Living the Initiated Life

“If love is the answer, could you please rephrase the question?”  –Lily Tomlin

Hippie, Christian, patriotic, republican, gay, ritual, democrat, healing, spiritual, reborn, pagan, family, love. These are just a few stolen words. A word becomes stolen when one group claims it as theirs (therefore holding the definition for others) or, it is stolen when we come to agree to a limited meaning of a word taking it away from a more complex and rich meaning. Love for example. I have witnessed that word routinely misused. Does love really mean never having to say you’re sorry? Does it mean to always be in agreement with the other? Can it ever mean, “This hurts me more than it hurts you?” What are you saying when you say, “I love you?” What do you assume when it is said to you? Is love really forever, like diamonds?

One way to claim a stolen word is to use it in ways that others resist. This would include those words that some group has taken possession of and yet you want to lay some claim to it as well, such as patriotic or reborn. For example, I consider peaceful demonstrations as patriotic. This challenges the more customary use of the word. When someone mentions being reborn I no longer jump to a religious conclusion. People can be reborn in numerous ways. How about being reborn to new ideas?

The other way to lay claim to a stolen word is to find a more compelling and extraordinary word to take its place.

I would suggest that we use another word other than “love,” as a way to understand and describe our intimate relationship with another. In place of love consider having an affinity for the other person. This word suggests an accordance and harmony with the other, something you can actually measure a relationship with. It speaks more to having a kinship with some one rather than focusing on the emotionally laden concept of love.

You can claim all sorts of hideous actions as patriotic or loving when they are neither.  Apparently you can “love” someone you don’t even respect. When you hold an affinity for someone, respect is part of the equation. I am not suggesting that you replace saying, “I have an affinity for you,” in place of, “I love you.” Just the same, if you did it may lead to a very intriguing and worthwhile conversation. In comparison, the words “I love you” are thrown about like compliments at a wedding. We build assumptions on the words, “I love you,” while too often lacking in an authentic connection with the other.

Don’t you care for my love? she said bitterly.

I handed her the mirror,

And said:

Please address these questions to the proper person!

Please make all requests to headquarters!

In all matters of emotional importance

Please approach the supreme authority direct!–

So I handed her the mirror.  –D.H. Lawrence

“’What makes a desert beautiful,’ said the little prince, ‘is that somewhere it hides a well.’” – Antoine De Saint-Expuery

The beauty in keeping a spiritual journal is that it holds our creative and spiritual fires. Journal writing creates. A spiritual journal will help you find that well or oasis in the desert, making life even more beautiful. Spiritual Journaling is conscious writing; you hold an intention while you write. The intention may be to witness something, or to gain clarity, or to build on an idea.

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” –Mark Twain

A journal is a conversation you hold with yourself, and I have found much comes from these conversations. You gain insights into your own thoughts and ideas, as well as your hopes and fears.

Spiritual Journaling can accelerate any healing or transformative process.  Keeping a spiritual journal allows you to be a witness to the events in your life. You can document a meaningful time or place in your journal (many memoirs come from such writings). A journal is also a way to work things out on the page, all to yourself, or between you and your spiritual source.

Spiritual journals can be our gateway to writing books, drafting ideas, and the place where we can take the inner journey of transformation. I have been writing in journals since the age of sixteen, now nine books later, I attribute much of my writing success to my journals.

Our spiritual journals can be a sacred temple we return to for restoration, to contemplate spiritual teachings, to do compassionate inquiry and to pay attention to the inner landscapes of our life.

“Writing itself is one of the great, free human activities. There is scope for individuality, and elation and discovery.”  –William Stafford

Spiritual Journaling: Creating an Outer Temple

“Writing, above all, is seeing clearly”–Peter Mathieson, Letters from the Wild

Consider your journal as one of your sacred temples; a place where you can engage and express your chosen spiritual practices.

Spiritual journaling is a universal means to access your Inner Teacher and a means to give yourself direct spiritual experiences without the immediate guidance of a group or teacher. Within the direction of such books as Spiritual Journaling you will have writing exercises and contemplative questions to journey with. These will help direct your spiritual journaling experience.

When journaling, date and title each entry. That way you can find the piece in your journal that relates to what you may be working on within your spiritual practices. This also makes it easier to find for future investigation.

For more on spiritual journaling sign up for my free Monday Musings newsletter for writers, poets and spiritual pilgrims at Julie@julietallardjohnson.com and take advantage of my e-book, Spiritual Journaling which is only 99¢ from January 22^nd till February 4^th

“A poet friend of mine told me that his poems know far more than he does, and if he listens to them, they teach him.”  –Madeleine L’Engle

“We write to be able to transcend our life, to reach beyond it . . . to teach ourselves to speak with others, to record the journey into the labyrinth.” – Anaïs Nin

“Having been a journal-writer most of her life, Johnson offers this guide to self-discovery. Her advice is to stop seeking the illusion of what is real and instead find the reality within. The book covers 15 topics, including nature, spirit, school, death, and love. Each chapter has inspirational quotes, poems, stories, and discussions and asks questions to encourage personal focus through journaling. The order of the chapters is irrelevant; readers are encouraged to select those that best suit their personal needs. Though this title initially appears religious in nature, it is more specifically about the spirit. It might also interest teachers, parents, counselors, and youth ministers who wish to help young adults find their internal flames.”–Jodi Kearns, University of Akron, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

As Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad write in The Guru Papers, “The power of conversion experiences lies in the psychological shift from confusion to certainty.” Conversion often takes place without the one recruited really understanding the actuality of the experience. The conversion experience messes with our minds and emotions. So any time you are feeling confusion is a time to remain alert. When the group or the teacher insists that the confusion is proof that you must embrace their view—that they hold the way to certainty—then seeker beware! They may be setting up a conversion experience.

I once attended a retreat where the teacher showed a PowerPoint pre- sentation that went on for two hours. It articulated all the atrocities we have done to each other, to the planet, and to ourselves. Many of the people in the group were already followers of this teacher; a few, like myself, were not. By the end of the presentation, most of us felt confused, ashamed, and ready for someone to show us how to save the world.

This was a strong and effective setup, in that everyone felt beholden to the teacher for guidance. One student came up to me so full of shame that she was ready to do whatever the teacher told her to do to help herself and the planet. No one challenged the teacher, so it appeared as if everyone was on the same page.

The reality is that the facts presented in the PowerPoint presentation were true, but the spin put on the presentation was one of fear, shame, and blame. The teacher’s spin included how pissed off the spirits must be at us. (He, of course, claimed to have a special relationship with the spirit world.) When I later challenged his spin, he took the opportunity to pub- licly humiliate me. Fortunately, I knew where the exit doors were and left. Many remained, however, and those who did attributed their shift from confusion to clarity to the group process and to this teacher; they became ready converts.

In transpersonal work, we give most of the credit to our own willing- ness and courage when the transformation takes place. Before entering a group or working with a teacher, have a sense of your own intentions and ideals. When you are grounded in your intentions and values, it is not so easy for others to manipulate you. When you are vulnerable, or are searching for truth outside yourself, or lack your own value system, you are more likely to be manipulated and even converted. This does not mean you should never join a circle when you are vulnerable; simply be more aware of who or what you are joining.

“I have taught the way without making any distinction between inner and outer teaching. For in respect of the truth there must be no such thing as the “closed fist” of the teacher, who hides some essential knowledge from the pupil. Secrecy is the mark of false doctrine.”       –The Digha-nikãya, from the Sutta Pitaka Discourses

Excerpt from The Wheel of Initiation: Practices for Releasing Your Inner Light

“You are in the Universe and this universe is in you.”  –Jay Harjo

Living consciously means taking the whole of ourselves, –– mind, body, and soul. We often hear the words “grounded.” As in, to be grounded, centered and balanced. To be grounded means to “be in your body.” This means to have a conscious relationship with our bodies. Being grounded in our body while participating in a busy and often hectic life can be a challenge. However being grounded is key to a conscious life.

Life unfolds and how we respond to circumstances and events determines our happiness.  I often give the analogy of a tree falling on someone’s house. We can waste a lot of time feeling victimized by the storm or asking “why?” this happened to me. A grounded person has more inner vitality and presence to respond to such tragedy. When grounded we are not so easily pushed around by outside circumstances and respond better to life’s difficulties. Having a more grounded body gives us simple yet powerful means to experience life more fully and joyfully. When grounded we become the cause of our life rather than the effect.

“You are not responsible for his treating you like trash, but you are responsible for feeling like your life is ruined and having lived as though it is.”  –Victor Sanchez

To create in our life, to open up to all that is truly possible for us, we need to be in our body.  On the spiritual path we must look at how we treat our body and bring it into our daily practices. When we care for our body, live more grounded, this allows us to wake up (spiritually).

Consider these Grounding Practices:

Have a peace treaty with the body – develop a passion, a kindness with your physical self. Let your body know you care.

Look at how you treat your body. Hold a more conscious attitude with the body as you would a good friend.

Walk outside for 30 minutes a day.  Every day.

Spend meditative time in nature. Awaken all the senses and listen, smell, touch, and see what is around you.

Breathe. Breathe deep, yawn, and learn some yogic breath exercises, (breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth three times upon waking in the morning).

(You wondered if I dared suggest it?) –– Yes, hug a tree. Or better yet have long conversations with a favorite tree.

Dedicate at least one day a week to abstaining from the computer and television.

Practice yoga. Cook from scratch. Eat slowly. Walk barefoot on the ground. Garden. Practice mindfulness meditation. Listen to your emotions. Get a Thai massage.

Remember that we are made up of the same stuff as the Holy People (Buddha, Christ, Black Elk, etc.). We too can achieve an awakened body through the power of our efforts.

“Grounding provides a connection that makes us feel safe, alive, centered in ourselves, and rooted in our environment.”  –Anodea Judith

“We modern humans live as prisoners in a reality constructed for us by our thoughts, thoughts that are predetermined for us by the tonal of the times and by our personal history.” ­Victor Sanchez, The Teachings of Don Carlos

Both in psychological and in Buddhist studies we find the concept of projection. Briefly explained it is our ability to not see things as they are but to see things as we are. Much like a movie projector sends out its images onto the screen, we send out our beliefs, histories, assumptions, desires and emotions unto the “screen” of our life. Basically, what we see is our own story lines around the given person or event.

What we see and experience is always clouded by our own mind-set of assumptions, story lines and pain stories.

The conscious person does their best to acknowledge this while at the same time engaging in practices that help us “see through” the illusion of what we perceive on the screen. We remain aware that projections are part of any dynamic; most certainly they are part of an emotionally charged situation.

But it gets more complicated. What we tend to do then is recruit proof for our own story lines. We come to conclusions about the other or the world around us and then we go about seeking evidence to back up our assumptions. We then lose all perspective.

All this projection undermines a real conversation. And in conversation I don’t just mean with another human being but also with the world around us at any given moment. Instead of having the give and take of a real conversation we are busy living our own little storylines, dreaming up a world that fits our mindset, beliefs and assumptions.

When we do not truly perceive people or situations, but actually see and respond to what our thoughts (beliefs and assumptions) dictate to us, ­­–which we are habitually projecting onto the world around us, –then freedom from projections can only come from an ability to suspend our thoughts (put a hold on our assumptions and beliefs). This can only be achieved through the practices of meditation and mind training. Left on its own, the mind will mess with you and your life.

Here are some practices that can help with freedom from the self-absorption of projection.

• Mindfulness Meditation practices that help tame the mind so it can more easily be trained.

•Inquiry practices that get you to investigate truth and train you to question your perspective.

• Mind-training techniques such as found in Lojong and Toltec practices.

• In a challenging situation you can ask yourself: What beliefs and agendas am I projecting onto the other? How does his or her behavior fit too well into what I have come to believe about them? What can I do from my side to generate more consciousness and compassion? What mind training technique could I use in this situation?

“If we perceive things as they really are, whether people, situations, or events, or our own selves, we will be in a better position than someone who substitutes thoughts in place of reality. People who do not perceive (reality) find themselves struggling to control an imaginary reality and suffering the consequences of the inconsistencies between what they think is there and what is actually there.” ­Victor Sanchez, The Teachings of Don Carlos

Does it seem at times as though some folks out there are in a constant state of inspiration? They are on their umpteenth book, their gardens grow abundantly in any weather, and they are always in between successful projects. They don’t have blood running through their veins, they run on caffeine.

I suppose that I may appear to be one of those inspired folks. Well, as someone renowned once said, (I think it was Jesus) – “Don’t be fooled by appearances.”

I experience as many slumps as I do peaks and most of my inspirational moments are a result of feeling uninspired. It is not about hoping and waiting for inspiration to come to us – we must go seek her and do so vigorously. Like a woman with her hair on fire seeks the pond.

She is there, right outside your door, or, among the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. She calls you on the phone after hours and she sits in your psyche like a pebble in your running shoe. But she is disguised, blending in; she’s in a guise and hiding out right there, in front of you. And, in that moment you actually take that step, she appears.

She appears when you lift your head up and take a look around you.

Sometimes I luck out and she surprises me, greeting me with her dominion of possibilities. And when she does show up on her own I feast on her like a hungry street fool. I write, or play, or walk, or create until I feel stuffed. Filled to the brim.

But more often I have to get up off my butt and search for her. Then when I approach the empty page or a conversation uninspired, I know to remain open long enough means inspiration comes.

And she always does. Go ahead; prove me wrong. Or prove me right.

Don’t do the ordinary thing by giving in to the “Oh shucks I don’t have it in me.” Get up and go look at the dishes in the sink and stare at them till they inspire you somehow. Or call her on the phone and find the inspiration in the conversation. Or between the words. Or be inspired by what could have been said. Take that walk and listen. Look for her. She comes to us in our search. Hunt her down if need be.

Call out to her until she reveals her hiding place.

Get up from wherever you sit and start walking, and keep looking out until inspiration arrives.

And she will.   I promise.

Some nights, stay up till dawn.

As the moon sometimes does for the sun.

Be a full bucket pulled up the dark way

of a well, then lifted out into the light.

Something opens our wings. Something

makes boredom and hurt disappear.

Someone fills the cup in front of us.

We taste only sacredness.   ­–Rumi