Living Unbound

Tag: love

  • Love Story

    “Heart Hands” ~ Shweta Mitra (May 2010)

    LOVE STORY

    Stumbling, a dark cold night
    Shrinking, melancholy, sheer fright
    Maze of questions, “Is this it?”
    Must find answers, can’t yet quit

    A flicker of light, a faint glow
    “Come to Me”, unambiguous now
    “Where?” “How?” ask I
    “Take one step and I’ll take five”

    Courage and trust the Voice seeks
    So right and pure and good it feels
    Surrendering, that lonely night
    A leap of faith into the Light

    What to name that divine One
    Guide, Friend, Self, love?
    It matters not, what is in a name?
    Becoming That, the only real way

    Remains true to His word, He does
    Five steps to every single one
    Enticing, luring, goading, showing
    Unexpected glimpses of Infinite Glory

    Longing, desperate and wordless
    Intense desire to become That
    To know it for what It is
    Love and light, peace and bliss

    An offering made every minute
    Take it all now, please take it
    Ignorance, darkness, fear, rage
    Destiny re-written, a brand new page

    Not long, the spark now a blaze
    Of moments, hours, days
    The Voice gaining hold
    A promise long foretold

    Dark days a distant dream
    Light and love fill the being
    Pathway to That painstakingly built
    The veil of illusion lifted bit by bit

    ~Dr. Kavitha Chinnaiyan

    Founder of  Heal Your Heart Free Your Soul

  • Source-Heart-Love

    The following article was written by Steve Ficks in response to a posting in the AYP forum asking about the overwhelming nature of Love.  It speaks of divine Source, the heart, love and prayer and how enlivening our direct connection with Source through the innermost heart can change the nature of life and spiritual practices in the most beneficial of ways.  Steve’s journey has been influenced by the practices of internal Taoist yoga, AYP and Padmacahaya. Thank you Steve for sharing your words of wisdom with us.

    Love is the greatest power in the universe. But it also is gentle and Self calibrating. It holds and embraces each of us with perfection providing the perfect touch for every situation and circumstance. The magnitude of Love becomes overwhelming through resistance when we try to contain it, control it or treat it as an object or energy experience to get. We already are love. There is nothing to get or hold onto. The real meaning of love, being love can only be discovered in freely giving it away without condition. Love is not ruthless. It always has our best interests at heart.

    If one shuts down, is afraid, or overwhelmed, then pray to Source. Each of us has a direct connection with Source through our innermost heart. Ask not for more but for what is best, what Source wants for you. Give up any need to know what that is. Sincerely offer one’s complete Self and entire being as an instrument, as a foci to Source to freely share the love, light and blessings with all beings everywhere. And trust, and if you can’t, then pray for that too. Give it all up for Source. You don’t have to do anything. Be assured, the prayer has already been answered even before you pray it.

    We are all loved completely. As we learn to trust, to let go and allow the Love to work, deeper layers of heart begin to open. There is a gentleness, a softness and sweetness, a depth of peace, being and silence, that expands and deepens without pressure. There is an outflow and radiance that eliminates the sense of overwhelming because there is nothing to hold onto, nothing to overwhelm for all is being given away, freely shared with all-in-All.

    It is a process. It does not happen overnight. There are stages and transitions that allow one’s heart and whole being to begin to embrace, accept and let happen the Love and Will of Source. At times patterns of mental-emotional interference constituting resistance emerge. That’s a blessing. It is an opportunity to let go, trust Source more and let the Love do its work. This will dissolve and release the layers of interference taking you deeper into Heart further strengthening the direct connection.

    No stage need occur in overwhelming manner or degrade into a constricted energy experience. If it does, that too is a blessing. It’s direct feedback indicating that you are efforting, doing, controlling, resisting, in some way interjecting mind-ego into the process corralling and limiting the working of the Love. This is where the sense of overwhelming arises. If you utilize the practices of AYP follow the guidelines of self-pacing prudently. In addition, pray directly to Source. This will begin to open and enliven the innermost heart, the direct connection with Source.

    When the inner heart takes over the direction of the sadhana, the nature of practice and living changes. The constrictions of the ‘I’ and doing are reduced. The inner heart is the pure undiluted core of Self, the direct link with Source. It truly knows best. It is more than just silence. It is silence and love. It is Heart. As it takes over more completely, it provides deeper levels of guidance. This is deeper and different than intuition and gut feeling. It is beyond mind and occurs via the direct-link connection with Source. It is precise. It perfectly understands the unique matrix of obstructions constituting you.

    The necessary unfolding of the nervous and energy systems begins to take place under the direction of Heart which improves and changes the nature of self-pacing and self-directed effort. Not only will there be a love that emanates outward from Heart, but a pure flame of Love and Light will ignite within the core of Heart and begin to purify every level of being. There will also come a downpouring of Love from above that helps to further open the heart and works with the kundalini in soothing fashion to open the sushumna and chakras removing blockages and restrictions that create energy imbalances and overload. The pure love of Source coupled with the fragrance of a naturally emerging heart-soul forgiveness will begin removing the effects of patterns-blockages-events constituting lifetimes of karmic influence. All of this under the direct guidance of the inner heart.

    Prayer is consistent with AYP practices.  Yogani has spoken about it in his samyama book. AYP + prayer, silence and love. Choose Source. Choose Heart without reservation. Dive deep into Heart. There is no end. Allow Heart to continuously sing in silent communion with Source. Give it all up, give it all away. Let Source take charge completely. The choice is yours. The environment is changing. This blessing, gift-opportunity is available to all. No exceptions. We are all Heart. Much will change. The Yoga of Grace.

    “Beloved True Source, open all hearts to the silent presence of your spirit. Lead us into that mysterious silence where your love is revealed to all who call. Thank You True Source. Amen.”

    ~Steve Ficks
    Contact

    Additional Resources:
    More information about opening the heart, Reiki Tummo and Padmacahaya can be found at:
    http://www.open-your-heart.org.uk
    http://heartsanctuary.org
    http://www.padmacahaya.com

  • Choosing Our Thoughts to Create a Positive Life Experience

    The following article is written by Andrew Thompson, the founder of Inspirational Works, an organization based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, providing “Events that Inspire, Motivate and Transform Lives”. Inspirational Works has hosted  Byron Katie, and is thrilled to be hosting Don Miguel Ruiz (author of The Four Agreements and other books), April 9th-11th, 2010. Andrew has been a fellow traveler with us at AYP (Advanced Yoga Practices), and is also dedicated to unveiling and sharing new ways of working with mind more effectively. Thank you Andrew for sharing your words of wisdom with us.

    We go through our lives with our minds constantly active, day and night whether we are sleeping or awake. While awake, thoughts can come at a tremendous rate, often one on top of another, it happens very automatically and seemingly without control.

    So much of our thinking is repetitive and when we listen closely, we can notice that our minds are often expressing our fears, frustrations, judgments and concerns. With each thought there is a corresponding emotional reaction and often a reinforcement of a limiting belief. When a thought comes along about something in our lives that isn’t going the way we want, we can feel a variety of so called “negative” emotions in reaction like anger, fear, sadness etc. So it can be observed that what we think quite clearly impacts our emotional state and hence our enjoyment or lack of it in our daily life experience.

    So yes, thinking can be very automatic and can feel like something we can’t really influence, but practice would suggest otherwise. Often we don’t realize it, but we practice thinking particular thoughts all the time. How do we inadvertently practice this? Many have experienced how repetitive our minds can be, there seems to be so much energy caught up in much of our thinking.  Sometimes we will become aware of how certain negative thoughts will repeat in our minds over and over again. This in itself is a form of practice even if much of it happening subconsciously and automatically. This constant repetition of negative thinking will eventually impact our emotional state and create a negative life experience of misery and unhappiness. When our thoughts are repeatedly negative or about subject matter that upsets us in some way, we can imagine how we feel at the end of a day.

    The good news is that we can also choose our thoughts more consciously as well. If it is our desire, we can intentionally create a life where we live feel positive feelings like love, gratitude and peace or relaxation. Right now in this moment, we can choose to say to ourselves pretty much anything we want. We can choose a thought that describes how we feel about a loved one and when we do, there is a corresponding emotional sensation. How does it feel to think about how we love someone or something in our lives?

    We can also choose a thought that describes something we are grateful for and it feels good to be grateful.  We can even choose to repeat a thought about how we would like to feel in the near future. For example, we could notice we feel tense and instead repeat “I am physically relaxed and emotionally calm”. The positive emotional reactions from thinking positively like this will eventually have an impact even if it can be hard to notice at times. Thinking positively will help remove the tension from our bodies and we relax and feel better when this happens. With repeated practice, the effects of intentionally choosing positive thoughts or observations about our lives can be seen in a powerful way and we can create a wondrous emotional experience every day of love, gratitude and peace or whatever else we choose.

    Of course the mind will not simply give up the old habits of thinking negatively over night. The mind has a lot of practice and repetitions of thinking negatively for many, many years so time and practice of the desired positive thoughts and corresponding emotions needs to be given in order to turn the mental and emotional “ship” around. It is all about repetitions. How many positive thoughts are you willing to intentionally practice in a day? How many times will you feel grateful or love for something in your life? It is up to you how much you want to practice, the more you practice and repeat the desired thoughts, the better you will get at it and the happier you will feel.

    In addition, the way we practice will also have an impact. In other words the “technique” used to intentionally repeat the positive thought and create the corresponding emotional reactions we want is important.  So use good technique and rather than simply repeating something positive in quick rapid succession without really feeling it, take your time and repeat a positive thought once, feel the emotional results and then release it into silence by being aware of the silence before repeating it again. This can be a very powerful and effective way to practice and will require fewer repetitions over the long term to create a positive thinking habit and a happy emotional body.

    So if we want to feel good let’s choose our thoughts carefully and redirect our minds to repeat things that empower us and make us feel good rather than bad. Daily practice of intentional positive thinking with “good technique” will yield results over the long term and can improve our enjoyment of life in powerful and meaningful way.  This coupled with other proven practices that help us to create a positive life experience like meditation, self inquiry, yoga etc. will help us to change ourselves even more quickly and live the dream of life that we have always wanted.

    ~ Andrew Thompson

    Founder of  Inspirational Works

    Related Living Unbound Lessons and Resources:

  • Axioms For Living Unbound

    Ego

    • Ego is a closed loop with past.
    • Living Unbound and the way to Living Unbound have always been here; the misunderstandings of ego-mind simply distorted the original teachings.
    • Ego is confused about love because ego feels partial and unwhole; love isn’t about filling gaps; love is about radiating the wholeness we each and all actually are now.

    Living Unbound

    • The way to Living Unbound is less like climbing a mountain and more like melting.
    • When you’re drowning, you can’t save others from drowning; waking up is really the only option.

    Love

    • When in doubt, love.
    • When not in doubt, love.
    • Love isn’t the greatest power; Love is the only  power.
    • Love isn’t an emotion; Love is the reality of the freedom of loving all as unbound awareness.
    • Love is very simple, really; love is that which is uplifting for all involved, in any moment.
    • Love is reality; only the mistaken ideas called ego are confused about love.
    • Ego is confused about love because ego feels partial and incomplete; love isn’t about completing our misplaced ideas of our self; love is about radiating the unity that is reality, about loving our neighbor as our self.
    • Presence is loving, loving is creating; creating is living unbound.
    • Stop thinking, start loving.
    • So many of us have it exactly backwards; Love is found by giving it, not by getting and keeping our ideas of it.

    Mind

    • Mind is a sense, not a self.
    • Thinking mind is a cutting instrument; it cuts, divides, decides.
    • Thinking is not conscious; thinking is a reaction.
    • Drop all ideas.
    • Just jump in.
    • Judging you lose; loving, we all win.
    • God is bigger than your ideas.
    • God is infinitely bigger than someone else’s ideas.
    • You can’t be bound, you can only think bound.
    • All evaluation is obscuring inherent liberation; we can’t get freedom; Living Unbound is not an object; we are Living, Unbound.
    • Ideas are the problem, they have nothing to do with the solution.
    • Isolation is a state of mind; connection is reality.
    • There’s nothing to figure out; there’s only living-releasing.
    • Thinking doesn’t make time real; every moment is a new universe.
    • Reacting to limited thoughts about limited life is letting the song play you.

    Reality

    • Living Unbound is real; Living Unbound is all that’s real.
    • Living Unbound is this that we each and all always actually are, now.
    • You can’t be bound, you can only think bound.
    • There is only this happening; all else is an artificial concept obscuring the undistorted experiencing of this happening.
    • This is all.
    • In reality, there’s only Living Unbound.

    Religion

    • Everything defined as major sin, by any religion, has one basic component: it reinforces the fictitious idea of a separate self.
    • There is no conflict between science and religion; there is only conflict between misunderstanding about science and misunderstanding about religion.
    • Living Unbound and the way to Living Unbound have always been here; the misunderstanding of ego-mind simply distorted the original teachings.
    • Like the middle piece of a jigsaw puzzle uniting two other pieces that don’t inherently fit together, the Unity of Knowing is the bridge uniting Unbound Awareness with the forms of Living Harmony.
    • God is bigger than your ideas.
    • God is infinitely bigger than someone else’s ideas.

    Time

    • There is only now; anything else is a form held actively or latently in mind, now.
    • The term “now” is a limitation of language; there is only the actuality, flowing.
    • Sages of every discipline have recognized hints of Living Unbound; every scientific and spiritual discipline has those unique few who are willing to dive into the depths of experience and the replicable results of experimentation for all answers, no matter what the cost.
    • Thinking doesn’t make time real; every moment is a new universe.