An Unwavering Connection to the Infinite

Worth

Though much of who and what we are changes as we journey through life, our inherent worth remains constant. While the term self-worth is often used interchangeably with self-esteem, the two qualities are inherently different. Self-esteem is the measure of how you feel about yourself at a given moment in time. Your worth, however, is not a product of your intelligence, your talent, your looks, your good works, or how much you have accomplished. Rather it is immeasurable and unchanging manifestation of your eternal and infinite oneness with the universe. It represents the cornerstone of the dual foundations of optimism and self-belief. Your worth cannot be taken from you or damaged by life’s rigors, yet it can easily be forgotten or even actively ignored. By regularly acknowledging your self-worth, you can ensure that you never forget what an important, beloved, and special part of the universe you are.

You are born worthy—your worth is intertwined with your very being. Your concept of your own self-worth is thus reinforced by your actions. Each time you endeavor to appreciate yourself, treat yourself kindly, define your personal boundaries, be proactive in seeing that your needs are met, and broaden your horizons, you express your recognition of your innate value. During those periods when you have lost sight of your worth, you will likely feel mired in depression, insecurity, and a lack of confidence. You’ll pursue a counterfeit worth based on judgment rather than the beauty that resides within. When you feel worthy, however, you will accept yourself without hesitation. It is your worth as an individual who is simultaneously interconnected with all living beings that allows you to be happy, confident, and motivated. Because your conception of your worth is not based on the fulfillment of expectations, you’ll see your mistakes and failures as just another part of life’s journey.

Human beings are very much like drops of water in an endless ocean. Our worth comes from our role as distinct individuals as well as our role as an integral part of something larger than ourselves. Simply awakening to this concept can help you rediscover the copious and awe-inspiring worth within each and every one of us.

~OM~

Eros Ascending

Eros Ascending
by John Maxwell Taylor

The quest for lasting love is one of life’s essential pursuits, in some ways the most essential. But it’s also a quest that’s impossible to separate from spiritual and sexual needs. In Eros Ascending, author John Maxwell Taylor offers a wide-ranging study of sexual dysfunction in society and explains how healthy sexuality can be an entryway to universal love and higher consciousness. Based on Taylor’s twenty-three-year experience with Taoist practices, the book presents an engaging analysis of love, relationships, and sexuality from spiritual, romantic, and sexual perspectives. Taylor melds essential ideas by Jung, Gurdjieff, and Taoist Master Mantak Chia with science, biology, spiritual tradition, and current popular culture to shed new light on this eternal yet misunderstood subject. Not just for couples, the book is equally useful for single people who want to understand the methods for “learning to love yourself ” in preparation for a fulfilling, long-term relationship. Taylor draws on his eclectic background as a successful playwright, composer, actor, and musician in this persuasive plan for converting ordinary sexual energy into food for the soul.

Excerpt:

Why Is It Scary Below the Waist?

If you (or anybody else) were to go to a teacher who had attained divine consciousness and asked to become his or her devotee, the teacher would probably give you meditation techniques for concentrating on the so-called “third eye” at the point between the eyebrows. There might also be concentration on the crown of the head, or at the heart center. But rarely will you find a genuine teacher who would direct a new student to concentrate upon the area of the body below the navel. The reason for this is that the centers of intelligence in the lower part of the body (the three so-called “lower chakras”) are connected directly to the subconscious mind.

When we are out and about, engaged in daily activities, our eyes are usually looking straight ahead, or left or right. We are operating in the so-called “conscious” mode of operation. However, sitting to meditate, we would probably raise our eyes gently upward, toward the third-eye point between the eyebrows, attempting to lift our mental awareness toward higher consciousness. When we sleep at night our eyes go downward as we descend into the subconscious mind to pass the nocturnal hours wandering in our dreams. So the reason the teacher gets the student to focus upon the frontal lobes of the brain and the upper half of the body is to get him or her centered, and established in a strong connection with the higher dimensions of consciousness first. Later, at an appropriate time, if the teacher truly knows what he or she is doing, the student will be led to gradually direct attention downward, toward the lower part of the body. Having previously made a connection with the “higher self,” it might be possible to open up and heal all the disowned parts of the personal self one had to leave behind for a while in order to get established in higher consciousness.

For the student who does not successfully undertake this re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere (the lower body with its innate grounding capabilities), after circling in outer space through meditative detachment from it, the entire structure of spiritual development could come crashing down. Can we build a superstructure of light on an unsafe foundation? Remember the man who built his house upon the sand and, when the wind blew, down it came and great was the fall of it? But the other man, who built his house on rock, found that it was able to withstand anything that life threw at it. That “rock” is a balanced and integrated subconscious mind.

This felicitous state can be attained when we successfully open up the lower part of our nature and purify it through loving acceptance of what we may have been seeing as the dark side of our humanness. According to the Psalmist, to God, the darkness and the light are both the same. Understanding the hidden divine nature of our primal selves, which may initially appear to us as dark and scary, is the solid ground upon which we can build our everyday lives with a firm foundation. Once this is accomplished, we can live secure in the knowledge that nothing can shake us, break us, or throw us off track.

When we are securely established in this manner, our sexual force can be used to fertilize our physical health and mental equilibrium, and create thought-children of insight and inspiration, ideas that can revolutionize our entire approach to life. Instead of seeing the body and everyday life as an impediment to our personal happiness, we become useful to our-selves and our world. We are able to serve as conduits through which healing energy and clarity can enter into our daily activities. Then we can truly aid human evolution at a high level of conscious world service.

Seat Of Life

The Second Chakra

When we have gained a deep understanding of the body and soul, there often follows a desire to reach out, to grow, and to change. In the Vedic texts, the second chakra, the energy center between the navel and genitals, is the seat of life and the house of change. It is a point where opposites come together in sympathy, guiding us toward a balanced existence. The choices that help us evolve are often a product of the second chakra, which, when charged with neither too little nor too much energy, rejects rigid control and embraces creativity. Associated with taste and sensuality, the second chakra or Svadhisthana (which means sweetness) can be visualized as a brilliant sunset orange. Like its element, water, the second chakra is ruled by the moon.

A weakness or imbalance in the second chakra can lead to feelings of extreme empathy, which can cause you to be ruled by the emotions of others. To fail to focus on this chakra leads to the opposite: an utter lack of emotion and dwindling passions. A balanced second chakra embraces both sides of everything, giving you a healthy understanding of your emotions as well as those of others. Nurturing it through dance, laughter, and pleasurable movement will help you embrace your own sexuality, which is the main aspect of the chakra. Stimulation of the second chakra can be achieved through the use of orris root, gardenia, or damiana incense; practicing tantra yoga; or exposing the chakra to moonstone or coral. These methods of opening and energizing the chakra can be performed individually or in tandem for greater effect.

The second chakra may appear a route to indulgence to some, because of its focus on the feelings of the body, but it is also the dwelling place of the self. A fully functioning second chakra, working in a balanced way with the body’s other chakras, is a source of self-knowledge and understanding.

~OM~

Two Sides Of The Same Moon

Ritual Moon

The moon waxes and wanes in the night sky, always following the same cyclical pattern, lighting the darkness with its luminous glow. It has been this way as long as the earth has been here. The same moon grew from dark to full and back again, catching the eyes of our grandparents, our great grandparents, and those at the beginning of humanity. The moon guided our ancestors in the planting, sowing, and reaping of their crops, and we can be inspired to observe and honor these same cycles today with simple rituals that help connect us to the natural ebb and flow of life energy.

Dark moons and new moons represent polar moments of beginning and realization in the arc of the moon’s phases. When the moon is dark, we might take time to meditate on emptiness, the fertile ground in which seeds take root. A simple ritual for acknowledging this potent phase of the moon would be to write down new plans and ideas that present themselves and keep them in a moon journal. Looking back over a year of dark moons, you may be amazed to see which seeds have blossomed. Full moons symbolize completion and fulfillment, the realization of the seed, and they are times of celebration. They are a great time to gather friends and family to partake in a communal feast acknowledging the apex of another monthly cycle. Your full moon journal might track the full moons of an entire year with a recounting of the gathering—the menu, the guest list, and any other observations you feel inspired to make.

Honoring the dark and full moons with these simple rituals brings our year into a new kind of focus. As we acknowledge the flow of the moon’s cycles, we become more comfortable with the changing nature of our earthly lives, making our peace with each phase, and with the shifting from emptiness to fullness and back again. We strengthen our connection to the universe in which we live and find peace in both emptiness and fullness, each of which are natural and necessary—two sides of the same moon.

~OM~