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Creating Bridges: Spirituality & Philosophy:
Lynn Andrews and The Path of the Heart
The Path of the Heart
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by Lynn Andrews |
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One of the great teachings of this particular time in history is to learn how to live one's life with the stress of three or four lives all at once and still maintain your center and your ease and your joy - a very, very difficult thing to do. But it is like a problem in logic, like a mathematical equation using trade beads. It can be done, but the right symbolism has to be learned. The right thoughts must be written for the outcome to be beautiful.
Agnes Whistling Elk, Shakkai: Woman of the Sacred Garden
Dear Friends,
One day when I was working with Shakkai, she led me to a pond in her Sacred Garden where there was a beautiful lotus blossom. She placed her hands lovingly beneath the water and held the lotus blossom up.
"See, my daughter, as you well know, this lotus blossom for a long time germinated in the mud, out of the mud into the light of day, into the magnificent, innocent flower that you see before you."
"I don't understand," I said.
"The chaos of life, the madness, the pain, the agony, the evil that surrounds the human condition on so many levels, is represented by the mud…. It is a miracle, isn't it, that something so beautiful as this lotus blossom could grow out of that mud? And yet it is so.
"Life is a miracle. The world is as it should be. It is so hard for us to find our way through the mud, to celebrate the innocence and the seeds of knowledge that we plant there. We must foster those seeds. We must find those seeds and give them life."
Sometimes it seems like such a gentle and loving act of power to delve down into the mud of my life and bring out an aspect of my own beauty that I have so longed to retrieve. I can work and work and work for something, and all of a sudden, often when I least expect it, it is there!
But there are other times when this can become so difficult. The Sisterhood of the Shields has always taught that it is the darkness which defines the light, that those who upset us most are our greatest teachers. It is one thing to read these words in a book and nod our heads in sage agreement. It is quite another when they rear their ugly heads in our lives and throw us into anger, fear, jealousy, confusion, sometimes even into terror, chaos and hatred. And then we are really down, mucking around in the mud, aren't we?
Darkness defines the light
I asked Shakkai about this during our work together.
"Don't you understand that the darkness defines the light?" she reiterated yet another time. "None of us is perfect. We are striving for perfection. By denying the darkness of our own souls, we create a negative energy in the world. All of us have felt jealousy and greed. All of us have lost our way at one time or another."
I remembered Agnes's words in Nepal when I had been so frightened by a healer in the foothills of the Himalayas. "Sorcerers never kill you," she had said. "They make you kill yourself." And I thought: Yes, you give away your power because of your own terror and your own fear.
Part of what we need to learn in this earthwalk is to relax and trust in the Great Spirit that everything you are doing and feeling is correct for the time. If you do not honor the dark side, then you will be ruled by the dark side. You must look at it and understand it, and then turn your face away and let the light be your guide. To understand the darkness does not mean you become it. Examine it carefully, knowing what it is made of, understanding its power and its limitations.
Like all things, it is a choice. You can choose your bad habits. You can choose to waste your energy by being muddled and retracing old mistakes, or you can move on into the world of power and take your stand as a woman or as a man in this universe. Choosing to move into the light, into the world of power and of love is a true act of power.
Through all the veils of ignorance, the truth and goodness of life and nature will survive. With each act of power that you perform, the light on earth is increased a tiny, tiny bit. It is like looking to the bamboo and seeing the morning light reflecting off the pond. It brings you closer to home.
So don't be afraid when you find yourself down in the mud of your life. Delve into it deeply; there are seeds of a very beautiful person calling to you to be nurtured and loved, and brought into the light! Then you will become the beautiful lotus blossom which you truly are at the center of your power, as you move your life into joy!
Life, itself, is sacred.
During the time that I was working with Shakkai, I sat for many hours with my teachers Agnes Whistling Elk and Ruby Plenty Chiefs, going over the teachings of this magnificent woman of knowledge and integrating them into all of our work together, all that we had created and continue to create.
During one of these sessions, Agnes said something to me that I found to be so stunning and so very healing in its sheer simplicity. I would like to share this teaching with you once again. In doing so, I ask you first to take what you have learned from our work with Shakkai over the past several weeks and sit with it, reflect on it. Place it on the Sacred Wheel and look at your healing all around the Wheel.
Then take the following passage and place it in the center of your Sacred Wheel. Meditate on it; find the mirrors that are hidden here as you look at your healing around the Sacred Wheel, until you are moved to the place of pure wonderment and joy! Anchor yourself in that place; and anchor those feelings of wonderment and joy at your center, so that you will know what it truly feels like to be in balance in this life, to find your way home!
"My daughter," Agnes said to me as she placed her hand very gently on my shoulder. "We make such a drama out of life. For some reason the human being has to develop an extraordinary ego just to exist. Because of that ego, we think we are better than the flowers, better than the animals and the birds, and certainly better than other human beings and races that are not our own, but in fact life is simply life, and life is sacred. Beyond anything, life is sacred. In a sense, I wish I had another word for 'sacred.' It is given to so many things that are really not special, but I think that, because of these experiences, you will begin to understand that there is a sacred form to everything. There is a reason, as I have said so many times, for all the pain and terror we experience as a result of the societies we live in. These societies don't have much to do with the greater vision of existence, do they?"
As Ruby Plenty Chiefs said to me during another of these sessions, "When you feel the presence of great truth, when you have an opening of light, like an eye seeing something that it has never seen before, it is, perhaps, a glimpse of perfection and beauty. And then the eye closes and that vision is extinguished. You cannot describe that vision, because to describe it exactly is to destroy it, to destroy its power and to lose it. When you describe such a magnificent happening, you must circle it, just as a story that is stalking you circles you. You must describe it in a circular fashion, because all life is a circle, and to reach truth, we must move within that sacred circle. When you move in such a way, you create an atmosphere for truth to live. You create a mirror that people can look into if they choose. Perhaps they will not see exactly the same truth that you saw, but they will find a truth that relates to their own evolving selves.
Life is simply life, and life is sacred. Beyond everything, life, itself, is sacred.
Creating an act of beauty
"Sit by this pond and meditate on the unity of your body, as you will, and visualize this eight-petaled lotus flower. Meditate carefully. Gather your energy and your spirit. Let your mind be at ease. Meditate until you feel the essence of the flower that is truly a reflection of your own essence. See it blooming within your womb. This is the beginning of a long process, so take your time. When you feel accomplished, come into the house and we will share tea together. Take your time. If it takes a day or a night or an hour, let it happen as it will."
This was Shakkai's instruction to me after she gave me the teaching of bringing the lotus blossom out of the mud of my life. And it is the instruction that I now give to you, having spent the past six weeks working in the mud to bring out the beautiful flower that is truly the reflection of your own essence!
The Sisterhood of the Shields has always taught, and I have always found that when we experience these moments of awakening and of beauty and of truth, it is important then to create an act of beauty to manifest them into our lives. That is something which we do every year as part of our celebration and gathering at Joshua Tree!
It is also something that would be important for you to do after working with the teachings of Shakkai as we have just done. Once you feel the essence of the flower that is you, and see it blooming within your womb - whether you are a man or a woman, there is a place within you where truth and beauty are born, and that is the place where you will find this flower - it will be important for you to create an act of beauty to manifest your truth into form, for all time. It can be as simple as a painting on a rock, or as complex as your own captured landscape. But create something to manifest your newfound truth into the world.
"When you speak of truth, when you speak of the beauties of wisdom and knowledge, it is very difficult to contain that knowledge within the confines of a word or two, or a sentence, because each word, each innuendo of sound, means something different to each person who speaks it and who hears it. We are talking about communication, in a sense, with the Tao, with our creator. To manifest a truth into the world is sometimes better done through art. You can express through art the subtleties of form and color and brush stroke. A stone placed a certain way in a garden stimulates a sense of knowing that is indescribable, that is beyond the spoken word. It is like poetry. The real truth of poetry is between the words, between the lines." Shakkai.
My book Shakkai, Woman of the Sacred Garden was written to open doors in your heart and give you strength to redefine your own feelings about life, death, and your sacred path of evolvement. I hope that you have enjoyed working with these teachings.
Shakkai is currently out of print, although if you click on "Shakkai, Woman of the Sacred Garden" in the Retail section of my website you will find a hyperlink to places on the internet where you can still purchase a copy.
I am in the process of bringing this wonderful book back into the world, and it has been my pleasure to reawaken these teachings of the last two months' columns in preparation for the book's return. I trust that you have found them to be useful!
In Spirit,
Lynn V. Andrews
Full Bloom
Summer is the season of full bloom. All the seeds that you have planted into our Earth Mother will show themselves to you now. Summer brings the magnificence of all that you have conceived and planted, presenting itself to the world. Your colors are bright in summer. They are presented with a depth of appreciation, beauty, and gracefulness for the accomplishment that is there. Summer is filled with appreciation for what you have done, for your accomplishment, for your growth, and for your strength to move toward the spiritual light of creation, the celebration for the harmonies and the balance that exist in all of life.
Summer is a time of mirrors. To see your own reflection within your symbolic creations takes stillness and action at the same time. As you nourish your planting with movement, you still the storm of mind chatter and emotional confusion in your heart and settle the wind inside you. Only a gentle breeze of spirit is needed to turn the flowering toward you so the mirrors can be seen.
These mirrors celebrate your reflection and teach you what is needed to complete the cycle of seasons in the fall and winter. The summer solstice is a ritual of flowering and pruning. The end of summer is the fulcrum balance point for the seasonal year.
For the warrior of spirit, summer is a time to shoot your arrow toward the target you have chosen, and let the arrow take flight. It is a time of power.
During the summer, may you gther your forces for the reaping of what you have created. May you manifest the sacred weaving of your life into reality. May you celebrate all the beauty and vibrant color that you are.
Go to Lynn Andrew's June Power deck Card and the prayer for summer |
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Lynn Andrews,
Shaman, Author & Lecturer
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Internationally acclaimed author, preeminent teacher and 21st century shaman, Lynn Andrews has written 18 books and created The Power Deck, audio meditations, and videos.
Lynn Andrews offers a variety of opportunities to work with her at her annual events and through online courses She also offers a degree program and a 4-year mystery school. CE credit is available for nurses and therapists. Lynn is available for private phone sessions.
For information about Lynn Andrews' Mystery School, events including Joshua Tree and Hawaii, Online Courses, or to schedule a phone call with Lynn please call 1-800-554-7414 (US), or 1-213-683-3804 (international), or visit Lynn's website at www.lynnandrews.com/.
www.lynnandrews.com
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