Sue O’Kieffe is one of these wonderful souls. We’ve stayed in touch consistently online since meeting a year ago, and it’s my great pleasure to introduce her visionary mandala art to you in this interview. When I first saw Sue’s work, I was immediately struck by its beauty. Every piece spoke to me and transported me to a magical world. You’ll get a chance to see for yourself in a sample slideshow below, but make sure you visit her blog and delve into these images. You can find her at Sacred Circle Mandalas.

Sue’s mandala’s are nature-based. She creates her layered artwork from photographs she mostly takes herself. She then listens for the plant’s spiritual story. The end result is richly textured work that draws you into its fine detail and keeps you engaged with a variety of interlocking images that have depth and resonance.

Spiritualizing the causal layer of existence is the most significant world healing work of our time. I wrote briefly about this after the quake in Haiti, and will revisit the subject. And mandalas do just that: Transform at the causal level.

Without further ado, here is my interview with Sue O’Kieffe:

There are many ways to create mandalas. What draws you to Nature as the basis of your mandala art?

I have created hand drawn mandala art, as well as mandala collages, but creating from nature speaks most directly to my spirit. Nature has always been my primal mother. I receive nurture and sustenance from her and have since I was a child. I love the detail of nature, and how much love I feel when I interact with her. My intention with my nature inspired mandalas is to show that love, so that others will feel that love and know how much love is always available to them.

Is Nature a big part of your spirituality?

Yes, of course.

What do you think is the cost of humanity’s departure from Nature and how can we re-engage her?

Nature gives so much and a big portion of humanity just wants to use her. When we figure out that everything is connected, that we do NOT have dominion over the earth, that God speaks to us through nature and is in nature, and that God is part of us, then maybe we will stop destroying a part of ourselves when we destroy the world around us.

What is the relationship between art and spirituality? Is art for art’s sake enough, or do these times demand art with purpose?

Well, I know I could not create art just art’s sake. It’s unfathomable to me. Whether or not people have a spiritual base or acknowledge it in their art making is their path and their choice. I think people are attracted to spiritually based art because their souls cry out for it. We need to be surrounded by visions of something greater than ourselves.

If you’re reading this in email, you may need to click back to the original post to see the slideshow.

Do you personally work with your mandalas after they are completed, or is any spiritual/healing/creative benefit only part of the art-making process?

I benefit on so many levels from art-making; it is a birthing process and an act of healing. Up until this point, I have pretty much created mandalas for those who are attracted to the energy and love that they offer, but I have not personally spent much time working with them after they are done. Recently I completed a mandala that is a representation of my True Self. The story around this mandala is a whole other interview! My intention is to work with my True Self Mandala as soon as it is framed sometime this month, to see what it has to share with me.

I know how much creating mandala art has opened me up to something greater. It is not like I say to myself “I create mandalas so that my consciousness will be expanded.” I create mandala art because it is my calling. A few years ago I realized that I was part of a larger tribe of mandala makers; we are all here to spread light and love and healing. It is such a honor to be part of this greater whole.

What effect do your mandalas have on other people? What feedback have you received?

The consistent feedback that I receive about my mandalas is how good they feel looking at them. They feel love and connection. They are in awe. They feel uplifted and inspired. I have received comments such as “When I’m feeling discouraged, I go look at your mandalas on your blog,” or “I purchased this mandala because it spoke to my connection with my father,” or “I’m recovering for by-pass surgery and I want this mandala near me to remind me to take care of my heart.” I also hear a lot of “wows.”

Do you have any final words about the times we’re living in?

When you get stuck, take a deep breath. Then another. Dance, drum, find something to raise your energy levels. Forgive. Love yourself. Love one another. Express gratitude. Feel joy. Expect magic. Find what brings you meaning. Live with purpose. Serve others. Be happy.

Thank you Sue!

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Friction creates heat.

Heat=Climate change. Here’s the latest in the state of affairs.

After my last post which was somewhat hopeful about climate change, the news has been less so, with a lot of equivocating. Not all is lost, yet, but certainly the big commitments that are needed from governments and businesses aren’t materializing.

The New York Times reported on Oct 20 that, “With the clock running out and deep differences unresolved, it now appears that there is little chance that international climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December will produce a comprehensive and binding new treaty on global warming.”

There’s a sense of overwhelm because as usual we started too late in taking measures to mitigate climate change. Vested interests want to only do the minimum, which is how we got here in the first place. According to NPR, “President Barack Obama’s visit to China next month is not likely to yield a separate accord on countering global warming…”

There’s quite a bit of talk about investing in clean energy, its technology and potential for job creation and revenue. Where this talk leads is up in the air. Bloomberg reported recently that, “Billionaire George Soros, looking to address the “political problem” of climate change, said he will invest $1 billion in clean-energy technology and donate $100 million to an environmental advisory group to aid policymakers.”

Developed and developing nations are squabbling over who must pay for measures to mitigate this threat we’re all facing. The New York Times is posting such headlines as Biggest Obstacle to Global Climate Deal May Be How to Pay for It, and NPR reports EU can’t agree on how much climate aid to give.

Fortunately, this isn’t the only news in climate change. Blog Action Day which took place on Oct 15 generated 31,000 trackable blog posts in 155 countries. The Reiki Help Blog was one of 13,000 participating blogs, and news of the event even made CNN.

There’s also similar people-based action on climate change featured below. Why is this important?

Two reasons:

1) There has to be a groundswell of citizen voices, demands and actions, for leaders aren’t stepping up.

2) Behavior, psychology and the mindset can only be changed by massive commitments to mitigating this monster.

A disturbing story on NPR had this to say: “…a new poll by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press shows a big jump in the number of people who doubt the reality, the cause and the risks of global warming. Last year, for example, 71 percent of those polled believed the Earth was getting warmer, regardless of the cause. This year, 57 percent believe that – still a sizable majority but a 14 percent drop over the course of one year.”

This, despite a recent study linking climate change to worsening of diseases.

Adam Corner has an insightful reason why this is so. In an astute piece he writes, “But until now, a key piece has been missing from the puzzle – psychology. The study of human behaviour has been conspicuous by its absence from the climate change debate.”

Apparently even in the good old United Kingdom people “don’t feel personally threatened by climate change because it is vague, abstract and difficult to visualise.”

That’s why an organization I’m recently enamored of, 350.org, is one with which I strongly encourage you to become involved.

350.org is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis–the solutions that science and justice demand. Our mission is to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis—to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet.

Our focus is on the number 350–as in parts per million, the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. But 350 is more than a number–it’s a symbol of where we need to head as a planet.

To tackle climate change we need to move quickly, and we need to act in unison—and 2009 will be an absolutely crucial year.  This December, world leaders will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to craft a new global treaty on cutting emissions. The problem is, the treaty currently on the table doesn’t meet the severity of the climate crisis—it doesn’t pass the 350 test.

In order to unite the public, media, and our political leaders behind the 350 goal, we’re harnessing the power of the internet to coordinate a planetary day of action on October 24, 2009.  We hope to have actions at hundreds of iconic places around the world – from the Taj Mahal to the Great Barrier Reef to your community – and clear message to world leaders: the solutions to climate change must be equitable, they must be grounded in science, and they must meet the scale of the crisis.

If an international grassroots movement holds our leaders accountable to the latest climate science, we can start the global transformation we so desperately need.

Here’s a video of that Oct 24 global event The 350 Movement: October 24, 2009 – The Day the World Came Together (for email subscribers.)

COP15 starts on December 7, 2009. That’s my son’s birthday. He will be eleven.

He has always wanted to be a scientist. Climate change will have to have been long handled by the time he gets to be one, but I know his contributions will be great, wherever they are.

Lately he’s been into mystery novels and told a career person at school he wants to be a PI. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear! Maybe he can out climate-deniers’ real agenda or out dirty energy users (hopefully neither will exist by then).

COP stands for Conference of Parties, and it will be occurring for the 15th time. To put it into context, COP8 took place in Kyoto, Japan in 1992.

COP15 will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark. It’s in fact the United Nations Climate Change Conference to renegotiate Kyoto’s replacement, as it expires  in 2012 and has always been too lenient.

Back to my son for a minute. In 2050 he will be 52.

The group [Climate Action Initiative] took the upper-range targets of nearly 200 nations’ climate policies–including U.S. cuts that would reduce domestic emissions 73 percent from 2005 levels by 2050, along with the European Union’s pledge to reduce its emissions 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 — and found that even under that optimistic scenario, the average global temperature is likely to warm by 6.3 degrees. (Washington Post.)

Recently I watched a 60 Minutes piece on the last great migration of large animals, the wildebeest. I don’t know that my son is going to be able to live in a world where he can witness such a natural phenomenon. My first feeling was to put us on plane to Africa to see it for ourselves.

Today, October 15, 2009 is Blog Action Day once again. The Reiki Help Blog is participating for the third year. Previous themes were Poverty and the Environment. This year the focus is Climate Change, a subject that’s very much part of the past content of this blog.

There has never been any really good arguments or evidence disproving global warming which is now already happening and heading toward critical levels.

When the IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, the report it issued really silenced all other voices. Well, there are a few still. Leo Hickman of the United Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper recently reported about a TV ad paid for by an oil industry lobbyist telling Americans “more CO2 results in a greener earth.” Video of ad (for email subscribers).

This kind of unconscionable lobbying is part of the fray, as infuriating and puzzling as it may be. The fact of the matter is, “…recent scientific assessments have outstripped the predictions issued by the Nobel Prize-winning U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007″ as reported in the Washington Post article linked above.

These figures can be seen on ClimateInteractive.org.

We have yet to appreciably mitigate climate change, but the bogeyman has morphed. What’s different is that it’s now topical in a highlighted, urgent manner, with focused international attention on it. If that will be enough is anyone’s guess. Is it too late to take action? Perhaps. One thing is for sure. We can’t not take action. That would be collective suicide, and we’ll have grossly failed in the substantial stewardship that has been bestowed on us as the most “evolved” species.

In September, secretary general Ban Ki-moon organized the UN climate summit meeting at which Obama spoke clearly and assertively “to make the United States a leader in the global arena on global warming” (New York Times). It’s well worth reading his entire presentation, even just to see how much has happened in the U.S. response to this challenge (finally). There’s movement, much more precise, frequent and targeted movement than before.

Our generation’s response to this challenge will be judged by history, for if we fail to meet it – boldly, swiftly and together – we risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe. No nation, however large or small, wealthy or poor, can escape the impact of climate change. Rising sea levels threaten every coastline. More powerful storms and floods threaten every continent. More frequent drought and crop failures breed hunger and conflict in places where hunger and conflict already thrive. On shrinking islands, families are already being forced to flee their homes as climate refugees. The security and stability of each nation and all peoples – our prosperity, our health, our safety – are in jeopardy. And the time we have to reverse this tide is running out. -President Obama, New York, Sept. 22, 2009

And with December’s COP15 summit in Copenhagen occurring around the same time and region as the Dec. 10 Nobel festivities in Oslo, environmentalists have even greater hope: “Now that we know President Obama will be in Scandinavia in December,” says the WWF’s U.S. climate-change director, “expectations are even higher that he will attend the Copenhagen climate summit in person to usher in a fair, ambitious and binding climate agreement.”

Following his speech, Obama also greenlighted the EPA’s “new rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from hundreds of power plants and large industrial facilities” (New York Times).

September’s New York summit also gave “a strong boost to the negotiations over a major international treaty” (The Guardian). According to The Guardian’s online reporting:

Although the political leaders must devise and implement the right policies to guide national and global emissions trajectories, it is the private sector that will be the main engine in the transition to a low-carbon global economy.

In that respect it was very encouraging that 181 investors, collectively responsible for the management of more than $13 trillion in assets globally, launched a statement in New York last week to support a global agreement on climate change. The Leadership Forum for business leaders, which ran alongside the summit, also highlighted a tremendous variety of innovative ideas from within the private sector for the low-carbon transition.

Also in the private sector, Apple became “the latest company to resign from the United States Chamber of Commerce over climate policy” (New York Times), precisely because the chamber opposes EPA rules above. Encouragingly, three large utilities have also resigned from the chamber — Pacific Gas & Electric, PNM Resources and Exelon.

And one of the most encouraging displays of political will has come from Norway, which “said it may reduce greenhouse- gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, the most ambitious target proposed by a developed nation” according to Bloomberg.

The pledge puts Norway ahead of the 27-nation European Union and Switzerland, which have said they’ll cut emissions by as much as 30 percent by 2020 if a new United Nations treaty to fight global warming is brokered in Copenhagen in December. -Bloomberg

Everything is looking toward Copenhagen in December, which is fraught with considerable challenges. To list all of them would require a scholarly work. Being informed is critical and vital, especially about climate change.

I strongly encourage you to spend concentrated time with the following resources:

1. Keep track of the COP15 treaty at 350.org.
2. Find out who’s representing your country at COP15 and what they think at AdoptANegotiator.org.
3. Petition your representative to support a climate treaty that will reduce carbon emissions at WeCanSolveIt.org.

On the same 60 Minutes broadcast that brought the story of the threatened migration of the wildebeest, another eye-opening story was exposed about coal ash. You probably have never heard of coal ash and may believe electricity is clean. Well, watch the segment.

I physically became depressed after watching those two segments. It was a whole-body sinking. I was depressed for my son, the Earth and humanity.

In matters of such scale we can no longer expect leaders of any stripe to do all the work or even do the right thing. Truth has been concealed, spun and ignored again and again.

We must be personally involved!

In the weeks leading up to December, climate change will be regularly featured on this blog and starting with this post I urge all of you to become engaged in this call to action here with your comments and ideas, in your own lives, and by becoming educated, clicking through to the many resources that will be linked.

If you are new here or haven’t subscribed yet, please subscribe via email. You can also friend me on Twitter.

The following came to me around the same time as the message from Bear, previously published.

The Eagle am I soaring the heights. My friend the Mountain also sees what I see. We speak often when I come home after a day’s survey. My survey yields troubling results. I see an erosion of values and priorities. I see humanity dominating but not ruling fairly the family of Life. War and injustice have become the way of humanity, so far have you trodden from the Good Road. You wage war on Nature and your own kind. The being that Great Spirit created with a thumb and ability to reason, has failed its mission and is lost.

I also see that there are wisdom-bearers amongst you. You are a minority but don’t underestimate your influence. You are placed carefully in various spheres of society, bringing the teachings of a higher mind to the affairs of Earth. There are still places where when you look up to the sky it is clear blue and clean. There is, however, a murky layer of misdeeds and suffering that the human eye doesn’t see. It is a collective, unclean energy generated through ages of greed, anger, lust and misuse of power. The wisdom-bearers hold the ballast, the balance and the way out.

Come to my lofty height and take heart, for you are full of courage. This is a time of testing and initiation. The wisdom you hold is to be claimed and your full power returned to you. This is the task of bringing honor back to Life and all its expressions. Those of you who remember honor and share it with yourself and others, it is your time to rise. This you do out of Love.

And The Waters had this to say:

I am the spirit of the Waters of the Earth. Come to me for clarity and for depth. When you are mired in confusion and can’t get below the surface, reach any of my shores. Whether you can get to a lake, ocean, creek or simple canal, visit with me. Gaze at my surface and calm your mind. Watch my sister the Wind dancing across and let me take the troubles out of your heart. I cleanse and renew. I recharge and reestablish flow.

Recently I reviewed an excellent book on Shintoism on this blog. This is a nature-derived teaching and practice. There’s also quite a bit of environmental and ecological content here.

For the first time I also shared a channeled message two postings ago: The Error of Ways for all of humanity.

There it explains that I’ve been a conscious channel for fifteen years. One way that messages come to me is through interspecies communication. A substantial example of this can be found in The Sainthood of Sequoias.

Spread out over several posts, I’ll be sharing messages I’ve received from the Natural world that started coming in around 2002.

THE BEAR

“I am Bear and I hibernate for long periods of time. You call this meditation. I also love honey. You call this bliss or joy. Many have lost the capacity for joy. There are a great many reasons for killjoy. There are a great many reasons for misery and heartache. I used to have stomping grounds without limit, as did my brethren. My numbers thrived and all was good. But I see that humans hurt more. My medicine is introspection in the cave of my being and this you have forgotten. This you must practice in community again. In every community, every day. Gather those who are rushing, destroying, hoarding, blaming, hating and not listening. Gather them in a group embrace of introspection, a timeout to revision what your society could be.

“Humanity is disconnected. Your thinking is askew. Fear is rampant and decisions create hurt, not laughter or prosperity. Decisions at all levels, communally and globally are decisions based on hoarding wrong power to alleviate fear and gratify shallow goals. Bring those who misstep to the energy or mindfield of nourishment from the real Source. Help the disconnected ones hear the wisdom of their inner being.

“There was once a man who sold his wares. He was a decent man and lived simply. Someone took his business away from him by manufacturing more of what he made by hand and selling it for a lower price. He couldn’t eat. Neither could his family. He felt ashamed and angry. They took his land too and his home. This happened to all his neighbors and they rebelled, naturally. His neighbors went underground and waged battle. But this man went to nature and sought solace there. In the cave of his being he saw another way.

“When he came out of hiding, he waged battle too, but with reform and justice, not weapons and bloodshed. He’d discovered the power to change minds and hearts, first in himself through introspection, then in others, even his onetime enemy. In the end everybody won and his neighbors honored him as did his foe.

“Bring your people under one roof and help them collect themselves. Help them pick up the debris of their being and piece it together again. You will find that this is possible and brings peace.”

I spontaneously started channeling fifteen years ago when I first began meditating. It was Kuan Yin who visited, to my great honor. I had a friend living in China at the time who mailed me a white porcelain statue of Kuan Yin after hearing my loving praise of her. This statue is 18 inches tall and fairly substantial. It arrived unannounced one day in my mailbox, together with a giant batik of Kuan Yin. These items still decorate my home.

My friend didn’t tell me she was sending it. The statue was unscathed in its journey from China, and it wasn’t even wrapped that well. That’s what Goddesses do. They show up in your mailbox in all their splendor.

I’m a conscious channel, meaning I hear, know and experience all that is being transmitted at the time, and remember it once it’s finished. I’ve channeled several well known beings, and some that were personally significant to me. For some years now, I haven’t formally channeled.

Before I stopped, it was communicated to me that I’m an integral part of the message, shaping, interpreting, vocalizing and embodying the transmission. And later messages were all from Spirit, not a particular being, as is the one I share here.

I haven’t taken this blog into this arena until now. Since March of this year, I’ve been sharing monthly Reiju / Community Healing / Life Alignment. There are two hundred names on the sign up sheet. Click here to find out more.

The following came through during September’s Reiju which was conducted on 9/9/009. You can search online about the significance of this date. I hope it moves, informs and helps you.

The Error of Ways

There’s greatness in you. A greatness that comes from being here in this time of shifting. The shift is felt in lots of ways, and is often disguised under turbulence. Don’t be fooled by this. This is only the surface effect. What lies underneath is harmony.

A shift in the error of ways is bound to throw up a dust storm, a debris cloud. This error of ways is longstanding, entrenched and deep in the subconscious of humanity.

But deeper still in human memory and DNA lies truth. The truth of egalitarian ways, ways that honor life and others and fellow beings. The tree is your fellow being, the person to your left or right is of the same origin.

The error of ways is a deluded departure from the heart to the brain, from spirit into matter, from unity to strangers. It is the way of ego, of smallness.

This now is a time of Heart. Those with the biggest and strongest Hearts will usher in the shift. Those same don’t fear the turbulence, recognize it as an effect only. This is the greatness you have inside. You don’t buy the temporary. Your greatness comes from an ancient memory of harmony.

You were born for this. It doesn’t matter what your life looks like, your bank account, your health, your relationships. What matters is you’re here and have chosen a peaceful way, a way that recognizes it’s bigger than you. You are not your symptoms, but the light that shines in spite of them.

You are great. This now is the end of greed, of duplicity. This now is the coming forth of supernatural generosity and gifting. The Earth is bestowed with a garland of generosity. You are here to decorate every living thing with it. To give life new fragrance. To dress life with the colors of sublime love, the chromatic splendor of true light.

The shift wouldn’t be a shift if it was business as usual. It’s precisely because there’s chaos and uncertainty that you know there’s change. When a wrecking ball takes down an old building, it’s not pretty. The error of ways has gone so far that only a great crashing, a tumbling of huge magnitude will make an impression, and way for the enlightened.

The enlightened prefers to whisper, gently suggest and let free will and choice pick it up from there. This is the norm and it still operates. When you meditate or heal, the enlightened is in subdued mode, waiting for the guidance to take hold in you.

Many of you have also known that even on an individual basis, the enlightened will pick up a jackhammer to let you know something’s got to give. There’s a major mess in your life, then with your action and cooperation, order returns.

So much so when the error of ways is global and doesn’t only threaten society but the very planet on which societies exist: The inescapable necessity of the shift has to be communicated in stark terms for it to take hold, for society to stop the madness.

Stop the madness of plundering natural resources, abdicating human and animal rights, amassing obscene fortunes, pushing the planet to the brink, allowing hunger and poverty, stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, turning your health over to pharmaceuticals, war mongering, genocide, personal and cultural aggrandizement. Stop.

You are great because to a large degree you have stopped. You. There are much bigger forces at play and at times it seems your stopping the error of ways is having little to no impact. Stop this thought too.

You are forerunners. Wayshowers. The ballast. If it weren’t for you, it may already have been too late for this planet. Your power may be unnoticed in the halls of earthly power, but it’s recorded in eternity. And this is eternity delivering a wallop to the power holders and brokers.

If you weren’t a transition-maker, you wouldn’t be here, be in the exact circumstances you’re in. Don’t undervalue your place, don’t get caught up in the symptoms of your life. You’re doing your own work too, and some of it is messy. But greater than any of it is the work of ages being done by you and through you.

The only school for this work is lifetimes. The only degree is evolutionary motive. This is not your first commencement!

–Spirit through Pamir Kiciman 9/9/2009

Today we have ‘gurus’ and ‘pandits’ in every field, especially technology. Karma is mentioned on a popular bumper sticker, and used loosely in everyday conversation. It’s a complicated and complex subject.

I’ve found the following from one of the most respected Buddhist teachers dispensing dharma (look it up!) today, Pema Chödrön, to be very helpful. It avoids some of the more esoteric aspects of this involved teaching and presents a practical approach.

Please let me know how it has put things into perspective for you in comments below. (The bold sections are my highlighting.)

When something happens to us that we find really painful—an insult, a physical ailment, the loss of someone we love dearly—the Buddhist teachings train us to understand that we have just been given an opportunity to repay a karmic debt…The karmic understanding need not be religious nor an occasion for guilt. In fact, it can allow us to act without being guilt-ridden. Anything I cause someone else to feel, either pleasant or unpleasant, resulting from my words, actions, and activities, I myself will feel sooner or later. What goes around comes around. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it comes back in the same form, but somehow anything I’ve caused someone else to feel, I will feel at some point in the future. This system applies to good feelings as well, but my focus here is on the karmic repercussions that cause us to settle the score.

Therefore, when something unpleasant happens to me, I know it is a debt coming back. I have no idea what I did, so it’s not something I have to feel guilty about…I have no need to go into the history of how I got here. I just say, “I am feeling this.” At this point, I have a chance for the buck to stop here. This stimulus does not need to be the cause of evening the score in the usual pain-causing way.

Instead, at this point you can apply a meditation method that would circumvent the habitual score settling. Whatever practice you use, the point is to stay with the underlying uneasiness and lean into it. Connect with the natural openness of your mind. You can feel at this point that “this debt has just been paid.” At that point, there isn’t going to be any further debt to somebody else or to yourself, no further repercussions from this exchange except further awakening, further connecting with the natural openness and intelligence of mind, further connecting with warmth and loving-kindness toward yourself, further connecting with compassion and love for other beings. Those are the kind of results that our uncomfortable situations could give birth to…

Many people have stories like this. They put someone through something and then they experience it themselves, and somehow they know that they are paying back a debt. It has nothing whatsoever to do with punishment. It’s more like a law of physics. There’s no one punishing you. There is no master planner making sure you get it. There is no vengeance. It is just a principle that you sooner or later start to feel in your bones.

This approach to settling the score is that whenever something bad comes your way, it is always an opportunity for further healing. When things happen to you that you don’t like, you can either open the wound further or you can heal the wound. Instead of getting strongly hooked into thoughts like “I don’t like,” “I don’t want,” “It isn’t fair,” “How could they do this to me?,” “I don’t deserve this, or “They should know better,” it’s possible that you could train yourself so that the natural intelligence becomes stronger than your reactivity.

For most of us most of the time, our emotional reactivity obscures our natural intelligence. But if we become motivated to start contemplating the approach of seeing pain and discomfort as opportunities for healing—for becoming “one-with” and bringing people closer rather than splitting—our intelligence actually will get stronger than our emotional reactivity. If we take those opportunities for healing, the momentum of the intelligence will gradually start to outweigh the momentum of the reactivity…We’re not talking getting rid of the experience of getting hooked. We’re talking about when you get hooked, what do you do next? There’s a choice. The Buddha teaches us that we are always at a crossroads, moment by moment. We have the intelligence to make a choice, so let’s educate ourselves about what the implications of our choices are…We could choose to open the wound further, creating more suffering for ourselves and others, or we can choose to heal the wound.

The question we usually ask ourselves at this crossroads is, What will soothe me in this moment? The habitual response is that what will soothe me is to get what I want, to have my needs met, to get even, to straighten this all out so I come out with what I need. But we have seen what this choice leads to. We need to cultivate that other choice.

The choice I have been talking about doesn’t preclude resolving conflicts where parties have been in the wrong…Unfortunately when we see all this suffering we want fast results. Once again we might act on impulse and out of emotional reactivity, but if we look at the many examples of people trying to heal and settle the score in the intelligent way, we see that it takes time. The results are slow in coming, but from the larger perspective of natural intelligence and openness and warmth, the process is as important as the result. You are creating the future of the planet by how you work with injustice. You may not see it before your eyes immediately, but you are repaying a karmic debt…All you need to know is that the future is wide open and you are about to create it by what you do…

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Welcome to the 177th Carnival of Healing. This is the first time I’m hosting it and have enjoyed collecting the multimedia content presented.

To make the Carnival really fun and valuable, go ahead and visit each of the links, comment on those blogs to join the conversation, and also comment here.

One aspect of blogs that’s missed often is that real value is found in the comments that are sparked by the post itself.

Some of the content is actually in this post, while most of it links out to other blogs.

Make sure you spend time a little further down in this post with David’s The Blessed Discontent and Melanie’s healing energy charged art.

Your comments here would be appreciated in general, but you can also let me know what kind of content you most need, enjoy and would like to see more.

And in true carnival spirit, put on music you like best, make your favorite drink, settle and dive in.

Another way you can deepen this experience is to go back to the content you resonated with most and put it into practice, meditate on it and journal about it.

My collecting, reviewing and presenting of the material here was a considerable amount of work, so I hope it’s rewarding to you and I’d greatly appreciate your feedback.

Thanks also to all who submitted content.

Health tips

Maria Mora gives us detailed information about the many properties of the Helichrysum Species, which range from being antifungal, wound healing, good for muscle spasms and irritable bowel syndrome, to being used for colds, inflammation and allergies.

Edward Sanderson brings us ways to Wave goodbye to frozen shoulder which in Chinese Medicine is called 50 year shoulder because people tend to get it at middle age. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had shoulder pain since my twenties which healed greatly when I started meditating. Ed lists good solutions and links to some others as well.

Brad presents Cold Showers – Whew! including some studies that have been done regarding its benefits.

Julian Pollock presents Why Practise Qigong – for Health, Wellness, and Inner Balance in a simple, accessible piece.

Ross presents Health Benefits of Liquid Chlorophyll, a thorough look with a lot of support.

Healing / Transformation

And now on to some musical musings…musical and transformational. ggw_bach, yes that’s the name, is Bach in sunglasses! He composes classical music for today. You can listen to each piece at the end of posts, like the one he submitted for the Carnival: Step 19 – Regenerating the Core. After you appreciate it, go ahead and browse all the steps.

Here’s a quiet piece that packs a powerful message by Tim Rowe: On Healing. Tim’s post is full of golden nuggets about healing, the path and our place therein. Healers emerge from wounds; their own. He offers much including the basics of A Course in Miracles, synchronicity and projection.

Gina Loree’ Marks has “a strong belief in ‘messengers’.” There’s a quality of self-reflection in her posts that we could all adopt. In Discomfort Creates Awareness, she uses her interaction with a client to create clearer self-awareness and ask probing questions about how we hide from insights discomfort can provide.

Donald presents 10 Essential Tips to Change Your Life, a straightforward look at some cornerstones of change.

Lisis Blackston presents Finding Fulfillment. It’s a unique look at turning Maslow’s pyramid on its head.

Communication / Listening

Those of you who’ve studied Reiki with me, will be familiar with the next entry. Davina’s excellent post uses the simple quality of curiosity to lead to a richer experience and how it can become intuition. How Curious Moments Add Value breaks down ‘active,’ deep listening into three steps and what happens beyond…

Seth Simonds brings us More Than Listening: Being Present. In it he talks about the quality of being present that’s so lacking in many of our interactions: Truly caring about answers to questions you ask, feeling the subtext, and empathy.

Nonviolence

The Laughing Yogini, yes that’s how she is known, brings us Yoga Ethics #1: Ahimsa. This word literally means: a ‘non’ + himsa ‘injury.’ This precept isn’t only for the student of yoga, but for all of us. It’s quite the thorny one to practice and live, and Laughing Yogini provides much food for thought.

Miruh Sanderson comes to nonviolence from a different angle in Peaceful Thoughts. As I said, nonviolence is a thorny subject. I had blogged my thoughts about it back in Nov 08 in this post.

Healing Energy charged art

Moving Through Blocks

Melanie A. Stinson has a gift! “In Moving Through Blocks, the intention was to help individuals move through feeling “stuck” or blocked creatively and in any way in which the word applies.”

“The way to use the images is simply to gaze at them and breathe deep and slow as though you are breathing in liquid color and desire to “taste” the image with every fiber of your being. The colors and shapes invite the viewer to participate with the image, and, as in color therapy, the colors also serve to heal, transform, empower, bless, inspire and bring joy.”

Vortex of Creativity

“Vortex of Creativity, inspired by the Harry Potter books, holds an intention for creativity that I hoped would be as powerful as JK Rowlings’ books have been for readers all over the world.”

And last but not least by any means, please take time to read David Wodtke’s piece below. David is a soul brother of mine, who I’ve met only on webcam, over the phone and via email. That’s the beauty of souls and technology!

He’s also known as Pine Tree and publishes an excellent ezine of archetypal messages from animal spirits, to which you can subscribe at Earth Service.

The Blessed Discontent

by David Wodtke

“Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory.”
–Tennessee Williams

Part of me feels very sorry. Sorry for myself and sorry for all of the sad people for being born into this miserable life of pain and disappointment. Failure and regret can eat away at your core until you collapse in a heap from exhaustion. But lately I’ve begun to feel oddly thankful for my discontent and to view it as one of life’s greatest blessings. It has been my teacher when I rejected all other guidance. Lately I’ve become grateful for my suffering which leads me in the direction I need to go. I’ve begun to feel a new source of strength and peace.

Of course, I want to be happy as much as you do. I’ve tried many ways to become happier and more peaceful. But all of the temporary pleasures of the world lead sooner or later to disappointment. This is most obvious with drugs and alcohol which seem to dull the pain for a time, but meanwhile weaken the body and will. That counterfeit peace soon causes even greater anxiety mixed with guilt. Other more benign pleasures can leave us feeling empty as well. Seeking happiness in romance, work, or even family can be disheartening. The lover leaves or dies. Work and family life go flat without a sense of inner peace and purpose. Everything in the world betrays us in the end. So what is behind this illusion? Where is the satisfaction that we all seek?

Do you remember a time beyond time when you lost all thoughts to the wonder and beauty around you? As a child I remember many times of great joy with no thought for the past or future. Music and writing take me close to that feeling of nowness. In fact, any time the mind is fully concentrated on one thing all worries vanish and a secret joy bubbles out from the core of being. Each moment is vibrating with sacred promise which can be felt in calmness. It’s only when the mind is scattered with thoughts of something more that worry and restlessness creep in. Where are the bursting joys and dire disappointments of yesterday? And where is tomorrow’s hope and fear of the unknown? All is happening now, the rest is imagined. I take comfort in the fact that the source of eternal love is always with me. I just need to relax and look inside myself to feel the blessing.

Meditation is a source of great peace and joy when the mind is calm. Creation and communion with the inner creator add satisfaction to everyday life by unlocking the heart’s natural love. When you least expect it, the gift comes, slipping in the back door on stocking feet. So when I feel sad or anxious lately I think to myself that it is a blessed discontent calling my mind back to the source of all happiness. Let that fear, worry, sorrow, or even mild apprehension be the trumpet call announcing the presence of the creator, locked in a dream tower of doubt and distraction. The worst mistakes and failures of the past are your greatest blessings. Give thanks for them and the prince charming of inner peace will come with the ladder of forgiveness to release you. Trials are not meant to destroy us, but to awaken us to the inner source of strength and beauty.

Carnival of Healing home
Previous carnival edition
Next week’s carnival host’s blog

The upcoming schedule is:

• #174 – Jan 31 2009: hosted by Nina Dixon, On the Path
• #175 – Feb 07 2009: hosted by Joe Lasiter, Massage 101
• #176 – Feb 14 2009: hosted by Clara Myers, Mind Mart
• #177 – Feb 21 2009: hosted by Pamir Kiciman, Reiki Help Blog
• #178 – Feb 28 2009: hosted by Margarat Nee, La Vida Fresca
• #179 – Mar 07 2009: hosted by Cari Campbell, Your Joyous Life

To participate and be featured, go through some of your best writing that is about:

• healing
• personal growth & empowerment
• meditation
• wellness
• spirituality
• peace
• holistic health

And then use this handy form to submit your particulars. All submissions will be reviewed and considered.

You may also submit audiovisual media such as videos, photos, art, guided meditations and the like.

Submission deadline is February 7, 2009.

To participate and be featured, go through some of your best writing that is about:

• healing
• personal growth & empowerment
• meditation
• wellness
• spirituality
• peace
• holistic health

And then use this handy form to submit your particulars. All submissions will be reviewed and considered.

Submission deadline is February 7, 2009.

This is an opportunity to gather around ideas, paradigms and practices that are dear to us, that we live and breathe, and that we want to see more of in society. It also allows for the sharing of our gifts and introduces us to each other as well as the world.

I look forward to all of your contributions and ensuing introductions. You can go ahead and link to or forward this post to others who may have valuable contributions too.

Shoden / Level I Reiki Training at Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn’s College of Nursing, Boca Raton, Florida

Sat Nov 1, 12 Noon-6:30
Sun Nov 2, 10-5:30 

Presented by Pamir Kiciman, BA, RM, CHt

Training Summary

Hikari no Kokyu-ho: method for breathing in Light
Gassho Kokyu-ho: method for breathing Light through hands
Kenyoku-ho: method for personal energy cleansing
Self-Treatment / Reiki for Others
Additional uses: pets, plants, home, work; mental, emotional, spiritual healing
Nentatsu-ho: method for healing the subconscious
Jakikiri Joka-ho: method for purifying the energy in objects

and much more…

Prepaid reservations required, space is limited
Registration closes October 30
Everyone must be registered by then

954-661-HAND (4263) or info{at}reikihelp{dot}com for details

What an amazing experience this training has been for me. Divine timing for sure. You are a true teacher and it is so refreshing. Love and Light to you Pamir, and with gratitude from my heart.

–L.G., Fort Lauderdale, Fla

Related:
Anatomy of a Reiki Training: A poetic rendering in text and slideshow.

“In the Tamil language of southern India, grace light is called ‘Arul.’ ‘Arul’ is defined as “soul intelligence” as opposed to ‘Marul’ which means “mind intelligence.” Our current mind intelligence is not sufficient to solve our problems. Grace light will bring a new “soul intelligence,” a new type of consciousness beyond logic. It represents the flowering of the heart center. Through the influence of grace light, people will not only develop higher states of awareness, but will also develop compassion and love toward one another. Grace light will move us from our self-absorbed and self-centered perspective to an experience of interconnectedness and universal oneness.”

Grace Light Intensive 9-Gate Process

Doubletree Guest Suites – Sorrento Ballroom
12200 Tamiami Trail North
Naples, FL 34110
10am – 5pm

Dattatreya Siva Baba, an enlightened master from the Tamil Siddha tradition of southern India is currently on a world tour to bring Grace Light to everyone. He says: “Ours is a unique time in human history. A doorway is opening for each and every person to absorb profound divine energies and to be conduits for the greater awakening of the heart of humanity. This is an opportunity to be part of a global shift in human consciousness.”

A co-producer of this tour, Stacey Lawson has this to say:

The light of consciousness governs the emergence and disappearance of thoughts within the mind, as well as the discriminating function that chooses among them. Our level of consciousness determines which thoughts we identify with, how we respond, and ultimately our entire experience of reality. For many millennia, humanity has been operating in relative darkness, exercising a limited consciousness that creates conflict, struggle, poverty and suffering. Given our current identifications and reactions – most notably fear, scarcity and exploitation – we seem to be in need of greater light.

Over recent months Dattatreya Siva Baba has repeatedly spoken about the great need for Divine solutions to global challenges, and that indeed such solutions can only come from the Divine and not from human thinking. There’s no doubt that we are in a great cycle of transformation in our history individually and societally. A collective and individual change of consciousness is occurring and its impact can be felt in all facets of life.

“We need to embody more light. Embracing more light will allow us to evolve beyond our current limited consciousness and to recognize ourselves as unlimited spirits. Both our bodies and minds have to change. The limited intelligence that we acquire through human sciences and technologies are simply going to take too long – a few centuries at best – to lead us to any meaningful change or freedom. Our only real hope is to look deeper for the essential divinity within us, evolving the human body-mind to hold greater levels of light. Awakening compassion, love and divine intelligence on a collective scale is the only way to find permanent solutions to our problems.”

The Grace Light website which has extensive resources about this phenomenon describes it like this:

What is Grace Light?
Grace Light is the incredibly radiant light of the Divine within us — compassionate, intelligent and almighty. Grace light is not the light of the sun or any physical light. It is an explosive inner light, more brilliant and powerful than the sun, described by the saints, prophets and enlightened masters of all faiths throughout the ages. It has the incredible power to know and do everything. As Grace Light empowers us, our hearts and minds will be ignited with divine inner radiance and intelligence.

Register for the Naples, Florida event on September 7, 2008.

Shoden / Level I Reiki Training

at Florida Atlantic University’s

Christine E. Lynn’s College of Nursing,

Boca Raton, Florida

2-Day Training

Saturday, Sept 20 & Sunday, Sept 21
10 AM—5 PM

College of Nursing room 116

Presented by Pamir Kiciman, BA, RM, CHt

This foundational training offers specific techniques for tapping into spiritual and healing consciousness and energy. Reiki fosters spiritual evolution, bodily and mental/emotional health; has uses for food, water, environment, relationships and work. Reiki holistically augments care giving, enhanced learning, social projects, global thinking, animal and pet care.

Training Summary

• Hikari no Kokyu-ho: method for breathing in Light
• Gassho Kokyu-ho: method for breathing Light through hands
• Kenyoku-ho: method for personal energy cleansing
• Self-Treatment / Reiki for Others
• Additional uses: pets, plants, home, work; mental, emotional, spiritual healing
• Nentatsu-ho: method for healing the subconscious
• Jakikiri Joka-ho: method for purifying the energy in objects

and much more…

Prepaid reservations required, space is limited
Registration closes one week prior to training
Everyone must be registered by then

954-661-HAND (4263) or info{at}reikihelp{dot}com for details

Related:
Anatomy of a Reiki Training: A poetic rendering in text and slideshow.

Usui’s family was hatamoto samurai. The hatamoto were the shogun’s personal guard. The Usui family crest, also known as the Chiba crest, is a design that is a circle with a dot at the top. The circle is the universe, and the dot represents the North Star. The North Star is a polestar, it never moves, is ever constant, while life moves around it.

Three Japanese budo masters were contemporaries of Usui Sensei. Gichin Funakoshi founded Karate. Jigoro Kano started judo. Morihei Ueshiba created Aikido a little later on. Mikao Usui was born a Tendai Buddhist and studied in a Tendai monastery as a young child. At age 12 he began the practice of a martial art known as aiki jutsu, made popular by Takeda Sokaku who was Ueshiba’s teacher. This form included harmonizing with Ki, making it possible to experience calmness, concentration, willpower and physical fitness. He also studied yagyu ryu, and it’s interesting that this tradition includes both life-giving and -taking techniques.

About two years ago I had come across a Samurai’s song. It was impressive and thought-provoking. Let me share it here and we’ll look at some ideas that emerge.

A Warrior’s Creed

I have no parents
I make the heaven and earth my parents

I have no home
I make awareness my home

I have no life and death
I make the tides of breathing my life and death

I have no divine powers
I make honesty my divine power

I have no means
I make understanding my means

I have no secrets
I make my character my secret

I have no body
I make endurance my body

I have no eyes
I make the flash of lightening my eyes

I have no ears
I make sensibility my ears

I have no limbs
I make promptness my limbs

I have no strategy
I make “unshadowed by thought” my strategy.

I have no design
I make “seizing opportunity by the forelock” my design

I have no miracles
I make right action my miracle

I have no principles
I make adaptability to all circumstances my principle

I have no tactics
I make emptiness and fullness my tactics

I have no talent
I make ready wit my talent

I have no friends
I make my mind my friend

I have no enemy
I make carelessness my enemy

I have no armor
I make benevolence and righteousness my armor

I have no castle
I make immovable mind my castle

I have no sword
I make absence of self my sword

–Anonymous Samurai, 14th century

Admittedly it’s a little austere and minimalist. This has advantages, however. Many times, there’s nothing quite like a bare bones view to gain clarity and hone in on essentials. Let’s break it down.

• In Reiki we work very closely with heaven and earth in the form of Earth and Celestial Ki.
• Uncluttered awareness in the moment is key.
• Understanding is an enhancer of Reiki practice, whether it’s better results with techniques, or with people. When Reiki is practiced or shared with understanding, its power deepens.
• Reiki constantly gives us ample opportunities to improve our character.
• Quieting the busy mind is a core practice that rewards in multiple ways.
• Right thought, right speech, right action are built-in Reiki ethics.
• Being the bending but not breaking bamboo is the adaptability Reiki brings us.
• Knowing when to be empty and when to be full is a skill Reiki helps us develop.
• Befriending ourself is where healing begins.
• Being careful is a prime example of being full. Full of care.
• Reiki is the way of compassion, which includes benevolence.
• Immovable mind is the beginning and end of meditation.
• Absence of self in the Self is the way of peace and enlightenment.

Reiki is a way of living with wisdom and compassion. It’s a way to reclaim your authentic self. To move out of the past, return from the future and live fully awake in the present. Reiki shifts your paradigm too, revealing the many layers of reality. It helps you find energetic integrity. Reiki heals the human condition. It transforms your consciousness so you can be your true self. Your heart and mind become unified and you’re empowered to walk in peace. Reiki brings you what you need. Through the years, I’ve witnessed with inner joy and gratitude everything student practitioners share about their Reiki training experiences. These are nothing less thanpoetic and I’ll now attempt to convey some measure of what I was privileged to witness this past weekend.

An ocean, cloud and light was received. Plans changed many moons ago came to completion and an ordination was received. Tears inspired by sheer beauty flowed. Peace was tangible. Never before reached depth in meditation was commonplace. After lunch heartburn relieved completely. Back pain healed. Several first-time spiritual awakenings. The courage to face things one doesn’t want to. A young person’s talent validated. Success affirmed. Shoulders lightened. Realization of inner powers. Wonder. Recognition.

And hugs. Heart on heart hugs.

Always heart on heart hugs.

Updated July 2, 2008

An early testimonial:

“…Now that I have had a little time to reflect and absorb, I want to thank you for being YOU and what you brought to me this weekend. I can already notice changes in me, there is a deepening sense of calm within, much more energy both physically and spiritually. It has been both a fulfillment and rebirth of sorts. I am different, I am one with myself, and my surroundings. The teaching and empowerments brought through you this weekend are amazing. Thank you for thus far guiding and teaching me. The teaching and tools you brought to me will continue to aid and guide my journey…”

–J.G., West Palm Beach, Fla

The College is deeply grounded in a philosophy of caring. This extends to a holistic approach in all aspects. Even the building is Green, one of the few LEEDS “gold-rated” educational buildings in the United States, featuring Feng Shui principles and environmental sustainability. Included are several spaces for meditation and holistic practice and contemplation.

This foundational training offers specific techniques for tapping into spiritual and healing consciousness and energy. Reiki fosters spiritual evolution, bodily and mental/emotional health; has uses for food, water, environment, relationships and work. Reiki holistically augments care giving, enhanced learning, social projects, global thinking, animal and pet care. See contents of this training.

Saturday, June 28 & Sunday, June 29 10 AM-5 PM
College of Nursing Room 116
Presented by Pamir Kiciman, BA, RM, CHt
Prepaid reservations required, space is limited
954-661-4263 or info [at] reikihelp [dot] com

Largest Recall of Ground Beef Is Ordered

New York Times
By ANDREW MARTIN
Published: February 18, 2008

A California meat company on Sunday issued the largest beef recall in history, 143 million pounds, some of which was used in school lunch programs, Department of Agriculture officials announced.

The recall by the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company, based in Chino, Calif., comes after a widening animal-abuse scandal that started after the Humane Society of the United States distributed an undercover video on Jan. 30 that showed workers kicking sick cows and using forklifts to force them to walk.

The video raised questions about the safety of the meat, because cows that cannot walk, called downer cows, pose an added risk of diseases including mad cow disease. The federal government has banned downer cows from the food supply….(read the rest).

The Healer represents an inclusive model. At its highest, this means that there’s an embodied realization of the Oneness of All That Is. This is a state of enlightenment. But it need not be other-worldly. At the social level it means including other. Of course this can only be engendered by the solid knowing that life is from One, undifferentiated source where there is no separation. This meta-level knowing must also be turned into healing action where other dissolves.

Let’s look at the Healer outside the confines of a healing context for a moment. Can anyone be a Healer? Yes. Anyone who has integrated and embodied a non-materialistic worldview, and this informs their understanding is a Healer. If you see the person in front of you as being six feet away, someone other and separate, if you highlight your differences in age, gender, race and social standing, then it’s a fragmented, dualitistic worldview that only leads to a limited embrace, very quickly threatened by ‘me and mine’ positioning in the frail mind.

Can you accept that the person in front of you reaches beyond the limits of his or her skin? Can we grow our understanding to know that they are not contained in their skin or defined by it, that the space between two people is illusory?

In reality, that is non-material reality, there’s a common ground of connection and unity between two people which is the Healer’s domain. In that domain we share humanity, resources, power, love, burdens and life.

The Healer’s worldview also comes into play in the relationship between human and Nature, which includes all its systems and life forms. The predominant approach is that the world outside of us is just that, outside! It is yet again, other.

Whether human or environment, when viewed as other the responsibility of kinship is so easily and callously discarded. The natural care of the heart is shut off and we enter destructive patterns of dominance, consumption and profit.

Just as we’re dependent on every single human that cohabitates this planet with us, we’re dependent on the planet itself, and it is dependent on us.

Symbiosis is the Healer’s virtue and strength. To install this lens over the eyes of the heart is the work of love and love at work.

It is love that reveals to us the eternal in us and in our neighbors.

–Miguel de Unamuno

to be continued…

© Pamir Kiciman 2007

Related:
Ever-present Love
Threshold of Healing
Spiritual Love
The Self
Self & Divine
Existence
Wholeness / Duality
Order & Unity
Rounds of Incarnations
Pain
Searching