Listening to Nature

Spiritual Landscapes

I spent the last week in the high desert of beautiful Sedona Arizona, with my beloved spiritual Father, Dr. and Master Zhi Gang Sha.

There were many experiences there... much for my soul to learn from both my Teacher, and from the incredible land upon which we resided for those retreat days.

Sedona is recognised as one of the most sacred lands in all the world, and during one of our rare breaks that week, I took the opportunity to do a tour of the land's 'vortex' areas, with a beautiful soul named Jay, who has lived on that land for decades.

Jay took us many places and showed us many things, among them, an ancient Juniper tree, about 25 feet tall. Jay explained that because of the very limited rainfall in the desert, the Juniper trees grow only a few milimetres a year... so this tree was ancient indeed. And because she grows within a 'votex' area, she is considered very special. We didn't have a lot of time to spend there, so I decided to explore on my own time, the next morning.

I went up early in the day, when the world is silent, save for the sound of the wind in the trees, and the call of birds overhead. I approached the ancient One with reverence, connecting my skin to hers, and asked for a message on two questions. 

The first question was:

How can I move my soul journey forward to become Divine channel as soon as possible? 

Dear daughter,  You come to me to receive my wisdom on this day. As you were told yesterday on the tour, I have grown strong powerful and wise, 1 inch at a time, over many hundreds of years. The lesson here for you today, is to understand that paradoxically, the best way to move your soul journey forward as soon as possible, is to take time to grow strong. Just as I must build my strength to endure the wait for the rain over long periods of time, so also must you do your foundational work, so that you are strong enough to weather the harsh conditions which may come for you. You too may go through extended periods of time which are a drought- either physically, emotionally, spiritually financially or in your relationships. And unless you have a strong foundation, you will not be able to continue. So the fastest way is to be patient, to take the time to do the foundational practices which will make you strong enough to go the distance. Hao.

The second question was:
How to improve the functioning of the LPH team in Vancouver? 

"As you look around the landscape beyond my branches and roots, you see great diversity. There are cactus plants, small flowers, deciduous trees evergreens, shrubs ...there are birds and snakes and coyotes...there are insects and creatures within the land, unseen to the eye, and more. How do all of these diverse species live in harmony? The only way to create strong connection and harmony is through diversity. I bring this to your attention so that you can understand that the strength and the efficient functioning of your LPH team in Vancouver is very much dependent on the diversity of people perspectives and talents. For the healthy and productive functioning of any system, whether it be a biological system, sociological system,business system or any system, the key is diversity. Therefore do not seek to bring unity through similarity, through homogenization, but rather through the utilization and appreciation of the different talents, personalities, abilities and the different perspectives of each member of the team. This will allow each one's true talents to flourish, their hearts to open, and the smooth, efficient and productive running of the team will be natural result." Hao.

Both of these beautiful messages demonstrate clearly and deeply, one of Master Sha's key Tao teachings: Tao Fa Zi Ran-- Follow Nature's Way.  When we do this, our soul journey flourishes.

Whether you live by the sea, or in the middle of the high desert, The Tao will always find a way to communicate with you, if you only take the time to Listen.

The Voice of the Tao

Recently, a friend who for many years studied and practiced Vedic spiritual traditions, and who knows that one of my shifus (spiritual fathers) is Lord Shiva, lent me a book. He said... "This isn't about the 'popular' understanding of Shiva...this is the 'real stuff '."

I was very grateful to receive the book, as I truly didn't have much knowledge of this holy being, and I began reading it that evening.

In my spiritual journey, I have also felt a deep affinity for the Vedic, as well as the Celtic and First Nations traditions-- particularly the chants, which are the soul's voice of these traditions, connecting my own soul closely to them, and to the Creator through them.

As I began to immerse myself in the book, I soon began to understand the Shiva (Siva) principle is the Tao principle. As the book title states: Nothing Exists That is Not Siva. This understanding opened my heart so much more widely in gratitude to Master Sha for his sacred Tao teachings, and for the priceless gift and honour of having of Lord Shiva as one of my shifus, to help me understand more deeply, and to guide me on the Tao journey.

Today I received a flow from Lord Shiva to the question: What soul blockages prevent me from studying and learning and experiencing the Tao in this lifetime? How can I transform these to love and light?

Here is that flow:

"My dear beloved daughter, this is Lord Shiva speaking, 

The soul blockages which prevent you from studying and learning experiencing the Tao in this lifetime are mental. You have always recognized the judgmental nature of your mind. This is how the darkness creates an imbalance in a discerning mind. 

A discerning mind is required to travel forward on your spiritual journey through life, but when discernment is invaded by the ego-- by negativity of any kind, it becomes a judgmental mind, and these judgments encase the mind, and hold the thought process firm in structures which will not allow you to go down the path to enlightenment. 

You must learn to remove these structures. You must practice to dissolve these structures. The way to do this is through Tao practices. This is why these blockages are so strong for you at this time, because to remove them would mean that you would rapidly flow into being more fully aligned with the Tao in each aspect of your life. 

And so the karma is strong because of this time into which you have incarnated, and your role in it. Every effort is being made to restrict you from further progress forward. You must therefore commit to make more effort, knowing now that this restrictive structuring is in place. Chip away at it with Tao Light. Chip away with the Tao practices. Fill your body, your soul, your mind with Tao Light by chanting the Tao chants, following the Tao, and being aligned with the Tao in every moment. 

You must also recognize that a part of these structures are a prejudice, a judgment about the Tao teachings as they are being presented to you in this lifetime. You are far more comfortable in the Vedic, or First Nations, or Druidic traditions, through which you spent many lifetimes working with the Tao. These ways of connecting and aligning with the Tao are more familiar to your soul and you have created mental preconceptions and prejudices which prevent you from opening your heart more to the current teachings. Let go of all mental precepts and relax your soul and your heart into the true flow of life, which actually has no name, but only IS. You know that place well, and it is your heart and soul's greatest desire to be there. Let go and flow. HAO."

Thank you Master Sha, Thank you Lord Shiva.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51dbuDzTxp8#t=35

 

Mahamrityunjaya Mantra (maha-mrityun-jaya) is one of the more potent of the ancient Sanskrit mantras. Maha mrityunjaya is a call for enlightenment and is a practice of purifying the karmas of the soul at a deep level. It is also said to be quite beneficial for mental, emotional, and physical health.

Listening to the Soul’s Voice through Our Body

Recently, as many of you who know me are aware, I took a very nasty tumble backwards onto a concrete surface, and ended up with two broken wrists and a cracked tailbone.

For whole my life, I have been extremely blessed with great health, great energy, vitality and       stamina, which have helped me to accomplish very much in my life. I am very grateful for the     endless well of energy which is always been there for me to do what I need to do at work or play.

So my current physical situation, has really given me time to reflect, and three of Master Sha’s    key teachings keep coming up. 

The first is that everything has a soul. Soul is message. What message does my body soul have   for me? What messages are voices of the souls of my arms and tailbone (Wei Liu) trying to         communicate to me? 

The second is that the purpose of the physical life is to progress the soul’s journey. What is the  purpose of this accident for me, and how can it move me forward on my journey?  

The third is that to reach Tao, we must achieve Shen Qi Jing He Yi (Soul, Mind, Body join as One).How can I better align my soul, mind and body, so they can become One?

Our physical bodies are a Divine gift. They are our own unique and individualized treasure maps to happiness, literally and symbolically revealing all that seeks healing in the soul, so that we     may live the joyful life we came here to live. That is our natural inheritance.

I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity to go more deeply within, to listen to my    soul’s voice spoken through my body, and find the hidden treasures there, the deeper messagesof what truly seeks healing, so that I might move forward on my journey with more purity and     joy.

Take a moment to pause and listen to the voice of your soul as it speaking to you now, in this    moment, through your body. What messages are you being given? 

Shen Qi Jing He Yi

Shen Qi Jing He Yi
Shen Qi Jing He Yi
Shen Qi Jing He Yi
Shen Qi Jing He Yi
Shen Qi Jing He Yi
Shen Qi Jing He Yi
Hao!

The Listener

Listening 

This blog post was inspired by a quote I saw on facebook, recently, which said, ‘the biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.”

Truly listening to someone, or being listened to, fully, deeply, and completely, with an open heart, is such a gift to give or receive. For when we are truly listening— Who is the Listener? and to Whom is It listening? The answer to both these questions of course, is the Soul.

Listening to the Soul’s Voice, either our own or another’s, is a truly sacred act. Learning to allow your life to be guided by that Voice, is one of the golden keys to moving forward on your spiritual journey.

I would like to share a story from my own life, where listening to my soul’s voice, and then the voices of others’ souls, formed one of my life’s most pivotal and tenderly held experiences.

About 10 years ago, after studying the art of Spiritual Direction, or 'soul-companionship', at the Vancouver School of Theology, my soul guided me to do a project I called "The Listener".  The goal and intention of this project was to simply go to random places in the downtown core, and offer my services as a 'Listener' to anyone who needed to be listened to.

I designed a sign, then went to a local sign maker and had two little sandwich board signs made up. On one side at the top was printed ‘The Listener’ and below that, a logo I came up with that was a heart, formed from two ears facing each other. Across the bottom was written ‘hear for you’ (yes, I know…it’s kind of a corny play on words!) and on the back was written my favourite Rumi quote: "There is a Voice that doesn't use words. Listen.” The larger sign was about a foot square, meant to be placed on the sidewalk in my chosen spots, and the smaller one, about 6”x6” for a table-top placement  at coffee shops etc.

So one sunny day, with newly printed signs in hand, I made my way downtown. I walked around until I determined, through my soul’s guidance, which spots would be the best to sit down and 'hang out my shingle’ ...and to just wait to see who might want to sit down and simply be deeply and attentively listened to.

Well, only a couple of brave souls took up the invitation, but what an honour and a privilege to be invited into that oh so sacred space, by another. One moment stranger, next moment, soul companion.

This is the soul healing miracle of truly Listening, and can be equally transformative to both Listener and Listened to. Such a simple an act, and yet so deeply profound.

I still have those signs… Maybe it's time for another go at it. So many unheard hearts and souls out there who long to be Listened to. 

 

"Whole Body Relax!"

Relax... and Listen.

The other day in class at the Vancouver Centre where I attend regularly, my teacher Master Thai Siew Liang, was leading us in a meditation.

She said it would be a silent meditation, with no music, nor even any chanting (or sound power as it is called in Master Sha's system of healing and meditation). This was a bit unusual, in that we generally chant something, --even if the chanting is done silently. (Yin)

But this time, Master Thai Siew's only instructions were to totally relax, and to focus on our 'ming men', an acupuncture point just beneath the skin, in front of the spine, in a direct line back from the navel. 

She shared how during her first visit to China to meet Master Sha's teacher and spiritual father, Master Guo, she was very surprised that his only instruction to them when he led them in healing meditation was "whole body relax!"

Relaxation, she learned, is a vital key to healing, and to going deeply into the 'hero condition', where healing takes place. In this condition, you lose sense of the boundaries of your physical self, and fall gently into the vast 'stillness' that all meditators seek. Total relaxation of the mind as well as the body is needed to do this.

So the silent meditation began. I closed my eyes and totally and completely relaxed, focusing on my ming men, as Master Thai Siew directed.

The summer evening was hot, and the door to the Centre was open to the traffic noise of the busy street outside. But those sounds quickly disappeared, and I soon noticed the sound of chanting arise from the silence. 

It wasn't coming from my mind though...  I understood that it was the voice of my soul. I could distinctly hear my soul chanting "Bao Yuan Shou Yi Master Sha"...a mantra roughly translating as 'become One with Master Sha'. What a beautiful message!  I realized that the chanting had not started with the onset of the meditation, but that the meditation had only provided the means through which I was able to hear it. Our souls are always chanting! How blessed we are!

In our days, so filled with tasks and schedules and to-do lists, so filled with the constant internal chatter and external sound pollution of the urban life most of us live, it's easy think that we are not able to to find silence. But we can access it anytime, anywhere. Try it for yourself right now and see. Just  'whole body relax'...and listen. What message does your soul's voice have for you?

Thank you Master Thai Siew, Thank you Master Guo, Thank you Master Sha.

Sacred Landscape and the Soul's Voice

It took me quite some time to find an image that felt just right, for the background of my blog cover page. It had to be an apple orchard, and there is a very good reason why. It was in an apple orchard, where, at about the age of 7,  I first experienced the Divine.

Over the back fence and beyond the fields behind my childhood home, stood the remains of an ancient and once vast apple orchard. That orchard was 'my' place, and within it, 'my' special tree, a tree I went back to again and again for many years, to think, to play, to dream.  It was a source of comfort, companionship, even love, for me. It was my friend, a sacred sister, rooted in holy ground. It was my 'anam cara', a Gaelic word meaning 'soul friend' I had discovered, written down and tucked away with a quiet knowing that it somehow held some special significance for me.

Most importantly, it was there that I first experienced the Presence of the Divine.

I carried this deep and innate sense of the sacredness of apple trees and apple orchards into my adult life, but it wasn`t until 1991, when I started my quest for the feminine face of God, that I began to understand the why of this deep affinity, and how the Divine begins to lay the stones of our life`s path from very early on.

Some years earlier, I had written, entirely in flow, a fairy tale called "Rhadra and the Rainbow Fish", and was told by a scholar who studied these things, that there were many symbols and hidden meanings in it. So I began to research archetypal symbolism in fairy tales, mythology and folklore, and was awestruck to discover that the apple tree had long been held as the representation of the Goddesses`sacred heart of immortality, and of transformation through the feminine energy of the Universe.

I began to deeply explore ways of discovering my soul`s purpose in this life and world, voraciously studying everything I could get my hands on, on the subject, eventually developing a course aimed at helping others discern God`s Presence and Call in their lives.

Another deeply imprinted sense of the sacred came to me through my Celtic roots. So when I discovered the great significance of the apple for the Celts, who called their after-life paradise 'Avalon', meaning 'Apple-land`, a place ruled by the triple Goddess whose priestesses chose as their place of worship the holy ground of the apple orchards, I felt I had reclaimed another piece of my soul's story. I knew then that the concept of ancient ancestral memory being carried at the cellular level, was for me, more than a theory. It was a profound personal truth. As an artist, singer and healer, I have found great joy in producing images and sounds that spring out of my Celtic inheritance.

My life-long relationship with God that started with those early conversations in my childhood apple tree, eventually led, in 2000, to a discernment of  a Call to the ministry. But what kind of ministry?... Ordination via a Masters of Divinity seemed too traditional an approach for me, and besides it was years away. Other approaches such as Matthew Fox's University of Creation Spirituality in Berkley California seemed too radical, and besides, it was too far away.

Then one day I came across a calendar from the Vancouver School of Theology, and noticed a course called "Spiritual Direction". Thinking that it sounded interesting, I sent away for more information and in a few days received a booklet about the course. I opened it up and read the introductory description:
" We are living in an axial moment in the history of the planet. In such a moment the ancient ministry of 'soul-friending'-- 'anam cara'  is being recovered, (anam cara! rang through my mind as I read on...) providing a process in which persons or groups meet with a soul friend, in order to discern deeply and faithfully, God's Presence and Call" 
I closed the booklet, revealing on the back cover the logo for the Spiritual Direction course... a Celtic cross in the shape of an apple tree. I had been shown the next step on my path. Thank you Divine. I am blessed.

Today, 14 years later, I am more deeply connected to the Divine Presence and the soul's voice than I ever thought possible, because in 2009, I listened, and my soul led me to Master Sha. I am deeply humbled and honoured to now be a Divine Channel in training, to become a representative of this Great Teacher, something I never dreamed possible. I am so grateful to God for all that I have been given, for directing my soul, heart, mind and body, to where I am today, and to be able to serve others.

I hope through my blog, you too will look through the stories of your life, both past and present, to see how the voice of your own soul is speaking to you, and that this will help you to more clearly discern and follow that Voice... the 'still small Voice', which is with us always, to guide and help us.