AWARENESS - DURING THE DAY AND NIGHT

A piece from my teacher, Ramesh Balsekar, on Awareness.

When we are aware that we are unaware, there is awareness.

The greater the presence of awareness, the less the mind struggles to find peace.

This can lead to a more restful ease, both day and night.

Enjoy. Love ~ Erin

AWARENESS – DURING THE DAY AND NIGHT

RAMESH BALSEKAR
(A Buddha's Babble, Zen Publications, 2006) 

During the day when I am aware, what happens is that I am alive, living, moving, vital; in that state there is no question of any conflict, any choice to be made. When, however, I am not attentive, not really aware of what is, then I become self-centered, nervous, anxious, and I fall back into despair.

Satsang in Mumbai, India

When I see I have not been aware, there is awareness. To be aware that I am not aware is awareness. In awareness, there is complete harmony; harmonious and integrated, then there is no division between the me and the other, between the observer and the observed. When there is no harmony there is fragmentation and a big divide between the “me” and the “other” – “me” against the “other.” When there is harmony, when there is awareness, there is the total intelligence that every individual human being is an instrument through which the Source functions and brings about whatever is supposed to happen according to Cosmic Law.

Is there an awareness when one is asleep as there is when one is awake? If one is aware during the daytime in patches, then that continues when one is asleep, this is obvious. But when one is aware – aware that one has been attentive, a totally different movement has taken place. Then when one is asleep there is an awareness of total stillness. When the mind is deeply aware during the day, that awareness in depth keeps the mind quiet during sleep. When you are awake during the day and aware of your unawareness, then at the end of the day, there is no disorder. Then the brain does not have to struggle during the night to bring about the order. The brain becomes totally rested and quiet and the next morning the brain is totally alive and vibrant. All that is necessary is to be aware of the unawareness whenever it happens.

Erin Reese is a writer, astrologer, and intuitive consultant based in the San Francisco Bay Area. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her here.

Earth Day Readings by Donation and other news!

Day hike along the coast

Earth Day Readings by Donation

Just for today!

HOW: Email your single question (one question per donation, please) directly to me, along with any specifics about your situation that I might need to know. I will respond within 24-48 hours with a personalized write-up of your intuitive reading, plus full-color photograph of the Tarot cards drawn for your question.

You may also request your reading via Skype or phone appointment.

WHEN: Send your question/request to me by end of day (midnight) April 22, 2013.

I’m looking forward to reading for you.

Preserve and Protect

Yesterday, I celebrated new life and new beginnings by taking a long walk along the beach. It was a gorgeous California day in the old surf town of Pacifica. Kids, dogs, hippies and hard-working average folks were out in full force barbecuing, playing in the sand, watching the surfers, and just plain getting down ‘n dirty with the beloved Earth. I returned home Sunday night a much happier camper: my face slightly sunkissed with new color, my heart hopeful and more buoyant. I had been infused with a great dose of GREEN, the color of the heart chakra, the color of trees and other plants which provide oxygen for our planet, the color of healing.

Playing "Holi," Indian festival of spring

During my sunset stroll, I gave thanks for the California Coastal Act of 1976 and the California Coastal Commission (CCC), established in 1972 with the mission to “protect, conserve, restore, and enhance the environment of the California coastline." Of all California’s environmental laws, the Coastal Act has one of the most obvious effects on our surroundings. Without this Act we would be having a hard time enjoying the pristine shores and the splendor of the Pacific along Highway 1. Sometimes laws, boundaries, regulations do exactly what they intend to do: preserve and protect life.

How can we preserve and protect that which is good for our hearts and well-being this spring? Do we know when to nourish relationships and our bodies? Do we know how to regulate the fighting warrior energies within ourselves in order to heal and to grow a new leaf? I've done a lot of this lately: beach strolls, hikes in the forest, and celebrating the Indian festival of spring, Holi, with the kids in the park. Now is the time of Taurus, the earthy Bull, and spring is in full bloom. Let’s foster what is necessary to live a healthy, rich life.

News Flash!

Bindi Girl’s at Book Passage

My India travel book, The Adventures of Bindi Girl, is now available for purchase at the much-loved-by-local-authors Bay Area bookstore, Book Passage.

If you don’t have a paperback version yet, why not consider stopping by their shop in Corte Madera or the San Francisco Ferry Building to pick up a copy? (When they know people want it, they’ll keep it in stock!)

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Love,

Erin

The Alchemy of Completion

Temperance (Alchemy) tarot card

If you’re at all like me, you’re a restless, adventurous spirit. This does not always stem from dissatisfaction with the way things are; it comes from being energetic, creative, growth-oriented, and ALIVE. I am motivated and excited by life when I’m learning, changing, and accomplishing new things. When Life is seemingly stagnant, I get nervous, edgy, and fearful that – for shame! – I’m getting stuck. And being stuck is a death knell for adventurous people!

But sometimes, the path to the next adventure is not clear – at all. We have no idea what Life is telling us. Life is holding out on delivering our next big mission, our next vision. We may be asking the right questions, we might be making a bucket list, we might be asking the Divine, our dreams, or our friends for guidance. But nothing comes. We grumble and fret: “Am I dead? Is life over already?”

If we’re feeling stuck or just plain tired of coasting (because that gets boring too) and we’re clearly restless, there might be another solution:

THERE’S SOMETHING YOU NEED TO FINISH.

Yes, finish. Bring to completion. You know what it is: that nagging project, relationship matter, ambition that you’ve set aside or buried so far deep in your subconscious, denying that it matters, that you’ve conveniently ‘forgot’ for the time being. Yet, your true self has NOT forgotten: you pledged you’d do it someday. You promised yourself you’d finish. You told yourself you wouldn’t give up until you had done it, made the big change, achieved the aim.

The thing is, goals and dreams and other desires have magnetism of their own. They become real, like people. We may squelch their voices, but they don’t forget us! Dreams come ‘round for our attention, nagging our subconscious until we pay attention. It’s much easier to put the focus on something else: our partner, our kids, a new ‘big idea.’ But that old Thing You Promised You’d Do will not let up.

What do you need to finish in 2013?

Perhaps instead of looking Way Over Yonder to the next vista, we would do well to complete something in the Here and Now. Maybe that thing is too daunting to tackle all at once, today. We can start by creating the Alchemy of Completion within ourselves, symbolically, to get the wheels turning. Start harmonizing yourself with others and your environment with a mind to completing your Golden Task.

First, identify what has been nagging you. 

It’s likely a significant goal, and something uncomfortable to face (otherwise you would have done it already!) but you know it's important in the long run. Is it a career move you need to make? A relationship you need to change? Do you need to publish your book? Display your art? Create a website? Take that trip to Paris you’ve promised yourself for… oh, say, twenty years?

Second, start the alchemy process of completion. 

Show yourself you can finish things on a smaller scale to build confidence. For example:

• ·         Clean out your garage, closets and drawers. Give stuff to Goodwill.
• ·         Reorganize those cluttered shelves in the kitchen.
• ·         Feng shui your living room, bedroom, office space to reinspire you.
• ·         Update your finances and track your numbers. Get clear on income and expenses and accounts.
• ·         Write that friend or relative a handwritten letter or card. Go to the post office and mail it.
• ·         Fix the curtains. Mend your trousers. Call your mother.

In other words, FINISH whatever has been taking up BRAIN SPACE so that you can get moving on what is REALLY important.

And looky here! It’s springtime, and we are given the energy and increasing daylight to gather strength for the road ahead.  Why not consider clearing the decks and making space to finish that thing you started (even if it was in your head) a long time ago? This spring, perhaps it’s time to summon the Alchemy of Completion.

Erin Reese is a writer, astrologer, and intuitive consultant based in the San Francisco Bay Area. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her via email.

The Sky Is Crying: When Eras End

February 2013

Goa, India

I awaken to the sweet sound of songbirds chirping in the coconut trees outside my hut, mixed in with the lapping of waves and crows talking to each other. I’m overcome with a sense of bitter-sweetness. I’m both happy and sad.

It’s happy-sad time. The end of an era. I am finally admitting to myself, filled with this happy-sadness, that I’m going through a death process. Grief is hitting me hard here in India, even while back home (yes, I am finally referring to the U.S. as “home” again, for now) the new visions and renewed relations are so nourishing and inviting.

I’m in a year of transition. According to numerology, my Tarot card for 2013 is The Hanged Man. It’s about a complete change in perspective, and surrendering completely. Letting go of that which we held dear for so very long, with faith that Life Itself is bringing a new chapter in.

Things will never, ever be the same for me again. The last twelve years were beyond the beyond for me, as I was spiritually COOKING. Melting down in a crucible called India. That chapter has ended, the cooking completed within the crucible of transformation as my two great gurus – Mother India and my spiritual teacher – were the keepers of the forge.

The last three years encompassed the slow ‘n steady turning of the Great Wheel of Life. This is the long reentry back to a more western-centric existence. But even if I know the turn of events is inevitable, my soul is still playing catch-up, or come-down, as it were, and the sky is crying over it.

Literally. It is raining off and on, unseasonably, here in Goa. The rains mirror my grief, a washing of the soul to make way for something new. Sitting here in my beach hut in south Goa, tears fill my eyes and my heart seizes.

India is one of my soul mates – imagine! An entire nation! She will always hold a seat of honor in my soul. But my relationship with Her IS changing. She has to step down from being priority #1 – “The One” – in order to make way for new loves and horizons to emerge in my life.

Attempting to feel that old magic is futile. When we have moved on from a life chapter, we’ve moved on. Like I said, this turning of the wheel, this time of “closure” has lasted three years. Death can take a long time. As I feel a sense of an old identity dying, I’m acutely aware that grief is an honest emotion. It is so pure. It is critical in its place of creating space for the next chapter. But it need not turn into mourning which is an emotional identification with the past, an unnecessary clinging to “the way we were.”

Indeed, I could drop into reverie now of ‘the way things were’ all those years ago when I first touched down in Delhi twelve years ago, but those blogs have been written in real time and they’ve been compiled into books. I could bitch and moan no end about the changes here in India and how it’s just not the same – the skyrocketing prices, the disrespect to customs that make for real eyesores, the love/hate of technology showing up – mobile phones, Internet, and satellite television. And the newly emerging sense of consumption that India is inheriting  from the West as it strives to speed up its status on the developing nation stage.

Perhaps I will write more on these things. But for now, just for today, The Sky Is Crying*.

I am so glad I recognize grief. It’s one of the gifts of time, and getting older. Yes, the gifts. When we feel it fully, we know we’re ending a life chapter. And, while we’re not fully stepped into the next flow, we can trust through wisdom that Something New will emerge.

 

My first Big Grief was divorce at 28, representing end of youth. The second Big Grief was death of my guru at 38, a transition into becoming my own spiritual master. And now, here is my third Big Grief, the ending of a long-term, all-encompassing love affair with a nation.

 

This particular 5-week trip is about honoring the work I’ve done here over the years. It’s also about severing the ties. Making sure no stone has been left unturned before I part ways. The power of new love, new ventures, new vistas back in the U.S. holds promise. I am excited to get going on my second book (the Bindi Girl sequel) and other projects and collaborations with others. But the grieving process is a primarily solo, internal one. It does feel vacuous, it is exhausting, and the whole point is that it can’t really be assuaged. Perhaps, if it could be lessened, it would mean that it wasn’t really over. And it is.

 

It can feel like you’re abandoning your lover, or that she is abandoning you. The scythe hurts. Even if no one has done the abandoning – it’s just happened as a part of natural life cycles – the leaving, the ending happened on its own through no intention or fault.  But the ending process MUST be completely experienced. There IS a period at the end of the last sentence of a life chapter.

 

Let us not forget: real love never dies. The story ends, but not the love, nor the gratitude. No matter the external changes in circumstances, in loyalties, in the love we shared with a person, a place, a time of life – the love will endure. It is a flower in the heart. The tears water the new seeds of growth which shall bear  springtime blossoms. We are rich. And it is beautiful.

*THE SKY IS CRYING

Can’t you see the tears roll down the street?

~ Blues standard (Elmore James)