Renewed Beginnings

Laura Basha

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me
there lay an invincible summer.

– ALBERT CAMUS

It’s the beginning of January, and I sit here this evening writing while listening to the continuous sound of saturating falling drops in a week of much-needed rainy days.

The days still shorter, the nights still longer. Cozy evenings by a fire, soups, and lots of reading – all call to us. Whereas 6 months ago we were still out running errands and working and just being busy until the sun set much later in the day.

If we look at life as a metaphor, we can see the symbolism within nature’s timetable. Less time for outer activity, more time for inner reflection. As the season stays colder, nature has slowed down and hibernates, leaves haven fallen from the trees, growth has slowed or stopped, and nature lies fallow to replenish and rejuvenate for Spring and its expansion.

We too could slow down, reflect, review the past accomplishments of the last year, consider what we could evolve and grow into in this coming year, with the renewed capacities born of rest and reflection. We emerge from the holiday season of many spiritual traditions to celebrate the birth of an awakened consciousness. In the dark and quiet seclusion of the deepest winter night, in the quiet seclusion of our deepest reflection, wisdom unfolds, gathering substance as we allow ourselves time to be present to the Silence. Wisdom emerges as inspired and awakened consciousness, lighting the way for our own inner sage to find voice, ready to take form in the New Year, and the coming longer days of Spring.

Peace within emanating to peace without, choosing peace for all who think of us, all who speak of us, and to all whom we contact.

With Renewed Beginnings and a New Year of Soaring Possibility!

The Power of Conscious Choice

Laura Basha

“Conscious choice implies connection to our essence, to being present in the moment,
where life actually and only occurs.

This knowledge not only aids in discovering our true self-expression, it automatically moves us towards the full optimization of it.”

~ from The Inward Outlook, by Dr. Laura Basha 

What does it mean to “consciously choose”? How could it be otherwise? When we make a choice aren’t we obviously aware of it?

Actually, not always. 

So much of what we choose is in fact unconscious, choices given automatically from internal thinking that incessantly speaks like a ticker tape, a tape that is so familiar that we don’t recognize it as thinking, but just how life actually occurs. Until we can become aware of the unconscious patterns of thought from which we create an entire life experience, we are at the mercy of the impact of life happening to us, rather than from the powerful and joyful stance of life being experienced through us. 

A very good practice is to become aware of the incessant thinking that consistently seduces us away from experiencing the peace of mind and well-being that permeates a quiet mind. Practice being present in whatever circumstance you find yourself, with no attention paid to thinking. Consciously choosing to not pay attention to your thoughts, but rather to pay attention to what is in front of you, say, a flower, or a child, or your pet dog, or the sky as you sit in traffic, or the in and out rhythm of your breath, without any attention to the internal commentary about what you are perceiving, will give you access to the quietness of the present moment.

Once you have even the briefest experience of the present moment, and you see how stress, worry, and complaining disappear, you have the beginning of seeing how to consciously choose. It is from the quiet power of the silence abiding in the present moment that wisdom emerges. From wisdom, inspiration, lightheartedness, even joy, you can see choices available that were previously obscured by thinking. Consciously choosing from this present-moment wisdom creates a life of quiet focus, power, creativity, ease, and confidence. 

Our true self-expression naturally emerges as we are one with the only moment in which life actually occurs – the present moment of now.

The Paradox of Time

Laura Basha

 

Photo By: Lucas Ludwig
 

“Whatever you do takes time, and yet it is always now. So while your inner purpose is to negate time, your outer purpose necessarily involves future and so could not exist without time.

 

But it is always secondary.

 

Whenever you become anxious or stressed, outer purpose has taken over, and you lost sight of your inner purpose. You have forgotten that your state of consciousness is primary, all else secondary.”

 

– Eckhart Tolle

 

I woke up in the early morning hours as I do sometimes, and there it was: that nagging feeling of dread.
 

Sometimes it isn’t there, or it emerges as a different version of itself, all the different versions of dread. It’s such an amorphous feeling, the more distressing because it has no apparent cause. No specific incident or occurrence that I can tag it onto. I know on some level it is thinking, but if I try to distinguish which thought or remember some event either past or future, it only exacerbates the dreadful feeling, but gives no distinguishing information that then lets my mind think “Ah ha!”.
 

This morning I remembered: It’s all a ruse – all a delusion of the ego trying to have me feel the stress of not having completed the books by now, not having caught up on the articles for the website in time, not having sorted through the clothes to bring to the consignment store.
 

Yada yada yada …
 

There is only peace and ease in the now.
So, everything other than peace and ease is habitual thinking.

 

This morning I remembered. Who I am is: I am.
I am that. The Absolute. That. I am Now.
 

Be where I am. In bed. Comfortable. Safe. There is only peace and ease in the Now. So, everything other than peace and ease is habitual thinking. And thinking wants me to continue to focus on it so that I can keep being attached to form, the physical, the constraints of time.
 

Now, this woman Laura who is writing this is not a silly person. She is quite strategic and pragmatic as a personality. But through habitually paying attention to the undercurrent of patterned thinking, I then identify with the pressured thoughts of “not enough”, “behind the eight ball”, “overwhelmed”, and then of course fall prey to the types of emotions that resonate through those types of thoughts.
 

This morning I remembered. Be where you are. Stop thinking. Yes – stop paying attention to thoughts and pay attention to the present moment, with no attention to thinking. This is Be Here Now. This is peace and ease and all is well.
 

This is living my purpose. Address the needs of the day from THIS state of consciousness. Ease and peace of mind. Then items to address get done with ease and peace of mind.
 

All else is secondary.

Our Eternal Connection to Source

 
Photo By: Ivana Cajina
 

You knew then, before your physical birth, that you were “Source Energy”
specifically focused in this physical body,
and you knew that the physical person you would become could never be separated from
that which you came from.
You understood then, your eternal connection to that Source Energy.

 

You said, ‘I will love pouring myself into this physical body, into physical time-space-reality,
for that environment will cause me to focus the powerful Energy that is me
into something more specific.

 

And in the specifics of that focus, there will be powerful motion forward – and
joy.’

 

– Abraham

Mind is the Parent Miracle

Laura Basha

Photo By: Andrew Bertram
 

An excerpt from Beams from Meher Baba, 1958:

 

“God does everything and in another sense does nothing. Although God does nothing, those who approach Him with love and surrender derive everything that matters in the spiritual realm, even though He does not do anything in particular towards them.
 

God may be compared to the sandalwood. It continually emits a sweet scent in all directions, though only those who take the trouble to go near it have the benefit of its charming fragrance. But we cannot say that the sandalwood has done anything in particular towards those who approach it, because emanation of its sweet scent is going on all the time and is not specifically directed towards any person or persons. It is available to each and all who care to come within its range. Thus the sandalwood gives in one sense; and in another sense it does not give.
 

Take another example. The river gives water to those who are thirsty in the sense that if thirsty persons approach the river and drink its waters, their thirst is quenched; but the river does nothing either to invite them to itself or to fill them with its waters.”
 

– Meher Baba

 

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These examples show how God does everything and at the same time does nothing. This naturally applies to the so-called miracles, which are minor happenings within the great miracle. Mind also can be called the great miracle of the universe, because it is out of the mind that the illusion of the universe arises.

 
Mind is a parent miracle; yet the fulfillment of its destiny lies in self-annihilation. It has not fulfilled its true purpose if it does not completely disappear. The temporary clay model often has to be destroyed in order to bring out a statue of permanent importance; the form of wooden planks is raised only to be replaced later by a slab of concrete; and the hen’s egg has not fulfilled its destiny until it is broken from inside by the pecking of a hatching chicken.
 
In the same way, the mind-mould arises only in order that it may be shattered to pieces and that its bursting may make possible the unfoldment of true and unlimited understanding which is self-sustained. Thus the mind, which is the parent miracle, comes into existence only in order to vanish.

Following Greatness

Laura Basha

 

Photo By: Anton Watman
 

“There is something that contains everything.
Before heaven and earth it is.
Oh, it is still, unbodied, all on its own, unchanging, all-pervading, ever-moving
So it can act as the mother of all things.
Not knowing its real name, we only call it the Way.
If it must be named, let its name be Great.
Greatness means going on, going on means going far, and going far means turning back.
So they say: “The Way is great, heaven is great, earth is great, and humankind is great;
four greatnesses in the world, and humanity is one of them.”
People follow earth,
earth follows heaven,
heaven follows the Way,
the Way follows what is.”

 

– Lao Tzu, Tao te Ching, Translated by Ursula K. Leguin

 

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Last week I wrote a guest article for an organization whose purpose is to inspire and empower women entrepreneurs. I am also in the process of designing a year-long succession planning and mentoring process for a wonderful client organization. Both of these projects – the writing of the article as well as the thinking through of how to successfully generate a transfer of senior level competency to a very qualified younger group of newly-hired consultants in a very short time frame – got me thinking about “The Divine Feminine”.
 

Now, that can be a loaded phrase. “The Divine Feminine” sounds as though it is some kind of possibility relegated to women only, or that it is a conversation belonging more in New Age jargon than any pragmatic business dialogue.

 
But, here’s the thing: in my consulting and coaching work with already highly successful executives, one of the key characteristics that is missing in leadership development is a deep understanding of quieting down one’s thinking and listening for what one is missing – what one is not seeing. Listening for what’s beneath the obvious conversation, the obvious issue at hand, listening to another’s point of view with no attention paid to your own inner monologue allows for insightful solution, perfectly tailored to whatever is the problem at hand. So, on closer examination, what is the Divine Feminine? Listening to that quietness is access to the Divine Feminine. No “woo-woo”, nothing “too soft” or “touchy-feely”, rather a very pragmatic psychological vantage point in which to stand in order to have the most innovative and brilliant response. Light-heartedness born of trusting innate wisdom and common sense is always available, affording the highest quality thinking in any circumstance, even when confronting very serious issues.
 

From this perspective, gender has nothing to do with the Divine Feminine. It is not a quality available to women only, but a listening for a realm that is the balance of the Divine Masculine, and so available and needed by men and women leaders alike.

 
Taking cues from innate wisdom which then inform choices to outer action is the expressed balance of the Divine Feminine and Masculine at work. The Divine Feminine knows that the only thing one can count on is the wisdom within, and the Divine Masculine takes this inner leadership gracefully into the world.