Manifesting from Wholeness: A Kabbalistic Perspective

The beauty of realizing Life's dreams and aspirations comes from truly manifesting in alignment with one's True Nature -- who we truly are, not who we think we are or pretend to be. Within each moment of being present and aware of our True Nature we experience an indescribable aliveness. This aliveness flows throughout our very being and that which is manifested from that place of authenticity (truth, harmony) is preciously real. It's real because it's not an image of something created by the Ego. It's real because both the Relative and Absolute worlds are transcended.

Lately I've been working with quite a number of clients in helping them with their own manifesting projects, mostly dealing with big life-transitions. Some of these clients are somewhat knowledgeable about Kabbalah because of the work we've done together in our Integrated Kabbalistic Healing sessions. These are the clients who are also very interested in understanding how Kabbalistic wisdom and understanding fit into their own manifesting process. As is often the case, we get to their question for me: How do YOU do it!? I always find it interesting how others think that it's easy for me -- easy to manifest what I want in life. Actually, there's quite a paradox here, because it is easy and it's not. I go through my own periods of struggle which (a) other people don't necessarily recognize, and (b) the struggle is really part of the process.

From this point on, I'm going to be using a lot of Kabbalistic language. If you're reading this article and would like to learn more about Kabbalah and manifesting, contact me.

Manifesting from my Tree of Life
One of the reasons that I'm able to manifest so easily, I think, is my determination and perserverence (Netzach). Once I make up my mind that I want to do something, it's like the wheels begin to turn directing my focus and attention on the efforts I need to make in order to bring whatever it is into Reality. My Netzach needs to be in balance with my (Hod), and this is especially true when my efforts are directed toward manifesting something in the world.

There are times when my confidence (Hod) wavers -- it's there and then it's not. When this wavering of confidence is happening, it's because there are a number of things happening within my Tree. Hod is also about identity and what we're identified with. My confidence wavers when, rather than being identified with the part of me that holds the vision of what is possible from the view of my True Nature, I'm identifying with an image of myself that the Ego is creating. The Ego is a master image-maker. I know this about the Ego and yet I forget.

If I'm identifying with an image of myself, then I'm not seated in Reality! These images are not real. These images are manufactured by the Ego as a means of protecting itself. And, if I'm responding to Life experiences as an image of who I am, this affects how I relate to others and how I see others. Image-selves see other image-selves. That's not even a real relationship!

The foundation from where I stand and my connection to everything is supported by Yesod and Yesod informs, feeds (Malkhut --physical reality) and how I see the world (Assiyah) . Here's an important piece, I think. Yesod is also informed by Tiferet (Harmony). For me, that's where the "not my Will but Thine" comes in. Tiferet is also connected to Keter (Will). When every aspect on my Tree is in proper relationship, there is absolutely no difference between my will and God's Will. Truth with a capital "T" comes from a healthy Tiferet, so how could it even be possible for there not to be One-Will (I don't know how I know this, honestly; it just feels right).

When my Gevurah (judgement, boundaries) are too strong and rigid, I'm much too contracted. And, in this state of contraction, I have very little love and kindness (Hesed) for myself. It's obvious, looking back at the times when I've been so constricted/contracted, that I needed Hesed's expansiveness. Isn't that always the way though? We hardly ever recognize when we're in that contracted state -- we're too contracted. My Tiferet won't resolve (reach Harmony) until I do recognize my contractedness and relax, let go with love and kindness (expansion). In that very moment, where Gevurah and Hesed are in relationship with each other, providing the balance that I need, THAT's when the separation between my will and God's dissolves into One-Will. This is not about doing what a parent wants us to do against our will. This is about being mature enough to see that we both want the same thing. What is this same thing? It's not the object alone that we're wanting to manifest! It's the Divinity within the object and knowing there's no separation.

Some people have issues with the word "God" -- I don't. Probably the only issues I have around the word "God" is about others limiting who and what God is. That said, I wonder if a number of issues around manifesting what one wants in Life isn't also about a contracted-belief in God. I see this contracted-belief in God as one of those images created by the Ego. It's just an image and yet the images the Ego creates often hold us back from being in Life, the Real.


I love this Goethe quote: "Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creativity), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed have come his way.”
(to be continued)

Big Mind/Big Heart -- View from the Absolute

Because I am, heaven overhangs and earth is upheld.
Because I am, the sun and the moon go round.
The four seasons come in succession, all things are born,
Because I am, that is, because of Mind.
Eisai-zenji in the Kozen-Gokuku-Ron

---

We've been working mostly within the Relative View dialoging with voices (selves) having to do with the Mind (small mind or ego), the Body, and the Emotions. We began touching the Absolute View by dialoguing with Soul and specifically, with soul qualities. Additionally, we've learned to always end our sessions with the Integrated Human Being, the one who functions in Reality and through inner-realization work continuously unifies all parts of ourselves into the wholeness of whom we truly are.

From the Relative View

All of our inner voices (selves) come from Small Mind (Ego) and have something to say that we, as Integrated Human Beings, need to hear. Note: They're all a part of Big Mind. They just don't know it!

From the Absolute View

Everything is included with no exceptions. As the One, the Absolute, we are infinite and boundless. From this view, we can see there are no limits and everything is absolutely perfect. Everything manifests from this Oneness which is existence itself.

---

We've come to understand that when we dialogue with voices that come from the Relative, whatever they have to say is truth from their own limited perspective. The dialoguing practice provides space and time for each voice's perspective to be heard and giving each voice the freedom to speak for itself allows it to have a space -- something we've rarely done consciously in the past. Have you noticed the immaturity of these voices? This immaturity is rather narcissistic in that the whole world revolves around it. Interestingly, as each voice is given an opportunity to speak, all the other voices listen and learn. And, because of the open-ended questions we ask that come from a place of curiosity and wonder, the voice we're dialoguing with gets to explore it's own limited perspective. Each voice can actually become more conscious and thereby have less need to be intrusive, demanding, obnoxious, controlling, etc.

The opportunity to dialogue with Big Mind, as well as Big Heart, frees us to let go of all our limited views -- even if just for the moments that we're doing the practice. We actually get to experience what it's like to embrace and include it all. Even the idea of something this big can be scary for the Ego UNTIL it sees (experiences) that it's not annihilated (which is its fear) but instead is actually embraced and included in the wholeness.

Once we've experienced Big Mind and Big Heart, we can return over and over. In fact, you may find that beginning all of your dialogue practice from this point on with Big Mind changes the practice -- probably making it easier.

Lastly, after you've experienced and practiced with Big Mind/Big Heart, you'll be able to relate to the Buddha's allegory excerpted below:

The Head of a large household goes off on a journey and leaves his head servant (Controller) in charge of the house while he's away. This arrangement works fine as long as the Controller remains clear about his servant role. However, the Head stays away too long and the Controller forgets that he's there to serve the Master and begins to act as if he (Ego, small mind) was the Head of the house. When the true Master returns, he may need to set things right by putting the Controller back in his proper role as the Master's servant.

So, after practicing with Big Mind/Big Heart, we'll surely want to dialogue with the True Master.

Bridging the Gap: Integration of Emotion and Soul Voices

At this point, we may find it helpful to look at the two words: gap and integration. What do these two words mean for you? Maybe a better question is "what comes up for you in this moment around the word integration? gap?

Your first thoughts will probably be the intellectual knowing that comes from "what you know." What you know comes from mental concepts and ideas based on what you've heard others say, what you've read, or maybe what you've experienced. The level where we "know" things comes from our archives of stored information from the past rather than what we're experiencing directly in this moment -- in the present.

Wisdom-questions, Knowledge-Questions
Wisdom-questions take us deeper into ourselves whereas knowledge-questions keep us at the surface level where we "know" things. You can imagine how much our soul might love wisdom-questions. And, conversely, you can imagine how much our ego might love knowledge-questions.

When we ask wisdom-questions, we're asking from a place of wonderment, openness, expansion. From this place/space, we're open to anything that arises. Questions coming from such an open, expanded place leaves plenty of room/space for answers to arise from outside of our archived data bank. It's interesting that wisdom-questions often evoke other wisdom-questions and these other questions seem to drop us into a deeper, more expansive space.

You can see how asking knowledge-questions results in a narrowing focus as our minds search our archives for "the answer" -- the correct answer! The answer to knowledge-questions is stored in a small space, so that's where our mind has to go in order to find the answer.

Gap between Emotion and Soul
In the previous article, I introduced how Emotion and Soul arise from two different worlds or perspectives: Relative and Absolute. Emotions show up because of an "other" -- person, place, or thing and needs an "other" in order to be an emotion. Emotions need cause and effect, because they are the effect of some cause (and vice versa). Emotions come and go. Soul, with all its qualities, is ever-present whether we're conscious of this presence or not; and, soul does not need an "other" for it to be "what it is."

We can perceive this gap (difference, opening, space) between the two, emotion and soul. Working toward understanding the different emotions through dialogue practice helps to bring light into this gap. We begin to understand why particular emotions present themselves -- what triggers them.

If we let ourselves be curious enough to discover what the emotion is telling us that we're needing from an "other," we also find that it's a soul quality the ego is trying to imitate. We're literally reaching outside of ourselves for the soul quality, i.e., love, understanding, strength, that is not only within us but it's part of who we truly are.

Integration
The first step toward integration is the uncovering. We finally understand what the emotion is pointing to. It's like "the finger pointing to the moon;" it's not the moon itself. Once we see this truth, we begin to notice the presence of soul qualities that were actually present all along. We can actually dialogue with any soul quality to find out anything we're curious enough to find out -- including how to integrate It, our very own soul quality, into our lives. We can ask questions like, "how can I be aware of your presence more?" The bottom line here is that the more we're aware of, and directly experience, the ever-presence of our soul and it's qualities, the less we need the pointing devices, the emotions.

The integration process begins with our enlarging the space (ourselves) that embraces and includes both the pointing device (emotion) and that which is pointed to (soul quality). The foundation for this integration process is curiosity to know the truth and the courage to ask the questions that will inevitably lead us there. A vehicle for this integration process is dialoging and reflecting back (verbally aloud or in writing) to ourselves what we've learned. Keeping a notebook helps provide a map of the territory we're exploring.

Emotion as a Pointing Device toward Conscious Understanding -- Bridging the Relative & Absolute Worlds

Are emotions mental states that arise spontaneously? How are emotions related to feelings? What is the relationship, if any, to love as an emotion, a feeling, and a soul quality?

A general definition of an emotion describes a neural impulse that moves an organism to action. It's considered to be a psycho-physiological state and really does arise spontaneously and involuntarily.

As physical expressions, emotions are related to feelings, perceptions, beliefs associated with objects or others -- even a certain aroma can remind us of someone or an event and "wha-lah" a particular feeling and/or emotion arises instantly. We're all aware of how the physical body responds to emotions, i.e., changes in temperature and breathing; increased heartrate; tightness in throat, chest, or belly. You may very well come up with other ways your own body responds to specific emotions.

From a neurobiological perspective, emotion is a pleasant or unpleasant mental state organized in the limbic system of the mammalian brain. These mammalian elaborations use neurochemicals, e.g., dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonim, to step-up or step-down the brain's activity level.1 These 'states' are manifestations of any number of various non-verbally expressed feelings from one end of a continuum to the other end.

Looking at emotions energetically, we experience unpleasant (negative) emotions as energy-draining and pleasant (positive) emotions as energy-calming and sometimes as very alive and exhilerating. Emotions move energy -- e-motion (energy in motion) -- WHEN we facilitate rather than hinder the movement. Most of us have an automatic tendency (reaction) to "hold our breath" when we begin to experience a negative emotion. By doing the opposite, by breathing consciously, we facilitate the movement of emotional energy through us.

An emotion is experienced as a response to the nervous system and is a part of the Relative-world; a soul (or essential) quality is an expression of the Absolute-world. An emotion needs an "other" in order to arise. An emotion points toward a part/voice that needs something and is somehow trying to protect the self. An essential, soul quality doesn't point to anything outside of itself; it's complete, whole in and of itself -- it is what it is. There's no garment or anything covering up what It is. There's nothing else determining what It should be. Love is pure, unconditional Love. Strength is calm without needing to be inferior or superior to anything else.

Consider this. The Ego rules in the Relative-world and it trys to imitate Essence. From the perspective of the Relative-world, we are our Ego/Personality and from this perspective our emotions often define who we are, i.e., an angry person, a happy person. From the Absolute-world, we are Essence and our essential qualities define who we are -- our True Nature, i.e., Love, Value, Strength. From an integrated perspective, we're able to see both views; and, we're able to understand compasionately with an open heart what's being pointed to. We're not really an angry person. We're feeling angry and that feeling/emotion is pointing to some part/voice who needs to be heard, who may be feeling unloved, unappreciated, disappointed.

Guideline for Dialogue Practice
Actually, we've already done some dialogue practice with the Voice of Fear, one of the primary emotions experienced by both humans and animals. So, we know that we can find out interesting information by talking with Fear, and other emotions, directly. I'd like to suggest a slightly different variation for dialoguing with emotions. Let's see how it works for you.

• As usual, check in with the Overall Voice -- in this case, the Voice of the Overall Emotional Body. Think of this voice as the part of us that houses, or contains, all emotions. This voice is aware of all activity, i.e., agitation from some emotions, coma-like states from other emotions. We check in with this Overall Voice to find out about what's going on so that we can understand more about ourselves, thereby becoming more consciously aware. After checking-in, we can ask if there's a particular emotion we should speak to; or, we can just say, I'm curious about the emotion of ___________ and would like to dialogue with it.

Now, here's where you might want to experiment to see what works best for you. This next piece is the slight variation I was speaking about.

1. Let's say that you're curious about why you often feel disappointed (in relationships, at work, in Life). Disappointment seems to "be up in your Life right now." You could ask to speak to "the One Who (Always) Feels Disappointment." Remember to make the shift in your seat and then ask the question "who am I speaking to?" And, reply "the One Who (Always) Feels Disappointment." This helps seat you in (embody) the voice with which you're wanting to dialogue.
2. Ask any number of questions from the place of curiosity and wanting to discover whatever you can about this part/voice. The voice/part gets to say whatever it wants to say; it's speaking from it's perspective only. What the voice/part says may not, probably is not, the truth BUT it's the truth as that voice/part knows it from it's very limited perspective.
3. The dialogue that originated with Disappointment may lead to another, like "the One Who is Angry" or "the One Who Feels Unloved." Move along and dialogue with each of these as they arise, however, remember to be considerate of the voice/part with which you're speaking as you would with an actual person. You wouldn't just leave them hanging while you go off and talk with someone else who just showed up, would you?

• Once you feel like you've gotten to the bottom line, an understanding of some sort, you may want to see if you can find out which Essential, Soul Quality is being imitated? You may be able to find this out by asking the voice/part you've been working with, or you may want to explore dialoguing with the emotion itself. I'd suggest a question like: "What Essential (or Soul) quality are you most like?" How are you the same? How are you different?

Exercise
Using the handout sheet (bubble diagram) where you listed your emotions, pick those that you're curious about, those that you'd like to know more about, to use in your practice sessions. Use the guidelines provided above.

Comment Area Below
I encourage you to use the comment area below to share your experience and insights. Feel free to use your initials if you're uncomfortable using your name on this blog.

1 Source: Wikipedia Article on Emotions

The Soul: Beyond the Boundaries of the Mind

Our soulfulness is an intricate part of our humaness. We would not exist as human beings without our soul. So what is this -- soul? Can we recognize it in some way? Can we feel it? Can we somehow touch it? To say that we know that we have a soul without exploring what it is or what it means seems to be missing something deeper.

Ask any number of people "what is the soul?" and you'll get varied and usually ambiguous answers that come from concepts and beliefs, probably from a particular tradition or religion with which one has affinity. What are the chances that any one of these people can answer the question from direct experience? Can you answer this question from direct experience?

The soul is an organism of consciousness1. The soul is dynamic, constantly changing moving, flowing, unfolding and transforming. We might even see the soul as an archtype for Life. As an organic consciousness, the soul embraces and includes the ego development process and uses life-experiences to evolve -- consciousness with an even greater richness and potential. In a sense, the soul is learning how to live in the physical.

Soul, Presence, & Essence
In all the many years of reading, studying, and research having to do with the soul and it's association with Presence and Essence, my favorite teacher/author on this subject is A. H. Almaas. He describes the medium or field of the soul as the Presence of pure consciousness, the ultimate building block of our psychic life -- Essence or True Nature. He explains that Essence manifests by differentiating into Presence with recognizable qualities, i.e., peace, love, compassion, truth, pleasure, joy, strength, will, clarity, intelligence, spaciousness, etc.2

Qualities as Gateways to the Soul
From a Relative, or Dual perspective, a quality is dependent on both a subject and an object. Relative-love, for example, needs someone to give love and someone or something to receive the love. From an Absolute, or Non-dual perspective, love is love with no other purpose than to be itself. To fully embody the presence of love is to be love through and through absolutely.

What would love be like from a Transcendent perspective -- one that includes both the Relative and Absolute views?

Using the voice dialoguing practice, we can directly experience the soul just as we have previously with the Mind and the Body. We'll always begin the dialogue session by checking in, speaking with, the Overall Voice of the Soul. We can find out from this voice whether there are particular qualities that it feels would be beneficial for us to speak with. We can also let this voice know if there's a particular quality we're interested in speaking with. Remember to go back to the Overall Voice after speaking with a particular quality to check in; and, always end the dialoguing session with the Integrated Human Being. It's extremely important that you, as the Integrated Human Being, take the time to reflect verbally or in writing what you learned from each dialoguing practice.

Exercise
Using the handout sheet where you listed your soul qualities, pick those that you're curious about, that you'd like to know more about, to use in your practice sessions. Remember to start with the Overall Voice of the Soul and then proceed as described above.

Comment Area Below
I encourage you to use the comment area below to share your experience and insights. Feel free to use your initials if you're uncomfortable using your name on this blog.

1 A. H. Almaas, "The Inner Journey Home"
2 ibid.

Mind-Body Awareness: Integration of Both

In the June 11th article, "Perspectives of the Mind (in the Relative World)," and in the first tele-class, we were able to see a relationship in how the Ego with its various parts/voices within the Mind was created as a means to protect us, the self -- at first at a very early age and then continuing the 'protective mission' as we grew up and became adults.

We began our lives as Essence; and then, as part of the ego-development process, we became more and more associated with the various artifact-like identifications that the Ego creates in order to exist. Since an artifact is an object, a piece of something, we can look at it from a Kabbalistic perspective and see that an artifact is a yesh-mi-yesh, something from something, and is associated with the psychological and symbolic universe, Yetzirah.

Now Essence is not an 'object' that we find within ourselves; it is the true nature of who we are -- it is the truth of our very presence, the purity of our consciousness and awareness. It is the ultimate core reality of our soul. Essence has been given many names by different spiritual traditions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam called it Spirit; Buddhism calls it Buddha nature; Taoism calls it the Tao; Hinduism calls it Atman or Brahman. 1

In a sense, we might say that the Ego tries to imitate Essence, the essential qualities of Essence. The Ego only understands how to objectify. To the Ego everything is an object, an image, a copy of something -- 'something from something.'

Anne Foerst, a theologian who became known for her work with humanoid robots at MIT's Computer Science and Artifical Intelligence Laboratory, calls a human being homo narrandus -- the story-making animal. You see, the robots at the AI lab that best mimic human behaviors do not rely on a single big computer to solve a big problem like walking. Instead, the robot builders distribute small computers, like brains, throughout the robot, and the net effect of all those little brains working on small, separate problems is a robot that walks much like we do. We humans evolved in much the same way as the little-brained robots. Our three trillion cells have separate as well as integrated lives. We even have real brains spread throughout our bodies . . . every part of us is talking to us all the time -- even if we generally aren't conscious of the conversation.2

We often define ourselves by our personal stories which we can find deep in our flesh and bones as well as our psyche. It's not just in our heads (or Mind), the very cells in our bodies hold our personal stories as well. I find it interesting to see each part/voice as a character in our own story. In fact, the more parts/voices we're able to see, able to become aware of, the more we're able to see the complete picture from various different perspectives.

In the Kabbalistic Creation Story, the last seven vessels (sephirot) that emanated from Source, the Ayn Sof, broke -- shattering into pieces or shards. As these pieces fell, they captured sparks of Divine Light, forming shells, or husks, with a Divine inner core. It is a Kabbalistic belief that it is human-kind's responsibility to gather these sparks and free them from the shells thereby raising the sparks to rejoin the Infinite -- a Unification.

I can't help but compare these shells that cover up the Divine sparks with the Ego imitations that cover up pieces of Essence. My own experience in discovering and dialoguing with various parts/voices, both Mind and Body, is that I'm uncovering and getting closer to the bigger picture, Truth, Essence and thereby returning the sparks to their original source.

Exercise
After experiencing the parts/voices within the Mind and the Body, we need to ask ourselves questions like the following (feel free to add others). Your answers are specific to you and your own experience. All answers are acceptable; there are no right or wrong answers. Answering these questions from the perspective of the "Integrated Human Being" is helpful in synthesizing and integrating the work we've been doing together.

1. How does the Mind affect the Body? Specifically, which parts/voices do you recognize affecting your Body? Explain how.
2. How does the Body affect the Mind? Specifically, which body parts, functions, systems do you recognize as affecting your Mind? Explain how.
3. Which voices within the Mind help and/or hinder the Body -- it's functions, health, size, shape (anything else?)?
4. Which parts/systems within the Body help or hinder the Mind?

Comment Area Below
I encourage you to use the comment area below to share your experience and insights. Feel free to use your initials if you're uncomfortable using your name on this blog.

1 "Spacecruiser Inquiry" by A. H. Almaas.
2 "The Power of a Good Story," by Stephen Kiesling in Spirituality & Health magazine, November/December 2005, Volume 8, Number 6.

Body Wisdom -- Listening to Your Body

It seems that only recently, over the last 25 years or so, that we've moved from a mechanistic view of the physical body to a more holistic view. By mechanistic, I'm referring to the way people referred to the body as a machine, an object -- an inanimate object at that! Maybe I'm relating more to my own shift in perspective, but still I've noticed more and more publications, media, etc. that seem to be concerned with paying attention to the body. Remember the saying: "No pain, no gain"? In fact, I read an article the other day where an athelete was talking about how he learned the hard way to listen to his body. He talked about injuries that his body sustained because he did not listen and that today he's much more in tune with his body.

Most of us take our own physical body for granted as long as it's working as we think it should. And, when something isn't working right, we often ignore it until it's manifested as a discomfort, pain, or disease that we can no longer ignore.

It's my personal experience that, although allopathic (Western) medicine has come a long way, most (not all) doctors still "pooh-pooh" the holistic approach that includes finding the root cause for whatever the patient is presenting. So, oftentimes it's up to us to work at our own discovery of the root cause of what's happening in our body. I do find it refreshing to meet doctors who are open to complementary processes and modalities rather than merely writing prescriptions to make the symptom go away. My own General Practitioner is one of these -- a real gem who's open to listening to other options even when they're unconventional.

Why is it that we don't think of, and appreciate, all the various functions and systems that keep the body alive and working? What would it be like to actually be taught this kind of awareness (preferably at a young age)? Why didn't we know that every cell within our body has an infinite intelligence beyond our understanding and that all we need to do is pay attention and listen?! Isn't it all a mystery that all this and more exists (and works!) without our conscious control?

The Body Dialogue Process
Within each of us there is a reservoir of information. The Body Dialogue Process taps into this reserve and creates the opportunity for conscious communication with the overall voice of the body and the many selves/parts which support the body's miraculous functioning. The body and it's many selves, like any other part touched through the Voice Dialogue process, wants to be heard and acknowledged for the significant role it serves in the overall well being of the person. What's possible for us once we are in a conscious relationship with our body is to: eat when we are hungry; sleep when we are tired; and do exercise or movement because our body wants and needs it. 1

Body Scan
Take at least five minutes each morning as you awaken to do a slow body scan where you're consciously scanning each area and part of your body to see what you feel. Note if there's heaviness, numbness, tingling, warmth, coldness, discomfort or pain, etc. Just notice whatever you notice without trying to fix it or change it. Become aware of your body with your own consciousness.

Overall Body Voice
Just as the Protector/Controller is seen as the overall voice of the Mind and its many selves, there is an Overall Body Voice. We need to check-in with this Overall Body Voice periodically to find out how it's doing, if there are any concerns, and if there is any particular part with which we need to dialogue. In fact, after doing a body scan we can ask the Overall Body Voice about anything particular that we noticed during the scan. Lastly, we can ask the Overall Body Voice if there's any particular part of the body with which we should dialogue. Always end your Body Dialogue sessions with the Integrated Human Being where you can reflect back, verbally or in writing, what you learned from the dialogue.

Exercises
There are two different exercises below that you can either do together or separately. The first one can be done in only 5 minutes (or longer, if you prefer). The second one will take longer.
(1) Practice the 5 minute body scan each morning before you get out of bed and/or each evening as you're going to bed/sleep.
(2) Practice dialoguing with the Overall Body Voice and on to any voice/part the Overall Body Voice suggests you work with.

Comment Area Below
I encourage you to use the comment area below to share your experience and insights. Feel free to use your initials if you're uncomfortable using your name on this blog.


1 Article: "Learning the Language of the Body," Judith Tamar Stone. She created the Body Dialogue Process after being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in her late twenties. Through her unwillingness to give up her body to a lifelong sentence of medications and pain, she began to apply the theories of Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of Selves through the voices of the body. Over the course of the past 18 years she has inspired and empowered others to learn the unique language of their own body.

Perspectives of the Mind (in the Relative World)

Let's begin by meeting ourselves where we are, or at least where we find ourselves most of the time -- the Mind in the Relative world.

With depth psychology, we learn that the development of the Ego is an integral process of every human being. It's interesting that in trying to understand this process we find that the Ego is an image-maker. The Ego creates images of anything and everything having to do with life experiences as a means to define itself and the world. From the time we are infants, the Ego begins to emerge showing us, distinguishing for us, that there's a self and an other -- an image of the self and an image of the other. These images form and change throughout our lives.

At this point, we can ask ourselves the following questions:

What images do I have about myself? About who I am, my aspirations, my limitations? How do these images about myself affect my relationships with others? With myself? Are these mere images and, therefore, not real? What is the truth?

Within the Voice Dialogue system, or process, we learn that the Ego creates various different selves (termed "voices") as a means of protection -- to protect the self which, of course, protects the Ego. Each of these selves has a specific function with the underlying mission -- to protect. The voice that's "in charge" of all the other voices is called the Protector, or Controller. Other voices include: the Fixer, the Critic, the Judge, the Pleaser, the Rebel, the Seeker, the Victim, the Vulnerable Child. There are many, many voices. Basically, remember this: 'if you can name it, it's a voice'.

Some basic guidelines to use in the dialoguing process are as follows:

• never have an agenda other than curiosity to understand, to see what you can learn
• always ask permission to speak to a specific voice
• shift your body to initiate the shift in consciousness
• use the pronoun "I" when speaking from the perspective of 'the voice' and the pronoun s/he (or "the self" or your name) when 'the voice' is giving information about you
• always ask the voice this question: "how do you help the self?"
• identify and speak with the opposite voice
• complete the process by reflecting on what you've learned and how you might integrate it

For every voice we recognize within ourselves, there's an opposite voice, one we may or may not recognize. Most often the unrecognized voices, the one's we find hard to imagine or get in touch with, are our disowned voices. I call these my orphans. Another rule of thumb is that when we dialogue with a voice, we need to dialogue with the opposite. After we've dialogued with both, we need to stand back and reflect, either verbally or in writing, what we learned from these two opposites.

Speaking from the perspective of any of these voices can be extraordinary as we're introduced to knowledge about ourselves we did not know or fully understand previously. If, or when, we find that we're not learning anything new, or not receiving a better understanding about ourselves, then there may very well be something (a voice) blocking, resisting the process. A good voice to speak to in this case is Fear. Ask questions like: "As fear, what are you afraid of (having to do with the voice we were just speaking to)?" Even with the voice of Fear, you need to ask the question: "how are you helping the self?" Once you dialogue with Fear in this way, you should be able to go back to the voice with which you were working.

Exercise
We're now ready to do the following exercise. It can be done alone; however, it's particularly helpful, especially when first learning this work, to both facilitate others and be facilitated by others.

Identify a self/voice that you feel you are particularly identified with. Use all the basic guidelines above to dialogue with this part of you. When you've finished with that voice, identify and dialogue with the opposite. After speaking with this opposite voice, step back and reflect, either verbally or in writing, what you've learned from each voice. Lastly, talk, or write about, how you can integrate both voices in your life now.

Repeating this exercise with more than one voice will help you understand more about yourself AND will help you in learning how to shift your consciousness more easily from one voice-perspective to another.

Comment Area Below
I encourage you to use the comment area below to share your experience and insights. Feel free to use your initials if you're uncomfortable using your name on this blog.

Soul Expressions: Giving Voice to Aspects of the Soul/Self

The Evolution
This work has evolved over a number of years beginning with my personal work with Integrated Kabbalistic Healing* where in my own healing sessions I realized there were parts of myself that I denied. I denied their very existence either because I did not like those parts and thought they were 'bad' or, in some cases, did not know they really existed within me. It became evident to me that I could basically sit down with these parts, one at a time, and ask them questions to find out more about them as if they were someone else -- as if I was meeting someone new for the first time and wanted to find out more about them. I found this method extremely helpful in finding out more about my Self with curiosity rather than judgement.

Out of the realizations that accompanied my using this method to discover more about mySelf, I began forming small groups of individuals who were interested in discovering more about themselves too. The group meetings became known as A Soul Connection Groupwork. I taught this "talking to parts" method to the groups. They (we) were often astounded at the information discovered as a result of opening ourselves to the possibility of "talking with" these parts. They (we) were literally making space (making room) for more of ourselves. The evolution of this work continued beyond anything I could have ever imagined.

Last year, I was introduced to the Big Mind* process where I was able to see a further expansion -- from talking with the "voices" of the parts of ourselves to an actual shift of consciousness to a place of unity, of Oneness, where there's no longer a subject/object split. I found that in using the Big Mind process, we can make a shift from a rigid, egoic perspective to a more expanded perspective that embraces and includes more of who we really are. This process opens us to realizing and recognizing ourselves beyond the Relative view where we're used to living day-to-day. We get to see ourselves from within the Absolute and the Transcendent views as well as the Relative. We all have the capacity to embrace and include it all and with this capacity comes a profound compassion and respect for ourselves, others, and humanity as a whole.

As I understand it, the Big Mind process grew out of a seed -- Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of Selves* where Voice Dialogue works with the psychological aspects of the individual that develop as a result of the ego development process. In studying Voice Dialogue's methods, I could see where this work heals a subject/object split that's created as we mature from childhood to adulthood. Voice Dialogue teaches us how these parts/voices are created by our own ego as a part of a process to keep us safe when we were vulnerable as children and continues to do its 'safe-keeping' function even after we grow up.

Along this journey from my discovery of Big Mind to Voice Dialogue, I kept asking the question: "What about the body?" I kept thinking that the body and all it's functions and systems must also have a voice or voices to which we can dialogue. My question was answered relatively quickly when I found Body Dialogue*. Body Dialogue came from the same seed, Voice Dialogue, and is a profound way of getting more in touch with our physical body. If there was any doubt left within me, it was dispelled once I experienced Body Dialogue.

From a Kabbalistic perspective, there are different levels of the Soul and these levels come from specific Kabbalistically-viewed worlds/universes. As we become aware of these soul-levels, we can see how one embraces and includes the other. In Soul Expressions . . . we learn how to speak from each soul-level and we learn how to integrate each level along the way so that we arrive at a fully integrated destination.

*Notes:
Integrated Kabbalistic Healing was developed by Jason Shulman, internationally known spiritual teacher and modern kabbalist, and the founder of A Society of Souls.

Big Mind was developed by Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel, founder of the international Sangha named Kanzeon from the Boddhissatva of Compassion.

Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of Selves was developed by Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone, providing a psychospiritual approach to consciousness and transformation that include awareness-work with the many selves or subpersonalities that make up the psyche.

Body Dialogue, developed by Judith Tamar Stone, expands and deepens the Voice Dialogue process to a profound mind/body communication level.

Kabbalistic Metaphors, Life, and Healing

We often use metaphors to define ourselves, others, our relationships, and even life itself. Then, we go about our lives acting as if these metaphors are the only truth leaving no room for other views and perspectives.

Shakespeare's line: "All the world's a stage . . ." is a good example of metaphor where he compared the whole world to a theater stage. There are any number of metaphors, for example:

• "Everything in life is about competition -- there are winners or losers."
• You have to work hard all your life just to make ends meet.
• Money: You get what you pay for. (and) Equal pay for equal work.
• Life is a school where we have lessons and tests.
• Forrest Gump: Life is like a box of chocolates . . .

What are some of your personal metaphors? How do your personal metaphors restrict you? How do they liberate you?

Sometimes we have personal metaphors that we think are liberating but end up being restrictive. Here's a personal story to show how:

When I was young and on a relatively low rung on my career ladder, I was completing a questionnaire where one of the questions had to do with what my long-term potential goals were. I was working in a civil service job at an Air Force Base. I knew what the top grade for civilians was at that base. So being young and feeling like I should "reach for the stars," I answered the question by answering that my goal was to reach the grade GS-14. Feeling very proud of myself for being so bold, I handed my supervisor the questionnaire with my answers and waited for him to read what I'd written. I was dumbfounded when he asked me why I had restricted myself to only a GS-14. When I recovered to where I could speak, I told him that I'd put down the highest grade there was. He smiled and told me that there were much higher grades and that a Gs-14 just happened to be the highest grade at that base.

You see, my personal metaphor at that time, "to reach for the stars," looked like it was very expansive and liberating EXCEPT that my perspective was very limited.

Kabbalistic descriptions of creation, reality, and life often use metaphor. It's interesting and helpful to look at teachings from the Kabbalah to see how the metaphors relate to us and our own metaphors.

Tzimtzum
In the Kabbalistic creation story, there was nothing except Ayn Sof -- Nothing(ness) until Ayn Sof pulled back and created a vacant space within Itself for Other -- for creation to take place.

How do we pull back and make room within ourselves for others? Making room for others doesn't have to be only other people. Maybe we need to make room within ourselves for parts of ourselves that we've denied, parts that we don't like, or even parts that we never knew existed because of our limited view of ourselves. Making room is about making space within ourselves for "what is." How good are we at making space for others to be who they are -- to be where they are?

(to be continued)