Life as an Act of Creation

What if we viewed each of our day to day actions as an act of creation? 

Each point of contact with other living beings, whether that be our family or friends, strangers in the street, or even our pets, can be viewed as a creative act. A smile, a touch, some spoken words artfully spoken in the right moment.

Or sitting in contemplation - of the sunset, or the stars, or maybe the pile of dirty dishes that has accumulated in the sink, or watching our children play. Those moments when we sink in and reflect on ourselves and our lives - how is that not creation?

Photo by Zardoya

It seems that, as a society, we place value on what is produced. On what is created in the physical sense of the word. We've gotten a bit out of balance in our constant striving to create something rather than honor the act of creation.

I know I dance with this balance. Often. With that feeling that I should be doing something, should be making something. Should be producing.

And yet, when I sit and get quiet, I hear something different. Just Be. Listen. Reflect. Enjoy. When called to create something, to produce, then do that. Otherwise...just Be.

Can we learn to value this state of being as much as we value production? That inner percolation, the crucible from which life emerges...this is creation in its most literal sense. Out of nothing, out of the void, comes all creation. Inner and outer.

Recently I came across these words from Osho. They touched something inside of me; a deep recognition of truth:

"There are two types of creators in the world: one type of creator works with objects - a poet, a painter, they work with objects, they create things; the other type of creator, the mystic, creates himself. He doesn't work with objects, he works with the subject; he works on himself, his own being. And he is the real creator, the real poet because he makes himself into a masterpiece."               - Osho

Since I read these words, I find I'm paying much more attention to what I'm creating in my day to day life, and how that creation comes to be. I'm cultivating a deeper appreciation of what it is to create, and a broader definition of creativity. Of what it feels like to just follow my thoughts and impulses, to be quiet when I feel like being quiet, and to become active - to produce - when I'm inspired to do that. To dance between inner creation and outer creation.

We all have our moments of peak production. And we all have our moments of quiet reflection. And I notice we often have unkind thoughts and words for those moments of quiet: I was a real slug today. What a couch-potato. So lazy. I can't seem to get into gear today. What if we surrender to those moments of quiet, honor our need for a little respite in the rat race, and just allow ourselves to be? See that time as an act of creation - of working on ourselves, polishing up the mystic in us?

I invite you to play with this contemplation as you move through your days:

Notice your moments of production and your moments of quiet. What regenerates you, re-fills your cup? When do you do your best thinking and reflecting?

As you identify those moments of reflection and regeneration, acknowledge them as an act of creation. Even if its sitting and contemplating your dirty dishes, notice what's happening inside of you.

When the inner critic emerges - which it likely will, since we're so socialized into always producing - notice that, too.

And when you can get to the place where you smile at your inner critic, when you can see how that critic emerges from conditioning, then you can open into an entirely new layer of creative energy. The inner mystic, creating a masterpiece of the self. Dancing between the world of outer creation and the world of inner creation.

This is, truly, the dance of life.

Image by Freydoon Rassouli

With love and respect,

Zardoya

Holding the Big Picture, Part Three

As we unpack this transition from the age of money, power, and control into the age of unity consciousness, let's take a closer look at the truth behind those words. Unity Consciousness.

There is a growing awareness in our culture of our inter-connectedness. With each other, with nature, with all that is...well, with all of the nice parts of what is, anyway. Those parts that feel good. Those parts that validate how conscious we are, how evolved we are becoming,

Have you noticed this? There's a lot of talk about our unity as human beings, our oneness with our planet and the creatures who live here with us. All true, all beautiful, all very real. This growing tide of understanding is powerful and holds its own; that is, until anything ugly shows up in the field.

A policeman shoots someone who turns out to be an innocent African American man; a shooter opens fire on innocent bystanders and claims connection to ISIL; a presidential candidate invites second amendment proponents to "do something" about his competitor. This is ugly stuff. How easy is it to dismiss these incidents as issues that relate to others? Certainly not me...I'm awake. I'm aware of our unity as humans. Right? Perhaps these are simply less-evolved folks, the ones who will be left behind when our ascension into unity consciousness takes place.

I actually hear and read comments like this.

What?? Since when do we get to be selective about unity consciousness? How can we be one with all of life, except not the ugly parts? As long as we continue to judge others, to deem them different than we are, we're in the same kettle of soup: separation. Polarity. Duality. Good versus bad. Right versus wrong. Held rigid by the confines of our beliefs. Our thoughts...which drive our words and our actions.

Photo Credit

For example, when I think about someone like Donald Trump being our president, I have my personal reactions to that. And, what feels important to me is to really look deeply at what’s behind my personal reactions. And beyond that. To look not only at Trump the man, but what’s behind for the people who are so passionately supporting him. What is it in our collective consciousness that is emerging here? Because these are not stupid, or crazy, bad people, as they are sometimes painted out to be. If we're coming from a place of unity consciousness, I am no different than they are.

And you can switch that scenario to those who support Clinton. The "other side" of the fence in this current political campaign. Or Sanders.

There are two phrases that help me frame times like this. One of them is In Lak'ech Ala K'in, which is a Mayan phrase that means “I am you, and you are me.” The other is a phrase my teacher Nadia Eagles used to say, which is “If I were you, I’d be doing exactly what you’re doing.” Given the same life circumstances, the same influences, I’d be in the same place as you. And there’s a part of me that is in the same place as you, even the Trump supporters. When you get right down to it, there is no separation. 

We can talk about unity consciousness, and hold that dream, that vision. But walking it forward is what matters. What matters is truly holding someone like Trump who, on the surface, can say the most despicable things, as a part of me. Holding the truth that he represents a part of the collective field which is becoming transparent. 

It’s not like he’s creating this energy field. He’s giving it voice. It’s there, in our collective field, and we can’t continue to ignore it, push it away, and dismiss it, because it’s just gonna get louder if we do. I think that’s a part of what we’re seeing now. All that has been held back and repressed is emerging, and it'll just keep getting louder and louder until we see it. 

Unity consciousness sounds so pretty. Blissful. Magical. And that is part of it…and we are also one with all that’s been hidden, all that’s been masked, all that we pretend is not real for us, all that we think is only true for others. Unity is unity, and the more we continue to deny that simple truth, the louder it’s got to get. 

So, when I ask the question What’s it going to take, it’s a collective question, yes. But it’s also a personal question. What’s it going to take for each one of us to stop making the other the enemy? For each one of us to stop painting our denial onto the other, and truly shift our thoughts, and our words, and our actions? That’s what determines what it’s going to take. One by one by one. 

See the truth of it. The truth behind the rhetoric. Be talking about the truth. Shine light in all of the dark places by putting your attention on the big picture. The whole picture. Whether you side with Clinton, Trump, or Sanders is not important. The fact that you feel you must pick a side at all is the issue.

When you feel frustrated or frightened by what's going on - in politics, the economy, the police, terrorism - I invite you to consciously NOT choose a side. See the whole picture, the big view. That's unity consciousness.

Photo credit: Unknown

Because believing that we are one while engaging in separation from all we deem unsavory is living in illusion. We ARE one. The good, the bad and the ugly.

Open up your dialogue, both inner and outer. Become curious about the truth, about what's behind, what has been hidden and is now emerging. We really are that big! We can hold it all.

For me, what makes all the difference is being able to hold a bigger view, to see that everything we’re doing right now is about evolving human consciousness. Not just my consciousness, but human consciousness. All of us. And it takes a lot of trust to know that what’s happening is happening because it needs to happen in order for us to wake up. And we determine that course. Each of us individually that make up the collective, we determine the trajectory for that evolution.  

We determine what it's going to take.

With love and respect,

Zardoya

Holding the Big Picture, Part Two

The past few days, spent pondering the big cycles and turnings in our world, have been enlightening in many ways. I'm blown away by how much has changed—and how much has not changed. There are countless examples in the media each day. What have you noticed?

That we are in the midst of a gigantic shift is, in my mind, unquestionable. The cycles are in play. How we unpack them, how we dismantle those parts of our system that do not serve the whole—this is what's in front of us.

It always comes down to this basic, fundamental truth for me: the only thing I can really change or impact is my own self. All great change starts in this way. It starts in the center and ripples out to impact the whole.

So how do we unpack this shift in consciousness? One by one by one, we get to pick how we unpack it, each and every day, with our thoughts, our words, and our actions. 

They all matter. They matter big, because in a way it’s like a percentage game. What percentage of us are able to hold our center, hold the vision for knowing we are all one, and we need to care for each other, and there’s enough for everybody, and there’s a way out of this incredible imbalance we’ve created over the last couple of thousand years. What’s it going to take for there to be enough of us holding that energy so that it doesn’t have to be a drastic or traumatic coming apart? That’s where we are. We’re coming apart. And coming apart is never easy.

If we start by paying attention to our thoughts, we’ll find that our words and actions begin to shift. It all starts with our thoughts; they run us from underneath, always. Notice your inner responses, or your reactions, to what is going on around you. Peer behind what appears to be the obvious. Courageously shine the light in all of the dark places—it can sometimes be shocking to see the truth of our uncensored thoughts and beliefs, those subtle inner voices that drive our words and actions.

Courageously Shine the Light in All of the Dark Places

Be vigilant with this action. There’s plenty of opportunity, each and every day. When a news story breaks about racial profiling and police brutality, look deeply into the little place that twinges in your gut. That place of discomfort which, often, we simply disregard by distracting ourselves, shifting our attention somewhere else. Shine the light there, instead. When the political rhetoric is flying with unprecedented ugliness, look for the truth of what’s being spoken. Shine the light there, look behind the words, see what it’s triggering in you, what part of the collective consciousness is being represented by the words.

There’s a type of ruthless compassion required here. Ruthless in paying attention and always seeking the truth. The bare-bones, unadulterated, un-prettified truth. Compassion for ourselves and others as we recognize our old patterns, our old story, and dismantle what no longer serves so we can step into our new story. The first step in dismantling the old paradigm is seeing it. Seeing the truth of it. On a collective level and a personal level, this is what we are in the midst of.

It helps me to hold the bigger perspective. It helps me to see these big cycles and turnings, be that through Astrology, the Mayan calendar, or any other way of framing what’s happening during this time. When I step away and take that bigger view, it’s humbling. Because this day to day drama we’re in is nothing! It’s a quantum second when you frame it in the greater picture of the evolution of humanity. 

And...it's everything. It’s critically important. It’s like an in-breath and an out-breath of the universe. We can either hold our breath because we don’t want to or can’t face the truth, or we can keep that breath moving. We can pay attention to those times when we feel the breath catch, when we’re holding…and then breathe into that space, see what’s there.

Breath is life. Truth is life. Light is life. We are life. We are co-creating life each moment, with each breath, and with each courageous exploration of truth.

With love and respect,

Zardoya

Holding the Big Picture, Part One

There have been these thoughts rumbling through my mind in the past few weeks, and I want to write about them, but it feels like it's too long a piece for a blog. Personally, I like to read blog posts in small, digestible bites. So I'm going to write it, but break it up into several posts. Here is part one.

I pay attention to cycles. I'm especially fascinated by the large, even huge, cycles this planet goes through, all the way up to the 26,000 year cycles of the Mayan and Egyptian Calendars. Some say we are in the midst of a big planetary cycle—we’re moving from one astrological age to another.

Graphic Credit

What? Did I just hear a collective groan at the mention of Astrology? But wait. Hear me out. Whether we believe it or not, the movements of the planets create geomagnetic and energetic forces that impact us. But even if you don't believe the planets influence us at all, there's no denying that there are many cycles in life.

For me, astrology represents the subtle movement of currents that create periods of tension and openness in the collective field. These pulsing energies create cycles, which facilitate human evolution. Because that's why we're all here, right? To evolve? 

Planetary movements create many different cycles, some small and some huge. For example, moving through the astrological age of Pisces was a cycle that took more than 2000 years; moving through the astrological ages, or eras, of all the signs of the zodiac makes up another big cycle of more than 20,000 years. Some astrologers say a shift is taking place, from the age of Pisces to the age of Aquarius, between 2012 and now. It's a big, collective change. Pisces holds the energy of individuation, monotheism, money, power, and control. Aquarius is about love, brother/sisterhood, oneness, and openness. This is huge!

Because it's part of a 2000 year cycle, this shift isn't going to happen overnight. I heard one astrologer, Kaypacha, speak on this, and he says the shift actually takes place over about 100 years. So this change in consciousness was initiated in the 1960s. Not hard to see truth in that theory. Cue the music, "This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius..." 

Over the past fifty years, Piscean consciousness has been cracking open.The Piscean Age is coming to an end. It has to. A couple thousand years of putting the individual first, developing power, gaining wealth...we've individuated ourselves to a point that is not sustainable!

That puts us at the apex of the 100 year cycle now. Over the next fifty years, we'll see how we unpack this shift—which has already taken place, so in many ways it's a battle that's been won. It's not something we have to think about doing. These big turnings happen in spite of us!

But how we unpack them, how we dismantle those parts of our system that do not serve the whole—that is what's in front of us. 

That's enough for today. Put this in your hopper. Let it simmer a bit. If you're curious, do some reading about these big cycles. And stay tuned for part two: Unpacking Tips.

With love and respect,

Zardoya

PS - I have to share this with you. It's a graphic of the pathway the planet Venus takes as it moves in orbit around the Earth over time. How can anyone question the grace of Life when such beauty presents itself each day?