A repetitive quality…
Every so often I think about my journey of breaking the silence and speaking my truth, often from a place of fear and emergency and within the context of the specific levels of awareness and information or knowledge I had each time. Also the journey of breaking the silence and finally allowing myself the right to expression, whether that was through words or images, have so far perhaps proven, at least to a certain extent, to be two sides of the same coin. It certainly has not come easy for multiple reasons, like unresolved trauma, the layered texture of experience, harassment, conditioning and cultural imperatives, as well as, persecution, and has in the end being an act of constant courage. I have tried to speak from a place of vulnerability in a cultural environment that does not support or even allow… this. As I look back at the countless posts I have written or created, Let me be, the posters I mounted on street walls or the numerous letters I have sent to public services, etc, I think of how I would now have done things a bit differently or less awkwardly or from a place of better knowing or calm. However, edit or judge all this work or forms of expression of experiences I realise that it probably could not have been done otherwise because it was and is a process and a journey, and it was born out of despair and indignation and a nagging, persistent aching voice within me saying that it is everybody’s human inherent right to be free and safe. It was born out of the need to protect myself and others and to stop the crazy ‘business’ around me and it was born out of my need to safeguard rights and dignity. I think we all live our life according to our level of consciousness and each post or letter or act reflected my level of consciousness at the time and was also defined by the amount of time and energy available and external circumstances. So in some sense I encountered increasing levels of harassment and violations of rights and privacy mostly with the armour of my truth, no matter how fragmented, hurried, partial or anxious it seemed to pour out of me at times. Read more ..
Awakening through quietening the mind and tapping into the body
“One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion” Simone de Beauvoir
There are many people I feel gratitude for their presence in the world and for the impact of their work in today’s world. In today’s brief and hurried post I will refer to Dan J. Siegel’s huge work, which literally created a route for me to walk back to the more authentic parts of myself. In particular his Wheel of Awareness is a tool I have returned to almost everyday for the last four years or so. As I have mentioned before I came across his work during an online CONFER course, with many other great teachers, most of whose work I have referred to in things that I have written and posted on this site. For the last four years I have engaged with various mindfulness practices and meditations, but this tool or technique is something I keep returning to. More recently I came across an audio by Pema Chödrön of a guided meditation of tonglen, which I found most appropriate to do for my mother, who died about nine months ago and whom I was prevented access to, despite my thirty month or so struggle to reach her. This last inhumane deprivation of rights allowed for a long string of assaults on identity to become clear and visible, whether that was the right to have: an identity card and the right to vote in my youth, access to personal early records and documents more recently, the right to express ideas within a safe context, respect to dignity and privacy or the right to earn a ‘well earned’ degree, etc, etc. What also became apparent was the connection between the private and the public realm and the underlying belief systems that have held all this injustice in place. Anyway, as I understand it, tonglen is a meditation practice for connecting with suffering, ours and that of others and for dissolving the tightness of our hearts. It can be done for those who have died, those who are ill, or for those who are in pain of any kind. I suppose it is a practice for awakening compassion within us both for ourselves and others. Then at some point I found myself incorporating the tonglen practice into the Wheel of Awareness, replacing the connectedness part with this deeper, more powerful and more demanding practice. To sum up, I’d like to send a big thank you to all the people whose courageous work and words are healing the world a little at a time and filling our bowls with light and hope.
Awakening and the power of myth
‘Mythic writing is a process of allowing the images from myths, fairy tales, dreams and our active imaginations to speak to us. By employing the arts of storytelling and fiction writing, we can draw out the meaning of the myths—and be changed by them’ Michelle Tocher
‘Without the guidance of our elders, and the wisdom found in stories, myth and dreaming, we in modern culture are mirroring an increasingly distorted image of the externalised life’ Toko-pa
Fairy tales and myths like dreams are multi faceted and multi layered and allow for many readings and interpretations and they seem to contain all the wisdom of the world in a nutshell. Underlying cultural and political dynamics, good and bad or evil, freedom amd oppression, dark patriarchy and oppressive sexism, conditioning and liberation, injustice and arrogance and ethical and fairness, the light and the shadow aspects of our self and others, family and societal dynamics, abuse and cruelty, home and journey, ignorance, the power of knowledge and awakening, and many more themes are all part of these often universal stories that have survived time. Fairy tales often contain our life stories and challenges and the walls we are called to bring down. Our engagement with them allow us to peel layers of experience or conditioning, which like the hundred matresses in The Princess and the Pea fairy tale may be crushing our authenticity and also hiding the truths that can potentially set us free. Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) wrote that‘deeper meaning lies in the fairy tales of my childhood than in the truth that life teaches’. Humans are meaning making creatires and stories are part of who we are. I have personally always been fascinated by stories, fairy tales included, and their power to transform or heal. I have in previous posts referred to how working with fairy tales can help us uncover our own stories and the workings of our psyches, minds and societies.
Today I am reposting something I wrote in January 2016, unedited, although if time had allowed I would have added more since time has the potential to broaden our understanding.
I would also like to share Michelle Tocher’s website address, which contains interesting material and the work that she has been doing in this area… http://www.michelletocher.com/