July, 2024 Bardo Buzz (06-07)

Amid The Chaos

REACTIONS AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

Barbara Haynes

Throughout my life of using self-observation, attention, and presence in my spiritual practice, I have relied on the mantra that EJ gave us years ago: "It's not what's happening that's the problem, it's my reaction to it." This mantra has always helped me shift my center of gravity from the external world to my internal world.

Using this mantra has enabled me to observe patterns and triggers that cause me to forget myself and become immersed in the scenes, beliefs, or rejections I'm experiencing. When I repeat the mantra to myself, I can create a sense of detachment--a space between the event and my reaction. This practice allows me to remember myself, use the energy of my reaction to invoke my presence, and pay attention so that I can be in my life without being tossed about like a leaf in the wind.

Through years of using "It's not what's happening that's the problem, it's my reaction to it," I have learned to harness the energy of my reactions not to control the situation but to become less attached to the "picture show" of life and more centered in my true self--my essential self. By using this mantra, I am able to strengthen my ability to use my everyday life as a way to deepen my spiritual life.

PRACTICES

Jewel McInroy

As I was walking down the hall recently, sensing my presence, I suddenly realized the lack of “anythingness” it had – a sense of nothingness. I stood still for a moment sensing it.

What came to my mind was the image of a gymnast. Remember seeing them in competition, their attention completely fixed on what they were attempting to do? Their attention was palpable, you could feel it

Coupled with that was an awareness of complete relaxation, completely one with the environment. Of course, that had to be – no outside influences or distractions taking the attention away, causing the body to react and go in it's own direction.

Later I realized the gymnast, like ourselves, in order to execute what is wanted, must have trust in the body to do what it has been trained to do.

Taking that to our own work, the same principles seem to apply – high attention coupled with relaxation and trust in our own practices, a certain faith and confidence that we have established a foothold in another dimension/reality which is always there and, with conscious effort, we have the ability to access it.

As we travel our paths, each a unique manifestation of the One, our presence brings life to the creation, enlivens the moment and makes it real. The dead corpse of creation becomes alive in that single moment we are able to bring our presence into it.

Like the gymnast we practice, honing our skills, to become all that we can be, a source of light and love, our body a vehicle for the Absolute to participate in It's creation.

Blessings.

"Building Work Habits", AI generated image in Night Cafe by vettizon.

Musings of a Labyrinth Reader

THE FOUNDATION OF WORK ON SELF

by Marvette Kort

One of the most important lessons of this school, the Institute for the Development of the Harmonious Human Being, is to successfully remove one's addiction to one's human identity. The assumption that I am this lifetime is erroneous. One has this lifetime to use as a Being to accomplish objectives previously decided upon.

The common thread I see in working with the ideas E.J. has presented is the gradual erosion of the power of the mass hypnotism most adopted at birth due to forgetfulness. Our beginning: "I am one, there is no other". Then the ensuing process of discovery reveals through the lens of a developing human primate ego, a consensus reality and our relation to it. For the fortunate, the matrix of one's hypnotic vision has inconsistencies or cracks or drop-outs or embedded alarm clocks and/or escape routes. And upon examining one's life, one can recognize those reminding factors.

However, it may take years of one's lifetime to arrive at, what I call, "critical mass". This is the platform from which one can apply discipline, dedication and real effort toward implementing the shift -- "enlarging one's footprint" -- becoming aware of the Being's "long life" and that the current incarnation is just one in a chain. E.J. has given us many tools and exercises to build muscles needed for this aim.

Total Immersion without Identification is no longer just an idea. It can become a center of gravity question on which one makes efforts every day. Remember oneself, invoke one's presence, do the Popcorn Exercise -- walk as a vehicle that carries one's Being that can serve as a witness for the higher.

One of the foundational building blocks I've been currently working with is the exercise found in the first chapter of Invocation of Presence ... "tracing back the source of attention." When focusing attention on the Attensiasizer and tracing the thread back to the source of attention, this can open to a new or perhaps "déjà vu" experience, even if only momentarily at first. One needs to "log in time" / "put in pencil mileage" sensing the awareness of the source of one's attention. And to compound my work effort while sitting with my avatar in the Godd Cube chamber, I invoke my presence into the present while simultaneously being aware of my source of attention.

In the long run, it's all about building habits that can come into play even during one's daily routine. And the practices one puts time into can be the basis for our work habits. Therefore, I am operating on the premise that it is possible to walk through one's life with total immersion, to remember that one has a higher purpose to fulfill and to be able to have the strength and momentum to invoke one's presence of one's own accord.

One of Christiane's favorite quotes.