I thought that I was heading to bed just now, but apparently not. I’ve been thinking about something that I read in a book recently and thought to blog about it. Perhaps this is something that readers may like to consider.
Actually, what happens with me so much of the time is that I will have some sort of breakthrough insight or inspiration and then later I read about the very same thing in a book somewhere.
In this case, the discovery inspiration occurred some time ago and I thought of it as my own private experience which most people wouldn’t understand or would consider egotistical. Therefore, it was something that I pretty much kept to myself.
However, after having read something similar in book written by Lama Surya Das (Awakening the Buddha Within), I now consider it worthy of reiterating in a public form–this blog. More and more I realize that no experience is truly unique–we are all so interconnected. This, of course, is the basis of Buddhism.
So anyway, let me get to the point. It happened in a meditation some time ago. I was saying a rosary, you see, and in this particular case it happened to be a time in my life when I was deeply reconnecting to a deity from my catholic upbringing–the Blessed Mother. I have taken this deity out of the little box in which the catholic church has placed her; and by that I mean that I relate to her as a form of The Feminine Divine–quite like Lakshmi of the Hindu tradition or Kuan Yin, the Buddhist goddess of compassion. You get the idea. You might say that Mary or Blessed Mother was my personal reference for the Feminine Divine that I was reaching out to at that time in my life.
In any event, I’m aware not to just recite words in a rote matter; when I say a mantra or prayer repeatedly, I think of the meaning of what I’m saying as much as I can and using emotion as much as possible, I make great effort to connect deeply with the words. While doing so, I was suddenly aware of something that straight-line catholics would probably say is sacrilegious or downright blasphemous.
Now to find the words. Well, let me just come right out and say it. I merged with her energy and became one as if I actually was her. Now, before I go on, this was not an intention and I honestly never considered such a concept, but there it was nonetheless. All that anyone could imagine the Feminine form of The Divine actually being, I suddenly became. It was if the greater part of me “took on” that energy and understood it experientialy. These are quite beautiful and overwhelming experiences–Samadhi. Further words would only minimize these experiences, so I won’t keep trying.
I read the book by the Buddhist Lama, those pages revealed that a customary Buddhist practice is to intentionally incorporate doing this very thing in their devotional meditations–merging with the deity.
Reading about this common Buddhist practice really validated my experience and gave it more public authenticity.
Samadhi is a Hindu and Buddhist term that I relate to as a bliss state which envelops us when in a concentrated state of connection with higher levels of consciousness during meditation. I’m not sure if Hindus or Buddhist would agree with that definition or not; however, I sort of link it in to my experience of deity merging.
I loved this little story in the Lama Surya Das book, Awakening the Buddha Within. He recounts how, in a talk to school children about meditation, he explained about following the sound of the Gong. “Children have a way of just sensing without self-editing”, he writes. One child, when asked to follow the sound of the Gong to see where it goes, later told his mother, “When I watched and listened to where the sound went, I didn’t get closer to God, I was God.”
The Lama wrote as follows, When I had finished the Gong Meditation, which only takes about thirty seconds, I asked, “So where did the sound go?” I couldn’t believe it. Some kids even had both hands raised! How much we adults have forgotten. They didn’t even question their belief, “What is God?” “What is Buddha?” or “Who am I to say I am God, who am I to know these things?” No such self-editing takes place at that age. Just “oh yeah, God, I am that.”
If you really contemplate this, there’s nothing really strange about taking on these qualities and energies. We should be doing so. All of these energies are really within us to begin with and we are just tapping into them. As we hear so often, We are One.
Joseph Campbell or Carl Jung would say that all deities are archetypes who already exist (and always have existed) in our collective unconscious.
In my work as a psychic medium, I merge with energies on the other side all the time–especially in the mediumship part of my work. I’d just never considered merging with… well, you know! Prior to that experience long ago, it had just never occurred to me.
I could make greater points and write a whole chapter about this; but alas it’s nearing 2 am and it’s been a rather long day of shoveling snow, doing laundry, readings and other assorted tasks. I need to rest, but felt an urge to make this blog post. I will let it stand, as is, forgiving myself for not having given this topic true justice. Nor have I written very eloquently this evening, but I’ve offered my excuses for that already.
I will close with a recommendation that you give this a try yourself with a deity, yidam, saint or angel with which you most resonate. Or follow the sound of a Gong or Tibetan Bell or Bowl. In that way, no further words are necessary. Besides, these are, as the song by the Bee Gees goes… Only Words. You can read about all of this in books or blogs, but it’s your own experience that matters. I’ve just shared one of mine.
How do I remove blockages so I can be more psychic?
Recently, someone wrote to me asking if my psychic class would enable them to remove a “blockage” so that they could be psychic.
I answered the person and never heard back. Perhaps, he or she didn’t like my answer because it didn’t contain some sort of magic bullet that we, in the west, love so well. As the Dalai Lama says, Westerners are always looking for the easiest, fastest, most effective and cheapest way to enlightenment.
I was thinking about this today… this whole idea of “blockages” as it applies to becoming psychic. I’m not sure where people get the idea that they’re blocked in the first place.
Sinus get blocked, roads get blocked, arteries get blocked, plumbing gets blocked, but what about our mind? What about consciousness?
I answered the question the best I knew how in the moment and today, upon reflection, I don’t think I’d change a thing that I wrote in my reply.
I guess there’s some concept out there, like in that picture above, that there’s an energy form in their way. But if there is, all it amounts to is their own thoughts. When we talk about being psychic, we’re dealing with consciousness–not some sort of matter like in the pipes of your kitchen sink, your sinuses or the road into town. It’s a matter of mind after all.
So what is the matter? I think basically there’s a misunderstanding that people have about this blockage to being psychic business.
We have to begin from the basic truth that we already have a mind of pure luminosity and clear seeing, hearing, feeling. There’s no place ”out there” in the external world where we need to go or nothing in the external world that we need to get in order to achieve clarity. We don’t call the psychic plumber or doctor, do we? Oh, well, now that I think about it, maybe some people do bill themselves as such and other people pay them big money for their services too. But that’s sort of like what I heard Wayne Dyer say once. Let’s see, how did it go? If you think that someone outside of you is your problem, then bring them to me and I will fix them so you can get better. I’m paraphrasing and maybe slightly misquoted him, but it goes something like that. His point there was to help people hear how ridiculous it sounds. Can someone outside of you achieve self-realization on your behalf? Can you pay someone to accomplish your self reflections? — contemplative questions! The answer is in the word self.
So then what could be blocking your access to your psychic channels except your own thoughts about it?
Layers of mental conditioning and mis-information cover, like a blanket, that which we are possess innately–a clear and luminous consciousness. Would we call that a blockage? Perhaps so, I don’t know. It’s probably a matter of semantics actually. But, again, it’s not matter we’re speaking about, its consciousness.
I loved some particular guidance that came through in someone’s reading last week. The client was advised to sit with two questions: Who am I? And where did I come from? Rather simple, yet profound, I thought. Contemplation during meditation time with these two questions, I believe, is enough to remove any and all so-called blockage to luminosity and clarity.
That’s all that’s really needed in order to be psychic really. It’s also about releasing the layers of and years of conditioning by societal and religious institutions, especially here in the west. That can take nearly a whole lifetime in some cases and in others it may not happen at all–at least not in the current incarnation. On the other hand, it could happen in an instant if the person is ready. How does a person get ready? I’m not certain I have the answer to that question because I think it’s different in each case based on the individual’s current state of spiritual evolution (i.e. level of consciousness).
But this is what being fully conscious is about and it is what the spiritual path is all about too. Understanding consciousness and the “self” or as some philosophies say, the “non-self” is a journey of inner seeking, sometimes helped along by some outer seeking too. Many of the eastern teachings and philosophies counter balance western societal and religious indoctrination nicely since they help us understand consciousness itself. Hinduism and Buddhism come to mind here.
So barriers and blockages are aspects of our own consciousness–this is my point. And if you think you have a barrier or a blockage, that’s the first one to remove! Consciousness working as it does, if you think that you’re blocked, that’s the #1 blockage! You don’t need a psychic plumber or healer to remove that one; you can handle that all by yourself by understanding your own nature, innate wisdom and the nature of reality.
Meditation with contemplation and focus and sometimes even with analyzation can help I believe. Meditation is about more than crossing your legs, closing your eyes and chanting OM. Meditation can be about training the mind, mental discipline, and learning to hold a single pointed focus in the present moment. This is what one does when one channels or is “being psychic”.
Personally, I resonate very much with the Buddhist philosophy of cultivating mindfulness. It helps us understand deluded thinking and conflicting emotions so that we can establish that innate awareness of clarity and luminosity that is at our core.
Lama Surya Das says, “We meditate in order to wake up to what is, and thus arrive at the total immediacy and authenticity of life in this very present moment. That’s the goal of meditation.”
And becoming psychic is what happens when we wake up to what is–it goes with the territory. I often quote Edgar Cayce who said that being psychic is a byproduct of the spiritual path.
Developing a meditation practice helps us release these ideas of blockages and barriers because it awakens and frees the mind. It’s a way of life actually. And as we work with these understandings especially through meditation, thinking about these concepts and ideas in quiet contemplation, we are able to percieve things that are lacking when we’re functioning in lower levels of mind.
I think this idea of blockages and barriers is deluded or delusional thinking which keeps us from the clear states of knowing–our true nature.
These are just few thoughts on the topic of blockages and barriers to being psychic which are bubbling up on a cold and rainy winter evening in the Appalachian Mountains. I hope this is helpful for someone out there in Cyber-Land. You may like to listen to a podcast about mindfulness and meditation and how it applies to psychic development. If so look for the 1/25/10 podcast link when you CLICK HERE
