Divine Bridges

Tuning self-consciousness into pure-consciousness through cosmic play & energy movement

Cost is $30 per person (pay at the door or through our handy dandy Paypal link on our website).

If you planning on coming out then it is very helpful if you email your RSVP

Well, unfortunately our January event fell under the threat of a snowfall, and I think it kept everyone home by the fire. And here I thought BC was full of ex-Winnipegers! Oh well as it was only one brave soul faced the elements and the power of the red and white dragon. We had decided before hand that we would go ahead with the event no matter who or how many turned up. It is important to bring through that energy and allow it to do its work, regardless of how we interpret that to be. In the words of one of my teachers, "Everything is always in perfection".

The theme of this event was the twinning energy of the red and white dragon. As I mentioned last month, the red dragon is the active force that clears away and transforms what is holding us back. That was to be Carol's job. For me, I was to hold the white dragon energy that held the space and created the stillness.

I have to say, that although it was a rather small gathering, we were lucky to have a very gifted chanter in our midst. His addition to the event showed me that like any successful ceremony, the process is very much an interactive and evolving one that is benefited with the gifts each of us carries.

Once again, the energy started to build and accelerate as soon as Carol and myself grounded and opened the circle. I have noticed as of late that the energy is becoming softer and easier to handle. In part this is that the energy itself is changing, but also it shows that the energy is changing our systems so that we can handle more. The energy is also becoming more heart centered which in turn should create the quickest evolution for all those involved.

The event itself was much more movement oriented as far as the role Carol and myself played in it. I also found it to be of a faster pace and shifted and danced like the fire and water we were representing (red dragon = fire; white dragon = water). Even though the weather kept some at home, we had our share of non-corporeal visitors! In particular I could sense the presence of Avalokiteshvara in the form of the Dalai Lama, as well as once again Tara who represents that feminine principle in Buddhism. There was also the presence Lady Nada who is considered by some to be an Avatar and Mary Magdalene being one of her incarnations. Among other duties, Lady Nada looks after twin flame relationships. They and a few others would come in and do their work and leave, but throughout the whole session it was the dragon energy that held court. It was the first time I have worked with that energy that intensely, and I have to say it was a transformational experience. As one can imagine it is a very "large" energy to channel.

As happened last time, we experienced some beautiful spontaneous toning and chanting. I have to say that is one of my favourite parts. The session ended with with the red and white dragon coming together. The message I could hear was that the rift in the energies had been healed and intertwined. I think it can best be summed up by the card I had drawn from the Osho Zen deck prior to the event:

The image of integration is the unio mystica, the fusion of opposites. This is a time of communication between the previously experienced dualities of life. Rather than night opposing day, dark suppressing light, they work together to create a unified whole, turning endlessly one into the other, each containing in its deepest core the seed of the opposite. The eagle and the swan are both beings of flight and majesty. The eagle is the embodiment of power and aloneness. The swan is the embodiment of space and purity, gently floating and diving, upon and within the element of the emotions, entirely content and complete within her perfection and beauty.
We are the union of eagle and swan: male and female, fire and water, life and death. The card of integration is the symbol of self-creation, new life, and mystical union; otherwise known as alchemy.

I don't think I could have said it any better. Instead of the eagle and swan we had the red and white dragon but it was the same resolution of opposites that occurred. To me it felt very much a healing of relationships, but taken to a deeper level and healing the inner sense of wholeness. When we are whole within, we no longer have a neediness to search for someone to complete us. I felt this is what the energy was trying to bring about that sense of unity.

For me, it also meant that the two streams of energy we channel in Divine Bridges had been harmonized and brought into one coherent stream. This makes it easy for one person to channel in an event instead of needing two. As it turned out this was a necessary development in the energy as Carol has decided to leave Divine Bridges and pursue her own work. I am sure I join with all of you in wishing Carol all the best in whatever she manifests.

Overall I found the event to be very healing and profound. I hope more people can come out to experience our next one in March at Sleeping Dog Farm. I am excited about the new venue and that the next one is all about manifestation (woohoo!). It looks like by April the format and structure will be changing somewhat. I still don't have complete clarity around it, but March might be the last opportunity for you to experience it in its current casual drop-in format. I do hope you take advantage of this magical opportunity. More should be known by the next newsletter.

We often throw the term enlightenment or awakening around in metaphysical discussions, but what do they really mean? Whether you realize it or not, your main purpose for incarnation in this life is to awaken. Once you realize that awakened state, you not only realize your own true nature but the nature and role of duality. Duality's sole reason for being, is to experience what the Unity truly is. Think of it is this way. You are a brush stroke in an immense painting of a garden. All of your experience is comprised of the surface of the painting. All you know is the painting. But to truly realize the beauty and scope of the painting you would have to remove yourself from the surface and back away from it. By gaining this perspective you not only can see the painting and its meaning but you now are experiencing everything that is NOT the painting. By experiencing the isolation of not being connected to your other brush strokes, you are now feeling duality. Instead of being an integral part you now have a sense of "me". The painting has now come something outside of yourself. The Brush stroke now has an Ego and feels pretty good about itself. "Look at ME" But no matter what that brushstroke is able to accomplish in its new life, it always has that memory of being part of that Oneness of the painting. So the brushstroke begins its search for its home. It attends classes on metaphysical subjects, learns to meditate, reads books, listens to gurus, and basically everything else it can come across that mentions enlightenment (which is pretty impressive for a little brushstroke).. But alas, although the little brushstroke now knows a lot of fun stuff, it is still in separation from the painting. Then one day, a day like any other, the brushstroke is staring at a flower and it has a moment of clarity. It sees itself as a brushstroke in a vast painting. The flower is part of the painting as so is everything else it can see. Then, like waking from a dream, the brushstroke realizes it is still part of the painting; it never left. It was simply its imaginary sense of "me" that had created the belief that it was separate from the painting. There was no path to enlightenment, as the brushstroke never left for anywhere. It just simply dropped the illusion of duality. It always was and always will be part of the painting.

In the teachings that I follow, Awakening and Enlightenment form a spectrum of the same experience. That is to say, Awakening can be seen as the initial realization of your true nature, while full Enlightenment would be the clearing of all karma and conditioning and the realization of Nirvana. So before you can be considered enlightened, you first have to wake up from that dream you have been having. You know the dream I mean; that one where you think you are a separate identity from everything else. It is funny, in our society we are led to believe it is some glorious event heralded by trumpets when we Awaken. In actual experience, instead of being a big "aha" moment, I have found it more to be an "oh" moment. Don't get me wrong, it is still the most profound experience you can have, but it isn't full of fireworks. It is more like seeing something old with new eyes. When that illusion falls away you are left sitting in Truth. That Truth is the nature of your existence and the connection as part of the Divine. You will be able to see the interconnectedness of all life as well as being able to separate the soap opera around you from actual reality. The thing is, at this point you still have a huge whack of human conditioning, so you are not out of the woods yet. You can still be drawn back into drama, and despite that new twinkle in your eyes, you still have to deal with the challenges of living a physical life. Your job now is to continue to hold that space of awakening and sort through your baggage to see what you can unload. Energetically when you look at a human energy structure, there is a veil that holds that separation consciousness. What happens with Awakening, is that veil gets punctured, and you are given a window into the nature of existence. If you are a fan of the movie the The Matrix, think of clearing that veil as taking the red pill; it is the start of seeing Truth for the first time.

So we hinted at the title of this section that we would give some secret to how to Awaken. Well truth be told, no one can tell you how to Awaken; every experience will be unique. What we can do is to give you some experiences that can bring you to that threshold. The true secret to awakening is the heart felt desire to see the Truth of your existence; no matter what that takes, or what the Truth is. As our channeled message from Aaron in last month's Ezine said, To realize this there is nothing you need to do, or become. Your Awakening rises out of your Being; like a flower unfolding its petals. It happens naturally in its own time. You simply have to stop fighting and engaging with your drama. It is the engagement that keeps you trapped.

Having said that, there are experiences that can bring about the conditions necessary to experience your initial awakening. a few of these are:

meditation
prayer
yoga
chanting
ecstatic dance
psychotropic/entheogen plants with the intent to awaken and see the Truth of existence
sex (with the intent of connecting beyond yourself)
deprivation, excess, and more importantly, the middle path
energy work with the intent of clearing the separation consciousness and conditioning
introspective awareness (going within)
extreme grief
extreme joy
being in a Divine field (in the presence of say Amma or the Dalai Lama)
shamanic journeying with the intent to see the Truth
being aware of the soap opera around you

Now it should be said that a lifetime of meditation, yoga, journeying, excess, deprivation, etc. will not bring about Awakening unless that true desire to Awaken actually exists in the first place. The tough part of it is, in that final step you have to give up all beliefs and preconceptions that brought you to that threshold. In Buddhism you talk about slaying the Buddha when he stands between you and Enlightenment. Your beliefs can only lead you to the door; not through it. Once again think of the movie the Matrix. When Neo took the Red Pill, he had to give up everything he had held to be real up to that point. That is a brave decision to make. No one said this game was easy.

Probably one of the greatest tools we have for healing, clearing conditioning and regaining Unity is through simple awareness. Awareness is simply having your consciousness shift fully into whatever you are experiencing. To do this, we first have to quiet our mind; this is the job of meditation. Next we have to be in the present. Past and future are merely illusions, the only time period that actually exists is this present moment. This means being fully aware of the breath entering your body then leaving. It means feeling the floor beneath you, and being present to whatever task you are currently doing. Once you can achieve the quietness and presence, next you can start to shift your consciousness into whatever you wish to release. Usually a particular issue will be held in the appropriate chakra. For example a security or worthiness issue will be held in the root chakra. Actually, almost all issues will stem out of the root chakra although they may manifest stronger in another chakra. For example, although intimacy is often a heart chakra issue it will have its origins in a worthiness issue in the root chakra. By bringing your consciousness into your heart or root chakra you can often "see" the pattern. Awareness when held long enough as the ability to melt away that conditioning. Consider awareness to be the candle clearing the away the darkness of the conditioning. The same holds true for awakening. The conditioning that prevents awakening is simply a myth you believe about yourself. By holding your awareness into your heart chakra on that imaginary sense of "me" or "I", eventually it will dissolve. Awareness destroys illusion.

Now when you couple awareness with powerful divine energy and presence, you have an amazing line up to clear conditioning, clear blockages and illness, and bring forth Enlightenment. This is the basis of what is called Darshan in the eastern religions. You are coming into contact with an aspect of the Divine in the form of the guru/tulku. Through them is coming an incredible high frequency of Divine energy, and their awareness is combining with yours to create the shift needed in your system. Basically this is also what is happening in the Divine Bridges sessions, although the Divine Aspects/beings are temporarily using my system instead of them being physically present themselves. I will be discussing Divine aspects more in the March newsletter.

~
I have thrown from me the whirling dance of mind
And stand now in the spirit's silence free,
Timeless and deathless beyond creature-kind,
The centre of my own eternity.

I have escaped and the small self is dead;
I am immortal, alone, ineffable;
I have gone out from the universe I made,
And have grown nameless and immeasurable.

My mind is hushed in a wide and endless light,
My heart a solitude of delight and peace,
My sense unsnared by touch and sound and sight,
My body a point in white infinities.

I am the one Being's sole immobile Bliss:
No one I am, I who am all that is.

Sri Aurobindo

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and since we don't want to annoy, pester, and torment anyone (well not anymore than I usually do), you can unsubscribe at anytime by sending us an email saying "unsubscribe"(yes it will make the dragons cry but we will honour your request)

and so I once again shook my Magic 8 Ball and asked for any message to come through from the Divine aspects that actually run the show.

This month the ascended master who came with the message was a Tibetan medicine guide I refer to as Te. I have been aware of him working with me for about 5 years now and he seems to be heavily involved with the Divine Bridges work. I have to say this is the most I have heard from him verbally at one time...well at least in English (I hate when the voices in my head don't speak English). So without further delay here's Te.

Everything in existence has a purpose. Nature is not an accident. Everything fits together like fingers in a glove. To every yin energy there is a yang response. To every expression there is a corresponding answer. Nothing is left to chance; everything has its place in the cosmos. So why would you question whether your own life has meaning? If everything around you has its exact reason for being, so must you. Your being is not by chance. You have a part to play in this dance of life. The difference is you have been given choice or freewill. This means you can decide what role you play. You can stay engaged in your battles and pettiness if you choose to do so. You can do that for as many lifetimes as there are grains of sand. Or, you can walk the path of service and Awaken to your role. Compassion is the key; a loving heart devoid of judgment is the gate. Once through this gate you simply stop engaging with the pettiness and patterns. Instead, you start looking at how you can give service - to your neighbor, the land, and the community. The choice is always yours to make. Tashi Delek

Each day it happens: you could have done something but you didn't do it, and you are using the excuse that if God wants it done, He will do it anyhow. Or, you do something and then you wait for the result, you expect, and the result never comes. Then you are angry, as if you have been cheated, as if God has betrayed you, as if He is against you, partial, prejudiced, unjust. And there arises great complaint in your mind. Then trust is missing.

The religious person is one who goes on doing whatsoever is humanly possible but creates no tension because of it. Because we are very, very tiny, small atoms in this universe, things are very complicated. Nothing depends only on my action; there are thousands of crisscrossing energies. The total of the energies will decide the outcome. How can I decide the outcome?

But if I don't do anything then things may never be the same. I have to do, and yet I have to learn not to expect. Then doing is a kind of prayer, with no desire that the result should be such. Then there is no frustration.

Trust will help you to remain unfrustrated, and tethering the camel will help you to remain alive, intensely alive.

This Sufi saying wants to create the third type of man, the real man: who knows how to do and who knows how not to do; who can be a doer when needed, can say "Yes!" and who can be passive when needed and can say "No"--who is utterly wakeful in the day and utterly asleep in the night; who knows how to inhale and how to exhale; who knows the balance of life.

"Trust in Allah but tether your camel first."

This saying comes from a small story. A master was traveling with one of his disciples. The disciple was in charge of taking care of the camel. They came in the night, tired, to a caravanserai. It was the disciple's duty to tether the camel; he didn't bother about it, he left the camel outside. Instead of that he simply prayed. He said to God, "Take care of the camel," and fell asleep.

In the morning the camel was gone--stolen or moved away, or whatsoever happened. The master asked, "What happened to the camel? Where is the camel?" And the disciple said, "I don't know. You ask God, because I had told Allah to take care of the camel, and I was too tired, so I don't know. And I am not responsible either, because I had told Him, and very clearly! There was no missing the point. Not only once in fact, I told Him thrice. And you go on teaching 'Trust Allah,' so I trusted. Now don't look at me with anger."

The master said, "Trust in Allah but tether your camel first--because Allah has no other hands than yours." If He wants to tether the camel He will have to use somebody's hands; He has no other hands. And it is your camel! The best way and the easiest and the shortest way is to use your hands. Trust Allah--don't trust only your hands, otherwise you will become tense. Tether the camel and then trust Allah."

You will ask, "Then why trust Allah if you are tethering the camel?"--because a tethered camel can also be stolen. You do whatsoever you can do: that does not make the result certain, there is no guarantee. So you do whatsoever you can, and then whatsoever happens, accept it.

This is the meaning of tether the camel: do whatever is possible for you to do, don't shirk your responsibility, and then if nothing happens or something goes wrong, trust Allah. Then He knows best. Then maybe it is right for us to travel without the camel. It is very easy to trust Allah and be lazy. It is very easy not to trust Allah and be a doer. The third type of man is difficult--to trust Allah and yet remain a doer. But now you are only instrumental; God is the real doer, you are just instruments in His hands.

and now for something completely different; a shameless plug... remember Robert is available for private sessions.

Robert's website is www.pathtoharmony.com and be sure to check out the new workshops he has set up for March on Salt Spring Island.

If you wish to sponsor a Divine Bridges event, then contact us. Consider having a Divine Bridges event for your next group gathering. Want us to add a city to our schedule? Then let us know!

So I thought I would take a little space each month to share some links I have come across. They might be teachings, new concepts, businesses I find intriguing, or just something that appeals to my brand of sacred coyote craziness. If you have a link you want me to include then drop me an email!

Check out our location for the March Divine Bridges event. Beautiful website and a wonderful sacred space.

My very good friend Ian has started a new business offering meditation/visualization CDs and Mp3s that are encoded with entrainment frequencies. I have listened to a couple of them already, and have to say they definitely deepen the quality of my meditation. His latest offering is a manifestation CD with a real unique twist. Ian also has some great meditation instruction and advice on his website. I highly recommend him as a meditation teacher. Update: Ian is launching a line of Ebooks. Included in the tiles are ones on mantras, meditation, and childhood obesity.

Michael Waters is an amazing musical artists living on Vancouver Island. His music has evolved to be a spiritual practice. His site has some free MP3s to download of his music. Update: Michael is launching his new CD and has his spring tour dates on his site. Check out this guitar mystic at:

I can personally attest to how nice these custom mala beads are to use in meditation. I use mine daily. Brian has some good instructional videos on this site on how to use a mala in meditation.

The Legend of the Carp says that a carp able to leap over the mythical Dragon Gate will become a dragon. Many have sought out the true location of this Gate, but none have found it. Several waterfalls and cataracts in China are believed to be the location of the Dragon Gate. This legend is an allegory for the drive and effort needed to overcome obstacles and the transformation when we succeed.

"Be Blissful" is Swami Nithyananda's mission statement. He says, "Healing is only my visiting card, my mission is to awaken the divinity that lies latent in every being and manifestation." Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda is said to be the reincarnation of the Hindu god Shiva.

Liberation