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Mystical Scuttlebutt April 09 |
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In this edition of Mystical Scuttlebutt:
• Upcoming Events
• A Practical Tip
• Dilemma Of The Month
• Managing The Dilemma
• Reflection
• Testimonial
Paradox Soiree: We meet every 3rd Friday of each month through June in Seattle. To attend you must have participated in a No More This Or That Workshop, or receive a personal invitation by an on-going member. The purpose of the Soiree is to deepen your ability to think in opposites and to perceive from a paradoxical perspective. This months gathering was facilitated by our own delightful Teresa Dahl. She focused on “The Mystical Leader: Balancing The Feminine and Masculine Energies”. $35. For further information, please contact Ragini at 425 462 4369 or ragini@facticity.com .
Embracing Your Paradoxical Identity Using The Enneagram: One-day introduction to the Facticity model of  the Enneagram of Paradoxical Identity. You will learn how to use the Enneagram to better identify, embrace, and integrate your dual identity as Divine and Human in daily life.
Pre-requisite is a basic knowledge of the Enneagram model, including the 9 personality types and their wings. We will focus on the Objective Perspectives (Holy Ideas) as they correlate to each Subjective Perspective (personality type), and how these Objective Perspectives offer a roadmap to recognizing and embracing your paradoxical identity as both Spiritual Consciousness and Human Consciousness. September 12. Seattle. $125. Early Bird Discount by August 12 - $100. For more details and registration, click here.
The Psychology Of The Mystics: In this two-day workshop you will learn the 7 basic assumptions about our reality that lay at the root of a mystic’s psychology. This is a road map to the “differences that make the difference” between ordinary psychology and mystical or enlightened psychology. You will also receive a specific technique to help spiritual consciousness better inform human consciousness in specific circumstances or situations. Exploring these mystical perspectives stimulates the opening of your mystical eyes, offering perceptions of the world from a fundamentally opposite point of view. Facticity and Paradox Management are rooted in these mystical assumptions. The purpose of these models is to accelerate the linkage of our spiritual consciousness to our human consciousness by shifting our ordinary psychology to match the structure of the Psychology of the Mystics. A fascinating and powerful support for your desire to live a more spiritually informed daily life. Excellent personal growth tool for individuals, therapists, counselors, and coaches. October 10-11. Seattle. $225. Early Bird Discount by September 10 - $200. For more details & registration, click here.
As spring emerges, it is the perfect time to take a few moments here and there throughout the day and inhale the fragrance of renewal. As you breath in this aroma of rebirth, you can feel the freshness of this new beginning rekindling  and relighting the urge to grow – and perhaps your own desire to develop and create – whether it be a book, a poem, a savory dish for your beloved, or a nutritious garden. Today is a new beginning. It is so obvious that it is often overlooked and forgotten. All the problems and plights of the day can be set aside while you take the time to stop and breath in the wonders of life’s blossoming resurgence. Imagine opening your heart and inviting this flow of new beginnings to wash through every cell of your body and mind. Imagine it flowing out from your eyes and your heart, cleansing away your fears and negative expectations of the future, allowing you to expect to receive all that spring always consistently brings – beauty, freshness, hope, and trust in the awesome reality of Nature’s magic. I invite you to stop and drink in this spring several times a day for at least one week – regardless of the weather – and you’ll find your perception of life’s magic and mystery rekindling and relighting itself with the flame of your sweet awareness.
This is a wonderful time of year to contemplate the dilemma of Being vs. Doing. All around us Nature is demonstrating the paradoxically powerful harvest of her productively fallow wintry period. Out of the season’s apparently dormant quiet spring arises - the year’s most abundant bursting forth of creative prowess. Despite this experience year after year, our Western minds have little faith or trust in the yields of quiet reflection or silent contemplation. We seem to harbor a great deal of impatience, and a touch of cynicism, toward the notion that simply Being will directly better our lives.
There is no doubt that Doing dominates the Western mind. Most of us might even profess to some confusion around what the notion of Being actually means. Many of us are fearful that it is simply laziness. Others see it as irresponsible behavior. Some folks define the Doing of their spiritual awakening as Being. A few of these people move away from Doing as if it were the enemy of Being. Others are resentful of how much time they have to “do” just to survive - it cuts in on their time to Be.
Here’s some of the ways you might find yourself involved in this issue:
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- Should I take some time to rest and rejuvenate and do nothing,
or should I pull out that “to do” list and get busy and take responsibility for my life?
- Should I stop and smell the roses and just meander the city without an agenda,
or should I finish my taxes on time and plan out the details of my retirement?
- Should I sit for awhile and watch the clouds roll by and enjoy the beauty of it all,
or should I tackle organizing the chaos I’ve created in my office and my kitchen cabinets?
- Should I do my meditation practice this morning,
or should I skip it and make my day more efficient by doing my errands on the way to work? |
 When Doing has all your attention to the exclusion of Being, you will soon fall into feelings of exhaustion and overwhelm. You may begin to feel anxious and fearful that you’ll never be able to stop and rest, giving rise to feelings of hopelessness, depression, and sometimes, an actual inability to make any decision at all. These thoughts and feelings are actually signals naturally generated by over-Doing to let you know you are done and need to plug into a source of renewal and revitalization. The question is, do you listen to these messages, or do you override them, pushing yourself because you believe what you have to do is too important to let slide – even for 10 or 15 minutes?
On the other hand, when Being has all your attention to the exclusion of Doing, signals also begin to arise. You will soon fall into restlessness as the need to move and create and live out loud stir up trouble. You might fall into a kind of spacey day-dream state and find laziness or sloth overwhelming you, making movement seem an impossible task. Or a sense of entitlement and specialness could begin to arise, potentially leading to positioning yourself as superior and cut from a better grade of cloth than others. These signals are naturally generated by over-Being (that’s right – and that’s quite a weird statement, isn’t it?) to let you know you are ready to move and use your renewed energies to engage, explore, and dive into living. The question is, do you listen to these messages, or do you override them, pushing yourself because you believe the practice of Being is too important to move away from – seeing the basics of everyday living as distractions from your goal?
Either way, you find yourself in a pickle because Doing and Being are, paradoxically, an interdependent polar pair that must dance and play together in their own rhythm and style – regardless of how you might feel about it. It is going against this rhythm that creates the distress, exhaustion, and disappointment in yourself and your life.
So the challenge is how to manage this dilemma and embrace both Being and Doing.
First, notice when you are engaging in action without awareness (polarized to Doing), or engaging in awareness without action (polarized to Being).
Second, remember you are once again dancing with duality - a basic facticity of life. These two seeming opposites are inseparable for each defines itself by the absence of the other. Thus, where one goes, the other will follow. They are married for life and actually make the grandest of partners.. When one is tired, the other takes over, and visa versa – just like the fibers that make up your muscles. They are there for each other, without question.
Third, attend to the signals arising and passing away in your body. When Doing has been in the driver’s seat too long and the need to engage in Being is ignored, Being will hound you, demanding your attention. It will use the most unpleasant means of communication - exhaustion, discontent, frustration, irritation, anger, despair, hopelessness, even the creation of emotional and physical illness – all the loving calling of your need to Be.
When Being has been in the driver’s seat too long, and the need to engage in Doing is ignored, Doing will also hound you. It too will use somewhat unpleasant means to get your attention – creating worry, fear of missing the mark, creating doubts about fulfilling your purpose, and raving on about the possibility you’re missing the real experience of life by not engaging in it! - all the passionate calling of your need to Do.
Fourth, relax into the signal you’re receiving and allow the flow of life to carry you forward into the next step of the dance. In that moment you can discover that Being is actually Doing the journey for you, and you can rest and enjoy the ride.
 Finally, explore the deep mystical insight that allows you to perceive and experience both Being and Doing as the deepest paradox of all. For in reality, Being and Doing are two different dimensions of human experience. These two dimensions are on-going and occur simultaneously. Thus, when you can experience Being and Doing unfolding at the same time, you have the deepest understanding that once again opens the door to the ‘peace that passes all understanding’.
Until that depth of clarity arises, simply learn the rhythm of activity and passivity, movement and stillness, work and play, purpose and uselessness. I invite you to listen to your body and attend to these signals as they arise and fall away. The need to do. The need to be. The need to act. The need to rest. The need to move. The need to be still. The need to focus out. The need to focus in. Listen to your body for the rhythm of Being and Doing is not in your hands. What is in your hands is your awareness. Practice the steps to this paradoxical dance and greater peace will arise. You will discover a more workable life with less stress and a greater ability to enjoy the journey.
To visit this month’s new Reflection highlighting Jesus, please click here.
“Ragini’s paradox work has given me one of the most useful tools I’ve ever encountered! I’m so much better at noticing and navigating all those dilemmas that have been chasing me around in circles for years. Fabulous, and so helpful!”
Sally Donaldson, Businesswoman, Ithaca, New York.
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