True compassion is not always soft, capitulating, and surrendering, but at times is fiery and fierce. But this fire and ferocity emerges from a heart that is wide open, and a longing to dissolve suffering in all its forms, for both self and other.
–Matt Licata
From Woman of Nature–
Your issues, your trauma, your pain can set you free.
You need to pay attention to the message it brings
Let its voice be spoken and seen by you
Do not rush
Love what arises
In this motion you love yourself unconditionally
(Thanks to Jenny Norris)
Call forth the Ancestors
“What we are about to say is very important,” the Great Council of the Grandmothers dictated, “and only certain ones will be able to listen. Only certain ones will act on it and go on to do the work we are laying out. You know who you are,” they gestured, “and it is to you that we are speaking.
“Whenever you come together to meditate, pray, and amplify the presence of love on earth, first call on us or on any form of the Divine. Also call on the Net of Light. Then,” they paused for emphasis, “call forth the ancestors. Call the ancestors of your family line, the ancestors of the land where you were born and where you live. Call the ancestors everywhere on earth. You may think of them as ‘Ancestors of the light’. Simply think of their Higher Consciousness and invite this enlightened aspect of them to participate in the bond of love the Net of Light provides.
“As soon as anyone calls on the Net of Light, they feel its support, and this is as true for the ancestors as it is for you. They too will warm to the Net of Light’s embrace, and as they connect to this magnificent construct, they will be able to assist the Net in holding and lifting life on earth. It is because of you that the ancestors will have this chance to take part in blessing this planet.”
….The power of this blessing will wrap the earth in a blanket of forgiveness. Heaviness of every kind will lift. Ancient enmities will collapse, tribal hatreds will disperse. Racism, sexism and prejudice will no longer have a place to call home. And the term, ‘stranger,’” they smiled, “will become obsolete.” I sobbed as I listened and after I’d done that for a while, I began to laugh. “Grandmothers, I said, “how wonderful you are. How completely wonderful you are.”
“Yes, they said, seeming to agree with me, “and you too are wonderful. This that we are asking of you is wonderful work and all will be struck by the wonder of it.”
Ch. 12, p. 160-161, Casting the Net, Sharon McErlane
Because most of us have been orphaned from our ancestral land and the ways of our people, we suffer with the restlessness and ache of not-belonging. Instead of trying to regain what has been lost, Martín Prechtel teaches that we must learn to live in the way our ancestors lived; in reverence and indebtedness to the Holy in Nature.
One powerful practice is to create a place in your home where you know the origins of everything. Not just where a thing came from, but who made it and with what skills, and at what cost to its roots. This Place of Origin may be small and sparse at first, but you add to it over time and, when the young ones come up around you, you tell the stories that you’ve collected in the hopes that one day, where you stayed put becomes a place of Belonging again.
— Dreamwork with Toko-pa
Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself.
— Thomas Merton
You must put love behind your thoughts to make them work. There are many good courses of thought development and management which would work better and have more lasting results if the power behind thought were more fully understood. Compare your love and your thoughts to an archer. If your love is the archer, then your mind is the bow, and your thoughts are the arrows. Without careful direction of thoughts, you will not hit the target. Without love to pull the bow string, your motivation will be weak or misdirected. These things are all part of your totality, yet love is the simplicity of your power. It is important to guard and direct your thoughts. Even so, do not assign them a separate power from your love, and do not think the keys to heaven can be grasped by your mind. Your mind cannot open that door.
— Glenda Green, Love Without End
(Thanks to Jenny Norris)
So much of this path involves coming to trust again in the wisdom of our direct experience, as we reorganize outdated relationships with the members of our inner families: the shamed one, the raging one, the terrified one, the lonely one, and the one who is unworthy of being seen.
Slowly, in each moment, we can make this journey. Knowing that it may not always “feel” safe, we can push ourselves a little – making use of even a bit of anxiety as a wrathful sort of heart-guide – but not so much that we become overwhelmed and re-traumatized. We can learn to rest in the holy middle.
While clear awareness of these narratives, perceptions, emotions, and sensations is important, in the end perhaps it is not clarity and insight that heal. Rather, it is the unfolding of the embodied heart. It is not just a detached, pulled back, safe witnessing that will open the door into the sacred world, but warmth, compassion, and a relentless sort of kindness toward our surging experience.
In the radical commitment to no longer abandon yourself – to not pathologize your vulnerability nor hold it as evidence that something is wrong with you – a new pathway appears. Out of the crystalline purity of awareness the qualities of that awareness flow: slowness, curiosity, attunement, tenderness, and warmth.
Surround your inner world with these qualities and over time the new circuitry of love will be encoded.
— Matt Licata
You are Life passing through your body, passing through your mind, passing through your soul. Once you find that out, not with the logic, not with the intellect, but because you can feel that Life — you find out what you are the force that makes the flowers open and close, that makes the hummingbird fly from flower to flower. You find out that you are in every tree, you are in every animal, vegetable, and rock. You are that force that moves the wind and breathes through your body. The whole universe is a living being that is moved by that force, and that is what you are. You are Life.
-Don Miguel Ruiz
from “Why We Have a Body” by J.G. Bennett
The answer is a very important and deep one. The body is an instrument which enables transformations to take place in us which are necessary for our freedom and for establishing ourselves with the possibility of existing in a different way. One of the reasons why a body can do this is because the physical body is related in a special way to time and therefore it is a very well-devised instrument for overcoming the problem of time in ourselves. Until we can overcome this problem of time, we are always undergoing a process of destruction. From the moment it is born, this body of ours is undergoing a process of destruction which is only partly compensated by its power of renewal, and we are inclined to think that the renewal mechanism that is placed in the body is just for the purpose of keeping it alive and active for the span of time allotted to each one of us. In other words, that we have this power of organic renewal simply so that the body can maintain itself.
It is really necessary for us to bring our bodies into the service of our aim. If we try to do this with our thoughts and our feelings only, it is almost an impossible task, but with the help of the body it is possible. Something in you will be listening for that bell and that something is your own body. If you ask of your body that it should remind you of your wish when it hears the bell, you will see that it will begin to do so. I say “ask” because there is an intelligence in the body which we can rely on. We are inclined to treat the body as if it were a donkey that cannot understand anything; but even donkeys understand a good deal of what is said to them and our own bodies can understand a good deal more. They can be spoken to and they will respond; they will help us. In fact they will help us better than our thoughts or our feelings, because they are more reliable-if only we will let them do the work for which they are intended.
(Thanks to Cindy Bennett)
One of my favorite words happens to be one of the most important attributes in conscious evolution. It is a word that can only be understood on the deepest level by allowing it to influence your choices. It is a clear benchmark of spiritual maturity that offers unlimited power and greater depth of character to any character you portray. It is a word called humility; a blossoming flower of heart-centered consciousness through which life’s most humbling fragrance arises.
Humility is the resolver of righteousness. It is the translator of pain’s wisest lessons, as it releases the inner will to fight, argue, or oppose the things that only exist in your reality to ensure your highest transformation. Humility doesn’t need to have the final word in any discussion. It’s too busy listening, as an act of love, to those who have much to say, while hiding from their own evolution through the argument of ideas.
Humility is the joy of appreciation. It is the inspiration behind every moment of goodwill. It is the power of cooperation that doesn’t require anyone else to be or act differently. Humility is the satisfier of insatiable desire. It is the grace that arises when encountering the magnitude of your true loving potential. Humility is the liberator of suffering — once life has opened your heart to something deeper than who is right or wrong.
Humility is the footprint of mastery; only leaving behind as evidence of its arrival the kindness, compassion, and goodness that it awakens in all. Humility is the force slowing down the pace of each pattern, so you may learn to receive the precious treasures of your long-awaited destiny that no amount of seeking can find.
Humility is an endearing smile offered in respect to your fiercest teachers, who often come disguised as frustration, loneliness, boredom, confusion, and despair. Humility is anonymous generosity. It is the transformer of embarrassment and the remover of intimidation that calls you out of hiding on life’s immaculate terms and conditions.
Humility is the integrator of ego. It gives the world the benefit of the doubt, without being seduced or manipulated by the influences running any character. Humility cannot be hurt, simply because, it is always willing to face or feel the inevitability of each passing breath – just to see what it is capable of surviving. Humility has absolutely no point to prove or any way to be thrown off course by the responses or reactions of others.
Humility is the inner laughter of immortality that extinguishes the futility and weakness of any threat or accusation through a dance of open engagement. Humility is the arrival of your highest self in form, once apologizing for existing or begging others for attention has turned you inward to discover a love that knows no other.
Humility is the palpable bliss of consciousness in action. It speaks its truth with perfection and precision simply by leading by example. Humility is the wisdom of sainthood that untangles any misuse of force through the power of restraint. It is the safety you desire that always dwells within you, once your words and actions are recognized as contributions toward the evolution of the whole.
May today be a moment in time to cherish, embrace, and honor the exquisite grace of humility, whether tucked away in the corner of your consciousness, or emerging at the forefront of each and every choice. May humility inspire your deepest courage, while softening every edge with the light of your eternal beauty. May it be honored as a one-sided spree of goodwill only intended to bring your highest potential to life – no matter how many people overlook the demonstration of your most honorable virtues.
What if, the next time you’re waiting in line, you invited the person behind you to go first? Only humility can do that.
What if, when opening a door for someone, you wished them a magnificent day, and then held the door open for a few seconds longer just to see if anyone else wishes to enter? Only humility can do that.
What if, when finding the perfect parking space, you passed it by to allow someone behind you to have it? Only humility can do that.
What if you did something outrageously kind or charitable for another and told absolutely no one about it? Only humility can do that.
What if you imagined your harshest critic or any sworn enemy and offered a “thank you” without needing to know why they deserve it? Only humility can do that.
What if you saw how those who make the most amount of noise with unconscious words and unsavory behavior are often in the deepest amount of pain? Only humility can do that.
May today be your opportunity to cultivate a higher vibration for the wellbeing of all by allowing humility to lead the way. Knowing how those who fight or argue are only fighting for the grace of their own loving attention. In the absence of self-love, they push against their own path of salvation that ultimately frees them from the very thing they fight to protect – a constant need to be right by making others wrong or less than the sum of the whole. www.truedivinenature.com