Fall 2011 Schedule of Oneness Events

Fall 2011 – Schedule of Oneness Events – Joan Doyle, Oneness Trainer

Contact Joan at 506-454-7500 or joan.doyle@rogers.com.

Events that are open to the general public:

· The first Wednesday of every month- Sept. 7th, Oct. 5th, Nov.2nd, Dec. 7th – Oneness Blessing Meditation held at Unitarian Fellowship, 874 York Street, 7:00 PM. Cost for room rental-$3.00 per person

· 7 Saturday Oneness Deepening Sessions including blessings, meditation, teaching and a worldwide global webcast from India to be held at Joan’s residence at 55 Beaconsfield Street in Skyline Acres, Fredericton, NB. There is no cost for these sessions:
1. Oct. 1st from 12:30PM - 2:30PM
2. Oct. 15th from 12:30PM - 2:30PM
3. Oct. 22nd from 12:30PM - 2:30PM
4. Oct. 29th from 12:30PM - 2:30PM
5. Nov. 19th from 11:30AM - 1:30PM
6. Dec. 3rd from 11:30AM - 1:30PM
7. Dec. 10th from 11:30AM - 1:30PM

· A “Oneness Awakening Weekend” , an immersion in the oneness energy and teachings, to initiate new blessing givers, and accelerate spiritual growth. November 25th-27th. Cost $225 for newcomers and $125 for blessing givers. The cost is reduced by $25 if you register and pre-pay by November 1st. Location and exact times to be announced. See below for a longer description of this weekend.

Events that are open to Blessing Givers only:

· I will be hosting Mukthi Deeksha sessions at my home on 10 Tuesday evenings from 6:30-8:30PM this Fall in preparation for 2012 :
1. September 13th, 20th, 27th
2. October 4th, 18th,25th
3. November 8th and 22nd
4. December 6th and 13th

· On Thanksgiving Day, Monday, October 10th , I will be hosting at my home a 21 Deeksha Healing Circle with Teaching ,Sharing and Dancing followed by a Potluck Lunch from 9:00 AM- 2:00PM

· On Saturday, December 17th, I will be hosting a Christmas Coffee Party from 10:00AM-12:00PM with blessings followed by good food and laughter.

Oneness Awakening Course

Updated post: September 7th, 2011.

The "Oneness" phenomenon started in 1989 in a small village in Southern India . There, children at the Jeevasham School began awakening spontaneously to their own inner God-Self. Later, they found they could transmit this state of self-realized consciousness to others via an energetic transference of divine grace called "Deeksha." Since that time the Oneness phenomenon has spread across the globe and people everywhere are similarly waking up to their own enlightenment, their inseparable oneness with all creation.

The Oneness Awakening Course is a direct outgrowth of the Oneness phenomenon. These courses, taught by Oneness Trainers affiliated with the Oneness University , can be thought of as a fast-track ticket to Awakening, Enlightenment, God-Realization. This course is open to the general public, is non-denominational and is not linked with any one religion. Participants come from all spiritual paths, religious affiliations or no religious background.

The next Oneness Awakening Course in New Brunswick will be held in Fredericton, NB November 25th-27th, 2011 Contact me at joan.doyle@rogers.com to register or receive a flyer with more details.

Receive The Oneness Blessing

As you watch & meditate upon this video
you will receive the gift of the Oneness Blessing ~
assisting in opening you to greater experiences of Oneness with all life.
With a heart full of gratitude simply ask to receive the blessing.

In this format on this page… the intent of the Oneness Blessing
to be transferred to you has been given. May your heart flower with unconditional love !

Vision of Oneness University

We are entering an unprecedented period in human history which offers a unique possibility for a rapid evolution in consciousness. It is our vision in Oneness to actively and consciously participate in these transformative energies and to take full advantage of the opportunity that is being offered. 2012 is not a date, but rather a very specific phenomena that humanity is called to take part in.

As an integral part of this vision, it is our goal throughout 2010 and 2011 to create as many new Blessing Givers as possible-- along with a strong group of Oneness Trainers-- in cities, states, and countries around the world. As we move into 2012 itself, we will begin to gather together—meditating and sharing the Blessing—and taking advantage of certain planetary energies to enter into higher states of consciousness. As we as individuals and groups move into these higher states, this naturally results in all of humanity awakening to its unique divinity, liberated from the limitations of the experience of separation.

It is not our belief that each and every human being will become fully enlightened or awakened in 2012. Rather, it is our vision that if we work together, we can help to jump-start the collective engine of human consciousness that, once started, will run automatically. Further, we see 2012 as a year with the greatest potential for spiritual practitioners of all traditions and paths to join together to create a ripple effect in the shared awakening of humanity.

What we see is that 2012 is not an endpoint—a fixed date on the calendar—where reality as we know it will be radically altered overnight. It is not our belief that we’ll wake up one day in another time and place, in an altered experience unable to recognize ourselves and those around us. Rather, each of us will have the opportunity to enter into a very personal relationship with this phenomena—unique to every individual.

It is our intention to build a worldwide community of individuals and groups who are committed to this vision of collective awakening and shift in global consciousness.
We invite everyone who resonates with this vision to work together with us-- as Blessing Givers, as Trainers, as those interested in Oneness-- to prepare for this phenomena of 2012 and to make conscious use of these unprecedented planetary energies in the service of global transformation and evolution.

2012 is not an end, but rather the beginning of a new phase in human evolution. It is the start of an ongoing global process which will continue throughout humanity’s future. After 2012 has come and gone, the Oneness Movement will dissolve. Each of us will go on with our lives, living in the reality of our connection with one another to create a new earth.

So regardless of your faith, belief, spiritual practice or path, let us all work together as one global family of people who want to help raise humanity's consciousness to higher levels of peace and connectedness. This shift cannot be done by one person alone, it requires the passion and effort of each person who feels strongly towards creating a better world.

We welcome everyone to help us in this Mission and Vision of 2012.

The Founders of Oneness University

Sri Amma and Sri Bhagavan are the global visionaries behind the Oneness phenomenon, whose lives have been dedicated to accelerating the release of human suffering and help people live better lives. To know SriAmmaBhagavan, as they are known to the millions who have benefited from their work, is to know the limitless potential of human existence when heart is aligned with intent in the loftiest aspirations for our world.

To know SriAmmaBhagavan is also to understand the realm of possibility beyond the human condition. Day after day, hundreds of individuals from all over the globe go to the Oneness University seeking peace, inner calm and an opportunity for contribution with the larger challenges facing humanity.

What they find is miraculous transformations; the release of deep trauma, the healing of broken relationships, the restoration of a sense of purpose, and even opportunities to recover from emotional and physical conditions through the energy of the Oneness Blessing.

Sri Amma was born on August 15, 1954, in Sangam Village, Nellore District, in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Her parents, Smt. Penchalamma and Sri Venkaiah Nadu, knew from very early in her life that theirs was an unusual child, precociously attuned to the needs of others, and clear in her acceptance of service as the ultimate joy. As she grew up, the young Amma was often found listening to the stories of families in crisis, assisting those families with material and spiritual help, and cultivating a relationship with the Divine born of a desire to be a vehicle so that others would receive the benefits of grace.

Sri Bhagavan was born on March 7, 1949, in Natham Village, Tamil Nadu, to Smt. Vaidarbhi Amma and Sri Varadarajulu Naidu, parents who fostered their son’s awareness of the role of divine grace in our lives. Already as a young teenager, Sri Bhagavan knew that the solution to the problems of our world must rest in the alleviation of the deep suffering that caused neighbor to hate neighbor, families to break up, and countries to threaten each others with war and extinction. His precocious vision allowed him to inquire into the causes behind human conflict with his probing intellect and his wise, knowing heart.

Sri Bhagavan saw that the root of conflict among human beings was not just about material suffering, but about the ravage that existential suffering could cause in the spirit of every man, from the poorest to the most successful. Sri Bhagavan studied the beliefs and history of the major religious and spiritual movements around the world, including Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. He discovered that dogma by itself left believers empty, for it could not provide the actual, live experience of the divine. He longed to find a way to help the common man to experience the profound connection to the divine that a mystic felt.

In the clarity of his understanding, Sri Bhagavan also saw that material conditions were peripheral to the reality of human suffering. They were not the root of the problem, but at some point they became entangled with the search for solutions. Many faiths advocated renunciation, while others yet advocated the search for prosperity. Sri Bhagavan came to conclude that these beliefs, in any form, were restrictions placed upon the human psyche and thus another layer of distancing from the actual experience of the divine was established. He was convince that to fully experience the Divine, humanity needed to be free of dogma and free of entanglements associated with values or expectation.

Throughout his youth, Sri Bhagavan took a deep intent (or sankalpa in Sanskrit) to find a way to help all men and women, regardless of their origin, belief, lifestyle of religious association, make that quick leap into an unimpeded experience of the Divine that was only previously available to mystics. He met Sri Amma and discovered that she had the same desire and intent, and they were married on June 9, 1976, and eventually had one son, Sri Krishna, whose intellect and devotion was a force behind the building of the facilities that house the Oneness Uinversity and the Oneness Temple.

With Sri Amma now as his partner, they founded the Jeevashram School in 1984, and this institution, devoted to educating and loving students in a holistic manner, became the cradle of the Oneness Blessing phenomenon. As the Blessing started pouring through their son and their young students, Sri AmmaBhagavan saw that this energy was given for the benefit of all humanity, not to liberate a chosen few, but to share the grace of the Blessing with anyone and everyone looking for transformation, healing, and a purposeful, joyous life. From the Jeevashram school and later the University, SriAmmaBhagavan created a body of teachings suited for the new earth in this new millennium.

The most intelligent, advanced and exquisitely simple teachings have been put forth as the offering of the Oneness University, and they have been embraced by everyone, from those who have never attended school to the highly educated and sophisticated. It is because in their language, their teachings are like rays of sunlight that alight upon every human concern and illuminate our understanding not just intellectually but also experientially. Sri AmmaBhagavan believe that experiencing is the requirement of a life lived in full, and that everything and anything, if experienced fully, regardless of how difficult or tragic, eventually turns to joy.

One Humanity, One Love

A prayer for peace at this holy season.
Let us all cultivate inner peace, which will then be reflected in the outer world as peace on earth.

Facing Personal Suffering

Here is a simple process to follow to awaken to your personal suffering, to experience it fully and to allow it to transform you into a wounded healer:

1. Identify a situation, a problem, an issue, a relationship, a challenge or stressor that triggers any emotional pain or charge for you.

2. List all the key words that describe what it is that you do not like about the situation, the person or the issue. What is it that you find most unacceptable? What are you resisting or rejecting? Allow yourself to be completely judgmental and blaming. Do not censor yourself. What is it that triggers or upsets you the most? At this stage in the process allow yourself to rant and rave as much as you want. But don't get stuck here !

3. When you are ready, let go of focusing on the outside situation for awhile and go inside to where you feel the impact of this issue in your bodily felt sensations. Allow yourself to simply attend to the energetic flow of emotional reactivity inside yourself without fighting it. What are the deep feelings stirred up in you by this outer circumstance? Take a moment to observe and notice the internal pain that comes up for you in response to this situation. Underneath your resistance to this situation, your rejection of the way it is, pay attention to and describe the layers of feelings - anger, fear and grief - that you would prefer not to be experiencing. Give yourself some space simply to acknowledge your inner experience without contracting against it.

4.Imagine for a moment that you are able to make complete peace with this situation without having to change or control anything about this situation or the persons involved. Imagine that you are able to completely accept and experience all your difficult, painful feelings about the situation without denying, suppressing or avoiding them, but simply by letting them be without resistance. What would life be like for you if you could simply allow yourself to experience your experience without struggling against it? Imagine that you are able to navigate this deep surrender to the way life is presently unfolding for you, and that it is safe to let yourself feel whatever is there.

5. Take a moment right now to invite into your awareness the difficult feelings you would prefer to avoid for all eternity and instead cultivate an unconditional acceptance of them as they are. Take a seat in the eye of the hurricane and allow all your unwanted feelings and bodily sensations to simply be as they are from moment to moment without fighting them in any way. Provide a compassionate holding environment for your inner experience. Let yourself be the way you are in the deepest possible way. Be deeply kind to yourself for a change. Stop the inner violence against your own human experience. Let yourself breathe and hold yourself with invincible tenderness. Notice both your suffering and your resistance to suffering. Hold it all with your Big Heart. As the feelings shift and integrate, pay attention to what you are being shown, what lessons you are learning, what wisdom you are gaining.

6. Ask the Divine from your heart for the grace and guidance to completely experience without resistance your unprocessed, undigested pain and thereby make peace with yourself, with others and with life as it is.

Being Peace : The Inner Skill of Not Taking It Personally

The key to remaining peaceful and non-reactive when others are behaving in ways you do not like is the inner skill of not taking it personally. Behaving non-reactively when you are triggered by another's actions comes from the cultivated ability to choose your response consciously, based on your vision of coming from compassion, rather than automatically and habitually reacting from anger or fear. Responding consciously rather than unconsciously requires that you move out of victim mentality or grievance mentality, in which you judge, blame and resent others for behaving the way they are, instead of the way you want them to.

There is no way to free yourself from victim or grievance mentality as long as you take it personally when others treat you in ways you do not like, when others somehow fail to meet your needs. Taking it personally makes it impossible to come from a place of detachment or compassion when the behavior of others displeases you. Taking it personally means that you believe that the way you are being treated indicates something bad about who you are, about your fundamental value or worth. Somehow the behavior of the other triggers unresolved issues concerning your own intrinsic goodness and worthiness to be loved. You are out of touch with your own inner wholeness and are dependent on the other to behave a certain way so that you can feel good about yourself.

This is what children do when they receive less-than-nurturing parenting. They internalize the hurtful behavior of their parents and blame themselves, concluding that there is something wrong with who they are, with their needs and feelings. They develop an unconscious self-hatred for being unable to get their needs met, for being human and vulnerable. The injury causes them to reject their own humanity, to judge themselves as somehow bad or wrong. A child is not able to see that their parent's behavior is not about them. Rather it is the parent's very human limitations, pain or woundedness that causes their unkind or negligent behavior. As the child matures it is possible for him or her to heal from the losses and unmet needs of childhood , to understand that any mistreatment or neglect he or she suffered was never about his or her fundamental goodness and worthiness. This healing process requires that the child integrate the experiences of childhood by completing the grieving process and releasing the layers of suppressed emotions - in order to accept one's own humanity and to forgive the humanity of one's parents.

So when people treat you in negligent or hurtful ways, you could practice seeing the lack of kindness as a symptom of their own inner tension and distress, and nothing to do with your fundamental goodness and worthiness to be treated well. This requires an ongoing commitment to be there for yourself when you are hurting inside, to give yourself empathy and to release your hurt and anger through the power of your own accepting loving presence, without giving in to the tendency to blame yourself or the other. There is a powerful psychospiritual principle at work here . Hatred never ceases through hatred but by love alone is healed.

Not taking it personally does not mean that you do not set healthy boundaries that honour your personal limits with people whose behavior is hurtful to you. It just means that you never have to throw people out of your heart, even if you decide not to have them in your life. It is always wise to be assertive in safeguarding your own wellbeing in relationship with others. Not taking it personally is not about being a doormat or allowing yourself to be exploited by others. Rather it is the internal reframing that you do to prevent yourself from blaming and judging others when their behavior is not to your liking. Mastering this ability to stay nonreactive allows the kind of deeper communication that can lead to conflict resolution.

The man who tailgates you and insults you as he passes in his car is simply acting out his own inner turmoil. He is unconsciously taking his pain out on you. Unloading his anguish and stress on you is his best attempt to reduce his tension and find some relief inside. If you take it personally, then you are allowing his emotional turmoil to enter your system and poison you. On the other hand, if you don't take it personally, you free yourself from the victim mentality, and you can send him a blessing of healing instead. You are being peace. As the song says " Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me".

With awareness and practice you can acquire increasing mastery over your own inner life, not being controlled by how others are behaving toward you. You start taking greater responsibility for your own happiness and peace, instead of depending on people and things outside of yourself to make you happy. This may not always be easy but it is the only path to inner peace, and peace in your relationships with others.

Sometimes pain or anger will still manage to surface despite your best intentions not to take things personally. Welcome to the human condition ! It is simply a signal that you have some more inner work to do before you are able to come from compassion in this situation. Every time you get triggered by another person's behavior is an opportunity to heal a charge that exists in your body/mind from past unresolved hurts. It is important not to beat yourself up for experiencing hurt and anger. It is equally important not to take your feelings out on others through blame and judgment.

The embodiment of compassion is the ability to keep your heart open to both yourself and others when painful feelings are triggered. The more we can learn to allow these feelings to pass through us without either self-blame or other-blame, the more freedom we will have over these feelings. We do not cling to them or push them away. We simply allow them to pass through us, all the while cultivating gentle lovingkindness toward ourselves and others in the process.

There is a famous teaching story about an empty boat that rams into your boat in the middle of the lake. While you probably wouldn't be angry at an empty boat, you might well become enraged if someone were at its helm. The point of the story is that the parents who did not validate you, the friend who betrayed you, the driver who tailgated you - are all in fact empty, rudderless boats. They were compulsively driven to act as they did by their own conditioning and unexamined wounds; therefore they did not know what they were doing and had little control over it. It is wise here to remember the words of Jesus as he was dying on the cross, "Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do."

Just as an empty boat that rams into us is not targeting us, so too people who act unkindly are driven along by the unconscious force of their own wounding and pain. Until we realize this, we will remain prisoners of our past hurts and our grievances in the present, both of which keep us from opening our hearts to the compassion that is possible when we refuse to judge and blame. Not taking it personally when someone hurts us is a profound act of compassion, for ourselves first of all. We get to realize that there is nothing wrong with us even if we have been treated badly. Also we can learn to relax and let be in moments when our first impulse is fight or flight

Zen biology lesson for enlightenment

This video points out graphically the essence of my message about detaching from and observing the contents of the body/mind. We mistakenly believe that we are breathing, but actually we are being breathed automatically. We mistakenly believe that we are thinking, but actually our thoughts are also happening automatically based on our cultural and familial conditioning, our stories. We can stop believing all our thoughts and taking our small separated selves so seriously. We can become free of small mind and awaken to Big Heart. It is time for humanity to let go of trying to control reality and surrender to the guidance of Spirit, the one source and essence of all that is, which is beyond thought, beyond the body/mind.

How to Become Free of the Ego

The ego exists out of the experience that life is not the way it is supposed to be. The ego is constantly whispering and sometimes shouting “ This isn’t it !”. The ego is constantly moving away from the present moment, resisting the simple experience of being here now, unable to relax safely and peacefully with things exactly as they presently are. The ego cannot accept the “what is”. The ego cannot accept reality. The ego is by definition unhappy and long-suffering. Only acceptance and love bring happiness – acceptance of self, acceptance of others, acceptance of challenges, acceptance of life as it is.

The ego lives in a perpetual state of control and contraction, in a desperate attempt to make life be the way it thinks it should be. The ego contracts and separates by resisting reality. The very nature of the ego is stress – rejection of the way things are. Cultivating awareness and acceptance and responsibility for one’s own inner state is the path to be free of the ego.

In awareness you are watching this moment. You are a detached observer of the contents of awareness – feelings, thoughts, perceptions, sensations. In order to watch this moment, you have to let go of resistance and allow it to be as it is. You have to accept that everything is as it is, whether you like it or not. It is futile to fight with the nature of reality. Fighting with reality is the essence of suffering.

First you have to let go of trying to control, take a deep breath, then you can watch. Then what you are watching no longer defines you and limits you and causes you to suffer. You realize that you are bigger, vaster and more spacious that the contents of your awareness. You are awareness itself - vast, spacious and free. You eventually become deeply allowing of the way things are. You start embracing the limitations of the human condition, and you start experiencing your true nature as love itself. By accepting your human nature, you discover your oneness with your divine nature. Once you discover your oneness with your divine nature, instead of being the controller, the resister, you naturally become a co-creator with the universe of a more highly evolved world. You step into your true power as a channel for peace.

Life is a constant test of faith and surrender - faith that everything will be okay if you stop trying to control this moment. Surrender is required because the world you know is constantly falling out from beneath your feet. Change is constant and often unpredictable. Death happens, loss happens, conflict happens. Gradually and sometimes suddenly, the illusion of being able to turn this moment into something else ceases and you are simply left with this moment. You discover that it is safe to let go and just be. From this place of stillness and silence and surrender, wisdom comes from within about the right action to take in the face of whatever challenge you are facing.

Once you let go of that constant urge to move forward, to move away from this moment exactly as it is, there is only relaxed nonreactive awareness, which is intrinsically accepting and blissful. That is where true beauty shines – in the simple joy of being, not requiring anything to be different in order to be at peace. It is awareness and acceptance that bring personal growth and eventually bliss. Mature spirituality is the deep humble allowing of reality to be as it is.

If you are aware and awake and responsible for your own inner state of acceptance, instead of unconsciously resisting the nature of reality, then you are free and blissful. Then you can become a powerful co-creator with the divine of a world that works for everyone, where you can effectively contribute to building a new earth based on a higher level of consciousness – free of ego.

Reflections on Compassion

1. Compassion is defined as a state of being aware of the distress or suffering of others together with a desire to alleviate it.

2. Compassion and empathy are foundational for natural ethics and positive social relationships.

3. Cultivating compassion is the single most effective way to make oneself psychologically healthy, happy and joyful.

4. As each of us strives to cultivate compassion we should be wary of confusing genuine compassion with nice behavior motivated by the wish to be liked. Many of us have unconsciously taken on certain interpersonal roles in order to evoke positive responses from others.

5. Another common obstacle to compassion is not taking care of ourselves. We cannot give others what we don’t have ourselves. We must approach the task of inner development in a practical way by assessing how much we can give to others without feeling stressed out, overwhelmed or depleted.

6. Boundaries play an interesting and sometimes complicated role in developing compassion. We need to become skillful at knowing when to apply boundaries and when to relax or release them.

7. Setting healthy boundaries involves saying no when not refusing likely would lead us to feel stressed out, hurt, resentful or angry. Healthy boundaries work against the negative patterns of compulsively pleasing or rescuing others, and involves protecting and taking care of ourselves. Each of us has to judge our own capacities and set our boundaries accordingly.

8. We must have compassion for ourselves before we can have genuine compassion for others. To develop meaningful compassion for ourselves , we have to be willing and able to stay deeply present to our own suffering and its causes.

9. The main cause of human suffering is what the Buddhists call “attachment”, desiring things to be a certain way instead of the way they are, an inability to let go, relax and be with things as they are. With attachment the underlying energy is one of grasping at things or persons outside yourself to bring you happiness. With compassion the main energy is an allowing of the way things are in spite of the suffering involved and a warm affectionate wish for well-being.

Letting go of Control on the Way to Freedom

Imagine a high mountaintop with an eagle’s nest on top of a crag. Far below is a deep valley. In its nest lives a mother eagle with its baby. Each day the mother eagle goes off in search of food, and after awhile returns to the nest to feed her baby.

One day the mother doesn’t come back. As hours go by, alone and hungry, the baby becomes anxious. Still the mother eagle doesn’t return. The baby’s anxiety turns to fear. “Why hasn’t she returned? I’ll starve here all by myself. Has she forgotten me?”

Just as the baby is becoming really terrified, the mother finally returns – with a mouse in her beak. But she doesn’t alight in the nest and push the food into the baby’s mouth as she had always done before. Instead, she perches on the edge of the nest, just out of the baby’s reach. From her beak the mouse dangles invitingly. The baby’s hungry eyes fix upon it ; on wobbly legs, he lunges forward. The mother eagle suddenly flies up, just out of the baby’s reach. The baby finds himself standing on the edge of the nest as the mother circles around in the air.

The baby begins squawking and complaining, confused and angry that his mother could be so cruel. Doesn’t she know how hungry he is ? The mother swoops down close to the baby and he lunges again at the mouse dangling from her beak. Again, at the last moment, she glides out of his reach.

This time, the baby’s lunge causes him to topple over the edge of the nest and he begins to fall – down, down, down toward the valley below, squawking, crying, struggling. He is shocked that his mother could just let him drop like this. She had taken such good care of him all those weeks in the nest.

The mother eagle is circling above, but she does not interfere with the baby’s fall. Down, down the baby eagle drops, tumbling, squawking, screaming at his mother. The valley floor grows closer and closer. The baby becomes angrier and angrier with his mother. How could she do this to him?

Finally, anger turns to terror as the baby realizes he is probably going to die. He glances at the approaching valley floor. There is nothing to do but give in to his fate. At the last moment, he puts his head into the fall and surrenders. As he does this, his wings relax and spontaneously stretch out. Miraculously , he begins to glide. He is flying ! He is free !

His mother now swoops down beside him. Together they soar up and up, high above the valley floor. Then she begins to teach him how to ride the air currents and soar even higher.

Just as the baby bird had to surrender and relax into falling in order to be able to spontaneously fly, we have to surrender and relax into the pain of our human situation, in order to evolve into the next step of our evolutionary journey. In order to be able to choose the relaxation response (trusting the divine) instead of the “fight or flight” reactivity response ( being controlled by ego), in order to choose to come from compassion when people are behaving in ways we do not like, we need to be able to accept the way things are right now, to make peace with reality as it is presently unfolding. We need to see very clearly that things are the way they are whether we like it or not, so the wisest course of action is to accept things as they are( forgive), until we can collaboratively figure out a way to make things better for everybody through peaceful communication.

Stages of grieving: Stages of healing: Stages of letting go: Stages of making peace with reality: Stages of death and rebirth : Stages of evolution
1. Physical resistance: Denial, shock, minimizing, repressing “ I just can’t accept it .”
2. Mental resistance: Bargaining: If only…
3. Emotional resistance: Anger
4. The darkness before the dawn : Despair
5. Acceptance ; surrender; letting go; forgiving; allowing, softening and opening; release and relief from suffering
6. Rebirth – a new sense of self with greater freedom to navigate life wisely
7. New beginning – a new life based on the more highly evolved you
8. New challenges- new surrenders into ever deepe

Giving Yourself Empathy

Giving Yourself Empathy

Learning to give yourself empathy is an essential skill of spiritual intelligence and maturity. Others may not always be there for you while you process your pain, but you can always be there for yourself. The inner skill of self-empathy allows you to stay centered and balanced in stressful interpersonal conflict situations.

Whenever you find yourself triggered by someone’s behavior, stop to give yourself empathy. If you cannot do it on the spot, freeze frame the moment and give yourself some belated empathy later. Listen for your feelings and unmet needs.

Self-empathy requires us to stop and be fully present to our internal experience. The essence of empathy is non-verbal. It is not thinking about what we are feeling. It is feeling what we are feeling, and being open to allow whatever flood of sensations is present without either shrinking away from it, trying to change it, or going up to our heads with it.

Self-empathy is not a quick fix; it is a process which may take time, and when allowed to come to completion will lead to personal growth, to higher and better ways of being in life. The integration (digestion, processing) of negative emotions leads to wholeness.

Self-empathy is full presence and acceptance of whatever feelings exist without either pushing them away (denying) or hanging on to them (prolonging). Wallowing is not being present to our feelings, but consists of prolonged thinking about them or about the circumstances that triggered us. Each of us needs to experiment and discover the nature of PRESENCE, of being present to feelings as opposed to denying or indulging them.

There is a powerful psychological principle at work here :
What you resist ( reject, disown, deny, push away, repress, suppress) persists.
What you accept ( allow, receive, embrace, open to, soften around)
transforms.
Examples: Anger becomes backbone; grief becomes compassion; fear becomes sensitivity, etc.

Self empathy is an aspect of conscious suffering. Conscious suffering erodes the ego and allows more of the luminosity of our true original nature of unconditional love to shine through.

Introduction to Meditation

What meditation is:
• Meditation/relaxation is simply being.
• Meditation is surrendering to your present experience, letting your experience simply be, in a very deep way.
• Meditation is letting go of trying to control your experience so you can feel better, letting go of manipulation.
• Meditation is accepting and being aware of whatever is happening in the now moment - thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions.
• Meditation is a process of allowing even the deepest pain to be okay.
• When you allow everything to be as it is in the present moment, your experience of being the controller starts to relax.
• You start identifying less with being me and identifying more with simply being.
• Real meditation is not about mastering a technique; it’s about letting go of control.
• The practice is to let go of the meditator, the controller, the ego, the manipulator, the seeker, the small separated sense of self.
• The meditator is the one who is trying to control experience, the escape artist who is trying to avoid pain and grasp at pleasure, the one who is trying to make something happen, the seeker, the one exerting effort.
• Awakening is going beyond the meditator, beyond the controller, beyond the manipulator, beyond the seeker.
• We cannot move beyond the false identity, the egoic identity, by trying to change. We move beyond it by accepting what is.
• When you start to let go of the meditator, the controller, the seeker, when you simply allow everything to be as it is, what you start to realize more and more deeply, is that the peace and stillness you are trying to attain, is already there.
• You can stop trying to attain bliss and simply relax into it, simply by allowing your experience to be as it is.
• Peace and stillness are totally natural states. Find out what happens when you give yourself to the peace that already is, to the stillness that already is.
• Meditation means being present. The more present you are, the more pleasure you feel. The more pleasure you feel, the more you automatically stay present to enjoy the pleasure. This is how meditation deepens, presence deepens.

What meditation can lead to:
• Spiritual awakening and enlightenment
• Waking up from the dream of separation to the truth of Oneness
• Profound self-acceptance and trust in the process of life
• The erosion of the ego
• Deep inner transformation
• Making peace with the past
• Unconditional joy
• Flowering of the heart
• Healed relationships

Why we meditate:
• To face and transform personal suffering
• To awaken to one’s true nature
• To experience oneness with the divine
• To have more ease, openness and relaxation in one’s life
• To live daily life in the same allowing way we meditate

Attitude and Posture:
• The two keys to deep relaxation and meditation are awareness and acceptance.
• It is preferable not to lie down for obvious reasons.
• Sitting in a particular position or on a meditation cushion is not the most important thing.
• Posture is meant to foster an inner sense of openness.
• Certain postures and hand positions actually open us emotionally and physically.
• The best position is an open posture with an erect spine and relaxed arms.
• What is most important is that you approach meditation with an underlying attitude of ease & openness & relaxation & simplicity.
• If you want to meditate with your eyes open, keep your eyes open. If you prefer them closed, close them.
• Effortless effort is needed to meditate. You need just enough effort to be present and aware, to be here now.
• Often just sitting in silence is enough- allowing what is, to be.

Techniques:
• Techniques and disciplines have been taught for hundreds and thousands of years, and certainly have some value and merit. However, they are various forms of control and eventually need to be let go of in order to be able to rest in simple being or presence.
• Some people follow their breath, some people say a mantra, some people do deep breathing, some people use visualization.
• These techniques are portals into presence , a means to an end, not an end in themselves.
• To engage these techniques at the beginning of a meditation session is fine. They are perfectly appropriate ways of bringing the mind into the present.
• Once your attention is in the present, then the invitation is to let go of these techniques and to start to relax into your natural state of being.
• The main focus of your attention should not be a technique but watching what happens when you allow everything to be as it is, when you allow yourself to let go of control.

Summary

When you let go of control and allow everything to be as it is – your natural tendency is to awaken. You are biologically, psychologically, spiritually designed to move toward awakening. When you let go of the control the ego has, the nature of your being is to awaken.

When you really start to let go, what needs to rise to the surface rises to the surface. What arises is, for the most part, unresolved conflict within you: emotions, sensations, and pains that you have never allowed yourself to fully feel. All of this arises in meditation. This unresolved material within you yearns to be experienced fully and will keep coming back until you do fully experience it.

You wake up to the reality of your being by relating with your human nature, embracing it fully, not by avoiding it. There is a strong tendency to constantly seek a way out of what you are feeling, to constantly resist pain and seek pleasure, to not accept yourself as you are. You try to control and manipulate anything that you think could cause you to feel things you do not wish to feel.

Until you can allow everything to be as it is, in the deepest possible way, in the most profound way, you are still involved in control. Awakening to oneness comes from letting go of control, from surrender.

You will not be able to get out of experiencing energetic or emotional pain. Personal suffering needs to be embraced. The process of embracing it dissolves the ego. At the root of all pain is the feeling that you are separate from everything else. It is what everyone feels at the core, yet everyone tries to avoid this feeling, this separateness, this aloneness, this emptiness, this longing. But it is in feeling this deep pain, or feeling whatever is there, that your heart opens and you experience your oneness with all that is.

Meditation is a practice that allows the awakening that wants to occur to occur. Three things are required: intention, effort and grace. Awakening is ultimately a gift of grace. The Oneness Blessing is a gift of grace, a spiritual energy that can greatly accelerate your process of awakening.

Joan Doyle
Oneness Facilitator
506-454-7500

True Self of Our Original Nature : Oneness with the Divine

The true Self of our original nature is that which is revealed when all striving ends.
Behind the conditioned habits of the ego - liking and disliking, grasping and fearing, striving and seeking; infinite love is waiting to shine.

This infinite love can be described as follows:
• A love that pays no attention to what kind of object is set before it
• A love that sees all things in the same light of perfection
• A love without end
• A love affair in which no otherness can be found, a love affair of the Self with Itself
• A love that is the vast spaciousness in which both suffering and joy, gain and loss, ill health and good health, conflict and harmony, birth and death, all occur
• A love which is the ground of being for all external experiences
• A love that is infinite, unconditioned, timeless, empty of content yet full, uncreated, unborn, undying