Copyright (C) 2009 by William R. Mistele.
All rights reserved.
Week Two:
Magical Empathy
Objectives for
Week Two:
Review: Pursue some of the optional listening skills
listed in Chapter One. For example, deepen active listening by observing the
inner and outer flow of life, stage of life, ten steppingstones
Imagine you are other people. Explore this act of imagination in various
ways.
Read One
Minute Seminar and compare your experience.
Video: The
Goddess.
Consider some of the spiritual resources outlined
that you can bring to listening according to the four elements. For example, note the empty mind method of
contemplation in which the only thing in your awareness is what you are
focusing on.
Try blessing someone. Note two blessing poems.
Try forming a spiritual connection of love with
another person.
For those who project, project into heart chakra of
Dalai lama
Send in any comments or questions you may
have.
Magical
Empathy
In
the first chapter, I describe good listening skills. Active listening is a courtesy we may extend
to someone we care about. Your task in
the first chapter was to use active listening on other people so that it
becomes familiar. At this point, we are
ready to proceed to magical empathy.
A basic technique sometimes used in
psychology is to imagine you are the other person. You imagine you are inside of the other’s
body sitting in the same position. You
imagine that you are speaking with the other’s voice and using the other’s body
language. Going further, you imagine
thinking the other’s thoughts, possessing the other’s memories, seeing through
the other’s eyes, and feeling the other’s feelings.
You explore another’s self-image until you
notice a specific, concrete, and physical sensation in your body that arises in
response to imagining you are the other person.
When you get this sensation of being the other person, focus on it. Allow it to tell you something new about this
person.
Ask yourself, What
is this sensation like? Is there an
image or symbol that you could use to express it? What does it tell you about what the other
person is like or about the inner flow of the other’s life?
For example, with a young woman whom I
consider to be amazingly complex, I get a sensation in my belly as if I have
just eaten a piece of Godiva chocolate.
It is sweet, warm, and satisfying.
The sensation tells me that in spite of my ideas about her, she actually
is what she appears to be—a sweet, young, and a loving woman.
With a stock broker whom I just met, I get a
sensation of being very relaxed, laid back, and easy going. This sensation is in complete contrast to his
physical appearance which is tense and in control. I ask him about this. He says he is looking forward to retiring and
that I seem to know more about him than any of his friends. (See One
Minute Seminar)
Getting physical sensations in this manner
gives a direct body-to-body and heart-to-heart connection to another
person. For a brief period or longer,
you are now connected to this person in a way that no one else in the world
is. Consequently, you may notice an
instant change in your body language and that of the other person.
Among other things, there is greater
rapport. You and the other may feel more
relaxed and comfortable so that words are no longer needed to confirm or validate
the relationship. The level of
connection is more fundamental than that produced by conversation or social
interactions. Larry King has never attained this level of connection with any guest
appearing on his show.
I taught a woman this form of magical
empathy. Just after imagining that she
was one with me, she paraphrased my conversation with her. As she did so, I felt that her words were
like my own voice speaking to me from depths inside myself. I do not recall ever having had this experience
before.
Almost everyone has had a life-long
friend. In talking to such a person
there is a feeling of trust, relaxation, an effortless ease and satisfaction
that accompanies the conversation. Yet
no friend I have ever known speaks to me with a voice from the depths of my
heart. But for an undine, it is
perfectly natural to sense what is hidden in another’s heart and then to say,
“By the way, I feel something very wonderful inside of you. Why are you not expressing this in your
life?”
Undines automatically produce physical sensations that indicate an inner
connection. In this exercise, we are
exploring verbal and nonverbal aspects of rapport. But undines go much further. They add bliss and ecstasy to a conversation
in a way that we rarely experience in life.
A
One Minute Seminar—an Example of Magical Empathy
Introduction. The following brief, humorous
scene summarizes a real life interaction in which I used magical empathy. I
employed active listening, projecting into another person, getting a body
sensation, and then discussing the feeling.
In
this case, I was giving a demonstration of how magical empathy might be a
useful skill for an alpha male who is usually too busy to take the time to bond
with women.
Here we are folks at a world
famous Yacht Club. I have standing next
me on my right the most eligible bachelor in the state. Let’s call him Brad. Next to him is his
current stock broker (James—all these names are fictitious). And to my
left is an actual group of self-proclaimed cheerleaders both supportive of Brad
and carrying on a discussion of Brad’s current girlfriend.
Me:
“Excuse me ladies. Can you tell me why you consider yourselves a group of
cheerleaders for Brad?”
Susan: “I think
we feel we are out of the running or never qualified for the running. But
we still feel we have a vested interest in the outcome.”
Me: “Ah
yes. I think I kind of understand. But why this
bachelor? What makes him so special?”
Linda:
“He’s handsome, successful, wealthy, a great sailor, has a beautiful sailboat,
great to crew for, and has hundreds of friends. It makes a woman feel good just
to be around him.”
Me:
“Really? So what’s the cheerleader squad discussing tonight?”
Jennifer:
“We’re questioning Brad’s attitude toward women. He says he is not really
serious when he dates but come on. I think he is naïve about women if he
thinks the women he is dating aren’t really serious about him.”
Susan: “Look. I
run my own bar and I have seen a lot of dating going on. And unless a guy
is intimate with a woman he owes her exactly nothing.”
Me: “So you are saying on the one hand that Brad is misleading women and yet
technically it’s the women who are misleading themselves. Is that a fair
summary?”
Jennifer:
“Yah. Judging from his track record, he usually takes about seven years
to decide to marry a woman ….because he doesn’t want to go through the trauma
of breaking up. Not being serious is his way of being cautious. I
mean, look at the way he hangs out with a woman--his arm around the girl he is
dating and how he kisses her. When I see that there is no way the woman
isn’t going to get involved.”
Me:
“So has this been a problem with his latest date?”
Susan: “He’s a man. He thinks of a woman in terms of whether 1. She has
‘excess baggage,’ 2. She is ‘damaged goods,’ and 3. Whether
or not she is ‘high maintenance.’”
Me: “So he
is kind of picky.”
Linda:
“His real problem is not the women he will finally marry. The problem is
that after two years the woman will finally catch on to what Brad is really
about.”
Me: “And what is
that?”
Linda:
“For Brad, the first thing in his life is business. The second is his
social life. The third thing is his sailing and hanging out down here at
the Yacht Club. At best, his wife will
only be fourth on his list of priorities.”
Me: “That could
be a problem, huh? But why should we speculate? Let’s ask Brad for an
opinion.”
Me: “Say
Brad. I have been talking to your cheerleaders here and they are questioning
your interpersonal skills. They suspect they may not be sufficient to keep a
woman happy once you marry here.”
Brad: “It is
true. In my past marriages, my wives left me. Got any ideas?”
Me:
“Ladies? No thoughts? We’ll, have you heard about the three day
seminar on relationships taught in one minute?”
Brad: “Well, I
have a minute. Let’s do it.”
Me: “There
are three components. First, once a week sit down and listen to a woman
for fifteen minutes. During this time, utilize only active
listening. That is, on occasion paraphrase what she is saying and also
suggest what you sense she is feeling as she talks. For example, Susan
here says flat out that a woman has no claim on you unless you are intimate with
her. And I suspect she feels that the only important thing you should be
concerned about in dating is finding the right woman. Susan is concerned
about what is best for you. This is active listening: capture both thoughts and
feelings.”
Susan: “You got
that right.”
Me: “The
second component is that after fifteen minutes you place your mind inside of
the other person. Just to make it challenging, I will pick James here
since I know nothing about him and have never heard him say anything. To
do this, just image you are the other person—you have the other person’s body,
feelings, mind, gestures, body posture, vocal intonations, word choices,
etc. Get right inside the other so you are one.
“Ok, here I am imagining I am inside of James. And this
brings us to the third component—wait inside the other until you get a
distinct body sensation. This sensation is a gut level connection to the
other person.
“With James the sensation I now have is that he is a very relaxed person, ready
to let go and let his life completely unfold in any way it wants. But if
you look at James sitting here on that bar stool, his posture and facial
expression suggest he is tense, uptight, and worrying about something.
How am I doing, James?”
James: “You
are absolutely right. People keep thinking I am an uptight kind of
guy. But I have all the clients I need and I am actually cutting back in
my business. I am looking forward to retiring and I completely happy with
my life.”
Me:
“Do you feel we know each James?”
James:
“You seem to know me better than my best friends.”
Linda: “What if Brad doesn’t do this once a week once he marries a
woman?”
Me:
“Then his wife can actually do it on Brad. Intimacy that is magical like
this can be established unilaterally. And as a matter of fact lovers in
this life rarely worry about how their inner connection came to be. They
just know when it is there and when it is not. If they have it, all the
other difficulties and worries that accompany the relationship remain
secondary.”
In
summary, magical empathy allows you freedom of movement so your consciousness
can move back and forth between yourself and another. In so doing, you discover an energy and
connection that underlies and joins both of you.
Warning. Some warning is appropriate. Empathy seems like it is responding
rather than acting. If you feel what
another feels, then this implies you are passively sensing the other
person. If we consider empathy as being
closely aligned with the feminine in its nurturing capacity, then some might
regard this supportive aspect of empathy as being weak. It would seem that masculinity, by contrast,
takes charge and changes things. This
point of view is a great mistake.
Empathy can control just as easily as it
can receive. It can recreate in itself
what another feels, and it can just as easily create new feelings in another
person. This is perfectly clear in my
dialogues with undines. Simply
communicating with them is to experience wonder and profound states of
love. It is not for nothing that even
traditional literature ascribes to undines the ability to enchant and cast
spells.
Our own psychologists notice something
similar. If you establish a subliminal
bond with another person and change your feelings, then the other person tends
to change also without being conscious that this is happening. In doing active listening, then, you do not
want to be overly sympathetic or signal to the other that you have a strong
reaction to what the other person has experienced. You do not want to define others’ feelings
for them by indicating your feelings are already perfectly clear about the
experiences they are sharing.
Salesmen are constantly employing various
forms of empathy. They act like your
best friend to establish trust so they can sell you something. They employ all sorts of nonverbal cues to
accomplish this.
I met a powerful empath
not long ago. She turned her immense
powers of psychic sensitivity on me. A
third party might have observed her empathy being expressed through her tone of
voice, her eyes, and her facial expressions.
But I simply noticed her extending her aura around me. In an instant, she conveyed that she
understood who I was and what I was seeking to accomplish.
I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. Experience told me that, although she sensed
what was in me, she did not really care.
She was running on autopilot--using her empathic skills to manipulate
another in order to sell her products.
Beneath the warmth was a cold heart.
And the man she was with was drained and depressed, perhaps as a result
of her influence. You have to actually
care about others if you want to bring to life what is within them.
The Opposite of Empathy. It might also be helpful at this point to note the
opposite of empathy. Empathy is to feel
what another feels. It overcomes
separation and personal boundaries. It
works directly with feeling.
If you are intuitive you can say to someone
with accuracy, “You are pregnant.” “Something terrible happened to you during
your vacation.” “You are violating another person’s trust.”
If you know the other person well, then your
comments may fall within the trust you share with that person. Just as easily these words could be invasive,
presuming an intimacy or familiarity with the other person that does not
exist. In that case, the comments can be
offensive and obnoxious. The advice or
insight you are offering is unsolicited
The opposite of empathy is being
assertive. You state clearly and
concisely your own interests and let others do the same for themselves. You do not try to rescue others nor do you
allow them to intrude on your personal space uninvited.
Being assertive requires a sense of maintaining
and defending your personal boundaries.
Sure, another person may know what you are feeling but you are perfectly
within your rights to say, “I am not interested in discussing that.” “That is none of your business.”
Saying, “I am not interested in discussing
that” is the bottom line. There is nothing further to discuss. Any further attempt to talk about your
feelings is disrespectful and invasive.
It is okay to look at someone, slowly shake your head, and say quietly
but firmly (and repeat as needed), “I am not interested.” Or, “I am not going
to go there.”
Enforcing boundaries means also escalating
consequences. On the one hand, if you can just ignore someone and act like
there is no problem, then there is no problem.
At other times, you have to gradually
increase consequences to defend your personal space. In this case, you know your own limitations
no matter how loving you are. You
gradually limit your contact with someone or else limit the interaction. You formalize the contact so that it only
moves within acceptable boundaries.
These are methods that belong to conflict
resolution. The greater the degree of
conflict, the stronger the control must be over the kind and extent of the
interaction.
Another mode of being assertive is called
“giving feedback.” You say for example, when you do such and such, I feel so
and so. I am asking you therefore not to
do that anymore.
For example, “When you raise your voice and
glare at me as we talk about this, I get the feeling
that I am being controlled. But I have
my own choice to make. I want you to
respect that.”
Video:
The Goddess
http://www.lava.net/~pagios/movie5.wmv
Introduction:
This is a two minute video that is part of a story board for a screenplay. It borrows a scene from Peter Weir’s movie, The Last Wave.
In that movie, an aboriginal shaman in
Australia hypnotizes a white man and discovers the man is a former shaman
himself from another aboriginal clan.
The scene relies on hypnotism as a dramatic
device. All the same, there are certain
questions we can ask about active listening.
Note:
The nude shots of the model were taken when she was a model for a photography
seminar. There were about fourteen
photographers shooting and the seminar was lead by one of the foremost
photographers in the U.S.
Exercises
As
we listen, can we discover spiritual aspects or “identities” hidden in another
person?
I consider the model in the movie clip to
be the incarnation of the Buddhist deity, Prajnaparamita,
the mother of all enlightened beings.
That is, in her akashic body she is pure
awareness without form identification exactly identical with that of the
goddess, Prajnaparamita. But this in no way implies that her mental,
astral, or physical bodies reflect those divine qualities. She struggles like anyone else to get through
the day.
All the same, as an intuitive psychic, it
is sometimes my job to “see” how the divine and the human are striving to unite
within any human being. To listen in
this way requires that you the listener be able to enter some form of
transcendent state of awareness.
These can be such things as
1. A mind that is temporarily enlightened, that
is, free of all attachment and perfectly clear—an embodiment of perfect
freedom. This is the air element used as a resource to help
clarify another’s experiences.
A simple way to approximate an enlightened
state of mind is to employ contemplation.
As you gaze upon something or hold an image of a person in your mind,
focus without thoughts occurring. Do not
refer back to your self. Imagine that
the only thing that exists in your awareness is the other person.
Instead of projecting into another person,
if you hold the other person in your mind without distraction and without
referring back to your self, then the vibration of the other person is the only
thing in your consciousness. This too is
a way of uniting or of becoming one with another person.
The advantage of contemplation in this way
is that you are simply turning your mind into a mirror that reflects one
thing—the other person—within it. You can get insights and impressions in this
way. The disadvantage of contemplation
is that it does not engage the astral body level of feeling.
To unite with another requires also the
ability to feel all that the other feels.
Contemplation will give you insight but it will not take you into those
depths of love and inner connection. That
is a limitation of the air element.
2.
You can embody the fire element by
seeking to illuminate for another person that individual’s divine purpose in
life. This is tricky, because even
archangels can not tell you what your purpose is in life. They can only seek to fulfill the vision
hidden within your heart. It falls to
you to discover and to reveal what that vision is.
People sometimes write me and ask me to tell
them what their purpose is in life. This
is like asking, What is the meaning of life, the
universe, and everything else? In both
cases, I can probably tell you exactly what that purpose is.
The problem is that the idea or words have no
meaning. The answer is something you
have to experience for yourself. The
universe exists as a divine celebration.
But saying that says exactly nothing.
How can words express what it is to feel one
with everything that exists? How can
words express that there is an ecstasy so great that its mere touch annihilates
all pain and suffering that has gone before?
To taste these things is to no longer be a human being but something
else. Divine fire represented by the sun
knows of these things and on very rare occasions we are able to share that
illumination with another.
However, a simple way of entering into such
a frame of mind
is to visualize a being of light and imagine that this being is the other
person’s guardian angel. Then you and
the guardian angel you imagine listen together as the other person speaks. If you like, you can imagine you are the
other person’s guardian angel, that is, that you are the being of light you
visualize.
The problem with this approach is that
guardian angels themselves are often in a very difficult situation. They can speak to another person through that
individual’s conscience, dreams, omens, special events, strong feelings,
etc. But very often no one is
listening. Consequently, you as a
listener have a great advantage over a guardian angel. The feedback you give to the other person
often holds the other’s attention so that new and personal insight can be
generated.
Another way of working with the fire element
is simply to visualize a person as having resolved whatever conflicts he or she
has right now. If she is depressed,
visualize her as invigorated, energized, and inspired. If he is tense and frustrated, imagine him as
completely relaxed and satisfied. If she
is having relationship problems, visualize her as completely fulfilled with
deep love relationships in her life.
There is a body to body effect, a non verbal
communication that occurs. If more
therapists did this their clients would be cured much faster. But psychology is renowned for lacking a
power of will. All the same, our world
has immense fire and will power built into the culture. It is often not will that people lack but the
inspiration and limitless possibilities offered by love.
3.
The earth element also offers a kind
of transcendence. The earth element
embodies among other things the mystery of silence. For example, a person who knows how to be
silent as he listens communicates to the other person a sense of safety: it is
okay to talk about contradictions and impossible dreams and all manner of
idiotic desires. That is because silence
allows the seed of desire, dream, and vision to be protected and sheltered
until it is ready to be reborn or assume a different form.
Without such silence, any ideal you seek is
shot down right away most likely because an individual is not ready or pure
enough to pursue it. But if you maintain
inner silence, you can take whatever time you need and gain whatever experience
is required in order to embody that ideal or vision.
The world knows nothings about such inner,
transforming power. You, however, can
offer this to another person in the way you listen, in particular, by not
judging or striving for quick closure to any difficulties that arise.
Silent listening in this way may seem like
the opposite of fire that visualizes a person as being stronger and more
successful now rather than in some far future.
But the two support each other.
Some visions like that of the prophet Isaiah’s take thousands of years
until someone else picks them up and actually has the means for fulfilling
them.
At other times, you visualize what you want
as being real right now in this moment and it comes to you effortlessly. It depends on the obstacles to overcome and
how well you can communicate your vision to others.
4. You can offer the water element such as the undine capacity for love: a receptivity
so giving that it holds the other within its heart, nurturing, sheltering,
inspiring, and fulfilling. This entire
course pursues this ability. Consider
the following:
Undine
Empathy—A First Step
An undine’s
magnetic aura passes through anyone near to her or through anyone she focuses
on. The magnetic fields of force in her
aura automatically sense the other’s deepest desires and dreams. They also sense the ways in which the other
person might be fulfilled.
In this sense, an undine’s empathy goes
beyond feeling another person’s feelings or even feeling compassion. It is a way of foreseeing the future. Or, more accurately, undines see the way an
individual might become whole and complete.
To feel what is at the core of another person’s being is also to have a
vision of what this individual can become.
You could say that the desire or dream in
another’s heart is like fire and light.
The undine’s magnetic love amplifies that fire or desire so that it
becomes concrete and feels real. In this
sense, the undine is not using will power.
There is no effort exerted. The
undine’s magnetic aura automatically amplifies the way a magnetic field makes
an electric current stronger.
This is not a prophetic function. The future depends on the individual’s and
others’ choices. The undine may not see
when something will happen as much as what will inevitably happen.
At the same time, empathy for an undine
does not stop with insight or knowledge.
It takes the individual into that vision and grants a taste—a powerful
emotional affirmation that one’s deepest dreams can be fulfilled. The undine takes you directly into the dream
as if the dream is real right now.
We do not often experience this in our
daily lives so it might be a little hard to imagine. However, we sometimes notice something
similar occurring in the moment of falling in love. A lover may say, “I never felt fully alive
until I met you. I can’t imagine living
my life without you. You are the reason
I exist.” Or, “Until I met you my life
was confused but now everything is in clear.”
In other words, love enhances feeling. It makes people alive. Individuals in love have more energy. Lovers, however, usually relate one to
one. In romantic love, you bond with one
person.
For an undine, love is not possessive in
this way. Love is a property of
water. The ecstasy and bliss that water contain is not derived from a connection to one person. Love is in the rivers, the lakes, and the
seas. This love encompasses the
planet. Undines are not constricted by
the limitations and needs of an ego.
Though we might find it difficult to sense
another person’s deepest desires and dreams, we are already familiar with the
idea of blessing another person. In some
churches, the service ends with a blessing as in, “May the blessings of God be
upon you; may his peace abide with you; may his presence illuminate your lives
now and forever more.”
In this case, the blessing is an act of
love. It is not possessive. It does not serve the purpose of bonding or
forming a romantic attachment. But it
does express a solidarity and in a sense an inner union with the other
person. It is a celebration of the love
that unites us all as one.
Bless another person and you have stepped
outside of your ego. You are in a sacred
space, on the astral plane of the planet, where love and peace flow like a
stream from the dawn of time to the ends of eternity.
Exercise
Now
then, take the idea of a blessing and customize it for a specific
individual. Try this: Visualize someone
right now so you see the other in front of you.
Now imagine this individual feeling whole and complete. Whatever is missing is now present. Desires are satisfied, purposes accomplished,
and dreams fulfilled.
Put together a feeling, a thought, and a
picture of what this might be like for the individual. Now, imagine blessing the other person in
this way--see and feel it as if it is real right now. In the section in which I describe the undine
queen Isaphil, I mention a blessing she offered to a
friend of mine. (see poem below)
The idea of blessing involves an act of daring—you
accept the person as he or she is right now and you also dream what the person
can be. For undines, the oceans brought
life into being, sustain life, and offer dreams of what can be. To dare is the very nature of water.
You could say that the queens of the
undines, as masters of water, automatically bless anyone they meet. It is a function of the magnetism in their
auras. They empower others to feel alive
and to fulfill their dreams.
A
friend asked for a blessing. I asked the
undine queen Isaphil for her thoughts. Isaphil chants to
the woman,
May
the touch of moonlight on your skin
Bring
you the best of friends.
When
you see the moonrise
May
there always be love by your side.
When
you place your hands in water
May
you be free of anxiety and sorrow.
When
you look into a mirror,
May
you see your deepest dreams drawing near.
When
you sleep
May
you move freely among dreams without fear.
During
the day
May
you awaken in others’ lives
Fountains of laughter and delight.
And
each cycle
As
the moon waxes and wanes
May
you walk
With
peace before you
Beauty
beside you
Love
to guide you
The
work of your hands
Like
a flower blossoming
Its
scent a reminder
That
the best in life is found
Here
and now.
And
another blessing for a woman I know.
For
the video of below:
lava.net/~pagios/farewellb.wmv
Farewell
May the sun shine upon all
your paths
May friends always walk
beside you
May love always guide you
And reach the inner recesses
of your heart
May every task you seek be
made complete
May you be the sun and the
moon to others’ lives
May you be as the light of dawn
To others in the darkest
night
May you taste the happiness
That comes only to a few in
every century
May you find another who
brings you comfort
And is always there to share
all your cares
Though we once talked, and
walked, and joked
As we traveled the path of
life
Seeking to fulfill a dream
The gift you gave of your
self
Was all I could ever want or
need
Peace to you
May the peace of the sun,
the moon, the sky and seas
Always flow through your
dreams.
And in the end may you look
back and see
That your life is all it is
meant to be.
The
Great Feminine
In
our world, the elements fire (will), air (intellect), and earth (commitment to
work) are developed far beyond that of water (feeling).
In the I-Ching the great Yin is the most receptive of all things. The perfect expression of its nature is the simple that it might overcome what obstructs. The yin in this case is known for its devotion. It is the mother whose love is always there, whose support is always felt and present. There is no end to its nurturing capacity physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
The Great Yin conveys an inner feeling of affirmation,
of support and love. This devotion or conveyance of love serves to unite
the individual from within no matter how dissecting and dividing, conflicting
and stressful the circumstances of the individual’s path in life. This is
a feminine, a mother’s set of qualities and powers describe by King Wu in
ancient times in China when he wrote the I-Ching.
We could say that peace, repose, calmness, happiness, contentment, serenity, tranquility, well-being, delight, kindness, gentleness, affection, empathy, tenderness, sensuality, pleasure, bliss, ecstasy, compassion, and love are qualities that are present when the feminine spirit is operating successfully.
Exercise
We
have all met people who make us feel good simply by knowing them. It is as if the relationship is itself a
blessing: they bring together, unite, and make whole the person we are inside. There is a renewing, purifying, and healing
power that wells up inside of us from their presence in our lives.
On the other hand, there are those who have
the opposite effect: they dissent, pull
apart, weigh down, make ill, contaminate, and destroy others through their
contact with them. If you have such a
person active in your life, the other person acts from inside of you to tear
you a part rather than to heal and unite.
In both cases, there is a power
present. It sustains its connection to
you from within.
Ask your self the following question. The answer indicates the quality and amount
of the water element that is or is not present in your life: Do you know someone who senses what is going
on in the depths of your soul and also who shelters, nurtures, inspires, and
guides you to transform from the person you are into the person you are meant
to be?
My point is that water, love, and feeling are
very rare indeed. We can make an effort
to right the imbalance by pursuing the notion of offering a blessing. Blessing is not a one time event or something
a minister may do each Sunday. It is an
inner connection one person can sustain with another. It is a flow of energy. It is love in action. It is a way of feeling and it is a way of
seeing:
I love your eyes
So quiet and peaceful--
A place to let go and forget
who I am
Until I awaken to the sound
Of waves breaking on the
shore
And the scent of the sea
I see the man I was meant to
be
Walking toward me
Your eyes dream him into
being.
By
virtue of being human beings, we are often caught up in getting through the day
and doing what we must to survive. There
is another dimension surrounding us. The
mermaids remind us of this.
Love has no beginning or ending. It encompasses the universe. A first step in sensing this is to become
part of it, like dipping one’s foot into the ocean.
Try blessing someone on a permanent basis,
the way a mother holds a child in her heart, loving him or her forever. Hold another person in your heart. When you think of his person, automatically
send good energy—a feeling of being love, at peace,
and fulfilled.
It is not about gaining an advantage or
producing a result. It is a way of
being. It is doing what the spiritual
power in water does naturally—flowing in and through others and understanding
that we are all a part of each other.
Actual
Projection Exercise
It
is possible to extend the practice of imagining you are outside of you body and
inside of various objects—a tree, a rock, a coffee bean, a grape, a mountain, a
lake as well as all kinds of people. At
this point, you may begin to get impressions that are not from your
imagination. They are derived from the
energy you sense of being in something else.
If you can get such impressions with people,
you might consider projecting your mind inside the heart chakra of the Dalai
Lama. As a spiritual anthropologist who
considers our spiritual possibilities, the Dalai Lama is an excellent example
of a master of compassion.
Imagine you are at the center of the Dalai
Lama’s chest. Then focus on the astral
body, the sense of feeling in that part of his body. He sometimes invites thousands of people at
one time to pass through his chakras. He
seems very open to this idea.
For me, his heart chakra is like a sea of
love. It is boundless. He describes his motivation as “As long as
suffering remains to sentient beings, I will remain to serve.” Such a statement belongs not to a human being
but to someone who embodies a cosmic religion.
In regard to compassion, he is united to the purposes underlying the
universe.
Summary of Objectives for Weeks One and Two
Week One
Explore some of the inspirational quotes.
Practice active listening by paraphrasing back the
thoughts and separately the feelings of the other person.
Ask questions that keep the focus of interest on the
other person.
Do three to ten minute sessions of active listening
with one or more people.
Observe body language, word choices, tone of voice,
intonation patterns, incongruities, and in particular the way the other’s words
and feelings are aligned or moving in separate directions.
Send in questions, comments, and observations.
Week Two
Review: Pursue some of the optional listening skills
listed in Chapter One. For example, deepen active listening by observing the
inner and outer flow of life, stage of life, ten steppingstones
Imagine you are other people. Explore this act of imagination in various
ways.
Read One
Minute Seminar and compare your experience.
Video: The
Goddess.
Consider some of the spiritual resources outlined
that you can bring to listening according to the four elements. For example, note the empty mind method of
contemplation in which the only thing in your awareness is what you are
focusing on.
Try blessing someone. Note two blessing poems.
Try forming a spiritual connection of love with
another person.
For those who project, project into heart chakra of
Dalai lama
Send in any comments or questions you may
have.