Archive for February 20, 2012

More Havingness

February 20, 2012 Jean No comments

Almost everyone I know has been experiencing great change during this early part of 2012: a big shift in career, relocation, a major relationship ending and/or a new one beginning, death, health challenges, or all of the above! No doubt, big changes are happening. And, for many those changes are taking the form of major breakthroughs in life-long challenges, or visions and ventures that have been seen and worked on for years, and finally fruition is happening. What an exciting time of opportunity and growth!

One of the themes I’ve noticed throughout all this growth and change we’re witnessing in and around us is Havingness. We are, without a doubt, stepping into a new world, a new community of humanity, a new consciousness. And the underlying pattern of this newness is our greater havingness, both personally and collectively. Havingness is like receptivity, our ability and willingness to accept, to have, what is. Havingness places no limits upon ourselves. It recognizes and validates miracles, and it gives space for the entire spectrum of human experience.

While collectively we still have a long way to go in expanding our havingness, we are taking great steps. We are having more awareness and permission to speak up about what we see and know. Revolutions, protests, petitions and demonstrations worldwide attest to this. We are having more willingness to question old ways of doing and being while creating new systems and modes of relating economically, politically and socially. Grassroots community organizations promoting sustainability, alternative currency, sharing, fairness in housing, organic agriculture, new education models and creative expression all attest to this greater havingness for our new world.

We know we’re the ones we’ve been waiting for, and we are being the change we’d like to see, and are seeing, in the world.

Our next step is to continue to have more. We will have more change when we can accept that ugliness, greediness and fear has appeared to control the world for too long, and continues to seem dominant and unyielding. When we can give the fear, greed and ugliness within us space to Be, rather than fight it, hide it, fear it, deny or ignore it, we can be free from it. Without our resistance to fear, fear has no power. It is a wind that dies and and disappears without us blowing back at it. When we can fully have fear, fear won’t have us in it’s grip.

The grip of fear is loosening everywhere, within us and all around us. It’s a joy for me to witness. Yet as fear comes out of the woodwork, we can sometimes lose ourselves in the confusion of its whirlwind release. We can forget who we are, become afraid of the fear, and experience the agonizing resistance to fear. But what if we could just have the fear? What would that look or feel like?

Havingness for fear means we are the neutral (meaning non-judging and non-resisting), aware, compassionate and amused observer of the energy we call fear, and all of the emotions, sensations and effects of it in the body-mind. This takes practice, and willingness to fail and try again, over and over. Havingness is a huge step towards mastery. Becoming more and more aware, neutral, compassionate and amused of what we experience in our body-mind is the path to mastery. It may not always be easy, but it can be fun if we choose!

So what does havingness for fear have to do with having more fun? How can we possibly have fun with fear? We can start, in the moment, and choose every moment, not to be afraid of or judge fear. This gives us space and awareness. We are not so stuck in the tunnel of fear and judgement that we can’t see what it is, how we got in it and how to get out. Then we can accept ourselves within the experience of fear: “I can have that I am in fear, and love myself in this space.” Then we can get curious and neutral to the fear. “Wow, that’s an amazing amount of fear! Look at how thick, dark, ugly, terrifying, convincing and annoying that fear is!” We can even become a little amused :) “Holy shit! That fear really threw me for a loop! It really has me shakin’ and tremblin’! I’m peeing my pants!” If we can accept ourselves running in fear circles, or becoming a monster every once in a while because of fear, then we can start to have a little fun with it. We can stop, breathe, have some space from it, not take it so seriously, take our power back, and enjoy the ride back to peace, clarity, joy, love and wholeness.

More havingness for the darker side of life is also more havingness for the bright side of life. We can’t have peace, joy, prosperity and love if we are resisting fear, greed, anger, sadness and hatred. When we resist something we make it real in our experience. When we can have something, we recognize and experience the Truth.

Forgiveness, Gratitude, Morning Meditations, Next Step

Dying

February 7, 2012 Jean 2 comments

There seems to be a lot of dying happening lately. A friend of mine died in December, another friend’s mom died last week. Several people I know appear to be on the verge of death. It sounds depressing, but I’m not mourning, I’m celebrating.

What’s really happening is a whole lot more Life in our lives. A friend I spoke with today shared about her visions and creative projects, how they were unfolding and manifesting and how, along the way, she’s experienced a lot of fear shedding. We laughed about how we die every day by shedding our old fearful limited self for the bigger, brighter, unlimited Self. Each day we choose Life–that which is Unlimited, All-Giving and Eternal–we let what appears to limit the un-limitable die order to experience more of who we really are. It was never really alive to begin with, but we fed it with our minds and made it seem so. Aren’t we funny? As we let the old energy die out, we make space for what is birthing from within us: our creativity, our Joy, our dreams and visions, our purpose, our Awareness. Our Life.

I’ve experienced this increase in dying within myself lately as well. While people I know may be dying here and there, I know that who they are never dies, and that each day we must be prepared to die in order to truly live. My teacher and friend, Michael Tamura, who also died recently and lived to tell about it, taught that if we could live each day knowing that “It’s a good day to die,” we could truly have life. We can’t have life without death. We can’t have anything if we are resisting its opposite, for we become what we resist. It reminds me of an Osho quote I saw recently: “The real question isn’t whether life exists after death. The real question is whether you are alive before death.” If we are constantly resisting or trying to avoid death, we can never truly live.

How often in a day do we resist death? I don’t just mean death of the body or thoughts of our physical passing. More than that, how often do we resist letting go of any thoughts, emotions, fears, pain, “good” experiences or “bad” experiences. How much of our energy do we invest in trying to keep things the same? How much of our life force goes into resisting change? While we may be wanting or trying to change some things about our life or circumstances, we are usually also trying to avoid other inevitable changes. What if we let go of all that effort to make this change and make that stay the same, and instead celebrated the Life that Is, eternally, amidst the passing of life and death, birth and dying?

Jesus said, “Be passersby”. Like the Buddhist teaching of non-attachment, Jesus taught us to move through life with neutrality. To move through this world knowing that “this too shall pass” is to have certainty in Divinity, in That which Is without beginning or end: Life. When we live as passersby, we know that Life exists eternally no matter what appears to be happening in this world, to our bodies or our thoughts. When we live as passersby we are not attached to things being a certain way in order for us to feel safe, be happy or have peace and freedom. As passersby, we let all thoughts of fear, guilt, limitation, anger, judgement, blame or shame die the moment they appear to be born. We continue on our steady, certain path of Truth in celebration of Life.

As we celebrate Life more and more, all that has limited our experience of its Joy, Peace and Freedom falls away. This can be experienced as dying in many ways. We may physically feel like we’re dying, experience pain emotionally, or notice more fear in our minds. This is all cause for celebration. The old is dying to make wake for the new, both personally and globally. Humanity’s old models and systems are dying. Hurray! We are opening the space for more Life to be expressed and experienced in our world. Say Yes! to dying and make way for peace, joy and plenty!

Life has no limits. As more and more limits meet their death, stand by and watch the death march while Life parades in a new era for humanity. Rise up singing and dancing in celebration of Life!

Forgiveness, Next Step