WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.360 --> 00:00:11.309 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: This is Sunday, January seventh, and we're together in our extra practices and questions and discussion session for our goddess. Breath wheel. 2 00:00:14.770 --> 00:00:22.830 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: So let's take a couple of conscious breaths tuning into our own bodies our own 3 00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:33.580 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: spirit, our own sources of guidance, and also including in this attunement 4 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:44.519 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the co-creation that we're doing with each other, and the and the energetic bonds of love and breath that we built with one another in this larger container. 5 00:00:45.980 --> 00:00:47.710 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Knowing, master. 6 00:00:48.080 --> 00:00:51.630 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: we're tapping back into that place 7 00:00:52.480 --> 00:00:57.619 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: that is much deeper than the surface appearance of things. 8 00:01:48.090 --> 00:01:49.180 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: It's 9 00:01:49.590 --> 00:01:54.799 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: vocalize the invocation in this space and then take it into the breath 10 00:01:55.400 --> 00:01:58.059 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: with the garment of light, drawing it up 11 00:01:59.500 --> 00:02:08.440 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: us the first half of the phrase, and completely permeating our physical body, our emotions, and our minds, with that essence of 12 00:02:09.320 --> 00:02:11.880 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: at presence that's behind these words. 13 00:02:13.910 --> 00:02:16.299 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: you are the one 14 00:02:16.690 --> 00:02:19.120 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the perfection loves 15 00:02:19.480 --> 00:02:20.630 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: harmony 16 00:02:20.910 --> 00:02:22.000 and puree. 17 00:02:22.750 --> 00:02:30.409 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the only being united with all the illuminated souls 18 00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:33.830 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: who form the embodiment. 19 00:02:35.030 --> 00:02:41.240 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the message and the messengers. the spirit of guidance. 20 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:10.060 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Yeah. 21 00:04:10.660 --> 00:04:13.080 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: yeah. Some. 22 00:04:15.100 --> 00:04:17.440 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Yeah. Hud. 23 00:04:18.570 --> 00:04:21.079 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: yeah, some. 24 00:04:22.380 --> 00:04:24.429 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Yeah. 25 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:28.240 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: yeah, some. 26 00:04:29.530 --> 00:04:31.460 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Yeah. 27 00:04:32.940 --> 00:04:35.420 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Yeah. Some. 28 00:04:36.530 --> 00:04:46.210 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Yeah. yeah, some. Yeah. 29 00:04:47.190 --> 00:04:49.790 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Yeah. So 30 00:04:50.930 --> 00:04:51.780 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: yeah. 31 00:04:54.660 --> 00:04:55.980 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: yeah. 32 00:04:56.090 --> 00:04:57.580 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Summer. 33 00:05:02.210 --> 00:05:07.589 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Taking it into the swing of the breathing, inhaling 34 00:05:08.450 --> 00:05:13.690 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: toward the one ever becoming one. 35 00:07:04.150 --> 00:07:08.479 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Even a few more breaths of just gentle 36 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:12.220 awareness. 37 00:07:13.260 --> 00:07:15.159 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: feeling the breath 38 00:07:17.140 --> 00:07:18.240 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: just 39 00:07:19.540 --> 00:07:20.500 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: noticing. 40 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:35.280 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: I'll be 41 00:09:12.790 --> 00:09:14.979 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: so. How's the practice going? 42 00:09:17.870 --> 00:09:22.450 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Comments, observations about the toss of immersion practice, were 43 00:09:23.580 --> 00:09:24.929 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: anything else. Actually. 44 00:09:37.730 --> 00:09:39.339 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: yes, please, Nancy. 45 00:09:40.030 --> 00:09:41.450 Nancy: I was 46 00:09:42.020 --> 00:09:57.660 Nancy: at a a different group. A non duality conversation group, and we do a short meditation. And the person was actually guiding the meditation, you know, with the breath and stuff. And so 47 00:09:57.720 --> 00:10:19.190 Nancy: I have to confess I was like absolutely astounded that during that meditation Sufi Sam Pops in and just was there, and like twinkling and so you know, not even trying, but in a state of meditation he he came, and 48 00:10:19.470 --> 00:10:28.730 Nancy: and another person beside me also as a long term meditator, and felt he was there. So I was like, Wow, so 49 00:10:28.740 --> 00:10:31.499 Nancy: but you know, just it really did surprise me. 50 00:10:31.650 --> 00:10:37.219 Nancy: That wonderful thank you. I felt this presence were not felt. I mean definitely 51 00:10:38.420 --> 00:10:43.800 Nancy: was with this twinkling, delightful being in 52 00:10:44.070 --> 00:10:47.900 Nancy: in a situation where I wasn't trying at all awesome 53 00:10:48.880 --> 00:10:51.650 Nancy: nice. 54 00:11:18.700 --> 00:11:25.500 Leslie Roche: I remembered to do the breathing yesterday when I was feeling really tired. 55 00:11:25.560 --> 00:11:32.500 Leslie Roche: I'd been at a tutoring session from for 3 h, and then I was taking my phone into Apple 56 00:11:33.650 --> 00:11:35.479 Leslie Roche: for the second time. 57 00:11:35.660 --> 00:11:41.849 Leslie Roche: because they they couldn't do it, and then they? I had to come back through a genius bar 58 00:11:42.210 --> 00:11:44.680 Leslie Roche: appointment and 59 00:11:44.920 --> 00:11:49.879 Leslie Roche: and I did the breathing practices. And afterwards, as I was walking. 60 00:11:50.160 --> 00:12:00.510 Leslie Roche: and I started feeling sort of equanimity, like I was just doing. It didn't matter if the phone got fixed or didn't get fixed. 61 00:12:00.790 --> 00:12:04.170 Leslie Roche: When I got in there I just noticed 62 00:12:04.190 --> 00:12:08.749 Leslie Roche: how wonderful the people were that worked there. you know a number of them. 63 00:12:08.830 --> 00:12:22.720 Leslie Roche: and how they keep trying things without getting frustrated. I get frustrated kind of easily with it, sure. And the person that helped me the genius part that there was nothing wrong with my phone, which they still is. But anyway. 64 00:12:22.730 --> 00:12:28.760 Leslie Roche: the 2 was wonderful, too. and I went away just feeling so much 65 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:32.830 Leslie Roche: and a wiser or something 66 00:12:32.970 --> 00:12:47.299 Leslie Roche: from from these ordinary people who are just doing their jobs really well. I really, my goodness in my life I could be less frustrated and just be looking for solutions like they were, and saying. 67 00:12:47.430 --> 00:12:49.139 Leslie Roche: com. That was very nice. 68 00:12:49.490 --> 00:12:51.609 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: How wonderful! Thank you. 69 00:12:54.830 --> 00:12:59.070 Leslie Roche: What's that possibility or ordinary people? 70 00:12:59.210 --> 00:13:00.310 Leslie Roche: Yeah. 71 00:13:00.670 --> 00:13:04.630 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And the deeper teaching is that because 72 00:13:05.230 --> 00:13:10.659 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: everything is made out of this awareness that we're referring to by god or goddess. 73 00:13:11.830 --> 00:13:13.920 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: The possibility is everywhere. 74 00:13:15.660 --> 00:13:19.090 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and our own 75 00:13:20.430 --> 00:13:26.259 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: set of beliefs and concepts of accumulated experience and whatnot 76 00:13:26.340 --> 00:13:40.259 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: shapes. How we experience reality. And as we're working in this deep way. working to to open up more and more sensitivity towards our deeper nature. 77 00:13:41.530 --> 00:13:45.749 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: we begin to interact with the outer world in different ways. 78 00:13:48.520 --> 00:13:52.769 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And what was it that statement from from Murci's Commentary? 79 00:13:52.800 --> 00:13:57.879 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: I think it was in the first lesson. Meditation is an attunement 80 00:13:57.950 --> 00:13:59.169 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: with God 81 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:05.070 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: above all else. First and foremost, I can't remember the exact words that's human with God. 82 00:14:05.300 --> 00:14:12.039 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And a little later on, how is that achievement accomplished by raising the pitch of the heart. 83 00:14:13.110 --> 00:14:22.440 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: So all of the different things we do that raise the pitch of our heart, raising our vibration as well as learning to become more sensitive. 84 00:14:22.990 --> 00:14:28.339 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: We're beginning to see what's hidden behind the curtain of ordinary life. 85 00:14:30.450 --> 00:14:31.470 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and 86 00:14:32.360 --> 00:14:36.789 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: it's pretty amazing when we start to see through the veil like that. 87 00:14:43.890 --> 00:14:45.730 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Hooray! 88 00:14:48.230 --> 00:14:49.950 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Well done 89 00:15:05.310 --> 00:15:06.410 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: pleasing! 90 00:15:09.060 --> 00:15:10.910 Andy Cheffings: I would sort of say where 91 00:15:11.010 --> 00:15:16.940 Andy Cheffings: my practices at the moment. It's been a bit all over the place. I'm not being hugely well, but 92 00:15:17.330 --> 00:15:44.519 Andy Cheffings: still got the breath in there. So that's good. Well, I've been noticing over quite a period of time. Which is quite I don't know just just what's going on, and I'm just not thinking about it that much. It just letting it be is making all sort of connections with people I've known in the past, but don't know anymore, which has been quite interesting, and it seems to go that I'll there'll be a particular person who sort of 93 00:15:44.820 --> 00:16:06.449 Andy Cheffings: comes into my awareness, and quite a strong way, and that might last for maybe a couple of weeks or something, and then it's sort of gone. And that's it. So that's interesting. I've not. No, don't got any particular feeling of connection there and then, but then someone else will emerge. So it's almost like I'm sort of processing the past in slow motion. It's quite strange. 94 00:16:06.760 --> 00:16:14.410 Andy Cheffings: and I think there's been a say, how can I work this out? But the hint in some of the practices about the sending sort of connecting with them. 95 00:16:14.940 --> 00:16:17.649 Andy Cheffings: and the illuminated being, and then sort of sending out 96 00:16:17.700 --> 00:16:26.069 Andy Cheffings: energy as well. And so I've been sort of doing that, whoever I've been have that sort of feeling of connection with. 97 00:16:26.110 --> 00:16:34.360 Andy Cheffings: and sometimes it's been a very powerful feeling of connection that sort of almost more powerful than if someone was actually there. So it's been quite 98 00:16:34.430 --> 00:16:40.239 Andy Cheffings: unusual. But yes. sort of where I'm at at the moment. 99 00:16:41.570 --> 00:16:42.920 Andy Cheffings: Thank you. 100 00:16:43.100 --> 00:16:43.920 Thank you. 101 00:16:45.630 --> 00:16:50.330 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: One of the things that that I know from my inexperience that begins to happen as 102 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:54.780 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: we continue with these practices, that 103 00:16:56.840 --> 00:17:04.819 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: purification, the purification practices, they're clearing practices and releasing practices that are just basically 104 00:17:08.300 --> 00:17:13.399 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: moving impressions that are blocking things out of the way. 105 00:17:13.770 --> 00:17:21.779 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: releasing and and just that whole realm of clarifying and bringing more spaciousness in 106 00:17:22.069 --> 00:17:26.490 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: it creates the space for other impressions to arise. 107 00:17:27.319 --> 00:17:37.339 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And you know, depending on what was associated experientially with that person or that experience. 108 00:17:37.560 --> 00:17:45.790 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: it may be positive it may be, feel negative. It may have have an emotional tone. It may not, it may be, neutral, but 109 00:17:45.910 --> 00:17:58.139 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: they arise. And One of the ways to work with that is to take a look at. Oh, okay, there's an impression. Do I want to keep it? Do I want to engage with it? Or do I just want to let it pass through. 110 00:17:58.570 --> 00:18:04.550 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and then, emphasizing the exhalation slightly with that, can just let it go one by 111 00:18:04.870 --> 00:18:13.199 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And part of this process, with working with the God ideal is, is beginning to 112 00:18:13.310 --> 00:18:17.410 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: to bring in to active 113 00:18:18.420 --> 00:18:21.390 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: presence supported awareness. 114 00:18:21.880 --> 00:18:24.099 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: What ideas, what beliefs. 115 00:18:24.330 --> 00:18:30.210 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: what concepts we're still carrying from. However, we grown up. However, we grew up 116 00:18:30.900 --> 00:18:32.810 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: about this 117 00:18:34.460 --> 00:18:38.990 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: thing, that the word God points towards this experience, this being 118 00:18:39.770 --> 00:18:40.770 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: because 119 00:18:41.550 --> 00:18:50.920 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: a lot of them may be not useful any longer. and the more of the unuseful impressions we can clear and just release. 120 00:18:51.250 --> 00:18:58.380 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the lighter we become, the more spacious we become. and the more able we are to 121 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:05.460 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: interact more freely, engage more freely with what it is we're deciding to interact and engage with. 122 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:17.029 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And it's definitely a long process. There's no doubt about that. There are sudden enlightenment experiences, but there's also sort of the long haul 123 00:19:17.410 --> 00:19:28.960 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: that's one of the things the divine name Almatine refers to as that. keeping on keeping on but steadfast progress. 124 00:19:29.250 --> 00:19:40.029 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: even when even steadfastness in our forgetting and remembering again. You know, there's no judgment there. It's just yeah. We got the momentum going, and we're gonna keep on going, and 125 00:19:40.300 --> 00:19:45.319 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: when we feel down it becomes heavy, even feel like we're trudging endlessly somewhere. 126 00:19:45.550 --> 00:19:49.410 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and then, like less. I shared, you know. 127 00:19:49.690 --> 00:19:53.770 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Do the bread practice? And all of a sudden I'm in a different state. And wow! 128 00:19:53.910 --> 00:19:56.860 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Look at all these helpful, friendly people. How about that? 129 00:19:57.310 --> 00:19:58.480 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: So 130 00:19:59.700 --> 00:20:07.200 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the Nikon comes back to this again and again. moment by moment, choice by choice, we're creating our own reality. 131 00:20:08.820 --> 00:20:10.670 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And as we realise 132 00:20:11.660 --> 00:20:15.089 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: it's subtle, but it's really powerful, and once we 133 00:20:15.150 --> 00:20:17.970 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: get into that more subtle place. 134 00:20:18.170 --> 00:20:25.379 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: we have more choice, more options than we had previously. When we were a little denser, a little heavier, a little more opaque 135 00:20:27.600 --> 00:20:34.890 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: for these experiences, and I think it's important not to assign too much importance to them. 136 00:20:36.450 --> 00:20:39.939 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: It's like, Oh. wow! How about that? 137 00:20:41.610 --> 00:20:44.089 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: But not like, oh. 138 00:20:44.810 --> 00:20:47.619 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: it's happened the one 139 00:20:47.860 --> 00:20:50.570 So 140 00:20:51.850 --> 00:20:52.560 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: wow! 141 00:20:58.210 --> 00:21:01.269 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And I think that's another way of describing equanimity. 142 00:21:03.650 --> 00:21:12.909 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: We're present with it. We're engaged with it. but we're not a signing negative or positive value to it. It's just sort of 143 00:21:14.410 --> 00:21:24.920 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: hopefully an enjoyment in the presence and hopefully a positive engagement with it, just as it is, and watching it in that rakhine way. 144 00:21:27.700 --> 00:21:32.199 Flower? Oh, I guess that person is having a really rotten day. 145 00:21:32.310 --> 00:21:34.620 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: but not taking it personally. 146 00:21:35.280 --> 00:21:36.700 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: That's hard sometimes. 147 00:21:38.500 --> 00:21:42.100 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: How much freedom there is in that spacious 148 00:21:43.400 --> 00:21:45.120 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: dimension 149 00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:49.910 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: of being in touch being with the breath, the flow of the breath. 150 00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:55.060 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Thank you. 151 00:22:00.770 --> 00:22:02.280 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: please. Slaughter. 152 00:22:04.130 --> 00:22:21.930 Lakshmi: So, as I admitted earlier, doing practices while having Covid kinda wiped out the month of December, and it was hard to do practices when we were traveling in New Zealand, too, because, you know, we're up and out, and we're up and out. And and the most important thing I did cause I was struggling with 153 00:22:21.930 --> 00:22:35.149 Lakshmi: making sure my body was functioning well, to hike and move around, and all was was exercises which II kind of see as a form of practice also cause there's a lot of breath that goes into that. But 154 00:22:35.400 --> 00:22:48.230 Lakshmi: that being said often at the, you know, start of a New Year. I like to follow the astrology, and I've got some astrologers that I listen to, and I got so depressed 155 00:22:48.730 --> 00:23:04.500 Lakshmi: I guess so depressed after hearing some of the things I was hearing. But I was just in this really down space, and I thought, you know the only way I'm going to get through this year is to go back to the practices. And so that kind of rousted me to be 156 00:23:04.550 --> 00:23:06.240 Lakshmi: more regular 157 00:23:06.340 --> 00:23:16.609 Lakshmi: and I really did feel a shift after more consistent daily practice over the last week. 158 00:23:17.220 --> 00:23:20.989 Lakshmi: And it's really helped me to kind of just reframe 159 00:23:21.310 --> 00:23:26.150 Lakshmi: the things I heard in the astrology reading, as you know. No. 160 00:23:26.260 --> 00:23:32.280 Lakshmi: you know the planets don't rule us. They they offer energies. 161 00:23:33.100 --> 00:23:39.940 Lakshmi: and it was also helpful to hear that you, who I admire very much, have Leo rising 162 00:23:40.480 --> 00:24:02.980 Lakshmi: because a certain former President also has Leo rising, and it's nice to know that Leo, rising doesn't always have to be like that. So so I II appreciate that that astrology came up today, cause it also helped me to just kind of really process 163 00:24:03.050 --> 00:24:16.520 Lakshmi: hearing about the things I heard in the various astrological forecast for the year. So II mean, I think these are going to be the important ways that we hang on 164 00:24:16.750 --> 00:24:32.950 Lakshmi: in the next 10 months. 12 months, 15 months is to really have a solid foundation of practice that we can fall back on, and sometimes for me it's middle of the night. I'll be doing a practice cause I can't sleep. 165 00:24:34.040 --> 00:24:36.740 Lakshmi: so practices are. 166 00:24:37.780 --> 00:24:41.210 Lakshmi: or the ground that keep us sane. 167 00:24:44.340 --> 00:24:46.110 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Thank you. Thank you. 168 00:24:48.600 --> 00:24:52.750 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And I think a part of it is. 169 00:24:55.100 --> 00:25:01.930 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And again, this is a process coming to greater and greater clarity about what different things work. 170 00:25:03.300 --> 00:25:06.789 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and then working to remember those things when 171 00:25:07.310 --> 00:25:10.600 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: we're in in Strasbold, or or or 172 00:25:11.730 --> 00:25:14.080 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: foggy, or whatever conditions. 173 00:25:14.320 --> 00:25:19.689 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: when we we're not quite able to find our center or feel like we're not on center 174 00:25:20.520 --> 00:25:23.270 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and 175 00:25:24.350 --> 00:25:29.689 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: one of them could be just what you were doing with with out and walking and breathing while walking. 176 00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:41.829 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and and granted we might not be able to enter as deep a state if we're doing a practice while walking. but it's certainly better than not doing it at all. 177 00:25:42.400 --> 00:25:46.750 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and my motto has been, more is better, and some is better than none. 178 00:25:50.200 --> 00:25:51.220 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Suggest 179 00:25:55.620 --> 00:25:59.789 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: just tuning in to what works and and doing it. 180 00:26:00.350 --> 00:26:03.469 I know there was a period of time when I had this 181 00:26:04.490 --> 00:26:10.640 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: kind of overview experience of my state as like a a plane 182 00:26:11.160 --> 00:26:15.759 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: that when I was in touch and when I was was doing really well it was horizontal. 183 00:26:16.460 --> 00:26:19.410 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and then over time it would begin to 184 00:26:19.880 --> 00:26:24.490 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: slide either to the left or the right or that way. 185 00:26:25.030 --> 00:26:31.300 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And II knew, okay, I need to do a little bit of inner work. I need to do a practice 186 00:26:31.380 --> 00:26:32.400 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: kind of 187 00:26:32.560 --> 00:26:37.809 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: get back on an even keel. I mean, we've got a lot of expressions in English about 188 00:26:38.120 --> 00:26:44.510 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: keeping our balance and and and being able to operate without being too far in one direction or the other. 189 00:26:45.820 --> 00:26:49.509 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: So I think, too, a part of it is just. 190 00:26:53.480 --> 00:26:59.850 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: We're growing a subtler and subtler self-awareness of our State. 191 00:27:01.240 --> 00:27:17.750 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and in in the terminology that Walia is is using it could be checking in with what's the condition of my breath at different places during the day, and if it's too fiery, or if it's too watery or too earthy, I know I can do some certain things 192 00:27:17.870 --> 00:27:20.449 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: to bring it back into more balance. 193 00:27:21.010 --> 00:27:32.010 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: But it could be from the astrological point of view, or it could be from from Chinese medicine point of view. I don't think the particular methodology is important as actually engaging with it 194 00:27:32.040 --> 00:27:34.219 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: in in a productive way. 195 00:27:35.110 --> 00:27:41.880 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: you're aware of the planetary walks, the astrological walks. 196 00:27:43.740 --> 00:27:50.220 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: My understanding of how it arose from hearing Welling Ali talk about it in the late seventies was that 197 00:27:51.360 --> 00:27:56.440 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: there was a group of his, his original students who were very much into astrology 198 00:27:57.270 --> 00:27:59.740 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and, excuse me. 199 00:28:00.080 --> 00:28:09.179 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: they would begin to freak out when Merck re-went retrograde. Oh, Mercury's red brigade! Nothing's gonna work right. I can't do this, I can't do that. 200 00:28:09.550 --> 00:28:17.850 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And that was the portal for Mercia to bring through a much more positive way to deal with it. 201 00:28:18.380 --> 00:28:22.290 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and the frame around. That was his statement. 202 00:28:23.110 --> 00:28:27.819 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: The breath is more powerful than the planetary rhythms. 203 00:28:28.730 --> 00:28:37.859 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and there's an adage, I don't know whether it comes from the astrology field, or whether it came from Sam that the planets impel, they don't compel. 204 00:28:39.490 --> 00:28:43.559 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: which is is Malachi. You said it with different words. 205 00:28:43.950 --> 00:28:47.950 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: There's energy, and there's different octapes 206 00:28:48.150 --> 00:28:54.950 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: of the various configurations of various energies, just like there's a shadow side in just about everything. 207 00:28:55.040 --> 00:29:02.429 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and it depends on where our its unit is whether we're able to work productively with it or not. 208 00:29:03.040 --> 00:29:18.990 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: I had the incredibly good fortune in the year year-and-a-half before I moved to Maui in 81, to be in a weekly astrological walks class with Walialli's first wife, Khadija. 209 00:29:19.240 --> 00:29:20.700 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: at the Mentor Garden. 210 00:29:20.870 --> 00:29:24.810 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: She also was one of Marcia's students. 211 00:29:25.060 --> 00:29:26.500 and they were about 212 00:29:26.510 --> 00:29:28.359 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: 8 or 9 of us. 213 00:29:28.970 --> 00:29:38.589 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and we first concentrated on the planets themselves. So we were really really good. And we knew what the sun, rhythm, and the sun, breath and the moon, rhythm and the moon breath. 214 00:29:38.750 --> 00:29:45.689 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and all of the different planetary rhythms. And then Khadija had us bring our astrological charts. 215 00:29:45.940 --> 00:29:51.410 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and one by one she would look at the chart and pick out 216 00:29:51.530 --> 00:29:59.910 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: what's the difficult aspect? I don't want to say negative. A challenging aspect in there, maybe a square, maybe an opposition. 217 00:30:00.730 --> 00:30:02.380 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and then 218 00:30:02.490 --> 00:30:18.110 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: she'd say, Okay, it is your chart. Stand in the middle of the room and okay, you and you walk that square around the person. So we'd stay in a a ninety-degree angle, walking the 2 planets that were in the square around the person. 219 00:30:18.730 --> 00:30:19.690 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and 220 00:30:20.390 --> 00:30:36.540 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: just almost everyone kind of went. Whoa! I know that feeling. Wow! This happens a lot. I don't know what to do with this, and she'd look at the chart and and figure out from the configuration what would be a balancing combination of planetary, or maybe one 221 00:30:36.760 --> 00:30:43.450 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: that could neutralize it or lessen its effect. And then she'd pick other people to walk that configuration around the person. 222 00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:48.410 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: So it was a really powerful way to get into 223 00:30:49.950 --> 00:30:53.280 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: being able to use that particular 224 00:30:53.440 --> 00:31:05.839 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: system really, productively rather than feeling. Oh, well, here's this configuration of this transit. There's nothing I can do. I might as well just stay home and pull the covers over my head. 225 00:31:06.150 --> 00:31:09.450 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: so 226 00:31:10.550 --> 00:31:14.179 yeah, III think the key is is to 227 00:31:21.330 --> 00:31:23.110 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: it's to get into the essence of it. 228 00:31:23.480 --> 00:31:29.410 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Figure out, okay, how's this work? And how can I make it work for me? How can I make it be productive 229 00:31:29.490 --> 00:31:31.580 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: rather than just being 230 00:31:31.750 --> 00:31:41.540 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: dragged around by it, or the image of the boat without a rudder, and then blown here and blown there by the vagaries of life as it comes. 231 00:31:42.280 --> 00:31:42.990 Oh. 232 00:31:47.670 --> 00:31:48.980 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Sam also 233 00:31:52.030 --> 00:31:55.450 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: used to say, the breath is more powerful than alcohol. 234 00:31:58.020 --> 00:32:00.969 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and he worked on a 235 00:32:01.710 --> 00:32:09.080 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: road crew that did planting along highways and the roads in San Francisco. 236 00:32:10.150 --> 00:32:13.729 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and they were rough and tumble guys 237 00:32:14.340 --> 00:32:16.119 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and heavy drinkers. 238 00:32:16.740 --> 00:32:21.649 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and Sam was able to drink em all over the table. He says, cause I wash my breath while I'm drinking. 239 00:32:24.140 --> 00:32:29.200 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and he talked about what we needed to have was dirty fingernails and a clean heart. 240 00:32:31.470 --> 00:32:36.510 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And one of the guys, one of the guys in the crew, the story goes choked with, and he says, Well, I've got half of that. 241 00:32:39.940 --> 00:32:45.500 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: but it's just. It's just more and more aspects where 242 00:32:46.010 --> 00:32:52.579 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: we can enter into a more productive engagement with whatever it is. 243 00:32:53.350 --> 00:32:58.779 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: through a deeper, deeper understanding of breath and the different ways we can work with our breath 244 00:33:00.850 --> 00:33:04.580 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: to engage, to ameliorate, to support to. 245 00:33:04.900 --> 00:33:13.700 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: I'm thinking, in Chinese medicine, acupuncture terms to tonify or to sedate the particular condition that may be out of balance. 246 00:33:23.410 --> 00:33:25.060 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Please, madam. 247 00:33:28.180 --> 00:33:42.119 Vadan Tereza: Oh, just just so you know I'm I'm doing the self care thing. I'm I'm sick today. So I'm taking some time to lie down. Sometimes. I did. I did write a little letter, partly because I didn't think I was gonna be here today. 248 00:33:42.290 --> 00:33:43.940 Vadan Tereza: But 249 00:33:45.260 --> 00:33:57.150 Vadan Tereza: I think. Well, one of the things I didn't mention in my in my letter was that I have a really strong affinity. Towards doing some of the 250 00:33:57.370 --> 00:33:59.979 Vadan Tereza: Tessa wuri murshid as a walk. 251 00:34:00.610 --> 00:34:25.040 Vadan Tereza: And actually, I find that it's really powerful. I don't. I don't think of it as being like let I mean, I think, what I tend to. II do tend to do this kind of particular thing, where I weave my practices into my walks, and so I will. I will sit for a while, and then I'll walk. But you know that that for me there's something 252 00:34:25.080 --> 00:34:26.780 really 253 00:34:26.940 --> 00:34:34.190 Vadan Tereza: fully embodied about. You know that sort of combination. And also, you know, it's just part of it is just 254 00:34:34.330 --> 00:34:45.830 Vadan Tereza: having spent years hearing about teaching stories from from different teachers of mine and hearing about. Well, there's there's this really wonderful story that Pierre Valeaya tells 255 00:34:46.010 --> 00:34:58.200 Vadan Tereza: he was. He was in Hyderabad, and he was. He was sort of doing. He was doing the fun of he merchant with with hazard, and I had Kahn, and he was walking through the street. 256 00:34:58.530 --> 00:35:00.720 Vadan Tereza: and you know. 257 00:35:00.970 --> 00:35:23.169 Vadan Tereza: in the distance he sees this, he sees this other Indian gentleman doing the exact same walk. And and he just, you know, and he just has to say something to the guy, and it turns out that he was also a student of of mercy. Cons, but but yeah, I've just heard so many different 258 00:35:23.170 --> 00:35:46.030 Vadan Tereza: descriptions of of these walks, and also like having spent time with Wally Ali. I felt I felt like he I sometimes, you know, attuned to him when I'm doing these walks, because I feel like he was so that was such a gift of his to kind of really fully embody with his physicality some of these walks. And and so so yeah, so I 259 00:35:46.180 --> 00:36:10.520 Vadan Tereza: II love II wanted to highlight that that aspect, but I hope you all have a chance to read my little, my little letter. II wrote it because I cause I was supposed to spend the day with my mom before I got sick, that I wanted to be contributing to our to our discussion. And and like I said in my notes, I was, I'm so appreciative that you all are showing up this month because I have been traveling and 260 00:36:10.730 --> 00:36:12.740 Vadan Tereza: whatnot. So yeah. 261 00:36:13.280 --> 00:36:14.540 Vadan Tereza: thank you. 262 00:36:36.730 --> 00:36:37.830 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Placopa. 263 00:36:43.200 --> 00:36:47.949 Subhana: I and did not have a month with lots of 264 00:36:48.200 --> 00:36:51.150 Subhana: accomplishing the practices. 265 00:36:51.190 --> 00:36:53.200 Subhana: I'm actually feeling kind of 266 00:36:53.790 --> 00:36:56.609 Subhana: overwhelmed with different 267 00:36:57.880 --> 00:37:00.789 Subhana: different kinds of practices. 268 00:37:00.880 --> 00:37:09.940 Subhana: Back in March I had a acute insufficiency fracture of my sacrum. and I don't think that I realized how 269 00:37:10.770 --> 00:37:14.319 Subhana: how poorly I had healed from it. 270 00:37:14.610 --> 00:37:15.580 Subhana: So 271 00:37:16.270 --> 00:37:21.429 Subhana: it's been painful to walk. and and I just kind of 272 00:37:23.640 --> 00:37:27.440 Subhana: was allowing it. And I've started trying to do. 273 00:37:27.900 --> 00:37:35.020 Subhana: I ideally own class on the Soaz, because I realized that was what had gotten really tight. 274 00:37:35.130 --> 00:37:37.929 Subhana: So I've I've been trying to do that 275 00:37:38.160 --> 00:37:46.199 Subhana: And II sometimes remember my breath while I'm holding the rather painful positions. 276 00:37:46.370 --> 00:37:51.460 Subhana: I did have one very brief experience. 277 00:37:51.900 --> 00:37:55.840 Subhana: of 278 00:37:58.230 --> 00:37:58.930 us 279 00:38:00.150 --> 00:38:06.439 Subhana: being able to walk almost normally after and about a week of doing the the Yoga stuff. 280 00:38:06.620 --> 00:38:15.760 Subhana: and and how how good it felt to be able to stand up straight and and not wince every time I took a step. 281 00:38:16.010 --> 00:38:18.530 Subhana: 282 00:38:18.660 --> 00:38:23.139 Subhana: So so hearing about the walks is kind of 283 00:38:24.070 --> 00:38:26.619 Subhana: something to aspire to again. 284 00:38:27.290 --> 00:38:29.830 Subhana: a 285 00:38:31.650 --> 00:38:41.130 Subhana: the other one that II really wanted to work more on was of the breathing into my heart, but I find so much of it is my focusing back down 286 00:38:41.430 --> 00:38:45.750 Subhana: into my moving center and trying to to be able to. 287 00:38:46.280 --> 00:38:51.160 Subhana: to, to get my breath, to go down into my belly and and to 288 00:38:51.400 --> 00:38:52.530 Subhana: allow 289 00:38:53.180 --> 00:38:59.239 Subhana: allow myself to feel there, so that I have a chance of working with it. 290 00:38:59.740 --> 00:39:05.299 Subhana: And and I miss the sense of breathing into and from my heart. 291 00:39:05.460 --> 00:39:07.269 Subhana: So 292 00:39:07.460 --> 00:39:11.840 Subhana: the the main place that I really notice 293 00:39:12.310 --> 00:39:18.610 Subhana: how the the practices are still working for me is when I'm doing Salat. 294 00:39:18.710 --> 00:39:27.660 Subhana: and I'm doing eclass. And so I've been doing the eclos 10 times a day. And so that's frequently during my salat and 295 00:39:29.270 --> 00:39:33.040 Subhana: I do belas lataif practice with it. And 296 00:39:34.030 --> 00:39:38.799 Subhana: so there is a position for each of the lines of a class. 297 00:39:38.980 --> 00:39:44.799 Subhana: and I found that I need to move them back in my body that I'm 298 00:39:44.860 --> 00:39:47.249 Subhana: part of the whole thing with the 299 00:39:48.670 --> 00:39:59.510 Subhana: getting over the insufficiency fracture, was II was really leaning forward a lot tight in my my thighs and so as. 300 00:39:59.570 --> 00:40:02.779 Subhana: and and and moving back. 301 00:40:03.210 --> 00:40:08.449 Subhana: I back into my body, and I'm doing that as I do a class each day. 302 00:40:08.630 --> 00:40:15.159 Subhana: and so so it really helps feeling the the back. 303 00:40:15.720 --> 00:40:19.479 Subhana: both sides and centre of my chest in particular. 304 00:40:19.830 --> 00:40:27.249 Subhana: I could certainly stand to do your rake more 305 00:40:29.010 --> 00:40:33.339 Subhana: because I am not good at remaining neutral with my impressions. 306 00:40:33.500 --> 00:40:38.690 Subhana: And astrologically, I'm sunk into Jupiter, too. 307 00:40:38.760 --> 00:40:40.899 Subhana: and I really appreciate that about you. 308 00:40:40.950 --> 00:40:47.579 Subhana: Mine's the Empisys. though I have a really strong Ares 309 00:40:48.780 --> 00:40:57.720 Subhana: aspect to my chart, and they would have to do 4 people walking around each other from my Cardinal Cross. 310 00:40:57.760 --> 00:41:00.170 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Excuse me. hmm. 311 00:41:00.760 --> 00:41:03.060 Subhana: I 312 00:41:03.510 --> 00:41:11.719 Subhana: and the only thing that I have on the Tasselbury merchant is again a salat thing 313 00:41:11.790 --> 00:41:18.309 Subhana: because I work with Rumi, and I remember how much time you spent in Sajda. 314 00:41:18.420 --> 00:41:21.430 Subhana: And so so I 315 00:41:21.480 --> 00:41:24.170 Subhana: sometimes am able to 316 00:41:25.220 --> 00:41:30.999 Subhana: to remember that while I'm in Sajda, and to to feel him there. 317 00:41:31.070 --> 00:41:37.930 Subhana: the other one. I haven't been doing that great with the tussle rate. Press it. So that's my report. 318 00:41:38.300 --> 00:41:42.940 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Thank you very much. And this is definitely a no judgment zone 319 00:41:43.470 --> 00:41:47.479 Nancy: could could you let me know, please, what Sasha is? 320 00:41:51.330 --> 00:41:52.750 Subhana: Wh, what? What is? 321 00:41:53.020 --> 00:42:04.089 Nancy: Oh, yes, kneeling with my forehead on the ground. 322 00:42:15.580 --> 00:42:18.679 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Yeah. And I keep coming back to 323 00:42:19.460 --> 00:42:21.010 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: learning what works 324 00:42:23.660 --> 00:42:29.199 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and and others that we may feel a bit drawn to, but they don't work as well. 325 00:42:29.640 --> 00:42:30.949 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Set em aside. 326 00:42:31.260 --> 00:42:34.879 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: maybe for a day, maybe for months, maybe longer. 327 00:42:35.160 --> 00:42:43.429 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: but again. not judging ourselves for not being able to conform to a particular regimen 328 00:42:49.020 --> 00:42:50.520 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: cause. I. 329 00:42:56.470 --> 00:43:02.089 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: My sense of this group, is that we all have a lot of experience 330 00:43:02.650 --> 00:43:03.490 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: with 331 00:43:05.500 --> 00:43:07.010 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: practice 332 00:43:07.320 --> 00:43:10.930 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and working to engage with presence and with depth. 333 00:43:11.540 --> 00:43:14.099 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: We also have a lot of variety in the ways 334 00:43:14.290 --> 00:43:15.470 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: we've done that. 335 00:43:16.300 --> 00:43:17.740 So it's not. 336 00:43:18.250 --> 00:43:19.820 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: We're not a group of movies 337 00:43:20.240 --> 00:43:24.910 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: where we need to to be more. 338 00:43:34.570 --> 00:43:36.829 Well, I don't feel anybody here is lazy. 339 00:43:37.070 --> 00:43:43.100 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: I mean, that's that's kind of a puritanical social construct. There. If you're not always at it. You're lazy. 340 00:43:44.290 --> 00:43:44.980 Yeah. 341 00:43:45.700 --> 00:43:49.699 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: I don't think that's an issue. Pleased for her. 342 00:43:52.900 --> 00:43:55.909 Vadan Tereza: No, you know II mean one of the main 343 00:43:56.080 --> 00:44:03.890 Vadan Tereza: pieces of work I do is working with integrative pain management groups. So teaching meditation for people that are in pain. 344 00:44:04.320 --> 00:44:18.379 Vadan Tereza: and one of the one of the models that I find useful. And it's it's a little pseudo scientific. But But there's this thing called the Window of Tolerance. 345 00:44:18.450 --> 00:44:40.350 Vadan Tereza: And what that means is that when when we're relatively balanced, it's kind of like all these meditation practices that that normally work well, kind of the traditional meditation practices like those are those work pretty well, and then, when you get beyond that window of tolerance, like when you have a lot of pain, or even when you're really sick. 346 00:44:40.350 --> 00:44:54.300 Vadan Tereza: or this kind of thing. You know, your nervous system is actually kind of different. And so you so there's actually different ways of approaching meditation practice that that are more useful. So so yeah, I always think that. 347 00:44:54.360 --> 00:44:56.499 Vadan Tereza: It's important, for. 348 00:44:56.660 --> 00:45:17.390 Vadan Tereza: like the people I work with, you know, it's always so important for them not to feel like they're lazy, cause they're not doing it like a lot of times. It's just understanding like, how yeah, what's gonna work? And you know there's a whole thing called trauma informed mindfulness that that, you know, can can be part of that equation. 349 00:45:17.390 --> 00:45:27.379 Vadan Tereza: And I'm sure there's something in our in our Sufi practice realm. That that sort of is a little similar. But you know, just yeah. So I just wanted to mention that. 350 00:45:27.450 --> 00:45:28.180 Yeah. 351 00:45:31.750 --> 00:45:33.619 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: thank you. Thank you. 352 00:45:39.580 --> 00:45:41.499 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: One of the things that I wanted to 353 00:45:42.400 --> 00:45:52.849 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: add to. So we're having sobet now. Heartful conversation. 354 00:45:53.370 --> 00:45:58.010 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: I think, to add to the mix that is arising with this 355 00:45:59.390 --> 00:46:03.909 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: in a lot of ways. 356 00:46:05.370 --> 00:46:12.849 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the the Sophie lineages in working with the Heart Center. Primarily 357 00:46:13.490 --> 00:46:21.760 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: it puts us in the bhakti, devotional stream of spiritual practice. 358 00:46:22.820 --> 00:46:29.389 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And I can remember Bali Ali sang a couple of times in that 359 00:46:29.540 --> 00:46:37.830 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: six-year period of my early training with him. One of the challenges of the bhakti path 360 00:46:38.520 --> 00:46:40.540 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: is that. 361 00:46:42.560 --> 00:46:46.260 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: at least in the beginning, stages of it. It's a dualistic path. 362 00:46:48.240 --> 00:46:52.599 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: There's there's me doing devotional practices 363 00:46:53.110 --> 00:46:55.569 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: towards an object of my devotion. 364 00:46:57.080 --> 00:46:58.510 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and whether it's 365 00:46:58.520 --> 00:47:10.150 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the Guru, whether it's the merchant, whether it's one of the illuminated souls, whether it's one of the gods or goddesses in the beginning there's me and some gulf. 366 00:47:10.160 --> 00:47:12.219 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and then that 367 00:47:12.390 --> 00:47:14.230 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: being or that presence. 368 00:47:16.160 --> 00:47:23.559 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: if it stays there. there's only a limited amount of benefit that's going to come from that. 369 00:47:26.950 --> 00:47:32.869 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And one way you could look at it is that that's the subject object 370 00:47:33.330 --> 00:47:39.240 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: engagement. and that's where the triplicity of 371 00:47:39.370 --> 00:47:43.859 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the seer the scene and the process of seeing 372 00:47:44.140 --> 00:47:50.490 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the ears that hear, and the hearing and the sound is heard. 373 00:47:50.970 --> 00:47:59.140 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And then there's that phrase that Ana Khan brought into our lineage of Ishala, Mablud, Allah. 374 00:48:00.710 --> 00:48:04.560 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: love, lover and beloved are all one. 375 00:48:07.010 --> 00:48:08.940 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: So 376 00:48:09.180 --> 00:48:14.420 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: this process of the devotional practice 377 00:48:16.670 --> 00:48:26.770 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: needs to stay dynamic and living and moving, so that what might begin as a subject object engagement 378 00:48:27.500 --> 00:48:34.010 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: gradually suddenly transforms, transmutes into a subject-subject engagement. 379 00:48:35.890 --> 00:48:44.070 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: so that there isn't me the lover. the object, the beloved, and the love between. 380 00:48:45.420 --> 00:48:57.729 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: It's that those 3 experiences merge into one experience. Ananiac Khan talks about and voila paraphrase this in the first lesson 381 00:48:57.880 --> 00:49:05.389 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: as we're concentrating on an ideal on God's perfections on one of illuminated souls. 382 00:49:06.660 --> 00:49:13.350 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: The larger awareness is also concentrating on hour same quality. 383 00:49:14.510 --> 00:49:17.480 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And that's what begins the process of 384 00:49:17.870 --> 00:49:25.050 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: calling it out of the depths, calling it from the hidden aspects, hidden dimensions of our being into 385 00:49:25.740 --> 00:49:37.969 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: manifestation. so and then this is, can be complex, but it's still very simple. 386 00:49:39.230 --> 00:49:48.579 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: The statement from the Middle Ages, from Al Ghazali that Merchant Sam used to quote all the time. Sue visit is based on experience, not on precept. 387 00:49:50.280 --> 00:49:56.450 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And referring to a little mini conversation that we have, Nancy, that that I've discovered 388 00:49:56.570 --> 00:50:00.290 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: another email that I had written and never sent 389 00:50:02.560 --> 00:50:06.459 looking at the footage of Merchant Sam. That's in the movie sunscreen 390 00:50:08.480 --> 00:50:16.009 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: amortop off camera is asking Sam questions or making statements to get him to to start 391 00:50:16.190 --> 00:50:18.940 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: having the flow come. And they're talking about concepts. 392 00:50:19.680 --> 00:50:26.370 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And Sam says, well, the concept of spirituality is not spirituality. It's a concept about spirituality. 393 00:50:26.660 --> 00:50:36.740 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and in his commentaries on various things you'll come across the statements. Thinking about breath is not breath thinking about meditation is not meditation. It's thinking about. 394 00:50:38.610 --> 00:50:40.130 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and then 395 00:50:40.570 --> 00:50:50.600 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: I can't remember exactly how Amertot leads him into it. But Sam ends up saying in that same little conversational section. 396 00:50:51.750 --> 00:50:57.609 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: people don't want solutions because the solutions interfere with their concepts. 397 00:51:00.440 --> 00:51:06.089 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And what's going on in that state of consciousness is that things have become rigid. 398 00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:16.750 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and people are living more in their concept and belief systems than they are in their body and in the moment. 399 00:51:17.880 --> 00:51:21.189 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And that's where we really need to go with our practice. 400 00:51:21.570 --> 00:51:24.509 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: If the practice tends to lead the body 401 00:51:24.940 --> 00:51:37.410 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and get in the mental realm. And this is Sam called the the that dimension of our being that we also could call our ego personality or our knoffs. 402 00:51:37.450 --> 00:51:39.380 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: He called it the mind mesh 403 00:51:42.340 --> 00:51:43.050 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and 404 00:51:43.330 --> 00:51:50.539 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the mind mesh is that that that the area of of the mind and the the feeling component of it 405 00:51:51.260 --> 00:51:55.050 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: that is predominantly analytic. 406 00:51:55.090 --> 00:52:00.109 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: It operates predominantly by sussing out the differences between 407 00:52:01.040 --> 00:52:07.669 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: more or less than how is this the same as how is it better than how is it less than on all of those little 408 00:52:07.850 --> 00:52:15.470 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: equations? We do all of that dualistic stuff that's concrete mind stuff fantastically valuable 409 00:52:16.220 --> 00:52:29.849 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: for following recipes, for building something, for designing, something for making art, etc. Etc. Excuse me, but it's not heart-centered. It's mostly from concrete mind. 410 00:52:30.400 --> 00:52:34.479 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Hart is larger in that realm. 411 00:52:34.960 --> 00:52:45.749 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: So we start with the heart, and we start with breath because breath is available on every plane of existence. And we're learning this subtle way of breathing. 412 00:52:45.840 --> 00:52:48.849 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and this subtle way of watching. 413 00:52:49.170 --> 00:52:51.929 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: So they were not leaning on the breast. 414 00:52:54.030 --> 00:52:58.100 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and people that get into 415 00:52:58.160 --> 00:53:03.930 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: devotional practice without also engaging the heart and the breath 416 00:53:04.440 --> 00:53:14.879 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: have the danger of it becoming crystallized into veneration. an idealization and personality worship 417 00:53:16.910 --> 00:53:22.089 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: because it becomes rigid. And it's basically basically going on in the mind. 418 00:53:22.120 --> 00:53:40.260 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: So this, step by step, process of watching the breath of just seeing the breath neutrally, first at stage one and then linking the trauma on the inhale to bring something from a dimension that's much larger than our personality, bringing that energy in and then linking it with the love in the heart. 419 00:53:40.420 --> 00:53:44.139 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: We're already creating pathways out of our 420 00:53:44.870 --> 00:53:52.650 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: mind, mesh of concepts and beliefs and previous experience and whatnot into a realm that's a lot more interactive. 421 00:53:54.460 --> 00:53:55.270 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And 422 00:53:56.610 --> 00:54:02.270 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the illuminated souls. Yes, some of them may have had human incarnation. 423 00:54:03.100 --> 00:54:19.020 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: They may have ego personalities and personal histories and whatnot. but what's important about them is that the love stream that they activated outside of the boundaries of their human ego outside of their 424 00:54:19.100 --> 00:54:23.430 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: individuated mind, mesh, that lovestream is still available 425 00:54:23.690 --> 00:54:27.669 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: in that larger dimension of our own being. 426 00:54:29.660 --> 00:54:34.519 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: because we all came out, our individuated souls came out of that realm. 427 00:54:36.280 --> 00:54:42.679 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: So when we attune to the love stream of an iconum? Or should Sam, or Mother Mary, or 428 00:54:43.330 --> 00:54:52.499 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Kali, or Kuan Yin, or Tara, or White Buffalo Calf woman, or you know, whatever the tradition may be. 429 00:54:53.450 --> 00:55:06.880 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: We're attuning to a dimension of our own being that in some aspects may have had the individuated experience separate from ours. But in essence, at depth, it is us. 430 00:55:07.260 --> 00:55:12.350 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: It's another octave of vibration. It's another 431 00:55:12.760 --> 00:55:15.949 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: set of qualities that 432 00:55:16.050 --> 00:55:21.149 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: R intrinsic to our own beingness. 433 00:55:22.930 --> 00:55:28.679 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: But to get to that level of interaction and interactivity with it. 434 00:55:29.060 --> 00:55:31.860 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: We've got to learn how to approach it subtly 435 00:55:32.220 --> 00:55:38.430 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and spaciously, without leaning on it too much with concept and with our mental 436 00:55:38.500 --> 00:55:40.670 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: beliefs and with our 437 00:55:40.680 --> 00:55:46.210 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: expectations. because the moment we have expectations about something, we're shifting it 438 00:55:46.230 --> 00:55:48.000 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: in a particular direction. 439 00:55:49.410 --> 00:55:51.770 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and if we persist in that. 440 00:55:51.970 --> 00:55:53.430 crystallize it. 441 00:55:54.160 --> 00:56:03.989 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and it becomes a religion in the sense of having dogmas and litanies and the right way of doing things, and the wrong way of doing things. 442 00:56:05.170 --> 00:56:07.139 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: So where we're headed here 443 00:56:08.310 --> 00:56:14.079 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: is learning how to be able to hold a focus 444 00:56:15.490 --> 00:56:18.380 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: whitely. gently. 445 00:56:18.640 --> 00:56:21.539 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: delicately so were not 446 00:56:21.950 --> 00:56:29.430 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: approaching it this way, this there's the heart, and there's love. And that's how I'm going to merge with. Now. 447 00:56:29.870 --> 00:56:36.950 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the moment we do that, we're creating another nuff's another contraction around the center 448 00:56:37.930 --> 00:56:50.890 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: that may have some limited value. But it's not where we want to go. which is permeability. transparency. lightness, subtlety. 449 00:56:51.850 --> 00:57:03.069 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and one of the ways of talking about this is we're bringing the ether element into the form we're working with. so that it doesn't have a rigid structure so that it can 450 00:57:03.250 --> 00:57:05.010 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: be interactive. 451 00:57:06.000 --> 00:57:13.709 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And this is what happens with the advanced level of a teacher-student initiative relationship which starts out 452 00:57:13.830 --> 00:57:25.430 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: with the teacher being the solar source and the student being the lunar receptacle. So there's a circuit and the transfer of energy. But it's mostly coming from that 453 00:57:25.740 --> 00:57:31.050 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: source until we begin to find the same place in ourselves. 454 00:57:31.470 --> 00:57:41.660 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And then that that relationship that looked like sun, moon transforms into sun, moon, sun, moon. 455 00:57:42.010 --> 00:57:44.969 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and it moves back and forth between the 2 people. 456 00:57:47.400 --> 00:57:54.189 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Murshid Sam at 1 point said, if I'm with the way I remember hearing it talked about. 457 00:57:55.630 --> 00:58:00.049 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: your merchant can be a perfect dunderhead by himself. 458 00:58:00.770 --> 00:58:07.380 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: but put a Miurid in need in front of me, and I suddenly become the wisest man in the world. 459 00:58:12.030 --> 00:58:15.700 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And what I've discovered in my own experience is that 460 00:58:16.820 --> 00:58:19.810 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: when I ask a question. 461 00:58:21.320 --> 00:58:24.270 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: I'm opening up the space 462 00:58:24.400 --> 00:58:26.100 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: for the answer to come. 463 00:58:27.990 --> 00:58:36.050 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: because in the very asking of the question, there's a tiny ego surrender from that place that thinks I know 464 00:58:36.700 --> 00:58:39.469 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: if I you know, if I know everything, I don't need to ask a question. 465 00:58:40.140 --> 00:58:43.320 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And in the areas where I've 466 00:58:44.620 --> 00:58:58.629 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: had resistance to ask a question. There's a place in me that's tight. It's not open, and if I can get that place to relax enough to allow the question to be asked her to say, I need assistance. 467 00:58:59.700 --> 00:59:01.470 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: That surrender 468 00:59:03.290 --> 00:59:07.900 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: opens up the form. the Tasawwar. 469 00:59:09.460 --> 00:59:13.999 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: to allow it to become a portal. to allow it to become a lens 470 00:59:14.610 --> 00:59:20.999 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: to let something from the larger dimension come into the part. Amiga, still in the smaller dimension. 471 00:59:25.480 --> 00:59:27.000 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: but yet subtle. 472 00:59:29.070 --> 00:59:32.620 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and having too strong a feeling. 473 00:59:33.220 --> 00:59:38.680 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: filters, it tiltsipped. changes it. 474 00:59:38.760 --> 00:59:40.879 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: colours it, distorts it 475 00:59:42.410 --> 00:59:43.750 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: into something else. 476 00:59:44.760 --> 00:59:49.689 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: So we're back again to the subtlety of the breath. 477 00:59:49.960 --> 00:59:54.850 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: getting more and more subtle, more and more latif to use the 478 00:59:55.130 --> 00:59:57.020 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Arabic Sufi term. 479 00:59:58.250 --> 01:00:02.619 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: so that we can begin this interactive process with it. 480 01:00:04.330 --> 01:00:11.959 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: We hold a very delicate concentration cause I'd like this cord like to tune in with discord. 481 01:00:12.280 --> 01:00:22.740 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: It's somewhat like this metaphor I heard years ago of. If you're listening to a full orchestra, can you focus on hearing the violin 482 01:00:23.510 --> 01:00:26.169 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: in the orchestra when everybody's playing. 483 01:00:26.190 --> 01:00:28.710 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Can you focus on the trumpet or the clarinet 484 01:00:29.010 --> 01:00:35.450 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: piccolo? Kind of easy, because that piccolo, that high note shoots through everything or the symphony 485 01:00:35.470 --> 01:00:43.720 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: easier to hear. And so we're doing the same thing for their own being. Can I tune into that cord inside me 486 01:00:43.830 --> 01:00:48.500 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: that seem touch with a much broader range of 487 01:00:48.970 --> 01:00:52.900 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: experience and my own personality, experience. 488 01:00:56.380 --> 01:00:57.170 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and 489 01:00:57.820 --> 01:01:05.040 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: my experience of intuition of Kosh from that still, small voice, is that it's really really quiet. 490 01:01:05.910 --> 01:01:08.009 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and I have to get still 491 01:01:08.890 --> 01:01:10.610 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and asked the question 492 01:01:10.690 --> 01:01:16.670 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and the answer that the way I've been hearing the answer lately, the past couple of years 493 01:01:17.850 --> 01:01:18.930 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: is 494 01:01:20.260 --> 01:01:21.660 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: very quiet. 495 01:01:22.750 --> 01:01:27.290 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: No, don't do that. Yes. do that. 496 01:01:29.920 --> 01:01:41.080 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And if I'm you know, you know that creates enough movement, turbulence in the field that I don't hear it. 497 01:01:43.330 --> 01:01:45.929 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: It's just connecting with folks experience at all. 498 01:01:58.920 --> 01:02:05.399 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: I'm not seeing that I'm not seeing this. It's 499 01:02:05.600 --> 01:02:06.650 hmm 500 01:02:11.850 --> 01:02:13.090 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: please similar. 501 01:02:15.660 --> 01:02:19.849 Subhana: I got an e-mail back today from Bob dar 502 01:02:20.090 --> 01:02:26.560 Subhana: for the translation of a some words that Rumi's son said 503 01:02:26.800 --> 01:02:30.729 Subhana: in the conclusion of the must know we 504 01:02:30.770 --> 01:02:42.520 Subhana: I'd like to read em. please. quite a while from this month. Now it's been since my father became silent. and I, his son, said to him, O living breath! 505 01:02:42.990 --> 01:02:53.600 Subhana: How is it that you no longer speak the profound words? Why have you shut the door to divine knowledge? He said. like the camel, my speech 506 01:02:53.870 --> 01:02:59.750 Subhana: reached its place of repose. nor will it be heard by anyone until the resurrection. 507 01:02:59.920 --> 01:03:04.450 Subhana: At the time of departure it leaped across the stream. 508 01:03:04.560 --> 01:03:08.270 Subhana: All things perish except His divine aspect. 509 01:03:09.620 --> 01:03:18.309 Subhana: What endures of my speech will arrive unspoken in the heart of that person who possesses living spirit. 510 01:03:19.680 --> 01:03:20.500 Yeah. 511 01:03:20.870 --> 01:03:22.050 Subhana: So 512 01:03:23.100 --> 01:03:30.309 Subhana: that's my blessing from the tasselary merchant practice today. Yeah, lovely, thank you. 513 01:03:32.530 --> 01:03:34.909 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And in other other 514 01:03:35.170 --> 01:03:42.560 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: contexts, probably Christian mystical context. the still small voice of conscience 515 01:03:44.820 --> 01:03:46.450 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: that's the spirit of guidance. 516 01:03:47.490 --> 01:03:49.160 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: That's intuition. 517 01:03:55.460 --> 01:03:57.130 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: We need to. 518 01:03:59.040 --> 01:04:01.210 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: We need to learn how to 519 01:04:02.320 --> 01:04:10.990 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: whole system down emotionally, mentally, so we can hear it, or so we can perceive, but feel it because it comes in different ways. You know it comes in. 520 01:04:11.210 --> 01:04:16.549 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: It comes kinesthetically. It comes auditorium. It comes visually. 521 01:04:16.660 --> 01:04:25.819 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: you know. It's that internal sensing that may not be seeing, and it may not be hearing the way we hear and see physically. 522 01:04:26.710 --> 01:04:30.140 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: but we get an internal knowing that's gentle. 523 01:04:31.770 --> 01:04:40.239 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and my own experience with Rakib and with watching the breath in this way is that I'm learning more and more what that space is like. 524 01:04:42.310 --> 01:04:46.829 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and it didn't invalidate the way I was watching my breath previously. 525 01:04:47.810 --> 01:04:51.480 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: It just opened up a whole new dimension to 526 01:04:51.810 --> 01:04:54.289 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: what I was calling, watching my breath. 527 01:04:55.940 --> 01:04:58.810 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and there were a number of times I'm going. 528 01:05:02.190 --> 01:05:06.859 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and there's a phrase from one of Kabir's poems that lie 529 01:05:06.940 --> 01:05:07.980 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Robert Bly 530 01:05:08.320 --> 01:05:12.330 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: published. I don't know whether he did the translation or someone else did the translation for him. 531 01:05:13.020 --> 01:05:15.650 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: But in it Kabir is saying. 532 01:05:15.710 --> 01:05:18.519 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the breath inside, the breath. 533 01:05:21.330 --> 01:05:23.300 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the breath inside the breath. 534 01:05:28.470 --> 01:05:33.640 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And one final statement again, I think it's the lesson, one video. 535 01:05:35.190 --> 01:05:40.909 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: And maybe it's in a response to someone's question. I can't remember now exactly where Wally always says it 536 01:05:42.680 --> 01:05:48.020 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: one of the the goals with learning to watch our breath 537 01:05:48.530 --> 01:05:55.340 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: in so many different ways. So we're beginning to make an identification with the breath 538 01:05:56.290 --> 01:05:59.919 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the breath is who I am. Really. 539 01:06:00.600 --> 01:06:07.989 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: it's not my name, it's not my qualities, it's not my wounds, it's not my skills. 540 01:06:08.080 --> 01:06:15.570 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: It's not that I'm a brother or a son, or an uncle, or a teacher, or stained glass. 541 01:06:16.350 --> 01:06:18.839 or a photographer. Da da. Da. 542 01:06:19.020 --> 01:06:20.430 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: I am the brass. 543 01:06:20.930 --> 01:06:28.599 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and I have all of these other vehicles to move around and interact with and manifest. But 544 01:06:28.700 --> 01:06:31.520 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: my essence is the breath itself. 545 01:06:38.080 --> 01:06:45.539 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: So thank you very, very much for your presence and your attention and your sharing from your own experience. 546 01:06:50.090 --> 01:06:52.040 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and we've got 547 01:06:53.980 --> 01:06:57.060 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: fourth. The third session of Lesson 4, 548 01:06:57.230 --> 01:07:13.800 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: 2 weeks. and then we'll meet one more time to do a little recap. I'm looking ahead. and I'll put this in the reminder for next sessions. 549 01:07:14.480 --> 01:07:15.690 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: The reminder. 550 01:07:17.790 --> 01:07:19.359 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: Think about 551 01:07:23.820 --> 01:07:24.930 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the ark. 552 01:07:24.940 --> 01:07:31.309 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: the year that we've been working together the practices. What practices drew you? 553 01:07:31.620 --> 01:07:34.360 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: What practice is there? Not so much 554 01:07:34.450 --> 01:07:41.469 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: what worked? What didn't work just. And I'm gonna create a little little follow-up assessment 555 01:07:43.240 --> 01:07:52.060 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: to know kind of the things that worked, the things that didn't work. What might have worked better. What really drew folks are 556 01:07:52.470 --> 01:07:56.900 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: just to, you know, get more of an experiential base 557 01:07:57.680 --> 01:07:59.370 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: for this whole process. 558 01:08:00.690 --> 01:08:08.589 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: and it looks like We launch course 2 on another cycle course, one in April. 559 01:08:09.850 --> 01:08:18.759 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: We're trying to fine tune that in terms of the administrative and vegetative support we need from Basera and from from Baduta, to 560 01:08:18.870 --> 01:08:21.100 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: get things moving in that in that realm 561 01:08:23.590 --> 01:08:33.439 Muiz-N. Calif, USA: my deep, deep gratitude for the way you all have engaged and participated and shared, that really touches me very deeply. So thank you. 562 01:08:34.270 --> 01:08:35.110 Thank you.