by Berenice Andrews
An Initiation
It was yet another opportunity for being stretched past the limits. For the first time in my shamanic training, I would be spirit journeying for someone else. With her usual enigmatic smile, Patricia, my teacher, had handed John over to me. In this “practice session,” he would be my “client.” I noted his energies…both nervousness and skepticism…and empathized.
To complicate matters, his request was that I “find out what’s wrong with Ken,” someone completely unknown to me. When I awaited further details, I got a silent stare. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. With John lying on the floor closely beside me (to merge our energy fields), I “rode the drum” into the Spirit World…
I met up with Ken in his present lifetime. He was coping (not too successfully) with the energies of at least one previous lifetime. And I watched the unfolding of a future lifetime that carried the possibility of his being different.
While I later presented my “findings” to John, I struggled to describe Ken’s inner beingness (what was “wrong” with him). Then I realized that the word was “enslavement.” (In the journey, he had actually been chained to a briefcase filled with thick documents.) When I suggested that Ken was essentially “shut down,” John’s only response was “you’re pretty good at this.” Patricia smiled again.
It had been quite a shamanic initiation!
Venturing into the Inner Realms of Others
Since then, there have been many opportunities to venture into the inner realms of other people. It’s like plunging into an immense ocean whose depths are unfathomable—an ocean that’s different for each person. Awaiting exploration in those “waters” are the incalculably rich consciousness energies that we call “self.”
At this moment—when so many people have adopted the idea that “self” and “ego” are not “spiritual,” that “selfishness” equates with “lovelessness” and “badness,” while “selflessness” equates with “unconditional love” and “goodness”—the exploration is probably timely.
Self-Exploration
Starting with the idea that human evolution (Spirit-in-Action) has essentially involved the development of our centers of consciousness (chakras), we realize that a gradually emerging “self,” i.e., an increasing capacity for expressing one’s inner beingness, has been integral to the entire process. Then, we realize that the “self” can be found in the powers and expression of each one of those chakras. Lastly, we realize that because the chakras exist in all of us, there is no part of this earth plane where human “self” and self-expression cannot be found. In short, it’s impossible to separate us from that which has been evolving in, as and through every one of us.
The Ancient Teachings
This idea is what informed the writers of the Upanishads—the Hindu sacred scriptures cited as the world’s oldest. (As an aside: before there were any of those teachings, there were the truly ancient verbal traditions provided by the tribal shamans. They had been fostering the evolution of human consciousness for several millennia.)
Returning to the Upanishads…in the earliest we read: “[I am] the one god hidden in all creatures, all pervading, the self within all (emphasis added), watching over all works, shadowing all creatures, the witness, the perceiver, the one free from qualities…” (Eknath Easwaran, The Upanishads)
It was a splendid and true statement that largely fell on deaf ears. Yet, underneath it all, Spirit was at work. There slowly came about (despite man’s continued inhumanity to man) a worldwide formulation of what was later labeled as the “Golden Rule.”
Thus…
Bahia Faith: “Ascribe not to any soul that which thou would not have ascribed to thee…”
Brahmanism: “Do not unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.”
Buddhism: “One should seek for others the happiness one desires for oneself.”
Christianity: “As you would that men should do to you, do you unto them likewise.”
Confucianism: “What I do not wish men to do to me, I wish also not to do to men.”
Incan Spirituality: “Do not to another what you would not yourself experience.”
Islam: “None of you believes until he wished for his brother what he wished for himself.”
Jainism: “In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self.”
Native American Spirituality: “Do not wrong or hate your neighbor, for it is not he who you wrong but yourself.”
Shinto: “The heart of the person before you is a mirror. See there your own form.”
Sikhism: “No one is my enemy, none a stranger and everyone is my friend.”
Sufism: If you haven’t the will to gladden someone’s heart, then at least beware lest you hurt someone’s heart.”
Taoism: “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.”
Wicca: “An it harm no one, do what thou wilt.”
Zoroastrianism: “Whatever is disagreeable to yourself, do not do unto others.”
Clearly, there have been many years of awareness throughout the world that the “selves” of people are the same wherever they live. Further, there has been the knowing that while each person is a “self” and is required to be one, each person also has an essential connection (actually a beingness) with everyone else.
In our failure to recognize that essential beingness, we have condemned ourselves to indescribable agonies. Right now we are apparently heading into a global religious “war” that could destroy us all. The thought is frightening.
But, contrary to some opinion, our salvation does not lie in eliminating, rejecting or even overcoming a “self” that has taken us millions of years to evolve.
A Modern Framework
Let’s return to the spirit journey that revealed Ken’s “enslavement.” Although it was apparent that he was too much connected with his work and that he might have been happier if he had modified that involvement, there were many other aspects to his difficulties (mainly originating in at least one past life).
Those difficulties have been repeatedly revealed by countless human beings over many centuries. In that long unfolding, most of us have been enslaved by our fear-based emotional bodies.
Described differently, we’re still animal beings who haven’t recognized that we’re souls with a physicality…not the reverse. As a result, centuries of unremitting focus on our “survival needs” have made the blessings of the Golden Rule equivalent to an “impossible dream” that goes with that of “peace on Earth.”
But, long ago we were told that we were “little lower than the angels” (Psalms 8:5) and that the Creative Power that made us out of Itself was worthy of our respectful attention (Isaiah 43:7). Then, how do we extricate ourselves from our present crisis situation?
Here’s a suggestion: We could start by acknowledging, accepting and allowing our own human beingness. And we could do that by becoming thoroughly aware of our chakras—in particular, what they are and how they have shaped and continued to shape the “self” that is us.
(A brief reminder: We are generated and governed from the moment of conception until death by the physical, emotional, mental and transcendent centers of consciousness that we carry. Those chakras are the immensely powerful and multidimensional means we have to be truly connected with our microcosmic creativity.)
So, we proceed by setting our intent and using our will power to raise the vibratory frequency of our chakras from fear to love. In attempting this, we become aware (finally!) of our attitudes and values. These we can explore and change into an orientation toward gratitude and a service to life. By tapping into all these powers, we’re using our creativity to further rather than to deplete our lives. We’ll be shaping our “selves” in a new and better way.
And the “betterment” comes automatically. From the moment we step into that inner “space,” we are also venturing “outward” into the vastness of the macrocosmic Consciousness Energies that created us. In other words, by acknowledging, accepting and allowing our “self” and embarking on our healing path, we are going into the big Self, for “[…] the essence of every created thing is […] real Self.” (The Upanishads)
But there’s some “work” to be done. Only we can deal with our established patterns of animal behavior, especially those generated and sustained by our emotional body (the attitudes and values noted above). That’s where we could fall flat, but not because we lack the help of the Power within. Indeed, that help is constantly available whenever we call in the Observer, who never fails us.
Our huge “problem” is that while we have heard of the ancient Golden Rule that has always implied a profound knowing about ourselves and our fellowman, we have also been “in-formed” by a set of beliefs that have basically promoted violent and bloody divisiveness among us. (Is not history mainly the account of people warring against each other?)
Those beliefs can be summarized quickly: For centuries we have been taught that we are “unworthy of the kingdom of heaven” and that we have to hate/sacrifice ourselves in this world so that we can gain “salvation” in the next. Our legacy of those ideas and the stories about “eternal punishment” for “sin” is immense.
While those beliefs might have been a necessary aspect of an earlier social development (and control), our evolutionary unfolding (Spirit-in-Action) now requires different ones. For far too long, our emotional bodies have been pitting us against ourselves, each other and our Creator. We can decide to become, instead, the gatekeepers of our emotions. We are quite capable of doing that.
With a growing discernment, detachment and clarity that comes about through knowing how we’re put together, we can start developing new and true beliefs about ourselves. Thereby, we can start healing our destructive emotions.
By doing this, we’re getting ready for a brave new world…one that’s both inner and outer. Indeed, by getting ready, we’re practically already there.
In Christianity, this has been called “being born again.” It’s to be found in a wonderful story about Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3:1-21). But all the world’s scriptures and many of the stories speak about being reborn.
To put it differently, getting ready calls forth the disciplines of purifying, simplifying and unifying those inner territories that have been muddied for so long. Essentially this means addressing and healing the archetypal energies…the wounded Child, the Victim, the Prostitute and the Saboteur…that we carry. All of them are the indicators of unhealed emotional bodies. The best means for doing that is through meditation…”a state of intense inner wakefulness” (The Upanishads). Getting ready also includes maintaining the huge powers of our will and intent already noted. In doing this, we’ll be fostering the balance of our outgoing (masculine) and incoming (feminine) consciousness energies…the “dance” of Shiva and Shakti.
None of this is new. But all of it calls for a different focus. Above all, it requires knowing our “heart/mind,” not just our important (but often over-emphasized) “brain/mind.” That’s an insight that has been filtering into our consciousness for only 50 years. But the timing is right.
By now, Spirit has given us enough “tools” to help us make our different way.
The New Path
On that interesting new path, we realize that being in “mind” awareness is a splendid form of “selfishness” that allows us to honor the “self” we really are, while we recognize our shared consciousness energies with others. Simply put, we know who we are and extend that gnosis to others. Yet, we do not expect the impossible from any of us. On this plane of existence we can even dislike other people, while we continue to love them, i.e., recognize who they really are, and our energy connection with them.
Meanwhile, we are knowingly immersed in the vastness in which we live, move and have our being—the Consciousness Energies of Life, Light, Love and Law. Thus, while remaining in our physicality, we are turning our inner and outer worlds into an earth/heaven that we can share with the rest of humanity.
In Closing
It has been quite a life journey since that long-ago encounter with Ken! Perhaps this “style” of being inward/outward sounds more like fantasy than do-able reality. Well, that’s what skeptics have thought for thousands of years.
Berenice Andrews is a shamanic teacher/healer. For more details about the healing practices mentioned above, see her book Rebirthing Into Androgyny: Your Quest for Wholeness…And Afterward. See also her articles “Finding Your True Self: A (Sort of) Socratic Dialog,” September, 2014, and “Understanding the Human Energy Being,” June, July and August, 2015 in Transformation Magazine. If you are interested in reading more and/or becoming her student, see her web site: thestonecircleclassroom.com.