The pain-body

Tonight's class on A New Earth with author Eckhart Tolle and Oprah was soul food once again. This week we were introduced to what Tolle calls the pain-body, defined as the "energy field of old but still very-much-alive emotion that lives in almost every human being."

A searing passage:

Any emotionally painful experience can be used as food by the pain-body. That's why it thrives on negative thinking as well as drama in relationships. The pain-body is an addiction to unhappiness.

We left class with the thought tonight that a good first step is to be aware of our pain-body and that of our loved ones when it emerges.

Step one.

A dose of Marianne

I have been happily toiling at writing a Game Plan column for FOXBusiness.com this evening and as part of my research I went on Marianne Williamson's website. It was a joyful reminder of her famous quote once used in a speech by Nelson Mandela and it bears repeating here:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
--from A Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson

Be still

Spent the afternoon at a meditation workshop and enjoyed it immensely. Sometimes I need my stillness imposed.

The big switch

My long-standing dental appointment for a check-up and cleaning is tomorrow. Was scheduled six months ago and was to be at 4 p.m. Yesterday, the publicist for a celebrity I've been wanting to interview asks if I can do it at the exact time of the dental appointment. I say no, I'm busy at that time but can do any other. The celebrity is trying to do this on her lunch, which on West Coast time is 1 p.m., my dead zone.

Yikes. I don't want to move the dental appointment because I already confirmed and it's irresponsible to cancel at the last minute. But I'm excited about the possibility of the interview.

Lo and behold, this morning the dental office calls and asks sheepishly if by any chance I can switch to 11:15 a.m. tomorrow. I smiled so wide she could probably hear it through the phone. I subsequently emailed the publicist and, presto, our interview is in the book for tomorrow.

I tell this to one of my clients today and she says, "Your universe is working."

Yes, indeed.

Silence is golden

I'm fascinated by my choice of verses in Wayne Dyer's book today. I like to scan the table of contents and pick the Tao Te Ching verse that speaks to me at that moment. Today it was verse 56, or as Dyer calls it, "Living by Silent Knowing":

http://www.taoteching.org/chapters/56.htm

Dyer sums up the verse this way: Those who care the least about approval seem to receive it the most.

This jumps out at me at a time when I am contemplating my professional growth. The verse is tied to the stillness, more like silence, that I have recently found to be valuable at regular intervals in my life.

I like it.

Ambition and Now

What spoke to me most in tonight's A New Earth webinar with Oprah and author Eckhart Tolle was the talk of where passion and ambition fit into living in the Now. Sometimes it feels as if those things disappear when we strive to be fully present in our lives.

Tolle explained that passion is ultimately greater if you focus on the Now. Baby steps. Not getting caught up in the result.

Yes.

Eerie funny

On the way back from three days with my parents, I'm reading A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (actually rereading and highlighting passages for class tomorrow) on the train and see this:

"If you think you are so enlightened," Ram Dass said, "go and spend a week with your parents." That is good advice. The relationship with your parents is not only the primordial relationship that sets the tone for all subsequent relationships, it is also a good test for your degree of Presence. The more shared past there is in a relationship, the more present you need to be; otherwise, you will be forced to relive the past again and again.

Yes.

Big lesson

Every single time I use Morning Pages or practice stillness or rise to the occasion when big tests come my way, things start to happen. Cool things. Things I couldn't have imagined. Things I've always imagined.

The lesson?

Keep doing Morning Pages. Practice stillness. Rise to the occasion when life tests me.

It's a way of being.

Special invite

Today's Ask and It Is Given card:

Nothing Happens Without My Having Invited It

When you understand the Law of Attraction, you are never surprised by what occurs in your experience, for you understand that -- through your own thought process -- you have invited every bit of it in. Nothing can occur in your life experience without your invitation of it through your thought.

Allow me to reiterate

I have not been feeling aligned with The Universal Flow the last few days. It's odd for me to feel off kilter to the point where I don't want to write about it.

Today after I filled in my Chapter 3 workbook for A New Earth (class tomorrow night), I was moved to go to the message boards and read the thoughts of others. Something funny happened on a thread titled, "Lost Ambition." It was about the feeling of how living in a way that allows us to breathe and be still and create space to let things happen can also mean letting go of what we always knew as ambition. That's tough for those of us who are driven and like control.

Someone on the board quoted from the book in response to a few of the posts. And, magically it seemed, it was a quote I had already noted on this blog (February 29) and needed desperately to be reminded of:

If uncertainty is unacceptable to you, it turns into fear. If it is perfectly acceptable, it turns into increased aliveness, alertness, creativity.

It know to the core of my being this is THE key for me to be fully present in my life.

Exotic vocabulary

Today one of my clients introduced me to a wonderful new word -- Mudita. Here's what the invaluable Wikipedia has to say about it:

Mudita is a Buddhist (Pali and Sanskrit) word meaning rejoicing in others' good fortune ... The term mudita is usually translated as "sympathetic" or "altruistic" joy, the pleasure that comes from delighting in other people's well-being rather than begrudging it. Many Buddhist teachers interpret mudita more broadly as referring to an inner spring of infinite joy that is available to everyone at all times, regardless of circumstances. The more deeply one drinks of this spring, the more secure one becomes in one's own abundant happiness, and the easier it then becomes to relish the joy of other people as well.

This, I believe, is why life coaching is so satisfying. Mudita.

Breath

Score! The Oprah and Eckhart Tolle live feed worked tonight and it was wonderful to partake in such a universal event. There were students asking questions from Ireland, Hawaii, China and Canada, just to name a few.

One moment that resonated with me came at the very beginning when Tolle called on us to be silent and feel our breath. It was just 10 seconds, but it felt longer -- in a good way. I had just started to learn this last month when I began taking a weekly Buddhist meditation class. Our instructor goes through the entire body, but brings it back to our breathing.

In the spirit of The Universal Flow, I'm getting this lesson from two overlapping sources. I think that means I'm supposed to pay attention.

So noted.

Quotable

From A New Earth:

Ego-identification with things creates attachment to things, obsession with things, which in turn creates our consumer society and economic structures where the only measure of progress is always more.

A good read

Had some fun after a coaching session this evening. My client brought her tarot cards and did a spot reading for me. A lot was said, but here's what stood out:

-- You have to have the courage to face the future even if you don't know the outcome in advance, even if your back isn't covered.

-- Resolving obsessive fears is your daily task.

-- Make sure you design every success and that each success has your signature.

Amazing. Dead on. Truth.

Makeup class

Watched the whole class on A New Earth today! After last night's glitch, I couldn't see the live version so I checked out the recorded version today. I enjoyed the experience and the interaction between Oprah and author Eckhart Tolle was terrific.

I came away with so much, but these two words from Tolle made a particularly strong impression:

Resist nothing.

Glitch (or not)

I was all set, hooked into Oprah's worldwide class on A New Earth. My video feed was great. Oprah and author Eckhart Tolle were having a conversation. Suddenly, stops and starts. Then, nothing.

I'm not sure what happened. What I do know is there's a way to play it from her website tomorrow.

In the meantime, the gems from the small portion I actually saw, all courtesy of Tolle:

-- (paraphrasing) So often we ask, "What do I want from life?" How about, "What does life want from me?"

-- (talking about his process) "Every day there was a space for writing ... I always honored that space."

-- "The book was inspired and not channeled."

-- "Find spaces of stillness."

Perhaps, this night, these were the only nuggets I was meant to take in. After all, tackling "What does life want from me?" is quite an undertaking.

Yes.

The nose knows

I just had the nose bleed from hell. Stopped it by pinching my nose, finally.

Now I know its physical cause is dryness in my nasal passages and all that jazz. But sometimes I like to see what the metaphysical cause is and here's what I found:

Nose problems are generally about self recognition. Nose bleeds particularly are about crying out for love and recognition. Yikes! A stuffy nose, incidentally, is about not recognizing your own self worth.

Do I really want to admit any of this is possible or true?

I think I already have.

Cocoon

Very thoughtfully filled out my chapter 1 workbook for A New Earth, since the course starts Monday night. Pulled my favorite quotes. It feels great.

Probably a little extra satisfying because there is loud, raucous activity outside my window today in the form of Hoboken's St. Patrick's Day parade.

I've created a cocoon. Bravo.