August 18, 2008

Grace Light intensive Naples, Florida Sept 7

“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.

June 29, 2008

Anatomy of a Reiki Training

As previously announced here, Oasis Reiki (that would be me) held Shoden/Level I Reiki Training at Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, in Boca Raton, Florida. I can’t rave enough about the space that has been designed there for a nursing program deeply rooted in caring. So first let me share a slideshow. Please read below to get a real sense of what transpires in Reiki Training.

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

June 27, 2008

Reiki as consciousness III

Consciousness is the substratum of everything, the first thing created that creates everything else.
–Dr. David Frawley

We all know there’s a brain in each of our craniums and it is what ‘thinks.’ Yet our brain is 90% fat and water. How exactly does fat and water ‘think’ as well as self-organize and self-regulate? After all, the brain really doesn’t have a direct experience of the world.

Wisdom traditions such as Vedanta and Buddhism accept that before creation there is a nondual state. To make a simplistic correlation to quantum physics, this is the unified field. Wisdom traditions identify this field as Pure Consciousness; Chit in Sanskrit. Pure Consciousness is unborn.

Chitta on the other hand, is conditioned consciousness (thought) and is the primordial state out of which the universe is born. This field of thought is high vibration subtle energy which is the basis of material creation. Thought creates all, but this is at a primordial level compared to our ordinary mental reactions.

The ghost in the machine is consciousness! A consistently effective and reliable way of outing consciousness and working with it to our benefit is to implement an authentic spiritual practice. Reiki is one such practice.

Neuroscience has mapped mindbody functioning in terms of electrical, chemical and hormonal signals from one part to another. The brain has been identified in all of its parts: cerebrum, cerebellum, limbic and reptilian. Each has a specific function; thought and action, movement and balance, with feeding, fighting, fleeing and procreation assigned to the remaining two brain structures.

Yet, we are still unhappy, depressed and ill. The observation and tweaking of the physical components of the mindbody web is inadequate in finding wellbeing.

At the moment of enlightenment the Buddha said, “How strange–all living beings have the fully awakened nature, but none of them knows it….” Luckily it doesn’t have to remain unknowable. The Buddha and every authentic wisdom tradition advocates a return to the ground state of consciousness.

You may have heard of Reiki or even experienced it. What you may not know is that Reiki is much more than a healing modality alone. Reiki is an authentic wisdom tradition. It’s a path of enlightenment, with healing being a natural part of personal evolution.

We have to turn to wisdom teachings and practices to first understand consciousness and then delve deeply into it. Consciousness is our true nature. It also has the capacity to remember our divinity. This is true memory and not the false memory of our personal history.

Going back to the question of how our mindbody does in fact have the capacity to self-organize and -regulate…Dr. Frawley again:

Consciousness is responsible for the existence and movement of the cosmos. It functions behind all forms of matter and energy. Some type of consciousness exists everywhere in Nature, even in inanimate objects. It sustains the cosmic process on all levels, staring with the atom itself. Whatever exists must contain some degree of consciousness or it could not be perceived.

So there is a vast intelligence with which we are inextricably linked. This intelligence naturally produces methods with which it can be accessed. The human spiritual software is perfectly matched to run on this cosmic operating system, while harmonizing and balancing human hardware.

In the next part we’ll look at how Reiki is able to reestablish this link between the personal and the universal.

Reiki links personal & spiritual consciousness

We’re encased in skin, our largest organ. We have mind and ego to navigate this plane. All three have specific functions to make the physical experience work.

Yet all three also separate and disconnect us, even in mundane terms. We may feel disconnected from our heart, loved ones, our job, our friends and our body.

Still underlying these is a core separation. The skin, ego and mind, separate us from the source of our being. As it is, this happens so easily in a limited physical world where we rely on sensory information to perceive and understand. The separation is compounded by all that is unhealed in us.

Our person needs healing. The little self has healing to do physically, emotionally and mentally. This is important work for it is foundational.

Then there’s the healing of ignorance. Not knowledge ignorance, but spiritual ignorance, which is essentially not knowing that we are only in part skin, ego and mind. Only in part.

Reiki is able to grow us out of personal pain, and out of self-imposed and design limitations because it sources at an non-collapsed level of reality, whatever you may want to term that. Here it’s termed consciousness. Any practice that arises out of consciousness heals the little self and opens the gates to everything beyond the hard and wetware of our being, because consciousness is always overarching and all-encompassing.

Reiki is mostly accepted as energy and a modality. Reiki is in fact a spiritual teaching that doesn’t fit well in the skin of modality.

As for energy, consciousness is really far too subtle and vibrating too quickly to be considered energy. It has to further densify to manifest form. During this densification, ‘energy’ or life force as we understand it begins to show up. This energy is still very subtle, compared to say electromagnetic energy.

To say that Reiki is ‘universal life force energy’ or any of variation of this statement needs to be qualified: Life force is dependent on, supported by and sources out of consciousness. Healing takes place in Reiki at the level of personal consciousness being transformed, with a solid connection to the greater field.

There’s the direct action of life force moving through the mindbody and engendering healing through balance and harmony, but the real transformation takes place in consciousness.

Reiki as Consciousness parts 1 & 2.

June 24, 2008

Reiki Training at FAU’s College of Nursing

Oasis Reiki (yours truly) is conducting Shoden / Level I Reiki Training at Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn’s College of Nursing, in Boca Raton, Florida.

 

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

June 23, 2008

Oneness and the Heart of the World

In oneness, I think we can say, there are many onenesses. That is to say this oneness manifests itself, or we come across it in almost infinite number of ways. While it always remains, in a sense, the same, it is always a different oneness. Perhaps this is because God is always happening…For instance, God is so dynamic, it goes so fast that you can never see him…You can’t catch him, and yet there’s nothing to catch because he’s already here. Otherwise, it goes by so fast, that by the time you take peek, he’s already back here…So at every moment this oneness is offered to us in a different way, in a new way. A charming way, sometimes difficult way, sometimes challenging way…So human experience needs to be very diverse in order to adjust to the diversity in which God is oneness…

See video for full speech, very highly recommended. If you get the email version, click back to original post to watch the video.

Father Thomas Keating entertains and enlightens with humor and wisdom, covering such complex subjects as oneness, diversity, nonlinear time, God’s speed, the now, contemplative prayer, and faith (which he calls the 3rd eye: “Another sense that is very important is the awakening of the third eye, which is faith. Faith becoming not just an acceptance of belief systems of one kind or another, however enlightened, but rather the movement of trust in the mystery, in the ultimate reality. In the oneness, dimly perceived, and perceived not even as oneness, but nevertheless, enabling one, little by little, to be sensitive to the divine presence in all creation and in every detail.).

June 6, 2008

Soul as operating system

Recently Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist) posted a quote from his Manual of the Warrior of Light, to which I commented. This morning a piece I wrote last year is tugging at me. Here it is:

Soul as operating system

Soul is the human being’s operating system. Your computer has an operating system that makes it work. Additionally, it has specific software for e-mail, documents or graphics. And all of it works together with the hardware of drives, monitors and keyboards.

Your soul is your operating system. One kind of software you have is the ego. Another is the mind, or wetware, which includes the brain and the nervous system. The physical body is of course your hardware.

It can be easy to miss the soul, because unlike Windows or Mac OS, its logo is much muted. It doesn’t shout out its presence when you look in the mirror. When you look in the mirror, you see a round or square face, perhaps a crooked nose and full lips. And your face needs to be shaved, or made up, your hair needs combing and your body covered in clothing.

What covers your soul? Is it your skin? Perhaps you think your soul is elsewhere, waiting in some standby mode while your body gets used up and your mind gets more and more lost. When, helpless at last you die, you’ll be reunited with your soul. Is that what you think?

You can’t deny your physical body, it’s so there, all your senses tell you it’s alive. You’re able to experience your feelings and emotions everyday too. And you have enough self-awareness to track at least some of your thoughts. “I’m a thinking, feeling, breathing being,” you say. And you are!

Yet without your operating system what would you be, what would animate you? We bandy about this word “soul.” We talk about soul music, soul kitchen, soulful, soulmate, and good for or feeds my soul; it has soul, or what a great soul. Certainly, soulfulness can infuse daily experience: going below the surface, finding depth, meaning and connection, being inwardly warmed by intangibles. We tend to seek such moments, but too soon, a deadline or crashing chore closes the opening, the entryway, and the expansion of our set perceptions skids to a halt.

The moment is then gone, it disappears, perhaps to appear never again. But the soul doesn’t go away, it doesn’t disappear or disconnect. In fact, soul is always present. It beckons, guides, and experiences all you do, feel and think. Soul is inseparable from you. It commiserates all your losses and cheers all your successes. Your every pain and sorrow is a chance for your soul to befriend you more. Your every joy and celebration is forever cherished by your soul.

Without the soul, you’d be hollow, rudderless, without wisdom. Your eyes would be dull; no evidence of light in you would exist. Your skin would be sallow and your voice mechanical. You wouldn’t display even simple intelligence. You’d be unoriginal, without qualities and talents. You’d have no power, no love, nothing to give and receive. You’d always be hungry, never sated, interminably bored and irremovably sad. Beauty would elude you and you’d be perpetually tortured. You’d be collapsed and invisible and no breath of life could give you dimension.

Since none of these are true, for you are reading this and it stirs you, and since soul is the very source of your being, then surely your forgetfulness and indifference are harmful to you. You attend to a thousand insignificant things a day, thinking that the damage would be too great if you didn’t. Yet to soul memory, you give only a random glance.

Yes, the soul is shy and sensitive. It is subtle and plays hide-and-seek with us. It prefers a rarefied atmosphere. Always approachable and willing to build an aware relationship with you, its language is intuition. Intuition bridges the gap between the soul and the ego’s thoughts and sensations. Of fine vibrations not found in the material realm, its colors are gossamer, not merely pigment hues. The body is usually not conscious of the soul, but the soul is aware of the body. Soul is present from the very pinpoint of conception and continuously directs the shaping and growth of the physical form, and the individual. The soul commands certain cells to become brain or muscle tissue. With conscious intelligence behind it, the body develops in symmetrical fashion.

The soul’s nature is pure bliss and wisdom. Human intelligence models soul intuition. To illustrate progressively: the soul’s directing intelligence creates mind, then the senses, then the body.

Since soul comes first, it makes sense to put it first in our life. As soul has the blueprint for the body, it has the blueprint for your entire life. It is an awesome databank that contains all of your potential and the power to actualize it. Ever watchful, it is an insider helping you understand life, your place in it, your work here, opening the right doors, creating the right circumstances, meeting the right people to bring to fruition your purpose. Soul is your essence, your very spark of life. It functions as a wellspring of all your qualities and talents, inspiration and creativity, your uniqueness. It is a map, a resource, a GPS, a ray forever lighting your way through the eons.

All you have to do is get quiet, get close, and be open and willing enough to hear your soul whisper its harmonics to you. You won’t be disappointed. You’ll have come home to the hearth where it’s warm, blissful, loving and eternal. Thus, you’ll find yourself and all suffering will be gone. Go now and receive the blessings of your soul.

No weapon can pierce the soul; no fire can burn it; no water can moisten it; nor can any wind wither it.

–The Bhagavad Gita

© Pamir Kiciman 2007

May 29, 2008

Consciousness revisited

Nneka over at Balanced Life Center has written an excellent post on Consciousness. Yes, capital C is on purpose, but we also deal with the lowercase c.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to echo her with some content from archives here and expand the conversation:

The Self

I have always been; I am now and ever shall be. There was never a time when I was not. This I is not the me-of-today, but the continuous thread of the Self. The me-of-today is a precious pearl adorning the Self. There are many such pearls and I am all of them.

Self & Divine

The Self is a spark of the Divine; the me-of-today a spark of the Self. I knew nothing of the bridge between me, Self and Divine. Experience separated me further and further, until I was sure I was me. Now this me stifles and hurts. This me stubbornly asserts its rightful existence.

Wholeness / Duality

The me exists in duality; the Self in wholeness. There is wholeness in duality. The existence of me-in-today is a seeming separation from the simultaneous existence of Self-in-Consciousness. The realm of pure Consciousness is hurt-free. The membrane of separation being highly permeable, Self and me dance intertwined. I let one seep into the other, dissolving ignorance in the unity of conscious existence.

Wholeness in duality is realized by the unity of conscious existence.

I exist in a physical body and I am simultaneously conscious in the nonphysical Self.

I occupy the vast region between matter and Consciousness. In this vast region Spirit always prevails. Spirit is hurt-free. And for that I give countless thanks.

Before all that there is:

Awakening

Between birth and death is the hopscotch of daily despondency. Dimly in the background, the whoosh of eternity is coursing through my cells. The alarm clock of awakening is on perpetual snooze. It rings at regular intervals, yet an automatic programming silences it. Until the next time. And the next. And the next.

And of course:

Reiki as Consciousness parts 1 & 2.