On Seeing, Wisdom, and the Value of Non-Detachment

“I knew at last that I must leave…get out of the press of affairs…the god does not speak to those who have no time to listen. The mind must seek out what it needs to feed on, and it came to me at last that what work I had to do, I must do among the quiet of my own hills.”  – Merlin in The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart

I picked up The Crystal Cave again a few weeks ago after someone mentioned it on an annual retreat I was conducting in Utah, just after my friend’s passing (in fact, he was scheduled to attend.) I read Stewart’s full Merlin trilogy almost twenty years ago, and I thought escaping into its pages was exactly what I needed this summer. But as often happens when we are drawn to certain books, these have ended up being much more than an escape. I am not the same person I was back then, so these are not the same books. Everything Merlin says regarding seeing, finding the flow of life, following power, and finding and owning his role in the larger scheme of things, is resonating very deeply.

So I have been  “among the quiet of my own hills”  – or as quiet as my hills get, with three young children out of preschool for the summer. Retreat is very relative these days! But I had years before children with plenty of solitude, silence, and formal retreats, and I find at this point that I can center myself with much less. Motherhood has taught me efficiency, even in this.

I did find going almost completely offline for a month – once daily email checks only – extremely helpful. I am a strong believer in ’sabbaths’ and have always stayed offline for one full day each week, and limited my daily number of hours online as well. I know it’s not fashionable to say so, but from an energetic perspective, I don’t think social networking is all that different from the real-life version. Every encounter is an energy exchange. And while I love being online because it is so much easier to find like-minded individuals, and there are so many wonderful people to interact with and learn from, the outward-directed mental energy required to blog, comment, and interact can create a very turbulent mind. It’s easy to lose the ability to be alone with ourselves.

So I am very committed to internal stillness and solitude right now – regardless of external circumstances. Especially since I have been sensing a new direction brewing in my own life, and need to create the space for this to form fully. As Merlin says, seeings like this aren’t something that can be pushed – they have to take their own time surfacing. Interestingly, more unstructured time with the kids, and focusing on the details of some house remodeling we are doing, have proved to be the perfect counterpart to whatever is going on under the surface (who knew paint swatches and tile samples could be so soothing?) And now I do feel  ready to emerge a bit, and get back online. I have missed you all!

As for my friend’s passing, I could write volumes on that, and on him, for he was a very special being. I know we always say that when someone dies, so those of you that didn’t know him will just have to take my word for it. I probably will write more on him at some point, but since I do observe certain Buddhist death rituals, I have been holding a traditional 40-day vigil for him that will end next week, and don’t want to say anything before that.

I did want to share a passage from yet another book that has resonated with me recently – Tsultrim Allione’s Women of Wisdom. I have mentioned this book before, and will probably post on it more next week. I was re-reading it in the days before my friend’s passing, and in fact just hours before I learned of his death was reading a passage that proved to be a guiding light in the subsequent days. Lama Tsultrim Allione was one of the first Western women to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun, and spent four years receiving teachings from some of the most revered Tibetan Lamas, including much time in solitary retreat in Tibet. She decided to give back her vows after four years in order to marry and have a family, and continue her Buddhist studies as a layperson. She is now, with her children grown, herself one of the most revered Lamas teaching in the West today.

After giving back her monastic vows, she had two daughters, and then a few years later, boy/girl twins. At 2 1/2 months, the little girl twin died of SIDS. Coming on the heals of a difficult pregnancy and marriage troubles, her little girl’s death sent her into a deep, dark night of the soul. And she was not helped when at her daughter’s funeral, another Buddhist practitioner came up to her as she was grieving, tears streaking down her face, and said “You should not be so attached to this baby; everything is impermanent.”

Lama Allione talks about the ’superficial’ understanding of the dharma, or teachings, that drove such a comment. It is something I have seen a lot of in spiritual circles, of all denominations. Whether we say ‘everything is impermanent’, ‘God had a plan’, or ‘it was meant to be’, all too often we use philosophies and theologies to distance ourselves intellectually from the reality of life. This doesn’t mean these views of death aren’t true, but if they are used as a way to avoid the true human emotions of loss, to me they are useless. Wisdom is a union of heart and mind, not a cutting away of one in favor of the other. I am not interested in an enlightenment that says a mother should not cry for her lost baby, or one that prevents an acquaintance from simply holding her when she does.

So, in the aftermath of my friend’s passing, when conducting the retreat he was scheduled to attend, with many who were also mourning him present, I was glad to have read this passage, and glad to have had the reminder of what NOT to do. ‘Spiritual mentor’ is a dicey role, not one I embrace all that comfortably, and I know it is all too easy to fall into posturing – acting the way you think you should act, the way people expect, and parroting the teachings, rather than speaking from the heart. But wisdom can’t be faked, and it does not come just from the intellect.

So I thought for this first post back I would invite you to share your own views on wisdom, and what exactly it is. I look forward to reading your responses!

Stand Naked in the Wind and Melt into the Sun

I received news that a dear spiritual friend and student of mine has died suddenly, at the age of 30.

Although thousands of people pass from this earth daily, in my corner of the planet, this was an earthquake. There are things to attend to, on many levels, and so I won’t be posting this week, and perhaps for awhile.

I went looking for poems on death that I felt reflected the powerful and lyrical spirit of this beautiful person, and after much hemming and hawing (because I was hoping to find something less well known) ended up with Khalil Gibran’s classic On Death.

On Death

Then Almitra spoke, saying, “We would ask now of Death.”

And he said:

You would know the secret of death.

But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?

The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;

And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.

Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?

Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?

And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

- Khalil Gibran

I know some of you that read this blog are also grappling with the death of this individual. Feel free to post your own favorite poems or quotes (that goes for anyone actually – this is part of how we process these things, I feel.)

Namaste-

Spiritual Experience vs. Realization (or What’s The Point, Anyway?)

I have been musing lately about the relationship between spiritual experiences and spiritual realization. I said in a prior post on chakras that I don’t think dramatic spiritual experiences necessarily lead to personal insight or wisdom. I said this because I am a lover of meditation, but I know firsthand that you can have wonderful meditative experiences – moments of stillness, joy, love, or even dissolution – but not change much off your meditation cushion. I know it’s not spiritually PC to say so, but you can meditate and still be ignorant, arrogant, uptight, mean, or insecure.

In fact, attachment to meditative states can actually become a hindrance to spiritual growth – many Buddhist and yogic texts warn against becoming addicted to spiritual highs or blisses. This is especially true within the traditions that teach chakra and kundalini meditation, which is what I mostly practice and teach, because these high-energy techniques can result in dramatic shifts in awareness. And if you’re meditating just for those, you might as well be bungee-jumping. I mean, experience is fine, you could even make a case that diverse experience is what life is all about, but collecting experiences is not happiness, or peace, or enlightenment.

So what exactly is the point of meditation then? Or of spiritual practices and techniques at all? Or, for that matter, of this vast expanse of techniques and traditions (heavily marketed these days I might add) that we call ’spirituality’?

Gangaji was asked this question once at an event I attended, and simply said, ‘to be kind.’ The Dalai Lama has said something similar. A classic Buddhist answer is simply ‘to be happy’. Some, such as Eckhart Tolle, might say that spiritual growth has become necessary for humanity to survive – that evolving beyond ego-based living has become an imperative. Another teacher I once had said spiritual seeking was just a personal preference or proclivity – much like Mozart’s pull to music or Shakespeare’s to words. Some of us are just drawn to the other side.

Others would argue that all of life is a spiritual journey, that everything we learn is part of the process, and that distinguishing something called ’spirituality’ is pointless and divisive. In principle I agree with this, but it’s also true that spiritual paths – methods and advice for experiencing the mystic or divine aspects of ourselves and the world – have emerged within virtually every culture. So there is something different going on here – a desire to consciously seek light and direct knowledge emerges at some point for many humans.

Spiritual practices, and particularly meditation when it’s practiced in a spiritual context (which of course it isn’t always), are tools for opening the doorway to light and direct knowledge. And this direct knowledge, or direct experience, of spirit/awareness/presence/the other side/God/Goddess/divinity/the sacred dimensions – or whatever term you prefer – is the mark of a mystic in any tradition, as I see it. Of course meditation isn’t required for that – people often have spiritual experiences outside meditation. Anytime our usual perceptions or fixed identity drops away, and our awareness opens up or expands, we’ve touched this. And many different things can trigger such moments. Meditation is simply a structured way of opening up, of releasing, into this – rather than leaving it to chance, you could say.

But from what I’ve seen, on its own even the best meditation practice isn’t enough to change someone, to evolve them, to make them kinder or wiser. For that to happen, meditative experiences have to be processed, and they have to be integrated into a larger context of spiritual practice.

This makes sense if you think about it, because we have all sorts of experiences in life and don’t necessarily learn anything from them, unless we put some effort into processing them. For example, our psychological hang-ups might pull us back to the same types of dysfunctional relationships over and over, and it takes conscious work to break the cycle. Unraveling and releasing these kinds of patterns is a big part of what modern personal development, and ancient spiritual practice, is all about. Whether you call it karma or conditioning or the ego or just being stupid, by default we are driven by mostly unconscious mental and emotional patterns. We have to dredge that stuff up into the light of day to work through it and let it go.

Part of the reason I’ve always liked Buddhism is that it emphasizes a holistic spiritual path, it is really a way of life, and meditation is just one part of it. The Noble Eightfold Path, a foundation teaching that is accepted in some form by most branches of Buddhism, outlines eight aspects of practice, and meditation is one aspect (or maybe two, depending on how you interpret them.) I think the best teachers within any tradition emphasize this holism. I was amazed when I first read St. Theresa of Avila’s books (the queen of dramatic spiritual experiences), as she outlines a very similar integrated spiritual path. And it is found in the writings of mystics within every tradition, I think.

When this integration isn’t present, spiritual practice just breeds arrogance, or confusion. I’ve seen a lot of this in spiritual communities I’ve been a part of over the years, and I’ve suffered through phases of it myself. Although I may be inviting trouble by saying so, I think it’s a particular problem with born-again Christianity: There’s a sense that this one dramatic experience saves you, and changes you forever. There’s little support for the idea that you need to process this experience to understand what it represents, or that you need to work to stay true to it, and be on guard for your ego’s attempts at distortion.

So, that’s my take on meditation and spirituality, from 10,000 feet: Meditation in any form (and there are many types) helps open our perceptual boundaries, and awakens us to realms of awareness – and spirit – that are hard to find amidst the busyness of our daily lives and minds. And sometimes the resulting experiences are dramatic, sometimes they are more subtle. Either way, on their own these experiences mean little. It’s what we do with them that matters. What do they show us about ourselves, and who or what we thought we were?  How do they shift our ideas about ourselves in relation to others and the world? What do they teach us about the nature of reality and our role in shaping it?

Just my two cents, what’s yours?

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May Review

I can’t believe it’s June (I know it’s very cliche of me to say so, but there you go.) Again, the idea and format for these reviews is from Mon at Holistic Mama, so go check out the others participating!

Summary

Hmmm….still not sure where I want to focus next, including here on this blog. Seems I’ve been saying that for awhile. So hope you like meandering, because apparently this is going to be a long phase….

Fun

- Finding a slot canyon on our latest Utah trip that the kids could actually get to (see very end of post for picture)

- Seeing the first baby tomatoes and bell peppers in our container garden, mentioned in March

- Creating mp3 files of some chakra meditations, and getting feedback on them

- Researching potential Earth Chakra locations

- Spending LOTS of time online and finding great blog posts to share (and commenting a lot too, which I probably can’t keep up this month, with the kid’s school year ending, so don’t feel slighted – as the saying goes “it’s not you, it’s me”!)

- Having my first guest blog post, by Paul Martin of Original Faith (any others interested in guest posting here? just email me at lerickson99[at]earthlink[dot]net)

Challenging

- Killer migraine from hunching over my laptop in my favorite chair, instead of sitting nicely at my desk. Don’t do this.

- Having to find a new preschool for the twins for next year, after finding out just about everything I like about their current school (including my favorite teacher) will be gone or changing next year. It was actually quite a big drama. Too much to post here, but you’d be amazed how emotional something like this can be.

- Almost having our first child emergency room visit. My eldest daughter stuck a pencil up her nose and part of the eraser broke off. In case you don’t know, things like this can be very serious, because sinuses are easily damaged. But after a little panic and a call to our pediatrician’s emergency line, we managed to get it out through the highly sophisticated medical procedure of having-her-blow-her-nose-while-holding-the-other-side-shut. This little incident got me thinking about some stuff though (more on that in a bit…)

- Posting Why Adam Lambert Didn’t Win American Idol (or, the problem with religion.) What I thought was a throwaway vent post became my most popular, most linked to, most commented on post EVER. **sigh** Which just goes to show, if it’s hits your after, blog about reality TV!!

Thoughtful

No really, that post wasn’t popular because it was about reality TV (or not entirely anyway), it’s because it hit a nerve regarding religion in the U.S., and how it has overtaken every social event and political discussion. It is very frustrating, and for a long time the debate has been secular vs. religious. But now many of us that are spiritual, or religious but in an unconventional sense, are feeling like maybe we should be in on the conversation more than we have been. And it’s hard to find the right forum and tone for doing so, because we don’t want to add to the vitriol or self-righteousness.

And just to be clear, I did not mean to imply that all evangelical or fundamentalist Christians are vitriolic or self-righteous. My husband’s and my own family together span just about every political and religious position in this country, and although there is frequently discomfort amongst us when discussing these issues, there is always love, never hate. I think most people are capable of disagreeing and still loving. It is the public dialogue – the radio shows, television shows, and blogs – on both sides of every issue that fuel the negativity and extreme reactions. And the question is, how to engage in the public dialogue on these issues without adding to that? How to practice blogging ahimsa (non-violence) in the Ghandian sense?

An Insight/Thought

I realized after we got the eraser out of my daughter’s nose that I really expect a lot from her for her age. She is very bright and mature, and since I had the twins 19 months after her, she went from baby to eldest very fast. Sometimes I forget she is only four. If you would have asked me before this whether she would stick a pencil up her nose, I would definitely have said ‘no, she knows better than that.’ But she didn’t. When I asked her why she did it, she said ‘I was just being silly.’ And she should, at four, have the space to be silly. So I am working on that, and on letting her be the baby sometimes if she needs it.

Website/blog Find

Has anyone read the book Raising Boys by Steve Biddulph? I had heard good things about it, so I had thought of getting it, until I read this post panning it for perpetuating gender stereotypes. The twins have got me thinking a lot about gender stereotyping, since it’s so clear how differently they are treated sometimes. Would be interested in any thoughts on this book, or other suggestions.

Words

I am stealing this quote from a comment by Evelyn Lim of Attraction Mind Map, on a post by Jan at Awake is Good on quotes, and I think it’s a nice reminder after my Earth Chakras post that ultimately we don’t have to travel far:

“People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.” — St Augustine

Favourite Tip/Idea from web

Has anyone participated in a Carrot Mob? I just read about this and it sounds intriguing. The idea is to incentivize businesses to make socially responsible decisions by rewarding them with more business, rather than punishing business that do the opposite through boycotts. For example, in the first one last year, the Carrot Mob group had several convenience stores compete on what % of sales in a single day they were willing to devote to greening their business. The store that won offered 24%. So Carrot Mob publicized the event, and on the chosen day, hundreds of people flooded the store and made purchases, and with 24% of sales that day, the store ended up making all the changes recommended by an energy auditor.

Slice of home

I’ve decided the shoe cubby in my home pretty much sums up the entire shift in my spiritual path since having kids. For twenty years my world revolved around meditation centers, dojos (karate studios), and yoga centers where everyone neatly placed their shoes in a cubby before entering. Discipline, routine, self-control. These days, this is how my own home’s shoe cubby looks on a typical day. Acceptance, surrender, finding joy in the chaos. It’s all good:-)

Yes, the shoes actually are supposed to be IN the cubbies...

Slot Canyon - most are too hard to get to for the kids, but we found this lovely little one

Planet Earth’s Chakras

I wanted to connect with something fun this week, so decided to connect two of my favorite themes – chakras and nature – and do a post on the earth’s chakras, and specifically, potential locations.

For those that resist the idea of chakras, in the human body or the earth, think of it this way: Chakras are simply energy vortexes or intersection points, which we know exist in some form in virtually every structural and energetic system. Think joints in the skeletel system, or glands in the endocrine/hormonal system. Electromagnetic research is starting to be able to detect these intersections – in both humans and the planet – something I may write a future article on (if I can sort through the research – I attempted for this article, but ended up in a white-rabbit type mental hole.)

Another model I like for thinking about chakras is as a doorway for awareness. Whether you are meditating on your own chakras, or traveling to a ‘power spot’ in nature for contemplation, chakras are a doorway. This is a common theme in both indigenous and Eastern mystic systems. You can pull a certain type of energy through each chakra into your physical body if you need to (for healing purposes, say), or you can travel through them the other direction in a Mists of Avalon type of way. For those of you that have read Mists of Avalon (and if not, it’s a great summer read!), it’s interesting how the characters that don’t know about the doorway to Avalon react when they come upon the spot where the two worlds connect. Whether or not they can sense the true power of the place, and how they respond to it, is a direct reflection of the state of awareness they bring to it.

Like human chakras, earth chakras can be damaged or blocked. Many contemporary seers and intuitives feel this is what is happening now, and that this process is ultimately more damaging than the physical harm we have done to our planet. The earth sustains us on many levels. And like the doorway to Avalon, certain doorways of awareness may close off to humans forever if we don’t work to heal the damage that has been done.

Over the years, I have read many different mappings of the earth’s chakras. Although certain places get mentioned in almost every version, the same earth location is often associated with a different chakra ‘position’ (out of the usual 7) in each system. And then some systems are entirely unique. So after contemplating all the different versions, I decided to just post the mappings that feel right to me. These do overlap with some other systems (and I link to some of these at the end of the post), but they don’t match any single one exactly. Of course every locale also has many smaller chakras, so I would love to hear your input in the comments on both world and local chakras you have found…

Ok, here’s my personal take (and be sure to click on the pictures if you have time to gaze each spot, it is worth it):

1st or Root Chakra – Grand Canyon/Sedona/Black Mesa (North America)

Grand Canyon

Many systems place the root chakra in North America, but Mount Shasta is actually a more popular choice for this chakra then the Grand Canyon area. I love Mount Shasta, but this just doesn’t feel right to me. The Grand Canyon has a rawness, a connection to the core of the earth, that I associate with the root chakra. Of course I don’t claim objectivity here, because two of my favorite places in the world,  Zion and Bryce canyons, are just north of the Grand Canyon and draw on its energy. To the south are Sedona, also often mentioned as a chakra site, and the Hopi mesas.

For those who don’t know, the Hopis are a fascinating, peaceful and very secretive Native American tribe. The mesas they live on are said to be directly opposite Mt. Kailesh on the planet, a Himalayan mountain sacred to many cultures, particularly the Tibetans.  The Tibetan and Hopi cultures share certain traits, and the Dalai Lama has met with Hopi elders. Some have posited that the two cultures descended from a common ancient tribe. Here’s an article reviewing all the writing on this, although the author is a bit skeptical of the idea himself. In my earth chakra system, I have placed Mt. Kailesh in the crown chakra position, but interestingly, several systems reverse these two, placing the U.S. desert southwest in the crown position (particularly Sedona) and Tibet in the root chakra position.

2nd or Sacral Chakra – Machu Pacchu/Peru/Amazon River  (South America)

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu, often called the ‘lost city of the Incas’ is located on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru. The river that flows through the valley is a headwater of the Amazon River. This general area, or other spots along the Amazon, or often referred to as an earth chakra. For me, the sensuality, rhythym, and natural abundance of this area say ’sacral chakra’. I’m not sure exactly where the center of this chakra is, but chakras radiate outwards, so knowing the exact center isn’t really necessary. Machu Picchu made a better picture than the general shot of the Amazon River that I found, so I chose that:-)

3rd or Navel/Solar Plexus Chakra – Uluru, Australia

Uluru

Uluru, or Ayers Rock, is a rock formation in central Australia, part of the Kata Tjuta National Park. It is sacred to the Aboriginal people of the area, and has many legends associated with it. I am the least familiar with this location, but the idea of Australia as the home of the world’s 3rd chakra, usually associated with self-definition and personal power, rang true for me. Other power spots that came up alot for this part of the world were the Great Barrier Reef area, and Lake Rotopounamu in Tongariro National Park, New Zealand.

4th or Heart Chakra – Glastonbury Tor, U.K (Europe)  -or- Ganges River, India (Asia)

Glastonbury from Tor

The 4th chakra was a tough one, as there were lots of competing thoughts on this. If you subscribe to the idea that each of the 6 major continents (excluding Antarctica) have a chakra, then the Glastonbury area was the most commonly sited choice for Europe (next to Stonehenge.) It is home to the Glastonbury Tor – Tor is a celtic word for ‘conical hill’ – and celtic, Druid, and the Arthurian legends are all linked to it. It is in fact believed to be the site of Avalon by many.

Ganges River at Rishikesh

No offense to British readers, but I personally had a hard time seeing the U.K. as home of the earth’s heart chakra (please feel free to argue this one in the comments:-) Although it blows the whole each-continent-gets-a-major-chakra theory, the one I heard long ago – the Ganges River – makes a lot of sense to me, particularly sacred cities such as Rishikesh and Varanasi along the Ganges River that have been spiritual centers for hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years. Many consider Hinduism to be the oldest world religion, and the roots of it sprang to being alongside this great river. Thousands venerate it daily still, and bathing it, and/or having your ashes floated there upon death, is believed to purify your karma (which has admittedly become a pretty big sanitation problem for India…)

5th or Throat Chakra – Giza/Nile River/Nile Delta (Africa)

Giza

Egypt comes up in pretty much every earth chakra mapping, and different systems emphasize different locales. Some feel that the Giza pyramids and Great Sphinx, part of the Giza Plateau on the outskirts of Cairo, were built on the center of this chakra. Others feel the actual center is a little ways off, along the Nile River delta. Either way, what we know of Ancient Egyptian culture ties in well with the throat chakra, in terms of a focus on both dreaming and expression, music and language, religion and science. The nearby Middle East is also often sited as a chakra location, usually the Mount of Olives or Mount Sinai.

Nile River

6th Chakra or Third Eye- Mt. Fuji, Japan (Asia)

Mount Fuji

I am partial to this one, as one of my most memorable life experiences was hiking to the top of Mount Fuji all night in order to see sunrise from the top – something allowed for just two months a year. Zen monks serve pancakes on top. Let me tell you, pancakes + sleep-deprivation + sunrise on a power spot = memorable shifts in awareness:-) This mountain is featured in some of the most famous Japanese art, including many paintings and haiku by Zen masters, and I think the clarity and insight associated with it, and with Zen, correspond exactly to a well-functioning third eye.

7th or Crown Chakra – Mt. Kailash, Tibet (Asia)

Mount Kailash

Mount Kailash is a Himalayan peak held sacred by people of Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and Bon faiths. To climb it is considered desecration, and so no one has attempted it. Pilgrims from all four religions travel there from far and wide, and some circumnambulate it in full prostration. As I mentioned, this mountain is particularly sacred to Tibetan Buddhists, and is believed to be exactly opposite the earth from the Hope mesa area, which I included in the 1st chakra.

Other Sites

Other commonly mentioned sites are:

Haleakala crater in Maui, Hawaii

Palenque – Mayan archaeological site in the Mexican state of Chiapas

Lake Titicaca, on the border of Bolivia and Peru

Table Mountain, in South Africa

Bali, Indonesian Island

Fiji, in the South Pacific

Kuh-e Malek, in Siah Iran (couldn’t learn much about this one)

Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa

Easter Island, Polynesian Island

If you are interested in some other mappings, here are three:

Mapping by Robert Coon, claimed to be based on Druid teachings, and one of the more popular systems (click on the online book link towards the bottom)

Alternative mapping, by a Dowsing (water finding) organization

Compendium of many mappings, by Starstuffs

So what do you think? I’m interested to hear opinions on where the earth’s 7 major chakras are, or any other more local ones that you have found…

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Link Love Fest – Favorite Blog Posts (with Twitter accounts!)

Here’s some Link Love for the holiday weekend (holiday in the U.S. anyway.) I’ve been online more than usual lately, so this got a bit long. I’ve tried to include enough information about each that you can skim through and pick and choose what interests you. And since I have finally become convinced of the joys of Twitter, I’ve included Twitter names where I know them.

As an aside, I would love to have more guest posts this summer, so if you have an idea for one that fits with this blog, please email me at lerickson99[at]earthlink[dot]net. And don’t feel you have to have your own blog to guest post.

First, some recent finds:

BlissChick – I don’t know quite how I missed this wonderful blog before, but Christine writes on kundalini yoga, writing, healing, spirituality, and most importantly finding – and maintaining – your bliss. Here’s a recent post she did for new readers. One of my favorite recent posts was The Day to Day of Depression: Story as Garden & Me as Gardener, in which she talks about the day to day work she does to maintain the bliss she has found since overcoming depression. I think this is a must-read for anyone who is struggling or ever has struggled with depression. She also re-posted the excerpt from Paul Martin’s Original Faith, and continued the conversation on healing from childhood wounds. Her twitter account is TheBlissChick.

One of my favorite living spiritual teachers, Gangaji, has just started a blog on the Huffington Post. I doubt she will be responding to comments personally, since I have heard she often receives hundreds of letters a month and had to stop responding to each one a few years ago. But I am just excited to read her words on a regular basis.

Although not a recent find, I love Karen Maezen Miller’s blog Cheerio Road. She is the author of the excellent Momma Zen, which I quoted in my Mother’s Day post. I dare you not to choke up at her recent post The Last 19 Books I Didn’t Write, in which she describes a writing project she coordinated with her daughter’s third-grade class.

I think Caroline at The Zen in You has come up with one of the most creative and beautiful ways to honor her regular readers and commenters, through Wow – I Said That? Wednesdays. Be sure to check out the photographs on her posts- they are all hers! And you can follow her on Twitter at @thezeninyou.

Robin at Let’s Live Forever has caught my interest with some of her posts on physical immortality. Here’s a recent one about the book series by Baird T Spalding entitled Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East. Here’s Robin on Twitter.

On a very different note, if you are at all interested in archaelogy, check out The Ancient Digger, including some posts on a personal passion of mine, Ancient Egypt, such as this one on the Egyptian artifacts at the Museum of Turin, or this one on Egyptian Language and Hieroglyphics.

And now for some recent favorites from my old standbys, blogs that are already on my blogroll:

I love all of Mon’s posts at Holistic Mama (and found the next two blogs through her too). But a recent favorite is her explorations of The Aware Baby theories of Aletha Solther, including a post about criticisms of this approach. Favorite series of mine on her blog are her child astrology posts, and her amazing psychological posts on child shadows. She also writes on green living, expat life, and many organic and craft themes, so be sure to thoroughly check out her blog. She’s on Twitter at @holisticmum.

Mama-Om has recently run an absolutely beautiful – and insightful – series on her five Family Pillars. Since my children are similar in age to hers, I always get a lot out of her posts on cuddle-time in which she describes interactions with her five-year old – check out this recent one entitled Godzilla vs. The Giant Tulips.

Docwitch at The Dark Side of the Broom always manages to be erudite, down to earth, and funny all at the same time, which is no small feat (for proof, just read her About Me sidebar.) She could write about ingrown toenails and I would read it. But she usually has much better topics, and my two recent favorites were both on books – a literary meme and gothic literature. If you are looking for summer reading (and especially if you like dark and passionate tales) check out her posts.

Finally, rounding out my current Mamas with Soul blogroll category, Alexis at Taking the Lid off the Sun just reran her great series on mindful mothering. She can be found on Twitter at @AlexisAhrens. And Kelly at She Power ran a great post this month on 21 Small but Powerful Ways to Build a Happy Family. She’s on Twitter at @shepower.

On the spiritual and personal development front, Evelyn at Attraction Mind Map has run some amazing posts this month, my favorite probably being Intuitive Messages to Who I Am, which begins with ‘I am a Sparrow’. Evelyn in on Twitter at @evelynlim.

Jay at Porsidan shares his personal spiritual journey in a heartfelt and honest voice. He is currently in the middle of a 30-day meditation challenge, and shared his first week’s results. Stop by and encourage him! He is on Twitter at @porsidan.

Lises at Quest for Balance has been on a roll lately, and I loved both her mid-week posts this week – Is is Love, or Mere Illusion? on the ways we fool ourselves when it comes to romantic love (or lust), and Is Being ‘Gifted’ Really a Good Thing?, on the problems with valuing ‘gifted’ kids for their skills. Find her on Twitter as @serene_balance.

If you have not checked out Amy from CirklaNote’s Blogtalk interviews, read this overview of the most recent two here, and be sure to listen. Amy is on Twitter as @cirklagirl (and if you are a mind-body-spirit practitioner, consider listing your services in her Cirka directory.)

I have mentioned Jan at Awake is Good many times, and she never disappoints. Her blog has a beautiful new look, and I loved reading all the favorite quotes from commenters on Quotes That Inspire. If you love quotes, check it out.

Jenny at Heal Pain Naturally has also long been a favorite, including her Heroes for Healing directory site (listing healers and spiritual teachers of all types.) Her recent post What do you Believe? is really an amazing manifesto on all the ways our thoughts impact our health and ability to heal. Jenny is on Twitter at @jennymannion.

And last but not least, Akemi at Yes to Me has been running a series called Creating the New World with powerful and insightful posts on Love, Light, Truth and Abundance so far. She’s on Twitter at @akemigaines.

I hope you do take the time to check out those on this list that interest you. There were actually more I wanted to include, but I’ll get you next time. And if you have a blog you’d like to share, please post in the comments! That’s what this post is all about…

Why Adam Lambert Didn’t Win Americal Idol (or, the problem with religion)

If you are surprised I am writing about American Idol on this blog, let me just say – not more than I am.

But I simply can’t get past my view – and anger – that Adam lost because he is gay, and because Kris Allen is an evangelical Christian that did missionary work. I just can’t get past the idea that this is a referendum in the ongoing religion-fueled culture wars of the U.S.A.

I have been trying to tell myself otherwise all night and morning. I have been saying, ‘But Kris seems like a great guy, and he is really talented’, and ‘It doesn’t matter – Adam’s success is already assured, he will go on to a long and illustrious career’. Or ‘Kris’s song choices were more mainstream, hardcore rockers like Adam never win’, and finally, ‘Geez, Lisa, it’s just a TV show – get over it!!!’

I’m sure I will (get over it, that is.) Probably by tomorrow, when I’ll do the Blog Sharing/Link Love post I had planned for this week. But not before I vent a little today (Ok, you’ve received your vent warning, so if you keep reading and end up mad, it’s not my fault.)

From my perspective, it is completely naive to think religion or Adam being gay had nothing to do with this upset. For weeks, media outlets have been running articles along the lines of MSNBC’s Is America Ready for a Gay Americal Idol? The LA Times  ran a front-page article on how these two represent this country’s cultural and religious divide. In the interviews leading up to the finale, the contestants were consistently asked ‘do you think religion will play a result in the vote?’ (to which they both – good friends – said, ‘I hope not.’) But since Adam has never publicly expressed any religious views, it’s hard to escape the fact that ‘religion’ in these questions was really shorthand for ‘religious views on homosexuality.’ On a darker note, the blogosphere has been alight with vitriol from supporters of both contestants, most of it aimed at their beliefs and personal lives.

It’s the vitriol on both sides that really gets me. And THIS is the problem with religion. The New Testament is 100% about love. That is almost all Jesus talked about. Sure, there are some other statements about the social and political situations of that time. But when asked which commandment is the most important, Jesus makes himself pretty clear, “Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” and then “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Love, love, love. Buddha rarely used the word ‘love’. He focused more on connectivity, on the essential oneness of us all. But the essence was the same. And of course Jesus and Buddha were just two of the more famous messengers – there have been many more, within virtually every religion, and many outside of them all. They each found this love, this truth, for themselves, and then they said ‘here is how I did it, here is one way to find this out for yourself.’

Somehow, over time, after a messenger is long gone from this earth, the message always gets mucked up. Someone comes along that wants to use it for political purposes, or just has an axe to grind, and the ‘one way’ changes to ‘only way’, and the focus on ‘love’ shifts to ‘righteousness.’ And one great teacher’s realization gets morphed – in my view disfigured – into a religion.

Don’t think this has only happened with Christianity. I have been on many Buddhist forums over the years, and have often been shocked with the views on what makes a ‘true Buddhist.’ I have read that you can’t be Buddhist and 1) eat meat, 2) drink wine, 3) be pro-choice, 4) be a Republican. Since 3 and 4 rarely go together, you can see it would be tough to meet everyone’s standard for ‘Buddhist.’ I have also run into strong opinions about meditation, about what is ‘real meditation’ and what is not, and what I should or should not be teaching regarding the chakras. This is in the Los Angeles progressive new-age community, so self-righteousness is not something reserved only for the Bible Belt.

And this is why I don’t define myself as anything anymore. And why, even though I hold deeply spiritual beliefs, I was interested in the mostly atheist views of Raising Freethinkers. Because even though I am a ‘believer’, I sometimes think maybe the world could use a few centuries of atheism, or at least secular humanism, to clear itself out and start afresh on the spiritual front. (As an aside, after giving my intro spiel at a meditation class last Fall, one woman raised her hand and said, ‘Ok, let me get this straight. Your credentials for teaching this class are that you are an ex-Episcopalian, ex-Atheist, ex-Buddhist making things up as she goes along.’ To which I could only respond, ‘yes’.)

OK, I think I’m done. I feel much better. I will return to my usual ‘all religions share common themes’ and ‘all religions are different paths to the same truths’ next week. For today, I mourn for us all. I mourn for Adam because he deserved to win. I mourn for the teachers past and present who have tried to show us how to love one another, and whose messages have continually been lost. I mourn for the world my children will inherit, which I am profoundly worried about.

Namaste-

Chakra Yoga MP3s – Guided Walkthroughs

Below are the guided chakra walkthroughs that I mentioned in the 21 Ways to Care for Your Sacral Chakra post, plus a couple extra (and for those of you interested in that post, I added a note on Kegels – yes, Kegels! – to #9.) A few notes:

- The reason I wanted to do these as recordings is so that a transmission can (hopefully) occur, which is how most of us best learn this stuff – connecting mind to mind, beyond language. I am doing the techniques as I talk, and the idea is that this will help you better connect to your own chakras. Although I also talk about the chakras during the walkthroughs, I am never dropping my chakra focus, so just keep your own chakra focus and hopefully the talking will not get too bothersome!

- I call these chakra ‘yoga’ instead of chakra ‘meditation’ because they are very active visual and sensory techniques. Even if you already have a meditation practice, these are a great clearing and preparatory technique, just as physical yoga is a preparatory technique for formal sitting meditation.

- I wanted to expand a bit on the distinction I made in the 2nd Chakra Motherhood and Creating post between chakra healing vs. spiritual techniques. I think the chakras are best discussed as mind-body-spirit intersection points. When doing healing work you are usually pulling energy from the spiritual/energetic realm through the mind/awareness level into the physical body, i.e. the movement is spirit->mind->body. In what we’ll call ’spiritual’ techniques such as what I’m doing in these recordings, you are moving in the opposite direction, i.e. body->mind->spirit. Focusing on a physical location helps you connect with the state of awareness associated with the chakra in that area, and that in turn allows you to go through the doorway of that chakra into spiritual planes it connects with.
(And I don’t really like to talk in terms of spiritual planes, because it implies something separate from reality, but I am trying to use terms everyone is familiar with.)

- I don’t know much about digital audio files, so if  you have problems with these let me know. From what I understand, you should be able to just click on them to play them from your computer, or right click and do a ’save page as’ to download them. On some computers you may have to start playing them first and then do a ’save as’.

Chakra Yoga MP3s

7 Chakra Cycling, 9 minutes – Technique for cycling through all 7 chakras to awaken the kundalini and move the energy up through them into the upper chakras (the traditional focus of chakra meditation techniques.)

7 Chakra Lotus Variation, 4 1/2 minutes – A variation on the first technique, but with a lotus blossom pictured in the 2nd chakra, which is particularly relevant for women.

4 Chakra Core Meditation, 11 minutes – A classic core chakra meditation technique using the navel, heart, third eye and crown chakras. Time in each chakra can be expanded to make a longer meditation.

Bliss Bubble, 3 1/2 minutes – Visualization designed to awaken a uniquely feminine ‘bliss’ energy, activated through the 2nd and heart chakras.

Protection Visualization, 3 1/2 minutes – Visualization for learning how to use the navel chakra energy to create an energetic shield. Note that in the 21 ways post I described a red sphere of light, and I didn’t use that in this recording (I just used white), but you can use red or red-orange if you like, as that has a martial flavor.

Please feel free to leave any comments, questions or requests for other techniques in the comments.

I never really considered this a teaching blog, but these recordings were made from my ‘teaching’ aspect, so I wanted to offer a traditional blessing at the end, customary in many traditions, but particularly Buddhist ones:

May these recordings represent light, power, and truth.

May they serve to empower, enlighten and awaken all who listen.

And, just to help you connect energetically even more, here is where they were made:

Zion Rainbow

And if you like this post, please also Subscribe or

When Parents Lie to Children – Excerpt from Original Faith by Paul M. Martin

This is the last in the recent parenting and book-themed posts that I’ve found myself doing lately. Today’s post is a guest post in the form of an excerpt from the book Original Faith: What Your Life is Trying to Tell You, by Paul M. Martin. Although between here and BellaOnline I’ve gotten myself a bit backed up in the book department, and haven’t been able to read Original Faith yet, I’ve been enjoying the discussions about spirituality on Paul’s blog, which I was introduced to by mutual friend Jan at Awake is Good.

Paul is a certified elementary school counselor with over twenty years experience in the public schools and has master’s degrees in religious studies and counseling. He has had a fascinating personal journey, including years of spiritual doubt, a spontaneous meditative experience that served as the genesis for Original Faith, and the onset of a debilitating condition that has currently left him homebound. You can read more about his story and his message here.

The following excerpt from Original Faith, entitled When Parents Lie to Children, discusses the fundamental spiritual misdirection that occurs when parents are only able to offer their children ‘conditional love’ – love dependent upon fulfilling the parent’s own ego needs.

Ego-Involved

A parent or other primary caretaker either does not love us or, far more often, does not express it clearly and consistently enough for us to be sure of it. An experienced lack of love from a parent is the fundamental source of the wounds that so many of us receive in childhood.

When this occurs, it is because our parent is somewhat ambivalent about his or her feelings for us. The parent doesn’t completely accept something about our real nature. We may not be smart enough or talented enough. We may be too physically rugged or assertive for a girl or too small and quiet for a boy. We may be too inhibited or not self-disciplined enough.

Our interests and aspirations may be wrong. We may not like working with our hands enough—or with our intellects. We may like music too much and not take enough interest in sports, or the other way around.

The real problem, of course, is that we are not sufficiently like our parents or their aspirations to satisfy their ego. Many of us spend years of our adult lives coming out from under the burden of this unnecessary baggage. As parents, this is a burden we can and should avoid passing on to our own children.

The Lie

Having preconceived notions of what our children must be like in order to be fully acceptable to us is the equivalent of telling them a terrible lie. What our children hear is that they are not good enough – that something is wrong with or lacking in their very being.

Though it’s a lie, children readily believe it. With little or no knowledge of the outside world as a potential source of acceptance and approval, young children are in no position to realize, “This is only my parent’s hang-up. No reflection on me!”  They believe the lie in the act of hearing it.

Viewing the abilities of our children as a means to satisfy our ego desires is unhealthy for parents as well as children. Indeed, outgrowing egoism is a good two-word summary of our primary developmental task as adults. And clearly it helps our children develop trust, confidence and self love when they see themselves with eyes unclouded by the illusion that that they were put on earth to be made in our image. It even becomes that much easier for them to take first steps toward standing in right relation to the greater truth that embraces us all.

SKY SMILE
By Paul Martin

The big sky smiled so wide!
“Why don’t you smile too?”
It seemed to say.
But Jessica was crying.
“I’m blue – don’t you even get it?”
“So am I” said Sky.
“I am the blue that’s light.”
And Jessica saw that Sky was right
And really was light-blue,
Like that half-unraveled crayon
She liked to use when she was drawing sky.
So she kicked off both her shoes
Right there on the grass
To feel another kind of blue.

- Excerpted from Original Faith: What Your Life is Trying to Tell You, by Paul M. Martin

Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief – Book Review

First a couple of notes for regular readers: 1) I will post the guided chakra-work mp3s that I mentioned in the 21 Ways to Care for Your Sacral Chakra post early next week. I am going to add a few more than originally planned, and have the perfect opportunity this weekend to get in the right ’space’ for this. 2) This week I am doing a couple more parenting-themed posts, but then I’ll swing back around to some of my other topics, so if parenting is not your thing, just hold on. However, I think some of these themes are interesting for any of us to look at, because it’s always enlightening to examine how you were parented, and how it shaped your worldview.

Which brings me to today’s book review: Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief. This book is primarily geared for parents that consider themselves atheist, agnostic, and/or secular humanist, none of which I personally embrace. When I have to label myself (which I assiduously try and avoid), I usually go with ’spiritual but not religious.’ Of course, ’spiritual’ is pretty broad, but for me it does mean I believe in something beyond what my physical senses or science can currently validate. Belief is not a bad word for me, not something I need to get beyond, nor is it incompatible in my mind with freethinking. So this book wouldn’t seem a good fit for me.

And yet I really liked it, and feel it is a book I will turn to again and again as my children get older. I liked it because what I have come to believe spiritually has been the result of personal questioning and seeking, and the main thrust of this book is how to raise children that approach life in an open, questioning, educated, and ethical way. From that perspective I think it is a book any parent could benefit from (and I am not big on parenting books.) That being said, this book is certainly not for fans of most organized religion, theistic beliefs, or the hierarchical theology typical of the world’s religions (and that’s fine by me.)

First the basics: This book is a collection of essays and parent-child exercises written by Dale McGowan, Molleen Matsumura, Amanda Metskas, and Jan Devor, all of whom are secular humanists, or, in the case of Ms. Devor, Unitarian Universalist, with parent education experience. You can read more about each of them at the Parenting Beyond Belief website. Each chapter introduces its topic and then presents a series of questions and answers based on the concerns of real parents that the authors have interacted with. The chapters each end with suggested parent-child exercises for exploring the theme further, and a list of related resources, including books, websites, movies, and more. Some of the chapter themes are how to:

- Encourage critical thinking while maintaining respect for other’s beliefs.

- Help children navigate the social pressures oriented around authority and conformity (both religious forces and other social ones.)

- Develop an ethical foundation not based on a traditionally religious POV, i.e. divine reward and punishment.

- Achieve “religious literacy without indoctrination”, which is especially important if you have family members with religious views other than your own, or if you live in an area where ‘going to church’ (or the equivalent) is the norm.

- Sort through the mixed messages regarding sexuality, our physical bodies, and pleasure that have seeped into our culture from religious viewpoints, and how to offer a healthy alternative.

- Celebrate traditionally religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter in a secular fashion, or develop alternatives.

- Develop rituals and/or a conceptual framework for dealing with life passages and death.

- Find and/or create the sense of community that is often provided by religious organizations.

The chapter on religious literacy was particularly interesting to me, because my husband’s and my own family embrace a wide range of religious beliefs, and my children will need to sort through that as they grow up. In addition, I have been trying to determine what of my own beliefs I want to introduce my children to (which is part of what inspired my own spiritual and religious book lists for young children.) Raising Freethinkers only increased my sense that religious literacy is essential for functioning well in society, or at least American society, due to the ongoing religiously-based ‘culture wars’ here, and the corresponding conversion pressures some teens face from peers (the questions and scenarios posed by parents in this book are very eye-opening in that regard.)

The book offers many interesting statistics regarding American’s religious beliefs as well, including that 86% believe in God (although that drops to 78% when the option of ‘universal spirit’ is also offered, which is probably what I would select myself if pushed), 81% heaven, 69% hell, and 61% that the biblical creation story is literally true. The statistics on the same issues in Europe and other ‘developed’ nations are drastically different. In addition, unlike in the U.S. most Europeans receive religious education in schools, and are therefore much more aware of religious history and religions other than their own. As Jan Devor puts it, “The United States is both the most religiously enthusiastic and the least religiously literate country in the developed world.” And as our most recent presidential election highlighted, this is a trend that is only increasing in our country, and that our children will be dealing with for some time to come.

Although I am interested in all world religions, and have found mystics within most whose writings and experiences I resonate with, the way that religion is usually passed on from parent to child has always seemed absurd to me. Jan Devor quotes a recent speech by Richard Dawkins that captures this sentiment exactly, in which he responds to a newspaper photo of three young children with the caption ‘A Sikh child, a Muslim child, and a Christian child’ by noting:

“No one bats an eye…But just imagine if the caption had read ‘a Monetarist child, a Keynesian child, and a Marxist child.” Ridiculous! Yet not one bit less ridiculous than the other.”

Since for me spirituality is not about inheriting beliefs but about personally seeking, Dale McGowan’s first chapter ‘The Inquiring Mind’ was also a favorite of mine. He unpacks the underlying assumption of many religious parenting books that “our primary job as parents is to stave off a bubbling depravity that lurks just below the surface of our children.” As he puts it:

“I want the idea that questions can be feared because of the answers they might produce to baffle my kids. I want them to find hilarariously silly the idea that certain lines of thought cannot even be pursued, lest they be caught.”

Amen to that (hehe). And the examples he provides for how to encourage questioning in kids, and how to avoid falling into the trap of authoritarian or answer-providing parenting were very insightful. However, here some of my own beliefs regarding the limits of reason and science clashed a bit with some of the exercises, such as having kids create staged UFO photos to help them see how easily the eye can be tricked, or attempting to disprove the existence of unicorns to show how proving the negative (i.e. there is no God) is impossible, and therefore “the burden of proof must rest on those making spectacular claims.” Both exercises seemed to me to be awfully close to teaching freethinking=’rationality’ or ‘current scientific knowledge’, which is not exactly what I want to pass on (after all, science is a product of its time too – the theory of microscopic germs was once considered idiotic.)

All of the other chapters – on ethics, secular rituals, life passages, sex ed and more – were all excellent, and I feel they did offer material I will turn to as my children get older. Many fascinating studies are referenced, including those on what type of parenting is more likely to engender empathy (not moralistic), and how sex education really impacts the sexual behavior of teens (abstinence-only programs, steadily increasing in U.S. schools, do not delay the average age for first-time sex, which is currently 14.9 years.) I also especially appreciated the parent questions, which raised so many issues I had never thought of, from how to respond to a young child who wants a first communion after attending her cousin’s, to how to talk about good and evil without a religious framework.

This is called a ‘practical guide’ and it definitely is that, rich in exercises, book suggestions, and resource lists. A particular favorite of mine is the ‘Recommended Films’ list in the appendix, which includes the categories “Religious Literacy”, “Coming of Age Issues” and “Exploring Death and Loss.”

So if you are looking for guidance in secular child-raising, hold unconventional spiritual beliefs yourself, and/or want to prepare your child well for navigating a sometimes religiously rigid world, Raising Freethinkers is worth considering. Check out the website for more info.

Feel free to post any questions you have about the book in the comments, and I will answer them there. I’m also interested to hear about your own experiences or insights for handling atheist or unconventional spiritual beliefs with children, or advice for handling some of the issues that often arise when children are confronted with other religious beliefs through friends or family….