Seeds of Insight 035 - From Darkness to Light & New Year Offerings
“Om asato mā sadgamaya,
tamaso mā jyotirgamaya,
mṛtyormā’mṛtaṃ gamaya.
Lord, lead me from the unreal to the real
Lead me from darkness to the light
Lead me from death to immortality.”
Dear Ones,
The more we deepen our capacity to meet the perceived darkness within, the more we discover that it has innate wisdom, that it speaks its own language, that it has been calling for our attention sometimes for years.
The more we turn towards the difficult corners of our emotional world - the frustration, fear, guilt, anger, inadequacy, pride, neediness, worthlessness - the more we allow all parts of us to be present. The truth is that they already are anyway - the only one resisting them is our mind. And that's suffering.
The deeper truth is that they are blessings in disguise made of light itself.
Through great teachers, I've come to discover that "meeting what is here" means something quite specific (and not what I thought). It is not just crying it out, venting out or indulging in the particular emotion. It is not observing it with detachment either - though this may work for some, it certainly didn't for me.
Meeting what is here is experiencing it directly, without a story, without a victim and a perpetrator. Raw. Unpolished. Impossible to rationalise or understand. Further even, opening fully to the difficult emotion is actually becoming one with it - dissolving the duality, consciously removing the perceived boundary between us and it. This is true intimacy that no one else can ever give us.
What is discovered then is different for everyone and yet very universal. It is Home without walls, without conditions, just as we are. It is Light itself that has been shining through the cracks of our minds all along, waiting for us to remove the clutter.
Do these words resonate for you?
If so, do reach out! I'm slowly starting to offer True Friend Therapy sessions & group gatherings that support you in your own meeting of true intimacy.
1:1 Support Through Mindfulness & True Friend Therapy
Some of you have already experienced the depth and simplicity of it, others have been curious for sometime, so here is - an open invitation. Free 20 minute introduction is available. True Friend Therapy is a form of non-directive therapy mixing advanced hypnotherapy, the wisdom of the Enneagram of Egoic Fixation, NLP & Self-Inquiry as taught by Sri Ramana Maharshi. It is really the greatest gift I ever received from my Teachers Gangaji, Eli Jaxon-Bear, Jared Franks and Lisa Schumacher and I can’t wait to share it more broadly. Being a True Friend to each other simply (but powerfully) means meeting each other with a quiet mind and an open heart - being a humble mirror. I would love to support you in this loving way.
New Year Offerings
January MindRest: Welcoming the New
Photo by Evie S. on Unsplash
New Year, New Month of MindRests. This time, it is about welcoming the new and setting an intention of the Heart for this coming cycle, as always, through yoga, silence, self-inquiry and deep rest.
Unlike usual intention setting, this will be quite different - the invitation is to plant the seeds, water them and then let go of any need to know what plant is going to grow. It might be a shrub, it might be a beautiful oak, but ultimately, it is unknown. So yes, January is an invitation to open to the unknown, to release the grip a bit, to let life live us, rather than force our way and will into life.
We start on Sunday with a beautiful NY ritual. I hope to see you there!
There will be 5 MindRests in January so I intend to use part of them to look at specific asana questions you might have (thank you, dear Paola, for the inspiration). So far, people have expressed interest in more advanced poses (balances & backbends). If there is anything that you would like to work on, please let me know and we can bundle it into the requests.
It is also my intention to start nurturing more of a community through these sessions, with sharing, participating more actively and simply being together. With that, I would be so happy if you spread the word to other people who might benefit from being held in our shared presence. If cash is an issue, concessions are available, please don’t be shy to say so.
Contributions:
Drop-ins as usual, Sundays - £10 pounds or whatever you can (and nothing at all). Wednesdays - £5
Monthly package (5 Sunday Mindrests + 4 Wednesday morning Soulful Flows at £30). If you do opt for the package, please let me know so that I can send you all the recordings accordingly - sometimes I miss the payments and forget to send the recordings unless I have been notified.
New Year Ritual on Insight Timer
If yoga isn’t right for you, but you still want to set some time aside to clear the slate and plant the seeds of the new year, I’ve got you (and I feel you, I have been more and more resistant to physical movement over the last few months). The app as well as the offering are free. We will gather for 1 hour more or less in a sweet group of people from all over the world and set an intention of the heart, then let it rest and be taken care of by a nourishing nidra. It will be simple, but sweet and there is something so powerful sharing this in a larger group.
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