Awakened Living Newsletter Vol 10 3/15/21
Creating Community for those in the Spiritual Process Bonnie Greenwell Ph.D.
Falling into the Divine Ground
You have likely heard the story of the man who walks down the street one day and falls through a hole in the ground. He climbs out and the next day he walks down the same street and falls into the same hole, not having learned to take a different route. The third day he walks down the street – after all it is his familiar way home – and he falls into it even again. This tale is often used to indicate how often we stay in a habit over and over because we do not make the conscious effort to break it and try a new way.
But what if we repurpose this old message in spiritual terms, and consider that falling through the ground may be purposeful, may even be inevitable, on our journey home. The ground and the pathways of our ordinary lives and identifications suddenly dissolve or drop away and consciousness finds itself without a familiar ground. It can take our breath away. We may feel plunged into darkness, or thrust into light, but what becomes clear is that there is more to this journey, more underlying it and directing us, that we could have imagined when we began.
Let’s think of this dropping into a new space as a message delivered from the divine. It is telling us that all we thought of ourselves, whether positive, negative or somewhere in between, has little to do with who we are. It was all just surface identifications, based on conditioning and life experiences, stored in a mind that was programmed from incarnation to collect data and create a separate sense of “I”. This imaginal “I” has moods, traits, skills, stories that seem to hold us together – after all, it seems to be who I am and to direct whatever choices I have made in my life. But now, when we fall into a hole or a space or a vastness or a darkness that we cannot comprehend, we see clearly for a moment that the “I’ is only the surface of life, and the movement of life, and our presence in this movement is rooted in a more deep and fundamental source, from which all lives have sprung.
When we fall into this divine ground, whether in meditation, breathwork, with a sacred medicine, or even spontaneously (as some do even as children) it is a glimpse. It can happen in a dream, or during a traumatic event, or following a life of practice and devotion seeking connection with the divine. But it is shocking, and not what was expected, and so the tendency is to tuck the experience in the background of the mind and reorganize our separate self to restore our identity. Perhaps the psyche is a bit shaken, or we simply add a new experience to our collection of data points, but our minds tend to want more stability, more familiarly, and limited change. We want to know how to act, what to expect next, and to be allowed to plan ahead. This new approach offers none of it!
Usually awakening is a process of walking the path, and falling through the divine ground a number of times before we have the courage to explore the new territory -- to just be awareness and presence where we are, trusting and open to another dimension that is much less solid than the territory we are used to. This divine ground usually is nothing like we have imagined it when we began a search for Truth or God or inner peace. It cannot be defined for another, as each of us enters from a different place, is offered varied gifts, and moves at a different pace. The ground breaks open in a thousand ways. It is ineffable and expansive and unbounded. Someone once said this is like grounding in space. And it is not meant for us to settle forever out there, but to bring what is offered from this new dimension into our human dimension. This is why so many who awaken are drawn to service or creativity. The drives of the human dimension fell away, but for those who are thorough in clearing away old beliefs and patterns, a new authentic movement toward wholeness emerges. It is free of the “doer”. For some it is quiet relaxation into a more simple life. For others it is following an intuitive calling, which may change from day to day. It offers freedom from division and longing.
A willingness to be where you are with whatever is.
This is a way to frame the journey of awakening, whether through the gradual evolving of a kundalini process, or the sudden encounter with glimpses of the Reality underneath your experiences of life. All humans have the capacity to encounter this opening along the path in our journey, but most are careful to avoid it. Those who are driven by a spiritual search are blessedly vulnerable to this discovery of the ground of being.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
Working With Kundalini: An Experiential Guide to the Process of Awakening
By Mary Mueller Shutan
This insightful book was recommended to me by a client who found it very helpful. It is a blend of personal journey through an especially challenging awakening process, guidance on awakening kundalini optimally through sushumna chakra, descriptions of three stages of awakening related to the chakras most involved and the phenomena associated with them, and a good list of helpful supplements and holistic health treatments that can ease pain and difficulties during the process. Shutan talks of how kundalini alters the body and the mind, and describes the rerouting of digestive fire. She writes “If I fully take care of myself during this process – physically, emotionally, and spiritually – I find myself in a wonderful state of flow, high productivity, loving connection to the world…If I go through times when I do not support my process, the flow stops. The ecstatic states stop.”(p. 138)
This story offers a good understanding of the role of early childhood trauma in an awakening process, and the need to work it through, including methods to do this. Shutan also describes other dimensional experiences, psychic openings, heart openings and physical issues that drove her to medical treatment. If you are in this process or work with someone who is this book will be very relatable, as well offering a good understanding and many practical tools. Today Shutan is a spiritual healer with a background in Chinese Medicine, CranialSacral therapy, Zero Balancing and energy work.
CURRENT EVENTS
THE IMPACT OF KUNDALINI & CONSCIOUSNESS SHIFTS
I am the guest speaker March 20 from 1 to 3 EST on the free series of lectures offered by Spiritual Awakenings International. My topic is “The Impact of Kundalini and Consciousness Shifts in Awakening”. I’ll be talking about the changes in body, mind and spirit that occur as a kundalini process evolves. I’ll be emphasizing the importance of developing a positive relationship with our awakened energy field, so that old patterns and beliefs are cleared away and a new openness and quality of presence becomes possible. You can also watch the program live on the Spiritual Awakenings International FB page, which also holds past talks by SAI speakers.
The talk is free but you must be preregistered at this link (go to events).
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INTRODUCING THE SUMMIT!
Summits are the new conferences, designed for the internet and the stay-at-home convenience of hearing remarkable speakers on the topics of your choice. Most of them are free when live, with recordings available for a day after, and then available to purchase afterward. They are a wonderful, convenient and inexpensive opportunity to educate yourself and hear a wide variety of notable speakers. Here are a few available this month,
The Shift Network is hosting a global gathering of pioneers in evolutionary consciousness — including leading-edge scientists, healers, physicians, researchers, and inspiring teachers — with an intention of shifting consciousness and unlocking our innate capacity to heal... body, mind, and spirit. They say that “ancient wisdom has shown for thousands of years that the body-mind is actually wondrously dynamic — and that our state of consciousness can modify our health instantaneously.” This free event began on Monday and runs through Friday the 19th. Here is a link for more information and registration.
https://scienceofhealingsummit.com/
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ON LOVE AND RESILIENCE
Lion’s Roar is sponsoring a free Contemplative Care Summit on Love and Resilience from March 25-29, featuring an exceptional group 30 Buddhist meditation teachers, health care professionals and others teaching ways to transform pain into love, wisdom and strength.
Summit co-hosts and teachers are Koshin Paley Ellison and Chodo Robert Campbell, who bring decades of experience as Zen meditation teachers and leaders in contemplative end-of-life care, along with an exceptional panel of presenters including Jack Kornfield, Trudy Goodman, Sebene Selassie, Pamela Ayo Yetunde, Michael Hebb, Issho Fujita, Jasmine Hill, and many more.
During these 5 days of free teachings, guided meditations, reflections, and celebration, you can look forward to sessions on 5 key themes:
Loving relationships as the heart of contemplative care
Working compassionately with aging and illness
Care and resilience at work – in professional care settings and in leadership more broadly
Compassion and equanimity in the face of death and grief
Musical and poetic meditations for connection, gratitude, and meaning
Sign up for free to gain access to all of the Summit’s 37 expert talks, meditations, reflections, and illuminating dialogues.
Link is: Lions Roar
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ENERGY PSYCHOLOGY CONFERENCE
The Assn. for Comprehensive Energy Psychology will hold an online conference titled “The Art and Science of Transformational Change”, with over 500 presenters and with CE and CME credits available for professionals. Fees vary according to when you register and how many days you attend. The dates are May 12-and 17. This is their 23rd conference and here’s a quote from their literature
"This conference is the only place I know that embraces such a powerful diversity of disciplines and seeks to integrate them - including energy psychology, EFT, Qigong, neuroscience, and trauma work. It's an immersion experience in the language of subtle energy." - Gary Peterson, MD. For more info the link is:
https://www.ep-conference.org
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YOGA AND CREATIVITY
The Embody Lab is yoga-oriented organization that offers monthly free one-day online summits that explore embodiment and creativity. Here is a quote about the upcoming event March 21, with a program to “deepen your somatic healing journey around the theme of creativity. Together we will explore the embodied ways that we honor and express our creativity and share our stories…
You will have the opportunity to interact with and learn from world-leading embodiment experts as they each deliver sessions that incorporate yoga, meditation, breath-work and guided discussions, helping to expand your somatic and embodiment experience and deepen your understanding of self.”
This month's embodiment experts and topics include:
"Art to Healing'" with Atira Tan
"Clowning for Healing" with Pedro Fabiao
"Embodied Drawing" with Curie Scott
"Self through Sound: Self-expression and healing through singing and vocalisation" with Muriel Christonai
"More Together Than Alone" with Michael Molin-Skelton
This full-day live event will commence on Sunday 21 March, 2021
Register for FREE now via
https://www.theembodylab.com/sch.../march-2021-online-summit
MOVEMENT AND CREATIVITY
It seems to me that one message we get when our energy is enlivening itself through a spiritual process is to loosen up our bodies. In the competitive world in which most of us live many people think of this as exercise or participating in sports. But this is a new kind of movement that is calling us. It is a movement that comes from awareness of the sensations within, as if the body itself knows what it wants and there is no need to impose thought or discipline, but rather to just surrender to shifts, vibrations, flowing, turning, even singing and loosening the throat and the jaw.
It is possible that yoga and tai chi and qigong evolved because awakened yogis and sages listened to the inner impulses for movements that might open and expand the capacity of their bodies to move energies and feel more alive. We always imagine such sages sitting silently in caves, but it is possible they were privately rocking and stretching and twisting into poses, many of these based on ways they say animals move and stretch, and thus they birthed intuitively a methodology for opening the body in preparation for the movement of awakened consciousness. After all, if you sit for many hours at a time your body becomes so stiff it is hardly able to move, and in the end, liberation is not much use to the species if you cannot carry it out into the world.
So, in yoga we have poses related to cobras, cats, dogs, cows, eagles, pigeons, and swans. In Qigong we have forms named after a Wild Goose, dragon, tiger, phoenix and 5 animals. In Tai Chi there are movements called grasp the bird’s tail, the white crane, high pat a horse, and golden cock stands on 1 leg. The ancients looked at their surroundings and experimented with the movements they saw in nature. They found them useful so they offered them to others.
Listen to your body and how it wants to stretch, or move or even dance, or vocalize or make sounds like animals. Some of you might even find your body naturally doing movements as you meditate, or perhaps you wake up at night doing a yoga pose you never trained for. As bodies we are a collection of molecules, a vibrational entity designed to move and express.
If you feel blocked in your energy flow in any chakra just ask that chakra how does it want to move, what does it need to release, and use music and movement, or art and poetry, or clay sculpture or any creative act that comes to you to keep opening and expressing. Meditation does not have to be sitting in silence. It can be known as presence in every place you walk or stand, and it is awareness in movement with your eyes open, not just awareness turning away from the world. Stillness has its place, of course, but every awakened spirit has needed to learn to dance freely in the world in their own unique way. When stillness moves there is grace and synchronicity and wholeness in a life.
A NOTE FROM BONNIE
I apologize that you are unable to make comments in this newsletter. I did not realize it until recently but comments are only allowed on substack for paid subscribers and at this time my newsletter is free to all subscribers. You can send a comment directly to me at shantiriver@gmail.com but they cannot be posted directly on the site.