After the MEDS Project, I asked myself what brings about the Peak experiences of life. This project launched me into an unexpected and nurturing journey with the Taoist key work, The Tao Te Ching, upon which my therapeutic journaling enquiries became pivotal. Welcome to The Peak Project.
‘Daily, daily, daily heart to heart connection.’ There is so much to learn and practice here.
And ‘I am so lucky…’ (Peak 122) = epic and opening and liberating phrase. There is so much to learn and practice here.
I’m off to visit my Dad today, followed by dinner with a dear friend. So just a brief check-in this morning. Let’s read…
-60- Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish. Let all under heaven be governed in accordance with the Tao, and demons [or ghosts: ‘The ghosts, kuei, were the restless spirits of deceased ancestors’ Stenudd] will not manifest their power. It is not that they lack power but rather they will not use their power to harm the people. They are not the only ones who have power and do not use it to harm the people. The True Person does not harm the people. Whenever there is no harm done, that power flows into the common Virtue. (The Tao Te Ching 60)
Man alive, Lao Tzu, I wish you could watch the UK election campaign kick-offs this week. You would weep.
Imma run with ‘no harm done‘ as my takeaway phrase from today. Also, ‘Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish’ – the same applies to any sizeable project. Less is more. No harm done. Don’t overcook it/yourself/the ideas. No excess energy applied.
***PrayerfulPause***
May I divest myself of excess energy, thought and excitement today, so that I might connect heart to heart on my travels. And may I have awareness, true awareness, of what this heart to heart connection is, means and feels like. May I become the watcher, the experiencer, and may true love be channelled through all our hearts. Amen.
Let the impact of last night’s conversation unfurl itself. A shock to the system was had, on both sides. It was what Gurdjieff might call a ‘Stop!’ moment. Trust it.
Perhaps your previous experiences were to prepare you for last night’s conversation – so that you could spot what was happening and stop it in its tracks – for the profound benefit of both. That was a healing moment for both.
Or a red flag…
As you wish.
It might be time significantly to move the energy today.
I just feel devastated…
(It might be time significantly to move the energy today.)
Ok. I’ll go for a walk after this. I have nothing in the diary today but a lot of admin to do… I realise on an empty/full day like today how uplifted I am by my Casework meetings. They need spiritual prep and some paper prep, but not all the heavy lifting of the prep for Training work. Right? They are Heart to Heart meetings, always. I would feel happy if I knew I had a Casework meeting today. I will remember that. Maybe that’s my ideal future. Daily Case work sessions from 2pm.
Groundhog day…
Very funny! Ok, ok, ok..! I know. I keep telling myself this revelation about Casework from 2pm as if it were new news. It’s time to market the Casework service – hard. Let the training fade a bit, eh? I could even take training out of my main offers now. I never get training requests from cold clients – it’s all coming via the agencies I’ve approached, and I’ve enough of those agencies looking after me now, right?
What you said that underpins this idea of focussing on Casework is one very important phrase:They are Heart to Heart meetings, always.What has appealed to you about the Training (as opposed to Casework) is the possibility of ‘performance’, and ‘winning an audience’. But you know now, that the heart to heart connection only comes 1:1. Are you prepared to move from performing at the front of a group in search of approbation and admiration (and yet leaving feeling you connected properly with no one), to daily, daily, daily heart to heart connection with individuals? There’s no ‘applause’ to Casework (though the written feedback from Casework is more heartfelt than your training feedback and you appreciate that).
Am I really still attached to the ‘actor’ in me??? Maybe I can channel her into actual acting..? But yes, I hear you. I do hope and believe I might be ready for ‘daily, daily, daily heart to heart connection with individuals‘. Am I mature enough for that yet? I have seemed super-attracted to the performance of training and teaching.
To be fair to yourself, it is more a case of feeling that training is secure income. Can you focus on generating more Casework?
Yes. I can. Thank you.
I am ready for daily, daily, daily heart-to-heart connection with individuals (Casework clients)
Let’s read…
-59- For governing others and serving heaven there is nothing better than moderation. A person who is moderate returns to the path. Returning to the path brings an abundance of Virtue. This good store of Virtue cannot be conquered. Virtue that cannot be conquered knows no limit. Only a person who has limitless Virtue is fit to lead. Only the leader who possesses the Mother of the country will long endure. This is called making the roots go deep by restraining the trunk. Learn to focus your life and you will see many days. (The Tao Te Ching 59)
Make ‘the roots go deep by restraining the trunk‘. ‘Focus your life‘ and live long. Yes, this affirms the thinking above: focus on One Thing, and make the roots go deep. May I please learn how to market my Casework sincerely, wisely and effectively. May I become a ‘thought leader’ by writing and informing people about this beautiful field, but more importantly, may I become a really capable practitioner. May I take serious care in my practice. May I organise myself so that I can really serve, serve, serve my clients: heart to heart, with skill, expertise, attentiveness and efficacy.
Every contact counts, doesn’t it?
Exactly. Thank you. The work is done energetically as much as anything else.
Light-casting…
= Thinking loving thoughts.
If you like.
Ok. I hear you. Thank you. I’m with you. The energetic aspect. Yes. Amen.
I am ready for daily, daily, daily heart-to-heart connection (with Casework clients)
I asked ‘What is light-casting?’ and these were some of the inner observations arising:
Self-healing – ie. directing light to the self first, as in qigong
Loving kindness meditation – it’s the same as ‘metta bhavana’ – which is not meddling!
Purposeful directing of light
Healing / Remote healing / Distant healing
Activated softening
Then I asked my heart, ‘Heart, what is light-casting?’
Heart: Light-casting is looking after yourself and the world with loving thoughts.
Ah, I like ‘looking after’. And ‘loving thoughts’ are a way of ‘looking after’?
Heart: The loving thoughts cast the light
Well, I applied this idea of ‘loving thoughts’ later. It was good – really beautiful – especially as I was tired and a bit shaken by circumstances. I also applied the idea when watching the beautiful film, ‘Lion‘, about a 5 year old boy in India who got lost on the train system, was adopted by Australians and eventually returned to India to find his mother. The ‘loving thoughts’ gave expression and purpose to the emotions arising. I felt connected with my world.
When we are in a state of ‘loving thoughts’ you get the sensation of ‘merging with the qi field’. A dissolving sensation, where love travels in and out of us in steady flow like a torus emerging from the heart.
I am a student here. Please, keep teaching me.
Let’s read.
-58- When the government is unseen the people are simple and happy. When the government is lively the people are cunning and discontented. On misery perches happiness. Beneath happiness crouches misery. Who knows when this will cease? The straight changes into the crooked. The good becomes the ominous. Surely the people have been confused for a long time. Therefore, the True Person squares without cutting, carves without hacking, straightens without dislocating, gives forth light without blinding. (The Tao Te Ching 58)
This is astonishing! What synchronicity!: ‘The True Person … gives forth light without blinding.’ An actual quote about… casting light!
And also, the words about governments totally fit our current ‘lively’ government. The people have indeed ‘been confused for a long time’ and ‘who knows when’ the misery and cunning will cease?
Who do you know who ‘gives forth light without blinding’?
Ooh, good question. Can I go with personalities instead of personal friends/family? Pema Chodron, Esther Hicks, Kristin Neff. I know these are people who have influenced me a great deal. Teachers I trust profoundly.
So they have been illuminating to you. They have cast light on matters you wanted to learn about.
Yes, largely on the topic of love – self-acceptance, life-acceptance, compassion, forgiveness, letting go of hurt. Also I’ve learnt a great deal about the soul’s journey from others, like Robert Schwartz, Tiara Kumara, Lisa T Brown, Kyron, Matt Kahn. And oh my word, A Course in Miracles.
So, writers, then. Speakers. Teachers.
Ok, yes. These are teachers who, in my estimation, give forth light without blinding.
TRE Deborah! Nourish Maria! Gifted, kind experts in healing and therapy.
Teachers and healers.
Yes.
…
…
I know what you’re getting at.
Take it seriously. Take it lightly. Take action. Observe inaction (wu wei).
Each day is an opportunity to follow a Path. Each and every day is a new blank canvas upon which you can doodle aimlessly, or draw your best intention, aim or passion. What are you writing upon the blank slate of your life today? What is your passion manifesting as, today? Every day, yes every day, is an opportunity to live in Deep Purpose. Deep Purpose. Do you hear that? Every day, you have the full invitation to live according to your Soul’s Plan. Every day. Whether or not you choose to use each day for your Soul’s Plan, or for servicing the whim and whimsy of others’ or your own vague desires, is your choice.
I hear you! And I know… I’ve held back. Because of shame, for a long while. And because of fear of ego/hubris, too. I’d misunderstood teaching and healing as broadcasting, meddling, jazz-handing.
Teaching and healing simply means: to maintain frequency in all circumstances. Someone comes before you in pain, conflict, despair… you hold the frequency in their presence … and that is the work done! You can see from the Tao Te Ching, we are not asked to preach, change, cut, hack, dislocate or blind others. We are not asked to grumble, spot problems, or point out error and (God forbid) correct it! Remember ACIM on the topic of error? Revise these words from yesterday:
An Old One has said:
I act without striving and the people transform themselves.
I love stillness and the people straighten themselves.
I do not meddle and the people prosper by themselves.
I am free from desires and the people themselves return to the simplicity of the Uncarved Block. (The Tao Te Ching 57)
Teaching and healing means to maintain frequency despite apparent conditions of suffering, imperfect, toil, injustice, pain, panic. At all times, to maintain frequency.
Maintain what frequency?
The frequency of Light.
Argh..! What even IS that?
It is the God-Creator-Source frequency.
Controversial……… Humans can do that?
Y E S.
But if this (below) is the frequency of light, we are talking about the tiny visible (rainbow spectrum) portion of frequencies fitting in between UV and infrared:
https://www.quora.com/What-is-frequency-of-light
Maybe ‘Light’ is not the same as ‘light’.
Oh man. Speak clearly, please.
Maybe the Bible will give you some clarity or reassurance:
1st John 1: God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
In John 8:12, Jesus said “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
I’m with you. Spiritual light and physical-plane light are different things. Maybe even the physical-plane light is a 3D metaphor to help humans comprehend spiritual light. The Light came before the (visible) light, right?
If time were a thing…
Haha, very funny.
PULL: Peace, unity, light and love. This is the frequency spectrum you are invited to maintain in all conditions.
Well, why didn’t you say?! Pull in PULL. Got it. Let’s meditate on maintaining the PULL frequency in all conditions.
***Med***
Well, bless my soul. Because of needing to attend to something else for an hour at the point of starting the above meditation, I decided I would use a Kryon talk as a kind of guided meditation. I looked for one on Light and found this one from 2019. And oh my goodness – more synchronicity: Kryon spends the first part talking about the importance of learning to divide yourself in two and to let your corporeal 3D body channel the part of you connected to Source, for learning and for ‘validation’ – ‘you can even write it down’. In other words, it was a talk on doing Dialogues of Discernment! Beautiful! So confirming!
https://youtu.be/f-CmozlokQ4
I am realising that these Dialogues may not be for friends and family, but maybe they are for others who are also on this same… wavelength.
It would be wise to connect with that soul family. You can do so by another name.
{Gulp.} [This site is on ‘maintenance mode’, ie closed.]
MMMMMM…
I hear you. M.M. I know. Ok.
Connecting with your Soul Family will fill and console your Heart. And yes this does ultimately include {beloved soul sister}. It’s Dia de Muertos – what have you got to lose by dropping the guards?
I need to cover my tracks elsewhere.
Then do it, today.
I will. I can wipe out traces in the general world today.
I have something I want to say. It’s about the overall theme I’m getting, from light-casting, activated softening, to self-healing, to loving kindness, to loving thoughts, to maintaining the PULL frequency… What I am getting today is this: I am so lucky – so lucky (and reassured!) to know all this stuff, to have access to unlimited learning as a student of Light (I mean, Kryon/Abraham talks ‘on demand’ on Youtube?!) , to live in this beautiful home, to have my beautiful children and partner, to have freedom over my time, to know I’ve got Amazon stuff coming today, to have this cool tech in my life, to living in this Era of Light/Dark Merging, to have a body, to have free will, to have the 2mg of thought/feeling mastery that I didn’t have before… This isn’t just a hopeful ‘affirmation’. This is a dawning realisation. Maintaining the realisation of our zany good fortune in all circumstances really is maintaining the frequency of PULL, I guess. They say that appreciation and gratitude raise frequency, but realising one’s complete, giddy Good Fortune is a step beyond the ‘Thank you’ of gratitude practice.
“Thank you! Bring me more of this …” has helped you focus your eye and radar in the past week. Remember that.
Yes. I will. I was lucky to hear it.
I don’t in any way use ‘lucky’ in a superstitious or a vaunting or an apologetic way.
It’s more that the phrase “I am so lucky” has a certain scent and flavour to it which resonates with me.
It’s the resonance of PULL. You want to know how you can be sure of that? Turn the ‘I’ to a ‘We’ and see how the phrase would affect humanity if all were to say it.
Ok.
“We are so lucky.”
If all of humanity were to say that phrase, it would cause spontaneous enlightenment. The Earth would ascend in a flash of cosmic lightning. We would all turn to each other in love!
…And in peace, unity and lightness of being.
Feeling ready to maintain the frequency of ‘We are so lucky’ in all circumstances? [We know that you have done extensive work on the concept of ‘in all circumstances’ elsewhere (eg ACIM, Abraham) – so we are not taking the phrase lightly, we are just not wanting to go into that at length today. We want you to focus on the phrase.]
Yes.
‘I am realising we are all so lucky.’
It twinges. You know… The suffering people… I know the phrase to be true because, souls, but… it feels facile without full explanation, especially if people might read this.
Starting with self is always fine. The microcosm is in the macrocosm, and all is One.
I love this ‘telegraph wire’ notion. I practised it during yesterday’s qigong class. Imagining it somehow restores connection, right? And being in the ‘connected’ state is the difference between driving along in third gear, and shifting to fifth. The connected state (fifth gear) is smoother, more energy-efficient, more pleasurable, quieter…
Less revving?
Less revving! Exacto. 🙂 Being in the connected fifth gear state = less revving.
Where am I revving in my life?
You have been resistant to the idea of working with Light. And instead you have revved, human-style.
Ha! Hm… What? What do you mean ‘working with Light’?
You are beginning to understand this, through your return to the practice of qigong. Light = qi =energy = life force. It’s directable, collectable and navigable – right? You know that from qigong.
Yes. That is the case.
Well, the places where you rev, are the places where you could use Light instead. (You can write it – it’s ok…)
Can write… ‘Light-casting’?
Light-casting.
It sounds so magical, and a little bit pompous.
Speaks the ego, not the knowing heart.
Ok. I’m prepared to talk about light-casting today.
Let’s read.
-57- Govern the country by being straightforward. Wage war by being crafty. Win all under heaven by not meddling. How do I know that this is so? By what is within me. The more restrictions there are, the poorer are the people. The more pointed the people’s weapons, the more disorder there is in the country. The more ingenious and clever the people, the more strange the contrivances that appear. The more laws and edicts that are posted, the more thieves and robbers that arise. Hence an Old One has said: I act without striving and the people transform themselves. I love stillness and the people straighten themselves. I do not meddle and the people prosper by themselves. I am free from desires and the people themselves return to the simplicity of the Uncarved Block.(The Tao Te Ching 57)
Ok, this is really helpful. So, the word I’m capturing here today is ‘meddling’ because my question/concern about light-casting is that it counts as meddling basically because it’s like giving reiki to someone without their expressed permission. I used light-casting on someone’s situation intensely a few years ago, but for very specific purposes. I knew I was imposing it on another’s life, but I felt I had not only permission but a duty to do so. My concern was that in general is counts as meddling. Please clarify.
We understand your concern about impinging on the free will of another conscious being. We understand that you feel that by light-casting you are simultaneously creating an awareness of some kind of light ‘deficit’. We want you to take a different approach. In light-casting we are realising the light inherent.
But ‘casting’ something is a very active intervention imposing something from A to B. Definitions include (Google):
‘to throw (something) forcefully in a specified direction.’
‘to cause (light or shadow) to appear on a surface.’
Equally, it is about revealing what is already there. See here also {Search further for definitions}:
to provide an explanation for a situation or problem, or information that makes it easier to understand:
The discovery of the dinosaur skeleton has cast light on why they became extinct.
It is about illumination. The person who switches on the light in the room doesn’t fundamentally change the room.
She does if it’s night time and people were happily sleeping in that room.
True. She would be wise to be careful about the degree of illumination. She might use the dimmer switch. Or the light from her phone or watch only.
I suppose, if the essence of something is revealed by illumination, you get always to the same conclusion anyway: Source. Creator. Divinity. Light upon light.
Have another look at today’s reading: I act without striving and the people transform themselves. I love stillness and the people straighten themselves. I do not meddle and the people prosper by themselves. I am free from desires and the people themselves return to the simplicity of the Uncarved Block. What does this tell you?
I don’t need to do anything. I certainly don’t need to intervene. (Must remember this in my work…) I don’t need to desire anything to be different, better, more prosperous. I need to ‘love stillness’ and observe wu wei, and everything thrives.
It’s different to apathy or ignoring or turning a blind eye, though, isn’t it? Where does light-casting fit in?
I guess it’s to do with seeing ‘circumstances as they are’ in their best light?
Beautiful. Let’s see what Bill Ballard has to say in this field. Pick up from where you left off:
He stresses we should not meddle in another’s learning: ‘We cannot do another’s learning. Each must do this for themselves and, in doing so, learn to tame their own ego.‘ (p125)
A great deal about 11:11 which I so resonate with me from c1989+ (ask my close friends of the time (and later) with whom, to their mirth, I shared the sense that I was being pursued and chastised by the number 11:11): ‘11:11 began to haunt me 20 years earlier. My first love had an 11/11/61 birthday. Even in 1978 when we dated I had the sense 11:11 was special. 11:11 was continually appearing around me – in my name, my numerology, my birthday and on and on. I saw it everywhere and commented on it to everyone. But what did it mean? There was no information highway (internet) back then. No one else was seeing this. It was only me and those I was around who thought it special.‘ (p133) Exactly.
Everyone who gets from Head to Heart has a profoundly good impact on the planet: ‘We shift to a higher level of spiritual vibration as we activate. Each person who activates the heart chakra can balance the energy of 50,000 individuals occupying the lower negative vibrations. There are some who say that number is 10x that. The activated heart chakra counteracts and neutralizes those lower vibrations. And now literally tens of millions are activating around the Earth… I also wish to thank everyone who is consciously participating in raising planetary frequencies by the spiritual work they are doing on themselves. What you do as work to awaken and activate affects every atom in the hologram we collectively experience as our real exterior illusion. The inside shifts the outside.’ (p135)
Money. Lightworkers were really struggling with money in 2012. (Amiright?)
I’m sensing this. Light-casting = illumination = enlightenment. Focus me now please.
Play with the concept of light-casting. No specialness! No magic! Understand it for what it is. Ask to know what it is. Humble yourself here.
So, ‘unhooking’ had me thinking about any of my remaining addictive behaviour. I’ve spent a bit of time wondering if {emotional overeating} is just such a thing for me. Every day for the last two years I’ve been working with some diet/exercise programme – every day! And to no avail in terms of bodily recovery, strength and weight loss. I do have more energy and less fatigue, but my weight simply won’t budge. I was 25 pounds lighter when I met G (after a focussed programme and a couple of years off work and depression-sleeping and daily walking / qigong / yoga). Some of the new weight is from stress/lack of sleep (aka cortisol) and some from over-eating. I’m really seeking to work with both. But, maybe I need to treat the over-eating more directly, and not just by shifting what I eat.
On Sunday, I broke my vegetarian spell (a la Medical Medium) of three months (since 29Jul19) and had roast lamb. Defeated thoughts included: ‘What was the point in all the restriction, if I felt no better? I wasn’t turning into an athlete, like the people in The Game Changers… ‘ And afterwards, tbh, I did feel good – grounded, sustained. Maybe I eat meat once a week..?
Dearest sweet soul. We have noticed you bringing gentle awareness to your moments, and slowing down into them. Like the morning you woke up too early, and just lay there with the discomfort of tiredness, and to your surprise fell asleep again – three times. Being with the discomfort helped it dissipate.
You are invited to ease into softness, in all things. The ‘non-revving’, the inaction, the wu wei, the harmony, the unhooking, the Stillpoint reaching… This can be applied to all things. It is the antidote to stress, to overeating, to overworking, to procrastinating, to overtalking, to hustling – and it is the friend of ‘making good food choices’ and ‘undertaking exercise’ (well done for recent exercise classes btw). And therefore, if you like, it is the portal for ‘losing weight’.
Your body is a reflection of your mind, dear being.
The Stillpoint can not be merely ‘nodded to’ once a day. If you want the benefits of this softness / stillness / harmony… you must dedicate yourself to its practice deeply and consistently. You need to give time to the body and mind to adjust and acclimatise properly – once a day for at least an hour.
Consider it the act of getting a good ‘soaking’ in the parasympathetic state.
Consider it ‘going offline’ for a bit, because switching the system off and on again is a good thing.
And in following these practices, be careful not to leap up out of the warm waters of Stillness, and leap on into the cold waters of [twitter, politics, negative news].
Are you saying to avoid the news? I am a bit hooked on it…
We are saying that to the degree you choose Stillness, you shall find peace in your days.
So, you’re saying I’ve been ‘nodding to’ Stillness, but not ‘soaking’ myself in it enough that it can be the over-riding frequency in me?
Yes! Beautifully put. The law of averages is a hard and fast law. If 90% of your consciousness is focussed on duality, and 10% on unity, your body-mind will speak the language – and resonate with the frequency – of duality.
Aha. This is helpful. This makes me thing of the protective bubble of qi and light we create in qigong. …And how conversely I am prone to letting all kinds of other stuff in my space.
Your work is such that you really need to invest in psychic protection.
I find it all so intangible. It’s all about ‘visualisation’… Help me to really see, sense and know that this stuff is not just wishful thinking.
If /when you spend more time at Stillpoint, you will become much more sensitised to the sensations.
Ok. I hope so!
Let’s read.
-56- Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know. Block the passages! Shut the doors! Blunt the sharpness! Untangle the knots! Soften the glare! Settle with the dust! This is the Mystery of Evenness. Those who have achieved this cannot be enclosed nor kept at a distance; they cannot be benefited nor harmed, honoured nor disgraced. Therefore, this is the noblest state under heaven. (The Tao Te Ching 56)
Wow, well this confirms pretty clearly that we need:
boundaries
softness
settledness
evenness
It’s a post-egoic state here, I’d say. Right?
It’s a state wherein unconditional love is easeful. When we know who/what we are and have our boundaries understood, we can afford to live by softness, settledness and evenness. We can invite collaborative action with other beings, human and otherwise.
First establish boundaries, right? How?
In meditation, qigong, prayer… Boundaries are understood at Stillpoint, and at Stillpoint only.
And (just for the record..) what is Stillpoint?
Stillpoint is the state of being in which we align with our essential Inner Being and reconnect thereby with our Soul and its purpose, its knowing, its messages for us.
Imagine a telegraph wire to a hotline from your Soul which only switches on when your heartbeat is at exactly, say, 63 bpm or less. Yes? In other words, you need to adjust your self to be a receiver. The receptive state is found at Stillpoint.
Ok. Let’s meditate and play with this a little. Ty.
***20minSilentMindfulBreathingMed***
That was lovely. I felt the telegraph wire flicker into life occasionally. It’s a lovely feeling – and it makes one want more of it, and that thereby makes the mind less resistant to the stillness.
Meditation => settling into stillness
In stillness we recall who/what we are => boundaries feel natural
Knowing our boundaries => we are free to trust in unconditional love…
So…it’s back to proper meditation then…
It’s back to softening into stillness.
You know I just started listening again (after 3+ years) to the audio programme, Recovery: One Breath at a Time by Kevin Griffin. It’s good stuff, right? I feel like I’m blending Taoism and Buddhism at the moment.
The practices are time-tested, time-honoured. Soften into stillness, however that best occurs for you. You will know you’re there when the telegraph wire to your Soul flickers on.
I have spent a very fruitful 24 hours playing with ‘Zero Revs Given’. Wow, it’s amazing how this exercise has revealed my tendency to try to live-by-revving! And also how it is showing me that when you don’t live-by-revving, the consequence is not ‘nothing’, and frankly there’s the potential for more to get done. I realise how I tend to revrevrev until I have time to crash. It is however possible – I’ve seen glimpses now – to float along, doing the things that need doing, without revving, or chasing, or efforting, or exerting. Wu wei [inaction / inexertion] is a gateway to sanity.
Remember, this is about experiencing Stillpoint, and remaining in its vicinity. That is the key. Non-revving is not merely about ‘chilling out’. It’s about recalling this knowing: in Stillness is rebooting attained. So staying in the vicinity of Stillpoint – and reaching it solidly at least once a day – is what ‘Zero Revs Given’ is for.
Yes. So true. I could get into the habit of just ‘chilling out’ a bit, and not actually doing the (difficult shipwreck-revealing) Stillpoint work.
Exactly. Spot on.
Let’s read.
-55- A person who is filled with Virtue is like a newborn child. Poisonous insects will not sting, wild animals will not pounce, birds of prey will not swoop down. Although bones are soft and sinews weak, a child’s grip is firm. The union of man and woman is not known, yet there is completeness, because a child’s vital force is at its height. Crying all day will not produce hoarseness, because there is perfect harmony. To know harmony is to know the Always-so. To know the Always-so is to be awakened.Trying to fill life to the brim invites a curse. For the mind to make demands upon the breath of life brings strain. Whatever has been forced to a peak of vigour approaches its decay. This is not the way of Tao. And that which goes against the Tao will quickly pass away. (The Tao Te Ching 55)
Beautiful: To know harmony is to know the Always-so. To know the Always-so is to be awakened.
A pertinent reminder to one who would live-by-revving: Trying to fill life to the brim invites a curse… Whatever has been forced to a peak of vigour approaches its decay. This is not the way of Tao.
Ok, so let’s sit a moment with the gentler concept: ‘to know harmony’. I guess we sense harmony at Zero Revs, at Stillpoint? Or we become harmonised?
Let’s see…
***13minMed…Hello Stillpoint, my old friend…***
It’s either Thinking or it’s Stillpoint. It’s either Stillpoint or it’s Thinking.
The idea of thinking being about being ‘hooked’ comes from Pema Chodron for me. It’s an interpretation of the word ‘shenpa’:
‘The Tibetan word for this is shenpa. It is usually translated “attachment,” but a more descriptive translation might be “hooked.” When shenpa hooks us, we’re likely to get stuck. We could call shenpa “that sticky feeling.” It’s an everyday experience. Even a spot on your new sweater can take you there. At the subtlest level, we feel a tightening, a tensing, a sense of closing down. Then we feel a sense of withdrawing, not wanting to be where we are. That’s the hooked quality.’ (Source)
And non-attachment is a pretty important thing:
Any attachment has the possibility to redirect focus and suck us into lower vibrations. This is the final exam of mastery and graduation from Earth School. The exam has begun. That is why mastery of thought and emotion is the most important attainment we can demonstrate at this time in our own lives. (The Great Awakening, Bill Ballard, 2012 p118)
I guess that my sense of ‘revving’ is my signal to self that I am attached, hooked or experiencing shenpa, even if I’m revving about something I like! Whatever it is, the revving is a sign to me that I’m out of harmony (and harmony is the way of the Always-So).
It’s Hooked, or it’s Harmony. One or the other. You feel that?
I do… It’s in my Heart!
Brilliant. How best can you ‘note’ the feeling of ‘Hooked’ or ‘Harmony’?
I absolutely love playing with the inner revometer – It let’s me know when we’re revving, and also I can sit with it and visualise the pointer finally getting done to zero again. So today…?
Let’s keep playing with the revometer – equating Zero (Stillpoint) with Harmony and revving with being Hooked.
I may not be understanding this wu wei (inexertion) concept right, because again I am exhausted and my adrenals are frying… I had a broken night, again, and it frustrates me because I know that, having not caught up on proper energy, my body then copes by turbo charging me with adrenaline and cortisol, which leads to two things: a) adrenal fatigue and b) fatness, especially in the stomach and hips area, which I am so, so tired of. Yesterday, G and I spent a good couple of hours looking for winter coats in the ‘plus woman’ sections of shops, without finding one that didn’t make me look like the Michelin Man. Every single day I’m working to protect my body/organs/nervous system, and lose weight – and day after day I’m stuck at 1-2 stone overweight. I’m tired of being tired of being ashamed, exhausted, run-down. HELP.
When you took your exertion down to 80% in the last couple of days, it made a signigicant difference, didn’t it? What would it look like to take your exertion down to 50%? Or 20%? Or 0?
Nothing would get done!
Exactly. ‘Nothing’ would indeed be accomplished.
Is ‘nothing’ the goal?
‘Still point’ or ‘zero point’ must be reached, and regularly so, for reboots to occur.
What are reboots?
Reboots are those DNA shifts you’ve been learning about over the years.
Aha. Ok. I’m listening.
Let’s read.
-54- What is well-rooted cannot be pulled up. What is firmly grasped will not slip loose. It will be honoured from generation to generation. When cultivated in your person, Virtue will be real. When cultivated in your household, Virtue will be plentiful. When cultivated in your village, Virtue will endure. When cultivated in your country, Virtue will abound. When cultivated in your world, Virtue will be universal. Hence, through yourself look at Self. Through your household look at Household. Through your community look at Community. Through your country look at Country. Through your world look at World. How do I know that the world is like this? Because of what is within me. (The Tao Te Ching 54)
Plant motifs: Cultivation. Rootedness.
Self-observation motifs: ‘through yourself look at Self/ etc
I was reminded of Gurdjieff’s emphasis on self-observation. I didn’t know he placed fundamental emphasis on a meditation practice too:
“Meditation may be the one essential practice, without which nothing of significance will happen.” Gurdjieff quoted in Ginsberg p69.
The cultivation of stillness, rootedness, self-awareness, attention, in-exertion.
‘Through yourself look at Self’… and see, aha… You’re tired?
I can only imagine that if my ‘self’ is tired, it is because it is not aligned with my ‘Self’ – or what Abraham Hicks calls my ‘inner being’ – which I guess is you to whom I am talking. Help, please. Help my understand and get breakthrough.
Be still. Reach Stillpoint. We meet you there. Root yourself in stillness. ‘What is well-rooted cannot be pulled up.’
***20minMed***
As I tumble into Stillpoint, my unhealed wounds, hurts, angers and rages become visible to me. It’s like the low tide revealing shipwrecks buried in the sand.
Good. Excellent. The healing is in the revealing.
I had the image of Stillpoint being shown as 0 rpm on a revometer, like this:
And by comparison, how ‘revved’ might you typically be?
I noted earlier that getting from 100% to 80% made a huge difference.
The goal is this:to hit zero rpm, while awake, conscious and in stillness (ie not on your phone or otherwise occupied), once a day. This is how we become ‘well-rooted’.
Is Stillpoint – the zero rpm – something you ‘reach’, ‘attain’, ‘explore’?
It would not be too ‘airy’ to say it is something you ‘live’ or ‘experience’. These words you can use to shine the light on the fact that Stillpoint is a state or a paradigm, not an ‘activity’ or a ‘place’. It has agency; not you – though you can adapt yourself to resonate with it.
Ok. I’ll work with this then. I’ll play with it. I like the Zero Revs concept, as a visual reminder. I will endeavour to experience Stillpoint or Zero Revs at least once a day across this week.
Over these last five days I have been working with as much focus as possible on sensing, awakening and gathering qi to my heart space – elusive a process though it may be. I’ve been to two substantial qigong classes (with Jeremy) for the first time in months – and definitely felt the benefit in inner body strength and social/interpersonal energy. I was grateful for the explicit reminders about the dantians in our last Dialogue here.
It’s funny, I’ve been reading the Tao Te Ching here, without relating it to my practice of qigong… which had lapsed, or become an ‘exercise’ thing. Qigong is healing of body, mind, energy field. It puts us into conscious connectedness with the Universe. It is self-reiki. It is the awakening of energy within us. It draws from the qi field to fill our dantians, which are surely what you were talking about with the golden inner anchor image. Is something coming together here?
Until you bring your body fully into your awakening process, you are undertaking a mental/intellectual experience of growth – which is like growing one leg instead of both, and hoping to be able to walk with ease.
My bodily dissociation has been a long-running theme.
We understand that, and respect the hows and the whys. What is apparent is that this theme means that your body is all the more a portal for awakening for you. Feel the resistance to embodiment, and work with that feeling. Welcome the feeling of the resistance to embodiment precisely as the indicator that you are now at the coalface of your own evolution.
Arghh…
Yes! Arrrgghh! 🙂 When your body truly starts to act as the channel, the vehicle, for the frequencies you seek to work with, you will give in readily. It’s just that, initially, those frequencies can feel extremely uncomfortable to the 3D body. Can you just handle that discomfort for a fraction longer… and longer… and longer?
Well, yes… I put my body under a lot of pressure in general. I feel at constant risk of burnout and adrenal fatigue… Though that said, I’m finally getting some good results from my MEDS mornings, and not starting work-work til midday.
Let’s unpick this. There are two different factors at play here:
Pressure from straining in the world, and against time and people
Discomfort from adjusting to new frequencies, absorbed and accepted in stillness and consciousness (eg during meditation, qigong)
Yes. Absolutely. I hear that. Thanks for the reminder. I do know that ‘moving mediation’ (qigong, walking, swimming) is very helpful for reducing the discomfort. Like moving and swaying in childbirth eases the expansion process.
Let’s read.
-53- If I have even little sense, I will walk upon the great path of Tao and only fear straying from it. This Great Way is straight and smooth yet people often prefer the side roads. The courtyard [or palace] is well kept but the fields are full of weeds, and the granaries stand empty. Still, there are those of us who wear elegant clothes, carry sharp swords, pamper ourselves with food and drink and have more possessions than we can use. These are the actions of robbers. This is certainly far from the Tao. (The Tao Te Ching 53)
If this chapter sounds a little fuerte, a) it is – Lao Tzu takes a no-holds-barred approach to excess, but also, b) Stenudd informs us: ‘Lao Tzu ends this chapter with what is also a joke. Robber, tao, is pronounced the same as Tao, the Way.’
Clearly, excess is not the way of the Way – but many cannot resist the lure of excess.
I need to be careful about excess, all the time. ‘Moderation’ has traditionally not been my strong suit. Hence having to give up things entirely.
Qigong is about learning to bring balance, to reduce excess. Excess of intake or expenditure leaves the coffers either choked or empty.
It’s so subtle!
It most certainly is. It’s a frequency matter again, hence the importance of being willing to burn through the discomfort of frequency shift. The discomfort is where it’s at.
I wanted to raise a phrase I heard on a Kryon video (not from Kryon but from a guest speaker). The speaker suggested that we spot the good stuff in our lives and say, “Thank you, bring me more of this…” I’ve been finding it very positive in shifting frequency to one of appreciation, and holding the Now of blessed moments:
Watching my daughter give a talk: “Thank you, bring me more of this magic”
Singing with my skiffling friends: “Thank you, bring me more of this harmony and friendship”
Sitting next to my beloved: “Thank you, bring me more of this feeling of being loved.”
Also, relistening to this video by Matt Kahn I was reminded of the need to ‘unpack your bags’ in this life – to commit to being here, to doing the work we were chosen to do here, to give in to the sense of cosmic homesickness and stay here anyway.
I really feel I’m learning so much this year about Staying Here on Earth, without resistance, or wanting to escape, to trying to float away. I’m so grateful.
Let’s tie these beautiful points together, for what you are talking about is indeed what Lao Tzu calls the ‘straight and smooth’ Great Way. You are indicating an increasing willingness to stay in stillness under the conditions arising, because you know that that is part of the ‘job description’ for you.
Ha! Yes! That makes sense. And for a long while, I really didn’t want to do the karmic burn-up or the rebalancing in stillness. I did do a lot of it in 2016/2017, but then got diverted by the fun of being in love…!
Falling in love was/is a profound outcome of your frequency shift work, and also a crucial ‘next step’. You and G are learning to frequency shift in harmony with each other. Next level stuff!
🙂 Ty. Yes! It’s beautiful. And we are learning a great deal.
Uncomfy at times, eh?
Ha! Maybe..!
Ace. Uncomfy = evolution’s coalface. Bravo.
Very good! 🙂 Ok, on the subject of uncomfy, I have a Zumba class to get to..! What’s our thought for the day?
Feel the burn!
Argh! Haha… The burn of discomfort?! Man, this is next level. I have to be so careful with this, because I can tend to get into the type of discomfort which is just burnout-making…
We are talking about the burn arising in stillness, in inaction, in non-wanting, in non-pushing, in wu wei.
What is wu wei? I can’t remember exactly.
Wu wei (無爲) is a concept literally meaning “inexertion” or “inaction”. Wu wei emerged in the Spring and Autumn period, and from Confucianism, to become an important concept in Chinese statecraft and Taoism, and was most commonly used to refer to an ideal form of government including the behavior of the emperor. Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei
Feel the wu wei burn means feel the discomfort arising as Head urges the cavalry’s advancement, and the emperor says, ‘No, not yet.’
Ah, the antsy feeling… Yes. I hear you. I’ll work with this…
I am feeling the wu wei [inexertion] burn
****
Later: And so this Abraham Hicks video was good… ‘Ask your Inner Being what is thinks, throughout the day, and see how it is constantly aligned to Source. As you align to your Inner Being, you align to Source… You gain the ability to control what you are thinking about and choose to think about the positive things. And you become tuned in, turned on, tapped in..’ (paraphrased)
-52- All things under heaven had a common beginning, and that beginning could be considered the Mother of all things. When you know the Mother you will also know the children. Know the children, yet hold fast to the Mother, and to the end of your days you will be free from danger. Block the passages! Shut the doors! And, to the end of your days your strength will not fail you. Open the passages! Increase your activities! And, to the end of your days you will be beyond help. See the small and develop clear vision. Practise yielding and develop strength. Use the outer light to return to the inner light, and save yourself from harm. This is known as following the Always-so. (The Tao Te Ching 52)
At first I could see myself reacting against this stark and seemingly negating concept: Block the passages! Shut the doors! And, to the end of your days your strength will not fail you. Open the passages! Increase your activities! And, to the end of your days you will be beyond help. But let me put it to my heart for a Heart Check-in. Heart, what say you?
Heart says: This passage is reminding you that you are a finite being, with boundaries that must be honoured and nurtured. The cracked pot can not fill up. The well-sealed, darkened cinema shows the film off to its best advantage. The dantian seeks to fill. The dantian seeks to fill – and hold qi. Try working with your Heart as a dantian which would charge as a battery and keep moving energy round in a sealed space, so that it recharges itself rather than expending itself.
A reminder of the definition of Dantian (Wikipedia):
Dantian, dan t’ian, dan tien or tan t’ien is loosely translated as “elixir field”, “sea of qi“, or simply “energy center”. Dantian are the “qi focus flow centers”, important focal points for meditative and exercise techniques such as qigong, martial arts such as t’ai chi ch’uan, and in traditional Chinese medicine.[1][2]
Three dantians
Different schools of thought categorize dantian in various manners. Three main dantian are typically emphasized:[1][2]
Lower dantian (下丹田, Xià Dāntián): below the navel (about three finger widths below and two finger widths behind the navel), which is also called “the golden stove” (金炉 pinyin: Jīn lú) or the namesake “elixir-of-life field” proper, where the process of developing the elixir by refining and purifying essence (jing) into vitality (qi) begins.[6]
Middle dantian (中丹田, Zhōng Dāntián): at the level of the heart, which is also called “the crimson palace”, associated with storing spirit (shen) and with respiration and health of the internal organs, in particular the thymus gland. This cauldron is where vitality or qi is refined into shen or spirit.[7]
Upper dantian (上丹田, Shàng Dāntián): at the forehead between the eyebrows or third eye, which is also called “the muddy pellet”, associated with the pineal gland. This cauldron is where shen or spirit is refined into wu wei or emptiness.[5][8]
What do I do with this information? I’ve never truly felt or sensed the dantians in all these years of on/off qigong.
You did when you practised qiong deeply.
Did I? At the qigong camp (2015)?
The deep practice changed you profoundly.
Yes. True…
No, really. It was precisely what allowed you to ‘Block the passages! Shut the doors!’ (see TTC 52 above).
Really?
Leave your corporate job? Terminate the nonsense with your shocking business partner? Address your untenable financial/legal situations? Then retrain? All of that was bolstered and made possible by those 10 days of qigong.
Tbh, it felt like a breakdown. It was a breakdown! That qigong camp precipitated a 2 year long mh breakdown!
Nothing else would cause you to stop, Block the passages! Shut the doors! and reorientate your life according to your prayers, plans and purpose. Moving from Head to Heart does indeed feel like a mh breakdown because the Head cries out ‘Crisis! Danger!’ as you leave its flawed Operating System behind. As you eject the Head from your personal Control Room, it storms out in a fit of fury throwing hand grenades behind it.
Whereas Heart’s OS..?
Pure Taoism.
Aaaaaaaahhh! So this is why we’re studying Taoism! The Taoist ways are the Ways of the Heart.
The Tao is the Way. The Heart follows the Way.
Whereas the Head would throw a distractifying party, way off the path of the Way…
So, more on letting Heart take the lead (in its non-leading Way)…
Bill Ballard writes: There is a choice that each must make. It is, “What do I wish to manifest from this illusion for my own future self to experience?” (The Great Awakening, Bill Ballard, 2012, p101)
To this, I say, I wish to shift into a Heart-centred paradigm.
*****
I’m back after a couple of hours away. After the last line above I felt inclined to flick on to Twitter. There a tweet said emphatically: ‘Watch ‘The Game Changers’ on Netflix…’
So I did. ‘The Game Changers‘ is a documentary about plant-based athletes. I also watched the trailer for another film mentioned alongside – ‘Dominion‘. Oh my heart… It’s about the meat industry. {:_-(
So here’s the thing. I’ve been essentially ‘plant-powered’ or ‘virtually vegan’ since 29th July 2019, largely thanks to reading Medical Medium. I’ve also been completely alcohol-free since 31st Dec 18. I can feel in me as I write and think about this topic, that this harm-free way of eating is an example of following the Heart-centred paradigm. It’s not fancy, clever or glamorous, and it takes daily (yes, daily) mental/spiritual discipline, especially when my loved ones are happy omnies/drinkers and I’m not getting the weight loss results I pine for (though I believe I am getting greater energy than before). So. What can I learn today? I said I wish to move into the Heart-centred paradigm. What am I to learn today?
Barriers, boundaries, decisions, non-drifting, eating protocols. The Heart is firm, disciplined and boundaried (with its own Person and with others) SO THAT it can be soft, yielding and infinitely loving. “Block the passages! Shut the doors!” is about kung-fu fighting against the non-Love. That takes real power, real strength. As the athletes found – eating steak slows you down; whereas a boundaried plant-based regime creates extraordinary results in humans. In the same way, being overly-open, overly-busy, greedy with life and food, and not gathering qi, slows you down.
Gather qi to the Heart. Hold it there. Pump prime the Heart. Gather power.
My new cardio exercise classes like Zumba, 2-3 times a week – I sometimes sense my Heart ‘going along with it’ and rolling its eyes. Yet, I think it makes me stronger to do cardio… And more tired, also… Guidance?
In fairness, your Heart would love you to have a lifestyle which did not need artificial cardio. But, it is happy to accept the current new adjustments to 3 exercise classes a week. Done well, simple walking and qigong achieve the same results, but you know that.
Ok. Well let’s keep flowing with the protocol of ‘some classes are better than none.’ I’m still experimenting with new classes – bravely, I might add!
Here’s the message for today: Your Heart is a living, breathing being, with a mind, consciousness and an agenda – just like you. Work with it. Gather qi into it, with your hands, your breath, your movement and most importantly, with your powerful intention to AWAKEN your Heart space to full consciousness, and to AWAKEN your consciousness to an awareness of your Heart space.
Today is ‘Super Saturday’ when our MPs vote on the newly-fudged Brexit deal – though maybe they won’t if an amendment goes through during the course of today. The Ways of my Heart are so far from this ‘division bell fight to the last’ by those who would unleash havoc on the nation. And yet… my Head watches transfixed. Peace be with us all.
***
I am reading the Great Awakening with such joy. I’m on pg 85. I am reminded of the necessity of going into the ‘trance’ state and filling ourselves with light (golden inner anchor), and clearing inner debris, and connecting with Source, and basically up-regulating our frequency into complete softness, delicacy, flow and alignment. How best can I up-regulate my state?
You mention ‘trance’ – or the deep meditation state. This alone is like pressing the reset button. It is a powerful way to make your default state one of alignment. Put simply, every time you shift into the parasympathetic (rest and digest) state, you are down-regulating the threat, panic and scarcity state. You are aware of your energetic alignment?
To an extent. I’m aware of the flow of qi, and the amount of energy flowing in and out of us.
What you haven’t been aware of is the need to harness and hold light.
I do tend to let energy flow in, through and out of me. It leaves me tired.
Let us tell you this. When you truly learn to harness and hold light you will be better able to bond with others, and this will increase your sense of joy in this world. It will all but remove your fear of others, or of death, or of isolation or rejection.
Does my tiredness limit my ability to bond?
We are informing you that you are ready to find your ‘dan tiens’ and really work with them. And that one marker of this working well will be your increased capacity to bond with others.
Harnessing and conveying qi. Initially to ‘patch up’ your own aura and fill it with light/qi.
Oh man… How do I stick with this? I practised a lot of qigong before and it massively improved my health but what else…?
You met G because your qi fields aligned.
Really? Ok. And next, now?
When your frequency is raised through qi and stabilised, you will better be able to bond with those you love.
I need help here.
Let’s read…
-51- The Tao gives life to all things, and its Virtue nourishes them, forms each according to its nature and gives to each its inner strength. Therefore, the ten thousand things all venerate the Tao and honour its Virtue. It has never been decreed that the Tao be venerated and its Virtue be honoured; they have always been so treated spontaneously. Thus, the Tao gives life to all things; and its Virtue raises them, nourishes them, brings them to their full growth, feeds, shelters, and protects them. Giving life without claiming authority, benefiting without demanding gratitude, guiding without control. This is called hidden Virtue. (The Tao Te Ching 51)
Ok, so hang on. What exactly is the difference, and the association, between the Tao and qi?
Tao is the Creator Source and Qi is the life force.
So the qi comes from the Tao?
Qi is borne of fruitful manipulation of the Tao forces. The qi must be balanced for the Tao to be closely followed.
I feel out of my depth. Am I hearing you correctly?
Almost. The most important thing to be aware of is that you are a receptacle for Light, and your role is to balance the light you receive. When you do you will bond with your loved ones more completely.
I feel some unease when dropping into the parasympathetic state.
Of course you do. Your amygdala shouts, ‘Don’t relax! Remain on guard or be eaten!’
When in reality…
Every time you slip into the parasympathetic state…
As in that yoga nidra class…
…You access a well of pure healing. You reboot. You re-educate your nervous system. You strengthen your qi.
Moving meditation… It’s physiological and ‘virtual’…
[Reading more of The Great Awakening, up to p98]
Yes, this seems to be about activating the heart space by working with its energy, awakening it, or rather awakening our sense of it. Ballard talks about switching on the scared heart space.
“When an individual functions from the head and is not heart-activated there is a vibration that can be measured and has a factor of x. When the sacred heart-space is switched on the individual’s heart chakra is activated. Science has now proven this. The switched-on heart-space emits about 50,000 times more energy than the original measurement factor of x. This amplification of the energy field is the goal of heart chakra activation. When accomplished you begin to experience mastery within the illusion. The Merkabah is automatically activated once the heart chakra activates. A toroid-shaped energy field forms and its power can be measured. After the heart chakra activates it takes a bit more time (maybe a few weeks of staying focused on that sacred space) before the activation anchors. Once anchored a permanent bliss akin to a never-ending cosmic orgasm is achieved. Anchoring results in making this new state of being permanent. (The Great Awakening, Bill Ballard, 2012 p98)
So, I am indeed working with this heart space and its energy. It feels like I am tickling it into my awareness, with a mixture of qigong and self-reiki and energy work and clearing/cleansing…
You are undertaking ‘light work’ on your heart space.
Wow. Awesome. And I gather it takes some consistent work for the activated state to remain switched on. Ballard said it took him 40 days of focussed work.
Each person is different. The point is to keep working with it, like a loving person keeps working day and night with a little puppy to gain its trust, attention and cooperation.
Stretchy, spongey, pulling and kneading of the heart space energy… That’s what I’m feeling.
Good work. Excellent work. Awakening, activating, communing. This is the light work we referred to.
Ok, I can work with this for a good while – especially because it is so tangible. I literally can feel it. And presumably I keep the conversation up too – the Heart Check-Ins?
Indeed. Feel free to ask for assistance.
Cool. It’s magnetising, isn’t it? Reminiscent of Tiara Kumara and her book.
