Traditional Medicinal

For over 20 years, I have participated in ceremonial community.  When I reflect on my experiences, one of the greatest insights I have had is that they are not “mine.”  My interpretation of them is irrelevant.  Even their benefit and the roles that have come to me from my commitments are insignificant.  Another epiphany I had and continue to express to the best of my ability, is being of service to community.  I simply hold a space for others to have their experience, however it may manifest, without attachment, control, expectation and influence.  It takes everything from me to be true to the tradition and express who I am called to be.  When one gives all and becomes nothing, it creates opportunity for everything.

The Human Gene

One of the most heartbreaking experiences I have witnessed on this path is observing when participants fall victim to their ego.  It is a delicate and intricate balance to maintain an equilibrium between the prayer we make, and the society in which we live.  Many falter in their pursuits to gain personal advancement, power, recognition and status at the cost of their experience and those of the people whom they desire to lead.  It is more about manipulation and less about tradition.  Many interpret leadership as the quantity of their followers and the control they impose, rather than their service to community.  It becomes dangerous when they are insensitive or oblivious to the impacts their personal agendas and strategies cause.

“Spiritualized”

Whenever a tradition becomes congregational or institutionalized, it is only a matter of time before it manifests as social dysfunction, harm, oppression and destruction.  Last year, I published “Spiritualized: The Ego of Spirituality.”  It expresses clarity into the influence and impact our egos have on our experience and those of others.  Many forms of religion have established, enacted and profited by controlling and manipulating parishioners into fear, guilt, obligation and uncertainty to uphold their authority over the many.  The propaganda they proselytize is a scheme to prohibit the individual soul-intimation experience.  Personal discernment and distinction are vital in creating and preserving our alignment with the universe.

Invention of Programming

All of us are indoctrinated into institutional structures of selective reality.  Long before we learn to express consciousness and conscience, we are programmed to emulate a common, condensed interpretation of all with which we identify and relate.  This is a social control technique to maintain our enslavement.  Most “intelligent” people are cast into a vicious cycle of existence.  They choose not to acknowledge the truth that they are imprisoned by their ego with their own denial, doubt, fear and self-righteousness.  We have been conditioned by education, mainstream media, religion and society to be right instead of true to our experience.  This is what motivates people who believe themselves to be leaders to control others.

“Knowing is an invention of the mind.  Understanding is an expression of the soul.”

Knowing and Understanding

Knowing tethers us to thought.  Understanding inspires us to be. I would not choose to “know” anything.  In my opinion, knowing is too intellectual.  Just facts and figures ricocheting in my mind.  Knowing is a diversion from observing, understanding and applying what I experience into who I am.  Social reality imposes the duality of thought and action into our lifestyles.  We are energetic beings with multidimensional potentialities.  Our heart and intuition relate us with our soul and the universe.  Knowing is merely a fraction of our experience in the universality of our existence.  Understanding empowers us to align our body and mind with our heart, intuition, soul and the universe.

Focus of Vision

Epiphanies and insights are occurring in every moment of our present.  When we happen upon them, they occur to us as fleeting glimpses, existing beyond our purview.  We simply do not dedicate the necessary focus to cultivate our experience.  We must express a purpose of awareness and observation to create a sustainable environment in which our consciousness resonates with the frequency of our vision.  My initiation into this experience was terrifying, as it was so diverse from the reality in which I had been indoctrinated.  It annihilated my adolescent belief, perception, thought and understanding.  After I found my balance amidst the fluctuating currents of my experiences, I grew accustomed to the shifts and eventually chose to flow with them.

Observation of Experience

Our experiences are only as conscious as we live them.  We exist in a social reality that imposes oblivion as a control mechanism.  Our focus of vision kindles our observation to hone our awareness and its expression.  Though we are programmed to exercise acuity through a filter of a selfishness, being present to the circumstances and events transpiring around us empowers us to establish how they exist within.  Eventually, we create the opportunity to transform ourselves, our existence and our perception of reality.  Our observation is the expression of our relativity with the present.  The current challenges of the new era are an ideal opportunity to shift and align with the universe and our soul, guided by our intuition, while being conscious of our heart, mind and body.

Expression of Being

In no other tradition have I experienced such an extraordinary symmetry between the personal and community experience.  When balance is established, one can have their individual discoveries within the circle.  Whether or not this happens is empowered by our unique expression of being.  When the shared focus is for the benefit of the people, personal transformation is possible.  It simply requires us to shift our focus from our self alone to the needs of all.  Being willing to release the social conditioning of our selfishness empowers us to be proactively empowered by community consciousness.  When we choose to embody this way of being, our personal and collective visions manifest.

Full Circle

“One insight I would share with those at the crossroads of their soul; be present to your ego and its influence, or you will never have a spiritual experience.” (“Spiritualized: The Ego of Spirituality.”)  The primary element to our social programming is believing and engaging in linear reality.  Personal transformation is a multidimensional encounter with infinite facets of vision, observation, experience, expression and being.  The optimal way to discover who, how and why we are is our relativity within community.  We sacrifice our greatest potential with our social obsessions for selfish inclinations. Community offers us the opportunity to create ourselves with our commitment to all our relations.

“Unity is the soul of community” – (“Spiritualized: The Ego of Spirituality.”)

“Community is our commitment to unity.”