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Today is Earth Day! Presented here is the most awe-inspiring and beautiful time-lapse video I’ve yet seen. It’s by Terje Sorgjer. If you’re subscribed via a feed reader or by email and the embedded video doesn’t show, here’s a link to the homepage of my blog; the video is the top post for 4/22/11.

When was the last time you visited the actual blog, seen what else is going on here, and left a comment?

Enjoy and watch it in full screen!

Here’s what the filmmaker has to say about his film:

This was filmed between 4th and 11th April 2011. I had the pleasure of visiting El Teide. Spain´s highest mountain @(3718m) is one of the best places in the world to photograph the stars and is also the location of Teide Observatories, considered to be one of the world´s best observatories.

The goal was to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy along with one of the most amazing mountains I know El Teide. I have to say this was one of the most exhausting trips I have done. There was a lot of hiking at high altitudes and probably less than 10 hours of sleep in total for the whole week. Having been here 10-11 times before I had a long list of must-see locations I wanted to capture for this movie, but I am still not 100% used to carrying around so much gear required for time-lapse movies.

A large sandstorm hit the Sahara Desert on the 9th April and at approx 3am in the night the sandstorm hit me, making it nearly impossible to see the sky with my own eyes.

Interestingly enough my camera was set for a 5 hour sequence of the milky way during this time and I was sure my whole scene was ruined. To my surprise, my camera had managed to capture the sandstorm which was backlit by Grand Canary Island making it look like golden clouds. The Milky Way was shining through the clouds, making the stars sparkle in an interesting way. So if you ever wondered how the Milky Way would look through a Sahara sandstorm, look at 00:32.

The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Me, and Senor Xolotl by Frida Kahlo

This week marks another Earth Day on Friday, April 22. Today it’s been one year since B.P.’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The way we live with our planetary home is a prominent piece of the Earth changes and humanity’s evolution as we’re currently witnessing on the world stage. This evolution isn’t only in the human psyche or society, but is directly in relation to our co-living with the Earth, this great Mother Being.

The repercussions of the oil spill disaster are nowhere near understood or even acknowledged. It’s complex and only a few items will be mentioned. Congress still hasn’t raised the liability cap for companies that cause oil spills. BP has so far paid only $3.8 billion of its $20 billion restitution fund. The human toll continues financially and emotionally. Samantha Joye, a University of Georgia researcher has found oil coating coral ecosystems in the Gulf after five sea floor expeditions since the spill; species like dolphins, turtles and whales are suffering losses that will not manifest for years. 235 miles of coastline are still actively being cleaned. Safety, preparedness, and regulatory failures were exposed and it’s uncertain how another event will be prevented. Drilling permits in even deeper and more dangerous waters are now being issued again, after a short moratorium. You can read in-depth reporting from these sources: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, DiscoveryNews, Huffington Post, BBC News,  Mother Nature Network.

Today, I really want to write about a substantially different point of view, one that continues the new story of the Earth and humanity as I’ve been posting here lately.

Every human being has a unique and mystical relationship to the wild world, and the conscious discovery and cultivation of that relationship is at the core of true adulthood. In contemporary society, we think of maturity simply in terms of hard work and practical responsibilities. I believe, in contrast, that true adulthood is rooted in transpersonal experience—in a mystic affiliation with nature, experienced as a sacred calling—that is then embodied in soul-infused work and mature responsibilities. —Bill Plotkin, PhD

The ancients have known this. There are many who know it today because it’s passed down, and it’s felt. What’s missing is the tipping point number of people who need to know it for there to be a significant cultural shift in the way we live. The way we live with ourselves, each other and this planet of life we cohabit. We humans live here with more than 11 million species, of which we’ve named only about 1.7 million.

By embracing Nature and soul as our wisest and most trustworthy guides, we can raise children, support teenagers, and ripen ourselves in ways that enable us to grow whole and engender a sustainable human culture. We can progress from our current egocentric societies (materialistic, anthropocentric, competition-based, class-stratified, violence-prone and unsustainable) to soulcentric ones (imaginative, ecocentric, co-operation-based, just, compassionate and sustainable). —Bill Plotkin, PhD

The world’s soul and Nature’s soul are rather vocal as we come into another Spring on this planet of about 4.6 billion years. The world and Nature are inseparable. What makes the Earth habitable is her Nature. Mars doesn’t have it, nor any other in our solar system, and beyond (as far as we know today for all practical purposes). Without Nature as foundation and life sustainer, we can’t have any of the human achievements that may swell up our pride.

There’s a life that flows through everything on Earth. This life has a soul. This soul speaks. Much of humanity is alienated to it, but this soul is simply us, and all of everything in creation. When I first started contemplating what’s been going on in the world this year, a phrase came to me spontaneously:

We are in the time of the Circle.

I didn’t use it at then. Now its time is ripe.

All life is a circle. The atom is a circle, orbits are circles, the earth, moon, and sun are circles. The seasons are circles. The cycle of life is a circle: baby, youth, adult, elder. The sun gives life to the earth who feeds life to the trees whose seeds fall to the earth to grow new trees. We need to practice seeing the cycles that the Great Spirit gave us because this will help us more in our understanding of how things operate. We need to respect these cycles and live in harmony with them. —Rolling Thunder, Cherokee

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© Pamir Kiciman 2010

Earth has been framed in many stories since its inception. Broadly, these are early creation myths, agrarian times, Flat Earth and being center of the universe, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, Modernism, and finally the scientific/technological age of globalization. At this very juncture, Earth’s and humanity’s narrative within it is being radically rewritten. It’s an emergent story, one that’s on the edge of the future and so in some ways unknowable. However, there are clear signs and indicators. The first quarter of 2011 has been extremely eventful and what these signs and indicators mean, or how we may utilize them in solution-oriented ways can be confusing.

We must participate in the emergent story of the Earth and humanity without the mistakes and limitations of the old one. In essence, humanity’s trajectory on Earth has been one of increasing ‘separation.’ We began with a healthy respect for Nature and working in harmony with her. The Earth was understood to be sacred. This remained true even as ideas of ‘mine’ and ‘ours’ crept in when everyone wanted to protect their land. We started to feel separate from each other, while still feeling one with Nature. As cities developed, humans spent less time outdoors. With the Industrial Age and its aftermath all the way to the present, our relationship with Nature and the Earth shifted from gratitude for resources to profit from resources.

This shift and science’s ability to measure only matter but not ‘life’ has established the worldview that creation is inert. Only humans are alive, but even then we can only love those who are the same as we are. Trees are alive, but they’re a commodity so clearcutting rainforests is permissible. Animals are alive, but they don’t have our intellect, so we can raise them solely to be slaughtered as food. A seed is full of life, but what it grows into can’t be shipped easily so we’ll modify it genetically. Oil is not alive, so it’s perfectly fine to drill and extract it with no end in sight. If the world around us is inert, if we live in a dead solar system, then a neighbor who’s ‘different,’ the extinction of a species, or the final demise of old growth forests is of little consequence.

Current world events, capped by the earthquake in Japan and military action in Libya are a giant call to awakening. We don’t know what may happen next. What we do know is that when a planet and its life forms become commodities only, stripped of all other intrinsic value, that planet is in dire danger. The New Earth can only emerge from the understanding that creation is in fact not inert, but teeming with sacred life.

This is the choice point we’re facing collectively. There’s a way to heal through our dilemmas. The Earth herself has wounds, as does humanity. Oneness is an ancient truth we must now adopt as our new narrative to heal. Oneness has always been Earth’s and humanity’s narrative. What’s needed now is its embodiment. Our task now is to permeate social, political, economic and scientific systems with it. A united Earth can step into a possible future that’s now emerging.

Oneness includes compassion, not only tolerance. It includes wisdom, not only intelligence. It includes nonmechanical power. It includes abiding inspiration and creativity. We need all of these to usher in the sustainable good of the future.

Although there have been massive undercurrents to what we’re seeing in the world today, events are at the same time spontaneous and self-organizing. This and the severity of upheaval all around the world is a sure sign of much needed global healing. We can make this a teachable moment for humanity. The world’s healing traditions hold the wisdom that change includes cleansing. Cleansing is a process of reconciliation. The unhealed must be processed. This means it’s acknowledged and understood first, which leads to acceptance and insight. Finally, higher functional states open up.

When creation is understood as living, honoring it comes naturally, and our acts become hymns to it instead of dirges. Will you emerge and merge with Earth’s and humanity’s new healing narrative?

© Pamir Kiciman, written March 2011

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The world is very noisy right now. Earth herself has spoken up. Water has vocalized. Parts of Japan are under ruins (listen to Om Shanti Om recording as intentional healing for all trouble spots). There are protests from Wisconsin, to North Africa, to the Middle East, even Azerbaijan. The world is noisy. In fact it’s repeating itself. Getting loud, so this time we might hear it, take notice and seek solutions. There’s violence, uncertainty, fear, nuclear radiation threats, and reliance on both oil and nuclear power is once again up for review.

Profit patterns with disregard for all other considerations and concerns, and entrenched power loci are having a comeuppance.

The world’s conscience is telling us to implement enlightened systems globally. Polarizing, fear- and greed-based systems are out! — Pamir Kiciman

The noise the world is making is important. It isn’t garbage noise. It’s pointed and urgent. We must listen to it and act, and a lot of action is already self-propelled because we’re at a tipping point. At the same time, when there’s so much upheaval (a sign of mass healing), wisdom and balance need to be kept close and deepened.

We can make this a teachable moment for all of humanity only if we anchor silence within and in the world. In fact, if all along we were being with silence, the kind of riotous and apparently spontaneous ‘eruptions’ may not have been needed. Too late. Now we delve into silence, as often and as deftly as we can, and emerge with some pearls of solution.

Silence lies at the heart of all great spiritual traditions and pilgrimages. It is the vehicle that encourages us to dive beneath words, ideas, chatter and concepts. To discover the unspoken truths and the unfathomable mystery of being. The variety of forms of contemplation, prayer and meditation meet together in their reverence for the act of silence. Through them we learn to still the clamor of our hearts and the competing voices that cascade through our minds and discover a place of profound stillness and receptivity. — Christina Feldman

In the previous post, Unstruck Sound, the power of Aum was explained. Such primordial sounds come out of silence, and take us back into silence. Here’s a simple recording of OM. Listen to it and also follow the journey Yogananda has given below. Chant as long as you want, then go into quietude and bless the world. As you can see, Aum is also a state of Oneness, and it’s Oneness with life, the world and the cosmos that’s going to end unenlightened ways of governing, sourcing energy, consuming and resolving conflict.

AUM Mantra

Tune In with the Cosmic Sound by Paramahansa Yogananda:

Listen to the cosmic sound of Aum, a great hum of countless atoms, in the sensitive right side of your head. This is the voice of God. Feel the sound spreading through the brain. Hear its continuous pounding roar.

Now hear and feel it surging into the spine, bursting open the doors of the heart. Feel it resounding through every tissue, every feeling, every cord of your nerves. Every blood cell, every thought is dancing on the sea of roaring vibration.

Observe the spreading volume of the cosmic sound. It sweeps through the body and mind into the earth and the surrounding atmosphere. You are moving with it, into the airless ether, and into millions of universes of matter.

Meditate on the marching spread of the cosmic sound. It has passed through the physical universes to the subtle shining veins of rays that hold all matter in manifestation.

The cosmic sound is commingling with millions of multicolored rays. The cosmic sound has entered the realm of cosmic rays. Listen to, behold, and feel the embrace of the cosmic sound and the eternal light. The cosmic sound now pierces through the heartfires of cosmic energy and they both melt within the ocean of cosmic consciousness and cosmic joy. The body melts into the universe. The universe melts into the soundless voice. The sound melts into the all-shining light. And the light enters the bosom of infinite joy.

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Silence is a state that weaves itself through a spiritual practitioner’s being. It’s mentioned quite a bit on this blog, and if you use the search function in the toolbar at the bottom, those posts will come up. They mostly relate to meditation. This post continues a series specifically on silence. The two previous entries can be found here and here.

In Sanskrit Anahata Nada refers to the “Unstruck Sound.” It literally means, “the sound that is not made by two things striking together.” Two physical things that is.

…the ancients say that the audible sound which most resembles this unstruck sound is the syllable OM. Tradition has it that this ancient mantra is composed of four elements: the first three are vocal sounds: A, U, and M. The fourth sound, unheard, is the silence which begins and ends the audible sound, the silence which surrounds it…The lovliest explanation of OM is found within the ancient Vedic and Sanskrit traditions. We can read about AUM in the marvelous Manduka Upanishad, which explains the four elements of AUM as an allegory of the four planes of consciousness.

“A” (pronounced “AH” as in “father”) resonates in the center of the mouth. It represents normal waking consciousness, in which subject and object exist as separate entities. This is the level of mechanics, science, logical reason, the lower three chakras. Matter exists on a gross level, is stable and slow to change.

Then the sound “U” (pronounced as in “who”) transfers the sense of vibration to the back of the mouth, and shifts the allegory to the level of dream consciousness. Here, object and subject become intertwined in awareness. Both are contained within us. Matter becomes subtle, more fluid, rapidly changing. This is the realm of dreams, divinities, imagination, the inner world.

“M” is the third element, humming with lips gently closed. This sound resonates forward in the mouth and buzzes throughout the head. (Try it.) This sound represents the realm of deep, dreamless sleep. There is neither observing subject nor observed object. All are one, and nothing. Only pure consciousness exists, unseen, pristine, latent, covered with darkness. This is the cosmic night, the interval between cycles of creation, the womb of the divine Mother…

Which brings us to the fourth sound of AUM, the primal “unstruck” sound within the silence at the end of the sacred syllable. In fact, the word “silence” itself can be understood only in reference to “sound.” We hear this silence best when listening to sound, any sound at all, without interpreting or judging the sound. Listening fully, openly, without preconceptions or expectations. The sound of music, the sound of the city, the sound of the wind in the forest. All can give us the opportunity to follow the path of sound into the awareness of the sound behind the sound.

— David Gordon

It’s very important for us to find a foundational level of reality in our daily lives. We’re living in an age of hyperconnectivity, made possible by Internet and gadget technology. Ancient wounds are also surfacing globally.

Here’s me chanting Om Shanti Om Shanti Om 54 times, with 3 AUMs at the end. Shanti means peace. Mantras are best intoned 108 times; 54 is half that. This is not a professional recording.

Om Shanti Om

After chanting, sit for a good while in silence and feel the vibrational blessings of the mantra permeating you and your environment. There are many available.

The source of the mystical sounds of the universe is vast silence. In yogic terms, silence is known as thoughtless reality.  By immersing in this rich silence, the sages of the east, discovered divine echos of sacred sound.  It is from this communion that Sanskrit mantras revealed themselves to the wise seers.

In the practice of the Yoga of Sound, the master advises the student to chant a certain Sanskrit mantra.  He will select a mantra that is particularly beneficial to the student.  After chanting the verse, the student is advised to sit quietly and feel the energetic waves that emanate from the chant.  Further, the teacher will say, “Watch the thought waves as if you are watching a passing show but do not becme identified with the thoughts that ticker across the field of the mind.”  When you pull out of identity with the thought waves you begin to feel space between You and your mind.  In that space, you will feel the vibrations of silence.  These vibrations become sounds that often morph and shape, manifesting into different sounds, melodies and rythms.  The experience of pure vibration beyond thought is profoundly healing.

— Manorama

Each post for the Reiki Help Blog can take anywhere from 1-5 days to write/research, proofread/edit, and post with an appropriate image and formatting. If you leave this space with any value, knowledge, joy or understanding, please consider making a donation of your choice.

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