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YOGA OF ACTION – PART 2

We are all Christs.

As souls we were originally with God or Source.

Spirit projects the desire to create an ‘image’ of itself, an individual expression.

Each of us.

The soul becomes manifest and projects this idea or image of the body in causal form.

The idea or image in the mind of God or Source becomes energy or the astral body. The astral body becomes concentrated into the physical body.

Through the spine of light the soul descends into identifying with matter.

This is why Presence and practice of the ascent of the soul up the astral spine through Kriya Yoga or a similar technique is so essential to liberation from the physical body.

Christ Consciousness is Presence, Self Realization.

The Christ Consciousness, God or Source Consciousness, or the True Self, is the Divine Within, present and awake.

Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the Buddha and Guan Yin, realized this divine presence and so spoke to us of the I AM essence and mindfulness in the now, the stillness beyond time and form.

Timeless presence.

I AM THAT I AM.

The second coming of Buddha as Maitreya and the return of the Christ is a transformation in us from time-bound thinking to timeless presence and pure consciousness.

PRACTICE

Thich Nhat Hanh always used a bell to remind us to be present, a call to ourselves to awareness and awakening.

If you have a small bell or a chime or the sound of one play it now as we begin.

Notice the silence and stillness and presence that follows as you listen deeply and notice the silence.

This is the Presence or Christ Consciousness activating in you.

When thoughts come see them like waves moving on the ocean.

They are not the ocean.

They are not the True Self.

The True Self, the I AM Presence is the One aware of the silence.

Be still, and know I AM Presence.

Noticing the silence frees you of thought.

Feeling the energy body frees you of thought.

Watching the breath frees you of thought.

Your senses still perceive, usually the listening, what you hear around you.

These come and go, merely objects in your consciousness.

We are most often occupied with the objects, the waves, the thoughts, and rarely with the pure consciousness, the ocean, the space of awareness itself.

You cannot bind it or claim it.

The witness or the Christ Consciousness is the I AM Presence that Christ spoke about when he said “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58) and when Moses asked God for the Name of God and was told “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14).

There is nowhere you need to go, nothing you need to achieve, the Christ Consciousness or the Buddha Nature Within is already present.

If you find thoughts come so be it.

When you accept it you go beyond it.

That is the power of the Christ Consciousness.

Acceptance, love.

Pure acceptance is acceptance of everything.

Wisdom is knowing I AM nothing

Love is knowing I AM everything

Life and thoughts flow as waves between.

Let them be.

1) Who is noticing the silence?

2) Who is watching the breath?

3) Who is seeing the light?

The I AM Presence.

The Higher Self is the Presence of the Christ Consciousness.

When we are aware moment to moment of the Presence of the Higher Self we are living in the Presence of Christ Consciousness.

Love and Blessings

Altair and Mother

LIVING IN THE PRESENCE OF DIVINE MOTHER

Thanks to a wonderful gathering organized by Gilles Asselin I am going to share a transcript of wisdom we discussed, about the presence of the divine feminine in our lives.

And today in Japan is ‘Tanabata’ the 7th day of the 7th month, known as the Star Festival when the deities and star consciousness of Altair and Vega meet. It is the day when the wish-fulfiling power of your heart is at its mystical best, so wish with wisdom knowing that what you can conceive of will manifest in full.

EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER 4 OF PORTALS OF PRESENCE

KOYA-SAN – YOGA OF ACTION – PART 1

Let’s talk together about awareness.

This is a dialogue, shared wisdom, a collective experience.

What I am about to share with you is a Chintamani Stone, an Oracle, a Sign, a meditation.

We are all divine beings, Source Messengers, bodhisattvas and earth angels.

So what we share here is a collective wisdom of our divinity.

You have heard it before, you have absorbed it, you know it.

But until you practice it, it is not wisdom.

You can feel it already, this flow of wisdom, because right now we are practicing, in the Shared Heart, together.

The alchemy, the Grail, is that opening and glowing in the Heart.

So rest in that presence.

Surrender and allow space for the silence.

As we listen, deeply, together.

Before we begin let us consider our awareness, here and now in the present.

When we consider it carefully we see that all is not as it seems.

Look around you now at your surroundings.

The chairs and table and space that surrounds you is filled with energy and consciousness. It is alive.

The body you exist in is also filled with that energy and consciousness and information.

You sense that.

Yet you are not the chairs or table, nor are you the body.

We all know at some point in time, our body will cease to exist, just as the chairs and table will.

Yet right now there is a witness, an observer, a divine presence within you that knows.

That you are awake.

It is because you are becoming still.

Be still and know I AM Presence.

We are so conditioned to our body and our surroundings that we believe they are our reality, that they define us.

Yet there is something greater, a power, a knowing within.

You feel it. That is why we are here, gathered together on this planet.

Let us experiment together.

THE DIVINE FEMININE – BEING AND THE MIND

Go into the body now, feel.

Generally speaking it is easier for a woman to feel and be in her body than a man, so she is naturally closer to Being and the Divine Feminine Presence. We all know that many ancient cultures chose female figures like Isis or Guan Yin to represent the formless transcendental reality.

The Tao in the Tao Te Ching is described as the infinite eternally present mother of the universe and Prajnaparamita in the Heart Sutra is described as the Mother of All Buddhas.

Women embody the unmanifested, the Goddess, Divine Mother.

When the mind took over it started to think of Source or God as male and as we see today much of society is male dominated. The God of authority and control is a male projection.

To connect with Being or Source requires surrender, non-judgment, openness and compassion, the divine feminine.

Mind energy runs our planet’s society whereas Being energy is in charge of everything else. However most men and women are still in the grip of their mind, constant thoughts and suffering through the pain body.

THE 7 POINT CHECK FOR AWAKENED AWARENESS

So let’s check for divine awareness, for being.

I call it the 7 point check for awakened awareness.

First close your eyes.
Take your attention to the breath.
Breathe and become aware of the in breath as you breathe in and the out breath as you breathe out.
Then become aware of the entire inner field of energy.
Visualize yourself surrounded by light and that you are immersed in this sea of consciousness.
Then breathe in the light. Breathe in the light. Breathe out the light. Feel the light filling up your body. Making it glow. Feel it. Feel the being-ness of this energy field.
Become one with it. Merge with it. Stay in the realm of Pure Being. When you open your eyes look at your surroundings again.

Your awareness has shifted.You are now aware of the formless timeless nameless realm of Being, deep stillness, deep joy. When you surrender like this, you open to the Light within, you allow the Light to enter you, you realize you are not separate from the Light and that it is in fact your very essence.

When I was very young, just after I had the dream of being a Tibetan monk from age 2 to 3 I used to practice breathing in and out the light. I would say it to myself whenever I got ill.

“Breathe in the Light, Breathe out the Light.”

When I did the Kalachakra Tantra with the Dalai Lama this was my experience for 3 days, pure pristine bliss and peace, initiated by a blinding flash of Light from the Divine Feminine Essence of Guan Yin and the Divine Masculine Essence of the Archangel Metatron.

A SIMPLE GUIDE TO DAILY PRACTICE OF AWAKENED AWARENESS IN 7 LINES

1) Pray to your teacher guide or guru within daily

2) With the help of a qualified teacher or the guru within gain a clear understanding of the best path for you for liberation

3) Make the path the heart of your practice and meditate diligently

4) Meditate on the teacher guide or guru within visualising him or her above the crown of your head with streams of amrita flowing down through the central channel cleansing away all impurities and suffering of body speech heart and mind

5) Meditate on our body as the luminous Light Body of the deity, teacher guide or guru within descending from our crown into the eight petaled lotus of our heart and mingling with the indestructible essence drop in a single taste.

6) After meditation consider visualise and feel that everything that appears is a pure buddhafield or christgrid peopled by buddhas and christs or deities.

7) Use the activities of eating walking sitting and washing the dishes as the Buddha washing Buddha’s bowl considering them as offerings to all for their liberation. Even in bed and going to sleep practice visualising the teacher guide or inner guru in the center of our hearts so that practice becomes a continuous uninterrupted stream of nectar and virtue in everything we do.

DIVINE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT AND NEEDS, FEELINGS, THOUGHTS

When we consider deeply.

We arrive on this planet with pristine pure awareness, divine children.

We arrive with an awareness of the face before we were born, whether it be angelic or master, bodhisattva or Elder, so we have a need to know. To remember.

Needs, feelings, thoughts.

These become critical in our development of awakened awareness.

We have a face at birth.

Depending on our choice of parent our arrival into the physical body can be somewhat of a shock.

So our mother, the one who gives birth to us, opens the energies of the Divine Mother for all of us initially. She meets our need to connect with the divine feminine in form. She meets our need to belong. She reminds us, as the Tibetans and the Dalai Lama says, that we have all been mothers in some life or other, for each other. In that sense we are all each other’s children. We belong to each other.

OUR DESIRE TO BELONG

We all feel this desire to belong. We look for it in various forms, forms we recognize from previous lives or other worlds and dimensions, forms like art or music or dance, or spiritual teachings, healing, businesses that promote wellbeing or connection. Lovers that ignite the flame in our hearts. Children that awaken our joy of being.

So there is this presence of Divine Mother, the divine feminine, awake and in our awareness to varying degrees throughout our life.

I was fortunate to have a Mother Superior guiding me into the heart of Mother Mary from birth and then Guan Yin guiding me into her heart through the manifestation of a pearl from her heart around 20 years ago. After my own mother’s death Guan Yin and Divine Mother guided me into the Light through an experience of the Kalachakra Tantra with the Dalai Lama.

The level to which this awareness of the divine feminine develops is to a large extent dependent on us developing awareness of our needs and feelings and thoughts.

Most of us operate in a mode of backwards by design.

We think and therefore we think we are our thoughts with the mass of confusion and judgments and challenges.

We have very little awareness of our true feelings.

We do not know how to express our needs.

And we are not aware, moment to moment, that we are an awakened human, an earth angel, with the power of the flame and Light of God alive and flowing in our hearts.

ACTION IN THE HEART OF DIVINE MOTHER

So how can we act with presence and awakening?

To bring the divine feminine?

Be still and know God, I AM Presence

“Surrender is creating spaces for stillness”

As I came to write this chapter about how to live, how to act, I turned again and again to my own mother, who set for me countless examples of kindness and generosity. Together with my father, she served the Cambodian refugees for many years and received a Queen’s Medal for her service to the community in placing and supporting more than 300 families and their relatives for over 20 years.

Both Yogananda and the Dalai Lama were tremendously fond of their own mothers. The death of his own mother led Yogananda in his search for Divine Mother and the Dalai Lama constantly refers to the world needing the care and affection of mothers for their children in order to understand true compassion.

When God created this universe, there were two aspects which held all energies in balance, the divine masculine and the feminine.

Yogananda also referred to mothers being God as Divine Mother, watching over humanity, through the caring heart of a mother. No matter what a child has done a mother always forgives, and it is with that caring heart that we compassionately interact with all human beings.

How can we do this practically? How can we create spaces for stillness?

Divine Mother does not judge. She looks to our needs.

We can be Divine Mothers for others in a similar way.

BEING DIVINE MOTHER – COMPASSION AND NON-JUDGEMENT

A simple example is by looking at our judgements. Through compassion we can translate our judgments into needs and then connections. This is like the deep listening of our Mother Guan Yin. The listening power of deep empathy. Let’s take an example. Most of our agitation in life comes from a need for deeper connection. Lets say someone says something we really don’t like. They might talk about someone else as stupid or impulsive or something else. Our dislike creates a reaction and often we drop into judgment too. Yeah you’re right! Or How could you think that? Now when we feel that energy of judgement which is usually preceded by agitation or discomfort, if we are aware enough we can notice the agitated energy which is a signal we are disconnecting from our compassion. It happens to me quite often, especially when I am driving! However I am getting better at checking in with myself. I want more connection and understanding. In a conversation with someone, rather than dropping into judgement I can focus on my needs for connection and understanding and ask the person why they don’t understand. Recently I had a situation in business where I wanted more inclusion and clarity so I was very direct with the person. When we are aware we can slow the conversation and our own thoughts down, moving towards stillness and let the thoughts ideas and judgments drop away so that clarity insight and inclusion can arise.

This is the power of empathy, the deep listening of Guan Yin and the caring and kindness of Divine Mother.

In the split second we are able to notice our judgements and shift our focus to our needs for connection and clarity, great insight, an AHA, can arise and the whole situation can be transformed and life can be deeply wonderful.

You become the watcher, the witness, the observing presence, the I AM Presence in the Light of Consciousness.

If you can practice this you can bring all your unconscious judgments into the Light of Consciousness. This is the lamp, the portal into presence. Stillness in action.

Try this. Take your focus away from me and into your self, into what is going on inside of yourself right this moment. Ask yourself, what is going on inside of me? Now watch. Don’t try to analyze it, let your attention rest within. Breathe, breathing calmly helps. Feel the energy of the body, the emotions. Become very present. Open yourself to the inner energy field of presence within the body. Be very still. This is the portal of presence, the doorway into being.

Divine Mother’s Presence is this beauty joy and grace of Being. She is the Presence of stillness in your life, the gap of stillness and presence that speaks to us of wisdom. The Buddha called this the Mother of All Buddhas, prajnaparamita, perfect wisdom. If you meditate on the Heart Sutra you begin to understand the stillness of the heart. This is the greatest gift, the Chintamani Stone of meditation. When you meditate the silence speaks to you. Spirit manifests in form as the Divine Mother. That was my experience of Her in the Zen garden, the wind became Her Voice, the petals Her Skin, the light Her Face, the water Her Tears.

So give all your burdens to Divine Mother. Let Her take all your suffering. A baby has complete trust in her Mother. Let the blessing as She reaches out to you bring you closer with every breath.

KRIYA YOGA – THE PATH TO THE INFINITE

Let us meditate. Try practicing Kriya Yoga or simple breathing of light up and down the astral spine, followed by yearning for Divine Mother at the third eye followed by stillness and presence.

Close your eyes, think of God, Source, Being and give Divine Mother a call from your soul. You can do this at any time. You are my Mother, my Father my friend, I want to come Home, I want to come back to You. Then see in every face the Mother and in every eye Her eyes and in every breath Her breath. Let the world be transformed in front of your eyes. Visualise and feel that everything that appears around you is a pure buddhafield or christgrid peopled by buddhas and christs, Divine Mothers and deities.

I will leave you with the Dalai Lama’s story. He was the youngest child and as such was doted on and spoilt by his mother. She used to carry him on her shoulders. When he wanted to go somewhere he pulled her ears in the direction he wanted to go. If she didn’t obey he would kick and scream.

Such is the grace of Divine Mother. If we think we know best then she will take us where we will. Only when we learn how to surrender to the Divine Will, found in the spaces in our stillness, will we truly find the path home is as simple as riding on Her shoulders.

“Have you not noticed that love is silence? It may be while holding the hand of another, or looking lovingly at a child, or taking in the beauty of an evening. Love has no past or future, and it is with this extraordinary state of silence.” (Krishnamurti)

Love and blessings

Altair and Mother

LIVING IN THE PRESENCE OF THE CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS

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LIVING IN THE PRESENCE OF THE CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS

YOGA OF ACTION – PART 2

We are all Christs.

As souls we were originally with God or Source.

Spirit projects the desire to create an ‘image’ of itself, an individual expression.

Each of us.

The soul becomes manifest and projects this idea or image of the body in causal form.

The idea or image in the mind of God or Source becomes energy or the astral body. The astral body becomes concentrated into the physical body.

Through the spine of light the soul descends into identifying with matter.

This is why Presence and practice of the ascent of the soul up the astral spine through Kriya Yoga or a similar technique is so essential to liberation from the physical body.

Christ Consciousness is Presence, Self Realization.

The Christ Consciousness, God or Source Consciousness, or the True Self, is the Divine Within, present and awake.

Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the Buddha and Guan Yin, realized this divine presence and so spoke to us of the I AM essence and mindfulness in the now, the stillness beyond time and form.

Timeless presence.

I AM THAT I AM.

The second coming of Buddha as Maitreya and the return of the Christ is a transformation in us from time-bound thinking to timeless presence and pure consciousness.

PRACTICE

Thich Nhat Hanh always used a bell to remind us to be present, a call to ourselves to awareness and awakening.

If you have a small bell or a chime or the sound of one play it now as we begin.

Notice the silence and stillness and presence that follows as you listen deeply and notice the silence.

This is the Presence or Christ Consciousness activating in you.

When thoughts come see them like waves moving on the ocean.

They are not the ocean.

They are not the True Self.

The True Self, the I AM Presence is the One aware of the silence.

Be still, and know I AM Presence.

Noticing the silence frees you of thought.

Feeling the energy body frees you of thought.

Watching the breath frees you of thought.

Your senses still perceive, usually the listening, what you hear around you.

These come and go, merely objects in your consciousness.

We are most often occupied with the objects, the waves, the thoughts, and rarely with the pure consciousness, the ocean, the space of awareness itself.

You cannot bind it or claim it.

There is nowhere you need to go, nothing you need to achieve, the Christ Consciousness or the Buddha Nature Within is already present.

If you find thoughts come so be it.

When you accept it you go beyond it.

That is the power of the Christ Consciousness.

Acceptance, love.

Pure acceptance is acceptance of everything.

Wisdom is knowing I AM nothing

Love is knowing I AM everything

Life and thoughts flow as waves between.

Let them be.

1) Who is noticing the silence?

2) Who is watching the breath?

3) Who is seeing the light?

The I AM Presence.

The Higher Self is the Presence of the Christ Consciousness.

When we are aware moment to moment of the Presence of the Higher Self we are living in the Presence of Christ Consciousness.

Love and Blessings

Altair and Mother

PORTALS OF PRESENCE – EDEN – YOGA OF MEDITATION

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MEDITATION – THE ROYAL SEAL

THE ROYAL SEAL – MAHAMUDRA

CHAPTER 3 – EDEN – YOGA AND MEDITATION – PART 3

This chapter on the yoga of meditation is in three parts because I humbly wanted to present three profound practices in meditation that have benefited me over the years, aware that everyone has their own unique path and not everyone is suited to the same techniques and methods.

The first part is on the stillness and silence of the great saints like St Teresa of Avila and St Therese of Lisieux, the second part is on the power of that stillness and silence applied to Yogananda and Babaji’s Kriya Yoga and this third part is on the tantric practice of stillness and movement of mind from Mahamudra which I found deeply profound when doing the rituals of the Kalachakra Tantra with the Dalai Lama, through Metatron and Guan Yin.

Of the many lineages I have studied, one of the most beautiful is the Mahamudra, a set of meditation teachings and practices belonging to the Highest Yoga Tantra, and unique in its practice of clear light, wisdom and emptiness. It is authentic tantric spiritual practice and very practical in its instruction, incorporating many of the same principles of stillness and silence that St. Teresa of Avila’s prayerful meditation and Yogananda’s Kriya Yoga uses.

When I first started practicing Mahamudra I was sitting in a Zen garden and I started to perceive all the surrounding trees, birds, wind and sunlight as emanations of Guan Yin. Then some time later when I was doing the Kalachakra Tantra with the Dalai Lama, “I” vanished into Light and was Nameless and Timeless in Pure Presence for 3 days. I spoke to Her about this

“Divine Mother, you told me to meditate on the innate divine essence within, and mediate is what I did. It so happened that meditation and meditator simply vanished. There was no-thing after the meditation to maintain.”

At the time in my diary I described it as follows,

“Divine Mother has given me a gift, the gift of healing. My gift manifests as the simple act of devotion to My Divine Mother. As I write tears fill my eyes. It is as simple as that. Anything I offer to you is Hers. Any miracle manifested is done by Her Hands, any friendship we share is a Divine Friendship given by Her. So my day and my night and every waking thought is devoted to Her. I will share a Sacred Vision she gave me. My Mother Guan Yin was working her divine magic in and through me in this healing process. I received a simple, yet profound message. LOVE. I was meditating by a Zen rock garden under a Sakura tree. Listening to manifested sounds of the Pyramids of Giza from the Source. When my eyes were opened My Mother Guan Yin gifted me with a sacred gift. Not a pearl this time (in the past a deep ocean pearl manifested out of the heart of a statue of Guan Yin for me) but a Sacred Vision. As I walked in the gardens the wind became Her Voice, the petals Her Skin, the light Her Face, the water Her Tears. It was truly sublime. She walks the paths with me. My Divine Mother and I are not separate. It made me think about how the gifts of healing we receive are like the Petals of the Flower of Life. Pure and Precious Divine Consciousness manifesting through us. Love You Dearest Blessed Mother. Thank you for being beside me every moment of my life.
Every person, animal, nature and thing from the crowds gathering to the rock to the sky and beyond was immersed in the Universal Mother Love. Thank you again from every part of my heart.”

The Mahamudra, the heart of the profound true meaning, works with the Source through mindful knowing, stillness and presence, and was composed by an emanation of Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava. It has some basic guidelines. The following are presented as a beginning only.

MEDITATION

1. If you are determined to accomplish in a single lifetime the fruit of enlightenment on the basis of self realization in the ground of being then you should practice meditation regularly.

The Inconceivable Secret Sutra says “Bodhisattvas who wish to attain the unsurpassable perfect enlightenment should not devote themselves to words. Those who want to learn the path to enlightenment should devote themselves to practice. Through words enlightenment will not be gained in an eon, yet by realizing the truth, liberation will be gained in an instant.”

Even if meditation has not yet dawned on you, merely to have the intention to gaze at the mind is significant. To think “I must look at the mind” is deeply meaningful as it has the power to instantly cleanse all impurities and through such observation to receive all the blessings of the buddhas.

PHYSICAL POSTURE

2. Known as the seven points of the Buddha Varochana, these are especially important and were ones that Yogananda also emphasized. A straight spine, for example, so that energy can flow up and down the inner astral spine of light, and keeping the eyes still. It is said “the eyes are the windows to the soul” and in Matthew 6:22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If the eye is single then your whole body is filled with light” and in Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God”. Still eyes lead to I AM Presence and full realization of the Light Body. From this the natural power of the channels, winds and energies in the body arises.

Amazingly, the latest research in ‘quiet eye’ amongst elite athletes and also a technique used at Juilliard School of Music for its top musicians, identifies a secret in the way people see the world, noting that they have long steady gaze at critical periods of success.

Embarking on a PhD at the University of British Columbia, a student named Vickers began to suspect the secret lay in the way that elite athletes see the world. She hooked a group of professional golfers up to a device that precisely monitored their eye movements as they putted their balls. She found an intriguing correlation: the better the player (as measured by their golfing handicap) the longer and steadier their gaze on the ball just before, and then during, their strike. Novices, by contrast, tended to shift their focus between different areas of the scene, with each fixation lasting for shorter periods of time.

The general idea that you should ‘keep your eye on the ball’ is well-known, of course – but this suggested something more intricate, with the precise onset and duration of the gaze correlating with an objective measure of sporting success.

I was contemplating this when thinking of the Buddha and how he saw the world. He saw it with deep presence and mindful-heartful awareness. I was watching a group of shoppers at the supermarket and how their gaze shifted constantly between this need and that, this distraction and that. I then proceeded to shop with slow deep awareness taking time to connect with each section and be fully aware of what was all around me and within me. I often practice seeing the supermarket as a pure buddhafield or Christgrid peopled by buddhas and Christs or deities. It is the perfect place to practice as it is loud and busy with few pockets of stillness.

THE VOICE

3. When the Buddha was practicing austerities by the river for six years he remained in samadhi without moving his body or uttering sounds with his voice. Ultimately to remain silent in the Lord’s Presence Within is the greatest of all prayers and mantras.

THE MIND

4. When three of us look at a painting, each of us can see it in a different way. So it is with the world. We see it in many ways. Water can be seen as a drink, but also as our environment when we go scuba diving. They are all perceptions of our mind. We have exchanged one body for another countless times but the mind has existed from timelessness without beginning. The mind experiences happiness and suffering, and is the root of all samsara and nirvana, all illusions and heavens. When you meditate, and your mind is distracted and forgets, you wander in illusion. When you purify yourself and recognize your original face and remain in your natural state, you awaken to buddhahood and the Christ Within. The root of all paths, the crucial point of all teachings, is the mindful knowing, nurtured within, that keeps the mind present. Be still and Know I AM Presence.

Be still and Know God.

Love and Blessings

Altair and Mother

HOW TO ENTER THE SPIRITUAL EYE

CHAPTER 3 – EDEN – YOGA AND MEDITATION – PART 2

All over the world as I have travelled I have been asked this question, “How do I enter the spiritual eye?”

It would seem that above all else we crave the divine, because we know that in seeking and finding God or Source or Being within us, all other questions are answered.

My own experiences of cosmic consciousness came in multiple ways, through Jesus, through Yogananda and Babaji, through Swami Shyam and through the Buddha and Guan Yin. The picture posted here is as close as I could find to my own experience.

They were all deep, profound experiences of the Light, all arrived at slightly differently yet all gave the same extraordinary experience of bliss and knowing we are all looked after in the Divine Plan.

What I endeavor to do below is to give you a series of techniques and practices that you can use to open and enter the spiritual eye.

Please note that the techniques below are primarily Yogananda’s descriptions. I prefer you to have His words on the practices as they are direct from Source.

And that is what they are. Practices that require practice.

I would deeply appreciate your feedback as to what works for you and what you experience. I have practiced all these in various forms morning and night overt the years and I am always learning. As I continue to travel it is a deeply humbling experience knowing that your wisdom informs my wisdom and all is by nature of the One True Self an experience of the One Shared Heart.

ONE – OUTER LIGHT

The first is a technique I was taught in both Tibet and India, to develop an unblinking steady gaze. Yogananda in fact tells us: “Restless and constantly blinking eyes indicate a restless mind; quiet, unblinking eyes, a calm mind. God is not visible, not recognizable to the ordinary restless eyes of mortal man. By fixing the eyes at one point induces the mind to grow calm and concentrated.”

Fixing the eyes on one point is a classical yoga practice, called tratak. It consists in gazing at an object, often a candle, which is placed a little higher than the eyes, at a short distance. Fix that object, never looking away, remaining steady with your gaze, unblinking, even if the eyes start producing tears.

TWO – INNER LIGHT

Yogananda taught another technique to stimulate our vision of the spiritual eye, using an outer light, a lamp. He explains: “Look at a light and close your eyes. Forget the darkness around you and watch the blood red color within your eyelids. Try to look intently into that violet red color before you. Meditate on it and imagine that it is becoming bigger and bigger. Behold around you a dimly shining sea of violet light. You are a wave of light, a ripple of peace floating on the surface of the sea.”

THREE – INNER LIGHT VISUALIZATION

Yogananda teaches visualization as a powerful technique to develop inner concentration. It even leads to the siddhi (power) of materialization:

“I can keep looking at this room and concentrating upon it until, when I close my eyes, I can still see the room exactly as it is. This is the first step in deep concentration, but most people haven’t the patience to practice it. I had the patience. As you continue to practice visualization you will find that your thoughts become materialized. The cosmic law will so arrange it that whatsoever you are thinking of will be produced in actuality, if you command it to be so. Suppose I am thinking of an apple, and the apple appears in my hand. That would be a demonstration of the highest power of concentration.

Try it. Experiment with it. Practice it: intensely look at an apple (or any object in your room) for some time. Imprint the image in your mind. Then close your eyes, looking at the point between the eyebrows. Inwardly try to see that object as clearly as you can.”

FOUR – SPIRITUAL EYE MEDITATION TECHNIQUE

“Concentrate at the point between the eyebrows. Visualize there a tunnel of golden light. Mentally enter that tunnel, and feel yourself surrounded by a glorious sense of happiness and freedom. As you move through the tunnel, feel yourself bathed by the light until all worldly thoughts disappear.

After soaring through the tunnel as long as you feel to do so, visualize before you a curtain of deep violet-blue light. Pass through that curtain into another tunnel of deep, violet-blue light. Feel the light surrounding you. Slowly, the tunnel walls disappear in blue light. Expand your consciousness into that light – into infinite freedom and bliss. Now there is no tunnel. There is only the all-encompassing blueness and bliss of infinity.

At last, visualize before you a silvery-white, five-pointed star of light. Surrender every thought, every feeling into this star of absolute, ever-existing bliss.

Mentally affirm: “I awake in Thy Light, I awake in Thy Light, I am joyful, I am free, I awake in Thy Light!”

FIVE – SURRENDER

When you meditate, the intense gaze at the spiritual eye has its proper moment. During the time of practicing any technique, the eyes are upturned to the spiritual eye, yes, but our concentration is not on that point, but on the technique itself: while practicing Hong-Sau or any mantra technique we concentrate on the breath and the mantra; during Kriya Yoga we concentrate on the inner currents in the astral spine; during the AUM technique we focus on the inner sounds.

The time for fully concentrating on the spiritual eye comes after the technique, during the last part of meditation. At that moment fully concentrate your gaze and attention on the “Christ Center,” the space between the eyebrows – the seat of ecstasy in the body – with devotion, looking toward God. Surrender everything to Source. Let nothing take your gaze away from your spiritual eye, which leads you to ecstasy.

SIX – THE PROCESS

Here is Yogananda’s description of the spiritual eye

“When the yogi concentrates long enough with half-open eyes at the point between the eyebrows, and when the gaze is without any restless motion, he will be able to see a steady light surrounded by other, but flickering, lights. He should not be diverted by this glimmering halo of the spiritual eye, but should steadfastly look at the center of the eye until he feels his mind completely absorbed within it. In time, he will see the perfect formation of the spiritual eye: a dark opal-blue globe within a quivering ring of flame. Gradually, by deep concentration, an extremely brilliant white star occasionally glimmers in the center of the blue. The star is the gateway through which the consciousness must pass to attain oneness with Spirit. It requires time and calm practice to steady the light of the intuitive astral eye. It takes deeper and longer practice to see the star. It requires greater realization to hold the perception of the star. And it takes mastery in meditation to march the consciousness, valiantly triumphant, through the starry gate of light. After the devotee is able at will to see his astral eye of light and intuition with either closed or open eyes, and to hold it steady indefinitely, he will eventually attain the power to look through it into Eternity; and through the starry gateway he will sail into Omnipresence. Progression through the spiritual eye, experienced by advancing yogis, unfolds first the wondrous perceptions of superconsciousness, the region of rays of light out of which all matter evolves. The creative cosmic rays hide like veils the presence of the immanent universal Christ or Krishna Consciousness, the Lord omnipresent in creation. By deeper concentration and meditation, the spiritual eye of intuition opens, and through the wisdom star the yogi becomes united to the Christ-Krishna Omnipresence; and thence, in deepest ecstasy, he reaches the Cosmic Consciousness of Spirit.”

SEVEN – LOVE

Yogananda told us that when he first came to Sri Yukteswar’s ashram, he would keep his mind and gaze focused at the point between the eyebrows as much as possible. “If you want to make very rapid progress on the spiritual path,” he used to tell us, “keep your mind always centered there.” This practice must be joined to, however, and supported by the heart’s devotion. For concentration at the spiritual eye, which is known as the ajna chakra, develops great will power, but it can also make one ruthless if it isn’t combined with the heart’s love. When will power is combined with love, great joy is the consequence.

Love and blessings

Altair and Mother

PORTALS OF PRESENCE – CHAPTER 3 – EDEN – YOGA OF MEDITATION

EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK ‘PORTALS OF PRESENCE’ BY ALTAIR SHYAM

CHAPTER 3 – EDEN – YOGA OF MEDITATION – PART 1

“We need no wings to go in search of God, but have only to find a place where we can be alone and still and look upon God present within us”

(St. Teresa of Avila)

After the yoga of dreams and visions I was guided by the yoga of meditation.

When we consider the great gifts for the return home that we have been given in this precious life as human beings, one of the greatest is meditation.

Think of it this way.

How can we describe the path to the Kingdom of God Within, which we can reach through stillness in meditation?

It is like a grain of mustard seed, this silence and stillness, which we all have access to, every moment, and which we can sow through deep presence in the field of our heart.

It is smaller than all the other seeds we sow on earth, such as desire for wealth or fame, yet it can touch the immeasurable.

It becomes greater than all the gold and jewels in the world and becomes a tree of life, for its branches spread with love and kindness and compassion to remind us of the bodhisattvas, angels and masters within, that we all are.

As divine light beings we are an integral part of the cosmos and God’s plan, and yet when we arrive on earth in a physical body it can be a strange adjustment. We can feel out of place, lonely and unaccustomed to the new elements and feelings, the fears that arise and the separation.

Yet in all this, deep inside our sacred heart we know a divine truth.

We have been given a secret.

A simple one, to guide our path of pathlessness.

“Be still and know God within.” (Psalm 46:10)

We are composed of consciousness and life force, which flow through the spine and nerves and can be directed outwardly or inwardly.

When our attention, which acts as the conductor of both consciousness and life force, is directed outwards, we find our powers are concentrated on the external world and matter.

When our attention is focused inwards on the point of divine perception at the Ajna chakra or space between the eyebrows, our powers are concentrated on the spiritual eye and the inner realms of divine consciousness.

We have studied with many Masters of Meditation, Jesus and the Buddha, Mary Magdalene and Guan Yin, Yogananda and the Dalai Lama and many others.

With deep devotion it is not necessary to have the Master in the flesh. Just as our current age has progressed technologically into physical communication methods that allow us to reach across the world with the internet, so the souls incarnating are sufficiently advanced in esoteric communication methods to navigate the Christ Grids and Buddha Fields to receive initiations and activations and transmissions that we are attuned to.

The Dalai Lama, for example, has assured pilgrims in the past that they will still receive their Kalachakra empowerment through the power of their faith, prayers and devotion. “Distance cannot dampen the sacred ties between a lama and a disciple. You can all pray from the far-flung areas in Tibet and I assure you that you will receive the Kalachakra empowerment,” he was quoted as having told them. “From the Kalachakra ground, I will keep the Tibetans inside Tibet in my deepest prayers.”

Kalachakra, or the Wheel of Time empowerment, prepares devotees to be reborn in Shambhala, a celestial kingdom which will vanquish the forces of evil in a future cosmic battle.

Just as the Dalai Lama said it is by the power of faith, prayers and devotion that we receive empowerment, in the same way Yogananda said, by the right method of devotion and meditation we open the gates of Heaven. When we are focused and still and the breath and mind are calm, a light begins to form at the third eye area. This light becomes the spiritual eye with deep concentration. Like any doorway, the spiritual eye, once we learn how to open it and enter it, allows us to surrender the consciousness into worlds of other dimensions. It is through this light, the gold light that we perceive the Holy Spirit, the blue light of the Christ Consciousness that we perceive the angels and saints, deities and Masters, and the white light that we enter cosmic consciousness and ascend to God the Father and Mother.

Love and blessings

Altair and Mother

PORTALS OF MEDITATION

Last night I was gifted with two visions of us while in deep meditation.

They were very simple.

The first, suddenly and spontaneously when I was very silent and still in meditation, was of the Buddha facing Us and in Union with the Mother of All Buddhas Prajnaparamita and in between them Babaji. The Buddha was facing Us a short distance away, then Babaji sat facing a little closer and then the Mother sat just in front with Her back to Us.

The second, overwhelmingly, as I lay down to sleep immediately following the first vision is connected to the first and somewhat more difficult to describe. The first is a Sign, that in Our meditations the Muladhara or base chakra energy is awake and connected to the crown chakra through the third eye as represented by the Union of the Mother (Prajna or Wisdom) the Buddha and Babaji. In the second vision We were ‘seated’ in the 1000 petalled crown chakra looking “down” the astral spine that runs up the center of the body (see NOTE) just in front of the physical body. As We watched, the 7 doors, which we call chakras through which the soul has descended into the body, were wide open, and We watched as the soul, through the process of silence and stillness of meditation, reascended, and each chakra like a Lotus with petals turned upwards, opened into worlds of much vaster dimensions than our own. Before Our awakened and astonished inner vision each door was transformed into strange worlds, the chakras transmuted into transcendent splendor. World upon world revealed itself in glory and magnificence. I am reminded of the Book of Revelations 1:19-20 which carefully veils this Secret in saying “the mystery of the seven stars…are the angels of the seven churches” in referring to these chakras, and also from the Book of Revelations 5:1-2 “and I saw a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals…who is worthy to open the book, and to loosen the seals?” This Book of Love (the soul’s path of reascension) has seven seals (the seven chakras or doors) which when loosened (through the ‘worthiness’ of deep and consistent practice of yoga, devotion, prayer and meditation) open us all to Revelations.

NOTE :

The PHYSICAL spine (vertebrae, spinal cord, etc) is not the same as the ASTRAL (energy) spine, where the chakras are located. They are different and located in different places and dimensions!

The Astral Spine is the place through which you should be “running” prana (life-force) when you are practicing Kriya Yoga. It can be imagined as a hollow tube, about an inch and a half in diameter, running very straight up from the base of the spine (Muladhara or 1st chakra area) going through the middle (central core) of the body (which places it mostly in front of the S-curve of the physical spine).

When it reaches the Medulla Oblongata (receptive pole of the 6th chakra) it curves slightly forward to the Spiritual Eye (point between the eyebrows – the positive pole of the 6th chakra) As you are practicing Kriya Yoga, the prana goes through chakras # 1-6, from to the bottom to top of your Astral Spine, and back down again.

Blessings to you as you practice the sacred technique of Kriya Yoga.

Love and Blessings

Altair and Mother

HOW TO ENTER THE SPIRITUAL EYE

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HOW TO ENTER THE SPIRITUAL EYE

CHAPTER 3 – EDEN – YOGA AND MEDITATION – PART 2

All over the world as I have travelled I have been asked this question, “How do I enter the spiritual eye?”

It would seem that above all else we crave the divine, because we know that in seeking and finding God or Source or Being within us, all other questions are answered.

What I endeavor to do below is to give you a series of techniques and practices that you can use to open and enter the spiritual eye.

Please note that the techniques below are primarily Yogananda’s descriptions. I prefer you to have His words on the practices as they are direct from Source.

And that is what they are. Practices that require practice.

ONE – OUTER LIGHT

TWO – INNER LIGHT

THREE – INNER LIGHT VISUALIZATION

Yogananda teaches visualization as a powerful technique to develop inner concentration. It even leads to the siddhi (power) of materialization:

FOUR – SPIRITUAL EYE MEDITATION TECHNIQUE

At last, visualize before you a silvery-white, five-pointed star of light. Surrender every thought, every feeling into this star of absolute, ever-existing bliss.

Mentally affirm: “I awake in Thy Light, I awake in Thy Light, I am joyful, I am free, I awake in Thy Light!”

FIVE – SURRENDER

SIX – THE PROCESS

Here is Yogananda’s description of the spiritual eye

SEVEN – LOVE

Love and blessings

Altair and Mother

PORTALS OF PRESENCE – CHAPTER 3 – EDEN – YOGA OF MEDITATION

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EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK ‘PORTALS OF PRESENCE’ BY ALTAIR SHYAM

CHAPTER 3 – EDEN – YOGA OF MEDITATION – PART 1

“We need no wings to go in search of God, but have only to find a place where we can be alone and still and look upon God present within us”

(St. Teresa of Avila)

After the yoga of dreams and visions I was guided by the yoga of meditation.

When we consider the great gifts for the return home that we have been given in this precious life as human beings, one of the greatest is meditation.

Think of it this way.

How can we describe the path to the Kingdom of God Within, which we can reach through stillness in meditation?

It is like a grain of mustard seed, this silence and stillness, which we all have access to, every moment, and which we can sow through deep presence in the field of our heart.

It is smaller than all the other seeds we sow on earth, such as desire for wealth or fame, yet it can touch the immeasurable.

Yet in all this, deep inside our sacred heart we know a divine truth.

We have been given a secret.

A simple one, to guide our path of pathlessness.

“Be still and know God within.” (Psalm 46:10)

We are composed of consciousness and life force, which flow through the spine and nerves and can be directed outwardly or inwardly.

When our attention, which acts as the conductor of both consciousness and life force, is directed outwards, we find our powers are concentrated on the external world and matter.

We have studied with many Masters of Meditation, Jesus and the Buddha, Mary Magdalene and Guan Yin, Yogananda and the Dalai Lama and many others.

Kalachakra, or the Wheel of Time empowerment, prepares devotees to be reborn in Shambhala, a celestial kingdom which will vanquish the forces of evil in a future cosmic battle.

Love and blessings

Altair and Mother

PORTALS OF PRESENCE – ZAHOR – YOGA OF VISIONS

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PORTALS OF PRESENCE – ZAHOR – YOGA OF VISIONS

DIVINE SIGNS AND PURE INTENTION

How to turn our life into one pure intention for Being, the Source and God’s work.

Follow the Signs.

These Signs manifest as portals, or times and places in our lives that we can use to transport ourselves deep into cosmic consciousness when we have presence.

I call them Portals of Presence.

Chapter 1, Samye, is about the vibration of dreams. When we have dreams, certain dreams resonate with us as Signs. Dreams are the first portal of presence in the book ‘Diary of a Yogi’.

http://www.altairshyam.com/2018/04/21/samye/

The Sign Altair was given as a child, was a dream, a dream of a Tibetan monk, on the bridge of Samye Monastery.

For Altair’s mother Mary, a Maori Elder guided Mary into knowledge and wisdom that the Source wanted Mary to have about this dream, to pass it on to her son, to help him accomplish his mission here on earth.

Chapter 2, Zahor, is about the vibration of visions. When we have visions, certain visions resonate with us as Signs. Visions are the second portal of presence in the book ‘Diary of a Yogi’.

http://www.altairshyam.com/2018/04/22/zahor/

The visions and dreams Altair writes about are only to give you inspiration to follow your own visions and dreams as Signs.

The vision at Zahor was a Sign for Altair.

We all receive visions that are signs at different times in our lives.

Visions come in the form of the light and also can come in the guise of darkness, beckoning us to transform into light.

Trust your heart and your path.

Everyone of you is unique and no one path is identical to another’s.

Some of you, through life’s circumstances, being naturally very positive and light, use the light to radiate more light and reach balance.

“If your eye is single, then your whole body is full of light.” (Matthew 6:22)

Some of you, through life’s circumstances, may be very negative and heavy, and use the darkness to transform into light and reach balance.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” (Isaiah 9:2)

Great saints and yogis suffer from feelings of isolation, abandonment, depression, fear and loss. St Ignatius, whose spiritual exercises I practiced as a child, spoke of the desolation and turmoil he felt in God’s absence. Yogananda plunged into two years of depression at his mother’s death. So we all touch times in our lives when we feel light and other times in our life when we feel darkness.

All ways lead home and all paths are by nature One.

That is the Way of the Source.

Chapter 2

Zahor – Yoga of Visions

Over the years of visions arising spontaneously I have learned a great deal about the mystical side of presence. Gurus, Masters, Saints, Mandala deities, Christs and Buddhas, Krishnas, Divine Mothers and Bodhisattvas would appear to me and give me Signs, messages and teachings and sometimes activations or initiations into various paths. I did not go looking for them. More to the point, I surrendered into the vast Pure Light of Being and allowed the Light to enter me, praying to Divine Mother to take me where She willed. In that wisdom dance the world about me becomes a mandala and the people around me Bodhisattvas and the energies of that Circle of Light transforms the space into pure vision. Visionary experience as an expression of the Divine has manifested through many Masters, from St Anthony whom my mother Mary loved, to Padmasambhava, Yeshe Tsogyal and Princess Mandarava, whom I revere. Revelations can come in dreams as I often experienced, in deep meditation, and full blown sensory experiences where the vision is so real it fills me with rapture and bliss and I am so fully immersed that it has more reality than what we call the ‘real world’. Some visions also appear like a piece of theatre, as if a movie is playing out in front of me. Many of the visions that I recorded in Diary of a Yogi played out like that.

Just like we can train our consciousness to participate in and transform our dreams into dreams of other worlds and Source, so we can train our consciousness of vision. How we see the world and what we see is directly related to our perspective and what we believe we should be seeing. We can train our vision to see the truth, to see beyond the veil, beyond what we have been led to believe, namely that our senses perceive all there is. We can, though deep visualization training see right into the Heart of Source.

Just as dreams can be transformed by presence so can vision. When I was 10 years old I had a dream where I was drawn up into the stars, and the stars were drawn into me, as if by a huge magnet, and light burst in my heart. I was very present in that dream and I realized the same presence could occur with visions in my waking hours, that I could cultivate presence in visions and see the cosmos directly with great clarity when my mind was not engaged.

Just as we can learn to dream with presence so we can learn to see with presence. Learning to see in vision with presence requires us first to free ourselves of the mind and thinking, to liberate ourselves from the thinker, to pierce the veils of illusion by seeing the thoughts of the thinker as they arise. Watching thoughts as they come activates a whole new level of consciousness. This is why mindfulness of breath is so important. The simple act of saying “Breathing in” as you are breathing in and “Breathing out” as you are breathing out and watching for the thoughts that arise in between is a very powerful beginning act of realization. You begin to observe the thinker at work and you realize that you are not the thinker. You can see the flow of thoughts that are not you. You can observe a “me” that generates those thoughts. If you observe those thoughts very very carefully you become a witness. You become aware there is a “me” that is thinking and a presence that is watching those thoughts. This I AM Presence is beyond the mind. You may become aware of the patterns of thought that “me” creates, patterns that repeat, habitual tendencies that have no need to be in your head and in fact drain you of vital energy. If you pay very careful attention to the stream of thoughts you will notice there are tiny gaps. These tiny gaps bring stillness and silence and peace.

These gaps, when they deepen, touch our True Self, the natural states of Being and can bring true vision and deep insight.

These are not visions created by the imagination. They are pure visions from Source, nurtured and birthed by the practice of deep presence.

Just as I was able to touch the stars and have the stars touch me in dreams through presence so the magic of deep presence in visions can give rise to direct experience of cosmic consciousness such as I experienced with Yogananda and Swami Shyam. In those moments of deep silence and stillness, the mind, which usually acts as a veil to direct perception, ceases its chatter and opens the doorway to the cosmos itself. You experience the universe as your Self. The sense of identity and thought we know as “me” is surrendered into the silence and stillness and is extinguished. A vast space of presence opens up and you literally experience your body as the body of the cosmos. There is such joy in this presence that the ancients called this satchitananda pure existence pure consciousness pure bliss.

I was in a day-long mindfulness retreat when I reached a state of deep presence and stillness. The same vast vista of space expanded out beyond my peripheral vision and my mind streamed out and was extinguished within that awareness. Into that virgin space came the purest of visions, totally uninitiated by any thought of mine. I discerned a light flowing into that vast universal sight and I saw appearing in front of me, as real as if you were standing there, a young girl, glowing with light and luminescence, holding a pearl out in front of her.

“I am Long Nu, and it was I who brought the pearl to you,” she said.

An incredible joy broke out across the stillness of my mind and heart and bliss enveloped my being and swept the entire cosmos up and into that gesture of reaching out. I realized in that moment that all I needed to do was to offer the same pearl, the same gift of inner awakening, which is the true Chintamani Stone, to all Beings, wherever I roamed.

PRACTICE

When we truly devote our attention to something fully, extraordinary powers of love are released. We know that, simply from the act of falling in love with someone. Everything is more radiant in our world and the person we are with virtually glows in our eyes. So we experience the same power of love by focusing our attention on our consciousness in the present. People accomplish great sporting feats through focusing attention on a target and when our target is the present moment, miracles that are contained in that moment are uncovered and released. When we are intensely aware of our consciousness in the present moment in meditation for example, astonishing visions and extraordinary peace can be revealed within that space of presence.

When we meditate for example we generally look or gaze at a point between the eyebrows we call the third eye area. When we begin, that space can be like looking into a dark place with our eyes closed. Various colors may manifest from time to time and images may appear as we become still and quiet.

As we develop more awareness and can hold our attention and awareness on a single point with our full attention, paying close attention to the movement of consciousness from that point, and to our breathing, our present moment awareness expands to embrace many other aspects and manifestations of that one single moment in time.

We become aware of the movement of consciousness within us through very keen and alert senses, the sound and feeling of the consciousness and the way it moves. We become aware of a silent, still and powerful presence. Into that presence comes peace.

As we continue to breathe into the stillness of that consciousness a deeper awareness develops. Because in that stillness and silence which was dark comes the light. The Light of consciousness. It is natural to us all and with stillness comes light. Light manifests as the play of God through visions and miracles, because the delight of God is for us to behold the Source. Be still and know the Light. Be still and know God. This is a literal experience, the awakening of Light, of God Within, from the practice of silence and stillness.

As St Teresa of Avila says in the Interior Castle

“To journey into the interior world within

love must already be awakened.

For love to awaken in us:

Let go … Let be … Be silent

Be still in gentle peace

Be aware of opposites,

Learn mindfulness and forgetfulness.”

Visions of God and the many manifestations of Source or Love all come from this journey into the interior world of the True Self.

Awakening Love.

Being silent.

Being still.

PRACTICING YOGA OF VISIONS

Here is a simple yoga of visions technique to try.

The same presence you are practicing during your waking and dreaming hours, being mindful of the breath, try applying to your inner world of visions.

Meditate using some of the meditation practices I have on the website or Soundcloud or your own practice or by following Yogananda’s handbook on Kriya Yoga that is available. Try doing at least 10 minutes at morning and night.

As you go to meditate, use the conscious breath or being mindful of your breathing to help you go deeper into your inner world.

Keep a journal of visions beside you so you can note anything that occurs immediately following a vision.

Note down the vision at the end of the meditation and return to mindful breathing throughout your day.

Practice conscious presence during visions

A more advanced practice from Tibetan Buddhism

Work with the vital energies through Kriya Yoga as outlined by Yogananda and Babaji while you are meditating. Gather the vital energies into the central channel, dissolve them and allow the experience of the clear light of being to enter. Then when visions occur recognize them as visions.

If this proves challenging then cultivate a strong resolution to retain conscious awareness and presence in the meditative state. When meditating, meditate on the third eye or ajna chakra especially. Stay focused, still and present with eyes slightly uplifted and your energy and intention directed to the third eye area. Do not force the energies, surrender to the Source within you that will always be your guide and support.

Even if you are not trained you can sometimes experience a clear vision and retain awareness in it. If you concentrate strongly on a particular activity all day you may often experience it in a vision and be aware of the vision.

For example, it is most useful to meditate upon yourself as the mandala deity, so as the Christ or Guan Yin or any other deity you are attuned to as your Self and meditate also upon the guru within and practice devotion to him or her. Offer prayers that you may experience many visions, that your visions be clear and auspicious, and that you retain awareness in your visions. You can practice using the mantra syllable OM and visualize it inside the central channel at the center of the third eye or ajna chakra and hold awareness on that spot.

THE YOGA OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The penultimate visionary experience, the ultimate baptism, as received by Jesus and described by Yogananda in ‘The Yoga of Jesus’ is to be baptized by the Holy Spirit and with fire, which means to be permeated with God or the Source Presence. By contacting God Within through meditation, we bathe our consciousness in the fire of the Holy Spirit which vibrates within so we remain awake to the infinite presence. The method of contacting this cosmic vibration, the Holy Spirit, can be achieved through deep prayer and meditation techniques such as Kriya Yoga and the Tibetan Yoga of Clear Light, which Jesus was also taught in the years called the hidden years of Jesus when he traveled to learn from masters in Egypt, India and Tibet. Through the blessings of communion with the Holy Spirit, the cup of the human consciousness expands to receive the waters of the Christ Consciousness bathed in the fires of bliss, which is why it is often described as a baptism of fire. One of my experiences of the Holy Spirit was after a deep intense experience of the pure light of Being in the Kalachakra initiation with the Dalai Lama. Two weeks after the pure light manifested, tongues of fire literally descended over me as the Holy Spirit merged in the Son and Daughter, or Christ and Magdalena Consciousness, and gave realization of God the Father and Mother and the infinite presence of the Kingdom of God or Source. This gave me direct realization of the meaning of the second coming of Christ, meaning the Christ Light appeared a second time in my consciousness, bestowing indescribable bliss in Spirit through practicing this technique of contacting the Holy Spirit.

When asked on numerous occasions about the process of using Kriya Yoga in the Kalachakra Tantra to experience the Holy Spirit, I realize how unique or even foreign this may seem to some in terms of unity, drawing together the essence of Krishna, Babaji and Yogananda (Kriya Yoga), the Buddha, Maitreya and Avalokiteshvara Guan Yin (Kalachakra Tantra) and Yeshua, Mary Magdalene and John the Baptist (deep prayer and the Holy Spirit) as a God or Source experience.

The process of unfolding vision in the presence of the Holy Spirit manifested the following experiences which may be helpful and are described in the Six Yogas of Naropa. Remember this is only a humble presentation of what I personally experienced and is in no way an attempt to say this is what you should experience or to undervalue your own path or suggest you do not have these experiences already. I experienced them this way, although not always in this order, and it is always my hope that this may simply and humbly inspire your own path.

The experience can be as follows, as you surrender the physical body into the light body, the soul into Spirit. Initially you experience the element of earth, the physical body vividly as very heavy and eventually lose all ability to move. You are totally relaxed and may feel as if the body is sinking into the earth. Inwardly your vision will begin a process of manifesting Light so you may see numerous visions like a mirage. This is a sign that the earth energies in your body are dissolving into water.

As the water energies dissolve into fire you may begin to feel completely dry or void of moisture in the mouth and your visions may be like through a mist or smoky haze.

Then the fire energies dissolve into air. Your body heat may begin to drop with the heart chakra noticeably warmer, and you may see the light as orbs, points of light at the 3rd eye, or like fireflies.

The energies of air then dissolve into the universal mind. The vital energies begin to dissolve into cosmic consciousness. In Kriya Yoga practice I have found the external breath does not always result in a following inward breath, so the breath effectively stops, and I have felt another, inner breath, which I do not control, which I call the Babaji Breath. So I am no longer breathing as one normally would. At this point the inner sign is a vision of the Light as if it were a beacon of consciousness. I have experienced Guan Yin or Long Nu, as I explained, holding this lamp of consciousness out to me.

This is an experience of emptiness or the vision of appearance of Spirit where the soul experiences The Holy Spirit as a pure sky of being. The visions that occur vary from the experience of Spirit as tongues of fire or the brightest light of the sun at sunrise rising above you, and then sometimes an experience of utter night, the pure darkness, in balance, prior to emergence and rebirth and the clear Light of Spirit. This point of darkness can be very brief and instantaneous and one can lose consciousness as has happened to me. Odd siddhas or powers can occur like levitation which happened at one point unexpectedly as I was about to pass out and instead found myself moving spontaneously some inches above the ground.

Arising into Pure Spirit or the Clear Light of Being is like experiencing the Sun (Father) and Moon (Mother) awakening in Presence in your soul through the clear light consciousness or Christ consciousness. Pure consciousness, existence and bliss or satchitananda, Divine Father Mother God. Manifesting in the silence and stillness of the One Shared Heart.

You should apply yogic techniques for increasing reliability such as can you repeat the experience several times and experience it and transform it if you wish and can you meditate in the vision and retain presence and experience the clear light of being.

Love and soul blessings

Altair

NOTE : We are all exploring consciousness, existence and bliss together in the One Shared Heart. The dialogues we have here and the experiences we share are all important to our awakening so for this next week please share your visions as you experience them, if you feel guided to, and I will too.

NOTES FOR DIARY OF A YOGI

Here is a little more about the book ‘Diary of a Yogi’ by Altair Shyam.

We all want our dreams to come true.

Altair successfully made his dreams come true by following Signs from the age of two, when he had a dream of being a Tibetan monk.

You can help your own dreams come true on the path by knowing how to recognize and follow your own Signs.

When Altair met his wife Padma, they both saw three massive shooting stars, one after the other.

Padma said she felt a magnet-like destiny drawing her to that star celebration and to Altair, as if she was one of the stars, finally coming to earth.

At that point she really connected deeply to Altair and had strong faith in the true nature of their relationship.

It was Her Sign.

The book ‘Diary of a Yogi’ is like those three shooting stars.

It is a Sign.

It is woven with magic and the power of the stars within us.

It can awaken in you Signs that you will be drawn to that will help you to follow your destiny and make all your dreams come true.

In the same way as you are reading this, and resonate with it, so that resonance helps you to feel and really connect to your destiny and have strong faith in the truth of it, with the courage to follow it wherever it leads you.

Consider this. The resonance, when you feel it, is you, connecting and realizing and awakening to what is already within you.

The True Self.

THE YOGA OF SELFLESSNESS – Kalachakra Lesson 4

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THE YOGA OF SELFLESSNESS

Let us investigate together what we have learned so far in the Kalachakra Tantra.

The steps we are exploring are :

Make an intention to change and transform, to discover what we are here to change, since change and transformation is the true constant in life. This is embracing alchemy at its richest and the co-creative powers of divinity at its fullest.
Find what assistance you can discover to help bring about that change within and without – in my case doing the Kalachakra Tantra with the Dalai Lama and Kriya Yoga with Yogananda were very concrete steps in bringing about the fulfillment of the intention to change
Practice this with deep motivation and devotion throughout your life so that this ‘assistance’ has the best environment and energy possible to bring about that change. Practicing brings the intention and the promises of assistance into harmony
Surrender, let go, empty yourself to allow the Light to enter the space that the change provides so that divinity Within can reveal itself. Surrendering to the process you have chosen in your path of pathlessness allows the intention, assistance, and practice to enrich and liberate your life and others.

With deep inquiry into the ‘I’ with its collection of beliefs, memories, habits, thoughts and feelings, we see that from lifetime to lifetime and even moment to moment this ‘I’ is constantly changing and in fact does not exist independently. It is totally dependent on other factors such as previous births, genetics, environment, and so on and cannot be traced back to Source. “This unfindability is emptiness itself, and realization of it is realization of emptiness, selflessness” says the Dalai Lama.

If you consider deeply the teachings of every master, saint and mystic on the planet who has explored what it means to transform, they will tell you that the secret lies in surrender or emptiness, in letting go or selflessness.

Yeshua “He made himself nothing, taking the nature of a servant” (St. Paul, Philippians, 2:7)

Buddha “Anattaa, selflessness, if we examine each phenomenon in its ultimate sense, there is nothing that can form a basis for such conceptions as ‘I am’ and ‘I’ “(Visuddhimagga)

Krishna “Therefore, always perform action with the spirit of non-attachment, of selflessness” (Bhagavad Gita)

Thoth “Come out of yourself and be concerned about others. Only then can you manifest the love and selflessness of the Lord towards yourself and others.” (Tablet 7)

Ramana Maharshi (Guru of Mooji) “Your duty is TO BE and not to be this or that. ‘I AM THAT I AM’ summarizes the whole truth. The method is to be found in ‘BE STILL’. And what is stillness? It means destroy yourself, ‘I am this’, the ego. The Self is God. All that is required is to BE STILL. What can be easier than that?”

St Teresa of Avila “God’s Love made visible in Jesus is the Source of a new compassionate and selfless love”

Yogananda “All those who serve God on the path of selfless service realize that supreme service is to direct all one’s energy inwardly in silence to God. They realize that we do not achieve wisdom by thinking but RECEIVE wisdom in inner stillness.”

St Francis of Assisi “All getting separates you from others, all giving unites you with others. The heart of selflessness is in this giving.”

St Therese of Lisieux “Imagine performing whatever you do for the Virgin and the Baby Jesus” for as Jesus said, whenever you do it for the least of my brethren, you do it for me.

PRACTICE

If you are following along in the Dalai Lama’s Kalachakra Tantra we are all on Chapter 4. Emptiness (or Selflessness) Yoga.

Try the following incorporating the selfless practice of St Therese of Lisieux and the emptiness yoga of the Dalai Lama in your day.

Take a particular place you walk everyday or a habit you always do like washing the dishes.

Generally we are not empty when we do these.

Our mind and hearts are busy with thoughts and feelings we are not aware of.

So if you are doing the dishes for example.

Make an intention to empty yourself of your self and to do it at the beginning of this activity.

Try as you walk and breathe and wash the dishes to see yourself as Divine Mother or Christ or Buddha or Krishna or a deity of your choice OR to serve Her or Him.

Then as you walk or wash be fully aware that you ARE Him or Her or that you are performing this for Her or Him.

Give yourself totally to this practice for a few minutes.

That is all it requires.

As you surrender, release all your burdens, your troubles, conflicting energies, to Him or Her and allow them to lift and empty so that the Light can enter and wisdom be received.

Then as you go about your day seek to serve others as you would wish to be served as if they are Divine Mother or Christ.

Set a simple goal of serving one other person in your day as if they are the Buddha.

A very practical way of doing this could be for a guest. If someone comes into your home shake their hand as if they are the Buddha, speak with them as if they are the Buddha, wash their dishes as if they are the Buddha.

It is the same when you are online. Communicate with each other as if you are both the Buddha. With deep awareness and compassion and love.

“Deity Yoga (the awareness moment to moment that you are the body mind heart and soul of the Buddha) is founded on compassion and realization of emptiness” (The Dalai Lama)

Love and soul blessings

Altair and Mother

(Artwork with deepest gratitude to Kusaba Kazuhisa)

THE PURE VISIONS OF DEITY YOGA – THE PATH OF PATHLESSNESS

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THE PURE VISIONS OF DEITY YOGA – THE PATH OF PATHLESSNESS

Pure Visions seems an especially appropriate teaching at this time of the Winter Solstice when we are born again and reaffirm our devotion and connection to all our paths, and the celebration of the birth of the Spiritual Son and Daughter, the One Christ Child within us, within our consciousness, in the process of awakening.

Because people are of different capacities, interests and dispositions, Christ and Buddha taught many different paths.

Christ and Buddha both taught “You are the Master”

Matthew 23:10 “There is but one Master, the Christ Within”

and the Buddha as he was dying

“Be a Master unto yourself. Be a lamp unto yourself. Look not for a refuge in anyone other than yourself. In this way, if you are keen to learn, you will reach the highest height.”

and Krishnamurti

“You are the Master and the student. Be a light unto yourself.”

The Christ and the Buddha both taught Deity Yoga, that the ideal being, the God and Goddess-Self is within you.

Luke 17:21 “Behold, the Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”

and as the Buddha Amitabha promised in the Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra

“If you wish to come and be born in my realm, you must always call me to mind again and again, you must always keep this thought in mind without letting up, and thus you will succeed in coming to be born in my realm”

This is an experiential journey about the Pure Visions of Deity Yoga in which the Master in you arises through your practice. There is an exercise for you to try below called “EXERCISE TO TRY” lol. I suggest you read all the way through to understand the journey a little better, but you are most welcome to skip straight to there if you are in a hurry. Please let me know what you discover after trying the exercise.

NOTE : This is a deep and profound teaching. If you have the patience to read through until the end and have questions about the details or about how you might apply this in your own path and practice please ask in the comments below the post and I will do the best I can to answer from my own experience as a somewhat lazy monk.

So to Deity Yoga and Pure Visions…

Deity Yoga manifests in many forms.

They are one aspect of the many rituals, transmissions initiations and resets we are all receiving.

In Tibet for example these practices are transmitted in three ways

the long lineage of kama

the shorter lineage of terma

the profound direct transmission through pure visions or dak nang which is what I will speak to you now of.

Pure visions, such as you are experiencing are of two types

meditative experiences of ephemeral and astral world kinds known as nyam
pure visions in which the master within you actually experiences receiving the transmission from a deity in a pure realm

The Fifth Dalai Lama has been my main guide and mentor in this respect. He has guided me in the same way as in his own experience, to actually go to the wisdom realms and be given the transmissions encoded in these empowerments. That is how I received the Kalachakra Tantra Initiation under the tutelage of the current Dalai Lama.

One of the most powerful transmissions was involving Metatron and Guan Yin.

Thich Nhat Hanh says to call the name of or to visualise Quan The Am/Guan Yin/Avalokiteshvara in such a way that your mind becomes perfectly concentrated and pure can give you the power to overcome any kind of suffering.

In Sanskrit this ‘calling’ is nama japa or naming prayer. You can apply this to your Beloved whoever He or She is. Calling the name with power, intention and attention helps your mind to become concentrated, and with concentration you become calm, clear, mindful and heartful.

The seeing’ is rupa japa or invoking form. Calling to mind the image of a great being is done, like the naming, with complete presence and sincerity. Only in that way does your mind and heart become still, silent and present with the object of your love, in order to blend and merge with them.

This is not just bhakti, devotion. it is vipashyana, looking deeply, insight, whose foundation is shamatha, stopping and concentrating the mind. Only with sincerity, humility and faith will you bring about tranquility and equanimity.

From my own personal experience it is best for me to keep this incredibly simple, with the open heart of a child, concentrated with humility and surrender to Guan Yin. Over the twenty years or more since She manifested the rare deep sea ocean pearl out of the heart of Her statue for me, the process of surrender has never failed to yield all the miracles and signs, siddhis and healing She has promised.

So I basically have had one focus, and from that very simple, child-like, heart-centred focus, all other great beings have come.

So Metatron, in a way, has come as a real experience to me through Our Mother Guan Yin.

The Dalai Lama directed me in the following way. It took me about a year to work through the Kalachakra Tantra with Him in the most sincere, humble way, involving emptying and surrendering myself to the Divine Presence within. As the Dalai Lama is an incarnation of Avalokiteshvara/Guan Yin/Chenrezig I was very careful to follow His/Her every instruction. As you know I have had both personal contact with the Dalai Lama in the physical and visionary contact to work through these processes with the Fifth Dalai Lama. When I work through an initiation or empowerment I do it very slowly and sincerely, taking a sentence or a paragraph at a time and meditating on it for hours or a day at a time until the wisdom percolates through into my being.

In this particular instance, this is what I was instructed to do. I share it only because this wisdom is already your own so please use it to guide your heart on your path as only you will know how to do. You are not going to use the same wisdom beings in the same way as I do, so please heed their wisdom and guidance and trust your heart and that of the Hearts of Your Light Family. That is always the way of the Master, of whom you all are one.

To understand how I use the wisdom beings you need to understand that in my case my Lama is the Dalai Lama and the path I was initiated in is Avalokiteshvara/Guan Yin through the Dalai Lama and the Dzogchen path through The Fifth Dalai Lama, Padmasambhava, and Sogyal Rinpoche. My guru is Paramahansa Yogananda and the Kriya path I was initiated in was through Krishna, Babaji, Yeshua, Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Sri Yukteswar, Yogananda and Sri Daya Mata. So I have received these teachings directly. It means everything and nothing. It is not to prove anything, only to bring understanding so whenever I use certain terms or expressions that you are informed where they come from.

EXERCISE TO TRY

Whenever we do exercises, rituals, preparation, resets, initiations, empowerments and so forth the first step is the enhancement of your being, which in simple terms is adjusting your motivation.

This means

bringing kindness to yourself and whatever arises through the practice, which ultimately is extended out to all beings and becomes bodhichitta and the Holy Spirit
bringing wisdom or prajna into whatever you do. That is why I surrender to the Great Mother Guan Yin or whomever you refer to as the Mother. Be in Her arms throughout this practice.

By this you should understand that even though things seem to exist independently this is not true. Your “inter-being” connects you to each and every thing as soon as you “step into” a practice with deep intention, so you will naturally attract the most powerful energies and support from your Light Family when you feel kindness for yourself and extend this kindness to others. In fact the entire cosmos revolves around kindness, suns extending kindness to planets, planets extending life-giving kindness to their inhabitants and so forth.

You also realise that the illusory nature of this physical earth body is suffering, a veil which you want to be free of, so that you can free others.

Further, things are always changing, impermanent. This is what brings you here. Your many lives, and this one, are constantly changing.

So you have a deep motivation now, the opportunity to accomplish something of great impact throughout the world(s).

Your purpose, your mission, is to bring about all beings’ happiness and bliss, their liberation, and to accomplish this you do so through being a Christ and a Buddha yourself.

This attitude is bodhichitta or the Holy Spirit (ruach) which is cultivating presence, silence and stillness, through the breath, in whatever path you choose to be the Christ and Buddha.

So to whomever the Father and Mother are to you (this could be your Divine masculine and feminine self, or Yeshua and Mary Magdalena or Buddha and Prajnaparamita or Metatron and Guan Yin) you pray “I am requesting initiation to achieve enlightenment for the sake of others”

Kneel on the ground, bring your palms together at the Heart.

Visualise your Lama or mentor or guide or soul guardian in front of you.

As I explained above this is the Dalai Lama/Guan Yin/Avalokiteshvara/ Chenrezig for me,

who will confirm “You who seek to achieve the Secret (Mantra) in this life enter the (mandala)”

Again this can be in your own words with your own intention however simple or complex that may be connecting with your own soul guardian.

At this time in the meditation the Lama and the principal deity and yourself are not different. So for me the Dalai Lama is Guan Yin as I am Guan Yin. I meditate on myself as Guan Yin and the Dalai Lama as Guan Yin. This is a very important part to practice. The awareness is total surrender to Guan Yin in my case for the sake of others.

From now on I will refer to the “Lama” as Guan Yin for simplicity.

She says

“It is meditated that Rays of Light from My Heart, where I represent All Deities – the Divine Father and the Divine Mother – draw you in. You enter My Mouth and dissolve in the Mother’s Lotus”

You are now going to take birth as a child of Guan Yin or whichever deity you chose.

In your imagination you visualise Guan Yin as the Ultimate in Father and Mother aspect, so She is in union with Her Divine Consort.

(At this point in my meditation Archangel Metatron appeared in union with Guan Yin. This was entirely unpremeditated by me and somewhat of a shock since Guan Yin has both female and male (Avalokiteshvara) forms as well as guru (Amitabha Buddha) form)

Rays of Light, spreading out from the hum at His Heart as He now appears in His Divine Father and Divine Mother aspect, draw you into His Mouth, passing down through His Body and into the Womb of the Mother. There you turn into emptiness.

(At this point my ‘self’ was extinguished. There was an extraordinary earth-shattering flash of light and ‘I’ disappeared. This was the first time I had experienced such “lightning dissolution” of everything that is, was and will be. I had, for lack of any better explanation, turned literally into emptiness. The energy and consciousness of emptiness took over this bodily form and as my wife will remember rendered me in a state of presence and peace that lasted just over 24 hours. Three days later I had an experience of the Holy Spirit descending through my crown and into my heart.)

It was a very similar experience to St Paul being struck down by light while on the road to Damascus.

From Acts of the Apostles 9

“As Saul neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him… Jesus said to him “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Saul got up from the ground, but could see nothing…Three days later Ananias went to the house Saul was staying and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptised, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.”

I felt the same sudden light flashing around and within me. It was so astonishing I was “struck to the ground” speechless for around three hours. The deep presence I experienced in my case continued for 24 hours. Three days later I had a deeply profound experience of the Holy Spirit descending like a ball of light through my crown chakra into my Heart.

When you experience the Holy Spirit and the Light entering you, you deeply question all you have ever been told, and observe suffering and the cries of the world in a completely different way. The Source fills you with the energies and consciousness of the invisible world. It is like being filled with the most delicious divine nectar and every part of your being hums and vibrates with purpose and clarity. You realise how much can be accomplished in unity, as one Shared Mind and Heart. You see how important unity consciousness, love, and kindness are for our world. You ask “What is fundamental truth, how do we inquire into that and what would we discover?” “Your own self-realisation is the greatest service you can render the world” answers Ramana Maharishi and this helps to inform our inquiry. What do you think and feel? What is ‘universal’ self-realisation? The deepest truth I have discovered is that fundamental truth is revealed in the Heart when the mind ceases to be active and remains still, open and empty, surrendering to Divine Mother’s Grace. The silence, stillness, love and presence that awakens in this pure awareness, this natural effortless state, is self-realisation or samadhi or God-realisation, when the ‘I’ is extinguished. It is wordless, nameless and timeless. The eternal Self. That has been my discovery and experience. That is where the secular meets the spiritual and the religious. From saints to gurus to Masters to Christs and Buddhas, all meet at this point.

Love and blessings

Altair and Mother

Stephen Altair Shyam

healing, love, light, wisdom, compassion, liberation, enlightenment

Tag Archives: yoga

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