2010 Invitations

April 22, 2010
What You Commit To

This week’s invitation is to look at what the opportunity is around the money that flows your way, which in turn, you get to redirect to whatever you are committed to.

It is a commitment that you make when you exchange that paper stuff we call money (in whatever form you use – be it paper, coin, debit, or credit card) for an apple for example.

What is actually in that exchange?
A commitment to care for yourself by feeding yourself, this touches the apple and you, and it also touches on the person who sold it to you, the person who packed it for delivery to the store, the driver who delivered it, the farm owner and workers, the tree the apple came from, the sun, rain and earth that support the tree to be alive, the oxygen that the tree exhales helping to clean our environment, and all of the connections to each of those that branch out to eventually include absolutely everything that is.

When you put the money into the box for Satsang then, what is it you are committing to?

The space of Satsang is for supporting everyone to embrace themselves even more; it is a very direct commitment to yourSelf. To support people to awaken to themselves – to all that is. It is simply a direct route, taken consciously when you understand this.

So this invitation is for you to consider what you are actually paying for when you pay for things. For instance, what is it you are paying for when you pay your taxes? Follow the route of what you are effecting by your payment…you will find, that it is always you that you are supporting, you yourSelf…it just happens to include a multitude of steps along the way, or a few steps (yet inclusive of all that is) as in the case of Satsang.

Join with us, commit to yourSelf directly in Satsang with Canela.

April 6, 2010
Controlling

This week’s invitation is to look at being ‘controlling’.

What is that and how do you know if you are being controlling, or freely moving with focus (which may look like 'controlling' on the outside)?

Control is often the opposite of freedom or going with the flow. When your computer shuts down three times in a row, it’s time to let go, relax, and not attempt to ‘make it’ work….it doesn’t want to happen right then. Look for what does want to happen with curiosity.

The answer to ‘how do you know if you are being controlling?’ is simple, yet not always easy to assess – it is to be honest with yourself.

If there is any defence - is the mind coming up with all sorts of reasons as to why your actions are not controlling - the likelihood is very high that you are indeed attempting to control something. Freely moving with focus doesn’t have any push to it, it’s just happening, defence just doesn’t even come up.

Controlling anything usually accompanies some sort of feeling of push or pull – someone is ‘trying’ to do something, or to change ‘what is’ through force. As if something ‘has to’ happen in a certain way, or someone ‘should be’ acting differently than they are, then there is attempt to control happening. This is simply getting in your own way. Even though it looks ‘right’ or is perfectly logical, you will be swimming upstream, rather than flowing along with what is.

Judging another as controlling is often an indicator that you yourself have some sort of aspect of control happening…especially if you feel that you need to tell the other that they are being controlling. If they are, let them find it out for themselves, just notice it in your own awareness but don’t speak it. If that urge to ‘have to tell them’ is with you, then stop and see what part of you is controlling something right in that moment. Relax your body open and ask the question inwardly to see what response you get.

As with absolutely everything, it is not ‘wrong’ to attempt to control anything, it’s just not the best way of being and uses up a lot more of your energy. Finding yourself ‘attempting to control’ is, however, a great invitation to be able to follow it inside, feel it, and learn more about yourself and your own way of being…always expanding on That.

You are welcome to join with us in Satsang Meditation to look at, and directly let go of, where ‘control’ might be a part of your life…up until Now.

March 13, 2010
Recognizing "Truth"

This week’s invitation to see and experience what is known as ‘the Truth’.

There are many ideas about what ‘The Truth’ is, how it is supposed to look. And the truth about the truth is, that it is absolutely all that is…including the thoughts, including apparent mistakes, including pain, including the mind, including yes and including no, including emotions and all of the states of Being – That which is occurring in each moment.

Instead of thinking about what the truth is, take a look and experience it…right now, the words are before you, you are reading them, they are the truth – that they are there ‘with you’ on your computer screen – words have shown up to Be With you. It is not necessarily what they are saying, it is that they exist right now, here.

The eyes that see them, are also part of it; the whole action of ‘reading happening’ is part of it; the body in the chair that you are experiencing simultaneously is it – both the body and the chair and the pressure felt where they meet; the breathing is it; the awareness that you are in fact reading is it….this right now, right now, is The Truth.

As you may be able to tell, it is an experience, not an idea. Whatever the experience is, from your own perspective, is the Truth of what is – there is something that is aware of the fact that you are experiencing something…it is before the mind, and includes it. To say it is ‘before’ is not totally true as it is together in the same instant, yet this awareness includes it.

Any ideas of the Truth being one thing and another thing not being the Truth, are just ideas. I invite you to drop the ideas and Be With what you are Aware of, what is actually happening, what is occurring, what arises Now.

Satsang with Canela creates a space where is it easy to let go of ideas, to relax open and experience yourSelf – simply, directly, exactly as you are, come and join us in that freedom.

February 25, 2010
Catch 22

This week’s invitation to see and experience the ‘Catch 22’ in Love.

For those that may not be familiar with the expression: ‘Catch 22’, it is a term used to define a situation that goes round and round – the ending flows back into the beginning, creating a loop that goes on and on.

So this ‘Catch 22’ of Love?

When you have learned to see the Love that exists in each moment, no matter what the details are, you cannot help but also see that you are not alone – that the Universe is conspiring (and has been conspiring all along) to support you in each moment, and ‘knows’ exactly how to support you.

As one recognizes this support - recognizes direct examples from their own life - there is a further relaxing open, a greater Trust emerges, and then in turn, more experiencing life as a loving experience; an experience of Being Loved. There’s the loop… on-going and also deepening at the same time as expanding.

Opening to Love, allows support; recognizing support, deepens Trust; more Trust, more opening to Love and so on.

Come to Satsang with Canela where there is direct support in recognizing the Love in each moment. Bring along your details to share if you are not seeing the Love, and be supported to recognize it – you are welcome!

February 8, 2010
Looking for Love in All the Right Places

This week’s invitation is one of "Being With" Love.

From this perspective of Canela, Love is what all is. Love Consciousness makes up the entire play of what is happening - the thoughts, the actions, the manifested molecules as things, the breath, the play of it all – from it’s Self to it’s Self.

How is that an invitation? To look again, in any moment, to see if you can allow the Love that Is. That the Love is there, is a given…it’s just that sometimes it seems disguised.

It may take some courage to let go of what appears to be happening, and open to the possibility that it is Love expressing itself to you. When the moment feels uncomfortable and emotions might be running high, these are the most powerful moments to stop and open your body, your mind, your being to the expression of Love in that very moment.

Is this easy? Nope, not at first perhaps. Yet when One gets the hang of it, it becomes an easier choice – to let go of the ‘known’ pathway of: hanging on to being right; defending your position; proving the other is wrong; the details are not good or should be some other way than they are…basically saying “No!” to whatever is happening. I invite you to stop, breath, open your body and tune into the very moment of your experience. Let go of the details (you can always pick them up again later if you want) and feel yourself, open yourself, and even ask the question: Is this Loving? – not to judge yourself, the other, or the situation - to actually allow a space to feel into it: is Love happening right now? Such a curiosity will provoke an answer…a felt experience. I invite you, give it a try!

Satsang Mediation is an opportunity to tune into the Love that exists, Here for you, in each moment – to experience this directly.