On Giving:

Giving recognizes oneness.

Giving is love.

Giving is abundance.

Giving is joy.

Giving is divine.

Giving is wealth.

Giving is change.

Giving is release.

Giving is understanding.

Giving is cooperation.

Giving is sharing.

Giving is selfless.

Giving is caring.

Giving is compassion.

Giving is strength.

Giving is gratitude.

Giving is fearlessness.

Giving is kind.

Giving knows no borders.

Giving knows no color.

Giving knows no gender.

Giving is passionate love.

Giving is the recognition;
Of the UNITY of ONE.

Giving is the recognition;
Of the UNITY of ALL.

Love to give…. Give to love.

Above, is my friend Matt.  He was working an overnight shift at a twenty-four hour cafe when I snapped this shot.  Let me tell you he was grateful for that clove cigarette when he was smoking it, even though it was the middle of winter in Michigan, freezing and damp.  Since, he has quit the habit of smoking and is thankful for much more in life.  Matt is a good friend of mine, and not only do I admire him, I am grateful for him and endebted to him. Gratitude, is it a sentiment, or central to our spiritual wellbeing?  

I believe the more gratitude speaks in our lives, the less we have to really say.  Should gratitude be a passing senitment in our experience, we have lost a guiding force.  Therefore, it follows that gratitude is central to our spritual well being. We may act out of gratitude, we may feel grateful and we are grateful for things.  But do we know gratitude? Do we understand gratitude? Spiritually speaking, gratitude is the forces of kindness, compassion, love, understading, humility, tolerance, faith, acceptance, fortitude, guidance, teachability, honor, trust and decency working together to conjure a manifestation of true feeling or emotion in the workings of human kind.

Humility and humbleness aid us in our mission to understand gratitude.  Here in this 7 billion + human race we sometimes enjoy taking advantage of each other.  This is the opposite of gratitude. Imagine the following: I am your friend.  I follow you through you darkest moments and days of revelry.  We have much to be grateful for.  Then I start to lie, I steal from you, I use you vainly and for the sole intent of personal gain.  All of the spirituality between us has vanished in a cloud of resentment.  All because I took the friendship for granted.  I discounted it.  I took advantage of you and your good nature, and our firendship. Gratefullness is something that is know in Human-ness.  We experience gratitude on a daily basis but, I feel we overlook it.  Just like the above story.  We assume all the good in our lives will always be good and the bad will just fix itself.  

Gratitude is one of those things where we misplace it until we really need it most. Today’s assignment?  I suggest that we all compile a gratitude list of things that we are grateful for in our lives today.  Should you wish, compile it in the comment section of this blog post and I will start one now. I am grateful for another day. I am grateful for my mistakes, flaws and character defects as they are my biggest liability and best teachers. I am grateful for my work. I am grateful for oneconsciousness.org I am grateful for you. I am grateful for life. That is a short list but I don’t want to tie up all your time with my gratitudes.  

However, should you make a daily meditation on gratitudes, you will carry around a lot less resentment toward  yourself and others.  By keeping gratitude central we may push out the unwanted or unhealthy spiritual properities.

Do telepathy, clairvoyance and other “psi” abilities exist? The majority of the general population believes that they do, and yet fewer than one percent of mainstream academic institutions have any faculty known for their interest in these frequently reported experiences. Why is a topic of enduring and widespread interest met with such resounding silence in academia? The answer is not due to a lack of scientific evidence, or even to a lack of scientific interest, but rather involves a taboo. I will discuss the nature of this taboo, some of the empirical evidence and critical responses, and speculate on the implications.

Science and Psi – Taboo?

This is a MUST Watch video if you want to learn about scientific tests that have been done to prove / paranormal psychic abilities. This is a 90 minute Google Tech Talk from 2008. Seriously, skip Grey’s Anatomy or whatever and watch and learn… it
s a little dry at times, but it is a very interesting presentation. Google TechTalks are very innovative. Feel blessed for this knowledge. It will awaken some sleeping people.

Speaker: Dean Radin
Dean Radin is a researcher and author in the field of parapsychology. He is Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and four-time former President of the Parapsychological Association. He holds an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a masters degree in electrical engineering and a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has worked at AT&T Bell Labs and GTE Labs, mainly on human factors of advanced telecommunications products and services, and held appointments at Princeton University, Edinburgh University, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, SRI International, Interval Research Corporation, and Boundary Institute. At these facilities he was engaged in basic research on exceptional human capacities, principally psi phenomena.

Karma, held within us as unresolved, unhealed or incomplete past, manifest as external reflections through the law of sympathetic attraction. The degree of intensity of the internal energy of the karma and it’s layers of emotional and mental energy will exactly be reflected by the intensity of energy that manifests as our life circumstances. When we are ‘present’ to our triggered response to the reflections of our karma, we allow the held energy to move and therefor transform. When we aren’t present to it and run our defense and denial scripts/stratergies we perpetuate denial and deepen separation

Each time we don’t allow any movement of the triggered feelings, we not only increase denial of what is held,  but we also increase the intensity of the external reflection necessary to vibrate what we are holding. We bury things still deeper, so we need a stronger force to reach them. And if we continue in the pattern of denial, then an external circumstance will eventually come that will be so powerful that we will be unable to deny.

Life will not be indefinitely denied, and will always be seeking a means of moving and returning to movement and expansion. And so it is that ‘accidents’ come about in our lives, and so it is that disease comes can about. They are both examples of life asserting itself, and its need – indeed it’s nature – to seek movement and evolve.  Our entire system, including the body, is designed for evolution, and therefore for self-healing; it is a self-healing system, when it is allowed to function without our resistance. We could say that the process of spiritual evolution is the surrender of resistance that maintains separation.

So life in its very nature, is constantly providing us with the circumstances for our liberation, for our healing. The journey of our healing, reclaiming, re-unifying all in us that is separate, and our spiritual evolution are one and the same – evolution in consciousness. There is nothing else going on – regardless of what anything appears to be or looks like or is believed to be. There is nothing but the ongoing process of liberation, the evolution of consciousness. Integrating this understanding brings us to a place where we can increasingly eliminate our resistance to, and align with, the process of our own healing and liberation.

Because we don’t want the experience of feeling what we are holding and deny it being there, the way that we view the places of separation in us – and the behaviors and beliefs arising from them – is largely as what is ‘wrong’ with us; where we fail; aren’t good enough, are unlovable….. We often feel if we could just get rid of or ‘fix’ such places in us we’d be fine; or possibly, more often, if someone else got rid of the reflection of them in themselves, that vibrates them in us, we’d be fine.

The out-picturing of this can be seen in the collective reflection of our attitude towards ‘appropriate’ emotional expression and the need to appear to be ok, be in control and to ‘understand’ or ‘know’. We fear the power of the feelings we are holding within us, we fear their ability to make us out of control. We fear that such an uncontrolled emotional state will prove we are as unlovable as we secretly believe we are.

THE SHIFT TO COMPASSION

When we can shift our perspective of awareness, and get beyond the appearance of symptoms of separation, and recognize them as arising from wounding, and as us where we have abandoned ourselves, where we are suffering, then the possibility of compassion towards ourselves and therefore to others is born.

We are so unpracticed in any real form of self-love that we need to practice.  Always the requirement of us is to go below the surface go inwards into ourselves to seek the truth of what is within us and why. Only our committed courage and self-honesty will be powerful enough to penetrate the patterns of denial, and release what is held.

Eventually, we get to a point when we can welcome the arrival of reflections that resonate with separation within us. We see that it is where we meet the ground of our liberation, where we are offered an opportunity for the healing of our wounds, and for unification of separation. The places of separation are the means of our liberation.

We can conclude then that our Karma is like a blueprint of our evolutionary pathway, our healing and spiritual process. Karma is the internal map of our process of Living Liberation, that life will present to us.

Ray Baskerville is a healer, meditation teacher, certified hypnotherapist, yogi and proud father. He has worked as a healer, taught meditation and yoga worldwide. Ray is also the creator and editor of lifedivine.net an online magazine for <a href=”http://www.lifedivine.net/” title=”">yoga, meditation, spirituality and personal development. </a> Please visit for more free quality articles like this.

Be courageous!

Each step you take into fear will strengthen you and help you confront future fears with poise, courage, and confidence. You will also find that when you are willing to stare your fear in the face, the universe will always offer you some form of aid or support. When you see the heights of accomplishment and personal evolution you can attain when you walk through your fears, your faith in yourself will grow, allowing your next step to be easier.

Nature's Balance

Being in balance in all areas of our lives is a perennial topic for discussion and contemplation. Often we may find ourselves over-committed, under-rested, over-fed yet under nourished, generally or very specifically unhealthy in some way and the key to clarity and wellness turns out to be that magic word – Balance.

Finding balance in a world where we are either pushed or pushing to be performing at our peak 24/7 365 can be a major challenge for many of us. It’s important to Take Back Control of your own life. To remember that you and you alone are responsible for creating your own reality and that you have the power to change what isn’t working can be the greatest gift you will ever give to yourself.

Start right now-are you willing-right now- in this moment – to take a time out? – To come back into balance? We are taught by some of the greatest of teachers to literally “stop the world”. It is our world, our creation, and we can and do have the power to stop everything right here, right now and ask some soul searching and very serious questions.

The first question you might ask yourself is this – When was the last time you took some time just for you? Not just a day off from work but some serious time out – 3 – 4 days, maybe even a week or two that is totally and completely unscheduled – time to reflect, to journal, to meditate, to rest, to review your life, to see where you are and where you’ve come from, to decide, really consciously decide who you are and who you want to be, to see where you are and where you really want to be going.

When we make the choice, the conscious decision, to stop, to take a time out and to deeply contemplate our passions, our purpose, our soul’s journey, we may find that there are some changes that need to happen and soon. Change can be very frightening for people and yet it’s the most natural thing in the world. Nature herself is a perfect example of the ever changing nature of our universe. All too often we busy ourselves to the point of exhaustion and collapse, merely because we are afraid to face the necessary steps that we need to take in order to change our lives, change our world and bring things back into a place of balance.

In the Peruvian Tradition of the High Andes we are taught about a concept known as Ayni. Ayni is a way of living in the world that is in balance with our own nature as well as with the natural world around us and all of our relations. The native peoples believe that we are all connected and strive to live lives of balance and communion with all that is.

A simple way to start the process of breaking through to balance is to track for yourself your own natural energy rhythms. Using a calendar and a scale from 1 – 10, each day mark a number for that day that is a measure of your energy level,. For example today you might be feeling very lethargic, not really wanting to do anything – maybe today is a 2 day. Tomorrow you might get up and feel all full of “piss and vinegar” as my mom would say – ready to take on the world and accomplish mighty feats – tomorrow might be a 10 day. When you have tracked your own energy for a month or so (at least 30 days is recommended) you then have a picture of your own flow – perhaps during the full moon you are totally charged, later in the month might be your down time. Chart the flow and begin to match your commitments and activities to your own true nature. Don’t say yes to that party when you know if falls on a day when you will likely be in the 2 zone. Go for it and book three appointments with clients and host a dinner party on your usual 10 day. Just bringing some consciousness to your own energy will start you on the road to balance. Make it a prayer – Lord may I bring a little more balance to my life and to the world today and may I begin with me.

Amethyst Wyldfyre, MsD Is a Multidimensional Metaphysician with a thriving practice in the Merrimack Valley of Southern NH – she can be reached through her website at http://www.amethystwyldfyre.com

I have just come from a 15 day silent Vipassana retreat. I believe that through the practice of integrating Focusing and meditation at appropriate times I experienced a deeper understanding of the relationship between my mindbody and my inner observer and my body’s wisdom in how it and when offers up insights based on direct experience.

This account is a simple reflection on my practice, at this point in time, in a particular context. In it, I am a scribe; writing my body’s experience of a living moment. So in the writing, which implies a sense of permanence because of its physicality, something in me wishes to exclaim: “this too is changeable and who knows what my next moment will bring.” I will briefly outline Vipassana mediation and then go on to describe my meditation practice and how it evolved.

“Meditation is the systematic training of attention. Attention is the deliberate placing of awareness on its object and awareness is the knowing of the object.”

1 Buddhist meditation practices fall into 2 broad categories or qualities of attention-Samatha and Vipassana. Samatha means serenity or calm and this is developed through sustained concentration (Samadhi) on a single, primary object. The breath is one of the most common primary objects as it is easy to find and come back to if the mind wanders. If another object of attention arises and prevails, and this can be body sensations, feelings, thoughts, sounds, visual stimulus etc., then one shifts one’s attention there. When attention wanders again the meditator comes back to the breath or whatever primary object they had originally chosen.

Vipassana means insight or seeing clearly. The cornerstone of Vipassana is sustained mindfulness; a quality of mind that notices what is present, without judgement. “Mindfulness is an aware, balanced acceptance of present experience”2 as it is just now…and just now…and just now. There are 4 foundations of mindfulness in Vipassana practice: mindfulness of body (sensations), mindfulness of feeling tones (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral), mindfulness of the mental and emotional formations (thoughts, desires, aversions) and mindfulness of the Dhamma or teachings or broader patterns of experience. We mentally “note” each experience so as to place our awareness on it. We might note the breath: in-out; rising-falling. We might note sensations; itching, stretching, aching. We might note our feelings: pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. We might note our thoughts; planning, imagining, remembering, intending. This practice is about knowing what you are doing, when you are doing it, in each moment. If you are planning, you know you are planning. If you are recollecting, you know you are recollecting. If you are walking, you know you are walking. Essentially, it doesn’t matter what or where the object of attention is-what matters is the continuity of attention over time.

With mindfulness we become aware of the changing nature of our experiences, the arising and passing away of the data that contributes to the experience, an arising and passing away of each reaction to the experience, the arising and passing away of the meanings we make of the experience. We notice that nothing is remains the same and we may begin to notice our repetitive habits, preferences, inclinations and reactions. We may start to see our made-selves with a certain clarity and compassion; clarity that comes from sustained objective attention and compassion that comes from seeing the frailty of our stories, beliefs, opinions, discomforts, pain, joys, desires, and attachments, that all arise and pass away; that are subject to impermanence.

My Vipassana meditation practice has been something of a paradox. I started meditating in order to both see myself more clearly and objectively, to be less “caught up in” myself. Paradoxically, the project ‘all about me” needed another me “the observer” so, at this point in time, I seem to have more of “me” not less. It seems I have entered into a new inner relationship which has its own particular intrapersonal dynamic.

The next paradox was that in order see me as part of a bigger picture; to get a sense of perspective, I had to be prepared to get closer in. A tug of war ensued between closer attention and the distance, a distance that “the observer” maintained in order to remain mindful and closer in to investigate experience. Ultimately and over time, this tug of war led to a kind of constructed objective-coolness with whatever was arising. In that objective coolness was some relief from my identifications. I could note away; “planning, planning, planning”, “remembering, remembering, remembering”. I was on the meditation object and seeing consistent patterns but I’m not sure I was becoming any the wiser about why so much planning, why was this memory so persistent, why did this particular quality of restlessness arise so consistently? As for the distance; I wondered if a different approach might yield more insights; if I could find a way to “be more with” these experiences and yet not get caught up in or identified with them. And then I chanced upon Focusing. Here, I found a way to be with “all of myself” as it arose each moment. I found ways to interact with something there, a bodily-felt sense that explicated my experience, a bodily knowing that was more than my conscious mind, more than feelings, emotions, sensations and past experience and it included them.

Focusing is a technique created by Gene Gendlin, a philosopher and psychologist. “Focusing is a mode of inward bodily attention. Focusing occurs exactly at the interface of body-mind. It consists of specific steps for getting a body sense of how you are in a particular life situation. The body sense is unclear and vague at first, but if you pay attention it will open up into words or images and you experience a felt shift in your body. In the process of Focusing, one experiences a physical change in the way that the issue is being lived in the body. We learn to live in a deeper place than just thoughts or feelings. The whole issue looks different and new solutions arise.”2 This process, as described, feels good. It releases energy even if what I find there feels pleasant or unpleasant because the shift contains all my direct experience both past and present, and from that place, in my body, something deeply meaningful emerges. For me, I experience this as first-person insight. Through Focusing my living experiences became whole and life serving rather than accidental, coincidental, predetermined or pathological and something to be analysed out of existence.

As Focusing “involves deliberately attending down where activity arises and staying with something”3 this felt sense becomes another object to which I can attend in my meditation practice. In this process, that part of me that stays with and attends to the felt sense is that same as my “observer” in meditation but the quality of my attention has a more embracing, less neutral, quality; a kind of content-less self that can speak for the felt sense, can understand it, and can hold a safe space for it. In this way, Focusing also brings my attention to bear on the quality of relationship I hold with myself. I have become my own good listener to what my body knows and holds. I experience Focusing as a particular kind of relationship or conversation I have with my own bodily-felt wisdom.

“Both Focusing and Buddhism address the issue of being present to our life as it is felt right now. Both are interested in bringing caring and compassion to our moment to moment experience. Both are geared toward reducing human anguish – not by bypassing feelings, but by attending to them just as they are. Both encourage us to trust the wisdom of our own experience, rather than rely upon external authority to tell us what is true or right.”4 Both Focusing and meditation can accompany us to our limits of self-identification because we pay attention at the edge our awareness where something fresh can come, something with which we are not identified or enmeshed. In both practices we are mindful of the discursive mind, emotions and feelings, sensations and then we open into a deeper awareness and relationship with ourselves that invites insight and acceptance.

So, having developed a solo Focusing practice over the last few years I decided to introduce Focusing into my mindfulness practice on this retreat. Focusing has 6 key movements:
Clearing a Space: A checking in. Asking “how am I just now?” or acknowledging what is present.
Sensing the felt sense of the experience: “What does this experience feel like?” Attending to its unclear, fuzzy edge.
Finding a handle: “What is the quality the Felt Sense” “How would it like to be described?”
Resonating: “Is this it exactly?” until a felt shift occurs that indicates that the description is meaningful.
Asking: What is it about x.y.z. that makes me feel like ….? “What is it all about…?” “What’s really in this….?”
Receiving: Welcoming whatever comes as a first step in living forward and being open to something more.

Over the fortnight I noticed three critical shifts in my practice. Firstly, using Clearing a Space at the start of a sit to sense into what had come to the cushion with me and acknowledging its/their presence. After Clearing a Space I had a more centred intention to “sit”, a more spacious start and a safe container for whatever came in the sit.

Secondly, I rested into the support and warmth of “Presence” in the relationships or interactions I was holding with myself; maintaining a safe container for both the “me” experiencing and the “me” noting. Presence is a word also used to describe an aware, balanced acceptance of experience. It has the sense of being able to turn towards something with patience, with warmth, with a gentle kindness. The quality and nature of our Presence influences what will come to our attention. So, at the start of my sit I may ask myself ‘what quality of Presence or attention do I need in this sit, or do I need starting this sit?” I invite my body to let me know what it needs as a safe container in this moment. Sometimes I get expected answers such as compassion, kindness, and warmth. Other times I get unexpected answers such as “curiosity, opening wider, going easily today, light hovering, or patience”.

Thirdly, I noticed the changing role of noting. At the beginning of a sit noting tended to be on the most predominant sensation eg. Was it physical, feeling or thinking? Oftentimes the noting arose out of a persistent sensation or feeling or thought. So if I had a persistent sensation my back I would go there. If a thought persisted I would go there. I found that just doing simple “noting” eg planning, planning, planning; pressure, pressure, pressure led me away from the experience rather than into it. It kind of distanced me and didn’t capture the fullness of that experience. It also had a sense of separateness from the experience. It felt like a stone skipping over the surface of the lake; it was fast, surface oriented and moving “onwards” rather than “into”. So, in the end, rather than just “noting” I tended to acknowledge or say “hello to”. Foe example, “ahhh…hello there planning” or “hello tugging sensation on the inside of my left knee…I sense you there”.
Then I would sense into that something more all about what needed my attention using a focusing approach. My attention would rest on this process of getting a handle and resonating with the direct experience also being aware of the whole quality and journey of “movement” towards the felt shift where the “noting” finally captures “just how it is”. I would stay open to receiving what came and then sensing if there was still something more; if yes:– staying with it; if not:- going back to the breath.

I ended up practicing something like this for the most part:

Breath or Bare Awareness as Primary Object
1. Setting up the sit: posture, commitment, intention
2. Bringing attention to the whole body here in this room.
3. Bringing attention to where my body makes contact, up the back, neck, shoulders, head, face, front of body, contact again…resting into the support then finally in to the focusing space inside.
4. Checking –In: noticing & acknowledging how it is in there
5. Coming to a Clearer Space if needed
6. Inviting my body to let me know the quality of attention it needed just now; inviting Presence
7. During the Sit: Mindfulness of whatever was arising
8. Initially bringing my attention to my primary object, usually the breath.
9. Allowing when attention moves to secondary object and then investigating within a Focusing model – this was effective on both mindfulness of body, feelings and thinking.
10. When felt shift occurs moving back to primary object
11. Remaining aware of Presence during the process

Or: Investigation as Primary Object
1. Setting Intention
2. Asking or inviting “what my body knows and can show me all about……..x,y,z.”
3. Remaining open in through the Focusing movements to what comes
4. Resting in that awareness

Ending a sit:

1. Recollecting experience
2. Coming out mindfully
3. Letting go; becoming mindful of next experience (usually trying to get up gracefully despite stiffness and creaking joints)

I had a number of insightful experiences incorporating Focusing and meditation. I was able to be with the body’s experience, the feelings and the thoughts. One sit, in particular around inviting what my body knew and could show me “all about calm and concentrated meditation” was surprising and affirming. I found that I was able to” just sit” for up to two hours, and up to this point I had been hanging out for the 45 minute bell). I became very aware of the quality of Presence, and I can only describe the experience as going from sticky (thoughts stick, sensations stick etc) to slippery & smooth. My breath became very smooth and even, thoughts came and went but didn’t drag on my attention and body sensations were just body sensations; just another potential point of focus; but a real sense of physical and mental ease developed. I can remember thinking my heart is still and there is no where to go, no other place to be. The detail in those sits was phenomenal and I remember feeling so “at home” allowing and enjoying waves of joy and gratitude at the richness of it all and how my body just knew. These sits lasted for 2 days (and then I got attached to them and all kinds of other responses arose which were interesting in themselves as a meditation object but not half as pleasant).

How about that!!!!!! My body did know and could show me. Focusing gave me a way to invite and allow and stay with my present experience and with investigation. Focusing has taught me to trust my own ability to hold a safe space for exploration, to wait for and welcome fresh insights as they arise from my bodily-felt direct experience, just in this moment.

1. Kearney, P., Introducing the Mahasi Method, May 2006, http://dharmasalon.net/page4/files/06_Mahasi_method
2. Focusing Institute, Focusing Fact Sheet, www.focusing.org/fact_sheet.asp
3. Gendlin, E., Focusing Oriented Psychotherapy, Guildford Press, New York, 1996, p.19
4. Amodeo, J., Focusing and the Spiritual Life, www.focusing.org/focusing_and_the_spiritual_life.html

World Unity

Are we really all so different?
Are we really that hateful,
greedy, violent, petty, and self-serving?
Does it really have to be this way?

NO.

A world filled will love, joy,
respect, wonder and adoration—
has been hiding under the surface all along…

Under the surface of YOU.
We are all connected,
and for each day-

Each day you choose,
to live in unity,
to live your truth,
answering to your higher self-

Those repercussions are felt and echoed,
the world over. Somewhere.

As you add your unique sense of being,
of love,
of light,
of giving, kindness, compassion,

and RADIATE it-

to the human collective,
it benefits all.

You are powerful,
you are glorious,
YOU do make a difference.

Every day.

(The top half of this post was originally published in December of 2007 on Applaud Magazine’s blog)

As is customary at this time of year we all take a few moments to say goodbye. Saying goodbye to the year past, saying goodbye to the frenzy of holiday preparation and celebration, saying goodbye to habits that no longer serve. As the year wound to a close I had to say goodbye to an old friend too. My labrador retriever – Blackjack was assisted to cross over last Thursday. Blackjack was what you’d call a “good old dog”. He was a loyal companion and friend, a good watch dog, a guardian and playmate for my son and a true and kind member of our family. At 17 1/2 he lived a long and mostly healthy life. He ran, jumped, played and kibbitzed right on up to 15.

Then he started to slow down a bit, he got a little grey around the edges, he lost his vision. Many people told me after he lost his ability to see that he should be put down but I refused to do that. He was still generally healthy, found his way around the house and the yard well enough and was an integral part of our family life. My boy James was insistent that he should live to die a natural death and so this was a most difficult rite of passage for him. In the last year I knew that time was short. Last Christmas Eve I didn’t think he’d make it through the night and I stayed up late opening sacred space and showing him where the rainbow bridge was. He surprised us all by staying for another whole year! Finally the end drew much nearer. He made it through this Christmas and then went rapidly down hill.

When he couldn’t get up anymore, stopped eating and drinking and had to be picked up to go outside we knew it was time. I opened sacred space before we left the house, called in all of the spirit guides, spirit animals and energies of light to make the way clear and obvious for his spirit, opened his chakras and showed him the rainbow bridge to the other side. It was a tough decision to make but the right thing to do. The vet (Dr. Stephen Frye, Clark Veterinary Hospital in Nashua) was incredibly compassionate, gentle and kind. He helped us to say goodbye in a way that was filled with dignity, grace and the ultimate kindness. Blackjack has already come to work with me in my medicine work, to dance in my dreams and will always be a guardian spirit and friend for my son and our family. While saying goodbye is never easy to do I’m incredibly grateful to Dr. Frye, to my husband Ross and to the lovely Marie Glover at Animal Heaven (in Hollis NH) who made this experience the best that it could be. Goodbye Blackjack and hello once more. May you journey joyfully to your home star and illuminate the path for those of us to follow. Your faithful friendship was a magical gift. With all our Love – Amethyst, Ross and James

December 28, 2008 – When I was contemplating what to write for One Consciousness today I was brought back in time to this time last year and found that I had this lovely article written about a loyal and true friend and companion and felt it was fitting to share in his honor with the readers here.  The whole subject of loyalty has been “up” lately in my life. Most importantly I’ve been getting the guidance to remain loyal to myself – sometimes this can be quite a challenging thing for us to do – our loyalties are torn – we are spread thin – there are so many priorities.  I invite you to use the final days of 2008 to take some time in sacred space and to come back to the center of who you are.  As you do this you may find that some of the activities or people that you’ve been giving your loyalty to aren’t serving you and the greater good any more.  You may find that as you clear your mind, body, heart and Spirit that you are being called to a higher level of loyalty and you may need to apply all the teachings and practices that have brought you thus far to make the changes that are necessary for your growth and evolution right now.

Ayni Despacho Photo from Four Winds Sanctuary Project Site

We just held a despacho ceremony (a ceremony from the Peruvian tradition of shamanism) at our home last night in honor of the new moon followed by fire ceremony.  This despacho was very interesting – we were guided to place many, many prayers in to this gift bundle for Pachamama (Mother Earth)  around what needed to die for us as this year comes to a close.  After all of our group had placed in their prayers I received guidance to lay down over this arrangement of kintus (prayer bundles made with leaves and flowers) a layer of incense & purifying herbs, followed by a layer of “clouds” (made from pieces of cotton balls stretched out) onto which we then placed our prayers and planted the seeds for our becoming.  It was most interesting because it was like two despachos in one – one layered on top of the other with purification between the two.  Take this sacred time to lay down and put to rest what needs to go in your life – purify and cleanse and prepare the canvas/blank page/soil for your seeds, your intentions, your dreams for yourself, your family, your community and your world.  Be loyal to the higher calling.  Let it be.

Amethyst Wyldfyre is a multidimensional shaman, healer, artist, author, blogger, performer, speaker and psychic who lives and works in the Merrimack Valley of NH.  She can be reached through her website or blog for more information.  She can also be followed on Twitter at @AWyldfyre.

Awakened Heart Meditation

by LaSara Firefox, MPNLP

This meditation is modeled on the loving kindness meditation from Ezra Bayda’s book, Being Zen, and further modeled on many practice for what in Buddhism is called generating bodhicitta.

This Awakened Heart meditation is designed to encourage awakening, develop presence, and to cultivate compassion. Bring your whole self to this experience, and come fully present in what is.

Before beginning the recitation of each line of the prayer / mantra / meditation, take a full breath in. Release the breath gently as you recite the line. Allow a pause between recitation of lines as you become conscious in drawing a deep, full, gentle breath. Be conscious of the words you are speaking as they form in your mouth and leave your lips, powered and empowered by your breath.

The second set of the meditation can be repeated as many times as you want, and may be used to bring your practice of compassion into fullness. I recommend that you devote each repetition of the second set to only one person, and repeat it as many times as you desire, or have the “bandwidth” for.

Hold the person you are dedicating the set to in your mind. You may want to imagine your compassion and love pouring out with your breath, and enveloping the recipient with gentle, glowing light. You can envision them circled in love, compassion, light, whatever image works for you.

A practice that I find healing and consciousness-raising is to devote the first round of the second set to someone I love with no resistance – one of my daughters, for example. Then with each additional round, i stretch my compassionate heart a little wider, including those who I may have recently felt some conflict with. Then to those beings – living or dead – who really stretch my compassion.

On the third round, if it helps you to increase the awakening of your heart, you may visualize the earth, the galaxy, the universe, all time and space.

Enjoy your practice. May this act benefit all beings.

May I be present in the awakened heart.
May I address that which clouds the awakened heart.
May I experience this moment as it is.
May this act benefit all beings.

May you be present in the awakened heart.
May you address that which clouds the awakened heart.
May you experience this moment as it is.
May this act benefit all beings.

May all beings be present in the awakened heart.
May all beings address all that which clouds the awakened heart.
May all beings experience this moment as it is.
May this act benefit all beings.

I am present in the awakened heart.
I address all that which clouds the awakened heart.
I experience this moment as it is.
This act benefits all beings.

About the author:
LaSara Firefox, MPNLP, is a coach, trainer, and author. LaSara helps clients find balance in their lives, and alignment with their personal and family-held values. She teaches and coaches internationally. She’s wife to an outstanding man, and mom to two brilliant girls.

You can find out more about LaSara at http://www.lasarafirefox.com. While you’re there, be sure to check out her December coaching special – the VERY affordable Body, Mind, and Spirit Renewal program.

(Feel free share this article, in its entirety. Repost, send to your list, share with friends. Please include all links, and LaSara’s bio.)

Worry is wishing for what you don't want.

If you have kids, and you are worrying about them getting abducted every time they go outside or are out of your view… don’t be surprised if, one day, your kid gets kidnapped. You were silently wishing for it with every little ‘worry prayer’.

Worrying about losing your job, losing your home, losing your car, losing your marriage or getting ill… actually INCREASES the odds that that in which you are dreading will become reality.

Does this make sense?

I know it’s hard. Some people are oversensitive and show their worry and concern as a sign of love for those they care about. My Grandma Wright was a huge worrier. She worried about her health constantly, and died relatively young with health issues.

When I find myself worrying about something, I change my focus to working on a solution to the issue. I change my state of worry and concern to a state of ingenuity and inventiveness. Don’t worry or bitch about a problem… work towards finding a solution for that which mentally ails you.
Knowing that worry is a silent prayer, which asks and pleads for that which we don’t want is a powerful thing to consider. It could profoundly affect your life. Worry is the Law of Attraction working AGAINST you.

The more we think about something, the greater chance it has to become reality. Keep that in mind!!!

With ∞ ♥ – Your Oneness Curator – Travis Wright