SPRING FORECAST: How to Be in Paradise ALL the Time
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In the Garden by the River . . . by Joan Pancoe
“Wise beings can be peaceful in the midst of chaos, experiencing delight in the changing play of forms.” RAM DASS
Dear Friend,
HAPPY SPRING! Between now and mid-April, we have a wonderful line-up of “full steam ahead” planetary energies encouraging us to take action in manifesting our most important visions, dreams and goals.
In fact, with Mercury (finally direct) and the Sun, Mars and Venus ALL joining Trickster Uranus in “take no prisoners” Aries by the end of this week, we may need to be careful not to allow our warrior inclinations to get out of hand. Be especially alert on March 22nd, when assertive Mars conjoins electrifying Uranus, as we might be on the receiving end of some shocking but enlivening news and downloads.
It will be important to maintain vigilant awareness that all our actions—of word, thought and (not just) deed— have karmic consequences, for good or ill. So, no steamrolling to get our way! Remember: Karmic Teacher Saturn, now retrograde in unrelenting, never-forget-anything Scorpio, is keeping track for us of just how spiritually ethical we are in playing the game of life.
For more on how to exercise skillful means in the timing of our actions (no small feat since we’ll feel as if we’ve been shot out of a cannon this week), please see:
Year of the Water Snake: YIN POWER MANIFESTO
So, be advised, while we now have the perfect planetary recipe for creating the best of all possible personal realities by cultivating our own little slice of paradise—we still need to remember to maintain right use of power on the heart level. This means taking actions for the highest good of all concerned, including us. Not to mention that on March 28th, when the Sun and love planet Venus conjoin Uranus, we may get some secondary shockwaves which will shake, rattle and roll us in the relationship area in a good way—if we’re open to expanding our emotional range.
In the bigger picture: What use is gaining in the ephemeral world if we lose touch with our eternal soul’s mission in the process?
The theme of this newsletter: “How to Be in Paradise ALL the Time” was inspired by a recently completed personal experiment which I started in early November, just after I’d booked my 10-day snorkeling adventure in the Yucatan for mid-February (my first snorkeling vacation in over 10 years).
Since I’m always in paradise when I’m snorkeling—it’s just one of my favorite things to do on the planet—and I had about ten weeks before I left, I wanted to see if I could meditate daily on being in paradise on the inner levels of being. That way, when I arrived in the Yucatan, the transition to a geographical paradise would be seamless.
I’ve done many such experiments with my consciousness before. For example, one summer, a few decades ago, when all externals in my life were very comfortable and stable—love life, work, health and home—I spent many hours each day meditating in my garden.
What I discovered was initially shocking, then quite cosmically humorous and, most importantly, has stayed with me in an extremely useful way ever since: During the course of my daily sitting practice, I witnessed my emotions swing from extreme joy and bliss and humor—with much laughter—all the way to indescribable feelings of sorrow and loss—with many tears—with no external triggers whatsoever!
What did I learn from this experiment? That my emotions arise and fall away through their full range as regularly as the tides—regardless of what’s going on around me. Ever since then, I’ve been able to witness my mood swings, emotions and thoughts arising—separate from whatever was going on externally—and release and dissolve them without judgment and without blaming any external catalysts as the root cause of whatever was arising inside of me. Triggers perhaps, yes—root causes, not a chance.
Well, in my most recent experiment, I was able to experience on a daily basis being in paradise, heaven, bliss on the inner levels through various spiritual and mind/body Taoist and Tantric practices leading up to my trip. Then, once I arrived at my external “paradise,” while I did enjoy, for hours each day, the pleasure, joy and bliss of the sights, sounds and experiences of swimming with my beloved fishies, the joy I felt was not necessarily more than the inner experience of paradise I had already cultivated prior to arriving. WOW!
And, not only did the inner feeling of paradise feel the same, but I had to deal with a lot less travel hassles, time, energy and money spent, as well as some annoying people and circumstances along the way, to get exactly the same effect. (All were triggers for transitory upsetting feelings—but never root causes—as that lesson was already well integrated.)
So, if you’d like to be in your own personal paradise all the time—or at least a good portion of each day—which will then permeate as the major tone of your day, here are some tips:
1. Paradise is ALWAYS an inside job. And while you might enjoy traveling to an external paradise from time to time as a treat, you actually NEVER have to leave your seat. But rather, choose to travel deep within your own BEING to find that which you have been eternally seeking.
2. No amount of external flux can take away your capacity to experience peace and paradise within—if you make it your priority, above all else. Now how empowering is that? Especially with all of the challenging planetary transits affecting us globally over the next few years.
3. It’s important to keep in mind that there are infinite levels of heaven or hell to reside in, all available within our own beings. And while there are often mosquitos in external paradises and upsetting thoughts buzzing around internally, we can still choose to reboot our consciousness as needed to stay focused on peace of mind and joy in being.
4. It’s impossible to be in paradise all the time unless you are comfortable first with sitting in emptiness, i. e. the void, as this is the primordial space out of which all forms (including all planes of consciousness) continuously arise and fall way. So, for all you adrenaline junkies or “sick excitement” addicts out there (you know who you are) — you can choose to bottom out on this pattern now . . . or later. And yes, I promise you, expanding your consciousness this way is just as intense—but in a much more life-force enhancing way.
5. If you need to learn how to have power over your emotions and thoughts once they arise, the books of Thich Nhat Hanh, especially “Transformation and Healing” (click here: amazon) have been most useful to me for over forty years. (You could also learn these practices—and much more—from me personally in a one-hour “Maintaining peace in your inner kingdom” empowerment session, by phone or in person.)
6. If you haven’t found the perfect sitting practice that naturally leads you to a place of being in heaven all the time, why not try the one that works for me? To get started, just download the Taoist Sitting Meditation MP3 on my website: Taoist Practices
To explore more meditation options, please check out my: Spiritual Practices Reading List
In closing, just as being in paradise all the time moves our experience of the Earth Game to a whole new level, in terms of horizontal movement—-the next leap in expanding our consciousness is to cultivate being in heaven or paradise all the time vertically.
After all, all planes of consciousness are actually right here and right now, they’re just operating at different frequencies. And, as we learn how to attune to these higher energies and loosen our attachment to only being in the relative reality and density of the earth plane, then a more absolute reality—where all veils of illusion and separateness fall away—becomes our normal operating mode of Being.
For more on this:
Neptune, the Urge to Merge . . . and Then Some
This means that, once our soul memory of having lived through dozens of incarnations is reactivated spontaneously or through spiritual processes such as past life regression therapy, we start experiencing the dissolution of linear time and space and begin to experience pure Being in all dimensions simultaneously. (And, need I mention, hallucinogens become positively redundant.)
When we choose to identify more with our eternal soul than our ego/personality, fear of physical death naturally falls away. Then the transition to dropping our bodies, when the time comes, is relatively seamless as our identity is already multi-dimensional.
This allows us to enjoy being in the Eternal Now—i.e. all times and spaces—vertically and horizontally—simultaneously while being fully embodied in a human incarnation. In other words: Always in paradise. Then, as I say in my memoir, Cosmic Sugar: “The wisdom of no escape becomes the ultimate sweetness.” (For more cosmic sugar: AMAZON)
Wishing us all a paradisiacal Spring of manifesting our dreams in the Flow with neither attachment nor aversion to timing or outcomes. And so it is.
J O A N
HUMAN BECOMING . . . by Joan Pancoe
“Oh while I live, to be the ruler of life, not a slave, to meet life as a powerful conqueror, and nothing exterior to me will ever take command of me.” WALT WHITMAN
(For more: I Sing the Body Electric)
There’ss no better time to contact me to discuss how best to customize a session for your specific needs at this time:
To help catalyze an opening to a higher perspective, I’ve written a number of articles on pleasure, joy and bliss, body karma, addiction, spiritual teachers, astrological themes and much more: WRITINGS
Feel the need for some help in dealing with “the quickening” of energies now? It’s time for a daily mind/body/spirit practice that feeds your Soul! If you’d like to learn what keeps me sane, serene, internally stable and grounded, please check out:
Taoist Practices MP3s for $20.12
If you enjoy receiving these newsletters, I’m now posting more frequent planetary updates on my website: NEWSFLASHES AND on my Facebook page: WEEKLY PLANETARY UPDATES. Hope you “Like” and “Share!”
For more of Joan’s art:
GALLERY OF MULTI-DIMENSIONAL DELIGHTS
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE RIPPLE EFFECT–PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH YOUR FRIENDS