Open-Secrets

Tag: realization

  • Magic that Liberates

    The Miraculous: more magical than Harry Potter

    magic-realizationHuman beings seem to have a love and fascination for the magical and miraculous. Look at how many books, TV shows and films have themes of magic and miracles: from Harry Potter to Merlin to Gandalf to Dr. Strange; from Excalibur and Bewitched  to Jumanji and Hocus Pocus. Magic pervades our stories. Even lottery ticket sales reflect a certain amount of magical thinking.

    In comparison to fancy thoughts of magic and miracles, daily life may seem a bit too ordinary, even boring. A little magic or a now and then miracle would certainly help to spice up the ordinary. And yet, when we look more closely at what science is revealing about the universe, the subatomic world, the human brain and the potential for technological and biological evolution – well, it all seem spectacularly magical and miraculous.

    Recently, I attended a retreat with A.H. Almaas, founder of the Diamond Approach to Self-Realization. The theme of the retreat was The Magic of Realization. In his talks, Almaas addressed how we lose sight of the magic in everyday life, how the mind orients toward magic like everything else – externally and as a means to control external events; and how ordinary life from the perspective of deep realization is astoundingly magical and miraculous. By seeing the magic in everyday life, we can be continually inspired by our personal experience.

    [wpdevart_youtube]rAnfznAbCbQ[/wpdevart_youtube]

  • Bulletproof Realization

    Self-Realization – Beyond Concepts, Beliefs, Attitudes & Attacks

    bulletproof realizationI got on the spiritual path at age 19. The experience that precipitated my interest in spiritual development, self-realization, God-realization, enlightenment and such was, at that time, just mind boggling. Today, I realize that the experience involved a descent of essence into my consciousness and body, and an awakening of the point.

    Like many, I have spent years seeking, searching, making half-assed attempts at meditation (daily practice), attending workshops, retreats and in the course of events spending more than tens of thousands of dollars. In the process of all of that, I matured (to some degree!) physically, emotionally and spiritually. My journey or process deepened. My orientation reoriented. My interests and curiosity started going places I could not have imagined.

    letting go weight liftingToday, I find myself here – not going anywhere, no interest in changing or making something happen. It seems things change on their own and that there is an intelligence guiding it all that is more in touch with what I need to unwind than my mind on it’s best day could offer up. A real weight-lifting experience – so to speak.

    I recently attended Byron Brown’s Soul without Shame workshop, a 3 1/2 day teaching on disengaging from the superego / inner critic. The superego / inner critic is one of the places of arrested development in our psyches and souls that constantly attacks and undermines our realization. Interestingly, in the beginning it actually serves us to move toward deeper realization, but then it really gets in the way. Doubt is one of it’s most effective tools. It also works through other people by producing attacks from the outside.

    So there I was minding my own business two days after the workshop reading a magazine when I came upon this:

    The harder you hit this material, the more powerful it becomes.  F. Daniel Tsai, Novana

    And that is where and how the words bulletproof and realization crossed paths in my brain and got me to thinking and contemplating bulletproof realization. I haven’t the time, nor inclination to share the breadth and depth of my contemplation, but I will say this – if we want to bulletproof our realization – live our realization, without goals & artifice, penness, curiosity and not-knowing are better supports and servants for orienting us.

    Realization is practice. Practice is realization.

    [ad#post468]

  • What happens when ego is matabolized?

    What is the agent of transformation?

    I’ve often wondered how the inner experience of oneself changes with the transformation of ego identity and structure. I know how my life is freer and more fluid from the years of work and exploration, but I still have a very active subjective inner life with habitual mental activity, concerns and attitudes, old patterns, and historic identities.

    I found this reflection by A. H. Almaas on his experience to be very poignant and instructional.

  • Obsidian Samadhi

    Obsidian Samadhi – Diamond Approach Summer Retreat

    fulcrumI’m at the annual summer retreat for the Ridhwan School (Diamond Approach). About 700 students are gathered at Asilomar near Monterey California.

    Hameed Ali, who writes under the pen name A.H. Almaas began the first session with a meditation he calls Obsidian Samadhi = clear awareness, calm alertness.

    The subject of the 10-day retreat is Fulcrum (dictionary -a:  the support about which a lever turns b : one that supplies capability for action). The inquiry will revolve around – Practice is Realization, Realization is Practice.

    On first blush, it seems to me that the fulcrum is the soul or the personal consciousness where practice is initiated and applied and realization arises. We shall see.

    Items of Interest

    Links of Interest

    [ad#post468]

Open-Secrets