Spirits of the Urban Sacred

Here's an audio version of the written information below, if you prefer to listen to it. As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice. And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.

Here's an audio version of the written information below, if you prefer to listen to it. As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice. And, please remember never to listen to recorded meditations when driving or using machinery.

Here's an audio version of the written information below, if you prefer to listen to it. As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice. And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.

Here's an audio version of the written information below, if you prefer to listen to it. As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice. And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.

Here's an audio version of the written information above, if you prefer to listen to it. As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice. And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.

Here's an audio version of the written information above, if you prefer to listen to it. As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice. And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.

Every living being constantly radiates its essence, its “energy signature” into the environment in every moment.  And, we are no exception.  The frequencies with which we resonate as a matter of course determine the quality of energy we radiate into the environment, and this week’s exploration invites you to pay attention to what you send out to the world, as well as to the frequencies with which you generally resonate.  The frequencies, qualities, and intentions with which you resonate not only shape your experience, they also align you with subtle beings, some of whom are collaborators, who resonate with those same frequencies.

David Spangler talks about how responsive the subtle realms are to our intentions, so it’s also helpful to remember that your state of mind, where you place your attention, what you choose as your focus of thoughts and feelings not only affect the physical world around you but also shape the subtle energies and realms you encounter along the way.

Notice what arises in your experience when you choose to radiate love, compassion, kindness, or other heart-centered energies into your environment, or what you experience when you resonate with sacred images or sounds.  Explore the "tone of you" when you orient to different qualities of being, qualities that you then radiate into your environment.

How you move through the world and your daily experience matters.  In every moment, our collective being, our interbeing, as Thich Nhat Hanh would say, is touched and affected by all of us.  This doesn’t mean to become concerned about what you contribute simply by being you.  Instead, it’s an opportunity to become more mindful of where you focus your attention and, then, what you radiate into your environment as a result of that focus.

Another part of this exploration is to continue to be even more aware of the energies you encounter along the way as you interact with other people, other life forms, other places, as everything radiates its essence into the environment and into our collective consciousness.

When you’ve had a chance to work with this week’s Exploration, please post your experiences so that we can all begin to share the process of discovering what enhances our sense of the sacred in our everyday lives.

Here's an audio version of the written information below, if you prefer to listen to it.
As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice.
And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.

Every space you enter has its own, unique “spirit” or quality and a powerful way to enrich your experience of the sacred in urban settings (or anywhere, for that matter) is to develop your ability to attune to the spirit of a place.  For this week’s exploration, I invite you to focus on your felt-sense of the spaces and places around you.

There are a couple reasons to develop this practice, if you haven’t already.  First, being able to sense the spirit of a place increases your awareness of the “ocean” of energies and qualities that you swim in as you move through your daily life.  Being able to sense the qualities around you allows you to have a deeper sense of whether you want to stay or move on.   It also offers a way to have a more enlivened relationship with the subtle energies around you.

For this exploration, it’s possible to use many of the “languages of interpretation” that we have available to perceive subtle realities.  You might have impressions that come as images, sounds, flickering sensations in your body, words—in any way that allows you to perceive what your body-mind senses about the spirit, the energies, the qualities of a place.

Most of us have had many experiences of entering a space or place and immediately feeling comfortable or immediately feeling uncomfortable.  Taking the time to attune to the energies you’ve just entered offers an opportunity to deepen your awareness.  And, as always, deepened awareness allows for more choice.  Even if you can’t leave a space that makes you uncomfortable, you may have ways to “shield” yourself by focusing on your internal center of gravity, your inherent groundedness, or on the ways you center yourself when you are unsettled or uncomfortable.

When you discover that you feel increasingly comfortable in a space or place, being aware of this offers an opportunity to deepen your relationship with the spirit, the energy, of the place.  An enhanced sense of belonging, of connection, is a powerful way to nourish a sense of well-being, even in busy urban contexts.

When you’ve had a chance to work with this week’s Exploration, please post your experiences so that we can all begin to share the process of discovering what enhances our sense of the sacred in our everyday lives.

Here's an audio version of the written information above, if you prefer to listen to it.
As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice.
And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.

Over a number of years now, I’ve engaged in practices that help to develop a more heart-centered awareness, a shift from always being in the head/mental brain to the perception and intelligence that lives in the heart.  For this week’s exploration, I invite you to play with these two “brains” and to notice the quality of your experience when you focus your awareness in your heart brain rather than your head brain.

One of the shifts many people notice when they perceive from their heart is a more distinct experience of connection with the world around them.  For this exploration, notice what happens when you encounter, say, a tree, and perceive it not only through your thoughts about it but also from the perspective of your heart space.  In addition, as you encounter the gadgets and “things” that are part of your daily activities, notice how it is to relate to them from your heart awareness, even as you also engage them mentally.  Also, as you move among people throughout your day, in whatever ways that arise for you, notice what it’s like to meet them, or perceive them, with your heart awareness.  Notice if you feel more related to your world when you experience it through your heart.

One way to support a more heart-centered perception is to take a moment at the beginning of the day to breathe in and out through your heart.  You can find practices around this through the HeartMath organization and in other heart-centered options such as Tonglen, which is found in Buddhist practice.

As we touch into in all these Explorations, this is another opportunity to enrich your experience of a larger reality even as you may live in a busy, noisy, and highly populated urban setting.

When you’ve had a chance to work with this week’s Exploration, please post your experiences so that we can all begin to share the process of discovering what enhances our sense of the sacred in our everyday lives.

Here's an audio version of the written information above, if you prefer to listen to it.
As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice.
And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.

David Spangler has an exercise that I really like and I’d like to share my adaptation of it for you to explore over the next week.  It involves transmitting the essence and energy of love to everything around you.  Remember that most of these explorations arise from the assumption that everything we encounter is alive and conscious, in the sense that all are expressions of the One Life that is all that is.  Saying that everything is conscious doesn’t mean everything experiences and expresses the same kind of consciousness.  Different frequencies and different qualities of essence no doubt generate different kinds of consciousness.  The underlying assumption, however, is that there is One Consciousness and that we are all participants in that One.

For this week’s exploration, I invite you to imagine that you are filled up with universal love, an energy and essence that is constantly flowing into and through you and is infinite in its availability.  As you approach, say, your favorite chair, imagine that the love energy can flow through you and out your fingertips into your chair.  As the energy of love flows from you to your chair, imagine that it fills your chair with the living essence of love and that the chair receives, and is enhanced by, the love you offer to it.

Imagine how it would be if you were to offer love to whatever you encounter in your environment, recalling not only that it has an effect on everything you touch, but also noticing what effect it has on you as you engage this practice.

When you’ve had a chance to play with this a bit, please share your experiences and questions below.  As a community, we can offer one another support in bringing alive, enriching, and deepening our experiences of engaging the Spirits of the Urban Sacred.

Here's an audio version of the written information above, if you prefer to listen to it.
As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice.
And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.

I spend a lot of time on computers and have found that my relationship with them is a dynamic and active one. It took me quite a while to recognize that my computers—both at home and at the office—are true collaborative companions along the way. For example, it dawned on me one day that something other than my conscious awareness was guiding me to resources on the computer. Between my own website’s Weekly Practices postings, the Daily Inspiration postings on the Devadana Sanctuary side of the portal, and other activities that require inspiring input, I realized that I was being guided to sources of materials that I didn’t know existed. This usually happens as I follow certain things that pop up on my computer, either through Facebook or in odd ways I can’t quite explain.

For this week’s exploration of Spirits of the Urban Sacred, I invite you to notice how it is for you when you interact more actively with your gadgets—your computer, smart phone, iPad, or other gadgets that link you to the web—as if they are active collaborators with your intentions. For example, if you need to find something and you’re not sure where to start, ask your gadget for help and then don’t think about your request—just go forward with what you need to do. Later, notice how you eventually got to where you needed to be and play with the possibility that your gadget helped you to find what you needed.

One of the elements of having a more conscious relationship with your gadgets is to remember to greet and thank them, saying “hello” when you encounter them for the first time in the day and then thanking them when you sign off or put them away when it’s time to either go to bed or move on to other non-gadget activities.

With all of these Explorations, one of the elements to include in your awareness is your felt-sense of the process of engaging your gadgets in this way. What happens in your body when you consciously connect with your gadget as a living presence? What thoughts or feelings do you have when you play with opening up to receiving impressions from your gadgets? If you notice doubts, mixed feelings, or tension, bring curiosity to your response and get to know it without intensifying it by adding anything else.

Many of us run into doubt or conflict when we open ourselves to a larger reality, so you may find that it’s part of the process to notice mixed feelings and then allow them to move on through as you return to your intention to more consciously collaborate with, and relate to, your gadgets.

A note here on working with subtle awareness. It’s important allow yourself to be open to fleeting and vague impressions without pushing them away or having to immediately understand them. Over time, if you don’t have one already, you’ll develop your own “vocabulary” of impressions, your own way of translating subtle awareness into a kind of communication you can understand. You may do this differently from anyone else and that’s fine. It’s your own internal language and will develop over time as you explore what comes into your awareness and the outcomes that follow.

When you’ve had a chance to play with this a bit, please share your experiences and questions below. As a community, we can offer one another support in bringing alive, enriching, and deepening our experiences of engaging the Spirits of the Urban Sacred.

Here's an audio version of the written information above, if you prefer to listen to it.
As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the information.
And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.