Spiritual Preparedness - simple practices and meditations to increase self-awareness

Going back to the differences between true spiritual awareness 'The Real I', the non-physical being (soul) living within the body of matter in a material universe, and.....

false awareness 'little i's' where I view myself as the body without soul/spirit and invest heavily in the false identities that arise from seeing oneself as only a physical entity with a beginning and an end

I'm going to pick a body conscious 'little i' that we all see heavily invested in, in our current society.

The little i I am investigating today is 'i the religious or non-religious/athiest/agnostic person'. Any of these reinforced identities are very hard to break through to allow space for experience of the 'Real I'.

Some examples could be:-

'i the Christian'
'i the Catholic'
'i the Jehovah's witness'
'i the Mormon'
'i the Muslim'
'i the atheist'
'i the Scientologist'
'i the Buddhist'
'i the Agnostic' etc etc

but if the person is thinking of his spiritual identity label while stuck in body conscious awareness, for example 'i the monk, in my ethereal robes, this physical person, in this temple' etc - then it is still false awareness. To be an authentic Christian/Mormon/Muslim etc then it would need to come from a place of soul consciousness 'I the soul, currently in this body which was born into Christian culture, respect the truthful aspects of this religion'.

Soul conscious awareness can bring authentic spirituality into a chosen faith but alongside it would be acceptance of other faiths and respect of their spiritual practices too.

The religious scenes and chaos we see being acted out on the world stage at this time are almost all from a place of body conscious awareness. True spirituality is yet to be discovered by the greater masses of souls.

Last Edited by Pharista on 10/27/2011 10:40 AM

We have two choices in waking up to truth:-

1. We can either consciously wake ourselves up and gain our own personal experiences of soul consciousness or....

2. Due to our own collective false beliefs, experiences will come into our lives both individually and collectively to nudge us awake and help bring down the thick walls around each false identity we carry. If the first nudge doesn't work, another will come, growing in intensity until we finally realise that we are NOT these bodies, we are NOT the 5 senses, we are NOT finite.

I would rather choose option 1 but it is an ongoing process, not just a case of waking up once but rather we have to continue to wake ourselves up and remind ourselves of what is real and what is false. A bit like our own personal groundhog day.

If you consciously desire to wake up to the truth of who you really are then regular practice of present moment awareness is a very good place to start. Here is a link to a simple and non-religious mindfulness meditation that may be of help:-

[link to learnmindfulness.co.uk]

Last Edited by Pharista on 10/27/2011 10:40 AM

"This universe is a mass shared dream that all six-and-a-half billion of us are collaboratively dreaming up into materialization. When we realize this, we can put our lucidity together so that we can co-creatively dream a much more grace-filled universe into incarnation. This is nothing other than an evolutionary quantum leap in human consciousness, unimaginable until now."
~ Paul Levy (Jungian scholar)

hello Pharista, I was turned on to your thread by a fellow glp'er on another thread...i like how that works around here

The person didn't know this, but I feel the need to share it...I was ten when I lost my father, and he didn't go out in a very good way...not that there is such a thing...also, i have never known anyone I could relate that part of my life with...ever...thanks for sharing that as well

Been a real tough few years as well, just trying to shed a little light, and purpose, on this life...thank you for this thread

Love this quote.

It wasn't until I realized that we are responsible for creating our own reality, that my life finally started to change. I've had a chaotic life, but I can say now that I am grateful for it and all the lessons I've learned. I've found some peace for the first time in my life!

I am still working on the first part of your post. I definitely need to "be here now" more. Thanks for the reminder.

Hi Exiled1

This is synchronicity at work because yesterday I was reading through your recent thread about removing negativity (it was still on 1st few posts) and I was just about to reply when I had to run to an appointment. I meant to come back later and post but, well practical responsibilities have a way of keeping these kind of good intentions on the shelf sometimes.

Anyway that was great that Doodlebug recommended this thread to you. I sent him/her a green thumb!

Thanks for sharing your sad loss of your dad at a young age too, i'm sorry he went so tragically. I do think the way people die can add to trauma as well. A lot of people say that a parent losing a child is the worst possible thing to happen in life. I cannot compare but I believe it is equally devastating for a child who is still dependent on nurture and care to lose a parent. The book I mentioned in an earlier post 'The Loss that is Forever' by Pauline Harris (remembered her name this time!) shed a lot of light on the grief I had carried around. A few years back I decided to get support to deal with my grief & traumas, thats when I started practice of present moment awareness, I also invested in some time with a Jungian therapist who really helped me face and transform the unconscious yet harsh inner critic I had internalised from my mother's anger.

I hope your mum and family were able to be there for you after your father's death. I think I suffered as much from the emotional neglect as from the loss itself but it is something I continue to come to terms with as 'part of the journey I am meant to be on' - it transforms body conscious victim mentality into the consciousness of a spiritual warrior, of course the two do overlap all the time, it's as easy as flicking a switch to get from one to the other. Sadly there are so many triggers around to trip the victim switch and then we need to consciously work at switching it back to true awareness. That switch is too slippery to get a grip on sometimes tho!

What I learned in therapy was that I could not get out without going through - I had to go through the shit I was carrying around and process it, bring it into the light and transform it - of course its an ongoing thing but once you break the back of the core wounds it gets easier. It is so important to face core wounds and shadows and that can take you into some areas of repressed pain. Hope and faith in something greater do get you through though and there really is a way through, it just takes a little time. Be patient and gentle with yourself Exiled1.


Last Edited by Pharista on 10/14/2011 10:47 AM

Pharista
Glad I could help out. Posts move so quick you never know who sees what here.

In the last several months my life has been turned upside down and inside out.

Keeping a solid spiritual grounding is the ONLY way to get through the challenges in life.

Going to find that book now. Thanks

Hey Doodlebug

Spirituality is the only way. I think trauma especially at an early age helps to lift the veil of illusion on so many of the material and transient goals so many are focussed on. Our quest is an emotional one, to find balance and peace and the only road for that is an inward one.

The book is actually by Maxine Harris Phd, my practical memory isn't so good these days!

[link to www.amazon.com]

Did you lose a parent early in life too?



Last Edited by Pharista on 10/14/2011 11:25 AM

TY

No, I have not lost a parent in the sense of physical death.

I have lost my husband of 16yrs.
I am 38 and it's like having to relearn, rethink everything about you and your life. I have often found myself wondering why and what is my purpose now.

How do I move on without feeling like I'm betraying that marriage, my kids and myself with everything I've worked for.

His death left an unexplainable whole that no one will ever be able to understand and that makes the healing even tougher. It has been torture for me to understand that I will probably never understand it.

Hope I'm making sense here.

I'm so sorry for your loss of your husband - you make total sense in the experience of grief. I don't know what it is like to lose a spouse, it must be very hard to re-learn how to do life without them.

Have you heard of C S Lewis's book 'A Grief Observed'? He wrote it after the loss of his wife, he decided to log his experience of grief to help him through it. Perhaps you would find some wisdom and validation from his words.

Good to hear you have found the treasures of your suffering.

One of my favourite quotes is by Kahlil Gibran 'The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain'. Suffering can bring compassion and empathy for others or it can bring narcissism and selfishness - it all depends on what the experiencer chooses - to split off in denial or embrace the shadows.

Last Edited by Pharista on 10/14/2011 12:23 PM

I have been able to accept the death. Not that death is easy but I know none of us escape it.

I have not been able to accept the "how" and this is where most of the negative energy was coming from.

Keep up the good work.
I'll look up the C.S Lewis book also. I haven't read any of his books since high school.

Thank you for the kind words and advice, Pharista...I am also very grateful to Doodlebug for informing me about this thread as well..There are many amazing things that happen on this strange website...it really boggles my mind at times...

I will have to research into the whole matter of my fathers death further. It was over 30 years ago now...You think you are done with it and moved on, but maybe not...I know one thing, it is the single incident that made me an instant outsider as a child...you know how other kids can be...I was the freak all of a sudden...even the nicer kids didn't know what to say to me...everyone just kept their distance, and I think I might have wanted them to..idk, long time ago now..

-well thanks for everything, and I will be looking forward to more posts from you!

bump to come back...
one quick question though-
In meditation- going in to meditation the "energy" is VERY intense, so intense that I fell as if on a rollercoaster.
the other day "full moon" I was doing a meditation going along fine, 3 waves of energy intense, asked for it to slow down so that I didn’t fell so wobbly, it did settle then the energy was so intense I was vibrating and I actually threw up… just wondering your thoughts on this. Thanks

to thread: my morning sequence

1. [link to www.azuritepress.com]
2. [link to www.azuritepress.com]
3. [link to www.azuritepress.com]

basically.

good post brother... power to you.

It sounds like you could do with grounding your energy. A good way to do this would be to try an outdoor meditation, barefoot if possible with your feet firmly planted on grass, soil or sand. Remind yourself as you meditate that you are a soul sitting within a body, you are in relationship with the body and living in it and through it. Sometimes when practicing spiritual awareness there is a tendency to get too 'high' and forget the importance of our physical vehicle. Its a case of getting it's importance the right way around, 'I am a soul, the body is my house/temple/vehicle - I am the master of the five senses and five elements it is made up of'.

you could also try a body scan meditation to help ground yourself:-



Last Edited by Pharista on 11/14/2011 01:00 PM

Another breath awareness meditation

[link to hw.libsyn.com]

Thank you will try this

is there a legal way to download these? I just dont like doing these types of things while sitting in front of pc...not the place I tend to feel most relaxed.


Thanks

I guess you could search for free mindfulness downloads. Or invest in a mindfulness albumn download, anything by Jon kabbat zin is very good.

I run a mindfulness group at home and I prep all the tracks I want to use for the session on my Pc and have them lined up, or I create playlists on my mp3 player. I also include pockets of silence. for outdoor meditation I just harness sounds of nature or even just sounds of modern life. meditation really is possible anywhere.

happy experimenting

In UK mindfulness courses are on offer in some areas through NHS. Alternatively Buddhist centres often offer free mindfulness courses. Mindfulness is not a religious based practice but helpful to anyone regardless of culture or belief systems.

Learning to be present with and love the self without condition.

An interview with Michael Brown, author of The Presence Process



Last Edited by Pharista on 11/14/2011 01:01 PM

Great post OP, 5 stars for you!!

Thank you for the stars AC and for commenting :)

I have just started reading your post, but it already resonates very much with me! Thank you so much for sharing this

Notice the key word here, is self?

So glad it resonates with you. I have been reading a couple of your threads too - where we come from and go to and the electric serpent one - both excellent.

Authentic posts do shine out to those who are experiencing or awakening to their own genuine spiritual awareness.

Absolutely AC, the sooner we all awaken to boundlessness of eternal spiritual self and take responsibility for our thoughts, words and actions - the sooner this world will change for the better. Quite a bit of awakening still to happen within the majority of the population though.

Last Edited by Pharista on 10/21/2011 05:04 AM