Meditation CDs: Meditation Books, CD's

In This Edition Of Mystical Scuttlebutt:
Upcoming Events
Practical Tip
Dilemma Of The Month
Reflection Of The Month
Clues For When You're Stressing Out
Testimonial

Faith's Dilemma: Should I Follow My Trusting Heart Or My Doubting Mind? This one day workshop enriches and enlivens your faith by illuminating the deep partnership between trust and doubt. You discover how this dynamic unfolds inside of you on a day to day basis. Following the guidance of Mystic Wisdom, you learn why it is not only ok, but desirable, to relax into your doubt as well as your trust. And, you are taught precisely how to do so. Staying true to the Facticity vision of creating genuine behavioral change, you gain knowledge of how to install this new awareness and pattern of understanding into your actual brain using a simple, and scientifically sound method. Date: October 14th - Time: 9 to 4:15 - Location: Seattle, WA - Fee: $160 - Early Bird Discount: $140 if paid in full by September 20th. Register Online

“This perspective allowed me to move away from my scientific background and gain a radically different relationship to doubt. By allowing trust and doubt to exist together, trusting no longer seems foolish, but simply a natural condition of Being. Wonderful work!” Valerie Loebs, Physicist

The Enneagram From A Paradoxical Perspective
This two day seminar deepens your ability to explore the age-old puzzlement of how to be both human and divine. With a mindful eye and a compassionate heart, you discover how to recognize and embrace this paradoxical sense of Identity. You learn how to surf the interface between your human personality and your divine essential self with a fascinating and straightforward approach. At the end of the workshop, you have a deeper understanding of how to better navigate the ancient and profound question of “Who Am I?” on a practical, daily basis. Requires a fundamental grasp of the Enneagram of Personality. Date: November 3rd and 4th - Time: Sat. 10:15 to 5:30, Sun. 9:00 to 4:30 - Location: Seattle, WA - Fee: $295 - Early Bird Discount: $265 if paid in full by October 10th. Register Online

" I learned that my Essence and my personality are in a deep partnership. They work together and don’t have to be in a battle to erase each other. The techniques I learned continue helping me create changes, even though the workshop’s long over. I’m grateful for the warmth, wisdom, and creativity of this work .”

When you’re feeling a bit lost and overwhelmed and find yourself attempting to control or manipulate situations or people, stop, as usual, and take a deep breath, tune in for a moment and put your attention on your breathing. Just feel yourself being breathed alive through the inhalation and the exhalation, something over which you ultimately have no control. Then ask yourself, “What am I trying to avoid by attempting to control or manipulate this circumstance or these people? Could I find some inner peace by accepting that what is happening at this moment is “what is” – events unfolding without the storyline I have ascribed to them? Can I get my head around the realization that accepting “what is” is not the same as condoning it or judging it either good or bad?”

These kinds of questions, asked from a place of sincere inquiry, can lead you to the true meaning of “letting go” – the release of your story about what is happening – and the satisfying relaxation that arises when you can “let things be as they are”. Paradoxically, this does not mean that you are to stop trying to make the world a better place. We are, after all, dream machines, designed to dream and to take on the challenge of bringing dreams to life. But it does mean that together, these two perspectives balance each other out and allow the concept of a “Peaceful Warrior” to become an actual reality. Give it a try and after a few times, you’ll begin to get the gist of living in this paradoxical realm of “letting things be as they are” and simultaneously “working to make the world a better place”.

This is probably the most pervasive of our human dilemmas. The inner tug of war between either attending to your own needs OR to the needs of the other is such a common dilemma, that in order to handle it, most of us polarized long ago to either striving to be selfless, or surrendering to the notion that we are selfish and there’s nothing to be done about it. Either way leaves us in tension and anxiety at a deep level because we are constantly being called upon to make and re-make this decision of where to place our attention and energy.

Without realizing it, we have unconsciously equated attending to the needs of our sense of self as “selfish”, identifying it as self-centered, egotistical, or even the extreme of narcissistic. And we have been told over and over again this is BAD. Conversely, we have equated attending to the needs of the other as “selfless” identifying it as noble, gallant, humane, compassionate, self-sacrificing, altruistic, or even the extreme of philanthropic. And we have been told over and over again this is GOOD. The difficulty with this understanding is that it polarizes us and neglects the reality of life’s journey requiring the care and loving of both – your Self and other Selves.

Self and Other are once again an interdependent polar pair. Because they define each other, one cannot exist without the other. And because they are interdependent, there exists movement between the two. The flow of life moves between tending to the needs of self and tending to the needs of others. When we are not able to easily make the decision as to which has the higher necessity in the moment, we can end up in confusion and doubt resulting in indecision, inaction, and often paralysis. Once you understand the dynamic between the equally valuable self and other, you can more easily determine which is the “right” way to move at any given moment. The inner tug of war as to what to do can make you vacillate, waver, be hesitant, uncertain, unsure, and faltering in your response. To be able to make up your mind as to whose needs it is time, in this moment, to attend to can be more easily assessed when you understand and relax into the movement between the two options. As always, the key with living systems is Balance.

To most easily move beyond these old definitions of Self and Other and what they mean about “who we are”, you can contemplate the mystical notion that both Self and Other are like waves in the ocean. They are unique expressions of the movement that flows within the waters. Yet no matter how unique the wave may be, it is still irrevocably connected to the ocean and irrevocably made of the same substance - water. Looked at in this way, you can perceive how all the waves of the ocean are in fact connected to each other and how they are each connected to the ocean itself. There is no separation happening anywhere. Everything that arises out of the ocean is a part of the ocean – and you can directly experience this fact. Then begin to contemplate how your sense of Self and Other begins to shift when you see each as a wave in the ocean – the same and yet different but nevertheless, all connected to the ocean and made up of the same water. Perceiving this diversity within unity is the key to managing this dilemma. To live from this understanding and perception makes relationships workable and Love an easier reality to feel and live. Give it a try. It’s a simple notion, but can make all the difference in the world when you develop this knack for moving from your head to your heart, and from your physical eyes to your mystical eyes.

Stop for a moment, take a breath, and feel your body - wherever it is, or in whatever posture it’s presently taking. Breathe into the feeling of wanting to control whatever is happening. Contemplate the possibility that it is your “NO” to what is happening that begins the inner stress and tug of war that creates dis-ease in the body, mind and heart. Imagine as if you could perceive your passive aggression, manipulation and stressed-out exhaustion as signals that you are pitted against the flow of life in that moment and want something other than what is happening. Now, breathe into your heart space until it is large enough to hold both what you want and what you’re getting. Remember the impermanence of all life’s experiences, and hold the thought, ”This too shall pass”. This action can begin the process of surrendering to whatever life is presenting to you in the moment, while, paradoxically, remembering you can still follow your desire to make a better life. Give it a try and deepen your personal experience of what it really means to “go with the flow” and accept “what is”.

"This work is so precise in terms of getting in touch with unconscious patterns and reworking them that the shifts occur naturally. There are no behavioral changes you have to work at. They just come about.”