Quiet Still Pool Within

Hello My Friends,

Welcome from an intoxicating April afternoon. I'm sitting in my usual spot, on the infamous golden valor couch that made an appearance on the set of  Napoleon Dynamite. (Well, not this exact one, but its sister.) I think it fitting that many hours of group meditation has taken place on its worn cushions, the cats alone putting in a grueling 23 hours a day all winter, entwined together, closer and closer the colder it gets. 

I do love this couch.  In past editions it was covered with a bright red patchwork quilt, now it has retired to a comfortable and enormous sheepskin covering, likely the draw for the cats. 

When I first got the sheepskin rug the cats would check in over and over, glancing quickly into my eyes before tiptoeing their way over to curl up in the center of my chest, no doubt in great deference and honor of my obvious huntress abilities. 

I'm sitting here,  looking out across the valley at the far hillside, the deciduous trees blushing a maroon haze, a million furled leaf buds poised for spring. 

I tend to say the same thing over and over in these emails, I'm led to give this message again today; so hear ye hear ye!  

There are places that are eternal and of indescribable solace, power, and healing within each and every person that can be accessed through practice. 

I'm talking about basic unalterable facets of your very being, facets that we share with every other person on this planet, though they can be hidden far far below layers of impacted and solidified trauma (also called unconscious material).

People show up in harmful ways because of trauma. And as long as the trauma remains unconscious it cannot, by definition, be seen by the person.  

People who are grounded, feeling deep peace and joy, do not harm other people and the planet. It is when the person's life force has to operate from the thick, usually generationally reinforced mask of unhealed trauma that we get harmful behaviors such as greed, jealousy, disregard of boundaries, and the misuse of power, to name a few.

The message I am led to write about today is to remind people that we can learn to access and find the deep facets of our being, facets such as peace, joy, vastness, tenderness, and compassion. What I am saying is that this is entirely possible, people can find their way to the real and direct experience of belonging, worth, patience and home regardless of external circumstances. The catch is that it takes consistent work.

These facets exist unto themselves, already complete and eternal within each of us, unalterable by exposure to the world.

Do you understand the import of that? That we all house, no are made, of eternal and unbreakable components of unmeasurable beauty and worth? That is what you are.  

We do not need to create or invent these facets of being. They are here, right now. We just need to find our way to them and then spend time steeped in their energy field, or as I like to imagine it, bowed at their feet. 

The more time we spend in ACTUAL silence, peace, welcome, and gratitude, the more we learn, and the more our nervous systems and neuroplasticity reflects the unalienable wisdom of these facets of our being.

I specify ACTUAL because it is very very easy for these facets of being to become concepts in our minds, and we must be vigilant to discern the difference between an actual experience of profound stillness (for example) versus the concept of profound stillness. They are entirely different from each other, and while the word and concept is very useful for communication, it is not useful for inner work, growth, and connection to Spirit and the Universe. 

I once guided a client to a great field of eternal Peace that was right there within him. He traveled there quickly and easily as I guided, and the result was profound.

He said that it was the first time he had been anxiety-free since he could remember, and he was in his 50s. If you have lived with a background anxiety for 50+ years, and then suddenly experience its divine opposite, that is a deeply impactful and momentous point in ones life.

A direct experience (not concept) of great peace devoid of anxiety gives a new reference point, and even if it is difficult to get back to it (and with disciplined practice it becomes easier), the direct experience of a 'peace beyond understanding' will change your life.

I remember the first time I touched the actual immense bulk of quiet within myself. It was amazing, and a bit startling to find a thing that was just right there inside, right there and undeniably a thing, a place.

I was at a seven day silent meditation retreat in North Carolina with my teacher Adyashanti, and in one of the morning guided meditation he guided us to follow the breath, like a little slide, right down to the bottom of the out breath.

Then he said to notice if there was a little still pool or pause there before the next in breath came. There was for me, and as he continued to guide, telling us to intuitively give ourselves to that quiet pool, the silence got deeper and deeper and more and more of a thing that was just there, uncreated by my mind, abiding, eternal and of utter  Home, remembered in my bones, a homecoming. 

I have been able to find it ever since, and it is the source of healing, solace, and sometimes insight. I think because I can find it so reliably in myself I am able to guide others there, much as Adyashanti did for me. He showed me the way. There was only once time when I was under extreme stress after a surgery, and still influenced by the anesthesia and pain medication that I could not find it. That was a blessing as well, because another door opened and I went to a place that I don't know how to describe, but it was profound.

I have an ability to guide people to these facets of being. Each person has a few that are the most accessible, and I know how to help a person discover what facet of being is the most accessible to them. I don't know where I got this ability, unless it was via Adyashanti lighting it up, but in the years I have worked in my current profession many times I have heard some variation of 'this is the first time I've really taken a breath in 5 years', or 'I have never felt that before' or 'I have not felt Home since I was 5'.

I truly believe finding one or two of these facets of being within is an essential part of healing ourselves, each other, and our world. Without a profound and resounding anchor in their actual experience, not a mental concept of them, we will keep repeating the same trauma and hurt on each other and the world. 

And so. Wherever your political standing or world view, we can come together in learning, on our own and in sacred community, how to enter into these places of inherent power and beauty, and how to bring them forth in our lives. This is good work. This is a good thing to put your time into. I can think of little more worthwhile.

There are many places to do this work, and one of them is Place of Peace. I am dedicated to providing a safe and beautiful place where people can ease out of fight, flight, freeze and fawn, and spend time immersed in healing.

It takes time, and that is one reason that I am drawn to offer several different repeating offerings each week; it takes repeated and sustained time spent in quiet and safety to find your way into the deeper facets of your being, or into the presence of God. It really is a practice, and like anything worth strengthening in life it takes dedication and repeated time-in.

An incomplete list of the Facets of Being:
peace, joy, tenderness, quiet, stillness, velvety blackness, vastness, sacred communion, unity, patience, cozy, love, compassion, clarity, sturdiness, silence, gratitude, welcome, abundance, nothingness, limitless potentiality
 

Friday Evening Silent Meditation & Prayer
Fridays, 6pm
$10-$40 sliding scale.
Click Here for more information.

Weekly Tuesday Morning Group Presence & Healing
Tuesdays 11am-12:30
Place of Peace
Beginning Tuesday April 8th
$10-$40 sliding scale
Click Here for more information.