mommymanic asked:


An amazing author…
The four Agreements
The Mastery of Love
Beyond Fear

Are there any others comparable to him… any other good reading material?
Seat of the Soul… Got it for a B-day present… loved it

Olympia

Raven Smith asked:


Often one of the biggest obstacles to getting into (and staying in) Spiritual Integrity is our conscious mind. Our mind has been trained to think in a particular manner. It assigns meaning to everything and analyzes incoming data to match the assignments it makes. This constant analysis does not leave room for intuitive insights, spontaneous actions, or appreciation of the mysteries of life.

In addition, the mind has been trained to judge everything: good or bad, right or wrong. This black and white thinking makes it difficult to deal with a fundamental fact of life: everything changes, and nothing stays the same over time.

The ultimate expression of Spiritual Integrity is being able to choose in each moment what will open us the most to the Divine. To do so we must be totally present, not filtering based on the past or holding expectations for the future. Being present is not a job for our habituated and dogmatic mind. Thus we must tap other states of consciousness to find our integrity, and then make decisions and act from these states.

Integrity in the Dreamtime

For thousands of years, shamans, mystics, and holy seekers from every culture have relied on their dreams as a source of inspired information about the meaning and direction of life. The dreaming state is beyond the conscious mind; it taps the depths of our selves and our connection to Spirit without the filters of time and space imposed by the conscious mind.

Brain wave research has shown that when we are dreaming our brain functions express a different frequency of energy called alpha waves (beta waves are our normal conscious awake frequency). In an alpha state different information is available to the mind and different associations can be made that bypass the habitual reactions of the conscious mind. At still slower and deeper levels of consciousness we find theta waves, the frequency of deep sleep or meditation where even subconscious patterning is released into stillness and Spirit.

By deliberately attending to these deeper states of consciousness we can put forth questions we have about integrity, Spirit, or life direction and receive guidance that is more powerful than what we access with our conscious minds.

Dreaming Practices

1. Kirtan

The Hindu tradition has a practice called Kirtan that involves singing songs to different aspects of the gods and goddesses. Bring this practice into your dreaming by singing throughout the night, staying soft and open, and deepening your connection to Spirit through the singing and music.

Stay up as late as you can, chanting softly and continuously. As you tire, the chanting takes a greater effect, altering your consciousness to be more in alignment with and connected to Spirit. Stay open to any information or vision about your life that comes to you. When you go sleep at the end of the practice, continue the chant in your mind and into the dream space. Carefully note any dreams that arise during the night.

2. Mitote

The Toltec tradition of don Miguel Ruiz has a dreaming practice called the Mitote that involves chanting and sleep disruption to access these deeper states. The sequence of activity is as follows:

o Set up an Altar

Set up an altar with objects that remind you of the questions you have and the types of feelings that you want to feel as you move through your life. Light a candle on it that will burn throughout the night. Meditate in front of the altar, setting your intent to get the answers you need to move more into your integrity.

o Chant

Chant or sing a slow song for half an hour, allowing yourself to be totally absorbed in the chant and the candle flame, letting all questions go and experiencing whatever arises without judgment. Then for a few minutes journal any impressions you had during the chanting.

o Sleep, Wake, and Remember

Go to sleep for a couple of hours. As you fall asleep hold an image in your mind that represents the question for which you are seeking guidance. When you wake up write down any dreams you remember. Don’t analyze them; just write enough that you can remember them later.

Repeat the cycle of sleeping for two hours and waking to note your dreams until sunrise. Then sleep without any purpose or intent until you need to wake up.

The information and experiences generated by this practice can give you deep insights into your life and what needs to change to bring you more into integrity with it.

3. Dream Seeding and Dream Bridging

Dream Seeding

o Spend 30 minutes meditating or contemplating the questions you have and quieting your mind until all that exists is the desire to get guidance from Spirit.

o Then do something unrelated for 30 minutes: read, watch TV, take a walk, etc.

o Go to sleep with a journal ready to record any dreams you have during the night.

o Any time you wake up, during the night or morning, immediately write down what you recall about your dreams, even if it is just a color, person or scene.

Dream Bridging

Build and strengthen your connection to the dreamtime by honoring the information you receive with action. Read through everything you wrote about your dreams and pick something you can act on during your day, today. For example

o If you dreamed about a person, contact them and tell them your dream. If that is uncomfortable, talk with them about any topic, listening carefully to what they say and honoring it as a response from Spirit to whatever issues questions you started with.

o If a color appeared as significant in a dream, dress in that color, buy something of that color, eat food that color, or do something else to bring that color into your waking existence.

o If you dreamed of a place, look it up on the Internet, call someone you know there, or put a picture of it on your altar.

By consciously bringing elements of your dream into your waking world you honor the information and connection to the dream. The dreams become an important part of your life, and the information begins to flow freely between all your states of consciousness, bringing you closer to the flow of life around you.

Working with dreams is a powerful way to get beyond the filters of the rational mind. It allows for a fresh perspective on obstacles and problems in our lives, and gives us an opportunity to connect directly to Spirit without the analysis that usually accompanies our waking state and often distorts the information we get from the Divine.



Oliver

Ernie Fitzpatrick asked:


The Toltec culture and people were known throughout Southern Mexico as “men and women of knowledge”. These master naguals gathered around the ancient city of pyramids known as Teotihuacan. Most often this city was known as the place where “Man becomes God”. One of their descendants has brought the ancient culture forward. 

Don Miguel Ruiz was raised by a Toltec family wherein the mother was a curandera (healer) and the grandfather was a nagual (shaman). Ruiz has written several books of which his book, The Voice Of Knowledge, contained four principles worth applying to our lives.

1-Be Impeccable In Your Word

We are our word and it’s critical that we measure what we say and are cautious to be able to perform it. Once people know that what we say can be counted on, our words will have great force.

2-Don’t Take Anything Personally

This has to be one of the most difficult principles to follow. Each person has their own story, wear different glasses, and see from an entirely different viewpoint than we do, so why do we get upset when they see things differently than we do?

3-Don’t Make Assumptions

We worry about so many things that we know will come to pass- that don’t! The addage is that when you liveyour life based on assumptions, you wind up making an ASS- out of U- and ME. The goal is to KNOW and not ASS-U-ME!

4-Always Do Your Best

When you ive life your best there’s nothing to regret. If we fall short but we did all we knew to do and were capable of doing, there’s no lingering guilt or “what if” mind games to contend.

We humans are too often victimized by what we know- that’s not true: it’s just what we think we know. Unless we are prepared to “let go” of our sacred cows and truly examine our lives, we can’t profrees. We can’t be transformed. Plato had it right- “Know thyself” and then you can begin to understand others.



Vincent