called “Dreams and Your Personal Journey” coming Jan 14-17 through www.jungplatform.com. This site also has many courses and lectures you can pay for related to the psychology of C.G. Jung. A good resource!
RUMI POEMS……Here is a program. Called A Year of Rumi by Andrew Harvey, mystic and poet/author and Rumi scholar, who will send you a Rumi poem each day for a nominal annual donation you choose of $15 to $50. Here is the link:
Two Rumi samples:
"Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion."
"Whatever lifts the corners of your mouth, trust that."
FREE NON-DUALITY TALKS……Talks about “Nothing” Here is a website called nothing that offers free live meeting with nonduality speakers every week and meetups in the UK. Programs are at 5 pm UK time.
Live meetings with nonduality speakers each week and meetups in the UK.
A Call to Awakening - Short Films
Here is a link to a website that is hosting a series of films Sameer Patel (part of our community) is making about individual and collective awakening. The series begins with two short films, the first part is called 'The Awakening' and the second part is called 'The Call'. They are made from the interviews of contributors who have done work in fields related to these themes including Jude Currivan, Catherine G. Lucas and Katie Mottram, who is also a producer of the films. They are less documentary and more a yet-to-be completed set of ideas and beliefs, or even a manifesto. The purpose of which is to normalize the awakening process and perhaps look at how it can collectively change the world. If you like them please share: www.a-call-to-awakening.com
The site states this series of short films were inspired by and made during the COVID-19 pandemic, about our times and how to navigate a changing world. They are about our individual and collective awakening and how we can use crisis to awaken and find our calling in order to make the world a better place. They are made from the interviews of those who themselves have experienced transformation, and now work in fields from psychology to human rights and spiritual healing. The first short film ‘THE AWAKENING’ is about how we can individually use this current crisis to awaken and transform. The second short film ‘THE CALL’ is about how we can take that inner work and start to do the work outside, finding our purpose and working collectively together.
Announcing Future Webinars
LIVING WITH KUNDALINI
10 Sessions, every 2 weeks, 10 to 12 PST Fridays Jan 29 to June 4
This webinar is for people who have done an assessment with me and would like to learn more, want support as they move through the kundalini process, and would enjoy meeting other people around the world who they can share their experiences openly with. If you have been in previous webinars you are welcome to join again, and I will focus on themes of general interest to those in our group, and in building a community with you.
The fee is $300, payable at $100 month for the first 3 months 3 months, or $275 if paid in full before the first meeting. Its payable on paypal using my email kundaliniguide@gmail.com. If you are unable to pay or unemployed please contact me by email and we will make other arrangements.
Note: If you are in a role where you would like to support others, this course is a prerequisite to a training program I will offer later in the year. At this time I am planning only two webinars a year, Living with Kundalini, and a training program in the fall.
This is a 10 week in-depth program to help you understand and harmonize kundalini energy and move into the deep realization of your true nature. In this course you will experience:
A clear understanding of the kundalini as part of your process of awakening
A model for understanding the dynamics of kundalini energy
The most helpful practices for harmonizing your energy (fearlessness, breath, psychological clearing, balancing lifestyle, getting in right relationship with it)
Meditations for Awakening to your true nature
Practices for Nurturing the direct experience of Awareness, the key to awakening the Self
Exercises to bring more harmony into your life
Guidance on discussing this process with others
Encouragement to write through any issues that arise
To register please email Bonnie at kundaliniguide@gmail.com.
An initial payment to confirm registration can be made through Paypal using the same email address. Or by mail if requested.
CONSULTING GROUP FOR THOSE WHO HAVE TRAINED WITH ME
Begins Friday Jan 22 10-12 am Meets once a month
If you have completed a training program with me, work with others in this process, (or plan to) and would like to join a consultation and sharing group meeting once a month, please send me an email confirming your interest.
I plan to hold this group from 10 to 12 PST the third Friday of each month beginning Jan. 22. (Note that I have moved the group from Saturday to Friday). The fee will be $30/session payable monthly or every 3 months. Please email me at kundaliniguide@gmail.com to register. If you have completed my training and are now offering a web program or any other service that may be of interest to my readers please send me details and I will include this in a future newsletter. In this way we can create a resource list for experiencers. Be sure to send info on how you wish to be contacted by potential students/clients.
May you all be finding peace and joy as you move through this awakening process.
And may you have a warm and happy holiday season.
This newsletter is written and distributed by Bonnie Greenwell Ph.D
You may forward it in entirety to others who are interested but please do not copy or reproduce articles without permission, Copyright 2020
This newsletter is written by Bonnie Greenwell Ph.D., a transpersonal psychotherapist and non-dual teacher, author of Energies of Transformation, The Kundalini Guide, The Awakening Guide and When Spirit Leaps: Navigating the Process of Spiritual Awakening. You can contact her through her websites: www.kundaliniguide.com and www.awakeningguide.com You can see interviews with her on you-tube by putting her name in the search engine there, and read more essays on her blog shantiriver.wordpress.com.
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