Feb 18, 2013

Feather to Fire and Ashes to Snow - Gregory Colbert

These videos are possibly the most beautiful pieces of art I have seen in recent years. Gregory Colbert takes you on an epic spiritual journey through. Quietly and Gently.


Ashes and Snow by Gregory Colbert from Gregory Colbert on Vimeo.

"Gregory Colbert’s Ashes and Snow feature film captures extraordinary moments of contact between people and animals as seen through the lens of the artist’s camera on more than thirty expeditions to some of the earth's most remote places. Written, directed, produced, and filmed by Gregory Colbert, it is a poetic field study that depicts the world not as it is, but as it might be—a world in which the natural and artificial boundaries separating humans from other species do not exist. The viewing experience is one of wonder and contemplation, serenity, and hope.
Edited by two-time Oscar-winner Pietro Scalia; narrated by actors Laurence Fishburne (English), Enrique Roche (Spanish), and Ken Watanabe (Japanese). Musical collaborators include Michael Brook, David Darling, Heiner Goebbels, Lisa Gerrard, Lukas Foss, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and Djivan Gasparyan."

Feather to Fire from Gregory Colbert on Vimeo.

Lisa Rizzoli - Tantra

Energy

What is energy and how does it relate to Tantra?
According to Merriam Webster http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/energy, the following are some of the definitions of energy:  1) dynamic quality; 2) the capacity of acting or being active; 3)positive spiritual force; 4) vigorous exertion of power; 5)a fundamental entity of nature that is transferred between parts of a system in a production of physical change within the system and usually regarded as the capacity for doing work; and 6) usable power. Movement is often associated with energy. Movement can be detected and measured, but the actual energy that caused the movement is beyond our definitions. Energy is a system that exists,  yet it is difficult to describe with words because it is a unique experience for each individual. Energy creates life and feeling one’s life force energy is both powerful and transformational.
In Tantra, meditations and breathing techniques are taught to connect with the internal life force energy that exists within ourselves . It is through the utilization, cultivation and nurturing of  this energy that  transformation begins. Transformations of beliefs and perceptions, “When we change our beliefs, we change our perceptions which changes the world. Integrating, circulating and absorbing this energy allows the chakras to open, releasing that which no longer serves in order to become receptive to new and fresh energies.
I invite you to take a moment for yourself to feel into your energy. Find a quiet space to sit. Close your eyes and begin to feel into your breath. Notice your breath. Notice how it flows in and out.
Do you feel the energy of your breath? How it nourishes your body? How it cleanses your body?
This is a basic introduction to breath work, but it is the beginning of your journey towards increasing your awareness of the powerful, internal energy that exists within you.
If you would like to learn more about energy, breath work and Tantra, please contact me. I look forward to our journey on the path towards and incredible transformation.
Blessings Friends,
Lisa A. Rizzoli – CTE
http://www.tantrasacredloving.com



Lisa A. Rizzoli. The Power of Words Video Project. from Manny Becerra on Vimeo.

Spark Circus!

Spark Circus is an awesome group of free-spirited individuals dedicated to bringing color, smiles and inspiration to disadvantaged children of the world. Check them out:



"SPARK! is a group of spectacular international volunteer circus performers who come together to bring joy to groups of disadvantaged children in refugee camps, migrant schools, hospitals and orphanages along the Thai Burmese border."

Inspiration from Randi Buckley

This is a post I did as part of Kathleen Prophet’s “Remembering the Witches” series.  My fellow contributors are Amy Palko, Emilie Kate Archer, Laurie Rosenfeld, and Katheen.  
Hundreds of years ago I would’ve been put to death for what I think and feel, and who I am.
Perhaps I was.  I speak the unspeakable.

Speaking The Unspeakable

Magic is simply making the unseen seen, a shift in perception, or the unspoken heard.   It is an honoring of worldly (and otherworldly) nature and our own.
The unspeakable is your wild wisdom, your intuition and your deep desire: a holy trinity of extravagant power in everyday women.   The unspeakable is both unique and collective.  The unspeakable is a departure from what no longer serves you.  To speak it gives voice and action to your truth.
Unspoken truths are a muzzle on the soul with the whispers of your heart marking time by carving notches into its walls, like a forgotten prisoner of an innocent crime.  Speaking the unspeakable transforms it.  It becomes our magic and our power.  What we can’t say rules us, and we are not meant to be ruled.
What will happen if you fan the flames of your truth, breathe air into its starved lungs or give words to your the feelings?
Standing in your truth and owning it is also remembering the witches- the wise women and men who lived by their own lights, intuition and desires: les sages-femmes, jordmødrene, healers, teachers, storytellers and more.  It’s honoring your lineage and sending up a smile to those that came before you and answering the dreams of those who will come after you.
Without owning our full selves, our wings are clipped.  A bird can still sing for its master but never the song of her own experience, never the call of her own desire.  She will miss her own flight and her own soaring.
Wise women throughout the ages have known The Rule of Threes.  Whatever you put out there will come back to you threefold.  It’s exponential.  And so are you.  A bird with wings.
Speaking your truth, your desire.
Your bones know.  They are tuning forks for the soul.  When we strike the right note, we feel it in our marrow.  Deep knowing comes from within.  The bones that give our earthly bodies structure also carry the resonance of our truth.  For our souls to sing, this truth must be spoken.  Transformation.  Magic.  Without it harmony is off and we are either sharp or flat with the subtlest vibrato of melancholy.
Speaking the unspeakable is a moment of death.  It is the time between the removal of the respirator mask and breathing on our own.  It is a gasp we lose and a heartbeat we drop.  It’s in the pause we discover it’s not our lives we’ve surrendered, but our suffering.   We come alive.
A call to speaking the unspeakable is not a call against men.  It is not a rallying cry to triumph over the masculine.  We need that too.  But the world needs our healing and our touch.  The masculine is the steward, the feminine is the earth.  We are both.  Our soul is like a Raven between them.
The unspeakable is that you are a wise woman, a fount of the feminine: maiden, mother and crone.  Wise and full of desire.  The unseen seen, is making that desire a reality and using that wisdom.
The time is here.  You can say it and you can live it.  You’ve put your ear to the ground and have heard the terrain is safe and the tide has changed.  It’s your turn.  It’s our turn again, and it will remain so.  We must be heard and we want to hear you.  Your unspeakable truth is the elixir the world needs.  It’s bigger than you and it’s within you.  It’s the stuff of the stars and longs to return to the night.
You, my dear are sacred.  Be heard.
‎”If you have yet to be called an incorrigible, defiant woman, don’t worry, there is still time…”
~Clarissa Pinkola Estés

The magic of willpower and Yoga

Check out this inspirational life-story: Yoga and Disability I am a huge advocate of Yoga, over any other physical activity. :)

Jan 27, 2012

WHY

Taken from the blog
Exposing The Truth

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME . . . AGAIN?

"Why is this happening to me . . .AGAIN?!"
"Why is every relationship the SAME?"
"Are loving relationships even POSSIBLE?"

These are common complaints, often accompanied by a host of painful emotions, extreme bewilderment, and a desperate "Why are they doing this to me!! . . .Again?"

An instant later, the culprit will be judged and sentenced. Full of remorse, the separating parties cry, "If only you would change, I wouldn't have to leave!" Both parties, in their confusion, ask the same questions and reach the same conclusions, "I'm right! You're wrong! It's settled! Why argue?!" Each tells the truth but somehow they see opposite realities. The inconsistency of alternating from confusion to absolute judgment is seldom realized and the behavior that follows this mindset is usually bizarre.

In ancient times, this state of 'confused absoluteness' was known as "a house divided against itself." It is caused by the dis-ease, Blockage of Truth, a state in which one is locked into and can only see error. In this state, error is called truth.

Seldom does it occur to the confused mind that, "If I'm present in every experience of my life, perhaps I'm involved in creating my pain." Rarely does it occur to a mind to ask themselves, "If they're the one with the problem, why am I the one with the pain?" Only for a fleeting moment can this mind conceive that it might have set itself up for what is happening . . . Again!

Pain signals a self-imposed dis-ease, Blockage of Truth. A person in pain usually identifies who they think the 'guilty party' is - and it's always someone else - an opinion that is worshipped! An opinion that makes it impossible to see the truth! The typical solution is blame, guilt, and separation which initiate another downward cycle into more pain and deeper resentment.

Sound familiar?

There is joy and aliveness beyond pain and there are ways to heal the need to struggle! The primary requirement for healing is the ability to admit, if I'm in pain - I'm in error. This admission does not mean that the "other" person is freed of responsibility for their actions; it simply gives the person brave enough to take responsibility power over their own lives.

Responsibility, interpreted through a mindset of victimhood, tends to look like guilt, fault and blame - a totally invalid idea. The Truth about responsibility is that it is simply a tool that uncovers the hidden internal dynamics that lead to the confused absoluteness referred to earlier.

Next comes the willingness to do one's work - to take a different action based on taking responsibility. Out of Love of Truth comes the ability to tell oneself the truth and heal. This makes what the world calls "impossible," achievable!

Effective tools for self-correction coupled with a willingness to actually use them are critical to healing! Haphazard use of the tools will not produce the internal healing that is possible, nor the desired changes in relationships, health, or finances.

With the right tools, not only will healing occur, but, as a result of facing conflict with a responsible mind, a blame free mind, wisdom and empowerment will result!

A new mindset is needed to recognize and undo Blockage of Truth. One must redesign the personal thought system that has led to confusion, pain or loss. Healing starts with a 'renewing of the mind.' Though these ideas may at first sound crazy or impossible, thousands have healed themselves with the use of these tools.

Total explanation of this new, though actually ancient, thought system is not the objective here. That would take volumes. The goal is to give you practical, workable tools and a glimpse of the philosophy that backs them up. Another key to healing is an open mind.

YOU CANNOT SOLVE A PROBLEM WITH THE MIND THAT CREATED IT! Albert Einstein

The basis for all true healing, mental, physical and emotional, is knowing that the body is not real - it does not exist! Scientifically, this was best said by Albert Einstein when he said, "What we have heretofore called matter, is energy whose vibrations have been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter!" Ancient teachings called matter 'appearances' and cautioned not to 'judge,' or be taken in by them.

What appears as a body is an energy field, integrated and organized by what is back of and superior to it. The field is not self existent and there are organizing principles behind it - principles that can be known and harnessed.

There are two basic qualities of organizing energy superior to and back of any energy field, including the 'body':
1. Integrative -expressed in humans as Love, enthusiasm, and joy which manifest as creativity, health, beauty and aliveness.
2. Disintegrative - expressed in humans as fear, blame, anger, criticism and revenge which manifest as pain, suffering and dis-ease.

The ancients called disintegrative energy 'sin' or 'defiling the temple,' cautioning that if these energies are stored in the "body," it violates the integrity of the host tissue, causing the deterioration we refer to as dis-ease. The wages, or result, of 'defiling the temple' is that the energy system decays and eventually dies.

This understanding and warning, which is usually interpreted as some kind of punishment or threat from the Creator, came from an energy based knowledge of physiology, not religious dogma!!

The beauty of recognizing and taking charge of these powerful, primary energies is that we are at choice. We are not their victims, but are the ones who put them in place and can change them at will.

The quality of these underlying energies, our choices, is the cause of everything - the health of our bodies, minds, lives, relationships and finances - every circumstance we seem to arrive at by accident or chance! And we are never the victim of cause, we are its determiner.

When involvement in our experience is denied, we hide the cause of that event inside of ourselves. We pretend we are innocent victims and can carry out that scam on ourselves because our denial has suppressed that part of the mind that is at cause. It is then, with these hidden disintegrative energies, that we create our lives. Again, the Ancients who understood these energy principles, warned, "Take care the heart (the unconscious) for out of it are the issues in life." Through our own internal, hidden dynamics we create our conflicts and dis-eases!

Pain and disease are helpful signals that warn that we are in error. Although reputed to be enemies, they are friends in disguise. Pain is never a sign of someone else's mistake. It is the body's 'error message,' a reminder that the quality of energy we are putting into our system is self-destructive.

Most people ignore the messages, drug the messenger (the body) and wonder why disease strikes. They wish someone would discover a 'magic pill' that would allow them to continue destructive habits and not pay the piper. "Let me hate, gossip, have fear and anger, put down and criticize whom I wish. Let me steal and be as cheap as a nickel! Yet, please, don't make me accountable for my words and actions. Let me ignore nutrition and eat junk, but please, PLEASE make me healthy, happy and abundant!" An insane wish!

We cannot engage in negativity and have health, anymore than a farmer can sow wheat and reap corn. It is a LAW that we always reap as we have sown!

Failure to be aware, response-able and release negativity leads to an endless succession of similar events. Hence, the agonizing question: "Why is this happening to me . . . Again?!" 'Premature positive thinking' (pretending all is well, when it's not), produces the same result. Appropriate and honest thinking is the goal. Self-correction follows naturally.

The only restorative processes are those which face and release stored negativity. The body can then use its own recuperative powers to rebuild.

LET GO AND YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE!
The steps to true healing begin by understanding that:
1. The purpose of life is to heal you and to bring you joy! Anything less is Self-Inflicted Nonsense.
2. We will define the output of the human mind as reality. In ancient times, called the 'mind of man.'
3. Pretending someone else causes your mind's disturbing output is projection.
4. Blaming another for your reality (the output of your mind) is irresponsible and the key to being a victim.
5. Thinking and feeling like a victim is self-destructive and compromises one's mental, emotional, physical, relationship and financial health.
6. Pain is the energy that results from holding onto disintegrative energy and/or negative thoughts. Pain warns of the need for tools to release stored negativity and create internal healing.
7. Forgiveness (changing your reality, the output of your mind) is the only PERMANENT solution.
8. Forgiving is NOT about others, rather, it is an internal healing process.
9. Understanding the principles behind transition is simple but not always easy.
10. It takes commitment and work to heal yourself of patterns that have continued, often, for generations!
11. The rewards are beyond what the mind in pain can conceive.

TRUE FORGIVENESS is the master release process, a tool that opens the energy field of the 'body' and liberates destructive energies from within. Once you actually understand Forgiveness, you will never forgive anyone again. Forgiveness is not letting another off the hook for their offenses. The root meaning of Forgiveness in Aramaic is 'to cancel, untie or let loose.' It is a tool for changing a reality in the mind.

To heal, identify disintegrative emotions or thoughts that reside within your 'energy system.' Own them as yours, although they appear to be caused by someone else. If you've had a particular conflict eighty-seven different times, with forty-two different people - notice you are the one who has been there EVERY time.

Your thoughts are the output of your mind and the realities from your mind reflect the energies held in your body. The output of a human mind tells more about the content of that mind than about the perceived world!

The next step toward healing is verbal release of the mental and emotional energies that make up repeating realities.

Say aloud, if practical, "I totally release from my life and body all feelings of ______."Be specific with your feelings (i.e. fear, anger, criticism, or pain). "I release the thoughts that _________."Be specific with your thoughts (i.e., Life hurts, No one loves me, or I'll never make it).

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY! The steps to liberty? Be accountable for your thoughts, emotions, and realities. It's your life! Recognize and undo disintegrative energies. Learn to Forgive! The person or event you think 'causes' pain only surfaces realities that are already within you. They have given you the opportunity to heal . . .Again! Take advantage of that opportunity!

Oct 26, 2011

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure...




full quote: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

From A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"
by Marianne Williamson

Oct 15, 2011

Ram Dass interviews Thich Nhat Hanh



What a priviledge to watch two wise teachers converse. :)

On letting go