Topic: Announcements
Know The Flow Has A New Home
I started this blog January, 2009. At first it made sense to use a free blogging service. But some 240 posts and a bunch of inspiration later I am delighted to have taken the next step on this journey. After months of planning, building, and refining this blog finally has a new home.
There are a number of benefits that come from taking the leap from a free blogging service to a dedicated and custom-designed blog. Regular visitors will notice newly added page navigation and colourful design.
To the side you’ll note a new email subscription feature. By signing up you can specific which blog topics you want to receive, sit back, and wait for posts to come to you.
Perhaps the feature I am most excited about is the introduction of meditation Podcasts. I’ve been recording a series of 11 podcasts over the past few months for a meditation practice that I have titled, Revealing Eternal Presence Meditation. To get you started I’ve posted a 30 minute meditation. However, over the coming months I’ll be publishing the entire REP series of Podcasts.
Whether you are looking for a meditation practice, open to trying something new for your existing practice, or simply curious about what meditation is then these podcasts are my gift to you. And thanks to the wonders of technology you’ll be able to find them through podcast directories such as iTunes, play them directly in your browser, or download the mp3 files directly to your computer or mobile device.
If you enjoy this blog, and use Twitter and Facebook, then please support my efforts by clicking the like and tweet buttons at the beginning of each post. These buttons are an effortless way for readers to spread the word about Know the Flow. In short, these buttons are all about digital ‘word of mouth’.
Thanks to everyone who has given me such wonderful feedback and support. It really is appreciated. And if you’re here for the first time please let me know what you think either by posting comment below or the sending me a message through the Contact page.
Know the Flow and be happy.
An Interim Home for Meditation Recordings
I was speaking with a web designer friend in Second Life earlier today and he pointed out that I do not need to wait for the newly designed webpage being available before sharing the meditations I’ve begun to record. If you look to the right hand side of this page you will see a new set of links with the title Meditation Recordings.
The 30 minute meditation is an abridged version of the first 60 minute session and is designed for convenience. I have also shared the first two stages of the Revealing Eternal Presence Meditation practice. My guidance is to listen to the 60 minute meditation I before proceeding to II. If you meditate for 1 hour a day I would suggest working with stage I for approximately 2 weeks before using stage II.
I hope you enjoy these meditations. Over time I will be sharing more of this meditation practice as well as providing them in Podcast format so that you can more easily transfer them to mobile devices.
Meditation – Neutralizing Negative Reactions
When we are ready to hear (or read) a message it will make itself apparent. When the student is ready the teacher will appear.
I am going to assume you’ve heard these cliché’s before. Before I get to an announcement I’d like to make, I wanted to share a story I heard on Sunday while at a party. A friend of mine was on a cruise with her husband and two daughters. During the trip she had the opportunity to hear Dr. Michael Beckwith speak. Apparently, during this talk Dr. Beckwith suddenly went on a tangent of topic and started talking about what drinking soda does to your body. My friend’s perception was that it was clear that Dr. Beckwith was obviously channeling truth, and even though the tangent lasted some 10 minutes or so it had a profound impact. So much so that her daughters got out the ‘soda tokens’ they had purchased and gave them to their mother, indicating that they had no use for them. Their mother’s smile shifted when a woman behind her, obviously present to the very same message, asked if she could have those soda tokens since her children could use them.
Obviously, there were different levels of awareness unfolding in that exchange. Her daughters were ready to hear Dr. Beckwith’s message and make a choice accordingly. The mother sat behind them was not. This is not to pass judgment, rather to provide a concrete example that relates how our present level of awareness has a great influence on our choices. And when I consider my own personal experience I am often struck by how much my awareness, and consequently the theme of my choices, has changed over the years.
As a part of being a Teaching Assistant for the Centre’s current Spiritual Practices class for these past 10 weeks I’ve been re-reading, ‘Can we Talk to God?’ by Dr. Ernest Holmes. I’ve read this book before (or at least, thought I had read it before). However, this time around the experience has been substantially different. Apparently, I am now ready to appreciate messages that passed me by before. How do I know? Well, not only am I highlighting new sections but there are some instances where it takes me several days to get through a page or two. It’s taken me about a week to get from page 85 to 91!
I wanted to highlight a few passages that have really resonated with my current focus, and with Revealing Eternal Presence Meditation in particular. On page 87 of the 1992 edition, Holmes writes:
“It is not our spirit that needs to be made whole; it is our mental reactions to life that need healing. These mental reactions are both conscious and subjective. Successful mental treatment must neutralize negative reactions on both the conscious and subjective planes. Proper teaching does this for the conscious mind, and proper mental treatment will do it on the subjective side of thought.Mental healing is not accomplished through a coercion of the consciousness, but through it’s illumination.”
This passage jumped out me because I have decided at some point to grow at that inner level of Intelligence. I wasn’t ready for that passage a couple of years ago. But as I read it now it jumps off the page. How we react to life, to the sensations that surface from beneath the surface of our consciousness, is central to our experience. Every reaction is a thought. Every thought is a prayer. The Buddha taught that the blind reaction to a sensation is how we condition the unconscious (or what I call subjective) mind. In my experience meditation is the ideal vehicle to practice being aware of sensations and practicing not reacting blindly to them. During meditation if I have an itch, I do not scratch it. If I have a pleasant memory, I do not crave it residing. If I have a pain I objectively observe it, not wishing it would go away. And so on, until I have practiced such a balanced reaction to the point that equanimity (or balance of the mind) becomes a habit.
And at this time, and during the re-reading, a beautiful yet subtle wisdom is becoming apparent for me. If one looks at mental treatment as being meditation (and not just prayer, of Scientific Mind Treatment) then suddenly what was a mystery to me is decrypted within the passage. What I read in this passage is that Dr. Holmes is telling me to use meditation as a vehicle to neutralize negative reactions to what I experience, both consciously and subconsciously. And he’s also advising us that proper teaching will be very important to master this consciously.
It seems like common sense, and yet it took me over two years from reading this passage for the first time to begin to delve into the deeper mysteries of this particular snippet of wisdom. This approach has yielded great illumination for me and requires no coercion. It is no coincidence that after having stepped up to claim a new idea for myself recently that this passage should take on such significance.
A little later he writes:
“There is a subtle element here – that of knowing the truth and then letting go so that the truth may demonstrate itself. Perhaps this is one of the most difficult things to understand in spiritual work. Our thought is creative, but we do not make it so; it was so before we realized it – not will but willingness; not coercion but conclusion.”
The theme for meditation continues. We must let go of any knowing we think we have of the truth and allow the truth to demonstrate itself. Certainly, we must aspire and be ready to hear the message, but we must not crave hearing a message either. And this is indeed one of the most difficult things to understand in our spiritual work. Truly letting go, neither craving nor averting, is to surrender. Yet, how hard is it to fully surrender? Think of something you care deeply for. Now consider that if the object of your caring is a thing or relationship that exists in this apparent reality then how ready are you to surrender should it pass away? And as you contemplate this consider that the Buddha taught that, suffering results when we wish things to remain unchanging in the constantly changing apparent reality.
Dr. Holmes continues:
“Conviction compels the attention of the intellect; it is Reality which floods it…The Originating Power descends into the consciousness that meditates upon It and receives It.”
And with those two sentences I knew I had to blog about this. One of the central purposes of Meditation for me is to practice being aware of Eternal Presence, or ‘Reality’. It is inspiring to hear Dr. Holmes confirm in his experience that, if I meditate upon the Eternal Presence, then I will reveal Eternal Presence.
I want to acknowledge that one of the challenges with communicating such ideas in this blog is that unless you directly experience this for yourself then these are just words. Until you make something your own it cannot become your wisdom.
To that end I am delighted to make a few announcements. I am currently having a new site for http://www.knowtheflow.ca/ built. This will be a new incarnation of this blog, with a much greater degree of organization as well as the ability to subscribe to the content that most appeals. And, perhaps most significantly, I will be incorporating podcasts as a part of this site. What does this mean? Well, I plan on recording some of the Revealing Eternal Presence meditations I lead. If you are unable to meditate with me, either in real or second life, then you will be able to download some of these meditations to play on your iPhone, computer or any other suitable audio device. It is my vision that by recording these meditations that I will be able to support you in discovering one potential of meditation for yourself.
In the meantime, here’s the new logo for the site. Know the Flow and be happy, dear friends.
Revealing Eternal Presence Meditation: A Practical, Relevant and Simple Spiritual Practice
It is my experience that I am surrounded by people with intelligent and enquiring minds. It is also my experience that there is a growing realization that simple faith and worship are no longer enough in this day and age. There is an increasing intensity of enquiry when it comes to spiritual teachings that are relevant to daily life. The typical process of enquiry for me runs along the lines of: Is it relevant, is it practical, is it simple? If these three questions of enquiry yield a ‘yes’ for me then I will invariably dig deeper into said teaching. And I suspect that, even if many people are not aware of this kind of process going on within their minds, any teaching that is relevant, practical and simple will find significant appeal to our present-day society.
And so like many others in this world that have encountered a personal moment of profound spiritual transformation, I’ve been seeking teachings to help me understand what is going on and what my purpose in life is. I’ve been a seeker of Truth for about 15 years now. I wanted to use this blog to introduce an idea that has come to mind that I have called, the Revealing Eternal Presence (REP) Meditation. But before I share more about REP Meditation I will provide the necessary context for this idea that comes in the form of two teachings that I’ve been working with for a while.
The first of these teachings is one I’ve been studying for the past 6 years. Arguably the most notable of Dr. Ernest Holmes prolific writings was a book he authored in 1926 called, the Science of Mind. The Science of Mind is both a philosophy and a way of life. After much contemplation, reading of spiritual texts, and building upon the ideas of great thinkers before him, Dr. Holmes presented us with a number of significant ideas, a few of which I would like to introduce.
Firstly, he proposed that there is a Power for Good in the Universe that is always contemplating and expressing. You might call this Power God, Spirit, the Cosmos, Oneness, or whatever label that best defines the idea of Creator to you. Secondly, that within this Infinite expression known as Spirit is the Creative Medium, or Soul. And Thirdly, that Form results when an idea is impressed upon Soul by Spirit. One of the more common analogies is that when I think or feel, I plant a seed (thought) in the soil (Soul), which in turn manifests as a sprouting plant (Form).
To put it more simply, Dr. Holmes proposed that effects are what we see around us. Thoughts and feelings are what cause effects, and because we are an individualized aspect of God our thoughts and feelings are the cause of effects. And the Law is always obeying us by making manifest our thoughts and feelings as forms. The idea of Spirit, Soul and Form were not new, but what Holmes did do was to get very clear about a process called the Affirmative Prayer, that one can use to repeatably manifest through conscious and intelligent use of Soul, or as he called it, the Law.
The second teaching I’ve been enquiring about of late concerns the Buddha. Specifically, I’ve been studying Vipassana meditation. It is argued that the Buddha had no interest in a religion (that would go on to be called Buddhism) but focused on a process for enlightenment, that he called Vipassana. Vipassana is about observing the sensations that arise in our body. The central idea of Vipassana meditation is that if we can learn to observe sensations, know them for what they truly are and neither crave or avert those sensations we will become liberated. In other words, we come to know true peace, where we are liberated from attachment to sensations and break the cycle of suffering. This is what the Buddha meant by the ‘middle way’, neither craving nor averting sensations, being liberated from the apparent reality and thus being able to know the Ultimate Reality. I like to think that this is what Jesus meant by, being in the world but not of the world.
Obviously, both the teachings of Ernest Holmes and the Buddha go well beyond what is practical to cover in this blog but I did want to share my experience around them. When I discovered the Science of Mind it struck me as practical, relevant and simple. If I can change my thinking I can change my conditions. So much so that through the use of a tool called Affirmative Prayer, I can repeatably demonstrate changes in my conditions. This is extremely relevant and practical (although not, in my experience, always simple).
When I discovered Vipassana meditation I was immediately struck by how compatible the Buddha’s ideas were with the Science of Mind. I was deeply moved by the idea that by observing sensations that arise in my body, old mental conditionings (or Sankhara as they are known) would be released. And Vipassana meditation is also a repeatable process that is simple and realistic (although going on a 10 day course to discover this is not necessarily practical). I realized that the potential of this idea given the creative process of Affirmative Prayer was huge. In short, a repeatable process that will inevitably help one clear away the old stock of conditionings (or what I consider to be beliefs, values, attitudes that no longer serve me) would be invaluble, particularly to a Practitioner of Affirmative Prayer.
For you see, after some 6 years of study of the Science of Mind and its related teachings I had never encountered any reference to a repeatable process for clearing the old ‘stuff’ out of the way. Of course, through various techniques and tools for self-enquiry we could reveal old causal beliefs but the process is lengthy. It is not simple. And there’s certainly no page or chapter in any book that I’ve read that has really shown me how to shift into a feeling of complete and total peace. That is until I discovered Vipassana.
And what is the idea I promised to write about earlier? Well, it goes along these lines. We can use meditation to be aware of the effects, the sensations, that arise in our experience. At the same time we must be aware that they are caused by the Eternal Presence, Spirit (this is where my idea begins to diverge from Vipassana). In this state of awareness we can know that effects pass away because they are effects in the changable, apparent reality. We must be aware that effects are the product of the Law and ultimately of the Causal Spirit that created them. In short, we can use meditation to practice being aware of both the Cause (Spirit) and the Effect (sensations and feelings). This approach results in a most complete Revealing of Eternal Presence.
What stands out for me is that every effect, every sensation is a product of contemplation. In becoming aware of the Cause and Effect we liberate ourselves from effects, of attachment to them, particularly when we see Spirit as their Cause. When we tie together this realization we can more fully experience the Cause, we are practicing being attuned to Spirit and liberate ourselves from changing nature of Effect. It is my experience that this approach to meditation empowers Affirmative Prayer because, as a repeatable process, it clears the baggage beneath the surface that impacts our affirmation work.
As you can imagine one blog entry is nowhere near enough space to fully explore this idea with you. I will be using future blogs to continue sharing my contemplations and enquiries about Revealing Eternal Presence. However, if you are in Edmonton this Thursday June 16 at 7pm, then I would like to invite you to come to an evening of meditation where I will be exploring this idea through guided meditation and discourse. If you would like more information then please email me at carmien_owen@shaw.ca. You can also check out the event on Facebook event.
Ultimately, writing about Revealing Eternal Presence Meditation is like someone telling you the food is good. Practicing this technique, like any spiritual practice, is where you get to know for yourself that the food is good. If you can’t make this event you can connect with me on Second Life where I lead meditation every morning and evening. Alternatively you can connect with me and enquire further with me through Facebook. So what are you waiting for? Don’t take my word for it; connect with me and experience this meditation for yourself!
Know the Flow and be happy.
Passed my Practitioner Exam!
I got the news today – I passed my written Practitioner exam. We wrote the exam on June 12th, 2010. I studied very hard for it and feel delighted with the 97% I scored. That is a major hurdle taken care of in this process.
I also celebrate that all 8 Practitioner candidates in the class passed! This is a magnificent accomplishment and speaks to the quality of both the teachers and the students. What a privilege to be counted amongst so many wonderful expressions of the Divine.
The next steps are: Finalize the Practicum requirements (I am in the process of getting demonstration letters), and an oral panel around September to October. Once we successfully complete the Oral panel we’re done! At that point I’d apply to be a Licensed Practitioner. Following that I am hoping to go on and take Ministerial studies.
Now on Twitter: @KnowTheFlow
I’ve been on Twitter professionally for a short while now. After some thought I’ve created an account called @KnowTheFlow.
I’ll be using Twitter to share thoughts as they come throughout the day. My thinking is that Twitter can actually be a tool to support mindfulness. If you set the intention to be ‘impeccable with your word’ and post to Twitter as you think and speak in a spiritual way then you’ll benefit through more opportunities to be aware. Of course, such opportunities require awareness and practice. But we all know that’s a part of the art and heart of life; finding ways to be aware so that we can connect with the higher self is why we’re here. To see Unity inspite of the perceived duality that rages around us.
At any rate, if you’re on Twitter I’d love to connect. And if you’re not, take a look and let me know what you think.
