Divine Heritage

There is no necessity if necessity resides outside of the inner flame of the heart. The only Truth there is thrives in the reflection of divine order and the universal strings attached to the order of manifestation. We create to grow and grow to create that which we seek - we are- in this paralleled Universe. It is a full circle weaved with consentual perplexities of thought. We get lost in these “thoughts” not knowing the direction of our soul evolution. But there is no way to discern what is right or wrong when the head (our thoughts) becomes a symptom of survival. This “survival” is derived from the habitual “fight or flight” tactics reared since our birth into this world. When we open ourselves to the perceptive states of knowing that are beyond perception all together, we are embodying the integrated system of “allowing” into our Being.
This “allowing” is divine in nature – not separate from Self yet a delicate conceptual understanding of Truth that is birthed from our innate desire to merge with our divine heritage. What is heritage? Heritage is our birthright. It is our reflective patterns and evolutionary unfolding of who we truly are reflected in another and thus, our inner Selves. We have grown from the roots of our maternal source that stem from the ancestral lineage of metabolic order. We continually “gift” each generation with a set of derived structures inherent within us – some formed and some formless with integrative motives.
We can see our soul encounters as an invitation to growth and the limitless beauty accessible to our existence. There is an underlying Truth that rests in our unconscious – sifting through the days numbered by our thoughts – patterning a world of misunderstanding – trying to make sense of the world in which we have created based on our metabolic upbringing.
And here it stands – an opening into the intrinsic power of the heart. We merge together finding peace in this perfection. In this union, there is no separation. This is the first encounter with the eternal flame – the “one” that we are within the light of our own divine Truth.
When the moon smiles, there is a creative beauty that mirrors the maternal spark of insight onto the soul. The Spirit emerges from the darkness. The womb creates a new beginning – a new metabolic meaning emerges from the flame. How will we nurture this emergence of Spirit? How do we release attachments from the constructs of the mind in which we derived such imminent pleasures before our soul awakened to this Truth within?
Let it go! Translate the surface desires to a meaning beyond the conceptual mind. Power rests in the unknown and thus our hearts thrive in the ecstasy of the arrival of that which we once feared from the universal upbringing of our divine heritage. This IS our birthright…

You can view this piece, published in OM TIMES Magazine April 2011 Edition, pages 64-65 in the simply spiritual section.
http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1rkd6/OMTimesMagazineApril/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yudu.com%2Fitem%2Fdetails%2F308020%2FOM-Times-Magazine-April-2011-Edition

The Undefined

There is the undefined that rests in the consciousness. Some would like to consider it separate from self but this “separate self” is only the creation of the mind outside of the Truth that we are, in fact, the pinnacle creation of all that exists now and of all that has gone before.
Life is produced from the myriad dimensions of our heart -felt attraction to the evolutionary evolvement of our biological sustenance. We are of form yet formless, create yet are created upon - and ultimately, our goal is to re-unite with the power of love that is our inherent unity on Earth.
To be a part of this unity one must be willing to accept responsibility for their actions and rise above the mundane aspects of their mental articulations to develop the sense of autonomy and interdependence that functions as a core principle in the understanding of human engagement. This is the beginning of the social omnipresence that is moving through the hearts of those that choose to open to the power of their own limitless Being. This presence forms a bond that reaches beyond the polarities of the matriarch and patriarch to a union that breaks the structures we have encoded into our DNA and subsequently adopted as “mental roadblocks” into our daily lives.
What is being called forth is the awareness necessary to indulge in the mystery of the creation that is our birthright and forging “body” of transformational heritage. And when I say “heritage,” I speak directly of that which has propagated a surge of energy through our cultural life-blood to a place of inner-knowing that is far reaching and ever-present in the cultivation of who we are beyond our beliefs and cultural patterns of “knowing.”
What we “know” is not by what we read or hear but by the experiences that have shaped our soul evolution as “man.” These experiences are molded by our upbringing, challenged by our divine allowance, and transformed through the integration of Spiritual evolution within and of the DNA structures that correlate a system of “bonding” that we can only become through the integration of our planetary reflections and core practices we embody along the way.
To participate in life beyond the capacity of our collective consciousness, we must be willing to look beyond our mind’s constrictive intricacies of judgment, blame, fear, self-indulgence, retribution, and intolerance. There is an unlimited perception available to us in each moment we open our hearts to the core principle of our existence. Knowing that this “principle” is formed through the mere acceptance of Self that is reflective to the Love that we are in this world (through mirror-image), we are then capable of moving beyond perception all together. What is manifested from such musings of transmutation is the freedom necessary to access the Divine union of grace and love within and from the planetary structures that coalesce with our own unique DNA helix.
Our ultimate “bond” in life has nothing to do with perceptual understanding, but everything to do with HOW we are perceiving our reality in the midst of the “separateness state” we have created through time. To bring about the changes necessary for survival, we must look in the mirror of Self and see beyond the mask we wear to the world in which we have created in our minds. This role is our creation and the “created” is our manifestation played out in action. Are we taking responsibility for these actions? Need we make this illusion a reality upon which our desires find no attainment in the beauty we strive to create? These questions can only be answered when the desire to “bond” is released from attachment and fear.

Experiential Education applied to Transpersonal Psychology with Adolescents

Abstract
A definition of transpersonal psychology is discussed with an emphasis on the application of experiential education in regards to transpersonal experiences. The implications of experiential education with adolescents in relation to the human stages of development are also considered.
Keywords: transpersonal psychology, transpersonal, experiential education, adolescents, human stages of development.


Experiential Education in Transpersonal Psychology
Definition
Transpersonal psychology (TP) is a multicultural bridge into the unknown - allowing for unity and an integrative balance of duality and non-duality between all people, all species, and all levels of awareness. As a field of study, it blends psychology and spirituality - giving it a holistic approach that can be translated to “human consciousness studying itself” (Drury, 1989).
A core principle of transpersonal psychology is practice. Through meditation, shamanic journeys, ritual, wilderness rites of passages, psychedelics, visionary work, and other contemplative and experiential practices, transpersonal psychology pushes the envelope in terms of what is “real” or not - and applies reason to what is not, necessarily, reasonable. Although the roots of such practices stem from various world religions, spiritual, and wisdom traditions, when taken into a scientific account, desires and what is “attainable” become a logo for who we are and who we are becoming as a whole. Looking at life and human consciousness through a non-linear and non-dualistic lens, applying both quantitative and qualitative research methods, and “digesting” experience as a part of a larger world-view brings a new perspective, a perspective that reaches beyond the personal, to the field of psychology and science.
Application of Experiential Education with Adolescents
If our concept of reality (our own subjective and objective world-view) is molded by our experiences, yet we are taught that what is experience-able (reason-able) is reserved, solely, to the five senses (Assam, 2010) then what is attainable is retracted to what is known only through a linear association. However, with the direct application of transpersonal psychology through an experiential educational process that is implemented in early childhood, there is the potential to transcend the limits of our five senses and our common (4th dimensional) understanding of Self through the guise of separation.
How can experiential education deepen the understanding of transpersonal psychology? To start, we can look at the early stages of development in which Piaget concludes that the ego is formed during the pre-operational stage (2-6 years of age) (Sigelman, Carol and Rider, Elizabeth pp 46). During this stage, thinking is not yet logical and perception is limited to an egocentric view in which the child is unable to take on another’s perspective. This formation and continued progression of conceptual understanding takes root in the concrete operational stage (7-11 years of age) and must be formed before the “need” for transcendence can occur. A sense of separation is established and with this sense of separate-self comes a universal “need” to unify and bond with what seems beyond (outside of) recognition.
Abraham Maslow (1970, p. 46) addressed these “needs” by stating that “humans share physiological and safety needs with all other animals, and humans share belongingness and love needs with higher animal species, but humans alone desire to become everything that one is capable of becoming.” Thus, the human potential is motivated through wanting and/or needing to self-actualize which, in turn, can lead to self-transcendence.
Potentials and Limitations with TP and Adolescents
For this reason it seems imperative, to me, to integrate practices, dialogue, and related transpersonal processes to adolescents as soon as the ego is developed so that their sense of separation doesn't keep working on the “separateness state” that we live in today, as adults. If there is an underlying system of support offered from the parental and societal figures in a child’s life during this formation and transitional shift of consciousness from pre-operational to concrete-operational development, I believe that children can have the capacity to live with mindfulness in a way that mirrors the connection they share with the Earth, their community, peers, and all living things by the time they reach the formal-operational stage of adolescent egocentrism (puberty).
Personally, I remember feeling the presence of spirits in my room around the age of seven. The distinction of what was “real” and what was outside of my understanding of reality was a fine line. There was still a theme of innocence that opened channels of communication between the idealism I was raised in and the authenticity I could feel within my Being. But to allow our innate experiences to manifest into a tangible phenomenon, support is needed. This is where experiential education can play an important role. It is also the role of transpersonal psychology which works to “explore, exploit, and explain transpersonal phenomenon, making real what is not real to our inherent awareness” (Assam, 2010).
With open hearts and the educational foundations acquired to access their inner knowing, children can be guided through proper reflection techniques, wilderness excursions, and anything that is conducive to their individual and group learning “needs” within the experiential learning realm. However, possible problems can arise if the area of support the child is offered is not advantageous to the child’s learning capacity or degree of understanding. Pushing a child to “experience” something (specifically, transpersonal) that they are not ready for could prove detrimental to their learning process. With suitable precautions and preparation established for each individual and/or group experience, the experiential education process could, essentially, help to instill values that outweigh any habitual patterns learned from the child’s prior his-story (her-story).
Conclusion: Resurrecting the Authentic Self
If we, as a western society, can begin to embrace the implications of resurrecting the probability of living an authentic life, then the change must begin from early childhood – when the ego is identified and the separate-self is formed. Transpersonal psychology and experiential education work, together, as a conduit for the exploration of our limitless potential and thus, create a path to our pursuit of happiness, to our deepest desires extending beyond desire itself, yet honoring human necessity in the process.



References
Assam, B. (2010). Social synthesis. Unpublished manuscript.
Davis, J. (2003). An overview of transpersonal psychology. The Humanistic Psychologist, 31(2-
3), 6-21.
Davis, J. (2009). Complementary research methods in humanistic and transpersonal
psychology: A case for methodological pluralism. The Humanistic Psychologist, 37, 4-23.
Drury, N. (1989). Vision quest: A personal Journey through magic and shamanism (pp.
19-24). Bridport, Great Britain: Prism Press.
Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and personality (revised ed., p. 46). New York: Harper and Row.
Sigelman, C., & Rider, E. (2006). Life-span human development (6th ed., pp. 46-47). Belmont,
CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.