What Does Yours Look Like?
C. Allie Knowlton, MSW, LCSW, DCSW
Here is my circular travel "mesa" created for me by Trudy Sloan. It has compartments
sewn into it so that different objects may be placed in each segment of the "wheel".
Photo: Allie Knowlton
Our Nepalese shaman friend, Bhola Banstola gave us many gifts while he stayed with us. I feel certain that more awareness will surface as I integrate not only his teachings but also the innate wisdom which he shared, as we all went about the actions of daily living.
It was a moving experience to sit in on the individual healings which he offered. Even though I did not understand the language of the healing songs he sang, it was affirming to realize that I could totally follow the intent and rythmn of his work. He would listen to each person as if they were the only person we was in relationship with in that moment. After a short while of this listening, he became clear about how his healing work should be focused. It was different with each person, yet his connection to his spiritual guidance and traditions was consistently evident. When either Evie or I were assisting him, we were welcome to follow the changing rhymns of his unique Nepalise drumming with our own frame drums.
One thing that Bhola shared was the importance of starting each day connecting in some way with our spiritual resource. He was very clear that without this initial connection as the activities of the day unfold it becomes more difficult to connect. Also the day evolves without the deeper impact that spirit can provide.
Recently a friend called and shared that since Bhola’s workshop she has been getting up early in the morning to connect with her spirit teachers. She has found that after years, she is able to halve the pain medication she has been on for a chronic medical condition. I could hear the difference in her voice!
It took me many years to create the time and space for a personal daily practice of connection my with spiritual resources. This practice has taken many forms over the years and no doubt will change again if the present form no longer feels vibrant and relevant to support me as I continue to grow and evolve. I can confirm as Bhola said, that when I choose an extra few minutes of sleep over initiating my personal spiritual practice, I feel the distinct absence of it in my day.
My practice shifted when a friend gave me her version of a portable altar based on the Peruvian mesa. Instead of a simple flat cloth, it was a circle with compartments in which I place sacred objects. It is now filled with stones from places I have visited in the world, like the Bella Coola Valley in British Columbia, Iceland, Churchill in Manitoba, and favorite locations in the United States.
Each morning I place it on the floor of my healing room or outside when traveling. I face each of the four directions, thanking by name any teachers or guides and animal allies I have met. Following giving thanks in each direction, I also name a variety of people who've asked for our prayers and add any of our personal concerns.
In the East I am grateful for the guidance I will receive that day. In the South I name our family members with affirmation that they will be protected and cared for. In the West, I thank all the guardians of the land we caretake and those that look after our neighborhood. I then thank the apus or spirits of the places I have either visited or lived. (Sometimes, the Spirits ask me to journey to those locations to see how life is going there or if something is needs to be added to my prayers.) In the North I acknowledge all my teachers and guides by name, thanking them for already manifesting the requests from the long list of people who know ask us for help. I then raise my hands to the heavens/sky and iinvite the Source of All That Is to move through me, in a way that is safe for my body, into the energy grid system of the earth. Here I place my concerns for the earth, support for those who have lost loved ones in the war, and all the children who have come to bring their gifts to the world.
What makes this ritual powerful is not the consistent list of thanks and concerns, but the deep feelings that arise with each focus. Because I am in a state of gratitude this simple process only takes about fifteen minutes and varies greatly based on time and what is needed.
Thinking back to my friend who now starts her day with connection, and remembering her renewed energy, I found myself musing about the reluctance many of us share regarding initiating and maintaining a spiritual practice.
The most obvious reason is time. In our culture most of us are sleep deprived. We treasure those last fifteen minutes of sleep we can eek out each day. This appears to be a reality of our stress-filled lives. However, what we need to consider is that a daily spiritual practice can function as a part of the plan to manage stress more effectively! In addition, besides stress relief, this kind of practice transforms the quality of life.
Back to the issue of time. Recently we facilitate the wedding of two lovely people who came together in their forties. Each has their own career and life obligations and they realized that they wanted to learn something new. They began taking lessons in ballroom dancing which was something neither of them had done before. They decided since they wanted their wedding to be fun and relaxing, they wanted to share their new fun new way of dancing together at the wedding reception. It was to be their first new action as husband and wife. To do this they realized they would have to hire a private dance teacher along with attending regular clesses. Because of their busy schedules the only time they could meet for lessons was six thiry in the morning before work! The dance was so lovely at their wedding that a tiny three year could not be coaxed off the dance floor all evening! They plan to continue this new skill as their lives evolve together.
Another couple with three children, each with their jobs to maintain the family budget, decided to support one another to get physically healthier by going to a local gym together. The only time they had available involved getting up at five thirty to get to the gym and back home in time to get the children off to school on time.
The common denominator in these stories are three-fold; choice, intention and follow-through. Only then, did each of these people experience the results they were hoping for and perhaps even more. Time was not the issue. When the choice and intention were clearly established, they found the time!
This leads me to wonder what lies behind our reluctance to experience a daily spiritual practice when time may not really be as much the prohibiting issue as it seems!
Several possibilities come to my mind in no particular order of importance. One is that many of us have grown up in spiritual traditions that either do not introduce a daily spiritual practice or the tradition no longer holds meaning and it has never been replaced.
We live in a time when people are searching for spiritual meaning. Sometimes this comes in the form of experiencing many spiritual practices and drawing from each one something that holds meaning while letting go of some of the form that no longer hold relevance for the individual. For instance, some people who maintain a connection to their original Christian spiritual tradition have added a Buddhist ot Hindu meditation practice.
Others perceive the core essence of spirituality but are able to use different forms to express it. A delightful eleven year old was brousing around the display of ritual objects that were available at the sale we hosted to support a school in Katmandu for street kids, a favorite project of our friend, Bhola. She picked up a Tibetan mala, a beaded bracelet used to facilitate prayer, and said to her Dad,“ this is just like a rosary!” She placed it on her wrist and introduced it to her older brother who also wanted one to wear. She could see and feel the common denominator of the sacred tool and readily accepted it. Her Dad bought the malas for them because he honored the spiritual nature of his children. He was pleased at their openness, even though he was a little uncomfortable with stepping out of the tradition in which he had been trained.
Many years ago, during a three day silent Buddhist meditation retreat, I experienced a classic shamanic experience. I became an eagle chasing a mouse who invited me to catch it, if I could, for supper. It was a powerful first hand feeling of the connectedness of all life, of the communication that goes on between the species and of the delicate balance between life and death. Many years later I understood this to be an invitation to a spiritual tradition. At the time, I knew nothing about shamanism but now it is a vital part of my daily practice and life.
Clients have shared with us that their spiritual connection happens as they take their daily walks. When observing the sounds, smells and changes in the species they encounter, they become more and more aware of the sacredness of all life which includes themselves. A friend recently shared that a favorite beach she has regularly walked on for thirty years was suddenly unavailable to her when she encountered a new sign that said “no trespassing--private property." In our phone call, she shared how she was grieving the loss of connection to the life-forms she had developed relationships with over the years. For her, they supported a much treasured and needed connection to the Source of all Life.
Once a choice is made to be open to, search for, create and re-evaluate what holds meaning for a daily spiritual practice, the next step is setting an intention to be faithful to that practice. Perhaps it would be useful to review some common elements of a regular practice.
There are many spiritual practices which begin with some form of breath, from very simple to precise counting techniques and visualizations. Our friend Bhola, taught us an easy one. He told us to breath in through our nose while remembering images of times and places that create a feeling of hope and happiness. Then to breath out through our mouth any interrupting thoughts and negative feelings.
For years I have practiced and taught an adaptation of Centering Prayer, a form created by Basil Pennington. This practice invites you to breathe in a natural way with a focus on breathing from your lower belly. Thick Nhat-Han calls it "full belly breathing." When disrupting thoughts intrude, this form asks that you to use a word of your choice to help you focus on your breath--inviting the distractions to pass on through. Tsultrim Allione, a Buddhist teacher I respect, offered us a more elaborate method using counting. When taking in a breath and holding the breath for the same count, then releasing for the same count. The counting, holding and release of breath is increased as the practitioner becomes more adept. Counting has the same effect of giving the left brain something to do other than interfer with the meditative state! If you have not yet found a breathing exercise that feels right for you, check on line or tap into the limitless resources in book stores, under anything from Yoga to spiritual practices to find what works best for you. This is a good first element in a daily spiritual practce.
A second element in a daily spiritual practice may be facilitated by using your imagination to recall the feelings of a time when you experienced a connection to the earth, a tree, a stone, the ocean, lake, mountain or special sacred spot. Choose one experience and allow the fullness of the memory to fill you with awe, joy, wonder, excitement and hope. This reminds your personality what your body already knows, that you are whole and part of an energy from which you can draw the resources you need for this day. The memory you choose to experience may vary and in itself remind you of how rich your life has already become.
A third element in a daily practice is to allow in the wisdom of your own soul. As breath and memory recall open spaces in your being, insight and guidance have the opportunity to move from your unconscious self to inform you on an as needed basis. Personal wisdom arising from within is extremely powerful and can off-set life’s down sides and one's self-doubt.
A fourth element is to express your genuine gratitude for whatever that day’s practice offers, without judgement or comparing it to what you or others expect of your chosen practice.
A fifth element is to make an agreement with yourself to follow through with the practice itself, even if it feels “off” that day and to follow through with any call to action that has surfaced. Some days you may want to set a specific focus to receive information you are needing, other times, it is best to keep concerns out and allow in feelings of gratitude, support and connection.
Perhaps some of you reading this artlcle are not convinced that spending time on any personal ritual is the correct use of time in this age of accelerated expansion and world-wide turmoil. It is difficult to hold an intention if there is ambivalence about its value. This is where the latest advances in scientific thought might be useful. Lynn McTaggart, author of The Field: the Quest for The Secret Force of the Universe, has compiled many studies on the impact of using intention fo shape our lives. In her e-book Living The Field she writes,
"Our connectedness implies that our intentions are an energy force that can shape our world. Evidence from Princeton and other research centres around the world indicates that human consciousness is a non-local energy force that can influence living and non-living systems, and create order. Many studies show that the quantum frequncies that make up thought are an energy that is not sensitive to time or space -- once we have an intention, it can affect our future or our past.”
McTaggart backs this perception up by focusing on the experiments of Dr. William Tiller, professor emeritus of physics at Stanford University. He enlisted four highly experienced meditators who would enter into in a deep meditative state for the purpose of charging electrical devises called IIEDs with their intentions. The IIEDs would then be placed in a laboratory so they could follow through with the intentions "placed" in them by the meditators. Even miles away, the devices could do things like alter Ph or change the growth rates of larvas simply because they had been "charged" to do so by the power of someone's intention.
Amazingly, the boxes were shipped 2000 miles to a lab where the experiments were successfully carried out over the course of two or three months. There is more detail to this than is the focus of this article, but McTaggart was excited that here was scientific proof that “intention is a power which alters the world, irrespective of time and space. Human intention, even when captured electronically, appears to have an infectious power that extends out and affects the world.”
Our indigenous ancestors understood the power of intention. Perhaps as we begin to understand its power, it will be easier to forgo the half hour of sleep to intentionally develop and follow through with a daily spiritual practice. This is especially true when we realize our intentions impact not only our own lives and the lives of those we care about, but also our entire world. There is an amazing energy we feel when we realize that we can participate in shaping the course of our planet. We need to remember this every day even as we go about our ordinary chores and make our daily choices.
Some of you reading this article already know about choice, the quantum plenum and the potential of intentions. The ability to follow through with what you believe in may not be your issue. What may be the issue is that follow through--with a daily spiritual practice--may stir up old beliefs, family of origin patterns, cultural dictates or religious doctrines that taught you to devalue your power. The truth is, we are living out our power, this energy of connection all the time. What we are invited to do now is to use this power of connection, this power of intention, this power of the wisdom we were born with to fully participate in directing this energy for the wellbeing of ourselves and the world.
So we've come full circle. One of the most effective ways of being guided in how we use the creative energy is to keep ourselves tuned into whatever name we call the Source of All Energy. As we align with this energy each day, we move through our day with more confidence, more awareness and more support for what is ours to act upon.
I am reminded of a statement I have heard Gregg Braden make several times.He often refers to "The Ancients" and he reminds us that WE are those ancients/ancestors who prepared for this time in the history of our planet. We prepared the way for the times in which we are now living. It truly is we who decide the shape and future of our planet earth!
-Allie
By C. Allie Knowlton, MSW, LCSW, DCSW
Co-Editor
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Note: For more information on Earth Spirit Living by Ann Marie Holmes see this month’s Shamama Bear Review
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