Stillness

"No one can see their reflection in running water.
It is only in still water that we can see."

~ Taoist Proverb

A friend asked me this week, "How do you get to inner stillness?" I thought it was an interesting question, since stillness isn't actually a place to get to, but rather a whole eternal internal infinite dimension out of which our life experience and the third dimension arises.

Taking our attention off of the cacophony of the external world, taking our attention off of the noise of the daily routine, taking our attention off of the drama of everyday life and the incessant inner monologue of the intellect, returns us to stillness.

So many of us love to be in nature. Being in nature elicits stillness from us, because nature reverberates Stillness, and, like a tuning fork, if we stop and listen to the quietness of nature, whether in our backyard or, taking in the beauty and quietness of a vista view like the one above, the reverberation of nature catalyzes that Stillness realm within through the tuning fork of its own Stillness. Stillness is not static, it is alive and pulsing with the music of beauty and joy.

Take time to be awed. Take in the perfection of beauty - it is everywhere - in the hummingbird hovering in front of you and then disappearing like a bullet of rainbow, or in the common daisy flower or in the countenance of your dear friend or in the timber of the voice of your beloved.

The great saint Muktananda was asked by a disciple, "Master, there are so many books that teach ways to meditate! Which way is the best?" Muktananda replied, "Close your eyes."

How about giving it a try?

Stop.
Sit down.
Close your eyes.
And listen for the Silence of Stillness.

The Power of Love Expressed as Listening

Not-Knowing: The Power of Love Expressed as Listening

One of my ongoing questions is: "What am I not seeing?" Whenever I enter into a dialogue with a client, or put myself in a seminar series or a course for ongoing growth and development, I forget what I know in a sense, so that I can hear newly. I practice “getting amnesia” regarding my intellect and memory and then I do my best to listen from the place of “not-knowing”. From this vantage point I always get a fresh perspective, and I am then open to other’s points of view, am willing to be a neophyte, and so I always "see" a new way of considering a previously well-rooted and oftentimes well-grounded concept. With high intention to get an insight about one issue or another, I find that pretty much anywhere I look will do if I am listening for what I don't know.

One of the obvious conversations I have been exploring and reflecting on, is the commitment many of us have to positive global transformation. Global transformation inherently implies a need for listening to the logic of other cultures, a deep respect for the different points of view of others. Given the way each of us views life, given our varied pasts and what we have made them mean, given our years of education and whatever cultural exposures we each uniquely have had, each one of us is in effect, a different culture.

What would happen to communication if we actually listened to one another as if we were each a different culture, replete with our own values and ways of operating that were grounded in a logic perhaps distinct to ourselves, but nevertheless valid and understandable? Communication would have the possibility of effortlessly becoming dialogue: more listening than speaking.

... Now, what if we were to listen to our own intellect and acquired knowledge in the same way? What if we were to listen to the inner silence of what we don’t know, the inner wisdom of “not knowing”, with nothing on our minds but a complete curiosity for what we haven’t been hearing? It is as if we have been listening to the cacophony of our own thinking with such an enamored fascination that the flute music of inspiration has been essentially drowned out. Yet when we can turn our attention away from that educated inner monologue, what can emerge from the stillness is a distinct resonance of wisdom. Implicit in this resonance is an answer to the question that has been raised, an emergence of a solution to the problem, a new realm of possibility that is equally-everywhere-present but which has been obscured by our own attachment to what we know. …

In the early 1990’s I was a member of SIETAR, the Society for International Education, Training, and Research, created by the founders of the Peace Corps. The strategy utilized by the most effective interculturalists of the day was the strategy of entering into a culture with no expectations or assumptions, but rather with reverence and a listening for what the culture was speaking not just verbally, but non-verbally. In this way the most effective of the interculturalists were the most malleable, open to assimilating into the culture due to the capacity they had developed within themselves to suspend their own knowledge and ways of behaving. They aligned with the resonance of the new culture much as an instrument allows its own vibrational rate to be catalyzed by a tuning fork.

Being catalyzes Being.

So, listening for what we don’t know could be a universal strategy, a globally transformative strategy, because the very nature of not-knowing calls for one to be present in the moment with no attention paid to one’s personal thinking from the past: beginner’s mind. …

~ Laura Basha, Ph.D, (excerpted from the award-winning paper:

"The Creative Process: A Portal to ‘Not-Knowing’, the Non-Verbal Language of Transformation", published in the 2010 Journal of The Conference for Global Transformation)

Beauty & Grace

"Take time to be awed."

~ The Reverend Kathryn Jarvis

Kathryn Jarvis was my spiritual teacher for over 15 years. She dropped her body and made her transition in the early 1990's. She embodied Enlightenment, Grace, Beauty, and a depth of understanding of Truth that awakened any who were seeking It. Such understanding allows for simple and brief phrases to speak tombs.

This past few weeks have been fairly stressful; all good, yet demanding. As I was thinking about them and the next few, which promise to be equally demanding, the above quote popped into my mind. Such a simple statement, yet as I came across the above photo of our youngest grand daughter, I was instantly reminded of the joy and freedom inherent in the exhilarating soaring of a ride on a swing, and the emptying of any other thought in one's head aside from the grace of being present.

My head cleared, and the demands of the week seem like the next things to do, things to be grateful for: mostly, they are nice problems to have!

I was sitting on my deck a couple of weeks ago, and a hummingbird came out of nowhere, as they are want to do, and hovered about 6 inches from my face for about one minute, then took off like the feathered flying roadrunner that it is.

When you have a minute, look up, find that beautiful and graceful thing that is close at hand, and take a minute to be awed. It could be awed by you, too.

The Fragrance of the Silence

Listening within the Silence is like
standing in a quiet room that has
a simple bottle of perfume in it.

Lifting the glass stopper of the perfume flask and waiting,
eventually the entire room is
infused with the perfume's fragrance.



What if we were to listen to the inner silence of what we don't know, the inner wisdom of "not knowing", with nothing on our minds but a complete curiosity for what we haven't been hearing? It is as if we have been listening to the cacophony of our own thinking with such an enamored fascination that the flute music of inspiration has been essentially drowned out. Yet when we can turn our attention away from that educated inner monologue, what can emerge from the stillness is a distinct resonance of wisdom.

Implicit in this resonance is an answer to the question that has been raised, an emergence of a solution to the problem, a new realm of possibility that is equally-everywhere-present but which has been obscured by our own attachment to what we know.

This is the attentiveness of the creative mind. Practicing listening to the Silence begins to cultivate a familiarity with the beautiful and brilliant fragrance of our own wisdom.

© 2011 Laura Basha, Ph.D.

"Is stillness just the absence
of noise and content?
No, it is intelligence itself,
the underlying consciousness
out of which every form is born.
And could that be separate
from who you are?
It is the essence of all galaxies
and blades of grass;
of all flowers, trees, birds,
and all other forms."

~ Eckhart Tolle

Growth Mindset

“Be fascinated, seduced, terrified and compelled

by transformation, creativity, and authentic self expression.

Freedom for the human spirit and human psyche is

our collective aspiration

as well as our birthright,

and is inherent in the evolution of consciousness.”

~ Laura Basha, Ph.D.,

from “Artist’s Statement”, Gallery, www.whitebirdrising.com

A growth mindset is not something to get.

It is a vantage point to come from.

Growth is a realm. It is the realm of Power.

“Standing” in this realm is standing in the Source of Creativity and

listening for what you don’t know;

listening for what’s available from the Source of Infinite Intelligence.

There is nothing to do to get a growth mindset.

There is no where to go to get a growth mindset.

There is being willing to listen for what you don’t know

in the midst of the cacophony of what you think.

Growth is a realm.

It is the realm of Power.

There is no gauntlet being thrown down eliciting defensiveness.

There is only the cultivating of a listening for a challenge to your certainty

without feeling challenged.

To cultivate a growth mindset is to stand in the certainty

of what you are committed to,

grounded in your own integrity,

without being threatened by a different perspective.

The realm of Growth is the realm of Power and

it is the safest and most creative place to listen from

because it is not personal.

In the realm of Growth,

there is only awakening to what you are interested in,

and a willingness to experience insight,

resulting in the cultivation of a growth mindset.

© 2011 Laura Basha, Ph.D.

All Is Chosen ...

This thing we do...

This separation which we perceive...

This experience of life or lunacy which we create and which has no existence without our permission...

Or, closer to Truth - without our choice it could not be ...

Why choose it at all?

Why have to choose it?

We have to choose it if we wish to continue to forget who we are ...

And so we keep choosing the illusion as reality

Until it gets so loud - the illusion, that is - that we can’t stand the noise and so scream to ourselves:

“Turn that blasted thing OFF!!”

And then the intellect is quiet for a moment.

So we have a glimpse of Reality and It is so quiet, so infinitely No Thing, so peaceful, so full of Peace...

And we remember for a flash Who/What we are.

And that is why we have to choose it.

Separation.

So we can finally consciously see who/what we aren’t, so that we can begin to consciously see Who/What we ARE.

Perfect beings.

Our perfection is our only stumbling block.

For we are perfect with or without our self’s permission, or awareness.

We are all Masters in our own universe.

We are either conscious of this Mastery or not, and this is the essential difference.

So it behooves us to become conscious of our Mastery so we can consciously choose the direction of the play instead of endlessly unconsciously scripting it and acting it out.

It isn’t a requirement to become conscious. There is free will.

But then ... there is Destiny.

It is simply a matter of being Home vibrantly Free or coming Home in the waking sleep.

What is it like, waking up?

Sometimes I have dreamed, and realized I was dreaming, and wanted to wake up,

And yet all my screams were silent, and all my attempts were futile as I wrestled with all my being to wake myself up from this falseness and re-align with my consciousness and body and then, suddenly

I would find myself back in this reality,

Confused but present.

And what had I been wrestling with anyway?

For from here, it looked like nothing,

An invisible kind of membrane from which I had to de-enmesh myself,

Like exhaustively wrestling with the angel and then to see there is no one there ...

Like Bert and Ernie in It’s a Wonderful Life wrestling with Clarence in the snow in the dark.

That’s what it’s like sometimes.

And sometimes, it’s like noticing the moth on the window.

~ Laura Basha, Ph.D., © 2011

Psychokinesis and All Possibility

Well, this is a bit of a departure from my other blogs, and also shows you another side of me, but this is titled "Blogs/Musings", so I muse ...

In the 90's as part of my doctoral studies, I had the privilege of studying with some extraordinary professors in the fields of psychology: transpersonal, humanistic, cognitive, behavioral, spiritual, as well as parapsychology. My current interest concerns how we create our own experience of reality, what is conscious choice, and how to access realms of creativity, all possibility, and authentic self-expression, so, to at least be open to what's possible is essential to
one's capacity to effect positive change.

I came across this letter I wrote in 1998 to one of my professors, the brilliant and delightful Dr. Jon Klimo*, widely regarded as the world's leading authority on channeling, from whom I was taking a required course in parapsychology, part of which was the study of psychokinesis, or "PK". I include this in my musings because I thought you might enjoy it, because I found it enlightening as I re-read it, and also because in re-reading it I was reminded how myopic is our vision of our capacities as human beings, and how I, like others, feel it is essential that we continue to stretch our thinking to bring about a positive shift in human consciousness.

BTW, the above photo is of the very same item of mine that I mentioned in the following letter.
But heh, you'll have to take my word for it ...

Dear Jon,

Just a note:

I went to my first "PK" party a couple of weeks ago - actually, the night of our meeting at The Egg Shoppe. I didn't know it was a PK party, although I probably should've known, since it was at Virginia's house. Anyway, I met a friend of yours there, Randy, who does research on color. You told us about him and his kind of virtual-altered-state-light-gear in the parapsych class. We had a pretty interesting discussion. Anyway, Virginia comes out with a fistful of silverware and announces to everyone that we're going to "BEND SPOONS!!!".

"Oh, God", I thought, "I can't do this".

Here I am in front of all these alien-friendly, altered-state-doctoral-buff, I-eat-lucid-dreams-for-breakfast types, and I'm going to fail miserably. (Attached to my performance level much?) Not that bending silverware has ever been a goal or anything, and I will say that Randy was impressed that I had had a synethesia experience without the assistance of mind-altering drugs. In any case, even though I may have had a smattering of ASC experiences, in this group I considered myself pretty much of a parapsych priss.

Well, I was wrong. Much to my surprise, as I was chatting with another pk novice, but also focusing on softening the metal, the darn thing turned into putty and effortlessy twisted itself into a tight double coil under my slight pressure. The twisted part became so hot I couldn't touch it. I didn't yell, "BEND! BEND!BEND!" like the others did later. Just quietly massaged the neck of the spoon!

Well, I am now the proud owner of a bent spoon that curls nicely over the finger pull on my kitchen window. And for one brief shining moment my teenagers looked at me with absolute respect and awe. That, of course, was worth the whole evening. If you're looking for ways to have the field accept parapsych, think of integrating psychokenesis into parenting classes. I'm also thinking auto-body work could be next for me.

Take it slow,

- Laura

19 May, 1998

*

http://www.jonklimo.com/about.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Fxu-gniIA