As always we opened the mesa by calling in the directions and getting right into the theme which was yes mirrors. And how our outer world is a mirror of our inner world. So by working on our inner selves as we all do through this ceremony (and many other ways in your life I'm sure), it has a ripple effect on our outer world experiences. Although you can work on the outer and have it shift your inner world, I do prefer the former because the only thing we can control is ourselves. The perfect metaphor of this is the mobius strip which I've spoken of previously. The significance is that it shows how the inner and the out feed each other and that all is connected, even when it feels like there are some contradictions. And as you can see from the picture of the mesa, the mobius strip from last months new moon is there. On the full moon I shifted it from the east to west, which is linear time and represents our experience as human beings walking on this planet, to the direction of north to south, which represents our experience as spiritual beings coming into form on this planet. Now that it has been on for a complete moon cycle, I have offered it to Pachamama/Mother Earth.
It is often said that we don't like the behaviors of others in our life it is often because we have those same qualities. That is often true as it's a tough thing to accept and there is still another option. I used an example of working with someone who I found to be lazy, stupid and disingenuous. Yes I am sharing some of my lower self stuff, I am more than human. This person pushed every button I had and consulted saying I know that this must mean I have it inside me. What my teacher shared with me that it was actually mirroring where I was being attached to a rule that I have for myself which is to never be lazy, stupid or disingenuous and that I don't give myself an inch of relief in that category. And it was a way of looking at my attachment to a way of being and causing judgements that was really only making me suffer not the person I was judging.
We talked about the Ruben Vase image I shared as part of the dreamwork.
I find this as an amazing metaphor as there are probably an infinite number of interpretations of what we see in the world. We are quick to label, but as this picture demonstrates there are two ways to label these pictures. I can say this is a picture of a vase, holy grail or some type of vessel. Or I can say this is a picture of two faces looking towards each other. Which do we want to see. And what I like in particular about this image showing both black and white and a colored version. I find it easier to see both images in the black and white version, yet it's a little more challenging in the color version. We defninitely live in a colorful world which intimates that there are even more than two ways to interpret and situation. So perhaps we can be a little more gentle when we decide to label a situation. We can certainly label how a situation feels but we don't really know the motives of others and sometimes we think we see one thing, but because we can only label something from our experiences, it may be something else entirely.
We as always start with the surrender process and we did this to the song Freckles by Natasha Bedingfield. I was recently introduced to this song and it was one of the major inspirations for this months theme. I am including a link to this from Youtube that I recommend looking at as it includes the lyrics in written from. It's a keeper. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIBFv60Ilik
As we know as soon as a topic comes up, all the back up materials falls into place. So I shared this picture which recently came to me through a facebook friend
Yes more often than not we see ourselves way smaller and less powerful than we truly are and I think this is a sweet demonstration of that. This is a reminder of why I encourage all of you to dream big. This also reminded me of a story from my meditation teacher Harshada. It's better told live but I'll give it a shot.
Once upon a time there was a small lion cub that got lost. As this laundry man was walking through the forest, he came across this cub and, in taking pity on this poor lost cub, he decided to take him home. This man washed laundry for a living and had several donkeys that he used to help with the laundry. So the man put the cub in the stables with the lions. He decided to train the cub to help with the laundry along with the donkeys. So the lion cub ate and lived like donkeys. He learned to bray like a donkey. The donkeys shared all there beliefs and ways of being with this donkey. He may have looked different on the outside but on the inside as a result of the programming he was a donkey. Well one day while they were all out by the river washing fresh laundry, there was an adult male lion lurking. He peaked through the trees licking his chops and said "human, donkey, donkey, donkey,....wait a minute what is a lion doing with these donkeys." So the lion steps out from the trees. Upon seeing the lion the man and the donkeys run away in all directions to save themselves from their predator the lion. As the other "donkey" lion attempted to run the adult male lion grabbed him and pinned him to the floor. He asked the donkey lion what he was doing fraternizing with these donkeys. After all he was a king of the jungle. The donkey lion disagreed. The adult lion grabbed the donkey lion by the scruff of this neck and pushed his face just a few inches from the lake where the laundry was being cleaned. He said, "Look, look at the water...you are a lion, just like me." It started to sink in. It did take some time but the donkey lion realized that he was a full lion and learned to roar and like the other lions.
I think this story pretty much stands for yourself and we all have an inner lion. There is another quote that Harshada likes to share which is, it's better to be bad at your own dharma, then be perfect at someone else's. So yes we all have to find our own flavor of inner lion and live life from our truth and not someone else's. Which leads to my favorite bumper sticker, "Remember you are unique, Just like everyone else."
So after this process the ground was clearly set to plant our seeds which it was. I was quite delighted by all the different childhood heroes that you all shared as your inspiration in the seed planting meditation. It was great to have all the energy of these playful inspirations in the room with us. And you have intrigued me to go back and read some of the stories. So we did this process to Katy Perry's song Firework. I'm including a link to this Youtube video as well as I really like the way the sparks come out from the heart. And after all, we really need to let the sparks generated by our hearts shine out in the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGJuMBdaqIw
Of course all of your seeds were transmitted into a blossom for the garland of dreams. Along with the prayers for others. I brought it to the East River right after to offer it; however, because I forgot my flash, this garland was really well received and flowed North up the east river with such speed, I didn't get it in the water. So here is a picture of it on the mesa. As you can see I forgot the flash yet again. I guess it was all the fireworks from the seed planting exercise.
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