I AM PRESENCE

We Really are THAT !!!!!

We are One and we are THAT ONE.
The figure of light at the top of this picture is the I am Presence, our Monad or Highest self, the first spark that separated from God the Creator for the sheer joy of experiencing the play or lila of life. This Presence is the one taking care of us and looking out for us. The figure in the middle is the stepped down version of the Presence. It is called the Higher self. This is the connecting link between the lower self and our highest self, .

The Higher self steps down the immense vibration of the Presence to a level that can be received by the incarnate personality.

To the lower personality caught up in the dream of the world the I am Presence remains unknown. Only when the personality lost in maya is slowly nudged awake by the Higher self, does he even know he is a Divine Spark who has incarnated on Earth to experience life and move towards its true nature the Presence.

Once the personality knows this life becomes about evolving towards the highest we can be. We move first towards our higher selves and finally ascension is all about merging with the Presence.
It is then that we realize that we were always THAT.There never was a time we were not THAT. We had only forgotten.We realize that we are all co creators in this massive cosmic play of consciousness.
We realize that we are all one as all our presences make up the ONE.
Life is thus all about emerging out of the oneness and perfection that we are, first as the Presence. As the incarnated personality who has forgotten its true magnificence we explore separation forgetting we are co creators with the Presence or Divinity within us.
The story of creation is all about awakening back to this perfection and wholeness not just through knowledge but through experience.

So that is the whole purpose of life. To live in joy. To experience every teeny weeny aspect of life. For God or The ONE can only experience the physical material cosmos through our sense organs.

We then really start living! Living like the creators we are. Life really is beautiful!

The Heart Flame

The Ancients have spoken of the ananda kanda or the sacred chamber of the heart.it was believed that once you connected to the flame burning in this sacred altar of your heart, you would have access to the Kalpa vriksh or wish fulfilling tree.
This flame of the heart is called the threefold flame, the Fleur de lis or Trinity flame.It starts from a white mother flame and then burns as three flames.The flame in the middle is golden and represents wisdom.Once the wisdom flame has expanded ,the human being knows that all the knowledge he ever neeeds is inside him and that the heart is his inner guru. The flame on the right side is blue and represents the masculine aspect of Divinity-God the father or Shiva. The flame on the left is pink and represents the feminine aspect of God as Divine mother. 
These three plumes should be balanced and expanded for a personality to be centred.A person who is very powerful but not loving is thus unbalanced. So also a very loving person whose pink flame is dominant but whose blue flame of power is weak, wil turn out to be a doormat . Such parents with lots of love but no power are ones who do not discipline their children with tough love or firm love. The ideal is to have the wisdom the express love ina powerful way.That is, the golden flame gives you the wisdom as to when to allow the nurturing feminine part of you connect to others and also when you need to allow the powerful masuline part of you to look out for the self's needs in solitude.
Life is about balancing the threefold flame ,thus balancing the masculine and feminine aspects (yin and yang) in ourselves.
Once the flame is balanced ,it spins and shines as a white flame helping our evolution and creating a forcefield that will help in attaing moksha, nirvana or ascension.
Why did the rishis say that the ananda kanda had a kalpa vriksha?it is because once you connect to your heart flame,and then visualise something you want to achieve, with great intent at your third eye, your desire will manifest soon.Thats why they say that if you wish for something from the bottom of your heart, it will manifest soon,
The spiritual heart is supposed to be just below the heart chakra but as Babaji says the heart centre where God resides is everywhere but is manifest in different parts of the heart area in different individuals and you have to locate it intuitively or with the help of a guru.
Once you locate this centre and connect to it, you know that your inner guru or God has been there all along inside your heart.You only didnot see him there because you were so caught up in maya.
Jai guru-the inner who shows us that we have the universe in us and all answers in us and the outer guru who is but a reflection of the inner God in all our hearts!!

The Higher Self

I have always been fascinated with the concept of a Higher self. When I was introduced to this idea of a Higher self years ago, I really couldnot grasp what it was all about. I knew it was a Being of light, much more powerful, caring and loving than my incarnate self was.However, I had trouble accepting that this Higher self was ME, a higher version of me.
How can I , who am currently limited in the form of an anxious,irritable human, ever dream of being that beautiful Being of light and love?
I really didnot understand this-until I made contact with this part of me in my meditations.When I sat down with myself and silenced the outer world, this Shining Presence communicated with me and made me realize that She was a part of me. she told me that when I was coming from my heart, and expressing the energy of care, love and compassion, I was vibrating at a higher level which drew the little persona of me to my higher light self.The days when I was expressing myself as an angry, or closed human,I was drifting away from Her as my vibrations were not in resonance with her loving vibes. ( I like to relate to my Higher self as a Her, though she is all light) That too is okay as we are here on the human plane to experience life as humans and go through the whole gamut of emotions, being human has in store for us.
But once you had had enough of all the emotions that make you vibrate away from your Higher self,once you desire to experience the love and peace your Higher Self radiates, you will automatically do an about turn and connect to It. How do you connect to your Higher self?The heart is the doorway which takes you there.
When you enter the chamber of your heart and focus on your heart flame , you see you inner spark burning brightly at the core of the flame .This Core of your inner spark is called by various names, God,The One , The All.Krishna Bhakts call it Krishna, Shiva bhakts call It Shiva .i call It Babaji. Gerald o' Donnell calls this the Unity point. This is the same energy which is found in the hearts of all beings- what we call their essence- the soul .If the same core essence is embedded in all hearts, it means we are all made up of the same stuff..We are all expressing a different quality of the ONE ESSENCE.
Once you know and then experience this , you see everyone arund you as THE ONE having a different experience.Then how can you hate anyone when you know they are God?
As your heart flame expands into love, compassion and oneness, the little separate me, dissolves into a higher light, your Higher Self ( See chart of the I am Presence in one of my blogs)you know you are your Higher self when you just want to give- not because there is something in it for you, but because you want to return something to the higher light who has brought you so much peace.Giving becomes a natural expression of the heart. You give not because your religion tells you to tithe, or because you feel guilty that you have more than others. You give because your heart needs to flow with that energy in an expression of its love to its source.
What do you do when you become your Higher self? Well, the journey is just beginning.You move towards a still higher version of you that now opens up to your knowledge, a higher and more radiant self thats expressions are beyond your scope now.
Gerald O Donnell says that there are many higher versions of ourselves we dissolve into till we reach the source from which we emerged.
This moving towards a higher light and a better you continues till you finally reach your source- The One.
What happens when you dissolve into the One? Well, only one who has reached there will have an answer for that.
In the meanwhile let's just enjoy the journey towards our Higher light while we are on the earth plane now.
That's why we are here now. To be our Higher selves and journey towards the light.While building our homes and raising our children,if we remember that we are here to move towards our higher light, to be a better and more authentic version of ourselves,if we bring that energy of our Higher light into our day to day affairs, we can attain a balance in life.Resting in our higher selves while functioning in the world is the challenge here and now. That's what makes life so beautiful.

The laughing Buddha

Talking about shadows, sometimes the shadows can overpower us to the point when we feel we need to explode.

I went through just such a situation recently at the work place.

With reports to get ready and papers to correct and so many loose ends to tie up before the summer break starts, tempers were frayed and one Thursday morning I found myself at the receiving end of many a colleague’s stretched temper. People seemed to be venting their anger and upset on anyone who came into their way. Some of what I received I deserved while other reactions from colleagues took me totally aback.

I came back home quite shaken and wondering why I had attracted such energy to me all at once. I spent some time analyzing the situation, separating what I deserved to get and what was totally unfair. This analyzing brought me no relief. In fact it made the situation worse as now I was caught up in my mind and was reliving the situation and the injustice of it all. I felt small and weak and like a victim. I had reached bursting point.

Then something happened. The whole thing seemed so incredible- that I who usually had a normal working day should encounter about four to five unpleasant situations on a given day from people who were actually my friends and meant me no harm. Maybe karma was catching up. I was not ready to analyze it again. I suddenly went over the whole day but this time I automatically fell into the role of a witness. I saw everyone running around trying to do what they felt was right at that moment. I saw myself too as part of the play, the drama we had all created and the utter ludicrousness of it all struck me and I burst out laughing.

Suddenly I felt light and clear and all the stress I had been carrying around since morning cleared up. There is nothing like a good laugh for releasing endorphins to counter stress hormones.

As I went to the kitchen to rustle up some dinner, my eyes fell on the statue of the Laughing Buddha I had placed on top of my fridge. His face laughed into mine.

“See, that has been my message all along. Don’t take life too seriously, Just have a good belly laugh at it all like I do.”

How did I fall into the sakshi bhav that evening? My guess is that the stress became too much for me and my soul designed this as a safety valve.

Once I observed myself playing a part in the drama created by the ego I became objective and the humor of it all struck me. Once I could laugh at it, I actually found I felt compassion for all the actors in that days drama, including myself. That helped me let go of the anger and hurt I had been carrying in me all day.

I carried on with life but after that day I placed my Laughing Buddha in a place of prominence where I could see him. I knew that the next time I got caught in an unpleasant situation , onething that would help me heal my emotions was to follow his message and have a good loud laugh-The Laughing Buddha reminds me not to be overwhelmed by what life brings, not to take things too personally but just view it as a drama where people are spinning their own stories given their ideas of what is right.

The Laughing Buddha also reminds me that taking laughter breaks in between serious work will go a long way in keeping me calm and stable and centred.

Enlightenment

What is Enlightenment? is there something called enlightenment? Walsch the author of the Conversations with God series ,says that enlightenment means there is nothing to do, nowhere to go, nothing to be ,except being who you really are.That means all we need to focus on each moment is to do the best we can, enoy what we are given, accept what we are losing each moment. Once you are totally in the Now, ego drops as ego can dwell only in the past or future.Even if ego hops in the now it is in excitement not acceptance. So once you go into acceptance mode, it means you have dropped the ego. If you are not ego then the only other option is that you must be Spirit that moment. Surely we can forget worrying about enlightenment and just trust the Spirit in us to take us to the Absolute.

Another understanding of The sabbatical

Well, keeping in mind my last blog post, I have reached another understanding of why it is necessary to have a sabbatical- a day off to rest and refresh ourselves.I was reading a message given by St. Germaine and it made me realize that the sabbatical was suggested so that we take a day off completely from doing. This is a day when you are to put aside all worries and activities. This is a day when you are meant to just be with yourself. A day when you peep within and try to acess you inner self.
When doing stops, the mind automatically gets the message. Once it realizes that you are not going to run around, it too will stop it's wild running.Then as the mind waves become calmer, the zero point becomes more accessible.Once you find your centre ,it becomes more real for you and you find the path towards it clearer.
However to take the path towards your centre you need to gift your self a sabbatical- a day when there is no television, no computers,no radios or books ,a day when you do not go out to churches or temples . A day when you sit with only yourself and visit the temple , the sanctuary within-far from the madding crowd. A day when you can fall in love with yourself and the God within.
If a day off is too much to contemplate , make it an hour or two hours but keep this sabbatical a time when you give up all doing , all things of the world. This time you spend with yourself will rejuvenate you and when you are ready to take on the world after your sabbatical, you will find that everything you now do will become infused with light.
Happy Sabbatical!!! 

The point of it all

We can become anything we wish to become in this life.The power within us is infinite.Once you tap into the Zero point , the still point inside you, the God within you ,you realize that suddenly ,life is not what it appears to be on the surface.The whole problem lies ofcourse in accessing this zero point.Not that it is inaccessible. the only obstacle or hurdle we need to jump across before we reach our true selves- the zero point , is our very own mind!
The mind is so busy chattering that the experiencer part of us gets caught up in the drama and the excitement of it all.With the mind constantly chattering ,we really miss the point! The zero point!. The only point in us which is real.
That is why the Rishis exhort us to meditate. Meditation is not concentration where you affirm various things about yourself to bring it into your reality. That is only one phase of your inner transformation.
Meditation is simply this. Silencing your mind so that once the clouds of your mind become still you can peep into the bottom of the lake- and see the still point of infinite potentiality within you.
At first it is just a glimpse. That glimpse is enough to show you however that the clouds and thoughts that run your life are not real.What relief! All those mental projections of envy, darkness, pain, sickness are only that- projections.You need not get entangled in them any more.you can just drop it by deciding to do so.That glimpse into the zero point called the gap, or satori, is enough to bring about a shift in perspective.Once you taste the peace that passes all unsderstanding , the Christ spoke about , in this gap, you are hooked.Further quietening of the mind leads to longer gaps- Samadhi, and once you have become master of your mind and are centred in this zero point , you are a Master- Enlightened!
Here the drama in your world ends but your world itself doesnot end -unless you want it to. Now you have the secret key. You know you are co creator with God.You create your own destiny through the power of your intentions.With the energy you save by withdrawing the mind from worry and fear which are the greatest depletors you focus your thoughts on the highest expressions of Life.Joy, peace and Love are your reality. Utopia is no longer something that belongs to fiction.You now know that you are what you say you are.You are the centre of the universe and the whole of it and for you the Golden age has already started.
This is the key. Access the zero point by stilling your mind and being aware of the gap between thoughts, the gap between breaths.Meditation will help you still the mind and being A WITNESS will help you become aware of the gap.
Being a witness and meditating regularly will lead you home -to the God within you. The zero point of stillness.