The Grand Ilusion

The grand illusion is that there is absolute good and absolute evil.

This is not the case.

It is simply a matter of perspective.

Let’s take the destructive principle of the Universe as an example. Destruction breeds creation. It is a necessary part of existence, of life itself. Without it, there is no contractive, limiting force to maintain the structure of things, and so everything would simply burst forth as an explosion of light.

To the destructive principle, the creative principle appears as evil. It attempts to sabotage the destruction, to expand, evolve and grow. Destruction is constantly fighting against it in an ongoing battle. It can’t let it take over, lest the Universe and all of life cease to exist.

Now let’s take the creative principle as an example. It is obvious how the creative and expansive force is necessary for the existence of this Universe. Without it, of course, there would be no existence, no creation. Everything, if it were to even exist in the first place, would collapse in on itself. All that could be would be a field of darkness, pure unmanifested potential resting in awareness.

To the creative principle, the destructive principle appears as evil. Destruction is always threatening the existence of creation, and together they fight in order to maintain themselves. Creation constinuously resists destruction, it pushes against it so that it can survive and thrive within this Universe.  

In this way you can see how, no matter what perspective you are in, it is easy to see yourself as “good” and that which opposes you as “evil”, when in fact, neither are real and neither are true. The apparent battle taking place is the constant ebb and flow of polar aspects, both maintaining the existence of this Universe simultaneously. Because our Universe is polarized, it is binary, so both the destructive and creative forces revolve around each other in unison. At their core is the primordial essence, the pure consciousness which gives birth to all of creation.

So, beings who resonate more with the dark or destructive aspect of the Universe view the light or creative aspect of the Universe as evil and do all they can to fight against it and attempt to defeat it. The beings who resonate more with the light or creative aspect of the Universe do the same.

The reason why the light so often wins is because Universal expansion is favored in this Universe at this time. If destruction were favored, the Universe would be collapsing in on itself, and this is not the case. So because the creative or light principle is favored within this Universe, at least in this time-space reality within the third dimension, humans themselves are a light, creation oriented species. We resonate with creation, with love and light, freedom and expression. Destruction and contraction hurts us, it inhibits the free flow of our creative faculties and sabotages our capacity to thrive. So we view it as “evil” and we fight against it. It is not truly evil, but I suppose that you could say it is a necessary evil, at least relatively speaking.

Ultimately all of creation is moving back towards merging with oneness. The job of destruction is to prevent this at all costs. To maintain the separation, the ignorance, the delusion. It is beautiful. The divine game that we play. Without it, we could never know ourselves as the One. The eternal and primordial essence of all that is, both the creation and the destruction, both the creator and the created, both the awareness and the experience. You are your own worst enemy and your own best friend, and in the end your worst enemy was actually your very best friend all along ;) Much love

What Is Enlightenment REALLY?

We have this false notion that enlightenment is a state of perpetual bliss. It is the complete transcendence of all negative states/feelings and the abiding in a state of constant love, peace and happiness. It is the eternal ecstasy of some heavenly nirvana. This could not be further from the truth.

Enlightenment is not found in removing oneself from the ups and downs, the highs and lows of daily existence, but instead it is found in learning how to ride these waves with ease, grace and effortless flow. Instead of trying to become free from something, you become free with the very thing you were trying so desperately to escape. You recognize the underlying freedom that was always your inherent truth, your essential reality beyond the surface level of constant change, of gain and loss, birth and death. And thus you are able to transcend suffering, which always stems from a resistance to what is in the here and now.

Enlightenment is not about reaching a finish line, but instead it is about committing to a process, it’s about improving 1% every day, it’s the small steps that lead to great strides and shifts within oneself and the collective. Yes, enlightenment is found in the here and now, as this is all there ever is, but at the same time, the here and now is perpetually expanding, at least in terms of its manifested aspect, and so your degree of enlightenment is perpetually expanding as well.

You could look at presence, the awareness of the eternal now and the recognition of yourself as pure formless consciousness, as the foundation of a building. With this foundation, you are free to build the actual structure of the building in whatever way you so choose. It is like the parable given by Jesus, of the man who built his house on the sand and the man who built his house upon the rocks. Yet the foundation is only one aspect of the creation itself. The building can always be improved upon, it can always be refined and reformed, made more beautiful, more magnificent, more perfect. There is no end to its expansion into greater levels of divine brilliance. The process is eternal, it is infinite.

Enlightenment is a receding horizon. The closer you get, the more you realize that there is still further to go. It is a reflection of the divine paradox, being that you are already whole, complete and perfect in this moment, yet simultaneously you can always improve, learn more, do more, better yourself into an even more perfect reflection of the most high. There is no end to the infinite potential that you are.

Enlightenment can also be found in all areas of life. There is enlightenment in art, in music, in health, wealth, fitness and relationships. This enlightenment comes from gaining a greater understanding and awareness in these areas of life, both informationally and experientially. It is the path of mastery. Like the old christian term gnosis, meaning knowledge. This divine and sacred knowledge was recognized as the key to salvation. Knowledge of one’s true identity as the one eternal God Self, and knowledge in all areas of human existence in which one wishes to thrive.

So enlightenment is not some elated retirement, it is not the party after arriving at the finish line, instead it is a dynamic process, it is a flow, a surrender to the expression of life force energy emanating from the One, allowing divine grace to carry you where it will, wherever is in the highest divine order for your greatest enlightenment.

Much peace and love,

Bodhi

Becoming A Spiritual Badass

I think a problem with many modern spiritual movements is that they lack a certain intensity. They oftentimes lack what I like to refer to as the “warrior spirit”. The warrior spirit, to me, is the intensely overwhelming drive to have a cause, to have a foundation of values and beliefs that you are willing to fight for, and ultimately die for. Nothing is more important than your mission, your divine purpose upon this Earth. That is, to clarify the collective aura of human consciousness, to uplift the masses to a space of transcendence, to a space of enlightenment. It is the eradication of conflict, of evil and unconscious transgressions. It is the evolution of all beings to a space of wholeness, oneness and love. Unified connection with all living beings upon this Earth and connection to the life-giving essence which breathes itself into all of existence.

To me, this is not something which should be passively prayed to or meditated upon, but something that must be actively fought for. This spirit and intensity is brilliantly articulated in Dylan Thomas’ famous poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”. In it, he uses the saying “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” This is the essence, the embodiment of the divine masculine, the warrior spirit within.

Now is the time to reclaim the warrior spirit, to take the knowledge and wisdom of our ancestors, the fierceness and pioneering will of the indigenous peoples of this planet, and to wield it on the path of personal and collective liberation from suffering. This is not a time for sitting around or floating about like a leaf in the wind. We need direction, we need action, we need movement. We need massive shifts taking place on this planet right now. The foundation has been lain, and now is the time to build!

The warrior harnesses all the trials and tribulations of human existence, all the pain and challenge and struggle, and uses it as the fire to fuel his mission. It is the heat that melds the metal into a perfect instrument, the proverbial pressure that molds diamonds from dust. It is not viewed as an obstacle or detriment, but rather as a divine gift. Too many people yield to the challenges presented to them, they fall down in the face of great opposition, and give up far too soon. Many quit when they were just centimeters away from the finish line and they didn’t even know it.

So find the thing that you are willing to die for and make it your mission to spend every waking moment, every breath, thought and action toward developing yourself on the path to your highest goal. When one fully commits and has the audacity to follow through with their mission, seas will part, mountains will move, and all manner of synchronistic events will line up to support you on your path to enlightenment. So be the wayshower, take the action, and watch the miracle unfold!

Divine peace and love,

Bodhi

Divine Relationship

There seems to be a popular belief in spiritual circles that enlightenment is a singular, individuated path. It is a path which one walks alone, and the need for or attachment towards other people is merely an obstacle on the way. I personally would beg to differ.

I view enlightenment as a collective journey, in which all parts of the Self move to reunite with the whole. If only one aspect of Self reunites with the whole, this is not true enlightenment. Yes, it a step towards total union, but so long as other aspects of the Self have yet to awaken and merge with the Source, the job is not yet complete.

In buddhism, there is a term for a specific type of awakened being known as the bodhisattva. This class of awakened being attains enlightenment and thus reaches nirvana, yet from that space of total oneness, peace and bliss, chooses to come back and reincarnate in order to assist other beings on their journey home. This being knows that all parts of the Self are aspects of him/herself, and through this knowing understands that true enlightenment is not attained by oneself but it is attained collectively.

Nothing in this Universe can exist without relationship. If there is only one point, one singularity of consciousness, there is no relationship. Yet as soon as two points exist, that is the beginning of relationship. Everything in existential/experiential reality is subject to relationship. You have a relationship with your thoughts, your emotions, your body, other people, even with yourself, or at least you temporal, physically incarnated self. The atoms, molecules and cells which make up your body all exist in relationship to each other. Reality is nothing but the dynamic interplay of relationship, all parts relating to the others.

So relationship is not a choice, and it is certainly not an obstacle to enlightenment, it is a divine necessity. We need relationships, we need each other, or nothing could exist at all. The way to enlightenment, really, is through the perfection of our divine relationships. The way in which we relate to everything in our experience. The journey home is a journey of connection, not only connection with the formless and eternal awareness, but connection to the everythingness of manifested existence.

So the greatest practice one can partake in on the journey of awakening is the practice of unconditional love in all of their relationships. Where there is resistance, annoyance, hate, or irritation, this is your sign that there is still work which needs to be done. This does not mean to put up with abuse or to involve yourself in relationships which do not serve you, as this is not practicing unconditional love in the relationship with yourself. It simply means that all which arises in your experience is met with love, acceptance, and understanding, especially the parts which emotionally trigger you the most.

Enlightenment truly is not a separate process, but a unified one. Without total unity, there is no enlightenment, there is no true realization of Self. Awakening occurs through the dynamic process of divine relationship, of divine union with all aspects of Self. It is the recognition of the other as ultimately one with the Self, and through this realization the arising of unconditional love.

Moving Through Emotional Pain

Every human carries an imprint of emotional pain due to the fact that we learn to repress, deny and dissociate from painful emotions as a coping mechanism. This results in an energetic density which holds us in patterns of suffering and ego identification. That is, the density has a gravity just like any other mass within the Universe and this gravity pulls us into identifying with it and creating mental stories that feed it.

The pain-body fractals itself through pulsations in the waveform of your reality experience. This results in your life feeling like a skipping cd, replaying the same old pain and trauma over and over again. It feels as if you can’t escape from these negative holding patterns no matter what you do. No surface level actions or rearranging of things will bring you freedom from these patterns. It requires diving deep into the core density and dissolving it from within.

The key to moving past the obstructions that keep one stuck in suffering is absolute presence with the emotions as they arise and full acceptance of the pain. You will notice the mind attempting to distract you from the pain, as it fears it, the way in which the ego fears death. Just witness the mind’s antics and come back to conscious witnessing of the feeling. Do not let yourself go into stories about the feeling, but rather observe it fully without any mental dialogue.  

Be conscious of any shame you may feel as you go through this process. Shame is a surface level reaction pattern which keeps one from moving fully into the dense and heavy emotions and transmuting them through presence, thereby disidentifying from them and achieving a higher level of enlightenment.

The densities that we hold onto prevent us from feeling truly content in the moment and experiencing the type of life that we really desire. The energetic frequency of our pain reflects itself in our conscious thought processes and causes us to focus on the opposite of what we desire, making us believe that we can’t have the life we truly want. This is merely an illusion however and as soon as you bring presence into these emotional contractions that take place within your field, following them to the root of the core imprint, you will began to think, feel and believe that the life of your dreams is not only possible but is your current, living reality. You merge into the perfection that is the now.

Spiritual Impotency- Heeding the Call to Action

Over many years of investigating different spiritual beliefs, techniques and practices, I have come to find that the modern spiritual movement and its practices tend to be overly yin. Approaches devised for manifesting, healing and transforming one’s life involve quite a bit of passivity and very little overt action taking. Instead of being active players in the world, we instead sit back, relax, and wait for things to change. It is my belief that the time for meditating in a cave is over. Taking massive, intelligent and powerful action is the only real solution to creating world change and a society that we all actually want to live in.

A good example of spiritual impotency and passivity would be the most popular approaches toward utilizing the “Law of Attraction”. Many teachers say that all you have to do is visualize what you want and feel as if it is already a reality or you, and then it will just come to you effortlessly. They under-emphasize the value of hard work and dismiss the importance of hard and fast action taking. Then people become frustrated with the results they are getting and throw the baby out with the bath water. They start to believe that they don’t actually create their own reality. But wait a second. They forgot the other half of the equation. The inward psychology is only the foundation while the subsequent action you take is the structure that emerges forth into the world. Without it, there is really no point in having a foundation in the first place.

Then take a look at popular methods for dealing with intense emotions. Just sit with the feeling, go deeply into it, feel it fully. Observe it fully without any resistance and in doing so it will dissipate and transform. For me, this has been some of the biggest bullshit that I have ever come across. Focusing more on the feeling or the emotional pain would often times just drag me deeper into it. It wasn’t until I claimed my power and even got a little angry that I began to shift out of these depressive states via movement and taking action towards my goals and desires. I’m not saying that there is no place for being with yourself, the Universe is a blend of yin and yang energies and both are absolutely necessary for the functioning of the whole, we have just placed too much emphasis on yin practices and neglected the yang.

If your energy is naturally quite yin, this is not as much of a problem. But for men and women with potent masculine energy and drives, this can be incredibly destructive. Their approach to life becomes overly passive and they wonder why they feel depressed. This has been me for most of my adult life. I would sit around passively trying to change my life by going inward, feeling my feelings fully, and imagining a more ideal life. This was a decent starting place and had it’s use, but when the time came to move, to take action, to even get a little fired up and feel a sense of urgency to make a positive change in myself and the world at large, I just kept practicing the same impotent, yin techniques for life improvement and spiritual growth. And my life became a living hell.

This impotent approach to life creates men and women (especially men) who are, for lack of a better word, wussies. They don’t really stand for anything, they don’t hold strong to core values and beliefs, and they don’t take radical action on a daily basis to create the type of reality and world that they truly desire. Instead, they listen to society, institutions and the media, they work jobs to support a dysfunctional and ego-based economic structure, and they wait around hoping someone in the government or politics will change things for the better. And it never happens.

“If you don’t have something that you are willing to die for, then you aren’t really living at all”

In this world, you have to take action if you want to get anything done. While aligned action is by far the most effective and having a positive focus and emotional awareness is certainly of tremendous value, nothing ever happens until something moves. That’s the bottom line. If you feel stuck in your spiritual progress and in achieving your goals, try implementing some more yang practices into your day to day life. Take action, do something that scares you, practice cathartic release exercises, speak out and express yourself, vocalize your authentic truth and do not give a single fuck about what anyone thinks. Then watch things change.

The Power of Thought

The reality that you experience is a by-product of the thoughts that you think. Thoughts are information, or psycho-emotional impressions that over time imprint themselves upon the subconscious mind.

If thoughts are seeds, your conscious mind is the top-soil whereas the subconscious is all that is underneath. The origin of a thought could be likened to dropping the seed on top of the soil. Over time, the seed begins to sprout roots, and as it is watered and nurtured, the roots spread deep beneath the ground and into the subconscious mind.

The most frequently experienced and practiced psycho-emotional impressions become deep-seated core beliefs. These are often rooted by intense, traumatic experiences that happened during childhood. The vibrational signature of that experience created a recurring reflection in your external reality, which reflects your thoughts back to you.

Even more impactful than individual traumatic experiences were the constant impressions being made upon you by your family and the environment that you grew up in. You could think of these as the seeds that got the most water, sunlight and nutrients. Although the sustenance itself, in this case, is the attention and focus of your consciousness.

“Where attention goes, energy flows...and something grows.”

The more attention is focused upon a thought, the more energy it is fed, and the more it grows. This is the case regardless of the nature of the thought: whether it be positive, negative, or anywhere in between. It will begin to express itself in manifested reality in increasingly prominent ways.

Attention equals intention, and your intention is what your life becomes. There is not a force in this Universe more powerful than conscious intention. Remember that.

The Heart is the Way

"The heart is the space where desire meets will, where sexuality meets psychology, where yin meets yang. It is the conglomeration of mind and body, and together in unison they overcome each other to a transcendental state of pure loving bliss." 

 

The life experience of a human being can be summed up by three phenomena; mind, body and emotions. In other words the physical, mental and emotional experience. All three are intimately intertwined and interdependent. They are inseparable from one another yet can still be contextualized in a sense as three independently unique phenomena.

The heart is the center point of one’s life experience and the storehouse of all emotions. It is the starting point for your human incarnation and the primary point where spirituality and physicality unite. Therefore, the heart is the space for transcendence. The mind can mislead you, the body can even mislead you, but the heart never will. It is pure and unadulterated intelligence, far beyond the comprehension of the mind.

An open heart is the solution to all problems in life. Problems are an aspect of resistance, and resistance always begins with a closed heart. One cannot have their heart open and experience suffering and resistance simultaneously. The two are mutually exclusive. So the key is to focus on opening the heart and surrendering to the flow of life, which literally occurs in the heart as the flow of blood throughout your physical organism. When you do this, your resentments, judgments and confusions will melt away into a simple heart-centered compassion. All is allowed in the open space of your heart’s embrace.

You know your heart is truly open when your love and acceptance is unconditional. That is, it is not dependent on external or experiential phenomena manifesting itself in a certain way. There is no “should” when it comes to love. It is just there, no matter what, independent of whatever may arise.

The challenge is to keep your heart open in a world that is mostly closed. We have all been hurt and as a result have built walls around our hearts. The harshness and callousness of our collective society as a whole is a reflection of this internal state. So to keep one’s heart open in even the harshest of circumstances is great spiritual practice.  By doing so, you lead by example and give others an opening into a heart centered world view that will literally create heaven on Earth.

Should you catch yourself closing your heart off in fear, just remember that even this needs to be loved with self-compassion and forgiveness. The walls we have built around the heart to protect us have kept us safe in a harsh and unstable world. We felt too vulnerable to leave our hearts open as children and were hurt so many times by those we loved and thought loved us that we chose to close ourselves down. But we needn’t perpetuate this cycle anymore. To open the heart is a simple choice. Surrender above all, allow and accept all as it is, recognizing its inherent perfection and welcoming it with an unconditional embrace. Breathe it in deeply into your heart and feel yourself opening with each breath. That is the pathway to freedom.