Tag Archives: equanimity

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Embodying The Mood Of Love

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Relax into the mood of love…
-Illustration © 2023 Jan Ketchel

It begins with deep calm in the body, the soul’s physical extension into this life. The true father of all modern somatic therapy, Wilhelm Reich, brought intimate attention to the opposition between natural impulse and defense in human musculature.

The suppression of sexual and aggressive energies, as well as powerful emotions such as sadness, is executed through what Reich called body armoring, the tensing of muscles that freeze the free flow of instinctive and emotional energy.

A tense throat constricts the vocal expression of emotion. A tense belly and solar plexus create a wall that short-circuits the natural energetic current of tender emotion, natural reflex, and instinctive movement that  issues from the lower half of the body.

Love is the energy of union and wholeness, the glue that binds together all of creation. To embody it we must soften our armored muscles.

The standoff between impulse and defense creates pools of charged energy, which in turn generates fears of an uncontrolled tidal wave of chaos and eventual loss of control. Indeed, a cathartic release, such as a deep cry or scream, might be necessary before a natural balance between expressive and receptive energies can be established.

One can directly speak to the body and receive a response. “Stomach, relax and release tension,” or “Shoulders, let down, release tension,” are suggestions to the body subconscious that result in immediate relaxing of rigidity.

Be gentle and accepting of small increments of release with each suggestion. Allow the body to gradually let go and adjust to the influx of freed energy. As the body musculature releases, invite and allow the breath to flow gently, expanding and opening new channels. The key word here is gentle. Follow each gentle breath with a slightly more deepening next gentle breath. Force nothing; gently widen the channel over time.

On the mental plane, Carlos Castaneda’s suggestion to suspend judgment is foundational. When we judge we create separation; this is good, that is bad. Thoughts, feelings, sensations and intuitions that are ‘bad’ are suppressed, and the body responds by rigidifying against them; they are not allowed.

In a shamanic recapitulation, or in an end of life review, as reported consistently by many who have experienced near-death experiences (NDE’s), the salient feature is total acceptance of every experience and every person one has experienced in life, regardless of their abuses and failures. This is the mood of love embracing everything with equanimity.

Boundaries may be absolutely necessary in this life but love knows no boundaries, all is accepted. Love and boundary can coexist. That was Christ’s golden message: Love All!

Total acceptance of self and other, of every aspect of life lived, and lost, is the path to embodying the mood of love.

Release, breathe, and accept,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Equanimity At This Point Of Confluence

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Embracing confluence…
-Illustration © 2022 Jan Ketchel

The conflicting energies of independent ocean currents meet at a point of confluence, such as Cape Agulhas, at the southernmost tip of Africa, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans come to meet. Sailors experience such points of confluence as particularly hazardous waters to navigate. The challenge is one of equaniminous accommodation of such clashing energies in a living domain of ruthless opposition.

Such is the state of America, and the rest of the world, right now, as we approach the coming crescendo of election day, November 8th. The true, underlying point of confluence has always existed, as all parts of all that is are represented in our greater wholeness. What distinguishes now is the full unleashing of these primal energy undercurrents to the Earth’s surface, exploding the usually dependable walls of civilized restraint.

These currents are archetypal energies whose passions excite numinous fascination. Numinous experience is defined as spiritual awe and ecstasy, a true meeting with the divine. For the human ego, an experience with the energy of the collective unconscious is numinous. Though ego may be threatened with disintegration at such an encounter, it craves contact with its spiritual source.

The conscious experience of leaving one’s body, or communing with a disembodied spirit, is numinous. Some numinous experiences are ecstatic, others terrifying. Nonetheless, the fascination with either can be quite compelling. Apocalyptic and horror movies are frequently blockbuster successes, as vicarious brushes with the terrible of archetypal energies claim their due.

Archetypes are the prototypical gods and goddesses behind our perceptions and emotional relationships in this world. Fear of encounters with authority figures is actually fear of the Old Testament God, Yaweh, in his wrathful mood. Craving the attention and validation from a beloved is actually a numinous hunger for mirroring from the Great Mother goddess, superimposed upon a mere mortal woman or man.

When the archetypes are activated, the passions they arouse demand release, sometimes with fatal consequences. On this Day of the Dead may we be reminded of our human form’s finiteness. Though we crave numinous union with the divine, may we survive it as well.

I approach the coming point of confluence, November 8th, with equanimity. I, like everyone, have my version of what would be best to serve stability in our rapidly changing world. I voted my preference. But now I stand back in even-tempered awe, awaiting the outcome.

I have no attachment to that outcome, whatever it may be. I await it in the spirit of total equanimity. I intend to accept and live the outcome as the majority chooses it to be. I am part of a greater whole and must reside within the developmental level the majority has achieved. 

Numinosity is felt in the perilous grasp of the undertow, as well as in the calm of the eye of the storm. Either way, we are in the presence of divine encounter.

Equanimity allows us to truly go with the flow, without resistance. The spirits present on this Day of the Dead remind us of life everlasting, as we cling tightly to our current dream. May we dream on and awaken with equanimity, as we navigate the confluence of now.

 Remember this fact: I am free to choose the attitude I will take toward anything I encounter.   

With Equanimity,
Chuck 

Soulbytes

Soulbyte for Monday September 26, 2022

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                                    -Illustration © 2022 Jan Ketchel

Watch your energy so that you don’t overdo. Overdoing is responsible for exhaustion, sickness, dis-ease and many other maladies of both body and spirit. To overdo is to overgive of time and energy to things of the world, to people, to duties, to habits, and to things outside of the self so that the self is largely ignored. Tune into the self more often to find out what is the right amount of energy to give to any one person or thing, to any need or desire, to any duty or ritual.

Take care of the self and gain balance in doing so. It’s the only way to maintain good health, good habits, and good mind, body, spirit equanimity.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Soulbytes

Soulbyte for Thursday June 30, 2022

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Find your center, your place of peace and calmness within. Anchor yourself there, in the known self that is solid and permanent so that you may equally anchor yourself in the other known self, that which is ethereal and infinite. These two selves require equal attention so that they may both have room to grow and explore. Don’t neglect one for the other but strive always to give each the time and space they need.

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: God Is A Lymph Node

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Heart centered harmony in the Tao…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Polarity is the essence of life. Electricity is the intimate dance between positive protons and negative electrons. Likewise, magnetism is the energy of attraction between opposites.

The interplay of these opposites are the ups and downs of life. When we jump up in the air we are drawn down to the earth. Though we are light spirit beings we reside in a dense physical body. This bipolarity of our beingness is the essence of life. Our ability to reconcile these opposites is what brings balance to life. Harmony is balance generated within the interplay of opposites.

Governments reflect the interplay of opposites. Generally there is polarization between left and right viewpoints. Governments seek harmony of governance through reconciliation of these opposites. Our world today reflects extreme polarities that resist reconciliation through the integration of opposites.

The extreme polarities of now are deeply enhanced by a third factor: the pervasive extraction of human data through the internet. This extracted data allows corporations and special interests to manipulate consumers and citizens to buy and believe. It can now be argued that the internet has created its own world governance that rivals and controls both reality and elected governments.

This current state of affairs has led to an extreme world bipolar disorder. Nonetheless, this, even in its extreme imbalance, is part of the Tao. Humans are challenged with the reconciliation of these extreme opposites that are insistent upon remaining one-sided, fueled by morally  indifferent special interests. Human beings must restore the balance of opposites to return the world to harmony. But how?

In Jan’s recent dream, a group of Mennonite women knocked on the door with the message, “God is a lymph node.” A group of men were down the driveway arranging stones to create a waterfall. The water was filtered as it flowed over the rocks. End of dream.

The action of the waterfall personifies the function of the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system is our body’s filtering system. If the dream is assigning this system the rank of God, then the ability to properly filter is being given the highest spiritual value.

The algorithms of the internet target the subconscious mind to influence human emotion, cognition and action. We are all being catered to, both positively and negatively, by algorithms tuned to our personal habits or virtual footprints. For instance, in a recent blog I discussed wrenches on my workbench. Within the hour of it being published an email selling wrenches appeared in my inbox! Make no mistake about it. Everything we research, write or purchase is extracted as a datapoint on how to influence us.

Jan’s dream brings the highest value to the ability to filter. The internet, for all its wonders, is filled with toxicity. When we are catered to we tend not to recognize this toxic implant. For instance, if it is known I have a specific point of view I might be sent news articles or supposed studies that validate my perspective to influence my thoughts and feelings, as well as stir my emotions and actions.

Filtering can best be achieved by seeking the truth of the heart. If I am excited and feel self-righteous about an issue, my heart will tell me the truth: I am being inflated and attaching to a one-sided truth. As I cling to one pole of my bipolar being I throw myself out of balance and lose the harmony that is maintained through reconciliation of opposites.

Humbly incorporating this truth prevents nefarious internalized programs from taking root in my subconscious mind. I am now freed to incorporate the value of views opposite to my own. This reconciliation of opposites restores inner harmony.

May we all embrace the filtering and immunity-boosting benefits of our body’s lymphatic system. On the mental plain, let us utilize the cleansing system of the heart to arrive at both inner and outer truth. The heart, without prejudice, will lead us to harmony in polarity.

Filtering,

Chuck

Interesting reading: You Are the Object of a Secret Extraction Operation