On a recent Sunday, I recounted a dream I had where I was part of an exploratory team going into the earth to test the extreme conditions on which new life could be sustained. To carry out this mission, we needed to journey to the core of the earth. Our vessel would be a special pod that could shrink down to a size that would make travel through the earth easier. For the shrinking feature to work, the exploratory team needed to regulate our breathing in a certain rhythm during the shrinking process. It was imperative that we stay calm. As all the molecules of the pod and our bodies were being altered, there was intense pressure from inside and out. Once our vessel was ready, we were propelled deep into the earth to carry out our mission.
Part of the mission was to see the effects on our body, mind, and spirit of living under intense pressure and limited conditions for an extended period of time. One of the ways to measure the effects of the conditions was to have a crew member get pregnant and carry the baby full term. It was an opportunity for the team to study the effects of the conditions on new life and if life itself was sustainable. Would the baby be deformed in some way? Would the conditions ultimately be viable for survival and reproduction? In the dream I was aware of feeling intense nervousness and anxiety around what life would look like and how it could be nurtured in these extreme conditions.
While we were under the ground, there was a feeling of extreme pressure and closeness like being on a submarine where you can barely turn around and everyone is squashed together. Simultaneously, there was a sense of complete expansiveness. I would feel the constriction, then I’d feel the expansiveness. I would feel the pressure and then the weightlessness. There was a constant dancing between the paradoxes of the physical and emotional worlds.
I woke up with the sense that I was given a peek of what is happening energetically in the world right now. There is an intense pressure being exerted on humanity from the environment, from the chaos of events and from an increasing awareness that we must change – and quickly. Just like pressure cooking, we are locked in and being tenderized. Are you willing to be tenderized? Changed? Be altered? Do you know how to let go so that surrender can take you through any changes that are being asked?
Alternately at the same time, there is a sense of great expansiveness, a universal buoyancy that runs through the universe. It is the organizing principle of the Divine, founded in love and ultimately permeating everything as Love and consciousness.
The question of my dream, the great experiment of sorts, is: can this time of great pressure and expansiveness sustain the new life, the evolved consciousness that is being called into birth? How conducive are the conditions and how will those conditions effect the potential for the birth? We are watching the answer come to us in real time as life unfolds.
This birth of this consciousness happening in the collective field is most likely also showing up in your life. The signs are often discomfort or uncomfortable pressure. It’s hard to recognize personal events as part of this birth but in fact they are. Financial, relationship or health challenges can actually be part of a global invitation for you to discover a new paradigm. Whatever is arising in your life, whatever has the bulk of your attention right now, allow how you interact with it to be the symbol for your awakening. It is not the situation that you want to focus on, but how you respond to the situation. This is where the practice comes in.
Over the last two months in Sunday services we have been exploring the practices and principles of discovering a new paradigm. We started this exploration under the premise that going for the top or being the perceived best in the spiritual world is not our goal. Growth happens both vertically and horizontally. This is our response to birth that is happening in us with every breath, the birth that we are being asked to nurture and bear witness to. Striving for some perceived mastery of the spiritual path is not nearly as important as being responsive to what is needed. Using the baby metaphor, if a mother is over-focused on mastering making her own toys for the child at the expense of staying attuned to when the baby needs to eat and sleep, we would say that mother needs to examine her priorities and respond accordingly. In the same way, we need to make our spiritual practice a priority and then respond in the greater context of the world. Mastery of any aspect of the path is not as important as responsiveness to what is.
I was reminded of this important point recently during the Centering Prayer gathering on Tuesday nights. Our group was exploring the nuances of the practice as we prepared to go into the Silence. Someone was sharing their concern about not doing the practice correctly. It’s a common concern in general, but especially within the context of spiritual work. We want to make sure we are doing it right.
What I love about Centering Prayer is that it is not a technique. And you cannot master it. There are certainly many practices that you can master and perhaps are important to master if you are looking to develop a special skill. But Centering Prayer isn’t a skill to be mastered – it is a practice. What’s more, it is a relationship. Yes, we can master a skill, a proficiency, but can we really master a relationship? I have never been able to say I have mastered any relationship. It almost sounds absurd to think in those terms. Can you imagine telling your significant other or close family member or friend that you have mastered them? How well would that go over? When it comes to our spiritual practice, there is a dynamism and responsiveness to what is present that can never be mastered. It is simply experienced.
Mastering implies we are in control of something, that we have arrived at a skill level of superiority. The energy patterns coming in are much too powerful, alive and filled with Divine energy for us to control them. What we can do is stay present to what is happening. Observe the patterns and signs. Participate in life in a way that is enriching and restoring. Keep engaging in your spiritual practices of spiritual study, meditation and prayer, selfless service, conscious giving/tithing, worship and devotion, and transformation of self. They are what keep you in a deeper relationship with what is. They keep the conditions as conducive as possible for the sustainability of new life.