DEFINITIONS: WORDS NEW CONCEPTS SERIES - PART 2

It’s important to learn the vocabulary that will support and enhance your character study for your new role in The Magical Theatre, so I suggest you make an effort to add three new definitions to your point of view each week.

Attention: The ability to focus on something and differentiate what is observed. We are so used to having our attention captured indiscriminately AND having reactions, that we hardly realize the choices available to differentiate and neutrally interpret what is perceived. When we do not discriminate where we place our attention we become easy prey to fear and conditional beliefs and delay our progress of awakening to the truth of our being. By using our awareness to develop discipline, we can learn to direct where we place our attention, and take responsibility for our response. With this proficiency, we place ourselves in a position to observe and modify the basic beliefs we hold about reality and determine the position we will take in it.

Authentic Self: It is easy to be confused about who we really are with so many images projected on us. We tend to accept the positive or negative opinions that most closely align with our socialization. To be authentic involves no further training; there is nothing new to accomplish. To experience the authentic self means only clearing away the aspects that are not true and enduring: identification with the body, emotional blockages and pain, opinions, and fear based beliefs. Delightedly, an authentic person doesn’t need validation from any point of view. When we experience life from our authentic nature, we are no longer held captive by “should think” or “should act” as those thought exists apart from our integrity. It is easy to be kind and compassionate and practice forgiveness. Our immutable authenticity is the force that animates and moves the physical body.

Awakening: When we see life as it is--not how we want to subjectively see it—we come to accept that all of life is unfolding perfectly under the benevolent gaze of the Divine Mystery. The awakened state is a natural maturation of having broken the spell that led us to forget the birthright of our abiding magnificence. Awake we accept what is and witness Self as connected to, and the same as Other. This is the place where it is possible to live life in an abiding state of unconditional acceptance that feels like love and is described with gratitude. Here we no longer play in greed, doubt or limitation or are described by our fearful actions. Awakening arises out of a direct personal relationship with the Divine Mystery.

Gini Gentry ~ www.ginigentry.com

DEFINITIONS: WORDS NEW CONCEPTS SERIES

I AM GOING TO START A SERIES TODAY CALLED DEFINITIONS: OLD WORDS NEW CONCEPTS

It’s important to learn the vocabulary that will support and enhance your character study for your new role in The Magical Theatre, so I suggest you make an effort to add three new definitions to your point of view each week.

51% Solution: When we undertake a serious spiritual practice we often mistakenly equate making it with reaching “enlightenment.” This goal seems so remote; the feeling of being overwhelmed can stifle our efforts. Life actually changes in an extraordinary way long before we catch sight of the Bodhi Tree. Efforts toward self-mastery can be likened to fighting an uphill battle with the 51% mark of the journey just over the crest of the hill of a bell curve. The last part of the climb is the steepest; and as exhaustion sets in before too long and it requires a huge act of will to reach the very top. But, everything changes at the crest for those who have persevered. At the peak, there is more mastery than not, more peace than not. To reach the top we must have assumed responsibility for our experience of life. We are now willing to see things as they are. We are now pulled by love, not motivated by fear. When our experience is more than half acceptable, the majority of our life seems blessed. When we are happy, it is easier to become happier. Now we have gravity on our side. It is impossible to feel powerless. At 51%, it is easeful to grow without the need for obstacles or an inflated ego as a propeller. Over the crest it is easy to witness the myth of our imperfection for the lie it is. This is the doorway for harmony with the extraordinary energy that guides all the forces within the Great Mystery.

Abuse of Power: Power in this context is the aberration of power that is glorified within a fear-based society. “One up and one down,” and “winners and losers” characterize it. Playing people against each other went out of style with the Machiavellians, but the subtleties still exist many places. Fear-based power emits a glamorous lure with its important trappings, and for a while the thrill will hide the pain. Don’t be confused; it is easy to become addicted to the use of this power or association with “powerful” people. Without judgment, it is important to see the truth of what is, not the emperor’s new clothes and what is fashionable to believe. Power is used most appropriately when it is circulated not accumulated.

Acceptance: Acceptance is the key to self-mastery so it is vital to remember we are each born whole and perfect without need for improvement. We cannot be the arbiters of this perfection for it exists outside of a limited dualistic perception. When we discard our egocentric motivation for others/circumstances/ourselves to change in a way we judge as correct before we can accept them/it/ourselves, we realign with our authentic nature and no longer tether our happiness to judgments and circumstances beyond our control.

Gini - www.ginigentry.com

Paths to Awakening: Part Two

It was a tremendous unburdening to accept that I no longer needed to use judgment as the way to play out my role in The Magical Theatre. Further more, as I looked back over my life, I saw how the “unfair" world of my “reality” had simply reflected my beliefs back to me, not created them. As my perception changed, so did my experience of the world around me. I came to understand that the secret to my happiness had been attached to my perceptions all along. In other words, if I thought of myself as a victim when I was having a “bad” experience, I would be miserable. I came to understand my perception arose out of my unaware habits instead of my conscious choice. When I was able to simply observe my circumstances, I could also see my choices. I could then choose not to suffer; I could choose to use my experiences as opportunities to learn and I could choose to accept myself even if I made mistakes.

Importantly, as I made new conscious choices, I was still “me.” I had not become a parody of a boring saint in white robes. I still had my big personality, big earrings and big hair! But instead of rejecting myself because of who I thought I should be, instead, I accepted the truth of who I really was behind the image.

After a long and difficult journey, I did finally come to peaceful terms with my destiny. By eliminating my need to feel superior to the truth of who I feared I was/was not, I reached a détente in my war with judgment. I came to know the greater truth about myself and I was set free from my victimhood. And, perhaps more importantly, when it became OK to be me, it naturally followed that everyone and everything else was OK too.

Through acceptance I finally came to know love and it didn’t look at all like I had expected! The quality of love in this context was a radical departure from the conditional love I had known. To experience this love did not require a stimulus of “loveable attributes” or “lovable actions” occurring outside myself; in fact, this love without conditions required nothing more than my own willingness to simply allow everything to be exactly as it was.

Through the great clarity of hindsight I saw that there were a great many things I had misunderstood about my role in this grand passion play of the The Magical Theatre. I’d forgotten that I was not just the lead actor but also the playwright of my own dramatic production. Because of this, I had narrowly interpreted the fantasy, and created a life directed by fear and choreographed by the voices in my head.

Those voices, my supporting cast and critics, had been so influential that they had helped me create a myth about everything and everyone in my life. Everyone does this, but hardly anyone calls it by its proper name, “projection.” Without awareness of the truth, I got into the habit of blaming others for my pain. Casting responsibility for my painful emotions onto others gave me the false impression of relief, but I remained blind and not in charge. I was sitting under a spotlight in the middle of all Creation with my eyes tightly shut.
………………………………………………………………………………………...

You too may be sitting in the middle of the stage with your eyes closed but, I have no way of knowing where you are in your circumstances, or the degree to which you have unwittingly embraced your role in Maya’s Magical Theatre. If you have already figured out that everything you have purchased, every relationship you have pursued, every obstacle you have avoided, and every attempt you have made to find happiness from a source outside of yourself has failed, you are on the right track… but I am getting ahead of myself. To really unveil how the Magical Theatre is constructed and to learn how we’ve come to assume our roles in it, I must begin in the place of beginnings... DEFINITIONS: OLD WORDS NEW CONCEPTS

Paths to Awakening: Part One

There are as many paths to awakening as there are humans who follow them. This blog is about the path I have taken. Your Path will no doubt differ slightly, or terrifically, and it will be defined by its singularity. No matter the differences or contradictions, we are of the same essence. The differences that appear to distinguish us are only a reflection of the roles we have chosen to play in Maya's Magical Theatre that we call life. So I simply offer you my experience as a guide-not a new set of rules-to the choices that may still await you.

Your life is your play. It is your personal production, therefore, only you can decide in the deepest place of truth what is needed and what is not. To begin your discovery, you must honestly determine if you have cast yourself in a lesser role than the one you came to play. More than likely you have answered yes. This is not the time for despair, the truth is liberating! Knowing you are the power behind your choices, also means you have the ability to change it all any time you choose.

For a long time I was disconnected from my choices and I assumed that everyone—at least those that mattered—thought and felt as I did. I had no idea what projection meant, but if I had, I’d have been sure it had nothing to do with me. I was certain that reality was concrete and indisputable, unrelated to my personal point of view. I was proud to be a perfectionist, happy to maintain control over all situations, and delighted to rescue friends while ignoring or unaware of the part they played in creating their own dramatic predicaments.

As it has turned out, my idea of truth was a limited, sugarcoated version of my opinion, unconsciously contrived to keep me safe while supporting my favorite self-image. Politically, I was interested in human rights; socially, I railed against the injustices of my girlfriends’ romantic relationships. Personally, I saw bad luck and bad karma at the core of my discontent. Frankly, I was reactionary and entertaining perceptions tainted by my past experiences. I was proud to be a victim of life, for it implied that I lived in an unfair world and was not a bad person. I didn’t know I was living my life on autopilot. I was proud of what I called my discernment and mortified when I encountered the pain and fear that fed its existence.

I distinctly remember the first time I realized that my so-called powers of discernment were a cover up for the way I denied my judgment. I was walking through the local grocery store when I suddenly caught the voices in my head red-handed! They were busily engaged in their usual commentary concerning the dress code of my fellow shoppers, the size and look of their bodies and how their children were behaving. I was mortified when I saw the extent of the chatter in my mind.

I finally gave up when a particularly unclean woman with rollers in her hair stepped up to a nearby line. I had to drop my gaze to the floor to get a grip on my toxic reactions. For a long time after that, whenever I went to the grocery store I would have to look at my feet just to keep from judging. Strange as it may seem, that grocery store was where I drew my first line in the sand.

I spent many years with ever-increasing awareness trying to change my habits, grumbling about my judgments, judging my judgments and condemning myself for making what I judged at the time to be very slow progress. The one day, in fact years later, the most peculiar thing happened; I realized I had, for all intents and purposes stopped my judgments. My realization was not preceded by the sound of one single trumpet. There was nary an angel and no burning bushes. I was steady on my feet, not levitating, not in a state of bliss.

I was mystified. The voices that had dominated my mind throughout most of my life had somehow slipped away so quietly I had missed their exit. More than this, they were replaced with a growing awareness that things simply are. It was a great unburdening to accept that I no longer needed to measure events or people against the yardstick of what or how I wanted them to be. To be continued…

Confidential reply to FK:

Dear one:

Please trust me when I tell you that indeed you will come to find that it is a lot easier to play through life in a condition of deep ease- rather than holding down the fort of old worn out beliefs propelled by "shoulds" in a boundary-less landscape. The process of moving from fear to love only seems hard because of the presence of resistance. When you get tired of struggling you'll stop. Isn't that grand news? Sometimes, some of us (like me for sure and possibly you...) have needed to learn "lessons" by putting the head down and running as hard as possible into the local brick wall. Then one day a bit of divine intervention sallies forth from the heavenly realms bringing with it the awareness that the wall technique- while historically offering the illusion of being effective- hurts like a motha. The pain was so familiar it seemed like a totally normal way to live life...but the thought begins to dawn that there are other possibilities. At this point, only your own judgment of what has gone before (and can't be judged into not having existed) can hurt you further.

So what I am saying is resistance is futile-and from your own knowing of your current experience- exhausting--cool huh?

gini

2012

An email correspondence.

Gini-

I understand you are in the garden of the goddess. That is exciting.
I like your expression. I understand something is going to happen in
2012. I feel it and my geneological family does not believe. If you
do not mind me asking, is there anything we can do to prepare?

Casey

and here is my reply.

Casey--I don't believe something unexpected or unusual is going to happen in 2012. Rather, I think of that date as an arbitrary harbinger signaling the advent of a new age of unimagined possibility and grace. On the other hand, the earth is obviously going through a rebalancing or perhaps you might even think of it a cleanse.

To respond to the reprocussions of those changes and their effects on the humanity you will need to:

Learn to stay present in the only moment available to you-NOW.

Live compassion for every earthly participant and experience.

Practice acceptance of all of life.

Commit to developing a moment to moment understanding of where you place your awareness and move it away from fearful respones.

Do whatever it takes to interrupt then break the habit of judgment.

and finally

Come to know your eternal relationship to your godself as deeply as possible.

I apprecate that in these challenging times you might not think I answered your inquiry, but as you master these considerations I have offered to you by finding ways to follow and become a lving example of these suggestions, you will discover that indeed the question no longer exists. gg

Presenting... Maya, The Great Mistress of Illusion!

Ah, my beloved . . . at last. I wondered how long it would take for us to meet again. It was inevitable, of course. If you look back over your life, you can witness the perfectly orchestrated chain of events that delivered this dear blog into your world. On your journey here did you suspect there was something in your life amiss? Perfect. That is exactly the awareness you need to propel your escape from the dream-like enchantment of the Magical Theatre, and rediscover and subsequently live the truth of your magnificence.

You’re probably wondering who I am, and why I want to help you awaken. Permit me please--I am known as Maya, the Great Mistress of Illusion, and it is I who designed this enchanted game of earthly life you’ve been playing. What you have thought of as reality, I call the Magical Theatre, for it is a realm where anything can happen if you open to the possibilities. I imagine you are brimming with questions so let me explain. I invite you to imagine a time in the eons before you began your human journey, each love-filled moment flowing unimpeded into the next, across eternity. From this place you, dear one, courageously chose to participate in the antics of the Magical Theatre, so that you might expand beyond your knowing. You fully understood a spell of forgetfulness would be cast on all who entered this enchanted territory. And, like the multitude of other souls who came to explore the magic, your intent was to star in your own glorious production, without being impeded by earthly fears. You were certain you would remember your essential nature-the key to breaking the spell. But no sooner did you enter your body than you succumbed to the potency of the illusion, forgetting you had delightedly agreed to play the game of awakening. Worse, like millions of others trapped in the same oblivion, you developed a deep conviction of your imperfection. You came to accept that in order to feel complete and experience your divine heritage of unconditional love, you needed to change or do something or pretend to be something you were not.

Dear one, do you honestly believe that you are intrinsically flawed? Be assured that this nonsensical thinking is merely a result of the spell you’re under.  The spell leads you to search in vain for the missing pieces of yourself.  You believe that it is only when you find these missing pieces that will  become impossibly faultless and  you will secure love, approval and happiness.  

And now,  let me give you a clue,  the happiness you long for does not exist outside of yourself, so it cannot be found through relationships, treasures or status. The actual wellspring of happiness has simply faded from your awareness. You have forgotten you are born whole and perfect and irrevocably connected to the heart of the Sacred. Love could not have been missing, for you are its source.

Miracles await you, beloved, if only you remember who you truly are. On my behalf I have asked our beloved Gini to share with you the principles that will release you from the slumber of forgetfulness. If you study the guidelines that are presented and live them with intention, you will become free to reawaken the legacy of your divine spark. In the Magical Theatre you are the producer, director, writer, and star of your own wondrous production. Armed with free will, you can take on whatever role you choose in this bountiful world of wonder.  

Beloved, understand that life in the Magical Theatre exists for your enjoyment, a delight that requires you to first awaken to the mystery of your true nature. I am here to help you navigate the journey, so call on me any time you are in need of support and I will join you in the nighttime dream world. Here, unencumbered by the pull of the enchantment, I will reveal the secret of secrets, how to dream down heaven. In return, I ask only that you open your mind and unlock your heart. 

It is a grand deal, is it not?   So let us begin.... curtain!

Welcome to the Magical Theatre!

Beloveds,

Since childhood, I've had a gnawing sense that life on earth is not intended to be as painful or serious as it seems.  In my dreams I would often see life as a grand game of virtual reality,  devised by some greater force for our soul's enhancement.  Yet I had no outer support of this belief,  since I was the least likely person to undertake a journey of awakening-  I was way too cool to be spiritual.  Then, during a fateful 1988 trip to Peru,  I met a woman who would soon introduce me to a then unknown Mexican Toltec teacher:  don Miguel Ruiz. 

  

Little did I suspect how life-changing that meeting with Miguel would be.  Immediately, he helped me to see that my "too cool"  attitude was one of the many masks that I had adopted to help me navigate through life.  He explained that, like everyone, I had worn masks such as "victim" or "authority" as outward tokens of my identity,  when,  in fact, none of them accurately described who I was. In fact, the essence of myself-the I am- was far greater than any of the ways I was accustomed to defining myself.  As I stripped off the layers of masks,  I felt my heart begin to open and I knew my life would never be the same. 

 

While I reveled in the wonder of this new understanding, Miguel shared with me the story of Maya,  the world-renowned Hindu Goddess of Illusion,  who had conspired to create a spectacular game of awakening for humans to play on earth.   The capricious and compassionate Maya embodied what I had long believed: that in this enchanted game we call life, our main purpose is to awake to our divine nature.  

I felt an instantaneous surge of connection with Maya. I knew that Miguel was to become my teacher-the spiritual guide who would help me navigate my path here on earth- and Maya would shepherd my exploration of the Great Mystery in the nighttime dream world.  

It was through Maya's unique voice that I was finally able to distill the heart of the process that forms the foundation for my teachings and books.  Maya has remained with me over the years as the voice of "silent knowledge," or universal consciousness, that represents our highest possibility.  Her wisdom forms a powerful foundation for awakening, simultaneously encompassing many different mythologies and transcending boundaries of religion or belief systems.  

As I continue to work with students from many different cultures and walks of life, I realize that Maya's wisdom,  when practiced with heartfelt Joy,  represents the true core of spiritual knowledge.  And when these teachings are seamlessly integrated into a person's life, they guarantee the ability to dream down heaven.

I am deeply honored to pass on this wisdom through my experiences and understandings of the application of the wisdom.  I will reveal a backstage view of Maya's Magical theatre known as life... and Maya may make the occasional guest appearance herself to answer any questions you might submit.   

It is my most sincere wish that her deeply transformative lessons bring as much illumination and delight to you as they have to me. 

Blessings, 

Gini