Steve Beckow: Love your theme, Chris. How does it dovetail with the rising energies? In other words, ascension is inner work. But the energies are rising in any case. So what is it that I do or add to facilitate the process? To hinder it?
Chris: In my experience, learning to accept what is unacceptable in myself and others is facilitated more than anything else by relaxing. As I relax into my “daily soak” in the rising energies, I learn to get the hang of being with whatever arises, and trusting it.
Also, recognizing what I find acceptable in myself helps that content unfold into the growing nlight of being, and become acceptable.
This process of natural recognition is aided by my tuning into my body and present feeling, and sensing what my experience is in any moment.
his kind of self-sensing activity allows me to participate in the natural, organic flow of divine acceptance that is enfolding the field of space-time we share now.
Finding words to name this process and sharing those words with others is particular useful. Somehow, the language another uses — because it comes from their own unique place in life — often unlocks discoveries in my own process.
The less I lay my process onto others as how it should look or feel like, and the more I can just enjoy being together and sharing stories together as real equals in this heavenly process, the more we open up room for fresh discoveries, fresh words, and more room for more discoveries to be made.
My questions to you, Steve, are:
How does this idea of a universal process we can feel in our bodies happening together right now affect your perspective about clearing vasanas?
(“Vasana” is a Vedantic term for a persistent reaction pattern triggered by a current upset which resembles a past upset.)
Does a language describing our growing unity as a palpable “thickening” of universal divine presence energize your thinking?
Does this kind of language empower you directly?
Steve: Well, a person speaking as you are is several steps down the road from a person who very much needs to clear many major vasanas (see 1).
When a person plagued by their vasanas tries to sense into his or her body, all they come up with, in my view, are the manifestations of the major vasanas – anger, anxiety, fear. I’m not sure they tap into flow or relaxation or anything like it.
Wilhelm Reich used to call the patterns of muscular tension in the body of a person with major vasanas “character armoring”; the whole vasana apparatus – mental and muscular – Eckhart calls “the pain body.”
However, the rising energies provide help in this case as well because they overtake some of the vasanas. After all, the answer to the vasanas is the same as to all: relax into the experience of them.
For me, the difference between the two discussions we’re having is like this. If I ask myself the question, “Who am I?.” I may get the experience of who I am or the barrier to it.
You are speaking more about what comes up associated to the experience of I AM-ness and I am speaking more about what comes up associated with the barriers to it.
The person with the vasanas is relaxing into the experience of them to complete them. The person at your “station,” as Matthew calls it, is relaxing into his body’s sensations to connect with the universal life force. One is kindergarten and the other is high school, with a major heart-opening in between.
In my case, I have completed some of the major vasanas so I can enjoy some of the rising energies, but I’m a few steps away from connecting with the universal life force.
So, for me, these things depend degree of unfoldment.
I think a person with incomplete major vasanas or unfinished business may not be able to hear you or appreciate what you’re saying about the place where you’re at quite as clearly as a person free of them.
But I believe they will make a note that something wonderful exists down the road. And the rising energies will give them a boost to reach more of that place than otherwise.
So you’re exploring what will be to most of us new territory. Don’t forget to tell us the sights and sounds.
It reminds me of my favorite cartoon, where the amphibian is crawling up on land and saying, “8:45 a.m., Monday, and I’ve arrived on dry land. So far the atmosphere seems breathable.”
Tell us what the sights and sounds are in this new territory that you are exploring on behalf of us who have not crawled up on dry land.
Does this kind of language empower me? It inspires me. It helps me put a name to some of the sensations I feel in my body when I take a deep breath or sense a feeling arise.
Does a language describing our growing unity as a palpable “thickening” of universal divine presence energize my thinking? Yes, indeed it does. The metaphor works for me and gives me a way of seeing unity unveiling itself whereas before it was just a concept. It gives me an avenue to explore when I’m with others, visualizing our mutual presence as “thickening.”
So, yes, it’s very helpful.
Footnotes
(1) “Vasana” is a Vedantic term for a persistent, reactive habit or pattern of behavior that usually remains unconscious and only rises to consciousness when triggered by events in the present.