The Soul Embodied

For the Jews a disembodied soul was unthinkable. They understood the body as the vehicle of Wisdom. Likewise the Greeks knew that the body was the bestower of gnosis, knowledge not of the mind but of the sensings of the body, what Eugene T. Gendlin would call the felt sense - sense being meaning - derived not by logic but through an intimate communion as the felt interconnections of all the cells and their interface with the world, physically and imaginaly.

Modern man has become disconnected from the body and theology replaces communion with the living Spirit. Only the healers still explore what the theologians and ministers have forgotten... that Spirit is a life-force, an energy which animates body and mind. The felt sense or felt meaning is the perception of this life energy, a direct knowing of Spirit and its experience as Presence, operative as a power for evolutionary change.

By this omission, personal transformation has become the exception rather than the norm. By this omission preaching has proven itself impotent over the long haul and teaching become a misdirection into the abstractions of conceptual understanding resulting is violence. The need today within religious bodies is to restore the meaning of Spirit as a life energy and encourage the cultivation of a body based knowing - a knowing which is pre-verbal and a product of information processing one million times greater than the conscious mind can achieve.

Of course the great mystics have understood and the quantum biologist is discovering, that the body is really an amalgam of many subtle energies which form a blueprint for our garment of flesh and blood. What we see in the mirror is but an instrument of the living body, and the instrument can become damaged. Yet the energy body retains its knowing of perfect functioning and restoration as well as transformation become thus available.

Now a mirror has its function as the eye that sees can not otherwise see itself. What the mirror of flesh reveals is qualities and attributes of the body energetic that it might better know itself. So the the mirror provides a feedback loop.

So for me - to be more precise - the practice of Spiritual Direction is energy based, combining the knowledge streams of Gendlin's Focusing - exploring the "felt meaning" experience - and of modern energy workers in the domain of healing. It then becomes a skill of learning to allow the Body wisdom to unfold as energy and information in a contemplative healing process of Self revelation.

Credo Mysterium

Credo Mysterium:

Spirit is neither created
nor can it be destroyed -
being without beginning or end.
Spirit but changes form and flows
from one point to another,
one viewpoint to another.
Spirit is thus... Energy.

Energy is omnipresent
unto the vastness of space.
Energy is omniscient -
as intelligent designer.
Energy is omnipotent -
without logical contradiction.
Energy is thus a living force.

This life-power is what I am.
The life-force being collectively
the Unity of the All - Alaha -
a Mystery many call G-d.

The body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit -
that living energy incorruptible.
The body is geometrically composed
of the most subtle resonant fields,
templates for its garment of flesh.
Thus the Spirit is closer than the Jugular.
It is moved by the fields of emotion,
and steered by the currents of thought.
Its essence is the force of love-bliss,
which is our very heaven
and immortal home of the I Am.

In Spirit and as Spirit I worship.
Prior to concepts I contemplate
with groaning s to deep for words,
the Spirit prays, forgives and heals.
Thus in abandon, I am freed.

Arjay

Life-Force Coaching, Part II

An Introduction to Spiritual Direction as life-energy Coaching: An Idiots Guide

1) spir·it noun \ˈspir-ət\ : the force within a person that is believed to give the body life, energy, and power.
~Mirriam Webster

Three essential survival needs are air, food and water. These involve the important fundamentals of Spiritual practice. Spirit has the dual meaning of breath. Our breathing mirrors our psyche. Psyche means "life." Being taught to watch the breath is enjoined with watching the psyche as a beginning practice in the recognition of the psyche as a function of the life-force. Few make the connection and thus a fixation on the respiration does not much cultivate the energetic awareness needed for the next step. That next step is feasting and fasting on the Life-energy itself. One recognizes the life-energy through the body as sensation or "felt meaning." Thus the Body is said to be the Temple of the Holy Spirit - or at least its feedback mechanism.

Here lies a core difference between Spiritual direction as a cognitive process and Spiritual Direction as an energy process. As a cognitive process every word and term is understood via mental constructs primarily and due to the uniqueness of our experience the meaning of terms is quite variable and even ideas such as prayer, or silence or G-d lend themselves to diverse theologizing. Thus there is really not much Direction or guidance going on, only accompaniment as each individual sorts out what has not been previously examined and hopes the guide will be sensitive enough point out when one is becoming at risk of loosing the way. So alternative and less directive terms like spiritual friend are associated with the guide. And if the sojourner finds bumps in the road which create dis-ease, there are no real healing interventions the typical guide has recourse to.

As an energy process Spiritual Direction finds some overlap with the above model, yet is lead by by a different language, a language of the body and its felt meanings. If, simply for illustration, the issue of love comes up, the sojourner may be asked where they feel that in the body. At this point we have a real definitive felt meaning of what is being addressed, even if the words as descriptors are inadequate. The guide may ask questions that help the sojourner distinguish this body energy in terms of solid or flowing, heavy or light, stressful or pleasant, and from many more perspectives. The native wisdom or intelligence of the life-energy in the body mind has a balance point it seeks to achieve and the guide may gently coach the sojourner in releasing or neutralizing the polarities of the energetic tension that the sought after inner peace may be achieved. Both positive and negatively judged perceptions may be released with great benefit in terms of sometimes extra-ordinary healing of body and soul. And expanding insights and intuitive guidance become spontaneously more available, something which might take years to arrive at by typical conversational means or short sighted disciplines of meditation.

Having recognized the functioning of the life-energy, its instinctive wisdom and transformative power, the sojourner is more able to discern that this life-energy is the real guide, the "inner voice" or prompting that was being sought. Its guidance is now available and with cultivation it continues to unlock the obscurations to the Divine Presence which brings fulfillment to ever expanding aspects of the human condition even if our surface human desires are for a time thwarted. In other words, this fulfillment is unconditioned by circumstance yet not necessarily a specific cure-all for living some idealized pain free life. It becomes more like what the Buddha taught - an end to suffering and also a heightened awareness of what I think Jesus taught as a becoming One with existence as Alaha, an incorruptible Unity.

Life-Force Coaching

As the practice of Spiritual Direction is being reintroduced into protestant denominations, including Unitarian Universalism it has been very interesting for me the past couple of weeks in trying to introduce the idea of "energy" into conversations about "spirituality" in my church. I feel like one who has been accused of drunken swearing from the pulpit, or who is trying to reintroduce the idea of a flat earth before The Royal Academy of Science.

Here is a quote from a highly respected contemporary Spiritual Director, author and contemplative concerning the meaning of "spirit."

"Spirit means to me the vital, dynamic force of being, that which is given by God and brings the soul into living reality. This understanding is for me compatible with the ancient terms ruach, pneuma, spiritus, and the Sanskrit prāna. Spirit implies energy and power."
May, Gerald G. (2009-03-25). Care of Mind/Care of Spirit

The Connection of Spirit with energy is quite clear in the quote and throughout history. The idea of energy has advanced human ingenuity far beyond the constraints of mechanics to devices with no moving parts and which allow us to see into the smallest and farthest reaches of the cosmos. In the field of medicine the understanding of energy and a Life-force has allowed us see inside the body and treat disease without invading it with scalpel or dangerous chemicals. In the field of Psychology we now have processes that facilitate restoration of mental health without dredging up endless painful details of the past over periods of months and years - thanks to pioneers like John Thie, John Diamond and Roger Callahan. So the resistance to looking at energy as being not only appropriate and finding useful applications in the area of Spiritual guidance astounds me... especially since it has been an integral aspect of spiritual paths for thousands of years.

But it seems that after the practice of Spiritual Direction fell into long disuse, a very few decades ago some group of "experts" decided to codify what it was and should be for the modern age. The idea of spirit as an energy - not being then understood - was omitted and the new adherents are quite locked into this restricted model.

Perhaps it should not surprise me as the idea of energy has been stripped from the teachings of even yoga in most of the centers I find locally. I seem to recall a Chi Kung class in the Religious Education catalog of my local church but that doesn't mean endorsement. It also perhaps shouldn't surprise me as acceptance of a life energy underlining spiritual teachings would have repercussions about how the worlds scriptures would need to be presented.

Our modern world view is based in the understanding that energy is really all there is, and this knowledge has only improved our ability to comprehend the mysteries of life. Surely this must also apply the greatest Mystery that religions seek to explore.

A String of Consciousness

The first part of this blog was a (somewhat veiled) comment made in the Facebook group Energy Medicine Exchange. The second part is a commentary elaborating on the idea as a practice. It is a way of thinking about it and not meant to be literally accurate - only effective.

Comment:
I always liked magnets. I played for hours as a kid with bar magnets, a piece of paper and iron filings. I was struck by the magnetic field as the cross section of a toroidal shape. The field was large but I was drawn to the center line, the bar, where the field seemed stronger, more dense. I began to imagine myself as a bar magnet. I suspected that references to the sushumna nadi and later to the Governing Vessel (w/ conception vessel) had something to do with this center line. Today ideas of chakras and meridians all take second place to this central core. It is here I go to find the heart, the three Dan tien, all that I need. It is here I now go (as energy worker) in lieu of addressing energy points. It is here where my momentary intention is enlivened. It is my magic wand, the phallus of Shiva. I work with this core, its sacred tremor, its song as likened to a variable tuning fork. This channel which is of infinite extent yet fits easily in the heart space... or anywhere in space. Within is the light of life and death, a perfect stillness of being. Infinite spaces are woven into it as a single thread, and a silence that makes all sounds distinguishable. It is the axis round which my universe extends outward and dances as it spins.

Commentary:
A line is but a series of points extended. Each point on the line exists only by reference to another point. And let's call the first point the "heart" - only so that it has a name. The heart is always only here and now - in eternity one might say. Extended points give the illusion of time, by which one may have the illusion of motion and the perception of vibration. Vibration is the necessary and impeccable alternating  of attention between any point and it's heart reference - which ultimately is a function of consciousness.

Now imagine a line from above the crown to beyond the body base. further imagine that it is as the string on a musical instrument. As one shortens or lengthens the string the vibration changes.
Now imagine a plane perpendicular to the string at some point - in effect shortening the length of the string as with a musicians fingers pressing the string to the neck of the instrument changing the note.
Consider again the idea of a plane intersecting the string and the vibration extending outward creating a geometric pattern much like a table of sand when vibrated creates a pattern unique to the vibration.
Now imagine the line referenced above and compared to the string as having unique vibratory sounds and geometries associated with each of its points.

This is what I refer to as the central column. Using the imagery of this column may recall descriptions of the Sushumna nadi or other metaphysical constructs of subtle anatomy. However flawed it may be as an accurate representation of gross energetic anatomy, it is none the less effective in energy work involving meditation or healing applications. there seems something of a principle here that the pre-conscious mind can work with.

One may intuitively scan the length of this column for blocks and release them in oneself and others. One may locate frequency harmonics related to varied conditions of dis-ease and it's release. One may simply touch it and surrender conditions to its innate wisdom to make adjustments in accord with a gentle intention of correction toward wholeness.

This column may be associated with the body as with a transparent overlay. Yet it may also be liberated from the proximity of the physicality. It may be associated with any point in space and seed like grow from this point - much as an apple seed grows forming a central core with a somewhat toroidal three dimensional all aroundness.

Metaphysically considered this column runs from below the base of sex, to the pure relational love of the sacred heart to the bliss above the crown.It is as the trunk of the tree from which many fruits form on its branches as energetic fields.

For those who use their hands, consider the posture of praying hands and the center line where they touch. as the hands part and one plays with the sensate energy between them the point and the line are considered as still present by inference. play with this knowing and the aspects of point, line and ball as three loci of energy. Even working silently and at a distance, sense the three aspects of another as your hands enfold them.

Meditatively smiling into the column and using the energy of the felt meaning of this non verbal and pre-verbal inner smile as a calibration tool can remove any knots of locked energetic function found in the column and restore a balanced free flow of information associated with ideal function.The smile and the core ultimately merge in my experience as a purity of perception.

There is much more that can be said of this way of working but I am always operating from the view of experimenter rather than system maker, so I here offered a few insights that others may expand upon. The ethical among the readers will credit me for the gift should they make use of it in sharing with others.

For related working models see the Snow Globes concept of EmoTrance, the Emotion Code, and Chinese Energetics.

Healing or Whole-ing?

No human endeavor is to be understood without an understanding of the human mind. Our survival depends less on exploring the stars than exploring ourselves. 

As a healer we are often engaging people in crisis. Their pain could be physical, emotional or a mental conflict such as a crisis of conflicting beliefs. We must in all gentleness understand that without this pain, our clients would have no use for us. Under our care they may grow in exciting and liberating ways, but their motivation is seldom growth itself or self knowledge. 

In the subtle realms of healing work - of soul and spirit -  people may be asked to revisit intense states of feeling that they hoped they would never have to face again. They would have to examine their life which has been constructed within a polarity of seeking pleasure without pain. Such a polarizing strategy usually ends in failure and becomes a life strategy trade of bland existence within a relative comfort zone. 

Even as the unsatisfactoriness of this strategy dawns on them and people turn toward seeking some form of liberation, the path they choose is predicated on the promise that it will not hurt. This consideration is usually dominant over and above the effectiveness of the path.  

But there is a lie here that must be addressed. The lie is that we are not strong enough to bear again the pain of memories past and challenge the decisions we made in their regard. The lie is that vulnerability will weaken us and perhaps even destroy us. 

The truth is that the past is the past even if it was yesterday. The truth is that our past is as the boogie man under the bead - there is no substance to the image apart from our own minds.  To look is to dissolve the fantasy. To look is to be free.  To look is to exit the mirage and become courageous and creative. 

To be a healer or a spiritual guide is be the courage for the seeker, to inspire and reassure. It is to guide the  seekers looking and hearing and feeling until old beliefs fall away and the world in view becomes creative play. 

In my view this is the supreme sport and universal play whose mastery gives excellence in every game of life. It makes every person a winner in a win win world as measured by the standard of unqualified happiness. This requires a shift in understanding ourselves as world leaders currently engaged in crisis management with our clients. 

Perhaps a bigger picture is in order. We are pathfinders of possibilities others can not as yet dream. We few have caught the vision in part but have yet to understand its ramifications. 

Religion, politics, legislation, and philosophy have failed, and science too seems currently under the reign of the profiteers. Our social justice and philanthropic work is a drop in the bucket of need. Thousands of years have passed and history imitates the words of Paul: "That which I would do I do not, and that which I would not, I do."

The time of the healer sages is a possibility now. They are an evolutionary voice and force, a witness for what it is to be human, wholly human, wholly alive, wholly in community with the whole of life. 

I for one seek not a profession of healers but raise my voice for a culture of healing. There is education to be done, much education, which which goes against much of what we have been taught. 

Some suggest that we teach meditation to our children. That is a start. I have suggested that we add a forth "r" to the curriculum ... Relationships. Yet in this time when healing models are so simple that even children can do them, I say let them, encourage them to be healers. The path of happiness and self esteem we already know lies in service. Let them be hero's all  We need not enforce this, only allow it. 

Does anyone have a better idea?

Let's say we want to build healing center. 

It is easier to make changes at the level of the architect than the level of the contractor. And it is easier to make changes at the level of the contractor than after the building is finished and you discover some materials are substandard. So too it is easier to make changes at the level of energy and consciousness than adjust manifest conditions. 

Saying NO does not mean ignore. The negative evokes its image like trying not to think of an Elephant. Once the Elephant is clearly recognized it can be consciously released or deleted New possibilities become available - new choices.  One has only to remove the tusks and add horns and it no longer an Elephant. Adding gratitude that you have the resources may change your relationship to bill paying. Change can be that simple. Being open to the possibility seems the harder part.