So Young, and yet Awake!!!

Posted on August 16, 2013 by admin

I love this! Thanks to old friend Dana Zed for introducing me to Bentinho Massaro, who is probably in his late 20’s. Way ahead of where I was at his age. Of course the real tests will arise if he becomes ‘popular’. And ‘teaching’ awakening brings another set of challenges. But, hey, more power to him. Go Bentinho! Tell it like it is! This comes straight from his web site, free-awareness.com. Please visit.

How Free Awareness Came About:

Biography

I started seeking actively for (as I called it then) ‘Enlightenment,’Self-Realization’ or ‘True Knowing’ around the age of 16. I was driven by an intense desire to know the source of life, for as far as that would ever be humanly possible.

I one day figured that all this dancing around that I was doing, all these everyday things I was chasing after and exploring, were meaningless and powerless if I didn’t know the true meaning of life in my own direct experience. I had this instinctual impulse to get to the source of everything, to attain some kind of mastery over myself and all my abilities, to acquire a deep knowing in which all else would be understood immediately and in its proper place.

In other words: I desired to find ‘the truth that doesn’t change’, so that I could make sense out of everything else from that space of clarity.

Before this moment of really wanting to know the source of my being arose, I had already been playing around a bit with discovering the hidden capabilities of our minds. As a child my parents offered me to follow a Silva Mind Control course, which was basically an introduction to meditation and using the mind’s full potential. Throughout high school I forgot a bit about the passion I felt for that mystery of life, but at some point, as described above, I was fed up with the uselessness of learning and doing common things that don’t really seem to make a difference or provide anyone with much meaning.

Everyone just seemed to blindly follow the laid out paths of the societal system. Nobody seemed to ask any meaningful questions. I desired to break free from that cycle and discover truth, or at least something of existential meaning, for myself.

The Journey & The Desire to Share

I’m not sure where to begin without turning this into a fuzzy book, so I will try to keep it concise and extract from my ‘seeking-history’ that which seems to have led most obviously towards developing Free Awareness.

I was pretty intense in my seeking. Even though I lacked discipline to really concentrate on practices that didn’t feel right to me, I was intense and persistent at finding an effective way to whatever it was I was looking for. I wanted to know the truth directly, as quickly as possible, without all the whistles and bells.

So I tried meditation, yoga, reiki, NLP, EFT, Personal Development, Self-Hypnosis, Affirmations, Transformations, reading plenty of ‘spiritual’ books, on how to journey, how to awaken, how to be in the now, etc. I went on searching and discovering myself in India, met many teachers and teachings there as well, discovered I had the ability to be completely depressed, scared like a hopeless little kid in a pond full of alligators, completely lifeless, unmotivated to do anything whatsoever, “For what’s the point in doing anything?? Nothing ever works anyway!” – and what not.

From the very beginning and throughout all this seeking and the experiences that came with that seeking, a desire arose and developed to create something efficient for the rest of the world. Something that would actually make sense and be accessible to everyone, regardless of background or interest. I noticed that my mind started to dissect and ‘order’ everything it could get its hands on in order to compile a most effective ‘structure’.

Every book, course, teaching and teacher that I came in contact with, got analyzed, compared to the rest of my knowledge, and tested for a while. My mind was insanely fierce and active about trying to figure out ‘the best way’ and trying to sort out what was true and what was false. I was intellectually ‘mapping’ everything and tried to fit every piece of the puzzle in there in it’s correct place. I wanted to get the whole picture, and find a way that would actually work directly, quickly, efficiently. Preferably for everyone!

After a while it developed into this insanely complex, conceptually accurate, but intensely burdening mental understanding. At the same time, though, there was a natural depth I could intuit. Something that remained stable throughout all my seeking and all the experiences. There was some innate knowing going on all the while. Sometimes this became more apparent then at other times, but it was always there ‘in the background’.

I remember vividly realizing one day that I always felt much more in tune with this deep sense of peace before I walked into a meditation class or teaching, than I was while on the cushion or while listening to complex theories of different levels of spiritual evolution or personal development.

Gradually I noticed how no matter what I did, heard or achieved, I always arrived back at where I always was anyway. Like the famous saying goes: “Wherever you go, there you are.”

This started to become more palpable and for a while it resulted in a conflicted state: “Should I trust this natural presence, or should I trust in these teachers and in this insane conceptual understanding that I’ve gathered in my mind that tells me to achieve all kinds of states and experiences?”

A Shift of Allegiance

The moment I started to trust more in this natural presence, something happened. Most of all I became more at ease by the day, and additionally books and teachers of a more direct nature started to cross my path that ‘confirmed’ the way of direct trust in what’s naturally here. Each of these books and teachers still got analyzed and mapped automatically, but simultaneously they helped me to let go more and more of that intellectual structure that was still very active and convincing at times.

Ever since my allegiance shifted from ‘thinking’ and ‘other teachers’ towards trusting in this intuitive sense of natural presence, that simple and always already present awareness has become more and more obvious in this experience.

This natural presence reveals the unity beyond all ideas and concepts and there is nothing that ever affects it. It’s completely stable, ever-present and unchanging awareness. Yet it is not ‘out of this world’ or ‘detached’ in any way. In fact, it allows us to be completely engaged in life, for the first time really, without fear for our thoughts and emotions or those of others. There is a loving freedom present in and as every experience, without exception.

Experiences come and go, but they all come and go within that which is effortlessly aware of them. When this awareness becomes obvious to us, than not only is it discovered to be unaffected by whatever appears within awareness, but the unity of experiences and awareness is gradually (or suddenly) revealed.

This then neutralizes the power that experiences seemed to have over us, and there arises a natural freedom, love, wisdom and joy in the midst of every experience.

With Free Awareness, I hope to be able to provide some sort of simple and accessible structure, that can support you in directly awakening to that which is already wide awake at all times.

With gratitude and love to Life itself, in all of it’s self-benefiting appearances,

Bentinho Massaro.

Barcelona, 2013

Posted on August 5, 2013 by admin

“The Sacred Side of Barcelona”

“Sacred Sounds”

Last Sunday found us wandering through the back roads of the hillside Park Güell, trying to find the famous mosaics, playful buildings and salamander attributed to Barcelona’s famous architect Antoni Gaudi and the great views of the city and harbor. Coming around a corner on one of the many winding paths, we were suddenly immersed in waves of beautiful sounds coming from one of the street musicians. The music sounded almost like a steel drum, only softer, more subtle, and it was coming from an instrument I had never seen before, a ‘PanArt Hang’. Pure heart sounds that stopped you in your tracks and dropped you into the infinite. Sacred sounds. Alex Permanyer was the musician and after soaking in the sounds a bit and asking him about the instrument he was playing I bought one of his cd’s . Later on, upon opening it, I found this quote ” Silence is not the absence of sound, but it is the absence of oneself.” Cosmic attunement is such a delight. Here is Alex in Belguim. http://youtu.be/TKTZLxvJbus.

“Sacred Space”

Earlier that same Sunday (although all days, all moments are sacred, stillness can seem to be more accessible on Sundays), we spent the morning in Gaudi’s masterpiece, the vast cathedral known as the Sagrada Familia. From the outside it is busy and somewhat chaotic with all of the cranes, scaffolding and construction equipment, (The hope is to be complete by 2026), but the interior is like nothing else on earth. Gaudi was a great student of nature and incorporated natural forms, shapes and patterns in all of his work. A master of engineering, his use of supporting columns and hyperbolic arches is stunning. The effect is of standing in a magical redwood forest, with the columns as trees and the canopy bursting open with branches leaves and light. The photo to the right is a view looking up one of the columns to the ceiling.

Gaudi was also amazing with his use of sunlight and stained glass. This is a momentary glimpse of how the morning light illumines the interior spaces. And it changes moment to moment. And it is much more stunning in person, in the vastness of the nave. The Sagrada Familia was Gaudi’s true passion and the sacred space he envisioned and created is transcendent.

“Sacred Embodiment”

Timing is everything. Our stay in Barcelona overlapped with the biennial World Swimming Diving and Water Polo Championships and we were lucky enough to see parts of the first ever High Diving competition. Until this summer, the Olympics and worlds have just included spring board and 10 meter platform diving. In Barcelona, the women went from 20 meters (65+ feet) and the men from 27 meters (90 feet). Here is Gold medal winner Orlando Duque from Colombia on his way down during a practice day, somatic meditation in action. Although new to this championship, Orlando has been high diving for 15 years and can be seen on the Red Bull Diving circuit, (coming to Boston and the ICA later this month.) Anna Bader of Germany won the bronze, but this was a moment that had everyone gasping. Just a simple handstand on the edge of a 65 foot drop. She walked to the edge, planted her hands, and lengthened into a deep uttanasana. She then went up effortlessly, locked it in for a good 10 or more seconds, wind blowing, cameras flashing, and then pushed off and flew. Amazingly exciting to watch that level of integration.

There are blessings, nourishment and cosmic delight everywhere, but our week in Barcelona provided an extraordinary abundance. These were just a few. Hope you get to visit some day.

Thanks to Sean Kilmurray for the photography.

Wag More, Bark Less

Posted on July 15, 2013 by admin

This is my favorite bumper sticker these days. Many layers of meaning are hidden in this slice of pop culture, especially for the yogi/somanauts moving into the ‘energetic’ and ‘field’ realms of consciousness. Explore these possibilities with playfulness, but feel their depth simultaneously. These energies are very old and well proven through millions of years of experience.

As we see in this picture, the field lines of a bar magnet take on the shape of a torus. (See yoga and the torus.) If we imagine the N pole (not Z) as our head and the south pole as our tail, or the N as the crown chakra opening to the heavens and the S as the root chakra opening to the earth, we find a flowing coherent field of energy. If we can imagine alternating current, with the N and S reversing periodically, we find a more complex field current traveling both directions.

If we transfer this onto the modern human body and its energy field, we will find a hyperactive North pole (the head) and a seriously malnourished South pole, the tail, and very little coherence. Too much talking/thinking/whining keeps the brain too hot. To much sitting, compressing and collapsing keeps the tail stuck and unconscious. In the esoteric teachings of yoga, the kundalini energy is said to be sleeping, like a coiled serpent, at the base of the tail. Wagging more will help wake up this snakey energy and barking less will help pacify the brain, thus bringing more balance and coherence to the human energy field. Lets examine some tails from nature to see if we can learn some ‘waggly’ hints from our animal friends and experience more coherence as a result.

Check out the tri-furcation of the muladhara in this jumping gecko. Full extension backwards of both legs and toes and the tail balance the forward extension of the head, front legs and toes. A powerful coherent field is seen. If humans could find this third pathway, the tail, to supplement to full leg action we would have a way to balance the hyperactive human brain. Notice how the opposite orientations create a dynamic aliveness in every cell.

This guy from the jack family has a beautiful blue forked tail. Fish invented vertebrae and thus to be able to move like a fish is to have a very free spinal column. The motor is in the tail, not the head. Make your fish tail undulate from sid to side. Trikonasana and parsvakonasna are good poses to practice the fish tail action as they are lateral poses.

This red tailed hawk uses her tail to help create stability, to steer, or to help change altitude. Although we don’t fly, whenever we use our arms we can widen our tails to help maintain an energetic balance. Birds can fan their tails which is a totally cool thing to do. Work on this any way your imagination allows.

Our dolphin friends use their tails to launch themselves through the water and air. As they are mammals, their concentrated power creates elegant flexion/extension waves. Forward and backward bends will feel more open and effortless when the tail is free to use its power and the rest of the spine can be more receptive. Most of us way over-use the spinal muscles. Be more dolphin like in these poses.

The kangaroo shows how the tail allows an amazing balance in the spinal energy, freeing up the head to see, smell and eat without any creating any unnecessary tension in the neck. Energy does not get stuck in the hips either because of the tail support. Grow your self a kangaroo tail and feel where it can take you. Feel the muladhara opening and breathing. Drop your brain and rest in the infinite spaciousness of the heart.

Finally, our friendly scorpion shows us how to really extend the spine. This is crucial for backbending as most of us constrict the root of the spine in an attempt to open the hip joints. Notice his spine extending through his tail.

Here is B.K. S in two variations of the scorpion. Notice how he uses his legs as an extension of his tail to create length. He also lengthens through his crown chakra as well to complete the circuit. What is extraordinary about Mr. Iyengars backbends is the clarity of the core line. Follow the curve from knees to the root of the jaw. Simple, elegant relaxed and open, just like the scorpion. Be careful in practicing this pose. It can sting!