We find ourselves in a time of great chaos, uncertainty, endings, and the death of all we’ve known as permanent, correct or real. Internally we are questioning all we’ve been taught; our old beliefs, old structures, and the imprinted patterns in our psyche. Everything that has come before this moment is the past. Yet our old patterns will keep recreating themselves in our personal reality until we shift our perception. They will keep repeating, unless we open our gaze and look through fresh eyes, both at ourselves and at our world.
Can we go beyond everything we have thought to be true, and create a new way of being and a more enlightened world? A world where we deeply care for and honour ourselves, each other, life in all its manifestations and the natural world we are all part of.
We are being guided to awaken.
Listen. Listen inside. We must recognize who we are and what we truly value at the deepest level of our being, beyond our self- centredness and our insecurities. We must also cultivate a deep discernment to see beyond the information overload and confusion, to what is truly occurring in our world.
Yes, parts of us are afraid right now. Don’t let fear deflect you from your truth. With an open mind fear can become your ally. When we embrace fear we embrace life. We open to our courage and our compassion. We begin to see beyond the veils and open to our intuitive knowing and wisdom.
Fear is often a reactive response to our imagining of what could happen. We draw a forgone conclusion as to what will happen.
An invitation: Meet every experience without conditions, without trying to control the experience, and without trying to control the outcome.
There is nothing to grasp on to that will make you feel safe. Nothing. The sense of safety must come from within you. If you go back to the oldest teachings, this is the essence. Joy comes from within, true happiness comes from within. We create our reality.
It is up to you.
It is an inner journey. It requires inner work. Become your own best friend.
To find your inner authority, and inner guidance you must continually practise self awareness. Open the pathway to your own truth and vitality. Make yourself strong, mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually so that you have the confidence to make choices and take actions that are in alignment with your soul purpose.
It begins with your mind. ….
Meditate. Continuously bring your mind into a meditative state. This is not an avoidance of life. It is the way to meet yourself so that you can meet life. Meditate so that you see yourself beyond your mind. Meditate to know your mind so that you can consciously and actively use your analytical mind as a tool of perception. Meditate to learn to go beyond your analytical mind, into the open space of pure awareness, pure knowing and pure potential that is unchanging and indescribable.
Meditate so that when you are triggered by something, instead of reacting, or acting out, you consciously come back into coherence, into wholeness.
When we are not able to control our mind and our perception, we feel lost.
It is like looking through a dirty mirror, unable to see beyond our basic instincts. The ordinary mind wants what it doesn’t have. It fails us, lies to us, and is often attracted to what harms us. When we feel we are being harmed, or someone close to us is being harmed, we look for something to blame, something outside of us; a person, a circumstance, a situation. The difficulty is not the person or situation but our mind’s way of interpreting it. We see the situation as an obstacle, yet the obstacle is in our way of perceiving.
We need to understand our mind and how it functions. It is our internal operating system. If it runs on automatic it can create havoc. When we train our mind we grow in self awareness in every daily moment. Then we are able to hold coherence, clarity, peace and calm. We stop reacting and start responding to life. We take responsibility for our choices in each moment. In this way we gain mental, emotional and spiritual freedom.
Right now, where ever you are, find a place to sit.
Let your body become still. Feel yourself slowly breathing in, feel the breath coming all the way into your body, and then slowly breathing out, feeling the breath going all the way out. Take a few of these long slow breaths.
Simply sit, with your eyes a little open, your body relaxed, and observe your mind. Thoughts may be expanding out in all directions like water oozing out of a sponge. Observe everything, all the sounds, within and around you, feelings, tastes and smells. Let everything be there without shutting anything out. If you experience pain or discomfort while sitting, be with it, be in it, open to it. Don’t try to change it, simply observe it. Observe.
Feel into the spaces between the thoughts, between the sounds, or between the breaths. As you open to all the sensations, you will feel the life force energy deeper inside you. Simply be with the feelings, the sensations. Allow everything. Observe.
Any pain or discomfort may transmute into joy or peace or stillness.
What we seek is already within.
Meditation is a state of mind. In meditation instead of wanting to find a quick solution, we are able to look beyond the surface into the deeper reality. We open to clear insight. We are not so easily influenced by Group Think. Instead of taking sides we learn to hold both polarities and open the possibility for a true solution beyond what we could imagine.
Practicing meditation may be uncomfortable and confronting. We tend to avoid going inwards and truly reflecting. We avoid ourselves. We tend to constantly distract ourselves. We want to hang on to our stories, our traumas, our pain. We search outside for our truth, another book, another teacher, another promise. We are afraid of what we will see inside. Yet when we do meditate, we touch something within us that is so profound and true. We can meditate anywhere, anytime, while sitting, walking, or simply bringing ourselves to awareness in every moment of our daily life. It is our natural state.
As we cultivate awareness we recognise that self- centredness is at the root of all of our problems.
We continually put ourselves in the centre of our circle:
The more we grasp, the more attachment we have.
The more we desire the more we fear we will lose.
The more we cling to self, the more we reject and blame others.
If we are able to see ourselves without judgment, we open to a deep compassion for ourselves that extends to every other being. We develop curiosity and openness for others. We can see and honour each other as individuals, each having our own inner authority while being part of the whole.
The world situation is uncertain. So many factors are hidden to us. This brings the fragility and impermanence of life to the surface of our awareness. We may be shocked with the suddenness and scale of what is happening globally. We question what is most important to us. As we recognise the fragility and preciousness of life we become more tender and real, we open to humility, kindness and courage. We recognise what is most important in our life. And at the same time we find our inner core, we feel our resolve and our rising spirit.
When you go deeply inside, you go beyond your physicality and see the beauty in all things, everything coming into creation and falling away, there is nothing static in our world. Take every moment to be you. Without regret, without harming others, let your spirit be free.
Spend time with yourself every day. Meditate. Sit down, eyes gently open and relaxed, body relaxed, become quiet, observe your breath, observe yourself. Become the watcher. Receptive to this moment. Go deeper.
This form of meditation has no mantra, no hand movements, no cleansing function. It is simply to become still and receptive, to observe, and when your mind wanders or becomes sleepy, your simply return to your point of focus again and again. It’s a very subtle process of awareness. It requires no effort except being open to yourself and not running away. To simply stay present to whatever you are experiencing in this moment.
Over time your mind will become calm and clear and you will be able to hold your mind calm and clear throughout your day. You will develop clarity, stability and a sense of your own being.
For complete meditation instructions: