The Spiritual Path

When we are ready to start walking a spiritual path,

a very quick way to begin or start over is to assume that we are already on it.

All of our lives, we have been breathing.

We may not be conscious of our inhalations and exhalations,

but they have been happening, constantly.

Likewise, all of our lives, we've been on a spiritual journey.

When we pay more attention to anything we consider spiritual:

soul, inner guidance, compassion, kindness,

meditation, patience, presence,

devotion, sacred time, rest,

wholeness

unity

we step more

presently

onto the spiritual path.

We take the next step,
we decide how rapidly and how often Love is present on Earth

by how rapidly and how often we answer
Love's constant call for our presence.

When we live this way,

the spiritual path doesn’t happen only in the moments

when we go on a spiritual retreat,

to a church meeting

or a meditation or a peaceful gathering of like-minded,

like-hearted people,

it happens every moment,

whenever we take a breath.

Once we learn to take a breath of divine Love,

we give Love the opportunity to be present,

to influence us,

all of us,

and guide us to greater spiritual Truth and Unity.

It may sound distant,

it may sound ephemeral,

but really it is solid and sound.

It is the foundation that puts the heart back into our walk on Earth,

for the air smells sweeter,

like you stepped into fields of lilacs

when you are in Love.

Love is the inspiration that

keeps us stepping on the path

we are already on.

And, that, in a breath,

is the spiritual path.

Love,

Atala

Say Thank You How To Love One Another Holy Part II

Ellen

Say Thank You.

Ellen taught me a powerful lesson. It is hard to put into words because it lives in each of my cells. I wish I could breathe it to you… that lesson is to say, “Thank You.”

Ellen is my dear friend and a spiritual teacher who teaches both with and without saying a word. She teaches with an inquisitive play of light gaze, a glorious silence, with a painting or with a spill of words that are like moonlight on your skin. She is a raiser, razer, razor – an array of light lifting you up, a tool to split the wheat from chaff and a delicate blade that cuts away debris that had been covering an orchid, and more than that a ray’s oar – a tool to steer us back into the sea of light. A voice and a visionary, but also a person who is willing to live here and be real, Ellen is invested in being a part of life, grateful for each day and every step with all of us.

One way she taught me to say “thank you” was showing me to look for and express the things I am grateful for in another person. Ellen didn’t tell me to do this or even suggest it, she told me how valuable it was for her to do it. Ellen writes letters telling people how grateful she is for what they’ve done and how important they are to her. She gives great thanks, not just for what people do, but genuinely for who they are. She looks deeply, way past the surface, into the details to make sure she sees how valuable each person is. She is vigilant about this; she wants to make sure that she sees the Good in each of us and, by her seeing it, she gives us the opportunity to see it as well.

Ellen’s gift of gratitude is one I love sharing with everyone, for it is an every day, every moment, spiritually, practical way to Love everyone. When I look at you deeply, with appreciation, I see the gifts of Heaven you are and the earthly talents you possess. I see how you incorporate those talents and Truth into your lives and I am immediately grateful and blessed, blessed to be with each and every one of you.

When I am grateful for and to you, I am immediately a better person. I work with you more fruitfully, Love more fully with you, laugh louder with you and do everything more exquisitely with you, because I see how Great you are. When I say, “thank you,” I’m grateful to be here with you, right now, because I know I am with Heaven when I am with you.

Ellen taught me that gratitude is not something we give when we have received something we like, but is a state we exist in, are free to give and are freed by giving. She taught me that gratitude is a way of life and that from gratitude it is an easy step up into happiness, peace and being in Love with everyone. Ellen has a happiness to her, a spring in her step, a spring like a fountain and a spring like roses coming up and like a four-year old smiling in the daisies. Ellen has a way of saying, “I’m grateful to you, I’m grateful for you, now let’s go play, I want to play with You.”

Here is an excerpt from one of Ellen’s books on God’s Love:

May I Say “Thank You”

All the heavens and earth bend toward you, giving you life and a shared experience. With this I bend toward you too, caressing the parameters of your life, breathing in a sense of gratitude for all you bring to this creation.

Without you I would not be complete, for you are my completion. Without you I would be without my beloved. And without you I would be but a thought, not a song.

Take this then, as a token of my gratitude. In all creation you are the harbinger of my salvation. Through you I express my presence. Because of you I become the notes of the song, the harmonized chord, the melody and the refrain.

Thank you, Ellen.

I Am grateful for you Every Day.

How To Love One Another Holy Part I

How To Love One Another Holy

There has been a question about how to Love so powerfully that all Love becomes the same, great, sacred Love. How to Love one another so truly that it is as if we are at the altar taking vows to forever hold and welcome each other into infinite Love? How do we get to the point that our vow is so great that it is as if each man, woman and child is mother, father, husband, wife, sister, brother, teacher, student, and above all God to each other?

In other words, how do we Love one another Holy?

This enormous question, perhaps the enormous question of how to love, spiritual and holy, while we are walking on the Earth is so multifaceted that it can be the lesson of our life.

Fortunately, each of you, each of us, is there to be an answer, to be a support as we walk along the lessons of life and learn again and again how to Love. The more we open to the great lesson of how we can Love each other, the more we are presented with people in our lives who teach us how to Love. In the next few entries, I am going to celebrate some of the people in my life who have taught me about Love.

I invite you to come play with me as we go on this fanciful ride and to meet some of these daring, courageous, loving beings, who have been with me on the path as spiritual teachers and learners, my inspirations.

Rachel, That All Love IS the Same Love

The next time you think you are having a hard time, and you may be, try remembering this story of my friend Rachel and the two lessons she recently taught me. Rachel has four children between the ages of 3 and 11. She is a single parent and works as an assistant manager at a coffee shop. She cares for her mother, who has a disability that keeps prevents her from working. When Rachel was a teenager, a car accident shattered her foot. Her job keeps her on her feet, so she often works in pain, yet Rachel is one of the most optimistic people I know.

Rachel has taught me about forgiveness and compassion in many ways. She has reminded me that we are all in a journey together, all learning together and all here to inspire each other to grow. She takes time with people. She has patience. People don’t always see how patient she is because they aren’t aware of the whole picture of her life, every little facet of what she’s juggling and that she often does her best to attend to the people around her in kindness, even those who are vexing her.

She has shown me both how easy it is to keep going and how hard. Each day we can do it with compassion and forgiveness or we can choose to get angry. Rachel makes some miraculous choices. Here is one that I think would benefit all of us who have gone through, or are going through divorces, ends of relationships, dealing with ex-husbands or wives over custody or day to day dealing with how to raise kids after a divorce or even letting go after a relationship ends.

Instead of being angry at the choices her ex-husband is making that impact her and her children, she told me, “I wish he would stop harming himself.” It was a very pure and kind wish, the kind of wish we could all learn to make for one another when we are in an argument or difficult situation of any kind, but particularly when it is a super-charged one. What a huge gift we can give another, if we simply stop complaining about another person’s short-comings, stop wishing another person harm or ill-will and wish them Well.

Rachel showed me that no matter what someone has done or is doing, we can turn and simply wish the best for them, wish for their greatest good, without spite or superiority. She reminded me that each of us, no matter what the circumstances, always have the choice to be Good. Sometimes we think that we will need a large event, a personal trial of Hercules (at least one, if not twelve labors) to prove we can stick to our morals. Rachel reminded me that in our day to day, often hardest dealing with others, we have the perfect opportunity to move from feelings of anger and hate to compassion and Love. She showed me how we are all models of this for one another, if we take the time to see that we are each other’s teachers.

Rachel has beautiful grey-green eyes that shine and she keeps a song in her heart. She sings to keep her spirit up. The other day she told me she was singing a country Love song when she looked down at her eldest daughter who was sitting on the edge of the coffee table. Her daughter had disobeyed the night before and was grounded. Rachel knew she really should be mad at her daughter. But, when she looked at her child, instead, she realized that the Love she’d been looking for in a man, in the song she was singing, was right there, looking up at her.

Rachel told me about this in an easy conversation and her eyes have never looked so beautiful as they did in that moment. I want the look I saw in her eyes to be remembered in Heaven because it could melt the stars. I wish we could all see it when Love comes to Earth and reflect back to each other how grateful we are when we see the presence of Heaven in each other’s eyes.

How great the lesson that all Love is one Love. Sometimes we meditate on that lesson for years, we can even try so hard to find it that we get blinded by that answer that is right in front of us. Rachel reminded me that the answer is right here, each time our hearts get opened, often by surprise.

Thank you, Rachel.

This song is for you.

How To Find and Work With A Spiritual Teacher

Our Questions

Recently, a friend asked how to find a spiritual teacher and I also spoke with another person about working with a spiritual teacher. These questions are deeply relevant for all of us as we take a spiritual path. In a way, we are all each other's teachers. Next time we'll speak to that, but this entry is devoted to those souls among us who have taken the journey and come back to be the servants of all our Truth here.

The Blessing of Spiritual Teachers

We call spiritual teachers awakened masters, awakened mystics or sometimes gurus. They have taken the path that leads not only up to enlightenment (personal fulfillment of the spiritual journey), but back to Earth to serve as masters, examples and instruments of Truth. They teach that despite what seems to be a world overwhelmed with suffering that there is transcendence and Love. Spiritual teachers have found this Oneness or Love and show us how to do the same.

Teachers can be witnesses who hand us the Truth, that we might read the book and learn to write it ourselves. They can be scholars of Love or Wholeness who sat at the feet of God, become masters, then turned, never leaving the feet of God, to teach us to do the same. A teacher may shine with a very bright energy of Love that is contagious, similar to the way a person's positive attitude can be contagious. Being in the presence of that kind of spiritual teacher can give us the opportunity to feel enlightened even before we have had an awakening. We can live within that support as we take our steps along the path.

Spiritual teachers arise from many religious faiths - Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Sufi, Jewish, Muslim, Taoist, etc... Some spiritual teachers have studied, benefited from or bow to more than one tradition or may even be a transcendent amalgam of All. One thing spiritual teachers have in common is that they see who we really are. They see our potential and they see our Light - the Soul, Spirit, High Self or Holiness that we really are. Spiritual teachers are more interested in our Holy Light and Love than our thoughts and emotions. They see the potential for us to live out our High Self or Soul's purpose on Earth and that is what they beckon forth. They see the potential in us for mastery.

How to Work With A Spiritual Teacher

Open Your Heart To Love

Love. We can start by loving, not the person, not the image, not an icon that we see in a teacher, but the energy, the light, the devotion and the presence of the teacher. We can accept the grace of her presence and his devotion to God/Love/Truth and each of us. Each teacher is steadfastly devoted to the end of suffering, to awakening, mastery and entrance into Love or Unity, not just for their own students, but for All who seek this Return.

We can admire and esteem this goodness, we can bow to it in our hearts and be grateful, in any way we can, that God, that Grace, has come to us in all these ways, through all these teachers. We can be glad in our hearts and rejoice that Love/God/Flow/Oneness has come to teach any and all of us. We can Love that Love has not forsaken Its creations and is still willing to teach us today.

If we can feel just an inkling of this, we can open our hearts, even just a breath, and we will have allowed Love to teach us. We will have taken a step toward the teaching simply by seeing Love embodied in another. When we recognize Great Love in a spiritual teacher, we can see the potential for revealing that Great Love in ourselves. We have taken a step closer to our teacher, to the teaching, and to Love, Itself. We have opened to Love.

Accept The Teacher's Love and That You Can be A Student

Sometimes these great radiating forces we behold in teachers can make us feel shy because they are so huge and so full of presence and Love. We can have a tendency to pull back and think, "Well, that teacher can do it, he must be special. It's because he's a prophet blessed by God. He must have some special calling, a God-gene or something, but I'm just a regular human, I could never do that. I could never match That."

Instead, we can try thinking of what we can do, today. We can love, as we are, right now. We can open our hearts and be willing to be in first grade and just start, knowing that our teacher, likely started in first grade too. We can recognize that he or she once started a spiritual path and took many years to get where they are standing today and that each day he or she keeps a steady practice of Love to keep standing there radiating Love back to us.

Know that could make it easier for us to begin our practice now, simply by being present as we are. Recognizing that the more we accept our teacher, the more we accept our Self. And the more we accept our Self, the more we relax and accept All.

Once You Pass Start, Be Prepared to Be a Serious Student

Once we pass first grade, by simply beginning, we can skip directly to college. We can put on our walking shoes and go directly to the library of God. We can consider spiritual work, serious work, the work of a lifetime, that needs a life's devotion. We can know that our teacher will be there giving us the lessons we need to take the steps on the path. He or she will give us key after key, even maps when we are are ready, much advice and tests, especially if we are apt students. But, we need to know ourselves to be sincere students, capable, happy and willing to do the work of being students. Then, we can know the spiritual path as our life work of Love, our masterpiece.

Know the Path is Long and Paved with Gems and Dragons

We can recognize that a reason for a teacher is that there are many awakenings, yes awakenings, along the path. Knowing this will help us not feel alone as we move through event after event, even cosmic events of learning. Spiritual awakening can often feel like martial arts training. It can knock us out and go right down to our bones because sometimes we will feel like we are wrestling a dragon.

This is one of the main reasons it's good to have a teacher. He or she is likely to have been through similar events or will have the riddle's answer for what you are going through. There are stages to the spiritual process, many stages. If we try to go through them "alone," it can feel like a shipwreck at times and nirvana at others or like perhaps like you've shipwrecked in nirvana.

Having a spiritual teacher can be like having a special "in case of emergency call" number that works even from the far shores of forever. If we have a teacher, we can keep asking questions and being open. Our openness will pave the way to success and our questions will end our isolation. Everyone's spiritual opening is both dramatically different and striking similar. It is really good to be on this path together and with a guide.

Know Your Teacher to be a Student of the Soul

A spiritual teacher is a person who is here to guide the mind to awaken and hold space for the soul to come to earth. This means that a spiritual teacher is not here to be a mental therapist. She or he may assist us in how to live a spiritual, soul-guided life on Earth by giving us advice on how to live our daily life, but really the work of a spiritual teacher is about transcendence, Unity Consciousness, God, Love, the Whole, enlightenment, embodied soul's purpose, Zen, etc...

Very often, our teachers will remind us how to leave the past and come to the present, which is very much the opposite of psychotherapy. If you have the opportunity to have an individual session with your teacher, know it is not a counseling session, but a session to help you advance along your soul's purpose line or be of greater service to the whole.

All Time With Your Teacher Is Sacred Time

We can use all our time with our teachers as sacred time. Honestly, each second is a gem, a marriage of Heaven and Earth, and it is up to us how we use this time. Whether we are in a group teaching, a personal teaching or enjoying a meal, all time with our teacher is sacred time. As best we can, we can try to use this time to learn. Even if we are in a group setting and feel like our teacher is not talking directly to us, we can try to learn from him anyway. We can learn, over and over again, happily, that every teaching is for every student and everyone is a student, even your teacher.

Let Your Ego Go on Hiatus, Permanently, if Possible

A teacher may not always seem kind to our minds. His methods may seem harsh, but we can try to look past the exterior. We can ask is he really trying to demean us or is he really trying to get to the diamond that is in the center of the coal? We can ask ourselves to be honest, to look and look again. We can remember that our teacher is after what is best for our soul coming to Earth, not our mind being pandered to. We can remember that in the end, we too are after the same thing.

Work and Play with Your Teacher

Even after our first awakenings, there many steps in the path. A teacher can move from being someone up on a pedestal to being a friend and a crusader for a common cause - the cause of Oneness together. We need allies on this path and who better to have as an ally than one who has been there for years already, someone who is already doing this work and play of Love, everyday. Then, if we have a question or a triumph, we always have someone to turn to and share it with. We can use teachers and let them use us, for we are each other's fuel, we are each other's bread and life.

Ways To Find A Spiritual Teacher

Ask a Friend

Most people I know found teachers through the recommendation of a friend. Eight years ago, a friend introduced me to Elle Collier Re. I now live and study at HeartGate Sanctuary, the home of the teachings of awakened teacher and mystic, Elle Collier Re.

Try the Internet

Many spiritual teachers have websites. These sites are valuable resources for any student or seeker. You could spend a very enlightening time, going from website to website, reading the writings of our great teachers. These sites are full of articles, transcriptions from teaching, excerpts from their books, audio lessons, radio broadcasts and video podcasts. You can purchase their CDs, books and DVDs, see schedules of their classes, both in person and by tele-conference.

Here are the websites of three spiritual teachers who have been true inspirations in my life. There are many more, just search. Have fun, explore, be inspired:

HeartGate Sanctuary, home to the teachings of Elle Collier Re:
http://www.HeartGateSanctuary.org

White Conch Dharma Center, home to the teachings of Domo Geshe Rinpoche:
http://www.white-conch.org/Rinpoche.html

Awakened Heart, home to the teachings of Chris Celine:
http://www.chrisceline.com/

Retreat Finder and Find the Divine/Seek a Retreat are websites that list spiritual retreat centers by state. They also list conferences and spiritual events at these centers. Many teachers have their own retreat centers and/or travel to these centers to offer workshops:

http://retreatfinder.com/

http://www.findthedivine.com/

The Tat Society's Spiritual Gathering page lists national and international listing of satsangs (a satsang is a discourse or teaching with an awakened teacher) and workshops from an number of spiritual disciplines:

http://tatfoundation.org/spiritual_gatherings.htm

Perhaps surprisingly, your local Craigslist and Backpage list spiritual events in the community and classes sections. Check them out:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites

http://www.backpage.com/classifieds/index

Look Around Town

Your local newspaper's events section will often list spiritual talks at bookstores, spiritual centers, churches and other community locations held by spiritual teachers. Local coffee shops, grocery stores, spiritual bookstores, yoga studios and other community bulletin boards often have posting for satsangs, classes and workshops with spiritual teachers.

If you know of other resources to find a spiritual teacher, please list them in the Comments section. Or, if you have inspirations for how to work with a spiritual teacher, please share your insights. Thank you.

Amen, Atala

The Economics of Love

Welcome

This week our questions are ones that sit in all our minds, like an object we may have tried to put in an attic and ignore, but it was so heavy that our ceiling started to sag. It's there if we turn on the television, open a newspaper, look closely at our neighbors, go to work and, definitely, when we try to find a job. We are in a time when economic stress weighs heavily on the minds and hearts of those we know. These stresses and changes can play through our emotions and compassion and, in a good way, test us to use our ingenuity to find new ways to open our hearts and minds.

Each of us have gifts and talents. During times of stress, we can find that there is a vat of undiluted Love in each of us waiting to be discovered. We each have untapped God gifts. A time of stress is an unequaled time to surprise ourselves, not to mention our allies and loved ones, with our ability to look toward our strengths, when many others choose not to.

Our Questions & Quest:

How do we maintain our equilibrium when we are in a sea of lack in the economy?

When we are in an emotional pull from the material underpinnings being threatened, how do we still live in Gratitude?

Start by Knowing You Have Something to Bring

Part of solving any puzzle is a willingness to be here to bring together the solution, a willingness not to run. When faced with a puzzle, there are fight or flight reflexes that nestle deep in our human senses, the lower part of who we are, our gut reaction to fly the coop. It's those "get me out of here," or "at least get me to a movie so I can relax and relate to something other than this situation," or "just let me pretend I'm not here" feelings.

In these cases, remember we also have a will. Not the head-strong will, but the part of us that is motivated to move toward Good, with such a fury and fire, that we want to do nothing else, but get there. We have within us that strong-tender will. A will, not of steel, but a will that is like a beckoning, that says simply, gently, "come," like opening our hands for a child to walk to, a will that invites us to come to the moment, to be who we Are.

We can use this will to know that we all hold a key, an answer.  It can help us take the steps into being part of the solution, not just for ourselves, but for the Whole.  This is vital when we want to solve a global crisis.

When there are many problems, it can be attractive to try to just solve what we see as our own problems first before we help others. At this time of stress, it is important that we do the opposite of what may seem, at first, attractive.

Part of my answer is to stay involved and be an inspiration for others. Fostering the spirit is the key to our understanding of any problem, for if we have spiritual health then we can walk into the very fires of hell and know we are not of it.  Part of my answer, is to open to bring that Truth here and not give up.  

Look deeply into your own heart.  What gifts do you bring to this table?  What is there right now, at this moment, that you are holding, that would help you to be a better solution in this world?

Take time to journal, to write your gifts and ways they could be solutions or help us find solutions. Journaling is a good key, as long as you put your heart forward and your mind on the shelf. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way, says that we have a censor in our mind and to tell him or her that he's not invited when writing in our journals. If that voice shows up, we can veto it.

Even if you have been journaling or searching out your talents and gifts for years, that doesn't mean there are not more. Love is infinite. If you dive in, you may go right into unchartered waters and find a new gift. "I never thought I had that trait or talent and here it is ready for me. Now, I can face my day with greater courage... ambition... whatever is needed, now... "

Please voice your inspirations in the Comments section of Resound. Let us all know some of the many ways you are part of our greater answer and inspire us all to be an answer as well.

Gratitude In A Time Of Lack: Opening To Generosity of The Spirit

A huge way we can return to and stay in gratitude is to become more and more and more generous, more Heartfully generous, in a way that doesn't take spending a dime. If we become more lovingly generous, it can be a tremendous cure for others and for ourselves. Generosity has been one of my great teachers. It teaches us to meet people in equality, not judgement, in Love, not out of contrition or a sense of obligation, as a student as well as a teacher and as part of the Whole instead of as a separate person coming to meet another person.

In this time of financial loss, it is a great song of the Heart to feel how we can still be generous. Through generosity we can find that generosity is part of who we really are, something that can lead us back to feeling like the authentic beings we really are. When we give our time to a cause or to a person we care about or give love to someone without reservation, it opens something in us and we can be reborn through our simple acts of generosity.

In our world, in our community, there are all types of volunteer work. If you are inspired to share one of your gifts or talents, community work can be spiritual work and spiritual learning whenever it is done in Love. In an era when we have moved apart economically, we can come together as a community. We can see God in each others' eyes and show each other that God/Love is Here. We can put on boots and go to work. We can dig a trench and teach a child to read and it can all be prayer. We can be the ones who start a community program, a community garden or environmentally and soulful community housing project.

What inspires you?

Coming Together: Communion on the Material Plane

This time of material distress is a time to learn that the old system was not leading us toward greater communion, both with ourselves as servants of the Truth and with each other as the fire of the greater I Am that leads us to Wholeness. Taking that to the ground level means that our economic system was often built on the individual working to further his interests, then thinking of his neighbor... maybe. Today, we are in a crisis that affects us all, great and small, rich and poor. We can't escape the fact that corruption and a turn from healthy environmental practices has affected us all.

One option we have is to come together and share what we have. There are many choices for living in community from organic farming communities to spiritual communities to co-housing communities with apartments and homes. It's a new way of being from the way we have been living in America. But, if we come together to live in community, not as a form of escapism or isolation, but a way to build a global network of spiritually informed, healthy living people who support each other in eating well, teaching our children and ourselves to love one another and value people of all ages, then in these communities, be they an expanded household or a hundred acre farm, we can daily practice living not just together, but in communion, in flow.

The more we isolate, the more we fall apart. The more we share, the more we come together. Even if you don't live in a community household, you can still be part of the greater community. There are many ways people are finding to share rides, to share groceries, to share meals, to share gardens and to share child care.  

If we let Love be our leader and generosity our follow though, we are apt to end up in a stream of gratitude.  Gratitude is a state of the heart, not of the mind or the wallet.  No matter where we are and what we choose, we can still return to gratitude and Love.  This is a given.  This is a solution.  

My Prayer

My Prayer is that you be tremendous

That you shake with the sound of your Name coming back to You

That you move the Earth with the sweet sound of your footfalls because

You know you have come to do a duty that only you can do

That you have come

To bring back the Sound

Of One Name crying out

Together We Are

I AM

With Love,

Atala

From Fear to Faith

A Miracle

If we pause long enough, we can behold a miracle:

a miracle of the transformation of fear into nothing at all.

This Truth can happen very quickly.

One part of this miracle is the Faith that it can happen.

This Faith may appear far away when we feel fear.

But, a key to this Truth is that fear is not the only option.

If we pick up that key, we can open the door, the Gate, to this Truth.

If we pause.

We make way for this miracle,

for a journey from fear to Faith.

Step One: Pause

If we step back, we can gain perspective. Imagine the magic of a pull back in a movie. First, we see an image on the screen too close, so tight that our eyes might not be able to tell what we are seeing. Then, the camera pulls back and there is clarity, all from a simple change in perception.

There is a delight of a movie called The Powers of 10, a movie for people of all ages, that explores the grand scale of universal perspective, the macro and micro cosmos beautifully, and lends scientific poetry to this concept:

http://www.powersof10.com/

In life, we can pull back in a similar way by pausing. This can be particularly effective in times of fear. Pause and pull back.

Sometimes when we feel afraid, it is as if we've got our face pressed up against the glass of our emotions. There is a famous Far Side cartoon of a boy with his head down pressing with all his might against a door, when there is a sign on the door over his head that reads "Pull."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldberg/229551714/

If we pause and step or pull back, like the boy in the cartoon, we might have the humility and humor to note the grander scale of the situation we are in.

Step Two: Find Neutral

Once we start to pause, we can return from fear to a place that feels, not elated, we don't have to try to jump very far, but simply neutral. Neutral is a rest, a stop where we can breath and see the image from a wide-angle. On some days this may be far enough. For this is where sanity can be restored.

Similar to neutral in a car, neutral is where we can wait for traffic to clear, traffic of thoughts and ideas, especially those thoughts and idea that were creating and enforcing fear. Neutral is no where to go, no where to be, but right here. And, from here, we can just roll toward a simple state called acceptance.

How? By doing nothing.

Step Three: Acceptance

From neutral, we can sit and let our mind, body and heart start to accept the current moment, not by trying to make ourself do it, not by coercing, but simply by knowing that sitting as we are, now, today, that we can accept.

We are built to accept: body, mind and soul. Our body, as it is, is aligned for acceptance. Our mind is wired to accept. Our soul is designed to accept. If we let this start to get under our skin, into our mind and through our Heart, we start to relax. The more we let ourselves know this, the more our acceptance becomes natural, like water running, people breathing and life cycling.

We can accept things as they are. In fact, part of us already has. We have a very smart, very quick aspect of ourselves, a part that accepts, no matter what the circumstance. In fact, this part has already accepted it, no matter what it is. We can trust that part of ourself. That part is like our captain or the senior executive of a company.

The only part of us that is afraid is the part of our mind that is trying to catch up with what happened, the part that is trying to put the pieces together, like a person who came two hours late to an important meeting. We can have compassion and patience for this part of our mind. But at the same, remember that we are the senior executive who called the meeting. We have the calmness, the composure and patience that takes us to the next level.

Step 4: Come to the Present

Acceptance is about coming to the present. We can pour our energy toward the part of us that is already sitting in acceptance. It is there. And, the more we trust it; the more apparent it is. That is part of it's miracle and magic. If we put our focus on acceptance, or Faith or Love or Trust or Truth, it will grow.

Once we have come to a point of acceptance, we will have met the Holy present. In the present we can be taught, which means that we are again open to possibility. We are no longer caught by fear. We can meet Love. We can give. We can see solutions to a problem.

In acceptance, Love can reach us. We can feel the Positive, the greater pull we weren't feeling when we were feeling fear. It is often said that there are two forces, Love and fear. When we are stuck in fear, it is hard to feel Love, but that doesn't mean it is not there. That's part of the magic and miracle.

When we pause, move to neutral, to acceptance and beyond acceptance, into the present, we can feel start to feel the Positive current, Hope and Love. Hope is what raises the hairs on the back of our neck and tells us like a whisper, "Love Is Here." "Have Faith. Love Is Here." Then our miracle can start to occur.

Love can begin to slip in between the fear, like slight of hand, a prestidigitation of Faith. Love feeding in between the fear, like molecules of one substance through another and Love is in the air, like a new scent, simply through the Faith that Love is Here, was here and never left being here.

Faith

Faith is present. It is all around, in every step and, sometimes, even in our hand...

This week, as I was writing this entry, I looked down at my Starbucks cup, there are quotes printed on Starbucks cups. These words were right in my hand:

"I have faith.
Faith in our wondrous capacity
for hope and good,
love and trust,
healing and forgiveness.
Faith in the blessing of our infinite ability to wonder,
question, pray, feel, think and learn.
I have faith.
Faith in the infinite possibilities of the human spirit."
-- James Brown (Emmy-winning sportscaster and co-host of FOX NFL Sunday)

It is a good day

(a prayer of faith)

It is a good day to feel free,

to forgive

to unburden

to be the One That I AM.

It is a good day to move from the fear I feel into the Truth that I Know.

I know this Truth will recreate and render me the One That I Am.

God bless me for knowing the Truth That I Know.

Amen.

All Love to you on your journey from fear to Faith,

Atala

The Many Tone of Forgiveness Part II

Welcome to The Many Tones of Forgiveness Part II

This week we will approach some very serious questions with a light graced Heart. We'll take a deep dance with the Holy That You Are.

What is the first thing to give up in order to forgive?

Our excuses... the mind can try to come up with an excuse to hold on to whatever excuse it has. "I'll forgive once my father stops treating me like that." "I'll forgive when my brother agrees to end the argument." "I'll forgive when I get the time to find some peace of mind."

The mind performs quite a song and dance, but fortunately, it is a masquerade.

This week I have been gifted in meditation, conversations and was again gifted in our President's inaugural address references to 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 Verse 11: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

Once we stop the excuses, we can walk up the mountain.

No one excuse is better than any other. No excuse is bigger, no excuse is more powerful, no excuse has more money, no excuse has more clout. Big or little, weak or strong, some just last longer because we let them last longer.

You can stop making excuses

First, be willing to stop making them.

Second, have Faith.

Faith is an on-going blessing. It is an unending-resource. Take a drink and know it is there.

Third, sing or whistle a new and loving tune.

Help your mind. Sing it a song. Kind support helps us make powerful changes. One of the songs that inspired my mind to give up excuses is, "Gonna lay down my sword and shield down by the river side, down by the river side, down by the river side, Gonna lay down my sword and shield down by river side. I ain't gonna study war no more. I ain't gonna study war no more."

Have trust, have faith, there is a better dance. A holier, whole dance, one you actually know the steps to by Heart, one you're waiting to come to on the other side of your excuses.

And, this dance is about Unity

Three Steps To Forgiveness, Lord

(How Do We Forgive?)

Your First Gift:
Know you are open to forgiving.
That is the treasure,
And, you already have it buried within your chest.

(Believe You Can Do It)

Your Second Gift:
You are invited to ask for help from Love.

“Knock and the Door Will Open.”

(Ask For Support From Love)

Your Third Gift:
You are answered.
You were answered

before you started this prayer.
You were heard by Love.

(Believe It Is Done)

Forgiveness Prayer

Dear Love,

Here I Am.

I Have Come Here with the Intention to Forgive.

I Open my Heart for I Know it is possible to Forgive.

I Allow for this Possibility and I invite and accept the help and support of Love.

I Am here for this change and transformation.

I Give myself to this process,

to the journey,

for I know it is what is meant to Be

for the highest Good of what I AM

Thank you,

Amen.

How Do We Forgive With Our Whole Heart?

It’s going to look like I turn this question upside-down, but have patience, this is a good one.

This is a great question. When I speak of the Heart, I speak of the part of us that connects us the quickest to the Soul, our Heart of God, our Whole or Holy Heart. Our Heart is a very lucky part of us because it is so connected to the Holy. It doesn’t exactly need to forgive; it is in league with the Whole and is fighting the Good fight to let us know that Love is Here. The Heart I speak of is not our emotional heart. That kind of heart is more tied in with our mind. This is great news because we can change our mind.

How often have you been in a situation when you have a quick change of mind? Made a rapid decision? Remember how versatile your mind can be, how adept it can be at changing. When you have something you need to forgive, it is likely your mind is running over the same ground – looking to the past and making you feel sad about things that have happened. Meanwhile, you have a great big Holy Heart waiting to engulf your mind to rock it and hold it and take away its fears.

We are lucky our Heart is here, because at the Heart, Love (Heaven) can meet Earth. So, the way to forgive with our Whole Heart is to emphasize, to know, that our Heart is capable of being (and in fact already is) a friend and partner to the Holy. Our True, Holy Heart is a friend, a divine friend to Love, and a helper of what helps us to forgive. Our Holy Heart can wrap around our mind and be the reminder that Love is Here. That is how we use our Heart to Forgive. We have an ingenious Heart.

How Do We Know Forgiveness Is Complete?

This is a funny question. We have a loophole here. Once you have forgiven, don’t knock on a door you have closed. Take a breath, take a bath, go on, go on and go on… in a way, I know it sounds like the opposite of what we want to do. We as humans want to make sure a door is closed. We want to make sure we did it right, "Did we batten down the hatches? And were they the right hatches? Did those hatches come from K-Mart or should I have bought them at Home Depot? Maybe I should re-do the hatches."

I know that sounds kind of silly, but forgiveness and any part of spiritual practice can be like that, we can over-do it. There is a time and place for each thing. Take it slow; take it whole, do it earnestly and with heart. Trust you are doing it right, there is no other way.

I know that sounds funny too, but it is actually True. Part of the spiritual journey is to make “mistakes.” They are more like learning steps, just keep stepping, the right direction is forward, not heading back down the path to see what you just did and trying to check and see if you did it right.

Another truth about this process is that if something got missed on the last step, you will learn it. Take a deep breath; it will come around, perfectly, for your learning at the right time. What you need to know is actually ahead of you. The path is sometimes seen as a spiral headed upward. As you head upward, sometimes you pass by a similar lesson, but when you do, you are further along, just keep stepping.

Forgive, be done. Smell a flower. Life is sweet.

God is here.

Remember

When you stay in the past, we cannot fully meet. But when you leave the past, when you step from your suffering and your shadows, I Am grateful; for now I can truly meet You. I can bow in gratitude because an angel has come to me, a saint has graced my playground, God has come to my banquet and I have laid a table before God.

Thank you.

Love,
Atala

The Many Tones of Forgiveness Part I

The Many Tones of Forgiveness

I am grateful for forgiveness.  Grateful, for all it is and grateful that it is our topic this week and will be for next week as well.  Forgiveness is immense and ongoing and was brought to us by two wonderful souls: thank you for your devotion and light.

With gratitude in my Heart, I’d like to start with an inspiration on the Reason we truly Forgive.  For sometimes, if we know the reason we do something, it makes even a hard thing easier.

With Love,
Atala

Why We Forgive

When you are sad, when you are suffering, I Am here. I Am your friend; I Am waiting for you, on the other side of the door. I Am here, waiting for you, ready to go to the movies with you, to play Parcheesi, or split a sandwich, take a walk, give you a high-five or show you what I did in school today.

I Am waiting for you to learn to forgive yourself, your past, your memories, your pain and your fear, so you can simply be here with me today.  For I Am your sister, your brother, your friend, your mother, your co-worker, I Am everyone who shares this life, this breath, this energy we call Love, with you. I Am here. I Am here today, now, and I Am in everyone you meet and everyone you see.

When you forgive your past, arrive here in this moment and you see Me, you become Love. You become God to me. You bring Heaven to Earth when you see Me. The way you bring Heaven to Earth is by forgiving your past, your pain, your sorrow and your fear. You make Me - you make Love - more important than your pain, your fear, your regret and your feeling that you can’t do it and that it’s too hard. 

You climb the mountain and you do it for me, for your sister, for your brother, for your mother, for your aunt, for your son, because you know that each of us is Love and capable of doing the same. We are all capable of being God here.  And, our first step is to Forgive our fear and our pain and see that we can do this.

Amen


What is Forgiveness?

Forgiveness is the Divine gift we are all granted that lets us take passage from where we have been caught to where we ought to be.

Forgiveness is an inalienable right.  It is a gift we are meant to use to get us out of trouble. It is our bridge from stress to wholeness.

Forgiveness is asking Divine Love to help and support us by releasing our burdens and gifting us into a better way to live. Forgiveness is actively inviting Love into our lives and into our Hearts. Forgiveness is asking Love to come, to take our poor habits, our fears and our pain and instead make us part of Love's Solution here on Earth.

Forgiveness is our first and daily step toward living here as part and partner to Love Itself.

Forgiveness is saying, “Okay, Love, Jesus, Yeshua, Christ, I am done with the way I’ve been doing things.  And, I’m ready to be Done and start a new way.  I need a new way of thinking, behaving and living. I’m ready to give up my bad habits. I’m ready to sheer this sheep I’ve been and get a new coat and I’d like this coat to be made of Love.”

What do we need to know to Forgive?

We need to know that we have options. We need to know that it is an option to let go of a behavior that doesn’t serve us, a thought that hurts us, a feeling we don’t like or even fear.

Fear is a huge slayer of Love. We need to know that we can release fear and to begin to live inside Love.

We need to know that we can make this choice and that, if we are not making this choice it is because we’re afraid or simply not used to making this choice, yet. However, we have the option to start forgiving, any day, any time, any instant, any moment, we choose. The option is Always Open.

What do we need to do to Forgive?

Trust that it is possible. You will hear me say, “I Can.” Another phrase I find very useful is, “It is Possible.” “It is Possible” lends you to an openhearted state of mind. If you have this tool; you are ready to move mountains. Big mountains.

How Do We Forgive Ourselves?

This is a great question, because we have a number of “selves.” I remember a story by Sandra Cisceneros, in which the protagonist was a young girl who spoke about feeling like she was every age she had ever been 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3… all at the same time. It’s a little like that when we try to forgive ourselves. What we are trying to forgive is a remembrance of a thing past, of someone we were or thought we were, and often judged ourself harshly for being.

For example, we might be trying to forgive that person we were, who was in the car accident in 1985. Man, if they had only not been thinking about work and been more focused, he or she wouldn’t have run that red light. But, we can never go back in time and change it.  We can never go back and fix his or her mind to make them focus on what was right in front of them in that moment at that intersection.

However… right now, we can focus on the present moment.  We do have the option to stop thinking about the past and, more importantly, to stop agonizing over it, spinning around that fragment of a self from the past. We can change what we are thinking now. That is the prelude to forgiveness.

Step Toward Forgiveness Now

Say: "I Am Here."

Connect to something solid.  Touch a table. Sing a song. Look at a tree. Recognize that you are here.

Arrive here.

Once, you know you are here, ask Love/Christ/Jesus/Yeshua for help letting go of a burden.  If you have habit or burden that comes to mind, ask to hand over anything you are ready to release in this instant, in favor of being more loving here, now, today.

Stay here, on solid ground.

Breathe simply and know, because you do know that you want to go forward as Love in Love and that’s all that is really real.

That matters more than what you’d been holding on to and remembering.

The present, what you can do as Love, is more important than what you did then.

It is the most important thing.

This day, to-day is the story, the beginning, and the rest of your life. You are precious.  You are Love. You can begin again new, today.

That is the gift of forgiveness.

It is the gift to start again anew.

Forgiveness holds the key to Love, to ever-lasting Love.

Ever-fresh, ever-new.

Forgiveness, real forgiveness is a baptism.

The steps you take to it are daily re-births of your Heart and mind in Truth.

Amen.

Love,

Atala

Thyself

We've heard the phrases:

"Know Thyself" and "to Thine own Self be True."

First, let's bow and say, "Thank you," that these phrases are there,

escorting us still to Truth, as true as they were when they were first spoken. 

There are many, many beautiful ways to define or, more accurately, inform, our minds about who our True Self is and why we want to know our Self.  Here is a guideline to help you start and return to the practice of knowing and being true to Your Self:

Your True Self

The first thing to know is that you have a True Self.

Your True Self is God-created, ego-less, Love.

Each True Self is beautiful, perfect and Divine.

There is no way it could not be so.

If you could listen to the vibration of a True Self it would be like hearing the echoes of stars,

for each is wrought of the music of Heaven, the True Song of God.

The True Self is the Soul and the Soul is the closest part of God to Earth.

How Do You 'Know' Your True Self?

Start by believing that you have a True Self.

Trust.

Trust.

Then, Trust, again.

You will be tested in your Trust.

And, the answer to your test is to keep showing up.

Imagine that you were getting married,

that your mind is becoming the partner to your Soul.

Your Soul is faithful, minds are easily distracted.

Help your mind start paying attention to your True Self.

If that scares your mind,

look up above and re-read what your True Self IS.

Remember that your True Self exists.

Your Soul exists and is the most beautiful creation in the universe

(so is everyone else's Soul).

You can start to place more attention on your True Self,

You can become a faithful and devoted partner to your True Self.

Re-read "The Positive!," remember that where you put your attention,

your focus, is paramount.

Try putting your focus, your positivity on your Soul.

Try it three time a day,

try it every day this week.

If you've been doing this for years,

try this every breath,

see what you inhale and what you inspire!

If this feels difficult, remember...

You can do this.

You are actually meant, intended, to do this.

You are intended to pay attention to your Soul.

You are intended to learn about who really are

and, it is intended to be fun and fascinating.

This is the adventure you were waiting to go on

and it is always here.

You can start any time and any day.

If you need help and direction

there are people here to help you on this journey.

Check out the Connections Section on this Page.

A Simple Vision and Prayer:

God is Love.

Your True Self is Part of God.

Your True Self is Love.

A True Way to Re-Connect

to God (to All)

is to start to remember 

You who really Are.

A Meditation For Connecting Your True Self

We each bear a spark of God-Truth,

something like a liquid pearl of light that holds

the infinite answer

to All there Is.

Invite this pearl, this star,

this Ray of your Soul's light

to come to Earth 

and breathe Its Light of Love into Your Heart.

A True Way to connect to God,

to All of us,

is to start to remember 

who you really are.

It is Intended.

Love Is Who You Are

And Who You Are Is Love.

Know Thyself.

Love,

Atala