HEIDEGGER ON BECOMING SELF LIBERATED THROUGH THE MANIFESTATION OF APPEARANCE

Self Liberation through Phenomenology and Dzogchen, Essays

By Rudolph Bauer, Phd Wed, Oct 23, 2013 Rudolph Bauer Ph.D., Author

There is similarity of the theme of becoming self liberated through the manifestation of appearance in both dzogchen and Heideggarian phenomenology. There is this similarity between the dzogchen meditative awareness tradition as articulated by the 14th century Tibetan master Longchenpa and the phenomenologist of 20th century philosophy Martin Heidegger. This paper will speak to Heidegger’s understanding of Being manifesting the appearance of phenomena and the corresponding self liberation.
Richard Capobianco in his text Engaging Heidegger describes how Ereignis is another name for Being itself. Ereignis means in essence manifestation or manifesting. Heidegger is focused on Being as Ereignis. Being and manifestation are the same. There is this manifestation of the temporal spatial emerging of beings in their beingness and the spontaneously presencing of what is present. Being is the pure giving of what is given. The giveness of phenomena of appearance. Beyond this giveness of appearance there is the giveness of pure openness. The phenomenological openess is what is within the Dzogchen tradition described as dharmakaya or ground of being or emptiness. This dharmakaya or ground of being is not a thing or an entity. Through this no-thingness everything and anything arises.
Being itself is not a being. Being is the manifesting or is the givingness of Beingness to beings. Being brings beings forth into actuality. Being manifests beings, Being manifests appearance and phenomena. Being conceals itself in its revelation. Being both conceals and reveals itself as aletheia. To understand Being in itself and of itself is to understand Being without beings. This Being is no-thingness and this no-thingess is the manifestating of phenomena and the appearance of phenomena. The appearance of beings and all things is the manifestation of no- thingness which is the base as Being and the base of beings. The very character of Being is the manifestation of beings coming into Being. The beingness of Being brings forth beings into their beingness. There is this emerging and self-arising of Being as beings and the appearing of beings or presencing of beings. The nature of Being is shared by all beings and things.
Within all beings there is difference and oneness at the same time. There is the duality of infinite singular beings and the nonduality of Being manifesting with and through all the beings. Being is the unconcealing and the revelation of the presencing of beings. Being allows beings to come

Heidegger: On Becoming Self Liberated Through the Manifestation of Appearance By Rudolph Bauer, Ph.D A.B.P.P.
into presence. Being gives beingness to beings. To experience a being is to experience the nature of Being itself manifesting within and as a being. Being is the ground of beings and the source of the beingness of all beings and things. To experience the being of a being is to experience the beingness of Being itself.
Heidegger’s understanding is similar to dzogchen in that Heidegger is emphasizing the giving or the manifesting of presence of Being as beings. This manifestation is the manifestation of the ground of being becoming beings. Heidegger in his seminar Time and Being focuses our attention not only what is present (the being of the phenomena in its sheer presence is Beingness) but focuses us on the experiencing and the perceiving of the pure coming into presence itself. This Being (dharmakaya) is manifesting beings. The manifestation is the nature of the ground of being and this manifestation allows beings and Being to be of the same nature although there is difference in that Being is not a being. This experience of manifesting is the dynamic of liberation.
There is this unceasing movingness of all things into and out of presence. This appearing and disappearing of phenomena is the very manifestion of nature of the ground of Being. The nature of the ground is both revealing and manifesting as well as disappearing and concealing. The ground is both illuminating and obscuring. The ground of Being gives and brings beings into appearing as presence. We have this capacity to experience beings both as subjects and objects. We can experience individuals in their separateness and we have the capacity to experience beings within the manifestation of the ground manifesting them. We can experience manifesting. The ground gives what is present in its presentness. What manifest itself in the inner beingness of beings is Being itself. In experiencing the manifestation we can experience the nonduality of BEING indivisble within the duality of the beings
This aletheia is the ever prevailing power of the presence of all beings and things becoming and disappearing. There is this temporal showing or shining forth of beings and things. There is this manifesting and opening and shining forth of beings to us. Just as being is manifesting so beings are themselves manifested by Being itself. Being is manifested both as the being and the beings activity. Being is manifested activity. The presence of things is beyond the things meaning to us. All things show themselves to us and are nonconceptually more to us then their signified meaning. Presence is beyond signified meaning.
The radiance of Being manifesting beings and within beings is an intimate aspect of Heidegger’s phenomenology of manifestation. Capobianco describes this radiance of manifestation using Heidegger’s commentary on Holderin on Natures Gleaming. The first line of the Holderin’s poem is “Natures gleaming is higher revealing”. This theme of light reflects Heidegger, understands light and space as qualities of Being and its manifestations.
Heidegger and Holderlin loved the word glanzen. The word glanzen means shining, glistening, glimmering, glittering, glowing. Nature (Being) does not simply shine it gleams. This gleaming is a luminous revealing and appearing. Nature brings everything into being and presence. Everything manifest to us as nature as Being. Within presencing the presencing is shining,
Heidegger: On Becoming Self Liberated Through the Manifestation of Appearance By Rudolph Bauer, Ph.D A.B.P.P.
gleaming and glimmering. This is the radiance of appearance, the radiance of the manifestation of appearing.
For Heidegger Being is manifestation. Nature which is oneness or nondual is simply Being unfolding and manifesting all beings. Being is manifesting itself as singular individual discrete things. Being manifests to us within and as singular beings. Nature or Being shows itself as a being, as singular. We experience nature and being through the way we see things and into things. Being manifests itself through the phenomena of beings. Through the very presencing of beings we experience the presencing of Being itself. Nature or Being is the splendor that infuses everything. The seeing of nature is different than the seeing of things. We see the nature of Being in the singularity of a being. Presencing presences itself as within singular presences. Being which is no-thingness is manifesting things and beings. Being in itself can be unapparent. Through appearance within awareness Being becomes apparent. This means that Being is not a being and yet Being is indivisible from all beings. Being is the no-thingness that shines out brightly to those who can see the manifestation of being as Being itself.
To be able to see or gaze through all that is present, in all of its luster and to be able to experience the source of all that is present, presenting itself, self presencing is self liberation.
To gaze into the very source of all things and beings,and to gaze into the manifesting of everything and anything is self liberation. This is the becoming of manifesting which is liberation. This naturalnesss of the unfolding of all things and beings, which the ancient Greeks called phusis is the rising and receding of all that is present in its presencing and absencing.
There is unceasing radiance of what is manifesting as unique is gleaming of pure giving and letting. In every human being there is an abiding awareness of the emergence of all beings and all the whos .This vivid presence of the unfolding of presencing, this gleaming of nature is all whos gleam.
Being brings beings into presence. It is not simply the presence of the being which draws one attention but the presencing of the being coming into presence. Our attentnion is not simply focused on what is present (the being) in its sheer presence but gazing into seeing into the pure coming into presence itself. Being is without a being. One stands before Being as Being. Through beings we enter Being itself. Through experiencing the manifesting of beings we, as whos, experience Being itself through beings.
There is this movingness of whos and beings and things in and out of presence. There is a movingness in Greek language that allows this to be heard and seen more easily. We can easily see beings as inert and static objects or entities fixed, for the subject also is fixed and fixated. When we focus on the ground, the temporal ground out of which beings manifest, and this is the manifesting of what is presenting. What shows itself is the manifesting, and what is manifesting is the inner empowering of beings namely Being itself.
Heidegger: On Becoming Self Liberated Through the Manifestation of Appearance By Rudolph Bauer, Ph.D A.B.P.P.
To experience the field of awareness is to experience the manifesting of phenomena .The more you are in the field of awareness the more able you are able to experience the manifesting of phenomena arising as field. The more you are in the awareness field the more you feel the energy of manifestation. The more you are in the field of awareness the more you experience the energy, the vibration as the shakti. The more you experience the energy the more you are experiencing the manifestation of the ground.
When you experience the pulsations, the vortexualness, the openingnness, the sublime vibrations the more you are feeling the manifestingness of the ground.
Presence to us is more than its meaning. Presence is not reducible to meaning.Being or phusis. It is the presencing of beings and things and the presencing of the who...who is not a thing, but is beingness itself.
Phusis is the emerging and letting come into presence of what is present. Phusis is self presencing of presence in infinite ways. There is this power of the emergence of all things and beings and whos, the opening and showing of all things and being to us which is the showing of Being itself as beings.
Nature as phusis is the temporal manifestation of beings in their beingness and you and I dwell in this in the midst of this manifesting and we ourselves are being manifested. Everything is not grounded in the subject..Subject is not source but is a manifestation of source. There is amazement and astonishment at the unceasing and inexhaustible giving, showing, shining, forth of all things and beings and whos. The core matter is not our meaning making but what calls forth meaning which is phusis or nature or manifestation.
In experiencing presencing of a who, or being or even a thing, you are seeing through, seeing into experience presencing itself. This presencing is the manifesting of the ground. You enter the flowing, you are the shakti, you enter the field of Being...the field is the manifesting of Being, the manifestation of shakti, the energia is the manifesting of Being, which is the field of awareness.
Written by: Rudolph Bauer, Ph.D A.B.P.P.
The Washington Center for Consciousness Studies

THE REALM OF OMNIPOTENCE AND THE POWER OF AWARENESS: LACANIAN PHENOMENOLOGICAL VIEW

Self Liberation in Phenomenology and Dzogchen, Essays
By Rudolph Bauer, Phd Wed, Oct 23, 2013 Rudolph Bauer Ph.D., Author

We are focusing our Lacanian and phenomenological understanding of the superego’s domination of the perceptual field and the destruction by judgmentalness of relatedness with our self and those we love. Judgmentalness destroys whoness, destroys the person.
When you are consistently located within the superego function, the very sense of critical judgmentalness and relentless criticism minimizes our sense of innate primordial awareness. The unbound judgmentalness and critical relentlessness replaces the sense of innermost self as the base and source of our person. Superego judgmentalness destroys the sense of whoness in our self and the sense of whoness in those we love. Only the thing remains. As Lacan describes the comedy shows up. The world as thingness. The primitive affective states of deprivation anxiety and annihilation anxiety dominate our thought and action. Because deprivation anxiety is so unbearable we impose and transmit this deprivation on the one we love, on to the other. There is not enoughness. Annihilation anxiety is so unbearable we impose and transmit this annihilation on the ones we love and so death anxiety pervades and we live in dread. We are always waiting for death.
The One who Knows
The more completely you become the superego function, and are encapsulated within this primitive childhood structure , the more you experience unbound omnipotence as the one who knows, and knows and always knows. The one who knows! Knows what? Knows exactly what is right and exactly what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, what is the truth and what is false. The Pharisee mind. As Merleau Ponty describes judgmentalness forecloses the gnosis of perception, forecloses the awareness of situation, forecloses the discernment of character and discrimination of right action.
The very psyche of person , the anima dimension is sent away, exiled, and you are left in mind alone. When psyche disappears there is only mind alone. Solipsism replaces the great compassion and the ongoing continuity of relatedness or bondedness is ruptured yet again.The experiential instruction to get beyond our mind and to differentiate our mind from the sphere of awareness, allows you and I to make the shift to live within the field of awareness. To shift from being located within mind alone to being located in the
awareness of awareness allows us to enter the transitional space and to experience the nature of awareness within our self and within the other, allows us to live within the field of being, the field of being within our self and within the other. Non duality arises naturally, continuity of relatedness naturally arises and is sustained. For so many the life of relatedness is ongoing relentless rupturedness and fracturedness. This is the hell realm.
Judgmentalness is ultimately self directedness. Self hatred is unworthiness and within the domination of the superego there is the vast lack of not knowing ones own desire. When faced with the openness of the situation and freedom of the situation, we will not know what to do with our own lack of authorship and with our own lack of inspiration. Without authorship and self inspiration a vast oppositionalness arises out of this lack of self inspiration and self authorship. Ambivalence becomes the way of life , waiting is the way of life. Nothing actually happens.
When we are located within the superego function , we are in desperate need of the castle of the law and the Citadel of omnipotence .We slowly but surely become more and more compulsive, more and more fixated, more and more driven by an unknown master, never ending drivenness but for what or for whom is really not so clear, even for the one who knows.
The realm of omnipotence is so very concrete operational, so very dense, and there is so very little space, there is no play, no place of space. This concrete operational world of density of experience results in sensory overload, and the fusion or intrusion of the presymbolic concrete realm. There is a background sense of terror with this unending containment, no space. The concreteness of the situation is endlessly closed, there is no space of awareness.The space of awareness is replaced by the Judge of judgment.
In this realm of concreteness complete concreteness omnipotence reigns. There is the sense that the source of life and goodness lies outside of the self. Envy arises out of our sense of the entitlement of others and their unearned giftedness. We envy the freedom of others, and we envy their lack of burden. We envy what others are given. We envy children. Envy hates what it does not have, the hatred of the other is experienced as the hatred of the self. The hatred of the situation is experienced as hatred of the self. Just as the love of the other and the love of the situation is experienced as love of the self.
The Little Used Power of the Awareness Field!
The power of the awareness field has great and wonderful influence on the concrete mind and the concreteness of relentless judgmentalness. Primordial awareness can infuse the concrete mind. The great primordial field of the fire of awareness infuses, suffuses and dissolves, metabolizes concreteness mind and its judgments. Awareness cuts through the concreteness of mind . The energy and the light of awareness allows or brings forth the subtleness of mind and the translucidity of perception. The perception of awareness becomes more open, more apparent and more transparent. Awareness and its field infuses the mind, penetrates the mind, deconstructs the density and redundancy of thought, interrupts the repetition of thought and eventually allows thought free
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experience. Space brings forth more space. There arises the non technical view of self and life. Emptiness of mind as space, the poetic state of spaciousness self arises.
The first and most simple method is to hold the experience of the mind and most specifically the judgmentalness of mind within the awareness state and this action brings forth the power of metabolization of thoughts, sensations and affective states. Holding the mind and the judgments of the mind within the sea of awareness dissolves the relentless criticism of childhood structure of superego. One begins to get beyond the relentless judgmentalness of right and wrong.good and evil, better and best. Empty mind appears.
Just like writing on the sea with your finger tips, the water dissolves the notation.Writing in a bowl of water with your finger tips the notation dissolves. If you have the stability of awareness and the fire like strength of awareness this dissolving takes place naturally and directly and with immediacy. The primary reason this healing event does not take place is that our judgmentalness is syntonic and not dystonic. So we must come to the conclusion that your compulsive mind, this castle of the lord superego, this king of crticalness robs us of our life of the freedom of awareness. Alas nothing will happen. The concreteness of mind forecloses the felt field of awareness. The judgmentalness of mind forecloses the field of awareness and we are left in a presymbolic concrete state of envy aggression and omnipotent self righteousness. This ruptures of relatedness will happen repeatedly in our life with those whom we love.
We must release this demonic source of security and in doing we will bring forth what is within us..aham ah.I am becoming who I am.
The cranial vault method is a simple cutting through method with great power and results. You focus from the back of the head and focus the energy, the light to the forehead. Then you focus to the eyes. Then to the palette of the mouth. And then if you wish the throat, heart, navel.If you wish you can also focus on the throat, the heart, the navel and the perineum.
You can use the method to open the sense of space.You can focus the energy from the back of the head as if you were cutting through a paper bag. Dissolving the boundaries and opening the windows and doors into spaciousness. You are using the power of awareness, the space of awareness, the energy of awareness, the fire of awareness to cut through phenomena. Awareness cuts through awareness, cuts through the configurations of awareness. Cutting through opens phenomena so that the radiance and space of awareness shines through.
.We can use the power of the source, the innermost heart essence. The self arising of the energy and light of the heart essence through the mind wherein there is the metabolization of the mental structures and ideation. We focus the heart of awareness, the luminous energy of awareness on the configurations of our mind. We infuse our mind. We focus on the functions of the mind and it corresponding affective states including terror. Sometimes the use of the cutting through sound of phat will be a most powerful. The mantric repetition must be in the vibrational field. Short fierce cuts of awareness cutting through the configurations of awareness.
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The primal and magical sound of Ah opens containment and opens the constrictures of contracted mind and bodily states. Ah not only arise from the mouth, but from every part of the body. You will only discover this experience by practicing the somatic Ah.
Ultimately our own integrity with primordial awareness is the doorway to self liberation. The luminous energy of the heart infuses the mind, infuses the concreteness of mind. The history of mind which is the mind itself. The mind arises out of relational history and can foreclose the transparency of awareness. The judgmentalness of the other is directly reflected within our own sense of self . Many times we attempt the unburdening of self criticism by attacking the other. There is tremendous pleasure in transmitting our own affective burdens into the other. This transmission is the most common way we unburden our affective states of pain.
The greatest method of dissolving the domination of the superego is the transmission of the absolute compassion. This transmission or this extension of our own awareness field of light and energy overcomes and suffuses judgmentalness in the most direct manner. Extension cuts through and dissolves obscurations and the obstructions of primitive mind. Extension is the transcendence of a vast generative openness that takes us beyond good and evil, love and hate, truth and falsity, right and wrong,even liking and disliking. Extension infuses the other with light and energy and infuses our own mind and body with light and energy. This is the great secret of extension. The great lama Yangthang Rinpoche spoke to this in his transmission of the absolute bodichitta. Extension focused on person or the cosmos in the present,. in the past and in the future. This takes the power of timeless awareness beyond space and time and yet within space and within time.The power of timeless awareness is infused into time bound body and time bound mind.
Since many a person do not practice this natural use of their own awareness nothing much may happen for them which can happen. Most persons rely on their mind alone or begging for help from the sky.
The method of invocation of the archetypical dimension or Sambogakaya dimension reconfigurates the mind from within the field of innate primordial awareness. The manifestation of the archetypical actions penetrates the nirmanakaya experience from with and through the Sambogakya drama of the archetypical energies and shakti’s. The cosmological deconstructs and transmutes the psychological.
The invocation of compassion as the Dakini as the mother as the anima brings forth the essence of the nature of awareness with vast amounts of energy presence. This presence of the feminine is not outside you whatsoever, but is the very nature of your awareness. This apparitional manifestation is not a projection of your mind, an idea or affect. The archetypical may be seen as apparitional and outside of us, external to us. The archetypical presence manifests through us and around us. The archetypical presence is our own primordial presence.
This knowing of this presence is a great gift and healing is directly connected with this manifestation. Naturally as this mysterious process unfolds we become the archetypical energy which becomes what we have always been. Many people who have the gift of
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seeing archetypical apparitions do not integrate these visions of primal power into their life and mind as person.
Sometimes the apparitional can be psychologized and contained as a psychology of mind alone. This position keeps the symbolic function contained like in picture book and lacks the power of actuality. This can actually manifest as the realm of the fairies. In completing the process of apparitional life you become the mother, your own awareness is the dakini. So you can see through the eyes and feel through the hands and the body of the dakini. Without becoming the apparitional there will be distance from the great compassion.
.As the great Siddha Tilopa said look into the mirror of your mind , into mysterious realm of the Dakini

Written by Rudolph Bauer, Ph.D. A.B.P.P.
The Washington Center for Consciousness Studies

Outside The Window

FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2011

Outside the Window
I’d like to tell you a little story that is true....

One day, I had completely exhausted all of my usual ways of entertaining myself and I still had time to fill. I had played with my dolls and colored, and God knows what else. So, I decided to sit and look out the window. The next step unfolded quite naturally. I thought that I would experiment to see what something could happen while doing nothing. Something out of nothing! I was very curious about what might happen. But, I had no idea what! So, I turned our big cushy chair around to face the window and sat in it. I decided to just look at the big maple tree in front of our house and sit in the chair. And I waited. I just gazed. I think I had enough faith and curiosity combined to just simply sit and see. I felt empty.

That was the action within non action. I was opening to a possibility. Sitting there felt satisfying enough. And, I began to explore the tree very slowly. I was aware of how clear this picture was. I saw the branches and the different shades of black and the green of the leaves. My vision took in the shape of the leaves, baby leaves and really big ones, their directions hanging on the limb, the different sizes of the branches and twigs and how they were all so unique, like snowflakes. I traced their own path to reach the sun. I was lead to discover the space between the branches and a whole new world within that space. I noticed that I was very still and actively calm. There was a sweet, warm energy flowing in my body and mind.

Then, I began to notice something very interesting. And, very exciting and new! I couldn’t think about it with my mind! I was just allowed to notice it with my experience of what was inside of me and what was outside of me. It was like the window that was separating me and the outside just opened up. And, that openness was the something! The tree and me were having the same experience of “something”! We weren’t two separate things anymore, me and the tree. The “something” that was glistening cool diamonds of light sparkling in the tree and the sky and the branches and leaves was the same cool sweet feeling moving inside my whole body. I could sense myself in the tree and the tree could sense me and we perfectly still together even though the leaves were moving. We were occupying the same space. Just open light and love together, in this endless moment of pure awareness and being. It was all around me, in me, outside of me .and it was all the same. The tree was alive in me. It was in my eyes, my hair, my arms, my whole body, and I was inside of the branches and the trunk and the leaves and all the never-ending spaces in between. One becoming two and two becoming one.

When I experienced this, I felt so happy. I was amazed and very satisfied to know that there really was something in nothing, and that my question had been answered. I was very happy to be alive and grateful to know the secret living in the tree and in me. I didn’t quite know what to do with this information, but there was a completion in just knowing it. I saw the tree , went through it and found the sky on the other side. It was emptiness and it was fullness, simultaneously. Then, I heard my mother call me for lunch.


Written by Karen Ferguson

Graduation and Baby Gnosis

Graduation and Baby Gnosis

I went to a Pre-Kindergarden graduation yesterday for my stepson’s girlfriend’s 5 year old boy.  The boy and I have a sweet connection.  We have been playmates since my stepson came into his life before he was a year old.  Historically, this little boy’s parents despise one another.  Besides his divorced parents, he has two sets of biological grandparents who have all divorced and are with someone else or remarried, an 11 year old half brother whose biological father died when he was three, his father’s second wife and their year old son, and a colorful assortment of aunts and uncles and cousins from both parents as well as his step parent’s parents and their parents.   At the graduation, his mother and father were there with their spouses, parents and children and one or two aunts.  All in all there were around 15 close family members at his graduation.  The hostility between the parents was invisible and silent, but clearly apparent.  When I introduced myself to the boy’s father, I was immediately texted by my stepson describing this person’s past behavior and told to refrain from speaking to him.  It was the “Hatfields and Mccoys” all over again.

The 10 little ones paraded in their rented red caps and gowns.  They sang songs, pledged their allegiance and received their diplomas.  Proud parents videoed and took pictures.  The children were all smiles except for one little girl who kept running to her parents and grandparents for hugs and reassurance and tear wiping.
Even the teachers were sniffling as they talked about each child and what they would miss about each one.  It was my first “kid’s graduation.”  The love in the air was palpable.

I stood in the back as the chairs were filled, and I noticed that my little graduate was focusing on me.  I was resonating with love in the sweetness of the moment..and the little guy had a sweet smile on his lips as he looked at me.  He was gazing into my eyes, and the transmission was occurring naturally between us.  Everything faded around us as we entered the field of pure awareness together.  He was taking in the support of the field and the pure love in this extension and transmission.  We were radiating together in the Heart Essence.  I know there was healing for him in this timeless moment as I felt him in his little freedom and expanse, totally independent of this spectacle before him.  He was finding his own experience of wholeness and happiness.  I could see him filling up.  It was just us in the room in that moment.

Afterwards, this boy’s mother, her sister, my stepson and his parents (my husband and his ex) and me and the grandmother and her boyfriend spouse all met at a restaurant.  He grabbed an open seat beside me on the bench and sat close to me.  We chatted and played and spoke together quietly.  He put his head on my shoulder.  He was resting in the healing space of nonduality that we created together. Baby Gnosis is still alive and well for this little boy.   It was a happy ending to a happy beginning and vice versa.   In September, he will be in Kindergarden.

Spring

Looking deeply into the presence of my own awareness, I at once embody and journey into the material of consciousness as it appears in my body.  I am aware that as I am sitting here in meditation, I can see the thick expanse of an interplay of light and dark and feel sensations of bliss as the centers in my head open.  Like the flowers in my kitchen, I am blossoming .

Empowerments given by a great master, Yangtang Tulke Rinpoche, must be taking root. The seeds were planted in early spring and are being watered in meditation.  A subtle force like a current sweeps through my being, awakening a deeper truth.  My foundation feels more strong and firm, and more beautiful.  What was unknown in the foundation of my being, or in question, or doubt, has been repaired.  What I am really made of, this material of consciousness, is appearing.  It seems like a fine time for refinement.  I welcome the master craftsman from the divine realms who are assisting me in this movement towards more light in my life.

We are building from nothingness to knowingness.  The foundation, and now the walls are going up. They are made with a fabric like a dragonfly fly’s wing, so the breeze can pass through.  I hear the voice of the spirit calling me.  It is a whisper of softness, a vibration that is felt as subtly as this breeze blowing through me. It is calling me to take my seat among the others, and join them as they sit.  At first, one buddha image, then ten, then hundreds, thousands, multiplying, they are everywhere.  They appear as Buddhas, but they feel like me.  They are giving great support, and  filling the house of my being.  The buddhas are very still, colorful and tiny points of light.  They are smiling gently, and awake.  They change from having Buddha's face to my face.  I am in good company.  The visions or gift of Sambhogakaya melts into pure awareness.  Birthing, manifesting, reseeding, and perpetually blossoming as Dharmakaya, the great wheel turns as she reveals her secrets.


written by Karen Ferguson

Honey

Love is like honey.  Yesterday, I was cleaning out my pantry and found a mason jar of honey I bought in Asheville, NC  last year, that I didn’t use very much because it had the whole honeycomb filling it, and I couldn’t get the honey out of the jar without scooping up some of the waxy stuff.  So, I got out a bowl and a strainer and placed the jar of honey on the strainer upside down.  It was a process of waiting for the honey to slowly go through the little holes and down into the bowl.  I was happy to see that my idea was working quite well.  There wasn’t anything to do except be with this process. This sweet nectar was so beautiful, a rich, gorgeous amber color .  When held up to the sunlight, it turned into gold.

The honey was in the jar, along with the messy honeycomb, and I saw the potential of having a nice jar of pure honey sitting on my shelf.  I saw the immediacy of not having to dig through the honey comb.  It was going to be much easier to get a scoopful of honey for my tea.  It would be there, present, within my reach.  Towards the end, I had to mash it with a fork, to push the honey through the comb and extract as much as I could.  The comb was finally dry and my honey was ready for it’s container.

That is the way love is.. a pool of nectar, flawless, pure, sustainable, within reach.  Beautiful like my jar of honey, it sits on the shelf of the pantry, behind closed doors.  It is there all the time, but it is not always in my awareness.  It is only when I think of a nice cup of tea, that it beckons to me..Open the pantry doors, I am sitting on the shelf.  I am here.  I boil the water, get the teabag, and reach for the honey.   It isn’t waxy anymore, it is ready to use, simple.  No effort now, no work, it is smooth and perfect.  My spoon reaches down into the thick amber and goes into my cup, melting, swimming.  It fills the cup, filling the cup of tea with it’s magic.  Drinking it , gratitude somehow comes into my awareness.  Just a simple act of drinking a cup of tea, with a touch of honey from a divine queen bee and her worker bees, I drink it all in.  Love in a cup.  All the work of my honey straining, all of the work of the bees, all of the sunshine and happy days and bees on flowers collecting pollen, skip me down the street.

There was nothing but joy that created a bee, a flower, a spoonful of honey, a cup of tea.  Love is like honey.


written by Karen Ferguson